I'm going off to Stockholm!!! Yes, after numerous near-misses, I am finally gonna get the opportunity to visit Europe. Well, depending on how you define 'near-misses', i guess that is pretty debatable. Since a 'near-miss' for me includes anything from deciding to visit but being too lazy to book, to flying through HK/Japan to Chicago instead transiting at Amsterdam/some other European city, I guess I have had many such near-misses.
But, enough of such crap. So I'll be leaving on Saturday, and hopefully returning on Thursday. This is supposed to be an official study/work visit, but one can always throw in some fun along the way. Since one doesn't get to go to Europe all the time, I guess allowing for some happening stuff is always pardonable, in spite of this being an official visit --- hence no leave need to be taken for this trip.
Over the weekend, John Kuang -- my ex-ACS(I) classmate, and current scholar too -- asked me to room with him over there. I'm not sure whether we get to choose our hotel roommates though, but if we do, then 2 ACS boys rooming together is sure gonna be a helluava fun. I can imagine this combination to be a sure recipe for waking up late, for morning calls being ineffective, for fun throughout the night, and for missing flights. I was just joking about the last one, since our return flight is at night, so no chance of that happening ... but if we were to fly back in the morning, I wouldn't necessarily discount that from being a distinct possibility. After so much hopeful deliberation, I'm seriously beginning to fret having to room with a RI or Chinese High boy in the event that they have already chosen roommates for all of us. Note ah: some information in this paragraph is intended to be taken with a pinch of salt; some are more truths than crap.
So I was checking out what's there to do over in Stockholm, and appaently they have a great nightlife. Even more happening, they have a section of the town specially for gays and lesbians .... akin to our own Boys Town in Belmont, Chicago.
Now now, I sure am looking forward to this trip. But first, I gotta start working on preparing my powerpoint slides for my presentation on Thursday. Now this sure ain't gonna be fun ....
Leeds United released the following statement: 'The board of Leeds United have today terminated the contract of manager Kevin Blackwell. The club would like to place on record their thanks to Kevin for the work he has put in over the past three and a half years, the past two and a half of which were as manager.'
In a way, it's never a joy to see someone who has given much to Leeds United, and who steered the club away from bankruptcy to Championship stability, albeit till recently, dismissed. But I'm sure this will prove to be the right decision. Sometimes, emotions just gotta be set aside for the overall good of a club idolized by millions across the globe, and who I still believe rank as 1 of the big 5 in England -- together with Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. Now, most of you jokers out there will probably laugh head over heels over this assertion, but time will prove me right. When debts are cleared, and players' futures secured, such that the best and brightest products from the Academy need not be sold to balance the accounts, we will see Leeds rise from the ashes to become one of England's most dominant clubs again. This is a certainty ... the only uncertainty now is ... who is the man who's gonna lead Leeds out of this abyss and up toward Premiership glory. Claudio Raneiri or Alan Curbishley .... your guess is as good as mine. At least, Kevin Blackwell's now no longer in charge, and this probably signals a new chapter in present Leeds history - a turn for the better.
Here are several clues to help you figure out the identity of our mystery idiot.
1) Tactically inept 2) Blames others, and never himself, when things don't go his way 3) Blames the superiority of other teams when his team suffers yet another defeat 4) Doesnt know when to call it quits 5) Foolish in his transfer dealings 6) Prefers to turn to over-the-hill veterans, instead of taking the risk of blooding enthusiastic and speedy youngsters who have something to prove and their futures to play for 7) Sells off the club's best future assets, the latest being 18yr old Simon Walton 8) Doesn't know how to turn the fortunes of the club around 9) Ignores chants of "You've gotta go!" from the club's supporters, who seem to know how to better manage the club than he does 10) Should leave before the club finds themselves in Div 2 next season
Well, if it isn't pretty obvious enough, this idiot is none other than Leeds United's current manager -- Kevin Blackwell. I do hope he's living on borrowed time, cos if he stays in charge for another month, this could well turn out to be a season of struggling to stay up rather than challenging for promotion.
First off, when teams come to Elland Road and play defensive (which they have every right to do), he should change his lineup to counter the soak-and-absorb tactics of the opposition. Instead, when Leeds loses, he goes moaning that Leeds play best when their opponents try to attack, rather than defend and then counter attack. C'mon, he's being paid to win games, and outsmart opposition managers. Why the hell is he blaming other managers for choosing the right tactics when he himself obviously is just an English-version of Sven Goren Eriksson --- tactically clueless, and just reliant on once-good veteran players who are way past their prime. A classic example came again yesterday. When Leeds were struggling to break down Coventry City, he should have tried to bring on creative players, and speedy players who can out-sprint opposition wingbacks and then put in decent crosses. Translated: bring in Robbie Blake and Eddie Lewis (arguably Leeds' 2 most creative players), and keep Seb Carole on the pitch. Instead, what does Blackwell do? He replaces Carole with the lumbering Steve Stone (yes the same Steve Stone from 15 years ago), and brings in Jonathan Douglas, whom I have nothing against, and also nothing for. Blake comes on with only 5 minutes left in the game. What has perplexed me all season, is why Blackwell just refuses to play Blake even when his so-called first-choice striker Geoff Horsfield was suspended for 4 games. C'mon, Blake can play striker or winger, yet he has barely played 100 mintes of competitive football this season.
Enuff said, the manager's gotta go. It seems everyone, bar the manager himself knows that. I do hope chairman Ken Bates knows that too. It would make more financial sense to terminate Blackwell's contract than to start next season in Div 2.
I do hope I can be proved wrong, and Blackwell can quickly turn the club's fortunes around. Nowadays, whenever I update the Leeds scores (on the right), the only constant is the "LEEDS UNITED 0" part; I just have to change the opposition team, and mebbe change the 1 to a 2 or 3. I hope this is no longer the case, and for the sake of everyone, sooner rather than later.
I just realized that the last entry was posted nearly 2 weeks ago ... well, it's been a pretty busy 2 weeks since. And in order for this site not to become obsolete, in much the same way Arsenal and Liverpool are nowadays, and which fate shall fall upon Chelsea soon once they are convicted for illegally tapping up 3 of Leeds United's most promising youngsters, I thought it best I write something here on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
So now's the time of the year when people studying in the US are flying back one by one, and people in NUS and NTU are going back to studying one by one, and people working are still working ..... The University of Chicago starts fall quarter Sep 26 ... and talking about the UofC, there was an update on its meteoric rise up the US colleges rankings in our monthy UofC newsletter.
"The College rose in two well-publicized rankings of academic institutions this year, regaining the No. 9 spot in U.S. News & World Report's listing of national universities and meriting the Princeton Review's No. 1 spot for best overall academic experience for undergraduates. "
While I'm on the topic of No. 1, it's amazing how Starhub is finally showing a Championship game on SCV finally. Finally, they are listening, and giving us what we want to watch, instead of what they think we want to watch. And the first live Championship game of the season features no less than the No. 1 club in Yorkshire, and soon to be Britain, Leeds United. It doesn't really matter who the opposition is, but just for the record, it's some team called Wolves. If you are a betting man, you can be sure I'll be in front of the TV tonite at 810pm. Nothing, and no one, will come between watching Leeds United and me tonite. Let's just hope the match has a pleasant ending .... no need to be too nerve-wrecking. I would gladly settle for a 5-0 victory ... a 1-0 win would be too traumatic.
So I spent Friday reformatting my hard disk. Surprisingly for a first-timer, the whole process was rather simple. I finally decided to do something after I tried clicking on the Internet Explorer icon, and the page loaded only after a minute. Coupled with the inability to watch youtube videos on my laptop, I finally decided that the time was ripe to give my comp a clean slate of health. However only after ensuring that I had all those stuff backed up into some external hard-disk, and I had that wireless card installation CD around, did I dare begin the reformatting. So kiasu I was that I even backed up previous MSN conversations ... just in case. So last nite, I was talking online, and I realized to my horror, that all those MSN emoticons which I had so faithfully collected from various sources had been wiped out. Not that I use them much aniway, but I just found it irritating that all those were now gone.
To end off this rather long entry, I should state that I think I am getting rather not so fit now. Played 2 hours of tennis yesterday in the morning, and was so bloody exhausted after that. The high tea later on in the day of course helped to alleviate a bit of the suffering, and I managed to drag myself back into lab at 6 plus in the evening to finish off some stuff. But boy, was I glad to finally sit back on the couch and watch Jose Reina comically concede that 3rd goal to Andy Johnson. Not that that was stupid, since I've made as stupid gaffes while trying to defend, ie. when I am actually playing defence for once. For this reason, I prefer my position as an attacking winger who, for the sake of appearances and team spirit, has to defend from time to time. This is just a joke, of course.
I'm getting sleepy again. Off to take a nap. A long week of work ahead!
