At this time of last year...

Let's do a flashback on what Stan was doing way back in 2007 at this time of the year. Yes, he's frantically preparing for his A' Levels exams and he could still remember that his first paper on Knowledge and Inquiry is on 1st November. All the note typings and reading, the guidebooks and textbooks. Other than doing well, there are a couple of other aims too : The desire to prove to "some people" wrong in that their teaching methods are really horrible. To prove that intelligence, understanding and creativity is way better than mugging blindly. To expose those fake sycophants that always get good results in JC exams when in fact they are of crappy quality. It was time to show what I was made of.

At that time, I already had in mind on the "twist" of my future plans. It was a radical plan and it lessens the pressure in a way. And at the same time, I just had butterflies in my stomach for my results in March this year in that I may get terribly disappointed in not achieving the aspired grades that I hope to get even though I only need to do the bare minimum to be successful in my radical plan. I would say to some extent "image/face-consciousness" did drive me to push my limits to the maximum and not compromise on the minimum. Not only that, the uncertainness of the future and that I may be proven wrong in my future plans are just intoxicating during that period. But nevertheless, I kept faith that God will make everything turn out the best as long as I do my best and commit the rest to Him.

Flashback to this year March, and the A' Level results were out. Pure joy that I had gotten double 'As' for my two favourite subjects, History and English Literature and a 'C' for Economics, a subject that I failed in every major test for the past 2 years. It was blessings from God, because I managed to achieved that for Econs without resorting to the expensive A' Levels tuition. To get the double 'As' for my two favourite subjects just doubly confirms of my gifting in writing. I'm really thankful to God for my achievements. It was more than sufficient to embark on the journey of my radical plan. And I'm contented to know that my results would have easily gotten me entrance into the National University of Singapore. But I chose not to do so. I felt that it was not my calling to be there. I just felt that my potential would be realised better in returning back to my homeland and the place where I grew up in Malaysia. (although some may say ironically..haha)

Right now at this moment, Stan is also frantically preparing for another exam, but it's a minor one..haha. It's the mid-sessionals exams for my law degree. Lol, so Stan would like to announce to his loyal readers (whoever that may be) that he will be taking a break for these few days from blogging while he frantically implants statutes and cases into his mind. =p Tonight's Premier League matches and the weekend matches reports and analysis will have to be pushed to Nov 3, which is the last day for my exams..haha. Meanwhile, while waiting, feel free to browse through my old stories and archives :)

May the good Lord bless me on these few days too :)

Stamford Bridge record collapses

"Cashley" Cole and "Le Sulk" Anelka had a horrible day at the office

86 matches unbeaten at home that stood for 4 years 8 months. The last team to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge were the Gooners way back in February 2004. The run started from the last half of Ranieri's era at the club, looked impossible to beat during Jose Mourinho's era, threatened to be dislodged during Avram Grant's time and now the axe had to fall on one of the famous faces of football management, Scolari.

It's a clash of the top two of the table and in the past 4 years or so, the Chelsea vs. Liverpool encounter has chalked up to about an astounding amount of 20 meetings or so considering Champions League matches and cup ties. Chelsea were tipped to be slight favourites for this considering the form and manner they were in for the previous matches. Chelsea hardly broke a sweat in winning their matches while Liverpool were limping, struggling and some would say it's by luck that they managed to secure some of the wins where defeats actually looked imminent for them.

On Friday, Xabi Alonso said that he is out to end Chelsea's record and that prophecy was eerily fulfilled yesterday when he DID in fact ended Chelsea's record with the only goal from him. The Blues failed to deal with a throw-in properly and when the ball fell onto Alonso outside the edge of the box, he blasted it towards the goal. The shot took a deflection, causing Cech to be slighly of course and Liverpool were 1-0 up. In fact, it could have been two from him since the second attempt was a beautiful free kick which by some divine intervention, hit the post and bounced out. Liverpool maintained their defensive lines well in the 2nd half while trying to build a couple of decent attacks. Lots of chances taken by Chelsea in the 2nd half, but they were plain wasteful and the players looked to pressurized to break the deadlock. The Bridge supporters were stung into silence as the final whistle was blown while the Scousers supporters were chanting "you'll never walk alone".

I think for the first time in many years, Liverpool showed some real deal title credentials and they are currently heading the top of the table with 3 points clear. Two encounters with their rivals had resulted in a win. Personally, if there is an outcome where both of these *toot* teams obtain 0 points at the same time, I would root for that...haha. Nevertheless, I prefer Liverpool winning this one simply because this is the only time where Chelsea can lose. Lol..Liverpool is not a threat at all and somewhere in the future, they have a high probability in screwing up at somewhere else..like in Aston Villa or even Hull City. Nice to see Chelsea getting some losses and it makes Man Utd's draw at Everton less irritating.

Looking at the other side of London, Spurs finally heralded their first win of the campaign after sacking Ramos and appointing "saviour" manager Harry Redknapp. Well, at least they now can stop all the nonsense at the bottom and start moving up. Or maybe, this could be just a facade since Bolton is quite a crappy team anyways. Either way, it's interesting to see how that develops. If they start a chain of good results, the Geordies might find themselves at the bottom instead. A terrible loss at Sunderland has also plunged them into abyssimal mode too. Well, when will Alan Shearer be moving into his new managerial office? haha...

Whooooops

Yesterday we had a short worship workshop organised in church where there's some try-outs session for the new people in the team. Of course, the team is divided accordingly to the instruments they want to specialise in. After the short get-together or so, there will be a mix and match session where people will try out in playing Planetshakers' "Majesty". Oohhhh..for that song, the drums has to have a constant base beat. As I'm accustomed to the two branches of beats, I've got a mental block out of a sudden on playing a constant base beat. It happens also when I first tried out the calypso/latino beat which is taught by George. Aiiikkss...it's pretty embarrassing and memalukan for old time buddies like me when some of those aspiring kiddies managed to get the thing right while I'm still confused with my beats. Well, then again they begun on a clean slate. The funny thing about drums is that if I am accustomed in playing in one way, it's not that easy to change it to another way unless I managed to get the "sensation" on how my limbs are automated to move.

That's why for any drummers who are still learning, it's important to continue practicing and mastering the basics until its 100% perfectly executed (not 85% or even 95%) because any bad habits that are developed will carry on to the next beat that they are learning. Btw, while practicing on my leg, I accidentally smashed my kneecap resulting in a couple of blue black marks..lol..I didn't expect drumsticks to produce such a powerful effect. Just imagine what the snare drum has to endure every week..haha. When it was my turn to try out, I just hentam only using my usual beats but the timing was on track, only that it didn't sound as good as the original mp3. Anyways, I did managed to get the constant base right after some experimentation though.

This week is gonna be a crazy week of inputting stuff into my brain. I'm drowning..drowning..drowning in the loads of materials and topics that are needed to be covered. Next week I'm supposed to serve and it's gonna be really tight with the contract law exam on Monday. May the good Lord bless me..lol :)

Goodison Park stumble

The Portuguese wizard was one of the principal offenders for the crime of wasting chances

Man Utd entered the match on a high after a 3-0 win over Celtic in the Champions League group matches. The goals may have looked suspiciously offside but nevertheless Berbatov got his name recorded on the scoresheet for two goals. Rooney scored another yet again to round up a continuing superb run of form. Given that context, both Berba and Rooney were expected to rip Everton to shreds. Everton has never kept a clean sheet at all this season and their defence had been leaking unnecessary goals even though they are scoring upfront. Interestingly, Louis Saha is lined up against his former club and it remains to be seen if he would haunt Ferguson back or proved that Fergie was indeed right to sell him away.

When Darren Fletcher opened the scoring at the 22nd minute, there was hardly any surprise. Everton's defence were all over the place and a couple of good saves by Howard kept them in the game. What was impressive was that the Scotsman had shown an appetite for goals this season and he's now the joint top scorer with Rooney at 3 League goals. Depending on how you look at it, having Fletcher as Man Utd's premier league joint top scorer so far is of not exactly something the fans would boast about around. It meant that the lads that are supposed to be getting the goals aren't trying hard enough. Afterthat, Man Utd were just plain wasteful with their chances that they get. One of the main criminals were Ronaldo who squandered a handful of chances. By his high standards, he should be knocking them in especially at instances where he had at least 5 seconds to aim and shoot. Berbatov was effectively shut off by and he had little chance on the ball.

At the second half, Everton changed their approach to be more physical and apparently the rough style had unsettled the Man Utd players. The Toffees did not hesitate to go full plunge into challenges whenever United had the ball. Everton's approach was effective in getting the United players distracted and broke their usual chain of attack. Even Ferdinand got pissed off and worked up with Gary's bro and his former teammate, Phil Neville. Everton's tactic worked well and on the 63rd minute, Fellaini (a.k.a. Afro guy/Phua Chu Kang hairstyle) climbed above both super centerbacks Vidic and Ferdinand to head the ball in for the equaliser. Ferguson is left fuming wondering how in the world could England's best center defensive partnership were both beaten at the same time by a newcomer in Everton. It was horror time for United as Ferdinand's once again moment of "absent-mindedness" came at the wrong and worst possible time. A minute after the equaliser, Ferdinand (apparently half-dazed smoking weed+marijuana the night before) lost the ball to Yakubu and allowed him to smash a ball across van der Sar. The Dutchman was clearly beaten but alas, perhaps divine intervention had a part to play when the ball bobbled to hit the post, much to United's relief.

All the physical approach threatened to reach boiling point when Wayne Rooney was booked on a late tackle on Arteta. It's a seasonal tradition that Wayne gets booed whenever he returns to Goodison Park. However, he decided to show his PDA (Public Display of Affection) to the folks at his original stomping ground. As they jeered him, Rooney kissed the badge on his shirt and that incited even more outrage from the Goodison crowd. The referee saw his behaviour and warned him on that. Lol, apparently Rooney wants to imitate the Gary's PDA a couple of seasons back in front of the Liverpool fans. Fergie did not want to risk his ace striker in getting red carded at such a hostile environment, so he brought him out and that prevented Rooney from scoring his 100th career league goal at Goodison Park. United huffed and puffed, and even the introduction of Tevez could not inspire a last minute fightback. They missed the chance to keep tabs with both Liverpool and Chelsea and have to be contented with the 1-1 draw. For Everton, I think it's as good as a win for them. It's more of a two points loss to United.

Hull City are on a rampant mode! They ruthlessly whipped fellow newboys West Brom 3-0 right at their doorstep and the Tigers are now TIED 20 points with Liverpool and Chelsea for FIRST place.(that is until tonight's match between the top two). Hull City for Premier League CHAMPIONS please...lol!! I bet the bookies probably improved their chances to be higher than Spurs or the Toon Army..hahahaha. That's really admirable stuff from a team who has never competed before in a top division competition for the whole of their history. Hmmmm..however, I foresee their fairytale run coming to an end soon as they meet both Chelsea and Man Utd consecutively next. I'll be VERY impressed indeed even if they managed to secure a draw in either of them. All hell will break loose if they somehow managed to win one of the games..haha.

Last Class for Semester 2

Today's the last class for semester 2 and on next week, there will be the mid-sessionals exams starting from Thursday 30th October. For starters, there's a tremendous amount of revision to do for the four core exam-based subjects. Since I'm half-listening in some of the lectures, I really need to brush up on those topics. For the past two days or so, I've started doing the revision but doing law revision is ain't easy at all unlike my A' Levels days with my History and English Literature exams (where it's quite fun sometimes to read and digest the concepts there). Law essays are not as fun to write as History or English Lit..haha. Darn, even loathsome Economics could not match up to the amount of complications and stuff to memorise PLUS understand in Law. AS/AD, Externalities, Keynes or C+I+G+(X-M) are much easier to remember eventhough I disliked them very much. For Law, you need to know the exact words of some statutes, case names and distinguish and attribute the words said by judges such as Lord Diplock, Lord Hailsham, Lord Bridge plus concepts put out by legal writers such as Ivor Jennings, the infamous Dicey and William Wade. It's a whole new set of names plus quotations to remember and they are SO many of them that I dunnoe which one of them actually gets inputed into my brain. They are very interesting concepts but you need to read countless amount of time before they can leave a mark in your brain. Even for seasoned veteran memory machines like me need to put in some effort like never before..hahahaha =p

The reading of judgments in the cases, as in the specific wordings of the judge himself is quite eye-opening. It's English but gosh, if I don't double focus my brain on what is being written, it sure sounds like German instead..haha. Among all the judges, I find the words by the famous Lord Denning to be the most comprehensible out of all the others because he tends to be quite poetic and eccentric at times..lol.

Anyways, the exam format is the same as all of my A' Levels Arts subjects, in that 4 essay questions are to be completed in 3 hrs. I'm definitely accustomed to the sensation of writing for 3hrs straight. However, this will be the first time I'll be writing something on law in an exam..haha. Hopefully I can cover my bases for all the subjects by the time next Thursday comes. =p

Client Conferencing

After handing up my contract law thesis, another stuff that I need to deal with is the client conferencing assessment that happened this morning. It's a quite interesting component in our legal skills module. For the assessment, everyone will have to pair up and we would be given a court case to examine. We have to think about the questions to ask the client so as to gain the vital information that is required to represent the client in court. Of course, financial + family circumstances of the client, police statements and witnesses account all have to be considered. Basically, it's like a mini version of what happens when a lawyer meets his client for an interview. We also gotta ensure that the client doesn't drift off with unnecessary chatter and ensures that he understands on what is being advised. Some clients would be difficult and it would be up to the students to think of creative ways to get him in check. Then on the day of the client conferencing itself, somebody outside our class (usually the older semester students) will role play as the client.

The attire for CC is very formal, just like mooting. It's full dress professional office work attire for the guys (black pants, white formal shirt, black blazer and tie). It was quite nervy anticipating who our client would be coz some of the previous groups obtained seniors who purposely act as really badass clients. We tried to eliminate and guess who it could possibly be but we were hoping hard not to get the notorious ones..hahaha. At 10 am, it was moment of revelation and I felt relieved when I saw that it was Calvin (semester 6 senior and going off to UK soon?) accompanying my lecturer.

The whole conferencing stuff went well except for some minor hiccups. Half of my preparation was gone because Calvin put out a very different and unexpected situation for me to handle. Nevertheless, I kept my wits about and did some spontaneous questioning on the spot. Uggghhhh..the minor hiccup that I did was that I got the surname for one of the witnesses wrongly! Lol...I hope my lecturer won't penalise me that much because he asked me again about the surname and I STILL tell him the wrong one (because I didn't realise about it yet). Haha..the horror on my face was evident when I found out about it.. =p I'm still wondering how in the world I could end up writing the surname wrongly in my script! Anyways, overall I'm pretty pleased with the conferencing stuff and I felt glad that I handled the situation well. I hope I get a good grade for it! :)

Rampant Rooney

A scoring Wayne is the Wayne we all love

Wayne Rooney has been on a blistering form. 7 goals from the last 5 games and 5 goals from his last 3 internationals, which included 2 goals each at the last two internationals. It has been a slow start for him this season, with him being criticised for being at the wrong part of the field with the defence instead of going upfront and scoring. Nevertheless, Rooney had struck a sensational rich vein of form and has consistently scored a goal each for United at every game since opening his account in the Bolton game.

With United playing at home at Old Trafford, it's almost a guarantee that they will get the victory but the question is how much would the win margin be? No prizes for guessing who will be the one to grab the first goal for United given Rooney's superb form. At the 24th minute or so, he manages to put the ball past the goalkeeper but the referee refused to award the goal citing that Rooney was adjudged to have unfairly shoved one of the defenders on the way to goal. The United players were frustrated and a series of chances that came afterwards were near misses. At half-time, it was surprisingly 0-0 although United dominated the game well.

At the 56th minute, Rooney is at an excellent position again, and with a slight twist and turn to beat the defender, puts United up at 1-0. That makes it 4 goals out of 4 games for Man United! Rooney jubilantly does his sliding celebration, reminiscing the old days when the 16 year old teenager with the blue Everton shirt scored against Arsenal and the 18 year old who scored the hat trick on his debut in the 6-2 win against Fenerbahce. Rooney is at the forefront of United's attack again when he released a ball forward in which Ronaldo floated out of nowhere with his raw pace and nips the ball past the keeper. Man Utd's 3rd goal was a quickfire. 2 minutes after Ronaldo's goal, Nani tried to cross the ball into the box. It was not a great cross but the West Brom defenders were slow to deal with it. O Shea missed the ball but Berbatov made sure that he punished West Brom with a brilliant flick into the net. Berba must have been delighted to score his first goal in the league for Man Utd. At the 90th minute, to finish off in style, Rooney unselfishly passed the ball to Nani for a simple finish. Lol, Nani wanna do his trademark somersault celebration but this time he did only half of it. Anyways, this is fantastic stuff from Rooney as highlighted by his goal and two assists. A brilliant team player all around who contributes well and West Brom couldn't contain him at all!

Looking at the other results, Boro were raped 0-5 by Chelsea at the Riverside stadium. This is madness, because Chelsea, even with playing away and with half of their squad injured, still manages to chalk up a massive result. Liverpool once again, manages to escape with a 3-2 win despite Wigan looking set to win it at 2-1. Kuyt was the unsung hero once again and from the last two games, not only did he saved Liverpool from defeat, he provided them with the 3 points! How fortunate can you get seriously! Liverpool are now on level points with Chelsea at the top of the table. Another individual worth noting in the game is Wigan's Amr Zaki. That lad is now the top scorer in the league ahead of any of the other established strikers. One of the goals he scored against Liverpool was a beautiful bicycle kick. When he was being compared to Alan Shearer by the Wigan chairman earlier this year, many were laughing and chuckling at such a comparison. Hehe, looks like Amr Zaki did proofed to be superb signing and it won't be surprising to see one of the big clubs knocking at the door for him soon.

Ohhh..and it's another impressive result from Hull City! A 1-0 win over West Ham has propelled them to THIRD place right behind Liverpool and Chelsea with a 3-point difference. This was not a freak placing a couple of years ago when Wigan was second in the league for a while. Hull had overcame clubs which are touted to be way better than them, notably the Arsenal gooners. The plucky Tigers were not drawing or even losing..they were winning. They are definitely not one of the candidates for relegation this season even if they don't win in their next 10 games. In my opinion, I think Hull are the real heroes of the League because they had managed to achieve such wonderful results without splashing the cash like the top four. It goes down to basic ethics of determination and hard work.

On the other hand, Tottenham had went from Hell to the ABYSS after losing 1-2 to their fellow relegation buddies, Stoke City and had two of their players sent off. Goshhhh, they were becoming a laughing stock in the whole of England and they were raising hell more than when Martin Jol was in charge. Here's another lol Spurs joke : Last week, Tottenham equaled the record of their worst start in the league since 1912, the year when the Titanic sank. And after yesterday's result's, they were sinking even more than the Titanic! At least in 1912, they got 3 points in their opening 8 matches. In 2008, they can't even get to 3 points for crying out loud!! All the new boys from Division 1 has gotten at least 1 win but Spurs STILL has ZERO. This is a shocking horror for a big club like Spurs. To make it worst than the abyss, Spurs lost Michael Dawson and Gareth Bale to red cards plus Corluka has a serious injury. In short, their whole defence line is nearly wiped out with Ledley King still out. Every week, the opposition crowd would chant to Ramos "You're gonna get sacked this morning!". Hehe, but the losers won't be Ramos because he'll be getting a compensation even if he does get sacked. Btw, past history of Premier League showed that fellas who strayed far away at the bottom of the table at this time of the year rarely escapes relegation. Tonight, Spur's good buddy Newcastle will be taking on Man City. Both of them will have a nice time at the table bottom if Man City grabs the victory.

Pizza Hut feast

Sigh...I'm mourning for the loss of my drum stick. There's no hope in finding it already and I'm still clueless how it dropped out of my bag! I went back to the classroom to search but I found nothing on the floor. And I found out that the cleaners clean the classes every day in the evening and my poor stick is probably in the rubbish dump now :(

I'm quite emotional on my stuff especially if I owned them for a very long time. In this case, I've had that stick since I was 13 years old, it went through thick and thin with me and now I'm left with an incomplete half only. R.I.P. my dear stick, wherever you are :(

I thought that there would be a last discussion for the cell group today but apparently, all the English cell groups are making a trip to Pizza Hut to close the semester with a bang! Ahhhh..and I actually act a plate of rice before that because nobody told me bout it! Lol..I don't mind eating 2 lunches. =p Hehe..cool, Charles came with a van while there are 2 other cars to fetch those that can't fit into the van. 2 cars and 1 van was just nice as most of the girls are quite small in size, so 2 of them can squeeze in and sit in 1 place. Anyways, it's quite a risky move for some of them since they are having tests at 2 pm and we only left campus at around 12.30pm.

However, thank God that the food arrived fast and we had great time having fun and laughter feasting there. At around 1.45, those that have stuff to do at 2pm quickly rushed off with Charles back to campus. I went back early with the van too but I need not rush that much because my contract law lecturer is very nice..haha..

Lost one of my sticks :(

Uhhmmm..yesterday's CF presentation was a little of a mess because we didn't take much time to prepare for it. The only phrase we know how to sing is "you've got a friend in me"..lol. The audience were trying hard not to giggle so loud..haha. Honestly, we didn't really know what to prepare coz the only person we are familiar who is leaving is Merilyn. The rest of them are from the Chinese cell group. But oh well, at least it's over.

Grrr..I wanna practice at the music room today but the drums were not there because they have not shifted it back since the IMTV event yesterday. So, I ended up testing the piano and playing some familiar tunes by hearing. After looking at the David Sides' piano recreation of some of the popular music, I tried out Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" and Greenday's "Wake Me Up...". It's pretty cool because I actually managed to decipher the entire verse version of "Viva la Vida" on the piano by just testing out the keys. I still need more time with the chorus though..haha

Gosh, I'm in a particularly distress mode now because I lost one of drum sticks. The drum sticks ain't ordinary because it's my seasoned veteran set which I've used for over 5 years. So, it holds kinda special memories for me (it's my first ever set) and now I'm left with one stick only! I seriously don't know how it went missing because it never dropped out of my bag before. I only discovered that it was missing before I wanna go to the music room. I searched around my room but it ain't anywhere because I was positive that I took both of them out this morning. Ugghhh..if I had dropped it during the criminal law class, I would have hear the sound but then again it was carpeted floor. Darrrrnnn...I should have double checked my bag before I left class today. I went back to the class to check but the door is already locked. Looks like I need to go early morning tomorrow to check.

(T_T ) I hope no one take that stick because 1 stick is useless anyways. And hopefully, no sweeper or cleaner comes and throw that stick away. Oh, the horrifying thought of that stick in a rubbish bin or somebody grabbing it back to their room and fiddling with it! :(

Food Stalls

For the past 2 days, there's this mini food bazaar organised by the Leo Club. A couple of the stalls from the lantern festival was set to make another appearance like the fried ice-cream/iceball stall and the fried chicken stall. A couple of new additions are like the roasted chicken wing stall and the kebab stall. Ohh...I have to make a recommendation that the kebab stall sells some really delicious meat. It's not actually traditional kebab on the stick but the meat is placed in a hotdog bun, so you kinda eat it like a chili dog. I bought one each on both nights and it tastes better without the mayo..lol.

It's absolutely delightful for me now because there's no legal skills class tomorrow since the client conferencing assessment starts from this week onwards. I'm definitely most fortunate not to land the first slot (unlike my Malaysian Law presentation where I unauspiciously pick no.1). Unfortunately, Vincent kena the lottery strike..haha. Since mine is no.6, it's scheduled to be on 22nd October. I can have a nice time finishing my contract law thesis first before proceeding on to look at the conferencing papers..hehe.

Oh yea, I got a phone call from mama that my maternal grandfather is diagnosed with pancreatic tumour and is now currently in hospital. Mama is considering coming back to see him over the weekend. Hopefully everything will turn out well...

Getting better

Yesterday's practice was fun although I felt a bit weird surrounded by Mara Banting students. The 3 backup singers and the keyboardist are from there. After practice, we makan at one of economical rice stalls in Banting. It's pretty cheap, the usual 3 dishes and 1 drink cost around RM4. While waiting for Tze to drive the Mara students back, Johnny and I went to chill out at Macdonalds and I get to try out the fries with the Mcshakers seasoning..lol.

My second time playing for main service today was much better. In fact, I think I managed to execute out all the stuff I want to do for the fast songs except for some very small minor mistakes which I don't think anybody actually noticed. The intro riff and instrumentals for "the time has come" requires lots of concentration and focus for the beats. The first time I did the song was in CF but I must say I'm improvised a lot on that song since then coz in CF previously, nobody did the long intro. Yup, in GFS, we have Tze and I must say, he's a truly awesome electric guitarist. It was 10 minutes straight of playing for the fast songs because we connected immediately right after the ending to "what the world will never take". Whew..thank God that it sounded decent because this is the first time that I perform dual-handed high-hat and it was also quick speed coupled with connectives, thereby raising the level of difficulty. "what the world" had a short superb guitar solo which I really like...haha.

Lol, drumming for Hillsong's newer fast songs nowadays is not easy at all as compared to their older ones. If you wanna see some really good drumming, check out a few of the druming covers in youtube on "the time has come". Those are drumming of the highest calibre, full of focus and composure under complicated situation plus they make it seem so easy..haha. I kinda have an idea of what they were doing but to translate into my hand movements would need a lot of practice. Mhhhmmm..somehow I felt that I'm more familiar doing drumming with the regular rock songs that I usually listen to rather than the fast songs in Hillsong. I guess that's coz of familiarity and frequency of listening and dissecting the technical aspects of my regular rock songs..haha. I would say that those fast songs in Hillsongs are a cross-breed between jazz and rock? They don't conform to the structure of the usual rock music and I suspect there's some jazz element in there with all the splish splash..haha. I'm still in the process of training my left off-hand, which I'm very pleased that it has improved tremendously since the beginning of this year. Hehe, another thing is that I have a very lazy bad habit while drumming, that is, I don't like to give timing for the rest of the musicians (especially whenever I had to start first by smacking the sticks or the high-hats)..lol.

One thesis down, one to go

Finally handed up my constitutional law thesis paper today. Whew! Felt relieved after completing and making sure that I follow the protocols and stuff to submit. That's not the end though. I still have contract law to hand up. Thankfully, my lecturer graciously extended the dateline from next Friday to next next Monday. That time extension is definitely welcoming especially with such a busy schedule coming up. Instead of reducing burdens as mid-sessionals exams arrive, I seem to have an amplifying amount of stuff to handle.

I have to attend the the GFS worship practice tomorrow since I'll be playing drums for Sunday service. Ackkk...the fast songs are not easy at all. It's "The time has come" and "What the world will never take". The former is the more challenging of the two as there are lots of those splish splash non-constant beats around while the latter consists of constant two-handed high hats for verses. Lol, I'm even referring to Youtube videos for some guidelines while practicing using air drumming. Darn, I couldn't find the time to book the music room! Hmm..I'm in a dilemma now on whether to practice my two handed high-hats or read up to get the contents for my contract law thesis..haha

Then next Wednesday, my cell group is tasked to organise the farewell meeting for those CF members that are leaving. Lots of stuff need to prepare. On Thursday, my criminal law lecturer wants us to finish writing the answers to two past year questions on murder/manslaughter. Ahhhh..how to finish all sia....Well, looks like I'll have reduced slumber time for another week..hehe..

Tiring Day!

Wow..today was a hectic day. 4hrs of sleep only because of trying to tidy up my constitutional law thesis paper. It was particularly irritating cos I spent 1 hour last night just trying to navigate the lexis-nexis database (which seemed to be containing US sources and not UK sources) to get the proper reference information for a journal article. After legal skills class today, I went back to my room and have a nap and then went out at about 4 pm to help out to carry stuff for tonight's Christian Fellowship meeting. Gosh, for some reason or so, the lift is not working. So we ended up carrying the drums manually down through the stairs. Our usual room was booked for the SAM exams, so we used the large lecture theater for tonight's CF meeting instead.

Oh man, carrying the amps is real hard labour work. For those that attend CF, this is what goes on behind the scenes 2 hrs before the official meeting. It's all the logistics plus worship practice. I really salute Vincent Chan, Charles and Kelvin for regularly handling the stuff week after week. Practice today was good although I kinda had a dilemma whether to use my regular drum sticks or my special mezzo sticks. The regular sticks are useful for louder volume especially in such a big area but the default crash that comes with the Pearl drum sounds really irritatingly sharp with my regular sticks. It actually overpowered by beats. So, after one or two songs, I switched to my mezzo sticks which balances the beats out much better.

Well, today we had an activity involving carrying people around the campus. The "blind" will carry the "cripple" from one end to the other. Of course, I ended up carrying a passenger and I was already tired after logistics, drumming and lack of sleep. But in anycase, I managed to last the whole time but the gals really had a hard time. There's a purpose of the activity and I must say, I learn something nice from there. It's about fellowship and discipleship and yea, the point is that no Christian walk of life is solo as we are all interdependent on each other. The Christian life is not an easy one to live but we have our brothers and sisters to support each other in our times of difficulties. Everyone has an innate gifting/talent and we could all share it around to bless each other :)

Okay, I just find this hilarious and had to put it here =p. Eric changed his Facebook status to *ahem*, Facebook announces to all his friends automatically and then for the whole day, he got bombarded from all sections, even from Pastor Vic..hahaha..

Comebacks and stunners

Geovanni unleashes the freekick that sunk a second London club in a row

Two fixtures from Sunday's batch of matches were particularly significant. Man Utd fans watch with curiosity as two of their bitter rivals (Man City & Liverpool) battle against each other. The blue half of Manchester looked set to overrun the Scousers when they were leading 2-0 at half time at their home in the City of Manchester stadium. For a moment, it looked as if Man City would stake their place as one of the English football elites. Somehow, Rafa Benitez must have either press the button of "Where's the passion, lads?" or "Tell them its embarassing for the team". Liverpool then mounted a superb comeback with their star striker, Fernando Torres scoring twice to equalise and finally with Dirk Kuyt scoring in the last minute to snatch a victory. Whooopssss..looks like the Citizens still need lots of work to break into the top few. For Liverpool, it's a massive win for them as they match up with Chelsea at the top of the table to display their title credentials.

Last week, I talked about Hull City getting some great results by using less than 1/4 of what Tottenham is spending on transfers. Yesterday, Hull did a double in London after running away with a 1-0 win over Spurs at White Hart Lane. This is unbelievable, after 7 matches, Hull is now sitting at THIRD in the Premier League table and is above the Gooners. It's fantasy land for the Tigers. On the other hands, it's continued misery business for Spurs as it's 7 matches without winning and counting. Well, it's not fantastic but at least Newcastle helped themselves off the shit a little by managing a 2-2 away draw with Everton. Spurs were horrible and awful as a team. They are now bottom of the league with only a pathetic TWO points. Are they trying to compete with Derby County to see who can be the worse EPL starters? Instead of competing at the top half, they are now fighting a relegation battle with peeps like Stoke! Honestly, on paper, they looked very promising indeed. If you play Football Manager with the squad that Juande Ramos had, it's guaranteed at least a top 5 finish. With names like Jonathan Woodgate, Corluka, David Bentley, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale and Giovanni dos Santos, it's hard to deny the amount of individual talents that the team possess. But to get them to work together in reality is a different story. Oh man, even non-Spurs fans can actually feel really "sorry" for the tragic state that Tottenham is in. Spurs need to start waking up or they'll find themselves becoming the next Leeds United.

United does it easily

Wes is mobbed by his teammates after putting one past the Rovers

Man Utd entered Ewood Park feeling upbeat after their mid-week Champions League 3-0 victory which sees Berbatov scoring his first two goals for Man Utd. Unfortunately, Scholesey got injured in that match and had to be sidelined for almost a month. So, Anderson gets to play in the centre alongside with Fletcher. It was a selection dilemma for Ferguson on the right back. If Gary Neville fails his fitness test, he would either have to choose Rafael da Silva, the 18 year old who has impressed during pre-season and the mid-week CL match or stick with the experience of Wes Brown. It is noted that Fergie had dropped Brown from playing in the CL match and favoured Rafael over him presumably because of the costly mistake at Liverpool. However, for this Premier League fixture, Fergie decided not to risk young blood but instead go with the experience of Brown.

Ewood Park has not being exactly a good hunting ground for United. Over the past few season of so, Mark Hughes had managed to get some good points over his master. Only right now, Hughes is in Man City and the new man in Blackburn is Paul Ince, who had also played in a Man Utd shirt under Fergie's era. Fergie looks set to battle against one of his apprentices.

Blackburn may have quite a few chances but United looked dominant throughout. The players retained possession most of the time. A couple of good saves by van der Sar kept the clean sheet for Man Utd. The defence looks to be functioning well as Vidic and Ferdinand closed down the Rovers strikers well and made some important interceptions. At the 30th minute, Wes Brown repaid Fergie's confidence in him by heading in the ball from a Rooney corner. It looked contentious because the Blackburn goalkeeper was protesting that Vidic had actually obstructed him in the penalty box. Video replays showed that there was some contact but at the same time, it looked more accidental because Vidic had his eye on the ball all the time. The ref's not interested in the keeper's protest and the goal was given to put Man Utd 1-0 up. Ahhh, so Fergie must be feeling so glad that he made the right choice ehh...haha

The rain seems to get heavier on the second half. Ronaldo manages a couple of shots but it goes wide all the time. Nevertheless at the 64th minute, after Ronaldo had received the ball, he began a blitzing run down the right flank. The poor Blackburn defender attempted to tackle him but he slipped and tumbled down sorrily at the wet surface as Ronaldo raced away. Ronny cut a pass into the box for Rooney who smashes it across into the goal. Wow! 3 goals in 3 matches. Rooney's getting back to form now. There was no way Blackburn could come back in the game after they subbed out two of their best attacking options, Santa Cruz and Pedersen. Carlos Tevez was going to add to United's 3rd but the shot unfortunately bounced off the crossbar. Overall, it's a great match and a good result. Some of the players could take a rest as next weekend is the international week.

Ohhhhh..Arsenal nearly condemned themselves to another defeat. They were having trouble breaking down Sunderland when in the 86th minute, a stunning out-of-box strike by Leadbitter. It looked like Roy Keane's gonna get away will a kill steal win (Fergie's gonna love his former captain for that..haha). I was waiting to see if the silly Gooners are gonna get owned for the second time in a row by a "noob" team. But nope...in the dying minutes, as what Arsenal has always done in the past, they always seem to get some way to prevent defeat. Fabregas is usually the one who takes the corner kicks but at that last minute, he was the guy in the box. The cross came in and Fabregas coolly heads it into the net. Woah, I'm impressed coz Cesc rarely scores with his head and is usually with his feet. Btw, he had a new hair style now..seems that he wants to grow some long hair..lol. Well, anyways, a draw is still considered bad against folks like Sunderland. Woah, this season for EPL is not easy at all, probably one of the most competitive in recent years. The traditional "noob" teams are not bowing down and they are gonna give the fight of their lives to get the points. I'm sure there's gonna be more surprises in the future..haha.

Sunday business

Today was GFS's 22nd Anniversary celebrations. Since yesterday, they also had the women's conference and so the whole place was decorated nicely today. Lol, the gals from Inti became the usherers today and they were in charge of the tithes also. It's a packed church today and it was an awesome atmosphere. We did some dancing and everyone really had great fun and hearty laughters together today! Haha..and since today's a special day, they are lots of food too. For the first time, someone placed a large pot of bak kut teh as part of the lunch menu today. The great thing was that everyone had enough to eat some could even go for as much as 3 helpings!

Hmmm..my constitutional law assignment (thesis paper) date due is this Friday. I have still about 500 words more to write but I'm kinda confused about a few of stuff so I'm gonna clarify it with my lecturer on Tuesday. As usual, the footnoting and bibliography is the most tedious stuff to do. Next Friday would be contract law, so I gotta really get started on it soon. As the 2nd half of this semester approaches, the pressure continues to mount as it's a race against time to complete my revision by the time te mid-sessional exams come at the end of this month. Btw, my biological clock has been quite screwed as a result of the one week raya holidays. The previous week saw me waking up between 11am-1pm everyday. I have to wake up early tomorrow for a trip to Kajang to get a tailor-made jacket blazer done and this means I really have to start tweaking my bio clock.

Gosh! Kinnear you *toot*

How do you give your first press conference to the media? Joe Kinnear, the new Newcastle United manager made sure that the media would remember him in their files. Kinnear first made headlines when he was revealed to be a surprise replacement for King Kev. It was "surprising" because Kinnear had only managed low-end teams before that. No Newcastle officials welcome him on the day of his appointment and he had to pay for the cab fare that takes him to St. James' Park. The funny thing was that when he first went to the training ground, none of the players were even there. What a way to start your first day in your job.

Kinnear was annoyed. Very annoyed and pissed on what the media had written about him. Ferguson may be one of the most vulgar managers but he certainly wouldn't do this in his first press conference. Kinnear literally spent the whole period just ranting, scolding and picking a fight with those that have spanked him with the headlines. Below is an extract of his "colourful" exchanges with the journalist. Warning : not suitable for kiddies and certainly not a family-oriented dialogue..hahahaha..

Joe Kinnear: Which one is Simon Bird [Daily Mirror's north-east football writer]?
Simon Bird: Me.
JK: You're a c**t.
SB: Thank you.
JK: Which one is Hickman [Niall, football writer for the Express]? You are out of order. Absolutely f**king out of order. If you do it again, I am telling you you can f**k off and go to another ground. I will not come and stand for that f**king crap. No f**king way, lies. F**k, you're saying I turned up and they [Newcastle's players] f**ked off.
SB: No Joe, have you read it, it doesn't actually say that. Have you read it?
JK: I've f**king read it, I've read it.
SB: It doesn't say that. Have you read it?
JK: You are trying to f**king undermine my position already.
SB: Have you read it, it doesn't say that. I knew you knew they were having a day off.
JK: F**k off. F**k off. It's your last f**king chance.
SB: You read the copy? It doesn't say that you didn't know.
JK: What about the headline, you think that's a good headline?
SB: I didn't write the headline, you read the copy.
JK: You are negative b**tards, the pair of you.

Fu-yoh! That was some extreme stuff! Kinnear does have his way to make new friends in Newcastle eh...hahahaha. Another award winning personality from Newcastle =p. They have legendary defenders like Boumsong and Bramble, legendary managers like Grame Souness, legendary owners like Freddy Sheperd and Mike Ashley and now a legendary press conference! Lol..Kinnear's gonna be an Internet sensation for sure =p

8 delicious PC games for the hols

Games to look forward to for this November/December Holidays!

1. Call of Duty : World at War - Call of Duty returns back to World War 2, focusing now on the Russian Eastern Front and the Pacific War. It's an upgraded game engine using the one from Call of Duty 4. It'll be most interesting to see how they approach Pacific theater of war, just as what Medal of Honor had done with Pacific Assault.

2. Command and Conquer Red Alert 3- Lol, the Red Alert series has always been one of my favourite series. It won't get my vote on the fast gameplay and rush tactics but the graphics and cinematics are awesome. I was only in Sec 1 when Red Alert 2 came out, and I was gaga over it..lol. I'm really looking forward to see RA3 coming out and the previews makes it look very delicious. The cast of the cinematics include famous Hollywood names like Kelly Hu (Yuriko from X-Men, Sorcereess from Scorpion King), George Takei (Star Trek and Heroes) and Peter Stormare (John Abruzzi from Prison Break, Ernst Roehm from Hitler rise of Evil). Oh, and they have a new 3rd faction up replacing Yuri. It's Japan, the Empire of the rising sun and they have all those Gundam like units flying around..lol.

3. World of Warcraft : Wrath of the Lich King - Yups, level cap shifted to level 80 and there's new hero class based on the death knight which starts immediately from the late levels. It's time to head towards the snowy regions of Northrend. Looks like more grinding to do and the expansion plus reload card are sure to cost a bomb..zzzzz..

4. Brothers-in-arms Hell's Highway: When I first played BiA Road to Hill 30, i find it a rather unique game in that it focuses on tactics rather than hit and run like the medal of honor and call of duty series. You can refer to it as a World War 2 ghost recon..lol. The storyline's great and what I like is that the developers put in a lot of effort to actually recreate the place in the game as it was in reality. In the bonus section, you can see the pictures of developers travelling to France and all those D-Day areas to map out a very accurate environment. And BiA is not going to go easy on the gore, pointing out that real-life war is as bloody as that or even worse.

5. FIFA 2009 - Gosh, the graphics are double the quality than that in 2008. Rooney looks almost real-life like. When I looked at the screenshots for the PC version, I thought I was looking at the Xbox 360 one. It seems that there's new elements in the play in that players can now even use the mouse to control the game. That would be interesting..hehe.

6. Football Manager 2009 - What's this?? 3D engine for the first time for the FM series?! Wow...this would mean in the future, we might even see FM having graphics like FIFA series. Actually EA has that sort of managing game, but it's really sucky as compared to the realism provided by the FM series. Even in 2D, FM gets the adrenaline pumping and all the tactical brainwork interesting. It would be most interesting to see how the developers changed the game with a 3D engine. Will there be graphical Ronaldo stepovers?..hehe..New media options include holding press conferences, answering reporter's question and if you wanna be a badass manager, you can choose to storm out of the conference..haha..

7. Need for Speed Undercover : Maggie Q is in this! The protagonist in this is a undercover cop, so you can expect pretty much what the storyline will be. It seems that Undercover is touted to be way much better than the not-so-acclaimed ProStreet.

8. GTA IV - Finally! PC version for one of the most anticipated games in the market. Lol, Rockstar always starts with the console first. GTA IV returns to New York, the same city as GTA 3. This time, it would be an Eastern European fella chasing the American Dream. Gosh, the graphics in this is totally breathtaking as seen in Xbox 360. It's practically Call of Duty 4 graphics fueled GTA. I'm gonna shudder at the amount of space taken by this game. 15 GB easily? haha..
all i gotta say is..Eye Candy!