Re-LIVE Your Passion

The Genting Memento

2010-04-06T21:16:00.026+08:00

These are the photos from my Genting Highlands trip last week...

Mission 101: SKOOL Life

2010-03-24T23:09:00.009+08:00

Mark my word.. I'm reviving my blog again. :p

There are people telling me that I have been living in a shell since schooling days ended. Really?What am I up to these days?

I'm not working. Hmm.. This is what my life has become. Getting addicted to k-pop, getting piano lessons from teacher Jian Ai, attempting to read my collection of books that are filled with dusts and getting glued to my com watching animes and drama series. Sounds fun? Not anymore. It's funny that when I was in school, I was always awaiting for the exciting things that I was going to do during the holidays. But now that freedom is achieved, boredom strikes me. To curb my post-STPM boredom, I have been working on some videos about some of my schoolmates.

The videos are on facebook. Feel free to check them out.

And the most ridiculous yet interesting thing that I did was getting into a disfunctional 'band' called WEWR which stands for WhatEver We aRe with Kavitha and Jian Ai. Our objective is to destroy and rip apart every great song out there with our terrible vocals. Our first video is on facebook too. Feel free to check it out but brace yourself..

P.S. : I will be heading to Genting Highlands next Monday with some friends and will be posting about it..

Oh My Gdonoses! I Can Raed Tihs!

2010-01-10T14:43:00.010+08:00

You msut be wndroenig waht am I wrinitg aoubt. Npoe. I'm not wnritig in a freoign lngguaae and tihs mgiht be the msot tmie-cnousimng peice of aticrle I had eevr wttrien in my lfieimte yet. And npoe. tihs arcltie is nthoing ipormantt. It's not aoubt ploiitcs or smoe screet msseages in mrose cdoe taht poeple use drinug war tmies. It is bsaialcly aobut mssipleled wrods. :P

Waht tggrireed me to wirte in scuh a way? I'm porabbly out of my mnid dinog tihs and nboody mghit eevr btheor to raed tihs. Wlel, it is siad taht eevrynoe can raed tihs. Yes. You can raed tihs riiducluos and piontelss atircle. Erm, if you had aleardy raech tihs piont, I tinhk you wluod had furiged taht out.. haah!! As lnog as the frsit and the lsat lteter of a wrod are psioiotned crroectly the hmuan bairn can fgiure out the wrod ppoerlry. Taht was waht I raed aoubt on the ietnrent wichh was siad to be a Cmardgibe Uvineistry epemnirext or it culod be a fkae one. Wlel, fkae eeiremnpxt or not, I can raed msot of the wrods. It's not jsut Egnlsih but I teird raeindg in BM and it wkros aamnizgly for me. Erm.. I'm straitng to tnihk it's jsut me. Myabe my mnid is so cofusned taht mssieplled wrods don't cnosufe me aynomre. I'll jsut sotp hree bferoe I go nuts.

P.S.1 - Read the comment section if u had given up reading this..

P.S. 2 - I tnihk my psot- STPM snyrdome is gteitng wrost.. XD

P.S. 3 - Pray for Malaysia for the events that occured recently! Pray for peace, calmness and safety!

First Parking Fine

2010-01-08T23:31:00.010+08:00

My first ever fine. Isn't this something worth celebrating? Erm.... No way? Well, some people do find getting their first parking fine exciting... The effect of receiving this ticket is so enormous that they probably couldn't differentiate the significances of getting this 'ticket' and the jackpot ticket. I think I'm one of them. Someone should knock my head right at this moment.

What happened? After 'conquering' Kledang Hill and on our way back, I was supposed to drop by at the train station for Joan to get her train tickets. And that's what we did. After parking my car and out of norm, I did not bother to display my parking coupon. I simply assumed that I do not need to do so in a train station. Anyway, I was not the only one. I did not see any parking coupons in cars on either sides of my car. Excuses? No. On our way back to the car, we saw a guy coming out of no way to his bike which was parking very near my car. Everyone could have spotted something fishy. Apparently, I did not. I recalled giving the guy a weird look as he coolly got on his bike and rode off. It was such a fine day and I did not suspect anything fishy. So typical of me, right? Joan even asked of the possibility of me getting a fine. No way. I just brushed her off. So, we got in the car and I saw the sheet of paper on the windscreen. In other people's position, they would be in shock and sighing over their hard luck. I simply asked Joan this one question. Confidently, I asked her, "Oh, can you help me take that paper in?" And we left.

Joan even suggested to me to buy 4D lottery tickets. Good idea, right? But I'm too lazy to do so. To my readers... help yourself. There are various number combinations. Erm.. 0801, 0108, 4437, 7397 and the list goes on. But I'm not responsible for your addiction to lottery if you actually win or your losses.. Yes, losses.. I'm sure you will not just buy one.

For now, you can either congratulate me for getting my first fine or feel sorry for me for my bad luck. Or both.

It's OVER!!!

2009-12-10T18:20:00.002+08:00

I waited for this day for so long... Finally, I can say that it's OVER!!! XD

P.s. Oh gosh, it's been a long time since I last blog..

High Praise '09

2009-07-13T19:54:00.006+08:00

The ACS Christian Fellowship will be organising High Praise at a bigger scale this year. We are inviting everyone to join us for a night of praise and worship to God! Yes, YOU ARE INVITED! There will also be performances and games prepared for you! Besides that, Pastor Elijah from the Church of Praise will be sharing the Word of God with us. See ya there!

Musical Child Sensations

2009-06-12T00:20:00.001+08:00

There's something I really have to blog about today. Musical child prodigy. It's a wonder that some kids are born with such big talents that leave us all speechless. Well, prodigy might not be the right word to use as their talents are not only gifts of God as a lot of hard work are put in too.. It's too bad I wasn't included in this category. Saddening but it's okay. Seriously.

So you think kids with musical instruments are cute... Wait till you see them play..

Yuto Miyazawa (9 year-old guitar prodigy)

Don't you think his polka dot guitar is way too big for his size...?

Jung Sungha ( 12 year old Korean fingerstyle guitar sensation)

Igor Falecki (4 year old Polish drummer)

Yuto Miyazawa playing Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train'

Jung Sungha playing 'One' by U2

Sungha composed this song for his beloved dog, Coco.

Lee Shuan Hern (child pianist)

Yoo Ye Eun (5 year old blind pianist)

Igor Falecki

Yea.. they are cute and extremely talented.. I'm completely beaten off. haha. I'm putting my guitar to rest for the rest of the week...

_____________________________________________________________

HAPPY 28th BIRTHDAY, TA JIE!

The Pangkor Chapter

2009-06-04T00:41:00.103+08:00

Last Monday, I joined the Boys' Brigade Primers for an outing to Pangkor. It's just a 2 days- one night trip and it's a lot of fun but sadly the duration was just too short. Anyway, we did manage do as much as we can in this trip including boat tour, snorkelling and kayaking.

We saw photos of a Joan lookalike model in the ferry to Pangkor. Joan, are you sure this person is not you?

Scandal : Di mana ada Yian Fong, di situ ada Inuk....

We stayed in Pangkor Bayview Beach Resort which sounded like a majestic and grand resort but.. Anyway, it was alright for us who were on tight budget. The only complain i had was that there were stains on the bed sheet and pillow cases. Disgusting.

Right after we checked in, we went on a boat tour and also snorkelling. During the boat tour, the guide showed us some rocks on nearby mini- islands which resembled a whale, a turtle and a croc. Then, the guide dropped us around the snorkelling area. Snorkelling was fine but the real drama started when we left the area. Halfway through our journey back, Tak Hao muttered about the larger seat space he had and we realised that he left without Yian Fong and Inuk. How smart. We went back to the area to find out that Yian Fong was having cramp.

Shadows

Footprints in the sand

Help, We were here

S.O.S!

While we we hanging out on the beach, out of a sudden, a hand popped out from the sandy beach.
Actually, we buried Kavitha in the sand.

Sandgirl Unleashed!

This is like a must-do thing for girls on a beach. JUMP!

They jumped again.
And again.

Joan's potato head artwork.Well, it looked like a potato to me.. So, what is it actually?

BK's castle

Sunflower girl

My Roommates
Bubble obsessed Munteng
Doggyprint
Some of us woke up at 4am to watch the sunrise but after 1 and a half hour of star gazing we realised that the sun was to rise on the other side. Great :(

Devotion
Group Photo (M.I.A. - Edwin)

Munteng's 'adopted' daughter

Ronaldo : Leaving or Staying?

2009-05-30T22:54:00.016+08:00

As the Barclays English Premier League comes and goes, something remains unchanged. The same old story of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United is arising again. It started during the World Cup in 2006 and the matter was constantly arised since then.

27 June 2006 - Before Portugal's World Cup match against England
MANCHESTER UNITED'S Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo could be leaving Old Trafford to join Real Madrid, it was announced today. "I have told my agent that I would like to leave," Ronaldo told the Marca newspaper. "I want to do so in the best way possible. I want to play for Madrid and I dream about it."
Source : www.mirror.co.uk

10 July 2006 - After the World Cup clash (Rooney's red card incident)

Portuguese and Manchester United footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is hoping he does not have to return to the UK after his clash with England and Manchester United player Wayne Rooney during the World Cup.

"It's difficult to return to a country where you're not wanted. My agent will meet with United to sort out the situation. I don't think I've got the support of either the owner or the manager. Neither has backed me", claimed Ronaldo.
Source : www.entertainmentwise.com

13 April 2007 - Extention of contract
Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new five-year deal with Manchester United. He will now stay in the club until at least 2012.

Spanish clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have been showing interest in the Portuguese midfielder for months, and the deal is sure to quiet transfer rumours for the time being.

Ronaldo says that he is happy in club and he wants to win more trophies with them. Source : http://en.wikinews.org/

16 May 2008 - Before Champions' League
Cristiano Ronaldo himself is speaking of a desire to play in La Liga with Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo is hinting he will consider his Manchester United future after the Champions League final next week and would be tempted by a move to Real Madrid. The Portuguese winger has become one of the hottest properties in world football after scoring 41 goals this season to help United retain their Premier League title and reach the Champions League showpiece. Source : http://www.soccermogul.com/

22 May 2008 - After Champions' League Victory

CRISTIANO RONALDO used last night's celebrations to tell Manchester United fans: I'm going nowhere. The Portuguese wizard said: "I am going to stay - there's no way I'm leaving. I feel so happy. This is the happiest day of my life.

Source : http://www.thesun.co.uk/

5 October 2008
According to the Spanish newspaper Marca, Cristiano Ronaldo, the great start of Manchester United, is not completely happy with his club, mainly due to the fact that the directors had offered him a raise of salary which hasn’t come yet. This is why the Portuguese is seriously thinking about leaving the Red Devils at the end of the season, time at which Alex Ferguson might win the Champions League title and the Premier League as well.
Source : http://www.sportsya.com/

24 October 2008
“There is no more Cristiano Ronaldo name on Real Madrid target list, not only for January but forever,” said Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon. “Manchester United decided not to sell the player and we don’t want to do anything against a club like Manchester United, ” Calderon added. Calderon statement is also end the speculation over early this season about Cristiano Ronaldo move to Real Madrid.
Source : http://www.soccerfiesta.net/

31 December 2008
Sulaiman al-Fahim, talked of bidding $240m (£165m) for Cristiano Ronaldo "because we (Manchester City) are going to be the biggest club in the world".
Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

1 January 2009
"What people are saying now [the recent speculation about an agreement with Real Madrid] is not true," he said. "Who says that is a liar because I am happy at the club, I want to stay here [at United]. I feel at home here. I feel very happy here."
Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

14 January 2009
Real Madrid are refusing to allow Manchester City to hog the limelight this transfer window, and have once again wheeled out the prospect of a secret deal for Cristiano Ronaldo in order to grab their share of the headlines. The latest twist on the story comes from 'Spanish football expert' Guillem Balague, who rubbishes reports that Ronaldo had agreed a deal with would-be Real Madrid president Florentino Perez to sign in 2010.
Source : https://intranet.thefirstpost.co.uk/

14 January 2009
Cristiano Ronaldo dismissed fresh claims linking him with a summer move to Real Madrid and said he wants to stay at Manchester United for years to come. "Yes, I think that we can dominate for many years," said Ronaldo. "We have a lot of young players - myself included - but we have to make sure we win more trophies in the future.
Source : http://www.mirror.co.uk/

11 February 2009

According to AFP, Real Madrid borrow 70 million euros from the Santander private banking group to bring Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, but the Spanish radio who announced this state did not specified its source. The loan, which is already closed, would not fund the transfer, depending on the stresses at the same radio that “Cristiano Ronaldo has an agreement with Manchester to go to Real at the end of the season for a reasonable amount."

Source : http://www.trulyreds.com/

13 March 2009
Manchester United received a huge boost ahead of the Saturday's clash with Liverpool when Cristiano Ronaldo insisted he will stay at Old Trafford next season. And the Portuguese winger admitted no other club can match his "dream" life at Old Trafford as they close in on the quintuple.
Source : http://www.mirror.co.uk/

3 April 2009
Real Madrid have put in place a deal with Cristiano Ronaldo's advisers that will see him leave Manchester United this summer if the world footballer of the year gets his way. Ronaldo remains determined to move to the Bernabéu and it is understood his salary and contractual terms have already been determined as part of a planned world-record £75m transfer.
Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

18 April 2009
The Portuguese winger has told close friends that he has no intention of joining Real Madrid this summer if Ferguson reassures him he will continue to manage United next season.

A source close to the United player revealed: “Cristiano has no immediate desire to leave United while Sir Alex is the manager.

Source : http://www.mirror.co.uk/

22 May 2009 - Before Champions League Final
Cristiano Ronaldo gave Manchester United the perfect boost to their Champions League final preparations last night by announcing his intention to stay at Old Trafford.

The World Player of the Year was widely expected to renew his pursuit of a “dream” transfer to Real Madrid this summer after the match against Barcelona in Rome on Wednesday. However, as revealed by The Times last week, he has concluded that his career would be best served by staying put for the next 12 months.

Source : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

29 May 2009 - After Champions League Loss
The Sun says confrontational remarks after the Champions League final loss are certain to put him on a collision course with Sir Alex Ferguson. When asked if he would still be at the club next season, Ronaldo, 24, would only reply: “I’ve played many games under a lot of pressure. The future? We’ll see.” Ron is aware he is a £50million target for Real Madrid, the club that desperately tried to lure him last summer.

Source : http://www.tribalfootball.com/

Cristiano Ronaldo's future at Manchester United was thrown into uncertainty again on Wednesday after he said he didn't know whether he would be playing for the English champions next season.

When asked after United's 2-0 Champions League final defeat to Barcelona if he would be at Old Trafford next season, Ronaldo said: “I don't know.”

Source : http://www.chinapost.com.tw/

As Manchester United’s dejected players left Rome yesterday, one star made a statement without speaking. One by one they traipsed on to the team bus. Everybody was wearing the club-issue suit, shirt and tie knotted to their collar. All, that is, except one. Cristiano Ronaldo hooked his designer sunglasses where his club tie should have been — ignoring the club’s instruction on dressing for the journey home.
Source : http://www.thesun.co.uk/

29 May 2009
Florentino Pérez, the prospective new president of Real Madrid, has welcomed renewed talk of an £80m move for Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, saying he would build a "great team with a great coach" if he were to win the presidency.

"He's a player that would be very good if he came to Real Madrid," said Pérez of United's Portuguese winger, who was on the losing side in this week's Champions League final, against Barcelona. "What I know is what I've read, that there is an agreement by means of which he would come for £80m."

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/

There's only one word to describe this situation. Pathetic. Let's all stop glorifying and sensationalising Cristiano Ronaldo as though he's only driving force in Manchester United. Let's all forget that he scored 41 goals last season and he won the European Golden Boot and FIFA World Player of the Year. Those achievements are nothing compare to his 'amazing' change of morale. Seriously. If you read the news above, you would had notice that he repeatedly spoke of his happiness (or unhappiness) in his days in Manchester United. He also repeatedly proclaimed his desire to sign for Real Madrid or his wish to stay in Manchester United.

As an avid Manchester United fan, I am absolutely feeling disgruntled and confused about the whole situation. I believe fans all over the world will be feeling the same too. At the end of the day, the main question is still unanswered. Is he staying or not? As the situation progresses, Manchester United should not be too desperate for Cristiano Ronaldo to stay as we don't know where his loyalty lies.

Oh yes, Cristiano Ronaldo is a very marketable and incredible player who will not only help Manchester United in winning games but also help them earn millions. If he eyes to switch to Real Madrid, Manchester United's losses might be too great to bear. Football is actually a business after all. For me, so what? He's an excellent player but he's not the only one. He helps the club to earn millions but he's not the only one.

The 75 million pound transfer fee is an amazing sum of money but loyalty is priceless. But do Manchester United want to keep a player who desires to be in another club? If he insists on leaving and there is nothing Manchester United can do about it, just let him go. If he wants to stay, then it's good news. No more begging for him to stay from the fans, please.

A Letter to Our Sultan

2009-02-04T22:42:00.003+08:00

To our benevolent Sultan Azlan Shah,

I am a born-bred Perakian. Batu Gajah was my home for the first four years of my life before my family shifted to Ipoh where we still stay in.

I have always loved Ipoh as a hometown, although I am now working in KL. This is the city where I meet my best friends, receive the finest education and lessons about life. I am also most proud of the Perak royal household that has always said the very things true to the rakyat’s heart.

I remembered that you once spoke to my brother who was only 7-years- old then.Though it was only a short conversation, nevertheless, the memory of you as a people’s ruler etched in our hearts. Hence, I plea to you, my dear Ruler, that you will exercise your excellent judgment and discernment to hear the hearts of Perakians, your people.

Today is indeed a dark day for Perak, where we see power struggle being on centrestage instead of nation-building. We have hopes of a better Perak, one that is growing economically and stability. And I believe Perakians have seen glimpses of development since Pakatan Rakyat governed the state.

Verily, the state government is far from perfect, far from ideal, but I believe this government ought to be given a more significant chance to serve the people of Perak. I am not a lawyer, hence, I do not know how to speak the lingua franca of law and legalities.

But, I do know that the Perakians have spoken on March 8, 2008 and we have chosen the government to represent us. At least, let us decide once again whom we believe can govern this state well. Let us have the government we voted for, not one that barges in through crossovers.

The time has come for nation-building to be the country’s and the state’s highest priority. The responsibility and privilege has become even more significant under such trying economic times, where the man on the street is hard hit and the poor becomes even poorer.

Yours sincerely,
Perakian

http://yyennie.wordpress.com/

http://fooji.wordpress.com/

http://enniey.wordpress.com/

Footie Blog: Manchester City's 'toothless' Tigers

2009-01-11T11:57:00.009+08:00

Halfway through the Barclays Premier League season, the 'trying-to-be Mighty' Manchester City FC's strength were no where to be seen. The Manchester club was bought over by Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited before the season started from ex Thailand premier, Thaksin Shinawatra. From then onwards, the former middle-league club turned from having a quiet transfer season last August to inflicting scare among big clubs including AC Milan and Manchester United with Man City trying to snatch away their assets due to the availability of big money spending power.

The Citizens made immediate transfer interests on the world's top players such as David Villa (Valencia), Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd), Kaka (AC Milan), Thiery Henry (Barcelona), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Fernando Torres (Liverpool) and so on. In an attempt to disrupt Man Utd and Chelsea's transfer season, they barged themselves with transfer bids for Dimitar Berbatov and Robinho. It paid off in the end as Robinho signed for them instead of heading for Chelsea.

But for now, Man City is stranded in the bottom-half/middle-half of the league table which cancelled off speculation that the Citizens is ready to break into the top 4 league placing. Nope. They are far from challenging the Premier League contenders. The results lately had given us the idea that they are facing quite a dilemma themselves. In contrast, a series of draws and losses against Blackburn, West Brom, Everton and Fulham was not justifying the spending and the vision they have. Furthermore, the 3-0 loss against Nottingham Forest, a struggling Coca-cola Championship team, in the FA Cup was just an embarrassment.

This is a perfect example on why money are not a quick resolution and for being a ' rising tiger' in the footballing world, they are almost 'toothless' at the moment. As the January transfer season is open, they are once again being the most active ones. Speculations of Roque Santa Cruz, Ronaldo and Michael Owen joining the club are still on. This left me to wonder on how much money they will need to spend to carry themselves back in action in the league. They were in 9th place last season. Will they surpass that performance? I believe all of us are not quite convince yet. They will need to do a lot more to grow some 'teeth'.

AGM Huhahuha Performance

2008-12-19T16:32:00.000+08:00

This clip was taken from Prefects AGM back in August.

Young Writers' Camp :P

2008-12-09T10:43:00.011+08:00

THE TOILET PAPER CREW
Standing from left : Fayan, Jian Lin, Jo Fan, Me, Brian, Phui Yee, Lydia, Timothy
Squatting/Kneeling from left : Sophia, Sarah, Sieh Jin, Elliot

There were so many events that went on lately and I rarely had time to blog. I came back from Young Writers' Camp not too long ago. My initial view of this camp was that I found it rather intriguing. There was a certain inferiority complex in myself as I found out that most of the other campers were creative and genius writers. Anyway, I know I shouldn't think in that manner. The experience was a little similar like BRATs Workshop. The difference was that for this time we really did print our very own NEWSPAPERs!

This camp was held in a Christian camping centre called Harvest Haven. If I didn't attend this camp, I'll never know such a place exists especially in a small suburban town like Gopeng. Located in the middle of an oil palm plantation (I'm serious), it's fascinating that this centre has a football field, basketball court and even an acceptable-size pool.

Basically, we were somehow 'working' as journalists (writers, photographers..etc...etc) in the camp. There were four groups producing 3 issues of 4 different 2-page newspapers.

This is the Papyrus. One of the newspaper by another group. The so-called 'The Original Paper'. Well, maybe they got it right there since the existence of papyrus was from 'I don't know when' age...

This is the NewsForest with its tagline; 'It's a Jungle Out There'. Wonder how they got this name from? Someone suggested ' News For Us' but ironically, everyone else from the group heard 'NewsForest'. :p

The Eleventh Hour : First-hand Last-Minute News was quite a interesting name. I wonder if CNN was their influence?...

I got to say it. I'm really proud of my group's newspaper. It's called THE TOILET PAPER! Well, we didn't want something too serious so we decided to choose a totally random name. We got hype-up with the name that we went as far as changing the taglines everyday.

Cheap Yet Indispensable
News Today, Used Tomorrow
We Get Dirty But We Get The Job Done

We even have a whole list of taglines that we never managed to use.

We Change It Everyday
Wipe and Swipe
You'll Need It In Emergency
Handy News Before You Flush
We Write The News While You're On Business

DARN! WE CAN MAKE A BUSINESS OUT OF THIS! Haha! Thanks, Brian, for the name.

Into the Heart of Penang

2008-11-28T20:53:00.023+08:00

Penang a.k.a. the Pearl of Orient Island gained popularity recently after a few of its sites being awarded as UNESCO's Heritage Sites. My family had indeed been there a few times. But out of cuckoo-bananas, we decided to explore the city again but this time on foot.

~Colours~

I don't know what's with the striking blue colour paint job on this mansion.

We don't see these bikes often on the streets. Gosh! Check out the price.. Well, It seems that some toys are meant for rich brats. :P

LTC

2008-09-03T16:03:00.015+08:00

The LTC Aftermath

2008-08-17T18:30:00.010+08:00

The prefects' LTC was finally over. :)

In total, I went for LTC for 3 times and it was my second time as a camper. Just want to say, I SURVIVED again...! The shrinking of the size of the fonts is just to signal that I'm currently losing my voice. Well, besides some minor muscle ache, I'm pretty much still standing strong. My initial expectations of this mind-enduring camp was actually higher. But anyway, I was glad too that the seniors decided to give us more rest in this LTC.

Since the theme was Supernatural, my group was called the Werewolves. I'm quite proud of myself and my group from this experience particularly because... - We use our voices to the limit in our group cheers even though we were small in numbers compared to other groups . We decided to take a dive in mud pit while the others pulled out because it was raining. And finally, although we are not physically prepared, we did not give up in the games and exercises especially EBO training (EBO stands for Exercise Bagi Otak. Yup, it's quite a lame name and I don't know who came up with the idea.) In EBO training, we have to stay in an akward position without moving for a long period of time under the hot scorching sun. Imagine the pain and the numbness we felt from our muscles. Quite excruciating but we did it.

Will post the photos when I get my hands on them...

-p.s.- thanks a lot to my group advisors See Pui and Jo Ann for snatching back my group flag in countless stealing attempts.. I owe it to both of u..
-p.s. (again) - thanks a lot to my team members and sorry for pushing u all too hard in the night trekking game.. I owe it to u all too..

Survival Race

2008-07-18T20:51:00.058+08:00

Recently, we, the lower six committee of Six Form Society had organised a series of games for the lower sixes and an upper six group. It was named the Survivor Race. Teams (classes) competed among each each other in this physical and mind enduring( yeah, right?!!) race. We prepared these games in the nick of time. So, if anyone did find our games not challenging.... sorry lar.. Anyway, I do believe everyone had fun based from their expressions.

Duck Race

High Praise

2008-07-11T21:11:00.017+08:00

FIRE UP FOR CHRIST
CF High praise was held earlier today and I was part of the worship team (as backup worship singer). It was a first time experience for me and we actually have no preparation of it. We weren't able to find a time to practise and we did everything on-the-spot. I was quite happy that it went quite well as far as concern and so much for a last-minute preparation. Thank God. We did the first session and sang The Time Has Come, Adonai, Here I Am To Worship and I Adore.

I joined the ACS Closed Badminton Competition again, but now in singles. Yup. Singles. I really don't know why I did this to myself. I could had joined Doubles or Mixed Doubles but I didn't. And I paid RM5 for it.. I knew I was going to get trashed out of the competition early for the standard I'm in. But at least I beat my first opponent this time but only to see myself going against a first seeded in the next round. The results of my second match is really obvious, right? I got beaten flat. Expected. Well, for self-comforting, at least I reached the second round which I thought I couldn't.

I was selected as editor of Six Form Society recently. Initially, I had no thoughts of joining this club but my 'dear' friend, Weng Kit, nominated me in. So, somehow, I decided to give it a go. We'll be organising a 'Survivor Race' for the lower sixes this upcoming Wednesday but I don't know how the turnout is going to be like. Wednesday seems to be a busy day for everyone. Even I had to change the date of my Maths tuition for it.

Prefects Leadership Training Camp (LTC) will be on this upcoming Friday and I was selected as the leader of Group 4. The theme is Supernatural. To be frank, I'm not really fond of this theme but I had to go with the flow. There's not really a wide range of group name selections and I wondered if fantasy creatures are classified as Supernaturals or not. There are other groups who named themselves, Voldemort, Phantom and Lucifer. I decided to choose my group name as Werewolves after rejecting thoughts of other names such as Phantom or Shadow Reaper. It's not easy to be a group leader. I'm really making myself really busy now because I have to think of cheers and sketch for my group. I organised group meetings recently but there were a few members who were MIA (Missing In Action). Swt. Even till now, I haven't seen some of my group members in meeting.. Feeling like wanna taruh them teruk teruk. Swt.

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My Bio tuition teacher shown us this video which left me stunned. Sand Painting. It seems so easy on the video.

Form 6

2008-06-26T18:21:00.005+08:00

It was quite hard for me to blog since Form 6 restarted. Life is getting busy and busier nowadays and I'm constantly feeling tired. Anyway, this is what Form 6 (pre-U) is all about. Busy, hectic but fun.

Why I chose to be in Form 6? I had been bombarded by this question by most of my Form 5 classmates who got sick of school life and went for private education. According to some of them, Form 6 life is really hard and they are absolutely true. STPM is regarded as one of the toughest exam in the world. It's just merely statistics but that's why only 4 of us from my Form 5 class stayed back for Form 6. Well, no one said that further education will be any much easier.

I'm staying put in science stream (Bio class) since I have not decided or have a firm idea of what I'm gonna be in future. But that is the decision I had made and I must go on with it. Form 6 is not that bad after all but the subject syllabuses are a lot deeper, specific and challenging. In other words, I'm actually 'swimming from shallow waters to a deep ocean and I have to stay afloat and not sink.'

NS : My Story

2008-05-30T23:27:00.025+08:00

Should NS be abolished? This topic had came arise after some reported deaths of trainees in NS training camps. While all of us are still debating on whether NS should be abolished, I think I should tell my NS story because, seriously, I could had ended up being on one of those newspaper reports.

First I would like to talk about getting sick in NS camps. To be frank, getting sick in NS is kind of a very normal thing. I was so used to be living in a comfy home and being so well taken cared by our parents. Out of a sudden, I was called up to attend National Service and will be away from home for 2 and a half months. Ah! My first taste of independence. I was quite set to go through this task. But after the first week there, a lot of us did fell sick.. (minor sickness). By not drinking enough water and not taking good care of myself, I got my first taste of independence by having cough and a sore throat. But somehow later, I got the hang of it and started taking care of myself properly.

National Service went pretty well for the first month until it was Chinese New Year time. It was the time when I first got seriously ill during the NS period. It was terrible because the fever kept coming on and off. I was seriously frustrated. For instance, I'll had fever in the morning and it will recover 3 hours later after I took panadol but the fever will return at night. This took place 3 days in a row. On the 4th day, I thought I was finally well and I went out with friends. But halfway though the night, I felt this sharp coolness follow by numbness on my knee and ankle.Even after all this events (the numbness on my knees and the weird fever), I wasn't taking it seriously enough. Just finally went to a clinic and took some antibiotics. Never did I knew that I will be relying on a lot of antibiotics 2 weeks later.

On the day when I was suppose to return to camp, the fever was no more and I thought I gained full recovery and will be alright for the shooting training 2 days later. I was in hopeful mood that I'll not be sick on the day of the shooting training programme which was a once in a lifetime experience. And I did. I was well for the whole week until the day I stupidly went for blood donation. Out of my conscious and since I was already well for the whole week, I thought I'll be fine to donate blood. It wasn't my first time so I didn't hesitate about donating blood. Anyway, I asked the medical officer there whether I was allowed to donate since I was sicked the previous week. The blood pressure test and blood test didn't showed anything abnormal. He said if I'm healthy and had no sickness for a week already, it is okay.

The next night, I started to show conditions of fever again. It was the same condition as before (on and off fever). Even when flying fox, wirajaya, kayaking and community services events were just around the corner, I was in a low mood because the on and off fever was just depressing. Without knowing how serious I was at that time, I was still hoping to participate in those activities. I got tired really easily especially during and after morning exercise and afternoon programmes and I'll just complained to be unwell and sit out from the activities. Even my friends were noticing me getting worn out easily and not like my usual self. I spent a lot of spare time sleeping and I lost my appetite all the time. Before this, I used to be always chatting with other people or practicing the guitar with my friend.

I went to the medical clinic twice in 2 days complaining about my on and off fever and all I got was some paraceptemol and nothing else.. not even MC because they thought I'm not ill enough to be excluded from the activities. Anyway, thanks to the trainers, even though I didn't have MC, I didn't need to participate but just to sit back and watch. Guess they saw though my sincerity and believe that I wasn't faking as some do. About the clinic, I believe most of us, trainees, agreed that when we were very sicked, we did not have the mood and the eager to walk all the way to the clinic but prefer to sleep. It wasn't located very near the dorms. Some said some of the medical personnels didn't take those who were sicked seriously at times and so what's the point of going there. It was quite half true depending of the person in charge on the specific day. On another perspective, there were a lot of trainees who fake their sickness just to skip the day and lepak around.

Well, on the 3rd day, I missed the chance to join the first community service but I finally thought over it that something was really wrong with me. I was so tired and weak, I could faint any moment. I couldn't walk nor had the mood to talk. Just felt like lying down and forget about everything else. For that particular morning, even when I'm not having fever, I went to the clinic again as I don't know when the fever will strike again. They finally took my blood test and the results just struck me. They said I had anemia (low haemoglobin). "What in the world happened?" I thought to myself. I have no history of Thalassemia trait nor anything like this had happened before. But it seriously got to do the on and off fever. I phoned my dad and shocked him well enough.

Actually, once they found out about what happened to me, their actions were quite fast. I was jabbed and given iron pills. Later in the afternoon, I was sent to Sungai Siput Hospital while on drips The journey took like 45 minutes and my parents were called to come and see me. I knew I must had worried them a lot. All this just came all a sudden to me. I must say the doctor in the hospital didn't attend to me that well. He just checked and asked me a few questions and I was discharged 30 minutes later. I wasn't having any fever and he must had thought it was just anemia. I was given a 1-week MC from NS and went home.

It's not over yet and I know something is terribly wrong with me. What caused the anemia and fever? I was so pale at that time, I completely scared my parents. Again, I felt so guilty and bad for that but what can I do... I was all white and almost completely lost all the colours of my face and hands, as told by my parents. All that while, I was just dizzy and very blur. My mum called my sis to ask her housemate about it. I could had got contaminated by some forest bacteria or something. Later that night, I admitted myself into Ipoh Specialist Hospital. I was having high fever and very pale. Again, i was put on drips. Urine test, blood test, x-ray and ultrasound - I did all of it. X-ray and ultrasound were to make sure my organs wasn't affected by the recurring fever. Even the doctor was worried for me. I simply became the first person to be hospitalised in my family. I knew I was more worried about my parents being so tensed and scared by my condition than me myself. I was just what I felt.

A normal person should have a minimum Hb (haemoglobin) level of 13 and I scored as low as 7.2 . I was having fever every night and i had to be put on antibiotics and sodium chloride drips during my stay in hospital. I had to take blood test for 5 days consecutively. So, can you imagined how many time I was jabbed? It's not denggi and malaria. My urine test results showed that there were some high level of bacteria. So, my case was considered bacteria infection. I stayed in that highly expensive hospital for 6 days before getting discharged.

I'm totally glad that I'm alright now because anything could had happened to me at that time. It was quite serious. Thank God. I totally had a different NS experience as I missed all the key activities except the shooting training and halangan kembara. Instead I got stranded in a hospital. How did I get the bacteria infection in the first place? What would had happened if my parents didn't sent me to hospital the very night I came back? I won't blamed the blood donation but it surely had weakened me at that time. My NS days was just 1 and a half months.

Link to my sis's blog post

April Birthday Wishes

2008-04-15T23:30:00.007+08:00

April, April, April.... No idea why but it's really the month of birthdays. And the best part of all is that it is really a privilege to know someone who shares the same birthday as I do. Not one but 3.

THE APRIL 15s

Happy Birthday to my 'twin sister' Sue Jane! I'll call u my 'twin sister' since we were born on the same day.

To Ben's mum, Aunty Susan, Happy Birthday!

Happy 19th Birthday, See Pui!

And of course, Happy Birthday to myself. (memang tak tau malu - wishing myself?!? haha)

April 14 - To Karen Choong, Happy Belated Birthday.

April 17 - Happy Birthday, Wing Seng if u ever come across this blog..

April 18 - Tabby, Happy 18th Birthday!

April 28 - To the little baby Shan Ren, Happy upcoming Birthday!

Blessed Birthdays, everyone!

Cerita Pasal 'National Service'

2008-03-18T23:12:00.062+08:00

Over 2 months plus of disappearance from the 'open world', I can say now that I'm finally free and definitely back. National service was over on March 11 and since then I've been tv-ing but dvd-ing but mostly resting, sleeping, and recuperating. Why recuperating? Something happened to me 3 weeks before NS ended. And in that case, my national service experience was totally different to most people. Well, I'll leave that for the next post.

My NS camp is Kem Terkok, Sungai Siput (U), Perak. My friend, Su Ling, gave me a comment on my last post warning me that my camp is actually quite 'ulu'. And u bet.. she wasn't wrong. Haha! On the journey to the camp, we went deep into the outskirt of Sungai Siput; moving on empty roads; moving through oil palm and rubber plantations and hardly seen any civilisation around. In a glimpse of mind, I thought we were about to be 'abducted'. On second thoughts, I'd tried to change my thinking to the brighter side since the government had granted me a two months plus 'vacation' in such a secluded location. I can't.

National service wasn't really a life-changing experience but it was an interesting one. It did helped me to realise how comfortable my home is. My comfy bed, the air-cond, my comp, family, my mum's cooking, clean bathroom, ah yes... the washing machine and EVERYTHING ELSE. I realise how different life can be away from home. This is the situation there. The guys are refered as 'wira' and girls as 'wirawati'. There were 4 companies which we were divided into - Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. I'm in Delta, the craziest and uncontrollable company around.

~Dorm 8 (Villa Meranti) - my dormitory~

~Padang Kawat~

Morning Exercise
On weekdays, we usually woke up around 5.45-6am because we were suppose to gather in padang kawat before 6.30am. Better not be late if u don't want to get in trouble. There was once when the night duty fellows played a prank on my dorm. They came in and changed the time on the clocks in my dorm. Nicely done. We didn't know the exact time and we ended up being almost late. Anyway, about morning exercise, I believe my experience in scout did help me a lot to adapt to the training. Exhausting exercises at times but instead of fussing, I got though it.

CB/Integration/'Kenegaraan' class
At 8.30am, we had to attend Character Building/Integration/Kenegaraan class. I never clicked with all these classes. Sorry to say, CB class is bit like kindergarten. At least i improved a little in my juggling skills.

~Alpha Phoenix Company~

~Bravo Scorpian Company~

~Charlie Chameleon Company~

~Delta Dragon Company - my company, the craziest, wildest and uncontrollable company~

CHURCH
On Sundays, Christians are allowed to leave the campsite and go to church. We were divided into our divisions - Catholic, Chinese Methodist or Indian Methodist. I was a bit puzzled at why they split the Chinese and Indians who will go to Methodist church. Besides that, the number of Christians in my camp were incredibly low. I can even count the number of those going to Methodist church with my ten fingers. Anyway, I found out later that the Chinese will be sent to Chinese-service (Mandarin and Cantonese) church while Indians go to Tamil-service church. Apparently, there were only 5 Chinese and an Indian going to Methodist church. But we did get more friends to join us to church somehow later. A few of us did appeal to go to English-service church because there's a few 'bananas' among us. Wasted effort. Nothing was done. Anyway, we settled in with what we got.

At 2pm, we were sent to Sg. Siput Chinese Methodist Church. Yea, it's evening service. The church is relatively small with mostly middle-aged and elderly people. Got to say that they were quite glad to see a bunch of teenagers joining them. Well, we did stared at each other blankly during worship and service because it was just 360° different. It was quite an fruitful experience. After church, we kind of hanged out; delaying time; before returning to skip riadah. We did went to KFC once just to buy dinner.

People
The best part of NS was, of course, meeting new friends. My camp consists of people coming from Selangor (mostly peejays), Kelantan and Perak. I came to this camp initially without knowing anyone. Everyone around was new. Now, the one thing I really miss from NS was the times with my NS friends. How weird?.. Haha.. On the last day of camp, everyone became emo and even the biggest guy cried.

I wouldn't say I fully enjoyed everything from my national service experience. To be frank, I can say that some guys ( so-called wira) in my camp were quite troublesome. Apparently, there were some issues in my camp. Some guys just like to fight and quarrel even for the smallest and tiniest reasons. Shameful. We, humans, are a whole bunch of sensitive and yet iron-headed people. That's why we had to keep on reminding each other to be patient. Ah! Patience, Patience, Patience.... It is part of the programme, isn't it? Meeting new people with different background and mentality. That's the tiny part that disrupted the whole interesting experience.

Singapore Roars!

2007-12-29T00:19:00.000+08:00

(Scroll down for the National Service blog post)

Just days before Christmas, I was in Singapore for my holidays. My family and I were there for 3 days. The journey to Johor Bahru was dreadful and superbly tiring. We went there by car; the conventional and economical way. But seriously, I'm starting to dislike the highway. Never once before that I'm on the highway for 6 times in 3 weeks. Ehem, the youth camp in Melaka, the KL trip and the Singapore trip. Now, imagine the hours I spent in the car to Johor Bahru. It's so darn boring. Anyway, back to the main topic, we chose to stay in my aunt's place in JB which is quite near the border. And for 3 days in a row, we went through the immigration to Singapore. It may sound crazy but that was what we did. We took the transit bus to Singapore in the morning and return to JB at midnight. Crazy, right?

Our first stop was Bugis. We kind of hanged out at the shopping centres there and of course, Bugis Street. Although this is a street shopping location, things sold there aren't really cheap. That's why u see the Mastercard logo there.

The Golden Compass Christmas Decoration in Bugis.

During the journey to Bugis in the transit bus, we passed by the ACS (Anglo Chinese School) of Singapore. The school looks so awesome even from outside even though it's not as historical as my school (ACS Ipoh). Wasn't able to snap a photo of the building as the bus was moving.

While my mum went down to Orchard with my aunt for shopping, 4 of us (my dad, my sisters and me) took a tour around the City Hall. While my sis experimented on her new DSLR, I took over the old Olympus. It's better than nothing. We simply walked around toward the City Hall Building and snapped some photos of Singapore.

~St. Andrew Cathedral~

~The City Hall Building~

The Clock Tower ( I'm not sure what buliding is this but that is where the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles located)

~Our Glorious Dead~ ( I believe this is a memorial for World War 1, if I'm not mistaken, because of the year stated on the memorial. 1914 was the year when World War 1 happened.)

I don't have to introduce the Merlion, right? It's a symbol of Singapore.

~ORCHARD ROAD~

Well, Orchard Road is one of the liveliest places in Singapore. Touristy as well. It's a long stretch of pathway where all the big shopping complexes are located. It's Christmas season and the street is heavily decorated. It's a really nice place and a shopping heaven for all.

~I don't jump high, I FLY LOW~

There were quite a number of street performances. Totally salute the guy above. He stayed in the same position for the whole day. I wonder how he did that.

~The Samba Masala Percussion Band~ It's my first time seeing a percussion band in action and it's really cool. I don't know how to comment but for me, they are really good with the instruments and sound very nice and powerful. Maybe a bit lack of 'gaya'.. hmm..

Too difficult for me?!?

Artventure Exhibition in the Esplanade underpass showcasing the imaginative mind of the young ones in art.

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NATIONAL SERVICE

I was drafted into the first batch of national service in Sungai Siput, Perak. How lucky I am, right? I wish I could go to somewhere further but that's the way it is. I'm leaving tomorrow and will be away in NS camp until CNY and until March 11. Gotta feel army strong now. Got all sorts of remarks and advices from all sorts of people. My mum is even more 'gan jiong' (nervous) than me. It seems like I'm going to have quite an adventure. I'm having mix feeling (half sad and half excited) now. Really hope I'll enjoy myself. :p

Happy Be-Early New Year! I'll be in NS by then.

A Meaningful Christmas

2007-12-24T21:54:00.000+08:00

I was watching TV yesterday night and I came across a Santa Claus movie. Although it was quite an entertaining show which tells the life of Santa and his family as if they really exists, I feel that the world is really being disillusioned and enticed until many of us do not realise the true meaning of Christmas. Why we celebrate Christmas in the first place? To be frank, when I was young, I didn't know the meaning of Christmas.

Last Christmas, my sister gave me a small booklet entitled 'Our Daily Bread - The Gift of Christmas'. There is a paragraph that we can relate to the situation these days.

Two women, dressed in their finest, were having lunch together in an exclusive restaurant. A friend saw them and came over to greet them. " What's the special occasion?" she asked. One of the women said, " We're having a birthday party for a baby in our family. He's 2 years old today." "But, where is the baby?" the friend asked. The child's mother answered, "Oh, I dropped him off at my mother's house. She's taking care of him until the party's over. It wouldn't have been any fun with him along".

As said in the booklet, it is totally ridiculous that the birthday baby wasn't welcomed at his own party. Well, Christmas is just the same. A line in the booklet that says : When you stop to think of it, that's no more foolish than going through the Christmas season, with all of its festivities, without remembering the One whose birth we are supposed to be honoring.

I was having my December holidays in KL and Singapore recently. Decorations and lights were all set in shopping malls and even on the streets for the joyous season of Christmas. With Ho, ho, ho heard from a far and the sleigh bells ringing, I am really struck by the thought of Christmas isn't really Christmas until it happens in your heart. What is Christmas?

I wasn't born in a Christian family and when I was a child, Christmas wasn't much of a celebration. But anyway, somehow, the feeling of Christmas is always there in me but I was unclear why. Even during my childhood, Christmas is one of the dates I'm always waiting for. Never did I believe in Santa when I was young but Christmas was all about the the winter snowflakes, the tree and the gifts due to the over-commercialised Christmas celebration. So, because of it, the Christmas that I was celebrating as a child isn't really Christmas. I didn't know what Christmas is really for until Christ came into my life. Deep inside, day by day, I feel truly blessed. 25 December isn't the actual date of birth of Jesus Christ, but it is a day we celebrate His birth. No matter how grand a celebration is, a Christmas celebration with Jesus in mind is truly a more meaningful one.

There's a song called, "Happy Birthday Jesus" sang by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and Singers. My sisters and I adore the voice of the child who sang the opening of the song because it's just so cute. But it's the lyrics of the song that really matters.

Happy birthday Jesus I'm so glad its Christmas All the tinsel and lights And the presents are nice But the real gift is You.
Happy birthday Jesus I'm so glad its Christmas All the carols and bells Make the holiday swell And it's all about You Happy birthday Jesus Jesus I love You!

Have merry, merry Christmas, everyone!
May God shines on your life and guides you.
Because Jesus is the biggest gift of Christmas to all.

Down to KAY ELLE

2007-12-18T18:07:00.001+08:00

I was in KL last Saturday with my mum and both of my sis practically for shopping. We stayed in PJ Hilton. By the way, speaking of shopping, let me tell u how 'dreadful' it was to shop with 3 women. Okay, maybe 'dreadful' is not the right word. It's either I rot at home or follow them to KL which was what I did. Once they bought something, they will give a kind of look to me and I know what they are asking for. Being the brother and the only guy around, I'll just take the shopping bags from them and let them do the shopping. I'm not complaining, just sighing it out.. They say they are training me.. Haha! Training?!? Well, it's the brother's responsibility and I can't run away from it. But thank goodness, sometimes I was able to run away to see my own stuff.

I don't know what it's called.. (miniature city?) but it's on display in PJ Hilton. I really like the miniature buildings and trains and to see the small little details in it. It's like a kid's dream. Yea, I'm admitting it. I'm a big KID.

My sis really shocked me when she said she got herself a digital SLR. She got it weeks ago but I only found out that day.. How nice.. So, this was what she did day and night; experimenting on her new camera. The camera is expensive but it's amazing what it can do. Like making you a PRO instantly. Erm...PRO?..... Maybe not. I acknowledged my terrible skills and knowledge but I believe I will get better. I'm really starting to have interest in it. Now, my sis is always fussing that she needs lenses, tripod, flash and all the camera gigs. Photography is really an expensive interest.

-The Eye on Malaysia- We didn't go on it. No offense but KL skyline is just so so lar. We were there simply because my sis wanna test her camera. I can't believe it was built just for year 2007. Visit Malaysia year mah... They are going to stop operation and take it all down next year. And the question is, why spent so much money on this Eye on Malaysia just to see it last less than a year before it is torn down?

Artsy-fartsy cows? It's really interesting to see this different kind of art. Who come out with the idea of painting on statues of bulls anyway? It's brilliant! I particularly like the golden bull. It has a real classy look. Imagine if it's real.. Kind of like fantasy, right?

Christmas decorations in Pavillion. Exactly like my sister said, Christmas is always being so commercialise these days. Anyway, soon it will be Christmas day! Really can't believe that a year had gone past so fast.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Forget it. It's not snowing in Malaysia!

Christmas decorations in Mid Valley.

Don't call me irresponsible! I didn't do this! I saw this deliberate 'vandalism' on Michael Buble' poster in Tower Records. Haha!

~FACEBOOK~

Everyone is getting into Facebook now and I can really see why it's so much hippier than Friendster nowadays. Facebook just give u a different kind of freedom in functions -wise compared to other community sites. This Facebook acapella is so hilarious.

Shekinah/Foursquare Youth Camp

2007-12-12T16:22:00.001+08:00

I'm back from camp. Really think that the camp was too short and time flies. But it was really fun. This camp was held by my friend's church, Shekinah Community Centre and Foursquare Gospel Church, USJ.. There's no need for me to tell where's the camp was held, right?.. Ok.. The speaker for the camp was Pastor Jacinta. Speaking of her, hmm.. from first glance, I thought she's the strict and boring type. Really thought that I was going to go through a boring session.. but she really shocked me. Despite her erm..'age', she is really youthful and funny. She's really approachable to teens. Oh my goodness, she even knows who Yung Joc is while I'm still wondering who's that.. For those who sat in front, they 'must really cover themselves with umbrellas'. By the way, the sessions are really good and interesting.. The camp was themed 'Who Am I". It is the first time I heard of the song called "Who Am I" by Casting Crowns and it's such a nice song..

El Sanctuary is located at a 'kaki bukit' somewhere in Alor Gajah, Melaka. There we were.. we stayed in chalets and dorms. It's a really nice place. Just one complaint. On the second day,my dorm is invaded by ANTS!! Ants were everywhere on the floor..on the beds.. in the toilet. So, during our stay there, we practically slept with ants..

Brandon!! This kid is really funny.. Actually, the church people are really funny and can laugh non-stop.. Dunno what drives them (???). Met some really nice, geeky, emo, funny, crazy people there..Yvonne, Benjamin, Yee Leng, Mei Mei, Caryn, Emily, Sue Jane, Brandon, Keith, Elmer, Ken Ee, Ken Nie, Edmund, Reynold, Eunice, Kimberly, Shereen, Chee Foo..... and the lists goes on... It's like a family.

One thing about El Sanctuary.. Dogs and puppies are everywhere. And whenever we have free time, we'll play with them. The dog below is the mum of 5 puppies. From what I had observed, this dog sleeps all day and only wakes up to eat or to feed the puppies. Haha.

We named this puppy after one of the camper, Ben. He always complained about it because he always heard people calling his name... just that not to him but to the puppy.

Night jungle trekking. It was really one of the best experiences ever. The guide, believe it or not, is a kid. Well, he looked like a 15 year-old kid but he proclaimed himself as 18 years old. Sorry, no picture of him.. because we weren't allowed to bring camera or phone during jungle trek. But anyway, it was raining and that really added to the fun. At one point, we were about to cross a river hanging ourselves on a rope but we didn't because not everyone can handle it.. Well, I was so wishing that we took "The Road Not Taken".

Sue Jane,... I'm really shocked that she's born on the very same day that I was born.. So, we are the 15 April's...

Elmer=Elmo=Emo

I really see the reason I went for this camp now. Previously, I was feeling quite down about some stuff. It was a last minute decision for me to join this camp and after this camp, I feel so rejuvenated. It's like it's God's plan for me.

Pengisytiharan Tamat Pendudukan SPM

2007-11-26T16:22:00.000+08:00

26th November 2007 - 3.30pm: Tarikh bersejarah yang tidak dicatat dalam buku teks. Kemerdekaan kepada kebanyakan penduduk Tingkatan 5 aliran Sains telah berjaya dicapai! Laungan 'Merdeka' selama 10 kali melambangkan 10 pertempuran sengit Perang SPM yang diharungi. Usaha perjuangan kemerdekaan yang bergentar-gentar terhadap pendudukan SPM yang bermula sejak awal tahun 2006 telahpun membawa hasil.

Bagi mereka yang masih bertempur lagi, teruskanlah perjuangan anda dengan semangat yang berkobar-kobar!

School's Over; Exam Dilemma..

2007-11-08T02:07:00.000+08:00

.~ Signing the school magazine

~Ok, that will my seat during SPM

~ That's my Sejarah teacher. (Darn strict but he's the coolest ever)

~Class of 2007 - My class teacher must be so 'relieved' that we r leaving after being 'tormented' by us for 2 years in a row. Yes, she was our class teacher last year too.

Everyone would have thought I abandoned my blog..
It's 2.05 am now and I'm still so darn awake..
SPM exam starts next Monday.. Hope and pray that I'll be fine...
School days are over now and most people will be heading separate ways after SPM.
I can't believe I'm saying this but I'll miss my skul life, my tuitions (yes, I'm serious) and most of all, my friends who have been in the same school with me since Standard 1 and Form 1..
Wow! 11 years of school in ACS had gone and past. But this year had been a very special one for all of us. Well, first of all, my class teacher got married. Secondly, my sejarah teacher got married to my EST teacher. Lastly, my EST teacher got married to my Sejarah teacher (Ok, that's the same thing anyway).

I'll miss 5B class. It's located strategically at the far end of the Form 3, 4 and 5 block which is the furthest away from the main entrance. Imagine how far we have to walk to get to our class. My school is not small, you know! It's really not an ideal place to study. First of all, the noise pollution from the primary school. Anyway, we, ourselves, weren't that quiet after all. Then, the air pollution which is because of open burning outside our school compound by some irresponsible people. Last but not least, the smell pollution which is because of the open burning and also because my class is located directly above the toilet.

But anyhow, 5B class is where we had our best time together. We were always able to make fun out of nothing. The times when we turned our class into a futsal ground.

It's getting late now and it's time for me to sign off now.
All the best to everyone who is taking SPM or STPM examinations!!
God Bless!

Breaking The Record

2007-08-19T12:33:00.000+08:00

In conjunction of the 50th Merdeka celebration this year, my school aimed for the record books and created this giant 'Jalur Gemilang' kolam measuring 73.3m x 41.3m . Months ago, when Dr. Kathiresan, a teacher, spoke of this project, some of us actually doubted if this is going to work or not. The aim was to raise money to improve the school's facilities.

Creating this big piece of kolam wasn't an easy task at all. First of all, the drawing which the form 6 students did.. I think it's amazing that it matched so well. I'll never know how hard is it to sketch the whole thing out but I heard it was dreadful. Then, the colouring the rice. Next, gluing the rice on the polystyrene sheets. We, Form 5, weren't not given much opportunity to be involved as mostly were done by the form 6. But we, indeedly, knew how crazy and tiring this project was because we did the gluing too. For 2 days, we left our classrooms behind and stayed on the field during school hours. Under the hot scorching sun, we had to paste the coloured rice on the polystyrene sheets. It seems pretty easy at first. But think of it, 2040 sheets of polystyrenes and we were fighting against time. I had to say, doing one row of the kolam can wear you out for the rest of the day.

Furthermore, we had to forget about cleanliness as all of us looked dirty and crappy at the end of the day. You know, glue and colour stains everywhere. It was awful.

When we thought everything was done, we found out that mould were growing on some the sheets. No joke! The sheets were greenish-black and it stinks. We did a full rehearsal and the whole thing was amazing but ugly. So amusing.. After all the hard work, we thought we created a mess. But luckily, we mended everything back in time. In the end, we, ACS Ipoh students and teachers of year 2007, are in the Malaysia Book of Records.

It wasn't that overwhelming for me. Some of us, Form 5's were not as spirited as the Form 6 in this. But it's really satisfying to see the end result of the kolam and to see it ended up in the main page of The Star.

NS!! Oh, NS!!

2007-08-11T16:37:00.000+08:00

Tahniah, anda telah terpilih untuk mengikuti Program Latihan Khidmat Negara Siri 5/2008.

No. KP : 900XXX-XX-XXXX
Nama : YONG JIA WEI
Negeri : PERAK

I'm not sure if 'tahniah' is the right word to be used here.
I don't think it's everyone around my age's dream to be picked.
Frankly, if given a chance to choose whether to be picked for national service or not, I would prefer not to be chosen. But it didn't seems like I have a choice here. I'm quite okay with it. Kind of half expected this. Just that I rather spend my holidays in another way. Hope it's a fun one..

LTC '07

2007-08-05T18:13:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since the last time I update my blog. Well, actually, I never really have much time to blog now. By the way, this post is about the prefects camp I went last month. This was the second time I attended LTC which stands for Leadership Training Camp but this time as a senior and not a camper. This camp was actually for the probationary prefects - Form 3, 4 and Lower 6. Different themes are used every year. Since it's all about 'leadership' in this camp, superhero was the theme this year.

The campers were given a short period of time to paint their group flags that represent the hero that each group had chosen. Some of them chose the heroes whom are unknown to us; how thoughtful of them to think perhaps that will shut us up when we ask questions about their group hero. The results were pretty 'impressive'. Check out the flags:

Spawn

This hero is one of those who is unknown. Spawn? I think he's either an old-skul hero or a newbie.

Sparkian (Lightning Lad)

First of all, I don't even know whether Sparkian exists in the superhero world or not. Well, I have searched the net for this 'hero' and the outcome was zero. Is it a false name or something?

Correction : I recently found out that the hero they were refering to was Lightning Lad. Why change the name to Sparkian....?

-Unknown-

This is what u get when u named your group after an unknown superhero or painted a real 'artistic' flag. No one remembers u. Can someone tell me who this forgotten hero is ?

~p.s.~ (8/8/07) - Daredevil, woh!

Human Torch

I'll leave the one below for you to guess. Nope, he's not a surferboy and had nothing to do with surfing....

He's Cyclops. The flag above was so 'well painted', right? Haha..

Ghost Rider

Wolverine

Ok.. the wolverine on the flag actually looks more like a smiley who's wearing a mask. :p

Silver Surfer

I'll let the pictures do the talking, alright?

Tea-time!! Joking only... Didn't force them to eat the maggots. They were reserved for other purposes...

"Mixed but not Match"- Theme for the nostalgic night.. I never knew they were so serious in dressing up for the night.

.........................~The school field in the dark~.........................

Anyway, I think I'll be blogging really less now until trials and SPM are over. :(

SICK again.

2007-07-09T16:44:00.000+08:00

Since mid term exam, I told myself not to get sick during exams again. Well, here I am again falling sick during my Pernilaian 2 exam. Oh, I feel so crappy now. The school is really giving us 'first class treatment' by giving us 4 papers in a day even though it's only one hour per paper. Gosh, I'm really screwed now. BM, Mod Math, EST, English..... all gone. I think I really gonna get crap marks. I slept straight after finishing the papers; didn't really bother to lay an eye on them again. I knew I have make lots of mistakes but I didn't really recheck anything....

This two months ahead are really exams months. Soon after this exam, we'll gonna face the Gerak Gempur exam again.. Aiya, no one really take that exam seriously but I don't want to get crap marks ever again. Seriously. Then, SPM trials are on August 27. So darn early! I'm totally not prepared yet. I must start studying! I knew I'm not doing enough..

- I'm gonna have a badminton tournament this Thursday. Haha, laugh whenever u want. It's the ACS Closed Tournament.. so any ACS students can join. I was persuaded by Jian Ming to partner him in doubles. I wonder why he asked me. He's so darn good; my skills are poor and rusty compared to many other people. I'm gonna face Seng Hoe in the first round. He said he can and will finished me off in 15 minutes. Haha, 'very funny'. We'll see about that. Hope that the first round will not be my last round. Jian Ming is so gonna blast me.

Concert in Wesley

2007-06-29T23:08:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday, a group of Koreans were here in Ipoh to have a concert in Wesley Church. I went to watch them with Fu Yii, Vivienne, Annie, Lip Hyean and Bryan and it was great! Believe me, they are really good! Can't really describe much unless you were there yourself. The fact many people went there not only for the worship concert but also to see leng cai leng lui... haha... But seriously, it was not a concert where people just cheer and jump around for nothing and have a good time and that's it. This concert actually got us thinking of life and of who we really are. Pretty much reminded me of the D&K concert last time.. but it's great! Only told my sisters that the singers are Koreans 2 hours before the show and they were like, " Wei, let's go loh". Korean fanatics... By the way, they sang in English not Korean.

----------------------The most perasan guy on earth, Fu Yii----------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Starwalk, anyone going? I'll be going for it... and of course for the non-competition lar.

- Got home from school today and saw this book on my table. I remembered joining some Hitz.fm slogan competition a few weeks ago and am quite surprised to find out that I actually won it.

- Ole BRATs was finally published in Star newspaper last Sunday after a long wait.. It's kinda weird to see my own face in it, seriously, but it's also kinda cool lar.. Reading the articles really brought me back to the memories. It was so fun. So emo.

A Day in Sunway

2007-06-16T21:26:00.000+08:00

- I spent my day in Sunway today. You'll most probably ask me why I was all the way there from Ipoh. Well, you can called it a field trip or something. It's actually an invitation from Sunway College to a few schools in Ipoh, KL and Melaka. So majority of my class included me went for the trip. I just came back after a crazy bus ride (explain later) so I'm feeling so darn tired..

Coincidently, Jo Ann was there too.. By the way, I was so surprised to meet Li-Ann there. The moment I arrived at Sunway and hop down from the bus, suddenly, Li-Ann just appeared right in front of me.. Coincidently, she was at the entrance too when we arrived. Yea.. she studies there.. ( What's up with all this BRATs stuff, huh?) Will upload the pictures and blog about the crazy trip later.

- Apparently, the no flicker plan did not work out. Somehow, since it's father's day, everyone is kind of busy with something. So, the gathering was cancelled lar...

Study Mode.

2007-06-09T23:47:00.000+08:00

Holidays are almost over now and this means that I have to be in study mode again. I can't imagine how lazy I was over the past few days. It was the holidays that all of us, students, looking forward for. Now it's almost gone. And I think I'm starting to be worrying a lot over exams.. You know, all these fears of not doing well but all the hopes of scoring high. Well, is it wrong to feel the pressure? SPM is just like 5 months away! And I thought I have a lot of time. I was wrong. Study, study, study!!

Life after the holidays can be described with this 'equation'.
Tuitions + school + textbooks + study + study (again) + study (and again) + study (and again) =____________

Thinking back, it seems like PMR was just not too long ago. Haha. Time really flies lar... (How many times I had mentioned this).

No flicker?

2007-06-06T17:19:00.000+08:00

To give up my computer, the tv, my handphone and anything that flickers and consumes energy for a day, (knock, knock) is this reality?

No Flicker Day- http://rage.com.my/writeups/story.asp?file=/2007/6/5/features/20070605124421&sec=features

Remember what Niki said on the last day of BRATs camp regarding the no-flicker day challenge? I think we [me, Hui Ling, Jo Ann, Jia Xin, Joanna(maybe)], Ipoh BRATs, are about to accept the challenge which is on June 17. I just went out with Hiro, Jo Ann and Karen to 'bincang' about this and we are quite seriously thinking of it. But all of us were like scratching our head most of the time thinking of what we can do together. It's tough and we don't want to waste the day. But we kind of planned out something already but it's not confirm yet whether we are doing or not...

By the way, I forced Hui Ling and Jo Ann to show me BRAThematics today. I THINK I finally GOT it! How stupid I can be? I was just looking at the wrong thing.. Cis! With 2 games down now, I still want to find out about the 3-thing game, grandma, and horses.

BRATsy...Moments....

2007-06-01T11:41:00.000+08:00

------------------------------------The beginning------------------
---------------------------------Heritage Hotel-------------------------------

We went to Kampar for street poll. We ate breakfast there and I'm not surprised to see the KL people's reaction towards the food there.. It's SO MUCH NICER AND CHEAPER!! Yea.. we did some interviews there and it's not as easy as thought to be.....

-------------------------------The Super-huge-gigantic-aropaimas-----------

-----------------------fishy, fishy- they can't survived being alone----------
4 groups were leaving for 4 different destinations... My group, the BRAT-ish Papz were heading for two fish farms (edible and ornamental) in Gopeng. We interviewed the owners but this trip was better compared to Kampar as they were actually expecting us. Once again, it's not as easy as thought. Each time we thought we had enough information, Niki will be hinting the small little thing that we missed out... The trip was great.

-------------------------------Phui Yee, the Youth2 reporter-------------

We watched this movie and now, I knew why this show is so inspiring to Phui Yee... It's based on a true story. It's about a teacher who reached out to the students who had been living in bad conditions. The movie really tells out the lives of the students who were once in situations ( racism, gangterism, poverty) that they can't get out. And all this even happened in America. It's like no one tried to understand them. I liked the fact the that the teacher uses the effects of the cruelty of holocaust to inspire the students so that they can relate themselves to the victims. This movie actually makes you think in a different way. Not trying to be EMO here but it's a very inspiring and touchy show.

"I've tried so hard and got so far. In the end, it doesn't even matters!" Who can forget this moment? Sam singing In The End by Linkin Park. Out of a sudden, the night had turned into a karaoke session.... hehe....it's fun!

KW Mak, the StarMetro guy - he just have that natural smirk on his face that everyone will remember....

Who can ever forget this guy? "How long have you been a peeping tom?", he asked in an interview practice. He's so funny and probably the one of the most EMO ones besides Ghaz..

-------------------------BRAT-ish Papz once again ----------------------------

-----------------Max doing his breakdance moves. It's cool!!--------------

We played a game called 'Aiyo Ping Pong Piang'. It requires so much of alertness and coordination. Guess what? We failed doing it and my group was the ultimate loser.. We got all these masking tapes on our face.... I don't even dare to look at myself.... but it's once again fun lah.

This camp is said to be the most EMO one ever. Yea.. I agree... Even now, I'm still feeling emo and I miss Brats... Oh..The spirit of emo-ness are in us!

~ps~ yea, Julian and Karyn.. I stole some pictures from you.

Dumb and Dumber

2007-05-31T11:34:00.001+08:00

-----------------------------------------Niki-------------------------------------

In the workshop, we played quite a number of games. Games that are from the Brats tradition such as Johnny, the card game, the 3-thing game, the horses, grandma, the number game, the she fly she flew game and so on. These games are said to be easy and stupid. Believe me, these games still bug me. Until now, I’m still wondering how the games work as I only get the Johnny game right. It’s frustrating to see how stupid people thought the games are. Yea… the Johnny one is dumb too. It’s so easy but so few got it.

The seniors were particularly mean to us in this. They never told us how the games work. All they say is that the game is very easy and you have to look beyond the obvious. But what’s the obvious? When people feels dumb after getting the game, I feel even dumber for not getting a dumb game right.

BRAT-ish Papz experience

2007-05-31T11:04:00.000+08:00

Ahh…. Just back from Brats camp and I’m feeling half-dead. Don’t get me wrong… they didn’t really torture us. It’s a wonderful experience and I would really want to share about it. Initially, I thought of joining this camp just to see what exactly journalism is. When I took a look at the schedule and the rules, I thought it was going to be very academic based and serious. Yea… it was clearly stated that mp3 players are strictly forbidden and mobile phones must be switched off all the time. The schedule was quite tight and hectic too. And I thought to myself, “This will be quite an adventure”.

Somehow, it was totally different from what I had imagined. It started with 39 teens (minus the seniors and the journalists) gathered from all over the country in the homely city of Ipoh for the camp. We stayed in Heritage Hotel throughout the workshop. I was quite reserved at first as I found it hard to break the ice. The number of guys is like 1/3 of the girls. But in the matter of hours, 39 strangers became friends. And I quickly found what Brats is really all about. It’s not just about the inside scoop of journalism but also about making new friends. It’s about mixing with teens from a different background, sharing ideas and point of views, getting you out of your own circle, learning to think with a different perspective and also enjoying life.

--------------------------------The BRAT-ish Papz------------------------------

The camp is conducted by Niki, Pui Yee, KW Mak and Sam who is the hebat hebat photographer. There were 4 seniors too who came from previous Brats camps and they are Julian, Jonathan, Yun-Ni and Josephine. First of all, we were separated into groups of 10. My group members are Karyn, Su Faye, Diyana, Yu Joe, Joanna, Hui Ling, Jo Ann, Satya and Claudia. When it comes to group naming, we named ours’ BRAT-ish Papz……… It’s the best we can find and it’s catchy though.

Josephine, Sam, Hui Ling (Hiro Nakamura), Julian, Yun-Ni, Jonathan

--------------------------------Li-Ann and me-----------------------

It’s interesting how some of us ended up knowing each other. Joanna goes to the same tuition as I do but I never knew who she was until Brats. Gabriel seems to be very familiar but I don’t know where I met her before. Jo Ann and Hui Ling are my AMC friend’s junior. Hmm.. Besides that, some don’t even look like their age. I’m so convinced that Julian (one of the seniors) is at least 19 until he shown me his license. He's 17. Sorry, man. I feel bad for making fun of you lar. Li-Ann who looks like a Form 4 student is actually 18. Another irony thing is that there are some stars look-alike too. Hui Ling is like the female version of Hiro Nakamura and my roommate, Srijesh reminds me of a taller Mr.Bean.

-------------------------Hui Ling (Hiro Nakamura look-alike) -----------------

----------------------------Srijesh (Mr. Bean look-alike)-----------------------

---------------------------------------Teddy-----------------------------

The first day was quite amusing. As we just finished discussing about our group, we had our first press conference. Believe me, we didn’t prepare for it at all and we just asked what that comes to our mind. Our interviewee is a famous blogger who covers stories on Hollywood celebrities. I’m personally quite annoyed by her behaviour at times as she kept on saying the ‘whatever’ word and she’s being very fussy when answering. After that, some of us took turns to complain about her but only to find out that she’s standing at the back of the room all along. She’s a Star reporter. Of course, I felt like a noob but it’s funny thinking back.

-------------------------------The many faces of Jonathan----------------

Journalism is not as easy as I thought to be. Some may think it just involves writing but it’s actually more than that. Before you write, you’ll need facts. A lot of research and interviews are to be done. You’ll need to decide on which angle the story should be. The story must be written with a neutral mind with no bias or prejudice towards anyone. You need to think of a catchy headline and a suitable photo to match the story. To think of it, it’s actually quite a hectic job. But throughout the camp, I think I’m fine with it though..

Being a Brat is one of my best experiences and I will not trade it with anything. May hope that the camp was much longer but time flies and everything must come to an end. Will blog more some other time.
Jiawei signing off now.

BRAT-To-Be

2007-05-22T21:29:00.000+08:00

Mid term exams are officially over today and holidays are just days away but I can't believe I'm saying this. I'm feeling so bored. Yea.., when holidays are just what you are hoping for. Asking how I did in my exams.... :p. Oh, gosh! Seriously, I really hate the idea of stuffing so much facts and formulas in your head just for exams. Sometimes it is like; what's the point? But what to do, that's the way it is, right? Sigh! I totally crushed myself in my Physics paper. But at least, finally, my add math are getting better.. not great .. but better. English? When I thought English was the one that I can score, I think I didn't write my essay well. Somehow, I just find it hard to write in time. So, I ended up writing a crappy ending. But I really, really,really hope that the results will be better this time.

Anyway, there is something that I'm really looking forward for. Refering to the title, BRATs, here I come! The workshop is on this coming Sunday but I'm not going anyway far though. I only have 3 choices which is Langkawi, Ipoh and Kuching and I chose the Ipoh workshop. Kuching workshop would be nice but is too close to trial exams.

We Tried Our very BEST, No Regrets

2007-04-03T17:49:00.000+08:00

Guess what? It just didn't went our way although many thought that ACS choir were the better team. :'( We tried our very best but it just wasn't our day. We lost to Sri Kledang and is considered second 'cause Buntong didn't turn up. The result is really disappointing! It happened exactly the same way like two years ago when we sang our best but didn't win.

We just wasn't happy at the results but had to accept the bitterness of it. Sri Kledang and ACS sang the same Malay song which is Putra Putri. Our choir's second song is A Chorus Line Medley while Sri Kledang sang Bangawan Solo.

No regrets.. Despite only one week of serious training (our practices were greatly delayed by the school play), we progressed very fast and well. I really enjoyed the moments practising together in choir. Sri Kledang, on the other hand, had practiced for months for their concert and competition. We, at least, gave them a fight. Sigh!

I'll really miss the days of practising together for competition since it's our last year being together. Winning and losing are really out of our control but at least we enjoyed ourselves in singing the two songs.

The Day has Come...

2007-04-02T22:02:00.000+08:00

It's quite daunting to think of the choir competition which is on tomorrow. I still can't believe the day is so near but seriously, the team had trained hard for this and I hope that we'll be able to sing well and the results will turn out well. I got to admit that we started training quite late but still, win or lose, at least,we have to sing with dignity. We are hosting the competition and our opponents are Sri Kledang and Buntong.

Although we got second in Kinta 1 district (we sang Suara and One Day More from Les Miserables') last year, it's never easy 'cause Sri Kledang upset MGS last year. Of course we have high hopes of winning but anything can happen. All the best and pray hard!!!

A more competitive competition was held last Thursday which was between Sam Tet, AMC, Main Convent, MGS and Teknik. Seriously, we have lots of reason to be glad not to be in this group. I heard that Sam Tet was really.. really.. really good and AMC which had beaten us last year couldn't match them. They got second and Main Convent got third.

Someone posted AMC's song on Youtube

"Enjoy and feel the song". Haha, I have heard of this advise a zillion times. Anyway, tomorrow is the competition and I hope everything turns out well. Gambate, ACS!!!

The Day I Almost Faint

2007-03-26T13:33:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I last updated..

Today, while doing prefects duty, I ALMOST fainted. (Yes, I'm for real). This is totally a new experience for me. While I'm standing up, my vision suddenly blurred out and I had this weird feeling inside me. How? Everything in front of me suddenly became so bright and unclear. "What's going on?", that's the question that ran in my head. At that moment, I knew something was wrong, so I walked to an exco and say that I'm gonna faint..

It is still weird to think back. Thank God I'm alright now. I kind of knew why it happened. I slept really late last night because I went to watch the school drama and I woke up really early... Well, I start to think that tiredness really got me.

Happy CNY!!

2007-02-19T01:08:00.000+08:00

Time flies so fast; it's Chinese New Year again!

Random stuff..

2007-02-09T22:08:00.000+08:00

These few days had been crazy for me... First of all, I have headaches since Monday. I'm feeling much better now but I just don't know why I got it in the first place. Secondly, I have practicals in every science subject last week so I have been writing reports like crazy... And also marching practise for sports day... of gosh.. I haven't marched for quite a while for scouts and I actually forgotten how to march.. Feels robotic when I march..

Speaking of practicals, Chemistry practicals are terrible. (I don't hate experiments but it's crazy). Some will be playing with the Bunsen burner without the teacher's knowledge, of course.... yes... i mean playing(as in we'll maximise the flame).. So sick of inhaling gas... The teacher will be complaining that we're noisy (not really lah.. compared to other times) when the class is relatively quiet. I never really got the idea of doing the esperiments correctly. Most of the time, something will happen. I remember my first chemistry experiment was about the naphtalene one last year... We were supposed to heat up the the water in a beaker containing a boiling tube with naphtalene inside. Everything was going right until.. after a while, we started seeing droplets in the water! The bottom part of the tube leaked (or melted) and the naphtalene entered the water in the beaker. The smell is so terrible that it made me feel dizzy..ah... The flame was too big, I guess, but seriously how did the boiling tube leak? I thought they are suppose to withstand heat and not leak... In the end, so my group was actually laughing throughout conducting the experiment Luckily, it's not peka...

Becks to LA Galaxy

2007-01-14T16:27:00.000+08:00

As we all knew, David Beckham is joining the Major League Soccer (MLS) soon after the announcing of Los Angeles Galaxy signing him. Tell me, is he that desperate to leave Real Madrid to play for a literally unknown club in US? This will possibly means that we will hear less of him soon after he left the Galacticos. I don’t know how big football (or what the Americans insist in calling the sport – soccer) is in United States but MLS is really an unknown league for us. The only way I heard of the league is from video games like FIFA 07 or some other football games…

But seriously, I do think Beckham had finally made the best transfer choice of his life. Being a victim of Fabio Capello’s plan of clearing out all the under-performing stars, there is no point staying in Real Madrid anymore. I seriously don’t know what is Real’s contribution to football? They change their players and manager so frequently that I just wasn’t sure what they are doing? They are bringing players constantly for the reason of merchandising instead of focusing in the playing football. No wonder so many players aren’t able to settle down in Madrid and in the end, crying to leave the club for better chances outside.

Beckham is perfectly in this situation and yes, he is desperate to leave but why MLS instead of returning to English Premier League? I bet there are some EPL clubs that are still interested in him. Well, I can see that he’s trying to run away from the English press. Who wouldn’t? After being blasted so many times by the English press for his poor performance and captaincy for England and also his personal life, it wasn’t really a good idea for him to return to England. Secondly, he is not young anymore and he’s not as fast and great as he used to be. And take a look at players like Shevchenko and Ballack. They went to EPL with their high expectations. Now, we are really questioning their roles in Chelsea. They haven’t really adapted to the English game. Speed is everything in EPL and without speed; you are most probably will not make it to the top of your game.

And lastly, he’s going to a place where everyone likes him. Unlike the English fans that push him too much, he’s going to a place where he’s welcome. His deal with LA is extremely crazy. It is too much and that is what made him an overpaid and overpriced player. But I do think he made a good move. It is an opportunity for MLS to rise up to the game and be known.

Strum & Pluck

2007-01-07T15:52:00.000+08:00

I started learning guitar in the end of year 2005 after a sudden interest in musical instruments. To be honest, I wasn't really seriously practising until last year. You know what now, .... I love it! The guitar gives me a lot of satisfactory and pleasure like never before. Well, I can say all that's needed to get started is enthusiasm. It's not like I'm very good in it as I can still call myself a novice. Summore, I'm a lefthander that uses a right hand guitar. I don't think there's any effect though. I still remember the day when I started playing.. I couldn't even press a single string properly. And I can feel the effect on my fingers. But now, a least it's so much better... I play strumming more than plucking.. Struggling sometimes... Well, it's tough..

By the way, Hon Chien told me about Tommy Emmanuel, a guitar maestro..He also 'pinjam' me a Tommy Emmanuel CD.. Then, I searched for his videos in Youtube.. I have never heard of him before. After watching and listening, my reaction was like ................. (speechless). He's so so so so good... (instantly became a fan). Totally amazing, probably one of the best guitarists in the world.

Hon Yau shown me this one ..... incredibly fast and freakingly nice..

I have heard of Classical Gas but not this version..
Somewhere in the middle of the video (around 2.40), I just don't know what he's doing...

One of my favourites. I could listen to this forever......... it's so smooth.

Ever heard of Jamie Wilson? He is also one of the 'cekap' guitarists..
My sister's favourite....

That's him next to David Tao..

John Mayer (It's fun watching this video)

This is Roger Wang, a Malaysian fingerstlye guitarist
Singing next to him is Mia Palencia

My sis said she'll get me a Fender if I can play as well as Roger Wang........
Is that a motivation or what? Seriously, I don't think I'll ever reach that level..
Sum more SPM is comin'....... Got to be a bookworm again...

The Last Day of 2006

2006-12-31T15:35:00.000+08:00

It's 31 of December and this is it...... the final day of year 2006.......... and u know what this means? Here comes 2007 and SPM.

2007 - SPM - The biggest and the most important exam of my life so far.... :(

Of course I want to do well...Well, I had to study extra hard.... as 2006 is kind of disastrous for me in my studies cause I didn't do that well... Everything is quite new back then.... Hope I cope with it now

School is restarting soon and the 6-week holidays are over

Well, at least, I have something to look forward to, right?

(Ya... speakin' of 2007, my sisters will be going to Hong Kong for holidays in January....... sounds fun... but I don't get to follow. ( ...nevermind....)

By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR

a new year, a new adventure!!! :D

A Melawati Christmas

2006-12-27T22:57:00.000+08:00

I went to KL with my sisters for Christmas on the 23 of December. It is quite fun one for me as it is my first time joining my sisters in KL for Christmas.. Well... meeting new people, caroling and so much more.. But most of all, I found that this Christmas an awakening one for me. My sister, Ennie and I stayed in Dr. and Mrs. Chew's place which is in Taman Melawati. It is actually a very nice place.

Tmn. Melawati - a place where almost everyone I knew in Emmanuel EFC lives... A nice place as almost everyone from the same church lives nearby... I bet they are pretty close to each other.

Something that everyone will fancy in their home. This.... ar...(what shall I call this?).. is located just next to the living room in Dr. and Mrs. Chew's house. They are really nice to us during our stay... Thank you!... All their children are not in Malaysia but all their rooms are occupied.. Well, you see, we are not the only guests in the house. Mrs. Chew's niece, Alicia and two Germans (exchange students, I guess) are there too.

Well, on the first day, I went to the Youth Christmas Party which is held in church... Kind of cool because I got to see a little preview of the choir which my sister, Yen Nie is in... and also the recitation of the first 2 chapters of the gospel of Luke by a group of girls called the Messengers....(which is meaningful and good). More on the messengers, this one of the member's blog : http://sueann.wordpress.com/2006/12/17/the-messengers/

Never forgeting the dance performance....... And some games such as the Human Bingo. I get to know a few teens of my age..., Zhong Xin (did I spell it correctly?) and his brother (sorry, I forgot his name), VJin, Alicia (actually, at first glimspe, she did look a bit like my elder sister, Ennie), Evon and a few fellows whom I knew their names but doesn't really know them well... such as Tabby, SueAnn, Elise, Phoebe...........

The second day - Christmas Eve - Caroling Session - First stop - I'm in Tabby/Pastor Tony's house. Well, we sang some Christmas carols , of course...

I particularly like the song ' Christmas isn't Christmas' as the lyrics really reflects what it is today.

It starts with...

'Christmas isn't Christmas till it happens in your heart

Somewhere deep inside you is where Christmas really starts

So give your heart to Jesus you'll discover when you do

That it's Christmas really Christmas for you

Jesus brings warmth like a winter fire a light like a candle's glow

He's waiting now to come inside as He did so long ago

Jesus brings gift of truth and life and makes them bloom and grow

So welcome Him with a song of joy and when He comes you'll know

That Christmas isn't Christmas till it happens in your heart

Somewhere deep inside you is where Christmas really starts

So give your heart to Jesus you'll discover when you do
That it's Christmas really Christmas

Christmas really Christmas

Christmas really Christmas for you'

Christmas is really nothing if we don't know what is the celebration for. It's not about the gifts or the shopping..... Neither about Santa or the Snowman.......... For some Christmas is just another day.....
From reading the Daily Bread Christmas Edition, there is a line that says, "In all the busyness - the party-going, gift-shopping, and family gatherings - the One whose birthday they are commemorating is almost completely forgotten."

The tree in Tabby/Pastor Tony's house

The tree in Hon Yau/Hon Chien's house

My sister, Yen Nie, sharing her thoughts on Christmas

My sister, Ennie, sharing her experiences and thoughts on Christmas

__________Mrs. Chew______

Zhong Xin's guitar - a really nice one

Third day - Christmas Day!!!
The tree from the Century Paradise Club (where we have our dinner)

The cute boy ..... (Refering to the smaller one)......... I don't know why....... but I have more pictures of Hon Chien than anyone else... :)

Christmas is Here again!

2006-12-22T22:41:00.000+08:00

It's 22nd today and soon it's gonna be Christmas day!!

25 of December is a day of celebration that marks the birth of Jesus...

It is a thing that many forgot as they are so enticed by the myth of Santa Claus.........

Here..... I wish everyone a Merry merry Christmas!!!!!!!

D&K

2006-12-22T22:34:00.000+08:00

On the 18th of November 2006 (which is a Saturday), my family and I went to Elim Church, Ipoh to watch a concert... The singers are actually a Taiwanese duo called D&K which represents their own name, Danny & Kyle. Although I never heard of them before... it is said that they quite popular in Taiwan and Hong Kong... But they are actually quite good. Danny's voice is smooth flowing and easy listening.... while. Kyle is kind of a good guitarist... Their songs are practically inspired by christianity (Christians songs) and it's really nice....... Well, it's not just about the music..... from time to time throughout the concert, they telling stories about God and telling us about human believes and faith and they also tell us about the situation these days in Taiwan (maybe the world)....where I learn the hard but truth fact about the estimated number of people that had commited suicide..in a year in Taiwan... It is really hard to believe it...I was touched by them and they really make us think a lot......I really glad that I was present in the concert Well..my sis and I was so attracted by them that we bought their album which is on sold after the show..

Impassive

2006-12-22T22:14:00.000+08:00

First of all, I have attended the Hillsong United concert with my sisters which is held in SIB KL (near Menara Star)... Hmm...How do I start?... This is probably the first time I went for a rock concert..(Well, to me, this concert is more like a rock concert than a worship concert..)

I knew my sisters may have a lot of critics for this concert.... They wouldn't have went for the concert if not for me... haha.......( Yeah.,.. my sis's friend was there too and he said the least expected people to be there are my sisters.....I kind of expected it...lah....My sisters aren't fans of Hillsong United...) So... it sounded like I dragged them to go with me...uhh..

I have some bad remarks about the organisers. First of all, they made us use the stairs even though there are lifts... They claimed that it was to prevent anyone from jumping queue.....rubbish!! Even when we are climbing up the stairs, there are people jumping queue! So, what's the point? So, we have to climb the stairs to the 5th floor.. At that moment, the staircase crampled up with people and we had to wait for quite a while in there as the people are not moving at all.

Then, when we reached the auditorium, I was shocked to find out that the place is already packed. I took a glimspe at the staircase and there are still a lot of people outside.. So, do you know what the organisers did? They asked some of the people to move to second floor to watch the concert live on LCD screens...huh... I was thinking.. how could they do that? All of us paid for the concert and we deserved to watch the concert live in the auditorium and not to watched on LCD screen!! It's too much!.

But me and my sisters went to the balcony and we sat on the steps....we were quite frustrated about it. But luckily we get a clear view of the stage. The concert is quite alright... though my sisters did not like it.. The band is really good! and I do enjoy some of their songs like One Way (Jesus) which make (almost) everyone so pumped up..! There are 4 guitarist ( one on acoustic guitar who is also the lead singer, two on electric guitar and one on bass guitar), one on keyboard and one on drums plus 2 other singers. So, it is actually quite a large band. There's a little incident where the lead singer's guiter string snapped while playing a song... I think not many noticed it..

If you ask me whether I enjoy the concert or not... my answer is no and yes.... Yes, I do enjoyed the music...it's nice but everything else is bad.....

Math Magic!

2006-11-10T16:48:00.000+08:00

Cool, right!! Well, me and 3 of my friends won this last Monday. Congrats to Weng Kit, who also emerged as the individual winner, Fu Yii and Kar Wei!!! ...

I think most of you didn't know what's Math Magic is all about.. Well, it is something like scrabble but it involves simple maths. It's a board game that involve simple calculation (such as plus, minus, times, divide, square and cube) but there's a catch. You must put your tile on the board and get the calculation right before the time limit (usually 20 seconds). It is kind of a tricky game as the game really depends on strategy and also luck. The winner with the highest cumulative points wins...

Hammered

2006-10-28T20:01:00.000+08:00

West Ham did exceptionally well last season in the Premiership as a newly promoted team…. What happened this year? It does seem that The Hammers have lost their touch… their luck….and their talents… Halfway through the season now, and most of us are clueless why West Ham did so badly this season. They did so well last year and now they have 8 losses in a row! Furthermore, two (so-called) world class players, Javier Macherano and Carlos Tevez had joined the club in the beginning of the season. So, they had absolutely no reason to perform so badly….if you think logically.

What had gone wrong? Is it that the manager, Alan Pardew, is the reason? In my opinion,
Nope. Even when West Ham is doing this badly, I myself (most of us) will not blame on Pardew. In fact, I’m kind of feeling pity for him. He’s a good manager but the real reason is that the team is not performing.

Fans (especially West Ham fans) are being let down by the two so-called world class players. When the season began to start, many clubs were chasing after him… but they decided to go to West Ham… And I thought this will be West Ham’s big break. But their performances (to me) are not up to mark… I guess they just haven’t or can’t cope with English football. (You can observe throughout the years that South Americans always have difficulty coping with English football.) Besides that, the whole team is just letting us down…. It’s like they just can’t clicked a team anymore.

Hillsongs United!!!

2006-10-28T10:47:00.000+08:00

Hillsongs are coming!! I feel like watching...... although it's not Darlene's band....!!!

One In a Million

2006-10-01T00:49:00.000+08:00

One In a Million is a one of a kind of singing - talent show in Malaysia that surely emphasized on popularity rathar than talent. The ultimate prize.... a million ringgit. This competition lets undiscovered singers to compete against each other... wait a minute... profesional singers are allowed to join too. Viewers (like me) think that it is clearly unfair for undiscovered talents to compete with the pro's because they already have build up their fan base while the newbies have to start from the bottom. Besides, all of us want to see some fresh bloods and not familliar faces! That explains why Dayang and Farah got booted out of the competition.

The finale is quite special 'cause it's a three way battle rather than the usual 1 on 1. The finalists are Suki, Faizal (my favourite) and Alif. If Faizal wasn't recalled to the final (cause there's no elimination), it would have been a teenage battle. But anyway, Suki won the competition as expected.

Some of Suki's performances :

Some of Faizal's performances :

but of all performances in any singing competition in Malaysia,
I still prefer this:

Male Restroom Etiquette

2006-09-29T11:22:00.000+08:00

I didn't know that the toilet can be such a dangerous place..HAHA!! Don't ever take this video seriously!! It's stupid but yet funny.

Football = Monopoly Game

2006-09-19T23:52:00.000+08:00

What do you think of today’s footballing world? Well, we can see clearly that it is all about the money, right? Well, we can see that in the past, football is all about football. But now, the money factor becomes part of professional football. I really can’t imagine the amount of money is put into football. It doesn’t come in hundreds or thousands but it comes in millions!

What drives an oil business billionaire to get involve in football? What makes an American tycoon who knew very little about football to buy over a world-known football club? What drives millionaires, billionaires and even a prime minister to try to get into the footballing world even when they have nothing to do with football?

What Roman Abramovich is doing to Chelsea is truly insane. I don’t know the exact figure but I believe he had used hundred million solely on buying players. And it feels like he is playing ‘Monopoly’ where he can buy whatever he wants with unlimited cash. Chelsea which was once a middle league team was packed with star players after Roman came in. How about Malcolm Glazer? He was so determined to buy and take over Manchester United that he had to use his American football team’s money. I believe Aston Villa was the latest EPL club to be taken over, right?

Let’s go abroad to Spain and take a look at Real Madrid. They never stopped buying players and will never stop. Every season, everyone will be wondering who they will bring in. Yes, they had lured Ruud van Nistelrooy (one of my favourite from MU….(heartbroken)..), Reyes and …. They spent so much and we’ll be wondering where did the money come from? In a different case, Juventus ‘Old Lady’ Turin and a few clubs was heavily fined because of corruption (also related to money). Now the Old Lady had fallen into Serie B with deducted points.

Roy ‘Keano’ Keane was once the most expensive player in UK with transfer fee of 3 million…. The figure multiplied by a lot as Rio Ferdinand’s transfer fee was 30 million pounds. Well, footballers these days put their pay as their main priority.

In the nutshell, football is like a game of ’Monopoly’.

Guitar Snapshots

2006-07-30T12:38:00.000+08:00

I decided to do something different such as photographing and this is my guitar. A Valencia CG160 Classical. I need a little help from Picasa in this.

2006-07-30T12:32:00.000+08:00

Another snapshot of my guitar

Back To Retro Style

2006-07-29T19:41:00.000+08:00

This is the new 2006/2007 Man Utd jersey. First glimpse, I thought it's not nice. But it's actually quite ok. It's very retro.

Hit Me, Zidane!!

2006-07-15T18:55:00.000+08:00

"Wow...what a headbutt by Zidane!! It's like watching wrestling.. But you can't do that in football."

Well, it all happened when Zidane suddenly gave Marco Materazzi a headbutt in the final 10 minutes of the extra time in the 2006 World Cup final match against Italy. How dramatic!! It is also said that game was the last profesional game for Zidane as he is now retired from profesional football. Italy won the game, of course, by penalties. David Trezeguet missed his penalty kick and unwillingly helped Italy won the World Cup. I really felt what in the French players' mind especially Fabian Barthez and David Trezeguet after they lost. They were so close to win their second World Cup and it's painful to lose it in the final. I think it is a bitter sweet experience for them. They were pretty lucky in the group stage but were really unlucky in the final.

Well, about Zidane's headbutt.... what can I say more? The referee did not hesitate to give Zidane a red card after talking to his assistant. It was a good decision. I expected that to happened in football but not by Zidane. He should be wise and experienced enough to know that being aggresive like that is not a good idea. Marco Materazzi was wrong to provoke Zidane's action by insulting Zidane's mother and sister. He admitted it himself. But, Zidane should use his head to think first and not to use his head to hit someone. He said it was his last game and he's going something to relieve himself after Materazzi continueously provoking him. So what? It is his last game and he could just finished the game well and leave every admirer of Zidane a smile on their face (no matter France win or not).

C.Ronaldo : Stay or Go?

2006-07-07T17:31:00.000+08:00

Rooney's sent off in the quarter finals match between England and Portugal caused some stir between the English fans. Rooney got in a tangle between a few Portugal players. Rooney had no place to move and accidentally stepped on Carvalho. The referee stopped the game. C.Ronaldo run from about 40 meters away to complain about Rooney's 'foul'. Rooney was furious about Ronaldo's involvement. Rooney pushed Ronaldo away from the referee. And Rooney was red-carded.

First thing first, about the referee's decision to sent off Rooney. People claimed that Ronaldo run to the referee to demand a card for Rooney. Before the match, C. Ronaldo had sent a text message to Rooney. He said he will get Rooney sent off. That's why the English fans had thought that Ronaldo had demanded a card for Rooney. In my opinion, it is a prank gone wrong. Ronaldo didn't expected that to really happened. By the way, what can he do? I don't believe the referee easily accepted Ronaldo's complain. Rooney pushed Ronaldo away from the referee because he was disappointed that Ronaldo chose to get involve. I was disappointed that Ronaldo chose to get involve. The referee sent Rooney off because of the earlier incident. Rooney accidentally stepped on Carvalho and the referee thought that it was dangerous and intentional.
Even the England manager accepted the reason. But with video replay, I believe Rooney was innocent. Video replay shows that Rooney had no way to move and he unintentionally stepped on Carvalho. Besides, Rooney should get a freekick for the bad tackle made by the Portugal player. Bad judgement by the referee.

The question is what would happened when C. Ronaldo goes back to England to Manchester United? Will he return to England or will he leave Manchester United for another club? His career in Manchester United is in jeopardy. I heard that he is ambitious to join Real Madrid. Besides, I think the English fans (even Manchester United fans) will launch a hate campaign against Ronaldo. I think he will do fine with his teammates (it is not really a problem) in Manchester United. C. Ronaldo had an attitude problem and Rooney had anger problems. I believe Ronaldo sometimes think that he's too good. His egoistic can drives people crazy. Rooney, on the other hand, needs to control his temper. He easily gets angry. Ronaldo and Rooney are assets of Manchester United. They still had a bright future in Manchester United. So everyone, just stuck up your head and forget about all the craziness that had happened.

As a Manchester United fan, I think that C.Ronaldo should stay in Manchester United. He was found and well- trained by Manchester United. If not, he may still be in Sporting. Be loyal. It's all about loyalty (like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville). I think going to Real Madrid is a mistake. There are so many top players in Real Madrid and he might find it hard to get a place in the first team. It's all about the money. Real Madrid may offers a lot of money but what's the point of moving there just to sit on the bench. But if he really moved, Beckham will had to work hard too. His position in Real Madrid will be in danger.

A Game of Madness

2006-07-07T16:27:00.000+08:00

Everyone knew that England crashed out of the World Cup in the most pitiful way. England was up against Portugal. The match started well for both teams throughout the first half. Both teams got wonderful chances but were unable to break the deadlock. Soon it was half time. The interesting part begins in the second half. As usual, both teams did well. David Beckham got a knocked and was replaced by fast Aaron Lennon. He got a couple of chances himself too. Now we get into the interesting part. Wayne Rooney was controlling the ball when a few players came in and fight for the ball. It seems that Rooney got through and Ricardo Cavalho was on the ground. Rooney had no space to go because he was surrounded by opponent players. He accidentally stepped on Cavalho and referee stopped the play. I thought Rooney was getting a freekick because he was tackle unfairly by a Portugal player. Suddenly, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney’s clubmate, ran from a distance to protest about the foul. Rooney with a moment of madness pushed C.Ronaldo away from the referee. The referee harshly takes out the red card and sent Rooney off.

After Rooney got sent off, Peter Crouch came in for Joe Cole. England seems to played well even after Rooney got sent off. They practised close-marking, giving Portugal no chance. Although England were under constant bombardment, Portugal never really trouble the keeper. I can say that Portugal played a bad game. Given 60 minutes to attack (plus extra time), they didn't really make use of their chances. Thanks to Portugal's brilliant goalkeeper and defenders, England were not able to score. Portugal's forwards were not trying to get into the penalty box. Instead, they passed around outside the penalty box and shot from there. That's why Paul Robinson was no really troubled at all. England's hope of winning the match seems to be over when Rooney got sent off. But England defenders really kept tight and not giving Portugal any chance. Owen Hargreaves was brilliant in the match. England wasn't sitting back to defend. Everytime they got the ball, they tried to attack. This is also the first time, I saw Peter Crouch playing quite ok (he had a terrible World Cup campaign).

When it's time for penalty shoot-out, I thought England had a chance. England is very poor in taking penalty shoot-out. Remember, they lost to Portugal in the European Championship by penalties. England again killed their chances with only Owen Hargreaves scoring. Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher missed their chances (all saved by brilliant Ricardo). They had to work on the penalties if they want to win anything in future days. Frank Lampard had a terrible World Cup campaign. He did so well for his club, Chelsea and England in the qualifyings but you just can't believe how not in form he is in the World Cup. He had the most shots in the World Cup but there's something in his mind that prevented him from scoring.

England’s World Cup Dilemma

2006-06-25T09:42:00.000+08:00

This is what will happen if you bring too less strikers to Germany, Sven. England started the tournament with 4 strikers, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Peter Crouch and Theo Walcott. The effect of bringing too less strikers shows when England was having their first match. England strikers were unable to score against Paraguay. Michael Owen and Peter Crouch were playing terrible football. In the second match against Trinidad & Tobago, Michael Owen and Peter Crouch were once again playing terrible football. Only after Wayne Rooney came in, they play better football. In the match against Sweden, England strikers were unable to score too. What when wrong for England?

Peter Crouch is too tall and clumsy to become a forward. He’s terrible in handling the ball and always loses possession. His goalscoring record is bad. He’s able to score against Trinidad & Tobago after missing 100 of chances. He misses and scores one. Even the commentator said that it is likely that the ball hit his head and entered the goal instead of Crouch headed the ball in. On the other hand, Michael Owen got himself injured and will miss the entire tournament. He will not be taking further parts in the England World Cup team. He played in the first and second match but I didn’t even realize that he exists in the match. He barely touched the ball and had a few chances. He’s been playing way below par. Wayne Rooney is back from injury and is England only hope. He yet scores a goal but we expect more from him. He is strong and fast and that’s what makes him a good player. But with his injury, he may not be playing as well as he used to. Let’s hope he gets some goals banging. Theo Walcott is too young and will only play as a substitute. He’s just a backup player and we don’t know we what to expect from him. I heard that he’s good but is he good enough for the World Cup? Let’s hope he plays well in the World Cup… Where is Darren Bent? Where is Jermain Defoe when we need him? Sven, this is what will happened if you didn’t bring enough strikers.

Dejected Koreans and Czechs

2006-06-24T11:45:00.000+08:00

It is pitiful to see both of these teams crashed out of the World Cup. The South Koreans had two great matches and needed a win against Switzerland to enter the second round. Previously, they had beaten Togo and drew with France. In the match against Switzerland, they played dreadfully. Their defences were very clumsy. It is clear that their tactics wasn’t really working. They were playing long crosses upfront and the strikers were unable to head the ball because of tight marking by the Switzerland. They were not playing fast enough to zip pass the defence of the Swiss team. And it is clear that luck wasn’t on their side in that match. They had so many missed chances and it’s too bad that they were unable to score. The game ended 2-0 to Switzerland. Senderos scored the first goal for the Swiss team by a header. No Koreans are aware of the freekick cross and they paid the price. Frei scored the second goal for Switzerland. The Koreans thought he was offside but the referee said that the ball was kicked to Frei by a Korean player. You just got to pity them because they had just let in a suicide goal. But it’s not everything bad about the Koreans. The goalkeeper, Lee Woon-Jae was brilliant. Park Ji-Sung and Lee Chun-Soo were playing well too. It’s just that luck was not on their side.

I thought the Czechs will be a challenger for the World Cup. We must remember that Czech Republic is no.2 in the FIFA World Ranking. They played superbly in the Euro 2004 and were in the semi-finals. They had Petr Cech, one of the best goalkeepers in the world. But what when wrong? They played their first game very well. They killed off the Americans in the first game. But after the match, they lost all their top strikers as Jan Koller and Milan Baros were injured. In the second match, they were unable to find the net and Ghana were the better side. They lost 2-0. In a must-win game against Italy, they were unable to find the net again although Milan Baros played. The Italians send them home after winning them 2-0.

Red Devils of the East

2006-06-17T19:44:00.000+08:00

South Korea might be the strongest Asian nation in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Their past records in the World Cup is strong as they were one of the semi-finalist 4 years ago. But anyway, some said that they are not as strong as they use to be. Actually it is quite true. So, the question is, will they be able to repeat or maybe improve what they had done in their homeland 4 years ago?

They were drawn into the same group as France and Switzerland. The other nation in the group is Togo. They had a chance as they had beaten Togo and France drew with Switzerland. Maybe they could get a draw game against France and win against Switzerland. You might not know whether they could repeat their wonderful record against big giant in the World Cup. They had beaten Portugal, Italy and Spain to advance into the semi-finals 4 years ago. I really hope they could repeat that again. That will add some spice to the wonderful game showing the world that an Asian nation is able to compete in world stage.

The Red Devils of the East are privilege to have a wonderful midfielder who is playing club football for the Red Devils of the West. Yes, I'm talking about Park Ji-Sung. This player catched the eye of Manchester United after his brilliant contribution for PSV in the European Champions League. The Man Utd player is full of energy and have great work rate. How about a player who got sacked by his Italian club because he scored a winning goal for South Korean against Italy in the World Cup 4 years ago? I'm talking about Ahn Jung-Hwan. It's is dumb and sad to know the reason why he was sacked from his old club Perugia. What Perugia had done was that they had shown the dark side of the game. Ahn is a great goalscorer for South Korea but he's still struggling in Europe. Currently, he's in a French club called Metz.

Another Korean player to watch is Lee Chun-Soo. Forget about his fancy hairstyle, he a one of the best playmaker South Korea had ever had. His goal against Togo shown us how a great dead ball shooter he is. His freekicks are deadly as Beckham's. The Korean fans are great. A lot of them appeared in the South Korea-Togo match. The supports are greatly needed and hope that it will infruences their game.

Japan is another Asian team but I don't think they will be able to reached the second round as they are in a very tough group so South Korea is my favour in the World Cup. South Korea, the Asians are chanting for you!!!

The First Battle

2006-06-10T09:49:00.000+08:00

The first match of the FIFA World Cup tournament is Germany vs. Costa Rica. In my opinion, this game is a bit boring just because Germany dominated the game. The final score is Germany 4 Costa Rica 2. Even though it’s a high scoring game, I think this game is a one way battle and no matter what, Germany will not lose this game. The problem with Germany is they are simply unpredictable. Sometimes you think that the team is too youthful and inexperienced but the outcome is that they are still able to beat every single team that they are facing. It happened 4 years ago. Who would predict that they would reach the final in Japan/South Korea? Can they do it again? Seriously, I don’t think so.

Germany opened up the match in the 6th minute with a goal by left-back, Philipp Lahm. He’s phenomenon and he’s showed everyone what a defender can really do. He gets the ball and he tricked pass two defenders. He lifted up his head and marked his target. He shot and it’s a goal. It’s a true class goal. Later in the 12th minute, Costa Rica pulled back and leveled up the score with a goal by Paulo Wanchope. The German defence is terrible. All of them were standing so near the middle line when Costa Rica was having the ball. Costa Rica sneaked the ball passed two centrebacks to Paulo Wanchope. Some claimed that he was offside but I think he was kept inside by the right-back, Friedrich. He got the ball and it’s one on one against the keeper. He calmly shot the ball pass the keeper giving him no chance to save it. Miroslav Klose later scored a birthday goal. The ball is crossed on the right side by Bastian Schweinsteiger (I think). Miroslav Klose who was in the far corner stretched to tap in the ball pass the keeper, Porras. In the second half, Germany hit more goals as Miroslav Klose scored his second goal. He made a shot from inside the box and the ball was rebounded. Klose’s reaction was much faster as he picked his ball and shot it passed the keeper with no mercy. The second goal by Costa Rica was just stupid. It is a defensive error again. A Costa Rican (whoever he is) sneaked the ball through two German centrebacks to Paulo Wanchope. I think he was offside this time but the linesman didn’t rise up the flag. He shot the ball pass poor Lehmann who didn’t believe this was happening. The last goal from Germany was simply superb. It is such a true class goal that it may become the goal of the tournament. A freekick from the left side was give in the 87th minute. Bastian Schweinsteiger passed the ball to the middle. Torsten Frings who was about 30 meters away from goal kicked the ball ferociously to the goalmouth. The keeper had no chance. The ball flew pass him and it’s a fourth goal for Germany. The goal is so beautiful that if you watch it again and again, you will no gets bored with it.

Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Torsten Frings, Miroslav Klose, Bernd Schneider had the game of their life. Friedrich, Mertesacker and Metzelder were playing disastrously. Paulo Wanchope was playing some sneaky football. Costa Rica will struggle all the way throughout the competition if they continued playing like that.

Road To Germany

2006-06-09T13:41:00.000+08:00

The FIFA World Cup starts today and 32 nations will be competing for the grand prize, the World Cup. Germany will be the host of the World Cup this year. The World Cup qualifiers are (in Group A) Germany, Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador, (in Group B), England, Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden, (in Group C), Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia & Montenegro and Netherlands, (in Group D), Mexico, Iran, Angola and Portugal, (in Group E), Italy, Ghana, USA and Czech Republic, (in Group F), Brazil, Croatia, Australia and Japan, (in Group G), France, Switzerland, South Korea and Togo (and in Group H), Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

Germany will be the hot favourites to win group A and the World Cup as they get the extra edge of playing in home grounds. They are probably the most successful European nation in the World Cup with three world titles to their name. With their previous World Cup record of reaching the final six times in the last 10 tournaments and winning the big prize 3 times speaks for itself. However, Germany will be putting faith in youngsters this time as a young and inexperienced team was picked. Jens Lehmann was promoted to the first eleven from the bench replacing Oliver Kahn. This will probably be their last World Cup. Michael Ballack will be the key player of Germany as he’s one of the best midfielder in the world as he will be holding on the squad members who are inexperienced and untested. In the defence, former Chelsea player, Robert Huth and several young defenders will be display while Miloslav Klose and Oliver Neuville will be in the attack. Players to watch are energetic Bastian Schweinsteiger and promising goal scorer Lukas Podolski (who score 10 times in 20 international appearances).

Expectations are high as England may get the chance to lift the World Cup again. They actually have the best squad this time to win the World Cup. In the defence, Paul Robinson will be in front of the goal while Gary Neville, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole will be defending the goal. In the bench, Wayne Bridge, Jamie Carragher, Sol Campbell, David James and Scott Carson (international under-21 keeper) will be waiting for a chance to play. So, England probably had the one of the best defence of the tournament. Captain, David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole will be the most possible line-up in midfield. Reserve midfielders include promising Aaron Lennon, Michael Carrick, Jermaine Jenas, Owen Hargreaves and talented Stewart Downing. The midfield squad consists of both experience and young players. In the attack, Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Peter Crouch and young Theo Walcott will be hitting on the opponents’ goal. Wayne Rooney is currently recovering from injury and Sven will most probably field Owen and Crouch up-front. Sven choice of choosing uncapped Theo Walcott (who hasn’t played a competitive match for his club, Arsenal yet) instead of Jermaine Defoe was confusing. Why choose an untested striker instead of a top England striker? England’s forward are not in good shape. Wayne Rooney is still recovering from injury and is likely to miss the group matches. Michael Owen just recovered from an injury and had not played for some time. Peter Crouch’s goal scoring record in Liverpool is disappointing and I think Gerrard as a midfielder score more goals than him. Theo Walcott is promising but inexperienced and untested. But no matter what, they had the best chance to lift the cup this year. Players to watch are Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott and Steven Gerrard.

Argentina will also be one of the favourites to lift the cup this time. The 2-times winner are back with a better squad after a shocked exit in the early stage 4 years ago. Manchester United player Gabriel Heinze is back from injury and will be a key player in the defence. In midfield, Juan Riquelme is the man that the team counts on as he had superb visions and outstanding passing ability. In up-front, Chelsea’s Hernan Crespo and Javier Saviola are vital as they are the ones to count on to score goals for Argentina. Promising young forwards, Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez will be supporting Crespo and Saviola. Players to watch are Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez.

The Dutch team looks back to their best as they will try to erase the horror of not even qualified for the World Cup 4 years ago. The Netherlands came back stronger than ever and will try to beat the jinx of falling apart in the final. The 2-time first runners-up are in Germany to try to their limits to lift the cup. Their team squad is pretty strong this time. Manchester United goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar will be their goalkeeper for the Dutch team and in the defence, Giovanni van Bronckhorst will play a vital role. Mark van Bommel will be the key defensive midfielder while Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder will lead the attack from the midfield. Ruud van Nistelrooy (known as the scoring machine) and Rafael van der Vaart will be hitting on the opponent’s goal for Holland. Captain Philip Cocu will be providing the anchor for this team. Players to watch are Arjen Robben, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Rafael van der Vaart.

Portugal have perhaps their best chance of challenging for the World Cup. The likes of Rui Costa, Joao Pinto and Jorge Costa have now been replaced. Youngsters such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Tiago and Deco make Portugal’s future looks bright. With inspirational veteran Luis Figo in the team, I am ready to see how far this team can go. In the defence, Chelsea duo Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho and behind them Ricardo as the goalkeeper will make sure no nonsense is made. In midfield, Cristiano Ronaldo’s fancy footworks and speed will be every defender’s nightmare. With Barcelona’s Deco and Inter’s Luis Figo they make a perfect attacking squad. In up-front, Pauleta smashing goal ability makes him top scorer in the European World Cup qualifications. Players to watch are Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Three-time champion, Italy are back to overcome the shock defeat to South Korea in the World Cup 4 years ago. The Azzurri are looking forward to win their fourth World Cup. I don’t know how far Italy can go this year. The team is filled with mostly newbies and only a few experience players are in the team. In front of the goal stand Gianluigi Buffon as usual while Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta will be holding back the defence. In the midfield, no nonsense Gennaro Gattuso and Daniele De Rossi are key midfielders and Alberto Gilardino and Luca Toni are playing up-front. Established players in the team include Francesco Totti, Gianluca Zambrotta and Filippo Inzaghi. Players to watch in this team are Alberto Gilardino and Luca Toni.

Czech Republic are making their debut in the World Cup as an individual team after splitting up from Slovakia some time ago. Believe me, they are strong than ever. 2 years ago, they prove everyone wrong and entered the semi-final of the European Championship. The Czechs are one of my pick to perform well in the World Cup or maybe win it. Chelsea’s Petr Cech is known as one of the best goalkeepers in the world will be stopping shots for Czech Republic. New Arsenal player, Tomas Rosicky will be playing an attacking role in the midfield and he’s good. Liverpool’s Vladimir Smicer is also in the team playing in the midfield. Their most established player is most probably Pavel Nedved who plays for Juventus in Italy. His awesome display of football had lead Juventus to success. Veteran Jan Koller will be playing up-front for the Czech team with most probably Aston Villa star, Milan Baros. Players to watch are Petr Cech, Milan Baros, Pavel Nedved and Tomas Rosicky.

Brazil are back with samba style to defend their title. Any team that can beat Brazil are good enough to win the World Cup. They are most probably known to be unbeatable in such a big tournament like this. The 5-time champion are looking forward to add another star to their jersey in Germany. Brazil are good in every area. They are incredible in the attack and are as hard as steel in the defence. AC Milan keeper Dida will be their keeper and he is helped by Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Cicinho and Lucio in the defence. In the midfield, Emerson, Kaka, Juninho Pernambucano, Ronaldinho and Gilberto Silva are well established players and will be holding on the midfield. The Brazillian forwards are everyone’s nightmare. With Ronaldo, Robinho and Adriano in the team, defenders of the opponent team will face a very tough job. Players to watch in this team are World Player of the Year, Ronaldinho, AC Milan star, Kaka, Inter Milan striker, Adriano and freekick specialist, Juninho Pernambucano.

The French team are back now to redeem themselves after their early surprise exit 4 years ago. The 1998 World Cup winner are back to prove that they are still one of the best nation in football. Either Mikael Landreau or Fabien Barthez will be their first eleven goalstopper. Eric Abidal, William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre, Lilian Thuram, Willy Sagnol and Pascal Chimbonda (from Wigan and is one of the best defender in EPL this season) will be helping the keeper in the defence. Patrick Viera, Claude Makelele, Frank Ribery (hailed as the new Zidane of France), Zinedine Zidane will be playing alongside in the midfield. Liverpool’s Djibril Cisse is unlucky to face an injury and is replace by Sidney Govou. Thierry Henry, Sylvain Wiltord and Louis Saha will be hitting on the goals for France. Players to watch include Frank Ribery, Louis Saha and Pascal Chimbonda (if they get the chance to play).

Will this be the year of Spain? They had never won the World Cup or entered the semi-finals even though they are one of the strongest nation in football. The Spanish line-up is pretty interesting. As usual Iker Casillas of Real Madrid will be defending the goalmouth. Carlos Puyol, Michel Salgado and Carlos Marchena are playing in defence. Luis Garcia, Xabi Alonso, Joaquin, Francesc Fabregas and Xavi will playing in midfield position. In up-front, Raul, Fernando Torres and Jose Antonio Reyes will be hitting goals for Spain. Players to watch are Fernando Torres, Francesc Fabregas and Joaquin

Other players to watch from other nations are Park Ji-Sung and Lee Young Pyo from South Korea, Andrei Shevchenko from Ukraine, Pillippe Senderos from Switzerland, Tim Cahill from Australia, Shunsuke Nakamura from Japan, Dado Prso from Croatia, Landon Donovan from USA, Michael Essien from Ghana, Mateja Kezman from Serbia & Montenegro, Didier Drogba and Kolo Toure from Ivory Coast, Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Sweden, Roque Santa Cruz from Paraguay and Gregorz Rasiak from Poland.

2006-06-01T22:50:00.000+08:00

X-Men 3

The Last Stand

2006-06-01T22:34:00.000+08:00

The final X-Men movie, ‘X-Men: The Last Stand is probably about the fall of the mutants. In the story, humans have found and developed a ‘cure’ for the mutants who wish to be normal. But some mutants protested and say that their powers are gifts and not a disease. As usual, the mutants are splited into two communities; the X-Men (who wanted peace with the humans) and the Brotherhood of Mutants (who wanted a war on humans).

This movie is enjoyable but I’m quite disappointed because too many heroes died. I wasn’t saying that this movie is bad. The sound and visual effects are great but just that the plot of the story is not satisfying. I thought Cyclops or Scott Summer is one of the main characters in this movie but he died too early. And what is so sad is that he is killed by Jean Grey. Other than that, Professor X also died after trying to convince Jean Grey to return to X-Men. I think he’s more powerful than that and it’s a waste that he died so early. Jean Grey’ power is probably uncontrollable after she was assume to be dead in X2. Her power is taking control of her and Magneto is taking advantage of that.

Rogue gives up her powers by taking the mutant "cure" but as we see at the end there is some indication that this cure may not be permanent. And that's why she's back at the school again in the end of the show. Cyclops and Rogue are part of the elite group and it’s too bad that they are not in the final showdown. Actually, I like Gambit a lot but I think the character is not in the movie because his power is not big enough. In my opinion, X-Men will be only nice to watch when the five elite X-Men who are Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, and Jean Grey are present.

My favourite character in this movie is probably Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat).Her ability of going through walls fascinates me. Kitty possesses "phasing" abilities: She can pass through solid objects and can allow objects to pass through her (or other people that she is in contact with.). In this movie, a few new characters are introduces such as Archangel, Leech, Juggernaut and so on. Fiery battle in the ending of the movie between humans (with plastic weapons), X-Men (Storm, Kitty Pryde, Wolverine, Iceman, Beast and Colussus) against the brotherhood of Mutants (Magneto, Juggernaut, Pyro, Callisto, Arclight, Psylocke and Kid Omega) . Magneto is stab with multiple cure darts, rendering him human. In a park, Magneto, now simply an ordinary man, sits alone at a chessboard, looking tired and despondent. He reaches out, tentatively, holding his hand over a metal chess piece. It trembles slightly. It's an indication that the 'cure' is not permanent. The movie is totally different from the story from the comic as I found out in Wikipedia. I pretty much prefer the movie version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_X-Men

March with the Soul Patrol

2006-05-26T13:54:00.000+08:00

As you all knew, the results were out and the winner was crowned yesterday. As I expected, Taylor Hicks won the American Idol 5 after a one man show in the finale.

Taylor Hicks
He's smart in chosing his songs in the finals. Why? It's because he chose songs that he sang quite some time ago. So, the audiences will not be able compare this performance with his last. His first song was 'Living for the City' which is so much better that Katharine. His second song,'Levon' was also not bad because he's doing his thing again. He ended the competition with his last song which is his new song,'Do I Make You Proud' (quite a boring song but Taylor improvised the song well). He stood out in the crowd and totally crushed Katharine's hope of winning...(wink)

Katharine McPhee
It was not her day. Her songs selection was not good and her voice was really bad. It's a good thing that it happened that way because she don't really deserved to win. Her first song was a surprise. She chose 'Black Horse and Cherry Tree'. I think that song was not big enough for the finale...(wink).. Her second song was not a surprise. She sang 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' again. I think she made a mistake again because she just sang that song last week and people will compare her performance with the last one. I think she didn't sang the song as well as she sang last week..(wink).. Her last song was disastrous. She sang the new single 'My Destiny'. She was out of tune so many times in the song which is not suitable for her at all. It sounded weird...(wink). Everyone said that the song was bad and I wonder who's gonna buy the single? In the lyrics, there's a line that says 'Dream come true'. Well, it's a dream come true that she did not win the competition after that performance.

The American Idol Gold Award was ridiculous. By the way, Clay Aiken looks so different but he sounded great.I could hardly recognize him. I just can’t believe how much his look had changed since he joined American Idol.Before that, he's just a weird looking teacher...
Clay Aiken with his new look : http://www.rickey.org/blog/images/2006/05/clay-aiken-04-2006-5-25.html

Journey Over for E-Train

2006-05-18T16:46:00.000+08:00

It is so sad to say that Elliot Yamin will not be in the Kodak Treatre competing for American Idol. He was eliminated in the final three showdown. And I'm kind of disappointed. First, Chris Daughtry........ then, Elliot....I'm just speechless. Now, I wonder if Elliot is really the one that was suppose to be eliminated. What I mean is, what if they have already picked a winner. Throughout the competition, Katharine is like as if she gets imunity from being eliminated. Just think about it, she got through even though she sang badly (Elvis week). The apology from Simon is kind of fake to me. Are there a conspiracy? This gives me something to think about......

Thoughout this competition, there are three contestants that I really like. Chris Daughtry, Elliot Yamin and Taylor Hicks. To bad, Chris and Elliot didn't make it to the finale...

Elliot Yamin
It's a pity that he's not in the finale... I think besides Taylor, Elliot actually did quite well. It's just that Paula picked the wrong song for him and both Randy and Simon picked the perfect song for Taylor and Katharine.. Clive Davis is said to be behind a lot of great stars's career includes Whitney Houston. But his song selection for the top three leave many scatching their heads. Of many good songs to pick, he chose 'Open Arms' for Elliot which I think not Elliot type of song. The song the Paula picked is good but lack of the WOW factor. So, Elliot unable to create a special moment in the songs. Did you listened to Elliot's last song? He might be spreading a message by choosing that song. Once someone is out of American Idol, the person is easily forgotten. Let's just hope that Elliot won't be one of them. Let's just hope someone give him a recording deal too.....

Katharine McPhee
I really think she is very lucky again. The song Clive Davis chose for her is weird. Her rendition of 'I Believe I Can Fly' was so weird because she made so many changes to the song. And I believe she had a problem singing high key with a loud voice. It sounded like a cat screeching. She sang three songs ; one of the song was great and the other two was boring and forgetable. No matter how inconsistent she was, she still gets through.

Taylor Hicks
The Soul Patrol is in the finale and I hope he will win but what I hope may not come true... He's the best in this week's top three... I think the music arrangement of 'Try A Little Tenderness' helped him a lot. I actually didn't expect him to be in the final. But he's my pick to win.

David vs. Goliath

2006-05-14T15:53:00.000+08:00

The English FA Cup final was simply a trilling match. Liverpool as the favourites to win the match did win but by penalty shoot-out. West Ham, the unexpected finalist almost won the Cup but Steven Gerrard spoiled their game by leveling up in injury time with a ferocious long range half volley. It’s 3-3. Seriously, if you missed this match, you are really unlucky.

Liverpool
The Reds were really lucky to win the FA Cup. Again and again, they were behind the underdogs, West Ham, because of defensive error. Reina was killing Liverpool’s game because his positioning was really poor. And their strikers were not really performing except Cisse. Both Morientes and Crouch were not in form and Liverpool started the game off really poor. But determined Gerrard won’t let Liverpool fall apart. He kept the team together even though for so many times, Liverpool was trailing behind West Ham. As you all know Liverpool was the favourites to win and if they didn’t, it would be a shame for them as they were facing a team that was just promoted from the Championship last season. Cisse scored the first goal for Liverpool. Later in the match, Gerrard scored the second to level up the match. Peter Crouch was substituted early because he was not performing and I wonder how he was selected in the England World Cup team. In the injury time and when West Ham thought they were winning, Stevie G scored a cracker from 25-30 yards away. Though the extra time, Liverpool dominated the match as expected. But they were unable to find the net. The team was suffered a setback as Cisse, Sissoko and Gerrard suffered cramp during extra time. But that won’t stopped them from lifting the Cup. They played on because all substitution options were used. Liverpool hold on till extra time was finished. After that, they knew they will win as they knew they were the better side in penalty shoot-out. They won the shoot out by 3-1. I won’t say Reina was a hero in the shoot-out because West Ham penalty takers blundered themselves in the penalty box. So, Liverpool did out-performed West Ham in the shoot-out and lifted the Cup. I guess they were really relieved.

West Ham
The Hammers were the underdogs in this match. They had nothing to lose so they just give all they had in this match. Surprisingly, they were leading throughout the match until…..you know what happened next… I don’t think I need to repeat it again. But anyway, They were the better side in the first half and the second half but they had kind of fallen apart during extra time as they just sit back and defend. Nigel Reo-Coker being such a young captain (only 20 years old) for West Ham… I think he did well. The team was organised and everyone in the team knew what they were doing. They were making full use of they possession and their chances because they knew they were the weaker side. Although the were the weaker side, their team chemistry or team spirit were higher. Teddy Sheringham, being such an old and experienced striker (40 years old), he’s still be able to played in the final as a substitute. He’s the only one that scored in the penalty shoot-out for West Ham. I was impressed by West Ham players’ determination especially Marlon Harewood. Even though he faced injury (cramp, I guess) during extra time, he kept on playing till the game is over. Let me tell you that he was in real painful situation. Anton Ferdinand was the last penalty taker for West Ham. Reina saved it and Anton, I believe, was in tears. Even though Liverpool won the game, West Ham can considered themselves winner for what they had shown in the match.

Idol Fanatic

2006-05-12T14:59:00.000+08:00

The top 3 was chosen and the finale of American Idol is coming soon. The top three are Elliot Yamin, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee. Chris Daughtry was eliminated from the Elvis week. I'm quite unhappy as he is one of my favourites. I am really hoping for a Chris-Elliot finale.... but it's too bad. I thought Chris will win and he is among the best in the Elvis week. But it's was a shock result that he was out.Weeks ago, he sang some songs very well such as 'Have You Ever Loved a Woman' and 'What a Wonderful World'.

I hoped somebody out there will give him a recording contract..... I heard that he got an offer by Fuel as they wants him to be their lead singer( Just to let you know that they are an established rock band if you don't know who their are. Chris sang one of their song in American Idol which is Hemorrage). I think it's a good thing as now he can continue to do the music of his style. Remember Constantine Maroulis.., He's the lead singer in his band called Pray For the Soul of Betty. Is it a something wrong that rockers can't win the American Idol etc. Bo Bice, Constantine Maroulis and Chris Daughtry? Now back to the competition... the question now is who will win?

Elliot Yamin
He's my favourite after Chris is out. Listening back to all his songs, I must say that he is the most consistent as I did not heard any bad note from him. He has a somewhat husky voice, a voice that I'm not bored with. What I saw on Rickey.org was that he has the most comments and most of his comments are positive. I guess he has a large fan base(I'm a fan myself) and let's hope the fans vote.

Taylor Hicks
He's a singer that gives out lots of energy in his songs. He has 'unique' dance moves (Even though sometimes his songs are quite forgetable but you never forget his dance move). I hope he will be in the finale with Elliot. But anyway, I still can't see him as a winner. He got his own style in singing and I think he very suitable singing Blues or Jazz music.

Katharine McPhee
I think she is very lucky to in the competition. She's always one of the favourites to win. But I hope she will be out next week. She is good in singing and had a pretty face. But honestly, I'm really bored of her voice.

This competition is not about choosing the best singer but is about choosing the most popular singer. We'll see what will happened next week....

2006-04-20T21:44:00.000+08:00

Celebrating....

2006-04-20T21:41:00.000+08:00

Bagaikan bulan..... ONE DAY MORE!!!!

Kinta 1 Choir Competition 2006

2006-04-20T18:52:00.000+08:00

Wow!! I'm in another competition in one week!! I had joined the ACS Choir Club for quite some time ago. I actually joined for the fun but everything turned serious as the competition was getting closer. We practised very hard as we had to get out from class during school hours for choir practises. Although I did miss a lot of classes, I think that it is worth it because we were practising hard to win.

On the 18th of April 2006 which is the competition day, we are really nervous but we were damn 'semangat'!! The competition was held in TCS, which is our Choir Club president's school. Maybe that's the reason why she did not sang with us in the competition. But it's ok. She was there to guide and watch us sing. She did gave us some advises. No matter what's the results, as long as we have fun, everything will be fine!!

Tasek Damai was the first school to sing. They sang an unknown malay song and One Voice. They sang quite okay but we are not very worried about them. The next school to sing was AMC (Ave Maria Convent). They sang Mimpi (Malaysian Idol). I can't remember what English song they sang. But the arrangement of Mimpi is very different from the original song. They did quite well as they were one of the main contenders.

Next is ACS!!!!!!! Take a deep breath!!!!! We sang Suara and One Day More from Les Miserables. Bagaikan bulan...............ONE DAY MORE!!!!! Oh yeah!! the feeling was great!!! I don't know what the audiences think but I think we did great!!! Ah.... I felt so relieved and happy at that moment. I think Marianne was really pleased with our performance. GOood job, ACS Choir, ichiban!!!!

Actually, I have to thank Marianne for all the guidance, advises and motivation that you had gave us. Although you did not sang with us on that day, but I think your always there beside us and supporting us. Great song selection and ur leadership is really important to us. Thanks, Moshi maro a.k.a. mummy.

The next schools to perform were TCS and Main Convent but I don't really care about their performance. All I know was that they did quite well..

RESULTS!!!!................ Drums rolls plz!!!
3rd place goes to.......... TCS!!!!!
2nd place goes to..........ACS!! Not too bad.. At last, we get something!! Thank God!! All the effort that we put in are not wasted! Thought we could be the champion but...

1st place goes to.........AMC
Best Conductor award goes to.............................. ACS!!!!! Yeah!! We got it!!! We retained this award! Haha!

After the competition, we take pictures as it was a memorable day for us!! After that, we went out to makan in Crazy Ice Cream Restaurant....and had a few rounds of bowling in Ipoh Parade!!!

Pictures : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiawei_chronicles/