another fantastic sunday

i know i started my post meant for last sunday, but in the end, i just never got down to finishing it.

in short, it was a great sunday, especially since i finally had my long awaited opportunity to play basketball at tanglin cc, the group's old stamping ground till we decided to shift to the moe cca branch (or old nie as we still call it).

well, kind of like how i had two crappy sundays in a row, i have had two fantastic sundays back to back, and i daresay this sunday was better than last.

yep, i probably had a better game of ball last sunday and much better weather, but today had its own awesome fun moments even though i'm all lobster red again. there is a certain enjoyment in my game again that has been missing that just makes the charring to a crustaceany finish all worth it along with the nice feeling of having put in a good shift.

after lunch and lan, i went for mass at the cathedral (not so great considering it's been ages since my last visit to a church without aircon), and i bumped into ms ong at the bus stop after that. we caught up a bit before her bus came. it was a pleasant surprise and really nice to see her as she's one of the best teachers i've ever had.

next up was that bloody incredible manchester derby we watched at dod's place. great goals, stupid mistakes, drama and controversy; this game had it all. and of course, united came out on top. not the scoreline that reflects the spanking of those upstart mercenaries as i had hoped for, but snatching victory right at the death in stoppage time pretty much makes up for it. watching those city bastards all forlorn and all as well as that ass mark hughes throwing hissy fits because of the time added on just made all the heartstopping drama worth it.

as an aside, sorry if you expected a good reception from the fans, carlos tevez you bloody judas. you may have been a good servant for us, but leaving for city rivals automatically bumps your rep down a notch. sure, the fans may have loved you, and you may have tried sucking up to us by saying good things about us. but we're bloody not stupid when you diss the team that made you a champion of both england and europe. i thoroughly enjoyed deriding and booing your sorry, mercenary ass everytime you touched the ball and absolutely enjoyed seeing you prancing around the pitch like a clueless, forlorn little deer. have fun chasing shadows or qualification for europe with that bunch of money-grubbing losers.

(end of judas rant)

after all that drama, we went our seperate ways after the guys got some dao hui from geylang (i got me some 7up since i'm not a soya person...) and, as fate would have it, i met another person i hadn't seen in a long while in the form of goose at eunos mrt station.

hopefully next sunday's just as bloody good as this one or even better... but that's really gonna take something special.

rediscovery...

motivation.

without it, we are like leaves in a rushing river of life, at the mercy of every flow and every ebb.

once we find it, however, it is like latching on to a rope attached to the strongest tree in the jungle alongside the river. we can then haul ourselves out and proceed along any path we want.

for the longest time, i've forgotten what that meant in terms of my personal fitness.

but now that i've found the motivation to improve both my stamina and my basketball skills, i really, really feel committed to sticking to my plan.

and while it gets boring and, well, naturally tiring at times, i'm actually enjoying it. sweating it out once a day on the basketball court feels good.

and of course, nothing tops the feeling of hitting basket after basket when you find your rhythm.

basketball, basketball... i need a fix.

yep. i feel like akagi over there. (clipped from SPECTRUM NEXUS)

argh.

i hate the weather these days. why can't it rain on days OTHER THAN SUNDAY MORNING?!

i'm reading myself into a fanatical basketball fervour thanks to slam dunk, but thanks to the rain on sunday morning, i have gone a month without a proper game.

GEEZ.

i know i shot some hoops downstairs on sunday afternoon after coming back from the failed trip to bukit timah, but it's still nothing like a real game. no one to pressure you, no one to dribble pass, no one to defend against... urgh.

this sunday cannot come any moment sooner... *fidget fidget*

slam dunk da funk...

if you've been reading my fb status updates, you'd probably have guessed that i'm going nutty over slam dunk again (yeah, that old manga/anime...). and digging them out from behind my long row of kenshin mangas, i've started reading them again.

yes, it's the chinese version. stop staring at me like that. i know, i know. it's pretty unbelievable that greg is reading chinese stuff. yeah, yeah whatever. no i'm not just looking at the pictures and guessing what's happening (though i'll admit that i do skim through some bits 'cause it's just an overload of chinese words when takehiko starts explaining technical basketball terms since i know them already...).

it's hard to imagine how'd anyone beyond a sports enthusiast would read a manga based on a sport. i suppose, like bleach, it'd be better to watch the anime since there's so much movement involved (well, i am awaitng my torrent to finish so i can get to watching and hearing proper voices in japanese with english subs as opposed to translating chinese to english and making exceptions for names...).

but if an artist is skilled enough to convey movement and detail, with enough imagination, the reader can get absorbed into the world, playing and replaying each move with fluidity with the aid of a healthy dose of brain activity.

it also helps that there's a tonne of comedy in between as sakuragi (the red-headed and not-so-bright main protagonist) gets himself into all sortsa silly situations whilst learning the ropes of the sport he adopted to impress a girl. oh yeah, he doesn't know squat about it at first, but has an impressive repertoire of physical attributes and learns mighty quick.

ah, slam dunk. i missed you guys...



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on a side note, i've come to the conclusion that i'm a sucker for good characters. characters with solid back story and/or grow tremendously over the course of the story.

it's probably why i think revenge of the fallen is one helluva show with some really good characters (jetfire, simmons) and action despite the obvious drawback of a rather dour plot. on the flip side, i thought g.i. joe (which has a slightly better plot and just about the same level of action) wasn't as outstanding due to a lack of captivating characters (i liked rip cord, but channing tatum's duke kinda fell short in the character stakes...).

maybe that's just a limited analysis from a limited set of examples.

but i think i'm going to try and pay attention to stories a little more when i watch a movie and compare them to what i hear from my friends and critics...

spider-man vs mickey mouse? it just might happen...

hoo boy. if you haven't heard the news by now, disney has bought over marvel in a four billion dollar deal.

yeah. mickey mouse is now the boss of peter parker, tony stark and the x-men.

i probably speak for a dozen and one fans out there, but i hope disney has the sense to not mess with a winning formula. heck, i bet the fellas at disney are getting bombarded by all the marvel fan boys making that point in various degrees.

i suppose if there's one good thing about having disney look after the marvel properties is that we'll most likely be getting good, solid animations. just imagine a pixar spider-man animated series. or fantastic four. or x-men.

now that would be awesome.

though i guess the most important thing is that the comics be totally untouched. seriously.

can you imagine every story arc being made to have a mandatory happy disney ending? or no deaths allowed? the hulk beating up bad guys with a stuffed bunny instead of a lamp post?

ok, fine. i guess i'm exaggerating with that last example. disney definitely does allow some violence pass through.

but you get my point, right?

well disney, you guys really have me hoping for some really good marvel stuff. i hope you don't disappoint.