ぼくの日記

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Kurse...

24th June 2008, Tuesday

I felt I am one that is ladened with curse in terms of live sporting events...especially football...
Whenever I catch a crucial game of my beloved Netherlands team live, they would bound to lose (quite a few occasions with the Red Devils as well)...
However I didn't had the luxury of watching the Euro 2008 Quarterfinals tie between the high flying Dutchmen against the Russians a few nights back.

With Portugal and Croatia, fellow group leaders being knocked out by their QF opponents, I had a bad premonition on Friday that the Dutch would follow suit.
How spot on was I to much regret....

The Oranje lost meekly to the former Soviet Union state by 1-3 after extra time...
The crucial factor of the loss as many proclaimed might be that the Dutch had been over confident or with a good week of rest the actual first eleven just couldn't continue playing that devastating style that unhinge the 2 World Cup finalists in the group stage.
However the key might lies in the miracle man, Guus Hiddink who is Dutch by nationality.
Once again, he took an unfancied team to unprecedented echelons... After claiming hero status in Seoul and perhaps Canberra/ Sydney, the journeyman looked set to have another statue erected in Moscow after he wisely explored the deficiencies of his countrymen, several of which he might had coached in the past as the Russians came on top against the odds.

Their opponents for the semis, Spain broke their own "22nd June" curse by ousting World Champions, Italy via the penalty shootout.

It sure broke the hoodoo or maybe even the conspiracy theory of seasoned campaigners Germany and Italy will meet in the finals despite their indifferent start to the tournament...The former will then lose to carbon copy 2002 World Cup as the season saw Michael Ballack saw his domestic league championship evaporated on the last day of competition while losing a domestic cup and Champions League as well
That could still happen, just that the opponents would not be Italy but Russia or Spain...Well not if I am watching it live on TV though, Germany would be bouyed by my curse

Foo & I also had the "voodoo aura" to curse the team we support for live matches which go 4 matches strong now (longer for him especially for the Lions)

After witnessing Sengkang's seconds to a good draw against SAF at home then the exciting 7-3 mauling of the Lions by Uzbekistan, we had our first taste of football at the Jalan Besar Stadium, the new ground for the grand matches now that Kallang is finally closed for the revamp, after that woeful lost to the Saudis by the Lions.

However with a winnable game against Dalian Shide Shiwu, the Dolphins' defense went into shambles as they concede 2 soft goals against the Chinese satellite team which is having a bad patch themselves in the league and ultimately lost the game, missing the great opportunity to climb out of the cellar.
We were curious why 2 crucial foreign talents didn't featured in the starting line-up with one we saw strolling to the stadium from the MRT station with us.
It surely must be the curse which we brought with us to affect the teams we support...surely hope some timely removal of this curse could happen real soon...
We are now planning to catch the Dolphins' trip to the daunting Tampines Stadium coming Saturday against the Stags which might see the trend continues...

Japanese word of the day: 悪態 (Curse) When will this curse be ever lifted??

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

24 hr Support Helpdesk?

17th June 2008, Tuesday

As mentioned yesterday, my webpage is now being lampooned due to the over usage of bandwidth set by server provider, Connect Internet.
This hadn't been the first time that I am facing bandwidth issue with my domain but with 10GB monthly data transfer, I just wonder how I was able to use up that much with just half a month gone (they would rest the bandwidth quota at the turn of each month).

When a warning message came in last week, I quickly send a request to their support helpdesk ask them to increase my bandwidth limit as they had done before but since I sent on Friday evening, I kind of expect that the crew were on their weekend escapades.
As predicted the webpage was suspended on Sunday and I quickly sent another request yesterday morning and till this moment no sign of action from the helpdesk.
And they have the audacity of claiming they work 24/7 to help their customers...

I surely am at the brink of disenchantment with regards to the service provider which I had hooked on for a good 3 years now.
It's not life or death matters than my webpage which had barely 100 visitors hooking on daily (myself account for the majority); but the fact that I paid good money for it, I expected it to be entertained with my request.

I would also like an exact answer why the bandwidth was decimated over night...a mystery which I hope the support team could reply, that is if they bother to reply...

Maybe it's really time to seek for better alternatives, anyone has good suggestions?

In line with this IT mishap, StarHub who offered me a new contract with 25% discount last week pulled a big one on me... Further reinforcing the fact that bad things don't happened singly.
With the offer, I signed up a new contract for Max Online to the "Premium" plan which should offer faster surf rate than my "Express".
With the discount, it is merely $2 more expensive than the previous rate for the Express. They threw in a new Motorola Cable Modem which I duly accepted and as scheduled it arrived last Thursday.

I had no problem setting it up though I didn't noticed too much of a difference in the speed of internet surfing (as well as downloading).
Things were all aye ok till last evening when the usual home page which feature a google search on my FireFox browser was replaced by this Flexisurf advertisement from Starhub which embedded like a virus, disabling my ability to surf around.
I was baffled at this point as MSN Messenger still works... I immediately dial 1633 to the help line and after the series of choices, I was left stranded for the service consultant to pick up, ending that mundane melody as well as suggesting we fax in or email (email? I can't even surf, boy!)

After a good 30 minutes of waiting, a lady consultant picks up...
Not to be sexist or anything, but that instant I knew she wasn't a service consultant..Merely a receptionist...
So after relating my plight, she seemed clueless what could be done and had to refer to their technical people or something and left me stranded without internet access for the rest of the evening.

The problem wasn't resolved this morning before work, so I buzzed them up again...
This time a male voice was on the other line, and he seemed to have dealt with this problem as it seems like the new cable modem wasn't really activated (then how do I surf for the past 4 days?!), and he would do so...
Therefore I am expecting everything to go on plan when I return home later, if not I would not be a jolly old fellow for this Tuesday night....

Japanese word of the day: サポート ~sa-po-to~(Support) Many claimed to be there 24/7 but are they really THERE?

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Monday, June 16, 2008

Ball of a Time

16th June 2008, Monday

It's been a rather intriguing 4 days or so... At one end of the spectrum it was so routine and predictable, at the other end it seems like things just happens on and off like signals off the synaptic clefts.

It began on Thursday which marked the first day the blissful couple at work went on their Angkor Wat expedition. His Beautiness had requested them to load up as much as they could, so we spent the next few days in their absence just routinely put the chips in for scanning.
This freed up plenty of time at work; not that I mind but I got uncontrollably restless since 12th June 2008 marked the global release of the most anticipated Playstation 3 platform game thus far (Square Enix still left us hanging on the release of Final Fantasy XIII), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
The final chapter of the incredible saga of Solid Snake which propelled Kojima Hideo into unassimilable stardom in the gaming world got the world abuzz especially my game crazy buddies like CS who was blasting me with SMS, to remind us about the release the day before.
We had pondered about holding the horse till the game is more matured in the gaming community before acquiring it.

However on that particular Thursday, with a horde of avid gamers on Game Axis proudly proclaiming themselves as the first few owner of the game was the last straw for me.
I was totally not being my usual composed self and took on the opportunity to apply for an urgent leave; beckoned my buddy, Foo who was on medical leave from his ICT and himself a big MGS follower to join me in search of that elusive game.

In the end it turned out to be not so elusive as I got my copy at Game Score in Funan together with the official guide book which these days an important asset to own in games like MGS4 or Grand Theft Auto 4.
The game was aplenty in both Game Score and the competitor just across while CS easily bought his copy in Funz Center at AMK Hub, our usual haunt.

Funan was characteristically passive for a weekday afternoon but someone just a street away at Suntec Convention Center, the IT savvy Singaporeans amassed for the grand opening of this year's PC show. It was my first destination as I wondered the Sony booth might take the opportunity of the coincidence of date to showcase of MGS4 perhaps at a good price as some proclaimed selling in the Sony Gallery.
It was an abjected showing which dampen whatever expectation I had as there was barely any sight of pushing for Playstation 3 let alone the game.
I did picked up a Maxtor One Touch Plus 4 750GB external HDD for the missus who had been bugging me to get an external HDD for her for backing up her laptop, dwindling of storage space.
For that kind of size, $200 odd might be a steal plus the Security Drill software allow us to "ghost" the entire hard disk profile and files as a backup in case of HDD crashing which I had experienced once or twice now.
But from the review online, I might had made a bad choice...we'll see

Friday the 13th was especially quiet at work..as almost everyone was droid, watching time pass for the weekend to arrive.
The absent list include Shitty Green, our French Supervisor, the couple and even His Beautiness who seem to had plans for every Fridays for the month (some gay orgy perhaps).
Should had retreated early that evening with early badminton session but only turned in by 2 plus or so....
Predictably, I got up groggy with red-sodden eyes next morning at 8 plus with the session beginning at 9 in Clementi.
However my Saturday was brightened up with glowing Oranje when as in Berne, Switzerland, the Netherlands won another emphatic game against the other World Cup finalist, France by 4-1. It surely is the coming of age for the Dutch but I pray fervently that it was not another false hope.

A badminton session without EK was quite unimaginable but this week he indeed left for Batam for some religious pilgrimage while Chan was assigned to bring the rackets.
Karen's newfound best friend, Chiaki joined us for the 2nd time perhaps we weren't that scary afterall for her to make her 2nd appearance.. of course living in Clementi could be a boosting factor.
She also joined the few of us for "Kungfu Panda", the new Dreamworks CG animation. The big furball by the name of Po who was deemed as the dragon warrior by Master Wu Giu was very much like a ball and Jack Black was definitely the best choice for the rotund, gluttony and unwilling hero.
The flow of the story is smooth though predictable. The fighting scene was nicely choreographed with equally adequate cinematography. The oriental-inspired soundtrack builds the mood as well.
The best Dreamworks SKG animation since Shrek the 1st for sure...

After the laughing fit which see the usual suspects like myself and Karen filled the theater with out high decibel laughters, we parted ways as I accompanied Chan down to CSC for his loot collection before heading for Kallang.

It didn't take Foo long to make it to Kallang Leisure Park where we settled for dinner before embarking on that short walk to the National Stadium.

The Grand Ol' Dame will be closing its curtains (for sure?) after this crucial World Cup qualifying tie between Singapore and oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
After the lost at Tashkent last week, we are one foot out of the game but a resounding win against one of the perennial giant in Asian football might turn our mathematical chance into reality.
Another 25K of Singapore fans flooded the gallery despite many were left disgraced after that mauling by Uzbekistan last week.
Our team line-up were rock by the absence of Mustafic (suspension) and Jiayi (injury).
Raddy decided to play Hassan Sunny in replacement of Lionel between the sticks and it was a choice well justified.

For the next 90 minutes, Hassan was on a one-man mission to stop an onslaught of goals from Saudi Arabia...
The horrendous thing is that it wasn't because the Saudi who missed inspirational captain, Yasser Al-Qahtani by the way were as good as the fluid Uzbeks, in fact they were quite awful with lackluster running and at times waiting for counter attack.
The main problem lies in our own boys were not playing their game.
The attacking trio of Khairul, Duric and Indra had no many chance but even when they do they fluffed it like Khairul having a one-to-one opportunity in the early minutes.
It shattered its confidence and he didn't appeared for the 2nd half as replaced by Qiu Li who showed flashes of attacking impetus along with Jon Wilkinson which otherwise a no-show of Singapore attack or midfield Foo and I had paid money to watch.

Hassan despite conceding twice (both legitimate goals which were hard to keep out), thwart the Saudis time and again when his defenders especially Bennett were making silly mistakes. But Precious and Baikkaki did showed an improvement from the Uzbek game....

When the Saudis scored the 2nd late in the game, many were making the exits and I had to agreed with them 'cos this is the kind of performance why the local media were so cynical about... Whenever we made a step forward, we kind of take 2 steps back....
Just hope the lads rebound in future tournaments and winning in ASEAN region is just not enough...

There was a considerably big earthquake rocking the Northern part of Honshu in Japan and the missus was pretty worried about some of our friends in Iwate.
Meanwhile my webpage was suspended due to overuse of bandwidth...I tried contacting the server but to no avail...I think might be time to change a new one...actually kind of thinking of closing it down....will see when the next renewal comes in October.

Japanese word of the day: 球(Ball) As they said the ball is round, anything can happen...


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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Can't Go Stabbing People like That!

11th June 2008, Wednesday

On Sunday, a delusional soul decided to appease his own inner anger or anguish by driving his truck at 70 kph into the busy barricaded street of Akihabara, knocked down 2 pedestrians before embarking on his slashing tour of duty...killing 7 and injuring several others
More of this earth-shattering news from Danny Choo....

My beloved Japan had been pretty proud of their low crime-rate but in recent months there had been rising cases of public stabbing/slashing or just plain violence.
Now we might have to fear for safety the next time we are heading to Japan or Tokyo to be more specific...
Even in broad daylight with thousands of people roaming the street, it takes just one mad man to spoil the whole harmonious on-goings...

When such incidences occurred, the culprit would usually be placed under the "mentally unstable" or "highly stressed by the modern society"; but there just aren't any solution to prevent such sociopaths to commit such heinous acts especially on Sunday when the serial stabber, Tomohiro Kato targeted my fellow otakus in the central of their main hideout; as if it was a personal crusade or something.

In this time and age, it horrifies me that in general Japanese public, otakus or people closely related to thier culture should be typecast as low-life beings and frequent target-boards when something went awry...

I wonder how Akihabara would recover from this horrendous act of violence and how the otherwise-passive otaku -dom would react to it. They had went on strike before but this could meant a much deeper plead of justice.
My condolences went out to the victims and do hope Kato received the most justified punishment; felt even death penalty a let-off for that bastard...

I supposed I will still patronise Akihabara in the future and do hope they tighten the security to curb any repeat of such unwanted history...

On a lighter side of things, Netherlands crushed Italy in their 1st round of Group C match of Euro 2008.
I caught the clippet of the highlights and it seemed like the Italian defense was unable to cope with the lightning fast counter attack of the Dutch with the likes of Gio Van Bronckhorst, Wes Sneijder and Dirk Kuyt looking very impressive in their attacking prowess.
It was still a frightening but fuzzy (for me) prospect that we can still look forward to fit again Arjen Robben, Rob Van Pierse and Klas-Jan Huntelaar against France and Romania next.
The 2006 World Cup champions meanwhile despite in dire straits, should bounced from that defeat with the quality they possessed. If only the likes of Del Piero and Cassano and combined sublimely with Luca Toni up front and the defense shored up a bit.

The Iberian duo of Portugal and Spain showed their class in the recently-concluded 1st round of affairs and together with Holland and Germany look like the genuinely-form teams...But the landscape could change in the next 2 games...so stay tuned...


Japanese word of the day: 刺すこと (Stabbing) Although I am immersed being Niko Bellic in GTA4, I would never possess the audacity of stabbing people on the streets

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Monday, June 09, 2008

Match Made in Heaven & Hell

9th June 2008, Monday

Over the weekend my life is surrounded by 2 themes... wedding banquets and soccer....

On Saturday, attended my ex-colleague YM's banquet at the Park Hotel, formerly Crown Prince.
Met up with other ex-colleagues from my former workplace and catch up on their ongoings and some gossip about the wretched state of my former workplace.
BY was blatantly missing because of an eye infection from her recent Belgian training stint.
Didn't really enjoyed myself but at least the food was one of the best from wedding banquets I had attended so far.
Partly also due to my heart was wondering how my pride and joy, the Singapore Lions were faring in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

After that mauling at home, many were predicting a landslide victory for the superior home team.
Foo was camping beside his TV as on this rare occasion, our local TV station bothered to show an away game "live".
The boys performed stoutly to hold the Uzbeks at bay till very late into the game when a substitute came on and scored, just as I stepped into my place.. Crestfallen, I could only take stride that it wasn't the romp everyone expected.
We are still mathetically in for the next round but it would be really hard now...

The Euro 2008 started on Saturday evening as well as one of the host nation, Switzerland started the ball rolling against Czech Republic.
It was on the Preview Channel as one of the 4 free matches since I would never pay $53 to watch 31 matches, many of which happening during my sleeping hours.
The Swiss meekly lost to the Czechs but most importantly their talisman, Alexander Frei for the remaining of the competition...
The team which I tipped to win this year Portugal showed their class by beating Turkey 2-0.
I wonder how my beloved Oranje would fare against the Azzuri tonight?

The missus had her own share of wedding banquets to attend and 2 Malay ones on Sunday while this evening we'll see Geneth donning her wedding gown, looking all blissful as someone's bride while HZ green with envy, pondering when it would be her turn...

A new staff came in as the replacement for BY since last Thursday.
A nice chap who doesn't looks his age. His bespectacled and well-manners made some of us speculate that he might be KM MKII but he turned out to be more receptive to everyone and conversative.
His attached status also deemed him safe from the clutches of His Beautiness...

Japanese word of the day: 天 (Heaven) Recently the missus starts to wonder are we match made in heaven....yikes


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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

7:3

4th June 2008, Wednesday

お久しぶり.... It means "it's been a while" in Japanese...
On Monday evening, it surely had been a long while a good 13 years I supposed since I last stepped into the Kallang National Stadium to catch a live football match featuring our National team.
Think it was 4-teams invitational tournament back in 1995 or something which I had stayed too long for the match, resulting in nearly missing our a family roadtrip...surely threw my parents out of pique back then.

Our success in the 2 most recent ASEAN Cup didn't even triggered that dying urge to head down the stadium to cheer on our home team....
But Raddy Avramovic's contribution to the state of our national team was evident to see from the ridicule and pain of being mauled at home by our neighbours, Malaysia to becoming a powerhouse in our region and now stood head to head with footballing giants in Asia with the likes of Saudi Arabia and Monday's opponents, Uzbekistan in the 3rd Round of the 2010 World Cup Qualifying, a zenith in our footballing history...neither the great Malaysia Cup all conquering team of the late 1970s or mid 1990s had ever got us that far.

After losing 0-2 away at Riyadh to the Saudis, we felt it was a game we should had tried to draw against a surprisingly lackluster host. However experience saw them through.
When we soundly beat Lebanon at home in March and the Uzbeks squashed the Saudis in Tahskent, suddenly it was game on and the possibility to making it into the next round didn't seem so remote.

Before Raddy and the media started generating some interest in our otherwise aloof nation consist of cycnical and fair weather fans who always felt the Lions are a bunch of jokers with their inconsistent performances to flood the stadium, I had made up my mind to watch it live and it was an event I had put it in my calendar, making me looking forward to during my ICT.

After a dry and suffocatingly-hot spell, the sky opened up over the past weeks, dousing the island in torrential rain and we thought Monday would be a soggy day as well...making the pitch unplayable and viewing pleasure on the gallery decimated.
Fortunately the weather was at it's very best that evening when I left from work with fellow colleagues, HB and XY to Kallang. I was the catalyst to generate HB, a reasonable footballing fan in his own right and had caught live matches during the ASEAN Cup run.
Meanwhile his lass, XY had never seen a live football match in Kallang as she was much later in the M Cup era; and was rather skeptical about the immense mood you'll experience there.

Foo was another who had been anticipating this match.
Despite etched in the misery of his ICT, he tried to sneak out as early as he could and after we rendezvous at the East Gate after I purchased the remaining tickets, the 4 of us, all clad in tops either in bright red or remotely close to red, we made out way into the gallery where at 7pm, was barely full in the center portion.
Around 5000 die hards made their way on a wet Wednesday night to catch the Lions lost meekly to a Bahrain side who were in the midst of good form.
But on Monday, slightly 10 minutes into the game, we get to see the central region of the gallery and almost the entire grandstand were filled with a final toll of 28,500 supporters were there to catch the game.
It still pales in comparison to the hey days of Malaysian Cup but the feeling was still the same.

As we stood up and sang our national anthem which I was slightly embarrassed to say I had forgotten a huge chunk of the lyrics, it is perhaps one of the rare moment of patriotism running through the blood of us Gen Y or the IT age generation.
Surrounding us were group of friends barely more than 25 years or age (or at least the manner they behaved or spoken do not reflect a certain age of maturity), but we all had the common support for the Lions.

The game was barely 10 minutes long when the visitors went one up...
The goal was scored from a source which we give our immobile defenders a torrid time for the entire 1st half and early stages of the 2nd...from their wings Victor Karpenko and Server Djeparov were speedy and quick to lose any markers in the form of Noh Rahman and Daniel Bennett.
I think Raddy and the Lions were too focused on key dangerman, Maksim Shatskikh and the possibility of the high balls.
In the actual match, Uzbekistan showed that they are equally dangerous with their tricky runs, precise passing and high accuracy of shots.
We would actually be leading if Aleksandar Duric had managed to score from a one-on-one with Uzbek's keeper, Ignativ Nesterov; but his aged muscles or perhaps the long season so far might had effect on the final outcome when he dribbled out of his opportunity.
But our valiant Lions did equalized from a nice build-up which Duric poached on a loose ball after Bennett crashed the woodworks with a venomous shot from 30 yards out.

The jubilation and euphoria of our team scoring was incredible as everyone jumped up to their feet, cheering relentlessly; some even threw self-made confetti.

However our joy was short-lived when Uzbekistan was back in front and at this point we wondered how reliable was the skipper of the day, custodian Lionel Lewis who seems daunted by the task at hand and his defenders were not helping him out with some woeful defending in front of him.
Khairul Amri, the brightest prospect in local football since Indra Shadan was placed on the left wing supporting big man Duric up front. There had been calls for him to go abroad to further his footballing education and he showed his promise as his trickery drew a blatant foul from the Uzbek's defense; the referee from UAE duly rewarded the home team a penalty.
The fans including myself were jumping for joy for the 2nd time though the penalty was still not converted...some of the crowd immediately initiated the crowd to quiet down for penalty kick taker, Mustafic Fahrrudin to step up on the spot...He duly converted and the fanfare ensued...

Once again the immense cheering including the long-lost Kallang Wave was once again interrupted by a third Uzbek goal as one Uzbek forward sprinted at full speed towards goal and his goal-bound shot was merely stopped from crossing the line by Noh who should had produced a more convincing clearance; but Server Djeparov was on hand to thump in this wonderful chance to put his team back in front again.
The crowd was incensed as all the good work by the attack was deemed useless when the defense kept leaking goals like school boys.
Foo was sweating while my heart was pounding vociferously with the adrenaline rush; it had been such a wonderful game for neutral fan with both teams so willing to attack.
Foo mentioned that if we held them to a slender lead, we would have chance for a fightback in the 2nd interval but it was not meant to be.
In quick succession, Uzbek scored another 2 including one directly from the corner to add salt to our wounds to the dismay of we the crestfallen fans.

Going to the break with a 2-5 score was a hard pill for any home team but it was quite evident we weren't in the same league as Uzbekistan especially with all the defensive woes.

In the 2nd half, Raddy put up Qui Li, another foreign talent who just recently acquired his citizenship.
He was a rather burly attacker who I supposed was to add some physical presence which Duric failed for the night. However he is also taking all the flaks from skeptical fans of what he can really contribute.
For a good 20 minutes his game was mere ball watching and chasing whatever loose ball he could scrape from a water-tight Uzbek defense.
Meanwhile the Uzbekistan showed their aerial prowess with a headed goal from a corner to make the score 6-2, all hopes surely seemed to be lost by now.
Some disenchanted fans started to cheer on Uzbekistan to score 10 goals, others bemoaning what Lionel Lewis was doing while I find entertainment in the ball boy or the Red Cross staff who were kept busy with constant simulation of Uzbek players from slight nudge to waste time.

Then a moment for Qiu Li to prove his worth when he shoot a sweet shot with his left foot which beat the keeper but not the crossbar. And out of nowhere, John Wilkinson whom I felt was non existent in every game I have seen him played so far scored the 3rd goal.
Once again we bounced for joy...pretty hard to imagine that we cheered 3 goals from Singapore yet we ended as the losing side.

Dinamo Kiev marksman, Maksim then showed why he is one of the top striker in Asia when he glided explicitly past our slow centerbacks and chip a delicate shot past Lionel late on in the game after our keeper had made a couple of nice saves.

This led to the final score of 7:3 but kudos to our team, we were still fighting, trying to cut the deficit but everyone knew Uzbekistan was unlikely to ship another goal.

Some fair weather fans left 10 minutes before the game ended, disgusted by the display..Doubt we would see them in the next game..
We stayed behind to cheer what remains of the team for their effort...

Overall the feeling of watching the match in the stadium was one money can hardly buy.
While local media or anyone in the heartlands were hurling scathing remarks about the side, I still felt pride of my team who now has a bleak qualifying campaign as they flew to Tashkent for the return game on Saturday.
Saudi won i their home game against Lebanon and Uzbekistan will want to finish up the qualifying to the next round at home.
Raddy could only wish we are able to keep the Uzbek at bay away and pip 2 wins in the later stages....

I will certainly be there to witness a monumental victory over Saudi Arabia come 14th June; this team do look capable of doing so...let's hope the rest of the 28K on Monday would not ditch them as well on the curtain-closer for Kallang Stadium

Japanese word of the day: アドレナリン (Adrenaline) You could really feel the rush in that first 30 minutes of the game

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Monday, June 02, 2008

You've Been Robbed....

2nd June 2008, Monday

An important day for our national footballing team as we welcomed Uzbekistan to our cauldron this evening for the 2010 World Cup Qualifying Asian Round 3 group game...
A win will be a morale booster for part duex at Tashkent in days time, let's hope I'll be in jovial mood with that result tomorrow...

We had prayed for rain to alleviate our plight for weeks now and our prayers been answered as it was raining the entire week and on Saturday the rain came in full torrents...It'll be great if we were confined to the comfort of our home.
Instead it was a good 12 hours traveling from point to point in our reliable Geely, starting with Changi Airport Terminal 3 as early as 8 in the morning as the missus wanna sent her "up-line" off to her Alaskan getaway, reaping her rewards from her "down-lines" (including my wife) laborious selling of products.
Being a jerk as I am, I just refused to get into the mix and stayed away for the entire time we were at the new Terminal.
Next destination, Clementi Sports Hall as Karen invited her newly acquainted Japanese friend, Chiaki whom had helped her a great deal at the JTB saloon and met up during her trip to Kyoto. Another rare face to see these days, Ferris also made an appearance but left soon the game was up.
After a hearty round of laughters about EK's Ninja aspirations (since Chiaki's hometown is in Shiga, the origin of the stealth killers), we left for China Square Central where I picked up a figurine I was a bit reluctant to do so with respect of my space constraint. However with the deposit been paid, the only option is to buy it.
The missus was interested in the World Book Fair held at Suntec Convention Center and I obliged to follow along as it was pretty nostalgic since my own heydays of religiously heading for the annual book fair which used to be held in World Trade Center.
The modern replica pales in comparison in terms of selection and scale; beside for some China-printed publication, never really perked our interest.
We then left for Carrefour to stock on some snacks and other groceries since it was a rare occasion when we actually drove down.
This was went the sky opened up and it was raining boisterously till early evening when we made our way to our final stop at Kallang Leisure Park.

The weather remained gloomy for Sunday which suited me explicitly as I watched the finale of the 4th season of "Lost" which was kicked ass and left with their usual cliffhanger ending but they did gave an insight of the "Oceania Six" which survived the island.
Then the main menu on my Sunday's platter was reprising the Eastern European badass, Niko Bellic and his adventure in Liberty City on my Playstation.

The game was slapped with the M18 rating due to the coarse language and excessive violence. Gamers were more appealed to the game engine which allowed the player to create endless havoc at anywhere anytime.
As I continued to progress in the game, I grew to understand it never pays to be a goody-too-shoe and I started to transform into a monster on a streaking rampage to rob people's cars, killing mafia and police alike and basically a vigilante which will do whatever it pays.
I enjoyed the shooting aspect of the games and the guide book which I purchased to aid my cause helped considerably but there was no way for anyone to help you to do car chases which I loathe and it kept appearing in this game.



Not the best scenario you want to be in...



After sweating it out to chase this slick driver, Lyle Rivas, last evening I was assigned to kill this snake by the name of Jevyron who hooked up with the girl of my client, an ex-convict by the name of Dwayne.
If chasing car and shooting your prey while driving was a pain, try riding a bike and do so....
The worst part of all I had to drive all the way across town to get to the location before failing time and again which really put me into a pique.
Ended last evening failing to complete the task though my nature would be relentless to complete it...Perhaps on a better day...

The consequence of playing the game perhaps will be getting much grouching and the "F" word become part of your vocabulary and ultimately you will consider carjacking and drive without obeying traffic rules as car accidents are part and parcel of your game...Scary isn't it if carbon copy that into real life...


Japanese word of the day: 罪 ~tsu-mi~ (Crime) In Liberty City, crime does pay... Just shake off your Wanted Level

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