Clear skies of January

The winter months are known to have clear skies with lots of stars. The below shot is what I have always wanted to shoot when I get the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM. With a teleconvertor of 2X and on my cropped sensor Canon 7D, I can achieve 640mm! Finally my childhood dreams of a telescope and I can actually capture it! Though it cost quite a lot...to have that lens and camera body, it was well worth it.

Though I had to walked opposite my place to capture the moon around midnight, I can have the convenience of shooting at home  when it approaches my balcony around 4-5am...Hope I can indulge in more night astronomy shots soon.

Perhaps just perhaps

I have been reading lots of online articles as well as in the newspapers and perhaps just perhaps we were all so wrong about our benevolent godly Minister Mentor. It is all a matter of perspectives.

Singapore Slingers over Thailand Tigers

This is a late post, sorry to all Slingers fans as I was caught up with work lately and as you all know how tedious it is to edit photos and actually creating a good review about the fantastic game atmosphere at the Singapore Indoor Stadium when Slingers win it! I wanted to blog over at SingaporeAddicts blog site as it was first mooted to be a joint effort, but clearly of late I might end up handling both, so I decided to leave it and blog about Slinger games right here.

ABL playoff schedules are out

Come support the Slingers!! Sunday games at the Indoor Stadium!

Team 2 vs Team 3
Date Time Home Away Venue
31-Jan-10 4.00pm Singapore Slingers vs Satria Muda BritAma @Singapore Indoor Stadium
3-Feb-10 8.00pm Satria Muda BritAma vs Singapore Slingers @BritAma Arena
7-Feb-10 4.00pm Singapore Slingers vs Satria Muda BritAma @Singapore Indoor Stadium

Team 1 vs Team 4
Date Time Home Away Venue
31-Jan-10 4.00pm Philippine Patriots vs KL Dragons @Ynares Sports Arena
3-Feb-10 8.00pm KL Dragons vs Philippine Patriots @MABA Stadium
7-Feb-10 4.00pm Philippine Patriots vs KL Dragons @Ynares Sports Arena

What is wrong with the world these days?

It gets worst via the Firefox toolbar

 

And on my way home...

Losing it

Somehow I seem to be losing it, like there's no grip on the ball, losing the mindset to know what to do on the court. Getting frustrated with yourself and with your teammates is when you realise one thing. I need to step away from the game. It's time to cool it off... going to hang up my basketball shoes for awhile.

PS3 or a Girlfriend - Choose

Ok seriously my heart will break if a girlfriend breaks my PS3... This is why girlfriends and PS3 don't mix..haha
Unless you get a gamer girl..but seriously...on a safe side, no girlfriends when you are addicted to some cool game.

Why our public transport idealogy has failed in Singapore

I can't put my finger to it, but I really like this post from Lucky Tan about the recent increase in COE and why our government/public transport companies do what they do.

Now I understand truly why we have to continue to pay COEs and ERPs on top of road taxes and taxed-fuel to drive a car though it was meant to be discouraging with all the costs involved. Singaporeans still suffer from the lack of a good alternative from unsafe roads for cycling to sardine-packed-often late-buses/MRT services. Really I would ideally love to take a dependable public transport as I really want some commute time to play my PSPs and listen to my MP3s. And I wonder how Taiwan, Japan and even China does it even though they have a lot more people to move...which eventually reminds me..we pay them millions for?

Anyway this is not a rant, this is merely reminding us we need alternative voices in high places so we can put more creative people who take public transports instead of gods who fly around from ivory tower to tower.

Maddy Curtis - Golden ticket interviews

This year's American Idol is looking good, Simon Cowell's final season and Ellen Degeneres first!

Maddy Curtis - Golden ticket interviews
This 16-Year old can really sing! And she has a heart of gold with 4 down syndrome siblings..(3 of which her parents adopted)
This is an excerpt of the segment which Maddy sang... she is someone to look out for...so humble!



"Hallelujah"

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Full lyrics here.

Nice charts

Got these charts from a forwarded email today and thought about sharing. How true..daily living..issues with computer, driving, work and behavior on the internet.

New York, I Love You

Just caught the movie "New York, I Love You" with a friend. She wanted to watch another chick flick "It's complicated" alone, but I managed to convinced her to watch this instead and I'll join her. This movie about finding love in New York, was really interesting after seeing the movie trailer filled with many great actors. But I heard some segments were cut like the one by Scarlett Johansson, which would only be found on the DVD, which I still do not see selling in the stores, though the movie premiered in Sep 2008, and official release was Oct 2009.

Crap

Laptop freeze while trying to post this entry out. Haha, laptop needs a break!

Sorry if I have been late with my posts on Slingers match reviews and pictures. It's tough when the world seems to have recovered from the worst crisis ever known to men...yeah right..and thus workload has increased as I still am holding on to 2 job scopes, one apparently based here and another one in Taiwan. Life is even tougher when the laptop keeps freezing and my reports did not seem to get saved. I guess my laptop needs a break as the late night conference calls are now a frequent occurrence. Bear with me! Not you readers..I mean the laptop...Dell coming to fix you up on Monday. For now, time to log off and give me and laptop a break.

Be Hungry, Be True to Yourself and Live it

The one speech every student should watch before deciding what they want in life.

Steve Jobs at 2005 Stanford Graduating Class Ceremony

If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.

ABL Playoff picture

So we got our revenge, by winning KL Dragons at home by 18 points on Monday 92-74, thinking back how they beat us 84-74 on 22 Nov last year. This should even things...hehe

So right now we go on the road for 3 more games. That doesn't mean we play half-hearted, since we do have a chance to get on top of the table if we win all 3 games. And if we come 1st or 2nd our first home playoff game will be the 31st of Jan '10.  If we come 3rd or 4th our first home game would be the 4th of Feb '10.

The playoffs are a best of three semi finals; with the team having the better record having the home court advantage.  The series would be Home – Away – Home.  The Grand Final is best of five with Home – Away – Home – Away – Home.  We could theoretically have 5 home games if we go all the way.

So let's go Slingers..and book your tickets early once they have firmed up the dates once the remaining games are over. Slingers owner Bob Turner mentioned on CNA that he expects 10,000 to come support the playoffs!

Just watched Invictus, the true story about Mandela and his unlikely Rugby team to win the World Cup in under a year when Nelson became President. They lived on one poem, which shows that if we want to, we can do it.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul
In the fell clutch of circumstances
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of change
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the year
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
- Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Always keep your focus on the court

Behaved really badly on Saturday during our Spartans game. We were totally out of sync and no strategy against a strong shooting team. I pride myself on being very knowledgeable about basketball strategies, having played and watched basketball games for 20 over years now, and the inability to beat this team stumped me. Well we lost by over 30 points as I was uncharacteristically missing every ball and my teammates have seemed to throw in the towel. So I did what I did and behaved badly since I was already sacrificing playing time to allow them to try to do their thing...so why can't I be the ass and do badly instead of being helpless on the sidelines. At least this way, I can blame myself instead of others.

This sums up how I feel when I see my teammates losing focus on the court and throwing out chances or giving away the ball to opponents.

Listen to the commentary, wake up J.R Smith..Nuggets lost 102-100 in this game. So I blame you for the loss. If only it was that easy to shift the blame. :P

ABL Playoffs

The ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) playoff race is heating up with only two more weeks of the regular season left to play.  The Singapore Slingers have one remaining home game next Monday January 11th before going on the road for their last three games of the inaugural ABL season.  Singapore will need to win at least one more game to be assured of the final four. Only the top 4 teams will make the playoffs. The playoffs will be a best of three semi-finals with the 1st place team playing the 4th qualifier and 2nd VS 3rd.  The finals will be a best of five series with the team having the better record through the regular season to have home court advantage.

ABL Remaining Regular Season Schedule

Philippine Patriots(9 – 3) @ KL Dragons     @ Thailand Tigers     (H) Brunei

Singapore Slingers(7 - 4)  (H) KL Dragons  @ KL Dragons    @ Brunei   @ Thailand

Satria Muda(7 - 5)  (H) Brunei  @ Brunei   (H) KL Dragons

Brunei Barracudas(5 - 6)  @ Satria Muda    (H) Satria Muda  (H) Singapore   @ Philippines

KL Dragons(4 - 7)  (H) Philippine Patriots   @ Singapore  (H) Singapore  @ Satria Muda

Thailand Tigers(3 - 10) (H) Philippine Patriots      (H) Singapore Slingers

Interesting facts as of today.

1) The Wednesday win was the second time the Slingers have beaten the League Leaders Patriots and earned the split on the Philippines.
2) In fact the Slingers already have the split of winning at least two out of three games on the second and fourth place teams as well – Indonesia and Brunei.


If Singapore can defeat Malaysia next Monday, January 11th, at the Indoor Stadium we will cement a playoff position. We last met KL Dragons back on November 22nd, whom defeated the Slingers 86-74 in our home court. So come show your support at the Singapore Indoor Stadium as Singapore battles to make the playoffs in the first year of the only professional sports League competition for ASEAN. So see you all on Monday!!

League Standings As At 6 January (Round 12)

Position	Team	Played	Won	Loss	For	Against	Points
1	Philippine Patriots	12	9	3	869	794	21
2	Satria Muda BritAma	12	7	5	873	836	19
3	Singapore Slingers	11	7	4	783	760	18
4	Brunei Barracudas	11	5	6	860	873	16
5	Thailand Tigers	13	3	10	944	995	16
6	KL Dragons	11	4	7	794	865	15

What I want for my birthday!

Thought I was done with more gadgets..well these guys at Parrot went to create something every cool guy would want...finally found something cool that I really want for my birthday and another reason to keep buying an iPhone. Thank God I put off the urge to buy those mini remote helicopters, this beats anyone of them - hands down!




For more info on the Parrot Drone Project and for the launch date and price, check here.

Back to Back Wins!

Been very busy, but since the last amazing come back win over Thailand Tigers...no decent Slinger fan should miss this Wednesday 6th Jan game against the current #1 league standing Philippines Patriots. And the reward for those who came despite a jam from the soccer game at the stadium (Yes you soccer fans who are sick of supporting a losing soccer team - come support Slingers!) , was a sweet win over the Patriots! Checking out the Facebook ABL status and comments after the game showed a muted response as the game ends...even sweeter!

Happy 2010 everyone

View from the 59th floor..compliments from Vandalin! 

The year has begun...and just want to get a head start on the New Year blog..2010 here I come!!
To my buddy and his boo. Have a blessed marriage and a wonderful journey together! Let's party tonight!