time and place

the most important things in the entire world are time and place. without the correct timing and positioning no one can succeed. and with the correct timing and positioning there is no reason why uncapable, unintelligeable and uncharismatic people can achieve things far beyond their capabilities and dues.

simply put, be there at the right time. firstly you have to be there. if you're never there it is useless to be anywhere else at the right time and secondly, you have to get the timing correct. it is something that even idiots can grasp, but it is beautifully complex in practice. to be at the right place at the right time.

this concept of right place at the right time can be applied to such simple circumstances as meeting with friends or friends of friends at casual occasions. if someone wants to sell something off cheaply or even give it away, if you're there when the offer was made, you can close the deal and net yourself a handsome profit. this can even apply to business ventures or job offers.

one concept i first saw and learnt in army was this initially ridiculous but logical technique used by high ranking people called corridor or toilet management, though it is not restricted to corridors and urinals but in the canteen and mess as well. the simple incident meeting your commander triggers off a forgotten task or question in his mind. once he's seen you he remembers it and calls you, asking you to do that task or answer that question. if you didn't see him you'll actually have less work to do! wonder why people hide all day in their bunks or cubicles then. this could be a case of right place right time, or if you're getting the bad end of the deal wrong place wrong time.

hey, but all these chance meetings, chance taskings and chance offers could lead to good friends being made, jobs being offered and money being made. the only condition is you have to be there then.

so is there an art of masterfully appearing when it is most favourable to you? i think that is rather difficult and fortuitous, but people do have ways of tilting that in their favour. manipulating appearances and opinions on a daily basis will help you in being at the right place at the right time.

to a great extent, you can shape what people think of you. but you cannot shape what you are superficially. that's why you can't judge casual acquaintanaces by what you think they are like. you only know what they want you to know. friends, especially good friends of a person are a more accurate evaluator. you can discount almost everything awarded on a basis of interviews (especially scholarships, in singapore. how do you know if that student will be a good and willing public servant in 10 years time by hearing him talk for 30 mins? talk is cheap. you don't, and the argument that an interview is better than nothing holds no water).

so now we know it. fake people can maneuver themselves to shape other's opinions of them. and in this superficial world, if i want you to think i am capable, you'll think i am capable. and then to impress your friends that you know capable people in this world lacking men (or women) who grab the bull by its horns (or balls), you'll mention me. i am at the right place at the right time, without even being there! isn't that ingenious?

all i'm trying to say is that the people who are rich, famous, capable or in high positions are there not because they are good (they could be but that's not the reason). they are there because either they are lucky (right place right time), or that they engineered it! these conniving bastards. it's as simple as that.

so now you know how to be there at the right place at the right time, go forth and conquer the world!

trust in verbal agreement

when you agree to something, what does the agreement actually entail? like when a friend asks you to do something and you say yes, does yes mean yes unconditionally or does it mean yes with provisions?

it is clear when your boss asks for something and you say yes it usually means a clear yes i'll do it by the specified time and standards. friendship blurs many things, including any agreement. agreements between friends are mostly verbal, and the casualness of this agreement usually decreases the importance placed on such agreements.

moreover one of the pillars in many friendships is tolerance and understanding. this tolerance will result in conflicting expectations between friends in agreements. if one side doesn't uphold the agreement, he feels that his friend should at least show a minimum amount of understanding. however for the friend who is at the end of the unfulfilled agreement, he would feel that as a friend, not upholding a agreement is a breach of trust in the first place.

how complicated can friendship get. all the expressed and unexpressed expectations further complicate this issue of trust. can you trust a friend to do something if you did not tell him that it was expected? is he expected to know? are you right to expect someone to know something that you did not tell him? and are you in the right position to judge what is common sense and what is a reasonable expectation?

and in projects undertaken by friends, is there a minimum degree of commitment and accountability expected? like if we play a soccer match wouldn't you expect all the team members to give their all?

1. let's take this case of 2 13 year old boys in school. one of them bought a men's magazine, and the other one wanted to borrow it (because no one else dared to buy one). so the condition the lender imposed on the borrower is that if anyone finds it the borrower had to say that the magazine was his. the borrower's mum found out and the borrower, fearing the worse, told her that the lender forced him to bring it home. the school was notified, the story verified and the lender's story was confirmed. the lender was punished.

what is wrong with the decisions made by people in this story? what are the wrong signals being given?

• lying to get away with things is acceptable
• it is not important to uphold clearly expressed terms in a verbal contract
• both boys commited almost the same crime, possesion of undesireable materials, but only the lender was punished, and he wasn't even caught in possesion of it
• the education system doesn't impart the correct values and morals to young children, by not holding them accountable for their actions and promises

2. a group of students acquired a set of test answers for a test. they were caught. one of the students who was involved in the acquisition ratted out on the supplier and he got off while the rest were punished. when the supplier was changing class in school to the rat's class, the rat was afraid of the ill feeling he had generated and bad mouthed the supplier to everyone. in the end the class realised that the rat was a fraud when they found out the true story.

3. once a group of students held a party in a club. many of those who bought tickets were underaged. police raided the club and all but 2 of the organisers left the scene. there was one organiser who stood foolishly at the club entrance and identified himself to the police as an organiser. he also told them the name of the head and agreed to find him for them. luckily the head escaped.

• others are being rewarded for the stupidity of some
• friends should have the decency to protect one another

4. a few friends decided to hold a party. one of them was worried about sales and that they were going to lose money, so he kept asking the others to try to get more people to go. one of them told him not to talk to her about the party anymore because she had to study for exams. if they lost money she would not have the money to pay for the loss. in the end thanks to the efforts of one guy they made a decent sum. he split the money up evenly even though the contribution of the others was very minute.

• when you go into a business venture, isn't there an understanding that you would do what you can not to let your partners down?
• isn't it abit shameful to tell your partner you will not be contributing anymore then taking the money of the profits from other's hard work?

such things are quite complicated at times and awfuly simple at others. it all depends on what you feel a verbal agreement and commitment should entail. and it also depends on what you feel trust among friends should be.

but shouldn't there be a very high level of trust among friends? that is what friendship is about isn't it? reliability and sacrificing yourself, not your friends. in all the above cases a friend is sacrificing another friend. i am saddened that such things can happen.

mid sem break!

yes the 2 wk long mid sem break has started, meaning at the end of it i'll be 2 wks behind gabby. considering the fact that kevin flies back on the 2nd of october, and i'll only be back at the end of novmeber, what the hell is melbourne uni thinking having such a long break? anyway this wkend was spent slacking in bliss ahead of the 2 week break.

started of friday by having 2 pints of guiness at the elephant and then finished a bottle of red. played soccer on sat against some irritating xialan chinese high boys a yr older and thrashed their ah beng asses.lunch at corretto which i havent eaten at in a very long time. had 5 course set meal at sofitel with daniel lee that lasted 2 hours plus and shared a bottle of white. following that spent 5 hours in the mahogany room watching him gamble. i had around 8 free kilkenny's and he had 6. ended of the night with a free bowl of wanton noodles.

sunday lunch at shark's fin house broke all records. gabby, me, kevin derrick and clarice ate $162 worth at yum cha. added up to 35 plates. considering derrick's late entry and the little amount that clarice ate, gab and me must have eaten around 8 or 9 plates each. kevin's showing was an all time best too. finshed lunch at 3 and couldnt eat dinner. watched liverpool lose to chelsea, and stupid arsenal win at OT. had piping hot pasta bolognese that was very satisfying at 330 before sending kevin and derrick home. what a fun weekend.

zhuge challenge

i am issuing a challenge to all who think they are big eaters. i have planned a 1 day eating extravaganza to determine who among us is the biggest eater. please feel free to step forward and accept this challenge. it will be held in december 2006. the details are as follows:

The Food Challenge - a portion each of:
1. Yakun egg, bread and coffee/tea set (Thomson Plaza)
2. Duck rice (Longhouse)
3. Prata (Thomson Road)
4. Bah Chor Mee (AMK)
5. AJ ice (AMK Central)
6. Katong Laksa (Katong)
7. Hokkein Mee (Katong)
8. Chicken Rice (Margaret Drive)
9. Pig innard porridge (Tiong Bahru) [whoever doesn't eat pigs innards can eat normal pork porridge]
10. Beef Kway Teow (Geylang)
11. Tau Huay (Geylang)

this should start in the morning at around 9 and end of nicely late at night at around 12? hope we can all pull through and be legends. however i propose whoever gives up is no longer in the competion, but everyone should stay on and try the rest of the food in smaller portions.

France-Soir

there is a small french resturant on toorak rd called france-soir. a friend's family brought her there, and after perusing the menu on their website, i decided to go there for my birthday dinner. of course, reservations are a must for these resturants.

on reaching the place, i was greeted by a pompous, arrogant waiter, who spoilt the mood totally by his uniquely french hospitality. i started off saying 'i had a reservation under my name for 6 but..' then he checked and said 'yes but.' and i didn't know what he was saying what the fuck was 'yes but' supposed to mean. then he said 'you said but.' and i continued and told him 'but i have 7.' and the pompous un(or over)educated jackass gave me what i would politely describe as a fuck face and walked off. no 'this way sir' or 'please follow me' from this expensive french resturant.

this idiot played little part in the rest of the night as the food took over, but he had one last dirty trick up his sleeve that the serial headbutter zidane would be proud of. the gallic frog asked what water we wanted, still or sparkling. i ordered still. a minute later 4 bottles of evian appeared while the rest of the guests were drinking what looked like home-made still water that was free, compared to my $5 a bottle bottled spring water, fresh from the french alps.

anyway. we made our orders, and the starters came. the oysters were fresh but not fantastic, not as big as when i buy them fresh from the market. the sea perch dumplings were fabulous, and we used the remaining gravy to dip our bread; tasting like lobster bisque. we also had a caesar salad and that was very nice as well. the dressing coated the vegetables lightly but the salad was very tasty.

the mains were not dissapointing as well. the duck breast that i had was tender and the accompanying sauce brought out the flavour of the duck. the rabbit, scotch fillet and rib eye steak was quite good as well.

we had a bottle of white to go with the starters and a red to go with the main. i ended the meal with a creme brulee and a doppio espresso.

verdict: food was good, not great, but the service was a disgrace. may not go back there again. there are many other places that value their guests more than this arrogant eatery.

0-0 draw

question: how can anyone watch a replay of a 0-0 match? or for that matter, watch a match after the goals have been scored?

it seems that soccer (or football), a sport that evolved from unknown numbers of men kicking an inflated pig's bladder in britain, to a organised team sport of 2 11 a side teams battling on a grass pitch for 90mins, can't stop reinventing itself. today when someone asks me to play soccer, i would ask what surface (court, concrete, astroturf, grass) and even how many a side. you can play 5 a side on grass and 8 a side on court surface. there are no limits, except that you need a ball and 2 goals.

the evolution of soccer is not limited to the birth of new games like futsal and street soccer. a new sport has been born from soccer, a sport played without teams and without goals: freestyle soccer.

i am not a fan of freestyle soccer, though i do admit that the practitioners are without a doubt skillful. the perplexing issue is that many fans of soccer confuse the 2 and believe they are one, and this results in them not applying the correct skills and competencies when playing the team game of soccer.

the emphasis of advertisers on flair and skill has attracted an army of fans who think they love the beautiful game, but in actual fact they only love the skill and control aspect. they don't understand that this beautiful game is much more than that. it is much more than the dribble, the shot, the cross and the trap.

it is about covering a player so his teamate cannot pass the ball to him. it is about working together with your teamates to close down a very skillful opponent. it is about communicating to your teamate in a more forward position, telling him where the danger is and where he should go. it is about covering holes and spaces for your team so that opponents are denied time on the ball. it is about closing down the opposition so that your pressure up field will lift the pressure on your teamates in further back.

it is about organising the team to take positions to cover the entire field, ensuring that every flank is covered when the opponent attacks. it is about shifting as a team, to overload in certain areas on the pitch and for other players to cover the spaces the team has left behind as a result. it is about encouragement and inspiration.

organised soccer is like war or a chess match, you need strategy and tactics. flanking maneuvers, defensive tactics, soak and hit, possesion. freestyle soccer is like watching a circus monkey or a stripper performing.

so back to the question, how is it possible that a 0-0 bore draw can capture my attention? it is because soccer is not about goals, or the scoreline. it is about many other things, like hardwork, cooperation, getting the job done; and the job is not limited to scoring goals.

and players who are too preoccupied with the latest trick and fancy moves should not be playing organised soccer, because organised soccer is much more intellectual and selfless.

watching tricks won't help you play better in organised soccer. watching 0-0 draws will.

accident 3

today had lunch at richmond eating beef noodles, with some animal blood inside. then had alot of fun playing footie at carlton gardens. while sending weian home, i got hit by a car.

fuck. fuck fuck fuck. i need to vent my frustration or tension or whatever the fuck.

dammit another accident. last one cost the guy who hit me 300bucks, the one before that cost me 50 bucks when i hit down a cyclist. i jammed breaks but my 1970s merc with no ABS skidded on the damn wet road. and now i got hit while changing lane to turn but there were 2 turning lanes and the woman was in the turning queue of the leftmost lane! so careless just drove on when she saw me cannot jam break fuck.

lessons on friendship: friendship 101

after 2 lattes at 12, i can't sleep now (almost 4). while tossing and turning, i had a creative breakthrough. and i decided to blog.

well in my experiences in life so far i must say i have made alot of good friends. on the other hand i've had quite a number of poor friends as well. and some of these idiots dont even know what its like to treat a friend. so if you're reading this and you find that you dont have many good (may i emphasise on the word good) friends, this might apply to you.

lessons in friendship: friendship 101

1. Always offer your help, and mean it.
2. Don't let money get in the way, offer to pay, even if your friend refuses to accept or doesn't offer to pay next time.
3. When you say let's go out soon, mean it. It's no use saying things you don't mean. At first you're friendly and politically correct, but after a while you're just a fake.
4. Your friends are a pillar of support for you in times of need, but not a thing you can keep boasting to in hope of continuous supply of compliments and praises. We are not your ego and self esteem boosters.
5. When you say you're coming, please come, and be on time. Saying yes then not appearing is showing a gross lack of disrespect for the person who invited you.
6. Friendship is like 2 people carrying a box together. If you drop your side down and not put in any effort, the friendship will go nowhere. One man carrying a box by himself while his partner walks behind doesn't constitute a friendship.
7. You reap what you sow, you are what you eat. If you invest in friendships that don't bear fruit, don't expect that the friendships that you did not invest in are obligated to help you. You can choose what you invest in, so invest wisely.

so dear friends, please do not take friendship lightly. if you have never thought of what constitutes a friendship, i hope you can take a few minutes to reflect on the importance and significance of friendship and friends in your life.

friendship enriches all lives, it makes tough times easier, fun times more enjoyable. it gives you moments to remember. but friendship is not spreading butter on as much of the bread as possible; what you get at the end is a thin layer. it is more like building a house, strengthening the foundations, adding wings and storeys.

friendship is not about plain sailing and making each other look and feel good, but when the going gets tough, can you turn to your friends for help? for advice? do they know you well enough to give you advice that will really help you?

and lastly, my patience is running out. i do not need so many friends, since i have so many good ones. my many good friends need not worry, for i love them dearly and my thoughts and beliefs on friendship have been forged by my interactions with them. so dear reader, if you are my friend, please follow the 7 basic rules at least, or soon you may find i have forgotten who you are.

Magic Number

so now i can rent a car in Australia, open a trading account and watch r21 movies, but tell me, since when has age stopped us from doing the above?

i shall not muse on what life is about. but here's what happened during birthday week:

wednesday: lost in soccer to a mat team, was ambushed when they sang a birthday song during team talk (very clever guys when we lost) and with a birthday cake after the match. had dinner at france-soire along toorak rd. food was fantastic, waiter was a mother fucking french asshole. had oysters, caesar salad and sea perch dumplings for entree, i had duck breast for main. daniel lee had scotch fillet, wei had porterhouse, gab had pepper steak, nicole had duck, brian had rabbit and kevin had rib eye. and had creme brulee for dessert. adjorned to crown and had 5 beers with daniel lee. vision slightly blurred when i slept at wei's place.

thursday: missed first lecture, went for steak with shuen, got suprised with birthday cake at her place with huien eunice and wen.

friday: missed first tutorial that i stayed up til 4 plus to prepare for. which also means missed target. fucked up big time. had dinner with kevin's parents, drank a bit at elephant and wheelbarrow, then play texas for a few hours.

saturday: went red hill for lunch but was booked out so bought a dozen bottles of dessert wine and went to sorrento for splendid lunch. went to mornington beach see the suimmer houses. when i have money im going to buy a house and a few jet skis to ski in the summer. went elephant again but no free guinness as advertised! drank til very high with wei gab kev and nicole tan. then went up and had singing session in gab's room. wei and kev are guinness fans now.

sunday: watched collingwood smack kangaroos, had dinner at la notte's. quiet night to cap off the week.