Categories
Sports

[701] Of Rose Bowl!

Quoting Hsin:

All I’m rooting for at the Orange Bowl is as much controversy as possible! Maybe the refs will do an even worse-r job.

There’s already one. Justice O’Connor is being biased and letting the Longhorns to start first. And she’s from Taxes! Obviously she would go for Texas!

Alright. Alright. I’m being an asshole.

Let the Rose Bowl begins!

Damn. Being sick today is fun with the game on TV.

p/s – seeing how the Trojans got their first touchdown, I think the Longhorns are getting cream’d.

pp/s – maybe not. USC 7 – 9 UT. But that UT touchdown totally wasn’s a legit touchdown.

ppp/s – hook ’em horns. UT 16. SC doesn’t seem to be doing anything to stop UT in the second quarter.

p4/s – SC is leading right now but Texas is on fire!

p5/s – Texas leads. And yeah, yeah, yeah. Michigan lost to SC in Rose Bowl 2004. So what? The commentators need to shut up.

p6 – whoa! Vince Young made a 45-yard rush!

p7/s – Vince Young is probably one of the craziest quarterbacks I’ve ever seen. Just because of him, I think I’m switching camp. Plus, Texas beat OSU earlier. So, Hook ’em Horns!

p8/s – Texas has two minutes to win the game. Or else.

p9/s – 5-yard penalty against SC and first down for Texas. Holy shit!

p10/s – what did I tell you? Vince Young is crazy! He rushed and touchdown Horns! Then a 2 pointer. Long live the king. USC is off the number 1.

p11/s – well, not yet. There are 19 seconds left and SC is calling a timeout.

p12/s – Yahoo!

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved
Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

Now, enter 2006. Truly.

Categories
Sports

[700] Of c’mon Paterno!

Until very recently, many people have been criticizing Joe Paterno for Littany Lions’ poor performance. Including me. This season however, Paterno proves that old dog can learn new tricks.

I wish Penn State the best of all luck. And Go Big Ten!

p/s – Right now, the Orange Bowl , Penn State versus Florida State, is entering its third overtime, tied at 23 – 23.

pp/s – Penn State won. Now, there’s only one thing left – Trojans versus Longhorns. As much as I hate to say this, I’m rooting for Trojans. Nope. No Texan for me please.

Categories
Sports

[689] Of from seventh to fourth and on fire

Ajax won 2-0 against NAC. That’s three consecutive victories in the Eredivisie. At the same time, excessive good luck brought Ajax from the seventh place to four.

On the same day Ajax faced NAC, all Ajax’s nearest competitors ate too much grass and hence, allowing Ajax to march on. The sweetest is, of course, Feyenoord’s loss to ADO Den Haag! Seeing Feyenoord losing to a team that sticks at the bottom is even better than seeing Manchester United failing to progress beyond Champions League’s group stage.

Another much needed good news is Rosenborg. He seems to have found his form, scoring three goals in the last five matches. It might be too soon to celebrate but if Ajax has found its striker, the world will tremble.

Currently, AZ Alkmaar sits on top of the table, sharing points with second placed PSV. Feyenoord’s third and Ajax, as mentioned earlier, up in fourth.

All in all, this revival looks good. w00t!

Categories
Sports

[687] Of ABTFI!

In the next round of Champions League, Ajax will be up against – guest who? Hint: Italian team. Hint 2: Familiar faces. Drumroll please – Inter f-Milan!

Goddamned f-again! For the love of everything sensible in this world, why must Ajax face Italian teams and Arsenal every time there’s a Champions League season at hand?

I’d have prefer anyone by the f-Italian. Somebody must’ve cursed Ajax over something: thy shall play the Italian (and Arsenal) forever and ever. Bah!

I don’t believe Ajax has a chance to progress further beyond the last 16 stage. All seven possible teams that Ajax could have gone up against, namely f-Juventus, Barcelona, Villareal, AC f-Milan, Inter f-Milan, Lyon and Liverpool are too huge to handle given Ajax’s current sorry state. Ajax’s currently stand at sixth in the Eredivisie, under team such as NEC and RKC. Most embarrassing. Luckily, in the last few match, Ajax’s bucking up.

Right now however, knowing that Ajax will be up against an Italian team again, Ajax must win. A Dutch win will show the crybaby in Milan how to differentiate between the beauty and the beast.

Categories
Economics Sports

[677] Of greedy protectionists within Malaysian telcos industry

When limited members of a society benefit from restricted competition at others’ expense, it’s all too possible that a protectionist is lurking somewhere, menacingly. According to The Star yesterday:

Prepaid mobile phone users may no longer enjoy the convenience of buying their top-up cards at sundry shops and coffeeshops.

The Energy, Water and Communications Ministry is considering barring telecommunications companies from appointing such stores as retail agents for the cards.”

Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said the move was vital to protect the business of telecommunications distributors and dealers.

This is no doubt a protectionist’s wet dream.

Think about it.

If the government enacts the restriction, on one hand, the would be adversely affected business owners would lose legitimate future income – reduction in wealth – to the groups that are lobbying the government to restrict competition. In simpler term, it’s called stealing. Theives steal and those lobbyists are downright robbers.

We, the consumers on the other hand, would have to purchase these cards from few selected sellers. That means consumers have to put forth extra effort – another word for cost – in order to search and purchase a good.

Worse, these sellers would monopolize a market niche when they aren’t supposed to under efficient conditions. Meanwhile, it might be true that the consumers won’t have to fork extra cash to make a purchase with the new ruling, but a loss in convenience is a loss in consumers surplus.

The government mustn’t let this new, unfair ruling come into being. The telcos distributors and dealers are merely thinking about their profits and absolutely not about the market efficiency. Neither do they care for other individuals and groups with honest wants and needs.

For these reasons, that restriction mustn’t be imposed. Free market must reign supreme, for fairness’ sake, in the name of the people.

One more thing – if the lobbyists’ side can’t stand the heat, they should get out of the kitchen.

p/s – Ajax is currently in deep shit, again. But this win helps a lot.