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.

Stages of Grief and Loss

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross stated there are five stages that people go through when faced with grief and loss. This can be related to death or even break-ups i suppose. Basically, the five stages are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Final Acceptance. The thing is, i thing I got my stages mixed up when I broke up recently. Let me explain.

The first stage I went through when I dumped her was Bargaining. It was only a few hours after the incident, but I've already started to plead and beg her to take me back. Of course, she didn't give me a straight answer until 4-5 days after that so I went through the Denial stage. I kept telling myself that there is a chance to get back in the relationship, but I was wrong, so wrong. I'm going through Anger right now, because I feel like she toyed with my emotions and simply left me cold and bloody by the roadside. I feel betrayed, and I keep on having visions of bad things, really bad things happening to her friends. I'm sure that I haven't gone through the Final Acceptance stage yet, because I still feel as though this whole breaking up business is wrong. I'm not saying that I shouldn't have broken up with her, I'm only saying that I was made to believe something fake and things wouldn't be this painful if only she was honest to me.

Another reason why I feel like I got my stages mixed up is because of the Depression stage. For me, I didn't go through one single stage where I was constantly depressed. Depression was like a constant for me, because it existed throughout the other stages as well. I haven't had a single day since I've broken up where I didn't think about her and felt depressed. It goes to show that Kubler-Ross' theory isn't exactly perfect yet, but I don't really care about that. All I know is, I'm enraged and depressed and (oh please God) I hope I can go smack the hell out of her right now. If it wasn't for my "no violence against women" policy, she'll be going back to her friends with cuts and bruises. Argh...

While dealing with this depression, I kept on reminding myself that I've still got basketball, friends, family and my Koala. To tell you the truth, I'm glad because my friends and Koala has been there to support me throughout the whole break-up. Thanks Cerak, Khalis, Jean, Adam, and anyone else I forgot to mention. I would've gone crazy if it wasn't for you guys.

Oh, and Koala, if you're reading this, thanks a lot for being here for me throughout this hard time, and thanks for everything. I really appreciate it.

Random Emo Song

This is a song by Coheed and Cambria, one of my all-time favourite band. I like the lyrics because it works on so many levels. Personally, I think that the song's simply about a person who's just broken up and feels like he was betrayed by the ex. In fact, he feels like taking up a knife and cutting her up. Actually, cancel that. I feel like taking up a chainsaw and mutilating Comel. I just broke up a few days ago, by the way.

The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut

In the final curtain call
You left me here with the coldest of feelings
Weight, kind, depression
Blessing the floors with the places you’ve stepped in
Will they ever measure up to the way you left me?
Here on the roadside the bloodiest cadaver
Marked in your words: I’m the joke, I’m the bastard
Here wait, so I guess that you knew
That you’re… a selfish little whore
I’m the selfish little whore
If I had my way I’d crush your face in the door

This is no beginning… this is the final cut
Open up, I’m in love

Emo Song of The Week

I'm addicted to this song because of a few things. First, it's because of the lyrics. Short and concise, and it still delivers the desired emotions. I put my favorite lines in Italic.
Second reason, it's because of the guy's voice. His voice doesn't make feel sad. It makes me feel pain. It makes me feel his pain, and reminds me of my pain.
The last reason would be because the song's played with just two guitars through out the whole song, and it doesn't sound over-produced like the mainstream ballads you hear on MTV. This song sounds honest, in a way.
Anyways, go check this song out.

Nadia's Picture Show - Menunggu Dirimu

Semuanya kan berakhir
Kiranya kau kan mungkir
Tetapku menunggu mu
Untuk kau terus berfikir

Jangan kau anggap ini semuanya
Hanya mimpi yang tak berharga
Jangan kau hampa tentang isinya
Kenangan yang telah kita bina

Hanyaku yang inginkan semua
Untuk kita terus berdua

Ku kan terus tersiksa
Kiranya aku tetapkan menunggu dirimu

Harusku menahan semua kisah cintaku
Jauh, jauh….
Jauh…



p/s: this song will forever remind me of that emo girl

Random Update

First up, I'm going to go ahead and say that I think my non-paying 2-day modeling gig went well. Christie didn't put me in the IT nerds shot. Instead, I was put into two different shots. The first one was a massive group photo with 3 girls and 6-7 other guys. We all wore business suits, and one guy was holding a trophy in the middle while we all huddled up and faked some glorious emotions. It was funny because we were basically cheering and screaming for nothing, and the trophy we used was a really old trophy. Seriously, REALLY old. The props guy had to dust it off before we used it. That's how old it was.
The second shot was uber cool. See the Franz Ferdinand picture? That's the shot that Khalis, Aaron and I had to recreate. We all wore skinny jeans with coats and ties, the whole works. I even had my hair combed like one of the guys. We had to jump a few times before we got the shot we wanted, but it's all good. Christie said that she'll give us a CD containing all the pictures taken during the gig, and I can't wait to get it.
Jackie, one of the guys in charge told us that the pictures are going to come out early next month, most probably. Of course, since we're talking about Malaysians here, I'd say the earliest they'll come out is late November. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure I'll be uploading the photos once I get it.
Anyways, I had a good Aidilfitri. The only thing I hated was driving back, because I got stuck in a traffic jam for 3 hours. Sigh. One interesting thing that I would not forget was seeing my little cousins trying to "layoq" some chickens while in Alor Star. My uncle and I had to "sembelih" and prepare 7 chickens for the family to cook, and the little buggers were forced to help pluck out all the feathers. It was funny because it was their first time doing it, and my little sister was making a big fuss over it. "This may be the only time I'll ever do this in my whole life," she says.
Oh, another random thing. I've been trying to figure out ways to kiss a girl without her noticing it. Things like lightly kissing the girl's shoulder when taking the escalator, kissing the back of her head while she's paying for something, etc. Anybody has any other methods to share?

Franz Ferdinand, IT Nerds and Boybands

Just a short update. It's about my first meeting with Christie regarding a (non-paying)modelling job. I just have to blog about this, but before that I'll have to explain about Josh and Khalis a little bit. Let me talk about Josh first. When I first knew him, he had this "emo" look going on. You know what I'm talking about. He got the hair, the black t-shirts, etc. Over the past year, however, he's been trying to reinvent his image and do this "preppy boy" look. I still make fun of his "emoness" from time to time, because he might not look the part anymore but he's still got some random flashes from time to time.

Khalis is good-looking. He's the type of guy that'll make people turn their heads for a second look. Seriously, he attracts a lot of people. From girls to guys, young to old, Malay to Chinese, etc. In other words, anyone from young Chinese girls to old Malay guys. That's how he got invited to be a model by Christie. It was a non-paying job, and he asked me and Josh to go along with him.

Christie's already got a few shots that she wants to copy, pictures or ads that she got off magazines. When Christie first looked at Khalis, she said "you'll fit into our Franz Ferdinand shot". Then, she listed down a few more shots that she thought Khalis might fit in. There were quite a few. When she took a look at me, she didn't hesitate and immediately said "we can put you in the group of IT nerds". Once she saw Josh, she said "ah, you can be in the boyband picture!". Can you imagine how hard it was for me to keep myself from laughing? Josh just made one of the craziest transitions I've ever seen. He's changed from Emo to Boyband!

Change of subject.

I haven't wrote anything about Comel in a long time, it seems so here's a new story about her. She's been putting up some happy lines on facebook and one line was taken from a malay song. It went "Oh, bawalah daku bersamamu oh sayang. Kita kan terbang ke angkasa, ke kayangan". I had a berbuka date with her last Wednesday, and the plan was I'll pick her up at her house to go eat at a mamak stall. On the day itself, she decided to stay back after work for a little while so we had to change plans. By the time I picked her up from work, it was too late for us to go to a restaurant because most places were already full. We decided to buy food at McD's Drive Thru and drive back to Shah Alam where we'll have a picnic somewhere. We ended up eating near this one lake/park in a housing area called D'Kayangan. Conclusion, she asked to be taken to kayangan and I delivered, although it wasn't planned. Pretty convenient coincidence, huh?

This Post Is Not About Comel

I was talking to Nick about how I'm not comfortable around gays and I think it's because I had an unpleasant scenario with this allegedly gay guy. This thing happened back when I was in Urbana. It was during summer break, and I shared a house with three other guys throughout the break. This incident happened during the first week of us moving in.

Of course, everyone felt tired during the first few days. There were a lot of stuff to move, clean, etc, so we understood why Squidboy(not real name) was still sleeping in his room at noon. He left his laptop outside in the living area, so Ogre proceeded to hijack it. Let me give a little perspective on Squidboy for you. He is a, er, "soft-spoken" skinny little boy with long hair. A big fan of Desperate Housewives, and doesn't watch the World Cup. Oh, and the guy's freaking religious. I mean, freaking religious as compared to most of my friends now, but that's besides the point. Let's continue with the story. So Ogre turns the laptop on and say," Just because the guy's religious doesn't mean that he doesn't watch porn. I bet you there's some porn clips inside this!"

Ogre went through the usual snooping business. He went through the various media folders and found nothing other than some bubblegum pop songs. He was disappointed, but someone mentioned the internet and it gave Ogre an idea. He checked out the history folder of Squidboy's Internet Explorer and voila. We found porn. I remember thinking that it must have been some good porn because Ogre just stood still with his jaw open.
...
Only thing is, they were gay porn.
...
Not one or two websites, but dozens of hardcore gay websites.
...
Nobody said anything for a while. We all sat there queitly while Ogre turned the notebook off and tried to remove any evidence of his messing around.

What was messed up was the fact that I just recently slept in Squidboy's room a few nights before that. See, I couldn't sleep in my room during the first night of moving in because the room wasn't ready yet so I had to sleep in Squidboy's room. It didn't occur to me at the time, but I remember having a wet dream while I was sleeping in his room. Freaky. No other word for it. FREAKY. Seriously FREAKY.

Nobody confronted him about the issue. He still doesn't know that we know. We don't want him to know. If he wanted us to know, he would have told us by now, I guess. Plus, asking him about it would mean telling him that Ogre went through his stuff so we didn't do it. Yes, so I blame my non-existent comfort level around gays on that one incident. The whole thought of having a wet dream in a gay guy's room while he was still in it just gave me some unwholesome ideas about what really happened while I was asleep. In fact, I shall stop talking about it now.

p/s: I think my writing skills are crap now compared to 3-4 years ago. Don't trust me? see my first few posts in this blog and see for yourself.

Random Emo Song of the Moment

I'm going to start putting up lyrics for random emo songs from time to time. I like this song particularly because of the lyrics. I find it sad, angry and witty. My favorite lines are in bold.

"All Hail The Heartbreaker" - Spill Canvas

I had the notion that you'd make me change my ways
My bad habits would be gone in a matter of days
I had the feeling that you'd open up my eyes
To a whole new world that had since been in disguise

But that day will most likely never come for me
And it's just my luck to end up getting stuck
To everything you are

So tonight I'll sit and pick apart your pictures
And overanalyze your words
But the truth is that I've never fallen so hard
It's taking everything in me
Just to forget your sweater so far

I had the notion that you'd make me forget the world
But your undecisive mind shows me that
You are "just another girl"
I had the feeling that those looks you gave me were real
What if I ripped your heart apart at the seams
Maybe then you'd know how I feel

I can honestly say
That I never, ever, ever felt this way
Your lips, your eyelashes, your skin
These are the parts of your body
That cause my comatose to begin

I will sleep another day
I don't really need to anyway
What's the point when my dreams are infected
With words you used to say
I will breathe in a moment
As long as I keep my distance
I wouldn't want to go messing anything up

So don't go worrying about me
It's not like I think about you constantly
So maybe I do, but that shouldn't affect your life anymore
I knew it the moment you walked into the door

I'll let you get the best of me
Because there's nothing else that I do well
I'll be the giver and you'll be the taker
I guess that's how this one's gonna go
I'll be the giver and you'll be the taker
You've got me down on my knees and I proclaim
All hail the heartbreaker



P/S: My definition of emo may differ from other people, so please don't hate on me if you think I've wrongly accused a band of being emo.

Baju Raya, Spaghetti and McD

I might as well right this out while it's still fresh.
I went out with Comel to find a Baju Raya because her mom was making a big fuss about her always buying at the last moment. She wanted to go with her cousin at first, but the cousin declined so I was her next choice.

First we went to Subang Parade, but it turned out that they don't have as many Baju Kurungs there as last year so we went back to Shah Alam after less than an hour of walking around there. We went to SACC after that and proceeded to walk for about an hour before crossing the street to go to Kompleks PKNS. Altogether, we walked for roughly four hours in search of one Baju Kurung that she would like.

To tell you the truth, I don't like going shopping with people. In fact, I'd much rather finish a pack of fags at a restaurant that serves bottomless drinks while reading a book but it was fasting month so I didn't have my usual escape route once I realized that the ordeal was going to last for more than an hour. Then again, she wasn't exactly bad company. We talked throughout the whole time and joked about eating at McDonald's, etc so I didn't get bored. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of wearing a capal instead of normal slippers so my back was killing me at the time.

When we got to her Baju Kurung of choice, I finally had the opportunity to sit down while she tried it out. I sat near the changing room, occupied with the thought of my aching back. When she got out with her blue Baju Kurung on, I was speechless. She thought I was just quiet because I was tired, but oh boy was I speechless. She looked lovely(pardon my lack of vocabulary). In fact, the whole four hours of walking around was worth it because she looked lovely(again, I can't find another word to use). My back was still aching, but it didn't matter because I was sending her back soon afterwards.

She felt sorry about making me walk with her for so long, and she felt bad about my back. We joked about me wanting some of her home-cooked spaghetti after I sent her home, which is not really that important until later on that night. At around 10pm, she asked me to wait in front of my house. I was surprised, to say the least, because she's never visited me at home before. Well, actually, she still has never visited me at home. She only came to my front gate and gave me a small paper bag.

What was inside the paper bag? Some food from McDonald's and some of her spaghetti. I still can't get this stupid grin off my face. Sigh. I have to thank her cousin one of these days.