Dear Spammers

Spammers,

It seems that all of you have won a battle. Congratulations. I admit my defeat. Oh man... It cost me my chatbox...

But it is alright. I reckon that the spamming was done by people who know me. I am not against anybody and everybody is my friend. However, many people are against me and I assume that the reason for being against me is because they are simply jealous of me. They see something really good in me that they try to demoralize me and try to bring me down. Dream on, this spurs me to write even more. Thank you guys

For you guys, I swear in the name of Saturn's ring or whatever that you guys will develop a severe cancer. *pop*, the mutations of your proto-oncogenes have started. Congratulations.

people who are jealous of me or against me will die very soon.

People who are against me, if you hate me so much, tell me right in front of my face, I am okay with that. But please, just leave me alone and let me mind my own business. You are wasting your time and my time if you are disturbing me. It is useless, trust me.

I hope you guys enjoy your life with cancer.

I love you guys, (spammers and people who are jealous of me and try to bring me down)

Alvinbeo

Iraq 1-0 Saudi Arabia FT

Finally! Iraq has won the Asian Cup 2007! Will elaborate on this later!

Iraq vs Saudi Arabia HT

It is half time now. We expected fair play in this penultimate match of Asian Cup 2007. However, at 37th minute, an incident happened. This incident involved Iraq's number 10 and captain and star striker Younis Mahmoud and Saudi Arabia's 19. The Saudi player got his face quite close to Younis Mahmoud's face and the Iraqi captain made use of the situation by acting as if his face was shot by a shot gun from a point blank range.

Fortunately, Mark Shield, the Australian referee got this one right. He knew Younis Mahmoud was acting, but he reckoned that there was a contact between the two players. So, he took a diplomatic stance by giving both players a yellow card each.

The second half is resuming soon. The second half can only get better!

Lucky South Koreans

South Korea have just clinched the third place in the Asian Cup 2007 despite being down to 10 men and being on the backfoot most of the time. In addition, South Korea also escaped 3 certain goals with a huge stroke of luck.

As a football fan, I am not very happy with the defeat of Japan. The reason is simply because throughout this tournament, South Korea have not been playing in accordance to Fair Play. They are very rough and they fall down by the slightest touch to win free kicks and even penalties.

Too bad USA prevented North Korea from entering Asian Cup 2007. Otherwise, the South Koreans would be ashamed with themselves especially if North Korea can end the tournament in a better note than them. I am confident North Korea can play in a fair play manner. I have witnessed this last year in the AFC Youth Championship in India where North Korea U-19 team clinched the title in a scintillating fashion and with fair play manner.

Tomorrow will be the match to determine the winner of Asian Cup 2007 between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Let's hope there will be fair play throughout the game and let us all forget about the third place game. South Korea have been sending a very wrong message to the world. The message from them is simply, "Cheat and you will win the game".

This is wrong. Please play fairly. This message is directed to all aspiring footballers out there.

Asian Cup 2007

Asia’s premier football competition, the Asian Cup will be starting very soon. 16 top Asian national football teams will be rubbing against each other’s shoulders to compete for the much coveted trophy and to be officially recognized as the strongest team in Asia. This year’s edition of the quadrennial competition will be quite different from the previous editions due to several factors. First and foremost, this will be the very first time that the competition is hosted by four different countries at the same time. The four host countries are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. This is so basically because these countries do not have adequate number of large stadiums. However, they do have world class stadiums. Malaysia has Shah Alam Stadium and Bukit Jalil Stadium with the capacities of 69372 and 87000 respectively. In Thailand, there is the 65000 capacity Rajmangala Stadium. In Vietnam, My Dinh stadium with 40000 capacity is also a competent in the international stage. Lastly, Indonesia has the 100000 all-seated Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. This world class stadium will be the stadium in which the final of the competition will be played.

Another key difference to this year’s tournament will be the inclusion of Australia, who has just joined the AFC (Asian football federation) recently. We have seen how competent and star-studded the Australian national football team is from last year’s World Cup and we can be sure that they will provide much entertainment for the fans as well as giving the powerhouse nations of Asia a run for their money in this competition, therefore adding depth to the competition.

16 teams are going to compete for the trophy. They are divided into 4 groups in which there are 4 teams in each group. They are all drawn into the groups in such a way that the host nations will not be in the same group and in each group, there will be a balanced number of strong teams and weak teams. Besides to prevent the host countries from playing each other in the same group, the seeding system is also in place to prevent the strong teams from playing each other in the early stage of the competition.

All matches in group A will be played in Thailand, all matches in group B will be played in Vietnam, all matches in group C will be played in Malaysia, and last but not least, all matches in group D will be played in Indonesia. Two teams from each group will advance to the quarter finals. Now, we are going to look into each of the 4 groups and analyze the chances of each team in the group to progress to the quarter finals.

Group A consists of co-hosts Thailand, Australia, Oman, and Iraq.
In this group, I would expect Australia and Iraq to progress. Both of these teams, especially Australia are simply in a different league from Oman and Thailand. For Thailand, even though they are arguably the strongest team in South East Asia and the fact that they will be playing in the home soil, they are just not strong enough in a stage beyond South East Asia. For Oman, they are quite weak for a West Asian side, and playing far from home does not really help. Either Oman or the co-hosts Thailand will be the whipping boys in this group.

Group B consists of co-hosts Vietnam, Japan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
In this group, I expect Japan to top this group, without doubt. Either Qatar or the Emirians will join Japan in the quarter finals. The race will be for the second spot between Qatar and the UAE. For Vietnam, I am so sorry, they will just be a “Point Collection Center” for the other three nations.

Group C consists of co-hosts Malaysia, Iran, Uzbekistan, and China.
I would bill this group as the Group of Death of this tournament. Again, it will be very cruel to the co-hosts as Malaysia will surely be the whipping boys here. China, Uzbekistan, and Iran are the most powerful teams in Asia and it is as good as saying that Malaysia is in this group just to make up the number. This will be very tight, so tight that the difference in points among these three teams will be very little or even goal difference will be the decisive factor in determining which of these three will finish first, second, or be eliminated in finishing third in the group.

Group D consists of co-hosts Indonesia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.
Well, Indonesia, the best team in the world is here! Indonesia will be the Champion! Haha, just kidding. Seriously, it will be clear cut in this group. South Korea and Saudi Arabia will progress while at the current state, Indonesia will be the whipping boys. I am not trying to be bias, but I think Indonesia might have the chance to salvage some points by drawing against either Saudi Arabia or South Korea and perhaps beating Bahrain. Hopefully, they may even progress if lady luck is smiling on Indonesia at that time!

So, I would expect these 8 teams to be in the quarter finals. Australia, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. For the overall champion, it will be one of these: Australia, Japan, and South Korea. My heart keeps telling me that this will be Australia’s year. We shall see next month.

Lastly, all my predictions here are based on the strength of the participating teams on paper. We all know that anything can happen in football. Perhaps, all four co-hosts will be tugging it out in the semi finals! Nobody knows. Only God knows what might happen in the Asian Cup. Also, we shall keep our fingers’ crossed that there will be swashbuckling and entertaining football being played and the games will be played in the fair-play manner. Onwards, Asian football!

Hell on earth

The world is too harsh towards people who are not adept in the fields of science and mathematics even though they are really good in other fields such as writing.

Just look around at people who are gifted in mathematics and science. For students in school, they are enjoying many benefits from being good in these two fields. They are considered the cream of the crop. They are constantly being praised non-stop and get special places in prestigious institutions. Meanwhile, students who are good in subjects such as music and humanities (eg. History and Geography) but not so good in mathematics and science are considered as dumb students. One more thing to add is that prestigious competitions like the mathematics Olympics or science Olympics are being organized frequently to highlight the talents of these kids in science and mathematics. You won’t get to see history Olympics or geography Olympics, not in a million years at least.

For those in the working world, they are having large amounts of income. It even exceeds David Beckham’s or even George W Bush’s annual income. Those engineers at least earn 5 digits figure each month (in US dollars) while a typical neurosurgeon earns at least US$500000 per annum, that’s equal to George W Bush’s salary each year.

Let’s move to those who are good in writing, for instance. No matter how many pieces of high quality books they produce, the recognition is just not there. People won’t take you seriously even though you may be a successful writer. Even though you are successful, you won’t be enjoying life as much as those “smarties” do. Let us take a look at a few examples. First, being a successful journalist. Being a journalist is not easy at all. One mistake and you are dead for sure (such as the recent case in Russia). Secondly, even though you are a great writer, people will try to find every little mistake in you and try to bring you down. One example is one successful Turkish writer who was about to receive a nobel prize. Someone who is eligible for this prize must be someone of a great stature. However, people still do not take him seriously and some people went on to accuse him of faking historical facts regarding a massacre of Armenians by the Turkish in the past and demand that the nobel prize not to be given to him. These are just a few examples on how difficult life is for these people, unlike their science adept counterparts who will receive nobel prizes without any disturbances. There is one more point to support this, which will be discussed in the following section.

Up to this point, I am sure many people are having this in mind: “This is not true! How about Beethoven? Mozart? Mark Twain?”

Beethoven and Mozart are famous long after they have passed away. Their lives can be described as “Miserable”. As for Mark Twain, he spent most of his life in jail and flirting with trouble. Some are even arguing that the Mark Twain we now know is actually not the real writer of the story, but only an inmate in the prison cell who found the scripts inside the cell. This is the same for Mozart and Beethoven. There are similar arguments revolving around them. If these are true, we could see how miserable life is for people who are good in arts instead of science and mathematics.

In conclusion, life is much easier for people who are adept in the fields of science and mathematics compared to people who are adept in the arts field. I think the root of this problem is because of the fact that the world is emphasizing too much on science and mathematics. Schools and institutions globally are focusing too much on nurturing the future scientists and physicians rather than nurturing future musicians, historians, or writers. This is bad for the future development of arts and someone with power out there should, has and perhaps must do something to rectify this problem. This is the sobering truth about this so-called beautiful world. Well, the world is beautiful for those engineers, doctors as well as for students who are good in science and mathematics. On the other hand, for many people like myself who are not really good in mathematics and science but good in other fields, world is hell. This is hell. No matter how good we are in our fields, we can even dream of getting an income close to those engineers and doctors.

Last but not least, I have to apologize if this article is sub-standard compared to my previous articles. The reason is simply because I am currently behind the “writer’s block”. Writer’s block is a condition affecting writers where ideas are not flowing as they should and this condition also affects the overall quality of the essay and linguistic skills of the writer up to a certain extent. Most likely, this condition is caused by insomnia that I have been suffering from in the past week. I would like to beg the understanding of everyone and I would also like to request for your comments on this issue. Thanks.

Reply to the people

The owner of this site is very grateful as yet again, there's an influx of messages coming again today. I am really thankful to you guys!

To Crisis_Vyper: Haha, the sarcasm adds weight to your comment. Seriously, man!

To Luqman: Thanks for commenting! All the way from Bali. wow. Enjoy your time in Bali!

To April: Haha, what's with the doubt?

To :) = Thanks a lot! Your comment is also great! But why didn't u type your beautiful name here? haha. Your name is a nice name! put it in next time! hahaa

To Yohan: Thanks for your little support. Good luck to you too. :)

Should school uniform be abolished?

School uniform, this has been a topic of many arguments and debates across the world. This topic is also hot in exam questions for students. People have been debating, should the idea of school uniform be abolished? Or should it be kept? This topic has produced an endless stream of debates involving students as well as adults.

Those who are for the idea of school uniform will argue that school uniform is necessary as school uniform is a mean to bridge the social gap between the affluent students and the poorer students. They also argue that school uniform will help to instill discipline in the students. On the other hand, those who are against the idea of school uniform will argue that school uniform does not really equate students. It is also being argued by them that students should not be constrained into wearing school uniforms and that they have their rights to wear any outfit they want to school. Now, I am going to delve into these reasoning thrown out by both parties.

Let us now examine the arguments offered by those who are arguing. While it is true that school uniform gives a sense of equality among students, it is only true to a certain extent. First, it only gives equality to students who are studying in the same school. Based on my personal experience, there is no equality at all when students from many different schools are gathered in one place. When this happens, one could see a lot of differences. Some are wearing the uniform of an obscure school, some are wearing the uniform of an average school, while some others are wearing the uniform of an elite school. By looking at this alone, we do not need to be a neurosurgeon to see that equality is absent here. Biasness may even occur. People will certainly have better impressions towards those from elite schools. If those students are gathered in the room when they are wearing their own clothes, there won't be any difference as nobody knows where each one of them is studying and therefore, impressions won't be formed based on the color of their uniforms anymore. For some students who are not in elite schools, they may even feel down when wearing the uniform contrary to those who are in elite schools who wear their uniform so proudly that they even wear it on public holidays (I have seen people from elite schools who are wearing their uniform on a Sunday. What the hell?) Also, school uniform won't be so effective in bridging the gap between the affluent students and the poorer students. There are some other factors that have to be considered. One example is that, some students may be bringing with them expensive laptop computers to school to aid in their studies while some students are not even able to purchase a textbook. We could see the difference in them even though they are all wearing the same school uniform.

Lastly, regarding the disciplinary issue. Discipline problem will not be solved just by making the students wearing school uniforms. Even with the school uniform, students can also be indiscipline. Again, school uniform is not the only factor that determines the disciplinary of the students. There are many other factors that are correlated. School uniform is one of these factors. However, this is not the only factor that determines the discipline of the students.

In conclusion, the debate seems to be stagnant now. I am also lost now. In my personal opinion, it all depends on whose opinion it is. It is obvious that students who are studying in the elite schools would want the idea of school uniform not to be abolished. Perhaps, some of them would want school uniforms to be mandatory even on public holidays and outside school. On the other hand, those who are not in the elite schools would want the idea of school uniform to be abolished with an immediate effect so that they could wear their own clothes and being anonymous to public and not being known where they are studying at.

What do you guys think? Should the idea of school uniform be abolished? Or should it be kept? Please comment and tell me what your stand is with your reasons. I have provided two of the reasons above. I am sure there are many more reasons that can be provided. Alright guys, debate it out! Give me your thoughts! Thanks a lot!

Reply to everyone

Due to high amount of messages coming in, the replies to all will be in this post

Alexjhon: Bannernya keren kan? haha. Mengenai artikelnya, itu semua asli karangan gua. kalau lu masih meragukan ya. haha.

Mich: Hmm, maybe I am degrading myself, but when I checked my articles with Microsoft Word 2003, that software found quite a number of grammatical errors. Mostly careless ones though.

Colleen: Thanks for wishing me luck in my exams. I am in dire need of luck! Haha, of course it's cool. (the quiz)

Sherr: Yes, a typical essay in GP is 500-1000 words long.

Conclusion of La Liga 06-07 and tribute to my first love in soccer

The Spanish La Liga has finally been concluded. Real Madrid won the title. I am so happy for them. Even though my favorite team is AS Roma, Real Madrid has a special place in my heart. This is very first team that I know in my whole life and the first team I controlled in a video game (Winning Eleven 2002). In other words, Real Madrid is my first love in football.

What makes La Liga so special this year is that the title was clinched by Real madrid in a scintillating fashion, instead of other leagues such as English Premier League and Italian Serie A, where Manchester United and Internazionale Milan won their respective titles in a one horse race. In La Liga, it was not one, not two, but three horses race among three great teams in Spain, if not in the whole Europe. They are Real Madrid, Barcelona (the title holder as well as Champions League winner the previous season), and Sevilla (UEFA cup holder and it is a top team now). The winner of the title was not to be decided until the penultimate match of the season, the final one, to set one of the most nerve-wracking title races in the world. Even within the 90 minutes of the last match day, the title changed even changed hands between Barcelona and Real Madrid before it is finally official that Real Madrid is the title holders.

The situation before the last match day was this, Real Madrid was on top even though they are tied on points with Barcelona as they have better head-to-head record against Barcelona. While Sevilla was 2 points behind the two teams. For Sevilla to win the title, they had to win their home match against Villarreal while hoping that both Real Madrid and Barcelona slip up in their last matches. For Barcelona. they have to win their match away to the already relegated Gimnastic Tarragona while Real Madrid doesn't win against their opponent. Lastly, for Madrid ton win the title, they have to win against Real Mallorca at home. They just had to as Barcelona is expected to steamroll against Gimnastic Tarragona.

The matches of both Barcelona's and Real Madrid's were really heartbreaking, especially the first half. At the end of the first half, Real Madrid were trailing 1-0 to Mallorca while Barcelona was 3-0 up against Gimnastic. At this point of time, the title belongs to Barcelona. However, this was not to be at the end of the 90th minute. Barcelona proceeded on to win their match 5-1 while Real Madrid clawed back from 1 goal down to win 3-1 down. At the end of the matches, Real Madrid got the title. Not forgetting about the third "horse", Sevilla. They were beaten 1-0 by Villarreal.

Real Madrid is my first love in football and will always be in my heart. Congratulations to Real Madrid as well as to David Beckham and Roberto Carlos who are leaving Real Madrid for Los Angeles Galaxy and Fenerbahce respectively with their heads held high and with La Liga gold medals to show off to their new team mates next year.

Origin of Japan

Many people like the country of Japan. There are various reasons for this. Some people like the culture, some like the movie stars/bands/singers or whatever, some like the video games, and some extremists like the porn industry in Japan. Even though all of these people have their own unique reasons, they are all nonetheless being in the same bracket. They like Japan. However, I believe less than 5% or even lesser of these people care about the true origin of Japan and the Japanese people let alone knowing it. Actually, the land of Japan that we know today was originally empty. The Japanese people that we know today were originated from China. I heard this story quite a long time ago, but it is still very fresh in my memory. The story is as follows:

Once upon a time, in the great land known today as mainland China, lived an emperor who was very powerful, authoritative, and feared throughout his kingdom. He ruled with an iron fist and anybody who dares to oppose him or displease him will face certain death. Even if those are his own ministers or servants. However, days passed into months, months passed into years, and the emperor was getting older and older. By this time, the emperor became really concerned and he cannot accept the fact that he was aging. Slowly but surely, he will have to give up his kingdom as well as everything when he finally dies. He wanted to stay young forever so that his reign could last forever and ever.

After putting a lot of thought on this, a thought passed into his mind. He was very sure that a special herb which is able to make one to be immortal exists somewhere in the world. Immediately, he called some of his servants and gave them an order. The order was to search for a herb that is able to make one stay young forever and thus becomes immortal. The servants got worried as they knew that it would be very difficult to find such a herb, if it could be found at all. However, no questions may be ask on the emperor's orders! The emperor also added that the servants are not allowed to come back before they could find the herb.

A few days later, the servants started their search all over the kingdom. Even outside of the kingdom in the distant lands to find the herb requested by the emperor. They entered and exited villages after villages, forests after forests, and mountains after mountains. However, they were not able to find such a herb. Since the servants were not allowed to go back to the emperor before they could find the correct herb. They decided to extend the search into the seas. They set sail in the hope to find a herb in some land beyond the seas. After a long sailing journey, they managed to find a land. They landed there, and start exploring the land. After exploring the land for some time. They realized that this land is uninhabited. Eventually, after spending quite some time looking for the herb but to no avail, they began to realize that this herb is non-existent after all, as expected. Since they are not allowed to come back to the emperor before they could find the herb and since this new land is uninhabited. They decided to stay there and never come back to their kingdom. Finally, they stayed in the land and reproduce, until today. These people make up the group of people we know as Japanese people.

This is how more or less the story is. Again, I may have to apologize for any omission or inaccuracy as I am writing this based on what I remember and the story that I heard itself may not be accurate to start with.

Training of the Korean People's Army

Recently, I watched a very interesting video about the training regime of the soldiers of the KPA (Korean People's Army). I would now share with everyone whatever I have seen and analyzed in that piece of media as well as a background information about the Korean People's Army.

Korean People's Army is the military body of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (most commonly known as North Korea). It is in fact the fourth largest army in this whole world and it is absolutely the backbone of the virtually isolated country in this world. It has about +- 1000000 active personnel with +- 4000000 reserve troops. They are all well-trained and fully loyal to North Korea and thus to their Supreme Commander, Kim Jong-il. However, one huge turn-off of the KPA is the fact that most of their equipments are outdated Soviet models of the 1960s. Despite this, the soliders of the KPA compensate for this with their extremely good skills to make do with the equipments available and with their numbers. (Reminiscence to the Chinese, huh?)

Just like the Red Army of the USSR and the Chinese Army, the KPA's best unit is its land unit. It is their strength and only strength. On the other hand, their least best unit is either the navy or the air force.

Now, I would like to start with the main point and I am going to describe the training regime of the KPA based on the video. The training of the KPA is extremely tough for any standards. They do extreme trainings from martial arts (basically Tae Kwon Do) to trampling on broken bottles. In the video, it is shown that the soldiers are given intensive training on martial arts. They are also appear to be very good in the martial arts. They are able to break bricks, large numbers of them. Sometimes, they even break 11 bricks at any one time. For this exercise, it can be seen that they are able to break the bricks with any parts of their body. Head, palm, legs. The female soldiers are also not spared in this training, as could be seen in the video that the female soldiers are breaking bricks as well. Secondly, the soldiers are also trained how to get hit. They are being hit by heavy logs and even very sharp blade. The most interesting part is the part where the soldiers are being slashed by the blade. In this exercise, the soldier lies down while the other slash him several times with the blade. Interestingly, the soldier that's been slashed by the sword is not hurt. There's not even a single scratch. They are really well trained. Next, they are also training by trampling on broken glass. To add to this, one training consists of some soldiers lying down on the pieces of glass while other group of soldiers are trampling on their bodies. The soldiers who are lying down must do two sets of this training. One where they are lying on their backs to the glass and the other one where their chests to the glass. As with the sword exercise, these soldiers do not even get a single scratch from this hardcore training. Next, a less hardcore one. They are also trained on how to deal with multiple enemies attacking them. One soldier are able to handle as many as 10 enemies by himself in a swift move.

Another interesting training is the evasive training. This is where the soldiers are being trained to evade knives being thrown at them. Yes, they are all real knives being thrown at the soldiers. Any one small mistake, and one poor soldier will be dead. However, this is not the case for the KPA soldiers. They are all able to dodge those knives properly without any mistakes. There are several trainings similar as this one. One other would be the training where the soldiers have to jump over woods that are burning in fire. In this one, one small mistake will hurt them. But as usual, the soldiers are able to jump over the burning wooden structures properly. One last similar training would be the one where they have to jump over a passing car. One wrong timing and they are dead.

The soldiers are also well-trained in shooting. They are able to shoot targets which are very far from them 9around 100-200 meters) very accurately using old model Soviet guns such as the AK-47.

Those are basically the physical training. The KPA soldiers are also receiving battle trainings. Trainings where the equipments (tanks, planes, turrets, missiles, artilleries etc.) are being used in a real time training. It could be seen in the video that their mighty tanks and turrets are trained to destroy targets being set in the mountains far away from them.

I would like to apologize for the poor structure of this article and I may miss some other form of trainings as I am writing this based on what I remember from the video I watched.

If you are interested, you can find the actual video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DQzokgGS7g

Again, I have to apologize as I do not embed the video in this posting. I am still finding the way to do that.

COMING UP NEXT!

Coming up next in this site:

Training of the Korean People's Army! An interesting overview about the army of the most isolated nation in the world!

Also, the origin of Japan! Did u know that the real origin of Japan is because of a "medicine" that is capable of cheating death?

Stay tuned!

Psychological Warfare in FM 2007

FM 2007 is arguably the dirtiest and the shadiest among all the CM/FM series so far. Why? it is because of the new features that are injected into the game. To name a few of them, they are: Controversial goals by the referee (lots of them will occur), diving by the players (This may cost you dearly, from a clean sheet to the Champions League trophy. I have just experienced the former, which will be explained later in this post.), and of course the famous mind games feature, where you can attack the opposition managers before your players even kick a ball (I used this successfully to defeat Inter and subsequently making them lose points as their morale drops. This will also be explained later.

First and foremost, I will explain about the diving committed by the players. I was leading Livorno by 6 goals and it was 10 minutes before the game ended. Suddenly, from a swift Livorno attack, a cross comes from the right looking for the lurking Livorno strikers in my penalty box. When the cross arrives, I got a penalty. According to the screen, my fullback had fouled one of Livorno's players. A commentary was soon follows, "He surely dived" (The commentary referring to the Livorno player who got 'fouled'). Nevertheless, I conceded a penalty and it was executed without error by another Livorno player. 6-1 the scoreline stood after the final whistle. Well, in this particular match, it only cost me a good scoreline of 6-0 as well as my goalkeeper who missed out a sum of money (the clean sheet bonus). However, had this happened in the Champions League final, for instance, when the scoreline is 0-0 and it's 10 minutes before the final whistle. You concede the goal from the controversial penalty and you lose the match as well as the cup because of that stupid goal. Of course it will be heartbreaking, even though FM 2007 is only "a game" to some.

Having said that, I am not really complaining too much about this feature as it is also rampant in real life nowadays. Also, these little things do add depth into the game and if you are the one who benefits from these dirty goals, it will somehow add the satisfaction when winning a match or even a big cup like the Champions League.

Second thing that I am going to touch today would be the mind-games feature. I used it to my advantage to ruin Inter Milan, who has been level with my Roma on points since the beginning of the season. It was a few days before my home match against them and it will be a great match considering the fact tat both of us are level at the top of the table and this match has the potential to be the title decider. To be honest, I am a little concerned in approaching this game. Then, I recalled the manager interaction feature in the game (aka the Mind-games feature). I lashed out some negative comments toward the Inter Milan camp and the effect was immediate. I could notice that several of their key players like Patrick Vieira and their deadly bomber Adriano suffering a dip in morale. Some of my players were also suffering although those are not my key players, much to my delight. On the match day, just before the match, the Inter Milan camp replied, apparently they were also trying to hit my team psychologically. I replied with a further negative comment to them and didn't look back. I went to the match right away and take them on. I expected a draw for this.

However, I was totally wrong. Right from the opening whistle, Inter Milan were pinned back like headless chicken. To cut the story short, the scoreline read 2-0 at the end of the match, with my team totally dominating them, I created around 15 chances while Inter created less than five. The 2-0 scoreline didn't get any better due to some misses by my strikers (perhaps due to Inter's part in the mind-game prior to this match. I was delighted with this result as I moved 3 points above them. For subsequent matches, I do this to Inter. Just before their match days, I would give them negative comments. Now, I am reaping out the results. Inter have since been consistently drawing against small oppositions such as Reggina while squandering a lot of chances to score goals. They even lost some matches on the way. Currently, I have managed to distance myself 11 points clear above them and my team is looking really good for the title.

The conclusion is that, in FM 2007, it's not about textbook tactics and management procedures anymore. In this game, players are invited to be more creative in a cunning way. Matches are not won by tactics and good players alone. Matches are also won by the psychological warfare that is going on off the pitch. If you can make use of the mind-game feature in the game well and win those psychological warfares, you will find winning matches in this game relatively easy. One thing to take note, though. When using the mind-game feature, not only the opponents' players are affected. Your players are affected as well. However, in my case, my players are apparently very strong mentally. Therefore, they are not really affected badly, if not affected at all.

Parthenogenesis

I have not been playing FM 2007 at the moment. I don't feel like playing it at the moment and I am leaving it hanging right after my beloved team, AS Roma thrashed Reggina 10-0. I think I will only be playing next week.

Just realized that female eggs of humans and some other animals can be activated without the sperm cell. The process is called Parthenogenesis and it can be triggered by injecting the egg with Ca2+. Wiki for more. I am lazy to type everything into here.

One more thing to take note is the Safari browser. Some caucasian looking dude (haha, sorry Martin!) recommended this browser. According to him, this is the best web browser in the whole world.

However, after I have installed this browser, I was really shocked as it crashes very frequently and it won't open some sites. One notable example would be Gmail. The program crashes and terminates itself when the Gmail page is in the middle of being loaded. Actually, we can't really expect much from this browser as the Windows version is still at a primary BETA stage.

I decided to stick to my trusty Firefox. It is still the best. I will be waiting for the stable version of Safari though. I hope it is available for free of charge. Why would I want Safari? Appearance wise, Safari displays sites in a better looking way.

Back to FM 2007

Fifa 07 Manager mode turned out to be a disaster. The database is so small and incomplete. The gameplay is also bad. Well, I am reverting back to my good ol' FM.

It's much better managing my beloved AS Roma in FM. Looking at Totti, Pazzini, or Huntelaar scoring goals like nobody's business.

Most recently, my beloved Roma thrashed Reggina 10-0. I am so proud of them!

Fifa 07 manager mode limitation! Exposed!

Just found out one big limitation of Fifa 07 manager mode. The limitation that I have just exposed a few hours ago is that we can only play the game for 15 seasons before we are terminated automatically (Retired by force).

I think this is due to a technical limitation of the game. Unlike, FM 2007, which constantly regenerating new players every now and then, Fifa 07 lacks this ability and it cannot be doubted that Sports Interactive (the company which created FM) tops this feature, just like Konami (The company responsible for Winning Eleven) tops gameplay. By looking at this, maybe we start to think that EA Sports is now at the bottom of the league table.... But it's alright. It's much easier to win things in Fifa 07 manager mode compared to FM 2007 where you have to change your tactic every now and then to suit the needs and according to who your opponents are.In Fifa 07, you can use one particular tactic to win any match.

To enjoy Fifa 07 with all its limitations to the max, all we could do is to keep moving on. This is why Fifa 07 implements a feature whereby we have an option to leave our current club and takeover other clubs elsewhere. A clever way to compensate for the limitations. A recommended way by me is to limit yourself to two years in one club. (For the first club you are managing, stay there for three years at least to gain prestige for yourself).

An alternative way to enjoy the game at its fullest is to manage a very small team in the game, and build that team from an obscure team into a world class team. 15 seasons should suffice if you are really serious about it and that you are, well, skillful.

That's all for now. Will update again once I have found out more about Fifa 07 manager mode.

One season in a day!

One season = One year

In Fifa 07 Manager mode, one season = one hour. Yes, you are right. One hour, albeit all the matches are being played in the quick simulation.

I have finished one season and I must admit fifa 07 Manager mode is much more dynamic than FM 2007. In fifa 07, there are so many virtual players are available to be signed. You just need to send your scout to any area in the world and voila! You will get many youngsters with great potential. A word of wisdom though, it is much easier to sign youngsters from regions such as Asia/Oceania or Africa compared to regions like Europe for reasons unknown. And I believe you actually do not need to be a genius to guess what these reasons are.

One more thing to note is that, at the end of the season, you are allowed to leave your current club to try out other clubs. However, you need to be careful. If you don't have enough prestige (reputation, that is) you may find yourself floating in the fifa 07 world without any jobs. Despite winning every trophy, I felt that I don't have enough prestige to take over clubs like Real Madrid or AS Roma. So, to be safe, I opted to stay on with Chelsea for at least another trophy winning season.

To be continued...

FIFA 07 Manager Mode

Tried FIFA 07's manager mode just now. One word to describe it: "Incredible".

Well, Football Manager 2007 afficionados may beg to differ, and neutral people out there may also say that I fell for Fifa 07 Manager Mode just because I have played FM 2007 a game too many and that I am simply boredof that game.

I will update later when I have played my first few matches and get a result from my scout whom I have sent to Asia/Oceania region to conduct a deep search for young players with huge potential.


For your information, my team of choice is Chelsea. This breaks my long-time tradition of choosing Man Utd as a team for my maiden spell in football games. (Namely: Championship Manager 01-02, CM 4, CM 03-04, Total Club Manager 2004, FM 2006, FM 2007).

AS Roma 2-1 Man Utd

I know this thread is not supposed to be here. However, since I love Roma, even more than I love my fiancee (to a certain extent) I have decided to dedicate one thread to my beloved Roma.

Roma defeated Man Utd in a scintillating fashion in the massive Stadio Olimpico albeit crowd trouble (This is because of some stupid Man Utd supporters, even the Roma Ultras were good boys in the match)

Some people who are against my beloved Roma will be quick to point out that Roma's victory was due to the sending off of Scholes in the 34th minute for a clumsy challenge. I really beg to differ on this, Roma have sheer class.

The first goal came just before the half time break. Roma got a corner and took it quickly. Mancini danced around in the penalty box before crossing low to Rodrigo Taddei. Taddei calmly slotted the ball amidst the Man Utd players with the aid of a deflection. 1-0 at half time. The crowd trouble occurred shortly after this goal

Upon the start of the second half, Roma was really dominating the game. Only for a huge shock to happen at around the 60th minute. Rodrigo Taddei fired a weak free kick for Van der Sar to catch. Without hesitation, van der sar threw the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo who zipped past Roma's defence. He passed to Solskjaer, and he crossed to Rooney. With a great first touch, Rooney chested the ball and blasted the ball into the top corner of the far post. 1-1. Disappointing, but I must praise the swift counter attack executed by Man Utd.

Roma reacted by bringing in Mirko Vucinic to replace Taddei (Who had become zero from hero). Six minutes later, the substitution proved to be fruitful. Mancini blasted the ball goalwards. Van Der Sar could only parry the stinging shot and Vucinic was really quick to make full use of the rebound to slide and slot the ball into the net. 2-1, and this scoreline stayed until the end, with Roma dominating the game most of the time.

Man Utd, get ready to pack your bags. This year will be Roma's year. Man Utd, the first goal of the match was legitimate. There was only ONE ball on the pitch. Stop complaining and get ready for more bashing in front of your own fans at Old Trafford.

FORZA ROMA!!!!