27.11.09


After exam priorities.
Less than four more days to go. When i get home after the exam, i'm going to grab a bottle of chilled beer and gulp it down all on my own.

Then the next day, i'm going to go get some exercise.
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25.11.09


Sad.
I was so sure that i'd be happy, overjoyed, once the exams were over. But now i don't know...how do you enjoy your holidays when you know that you screwed up in your exams? How do you enjoy it when you study like mad until almost traumatic levels, and people can still quote all these cases on the get-go while you have to spend all that time looking through your notes? When people had prepared the right answers and spotted the right topics but you didn't? When you spend 10% of the exam time mulling over one difficult issue and likely got it wrong? When you gave yourself only 30% of the exam time to finish up half the paper?

Have i reached my limits? Have i OVERreached my limits and gotten burnt as a result?

If i answer no to the above two questions, then i'm NOT going to be able to enjoy my holidays.
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13.11.09


I'm still horrible at it.
It is SO DAMN SHITTY that this event has to be right when exams are just around the corner. Amagad i'm just so freakin stressed out. And it really shows, because when i'm stressed, i start losing hair...literally. In ways people can't imagine LOL...urgh. Serves me right for not thinking a month ahead, i suppose. :\

Anyway after a bit of fretting, i consulted my trusty device, and have come up with a solution. It would take up a day of studying...but hey, prioritising is the name of the game, right? Stuff like this is far more important than getting a half grade better in a few subjects, right? I mean seriously.

Aside from the GODDAMN F*CKIN EXAMS (and to an extent, Winter, everyone's health, and how to earn enough later in life to do this family proud and be able to bring the kids on holiday once a year and retire comfortably and stuff like that), i've only got one worry right now...what the heck am i supposed to do next year? :| Sigh, i've gotta get better at this.
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8.11.09


The sadness of having a pet.
I'm...quite a pessimistic guy, aren't i? We currently have a dog in our house, a nearly all-white jack russel called Winter. He stayed in my old condominium for a few months when i was in JC1, and is actually my cousin's dog. I knew him when he was just a puppy.

Now, he's staying over at our house for the next two months or so. He's moved houses quite a bit, staying with my cousin, then her in-laws when she moved overseas, then with us in the condominium, then back to the in-laws and now back with us.

You could say that this house is the most spacious that he's ever lived in. My dad's also pretty free these days, so he often takes Winter for walks around the neighbourhood.

Yet, i can't help but feel sad for Winter. Back when he stayed with us in the condominium, he was about 4 years old and in the prime of his life. Now, he's approaching 9, and is an old dog - something like 60+ in human years, supposedly. I think it sucks to have to watch anybody and anything you care for grow old, and you tend to notice it more when you haven't seen the person - or the pet - for a very long time (we don't visit my cousin's in-laws much...in fact i don't think i've ever gone to their house; i only hear about Winter from the stories my mother tells me).

And when i think back on the life that Winter has lived, it just seems to me that he hasn't lived a full life. I don't think he's ever "done it" before, and he clearly has never had offspring and will never have them (because he had his testicles removed for medical reasons). He has never truly eaten "good food", and he has never had the chance to run around in the grass (because the adults are afraid he'll get mites). And apart from his early years with Ginger (this other dog that my cousin had but was gifted to a dog-lover friend when she went overseas to live), Winter has never had consistent contact with other dogs for roughly the past 6 years. He lives a sheltered life but has no companionship. In my cousin's in law's place, he doesn't have space to roam around and just sits in one corner lazing around, doing nothing, waiting to die while his days just pass by without incident.

And now, when i look at him, healthy as he might be, i can't help thinking that he only has about 5 years to live at the most. That his days are numbered. That when he goes (touch wood), he'll never have experienced all those things and he'll never have the same amount of attention that was showered on him during the first two years of his life. And, for the most part, we can't do anything about most of it. It's a depressing thought. And it seems that i'm full of such depressing thoughts. Maybe that's why keeping pets ultimately aren't for me.
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6.11.09


. . .
You know what? Arsenal should sign Patrick Vieira during the January transfer window to cover for Alex Song while he's at the African Cup of Nations.

Okay that was totally random. Time to go for a shower and watch a little Ookiku Furikabutte...which is this baseball sports/slice-of-life anime that i currently rate very highly. Tomorrow i'll have to start my hardcore studying (urgh help), and i'm also looking forward to my *er hem* package from the USA and seeing what my parents have brought back from Thailand!
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4.11.09


It really sucks.
You know...it really sucks when someone asks you for help, and you spend hours of your own time (with no benefit to yourself) talking about the problem with that person, and then the "help" becomes a heated debate because that person does not fully agree with or understand what you say, and then that person becomes exasperated and walks away without thanking you.

It's like the person has forgotten that he or she was the one who approached you in the first place. It's as if, by winning the debate or argument, you have somehow gained a benefit and no longer need the thanks. The person comes to you for help, then disagrees with your feedback, without recognising that the act of volunteering feedback - and of sacrificing all that time - in response to the request for help should itself be deserving of thanks.

Which really sucks.
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1.11.09


Arsenal rocks, but Liverpool...kinda sucks...
Today (or rather, last night), i watched two football (i.e. soccer) matches. Arsenal v Tottenham in full and Fulham v Liverpool until Fulham scored their second goal.

The Arsenal match went along smoothly as usual, although i'm starting to think that Arshavin is slipping in form a little bit, and Van Persie and Eduardo also missed a few sitters. Maybe Arshavin and Van Persie are getting tired? They've been playing practically every game, which is something that neither Van Persie (who's usually had plenty of "injury breaks") nor Arshanvin (formerly playing in the slack-ass Russian league) are used to. Eduardo hasn't played a regular match in a very long time too.

But Fabregas was amazing as usual. Lol my mum mispronounced his name as "Fibre-gahs" and both of us started laughing and saying "fibre glass" and stuff. Okay that was totally random. Oh and i don't think i'm the only person to have noticed, but Alex Song is really becoming a MASSIVE defensive midfielder; he was nipping Tottenham attacks at the bud for the whole match. His defensive work was owning Tottenham, and his distribution is pretty solid and consistent too.

As for Liverpool...amagad; i'm sorry to say this, but their squad really really sucks at the moment, especially in attack (their defence may suck too but i think it's just a loss of form...i'm still confident in the abilities of Mascherano, Agger, and Skrtel especially). And no, i'm not just reacting to their loss to Fulham. I've been thinking that way since they sold off Alonso and bought an injured Aquilani, and continued to think as such even after they beat Manchester United.

Torres is a football god (his goal today was kickass as well), but apart from Gerrard and maybe Benayoun, it seems like none of Liverpool's attacking players can compare.

None of them can be trusted to score consistently - Thomas Vermaelen, the Arsenal defender, seems to have more of a predatory instinct compared to Babel, Kuyt, Ngog, etc, etc, etc. None of them have enough pace - Babel was SUPPOSED to be fast (supposed to be the next Henry too) but i hardly see him outrun any defenders. All of them usually need plenty of touches to get the ball under control when they receive a pass - i saw this trait especially in Kuyt and Voronin - meaning that they have poor ball control overall.

And all this affects Liverpool's chances of winning. Because Torres (and to an extent, Benayoun) are the only first-teamers that can trusted to hit the target, defenders just need to focus on those two players whenever they get the ball; the marking on Torres by Fulham was especially tight. In fact, it seems like the other Liverpool players know how badly they shoot and they don't even attempt shots when they are under any kind of pressure, which makes it even more pathetic; Fulham park a bus in front of goal, and because the other players can't curl a shot over that wall, they miserably try to feed a through-ball to Torres which almost always gets cut out.

Because Liverpool's other attacking players lack pace, their attacks lack incisiveness. Because their players need a lot of touches to control the ball, it slows their attack by a lot and the opposing team can easily get back to defend.

Who is to blame? Well...i really can't think of anyone except for Rafa Benitez. A lot of people were flaming his decision to sub out Torres and Benayoun early, but that, to me, is hardly the problem. Benitez's signings have been really suspect; granted that some of them - like the Keane signing - were due to Rick Parry, a lot of them have proven to be duds. His purchase of Babel for 11.5 million pounds was pretty suspect, for one. So were all the millions he's spent on guys like Voronin, Morientes, Crouch, Bellamy, Pennant, Sissoko, Philip Degen (he signed a crappy Spanish fullback in the past as well, besides Arbeloa) Dossena, and Rieira (who is good, but currently not playing at all). It remains to be seen if the 20 million pounds spent on Aquilani is good money, too.

Compare all this to Manchester United's record for the past five years. I haven't really seen them make many signings of players that they end up selling after just one season to another club at a lower price. Either they keep the player until he becomes good, or they sell him off, mostly at a profit. They don't often have purchased rejects (at least since the Kleberson days...and even then, that's when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo); most of the rejects come from the youth academy - which i'd imagine would cost Manchester United less than the usual 5-10 million pounds a player that Benitez spends.

I don't even want to compare Benitez's record to Wenger because there'd be too many things to type. Let's just say that, within the current squad alone (ignoring past basement bargain talents like Henry, Vieira, Ljungberg, etc, etc, etc) i trust Fabregas and Van Persie to hit the target when it really matters. Walcott, Bendtner, Diaby, Denilson, Gallas, Nasri, Arshavin, Rosicky, Eduardo, and Vermaelen are all much more reliable than most of Liverpool's forwards as well - they won't scuff their shots too often (okay maybe i'm a bit optimistic about Bendtner...but he really IS getting better!). Vela, Ramsey, Wilshere and Merida also seem like exciting prospects. And the first seven and last four of the current players i mentioned cost Arsenal an average of about 2.5 million pounds each.

Other things might be blamed for the bad state of Liverpool FC as well.

Liverpool's coaching might be suspect. I haven't seen young players like Babel improve at all since arriving at Liverpool, and i get a feeling that the Liverpool coaches aren't very good at teaching their players how to shoot the ball.

Their tactics might be suspect too. I often see Liverpool forwards bringing the ball to the byline and crossing it into the box. Or their fullbacks, who're less ambitious than in other teams, would often carry the ball until somewhere before the penalty box before crossing it in. But...there's no one there to collect the crosses. Torres isn't exactly the tallest striker around, and with three defenders marking him, not to mention the usually giant goalkeeper, it's quite a tall task for him. Not only that, the other Liverpool forwards are short. Kuyt? Voronin? Please. I'm also not very confident of Kuyt's ability to head the ball, and this is the same for Babel, Ngog, etc, etc, etc.

I also often see Liverpool players passing the ball square to the other player directly, which i think slows their attack a lot since the other player would need to cushion the ball with a touch first and get it under control with another.

It's especially bad with forward passes...during the match earlier, i kept seeing players passing forward and square to forwards like Kuyt and Voronin, who would receive the ball with their backs to the goal. They would cushion the ball, and move a short distance away from the goal to control the ball. A Fulham player would come hounding after them, and they would be forced further back; every time they tried to pass the ball forward, they had to be forced back a bit. And because they could not look towards the direction of the goal, they could only dribble or pass back to a defender or occasionally right or left to someone else, meaning that the attack was always slow moving.

Arsenal and Manchester United players seem to pass it into space more often and let the receiving player run onto it, which i think speeds things up a lot (have you seen Fabregas's super curling pass???). But of course this could also be a question of technique; most of Arsenal's players need just one touch both to collect and control a direct, square pass anyway. Also, i do see Liverpool players sometimes using long range passes for the receiving player to run onto, except that, ever since the departure of Xabi Alonso, most of those long passes have gone wayward.

So, anyway, Liverpool are in a sad state, which is quite unfortunate for fans like my dad and Weiyu. I also feel for talented players like Torres and Gerrard who have to shoulder the club on their own without much reward. I might support Arsenal, but to be honest i feel quite bad for Liverpool's title drought. It'd be good for them to win one as well, for the sake of Gerrard and Torres, and to peg those arrogant United fans back and shut them up.

LOL if you didn't know that i am anti-Manure, this is the moment of truth...i totally detest Sir Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney hahaha! I also don't like Darren Fletcher, who seems to have discovered the accursed talent of being able to commit professional fouls without incurring a penalty or a card (or sometimes even the foul itself). I also think that Ferdinand is heavily overrated. I do, however, respect Vidic and Giggs.

Anyway, at the moment, the perfect season for me would be for Liverpool to win the EPL title and for Arsene Wenger to finally get his hands on the Champions League trophy.

And then after that, since Gerrard and Torres would be satisfied enough, Arsenal can win the EPL and Champions League titles for all the seasons after.
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About Me...


Gregory Ang
{♠gRêCkÖ♠}
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