Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Sir Alex Ferguson, Its Your Fault!

Man Utd have lost a promising player, Chris Eagles. Why I'm saying it's the gaffer's fault is because Eagles hasn't been getting first team appearances that he deserves! You don't even let him warm the bench lah!

I thought he had a pretty good pre-season and was actually kinda looking forward to seeing him play in this weekend's testimonial match for Solskjaer. During an interview last year, he even said that he will remain in Man Utd even if he only plays in reserves. It just goes to show how loyal he is to the club.

If Eagles is on loan to another club, I still not so sad. But now, he is actually being sold to Burnley for slightly more than a million pounds. Man Utd, look at your blardi aging midfield, the question marks over Ronaldo's future at the club, Carrick's invisibility and Nani's forever off-forms, I don't understand why Eagles has to be sold! I don't think Man Utd is so hard up for that million pounds right?

I guess this will be the last time I'll see him in the Man Utd jersey... And I'm still in a state of shock...

I DESPERATE! Can Or Not?!

The reasons behind this made me feel like a despo somewhat! But who cares? And so...And why am I crying when I blogging about this? Bah!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Friday, July 25, 2008

Bad Start For The Day

When we went down for breakfast at the hotel, I started to miss Anaheim and even more of Oklahoma. Remember I complained about breakfast in Anaheim not on par with Oklahoma in this entry? I shall apply that complaint all over again here with some changes here and there.
1) The breakfast spread in Anaheim was bigger and better and the one in Oklahoma was EVEN bigger and better.
2) The eggs in Oklahoma were REAL scrambled eggs, not some pancake-looking pieces of eggs which tasted like flour.
3) There was only caffinated or decaf tea. In Oklahoma, we had green tea, chamomile, earl grey, etc., on top of the caffinated and decaf red ceylon tea.
4) Ignoring the poor tea range, at least we still had hot chocolate sachets in Anaheim, which was just like Oklahoma. Over here, none.
5) About yoghurt? None here to speak or even complain about.
6) In Oklahoma we have cheese sauce. In Anaheim, we have shredded cheddar. Here, nothing.
7) In Oklahoma, most of the time, we had sausage patties that tasted like McDonalds and on a few occasions, we had what tasted the same, but in the shape of a sausage. In Aneheim, we only had the sausage shaped ones. I'm suspecting that they all buy from the same supplier or something because over here, the sausages taste and look the same as the ones in Anaheim.
8) I don't think I'm being picky because in Vegas, breakfast was not provided and we had muffins and bread at our relative's place in San Francisco. I was kinda gearing for some kinda McDonalds Big Breakfast!
Haiz, so chin chye eat lor.

After walking around, we got back to the hotel early as I needed time to shower, pack and catch my flight out to... Hehe...

More US adventures coming right up!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Moving On To Los Angeles...

Presenting to you, the journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles through peektures!!!And so, we reached Los Angeles. We unpacked a little and decided where to have dinner. My sis suggested Yoshinoya, since we saw it while driving and it was only a few blocks away. I was telling my dad to drive, but he said no need and did not want to, maybe he is tired after driving for so long.
And so, we walked to Yoshinoya, which is damn far lah, although it was only a few blocks away. Moreover the sun was setting and this street is so empty, unlike Vegas. A bit the scared actually. Then don't know who suggested to eat in, but majority wins and we ta bao-ed dinner back to hotel. After getting dinner, I think we almost kinda brisk walked back to the hotel. Vegas felt so so much safer, despite the raunchy-ness that is everywhere, most probably its because the Strip is so brightly lit and there are so so many people around...

While my sis slacked out, and my parents in the other room, don't know doing what, I was busy. Busy planning where to go first, finding out where to park and the exact street names to key into the GPS system.

Busy and fun filled LA days coming right up!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Eagles Soar Yet Yet Yet Again!!!

I'm in a happy mood today because my DARLING Chris Eagles made me happy!!! And yah lah, thanks to the stubborn old man, Sir Alex Ferguson who was willing to give him a first team appearance to play in central midfield lah... My Chris Eagles scores for Man Utd AGAIN!!!!!!

Grabbed this off youtube!

Monday, July 21, 2008

1 Year Rendezvous With Ping.sg

1 year ago on 21st July 2007, I joined Ping.sg and hence, our love affair begin...

I can't really remember how I stumbled upon ping, but I was looking to get my blog listed on some site so I can reach out to other cancer survivors and/or patients. Like a blur sotong, I was trying to figure out how things work around here and even thought that I as long as I pinged, my post would be the one on top for that moment in the latest listing. 2 pings later, I realised that blogger aka blogspot post time is the time of creation, not time of posting and ping.sg lists post based on timing, thus, my pings would end up in the middle of the big sea. Finally, I got clever and did the right thing.

I saw the shoutbox and thought that it seemed like a mini mIRC chat room. I couragously typed something and was warmly welcomed and greeted by a few people. And for the next few days, I found myself addicted to the shoutbox, and more importantly, the community, as everyone was like a one big family! On the shoutbox I chatted with people like Xizor, Daphne, DK, Chillycraps, Arzhou, Rinaz, Malique, UFC (sorry if I forgot anyone) and got to know even more people, even the members who joined after me, as the time went by.

I was 2 weeks late for the 1st anniversary party, and some did asked why I wasn't there cos they thought I had joined before the party which was held on the 7th July. But I felt that I was part of ping community within a week of joining when I was involved in the ping.sg adverts started by (I think) Cris, and I did it again and again.

Days later, 3 gals began talking about cheesecakes on the shoutbox and it became a Secret Recipe outing. Initially set at IMM, it was shifted to a more central location at Forum Shopping Mall so it would be more convenient for the "easterners". At this virgin outing of mine, I saw first hand, the power of Twitter and I think we managed to psycho DK to cut his class and come down. Haha...

There was a day when I just got home and since I have a tab permantly fixed on ping on IE already, I took a peek at the shoutbox while cooling down and getting ready to shower. Then I saw ping Daddy, Uzyn jio everyone for supper damn last minute at Fong Seng (behind NUS) because Daphne was feeling down and needed some company. In about 15 minutes, some "westies" agreed to come out and it was already close to midnight. At this moment, I could feel that the community was tightly knitted and everyone regarded each other as friends when all of us rushed down to Fong Seng in our own ways to meet up. DK drove down and fetched some others and even offered to give me a lift, but when Arzhou called me, I was already in my Dad's car, hehe!!! And, I was the first to reach! Funny stuff happened and I remembered that DK was damn stunned (jaw-dropping-stunned) when he got to know how old I was. At the previous Secret Recipe outing, we were talking about male pingsters having a belly and I came up with a post based on the supper...

About a week or 2 later, I got flamed left, right, up, down, center over this post on my blog, my tagboard and some forum. First time I kena this kinda thing, and I really did not know what to do. So, what else can I do but to talk to fellow pingsters about it, since they are all bloggers as well? I went down to Cafe Cartel to meet up with them, and they comforted me and gave good advices. To me, this ping community was a big family of people who cared for one another.

Then I did up a post on a pasar malam happening in Clementi and another gathering took place. We bought food from the pasar malam stalls and went to a nearby kopitiam to order drinks and enjoy our food while having a TCSS session.

Soon, I kinda like disappeared from the radar because my modules were beginning to pile back to back and were even overlapping. Furthermore, a few of my classmates managed to push MDIS for a Student Council and I was on board as a committee member. Thus I didn't really have the time to lurk on the shoutbox or come out often for gatherings. I remembered having ice cream at Island Creamery and the TCSS session at Essential Brew, then there was the yu sheng session at Decoder's Cafe and the Good Friday Waraku and TCC TCSS session. I was so tied up with school that I missed Daphne's surprise birthday party (Sorry Daph)...

I further disappeared into thin air when I went over to the US for 6 weeks to complete the last 3 modules for my degree and my family joined me over there for a holiday after that. While I was studying, the hotel I was staying in had free wireless connection and I would be free after about 8pm Oklahoma time and on the weekends. So, I would try to blog something or to appear on the shoutbox. When touring started, there was hardly any free time as we would be out the whole day. It was also a clash of timings when I thought I could help contribute to the 2nd anniversary party after a year, but I can't as I was overseas and had to mug for 2 papers and essays when I came back. But thanks to the organizing committee who had let me played a small part by helping out to present one of the awards!

Recently, some unhappy stuff happened as well. I was horribly affected and cried numerous times because I did not know what to do. I did not really take sides as both were friends to me and I felt I did not do a good job in trying to help. I really miss the good old days (where there were still people chatting on the shoutbox at 4am in the morning) but that doesn't mean I don't want the good new days (where there are more pingsters and there is now a bigger community).

I remembered how we used to have discussions over grey areas such as pong cheating and all, or how to improve ping over the forums or the ideas page and everyone contributed their 2 cents worth. Everyone somehow played a part as a community member to help improve ping through their ideas and I could see some of the ideas coming to life as Uzyn is improving the site over time through version 1.8 and the upcoming version 2.0 which was given a sneak preview during the 2nd anniversary party. And yep, till now, I still miss the old ping pong balls... (Psst, Boss, can we have the ping pong balls back again, please please, pretty please...)

And oh ya! (Belated) Happppeeeeeeeeeeee 2nd Birthday ping.sg!!!

Friday, July 18, 2008

I Went To Prison... Almost...

I managed to persuade my dad to drive down to the Embarcadero area the next morning for the Alcatraz trip. Since we had drove past in the cab the day before, have the GPS system in the car, maps and research on where to park, it was not going to be a headache. And it turned out kinda easy. Even when we got lost when we made a wrong turn, the system would go "recalulating" and still bring us to where we wana go. It was also really easy to find parking space, maybe because it is a "tourist-y" place.

We gave too much time allowance and turned out that we reached really really early. While waiting for the booth to open to collect our tickets (which turned out that we need not to), I was happily snapping away at the waiting and queue area, displaying some exhibits on history and ex-inmate quotes and regulations when it was a federal prison the waiting and queue area.Alcatraz was a maximum, high-security federal prison. Many have tried to escape. Most were either dead or recaptured, except for a few whose whereabouts are still unknown. I could feel what the prisoners were feeling upon stepping on the island. Here I am, on an island surrounded by freezing, rushing currents. It was a feeling of "that's it." If that wasn't enough, the lost and helpless feeling was worse upon stepping within the walls of the actual prison building.
We left my sister at home because she was running a high fever and since Embarcadero is where Fisherman's Wharf is, meaning pier, meaning sea, meaning strong winds, we did not want her to fall sick even more. After the Alcatraz trip, we went back to get her, and then drove out again to sightsee.Also drove past Chinatown and experienced the hilly-ness the San Francisco. Damn scary. Try directing your dad with the GPS system in the front seat when you have the fear of heights and taking a roller coaster ride, with steep slopes, at the same time.I love seafood and I want Bubba Gump in Singapore because they cook shrimps in so many different ways!!!

Went home after dinner and started packing. Remember how worried I was when I saw the spoiled luggage in this entry? Thank God! Everything was intact and nothing inside was damaged, even my F.R.I.E.N.D.S complete series boxset didn't suffer any dents.
A lesson learnt... Don't pack the luggage full, because when TSA opens it, they will not have the time nor remember how you arrange your stuff nicely. If your luggage can't be closed properly, chances are that your luggage might be damaged and things go missing because they fall out. Help TSA and yourself out.

Meanwhile, more of my mum's cousins came over to say hi and goodbye because we were driving back to Los Angeles the next day. Honestly, I can't remember when was the last time I saw these aunties and uncles and I hope it won't be the last time...

Los Angeles adventure coming right up!