"heroin, mug's game...."

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the future lately, and I don’t like doing that. Get me a desk, some money, and a pair of these, and I’m a happy man.

We lost again yesterday, 8-7. I got 2 goals and 3 assists, but I was also guilty of giving away the ball to Fred, an opponent player, which resulted into a stupid soft goal. Nevertheless, it was still a good match; we crawled back in into the game after trailing 8-3. But a lost is still a lost. Anyways, we still have intramural playoffs this week to look forward to.

And to some soccer back home. The local soccer scene just got a little more exciting; getting a story published under the headlines tab on ESPNsoccernet sure is something. Halim Napi is one mad man, and the home crowd, wow. I’m not implying that I’m giving my utmost support to hooliganism and such, but yeah, we’ve had cases of home supporters throwing stones to the visiting team’s busses and all, but putting a police vehicle on fire sure is something new. At least, I look up to these people more than those Melayu Malaysia perasan Red Army and Malaysian perasan Steve Hickmont. I have a lot of catching up to do before going back home. And the national hockey team went on to lose 3-1 to India in the Azlan Shah Cup tournament finals.

And talking about hooligans, I just finished watching the rise of the footsoldier. It is an OK movie, maybe it is just a little bit too long, and it gets a little lackluster towards the end. Anyways, I’d recommend this to anyone who is into gangster or crime films, and be warned that it is a little graphic. You can find a short description of the movie here. And the one big thing that I learnt from the film is, stay away from drugs. Maybe money is the root of all evil, but drugs is the pinnacle of it, the point where if you fall, you’ll fall the hardest.

Back on the future; I can’t really see why I need to conform to the society’s brand of a successful person. It’s not anything existentialism……… I guess. But well, let’s skip the crap.

And talking about successful people, Mr. Onitsuka and Carlton Leach have these characteristics in common; they have a gift, and they got guts. You can have all the muscle and the money, but you need to have bakat to go up the ladder. And the one big difference between them is that one planned to be successful, and the other one did it just for the thrills. So, failing to plan is a plan to fail crap is really not that true I guess. Well, planning ahead is still good though; but it is not right to generalize- that’s what my writing lecturer told me at least.

More on successful writers, I bumped into Nadim last week, and he made me read a short story entitled Guts from Palahniuk’s Haunted. Palahniuk is one sick and amazing writer. He is so good that up to 60 people have fainted listening to the story of Guts during his book readings. I didn’t faint, but I just couldn’t help myself from uttering a couple of bad words aloud throughout the excruciating few pages with the rather animated looking Nadim laughing the whole time. You guys should try it sometime, or you can find a couple of videos of him reading it on youtube. But, just be warned, unless you have a sick and twisted mind, it is going to be agonizingly disturbing.

I still haven’t decided if I’ll be running the 5k next week, so, a pair of shoes with the fancy gel has to wait. And my younger sister will be coming over to the states sometime this week. I need flight tickets….. Houston ke, Philly? And yesterday’s forum was just horrible.

Letih. Perlu pulang ke pangkal jalan.

a better loser

At last, I had the chance to attend the club’s annual regional conference for the first time last week. The focus was on how modern medicine interfaces with and impacts our society and the world. Among the topics covered include Biotechnology, ethical issues regarding to genetic testing, adjusting to an aging population, the rising cost of public health, etc.

Since it’s near impossible to summarize everything here, let’s just talk about the slot which I think is the coolest. Firstly, I didn’t really plan on attending this particular parallel slot because I was afraid that I was going to offend a handful of informed people by not laughing to their clever inside jokes (I never had any biology, not even in high school, and the topic presented was ethical issues in genetic testing, in a big conference where the attendees know a little bit of everything), but I just happen to have entered the wrong room, and when I realized that, it was already too late to get out and join the other group next door. Anyhow, at the end of the day, it wasn’t really that bad, though I had to constantly google up the new terms and jargons used by both the esteemed presenter and the hyper-cool audience throughout the session.

And what I can conclude from the lecture is this- the future is just plain scary. Imagine this, the setting from the X-men series, and how the one main difference between the mutants and the rest of the human population is causing havoc around the world; just this time, no wolverine, no sexy slimy blue woman, and replace the x-gene with some other genetic traits…… Ok, that’s not a very good explanation.

Ok, anyways, we already have enough problems with racial, religious, sexual orientation, and social class discrimination, and the last thing we want is to have groups of people being discriminated because of their genes. And in this case, when we talk about discrimination, it goes beyond the social prejudice. It involves issues regarding to money, well being and protection in terms of insurance plans and some other sensitive issues including abortion, etc. As an example, with advancements in biotech, such as the availability of the pre-natal genetic testing, in the future, without the right laws and regulations, it is possible that one day, parents can choose to keep the unborn or to simply perform abortion if it doesn’t really go along with the specifications of the kind of child they want. And in the future, marriage, or love in general, will have to go beyond the psychological chemistry, with the unrestricted genetic profiling coming into play. And as we in general just don’t like to be labeled and treated differently because of certain stigmas, then, we will be forced to choose, thus the issues with selective personality and all. Anyways, the 2 examples are just a small portion of the problems that will surface without the right laws and guidelines concerning genetic testing. And as we were informed, the laws governing the issue today is lagging years behind compared to where we have arrived today.

And the other topics discussed were in fact, just as interesting. And all in all, other than the roasted vege for lunch; the 2-day conference was awesome. And I was just a little disappointed that I had to skip a couple of slots because I just had to join the team for the WC tournament last Saturday and share a portion of the humiliation of getting whipped, losing by 8 goals to 1.

It was a really big slap to our big fat pride; at least 3 guys I know and one random guy I can’t really remember who, came up to me on campus asking what the hell happened. And since the intramural game was cancelled yet again due to the storm, I was available to play for the team for our 2nd game of the indoor tourney. And since its Macheda’s day and we didn’t really want to steal his thunder, we thought that pulling an upset by winning the game was a bit inappropriate; so, our 1st ever WC win will have to wait until next week. hmmmmm…. We really need to find a way to play against guys double our size,....... and how to scramble from very small dogs when playing outdoors…… and I think I can cross ‘playing in the world cup’ out from my bucket list.

And yup, the team got ‘beet’ out, but the future is bright. I like Hansbrough, but I want MSU to win. We’ll see.

Btw, imagine this, liyana fiza (estrella) with a degree in biology from MIT, and she’s all Zidane………..

And good luck Mr. PM.