Off to the north

Okay..I'm leaving soon for the bus which heads to the north towards my aunt's place in Sungai Petani. Basically, for the next 3 weeks, I hope I can advance as much as possible in my driving course..lol. The best is that I can pass the test during that period..haha. Yup, during that 3 weeks also, I'll get to spend some time in Penang too since my aunt will be making trips down there as my grandfather is hospitalised over there. Mama will be staying around there to take care of him too. I'm not sure whether I can get webbie access since I'll be constantly on the move, so this blog may come to a standstill till I can find an avenue to update it when I have the opportunity. Uhh..come to think of it, no webbie means no Facebook. Looks like I have to hit the decks on my law thesis paper research for that period when I'm not doing stuff on driving..haha =p

Quarantine

Warning: Spoilers below

At first look, I perceived Quarantine to be one of those standard zombie movie where all those undead maniacs will start rampaging after a bunch of people. Personally, I prefer zombie movies as opposed to other genres in the horror films as there's just something intriguing and adrenaline pumping in those ghoulish chasers against the survivors. It gives some sort of post-apocalyptic and nihilistic feeling with all those world infection stuff etc. The Resident Evil trilogy, the brilliantly done 28 days later and 28 weeks later are my favourites.

Quarantine is actually the English-version remake of the award-winning Spanish movie REC. The movie starts with a cameraman, Scott recording a nervous reporter, Angela Vidal who is covering a story on firemen working in the night shift. At first, I was not aware of it and then I realised that the audience are actually seeing the entire movie through the lens of the camera carried by the cameraman. So, Quarantine adopts the shaky camerawork style which was popularised in the Blair Witch movie. This gives it a documentary-like aura to it, or an amateur video cam view of stuff instead of the commonly known stable movies and film style. It felt a little like a first-person shooter at times. The cameraman is ubiquitous and his presence is felt there by the characters. Lol, the cameraman even interacts with the characters in the movie as he is essentially one of the characters too!

At the beginning, it was light-hearted and fun and I was beginning to wonder when all those scary sections are going to come on. Angela's speech becomes more confident as she starts to get acquainted with some of the firemen. I almost thought that the building that was quarantined was actually the fire station! Because all the light-hearted moments, the audience is keen to keep a lookout, or I would say on an alert to spot if there's anything going amiss in the fire station. So, deep in the night, the firestation gets a call from one of the apartments and Angela plus her cameraman followed two firemen to their destination to film about their line of work. Ok, now THAT apartment is the one is getting quarantined..haha.

The moment they entered the apartment, the policeman stationed there already got freaking irritated by the cameraman..hahaha. And that would not be the last time he got ticked off by the characters. Some biohazard guy also got pissed with him. Awwww..come on..give the cameraman some love! =p They went up to check out this hysterical-looking zombie-ish old woman that was supposed to be receiving medical attention. Then out of a sudden, she turn into raging frenzy and started mauling one of the policemen. From that period onward, it gets freaky. When they wanna rush the injured policeman to the hospital, they realised that the whole building is on lockdown by the government and nothing goes out of the building. They tried out all the available places and even considering jumping down the second floor but the SWATs were quick to spot it and literally sealed the windows. Given that they would snipe anyone coming out of the building, I give all the people in the apartment a 0% chance of survival.

One by one the folks in the apartment got infected and soon there was no safe refuge to stay even at the lobby. All hell broke loose when it was revealed that the little girl being carried around by the mother was actually infected. Oh gosh, those zombies reminded me of those in 28 days later, where they are quick and they rush at you unlike those passive ones in Resident Evil. When the cameraman starts fleeing, the audience could get the feeling of it following the bumpy camera motion. At one point, the cameraman actually used his camera lens to smash the zombie head that was charging at him and the lens was splattered with all the blood and gore. He looked shell-shocked as he cleaned the bloody mess from his lens. Lol, that's what I call a killer cam =P. Btw, there's no guns available except for the two shots fired by the policeman. The other survivors could only use melee weapon to whack those zombies away, which is pretty shitty considering all the shotguns that Alice could use in Resident Evil. That makes the apartment folks' chances beyond negative 0% of survival.

As the survivors and the cameraman got restricted to one small room after another, there's a rising feeling of claustrophobia. The emotions and panic there are raw and you can hear all the heavy breathing. It felt as if the walls are squeezing on them as they get cornered. Angela herself had a nervous breakdown and she is getting extreme paranoia. And the final scene in the attic was creepy. The only source of light from the camera was smashed by some zombie kid and the cameraman had to use a nightvision. Then apparently, they were not safe there coz they got holed up together with a zombie man. At first, they tried to be quiet but a tint of noise causes it to rampage up against the cameraman and yes..he got pawned and dropped the camera. The camera just continued recording the gory end of our dear cameraman who had lovingly held his device to film the footage all this while. When Angela tried to get the camera, she was dragged into the darkness screaming. So, eventually, everyone got pawned and owned pretty badly.

Quarantine's storyline may not be extensive and it looked to be more of a prologue of a bigger movie but it does offer its own unique experience. The action is very intense there coupled with the shaky camerawork style. Of course, those techniques had already being replicated in other movies like Cloverfield, but this was the first time I've experienced that film style in Quarantine so I find it quite amazing. Another thing to note is that from the start to the finish, there's ZERO music accompanying the movie. It's just creepy silence, screams and surrounding noises that populates the audio. There's no whatsoever music to heighten the tension. The sound is just as natural as it is to its surroundings. It makes the audience feel as if they are at the place itself. Now, for me that's a kinda creative way to approach the genre. A movie without music. Interesting...

Hmm..I did a little check out on the cost of the movie production for Quarantine and I predicted it could be cheaper than 28 days later because they only used 1 camera with very little locations around and zero music. 28 days later was amazingly done with only a budget of 5 million pounds considering the scale that was being covered in that movie. Surprisingly, Quarantine's production cost came to $13 million (for a one camera show..haha). The extras probably got alot of bonus..hahaha. Yup, if you have the time to spare, it's quite a cool movie to catch if u feel like tapping onto some raw action and adrenaline. Now now, I just had a very strong urge to play Left 4 Dead..lol =p

Lunchies on Thursdays

I met up with Shi Xian, my SJI buddy for lunch today at Orchard Road. Actually, we were planning to meet Christian, my good old SJI German class buddy on Friday night for an outing but he was not free on that day. So, I guess I will see him at around the Christmas period instead..haha. Anyways, I suggested Cafe Cartel for lunch coz they have a cool S$9.50 set lunch meal that comes with unlimited amounts of bread. The Thursday menu looks good with the salmon fillet but unfortunately it's all sold out. SO, I took instead the set B with the shredded pork baked rice. It's not too bad actually, at least better than any of the tomato filled dishes.

After makan, we went to the cinema to check out whether there's any nice movie on show there. Since we had all watched the Quantum Solace, there doesn't seem to be any well-known movies on show. Out of all them, Quarantine looks eye-catching because it has some zombie theme in it so we gave it a try. I only saw a short trailer of it on TV but it should be interesting. I'll post up a review of it after this entry..haha. As the movie is NC-16, the person at the counter ask us for an identification for our age. Ok, firstly, I didn't know that me and Shi Xian looked so young like secondary school kids. Anyways, Shi Xian just flashed out his green card and his safra card for discounts while I just flashed my Malaysian i/c to the bemused counter person..lol.

Since we got quite a lot of time after the movie, we went to check out HMV to see any interesting new music stuff that are out. There was this bunch of official rock band T-shirts that caught my eye but Muse isn't one of them..boo hoo!! Funnily, they had Green Day but it featured the Dookie artwork instead of the well-known American Idiot heart squeezing grenade. I went to this Apple retailer store at Cineleisure to see how much the three-pin independent charger for Ipod cost. Unfortunately, they ran out of stock for it. However, something caught my eye on the shelves. It seems that they do sell the Ipod earphones and those USB wires separately. The earphones cost a whopping S$55 and S$28 for the USB wire! So don't lose them! The earphone price was surprising considering it was complimentary in all Ipods. Okay, so if my earphones and wires cost S$83 in total, doesn't that mean my Ipod Nano is actually way cheaper than the projected price? I'll happily deduct 55 and use that to get a Sennheiser earphone instead..haha. At this time of financial meltdown, I just can't help myself in quoting prices in my entries. =p

Weird weekend for big four

Rooney is having trouble getting his aiming scopes right

It's a very unusual weekend with Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool all getting goalless draws and the Gooners had it the worse after being thumped 0-3 by the blue half of Manchester. Amazingly, none of the traditional top four scored a single goal this weekend! Since Man Utd was the latest fixture on Saturday, they had knowledge that both Chelski and the Scousers had dropped points and it would be a good chance to close the gap with a win at Villa Park. Berba's injured during the internationals, so Tevez gets to start today. Interestingly, Fergie had placed Giggs in the center midfield role. Ferdinand gets to start although he was touted to be doubtful for the match.

For the first 45 minutes, United had a majority of the possession but they just couldn't break down Villa's stubborn defence. Martin O'Neill seems to have ideas to stop the United attack and his tactics are certainly working well. The Villa players were organised and had awareness of their positions even though Man Utd seemed to dominate at the midfield. On every occassion that Man Utd manages to breach into the Villa half, there seems to be an understanding that at least two players will come towards the Man Utd player to choke him into releasing to ball. For Ronaldo, they need at least 3..haha. There were a few speculative shots but Brad Friedel handled it well. Villa did have their share of going forward and Agbolanhor's pace was especially threatening. Since Villa wanted to play defensively, they could only afford a solo striker upfront and when the Agbolanhor did beat the defence, there was no one to support him to finish the strike.

Hmmm..United's strikers were awfully quiet as I would say, most of the hard work were done by the midfielders. Giggs was working hard to provide the crosses and it was Park who manages to break past the Villa defence most of the time. Ronaldo had some free kick shots but his passes nowadays seem to be rather off. He shouldn't be giving away possession cheaply by doing things like back flick when Villa is playing defensively to restrict play and space for the other players. When he does those back flicks, it sometimes looks like he's not aware of his team mates' position. Sometimes, it's good to keep it simple. I believe that Tevez should do more to prove that he deserves to be in the first eleven now that he has his chances following Berbatov's absence. He's not that impressive during the Villa game. He doesn't look threatening at all and most of the time he's just doing these "duracell bunnies" run at Villa players instead of having a keen eye for the timing to whack the ball in. For Rooney, his blitzing form has come to an end and it's now his drought period. He was certainly guilty for squandering the best chance in the game. It was just a simple push of ball into the net but he had to blast it over. Hmmm..it's always being Rooney's constitution in the game where he will get a period superb form and then some long period of lousy form and then comes the superb form again. It's like a funny cycle. The fans would be hoping that the drought would end soon for Wazza because goals gives them points.

In the end, the Villa game ended with a goalless draw and Fergie would be frustrated at yet another opportunity loss at catching up with the leaders. Uhhh..seriously, when the opportunity comes, it is proper that Man Utd pounce on it. I really do not know when we would have another auspicious timing where all 3 other rivals falter at the same time. But I would say Villa deserves credit for their string of performances and before long, they would oust Arsenal from the top four.

This leads me to my next point on the Gooners. It was a time of crisis for the Gooners. Tales of dressing room harmony being broken down are raised in the tabloids and the press. To make matters worse, captain Gallas went public regarding those bust-ups and even gave a specific age of one of the unhappy players. In my opinion, Gallas is not cut-out to be the skipper in the first place. His skills as a defender is useful for the Gooners but not his leadership. It was poor leadership. At a time when he's supposed to be covering and shielding his team-mates from unwanted media-limelight, he's made it worse! Many are calling for Gallas' head to be rolled and the Professor thought so when he dropped Gallas from the starting eleven and gave the armband to Almunia. It was later announced that Gallas would be stripped of his armband forever and Cesc Fabregas would be the permanent captain. I guess the Professor realised at alarming rate that there must be some decorum in the dressing room if they are going to salvage anything out of this campaign. This mutiny at the Gooners was just the perfect condition for Man City to blast in 3 goals past the Gooners. There was always a feeling among football watchers that Man City was going to get the win at the rate the Gooners were going. Lol, given my deep-seated animosity for the Gooners, I won't be hiding the fact that I'm laughing loudly at their troubles! Now that Spurs has gotten themselves off the shithole, let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes for the Gooners.

Hunting for commies in a box

I went to Funan IT mall today to check out some of the new PC game releases. My main aim to go there was to get the Red Alert 3 Premium Edition, standalone without all those pesky goodies that inflate the price to a whopping S$219. I just want the game, not the goodies..haha. Btw, I still have the original Red Alert 2 box+disc stored at the back of my cupboard k...haha. As always, I start my hunt first at the shop nearest to the window elevators. No sign of any of them, so off I go to bug main base at the Challenger store. Plenty of regular RA3 lying around and there's the premium edition but it seems that they are selling it together with the pesky goodies without the standalone. I gather that the Challenger store wasn't a good place to get it as I figure out that the smaller stores are more willing to sell it in standalone. Anyways, as I was searching around the Challenger store, I noticed that they've finally started to sell Guild Wars and it's sequel GW: Factions. Well, it's long overdue..I remember at a time when I had to go to Comics Connection or order online to find them..lol

As I recalled visiting some blogs, I went to visit this specific small shop since someone actually claimed to have bought the standalone from there. However, apparently I was too late and there was no more available. From then on, I just randomly visited different small shops and all gave the same reply of "No". I was going to give up liao when I recall that I always go to this particular shop whenever I can't get any of the products. It's like a last resort place that I would go. It's quite a good shop actually but I just don't know why I always go there only as a last option..haha.

I wasn't feeling particularly optimistic but then I saw the gold box of the premium edition on display at S$79. Wow, I managed to find one and a standalone some more! I double confirmed with the shop owner that it was a standalone and he was preparing to get a new one for me from the stocks. Ohh, and interestingly (and it was nice of him), he gave me a S$3 discount. The economy must be real bad hmmm..After searching, they apparently don't have any new ones (oh no, not again) and the shop owner asked me if I mind taking the display set, which was the last one they have. I said it was ok and I'm actually glad that he still wanna sell it coz I doubt anywhere else in Sg would have it as standalone. Even if they have, it would be long gone because those peeps in the southern island were quick to snap it up at the launch date which was like a month ago. Hmmm..it seems that only 8000 premium editions are being shipped to this part of the world. On the other hand, the shop owner was quite worried that I might get critical about the display set and spent time explaining to me about why they removed the CDs from the box for security reasons. Lol, I'm not a fussy buyer and I'm fine with it as long as the CDs and stuff in the box are in mint condition. Accckkk, I also had the cheek to ask the shop owner whether he got any free RA3 poster and I managed to get another last of the item from him for free =p. Lol, I have to say the service is good there.

After getting my purchase, I went to makan at Pastamania again since I didn't manage to get a decent plate of good creamy pasta when I returned back to Malaysia. Obviously KL and Subang Jaya sells good ones in the shopping centers but I don't have the automobile resources to go there. Lol, maybe if I managed to finish up my driving test this December than next semester I can use mama's car. Then I won't be stuck in one place. And I will be everyone's best friend..lol! Oh yea, I managed to get started on my criminal law thesis paper reading materials after slacking my brains senseless for the past 2 weeks. Everyday sleep in the wee morning hours and bangun during afternoon lar. Time to whack this lazy ass up...

Handphone Malfunction

Uhhhhh...for some unknown reason or so, my Nokia 6288 lower keypad stopped responding. Only the top part of the slide works. I went to the Nokia Care Center at Woodlands to get it repair but apparently, I can't get the repairs for free because my warranty card has already exceeded 1 year. According to them, if I wanna send it for servicing, I needed to spend a whopping S$80-150. Wahhhh..they should've put it at 2 years! Gosh, that's daylight robbery and I might as well use that money to get a new phone!

So, after makan-ing my dinner, I went back to Ang Mo Kio and look instead at one of those street vendors selling and repairing phones. The first one I came across quoted a price of S$65 for the repair. Woah, that's cheaper than the center but it's still alot of money. I decline the offer and went to a second vendor. The fella at the second vendor said that he would take a look at the phone first to determine the damage on the keypad. Afterthat, he would tell me the price of the repair. Of course, that required me to put the phone in his hands for a few days. All these vendors looked shady but well, I still gotta give it a try. No point keeping the phone when it's not functioning. If they run away with my phone, I'll just walk over at AMK police post..HAHA. Anyways, I doubt anyone wants to run away with my phone. It's not exactly one of those monster N series..lol. Meanwhile, I'll have to make do with my old handphone which makes me feel fortunate to have a backup. At this modern age, no handphone = cut off from civilization...haha =p

Stoke Romp

The Stoke wall was not enough to stop the rocket blast from Ronnie's foot

Stoke City paid a visit to Old Trafford over at the weekend. After the loss at the Emirates, Man Utd know that they needed to win, and win by a big margin. However, Stoke City came into the match with the reputation of being now pushovers. Against two of the top 4, they have secured favourable results. They've managed to secure 0-0 draw at Anfield and had even got a shocking win over the Gooners. Rory Delap is starting to have a little of cult of personality over his monster long throws. Apparently the Gooners had ignored his long throw talents to their peril. Even Vidic has to start discussing on how to deal with them. Teams are now having a phobia on conceding throw-ins..hahahaha..btw, it's Sir Alex Ferguson's 50th Anniversary since his first involvement in the game of football as a 16-year-old player at Queens Park Rangers.

Looking at the line ups, regulars like Ferdinand and Rooney could not make it as a result of slight injuries and this allowed upcoming youngster Evans and Carlos Tevez to start. John O'Shea gets to start this time, over the likes over Neville or Wes Brown. It can be seen from his selections that Fergie is trying to put in the big men to deal with the physical aspect of Stoke which depended a lot on aerial powers for their ball. He's expecting a down and dirty game where Stoke may try to defend to the death and shutting out his players.

Nevertheless, Stoke's resistance was breached in just 3 minutes from the start. It's Ronaldo's typical rocket blasting free kick but Sorensen as the keeper should have dealt with it way better. So, it's more of the keeper's fault considering the flight of the ball. Even Ronaldo himself looked bemused that the ball went in. Anyways, that goal marks a milestone for Ronnie as he bags the 100th goal for Man Utd. Afterthat, it looked as if Man Utd struggled to put in a second goal to at least kill off Stoke from making a comeback although Stoke allowed the United players to freely roam around in their own half. Many of Ronaldo's passes failed to find its recipients and the finishing was just not there. There was a slight worry that overconfidence may be creeping in again given the ease the United players were passing the ball. Stoke City did not even bother attacking. The onus was on Man Utd to put the game beyond doubt. The moment of relief for the team came just before the half time whistle. It's Michael once again! Gosh, Michael Carrick picked out Ronaldo's brilliance pass and it's quite impressive that he scored using his left foot. Hahahaha..it seems that Carrick wants to emulate Frank in his midfield scoring aspects eh! It's about time Michael, stop spraying all the weak shots..lol.

In about just 4 minutes after second half is started, United struck again, this time by Berbatov. Some slack defending allowed the Bulgarian to skillfully wheel on the spot to latch onto Tevez's pass and he promptly slammed it into the net. Wonderful skill by Berba and it's a delight watching him in the game. The amount of composure and first touch that he has on the ball is amazing. There was once where he just dribble past 3 defenders in the box silkily through a tight corner but did not have enough space to place a shot. With 0-3 down, there was no way Stoke could make a comeback. So at the 64th minute, Fergie felt safe to put two United youngster on the field, 17-year-old Premier league debutant Danny Welbeck and Darron Gibson. Hmmm..right now, even Rory can't saved Stoke's ass with his throws. And he looks pretty clumsy himself while on the ball..haha. Maybe he should have become a goalkeeper or a rugby player..lol.

Another new face, this time from Angola was revealed in the 75th minute when Manucho replaced Tevez. At the 84th minute, Welbeck scored on his debut as he pops in a screamer from outside the box to the delight of the Old Trafford crowd. Watch this space, this boy could be first team regular in the making..haha. After Welbeck's goal, Fergie can be seen whispering to Tevez and I bet he must be telling him ,"That's how you do it, Carlos!"..hahaha. Ronaldo rounds up Stoke's miserable evening at OT with yet another rocket free kick, his 101st in a Red shirt. A comfortable win for United and they are now in third position, overtaking the Gooners who lost to Aston Villa at the Emirates. Once again, peeps like the Gooners and Scousers can't sustain themselves even after winning against Man Utd..hahaha. Seriously, it doesn't make sense how the Gooners could win against their massive rivals in one match and lost the next and both were
at their own turf. But credit must be given to Aston Villa too. Martin O Neill's side is very impressive. It's just that they need some consistency and they would be even nudge Arsenal off the top four position before long. Next week's game for Man Utd at Villa Park ain't gonna be easy as the Villa players are bound to be in a buoyant mode.

Ipod Nano Chromatic! =)

Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala...

I've finally gotten my paws on my upgraded device! Yup, it's the 16GB Ipod Nano 4th Generation, Orange version coz the Oranje looks cool..hahaha. At first I went to Wheelock place to get it from one of the shops there which happens to be an Apple retailer. However, Orange seems to be the hot favourite for the 16GB and they've run out of stock for that. So, I ended up going to another of their branch at Suntec City to get the colour I wanted. It looks pretty neat, slim and it feels better on the hand as compared to the "fatty" 3rd generation. I've saved for a damn long time to come up with S$328 for this thing..hahaha. Well, it was a necessary upgrade to bring my music and drumming to the next level. =p One thing to note though is that this thingi requires a computer or lappie to recharge because they only package earphones and usb wire with it. I think there's an independent charger available but that means I have to spend extra money to get it. =( Apple sure knows how to maximise its profits..haha

With a new device, this meant that I also needed a new software to upload my songs. So, I went to download Itunes 8.1 from the Apple website and it's a very very long time since I used Itunes. I think the last time I used it was like 4 years ago or so? Even so at that time, I didn't have any Ipods or so and I was just using the programme to organise my music. Version 8.1 looks more advanced since then. Right now, the new chores I need to be obsessed on is getting the album artworks and editing the info on all my songs. Lol, indirectly, I'm gaining extra knowledge and information on the songs that I have but it is definitely not easy considering that I have a massive library.

Anyways, after two hours or so in tweaking and experimenting, I've finally able to attached the library at my external hard-drive instead of having iTunes latched onto my already depleted lappie hardrive resources. It's not that easy to operate Itunes as compared to the software that was provided by the Zen Creative Micro. The other thing I noticed about iTunes is something which answered my question on the dreaded task of reorganizing the library should I need to replace the Ipod as a result of the limited battery lifespan recharging. The thing about Itunes is that it also saves the information of the files other than the hardcopy of it. For Ipod, it's not really "uploading" but "synching" where with a push of a button, an Ipod will be loaded and "mirrored" exactly with all the information stored in the Itunes library that is crafted on your computer. It's pretty cool, cos from the abum arts to specific info of the song, it really feels like I'm building my own personal multimedia library! So, there's no need to worry if I need to change machines in the future coz the process might be slow now but in the future, it's just a matter of pushing a one-second button to sync all the info. Now, it's time to craft the ultimate rock music collection..wahahahaha. =p

Friday Night Out

My A' Levels hang-out buddies had the weekend off, so we had a night's out on Friday. I met up with TG first at Orchard MRT, had a light dinner at Mos Burger before meeting up with Sandeep and Sharavanan. Lol, Sandeep and TG brought to us some shady pub behind Orchard Towers for a drink. It's hidden in some weird corners..haha. We had two jugs of beers, Filipino beer to be precise..haha, and some potato wedges. One jug was just enough to fill one mug, so each of us had at least two mugs. Hey, the Filipino beer, San Miguel taste quite good actually. Lol, I wouldn't mind for a third mug but it's starting to burn into my pocket. S$4 for a mug of beer! It's still cheaper than in Clarke Quay though but Clarke Quay has the ambiance unlike being stuck in some shady corner of Orchard towers..haha. Another pesky thing is that the waiter there always solicit and kept asking if we want anymore beers or food. Lol, I think we had good sense to call him if we want anything, so there's no need for him to repeatedly nudge us. Anyways, the four of us had a great time chatting up and catching up on old times. =p

Btw, the annual Christmas lightings are already being put up at Orchard Road and gosh, despite the economic recession, these peculiar Singaporeans still come out in huge crowds at the shopping malls in Orchard Road. Plenty of ang mohs around too and it looked as if the economic meltdown never happened at all. It seems to be business as usual for the mall. Curious situation indeed over at the south as I am pretty sure that things are alot quieter in KL and other parts in Malaysia even in this holiday season.

Mass Effect

Lol..I completed Mass Effect yesterday on the PC, so I'll write a little review on it. Hmmm, I wished the main storyline was longer but it was fun nonetheless..haha. As usual Warning : Spoilers Ahead.

Mass Effect is another high-quality role playing game developed by the famed BioWare studios, creators of Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic. Bioware is something like the equivalent of Blizzard for Real Time Strategy games and BioWare really produces great storytelling contents in their games. For Mass Effect, it's welcoming to see them producing a game that is very original in its storytelling, especially in the domain of science fiction where they succeeded in not being too closely associated to Star Wars and Star Trek. Mass Effect is a world on its own, and has some novel elements that distinct it from the rest of the science fiction genre. Lol, that's the thing about creating your own science fiction universe where it's difficult sometimes not to end up being associated with Star Wars or Star Trek.

Mass Effect's background setting is placed in 22nd century when probes on Mars discover an ancient seafaring alien technology that allows vessels to travel in the speed of light to other parts of the galaxies. Of course, there's close encounters of the third kind with aliens and it's interesting to see the producers coming up with their own original design line of aliens with their own special unique way of communications in some of them. Humanity is considered to be the junior race to the rest of the aliens as it is alleged that they are the latest to embark on the deep space exploration. The protagonist, or rather the person you're gonna control is Commander Shepard who could either be male of female depending on your choice at the starting menu.

Basically, the main plot is that a rogue Spectre (something like a commando) has gone haywire wrecking havoc using his army of synthetic lifeforms. At first, it looked as if he's the antagonist but it turned out that he was merely a pawn of a more sinister plan of some powerful bunch of fellas who saw it as their task to continue the cycle of creation and apocalypse (like the constant rise and fall of Empires). Lol, for the ending, I actually manipulated the situation to let the Council (the ruling exco) die and installed humanity as the prime rulers instead. Btw, the final boss in Mass Effect (reborn undead Saren) is not too challenging to defeat actually and its level of difficulty is less than Darth Malak or Darth Traya (Kreia). Lol, I didn't break a sweat trying to whack it and half the time, it's trying to avoid the massive firepower provided by my team. Most of the time, I didn't bother to shooting him with my weapons but kept spamming my electronics ability..hahaha. =p Oh yea, another interesting thing is check out the fictional galactical map of the Milky Way which places the real Solar System as opposed to the rest of the fictional systems.

Mass Effect's gameplay is a fusion of RPG and First Person Shooter. It's more FPS if you take the class of Infiltrator or Soldier and more of the RPG if you take the ranks of biotic classes like the Adept. Mass Effect have some "magic power" elements in it, something like Force Push, known as biotics, where you can do stuff like creating warp fields and flinging your enemies about by lifting them up. So, biotics are Mass Effect's science-fiction equivalent to wizards. If you're playing Mass Effect on computer with a great graphics card, the sight of biotic powers is very eye-catching indeed. Speaking of graphics, Mass Effect contain nice touches and options to enhance its graphical outlook. There's an option for film grain and blur motion to make the gameplay and characters look realistically good! My lappy graphics card could handle the high texture detail but it lags a little during gameplay. So, during sequences which required timers, I switched off all the goodie enhancements and reduced high textures to low to ensure the completion of that sequence. Voice acting is superb and great job by the voice actors in bringing out the liveliness and characteristics of the main characters in the game. Unlike Knights of the Old Republic, the protagonist does have a voice based on the conversations that the players have chosen. Of course, that meant that the game comes in a lot more massive at 8-10 GB. Hmmm..if there's one annoying aspect about Mass Effect is that the Mako vehicle can controls can be oversensitive and it's extremely irritating to use it to navigate some of the planet surfaces. Mhmmm..the side assignments locations can be rather repetitive as most of them are mere reskins to prevent the size of the game from overspiralling. But these are just small minor side issues in a great game..haha..

As with the distinct features of all Bioware games, Mass Effect also has a morality measurement level in the form of Renegade and Paragon points. If you are a badass commander who goes round killing unnecessarily, you'll get renegade points while goodie commanders get paragon points. These points are also given through the type of interaction given by Shepard with the rest of the other characters. Renegade points helps to provide intimidation, which could prove to be useful in some situations while paragon points are more for charming conversations. Anyways, if you play under the Renegade banner, you get some pretty hilarious outcomes..haha. In the game, there will come to a point where you have to make a choice to sacrifice one of your team members. Not only that, the interesting is that you'll also have to decide at one point whether to kill another of your team members. Unlike Knights of the Old Republic, gaining light side points will not reduce the dark side points and vice versa, which means that both meters can be filled up together.

Of course, one of the controversial aspects of Mass Effect when it comes out is on the apparent "lesbian" alien scene or the excessive showing of booties in a copulation scene. Ok, some may argue that the asaris, despite being voiced by a female, is actually a mono-gender species...hahahaha. Even for the heterosexual run of events, the digitally imaged side view booty of the female soldier, Ashley Williams, is deemed to be too exposed! Seriously, I think it's only a minor matter that got blown up into big proportions. It was a case of over sensualization by a bunch of people who have not played through the game. James Bond movies show more skin that the game seriously. And most of the time, the characters in the game are covered from head to toe with body armour. It certainly created of hu-hahs in the media but that controversial scene is only like a mere one minute or so only in the whole game. And it must be noted that it was done artistically instead of the "in your face" kind of material. It was meant to be some sort of culmination for the romantic subplot nearing the end of the gameplay. Of course, it got slapped with the M18 rating which means that the game is only suitable for 18 years above. Actually, the general style of conversations in the game does feel adult-ish where it's not the typical taglines or conversation you find in a typical video game. To some extent, there's dark humour in some of the character lines too..haha.

To sum it all, Mass Effect is a RPG game which offers a fantastic experience. Running through the cinematics and plot storyline coupled with the orchestra+electronica accompanying music does make it feel like the players themselves are watching a blockbuster movie, with the exception that this ""movie" allows the players to be interactive and determine its course of events. The final cutscene was awesome, just like the final battle with Darth Malak. Hmm..I would say, Mass Effect does fascinates me with some of the concepts that are brought up in the game, kinda like it makes me think a little rather than buzzing past the game for the sake of it. I would love to play a second round of the story again but there's law thesis papers and quite a number of other new upcoming games for me to complete up..haha. The good thing bout Mass Effect is that it has replaybility value where you can use an existing completed character to replay the storyline again. Not only that, the latest 1.01 patch also contains a whole new level of exploration and combat. It would be nice to see Bioware coming up with another new title, particularly Knights of the Old Republic 3 but it seems that they are not producing KotOR 3, but a new MMORPG based on that. Woahhh...that would be interesting to see how it develops in the future. Hopefully it has the same business model of Guild Wars rather than the profit maximising payment mode of Blizzard's WoW..hahaha..

Interesting weekend

It's been a relaxing weekend as I met up with TG yesterday since he had a break from the army. Lol, he couldn't recognise me for the second time because of my hairstyle. We ate at Carl's Junior at Plaza Singapura and gosh, the mushroom burger is superb. Now I get what Charles meant when he said that I'll never taste Burger King's Swiss Mushroom Double after biting onto Carl's Junior's Mushroom Portabello (or wadeva that is..haha). So, after getting drunk drinking countless cups of iced teas, we went to the cinemas to watch the new 007 movie, Quantum of Solace. Haha, I love that name..sounds sophisticated enough =p. Anyways, thanks to TG for the movie treat! (Dude, I'll bring u around Malaysia next time in a car..hahaha). It's a quite a good movie, more action than Casino Royale, but I can't help feeling that it's a watered down version with lots of cuts since it's a PG version. But nevertheless, the action scenes are enough to keep the viewers breathless..lol.

Hmmmm..then I went to one of the Apple retailers to have a look at the price of the Ipod Nano Chromatic since I'm looking forward to upgrade my mp3 player this holiday season. My Zen Micro is long overdue obsolete plus the software does not work in Vista. The Ipod Nano 4th Generation looks mint sia. It's really light and I'm thinking of getting the 16 GB to stuff in more videos or high quality music. I'll have to find a day to go down to get it and I can't wait to get my paws on it..lol

Today's service in Mama's church has a guest speaker whom I'm familiar with. It's Nick Vujicic! Lol, I finally get to see him in person. Yup, he's an amazing testimony of God's works and truly an epitome of determination. It's kinda funny coz yesterday one of my friends asked me about amputees who prayed to God but no miracles happened in that their limbs didn't grow back. But Nick pointed out that the Bible has an answer to that (confirming my answer to my friend yesterday), in that they are formed such a way so that the works of God may be revealed through him and displayed in his life as illustrated by Jesus' comments in John 9. Well, it may seemed a little unfair at first look but I believe God created each one of us with some noticeable flaws for a purpose. Looking at a hypothetical situation, if Nick's condition has been otherwise, perhaps he would not be able to impact the world as much as he could in his current situation. Anyways, it's been a blessing to hear his message today and I wish him all the best for his next leg of tours :)

Nasri thumps United

Gooner Professor Wenger is happy to see kiddy transfers like Nasri delivering the goods

It's another battle royale as Man Utd faces Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. This time, the scale tips in favour of United since they do not really have a senior striker playing upfront. Adebayor is injured while van Persie has done himself a favour by stupidly getting sent off after having a melee with the keeper. The game was for United's taking. It was no better time for them to score a victory over the Gooners.

The Gooners' nervousness in the match was evident when blur-king Silvestre, in his altruistic and "enthusiasm" in helping out his teammates, backpassed to Almunia when Rooney was just lurking around the corner. Almunia was another absent minded fellow as he picked up his good friend's pass using his hands. In less than a minute, United had a nice opportunity inside the box free kick. However, the effort came to nothing. To some extent, this gave some form of impression that United was beginning to dominate the game. First blood was supposedly to be Man Utd's after Berbatov put the ball past Almunia he was adjudged to be offside. At the 22nd minute, Samir Nasri got lucky with his shot as it looked to have taken a slight deflection off Gary Neville and into the net. The Gooners were 1-0 up. 3 minutes into the second half, Nasri was there again and the sleeping Man Utd defence gave him like 5 seconds timing to adjust his position before pulling the trigger past van der Sar. That was horrible defending. One man on the left wing has single-handedly destroyed Man Utd, nevermind the absence of Adebayor or van Perise. I cannot provide an explanation on how everytime the Gooners attack, United left lots of spaces behind for them to exploit but when United attacked, the Gooners were smart enough to close their ranks to restrict movement. Seriously, what's up with the big spaces by Ferdinand and friends? But the biggest culprits are not the defenders but the attackers. Rooney's blistering form seemed to have left him as his first touches were clumsy and squandered plenty of excellent chances which if taken properly, who deal a huge psychological blow against the Gooners. And Ronaldo, the man who scored 2 in each of the previous two matches, has been silenced too. Horrible horrible..it's a crime not to score against a team that has Silvestre in it.

Ironically, it was Rafael da Silva who provided the spark for attack and he was duly rewarded with a goal in the 90th minute. The referee gave an astounding 6 minutes of extra time and Arsene Wenger was starting to get restless and panicky coz it looked like dejavu all over again when Spurs came from behind to draw 4-4. I bet he did not need reminders of that. Alas, the Gooners held on and confirmed United's poor record this season against its top rivals, garnering only 1 point from the Chelsea draw and losing both to Liverpool and the Gooners. Well, at least those are away games. They better start winning all of those games when they visit Old Trafford. All in all, Man Utd had no one to blame except for the poor finish in front of goal. Tevez didn't provide the last minute shocks like Solskjaer and it took Rafael to spark the team attack. The Gooners took their chances well and they were duly rewarded with the win. I guess partially, they had more of the hunger to win because this match has extremely high stakes and they can't even afford to draw. Oh well, Man Utd's form this season has been stuttering and they can't seem to be able to put on a string of good results together. It's like 2 or 3 games of wins and then bad results. The loss of Emirates meant that Man Utd need to depend on Chelsea to lose yet again if they were to catch up.

Recap back

Haha..right now I'm at the usual boring boring Singapore to visit mama. BUT it's not as boring this time round because I'm reunited with my beloved drums again and there's loads of activities to do..haha. Lol, I have not been able to blog about what happened since my last life transmission because I'm occupied with cleaning my room. So, during that time, I put up more general issues like footie and elections instead =p. As I have all the time now, let's recap back on the dreaded mid-sessionals.

It was a horrendous period as everyday I managed to get only 3 hrs of sleep. The constitutional law paper was pretty alright in that I could do the questions. However, I think I overshot on the separation of powers question in writing it for 1 hr. So, obviously the rest had less attention time. It is not that I have nothing to write, I have TOO much too write with information overload. There are so many stuff to be included that I remember but in the end I had to discard a lot of them away. For English Legal System, I managed to organise my thoughts and preparation well and I guess that could be my best paper out of the whole exams. Criminal Law was a nightmare though. It seems that I had underestimated its potency. On the night before, I broke out in panicky cold sweat (same good old feeling from Economics) glancing through the stuff I need to revise and gosh, the amount of cases I need to refer and remember is tremendous. And these cases' complications are compounded since many of them have the element of appeals, direction to jury and all the various "tests" for liability. Obviously, I could not finish studying and applying them into memory. Part of me of course wished that I had started earlier..haha. The thing I'm worried about the most is that I don't even have enough material to write 1 and a half page. The worst is if the lecturer were to set more than 1 essay question. And it did happen as 2 essay questions came out instead and it was most fortunate that I focused reading on voluntary manslaughter before coming to the exam hall (even though my studied contents for involuntary is more). Ugggghhh..I have a bad feeling that I may fail that paper. It was a breather for a moment after contract law since we had a Sunday break before the last paper on Monday.

However, after the Criminal Law paper on Saturday, I had a few hours of rest only before proceeding straight for worship practice at GFS. As there's gonna be a Tamil Service on that day, we only get to practice till about 6.15 pm or so. Whew! Thank God that the songs on that day were not too complicated, so, there's no need too much of concentration or experimentation. So, after makaning dinner with Johnny (thanks for the treat, dude!), Tze and Jialerd, we went back and I spent about 2 hrs studying or so before coming out again. Lol, I can't believe I still got the mood to watch Man Utd's match against Hull City! Haha..come rain or shine, footie is not to be missed. =p After the match, I didn't sleep for the whole night and marathon until the next morning when exam starts. Afterall, it's the last paper and all the sleep deficits can be handled later..haha.

Contract law was not as horrible as criminal law but there were still many loopholes in that I didn't write as much as I should be writing. Gosh, I hope I pass this paper too coz it didn't look very pretty. The main reason why Consti and ELS wasn't such a problem for me was that the writing style for them is very similar to my A' Levels Arts. However for contract and criminal, they are more case-based subjects which require lots of case analysis rather than theoretical writing. That's why it's almost impossible to smoke through contract and criminal if one doesn't have any idea about the cases.

After the contract law exam, there was a sense of relief in that the days of 3hrs sleep and case-cramming sensation are over. At the same time though, there's a dreaded feeling that the consequences coming along the way at next year would be terrible. Oh well, while there's a time to enjoy, let's not think about next year..wahahaha.

Then on Wednesday, we had a farewell lunch gathering for Merilyn. We had some wacky cam-whoring sessions with the mirror taken from Eric's room after that at block E. Not only that, we ended up invading the girls' toilet =p. Since me and Eric were free, we went to help out Jialerd and Madonna to carry some of theirs+blockmates stuff from the rooms to the storage room. Lol, this is one of the rare times that guys can enter girls' block but even if we did enter, we have to go in with the reasons of being a labourer..haha. Gosh, those stuff are not small or moderate boxes. They are monstrous! As Eric termed it, it's literally a "back breaking" job.

Hmm..actually I did not really sleep that much since I spent a good deal of time clearing my stuff and thankfully, it was done in time. In the wee hours of morning, I went to have the last meal of mamak while watching the Man Utd Champions League match against Celtic. I closed my eyes at about 5 am today but got awaken at about 5.50 with the message that the kind uncle (Eric's friend's father) that was giving us a lift is coming soon at around 6.45. Anyways, he only managed to reach Inti at about 7.45 because of directional problems and we set off nicely at about 8am. Lol, I didn't expect it to be so early but the good thing is that I get to reach my destination in the afternoon. So, he dropped me off at Bukit Batok MRT and then as usual, took the train to balik.

Lol, for the moment, it was nice to sleep back at my own bed. The hostel bed is just evil with springs poking my spine..haha.

Barack Obama is Mr. President

Obama and Biden are the new men of steel at the White House next year

A new chapter of history dawns upon America. A new political era has emerged. It has come a long way since the days of its Civil War between Abraham Lincoln against the Confederates. Approximately 45 years after Martin's Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech, an African American finally took the helm of a superpower in the world, the 44th president to be precise. His words ring through like an echo from the past,"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King Jr's dream is living its reality now. The sacrifices of people like Rosa Parks would truly not have been in vain.

Obama garnered a total of 349 electoral as compared to McCain's 173. It looked like quite a big margin in this but the popular votes were narrower standing at Obama's 52% as compared to McCain's 46%. Indeed, there was massive worldwide reaction and attention on Obama's elections victory given the USA's de facto world leadership role. It's quite a good feeling for everyone around the world.The Kenyans especially celebrated as if it was their own presidential elections! lol..But generally, the world hopes for a less "arrogant" America and hopes that Obama would be the face of moderation especially for countries in the Middle East. It would be interesting to see though how Obama would organise the smooth withdrawal of troops from Iraq. For those that support McCain, they would point this as Obama's weakness given that he did not have much experience in these matters as compared to a senior politician like McCain. This is fascinating..haha..Stan is now living at one of the possible major historical turning point in world history and politics. Lol, maybe in 10 or 20 years time, I'll look back at see how the events eventually fold itself in the future.

In any case, all eyes would be on Obama when he takes his seat at the White House next year. And God bless him in his task.

US Presidential Elections 2008

The time has come for the big US of A to vote for its next president. Bush junior's two terms in office would forever be remembered in terms of Afghanistan, Saddam and Iraq. Now, the elections are here to decide whether Barack Obama or John McCain will take over one of the most powerful positions in the world. Regardless whether the Republican or Democrat camp wins, it would be historic in that it is the first time an African American would be a president for a Democrat victory and the firs time a woman would be vice-president for a Republican victory.

Looking at the two candidates, Obama certainly exudes charisma as compared to McCain. The speeches and stuff reminds me of the similiar charisma that is exhibited by John F Kennedy. Obama's qualification is impressive, as he had graduated from Harvard Law School. In contrast, McCain spends most of his life in the army and he was also a former Vietnam war veteran. Not that being an experienced army man is a problem since Eisenhower also had a similiar background. In the 21st century and especially at this time during the period of financial meltdown, the American public would not want another war-mongering president. The backgrounds of these two candidates are pretty interesting. Obama's family background were all over the place, with a Kenyan father and an Indonesian step-father, it seems that his family is kinda exotic. For McCain, he spent 5 and half years as a POW in North Vietnam where he was subjected to torture and interrogation from the Commies.

McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin is increasingly becoming a political liability and an embarrassment. Some may argue that she is subjected to unfair media coverage, but I guess one can't help giggling listening to her interviews. One of the most famous in particular was the question posed to her regarding to her about foreign policy. Eg:

Couric: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign-policy credentials.

Palin: Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. And there...

Wait a minute...if the neighbours are not called "foreign countries", then what are they? Colonies? Evil Empire? Axis of Evil?..haha

And after that, she said this in response:

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

Woahh..is Palin still living in the Cold War Soviet era with ICBMs pointed at Washington D.C. and New York? Maybe she got influenced a little by Red Alert 3 or World in Conflict. Or maybe it could be Red Dawn..hahaha..Anyways, I didn't know that the Russkis would contemplate to invade Alaska first if they wanna launch an American invasion. =p

In contrast, Obama's running mate Biden seemed to be a stable guy with good qualifications and experiences in the judiciary. The main thing is that if anything happens to Obama, Biden looks capable to handle the no.1 post. However, if McCain is gone (and it looks to be quite a high percentage given that he's 72 years old already), Palin would take the no.1 post and the some of the Americans would shudder at the idea of that. Obama's young age and dynamism definitely proves to be one of the attractive points.

Personally, I'm predicting that Obama would get the votes of the Americans. When the polls are confirmed, a new chapter of history would be written in America.

Tiger Lily!

Berbatov could only manage to see his shot palmed away by Myhill

Hull got smacked hard by Chelski 0-3 during the mid-week match. It was fairly an expected result and the Tigers won't ponder too much bout that. For the trip to Old Trafford, they would wish to keep the losing margin as small as possible and the best would be to snatch a draw. For United's mid-week match, Ronaldo pumped in double goals, giving indication that he is accelerating progress to be back to his best.

Hull conceded a goal from Lampard at the starting third minute previously and history repeated itself as they went down to another early goal. Some nice passing between Berbatov and Ronaldo resulted in the Portugese winger in smashing one low ball in which deflected into the goal. Such an early start provided some clue that a rampage might be on the way. At the 29th minute, Berbatov returns to terrorise the Hull defence and he brilliantly set up Michael Carrick with his second assist of the game. That's a good intelligent reading of the game by Berba, his close control was nice and he always seem to pop up dangerously in front of the Hull defence. I would say Berba's tactics and technicality are his trademark rather than the typical all-out striker. Cousin then equalised 1-1 due to some poor marking by the United defenders. Lol, Hull should feel a little ashamed of conceding from one of Michael Carrick's tame shots! Haha..it wasn't exactly a blast but it did its job as the ball deflected from the post into the net for the second time. At the 44th minute, I guess the typical fan would say it's GG to Hull as Ronaldo heads in a second from an in-swinging corner from Nani. 3-1 at half time, the game as good as over as United controlled it from head to toe.

The 57th minute came and Vidic connected Rooney's cross with a kick to make it 4-1 and Hull were looking increasingly in trouble to concede 6 to 7 goals in a game. Lol, that's a surprise really for Vidic's goal coz he used his legs instead of his head to score. Berba was the pulse of the attack as he set up wave after wave of attacks. He could even have gotten on to the scoring sheet a few times but it went wide. Similiarly forRonaldo, his chance for hat-trick was blown off with half-effort attempts and with so many of them, one wondered whether United were taken them for granted. Instead of faltering, the Tigers actually grew in strength after Vidic's goal. They became more organised, and the attacks seem to have much better substance.

van der Sar did not need to make much saves today. However, it was disaster on the 69th minute when he attempted to charge down Mendy before he got a shot. Mendy saw him approaching and just lobbed the ball over him into an empty net. Vidic and Ferdinand were racing already downwards already and Vidic hacked it out the moment he reached the goal. It was a brave thing for him to do but replays and the linesman spotted it to have crossed the line and it was so. The game's temperature was notched one level up with 4-2 but it's still comfortable. United fans were hoping that maybe their team could score another to extend the gap. Unfortunately, all hell broke loose at around the 81 minutes or so. It was sleepy Ferdinand again and his clumsy tug on an incoming Hull player resulted in a penalty for the Tigers. Geovanni makes no mistake from the spot and it was 4-3. It was state of alarm in Old Trafford. Rooney couldn't handled it well and he's loosing his temper all over the pkace. It would be most embarrassing if United actually surrendered a 4-1 lead to a 4-4 draw and for 10 minutes, the stadium looked to see if the Tigers could do it. Fortunately for Man Utd, the scoreline stayed the same but there are bound to me some questions being asked in the dressing room.

Woah, looking at another perspective, it's a great game really and gosh, Hull City is the REAL DEAL man. They were justified to be at the top there. How often do you actually see a team scoring THREE goals in Old Trafford? (and how often did Man Utd win after conceding three...hahaha). Well, it's messy and nervy, but United fans are contented to know that a win is a win and three points are in the bag.

Looking at the other team results, Chelsea whipped 5 goals past Keano's kitties from Sunderland with Anelka scoring a hat-trick. The funniest bunch has got to be Gooners losing 1-2 to Stoke City. Haha, seriously, they literally got owned+pwned by Rory Delap's "long-throws" bombs. It's crazy, Delap's throw were madness. It's fascinating because the distance that he threw was as good as a free kick or a corner. Lol, perhaps he could consider playing basketball instead, but football is pleased to have him as well. The curious result with having such a "threatening" long throw specialist is that teams are now actually "afraid" to even concede a throw-in..lol. Oh my, the Gooners lost to TWO out three of the newly promoted kids on the block. If they loose to West Brom, we can say it's a hat-trick GG to the title race from the former kids of Division 1 footie.

Harry Redknapp is dah MAN and Spurs' saviour seriously! The lure of the British capital is probably too much eh? Haha..he quitted Portsmouth to join Spurs and on his first game in charge of Tottenham, they secured a dramatic a 4-4 draw from the jaws of a 2-4 defeat against Arsenal. Gosh, looking at Spur's consecutive opponents of the Gooners and Liverpool, one would be forgiven to think that even Harry couldn't save them. But he did make a good start and he proved my point. See..Liverpool could beat the top of the table one moment and lose to the bottom next week. I doubt they could strike the same kind of fear as Chelsea in the title-race build up..lol. Now both of them are even up and this could provide important ground for Man Utd to cover up. And what's wrong with Man City recently..It seems that they are not flying that high afterall. Boo boo losses to Boro and Bolton meant that they are still very far from claiming to break the chain of top 5 unless they did something drastic in the January transfer window. On the other hand, Villa is making way better progress. Ahhhh, the Premier League standings make yet another twist and it seems that everyone's positions are changing so rapidly due to unexpected results. It'll be interesting to see how it manifests itself by Christmas..hehe. =p