Moscow and the first All English Final

Man Utd beat Barcelona by the skin of their teeth and are now off to Vodka and land-of-the-hyperinflation!!!!!!!! Right, so far in the history of this blog (a year or so i guess) i have never done a post on United, preferring to leave that to the realm of my mind and throat (the countless swearings and curses and screamings as they won and lost this whole season).

But heck...they made it to the final of the Champions League for the first time since 1999 and i feel as a die hard fan, this is an occasion that must be recorded on this blog (assuming i do not lose interest in recording a small portion of myself here) enough small talk....onto the die hard fan thing.... Disclaimer: For reader whom are in the sad sad position of not being a Manchester United fan.......i feel for you mates.

Anyways, please get yourself ready for one of my most biased and fanatical posts that will at times defy reason and will put you in the position of having to argue from your seat somewhere in front of your comps ...or PDAs....that Man Utd is not the best team in the world. Also, may i add here that Nadal so freaking thrashed Federer and will continue to do so as Fed Ex is fast resembling a post WW2 mail order service.......makes you swear everytime deliveries go haywire.........



Righto,



Man Utd are the best team in the world. The reasoning? The EPL (English Premier League...for the aforementioned sad people who do not know the EPL.....Americans included) is the best league in the world.

And Man Utd so freaking thrashed Arsenal...the chelsea bit was a slight slip up. Also, Man Utd are tops in the league.


And they are going to Moscow for the Final.


This conclusively proves that Man Utd are the best team in the world (football team i mean).

Period.

Man Utd have Cristiano Ronaldo. Everyone else do not.

Also, they look so damn cool in blood red. And the devil mascot is so in.


This is where i return back to my reasonable self


I admit, Utd do not have the silkyness of Arsenal nor the clockwork movement of Barcelona.

They have not won the Champions League as many times as Real Madrid or Liverpool or the princes of Europe, AC Milan.

They frustrate you, and their damn jerseys cost 170 bucks...forcing you to resort to buying the fake ones and asking you brother to pay his debt to you by purchasing a Man Utd hoodie for your birthday.

The force you to do stupid things like sitting up until 5 am watching them take on Barcelona before you go and sit for a *holds up 3 mid fingers on hand and urges you to read between the lines* physics test at 1pm that same day.

But..... They entertain you.

They keep you on the edge. They make you a fanatic. And despite the fact that they lose...they do it in style.


They never say die until the final whistle despite being a goal down. The only team to threaten the most in the dying minutes of a game (ok, Arsenal too..and Real...and Barca...gah just keep reading...). I do not have large logical reasons for loving Man Utd.....and hating Arsenal and Liverpool (except when these two play each other and Chelsea). For now, i will finish off this post with a last few words. Given all that has happened since 1999, i will say that no Man Utd team since then has had the power and the style of today's team and Chelsea or Liverpool had better pray they do not get slaughtered in Moscow.

Final Week

Its been quite a ride. One year down already with 3 left to go. 2 more until i start my industrial attachement. 3 years left till i start work and come to accept the inevitable.......

FUN AND GAMES END SOON.

.........or do they?


I for one refuse to accept that life after uni is hell as the profs claim. Or that uni is the best time of our lives.

I refuse to acknowledge the fact that life can't be a ball....and if it is.....you can't get that Bugatti Veyron you have always wanted....or that room filled with Godivas.

So, what are my plans after this ones year of uni? What shall i do to make the 3 years to come seem longer and to enjoy them with as a teen would (I still refuse to admit i'm going to be 20 soon.....lets just keep it at 19 + 1 years old.......i would highly recommend you drop the + 1 bit though).


Having said that i would like you all to forget the last bit about me talking about wanting to talk about life after this one year. I'm just lazy to reedit this post and it would help if you all had a brief moment of amnesia or something.

Worse comes to worse, run headlong into a wall and hope for the best.................
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Yuva's Big Plans For The Hols

1) Grab a train home on Sunday or Friday after the Physics Final on Thursday. Man Utd is playing Chelsea on Saturday and i do not want to miss that.

2) Watch Man Utd tear apart Barcelona the morning before the Physics Final.

3) Stay in KL for a week before heading back to campus on the 3rd or the 4th of May for the Special Semester

4) Catch up on missed movies with old friends during one week

5) Give Jeremy, Karam, BAK, Hsien Hooi, Bernard, Ravin, whoever i can get hold off , a call or something. Been too long. Waaaaay too long.

6) Make holiday plans for Singaporean chaps . A stay in KL and Penang over 3 or 4 days probably in June.

7) Learn French during Special Semester.....and then learn to curse like the Merovingian in the Matrix Reloaded....which incidentally happens to be the words on my all time fave shirt.

8) Take cursing to an all new level by using the snooty French accent and language. And wear the Matrix shirt while doing it for more effect.

9) Go on holiday with PE1 peeps in July.

10) Go on holiday with parents (hopefully they won't take a solo one by themselves leaving bro and me at home with sis).

11) Cash in on wages from job before uni. Get a 500 Gb external Hard Drive for my IBM. Spend the rest on holiday with peeps.
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On an off note...once again shall i spend my birthday without any special occasion. Its has been an unfortunate fact that i was to be born on a date during which something is happening. Throughout school life it was always exams. Now its a special semester.

Ah well.....i shall go out and bully Vee or Boon Chong or someone to get me a cake or something. Or at least get me a char siew pau. I need a char siew pau. Ages since i had one.

Since i'm on the topic of birthdays, i'll continue anyway.

I'm going to be 20. Ooops.

Stop reading now and have a bout of amnesia please. Or go slam your head on a wall.......
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I'm going ot be 19.....+1 years old. So i think i'll get a little grateful here for the things i have at the moment.

*Takes look around room*

Righto. I'll just go ahead and thank the years....

1) Thanks for making me immune to a dusty environment. Helps me live under the pile of clothes and books in my room.....and that weird green stuff on my football socks outside.

2) Thanks for helping me realise that the green stuff is not good and that i need to soak those socks.

3) That being said...thanks for not giving me a heart attack or a sugar OD from consuming all those 375 g jars of Nutella Walnut Choco Spread.

4) Thanks for giving me hair and not taking it away........*unlike my poor bro*......but could you just NOT make it grow a little too long? Sure the Wolverine hairdo is cool and all..but it kinda feels like i have been electrocuted.

5) Thank you Prof Fedor for giving us an easy Math paper. Though i wish you had asked about surface integrals....would have made all that studying not feel like a complete waste of time.


Its 3 am, and i have to prepare for my Computing paper on Monday.

Cheers!

Just A Lot Of Pictures

My phone's memory is going belly up....so high time i deleted all the old pictures and post em here instead.....enjoy!

while Anil and You Quan get themselves in the mood before the Math final........

Boon Chong poses.......

....and Vee and Garen are busy Counter-Striking......

This dude is an art student from the Art School. Idiot left his Mac on top of vending machine while he went to the loo. The security cameras were in place....but could only take videos of the person's lovely legs. What an Ass.

Just had to take a pic of my IBM.

This is how we study the night before the Math final. Read comics and consult the pro (boon chong)

The aerospace lab. Feels more like an exhibition area. The copter is called a "Dragonfly" i believe.

Very old Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). I think its one of those early Israeli or US ones (Israel was one of the first countries to come out with a fully functional UAV)

A Skyhawk. Was used by the Singapore Airforce. Discontinued now.

Classic Vietnam War "Huey"

Beliefs and Convictions

Righto, its almost 4 am, i have just illegally watched "Cloverfield" online and now am in the mood for a bit of philosophical blogging.......this is rare folks...so yeah......

Now I as you probably already know from my earlier posts and if you don't i'll let you know now that i am not a man of religion.

Now before you go on reading this post, allow me to stress a few points here. As usual, i do not intend to force my views and perceptions of religion down your throat. What i have to say in this post has nothing whatsoever to do with refuting or accepting the existance of God, TheEnergy, Him .....anything else depending on your own religious or scientific views on the entire matter.

No, i do not intend to insult my dear friends, many of which are in fact devout followers of religions of sorts.

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What i intend to chat about today is about one matter and one matter only........BELIEVES.

What on earth is a belief?

I'm going to snub the dictionary this once (just an excuse for me being too lazy to open it at the moment....come on...its 4 am and i'm sleepy)....and i'm going to talk about what i feel a belief is.

Belief is in one word "Conviction". It is or are a concept or a collection of concepts one believes in with such conviction to the extent that one's life is primarily either consciously or subtly influenced by it.

Everyone has beliefs and it is that which governs how one leads his or her life.

You might be getting the idea at this moment that i'm going to depart on a long and detailed discussion on the matter or principles and morals and sprituality and what not. The whole idea of leading your life in accordance to a set of convictions.......sounds pretty much like something driven by principles of sorts....even to me.


Nopes.


My creativity is at an all time low at the moment (yes i know i have been giving this excuse a lot, live with it)....so i'm just going to give you here an example of what in my opinion is a belief.


Gravity.


Think about it. Everyone, regardless of race, religion, background (i can go on you know).....believes in it. You do not question it. You accept it. Why?

It all boils down to the mere fact that it is extremely believable. You feel its effects. You compute it in Physics class. You used it in your exams. Its in textbooks. The fact that you are in fact governed by it might be the common explanation for why you so convincingly believe in it...........despite the fact that it is in fact a half proven concept.

The origin of gravity you might argue HAS been proven by Einsteins fabulous Space-Time fabric distortion concept....highly detailed in his papers on the General Theory of Relativity. May i take a moment to stress here that it is in fact a theory....for the moment. Yes, to some extent, the mathematical proof is beyond doubt, however as for the physical explanations....it is still lacking.

Yet, we still believe in it...and might i say...with so much conviction that we in fact use the concept without giving thought to its proof. I honestly do not think Norman Foster used the general theory of relativity when planning the Wembley Stadium.

Here is what i'm trying to say now that you have humored me with the short and messy discussion on modern physics.

A belief is a concept you hold on to and swear by with so much conviction...that you do not question it, but accept it for what it is, proven or not proven.

Strictly speaking....the question of what a belief can or cannot be is 100% dependent on the individual.

You might argue that, "Hey, but everyone accepts that for instance, you can't live without food, and that the world is round. Does this not makes these facts and not beliefs? If that is the case, what on earth is the difference between facts and beliefs?"

Answer: THEY ARE THE SAME.

A fact is in essence a belief so generally accepted that it becomes something rather more indisputable.....and hence we label it a FACT. Nice word...makes it not open to criticism cause hey...its a damn fact....cannot say anything about it.

WRONG.

Facts are open to criticism and are at times disputable. Which brings me to the second part of this post.....

ANY BELIEF OR FACT IS OPEN AND HAS TO REMAIN OPEN TO CRITICISM AND DISPUTE......EVEN THE VERY LAWS THAT WE PERCEIVE TO GOVERN OUR LIVES.

Yes, even science is in fact a belief and is open to criticism. Even mathematics. A language we hold to be the purest, indisputable, irrefutable. Heck, we do our taxes with it.......

Suppose i'm a very fanciful and am a genius. I decide to ditch maths and have a totally different way of doing it.

LAMBAD$&%@&^%!% + (*&^@(^@!&^~&^ = (*&^@&&^@&^

Behold the new math. Gah, this is wrong. I'll just call it "olah". Sounds nicer that "math".

Lets say this thing i just created works for me. I find that under this new system, i can carry out the exact same functions that i do with the aid of mathematical theory. I do not have integration, but have a totally different way of evaluating sums. Or for the matter my concept of a sum is entirely different. But..it works for me! I have no problems with this new theory.

So comes my final point, a belief is a concept, no matter how nonsensical it may sound, nor how common place it is such as the laws of physics......which most importantly...works for you and you're happy with it( i did not phrase my words here well..hopefully you get my drift). This may sound very fanciful. In fact i readily admit that the words i have typed out so far are to a high extent, fanciful and nonsensical.

However, we have to look beyond the common and come to accept that in this world, nothing is concrete. That being said, the only thing keeping the element of uncertainty away in our daily lives are our beliefs and convictions.


My current belief? Nutella is a nutritious breakfast and you won't die from Nutella OD. I believe in this. And though the common fact that sugar+too much=BAD is all around me, i'm just going to ignore it and go with my current belief. It might change once i find out i'm diabetic or something, but till then.............YAY NUTELLA!


Cheers Mates!

Changes

Righto, this is kinda one of my rare posts this year.

I actually have my finals next week, and here i sit blogging oblivious to the fact that i have yet to open my Econs books and revise....exam in only in 3 days time btw.

Oh well, i can get used to getting screwed now and then (forgive the pun, creativity is at an all time low at the moment) XD

Ok, I know in the previous posts i have projected NTU as a "in the middle of nowhere" campus, far from civilisation, with only monkeys and wild boars and whatever else that roams the forest behind my room.

Changes have come!!!!!

Yes,

About a week or two ago, the new eatery on campus opened. Subway, Canadian Pizza, some local snack franchise called "Old Chang Kee", Mc Donalds and Sakae Sushi (yet to open) have set up shop.

Plus a restaurant come bistro called "The Palette".

And not to mention a new foodcourt to be opened soon.

I guess the Admin Office realised how pathetically deprived we undergrads were on campus,and probably realised the bad juju of not having good food would sooner or later result in some Food Wars of some sort.

Food Wars:

A long,long few hours ago,
On a campus on an Island near Malaysia.......

*play Star Wars tune here*

The young undergrads, unable to cope with the tyranny of the Admin Office,

Took it upon themselves to liberate themselves from the horrors of foodlessdom,
Demanded for Subways and Pizzas,
Instead of "Chap Fun" and noodles,
Led by a young upstart from Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering,
So started the Food Wars that was to last one semester......or a week depending on the case of expulsion.............






I could go on, but yeah, you get the point.............

You pretty much see how major this is. I guess they also realised that our morale was soon to drop from overdosage of noodles and Chap Fun, inevitably resulting in NTU losing out to NUS on rankings yet again.....so.....


WE HAVE SUBWAY, PIZZA, and some other places i'm too lazy to type about again......!!!!!!!!

Subway actually ran out of sandwiches during lunch hour on the first day.
My friends had to wait for almost an hour to get food at The Pallette.
I had to wait for an hour the next day at Subway to get a foot long Meatball Marinara.

And i bet at this hour, if it was still open (Subway) the queue will be long.