tonight's the night... portugal vs holland.
statistically, both teams are in for a bad omen. holland, in their past 4 competitions, always bowing out in the semis, and as for portugal, the hosts of the past 3 euros always bowing out in the semis as well.
but i hope that hope support prevails over the not so strong dutch.
it seems that the match screening in the theatres is free. gotta ask in the box office, but i guess most of the seats are taken up well beforehand, but i'll try to ask anyway. hazril, if you change your mind about watching the finals on sunday (well, actually monday) just lemme know. i mean i cant force you since its tecnically a monday morning match.
supposed to meet chahat today, but so far, no news. maybe later on.
FORZA PORTUGAL!
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Monday, June 28, 2004
whenever, wherever
as ive said over and over again... it always seems that one of goo goo doll's song somehow always has a personal connection with me.
and for the recent case, these two lines from 'Girl Right Next To Me'
"I made my bed but now I can't sleep at night
I'm tossing and turning, you know, you know it ain't right"
and for the recent case, these two lines from 'Girl Right Next To Me'
"I made my bed but now I can't sleep at night
I'm tossing and turning, you know, you know it ain't right"
clearing the air
sorry if the previous post led to the wrong idea, it has nothing to do with my friends or whatever, i was talking about a certain situation within my family, which some of you might be familiar with.
because this isnt a private blog, i have no idea if any member of my extended family might be reading this. thus, i had no choice, well, actually it was an instruction not to disclose any information here. some of you might know what im talking about, some don't. and if my relatives and extended family gets to know about it, well, we'll be causing them to worry too much, as if us living in two very far apart places and soon three, is bad enough.
sorry if i confused you guys. for the record, the situation is getting better, i guess i dont have that much to worry about afterall.
sidetracking, the czechs beat denmark comfortably. well, i personally thought denmark played well for the first half, but the the first 15 min of second half, they, or should i say the goalie, just faltered.
oh well, with this, czechs are clearly in the front seat for this year's title. i really hope that portugal knocks off holland tomorrow, but i just realized a horrifying trend. the host nation of the past 3 euros have all lost in the semi finals; sweden in '92, england in '96 and holland in 2000. i sure hope the trend doesnt follow this time round.
i havent been feeling too fine recently. with that dry throat, it has led to sleepless nights and from today on, a splitting headache. i have started to get the runny nose and very weak body. i know i should have asked for the antibiotics on friday. i gotta somehow suppress it to get myself a good sleep with some panadols and hopefully drop by to the clinic tomorrow.
i know when i get a flu, its the same old trend. but why oh why now...
oh, Happy 19th Birthday Junli! sorry couldnt meet you today, but hope you had an enjoyable day.
for those who doesnt know it already, she recently made her blog public, so you all can read about her, i've left the link on the right.
because this isnt a private blog, i have no idea if any member of my extended family might be reading this. thus, i had no choice, well, actually it was an instruction not to disclose any information here. some of you might know what im talking about, some don't. and if my relatives and extended family gets to know about it, well, we'll be causing them to worry too much, as if us living in two very far apart places and soon three, is bad enough.
sorry if i confused you guys. for the record, the situation is getting better, i guess i dont have that much to worry about afterall.
sidetracking, the czechs beat denmark comfortably. well, i personally thought denmark played well for the first half, but the the first 15 min of second half, they, or should i say the goalie, just faltered.
oh well, with this, czechs are clearly in the front seat for this year's title. i really hope that portugal knocks off holland tomorrow, but i just realized a horrifying trend. the host nation of the past 3 euros have all lost in the semi finals; sweden in '92, england in '96 and holland in 2000. i sure hope the trend doesnt follow this time round.
i havent been feeling too fine recently. with that dry throat, it has led to sleepless nights and from today on, a splitting headache. i have started to get the runny nose and very weak body. i know i should have asked for the antibiotics on friday. i gotta somehow suppress it to get myself a good sleep with some panadols and hopefully drop by to the clinic tomorrow.
i know when i get a flu, its the same old trend. but why oh why now...
oh, Happy 19th Birthday Junli! sorry couldnt meet you today, but hope you had an enjoyable day.
for those who doesnt know it already, she recently made her blog public, so you all can read about her, i've left the link on the right.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
another case of a penalty
holland broke their curse in penalty kicks in a very tight match, but i really thought that sweden deserved to go through instead. they contained the dutch attack pretty well and even though they lacked in offence, i thought that their defense alone was worth a ticket to the semi finals.
but whats done is done, gotta look forward to a more interesting tie between portugal and holland. at least i predicted 2 out of the 4 semi finalists correctly.
something worrying took place yesterday. i cant disclose the details here, but i was taken aback, even though its not so serious. it just made me realize how things can happen all of a sudden and i am glad that it happened now and not any later, worse, when i was away in america. it would have been more scary then.
i seriously contemplated whether it was right for me to head to adeline's party, but in the end, i did, i dont think i had so much to worry about. met junwen and took the bus 105 to her place. since i didnt know where her place was, i was on the lookout, but the indication was pretty easy to spot. met couple of people i havent met for a while, like victor, maddie, utkarsh, zeeshan, sean, junli and of course the birthday girl adeline. it was a pretty neat gathering, obviously for small talks here and there.
but because of what happened earlier on, i could not fully enjoy. i mean how could i?
i felt an odd sense of uncomfort as i took the cab home.
but whats done is done, gotta look forward to a more interesting tie between portugal and holland. at least i predicted 2 out of the 4 semi finalists correctly.
something worrying took place yesterday. i cant disclose the details here, but i was taken aback, even though its not so serious. it just made me realize how things can happen all of a sudden and i am glad that it happened now and not any later, worse, when i was away in america. it would have been more scary then.
i seriously contemplated whether it was right for me to head to adeline's party, but in the end, i did, i dont think i had so much to worry about. met junwen and took the bus 105 to her place. since i didnt know where her place was, i was on the lookout, but the indication was pretty easy to spot. met couple of people i havent met for a while, like victor, maddie, utkarsh, zeeshan, sean, junli and of course the birthday girl adeline. it was a pretty neat gathering, obviously for small talks here and there.
but because of what happened earlier on, i could not fully enjoy. i mean how could i?
i felt an odd sense of uncomfort as i took the cab home.
Friday, June 25, 2004
au revoir, les bleus
fantastic, just fantastic!
if the greek team were to dispel any suggestion that they performance so far in euro 2004 was unexpected, they have done it with the victory over the holders, france.
even i thought that france would win this tie comfortably, but the greeks held on tight and scored with a perfect set play goal.
i wonder what was the deal with henry and trezeguet though, they didnt have that spark at all!
but its a neat underdog victory story. i love surprises like this. if sweden gets through tonight, then we will be looking at the unlikeliest of the semi finals. and if czech wins, then i guess it will be a semi finals consisting of teams which never won the title before.
right now, the supposed top 5 in europe are gone; italy, germany, spain, england and now france.
lets hope tonight's match is as interesting.
if the greek team were to dispel any suggestion that they performance so far in euro 2004 was unexpected, they have done it with the victory over the holders, france.
even i thought that france would win this tie comfortably, but the greeks held on tight and scored with a perfect set play goal.
i wonder what was the deal with henry and trezeguet though, they didnt have that spark at all!
but its a neat underdog victory story. i love surprises like this. if sweden gets through tonight, then we will be looking at the unlikeliest of the semi finals. and if czech wins, then i guess it will be a semi finals consisting of teams which never won the title before.
right now, the supposed top 5 in europe are gone; italy, germany, spain, england and now france.
lets hope tonight's match is as interesting.
comeback from retirement?
okay, am i seeing right? i saw mase on the billboard charts. and the song name?
'welcome back'
is he coming off retirement to give another shot in the music industry?
this is good. he's a much better rapper than most of the rappers today.
'welcome back'
is he coming off retirement to give another shot in the music industry?
this is good. he's a much better rapper than most of the rappers today.
Portugal vs England
jeez, did you guys catch that match?
just one word; amazing!
i thought portugal was done for, since it seemed impossible to penetrate the english defense, so you can imagine my delight when postiga equalized.
even before extra time, i hoped that it will go to penalty shoot out, since england's been traditionally bad at it, quite obvious from euro '96 and the '90 world cup.
but im happy, they've gone through. they will meet the winner of the tie between sweden and holland, and if they manage to brush things up, i really think they can make it to the finals.
keeping my fingers crossed. who knows, they might even nick the title.
just one word; amazing!
i thought portugal was done for, since it seemed impossible to penetrate the english defense, so you can imagine my delight when postiga equalized.
even before extra time, i hoped that it will go to penalty shoot out, since england's been traditionally bad at it, quite obvious from euro '96 and the '90 world cup.
but im happy, they've gone through. they will meet the winner of the tie between sweden and holland, and if they manage to brush things up, i really think they can make it to the finals.
keeping my fingers crossed. who knows, they might even nick the title.
my dry throat, again...
ive been suffering from a dry patch in my throat, which usually signals that i will be getting a minor flu or fever very very soon. i guess i consumed some drink that contained high content of vitamin c again, should be that carrot juice.
i thought i was safe since i could drink orange juice and have no reactions in naperville, so i guess its the humidity here thats doing something.
so obviously its uncomfortable, i find it hard to sleep during the night, coz it continues to bother me and it was especially bad last night coz when i inhaled, it felt like air particles were scratching my raw throat.
went to the doc, well, it was unplanned, but since my dad's eyes swelled real bad, supposedly allergic reaction to some aspirin he took few days ago, i thought i might as well get some diagnosis. the doc didnt give me any antibiotics which i wanted, since i know that i will get flu symptoms very soon, just that it hadnt shown today, well its starting to show.
so coz of that, my day was practically gone, i had dental appointment at 1030 which ended at 12 plus since i wasnt the only one who had appointments. i tried to look for a euro 2004 portugal shirt for a while but since my dad needed to rush to the hospital, i passed it for next time.
so yeah, basically im under medication, which isnt much.
but yesterday was a pretty good day. i met rachel after quite sometime. i used to see her occasionally in the morning when i was on my way to school or when i dropped by to queensway for some occasions and all. hafiz was away for holiday in malaysia, but we met anyway. though it wasnt planned, we caught the chronicles of riddick.
i dont know how i should describe the movie. its story is messed up, they tried to emulate too much of star wars. but the effects were pretty cool and thankfully we were in a theatre with good surround sound, so we felt the full effects of crashes and other actions.
we walked about and talked for some time, i didnt realize that she was having a bad time with her friends, but as always, its over some stupid reasons, so she has good enough reason not to be worried.
im amazed by how much she has changed. more mature thinking and obviously i was taken aback when i discovered that we shared certain ideals. it was nice having met her after a very long time indeed.
i bumped into prasad, candace and nafis over the course of the day.
i bet everyone must have thought im some sort of the paedophile since rachel looks like she's only 11 or 12. i bet everyone will be shocked to hear that she's 17.
and she tells me she had a modelling stint, where she got paid! even though it was only once, i think its good enough that she had a chance like that.
i should be meeting the clique tomorrow, its adeline's birthday gathering kinda thing.
i really wanna get a simple portuguese shirt. i shall get it tomorrow.
i thought i was safe since i could drink orange juice and have no reactions in naperville, so i guess its the humidity here thats doing something.
so obviously its uncomfortable, i find it hard to sleep during the night, coz it continues to bother me and it was especially bad last night coz when i inhaled, it felt like air particles were scratching my raw throat.
went to the doc, well, it was unplanned, but since my dad's eyes swelled real bad, supposedly allergic reaction to some aspirin he took few days ago, i thought i might as well get some diagnosis. the doc didnt give me any antibiotics which i wanted, since i know that i will get flu symptoms very soon, just that it hadnt shown today, well its starting to show.
so coz of that, my day was practically gone, i had dental appointment at 1030 which ended at 12 plus since i wasnt the only one who had appointments. i tried to look for a euro 2004 portugal shirt for a while but since my dad needed to rush to the hospital, i passed it for next time.
so yeah, basically im under medication, which isnt much.
but yesterday was a pretty good day. i met rachel after quite sometime. i used to see her occasionally in the morning when i was on my way to school or when i dropped by to queensway for some occasions and all. hafiz was away for holiday in malaysia, but we met anyway. though it wasnt planned, we caught the chronicles of riddick.
i dont know how i should describe the movie. its story is messed up, they tried to emulate too much of star wars. but the effects were pretty cool and thankfully we were in a theatre with good surround sound, so we felt the full effects of crashes and other actions.
we walked about and talked for some time, i didnt realize that she was having a bad time with her friends, but as always, its over some stupid reasons, so she has good enough reason not to be worried.
im amazed by how much she has changed. more mature thinking and obviously i was taken aback when i discovered that we shared certain ideals. it was nice having met her after a very long time indeed.
i bumped into prasad, candace and nafis over the course of the day.
i bet everyone must have thought im some sort of the paedophile since rachel looks like she's only 11 or 12. i bet everyone will be shocked to hear that she's 17.
and she tells me she had a modelling stint, where she got paid! even though it was only once, i think its good enough that she had a chance like that.
i should be meeting the clique tomorrow, its adeline's birthday gathering kinda thing.
i really wanna get a simple portuguese shirt. i shall get it tomorrow.
'tuesdays with morrie'
lorraine passed me a book when i went to her place last week, and although i did not start reading the book til few days, i have since finished it.
its a food for thought kinda book. makes you think twice about certain things, which obviously was the reason why lorraine passed me the book.
it was a good read and very enriching, so thanks lorraine, i guess i'll pass the book back when i see you next time.
so now that ive read that, im going back to robin cook's 'vector' after which i will read the 'globalization and its discontents' which i just cant to devour into.
its a food for thought kinda book. makes you think twice about certain things, which obviously was the reason why lorraine passed me the book.
it was a good read and very enriching, so thanks lorraine, i guess i'll pass the book back when i see you next time.
so now that ive read that, im going back to robin cook's 'vector' after which i will read the 'globalization and its discontents' which i just cant to devour into.
Newcastle United Season 04/05 Fixture
the fixture for the season 04/05 was released yesterday.
this will be the last playing year for alan shearer. i have no idea what's happening after that. would he take over sir bobby for the managerial spot?
let's see.
note, this is obviously a tentative plan. with european matches and televising plans, the fixture will surely be changed over the course of the season.
August
14 Middlesbrough (A)
21 Tottenham (H)
25 Norwich (H)
28 Aston Villa (A)
September
11 Blackburn (H)
18 Southampton (A)
25 West Brom (H)
October
2 Birmingham (A)
16 Charlton (A)
23 Man City (H)
30 Bolton (A)
November
6 Fulham (H)
13 Man Utd (H)
20 Crystal Palace (A)
27 Everton (H)
December
4 Chelsea (A)
11 Portsmouth (H)
18 Liverpool (A)
26 Blackburn (A)
28 Arsenal (H)
January
1 Birmingham (H)
3 West Brom (A)
15 Southampton (H)
22 Arsenal (A)
February
2 Man City (A)
5 Charlton (H)
12 Fulham (A)
26 Bolton (H)
March
5 Liverpool (H)
19 Portsmouth (A)
April
2 Aston Villa (H)
9 Tottenham (A)
16 Middlesbrough (H)
19 Norwich (A)
23 Man Utd (A)
30 Crystal Palace (H)
May
7 Everton (A)
14 Chelsea (H)
this will be the last playing year for alan shearer. i have no idea what's happening after that. would he take over sir bobby for the managerial spot?
let's see.
note, this is obviously a tentative plan. with european matches and televising plans, the fixture will surely be changed over the course of the season.
August
14 Middlesbrough (A)
21 Tottenham (H)
25 Norwich (H)
28 Aston Villa (A)
September
11 Blackburn (H)
18 Southampton (A)
25 West Brom (H)
October
2 Birmingham (A)
16 Charlton (A)
23 Man City (H)
30 Bolton (A)
November
6 Fulham (H)
13 Man Utd (H)
20 Crystal Palace (A)
27 Everton (H)
December
4 Chelsea (A)
11 Portsmouth (H)
18 Liverpool (A)
26 Blackburn (A)
28 Arsenal (H)
January
1 Birmingham (H)
3 West Brom (A)
15 Southampton (H)
22 Arsenal (A)
February
2 Man City (A)
5 Charlton (H)
12 Fulham (A)
26 Bolton (H)
March
5 Liverpool (H)
19 Portsmouth (A)
April
2 Aston Villa (H)
9 Tottenham (A)
16 Middlesbrough (H)
19 Norwich (A)
23 Man Utd (A)
30 Crystal Palace (H)
May
7 Everton (A)
14 Chelsea (H)
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
end of group stages for EURO 2004
hazril, i guess my wish came true eh. holland gets through and germany's out.
i always said that germany doesnt deserve to go through coz they play rather boringly and coz holland has much more talent that needs to play, even if they too play badly.
so 5 out of the 8 teams i predicted will go through to the quarters actually made it.
tonight should be very very interesting. a must watch. portugal vs england. i really hope it'll be a classic, and that portugal goes through in the end.
france vs greece, i guess its the end of conquest for the greeks, but they have surprised all of us so far, we never know, but beating the french seems a lil off the mark.
sweden vs holland... will be pretty interesting, cant really tell, since holland seems not to be playing up to their expectation, sweden might have a chance to snatch something away.
denmark vs czech republic... czech are team of the moment, only team to get through with all 3 wins, but denmark will provide a tough challenge to their advancement.
so far, ive only catched handful of games, but im gonna have couple of excellent matchups, so im gonna be watching basically every day from now on. there is no worry about watching for a draw, since one team will inevitably get knocked out, and the other will advance.
i always said that germany doesnt deserve to go through coz they play rather boringly and coz holland has much more talent that needs to play, even if they too play badly.
so 5 out of the 8 teams i predicted will go through to the quarters actually made it.
tonight should be very very interesting. a must watch. portugal vs england. i really hope it'll be a classic, and that portugal goes through in the end.
france vs greece, i guess its the end of conquest for the greeks, but they have surprised all of us so far, we never know, but beating the french seems a lil off the mark.
sweden vs holland... will be pretty interesting, cant really tell, since holland seems not to be playing up to their expectation, sweden might have a chance to snatch something away.
denmark vs czech republic... czech are team of the moment, only team to get through with all 3 wins, but denmark will provide a tough challenge to their advancement.
so far, ive only catched handful of games, but im gonna have couple of excellent matchups, so im gonna be watching basically every day from now on. there is no worry about watching for a draw, since one team will inevitably get knocked out, and the other will advance.
another day with hazril... and bumping into people
so i met hazril again for talking today.
had lunch and then talked for most of the time initially at centerpoint.
wanted to surprise chahat by dropping by at her work place, but i couldnt spot her. obviously, i wouldnt go inside, since its a women's clothing store. it'd be funny to see two guys flocking inside.
so walked to hmv to check out some CDs, we were listening to couple of tracks from lenny's new album as well some some other notable albums.
oh and i met ms. chong, my ex-council teacher there, along with mr. ong. havent seen em for so long, it felt good, even when i talked to them for barely 5 minutes.
i went back to wheelock place to check more about the mac, found out quite a bit of info, i guess i'll be getting my laptop when i get back there afterall. it is a lil costly, but i think it might be worth it, im not sure. i gotta study the quotations given to my dad from dell and IMB again.
as we went to lido to wait for kim and siyan, i bumped into audrey and albert there. and then whye kiat was studying right next to their table. talked to him for a while too, he was taking a break from studying for his block test 2. i think he's the first one in singapore ive met so far who actually knew about georgia tech. phew, at least someone knew about the school! so far i kept having to tell people that it wasnt a community college or whatever.
oh, marc, listen up, both audrey and albert is heading to toronto! though its a lil far from BC, its nice to have someone around in the country eh? and meyer is supposedly in indiana, so the contingent is growing in north america.
yeah, so went back, talked to william's and aly's mom for a while, to update on what's been going on, even she doesnt seem to have heard of georgia tech. its such a small school, im not surprised.
ive deliberated about this before, i dont care if people know about it anymore, so long as potential employers know the quality of tech graduates, im fine. afterall, its the reputation from the insiders that count.
yeah, the day went by pretty quick.
might drop by to SA to see how the dance is goin on, later on, i'll be meeting rachel.
gosh, that's another person ive not met for a long time.
had lunch and then talked for most of the time initially at centerpoint.
wanted to surprise chahat by dropping by at her work place, but i couldnt spot her. obviously, i wouldnt go inside, since its a women's clothing store. it'd be funny to see two guys flocking inside.
so walked to hmv to check out some CDs, we were listening to couple of tracks from lenny's new album as well some some other notable albums.
oh and i met ms. chong, my ex-council teacher there, along with mr. ong. havent seen em for so long, it felt good, even when i talked to them for barely 5 minutes.
i went back to wheelock place to check more about the mac, found out quite a bit of info, i guess i'll be getting my laptop when i get back there afterall. it is a lil costly, but i think it might be worth it, im not sure. i gotta study the quotations given to my dad from dell and IMB again.
as we went to lido to wait for kim and siyan, i bumped into audrey and albert there. and then whye kiat was studying right next to their table. talked to him for a while too, he was taking a break from studying for his block test 2. i think he's the first one in singapore ive met so far who actually knew about georgia tech. phew, at least someone knew about the school! so far i kept having to tell people that it wasnt a community college or whatever.
oh, marc, listen up, both audrey and albert is heading to toronto! though its a lil far from BC, its nice to have someone around in the country eh? and meyer is supposedly in indiana, so the contingent is growing in north america.
yeah, so went back, talked to william's and aly's mom for a while, to update on what's been going on, even she doesnt seem to have heard of georgia tech. its such a small school, im not surprised.
ive deliberated about this before, i dont care if people know about it anymore, so long as potential employers know the quality of tech graduates, im fine. afterall, its the reputation from the insiders that count.
yeah, the day went by pretty quick.
might drop by to SA to see how the dance is goin on, later on, i'll be meeting rachel.
gosh, that's another person ive not met for a long time.
the low-carb deception
see, i knew it, i KNEW it!
this whole new trend or obsession with low-carb diet is a gimmick!
i initially thought that the food industry's target at creating low-carb products was ridiculous, but now there's someone to prove that i was right all along!
Read the article here
just shows how the media is so powerful that it can deceive the general public about a whole lotta issues. all those low-carb beers, C-2, low-carb salads and the mac adult happy meal?
and this is one of the so many deception that media casts upon us.
this technically brushes aside the atkins diet, which seems to be super popular. maybe the south beach diet might follow suit. everything is meant to take advantage of the less informed public and squeeze money outta these poor souls so that these guys can make millions.
everything.
and you think im being critical and pessimistic about everything? i have a reason for having certain views, and i know my reason, whether you understand it or not.
this whole new trend or obsession with low-carb diet is a gimmick!
i initially thought that the food industry's target at creating low-carb products was ridiculous, but now there's someone to prove that i was right all along!
Read the article here
just shows how the media is so powerful that it can deceive the general public about a whole lotta issues. all those low-carb beers, C-2, low-carb salads and the mac adult happy meal?
and this is one of the so many deception that media casts upon us.
this technically brushes aside the atkins diet, which seems to be super popular. maybe the south beach diet might follow suit. everything is meant to take advantage of the less informed public and squeeze money outta these poor souls so that these guys can make millions.
everything.
and you think im being critical and pessimistic about everything? i have a reason for having certain views, and i know my reason, whether you understand it or not.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
amazing...
im bloggging as im listening to george michael's new single, 'amazing' which is pretty nice. one of those light but soothing songs.
okay, so yesterday was pre-planned, i was supposed to go visit chahat's father who had an operation. my mom initially said that we'll be going in the afternoon, but later told me that we would have to go in the evening, so i had to basically waste time at home.
so later on, my mom and i went to NUH around 6, where we met couple of other bengali people there too. i met chahat and we walked around the hospital getting food for her mom and all. later, i saw her dad, since he had the operation like yesterday, he was still pretty weak and couldnt move much, but that's how it is with this kind of operation. she says within a week, he'll be discharged, so i guess everything's going fine. i guess its better to have all these things treated sooner than later, coz it'll so difficult and risky. so in that sense, even my dad got a little paranoid about it. he goes to check ups every now n then, but then certain things you cant detect til its pretty late.
i was talking to sunny's (not SA) dad about couple of things, like how he got the A*STAR scholarship, which i think is the best form of scholarship. i hope that he goes to john hopkins, since they're best in biomedical engineering. its gd in a sense tt he gets to study all the way to a Ph.D. and all expenses paid. so its like a 8 year plan and after which, he'll come back here for the bond. but then my dad brought a very crucial point, he said most of the these scholars might feel disillusioned when they stay in america for so long, coz after they see the endless horizon of opportunities there and then come back here, they'll feel that its very small and limited here, so much that they will hate coming back here, coz they're giving up the challenge there. its quite scary, but that's how it goes, if not, you gotta break the bond and pay all back. so its a double edged sword in a sense.
then i suddenly thought about my next 10 years in hand. im turning 20 next month, and then i'll start university. if i enroll in co-op plan in tech, i'll have to study for 5 years, if i am to transfer to urbana-champaign in illinois, then 4 years. after which i'll have to start working, say for 3 or 4 years at the max and then get back to grad school for MBA. by the time im done, its already 9 or 10 years. at the end of it, like a typical indian family, i'll be pressurized to get married. its either i meet someone along the way and face the wrath of disapproval or let my parents and relatives decide and i settle for some 'beautiful' and 'perfect' person to be my wife.
wow. its a scary thought. my next 10 to 12 years is mapped out. but then im not complaining, coz there isnt anything bad about it, but there's no surprise element anymore. like you know whats gonna happen, so you take it step by step, like im following a general plan, so it can be boring. unless of course, i happened to get employed by big name corporation or get into a superb grad school, those are the only things that will keep me excited.
jeez.
the bengali aunties in the hospital were talking about girls getting married and how the ones nowadays wanna delay the process for as long as possible and the guys not so interested in the whole thing and all. chahat and i were looking at eachother like, okay... now we know how the adults think about this whole thing and it was pretty weird.
couldnt join hui and erwin, coz by the time i could be free, it wasnt worth being there for less than 20 minutes and then have to leave. maybe next time.
called hazril up, should be out with him today, and then called up couple of people i should have called much earlier, like vieda and rachel. there still are more people i gotta meet up with.
italy is out. the favourites to get into the finals bows out at the group stages. another one of those that didnt score enough goals and lost out, like spain. another big name team will be out tomorrow, since the czechs qualified already, its only a matter of it being either germany or holland.
this euro is pretty interesting. so now czechs will meet denmark and sweden will meet either holland or germany.
"I was going down for the third time
My heart was broken I was not open
To your suggestions
I had so many questions
That you just kissed away
Tell me, I guess that cupid was in disguise
The day you walked in and changed my life
I think it's amazing
The way that love can set you free
So I walk in the midday sun
I never thought that my saviour would come
I think it's amazing
I think it's amazing"
okay, so yesterday was pre-planned, i was supposed to go visit chahat's father who had an operation. my mom initially said that we'll be going in the afternoon, but later told me that we would have to go in the evening, so i had to basically waste time at home.
so later on, my mom and i went to NUH around 6, where we met couple of other bengali people there too. i met chahat and we walked around the hospital getting food for her mom and all. later, i saw her dad, since he had the operation like yesterday, he was still pretty weak and couldnt move much, but that's how it is with this kind of operation. she says within a week, he'll be discharged, so i guess everything's going fine. i guess its better to have all these things treated sooner than later, coz it'll so difficult and risky. so in that sense, even my dad got a little paranoid about it. he goes to check ups every now n then, but then certain things you cant detect til its pretty late.
i was talking to sunny's (not SA) dad about couple of things, like how he got the A*STAR scholarship, which i think is the best form of scholarship. i hope that he goes to john hopkins, since they're best in biomedical engineering. its gd in a sense tt he gets to study all the way to a Ph.D. and all expenses paid. so its like a 8 year plan and after which, he'll come back here for the bond. but then my dad brought a very crucial point, he said most of the these scholars might feel disillusioned when they stay in america for so long, coz after they see the endless horizon of opportunities there and then come back here, they'll feel that its very small and limited here, so much that they will hate coming back here, coz they're giving up the challenge there. its quite scary, but that's how it goes, if not, you gotta break the bond and pay all back. so its a double edged sword in a sense.
then i suddenly thought about my next 10 years in hand. im turning 20 next month, and then i'll start university. if i enroll in co-op plan in tech, i'll have to study for 5 years, if i am to transfer to urbana-champaign in illinois, then 4 years. after which i'll have to start working, say for 3 or 4 years at the max and then get back to grad school for MBA. by the time im done, its already 9 or 10 years. at the end of it, like a typical indian family, i'll be pressurized to get married. its either i meet someone along the way and face the wrath of disapproval or let my parents and relatives decide and i settle for some 'beautiful' and 'perfect' person to be my wife.
wow. its a scary thought. my next 10 to 12 years is mapped out. but then im not complaining, coz there isnt anything bad about it, but there's no surprise element anymore. like you know whats gonna happen, so you take it step by step, like im following a general plan, so it can be boring. unless of course, i happened to get employed by big name corporation or get into a superb grad school, those are the only things that will keep me excited.
jeez.
the bengali aunties in the hospital were talking about girls getting married and how the ones nowadays wanna delay the process for as long as possible and the guys not so interested in the whole thing and all. chahat and i were looking at eachother like, okay... now we know how the adults think about this whole thing and it was pretty weird.
couldnt join hui and erwin, coz by the time i could be free, it wasnt worth being there for less than 20 minutes and then have to leave. maybe next time.
called hazril up, should be out with him today, and then called up couple of people i should have called much earlier, like vieda and rachel. there still are more people i gotta meet up with.
italy is out. the favourites to get into the finals bows out at the group stages. another one of those that didnt score enough goals and lost out, like spain. another big name team will be out tomorrow, since the czechs qualified already, its only a matter of it being either germany or holland.
this euro is pretty interesting. so now czechs will meet denmark and sweden will meet either holland or germany.
"I was going down for the third time
My heart was broken I was not open
To your suggestions
I had so many questions
That you just kissed away
Tell me, I guess that cupid was in disguise
The day you walked in and changed my life
I think it's amazing
The way that love can set you free
So I walk in the midday sun
I never thought that my saviour would come
I think it's amazing
I think it's amazing"
Monday, June 21, 2004
euro
so far, my predictions has been pretty accurate. well, its just for group a and b.
it would have been all good had greece not scored that one goal against russia. then spain would have gone through and my quarter final match up also be correct. now its portugal vs england and france vs greece instead of spain. the first match is gonna be pretty interesting.
today's gonna be the most interesting day. will italy make it, or would sweden or denmark be denied a chance? and then tomorrow, where germany has it tough against the czechs.
i have not been watching that many games, but i definately cant miss from the quarter finals onwards.
as for the quarters so far, i still say portugal and france will go through. but england will be a tough opposition, rooney seems to be on fire and portugal seems to be lacking the desire.
we'll see.
it would have been all good had greece not scored that one goal against russia. then spain would have gone through and my quarter final match up also be correct. now its portugal vs england and france vs greece instead of spain. the first match is gonna be pretty interesting.
today's gonna be the most interesting day. will italy make it, or would sweden or denmark be denied a chance? and then tomorrow, where germany has it tough against the czechs.
i have not been watching that many games, but i definately cant miss from the quarter finals onwards.
as for the quarters so far, i still say portugal and france will go through. but england will be a tough opposition, rooney seems to be on fire and portugal seems to be lacking the desire.
we'll see.
hidden costs
mothafuck...
it seems i have to be prepared to reach the costs of SG$3700 for the laptop. it might have been SG$3000 for the student discount from tech, but after including the taxes and the other stuff, it comes down to pretty much the same price. i should have known, after spending like 3.5 months, you never pay the price that you see on the tag, you pay so much more, unlike here.
now the situation is, whether to get it here or there. they say they've got international warranty here, but im not convinced it'll work that smoothly. probably they'll have to see documents of where i got my warranty and stuff when i dump it for repairs or something like that and end up having to pay because they dont recognise the warranty and things like that. it has happened before.
hmmm, my dad seems to have opened up about the mac issue. i might be able to get a mac there. but by the time i get the interface and blah blah, it might be pretty costly. and there are still those educational softwares to consider.
urgh....
it seems i have to be prepared to reach the costs of SG$3700 for the laptop. it might have been SG$3000 for the student discount from tech, but after including the taxes and the other stuff, it comes down to pretty much the same price. i should have known, after spending like 3.5 months, you never pay the price that you see on the tag, you pay so much more, unlike here.
now the situation is, whether to get it here or there. they say they've got international warranty here, but im not convinced it'll work that smoothly. probably they'll have to see documents of where i got my warranty and stuff when i dump it for repairs or something like that and end up having to pay because they dont recognise the warranty and things like that. it has happened before.
hmmm, my dad seems to have opened up about the mac issue. i might be able to get a mac there. but by the time i get the interface and blah blah, it might be pretty costly. and there are still those educational softwares to consider.
urgh....
jazzy
as ive practically gone out non stop since i came back, i thought it'd be nice to stay home the whole day. well, i was actually looking for people who were free, but realizing there weren't, i spent pretty much the whole day listening to music and surfing the net.
started off the day having breakfast while watching the michael buble dvd that my dad bought yesterday. its very good stuff, very entertaining performances and couple of the songs were very famous covers, like 'for once in my life,' 'how can you mend a broken heart' and others. big band like music with crooner voice, just awesome.
then went on to play the audio while i looked around for similar artists as well as checking out artists such as joss stone and lizz wright.
i think im finally getting to fix on the genre, call is neosoul or just soul. part jazz, part old R&B. d'angelo, maxwell, angie stone, jill scott, rachelle farrell, meshell ndegeocello, all those artists i havent heard in a long long time.
its been pretty good music experience for the past 2 days. very enriching. i have to try to get joss stone and lizz wright sometime soon. probably gotta check out jaime cullum and the other jazzfm CDs tt my dad bought while i was gone.
started off the day having breakfast while watching the michael buble dvd that my dad bought yesterday. its very good stuff, very entertaining performances and couple of the songs were very famous covers, like 'for once in my life,' 'how can you mend a broken heart' and others. big band like music with crooner voice, just awesome.
then went on to play the audio while i looked around for similar artists as well as checking out artists such as joss stone and lizz wright.
i think im finally getting to fix on the genre, call is neosoul or just soul. part jazz, part old R&B. d'angelo, maxwell, angie stone, jill scott, rachelle farrell, meshell ndegeocello, all those artists i havent heard in a long long time.
its been pretty good music experience for the past 2 days. very enriching. i have to try to get joss stone and lizz wright sometime soon. probably gotta check out jaime cullum and the other jazzfm CDs tt my dad bought while i was gone.
Sunday, June 20, 2004
two miracles
and so, portugal wins by a single goal against spain, which not only gets them through to the quarter finals, but to end up at the top of group A coz the greeks lost to the russians, but got through anyway. i'll be super mad if i was spanish, spain got kicked out just cause greece scored 2 more goals than they did. but that's the way it goes.
hmm, its gonna be interesting. so long as england doesnt screw up, the quarter final match up of england vs portugal will still be a reality. and it'll most probably be spain vs greece.
but another 2 big name team will bow out in the next 3 days. italy could face the exit, and so could germany. it all remains to be seen.
and the news of the day!!!!
FIORENTINA IS BACK IN SERIE A!!!!
yes, aggregate score 2-1 against perugia and they're back in the big time!
its unbelievable to think that they were in the champions league playing against arsenal not too long ago and they were playing in italy's fourth division just 2 years ago. and its a fairytale come true for angelo di livio, who was in italy's team in the 2002 world cup, but after that, he proceeded to play in the fourth division, coz of his love for the team and the city. what a gesture. and then, he went on to get back at the top level in just 2 years.
20 team serie a next season. i gotta keep an eye on what happens to fiorentina, but i sure hope they wont be relegated.
hmm, its gonna be interesting. so long as england doesnt screw up, the quarter final match up of england vs portugal will still be a reality. and it'll most probably be spain vs greece.
but another 2 big name team will bow out in the next 3 days. italy could face the exit, and so could germany. it all remains to be seen.
and the news of the day!!!!
FIORENTINA IS BACK IN SERIE A!!!!
yes, aggregate score 2-1 against perugia and they're back in the big time!
its unbelievable to think that they were in the champions league playing against arsenal not too long ago and they were playing in italy's fourth division just 2 years ago. and its a fairytale come true for angelo di livio, who was in italy's team in the 2002 world cup, but after that, he proceeded to play in the fourth division, coz of his love for the team and the city. what a gesture. and then, he went on to get back at the top level in just 2 years.
20 team serie a next season. i gotta keep an eye on what happens to fiorentina, but i sure hope they wont be relegated.
with the mates
so saturday was pretty good, or so by normal standards.
earlier on, i just listened to CD after CD, kind of a personal reflection and music sampling time. Coldplay's 'A Rush of Blood To The Head,' A Tribe Called Quest's 'Anthology' as well as Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged 2.0.
I must say, ATCQ is awesome. its not like the screwed up sound hiphop or rap is hitting the airwaves right now, this is just old school hiphop, with nice jazzy beats, smooth rhymes and basically guys who can rap properly. from the first few seconds of the CD, i was very well entertained with the 'abstract poetic' music.
coldplay continues to play its sound, though a little harder than their previous album, but its still very well done. there are more outstanding tracks, but given the chances, i'll stick pick 'Parachutes,' that's the best late-at-night CD.
lauryn hill breaks new barriers with very personal music, quite a stark contrast compared to her contents in the 5 Grammy 'Miseducation.' But its very honest music, and the dialogues in between helps. it was super long, i didnt even get to the second CD, but its very good, one to really try, since its such a different type of listen.
yeah, so was intending to leave by 1730, but my dad called from the airport to say he didnt have the keys to the house, so i had to wait til he came back. after he did, it was further delayed, while i was trying to explain to him my findings of my laptop search. i was trying to convince him that its worth trying an apple, but he was having none of it, he's still convinced XP is the way. i'll just bring him to the applecentre next time and see what he says. XP can be run with the software, so can office, and macroweaver and matCAD can all be compatible, so i dont see the complication.
when i reached orchard mrt, i was greeted by winfrid, jaime, jessica and cynthia. we'll be joined by allan, koustav, denise, maddie, lem, clarisse and andrea later on. we had a pretty nice dinner at nydc, capping it off with a nice cake for allan's birthday. he seemed a little embarrassed coz we sang the birthday song loud and even tried to sing couple more times as a prank later on, even as he was leaving.
its funny how we are still the same, never meeting on time, always take a long time to decide what to do, takes freaking long to get moving to the intended destination, etc.
since we were going to junwen's place, we needed to get drinks to mix with the liquor (mind you, i still dont drink, and i was joined by rebekah who quit drinking earlier this year) but was left in limbo when half of the group just left without saying a word, but just a casual wave of goodbye from the otherside of the road. supposedly they went to maddie's place to watch friends. hello? friends? me? were the first few words in my mind, but i didnt do anything about it. lionel joined as we walked about the far east area, while we got the drinks. we were just waiting and talking when we spotted the 105 bus, which takes super long to wait for, so being the person that i am, who hates to be late or waste too much time, i called out to everyone to board the bus.
and what do you know, we forgot about evelyn. she was supposed to join us at far east, but we realized that as we were turning around four seasons. andrea gave a quick call, after which, we told her to meet us at junwen's place's bus stop. supposedly it worked out for her, since she was near taka, so she didnt have to walk all the way to far east. i hope that she wasnt concealing her frustration under the smiles, since we were coming up with how it could be a potential kill walid vol. 1 and 2, where the remaining people; andrea, jessica, winfrid and jaime would have to face evelyn before she faced me. that was quite lame, but we had to wait for her anyway.
evelyn joined us soon later and we headed to junwen's place where we met chan king as well as rebekah. we talked for a while and then proceeded to watch soccer, latvia vs germany, but since it seemed i was the only one watching soccer, we switched channels, fixing on to the jack black's episode of SNL. it was only for a short while and then it seemed we all wanted to drink or eat, so we all walked to adam's road food center, where most ate and then we proceeded to talk about a lot of things.
everyone basically parted after that, junwen joined me for a walk for a while, but i had to convince him that if he wanted to take a cab, he should just go ahead with it. i cant believe that i had to spend 10 minutes to convince him to do that, there are times where i just wanna walk, it was a good weather at 3AM, but it seemed to him that there was something wrong with me in doing that.
one advise to all, when i say something in return to what you ask, there are no hidden implications, i mean what i say. period.
when i told him to take a cab by all means, that's what i meant! nothing else. i did want to walk by myself and wished i had brought along my discman.
well, in the end, he took the cab grudgingly, i have no idea why that was so hard.
so i reached home around 0320-ish, and went on to watch the second half of holland vs czech republic. damn i missed half of an excellent game. the original plan of the night was to watch that match, but in the end, i was at home watching the second half. incredible.
but yeah, it was 2-1 by then, and you all know what happened, i was stunned too.
went to sleep after the match and then woke up around 10, when i had to help my mom get groceries and other household stuff. i cut my hair, and then needed to get couple of my own things as well. we went out to get my dad's shades fixed, and then get tuner for my brother's guitar and then a michael buble CD/DVD on top of getting my watch fixed.
played a little soccer and basketball after that, and then i had to go off for a dinner at parent's friend's place. had a good talk about soccer and other things there with the uncle. by the time i returned and everything was done, it was already 1, decided not to catch the all important spain vs portugal since i was so freaking drained out.
earlier on, i just listened to CD after CD, kind of a personal reflection and music sampling time. Coldplay's 'A Rush of Blood To The Head,' A Tribe Called Quest's 'Anthology' as well as Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged 2.0.
I must say, ATCQ is awesome. its not like the screwed up sound hiphop or rap is hitting the airwaves right now, this is just old school hiphop, with nice jazzy beats, smooth rhymes and basically guys who can rap properly. from the first few seconds of the CD, i was very well entertained with the 'abstract poetic' music.
coldplay continues to play its sound, though a little harder than their previous album, but its still very well done. there are more outstanding tracks, but given the chances, i'll stick pick 'Parachutes,' that's the best late-at-night CD.
lauryn hill breaks new barriers with very personal music, quite a stark contrast compared to her contents in the 5 Grammy 'Miseducation.' But its very honest music, and the dialogues in between helps. it was super long, i didnt even get to the second CD, but its very good, one to really try, since its such a different type of listen.
yeah, so was intending to leave by 1730, but my dad called from the airport to say he didnt have the keys to the house, so i had to wait til he came back. after he did, it was further delayed, while i was trying to explain to him my findings of my laptop search. i was trying to convince him that its worth trying an apple, but he was having none of it, he's still convinced XP is the way. i'll just bring him to the applecentre next time and see what he says. XP can be run with the software, so can office, and macroweaver and matCAD can all be compatible, so i dont see the complication.
when i reached orchard mrt, i was greeted by winfrid, jaime, jessica and cynthia. we'll be joined by allan, koustav, denise, maddie, lem, clarisse and andrea later on. we had a pretty nice dinner at nydc, capping it off with a nice cake for allan's birthday. he seemed a little embarrassed coz we sang the birthday song loud and even tried to sing couple more times as a prank later on, even as he was leaving.
its funny how we are still the same, never meeting on time, always take a long time to decide what to do, takes freaking long to get moving to the intended destination, etc.
since we were going to junwen's place, we needed to get drinks to mix with the liquor (mind you, i still dont drink, and i was joined by rebekah who quit drinking earlier this year) but was left in limbo when half of the group just left without saying a word, but just a casual wave of goodbye from the otherside of the road. supposedly they went to maddie's place to watch friends. hello? friends? me? were the first few words in my mind, but i didnt do anything about it. lionel joined as we walked about the far east area, while we got the drinks. we were just waiting and talking when we spotted the 105 bus, which takes super long to wait for, so being the person that i am, who hates to be late or waste too much time, i called out to everyone to board the bus.
and what do you know, we forgot about evelyn. she was supposed to join us at far east, but we realized that as we were turning around four seasons. andrea gave a quick call, after which, we told her to meet us at junwen's place's bus stop. supposedly it worked out for her, since she was near taka, so she didnt have to walk all the way to far east. i hope that she wasnt concealing her frustration under the smiles, since we were coming up with how it could be a potential kill walid vol. 1 and 2, where the remaining people; andrea, jessica, winfrid and jaime would have to face evelyn before she faced me. that was quite lame, but we had to wait for her anyway.
evelyn joined us soon later and we headed to junwen's place where we met chan king as well as rebekah. we talked for a while and then proceeded to watch soccer, latvia vs germany, but since it seemed i was the only one watching soccer, we switched channels, fixing on to the jack black's episode of SNL. it was only for a short while and then it seemed we all wanted to drink or eat, so we all walked to adam's road food center, where most ate and then we proceeded to talk about a lot of things.
everyone basically parted after that, junwen joined me for a walk for a while, but i had to convince him that if he wanted to take a cab, he should just go ahead with it. i cant believe that i had to spend 10 minutes to convince him to do that, there are times where i just wanna walk, it was a good weather at 3AM, but it seemed to him that there was something wrong with me in doing that.
one advise to all, when i say something in return to what you ask, there are no hidden implications, i mean what i say. period.
when i told him to take a cab by all means, that's what i meant! nothing else. i did want to walk by myself and wished i had brought along my discman.
well, in the end, he took the cab grudgingly, i have no idea why that was so hard.
so i reached home around 0320-ish, and went on to watch the second half of holland vs czech republic. damn i missed half of an excellent game. the original plan of the night was to watch that match, but in the end, i was at home watching the second half. incredible.
but yeah, it was 2-1 by then, and you all know what happened, i was stunned too.
went to sleep after the match and then woke up around 10, when i had to help my mom get groceries and other household stuff. i cut my hair, and then needed to get couple of my own things as well. we went out to get my dad's shades fixed, and then get tuner for my brother's guitar and then a michael buble CD/DVD on top of getting my watch fixed.
played a little soccer and basketball after that, and then i had to go off for a dinner at parent's friend's place. had a good talk about soccer and other things there with the uncle. by the time i returned and everything was done, it was already 1, decided not to catch the all important spain vs portugal since i was so freaking drained out.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
We Never Change
I wanna live life, never be cruel,
I wanna live life, be good to you.
I wanna fly, never come down,
And live my life,
And have friends around.
We never change, do we?
We never learned to leave,
So I wanna live in a wooden house,
I wanna live life, always be true,
I wanna live life, and be good to you,
I wanna fly, and never come down,
And I live my life, and have friends around.
We never change do we? No, no,
We never learned to bleed,
So I wanna live in a wooden house,
Making more friends would be easy.
O I don't have a show to say,
Yes, and I sing of a single day,
We never change do we?
We never learned to leave.
So, I wanna live life in a wooden house,
Making more friends would be easy,
I wanna live where the sun comes out.
I wanna live life, be good to you.
I wanna fly, never come down,
And live my life,
And have friends around.
We never change, do we?
We never learned to leave,
So I wanna live in a wooden house,
I wanna live life, always be true,
I wanna live life, and be good to you,
I wanna fly, and never come down,
And I live my life, and have friends around.
We never change do we? No, no,
We never learned to bleed,
So I wanna live in a wooden house,
Making more friends would be easy.
O I don't have a show to say,
Yes, and I sing of a single day,
We never change do we?
We never learned to leave.
So, I wanna live life in a wooden house,
Making more friends would be easy,
I wanna live where the sun comes out.
forza italia?
i was trying to figure out what kind of scenario the group C of the euro 2004 will bring about.
BBC lists this as a explanation of the outcome of group C.
*If Italy fail to beat Bulgaria, Denmark and Sweden will advance to the quarter-finals.
*If Sweden do not lose to Denmark, Sweden will advance to the quarter-finals.
*If Italy win their game against Bulgaria the winner of Denmark-Sweden will join Italy in the quarter-finals.
*If Italy beat Bulgaria and Denmark-Sweden ends in 0-0 draw, Sweden and Italy will advance to the last eight.
*If Italy beat Bulgaria by two goals and Denmark-Sweden ends in 1-1 draw, Italy will join Sweden in the knock-out stages. However if Italy beat Bulgaria by just one goal and Denmark-Sweden ends in a 1-1 draw, Denmark will join Sweden in the quarter-finals.
*If Italy beat Bulgaria and Denmark-Sweden ends in 2-2 draw, Sweden and Denmark will advance to the quarter-finals.
*In the event of a tie, Uefa criteria will be used to separate the teams.
so technically, italy is screwed big time. they definately need to win, and to be very sure, they need to win by at least 3 goals. whoa. many might think since sweden thrashed bulgaria 5-0, this might be possible, but we've all seen what can happen. what i dont understand above the above is that even if italy wins and denmark and sweden draws 2-2, denmark and sweden still goes through. i think there's an error, coz im still trying to figure out what that means, but for all i know, so long as the goal difference is greater, that team goes through.
will we see the first major surprise of the tournament?
BBC lists this as a explanation of the outcome of group C.
*If Italy fail to beat Bulgaria, Denmark and Sweden will advance to the quarter-finals.
*If Sweden do not lose to Denmark, Sweden will advance to the quarter-finals.
*If Italy win their game against Bulgaria the winner of Denmark-Sweden will join Italy in the quarter-finals.
*If Italy beat Bulgaria and Denmark-Sweden ends in 0-0 draw, Sweden and Italy will advance to the last eight.
*If Italy beat Bulgaria by two goals and Denmark-Sweden ends in 1-1 draw, Italy will join Sweden in the knock-out stages. However if Italy beat Bulgaria by just one goal and Denmark-Sweden ends in a 1-1 draw, Denmark will join Sweden in the quarter-finals.
*If Italy beat Bulgaria and Denmark-Sweden ends in 2-2 draw, Sweden and Denmark will advance to the quarter-finals.
*In the event of a tie, Uefa criteria will be used to separate the teams.
so technically, italy is screwed big time. they definately need to win, and to be very sure, they need to win by at least 3 goals. whoa. many might think since sweden thrashed bulgaria 5-0, this might be possible, but we've all seen what can happen. what i dont understand above the above is that even if italy wins and denmark and sweden draws 2-2, denmark and sweden still goes through. i think there's an error, coz im still trying to figure out what that means, but for all i know, so long as the goal difference is greater, that team goes through.
will we see the first major surprise of the tournament?
Friday, June 18, 2004
day spent talking
day started a bit slower compared to other days, but it sure was one hell of a long day.
met hazril about 1 plus at funan, scouted for laptops while he has lunch with his parents. HP are offering a pretty good deal, with options to upgrade to XP Pro and get the office at a relatively lower cost compared to other brands. but then again, after looking at everything, its either Dell or IBM. gotta wait til i hear from dad about the kind of quotes that were given to him at corporate price. but i still want apple. saw the software tt will allow me to run windows xp on the mac x OS panther, but then if u think about the overall cost, its going a lil too much, so i might not get it afterall.
yeah... then we walked to the esplanade, to talk about all things, which i always enjoy. we were probably sitting down there for like close to 3 hours.
as we were ready to get going, we saw couple of men getting ready for a soccer match at the padang, so since we had time, we decided to sit down and watch it. the first time i did that and it was quite fun. most of them should be between 40 to 55, all with beer bellies and grey hair. they didnt run much, but they were skilled, well, at least better than the most of us who play soccer. the council team would have gotten it bad if we played these guys. if im not wrong, one side was a team from the singapore cricket club, the other, im not sure, maybe a bank. when we left at half time, it was 1-1, but the goal that the bankers scored was professional class, volley from the edge of the right side of the box. amazing. after that, both hazril and i looked at eachother and was like, erm, where's the replay?
since we still had time, we used the remaining 30 minutes to walk all the way from the st. andrew's cathedral to somerset mrt station, where hazril was meeting up with kim. i left shortly after she came, and then talked for a while at tulip gardens before having dinner and heading to junwen's place for another talk.
so by the time i got back, it was 12. i watched the first half of bulgaria vs denmark before turning in.
tonight should be really fun. finally getting to meet the clique. winfrid told me quite a lot of people are coming, so i hope that everyone has fun. plus, there's soccer matches into the morning, so we should be very entertained.
met hazril about 1 plus at funan, scouted for laptops while he has lunch with his parents. HP are offering a pretty good deal, with options to upgrade to XP Pro and get the office at a relatively lower cost compared to other brands. but then again, after looking at everything, its either Dell or IBM. gotta wait til i hear from dad about the kind of quotes that were given to him at corporate price. but i still want apple. saw the software tt will allow me to run windows xp on the mac x OS panther, but then if u think about the overall cost, its going a lil too much, so i might not get it afterall.
yeah... then we walked to the esplanade, to talk about all things, which i always enjoy. we were probably sitting down there for like close to 3 hours.
as we were ready to get going, we saw couple of men getting ready for a soccer match at the padang, so since we had time, we decided to sit down and watch it. the first time i did that and it was quite fun. most of them should be between 40 to 55, all with beer bellies and grey hair. they didnt run much, but they were skilled, well, at least better than the most of us who play soccer. the council team would have gotten it bad if we played these guys. if im not wrong, one side was a team from the singapore cricket club, the other, im not sure, maybe a bank. when we left at half time, it was 1-1, but the goal that the bankers scored was professional class, volley from the edge of the right side of the box. amazing. after that, both hazril and i looked at eachother and was like, erm, where's the replay?
since we still had time, we used the remaining 30 minutes to walk all the way from the st. andrew's cathedral to somerset mrt station, where hazril was meeting up with kim. i left shortly after she came, and then talked for a while at tulip gardens before having dinner and heading to junwen's place for another talk.
so by the time i got back, it was 12. i watched the first half of bulgaria vs denmark before turning in.
tonight should be really fun. finally getting to meet the clique. winfrid told me quite a lot of people are coming, so i hope that everyone has fun. plus, there's soccer matches into the morning, so we should be very entertained.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
why are we running?
forget the title, i just happened to see lenny on MTV, that's all.
nothing much for yesterday, i went to SAJC to collect an insignificant A Level certificate, but I went there not to do that but to see the deputy principal as well as hui and jessica.
apparantly i came a lil too early, since the girls were tanning themselves in sentosa, together with cynthia and erwin. i walked about school, thinking of the fun time i used to have, and the changes that i saw since i left.
by most people's idea of a high school life, i guess i had it all, i led the kind of high school life that most would want. know a lot of people, active in school, leadership role, hang around with the popular guys, getting recognised for distinguished talent, having a whole lotta fun almost all the time, etc, etc. and even though my academics arent there to top it all, the fact is, i did make it to university, and a pretty decent one, which is the most important point of going to a JC.
after talking to ms. chia, the deputy principal, im appreciating what happened. at times i wondered how putting a lot into council or drama would help after leaving the college. it helped in the most unexpected way possible. i was surfing through georgia tech's web recently and found out that this coming batch is the one of the smartest batch tech will have in its 119 years of existance or something. and i read their average SAT score; 1337. GPA of 3.75. and i had like 1160 and screwed up A Levels grades, but because of my extracurriculars, i got in.
i am truly lucky. i didnt know that my CCA record will help in this way. i didnt really realize the full extend of this until i talked with ms. chia. since i am fortunate enough to be admitted to a pretty advanced school, i only owe it to myself to make it and succeed. i cannot let this slip by. this is the final hurdle.
i felt bad that i had to leave ms. chia so early, since she realized that i was meeting friends and i was keeping them waiting, which wasn't exactly true. i have to return and talk to her longer sometime very soon. she's someone of great experience and very wise words, it is just nice to listen to her psych you up.
well, i was watching hui, jessica, cynthia and dewi amongst others dance to number of songs, it seems they'll presenting 4 items for the dance concert. but i felt like i too wanted to move when i saw them do N.E.R.D.'s 'She Wants To Move.' i cant wait til i see the final piece.
went back pretty earlier than expected, since nothing was planned, i didnt expect that i would have hanging around with the girls any longer, so i went back, only to realize they were playing soccer at tulip gardens, but they stopped by the time i got there. talked again for a while, before heading back. i think the contact lenses are taking a toll on me, i sleep pretty well nowadays, maybe because the lenses really tire my eyes. works out for me.
intended to run today, but couldnt. when i woke up and stretched my legs, i suffered a calf muscle spasm. its definately not the first time, but i hate it whenever it happens. 20-30 seconds of agony. it feels like someone is trying to rip my legs off. and obviously, its painful just to take steps after that. so no point trying to run, it'll be just painful. i guess i gotta just wait till monday for the next run.
why am i running? lenny sang that to convey that sometimes we have no idea why we do certain things, but there's always a reason. day to day, i discover a new side to me that i never knew. i am not sure why i am running right now, but when everything fits into its place, i will know that whatever i have been doing, which i might have thought was a waste of time, will come into very good use. much like how the whole prefect/council thing came to work to get me into university.
i shall take a breather, go out with hazril and just look around for laptops. we'll end up talking anyway, but i hope i can disclose a lot of things thats bottled up inside me. its friday, i remember how it used to be for us back in secondary school. we'll always talk to eachother as we went to the mosque to pray and a solitary lunch before we got back to our maths group study. seems like it was so long ago. but the essense of what we used to do will never change, and its gonna be like that today too.
nothing much for yesterday, i went to SAJC to collect an insignificant A Level certificate, but I went there not to do that but to see the deputy principal as well as hui and jessica.
apparantly i came a lil too early, since the girls were tanning themselves in sentosa, together with cynthia and erwin. i walked about school, thinking of the fun time i used to have, and the changes that i saw since i left.
by most people's idea of a high school life, i guess i had it all, i led the kind of high school life that most would want. know a lot of people, active in school, leadership role, hang around with the popular guys, getting recognised for distinguished talent, having a whole lotta fun almost all the time, etc, etc. and even though my academics arent there to top it all, the fact is, i did make it to university, and a pretty decent one, which is the most important point of going to a JC.
after talking to ms. chia, the deputy principal, im appreciating what happened. at times i wondered how putting a lot into council or drama would help after leaving the college. it helped in the most unexpected way possible. i was surfing through georgia tech's web recently and found out that this coming batch is the one of the smartest batch tech will have in its 119 years of existance or something. and i read their average SAT score; 1337. GPA of 3.75. and i had like 1160 and screwed up A Levels grades, but because of my extracurriculars, i got in.
i am truly lucky. i didnt know that my CCA record will help in this way. i didnt really realize the full extend of this until i talked with ms. chia. since i am fortunate enough to be admitted to a pretty advanced school, i only owe it to myself to make it and succeed. i cannot let this slip by. this is the final hurdle.
i felt bad that i had to leave ms. chia so early, since she realized that i was meeting friends and i was keeping them waiting, which wasn't exactly true. i have to return and talk to her longer sometime very soon. she's someone of great experience and very wise words, it is just nice to listen to her psych you up.
well, i was watching hui, jessica, cynthia and dewi amongst others dance to number of songs, it seems they'll presenting 4 items for the dance concert. but i felt like i too wanted to move when i saw them do N.E.R.D.'s 'She Wants To Move.' i cant wait til i see the final piece.
went back pretty earlier than expected, since nothing was planned, i didnt expect that i would have hanging around with the girls any longer, so i went back, only to realize they were playing soccer at tulip gardens, but they stopped by the time i got there. talked again for a while, before heading back. i think the contact lenses are taking a toll on me, i sleep pretty well nowadays, maybe because the lenses really tire my eyes. works out for me.
intended to run today, but couldnt. when i woke up and stretched my legs, i suffered a calf muscle spasm. its definately not the first time, but i hate it whenever it happens. 20-30 seconds of agony. it feels like someone is trying to rip my legs off. and obviously, its painful just to take steps after that. so no point trying to run, it'll be just painful. i guess i gotta just wait till monday for the next run.
why am i running? lenny sang that to convey that sometimes we have no idea why we do certain things, but there's always a reason. day to day, i discover a new side to me that i never knew. i am not sure why i am running right now, but when everything fits into its place, i will know that whatever i have been doing, which i might have thought was a waste of time, will come into very good use. much like how the whole prefect/council thing came to work to get me into university.
i shall take a breather, go out with hazril and just look around for laptops. we'll end up talking anyway, but i hope i can disclose a lot of things thats bottled up inside me. its friday, i remember how it used to be for us back in secondary school. we'll always talk to eachother as we went to the mosque to pray and a solitary lunch before we got back to our maths group study. seems like it was so long ago. but the essense of what we used to do will never change, and its gonna be like that today too.
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
going about orchard
got to meet hazril and paulina yesterday, after a long long while. we all had lunch, kidding and poking fun at eachother, which was pretty fun. i just hope i didnt bore kim and her friend siyan while we three were in our own talk world.
catched harry potter later, i think its getting a lil too serious to be a child's story, well we all know its for all ages, but it was actually intended for kids and im wondering how the story would go on. i have not read the 3rd, 4th or the 5th book, and i dont intend to, but it sure seems like it has escalated themselves to a story that has to be taken seriously, much like lord of the rings, or star wars.
went around orchard later that, the girls getting a birthday present for their friend and us later going to wheelock place to check out the new apple store. since i was looking for laptops i thought i'd scout for the specifications. i wasnt too convinced to get an ibook or an apple, but after today, and with the very entertaining guy who was explaining all the features, im really tempted to get it. its a lil ex, but i think its so worth it, considering that you need is there when you get it, as compared to windows based laptop where you will need to go about customizing the settings and downloading other applications. everyone says it will screw up, but so long as i dont do too much with the settings, nothing should screw up. i mean, all i need is the engineering program. other than that, im intending to keep it as simple and not loaded with all sorts of crap. so long as i can do my work, listen to music and surf, there's nothing more i can ask. and for that, maybe the apple might be of a good choice. yeah lots of other programs might not be compatible with a mac system, but im not gonna be using tons of other add-ons and others anyway. maybe i need to convince my dad about this...
yep, and went down at tulip gardens after some time, met akshay n weifen, continued talking as usual.
im heading to SA today, to collect my A level cert and also to meet jessica and hui. n if there are other juniors there, then good. i hope mr. mannan and ms. chia is there. its a lil too last min to notify that im going to SA now, but im sure i'll go to SA again, for whatever when school reopens.
catched harry potter later, i think its getting a lil too serious to be a child's story, well we all know its for all ages, but it was actually intended for kids and im wondering how the story would go on. i have not read the 3rd, 4th or the 5th book, and i dont intend to, but it sure seems like it has escalated themselves to a story that has to be taken seriously, much like lord of the rings, or star wars.
went around orchard later that, the girls getting a birthday present for their friend and us later going to wheelock place to check out the new apple store. since i was looking for laptops i thought i'd scout for the specifications. i wasnt too convinced to get an ibook or an apple, but after today, and with the very entertaining guy who was explaining all the features, im really tempted to get it. its a lil ex, but i think its so worth it, considering that you need is there when you get it, as compared to windows based laptop where you will need to go about customizing the settings and downloading other applications. everyone says it will screw up, but so long as i dont do too much with the settings, nothing should screw up. i mean, all i need is the engineering program. other than that, im intending to keep it as simple and not loaded with all sorts of crap. so long as i can do my work, listen to music and surf, there's nothing more i can ask. and for that, maybe the apple might be of a good choice. yeah lots of other programs might not be compatible with a mac system, but im not gonna be using tons of other add-ons and others anyway. maybe i need to convince my dad about this...
yep, and went down at tulip gardens after some time, met akshay n weifen, continued talking as usual.
im heading to SA today, to collect my A level cert and also to meet jessica and hui. n if there are other juniors there, then good. i hope mr. mannan and ms. chia is there. its a lil too last min to notify that im going to SA now, but im sure i'll go to SA again, for whatever when school reopens.
football talk... and others
news snippets!
portugal wins 2-0 to russia, keeping the hosts' dreams alive and ending the russians' hopes for the knockout stages. greece works to a 1-1 draw with spain. greece just needs to draw against the russians to qualify. all eyes will be on 20th june when spain and portugal clashes, it could mean the end for one side. well, unless the russians shock the greeks with a win, which will leave them with 4 pts, and then portugal draws with spain to give them a better goal difference.
if the greeks lose by more than 2 goals and portugal wins against spain, my group A prediction will be realized. but heck.
liverpool appoints former valencia manager Rafael Benitez. its gonna be a very interesting season next year, with chelsea on overdrive with jose mourinho, man utd trying to reclaim the throne, liverpool reloading themselves and arsenal looking to maintain their run. newcastle wont fit into the top 4 battle, tt i am convinced.
and my italian love, fiorentina has shockingly won the first leg of the play offs that could get them back into the big time. 1-0 win at perugia gives them a v realistic chance of making it at their own turf come sunday. it's gonna be super interesting.
de pedro moves to blackburn. what the heck??
portugal wins 2-0 to russia, keeping the hosts' dreams alive and ending the russians' hopes for the knockout stages. greece works to a 1-1 draw with spain. greece just needs to draw against the russians to qualify. all eyes will be on 20th june when spain and portugal clashes, it could mean the end for one side. well, unless the russians shock the greeks with a win, which will leave them with 4 pts, and then portugal draws with spain to give them a better goal difference.
if the greeks lose by more than 2 goals and portugal wins against spain, my group A prediction will be realized. but heck.
liverpool appoints former valencia manager Rafael Benitez. its gonna be a very interesting season next year, with chelsea on overdrive with jose mourinho, man utd trying to reclaim the throne, liverpool reloading themselves and arsenal looking to maintain their run. newcastle wont fit into the top 4 battle, tt i am convinced.
and my italian love, fiorentina has shockingly won the first leg of the play offs that could get them back into the big time. 1-0 win at perugia gives them a v realistic chance of making it at their own turf come sunday. it's gonna be super interesting.
de pedro moves to blackburn. what the heck??
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
another great day
and my time in singapore gets better.
the body ache following monday's run continued on, together with my sore eyes from wearing contact lenses for almost the whole day, so i had a pleasant sleep, but that also meant i got tired early into the afternoon. i was meeting denise and others at 4:30, so i managed to get some rest before that, luckily.
denise and i talked about a whole lotta stuff, some of which fed me ideas for more serious blogging topics and such. i guess nothing much has changed while i was away. everyone getting on with the changes in their lifestyle and adjusting to the different circumstances. it was interesting to get alternate side to some of my comments and opinions about certain things, so it was really an engaging talk.
lem joined us afterwards. she's exactly the same. dont take offence, haha, but she took considerable interest in the 'boobs' i grew over my time in naperville.
those i met on saturday and on monday claimed i gained weight, or got bigger. denise and lem said i grew taller. i wonder what's the next comment. i dont believe ive changed so much that its noticeable in 4 months.
i didnt know that junwen came back to singapore early tuesday. well, i knew he was coming back sometime during the day, but it was a neat surprise for him to actually call me. so after dinner, i met him. there was a lot to catch up, but it seemed we talked only about a part of our lives; there was just too many things to say. nevertheless, it was great to see him again after so long.
i intended to catch the germany vs holland match. when i woke up at 2:30AM, i told myself it was probably not worth it, since i was gonna run in the morning, and coz i was also meeting hazril at 12, so i passed the game. it ended up being 1-1, so maybe it was a right decision.
so i ran again. my body still ached, but as i got about running, the pain slowly became familiarity, so it didnt matter. i went one better as comapred to monday. as usual, i completed the first lap non stop, this time slightly faster, by 10 seconds. as for the second round, i was wondering if i should just stop at two-thirds of the way or go finish the whole lap non-stop. maybe i would have been able to do it, but i decided to take it easy and stopped two-thirds of the way. think i ran about 4KM today. i just hope i dont become tired while with hazril. i guess i can try to do two complete laps on friday. its tiring and painful, but that's because i just started. by the end of second week or maybe the third, it should become a routine, so it wont feel so bad.
detroit pistons are leading the lakers right now. im glad that with this game, it clearly seems pistons will win the championships. im sick of laker's domination. i guess i wont get to see them win, i'll be out by then.
oh, clique members listen up. we will most probably have an outing on saturday. we'll have dinner somewhere around 6:30, maybe at orchard again, and although unconfirmed, will head to junwen's place to chill out. might be a stay over thing, that's undecided. i'm still discussing with winfrid. when things are concrete, we'll let you know. but its just a tentative plan for now.
and i'm looking forward to another great day. hazril, kimberly (not the SA one, this kim's hazril's girlfriend) and her friend. might meet paulina for lunch too.
its great to be back.
the body ache following monday's run continued on, together with my sore eyes from wearing contact lenses for almost the whole day, so i had a pleasant sleep, but that also meant i got tired early into the afternoon. i was meeting denise and others at 4:30, so i managed to get some rest before that, luckily.
denise and i talked about a whole lotta stuff, some of which fed me ideas for more serious blogging topics and such. i guess nothing much has changed while i was away. everyone getting on with the changes in their lifestyle and adjusting to the different circumstances. it was interesting to get alternate side to some of my comments and opinions about certain things, so it was really an engaging talk.
lem joined us afterwards. she's exactly the same. dont take offence, haha, but she took considerable interest in the 'boobs' i grew over my time in naperville.
those i met on saturday and on monday claimed i gained weight, or got bigger. denise and lem said i grew taller. i wonder what's the next comment. i dont believe ive changed so much that its noticeable in 4 months.
i didnt know that junwen came back to singapore early tuesday. well, i knew he was coming back sometime during the day, but it was a neat surprise for him to actually call me. so after dinner, i met him. there was a lot to catch up, but it seemed we talked only about a part of our lives; there was just too many things to say. nevertheless, it was great to see him again after so long.
i intended to catch the germany vs holland match. when i woke up at 2:30AM, i told myself it was probably not worth it, since i was gonna run in the morning, and coz i was also meeting hazril at 12, so i passed the game. it ended up being 1-1, so maybe it was a right decision.
so i ran again. my body still ached, but as i got about running, the pain slowly became familiarity, so it didnt matter. i went one better as comapred to monday. as usual, i completed the first lap non stop, this time slightly faster, by 10 seconds. as for the second round, i was wondering if i should just stop at two-thirds of the way or go finish the whole lap non-stop. maybe i would have been able to do it, but i decided to take it easy and stopped two-thirds of the way. think i ran about 4KM today. i just hope i dont become tired while with hazril. i guess i can try to do two complete laps on friday. its tiring and painful, but that's because i just started. by the end of second week or maybe the third, it should become a routine, so it wont feel so bad.
detroit pistons are leading the lakers right now. im glad that with this game, it clearly seems pistons will win the championships. im sick of laker's domination. i guess i wont get to see them win, i'll be out by then.
oh, clique members listen up. we will most probably have an outing on saturday. we'll have dinner somewhere around 6:30, maybe at orchard again, and although unconfirmed, will head to junwen's place to chill out. might be a stay over thing, that's undecided. i'm still discussing with winfrid. when things are concrete, we'll let you know. but its just a tentative plan for now.
and i'm looking forward to another great day. hazril, kimberly (not the SA one, this kim's hazril's girlfriend) and her friend. might meet paulina for lunch too.
its great to be back.
Monday, June 14, 2004
sudden increase in visits
i took a look at my netstat basic and realized that i had over 100 visits for yesterday. ive not really been blogging with much substance recently, but i find it surprising that there's suddenly an increase in the visits.
and it was a pleasant surprise to see some comments left on some of my entries. i didnt really expect it, but its nice to know that people are actually interested to read what normal people do.
its so hot, i gotta take a shower again.
and it was a pleasant surprise to see some comments left on some of my entries. i didnt really expect it, but its nice to know that people are actually interested to read what normal people do.
its so hot, i gotta take a shower again.
a case of good company
i was supposed to go to a family friend's place, but that got cancelled a lil too last minute. but then i guess it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. in the end, i spent the day with lorraine at her place first and then also met with jasper for a short while.
i guess its coz i couldnt get to really talk with friends for the 3.5 months that i spent in naperville that made me feel really good yesterday. plus the fact that lorraine is such an engaging talker, it just seemed perfect. i am never failed to be amazed by how much she has to say and how much vision she has for herself.
i could pretty much reveal a lot of her, which is unusual for me coz i dont really open up to that many people, unless i know them well. and its not like i know lorraine very well either, but its just her personality that makes you want to tell her things.
anyway, would just wanna thank you lorraine, for giving a great company after a long while yesterday.
junwen should be back today from taiwan, if my sources are right. that's another guy i can open up to. it should be pretty interesting when i meet up with him, we've got a lot to say which could not be conveyed properly over emails.
if its gonna be like monday everyday, then im gonna have a lot of fun.
so today should be mapped out, just need to contact more people, tomorrow's pretty much planned and so is thursday. i think i am expected to go for dinners at family friends' place over the weekend.
decided not to run today. i figured i do it every alternate days. i cant push too much on my body suddenly. i realized the effects last night when i was basically drained out.
sweden thrashed bulgaria 5-0. and its all coz of larsson. without him, sweden cant play. it was good of him to come back from national team retirement to give some boost in the swedish campaign. italy drew, which was unexpected, but denmark is a good team, so gotta give them some credit for holding on.
its germany vs holland tonight. i have to watch that one.
just a note, but i guess it wasnt really a shock for the greeks to have beaten the portuguese. yeah sure, since they were the hosts and this was the strongest team to be fielded in a long time, expectations were very high, but check this out. the greek league is on par with the french league, which means that the greek league is tied for 5th best league in europe. hard to believe? i was shocked when i found that out through championship manager, but their stats are accurate and precise. whats more shocking is that the dutch, portuguese and the turkish league are below french and greek leagues! but then again, its different considering this is the quality of their league, not national team. national team wise, holland and portugal are giants, well ahead of the greeks, but this is just to dispel over-reaction from the public.
i guess its coz i couldnt get to really talk with friends for the 3.5 months that i spent in naperville that made me feel really good yesterday. plus the fact that lorraine is such an engaging talker, it just seemed perfect. i am never failed to be amazed by how much she has to say and how much vision she has for herself.
i could pretty much reveal a lot of her, which is unusual for me coz i dont really open up to that many people, unless i know them well. and its not like i know lorraine very well either, but its just her personality that makes you want to tell her things.
anyway, would just wanna thank you lorraine, for giving a great company after a long while yesterday.
junwen should be back today from taiwan, if my sources are right. that's another guy i can open up to. it should be pretty interesting when i meet up with him, we've got a lot to say which could not be conveyed properly over emails.
if its gonna be like monday everyday, then im gonna have a lot of fun.
so today should be mapped out, just need to contact more people, tomorrow's pretty much planned and so is thursday. i think i am expected to go for dinners at family friends' place over the weekend.
decided not to run today. i figured i do it every alternate days. i cant push too much on my body suddenly. i realized the effects last night when i was basically drained out.
sweden thrashed bulgaria 5-0. and its all coz of larsson. without him, sweden cant play. it was good of him to come back from national team retirement to give some boost in the swedish campaign. italy drew, which was unexpected, but denmark is a good team, so gotta give them some credit for holding on.
its germany vs holland tonight. i have to watch that one.
just a note, but i guess it wasnt really a shock for the greeks to have beaten the portuguese. yeah sure, since they were the hosts and this was the strongest team to be fielded in a long time, expectations were very high, but check this out. the greek league is on par with the french league, which means that the greek league is tied for 5th best league in europe. hard to believe? i was shocked when i found that out through championship manager, but their stats are accurate and precise. whats more shocking is that the dutch, portuguese and the turkish league are below french and greek leagues! but then again, its different considering this is the quality of their league, not national team. national team wise, holland and portugal are giants, well ahead of the greeks, but this is just to dispel over-reaction from the public.
blah blah blah
okay, ive got a new number, im not gonna reveal it here, but i'll let u know personally. and try to sms me first before calling me, since its a pre-paid card, i'll have to be very very careful with how i go about using it.
anyway, it was unintended, but since i happened to go to kinokuniya anyway, i thought i might as well get a book that my cousin and uncle told me about. luckily they had it, its titled 'globalization and its discontent' by joseph stiglitz, who is a professor at columbia, who is also a nobel prize winner for economics in 2001. i hope it will be a good read.
and my my. what a match this morning. reminds me of the 1999 champions league finals. but this match was a very careful one, no one took chances until after the hour, but when it came, it came at a shock beyond imagination. i mean even i thought that was it, england will win, but zidane carefully slotted that equalizer. having drawn was shocking enough, but i dont think anyway expected that steven gerrard, of all players, would make that error of a poor backpass. and as eriksson said in the post match conference, 'when henry goes, he's gone, there's no one to stop him.' i guess david james had to take that risk, but hell, for france to get that kinda chance, it almost seemed absurb. but yeah, in the end, france won, with beckham having his own penalty blocked. just an amazing scenario, juz amazing.
there's germany vs holland in two nights and i wont be watching too much until spain vs portugal which i think is next week. its not helping me recover from jetlag.
i ran after a long long while today. as a result, my body's gone. ran non stop for 15 mins, which should be approx 2.5km+, i gotta check, i tried to run a second time, i had to let it go after 5 mins, i could not push too hard on the first try, it had to happen gradually. but not too bad, 3km in first day, i juz have to keep this up.
and i still do not have a plan of whats gonna happen today. damn it, my mom keeps saying we'll go to a friends place later, but if it goes on, its gonna be just a wasteful day.
anyway, it was unintended, but since i happened to go to kinokuniya anyway, i thought i might as well get a book that my cousin and uncle told me about. luckily they had it, its titled 'globalization and its discontent' by joseph stiglitz, who is a professor at columbia, who is also a nobel prize winner for economics in 2001. i hope it will be a good read.
and my my. what a match this morning. reminds me of the 1999 champions league finals. but this match was a very careful one, no one took chances until after the hour, but when it came, it came at a shock beyond imagination. i mean even i thought that was it, england will win, but zidane carefully slotted that equalizer. having drawn was shocking enough, but i dont think anyway expected that steven gerrard, of all players, would make that error of a poor backpass. and as eriksson said in the post match conference, 'when henry goes, he's gone, there's no one to stop him.' i guess david james had to take that risk, but hell, for france to get that kinda chance, it almost seemed absurb. but yeah, in the end, france won, with beckham having his own penalty blocked. just an amazing scenario, juz amazing.
there's germany vs holland in two nights and i wont be watching too much until spain vs portugal which i think is next week. its not helping me recover from jetlag.
i ran after a long long while today. as a result, my body's gone. ran non stop for 15 mins, which should be approx 2.5km+, i gotta check, i tried to run a second time, i had to let it go after 5 mins, i could not push too hard on the first try, it had to happen gradually. but not too bad, 3km in first day, i juz have to keep this up.
and i still do not have a plan of whats gonna happen today. damn it, my mom keeps saying we'll go to a friends place later, but if it goes on, its gonna be just a wasteful day.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
first proper day
so the first day was weird, as always. coz my body's functioning at chicago time and my mind is functioning at a completely different time.
i woke up at 4AM last morning. couldnt help it. i tried sleep, but realized i couldnt, so i started cleaning up my room. CDs are in order, table's clean and clothes are stacked in the right places. early breakfast and i was off to help my mom fill up the empty refrigerator by going to the market and getting tons of food.
somehow i couldnt contact a lot of people, either line not active, or no one picked up. only people who picked up were hazril and denise. what's happening to the rest of u?
anyway, had nice chat wit hazril after a long time, should be meeting him pretty often this week.
then i left for tiong bahru plaza, to watch troy, which my dad has been dying to see. n yes, it was excellent, its on the same par as gladiator, which i really like too. i didnt realize that one of the mission i played in the game 'empire earth' was actually a part of troy's storyline. when they got the trojan horse into the city of troy, i was like, wait, ive done this before....
somehow a lot of the great reenactment of hero stories gets the main character killed or permanently disadvantaged (neo in matrix, frodo in LOTR, maximus in gladiator, etc)
anyway, did more grocery shopping, and then i left for yio chu kang, to meet the council memebers after a long long time. got to see lionel, JQ, marcus, liang fu, lauren, kim, merr, rita, yen yen, jenn, ervin, perry, eugene and my man iskie. though i didnt stay for long, i had a pretty nice time wit them, should be seeing them pretty soon again.
went back home so that i could have dinner wit the family, which we havent got to do for so long.
portugal lost. i was shocked. no host nation has lost their first match until today since the group stages were introduced and portugal has never lost in the group stages since it was implemented either. now anything can happen. greece is indeed on a roll, they've proven that. ok so my predictions wont be true, most probably, spain will pip portugal, if they manage to win against spain and russia. i dont think so. i juz hope that portugal still qualifies and not get kicked off prematurely, coz tt would be just sad.
georgia tech is out of the NCAA tourney. they've lost two matches consecutively to neighbours univ. of georgia. sigh. we could have made it to the college world series.
two results that defied statistics. but that's how it is in sports. stats mean nothing.
i think my body should be in sync with the singapore time by tomorrow. i slept late, but woke up fine at 9, so if i rest properly today, i shouldnt be feelin fatigue tomorrow. well, that might not happen, since today's the big match, england vs france.
i woke up at 4AM last morning. couldnt help it. i tried sleep, but realized i couldnt, so i started cleaning up my room. CDs are in order, table's clean and clothes are stacked in the right places. early breakfast and i was off to help my mom fill up the empty refrigerator by going to the market and getting tons of food.
somehow i couldnt contact a lot of people, either line not active, or no one picked up. only people who picked up were hazril and denise. what's happening to the rest of u?
anyway, had nice chat wit hazril after a long time, should be meeting him pretty often this week.
then i left for tiong bahru plaza, to watch troy, which my dad has been dying to see. n yes, it was excellent, its on the same par as gladiator, which i really like too. i didnt realize that one of the mission i played in the game 'empire earth' was actually a part of troy's storyline. when they got the trojan horse into the city of troy, i was like, wait, ive done this before....
somehow a lot of the great reenactment of hero stories gets the main character killed or permanently disadvantaged (neo in matrix, frodo in LOTR, maximus in gladiator, etc)
anyway, did more grocery shopping, and then i left for yio chu kang, to meet the council memebers after a long long time. got to see lionel, JQ, marcus, liang fu, lauren, kim, merr, rita, yen yen, jenn, ervin, perry, eugene and my man iskie. though i didnt stay for long, i had a pretty nice time wit them, should be seeing them pretty soon again.
went back home so that i could have dinner wit the family, which we havent got to do for so long.
portugal lost. i was shocked. no host nation has lost their first match until today since the group stages were introduced and portugal has never lost in the group stages since it was implemented either. now anything can happen. greece is indeed on a roll, they've proven that. ok so my predictions wont be true, most probably, spain will pip portugal, if they manage to win against spain and russia. i dont think so. i juz hope that portugal still qualifies and not get kicked off prematurely, coz tt would be just sad.
georgia tech is out of the NCAA tourney. they've lost two matches consecutively to neighbours univ. of georgia. sigh. we could have made it to the college world series.
two results that defied statistics. but that's how it is in sports. stats mean nothing.
i think my body should be in sync with the singapore time by tomorrow. i slept late, but woke up fine at 9, so if i rest properly today, i shouldnt be feelin fatigue tomorrow. well, that might not happen, since today's the big match, england vs france.
Friday, June 11, 2004
im back
yes guys, im finally back. a long awaited visit, im gonna make the best out of it.
surprisingly, the long flight wasnt bad, in fact, i think it was the best long distance flight i ever had, and i guess that's due to the coffee that kept me up and the 10 movies tt i watched kept me going (and i think the picture of the sexy elisha cuthbert of the cover of the entertainment guidebook helped too), without feelin even a bit tired at all.
but i guess as a result, my mind and body was on hyperdrive. i slept so easily and after sleepin for 10 hours (which isnt sufficient) i feel much better. but i need more sleep, obviously.
so queens is always a interesting place for me to go. in both gd and bad ways. its so interesting to see how people get by with their lives, so content, so pure and so new yorky. but at the same time, it makes me want to make sure i do well in academics so that i will never have to worry about not having enough money. but i feel so proud to see my cousins grow well in a place like that and i hope that experience will eventually make then emerge as a complete person. somehow the contrast of rich poor lifestyle is so obvious in queens, it a bit depressing as well.
anyway, okay, since i woke up on the day of departure, i didnt sleep for 35.5 hrs, not even a wink. but it didnt matter, i specifically selected those movies tt will help me keep myself entertained, on top of 5 cups of coffees. and by specifically, i mean out of 60 movies they offered on demand. they were showin all of the 3 lord of the rings, but i would be mad to go through almost 10 hours, since there are enough parts in the movie to really get u tired, n i was having none of it. there were movies i really wanted to check out, like house of sang of fog and cold mountain among others, but i watched the simple comedy or the real action type. sad to say, out of the 10, only one was worth watching, which was the acclaimed german and european hit, goodbye, lenin! i seriously didnt expect so much sex and nudity in swimming pool, but it had an interesting scenario (i actually dont understand why it was a hit, maybe coz of the mainly sexual plot?) 50 first dates, starsky and hutch, along came polly, torque, girl next door were all the regular major releases without much plot, but all about famous casting, not really good, but it helped me catch up with some of the many movies ive missed while in naperville.
but all i can say is this, shiri appleby is still my favourite actress, elisha cuthbert is hot, and ludivine sagnier is pretty attractive too. ive seen all 3 actresses previously in other shows (appleby in roswell, time for dancing; cuthbert in 24; and sagnier in 8 women) so looking at them again was pleasant.
anyway, its sunny, humid and most of all, im back. i shall be spending quality time with my mates before i head off, which will feel like no time. but im just glad to be back.
for now, im heading back to sleep to catch up more with my body.
surprisingly, the long flight wasnt bad, in fact, i think it was the best long distance flight i ever had, and i guess that's due to the coffee that kept me up and the 10 movies tt i watched kept me going (and i think the picture of the sexy elisha cuthbert of the cover of the entertainment guidebook helped too), without feelin even a bit tired at all.
but i guess as a result, my mind and body was on hyperdrive. i slept so easily and after sleepin for 10 hours (which isnt sufficient) i feel much better. but i need more sleep, obviously.
so queens is always a interesting place for me to go. in both gd and bad ways. its so interesting to see how people get by with their lives, so content, so pure and so new yorky. but at the same time, it makes me want to make sure i do well in academics so that i will never have to worry about not having enough money. but i feel so proud to see my cousins grow well in a place like that and i hope that experience will eventually make then emerge as a complete person. somehow the contrast of rich poor lifestyle is so obvious in queens, it a bit depressing as well.
anyway, okay, since i woke up on the day of departure, i didnt sleep for 35.5 hrs, not even a wink. but it didnt matter, i specifically selected those movies tt will help me keep myself entertained, on top of 5 cups of coffees. and by specifically, i mean out of 60 movies they offered on demand. they were showin all of the 3 lord of the rings, but i would be mad to go through almost 10 hours, since there are enough parts in the movie to really get u tired, n i was having none of it. there were movies i really wanted to check out, like house of sang of fog and cold mountain among others, but i watched the simple comedy or the real action type. sad to say, out of the 10, only one was worth watching, which was the acclaimed german and european hit, goodbye, lenin! i seriously didnt expect so much sex and nudity in swimming pool, but it had an interesting scenario (i actually dont understand why it was a hit, maybe coz of the mainly sexual plot?) 50 first dates, starsky and hutch, along came polly, torque, girl next door were all the regular major releases without much plot, but all about famous casting, not really good, but it helped me catch up with some of the many movies ive missed while in naperville.
but all i can say is this, shiri appleby is still my favourite actress, elisha cuthbert is hot, and ludivine sagnier is pretty attractive too. ive seen all 3 actresses previously in other shows (appleby in roswell, time for dancing; cuthbert in 24; and sagnier in 8 women) so looking at them again was pleasant.
anyway, its sunny, humid and most of all, im back. i shall be spending quality time with my mates before i head off, which will feel like no time. but im just glad to be back.
for now, im heading back to sleep to catch up more with my body.
travel log
8th June 2004
1100 HRS (Central Time; GMT -0600) - Taxi Scheduled to arrive, but hasn't
1105 - Call to American Taxi
1110 - Taxi arrives
1115 - Departure from Naperville, IL
1200 - Reached Midway Airport, Cicero, IL (travel Time 45 mins; fee US$42; driver was Russian, kinda thought he was but was later confirmed when he asked 'Kash or Kredit Kard?')
1210 - Check in at Southwest Airlines, Flight 339
1215 - Security Check (I forgot we were Muslims and obviously, looked like one)
1230 - Lunch in Lounge area
1330 - Boarded plane
1415 - Take Off from Midway Airport, IL (20 minutes later than scheduled)
1715 HRS (Eastern Time; GMT -0500) - Touch Down at MacArthur Airport, Long Island, NY (travel time 2 approximately 2 hours)
1735 - Baggage Claim
1745 - Rendezvous with sedan
1750 - Departure from Long Island, NY
1905 - Arrived at uncle's place in Woodhaven, Queens, NY (travel time 1 hr 15 mins; fee US$140; driver was Arab, exchanged a kind assalamualaikum from him with walaikumassalam)
2000 - Dinner
2100 - Took a short walk in Queens, NY
9th June 2004
0030 - Went to sleep
1030 - Woke up
1120 - Breakfast (1st cup of coffee)
1200 - Another round of going around in Queens, NY
1400 - Start watching 'Cheaper by the Dozen' with cousins at their place.
1500 - Lunch
1820 - Dinner
1900 - Departure from Woodhaven, Queens, NY
1925 - Reached JFK International Terminal 4 (travel time 25 mins; uncle drove)
1945 - Check in at Singapore Airlines Flight SQ25
1950 - Baggages checked
2050 - Security Check (surprised its not as stringent as compared to earlier flight)
2125 - Boarded plane at Gate A2
2215 - Take off from JFK Int., NY (45 mins later than scheduled)
2235 - Movie marathon starts
50 First Dates (2nd Coffee)
Starsky and Hutch
Dirty Dancing Havana Nights
Girl Next Door (Elisha Cuthbert is just H-O-T)(3rd Coffee)
10th June 2004
1055 HRS Frankfurt Time (GMT +0100) - Touch down at Frankfurt International, Germany (travel time 6 hrs and 40 mins)
1225 - Re-board plane from Gate B45
1315 - Take off from Frankfurt Int., Germany
1345 - Movie marathon resumes
Torque (too unrealistic)
Along Came Polly (4th Coffee)
Swimfan (and Shiri Appleby still remains my favourite actress)
Football Days (Spanish)
Swimming Pool (French/English) (didnt expect so much nudity in a flight movie)
Goodbye, Lenin! (German) (5th Coffee) (Excellent, just excellent. Stregthens my love for European films)
11th June 2004
0610 HRS Singapore Time (GMT +0800) - Touch down at Changi International Airport, Singapore (travel time approximately 11 hrs)
0630 - Baggage Claim
0700 - Departure from Changi Int. Airport
0725 - Reached Tulip Gardens, Singapore (travel time 25 mins)
0955 - Went to sleep for the first time in 35.5 hrs.
1955 - Woke up (after 10 hours)
2015 - Starts Blogging
2035 - Blog entry done
1100 HRS (Central Time; GMT -0600) - Taxi Scheduled to arrive, but hasn't
1105 - Call to American Taxi
1110 - Taxi arrives
1115 - Departure from Naperville, IL
1200 - Reached Midway Airport, Cicero, IL (travel Time 45 mins; fee US$42; driver was Russian, kinda thought he was but was later confirmed when he asked 'Kash or Kredit Kard?')
1210 - Check in at Southwest Airlines, Flight 339
1215 - Security Check (I forgot we were Muslims and obviously, looked like one)
1230 - Lunch in Lounge area
1330 - Boarded plane
1415 - Take Off from Midway Airport, IL (20 minutes later than scheduled)
1715 HRS (Eastern Time; GMT -0500) - Touch Down at MacArthur Airport, Long Island, NY (travel time 2 approximately 2 hours)
1735 - Baggage Claim
1745 - Rendezvous with sedan
1750 - Departure from Long Island, NY
1905 - Arrived at uncle's place in Woodhaven, Queens, NY (travel time 1 hr 15 mins; fee US$140; driver was Arab, exchanged a kind assalamualaikum from him with walaikumassalam)
2000 - Dinner
2100 - Took a short walk in Queens, NY
9th June 2004
0030 - Went to sleep
1030 - Woke up
1120 - Breakfast (1st cup of coffee)
1200 - Another round of going around in Queens, NY
1400 - Start watching 'Cheaper by the Dozen' with cousins at their place.
1500 - Lunch
1820 - Dinner
1900 - Departure from Woodhaven, Queens, NY
1925 - Reached JFK International Terminal 4 (travel time 25 mins; uncle drove)
1945 - Check in at Singapore Airlines Flight SQ25
1950 - Baggages checked
2050 - Security Check (surprised its not as stringent as compared to earlier flight)
2125 - Boarded plane at Gate A2
2215 - Take off from JFK Int., NY (45 mins later than scheduled)
2235 - Movie marathon starts
50 First Dates (2nd Coffee)
Starsky and Hutch
Dirty Dancing Havana Nights
Girl Next Door (Elisha Cuthbert is just H-O-T)(3rd Coffee)
10th June 2004
1055 HRS Frankfurt Time (GMT +0100) - Touch down at Frankfurt International, Germany (travel time 6 hrs and 40 mins)
1225 - Re-board plane from Gate B45
1315 - Take off from Frankfurt Int., Germany
1345 - Movie marathon resumes
Torque (too unrealistic)
Along Came Polly (4th Coffee)
Swimfan (and Shiri Appleby still remains my favourite actress)
Football Days (Spanish)
Swimming Pool (French/English) (didnt expect so much nudity in a flight movie)
Goodbye, Lenin! (German) (5th Coffee) (Excellent, just excellent. Stregthens my love for European films)
11th June 2004
0610 HRS Singapore Time (GMT +0800) - Touch down at Changi International Airport, Singapore (travel time approximately 11 hrs)
0630 - Baggage Claim
0700 - Departure from Changi Int. Airport
0725 - Reached Tulip Gardens, Singapore (travel time 25 mins)
0955 - Went to sleep for the first time in 35.5 hrs.
1955 - Woke up (after 10 hours)
2015 - Starts Blogging
2035 - Blog entry done
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
departure
last entry from naperville, IL. well, until the next time i come here, that is.
i think ive pretty much everything ready. i know when i get on the flight, i'll go 'oh crap, i should have brought that along.' im trying to think of what i could possibly leave behind, but usually its minor. ive got the most important of all things with me, or so i think.
so im gonna leave for NY now. will stay there for the night, and will get on a flight during the night tomorrow.
i'll stop by frankfurt for transit, i have no idea for how long, but i should reach singapore by early morning on friday.
see you guys then. well, give me couple of days. i'll need to go on a sleep marathon, due to severe lack of sleep from the whole trip (i just cant sleep in planes) and of course, the jetlag. so dont expect to hear from me til like sunday or monday.
so yea, see you guys then.
i think ive pretty much everything ready. i know when i get on the flight, i'll go 'oh crap, i should have brought that along.' im trying to think of what i could possibly leave behind, but usually its minor. ive got the most important of all things with me, or so i think.
so im gonna leave for NY now. will stay there for the night, and will get on a flight during the night tomorrow.
i'll stop by frankfurt for transit, i have no idea for how long, but i should reach singapore by early morning on friday.
see you guys then. well, give me couple of days. i'll need to go on a sleep marathon, due to severe lack of sleep from the whole trip (i just cant sleep in planes) and of course, the jetlag. so dont expect to hear from me til like sunday or monday.
so yea, see you guys then.
Monday, June 07, 2004
Under The Bridge
Sometimes I feel
Like I don't have a partner
Sometimes I feel
Like my only friend
Is the city I live in
The city of angels
Lonely as I am
Together we cry
I drive on her streets
'Cause she's my companion
I walk through her hills
'Cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
I never worry
Now that is a lie
I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
It's hard to believe
That there's nobody out there
It's hard to believe
That I'm all alone
At least I have her love
The city she loves me
Lonely as I am
Together we cry
I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
Take me to the place I love
Take me all that way
Under the bridge downtown
Is where I drew some blood
Under the bridge downtown
I could not get enough
Under the bridge downtown
Forgot about my love
Under the bridge downtown
I gave my life away
Like I don't have a partner
Sometimes I feel
Like my only friend
Is the city I live in
The city of angels
Lonely as I am
Together we cry
I drive on her streets
'Cause she's my companion
I walk through her hills
'Cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
I never worry
Now that is a lie
I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
Take me to the place I love
Take me all the way
It's hard to believe
That there's nobody out there
It's hard to believe
That I'm all alone
At least I have her love
The city she loves me
Lonely as I am
Together we cry
I don't ever want to feel
Like I did that day
Take me to the place I love
Take me all that way
Under the bridge downtown
Is where I drew some blood
Under the bridge downtown
I could not get enough
Under the bridge downtown
Forgot about my love
Under the bridge downtown
I gave my life away
celebrity blog?
you all must have heard, or read about a blog (here) by a certain individual named 'rance.' according to him, he's 'an A-list celebrity' and basically blogs about what he's doing.
everyone seems to be speculating who rance might be. according to other sites, its most probably ben affleck or owen wilson, jim carrey or even george clooney?
i think its all a hoax. its so easy to mislead readers that way. you know by stating it that way there are going to be tons of readers. if i had my way, i could start off a blog pretending to be an A-list footballer anytime.
its a very well thought of plan, especially if you have a service that pays for getting a lot of visits. its like a reality gone to internet scheme.
i mean with the schedule celebrities have, do you think they'll actually bother to blog every now and then? if its like once every month or maybe 2 weeks, maybe. on top of that, how many celebrities are there who can 'write' properly? its very unlikely, isnt it?
everyone seems to be speculating who rance might be. according to other sites, its most probably ben affleck or owen wilson, jim carrey or even george clooney?
i think its all a hoax. its so easy to mislead readers that way. you know by stating it that way there are going to be tons of readers. if i had my way, i could start off a blog pretending to be an A-list footballer anytime.
its a very well thought of plan, especially if you have a service that pays for getting a lot of visits. its like a reality gone to internet scheme.
i mean with the schedule celebrities have, do you think they'll actually bother to blog every now and then? if its like once every month or maybe 2 weeks, maybe. on top of that, how many celebrities are there who can 'write' properly? its very unlikely, isnt it?
Sunday, June 06, 2004
j.lo marries... again...
so all of u would know by now, jennifer lopez, only 5 months after breaking up with ben affleck, has married marc anthony, who juz got divorced last week.
heh. why am i not bothered or surprised? it could be another britney marriage, it could b another dennis rodman or it could be another chris judd.
celebrity marriages... heh.
ive got nothing to say. not that i wanna say anything anyway.
and i mean, its j.lo. what else do i need to say?
heh. why am i not bothered or surprised? it could be another britney marriage, it could b another dennis rodman or it could be another chris judd.
celebrity marriages... heh.
ive got nothing to say. not that i wanna say anything anyway.
and i mean, its j.lo. what else do i need to say?
yellow jackets baseball update
and so georgia tech beats texas tech 5-3 to advance to their second super regionals in the past 3 years. next round is a best of 3 against state rivals georgia. mmm, its gonna be good. if its best of 3, i think its pretty gd match up. however, im worried about the college world series, if everything goes the way its supposed to go, tech might face stanford after the super regionals...
nah, worry bt gettin past georgia first.
nah, worry bt gettin past georgia first.
farewell to reagan
former united states president ronald reegan passed away today. i was quite surprised at how quick it happened, since i read about him not feeling too well or something in the morning, just before i went out. and then when i came back, there, he was gone. he has been suffering from alzheimer's for a long time, but the two events happened so quickly.
i have no sentimental feelings towards him of course, he wasnt in my time, or should i say i wasnt there during his time. i would have had to notice him when i was 4 or 5. in fact, he was appointed president before i was born. but i have read a great deal about him, he's frankly one of the better ones among the presidents, well, how can you not say that after the whole watergate scandal that took place before his term.
but then here's to him, who changed the country for the good.
i have no sentimental feelings towards him of course, he wasnt in my time, or should i say i wasnt there during his time. i would have had to notice him when i was 4 or 5. in fact, he was appointed president before i was born. but i have read a great deal about him, he's frankly one of the better ones among the presidents, well, how can you not say that after the whole watergate scandal that took place before his term.
but then here's to him, who changed the country for the good.
etcetra
garage sales are interesting at times. you get to see what some families are trying to sell off, and you get great deals and such cheap prices. one place was selling bunch of cups for only a dollar. since we were in shortage of cups (the ones we had seemed to break oh so easily) i think we got ourselves 10 or 12 cups for just a dollar. and i found two novels, which were selling for 25 cents per book. obviously i got them. a pity i didnt get one by james patterson earlier on. now i have a robin cook thriller to read during the flight.
and i think i bought a CD after a long long time. i cant recall the last time i bought a CD? probably the last one was a chill out compilation that was on clear out sale, which happened to be a pretty good buy. the store, Best Buy, gives you 100 points for every dollar we spend, and every 12500 pts, we get a 5 dollars voucher. since we bought a lot of electrical good since we moved in, like the computer, TV and such, we racked up quite a bit of points to earn ourselves 135 bucks of vouchers. mom used bit of that for an iron, but the rest i got to spend it since the expiration date passes while we're away in singapore. since i wont be able to download music from P2P softwares once i get into tech, i thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get compilations or greatest hits. im v choosy of the CDs i buy now, since most albums only include at most 5 really gd ones. so obviously i resorted ot greatest hits. but i had such a hard time choosing which ones to get. in the end, i picked up greatest hits for enigma, sheryl crow, red hot chilli peppers, a tribe called quest. i also got coldplay's sophomore album as well as lauryn hill's unplugged. im not sure if lauryn's one was a gd buy, but its one of the best live acoustic albums out there, so im gonna give it a chance. i was pretty impressed when i saw the same one on MTV, so it should b ok. besides, i should be able to return it if i dont like it. only after i left i realized that i had forgotten to get tori amos' greatest hits. but hey, technically, i got those CDs for free. so no biggie. those CDs will keep me busy while i have free time in tech, im gonna be listening to CDs like never before.
tech baseball.. so they're through to the regional finals for atlanta by beating jacksonville state on friday and then texas tech today. texas tech won mississippi state so we'll face them again for the atlanta regionals tomorrow. NCAA baseball is funny. i think u can emerge as the national champions even if u were to lose 2 or three times. its a funny system i got to know only in the ACC championships. okay, so NCAA regionals, there are four teams, seeded, of course. first match between no.1 seed and no.4 seed and the other match between no.2 and no.3. even if u lose the first match, you will play the loser of the other match, and the winner of one match plays the winner of the other match. so the two losers play, to play against the loser between the winners match. and then the winner of that match plays against the winner of the winners match. and if the final match happens to be a no.1 seed who hasnt lost until the last match and loses, that team gets another shot at winning. so everyone is allowed one mistake, to cut it short. confused? lemme give you example of the atlanta regionals.
in the atlanta regionals, the seeds are no.1 georgia tech, no.2 texas tech, no.3 mississippi state and no.4 jacksonville state. first match are between no.1 and no.4, so georgia tech vs jacksonville st and no.2 vs no.3 so texas tech vs mississippi state. both techs win, so they play against eachother, whereas the two states lose, so they play against eachother. now, georgia tech wins texas tech, so they proceed to the regional finals. the two losers play, and mississippi state wins. so now the loser of the winners match, which is texas tech, plays the winner of the losers match, which is mississippi state to play against georgia tech in the finals. texas tech wins against mississippi state, so texas tech will play georgia tech for the finals tomorrrow. now, georgia tech is the no.1 seed in this regionals, so if they are to lose against texas tech tomorrow (god forbid) then georgia tech gets another shot at winning the regionals because they are no.1 seed and were unbeaten so far. so that means texas tech will have to beat georgia tech twice in the same day if they are to win the regionals.
so there's good and bad about being the no.1 seed. there's not much pressure since u can lose, but u get another try, but once you lose, your morale goes down and its psychological disadvantage coz the opponents will be on a high and they might b likely to continue that to win the second match. lets just hope that doesnt happen, coz that happened for the ACC championship for georgia tech.
im not sure if thats for just the regionals or it actually continues that way for the second round of regionals, which is called the super regionals too. coz i remember some commetator saying that rice univ., last year's champions, lost 4 matches, but they still ended up being the champions.
i dont like the format, obviously. a real champion should be the one which doesnt lose. but then again, in a game like baseball, it could really go either way. not like soccer, where in cups, you rarely get a second chance. group stages of the world cup or european championships does allow you to lose, but then it makes progressing harder because you will be meeting stronger teams for the knockout round. but i dont think we've seen any team progress after losing twice or something.
its good in a sense that you are allowed something to fall back on, but this system strongly favours the teams that play well pretty consistently. its like giving stronger teams a second chance should something happen. thats not the case for NFL or NBA, even NCAA basketball for that matter.
i think playing by series, though it may take more time, is the best answer to the problem. i think even soccer should be two legged match for every round. south american football works like that and i think its a very good measure to see whether a team wins by luck, or really deserve to progress to the next round.
anyway....
im pretty much done with packing. not much things to bring to singapore, but a lot of things will nned to be brought on my return trip here, since i hav no idea whens the next time i'll go to singapore. i think i'll be too caught up with things in the university. marc called me last night and it seems even he wont get to go to singapore for another 2 or 3 years. once i return from this, i dont think i'll be back for 2 or 3 years too. but you never know. i just hope it wont be another 10 years until i make the next visit or something.
k its quite late now, and my eyes are burning. i better go get myself some sleep. if i can get plenty, that is.
and i think i bought a CD after a long long time. i cant recall the last time i bought a CD? probably the last one was a chill out compilation that was on clear out sale, which happened to be a pretty good buy. the store, Best Buy, gives you 100 points for every dollar we spend, and every 12500 pts, we get a 5 dollars voucher. since we bought a lot of electrical good since we moved in, like the computer, TV and such, we racked up quite a bit of points to earn ourselves 135 bucks of vouchers. mom used bit of that for an iron, but the rest i got to spend it since the expiration date passes while we're away in singapore. since i wont be able to download music from P2P softwares once i get into tech, i thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get compilations or greatest hits. im v choosy of the CDs i buy now, since most albums only include at most 5 really gd ones. so obviously i resorted ot greatest hits. but i had such a hard time choosing which ones to get. in the end, i picked up greatest hits for enigma, sheryl crow, red hot chilli peppers, a tribe called quest. i also got coldplay's sophomore album as well as lauryn hill's unplugged. im not sure if lauryn's one was a gd buy, but its one of the best live acoustic albums out there, so im gonna give it a chance. i was pretty impressed when i saw the same one on MTV, so it should b ok. besides, i should be able to return it if i dont like it. only after i left i realized that i had forgotten to get tori amos' greatest hits. but hey, technically, i got those CDs for free. so no biggie. those CDs will keep me busy while i have free time in tech, im gonna be listening to CDs like never before.
tech baseball.. so they're through to the regional finals for atlanta by beating jacksonville state on friday and then texas tech today. texas tech won mississippi state so we'll face them again for the atlanta regionals tomorrow. NCAA baseball is funny. i think u can emerge as the national champions even if u were to lose 2 or three times. its a funny system i got to know only in the ACC championships. okay, so NCAA regionals, there are four teams, seeded, of course. first match between no.1 seed and no.4 seed and the other match between no.2 and no.3. even if u lose the first match, you will play the loser of the other match, and the winner of one match plays the winner of the other match. so the two losers play, to play against the loser between the winners match. and then the winner of that match plays against the winner of the winners match. and if the final match happens to be a no.1 seed who hasnt lost until the last match and loses, that team gets another shot at winning. so everyone is allowed one mistake, to cut it short. confused? lemme give you example of the atlanta regionals.
in the atlanta regionals, the seeds are no.1 georgia tech, no.2 texas tech, no.3 mississippi state and no.4 jacksonville state. first match are between no.1 and no.4, so georgia tech vs jacksonville st and no.2 vs no.3 so texas tech vs mississippi state. both techs win, so they play against eachother, whereas the two states lose, so they play against eachother. now, georgia tech wins texas tech, so they proceed to the regional finals. the two losers play, and mississippi state wins. so now the loser of the winners match, which is texas tech, plays the winner of the losers match, which is mississippi state to play against georgia tech in the finals. texas tech wins against mississippi state, so texas tech will play georgia tech for the finals tomorrrow. now, georgia tech is the no.1 seed in this regionals, so if they are to lose against texas tech tomorrow (god forbid) then georgia tech gets another shot at winning the regionals because they are no.1 seed and were unbeaten so far. so that means texas tech will have to beat georgia tech twice in the same day if they are to win the regionals.
so there's good and bad about being the no.1 seed. there's not much pressure since u can lose, but u get another try, but once you lose, your morale goes down and its psychological disadvantage coz the opponents will be on a high and they might b likely to continue that to win the second match. lets just hope that doesnt happen, coz that happened for the ACC championship for georgia tech.
im not sure if thats for just the regionals or it actually continues that way for the second round of regionals, which is called the super regionals too. coz i remember some commetator saying that rice univ., last year's champions, lost 4 matches, but they still ended up being the champions.
i dont like the format, obviously. a real champion should be the one which doesnt lose. but then again, in a game like baseball, it could really go either way. not like soccer, where in cups, you rarely get a second chance. group stages of the world cup or european championships does allow you to lose, but then it makes progressing harder because you will be meeting stronger teams for the knockout round. but i dont think we've seen any team progress after losing twice or something.
its good in a sense that you are allowed something to fall back on, but this system strongly favours the teams that play well pretty consistently. its like giving stronger teams a second chance should something happen. thats not the case for NFL or NBA, even NCAA basketball for that matter.
i think playing by series, though it may take more time, is the best answer to the problem. i think even soccer should be two legged match for every round. south american football works like that and i think its a very good measure to see whether a team wins by luck, or really deserve to progress to the next round.
anyway....
im pretty much done with packing. not much things to bring to singapore, but a lot of things will nned to be brought on my return trip here, since i hav no idea whens the next time i'll go to singapore. i think i'll be too caught up with things in the university. marc called me last night and it seems even he wont get to go to singapore for another 2 or 3 years. once i return from this, i dont think i'll be back for 2 or 3 years too. but you never know. i just hope it wont be another 10 years until i make the next visit or something.
k its quite late now, and my eyes are burning. i better go get myself some sleep. if i can get plenty, that is.
Friday, June 04, 2004
football dominance
have i mentioned i like to just read datas and statistics about soccer?
there's this game, called championship manager, arguably the best soccer simulation game available, and not only does it give you a chance to take charge of a team, but it includes history of competitions and such. i can spend hours looking at who won what, which team used to be great, etc etc. there's not much other than history of winners, runners-up and sometimes third placed teams, but when you go online, obviously you can find tons more.
i can look at these things for hours. there's no use, of course, but to mentally build up these database in my head is somewhat fun. it also gives me a chance to explore a new dimention of history in soccer. like for example, i know that there was a team in italy called pro vercelli who was a dominant force in the early days of italian league, but now are now playing in obscrity in the serie C2. or find out that aside from the 1966 world cup success, england has won nothing else on international stage. why? initially the english football association seemed to oppose the creation of an international football governing board. due to continuous disagreement, england didnt participate in the first few world cups nor other international competitions, resulting in their rather traditionally very poor performance in the world cup, primarily because they never supported the idea of having a world cup, or so i've found out. i can go on and on about useless facts that no ones needs to know, but it shows how much i love the game.
so, one trend i noticed, is that throughout the course of history, there's always a team in a domestic league that is dominating. as in, whether they win or not, there's always a certain team in contention for the title. most obviously, and pretty recently, manchester united and arsenal can be classified in that category. manchester united has dominated the english scene over the past decade. its funny to think that until alex ferguson came and won his first championship with them, they were in a stage of decline, being overshadowed by the likes of liverpool, everton, arsenal and leeds united. man utd were dominant forces in the '60s, well not quite, but they were powerhouses. for the record, since the english league began in 1889, liverpool have won the most at 18 titles, followed by man utd with 15, arsenal with 13 and everton at 9. (newcastle have won 4, but they were all in the early 20th century.)
and, i think between 1972 and 1982, 9 out of 10 champions league titles went to english teams. those were the days.
lets switch to other leagues. spanish primera liga. this is needless to say, dominated by the galacticos of real madrid. they have won 29 titles since the league inaugurated in 1929. barcelona follows with 16 and athletico madrid with 9. a big difference between the top 3. italy? since 1898, juventus has won 27 titles, followed by AC Milan with 16, city rivals Inter Milans won 13. Genoa follows after that, but current powerhouses AS Roma has won 3, with their neighbours Lazio, 2. Germany? since 1903, bayern munich has won 17, borussia monchengladbach won 5 times, werder bremen 3, borussia dortmund 3, VfB stuttgard 2, kaiserslautern 2.
some other major leagues. greek has been ruled by 3 teams, olympiakos with 32, panathinaikos with 18 and aek athens with 11. dutch football, needless to say, ajaz with 28, psv eindhoven with 16 and feyenoord with 14. portuguese football, has been won by only 5 teams, 3 dominant, the other 2 has won it only once. benfica leads the pack with 30, porto with 19 and sporting lisbon with 18. turkish football has also been clearly dominated, galatasaray with 15, fenerbehce with 14 besiktas with 10 and trabzonspor with 6.
south american football, argentina, river plate won 31 and boca juniors 19. mexico, seems america (mex) has won 13.
and the most dominated league in the world is scottish football. wanna know why? since it started in 1891, rangers has won a whopping 50 times, which is a guiness world record. celtic follows it up with 37. of 113 years, these two teams have won 87 years between them. thats almost 80% of the leagues titles won.
there are some leagues which arent dominated, but shared fairly well among couple of teams.
French football started on 1933, with St. Etienne winning 10, olympique marseille and nantes 8, as monaco 7, bordeaux 5.
brazilian football, which i think provides the most equal competition, has been won most by flamengo, but only 5 times! but then again, the official brazilian national football league started only on 1971, which is pretty recent. prior to this, they participated in regional leagues, the two biggest one are rio de janeiro state and sao paolo state. RJ state has been won 29 times by fluminense and SP by corinthians, 25 times.
okay, i probably hav wasted quite a bit of u readers time, but this is wat i mean. i derive pleasure in knowing and finding out these records, coz it improves my understanding of the leagues and teams.
like s-league, its always SAFFC or Home. japan, antlers or jubilo. US, LA or DC. Argentina, Boca or River, Scottish Ranger or Celtic. england, its either man utd, arsenal, liverpool or chelsea. german, usually bayern, spanish, real, barca, valencia and maybe deportivo. italian? juve, ac, inter, roma, lazio. there's always these few teams that are in clear contention.
the only useful knowledge i can claim is this. i seem to notice a change in the dominance cycle every 10 years. well, for english football. i havent observed or noticed obvious cycles in other leagues yet.
talking of most recent examples, it was liverpool and everton during the '70s and '80s, then it was man utd. i think with the appointment of jose mourinho to chelsea, they might be the next dominant force in the coming decade.
even when u go to international stage, brazil seems to dominate throughout, but there r traditional powerhouses, france bein the recent one, holland used to be, then italy, etc etc.
i hav no idea why im posting all these data, but i just wanted to blog about it. but as with everything, statistics dont speak for themselves, because there's always anomalies and surprises, which is what makes soccer the most popular sport in the world, and also the nickname, the beautiful game.
there's this game, called championship manager, arguably the best soccer simulation game available, and not only does it give you a chance to take charge of a team, but it includes history of competitions and such. i can spend hours looking at who won what, which team used to be great, etc etc. there's not much other than history of winners, runners-up and sometimes third placed teams, but when you go online, obviously you can find tons more.
i can look at these things for hours. there's no use, of course, but to mentally build up these database in my head is somewhat fun. it also gives me a chance to explore a new dimention of history in soccer. like for example, i know that there was a team in italy called pro vercelli who was a dominant force in the early days of italian league, but now are now playing in obscrity in the serie C2. or find out that aside from the 1966 world cup success, england has won nothing else on international stage. why? initially the english football association seemed to oppose the creation of an international football governing board. due to continuous disagreement, england didnt participate in the first few world cups nor other international competitions, resulting in their rather traditionally very poor performance in the world cup, primarily because they never supported the idea of having a world cup, or so i've found out. i can go on and on about useless facts that no ones needs to know, but it shows how much i love the game.
so, one trend i noticed, is that throughout the course of history, there's always a team in a domestic league that is dominating. as in, whether they win or not, there's always a certain team in contention for the title. most obviously, and pretty recently, manchester united and arsenal can be classified in that category. manchester united has dominated the english scene over the past decade. its funny to think that until alex ferguson came and won his first championship with them, they were in a stage of decline, being overshadowed by the likes of liverpool, everton, arsenal and leeds united. man utd were dominant forces in the '60s, well not quite, but they were powerhouses. for the record, since the english league began in 1889, liverpool have won the most at 18 titles, followed by man utd with 15, arsenal with 13 and everton at 9. (newcastle have won 4, but they were all in the early 20th century.)
and, i think between 1972 and 1982, 9 out of 10 champions league titles went to english teams. those were the days.
lets switch to other leagues. spanish primera liga. this is needless to say, dominated by the galacticos of real madrid. they have won 29 titles since the league inaugurated in 1929. barcelona follows with 16 and athletico madrid with 9. a big difference between the top 3. italy? since 1898, juventus has won 27 titles, followed by AC Milan with 16, city rivals Inter Milans won 13. Genoa follows after that, but current powerhouses AS Roma has won 3, with their neighbours Lazio, 2. Germany? since 1903, bayern munich has won 17, borussia monchengladbach won 5 times, werder bremen 3, borussia dortmund 3, VfB stuttgard 2, kaiserslautern 2.
some other major leagues. greek has been ruled by 3 teams, olympiakos with 32, panathinaikos with 18 and aek athens with 11. dutch football, needless to say, ajaz with 28, psv eindhoven with 16 and feyenoord with 14. portuguese football, has been won by only 5 teams, 3 dominant, the other 2 has won it only once. benfica leads the pack with 30, porto with 19 and sporting lisbon with 18. turkish football has also been clearly dominated, galatasaray with 15, fenerbehce with 14 besiktas with 10 and trabzonspor with 6.
south american football, argentina, river plate won 31 and boca juniors 19. mexico, seems america (mex) has won 13.
and the most dominated league in the world is scottish football. wanna know why? since it started in 1891, rangers has won a whopping 50 times, which is a guiness world record. celtic follows it up with 37. of 113 years, these two teams have won 87 years between them. thats almost 80% of the leagues titles won.
there are some leagues which arent dominated, but shared fairly well among couple of teams.
French football started on 1933, with St. Etienne winning 10, olympique marseille and nantes 8, as monaco 7, bordeaux 5.
brazilian football, which i think provides the most equal competition, has been won most by flamengo, but only 5 times! but then again, the official brazilian national football league started only on 1971, which is pretty recent. prior to this, they participated in regional leagues, the two biggest one are rio de janeiro state and sao paolo state. RJ state has been won 29 times by fluminense and SP by corinthians, 25 times.
okay, i probably hav wasted quite a bit of u readers time, but this is wat i mean. i derive pleasure in knowing and finding out these records, coz it improves my understanding of the leagues and teams.
like s-league, its always SAFFC or Home. japan, antlers or jubilo. US, LA or DC. Argentina, Boca or River, Scottish Ranger or Celtic. england, its either man utd, arsenal, liverpool or chelsea. german, usually bayern, spanish, real, barca, valencia and maybe deportivo. italian? juve, ac, inter, roma, lazio. there's always these few teams that are in clear contention.
the only useful knowledge i can claim is this. i seem to notice a change in the dominance cycle every 10 years. well, for english football. i havent observed or noticed obvious cycles in other leagues yet.
talking of most recent examples, it was liverpool and everton during the '70s and '80s, then it was man utd. i think with the appointment of jose mourinho to chelsea, they might be the next dominant force in the coming decade.
even when u go to international stage, brazil seems to dominate throughout, but there r traditional powerhouses, france bein the recent one, holland used to be, then italy, etc etc.
i hav no idea why im posting all these data, but i just wanted to blog about it. but as with everything, statistics dont speak for themselves, because there's always anomalies and surprises, which is what makes soccer the most popular sport in the world, and also the nickname, the beautiful game.
random visits
i must say i was surprised to see that right after i posted the previous entry, which was about me talking about whether religion used fear to bind followers to continue believing in it, i had two unique visitors who left messages on my tag board.
i think its blogger's partnership with google. i think our blogs are so easy to locate, or be one of the results of a search with the simplest of the right keywords. its scary in a sense, i have no idea who might be reading it.
then i went to my netstat basic page. to find i had visits from someone who was in the Texas A&M University -Commerce, Cornell University among other universities. not to mention so many other US networks.
so now this blog is easy to track, be listed, blah blah blah. it was helpful when a certain person named 'dave' left some references for me so that i can read up on the issue, but kinda worried when someone who left the name as 'be' left a link to another blog, which seems to be a site that compares the quran and the bible. i have yet to read in detail, but what scared me was that the person seemed to know us? i say this because that person left the exact same message on my brother's blog too. i dont think i've mentioned specifically who my brother or what my brother's name was, so it would be or should i say should be difficult for a random visitor to find out which one of the links i have on this page was my brother's, unless the person knew my surname, of course. that can be obtained from this page, but why would anyone wanna search for it and post the exact same message?
i wish the person could have left what he/she implied by leaving the message. if you're seeing this, please let me know. im open to opinions, just to let you know.
i think its blogger's partnership with google. i think our blogs are so easy to locate, or be one of the results of a search with the simplest of the right keywords. its scary in a sense, i have no idea who might be reading it.
then i went to my netstat basic page. to find i had visits from someone who was in the Texas A&M University -Commerce, Cornell University among other universities. not to mention so many other US networks.
so now this blog is easy to track, be listed, blah blah blah. it was helpful when a certain person named 'dave' left some references for me so that i can read up on the issue, but kinda worried when someone who left the name as 'be' left a link to another blog, which seems to be a site that compares the quran and the bible. i have yet to read in detail, but what scared me was that the person seemed to know us? i say this because that person left the exact same message on my brother's blog too. i dont think i've mentioned specifically who my brother or what my brother's name was, so it would be or should i say should be difficult for a random visitor to find out which one of the links i have on this page was my brother's, unless the person knew my surname, of course. that can be obtained from this page, but why would anyone wanna search for it and post the exact same message?
i wish the person could have left what he/she implied by leaving the message. if you're seeing this, please let me know. im open to opinions, just to let you know.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
accidental discovery
i was so bored, i decided to look for anything that has my name, walid in it.
first result, www.walid.com a site im not entirely sure what it does, but tries to convey the message that the internet users around the world are not all english speakers and such. i found it ironic, since im a person who speaks multiple languages and here it is, a site, with my name, providing multilingual domain names for convenience.
a man by the name of walid badir scored for israel to give them a 1-0 victory against georgia. if i recall correctly, it must be the same walid badir that played for wimbledon or something couple of years back.
but the real discovery came in the unlikely testimony of a palestinian who wrote a testimony about his conversion from being a muslim to christian. very interesting. i was engrossed in it. and more surprised to find out so many other testimony from other people. if interested (i recommend you guys to check it out, even if you are a muslim or not, its certainly an eye opening read), check it out here.
now i dont feel so bad about having this idea that i have about religion, not just islam, but everything else. i might gather the courage to blog about it sooner or later, but one very important view that i had was confirmed in that article, that religion uses fear to bind believers to their respective religions. in my earlier entry about 'material wealth', i mentioned that 'the mind is a very powerful tool that can make you believe in things that arent true.' well, this kinda touches into that.
by using fear, its so easy to manipulate human. but im not gonna go too much into that for now. its quite late and im feeling very sleepy.
first result, www.walid.com a site im not entirely sure what it does, but tries to convey the message that the internet users around the world are not all english speakers and such. i found it ironic, since im a person who speaks multiple languages and here it is, a site, with my name, providing multilingual domain names for convenience.
a man by the name of walid badir scored for israel to give them a 1-0 victory against georgia. if i recall correctly, it must be the same walid badir that played for wimbledon or something couple of years back.
but the real discovery came in the unlikely testimony of a palestinian who wrote a testimony about his conversion from being a muslim to christian. very interesting. i was engrossed in it. and more surprised to find out so many other testimony from other people. if interested (i recommend you guys to check it out, even if you are a muslim or not, its certainly an eye opening read), check it out here.
now i dont feel so bad about having this idea that i have about religion, not just islam, but everything else. i might gather the courage to blog about it sooner or later, but one very important view that i had was confirmed in that article, that religion uses fear to bind believers to their respective religions. in my earlier entry about 'material wealth', i mentioned that 'the mind is a very powerful tool that can make you believe in things that arent true.' well, this kinda touches into that.
by using fear, its so easy to manipulate human. but im not gonna go too much into that for now. its quite late and im feeling very sleepy.
more pictures
ive finally finished converting all the pictures i took to small jpeg files. well, not exactly, some go to 100k to 200k so its not that small. but think about converting 160 pictures one by one. it took a lot of time, but im glad its finally done.
and here are some of those that i think stand out from the rest.
The Sears Tower
I think its a theatre by the lakeside at Navy Pier, didnt get to confirm whether it was.
Beautiful Chicago metro skyline.
Another one, when it became a little darker going into the evening.
A building as we were driving by.
and here are some of those that i think stand out from the rest.
The Sears Tower
I think its a theatre by the lakeside at Navy Pier, didnt get to confirm whether it was.
Beautiful Chicago metro skyline.
Another one, when it became a little darker going into the evening.
A building as we were driving by.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
'america'
i was watching the match between boston red sox and baltimore orioles and they kinda had a pre-match clip, combining some baseball action with the whole memorial day theme. and they used that song by santana feat. P.O.D., 'America' and i thought it was an excellent decision to play that song. it matched the memorial day theme and santana's electric guitar cry tied in well for the baseball bit.
now that song is stuck in my head.
now that song is stuck in my head.
countdown
woke up to a blaring siren, only to realize it was the first of the month, a scheduled routine. sleep was disturbed, i know i couldnt get back to it, since i have such a problem falling asleep.
anyway, it is 1st june today. 8 more days til the flight that takes me halfway across the earth. 20+hrs of travelling. i gotta start packing, make final confirmation on arrangements, make sure nothing is left undone.
i just hope that the recent thunderstorms wil not hamper any of our plans. for that, i need to call SIA, see what can be done should that happen.
SIA flies from SG to NY everyday. that's an awful lot of flights for such a distance. but it works out for me. i'll be stepping into europe for the first time. pity it isnt england.
its sunny and warm after a long time. i wonder how im gonna cope wit the temperature after getting used to living in 16 degrees celcius condition for such a long time.
anyway, it is 1st june today. 8 more days til the flight that takes me halfway across the earth. 20+hrs of travelling. i gotta start packing, make final confirmation on arrangements, make sure nothing is left undone.
i just hope that the recent thunderstorms wil not hamper any of our plans. for that, i need to call SIA, see what can be done should that happen.
SIA flies from SG to NY everyday. that's an awful lot of flights for such a distance. but it works out for me. i'll be stepping into europe for the first time. pity it isnt england.
its sunny and warm after a long time. i wonder how im gonna cope wit the temperature after getting used to living in 16 degrees celcius condition for such a long time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)