Sunday, September 6, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
We are all witnesses again
Ahhh, i just can’t resist. I’ve been busy with shitloads of work but i just can’t ignore the NBA Playoffs (the most awesome time of the year!). This time i’m not gonna be silly at try and predict outcomes; primarily because i am biased towards the team(s) i am supporting, plus i’ll be swayed by statistics and season record. I’m just saying i don’t watch enough games to judge some of the teams in the playoffs right. Instead I’m gonna review the team im rooting for to win it all this year, none other than the Cleveland Cavaliers, home of the King himself! Plus some additional random notes and thoughts from the games i’ve been watching this year.
THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
They been getting better each year and this year is no exception (some might argue last year was an exception, but they dragged the Celtics to Game 7). Best record in the league, best point differential per game, best defensive team and Lebron James. If there’s any team that has the potential to win it all, its the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their offense is still a pain to watch without Lebron and Mo on the floor though buts its their best offensive year so far with more shooters and ball movement.
Starting Lineup
At center, BIG Z: Somehow the teams i support end up having a flabby European as their bigs (Sabonis at Portland and Divac at Kings) but Big Z is up there as one of the best in terms of raw offensive power. He’s the best shooting center around no doubt about it and he’s shooting threes this year too! I’m annoyed by his speed (or lack of) but i guess he makes up for it with his extremely long reach for put backs as well as blocks
At power forward, Anderson Varejao: The energizer bunny, as they call him. I would choose him over Big Ben right now. He has improved his midrange jumpshot, and his non-stop movement allows Lebron to find him on cuts and he’s a decent finisher too. Oh, and did i mention that he rebounds and hustles too?
At small forward, Lebron James: Needs no introduction. The best player on the court when he’s not taking jumpshots.
At shooting guard, Delonte West: I had my doubts at first, but he’s turning out to be a very good pickup. Reminds me a lot of Doug Christie (because of the tattoos?). Works hard for every basket, always keeps his head up and can make shots. He’s horrible at the point though.
At point guard, Mo Williams: Again, had my doubts but only because i haven’t really watched him play. I mean, who the hell watches the Milwaukee Bucks? Anyways, he’s a decent point guard with crazy offensive skills. Finally someone who can create his own shot other than Lebron (cough Larry Hughes cough)
Notable bench players
Boobie Gibson: Im starting to develop a little hate for him cause i feel that he’s getting a bit arrogant for being the sidekick to Lebron at one point of time. However, he’s still one of the best players at making the open threes
Wally Schzerbiak: I might have spelled that wrong. Very disappointing pickup. A huge liability defensively. At least he’s a hard worker and can make threes but usually put in only for short spurts and opposing team usually attacks him. Ill take him over Donyell Marshall any day.
Joe Smith: This guy is good. I haven’t seen him much before this but a great role player. Good offensive skills and makes clever cuts to the basket (and you know you’re gonna get the ball with Lebron on the floor). Decent rebounding skills too.
Ben Wallace: Still disappointing compared to his Piston days but valuable coming off the bench to provide rebounding and (some) defense.
Others: Players like J.J. Hickson who are decent players all around and are usually used to make up numbers while the starters are resting. Hard workers who know their roles and do not cause turnovers. Except Sasha, he sucks rat ass since the time he gloated about his contract.
RANDOM NOTES
- I can’t believe the Suns are not in the playoffs, i thought they won a decent ammount of games to qualify. The West sure is tough. With aging Shaq, Hill and Nash i wonder what will be their next step.
- Brandon Roy is awesome. He still doesnt have the superstar status or looks (and will probably never have them), but can perform and make the same shots as the rest of them.
- Derrick Rose is the Rookie of the Year.
- But Courtney Lee deserves the runner-up post. I’ve watched him during the regular season and thought he was really really good. And now he’s lighting it up in the playoffs as well. A great offensive player who can drive and finish and make jumpshots from anywhere on the court. Doesn’t put up bad shots for a rookie.
- Chris Anderson is a huge surprise. I still hate his guts, but i’m happy he bounced back from his shameful performance few years ago.
- Dwight Howard has a very unnatural offense. The only reason they are going in is because he is athletic enough. Plus i dont think he deserves Defensive Player of the Year because once again it relies on his jumping ability. Not so much of timing as Mutombo used to do it, or Bruce Bowen’s footwork. He just freaking jumps for those blocks and rebounds.
- I really want to know what’s happening with the Hornets. I really thought that they would be top 3 in the West or the NBA. Plus, CP3 is still having an awesome season.
- T-Mac should just jump of the highest building he can find. It’ll be a kick in the nuts if the Rockets make it past the first round
- Atlanta Hawks are a good team if they can keep Josh Smith from attempting those effing threes. Why the hell is he putting up those when he can fly to the basket?
- I feel that Lakers are the better team, but im rooting for Cavs to pull an upset. Kobe is still better than James, in my opinion. I have yet to see Kobe take a bad shot (or he makes them all look good)
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Iphone 3g Review
It was exciting to touch down again in Melbourne. There was lots of things to look forward to. Firstly i get to see my dearest deedoo again. Secondly was my new gadgets i was looking forward to get ie. my iphone and computer. And then theres the fact that i finally got to stay at the place where i initially planned to live since coming to Melbourne (ie. Kafaii’s place, even though im not practically living there LOL) It’s great to have friends as neighbours, especially when your friend’s sister screams like mad while playing Rayman on Wii =)
But Murphy’s Law has taught us that you can never run out of things that can go wrong, and that’s what happened on day one. My most important possession, my brand new computer, went KAPUT on the first shut down. It just wouldnt turn back on after that. So i had to travel back to the freaking same place to return the system that i just picked up a couple of hours ago. My heart was shattered.
Thankfully my other gadget that i was planning to pick up, the JESUS PHONE, was more awesome than the awesomeness that i was expecting from it (and hyped by cheemeng). Which brings me to my review, because the lack of computer allowed me to spend ample ammount of time with it and discover the pros and cons of this supercool phone.
First and foremost, the phone looks good. If there’s anything to complain its that it only comes in one design and two colours and therefore you are bound to see someone else’s iphone which looks awfully similar (and not to mention ipod touches too). In terms of build quality it is as good as any apple product, very solid. But when i am holding the phone i can’t help but feel like im carrying a portable hard disk (like those ppl use with laptops) and therefore it feels insecure and i know that if i drop it on its back it will just kill the phone. Which is why i bought the CapsuleRebel case although its design is quite debatable, but offers good protection and a better grip.
I’ll get some of the cons out of the way first. If you haven’t heard, there are a few things that are simple and even the most basic phones can do, that the iphone cant. One that i’ve noticed is the ability to paste someone’s phone number from your contacts into an SMS. It’s a feature in every phone i had so far that its taken for granted. Even thought its rarely used, it feels like a step back to write a number down and then insert it again to pass a phone no. to someone. And you can’t receive business cards too. The touch keyboard can get annoying too. Despite what my other iphone mate says (ahem u know who u are), I still type faster on a normal phone. Even though the iphone has a intuitive correction system, it only allows to select one word (the most commonly used) and its even harder to type a word thats not in the dictionary system. I dont see why they couldnt just included an option to use the number pads like a normal phone to type an SMS.
But of course, while the iphone can’t do a few things, it does so much more than any other phone. Every application on the iphone is so well built and works like a charm. Everything you can think off that you need in a calendar, your alarm clock, and notepad, IT HAS IT. You can close and open programs in a snap, which makes you wonder why it take seconds or minutes to open a simple program on a Quad Core Pentium processor on a chunky CPU. But what the iphone works best is as an internet phone. Facebook, ebay, youtube all within a touch away. Internet is a tad slower on the phone, but it’s bearable. The included browser, Safari works exactly like a desktop version, as long as it doesn’t involve flash. And the phone is just PERFECT for feeds, which is a very huge plus for me. I used the iphone to tend to my computing needs for the week my comp was gone and i really didn’t feel like i missed much.
Why would you get an iphone if not for its multimedia capabilities? Before buying one, you should also know that the iphone actually does not sound as good an iphone. I’m not that much of a sound person, but ive gone through enough mp3 players and music phones that i can really tell the difference. Its unfortunate, but most normal users won’t realise though so its not really that much of a problem. The video, on the other hand, its excellent. I would have called it perfect if it wasn’t for the fact that i need to convert any video to mp4 before uploading it. But really, this was one of the selling points for me. I mostly watch South park on tram rides now rather than listening to the same ol music of the mp3s ive been keeping since secondary school.
Oh, it plays games too. I don’t use it much, only once during my lecture. A good distraction, but its not gonna take away anyone’s PSP or DS (pokemon FTW!)
I haven’t even started talking about the apps that you can get for free off the net even without jailbreaking. But that depends on the individual so i won’t go into that. It has a meh camera of 2.0 MP and no video call, but that’s not why you get an iphone. Basically if you know what you’re getting with the iphone, you will love it. It just does everything so well that you wouldn’t go back to any other phone. I rate it a supercool 9.5/10. Best money spent so far in Melbourne =)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Twitting
I wonder when twitter will catch up at this side of the world. It’s a really simple concept where you just put in a sentence of whatever you’re doing or whatever you’re thinking about and it will update everyone in your social network. Think changing status in facebook, just that since the feeds in facebook tells you all kinds of crap stuff (i poked you wee!) it’s a different experience altogether. Everyone hour, or even half of that depending on how active your friends are, there’s always something new and interesting to read and waste your time on.
Think of it as a mini blog, and sometimes you don’t feel like writing paragraph like say TODAY! So here’s the twit of the day:
It’s funny how you laugh at ppl’s lameness when they are your friends, but feel like slapping yourself silly and poke a pencil in your ears when you evesdrop on other ppl’s lameness no matter how geeky or happening they are.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas To You Too!!!
Merry Christmas everybody!!! In case you’re wondering, that’s my Xmas pressie that i requested from DeeDoo haha me love it! It’s gonna be my wallpaper for this whole festive week =D
I had a smashing time last night, from catching up with old friends to making a fool of myself in Cranium to jamming in Guitar Hero (i found my rock voice…..and its squeeky). I don’t celebrate Xmas officially, but it’s a great excuse to bring people together and that’s good enough for me. I also finally got a Moleskin notebook for Jos (secret santa with the help of Nick) which I thought was a fantastic gift for myself given the price range.
Overall i thought that the secret santa thing was a success as everyone got what they wanted and we had a great time. I’m with nick about having this as an annual thing, but with an increased budget!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Hitchin’ A Ride
One day when i was on my way to Tropicana Mall site, this grasshopper leaped out of nowhere and crashed on to the windscreen and held on to my wiper for a ride. Despite my skillful reckless driving, this little bugger held on as if he was enjoying the thrill. And amazingly after my 2 hr long meeting, it was still clinging on at the same spot, and hitched a ride back home as well.
I’m pretty dodgy at metaphors, but the scene pretty much summed up my year ; it has been a roller coaster ride. I’ve definitely had my ups and downs this year, the ups being that i’ve learned so much, and the people in the team definitely helped make the experience so much more pleasant and enjoyable. But sometimes i feel so helpless at my desk, trying my best to look busy where in actual fact i don’t really have anything to do.
Looking back at when i first started my first task was do a 3d design using a program that wasn’t meant to do 3d. And it took me around 2 months to find out about this. And here i was feeling so stupid that i couldnt cook up a design quick enough to provide that extra hand. Then i was asked to do a month of site defects inspections at Suasana Sentral, which was basically a kuli job that could be given to any Tom, Dick and Harry. I tried to convince myself that i am actually learning something from it all, but i honestly think it was quite minimal. However i am quite grateful that these sessions helped me bond with the people who turned out to be my good friends now in the office. In between these inspections i was told to do some minor design works, for projects that never happened.
Now, after 10 months, I am proudly one of the few people who have mastered the 3d program used in my office. I have been counted on to create 3d models for actual projects and i have been asked to the teach my skills to both my juniors and peers alike. At last i am starting to feel that i am contributing something to the team, which is my primary goal during my short stay. My experience during the site inspections also allowed me to be given the opportunity to chair defects meetings, which was a scary experience at first (when everyone in the room is at least ten years older) but i discovered a lot about the industry. Recently, I also have been working very closely with an architect on a design proposal in Nusajaya which really helped me learn the process of design in real life and how certain decisions are made and why. And to add icing to the cake, our design proposal was accepted and we got the job!
So for the record let me express my greatest gratitude to these people: TJ, Jessie, Wei Liang, Francis, Lai, Ying Ying, Steven, Dona, Wai Ying, Chee Foong, Kent, Ahana, Alvin, Lau, Siang Run, Ling Sin, Ayu, Nurha, Nora, Kak Suzi, & Kak Yati. One day i would like to look back at this post to remember all your names and faces as the people who have had a hand in creating the architect in me.
TJ TEAM 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
What we do during our free time
Me and deedoo pictochatting. She is extremely talented. See if you can guess which is mine : )
Monday, November 3, 2008
Chee Weng's Theory of Composite Examination Studying Dynamics
So, I have a midterm tomorrow for Archaeology. There are maybe 150 terms to go over. It's at times like these that I refer back to Chee Weng's Theory of Composite Examination Studying Dynamics.
It's a great technique. It greatly reduces your workload while ensuring that you have sufficient preparation for the exam.
It can be essentially summarized into 4 words:- "Won't come out la".
Lol.
I fully recommend it.
Quoted from the wise and great Nicholas Khaw. I should get a Nobel Prize for this, it worked for me so far.
Friday, October 31, 2008
You should never be purely retarded
Just came back from watching tropic thunder with my colleagues, and i must say i am truly disappointed. It was a cross of 21 and Austin Powers 3, dodgy comparisons but let me explain. They had a perfect premise for LOL and if you didn’t already know, its about three actors (played by three actors) shooting a war film and was accidentally put into a real war scenario. Things started of real fun, and how wouldnt it be with these 3 awesome comedy actors put together? But when the freshness of the premise starts wearing out…it just became mediocre. They couldn’t maintain the momentum throughout the whole 120 minutes (aka 21) and it was disappointing because the first half an hour or so generated a generous ammount of giggles.
Another thing that was completely unnecessary was the huge ammount of cameos. I never knew what was the deal with cameos as they rarely add anything to the movie. I can only recall very few instances where they were pretty good most. On the top of my head i would say recently is Jonah Hill in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the babes (Elisha Cuthbert, Elizabeth Shannon etc.) in Love Actually. In these cases the actor/actresses actually fit the role or fits into the right context. Really, i am not against cameos but this movie really looks like they concentrated too much into including them rather than improving the script etc. The first movie that pops into mind when mentioning this is obviously AUSTIN POWERS 3. (if you haven’t already guessed it)
The final note is about the lameness about the movie. There’s only so much lameness a comedy can take, and this movie crossed that line. With so many talented actors, i wouldn’t expect lameness to carry this movie but it was what they did (which contributed to the boringness at the second half on the movie). It’s ironic too that **SPOILERS…..kinda….*** in one scene Robert Downey’s character said “You should never act purely retarded in a movie, only mostly retarted” (referring the other chars such as Forrest Gump who won Oscars) because that’s what i would describe how they acted towards the end of the movie – purely retarded.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening
This picture was taken by my bro at Liverpool airport. I personally enjoy no. 4, 7 and 8.
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