Cracking under pressure

Grim faces at the United bench as they sit through a gloomy period

The rot didn't stop at the 4-1 mauling as expected. Man Utd ended another match shamefully at the Cottage as they were left with 9 men after the final whistle was blown. Scholes was sent off for a straight red for handball and Rooney was off too for a second yellow at the last few minutes for some bad attitude display. I'm sure all United fans are as clueless how Man Utd could end up losing that match. At least a draw would have been decent. Nevertheless, one could have still seen that United will always end up at the backburner after Paul was sent off with just 17 minutes into the game. There was little chance that they were gonna get back with 10 men and having more than an hour left to play. Divine intervention was not there to save them too, and probably all their credits have been used up in churning out all the 1-0 wins. This is a crazy massive turnover, from being an impregnable defence of 15 clean sheets to the one now that can't seem to stop goals from leaking in.

This was the first time United had suffered back-to-back defeats since April 2005. It's not a blip. There was no immediate bouncing back. It's starting to look as if decomposition has set into the team. Things are starting to heat up for Fergie as Vidic, Scholes and Rooney are all unavailable for the next Premier League game. Berbatov is apparently nursing an injury, and so, he's off too. Given this situation, Rooney would have at least alleviate his team's suffering if he had shown some sound judgment in keeping a cool head at the end. I mean, Come on, it's just a couple more minutes to the end of the game. That one second of bad decision making meant that Fergie will have a shortage of strikers. Tevez will no doubt be pleased coz he's definitely and confirmed to be on the team sheet against Villa.

It was heartening to see on the same night that Chelski had failed also to get one over their London neighbours at White Hart Lane. Spurs came away with a narrow 1-0 win to give Guus Hiddink his first defeat since coming to England. The Scousers were however, are still flying high after seeing both of their rivals stumble. They responded by smashing Aston Villa 5-0 but that was due to the fact that Villa were left with 10 men for a majority of their game after having their keeper sent off. I guess that's some good mojo for the Kop at Anfield ehhh. They have red cards flashing to help their cause..haha.

From a possible 10 point lead, it has now being reduced to a possible 4 only. Currently, it stands at 1 point lead with 1 game in hand. Of course mathematically speaking, a lead is still a lead even if it's 1 point or on goal differences. Man Utd could still have the leeway in stumbling in that they are allowed to lose 1 more time and draw another before the Scousers can catch up. Till then, if Man Utd wake up their idea and win all the way or the Scousers stumble another time, it will be hard for the current leaders to be dislodged.

It will be interesting if Man Utd once again left it late like last season to win the Premier League. But the games ahead won't be easy. Aston Villa may have been whipped by Liverpool and are currently on a bad run, but their attacking play should never be underestimated. And there's still the Gooners who will be travelling to Old Trafford and Man Utd have shown that they aren't really that invisible at the Theatre of Dreams against their rivals especially at the moment. Considering that the Champions League opponents are against Porto, Man Utd definitely had an easier time than Chelski or Liverpool who will be once-again (like forever lovers..haha), self-destruct themselves against each other at the quarter-finals. Gosh, if Man Utd did succeed to reach at least the final of the Champions League and the FA Cup, they would have played an astounding 60+ matches in a season. This is sheer amount of fixtures for any club in a season and fatigue would naturally set in for anyone.

Anyways, it is rather commendable on Fergie's part considering that Man Utd's second string squad aren't that decent and some of them wouldn't even make it to Aston Villa or Everton's first team. This is coupled with the fact that Man Utd's first-team had already contain folks like Fletcher, Park, O Shea and Carrick who are playing on quite a regular basis plus ageing old horses like Giggs, Scholes and Neville. Perhaps the overstreched squad is starting to creak already at this stage and hopefully it can hold the water at least until folks like Nani and Anderson start stepping up to be matured and dependable players next season. And Fergie better start thinking of a new striker buy as it is looking even more likely every minute passing by that Carlos will be taking the flight out of Manchester at the end of the season.

Mental Block

I woke up today with a bad mental block at my mind. I was still in la-la slumberland when I received a phone call from Eric. I picked it up, wondering why he would be calling me. It didn't occur to me that today was Sunday. So, he asked whether I was coming. In my mind I was in a swirl of confusion and I was thinking, "Coming for what?". And a whole lot of list went through my mind on the possible stuff like Left 4 Dead session, nasi kandar or lunch time. I was thoroughly dazed and I told him I just woke up. He pointed out that it was too late already and I told him to go ahead doing what he's supposed to do eventhough I still can't get where he was going. That was when I checked the time at my laptop and my handphone that I realised to my horror it was 8.55 am on Sunday! I was extremely late and if the van goes, I'll end up driving to Banting alone! I quickly made a second call and fortunately, Hin Yew and his car is still in campus, so I had a fast shower before hopping into his car. Gosh, this is the first time I overslept severely on a Sunday..haha. Even on those weekends with Premier League action in the wee morning hours, I've never ever overshot the waking time. A strange morning indeed.

Amidst all the exam preparation mode, I still managed to find some non-academic related stuff to do eventhough I shouldn't really be doing them. But, hey..Stan has always been doing this all the time coz not even exams could stop him from doing the stuff he enjoys like music and creative writing..haha. First, there's this category of things "that are not important but are currently urgent". It seems that Blizzard is currently organising a creative writing competition for a short fiction story based in the Starcraft/Warcraft/Diablo universe. That's superb because of all the short stories I've written, I've always wanted to write one that is set in the Starcraft context. I guess I could give it a shot to see whether the "master of lores" at Blizzard approve what I have conjure out..lol. And I won't have much time though because the closing date is at 12th April and the exams had to be around that corner. Aikkkks...looks like I have to revise and be an author at the same time.

The other thing is something I discovered spontaneously and impromptu. I was fascinated by the strong bass sound at Franz Ferdinand's "Tell Her Tonight" and so I decided to find out the tabs and try it out at my guitar. Nobody taught me tabs before and the only tab I could successfully emulate so far was "Smoke on the Water" with the easy-peasy 0-3-5-0-3-6-5. And I learned that from a youtube video..haha. And the bass tabs for "Tell her tonight" turned out to be way easier to play than what it sounds. In that process of experimenting, I accidentally played the electric guitar riff for that song too. That was when I quickly find the tabs for the riff also and voila, I could play it too! And that was when I realised that the song can easily be used for a beginner to practice. It's an artsy and catchy song but I've never expected it to be that simple to play it actually..haha. This small discovery exercise sort of enabled me to have an idea on how to read those guitar tabs. Weeeeee..I can now learn some of those single note solos..hehe =D

Anyways, I'm wanna continue progressing on my guitar career next semester. But I have a strong urging on starting a bass career also because somehow, I think I'm more comfortable currently with plucking single notes as opposed to power chords. Learning normal guitar could fulfill both roles because everything that is needed to be learned for bass is needed for normal guitar too. And as a drummer myself, I think it's a natural progression because the bass guitar is closely connected to the drums in some way. Wahahaha..mhmmm, I can multi-role in a band next time then after I master my scaling. =p

Pastor's Birthday

We made a trip to Banting yesterday evening for Pastor Vic's surprise party bash. And surprised him did we! Speaking of cheeky church members..haha. Evening/night driving at Banting is interesting. On the way there, we had to put up with a jam at the one lane road because some fellas had an accident crash and all the window glasses were strewn all over the floor. As a result, those from my lane had to carefully cut over the lane of the incoming traffic to continue the journey. Gosh, I would imagine the bus having a hard time going past there. My legs went totally numb from controlling the clutch. Ahhhhh...driving a manual car in a traffic jam really requires utmost stamina on the legs.

The BBQ was a fantastic feast. We had bacon streaks, cheesy nuggets, and sausages over the flamed grilled. The bacon was especially heavenly, with drips of the creamy fats igniting little fires at the metal bars as it is grilled over the flames..wahahaha. Auntie Lizzy cooked some delicious Indian dessert which was usually reserved in times of celebration. There were also countless numbers of pohpiah, home-cooked bee hoon and potato salad :) The orange juice was thick and nice too! We had such a feast that I was just too bloated to move my car. =p

Ughhh..my right elbow and right leg is bruised and had some lebams after failing to screech stop in time during squash on Friday. But not to worrry too much though coz the regenerative powers of the human biological body would repair those ruptured blood vessels and tissues..hehe. Anyways, it's approximately two weeks more before the finals are coming. Gotta gear up for it soon! And when this is over, I can cut some slacks on the list of movies, dramas and games that are surmounting for my attention =D

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim

The new law society committee has just completed the maiden task of its tenure. It was by no means an easy one considering the magnitude of the speaker we are inviting into our uni. I was quite impressed how the previous boss managed to get such a connection. The whole lecture theater was packed with students and lecturers who were eagerly anticipating what he has to say on his topic of "National Integration after 51 years of independence".

As we all know, Datuk Zaid is no stranger to media attention. Being the founder of one of the biggest law firms in Malaysia, he is well-known and respected in the legal fraternity. He's one lawyer that turned into a politician, just like many others before him. After the March 2008 elections, he was made the Law Minister by PM Badawi. Previously, he was the MP for Kota Bahru. His outspoken opinions and criticism on the way the government has handled the judiciary and human rights have placed him on an uneasy tension with his UMNO colleagues. In September 2008, he resigned from the cabinet and his ministerial post following his strong disagreement with the government over the use of ISA to arrest RPK, Theresa Kok and a newspaper reporter. Just a week ago or so, Datuk Zaid created headlines when he made some scathing attacks on incoming PM Najib and even did the unthinkable in making a plea to the Agong to stop Najib from becoming PM. Of course, that followed by a barrage of retaliatory remarks from his former colleagues. Speculations are also rife on which political party he is going to join next.

As he is rushing off for a flight back to his hometown, he could only provide a 1 hr talk. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic and marvelous speech by him. He was easy-going and made a few jokes on the attention that is currently focused on him. You get the feeling that he's a very sincere and humble person when you hear him speak. He's someone with a strong conscience and he himself will not compromise on those fundamental principles that defines him. And that was why he was willing to pay the price when he refused to continue on his Cabinet minister term as he strongly disagreed with the way the government is handling things. He is one who understands the workings of the constitution and the judiciary inside out. Most importantly, he understood what it meant to be a MALAYSIAN. Datuk, we the rakyat are truly inspired by the sacrifice you had made in bravely standing up for what is right.

After studying at a country down south for a couple of years, I find that the people down there always tend to get the impression that every single Malaysian leader is race-based and is corrupted and therefore Malaysia has no hope as opposed to their own all-white big brother party who gave them "good governance". Even among the Chinese community in this country, quite a number of them are still oblivious and ignorant about the people that have been fighting for their rights behind the scene. Some of them just stereotyped that all Malays are the same. That's the mentality of the people who are close-minded. Like I say many times before, there is a need to distinguish between the party and the people. The heroes of the yesteryears like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Dato Onn Jaafar and Tun Dr. Ismail can all be seen replicated in today's figures like Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, Marina Mahathir and Azmi Sharom. Even from the PAS, Tok Guru Nik Aziz and Nizar Jamaluddin are of respected leaders. Today's heroes list are further extended with names like Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang and Lee Lam Thye who have never ceased to give up in forging Bangsa Malaysia. The list is by no means exhaustive because everyone contributes something to make this country a better place. This country may be filled with maladies of all kinds but the beauty of this place is that there are people who are willing to stand up and join the struggle for their democratic rights of a better Malaysia even though the odds are against them.

With that, I wish all the best to Datuk Zaid then. I hope to see him someday being the Law Minister again, with the right party and government of course..haha.

The Cantonese Clan

It was a weekend of reunion after many years of not meeting each other. I have to say I'm really glad that I made the decision to go and I believe it's a very right one. I am just as curious as everyone to see how and what we have been doing after all these years.

I started off my Saturday morning by meeting my godsister and my 5th Aunt at KL sentral station where we later travelled down to Alor Star together with my godsis as the driver. My godsis is one crazy driver and we reached Alor Star in just 4 hours..lol. We placed our stuff at our room first before proceeding to change into formal clothing for the wedding dinner. Anyways, it's been way way long time since I've seen my cousin. I've grown up together with him and his brother in Penang and it feels a bit weird seeing him getting married. It feels like yesteryears when I last saw him going to school in the trishaw. Oh man, I'm starting to feel old already. Haha..we were joking that I may be an uncle soon if they have a baby. The wedding dinner went fine and most of the relatives there at the tables were mostly from the bride's side. At night, we went for supper and a chat under the Alor Star tower to catch up on old times..lol.

We travelled to Penang on Sunday but before we headed over there, we stopped by at Sungai Petani for a short while to visit my maternal grandmother. Lunch on Sunday was with my 2nd Uncle at Gurney Drive. Haha..his temperament now is different from when I was a small kid. He used to have a stern outlook but now as he aged, he turned somewhat to be more light-hearted and cracks jokes. Anyways, we also took the opportunity to pay a visit to my Ah Ngen and Ah Yeh (paternal grandparents) at the crematorium. We left Penang at around evening and I reached back Nilai on late Sunday night. Haha..had to return back early because Monday is nasi kandar day :)

It was a nostalgic moment as we recounted the old days at Penang Phee Choon Road and Subang Jaya. I certainly feel more "cantonese" after meeting with my father's side relatives because it's being some time since I spend a good deal extended time of speaking Cantonese and chatting about the good old Canton dishes and cuisines. Home cooked dishes and boiled soup are of high importance to the Lee family. The good old homely feeling comes back again...haha. Recounting back the old days makes me miss my Ah Ngen and Ah Yeh (paternal grandparents).

The other issue I want to point out is that I was darn right in saying that he won't turn up at the wedding. I would say the other side's fears are unfounded and this excessive distrust and no-risk-no-show thing is starting to turn malignant. What happened is due to that one person and it's not appropriate to shun the rest of the family because of him. Well, I heard of updates about him and as usual, he has not changed. In fact, I think he's gotten worst and some of the things I heard of him is so astonishing that I wonder whether there is any redemption or atonement for him.

After observing things on the families of both sides, I came to several conclusions.

1) Daughters and mother-in-laws will always have some sort of thing against each other. Lesson of the day: Always have a girlfriend that can go along with the mother. You can say bye bye to House of Harmony if both are on opposite ends.
2) If you can't stay loyal, don't get married. If you can't stay committed, don't date and break the girl's heart. And stop spreading your genes around.
3) Bad blood among brothers should not spill to the next generation. Whatever disputes that the siblings have stays at that generation. The next generation does not want to inherit any of those business.
4) The oldest in the family is often one class apart from the rest of his siblings. It applies to his children too. For some reason or so, the children of sibling no.2,3,4 can mix together well but all of them can't seem to connect to the ones by no.1.
5) The elders in the family don't neccessarily know that much as they claim to and that could even be about their own situation. Sometimes, the younger ones turn out to be the people that see the whole situation in a much better analytical light and reasoning.

Oh well, that was an eventful weekend coupled with the fact that there was no class on the whole of Monday. I really hope that time could heal all the distrust between the two divides and bring back the good old days.

Crazy week is over

Crazy week has come and gone and is finally over! I've survive it with the primary objectives completed! All the three major stuff - Mooting, Event Review and Malaysian Law presentation with minor stuff like conducting drum classes, dealing with the Law magazine sponsorship and getting new committee members into the team. I've started doing my Malaysian Law powerpoint presentation only at 10.30 pm, worked it through the night till about 1 am, then fell asleep and I inserted the pictures only at 6 am and my presentation is on 8 am. Kids, never try this at your uni..lol. Haha..my presentation topic is rather interesting though, something that I thought of myself on Defamation Laws in relation to the Internet age. After mooting, powerpoint presentations feels so much more relaxing and simpler...haha.

Hmmm..there comes a point where a decision has to made. Well, I'm invited to my cousin's wedding but some things complicate matters more than just a mere question of going or not. Both sides provided some sound argument with one side warning about the repurcussions. But personally, I think the time for hiding is over. One day it has to end. And I'm going to be two decades old soon. I don't see why I should continue shunning myself away. All of these things are coupled with the fact that the GFS worship team does not have transport for the weekend and there's an urgent meeting right after church tomorrow. The other driver is going back to his hometown summore. Ahhhh..I'm feeling bad here because if I'm in campus, all the transport problems would have been solved easily and tomorrow's team need not rely on the dreaded public transport or stay overnight at church. It would be great if they could find another driver from Banting to get them for the practice tomorrow and on Sunday. Anyways, I've decided to go, and hopefully, everything will turn out fine for tomorrow evening. That includes crossing my fingers that he won't make an appearance.

In the Court of Appeal

At 9am yesterday, my trial by fire has finally arrived. It's mooting time. I have been preparing for quite some time now, and not quite sure what to expect. There were lots of stuff to remember, lots of principles to put into mind and also preparation for surprise questions. Hmmm..I didn't really read through all the cases as hard as I should have. It's just a brief summation in my brain and I've only started putting my script into mind last night. Part of me is dead scared that I may have mental block during mooting and forgetting what I'm supposed to say. Furthermore, reference and directly reading from scripts is a nono.

As the hours and minutes ticked by, I'm felt like a nervous wreck coz I really don't have an idea how it's gonna be like and I was just hoping that whatever preparation that I had made will pull me through. All the powerpoint presentations and project works that I have ever done cannot compare to the elaborate amount of work I had to do in mooting. Haha..and one thing that I'll never stop doing is praying to God for guidance and committing the whole thing to Him.

At first, it felt a bit tight to say the words out but after about 3 minutes of talking, I'm slowly getting into the flow of the moot session. Well I was caught by surprise when the 'judge'(my lecturer) asked me some questions on a particular area, and it caused me to reorganise the whole order of my script of planned stuff to say. It's like I had to bring forward one of the cases even though I plan to say it out only later. Whew..fortunately, I could connect both cases strongly. Lots of surprise questions but thank God that I could handle them..haha. To some extent, the facts of the cases that I have read did linger in my mind afterall although I thought that I would forget them..lol. Aye, all the good stuff were present but I made a fatal mistake at the last 5 minutes that is given to the lead appellant to rebut. I had in mind to reiterate my points but while I was using that time to scrutinise the respondent's argument, it slipped out of mind. Ahhh..that one second of forgetfulness caused the appeal to be dismissed. Lol..it's always got to be that one second of lateness. But anyways, my lecturer said that I did well despite the loss and I'm pretty pleased that mooting performance has more or less gone according to what I have planned. There's a 'shiok' feeling after mooting for two reasons. First, there's an improvement in my attempt to improve my public speaking and secondly, the most excruciating and squeezing moment of this week is over! Of course, I'm only halfway through at that time coz I would have still the Christian Awareness Week Event Review to complete plus handing it up and my Malaysian law presentation where I still have not started a single thing on the powerpoint.

And this brings me to today, where I've finally completed the massive documentation for the CAW Event Review. It includes also pasting receipts on papers and chasing people for signatures. Ohhhhh..the joy of being a secretary..haha. But I'm just feeling glad that I could finish it by the dateline and with that thing settled already, all I have to do now is to focus on my presentation tomorrow. However, there's still drum lessons to be taught tonight to the students and I forsee myself starting on my powerpoint in a very dangerous time. Anyways, one of my lecturers spotted me while I was walking along the corridors and commented that I looked unhappy.(I didn't realised that..lol) Haha..I said that I had lots of things in my mind and she pointed to the cross in her ring and said "Just leave it in His hands". Mhmmm..I've actually been thinking alot on family stuff and of someone but am currently clueless on what to do with them. By the grace of God, I believe He will lead me through the right path :)

Monster mauling by Scousers

El Nino leaves Vida biting the dust

Awful. Shameful. Shocking. These are some of the words that were going through the minds of the home crowd at Old Trafford. The Scousers ran riot, not at Anfield but right at the heart of the Theatre of Dreams. At the start of the match, there were some questions raised on Fergie's selection, particularly his decision to field Anderson in favour of the more experienced Scholes and putting Tevez as the strike partner of Rooney ahead of Berbatov. I would have thought that Giggs should play a part too considering that his set pieces from corners would be a tremendous asset, like how they worked against Chelski.

United were awarded a soft penalty when Park Ji Sung came tumbling down after Pepe had failed to pull the breaks in time. From the referee's view, it looked like a deliberate pounce on the man but from the front camera view, Pepe could be seen trying to desperately stop from clashing. Anyways, there was a feeling of "Here we go again!" when United took the lead with Ronaldo scoring the penalty. It was also felt at that time that Liverpool will be facing a remainder hellish 67 minutes on the field. Winning is an absolute must for them and a draw will not be sufficient. It was that kind of pressure coupled with the fact that they are already 0-1 down and having to face the hostile crowd at Old Trafford.

Just 5 minutes afterthat, Torres provided an equaliser to mark the start of the floodgates. The nature of the equaliser is a horrific mistake from Vidic. Skrtel pumped a long ball into the United half and Vidic could have easily head it back, but nope...he let it bounce once and Torres, lurking dangerously near him, took the opportunity to snatch the ball to go one on one with Van der Sar. I had to admit that that was some brilliant individual skill. Vidic stumbled embarassingly after failing to catch hold of Torres. Oh man, when you have a clinical marksman like Torres going 1 v 1, he's gonna bloody well score, unlike United's no. 32. The thing is never ever let someone like Torres have the space to waltz alone and Vidic obviously had a pawned face like Philip Lahm as a result. Ok..fine..they have equalised but a 1-1 draw is fine too.

Just a minute before half time, it was Patrice's time to be the baddie as he brought down Gerrard in the penalty box. Gosh, I think that Patrice should have just let him go coz he might not have scored in the first place. Gerrard duly delivered the penalty and afterthat he actually ran and kissed the camera at the corner flag! So, Liverpool went to the dressing room at half time, taking a 2-1 lead. That's fine too, because with the firepower that United have, getting a 2-2 draw would be sufficient to cause a setback for Liverpool. I would imagine Fergie blasting his blur defenders to wake up their ideas and for the attackers to take more initiative. Apparently, whatever grandfatherly hairdressing that Fergie had given, it didn't work. By the 75th minute, time is running out for United and everyone in the squad is running out of ideas. Fergie's desperation for the equaliser can be seen as he subbed in all three attackers - Giggs, Scholes and Berbatov.

It was another woeful moment for "man of the match" Vidic as he hacked down Gerrard to earn himself another straight red in a Liverpool fixture. (previously, he got the same straight red at the previous match at Anfield). Aurelio steps up to take the free kick, and this time, it was Van der Sar's turned to get pawned. Oh man, he just stood there like a pole stick when Aurelio bend in the free kick. So did the United wall standing still there. 3-1 down, 1 man down, less than 15 minutes left..it's as good as packing the bags and heading to the showers unless of course Liverpool can do an Arsenal in conceding 2 in the last 90 minutes of a derby..haha. By then, any sort of motivation of mounting back an equaliser would have been evaporated. It's not a familiar situation for the United squad as they have not been subjected to a league game loss for months already. The final blow of humiliation was slammed into United when Dossena lobbed one over van der Sar to make it a quadruple comeback. This 4th goal was very similar in nature to the first goal, in that Liverpool had caught United with their tails behind their back. 1-4 the final score..and this is probably one of the worst disasters that had occured on Old Trafford soil.

This is very bizarre and strange. Man Utd also took the lead in Anfield before losing. They lost Vida to red cards on both occassions. And I really can't understand how a team which has trouble scoring against the likes of Stoke City on two occasions, drawing with Hull City and losing to teams like Middlesbrough could bang in four away goals against their fiercest rival. You have to commend them though, for smashing 4-0 against Real Madrid and repeating another four goals against another titanic team. Football is a funny game, where 2+2 don't neccessary equals to 4. Every legendary player has his bad day. For Vidic, it's a bad day coming at the wrong time. He hardly made a single mistake for this whole season, and all of them had to compound as one on that day. Those kind of mistakes, if they were made by Ferdinand, would have been more believable..haha.

[Man Utd Fanatic Mode On] No sweat that Liverpool has won this. Liverpool pose little threat in the title race. They always screw up in the future and in the end. I need not repeat names like Hull City and Wigan. The chances of them screwing up is 1001% on every match they play. This is merely an anomalous defeat, a small blip in a string of excellent results and we're still top, 4 points ahead with a game in hand! We'll see the Scousers at the party celebration at Old Trafford at the end of the season!

Ok..fanatic mode off now but mathematically, United could still lead by as much as 7 points provided if they win their extra match. The most important thing now is that the squad shrug off this defeat and concentrating on a new set of winning run again. The road to title retention will depend on how well they response from this defeat. Hopefully, it won't be like 2003 where after losing to Wolves, United went down from top spot to a spiralling set of results that caused them to finish 3rd instead. In any case, this will be a result to forget for United fans. And it would well go into the history books as one of the most embarassing results for Man Utd.

Jalan Universiti

Yesterday, I joined Charles and a couple of other CF folks for a session at the squash court and it was great fun. It's only my second time playing it but I could feel myself improving. Looks like every Friday is gonna be squash playing day. It's a fantastic way to work out and relax actually..lol. In a way, it feels to shiok to whack the ball back against the wall =p

I had to attend a law conference at the UM law faculty today since I've been told that I've won one of the prizes at a online writing competition organised by elawyer. The conference itself sounds interesting though since it's dealing with blogging and the law, touching on various issues such as defamation, sedition and copyright infringement. It was nice of Vincent to drive me down using my car coz I'm not that confident of driving in KL roads myself. This was the case of availablity of hardware but no proper skill to operate it..haha. Yup, we planned to leave by 7 am to have some extra time in case we get lost. Unfortunately, I forgot to set my alarm and I ended up waking at 7.20. So, we only managed to leave at around 8am. We had no idea of the exact route from Nilai to UM, so we just followed along the North-South highway to get to KL first. After getting into the KL main town, we then proceeded to try getting into the Federal Highway where there is an entry point that leads to UM. We managed to get all the way to the Federal Highway using the first try and that's already quite a feat..haha. Not only that, we managed to find Mid-Valley on the first try. We could have actually reached UM on time but we made a mistake in turning into the Petaling Jaya side at the entry point leading to UM. So, we wasted like 30 minutes or so trying to get out of PJ..haha. Btw, it was interesting to visit PJ again because I just came across the place where I performed under the Yamaha Music School when I was still young. Mama actually fetched me there to that place in PJ for the performance and I could still remember it eventhough I went there once only..haha.

When we finally found UM, we made some turning mistakes before managing to find the faculty of Law itself. As UM is having some inter-uni football match, all the parking place at the law faculty and outside of it is full already. So, we ended up parking at the roadside..lol. By the time we entered, the conference is nearly half-done. But aye, we managed to catch a few questions and answers from the first half. We were surprised to catch Gavin sitting there at the conference too! Apparently, he had also won something for the elawyer contest..haha. The second half was more on the issue between bloggers and the government. Quite a few interesting points were discussed for both offence and defence aspects that could be employed by bloggers if they were to be charged in the court. And most the case law relating to this part of the law always constantly involved either RPK, Rockybru or Jeff Ooi as the defendants..haha. As the speaker had mentioned, a lot aspects on the law and the blogging lies in the grey area, especially in relation with the Communications and Multimedia Act.

I wasn't told which prize I would get but of course, like every other hopeful contestant, I will wish for the top 3 prizes. When 5 contestants had passed the consolation prize mark, it gets pretty much more intense. 2 more passed and still not my name. My bubble burst though when mine was the 8th name for the consolation prize..haha. Anyways, a very big congratulations to Gavin for securing the 3rd prize in the competition! At least Inti had one rep in the top three..haha. Ohhh, another thing, it was very honourable indeed to get to see Azmi Sharom in person! He's one person I would seriously want to be my law lecturer. At first I couldn't recognise him when he was speaking because he didn't have his trademark spectacles on. I only realised that it was him after Gavin pointed it out. Haha..everytime when a person asks me whether a lawyer or a person dealing with law academics can have long hair, I always quote Azmi as an example.

After all the conference stuff and all, we went to Mid-Valley to hang out, chomp on some Carl's Junior and shop for some stuff. I drank almost 3 rounds of drinks and the result was that I ended up going to the toilet to pee like every 2 hrs. Well, at least my kidneys are thoroughly cleaned now..haha. It was not a totally wasted trip as I managed to get quite a few important stuff. First is the white formal shirt for mooting and I managed to get one from Seed at 50% discount. Then, I've managed to finally get my hands on another packet of my favourite green tea candies which I've been craving for so long since the beginning of this semester. Gahh..it seems that they have increased the price to RM 8. Previously it was RM 6 only.

I was intrigued last week to see Jason plugging in his ipod to the Proton car and that made me really wanna get the adapter that converts power from the smoking thing to play ipod music through the car speakers. So, we went asking around and compare prices, including the overpriced mac shop before deciding to finally get the lowest end one for RM39 which did not guarantee that it would work with Ipod. (based on plugging in the USB port) However, there's another avenue which would actually guarantee it to work and that is using the earphone jack instead. So, when I managed to test it, I was very delighted to see it working! Looks like thank God that I did not go for the other really overpriced materials which claimed that they could work with Ipod. This low end one worked just as well..haha. For the first time, mama's Proton car (with a cassette stereo) is actually blasting Ipod music! weeeee... =)

This coming week is gonna be to a "slog-till-I-pop" week as I've got both mooting and Malaysian Law presentation to deal with. And I still haven't got started with either of them...

Jose got swept aside

Vida gets mobbed by his ecstatic team-mates

It's round 2 for Ronaldo vs. Zlatan and Fergie vs. Jose as Inter visits Manchester. It's a familiar place for Jose as he had sat at the visitor's area several times in the past few years. Only this time, he would be leading an Italian club on English soil. Based on mathematical scoreline probabilility, Inter would have some advantage since a draw with some goals by them would suffice. Of course, to score even a goal, they need to think of a way to breach the titanic defence at Old Trafford coupled with the 12th man crowd.

One would have expected Jose to be much more impressive in holding out but they were already one down just after 4 minutes of playing. It's a typical familiar sight with Giggs swinging in a corner and Vidic connecting it with a header. Good job by Vidic to lose his marker (it's Vieira btw..haha) at the end and he definitely caught Julio Caesar by surprise. Inter won't fret too much though because they just need to score 1 goal to go through unless United adds another one to their tally.

Once again, Inter could not cope up with United's through ball style. For some reason or so, they themselves can't play through balls. They had to pass directly to the receiver and for that, even the likes of O Shea is sufficient to stop them. The only reason how Inter could become a threat to United's goal is when they pass to specific people like Zlatan and Stankovic. Zlatan himself has the individual strength, power and skill to bulldoze pass the defenders while Stankovic has his pretty terrifying long shots. Other than that, they are of no threat to the United defence. With just 4 minutes into second half, United sent Inter to doom when Ronaldo forced in a header to make it 2-0.

I think divine intervention is on Man Utd's side..haha. Two counts perhaps which could have changed the nature of the game. The first was when United was leading 1-0 and Ibrahimovic's shot could have equalised and send them to the quarters at the same time coz United would be under severe pressure to score another. But alas, the post comes to the rescue. The second incident was Adriano and his shot looked to have clearly beaten van der Sar and for the second time, the post was there to bounce the ball to safety. At the blow of the final whistle, it's 2-0 to United and Fergie has only beaten Jose for the second time in all their 13 meetings or so. Ronaldo of course, has beaten Zlatan for good this time, if Cantona wants to know..haha.

Besides the point of this crunchy Champions League match, there's a fueling speculation that Jose may be the man to succeed Fergie in Old Trafford. Mourinho's bravado in shaking hands with the United faithful does little to quell such speculations as the Portugese tactician wants to show why he's the special one in England and not in Italy..lol. He'll have lots of reflection to do though on Inter's underpar performance against United. Looks like the only team he will ever have to get to the Champions League final is his good old Porto. Anyways, it'll be interesting to see which team will be United's opponent in the quarters. All four English clubs progressed through to the quarters with Liverpool being the notable one in smashing Real Madrid 4-0 at Anfield. Chelsea and the Gooners barely squeezed through. Ahhh..another all-English final once again?

Watchmen

Rorschach's Journal: October 12th 1985 - Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... And I'll look down and whisper "no".

I've been eagerly anticipating this movie for months already! At first, I thought that it's gonna be released in June but then I suddenly realised a few days ago that Americans loved to put their months first before the days, so in fact, it's actually released on 6th March rather than 3rd June..lol. I first came across Watchmen when a Muse forum posted that the band's song "Take a Bow" was featured at the trailer. Haha..it's an appropriate band for an appropriate movie btw. It sparked my interest once again when I saw the trailer while watching Underworld 3. So, I started doing a little research before hand and found out that it's a graphic novel laced with lots of philosophical, sociological and ethical concepts. It's also a literature masterpiece to some extent. That was enough to get me interested..haha. So, when Charles invited me to watch it on Monday, I was very glad indeed.

First of all, in order to appreciate the movie, several stuff needs to be cleared. For those expecting Watchmen to be like the typical superhero movies of X-Men, Spiderman or Fantastic Four, they are gonna be very dissapointed. If the Dark Knight is considered to be the most philosophical movie up to date, then Watchmen trounces it flat big time. It helps alot if the audience have some historical knowledge about the Cold War era and perhaps some amount of English Literature before watching the movie. Trust me, if you're equipped with those information and knowledge, you will find the movie overflowing with the richness of conceptual ideas that could fill hundreds of pages of commentary. I have a feeling that History or English Literature enthusiasts will love that film because of its settings and features..hehe =p

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead

Watchmen is set in the alternate universe of 1985, where the USA had won the Vietnam war with its band of superheroes and Nixon gets re-elected. (No Reagan..haha) The interesting thing about Watchmen is that it incorporates itself to some extent to the real World History timeline and provided an alternate reality if things had turned out differently in some extent. The very concept of a "Superhero" and "Vigilantism" is heavily examined and scrutinised upon. Watchmen invites its audience to think deeper on the cultural/entertainment concept that has become part and parcel of society today. In Watchmen, the superheroes are incorporated into real living society. They are part of the society fabric, they have jobs, deal with the media attention, law+legislation, they grow old and retire, they struggle with alcoholism and social problems. The members of the Watchmen were not altruistically and straightforward good thinking heroes that we've always thought about. The lines between good and evil are blurred in Watchmen. They have done stuffs on both ends of the ropes. Each of the members of Watchmen embodies a set of extreme ideology and ethics. For instance, Rorschach believes in moral absolutism, Ozymandias holds on to utilitarianism, the Comedian has a nihilistic outlook on life while Dr. Manhattan's detachment from humanity led him down the thinking of determinism. Each of these characters are in some ways representatives of certain sections of society. It's interesting to note though that Ozymandias' name was taken from Percy Shelley's poem and his fortress throne bears a line from that poem too.

There are plenty of rich imagery and metaphors in Watchmen. The recurring images include the Doomsday clock face and the Comedian's smiley badge. I knew about the minutes to midnight symbolism at the doomsday clock coz I've came across it in a History Channel documentary and have done some small research on it a long time ago. It's basically the symbolic clockface used by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist to measure how close humanity is closed to nuclear apocalypse. It's a very very real fear especially during the Cold War because one wrong decision by either leaders from the USA or USSR would see major nuclear holocaust. I find the repeated introductory imagery of the bloodstained Smiley face to be quite powerful because it's an ironical juxtaposition of innocence and violence. All throughout the movie, we see characters resounding the Comedian's punch line of "Life's a joke" and "having the last laugh". There is wordplay too in Watchmen - watching the watchmen, watchtowers (Jimi Hendrix's rendition is in there..lol), the watch itself and all them seem to interrelate with each other somehow. In fact, the first batch of heroes that America had was called the Minutemen. Woah..Stan loves all those word plays!..hehe. And then there's also some extent of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and T.S. Elliot's 1920s literature modernist feature inside the Watchmen plus also the disillusionment of the so-called "American Dream". Toward's the end of the movie, I think there's an allusion to Francis Fukuyama's historical thesis "The End of History" following the end of the Cold War (global hippie village..haha). There are lots of satire and Easter eggs in the Watchmen if one were to take the time to analyze the whole movie properly..hehe.

I love the music selection in the Watchmen too! In complying with the 80s scene and world, recognizable songs from that era were selected with what I perceive to be extreme appropriateness. There's Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence", Nena's "99 Luftballons", Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtowers", Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changing", Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and MCR's cover for Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row". A nihilistic feeling indeed especially with 99 Luftballons and Desolation Row..haha.

The stuff about Watchmen which I have written here is only a small insight of a mammoth. Lol..I have enough material to go on and on just about the character analysis of Watchmen alone but that'll take forever. The movie's about 2hrs 40 minutes but even with that lengthy amount, I felt that it was not enough to cover the details of the graphic novel. And that 2hrs 40 minutes went off in a captivating blip while I was watching it without me realizing it. Actually when the movie ended with the rockified Desolation Row, there was this urge from me to just give a standing ovation for a brilliant piece of masterpiece..haha. Many of the comics movie adaptation don't live up to the glory of the printed version but this Watchmen movie does do justice to its printed cousin although there were some minor deviations from it. If you're a English Literature/History/Philosophy enthusiast, do watch the movie and read the graphic novel coz it's really worth it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the clock now stands at 5 minutes before midnight...

Ops Gegar

Yesterday's Ops Gegar organised by FES was fantastic. We had a surprise guest speaker whom we've never expect to be there. Woah, it was indeed an honour to meet her in person. Her writings and thoughts have always been inspirational. I think one of her main statements is very true. She pointed out "There's no such thing as sensitive issue. Only a sensitive or insensitive approach." Overall, I think Ops Gegar is an excellent opportunity for us to be aware of the societal problems around us. Many of us have in a way grown so disgruntled that we spent most of the time grumbling rather taking time to heal the land we are living in. Instead of complaining, change must start from us and we should at least give thanks to God for where he has placed us. It was a long day there but a fruitful one indeed.

Since there's no school tomorrow, we went for another service at Acts Church which was located at the hotel beside the Summit at Subang. Lol, I drove to Subang Jaya for the first time! This means to say that in another landmark, Stan has arrived in his long lost home while driving an automobile for the very first time..haha. From my observations yesterday and today, I would say Subang has changed way lots since the last time I knew it 9 years ago. The shoplots in front of Taylors used to be pretty rundown and they have all those good old kopitiams. I remember that place has nothing much except that I used to take art classes there at one point of time. USJ was the modern place but not the Subang main town. Right now, they have Starbucks, Macs, Subway and countless number of other outlets there. Woah, seriously, one day after all these final exams are gone, I should really take the car there for a spin and rediscover back the old routes that are still shelved in my mind with places like, SRKSJ, somebody's tuition center, my former homes, and Taipan. That's gonna be so nostalgic.

I kinda enjoyed the Acts Church service and I think they have a very good hospitality and ushering team there. Not only that, the media team is fantastic and I find the weekly bulletins announcement rather impressive. Since it's the evening service, the whole place is filled mostly with youths and there's quite a big group coming from Inti actually. Anyways, the environment feels Subang Jaya-ish, if you know what I mean..haha. Lol, I get to know a few new people there and everyone got confused with the Jonathans, Alvins, Kelvin and a Melvin. It was nice of them to provide dinner too, so we didn't go back with empty stomaches..haha. I think it'll be great to visit there another time in the future..hehe =p

Christian Awareness Week

It's been a blast for the past week with the Christian Awareness Week held in my uni. Haha..I just wanna thank God that it turned out quite well as we've planned it to be. Monday started out a little rough because there was a clash with the opening ceremony of another event. On the night before, we scrambled to do some last minute finishing touches on the notice boards and decorations and stayed up late till bout 1am plus to get it done. Anyways, after the opening ceremony, business resumes normally.

It gets better on Tuesday since we can go full blast since there's no other stuff to block our arrangements of the boards. We had piano and guitars at first and it's upgraded to a full band with drums and bass guitar on Wednesday. Valerie and Gordon sang very well together! I think the feature that attracts most attention from the crowd is the band performance coz people literally stopped to watch us perform..haha.

We also had Gideons people coming on Tuesday to give out free Bibles. There was this one elderly Indian couple from Gideons that I got to know who happened to be from Taiping before moving to Nilai to stay. It seems that they know who my grandfather was and where his optical shop coz that's where they get their spectacles made. Haha..they were surprised to hear that I was his grandson..lol. Small world indeed..haha. And they know Pastor Bernard and Dr. Dhoss too. Woah, looks like everyone knows everybody from that small town. =p

One section of the booth which I'm always very pleased about is the music videos/mp3. I think probably for the first time in the whole history of the place that tracks from "Sixpence None the Richer" are being heard and played over there, courtesy of Stan..hahahaha. And so did a whole range of selection from other superb bands like Relient K, Seabird, Sanctus Real, Rush of Fools and Switchfoot where a big number of people in this part of the world still don't know who they are. Lol, on the first day when we didn't have Eric's speakers, we used the amps to blast the music.

On Wednesday night, we had a question and answer session for people who have those "hard" questions for Christians. For that, we have a special CF meeting at the SAO concourse itself. Although most of those attending are Christians themselves, we still do have some rather interesting visitors. Tons of freebies were given away and that included also tracts and magazines. I created some information brochures which contained basic information on the core beliefs of Christianity. We had a special term for the extreme giveaway session and that is "joyful hour". Lol..it sounds like happy hour to me =p

On the final day, we had a movie screening to wrap up the whole event. I must say we were pretty bold in picking the position of the movie screening and also getting electricity from a most unlikely source..hehe. But it's a great way to wrap up and part of me feels kinda sad to pull down the decorations earlier because it's just has been such a great week and all of us had put lots of effort into making CAW happening. By God's grace, I hope that we can do something similar next year again too :)

Carling Cup 09 Champs for United

Hero of the night Foster lifts the Carling Cup with his jubilant mates

Man Utd and Tottenham locked horns at Wembley to battle it out in the first of this year's domestic competition cup final. Tottenham had been the previous winner of the Carling Cup last year and they start the game as defending champions. Meanwhile, Fergie has promised his young guns that they would be able to play in the cup final following their impressive displays during the earlier stages and run-ins of the competition. Foster, Evans, Gibson and Welbeck were all drafted into the first eleven.

A couple of incidents stood out in the goalless 90 minutes. Ronaldo was booked for what was perceive to be a dive by the referee and both Fergie and the player ain't feeling too pleased about that. John O Shea was also walking dangerously on thin line with some poor tackles when he had a yellow card to his name already. Ronaldo could have been the hero of the night when he twist and turn in the dying moments of the regular 90 minutes to squeeze in a shot. It was on target but the ball hit the post and bounced away. Patrice Evra was another potential hero of the night during the extra time period but his shot went over the bar. Finally, it had to be decided on penalties and United themselves were on new ground with Ben Foster tendering the post instead of the usual van der Sar. Both could be seen engaging in deep conversations before the shootout for some tactical discussions. Giggs started the ball rolling by scoring the first. O Hara was the first taker for Spurs but his shot was superbly saved by Foster! Tevez, Corluka and Ronaldo hit on target. And then it was Bentley face to face with Foster and he missed with the shot wide off goal! What an embarassment..the worst thing a penalty taker do is to have a shot not on target. Considering that Bentley had a reputation in goalscoring, it was double embarassment. Anderson sealed the shootout victory for Man Utd with his final shot.

It was evident that like Portsmouth in the Community Shield, Spurs didn't do their homework in practicing their penalty shoot-outs. On the other hand, Fergie and some old guards like Giggs had seen it all with their experiences and they were unfazed with dealing with shootout pressures. It's another trophy added to the Manchester cabinet but it has to be said that this final belonged to the young guns because of the run-ins that they had done leading to the final. Foster looks increasingly impressive and even Fergie had tipped him that he had the potential to be the number one in the future after van der Sar's retirement. Ahhh..a second-string United team had beaten the first-team of Spurs..haha.

On the Premier League front, it was wonderful news for United too after they found out that the Scousers had miserably lost 0-2 away in Middlesbrough. The latest lost had set Liverpool back all the way to 3rd behind Chelsea although their points were the same. This meant that with a game in hand, United could possibly stretch their lead to a massive 10 points. That's as good as one hand in the Premier League trophy already. All the hype from the 1-0 win over Real Madrid didn't help at all..haha. Looks like Rafa's still an European master but can't seem to get the domestic games right. Chelsea looks doomed another time when Wigan scored an equaliser but they were definitely relieved with Lampard scoring a last-minute winner to prevent themselves from drifting further away from Utd. The Gooners were as usual..useless as they have a 4th consecutive draw with three consecutive 0-0 scorelines. What happened, Arshavin?..haha. I'm getting pretty annoyed with them coz I kept losing my banker bonus in the Premier League score guessing game for relying on them. I should have banked on Everton instead! Anyways, United's next match will be at St. James Park and it would be tricky although Newcastle is pretty much in the dumps.