5 cents worth of thoughts

for the good old kukubird friend of mine, hope that you are not that kuku that you don't even know i'm writing about you, but just wanna share this line that i yet to say that night.

its ok to have some scars in our lives, as they not only remind us about our failures, but more importantly, it marks our growth as we climb back from the fall.

to be frank, you are one of the smartest that i had known & you always know what you want, so you don't need advises, but if you need ears, at least i've got 2.

world cup 2010 - round of 16

sadly, some prediction of mine didn't come true for the group stages. especially so for the african teams like cameroon & ivory coast. nonetheless, as usual, i'll start betting right after the group stages, and here it goes:

Uruguay vs South Korea - Uruguay wins, i still deeeply believes in forlan. ($100)

United States vs Ghana - United States wins, i like donovan's performance. ($50)

Netherlands vs Slovakia - i'll buy -1.5 for Netherlands, robben is my favorite winger for the world cup. ($50)

Brazil vs Chile - i'll never bet on Brazil's game.

Germany vs England - Draw, England wins at ET/penalty shoot out. ($100)

Argentina vs Mexico - i bought Argentina to win the cup, how can i anticipate that they will be out so fast, but the odds are way to low for placing of bets.

Paraguay vs Japan - Japan, for asia's pride, honda literally got the best engine, but i wun bet this game, guess that it will be a draw game at full-time.

Spain vs Portugal - i'll take Portugal, still waiting for the odds to be out.

so exciting!

world cup 2010 - group stage

started writing this post before the 1st match kicked off, but could only finish it now... anw, here's my take to who's gonna go through the group stage.

just some rules that i based my predictions on:

1. countries with players well playing in european leagues will have a greater chance of holding the gold plated cup.
2. at least 2 african team will get through the group stage due to climate advantage.
3. a team with good finisher will be my choice compared to a generally strong team. this is world cup, not a league, the winning team will at most play only 7 games.
   

Group A

Uruguay - sadly for South Africa who play host for the world cup, i dun really think the host will get through even with home ground advantage. south africa shall concentrate to play good host instead of football in a week to come. uruguay, striking from diego forlan seems like a better take, probably bringing his team to the next stage with just 1 win and 2 draws.

France - without zidane or henry, if nothing really goes wrong, France should be able to go through the stage if complaceny doesn't comes to play. with strong and experienced backliners, evra, gallas and rodriguez, pushing the midfield with ribery and marquez, striking with govou, anelka and on-formed malouda, how could france miss its seat in the later stage?

Group B
South Korea - personal bias of south korea over nigeria, who strikes with martins and old time kanu, but i prefer to watch the world cup with the koreans airing the stadium with their chants, 'dae han min go! （大韩民国）'. its really nice to watch how the asian boy of manchester, park ji-sung give his all to his nation, despite the nuclear threats coming from the north, and not forgeting the last-last world cup hero, ahn jung-hwan!

Argentina - yep, rubbish manager you will say, maradona for such a world class squad, spoiling the good soup with long expired pepper. with strong line-ups from heinze, samuel, burdisso, veron, rodriguez, masherano, milto, tevez and messi, doubt anyone will question them in qualifying for the next stage. in fact, this is my pick for the winner of this world cup. seasoned defenders, all-rounded midfields, strong striking ability, with capable finishers. betted $50 on them for 1:6.5 at pools.

Group C
England - probably the most watched team in the world cup, where every player's ability is known through the many seasons of EPL that we had watched. somehow, they always seems strong, but never capable of holding the cup. to me, they are a confirm seater in the top 8, but never gonna make it to the next round. many placed their faith in rooney, but i never see him as a top class finisher, would prefer to have darren bent instead, but sadly, his not in the squad list.

USA - i'll definitely prefer the old squad led by pele than the current manager, bradley, but somehow the americans seems to play better football since beckham joined their league. with donovan and dempsey, with howard between the post, they should be able to get through.

Group D
Germany - without the old names like kahn and ballack, i'm still confident on the germans making their way to the top 8, just like england. holding the box with friedrich and lahm (my fav. pick in FM), schweinsteiger who winged through manchester united in champions league, and klose bringing goals from headers, group stages should be a ease.

Group E
Netherlands - somehow, i have a hunch for this team to land a place in the semi-finals. led by bert van marwijk, who just led feyenoord to win the dutch cup in 2007-2008, he got a strong line-up in his disposal. big names like bronckhorst, van bommel, van der vaart, sneijder, de jong to hold the midfield line, but what awaits us is with the strong forwards like kuyt, robin van persie and robben. a definite hot pick for this world cup.

Cameroon - the african team that i'll place my faith on. biased as eto'o is one of my favourite finisher, someone who scores just as long he gets a good pass. with bassong and m'bia taking the midfield, getting a few nice passes to eto'o should not be much of a problem. probably with the climate, they should be able to edge out japan and denmark in the group stages.

Group F
Italy - the old man team others may say, but seasoned i'll say. experienced in playing football at world class level, with most players played world cup once, having good understanding the skills and tempo of every other teams, such knowledge will are key advantages for such a seasoned team. big players like buffon, cannavaro, zambrotta, pepe, de rossi, gattuso, pirlo, gilardino and laquinta will be capable to bring the squad to breeze pass the group stage.

Slovakia - my pick instead of paraguay, with both strikers valdez and barrios from dortmund, and back up of santa cruz (only 4 goals for the whole season at man. city), i don't think they will deliver much goals to the back of the net. slovakia in the other hand seems to have more to offer with a young squad. father-and son tag-team for vladimir weiss, where father manage the squad, and son leading on the pitch, probably some sparks could come out from this young team.

Group G
Brazil - the king of football, think there's nothing much need to be said about the classic champions of football. doing it in salsa style that we had all seen through nike commercial advertisements, doubt they fail to impress the crowds this time round. many questioned dunga's management ability, but have we ever see the brazilians win the games with any known tactics? old time partnership of lucio and juan in the box, silva and kaka running into opponent's box, top class finishing from fabiano and robinho who each claimed 21 and 16 league goals, who gives a damn that names such as roberto carlos, ronaldo, ronaldino and adriano are no longer part of the squad.

Ivory Coast - i will much prefer to put the stake on another african team other than the well-liked portugal. with home ground advantage and strong physique, i believe toure, kalou and the man-of-steel drogba will lead the team to the next stage even they had landed in a bad draw to begin with. portugal seems strong with carvalho, ferreira, deco, mendes and ronaldo, but they just don't seems to have a winning factor.

Group H
Switzerland - not only for the well favorite spain, switzerland too is gonna have an easy time through the group stages, where chile and hondurus seems too weak to have any form of threat in offense. with barnetta sitting right in the middle of the pitch playmaking the game, and inler getting the possesions through infamous hard tackling, the only problem left will be getting the old forwards, aged well above 30, like frei and yakin to bring the goals.

Spain - hot favorite for the world cup. yep, combining the top clubs in the europe football scene, where star players of world class teams of barcelona, real madrid and valencia are put together to form the dream squad, and not to forget, the star striker, torres, from liverpool. somehow, favorites always seems to be cursed in world cup, like france in 2006 and italy in 2002, to never to perform well. despite the strong team with casillas, pique, puyol, ramos, xavi, alonso, iniesta, fabregas, top-scoring of spain, villa, and highly profiled torres, top 4, maybe, but not the champion for me.

just my 5 cents worth of thought. let's see how accurate i am!

another cycling trip at desaru 27th - 29th may

yet another trip to desaru on the bike, and this time round, with some real old friends from NYOAC! its real hard for a group of friends to meet up and go for trips once we all start working. really enjoyed myself spending the time with them.

i just like the 'slow' way of living in m'sia, which many of them don't seem to understand at the start. haha, i called it 'rubber-time', things are just so slow up north that these impatient singaporeans simply can't take it!

food at 四湾岛 never fails to make me fat! haha, everything there is all about food! hehez, gulping down my favorite 肉骨茶!

running buddy and me! miss those nights running up and down the slopes of NTU with stoopid ling.

out of so many times i'm at desaru, this was my first sunrise shot, ya, i could never get up for such lomantico moments... got dragged out of bed by these 2 terrors...

and yep, this was also the first night shot with mr. lobster of 四湾岛.

hehez, pre-trip brief was done over ling's birthday dinner! phin's steakhouse was seriously way better than that of hog's breathe at CHIJMES!

for the employed-to-be

happened to browse through the internet and saw this article, since most of us are graduating, and will all be working heavily on emails, shall post it up!

as quoted, 10 Rules of E-Mail Etiquette...

1. Do not use E-mail for sensitive subjects or topics that may be especially susceptible to misinterpretation.

2. Do not use E-mail if you are having a difference of opinion with the other person. It is very easy to come across as curt or uncaring in an E-mail message. Schedule a meeting with the person or pick up the phone.

3. Scrutinize the tone of your E-mails. Recognize that the receiver cannot hear your tone of voice and may not spot irony or humor.

4. Don't put anything in an E-mail that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of the newspaper or while sitting on the witness stand.

5. Be wary of forwarding E-mails unless you are certain that the sender would not mind if the message were forwarded. I've received forwarded E-mails that contained some rather personal comments in addition to the business content. I doubt if the author of the original message wanted me to know about her family situation.

6. If you want an E-mail to be regarded as urgent, then label it as such. Regard non-urgent messages the same way you'd regard regular mail and don't expect a reply within hours.

7. Beware of using text messaging abbreviations with people who might find it to be unprofessional, confusing or abrupt. I recently received an E-mail from a customer service department that was written in "textese." I thought it was funny but not everyone would have that reaction.

8. Unless the person is on the other side of the world, the fewer messages, the better. If you need to communicate so much with someone who is just down the hall, go see the person.

9. Beware of rushed messages. Those are the ones you are most likely to regret.

10. Forgive notes that seem unpleasant or out of character. We all have days in which we need people to cut us some slack. Unless it is extreme, don't let one note ruin a relationship.

all the best at work!