This week was pretty fun as I started off with a training session on Monday which lasted only for 30mins due to the lack of players and the floorball training session ended off with a practice match against EEE and they soundly beat us by a huge margin. The training session was too tiresome for me as I could only last for five minutes. As my team lacked a keeper, I volunteered to be the keeper as I did not want to run myself and tire myself out but trouble was our first match was against NIE who have a few national players in their team and are the tournament favourites and I had no experience in being a keeper. My friend gave me a few basic tips on how to be keeper and a 15 min practice session was all I had before my maiden match with NIE.

As always, I have nightmares before crunch time and dreamt that they were going to put 5 or 6 goals past me. However, our first match against NIE was a pretty close affair as we managed a water tight defence and their players couldn't get a easy shot at goal thanks to my defence who made my workload easier in the first half. In the second half, they came back with a vengence to put a goal past me and eventually, they broke their duck. I was pretty disappointed with the goal but nevertheless we managed to keep the scoreline to a respectable level and we only knew that we have to beat SCI to qualify for the quarters and we did beat although the goal was a bit of gay but who cares as long as we win the match.

We beat HSS in the quarters via another gay goal but lost to MAE in the semis as the match was again a pretty close affair as I was hoping that we would score in normal time as I did not want to face the prospect of penalty shootout where I had zero experience but the fact our make shift team made it to the semis was instead commendable and my stint as a first time keeper was good as I tried my level best at keeping a low scoreline and was worried that I would let in some gay goals. Perhaps, I would be more experienced and be a keeper for my school again.

Mr Kopi drafted me into the volleyball team at the last minute and I agreed as I was free in the afternoon but trouble was that it has been a long time since I played volleyball and was having a bad feeling about it and rightfully, I played a horrible match where half my serves went off court and my layups were pretty aweful and I basically made a fool of myself on court. The fact that I was slotted in at the last minute and we almost had a walkover showed that our team was certainly inexperienced.

Saturday Night Fever

My Saturday night pretty much consisted of watching television and reading books. It has been a long time since I saw a Tamil movie as they seem to be full of crap these days but the movie on Central was pretty decent but the ending was stupid which consisted of the lead character giving back the $$ to the kidnapper who has clearly been defeated at the end and the $$$ was given so that the kidnappers won't bother him again. What a stupid ending and the kidnapper looks and acts like a clown which is even more that the lead character took the clown more seriously was a joke.

Soccer seems to be pretty standard as Chelsea and Man Utd posted wins over teams which they are expected to win and this season was pretty much shaping up to be a 4 way race and of course, Liverpool choked by losing 3-1 and Rafa is under increasing pressure as he has lost his unbeaten record in EPL but I guess fans are seeing a familiar scenario. Liverpool spends big to get good players, fans get hyped up and talk about the title going to Anfield, Liverpool wins the first few games and convinces their fans that this is their season and they managed to beat big teams but could not beat minnows in their later stages, conceding the title yet again to either Chelsea, Man Utd or Arsenal. I guess there's always next season.

I'm currently reading the Count of Monte Cristo and I'm just halfway through the book having covered some 600 odd pages and this book has been a test of patience as it has been a long time since I read a 1000 page odd book but I guess I got to savour the book slowly before it gets terrifyingly good. I would recommend it for those interested in knowing more about French History and it's a must read for those who love classics.

I'm waiting for my friend to pick me up to go to Chomp Chomp now and I hope time flies. Ciao.

Updates

I guess this is the perfect time to provide updates as I'm waiting for 1.30pm to strike for me to start registering for subjects for next semester. There are 3 instances of stress during a student's semester- during exams, getting results and registering for subjects. Registering for subjects is pretty stressful as you would want the best time table and you need to have pretty fast fingers to get the slots which you want as you do not certainly want tutorial slots on friday afternoon unless you have gone crazy to want such slots. I pray that I get the slots which will free up my fridays as I would be having a almost 4 day week as I have only one lecture on friday and that is computing.

Computing is one subject which is a nightmare for most Singapore students as it does not make sense to us and most of us would be happy to just clear it as we don't understand of what's being taught and I would be more than happy to just get a pass as I can't put myself again through the torture of cheating myself and the agonizing 2 hours spent in laboratory trying to solve something which I have no idea and just hope to get some working or method marks. I hope next semester will be the semester in which I will get to see computing for the last time.

However, I'm kind of worried about the choice of electives which I will get as I do not want to make the mistake of taking essay based electives as it's harder to score and SU will be the only option to ensure the elective does not bring your GPA down. However, the GEs seem to be scary as the modules are core modules for some schools and I don't want to be at the losing end. It's very important that I make the right choice.

On a lighter note, I have been catching up on football for the past week and caught the Manchester United match and was impressed with Ronaldo's performance. He just seems to get better and better each season and I won't be surprised if he can eclipse his last season's goal tally. I guess Ferguson will be off-loading Saha as I seriously feel he's injury prone and becoming more of a liablity but in the event of either Rooney or Tevey getting injured, he might come in handy but I'm glad that Arsenal are playing sublime football this season and this team has impressed me especially they went on to win the match from a goal down. Previous Arsenal team would have given up or settled for a draw if they were in such a position and I hope their unbeaten record continues today against Newcastle.Sorry Sammy. Although I would like you to win to ensure that you are in job, I hope miracles are not performed today against Arsenal.

This morning's AC Milan match would have certainly increased the transfer fee of Kaka. That guy is simply phenomenal. Although he did not score, his gameplay was simply superb and he can read the game well and his acceleration is second to none as there was one instance he received the ball from the halfway mark and his first touch and acceleration left the defender chasing after him but he wasn't able to finish. That would have capped off a superb Kaka performace. Credit has to be given to Inzaghi who rescued Milan.

I'm also catching up on the 70s show. It's one hell of a funny show and thought that it would be a lame show but the show turned out to be good with interesting characters such as Eric Foreman- the lead character, Stven Adler- the guy against establishment, Fezz-the horny exchange student, Michael- the dumb bloke who likes to silly stuff, Jackie-Michael's on and off bimbo girlfriend, Donna- Eric's girlfriend, Red-Eric's strict, no nonense, skeptical father and Kiddy- Eric's funny cute mother and of course Donna's crazy parents. I would highly recommend this show as the show takes place during the 70s and gives the viewer of how people dress and how they think and what was hot and what was not.

Speaking of the 70s, I'm currently hooked onto stairway to heaven by Led Zepplin. I guess it's never too late once again as I should have discovered Led during secondary school but it's pretty cool stuff as the music is good. I guess I have to move on to Jimmy as he's pretty good stuff. I'm waiting for American gangster to come out as I can't wait for the movie to be released. My friend told me that it's oscar worthy and I hope Denzel bags the best actor again as he's a very talented actor. Hallmark channel does screen some decent shows but you have to be very selective and wise in your choice of movies as it's mostly B-grade movies.

What the hell is happening to the Malaysia Indians? The group leading the protest accused the government of ethnic cleansing. What the hell. Rwanda is an example of ethnic cleansing. Kosovo is an example of ethnic cleansing. What is happening in Malaysia is discrimination. The plight of the Indians over there is very bad and it was time that their grievances were aired but if they are planning to skive and not do anything to raise their standard of living or education, I guess no matter how much help is provided, they will still remain stagnant. Being poor in India is one thing but being poor in another man's land is really really bad.

Mistakes

It was a mistake that I failed to study one particular tutorial thinking that it would not come out for the exam but I got a huge shock when I saw the similar question for today's exam and Murphy's quote was simply on my mind all the time during the entire exam.

It was a mistake that I focused on the past year exam papers thinking that similar questions would be set and hoping that easier questions would be asked but the paper which I took was mostly theoractical and one which I was unprepared for and ended up smoking my way through all the theory questions.

It was a mistake to have planned my exam timetable where I had to endure the torture of 4 exams in 5 days as it simply took a toll on me and I felt very sian after the 2nd paper for this week and which made me realise to plan my timetable properly for future exams to avoid a repeat of this semester as I simply lost track of the days. It was that bad.

It was a mistake to have taken up engineering as these exams show that I'm simply not cut out for the enginnering lifestyle and I'm not very keen on an engineering career where I have to sit at my desk and do meaningless paperwork and basically lead a boring and unsatisfying career.

It was a mistake of NBS to have not considered me for their business or accountancy programme as I love the subjects which my friends in these faculties are doing as it's interesting and more real-life and would not have minded the heavy workload and could have gotten good grades in the process.

It was a mistake to neglect Physics in Junior College when that particular subject was the main stickler in my course choices as I was flatly rejected by most non-engin and science courses though I did get a decent grade for my Econs and thought this would have been enough to secure my place in the Arts programme in NUS and it backfired. The feelig of seeing someone who does not deserve to be in NBS or Arts programme can make your blood boil.

It was a mistake that I did not act to recitify the mistakes that I have been making for the past two semesters which is not starting early as the exams clearly showed that my last minute exam preparation was simply useless as consistent hard work would have gotten me decent grades. Mistakes!!!!I hate the word of mistakes!!

The final post

I caught Deathnote, the anime a few months ago and the anime is much better than the movie as it explains certain parts which the movie was unable to explain as the movie was only 3 hours and could not simply compress the information overload. I was impressed with the way the plot took shape on how a student started to play God when he was given a notebook and he used it to kill criminals by writing their names on the deathnote book and soon misused it when he wrote down the names of the officers who were investigating the case to deter the police force from continuing their investigation. The fact that he went to the extent of killing his own father showed that he was already playing God.

Although the lead character, Kira had good intentions of wiping out evil, he soon misused it and I felt nobody has the right to judge a person unless he's God. Many people would argue that Kira had made the world a better place as there were no crimes taking place but he has also created a climate of fear where people do not dare do anything that might get them killed. Free will is one important quality which is given to every human being and if we do not possess that one quality, we are worse than animals.

Sad but true. The majority of people I know do not possess the free will as they are afraid to lose out. When your life is decided by other people's decisions, that's the start of the slow journey. The very few who possess the free will do not give in easily and easily have enemies all over the place but they earn the admiration and respect of others and their respect.

I guess humilation is another quality which most people do not have. The difficult part of attaining success is not maintaing it but rather being humble about it. When you are humble about your achievements, you are on the path to greatness as people will respect you. People will remember a certain Hitler and even Axl Rose who let fame be their undoing and I guess this quality is one defining mark of a great man.

Sleep!!!

Random Post

I suppose this post will be another of my famous random post where I will be bitching about everything under the sun as too many things have occured within the space of a month starting with the Rugby World Cup where the heavyweights, New Zealand and Australia got knocked out as I expected at least one of them to last till the finals but it was a case of deja vu when I did a little research on the All Blacks when they impressed in the early stages of the 2003 world cup but fizzled out during the last few stages of the tournament when they met heavyweights. I suppose the All Blacks were not fated to win the world cup but on paper, they were too strong for the French team and it will be another 4 years for the All Blacks to try their hand at the world cup.

I hope England loses badly to France in the semis as they are known to play crappy rugby due to their conservative nature of not taking risks and going for tries and depending on Johnny to save the day and this team reminds me of the England soccer team where they depend entirely on one player like Beckham and Rooney to save the day and would play crappy football if they are not on the team. The country which invented soccer has a tough time coming to grips with the modern game. What a irony. I just hope those jokers do not qualify for the world cup or the Euro as they had raised my hopes during last year's world cup when I backed them to win it and they totally lost the plot.Some say that it was overconfidence but I say that it was the WAGS who took away the bulk of the attention.

Sir Alf Ramsey banned the wives and girlfriends for the entire duration of the World Cup and that was England's only World Cup triumph. Wives and girlfriends can be distraction to the task at hand and although it might seem to be a breather, I'm afraid that they might distract the footballers who needs to be focused on their mission.

I just caught a few movies over the past month, namely the Prestige where 2 magicians engage in a battle of wits and the Bourne Identity where an ex- CIA agent tries to rediscover his identity after he lost his identity and I would strongly recommend these movies as they have a good storyline and keeps the viewer on the edge and you would not be disappointed and I'm strongly urged by one of my friends to watch K-Pax which sounds like a B-grade movie but I will try to catch it if I have the time as the new season of Prison Break is very interesting although the kind of jail portrayed in the new season seems to be very fictious. One of my favourite funny characters, Haywire gets killed in the first episode as he adds colour to the season but Mr T-Bag's one liners and smart ass comments and Scofield's ingenious tricks and a few hot girls in the show makes this season worth the watch.

I'm trying to keep to my schedule of reading a book every 2 weeks and I hope I can keep to my plan and hope that I do not fail due to my lax attitude and my schedule. With proper time management, I believe it's possible to achieve this attainable goal. I miss Borders as it's been a while since I went to Orchard. Time to sleep...

What a week

After the madness of 3 back to back quizzes, I can finally take a breather before embarking on a study marathon to catch up on most of my modules which have been back-breaking and mind-boggling during the 1 week study break before I get sucker-punched by more abstract and difficult concepts. If I can get past this semester, I can get past anything for the next 3 semesters. One thing I do not understand is the planning management of the faculty when it comes to year 3 subjects. Some of my friends who would be doing I.A next semester have to do 6 freaking subjects this semester and these subjects are no joke and it's difficult to cope with 6 core modules plus electives for those who want a 20 plus AU semester. I hope the school will consider dropping a few modules so that students can spread out their subjects especially for those doing I.A.

Headline of the day: Mourinho got sacked apparently by Roman as they couldn't get along well. This reminds me of the Axl Rose and Slash saga as both men refuse to compromise on their beliefs and rather part than depart from their beliefs. Though Mr Mourinho has always been arrogant, I love his pre-match, post match commetns and during match antics as he adds colour to EPL and revive some interest in Chelsea who were doing badly at one point of time after Gullit's departure. I wish him success in his future endeavours and hope he returns to management with arch-rivals Spurs to spark the intense rivalry or perhaps manage England and teach the Man U boys a lesson...Woooohh..

Another issue which has been troubling me or rather making my mind occupied is women. I feel that the men of our generation are falling prey to women whose power is unlimited as she has the final say in matters pertaining to sex. It's a known fact that men need women for psychological, emotional and sexual needs and most women use this to their full advantage and most guys will give in to everything just to get their final third of the package. Just look at the number of guys carrying their girlfriends' handbags and becoming like more like Mr LA galaxy instead of Eric Bana. It's time that I influence these men to pick up the Godfather and empower them with self-respect before they lose that last bit.I do not blame women to use their sex appeal to their maximun advantage to get what they want but men should know about this but I guess being men, they will rather let their big brother than than their brain dictate them although they know about this.

I have been treating the Godfather book as my sleeping material and can't seem to let go of it.The more I read it, the more difficult to let go of it. I think I need to go for anti-obsessive counselling session.

A random post

I just finished one of the toughest subjects I'm taking this semester, Steel quiz and I finally realised why seniors and my batch mates asked me to go for CSP's class as the quiz was almost a piece of cake and I'm glad that I made the right choice in changing to his class. I was such a nervous wreck before the quiz and couldn't focus and get my thoughts back on track but after the quiz, I just felt so relieved and made me realise that I have to work triple hard for this subject which I'm putting off due to the level of difficulty of the concepts.

This semester is akin to my team Arsenal's season where it's one of the toughest semesters to date with difficult subjects and my semester can either make or break if I don't focus enough and time is running short and I have only 7 weeks max to make this semester worthwhile and the thoughts of my 1.2 semester is still fresh as I do not want to go through another repeat.

I'm currently hooked onto Don't you cry by Guns and Roses, one of my favourite songs in Primary school and can't seem to get it off my head at the moment as I keep replaying the track. Arghhh..

Disappointed

I'm disappointed with a few problems in the world currently. The first one would be Guns N Roses, my first foray into heavy metal group, my one and only heavy metal group which I loved and recently rekindled my love for that group after getting hold of their live in Tokyo concert and it brought back fresh memories of their cult songs. However, the one word to describe them will be self-destruction as they couldn't handle their fame well and sought solace in drugs and alcohol. The front man, Axl Rose started to place importance in himself after he realised that he has to share the limelight with his band mates especially SLASH, the lead gitarist who in my eyes is GOD when it comes to playing guitar sometimes stole the show from Axl.

I guess that didnt sit well with Axl and he started to dismiss almost his entire band group including SLASH and the great breakup of the 90s begun. I guess human being human beings will let their arrogance dominate themselves and impair their judgement. Another issue will be a certain club in NTU where democracy should not be practised as the winner of the elections was not the better candidate or rather they had the support of their friends. This is one prime example of the failure of democracy where the best candidate failed to win on merit and lost out on votes. That's life, I guess.

Freedom and Self-Respect

I had the good fortune of reading the Godfather a few months ago when my friend gave me the book as a christmas present but what I didn't understand in the book was why did Don Corleone went into the Mafia business and the reason cited was the way of Sicilian life which had a great impact on him. After reading the Sicilian, I began to understand why some men went into Mafia. The Sicilian system back then did not reward the hardworking people and it favours the rich and the rich is by default when you are born. That is if you are born a farmer's son, you will be a farmer in your later life and the vicious cycle continues.

I truly understood the reasons why Don Corleone became the Godfather and one of the many things the system in Sicily took away was their freedom and respect. Freedom is priceless and he truly believed that he did not owe anyone anything if he can 'make his own bones' and with his vision, charisma and intelligence, he became the feared and yet respected 'Godfather'. Another thing the Sicilian system back then took away was their self-respect and the Godfather realised that no one should never take away his self-respect as that's one of the most defining virtues of a man.

As I was sitting in my steel tutorial class, I began to feel disgusted with myself as I was not able to understand a single 'shit' about the module and I'm putting myself in a position where I have to take down notes of the answers as I went to the class unprepared. The same goes for some of my modules where I'm totally lost in some of my modules.

I realised that you should never owe anyone a living as that would make you complacent and dependant. The army made me realise the value of self-respect and freedom and I told myself that I would never let go of the 2 things. However,due to my attitute in recent years, I'm starting to feel contented with almost anything which comes my way which is a dangerous one as I'm struggling to hold on to my freedom.

I then realised that I should not let this attitude be my own downfall in the exams and told myself that I had to do something about it. For me to earn the freedom from the Singaporean system, I need to 'make my bones'. It's very important that I do not become a product of the education and society where I will be swimming with the many fishes hoping for a lucky break. It's perhaps time to discard the complacent attitude within me and start to buck up and think real hard about the future and make plans before I even have time to wake up from my slumber and realise that I have wasted 25 years of my life at the end of my 4 year degree and become a slave to the system for the rest of my life by doing something worthless to get by in life.

Never Did I Expect

I never expected myself to like Frankie Sinatra. I always tried to steer of the oldies for a good 15 years as I felt that Hip Hop was the best music genre. After a few semesters in NTU, I was exposed to people who listens to interesting music and I began to slowly change and soon, Blondie, Barbara S, Elvis and Johnny Cash began to invade my computer and my MP3 player. I'm glad that I started to appreciate other music genres as I might have been living in a disillusioned world listening to Emmy, Jay Z, R.Kelly. Hip Hop is great but not all the time.

Frankie is a legend of the legends for giving the world unforgettable hits. I did a wiki search on him and realised that his music is not a fixed genre and covers a variety of genres. His songs though mostly sentimental does not fade with time. I made a stupid mistake of buying his CD which featured songs when he started out and I realised that the songs were not very popular. I realised I should buy only the essential or the best hits of a particular artist to maximise my dollar.

I'm trying to break into the French music genre as I believe the Frenchies have a lot of diamonds in their music scene. I'm sure I can get beyond the knowledge of Napolean, Eric Cantona, the French National team and my basic French. It might prove to be handy when you are interacting with a French chick. Maybe Brazilian music considering Adriana Lima. Cant't seem to decide.

Heart-Pumping

When I managed to find out about football being screened on Ch27, Arsenal was already a goal down and I was cursing furiously at Arsenal for not holding on to former main man, Henry and sticking with their youth. I was wondering if Arsenal were going to slip into oblivion this season and the thoughts were quickly dispelled when Arsenal was awarded a penalty and V.Persie scored from the spot. I cheered at the moment when the ball hit the roof of the net and I could hear the Gooners fans cheering loudly. When the second goal came, I went crazy. From pessisim to optimism in under 30 mins was what I had experienced in the game.

However, reflecting on the game, Arsenal's passing was still fluid and they have not lost the touch but they need a hardman badly and Mr Fabby though young is sort of a playmaker and not like in the mould of Roy Keane or Viera. The Arsenal team has potential although I have yet to see the Brazilian boy in action. I once wondered why did Arsenal buy Henry and I was silenced when he started to score like it's normal to do it and in no time, he broke Ian's record. I hope the Brazilian boy can manage at least 20 goals a season to give us a chance of battling for Premiership honours.

I still feel that it was a bad mistake by Fernando Torry to move to Liverpool. The examples of good strikers flopping at Liverpool are plenty- Hesky,Morientes,Cisse and many more. The boy is Arsenal material and I won't be surprised if he leaves Liverpool at the end of the season when Liverpool might finish 4th place again just to qualify for the Champions League again. What's new? Them winning the Premiership? Dream On!!!!

The Kite Runner

Amazing is the word to describe the latest novel I read. When I stumbled upon the movel a few years ago, I thought it will be another novel and decided to give it a miss. Another reason was that I thought new writers would not be able to drum up interest. After hearing rave reviews about the book, I decided to borrow the book and it's a page-turner. It narrates the story of a Afghan boy of Pashtun origin who enjoys an unique friendship with an Hazara boy and the story takes off from there and I loved the historical events unfolding in the book as it gives readers a taste of History.

From the details given in the book, I have never felt so much of hatred towards the Taliban. I have heard of how demonic and ruthless they can be and they are the scum-bags of the earth by forcing people under their control through the use of religion. Adultery- stoned to death, Shouting loudly at public places- Flogging and men must cover up when they are playing soccer and women are not allowed to work. I do not understand some of these rules as it does not make sense to me at all. The rules and punishment are so draconian and barbaric and these scum-bags even banned music and the arts- a pleasure to many.

In the book, beggers and street children are common-place in Kabul,Afghanistan and it's a far cry from the old days of Kabul where it was much better. I guess from past experience wars serve only a few peoples' agenda whose lust for power is uncontrollable and they will go to any extent to make it happen and once they have achieved power, they will go to even greater lengths to ensure their power is unshakeable and if it means, killing people to strike fear in the masses, these people will not hesitate to do it. A certain Hitler rings bells in our mind.

Thw world is ridden with civil wars and the rest of the world has to sit up and take attention and not let the incident just pass by as ethnic cleansing and the loss of lives should simply come to a stop as the world should not regret later for what it should have done.

1st Day of School

When Edventure is down, things get screwed up for a typical NTU student especially on the first day of school when the students need to use Edventure to print lecture notes which are not sold at the bookshop. The unspeakable horror happened this morning when the website was down in the morning and I was unsucessful in logging onto the website and I gave up after a few attempts. If the school knew or had anticipated the problem of heavy traffic on the 1st day of school, they should have done something about it as it was inconvenient for me and especially all the students who couldn't log in.Things did get better later in the afternoon when edventure was up and running.

It seems the Dragon babies this year are making their presence felt when I saw Canteen A flooded with students during lunch hour and it's just unsightly to see many students in a overcrowded and small canteen. Perhaps, that was why they are halfway through in building a bigger and spacious Canteen A and I hope it opens soon so that there can be at least be some breathing space for students having their lunch during peak hour.

The icing of the cake has to go to my elective's lecturer who literally drove away half the students taking the subject as the lecturer failed to inspire and was lacking in charisma and thus unable to convince people to stay on for the rest of the lecture and I was one of the many students who left a bit after the halfway mark as I always believe in the adage that Time is money and it cannot be bought and I wasn't doing anything productive during the lecture and decided to make an exit. I can perhaps excuse his behaviour as it is only the first lecture but I seriously hope the next 12 lectures do not turn out to be boring.

I just read an article in the Nanyang chronicle that the supermarket in NTU has stopped selling condoms.WTF. The reasons given largely border on the moral and I suspect religious and ethical reasons which were not brought up. The rise of STD cases are a cause for concern and humans are sexual creatures and can't be avoided and by not selling condoms because of a few people's dispproval is totally UNACCEPTABLE. This is IRRESPONSIBLE behaviour. However, if the ban continue to persist, I have a few recommendations for those who need one- EIther buy a pack before you come to school or order online.

In this time and age, it is very difficult to adopt a moralistic and ethical approach to sex. Sex is inevitable especially in our generation and if the use of contraceptives is not actively promoted and society tend to view sex outside marriage as unacceptable, we would no doubt witness a rise in STD and HIV cases where youth are misinformed about sex and do foolish stuff without realising the consequences of their actions. Let's face it- Sex is here to stay.

Africa

Africa is a god-forsaken continent. These were the words uttered by Di Caprio in Blood Diamond and it simply sums up the continent. Africa is a continent known for its breathtaking beauty and raw materials and western powers are not ashamed to do buisness with corrupt regimes knowing that their $$$ is well taken care of and in some cases it's used against their own citizens. I can understand the situation. Corrupt regime or group of rebels crave for power and they need $$$ to buy arms and they sell raw materials to western powers to buy arms which in turn is used in their civil wars. Some of the western countries can simply stop the civil if they press the right buttons but they refuse to do it as money is always the key issue.

Africa is in such a bad shape after many years of conflict within the continent and famine seems to be their friend in some parts of the continent. Aids is spreading rapidly like wild fire and the number of educated people in Africa seems to be joke. EVERYBODY knows what AFRICA needs and that is constructive aid from the United States and the UN. Constructive aid is $$$ spent on healthcare, education and public programmes than on financing the civil wars and feeding corrupt regimes. The best way the constructive aid can be implemented if the developed nations could send a small team of educated professionals to develop Africa. It makes me wonder why hasn't Africa developed substantially over the past 50 years and the number of reasons seem to be plenty ranging from corrupt regimes to countless civil war. The western powers are not stingy with their $$$ over the past few decades but is the $$$ simply given for the sake of giving?

For a country of immense potential, I don't see why they cannot get out of their shit-hole and start to get back on track but then again,I'm not saying this can be achieved in a short period. It takes time and if western leaders and the world do not care about Africa, it will forever be a god-forsaken continent.

Metro Sale!!!

Garang Boy gave me a ring and asked me if I wanted to have dinner at Tampines and I agreed. When I reached Metro in Century Square, it was chaotic. Singaporeans were pratically swarming all over the place and turning Metro into a pasar malam.It was the closing sale of Metro and the discount was close to 70%.I decided to do some quick shopping for my hostel room and men's accessories knowing that I won't get another shot at such a huge discount.

I was disgusted with the men's sections as all the pants and shirts were strewn all over the place and it will be a hassle to look through them and try them on in the midst of the crowd. I avoided that section and went to the 'home' section where I helped myself to a pillow, pillowcase and a bolster. Another thing about sale is that you tend to go weak when items are priced at ridiculous prices and I couldn't resist buying a pair.

Sale also exposes another side of Singaporeans- their ugly side. People will just push you aside without saying Excuse me and some of them do not find the time to even finish Excuse me due to their impatience with you moving out of their way. The worst part was when familes arrived with toddlers in prams making it difficult for traffic movement. The gracious, courteous campaigns can take a backseat when there are sales as $$ wins at the end of the day

The shopping experience in shopping centres is bad as almost every square inch in a shopping centre is taken up by a tenant. I do not mind more tenants in a shopping centre as they offer consumers more choices but traffic can become chaotic when it gets crowded. Century Square was one such example when the MEtro Sale brought the crowds and level one was too crowded as there was only a tiny weeny space for people to move around due to the overwhelming number of shops on the level. I rather have few quality shops and more space than more average shops with lesser space.

Wages

I'm puzzled by the wages which footballers receive today. The average wage a Premiership player can earn today is at least $30 ooo a figure I came up with as the highest earner is at a staggering 130 000 pounds a week. How can these clubs manage such a huge wage bill? It does not make any sense to me. For big clubs like Man U and Chelsea, the wage bill can hit close to a million or even more than that PER WEEK. It can be argued that big clubs can sustain such huge wage bills due to their match-day receipts and sale of merchandise largely due to their trophy-laden cupboard and branding of the club. What about the small clubs? They have to get by with what they have and give their youth a career in the Premiership by offering him a measly contract compared to his Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man U comrades or the small clubs will start to pray that they are bought by a Russian or American tycoon interested in boosting his income or simply treating it like a past time. I wish sports writers or someone in the industry could enlighten me and millions of fans out there on how clubs sustain themselves and even make a profit when the wage bill seems to be getting out of control. I suspect something fishy.

O-Leary book made me think about today's managers. Their job scope is not simple anymore. They need to explain their chairmen and even their board their transfer signings but he was lucky to have a chairman willing to fork out 18 million pounds on Rio and managers have to get the best out of their team of 11 who must do the job on match day and this is a tricky situation as each manager needs to understand each player. One method which works for one player might not work for another player. I can't imagine taking control of a team where I have 11 players like Wayne Rooney, Lee Bowyer and Roy Keane who are great professionals but have a BAD, BAD temper. I respect O-Leary for taking the approach of punishing his players when they have done something wrong as managers today can't afford to take the decision as it could prove costly.

Arcade, Pool and Starbucks

It's been sometime since I paid a visit to Starbucks and I enjoyed yesterday's visit as I got to chill out with chocalate frappacino and lounging in their confortable sofas and having a chat with Rosy,Jeff and Esther. It's been a while since we got together and we were trading horror and fun stories of our coaching jobs in Primary schools and these experiences has made me realise that you have to be firm with kids right from the start. It also feels good when the service staff goes the extra mile by smiling at you as such intangible service matters to me and it can uplift my mood.

After Starbucks, we decided to pay the arcade a visit and we got hooked onto the basketball game as I couldn't stop myself from playing the game as I felt that I could have done better and Jeffrey was scoring an average of 100 per game and I could only manage a pathetic 70 something and I was disappointed with my performance but that game is a money sucker and it nearly emptied my wallet and it made me think twice of going there regularly to play the game.

I returned to Bugis after my tuition and we went to play pool at one of this classy places where the per hour charge was close to $13 but the atmosphere was worth it but they started to play crap mandopop and techno music after midnight. I started my usual MCP bullshit when I was paired with Jeffrey and I asked the girls to concede the game before they even hit their first shot and they were quite flabbargasted when they heard that. It feels good to play the role of a MCP once in a while.

The main highlight of our pool game was the entry of two ang moh men and a white chick. The white chick was wearing a low cut top until u can see her assests in full view and Jeffrey was speculating that she's from Poland and I wondered how the hell did he manage to come up with the nationality of the girl at first sight and I was thinking she must be a Eastern European. The best moment of the night has to go to Esther when she told me that she was distracted by her and I couldn't control my laughter. Uncalled for. Midnight fare is a money sucker!!

Autobiographies, Transformers and Bus Drivers

I have been catching up on footballers' autobiographies partly to Kopi and mostly to my interest. I'm impressed with Rio Ferdinand's book as it narrates the tough background he comes from and how he still keeps in touch with his roots and gives back to his community. Rio Ferdinand though a Man U player has gained my respect as he's hungry for success and he never lets it get to his head and he has one hell of a fashion sense but I still wonder why did he miss the drugs test even though the answers in his book is damn vague and wishy washy and I seriously hope he's not taking DRUGS. The respect he earned will be lost overnight but the same cannot go for Maradona who has not lost the respect despite taking drugs in World Cup 1994.

Another must read autobiography is Mr Ashley Cole as he told his story on the tapping scandal and I expected this book to be whiny and bitchy but I felt that this was the best autobio. book I have ever read as he spilled the beans on the Arsenal Board and Mr Dein and some of the Arsenal players esecially younger players who do not show respect to the senior players and also talk about his popstar wife- Cheryl. This book also gave me an idea of how celeb couples have to cope with the extra attention and the rumours that comes with them. I'm disappointed with the younger players for not having the same team spirit as of Team 2004 known as Invincibles and I'm starting to dread the new season where the big players have left for big clubs and the only name who can strike terror in other teams is Van Persie. PATHETIC.

I do not understand why Mr Torres had to go to Liverpool when he could have chosen Arsenal as the strikers at LIverpool somehow become duds. Think of Heskey, Morientes and the list goes on. I suspect the Spanish influence at Liverpool might have played a decision. Heck. I don't mind Torres going to Man U but I frankly think that he's wasting his time at Liverpool and I hope to be proven right so that he can go to Arsenal(yeah right) or to Ac Milan(help Gilardino in attack).

Do not reaad Thierry Henry's biography as it's damn boring as each chapter is about each season and the chapters will be on almost every single match and no juicy details. I guess it's not exactly his biography as this was written on Henry and not one where he was sharing his views like Ashely Cole and Ferdinand.

I caught Transformers yesterday and the movie was average. The first hour was a drag save for a few scenes where there were some fighting scenes. I expected end to end action between the robots from start to end like Lord Of the Rings where your hair will stand when the war scenes start but I had perhaps expected too much when my friend said it was good. The second hour was redemption as the robots began to showcase their 'acting' and it was fun to see Robots displaying such emotions. I felt that if Pixar had handled the project , they could have made it into a bigger blockbuster as their animation movies like Toy Story and Incredibles are hits and their man Man,John Lasseter would have made it a better movie but this is all theoratical mumbo jumbo and I might be proven wrong. Another distraction was the lead female in low cut, dirty tank top and it was a good one. If you cannot up the action, up the sex quotient.

I managed to catch the last train and was quite happy when I took the last bus and after the bus driver took off, he stopped and asked the 2 passengers who boarded if they wanted to take the green 291 bus. There are two 291 bus services and the one I take is the green colour. I was quite pissed with him as he talked in Mandarain to the 2 passengers without considering that I was there. However, I managed to understand what he was saying and walked out of the bus and back to the same place where I was waiting for my 'genuine' bus and my bus arrived promptly at 0035 and I took the bus back home.

The trouble with most humans including myself at times was that they are very inconsiderate. I learnt this lesson at army when being a minority, your friends just converse in Mandarin as they don't give a flying fuck about if you don't understand or not and subtle or in your face messages to them won't work. Languages creates boundaries and exclusion. I managed to learn some Mandarin phrases and words and could comprehend what they could say after sometime. Secondary school was also bad as I was mixing with Malays- the hardworking ones and I learnt some Malay words. Perhaps, there should be a Speak English Campaign as I know people some people having problems speaking the language and will rather talk in their mother tongue.

A Lesson Well Learnt

My friends couldn't reach me on my hp most of the times when I'm in hostel as the reception in my Hall sucks to the core and I was toying with the idea of changing my service provider. My phone was also problematic as people calling me couldn't hear me but I can hear them as I dropped my phone too many times and it was another signal to change my phone as well. I decided to do it today since I had two hours to kill.

I settled on a red-colour Ericsson Phone as I love red colour and love a change of colour since I have been using dull colours. Wrong..I bought it because I deserved it. I intially planned to buy a walkman phone and thought that the plan was only $19. When I went to the cashier to purchase the phone, I forked out $199 and I was shocked. I was thinking what went wrong and looked at the promotion again and the assholes conveniently made after $100 trade in in small letters. I was pissed with them and myself for disregarding such vital information. I asked the service staff if I can change the phone and she was kind enough to let me change to another phone which I chose in a hurry(mistake again) and agreed to pay back the remainder in cash to me after she told me that she can only let me take gift vouchers.

Then, the staff said that there was no black and only RED. I agreed to take it as I didn't want to bother the staff again and got my Red Phone. I never thought that by not doing your research, you will end up in a bad deal and I did get a bad deal and I'm surprised as I will always do my research before any electronic purchase. Looking at the handphone will make me think twice about doing something rash again. I can console myself that it's not PINK.

The 4th Estate

I just finished the 4th Estate and the book was damn good. I read this book when I was in secondary school and didn't appreciate the book at that time as my main aim in secondary school when it comes to reading books was to race to the last page of every book and that took the joy of reading and I ended up forgetting the plot and the lessons behind every story. With new found knowledge due to my increasing exposure to news media, I began to understand the problems and the nitty gritty stuff of newspapers. Lester however told me that one of the character potrayal was actually Rubert Murdouch and when I did a wiki search and read his profile, the resemblance was too good to be true right to the detail where the character, Keith Townsend(Note that Keith is Rubert first name) will become American citizen and introduce the concept of Page 3 of the Globe Newspaper(Recall the Sun?).

That book made me wonder the different possiblities of the CEO, directors and chairman as I couldn't exactly understand why some of these characters had to behave in a certain manner and this made me realise how little I know about company law and it's time I start to read some boring company law books to widen my knowledge as I want to know what are the duties and responsibilites Mr Durai as CEO and Richard as chairman.

I don't understand how did Richard Yong got caught so easily. He was smart enough to leave the country before he was barred from doing so but the man should have plannned his trip to a country preferable Czech Republic according to Kopi where there are no extradition laws or some fucko countries like Bolivia where he can live like a king or even Indonesia as he has so much money from the sale of his apartments and properties and he should have chosen a country where it's not Singapore friendly but I suspect he did not expect HK to extradit him back to Singapore.

The little red dot is really becoming boring as life seems to be approaching a full stop for everybody. I'm starting to dread MRT rides especially on weekday mornings where people literally drag their asses out to work and you can see their 'sian' faces and it makes you wonder if you are going to join them in 2 years and worse become like them. Work can really take the fun out of life in Singapore as people are expected to clock long hours and slog. The next 2 years are a critical part in shaping my Destiny. As my sister always say, it's very important to have a vision.

Questions Unanswered

I still do not get the logic behind the DVD codes. I borrowed a few DVDs from the Esplanade library and was very excited as these movies are classics and hard to find in the DVD shops. When I popped one DVD into my laptop drive, they prompted me to change the DVD region. I thought it was a one-off thing and unfortunately, the same thing happened to my other 3 DVDs. I will like to know which smartie came up with this ingenious idea of DVD coding.Is it because they want to restrict the market or they want to restrict the content in the movie since Asian countries are more stricter on censorship.I suppose there must be some logic behind it but can't they make all DVDs universal since we are living in the age of globalisation. I believe some DVDs are universal and I hope that future DVDs are universal.

I had a chance to read Sophie's world and the book requires loads of patience and mental strength as every page requires the reader to put the book down and think about what he has just read. However, there was one question which left me stumped. If God created the world, who created God? I thought of a million possiblities to the question but I still could not come up with the answer of who created God as there must be a start for everything and God himself is so powerful that I suddenly began to realise that maybe someone could have created him and the creator of God if any, would be more powerful than God himself.

I just happened to know sometime back that Lucifer commonly known as Satan was an angel. If he or she was an angel, I wonder why the movies depict Satan as a ugly duckling as angels are supposed to be goodlooking and charming. Perhaps, his good looks have deserted him after he was banished to hell but I have a very strong feeling or call it conspiracy that HUMANS, YES HUMANS like to attach an ugly tag to bad boys. Look at the countless movies that we have seen. In only a few movies, they will use actors who look very dependable to play the bad role. I won't be surprised if Mr Lucifer turns out to be very goodlooking as he can always use him charm to entice people to visit hell cos bad looks put people off and they will be reluctant to visit HELL. Now, that's more like Satan.

Tennis and Soccer

My knowledge of tennis is very limited as I got to know the rules of the game when I was in secondary and my interest was heightened when the French Open came and went and the Wimbeldon tournament is currently ongoing. Tennis offers guys one important benefit- eyecandy. You can get loads of eyecandy from watching Wimbeldon. You can bet to your last dollar that the girls' attire will always be above their knees and I simply love to watch Venus and Serena Williams as they are known for their 'crazy' attire and they have not disappointed me so far as Venus is always attired in a tank top and hot shorts and Serena is always attired in a dress showing off her well-toned body for this tournament. Of course, Maria Sharapova has not disappointed me one bit although I wish that she could tone down on her grunting as it can get irritating at times to hear a woman grunt loudly. I pity the guy who's with her if she brings the grunting to the bedroom. The girls have learnt to use the art of sex appeal to maximum effect and that gives me more encouragement to tune in to Wimbeldon.

Of course, the men's matches are also interesting as I find the matches to be of higher standard than that of females(I have nothing against them) but I will recommend my readers to watch the male matches as they are more entertaining in terms of game play. When you see Federrer play, you will understand why he's DARN good in that game. He just brings tennis to a whole new level.

Although Copa America is currently ongoing, I do not have the interest to follow the tournament though South Americans play an eterprising and entertaining brand of football as I do not feel the same excitement as watching World Cup or European Championships or perhaps it could be the fact that my knowledge of S.American teams could be zilch. Perhaps, it's time to brush up my knowledge on these teams as the Holidays will be coming to an end and I won't get another chance of doing this again for another 4 months.

An exceptional Day

My holidays seemed to lack a certain intensity and was stagnant as I'm in the midst of job hunting and did not fancy staying at home catching up on movies and tv shows all day and giving tuition though breaks the monotony still does not make my holiday an eventful one. Perhaps, that was the reason why I took on an assignment recommended by Rosy. I went for a briefing for an assignment which involves teaching at a pri school for 1 hour and the programme is about learning oneself and others and I was to basically lead them in this wonderful relevation(yeah right).

It wasn't enticing at first as the hours were not long enough to tempt me but it was the certain experience which I was looking for and I readily agreed to it in the briefing yesterday. After the briefing, I went out with Esther, Jeffrey, Emma and another girl who was in the briefing and we ended up at IKEA Queensway having lunch and I nearly spent close to $10 just on food and we went to Queensway shopping centre to shop. I had expected myself to spend just on a nice polo shirt but I couldn't resist the Teva sandals and bought it as I needed a cool pair of sandals and the current pair at home is CRAP but the time to make a decision was rather long as I trust girls-the right girls to make the call in the fashion department and I thankfully have no ah lian or minah as my friends.

I began to discover myself once I went to Borders and I couldn't resist the 3 CDs in one boxset promotion of Vanessa Mae and bought it and was on the verge of buying Desperate Housewifes season box set and the Fresh Prince of Belair but my friends had to pull me away but Zara did tempt me with its nice range of clothes but the huge hole that I burnt at Queenstown was stuck in my memory and I have to start saving up for HK trip.

However, the next day took the cake as I started the new teaching assignment. Pri school methods stil has not changed as students blindly follow the rules and raise their hands when they are crossing a zebra crossing and the canteen sells pretty cheap food. The real test began once I entered the classroom with the class that I had to handle and although it was only 24 students, it was a real challenge as some of the students were quite hyper and the boys were brat. Although there were a few students who were quiet and reserved, the class was brattish and I shouted at the class a few times. It taught me a valuable experience that you need to talk their language and keep the class engaged and be FIRM.

I went to Orchard TMC in Singapore tourism board and the meeting room, toilet and the atmostphere was exceptional and I had a great time being TTM. As I was walking back to Orchard MRT station after the meeting, I passed by Hilton Hotel and suddenly realised that there were a number of lady boys near and I immediately turned my attention to the building opposite the road, ORCHARD TOWERS and saw that there were a number of lady boys and females and cab drivers. I was impressed with the ladyboys' hourglass figure but No thanks, anyway. However, I witnessed an Indian gang which was basically doing nothing as usual minus the drinks which was surprising and a group of mat boys who were walking aimlessly.

I just do not understand the concept of gangs as they are basically a waste of time and prey on innocent people who are bored and need attention and gangs offer these false sense of protection and attention. The incident of the day has to go to the couple on the train trying to be lovey dovey like harmless fighting and not the real action and it was beginning to put me off and I caught an old man shooting them disapproving looks. Haha..Let's pray for another exceptional DAY!!

Not Contented!!

Roy Keane, former Manchester United player was mercifully released from the club by Alex Ferguson a year ago as Ferguson felt that Keane was having a negative influence on his team mates by criticizing them in public about their performance on the field. I was shocked as I did not expect Ferguson to be ruthless to his fiery yet loyal servant and I had expected Roy Keane to fire a few parting words and retire. Instead, he took on the managerial position at Sunderland and led them to Premiership league once again.

The one incident which made me respect Keane even a lot was when he won the Manager of the Month and he felt that it was a waste of time giving him such awards as he had not won anything with Sunderland and the FA should not give him credit for his slew of match wins as it does not gives him any satisfaction. This incident made me realise how hungry Keane is despite the fact that he has won numerous trophies with Man U. Sir Alex himself could have passed on some of this characteristics to his former captain but there is no doubt that Keane is hungrier for success than ever and he desperately wants to win a championship or a trophy with Sunderland.

Although Keane can be a hot head and scheming at times, nobody can fault with his dedication to the game and the passion he has and he will never hesitate to 'boil' his players if they step over the line and he wants them to share his hunger and passion. This man is a living example of success can only be achieved if you have the hunger for it and willing to get your socks dirty and get a job done. He leads by example on the field and would never hesitate to protect his team mates. Although he is a Man U player, I respect him along with Eric Cantona for his style and Rio Ferdinand for coming through a rough backgroud.

We have seen and heard of many successful people and even read books about them but the one thing which these people have is hunger and they are never contented even if they have achieved success as they want to progress further and that's what separates winners from losers!!!

Super Sunday

Yesterday turned out to be super sunday as I caught some good movies and good tv programmes. I watched 'Kalyug' a surprisingly good hindi movie on the Porn buisness and the storyline was unique as no hindi film has been done on a touchy subject and there were a few new faces instead of the producer going for the tried and tested like Mr Shah Rukh, Amitabh Bachan or even Aishwarya. NO doubt, these people are successful in Bollywood and the fans would have loved them but to tell the truth, I'm sick of these celebrities. The 'Kalyug' DVD was a good investment by my sister yet again and I suppose it will take some time to find another good Hindi DVD.

The second movie that I caught on DVD was secret window as I had to borrow that DVD as I spotted Goodfellas in the DVD shop and had to pick out two other movies. I had expected secret window to be unique and Mr Depp to deliver an outstanding performance and the movie and the actor did not disappoint me as the storyline was unique and Mr Depp once again delivered an exceptional performance in yet another unusual character. I would strongly encourage people reading this blog to catch the movie as it's worth the money.

My day was not just filled with movies. I also managed to catch the US Grand Prix in bits and pieces and I will usually catch the starting where the cars wil take off as it's amazing to witness drivers trying to get the better of the other by overtaking and you can simply witness the battle of the wits at the start and throughout the race and the ending is also a must-watch as you will get to see the reaction of the podium finishers. As some of you might know, Alonso, the former 2 time world champion is not happy that Lewis Hamilton, the rookie F1 driver is stealing the limelight by winning some races as in F1, the second lesser known driver is supposed to play second fiddle to the famous driver in the team but the reversal of roles is clearly unsettling and I hope Fernando does not do anything stupid by taking out his team mate's car in future races as I support Maclaren and the support goes to a time when Ferrari and Schumacher was dominating F1 and it became so boring that I supported Maclaren hoping they can challenge Ferrari and glad that they are beating Ferrari at the moment.

My super sunday finally ended when I caught the Real Madrid game where they had to win the game to confirm their league title and their title aspirations took a blow when they were down to a goal and Barcelona was romping to a 3-0 scoreline by 30 mins and many people wondered if Read could ever come back. I thought the manager made a mistake of substituting Beckham with Reyes and that was a brilliant tactical move as Reyes proved to be a supersub by scoring 2 goals and the entire stadium went wild with celebration. Real deserved to win the title due to their consistency over the past 12 games and with a bit of luck though, I was a bit upset when Barca could not win the title even though they won their other match 4-0 and had to expect Real to slip. As they say, anything goes in football and I have to entertain myself with some activity for the next 2 months as football season is over. DAMN!

Frenched!!

My male friends raised an eyebrow when I told them that I'm taking French for intersem one as language modules are very difficult to score and you can even fail if you cannot cope with the subject. My female friends were happy for me when they knew that I was taking French as they felt it was good exposure. I'm currently experiencing both waves of emotion as I'm struggling with the language as conjugation and vocab can be a real bitch but it's an experience as I got to know more about the language, culture and place through my French teacher and she's a very good teacher as she's patient and will not put you off by scolding. Next week is exams and I hope I can clear the subject.

The French lessons have also taught me something. My travels are pathetic as I will be shell shocked and dumbstruck when the teacher asks us about the places in the textbook and most of my classmates have no clue about the places. I guess the only places we are most likely to know outside Singapore is Malaysia and at most Bangkok and this has made my resolve to travel once I start work as I do not want to die without experiencing the magic of the world.

They are an enigma

I have a hard time understanding the female species. Take for instance, Britney Spears. She was a smashing success in the late 90s and early 2000. Although she continued to make stupid and irrerelevant comments like stating that she was a virgin although we know that Justin was doing her every day at that time, her songs were deniably catchy and was a guilty pleasure and she became the pop princess. Suddenly, she ventured into dangerous territory and started showing more skin and suddenly became more bad-ass. The clincher was that she went to a drive-through wedding agency and got married on the spur of the moment with her childhood sweetheart and divorced him some hours later. The icing of the cake has to go to her marrying Kevin Federline who's basically white trash and was riding on her literally and figuratively for cash and fame as he was going to launch an album which bombed. My point was that the once pop princess could have gotten a better and responsible husband and more goodlooking one but she chose to screw her life by choosing a white trash for her husband. Her case is not a isolated one though.

Pammy or Pamela Anderson was the famous pin-up girl of Baywatch whose fame is legendary and it even went higher after her home-made sex video was leaked onto the internet. I'm not criticising her for making a home video as it is her own business and i'm not even angry that she was either stupid enough not to keep the video in a secure place or wanted the world to know of her existence again. I just do not understand why she keeps dating bad ass boys who get a kick out of bashing her up. That lady whose knockers are amazingly huge and would make an average guy just stop in his tracks can have her pick of guys but she chose to choose Tommy Lee who loves to beat her up and let's not even start about Kid Rock. I guess rockers are the luckiest people on earth who can get away with bashing women. I just hate violence against women and some Indian women are the subject of some amazing bashing by their drunk husbands but they continue to live for the sake of their husbands. I can understand the situation but if the situation was to happen to my close friends or relatives(touchwood),I would love to give them a dose of Santino Corleone violence and tell these women to divorce their husbands and start life afresh instead of hoping for things to change.

Another lady whom I'm puzzled by is Jennifer Lopez who has great curves and a body to die for. I can understand her reasons for hooking up with P.Diddy as it was strictly buisness but Marc Anthony!!!What the hell was she thinking? I do not have a doubt that Markie is loaded but there are thousands of loaded men out there. Other than the reason that both are Latino and both can sing together, I can't imagine why would Mdm Lopez do herself grave injustice by marrying Markie. Perhaps, she can see the charm in him which I can't see.They might be a great and loving couple but I still don't understand.

I can understand if gorgeous girls were to fall for 5ocent, Akon, P.diddy or Ice Cube but I can't understand why successful and gorgeous girls fall in love with ugly guys. Perhaps, LOVE IS BLIND and WOMEN ARE BLIND!!!

Movies Galore

I managed to catch up on some good movies over the past two weeks, notably The Untouchables which was touted as the best movie since 'The Godfather'. The movie was about the life of Al Capone and how Al played by Robert De Niro will try to outwit the law enforcement officer in charge of Al Capone's arrest played by Kevin Costner. The movie was above average as Robert De Niro shined in the role and the untouchables gang which had Sean Connery was unpredictable and funny.

I also caught The Exorcist, the 1973 version which was touted as the best horror movie. After watching the movie, I felt cheated as I couldn't feel goosebumps while watching the movie. I watched it alone in my hostel room but I still did not feel fear engulfing me. I will perhaps watch the movie with the lights off to create the atmosphere the next time around. After the movie, it suddenly began to hit me that the Devil can possess anyone anytime if the story is true as claimed to be and that's a very scary thought. I began to wonder why should the Devil prey on an innocent girl when it should have preyed on fucked up men but then again, these fucked men have already fulfilled their purpose and the devil needs more good people to come to its side. It also exposes the devil's brutal nature as it does not leave children who in my opinion should not be touched as I feel that they should be protected from the harsh realities to a certain extent until a certain age.

It makes me wonder if the Devil actually exists or it's a concept coined by humans to induce fear in human. As I was telling one of my friends, hot vs cold, left vs right and lots of opposites exist so there could be a possibility of Satan to oppose God. I strongly believe that God is the cause of both good, bad and ugly and I won't be surprised if God if indeed created Satan so that people will realise and appreciate the good things in life.

Nobody is perfect and I have made some horrible mistakes in the past and did not feel good about making those mistakes but if you do not make the mistakes, you will not know it's a mistake. That experience have strengthened my resolve to not commit the same mistake and I'm glad to have made the mistake and learnt from it and continued with my life. Living a mistake free-lifestyle is a mistake. Making mistakes and learning from it is what makes life!!

A normal weekend

My saturday started off with a trip to Bedok camp and I happened to meet Chung Hei, one of my army friends over there and went to take the IPPT. I wasn't exactly in the best physical shape as my running schedules were irregular and the last time I attempted the IPPT was some 3 years. I was just aiming for a decent pass in all the stations so that I could at least pocket the $100. I was suprised to see that all the test stations including the 2.4km run was electronic and it was quite impossible to cheat as a PTI will be there at the stations to ensure that nobody tries anything 'funny'.

I failed the pull-up station as I managed to do a pathetic 5 pull-ups and I completely gave up for the 2.4km as I had no motivation to run and I clocked in a miserable 13.30. Lesson learnt: Do not expect shortcuts from last minute trainings and be consistent in your training regime and the results will tell and choose a camp where the 2.4km run is not done on the track. The running track saps up my mental and physical energy at a faster rate compared to non-track routes. It's time to hit the gym and do some serious running.

I went to have dinner with Chung Hei at the food centre near the camp and the food was better than most food centres but there was one drink stall whose service appalled me. I went to order my drinks at the drink stall and they completely forgot about my order and I didn't bother telling them. One of the stall assistants gave the family head a piece of paper so that he can write them down. It's the first time that I'm witnessing such crap and I will be completly pissed off if a stall assistant were to ask me to write my order down and pass it to him. This is bullshit!! The stall conveniently forgets that there are 3 other drinks stall in the food centre and they might end up losing buisness.

I was totally bored by the FA Cup Final between Man U and Chelsea as both teams played cautiously and the match was such a bore that I was changing channels to watch the ATP Masters Semifinals matches featuring Federer and Nadal. I expected those two teams to play till penalty shootout and out of the blue, Drogba scored and gave Chelsea the FA Cup denying Man U the double but I couldn't be bothered with who won the FA cup as I had expected some good football and Rooney and Drogba provided the only excitement of the match.

I can't wait for next thursday as it will be the champions league final rematch between Liverpool and Ac Milan. I still strongly believe that the 2005 match was rigged as I still find it impossible to hit 3 goals within 15 mins against AC Milan and the only possible reason for that could be corruption. I can't wait for Kaka and company to slay their opponents who likes to bask in past glory. I hope the final would not be a total bore as the FA Cup final match.

Intersem One

Exams ended last friday and I did some catching up with movies for the past two weeks and just realised how many good movies I have missed out. The holidays will be a great time to catch up on good classics and meet up with friends and earn some cash before I officially become a Year 3 student. Time really flies and I didn't expect the 2 years of Uni Life to pass so quickly and there is still 2 more years left before I become a job-seeker.

Anyway, I'm taking intersem one and I'm doing French. Some of my friends were skeptical of my choice of module as they felt that it's very difficult to score in a language subject and you need time to get accustomed to the language. I had to totally agree with them in the first lesson as I had trouble getting used to the grammer and the masculine and feminine part of every word. English seemed suddenly simple but then again, I have been speaking and writing in English for 20 odd years so I guess starting out in French where I tend to use the English pronunciation and spelling was difficult.

The teacher is however good and patient as she does not mind repeating herself even though she had went through the same part five minutes ago and she's quite amusing as she tends to be animated quite a number of times and make cracko jokes. She's totally different from my engineering tutors who are DAMN BORING and PREDICTABLE. She asked us to call her by her first name but then again it's common for westerners to address each other by first names where in Asian countries, we address them sir or madam as a form of respect.

Yesterday's lesson was pretty good as Clarisse gave me a headstart in the langugage as she had taken French in secondary and I'm glad for the help as my pronunciation is slightly better. There were two separate incidents in my French class. My handphone was out of battery and I brought my charger as I was expecting an important message from my tuition kid. As I was sitting in the front of my class, the only power points I found was at the back of the class. I stood up and walked to the back of the class and plugged in my charger.When I turned around, the entire class including the teacher was looking at me as if I was weird and my friend told me later that the teacher was puzzled initially when I went to the back of the class. It was as if I was going to give a presentation.

The handphone was also my enemy later on as many people started calling me and Kangli smsed me a few times and as I was smsing him, my French teacher told me in a nice manner that she would gladly exchange my phone for hers and I got the hint and sheepishly put away my handphone. I guess it's a form of respect by paying attention and not using your handphone. As a whole, it is the only class where I ask questions as I'm interested in the subject and even Chiew Y.M could not tempt me with class participation to ask questions in water resource class. I seriously hope NTU overhauls its teaching staff with ang moh lecturers and keep a few good Asian professors.I wish!!

FORZA Milan

As mentioned in my earlier post, I wished for a Milan victory in the second leg of the champions league at the San Siro and it did indeed came true. Milan beat Manchester United 3-0 courtesy of goals from Kaka, Seedorf and Gilardino. Watching the first few minutes was simply nerve-wrecking for me as Milan had to get the early goal as fast as possible so that they can get into the rhythm and play flowing football. One of my hall friends predicted that the rainy weather will be an advantage for Ronaldo who will have to evade sliding tackles and might earn a penalty. The first goal was simply a stroke of a genius by Kaka who simply has a knack for scoring goals against Manchester and he did it again for the 10th time in 12 games of Champions League and that is a great feat considering it's the champions league and you don't get to score that many goals in one season and for a midfielder, it's simply amazing.

I began to relax after Seedorf scored the second and the famed Manchester defence without their Ferdinand played sucidal football and they deserved to concede the goal. The old man still refuses to bid his time and proves me wrong from time to time as he was the spark behind the victory over Bayern. Manchester continued to press on but their attacting duo, Rooney Boy and Ronaldo were subdued and were not their usual selves.

The third goal was simply a giveaway as the entire defence was engrossed in pushing up and getting a goal back to kill the game but Gillardino had other plans and scored. I was secretly hoping that Milan should buy Heinze for next season and I think they should as he's a damn good defender besides the performance he gave today. He's hardworking and makes good runs and will be the perfect man to replace the legendary Paulo Maldini. If they could get hold of Ronaldo, that will be AWESOME!!Ronaldo, Gattuso,Ambroshini, Seedorf, Kaka and Gillardino..Mouthwatering. It can achieve further success next season if such a dream is possible but Ronaldo had to sign the stupid papers to contract him for another few years.

I'm also glad that the talk of the treble is finally over for Manchester United as they can finally concentrate on the EPL where they are king and continue to play their flowing football against the English teams. They can acheive the double for all I care as their hopes of winning the Holy Grail is dashed by my favourite team!!!If only Chelsea could de me a favour and perform a treble. Awesome!!!

I have to stop wasting my time and choose my movies wisely as I feel that there are quite a number of good movies out there which I should watch and I should not watch movies for the sake of watching movies. Year One was a painful lesson for me as I watched movies for the sake of watching and I began to catch random movies including good movies and it suddenly hit me that I should be choosy about movies as 2 hours of your life is spent on the screen and I should treat myself to good movies and the bad movies have virtually no effect on me and it only wasted my precious time. I still have a long way to go in terms of movies as I have to catch some of De Niro's classics like Raging Bull and Good Fellas and some of Al Pacino, Joe Pesice, Denzel, Natalie,Samuel L.J,Guy Pearce and good old Triad Hongkong movies(Infernal Affairs). The month of May promises to be one full of good movies and I better captialise on the free time.

It's also time to broaden my intellectual horizons by buying good books from Borders or Kinokuniya. I love to buy good books recommended by friends as I always end up making bad choices when it comes to buying music cds and books. Though each book is likely to set me back by 30 dollars, a good book is always worth the buy especially when it's a classic.

I'm kind of glad to have made new friends over the past 2 years in NTU who have exposed me to good movies, music and books and have broadened my horizons. My Toastmasters friends are one of the first few friends and they are simply amazing as their knowledge of good food, good books and good music are breath-taking and my music taste has widened by a lot when the only music I used to listen to was Tamil music when I was 16 and it had improved by leaps and bounds. I was initially sad of getting Hall 3 as I have made some great friends over at Hall 15 but my knowledge and insight into soccer has improved to a higher level after I met two Indian nationals in my block and it's quite surprising for a fact to see them watch soccer as I had expected those jokers to love cricket. I was initally depressed to have entered a faculty which I was not keen as I felt that the faculty would have typical 933 but I have made some good friends who have introduced me to the fine things in life and they still continue to do so and enrich my day. I guess I might not be the same person who could have missed out on such stuff if I had not met these people. Perhaps, it's F.A.T.E!!!

Next Match:: Champions League Final AC Milan VS Liverpool

It's a repeat of the champions league final 2 seasons ago and I hope that Milan avenge that defeat where they conceded 3 goals in a space of 20 minutes!!I hope Mr Dida will be on top form for that particular match and we simply have to make a dull season a bit brighter by winning the cup for the seventh time and play catch-up with Real to win them on the trophy count. Their Galatico policy seems to be put on hold adter their last major purchase-D.Beckham who is heading to America and they seem to have won nothing at all ever since he has arrived besides the occasional cups. They have to win the league at least for Beckham's sake before he leaves Real. It will be a shame if they do not win the league but I hope Barca retains the league although their tailsman Ronaldinho seems to be quiet by his high standards and the other Brazilian, Kaka is making waves at the Italian coast.

The System!!

I mentioned in my earlier post some of the demerits of the education system and the recommendations that I had proposed. While I do give my latest post some thought while I was studying, I realised that there are more demerits to the system. As mentioned earlier, the PSLE exam is one of the turning point of a child. Though I like the system's efficiency in despatching students to different schools based on their score, it also attaches a permanent number to every student. The higher the number, the better you are. Many people will repeatedly ask you your PSLE score over and over again as it's easier for people to guage how smart you are but I will like beg to differ.

Some of the good friends that I have made in JC and NTU have PSLE scores not more than 220 including myself and we have made into university through hard work. I'm not glorifing or boasting about neighbourhood kids as comeback kids but I just felt that the PSLE score is just a number aimed at distinguishing a person's academic capabilities based on only 4 subjects. Some of the poly friends that I have made in Army have crap PSLE scores but I have learnt a lot from them as they are one of the street smart people that I have ever known. PSLE score does not determine how smart you are.

The system does not offer students second chance unless you are strong-willed. When a student goes to EM3, he will most likely end up in NT and ITE. The path is basically set for him and this is the main reason why parents want their children to avoid the EM3 track as it's the most despised and least favoured track. Many parents will want to avoid this track as they are also afraid their children will end up with the wrong company and they end up not studying and their lives basically becomes shit. I came from a neighbourhood school where there were 2 NT classes and half the class are gang members. I can understand parents' reactions but the other half are not gang members. The pace of the NT education is slow compared to express and many people including elite students, teachers and society have condenmed NT students.

It's very unreasonable to expect an overhaul of the education system but the system should learn to incorporate children talented in other non-academic areas and I believe there are steps taken to place lesser emphasis on grades and I hope the system eventually changes for the better.

On a Lighter Note....

My exams are coming to an end this friday and I can't wait for it to end as the subjects this semester are pretty heavy and the only consolation is that I had attained a better grade than expected for tech com for the amount of work we put in considering the last minute work. I'm taking an exam on Friday which many people would take it in their final year but I really enjoy reading the notes and relieving the history for a strange reason.

I can't also wait for tomorrow night as it is the second leg of the champions league final between AC Milan and Man U with Man U leading 3-2 and having a upper hand but the match is set at the San Siro and I hope Milan wins this match as I want them to lift the European Trophy for the last time before their beloved and loyal Maldini retires as I feel he should leave with a bang considering this season to be his last. However, I have to pay tribute Man U for the outstanding performances they deliver week in week out and all of their players except a certain Richardson have hit top form and this team reminds me of the treble team. I do hope they could exit the Champions League so that AC Milan could win the Champions League.

The System!!

The education in Singapore is very systematic, efficient and brutally simple. A child enters pre-schooling at the age of five and learns simple addition and subtraction and basic English and his mother tongue. Once he reaches the age of seven, he enters Primary school. For the next 4 years, he takes 4 subjects which are English,Maths, Science and Mother Tongue and goes on to take the streaming in Primary 4 which was scrapped some years ago. If he does well, he will go on to EM1 where he can take higher mother tongue and mix with other smart children. If he does average, he will be streamed to EM2 and if he fares badly in the streaming, he will be dumped to EM3. Students begin life afresh again at Primary 5 and work their way to Primary 6 where they take the PSLE exam. This is one exam which can alter the path of your life. A higher aggregate score will guarantee you a good school while a mediocre or average score will land you in a neighbourhood school.

After the PSLE, students will undergo secondary school where there are 3 levels- Express, Normal and Normal technical where the students at Express learn more subjects at a faster pace compared to the students in N and NT level and they will study for another 4 years before the N and NT students take their N-Levels and the Express students take their O-levels. After these exams, the NT students will most likely end up in a ITE and soon start work after their ITE studies. Some of the express students will go on to Junior College where they will study to get in a university and some do not get into University and the rest of the express students go on to polytechnic.

Some of you might be wondering why I am explaining the Singapore education system when we all know about it from top to bottom having gone through the system. If you take a closer look at the system, it emphasises on the survival of the fittest principle where the weaker ones who have not done well are dumped to one corner where they slug it out with their "weak" peers and the stronger ones progress further and competing with the better ones. As the level gets harder and harder, the better ones are eventually identified through their grades and go on to secure good jobs and get sought after by scholorship boards.

Some of you might cry foul and say that the education system is systematic and efficient. I do agree that it is systematic and efficient but the people who say this are likely to be the ones who have excelled well in the education system and sing praises of the education system when it is actually flawed. I know it is very difficult to come up with an education system which can take years to change but the change has to be made now. There are minor changes such as the abolition of streaming at Primary school. More needs to be done right from Primary school.

The entire education needs a complete revamp as the grades one gets in a exam are mostly or solely based on a single exam he takes. I believe that the understanding of biology and physics cannot be solely understood without experiencing it. Though there are lab sessions and field trips, the number of such activites pale in comparison with the number of hours spent in the classroom understanding these wonderful things.

The next thing is to place more emphasis on personal development and introduce courses meant to improve the student as a whole. I believe the students at independant schools are exposed to such courses as their hefty monthly school fees justify their courses. Neighbourhood schools should not be denied the opportunity to experience such courses although the neighbourhood school I studied did have such courses but it paled in comparison with the indepedant school's number. I understand it is difficult for the goverment to subsidise every single government school's programme as the budget is very limited but I strongly believe that no compromise should be made on a child's well being and education.

(To be continued..)

Finger Licking Food

After weeks of stale hostel food, I decided to treat myself to some good finger licking food- the grand old Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC). I will perhaps research a bit about KFC after my exams since I know nuts about it and will like to know if it really originated from Kentucky. If it had, things could have been different if it had originated from Washington or New York. As I was queuing up, I decided to treat myself to a shroom's set meal and 2 piece original chicken. When I ordered the food, I was told by the counter staff that it will be better if I purchase the 2 piece chicken set meal as I could have a drink and whipped potato for an additional $2 compared to purchasing 2 separate chicken. I reluctantly purchased 2 set meals and was fuming at the practice of fast food restaurants to make their set meals look cheap when it is not. A whole chicken costs $6 to $10 from a wet market and KFC charges almost $5 for 2 piece chicken. I guess I will limit myself to my KFC feasts to a minimum.

I love my hall facilities as all the rooms have air-con and it's new especially the toilets where we can actually sleep in it. A few weeks ago, two guys moved in to my level and the state of the toilet has become bad. I noticed on a few occasions that the outer part of the toilet bowl have shit stains and used to wonder how can their crap possibly reach that part of the seat when they are hitting and it suddenly hit me that the jokers were squatting on the toilet seat and thus couldn't hit the target. I know it's hard for people to change their position. If they think, they are not used to the position, they should either go to another hall to take a dump where there are squat toilet cubicles or shift to another hall instead of making it inconvenient for others. I just hope those jokers do not stay in my hall next semester.

It's Sad

I was quite skeptical of Ac Milan's chances of progressing past the quarter final stage although Bayern had some players injured. AC Milan produced one of their finest games of this season as they scored two goals in the first half to set up a titanic battle against Manchester United. I was quite impressed with the ageing C.Seedorf as I felt that he was beyond his due date and he proved me wrong by scoring one and assisting in the other. One of my hall friend commented that they play like Manchester U where I have to grudgingly agree as some of AC Milan's footwork and passing reminded me of Manchester United. I can't wait for them to slay Man U as the talk of the treble is getting louder and louder and the old arrogant banter and bullshit from their dear Alex and players seem to be making a comeback.

I was earlier thinking of Liverpool and felt that they have nothing except past glory to boast about and I suddenly thought about a few of my acquaintences who completely behave like Liverpool. I used to be surrounded by people from good sec school and some of them will indulge in conversation like how they were better off in their secondary school and now, they are in a shit hole. The purpose of their conversation is to make themselves feel good and relieve their glory days. I feel that some of them do not have respect for people from neighbourhood schools just because they happen to do well in an exam 10 years ago as their conversation alienates some of us including myself. It can get worse if the same topic surfaces again and I have to put up with such bullcrap for the next 30 mins. I have to admit that some of these guys and girls are brilliant but they are completely let down by their trash talk.

I know of guys from a certain school are very proud to be associated with their school and will address each other as brothers and are proud to hang out together under the banter of their alma mater but they end up bitching and back-stabbing behind their so called friends' back right in front of me. The worst part was I felt that these guys were cool at the beginning and started to dislike their behaviour when I learnt of their true colours and I am so ashamed of myself for thinking so highly of them.

I have great respect for people from the gifted secondary schools as some of my closest friends are from these school and I have learnt a great deal from them as well and they happen to be very nice as well. However, some of the people I know who indulge in such bullshit talk and past glory give these schools a bad impression and should perhaps learn that humility goes a long way and being intelligent does not earn you any respect when you are arrogant.

We Need A Striker!!

Every club has its own tailsman. When you think of Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool, the first player to come to your mind will be Ronaldo, Lampard and Gerrard respectively because without them, the clubs are nothing. Their clubs seem to function very well with them and if they get injured, we can see the void left by them. In the case of Chelsea, they have billions of rubles to get themselves a new player if their players gets injured. However, clubs like Arsenal(though rich to a certain extent) have to contend themselves with fringe players when key players get injured.

I applaud Wenger's decision to stick to his youth policy which has paid divendends in the case of Patrick Viera, Kolo Toure and Fabregas but almost everyone knows that Arsenal without their prolific striker, Mr Vava voom , Thierry Henry is nothing. Although Adebayor is good, he's not in the same class as Thierry Henry. Dennis Bergkamp used to give other teams a run for their money with his slick passing and vision and Arsenal clearly needs another striker to complement Henry when Henry comes back from injury if they want to continue challenging for top honours.

Some might say that Van Persie is good and he will offer Arsenal awesome striking options but I seriously hope that he does not get injured frequently and spend more time on the bench than on the field. Another striker will solve the striker crisis issue and we can continue challenging for top honours like we used to do over the past few seasons and not let the Chelsea and Man U clowns challenging for them only and we do not have to worry about lower-rung teams beating us.

I badly need to work on my fitness as it is in a atrocious shape. I used to run the NTU route with little difficulty but now, the situation is so bad that I will stop at almost every up-slope. I do not know how I am going to pass my IPPT but I seriously hope that it's not beyond hope and my twice-weekly runs will pay off in a month's time.

I'm Confused!!!

A year ago, it was reported in the papers that Jose Mourinho, the current manager of Chelsea and ex-manager of Porto preferred average players(think of Drogba) than ego-inflated superstars as he was able to control his players. His signings seem to reflect that and with a huge war chest, people expected him to sign superstars to justify Chelsea's backing. True enough, Chelsea signed Shevchenko and Ballack in the August summer window.

However, some people felt that the signings were hugely due to Roman Abramovich who wanted superstars to be in his team and make his team invincible. I was not surprised by the rumours because Roman apparently wanted Ronaldo(the fat one) and Morinho advised him against from buying Ronaldo. In the first half of the season, Mourinho was not happy with Sheva's performance and it was rumoured that Mourinho was not happy with Shevchenko moving to Chelsea as Sheva was a close friend of Roman and it might complicate matters in the dressing room.

This became a talking point when Mourinho and Sheva seemed not to be on talking terms and Roman seemed to offload the Portuguese over Sheva when the Portuguese steered Chelsea to two successive league titles. Now, things have suddenly changed as Sheva has started scoring on a regular basis and Mourinho has openly declared that it was he who made the decision to sign Sheva and Ballack. I can't help suspecting that Mourinho would have kissed and made up with Roman and Sheva and tried to make the unsuspecting public believe that everything is fine. Mourinho could have said right from the start that it was his decision. Why now? One can only wonder.

Being a late-bloomer, I managed to catch Constantine and it was quite good as there are some dark elements to the movie. I didn't know that the followers of the Catholic faith will be condemned to hell which is stated in the bible if they commit suicide. There were also some funny elements when Satan tried to take Constantine and Constantine showed him the middle finger. It has also made me respect Keanu Reeves for choosing his movie roles well and not just choosing for the sake of attaining mass appeal. The movie has made me realise how little I knew about Christianity although I have asked Lester lots of questions. It also reignited the curiousity streak in me to know more about the Catholic faith as my knowledge is bare minimal. I guess it's time to consult my Catholic friends once again over the holidays.