Scorsese finally win

Martin Scorsese finally received his Best Director Oscar today for "The Departed". Hell, the Academy were so certain about the win they got three friends to hand the award to him. The names of those three? How about Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas!

Yes, Scorsese was going to win and to be fair, he deserved it. After missing despite "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas", he did deserve at least ONE. The rest of the Oscar show were just as boring; Helen Mirren got best actress as British monarch Elizabeth II in "The Queen" (as expected); Forest Whitaker got best actor as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland" (as expected); Jennifer Hudson got best supporting actress as a soul singer in "Dreamgirls" (as expected); the only minor surprise was when Eddie Murphy lost to Alan Arkin for best supporting actor.

Scorsese also got his first best picture win for "The Departed". Yes, the Chinese media will be crowing about that tomorrow. For me, the best moment was when one of my fav. singers Melissa Etheridge won the original song Oscar for "I Need to Wake Up." Unfortunately, one of the few high points in te show. Like I said, boring.

The Singapore Rain-dance

People who sell umbrellas must be laughing all the way to the bank. After the record-breaking rainfall last year, the rising heat is causing Singaporeans to buy and bring out their umbrellas again.

According to the NEA, the rainfall during the first half of this month is 90 percent below average for this time of the year. WOW! 90 percent below average! That truly show how crazy the world has become. I can still remember the floods 3 months ago, now Singaporeans will be doing rain-dances.

I think it is time Singapore do something to help in this. Instead of spending money to tell Singaporeans not to gamble (talk about a sure lose campaign), how about a campaign on protecting the environment. Surely that's more important then...money. Nevermind, forget I said anything.

Water on Mars?

Just thinking about how many planets there are out there, I always thought that there must be at least one other planet out there which can support life. Now it seems that our nearest neighbour Mars is it!

Scientists have long debated whether water flowed on the red planet. Evidence have been increasing in recent years but now an orbiting spacecraft has sent back even more evidence for the presence of it on Mars. The NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show alternating layers of dark and light-toned rock in a giant rift valley. According to researchers from the University of Arizona those rocks indicate areas where fluids, probably water, passed through the bedrock. The researchers also said that layered outcrops can indicate cycles with materials deposited by regular episodes of water, wind or volcanic activity.

Just last December images from the Mars Global Surveyor showed changes in craters that provide the strongest evidence yet that water moved through them as recently as several years ago.

Personally, I don't see why scientists are so hung up on water. Yes, water is important for life...ON EARTH. If a planet do not have water, life could still find a way to live. Even if Mars has water, that still doesn't prove anything. The only way is to send someone to the red planet and come back with evidence of life. I wish NASA would spend less money on taking pictures and more on sending people into space. If they don't, I hope the Chinese will.

The Grammys...I think

Grammys? What Grammys? Today, it wasn't the Grammys awards. It was the Classics Award! How else can anyone explain how Nelly Furtado and Timbaland's "Promiscuous," lost to..."For Once in My Life"? Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett may be legends but come on, how many people have actually heard that song? I know I haven't!

And in a show of how unpopular the American President is, the Dixie Chicks were awarded with five awards. When was the last time a country act got the rare triple of record, album and song of the year? The Dixie Chicks should have thanked Bush for getting them the awards, hell they even had standing ovations for god sake!

Outside the Chicks, the rest of the awards were almost too safe. Old men like Stevie Wonder and bland young acts like John Mayer, Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood were the ones getting the awards. What happened to Corinne Bailey Rae or James Blunt? You mean boring Underwood is the best new artist in front of them? She doesn't even write her own songs? No wonder record sales are in decline.

Sensei

Just finished a book I've borrowed from the Singapore Library titled 'Sensei' by John Donohue. The book is basically about this white guy called Connor Burke who is a martial arts expert, training under his Japanese Sensei. Conner was then pulled into an investigation on the deaths of various Japanese martial arts experts in America. The reason for this...his brother is the leading investigator on one of the deaths. The deaths then leaded the brothers to Conner's sensei as well as an art exhibition Conner was consulting on. Yes, coincidences like these are all abound in the book. That plus the Japanese mumbo jumbo (name for handsigns anyone?) that littered the book means that it will not be for everyone.

Having said that, this book was clearly a labour of love for the author. It is stated in the book that John Donohue is an expert in various martial arts. I believe it. He knows what he is writing about and could name the various martial art holds like clockwork. However, it also seems that he wasn't that confident in his writing abilities. At times he will write stuff like "it's hard to explain", as if to apologies up front if the reader do not understand him. However, the fast pace of the book makes it a good read. So if you are a martial arts fan, this book may be for you. Check it out.

Laugh? Cry? What the hell! As long as they WIN!

What can I say? I'm a Singaporean! Singapore stun Thailand to win Asean championship title. Lions keeper Lionel Lewis was Singapore's best player by far as he deny Pipat Thonkanya and Datsakorn Thonglao within the first 25 mins of the match. However in the 37th min, Datsakorn Thonglao chip the ball into the box and Pipat Thonkanya headed the ball past Aide Iskander, totally wrongfooting the defender, and volley it past Lewis. Singapore to their credit kept fighting and in the 81st min substitute Khairul Amri stunned everyone by smashing the ball into the net from just outside the box. It was a goal out of nothing. The result gave Singapore the Asean Football Championship title as it meant they edge Thailand for a 3-2 aggregate win. Yes, that's right! The stupid, nonsense penalty that gave Singapore the 2-1 win over Thailand the other night has decided the Championship. Laugh? Cry? What the hell! They won right?

Singapore 2 Thailand 1...just don't ask me how

Mind you all, I am a Singaporean but the match last night between Singapore and Thailand stink. Singapore beat Thailand for the first time in 30 years but there was nothing to gloat about because Malaysian referee C. Ravichandran gave a penalty which quite frankly did not exist!
Somehow, the referee saw that Singapore striker Noh Alam Shah was pulled down in the box by Thai centre-back Niweat Siriwong in the 82th min. The Thai then staged a 15 mins walkout. What nonsense!
Every player on the pitch was turning to run down-field after the incident, there wasn't a single protest from anyone (including the Singapore players) for a penalty. Even in Singapore, there was hardly anyone who think it was a penalty. The morning papers in Singapore tried to say that the Thais should not have walked out. That may be true but hello! Why isn't anyone saying anything about the awarding of the penalty? A bad decision is a bad decision, why isn't anyone screaming kelong? Nonsense!