September 11, 2001 is going too be rememberred. On a beautiful day morning, 2 commercial airplanes were hijacked and smashed into World Trade Center in New York, and destroyed the famous towers. 2 other airplanes were hijacked, one of them smashed into Pentagon, the other apparently missed its desiganated target crashed.
That day will be mourned and may GOD bless those who suffer from the tradegy and comfort those who are hurt.
posted by Alvan Siah 9/14/2001 07:49:05 PM
Saturday, August 25, 2001
Summer holidays...supposedly be very fun for many, especially students because of long holidays. My summer holidays was supposed to be a special one as I have planned to join an Outward Bound course which would be run for 10 days exploring the Japan Alps in Nagano. I was so excited about all the acitivities I was going to do, rock climbing, mountaineering, solo camp and etc. I started to shop for a new daypack as the one I have is starting to fall apart. While looking for my new daypack, I realized I had always wantede a lumbarpackm\, so I looked for it as well. After comprehensive of window shopping in Fukuoka, and internet -checking of the makers of those packs, I was ready to spend around 12,000 yen for a 30L Marmot daypack and 9.5L Dakine lumbarpack. It was quite cheap especially the daypack as it was listed 50% off from the original sale price of 16,000 yen (only 8,000 yen). As I was about to buy them, I received an email from Outward Bound Japan that the course I was supposed to join had been cancelled due to lack of participants......Initially 5 persons had registered for the course and just one week before the action, 2 of them decided to pull out! I was like...plunging into a dark hole...
Anyway, eventhough my desire to buy a daypack and a lumbarpack was motivated by the 10-day outdoor adventure i was going to have, the cancellation of the course did not deter me from buying them. To my delight, I managed to slashed 1,000 yen of the already 50% off daypack (bargaining is normally not pratised in Japan), and I paid 7,000 yen for the daypack and 6,500 yen for the lumbarpack.
As I was still wondering what a wonderful adventure I would have been having if the course had not been cacelled, typhoon (tropical cyclone) no. 11 was approaching Japan and looked like going to hit Nagano directly. I thought, may be GOD knew I was not supposed to be there because of typhoon. I was rather relief not to have to facea typhoon; but then I thought, the adverse condition as we got caught up in the typhoon might make the course more memorable...
posted by Alvan Siah 8/25/2001 08:48:33 PM
Monday, July 02, 2001
For the first time in a very long time, I feel relax about my research. Everything has been going smoothly lately. Today, after fixing the input data, and send the program into running, I felt so easy. I have not felt such relaxness for a long time. I could feel that I could go home and rest without feeling guity.
posted by Alvan Siah 7/2/2001 08:41:59 PM
Monday, June 04, 2001
Should have won the quater final game but we lost it. I felt very upset because I was only limited to less than 10 minutes the whole game. I did not start. We led the game the whole way in the first half. At one point we were leading 16 point. However, the starting five did not protect the lead and the lead was cut to 10 at half time with the score 20-10. I thought I would replace the starting shooting guard because he looked obviously tired towards the end of the first half. He played well in the first half making his first three shots (including 2 three pointers) but missed the rest of his attempts after that. The lead was further cut into 4 points after we failed to connect any point during the first three minutes of the second half. We took the time-up and I took the court. Making up the lost time, I made 3 three-pointers and maitained our 4 points lead towards the end of the 2nd half.
I tried not to be too selfish (I always share the ball and think pass before I shoot) with the ball giving them to my team-mates even though I had the hot hand; but we failed to protect lead and was forced into overtime. May be I should have been more aggressive with the ball In OT, I was relegated to the bench again. I was frustrated because I knew I was in form and yet they fielded (themselves) the original starting five even though some were not producing at all. I know I could play 3 positions, point guard, shooting guard, and small forward. I could have replace the small forward. Without a coach, as everyone was striving for playing time, I took a passive step of heading back to the bench as I obviously was the out of favour one. No one wanted to be left out. I was frustrated because I could not help but saw our team lost in the end by one point.
Frustrated because not of limited playing time.
I would love to start and who does not.....and i have the confident of doing better than the current strating shooting guard. Furthermore, I am a better player defensively.
Anyway, it is over and ......
posted by Alvan Siah 6/4/2001 10:43:34 PM
Sunday, May 27, 2001
Had our final group game today. Won it and with some scares too.
Finished as the group winner and will play Seinan in the knock-out stage next Sunday. Seinan is another top team and kind of unlucky to have been drawn against them. But if we beat them, we should be able to reach the final because we are drawn into a easier half of the knock-out stage. Only the quater final is the real test for us. If we survive, we should be able to beat our semi final opponents.
posted by Alvan Siah 5/27/2001 08:42:36 PM
Saturday, May 26, 2001
The Spring league has just started last week. Played 2 games, with my right ankle properly taped. Have never taped my ankle while playing basketball but to prevent reoccurence of my ankle injury (since I have not fully recovered from my sprained ankle). Have been tapinng my ankle two weeks ago as I pratised and played 5 on 5. Still not yet my optimum condition.
Anyway, lost the first game but won the second. We were supposed to win the first and lost the second. But the reverse happened. The first game was againt a team called " Success " from Fukuoka Educational University. The second game was against " Lynx " from Fukuoka University, one of the top teams of the league. "Angela" is my team's name.
Led the game against Success by 4 points but eventually lost the game by 4 points becaue of the 3-point bombs from the opposition. We only connected at most 3 pointers the whole game but the opposition was draining threes like rain. Frustration could be seen after the game since we were expected to finish the group in the second place and proceed to the knowck-out stages. As we lost the first game, the chances of getting into the knock-out stage almost diminish unless we won the game against the first seed. And we did it.
Led the game from the begining and never looked back. Won the game by 9 points. With the last group game will be played this Sunday, a win which is very much within our reach because the opposition is not that strong. However, we should guard against complacency.
posted by Alvan Siah 5/26/2001 08:43:15 AM
Friday, May 18, 2001
Japan will be co-hosting the 2002 World Cup together with Korea. I am thinking of applying to be a volunteer. The World Cup will kick off from end of May to June/July. S a volunteer, of course, I would not receive any salary because it is vonlunteering work, out of good-will.
posted by Alvan Siah 5/18/2001 10:17:46 PM
