Thursday, August 30, 2007

The unfairness continues. Last week, it was late night after late night, while a certain someone could stay at home all day for a few days, and still apparently doing absolutely no good. Yes, it's not like my eyesight is anywhere average - it's awful -, and I'm sure it just got a hell lot worse.

Then over the last two days, what I thought would be progress made has turned out to be time wasted. I guess, it happens in life. It's hard to take. I do not blame all but one. Ok, another one. And another one. No more. It's just frustrating. And it's proving to be an acid test for my temper. Yes, I get frustrated often watching football, but the frustration ends right on the night itself. This is different, and is perhaps why I am borrowing more books on Murphy's Laws.

Yes, I know it is busy. It's easy to underestimate, especially when your mathematics ain't too good. Yes, I know, 2 wrongs don't make a right, and delaying everyone else would just result in more negative externalities. So, I understand. That's why I am not angry with them. But still, there is a need to correct the wrong, one way or another, other than saying sorry. Saying you are sorry and not doing anything else, is also similar to saying 'no offence' and then hurtling expletive after expletive.
And just to remind ourselves of a simple fact of human survival - we CAN survive without food for half a day. (Shocking isn't it). In fact, we can survive without food for a dozen half-days. Or maybe even more. Whatever.

Yes, the burden is getting increasingly heavy over time, but still, there is no need to spread the weight around. It deserves to be where all of it is. It is a tough, tough world.

I really should get a hold of myself. After all,
Ahab died trying to kill Moby Dick, didn't he?

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Ok, feeling much better now after spending some time on the phone. Thanks.=)
Btw, Arsenal won 1-0 against Man City and 3-0 against Sparta Prague. Still the most memorable event of the week was Sevilla defender Puerta's death after spending 3 days in hospital since his collapse during a football match. It is indeed saddening, and really, I have gotten extremely frustrated recently but such a story has really softened my heart. The lad is 22 years old, just won the UEFA Cup, is almost about to break into the spanish national team, and has a girlfriend who is pregnant for 7 months, and then..........the unfortunate happened. It is indeed a sad story and after reflecting through it, it truly makes me appreciate the things I have going for me. Yes, this is a far from perfect world, and this is a far from fair world with people having immense hatred towards people, with people around who don't lack morals, including me. But, to know that footballers all around have been paying tributes, dedicating goals to him, and even Real Betis (who are bitter rivals of Sevilla) fans paying their respects, is touching. It really shows how silly the footballing world sometimes is, what with Chelsea willing to pay 85 million for Ronaldinho who wouldn't even fit into their defensive strategy, Manchester allowing Heinze to join any club except Liverpool, with teams playing at the Emirates Stadium try to do nothing except kick Arsenal players and break their passing game, and worse of all, the spending sprees of the WAGs (wives and girlfriends). Football really encompasses. And it is these touching stories, another one being how Drogba (as much as I hate him for being such a darn good Chelsea player) managed to stop civil war in his country, the Ivory Coast, which truly inspire me most, even more than seeing Liverpool comeback against Milan in 2005. And then there is Iraq winning the Asia cup, which I am sure would go a long way into helping them improve their state of affairs.

Now I still don't know where I should go on what would be a busy tomorrow, which will probably end up in a similar way to Beckham's transatlantic travels from California to London and back in 4 days, except it isn't 4 days. Tomorrow is less than one....

Friday, August 24, 2007

Realised that I haven't blogged for *quite some time. This can be attributed to the increasing workload that I have, reading Harry Potter (I am lagging big time), and of course, soccer.

This week is pretty much one to forget; almost the entire of my nights was spent on PW, one way or another, after monday. Monday itself, was spent filling in the YDSP form, which meant it was already pretty late when I wanted to start on production and costs. Obviously, I was no longer in any mood to study anymore, so I just read a bit of the journal (non-academic so it doesn't make you want to sleep) and then went to bed. Indeed, the test wasn't too tough actually, but sigh, lack of study, and so I'll probably fail, which is not progress, which is not good. Still, it's about prioritising and although I know it's not good to say that the test doesn't "count", some things are just more important.

But anyway, practicals were a horror this week. CH was one of the craziest. The sampling and titration was horrible, in terms of time constraint and ultra-quick pipetting and titrating. And plotting a curve. And giving comments on anomaly. And doing the Skill D part. All in just an hour. Madness.
PH wasn't any better. Drawing the lines and performing calculations are extremely tiring on the eye. So I couldn't bother to pay attention to Relativity after that. Pity. The teacher was not bad. (Relative to...)

And Wed was the last guitar prac. before promos. Turned out to be more of a bonding/chatting session. Which was nice. Some suggestions regarding the design of a sweater were also simply amusing.

Thur, was the day of salvation indeed. I had expected to be home by 7 due to CIP and olympiad, but somewhat miraculously BOTH were canceled, and although I wouldn't mind doing CIP, it gave me the extra time needed to work on WR. I.e. to compensate (Don't ask for what)
So I done my part pretty quickly this time round, by like 7PM (compared to 2AM for draft 1). And, I didn't need to compile anything, thanks to Jin Kai, who assumed that role. Again, I wouldn't mind doing it, but yeah it was good to see willingness and initiative being taken. It really reduced the burden on me a whole lot. And yes, there was more editing to be done the next day, but at least we all did it together. Yes, my definition of 'all'.

I mentioned how eagerly I was anticipating the new season, and yes, it has been 3 weeks into the season, and there have been all sorts of surprises. The most surprising of which, have been the contrasting fortunes of the 2 clubs in Manchester.
United, champions and the bookmakers' favorites before the season started, only have 2pts from 3 games, which I must say, is relegation form. =p. What's even worse (or better for me) is that Rooney and Ronaldo are not going to be playing a few more matches. Ah, it's their turn to experience the horrible start Arsenal made last season. Still, if you know me, the team I hate the most is Chelsea, and sad to say, they have seriously ridden their luck through their matches. Where Liverpool should really have beaten them, Rob Styles gives them a penalty out of nothing and gives Essien two yellows without sending him off. Like, 1+1=2? How difficult is that. Yes, I feel for the Liverpool fans. Still, what's funnier is the reaction from the managers. Mourinho said he "couldn't get a good view of the incident". Well, contrast this to when Garcia scored that invisible goal years ago that knocked them out of the champions league, and you get a perfect example of "selective eyesight".

Still, Arsenal themselves have been playing so well, and if not for a certain Jens Lehmann, we would have had maximum points. No wonder I'm glad that he is apparently declared injured for 2 weeks. And so is Gallas, which would allow Gilberto to wear the captain's armband, which I feel he fully deserves.

Out of all this, it is Manchester CIty (i.e. Thaksin's club) who are topping the table. And this weekend is a face-off between North London and Manchester, with Arsenal v Man City and United v Spurs. Which makes things interesting. Would Man U fans prefer Arsenal to win or Man City to win, and vice versa. Whatever man, just as long as Arsenal win, which they should since Lehmann is not playing.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

The break is going along just fine. Nat Day celebrations was pretty ok, with the video and laser show and all. Oh, and BB somehow managed to rack enough points on the day to finish level on points with BW and 'retain' the IHC. Haha, albeit sharing half of it la, but hey, in many sports the defending champions win outright in the event of a tie. Oh wells, so much for IHC la.

Got started on reading Harry Potter once I was back home, but realised I forgot too much, so I'm re-reading book 5. Book 6 is still relatively fresh, so just book 5. Haha. Yes, I am very lag. But then again, I read Lord of the rings years before it was well-known, like in primary two? Certainly hard to believe.

Anyway wed had dinner with 2/4 pple at Bugis. Supposed to eat hotpot but coudln't find the place, so we ended up at some random steamboat place, which totally ripped us off. And the food wasn't too good either. But heck, it's the people, and not the food, who matter. And with me being unable to attend previous few outings it was great to see everyone again, and have some laughter as well. 'Sole surviving' sec 2 class. Aha.
Other than that it's been reading, studying, watching TV, and most importantly, sleeping. Ordinary Differential Equations are really killing me, integrating factors.......zz.


So, just found out that Arsenal v Fulham is on Sunday, along with United and Chelsea's matches. Starhub better show it or I'd be fuming along with the rest of the Arsenal fans in Singapore. So that makes the much-anticipated Aug 11 being pretty boring, unless Tottenham or Liverpool slip up, which I'm pretty sure they won't.
More news on Arsenal.
Today's Sportscenter on ESPN featured them and about their predictions for the season.
-Arsenal would not win anything.
Reeves: Fact. Maesfield: Fact. =( Harsh but true.
-Fabregas would be player of the season
Reeves: Fact Maesfield: Fiction.
Such a stupid qn, van Persie would beat Fabregas to anything, really.

And lastly, just got news that Gallas has been made captain, and not Gilberto or Toure, which totally baffles me. Some scum from Chelsea joins for one year and keeps criticising the youngsters and gets to be captain? And not forgetting that he himself isn't a good defender at all. Ah, the questions start springing up already.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

New skin on the way...will be using my sis's help, haha.
Had planned it in line for the start of the new season of the premier league, but I totally forgot about it, so I guess it'll be pretty much delayed. Oh wells.

The weeks are getting better. I am really, finding the subjects pretty ok now. Yes I mean I suck at them, but I do find what I'm studying useful and interesting, and I am hopeful that I will improve in time, t, haha. Most important though is that nothing I'm facing now is like art or chinese in secondary school. Haha, this week I found out that Yong Jin had similar problems with me in sec 1 and 2 regarding art. Something we were never ever meant to be good at. Ever.

So there isn't much happening during this week. Next week will be a short one and I will be working hard, very hard whenever I'm at home (and I guess I won't be for the most part of it). I am just hating my absentmindedness, I mean there was the pencil box, I totally forgot about making a new skin, and also I forgot to bring my PE shirt on Wednesday meaning I couldn't play tennis. Argh, it is frustrating, and if anything, it is a sign of further carelessness to come which will irritate me even more. Yeah, and I don't know how to fight it. It is like some invisible enemy that I'm facing, and I don't have it's number. Sigh.

Today was scholarship day at school. And yes, there were loads of freebies. Loads. Haha, I feel so stupid buying that mechanical pencil a few weeks ago. Even more so compounded by this chapter in the undercover economist, aha. Of course the talks were useful and stuff, and yes, I do worry about my future a lot. I'm sure my parents do too, only more. Come to think of it, I really would love the opportunity to go to a non-English speaking country like France or Germany, with the scholarships so generous now that you will get a year to study the language which counts to the bond period. I reiterate, UK is ideal of course, but in this world ideals are really things most of us can only approach. Sigh, I really am indecisive. Many people have their sights set on being an engineer of teacher, etc. I won't detest being either, but that's the crux of the problem. Well, there's still time. To think. Really hard.

Man, this entry sounds like an application of wave motion, if you can get what it means. So anyway, onto another crest. Earlier this evening got news that the debaters won the MIDCs against AC in the final. Haha, I'm sure all of them have made so many sacrifices to put in time to prep. hard and this is certainly their deserved reward. Well I suppose that's true to a certain extent. The results don't matter, it's the process, many say. But hey, you got to see it that way yourself to appreciate it, if not, you would find it as scant consolation. And if that is so, then that phrase is irrelevant, and there's nothing wrong with feeling that way. Absolutely nothing.

In a week's time, I would either be in huge agony now at a million and one missed contenders for miss of the season, or, I would be in ecstasy that Arsenal are still in title contention, the phrase I use to console myself nowadays. My hopes for the season : just don't, DON'T finish below our rotten rivals Tottenham. Or they would invent something like St. Arse day. (Just so you know, to avid fans like me, St. Totteringham's day is the day where Spurs will never be able to overtake Arsenal in the league table, =p) Now that would be so humiliating.

Back to the not-so-far-ahead future, and for tomorrow's community shield I really do hope to see Nani and Anderson (too bad no Tevez) play exceptionally well and score goals. Why? The curse of the community shield. For the last 3 years of the community shield, Reyes, Drogba, and Shevchenko respectively have scored fine goals. And yes, for each of those 3 coming seasons, they have been (as I love saying) rubbish.

Arsenal's pre-season has just been going smooth. 2 wins at the Emirates Cup, with a lovely goal from van Persie's left foot. And in Amsterdam we've already won 2-1 against Lazio, with new signing Eduardo da Silva scoring a fine debut goal for the club.

Anyway, I've always said that I wanted to be a football commentator, and my oh my, have I been given a great boost CHECK THIS OUT, it's absolutely comical.
Rosicky's corner and he delivers a lovely ball in, and Eduardo has perfect contact with it and heads in it brilliantly. Now for the funny part. The immediate image after the goal was scored was of Lazio defender Zauri, putting his hands on this head in disappointment (which believe me, all defenders do when their team leaks). This fooled the commentator into thinking he scored an own goal, and what he says is just plain funny. Towards the end, he was cut off, but what he said was 'He (da Silva) was almost sheepishly trying to claim it as his goal' (when it was clearly his own head that was the last to touch the ball before it went in). Worse, he reiterated his stand (that it was an own goal) even after replay after replay after replay was shown, as I recorded that match and watched it. Oh my, I could imagine him commentating in the 1986 World Cup Final when Maradona scored the 'Hand of God' goal and he would be saying 'lovely header' while the rest of England would be wanting to **** him. Miserable, but that's what Singapore viewers might be getting for the premier league with the likes of Dykes and Reeves no longer on our screens for pre-match shows.