While doing some random surfing, I stumbled upon this video on Nick Vujicic. According to Wikipedia, he was born without limbs and only has one small foot with two toes protruding from his left thigh. I’ve attached two videos on this wonderful individual who has been used mightily by God.
Nick Vujicic
1) Be inspired!
Praise the Lord!
Dan
Admist the global recession and the credit crunch, Singapore begin their defence of the Asean Cup against Cambodia on December 5th. The 2008 version, jointly hosted by Indonesia and Thailand, promises to be an exciting affair with the Lions attempting to become the first nation in the long illustrious (since 1996) history of the tournament to win it 3 times in a row. Interestingly, based on articles that I’ve read over channelnewsasia and the straitstimes, the buildup to the tournament from a media point of view is pathetic with both organisations choosing to focus on other stupid issues like Lewis Hamilton preparing for F1 next year and Fifa’s 6 + 5 quota rule for footballers. As usual, the lack of coverage serves to undermine our local sports stars and with a fair number of us being a glory hunting bunch, the EPL and Ronaldo continue to get more headlines than what is close to home. Pathetic to say the least.
After hearing that a large number of professional soccer clubs in Europe would not be able to pay its players, I have decided to show a lil’ bit more interest in the Economic Crisis. Was flipping through the articles and I found this really interesting song that is sung to the tune of “Santa Claus is coming to town” and since Christmas is just round the corner, I thought it would be pretty appropriate and funny. According the The Star , it’s a useful, witty and humorous indicator of how low the mood is out there.
Recession is Coming to Town
You’d better watch out
You’d better not cry
You’d better keep cash
I’m telling you why:
Recession is coming to town.
It’s hitting you once,
It’s hitting you twice
It doesn’t care if you’ve been careful and wise
Recession is coming to town
It’s worthless if you’ve got shares
It’s worthless if you’ve got bonds
It’s safe when you’ve got cash in hand
So keep cash for goodness sake, HEY
You’d better watch out
You’d better not cry
You’d better keep cash
I’m telling you why:
Recession is coming to town!
Finance products are confusing
Finance products are so vague
The banks make you bear the cost of risk
So keep out for goodness sake, OH
You’d better watch out
You’d better not cry
You’d better keep cash
I’m telling you why:
Recession is coming to town
Have a blessed week ahead guys,
Daniel
Jasmine Yeong-Nathan is on top of the world after winning the 44th AMF Bowling World Cup in Mexico. The 20 year old student from the Singapore Polytechnic beat defending champion Ann-Muree Putney in straight sets becoming the first Singaporean to win the title after Remy Ong narrowly missed out in 2002. After winning titles in failing to clear trays, impoliteness, failing to give up seats on the MRT & Bus, best airport, best seaport and having the most shopping centres, having a world champion in the area of sport is a welcome change that we hope may long continue. Let’s try to orientate our radars towards sporting excellence a lil’ bit and show abit of support and maybe even a little bit of adulation to our sporting champions especially those on the world level. Having our own winners still beats watching a soccer league supporting teams you don’t know half the world away. Of course, I do know that some people will beg to differ. Have a good week people.
Dan
I’ve had quite alot of mixed reviews about my blog. Some people say that I write way too much about football, others say that the football is good and that I should keep going. Others say that I should include more pictures of my “handsum” face. I guess these are the trials and tribulations of having a massive fan base (20 something readers). While I’ve been gathering feedback from my avid and regular patrons (again a massive audience), I have decided that just like everything else that people claim you should always do when setting your stall out on a huge project, you would have to set a list of things to do. Seriously, while goals and objectives are important to reach your target in life, I think it’s a lil’ too over-rated a concept. Too much striving can lead to obssession and obssession in turns leads to a loss of perspective as well as over-anxiety to reach your goal. Sometimes, while we set goals for ourselves, we should just do our best, enjoy the ride and let God do the rest. =) I have therefore instead decided to create a list of things that people can expect to find on my blog.
1) Football (Duh)
Not the oval ball version that people play in Australia of course but the round ball version that has a world cup every 4 years. Next one is in South Africa by the way and we might see a winner from that continent for the first time. A truly global sport that encompasses 22 men (incl. me for almost 12 months a year) running around and chasing some stupid ball. You will find my reports extremely biased towards Manchester United with a complete distaste for all things Chelsea, Liverpool, Real Madrid, AC MIlan and Juventus. Obviously, don’t ask me why i don’t like them if you are a fan of any of those teams. On a lower professional level, I also support Perth Glory (Why????). I guess that’s cause I live in Perth, Western Australia and that the team has consistently been in the top 8 every year since the A-League was inaugurated. In case, you are wondering, there are only eight teams in the league anyway.
As a Singaporean, I am also an avid supporter of the Singapore National Team. My support of the team dates back to the old Malaysia Cup days where we took on the likes of Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Pahang and Johore. My Dad used to take me to games when I was a little kid and I will always have that image of 60,000 spectators cheering the team on stamping their feet and delivering the Kallang Roar imprinted in my spirit. It also helped that they were shite so we looked pretty damn good half the time. After winning the Malaysia Cup 24 times, the Malaysian FA decided that we were too good and kicked us out and we were forced to form our own league, aptly named the S-League. While the way we exited Malaysian shores has been similar to our independence, the development of the league hasn’t exactly mirrored our actual transition from third world to first. Response has been lukewarm at best but what can you expect when the big wigs are not interested in developing the game and annual salaries for entire clubs can’t even match Michael Ballack’s weekly salary? As the old saying goes…”You pay peanuts, you get monkeys”. You can expect to hear my stories of high praises for the people that run football and sports in general in this blog.
That being said, the awesome exposure that I have received in my younger days has ingrained a passion in the game and watching the Singapore team at the stadium continues to bring back a flood of memories especially those male bonding moments with my dad when I used to annoy him with the irritating questions of “What’s the score”, “Who’s playing better?”, “Isn’t that a penalty”, “How come we only have 2 chinese players?”. I’m sure he misses that now =p. The excitement and anticipation of a live game at the stadium will never leave my heart.
In case some of you don’t already know, on the playing side of things, I play my football with a modest amateur club near the lush suburbs of the city called Subiaco United. It as founded in 1984 by my friend’s dad (well at least that’s what my friend told me) and it is currently involved in the Western Australian Amateur League which comprises of 12 teams. After a successful 2008, we are now back in the Amateur Premier League, hopefully to stay. The club has a total of 3 squads and 6 teams. One in the Prem, one in the 4th division and one in the 5th division. We have about 90 players from different walks of life and cultures. The club for me has been a great place to assimilate myself in terms of interacting with people from different countries and also has been a fantastic learning ground in the playing aspects of the game learning from players that have played at higher levels before, picking up tips during games and trainings and applying the necessary discipline and commitment as you are required to attend 2 sessions a week and games on sundays. It’s been a great journey so far as I picked up a number of values that would useful in life as well.
2. Funny Incidents & Powers of Exaggeration
Sometimes we got to learn to laugh at ourselves once in a while. I notice that I do get a fair share of retarded and not-so glamourous moments and I would be most willing to share. I know my friends have heaps that they remember. If you are a friend and you would like me to blog about the stupid incident, please let me know. For now I can’t remember cause I have selective amnesia =p. Also, please note that I might choose not to post it as I please.
Some of the information on the blog can be greatly exaggerated especially in the areas of listing statistics, dissing other football teams and telling jokes. Do try to take everything with a pinch of salt because it’s all for a laugh. If you can’t, I still love you.
3. Random
Besides the regular football updates, I will be posting a lil’ for your info kind of stuff on this blog. Normally, I will be talking about stuff to do with music or concerts that I attended. I meant to post the Stevie Wonder concert but my good friend still has my videos so I obviously haven’t got to doing that yet. As an oldies fan, do expect to get youtube videos on pretty cool songs that you may have forgotten about once in a while. I also love reading and improving my general knowledge and would be avidly posting “Do you know” stuff once a while.
Most importantly: God
No words can aptly describe the role that God has played in my life. While I have my failings as a person, it is God that grants me favour, grants me the ability to write well and the opportunities that I have. Praise the Lord!
God Bless,
Daniel
Arsenal 2 Manchester United 1
I have been procrastinating writing this entry because I am absolutely gutted that Manchester United lost last Saturday to those Gooners. I must say though that it was a brilliant exhibition of football with end to end action for almost the entire 90 minutes. I disagree with the common (obviously biased!) assessment that Arsenal deserve to win. United had simply spurned way too many chances with the worst miss of the night going to Wayne Rooney. How on earth he managed to not hit the target from 10 yards after Cristiano Ronaldo’s beautiful cut back is indeed a mystery. I guess it’s always easier to say it when you are watching and not playing (as always). It must be said though that the Gunners took their chances where both of Nasri’s finishes were of the highest quality. The second goal just took the wind out of United’s sail as it came at the beginning of the second half and with Ronaldo coming agonisingly close seconds after from a brilliant ball from Park Ji-Sung (Mind you, he is a quality player and not there to sell shirts for the continent of Asia), you knew that it just wasn’t going to be United’s day.
Blackburn 0 Chelsea 2
I don’t understand why the lesser teams keep rolling over against Chelsea, they might as well just not turn up for the game and let them win. This is one of the better efforts though but seriously, what’s the point? Oh and half their goals are deflected anyway. Yes yes… i know what you are gonna say, “A goal’s a goal right?”
Barcelona 6 Vallawhatever (okok..Valladolid) 0
Samuel Eto continues to score goals with more frequency than Dennis Rodman scoring baskets this season with a sensational performance against Valladolid where he hit 4 goals in the first half alone! He already has 16 for the season including 13 in the league and has been tearing defences in Spain apart at will. It’s hardly conceivable to believe that he almost left the club before the start of this season until Guardiola decided to retain his services. Barcelona as a team have been simply dominating teams this season winning half of their games by 3 goals or more. It’s an astonishing record so far and one that I hope that they can keep up as long as Real Madrid don’t win anything.
The week in review
Liverpool beat West Brom 3-0 to remain level on points with those useless blues from London. Robbie Keane scored so West Brom must have been terrible anyway. Tony Adams got his first win (I think) with Portsmouth beating Sunderland 2-1 at the Stadium of Light. In Italy, Julio Cruz scored a last minute goal as Inter Milan beat Udinese 1-0 at the San Siro to lead Serie A. Nice to hear that Milan, the second most annoying club in Italy after Juventus drew 1-1 with Lecce.
Elsewhere, Singapore continue to lead the world league in the areas of best airport, seaport, landport and having the most shopping centres. They however continue to remain second in the areas of impoliteness and failing to clear their trays after eating. A disappointing achievement for the people in red as finishing second is never good enough as we always must be (according to the auntie in the hawker centre in perfect english) “Lumber 1″. Australia remain second in the standings in terms of having the most obese people in the world. Hopefully, we’ll get to the top soon. We just need an avalanche of fast food restaurants and regular screenings of the movie “Supersize Me”
Have a blessed week,
Dan
Despite conceding 2 soft goals towards the end, Manchester United being the best club in the world took home all 3 points with a 4-3 win over Hull at Old Trafford. Elsewhere, Chelsea got lucky again with a measly 5-0 win over Sunderland where all of Nicholas Anelka’s 3 goals were ridiculously 5 yards offside. I guess the Russian rouble does help in other areas besides the purchasing of good players. Tottenham’s revival under ‘Arry Redknapp continues as they ended Liverpool’s (surprise surprise) unbeaten run at White Hart Lane. I’m surprised that it’s taken this long for somebody to beat them. Let’s hope it’s a stat of another downward spiral that happens to them every year..hahaha. To cap it all off, Arsenal were undone by the longest throw-in in football as two Rory Delap throw-ins led to a 2-1 win for Stoke. Despite all the promise in the side, Arsenal’s title challenge must surely be over after 11 games unless they score a morale boosting win against Manchester United in this coming weekend’s fixtures.
Great news in Spain as Barcelona beat Malaga 4-1 although it was soured by claims of racist chants against Samuel Eto’o. This problem has been going on for too long in Spain with monkey chants commonplace among the crowds. Even if it’s a minority, it’s an absolute disgrace and the federations responsible should take the necessary measures to ensure that these people never enter a stadium for the rest of their lives. Even better news as Real Madrid draw with Almeria. It won’t be too far-fetched to suggest that they must be still thinking about Cristiano Ronaldo since for the first time in their history they have failed to sign a player they covet. Hope their brilliant run continues.
Will be looking forward to the Asean Football Championships that start on December 5th. I’m really hoping that I can be back for the semi-finals on December 21st where Singapore might be playing (assuming that they win their group). Our national team has always been unpredictable so I guess it’s difficult to make plans for that. We are however, the two-time defending champion and with Raddy still at the helm, we might just nick it again. My other great hope is that Australia could play a World Cup qualifier in Perth instead of the eastern states for a change! Just wishful thinking on my part….
Cheers,
Dan
That has got to be the biggest news in world football at the time of writing. According to ESPN Soccernet, Diego Maradona, the druggie, the genius, the man who fired shots at journalists, has a church dedicated to him (that’s how ridiculous this world is these days), the talisman and most famously known for scoring THAT goal against England with his bare knuckles and attributing it to the “Hand of God” officially was unveiled as Argentina’s national coach. Being incredibly experienced in management having amassed an astonishing total of 8 months as a coach in two different teams, this guarantees to be either a spectacular failure or success. Besides the “Hand of God”, Maradona is held in almost complete reverence in Argentina having led them to the 1986 World Cup almost single handedly and for leading unfancied Napoli to two Italian league titles and the UEFA Cup. His appointment definitely generates great interest and the world will be looking forward to see if he can lead this vastly talented Argentina side to World Cup glory in 2010. Acknowledged by most as one of the best players in the world, second only to Pele, his journey starts in Glasgow against Scotland on November 19th. One thing’s for sure, he will need the Hand of God to get him the World cup.
After 6 years of trying, East Timor have actually avoided losing a game. Yes, 6 years! For those who wince about your team being rubbish etc. Spare a thought for these guys! East Timor were in fact, 10 mins away from beating Cambodia before conceding an equaliser in a 2-2 draw last week (Just imagine the celebrations). This amazing team of port workers, soldiers and part time workers do not earn a single cent for their commitments to international football. Now that’s love for the game indeed! They only boast one professional footballer in Alfredo Esteves who plays for Wollongong FC in New South Wales. There are no usable pitches in the country with little of the financial aid that has been given since gaining independence in 2002 flowing into sport. According to their talisman Esteves, all he hopes for is for a “patch of grass to play in” Things though, are starting to look better for the team that is rock bottom of the internationl football world rankings with this precious point gained against Cambodia and almost clinching a shock draw against Hong Kong a year ago. Will be following the trials and tribulations of this plucky team from here on on this site. Have a good weekend.
Cheers,
Dan
They just don’t get it do they? A couple of months after winning our first Olympic medal, Table tennis coach Liu Guodong has revealed that the salary offered to him was not the reported $8000 but just $6300. This is below the market rate within the fratenity where coaches in China are easily paid up to $9000 and some as much as $15,000. You can read this article on http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Sports/Story/A1Story20081023-95868.html.
This a major problem with sports in Singapore. Touch your heart and ask yourself..do you think that the President ot the Table Tennis Association genuinely loves the sport of table tennis? There is almost no passion in sports in this country. We have our individuals but the passion is not collective. If there is no team of passionate people, we can never cut it in the international arena. So if you are a regular sport fan who sits by the tele and wonder why we are such utter pants. Stop complaining and start supporting. Start going to games at the sport that you love. Start getting behind the country you live in. For example, stop remonstrating that the S-League is so bad and that our footballers are not committed. How do you expect people to be motivated when you are dissing them all the time? When you are giving a “bo chup” (Can’t be bothered) attitude? The reason why sports is so big in the Western Countries is because it all starts with the support and their love for their local team. It’s obvious that if we don’t stop complaining and start supporting, we are going to let these corporate bigwigs run sports from an economical point of view. There will be no understanding of the passion, the training and the commitment required simply because these guys have probably never played a sport to a higher level and don’t understand what is required.
These people are only more concerned about putting money into their pockets and safeguarding their own personal well-being. The quick-fix solution in getting ready-made foreign talent further substantiates the point. Glorifying themselves for the least amount of effort. WInning by using the quickest fix solution. A real shame to say the least. This is not a fence-sitting blog by the way. I apologise if the comments have offended people because that is not the intention. Just highlighting a few simple truths. You don’t sit on the fence and agree with everybody in life. You are either black or white never grey because none of us are born to be average. Have a good weekend.
God Bless,
Dan
An exciting night of Champions League action with the highlights being Manchester United beating Celtic 3-0, Juventus edging Real Madrid (Nobody likes them) 2-1 and Arsenal crushing Fenerbahce 5-2. According to ESPN Soccernet, the world’s most reliable source of soccer news, a total of 36 goals were scored in 8 games which is an astounding total considering that defences are so much more sophisticated these days. Berbatov scored 2 again for United both which were onside in my biased opinion although replays suggest otherwise. It still looks onside to me whichever way I see it through my red-tinted glasses. Del Piero scored a brilliant goal against Real; an emphatic curler into the keeper’s left. What makes it all the more impressive was that it was Iker Casillas in goal and he doesn’t concede many like that. I guess when you have a defence like Real’s you gotta get used to saving about 748 shots per game. Lots of practice.
Arse turned it on in Europe again against the mighty Fenerbahce. Nice to see Aaron Ramsey score the final goal. Looks very comfortable on the ball bellying (however u spell that) his tender years but then again, which young player from Arsenal isn’t..ahh right..there’s always Eboue…. Another big night in the Champions league with Liverpool and Chelsea both playing. Can’t quite remember their opponents though due to their insignificance on my radar. Will be looking forward to zero points from both teams.
For those who don’t already know, I have left Sonshine FM with effective from last Friday. I just want to thank the people over there who had made my stay a comfortable and an enjoyable one. I leave with many happy memories and would be looking for new employment. For all you know, I might become a full-time blogger since I have a distinguished radio personality to count among my readership :-p and it is my prayer that God will continue to bless the running of this station and enable it to touch the lives of many. =). I will be posting about the Stevie Wonder concert that I attended last Tuesday. It’s abit too late but I just need to get the videos that my friend took at the concert. For those who are wondering how the concert was? He’s a legend. Period. You do wonder why people will bother paying to watch Westlife after that. Have a great week pple…
God Bless,
Dan