Celtics start 7-1

“Is the hunger still there ?”, that’s the question every analyst asked when evaluating the Celtics’ chances of repeating their NBA championship in 2009. Will the new Big Three, now that they have finally won a championship, still be willing to put their stats and bodies on the line in a bid to win a second championship ?

So far, it’s looking good. They’ve picked up where they left off last season and started with a bang.

Ray Allen has always been recognized for keeping his body in top condition and Paul Pierce entered preseason 10 pounds lighter. Considering the shortened summer he had after the playoffs, many were left wondering when he found the time to lose that weight. Not that he was overweight in the first place, just that he wanted to add more speed to his game.

And pretty much every analyst concluded that the Celtics would still be hungry because of one man : the uber-competitive Kevin Garnett. The analysts couldn’t imagine KG letting his team slack, even if they had just won a championship. You can see why - and yes, he really does look like that - all the time.


As for the supporting cast, they were a mixed bunch. James Posey was lost to free agency and P.J. Brown retired. The hope is that the rest of the cast, especially the young ones, would have improved after a season of competing at the highest level. The signs are encouraging thus far.

And all the coaches were back – including the highly regarded Associate Head Coach Tom Thibodeau. Considering the work he’s done for the Celtics and his other former teams, and the numerous coaching vacancies that became available during the 08 playoffs, Danny Ainge must be wondering why none of those teams even initiated an interview with Thibodeau. Not that he’s complaining. He’s more than happy that Thibodeau’s still a Celtics coach, and has made him one of the highest paid assistant coaches in the NBA to boot.

Which brings us up to the present. The team is all set for a deep playoff run and a shot at retaining their title. Danny Ainge still has some work to do to fill out his roster, but that was also the situation last season and that worked out fine. It’s only the second year together for this team so there figures to be some improvement just from knowing their team mates. And the coaches are better placed to devise their sets now that they’ve had a year to figure out the players and systems.

I’m just along for the ride, starting with this Saturday’s match against the Denver Nuggets. It’s quite a change from the seasons when ESPN wouldn’t telecast even ONE Celtics match throughout the season.

Embrace Change

Initially I was going to blog about how Obama had been implicitly accused of being a socialist, terrorist and even communist in some blogs :

Barack Obama accused Republican rival John McCain on Wednesday of stooping to low tactics by labeling the Democrat a socialist.

"I don't know what's next," Obama, the presidential candidate, said at an outdoor rally in North Carolina. "By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

It was going to be about how the communist USSR and East Europe bloc broke up, about the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War (which begs the question, now that a secret communist is going to be the next President of the USA, who actually won the Cold War ?), but I've decided to forgo that for this :

"Malaysia... hopes Obama's government will be more sensitive to the sovereignty of smaller nations and will not use force in resolving global conflicts," Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said in a statement.

"Obama's victory is seen as bringing change and hope to the world," he added.

"Malaysia welcomes him as the new light in the struggle for democracy. As America's first black president his victory has shown that Americans can accept a leader regardless of colour, religion or beliefs."

Now tell me what I'm supposed to feel about my own country ?

You can tell me that the USA is 232 years old and that it took that long to get the first African American President. You can also tell me that it is 'traditional' to have a Malay in the top post of PKNS as stated by Khir Toyo.

Slavery was a tradition in the USA. Apartheid was a tradition in South Africa. Just because it's a tradition, does that make it right ?

The truth is that until the 1960's, the USA was still practising racial segregation in very visible ways.

They have gone from that to a coloured President today. Malaysia didn't have racial segregation or discrimination to such a degree upon Merdeka in 1957. But in the years since, it would seem that we have learnt to institutionalize racism.

It is not something to be proud of.

NB. on a side note, the Celtics team voted 14-1 for Obama.

十月的她

和新玩具大熊猫合影。

这张好像小白兔！

在妈妈生日那天合影。

在槟城从店里借用的玩具。

The 3rd recorded Burning Bush in History (must be all that oil)

The world is ending. Why are you here ?

Shouldn’t you be over at the Hill thinking ?

Let’s take a look at the legacy of President George W. Bush :

1. Started the war in Afghanistan – still ongoing.


2. Started the war in Iraq – still ongoing.
3. Inspired an entire new army of Jihad terrorists - Osama bin Laden is happy that Bush was President. Bush made recruitment easy for him.


4. Torture at Guantanamo Bay – bill passed : torture is barred, but the President now gets to determine what is torture. Hah!


5. Detention without trial – bill passed. It’s called the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Commissions_Act_of_2006). The USA’s very own ISA.


6. Eavesdropping on public without a warrant – executive order issued amidst controversy. After legal wrangling, now subjected to judicial oversight.


7. Increase in USA’s national debt from US$ 5,727,000,000,000 (i.e. 5.727 trillion - on the day he became President) to US$ 10,149,875,434,832 (i.e. 10.149 trillion) – the greatest increase of any president in American history. And it’s still increasing.


8. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. You could say that the bubble has been building for decades, but it burst on his watch – in the 8th year, so the new President gets to handle the shit from this baby.


9. Refusal to join the Kyoto Protocol – out of 185 countries, the USA is 1 of only 2 countries that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. And they’re the biggest per capita polluters in the world by a wide margin. I guess that would have meant reducing the profits from selling the oil in Iraq.


10. Both McCain and Obama, the presidential candidates, are campaigning on a platform of CHANGE :
    
    Guess who they’re changing from ?
    
    What a difference a few hanging chads make : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Florida,_2000

Worst. President. Ever.

I fear

There are many things where I fear for my child :

* I fear that sending her to a national-type school will expose her to only Chinese culture while ignoring the other cultures that exist in Malaysia. I fear that their reputation for too much homework and exam-oriented pressure is justified and that she will not have the time to grow in other areas, whatever those may be. BUT, I don't think much of the quality of education in national schools, so what can I do ?

* I fear that she will grow up in a country where we talk about Malay supremacy and the special interests of the Chinese and Indians and Iban, et al. And while the politicians are all fighting over their slices of pie, other countries just come in and take that pie away - bit by bit. And at the end of it, having 80% of nothing is still nothing.

* I fear that she will have to grow up in a country where theft and robbery and rape are common place. Oh wait, we're already here.

* I fear that she will not know the joy of meeting and playing with friends in her neighbourhood because it's dangerous out there.

* I fear that she will not exercise because she's sms-ing on her phone or playing her Playstation or sat in front of the TV and PC all the time.

* I fear that she will not know the beauty and joy of nature because she only ever sees a screen - be it TV, PC or phone. And nature has no screen.

* I fear doing this to her in my own way :

There are many more things where I fear for her. This, at least, I can control.

第一张彩画

这是韵的第一张彩画，不是什么惊天动地的杰作。

但是对于好像昨天才是婴孩的她应该是一个非常大的突破。

看起来像个小大人的画。

Equal Opportunity in Singapore

This exchange happened during the recent F1 race in Singapore (names changed to protect privacy) :

X : eh....... they provide hookers during the event too ?

Z : yeah! they're all about equal opportunity in SG. so they get a chance to do their stuff too.

Ha! Ha!

Well, Singapore is always on the lookout for human talent ...

Sign of our times

This is from an article by Terence Fernandez on The Sun today :

A WORD of caution to Teresa Kok. With the petrol bomb attacks on her family home on Saturday, there is clearly a threat to her safety. So now, she can be detained again under the Internal Security Act for her own protection – like what happened to Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng. Don’t you feel secure with the knowledge that no one can set you on fire when you are enjoying your eggs and gravy in a 6x8 cell ?


This is the sms I sent to Michelle arising from that paragraph :

“More arrests : Teresa Kok’s family to be arrested under ISA for their protection”


This is her response :

“Confirm? No news”


It’s a very revealing reply. My sms was satirical in nature but her reply reveals how far we believe the BN is willing to use the ISA right now.

It’s sad.

Original

So our national anthem actually is taken from this popular Indonesian song. Guess there is nothing really original in Malaysia.

Freedom

So after 7 days under the detention using the ridiculous ISA, Teresa Kok had finally being released. Is this the end of drama? Or just a commercial break? Wonder what is happening here in our country?

There is still one more.......

Operasi Lalang

First Raja Petra was arrested under the ISA, then Tan Hoon Cheng (the Sin Chew journalist who reported Datuk Ahmad Ismail's "penumpang" proclamations), now Teresa Kok.

All these people arrested while the erstwhile Datuk Ahmad Ismail walks around freely admitting that he called Malaysian Chinese "penumpang" who would never gain full equal citizenship in Malaysia. The government would rather arrest the journalist who reported Datuk Ahmad Ismail's "penumpang" comments than arrest the original unrepentant perpetrator himself.

I guess even Badawi has his limits. Contrasting the singular treatments the abovementioned four people have received, I can confirm that the "Malaysia Boleh!" sprit is alive and well.

忍者

最近越来越像忍者。如果真的能飞天顿地道是不错。可惜，此忍者不比彼忍者。

真不晓得还要忍到怎么时候。

自认不是个谟大事的人，这样可以不要忍吗？