THE TV IS TURNED OFF AGAIN

It was last June 5, 2018 that I last watched TV. The last program I watched was Season 6 of Arrow on 2nd Ave. I thought that this was a very good series, only it was just a so-so one for me. I would not anticipate to go back and watch the next season. This was also the time that 2nd Ave. closed.

TV has lost it's appeal. Before when you have a bunch of variety of programs now boils down to only one genre:SOAPS. When before you spend almost the whole day watching different programs, now they only cater to one audience. You have to look for other channels to find other source of different programs. I was asking myself how it all came to this.

The so called BIG TWO is the one responsible. They have brainwashed the minds of the masses to just churn out this kind of programming. Why? Because they were just after the money. They stuck their programs with a lot of advertisements that a 45 minute show becomes an hour long thanks to ads. Not to mention only one content. It's not that I hate dramas, but these two only thought of two particular audiences: maids and stay home moms (not that I am against any of these, My wife is a stay home mom, BTW). Yup, I can't take all that screaming, slapping and whatever things they throw at each other. Same plot, same story, almost the same cast. Just young pretty faces with no acting talent. Just because they wanted more money. Great.

I am sorry if I'm going on a rant here. See, I have a 3 year old daughter who may not watch any good program on TV. Where are all the educational and funny cartoons that I grew up with? Kinda makes me miss Sesame Street and Batibot. Not to mention the constant immorality they are showing nowadays.

R.I.P TV

BRIAN LUCIANO

AUGUST 28,2018       

ROAD TO THE NBA FINALS

I haven't watched the NBA games since 2015 when the Golden State Warriors won their fourth NBA Championship. Now the stage is set, as four teams, all NBA champions will face each other for the most coveted NBA Championship. Overall, these four teams have combined for 25 championships. They are the Boston Celtics (17), the Golden State Warriors (5), the Houston Rockets (2) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (1). Three also of these four teams have met before in the NBA Championship, with just one possible match-up being the first time. Without much ado, let's analyze each match up, and rank each one according to it's merits and also pick who would win.

1.) HOUSTON ROCKETS VS BOSTON CELTICS
They met in the 1981 and 1986 NBA Finals with the Celtics winning both meetings. It was the time that the Bird-Magic rivalry was in full swing. However, the shoe is on the other foot now. The Rockets have gained the best record in the NBA, and will have homecourt advantage throughout the series. With Harden and Paul, the hungry Rockets can easily dispatch the Celtics which are without all star Kyrie Irving. MY PICK- HOUSTON IN 5 GAMES OR SIX.

2.) GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS VS BOSTON CELTICS
They met in the 1964 NBA Finals which was won by the Celtics. It was at this period that the Celtics were at their stunning eight consecutive championship run. They were unstoppable at that time. Almost 54 years later, the ball's on the other side of the court. The Celtics last won in 2008, while the Warriors have won 2 of 3 consecutive NBA Finals appearnces, in 2015 and 2017 respectively. The Warriors are showing no signs of slowing down, and even if their superstars are there, it's going to be very hard to defeat the Warriors at this point. MY PICK-GOLDEN STATE IN SIX GAMES.

3.) HOUSTON ROCKETS VS CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
These teams will meet for the first time. It is an exciting match up since there will be all stars involved here. LeBron James has appeared in the NBA Finals since 2011, becoming a finals veteran at that. He has also won 3 NBA Championships but only 1 with the Cavaliers. He will need a lot of support since Houston will be a team that will be hungry and the team with the NBA best record. With the superstar tandem of Harden and Paul, we don't know how the Cavaliers will be able to stop them. But they have been there for the past 3 years, so their championship experience will kick in.
MY PICK-HOUSTON IN 5 GAMES.

4.) GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS VS CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
They met since 2015 and 2 championships were won by the Warriors and 1 by the Cavaliers. I honestly don't want to see them anymore. Even if the Cavaliers were to split the series, I couldn't care less. For me, this is the least NBA Finals I want to watch. Actually, if they make it again, I won't watch the NBA anymore. MY PICK-SAME AS LAST YEARS RESULT.     
   
Anyway, these are just my thoughts.Again, I based it on my analysis of each teams performance. So, how are yours? Who do you pick?  Please comment and have a nice day!!!

BRIAN LUCIANO

05/11/18

IN DEFENSE OF THE BIBLE

Lately, I have read an article in GQ.COM (GQ magazine) which published an article regarding 21 BOOKS YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ. While some of them that made the list are really good books, I am really just amazed and angry at Number 12: THE BIBLE.  According to the article, this is the reason why it made the list:

"The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it. Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced. It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned."

Hmmmm........not the finest thing man as ever produced. Possibly this guy may nit have read the entire bible, or possibly didn't fully understand what it means. In  Paul's letter to Timothy, he states that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" (2 Timothy 3:16).  See, the Holy Bible is God's inspired word to us. God used man to write his words by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is written by men, but the inspiration is the Holy Spirit. I should know this because I am also a writer. I write my ideas based upon things I know or experienced. I am a wide reader and I also have a very big imagination, thus I can write about topics I like. But not so with the bible. God himself is the author. He puts his words using people to spread his promise to us. It is the only book we need about living. Can we use Harry Potter or any other book in application of our daily lives? Guess not. To call it not the finest book is a lie, since if the author is an all powerful God, then it is finest thing and the best book ever produced.

It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned. Guess who ever wrote this article was reading the bible in perspective of the world. The bible is repetitive because it is also a book of instruction. It means that for the Christians to grasp the messages of the bible it has to be repeated. But the repetition is not in the same context but a different one. Let us look at the Gospels in the New Testament. Some of the parables and events repeat in other authors simple because they are an account of them that wrote the bible. But if we can comprehend, each Gospel is unique of it's own. With repetition, we are able to put the message of the gospel and not forget it. Now is it self contradictory. Hmm....I never encountered any book in the holy bible that contradicts. Instead of contradicting, it enforces each other. Each book in the bible is giving the readers one common theme...that is that there is an all powerful God that we should love and fear. It also tells that we have a savior, and that he will save and protect us from harms. Now the other words, as the bible being sententious, foolish and at times ill-intentioned. These are very harsh words for the bible. Sententious (moralistic), foolish and ill intentioned (having malicious intentions). In my two years of reading the bible, I have never encountered these descriptions. The bible teaches us how to live our lives in way that the Creator (God ) wants us to live. He gave us laws for us to follow, so that we don't live like heathens. In truth, most of the laws that we have right now were actually based upon the bible. Where is the malice in that? Or when is that foolish? Is the bible too moralistic, or we just like to do what we want?

In closing, I pray that whoever is the person that wrote this find the love and grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that he will be inspired of what the bible wants to tell us. The Bible is not just a book of stories, poems, prophecies and teachings. It is the book of life, specially one that leads to life eternal.

MAY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST BLESS YOU

BRIAN LUCIANO

MAY 9,2018                             

P.S. Here's the link to the article: https://www.gq.com/story/21-books-you-dont-have-to-read

MISSING ALL OF YOU

It was around April 16,2008 that a 35 year old and 4 month married man entered the 28th floor of the IBM Plaza Building in Eastwood City in Quezon City, one of the largest cities in Metro Manila. He was met a group of people who told him about his job. The president of the company greeted him with a smile and told him about his job. He told him about how he should love his students, and how they rely on them for their education. He told him about his role in changing their life. A fire was lit under his belly, determined to do his job no matter what. Life was good.

It's now almost ten years, and he is still working in the same company. He's now in a different shift, already a father and worked the same job as he had before. However, many things happened in the course of those years. He experienced ups and downs. But before was quite different. Now, he is again all alone. A lone wolf as they would say. How did it came about to this?

See, he loved his co-workers before like family. When one of them was abducted, he always prayed that she would be released. And she did. There was also his boss that made him laugh when when things are hard. He himself also became a supervisor, even for a short period of time. Things changed, but never for the better. As the years passed, his family went away one by one, leaving him alone.

He really misses them, and there are times that he just cries. He can't leave his current job though he knows that he needs it now. He's just become a father, and he has a loving three year old daughter, of whom only in Facebook pictures does his old friends see. He is also an old worn out teacher who thrives like a mouse on a wheel. He is a but a shadow of his former self, trapped in a prison of loneliness and pain. He wishes that he could be let out.

This goes out to all my friends here in YBM PNT that have left and moved on. I cherish each and every time that I was with all of you. Life was not easy here. Hope we can talk sometime. Until then.

BRIAN LUCIANO

MARCH 23,2018         

WHAT I HATE ABOUT FANATICS

There seems to be a revival of the rivalry between the top two comic publishers in the US today: and I am not talking about the comics that they produce. When before they will only talk about which produces much better comics now comes, they now fight in another grand arena: The Movies.

Yup, the movies. With DC Comics having their own cinematic universe, it's no wonder why DC fans are suddenly up in arms and are going crazy as their favorite heroes are getting the cinematic treatment. When before they were a series of movies focusing only on a few heroes, this time they gave them more than what they wanted. They just brought their big guns to the screen. They wanted a movie about their heroes, and they are not content with the movies of their rivals. The movies then came, and though they were successful financially, most of them were panned by critics.   

This is where the fanaticism happened. DC Comics fans were suddenly up in arms defending their heroes. They would say that it was unfair that review sites like rotten tomatoes gave very low scores thus it didn't achieve it's target box office marks. They blame Marvel fans, movie critics for the failure of the films. For them, there is nothing wrong with the films.

My beef with these people is that if you liked it, then it's fine. Honestly, I only watched one of these films, and never watched the others because I have given being a fan of this thing a long time ago. I have more things to do than to see two fans from both sides bicker who is much better among these two. Both are good, and they both have their redeeming qualities. They are really a case of "apples and oranges". Here's my take, and read carefully of you've made it this far before you comment. Else, stop reading and quit!

Still with me? Good. When I was still a fan, I only read Marvel Comics. I started out with them. I liked the stories and the artwork. For me Marvel was supreme. However,as my tastes for comics matured, I tried and read from different publishers. There was even a point that I only read DC Comics. As a Marvel fan, I also enjoyed their stories. I never made comparisons of their works. A friend of mine said that this particular creator was much better at DC  than Marvel without actually reading about his work at Marvel (note he is a DC guy). So read it first before you compare!!!  Another one said that Spider-man sucks as a character, even comparing him to Batman, which again are "apples and oranges".  See, they are all different. There are both good and bad works. Let's just learn to accept that. Problem is, we always want that our choice is the best one and the others are lesser. That's what I hate about fanaticism.

I am not just hitting on the DC fans, but even Marvel fans as well. Grow-up. Do you think that I even care if my college men's basketball team wins a championship or not? What if I also tell you that we are just given an illusion of choice just because we are in a capitalist state? Ok, that's a topic for the next blog. As a former Marvel fan, I watch Lucifer Season 1 and Arrow Season 6 on tv, whcih are by the way, DC properties. I am also anticipating Avengers: Infinity War next year. Stop being a fan of just one thing, and try to be diverse.
Who knows what you will discover?

JUST SAYING

BRIAN LUCIANO

WHAT CHRISTMAS ACTUALLY MEANS TO ME NOW

As we near what we call the holiday season, there is a joy and amazement in everyone's eyes. Everywhere around you, people are really very happy, anxious at the coming event. There's also the rush, when people buy new things to replace the old ones, and also partake of the feast of food that will be shared with close family and friends. Since there is an excess, more people also share to those that don't have a lot. Like they say, everybody happy.

As I converted to the Christian faith, the real meaning of Christmas also changed. People will always be saying to "put Christ back in Christmas", as the commercialization of Christmas happens. Some people, thinks that Christmas is a pagan holiday and should not be participated in by real Christians since this holiday has similarities to the Saturnalia. So it's just fine for Christians to say" Bah! Humbug!!" like the famous character of Scrooge. So, Who is correct?

At first, I really want to do away with the holidays. If this is really a pagan holiday and not actually Christ's birthday, then we are partaking of a pagan practice. We are not anyway different from the people that are not saved. Why celebrate the birth of our Messiah on the day that is not really his birthday? If I have an excess, I will just possibly treat this like how the American's have thanksgiving. I will just give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for providing for my family and helping us all year round. That's my initial plan.

However, there was an article that I have read about Christmas. That with all the symbolizations and parallels to Saturnalia, they are of a different nature. See, in Saturnalia, they go around singing naked in different houses and they overindulge in wine and other worldly things. We don't do that in Christmas. See, it is Satan, the so called god of this world that perverted the meaning of Christmas. Instead of focusing on the real reason for Christmas, we focus on the material aspects of it. The decorations, the new things, the abundant food, and we forgot about the real reason why he came into this world. 

Some people may argue that it's just fine considering that he really wasn't born on December 25th.  But we are missing the point. Last Sunday, the youth and children of our church held a Christmas musical called " The Best Christmas Ever". Before the musical, our guest speaker Pastor Leal Ibanez told us why there is a Christmas. It was because of us. See, Jesus Christ was born in this world to redeem us of our sins. He loved us so much that he does not want us to perish. Does it really matter if Jesus Christ was really born on that date? It left me pondering. Then as the presentation went on, I saw myself as like one of the lead characters who dismissed the real meaning of Christmas. Now I know. It's not about the date, but the real purpose why he came in to this world. If we can know deep within our hearts the real meaning of Christmas, then we can now bring Christ back into the holidays.

Thanks to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in Marikina Fundamental Bible Baptist Church and to Pastor Leal Ibanez for giving me "The Best Christmas Ever". I have already recieved my gift. I pray that you too as well.

HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS!!!!

BRIAN,MAUREEN AND PIA LUCIANO

P.S.
Scrooge was wrong!!!

December 11,2017

HOLLYWOOD'S WOES

This is like the second year that I have not been to a movie theater to watch a good movie; with my kid growing up and financial woes being the reasons. But you know, I don't miss much of it. If most of you are thinking that it's because these movies can be watched online, then think again.

Before the age of the internet, movie theaters were a thing of magic. It transports the viewers to new worlds that capture our imagination. It gives us an escape in a world that is not our own. Movies can be original material or adopted from another form of media. That was before. Now, it's kind of going awray.

See, the current crop (or crap) of movies have just been catered to make money. Yes, technology have us the best special effects that makes these movies an eyecatcher, but some if most are lacking in real content. Yes, I mean it. Even the big blockbusters lack content, just focusing on very big events and of course fire works display. Some franchises are just there for no apparent reason (Fifty Shades, which just promotes sex). Some are there just to promote a specific agenda. Still others, I don't know. The point of movies entertaining is just gone now.

Now a lot of you wold say that three movies for this year crossed the 1 billion dollar mark, with big franchises like Star Wars and Justice League still not being shown. But here's the deal. In the Summer Blockbuster, the total gross is only $3,774,412,485 for 245 movies. There's a drop of more than 15.2% in last years gross. Which simple means that there are more movies that bombed than those that actually grossed. Like for every Wonder Woman or Spider-Man: Homecoming there are failures like Transformers,Cars or even Pirates of the Carribean. Again, these are domestic figures, but how will this affect us as a whole?   

Movies rely on ticket sales to further make more movies. If a movie busts, then the studios lose money. This can lead to potential future projects to be scrapped or put on hold. The main money making time is the summer. But if more movies lose money than actually making money, then there is a problem here. It seems to me that people in Hollywood only focused on the money movies rather than the entertaiment part. See, almost all movies now have the same theme:superheroes, established franchises, sequels, prequels,novels and so on. There seemed to be no more original movies. The only movie that peaked my interest this year was Dunkirk.

Hollywood needs to go back to it's roots of making good movies. Hire more creative writers to come up with original Hollywood movies. Also, if an adaptation is needed, be more faithful to it. Directors and producers also need to hone their craft. They should not only go for movies that will just sell, but will sell and be remembered for their content. The there's Weistein and the #METOO campaign. This will further dampen Hollywood as it is.       

Welcome to the End of Hollywood.

Just Saying.

BRIAN LUCIANO
NOVEMBER 16,2017