Thursday, April 05, 2007
My com got fuxin screwed a few days ago so i have to use the old one. The old one had the numlock jammed and some of th buttons werent working so it was terribly frustrating but somehow its righted itself now.
I just love playing football. When i receive the ball and try to look for options, its a challenge to thread a perfectly-weighted pass. I get a tremendous buzz when dribbling past people. its like a duel when you face off directly, a duel of wits, anticipation, reactions and skill. I always enjoy these kinds of duels, doesn't matter if im the one defending or the one attacking. When attacking, its a test of skill, a coordination of the body with feints and fakes. Either you draw or force the defender to commit, completely fake him out, dribble such that the defender doesn't know how to react, freezing, or a mixture of the three. As a defender, the challenge is to anticipate what the attacker is thinking of, to keep your eyes on the ball, to not get suckered into committing, to be able to react appropriately and go in firmly to win the ball when the opportunity arises.
The other dribbling scenario is the less direct confrontation, where the attacker is running at pace and the defenders scramble to stop him. The attacker has the advantage of switching directions, forcing the momentum of the rnning defenders against them. He can still throw in the same feints and fakes, but doing so can sacrifice the advantage of momentum he has. Often, he only needs good close control, the ability to cut the ball away as a defender lunges desperately from the side. He constantly has options to shoot or pass, options whch he can mislead the defender into thinking that he is going to take.The defender has the handicap in this scenario, and needs all the wits, balance, speed, and agility he can muster to smother the attacker. He needs to try to force the attacker to slow down or stop, or force the attacker into an error, but these options are not always available. The defender needs to make the right decision within that split second, whether to slide to the ground and attempt to block a shot from the striker and risk the striker pulling the ball back instead.
It's all very much a mental and physical game for the defender. The attacker of course needs to have the technical ability, but as some sort of trade-off, in a direct or indirect confrontation he always holds the initiative.
I like doing both. Dribbling is more fun, because it allows me to decide what to do and express myself, to combine my creativity, anticipation and skill to get past defender. when people foul me, i don't feel anger rising in me. Instead, i get the satisfaction that they had to use unfair means to stop me, the satisfaction that i have come out the victor of this terribly fun duel. Defending on the other hand, is a much more secure role because i have to react to the attacker, i don't need to ensure my technical skills are up to par, and i can focus solely on denying the attacker from getting past me. I seem to leave free space on one side that the dribbler can push the ball and sprint into, but its actually a trap i placed and im already half-anticipating that move, so i'm always half a metre in front. The satisfaction is in denying and frustrating the attacker, winning possession back for the team.
Anyway, when people talk about talent in football, i think its not so simple as that. There's physical talent, a person's innate body figure thats suited for speed and height. There's technical talent, probably meaning a person can learn and pick up ball skills quickly. Then there's mental aspect, the ability to anticipate and read the game. I think i have lots of mental talent, and quite a bit of technical talent. Physically, im not extremely fast but I think i have enough speed to cope with most situations, and my height is about average.
Actually, i think technical and mental talent are closely linked to IQ, but other mental attrbutes such as determination and teamwork are obviously not. A lot of areas in football can be drastically improved through hardwork, and that's where the beauty of football lies. It's an intricate, elegant mix of your different talents, your mindsets of determination, focus, teamwork, etc, and your physical abilities. If you can't anticipate and read the game well, you can always make it up with mproving your speed and tackling. If you're less technically gifted, you still can achieve the same standards simply by putting in more practice than the technically gifted ones. If you're slow, you can make it up by reading the game well, intercepting the passes instead of chasing down the people that the passes were meant for.
It's all so dynamic, so beautiful
silverletal [Simple and Clean] 7:43 AM
Thursday, March 29, 2007
HAHAH lucid dreaming is so cool.
Often the things that appear in it seem weird and out of place.
Today my dreams joked with me.
I was dreaming about putting a coin in this vending machine, hearing the rattling sound, then looking down to see all sorts of snacks and goodies + 2 free cans of chrysanthemun tea. Then this guy tapped me on the shoulder and said it was his, so i helped him take all the goodies out. There were still some left, but he said those were for me, so i picked up a nearby chicken drumstick and started eating it. I could actually taste it a bit, and then i suddenly realised i was dreaming, so i tried harder to taste it. There was a taste to it, but it wasn't very strong.
Then i felt the dream fading and quickly applied the "spinning" technique. I spun myself into the tv news programme of channel U and then i saw the news was reporting that their newscaster was missing...gg hehe!
doublepwn!
silverletal [Simple and Clean] 9:53 AM
Monday, March 26, 2007
It's getting quite annoying, now that blogger merged with google and i have to friggin login everytime i want to blog even though i ticked the "remember me"
Then i think i may want to switch to livejournal hmm.
I just realised this social conditioning thats inherent in the world is the root of all decadence!
If Sg wants more leaders in the fields, they ought to place a lot more emphasis on developing moral character and going for your passion, trusting your own abilities. Basically personal development. That way, we can cut out the boring crap early, focus on what we really want to do, which leads to no bother for anyone because we will do it ourselves
Also, we get to lead real lives. I think everyone's too fucking afraid to do this, to do that. They talk about being "realistic", but in truth they are talking about remaining seated in a safe and secure 9-to-5 routine job where they risk nothing to gain nothing. And its not their fault, its society's fault. Inherently though, the inclination to follow the crowd, the herd mentality within us, also plays a part.
All these years of social conditioning have led to a stiff wall, a resistance to our ideals. What we need to do is to gain the courage to oppose this social conditioning and slowly but surely, weaken this resistance. It will keep coming back, it will keep affirming itself, but as long as you stick toyour courage, it will eventually fade away.
For me, i can feel the dreaded social conditioning dissipating but its still there. I need people around me to have the same beliefs as me to keep reinforcing what i want to keep. Last year, when i hear my classmates talking about what "department" they want to be in life, i thought that was a perfectly fine discussion. Now i just feel sick and disgusted by it, sick that they seem to be talking about working for a living, living for the sake of living.
Oh and we should all learn the art of patience. I got quite frustrated at the lack of results over some of my intention-manifestations as well as lucid dreaming attempts, but i pondered over it and realised i didn't become the footballer i am by reading football books and practicing for 2 weeks. I built it up gradually through playing. My left foot didn't improve overnight, i practiced passing with it for hours and hours, before i built it to my satisfaction in terms of passing My shooting technique is still quite horrific, even for my right foot, but i know i can use practice to push it up to fierce levels.
in fact, i was quite irritated at the seeming lack of improvement in my left foot, until one day when i realised i was quite comfortable with using it, and quite accurate too (:
Today was not a good day of football play because i forgot to relax and clear my mind before playing. Siquan was kind of off-form i think, i wasn't playing well, and it was just frustrating trying to find a pass to play when your teamates aren't moving into space. I felt very frustrated and annoyed by siquan, although it probably is no fault of his.
In my view, i kept seeing him chase down loose balls which ought to have been his but somehow, when he got near the ball he relaxed, allowing the opposition to gain control of it or nick it away into another position. It just reeked of very poor determination or something. Then there were other times where he had possession of the ball and ought to have kept it, but gave it away or took too much time giving it to the keeper, but thats possibly me trying to find fault with him.
Then he talked about ripping off the keeper i already got to my team in place of harry which is quite horribly mean. Then when we got a hcis player to help us play keeper, when the keeper asked if he could try his hand at playing outfield, i think i heard him saying something rather rude and mean, meaning to turn him down. I didn't hear clearly though, so its likely he was joking.
but of course, i could be completely wrong and just pushing my frustration on him. I was frustrated at my team, at myself, at what was going on. But when i got home i trained for an hour focusing on dribbling and felt quiite satisfied because i felt an improvement in my hocuspocus and the switchcut move.
mm We must raise our moral standards!
silverletal [Simple and Clean] 6:59 AM
Thursday, March 22, 2007
WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK LIFE IS SO HOPELESS!?
It's good to think about your future, its crazy to care so much about money. Guys, why don't you trust yourselves? Why buy into all the social conditioning crap that people have thrown into you. Who says you HAVE to work for someone. Who says that what you love to do won't earn you a living?
Why is it so implausible to people, that they can earn more than enough to live comfortably, and at the same time enjoy what they are doing? Who says philosophy can't earn money? Who says finance is the only way to go? I hear people talking about what they're going to do in the future- what will give em money. They think too much about money. Money matters, but look, if you don't enjoy your work, you won't find the inspiration to do good work, and if you don't do good work, you won't get your money. If you enjoy it, you do good work, you get good money. Simple logic?
"We're being realistic." Hmm, so how much of "reality" do you know? If you don't try doing what you want, don't try pursuing what you like, how do you know it won't work? All your perceptions of "reality" are SOLELY the social conditioning people have put into you. You haven't experienced a semblance of what the "corporate world" is like. Your parents only have that tiny bit of experience, the small slice of working experience as either an accountant, taxi-driver, footballer, whatever.
What's reality? Who says you can't enjoy your work and earn good money? People. People are conditioned to think they can't have the best of both worlds. People spread this negative influence around. More people pick it up. Have you ever questioned what "reality" really is? Don't you realise, the obvious route, is not always the correct one?
Why do so many people border being contented and slightly unhappy about their lives? They took the obvious route and that's where it brought em. Doesn't that prove that the route is OBVIOUSLY flawed? Do you believe you're only good enough for "something"? If you do, all the effort you put in will naturally only be "good enough" for that "something". Makes sense?
You think you can't do it. Therefore you never try. Therefore you never know. You go for the safe, secure option, the one everyone takes. Are you sure its safe? Are you sure its secure? The economy isn't that predictable. You could be retrenched once a financial crisis hits anywhere. Let's say an unexpected disaster hits a crucial industry of the US, predictably economies will crash. Your boss hates you, he fires you over nuffin. The cost of living rises tremendously, your job doesn't pay enough, but you can't quit it. You fall down, break your arm, can't go for work yet your boss says "work, or fire, or retire"
Jobs are safe and secure!?!?
What are the odds of that happening? Probably the odds of hurricane katrina hitting new orleans, the odds of you meeting someone you disagree with and is he a higher authority than you, the odds of the standard of living rising rapidly, the odds of you getting a mid-serious accident. Individually, the odds ain't too bad. THEN ADD EM TOGETHER .
And even IF you did manage to avoid it, what would your life have been? Average? Mediocre? Do you want to die like that? Have you made a difference? I hear you saying you want to make a difference, but you ...can't.
There we go, you say you can't but you don't even know what can't you do.
If you are convinced somewhat, im happy i've done this much. You will keep doubting what i said probably, but just remember the question "what do i want to be like when i'm dead?". My variation of the question is "do you want to regret at 35 years old?". See what works for you, put it to memory, and whenever the doubts come out, run yourself through the question.
Life is all about risks. You win some, you lose some. But the more you try, the more your chances of winning.
silverletal [Simple and Clean] 7:10 AM
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Sigh even though i tell myself not to worry, im still adjusting and getting better, but i suppose it would be good to spill it out here so i'd feel better anyway.
Chen confiscated the ball. He said to find him to get the ball back after the end of the session. I couldn't find him. I must plan to get it back by tomorrow. I will ask to call him, make my way to the P.E. teacher's office.
That's good, i've listed all what i've done and hence, can stop worrying about what to do.
silverletal [Simple and Clean] 7:42 AM
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Hmm, i think i can fully understand why people believe in their religions. When you believe something up there is helping you, you experience what you trust to be help, and this reinforces your belief even more. Although there maybe other passages, other ideas within the religion that your inner self might not agree, the ideas you agree on push you to believe in the "whole package".
And this is why, i think pro-religion and anti-religion arguments are not on the same wavelength as one another. A belief in christianity is strongly based on one's personal experiences that reinforces his beliefs. Logical arguments are simply "boosters" for one's faith, though if one's faith is so strong, these boosters would seem meaningless. On the other hand, a disbelief in christianity easily means you rule out any "experiences' with a possible god as something else, something that, to you, cannot be qualified as god's work. Logical arguments are meant to tear down Christian faith on the plane of logic, but cannot tear it down on the planes of experience.
However objective i'd like to be when experimenting with Christianity months ago, the point is that religion is something that isn't objective. I believe it is subjective, that if you believe in it, events will simply bolster your belief, and if you don't, it will take an extraodinary event, an incredible, completely logic-defying event to happen, to convince you. That's why i think my experiment wasn't successful in helping me determine objectively whether christianity or atheism was the "right thing". You simply couldn't do that. But its only because i even attempted the experiment that i now understand why it failed. And that's enlightening (:
The problem i see with religion is that it comes as a whole package. You take what you like, and take what you don't like. Maybe, just maybe, some part of it is right, but some other part of it is wrong. But you take it all the same. I don't like this way of doing things, but that doesn't mean its wrong though (: I don't like time management, but it sure helps a damn lot! However, due to its whole-packaged nature, it definitely restricts your limit of imagination and thinking. Just thinking about the possibility that god does not exist could possibly be viewed as a sin already.
But i think, for most people, believing in religion definitely helps them. Religion makes them dare to take risks, because God is there to back you up! It gives you belief that you CAN and WILL fight off cancer because miracle man is with you. Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad. Homosexuality is BURNNNNN, which i think isn't very fair because its no one's fault they were born to be so. Bad cause you can't marry a fricking non-christian, even if he is as enlightened as Ghandhi. But more so than not, the good overwhelms the bad.
But what if the good can be gotten in some other way? I don't believe in God, but dare to take risks, i'm able to feel that there are people there who will always help me in my times of needs. Then, the bad is simply...too bad. I find the bad about religion too bad for me. Something tells me declaring hell(literally) on people who can't control their homosexuality is wrong. Something tells me the New Testament is just a poor excuse for the Old Testament, a change that the heads of Christianity realised they had to make. Something tells me there's something wrong with creating the conscience in a person, and then judging him for the conscience he displays in his life. Something tells me i'm obviously biased against religion and simply trying to propogate my beliefs, BUT THAT MAY NOT BE WRONG (:
What a fucking chim post!
silverletal [Simple and Clean] 7:56 AM
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Today was the Predator trial.
Before that, i was trying to get some Predator boots but there weren't any. I felt it was a waste of money to buy it, so i didn't do it. I worried of course...but i'm remembering the ways to stop worry, and it worked. I just did what i could and let fate decide (:
Weijie gave me one of his predator shoes (too small for him, he has another 2-3 pairs), so i just hoped for the best and went with wincoln. Hmm, Adidas is quite rich eh, it organised this event and gave away a lot of free stuff. The pitch was awesome, the balls were great, pheww! But, the Predator shoe i was wearing was pretty worn out, and the pitch was kind of morning-dewish wet, so it felt quite slippery. Also, it was one size too big...a problem i somewhat managed to counteract by wearing 3 layers of socks.
The slippery part...i can't do much, hopefully i can get an Adidas Predator by April 8th then i can get better grip mmm (:
The selection trial was a 5v5 on the field, i had this small, ANGMOH kid called ben daly on my team, this rather big guy called Kiran, and two other people by the name of Jun and D. I told myself not to worry, just enjoy myself (:, get some confidence into these legs of mine and i'll have a good chance of entering the next round.
I would say, i had a rather good game considering that i wasn't used to the shoe and it was quite slippery with it on. I couldn't grip and control the ball as well i would have liked, but i was happy that i was fairly confident with myself.
Defensively, i made about 3 tackles where the guy pushed the ball too close to me, i went ahead and cut it off, placing my body between him and the ball. The guy tried to get the ball back with a bit of pushing but i managed to hold him off all the same and keep possession. He didn't foul me though, i think all of his challenges were quite fair (:, though the referee didn't think so on one occasion. Then, there were another 2 tackles i made where i didn't get possession. I managed to tackle the ball but it went out of bounds so it was their ball but no one got past me (:
I made a few decent interceptions where my first touch was alright, and one block where i threw my body at the shot.
Now offensively, the not-used-to-shoe and slippery-feet gave me some problems but i managed all the same. I couldn't do my fanciful trickery, but my ball control and overall dribbling was good enough to get me by the other players. I just shifted the ball where i wanted, accelerated when i saw the space, and in the end made two impressive dribbles from my half all the way to theirs. One, i wasn't sure what happened, by the other one i managed to burst past the whole opposing team except for the keeper and a defender, i looked up and cut the ball back, away from the defender to the two strikers on my team. Meh, they fluffed the one-on-one but good tries anyways.
Then, there was a loose ball near their goal, situated for my left foot to shoot. My left foot is my weaker fooot of course, but with my training and focus, i managed to get a decent contact on the ball which the keepr saved but looked good on me too hehe. Lolllll, and once i tried to do a patrick-viera-combo-bergkamp run i saw on this bergkamp vid i have. Kiran was holding the ball and looking for options and i was on the other side of the field, so i ran a really curved run behind the defenders and kiran sent a pretty good, hard, accurate pass which was unforunately cut out.
As for my general play...not very happy with that. My passing was decent, didn't do anything special, but i did slightly mispass one ball when i wasn't looking at my pass.Why? Because i was looking at the field, then felt confident to pass without looking at the ball and so i did. Simple as that. Then there was once the-errr WE HAD A KICK IN AND THE GUY KICKED TO ME AND I WASN'T CONCENTRATING AND I LET IT SLIP PASS ME. And it was going out for a corner to the opposing side, but i chased it down all the same, slid, kicked in back to goal, executing a sort of sliding-kick back to my goal. (WHERE THE KEEPER WAS, NOT AN OWN GOAL). It was about10-20 centimetres out of play, but i think they LOVE MY DETERMINATION and let it play on all the same. I thought my sliding kick thing was really impressive though, because i'd be impressed seeing anyone have the heart and determination to do that.
Anyway, i felt i was the best player on my team, at least the player who performed the best. Nerves and all that can always get you, and kiran looks to be quite a good player but his performance wasn't that good, so i'd only say i think my performance was the best. Felt confident that i would be in the top 40, seeing as they were choosing 40 out of a 100, meaning all you'd have to do was to be above average and i was in my game.
Selection time wasn't really cool, i tried to tell myself not to think too much and get nervous, but they announcer was announcing quite a lot of names, and i think me and wincoln thought we wouldn't be in. But eventually, we were just called late, we both got in, my name was called out first, then another guy, then wincoln, CHEERS TO HIM (:.
There were some interesting stuff to note. Ben daly, the small guy, was called in at the last moment. I think he's secondary 1, though my first impression was a primary school guy, but he seems to be from united world college, and secondary 1's are quite small too. But i was wondering what the people up there felt when they saw this small guy was chosen ahead of em lollll. Me and wincoln seemed to be the younger peeps there. Oh, and there was a girl who played mmmmhhmm, she's not bad, and according to wincoln, "very good
for a girl" i didn't say that kay!
OH AND IMA get a free Adidas jersey just for getting into the top 40 hehe (:
Im glad i wasn't in tunit though, wouldn't feel like i achieved anything because 40 people were supposed to be chosen and i think only 40-50 people turned up...
Yes, and i do think i can perform significantly better if i had ADIDAS PREDATOR BOOTS SO I NEED ONEEEE TO MAKE IT INTO SPAIN!
silverletal [Simple and Clean] 9:09 AM