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.