News
Round Up – So Bored I Blogged
Jul 4th
What A Saturday Morning
Working in the office on another Saturday morning when most my work is completed. Sleepy as hell, eyes hanging out and needing more rest but nope here am I ready to fulfill another 9 hours of company time. No one needs greater motivation than such to write a little junk on a sleepy morn.
Football – The Arsenal DM Mystery, Chamakh to Replace Ade? & Owen to United
Melo isn’t signing for us. Inler, Cana, etc looks like a pipe dream. Nothing going on except for Chamakh whom I’ve never heard before. Supposedly Adebayor’s replacement and I hope that Togo chap goes. Basically his heart isn’t here anymore, his form has dipped and he wasn’t a really good striker anyways. Lacking a solid first touch and sharp finishing, what Ade had was plenty and plenty of tireless hard work operating ahead of RVP alone upfront. Think about it, he’s a bit of a Heskey like player, important but he could be better. No idea how good Chamakh is though in comparison with Ade. Actually, I really miss Bergkamp, Petit & Wright.
Owen signed for United! Think its good for him. I’ve always liked players like him. Quiet, leads a decent life even with the riches he has on hand. Good professional but whether his injuries plague him again is another thing. He was with Liverpool when he was young and used his pace to burn up defenders. Now at 29, he’s slower and is back in the English League (read: physical). We’ll see how he does. It’ll be good for his England aspirations partnering with Rooney who can operate behind him or being a pacey striker to front man Berbatov. Might be an excellent deal for United in the end since he is on free transfer.
Geekish – Time for a Laptop
This is the time of the year that every uni going chap wants to get a laptop. I’m going to hold out until:
1. September IT Show sales.
2. NUS offers.
3. I know the exact requirements of my faculty.
4. Confirmation of the sponsorship so I can work out my budget.
It’s hard for a geek like me to choose a laptop. Idiots like me love power and performance. Everything must be top of the line but with a laptop, portability and battery life comes to mind so one has to balance this. I can’t go for a C2D 2.53ghz with SLI GFX and expect my laptop to be featherlight and still last a long time on battrey power. I’d still need a fast processor (can’t skim on that), good RAM and a doable GFX. I’m not very familiar with the GFX lineups for notebooks but here’s a good link to check.
I’m not going to game much on a laptop but would like my laptop to be ready in case there are adhoc gaming sessions that kinda thing. I don’t play high res games anyways, TF2 isn’t that demanding.
So basically depending on price, I’d like a:
Processor: Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz or 2.53Ghz
RAM: 4GB DDR2/3 RAM (This is dirt cheap anyways)
Hard Drive: 320GB minimum
Screen Size: 13.3″ to 14.1″
GFX: Non onboard. Preferably ATI Radeon HD4570 / nVidia GeForce 9600M GS and above.
OS: Windows 7 32-bit. (I’m going to run W7 64bit on my desktop so I need a little variety)
Build Quality: No skimming on this. Has to be tough and solid.
Budget: $1,600 (Pretty tight)
News – H1N1 will become a common flu.
H1N1 was given a SARS level welcome mat and everyone went bananas about it. After following the news and talking to a few doctor friends for a bit, there’s nothing much we can do to shut the strain out. First it is not life threatening when treated on time. The 100+ people who died early in the outbreak did not know it was a new strain and it was common flu. Thus untreated >> dead. Second, recovery rate is excellent in H1N1 and there’s nothing to be too panicky about. Same rules apply, good hygenie, enough sleep (oh man), proper food (oh boy), and see a doc the moment you have symptoms. You won’t die, you need not panic. Just live your life the way it should be. Most countries are going from containment to mitigation and in 3 months to come, H1N1 would be so widely spread no one will be keeping figures (just imagine how keeping numbers of people with common flu will be like) and it will, in the end, become a common flu. Vaccine’s on the way if you’re interested.
MJ: 1958-2009
Jun 29th
MJ - A Trendsetter Since Young
I’m not a big fan of pop but the fact that I’ve listened to MJ, watched his videos and seen countless imitations of his dance steps mean a lot about MJ’s global outreach. It doesn’t take a music fan to know him. Everyone just does.
MJ has to be the greatest pop icon since Elvis Presly and I struggle to see any replacements for the “King of Pop”. Incredibly talented, what really caused him to standout imo is the synergy between his dance moves and his songs. Isolate either element and he becomes really ordinary.
I remember singing ‘Heal the World’ back in Primary school. It was our official Children’s Day song. Watching ‘Thriller’ in PJC as an opener to our film module in Literature. Reading 101 things about his facial makeover and alledged child molestation charges.
One thing’s for sure, MJ wasn’t a clean pop icon and that is what endeared him to the world. He was human, not some out of touch pop star. His failures and problems were well known and many could identify with him.
I’m not so avid and die hard a fan to feel pain in his death. All I would say is things would be different now since the world no longer has the pop icon as a point of reference. Many new artists and dancers based themselves on MJ’s foundation.
We wait to see who the new king of pop would be and if that icon can transcend generations. From what I last heard, my grandad, my parents, my similar aged friends and even my nephews have all listened and watched him. That’s how much he was globablly known, involved and loved.
Goodbye Jackson. Will never forget the song below:
“Heal The World”
There’s A Place In
Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could
Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You’ll Find There’s No Need
To Cry
In This Place You’ll Feel
There’s No Hurt Or Sorrow
There Are Ways
To Get There
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place…
Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
If You Want To Know Why
There’s A Love That
Cannot Lie
Love Is Strong
It Only Cares For
Joyful Giving
If We Try
We Shall See
In This Bliss
We Cannot Feel
Fear Or Dread
We Stop Existing And
Start Living
Then It Feels That Always
Love’s Enough For
Us Growing
So Make A Better World
Make A Better World…
Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Dream We Were
Conceived In
Will Reveal A Joyful Face
And The World We
Once Believed In
Will Shine Again In Grace
Then Why Do We Keep
Strangling Life
Wound This Earth
Crucify Its Soul
Though It’s Plain To See
This World Is Heavenly
Be God’s Glow
We Could Fly So High
Let Our Spirits Never Die
In My Heart
I Feel You Are All
My Brothers
Create A World With
No Fear
Together We’ll Cry
Happy Tears
See The Nations Turn
Their Swords
Into Plowshares
We Could Really Get There
If You Cared Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
To Make A Better Place…
Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
The Only Solution to N Korea is a Quick Disablement
Jun 15th
Kim Jong Il - Self Interests First
I’m sick and tired about Kim Jong Il’s boast about nuclear weapons and his continuous provocative tests. In doing so, he leaves only one solution on the table – disablement. It is clear that diplomacy is of no use and is instead encouraging the N Korean administration to further cling on to their weapons as a powerful bargaining chip.
Let’s put it this way, the six way talks that progressed to the point where N Korea destroyed a few reactors in public will not return. And even if it does, there will be no permanent solution to this situation. Why?
One has to ask himself if he would give up nuclear weaponry if he was Kim Jong Il. A man like him has cradled his nuclear project just like he held his favourite son. N Korea has progressed only on the military front and that is down to nuclear weaponry. Do you think he’ll give up his main achievement especially now that he is in poor health and it is too late to start any other ambitious program?
Would you surrender your gun if others had their own? Easy answer – No. The larger countries have a huge stock of nuclear weaponry. The US has missiles over a 3 digit figure capable of being armed with nuclear warheads and they do have the warheads ready. This put the US in no position to ask N Korea to lay their nuclear arms down. Don’t ask others to do what you cannot do.
Thirdly, the diplomatic talks have dangled carrots in front of N Korea have encouraged them to continue their nuclear tests in bid for an even bigger carrot. The talks have turned N Korea’s nuclear project into a massive bargaining chip. Do you think N Korea will ever give up such leverage?
I see only two options. Diplomacy can only work when Kim Jong Il leaves his seat of power. This man is thickheaded and hell bent on his nuclear drive. Leave Kim Jong Il alone with his nuclear toys. This man craves the attention as it boosts his image of power – something a dictator loves. Start talks afresh when his son takes over at his death. Maybe his son might put the needs of his people before his own lofty goals. What I’m likening this situation is to that of the Cold War. The war was only won when communist Moscow fell over on its own.
If the world cannot wait for the above, then disable them in a way that N Korea cannot retaliate or rebuild its nuclear arsenal. US found reason to attack Iraq with only circumstantial evidence. There are surely even better reasons to do so for N Korea. It’s a war that Japan and S Korea would readily support. Now I’m not a pro war fanatic but the years of diplomacy has failed in epic proportions and that leaves only one solution – hit N Korea before they reach the capability to hit back. It must be done quickly with precision. No long drawn war. Something fast that hits them without them expecting it. We don’t want to turn this N Korea affair into Cold War 2 where N Korea and the US have nuclear weapons pointed at each other while the world awaits in suspense.
Peace out.
