Wednesday, August 31, 2005;

Its been more than 2 weeks since I last blogged, been really busy these couple of weeks. Had a floorball tourny last week and went to watch one of the 4 nations hockey matches on thurs.

Floorball Tourny
- It was great class bonding time. Had a great time. Played 2 matches on mon, drew 0-0 against john's team and lost 1-0 to david's team. So we were tied with john's team on points and there would be a sudden death match against them on wed. Had a nice chat with the team before the match, much more personal than mon's one. We went out there and did really well, it was still 0-0 at the final whistle and thus the match went on the flicks. We both missed our first 2 flicks so shaun moved the shooting spot nearer, and they scored and we didnt so they were through. It was a great game. We dominated, we had many shots on target, but we didnt score. Too bad... was just unlucky. This kind of tournys are really good for memories, should take part in all the tournys nx year as a class.

4 Nations
Went to watch 4 nations tourny last thur. Caught the match between South Korea and Malaysia. Nothing to say man, no doubt they're gd (Obviously better than us), but they sent a bunch of kids. The worst thing was that i read the papers the nx day which said tt they sent some high school under-18 team.. But then again, for them to be so good at only tt age, quite impressive. But i was definitely hoping for more... Caught up with ariff and ishyam while at delta, nice talking to them and ishyam taught me more malay words.

This mon's contact period was spent on some love matters stuff. Was not that bad as I expected, had a nice discussion with my grp followed by a short presentation to the class. Quite an insightful and interesting discussion about the topic Friendship and BGR. Shall post up some stuff about what my pastor said bout marriage if i can find it.

This week was really hectic man, but blame it on myself cos i left all my work to the last minute. Been sleeping really late rushing essays and project stuff... Cleared up most of my stuff, will now have thur to do LA and IS1109.

Feeling super sleepy now.. I'll update again TMR bout today's teachers day and the visit to SJI.
Happy Teachers' Day

Ciao.

7:05 PM

Tuesday, August 16, 2005;

Song has been changed to It's not a fashion statement, its a deathwish. Enjoy!

8:35 PM

Saturday, August 13, 2005;

First, of all, its nice to see so many pple tagging, considering that i don't update frequently. Haha

Thanks a lot to Jessie who helped me upload the song.

Reply to tags
Jem - No urgency bout the music, you can always hear it on ur own comp. :) IH debate rocked! An honour to be in your team. No more "its in the bag", now its "its done and dusted". Haha

David - yes hockey rawks, cant wait for 4 nations man. Can scrap training tt whole wk to go and catch the 4 nations.

Ben - thx, i'll sign on you next time. haha

Had a great time playing soccer after school today, managed to improve my header connection rate. Always nice to challenge a defender or a goalie for the headers, cause the physical element is there. Beat jeremy to a few headers as striker vs goalie, till he thrashed me in one. Haha. I have his beautiful signature near my eye now. But no hard feelings, cos that was great play. Its great for the goalie to come out and take control of his own area. We should practise this more often heh. :)

Theres this insightful article written by dr michael meegan about his experiences in Africa, qutie a long read, but really an eye opener.

"I held him in my arms and wept" by Dr. Michael Elmore-Meegan
by chella at 04:14PM (PDT) on July 22, 2005 Permanent Link Cosmos
"I have always believed it is our actions, not our thoughts that matter. Tears have never fed a child, pity has never healed a wound. Unless words become deeds, unless dreams are lived, they are mere deceptions". (Dr. Michael Meegan)
To readers: please read the following article by Michael Meegan in its entirety, with the foregoing quote in mind. We have not begun to live, until we have done whatever we can to save another human life. "Personal Prosperity" is an illusion. It does not bring peace, no matter what the self-help people tell you. If you want peace of mind, read this through ... and then do whatever you can to help. Please.
I HELD HIM IN MY ARMS AND WEPT
A year before his death, 17-year-old Atria weighs 7 stone. He has left his village. He is afraid and he is ashamed. He is embarrassed to be here. He is sweating, he fights. His hands tremble. His pulse is rapid. He tries to smile.
His problems aren’t only the rashes and the intestinal worms. These are easily cleared up. But you can’t "clear up" anger and fear, or sleepless nights and panic attacks, or how long a few minutes can seem… or the sense of powerlessness watching your own body fall away, the humiliation of disintegration.
Some infections are harder to deal with: a mouth filled with ulcers, an inflamed penis. As the disease progresses so do the nausea, the back pain, the headaches. Muscle cramps always hurt, especially when one has very little muscle. Atria has severe diarrhea and the dull aches in his stomach be-come sharp pains. Despite our best efforts he becomes anemic. His sight fades, as well as his concentration. Atria has stinging burning pain from urinary tract infections, as his urinary tract is blood red and raw. Moving his bowels has become a feared ordeal, as his anus has lost its muscular contractility and often gets infected. He has no buttocks, not really, just skin stretched over bone, sore to lie on. His joints are hypersensitive. Above all Atria finds it difficult to breathe. His dreadful wheezing-gurgling prevents sleep and he moans a lot because the pain-killers are useless.
Over the coming months Atria finds some support and friendship, some dignity and encouragement. He was a beautiful young man with stunning eyes. A proud, energetic guy, very popular and ambitious with a deadly sense of fun. Now, most of all he hates that he leaks and drips, smells bad, and often cannot control his bowel movements or urination.
He gets angry at himself. He is weak and dizzy and has constant headaches. He cannot eat easily and his ability to digest is deteriorating, as his enzymes are breaking down. The slightest knock causes a painful bruise. Atria is now 6 stone.
After another few weeks, the boy is drained; his mouth full of thrush, a thick, white fungus over his tongue and gums—and ulcers—he has difficulty swallowing. Breathing is increasingly labored. By now, pneumonia is taking over.
All movement is acutely painful and distressing. Intestinal worms are back again. Atria’s limbs are stiffening and his back is covered with ulcers that leak and bleed but do not heal, impossible to manage in a small hut.
His issues are controlling pain, managing extreme distress, reducing humiliation, creating dignity, reducing multiple infections, reducing cross-infection to others. But the worst thing is loneliness. To die of AIDS in Africa is an in-tensely humiliating ordeal, slow… obscene.
Atria is now in his last days of life. His tear ducts have dried up, his hair has fallen out; his bones are brittle. He has no muscle or fat and his heart is 70% weaker than pre-HIV. He has been eaten alive and he has no resistance. All of Atria’s senses are shutting down.
His fingernails and toenails have fallen out. His skin is blistered and scaly, and scabs cannot form. The bedsores and ulcers have spread; sources of multiple deep infections. Breathing is almost impossible and the slightest movement is slow and full of dreadful anxiety. I give him water drop by drop through a straw.
I hold his frail, stiffened hand. He is cold, he has no tears. I look into his eyes. I whisper to him, and kiss him. He slowly inhales, half closes his eyes. He breathes out, very slowly.
Atria’s face relaxes, his tormented body sags. He is gone.
I held him in my arms and wept.I cannot describe the fear and emptiness watching such disintegration. As I write this, the images that flash across my mind are not the data, the plan, the project, but the faces, the faces of those who have had no one else to love them… nowhere else to go—dumped, neglected, unwanted.
I feel so inadequate, so useless and unworthy, flawed and pathetic, so utterly overwhelmed. I want to be somewhere else. I am not able for all of this.
The horror of the holocaust revolts me. I have sights so unspeakable in my mind. What has humanity done?
Why do we allow people to die this way? What manner of beast are we?
In my aloneness, in my fear, in my pathetic inadequacy, in my own humanity, despite myself, I Fall before the feet of God and cry:
Why?
Yet in the end, I find the only thing that matters is to do the best I can.
I leap into the darkness and find myself in a sweltering, disease-ridden place, full of flies and gross smells—and a child is crying. I reach out to gently grasp his small, withered hand, too weak to tremble.
I am here. All shall be well.
I am here.

That brings it to the interview part.

Interviewer: You almost become a priest. You trained for the priesthood. God I suspect has played an important part in your life and your thinking. Yet you tell the story of a 17 year old, Atria in graphic detail how he died. You know, about the uncontrolled bowel movements, the stench of death around us, this young body, the sores and the loneliness of a young African dying. And then where is your God?

Michael: That why I was there. I was there to be the sense. I was there to cherish, I was there to serve and I would be and have been there for thousands of people like that. And for everyone---

Interviewer: Then Where Is Your God? WHERE IS THIS GOD?

Michael: Don’t worry, all will be well. It’s ok. This god is here. That god is in you. That God is what you’re going to do about this suffering. God is in this people. The more you live in Africa, the more you realize the power of faith in these countries. That’s the wonderful thing. You don’t leave Africa overwhelmed with despair, in tears. You leave Africa inspired, because you realize that this continent is so powerful. It’s so strong, has so much love, so much energy. Where do you think all these tens of thousands of orphans are? They’re not in orphanages; they’re being looked after by the communities. And those communities need our help.

Open you eyes and see the real world around.

2:48 AM

Thursday, August 11, 2005;

Haven't blogged in a week, quite a number of things have happened. But the best thing is that the championship has started with leeds beating millwall in their first match 2-1 and that the premiership is starting this wkend.

Matchups
Everton vs Man Utd
Aston Villa vs Bolton
Fulham vs Birmingham
Man City vs West Brom
Portsmouth vs Tottenham
Sunderland vs Charlton
West Ham vs Blackburn
Middlesbrogh vs Liverpool
Wigan vs Chelsea
- Its meat to the lions. Welcome to the premiership wigan.
Arsenal vs Liverpool

My prediction is that Sunderland, West Ham and Wigan will manage to last for three seasons in the premiership - Autumn, Winter and Spring. Haha, gd luck in their quest against relegation.

Besides the EPL, there's going to be a 4 nations hockey tournament from the 25-28 of Aug. Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia are playing. Quite excited, cos its international hockey right at your doorstep. I'll probably try to catch as many matches as possible, hopefully the fixtures and timings would be gd and i get to watch all of the South Korea matches.

That week is also going to be interesting as there will be a floorball tournament from the 22-24. I think its 10 bucks, anyway, wait for more details to be released.

I finally managed to upload a song on my blog, thanks to jessie who helped me with the html stuff. The song you are hearing now is - THANK YOU FOR THE VENOM. Its a really great song, esp the solo part, makes MCR a whole cut above all those punk rock bands. MCR has really gd guitarists, bassists and drummers who actually play complicated and difficult solos as compared to Simple Plan who can play a whole song with just 3 chords. Lyrics for this song are in the archive under Great Songs - Part I.

Think, i'll blog about this inspirational interview i watched a couple of weeks ago on BBC with michael meegan sometime later.

Enjoy the song and Have a Great Day!

8:36 PM

Friday, August 05, 2005;

Phil Neville has just signed for Everton from Man Yoo in a 3 million pound deal. Quite suprising really, thought that he would commit himself and all. Anyway, its a great coup for Everton and David Moyes.

Went to Gerard's house after school with jem,ben and terence to check how's he doing. He was sick since last friday. Played bridge and CZ on terence's com at his house for a couple of hours then went home.

Get well soo Gerard!

Whilst we continue to keep him in our prayers.

9:09 AM

Thursday, August 04, 2005;

Yesterday was one damn funny day man.

Blackjack.

21.

Jackpot.

Royal Flush.

But in the end it didnt happen.. Haha

7:40 AM