Archive for January, 2007
28 Jan, 2007
Singapore Boleh!
I just came back from the Singapore vs. Malaysia semi-final match of the ASEAN Football Championships. With the score 1-1 at the end of normal time, the match went into Penalties, from which Singapore emerged triumphant (five conversions to Malaysia’s four).
Fantastic Atmosphere
It was a rocking affair at the Kallang Stadium (Singapore’s National Stadium), with almost all the seats filled up (I believe it was announced that 55,000 spectators turned up to watch this match). The atmosphere was fantastic, definitely much better than the last time Singapore played Malaysia here in 2002 (Malaysia won 4-0 then), where the stadium was largely left unfilled.
This is the third time I watched Singapore at the Kallang Statdium, the first time being their exhibition match against Manchester United (where we lost 8-1) in 2001, and the second time the fateful 4-0 drubbing by Malaysia back in 2002.
When Malaysia went into the lead midway through the second half (due to a horrible mistake by Lionel Lewis) I thought I was going to witness yet another defeat. But Singapore managed to scramble a goal to equalise, forcing the game into extra time, and giving us fans some great value for our money.
The goal sent the crowd crazy. All of us in the stadium (save for the Malaysian fans) stood up in unison and cheered. The feeling was indescribable. The minutes after that though, Malaysia started attacking with more vigor, causing us a few scares here and there, but nothing much else.
A Precious Shot
During the first half of extra time, a player by the name of “Precious” (yes! Isn’t that name simply adorable??) made a cracker of a shot from distance, which cannoned toward the top left-hand corner of the goal. The goalkeeper managed to get a hand to that shot, just managing to tip it over the bar.
For me, watching that shot alone was enough to justify the price of admission (a paltry S$6).
I noticed that immediately afterwards the Malaysian goalkeeper seemed a little flustered; he may well have been injured his hand saving it.
Into the Penalty Shootout
All the shots seemed normal and none were out of the ordinary, except for the last one.
As the Malaysian player stepped up to take the kick, the whole stadium booed and stamped their feet. The tension in the atmosphere went up a notch.
When he kicked the ball, it seemed to slowly make its way toward the goal. It was a horrendous shot. My friend remarked that eve if the goalkeeper had dived the other way, he’d have had enough time to get up, dive the other way, and save the shot. But he didn’t have to. Lionel Lewis guessed right and made the save. Easy as Pi.
Singapore Boleh! Ole ole ole! On to the final!
26 Jan, 2007
Studying Overseas
I’ll be going over to UWA (University of Western Australia) in a little less than three weeks time.
This all still feels a little strange to me. I never quite expected to be one of those who “study overseas”.
But I plans in education haven’t always gone smoothly.
In primary school, I did rather badly and didn’t manage to get into a secondary school of my choice.
During secondary school, I did better than expected. I scored 18 points for my preliminary examinations, and managed to secure a place in a junior college for the first three months (the cut-off is 20).
These three months held three defining moments in my life. I realised I couldn’t survive another two years of Chinese classes; I found that I really enjoyed Economics; and I fell in love.
The first defining moment led me to believe that junior college was not for me, and so I took the polytechnic route.
The second defining moment moved me away from pursuing a pure “Information Technology” (IT) diploma, and into one that offered business as well. In the end, I obtained my Diploma in Business Information Technology.
The third defining moment, well, has nothing to do in this entry.
After getting my diploma, I applied for two universities: NUS (National University of Singapore) and SMU (Singapore Management University). Though I applied for both, for some reason or another, I only really wanted to go to SMU.
My application to NUS was rejected, while SMU granted me an interview.
I received news of my interview on voicemail. “Your interview will be on this coming Wednesday,” it said. I was in Taiwan at this time, on an overseas training trip for National Service. I wasn’t going to be back for another three weeks.
They promised to hold another interview “if there were still places”. I never heard from them until a year later.
I received news of my interview through SMS this time, from my parents. “Call home Donn,” the SMS said.
“Donn,” said my mom, “SMU called and said that your interview’s this Tuesday!” I laughed at this.
“That’s great, mom,” I replied. I was in Brunei, on an overseas training trip for National Service. I wasn’t going back for another three weeks.
19 Jan, 2007
On Passing Time, Driving, and Writing
After I stopped working at the end of last month, I’ve been spending most of my time in front of the television and on the computer playing Warcraft.
However, realising that there’s no better time to catch up on reading than now, in the last couple of days I’ve turned my attention to reading a book called The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene. It is basically about Physics, or more precisely, String Theory.
This is the second book of Greene’s that I’m reading, the first being The Fabric of the Cosmos, which was actually published after The Elegant Universe. Both books have been great reads, and I highly recommend them to anyone even remotely interested in physics.
Other than television, Warcraft and reading, I’ve also been going out quite a bit, taking every opportunity I can find to drive.
Driving Drives Me Up the Wall
I find that I kinda suck at driving, and so I’ve been taking every opportunity to drive so that I might suck less (I’m banking on the saying that practice makes perfect, heh.)
I have two main issues with regards to my driving: parking, and slow traffic.
Parking: Try as I might, I just haven’t been able to park the car straight first time so far. This irks me tremendously, for parking is too basic a driving skill, too common a thing to do, to not master.
Slow traffic: my patience runs short painfully fast in traffic jams (just ask Zixuan, who was unfortunate enough to have been in the same car as me during slow traffic; I was more of a bitch then than Lassie ever was).
On Writing on eDonn.com
The above-mentioned activities don’t lead naturally to anything to write about. As such, edonn.com has been experiencing some rather barren spells in writing. I even resorted to quoting someone else just to update this site, which really is a last resort most of the time.
Well, I did actually have some pretty good material; but these, I decided, were not publishable, not because they were written badly, but simply because to publish them would have been insensitive, for they touched on inter-personal relationships of friends gone sour. In light of how the people involved were still trying to resolve it, I felt it best to leave that for later.
Let’s just say that the poem I wrote, Friends, Don’t be so Quick to Love was in response to that.
Until next time,
Donn
18 Jan, 2007
Man Makes Himself
Here’s a quotation I’d like to share with you, attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre:
Certainly we cannot say that this man [a young student of Sartre's who in 1940 had to choose between going to England to join the Free French Forces or staying in occupied France to care for his mother, who depended on him], in choosing to remain with his mother — that is, in taking sentiment, personal devotion and concrete charity as his moral foundations — would be making an irresponsible choice, nor would we do so if he preferred the sacrifice of going away to England. Man makes himself; he is not found ready-made; he makes himself by the choice of his morality, and he cannot but choose a morality, such is the pressure of circumstances upon him. We define man only in relation to his commitments; it is therefore absurd to reproach us for irresponsibility in our choice.
11 Jan, 2007
Friends, Don’t be so Quick to Love
Out the window moving at 60 miles per hour
My eyes observe the mountains half
Hidden by mist.
Just like a Chinese painting, I think;
No colour, but just shades of
Black, like ink.
Strangely enough as my eyes gaze closer
To where I am, things get less clear
And disappear
Into a great blur where colours merge into
Each other, and you can’t tell one
From another.
Like us.
I think we are going too fast;
Are too much in the
Thick of it.
We should slow down, or stand
Back and observe how
Things are
Before we get so caught up
In the whirlwind of love
And drop
confused,
or — worse —
Dead.