Categories
Sports

[97] Of watching Ajax stunning Valencia

AFC Ajax Amsterdam played against the mighty Spanish giant Valencia at the Mastella Stadium, Valencia’s home ground.

To be honest, Ajax didn’t expect to survive the onslaught of the giant, much less the expectation of leading the giant by even a goal. That expectation appeared to be somewhat true when the match started at around 1500 EST. I watched the game live on UEFA’s website.

I sat at the edge of my seat while seeing Valencia dominating the game from the first minute to the last. Ajax was nothing but a boy to Valencia but somehow, Ajax, in particular Didulica, the Ajax’s custodian managed to frustrate Valencia each time the ball is shot towards Ajax’s goal.

Nevertheless, Ajax did what Italy did to Holland back in Euro 2000 – a deadly counter-attack by the impressive midfielder Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Quoting UEFA’s match report:

“And as time ran out, with the home side pushed forward, Rafael van der Vaart won the ball in midfield and played a precise ball through for Ibrahimovic, who rounded Ca’izares and shot in.”

Watch the goal that stunt Mastella here.

With that goal, Ajax silenced Mastella and threatened to pollute Valencia clean home record. Yet, Valencia didn’t give up easily and continued to move forward with a race against time. Their effort didn’t go to waste as in the final minute, in the 92nd to be precise, Angulo finally beat the Australian Ajacied and saved Valencia from trouble.

It was a waste to see Ajax lost an opportunity to gain three away points but acquiring a point was Koeman’s original target. It is true that it was lucky for Ajax to gain even a point but it was luckier for Valencia to not to lose the first opening match.

Valencia will look to return a favor in Amsterdam later in the group phase but while in the proud Amsterdam AreaA, Ajax is proven to be a very difficult team to play. Just ask Inter Milan or better, Manchester United.

Categories
Gaming

[96] Of games that I love

I don’t know why but it seems that I can’t develop a good strategy for Blizzard’s Warcraft III. Every time I practice on my computer, the result will be either I will die fast or I will win the first wave. However, the first wave will be insufficient to take my opponent’s entire base down to earth. Moreover, immediately after that, I will be very much incapable to receive a counterattack. Sad.

It might sounds like I am a noob to Warcraft III. Well, I admit it. I am noob but certainly not to RTS (Real-Time Strategy for non-gamer readers) game. I proudly can say that I am the one of the first to embrace computer games as my religion. To back up my claim, I played Dune II, a revolutionary RTS back in the early 90’s. Shortly, Command & Conquer came out and I played that too. Even when the first Warcraft came out, I was one of the first to get my hand on that game.

However, I usually lose interest on a sequel of game. For instance, there were lots C&C follow-ups but that game simply failed to capture my interest. Dune: Emperor also was introduced in year 2000 or so but I simply shoved it off from my mind.

RTS is cool but my obsession has always been with turn-based strategy (for the non-gamers again, no, it is not called TBS regardless what the reason is). The classic is Sid Meier’s Civilization. It was one of the most addictive games ever. Its addictiveness had me bought its entire sequels, namely Civilization II and the latest installment, Civilization III save Civilization: Call to Power, which was a “gay” addition to the royal trilogy.

Another classic is Master of Orion (known as MOO), another one of Sid Meier successful brands. Most Civilization addicts would have played this game. MOO II was successful too and MOO III, which has already made a blasting entry to the gaming market, is simply amazing.

Lastly, Alpha Centauri. Now Alpha Centauri is annoying but its addictiveness is unbelievable. To turn-based strategy gamers, they (including me) would think that this game is the continuation of Civilization series. Although that is not official, the storyline between both games fits perfectly like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle. In Civilization, one of the game possible endings is sending a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, which in the latter game, starts with the destruction of United Nation Spacecraft Unity over a habitable planet orbiting the Alpha Centauri’s star.

These two genres had monopolized my gaming habit until Half-life came out. I was glued to Half-Life rather late compare to the hardcore gamers. Nevertheless, Half-life changed my perception to first-person shooter game (third-person shooter, I think it is the same as first-person).

Of course, again, I am no noob to first person game. I played Wolfenstein 3D (yes! The grandfather of first person shooter) and finished it with the help of my cousin!) when nobody knows anything about computer game other than Chip or Solitaire. The next best thing was Doom, Duke Nukem, Jedi Knight I and lots of others until I lost my interest in this genre. I would say that Half-life just reinstituted my interest for first-person shooter genre.

My interest in this genre continues to grow as the internet grows. Counter-strike was a magnificent game. It is a cool game save the cheaters. The next in line is Soldier of Fortune II. As I had mentioned before, I was a regular player on redcoat.net and dontsleep.org. I logged on almost everyday until I made some friends.
Finally, my favorite is Jedi Knight II. Here, HERE, I could brag that I am good! My reputation even surpasses my ability. Prove – the |AP| clan somehow recognizes my nick (Thrawn). I also maintain an account on Corruptiveminds.com, a clan although I am not a member.

Lastly, a “genreless” game. Yeah, you named it – Championship Manager (CM by SI Games). To be honest, I was one of the staunchiest criticizers of this game. When the game first came out, I would belittle CM fans’ obsession. I mean, how stupid would you get! Sitting in front of the screen staring at names and stats running all over the monitor; that is just dim-witted.

Well, I learned how stupid that statement is 4 years after the release of the game first version. Now, I am one of those “stupid gamers” whom sit on a chair and stare for hours at the screen, skipping lunch and sleep. I can’t say that I am proud of it though.

Hmm…

Nevertheless, I still don’t consider myself as a gamer. Odd but check out these links: Warcraft Series, Civilization Series, MOO III, Alpha Centauri, CS, JK2, SoF2 and CM

Categories
Personal

[95] Of a nightmare

I had the most frightening dream last night. It was a nightmare.

As I was sleeping in the REM state, I was dreaming that I was at a car park at some university. There was some feature at university that looked familiar to Michigan North Campus’ Pierpont Commons but I am sure that the dream didn’t revolve around Michigan’s atmosphere. What I am sure of was that I was on an unidentified island. Moreover, there was some environmental group protest that I joined on a street similar to Beal Avenue that runs right by the Media Union.

The dream didn’t have any ghost or Jason X styled person. What made it scary was that I faced death. Nearby the university, there was an active volcano. It was about to vomit its content out to wipe out its surrounding to kingdom come. None evacuated the island because nobody knew anything about the volcano status.

When the time came for the destruction of the volcano, somebody was chasing me while I was driving in the car park. A car chase begun and somehow, I died. I couldn’t recall how I died but what I remember that I met God and God sent me straight to hell. While in hell, you could only imagine what I saw. It was so frightening that I forgot even the blurriest detail in the Satan’s home.

Nevertheless, after a few short moments, God forgave me and gave me a second chance for to prove to him that I am worthy enough to pass through heaven’s gate.

When I woke up, it was almost time for physics discussion session at Denilson Building, which is about 10 minutes away from my bed.

I hope I won’t be in hell once I leave my bed for good later in life.

Categories
Sports

[94] Of Iowa is the real champion

The Wolverines lost to the Buckeyes 14 – 9 yesterday. Michigan was leading for 3 quarters but failed to defend their lead in the last part of the game. How unfortunate. I guess it’s Tampa again for us. Sigh…

I didn’t watch the game but whatever happened, I refuse to accept the fact that Ohio State is going to represent the Big Ten Conference to the National Championship; and no, I am not a sore loser. I am saying this because instead of OSU, Iowa is the most suitable team to represent our conference to the Fiesta Bowl.

It is true that No. 2 Ohio State is a tough team to fight against each year. They are one of the names in the Big Ten that every team hates to meet. They proved to us with an undefeated run this season. Nevertheless, they failed to prove that they deserve to be in the National Championship by not meeting the better Iowan. Again, I am stressing that I am not jealous of the Buckeyes success. Instead, I am just echoing the backseat low protest.

No. 4 Iowa is boasted with the best offense team nationwide. The only problem is that they lost one game, just one non-Conference game to their intrastate rival, Iowa State. However, compare to Iowa, Buckeyes’ wins are inconvincible. They needed an overtime to defeat the pathetic Fightin Illini, they struggled against Purdue, they won by a small margin against pretender Wisconsin and finally, they got lucky to survive (No. 9) Michigan’s fury in the second quarter. Shifting our eyes to Iowa’s result, one could only wonder why Ohio, not Iowa is at the second rung behind the seemingly invincible No. 1 Miami. Puzzled?

The answer to this is obvious. The current ranking system is at fault. Period.

Whatever. The important thing is that Ajax is again clutching their mightily grip on the Dutch Eresdivisie and they will be up against Valencia this week. A tough match no doubt but then again, it is the UEFA Champions’ League, not MLS.

Don’t take my Ajax away!

Categories
Politics & government

[93] Of criticizing the government of Malaysia

Out of rare events, this entry will criticize the Government of Malaysia.

I am one of the persons who believe that the current Government of Malaysia is doing the right thing for the country. Barisan Nasional or the National Front if you may has been in power since Malaysia achieved its independence back in 1957. In fact, it has monopolized the country’s politics even during the pre-independence period.

After all those years, they have brought a lot of improvement the country. They drove the country from a backwater third world nation to a technological savvy one. No doubt, the local populace needs to be thankful.

However, currently the top leaders in Malaysia are engaging immature political maneuvers. I could not believe what kind of craps they are doing at the moment (but this of course, minus Dr. Mahathir himself. I still fail to see why people hate him so much after all he had done for us).

My first complaint is concerning the national service issue. I would say that enlisting in the army is one of the best ways to enforce nationalism. However, forcing the civilian to join the reserve corps is certainly not the best way to inspire the spirit of nationalism. If the youth are going to suffer from this suggestion, Malaysia could say goodbye to the word patriotism.

Patriotism is not something that could easily be planted into one’s soul. If one tries to force a CD into a floppy drive, one will never be able to read the content of the CD. Worse, if applied sufficient force, one could break the CD into two. The same goes with loyalty.

“All along when S’pore was doing this, M’sia have insisted that they will not do N/Services. Why now? Are they losing ground on the political grassroots? Why the N/service when the school should do this. You guys were from there and don’t tell me you’re not loyal to your country!”

The above are Mr. Veera’s words and they echo my own view.

Secondly, I just read the headline “Two Barisan reps face action over PORR motion” in The Star. All I could say after reading the content of the article was “WTF?” These representatives, who are the members of the ruling party is going to be punished just because they did not support the party proposal. What is this? Where is the freedom of expression? Where is the freedom to decide, the freedom to choose?

These reps did what they did because the people in their respective constituent are against the motion. They need not to agree with the motion just because the party says they must.

Of course, unity in the party is important but when it comes to the good of the society, the need of the people comes first rather than the party. They need to decide what is best for the people, not for the party in this particular case.

If the two reps are going to be punished for what they did, then freedom is seriously threatened. If this is going to happen, I suggest we change the name Malaysia to Oceania.

Finally, the dreaded water supply issue with Singapore. The leaders in Malaysia have acted very immaturely in handling it. All I heard for the leaders and the papers were accusations rather than constructive ideas. The same goes to the island across the narrow straits (Come on man, you want to declare a war against Malaysia? Yeah, you could do a surprise attack but the shock won’t last as long as you want. Instead, the outcome of the war may result in Malaysia gaining extra land!)

Nevertheless, whatever the accussations and the counteraccusations are, Singapore has agreed, more or less to meet Malaysia’s earlier demand. Why must we need to drag the issue further? I say we accept the offer and keep quiet. There is no need to be a kiasu.

After all this, quoting Mr. Veera again,

“This is politically motivated and a waste of tax payers money.”

EOM.

p/s – you guys do know what EOM means right? Do you guys ever heard the word brb? I mean COME ON!!!