Jasmine asked in my previous post what my favorite Filipino food is. Answer: adobong manok or chicken adobo.

As I mentioned before, I was born in the Philippines and then moved to the US. My parents lived in the US previously. They studied at NYU Medical Center before heading to Lebanon, PA and then to Florida. They moved back to the Philippines briefly, got me, and returned back to the US. It’s kind-of funny to see them still adapting to the American culture. I mean, do you know how awkward is it to try explaining what a “booty call” is or what “jumping his bones” means? Or the differences between “screwing,” “screwed up,” and “screwed over”? Fun times.

However, as much American culture I bring to them, they also get some Filipino culture back to me. Filipinos are the fastest growing Asian community in US (or so I’ve been told). There are several Filipino organizations and associations that my parents are a part of. There are festivals and balls that are purely surrounded in the culture. All of my best friends (all of them non-Filipinos) have been to at least one of these events and for the most part, they have fun. Simply because they don’t have something like that. I mean, how many times can you say, “Oh yeah, I’m going to a ball tomorrow night”?

I guess that that’s the thing with US and the different nationalities that come to here. Although we’re away from our “home country,” it doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is forgotten. So, here’s a challenge of y’all: see if there’s a cultural festival or the like in your area. Filipino, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Haitian, Russian, doesn’t matter… go to it and learn a little about that culture. If you, yourself, have a strong cultural background or your family does, see if there are any associations or organizations for it and join or at least go to one of their events.

In the end, what exactly is an American? The settlers and founders of our country came here with their different cultures (English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish) and they were able to mix and learn from it other. How about now?

Also, Jasmine, pansit is good, too.

Morning (Afternoon, Evening, pick your poison), everyone! Marivic aka sorono916 here. So, I’m “taking over” John’s blog. Okay, not really but I guess that I’ll be posting a few things here and there.

So, some things about myself.

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Man, I was really worried that we would have something crazy like a 6 way tie for 1st place. That would have been worse for me than an Evan win. But I have to hand it to @seangunn. He said I didn’t need to worry, and he was right. The math all worked out.

So take a look. We have three places and an honorable mention. I’ll start with the honorable mention and then work up from there:

@raelee proved, by winning the first ever SYTYCD-FDL Most Number of Bonuses, that she knows this show pretty well. And had the competition been scored week to week instead of on a pre-season draft… she’d probably be getting a free lunch out of me at some point. Instead she is being honored with the Bonus Syringe Graphic. How do you feel, Rae? A little dizzy?

@BabsiS is our 3rd place Bronze Medalist. Impressive, being that she lives in Germany where the show wasn’t even aired. She relied solely on YouTube clips, other FDLers, and still she had one of the highest bonus counts and strongest cards throughout. Nicht schlecht.

@Vanalam is our 2nd place Silver Medalist. Vanessa, I have to say, I really didn’t see you coming. But looking back at it now, it’s clear you had this nice, gradual climb. And then in the final stretch you kind of pas de bourréed yourself into a full on sprint. Kudos.

And our grand prize winner, majorly deserved for her killer card and smart, EARLY bonus picks each week (most of them tweeted to me before I’d watched the episode), is…….. @sorano916!!!! Yes!!!

@sorano is the winner of the coveted “Next time you find yourself in LA, let me know, cause you and I are grabbing lunch, my treat” Award as well as the PWNAGE Award. Basically the PWNAGE Award goes like this: @sorano916 is gonna get me a few photos. I’m gonna replace the photos at the top of the site with new ones of her. I’m gonna switch all my social networking links here to hers, and I’m going to give her administrative access to write some posts if she’d like.

I know, weird awards, huh? But that’s what I offered, and I’m sticking to it. Starting next week, my blog will have this look for a month. I’ll still be blogging the same old Cabrera rambles (I have a few coming soon)… but I guess it’ll be like I’m wearing @sorano916′s clothes.

Anyway, great fun, all! It was a blast. I hope to do another one of these. The good thing is, now I have the system and the Scoreboard, so setting up an FDL again shouldn’t be too tough. As we get closer to Season 6, I’ll gauge everyone’s interest.

Now here’s the Scoreboard

In leading up to the Finale Results Show, I’ve done a small redesign of the Scoreboard. I’ve added some of the features I’ve been wanting to for weeks: Links to everyone’s twitter streams, pictures, easy view of points and bonuses. I’m sorry I couldn’t get this up sooner… I really wanted to show off this League of Awesomes. If I’d had more time I would have written a script that orders all of the players from highest scores to lowest. But I think the way it is, encourages you to browse through everyone evenly. We are, after all, a unified FDL, are we not? I realize so much of this game was a silly crap shoot. But it’s been a blast none the less.

Something interesting to note… @eirinn22 hasn’t participated in a single bonus. I don’t fault her. She’s in Australia and they’re getting the show a few weeks later than we are. But take a look at her score clean. Impressive.

If I can pull away from my script rewrites, I’m going to try to squeeze in another commentary post before the east coast results. It was a very strange finale though, don’t you think?