Bethune Cookman 46 GT 73

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Bethune Cookman Wildcats 46 (4-7)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 73 (6-4)

Tottenham 2 Newcastle 0

Final Score from White Hart Lane:
English Premier League
Tottenham 2
Teemu Tainio (43)
Ahmed Mido (66)

Newcastle United 0

GT 10 Utah 38

Final Score from SBC Park in San Francisco, CA:
NCAA Football Division I
Emerald Bowl
No.24 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 10 (7-5, ACC 5-3)
Utah Utes 37 (7-5, MWC 4-4)

GT 46 Air Force 54

Final Score from Colorado Springs World Arena in Colorado Springs, CO:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 46 (5-4)
Air Force Falcons 54 (11-1)

Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0

Final Score from Anfield:
English Premier League
Liverpool 2
Steven Gerrard (14)
Shay Given (43, O.G.)

Newcastle United 0

Jacksonville 67 GT 92

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Jacksonville Dolphins 67 (1-7)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 92 (5-3)

Finally!

Well, well, I'm finally here. I calculated the time it took from door to door, and it came out to be around 37 hours - and I only managed to sleep for a max of 1 hour in between. But whatever it is, I'm here in one piece and glad to be here.

I guess my sleep deprivation continued its work, I went to sleep at 4:30am, but snapped out of it around 12, so I'm trying not to sleep at all during the day and just sleep at night. Who knows, I might be able to combat the jetlag well, it hasn't really sunk in yet.

Denise left her and Koustav's number, so I called them up, and Koustav was so delighted to hear my voice, boy, was I glad to talk to him too! I went out with Lorraine and Samantha for lunch, just easing up to the weather. It was cold by Singapore's standards, but a little too warm for mine, but I guess I'll get used to it.

I'll write up by travel log soon, just not yet. Oh, and an update on my grades for the semester - yeah, I got 2.35. I definitely burnt out. But thank goodness, I don't have to repeat any classes, so I'm just gonna take it and deal with it. My overall is still above 3.0 and is on course for at least an honors, so I just gotta make sure everything's fine from now on. I'm now classified a Junior (third year level), so I should have access to quite a lot of classes from now on. Whatever. I'm here to take a big break and just forget about academics for a while.

I'm just glad I'm here!

Leaving for Singapore

Phew... It's been a long, hard semester. I really need a break. I think, that the reason why I think I did so bad this semester is probably due to burn out. Just thinking about it, I haven't really had a break since I started my life at Georgia Tech. While most people had a good summer break, I was working full time, and I didn't really have time to rest in between the transition, after I ended my first work semester, it was housing staff training straight away and then the semester. The grades are scheduled to be out later today, and I'm not looking forward to it, coz I know I did badly. There's nothing I can do but to sit down and take it. I managed to do the exams, but I'm not sure how it'll turn out. I just hope I didn't fail any classes. If there's anything, then it's that I've definitely learnt my lesson, and from now on, I'll make sure I won't make this mistake ever again.

My laptop met a freak accident while studying at the library. My friend, who was studying with me, tripped on the power cables, and that snapped the pin that connects into my PowerBook. The pin seems to be stuck in the PowerBook, and I can't take it out. I went to the Apple store, but they don't do repairs, so they redirected me to another place, but since I don't have a car, I guess I'll get the repair done in Singapore. So basically my PowerBook's out of power. That sucked.

I'm really looking forward to the trip, though it's going to be for less than 2 weeks. Great news is that Leisha, who studies in Emory, is probably going to be in the same flight all the way from Chicago to Singapore! I'm flying American Airlines, so I wasn't expecting any personal entertainment system, so I was dreading the long flight. I bought couple of good books to occupy myself, since I can't sleep, but heck, if Leisha's gonna be around, at least there's gonna be some company. What's better, her boyfriend, Greg, is coming to Singapore a week later, and probably will be on the same flight when I'm heading back to Atlanta, so there's another company.

I'll be touching down on the 22nd, slightly past midnight. Since I won't have a local number, for the time being, please contact me at -deleted-, leaving me your name, a number where you can be reached, and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I get a temporary SIM card.

I'll try to put up my travel log once again, look forward to that.

Okay, see you guys!

West Ham 2 Newcastle 4

Final Score from Upton Park:
English Premier League
West Ham United 2
Nolberto Solano (20, O.G.)
Marlon Harewood (73, pen)

Newcastle United 4
Michael Owen (5, 43, 90)
Alan Shearer (66)

Injustice

I've not felt such injustice for a long time...

Probably should not blog about it, until finals are over, as I still have two more major papers I need to take, and am in a serious need of sleep as well.

But I went into my probability exam very confident of landing an A, only to find out that the final exam was nothing I've imagined it to be, very abstract, the open notes policy didn't help. And to think that some people were allowed to skip the final based on a high average by just having an upper hand in being able to obtain the test material from a website - well, that's a story I'll have to tell next time I get to blog. I would have thought that I was probably one of the few people in the class who actually knew what was going on in the class and whatnot, and to be shafted while the guys who probably don't have equal understanding of the material as I do get away with an A and me getting a B... well, that's just making me mad. What's more, there's practically no ground for argument against this, as no rules were broken. Sometimes, you just gotta sit there and take the unfairness.

My MSE results are out.. I made a 87, which means I got a B, and I should be happy, but not getting an A in probability renders it pointless.

Unless, somehow, a miracle takes place, of course, which I'll find out when the final grades are out on monday, but I highly doubt that there will be any chance of that happening.

Tennessee St 72 GT 82

Final Score from Alexandar Memorial Stadium in Atlanta, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Tennessee State Tigers 72 (1-2)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 82 (4-3)

Newcastle 1 Arsenal 0

Final Score from St. James' Park:
English Premier League
Newcastle United 1
Nolberto Solano (82)

Arsenal 0

My World Cup 2006 Predictions - for now

So... the World Cup 2006 groupings are finally out. I was so excited I could hardly pay attention to my Material Science review class while I
started at my laptop.

I'm sure things will change in 6 months time, but here's my initial predictions... The reason why I'm reserving my confidence is because there's always a bogey team or two that makes it to the semi-finals, and go on to clinch third place. But let's see for now, since the groups are fairly easy to predict this time around. Brazil, France, Spain and Mexico have it pretty easy, whereas I really pity USA, not only did they get paired in the group of death, but against Italy, the team that they trailed by one point in order to be seeded. I still haven't made up my mind about who to support this year, still torn between USA, England and Japan. It seems pretty clear that USA has almost no chance of progressing, whereas Japan might just manage to. Since I'm stayting in America, I might as well support USA from now on.

Anyway, here it goes, in order, of course.

Group A
Germany
Poland

Group B
England
Sweden

Group C
Holland
Argentina

Group D
Mexico
Portugal

Group E
Czech Republic
Italy

Group F
Brazil
Japan

Group G
France
South Korea

Group H
Ukraine
Spain

Round of 16
Germany vs Sweden - Germany
Holland vs Portugal - Holland
Poland vs England - England
Mexico vs Argentina - Argentina
Czech Republic vs Japan - Czech Republic
France vs Spain - France
Brazil vs Italy - Brazil
Ukraine vs South Korea - Ukraine

Quarter Finals
Germany vs Holland - Holland
Czech Republic vs France - Czech Republic
England vs Argentina - Argentina
Brazil vs Ukraine - Ukraine

Semi Finals
Holland vs Czech Republic - Holland
Brazil vs Argentina - Brazil

Third Place
Czech Republic vs Argentina - Argentina

Finals
Brazil vs Holland - Brazil.

Yep. So it looks like Brazil will win yet another title again, with a close contest against Holland. But then hey, it's never predictable with soccer, especially in the World Cup, and that's what's going to make it really interesting.

What do you guys think?

Breaking the Silence

It seems its safe to mention this, so I'm gonna say it, in case you didn't know of this. The main reason that I'm going to Singapore this
winter is due to the fact that my dad has gotten a transfer to another branch which is located in Phoenix, in Arizona. What role do I play in this? Helping him pack our stuff in our home in Singapore so that we can move out of our place by the end of December and ship them to where he will be living in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The whole move makes sense, considering I'm in Atlanta, both my mom and my brother are in Chicago, and now, my dad will be located in Phoenix.
Instead of a 24 hour flight to go to Singapore, it'll now be a 4 hour flight, which is still a long time, but heck, compare that to 24 hours, I think anyone will take the 4 hour flight.

So yes, the reason I'm going to Singapore isn't to be back 'home' and meet friends I've not seen for a long time, etc. It's more like this is the 'real' good bye, since the two times I've left Singapore for America wasn't a real departure.

What does this actually mean? In the short run, that I won't really get to go out and meet friends and go out and all that good stuff, though I'll try to meet as many people as I possible can, but the priority goes to helping my dad move out, since he'll be working during the day. In the long run, I can't really predict when the next time I'll be in Singapore. If I were to give any sort of an estimate, then at least not
until I graduate from Georgia Tech (which is May 2008) - a good 2.5 years, which isn't a long time. I had harboured some plans to travel to Japan, Singapore and Bangladesh after I graduate and before I start full time work, but as I mentioned few posts earlier, I'm thinking of volunteering to teach or something in a third world country. There's very few entry level jobs that will get me straight to Singapore, and most likely, I'll be employed somewhere in Atlanta or the south. There's
a high possibility that I'll move to Asia - mainly because I can speak Japanese - and hey, I can go on predicting and planning, but it's of no use, I just have to go with the flow of how my life turns out. I might be going to graduate school, I might just end up moving within America, and all my aspirations to travel around the world may not materialize.

It's a really weird thing to be saying that I may never go somewhere for a while. I previously thought I'll go back to Japan, but that has not happened since I left that place at age 8. I wanted to visit Bangladesh pretty bad, since there still are lot of relatives that I've not seen
for ages, but that didn't happen either. And now this, and I'm wondering if this'll be the same case again. Of course, I can always take a holiday, but who knows, I may have other things coming up that I might have to deal with that prevents me from taking such a long trip - even then, what guarantee is there that even the very friends that I want to meet are going to be in Singapore then? They may also be travelling around the world, having family, immersed completely in their work life,
etc, etc, so there's no point dreaming about a completely perfect trip for reunion.

Yeah, the realization is sinking in. Things will really never be the same again. The past is something we'll always cherish, and for now, I've been in a really nostalgic mood where I am thinking about my time in Singapore. How can I not? It's the place where I spent the formative years of my current being and I definitely have to attribute a lot of things to that.

I've done my bit of reflection, but for now, I really need to get back to studying for my final exams, which I just can't wait to get over with, even with horrible grades. So long as I don't make a D, I'll be okay. It's gotten to an extent that I'm just willing to take a C and deal with it, since this has been a hard semester. I'll make it up with the other semester.

GT 75 UGA 91

Final Score from Athens, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 75 (3-3)
Georgia Bulldogs 91 (6-1)

Let's go

Alright, here comes the final week before final exams begin. Somehow, I'm back in the contention to potentially score a 3.0. I should be taking this opportunity to study like mad and not let it slip. But somehow, I just can't get to studying. I've more or less done Calculus III and will work solely on MSE and CS for this week and the weekend, so hopefully that will come out right. My biggest enemies will be Calculus III and CS, and that comes as my last two papers, coincidentally.

I'm just tired. I just want to get it done and over with. If they were to give me a C for all of MSE, Calculus III and CS, I'd probably take it. I just don't want to get a D in anything, coz then I'll have to
retake it to pass it and that'll be a bitch. I have a bad feeling about CS, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. Oh please please, just a 3.0 and I will never make this mistake ever again. Basically the summer semester will be spent undoing the damage that this semester inflicts on my overall grade. That's, of course, if I get a 3.0. If I don't... well, I don't even want to think about it.

Georgia Tech's playing in the Emerald Bowl. What the heck? I expect them to play in a much better bowl. Somehow, N.C. State and Virginia, whose
records are worse than GT's, are playing in a better bowl with better money. We're playing Utah, and even though they went unbeaten last year, they're quite the different team this year with 6-5, and it looks pretty clear that we'll beat them. What I'm just amazed is that we've beaten last season's unbeaten Auburn in the opening game and shocked then 3rd ranked Miami, you'd think we'll be going to play in a good bowl. On top of the team travelling to California, we're only getting paid $750k. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Oh well, I guess we'd rather take a 8-4 year and continue our bowl winning streak.

Virginia 54 GT 63

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Stadium in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Men's Basketball

Virginia Cavaliers 54 (3-2)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 63 (3-2)

College Football Rankings - Week 15

AP: 24th (No change)
Coaches: 24th (No change)
Harris (Final): 24th (No change)
BCS (Final): 24th (No change)

Newcastle 1 Aston Villa 1

Final Score from St. James' Park:

English Premier League

Newcastle United 1 

Alan Shearer (32, pen)

Aston Villa 1

Gavin McCann (75)