the art of being an idiot

here's another "shane is such a useless guy and a dumbass and needs to be slapped repeatedly" moment.
"erm...yea."
*smack smack smack smack smack smack smack*

EPL

hello everyone and welcome to a new week of exhilarating english premier league football. i'm martin tyler, and alongside with me is andy gray, and together we'll be giving you this week's team of the week as well as the manager, idiots and boohoo of the week.

Manger of the week: Bryan Robson (WEST BROM). For a team that survived renegation at the same ground in the final match last season, Bryan Robson seems to have picked up this season and see the club to a win and a draw in their opening two matches. this is certainly not the west brom we knew last season. a good win over portsmouth saw new tactics in the manager and it seemed to pay off rather well.

Goalkeeper:
Paul Robinson(Spurs). the england number one proves why he is so.


Defenders:
Philippe Senderos(Arsenal). Wonderful play by him to keep Drogba, Essien and Wright-Phillips at bay, although finally caving in to Drogba's constant assaults on him in the end, which saw to the only goal of the match.
Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United). a another solid performance by him saw a clean sheet on the united score board. with Heinze still not yet at full fitness, Rio is certainly taking on more responsibilities and coping well.
David Weir(Everton). If Everton intends to keep any hopes of europe alive, they'll certainly want to be relying on Weir for their backline, proved by this solid performance over the weekend.
Renato Paulo Ferreira(Chelsea). A strong performance from the man. seemed to be every where around the pitch at one point of time.

Midfield:
Paul Scholes(Manchester United). a triplet of on-target scorchers against Aston Villa showed that this veterant midfielder still has what it takes to excel in top flight football.
Tugay Kerimoglu(Blackburn). a stunning goal and tireless running from the blackburn midfielder earns him a place in this week's dream team.
Aleksander Hleb(Arsenal). Proved to be worth his money.

Strikers:
Morten Gamst Pedersen(Blackburn). a stunning goal that was only second to his teammate's volley. played a good game.
Jamaine Defoe(Spurs). a thunderous strike from Defoe seemed to almost blast through the net!
Darren Bent(Charlton). consistent play over the last 2 games. the premiership's top scorer now.

Idiot of the week: Sander Westerveld(Portsmouth). for having butter fingers.

Boohoo of the week: Chelsea winning Arsenal by an offside goal.

national day rally 2005

today, i am proud to be a singaporean. even in making that statement, i do feel ashamed of myself, for not being proud to be a singaporean, everyday. watching PM Lee's national day rally speech, i now have a minute taste of the nationalism that the germans and italians felt in 1871 and 1870, and the nationalism that our forefathers lived on, something i will never be able to comprehend fully. PM Lee's speech was awe-inspiring and touched upon topics that were closely felt by most singaoreans. in his words, he had a 'wishlist' of what people wanted him to talk about in the rally, and he promptly delivered.
on education, i'm glad he focused on the achievements on the polytechnics and ITEs,for in my opinion, they are very still very much overlooked and despised by other singaporeans, notably their peers; the same situation in which neighbourhood schools are despised or likewise which normanl tech and academic students. the examples he brought up were relevant to what he was saying and most notably, it was his personal presence in such institutes that fortified what he said.
on the ageing population, he made specific mention to how to get people not to retire so early. you can't expect to work for 30 years and then rest for 30 years, you'll go 'gaga' as so he put it. i remember he was rather firm about this.
on the service industry, he made particular mention on the service qualities of singaporeans, which drew laughter especially with the 2 video clips, Tow Gay not enough and Tow Gay never enough. if i might, i just want to voice my opinions on this issue. i hate it when i go into the store and the sales girl or guy is on the phone, muttering sweet nothings to his/her friend and paying no attention to me. i don't mind, but what will foreigners think?
uber alles, the most mermorable part of his speech was towards the end. PM Lee painted us a picture of what singapore would be like tomorrow, more specifically on our nation's 50th birthday, 10 years from now. the 'tour' that he took us on showed us how his 'reinvention' of singapore would be like, and with the aid of the diagrams, it was particuarly effective. one thing that struck me out, was that he gave us hope, he gave us optimism, he gave us something to look forward to, excitment. how often do any of us get that nowadays? now, hear, hear! here's a leader.
i will never forget how PM Lee ended his rally. he spoke of the lack of splendor and colour and mass displays in the earlier national day parades. particularly, he spoke of the 1968 parade, where if i'm not wrong, he was either in the marching contingency or the band. so he went on to say that during that year's parade, it was downpouring and everyone was drenched, including himself. then he waited to see if everyone would stay put or run to shelter. no one did. everyone was drenched, everyone continued marching, to their delight, to the cheers of the crowd. one people, one spirit. then he cried. i was moved to the verge of tears. for those of you cringing in your seats now, or for that matter for those of you who even read until this point, i make it no point to hide my tears or be ashamed about crying. therefore, stop cringing.
i am proud to be a singaporean, and i thank God forevermore, for placing me here. Amen.

Premiership

hello everyone, and a warm welcome to a new season of the English Premier League. I'm Shane Koh alongside with my tagboard host, Alvyn Ng, and we're here to bring the lastest season of the league straight to your eyes. So, after Saturday's and Sunday's premiership action, i'm sure most of you are now fired up. this is a segment i would like to call, team of the week, where Alvyn and I will bring you comprehensive dream team of the week line ups, not to mention the boohoos of the week and idiot of the week. here we go!

manager of the week: Alan Pardew (West Ham).
it certainly is difficult in your first game back at top flight football, and what a way to play it, West Ham! a spectacular 3-1 win over Blackburn saw the Hammers move up to a second spot in the table. although it is still very early in the season, Pardew seems to have got his tactics right, and his eye keen on the prize, which we would now suspect it's not just to remain in top flight football. a call back of the old glory days perhaps? going this way, europe seems in sight.

Team Of the Week:

GoalKeeper: Shay Given (Newcastle). although his side lost by two goals to Arsenal, Given, i must say, had a particularly good match, that is, until the 80th minute. in the first half and especially the second half, Shay had made dozens of saves, the highlight being the few close range shots he had managed to pull over the bar. he kept calm during the penalty as well, and even got a good hand to the ball, although unfortunately it went it.

Defenders: Rio Ferdinand(Manchester United), Christian Dailly(West Ham), Gareth Southgate(Aston Villa) and Jean-Alain Boumsong (Newcastle)

Midfielders: Henri Camara(Wigan Althetic), Frank Lampard(Chelsea), Steven Gerrad (Liverpool) and Roy Keane (Manchester United)

Strikers: Teddy Sheringham (West Ham) and Van Nistelrooy (Machester United).

Idiots of the week: Gilberto (Arsenal) and Yobo(Everton).

boohoo of the week: Wigan losing to Chelsea in the 93rd minute by 1 goal from Crespo.

till next week. cheers!

dreams

recently, i've been having a lot of dreams, not sure why, but they're proliferating day by day, or rather, night by night. i even set a new record for the most number of dreams in a mere 4hours. see, i accidentally fell asleep the other day at around 10pm and i woke at 2am. during that time, i did not dream anything, or if i did, i couldn't remember. then, after i went back to sleep, between then and the time i woke up again, 6am, i dreamt 6 or 7 dreams, and the thing is, i could remember ever single one of them and even how many dreams i had dreamt then. haha, ok now i can't remember.
anyway, the weirdest of which was when i dreamt i was with someone walking in the middle of the road. then i realised that there was a car behind us and i quickly pulled that person's hand and led us to the side of the road. after the car passed, that person immediately remarked, "you're weird, shane." then immediately, it changed scene. i was in my church and all my friends were around me. this is when it starts to get weird. i began telling everyone there in my church that i had a dream the night before, and to my surprise, i began telling them about the dream i had just before. meaning, i was telling about a prior dream, in a dream, while i was still dreaming, and my unconscious self, although sleeping, was still conscious, in that i sensed the strangeness of such an episode. then the punch line came in. all my church friends remarked , " shane, you're weird." then i woke up, in cold sweat cuz i felt really distraughted.
in 2 nights, i had also dreamt about playing soccer, once with alvyn on my RI soccer field, and the other, with huixiang on, what my mind told me, was a field on pulau ubin.
in 3 nights consecutively, i dreamt myself being either near a harbour, on a yatch holidaying or on a boat, interestingly enough i was on that boat to ferry myself between two islands in which council camp was held. weird. anyway, yea see the motif of the sea and stuff?
a few nights ago, it was the 2nd time in a few weeks that i dreamt of my grandmother, who is still living. i dared not tell my parents this because well, the dreams were disturbing.

ndp 2005

I love watching the national day parade with my parents, especially with my dad. It's one of the few programmes that can bring my whole family together at one tv, without any quarrel. star search used to do that for us too, until i grew out of it and basically thought it quite a waste of time. this year's parade was great! foundationally, the parade gave people exactly what they wanted. i've always been thinking year after year, if singaporeans like that aerial display so much, why not make it last longer and better? thankfully this year there did it. the chinooks and the f-16s were in their full glory, not to mention the new purchases of the charlie helicopters and the refueling plane. to top it all off, there was a mini air show by 4 f-16s, which quite took my breath away.
the next best thing was the artillery display, which was simply fantastic. with a mass array of over 200 vehicles, comprising tanks, apcs, logistics support, chemical combat, police and fire vehicles. it really made me proud to be a singaporean at that moment.
i thank God, for blessing this country, for His great mercy and grace upon Singapore, that He has seen us safe from natural disasters and man-made ones. i thank the Lord for blessing us with wonderful leaders, that have steered singapore into safety and prosperity. God has indeed also been faithful and merciful to me as well, for He has placed me here, in a beautiful country, among family and friends that i love so dearly. thank you Lord.

again

today, i got my second taste of so near yet so far. if this keeps up, i can start writing a gp essay on this topic.

don't shun, please

i remember in my primary school days, i started playing soccer. then my parents saw my interest and got me a soccer ball. so i brought it to school the next day and played with my friends. then i accidentally kicked too hard and it flew over the fence. now this fence was constructed in such a way that once something got in between it and the next fence, there was no way of getting it out. so it happened my ball landed there. so all i could do, was stare at it and cry.

and hence, i got my first taste of
so near yet so far.

Dishwalla- Angels and Demons

this is the last time
that I'm ever gonna come here tonight
this is the last time - I will fall
into a place that fails us all - inside

I can see the pain in you
I can see the love in you
but fighting all the demons will take time
it will take time

the angels they burn inside for us
are we ever
are we ever gonna learn to fly
the devils they burn inside of us
are we ever gonna come back down
come around
I'm always gonna worry about the things that could make us cold

this is the last time
that I'm ever gonna give in tonight
are there angels or devils crawling here?
I just want to know what blurs and what is clear - to see

still I can see the pain in you
and I can see the love in you
and fighting all the demons will take time
it will take time

the angels they burn inside for us
are we ever
are we ever gonna learn to fly
the devils they burn inside of us
are we ever gonna come back down - come around
I'm always gonna worry about the things that could break us

if I was to give in - give it up
- and then
take a breath - make it deep
cause it might be the last one you get
be the last one
that could make us cold
you know that they could make us cold
I'm always gonna worry about the things that could make us cold