no net

so something really bad just happened a couple of hours ago. my internet and mioTV both have gone down. so yeah no soccer shows to watch and no internet on wireless at home for probably a week before the technician comes down.

this sucks.. one has to wait so long just for it to get fixed. ohh well, feels like half my lifestyle is ruined. no shows. no movies. no games. not much social media. could it be a blessing in disguise? doubt so.. haha anyway i am blogging this through my iphone hotspot in case you are wondering.

poker-faced

poker face comes from the game poker, obviously. if you aren't familiar with the term.. it is the plain emotionless face you give in order to hide your happiness or sadness so that your poker buddies will have a tough time guessing what kind of hand you have. well, it started from poker but it is now a term used on a daily basis as well. if someone has a poker face today, one would not guess whatever he/she is thinking or his/her true feelings and what not.

today, i would like to say one of the most damaging thing modern society has done thus far, it will be it has turned many to own a poker face. mind you, by that i mean the individual has sort of been forced to own one considering the situations and circumstances around.

let's take two examples of two extreme reactions one can experience in almost any given situation. happy and sad.

first case. imagine Person A has recently got a great result from an exam or test or what not. her immediate reaction was to jump in joy and spread the good news to all of her friends and family members. clearly, she is happy and he is sharing the great moment and achievement with the people around her. however, a friend of her's, say Person B, did really badly despite putting equally much effort to the revision. when Person A shared her good news with Person B, the latter felt demoralized and she soon went on to comment that Person A is being arrogant and kind of a show-off, hurting Person A's feelings. from then on, Person A always think twice before celebrating any good news lest being labelled as arrogant again. she learned that not showing her true happiness might prevent getting hurt and so she hides her happiness most of the time. poker-faced.

second case. imagine Person C has recently failed to get an admission into university and is apparently feeling demoralized and sad. she then went on to tweet about her worry for her future and what not. following that, she turned to her family members and friends to seek comfort and advice and what not. through the process, of course she would highlight the fact that she is feeling sad and what not.then came Person D, a friend of her's, who has seen Person C's tweet and listened to her sad story a couple of times now. Person D got annoyed about Person C's little worries and started to say that she is being such an attention seeker, always looking for comfort and support as though she does not have a backbone or brain of her own. Person C got hurt even more and soon learned that she probably should suck her own sadness up and deal with it herself from now own to prevent being hurt more. she would now not show her true sadness. poker-faced.

i'm sure everyone has experience such cases before, be it you are the "victim", the "bystanders", Person B or Person D (also known as assholes). point is society has become so judgmental and critical in remarks the people would shove down the throats of the general population.

well, if you are thinking that it is sad that we live in such a cruel world, let me remind you not all are that bad. think about it, being poker-faced lets you to grow into a more independent person, thriving under your failures and setbacks and critics. with that being said, i also still feel that everyone should be allowed to show their true feelings. so to all the judgmental people out there, you better stick to the poker face or you will be tasting your own insults the moment you show your true feelings. you condemn them so keep them inside.

non-stop X-men

will be a quick and short update. from the title yeah you can guess it. have recently watched two movies.. namely "Xmen: Days Of Future Past" and "Non-stop".

well the first one i mentioned was pretty decent. the beginning of the film was rather dry and boring.. probably due to the narration and what not. plus, they did not really say how Professor X is alive after being killed in the previous film by Jean. besides that, the plus points of the film were good action and build up and climax. acting by half non-usual casts was great nonetheless. recommended film.

the second one was awesome for anyone who loves thriller and suspense. Liam Neeson is great in his role as always. from the start to the end, this show is good in terms of character development and build up. suspense is kept to near the end as well. another recommended film.

king of Europe

well, what can i say? for this Arsenal and Real Madrid fan here, i would say May is a pretty good month for me. earlier this morning, Real Madrid was crowned the champion in the UEFA Champions League final against Atletico Madrid after a 4-1 win.

again, the 90 minutes weren't enough to settle for a winner. and again, the team i was supporting had to play catch-up, being a goal behind first. the entire first 90 minutes was pure agony. Real Madrid was down 1-0 until the very end in the 92nd minute of injury time. Ramos to the rescue. towards the second half of the extra time, Atletico Madrid sort of crumbled after Bale scored to make it 2-1. that's why the end result was a pretty big gap. ohh well, the unsung hero of the winners would be Di Maria. though without scoring a goal, he was man of the match.

Arsenal champ of FA Cup.
Real Madrid champ of UEFA Champions League.

..just amazing for me this season.

next good weekend

last weekend was awesome. the main reason being was the FA Cup final match was totally thrilling and the bonus was Arsenal won the cup. the celebration and aftermath were amazing.

another weekend, another good one as well. tonight will be the Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. cool season with the teams i supported both in the final of two different competitions. let's see if both can get a trophy. anyway, this weekend will also be great since i'll e catching the new X-Men movie with fatbro too. will update you all about it then.

cheers.

smartest excuse

be it asking the person out for a meal, for an important meeting, for a simple favor, for a simple task or what not, some of them love to give excuses to avoid being summoned. through the years, we have come across countless excuses made by them. however, i'm not condemning those who made excuses since some are really legit. i'm here to tell you what i think the smartest excuse is.

"i'm busy"

there, that's the smartest excuse of all time no matter the situation and the person giving the excuse. telling the people around you that you are busy is the smartest excuse one can give, rounding up a shield or wall around them for a moment.

saying you are busy applies to anything. being asked on a date, you can say so and the initiator would probably back down and stop asking. being asked to turn up for an important meeting, you can say so and thus hinting the rest you might have something more important to handle than the meeting. being asked for a favor or task, you can say so to indicate that your hands are probably full and cannot do anymore stuff at the moment.

saying you are busy creates the ambiguity that few would question. when you say you are busy, you don't always provide the specific details. this creates the certain cloud of imagination for the listener to guess and figure hat exactly you are busy with. however, more often than not, the latter tend to pass it off and the supposedly busy person escapes no matter he/she is lying about being busy or not.

saying you are busy too often might result to trust issues, this might only apply to some. saying so too often without giving details might send the message of not being open or too frank with the other party.. resulting to a possible strain between their relationship.

so i guess giving that excuse can be smart and can be back-fired too. personally, i would say giving general details would be better than just saying "i'm busy". to me, such thing is a courtesy since the person took the liberty to seek you, which means he/she trusts you and your ability or treasure you. food for thought.

monsters

"and all these cries for help you'll never see, you'll never check"

48 hours of fun

this post might have come a day too late or slightly more but i just have to wait for those nicer and more meaningful pictures to be on the net before i share them with you here. this post isn't for non-football fans nor haters of Arsenals.

so yeah, Arsenal won the FA Cup over the weekend on Saturday and the celebratory parade came right after on Sunday. managed to watched the full show online. man the fans over there are really awesome. some were from other parts of the world like Thailand and Sydney. haha if i have enough money and time on day, i would really visit Emirates Stadium.

anyway, it was great to witness the first ever title of a competition ever since i started supporting Arsenal. here are some great moments of the parade..

nine to zero

at 3am in the morning, we my heart racing, this scene nearly brought be to tears of great joy..

after the long wait of 9 years without a trophy, Arsenal finally brought home the FA Cup after beating Hull City 3-2. 90 minutes weren't enough to find a winner but the 30 minutes that follow brought about the winning goal from Aaron Ramsey.

if you don't love a club and never watch them playing a final you will never understand how i felt. going down by two goals within the first 10 minutes of the game was a really shitty feeling. nonetheless, being the loyal and faithful fan of Arsenal, i hoped and watched on, sitting at the edge of my seat. dear Santi scored the first goal for Arsenal near the end of the first half with a wonderful freekick. thereafter, i knew it was game on. true enough, it was 2-2 when the 90 minutes were almost up. now my heart was racing even faster than ever. the third goal came and the heavy rock in my heart was dropped. the happiness wasn't great until they lifted the cup alongside with the roaring cheers of my fellow Arsenal fans. man, what a moment. so damn happy.

for those who know Wenger you know the level of commitment and passion for the last few years. i respect those fans, like me, who really stood by the club despite the countless setbacks over the years, especially the lost in the League Cup final years ago. savor the moment, my friends.

hundred points

recently, i have somehow recalled something i used to discuss with my friends way back when we were busy revising for O levels. okay, how ironic.. maybe not "busy" but yeah during our free time, we were talking about something really random. i am sure we are all familiar with people complaining about something they aren't satisfied with themselves no matter who they already are.

you hear pretty girls complaining they are too fat. you hear handsome dudes complaining they are stupid as they always fail no matter how much they study. you hear people who already have good traits or characteristics complaining about something less desirable and probably less significant in some cases.

now here is where we, at that time, concluded something. while things seemed to be unfair with some being being better looking or smarter or what not than others, the world is actually fair. you gain some, you lose some. to explain exactly what i meant by that, i will use the theory of hundred points. for those who played MapleSEA when it first came out this theory is similar to those points distribution of your character.

so, for starters, i would say that each aspect of you have hundred points. theses hundred points are then divided among the various parts of it. 

for example, you have hundred points for intelligence. if you are really good at Math, your Math portion of intelligence would have the most points. then the remaining points of the hundred will be divided among other topics like English, Science and so on. another example would be your external appearance. if your eyes are really attractive but not your cheeks then yeah there are more points for you eyes than cheeks. the point is all add up to a hundred.

people just vary in the distribution of points and sadly we cannot really choose. more or less, we are born this way. nonetheless, my main purpose is to show that the world can be somewhat fair if you consider this random theory my friends and i came up with many years ago. at the end of the day, it bowls down to how you make full use of your different skills and talents and characteristics. so, do not ever feel bad about yourself.

admin woes

yeah this is an update on my life.

almost a week ago, a huge brown envelop found its way into my letter box. it was from my future college, NUS. the main contents were telling you the important admin-related stuff to take note. from hostel application to camps to open days, to information of facilities to payment of fees. there are countless day/dates and websites to take note of. spent half a day reading through them all and highlighting the websites that i need to re-visit someday.

well, i'm pretty please with the way NUS compiled such information into clearly-labelled categories and even at the end of the Freshmen Guide, they have tables to make all important information look simpler. on top of that, i'm really thankful to those friends i have bothered trying to clarify things but just for the record, i am really really grateful for you patience and help. i really do.

so anyway, today was the start of the first of many admin woes. hall application. i hope i can get it done by tomorrow and then hope i get the hall i want with my friend as my roommate. after that, it would be one worry off my chest. many more ahead in the next three months prior to freshman year.

Brazil

it is the second week of May right now.. which means in about a month's time for a rough 30 days, eyes from all corners of the globe will be on one country. all will be on Brazil as they host the FIFA World Cup 2014. starting from 12th June and to the final on 13th July. football fans or not, many will be watching this great event that takes place once every four years.

obviously, i am really really excited for it and i'm sure this isn't the first post that i used talking about the event. nonetheless, i will still be supporting Spain no matter what. been their supporter since i started loving football.. even before Spain won the Euro against Germany in 2008 and the World Cup in 2010. so anyway, here is the official song for this year's event. enjoy.

shatter me

somehow piano and guitar skills are more commonly watched on YouTube. well, there are some instruments that few people actually watch and i guess one of them will be violin. if that is you, this would be a good introduction.

this violinist was from a competition years ago.. if i'm not wrong was "America Got Talent". thereafter she continued doing what she loves on YouTube. i was glad to come across her on YouTube through one of other YouTube artistes months ago.

anyway, she is Lindsey Stirling. you probably heard of the name before because she is getting more and more famous, collaborating with couple of famous singers. about a week ago, her new album was released and it is definitely better than the previous one. 

that is the album cover and the next one is the piece that i find the best in this album.

lost in the echo

number of likes on your Facebook posts. number of re-tweets of your tweet. number of favorites marked on your tweet. countless shares of your Facebook posts. dozens of likes on your Instagram pictures. the number of re-blogs of your posts on Tumblr.

those are just the few examples modern society define popular people. yes, mostly just by the internet statistics and what not. let's pause for a moment to think about all the posts, pictures, tweets you have composed over the last few years. i am guilty of those as well. however, if you really stop to think about it all, they were and are and will be just a mere cry for attention to our lives.

be it is a happy or sad moment, you share to gain sympathy or likes or whatsoever. however, stop and think how many of those who like your posts will actually be by your side in real life to lend a listening year or a shoulder. many a time, online posts are just a mere cry of attention. yes, we all need attention and i would not dare to say it is wrong. the point i would like to say that more often than not, they will end up lost in the echo of the void empty space known as the internet. 

harsh but like i said, what really counts in the end will be those who will literally text you or call you or be with you to comfort you when you are down and to celebrate together when you achieve something awesome.

so on the other end of the line where you see people posting and flooding your timeline, please take time to actually reach out to the person some time. it will for sure mean a lot to the person. trust me, for i've been on both sides of the line and i'm sure i'm not the only one.

unseen

i am a day late from Labour's Day. wanted to post this yesterday right after saw it but got carried away with other stuffs and ended up totally forgetting about it until a couple of minutes ago.

so anyway, to my Singaporean friends, have you ever wondered those people who actually get things done that actually have a huge impact on your lives and yet you seldom really see so? here is one video to those unsung heroes by Ryan Sylvia. really good work and i'm thankful for them.