Yes, this is a tough Monday. We set our clocks forward after a weekend that, for many, was filled with early St. Patrick’s Day festivities… or, well, it couldn’t have been just me, right? Right? Anywho, here’s some stuff to distract you from the work you probably don’t want to do anyways.

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Photo: AP / Getty Images

MUST READ

Boxing’s big star of the moment is none other than Manny Pacquiao, a man who represents the national pride of the Philippines and has to some degree revived a sport that in recent years has little to show for mainstream chatter besides crazy face tattoos, borderline cannibalism, and movies about chicks boxing. That’s not to, uh, ‘knock’ the sport of boxing by any means — it’s just that boxing itself hasn’t been this exciting since the Thrilla’ in Manila, and, well, I’m starting to see the Philippines as a good common thread here. All right, all right, so I’m biased — Filipino-Americans like myself are pretty excited to have a national hero celebrated here in the United States, too.

If you’ve been living under a rock, the welterweight Pinoy they call “Pacman” recently made Joshua Clottey, a fighter hailing from Ghana, a human punching bag in front of the potentially millions who tuned in on Pay-Per-View for the match. While I didn’t watch it myself, I heard that the fight wasn’t really that much of a spectacle; Clottey did nothing but play defense and Pacquiao won by unanimous decision.

Whether you’ve been paying attention to Pacquiao or not, this piece about him in GQ is certainly worth the read. It’s a bit long, but well-written and certainly a good profile. Will this be all we see of Pacquiao for a while? Possibly — he’s looking to become a representative in the Philippine government and could be taking a break for a while. All opinions about Philippine government aside, I’m proud of Manny and I hope to see a Mayweather fight happen.

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MUST SEE

This might as well by my “Must Hear,” too, but since I’m far more inclined to click on this to watch it rather than listen to it, I’ve got to share this music video as a “Must See.”

This video is for OK Go’s excellent new single, “This Too Shall Pass,” but its most scintillating aspect is its live action Rube Goldberg setup, something that must have taken hours upon hours of meticulous engineering to get off the ground. It’s a wonderful treat for the eyes that happens to have an excellent soundtrack. Check out their new album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, for more ear candy.

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MUST HEAR

I have an oldie but a goodie: “My Mathematical Mind” by Spoon from the album Gimme Fiction. I’m notorious for not having new music and relying upon particular friends to feed it to me — but I’ll cop to it this time and admit that I just can’t leave Spoon alone for an entire week, whether it’s the new stuff or the old.

This particular video is an unofficial video that someone made with clips from some old instructional videos. I’ve got to say that it’s one of the best user-made videos I’ve seen — none of the corny effects or simple images that so many people seem to think work for a music video.

Let’s not forget that I am a stupid fangirl for Britt Daniel; this is not the end of Spoon appearing in my “Must Hear” recommendations…