98 MINUTES

On Thursday night, men clad in red and blue dotted the green field of Bukit Jalil, their sole purpose to be in possession of an elusive ball, just so that they can :

i. Score a goal and defeat the other team
ii. Keep it in possession so that the other team doesn't score.

I don't really watch much sports, because I think it's much better if you go out and play the sports yourself, so my sitting in front of the TV hugging a cushion on Thursday night waiting in anticipation for the Malaysia vs *Singapore FIFA World Cup Qualifying Round was surprising even to me. I suppose I got influenced by my colleagues who actually left the workplace that evening clad in the Malaysian team colours headed straight to the stadium. Throughout the day, I kept hearing snippets of conversation about the match later that day, and rightly so, as compared to just three years ago, the Malaysian team had improved tremendously. So much so that at the end of last year when we won a rather important match (the Suzuki Cup, I think), the PM actually declared a public holiday!! Seriously.

The match began rather slowly at first, without any goals scored during the first half, although the Singaporean team did a good deal of attacking, attempting to score goals as I stared open mouthed as the Malaysian goal keeper saved goal after goal. Our defence was in shambles. No, actually, our defence was practically non-existent. So naturally for me (and most other Malaysians), the hero of the day was the goal keeper. He was awesome.

The second half saw Malaysia scoring the first goal for the match. I got excited at that point and actually screamed 'goal'! Alas! The second half also saw Singapore score a goal (no thanks to the defence once again) which sort of dashed our hopes on moving onwards to the third round, as we had lost to them 3-5 in the first match held in Singapore on the 23rd, which was also a pretty good match (I only watched the 2nd half of that match, though)

Whilst the Malaysian defence sucked, the Singaporean players took turns in dramatically falling down and extreme displays of exaggerated injuries you'd think they were made of glass instead of flesh and blood. There was a time when the Singaporean goal keeper thought he was a zombie and kept clutching his head as though it was about to fall off. So much drama and game time wasted. In the end, the referees decided to give only 8 minutes of extra (injury) time, 3 minutes after the first half and 5 minutes after the second half.

* They might be known as the Singaporean team, but some of the players are only Singaporeans because of football. There are two former Chinese nationals, and three more from Europe.

The game highlights: Check out the saves by the goalkeeper.

Game Over! Play Again?

The computer and I shook hands politely for the very first time circa 1989, when I was about 9 years old. Our friendship led us through several complicated sounding activities, like creating designs with Logo, some programming with BASIC, and a few others which seem to escape my memory at present. But above all, the friendship introduced me to the wonderful world of games.

An interesting point to note in the games we played is that you usually have some sort of control over what goes on. Take for instance this game we used to play back then called "Adventures in Math" where you'd go around solving math puzzles in a castle like place and collect money and diamonds in the process. Of course once you've solved a certain number of questions, you will be led out to the exit and your game ends, but if you're there to win (the school actually turned it into a competition - the highest scoring team gets a spiffy looking trophy and may be mistaken for an athlete, but hey, who cares?) then you go back and look for unopened doors, solving more and more math questions and get more money and diamonds.

Now, I brought up this issue about computers and games to highlight and tie in some other obscure point, but I can't seem to write it here without seeming sinisterly suicidal... (I'm NOT, well maybe sometimes, but mostly not) The thing is, games back then, especially the types we call arcade games tend to end very fast when the 3 or 5 'lives' provided die, and sometimes, say you're playing a game, and you made a mistake (probably you can score 2000 points with one 'life' but you only get 1000 points) so you just haphazardly spend all the other 'lives' to get a Game Over! notification and start afresh. I know I did that quite often. I don't know... I just kind of wish life too was like that, you know. Get this one over with, because I don't quite like it at the moment and start afresh. Something like that...

As for the video below, I used to play this game a long time ago, and although I have nothing against frogs, catapulting them onto the knives, or into the crocodile's mouth or even with the piranhas brought me great joy as they were torn apart with all goriness whenever I was down. The game disappeared along with the disuse of the old computer back in 2007 but I managed to trace back a downloadable version of the game on my laptop recently. However it doesn't seem to provide the same joy it used to once upon a time. I suspect the spacebar of a laptop is not as fun to tap as the spacebar of a keyboard belonging to a PC.

Of Tigers and Cherubic Roman Gods

Disclaimer: Procrastination alert ahead... be careful before you tread ;)

An old friend once remarked to me that her parents would love to have me as their kid as I voluntarily dressed in red or pink occasionally, as red was always the chosen colour for festivals like Chinese New Year. I recalled her comment with a small smile as I typed the text message wishing her a Happy Chinese New Year on Sunday, wondering how 'red' her new clothes for the new year would be. She almost always picks maroon in varying shades instead of the bright red most people usually wear.

This year happens to be the year of the tiger, the animal that skulks quietly as it hunts for prey or the one that yawns lazily in the zoo. The picture above was taken in the tiger park at Tambun, near feeding time, which is probably why you can see them. Otherwise, they'd be probably hiding behind that fake contraption. A book I'm reading now, the QI Book of General Ignorance states that the country with the largest number of these gorgeous animals happen to be the United States of America, mostly from zoos and in some people's private collection. Seriously?

I've always had a fascination for tigers for some reason, ever since I was a kid, and was internally tormented at the fact that they were illegally hunted for their skin, or hurt when they ventured into human settlements despite the fact that them venturing into the human settlements are usually caused by us in the first place as they themselves have been deprived of roaming space, and as I recently heard, even caught for food! (Ugh!!) Solitary creatures need their space.

Sunday was also Valentines Day, a day celebrated for it's connection with 'love' and the cherubic roman god known as Cupid. And although things like love is supposed to be celebrated everyday (excuse me while I cringe as I write this), this day still gets all the glamour and all, and if you're in the situation where making any bookings or reservations would be a lost cause because you're flying solo, there's nothing better than to sit in front of your laptop or computer and shoot arrows to make lonely people less lonely. It's probably even good karma!

(You gotta click on the link - the picture is only for decoration)
http://www.miniclip.com/games/loves-arrow/en/

Of Conquering The World and Crime Solving

It was hardly expected the first time around that a certain game that goes around by the name Risk could twirl me round it's fingers (if it had any, that is) so easily because I was never one for large group games - once again being a loner of sorts. It took just one game over the bed in one of the rooms during the trip to Kuching to get me and a few other first timers hooked. Now, a game like Risk is the kind of game that gets better the more players there are, and for that very reason, when JV suggested that we reunite to play again, I jumped with joy (not literally, of course) at the idea.

Our little game started at JV's house, and there were only 5 of us, including JV's cousin who was playing for the first time. So naturally, she had 1 seasoned veteran teaching her, and 3 other wannabe veterans attempting to teach her the game amidst laughter and chips! She got hooked as well! Of course JV aced the game quietly and stealthily while the rest of us looked on in horror as she literally conquered the world out of nowhere while obliterating the grey pieces. Obliterating the grey pieces was my mission, so she had helped me solve my mission unknowingly as well! Ha!

Unfortunately, one of our members had to dismiss herself to attend something family related, and finally there were only 3 of us. JV's cousin had to leave as well, while I had nothing better to do so I hung around with UM and JV. Although it was a small crowd, we decided to give Cluedo a chance. I must admit that I got hooked on this one as well! To think that I had existed for 29 long years in this world without knowing how fun these games are. After a few rounds of Cluedo - the games finished rather fast as there were only three of us and clues were much more easily obtained this way, we decided to go out and have a drink. And it turns out that we really had so many different topics of conversation to cover and didn't notice that time had passed - it was way past dinner time by the time we decided to head back.

Romanticism vs Practicality

It was towards the end of March... I was nursing a particularly unexpected headache while holidaying in Sarawak where I was introduced to the wonderful world of Risk. It was the most intriguing board game ever, and although I was attacked left, right and center throughout the game as certain people made it a point to eliminate all my little red troops off the map, I had tonnes of fun. Now for those not in the know, Risk is a game that involves strategy, and some cold, calculated moves. Sympathy and feeling bad for destroying someone's troops may only come back to haunt you someday. Nevertheless, I was hooked and planned to get my own set (let's just forget for a moment that getting 3 or more players to play with me will be a whole challenge in itself!)

Anyway, last Saturday saw me, my sister and my cousin having an 'under 30's day out' which consisted of a very late and long lunch which then extended to a drive to a different town as none of us wanted to go home. As usual, we had not made any plans, and by the time we drove out, a lot of places would be closing up... so we ended up at a mall, and co-incidentally, just as luck would have it, Toys'r'Us was there right in front of our eyes, beckoning us to get in.

The last time I stepped into Toys'r'Us was when I was about 9, I think... that was 20 years ago. Stepping in, it seems as though it wasn't as big as it was when I was 9. After passing through the babies section, and seeing some Star Wars merchandise from afar (which made me think of my colleague who enters the shop in the pretext of buying toys for his daughter, but instead takes snap shots of himself with Star Wars gear!), I saw the rows of boxes with the words Risk written on them.

I picked one up, and figured that i might as well get it. Clutching onto it, I walked around the shop, secretly envying the kids nowadays when I stumbled upon something on a shelf. Among the many games and toys displayed was an old fashioned box of Risk made of wood that looked like it was made in ancient times! I immediately fell in love with it, because it was so incredibly rustic. However, I later found out that it most probably had missing parts, the most notable, the instruction manual - and for Risk, the instruction manual is an integral part of the game! Plus there are many versions of the game, so no two manufacturers will have the exact same instructions. The romanticism in me insisted that we could somehow find a way to play it, missing parts or not... as for the instructions, no harm looking for them on the net, right? But the practical side of Terra decided otherwise. So for that day, practicality won over romanticism. Sigh...

This is an exact version of that gorgeous box, except this one looks new and clean. That one looked like it had history (probably dropped to the floor a gazillion times)

Weekend Procrastination and Things to Panic About

Let's begin with the worries

1. There's only three days left before I begin my three day adventure with a friend, an acquaintance and a stranger in the land of the hornbills, and I've been scouring the web looking for information about the places we could visit, how to get around etc, and the news is not good... apparently, activity ceases at about 7pm, and public transportation may not be available. So do we rent a car? I don't know...

2. I tried doing some packing last night... because I know for a fact that I cannot trust doing anything on work nights, especially since I won't be around at work on Thursday and Friday, I'll have to work extra to cover the lost days... which when you look at it, seems to mean that taking a vacation or break sort of beats the purpose...

3. The combination which I thought I set for my luggage does not seem to be working. Now I can't lock my luggage, and although I'm not exactly carrying anything expensive - it's a semi-backpack thing, I guess... this worries me.

4. Forget the combination lock... I actually overworked my thumb last night trying the combinations one by one until I gave up... a small lock can't be located either at the moment.

5. This is not related to the trip, but Kodak Gallery is being a pain in the ass (with threats to delete the pictures I've stored there) with their minimum $4.99 thing... to be honest, if I was a resident in the United States, this will be a non-issue at all, but since I live here, I don't see how I'm going to purchase stuff from the Kodak Gallery shop!

6. With all these panicking, I've decided to procrastinate... Level 10 of Sneeze! seems to be an impossible task at the moment...

Sneeze As a virus, your goal is to infect as many humans as possible

Play this free game now!!

Creepy Ladies at Night

We receive a staggering amount of input on a daily basis, through all our different senses, and it is a wonder that none of us has crashed due to an overload, well, except some people, perhaps but that is not what this post is about. Now, the way I see things, I find that stories of creepy nature creep me out the most when they're located nearer to me, for instance, when I was a wee kid of five, I had gone to the bathroom late at night, and on the TV was a local Malay horror movie, and at that very moment I looked at it, an image of a woman with long black hair and fangs looked back at me from the screen. At the same time, the story about the sounds of animals in chains late at night in an Australian Outback (the animals were apparently ghosts), although gave me the creeps when I first read it a few years ago seems to have not much of an effect on me these days.

Yesterday, while I was reading one of the blogs I usually read, I came across the blogger's fear of monsters and things alike, which reminded me so much of myself - watch a horror movie and sleep with the lights on, or get someone to accompany you to the darker parts of the house at night, where shadows lurk. I always have this fear that if look out the kitchen window, I'd see something scary out there! The thing is, in the past few months or so, I've been scaring myself silly (with the help of G, my sister) to the point where scary things supposedly don't scare me as much, and me being the kind of person I am, offered some advice. I believe my actual words in his comment box were:

I am/was scared of scary stuff as well. There was a time when I used to sleep with the lights on because it was creepier when dark.

Anyway, I've overcome it now.. how? Scare yourself silly. Watch episodes of A Haunting on Discovery (Saturday nights,, 10 pm), or even you tube them. Overdose yourself with scary/horror movies/shows, and one day you'll realise that you're not scared of that shadow in the corner anymore! :)

Later that night, we ended up watching about 4/5th's of a horror movie, locally made about a haunted house in a kampong (the spelling here is inaccurate) which involved a game of congkak late at night. I got my first scare when a little girl started screaming when she saw an old lady outside her window. The old lady and her then became friends because of the board game, and they used to play it late at night. The members of the family succumbed to the hauntings one by one where the older daughter was possessed by a spirit, the younger daughter befriends and old lady in a game of congkak, and the mother faints in shock after the old lady shows her her face. (What happened is a mystery, and my description makes the movie sound so cheesy, but it is not... I actually enjoyed it while I was watching it with the lights on!)

I also happened to have a bad headache last night, and after I went to bed I figured I'd better take some panadol so that the pain will be gone by the morning, and guess what? I kept seeing images of the lady in my head and I had to turn on the lights to get the medicine which was only about a 15 steps away from my room (I usually have no problem moving in the dark because there is a small salt lamp outside my room)

I guess that means that my method of getting rid of getting creeped out easily does not apply to local horror. Oh well...

The Workaholics Bowl

Every year without fail, the place I work organises a bowling event for the workaholics who spend most of their lives working. Every year without fail, I do not submit my name. It wasn't any different this year... I did not submit my name but someone else did.

So when the group list came out the other day, I was a bit surprised to see my name there, listed in Group 19 with 4 other people from various other departments. My initial thought was, should I go? If I did, I might make my team lose. Yes, I have a very unfortunate condition called drainitis (or kelongkangan as I usually call it in our local lingo), where the balls I throw will somehow manage to enter the drains at either side of the alley. Nevertheless, I also found out that if members did not go for the competition, the whole team will be disqualified, and me being the person that I am, dragged myself out of bed at an unearthly hour to get to the bowling place in time so that my team does not get disqualified (but it's ok if we lose)

Right, so there I was, in line, got myself registered at the desk, found out that none of the team mates were there yet, and hung out with a few other friends while waiting for the lanes to be opened. When things finally got started, I was dismayed to find out that NONE of my team mates were there. None of them... what the hell? So, I went despite not wanting to, and all my team mates are not there so we end up being disqualified in the end. Is that a strange irony or what?

So there I was, the lone player in lane 19 (Lane 20 was almost equally as bad as only two members were there), and I played, and played despite the fact that the right side of my ribcage protested like hell. My score was miserable, and I somehow managed to hurt my knee by twisting it into a weird position. And everyone else from the other teams came by my lane and expressed sympathy at my playing bowling all by myself! Even when they took group photos in the end, I had to be alone with the Group 19 banner accompanied by a hot pink bowling ball.

Nevertheless, despite the setbacks, I did have a lot of fun watching other friends play in their teams (I think about 7 or 8 teams were disqualified due to not having enough members), and talking to people in general, shook hands with a couple of friend's kids, and cheered for some of the others... It was generally a good day!

A general take on the Olympics

The olympics officially started yesterday in a bang, or so I heard as I did not make an attempt to watch the opening ceremony although I initially did mean to check it out.

A few weeks before the games started, they had these shows on tv which guided us through the journey of the games in the years gone by. I was amazed to see clips of the games from London 1948 (actually the amazement is due to the fact that video from that era still exists!), the records that were broken by relentless athletes, a story about how the villagers of a small town pooled money and bought a black and white tv just to watch their home girl run in the marathon and other such stories.

The first ever olympics that I was aware of was the one in 1988, held in Seoul, Korea. There was this theme song (we had a localised version, if I recall correctly) which our Moral studies teacher made us sing along to in school (I thought that was fun) I remember asking my parents when Malaysia would get a chance to host the olympics. I can't remember their answer though.

Talking about theme songs, the one I loved the most must have been the one from 1992 (Amigos para siempre) which I had mistakenly referred to as Amigo sampreti for a few years (because of my zero knowledge in Spanish at that time and the non-existence of information at our fingertips like how we have it these days)

Oh well, I guess I'll just end this with a good luck wish to all the olympic athletes out there