ANFIELD

Hock Boon says that its any Liverpool's supporter's dream to step foot in the fortress and on this day, we managed that at last! Despite me being in UK for four years already, this is only the first time I visited Liverpool. (Then again, I don't really go anywhere... Cambridge? No.. Buckingham Palace.. err no either)



With Hock inside the stadium. That stand behind us is the Kop stand.. there's a long history behind why that is named the Kop stand (which I didnt know until the guide told us).


Inside the changing room. After visiting Man Utd and Real Madrid (where the rooms are cluttered with pleasentries to make the players happy, spa, huge shower rooms, etc, Anfield's changing room turned out to be really.. simple. We were told that it was tradition that the room's facilities be kept to the most minimum and basic, so that when the players prepare to do battle, or continue to do battle, they can focus on nothing but.. the battle.


Muhaha.. how many clubs (e.g. Mourinho's Chelski) have this beauty ? And I mean the real cup, not some duplica that some clubs (like Mourinho's Porto) make just to boost their ego. Any Liverpool fan would proudly declare that "We won it 5 times!", and 5 times after the tournament was fully extended to the entire Europe. Real Madrid winning it when there were only 8 teams taking part in it doesn't count!


Standing at the entrance of Anfield is Bill Shankly, undoubtedly the best manager of Liverpool thus far, whose many policies for his team were handed down, manager to manager till now, they have became traditions which are industriously followed by all. We were quite surprised to see that Rafa's face is already on the Anfield legends display.


And finally, Champions of Europe.. last year. =)

神鸭侠侣

Exams over! Been watching 神雕侠侣 every now and then whenever my housemates are, and Weilun discovered that a similar plot in unreeling in my very own room!

Presenting, 神鸭侠侣!


Courtesy of Edwin's bears...

Senior Farewell

After organising one, supporting one, attended one to send of the people from my batch, inevitably, I had to attend my own. And this one I attended is possibly the largest sent off in the last 4 years. Come to think of it, what the 24th did make sense - to gather the society to send off the seniors, rather than the executive committee doing the sending off on their own. After all, in acknowledging the contributions of the seniors to the society, the juniors who benefited from it would be more than willing to take time off their exam preparations to express their thanks. Singsoc has been my pet baby for the last 4 years I had been here, and I also want to express my thanks to the same people thanked yesterday - PC, Kaileng, Marvin, etc for helping out with almost everything the society called for.

Of course, kudos to the 24th for the sendoff, and the souvenir.

Everyone present at the send-off, seniors and juniors akin

I think you have been hearing these names often but have wondered who they are so:
Top L-R: Weichuen, Eewen; Bottom L-R: Enxin Kaileng, Marvin

Again, with Weichuen and Marvin

L-R: Lester, Yongcong, Marv, Zhifeng

And finally, the first decent household photo that we have. Edwin must be really tired.
L-R: Vivian, Chongwai, Sleepy, Weilun, Melvin, Me, Bingrong

FA Cup Winners

The first note of the day: What a thrilling final, what an amazing comeback, what an excellent captain. Despite sloppy showings from most of the team, probably with their minds set on the World Cup, Captain Marvel single handedly pulled Liverpool back from the brink of a FA cup upset with fantastic goals. Whooo~

Ahhh...

That's a great sigh of relief after getting over with 8 papers. The last one? I could only pray that the paper is decent and workable. Digital Signal Processing and Digital Filters - the notes are not really helpful in teaching me anything, and the past year papers differ quite a bit, so I have no idea how I am going to prepare myself sufficiently for Tuesday's paper.

Enxin :- Yah I agree, some of the opposition should get their show together if they really want to 'oppose' the PAP properly. Meanwhile, as I am typing this, I think you should be sitting for your last paper already. Enjoy yourself later!

*Ok, I just woke up not too long ago, so my thoughts are in shambles.. things will not be coherent~*

WP Gomez got let off with just a stern warning. Just take it as PAP firing another warning shot at opposition parties.

34,000 people signed a petition against Took Leng How's death sentence. You know, that veggie seller who killed Huang Na? His parents took to the streets and appealed to Singaporeans to give him a second chance and convict him instead of hanging him. Why should that be the case? Some people argued that he made a mistake and he is young, so he should be given a second chance and be convicted of voluntarily causing hurt instead of murder. After all, he's only 22 year old. But what about the 8 year old girl.. I am sure her potential remaining life would be even longer and her chance was lost. And, voluntarily causing hurt, then death, is murder.

Iranian President reiterated recently in Indonesia that Iran's research into nuclear technology is peaceful, and added that sanctions and war against Iran is not an immediate threat, but Israel will "one day vanish" and "wiped off the map". So this is how we are going to see it. Iran is not making nukes, and they will sooner or later destroy Israel - who has a huge, experienced military force, backed by the most powerful state in the world - without those nukes by throwing stones at them. The president commented that any policies to suspend Iran's rights to uranium enrichment research is not acceptable, but coincidentally, uranium enrichment research for a state that does not require it is not acceptable. My guess is that the White House will launch the air platforms soon.

The bigger issues

"Political analysts say that the bigger picture issues like the economy and jobs will sway the vote.".

I went down with Edwin and Bingrong to the High Comm yesterday to vote. Edwin received his polling card while I didn't, but since I had registered for overseas voting, I went down to try anyway. Turned out that I am not on the voting registry.

Much of the emphasis by the WP had been on mundane things such as lift upgradings, healthcare, e.t.c. This is asusming that such improvement promises are based on proven financial backing, unlike the saga at Potong Pasir. The promises made by the WP could appeal to the older Singaporeans who might see these needs important in swaying their votes, but I am sure us younger generation voters (you know, those who read economists and financial times and all that sort of magazines) have the foresight of the bigger picture, and can see past promises which have no telling contributions on the macro scale of the nation's wellbeings.

IN the election rallies, a close look separates the mindsets of the two leading parties.

From the WP: ".In this election, we give you a choice to make the PAP acocuntable to you, to look after your needs and your future. With the interests of the nation as our topmost priority, we went into our campaign with a focus on what people are most concerned with: Accountability, hope for the future, first world government... we have raised issues ranging from healthcare costs, life upgrading and cost of living. We have also taken the PAP to task for not accounting to you and reject their behaviour of political engagement in this election."

From the PAP: " ...opportunities for all who work hard to secure good jobs; top quality education for your children to give them the best possible start in lifel first-class living environment with homes that all of us can be proud of; high quality but affordable medical care, with no one deniel medical treatment because of their inability to payl and focused and targeted assistance for the poor and needy so that no one will be left behind as Singapore progresses ... and the best solution is to grow the economy. This is preicsely what we are doing. Our policies are working - first quarter GDP growth is very good, originally estimated at 9.1%, latest results indicate that it will be more than 10%. So MTI will be raising its growth forecast of 4-6% for 2006.

There is a astute contrast between how similar promises are delivered. While WP makes no claims on how their promises could be made possible, PM Lee stated clearly in his mandate that his promises would be realised only if the economy shows positive signs. And he did prove that he would fulfill his promises if the nation's macropolicies are heading our development in the right direction. (Progress package, anyone?)

need to continue studying.. shall comment more after my exams end and the election results are released. Just to end off with a cheek =P

"We fully agree that honesty and integrity are important traits for MPs ... It is unfair for George Yeo to use the analogy of a thief on James. What has James stolen from the Election department?" Answer: Honesty and Integrity?

Yawn

And here I am in the middle of the night, 4.30am, fighting to stay awake. The punishment I incurred not for leaving work to the last minute, but for choosing a wrong module. I should be kicking myself for repeating the same mistake I did last year.

Stupid Spectral Estimation and Adaptive Signal Processing

And stupid M**dic. Imagine my thck set of notes. Imagine adding in questions where appropriate. Expand your imagination to everywhere possible. Now, imagine that the infomation is no longer there, and all that remains are the questions. That's potentially my paper for tomorrow. o.0

Tanaka Language School

Last week was Optimization, Optimal Control and Finance management. I am glad that the AAR yielded positive reviews =) Should not have a problem scoring for the first two (might as well, I need to offset the result I am going to get later.) Finance Management was crap. And I heard from Eewen and CW they all that Project Management and Economics were crap as well. Something is wrong with Tanaka this year. It's as if they are trying to make themself seem more credible as a business school by setting 100% multiple choice questions with negative marking. The difficulty of the paper stems not from the concept tested, but rather by the ambiguity of the questions and play of language which littered the paper. It was suggested that you could sat for their examination with all the materials available to help you and you could still do badly.

On elections

That's the in thing to be talking about these days. Everyone's blog is filled with political discussions. It's interesting to read them when you have the luxury of time, interesting to know what your peers' views are on these issues, but not when you are awake at 5am trying to find something to wake up to =P. Oh that reminds me, gotta get back to Stupid M**dic's notes.