Seriously, for all the good things that come out of the US, the TV shows, well some of them are downright trashy. I managed to catch this show called "super sweet sixteen", which was a show on MTV which showed rich kids throwing humongous lavish birtday parties.
I was just sick to the stomach watching, but at the same time its kinda intriguing watching how blatantly spoilt children can be. I mean I see them everyday, in the many places that I go, at VJ, during tuition, but seriously, it never comes close to the kids in the US, who are intent on sucking the money off their parents.
The party is like totally OTT, the them was some greek theme with ppl wearing togas and shit, and the girl was carried in lar, wat the heck!!!! Oh and the best part was a conversation btw her and her father and she was asking him for a car for her bday, and he said "well it's either the party or the car, I'm not gonna cave in on dat".
So the girl just went to sulk in one corner, and guess wat the surprise was at the end of the mega party?
A freakin S-class convertible.
Freak, yah not gonna cave in my ass.
Anyways, dats all i wanna talk about, maybe its just me being jealous, obviously if i was the one with a car as my bday present, i would be over the moon lar. Btw, i noe of a guy who got it lar, and i was shocked that his parents actually agreed.
My name is Azrulnizam Shah and I have been a fan of Manchester United Football Club for the past 13 years. I must admit that I do not know much about the game and its technicalities at the top level but I would like to offer my two cents' worth of opinions. I hope you will consider them in due time. Ultimately of course, I still have the utmost trust in you and I hope that under you, this year, the team will do better.
Firstly, some cost cutting measures need to be in place, some players need to go, while other should be kept. This is my personal opinion on who should be in the list this year, and who should not.
Keep
Edwin Van Der Sar
Rio Ferdinand
Wes Brown
Paul Scholes
Alan Smith
Ryan Giggs
Park Ji Sung
Guiseppe Rossi
Gabriel Heinze
Louis Saha
Nemanja Vidic
Wayne Rooney
Tim Howard
Loan
Ben Foster
Patrice Evra
Liam Miller
John O'Shea
Kieran Richardson
David Jones
Gerard Pique
Philip Bardsley
Sell
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ruud Van Nistelrooy
Mikel Silvestre
Darren Fletcher
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer
As you recently mentioned yourself, you should not keep a player if he does not have the heart to stay. hence, Ruud and Ronaldo should go. Ruud, because his heart is not there and two of you do not seem to get along. Look at your tapes, Sir Alex, and think to yourself how many times Ruud cost the team with his poor finishing. Even if you are offered 12 million pounds, it would be better for him to be released now because you stand to lose a lot more as time progresses. Ronaldo because he is not a team player at all. As a fan, I will never forget how his performance last season against Benfica led to our elimination. He is indeed a brilliant player, but as I always tell my team, you do not need the best players, you need the right ones. Silvestre has lost it, and Ole is too old for the team, and we would be taking a step back if he were to stay. I know you have a lot of hope in Darren, and he has shown it at times, but after two seasons, suffice to say, he has not earned his stripes in the midfield battlefield of the EPL.
Also, for this season these are the recommendations I have:
1) Play Vidic and Ferdinand as the new centre partnership. Rio is calm and fast, while Nemanja is slower, but he is a hard hatchet man, somebody like Stam, who is no-nonsense and can play hard.
2) Start playing Park more, he is a small man, but his industry is something the game and the team needs.
3) Do not play Rooney on his own ever, because he is not the sort of player, he is indeed at his best when he is coming from deep.
4) Do not tinker around too much, I know that injuries really took its toll on us last season, but hopefully, if nothing goes wrong, this season will be a better one.
If you were to follow my advice in selling the players, the club would be close to 30 million pounds richer. This, added to the transfer kitty the Glazers have given you, which amounted to 25 million pounds, would give you a total of 55 million pounds to spend.
I believe it should be spent in the following departments:
1) A right-back in Gary Neville's mould, only much younger
2) A Defensive Midfielder
3) An Attacking Midfielder
4) A Top Class Striker
5) An extremely fast, skilful winger like Ronaldo, only thrice the team player he is
I feel that you should have tried to prise Damien Duff away, because he got away cheap, having been sold for 9 million pounds when he was bought for 20 plus million.
People you could target might include:
1) David Trezequet
2) Tim Cahill
3) Patrick Vieira
4) David Villa (in a swop for Ronaldo)
5) Jermain Defoe
6) Mahamadou Diarra
7) Camorenese
Also, why bother with Kuszczak? Howard is still a good goalkeeper and back up to Van Der Sar. When was the last time a reserve keeper worked through the ranks to eventually take over a first choice who is old and retired?
I hope I have not offended you in anyway. Once again, forgive my ignorance in my suggestions as I am speaking from a fan's point of view, and I do not have the complete picture that you have in your position.
I wish you luck in the coming season, it has been a long time since United lifted the Premiership, but as Scholesy said, a good solid start will be a good way to keep the battle going. Win or lose, my heart will be to the team and to you, for inspiring me in my own coaching career.
Thank you once again for your time and consideration in the matter.
Today I spent most of the late morning digesting stuff about the conflict in the middle east and how the rest of the world is reacting. Well, a few things are clear.
1) Israel won't stop until they find that abducted soldier, and well I think they are gonna take their time at it, who knows they prob may have found him and just wanna like totally collapse the hizbollah regime 2) Hizbollah will keep launching rockets into Israel, no matter how futile, just to prove a point that they're not gonna give up, well its more a matter of ego anyways. 3) US will continue donning two masks, one which says it has to go to wear in order to introduce democracy and to protect human rights, and another which says ppl. have the right to do what they have to do, super confusing lar 4) The rest of the world will stand aside and watch cos they know lending their support to Lebanon will incur the wrath of the US 5) UN will continue to be as useless as they have always been, I remember studying about the UN in JC2 and it was realli enlightening, and I used to think about how much this veto shit was realli cock up, and well, point proven I guess
so at the end of the day, innocent ppl. keep suffering, evryday a family wakes up without a mother,father, daughter,son, husband and wife.
This is so sad, and as I'm typing here in bright sunny Singapore I can only thank god for all the problems I'm faced with, they are abolutely nothing close to that of the people in the Middle East.
Since Diva bout a week ago, there has been some bad blood going around, but honestly I can't be bothered even though VJ was well somewhat involved. I kinda expected it anyways so its no big deal, anyways there's no point reacting to it cos' it won't change anything. So I shall reserve whatever comments I have except to say that I saw it coming cos well, ppl will be ppl.
Lately, work has been shit, seriously the amount of readings this term has been cock up, damn thick readings, and an early assignment submission date to boot. I cannot wait to finish up these assignments so I can take a breather. plus, coaching course coming up also. Die Die. What a difference this term has been, I barely have had time for my 360, compared to the June Holidays, basket.
Sometimes i'm realli tired from all this, especially with the team and the man-management needed. Seriously I think from my experience in NS and during captaincy in VJ proved to me that man-management was not easy. But still manageable.
But but but....woman-management is bloody hard, seriously, I don't mean to sound sexist, of which I'm not (women are impt. to me ok....) but dealing with so many different emotions, reactions, sheesh, I wish sometimes women were more cognitive in nature, but well God made them a certain way, and I just have to accept it. But whatever it is, its realli hard, dealing with all the women in my life thus far, surprisingly my mom has been easy to deal with, and she has rarely had a bad word to say to me for the past few months. Which is good, cos she is realli impt. But all the others? Man......seriously, my patience is wearing thin. However of course, this is only to certain individuals and not to all in general.
haha, that being said, I mean its something that I've learnt to deal with in the past few years, actually since I entered VJ (which was a baptism of fire). So i guess its a good experience trying to deal with the opposite sex, especially the difficult ones. I'm still learning, and will continue learning, important thing is I don't give up.
What a day today has been, most of it of course taken up by the Diva Comp. I realli didnt know how to put it into words, so I decided to make a video and publish it here. Forgive the sombre music, I dunno why but I've fallen in love with the snog, its called "Run" by snow patrol. Of course the words are realli meaningful as well. Sorry bout the pic quality as well,. my camera is not the best. Nevertheless, thank you Salome for helping me take the pictures, even if you did have to dig my bag for it. Haha.
Anyways first of all a big thanx to the seniors like Grace, Waiyen, Bee Teng, Salome and Alex who not only came down, but also helped to buy food for the girls. Turf City is ridiculous if you're looking for convenience, so it was good to have them around. Thanks for the help seniors, I hope you are proud that you managed to lay the foundations which hopefully in the future will be somehting realli successful in the long term.
My second round of thanx goes to Pei Qi and Kuan Ren. If the two of you are reading this, I wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for actually taking the time to play with us and for us. I know its not easy being thrust into such a comp, but nevertheless you did me proud, and I am sure we will be seeing u in VJ come January. I hope you have learnt something about the team and I hope you can see that we are different than other teams out there. WE ARE A FAMILY.
My third round of thanx goes to JR for all his help all this while, to think that he was actually my 2nd or 3rd choice to assist me, but I had no doubt that he would see this whole thing through. He fell completely in love with the team and its ideals, and even gave up job hunting just to help lead the team to the gold medal. I'll miss you loads bro, I have absolutely no idea who I'm gonna joke around with for the next 5 months at least till you come back again in December(hopefully).
And my last round of thanx goes to VJSG for giving their all today. I realise I've realli grown so much through this whole experience, and I've learnt a lot about dealing with a team. I literally saw ppl grow up thru the games, which was amazing, I'm proud of ppl like Jasmin, who in the last game showed that she can easily replace Salome and grow to become even better. To Mitch, who gave her all, to Farah who was outstanding during the penalties. To Jo, for making the new girls feeling comfortable, I've realli seen a new side of you which I'm proud off, a leader who is willing to take punches for the betterment of the others. Aiyah, I can't possibly thank everybody completely cos all of u rock.
Tomorrow is an absolutely ridiculously long day, but I dunno why I am looking forward to it. Bring it on. I mean this is what living life to the max is all about.
Alright that's all for now, enjoy the video! Sorry for a poor job, it was quite rushed.
I must say I almost lost it when I was talking about how the girls were my medals, lost it meaning actually succumbing to my emotions. Phew.
I'm so so proud of them. A coach could not ask for a group of better individuals.
Today for class, we did a simple experiment, which I think u guys should also try, so here it goes, there's two parts to it, but I'll just do the first part. Ok just follow the steps.
remember the key here is to just follow what you're thikin at the moment don't over analyse it.
1) Draw an animal which u feel an association to. 2) Draw urself beside the animal, and what pose you're in at the moment. 3) Draw your house in the background (right or left side doesn't matter) 4) Under your house draw a key to it. 5) Draw something associated with the concept of water in the other side of the background.
Alright got it?
Ok so here was what the lecturer said, remember its nto what I said k, so dont come scolding me for it.
1) The animal that you draw is your symbol of an ideal spouse (so if its something cute and cuddly, could be a very loving spouse, something mystical like a unicorn represents an ultra-romantic, a horse/stag sophistication, a winged animal means you want to have a spouse who gives you a lot of freedom and a seas animal means a submissive spouse) 2) The pose you're in represents you relationship, if you're feeding it means you are a loving person, perhaps a more neutral r'ship would see you just standing beside it. The proportion of yourself to the animal also reflects the power play in your r'ship, e.g. if you are too big compared to the animal means you would like to be the dominant one, and vice versa. 3) The house reps your openness or guardedness, meaning windows and an open door would mean a very open person, whereas a lack of windows would mean someone who is highly guarded 4) The key refers to how complicated/simple you are, by judging how complex the key you draw is. 5) Lastly the body of water shows your expectation of future wealth levels, for example if you expect urself to be rich, u draw the sea or a lake, whereas a person who sees himself living day to day would dray like a well, or even a bucket of water.
Yup, so this was my drawing. I used paint to replicate it, so sorry... Anyways, the weird thing was one of the guys in my class drew a freakin dragon lar, and he had a sword and a shield, trying to protect himself against it.
And the lecturer also mentioned how when she spoke to policemen they drew themselves killing the animal. weird lar, policemen.
Yup so dats all I wanted to share, its all quite intersting and deals with psychoanalysis and the subconcious, something which was dealt with in depth by ppl. like Freud and Jung. realli heavy stuff my head is spinning trying to deal with the terms. But yeah just thought I'd share this.
Oh and one more thing, I didn't know my camera and the view from my house could produce rather nice pics. dats why I maintain I live in the best corner of Tampines. Go check it out on my bros blog, ignore the ramblings just check out the pics.
Yesterdae night was hell, mainly cos I forced myself to switch off the light and sleep at 12, only to toss around trying to get soem sleep, before eventually sleeping at 0150hrs, guess the body clock is realli screwed up and today, though I feel a bit tired, I also dunno if I will be able to sleep any earlier. Crap.
Today training was fine, it was great to see the sec 4s around, they are talented and would be a great asset to the team. But as I said to the seniors it's more about the other weaker players stepping up, which I must say they have done to a certain extent thus far. Nevertheless its encouraging signs seeing how the girls are pushing themselves during training. I'm damn proud of Viv for trying her best in today's interval's she's realli come a long way, this despite having to clear quite a few bad days before this. She was a monster on the field thus far today, and I hope the team keeps getting better in the coming days.
Today India was mobbed by 7 blasts(or more) which has the death toll coming to roughly 200 and rising. I feel realli sorry for the people there, having to face so much danger, can u imagine if something siomilar happened in Singapore? It would be absolutely catastrophic, almost pearl-harbour like if u ask me. thakfully, the good job done by the ICA, SPF and other agencies (CISCO, SATS) have kept us safe thus far. Thus far I mean. But we still as a country still take too many things for granted.
Since I was talking about India, let's take a look at the country.
- 350 million out of the 1 billion live below the poverty line - only 38 percent of women are literate - the infant mortality rate is 65 out of every 1000 babies - over 30 million women in India are widows - Children in India are among the top candicates in the world at risk from malnutrition - Indians deal with earthquakes, floods, drought, famine, desertification,outbreaks of diseases, protests, terrorist attacks - Singaporeans deal with rising taxis fares, how come TTSH not enough beds, ERP, dengue, why is it the government is not making enough drains making it flood and spoiling my car....hmmm you tell me...
So we should be grateful for where we are I guess, remember everytime things are bad tell urself...
"it could be worse, so be grateful"
This is a picture of a couple of Singaporean youths simulating "poverty housing "(felt it would be wrong to show their faces) but take it from me they were all-smiles in this pic.
REAL poverty in India. So tell me are our simulations and efforts to empathise realli all that effective?
As a mulsim who fasts a month every year, sometimes its realli tough, especially when my throat is parched from training and I can't get a drop of water in me. But I think even that cannot come clsoe to the hunger and thirst the poor people realli feel, because at least I get to eat a very good meal at 7 every night for the whole month. Plus i get a heavy breakfast in the morn. I cant even survive a day I think in the real poverty-stricken conditions.
Remember its not about being dismissive or being an eternal optimist, its about counting your blessings and acknowledging the struggles of others.
Finally I'm back after a long hiatus. Well the story is dat I wanted tot ell myself to take break from blogging and everything for the whole holiday month (not dat it was very tiring or something). And I din wanna update on the world cup cos a million other ppl were doing that very well already. Maybe I just wanted my mind off soccer. For a while.
But I can't shy away from the fact that I love my soccer so much that it occupies a large part of my life now. And hopefully for always.
So Italy's won the world cup. Hmmm, well I guess better them than the portugese. I realli hope ronbaldo moves, cos frankly I have had enough of him. Maybe he will do better at another club, I don't care realli. But I will never forget that night in David's house last year when his bloody show offiness cost United the Benfica game and no European football to watcg. Bastard.
yesterdae was an old boys' reunion day with a realli nice buffet I might add, and its suprising how when u add buffet suddenly people from dunno what batch come back, but when u ask for a game, they never bother. But I will leave it to dat lar, at least they were nice enough and not being noisy and all, glad they know their place. Things have realli changed for soccer in VJC, seriously nowadays u are close to god in the school if u were a soccer player. But well at least the work ethics havent changed, eveyr team is different, and I would never change the 01-02 batch for anything. We were far from the best team to grace the VJ colours for the school, but we loved our school, our lives, our coach and MOST IMPORTANTLY each other. It realli is the fine line in soccer when u commit yourselves fully to helping the guy beside u, and dats what makes lasting frendships.
Also, I have a brilliant junior batch, ppl like JR, Ian, Ben, Fab and Mike. These ppl are simply incredible guys without whose support we couldnt go any further and I'm glad they came into my life as well.
OH well, dats all for now, weather is nasty but trainings gotta be done, realli trying to treasure these last few trainings before I have to go at trainings alone, dats when the realities of training a team comes thru. That you are not doing it for yourself, but for them.
After watching yesterdae's match, I managed a few claps and a warm smile seeing Cannavaro lift the cup.
But I knew deep inside, dat it would only mean something if like I saw Singapore win or even qaulify would be enough. Dat would be great enough. But nah dats another dream which is too big for us.
Nevertheless, watching other ppl do it, well no matter how much a fan u are, it will never beat.
Lifting the cup yourself.
Or leading a team to it.
But enough's never enough. Not yet. Keep pushin the borders.
