Monthly Archive for November, 2009

Visitors return

Published on November 29, 2009 in Usual Ramblings. 3 Comments Tags: aliens, v, visitors.

I remembered watching a series called “V” back in the 80’s on SBC (I think) about reptilian aliens disguised as good looking humans who came to earth in the name of peace. Their mission was to ask for some of earth’s resources in exchange for sharing their technological advancements with the humans. Initially warmed to the new visitors, the humans let their guard down only to find out that they had sinister motives. Back then, I was really young and had absolutely no idea what was exactly going on or how it ended.

Although curious over the years, I have never gotten down to finding more about the old show (not that I had the time anyway) I used love watching. I was thinking about it again recently, and decided get my butt off to do a little wiki. The results were pleasantly surprising to me having discovered that a re-imagining of the series by Kenneth Johnson was programmed in ABC a few weeks back. I hope our cable or ‘free to air’ channels would start showing them soon. Let’s say I’m itching to find out how the special effects will be like with our editing advancements…~crosses fingers~.

Of Michaels and LeBrons

Published on November 25, 2009 in This I like and Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments Tags: basketball, lebron, michael leblanc, michael wong, nike, shoes.

Both Michaels from the Singapore Slingers were spotted wearing LeBron basketball shoes during Sunday’s game against the KL Dragons. While Michael Wong chose a flushed look with a black pair of Air Jordan socks and black Nike Zoom Ambassador, Michael LeBlanc looked totally pimped in his new Air Max LeBron VII and his signature ‘God First’ socks.

Judging from the shoes that LeBlanc has been wearing so far, I couldn’t help but think he likes ‘webby’ designs with lines crisscrossing over each other. His previous pair was a Hyperdunk with similar designs. Yeah, courtside seats are fantastic. You get to see everything up close…

Left: Wong’s Air Zoom Ambassador | Right: LeBlanc’s Air Max LeBron VII

Speaking of LeBlanc, he has a blog although not updated for a few weeks now. Thanks to Len for bringing this up to my attention. I noticed he took a photo from my blog and posted it in his without attribution. Thankfully, I’m a Slinger fan and he can help himself to as much as he wants..

Goooo Slingers!!

Slingers torched as Dragons hands them their first home loss

Published on November 24, 2009 in Things that suck and Usual Ramblings. 8 Comments Tags: abl, asean basketball league, basketball, kl dragons, singapore slingers.

I’m pretty sure the media had field day reporting about the Singapore’s Slingers’ first loss at home to the KL Dragons with a tonne of ’sizzling’ title wordplay. There’s so much one can do with the word Dragons and anything related to burning, fire, etc. Here’s my continuation after my previous post on how Singapore Slingers and fans got owned on their own soil. But first, much thanks to Nic and Daphne for organising and scoring us fantastic passes.

If the Dragons’ performance on Sunday is any indication of how their style of play is going to be like for the rest of their ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) campaign, the other teams better watch out. With strong inside presence and a tonne of scoring options, I reckon their current 4th position in the ABL ladder would slowly climb to top seed. Yes the Dragons are hungry and they could be a force to be reckoned with.

With a full squad and the return of point guard Wei Long after his chicken pox saga (welcome back dude), the number one Singapore Slingers have absolutely no reason why they should lose sunday’s game – especially at home and to a team that seem to be heading towards the wooden spoon award. But I guess in the case of yesterday’s game, complacency could possibly be an issue as the home team were caught with their guard down totalling 16 turnovers and a shooting average of under 50%.

Len and I have always discussed about a key element missing in the Slingers squad – big inside presence. KL’s #30 Jamal Brown who was once a Slinger is the kind of guy we believed the team needed, and ironically made his ex-team pay dearly for defaulting him before the Dragons picked him up. Together with a supporting cast of big men including #3 Chris Danial Kuete Lonichi and #33 Chee Lee Wei (mad hops dude!!), the Slingers had to work doubly hard getting inside.

Slingers’ imports #31 Kyle Jeffers and #33 Michael LeBlanc were held to just 12 and 13 points respectively, together with low shooting percentages. Despite Jeffers’ double-double efforts with 16 rebounds, the home team still found difficulty getting points in the paint. However, local boy #10 Hong Wei Jian stepped up to the plate and finished with a season-high 18 points and 4 rebounds, perhaps the first in Slingers’ history did a local outscore their imports (I can’t verify that, hope someone can). #11 Michael Wong (sorry, unable to take any photos of you) also contributed with 10 points, making 50% of his shots and Philippine sensation #19 Al Vergara had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Left: Wei Jian takes it to the rim | Right: Challenges his ex-teammate in the paint

Left: LeBlanc had to fire from the outside | Right: Al fights to the rim

At the other end the Dragons roughed it out with the Slingers as Kuete and #10 Rudy Lingganay put up 20 and 21 points. Rudy whom I believe hailed from the Philippines was totally sick with his inside scoring. How he managed to get inside in the presence of big defense, I’ll never know. Together with Kuete they both contributed from beyond the arc with six treys. Brown too had a double double with 14 points and 11 rebounds (oh, he got three blocks too). Most importantly, his intimidating presence and iron curtain defence played a huge role in preventing inside points, something that statistics will never show.

Left: Kuete takes it to the hole | Right: Brown with a block in his name while Kuete jumps in a bid to swat

Left: Brown can’t get it? No problem, Kuete is on his way up for a block | Right: Brown contributes from the baseline

On a lighter note, I can’t help but wonder why I didn’t take as many photos as I would have for other games. I think might have spent a majority of the time ball watching than shooting (hey, it was an intense game and we needed numbers), something I should shake off for future games. I’m pretty sure I missed plenty of good shots.

The Slingers will take a two-week break before hosting the Thailand Tigers on 7 Dec at the Indoor Stadium. Currently placed last, the Tigers have the same record as the KL Dragons before they met the home team on Sunday. Will the Slingers put their guard down again and repeat another defeat by a statistically weaker team, or will they find some time for self reflection and redeem themselves with a win? There is only one way to find out. Tickets are available at Sistic. Of course KL Dragons fans are more than welcome to visit. But this time, cheer for us yah? Goooooo Slingers!!

More photos in my Flickr album here.

Singapore Slingers and fans got owned at home

Published on November 23, 2009 in Things that suck and Usual Ramblings. 11 Comments Tags: abl, asean basketball league, kl dragons, singapore slingers.

Of course this is based on my observation but still, I find it rather interesting and blog worthy. The Singapore Slingers experienced their first ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) loss at home to the KL Dragons today, 74-86. Apart from great plays by the visiting team and the Slingers being owned on the boards with strong rebounds from the Dragons’ Jamal Brown, who once donned a Slinger jersey (more of that in another article), the 1,000 if not more Singapore Slingers fans were completely owned by a small group of KL Dragons in team t-shirts cheering for their team and waving their flags. From what I gathered, they actually travelled all the way from KL to Singapore for the game (can anyone verify that?).

What seemed to be an home court advantage became an away game for the Singapore Slingers as cheers from the 50 or more strong KL Dragon fans drowned the somewhat quiet home fans. After the game, Singapore fans were taunted by Dragons’ fans rhythmically outside the Indoor Stadium entrance as they banged on drums and symbols (yes, they brought musical instruments down) in their bid to create more hype, which they did pretty well.

Nice sounding “Wicked Aura Batucada” like tunes aside (well I kinda liked it), I wished I could say that the Dragons’ fans are just celebrating the win, but with chants like “Who won today? KL Dragons!!”, followed by cheers by our visitors, I think that qualifies as taunting (hey…I could be wrong). As for the Singapore fans, they just stood there, watched and some even cheered after they stopped playing. Of course as friendly competition goes, in addition to Singapore being a safe country and the fact that there are really no super hardcore Slinger fans, there were no fights or incidents…thankfully ~wipes brow~.

Left: The small but strong KL Dragons fans cheering for their team | Right: I think the only time Singapore Slingers fans every stood up and cheered was for free t-shirts

Left: KL Dragons fans cheering after the game ended | Right: The celebration continues outside the Indoor Stadium

I know its not soccer and I have always wished for a strong Slinger fan base especially at home and a completely sell out crowd at the Indoor stadium chanting “Let’s go Slingers!! Let’s go!!”. But at the rate how things are going, I reckon that Singapore fans will continue to be owned by fans from visiting teams as the ASEAN Basketball League carries on until the end of season. Oddly, for a country that produces the loudest and proudest complainers, Singaporeans are rather quiet eh?

My report on the game coming soon. Once I get the statistics…

25-year-old in a bottle

Published on November 22, 2009 in Its Green!!, This I like and Usual Ramblings. 4 Comments Tags: balsamic vinegar, truffle oil.

Too bad its not whisky though. Lyn (my boo) and I popped over to Takashimaya last weekend after picking up two important items for our big project and spotted a temporary stall selling all sorts of olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars. Managed by the folks from Crescendo, the oily goodness offered were priced slightly more affordable than those you will find at gourmet supermarkets.

Of course as curious chefs go (okay…how does home cook chefs sound like?), we inquired about their products hoping to pick up something nice to cook with. The lady who served us was rather knowledgeable and patient allowing us to sample a full range of oils and vinegars. After much debate over the age of vinegar we should buy, we decided to bite the bullet and picked up not only a bottle of truffle oil but a 25-year-old balsamic vinegar. At 25 years old, the balsamic vinegar has pretty much caramelised, and it tastes oh so sweet.

Our damage was a little under $50…I think. Those looking out for something green (as in environmentally) can bring their own glass bottles for refills. Well done folks, I can foresee myself popping over to get my oily fix in the near future. If my memory serves me right, they have a shop located at Orchard Ion.

Left: The 25-year-old balsamic vinegar | Right: Truffle (flavoured) oil

Lyn and I reckoned that it would be a waste to use the balsamic vinegar as a salad dressing and decided on using it for a dip for our bread instead. However, I did nudge her a little, challenging her to just try at least one time to see how it will taste like. Let’s just say that I’m looking forward to it. Unfortunately, our truffle oil was not exactly an extract. Mr Miyagi who also bought the same bottle of oil have more about it here. He is right though, we can consider picking up these bottles as a Christmas gifts…

I’m really not dead..neither are the Slingers

Published on November 21, 2009 in Usual Ramblings. 2 Comments Tags: abl, asean basketball league, basketball, satria muda britama, singapore slingers.

Woah it has been a while since my last entry. I guess its a combination of my busy schedule especially with the big project coming up in under two months together with mix bag of laziness, two new games (NBA Live 10 and DJ Hero) and other little things that led to a blog drought. Of course my cable connectivity has played a huge role in my inactivity. So dear folks at Starhub, you have no idea how itching I am to switch to a dedicated line once my contract with you is up. If your claim on being the fastest takes me back to my 56.6kbps days, I wonder how much slower can you get? This time the turtle doesn’t win.

Rants aside, the good news is that there are loads of things to write about and if I don’t get cracking, stories will pile up and I’ll definitely start forgetting them. Heck, I’ve gotten so far from blogging that my article on the Singapore Slingers’ match up against Satria Muda BritAma on 1 November (its a good day) is not up yet. Twenty days later, the Slingers have moved on losing one to the Philippine Patriots and taking another against the Satria Muda BritAma in both away games, while I’m still sitting idly by thinking its nice to be 4-0.

Of course I would love to go all hardworking and write about 1 November but there’s really no point. All the reports are up and you might as well read it from the Slingers themselves, Len who has been diligently keeping us updated and Red Hoops. I’m sure there are more reports but let’s keep it clean. The Singapore Slingers currently lead the ASEAN Basketball League with a 5-1 record and will be hosting the KL Dragons (2-4) tomorrow afternoon at the National Stadium. Len has a tonne of useful information here. Tickets are available at Sistic.