a passionate entry

Half time for the match between Man Utd and Chelski right now. Sorry but I just cannot tahan seeing the crestfallen face of abramovich after Man Utd fired the first salvo. For the uninitiated, behold the face of an idiot:









Clap all you want dude. You have just wasted $500 million sterling pounds on a team of losers. Perhaps the stadium lights at Old Trafford are too strong; the majority of your team has no way to hide. Oh well, enough of the gloating. There's the second half to come. *fingers crossed*

*updated*
Well, the final score is 1 goal apiece. Not a bad deal; Man Utd's engine lost some power to Chelski in the second half. A real exciting match here. As usual, Rio Ferdinand made some clown mistakes here and there. The litmus test came during substitution; Chelski took off Shev (S$30m signing) and Ballack and replaced them with Ferreria and Joe Cole. Man Utd took off Saha and Ronaldo and replaced them with Fletcher and O'Shea. What a gulf of difference in the depth of the 2 squad.

No complains here ya understand. That's what $500 million sterling pound can do for ya.

Changes in the wind

Yes, by now, most of my friends should know what changes are there in the wind for me. Well, this is definitely going to be a step into the unknown for me. No more sheltered life, no more "guaranteed" promotions, no more "guaranteed" steep pay increments. I'm not one to take bets but looks like this is gonna be one of the more serious gamble I am going to undertake in my life.

Regarding my lost phone, I have since gotten a white version of the phone that I have lost. This time, I should be able to see the phone clearly should I drop it in a taxi again. =X

Is it me or does this happen to everyone as well? Case in point: Despite me getting at least 7 hours of sleep everyday (in line with SAF guidelines), I still feel damn tired in the morning when I wake up. It's like there's insufficent sleep everyday and no matter what you do, you will always be tired. Perhaps I am getting older.

Had a fishbone stuck in my throat. Went to TTSH to check it out and ended up with a doctor sticking his finger down by throat, followed by some metallic instruments down by throat and then a tube like thing poked through my nose cavity and down into my throat (for him to see into my throat). What an adventure. Conclusion after all these? He cannot find the bone. Going back this Wed for further adventures. Wee~~ Keep tuned.

May your hands rot

Bad news.

I've dropped my phone in a taxi today and chances of recovery is 0% at best.

In view that I did not back up your contacts, I cannot chase those who owed me money anymore.

So next time if you see me on msn (or some nice people can email me your number), do tell me your handphone number.

And yes, may that person's hands rot.

Goodbye Bush

Some background information is required here before I paste up the opinion by Mr Thomas L Friedman from the New York Times. U.S mid-term election is drawing near and will decide on whether the Congress is controlled by the Republicans again (Bush camp) or the Democrats. If democrats win the Congress, you can be sure that they will scrutinise Bills proposed by Bush before passing them.

Now a few days ago, Mr John Jerry (ex-US president candidate) made a comment implying that poorly educated people will be working in the Army and will be sent to fight in the Afghan and Iraq war. Of course, like true vultures and true goal poachers (think Andy Cole), Bush and gang pounced on this and made a big hooha and at the same time, masked the real issue besetting US for the entire tenure of Bush.

Below is the full article written by Mr Friedman, published in the New York Times. Enjoy =)


"
Insulting Our Troops, and Our Intelligence

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you’re stupid. Yes, they do.

They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry — a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service — and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.

Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, “They must think I’m stupid.” Because they surely do.

They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team’s real and deadly insults to the U.S. military over the past six years by hyping and exaggerating Mr. Kerry’s mangled gibe at the president.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so that some soldiers in the field were left to buy their own body armor and to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more injurious and insulting than Don Rumsfeld’s response to criticism that he sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the army you’ve got — get over it.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than to send them off to war in Iraq without any coherent postwar plan for political reconstruction there, so that the U.S. military has had to assume not only security responsibilities for all of Iraq but the political rebuilding as well? The Bush team has created a veritable library of military histories — from “Cobra II” to “Fiasco” to “State of Denial” — all of which contain the same damning conclusion offered by the very soldiers and officers who fought this war: This administration never had a plan for the morning after, and we’ve been making it up — and paying the price — ever since.

And what could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in Iraq than to send them off to war and then go out and finance the very people they’re fighting against with our gluttonous consumption of oil? Sure, George Bush told us we’re addicted to oil, but he has not done one single significant thing — demanded higher mileage standards from Detroit, imposed a gasoline tax or even used the bully pulpit of the White House to drive conservation — to end that addiction. So we continue to finance the U.S. military with our tax dollars, while we finance Iran, Syria, Wahhabi mosques and Al Qaeda madrassas with our energy purchases.

Everyone says that Karl Rove is a genius. Yeah, right. So are cigarette companies. They get you to buy cigarettes even though we know they cause cancer. That is the kind of genius Karl Rove is. He is not a man who has designed a strategy to reunite our country around an agenda of renewal for the 21st century — to bring out the best in us. His “genius” is taking some irrelevant aside by John Kerry and twisting it to bring out the worst in us, so you will ignore the mess that the Bush team has visited on this country.

And Karl Rove has succeeded at that in the past because he was sure that he could sell just enough Bush cigarettes, even though people knew they caused cancer. Please, please, for our country’s health, prove him wrong this time.

Let Karl know that you’re not stupid. Let him know that you know that the most patriotic thing to do in this election is to vote against an administration that has — through sheer incompetence — brought us to a point in Iraq that was not inevitable but is now unwinnable.

Let Karl know that you think this is a critical election, because you know as a citizen that if the Bush team can behave with the level of deadly incompetence it has exhibited in Iraq — and then get away with it by holding on to the House and the Senate — it means our country has become a banana republic. It means our democracy is in tatters because it is so gerrymandered, so polluted by money, and so divided by professional political hacks that we can no longer hold the ruling party to account.

It means we’re as stupid as Karl thinks we are.

I, for one, don’t think we’re that stupid. Next Tuesday we’ll see.

"

For the record, I am neither pro/anti Republicans nor Democrats. It's just that some of Bush's actions/inactions make me wonder sometimes where is the QC in place to screen US President wannabes?

waste of time

In case anybody is listening to the radio or watching tv on sat afternoon, you will realise that some poor souls area activated to report back to their camp because the "garwumen" missed these souls so much that they just want them back to the camp with all their gears and all they had to do to exchange for freedom was - a signature on a piece of paper.

What a waste of time.

Yes, I was one of those poor souls. Thanks to Berg for giving me a ride from Jurong to Changi. I was recalling to Berg how "chao keng" he was 2 years back in reservist: while out on a mission one fine night, he tripped over something and sprained his ankle; as a result of that, he missed the mission and had a fine time at the back of a jeep. While Berg tried to defend himself (for the millionth time), he apparently tripped over a molecule of water and fell headlong towards a tree trunk. I was just in time pulling his army fatigue and held onto it. As Berg limped towards the busstop, I cannot help but laugh merrily along the way. With Berg around, you will not have a moment of dullness - he defines entertainment.

I swear, he will make a good footballer. Imagine the number of freekicks and penalties he will earn.