Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Woohoo, me goddamn blog is 1 year old....happy birthday to my goddamn incessant grumblings on the internet. I'm pretty damn sure I've started my career of making life miserable on the net many epoches ago with my slapping of ppl with large stinking trout over IRC, my SL606 'death and decay' spells in archmage, and my bbq flames in various forums, this blog is just another weapon of mass destruction of mine to spread pain, agony and desolution over the net. Mwahahahah.....and Happy Birthday to my Goddamn Blog!!!!
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Monday, March 21, 2005
Finally, the garnment anti-smoking propaganda machine loses steam in its prosecution of smokers in the recently conducted polls to deliberate over banning more places as to where smokers can light up. As reported in the ST today, an overwhelming majority of patrons to coffee shops and pubs are decidedly against the ban in such establishments, which in reality are the last bastions of defiance where smokers are holding out against. If coffee shops and pubs do get the ban imposed, soon places like parks beaches and traffic light junctions will follow suit and smokers will only be able to light up in the privacy of their homes and hotels. The act of smoking will be almost as private as having sex, out of sight, out of earshot since no one will be able to smoke anywhere in public anymore. Let's hope policy makers are rational enough and not get caught up by the euphoria. Keeping toes firmly crossed!
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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Teams who win 1-0 win titles and trophies.
Like it or not, year in year out the team that gets crowned league champion is almost inevitably the team that concedes the least goals. Defence wins you titles, fantastic goal scoring prowess is a bonus. Take the league leaders in Spain Italy and England as of today, all of them conceded the least number of goals respectively in their league. Chelsea 9 goals, Milan and Juve 17 and 16 respectively and surprise surprise even Barca is ahead in this department by a sizeable margin of 7 goals from Real at 18 goals. I'm not all that surprised at Barca's improvement, they've always had a strong attack and when Rijkard came in undoubtedly having been plying his trade in perhaps the most miserly team ever in AC Milan, he turned Barca into the dominant force leading La Liga by a whooping 10 points. Man U's recent run of form which started from Nov 04 also coincide with the best defensive run ever by Man U. Teams that score truckloads of goals at the expense of defence usually end up quite some margin behind in terms of league point from the leaders. Think Inter, Roma and of cos Arsenal who scores 14 more goals than Chelsea yet 10 points behind.
Even for teams that are unable to compete for precorious striking talents at exorbitant prices, a good defence is priceless. Everton and Sampdoria are example of this brand of football. If a team don't concede a goal, there's only 2 possible outcomes for the game, a draw or a win. Winning a game 1-0 gives the team 3 points just as winning 5-0, a coach would rather have a team that win 1-0 than a team that wins 5-4, let's face it you're not going to score 5 goals every game. Newcastle and Roma is prime example of this faulty principle and despite having great offence look at where they are in the league. Just as the leader is the one that concedes the least goal, the cellar dweller is the one that concedes the most, check all the league if you don't believe me. Then there are teams that simply have problem scoring but with a decent defence, they'll stay in the top league to fight another day earning money and reputation until they're able to attract better strikers, think bolton and charlton. No strikers will like to move to a club fighting for relegation year in year out, for relegation almost spell the end of playing for the club in question.
It's quite funny how journalist do not like to emphasize the point even though it's so clear for all to see. Perhaps they do not wanto be seen as promoting the boring game, a 0-0 draw is a better result than a 4-4 draw, a devil's advocate. These are general trends that I've observed and have more often than not attracted scorn from soccer fans, friends that's quite amatuerish in their understanding of the game. Perhaps the comical defending of the EPL teams that they're bred on do not further their appreciation of soccer. Man U aside, the most hated team this season has gotta be Chelsea and Everton for their many 1-0 wins, many citing them as boring and killing the beautiful game. Until statistics prove otherwise, defence is still the formula for success.
P.S. Although I think all French are gay and dislike Sir Alex Fervently, my man of the match for the San Siro leg of the Milan Man U game is Silvestre. I'll take back all my previous claims that he suck as centreback.
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Like it or not, year in year out the team that gets crowned league champion is almost inevitably the team that concedes the least goals. Defence wins you titles, fantastic goal scoring prowess is a bonus. Take the league leaders in Spain Italy and England as of today, all of them conceded the least number of goals respectively in their league. Chelsea 9 goals, Milan and Juve 17 and 16 respectively and surprise surprise even Barca is ahead in this department by a sizeable margin of 7 goals from Real at 18 goals. I'm not all that surprised at Barca's improvement, they've always had a strong attack and when Rijkard came in undoubtedly having been plying his trade in perhaps the most miserly team ever in AC Milan, he turned Barca into the dominant force leading La Liga by a whooping 10 points. Man U's recent run of form which started from Nov 04 also coincide with the best defensive run ever by Man U. Teams that score truckloads of goals at the expense of defence usually end up quite some margin behind in terms of league point from the leaders. Think Inter, Roma and of cos Arsenal who scores 14 more goals than Chelsea yet 10 points behind.
Even for teams that are unable to compete for precorious striking talents at exorbitant prices, a good defence is priceless. Everton and Sampdoria are example of this brand of football. If a team don't concede a goal, there's only 2 possible outcomes for the game, a draw or a win. Winning a game 1-0 gives the team 3 points just as winning 5-0, a coach would rather have a team that win 1-0 than a team that wins 5-4, let's face it you're not going to score 5 goals every game. Newcastle and Roma is prime example of this faulty principle and despite having great offence look at where they are in the league. Just as the leader is the one that concedes the least goal, the cellar dweller is the one that concedes the most, check all the league if you don't believe me. Then there are teams that simply have problem scoring but with a decent defence, they'll stay in the top league to fight another day earning money and reputation until they're able to attract better strikers, think bolton and charlton. No strikers will like to move to a club fighting for relegation year in year out, for relegation almost spell the end of playing for the club in question.
It's quite funny how journalist do not like to emphasize the point even though it's so clear for all to see. Perhaps they do not wanto be seen as promoting the boring game, a 0-0 draw is a better result than a 4-4 draw, a devil's advocate. These are general trends that I've observed and have more often than not attracted scorn from soccer fans, friends that's quite amatuerish in their understanding of the game. Perhaps the comical defending of the EPL teams that they're bred on do not further their appreciation of soccer. Man U aside, the most hated team this season has gotta be Chelsea and Everton for their many 1-0 wins, many citing them as boring and killing the beautiful game. Until statistics prove otherwise, defence is still the formula for success.
P.S. Although I think all French are gay and dislike Sir Alex Fervently, my man of the match for the San Siro leg of the Milan Man U game is Silvestre. I'll take back all my previous claims that he suck as centreback.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
My Dad.
A simple man. Who loves his kids namely my sister and myself, but alas my regret if it can constitute as one is that I do not have a father-son relationship with him that's close and a personal one. I feel like a stranger to him.
All this is probably more my fault than his. Ever since the young age of perhaps around 10, reason and logic became my guiding principle in life. Rebellious perhaps I was a little, and it irks me to no end to endure admonitions became it came from my elders whose justification was just that, they're elder than me thus they should know better. What many adults then do not realised was that even at that young age, I'm more developed than them in the brain department and I know whats right and wrong better than them. I however cannot remember a single incident where I was reprimanded by my dad. It was pretty plain to see then that I was detached from my family, conversations if any was kept to one of greetings without ever touching on any important or emotional aspects. Perhaps I was too self-conceited, and thought a tad too highly of myself where I thought that my family was not my intellectual equal and there's nothing more I could learn from them. Instead of having to constantly put up with their seemingly simple and witless problems, I decide that I live in the same house but not much more, I do not care about the ongoings and nor do I wanto give my comments on any issues. I really do not want to hurt my parent's ego that they already got nothing to teach their young son and I've became better than them.
The years rolled by where I continued to live my life under the same roof and my dad continue to age. I moved out eventually when I was 20 and became even more detached. The next few years were a blur and suddenly my dad retired from work. It represented a transition for him where he's in his twilight years, and I too realised that someone who's supposedly to be close to me had his life passed me by without ever developing into one that's had meaning and etched memories. My family too generally leave me alone until a crisis or emergency developed where I'm needed to solve them. Pride or perhaps my mum's ego prevented my parents to be reliant or dependent on me for everything, and I'm prefectly happy with that(My mum had always been the one making the major decisions in the household). Somewhere during that time, my parents and my dad in particular realised that their son had long surpassed them and perhaps had lost him as well and were resigned that they were unable to reach me on a personal level. They too saw me live my life and were just spectators in the show perhaps hoping that one day I'll reach out to them and they too can play a part in it as well.
After his retirement, my dad lost part of himself as most ppl do when they retire. He was spending a lot more time around the house, keeping it spick and span. He do meet up with his friends and often went travelling with my mum and enjoyed retirement eventually. He did get on my nerves on more than one occasions and I was naturally displeased and dispensed with some harsh words. It's funny though that no amount of nagging from mum would have the same effect than if I had adviced him with a few simple words and logic. My dad had simple pleasures in life and is easily humored. A game of mahjong and a sumptuous feast are his pet peevs. I'm eternally grateful for my sister who would indulge him once in a while. My dad's consolations in his life is perhaps that he have a loving wife and a fillial daughter.
I do love my father, for simply that he's my father. I will take care of him when the day come without grumble or dissent. Its not through fear of being branded unfillial that would have me do that, I've never been one to conform to such societal pressures, it is something which I think is right to do. While he's never there to gimme a helping hand, it was because I never needed it rather than he's unwilling to give, I never begrudged him that anyway. It's just sometimes I feel sad that I deprived him of a son.
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A simple man. Who loves his kids namely my sister and myself, but alas my regret if it can constitute as one is that I do not have a father-son relationship with him that's close and a personal one. I feel like a stranger to him.
All this is probably more my fault than his. Ever since the young age of perhaps around 10, reason and logic became my guiding principle in life. Rebellious perhaps I was a little, and it irks me to no end to endure admonitions became it came from my elders whose justification was just that, they're elder than me thus they should know better. What many adults then do not realised was that even at that young age, I'm more developed than them in the brain department and I know whats right and wrong better than them. I however cannot remember a single incident where I was reprimanded by my dad. It was pretty plain to see then that I was detached from my family, conversations if any was kept to one of greetings without ever touching on any important or emotional aspects. Perhaps I was too self-conceited, and thought a tad too highly of myself where I thought that my family was not my intellectual equal and there's nothing more I could learn from them. Instead of having to constantly put up with their seemingly simple and witless problems, I decide that I live in the same house but not much more, I do not care about the ongoings and nor do I wanto give my comments on any issues. I really do not want to hurt my parent's ego that they already got nothing to teach their young son and I've became better than them.
The years rolled by where I continued to live my life under the same roof and my dad continue to age. I moved out eventually when I was 20 and became even more detached. The next few years were a blur and suddenly my dad retired from work. It represented a transition for him where he's in his twilight years, and I too realised that someone who's supposedly to be close to me had his life passed me by without ever developing into one that's had meaning and etched memories. My family too generally leave me alone until a crisis or emergency developed where I'm needed to solve them. Pride or perhaps my mum's ego prevented my parents to be reliant or dependent on me for everything, and I'm prefectly happy with that(My mum had always been the one making the major decisions in the household). Somewhere during that time, my parents and my dad in particular realised that their son had long surpassed them and perhaps had lost him as well and were resigned that they were unable to reach me on a personal level. They too saw me live my life and were just spectators in the show perhaps hoping that one day I'll reach out to them and they too can play a part in it as well.
After his retirement, my dad lost part of himself as most ppl do when they retire. He was spending a lot more time around the house, keeping it spick and span. He do meet up with his friends and often went travelling with my mum and enjoyed retirement eventually. He did get on my nerves on more than one occasions and I was naturally displeased and dispensed with some harsh words. It's funny though that no amount of nagging from mum would have the same effect than if I had adviced him with a few simple words and logic. My dad had simple pleasures in life and is easily humored. A game of mahjong and a sumptuous feast are his pet peevs. I'm eternally grateful for my sister who would indulge him once in a while. My dad's consolations in his life is perhaps that he have a loving wife and a fillial daughter.
I do love my father, for simply that he's my father. I will take care of him when the day come without grumble or dissent. Its not through fear of being branded unfillial that would have me do that, I've never been one to conform to such societal pressures, it is something which I think is right to do. While he's never there to gimme a helping hand, it was because I never needed it rather than he's unwilling to give, I never begrudged him that anyway. It's just sometimes I feel sad that I deprived him of a son.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Milan kicked Man U's ass!!!
:)
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:)
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Oh BTW, tonite's the first time in 3 weeks where its not a sailing/duty day and I'm not drinking at some karaoke pub, and I'm so proud of my unwaivering pillor of strength otherwise known as my resolve to resist the temptations posted by the luscious and ambrosial waitress to reutrn to my haunt. Yeah! I actually managed to say NO to such a delectable babe, although I'm sure any more inveiglement and I'll succumb to her whims and fancies. But I managed to stand firm for a period long enough to dissuade her to try finally her luck elsewhere for enticing guys to buy her alcohol. I feel so proud of myself today, even though I'll be back to my grovelling best tmr, making reparations and putting culpability of my unrecptiveness today on some witchcraft and possiblity incriminating allignment of the stars moon and sun. However today I'll bask in my glory of sustaining a rejection of an invitation by a really really attractive girl.
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Smokers have rights, albeit not alot but rights nonetheless. For the uptheem times the past few years, smokers in Sg are being held to ransom by the government. Tax on cigarettes went up again and this time by a hefty $1.50 per packet of 20, breaking the psychological mark of S$10 per packet. That's 55cts per stick compared to the 14cts per stick when I started smoking thats a increase of nearly 300% in price. I've got no idea how much cigarettes cost per packet w/o tax, but a good estimate would be the price of US imported cigarettes in Indonesia costing S$2.20, thats a whooping $8.80 in tax per packet. Let's do some mathematics here.
Estimate of % of my friends who smoke = 70% (assume that bird of a feather flock together and the national average is 1/7 of this estimate)
Estimate % of Singaporeans who smoke = 10%
Estimate No of Singaporeans = 4,000,000
Estimate No of Singaporean smokers = 400,000
Estimate No of Cigarettes I smoke per day = 30
Estimate No of Cigarettes AVG SIngaporean smoke per day = 20
Estimate tax per smoker per day = $8.80
Estimate tax income per day = 400,000 X $8.80 = $3,520,000
Estimated Tax Income per year = $352,000 X 365 = $1,284,800,000
which is appromximately S$1.3 billion
Compared to COE revenue at 3000 COE per month at S$20,000 for 12 months = S$0.72 billion
I'm sure the goddamn exhaust of cars cause more pollution than cigarettes smoke.
Anyway the cited reasons for cigarette tax have been the subsidized medical costs that SIngaporeans benefit from. So let's see, as an example, a smoker starts smoking at 20, lives to be 60(Average age that Singaporeans die is 77, so I assume all smokers die younger), that's 40 years of paying $8.80 per day in tax for cigarettes = $8.80 X 40 X 365 = $128,480. I dunno about you but that seems like an awfully amount of tax that smokers are paying for subsidized medical costs. My monthly cigarette bill now looks like this $11 X 1.5 X 30 = $495. This looks like the monthly payments for a small 1.3 litre car.
Anyway I wonder how the budget will be balanced if all smokers quit smoking if the tax from cigarettes become nil.
I mean this prosecution of smokers is bordering on the ridiculous. Smokers dun go around blowing smoke into other ppl's face, I mean what have we done to deserve such a witch hunt? I mean I go about my smoking alone and dun butt into your lives, for goodness sake, leave us alone. I'm aware of the health hazards that comes with smoking, but I'm making an informed decision here, I'm smoking in spite of the health hazards that I'll presumably suffer from. More ppl die from eating unhealthy food that clogs up the arteries, go ahead put more tax on cooking oil, Mac's and the hawker selling Char Kway Tiao. I live by the sword, I'll die by the sword, It's my life, My choice. I dun stop you from eating MacDonald's, you dun stop me from smoking, so all you ppl at bus-stop, hawker centres and coffee-places, stop giving me the holier than thou look and act as if I'm murdering you by my smoking 10 metres from you, your fried chicken will kill you, or SARS, or some crazy bitch whose toes you just stepped on, not my smoke.
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Estimate of % of my friends who smoke = 70% (assume that bird of a feather flock together and the national average is 1/7 of this estimate)
Estimate % of Singaporeans who smoke = 10%
Estimate No of Singaporeans = 4,000,000
Estimate No of Singaporean smokers = 400,000
Estimate No of Cigarettes I smoke per day = 30
Estimate No of Cigarettes AVG SIngaporean smoke per day = 20
Estimate tax per smoker per day = $8.80
Estimate tax income per day = 400,000 X $8.80 = $3,520,000
Estimated Tax Income per year = $352,000 X 365 = $1,284,800,000
which is appromximately S$1.3 billion
Compared to COE revenue at 3000 COE per month at S$20,000 for 12 months = S$0.72 billion
I'm sure the goddamn exhaust of cars cause more pollution than cigarettes smoke.
Anyway the cited reasons for cigarette tax have been the subsidized medical costs that SIngaporeans benefit from. So let's see, as an example, a smoker starts smoking at 20, lives to be 60(Average age that Singaporeans die is 77, so I assume all smokers die younger), that's 40 years of paying $8.80 per day in tax for cigarettes = $8.80 X 40 X 365 = $128,480. I dunno about you but that seems like an awfully amount of tax that smokers are paying for subsidized medical costs. My monthly cigarette bill now looks like this $11 X 1.5 X 30 = $495. This looks like the monthly payments for a small 1.3 litre car.
Anyway I wonder how the budget will be balanced if all smokers quit smoking if the tax from cigarettes become nil.
I mean this prosecution of smokers is bordering on the ridiculous. Smokers dun go around blowing smoke into other ppl's face, I mean what have we done to deserve such a witch hunt? I mean I go about my smoking alone and dun butt into your lives, for goodness sake, leave us alone. I'm aware of the health hazards that comes with smoking, but I'm making an informed decision here, I'm smoking in spite of the health hazards that I'll presumably suffer from. More ppl die from eating unhealthy food that clogs up the arteries, go ahead put more tax on cooking oil, Mac's and the hawker selling Char Kway Tiao. I live by the sword, I'll die by the sword, It's my life, My choice. I dun stop you from eating MacDonald's, you dun stop me from smoking, so all you ppl at bus-stop, hawker centres and coffee-places, stop giving me the holier than thou look and act as if I'm murdering you by my smoking 10 metres from you, your fried chicken will kill you, or SARS, or some crazy bitch whose toes you just stepped on, not my smoke.
