LIVERPUDLIAN FOREVER

Trailing AC Milan 3-0 at halftime, Liverpool roared back to finish 3-3 at 90 minutes and win 3-2 on penalties after extra time - the biggest turnaround in European Cup final history.

Enuff said. Nothing can ruin my day today. :)

"You'll Never Walk Alone"

When you walk through a storm,
Hold your head up high,
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm,
There's a golden sky,
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Though your dreams be tossed and blown..
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone...
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you'll never walk alone...
You'll never walk alone.

go slower to go faster

rush rush rush…driven by the clock….Is anybody else feeling the strain?

Someone must be - supermarket and road rage din emerge on their own…I see them as symptons of the ‘fast disease’.

Perhaps we all feel like that white rabbit in the Wonderland tale…late…late…late and anyone who gets in our way is a worthy recipient of our frustration and anger?...But is faster always better? Do we work within a cultural paradigm that means progress automatically assumes the need for speed - for faster faster faster?

Is anyone smelling roses anymore? (That would be the roses that are grown slowly, in a garden not a greenhouse - so they have a smell.)

Do we stop to look - to think - to appreciate - to consider?

Do we take time to feed the soul, the mind, the heart - as well as the career, the social presence, the bank balance, the expectations that come from……where exactly?

Does anyone remember Sunday as a day of rest ….or pick any day - but one out of seven isn’t asking too much - is it?

A day of not being driven by the clock - when we readied ourselves for the week ahead by engaging in social, recreational and fun activities with family and friends? A day of leisurely newspaper reading, of sipping - not gulping the morning coffee, going on a bike ride with no particular destination in mind. Sigh…the luxury…

Almost finishing a great book - Slow by Honore. Honore has tapped directly into my inner angst of “so much to do, so little time”….im convinced that this merry-go-round ain’t healthy for the soul, the mind or the body….Maybe I should make a pact with myself to take up some of his recommendations - and go slow(er).

My first job is to decide – wads gona go? Wad am I prepared to give up in order to get more from the less?

What are the roses I want to smell?

Star Wars...Flaws and Guffaws

*** Contains spoilers! Do not read unless you’ve watched the movie or couldn’t care less for being spoiled***

I watched Episode III recently, and breathtaking CG aside, man was it such comic relief. Something I luv abt all the episodes.

First things first, did anyone notice the numerous “happy” moments in the movie?

1. The Chewbacca and fellow wookie moment when Yoda was going into his capsule…and they looked at each other longingly and moaned…and they luv to do tt in every episode…

2. R2 and C3PO - its quite obvious there is some inter-robotic lovin’ going on behind the scenes there, and must C3PO walk around thrusting his chest, sashaying and swaying it’s hips in a sexy womanly way…I mean it’s so…happy!

3. Palpatine - He laughs way too much, laughs at everything and anything! Notice his sick perverted cackle interspersed with his moanings when he makes Yoda drop his Jedi cloak. Sick-o…

Then, there’s the duel between Anakin and Obiwan. Yes. I totally agree tt severing the limbs of your “brother” and close friend and leaving him near rapid flowing molten lava is much more in line with the Jedi way. Compassion and nobility is evident as Obiwan stands there and laments about how he has been let down and betrayed while taking in the wafting scent of burning skin.

I must not forget to mention how I was very disturbed by the Darth Vader outfit assemblage scene. Kevlar-like suit, shin-high military boots, long black cape….as these pieces were put on Anakin I thought, ok… maybe they are trying to give a slight metrosexual feel to his look. Then, the tacky helmet comes on… alright… tt’s still ok… the helmet doth make Darth Vader…. and then he is revealed in full body shot glory and what do I see? A tacky control panel right smack in the middle of his chest...complete with 2 big buttons in red and green! WTF???? Have they not heard of recessed control panels with discreet sliding covers?

I read off some book tt it’s placed there for easy access if it gets too hot or cold in his Vader suit, amongst other essential controls that he may need to access, but really, on the chest, exposed?

Did Palpatine not learn from the horrid death of General Grievious?...Wouldn’t the wrist be a better place for a control panel of sorts? Maybe Palpatine is a chest kinda guy….

I must admit I was choking back my giggles when I saw General Grievious pull out not 2 but 4 light-sabers! I was expecting him to say “I’ve got 4 light-sabers! Multi-colour some more! Fwah!” Hmm, correct me if im wrong but Grievious in Clonewars on Cartoon Network had 8 rite?...power de ma.

All in all, I must say I did enjoy the movie. There’s much more to mention but I’m afraid I’d be bordering on dissent. Anyway, I don’t mind the Siths much, they did bring peace to the empire. There must always be in a balance in the force rite? Too much Jedi is no good…no gooooood…

I wish i can be employed as a film critic...altho they dun exactly critique the way i do. Editors will hang me to get a review like tis....well...to hell with them.

I sense a disturbance in my force. I tink I haf a crush on Yoda…. MMMMmmmm… MMMmmmm??? MMMmmmm!(Yoda-style)

Anyone know if they sell Yoda plush toys where if you press his tummy he goes “Mmmnn…” I mean seriously, I really want one.

Future of Online Advertising is Ever Evolving

Talked to Jaime and Bryan yesterday about a bunch of things during our tea session over our kaninabe (not the foul word – its paper steamboat). Yes, social psyche exam just ended but it was still an interesting conversation. We sat, tok and came up with wad I tink is a unique but very smart approach to leveraging open source to create a service business.

At the end of our conversation, Bryan started making an analogy between television networks and online ad networks….we din get far with the conversation…But, the way he phrased tied some things in my head together. Here it is short and sweet:

The news and entertainment industry used to be the tie that bound advertisers to consumers - The newspapers did two things: write good and trusted content and sold ads while the entertainment industry (tv + radio) did two things: created good entertainment and sold ads.

In retrospect…boil it down ever further and all of these businesses do two things: deliver value to advertisers and delivered what consumers want.

The internet of cos does not require that those two things exist in one house. There are clever companies all over the net that are figuring out millions of ways to entertain and inform and enable interaction between people (that are also consumers).

And there are thousands of companies that are trying to deliver value to (I wun call them advertisers) businesses in exchange for money…I rmbed and mentioned a theory that there will be online ad networks like google's adsense, yahoo's business/ad services, c|net networks, job sites etc, etc. that advertisers will turn to.

What I like about the net, though, is that as soon as one company figures out how to add more value to an advertiser or entertain or inform the consumer better, the power shifts. That's democracy and capitalism working fluidly…hmm..that’s pretty cool actually. Dun u tink so, communication and new media majors?

To dissent or not to dissent? I dare not question.

I remember when I was in primary school, and petty quarrels with friends will inevitably include the phrase…“I don’t friend u anymore, my father madah, I get him to catch you!” which would result in my friend saying, “my father is an 5 star general, bigger than your father! hmph…” It didn’t matter that neither of our dads were in the armed forces or the police force, we’d always say that to each other…It would seem that from the tender age of six, Singaporeans learn that authority is something to fear and dread, and as and when we can instil fear in others by referring to authority figures, we will….haha memories.

Singaporeans are a pretty obedient bunch of people…of course u still have ur subversive elements, but at the end of the day, how many of these “champions” hold out to the end? Come polling day, and the elections results would be televised, and the ruling party would win by an obscene margin each time…I couldn’t comprehend at that age, why the ruling party would come out victorious each time in all constituencies. It just didn’t make sense then. My seven year old logic couldn’t comprehend how they could be win by such a margin if the week before I saw so many people cheering on the opposition on the pastures of the neighbourhood. People who I thought disagreed with the ruling party.

Then I grew older and realised that whinging about the leaders of our country doesn’t mean that we don’t want them to lead us. My personal opinion is that we’re a bunch of whingers. We (including me) just whinge, gripe about how crap and stifled we are but we dun do anything. If we do take any action, it is to migrate. We just leave the country.

But then, I can’t really blame Singaporeans for being so passive. After decades of witnessing “dissidents” being put away, and opposition party politicians (who cross the line… I guess) being sued and declared bankrupt, I doubt anyone has the temerity to pit themselves against the government. Back during the days of my tertiary education, there was tis respectable looking man in a suit approaching students in the hawker centre spreading his opposition values and freaking out all the students. Yet wen one see him walk away aimlessly, u can’t help but wonder the many ‘wrong’ paths that he trod on and the things that has led him to lead his life now. And of cos the rumours that float ard school abt the failed endeavours of some of the lecturers. Have they ceded to the so called draconian rule of the government? Or the remnants of their political struggle still remain embedded in some of their supposedly politically charged lessons?

It’s subjective isn’t it? but yet money talks. Sue here, sue there, it really reminds my primary school playground arguments.

I wun leave Singapore, at least I dun tink I wan to right now at this moment in time. I guess because my priorities in life are in line with the Singapore Ideal….I dun crave freedom of speech, neither do I care for chewing gum (being facetious). I dun wan to have an opinion about anything that is remotely controversial. I force myself to be detached to issues that would once get me fired up. I think its seeping into my everyday life too. I realise I don’t have strong opinions about anything. I’ve been told my comments made in class are very diplomatic, toe the line, sit on fence style. Even as I blog, I feel uncomfortable putting forth my opinions. (yes the recent PSC saga prolly had a lot of bloggers going nuts abt the privacy of their online diaries…again…blogs – private or public domain?)… The irony is that the government is trying to instil creativity and innovation. Is it going to be possible with such an environment?

What is this phenomena? Is it just me? or something peculiar to Singaporeans?

Wadeva it is...Singapore boleh too!!! (paiseh aaron copy u...haha)

Hmm… I have a paper to mug for and I’m refusing to start on it. Yay. Here I am finding ways and means to procrastinate. Bored…. Everyone is probably having fun. I refuse to believe that there is anyone else (except the remaining loungers) out there not having fun on a nite of a public holiday.

How to motivate myself? I’ve switched on all the lights so I wun have nice ambient lighting to lull me to sleep, but I’m still so damn fleepy (fleepy is a fusion between…. a word that starts with “F” and “sleepy”)

I just changed my music from soul to punk rock… If it doesn’t wake me up I dun know what will.

What’s there to do? Yes. I did self impose this room arrest to finish my readings, but I feel so sloth-like… the books are one foot away from me, and I refuse to even look at them. I just downloaded Team America after kg that smart ass screened the 1^st half and leave us watering for the part 2 which he din haf.

Should I or should I not. Help.

Directions

Friend…
Dun get swallowed into the rat race…
Dun get thrown in the face…
Grades are important
But they not everything…
What’s a first-class-honours…
When you dun get an education?
Friend…
Get an education…
Not just a degree.

"i guess if things were a little different, we might have ended up together. but well, they are the way they are, with you the way you are, and i the way i am. so we're not."

These words flash thru my mind since I just saw them. It sang of truth and it echoed my unspoken thoughts...In one of the classic curtains-were-lifted moments, the truth was unveiled to me. U would tink that it would then be easy to proceed from there, but you're wrong. It was just so simple, sure, but they couldn't be more complicated at the same time. And like any weepy soap opera, we created even more complications of our own that just made things worse.

And so, we stand on the verge of that something really great...what happens here is as uncertain as where the wind blows. Time changes all things and no one can be sure of the future...not even a freaking astro-palmist...(i can only tink of him qing ning)...Had our soap opera panned out as we hoped (or did we? or is it just me), then perhaps there could have been a happy ending. If not, then.......that's really too bad then.

There's other things to do in life that we often overlook, isn't it?

True, Actual and Possible selves

I met a ger of recent. Lets just name her xh…we started lamenting abt our lives and I suddenly found that we had been in strikingly similar situations. I came from the guy’s perspective but her part to play makes the majority of the puzzle fit. The irony is that the both our puzzles have a missing piece. And the missing piece happens to be our seed of doubt. At least i'm better off...not hanging anymore.

I’m fine for those who are worried. I was reading my psyche notes today wen I came across the terms true self, actual self and possible self.

True self is a form of private persona where our core selves are unencumbered by shyness, social anxiety or physical states…where one is relaxed and in touch with his own natural self.

Actual self can be perceived as a public persona…the self that we present to others in our everyday interaction…where we abide to certain societal norms and standards.

Possible self is the notion of an ideal/least ideal self…where they’re personas one aspires to be or fear of becoming.

So what are we? Who are we? Is actual self our true self? Or is true self…our actual? Is there a true or actual self anyway? bleargh.....