silverware

i'll have to say that while the hiding of plucky wigan didn't do them much credit for their efforts, i'm pretty damn glad united decided to go all out and claim the only realistic piece of silverware for the trophy cabinet this season in emphatic fashion. 4-0 was the final scoreline in cardiff, with wayne rooney choosing an excellent time to break his mini goal drought with a brace with saha and ronaldo plundering the other two. wigan tried their best to come back fighting, but the poor lads lost it once they were 2-0 down. credit to them for coming out of the half time blocks flying, but this was vintage manchester united. all we can do now is hope someone stops chelsea dead cold in their tracks...

ever wonder why everyone hates chelsea?

"It's a funny word to use. But I think we deserve a European championship."
Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck

"I like it when small teams fight for their lives against teams with more quality."
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, on Middlesbrough

"Everybody likes to be loved, don't they? I don't think we want to be seen as arrogant, we don't consciously go out there to be controversial. We would be disappointed if that was a tag that stuck."
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon

and these guys are all wondering why the heck people like me wake up feeling the unadultrated joy that chelsea got their asses kicked by barcelona this morning.

o, and a little something for you videogame people to chew on. the top 10 worst controllers. it's worth a look =)

jarhead johari

before i start reminiscing, please click here and fill up my johari window. yup. i got sucked into this as well.

right... now to the movie, jarhead. a film about the experience of a squad of marine recon snipers as they enter boot camp and eventually find themselves in the deserts of saudi arabia during the first iraqi war. and these poor sods went through so much shit to train for that one important trigger squeeze, only to be denied that opportunity at the last minute.

the same thing happened to me back in the army. imagine training 2 years of your life, for the one exercise that culminates all the sweat and blood poured out during training. you're tasked with carrying the biggest, meanest gun in an infantry platoon: the machine gun, which hails scores of 7.62mm metal death upon the enemy with the click of a trigger. imagine lugging that 11kg gun around the jungle, with the hopes of getting at least a kill during the 3 day exam exercise to round off your training. and you don't see a single bad guy throughout.

if you girls really wanna know what it's like for your boyfriends who are combat fit and out there in the army as fighting soldiers, i think jarhead is a pretty good way to understand what the heck's going on in their lives for those 5 days a week. sure, the american army's a lot more retarded, and some of the crap that happens there is exagerrated plus there's a real war thrown into it. but i think it sums up a soldier's life from the insanely charged boot camp set up to an annoymous or possibly ignominious end of it all...

oldies are still goldies...

as you all know, this song is old... ancient even. but marian brought it up to my attention, and it's stuck in my head a bit. a golden oldie, whose lyrics still strike home...

Where Have All the Flowers Gone
Peter, Paul & Mary

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

a weekend to remember...

hearing the news of united tumbling out of the fa cup was bad. hearing that my own personal hero sufferred a horrific injury makes it even worse. the horrifying nature of the injury just makes my blood curdle, and even losing the match doesn't seem so bad. it was a totally innocuous tackle that resulted in a total freak of an injury. imagine your leg folding under your own weight as you're sliding in to block a shot.

however, as a testament to why i look up to this man, alan smith never screamed. he never wavered. he just tried to stand up, and when he couldn't, called for medical attention. he just grit his teeth and left the field on a stretcher. this is the tenacity i respect smithy for, and his willingness to shed his own blood for the cause. it speaks volumes when even the liverpool fans applauded him as he was stretchered off. even after the his operation, he's only talking about getting well and playing again. get well soon smudger. your never-say-die commitment and courage will be sorely missed.

the other thing i want to note about this weekend is the fact that i spent it at the CHOICE retreat house in jurong for a CHOICE weekend. at this point of time, i'm rather weary of retreats. it's was fun and all in jc, but i guess i'm slowly growing out of them. obviously, i wasn't hyped up to attend some retreat that i wasn't dying to attend.

how wrong i was. while i did know CHOICE was centred upon the relationships that we hold dear to our hearts, i didn't give the issue much thought. i mean, stuff at home isn't so bad, i'm pretty alright with my friends and i don't have a significant other to worry about at the moment. what could they teach me that i didn't know?

well, they call CHOICE a bus stop experience. normally when you come to a bus stop, you inevitably wait for the bus. during this time, you think. that's what CHOICE is all about: you take the time out to think about the things that are really important to you before you catch the bus of life and start moving again...

it's not so much of learning new things. it's all commonsensical, yet stuff we don't put into practice often enough. for me, it was a reinforcement of ideas that i've already had, and the challenge to put them into good use. the sharings were heartfelt and very touching, and it's paradigm shift as well as a challenge: to make the more loving choice in all that we say and do.

reflections: mohammed cartoons

talk about explosive outcome. i suppose this incident and its repercussions demonstrate one very clear thing: use some common sense and empathy before you act.

while i can understand the fury from muslims with regards to such blasphemous images, it should be clear that violence never solves a problem. i can't spell out the law since i'm not of islam, but i'm pretty sure that all religions do not condone violence, in any form or any reason. sure, some will point to the crusades and shout hypocrisy, but the crusades took places eons ago. times have changed. perspectives have changed. religious zeal is never a bad thing, but it should be kept in check with some level-headedness. enough blood has been shed in the past and we should all be mature enough to act responsibly whenever we feel strongly about something lest we all degenerate into savages who strike out at the smallest of insults.

of course, the danes didn't do themselves a favour and tried to defend themselves and blow over the issue by saying that while they feel and understand the anger, they won't say sorry. why? cos they wish to protect their cherished democracy and right to say anything and everything they want. the concept of democracy is very much like marxism in the sense of idealism. ideally, it would be wonderful for anyone and everyone to air their opinions without fear of retaliation, as like the freedom and equality of peoples championed by marxism. however, idealistic concepts are free and open to outward abuse, as history has demonstrated. communist leaders eventually become dictators while democracy allows unscrupulous persons to deny others their basic rights of privacy, leaving nothing sacred. and in this case, offend millions of people worldwide by forgetting about the sacredness within something these millions of people hold dear to their hearts. the right to speak out is something most precious, though one must wield such a powerful tool with immense responsibility. there's a reason why something is sacred, and even if it doesn't mean anything to oneself, one should always be mindful towards the sentiments of others.

sometimes it's baffling why people are so headstrong when they know it will only result in problems and destructive situations. we may have strong belief systems, but somtimes all we need is a little more tolerance and to take ourselves a little less seriously to avoid petty and rather unsavoury conflicts.

an interesting week...

a week like this can't get any more ups and downs-ish. monday started off with a fundraising cardmaking lasting till midnight and me slitting my left index finger, leading to a tiring tuesday that had me going off for ktv with the guys at the partyworld in town, which went pretty well. wednesday was typical, mass didn't really go as well as i'd have liked it, but we had a very interesting rcia session after that talking about purgatory, theology and lotsa interesting points on the catholic faith. thursday started badly with a missed lab session, tho it picked up with a half doable maths ii quiz, a decent turnout for the new acts group(csa's cell group system) i pushed for plus more fundraising stuff. after that i had a splinter from my left index finger removed, plus a false alarm in the middle of the night after fundraising for i thought the splinter hadn't come out and needed a splinter to allay that fear. friday was long, with more cardmaking that lasted till really late and had me sleeping at 7am... with today rounding things up with a decent sale at st mary's plus a good dinner and chat at clementi.

phew. not to mention watching chelsea get thumped 3-0 and united, with ronaldo firing on all cylinders at the moment grabbing 2 goals, romp home to a 1-3 victory on a ground where they've lost at for the past 2 years. great stuff...

when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

sherlock holmes. sir arthur conan doyle's victorian super sleuth is an absolute joy to read. it's a real winning formula. cast the case in front of the reader and smack a solution that is seemingly totally unconnected soon after. after baiting the reader with mystery, draw in the line with solid, common-sensical and seemingly everyday knowledge to wrap everything up in a watertight explanation.

the charm of it all lies in the sheer simplicity holmes deals with each case, no matter how baffling they are. granted, not all stories will have one at the edge of their seat. however, most of the cases are unique and downright interesting. and the solution to each case can be found with the most logical reasonings and inference from the most minimal of evidence. how many of us would even dare infer that a man's wife has ceased to love him based upon the dust collected on his hat, even if we were living in the victorian context and era? holmes, for all his eccentricities, is a focused and highly objective detective, and his character is rather endearing despite his egoistic tendencies.

if you get a chance to read the works of sherlock holmes, i would definitely reccommend it wholeheartedly, and the reasons are positively elementary.