What would a high school graduate be up to on a Monday night? Believe it or not, I took it like a man and watched this year’s Miss Universe beauty pageant on NBC (to its entirety) with my mom.

We were rooting for Miss Philippines, who unfortunately didn’t crack the top 15 but took home the Miss Photogenic award. I was proud of her even if she ended up with a consolation prize.

I cheated a little bit in between commercials and looked up recent articles about tonight’s event in Mexico City. I ended up knowing in advance that Miss Japan (Riyo Mori) would take the crown to become the informal ambassador to the world, making her the 56th woman to hold the title.

I felt bad for Miss USA, who took a spill to the seemingly slippery floor during the evening gown presentation. This stumble was a cause for controversy soon after she would go on win fifth place.

At times, I don’t even understand how I’m able to sit through programs like these. Then again, I’d do anything for the sake of quality time with a parent during my final days at home.

- Joseph Natividad

I walked into this film not having seen the previous two and was reasonably confused with what was happening for the first hour or so. Okay, so the Flying Dutchman is a pirate ship run by a bunch of sea creatures, which is being controlled by the East India Trading Company, which is chaired by someone named Lord Beckett. The “Aha” moment eventually came to me and I arrived to a conclusion: this movie is too long and confusing but still enjoyable to sit through.

The special effects for the epic standoff between Lord Beckett and the nine pirate lords made the last hour of the film very entertaining. Jack Sparrow proves that he is the star of the franchise with his drunken swagger, his slurred speech, his comic demeanor and his un-pirate-like philosophy of nonviolence. Keith Richards, who was the inspiration for Johnny Depp’s character, made for an intriguing cameo midway through the film. It was fascinating to see the strong resemblance between Sparrow and him.

Something worth noting — you may want to wait out the credits for an extra Pirates scene. I don’t want to give too much away but it is set 10 years after At World’s End.

- Joseph Natividad

What a relief to have all my AP exams over and done with. The time pressure, the anxiety and the crammed-in study sessions — it never seems to end as long as I’m still in school. Getting a good night’s rest and a filling breakfast were just enough to keep me energized through the usually two-hour long essay/free response sections, which took place after 45-55 draining minutes of multiple choice questions. I didn’t have it as bad as some of my classmates did in terms of the amount of subject tests taken though. Overachieving students fell victim to being required to take two tests in one day, sometimes from 8 AM all the way to 4 PM.

My advice to future AP students: don’t take it just because you have the grades to get into the course and think that it will bode well for your high school résumé. Take it if you feel you can perform well under a faster pace of study and a much more grueling curriculum. If you’re a senior, don’t give in to the senioritis bug because it will ultimately lead to a downward spiral. Step into an AP course with a mindset to do all the work necessary in order to best prepare for the AP exams during May. The nightly reading assignments, outlines and loads of math problems are going to be tough to get through, but stick to it because your hard work will pay off when you get to college.

- Joseph Natividad

There are moments when I really don’t want to hear what you have to say.
There are moments when I want to ignore you and I know it ticks you off.
When you’re not looking, I actually do take the advice you’ve given me.
I know I’m wrong at times but it’s just hard to accept.
So, thanks for your relentlessness in keeping me in check.
Thanks for laughing at my jokes and getting me out of awkward situations.
Thanks for teaching me to be mindful of my manners.
Thanks for cooking dinner.
Thanks for setting aside all those newspaper clippings you thought I should have read.
Thanks for everything else you’ve taught and advised me not to do.
Happy Mother’s Day.
I love you.

- Joseph Natividad

This week’s issue of Time Magazine is devoted to an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Heroes and pioneers, scientists and thinkers, artists and entertainers, builders and titans – they are men and women who have made a difference in our lives for better and some for worse.

Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, super-featherweight boxing champion and pride of the Philippines, is my vote for one of the most influential people during the past year. Whenever a boxing match of his is on, every Filipino drops what he or she does and rushes for the nearest TV set (no joke!). Pacquiao symbolizes the hopes and dreams of Filipinos living all over the world.

A man who grew up selling cigarettes on the street, Pacquiao found a home in the boxing ring and has made a name for himself ever since. With his lighting-quick punching combinations that pack loads of power, Pacquiao wows audiences and leaves his opponents pinned to the canvas. This southpaw is so popular in the Philippines that he is comparable to the likes of Muhammad Ali and Elvis in his homeland.

His ventures go beyond the sports arena as well. Pacquiao’s disarming charisma and ever growing popularity make him a shoe-in for the political life he will undoubtedly enter after he hangs up his boxing gloves.

- Joseph Natividad

No, no, no, no, no! What have they done to my beloved superhero franchise? I expected a coherent story and got a jumble of weak, diluted plots that end up being a mess at the end of the movie. If director Sam Raimi was going full steam ahead into superhero movie magic with Spider Man 1 and 2, he tripped and fell overboard with this third and latest installment.

I don’t understand how some people could say that no matter how zany the storyline becomes, it still works in the end. It most definitely doesn’t. I was looking for mind blowing action and got commonplace CGI and Hollywood set-pieces. What a disappointment to see a Spider Man movie go down the drain like this one did.

Spider Man 3 was way too long for its own good (clocking in at about 140 minutes). It could have done without Peter Parker’s alter ego playing a jazz number and dancing wildly in a club to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. With disheveled hair and an ugly black suit, Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker seemed more “Night at the Roxbury” than “Saturday Night Fever.” A little of a Peter Potrelli look (I’m talking about the first few episodes of NBC’s Heroes) was also lost in there.

If I ever end up having to go through the agony of watching this film again on DVD, it would be my pleasure to fast forward through every scene containing the boring conversations between Aunt May and Peter. Her reminiscing of the old days has a way of lulling me to sleep because the words coming out of her mouth are simply not worth listening to. Some of the dialogue between characters got even cheesier as Spider Man 3 progressed. Here’s a sample from a run-in between Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and Harry Osborne (James Franco) during Spider Man’s appreciation-day parade:

Harry: I get hit in the head and now I feel as free as a bird.
Mary Jane: Maybe I should get hit on the head.
Harry: Bonk. (He actually knocks on MJ’s forehead and says the word “Bonk.”)

As for the villains in Spider Man 3, they don’t possess the kind of depth that Willem Defoe brought to the Green Goblin and Alfred Molina similarly did for Dr. Octopus in the first two installments. Sure, director and screenwriter Sam Raimi tried to weave in a back-story to the Sandman’s criminal life, but I was sitting there and wondering whether I was supposed to feel sorry for this guy because his daughter was severely ill. The same goes for Topher Grace’s portrayal of Eddie Brock (a.k.a. Venom). He was a complete joke throughout the whole film. He may have been written off to be a jerk who wears too much hair gel, but the Eddie Brock I remember from the comics and cartoons was more menacing, frustrated and full of himself than what I saw in the movie. The actual Venom character didn’t even show up till the near end, and the 15 minutes of screen time he got was a giant letdown.

I walked out of the theater overhearing kids’ excitement over a possible Spider Man 4 and its prospective villains. Let’s see: there’s Rhino, Carnage, Scorpion, Mysterio and an almost-Spidey ally in Black Cat. There’s so much more left that could be done with the Spider Man franchise that it just depends on the future of the actors playing them and the direction that the story is headed. Time will tell whether this could be the last hoorah for Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. If you’ve already seen the film, you know that there really is no future for James Franco.

What else is there to say? That it isn’t worth the $10 and gas to go see this film? I would, however, recommend some of the Hasbro action figures that go along with it. That ought to be more entertaining than sitting through the first of 2007’s so called blockbusters.

- Joseph Natividad

Now, I don’t know how much you follow sports, but this is a pretty huge deal. The event was on the front page of both the Chronicle and the Times. And the event was this: for the first time in 13 years, the Golden State Warriors have not only made the playoffs, but they also got past the 1st round of play. This may not seem like a big deal at first, but consider the statistics: the Warriors are an 8th-seeded team who were playing the 1st-seeded team of the Dallas Mavericks. They are the first 8th-seeded team to ever upset a 1st-seeded team in the new 7-game format the NBA adopted in 2003, and only the 3rd 8th-seeded team ever to upset a 1st-seeded team. In Round 2, the Warriors will either play the Utah Jazz or the Houston Rockets, depending on the outcome of their Game 7.

Now those are the facts. But what you don’t get from those is the feeling of the atmosphere at the recent Warrior’s games. Now, obviously a team’s fans are going to be pumped over a huge upset such as that one. But Warrior’s fans? They are arguably the loudest and most intense fans in the NBA. The long-suffering Warriors have finally overcome a 13-year playoff drought, and the fans are draining the frustrations of many seasons with their immense volumes of sound and bright yellow “We Believe” shirts. Coming off of their amazing defeat of the Mavs, neither the Rockets nor the Jazz wants to play the Warriors right now, because they have so much momentum.

Now, I have never been a huge fan of the Warriors, if only because I never really was into the NBA, but when I heard about how they could possibly get into the play-offs a week or two, I jumped on the bandwagon. Knowing the Warriors horrible history in terms of the postseason, I started to root for them to do well, even though it looked like they didn’t have a chance against the solid Mavs.

But know they’ve won in one of the most highly unlikely situations. And they have tons of momentum. So I hope they go all the way.

Go Warriors. I believe.

- Colin Kennedy

Though they might not have been as large a presence as they were last year, Latinos and other civil rights groups marched and rallied today in cities across the nation in the name of immigration reform.

There are 12 million people in the US who do not possess legal residency. During last year’s May 1 demonstration, more than a million protestors gathered to show solidarity for the cause of gaining citizenship for all people and putting an end to deportations. But the increase of government raids has left many of those who appeared on city streets on this same day last year in the dark.

The absence of many students of Hispanic descent at my high school was less noticeable than it was a year ago. In fact, I wasn’t able to connect the dots between the fact that some of my friends had cut in order to attend today’s rallies until I had called them in between classes to figure out where they had gone to. It turned out that some of my friends had decided to join the march in Oakland near the Fruitvale BART station. There were similar rallies going on at the Civic Center in San Francisco, in Berkeley, Martinez, San Jose and other Bay Area locations.

- Joseph Natividad