Friday, July 30, 2004

i realised that some good runners tend not to get outta breath even after they completed their 2.4km run, and during pe this morning i went on to hit the track and tried to control my breathing for today's running session. yeah instead of using my mouth to inhale and exhale after around one round as i usually do, i tried to use my nose instead. well it wasn't easy at first, cause i personally lack stamina and i'm just too used to breathing through my mouth. yeah i know breathing through the mouth during running ain't that good afterall, for the probability of one going out of breathe during the course of the run is extremely high; and that's why i wanna try to complete my run breathing through my nose instead. my pace was extremely slow i think, but i can't really speed up that much as that will mean me running outta breathe pretty soon and anyway i'm just running for leisure so there's no pressure for me to run fast at all. managed to breathe normally for the first six rounds, after which i had to go panting like a dog for the last two rounds. yeps i'm kinda pleased with myself today - though running 8 rounds isn't that great an achievement, at least there's some form of satisfaction knowing that i could actually complete 3.2km without any stops inbetween. some people termed it as da running euphoria, but that only occurs when one's emotionally attached to running itself. oh crap, even i don't know why i'm into running nowadays. maybe it's really sucha good feeling that my asics gave me? lol oh well.

anyway some of the class went to play floorball for the last half an hour. me, joe, jen, cyn and layne's on one team, while the other consisted of prof sun, hm, pl, xh and dan da man. ain't the best of pairing i have to agree, but i couldn't be bothered really. anyway we were down for the starting moments of the game, but my team did well to close the gap and went on to clinch the game by a one goal lead. yeah and layne scored the winning goal lol. and i'm glad that i managed to score one goal and provided some assists. 'kay maybe my floorball skills doesn't really suck that much afterall as i usually thought so. at least i was running havoc through the flanks and making crosses every now and then. haha, i'm gonna be the sajc's version of raul gonzalez in floorball.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

yeah it's sajc service learning day today, and my class went to east coast park to do some beach cleaning with some other classes. and boy if you'd thought singapore beaches are clean and free of litter, you've really gotta think again man. there was loads of rubbish strewn along the east coast beaches, and it ranges from practically anything you could ever think of - from those cough medicine container, unfinished potato chips and even durex condom wrappers! yeah guess the reality is that singapore isn't that clean afterall, and reality does hurt alot lol. my class was practically slacking throughout the whole damn thing, and yuzhe even took around 15mins to shit at the toilet before we even took a look at any rubbish. the girls were taking breaks at the benches and pavilions every few steps they walked, and jen's gang just went around posing for photo shoots. one and a half year ago i would have thought that such cip activities might be actually fun cause it's always nice to do things as a class, but now i think it just reinforces the fact that my class is so fuckin' disunited. basically we're just split into varying cliques, though that's not a new thing to anyone in the class anymore. *sigh* one couldn't really help but feel perturbed over why a st andrew's class can be so goddamned pathetic. or maybe pathetic's not strong enough a word to describe the state of my class. yeah it's just so bad that i doubt anyone (including me) would give a damn if 03s92 will fall apart the next day, cause the rv peeps would be too busy mugging their sad life away in the company of their notes to even know what's really going on. that goes the same for pl's gang too i'm sad to say. i know it's very mean of me to say such things about my classmates who were with me for one and a half year insofar, but i'd don't have much positive things 'bout them really. maybe they're just waaay hardworking yeah? forget it man, why waste your time on those peeps who wouldn't wanna speak up a single sentence in class and jotting down furiously whatever other people contribute. silent leechers they are, yet the teachers forever seems to be against those who are more outspoken. what the fuck is wrong with sajc, really.

ok guess that's enough for my ranting, so let's just drop that subject of how sucky my class is yeah? yeah it's jennie's birthday today and zan gave her a bracelet. cynthia too has a belated birthday present (think her birthday is almost two months ago? =x). well zan originally wanted only those who paid for the pressies to write their greetings on the birthday cards, but it just got around in the end and i had to tell her to relax after seeing her what-the-hell-why-is-everyone-writing face lol. more well wishes couldn't be that bad a thing afterall yeah lol. gee that stupid jennie kept arguing with me today as usual, and i bet she would be so darn sorry if she knew the trouble i had to go through and get her bracelet haha. yeah zan pulled me down to town with her yesterday and we really had a hard time trying to decide what to get for jen, cause both me and joel was suggesting to get her a hot pink bra (woots) but zan thought that it would be diff cause we don't know jen's vital stats and *ahem* none of them tried to ask her for it damn. and yeah we're like sifting through the shops and looked at any potential gifts - beach tops, bright flowerly pink berms, bras (yes joel we did looked at 'em), thongs and triumph's lacy g-string. ahha that was so embarassing man; and in the end we decided to go back to perlini's again to get her a bracelet (we bought cyn's one first) to get the one we shortlisted earlier. gee i didn't knew getting a present could be such a mind-boggling and tiring process. but it's worth it yeah, if it does help to brighten someone's day a lil'. hope jen likes the one we chose for her haha. anyway if jen you're reading this, you'd better thank me lots tomorrow and stop arguing with me hahaha. oh crap.

yeah had carbonara at pastamania's with jen's gang, joel, chenxin, yuzhe, linzheng and kaiyun. gee that pasta totally sucked big time man, cause the excessive cream really grossed me out. and to think i sprinkled quite a chunk of parmesan cheese on it before tucking in yucks. it was just sooo bad that i think none of the carbonara eaters managed to finish their plate. and i nearly threw up cause i was practically stuffing quite alot of the fusilli into my mouth, and i turned pale when the cream just oozes outta the pasta. haha went to play counterstrike with layne and yuzhe afterwards for around 3 hours, and i think i rock with my ak47 and carbine haha! yeah went to kallang to have not-so-katong-like laksa before setting off for home. my legs are aching right now, and it's really a loooong day today man haha.

Friday, July 23, 2004

edna chio blew her top during the second econs tutorial period we had today. apparently everyone was shocked by how angry she was, cause it's just during the pe break when some of us are cracking jokes on how mrs lee tries to degrade the class while edna is quite simply the opposite as she's darn approachable. guess edna was fed up with the fact that i didn't complete my mcq homework, while both layne and jennie didn't do their essay outline. 'kay i'm also a lil' guilty when it comes to the essay outline part, cause i didn't follow edna's instructions last week to do a detailed outline - all i did during the time before morning assembly is just scribble down some points briefly upon consulting joel. *sigh* for once i felt kinda sad that my class made a teacher angry - prolly that's just because this very teacher is edna. alright i know i've made numerous comments on how pretty she is, but seriously i appreciate her not because of her looks but because of her teaching ability. yeah me, and a couple of my friends, really like the teaching style of edna. it's just cool and straight to the point. unlike mrs lee who would blast anyone who tried  to answer her question but gave the wrong answer, edna is quite the opposite: first of all she wouldn't actually arrow her questions at anybody - if you want to contribute actively to the discussion then you just say out your point loud. secondly, even if you gave her a foolishly-thought answer, edna wouldn't put you down like mrs lee; she'll at most say 'are you sure?!' before giving the correct explanation to ya so that you could clarify your doubt. and during her course of explanation, she would constantly add in the phrases 'class, are you with me?' to ensure that everyone knows what's indeed going on. i think such a teaching style would benefit us in the long run, and moreover i'm sick of the silent dead instances during lee's tutorials whereby she will ask a question and all the muggers in my class would turn mute instantly. my class is relatively new to edna so there isn't much about her i could comment on, but well it's just so unfortunate that we pissed her off today. perhaps we should really start doing our assigned econs work for once and prove to edna chio that we can do our work if we put our hearts to it - how could anyone deny that she has made economics less dready for that few of us yeah?

go edna go! :)

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

gee i think i'm not feeling well right now. my nose has been wheezing nonstop and i guess ive just caught a cold. perhaps it's due to the weather today, for it was pouring rather heavily when i just stepped outta my house. and the blasting stupid aircon at the room while i was havin' my p geography lessons didn't help at all. *sneezes* argh i feel so fuckin' weak now and i've the sudden urge to doze off any moment.. =x

yeah i got my ass raped at the table tennis tournament today. lost both of my singles' and doubles' games by straight sets heh. okay that wouldn't really count as a surprise given my absolutely newbie status in this game, and i'm just kinda glad that i didn't go down without scoring any single point within a set at all haha. same story goes for joel as well, but he was lucky in the sense that he managed to get into the second round cause his opponent didn't turn up for the first round, thus allowing him to advance on the basis of a walkover. limin and cynthia lost their girls' double match against some expert-like players, but overall they managed to clinch a third placing cause there's only 4 teams within that category and one of the teams didn't turn up cause they are playing at the interhouse soccer tournament. my heartfelt congratulations to them! :) i think the linzheng-huanyun duo managed to advance, and the way they play table tennis is indeed breathtaking. huanyun is especially good and his reflexes are darn fast. i think they would progress a long way into the tournament, prolly winning the whole thing perhaps.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

finally wore my new pair of shoes to school today, and boy i've gotta say that i've only got praises for my gel-landreth. yeah it surely has to be the most comfortable shoe i've ever worn in my life so far. well i guess it's just asics yeah, the brand which is prolly most famous for its running shoes lol. the new balance absorbz, nike max-air and adidas superstar i had really paled in comparison to landreth, and that's just good it is lol. it's really comfortable landing on my heels and i'm literally bouncing when i was walking on the track heh. plus it doesn't not have any outta-the-world design for me to be branded a fuckin' poser; and air is allowed to flow rather freely within the shoe, somewhat like the adidas climacool is known for. woots that's the wonder of what the speva, igs and gel cushioning system can do hehe. gee i just loved it totally and the only thing now is to wish that landreth can be durable - it's really gonna cause majorof heartbreak within me should it fall apart within half a year. breathe hard people, for the asics revolution right up! :)
 
oh yeah tomorrow would be the much-anticipated sajc table tennis championships, and i couldn't even understand why am i showing such enthusiam over it. i've never really played a single proper game of table tennis, let alone knowing all the rules that govern this game; yet i managed to drag joel in to take part in the championship hehe. and i'm kinda famous for my slow reaction during sports games, so i think table tennis ain't really the game for me lol. and things couldn't get possibly worse as i'm being drawn into the same pool as those good players. yeah they might not be from the sajc school team, but yuzhe has told me beforehand that they are capable of kicking some ass as they're even better than the school team's players. should i managed to sneak past my first opponent for the singles matchup (which is kinda impossible, frankly speaking), i'll be up against the ex-councillor weiphin and i'm kinda prepared to be on the suffering end for two 11-0 sets' trashing. yeah yuzhe even told me that he has never won weiphin in a single match before. and should both me and joel perform some sort of a miracle (well you should know the probability of a miracle like this happening) to overcome our first opponents for the doubles, we'll face both huang yun and linzheng. yeah both of them are prc scholars from my class *gasp* and it's almost like playing cricket against indian scholars ya know? once again i got some insider information from yuzhe about huan yun, and the answer wasn't that encouraging: yuzhe can't outplay huang yun at all (and i'm like a millionth times lousier than yuzhe?). but i'm not going out there to the hall to enjoy this game only, as i think there's forever this extremely slim chance of me qualifying for saturday's rounds through some luck and underestimation of my capabilities from my opponents. surely i'm not going to go down without putting up any form of resistance with my efforts, though i ain't sure if i'll be totally outclassed and outplayed by my superior opponents. it's time for me to shut out all the fanciful tricks and mind-boggling advanced stuffs such as the ballspinning, and concentrate on using one unorthodox method in the hope of pullin' myself through the rounds tomorrow: forcing the opponents into making fundamental errors which they would've not thought of. await the story of greek-like fairytale in tomorrow's matches. :P
 
 

Monday, July 19, 2004

school today followed the friday's timetable, and yeah so instead of the usual 4.50pm i'm being released officially from school at 12.50pm instead lol. though it's optional for me to attend pe lessons for i had achieved a silver grading at napfa test, i still went for it nonetheless for the fun of it. anyway i'd rather use the pe time to keep myself continually fit before ns kicks in, instead of just spending my time to mug like most of my classmates did.  afterall there's only one lesson within the timetable which does not restrict me to the confinement of the stupid classrooms, and that's gotta be pe! :) the first part of the lesson was spent on physical conditioning for those who didn't pass their napfa test, and yeah we hit the track for 20mins before doing some situps at the end of the run. gee i nearly suffered a bad abdominal cramp for all the situps for i didn't really do any warmup as instructed beforehand. played ultimate frisbee with some of the class and mr dan ho after the strenuous part, and gee that's really fun. yeah my team was the victor with a 5-1 victory lol. and to think the opposition has 3 guys, including dan the man hehe. did quite alot of running about up and down the field, and i was kinda breathless at the end of it. but i guess the majority of the score came from jennie for she was forever lurking around at the endline - all i need to do is to launch into counterattacking mode when the opposition drops the frisbee while they have possession and throw a long one to her. guess most of our score came through counterattacks haha. it's really nice to be doing some sports, especially when the pressure of the prelims start to draw near and everyone's so stressed up. well actually i think sports help to loosen one's mind up a little bit - givin' us a great deal of relief from the hectic schedule everyone has. well i was looking at jinhan's class while doing pe and i felt kinda envious, for they had almost the whole class down for pe lessons just as usual; as for my class, i've only got to say that the attendance was indeed very pathetic and most of the girls rather stay in the canteen to mug. gee, sometimes i wonder if they really do have a life besides mugging so hard for everything. come on people, jc life is gonna end soon and you'd better make the full use outta the remaining time by enjoying yourself while you can - you don't wanna look back and regret some years later on why 03s92 is forever so dead.
 
oh and i waited for joel at the physics lab as he dragged me along to kap to study afterschool. i thought i could do some constructive work there by finishing my undone gp stuff, but i slept through most of the practical lesson instead. and the session at kap wasn't that good afterall, for all i did there was to look at the mgs babe (with her acs boyfriend, damn) opposite me and stoning for most fo the time. work completed at the day: three gp questions. just how sucky can things get man.

Saturday, July 17, 2004

was supposed to meet marv and company for basketball early this morning at school, but i didn't go in the end cause i was too tired and i overslept. thought i could spend my time at home to slack and rot away for the day, but yuzhe sms-ed me to go out. and since both of our shoes are kinda spoilt, we decided that we would go out to get some new shoes today.
 
had my lunch with him at the basement level of suntec city, but i can't remember what's the name of the restaurant - all i know that it ends with '-ny'. gee the pasta there was great i have to say, though i think there was way too much tomato sauce in it. gee i've never liked to put things which are either too sweet or sour when having my meals. yeah so i guess the over-generous content of tomato sauce kinda spolit the pasta a lil'.
 
but after having our meal we went straight down to hunt down for our prospective shoes at peninsular plaza. i guess it's a very frustrating experience, for penin (and queensway too, of course) have too much shops selling shoes and prices could vary quite drastically. well i'd intended right from the start to look for asics, cause i think both adidas and nike are way too overpriced. yeah the climacool and shox series are definitely expensive, and those near the cheaper ends just look like shit. i'd kinda swear not to buy another new balance shoe again, as i think they're not comfortable at all and they are not very resistant to wear and tear. in fact, the soles of my current new balance shoes are on the verge of dropping down and i wouldn't be surprised if someone comes by and call it old balance. oh well. asics on the other hand is solid i guess, and the comfort it provides is recognised worldwide with shock-absorbing gel and the likes. and the design is kinda similar too for all of its shoes, with some minor variation in pattern and colour only. guess the only drawback asics has is the price of its shoe - most of 'em cost more than 100 bucks and there's only one or two with prices around the range of 80+. well i managed to convince yuzhe to join the ranks of asics wearers while we're shopping (gee i hate that word, really) and in the end he bought two pairs of shoes - one asics and an adidas soccer boot. apparently there's generally three ranges of asics i've realised from all the shop-hopping: we've got the normal ones containing gel, those containing gel with speva technology and the kayako series which is the most ex outta the three. of course i'd would like to own a pair of kayako cause i think it looks cool and have really neat features, but the price really turned me off. in the end i settled for a gel landreth instead. yeah it belongs to the second category, and it has the speva thingy. i saw it at a shop for 175 bucks nett, but in the end i bought it at another shop for just 130 bucks after 5 dollars of discount haha. the shopkeeper was like trying his best to convince me that what i'm forking out is value for money,  telling me that there's fibreglass material to the side of the shoe and that i will never sprain my ankle. can't really comprehend what he's talking about with all the technical terms, and i just nodded my head accordingly like some kinda seasoned athlete. well well i guess it was love at first sight for my shoe, and it was really a heartbreaking experience for me to leave the first shop knowing that it's damage level is 175. but hehe in the end i still got it at a cheaper price and heh, it really does help to look around while you're shopping for shoes.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

just got back from town after watching king arthur at cine. had a pizza at pastamania before the show, and gee i guess that wasn't filling cause my stomach's growling nonstop ever since i returned home. well there was nothing much to complain about too, since the hawaiian pizza is only a 7-inch one heh. but i guess it's worth the money to dine at pastamania, for it ain't that costly and the food isn't as bad as macdonalds at least hee.

me and yz was munching on a bag of popcorns durin' the show while both zx and elaine just carried on stuffing kachang puteh into their mouth lol. basically the guys are eating the sweet stuffs, while the gals are taking on the salty ones. well the show ain't that fantastic i think, and i kinda fell asleep momentarily several times throughout the movie screening. the fighting action wasn't as captivating as that of the lotr series, and i couldn't really understand much about the whole story plot except that it's a show about how king arthur and his famous knights went around kickin' the asses of some baddies. but there's just one positive thingy outta the movie: the fact that the female lead was a stunner and elaine just can't get 'nuff of her on the screen lol. 'kay i seem to make it sound like it's a horrible show, but it isn't that bad as fear (i ain't sure if this is the correct name of the show cause it was way years back). that has gotta go down as the suckiest show i've ever seen and i'm lucky that i didn't get to witness anymore show which sucked as bad as it. panic room came close, but wasn't quite near there in terms of it's whorish storyline.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

gee got back some of my block test 2 papers these two days, and i guess it wasn't that bad afterall considering the fact that almost all of my revision was done in da last minute. yeah i'm the typical last-minute worker who would only sms his friends the day before any tests about what are the topics to be covered heh. managed to obtain a pass with 52 marks for gp, and i believe that the teacher who marked my application question was kinda lenient cause i doubt it was worth anywhere near the 4 mark that he/she gave me. heh but since it was written there i'll just take it without any qualms yeah? :) failed my economics as expected, and yeah managed to get an o grade for it. could see that i didn't really know my content at all, cause i was getting single digits for all my essays and it was the case study section which saved my ass from being raped by a f grading. the most surprising of all is that i actually got 41 marks for math! had to admit that i was indeed very surprised cause almost everyone in the whole wide world know how sucky can my math be. okay there isn't much to be joyous about cause i still fail the paper, but it's kinda comforting to know that i've made an improvement of like 30 marks as compared to my previous block test result? gee i think i was kinda lucky too, for the majority the marks i scored came in the form of probability questions and i sorta like that topic heh. at least it's waaay better than the integration by parts yeah? well i only managed to do a few of those questions durin' the hols and i was totally clueless for those questions which i left blank. but then i think my luck will run out pretty soon, when topics such as differentiation, trigonometry and integration are back to haunt me once again. just pray for the best and hope that i will not get raped by 'em yeah?

Saturday, July 10, 2004

woots. it was the 27th college day for sajc today, and yeah school only started at 2pm for me today cause i've only got two lectures scheduled heh. well the whole actual ceremony only took place at around 5-odd pm, and it was the usual thingy that i've expected - christian hymns being sung, speeches made by various peeps and of course, the prize presentation for those who had outstanding achievements in terms of academic studies and/or cca. not many people around me was really paying much attention to it though, for they were like fiddlin' around with their handphones, listening to their mp3 players, reading books and yeah, some who were really bored actually turned to the new paper. well the speeches and the prize presentation are meant to inspire us, so that yeah we could aim to be the next batch of prize receipients too; however i'm sad to admit that no new aspirations have arisen within me, prolly because i know that given my current situation i would be more than happy to secure just a place in any faculty - so don't expect me to aim for straight distinctions heh. not a very positive thinking on my part i know, but sometimes one just gotta be more down-to-earth and know what's within his own ability yeah? as they say the higher your aims, the more likely you'll be disappointed cause the world is not one in which everyone's gonna succeed and go on to achieve what they have planned to. sad i know, but that's just life from a practical point of view i guess. however the whole college had a good time towards the end of everything though. we're supposed to sing the college song, and there was this old man being invited onstage to lead us in the singing. if i ain't wrong he's the writer of the anthem, or maybe he's just some big shot in the college's board of governors. he turned out to be extremely ethusiastic over the singing of the song, and was frantically doin' all sorts of comical gestures that led everyone literally rolling on the floor laughing. he was waving his hands about, pointing to the audience like elvis presely and clapping as he sang the song with different intonations. and to top things off, he added some words in the background such as 'together' that made the song more hip. i dubbed it the enthu uncle remixed version of da sajc school song. i was so amused that i had to stopped singing for a couple of moments cause he's just too funny and my stomach was aching from all the laughing lol.

had dinner at the fish n co outlet near paradigm with yuzhe after the whole thing, and gee i still couldn't believe the 'system cocked up' and i had to wait for ages before i could have my meal. yz ordered the portugese chilli crab, while i just stuck to my good ol' usual fish and chips. sometimes it's just so funny seeing yz trying to prise open the crab pincers using his hands, and he was kinda making a whole mess of himself with the chilli sauce splattering all over da table lol. and it was darn good to know that the restaurant gave us some mint candies before we left. well though my stomach was sorta filled, yz thought that he isn't and we headed off to the nearby cafe cartel at ps. i just had for myself a double scooped sundae while yz tucked in (again) heartily to the pork chop. i reckoned that he must be very hungry indeed, seeing him devouring that piece of pork into small pieces like a hungry carnivore. oh well, ain't man carnivorous in nature eh? =x but i have to say that the concept of cafe cartel is good, cause it has a more relaxed environment in which you just write down what you wanna in a order form and pass it on to the cashier before they serve the food up. hence there's no service charge, and you can take all you want to make your dining decision (the couple beside us took a whole ten minutes discussing over what they want). the serving is filling with free flow of italian bread (yes, bread) and the price ain't as steep as fish n co lol. surely worth a visit some other time, especially when both the female diners and waitresses are like so gorgeous. heh both yz and me were kinda knocked flat by those babes lol.

oh i just received the results of the pilot aptitude test from the rsaf. looks like i didn't make it to the interview selection round, but the letter said that i've the potential to become a weapons system officer. well to be frank i know nuts about what's that appointment at all, but it sure sound cool. just have to keep my fingers crossed that it's not some form of maintenance technician. *sigh* though i more or less anticipated that i wouldn't make the cut to be a pilot, it's just so depressing that it actually happened. *shrugs* i don't know why i've started to like piloting so much, but the prospects of being one is just really overwhelming. well as i said earlier the higher you dream the more likely you'll fall, so i might as well not feel so bad about it and concentrate on being the next weapons system officer yeah? :)

Monday, July 05, 2004

went out with yuzhe to westmall today, and my stomach's really filled to the very brim right now. he wanted to get himself a plain white shirt for the speech day prize presentation ceremony and catch spiderman 2 at the same time. since i was feeling bored today cause i'd nothing to do at home after waking up at around 1pm in da afternoon, i just tagged along since i haven't watched spidey too. had some time to spare before the 4.30pm show after we bought the stuffs he wanted at tom and stephanie, so we decided to eat to our heart's delight at the afternoon sushi buffet offered by sakae sushi bar. the sushi offered there wasn't of much variety i have to admit, and what really pissed me off is that there simply isn't 'nuff sushi plates to go around the belt. perhaps the restaurant did that on purpose, since they could actually cut down on their cost by producing less sushi. but we're too hungry at that time (i didn't have breakfast and lunch) to be bothered and we finished a grand total of 21 plates' worth of serving before we decided that enough is enough. spiderman 2 wasn't that bad a show i think, though yuzhe said that it paled in comparision to the original spiderman show. at least the director made the effort to inject humour here and there, not forgetting to add the usual element of romance between parker and mary jane. boy how i'd wished reality would have sucha fairy-tale like ending for all couples in love. oh well.

coming to the topic of fairytales, the greek soccer team has just added the last chapter to their euro 2004 fairytale progress by claiming the championship. yes believe it or not, greece are the euro 2004 champions! it's really hard to imagine how teams like italy, spain, france and germany were knocked out one by one during this topsy turvy tourney, with the most unlikely super underdog having the last laugh of 'em all. though the portugese players were enjoying much of the possession throughout the game, they weren't really that clinical in their finishing. i think scolari really made a wrong decision in putting pauleta as the starting lone striker. the greek defence can easily snuff out any threat posed by strikers on form (think milan baros and the likes), so in my opinion backing a striker who has yet to find the back of the net in this tourney to score against the greeks is somewhat unwise to do. the greece played well defensively, and their flow of football during counterattacks are indeed world class. nevermind the very fact that they are unable to have numerous shots at goals unlike portugal, all greece needs is one minor slipup by the portugese and they would shock the whole stadium - and they did it in da form of charistea's header. there's no any form of fanciful footwork done leading to this goal, and it's just a textbook header for charisteas i guess. the greece keeper did well too, as he managed to keep out shots from players like figo, pauleta, miguel and even carvelho. deco was shit i guess with his unconvincing dives inside greece's penalty area, and c ronaldo just seem to be missin' golden opportunities to score. some things are just gettin' too nervy for this nineteen year old wonderkid i guess.

though they didn't play any form of attractive football, i feel that greece are worthy winners of the championship trophy. there has been cries from many people that the whole tourney is rigged, cause it's just plain impossible for a small team without any win in any major tournament to nick the trophy away from portugal; and i feel sad cause these people are just short-sighted. they've forgotten the basic notion that the ball is round, and unexpected things can often happen when you've what you call a 'unimpressive' team on hot form. these peeps can't come to terms with the unpredictability of the beatiful game, and they're only satisfied when the so-called big teams like france or italy gets the trophy. seriously speaking if i'd know that brazil is gonna win the world cup everytime, then i'd rather not watch football at all cause things are just so predictable. i don't like the way things are when they follow a certain dead trend, and i'm sure many of the football romanticists out there wouldn't like it either.

once again, congratulations to rehnagel and company for being the best in european soccer.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

yes later would be the big night for both the portugese and greek soccer teams. the long-awaited final matchup for the euro 2004 football championships is finally here, and gee it has really been a tourney full of upsets i have to say. before the tournament actually kicks off, who'd expected that the first match would also end up as the very last match of the tournament?

though portugal is the host country, but many people believed that it lacked the very tinge of calibre which championship teams possess. yeah and it kinda came as a surprise that they would be eventual finalists, having one last stab to gain the first major international trophy for the very first time. not that portugal has not won any tournament before, but their triumph in the world youth cup a couple of years back achieved by the generation of luis figo would never be complete without a championship trophy at the senior level. with the crop of players that portugal can boast of, it's hard to see why they've been perennial underachievers for such a long time; though i have to say that their case is not as worse as the spaniards who just couldn't seem to perform at any kind of international level at all. just the names of players like luis figo, deco and cristiano ronaldo will send a cold chill down the spine of several opponents, and i really wonder if this trio can achieve some sorta miracle against the greece national team.

as for the greeks, i've only one word to describe their progress into the finals: magical. with players having names resembling randomised string of alpahabets, they are ranked as outsiders to qualify from the group stages, let alone the knockout stages. but game after game, they've proved their critics wrong by claiming the scalps of several teams which are expected to perform in the european stage. they nearly caused portugal to collapse after the shock 2-1 victory in their first fixture, and went on to beat holders france and the much-fancied czech republic. yes i have to admit that the greeks' style of football is unattractive and could be a major turnoff at times, as their mentality for almost all matches were to frustrate and wear down the opponents before hitting the final nail to seal the opposition's grave - and they've accomplished what they'd set out to do successfully. i'm awed by the greeks' ability to transform a wide open game into one which is compact, reducing the sheer number of chances the opposing team could have to the minimal few.

although many would say that the final would be quite an open game, especially since portugal would be on the verge of attacking since they're the home side, i personally feel that it would be a quite one with few goals. i wouldn't be surprised if the first ninety minutes end up goaless, given the dogged determination of the greeks to defend with whatever men they have. chances would be few for both sides, but the tide of the game could change at any instant should players like c ronaldo and figo manage to figure a way out on how to split the well-organised defence of the greeks. but don't expect greece to sit back totally and defend for the whole of the game too, for they could launch sudden counterattacks at a breathtaking pace should potugal be careless for a moment. this showdown would also be the mental battle of two great tactical coaches of today, and it would be interesting to see whether if otto or scolari manages to gain the upper hand.

Friday, July 02, 2004

today have been a long and tiring one for me, yeah. spent the whole afternoon out playing basketball and soccer with marvin and company, and boy it really feels so great to be exercising myself after almost weeks of absence sports. though we started out at around 1pm in the afternoon, but surprisingly it wasn't as hot as what i had expected for there's no scorching sun bearing down on us at jurong east.

*sigh* i really regretted being so slack durin' the hols that i didn't even bother to hit the running tracks, and i'm seriously beginning to have doubts over my personal stamina. it's kinda scary, for i've actually never doubted my stamina ever since the days when i stayed back after school to have some bouts of basketball - during my secondary school days, that is. however things became very different once i embarked on my jc career. perhaps it's due to the lack of sporting companions in sajc, or perhaps it's just because of my plain laziness, but i was never quite the same ol' me when it comes to sports. gone were the good old times when i could sprint up and down the soccer field without much panting, and nowadays i'm really unable to keep up with the fast pace of street soccer especially when i'm on the attacking side. well it wasn't so bad until i was on the verge of collapsing due to fatigue, but it's a duanting prospect for me nonetheless to discover what's really wrong with my body. my legs were beginning to feel the strain after the initial 15 minutes of kickin' the ball about, and i was prolly missing more than three-quarters of my tackles after that. yeah my body just couldn't keep up its beginning state of alertness once i have to catch my breathe, and it's really bad.

guess my soccer skills didn't really improve afterall, irregardless of the wonderful times i had playing it while i was at the saintscom camp. but at least i was able to feel more comfortable when it comes to controllin' the ball. instead of freaking out and panicking when the ball is under my possession, i'm more or less able to do some long deep passes for my teammates up on the attacking front. not that all of my passes ended up the way i intended them to be, but hey at least i did improve yeah? :) there's still plenty of improvement when it comes to my dribbling skills, as opponents are able to easily tackle my ball away whenever i go past 'em. maybe it's not a bad idea to learn the skill of sudden sharp dodging from yewkuan to fool the wretched defenders lol. wasn't able to use any form of stepovers during the games, firstly because i wasn't really getting used to doing it them the cristiano ronaldo-style and secondly because i just don't wanna embarrass myself in fronta the crowd should i accidentally really step on the ball and tumble to the ground like a clumsy asshole. my shooting power and the height of my crosses are two other things which need work on, and boy do i really suck in soccer that much? gee. but marvin isn't any much better too, although he tends to bark orders around like some pro kid.

anyway basketball wasn't any better for me either. i seem to be losing my usual shooting accuracy (not that i'm accurate for that matter lol) though i managed to put some really sleek shots right into the basket. but that's pure luck really, and surely nothing to be proud of. besides the ball skills i need to really pick up on the tactical aspects of basketball too, especially my positioning (once again). i really need to find good spaces to cut into during offense, and also how to effectively block my opponent's path when it comes to the defense part of it. *sigh* i'm really a useless dickhead, with so much things yet to master for me. well it's never easy to be good in any sports yeah? :)

yay greece managed to overcome the prowess of the czech republic to advance into the finals of euro 2004! the greeks deserved a pat on the back, for i think they really played out their planned tactics well. czech players like koller and baros was marked tightly, giving them little space to trouble the greece goalmouth. and poborsky's surprisingly off-form today for i didn't really get to see much magical tricks from the right winger. perhaps the whole of czech's morale plummeted when captain nedved had to be substituted due to a self-mposed injury, but i guess players like rosicky did played their hearts out and they deserve some credits too for tryin' so hard to go past the greeks. but once again greece was able to hang on with a goaless draw thus dragging the game further with extra time, but sweeper dellas did a wonderful job of heading the corner kick into the czech's net. think petr cech was stunned too with the sudden onslaught of greeks' headers. the timing of the goal couldn't have come at any better time, and soon we heard the czech players' heart breaking when referee collina blew the final whistle. and by the way, this is his last international game for prolly the world's best referee before he retires from the international stage. an interesting, though not the most exciting of all, match to watch and i'm certainly looking forward to the portugal-greece encounter in the final matchup.

Thursday, July 01, 2004

yes i'm back!! okay i know it's been a very looong time since i've last written any shit in here, and heh as always it's due to my laziness once again. yeah school hols have ended for me and i cleared my last block test paper yesterday, so i'm kinda relaxed now. not that i'm very stressed up by this stupid block test thingy, for i didn't really complete any form of revision this time round at all. but i did do something afterall, on that topic of random variable for maths. yeah even i myself finds it surprising that i actually bothered to do some maths questions at all, as i've not been able to find any form of motivation to do any maths tutorials since the start of my jc career. found out that one can still smoke through subjects like geography or even economics (if you're good) after slacking for the whole year, but once you cease to do any form of maths practice you can be sure that your grades will go spiralling down like what happened to me. i still couldn't get over the fact that i actually got 7 marks for my promotional exams last year - and it really leaves people hanging on how one could actually score so low for one pathetic maths paper. guess i'm really that pathetic, huh.

'kay enough of school talk for now. i know it's just started for me but hey, i've got like 5 days of not-so-well-deserved break before the torture of endless tutorial and lecture hours starts to drain me off mentally again. not that i've managed to recover some mental control over my failing self, something which must be due to the screwing up of my bioclock thanks to euro 2004. in short, i'm just not ready for any form of schooling yet. not now, and surely not anytime in the near future cause i'm just so friggin' sick of school. and i thought i'm supposed to stop ranting over school stuffs. oh well.

anyway euro 2004 is fast becoming like the internation version of champions league. yeah who'd expect teams like greece, czech republic, portugal and holland to make it thus far to the semis? and by the way, holland has just bowed out of the competition after a 2-1 defeat inflicted by the hosts portugal, who are cruising steadfastly into the final. ok i kinda expected czech republic to get some form of result this time round, but surely not at the expense of the so-called traditional football powerhouses. think the idea of tradtional powerhouses doesn't apply in today's times anymore. look at teams like spain, italy and germany - all of them can't even get through the preliminary group stage. and i still remember expecting italy to cruise thump everyone in their group some time ago, only to realise how horrendous their strike force can get. and totti's infamous spat at a denmark player simply does not help the team's cause at all. and i could still vividly how desperate the les bleus were after the greeks scored the first goal in their quarterfinal clash - the fact that france has players of exceptional quality such as zidane and henry really contradicts the kinda form they're achieving now. but at least they managed to progress through to the quarters yeah? spain was the most disappointing of them all i've gotta say, partly because i'm rooting for them even before the tourament got on it's way. true the attacking wingers in the form of vicente and joaquin is enough to send a cold chill down the spines of even the greatest teams, but their finish just suck. yeah spain's attackers plainly suck. perhaps it's because i've extremely high expectations for raul to perform this time round cause i'm sick of seeing him losing form due to the self-destruction of real madrid during the ending of the spanish league, but he's really been very awful indeed. pretty much like a shadow of his own self. correct me if i'm wrong, but i think he recorded all shots as misses during the three games he played in. it's totally horrendous knowing that he keeps on missin' clearcut chances such as an open goal. so much for being the golden boy of spanish soccer. *sigh*

well at least portugal managed to fend off the challenges of the holland. i don't know why, but i just seem to hate the dutch team alot. it's brought up some form of contradictory feelings within myself - cause i'm an ardent supporter of the ajax youth development system, yet i find myself disliking players like kluivert (who hailed from ajax) and of course ruud van nistelrooy. i think i'm fated to be enemies with v nistelrooy, since i couldn't stand manchester united as well haha. the supersized egos of the dutch players really turns me off, especially when most of them are not that good from my point of view. surely the swedes (who was eliminated by holland after penalty shootout) deserved that semifinal spot, by virtue of the fact that they don't have stars who are more eager to claim credit for themselves instead of setting the national team as first priority. portugal did one other good deed too, and that's breaking the hearts of the english players after they won the penalty shootout in an intense action-packed match. it's just so sickening that singapore is overly-saturated with fans of the three lions, just because they read more about the epl than any other league in the new paper. come on people, there's more to football than just the epl. yeah i know the epl is gettin' better in profile with each passing day, but the standards are still laggin' behind those set by the spanish primera liga by a hell lot. ok i'm being lil' biased here, and i admit that. gee.

tonight we shall witness the czech-greece semifinal clash and i expect this encounter to be an interesting one. not that the greeks play beautiful soccer, but they're really a good bunch of players tactically. it isn't any easy feat to keep a team containing zidane out of the game, honestly speaking. czech republic are on the roll right now scoring goals for fun in all of their matches, but i think greece would be a tough one for them to overcome. i wouldn't be surprised if this match ends in a draw, and i'm surely not ruling out a greek victory over here. but that'll depend very much on how stoppable players like baros, nedved and poborsky can be. sometimes no matter how good your tactics are, players with that magical touch are almost unstoppable regardless of what the defending team do. and we shall see for ourselves if the czech team possess such magical powers to advance to the final stage of euro 2004..

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age: 18
gender: male
birthdate: 23/11/1986
school: st andrew's jc
email: asdboy@hotmail.com

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