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© Paolo Dala

Suns and Shades

Kat is a Filipina be she has already adapted to the European life, like loving the sun. Haha... When we were in Paris we were walking on different sides of the street because she wanted the sun and I wanted the shade. 

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illustration Arturo Torres (2017) Who's More Important to the History of Basketball, Allen Iverson or Dwyane Wade? Basketball (And other Things): A Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated by Shea Serrano

© Paolo Dala

Cleveland, This Is For You

LeBron James was anointed as a transcendent, generational star while he was still in high school. He’s been the best player in basketball for most of the 13 years he’s been in the league - a four-time MVP, a 12-time All-Star, and already the 11th-leading scorer in NBA history by the age of 31. He’s the most physically gifted player of all time, faster and more skilled than anyone with his size and strength. And yet on Sunday night, a few minutes after he led the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first-ever title, James said, “I don’t know why the man above give me the hardest road.” The now three-time NBA champ spoke the truth.

...to bring a championship to Cleveland, the best player in the game needed a couple of breaks. This is the reality of professional sports, and it’s because of that reality that I’ve rooted for LeBron James for the past 10 years. Players play to win championships, and fans and writers evaluate them based on whether they succeed. It’s unfair, but it’s what makes the games we watch so thrilling. Since winner-takes-some is never going to be a thing, those of us who want one of the best players we’ve ever seen to get the respect he deserves have no choice but to hope he gets the bounces he needs to make his résumé unimpeachable.

LeBron led the first-ever comeback from 3–1 down in the NBA Finals. He beat the greatest regular-season team ever. He came back to his home state of Ohio and won a championship for the most star-crossed sports city in the United States. That block on Iguodala isn’t the block that kept the game tied before Steph Curry went off and won his second title in a row. It’s the Block. If he wasn’t before, LeBron James is now, rightfully, a basketball legend.

It’s been a hard road for LeBron James. It was a hard road to get nicknamed “the Chosen One” as a high school junior, then get criticized even as he exceeded every unrealistic expectation. It was a hard road to get drafted by his home-state team, and be expected to do what no other player in any sport had done for Cleveland since 1964. It was a hard road to leave Ohio for another, better opportunity, and to have his jersey burned by the fans that had claimed to love him. It was a hard road to come back, to forgive Dan “Comic Sans” Gilbert, and to say he was “ready to accept the challenge” of winning a championship with the Cavaliers. It was a hard road to play without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving in last year’s finals. It was a hard road at times to play with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving - the star power forward who can’t play defense and the star point guard who sees the game as a 48-minute one-man show with occasional intermissions during which other people are allowed to touch the ball. It was a hard road to lead a team that might not have even made the postseason without him.

Josh Levin The King Becomes a Legend (Slate, June 2016)

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© Paolo Dala

The Latin Quarters

When we walked through Paris' Latin Quarters I immediately fell in love with it... and when I found out the this was one of the locations of the movie Before Sunset (2004), I fell in love with it more.

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© Paolo Dala

In The Midst Of A Crowd

The trouble is not really in being alone, it's being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don't you think?”

Christine Feehan Dark Prince

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© Paolo Dala

Spontaneous Boracay Trip

29 October 2013 Entry:

Me and my friends were drinking one night in August in our house, when Carla suggested that we go to Boracay. She then started browsing for plane tickets... And two (2) months later, we're here bathing this world famous beach while watching the sunset.

This was the most spontaneous trip (involving booking a plane ticket) ever. Haha... and also my first trip to Boracay.

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© Paolo Dala

I'll Be Back, Ma Louvre

The Louvre is my ultimate museum dream. But I made the tough decision of not going in because I didn’t have enough time… or maybe I didn’t go in so I still have a reason to visit Paris again? Haha.

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© Paolo Dala

Always On A Journey

You are going somewhere. Every day. Every experience you get. You are moving forward.

Jimmy Chin

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It's Like Ten Thousand Spoons When All You Need Is A Knife

Title: Ironic Artist: Alanis Morissette Album: jagged little pill (acoustic) [2005]

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[December 2018]

[May 2025]

© Paolo Dala

Louvres

I was going through my photos of the Louvre this afternoon and tried searching my Facebook profile of posts I made about the Louver... and this Facebook post I made from the Louvre Abu Dhabi back in 07 December 2018 popped up. It says:

"This was nice... sana next time sa France naman (hopefully I get to visit the one in France next time). LOL."

And Kat commented on that post, "G[ame]"

Lo and behold, about seven (7) years later... I did visit the Louvre in Paris and guess who I was with? Hahaha! Prophetic.

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© Paolo Dala

Sidewalk Marketplace

I walked through sidewalk market when I was walking in Paris. It fascinated me that Paris, jut like our here in the Philippines, they have side walk vendors... Anyway, I saw vintage film cameras were being sold in these sidewalk marketplaces and I was probably going to buy if we weren't in such a rush.

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© Paolo Dala

Italia, The Ultimate Food Destination

When you think back, where in the world were you when you had the best meal of your life (so far)? Was it in a little bistro in Paris, or a sushi bar in Kyoto?

Well, according to TasteAtlas, the likelihood is that it was in Italy. The platform has just published a list of the 100 best food cities in the world, based on almost 500,000 ratings from across 17,073 cities on its database, and Italy claims five of the top 10 spots.

At the very top it’s Naples, but given we also named the home of pizza as our top pick for the best city in the world for food, we’re not at all surprised.

In second place was Milan, whose cuisine is one of the most lauded in Italy and has similarities with hearty, meaty Austrian food (risotto and pannetone both hail from here). In third place was Bologna, the medieval city home to the world’s oldest university, famous for (guess what?) spaghetti bolognese... Florence claims fourth place, and Rome claims sixth...

Liv Kelly The World's Best Food Cities (Time Out, December 2024)

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© Paolo Dala

The Help We Need

We won’t endure on our own. God brings brothers and sisters in Christ into our lives to help us along the path to heaven. That’s actually one of the great themes in Bunyan’s famous allegory 'Pilgrim’s Progress'. Faithful and Hopeful are the friends Christian needs, his fellowship, along his path to the gates of the Celestial City...

And the same is true for every help that we need from people to persevere to the end in faith. It’s not a contradiction to say, “We must persevere to the end in faith; we will not make it without the means that God has appointed to get us there,” if we also say, “God will see to it that those means show up and that we respond to them.” He will see to it. II Peter 2:9 says,

“The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials.”

Indeed, he does. And one of the ways that he does it is by causing people to warn us and exhort us to trust the promises of God and press on.

Paul gives an amazing encouragement in II Corinthians 9:8:

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

In other words, every work of faith that God requires of us to make it to the end, he gives the grace to perform. He never leaves us to ourselves. Therefore, we must persevere, and we will persevere, because there will be the necessary Simons of Cyrene to help us bear the load.

John Piper We can't Endure on Our Own

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© Paolo Dala

The Dream Breakfast

I’ve alway dreamed of having breakfast in a bakery in Paris. And I was finally able to do this... The smell, the taste, the cultural experience, everything lived up to my expectations!

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© Paolo Dala

Shakespeare And Company

After visiting Notre Dame, we crossed a bridge and checked out Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore in Paris that's famous for being a literary hub. Word on the street is Earnest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce used to hang out here... It is one of the most aesthetic bookstores I've seen.

I bought a book there for a souvenir. I was choosing between Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. It is a French bookstore, that's why I wanted a book written by a French person... I went Le Petit Prince, a Collector Edition one, just because it had very beautiful illustrations.

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© Paolo Dala

Robots

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots.

Erich Fromm

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© Katrina Mariano

World Photography Day 2025

As the famous Annie Leibovitz saying goes: I still need the camera because it is the only reason anyone is talking to me... Haha. Happy World Photography Day! Let's celebrate my favorite art and story-telling medium.

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© Paolo Dala

Nono's Crispy Chicken Sandwich

I've been trying all the chicken sandwiches/burgers as much as I can... Nono's Comfort Kitchen & Bakery's Crispy Chicken Sandwich is good, but not really a standout.