Saturday, July 28, 2007

On Game Mentality

Mentality [Noun]: The set of one's mind; view; outlook.

Had another floorball match today, vs Mrymidons PY. They're a team consisting of secondary school students. We started off the game today lacking many key players, among them Gerald, Simon & John, due to personal commitments & injuries. The team was down to 2.5 lines, fewer players means more running and effort from everyone.

We were confident, or rather over-confident I would say, as we saw the opposition as another team of secondary school kids. They started off with a playing style we weren't accustomed to. Failing to adjust accordingly quick enough, we allowed them to put one pass our keeper early into the 1st period. 0-1. After conceding the first goal, the team's morale dipped drastically, losing our composure and focus.

We couldn't communicate properly, didn't apply any of the trainings we've done and made tons & tons of scrappy plays throughout the remaining 1st and the entire 2nd period, ultimately stuck at 0-1. I was filled with frustration and helplessness, hating myself for not being able to run faster and strike harder as we proceeded into the 3rd period. Frustrated & helpless.

Face off of the last period, the Mrymidons won it and I charged their defender, stealing the ball from him, I charged their keeper. He slid me but somehow, I managed to draw the ball aside and tap it into goal as I fell. I yelled in anger, hatred & frustration. It felt damn good. 1-1.

Soon after I got sent off (again) for rough play, tripping an opponent intentionally. I'm getting used to sitting in the penalty box, a true regular customer. I should get my own chair soon, autograph and all. Heck. The guys managed to hold off the opponent using box play and I came in as our right back, Bala, brought the ball up the right flank. He lost it 3/4 way and I stole it back quickly, tapped the ball back to Bala and he took a hard shot straight at goal. It found the back of the net. 2-1. He always wanted to play as a forward. Cheers to Bala.

After that we saw two more of our own get sent off for floor play (what I did during the previous match) and standing less than 3m from the opponent's free hit. The Mrymidons manage to equalise by scoring using a free hit near our goal. Somehow our human walls always seem to be made of paper. Effing hell. 2-2. Soon after, they scored again, using a smoothly executed set piece play from our corner. The guys must be really tired to have lost their focus and let their guard down as such. 2-3.

We desperately needed an equaliser, and an opportunity presented itself. We had a free hit near their goal. They had a 3 or 4 man human wall with Guo Yi in the middle creating a considerable gap which they failed to notice. Lee Cheong tapped the ball to me and I took a drag shot through Guo Yi's legs. Lucky us. 3-3. Full time. If not for Guo Yi's perseverance, we would have lost the game.

Lessons of the day:
1) Never underestimate your opponent.
2) Floorball is a high-scoring game, being down 0-1 is nothing. Fight back.
3) Never let your guard down. Always maintain composure & focus.
4) Always help one another. Floorball is a team game. Communication is everything.

Hope that everyone learns from the match today, we'll be facing Republic Poly next week. Like coach said, they'll be 2x harder and 3x faster. Train hard people. See you guys on Monday. =_=

Sunday, July 22, 2007

On A Hat Trick

Hat Trick: Three goals scored by one player in a match.

Had a floorball div 3 match today, against EastView Eagles, who are a bunch of secondary school kids. Coach+Captain Mr. Gerald told us not to underestimate them as they have more years of playing experience than most of us, and they proved it with their skill on court. We started out pretty disorganised despite having a homeground advantage, but we slowly worked out the problems and started to control the general gameplay.

Mr. Kenny scored the opening goal for us again, like he did when we went up against Millenia. 1-0. Shortly afterwards, I got sent off for 2 minutes AGAIN, but this time for controlling the ball with 3 points on the ground. Which means that when a player has fallen and has 3 points on the ground (e.g. knee+knee+hand = 3), he is not allowed to control the ball. Man... I've never even HEARD of such a rule! BS... *grumble grumble* Hence I got sent off AGAIN. Grrr... Funny thing is, the guys on the bench kinda expected me to get sent off again, so ya... no big surprise. At least I didn't disappoint them, right guys? =p

After what seem like an eternity of 2 minutes, I stepped in just as the guys started to counter-attack. Mr. Guo Yi lobbed a beautiful super high ball which bounced just in front of goal, but I missed the volley. My bad. I am very much grateful that coach paired me with Mr. Guo Yi. I think we can work pretty well together, he's the left forward and I'm the right forward. He never gives up and we both like to chiong like mad. Haa~ and I hope he forgives me for getting sent off again, cause the line has to work extra hard when they are a man down. Sorry boss.

Sometime later into the 1st period, Mr. Guo Yi seized an opportunity for a quick counter-attack down the left flank, he fell as he angled a perfect pass straight to my blade, allowing me to slot the ball pass the keeper neatly as I drew the keeper to one side while running to one side of the goal. End of 1st period. 2-0. My first goal of the season, and my favourite way of scoring. Thanks Mr. Guo Yi. First goal's dedicated to you.

Towards the end of the 2nd period, we had a set piece play at the top right corner on the opponent's side. Mr. Gerald & I were in the corner. Lets see... I tapped the ball to him, he tapped the ball to me, I tapped it back to him and he tapped it back to me again! I didn't really know what to do with the ball (& instead of pretending to be bomberman and passing the ball to somebody else to get blown up...) so I just took a shot at goal. It wasn't really that hard, but it went in nevertheless. I think the goalkeeper got screened by his own defender. 3-0. Whee~ Lucky me. Second goal's dedicated to line 1, who had to work super hard for a total of 4 minutes for my being sent-off not once but twice.

Later in the 2nd period, the secondary school kids somehow manage to put a ball into our goal from over the halfway mark. *Wow* I think our side was dreaming, the ball practically rolled in. Sigh~ The guys must be feeling shag. 3-1. End of 2nd period.

Early 3rd period, Mr. Kevin did a short pass to Mr. Yew Keong who whacked the ball hard from near the half way line. It went sailing right pass the keeper into the goal. Very nice. 4-1. Did I mention that Mr. Kevin is the first in the team to bleed for us? lol~ He got whooped in the face while training last Thursday, by Mr. Yew Keong, no less. Haha~ This goes to show that there are no grudges held in our team.Woohoohoohoohoo~

Most of us are starting to feel the strain by then, and that was when our defender & left-hand specialist, Mr. Lee Cheong, stepped up and started taking shots from distance. Somehow I managed to volley a rebound off the keeper from one of Mr. Lee Cheong's long range shots. 5-1. Third goal is dedicated to she-who-must-not-be-named (yah yah I know, but I'm reading potter. Shush!), cause I promised.

To end off the match, Mr. John took another shot from range and found the back of the net. 6-1. I think he's really super happy from the way he celebrated. The team seems to be glad that the second match is over, winning the second match is crucial as it'll send a message to the rest of the teams in our conference that we're a force to be reckoned with. A tougher opponent will present themselves next week, until then, we'll have to train harder.

That's it for today, stay tuned for the next sleep-inducing episode of my boring life. *yawns* ^_^

Monday, July 16, 2007

On An Unglam Day

Glam: Informal form of "Glamorous".
Unglam: Opposite of Glam. [DUH]

Just had Senior's Camp over the weekend, which was fun-filled despite sacrificing precious hours of sleep. To those who do not know, Senior's Camp is basically a camp organised by the Freshmen Orientation Camp Committee for graduated seniors and non-freshmen to unwind and come together for some quality catch-up time.

For me, the highlight of Senior's Camp was Fright Night. As one of the organising members, we worked hard to prepare for this event which will also be used later in the actual Freshmen Orientation Camp. We hand-sewed costumes, made props, created sound tracks and decorated (or wrecked in this case...) locations. Watching the actors & actresses put on their make-up is so much fun as the cosmetics perform wonders, turning good looking guys & gals into horrors that appear in your sleep. So think twice before chatting up a girl the next time you walk along Orchard Road, you never know what kind of horrors await you underneath that layer of cosmetics.

As station master, it was really satisfying to hear the senior's screams (mostly girl's and the occasional guy's) echoing out from within the station. Acting as a ghost during fright night can be quite horrible as you have to wait for long hours alone in the dark for your victims (and who you're scaring might not turn out to be who you think IT is..). For that, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Ms. Cai & Ms. Low, Road to Hell wouldn't be quite that scary without you both. Hope you gals don't get any pimples from the cheap cosmetics.

Besides Fright Night, another major event of Senior's Camp was The Amazing Race. Contestants have to race all over our tiny island in search of clues that will lead us to the finishing line. It was also during this event when I did the most unglam thing in a long long long long time..

It happened on the MRT when we were traveling along NEL to Little India. The train was pretty much empty except for a few aunties and uncles and we were standing on the carriage connectors. 4 of the guys decided to squat down and started playing some orientation games, indulging in reminiscence while the other 3 of us stood aside to watch. I was standing closest to them and my roomie, who is non other than Mr. Tian, sat in the two-person seat on my other side. I was leaning against the fire extinguisher part of the "wall" when the train suddenly jerked while leaving the station and I started to lose my balance. Instinctively, I reached out for the corner of the "wall" to pull myself back... BUT the corners on ALL NEL trains are freaking round and smooth! Which resulted in the most unglam fall in my entirely life. (My roomie says he did not save me because he was too engrossed in watching the game. Tsk~)

Lets see...

Unglam Factor 1: I fell on my unexpecting friend who was squating & playing the game.

Unglam Factor 2: I failed to save myself from falling as I tried to grab the corner REPEATEDLY.

Unglam Factor 3: We were all stunned by my fall as we were all focused on watching the game. (trust me it was a very SMLJ moment)

Unglam Factor 4: As the guys were already drawing attention with their game playing, the ENTIRE 2 carriages worth of aunties and uncles saw me fall. *Sigh~~~*

The one and only bright side to my unglam moment is that all of us couldn't stop laughing, including me. So for the rest of the day, the guys started offering me their seats whenever we had to take the train and everytime we board a train, we would spontaneously start laughing. I must say it really is a good way to train your abs, laughing. I'm pretty sure I'll be hearing much more of this when the actual FOC arrives.

Till then, stay tuned to my unglam life. =_=

Saturday, July 7, 2007

On Blizzard's First Win.

Floorball: An indoor team sport played using composite or carbon sticks with a plastic vented blade where the aim is to put a light plastic ball into the opponent's goal.

Today was a great start for our Div 3 floorball team, Blizzards. We managed to defeat our opponents, Meridians. Things weren't really going our way from the very beginning. Jerseys were delivered late and we were actually just sitting there before our game, collecting dust. We did our physical warm up w/o the jerseys which came shortly after, much to our relieve. But someone forgot to bring the balls for court warm-up. Sheesh~

After a short briefing from the captain, we went in to watch SMU girls play against Motorola Pinkies (funky name huh... ). The funny thing is, we couldn't actually tell that the girls from SMU are tertiary students. They looked so small standing next to the Motorola Pinkies we initially thought they were secondary school students. Anyways, the SMU girls were playing pretty rough as they were really shoving and pushing. In the midst of a tussle, one of the Motorola Pinkies girls actually shouted "STOP PUSHING LA CCB!!!" (Note: CCB was shouted in full version. lol~). So like I told my teammate... "We hear already we blur...". To top it off, she was a malay girl. Haha~ a round of applause for our malay friend please. We like. Zai~

Ultimately, despite their aggressive playing style, SMU girls got their arses whooped by Motorola Pinkies. 9-2. Moral of the story? "Scolding vulgarities helps."

The next match was ours, as the tournament was running behind schedule, they only gave us five minutes to warm up before face-off. The game was pretty uneventful throughout the first two periods, except that we scored 2 goals in the first period and another 2 goals in the second period. I screwed up majorly in the 3rd period and got sent off for 2 minutes with a high stick offense. Got too gan cheong. Didn't know what I was doing. My line mates had to fall back into box play before I can get back. Oops. Sorry guys.

We were changed out with 2 minutes remaining, somehow the guys managed to score 1 more goal and the Meridians managed to get one pass our keeper after that. Final score 5-1. Pretty good for our debut performance I would say but coach is displeased cause we conceded a goal (We're gonna get it on Monday's training. *Impending sense of doom*). Think it was a good learning experience for all of us, with our morale high and confidence boosted, we look forward to our next match. =_=

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

On Secretaries

Secretary: A person, usually an official, who is in charge of the records, correspondence, minutes of meetings, and related affairs of an organization, company or association.

Have been busy with Dinner & Dance sponsorship work for the past few days, waking up at 9 in the morning to call up potential sponsors so I can call again in the afternoon if their marketing coordinators aren't free in the morning. This gives me lots of contact with manager's secretaries and secretary's secretaries. Over the past few weeks of sourcing for sponsorship, I have come to realise that secretaries in Singapore are either utterly good-for-nothing, or they're from an inferior race of homo-sapiens who are intellectually challenged. Let me explain...

Earlier this morning, I called up a potential sponsor's marketing manager (a reputable beverage company) to follow up with our sponsorship proposal. This is what I heard over the phone:

She: "Arlow!?!"
Me: "?!?!? Urm.. Hi, my name is.... may I speak with Mr. Tan?"
She: "Mr. Tan? I think hor, he's in a meeting right now and I dunch know when he is coming out... I think he will be free in the afternoon. Call back later? Byyeeeee~~~" *Click*
Me: "!?!?! WTF?!?"

You can imagine all the questions marks over my head at the end of that telephone conversation. Just what kind of secretary picks up the phone and goes "Arlow?!?" ? The very least a proper secretary can do is to say "Good Morning" and state whose office it was. I was calling his personal office phone line mind you, and I certainly wasn't expecting to be hung up upon without given a chance to finish what I wanted to say.

Another similar incident happened yesterday afternoon, I was calling up a well-reputed mobile company's marketing manager with whom I corresponded with a few times before:

She: "Hi! XXX company, marketing manager's office."
Me: "Hi, may I speak with Ms. Elaine Seah please?"
She: "Ms. Elaine? How do you spell that?"
Me: "?!? Urm... E-L-A-I-N-E S-E-A-H???"
She: "Elaine Seah? hmm... I don't think there's a Ms. Elaine Seah here..."
*She No. 2 comes along and takes over the phone*
She2: "Hi, I'm sorry, Ms. Elaine is currently in a meeting, call back later."
Me: "!?!"

Point Number 1: How can you not know who your freaking boss is?!?
Point Number 2: You're telling ME to call back later?!? You retarded piece of shit you're SUPPOSED to ask me my purpose, take down my particulars and YOU tell YOUR BOSS when she comes back later to call me back! Its your freaking job you overpaid glorified coffee-making typist!!

As of now, I am truly convinced that the intelligent secretary is a myth. =_=