to hate the popular would mean being unpopular Ugh, I guess I don't really have a choice, do I? I've dug myself into this hole ever since last year, and in my ever-increasing attempts to get out of this hole, I've progressed one step but regressed an unfortunate two. Now I really just have to get hooked off, as I see who y'all exactly are.
my thoughts at 10:06 pm
Monday, July 19, 2010
Is it wrong to be jealous?
I've always believed in the character of the person should always be the number one priority. But somehow, that belief that I once held so dear is slowly starting to slip away.
Should lies and pretense be part of a relationship/friendship?
Who ever said friendship was all-important...
Today I saw this quote on a wall of one of the classrooms. It read: You miss the shot when you DON'T take it. At first I was quite apprehensive. But slowly I realised, this is true. I always blame external factors for my mistakes. Yet, I came to realise, yah.. maybe it's 'cos I don't take my chances when I get it. It can be better summed up with this phrase:
"if you don't buy a ticket, you won't win the raffle..."
Yup. So, so true.
my thoughts at 8:06 pm
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Being distracted is good, no? I like to be distracted. Sometimes it's the only way I can keep going. I don't like it that I keep worrying about everything, that I keep pushing myself, reluctantly. Sometimes I wish I can just do things I want to do, without having to think of the taunts of "3 months 26 days, 25 days left..." or the thought of having to deal with the Prelims.
I keep telling myself, just let life flow. But as of most things, saying is easier than doing. Preaching is easier than applying. Well. I really just want to let things flow as it is. If time is to fly and I'll be out of JC soon, I just want to feel like.. so be it. True, I wish I could be stuck in time. I wish I could be back during A'Div, or during December holidays, or during June mugging session, or back during Orientation 2009. But it's obviously impossible. Sigh.
"and try to take the path less traveled by...
that first step you take.. is the longest stride"
my thoughts at 8:38 pm
Friday, July 16, 2010
Yup that's my World Cup poster, with EVERY single score on it. So what has this 2010 edition given us... 145 goals, from Tshabalala's opening cracker against Mexico to the final's Andres Iniesta winner in the 116 minute, 64 great matches, 7 goal thrashing of North Korea by Portugal, 4 joint-top scorers with Thomas Mueller coming out on top due to his superior assists, 3 disappointments in England, Italy and France, 2 South American flops of Brazil and Argentina, and one sole survivor, Spain! Haha... So that's like five cents per goal, a dollar plus a match. So much for cable! And yah today was College Day. It was okay overall. I thought I'd just get a cert or something, but I had this (cheap) plaque! Haha the reception food was not too bad either! And I "scored" against the canoeist in today's SAF (super diluted team in fact, so many foreign people haha) vs canoeist game. Well someone rammed it against my thigh, so technically I scored as I got the last touch? Haha whatever, I realise how hard it is to play as a forward now. Pity to Torres and co. Staying onside and everything is tough, and controlling a ball that is speeding away from you is not exactly the easiest. Taking people on with your head looking down is tough too! You can't really see the goal.
Bye~!
my thoughts at 9:45 pm
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
I really don't like it when people comment about the quality in my friendships. I just don't like it, even as a passing comment or a joke. I don't like to define my friendships, most people don't, so it's the things I do that I feel shows how much of a friend that person means to me. I may sound crude at times (or all the time), but that could usually be how I treat a friend that I consider close. There's no one solution fix all in any type of friendship, so I'll prefer to do it my way, thank you very much.
And what's wrong with questioning reciprocity? I may not have really meant what I said, as I don't expect others to do things for me, unwillingly, reluctantly, or even willingly. I never have and never will do. But the thing is, if you define friendship based on the things you get for a person, it's a bit shallow isn't it? This may sound harsh, but I value friendship more on our actions. If I am a bad friend for not getting him something to celebrate the day of his birth, then isn't getting something for him just for the sake of it as bad? If I wanted to get something for him, I'd want to do it willingly. For some, they'd know my love for them is great enough that is surpasses any need to get them anything. I don't think anyone of us expects anything material in the first place, so what's the need? I know I sound hypocritical based on what I said today out of frustration and irritation, but I know where I came from and I will never change my stance on it.
Does it pay to be nice? What's the point of being a nice guy? It gets you nowhere. Even with this current obvious but undefined segregation, I don't really care. We can do what we like, when we like, how we like it, and no one else can tell you what you can and can not do. So what with all this? In another half a years time we'd all be out and everything now is never going to matter ever again. Sure I'll keep some friendships, but others I won't really mind losing.
So what if I'm an asshole? So what if I can't keep my mouth shut, or if I speak my mind when I want to? So what if I can't do groups and prefer more personal one-to-one conversations?
It doesn't pay to be nice. All this superficial-ness.
T -4 months.
Bye.
my thoughts at 6:27 pm
Monday, July 12, 2010
Oh well another World Cup has just ended. It seems such a short time ago I witnessed Zinedane Zidane's 2006 final headbutt and saw David Trezeguet rattle the bar with his fateful penalty, of which was the end of France's proud footballing heritage too, following this year's debacle. Yah and the bloody Italians won then.
But now the best team and the more deserving team won it. Netherland's hard-tackling and boot-flying tactics served them no good, especially with an English referee taking charge. I mean this guy has seen the worse of worse tackles in the English Premiership, this morning.. some of the tackles were not awesome. Nigel de Jong's studs-to-chest on Xabi Alonso and Mark van Bommel's two-legged tackle with no attempt to play the ball were some examples. Spain stuck to their plan, pass, pass, pass (with the obvious movement of course), but it came to nothing in a dour first-half that saw the amount of yellow cards you'd normally see in one game only.
The second half was much better with Arjen Robben the culprit. Fancy him blaming Carlos Puyol for his lack of composure in front of goal when he managed to burn Puyol even when the Spanish defender had two yards head-start. Robben just had no composure this morning and his first one-on-one effort that he slammed at the legs of Iker Casillas emphasized this. Robin van Persie looked clueless and Wesley Sneijder was nullified. Spain on the contrary continued to press with Xavi and Andres Iniesta, even with Xabi Alonso being under-par in terms of his high standards of passing. Then extra-time came, and when Iniesta scored, the ecstasy was all to obvious to see as the WHOLE Spanish bench poured towards Iniesta in obvious delight. What a moment. Casillas and his premature tears could have been punished with a late Dutch equaliser, but it was never to come.
So that's it for 2010. The controversies, all over. Casillas lifts the World Cup as Spain's first ever captain to do so, with the only blip for me was seeing Fernando Torres pulling up after trying to chase a ball, laying there clutching his hamstring. Well he better get back fit and firing in time for the new season, and with the pictures of him having a Liverpool scarf around his neck as he took photographs with the 18 gold carat trophy, I hope he does stay, and comes back stronger with goals next season!
my thoughts at 6:32 pm
Saturday, July 10, 2010
So the 2010 World Cup final is upon us! I still remember the many things leading up to this edition in South Africa as recently as two years ago. Stuff like stadiums not going to be completed in time, workers on strike, the high crime rate of South Africa and whether it would be safe to travel there, but for the last 62 matches, all have seemed to go well, 'cept for some controversial refereeing decisions and one or two minor steward-related incident. I seriously disagree with the view the World Cup has been boring. True the group stages was quite a bore, but the knockout stages have produced some drama and the usual football controversies. I'm sure the last two games, even the third placing game would be a good spectacle. And the best thing is that there will be a brand new world champion, regardless of who wins the final.
Hmm about the final, it's a really hard one to call. Two teams that truly play football and play it in the right way, I'm sure it'll be cagey at the start with nerves aplenty and players not wanting to make the first (major) mistake. In the potential key personnel duels, the Dutch may find it hard to utilize Robin van Persie, considering his poor form and the fact he'll be up against Carles Puyol would certainly be in favour of the Barcelona skipper. The experienced Wesley Sneijder might get more change out of the relatively young Sergio Busquets, with Sneijder's movement and quick thinking key to outwitting yet another Barcelona product. The key for the Dutch should be where Arjen Robben plays. If they deploy him on the left against Spanish right-back Sergio Ramos, he'll definitely get more space considering Ramos likes to bomb forward and his defending is suspect. If Robben plays on the right and cuts in often, he may still outwit Joan Capdevila but I think it'll be slightly more difficult.
Spain will need to heavily rely on David Villa for the goals again. Whether deployed on Spain's left flank, where he'll be up against the young new prodigy Gregory van der Wiel of Ajax, or upfront against mainly Joris Mathijsen, his pace and craft will unsettle either defenders and should Fernando Torres start upfront, Torres would almost definitely keep one, or even two, Dutch defenders occupied, leaving more space for Villa to exploit. That's Spain's main strength. Xavi and Andres Iniesta will definitely find it hard to break down the Dutch tag-team of Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong, two hard tacklers that shield their defence very well. With that in mind, Xabi Alonso's passing ability will be key to unlock the Dutch defence or help Spain get around the Dutch midfield enforcing duo.
Player for player, it's pretty even. Maybe only Iker Casillas is ahead of Maarten Stekelenburg, David Villa is in better form than Robin van Persie, and Arjen Robben is a bigger threat than Andres Iniesta or Pedro.
So yah, a great final awaits us!
Oh, there's school three hours after the final? What 'bout if it goes to penalties?
Haha literally l.o.l.
Bye!
my thoughts at 5:50 pm
Friday, July 09, 2010
Well some teachers are just jerks really. Not that it bothers me that much, just saying. Some can be real motivators, really honest no sarcasm involved, but some really should realise that using the extremeness of reverse psychology sometimes just doesn't work. Well maybe they'll argue if you're working hard enough you'll have nothing to worry about, but there's just one thing. Sometimes you might feel the work you put in is enough for say a B, or C, and maybe you don't get that, you get something lower. And sometimes there is a limit, even to how much you can push yourself to. Hmm, sometimes I just wonder can you really blame it all on the student? No one's totally at fault, and I take that stand for almost every situation where there is a "right" and a "wrong".
Anyway results today was okay. Overall it was good thus far, but seems to me that I probably need to reduce my rest time for the next week and slowly ease myself back on track to work, after these few days of R&R (yah there's still the start of this fortnightly history essay test, wonderful!), and maybe the rest of the results I get back will boot myself back to reality and realise I'm still not good enough, yet. Keyword is yet.
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Sometimes I really wonder to myself, what do I really want? Very easy question, yet the answers are either aplenty, or very minimal. It's no more T -X weeks to BT2s, it's now T -4 months to 'A's. Great.
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Another thing, I'm going to try to be nicer to everyone since it's like 4 months left. Lol may sound hypocritical or two-faced and everything but I don't care. I shall TRY to be as nice as possible. And I really want to give back to those who have supported me for the past year or so, in some way that I am still thinking up. (:
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OK two nights of semis are over, and my, it was good, especially the first one.
1. Giovanni van Bronckhorst goal against Uruguay. Definitely goal of the tournament unless the finals or 3rd/4th placing game produces a 50 yard dipping curler scorcher shot by Carles Puyol or Maarten Stekelenburg. I mean who would have thought van Bronckhorst, of all people would have even have the nerve to attempt such an audacious long shot. It beat the 'keeper and crept into the underside of the top right hand corner post. Magnificent goal.
2. Spain into the Finals for the first time in their history. Well if the Swiss defeat was anything to go by, it was certainly a wake up call for Spain and Vicente del Bosque, that first, nothing can be taken for granted, and you can't play 4 playmakers in one team, respectively. So after some rigid defending and magnificent passing ability shown by Xabi Alonso, Xavi and co., and of course David Villa's lethal finishing, Spain are in the final. Defeating a team that beat Argentina and England 4-0 and 4-1 is no mean feat, and keeping a clean sheet is an achievement as well. And yes I'm for Fernando Torres to score the winner on Monday morning and say he'll stay at Liverpool the next day.
3. Diego Forlan's impressive equaliser against Holland. Maybe Stekelenburg may have some fault, but Forlan's curling effort was too hot to handle, but that just shows the quality Forlan has, even though he didn't show it for Man Utd. Another goal against Germany would be good. :D
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Oh ya, honesty really is the best policy. Don't lie peeps. If you don't deserve it, it's probably 'cos you don't.
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And ONE last thing. I'm done. T -4 is too important.
my thoughts at 8:07 pm
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Omgoodedness I don't believe it but everyone turned up for Cage, and relatively on time... Well it was fun to get some of the BT2 juices out, although I was really, really sleepy from last two nights of World Cup semis. It's like we were all tired after 15 minutes. Haha but it was kinda idiotic that I had to hear SNSD and Korea shit pounding my ear for most of the time, well not to be outdone the next few songs after SNSD was gay Justin Bieber. Well, not the best conditions for soccer, but what the heck!
Anyway back to school tomorrow. Term 3. :(
Papers are coming back I think.
my thoughts at 10:23 pm
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
YESSSSSSSSSAH. I don't know why I'm so happy since this freedom is only temporary. But yah at least BT2 is out of the way, and now I can finally have some time for myself. I just realized some of the things I really like to do, besides football, has something to do with gambling. Poker, Bridge, Mahjong, the list goes on... :)
It's like Prelim's is in less than two months time. Not cool at all. Hmm I really don't know what to talk about now.
Oh yah. Maybe right, I should stop praying for chances and opportunities, 'cos every single freaking time it appears, I always seem to have a great knack at blowing it. What an opportunity I got today, AND yah, I let it through my fingers.
Damn!
my thoughts at 9:15 pm
Sunday, July 04, 2010
I must say, all four games of the Quarters has been great to watch.
1. Germany's 4-0 thrashing of Argentina. After Netherlands beat Brazil in a classic "it's a game of two halves" match, where Brazil dominated the first with some magnificent intricate and individual brilliance, rewarded with Robinho's goal but unlucky not to have gone 2-0 up with a Kaka' top-corner curler equalled by a flying Maarten Stekelenburg, then Netherlands came back into the game with Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder inspiring them to comeback and score two, helped of course by Felipe Melo's stupidness. Well enough of that. So Germany, on the back of their 4-1 thrashing of England in the last round, who would have thought would thrash the then-tournament top scorers Argentina, with Leo Messi, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain in their three-pronged attack? Well Germany did so with an early Thomas Muller header, exposing slack defending from Argentina, and with Messi unable to break past the solid German defence, Germany did to Argentina what they did to England, and broke quick, fast and swift (all same meaning, huh?), scoring another three without reply. Two words: Magnificent football.
2. The tale of two penalties in Ellis Park. After Gerard Pique pulled Oscar Cardozo's hand in the box, Cardozo couldn't score the resulting penalty, continuing the trend of crucial penalty misses (Lukas Podolski vs Serbia when Germany were 1-0 down, Asamoah Gyan's crossbar miss against Uruguay in the 121 minute of extra time that would have sent Ghana through). But the controversy came soon after when Spain were awarded a penalty almost immediately after when a Paraguay defender brought David Villa down at the other end. Xabi Alonso emphatically found the net with the resulting penalty, but one Spanish player encroached a second too early, and Alonso had to retake it, with the subsequent retake saved by the 'keeper. But the penalty save earlier by Iker Casillas on Cardozo was brought into question as three Spanish defenders encroached the area more than a second too early, but no retake was given (supposed to as Cardozo didn't score), which would have changed the whole complexion of the game. But oh well both penalties weren't scored, and Spain still went through via a David Villa double post rattler goal, after Pedro hit the post as well!
3. Wonder goals in Uruguay-Ghana game. First it was Sulley Muntari's long range pile-driver that swerved away from the 'keeper at the last moment, magnificent goal. Then Diego Forlan's freekick from around 25 yards out was magnificent as well, deceiving the 'keeper on its way in. Two magnificent goals in one game, and what a way to end it as well with all the drama of A penalty and a penalty shootout.
Hmm it's already the semis! Spain vs Germany, I'm not going to call this one, all I know is one thing, either Germany is gonna grab four goals again, or Spain's gonna nick it by a goal. Haha! Uruguay vs Netherlands... C'mon Dutch! Make it a all-European final.
From 4 South American teams to 1. Europe maintains their pre-Quarters status with 3. Who says South American football is on the rise? The Europeans just proved them otherwise with emphatic wins over their biggest favourites! (:
my thoughts at 10:22 pm
Friday, July 02, 2010
Today I waited almost 3 hours plus for soccer! And well I would say it was worth it, even though well we played under the rain, got scolded a couple of times, played with a man down for most of the time, and got thrashed! Playing in SAJS hall was quite fun, but yah, shiok I could get some steam off! After quite a sian first week of exams. And the best part of today was probably that I learned Bridge! Ah quite fun, and sly game. Haha :D
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Have you ever wanted something so, so much, but you knew deep down you could possibly never get now or in the future?
Well there are many things that I want badly, but I know some of these things are possible to get. For example,
- Liverpool winning the title. It will happen soon enough, maybe 5 years or so, depending on how new manager Roy Hodgson deals with the nuisance that is the Liverpool board and how he keeps the star names at the club.
- Almost perfect results at the end of year 'A' Levels. It's possible, as long as I study as hard as I want for it and don't get an unexpected burnout.
These things can all be achieved. But there's just this one thing I really want, and am really willing to work for, but I know, I can never have.
And it's not like I was even given a chance, or presented an opportunity.
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Lady Antebellum - American Honey
Don't know what's up with the bee at the start and the end. But what the heck! Nice song!