Hindi Movie Dream

I had a dream yesterday. I'm sure that it went on for quite some time, but I can only remember a few minutes of it and it looked exactly like one of those artsy Hindi movie scenes. You know the part where the girl runs away playfully into a large field with the guy chasing after her, and they're both laughing. It was exactly like that. And the girl was Comel.

The scene took place at night, and I remember the field was clear and I could see KLCC in the background. That reminds me, I'm a good cameraman in my dreams. No, seriously. The more I remember, the more I realize how good the cinematography was, but I digress. I remember seeing her from behind, wearing a light blue Baju Kurung with a thin shawl. She looked innocent. She turned around a few times, trying to see if I was still running after her. By the time I caught up with her, I had her in my arms and we had the most amazing kiss we've ever had. Lips slightly parted, minimal tongue. Just a short, sweet kiss. Come to think about it, I've had better kisses, just not with her, but that's besides the point.

Anyways, I don't know if I should put much thought about this dream. It was just a dream, after all. I don't really want any complications right now. I'm too tired. Sigh.

Random Emo Song of the Week

I've been listening to Alesana's album entitled Where Myth Fades to Legend(cool album name, by the way). Sounds emo, with a little bit of screaming here and there. It's pretty nice to listen to this album while driving. Nothing really special here but it's worth downloading, I guess.

Alesana - Seduction

Sunlight warms my face only in dreams of you
I know you'll wait for me... it's been too long
Beautiful eyes. beautiful lies to dull the pain
Beautiful eyes, beautiful lies... you're killing me
I would wait for years just to feel you again
I will die without you... would you my love?
Beautiful eyes, beautiful lies pour from your mouth as
You scream his name... you're killing me

Cries escape your sweet voice as I kiss you one last time
... One last time...
Do you remember me and our beautiful affair?
Look in my eyes and honestly tell me our love is gone!
Why have you turned your back on me?
One day you'll wake up and realize your mistake

Ice runs through my veins as I stand face to face with
The one who stole it all
Compassion is not an option

In love we're one, inseparable, pathetic lust, thus we crumble
I saw your eyes, I wiped your tears, I waited for you...

Who do you see with your eyes shut tight?
Regret will be your bride
Goodbye...

Cries escape your sweet voice as I paint my own goodbye

Lakers Lost? It's All Good

Other than the Suns, I also hate the Pistons and the Celtics. The Pistons, because of what they did to the Lakers during that one year they became champs, and the Celtics for what they did to the Lakers in last season's finals. I don't really hate the Pistons as much now, mainly because Big Ben's no longer big, Billups went home to Denver and A.I. is now a Piston. I was still pissed off because Detroit stopped our unbeaten run, but I saw the Denver-Boston game and it all evens out in the NBA. Lakers losing to the Pistons is not as bad as the Celtics losing to the Nuggets. So, yeah. I'm still happy.

On a side-note, I shouldn't eat too much right before training. I ate at Chili's before going down to the court, and the big portion of food didn't do me any good on the court. Saddiq was not amused. I was flat out tired after an hour, I didn't run on fast breaks, had a lot of stupid turnovers and was mostly just standing around on offense. On the plus-side, I'm getting comfortable with my mid-range jumpshots. If I could consistently hit those mid-range shots and people start to close up on me on defense, it'll be easier for me to drive by people. So, yeah. I'm going to work on my mid-range and make people respect my jumpshot.

Steve Nash is Funny!

I used to hate Steve Nash after those two first-round playoff meetings between the Suns and the Lakers a few years back. After watching these clips, and after the Lakers got WAY better last season, I'm beginning to think that Steve Nash is an okay dude. Funny, funny stuff.



Fave line - "I'd just like to take a big brand, put it on my back, give them a little piggyback ride for a while. See how good they can be."


The real secret behind his summer training, huh?



Fave lines -
"Triple X. When one X isn't enough"
"I'm just like you. But ten times better"
"When you think of MJ what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Me"

Like freaking seriously, I hate it when athletes try to cash in on their fame and appear on tv but I really think that Steve can be a good comedic actor. Will pay money to watch him in a movie. It has to be a comedy, though. And I'd want some grass to go along with it.

Cyberjaya Tourney

There's a 3 on 3 tourney in Cyberjaya on the 29th, and I plan on entering. I'm bringing John and Man Rebound. At least, that's what I think right now. John may or may not be able to play with me because he's only 19, and I'm not sure if he'll be able to play in the same category as me. Man on the other hand has a tournament in Perak a week before the 29th so he'll only be able to play barring any injuries. I'm crossing my fingers on this one. I hope I can play with these two guys.

Details -
Where : Pusat Komuniti Cyberjaya
When : 8am-6pm, Nov 29th 2008
Categories : Under 19, 20-24, 25 and above (only Non-Chinese)

Anyways, here's my take on the two guys who (I hope) will be playing with me. John's a natural swingman. He's got his triple-threat going on, but he can still post-up against smaller guys and dominate because of his freakish athletic ability. Man Rebound, despite his name, is not just a rebounder. He's a freaking great rebounder, one of the best I've seen for his size, but he also possesses some nice post moves. No perimeter game, but he can shoot from midrange decently. Mainly a high-post player. Some say one-dimensional, I say nevermind.

I'm feeling good about these two guys, because John's a hell of a spot-up shooter and Man's a great option in the post. That means I can just hang around the 3-point line and play my game. Defensively, I'll be taking the weakest opponent because John's a good perimeter defender (freakish athletic ability+wingspan like a hawk=hard time for opponents) and Man is a good shot-blocker for his size. Unless we go up against a team with a 6'2" ogre, I'm pretty sure we'll do alright.

I'm not putting too much hope on this tourney, because it's open to anyone who's not Chinese and there's a lot of good Malay ballers out there. Hopefully the guys would be too exhausted from the Petronas Cup (yet another non-chinese tourney, although a more established one) and skip this tourney. Then my team would have a good shot. Wait a second. I haven't registered for the tourney yet. Arck!

Shot

Random short poem I found. Sounds so depressing, but accepting at the same time.

I can't blame you for this. I should've seen it coming.
It was my fault, I suppose.
I provided the gun.
I provided the ammo.
I provided the easy target.
Come on now, baby.
Put me out of my misery.
Here we go, will you pull the trigger now?

Budak Kelantan

I had some alone time yesterday. 7 hours, to be exact. It was hell. I've been going through this phase where I'm starting to miss my ex, and I know that it's part of the whole acceptance process but it doesn't make it any easier. I used to enjoy my alone time, driving lazily, smoking while listening to music but I'm starting to hate it because that's when I start to think of her and miss her. I feel sepi everytime I'm alone, and I didn't have anyone to hang out with yesterday. So I had to distract myself.

I spent the first three hours reading a bit from Catch-22, helping a few of my friends with some marketing stuff, and talking to Michael about random stuff. Catch-22 is funny, and I am seriously considering buying the book in a few weeks' time. Unless of course I could find someone who'd lend me the book. Talking to Michael was even funnier, with the topics going from Formula 1 to Malaysian Chinese's lansi-ness to road bullies to national economic situations to etc. Started to run out of ideas on ways to distract myself, so I went to One Utama.

What did I do in One Utama? Watch two movies back-to-back, alone. The first was House Bunny, which made me laugh on a few occasions but did not prevent me from attending to my phone on a few different occasions throughout the movie. The second movie, however, was different. It simply made me ignore all incoming calls, so it's safe to say that I was glued to my seat.

First of all, Budak Kelantan is roughly 99% Kelantanese dialect. I've had some bad experiences with Kelantanese people during my school days, but the dialect still attracts me. The fact that the usage of the dialect didn't sound fake (unlike those Razak Mohaideen movies) caught my attention even more. Of course, I don't like the movie just because of the dialect. There were other aspects to it as well. The whole cinematography was good. There were a few scenes that simply oozed coolness on a visual basis. Other than that, there were also a few good lines that I thought were brilliant. The whole "kande kambing" line was thought-provoking, to say the least.

I also liked the issues brought up in the movie. There was the whole issue of crime and delinquecy, which would attract any young Malay male I suppose. The movie also touched on friendship, and the movie's take on the two main character's friendship is good. It wasn't original, but good try nevertheless.

Anyways, I managed to distract myself from feeling sepi yesterday but I don't think I'll be able to do it everytime I'm alone. I can only hope that the next time I'm alone, I won't think of her anymore because more than anything else, I just want to enjoy my alone time. God help me.

Movie References... Funny...

I got this from Family Guy but I don't know what movie it came from. Sounds cool, though.

You wanna hurt me?
Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better.
I'm an easy target.
Yeah, you're right. I talk too much.
I also listen too much.
Oh, I can be a cold-hearted cynic like you.
But I don't like to hurt people's feelings.
Well, you think what you want of me, I'm not changing.
I like.. I like me.
My kids like me.
My friends like me.
Cause I'm the real article.
What you see is what you get.

Iverson becoming a Piston? Seriously?

By now you would have already heard the news. Iverson goes to Detroit for Billups, McDyess and Cheikh Samb. McDyess' contract would most probably be bought out, and Samb calls for no real attention so the trade is basically an Iverson-Billups swap. It looks like a win-win trade, but it's too early to pass any real judgment. I'm not going to discuss about the whole salary cap thing or the "which team is getting the better end of the deal" debate, because you can read about it in ESPN or other places. I just want to touch on two points regarding the two point guards.

Firstly, this move is basically a sign that I'm getting older. No, seriously. Iverson was one of my basketball idols while I was growing up and for Denver to move him in favor of JR Smith getting some minutes just shows that Iverson's time is up. Iverson's current talents is outweighed by JR Smith's potential. Iverson's old, and I'm getting older. Sigh... Oh, and Billups was reportedly moved to give Rodney Stuckey some playing time while McDyess was moved to give Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell some playing time. Conclusion? These old guys had to move out of the young dudes' ways. Kudos to both organizations for finding the right deal to develop their young players, though.

Second thing, this trade changes the whole perspective of both teams, doesn't it? AI's a star, (or was, according to you haters) and he's now playing in Detroit who've been trying to justify the "we don't need stars to win" view. Then again, maybe AI wouldn't get as much freedom as he did in Denver, hence taking a more team-based approach towards basketball. Very unlikely, but who knows, right? On the Nuggets' side, I thought they wanted to run and run and run and gun, so what the hell is Chauncey doing there? Who knows. Looking at it now, Billups might slow down the offense but he's one hell of a pass-first point guard so he can make it work. Then again, the other Nuggets might have a hard time adjusting or worse, Chauncey might just run and run and run and fall.

Old people getting moved to give young guys a chance, change in basketball philosophies after a few years of losing in the playoffs, all these things show that these two teams are trying to change. We won't be able to tell what they'll change into just yet, but give it some time.Whatever it is, this trade has too many variables for any smart person to judge immediately. Goes to show how complicated life, I mean, basketball really is.

Archers Update

The Archers had a friendly with S12U, which consisted of ballers from the court in Section 12, Shah Alam today. S12U had 15 players while the Archers only had 7. One of us didn't play and opted to be coach, but we had the help of some UiTM regulars. It wasn't really a proper friendly, because we didn't really play by the books.

First up, there were no shotclocks. In fact, there were no clocks used, period. The winner is first to 50, with scores in 2s and 3s. There were no referees and no free throws, so players called their own fouls which led to certain players going rough and ended up being emo. Overall, it was a good match for both teams as we were both rather inexperienced. Archers won 50-40, by the way. Anyways, here's a brief individual scouting report for the Archers.

Fikri(guard) - Dude shot the lights out today. He made more than half of his jumpshots and really punished his defenders who gave him too much room to operate. He started out slow and made some bad passes early on, but pushed the pace once the team got settled in. Showcased some good dribbling talent. A lot of upside to this young, awkward-looking point guard. However, he's a little bit slow and doesn't really possess the ability to drive to the hoop. Will face problems once he faces quick pointguards.

Faiz(guard) - Defends with a lot of intensity and hustles. Once a guy loses his dribble, he closes up quickly. Fairly good on-the-ball defender. Valuable in pressure defense situations. Has a high basketball IQ, and knows where players are supposed to be to get the open shot. This guy shouldn't be taking jumpshots for the time-being. His shooting mechanics look consistent, but his shots weren't falling today.

Nazim(guard) - Anticipates the passing lane and gets the steal with ease. Projected to be the leading steals man in Archers. Good shooter in practice, but didn't bring his guns to the game today. Archers will need him to consistently shoot the outside shot in future games.

Dan(guard) - Plays according to the coach. Got tired despite playing limited minutes.

Yusuf(forward) - He can play the high-post well in practice, but struggled playing his game against rougher opponents. Showed flashes of his post game, but it was mostly because of bad defense rather than good offense. Can easily score when he's aggresive, and needs to be in that mindset throughout the whole game.

Ali/Sadiq(forward) - Didn't play but coached instead. Good at spotting fatigue and distributing playing time among the Archers. Should've been more vocal about calling plays, though.

PG/Bomba(guard/forward) - Ran up and down the court, but didn't finish his cuts when it mattered. Was not aggresive on offense, and looked lost at times during defense. His only two baskets were jumpers, one from midrange and the other a trey from the baseline. Needs to be confident in taking open shots and drive to the basket when possible.

Overall performance - Defended as a team well, as there were minimal leaks in their zone defense. However, they didn't capitalize on opportunities to trap opponents despite knowing that the other team had only a few true ball-handlers. They didn't finish their ball-rotation on offense, and it led to quite a number of long jumpers. Their guards didn't cut, and it led to the ball being stagnant on a few occasions. The team looked like they didn't have chemistry. This is most probably due to the influx of outsiders playing for the Archers today, but the team should've played their game nevertheless.

On a sidenote, I'm only doing this individual scouting report thingy so that I can better understand me and my teammates' strength and weaknesses. I'm not trying to diss anyone here. Peace.