I think I'm going broke..lol. The crazy internet bill was slow to come and when it came, it included 2 months of fees plus RM 75 activation payment. So, altogether, I had to pay a grand total of RM 273 at one shot. I'm going over to my aunt's place in Sungai Petani to learn driving! I figured out that if I were to take it from someone who is my relatives' lobang, I will get some mercy from the examiner..haha.
Today the youth group say goodbye to two gals that would be going out of Taiping to pursue their higher education. One will be going to Sydney while the other, Nicole, would be going to IMU in Bukit Jalil for her medicine course. Although I don't know her that well, I must say she's a really sensible gal and a good example to others after seeing her leading worship at the meeting a few times. So, she gave her parting speech today and I concur with everything that she says regarding about friends and peer pressure. She truly has a sound grounding in her values. And she's pretty bold too to attempt to apply to NUS medicine faculty. It ain't gonna be easy to enter using Malaysian result slips into an elite course that is dominated by the top junior colleges but still, all the best to her for her application. So, I guess every year, the Taiping FGA church loses its youth of 20-30 years old that are going out of town for higher pursuits. Many of them would eventually also settle in the larger urbanised cities like KL and Penang. No wonder every visiting pastor to the church on Sunday always need to give words of encouragement to the congregration..lol.
Anyways, as I was saying before, I would be going away to learn driving. My aunt's place has internet connection but it's dial-up. I'm not sure if it is fast enough to enable me to update my blog and so, it's possible tha this place will fall silent for the next one week. Nevertheless, I'll still give it a try with my laptop there :)
Saturday 23 February 2008
Friday 22 February 2008
GW vs. WoW (Part 1 - Intro & Level Cap)
My World of Warcraft three months subscription ended yesterday at 8.34 pm (lol..i still remember the time). So, after 3 months of playing time, my current characters are a level 66 Draenei paladin, level 44 Night Elf hunter and a level 10 Blood Elf mage. My level 66 could have been a level 70 easily if not for the long hiatus from the Internet that I had. Haha, so I guess that now I could comment on these two mmorpg that are often the source of comparison by many players. I'll divide my posting to several parts/series since they are so many aspects of it to look at.
I've played Guild Wars for almost 2 years plus since 2005 and I've completed all the campaigns. WoW has a solid international reputation, thanks to Blizzard's fame as a quality game maker. However, I did not jump at the band wagon when it first started becoz it's quite costly and secondly, I'm schooling and using maths, the fees paid to play WoW is not worth it. So, that's y I chose to play GW instead. I think that GW is not that famous in South East Asia itself apart from the Philippines or maybe in Singapore. But even in Singapore itself, it's rather limited but at least they had some established guilds like Sg Knights. I doubt GW is really heard of much in Malaysia. So, most of the GW player base are from the USA, Europe or Korea. This is also partly because the origins of the companies of NCsoft and Arenanet. I have to say that Guild Wars remains one of the few mmorpgs that could stand up against the superiority of WoW in terms of quality wise and professional development. Cheapo 2D stuff like Maple Story or Runescape (which are more famous in the SEA region) are just no where near in challenging Guild Wars.
After my A Levels, I decided to give WoW a try to see how different the two games are and I'm fortunate to have some of my SJI friends playing at the same time for company. So, here goes my review...
Price
The most notable difference between Guild Wars and World of Warcraft has to be the price. Guild Wars require only one time payment and you can play as many or as little as you want afterthat. On the other hand, WoW requires one to pay for the game itself, and then also monthly fees if players want to continue playing. So, if you wanna have some fun but don't wanna waste so much money, then Guild Wars is the economical choice. If you're feeling rich, have lots of spare time or don't really bother with the ratio breakdown of price per day, then WoW's tremendous pricing is not really an issue. Of course in the US or UK, the subscription fees is peanuts but if converted to Asian currencies, it's pretty much expensive for folks in the South East Asian region. It's quite manageable in Singapore for S$ 50 for two months but in Malaysia, RM 100+ for that is just mind blowing to keep up. Not only that, it's nonsensical that the BC expansion is priced at S$79.90, double the price of the original. It's even more absurd that I could get a nice package deal of S$69.90 of both original and expansion through the Battlechest as compared to S$118+ if I were to buy them separately. The moral of the story is that you ended paying more for some CD covers if you started playing earlier before the Battlechest came out.
Level Cap
Another notable difference is the level cap. Guild Wars sets it at level 20, while WoW at first started with 60 and then to 70 for the BC expansion and in future 80 when another new expansion arrives. This level cap also determines the type of players that it would attract. Guild Wars developers explained that the low level 20 cap is to ensure that emphasis is on the numerous amount of skills that the game offers instead of focusing on level grinding to survive in the game. Also, Guild Wars is geared towards PvP and so, level 20 makes it easier for skill balancing and enables players to be quickly equipped to battle in the arena. I think this level 20 cap is the pivotal reason why GW does not have a huge following in SEA.
From my experience, I've known quite a number of my friends who started GW but stopped quite quickly afterthat because there is no "ding!" or levelling up motivation to continue once they reach level 20. This low level cap also does not allow them to player kill and have the "superiority complex" over other players. But for the players from America that are in my friends list, many of them are still actively playing in their account. From this observation, I figured out that Southeast Asian gamers just get the orgasm from seeing big numbers in their RPG characters.
In my opinion, there ain't much difference to me for a lvl 20 GW character or a lvl 70 WoW character since both essentially enable players to deal with high-end stuff in their respective games. And in WoW, the level grinding is really attrocious especially in the Outlands when the player is between lvl 60-70. In Azeroth, there are plenty of quests that ask the player to kill 10 of "insert monster name" and maybe 20 at the higher ends. But in Outlands, the number rises to 30 and then the ultimate one that annoyed me was 50. These repititive kills are the only ways for players to overcome the huge levelling gap other than the other more creatively crafted quests. So, at times, one just spends his sorry ass time by completing quotas. GW does have its fair share of grinding with the introduction of achievement bars. But the consequences of not grinding in GW is not that severe or even affects the effectiveness of the character as titles are pretty much aesthetic. In WoW, not grinding and levelling characters meant that one cannot visit many of the high end places and are disadvantaged in many ways (eg. armour gears and mounts). Low levels are prime targets too for maxed out gankers and PKers in PvP servers. So, WoW players do have to spend a huge amount of time and also have the patience to reach the higher echelons of the game.
Ok, I'll comment on other aspects of the comparison at my next gaming post before this gets too long..lol
I've played Guild Wars for almost 2 years plus since 2005 and I've completed all the campaigns. WoW has a solid international reputation, thanks to Blizzard's fame as a quality game maker. However, I did not jump at the band wagon when it first started becoz it's quite costly and secondly, I'm schooling and using maths, the fees paid to play WoW is not worth it. So, that's y I chose to play GW instead. I think that GW is not that famous in South East Asia itself apart from the Philippines or maybe in Singapore. But even in Singapore itself, it's rather limited but at least they had some established guilds like Sg Knights. I doubt GW is really heard of much in Malaysia. So, most of the GW player base are from the USA, Europe or Korea. This is also partly because the origins of the companies of NCsoft and Arenanet. I have to say that Guild Wars remains one of the few mmorpgs that could stand up against the superiority of WoW in terms of quality wise and professional development. Cheapo 2D stuff like Maple Story or Runescape (which are more famous in the SEA region) are just no where near in challenging Guild Wars.
After my A Levels, I decided to give WoW a try to see how different the two games are and I'm fortunate to have some of my SJI friends playing at the same time for company. So, here goes my review...
Price
The most notable difference between Guild Wars and World of Warcraft has to be the price. Guild Wars require only one time payment and you can play as many or as little as you want afterthat. On the other hand, WoW requires one to pay for the game itself, and then also monthly fees if players want to continue playing. So, if you wanna have some fun but don't wanna waste so much money, then Guild Wars is the economical choice. If you're feeling rich, have lots of spare time or don't really bother with the ratio breakdown of price per day, then WoW's tremendous pricing is not really an issue. Of course in the US or UK, the subscription fees is peanuts but if converted to Asian currencies, it's pretty much expensive for folks in the South East Asian region. It's quite manageable in Singapore for S$ 50 for two months but in Malaysia, RM 100+ for that is just mind blowing to keep up. Not only that, it's nonsensical that the BC expansion is priced at S$79.90, double the price of the original. It's even more absurd that I could get a nice package deal of S$69.90 of both original and expansion through the Battlechest as compared to S$118+ if I were to buy them separately. The moral of the story is that you ended paying more for some CD covers if you started playing earlier before the Battlechest came out.
Level Cap
Another notable difference is the level cap. Guild Wars sets it at level 20, while WoW at first started with 60 and then to 70 for the BC expansion and in future 80 when another new expansion arrives. This level cap also determines the type of players that it would attract. Guild Wars developers explained that the low level 20 cap is to ensure that emphasis is on the numerous amount of skills that the game offers instead of focusing on level grinding to survive in the game. Also, Guild Wars is geared towards PvP and so, level 20 makes it easier for skill balancing and enables players to be quickly equipped to battle in the arena. I think this level 20 cap is the pivotal reason why GW does not have a huge following in SEA.
From my experience, I've known quite a number of my friends who started GW but stopped quite quickly afterthat because there is no "ding!" or levelling up motivation to continue once they reach level 20. This low level cap also does not allow them to player kill and have the "superiority complex" over other players. But for the players from America that are in my friends list, many of them are still actively playing in their account. From this observation, I figured out that Southeast Asian gamers just get the orgasm from seeing big numbers in their RPG characters.
In my opinion, there ain't much difference to me for a lvl 20 GW character or a lvl 70 WoW character since both essentially enable players to deal with high-end stuff in their respective games. And in WoW, the level grinding is really attrocious especially in the Outlands when the player is between lvl 60-70. In Azeroth, there are plenty of quests that ask the player to kill 10 of "insert monster name" and maybe 20 at the higher ends. But in Outlands, the number rises to 30 and then the ultimate one that annoyed me was 50. These repititive kills are the only ways for players to overcome the huge levelling gap other than the other more creatively crafted quests. So, at times, one just spends his sorry ass time by completing quotas. GW does have its fair share of grinding with the introduction of achievement bars. But the consequences of not grinding in GW is not that severe or even affects the effectiveness of the character as titles are pretty much aesthetic. In WoW, not grinding and levelling characters meant that one cannot visit many of the high end places and are disadvantaged in many ways (eg. armour gears and mounts). Low levels are prime targets too for maxed out gankers and PKers in PvP servers. So, WoW players do have to spend a huge amount of time and also have the patience to reach the higher echelons of the game.
Ok, I'll comment on other aspects of the comparison at my next gaming post before this gets too long..lol
Thursday 21 February 2008
Lyon 1 Man Utd 1
Champions League football returns with the round of 16 where United takes on Lyon in France. United played quite well, dominating possession and taking chances. It was unfortunate that they went down a goal first. Five red shirts failed to stop Karim Benzema from powering a rocket shot past van der Sar. I would attribute that more to Benzema's split second of brilliance rather than the fault of the defence. He's been putting up good performances too and his shots were really powerful ones. Lol..if he is Man Utd's signing target, then Ferguson must have looked at the right place. At just 20 years old or so, this young striker looks set to be one the new shining stars in the club alongside with Ben Arfa.
It would be terribly dissapointing if the scoreline had remained till the final whistle. Ferguson entered Nani and Tevez in the last quarter of the game. In the 87th minute, Tevez brilliantly scored an equalizer to put United back in the quest to reach the next round. It's already becoming Tevez's trademark to lurk in the penalty box during set pieces to power in those vital goals just as he did against Liverpool and Tottenham. That is also why United had gone to so much trouble to secure his services from West Ham and he has paid quite a fair share back for United's investment. 1-1 is a decent result, and considering the next leg is at Old Trafford, United have a great chance to advance.
Over on the other side, 0-0 at Emirates ain't so good for Arse-nal since they will be travelling to San Siro next. It is already examplified by United last season that a trip to San Siro is terrifying even with a lead at hand. On the previous night, Liverpool came alive towards the last few minutes and won 2-0 over Inter. I think Rafa Benitez specialization is only at Champions League..lol. Unfortunately, he has to realise that the fans in Anfield are English and the domestic arena is where their pride matters most in front of their other countrymen. While Liverpool's Champions League record is admirable, it's still a little embarassing to think that Benitez's side had trouble dispatching part timers and Division 1 teams in the FA Cup, not to mention too about the countless numbers of draws in the Premier League.
It would be terribly dissapointing if the scoreline had remained till the final whistle. Ferguson entered Nani and Tevez in the last quarter of the game. In the 87th minute, Tevez brilliantly scored an equalizer to put United back in the quest to reach the next round. It's already becoming Tevez's trademark to lurk in the penalty box during set pieces to power in those vital goals just as he did against Liverpool and Tottenham. That is also why United had gone to so much trouble to secure his services from West Ham and he has paid quite a fair share back for United's investment. 1-1 is a decent result, and considering the next leg is at Old Trafford, United have a great chance to advance.
Over on the other side, 0-0 at Emirates ain't so good for Arse-nal since they will be travelling to San Siro next. It is already examplified by United last season that a trip to San Siro is terrifying even with a lead at hand. On the previous night, Liverpool came alive towards the last few minutes and won 2-0 over Inter. I think Rafa Benitez specialization is only at Champions League..lol. Unfortunately, he has to realise that the fans in Anfield are English and the domestic arena is where their pride matters most in front of their other countrymen. While Liverpool's Champions League record is admirable, it's still a little embarassing to think that Benitez's side had trouble dispatching part timers and Division 1 teams in the FA Cup, not to mention too about the countless numbers of draws in the Premier League.
Monday 18 February 2008
FA Cup 5th Round
Wembley..Wembley..We're the famous Man United and we're going to Wembley
Crunch time at Old Trafford on last weekend as Man Utd takes on Arse-nal. Fergie had omitted many first team members like Ronaldo and Tevez in anticipation for the Champions League match. So, it's kinda like a gamble. Arsenal on the other hand are not in the best of shape with almost their entire first team squad decimated by injury. Adebayor is only half-fit. Many people anticipated it to be a close and tight match. But it didn't happened. The effect of Wayne Rooney in the team was clearly seee. The boy was pushing and pushing Arsenal's defence constantly and before long, he knocked in a goal with his head. Not long afterthat, second goal was put in by Fletcher thanks to a clever run and assist by Nani. And Nani himself rounded it up with a goal by beating the offside line. And just within the first half, the disorganized and dazed Arsenal was down 0-3 to United.
Ohh..the problems didn't end there for Arse-nal. Eboue had to screw himself up by smacking against Patrice. The game was long gone for Arse-nal before half-time. And with one man less, they really had to hold the floodgates now. Lehmann was sleeping in the first half half but he's more alert at the 2nd half by stopping a few potential United goal. Eventually, another goal was in and the finishing touches were done yet again by Fergie's favourite Scotsman, Fletcher.
United clearly had a uniform tactic to dismantle and tear Arsenal apart. There was emphasis on headers as shown by 3 out of 4 of the goals. Rooney on the other hand has been repeatedly trying to beat the offside line in an attempt to unsettle Arsenal's back four. I'm really impressed with Nani's performance in this match especially on the assists that he had set up. Arsenal's selection of players also played a part in their demise. Their team this time is totally haphazard even with Fabregas inside. They have noobs like Hoyte and Traore in the team plus two old timers like Gilberto and Lehmann who are supposedly "betrayed" by professor Wenger. Seriously, I can't imagine what sort of motivation that Gilberto and Lehmann have to help their soon-to-be-gone employers after all the nonsense they've been through. With Bendtner as one of the people leading the strikeforce, it's hard to see Arsenal getting any goals in the match. One can see Arsenal's desperation as Wenger puts on the half-fit Adebayor. And at the same time, Adebayor is desperate enough to try a dive but his theatrics was too pathetic to fool the referee. Lol..he only reacted a second or two after the tackle. Dude, if you wanna learn diving, learn from Ronaldo or Robben and when you do dive, don't do a delayed reaction.
The hillarious thing in this match was how the United players were teasing Arsenal. Rooney obstructed Gilberto from taking a free kick by dribbling the ball around childishly. The referee gave him a yellow card for time wasting..lol. The other one was interesting and it happened during play time. Nani trapped the ball with his head and started bouncing it with the head and the his feet while poor Hoyte was hopelessly chasing him around and falling flat on his face in the process.
Overall, it was a great match coupled by the excellent manner in which Man Utd had won it. Anyways, I can't believe it that Man Utd's being paired up again with another EPL side at the next round. It's Portsmouth up next for United while Chelsea got the slayer of Liverpool, which brings me to my next point. Okay, *clears throat*, Liverpool LOST to BARNSLEY right in ANFIELD. Oh gosh, need to say anymore? LOL, what in the world was Rafa Benitez doing? His time is up, even if the board don't sack him, the fans will slaughter him.
Crunch time at Old Trafford on last weekend as Man Utd takes on Arse-nal. Fergie had omitted many first team members like Ronaldo and Tevez in anticipation for the Champions League match. So, it's kinda like a gamble. Arsenal on the other hand are not in the best of shape with almost their entire first team squad decimated by injury. Adebayor is only half-fit. Many people anticipated it to be a close and tight match. But it didn't happened. The effect of Wayne Rooney in the team was clearly seee. The boy was pushing and pushing Arsenal's defence constantly and before long, he knocked in a goal with his head. Not long afterthat, second goal was put in by Fletcher thanks to a clever run and assist by Nani. And Nani himself rounded it up with a goal by beating the offside line. And just within the first half, the disorganized and dazed Arsenal was down 0-3 to United.
Ohh..the problems didn't end there for Arse-nal. Eboue had to screw himself up by smacking against Patrice. The game was long gone for Arse-nal before half-time. And with one man less, they really had to hold the floodgates now. Lehmann was sleeping in the first half half but he's more alert at the 2nd half by stopping a few potential United goal. Eventually, another goal was in and the finishing touches were done yet again by Fergie's favourite Scotsman, Fletcher.
United clearly had a uniform tactic to dismantle and tear Arsenal apart. There was emphasis on headers as shown by 3 out of 4 of the goals. Rooney on the other hand has been repeatedly trying to beat the offside line in an attempt to unsettle Arsenal's back four. I'm really impressed with Nani's performance in this match especially on the assists that he had set up. Arsenal's selection of players also played a part in their demise. Their team this time is totally haphazard even with Fabregas inside. They have noobs like Hoyte and Traore in the team plus two old timers like Gilberto and Lehmann who are supposedly "betrayed" by professor Wenger. Seriously, I can't imagine what sort of motivation that Gilberto and Lehmann have to help their soon-to-be-gone employers after all the nonsense they've been through. With Bendtner as one of the people leading the strikeforce, it's hard to see Arsenal getting any goals in the match. One can see Arsenal's desperation as Wenger puts on the half-fit Adebayor. And at the same time, Adebayor is desperate enough to try a dive but his theatrics was too pathetic to fool the referee. Lol..he only reacted a second or two after the tackle. Dude, if you wanna learn diving, learn from Ronaldo or Robben and when you do dive, don't do a delayed reaction.
The hillarious thing in this match was how the United players were teasing Arsenal. Rooney obstructed Gilberto from taking a free kick by dribbling the ball around childishly. The referee gave him a yellow card for time wasting..lol. The other one was interesting and it happened during play time. Nani trapped the ball with his head and started bouncing it with the head and the his feet while poor Hoyte was hopelessly chasing him around and falling flat on his face in the process.
Overall, it was a great match coupled by the excellent manner in which Man Utd had won it. Anyways, I can't believe it that Man Utd's being paired up again with another EPL side at the next round. It's Portsmouth up next for United while Chelsea got the slayer of Liverpool, which brings me to my next point. Okay, *clears throat*, Liverpool LOST to BARNSLEY right in ANFIELD. Oh gosh, need to say anymore? LOL, what in the world was Rafa Benitez doing? His time is up, even if the board don't sack him, the fans will slaughter him.
Sunday 17 February 2008
Old man
The old man is stubborn, silly and paranoid. He has so many unfounded fears and a screwed up logic. Belonging to the old generation Chinese male chauvinist, everything he does is right while everything anyone else does is wrong. I'm fine if he wants to spend his own time entertaining his paranoia but please don't bother or include me in. I wasted almost 7hrs doing nothing today while sitting at the back seat. This included 3 stops for a petrol tank that is full and 5hrs on the road seeing useless stuff in places like Balik Pulau. Not that today was anything different from previous incidents that saw things like chaining car gears and barricading front doors. But today was just the limit that I can tolerate his nonsense.
I'm not surprised that certain family members had shun him out, refuse to talk with him or kept a distance from him. I've tried not to cross his path and instead go about doing my own business but he just had to interfere. Interpreting the modern world with his own secluded ancient world nonsense, he keeps yapping on using twisted logic and just refuse to listen to any advice that may do him good in the future. I've kept telling him to stop feeding the flames of fear in him but he remains utterly adamant in continuing doing stupid stuff that increases his level of senility. Seriously, once I have my own foothold in Malaysia, I'm never gonna associate my life with him anymore.
I'm not surprised that certain family members had shun him out, refuse to talk with him or kept a distance from him. I've tried not to cross his path and instead go about doing my own business but he just had to interfere. Interpreting the modern world with his own secluded ancient world nonsense, he keeps yapping on using twisted logic and just refuse to listen to any advice that may do him good in the future. I've kept telling him to stop feeding the flames of fear in him but he remains utterly adamant in continuing doing stupid stuff that increases his level of senility. Seriously, once I have my own foothold in Malaysia, I'm never gonna associate my life with him anymore.
Friday 15 February 2008
8th day
Yesterday night was particularly irritating. Some bloke assumed that nobody lives in the town area and thought that he can pop all those firecrackers like nobody's business. It's freaking noisy and even at 12.15 am, it was still popping. Those blokes made those firecrackers go off sporadically and so, it sounded like artillery fire. Somebody should just come and spank these fools that are noise polluting!
Apparently, today was declared the birthday of the Jade Emperor since its the 8th day of Chinese New Year. Okay, this is the first time that I heard bout it and I didn't know that Taiping people take it so seriously. Most of the Chinese shops in town were closed as if it was Chinese new year plus so many kopitiam stalls were taking the day off. Lol, I don't think many would take notice of the 8th day in Singapore. Even in my younger days at Subang Jaya, I don't recall such a grand scale of closure. I suppose those blokes popping the crackers yesterday are marking the occasion.
Apparently, today was declared the birthday of the Jade Emperor since its the 8th day of Chinese New Year. Okay, this is the first time that I heard bout it and I didn't know that Taiping people take it so seriously. Most of the Chinese shops in town were closed as if it was Chinese new year plus so many kopitiam stalls were taking the day off. Lol, I don't think many would take notice of the 8th day in Singapore. Even in my younger days at Subang Jaya, I don't recall such a grand scale of closure. I suppose those blokes popping the crackers yesterday are marking the occasion.
Amazing Race Asia 2 Finale
Yesterday was the final 3 showdown in the Amazing Race Asia 2. All three teams are from ASEAN countries - Adrian and Collin from Singapore, Pamela and Vanessa from Malaysia plus Rovilson and Marc from the Philippines. Last season was won by an all women team from Malaysia, so eyes are on the two sisters if they could bounce up from their third place at the start to repeat the feat. But the two hot favourites were the other two male teams where they dominate most of the legs and always within touching distance of each other. The Filipino buddies probably had the physical edge and also the tv personality given all their spunk and light-hearted approach. Before the final leg, they had an astounding 8 firsts and 3 seconds. They had never finished below second at the start of the final leg.
So, they race through South Africa and then return back to Singapore for the last few tasks and the finishing line. It was good news for the Singaporean gym buddies since its back home for them. Unfortunately, halfway through, they forgot to hold the taxi and as a result they were the last to arrive at the last road block in Sentosa. The Filipino buddies were there first but one of them had a hell of a time trying to figure out the flags. The Malaysian sisters fared a little better but the one doing the road block forgot what the Filipino flag looked like. Adrian did fantastic on the flag challenge as he had good knowledge on them and they were off to the finishing line at the Chinese Gardens in Jurong while the the other two teams were still figuring things out. Grats to Adrian and Collin in finishing first, showing that disability is no barrier to success. The Malaysian sisters team figured things out quicker than the Filipinos and they finished second. The Filipinos came in last. What a twist! All signs pointed that the race was going their way and they were going to wrap it up easily. It just had to be the last thing about countries and flags that got them screwed. Lol, so kids, brush up on ur flag reading skills! You'll never know when its gonna cost you US$ 100, 000. =p
So, they race through South Africa and then return back to Singapore for the last few tasks and the finishing line. It was good news for the Singaporean gym buddies since its back home for them. Unfortunately, halfway through, they forgot to hold the taxi and as a result they were the last to arrive at the last road block in Sentosa. The Filipino buddies were there first but one of them had a hell of a time trying to figure out the flags. The Malaysian sisters fared a little better but the one doing the road block forgot what the Filipino flag looked like. Adrian did fantastic on the flag challenge as he had good knowledge on them and they were off to the finishing line at the Chinese Gardens in Jurong while the the other two teams were still figuring things out. Grats to Adrian and Collin in finishing first, showing that disability is no barrier to success. The Malaysian sisters team figured things out quicker than the Filipinos and they finished second. The Filipinos came in last. What a twist! All signs pointed that the race was going their way and they were going to wrap it up easily. It just had to be the last thing about countries and flags that got them screwed. Lol, so kids, brush up on ur flag reading skills! You'll never know when its gonna cost you US$ 100, 000. =p
Thursday 14 February 2008
The Pilihan Raya is on!
Happy Valentine's day but Malaysia's political scene is on the move on the eve. The Malaysian Parliament was dissolved on 13 February, much to the surprise and annoyance of some of the parties. On 13 Feb, theStar paper reported that Pak Lah would not be making the move. And right on the day itself, the PM dropped the shell after weeks of speculation. Uncle Lim was naturally quite pissed, citing that the Chinese New Year celebrations were not over yet.
It was announced today too that nomination day would be on 24 Feb with March 8 scheduled to be the election day. The hotspot for this election is reportedly to be in Penang. With all the controversies looming for the past 5 years, the ruling coalition would possibly face a fierce fight that could rival the 1999 elections. Well, it would be interesting to see the campaigning and the candidates that would be put up respectively by the different parties. Elections in Malaysia is certainly a vibrant affair compared over to its southern neighbour where their elections are quieter with many uncontested walkovers and no prizes to guess which is the dominating party. The only few possible highlights from their last election are like oppostion candidates that get screwed real bad over a piece of form.
With the information technology on the forefront, it's not that easy to hide dirty little secrets anymore. I'm curious to see if Malaysians would take as much action as what they had say.
It was announced today too that nomination day would be on 24 Feb with March 8 scheduled to be the election day. The hotspot for this election is reportedly to be in Penang. With all the controversies looming for the past 5 years, the ruling coalition would possibly face a fierce fight that could rival the 1999 elections. Well, it would be interesting to see the campaigning and the candidates that would be put up respectively by the different parties. Elections in Malaysia is certainly a vibrant affair compared over to its southern neighbour where their elections are quieter with many uncontested walkovers and no prizes to guess which is the dominating party. The only few possible highlights from their last election are like oppostion candidates that get screwed real bad over a piece of form.
With the information technology on the forefront, it's not that easy to hide dirty little secrets anymore. I'm curious to see if Malaysians would take as much action as what they had say.
Wednesday 13 February 2008
Manchester Remembers
Around a week ago, it was the 50th anniversary of the 1958 Munich tragedy which claimed the lives of 8 Man Utd players and 3 staff members from the promising Busby Babes squad. Last weekend, the 1 minute of silence was honourably held by the City fans with the United players dressed in plain red and white v-neck jerseys. Only squad numbers from 1-11 were used for the starting eleven. Wayne Rooney was unfortunate to miss playing in the occasion after his 5th yellow card.
United's form from the past 2 Premier League games have been rather worrying. The 1-1 draw in White Hart Lane could have easily been a loss if not for Tevez's last ditch attempt. The bad stuff just got worse last weekend. The defence was just bad, plain bad. The attack was decent, a little better than the one at Tottenham but it is still poor finishing given the amount of talents in the team. So, if you don't finish at the final third and with your defence at the wrong position all the time, even the home fans can't save the team from bad results. United's defence got it all wrong while City's two centrebacks, Dunne and Richards were solid in their positions. Dunne especially, I think, is on steroids! The City captain is seems to be always in the right place to block shots and nullify attacking runs. On the other hand, Ferdinand was at one of his worst moments, and not being aware of his positioning most of the time. I think the glaring weakness is John O shea on the left. First, he does not provide sufficient runs along the left lane like Evra to pressurise City. Next, he can't even defend his own flank properly. I have to say both of City's goal came from his side and both scorers were virtually unmarked by anyone.
Benjani proved to be a very shrewd buy from City. He's on hot form in Portsmouth and he's carrying it on in his new club with a debut goal. United's fortune would perhaps had been different if they had gotten an extra striker during the January transfer. There is no way Rooney+Tevez combi to be available for every match of the season. Saha is on/off with no constant form. The City match saw Giggs/Nani/Ronaldo played in the same team. Technically, it's Giggs left, Nani right and Ronaldo playing forward support. But in the match, they switch all around so constantly since each three of them had experimented playing in each other's position before. It was changing "so constant" that they themselves lost track of each other and so do the rest of the team. Ronaldo was shut down heavily and I think he's way better off playing at the extreme right winger instead of charging near center. I must say, Rooney is really missed in such an electrifying derby match. While the most obvious is his striking skills, I would point out that the motivation "aura" that he provides on the field is priceless. The determination and his psyched up personality would do much to gear up team chemistry and fire. But as off last weekend, the Man Utd team was playing all over the place, losing posession, and don't look like that they had the same team bond they had last season. Lol, surprisingly, the guy who came out and scored was Carrick but it came too late. Seriously, it's time that Fergie should invest on a match winning sub like Solskjaer or Robben. The sub bench last weekend contained no strikers but sit-back players like Carrick and Hargreaves. Both of them are really more useful if United had been leading and relying on "parking bus" tactic to keep the result. Well, United better buck up. Arse-nal's coming up in the next cup match, perhaps a prelude on the future league match.
United's form from the past 2 Premier League games have been rather worrying. The 1-1 draw in White Hart Lane could have easily been a loss if not for Tevez's last ditch attempt. The bad stuff just got worse last weekend. The defence was just bad, plain bad. The attack was decent, a little better than the one at Tottenham but it is still poor finishing given the amount of talents in the team. So, if you don't finish at the final third and with your defence at the wrong position all the time, even the home fans can't save the team from bad results. United's defence got it all wrong while City's two centrebacks, Dunne and Richards were solid in their positions. Dunne especially, I think, is on steroids! The City captain is seems to be always in the right place to block shots and nullify attacking runs. On the other hand, Ferdinand was at one of his worst moments, and not being aware of his positioning most of the time. I think the glaring weakness is John O shea on the left. First, he does not provide sufficient runs along the left lane like Evra to pressurise City. Next, he can't even defend his own flank properly. I have to say both of City's goal came from his side and both scorers were virtually unmarked by anyone.
Benjani proved to be a very shrewd buy from City. He's on hot form in Portsmouth and he's carrying it on in his new club with a debut goal. United's fortune would perhaps had been different if they had gotten an extra striker during the January transfer. There is no way Rooney+Tevez combi to be available for every match of the season. Saha is on/off with no constant form. The City match saw Giggs/Nani/Ronaldo played in the same team. Technically, it's Giggs left, Nani right and Ronaldo playing forward support. But in the match, they switch all around so constantly since each three of them had experimented playing in each other's position before. It was changing "so constant" that they themselves lost track of each other and so do the rest of the team. Ronaldo was shut down heavily and I think he's way better off playing at the extreme right winger instead of charging near center. I must say, Rooney is really missed in such an electrifying derby match. While the most obvious is his striking skills, I would point out that the motivation "aura" that he provides on the field is priceless. The determination and his psyched up personality would do much to gear up team chemistry and fire. But as off last weekend, the Man Utd team was playing all over the place, losing posession, and don't look like that they had the same team bond they had last season. Lol, surprisingly, the guy who came out and scored was Carrick but it came too late. Seriously, it's time that Fergie should invest on a match winning sub like Solskjaer or Robben. The sub bench last weekend contained no strikers but sit-back players like Carrick and Hargreaves. Both of them are really more useful if United had been leading and relying on "parking bus" tactic to keep the result. Well, United better buck up. Arse-nal's coming up in the next cup match, perhaps a prelude on the future league match.
Tuesday 12 February 2008
Plugged back in
Stan was MIA for the past 2 weeks from the internet coz his DVD drive was KIA and he had to send it for repairs. How annoying. Firstly, my World of Warcraft account meter continues running with money wasted. That's the irritating part about WoW compared to Guild Wars where I can be absent for months but still feel my wallet intact. Not only that, being absent for almost 2 weeks meant that I'm in a limbo and constantly guessing when the announcement of the A level results would be out. Lol, I'm relying on my MSN messenger contacts to propagate the date to me. It seems that the authorities is still keeping quiet about it.
Chinese New Year was quite ok for me. Mama and my bro came down to Taiping and on the first day, we all plus my mama's relatives had a grand dinner at Evergreen Hotel courtesy of my uncle. Great food and red wine, I drank quite a number of glasses but didn't get knocked out. In Malaysia, CNY holidays meant that the regular kopitiam won't open. So, everyone would end up flocking to KFC and fast food chains instead. Lol, the KFC workers were having a hell of a time trying to fry up the food and cleaning up the mess. On Saturday night, mama and bro went back to Sg and for a moment, I was a little emo because it's back to life with two "ketinggalan zaman" old folks in the shophouse. And hey, I realised that I had to grow up way faster than the rest of the pple at my age.From 18-19 years old onwards and many years to come, I'll be thrown in a life that would see me living independently from my immediate family. Some people that I know like NBS still live with their parents in their late 20s.
Anyways, glad to be back after the hiatus.
Chinese New Year was quite ok for me. Mama and my bro came down to Taiping and on the first day, we all plus my mama's relatives had a grand dinner at Evergreen Hotel courtesy of my uncle. Great food and red wine, I drank quite a number of glasses but didn't get knocked out. In Malaysia, CNY holidays meant that the regular kopitiam won't open. So, everyone would end up flocking to KFC and fast food chains instead. Lol, the KFC workers were having a hell of a time trying to fry up the food and cleaning up the mess. On Saturday night, mama and bro went back to Sg and for a moment, I was a little emo because it's back to life with two "ketinggalan zaman" old folks in the shophouse. And hey, I realised that I had to grow up way faster than the rest of the pple at my age.From 18-19 years old onwards and many years to come, I'll be thrown in a life that would see me living independently from my immediate family. Some people that I know like NBS still live with their parents in their late 20s.
Anyways, glad to be back after the hiatus.
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