Cristiano Ronaldo Free Kick

Absolutely fantastic free-kick scored by Ronaldo, a different approach for hitting the deadball. Definitely one of his best goals so far.

You'll know the different styles I mentioned, compare to Beckham's trademark "banana kick".

Inactive blogging

First of all, sorry for not updating the blog that often as usual.

Basically I do not have much spare time to fool around. Was carried away with test IV & assignments.

A hectic life I'm having now, I've mentioned many times that this is gonna be an important and busy year, so I dont really have time for extra stuffs. As for my precious leisure time I mostly spend it on listening music to "detoxify" or rest.

Hmm.... music has been playing a big part of my life these days. I'm addicted to it, much like people rely so much on cigs and drugs. For me, music is my drug, I hardly can content myself without it.
One of my current favourite song is "Summer" by Joe Hisaishi. I've put it in this blog now, it's on the right-sidebar. Not a long piece, just 1 min plus, pretty relaxing & easy song. 

I'll try to sort out some time to write more.... Friday is a public holiday so I'll have sometime to rest well and perhaps regain my blogging spirit. We'll see then. 

5 lessons about the way we treat people

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor
Gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student
And had breezed through the questions until I read
The last one:
'What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?'
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the
Cleaning woman several times. She was tall,
Dark-haired and in her 50's, but how would I know her name?
I handed in my paper, leaving the last question
Blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if
The last question would count toward our quiz grade.
'Absolutely, ' said the professor. 'In your careers,
You will meet many people. All are significant. They
Deserve your attention and care, even if all you do
Is smile and say 'hello.'
I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her
Name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American
Woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway
Trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had
Broken down and she desperately needed a ride.
Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.
A young white man stopped to help her, generally
Unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960's The man
Took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.
She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his
Address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a
Knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a
Giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A
Special note was attached.
It read:
'Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway
The other night. The rain drenched not only my
Clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.
Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying
Husband's' bedside just before he passed away... God
Bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving
Others.'
Sincerely,
Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less,
A 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and
Sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in
Front of him.
'How much is an ice cream sundae?' he asked.
'Fifty cents,' replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and
Studied the coins in it.
'Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?' he inquired.
By now more people were waiting for a table and the
Waitress was growing impatient.
' Thirty-five cents,' she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins.
'I'll have the plain ice cream,' he said.
The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on
The table and walked away The boy finished the ice
Cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress
Came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the
Table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish,
Were two nickels and five pennies..
You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had
To have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson.. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a
Roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if
Anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the
King's' wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by
And simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the
King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did
Anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of
Vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the
Peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the
Stone to the side of the road. After much pushing
And straining, he finally succeeded. After the
Peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed
A purse lying in the road where the boulder had
Been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note
From the King indicating that the gold was for the
Person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The
Peasant learned what many of us never understand!
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve
Our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a
Hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who
Was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only
chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had
miraculously survived the same disease and had
developed the antibodies needed to combat the
illness. The doctor explained the situation to her
little brother, and asked the little boy if he would
be willing to give his blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a
deep breath and saying, 'Yes I'll do it if it will save
her.' As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed
next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing
the color returning to her cheek. Then his face
grew pale and his smile faded.
He looked up at the doctor and asked with a
trembling voice, 'Will I start to die right away'.
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the
doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his
sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Brace-free!

Yesterday I've to skip 2 lectures for dental appointment. Although I'm not quite happy to skip 2 important lectures, anyway it's kinda worth all the trouble as I'm finally can take off the evil braces!

I cant really :D when taking photo cause the braces are ugly, spoil my image.

I've been putting on the braces since mid 2004, so it's 3.5 years the steel wires "stayed" in my mouth. To be frank, I've phobia of going to dental clinic but for the sake of my appearance I've to overcome the fear and deal with it. Why I'm afraid of dental? It goes way back long long time ago, not a sweet childhood memory.  :\

So now.... finally I can :D with confidence!

I'll get myself a chewing gum tomorrow back in college. You know, the doctor told me not to take in gums, so I obliged and stay away from those chewy gums for years....

Yanni Voices!

I'm getting more and more exciting for Yanni's new album to be released! Here's a documentary featuring Yanni, Ric and the new vocals behind Yanni's music, Nathan, Leslie, Chloe and Ender.





From my experience watching this video for few times, I'm really amazed that all the talents those singers have. At the first place I was unhappy with Yanni's music added with vocals, but those singers prove me wrong for good. They're just so good! Probably some of the best vocalists I ever heard!

I personally like Leslie than the other few singers. It's not that the rest of them arent good enough, but I just hooked with her voices. Too bad I dunno the title of her song except for "Before The Night Ends".

Leslie

Besides, another female singer Chloe sang quite good too, a rare talent for her age.
Nathan, the handsome lad collaborate well with other singers, as well as getting a grip with his solo featuring "Tribute", which you can get the full length mp3 at the official site.

The next update is scheduled on next Monday (28 Jan). It's very close to the new site being launched in Feb....



Read: Yanni Voices Part I

A busy day in TARC

  Today is not the favourable day for most of us as we're having the most lessons in a day, and also the odd rest time.

My day starts with Bio tutorial, which Ms Chong discussed the chapter "Transport in Mammals" tutorial work. Briefly let me revise a bit from the last semester's chapter.

The lesson followed by a GP presentation in lecture hall, not our usual classroom as diploma students occupied them for exam. My group was the first to present, and our subject is Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian spiritual leader. To much of my demise, our group's presentation didn't went very well, we're not sync-in with each other. I tried to make some fancy word with PowerPoint but it help a little. Oh well.

Second group doing their presentation:

 

A random spot in TARC.

After the GP presentation there comes our first Chemistry practical session with Mr Low. Today's experiment is something interesting and he asked us to bring a camera to record down, so that's why you see the pics here!

Mr Low briefing us bout the experiment in a whole new lab.

Funny emergency "shower" and "basin".

Classmates, with 2 of them forgot to put on the lab coat.

The experiment:

 

Me in the lab.

 

We only left 30 mins for our lunch break after the Chemistry practical, weird timing I'd say. Tried canteen's nasi lemak, taste ok but a little too spicy for my liking. It's kinda hurry to settle lunch and then rushing to attend the next lesson.

The next lesson would be Bio lecture, where most students cant concentrate on what Ms Chong teach. Pity her and everyone of us, I dunno why everyone in the lecture hall seems to have no mood to study, all look tired(including myself). Ms Chong sensed something wrong with us, so her class ends earlier than usual. It is the last lesson of the day for some, but for me I still have another lecture before I can get myself out of there.

The last Physics lecture is even worse than Bio, Ms Ong's teaching a new topic bout rotation, something like that. That time hardly anyone can understand what is it. Those still left in the lecture hall more or less had their mind thinking outside of the lecture hall. Our response were pretty bad, so Ms Ong called it off a day earlier as well. Hah, the lecturers sure know how to sense when the students are in the mood to study or not.

For today, most of us are driven low of energy due to long period of classes stacked together, and with a short break. I used to study from 8-3 without any problem, given that I've an hour break in between. This happened once in every week, so we basically look forward for Friday's class as it's the shortest (mine ended at 1230).

Friday supposedly to be the last day of study in a week, but now lecturers had extra classes with us on Saturday morning. Again, 8 to noon, although it's shorter than usual lessons but to steal the sleeping hours for us students is a cruel reality.....  :(

P/S: This is post no. 1300 in the blog!  :D

Life in TARC

It's been quite awhile since I blogged about college life. Heh, looking back at what I used to post last time, I started to felt that I didn't write enough bout college stuffs than I used to write bout school.

I personally think that this is due to the fact that starting from this semester I'll be getting busy preparing for the coming exams. Sigh, I lamented that A Level students like me have no life to enjoy like other diploma friends. Although they're packed with studies as well, but compare to us they seems to have more time to enjoy around.

We SPUS students, study like zombie for the 1.5 years, work so hard then sit for the exam. After that we left without a graduation ceremony or so, we just fade away like that (unlike our diploma counterparts, who will be enjoying the hats-throwing moment).

Of course, there're advantages and disadvantages for any path we chose to walk on. I believe that whichever path we chose, will eventually lead to a certain milestone in our life.

For my time in TARC, there's only 10 months to go. After I finished my A2 in mid-Nov, my journey will pause at another turning point, and until now I've yet to decide which way shall I take.

BBQ at Jolene's house

Apologize for lack of updates lately, wasn't in the mood to write anything because of rushing for courseworks.

Since Thursday is a public holiday, so Jolene, my coursemate, decided to throw a BBQ party on Wednesday night to have some fun time with friends as we won't be able to enjoy much out of this year due to courseworks and exams, pity us.

Likewise any other BBQ party attended, most of the menus are the same chicken wings, sausages, meatballs etc. Anyway I like the grilled mutton, taste good and thankfully doesn't have that "kind" of smell.


Chin Ying doing the grilling while guys preparing some unusual chocolate banana recipe.

Li Hong slicing the banana in pro-style. Too bad in the end the recipe failed, resulting a mixture of melted yellow and brown colour.

Many coursemates turn up in the party, with ladies outnumber guys.



Group photo


Some pics of guys playing a game called "Twister", a wicked game I'd say. At the end of the game almost everyone's body is positioned oddly, like what you see in the pics here. Note that if we carry on playing this game, even funnier pose could've been shown here, heh.




After the crazy Twister game we turn on to "tamer" games like UNO cards, pokers, and a game called Pictionary.
Pictionary is a kind of board game where you let your teammate guess an object by drawing it out without any verbal or alphabetical aid. Pretty interesting stuff there, as some of the objects are really challenging to express it in form of graphic.


A great time I'd say, I think this is the 1st time I join coursemates for event like this. I did get invited for parties last year but because of certain reasons I could not join 'em.
I hope there's more parties to come, especially after our major exams, heheh.... :D

P/S: Thanks Jolene for everything!

Adidas football boots for 2008

Tons of great pics in this post! Featuring the new F50.8 TUNiT (notice the semi-transparent back-heel part.)

Royal purple/Gold TUNiT chassis.

F30.8

Yellow/black

White/blue

Red/white

Black/white with sole components.

Customized F50.8

End of F50.8 TUNiT post. Below are other Adidas boots.

Blue AdiPure.

Rugby edition Predator PowerSwerve. Notice the different kind of studs on the sole, a redesigned round metal stud instead of bladed stud.

Predator PowerSwerve Prestige Grey

Champions League edition Predator PowerSwerve.

5S3 BBQ Gathering

Another typical class gathering, this time not handled by myself. Toh Wai and some friends decided to organise this gathering by themselves, so as the usual organiser I had myself step out of this affair and let them carry out their jobs.

It turns out to be a little messy at first due to mis-communications and crying weather. Who'll be foolish enough to had an open BBQ under the rain eh?
After some discussions among friends we decided to switch the location to another friend's house, which is quite close to my place. Thankfully her parents allow us for this "instantaneous" request, and gladly help us with the setting ups.

The food is surprisingly taste better than I expect. The usual fishballs, meatballs, sausages, chicken wings etc. Our BBQ menu always stuck with these few stuffs. Anyway preparing these stuffs arent easy, I did it before so I know preparing is far tedious than grilling and eating it!

Her house isn't the biggest, but we're glad that we could find a proper place to grill our food, albeit the bad weather. I got to admire her parents for being such generous and helpful.
If they turn on to my house, 99.99% my parents will reject it. Nowadays we rarely had many guests at our home, even our relatives doesn't come in such a large number. The last time we had such event is my 16th birthday, heh.

Currently I'm blogging from my friend's computer. Heh, I dunno how to play those poker cards, and I dunno how to play mahjong, I dont have the gambler's blood in me lol. My only concern is electronic devices, such as digital cams, computers and Internet.

I better get going to join the guys then, because I dunno when we'll have another gathering, and I doubt I'll be so free that time, given my tight exam schedule for this year. :(

Oh well, someday I'm gonna miss the days like this, the freedom and the joy of hanging out with friends~

Group photo. Some are missing because they went back already.


Mahjong gang.


Playing in the living room.


BBQ outside the house.

2008 is a busy year

Oh my! It's only the second day and I'm feeling terribly tired already! New year in college sure is a lot different last year. Hahah, now we're "promoted" to seniors, since SN7 seniors are done with their studies, so now we SJ8 and SN8 will be the big brothers and sisters then.  :P

I'm glad to see many familiar faces teaching us again.

Ms Chong who was suppose to be on maternity leave still teaching us for this semester, although she'll definitely be out of the classroom around March for maternity reason. Also, she'll be handling my class' Bio practical too, since Ms How quit to further her studies for a Ph.D degree.
Ms Lynn withdraw her decision to resign from teaching, and she's back in the classroom sharing all the jokes and knowledge with us. She told us her experience during the holiday, which turn out to be a party animal after all. My oh my, at some point I doubtful for her being a lecturer, but she really knew all the stuffs! Highly intelligent woman I'd say, I hold high regards on her.  :)

Year 2008 will be a busy year for us. Looking at the time-table, more or less the same as last semester, except this semester we'll be having additional classes for Bio and Chem, so far. I can only go back at 4pm on Monday, and got to go back to college on Saturday for a two hours extra class. A little sacrifice for academic purpose should not be a problem 'eh?

Another reason why this is gonna be a busy year is because of exams and tests. Let me list it out what test I'll be having and when is it:

1. Test IV (early Feb or late Feb)
2. Test V (mid course, trial for AS. Tentative 24 March - April Fool)
3. AS exam (mid May - mid June)
4. Test VI (July)
5. A2 Trial (Aug)
6. A2 exam (mid Oct - mid Nov)

It's like every 2 months a test is coming. Aiks, gonna get myself more hardworking then.... no more time to slack off like last year.

Talk about exams, I got back most of my Test III papers already. Other than one subject, the rest are doing quite OK, with 2 papers almost an A, a mere difference of 1 mark! I think I ought to work hard for the next test in order to secure the A!

I do hope myself is able to perform well in the exams, study smarter, and of course finish all the tutorials/assignments!

What I'll be doing for next year 2009 will strongly dependent on the result of my exams....

Asian Dream Song

I really love this song, so I'd like to share with you people here. :)
It's a composition of Joe Hisaishi, the composer for Miyazaki's (宫崎骏) famous Japanese cartoons.



Here's the audio sample.



Do note that the video and the audio sample sounds a little different.
Usually when those artist perform live, they'll alter the song a little to give audience a little surprise. :)