Liverpool wins UCL

OMG.

Milan threw away a dominant 3 goal first half lead, allowed Liverpool to score 3 goals in 6 minutes on the restart, and let them win on penalties (3-2).

A night of lost chances and sad faces.

Darn.

Current Mood: Furious

In the News (again! gasp!)

A Sweeping Statement which caused a whole flurry of discussions online, everywhere. Blogs, Forums, News Articles. So far, I've just decided to steer clear of such an issue lest someone decides to look in at this blog and use the power of law to deal with bloggers which offer perspectives of this entire 'saga'.

Yes. A 'saga'. Where it all started, it came from the head of the highest distinction you can get for PSLE. Oh yea. A*Star's Mr Philip Yeo, and he's pretty good at shooting off his cuff as well.

On May 15, I read The Sunday Times and there was an article about Mr Yeo: Chairman of Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).

His statement that incurred a lot of wrath from Singapore men is, as follows:
"I don't want whining Singapore boys. They are not mature even though they have national service and are over 22 years old when they take up undergraduate studies. They give me so much trouble and waste our precious time. It would be better off giving more scholarships to foreign students and Singapore girls."

Then, what came along was this Ms Chng ZhenZhi, an A*Star scholarship holder. When interviewed, she said,

"The local boys are OK until they enter national service. Once they enter NS, they complain a lot. I didn't know that guys could talk about the most minute things. Perhaps they're not used to the physical training or regimentation."

Now, TODAY, we get an article from Ms Chng in an apparent attempt to point out the 'mistakes' and do some damage control from the Sunday Times.

Hey, I'm not a male-basher!
-A*Star scholarship holder Chng Zhenzhi's letter:

"I would like to clarify some of my statements, because of misconceptions arising from the article.

One forum posting I have seen said: 'By saying that Singaporean males start to complain about the most minute things after serving NS, she implies that NS turns Singaporean males into wimps.'

I was implying no such thing! I respect national servicemen and believe their experiences and sacrifices ought to be recognised and appreciated. The issue at hand is not national servicemen voicing their grievances, but the unjustified and hurtful remarks made about our scholarship system.

In the telephone conversation I had with Mr Chua, I was asked to comment on guys who whine, and answered his questions in the context of 'whiny male counterparts' I have come into contact with.

I said 'they are fine until they enter national service', in response to a question about whether I find Singapore men whiny. My point was that the only occasions I noticed whining was when they were talking about their national service experienced. When asked what they complained about, I said 'minute things' as I did not wish to expatiate on what they had shared.

I did not imply that every male scholar I know has whined about national service. Nor did I say it was unacceptable for national servicemen to voice their opinions or displeasure.

When asked if male scholars are easily bullied by female scholars, I said I did not have any example to justify such a statement. I pointed out that most female scholars I know are Type-As, but there seems to be a mix of character types among male scholars. I stated explicitly and repeatedly that I did not wish to generalise.

I would like to restate my point that, as scholars, we are privileged to be given the opportunity for an overseas education, and must fulfil our responsibilities back home and serve in our respective fields. We are not entitled to such privileges, and passeing demeaning remarks will not benefit the system.

I am sorry to have upset so many of my fellow citizens over an issue that is close to the hearts of all Singapore men. I am referring to national service. I accept responsibility where I had not made my points clearly enough to Mr Chua. I was misquoted in the article or quoted out of context.

The presentation of the article did me additional injustice - I'm sure unintentionally - by highlighting a truncated or composite quote under an unnecessarily large photograph of me.

To all my fellow scholars (male) and all other men in Singapore, I assure you guys: Hey, I'm not a male-basher! I like men! In fact, I am grateful to have supportive male friends, and a loving boyfriend, without whom I would not have been able to withstand the barrage of reactions following The Sunday Times article."

Editor's Note: Ms Chng was quoted accurately by our reporter, and an A*Star official said as much in a conversation with the reporter after the remarks were published.

So...she has realised what she had done was purely a sweeping statement. It is interesting to note that being a JC student, having numerous lessons in GP, the lessons on not making sweeping statements has still yet to been imbued into her.

And here we see a desperate attempt to deflect her criticism. Essentially, it gives an unkindly impression of Shoot First, Talk Later. It's a pity, but guess she brought it on herself, as the reporter merely asked for her thoughts on 'whiny Singapore men' and she just had to use her friends/colleagues serving national service as her example. I mean, can't she pin-point further into the group of people she was trying to imply? For example, maybe she should say, "There are of my friends who complain a lot to us on their current employment..." or something like that.

Bashing the entire populance of Singaporean males won't do you good Ms Chng, just a kind reminder only. Hopefully, you won't get to see this blog, and hopefully, you have learnt the art of making more friends instead of more enemies.

As for his comments, maybe the bloggers had stated something flawed in the current system of choosing fresh JC students for scholarships. Instead of lashing out at them on why they broke the bonds, and sitting in the office banging the table for this article, why not look into the reasons for such a case? Is something seriously wrong around here? Might be, and maybe it's time to improve the situation by reviewing the steps taken to select our scholars in future. Have more action, instead of just giving the idea to us that, 'no system is perfect and therefore we can't help it but continue having scholars who break bonds'. Shake the system. Hopefully, this would allow greater breadth and depth when it comes to selecting potential scholars.

And sweeping statements are usually the source of discussions. Does he/she not know that there are even lady bond-breakers also? Maybe this is what we call selective statistical reporting. Oh well, if they prefer to do that, then there's no point in arguing. They will deny, and no doubt it would just go along the lines of gender differences.

P.S. I'm not referring to girls when I talk about this article. Just thought I might give this disclaimer, lest I do something ala Ms Chng and set the whole Internet forums abuzz.

Current Mood: In Thought

Current Music: Rythem - Harumonia

Arsenal 5, Man Utd 4

Man Utd really damn suay tonight man. Missing so many golden chances...the offside (which was interestingly updated 1-0 even before the ref blew for offside), Rooney's shot which hit the post with Lehman beaten, RVN's header which hit Ljunberg's head, RVN's header skyward instead of downward.

So many, yet...no goals. Could have been 3-0 up, yet...cannot.

Pulsating match indeed. Although I support neither team, I'm glad Arsenal won instead of Man Utd, despite the fact that Arsenal were consistently under-performing as compared to Man Utd. They lacked bite, they lacked hunger, they lacked fluid, they lacked the penetration.

Bergkamp couldn't do much with the little chances he got, and even though Reyes was a livewire in the side, there were few and far chances.

All the way till extra time, I think Ljunberg's miscued shot and Van Persie's delightful freekick were probably the chances Arsenal had.

And to think it had to be decided by penalties. Interesting, and ironic that the better team had to lose.

Oh yea, Man Utd's first 4 penalty-takers all shot (to the player's) left, but only Keane shot right. Lehman managed to keep out the decisive one...from Scholes. And Vieria hung on his nerves to deliver the FA Cup to Arsenal ;)

Current Mood: Happy

Star Wars!

Magnificent ending to the entire series of Star Wars. The story, many of us have known weeks before the premiere, and who is to become Darth Vader has already been history. Yet, we throng the cinemas to see the hate, anger, confusion, love and desperation which drove Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side, his emotions and soul twisted by the Chancellor Palpantine (a.k.a. Darth Sidious).

The best part of the movie wasn't the fighting sequences, nor the overwhelming use of CGI, but rather the final few moments in the movie, where we see the death of Padme, the rising of Darth Vader, the handing of Leia Skywalker to Leia and the handing of Luke Skywalker to his foster family. Scenes are taken from Episode IV, so much so that it seems to be a fitting gesture and "Thank You" message by George Lucas on supporting him (and his franchise) for thus far. The memories...live on.

Chronicles of Narnia comes next ;)

Side-note: If you watch the trailers of the arising of Darth Vader, look carefully. It is shown that his hands are above his shoulders, but in the movie his hands are bound by his hips ;)

Current Mood: Happy

Picture of the Day~!

For you people out there =D

Current Music: High and Mighty Color - Pride

Picture of the Day - Star Wars?

Current Music: Star Wars OP

A week on...Soldiering on...

And you realise that the workplace is interesting...Well, for this I felt that there was a clear difference between the 2 'sets' of supervisors which we have. One is the better, friendlier and more good-looking (lol!) than the other, which sort of rubs it off the people in their attitude for the day when they see who's in-charge that day.

Well, the workplace is a good place to know more new friends ;) Young and old colleagues across all racial lines and backgrounds. Interesting day, everyday.

Update: Just started to read up on the fantastic sci-fi novel series, DUNE, by Frank Herbert. Nice read! Go read, if you are a sci-fi lover ;) Talking about sci-fi, STAR WARS Episode III...1 more day to go!



Just a side-note: Calling people at 9.30pm is a NO-NO thing...ESP on Sun night. Sure get shouted at...well, should the person be an ang-mo lol!

Current Mood: Book-reading Mode

Current Music: Fang Hao Wen - Meng De Pu Shou

Started Work!

Whoopie! Started work officially yesterday at Singtel under MTI's Dept of Statistics for the General Household Survey 2005. Yesterday's a boring boring day...Supervisor told me to read books, which are SUPER sian... Luckily they let me listen in to some of the more senior personnel's conversations with the respondents, so I can understand how to engage and communicate with esp. difficult people. That's called experience.

And I was really quite sian lor...Sitting there lo-boing around...

Today's big break came when John allowed me to man his station for a long period of time whilst he listened into see how I dealt with the people. So far, so good :) Except for one esp difficult respondent, the rest were easy to deal with, and a lot of "No Answer" calls were made. Well. Fruitful second day! And I'm damn happy! ^_^

Tomorrow...getting my own ID...:P

Current Mood: Excited

Current Music: None

JC Chalet

The class chalet...can be aptly summed up by 3 words: Fun, Food and Laughter. Been a long long time since we last had a JC Class Chalet, and it was a rather good turn-out too ;)

Lotsa food (SINFUL!), lotsa mahjong, lotsa xBox-ing...overall, it was cool. Everyone had something to do. Mahjong day and nite definitely rulez. Started off with meeting Aloy, Peiwen, Gen, Mich and Hark Kah at the bus stop for the shuttle service to NSRCC. Gosh..first time they are early...haha. :P

Booking into the chalet, the mahjong table is the first to be set up, and playing started almost immediately. Meanwhile, the rest went to buy some more food for the BBQ later on in the evening. The remaining people, well, played cards. :) When the food for BBQ arrived, all helped in the preparation...prawns, chicken wings, hot dogs etc. Well, it was a nice BBQ/TV viewing/Mahjong dinner, so those BBQing passed food to those glued to their seats playing mahjong, and those BBQing also had their attentions trans-fixed on the google box, for the 7pm show of Dolphin's Bay. Weichuan's version of the banana chocolate was great...a great mix of sinful choc with banana.

After that, the google box continued running, to the Ch8 serial at 9, and then...Amazing Race! =D All the while, the mahjong never stops...haha. And Shuwei brought in chocolate and cookies 'n cream ice-cream! Wah...good sia :P *sluurrpppp~!*

Wed night was also UCL night, and I was a lil' shack, and with a nice couch to lie on whilst watching, I think I was slowly drifting to sleep...with PSV leading 1-0. Then, the second half came, Maldini rightfully substituted and PSV suddenly created another goal and the whole game was tense thereafter. With the introduction of Jon Dahl Tomasson, the whole game burst to life. Milan got a goal back on the dot of 90 minutes, and with this away goal in hand, PSV had to get 2 goals to advance. I was so damn sure of Milan's entrance into the final, that after Ambronsini scored the Milan goal, I trudged upstairs to sleep...and half-way up, Guanyu called me to let me know that PSV had scored one! A quick reply, indeed. Sadly for the PSV people, They could find no more chances, and had to settle for a 3-1 victory but not going into the UCL Finals. Overall, Milan had a lousy game, Nesta and co were out of sorts and seemed content to defend their 2 goal lead from San Siro...

The next day ah...morning start already mahjong kakis assembled. And...before bfast there's always mahjong! So...started playing a couple of rounds :) Bfast was a simple bread + snickers spread, and it was good! Sinful, again *hiakz* The ice-cream which Shuwei bought were also good sia :P Pizza ruled the afternoon, and I was so tempted to run, that I changed into my gear and ran with Mich, only to find it raining after we were about 600m away from the chalet. Bad bad weather... Waited out the storm for about 30 mins in a small shack near the East Coast Yachting club...man...NSRCC is well-placed, it's along the jogging trail from East Coast Park to Pasir Ris! I think the distance is 8km or more, so it's a relatively good training ground ;) Bowling was also fun. Been some time since I last bowled, and I reckon I need more and more training to 'perfect' the basics. Haha.

As the rain was heavy, gone was the notion of going to Changi Village (which was quite near) to makan. So we ordered in KFC for the dinner (sinful...again!) and chit-chatted whilst watching the tee-vee. :P Mahjong stopped...for the stomach rules over the mind at times like this lol. xBox-ing with the Tennis game and Froza was amazing. Nice graphics and great games. Another cute game was the ninja fighting one. A new game learnt: Shithead! :P

Kudos to Weichuan for organising this chalet...Man of his words (cos the last time round, he said he'll organise a chalet sia.)

Some Pictures:

Card Games Ahoy!


BBQ


Food! Food! :D


Mahjong Madness! ^-^


Mahjong Part Deux :)




Shithead! Game lol.


X-Box-ing


Weichuan the Accountant - At Work

Current Mood: Sleepy

Current Music: Move - Around The World

Star Wars cometh!

In line with the ever-increasing Star Wars fever...It's time to go back to our roots

luke: ahhhh...wo eh chiu ah...
Darth: luke,li kar wa lai orh orh chik peng
luke: dan gu gu ah
darth: luke,wa si lin lao bei
luke: bo kor leng, wo lao bei si liao
darth: li xiu kua mai,li dio eh zai liao

* SPOILER WARNING *




"Revenge of the Sith" is, quite simply, f ucking awesome. This is the "Star Wars" prequel the haters have been b itching for since "Menace" came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying. As dark as "Empire" was, this movie goes a thousand times darker - from the triggering of Order 66 (which has all the Shock Troopers turning on the Jedi Knights they've been fighting beside throughout the Clone Wars and gunning them down), to the jaw-dropping Anakin/Obi Wan fight on Mustafar (where - after cutting his legs and arm off, Ben leaves Skywalker burning alive on the shores of a lava river, with Anakin spitting venomous sentiments at his departing mentor), this flick is so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching "Othello" or "Hamlet".

I saw a gorgeous digitally projected version of the flick, and lemme tell ya': this is a beautiful looking film. The opening space battle sequence is the best in any of the six "Star Wars" movies. Grievous and Kenobi's lightsaber duel is bad-ass, with Grievous rocking four sabers. The Clone Wars end rather early in the flick (about the halfway point), leaving the rest of the film to concentrate on Anakin's turn to the Dark Side, and the resulting slaughter of the Jedi.

Perfect example of how dark shi t gets: remember the Younglings - the kid Jedis in training from "Clones"? As a result of Order 66, when Anakin invades the Jedi Temple with an army of Clone Troopers, he enters the Council room to find a gaggle of said younglings hiding behind the seats. They see Anakin and emerge, asking "What should we do, Master Anakin?" The query's met with a stone-cold Anakin firing up his lightsaber. The next time you see the kids, Yoda's sifting through their corpses on the floor.

Yes, it's just that dark - and rightfully so. This is the birth of Darth Vader we're talking about. The only comic moments in the flick are given to R2D2, and while good, they're all pretty few and far between; the order of the day is dark, dark, dark.

Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor steal the show, but Hayden Christensen silences any naysayers who wrote him off as too whiney in "Clones". This is the flick that feels closest to Episodes 4, 5, and 6, because - for the first time since "Return of the Jedi" - there is a clear villain. And for all the shadow-play Palpatine has been upto in the last two flicks, his treachery is about as subtle as John Williams' score in "Sith." Whether he's slowly drawing Anakin toward the Dark Side during an opera/performance art piece with his promise of the Sith's power of life over death, or he's engaged in a balls-to-the-wall lightsaber duel in the Senate with Yoda, his "Little, green friend" (his words, not mine - which I kinda dug, because, interestingly, I think it's the first time anyone's acknowledged that Yoda is green in any of the "Star Wars" flicks), this is the Emperor's movie.

The last fifteen minutes dovetail nicely into Episode 4 (or just plain "Star Wars" for you non-geeks), and the movie is full of link-up moments as well.

- At flick's end, Threepio and Artoo are given to Captain Antilles (with the caveat that the Protocol's memory be wiped).

- The twins, natch, are split up. Leia heads to Alderann with Bail Organa, and Obi Wan hands Luke over to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru (indeed, the closing shot is Owen holding Luke while looking out over the setting suns of Tatooine - mimicking the shot of the adult Luke doing the same in "Star Wars", complete with callback cue from Williams).

- After he succumbs to the Dark Side, Anakin tries to convine Padme that he can overthrow Palpatine, and together, he and Padme can rule the galaxy as husband and wife.

- Vader and the Emperor stand beside a younger Grand Moff Tarkin on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, overlooking the earliest construction stage of the Death Star.

- Yoda telling Obi Wan that, as he heads to Tatooine to hand over Luke and go into exile, that he should spend his time learning to commune with those who've crossed over to the next stage of life, as Yoda maintains he's been doing with Qui Gon (and Ben will later do with both Luke and Yoda, in "Empire" and "Jedi" ).

- And, hands-down, the best link-up to "Star Wars" moment that I enjoyed the most: Bail Organa and Yoda stepping into the hallway of the Rebel Blockade Runner that opened "Star Wars". Unlike all the high-tech CGI wizardry of the rest of the prequel Trilogy, this is a low-tech looking set, right out of circa '77, and for some reason, it really captured my imagination. I mean, this is the same exact hallway in which we got our first look at Vader, oh so many years ago, and I appreciated the hell out of Mr. Lucas including it - because it really felt like a nod to the hardcores.

Look, this is a movie I was genetically predisposed to love. I remember being eight years old, and reading in "Starlog" that Darth Vader became the half-man/half-machine he was following a duel with Ben Kenobi that climaxed with Vader falling into molten lava. Now, twenty six years later, I finally got to see that long-promised battled - and it lived up to any expectation I still held. I was sad to see the flick end, but happy to know it's not the end of the "Star Wars" universe entirely (I've read stuff about a TV show...).

"Sith" doesn't happen; "Sith" rules.

- Excerpt from Kevin Smith's "My Boring-Ass Life" online diary

Current Music: Star Wars

My Condolences...

...to our late former President, Mr Wee Kim Wee

In loving memories,

Dr Wee Kim Wee
Fourth President of the Republic of Singapore
1915 - 2005

*Salutes*

*1 min of silence*

Integrated Resorts

The Electic New Paper's Article titled "Please SIR, (Singapore Integrated Resorts) I want work"

OF course I've lost the bet.
Click to see larger image

It was only with myself - that I would not add another word to the ca.... subject, already over-debated in an incessant drone.

However, the promise of neon in one's twilight is too enticing to pass over.

(By the way, someone irate e-mailed two names over: Sodom and Gomorrah. Which someone else read as Slot'em and GoBorrow.)

In the year 2009 I would have attained official retirement age and the game plan is just that: to re-tire. There's life in the old bone-shaker yet, just give her a new set of tyres.

Like my country of choice, Singapore, I too am on the re-make.

The projected figure is 35,000 jobs. Take this as my queue number, please SIR (Singapore Integrated Resorts) I want work.

Will there be two lines though, one for foreign talent/immigrant workers, and the other for the rest of us?

And will the prospective employment be mostly for wait-and-serve crew and housekeeping? An honest way to make a living doubtless, but why not take the opportunity to create paradigm-shift out-of-the-box positions?

Having been to Las Vegas more than 20 times - and lost less then SM Goh in total - I am eminently qualified to work in a mega entertainment hub (can call IR MEH?).

Give the aunty a WonderBra and make her the Greeter.

Greeters are important as they are the first people you meet, flesh-and-blood welcome mat if you will.

Greeters are the ones who can sway you into their establishment, usually with lots of handouts.

And suppliers of these freebies will have their work cut out, manufacturing supersize dice, miniature chips, chequebook of redemption play money, collapsible croupier visors, rabbit's foot.

Uncle can be a bucket-stacker and scooper-upper. A casino never sleeps, someone has to go round and place plastic buckets for coins on every machine. Plus, stick his hand in the mouth of the jackpot bandits and clear whatever coin may have been left behind. Of course not while someone is still playing on it.

There are stories of 'coolers', people who unwittingly are Jonahs, bad luck charms. On the payroll of the house, they join the table where there's a player on a winning streak (so as to break the run).

Interviews for that one should be interesting. (If he's a Jonah, what are the odds of his getting that job eh?)

And if life is a crapshoot, then naturally I intend to be the cooler's opposite number - the hottie.

Please SIR,
(Singapore Integrated Resorts)
I want work

* ~ * ~ *

Damn interesting read haha...

Anyway, we all know the foregone conclusion of not 1, but 2 IRs (Integrated Resorts) in Singapore, one in downtown Marina Bay and the other in Sentosa, with the latter being targetted at the family.

Lotsa news and articles written at full length with so much interesting information, statistics that makes one wonder which article is speaking the truth. Or maybe, all are, since they quote different aspects of, say, a statistics report generated by the Department of Statistics.

* ~ * ~ *

Goodness gracious for the availability of another long holiday, this time, with Labour Day on a Sunday. Great day for being with the family also. But, wished that I had signed up for a dive trip instead, need to start learning....argh...Today, was the driver going to Mount Faber, HarbourFront, Toa Payoh...yeap. So, it was a great day, as the roads ain't congested and I was able to drive at a relatively okay speed :D

I wish for more such long holidays sia...haha! Long holidays = More time with car.

On another note, time to get a job...Job agency have yet to reply...

On a last note, saw a hilarious version of Jay's Qi Li Xiang MTV on the net...should I place the link here....? ^_^

Current Mood: Happy

Current Music: Jay Chou - Qi Li Xiang