Happy Halloween!

Have a good scare tonight everyone!

I just had one myself...first 20-pt game in my basketball career in a full match. 6 treys and a pull up jumper on a fast break..freaking scared myself. Haha at least my pre-warmups of 3 treys were not just for show..
shit and this wasn't an official game and no video recording...damn

Anyway, we lost but to a great team. sad that the opponents O2 will be pulling out of the Jammers league. Nice guys who played cohesively well and always friendly off the court. Hope they come back together soon.

Can I opt out?

Just a scenario which somehow points my tiny dot island to a socialist/communist plus capitalist type of an economy but is this something we really want?

Capitalism - Where free market dictates the economy, and anyone can get rich leaving to economic forces. Where democracy is based on the principles of consent and political equality. Freedom of choice in everything from playboy magazines to choosing a minority as a Head of State, but you pay your own house, take care of your own medical bills etc.
Communism aka State Capitalism - Social welfare where everybody shares everything. Government takes care of its people, provides housing, jobs, healthcare, education, burial plots etc. But in the downside Government controls your life, your thoughts, your love life etc.

#5 Wei Long - Slingers' clutch shooter

When I saw this, I knew I gotta share it, not because my photos were in there, but Slingerrocks got some nice videos of the shots which I see differently through my lens. Great mix and love the last words - 
Come Down to Support the Singapore Slingers!! 
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth?

Courtesy of Slingerrocks who has some good write ups and nasty videos of the Slingers!!
(Hmm..I love to shoot treys, I am about 174cm, 77kg now and I wear #5...what a coincidence)

Singapore Slingers vs Philippines Patriots

Sorry for the late post, as I was really busy with my work schedule as my boss arrived on the day the Slingers played the Patriots. It was a great day. Why so, besides for me, it being a fulfilling day where I ran over my own phone with my own go-kart at 100kmh thus having to rush back home to get my backup phone and missed a good 10mins of the match. Which I found strange that there was still a long queue outside the tickets booth!! And the crowd was strangely filled with quite a number of locals. So it was a great day as I finally heard half the crowd shout "D-Defense" with the passionate Filipinos coming in to support their Patriots.

Anyway much love to Nic and Daphne as always for indulging me with the best seat in the house - by the courtside. Together with Jase who was on ESPN by the way ... in case you watched..he was in pink, you can't miss him. Since I was late and had bad positioning, here are his great pics and complete review.

Enhancing hardware for photography

I hate to edit/process my photos...like to have them as I have taken originally. But lately realised that my hardware is not catching up with my photography hobby and decided to upgrade my Canon DSLR to be able to take better shots like the one below taken during the last home game vs Philippines Patriots:

It is an edited shot, which I only managed to capture 2 frames of Michael Wong shooting...the rest I have to edit and put in blended ball shots. With my new baby, I hope to improve that coverage and bring you guys better pictures of the Slinger games!

By the way, Slingers beat Brunei Barracudas tonight away at Brunei homeground 82-80.
It was a tight game with Slingers losing 3-4 pts in first half and break away in the 3rd quarter. Michael LeBlanc was hot with 32 points!! Yeah we are the only team unbeaten in ABL!!
More stats here and review here.

And by the way...do join this new Facebook group started by Gordon, if you are a Slingers fan!

Singapore Slingers Number 1 Fan Club

For now, loving my new camera body...will bring it out later on a Sunday morning to test out the speed - 8fps!!!

How things are all related - so wake up!

This is how things really work around here these days. Sorry if you do not understand what I am trying to saying (you can actually google all the terms if you bother) - all I can say is wake up and open your eyes, read more and start to care, because things work in cycles.

It's getting more expensive here

It's getting more expensive here in Singapore. This packet of tissue bought at a 7-Eleven cost S$1.35 a pack as reported by a Stomper. So looks like YJ's S$1.90 can of drink bought at the 7-Eleven couple of weeks ago was not the only shocking thing. And to think I refused to pay S$5 for a pack of Doritos Nachos last week to match our whiskey drinking session...is hyperinflation here already?

Time to seriously rethink retirement location if Gahmen plans to make a bottle of mineral water cost S$25, as the term Monaco of the East is indeed coming to reality.

ABL 18 Oct updates

Arrived late for the Slingers game today as I was go-karting in Johor in the morning. All close ABL matches this Sunday.

I would love to say, finally today's atmosphere at Singapore Indoor Stadium was generally even with alot more supporters for the Singapore side...love it when everyone shouted DEFENCE! Feels like the crowd of  ~2000 was evenly split for both teams' supporters.

Check out the ABL results for this Sunday.

Singapore Slingers 74 – 69 Philippine Patriots  - Great 2nd straight win, official report here. Slingers report here. Fiba Live States here (only starters' stats).

  

Brunei Barracudas 73 – 76 KL Dragons - official report here with Jamal Brown doing well at Dragons.

Thailand Tigers 75 - 78 Satria Muda BritAma - official report here.

My detailed report and pictures will be up soon..

Singapore Slingers vs Brunei Barracudas

Sorry for the delayed post due to a busy week and will be worse next week as my boss flies in for a visit. Anyway, first ABL match against the Brunei Barracudas at home and from earlier post, we all know Slingers won big 87 – 69. Both teams battled it out in the 1st half, and from the look of the wordings found on the compression arm sleeve of #36 Lim, I thought he was going to have to eat his words with the Slingers winning 20-13 in the first quarter.

But Barracudas' import players of #13 Michael Pilgrim and #45 Lonnie Jones were strong finding their touch in the 2nd quarter chasing back to almost even the scores at 38-37 . The turning point was the 3rd quarter where Barracudas had more turnovers from the heightened defense of the Slingers whom capitalised to convert 50% of their field goals. However, do note that we only shot 20% FT in the 3rd and overall only 38%, which is rather painful to watch. The boys really need to go work on their FTs especially Weijian, Wei Long and Marcus. The reason being they drive to the hole often and is expected to be fouled. Games can be lost from FTs either by close games or demoralising the team overall.

The Slingers played well with the locals pulling quite a fair share of the weight scoring 38 of the total game points ~44% of the total score. This is a point Slingers need to note - There is no pure shooter in the team this season. Previous seasons you have Darren "Doc" Ng who is known to pull over 20 points a game with a consistent .3-.5 3PFG. Michael Helms who is the go-to guy for shots or drive to the rims. Right now, we have a more even squad, but clearly we have no star player who can score at will or even a 3-point specialist who can draw the defense out to the 3-point line. Wei Long did that tonight and someone really needs to keep doing it. The Barracudas may have lost tonight, but that's because they did not have the training or warm up games that our boys have. They have since trashed KL Dragons away at MABA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur  76 – 94.

Amazing shot

In light of the recent return to skating, missed my old times of roller-hockey. This nine-year old, Oliver Wahlstrom's nifty move in the Boston Bruins's 1-on-1 competition is amazing! Watch it!!

Inline Skating

Saw this video link from a german friend on Facebook. Got me all excited and now I want to get back to skating every weekend. But need to get new blades, my old one is really dying on me as all the plastic straps have broken and I need crank straps to hold it in. Anyway for those who love inline skating here is the clip.

My weather-beaten Roces, only my second baby in my 16 years of blading!

Saw this new Skate park at East Coast couple of weeks ago. Have to try it some day! 

Local Basketball Amateur league

Having just completed our first season at Jammers League, I am so looking forward to the next season with my amateur league team - Spartans, which will begin in Nov after a month of rest. We did well to achieve our personal winning goal of 50%, in fact 55% of 11 wins and 9 losses and to finish 5th place out of 11 teams. The ride was enjoyable and so far we are limiting the team to only our friends and work colleagues as we tend to shout and scream, support and encourage each other. The need to have harmony in the team is crucial to a having a fun time since we are only here to try our best while enjoying our games.

My team Spartans have been playing together for about 5 years for now and we have played in the BBAXN league as well for a good 4 years. Quite often it was upsetting with the referees being "short-sighted" and sometimes we get "blind" ones as well. Haha but the league over there is rather competitive and hardly warm in feeling - we saw many fights and injuries over the years. Anyway we finally shut down our 1st team in that league and concentrate in the Jammers league which we found new friends and a hell lot more fun!

The Jammers League is endorsed by the Singapore Sports Council and organised by Project Hoopz. They try to bring a fun and enjoyable environment to the many basketball fanatics in Singapore. Project Hoopz organises basketball all year round, be it tournaments, leagues or scrimmages and also provide services such as customised jersey design and production. So do check out their website, if you are interested in joining a team or starting one. Hope to meet you guys on the court someday.

For some video clips of the fun we are having, please go to the jammers youtube channel.

Third World minds from Third World TV programming

This is a great post by Yawning Bread, which highlights how creativity and imagination is stemmed from a controlled local TV programming. In that blog entry, he covers the direct and indirect effects of having local TV shows mutilated by censorship.

The crisis in local television is a harbinger of the crisis that Singapore as a whole will soon face. In a nutshell, it's an inability to compete in a world of ideas. Censorship and authoritarian politics are the root causes.

True to the fact that most of the time, my family is either tuned to some Taiwanese variety show or Korean drama on local channels. Otherwise we are glued to Starhub AXN/Star/CNN/CNBC/Discovery channels catching better quality shows. Parents these days have subscribed to Nickelodeon or Disney channels for their children; whilst young adults with access to fast broadband speeds are watching everything online like on Youtube - they make up the fussiest age group with their short attention span and the fact that the internet offers them a wide variety. Why would anyone watch local TV shows anymore? I have observed over the years, more advertisements are being shown on cable channels these days - is this the result of the recession or the declining viewership on local TV channels?

So lucky for those who can afford fast broadband speeds and a slew of overseas programs on a Starhub/MIO TV subscription. They have alternatives, but what about those who can only afford the basic TV license for free-to-air channels?

A great quote from Yawning Bread's article:

Innovation needs a nurturing environment. A bright spark without that environment typically amounts to no more than a flash in a pan. Our politics have ensured that we don't have that environment. So the intellectual desert we see on free-to-air television is a vision of Singapore's future, when we are outclassed by the rest of the world in an age when ideas, knowledge and creativity matter more than ever. And gently, all the while entertained by the best from abroad via the internet, we slip into the Third World.

As we slowly progress on to international quality shows on the internet and paid cable channels, I wonder when can we stop paying TV and Radio licenses? Perhaps that can help to speed up the inevitable - kill off poorly made local productions and drive MediaCorp to really think out of the box to produce good quality content. Why waste taxpayers money to even bring back Phua Chu Kang? A sudden urge for nostalgia? I hardly think this even qualifies as a desperate attempt to help integrate the new PRs and citizens with our local Ps and Qs of Singlish.

Personally, I rather watch old re-runs of Seinfeld and Friends on Star TV.

Air Multiplier

A child friendly bladeless fan! Wind is created through inducement and amplification of air flow.

The Importance of Defense

Got this clip from a basketball friend on Facebook and got me all excited though I should be resting my infected eyes, instead of blogging and editing photos. Thought I should share it with basketball fans of my once revered team - Chicago Bulls. And always remember besides MJ, there is always Pip.



Defense is not an easy thing. You need speed and you need precision timing. The difference between a good block and a foul is just a matter of a touch.

Here are some pictures from the Slingers game vs Barracudas.



#11 Michael Wong giving no room to #33 Tan whom have to divert his shot to a pass


#14 Wai Sian all ball contact stopping the layup from #18 Avenido


#12 Camaso clearly smacking #35 LeBlanc in the head instead of blocking his shot

A state media coverage by CNA.

This Sunday 18 Oct 2009 home game against the formidable Philippine Patriots, whom also won their first game against Indonesia. It will be an exciting match because the Patriots are favoured to win the league; and our Slingers with a decent outing against the Filipino teams in the Challenge Series should give our boys good exposure and learnings from the passionate Filipinos. Go get your tickets from Sistic and support Asean Basketball!

Bloggers Upfront

Well apparently bloggers now have to be clean about their write ups.

BLOGGERS and users of other new media may soon have to say so upfront if they receive gifts or money for their write-ups.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) has said it is looking at stricter disclosure rules.

Just for readers who think I work for Singapore Slingers since I do write up quite a bit about them. I am just a big basketball fan with nice friends like Nic and Daphne who got myself and Jase media passes to take pictures at courtside which we use for our blogs. So seriously no biased opinions here, other than critiques in hope for a better Singapore Slingers team.

And for all other reviews henceforth etc, I receive no monetary rewards or gifts in any way. Pretty much - unsponsored. But I do not mind being sponsored but upfront fact for any potential sponsors - I am known to many to be frank and in-your-face kinda guy. So expect nothing less but the truth.

Slingers clinches first win in ABL

Just a short summary to a great convincing win in the first home game of the Asean Basketball League for the Singapore Slingers against the Brunei Barracudas. 87 -69 with a poor first half but a very strong second half, with the locals scoring 38 of the total game points ~44% of the Slingers output! We have 5 players scoring double digits, LeBlanc topping all scores with 20 points, and #5 Wei Long hot 3-pt shooting and leading locals with 14 points. Next post with pictures and a more insightful review of the match.

The Slingers were observed to be wearing new jerseys and take note of the jersey number changes for the squad for the ABL.

Vergara #1 -> #19
Wei Long #5 -> No change
Wai Sian #6 -> #14
Desmond #7 -> #2
Marcus #8 -> #21
LeBlanc #9 -> #35
Michael #11 -> No change
Wei Jian #12 -> #10
Steven #14 -> #13
Pathman #15 -> No change
Prasad #17 -> #12
Jeffers # 30 -> #31

Fun theory

An initiative started by Volkswagen which meant to show fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better.



Be it for yourself, for the environment, or something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

That's how you do it in China!

Unfaithful Fiancée Gets Pregnant, Publicly Beaten By Man. Ouch..warning painful pictures!

Love Deficit

Learnt today that of the several lifestyle habits that age you most quickly, one was rather unexpected - Love deficit.

The culprits that will most quickly age you and negatively affect your health are:

1. Poor diet
2. Lack of exercise
3. Stress and worry
4. Exhaustion
5. Unhappiness
6. Lack of love
7. Toxic overload
8. Blockages and congestion of the transportation highways within our bodies.


Looks like one must hasten the look for love.

Strangely an MSN discussion this morning with someone falling in love resulted in more revelations in a field which I thought I was becoming an expert in. But on a pretext of giving advice, I shall approach this topic.

We all know the term or the Oscar winning 1955 old-fashioned movie - "Love is a many Splendored Thing". But surely we should be aware of the pit falls of falling in love.

This is my own list of the pit falls:

1) When hearts are entwined together, it is inevitable when your worlds get revolved around each other. When every little word or remark seem to make a whole lot of matter to you. Be it, "Shall we go jogging?" will spur side connotations like "does she/he mean I am getting too pudgy for my own good"...and for the lady, it might evoke a million more questions and senseless thinking. This over thinking effect bundles up fear, love, hatred all together.

2) Independence somehow seems lost when couples depend more on each other. I believe in the strength and growth between couples as individuals from the togetherness. But an over dependence on one will likely lead to a tipping of scales which eventually will lead to more unbalance in a basket of fears, nitpicking and nagging, and finally a miserable subterfuge of love.

3) Love can be very powerful, but it is another weakness you will inherit. To be emotionless in a relationship is not being in love at all. By being truly in love, you will slowly lose sight of logic; and passion will soon engulf your mortal mind, thinking you can fly or live on mere air and love. And that itself presents your very weakness of not thinking straight. You have classic examples of women becoming drug couriers unknowingly and men donating their CPF pensions to sweet young foreign migrants which somehow disappears as fast as their money evaporates.

4) Love can be easily misunderstand and mistaken for many things. From companionship to flirting to sex, these often come under the disguise for love and the eventual outcome might be just heartbreaking fragments which can be unforgettable baggage for a long time.

5) Time heals all wounds, but sometimes time can be a victim of love. While heartbreaks might be healed over time, it works against youth which is quite detrimental to the prospect of falling in love. When one is young, somehow love seems refreshing and easily obtained - puppy loves all around you. Why is that so? Well, when one gets older, cynicism and wisdom gets in the way. We all know it is all too wiser than to chase after what is impossible, and somehow that limits the way we pursue love. And love somehow enjoys defying being rational and when we completely disregard reasons and rules, love comes a knocking to the irrational and hopelessly lost.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young."
J. K. Rowling

May we always remember how love once was and pursue it with faith and good hope.

The heart

Heard this quote today with respect to being shallow and if looks matters, and how youth today follow idols.

The hardest thing to emulate is the heart and the character.

Sometimes everyone thinks that looks is everything to men. But I believe some proportion of men get turned off too when some hot looking girl just met open her mouth to speak. I refuse to partake in the revelry of a certain beauty queen, who has her fair share of speaking too much.

But here is one local artiste that we should applaud and support - Inch Chua. Her album is online for download for free and I really like her voice and her outlook in life.

Singapore Slingers vs San Miguel Beermen

Previously when San Miguel Beermen came to the indoor stadium, they had to pit against a fellow PBA team. This time round Slingers had a chance to meet them in the final 4th match of the Singapore Challenge Series before Asean Basketball league starts.


Having lost the previous 2 outings, this was a crucial game to the local fans especially the critics whom I invited for the last match and today's match. Well the comments were many especially on who can improve and many are still wondering where are Darren "Doc" Ng and Eric Sandrin. Well, the fan favorites have gone on to join Adelaide 36ers and Samsung Thunders respectively in Australian and Korean local leagues. And though we have weaknesses for this season's team, there is potential for growth and we appreciate all constructive criticisms.

Want my Ellie

Finally managed to catch Pixar's latest animation film called "UP". Think its really a heart-warming film which finally triggered a need to move on and I guess I finally got a curt answer tonight to end a nine months ordeal - so onward and 'UP' to find my Ellie and begin a whole new adventure! So envy Carl's undying love and courage and that lil' scout kid Russell, reminds me of the school days in scouting.

Singapore Slingers vs Ginebra Kings

I actually wanted to fill this blog entry with just pictures of Slinger Cheerleaders and talk about the amount of fine cold Brewerkz beer I had gulped down in between breaks. It is just too painful after the last close game loss with Smart Pilipinas, that we have to lose this game again. In what seems like a mere 5-point close loss, many of us observed that the boys seem to have lost heart in this match. Especially in the final 7 minutes of the 4th quarter, which I will do a blow-by-blow account to illustrate how we lost a 7-point lead in a blink of an eye.


From the tip off, it was clearly seen that we lack focus tonight. #23 Villaneuva did not even need to jump to have #30 Jeffers tipping the ball over to the Kings' side which ended in star player #47 Caguioa's quick hands to draw first blood.