World Quizzing Championship-Philippine Elimination Saturday, May 31 2008

My group received the following e-mail from Mr. Steven De Ceuster, the Director for Western Europe of International Quizzing Association (IQA).  IQA established the World Quizzing Championship with the aim of elevating quizzing or quiz bee to the level of other “mind” games such as chess or poker. 

We’ve been in constant touch with this International Group and finally, they agreed to hold a Philippine elimination to determine who will represent the Philippines in the World Quiz Championship.  The elimination will be this June 7, anybody who are interested may send me a message.   Perhaps you have what it takes to be ranked among the legends of Philippine quiz bee, such as Bong Barrameda, Ramon Lorenzo, Leonardo Gapol and Richard Pante.

By the way, I am not competing (or might take the qualifying exam just to know the type of questions) because I am preparing for my muay thai fight this June.  And I also have a business trip from June 4 to 7.

 

“I am Steven De Ceuster from Belgium and am IQA Director Western Europe. I currently handle the applications from new possible member countries.

  

We were intrigued by your query and would like to know more. You seem pretty sure of the skill level of your countrymen and it would be great to have another strong country participating. Please be
aware though that the top ranked players from previous years are professional quiz players and probably cannot be compared to participants in pub quizzes in your country.

  

I guess you already read about the IQA on websites, but let me repeat some of the sites on which most of the information can be
found:

 

-        IQA UK: http://www.iqagb.co.uk/trivia/portal.php

-        IQA Belgium: www.iqa.be

-        Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Quizzing_Championships

 

The most interesting event for you guys would be the World Quizzing Championships that will next take place on June 7^th. I added some smaple question in attachment from a previous event (this was however not the final version of the
questions, some syntax or other errors might still be there, don’t worry about them; because it are sample questions they will not be perfectly balanced over all subjects / regions).

 

Before that there will also be the 2^nd Trans-Atlantic Quiz, which is a UK-USA challenge (but other countries can participate too), with an emphasis on Anglo-Saxon culture. The TAQ will take place on March 15.

 

If you want to know more, please contact me.

 

 

Let me elaborate a bit:

 

(Take care: lengthy e-mail coming up)

 

 

Let me first give you some information on the IQA and the upcoming 5th World Quizzing Championships.

 

The IQA was founded a couple of years ago by quiz enthusiasts from different countries and has grown over the years to include more and more countries. Most members of the IQA are representative from the official quiz
federation of their country, or if there is no official federation, of the biggest quiz organisation of their country. Founding members were the UK, Belgium, India and Estonia, who were later joined by the USA, the
Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Finland, Norway, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, Liberia, Lithuania and
Australia. Talks are underway with Canada, Ireland and Latvia. People from other countries like Rumania, New Zealand and Argentina have participated in events but as inidividuals rather than official reps of their nations.

 

The aim of the IQA is to elevate quiz to a similar status as other mind-sports like chess and bridge. For that reason we have been working with quiz organisations from around the globe to develop and run international events. Until now 9 such events have taken place: 4 times a European Championship and 4 times a World Championship (plus a test event in England in 2003) and once a Trans-Atlantic Quiz (TAQ). All the time with increased media
attention.

 

At the moment we are particularly active in organising the next World Quizzing Championships (WQC) that will take place on June 7^th of this year.

 

 We would be delighted for a quiz organisation to organise a leg of the next WQC in the Philippines, possibly as a first step to membership.

 

 

1. WORLD QUIZZING CHAMPIONSHIPS  (WQC)

 

 

1a. What is the WQC?

 

The WQC is an inidividual written quiz that is organised around the globe at the same time. In
Western Europe the time is 3pm to 5pm on June 3rd (which means it will be morning in Canada, evening in India, late evening in Malaysia; for countries like Australia where this would be past midnight, a difference of max 3 hours is allowed).

 

The quiz consists of 240 questions, to be answered in a maximum allowed time of 90 minutes. The questions are divided over 8 categories of 30 questions each, as listed below:

 

* Culture            comprises    Fine Art, Architecture, Religion/Mythology,…

* Entertainment                   Pop Music, Classical Music, Television,…

* Media                           Film, Literature, Comics, Language,…

 

* History                         History, Current Affairs,…

* Sciences                        Exact Sciences, Social Sciences, Flora, Fauna

* World                           Geography, Technology, Transport,…

* Sports                          Sports, Games, Records,…

* Lifestyle                       Food&Drink, Fashion, Tourism, Design,…

 

The total score of an individual is the sum of the best 7 categories. So the worst category can be dropped (this was originally done to attract more women to the competition so
they could drop ‘Sports’ and now it is part of the rules). The result on the worst category however will be taken into account in case of an ex aequo.

 

To assure fairness, the knowledge of English (or any other language) should not be a deciding factor. That’s why for the WQC all questions will be translated to the native language of the participants. In Belgium most people get the questions in Dutch, in Finland in Finnish etc. They will all be allowed to answer in there native language too. The only question that remains is who will do the translation of your local language (Tagalog?). You can also opt to use English as lingua franca as they do in India.

 

1b. How is the local organisation done?

The people participating in the event, will have to be assembled in one venue to ensure there is no foul play (like working in groups, taking more than the alloted time, using reference works or the internet). Possibly a proctor will be appointed by the IQA.

 

The first thing to do is to designate a country representative. This guy will coordinate things in that country and will normally not participate. IN later stages, he/she could be involved in the
voting for the question selection (see 1c).

 

So what then needs to be done, is renting a venue, advertise the event among the country’s quiz players and get the inscriptions going. If you are able to get a cheap venue  that would be great.

 

In that venue, you’d need a PC to be able to e-mail the results as soon as possible after the completion of the quiz. We also use a computer projector to make it a bit nicer, but that is not a necessity.

 

Obviously, a big
country can have multiple venues (India will have at least 4 this year: Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Calcutta, the USA may have 10 this year), but in every venue we need a trustworthy person to oversee the event and send the scores.

 

The idea is that within 1-2 hours after the end of the event the complete scores are e-mailed to some central location (normally in the UK) where they are all processed and the results are then re-distributed to the
various venues so everywhere the result can be announced.

 

 

1c. Where do the questions come from?

The set of 240 questions, divided over 8 different categories, is made by an international team of professional or semi-professional question setters. At the last WQC the team comprised of one person from the UK, one from Estonia, one from India, one from the USA, one from Sri Lanka and one from Belgium (yours truly). The team makes sure that every subject is represented and also that the questions are fairly spread geographically (for instance special precautions are made that not too much emphasis is laid on Anglo-American culture, but that also questions on for instance French, German, Spanish but also African and Asian subjects are fairly evenly represented).

 

The questions that were set, are then sent to the country responsibles (if desired) who can vote what questions actually will make the quiz (we normally make 3x too many questions) and in some cases can veto questions which they deem would give an unfair advantage to any given country.

 

All the questions are originally set in English, but are translated to the native language of the quiz players (Except in India, where because of the multitude of languages English is used as lingua franca).

 

For this year’s event we are already far in the making of the questions. The voting will probably take place around April.

 

1d. Previous events

From 2004 to 2007 the WQC took place in venues
ranging from the Manchester United Stadion, the Silverstone Formula-1 circuit to a living room in Kuala Lumpur.

 

  

I look forward to your reply.

  

 

Kind regards,

 

Steven De Ceuster

IQA Belgium

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Open Letter to An Old Friend Monday, May 26 2008

For the first time, I may have to erase an entry in my blog.  The original entry was a heated exchange  between two old friends who had a fall out.   One was foolish enough to let a grudge to linger for more than 10 years.  The other is not aware that such animosity exist.  Fortunately, the value of friendship prevailed and hopefully, the hatchet that shouldn’t be there in the first place is already buried.  

I remember a poem by William Blake:

“I was angry with a friend, I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe, I told it not, my wrath did grow.”

My mistake is I was angry with a friend but I treated him as a foe which prolonged the grudge instead of settling an issue much, much earlier.    

To Richard, perhaps synchronicity played its part that you were having your seminar in our building last Tuesday and helped settle things out. Thanks for that bro.  To Oliver, goodluck with all your endeavors.   People do change and I really admire the mature way you handled our heated exchange, even though my actions are really irrational.  You take care, man.

 

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100% Pinoy: One Minute and 10 Seconds of Fame Tuesday, May 20 2008

One minute and 10 seconds… that’s exactly how long I was featured in the GMA7 late night news and public affairs program, 100% Pinoy.   

Last March, I wrote in this blog about guesting in the DZMM Tele-radyo show Sikap Pinoy and about my observation that I’ve appeared/guested in different  programs of 4 local TV Channels, namely Channel 2, 5, 9 and 13.  And that the only channel that I haven’t appeared yet is GMA7.   And because of this, I included another item in my Bucket List or 101 Things To Do Before I Die, that is to be featured or appear in all of the 5 local TV networks.    I pondered that this is very doable considering that there’s only one channel left for me to appear on for me to accomplish this.  Two months,  later, I received an e-mail from Ms. Rica Torres, a researcher of the GMA7 program, 100% Pinoy.  Their May 15 episode is about competitions that are participated by Filipinos and a segment will focus on the Filipinos who joined different competitions and are now leading successful lives .  Since I won the grandfinals of Battle of the Brains and its ASEAN Championship in 1997, they considered to include me in the segment.

Delight is an understatement when I first read that e-mail from Ms. Rica.  This means that another item on my Bucket List will be crossed of.  So the interview and taping date was set on May 7 and will be done in my office and in my house.  All my staff were excited about this (up until now, I don’t know what’s the big fuzz about appearing on TV), it is very rare for our office to have this kind of atmosphere, it only happens every December when Christmas bonuses are distributed.  

Then Thursday, May 15.  The weekly conference call I have with my boss is scheduled every Thursday.  I am worried that this week’s conference call will be as long as the previous week wherein I stayed in the office until 11:45p.m.   Lady Luck may have smiled at me and I received an e-mail from my boss saying that our  weekly call is cancelled.   So nothing will be in the way for me to be at home and watch the show. 

The only instance that the our TV will be tuned to a local network is when I’m watching the news either late at night or early in the morning, aside from that its all AXN, National Geographic, Discovery, Starmovies and HBO on the boob tube.   But on the evening of the 15th of May, its GMA7 on the screen. 

With much anticipation, my family and I were stucked on the TV.  I am not familiar with the Channel 7’s program schedule, all I know is that 100% Pinoy is after Saksi.  When we opened the TV, its still Regine Velasquez’ show, after a few minutes its already the late news program, Saksi.  Then the show we’ve been waiting for a week. 

The show started by featuring a grandmother who joins Barangay level beauty contests.  Followed by a young lass who constantly compete in local singing contests.  Then Regine Velasques’ interview was up next.  I had a bad feeling that the segment that will feature me will be extremely short when Asia’s Songbird interview didn’t last for more than 4 minutes. 

Then my segment came. It showed me showing some books and tinkering with my laptop with my daughter, RP. Then they showed my trophies and  then me, answering two questions (out of the several that were asked during the interview).  Then its over.  I timed it, and my awaited GMA7 appearance is just one minute and 10 seconds. 

I am not really disappointed that I was shown for a little over one minute, like I said, what’s the big fuzz about appearing on TV.    I think the topic is too broad and in fact, I feel sorry for the producers and writers to cramp everything in a one-hour TV show, less the airing time for the commercials.  Kudos to the producers and writers of 100% Pinoy, specially to the Segment Producer, Eric (sorry I forgot the surname, but I do remember he’s from City College of Manila and lives in Alabang) and Rica Torres, the Researcher.    If not for them, I will not be be able to cross another item in my Bucket List or 101 Things To Do Before I Die.  

I remember reading a quote from the famous artist, Andy Warhol.  He once said that everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes…we’ll I am looking for my remaining 13 minutes and 50 seconds!  National Geographic or Discovery Channel here I come.

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4th NCR Muay Thai Tournament Tuesday, May 13 2008

The 4th NCR Muay Thai Tournament was organized by MAP-Makati Chapter and was held on May 11, 2008 at Makati Sports Club.    This has to be the grandest and longest NCR muay thai tournament ever.  The venue has a superb location, the venue itself is very posh and the organizers has really prepared well for this event.  Kudos to MAP Makati Chapter, especially its chapter head Kru Jun Dellosa  for bringing the NCR tournament to a higher level.  There were 29 matches and participated by men, women and yes, even kids.  This is the first NCR tournament to have female and children matches.    MAP QC bagged the Best Team trophy for having 7 wins, the second winningest team is MAP Antipolo with 6 and third is my own team, MAP Pasig Ultra with 5 wins. 

Because this day is also mother’s day, I decided to visit my mother’s grave in Cavite together with my sister and her family.  Even though I’ve trained for 2 months for this tournament.  But family is more important than sports.    Anyway, there’s the Philippine Olympic Festival this June. 

 

The Battle Arena

 

Representatives of the MAP chapters who participated in the event.  The large banner with a white background is the banner I brought to Singapore during the finals of Contender Asia and was signed by the finalist of the said show. 

Who won? A picture is worth a thousand words.  Jani Blanca (MAP Makati) jubilant after his victory over Jayson Basa (MAP-QC) 

 

Cheska Tan (MAP-UAP) connecting a jab to her opponent.

It’s a KNOCKDOWN!!!

Children also participated in the event.  Winona (in blue) of MAP Mandaluyong, going for her first fight against a competitor from MAP Muntinlupa

MAP President Robert Valdez (in Barong) and Ajarn Pudpadoy Omglin with the other officials of the tournament.  Ajarn Pudpadnoy is the Thai coach of the Philippine team and is considered one of the top 3 muay thai fighters of all time.  He is best known as Pudpadnoy Worawoot, his fight name.

Hey guys, you’re suppose to corner Eric, not pose for the camera.

Eric Aquino (MAP-Pasig Ultra) winning over Paul Mitsuko (MAP Makati).  Eric is my favorite sparring partner as he is a very technical fighter. 

Lyndon Dellosa (MAP Makati) doing the wai kru ceremony.

John Jamasalo (MAP Pasig Ultra) receiving a jab from  Marlon of MAP QC.  Marlon surprised some of the spectators because its just his first tournament and he won against John who has a 2-0 record prior to this tournament. 

Angelo Romualdez (MAP Mandaluyong) doing the leg block against his opponent from MAP Ateneo

The man they call Pookyaw.  Rey de Guzman posing after his 2nd round TKO over his MAP Antipolo opponent.  Pookyaw always fight like an unleased pitbull.  Never backing down even if he’s tagged with a punch or kick.   His fight is also the most hilarious too. 

Kru Zhie Vallega and the rest of the MAP QC contingent receiving the trophy for the over-all championship.

 

Me and Beck.  My first time not to compete in the NCR muay thai tournament.  And the feeling is surreal.  There’s no pressure.  I fully enjoyed the event and have taken exactly 261 photos. I’m preparing for a much bigger event, the Philippine Olympic Festival slated this June 25-29.  Hope work or injury will not get in the way.

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First Mother’s Day… Without My Mom Saturday, May 10 2008

There’s a muay thai tournament on May 11 and I’m supposed to compete.  Prepared hard for it, training for almost 3 hours everyday, including Sunday for 2 months.    Then my only sister arrived, from Papua New Guinea for a vacation.  They will be migrating to Vancouver on May 20, after that we may not be able to see each other for 4 or 5 years.  Then my plans changed.  

Mother’s Day this year will be celebrated on May 11.  And it will be the first time, in more than a decade that I will be with my sister on this special day for mothers.  And ironically, our mom will not be with us.  Its been 9 months since my mother died and the wound is still as fresh as on the day it happened. 

Nine months… and I still haven’t forgiven myself for not being with my mom at a time when she needed me most.  She was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) on May 20, 2007.   The doctors frankly advised me that the chances of surviving AML is very low if not treated immediately.  And being her only child here (my only sister is in another country),  I have to take charge of her treatment and hospitalization.    But despite this, life still went on for me.  I still went to work and I still trained for my sport like its just any ordinary day.   I have a muay thai tournament in July of that year and instead of being with my mom, I trained hard for that tournament.  I won a trophy in that forgotten day in July, but I lost my mother one night in August, a night that will haunt me forever. 

Now, there’s another muay thai tournament and it fell on Mother’s day.  But I will not make the same mistake.  I will visit my mother’s grave with my sister this Mother’s Day. 

*****************************************************************************************************

 My mother is both a strong woman and a woman of strength.    She’s a humble seamstress who never finished elementary school but was able to raise and educate her two children:  One is now a Financial Controller of a large multinational in PNG; the other is a Managing Director of the Philippine office of a US firm. One graduated with honors both in college and in high school and finished her MBA in Australia; the other received and won numerous awards including a medal and congratulatory letter from the President of the Philippines.   My sister and I both owe who we are to our mother. 

Perhaps one of the most one sided relationship is the one between mothers and their sons.  Sons will never be able to equal the amount of love their mother has given them.   And sons will only realize the power of their mother’s love only when she’s already gone.    Though thanking and honoring my mother through this song may not be enough, I will still dedicate this to her:  I recited this song during the last night of her wake:

 

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2008 Pan Asian Grappling Tournament Pics Thursday, May 8 2008

In the two day event of the 2008 Pan Asian BJJ and Pan Asian Grappling Tournament, I took exactly 468 photos.  Choosing which pictures to post is a big challenge.

Professional MMA and muay thai fighter Magical Ray Elbe and some of the Tiger Muay Thai Guys.  They were nicknamed “The Spartans” in the grappling tournament.  Its their first time to join the Pan Asian Grappling Tournament and they took the Over All Championship

Allen Chong (the guy wearing black and white shorts) and the rest of the BJJ Borneo team.  They are the most coolest and friendliest team in the competition.  Allen Chong is a class act, a very nice guy.

The warm-up area

Allen Chong (BJJ Borneo) winning his match

Macaca (New Breed) vs Melvynna Tambunan (Team Singapore).  Macaca jumping to guard

Dmitri Tsitos (BJJ Shanghai) vs Ray Elbe (Tiger Muay Thai)

A David and Goliath match.  David Denisi (New Breed-Cebu) vs Mike St. Claire (Tiger Muay Thai)

The girls of KMA Team Fabricio and the dudes from Tiger Muay Thai

The Winners of the Grappling Tournament

Ashley Pueblo (Team Guam) and Macaca (New Breed)

Ray Elbe getting displaying the trophy for the Overall Championship won by Tiger Muay Thai

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2008 PanAsian BJJ and Grappling Tournament-More Pics Thursday, May 8 2008

Ali Sulit Vs. Dmitri Tsitos

Froilan Sarenas vs A Tiger Muay Thai guy

 

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2008 Pan-Asian BJJ Tournament Tuesday, May 6 2008

The 2008 Pan-Asian Brazilian Jujitsu International Tournament and the Pan Asian International Grappling Challenge was held at the Main Activity Center of SM-Mall of Asia on May 3 and 4, respectively.

 The event was participated not only by various BJJ teams in the Philippines but also by BJJ practitioners from Borneo-Malaysia, Singapore, Phuket-Thailand and Shanghai-China.  

I’ve taken around 400 pictures of the 2-day event.   Of course can’t show them all here in this blog but I will give the organizers a CD of the pictures and hope they will post these in the official site of KMA-Team Fabricio www.bjjphilippines.com.  The official list of winners will also be posted in the said site.  Will post more pics soon.   

By the way, Beck and I helped in the event by manning the weigh-in area. 

 

The Tournament Banner

 

The Battle Arena.  I’ve always dreamed to hold a muay thai event in this area, and like the tournament organized by KMA, will also be participated by amateur muay thai fighters from South East Asia.   I’m already starting out by getting in touch with amateur muay thai groups in the ASEAN region. 

 

The medals up for grabs

Em Matias (Team Fabricio) vs. May Masuda (Gracie Barra)

Melvynna Tambunan (Team Singapore) vs. Ashley Pueblo (Team Guam).  Melvynna ( special thanks to Fabricio Teammate Jonna for the correct name) is one of the best female grapplers I’ve watched.   The following day, she dominated the grappling tournament in such fashion that she was voted as Most Technical Fighter.  The first female to be given such an honor. 

Literally and figuratively, a very colorful player.  His hair color would always match the color of his gi.

Me, Sir John and Sir Stephen wanting to get a piece of Karl.   Sir John Baylon is a legend in Philippine Judo.  He’s a member of the Philippine Judo Team since 1988 (one year before I started training in Judo, I’m 2nd year high school then) and competed in SEA Games since 1991 until 2007, he has no plans yet of retiring from active competition.  He won a whopping 8 SEA Games gold medals. 

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