Detractors

Are many from the exams. There's Gunz (online game witha an attitude), a gushing Garrick on Final Fantasy Advent Children ("Ohh...the fight scenes are sooo cool....." - imagine him foaming at the mouth), Janus - the online series i'm planning to create, Judo red and white comp that's coming up, Naruto manga downloads ;D ...... and of course the dreaded exams.

Being a teen - a boy teen at that, in the 21st century is no easy task. Hmm. But being a girl would probably be worse ....

XD. So i guess its not all that bad.

psychedelic. i like.

Chokes or Armbars?

Hmm.

I'd choose chokes. These two weeks have been a crash course in Sensei's absence, with learning Ude Garami (an armbar where you either break the opponents shoulder or elbow), various choke patterns, not to mention Uchimata a few weeks after learning Tsurikomigosh. And i'm suprised to learn my front throws aren't as bad as i thought, whereas my rear throws have to be worked on even more!!

And besides, its tiring continously manuevering my legs in shiai. Its perhaps the curse of me choosing to be an Osotogari specialist - my leg injuries (not permanent lah) are significantly more than the other four guys. So i think i'll have to be on a close lookout for my next speciality, perhaps Uchimata?? It cool to raise the uke and swing him to the ground, ending with one leg off the ground and one hand touching the mats lightly. I'll tell you about it when i make my descision.

As for chokes, Garrick is the only guy i seriously respect (among the five of us - Vincent is the armbreaker guy) and experiencing his arm completely blocking my air supply is a breath of fresh air.

Right.

And can you actually believe that some people (unnamed) get a high out of being knocked unconcious by a choke?? Sheesh. What weirdos. I can assure those people out there who have never been choked properly by a Judoka that choking is not something you go around getting addicted to. It hurts.

But not as bad as armbars.

You know what?

We hate Tay.

Mine.

Writing.

Well, i'll be lying i i'm absolutely sane, coz i'm feeling rather critical of the world at large right now (just one of my crazy moods, hope it comes to pass after i write this finish and not during - my sister is watching Malaysian Idol, and for the record i hope Nita wins - Daniel has very little talent, but lots of gushing (bluek) female fans).

Anyway, i've been noticing the way Malaysian writers are trained to write (here the word writer means anybody who can pick up a pen and put it to paper). There is such a huge gap between the natural flow of words that seem to bless those darned reviewers at magazines like, say, PC Plus - Briton edition. Or even the firmly tongue-in-cheek writing of Ross Gillen or another one of the cronies at PC Gamer (not Malaysian edition arr...)

My English teacher goes on about how we must write "As a conclusion" or "In conclusion" or "To conclude" and not stuff like "In a nut shell" at the end of every essay. Does she even know how stiff that is to the reader? It robs the composition of a peerless flow of words and, (more importantly) ideas. Things that the Malaysian Education Department absolutely advise to do (such as putting in sequence connectors (In Addition, anyone?) makes it robot like and plagues the article (such as the politically correct newpaper delivered to my house every morning, complete with typos galore and repetitive phrases) *rolls eyes*) with jerks. An example of this would be the headline:"Vegetable Dies After Motor Accident."

Now what springs to mind? A poor old man, completely unaware of his surroundings, somehow manages to zombie walk over to the road and gets himself flattened by a car? Heh. Not. The actual story is of a vegetable seller who got hit by a car on her way back from the market. Sheesh. I wouldn't want to be referred to as a vegetable if i started selling fresh produce. Would Michael Dell like to be referred to as a silicone chip? I didn't think so.

But that is acceptable, since our standard of English ain't that all good to start off with. Perhaps i'm wrong in complaining of average writing, when i should be complaining of lousy writing? Hmm... That's the problem when you're good at something. You see the flaws of other people's work a mile away, but at the same time truly appreciate the work of a genius. My sisters have officially banned me from watching soaps with them - i'll point out character discrepancies whenever a poorly written scene appears. And how i recognise lousy writing? Coz i made the same mistakes myself. Ask Paul - we were buddies in writing once upon a time.

So, in a durian shell, this article could either be just one of my useless comments, a show of my stubborn personality, or a real, heartfelt yell for a push in quality english writing.

Somehow i think its the third.

Creative writing for EST

Theme: Universe

They sat around the table. Sol was of course at the head, and the other nine planets seated in random order – Jupiter and Saturn near the back, with their sheer size taking up a few seats each. Sirius was sitting next to Sol – his green glow mixing with Sol’s golden rays and making the head of the table hard to look at. There were a few white dwarves and red giants, but these were just spectators – not part of the conversation that was about to take place. They were from other parts of the Alpha Centauri region but was nothing compared to the being seated at the far end of the table – as far as possible from the others. There was no light there – he was sucking it all into himself.

A few of the planets shivered at the black hole’s presence. If they strayed too near they’d be sucked in and unraveled, like potatoes being peeled over a sink.

“So I am sure you all know what we’re here for” Sol started. Sirius turned his green gaze on to the other planets. Neptune shifted in his seat, causing a few small streams of water to ooze out and form a puddle underneath his seat.

“Okay, good. For those who don’t know -” At this Sol turned towards the black hole at the other end of the table, “-the Boss upstairs wants to put life into one of us. We’re here to discuss who that planet will be.”

Nobody said anything for awhile.

“So, to start off,” Sol continued, “I’ll like to make it clear that whoever accepts this responsibility will have to tolerate whatever this new lifeform does to our surfaces.” Sol surveyed their faces, “Any volunteers?”

Pluto raised his hand. “I’ll do it. Its lonely at the outer ring, and at least this life should provide some entertainment.”

Some of the planets groaned at this.

“Are you kidding? Those poor creatures would freeze to death!” Jupiter said.

Sol looked at him imperiously. “And you would volunteer in place of Pluto?”

Jupiter coughed. “No – I’m far too dangerous – pure hidrogen and helium in a dense atmosphere is more than anything that the Boss wants to make can take. Plus take a look at my Great Red Spot – a complex storm that’ll last a couple mpre centuries at best.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows, bathing everyone in a brief green flare. “Who else?” He asked.

Venus, who until then was too preoccupied with a mirror, raised a delicate hand. ‘I believe the creatures could thrive on me. I am, after all, the most beautiful here.”
Gaia scoffed. “Well, if the creatures could survive the sulfuric acid clouds that make you so beautiful, why not, huh?”

Pluto, quite dissapointed at having being rejected, jumped in: “Plus your surface temperature – 482°C - you want to cook them or something?”

“Shut up, you refrigerator.” Venus snapped back.

The black hole chose that moment to speak up, his voice echoing great fear throughout the room. “You better decide something fast. The Boss sent me to make sure you don’t bicker too long. If the need comes I’ll suck some of you, yeah?”

All the planets visibly paled, save for Sirius and Sol. They nodded in agreement.

“I propose two hosts – Gaia and Mars. Which one?”

The planets stared at each other for awhile. “Mars is self stirilizing, isn’t he?” Saturn asked.

Uranus nodded. “He doesn’t like lifeforms, I think. Or else why does he allow such a high level of solar radiation on his surface?”

Mars didn’t say anything. He just stared ahead, as if he wasn’t there.

“So Gaia it is?” Mercury asked. “She has too many unstable fissures and active volcanoes.”

Gaia smiled calmly. “That can be taken care of.”

*

Present time
Sirius looked down at the people on Gaia. He raised an eyebrow again, bathing the planet in a faint green light.

“They’ve been hurting her, haven’t they?” He asked.

Sol, glowing as brightly as ever, nodded. “Pollution was one of the effects we foresaw.”

Sirius shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Gaia is a strong one. And even if she loses her life giving form, the ones that lose is the life on that planet itself.”

Both of them stood quietly for a while, gold and green rays mingling.

“I wonder what the Boss wanted to achieve by giving these creatures so much intelligence and free will.”

Sol laughed. “It’ll do no good to question His motives. Come, let’s go.” He turned towards the outer Alpha Centauri, gesturing for Sirius to follow.

From the earth, the sun and the brightest star in the mortal skies seem to fade for an instant.

Facts

• Sol, in Roman religion, sun god. An ancient god of Mesopotamian origin, he was introduced (c.220) into Roman religion as Sol Invictus by emperor Heliogabalus. His worship remained an important cult of Rome until the rise of Christianity. In this story Sol is used as a name for the Sun.

• Gaia, The goddess of the earth, who bore and married Uranus and became the mother of the Titans and the Cyclopes. Here the name Gaia refers to Earth.

• White Dwarfs is an astronomical object which is produced when a low or medium mass star dies, and are approximately the size of the Earth.

• Sirius is the brightest star seen from Earth and is actually two stars side by side, the bigger (and the one easily seen) is known as Sirius A. Sirius B is affectionately called ‘The Pup’, because Sirius has long been known as the Dog Star (it is the eye of Canis Major)

• Red Giants are stars of solar mass or higher which have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in their cores and started fusing hydrogen in a shell outside the core. The stars expand at a great rate, but become cooler due to the larger surface area. The Earth’s sun is expected to become a red giant in six billion years.

This is what i slaved over today, just for some dumb (but fun) EST project. Sounds almost like something ELC would give out. Only that i vouluntered to do this solo, to allow my teamates to study. Creative writing is after all something i really like.

Planetshakers

Finally i get to a christian concert this year that actually touches me - through and through. Went for student's night last night and it was seriusly rocking (it sounds lame - but that's the way it really is ;D). The praise part was like aerobics - a lot of jumping. And Matt was quite disappointed (didn't jump enough) with us at the start - even taught us how to jump with saying:

"We're Planetshakers, from Australia. And you know what Australia is? The land of the kangaroo. So this is how you jump ..."

And we jumped. So here i am sitting exhausted for a quick blogging session - with various aches all over my body. Vincent had pulled of a juji gatame on my arm (felt like it was broken) and Desmond threw me with an overdone tsurikomigosh this morning.

Ouch.

DOTA - Counter Strike for Warcraft

Seriously. I'm addicted steadily to Dota now (first to Naruto, now to this - sheesh!), what with following Kevin and playing in the school cybercafe. I picked a melee hero, so that kinda sucked, as i was good at the normal warcraft, but not at Dota (melee heroes are usually for experts only)

So i spent the time being blasted and shot to pieces with long ranged spells and fireballs and flying spikes and crazy spinning whatevers sent by Liaw, Nicholas and Jonathan. But with my former experience in Warcraft (not too bad lah) i quickly learnt how to get my ass out of certain tight places - fast. Soon i was making a name in that round for my annoying blinking ability - they'd think they could kill me and then i'm suddenly far, far away...

Well, some explanation first, aye?

Dota is this mod (or map) where you control a single hero, starting at a base with towers spread out towards the enemy's base. The computer sends out regular patrols of soldiers, and you and your friends (as heroes - with special abilities) fight it out with the aim of slowly destroying their towers and eventually driving back into the enemy base, destroying an artifact (for the undead is the frozen throne, the elves is the tree of life)

Perfectly balanced gameplay - you can tell that this will very quickly reach counter strike cult status. Kevin is seriously owning all our arses at the moment - his record is a 50 plus kills and no deaths. Darned spellcaster.

Hah! iPod still wins

Jeremy Archer - Not a penny more, not a penny less

This is the authors debut novel, chracteristically light and breezy, unlike the epics chronicling the life stories of outstanding characters the author later goes on to write.

The story starts off with a background story of Harvey Metcalfe, telling how he got to be the milliornaire he is now - from wall street paperboy to cunning business/con man.

As the book says:

It is hard to make your first million legally. It is also hard to make your first million illegally, although it is slightly easier. But to keep your million is the hardest task of all.

Harvey Metcalfe had succeded in all three:

He had made his first million illegally, his second legally, but above all he managed to keep all his millions intact.


At the start of the novel we see Metcalfe pulling off his latest heist - a stock market hattrick in which he cons 1 million out of 4 particular individuals - who invested in his non-company out of pure bad luck. Archer details meticulously the laws involved and how Metcalfe set up the corporation - with his attorney's help and a keen eye on the British oil commision (nudges Kenny and Sam).

Anyway, the four people involved are very much from different backgrounds - Stephen - an Oxford mathematician but from America, who originally started the plan on Metcalfe (he reseached the man so throughly that at the start of their heist they knew everything from his holidaying plans in London annually to what his favourite food was), Robin, a doctor, also from London (who incidently takes care of old women who come to him primarily for his good looks); Jean Pierre, a French man, owner of one of the more distinguished art galleries around the city; and James - lord and a ladie's man, whose antics highlight the best laid plans the author lays down.

So they each have to formulate a plan of their own, aiming to steal 250 thou each so that between them they can take back the 1 million they lost - not a penny more, not a penny less.

The only fault i can find with the book was the simple incredulity of most of the plans. No matter what happens they just manage to get away without being caught, although some are outrageous set pieces they put Metcalfe through. But the final twist leaves you in tickles of laughter, or at least puts a smile on your face. Very much recommended.

iPod beater?

Second Shiai

Now this one was really cool. I had to sacrifice the prefect dinner (RM25 down the drain!!) for a night of randori, but even though i didn't get ippon i was pretty happy with myself - Vynerriddo couldn't throw me even though he was much more experienced . I'd be willing to bet it was luck and my height, but the match against a shorter person didn't actually do justice to the tewaza i had developed over the last month.

You see, Vyner is super short when he goes into a defensive position - about my waist - making it almost impossible to use my form of Osotogari since it would be going against his body and tiring me out just to push him back. His speciality is Uchimata - meaning if i enter too carelessly he can lift me up between my legs and swing me down. So the entire match was newaza - two of us grappling on the matt after falling down (many times!) together.

Rather daft, i'd say, but i sucessfully managed to evade most of his throws, not giving him any ippons. Next bout i'll do better - i swear it (if i'm allowed to actually swear, that is ;D). I'll be focusing on the training.

Now my next objective would be to refine techniques against shorter people. Perhaps Soto Makikomi would do the trick ...

Quote For (gee, so many months)

The mind of a perfect man is like a mirror. It grasps nothing. It expects nothing. It reflects but does not hold. Therefore, a perfect man can act without effort.
Chuang-Tzu

this is in the context of shiai, or judoka combat

Uzimaki

Well, filler post then. I'm just so crazily addicted to Naruto comics, i can barely chat normally and surf the net. I mean, right now yes, i'm blogging, but at the same time, i'm listening to Anna Nalick's Paper Bag (real cute song, that one), researching Masahiko's Osotogari style and steadily downloading Naruto mangas. Plus reading.

And i can't concentrate - the fight between Naruto and Sasuke's too engrossing.

So back to the other tab, i guess.

Maxis Cyberlinq

The news would have probably reached your ears (if you're a Malaysian and read the major dailies) that we won the Maxis Cyberlinq competition. A sarawakian school upping all the peninsular experts!! Allow me to indulge in some outburst:

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Well, that felt better. I was still on the fast when Kenny told me to write a report on our win( i'm the team's english guy, and 'negotiater') so when i heard the news i used the clause i had put into my 'agreement' before joining the fast - that emergencies and great moments of importance are excluded from the fast. I was on the laptop very soon after.

Kenny was estatic. My fingers were dancing across the keyboard - who's wouldn't?

Dienasty: So what were the reactions of all the others?

KVYS2000:To my dissapiontment, they all ask one question

Dienasty: What?

KVYS2000: What's the prize?!

Dienasty: lol

But anyway, when school started after that mid-second term holiday, we were in for the surprise of our lives. Pn. Sheila, head of the english department, whom we asked for help to help organise the friendly debate against Kuching High, demanded two things.

1. Cash. Lots of it. (she did 5%, we did 95%)
2. Another teacher advisor (dia nak nama)

Of course, Kenny, who's a normally cool guy and can take whatever is coming with stride, swore. That's pretty rare, i tell you. So the very next day we held a council of war with Cikgu Yusof, and discussed how to maintain the project - we won RM3000.

Now we're waiting for the cash to arrive, but its going to be hard if we want to use it to our wishes. I mean, we worked so hard for this (although i actually feel guilty - like i haven't done enough) and this snag with the money has taken away the fighting spirit from the team. Cikgu Yusof is mad, although he hides it, and Kenny said:

"What for we win the finals? If we get RM5000 we get more trouble afterward."

I don't like seeing Kenny like this.

But i'm confident we'll win the rights to the RM3000. We're all strong people.

The end

When i woke up on the last day of the fast: i wondered whether i should go online since i had already completed the day's prayer. There was no school: it was the Merdeka holiday. I turned and stared at the study. My sister was already on MSN, and i knew there were four ports on the ADSl router. I stared at the notebook bag leaning against one of the office chairs.

What the hell (or heaven, for that matter).

Within seconds i was in MSN, downloading Naruto mangas and eating breakfast at the same time. To cover for what this blog missed during the forty day peiod, it looks like i have to do multiple posts. And blog real hard. So i'm going to start.