The Passing of An Exceptional Malaysian, Yasmin Ahmad…

For those of you who don’t know who Yasmin Ahmad is, she was  a Malaysian film director, writer, and screenwriter known for her work in the movie Sepet and Petronas commercials during the festive seasons. I personally have never thought highly of our local entertainment industry but Yasmin was, in my opinion, truely gifted and a talented writer. Her works never fail to touch the heart of its audience with it’s humour and it’s ability to transcend cross-cultural barriers. Most of my generation would have seen her movie Sepet and debated over the meaning of the end of the movie, and most Malaysians would have seen at least one of her Petronas commercials for the major holidays (they were always my favourite ones). Her works always portrayed a sense of unity amongst the people of Malaysia or what we Malaysians call “perpaduan kaum”, but not in a cheesy way. She was only 51, and even though she may not be as well-known as the late MJ, I believe this is a great loss to Malaysia. Rest in peace Yasmin.

Can’t Blame You For Being Confused, Guys…

An article on chivalry on Yahoo! made me realise how confused guys must be sometimes. If they are too chivalrous, we may think they are just creepy and if they don’t do anything, we think they are jerks. I never really thought about until I read the article. For example, when a guy doesn’t hold the door open when he’s just like a few steps in front of me, I think: “how ungentlemanly”, and if they are holding the door open but I’m actually little ar behind, I will feel the need to walk faster and wish they would just not hold it open. Those poor guys out there who just don’t know what to do in a situation. Although being nice is always the better choice, there’s being nice and then there’s “thinking” you’re being nice. If it’s a simple situation like holding the door open or helping with heavy items, even if we didn’t need it, we would still be thankful. However if it something that is a little more conplicated like a girl and guy having a heated arguement or a girl is alone and totally drunk on the streets, think first before you do anything, doing the wrong thing may just make things worse or get yourself in trouble. But then again, I’m sure it’s not just guys who get into these situations, so I guess everyone must be confused.

On another note, the Australian Open this year was great for men’s tennis! Anyone as stoked as I was that Federer wasn’t in the finals?! Congratz Djokovic and Sharapova.

Australian Open Results

I totally forgot about the results but I’m not very happy about it… Anyway…Men’s singles: Roger Federer (1) vs. Fernando Gonzalez (10); 7-6(7-2), 6-4, 6-4

Women’s singles: Maria Sharapova (1) vs. Serena Williams; 1-6, 2-6

Men’s doubles: Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan (1) vs. Jonas Bjorkman & Max Mirnyi (2); 7-5, 7-5

Women’s doubles: Cara Black & Liezel Huber (3) vs. Yung-Jan Chan & Chia-Jung Chuang; 6-4, 6-7(4-7), 6-1

Anyway no shock in the men’s singles… Federer YET again… snorefest!! I mean I don’t deny that he’s the best but it’s totally getting old… and the commentators just go on and on about how great he is… well tell us something we don’t know… Anyway I thought Gonzalez did very well to give Federer a hard time and if he keeps working hard and develope his thinking game… coz he already has the shots he just has to put them together and know when to use each one… he could really become something… Well done Gonzalez…

Well I just couldn’t believe Sharapova got past Clijsters in her current form… not her best… and therefore I pretty much knew Serena would win it… not too big of a shock…

Bryan and Bryan… well what can I say… I was hoping they would win but tough fight from Bjorkman and Mirnyi…

As for the women’s doubles well I don’t follow it… Haha… Cheers…

A Deadly Week…

First it was Steve Irwin aka the crocodile hunter… and now Peter Brock the Australian motorracing legend has died but to an accident during a WA race… It was definitely a big big shock for everyone to hear that Steve Irwin was dead… when I first heard I was initially quite confused as to who was Steve Irwin and then it hit me… the croc guy!! “Crikey”!! It’s just not a good week for anyone to be going dangerous stuff… so people lay off sky diving or hang-gliding or anything like that for awhile…

And Then There Were Eight…

Okay so you know how we’ve always been told that there are 9 planets in our solar system… Well now it’s not so true anymore… There are now 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and 3 dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Xena (large enough to be round, but which have not “cleared their neighbourhood” of other potential planets)… I think it’s great that they made these new discoveries… but I mean how confusing are these “dwarf planets”… Oi… Anway all “planets” in order of distance from the sun… Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Xena… Anyway it’s a whole long stroy how they decided to set it up that way…

World Cup 2006: The Awards

adidas Golden Ball
(Given to the tournament’s most outstanding player, voted by journalists at the world cup)

Golden Ball: ZIDANE Zinedine (FRA)

Silver Ball: CANNAVARO Fabio (ITA)

Bronze Ball: PIRLO Andrea (ITA)

adidas Golden Shoe
(Given to the top scorer in the world cup)
KLOSE Miroslav (GER) – 5 goals

Lev Yashin Award
(Given to the best goalkeeper in the world cup)
BUFFON Gianluigi (ITA) – conceeded 2 goals

Gillette Best Young Player
(Given to the young player, 21 years or younger, who made the biggest impact in the world cup)
PODOLSKI Lukas (GER)

FIFA Fair Play Award
(Given to the team with the best record of Fair Play, sportsmanship and good conduct both on and off the pitch, according to a points system and criteria established by the FIFA Committee for Ethics and Fair Play, teams must pass the group stage)
Brasil and España

The Most Entertaining Team presented by Yahoo!
(Decided by fans on the website)
Portugal

Mastercard All Star Team
(23 most impressive players in the world cup)

Goalkeepers: BUFFON Gianluigi (ITA), LEHMANN Jens (GER), RICARDO (POR)

Defenders: AYALA Roberto (ARG), TERRY John (ENG), THURAM Lilian (FRA), LAHM Philipp (GER), CANNAVARO Fabio (ITA), ZAMBROTTA Gianluca (ITA), RICARDO CARVALHO (POR)

Midfielders: ZE ROBERTO (BRA), VIERA Patrick (FRA), ZIDANE Zinedine (FRA), BALLACK Michael (GER), PIRLO Andrea (ITA), GATTUSO Gennaro (ITA), TOTTI Francesco (ITA), LUIS FIGO (POR), MANICHE (POR)

Forwards: CRESPO Hernan (ARG), HENRY Thierry (FRA), KLOSE Miroslav (GER), TONI Luca (ITA)

World Cup 2006: Final – L’Italia è Campioni

Italia 1:1 France (a.e.t.) (5:3 PSO)
ITA: MATERAZZI Marco (19′)
FRA: ZIDANE Zinedine (7′ p)

Penalty Shoot-Out
PIRLO Andrea (ITA, goal, 1:0), WILTORD Sylvain (FRA, goal, 1:1), MATERAZZI Marco (ITA, goal, 2:1), TREZEGUET David (FRA, crossbar, 2:1), DE ROSSI Daniele (ITA, goal, 3:1), ABIDAL Eric (FRA, goal, 3:2), DEL PIERO Alessandro (ITA, goal, 4:2), SAGNOL Willy (FRA, goal, 4:3), GROSSO Fabio (ITA, goal, 5:3)

Italia (ITA)
[1] BUFFON Gianluigi (GK)
[3] GROSSO Fabio
[5] CANNAVARO Fabio (C)
[8] GATTUSO Gennaro
[9] TONI Luca
[10] TOTTI Francesco (-61′)
[16] CAMORANESI Mauro (-86′)
[19] ZAMBROTTA Gianluca
[20] PERROTTA Simone (-61′)
[21] PIRLO Andrea
[23] MATERAZZI Marco
[4] DE ROSSI Daniele (+61′)
[7] DEL PIERO Alessandro (+86′)
[15] IAQUINTA Vincenzo (+61′)
Coach: LIPPI Marcello

France (FRA)
[16] BARTHEZ Fabien (GK)
[3] ABIDAL Eric
[4] VIERA Patrick (-56′)
[5] GALLAS William
[6] MAKELELE Claude
[7] MALOUDA Florent
[10] ZIDANE Zinedine (C)
[12] HENRY Thierry (-107′)
[15] THURAM Lilian
[19] SAGNOL Willy
[22] RIBERY Frank (-100′)
[11] WILTORD Sylvain (+107′)
[18] DIARRA Alou (+56′)
[20] TREZEGUET David (+100′)
Coach: DOMENECH Raymond

Cautions
ZAMBROTTA Gianluca (ITA) 5′, SAGNOL Willy (FRA) 12′, MAKELELE Claude (FRA) 76′, MALOUDA Florent (FRA) 111′

Expulsions
ZIDANE Zinedine (FRA) 110′

World Cup 2006: Third Place Playoff

Deutschland 3:1 Portugal
GER: SHWEINSTEIGER Bastian (56′, 78′), PETIT (60′ og)
POR: NUNO GOMES (88′)

Deutschland (GER)
[12] KAHN Oliver (GK) (C)
[2] JANSEN Marcell
[5] KEHL Sebastian
[6] NOWOTNY Jens
[7] SCHWEINSTEIGER Bastian (-79′)
[8] FRINGS Torsten
[11] KLOSE Miroslav (-65′)
[16] LAHM Philipp
[19] SCHNEIDER Bernd
[20] PODOLSKI Lukas (-71′)
[21] METZELDER Christoph
[9] HANKE Mike (+71′)
[10] NEUVILLE Oliver (+65′)
[15] HITZLSPERGER Thomas (+79′)
Coach: KLINSMANN Juergen

Portugal (POR)
[1] RICARDO
[2] PAULO FERREIRA
[4] RICARDO COSTA
[5] FERNANDO MEIRA
[6] COSTINHA (-46′)
[9] PAULETA (C) (-77′)
[11] SIMAO SABROSA
[14] NUNO VALENTE (-69′)
[17] CRISTIANO RONALDO
[18] MANICHE
[20] DEO
[7] LUIS FIGO (+77′)
[8] PETIT (+46′)
[21] NUNO GOMES (+69′)
Coach: SCOLARI Luiz Felipe

Cautions
FRINGS Torsten (GER) 7′, RICARDO COSTA (POR) 24′, COSTINHA (POR) 33′, PAULO FERREIRA (POR) 60′, SCHWEINSTEIGER Bastian (GER) 78′