i just can’t get enough of this clip…

i think this surfaced around the time when Mr Bean’s Holiday came out in 2007. while it didn’t measure up to the first mr. bean film (Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, or simply Bean), it was still something of a treat to see rowan atkinson reprise his role as the incorrigible mr. bean. the sad thing is, rowan atkinson has reportedly said that it would be his last appearance as mr bean.

*sigh* i’m going to miss mr. bean. A LOT.

meanwhile, here are a few known facts about rowan atkinson. this guy is loaded — he’s reported to be worth around GBP 100 million. he also happens to be a car nut and is an occasional car racer. and did you know that this well-rounded comedian has a degree in electrical engineering and has earned an MS degree from oxford university? sweet.

preparations for the upcoming WordCamp 2008 is rolling along quite nicely. as proof, several more sponsors have cropped up in the list (see below) lately.

Cebu Pacific Air
Buddy Gancenia Reality TV
SmartBro Wireless Broadband
SPOT.ph
Make Money with Performancing Ads

i received my camper pass last week, along with a bunch of notes/instructions and updates. i really hope my work schedule, which is erratic at best, won’t mess things up.

the only thing that’s bugging me is that no charging outlets will be made available to attendees (although wi-fi will be). i think that rather defeats the purpose for some of us — my laptop batteries don’t really last that long. the most that i can squeeze out of my laptop is like 1:45 hours, which of course is a real bummer. *sigh*

i hope something nice will turn up

here’s an amusing case of mistaken identity.

BBC’s Steve Parry, who recently went to Tiananmen Square carrying a cardboard cutout of michael phelps, got a bit of a shock when an admiring throng of chinese strollers mistook him for the famous swimmer and began snapping his picture and following him.

despite his strenuous denials that he wasn’t michael phelps (see video), Parry — a British swimmer who won a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly in the 2004 Athens Olympics — had a hard time shaking off his “fans”.

he really doesn’t look like michael, but i guess his height and build, longish face, short hair and prominent ears all add up to the impression that he is…?

after watching several olympics, i have taken note of several team sports that struck me as baffling yet oddly exciting. one of them is water polo, which — outside of the olympics — i have yet to see being played first hand.

the first time i saw it on TV, i immediately thought “whoahh, it’s a lot like basketball… in the pool.” then, after catching sight of the goal area being guarded by the goalkeeper, i corrected myself, “uhh wait, it’s more like soccer…”

although it lacked the exhilaration of watching guys running, shoving and jumping while grappling with a ball, there was a certain hypnotic rhythm to it. and the players were doing a lot things (mainly keeping afloat) while trying to score by lobbing the ball on the opposing team’s goal area. from a certain vantage point, it looked like a fun game.

i got more curious about this game when swimming star matt biondi, after being asked about his future plans, said that he might take up water polo. knowing that he had been summarily crowned as one the stars of the Seoul Olympics (5 gold & 2 bronze medals), i began to feel more positive about the sport.

earlier today, while i was scanning for the latest water polo results in the Beijing Olympics, i came across this byline from pat forde (of ESPN). in a matter of minutes, all my initial ideas about the sport came crashing down. i knew water polo wasn’t for exactly the faint-hearted but after reading about the reactions of certain players i just roared in laughter.

so much for my first impression.

it would be nice, i think, if they could install more high-powered cameras below. at least, we’d be able to watch all sorts of interesting rough-housing down there. i’ll bet that’ll clean up the sport pretty fast. heheheh

Olympic update: the Dutch women’s water polo team just captured the gold in beijing by beating the US team 9-8; the australian women took the bronze. on the men’ side, four teams have qualified in the semi-finals: serbia, US, hungary annd montenegro. stay tuned.