The Whateverlah Blog

A nice little commentary on why Man U will win the EPL this year. My favourite part:

They know what they’re doing. They’ve been here before. They know what’s at stake. This group is a team full of winners. Sir Alex Ferguson has made it so. Take Ryan Giggs for example: he’s won more silverware than an entire squad of players in many cases. He’s a proven medalist and that attitude filters down all the way to players like young Federico Macheda, a striker who is half Giggs age.

Yeap. There is still love for Giggsy out there. I will almost certainly be slightly less enthused about the club when #11 retires.

Hey fUCLA, you must be so proud. Your lacrosse team was overhead being homophobic and racist during a game by a photographer working for Outsports. Via: Towleroad.

I really want to like lacrosse, you know. Cause it’s a small time sport. But you guys prove that you’re no different from the other student athletes. Why should I support the little known sports when I can get the same brand of immaturity and ignorance from big time college sports and… just about any form of professional sports?

Today’s qualifying rounds at Melbourne Park was my first look at the 2009 cars; I like to be surprised what can I say.

Was rather O.O to see (1) the return of slick tyres and (2) those high and narrow rear wings. These obvious to the eye changes really took me back. I mean, waaaay back. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the rear wing so narrow and slick tyres haven’t been around since the late 90s. Gotta say the cars look kinda weird and clunky, and the new adjustable front wings are especially aesthetically challenged.

Here is the 2009 Ferrari (rear wings almost halfway to drag race setup, no?):

Compared to last year’s Ferrari:

And the Ferrari from 1990:

Looks aside, a whole bunch of changes that have taken place this year is going to make this season uber exciting since the usual front runners choked during quals and the new kid on the block, Brawn GP, made it P1 and P2 for tomorrow. So apologies are in order if I start having word-diarrhea over the season.

March April is a very exciting time. It’s almost time for the NBA playoffs – the only time pro basketball gets even remotely exciting enough to note, it’s time for the new season of Formula One, it’s nearing time for baseball – next few months will be really excruciating to watch ESPN, and best of all… it’s time for spring ball.

At USC, Coach Carroll has made practices open to the public since he took over the program. It’s one of just many reasons to go back to the southland. Here’s the spring practice schedule should you find yourself curious and lucky enough to be in the neighborhood.

There’re some tennis being played but we desperately need an additional slam event to fill the gap between Australia and Roland Garros.

Hoping to catch some billiard action when the Asian 9-Ball Tour starts. Not alot of information coming from the governing body about the where and when so might not happen at all this year. I wanna see Efren Reyes dammit!!

['quickpress'-ing this because the server is sucking balls and everything takes forever to load in the backend.]

me: *reading the newspaper* hrm.. Steven Gerrard is 28… looks a lot older than me hor?

bro: same age as you ah?

me: yalah.

bro: he’s got a hella lot more money than you, though.

me: >.>

because election news is urgh.

- USC can beat up the rest of their opponents like they way they thrashed UDub and they still won’t climb high enough in the BCS to play the championship game, not to mention OREGON STATE can still win out and beat USC to the Rose Bowl game.

- but that’s okay because I LOVED the way the Texas Tech RED RAIDERS rallied to beat TEXAS (!!!) in the final second of the game.

- but on the final turn of the final race of formula one my heart stopped… and TIMO GLOCK is now my least favorite person in the world for not being to hold on and keep LEWIS HAMILTON from a fifth-place finish and securing the world championship.

- but seriously, how awesome was that drive by SEBASTIEN VETTEL eh?

- on a final note: VOTE or STFU

- have a great Monday.

LOL @ UCLA… they’re getting beat by the Ducks.

Upsets are what makes college football awesome. But Michigan WTF? Losing to Toledo is phail. Even more fail than last year Appalachian State fiasco.

You know else makes me horny? The red paint on that Ferrari car on track right now. It’s so effing hot.

The Chicago Cubbies are probably the saddest baseball team ever.

This Hull City team in EPL is for reals then?

The LPGA, according to The New York Times, is requiring its members to be able to speak English by 2009 or possibly face suspension.

Deputy commissioner Libba Galloway reportedly said: “Being a U.S.-based tour, and with the majority of our fan base, pro-am contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English.”

This decision is, at best, ill-advised and at worst, a un-fucking-believably racist and classless move. It’s one thing to encourage your players to learn a language and it’s a whole other thing to threaten them with suspension for failing to speak the language.

I don’t even watch this sport and now I’ll feel even less inclined to follow it. Anybody else pissed off or is it just me and my saturday-football-induced-fervor for sports?

Former world number ones to square off in Malaysia

But that’s ok. I’ll live with that in hopes that one day I’ll be able to attend the Slams – all four are almost doable in one lifetime.

Hey did I mention while at the Olympics Dad saw Venus Williams play? He was chuffed.

10:03 am EDT – The medal ceremony. And that’s my flag up there. I’m still proud. Chong Wei looked like he could cry. Burdened with the knowledge that the whole country went “Aiyooo” and knowing that he could’ve definitely done better, I suppose that’s normal. Anyway.

9:46 am EDT – um, so randomly.. the mascots came out and one of them fell… and the rest started to kick him. no idea if it’s part of the act but i’m laughing my ass off here. Then they had the volunteers come pick him back up. Oh.. comic relief.

9:41 am EDT – Lin Dan wins. 21-12, 21-8. Thanks for playing. Lin Dan salutes the crowd and… throws his shoes to adoring fans. yea, thats rite, i said shoes.

9:39 am EDT – Chong Wei’s slumped shoulders tells it all at 19-6.

9:36 am EDT – at 18-4, you’d need a deal with the devil to come back. this is just humiliating.

9:32 am EDT – WTF. That shot looked in!!! We need instant replay in badminton! 13-3 now.

9:31 am EDT – 11-2 now. Service to Chong Wei. He needs to keep pushing.

9:28 am EDT – The optimism, scant to begin with, has faded considerably…

9:20 am EDT – Lin Dan wins the first set 21-12. Chong Wei sat back too long, shoulda made a move earlier.

9:18 am EDT – I’m just going to start calling Lin Dan, ‘Lindsey’… ok? (which is a whole lot better than Chou Dan…

9:10 am EDT – 11-5 to Lin Dan now. Everytime Chong Wei has gone to the backcourt, he goes long. Draft, perhaps?

9:04 am EDT – neither player are playing an aggressive game. perhaps it can even be called cautious. But at 6-1 to Lin Dan, Chong Wei needs to keep pace. Doubt he can claw back from a huge deficit if that happens.

9:00 am EDT – oh, pardon me. It’s “LIN DAN! JIA YOU! LIN DAN! JIA YOU!”

8:56 am EDT – the players walk in and you can already hear the “JIA YOU! JIA YOU!” Die man.

8:52 am EDT – alright, I’m up. the medal ceremony for the mixed doubles is still happening. on TV, two channels are running summer olympic programming but neither will feature badminton. but of course.

Lee Chong Wei is going to guarantee Malaysia at least a silver in the Olympics when he beat Lee Hyun-Il this morning to advance to the men’s singles finals. No points for guessing correctly who his opponent will be on Sunday.

Lin Dan is looking pretty strong and I can imagine the psychological impact of playing a chinese on their turf in one of the biggest event to hit the nation. Not so tangentially – Lee did beat Lin a Thomas Cup match, so he isn’t unassailable; but the chinese crowd… i mean, if you think the “USA! USA! USA!” thing is maddening try listening to a group of chinese rock the gymnasium with “JIA YOU!” *clapclapclap* “加油!” *clapclapclap* “JIA YOU!”.

Ahhhhhh!!!!

Those of you who can’t get the match on tv, make sure you tune in online at NBCOlympics.com where it’ll definitely be streamed. Let’s give Lee Chong Wei the support he deserves.

MALAYSIA BOLEH!

Before that, one small bit of interesting news from Olympic badminton: Bill Gates is (now) a badminton fan?

Ok, so, Wong Choong Hann beat Taufik Hidayat, the latter the defending champion from the Athens games in round of 64, only to lose to some goblok from Taiwan in the round of 32. Whaddafuckman? ARGH!!!

Now Lee Chong Wei, our No. 1, is the only one left to try and snag the elusive gold medal for Malaysia. On his way to it he has to beat Sony Dwi Kuncoro – who is no slacker – and then Lee will potentially meet Bao Chun Lai before finding himself in the finals with (and I bet all the tea in China that it will be) the bad boy of badminton, Lin Dan.

He was visiting Team USA volleyball and softball during practice. The girls in the softball team even managed to prank the prez. But I thought this one particular photo needed a caption or two.

Come on guys, don’t fail me now. You know you have it in you.

Been far too long since I’ve made one of these posts; the last one was in 2007.

Anyway, for this week we have made in China cheerleaders (a slideshow from NBCOlympics.com). I could do a joke about plastics here but it’s not very funny.

I suppose it can be America’s next biggest export – slut-ho’ness. In all fairness, maybe it’s not the westerners that are to be blamed. After all, it’s the outfits – if one can call them that – rather than the actual act of cheerleading that makes me headdesk repeatedly. Maybe it’s just that it’s so warm in the summers that they need to wear next to nothing. And no, even the lack of bottle-blondes and shake-n-bake tans don’t make them more palatable.

11:54pm EDT with the lighing of the olympic flames concludes this blogging exercise. It’s been a great show. Can’t wait for the rest.

11:21 pm EDT – as the parade of nations wind down, let’s take a moment to thank whatever and whoever that the concept stadium proposed years ago for this Olympics did not happen.

And here comes the Chinese delegation. Wow.

11:06pm EDT - The Kiwis, sadly, did not stop to perform the haka. And NBC cuts away. How rude!

11:05pm EDT – Happy birthday, ROGER FEDERER!

10:48pm EDT – Sorry to say, Malaysia, the Dutch looks better in orange.

10:38pm EDT – Ya know, I just realised that Team USA’s outift make em look like air stewards.

Oh. Geez. There goes that USA chant…

9:43pm EDT – Any chance of the Kiwis doing the Haka?

9:34pm EDT – Now the Japanese contingent has the right idea – coats and SHORTS.

9:25pm EDT – My people just walked past. That orange is totally meh. The tiger-striped kain samping… also meh. But I love the flags.

9:19pm EDT – Even more OMG’edness. Malaysia will be the 10th nation out there. TENTH. Entrance will be based on the number of strokes of the nations’ name in Chinese. AWESUM.

9:16pm EDT – omgomgomgomgomg Parade of Nations coming up. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG. How long will it take to get to the M’s?

9:12pm EDT – Sarah Brightman looks a little doped up. Maybe you gotta throw back a couple to be up that high on that globe structure.

8:51pm EDT – While Lang Lang plays on, can I just mention that in the last Olympics USC sent 35 athletes to Athens. This year there are 40 Trojans representing 17 different countries in the Beijing Olympics. Suck on that, UCLA!

8:35pm EDT – There were PEOPLE underneath those movable-print-block type thingies. HOOMANS. They really have alot of bodies in China. < — my one understatement of the night.

International Relations nerd comment: I think it’s really great that NBC has Joshua Ramo commentating on the socio political meaning of this Olympics.

8:22pm EDT – OMG, these guys are like on a giant Buddha Board. I heart technology.

8:15pm EDT – ok, question. Are those kids really of different ethnicity or are they just dressed in the custumes? This Han wants to know.

8:05pm EDT – Those drummers look alien… like, Star Trek cheesy outfit type alien.

You know what it is about the Chinese? They can put on a show by just overwhelming you with the sheer number of participants. 2800 men on drums. Srsly.

Oh, wave to mom n dad, kay? So effing jealous of my parents.

7:51pm EDT – athletes are placed in the indoor stadium before the walk in. Team USA decked out in Polo Ralph Lauren. pheewweet!

7:48pm EDT – 12 mins or so till the start. Hehe, Bob Costas and Matt on TV now. Bob Costas just butchered the name ‘Zhang Yimou’. Matt does better with ‘Hu Jintao’.