watching a memory...

These past few days I had a little trip down memory lane. I have gone back to watch a few episodes of the OC. It was quiet insightful actually and really a good chance for me to reflect. Back in the days, the OC was probably the only TV series that I watched week in week out. I never used to be able to watch it on TV so we downloaded them, besides, this way I would be ahead of what they were airing on TV here in Oz.Back then I thought why isn't my life as glamorous or drama filled as it is on TV. Now when I think that I laugh, because I wouldn't have my life any other way. Yes it would be nice if I could live in one of those fancy houses and drive expensive cars, but what I have, I am blessed to have.

Another thing that has been a distant memory is winning, for Urawa that is. We have now lost our third game in a row. The good thing is that it's only a Nabisco Cup game, but the bad news is that we are now knocked out. We lost 3-0 to Shimizu S-Pulse. 3 games, 3 losses & 0 goals. Not a great fortnight for us.Next up, a chance to get our revenge against Shimizu on Saturday.

silver lining...

Two defeats in two weeks and we scored no goals. Last week it was against last placed Oita (1-0), this week Urawa lost 3-0 to the struggling Nagoya Grampus. What the worst part about this is that these past two weekends Kashima also has been struggling. This would have been our chance to close the gap, but instead Shimizu and FC Tokyo are closing the gap on the top four.

Tulio was suspended from the Nagoya game, so our back four consisted of Yamada Nobuhisa & Takahashi as fullbacks with Abe & Tsuboi as our centre backs. 3/4 of our defence are midfielders! Depth in our defence is something that really needs to be addressed. I still believe Nagata is our future in terms of the back four, but he's still young and needs to mature.

On the bright side though according to an interview with coach Finke, Tsukasa Umesaki will be returning in 2-3 weeks. Well coach Finke introduced him as a "new player". I'm hoping that Umesake returns stronger then ever, because right now, Ponte is not being all that effective. You can see the read the article here.Our next game is against Shimizu S-Pulse in the return leg of the Nabisco Cup Quarter Finals. Lets hope we get that winning feeling again.

the bassline...

Well back in the days I use to play the bass day in day out. Whether it was to play at church, play at school or just play because I wanted to, well that was what I did. Had many jam sessions with various pees and I've even done a recording with it. Fast forward to now & it feels as though I haven't played my bass forever! For the past few years I was mainly playing piano at church and when I did get a chance to play the bass, I didn't play my beloved bass. So yes, it has been a while since I have picked up my bass, that was until the other day.Ah, it felt good to play it again. Back then (2002), I dubbed the bass "Lilo". This was about the time when Lilo & Stitch came out. My cousin Waich was said that I was devious & naughty like Stitch was, so why not name the bass Lilo.

I remember when I was looking around to see which bass guitar I should get. I think I played well over 100 bass guitars before finally settling on the Ibanez sr3005. And the bass guitar really was a blessing! I just came back from a 3 week holiday in the USA, so money wasn't something I had an abundance of, but after playing the sr3005, I knew that this was the bass I wanted. For some reason or another when looking at my bank account I found that I had the money to purchase the bass. I was over the moon!

Now I want to get back to playing some more bass again. It's hard playing bass by yourself, mainly because the bass is more of an accompaniment, but that doesn't mean it's gonna stop me from playing, it never use to and hopefully it never will.

Here's to the bassline!

that's my team...

Well I have pondered long and hard about this concept of why I barrack for teams, but have only stuck with several of them and others I have swapped and changed for others. I haven't really come up with any real conclusion (I actually haven't really long and hard about it). I think it has got to do with the fact that if I liked the team first, then I've stuck with them, but if I liked a particular player, then I'm less likely to stick with the team when that players leaves. Understood?

Well I thought I'd make a list here of the clubs/teams that I support. These are the teams that I haven't swapped and changed with, so with out further delay, here we go...

URAWA RED DIAMONDS (J-League) - Saitama Stadium 2002

FC BARCELONA (La Liga) - Camp NouBRISBANE BRONCOS (NRL) - Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park)HOUSTON TEXANS (NFL) - Reliant Stadium

I have other clubs/teams that I do follow, but these four are the clubs/teams that I have pledge my allegiance to. The ones I have and will stick with through thick and thin with. Ride the highs and lows of the team.

One goal for me would be to go to at least home game for each of the four during my life. I've gone to a Urawa home game (a million thanks to Ci), so that's one down. (But it doesn't mean I wouldn't want to go to another Urawa game). So now that leaves me 3 more to go to. Going to a Brisbane Broncos home game I think would be the easiest of the 3. Then that means I'll heading to Barcelona and Houston, yeah I can see that happening.

Another thing I like to do is to collect merchandise of the teams that I follow, in particular their jerseys. As you have seen from my previous blog, I have plenty of Urawa merchandise, I also now have a Barcelona jersey as well as 2 Brisbane Broncos jerseys. So the only thing I'm missing is a Texans jersey, which I'm sure I'll pick up when we head to the states.

Sometimes I think, why don't I just support my local clubs? It would make more sense wouldn't it? I'd be able to get more involved like going to the games. But I don't, actually most of the competition/leagues are overseas, so that would make it difficult to follow my "local" team wouldn't it?

So there you have it. Here's hoping that I don't add more teams/clubs to this list.
Disclaimer: this is not in anyways & should not be taken as me dropping hints what to get me for my birthday/Christmas/etc.

a kick in the pants...

A week when the top teams all drew, Urawa did one better, we lost, defeated by the team at the bottom of the J-League table, Oita 1-0. That makes it all better doesn't it? To be honest I saw this defeat coming. Firstly because of the referees in the J-League and how they favour the "underdog" team. But honestly, Urawa hasn't been playing well the past few weeks. Yes we have won our past few games, but they haven't been convincing, so I do hope that this defeat will wake us up.We're still second on the table, but now we are 8 points behind Kashima. Next week we are playing back at Saitama Stauium 2002 against Nagoya Grampus. The last time we played Nagoya earlier this year, it was a very heated affair.

the need to support...

I don't know what it is, but I seem to have the need to support a team in a competition. It doesn't matter if I don't really follow the sport, but I just need a team that I need to barrack for. Its really a sad thing, I don't know if its an obsession or what. If I don't follow the sport 100%, I also tend to stray and change teams that I support, maybe because they aren't going as good as I remembered them to.

For example in the NBA, when I was younger I was very much an avid Orlando Magic fan, this was back when Penny Hardaway was still a rookie. Those where the days, collecting basketball cards, I had heaps and heaps of Hardaway rookie cards as well. But then after a while I stopped following and found out that Penny was traded to the Phoenix Suns. So what did I do? Start to barrack for the Suns. Followed the Suns for abit, got excited when they got Steve Nash to go with Shaun Marion and Amare Stoudemire. That lasted for a few seasons until this past year I decided to barrack for the Portland Trail Blazers. But will that stick for the long haul?

This is also the same when it comes to barracking for an MLB (baseball) team. Early on I started with the Arizona Diamondbacks, then there was a phase when I supported the Anaheim Angels, moved to alliance to the Boston Red Sox, then to the Houston Astros and finally last year I started to support the Tampa Bay Rays.

So what teams have I supported all the way through and never waiver. Well firstly of the American sports, I supported the Houston Texans in the NFL all the way through. I've actually supported them from their first season, back in 2002. Why did I start to support them? Because they where a new team and I was new to the sport, make sense right? Surprisingly I've stuck with them all the way through. They haven't won a Super Bowl let alone make it to the playoffs yet, but I feel as though they're my team.Another team I've supported through and through has been the Brisbane Broncos. To be honest with you when I started to follow rugby league, the team I actually first supported was the Canberra Raiders, but for some reason or another, I decided to switch my alliance to the Broncos. There was a time in high school though, that I was ashamed of following the Broncos, because supporting the Broncos in Sydney tends to result in being given abit of flack, but I stuck with them. As they say in the NRL adverts, "That's My Team".

Then there's the AFL where I support the Collingwood Magpies. There really isn't any particular reason for me supporting them, but I just do and surprisingly I have stuck with them, even though I do sometimes have an inclination to support my home town team the Sydney Swans, but have stuck with the Pies.

Of cause last but not least the teams that I follow in football (soccer). FC Barcelona (La Liga) and Urawa Red Diamonds (J-League).

Ok, so I'm getting off topic now, but this really got me thinking as to why I can stick to supporting some teams, but when it comes to others I can't stick by them. Why is it that I feel I need the need to support a team in a particular competition? Why is it I never tend to support my "local" team?

Really makes me ponder...

still happening...

Well when I first started blogging again almost 3 months ago, I thought yeah I'll probably blog once a week or something. To my amazement it appears that I've blogged roughly every second day. I really do enjoy my blogging time though, it really gives me an opportunity to reflect and refocus (two of my three R's). I don't know if anyways actually read my entries, I don't really care who reads my entries. I wanna see like three years from now, I read back on some of these blogs, I reckon that would be interesting.One last point; I know I blog alot about Urawa. I blog about Urawa this and Urawa that, which leads me to think that I should really start a new blog especially dedicated to Urawa, which I have. Click Here. Now I don't think I'm going to start blogging on my Urawa blog until the end of this season, it's abit weird starting in the middle of the season, so I'm going to still do my Urawa updates here for the time being. It gives me a chance to "develop" the Urawa Blog and launch it properly. So until then you have to put up with my Urawa updates along with my other stuff. That's if anyways actually reads this.

the game after...

Well last night was the game after the game I watched when I was in Japan. Does that make sense? It was the quarter finals of the Yamazaki Nabisco Cup, well at least the 1st leg, against Shimizu S-Pulse. The result was a 2-1 victory; with goals to Tulio (24min) and Edmilson (60min). This means that we'd need to at least draw in the return leg to progress to the semi finals.

night is day...

Back to working the overnights this week, I don't know how I use to do it week in week out before. When I think of it now, it's quiet ridiculous and such a waste of time. Why is it a waste of time? Well basically this morning I woke up at midday and since I'll be working overnights, I'd go to bed for a 5 hour sleep before work. So that would mean I'd sleep around 4pm, which only gives me 4 hours to do things, which usually isn't enough time to do anything I want to do, which results in me bumming around at home.

Such a sad day and a waste of my time. Now you ask why didn't I wake up earlier? I wish I could, but I didn't get to sleep by about 4 something this morning. I was already in bed by 1am, but I really couldn't sleep. Dunno why though, probably thinking of something too much, but the damn thing is I can't really put a finger on what it is. [/rant]

the city of angels...

For me at least Los Angeles is place I can see myself moving to. I have family that I am close to in LA, so that would make the transition some what easier. I think out of Boston, SF & LA; LA is the only place where I'd picture myself needing a car. Ideally I'd rather move to a place where I can rely on the public transport, but I guess if I do need a car it wouldn't be too bad, it would just add to the expenses. Actually I don't think I'd be moving to LA it self, but one of its surrounding suburbs. The hotel that's offering a job right now is in Pasadena, anyways we'll see how it goes. I know for one thing, moving to LA probably would have the approval of someone already.And as for the baseball team, there's two to choose from, the LA Dodgers or the LA Angels. Both I can see myself supporting, so the hardest thing is to choose which team to support.

or could it be san fran...

My quest to find my next port of call continues. My next option I'm "looking into" is San Francisco, California. When I was doing my engineering degree, actually even before going to uni, back when I was in high school, one uni I wanted to go to was Stanford University, which is located in San Francisco. Could that be my "sign" to go for the job at San Francisco? Could I see myself barracking for the San Francisco Giants?One thing I got to look out for is also a job for Ci. So far both Boston and San Francisco has an MOD position going in a Starwood property, as well as a GSA position, in a different Starwood property. Ideally I would like to see Ci stay in reservation or in some kind of supervisor position, which there is one in Dallas, Texas; plus there's an Assistant Director of Rooms as well there, but I can't see myself living in Texas, because well it's Texas, so that's a no go.

Before I start randomly applying I should speak to my direct manager about it first, so that I can get their approval 1st. I will do that soon, it doesn't help that I'm on overnights for the fortnight. Oh well, but the search continues.

winning is winning...

Urawa came from behind to beat Hiroshima 2-1. It was a match which was dominated by Hiroshima from the start and Urawa didn't really assert themselves until the 70th min. Goals from Edmilson in the 68th & 84th pushed Urawa over the line in a game they shouldn't have won. At the end of the day winning is winning isn't it? Sometimes it is good to win dominantly and with style, but the 3 points is what matters at the end of the day, which puts Urawa back to 2nd on the J-League table, still 8 points behind Kashima.

boston, maybe...

I think I'll go to Boston,
I think that I'm just tired
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind...
I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset,
I hear it's nice in the Summer, some snow would be nice

So lately I've been browsing to see what's out there for me job wise. There's been a few that I've been interested in, but I think at the moment my preferred would be Boston Massachusetts. So why Boston, I don't really know why actually, but I do know that when I went for a holiday to the USA back in 2002 with the family, Boston was definitely one of my favorite places. I must admit that I liked Boston more then New York.Moving to Boston would also give me a reason to support the Boston Red Sox. I've never really had a "reason" to support any particular American sporting team, especially when it comes to baseball, but if I move for work, I guess I'd be supporting the local team. So by saying that, that would narrow the choices of where I would like to go in the USA, actually no, not really.

The other places in the USA besides Boston I would consider working (not taking into consideration of the above) would be Los Angeles, San Fransisco or a snow resort like Aspen or Park City.

Alright no more thinking for the time being. Oh, Urawa plays Hiroshima tonight.

why why why...

Don't I just love doing shift work right now; to be honest with you no, not really. Yes, working shift work do have their advantages and back a year or so ago working shift work suited me quiet fine. But not anymore. At the moment I'm just seeing all the disadvantages of working shift work; I'm almost certain that these disadvantages have been there all along, but right now I'm basically almost to the point where I am fed up with it.

Why? Because you see Ci works in the same building as me, but at times I see her as often as if she lived in Nowra or somewhere. It's quiet ridiculous really. [/rant]

missing my ek...

The original [RAY-51R]; after going for a drive today the current one doesn't quiet live up to the original. The saying "new and improved" just doesn't cut it here. The original is still the best, the sequel is definitely a let down. So many fond memories with the car, it was my daily drive for 6 years and it was my first.

Do I regret selling the car? Yeah I sometimes do, but I keep telling myself it was the right thing to do. I knew every little problem there was on that car, all the dents and all the faults, but I didn't care, because it was my car and I made it the way I wanted it.

Somedays I think that I should go out and buy myself an EK4 and start the process all over again. I know exactly what I want in terms of parts & modifications. It'll be fun. But then I know I have to grow up and get myself a more serious car. But to be honest with you, if I had $20,000 to spend on a car I'd pick up an EK4 and do it up. But is it time to grow up?

Here are some of the EK's that I "looked up" to when I still had my EK. This really brings me back down memory lane.

sushi bomber's double strike...

Back when Noahiro Takahara was playing for Eintracht Frankfurt he was affectionately named the Sushi Bomber by the fans. Today, the Sushi Bomber's 2 goals led Urawa to a 3-2 win over Montedio Yamagata.Funny story from today at work; my work colleagues thought that I had won the lotto when I yelled out "YESSSS..." after finding out the result. I was following the game @ work and was 2-2 when I had to go away from the computer. This was already up to the 80th min so I was settling for a draw. But a late goal from the Sushi Bomber was one of the few good things that happened today.

new toys, old thing...

Goodbye Vodafone & welcome back Optus; the last time I was on Optus was back when I got my first phone the Nokia 5110. Now after 10 plus years since then and many mobile phones in between, I just got myself a new iPhone 3GS, well to be exact I got myself 2 new iPhones, one for me and one of cause for my Ci. So far in the 48 hours or so of ownership, I'm loving it. I have always wanted one, so I don't know what took me soo long to get one. All of the excuses I used this past year now seems to be so lame and really not justified. Well now I'm glad that "we" can have one together (that's Ci & I equals we), actually I think I'm slowly converting Ci to Apple.

So last night I was slowly adding apps & songs onto my iPhone and i realised all of the songs that I "sync-ed" are basically still the same songs that I've been listening to for over 5 years. The usual artist, the same albums; The Killers, Linkin Park, Yellowcard, Switchfoot, when I like something, I really like it and stick with it for a long time.