sportsmanship

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of watching the Arsenal vs Tottenham EPL match on the television. And I was unfortunate enough to witness the examples of sportsmanship which would put even young children to shame.

Firstly, Tottenham continued play even though Arsenal had two players on the ground, supposedly needing medical help, and went on to score the first goal of the game. It could be argued that the refree waved play on, and the two Arsenal players had in fact collided with each other. But it should still be common knowledge in soccer, that if a player is down on the ground, you should kick the ball out.

Secondly, Arsenal's striker appeared to foul Tottenham's defender ( I can't remember who were the players ) and then went on to supply the pass which eventually led to a beautiful goal from Thierry Henry. Well, this is at least forgivable, because the refree once again believe there was no reason to stop play, and since no one was injured, the striker would have been doing the correct thing to continue playing. But it still isn't right to knowingly commit a foul and go on to score the goal. That's so Drogba.


Anyway, today, I got to hear of one of the most bizzare case of bad sportsmanship in my 18 years of existence. It will surely dwarf the above two in terms of the lack of sportsmanship.

Meridian JC vs Raffles JC.
87th min: MJC 5 - 1 RJC

Then came Zeus. There was lightning in the skies and thus the match had to be paused. That's the right thing the refree did. Once Zeus left, perhaps it was still raining, but the match could carry on. The refree, doing his job well, consulted both teams and informed them that he was about to resume the match. Surely with only 3 minutes left, and the lightning clouds having just left, it would be safe to finish the game.

But NO! That wasn't what the RJC team, with their overwhelming intelligence, thought. They deemed it too dangerous to continue playing after lightning has passed. Note the fact that it has passed. Perhaps they also took into slight consideration that they were 5-1 down at the moment. So the option to replay the entire match another day seemed the best choice. Now, I don't even know how to comment on such sporting behaviour. I'm sure they had our interests at heart, that they were afraid we would get struck by lightning.

Anyway, before the match, I had respect for RJC. The fact that they were top of the group, perhaps unbeaten, led me to believe that they were a respectable and formidable opponent. They disappointed me. First they conceded 5 goals. Even if the goals were fluke goals, even if luck was on MJ's side, to concede 5 would have to mean they weren't that formidable right? Secondly they had to pull off such a stunt.

Respect. For RJC. What little bit of it that I had. Is now gone. Gone and it will never return.

lazy

Haha! I finally realised my one outstanding weak point when I'm doing sports.

It's something so simple and basic but I always have a reason to avoid it.
My wearkness is that I'm always unwilling to do defence once I tire even the slightest bit. There will always be some reason for me to avoid doing continual defence work. I'll either say I feel an injury somewhere, or just simply convince myself that I'm too tired to defend anymore. I know it's a really horrible weakness and it's something I'll surely have to overcome soon if I'm going to do well in any sport I want to pursue. And I think because of that, I always let my teammates down. Come to think of it, it's really very bad.

Back to the coming elections. I just found out that it's the SDA (it's short for Singapore Democratic Alliance, I think) who will be sending a team to compete in Tampines-Changkat GRC. It might be slightly early to say this, but I feel that no matter what, the PAP candidates will still be the MPs of this GRC after the coming elections. Anyway, my dad mentioned on the car just now, that the Workers' Party candidates this time round have quite a bit of substance in them. Because they are all degree holders and I think he also mentioned they hold some positions in society. Well then, all the best to them as well. Becuase I hope that the government will have all the best people, so that Singapore will continue to prosper. This is so that young and lazy Singaporeans like myself will not have to bother ourselves too much with matters of the nation.

May the best team win
An age-old quote, but nevertheless very correct.

trance

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Trance is a style of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 160 bpm, featuring repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track, often crescendoing or featuring a breakdown. Sometimes, vocals are also utilised. The style is arguably derived from a combination of largely techno and house as well as being heavily influenced by Goa trance. Trance got its name from repeating and morphing beats and melodies which would presumably put the listener into a trance but because the music is almost always played in nightclubs at popular vacation spots and in inner cities, one could argue this style of music would be better known as club music.

I never knew what it was until yesterday night. But it's really quite enjoyable.

Well anyway, the elections are coming. 6th May I think. It's a saturday and they're going to declare it a public holidays. Not that it matters in any sense. I have no school on Saturdays and I can't vote anyway.

But what's the point of voting? In my opinion, most GRCs will either be a walkover or a clear win. So there, let's just enjoy the public holiday.

pierc

How is it possible to get fired up over nothing?

It has been happening to me over the past week. I kept having to cool myself down and go on being happy so that no one would notice. Of course, there were times when I didn't bother to even hide the blatant fact that I'm unhappy. I just indulge in my own world, which is, in most senses, unhealthy. Damnit.

Anyway, what's the big deal with guys piercing their earlobes? I don't see nothing wrong. But it's just some old-fashioned, traditional people who can't seem to understand that piercing anywhere doesn't affect your work ability, and it sure as hell will not corrupt your character, unless it has already been corrupted beyond words, then that's another story. Back to my point, I don't see how piercing can be worse than smoking or gambling. I mean, unless I somehow get addictied to piercing, which I most probably won't. Some people are just old fashioned, stubborn mules. No amount of 'discussions' will persuade them to change their minds. Dumbos.

You've got to peak at the right time, which is your A Levels
by Ms Esther Lai, principal of Meridian Junior College.

I hope I can peak at that time, because I feel as if I'm "valley-ing" now. There is no motivation in me, I seem to have lost all interest in studies. The idea of skipping school is constantly on my mind. Whatever. School sucks.

addiction

Addiction. Dictionary.com defines it as the condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

We've all heard about drug/substance addiction. That happens when you are constantly craving for drugs. That's a bad thing. It's even illegal. Next, with the upcoming integrated resorts (IRs for short), gambling addiction has become somewhat a hot topic. Counselling centres for gambling addicts have already been set up. But I have to say, I don't understand all the hype about gambling addiction now. Legalised gambling has been around in Singapore for ages. We've had the horse races, the 4Ds and totos. Even the Big Sweep is some form of gambling. But because the IRs are such a big thing, people are raising the public's awareness about gambling addiction.

Other than these two main forms of addiction, I've come to realise a new form of "addiction". The percentage of people who actually are "addicted" to it could acutally be very small, but I believe it's slowly growing, mainly due to Singapore's competitive society. This "addiction" is studying. It has almost become a habit for Singaporean students to study wherever they can. So can studying be considered an addiction? And if so, can I thus say that compulsive or habitual studying is a bad thing? Parents will surely disagree. I've asked my parents and I just could not get them to use studying and bad thing in the same sentence.

I've seen people studying while eating out. I've seen people studying on buses and trains, I've even seen people studying while walking. That's quite scary. Luckily, I've not seen people studying in cinemas. That would really be freakish. But I still think if certain people should review their methods of studying. Should studying for an exam, even if it's 2 days away, take priority over everything? By everything, I meant family time, time with friends, exercise time, relaxation time. Mugging is good, to some extent, but is it still good if it takes precedence over other things in life that matters?

Remember, all work and no play makes Jack a dull ass.
But all play and no work makes Jack a dumbass.

I'm sure all of us wouldn't want to be either one, so study smart and play hard.
Don't get addicted to studying.

dis-appoint-ment.

Right now, I'm disappointed by MJ's soccer.

Why? Not because they are unable to reach last year's standards. But simply because I feel that the coach makes stupid decisions. And that the team is not playing as well as I believe it should if the coach had been a slight bit more intelligent.

I don't feel like going into details here because it's simply not that right for me to do so. And, I hope that they will qualify for the 2nd round and hopefully, at least advance to the semi finals.

Anyway, when I was watching MJC vs AJC, which MJ incidentally won 3-2. I thought of something. Maybe I could become a soccer coach. It's quite an abstract dream. Plus, if you consider that I can't play soccer really well, what chance is there I can be a coach right? But I am always so critical of coaches'/managers' decisions and team selections. Sometimes, I wished that I could change their tactics, their formation, and somehow I believe that it would allow that team to play better. It's just an abstract idea, and I know that I'll most probably never become a coach, but that's what simulations, like Championship Manager, are for.


A quote, which in a way sums up my feelings awhile ago.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent

Sounds slightly dumb perhaps, but in my opinion, quite true.

superstars.

Superstar. Exactly how do you define a superstar?

Is it...
A) A famous icon who has worked his way up the entertainment industry after years of hard work and quality works?
B) A undoubtedly talented person who manages to get his talent spotted by media companies, by luck or by chance, and shoots to fame overnight?

Make your choice and think about it. The recent flood of "Superstar-mania", which has been sweeping across Singapore, has been going too far. Of course, I wouldn't deny it's excellent entertainment. Why would I, when I've been enjoying the programmes? I enjoyed Star Idol, Project Superstar and the recently-concluded Campus Superstar.

But come to think about it, how many of the "Superstars" or "Idols" who become 'household names' in these competitions will actually be able to maintain their fame in the long run? I seriously think that very few of them would be able to do that. They shot to fame as raw talents, to become a polished gem would take a lot of hard work and the continued support of their producers. That is quite a bit to ask, I believe, from people who shoot to fame in like 6 months.

I feel that all these competitions are actually treated as BIG money-spinners by MediaCorp, rather than as the talent-spotting programmes I assumed they are projected as. The amount of income they are able to get is monsterous. If each SMS/call to vote is $0.50, 1 million such votes would enable them to rake in $500000. That might not be ALOT singularly, but multiply that by the number of times we as audiences are asked to vote throughout the entire programme. Now that's quite a bit isn't it?

Take for example yesterday's night's Campus Superstar Finals. The fans were supposed to vote twice. Once for the first rounds and once for the second rounds. In the first round, the two male finalists competed and one winner emerged. Same for the two female finalists. On to the second round and ALL scores are reset to zero. That means they restart afresh. Their SMS/Call votes. The scores they got from the judges. But do the phone bills of their fans get reset to zero? NO. Taking into consideration that this is CAMPUS superstar, which most probably means that most of the supporters are students from the respective schools, the majority of supporters are not earning their own income yet. All the money comes from their parents, who surely have to toil to earn the money that MediaCorp gladly collects on the premise that they, the supporters, are voting to select THEIR campus superstar. What more can I say?

I hereby give my best wishes to all the past, present and future winners of such competitions. I hope that their talent, having been discovered, would not be wasted, but instead be polished to make them real superstars capable of holding their own in the global entertainment industry.