____T.H.E. .P.A.S.S.

13:24
Thursday, May 26, 2005

____Divine Intervention

Congratulations! AC Milan have done it again, throwing away an overwhelming lead that is. I'm still in a state of shock and disbelief. But as Wilson said, everyone should have seen it coming. Rarely does the Pope die and a whole lot of other uncanny events happen together. And when it happened the last time round, Liverpool were crowned European Champions.

But what does this say about Liverpool? Let me stop at "Heeeeyy! Milan was about to win... But NOOO.... God intervened and had to change the course of the game.." (Remember the "purse" incident here in the Russel Peters clip)

Yet, the first half of the match was the perfect example why Milan ranks alongside Barcalona as the top team in the world. And it just shows how Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite is the leading young attacking midfielder in the world. Kaka, as he is fondly known as in the footballing industry, tore the whole Liverpool defence apart. This is the first time I truly see him play and the way he creates spaces for himself, runs elegantly at the defence, sprays passes while running at speed, and provides the killer pass is just *gasps!* breathtaking.

Kaka, is the player that makes Milan's defensive tactics work - bringing the ball with pace, running down the centre and making incisive through balls. But if Kaka is THE PLAYER, Rafa Benitez is THE TACTICAL MAGICIAN. Why? Valencia was never heard of till their recent successes under Benitez, winning the Primera Liga and performing well in the Eurpean stage. And now he brings Liverpool to being crowned European Champions.

However, it was his tactical change during the match that stood out. Sensing that Milan's attacks originate down the centre, and that the flank was rarely used, he changed to a 3 man defense plus a holding midfield role in the form of Hamann. Sheer brilliance. Hamann's marking stopped Kaka in the second half, and provided an extra man, Steven Gerrard, to romp upfront. And it was the Liverpool captain that earned the penalty that helped Liverpool equalise.

All said, Liverpool deserves praise and compliements for showing the never-say-die-spirit which I once saw in the 1999 Manchester United side. I would say watch out for Liverpool next season. And that Milan will have to figure out once more the reasons that caused them to lose such a major lead again. But for me, I can't help but feel that "Divine Intervention" was Liverpool's man-of-the-match.

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13:44
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

____Rusty Nail - X Japan

Okay, just to pacify my regular readers (if there are any), it's about time I put in another entry as someone mentioned mine is not a "daily" type of blog. I couldn't agree more. Besides, blogs are like producing an album, quality products must have some quality input.

Anyways, I had a conversation with someone whom I barely know late into last night. I realised everyone has their darkest secrets - sides to us that may cause others to change their impressions of us (for the worse in this case). Sometimes, these secrets come back to haunt us. But it is good to know that we possess them as they are the little things that make US uniquely US.

Well, this person told me stuff that shocked me and I suppose it took a lot of courage to confess. Yet while it's pretty common in the society nowadays, it still comes across with a jolt as I never thought it could happen so close around me. Nevertheless, my conclusion is that since you've already identified the mistakes, might as well correct them and move on. And never commit them again. This, I hope would be able to help you come to terms with yourself.

As for the others' impression of you? Don't give it a damn. You are who you are and it will always be up to others to accept you as a unique person.

All said, I don't know if the above could apply to me. But rest assured, the search for inner peace and sanity will never cease till the day I cease to breathe...
_______________________________

Other things to note -
Wilson introduced me to X Japan - some kind of Japanese rock group. Pretty decent music.

This evening is my hall family outing. I decided to give it a miss. Do I owe the rest of the guys a reason? I don't know about that. But I told Junming before not to force yourself to do something you do not want to do. Any reason will be deemed an excuse anyway, so do I still owe the rest a reason? I don't think so.

Tonight is Champions League Final. Go Milan! Time to show what you're all really capable of and wake the disillusioned Liverpool fans up from their daydream. (Nothing against Liverpool fans nor the club. But sometimes, I think they're a little disillusioned.. just a little...)

Tomorrow will be going to NUS for football. 8 v 8! How exciting! I just can't wait for everything to happen!!!

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00:54
Thursday, May 19, 2005

____Irritated

So damn irritated. Initially I thought the idea of PTIs going sentosa on Friday is a good idea. But now I think otherwise. What does Sentosa mean? It means no football. But "you can play beach football!!"

BEACH FOOTBALL IS FOR KIDS/BRAZILIANS...

So, I thought we could play on Thursday. Few nights back, I was asking the usual gang. Royce was all for it. But the rest were not keen. Some stupid reason was "too tired to play football before going to Sentosa"

Stupid person now asked me to play badminton on Thursday morning. What Shit...
stupid game of hitting a feather-stuffed sponge over the net.

I don't know why I agreed. Maybe I'll give the people a piece of my mind tomorrow.

Also, Saturday is the big day. FA Cup Final. Hall 1 soccer players planned to watch somewhere. My cousin invited me to watch it at his house. My campmate asked to me watch it at his house.
Then some smart guy will be organising a night cycling trip on the same night.

ON A SATURDAY NIGHT! That cork... doesn't he realise Sunday is soccer day(he's also part of the sunday soccer gang!). Fancy organising night-cycling on a Saturday. And on a Saturday when it is FA Cup Final for that matter.

I'm really torn as to what I should do next.

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11:07
Saturday, May 14, 2005

____Lipton - Good Things Grow

I've been wanting to put in an entry since Wednesday. Lots of stuff going through my head. Yet when I sit down and actually start to think what I want to write, the words don't flow as before. I've been having conversations with my ex-campmates lately and also hanging out a lot with them. Maybe a friend-friend relationship should just stop at the level where my campmates and I are at. We share a little care and concern but we don't probe too much. We hang out together and crap and laugh but we don't really talk much about serious stuff. Maybe back in NS, the memories will always be novel and interesting. And the same jokes can be laughed at over and over again.

Anyways, I'm sure many of you all have seen the Lipton commercial. The one where some friends meet and the narrator tells us about their plan to big business and how the brand "Lipton" helps them to achieve the public relations that drives them to success. And in the background, there's this guitar thing that goes on at intervals between the narration. It's quite a catchy commercial. When I watched it the first time, everything happened too fast and after the whole thing, I just sat and blinked and try to make out what the whole commercial was trying to say. You could say this commercial sort of stuck in the back of my head.

On Thursday, I had this conversation with Wilson. He was telling me about the purpose of life and I was arguing and trying to state my point that life is pointless. After some heated exchange of arguments, we managed to come down to this conclusion -

"People who lead the so-called hugely successful and purposeful life use PURPOSE as a cover for the actual fact that life is pretty much MEANINGLESS."

Let me explain. Wilson's "theory" is that everyone is put on earth for a purpose. While mine was that living is pointless and the reason why we do not kill ourselves is because of instinct. (I'll touch a little on instinct later on). I realised after a while, what PURPOSE meant to Wilson is the activity that a human sets out to achieve. PURPOSE differs from person to person and it is required to be "found" for different persons.

Wilson claims he found his. "for me, its a vision - an ideal of world peace. of a community full of compassion and commitment to charity and helping out those poor ppl in 3rd world countries" he says. "it is because of you fellow man. Everyone is born to alleviate another's suffering"

While I do not totally agree with him, I must admire his courage to make such a statement. And while I do not agree with him, I cannot say that I've found my own PURPOSE.

But it is,of course, okay not knowing what your PURPOSE is. Many fail to find it in their lifetime. The trick is to "find" it. Keep asking the question to yourself everyday - "What is the purpose to my life? What IS ( "is" is stressed here because there can only be ONE purpose) the reason for me being on this planet?" And maybe one day, the answer will pop out.

What's your purpose in life?
_______________________________________

So while I'm thankful of the little enlightenment that the conversation has given me, I'm still as lost to "What is the MEANING of life" - the WHY behind living. And this brings us back to "instinct" and my "giant ant nest" theory. "Instinct" because it's within us to procreate and "giant ant nest" is the fact that we're living in a stupid human nest (remember Lipton commercial) -

The ants come to life.
The ants grow.
They meet other ants.
They combine to work their heads off together.
They bring food to the Queen.
The Queen reproduces.
The young ants grow.
They work their heads off.
The species survives.
Living - Bad Things Blow.

Till the time when I find my own PURPOSE, and hopefully realise the actual MEANING to life, this theory remains. And I will still suffer from insanity.

up from my brain is where I bleed...

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17:49
Monday, May 09, 2005

____Just Another Normal Entry

Okay. Where do I start? I'm beginning to run out of topics to talk about lately. Does this mean that I'm not learning enough from my daily experiences? Does this mean that maybe the time spent recently is not fulfilling enough?

Realised that lately, my entries are more of accounts of my daily life instead of reflections on observations that I made. Maybe I'm thinking less nowadays. Ha...

Anyways, I'm back in hall for the GE lessons. It's school time during the holidays. But I'm not lamenting. Because instead of rotting away at home, maybe it's better to get down to doing some constructive work. Besides, not the whole of my week will be occupied, I still have some free time on my own to do the things I want. Things like football, training, going out and yes, see a chinese physician for my back. Haha... it's not been done yet!! I'm such a procrastinator.

But then again, my physio cousin is even more so. It actually took her a couple of months to reply to an email that I sent her! I was already giving up trying to seek help from her about my back, but then now she gave me another option of a physio that offers NO CHARGE to the services. It really sounds too good to be true. Think I'll stick to the Chinese Physician thing. Haha...

In the meantime, I'm still sticking to my training plans and football schedules. My back is hurting less frequently these days... Phew...

By the way, if you are so myopic to realise, I shall officially announce that I changed my blog template! Nice, aint it? Spent a whole afternoon editting and testing, and trying to give it a stroke of "me". I think I got what I wanted, it's got some of "me" in it. =)

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23:56
Thursday, May 05, 2005

____1 Week..

.. have gone by and somehow it seems very boring after exams. For someone with no life except football, a back injury is really sucky.

So... I decided to get back to football. No game also pain, play liao also pain, might as well play. So far played a couple of games already, people were mentioning how I never seemed to be away from the scene for so long. Yet although I feel relieved from such comments, I know that I'm not at my peak. Couldn't run as much as before and I shirk from 50-50 challenges. But yeah, maybe I'll keep shirking from such challenges for as long as my back still hurts. I don't think I can take another knock.

Finally got to go out the other day, JM drove the car that his sis rented, and MJ and I tagged along just went round and round. Pretty "zhuo bo", but better than "zhuo bo" at home. Finally returned to running also - got to start training for IPPT.

Next week going to start GE lessons. Will be in hall from Monday till Wednesday, but free for the rest of the week.

This Saturday going to consult a Chinese Physician too. Hopefully my body become okay again...

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____T.A.G.B.O.A.R.D

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