A real Aussie Battler

That tennis match just then was, in equal parts, both inspiring and depressing.

Inspiring because Nadal, who I presume would be in a world of pain with his damaged hamstring, decided to soldier on, even though he knew he would lose.

Depressing because this random injury cropped up at the worst possible time to derail what would've been a fantastic record for him to have achieved. I reckon it would've been easier to swallow if he had been fully fit, and was defeated that way (although the chances of that happening are almost non-existent, as he is quite hard to beat when not injured).

Realistically, it'll be hard for him to be gunning for all four Grand Slams at once again. But you never know. It happened once, it could happen again, him being so young and all. But I guess this is why it's hard to do. You never know when something random could just pop up and ruin it all. Better luck next time, Rafa.



UPDATE: Just saw his live press conference. Basically refused to talk about his injuries, because he felt it would be demeaning to his opponent. Also paraphrased the quote at the top of the Wimbledon tunnel, saying that he has to be able to take the high moments along with the low moments. Legendary.

I'm also quite upset that I don't get to watch Wozniacki tomorrow. I'm at a stupid NQT meeting. Sigh. I've taken a liking to her. I liked how she took care of Hewitt's daughter (or son - I still don't know which) when the fool decided to bring her (him?) on court at the Rally for Relief, and s/he started crying. Very down-to-earth. I half feel like not going. I wonder if anybody would notice. I doubt it. Usually, there'd be no roll call or any sort of way for marking attendance if I don't turn up, but if I decide not to go, they'll be making sure they get down the names of everybody attending. Murphy's Law, and all that. Hope the BIg Woz wins tomorrow, so we can see her in action again at some later stage.

Also, Australia 6 - 0 Bahrain. I don't know what's more surprising, Australia keeping a clean sheet, or Australia scoring six. Maybe they're both equally surprising, and they're secretly having a competition to be more surprising than the other. Not really that surprising anymore, now that I've discussed the hell out of it.

Also, also, Kevin Muscat. What a terrible, terrible tackle. And he has the nerve to look angry at the ref for giving him a red. He should be banned for the rest of the season. No kidding, that tackle was life-threatening. Ok, seriously, it was career-threatening. Here it is here:



Just in case you don't know, it's against the rules for both feet to leave the ground in a tackle, even if you completely miss the player and get the ball. As you can see, there are reasons for that rule.

Oh yeah, Arsenal in the Carling Cup final. Come on Gunners!!!

So a mixed bag of sporting news today. At least from my perspective.

On to personal life (the boring part).

Yesterday, I watched the Green Hornet with Paddy. One of the worst films I've seen. Seriously. Disjointed, unintelligible, not very funny, did not utilise 3D at all, and Jay Chou (who was disjointed, unintelligible, not very funny, AND was incoherent 90% of the time. However, he did utilise a little bit of 3D).

A lot of things to do, not very much time. Got to get cracking on all of this soon. Wish I had a girlfriend to help me do this stuff sometimes, but there you go. That's life, as Nadal says.

Happy Australia Day, by the way.

Word of the Day: Legend

Another thought

A thought just occurred to me. This seems to be happening a lot. Spontaneity for the win.

Unless I'm mistaken, this concerns all of us. We, as humans, are preoccupied with the reason behind something. Always. Someone's late. Someone's broken a promise. A coconut falls from a palm tree and hits someone on the foot.

Knowing the reasons behind these things doesn't change the fact that they did happen.

However, something else just occurred to me. I mean, literally just now. We want to know these things because we want accountability. We want to be able to be angry, or at least rectify the problem. We want to make things better, or, at the polar opposite, cut it off completely.

What a stupid thought.

Banh's Australia Day shindig was quite awesome yesterday. The food was very nice, and the company, as always, was excellent. Well, most of the company consisted of my friends, so that's understandable really.

Anyway, the food was quite creative more than anything. Seared lamb gyoza, salmon rice paper rolls, puff pastry with hoisin sauce, and black forest trifle for dessert. I have a feeling that I've left something out, but that'll do for now. Sounds delicious enough as it is.

I also watched most of the Nadal loss there. Most saddening.

These things are awesome. The shindig, I mean. Not the Nadal losing. Takes my mind off things. Not that it's on a lot of things. Just a few things which I get overly stressed by.

Word of the Day: Australia Day

Fed up with the Federeration

As predicted, the decision to ban Eduardo has been reversed, the reason basically being what I've maintained all along: that it wasn't a clear-cut dive, and that he didn't ask for a penalty.

On to more ridiculousness: the banning of Chelsea for two transfer windows. This seems very harsh and disproportional to the crime. It's not like they stole the boy from the other team.

And on a (very, very) slightly related note. Federer.

He lost, in case you haven't noticed. I certainly have, what with the Facebook status update spammage. I'm sure he's a great guy and all, but really, surely del Potro isn't the evil devil-jerk that eats babies for breakfast that everyone makes him out to be. I mean, for crying out loud, it wasn't even a milestone. This one would've just been "Yay, now he's got another one to add to his collection of 5 billion other trophies." Surely, if del Potro can get into the final, and muster up the courage and skill to be able to beat someone who is world number one, "the greatest player of our age, or maybe, of all time, and always will be, is close to Godly, and a hottie to boot", surely he deserves it. Maybe, just maybe, Federer deserved to lose because he wasn't playing as well. I think that's more or less how tennis works. In other sports, you can maybe blame luck. In tennis, over five sets, or even three, it's very hard.

Well done del Potro. Don't let all these haters cramp your style. I, for one, am a fan of your lanky frame and slightly awkward style of playing. Even though you beat Nadal, you ended up beating Federer, so it's all good really.

Word of the Day: Federer

Deja Vu

A new semester, but, in a sense, more or less like the one before. The more astute of you will pick up on the delay between the start of semester and this post, but in case you haven't, there it is: this post is late. Again. Which fits in nicely with this repetition theme I have going on here. Repetition theme.

Anyway, about Batman first. So yeah. I saw Batman with the Victor on...some Friday, can't remember which. I was really hyped up for it, because other people were. So anyway, we went in and came back out. To be honest, it didn't really live up to my (ridiculously high) expectations. I really expected to be fully blown out of the water. But I guess the premise already determined that Batman couldn't be better than The Godfather. It's a sequel for one. And it's constrained by the fact that it has to be about this guy, with certain characteristics and features. And then there's the fact that it's based on a comic book. Don't get me wrong, though. It was a great movie. Just not the best of all time, in my opinion. Hell, stuff the my opinion. Everything here is my opinion. Obviously not yours. Anyway, Heath Ledger was awesome, because I surmise that he's already half-gone by that stage in his life. Worth going to.

Then there was this business of the Olympic Games. I watched the Opening Ceremony at 8:08pm, on the 08/08/2008. It was amazing. The Australian team uniform was a huge letdown. Huge. So ugly. Like some cheap tracksuit 10 years out of style. And even they don't have pants that are the same colour as the jacket. Even amongst all the fanfare and hoo-hah, you can't help but wonder what all that money could've done for education and the medical system. Such is the conundrum of China.

Some highlights (or otherwise) so far:
- Phelps winning his eighth. However, I still believe that that does not make him the greatest Olympian of all time, due to the comparative ease with which multiple medals can be obtained in swimming. In swimming, if you can last the distance, all you basically have to do is change your stroke for different events. However, in something like 100 metre sprint, you can't also go for the 1500m as well. It doesn't work like that. An even more extreme example is sports like football or basketball, where there is only the possibility of getting one per Olympics. So no, he's not the greatest. It's just that other athletes are limited by practical complications.
- Usain Bolt winning 100m sprint. Even though I didn't watch it, I heard all about it and the exquisite ease with which he won gold.
- Nadal. Pure perfection and power. Awesome display in destroying Gonza. He's improved out of sight since the Australian Open.
- Lowlight was Grant Hackett. I watched the live as well.
- On the subject of lowlights, Olyroos. Enough said.
- Phelps and his iPod was another lowlight.
- Lowlight no. 4: Asafa who?

At this very moment, I'm watching Argentina vs Brazil. They have Messi. Game over. Unless Brazil put Pato on.

I love the smell of the new football season. New players, new teams, new spirit. And Arsenal have three points from their first game, with Nasri scoring the first goal of the season on four minutes. Good team, that Arsenal.

So back to this semester of uni. I thank the friends that still remain by my side, because a lot have not. You know who you are. I can't really blame them. I mean, it's me. I think it's something inherently "me" that turns people off me. I just get these looks from certain camps, and friends are hard to make. People just aren't interested in talking to me. Maybe I should improve me as a person. Or get plastic surgery. Or something of the sort. Whatever. At least I've met a few new people, who still do not seem interested in sustaining a conversation with me, bar a couple. Maybe my humour's to dry. That could be it. Maybe I should smile to take the bite off my humour. Maybe I should stop speculating about what's wrong with me, because I'll probably never find out.

Assignments coming on thick and fast now, mid-sem test soon, stressed-out people. Deja Vu. Again.