Wenger The Courageous!!

Two days ago, my favourite team Arsenal(known for their attractive brand of football) beat Juventus 2-0 in the Champs League. What's the big deal u all may ask? It's just a soccer match. It's more than that. You see people were ridiculing Arsene Wenger, Arsenal football manager for selling Patrick Viera to Juventus(he played against them in the match) because Viera was seen as a massive influence and the critics felt that Arsene just dug a hole for Arsenal.

Arsenal performance in the Primier League was pathetic and people wondered if Arsene Wenger was right in selling Viera as he was the main driving force for Arsenal for the past nine years. However, the champs league match against Juve highlighted something. Mr Wenger still has the eye for vision and he was courageous enough to sell Viera and place his trust on the young Fabregas who repaid his faith by putting in outstanding performances and even scoring a goal in the Juventus match. I would say that credit has to go to Wenger.

Nobody will have the same courage as Wenger to sell an influential player to another team and trust a young but promising player. People in his shoes would have listened to the critics and would have stuck with Viera(whose heart was not Arsenal in his final year with the Gunners). Wenger stuck by his decision and took stick and endured criticism and even his own supporters and players doubted his decision. Now, people are seeing the fruits of his hard decision. That's what i call a courageous man-someone who sticks to his decision regardless of what other people say knowing that their decision is not popular but it is necessary and right.

Crtics might say that it's still early as Fabregas is still young and and needs to prove himself in the coming months and seasons but I'm sure he will mature into a better player and even become a world-class midfielder under Wenger.Only time will tell.

Breastfeeding and Mothers

A few weeks ago, my lecturer for the module(Sex, Death and Social Processes) was discussing about breastfeeding and she asked the class why Singaporeans generally frown upon Mothers breastfeeding their babies in public. Some people felt that it's indecent as the breasts are bared. Then, my teacher said that the mothers generally cover their chest with a cloth when they are breastfeeding in public and Singaporeans definitely see more breasts when they walk down Orchard Road. She also said that one student felt that the nipple will be exposed and my lecturer countered by saying that the nipple is being sucked on by the baby and it's impossible for it to be exposed and moreover the cloth is covering the chest. I began to ponder hard why Singaporeans generally frown upon breastfeeding in public and i couldn't think of an answer.

Then, she said that society sees mother as a respectable figure. The society expects mother to behave in a decent manner and conduct herself well in a public whereas society does not really care about girls who flaunt their assests in public. In other words, it's ok for a girl to be a sex symbol but a mother can't be a sex symbol( I'm not equating breastfeeding with sex symbol but rather it's indecent for a mother to breastfeed a child in public).

I was dumbfounded by what she said and it began to make sense to me when i thought about it long and hard. The very next day, her so called theory proved to be true. When i was on my way back home, I saw a couple with two kids and the mum wore a midriff baring top with tight pants clinging to her body. I was thinking why is the mum wearing such clothing and what kind of message she is sending to her children and society and it suddenly hit me that what my lecturer told me did make sense now. We indeed view mothers as respectable figures and we frown upon their behaviour and their so called indecent dressing in public.

I guess our society(including me) will take time to change our mindset on this mother and breastfeeding issue.

What's with You Ronaldo?

Have you gone mad Mr Ronaldo? Are you insane? I just can't help but blog about this famous footballer Ronaldo who plies his trade for Real Madrid, one of the biggest clubs in the world know for its galatico policy(that is to recruit the world's best footballers and paying astronomical sums for the one player when the money could have been used in other ways). I shall reserve my comments on Real on another day and back to Ronaldo..

For starters, Ronaldo is a Brazilian footballer who shot to stardom at an early age and he went to PSV where he created even more sensation and has since moved on to Barcelona, Inter Milan and finally Real Madrid. He helped Brazil to win the World Cup back in 2002 and he is regarded as one of Brazil's finest footballers of today's era. He is currently in the news for all the wrong reasons for criticising his Real team mates and the fans for not showing and giving him support and he's not in the best of form for his club in recent months. Talk about a phenomenal footballer's fall from grace!!

The one thing i can't stand about Ronaldo is that he changes girlfriends and screws up his life(I feel his soccer days are over). I don't give a hoot about him screwing up his life but i can't sit back and watch him changing girls who are stunning..Mind you..those girls are mind blowing..In short, they are hot and i don't understand why he cannot contend himself with a supermodel girlfriend and he recently broke up with one and it seems that he's going after another hot supermodel..UHHHH....

People who have seen Ronaldo would feel that he's not exactly good-looking. Money and fame makes him look good. Mr Ronaldo, I strongly urge you to at least recommend me yr girlfriends after you are done with them. I can't sit back and watch you being a playboy and you dumping them after you are finished with them..Get settled down, Mr Playboy. That would mean one less competition for the good-looking girls out there, Ronnie.

MATHS!!!

I have always loved Maths since I was young. My love for Maths probably came from the fact that i found Maths easy. I love subjects which are easy to understand. My tutorial mates last semester will probably know me as the Econs person as i never fail to ask questions during tutorials and i only do it for Econs. When i came to Uni, I started to have a different perception of Maths. I struggled to come to terms with Maths as i found it tough and i started to dread Maths lectures and tutorials.

In short, Uni maths is a killer. I got introduced to more complex equations and symbols this semester. I always wonder if those people back then were very smart. How could these people even think of such stuff? When i was young, i was told that the iron rod is a metal. As i grew older, i was bombarded with infomation regarding the electrons inside the iron rod and soon how they derived this theory. These jokers(Mathematicans) managed to come up with these equations which are damn complex almost 200 years ago!!! I won't say that my year 1 maths is very difficult but it's getting tougher and tougher. My Yr 2 friends are struggling with their Maths modules. I guess i have to see the worst and i'm not relishing the prospect of moving onto Yr 2 which means more workload and the level of difficulty will definitely increase.

Until then, I guess i have to make the effort to understand the funny symbols and equations and prepare myself for the finale in 3 weeks.

F1 racing track a reality???

I was surprised when i read today's article on F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone saying that there might be a possibility that Singapore might be given the chance to host a F1 race in the near future. Just a year ago, he didn't consider Singapore as a racing venue as he felt that the F1 calender is packed. Now, it seems to be a possibility and he even felt that if Singapore was chosen, a street-style racing track could be on the cards.

Firstly, the benefits of a racing track outweighs the costs. Hosting a race is not cheap as it can run into millions.Countries like Bahrain and Malaysia have however benefitted from having a F1 track as it is believed that 100 million dollars are pumped into the tourism industry. More jobs are also created as a result. Most importantly, this racing track will prominently put Singapore on the world map and we won't have some westerners asking us if Singapore is part of China when we go travelling. It would be another good reason for Singaporeans to stay put in Singapore and catch the F1 spectacle instead of making our way across the causeway during the weekend. i feel that we would benefit tremendously from having a race-track than not having one.

If a F1 track is a reality, i can foresee two possibilties. Either we are going to build a brand new racing track in an offshore island( Sentosa or one of our few unused islands if any) or we might convert Orchard Road into a street racing track. I would go for the second option. Imagine drivers racing at an insane speed in Orchard Road negotiating the turns and bends. It's just a crazy prospect which i hope will come true. It would be a dream come true for motor Singaporeans to get to see top notch drivers like Fernando Alonso, Montoya and Michael Schmuacher in action on Singaporean soil. The ladies will definitely get to feast their eyes on the Italian or Brazilian racing hotshots!!!!

Will Mr Schmacher, Alonso or Montoya grace our soil in the near future? Until then, I guess we have to wait and see what happens in the coming months and hope for a favorable outcome.

Julia!!!!!!!

After reading my earlier post, you might think that i might probably be obsessed with Angie only.I do like her charisma and she's too beautiful to be true and she's a good actress. It would be boring if i talk only about Angie as there are plenty of good-looking women out there who deserve a mention on my blog. I love beautiful women(who doesn't) and i can't imagine only being obsessed with Angie. That would be pure insanity to be in love with one actress. Next up is one of my favourite actress who's not a Hollywood's A actress. She became prominient after the movie 'Ten Things I Hate About You'.

She's none other than Julia Stiles. Julia who??For starters, Julia is a actress(duhh!!!) who acted in the films 'ten things i hate about you' and 'Save The Last Dance'.If you have not caught the films, i strongly urge you to watch it.No regrets!!! Anyway some of you might feel that she's average looking and she's not exactly a babe and she does not have any sharp features and why do i even bother writing about her.

Well, you guys are right. She's not that pretty to begin with. She's average looking and she doesn't have sharp features.Why do i like her? I like her because she's fun to begin with. She's witty and she do have some interesting takes on certain issues in her movies. She seems fun and has a wicked personality. Julia Stiles will make my ideal buddy-someone who can make me laugh and never tire me with their enthusiasm and their stories and to put things in perspective when i ask for advice.

I have seen only two of her movies where Julia would play the teen rebel in ten things i hate about you and a girl who falls in love with a African American in 'Save the Last Dance'.I guess the reasons why i like these movies are the interesting messages and themes in these films.In 'ten things I hate about you', she would stay true to herself and just be herself and she won't succumb to peer pressure.In 'Save The Last Dance', her long-forgotten dreams of becoming a famous ballet dancer will be reignited by Sean Patrick who plays an influential role in her dreams.

Well, i guess it all has to do with perception on how you view the person. I might find Julia goodlooking and intelligent but some of you might her average and decent. I guess I love her too much to find her average looking!!

What's your take, Gary?

By now, you would have probably heard or read about Gary, the 2nd year MAE student from NTU who mass-mailed the entire university. I was one of the recepients of his email. His email touched on lecturers who have a poor command of English and not being understood by students. He was apparently unhappy with the lack of transparency of the system and he wanted to organise demonstrations(when was the last time Singapore saw demonstrations??) after exams.

I basically find Gary a whiner. He complains about the system and the lecturers and finds them to be incompetent. What has he done when he didn't understand the lectures? Did he make the effort to stay back and ask the lecturers or did he just bitch about the lecturers? Did he try to provide feedback(constructive criticism) to his lecturers instead of bottling up his feelings? The system and lecturers do have its flaws. I at times have difficulty comprehending some lecturers but i will ask my friends for help if i don't understand. After all, we are all human. How would you feel when you know that you have tried your best and this student comes along lambasting you for your poor command of the language. He should perhaps have put himself in his lecturer's shoes instead of being an arm-chair critic.

I'm not advocating for total tolerance where you have to be silent when you are not happy with your lecturer but i'm put off with the way he approached the problem. He should have raised up this issue with the Student's Union or even his faculty instead of mass mailing the entire student population calling for demonstrations(wake up, Gary.). They might have looked into this and could have tried to provide feasible solutions. Has he ever went through this channels before going for the last resort?

I'm interested to know what went through Gary's mind before he mass-mailed the students. Was he so disillusioned or was it just plain boredom or simply for the fame? It would be interesting to hear Gary's point of view on this issue though.

Who doesn't Love A Conspiracy?

I recently saw a documentary titled 'Did Man Land On The Moon'. It was pretty interesting and controversial as there were several interesting viewpoints expressed by scientists, astronauts and even ex-NASA officers on the show.Some felt that America might have felt the heat to get ahead of Russia in the Cold War and they could have probably filmed the entire moon landing in a highly classified military zone, possibly Area51. The experts pointed out when the moon-landing video was replayed in slow motion, it apparently had lots of discrepancies .The 11 astronauts who were originally supposed to be on the programme died and people felt that their deaths were planned as they might have realised the limitations of the moon landing programme. The documentary ended off with an expert saying that if Nasa could build a high-powered telescope to view Moon and show the entire world the things left behind on the moon(it seems the things left behind on the moon will still remain there), he would fully agree that men did land on the moon as it was pretty difficult to duplicate the things left behind.

America could have probably staged the entire episode or they could have in fact sent their astranouts to the moon. I always thought that Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and this documentary casted a few doubts about Neil's landing. I guess i should not readily agree on what's written in the print and news media. I should rather take things with a pinch of salt. For every issue in this world, there would always be conspiracy theories. We can't run away from them...

I generally feel that humans love conspiracy theories(think of Jack The Ripper, Marilyn Monroe suicide, the book 'Angels and Demons' by Dan Brown, even September 11 attacks and many more). Some of them can be pretty outrageous(like the theory America could have staged 911 attacks) and some can be intriguing and some could be possible. Movies, books and articles are based on these conspiracies. Conspiracies are pretty intersting. The media just love to feed our lust for conspiracies. I love conspiracies. I can't imagine the world without conspiracies..It would be living hell and unimaginable for me , I guess. The world will be too boring if there's always a fixed set of answers. Our dinner/lunch topics might become pathetic!!!!

Did we land on the moon? Maybe no, maybe yes..Hey who doesn't love a conspiracy??

Single-Sex Schools!!!

(Margaret Tatcher)

When i registered my subjects this semester, I was pretty excited about one particular module-Effective Communication(surprisingly a core module which all engineers have to take). My friends who took the subject last semester told me that the module is very interesting and some of them said that some of the tutors will have interesting stories to share on the subject. Among the eight subjects i registered this semester, I would say that i learnt a substantial amount from this subject besides the two Arts modules(let's not even start about Engin modules). Every tutorial without fail, my tutor will give a intersting take on certain issues and in yesterday's tutorial, she commented on a controversial issue.

When one of the group was giving a presentation on group dynamics yesterday, they showed a picture of Margaret Tatcher. After their presentation, my tutor made a remark that Margaret Tatcher might not have become Prime Minister if she had not studied in a Single-sex school. She went on to say that studies have consistently shown that girls tend to perform better in single-sex schools than in mixed schools. I was intrigued by the controversial statement which she had made and coming from a neighbourhood school, i always felt that girls can shine in both mixed and single-sex schools. I wanted to know the reasons why she felt that girls tend to shine in single sex schools.

Being the inquisitive sort and wanting to get an answer immediately(I could probably owe this trait to my Gemini characteristic), I went up to her after the tutorial and asked her why did she feel that girls tend to perform better in single sex school.She offered me a number of reasons. She told me that girls do not receive the same attention as guys in mixed school do as the teachers tend to focus on the boys. Boys are generally distruptive and the teacher has to spend her time on these students and the teacher tend to focus less on the girls who are studious and whom she feels that they can cope with their studies. Moreover, she added that girls are generally shy(excluding the rare ones) and tend not to speak up in the presence of boys as they tend to worry how they present themselves. I told her that girls tend to perform better in single sex school due to the variety of programmes in place which brings out the best out of them. She said that that could also be one of the reasons and there are many theories to why girls tend to perform better in single-sex schools.She also told me to read up more on this issue if i want to know about this issue but i guess i'm too lazy to bother to read up.

After the little chat i had with my tutor, I felt that what she had said might have some bearing but there are also girls whom i have met are also successful. It would be impossible for all schools to go single-sex as it is impratical. If i have a baby girl and i want her to excel, i might probably enrol her in a single sex school not because what my tutor said(partially perhaps) but the programmes in these schools provide loads of exposure and i feel that she can excel through these diverse programmes. I won't rule out the option of mixed school for those pro- neighbourhood advocates out there who feel that i'm elitist.Hey, i came from a neighbourhood school(which many people have not heard of) where i have learnt a lot and i'm proud of it.

Our Obsession with Angelina!!!

What better way to kickstart one of my starting entries with Hollywood's A actress. Angelina Jolie is one of the hottest properties in Hollywood right now after shooting to fame with her role in Tomb Raider. The movie sucked big time with a lousy plot but Jolie made it bearable with her decked in micro shorts and tight fitting tops and trying to save the world. The Tomb raider movie articles chose to focus on her chest as the original tomb raider apparently had a big buxom. She's never new to controversy as she once had kissed her brother and the media had a field day speculating if she had a incestous relationship with her brother and the recent Brangelina saga after Brad Pitt divorced Jennifer Aniston to play father to Maddox and Zahara placed her in a bad light. She is also an UN ambassodar who travels around the world.

I feel that we should give this girl a break as her achievements as an actress and altruistic intentions as a UN ambassodar are often overlooked. Some of us choose to focus on the negative aspects of her lifestyle and brand her wicked and marriage wreaker. If everybody is faulted for their negative aspects, I suppose there won't be any good people on this Earth. We can't blame her for being very goodlooking and in fact it is Pitt's decision to divorce Aniston as he loves kids. We should try to see the postive aspects of her.Her role of UN ambassodar may seem like a cheap gimmick to make her look good in the media but we cannot ignore the fact that her role and presence has highlighted some of the pressing issues in Third World Countries. Her adopting of Maddox and Zahara might have spurned copycats of people adopting orphans but these orphans now have at least someone to look after them. I feel that she's a good actress besides Tomb Raider such as the commendable performance in the movie 'The Bone Collector'.If some people are sick of the entire Brangelina saga or of her, then i suggest that you stop reading about her and simply ignore her. You can ignore those articles if u want to.

I feel that some of us are in constant denial of not being obessesed with her.I think that we are all obsessed with her as we need to know about her and whether is she planning to give birth in France or America and how her baby will turn out and the countless theories about if she's a lesbian or a bisexual and if she was the actual cause for the Brad Pitt- Aniston break. The press is feeding our thirst for juicy stories about Angelina and I personally enjoy those stories as i find them entertaining and funny at times. Marriage wreaker,home wreaker, alleged lesbian and a bisexual are some of the nasty nicknames given to her but nobody can deny the fact that she's one freaking hot lady who can make hearts skip a beat. Kudos to Angelina for handling the bad press in a positive manner as she knows that she can't satisfy everybody in this world, can she?

Blogging Craze

It's been a few years since the blogging craze started and i'm only starting to blog only this year. My friends would be very surprised to see my blog and me blogging as i once advised some of them to start doing something meaningful with their lives instead of blogging. I was not an anti-blogger but i hate reading blogs which are mundane and boring. I rather put myself through the torture of watching Collin Farrel of instead of reading about the sappy and monotonous relationship on the net. I do like reading interesting blogs with refreshing viewpoints but sadly, those are in the minority.

Why the sudden decision to start my blog? i felt that i have too much views and grievances about issues on my mind and i need a platform to air my views. Secondly, I guess it is to let off steam as the dreaded time of the year is approaching.

If people want to get to know more about me, I'm sorry to dissapoint you as i won't be sharing my juicy snippets of my life as i can't cater to your lust for gossip. This blog will be basically be a platform for my views to be aired and i welcome constructive criticism about my viewpoints as hardcore pessimists turn me off. Finally, enjoy yrself!!!