Please see this video here :

Video Portrait of Barack Obama

Very damaging. John Edwards really bashed him at that debate…ofcourse that was never covered by the 527 political action committees AKA the mass media.

A first half strike from Dutch-based striker Daryl Roberts and a controversial header by Stern John pushed Trinidad past Bermuda into the next round of WC 2010 qualification. The Bermudan side had serious problems with John’s goal as it was allowed to be scored by the referee while the Bermudan players waited for a substitution to be made, with some 20 minutes left to be played in the second half. Darryl Roberts, one of very few new names who continue to impress, converted within 10 minutes of the first half.

Funny. When I heard Stern John scored I held by breath till I heard it was ruled off-side…but no…it could have just been disallowed entirely seeing that the entire Bermudan defense except for their goalkeeper wasn’t paying attention, as they were waiting for their substitution to take place. Darryl Roberts on the other hand did well with an early goal.

So wow, they did it, but just barely, and with a large degree of controversy, against Bermuda i.e. At one time they only left ONE defender behind the ball in their onslaught of attacks against the Bermudan goal. The problem is, such strategies cannot work against the likes of Mexico, USA, Guatemala and Cuba who Trinidad will face in the next round of qualification. As a matter of fact its extremely worrying that Trinidad only managed to scrape past Bermuda, ranked #139 in the world, when the USA is making light work of such teams as they beat Barbados 8-0 earlier this month. For now Trinidad supporters can breathe a sigh of relief, but a lot of work has to be done if they are to advance any further.

Regardless of the outcome today or in the future : BRING BACK THE REAL TEAM, DOWN WITH JACK WARNER.

Yes..That’s no typo. The team that shocked the world and drew with Sweden at the 2006 World Cup, the team that had Sven Goran Ericsson reaching for the Pepto Bismol up until Peter Crouch’s Hairpull of God’s Goal..has to beat Bermuda today, by atleast 2 clear goals in order to escape elimination from the 2010 WC qualifiers. This predicament is a result of them losing to Bermuda last week 2-1..

Surely I expected a poor performance but certainly not a loss. With a team whose average age is about 30-something…with obscure, no talent players with names such as “Ming” and “Frick”, I never in 2 lifetimes would have expected this result. And then the after match commentary by the space cadet of a coach Francisco Maturana had me on the floor rolling. Speaking to the press, Maturana attributed the loss to a “overconfident attitude” by the Trinidad side….the idea of this man to attribute multiple wasted chances and ridiculous defensive blunders to an attitude problem.

How does the goalkeeper lying down on the ground for seemingly an eternity after a slight collision with a Bermudan player and in doing so allows another Bermudan player to easily score a goal an attitude problem?

What does attitude have to do with Osei Telesford, supposedly a star of the local league, and more capable of playing on the team rather than the more experienced, World Cup experienced, Brent Sancho, chasing down Bermuda attackers, only to not tackle them and simply spectate while they score a goal or make passes?

What the fuck does he take us for? Jack Warner is clearly pulling the strings again and telling Maturana not to select the black-listed players who opposed him after it is clear that he is misappropriating FIFA monies that are due to them.

Where are Marvin Andrews, Christopher Birchall, Cornell Glen, Shaka Hislop, Avery John, Russell Latapy, Dwight Yorke, Cyd Gray, Densil Theobald, Evans Wise, Tony Warner, Ricky Shakes, etc????

Probably crying somewhere for seeing their disgrace of a successor or laughing at Jack Warner for thinking he could just throw any idiot on the team to achieve the greatness they did. I’m indifferent to the result tomorrow because may the best team win, and I don’t see how the following team, even though its comprised of remnants of the real T&T team can ever be the better team when matched up against most football teams :

GK Clayton Ince, Jan Michael Williams

DF Kern Cupid, Kareem Smith, Dennis Lawrence, Ancil Farrier, Michael Edwards, Makan Hislop

MID Stephan David, Osei Telesford, Hayden Tinto, Carlos Edwards, Keon Daniel, Aurtis Whitley, Khaleem Hyland

FW Stern John, Jason Scotland, Darryl Roberts

So what must happen will happen. Paraguay beat Brazil 2-0 in the South American Qualifiers, Russia beat Holland yesterday 3-1 in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals..maybe Trinidad’s defeat and yet to be seen early exit will be deemed another sporting anomaly or upset….If only the consequences were that simple.

While basking in my free time and vacation I’ve been seriously playing this game. I just finished it after 2 days. Why the hell is it so addictive? I think its the non-linearity of it all. The fact that I can complete a mission in a seemingly infinite number of ways : sit back, defend and drop nukes, rush the enemy base with tanks, bombard them with air attacks, strategically use a commando…good stuff. Gamespot gave it a 7.5..but these are the people that gave Jak 2 a 9.1. For me its a 9.5. The guy who acted as Kane since the first few C&C games is back, there’s the “evil” bimbo who gets killed mid-way in the campaign, there are aliens…wonderfully entertaining.

See a video to understand

The end of the game described spoiler-free leaves you hanging as to what happens next, and to make it worse :

According to German fansite CnC-Inside, Mike Verdu confirmed in an interview that there’s not going to be a second expansion pack for Tiberium Wars - http://commandandconquer.filefront.com/news

So we probably won’t know what the hell happened till C&C4. It doesn’t really matter however as the story is and has always been a sort of crazy, wayward, almost nonsensical one, particularly for the NOD campaign. Thankfully there is the Skirmish mode to keep us busy till the next release.

There is however an interesting new C&C game scheduled for release soon, C&C:Red Alert 3 which is based on a hypothetical WW3 between Japan, the Allies and the Soviets which theoretically could have took place if Hitler never rose to power. It ofcourse, isn’t out yet else I would still be in awe behind the screen making stuff blow up, but it is one of the most anticipated games at E3 this year (July 15-17) along with the sequel for another past obsession, Fable.

What can I say more? Since the day the date of the match was first announced I’ve been saying it : You can’t beat England with a local based ‘C’ team. Should I cite myself? Great international embarassment. Undisputed Truth (2008)? Some quotes from the English announcers during the match :

(T&T 0 - Eng 2)
Announcer 1 :
“A score to settle they’ve been calling this match…so called ‘revenge’ for the World Cup, hahaha”

(T&T 0 - Eng 3)
Announcer 1 :
“This team…well certainly not this personnel..this country
drew with Sweden at the World Cup”

(T&T 0 - Eng 1)
Announcer 1 :
“The right back…Keon Cupid..he hasn’t been applying any pressure at
all…(replay shown)look at him there…he isn’t even running with
Ashton he’s just been…”

Announcer 2 :
“Ball watching”

Announcer 1 :
” Yes!….and he’s the rightback!”

(T&T 0 - Eng 3)
Announcer 1 :
“There’s Dwight Yorke…expected to come on maybe for the next 20
minutes..”

Announcer 2 :
“..probably telling the manager “make it 10, make it 10″

Announcer 1&2 :
“hahaha”

(T&T 0 - Eng 3)
Announcer 1 :
“Well we’ve come to the end of a poor display by Trinidad and
Tobago…. it must be said”

Me : Absolutely pathetic. The “score” still isn’t “settled”…T&T needed about 5 more goals for their rank lackluster, shitty, embarassing performance. From Kern Cupid unnecessarily kicking the ball out of touch to give England a corner, to Khaleem Hyland’s slow, sloppy uninspiring “debut”…to the 1,000,000,000th time Stern John has been caught offside (because it wouldn’t be planet Earth if Stern John wasn’t caught offside) to the unfortunate injury and 7th minute exit of Kenwyne Jones, to England having like 70% of possession and running circles around the defenders..it was just a total train wreck.

Good performances were there however, like diamonds buried in mud in a pigsty, from Carlos Edwards, Aurtis Whitley, Dwight Yorke and to some degree Daryl Roberts. Clayton Ince did his job despite the scoreline, but it doesn’t matter because he’s about to be 36, seems unfit and every dog can have their day once in a while.

Bottom line : I hope it woke up the TTFF that they’re making a mistake by SNUBBING foreign-based, obviously more talented players for so-called “homegrown” players who happen to play in the karate/wrestling with a ball most inferior of all time league they call the Pro League (hilarious)..recent feedback has shown otherwise however, as most people seem to think that the scoreline just indicates how “good” England is. Its funny though that that was the scoreline for England without 7 of their Man. U and Chelsea stars, and with a virtual walkout of most of their players in the 2nd half, where they used 6 substitutions…including the goalkeeper for goodness sake..

“Don’t worry” “Not disappointed” says Technical Director Lincoln “Tiger” Phillips..

Such a display is cause for worry, regardless of it being a friendly. We can only hope they can get it right before the start of the World Cup qualifiers in 2 weeks..

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO/SOCA WARRIORS :

STARTERS:

GK Clayton Ince (Walsall)

DEF Osei Telesford (Puerto Rico Islanders), Keyeno Thomas (Joe Public), Dennis Lawrence (Swansea City), Kern Cupid (W Connection)

MID Carlos Edwards (Sunderland), Aurtis Whitley (W Connection), Khaleem Hyland (Unattached), Keon Daniel (United Petrotrin)

FW Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland), Stern John (Southampton)

SUBS:

Ancil Farrier (University Of Southern Connecticut), Akile Edwards (Defence Force), Kareem Smith (United Petrotrin), Kevon Carter (Defence Force), Kevaughn Connell (l’Entente SSG), Jerol Forbes (United Petrotrin), Darryl Roberts (Dutch-based), Jan Michael Williams (Sheffield United), Ataullah Guerra (San Juan Jabloteh)

SUBS In FOR:

Connell for Daniel
Forbes for John
Roberts for Jones
Carter for Edwards
Guerra for Hyland
Williams for Ince
A.Edwards for Cupid
Farrier for Telesford

PLAYERS DROPPED:

Marvin Phillip (W Connection), Akeem Adams (W Connection), Stephan David (Caledonia AIA), Jamal Gay (Under 20s), Anton Pierre (Defence Force), Makan Hislop (United Petrotrin)

ENGLAND/THREE LIONS

GK David James (Portsmouth)

DEF Glen Johnson (Portsmouth), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea)

MID David Beckham (LA Galaxy), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Stewart Downing

FW Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

SUBS:

Michael Owen (Newcastle United), Dean Ashton (West Ham), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham Hotspur), David Bentley (Blackburn Rovers), Wayne Bridge (Chelsea), Owen Hargreaves (Manchester United), Jermain Defoe (Portsmouth)

The game will be played on June 1st 2008 at the Hasley Crawford stadium. It can be seen locally on channel 6 CNMG or internationally on Setanta Sports and (not sure) ESPN. It could probably also be seen on sites such as : Sportingo.com or OleOleFootball.

Tickets are TT $300 for uncovered, $600 for covered and upwards from $1200 for VIP sections ($50, 100 and $200US)

The team Trinidad is fielding was picked based on politics..there is a “blacklist” of players who sued the TTFF over not being paid monies owed to them since their qualification for the WC @ Germany 2006. Hence the notable difference in the starting lineup from the great team in 2006, of which every single player is available for selection, especially the star midfielder Christopher Birchall, Swansea City-based Away Player of the Year (2008), Top Goalscorer of the League (2008), Supporters Player of the Year (200 and YouTube famous, Scottish-football fans’ sensation Jason Scotland and the legendary “Smiling Assassin”, Dwight Yorke of Sunderland. The team for the June 1st friendly is instead mostly made up of scabs, people who they thought they couldn’t leave out (Stern John for example) and grossly inexperienced, outclassed, never seen before players…..NOTABLY Clayton Ince…who was the THIRD choice goalkeeper for the 2006 World Cup, and is a well known screw-up…all against players who already are above the level of the best team had it been picked such as Rooney, Terry and Lampard….a recipe for great international embarassment on the part of Trinidad.

This is the team that played England in 2006 (attached clubs are as of 2006) :

Goalkeepers:

1 Shaka Hislop (West Ham United, England)
21 Kelvin Jack (Dundee, Scotland)
22 Clayton Ince (Coventry City, England)

Defenders:

2 Ian Cox (Gillingham, England)
3 Avery John (New England Revolution, USA)
4 Marvin Andrews (Rangers, Scotland)
5 Brent Sancho (Gillingham, England)
6 Dennis Lawrence (Wrexham, Wales)
8 Cyd Gray (San Juan Jabloteh)
17 Atiba Charles (W Connection)

Midfielders:

7 Christopher Birchall (Port Vale, England)
9 Aurtis Whitley (San Juan Jabloteh)
10 Russell Latapy (Falkirk, Scotland)
11 Carlos Edwards (Luton Town, England)
16 Evans Wise (SV Wacker Burghausen, Germany)
18 Densill Theobald (Falkirk, Scotland)
19 Dwight Yorke (Sydney FC, Australia)
23 Anthony Wolfe (San Juan Jabloteh)

Forwards:

12 Collin Samuel (Dundee United, Scotland)
13 Cornell Glen (LA Galaxy, USA)
14 Stern John (Coventry City, England)
15 Kenwyne Jones (Southampton, England)
20 Jason Scotland (St Johnstone, Scotland)

The TTFF is ruining T&T’s football. Hence I expect a sad display on June 1st..and sadly, ultimately for the team to not qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Mr. Austin Jack Warner is a corrupt, egotistical asshole and megalomanic that needs to be removed for Trinidad’s football to advance.

The following statement was released from RFK Jr. in reference to Hillary Clinton’s comments on dropping out of the nomination run, citing RFK’s assassination in June :

“It is clear from the context that Hillary was invoking a familiar political circumstance in order to support her decision to stay in the race through June. I have heard her make this reference before, also citing her husband’s 1992 race, both of which were hard fought through June. I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense.”

……….Fatality.

Now if RFK Jr. can say that then Keith Olbermann and the rest of the Hillary haters should immediately go put on a donkey’s costume, run through their neighbourhood for 5 hours while yelling at the top of their voices “I’m a biased jackass”.

The Barack Obama Campaign Headquarters AKA MSNBC has once again showed its disgusting, overbearing bias tonight with Keith ”Oba-man” Olbermann’s “Special Comment” segment where he reacts to Hillary Clinton’s slip up of a statement earlier today.

Responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race, Clinton said:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race.

Yeah big deal. She said the word ‘assassinate’. This is just a “hard-working White American” comment part 2. Throughout the campaign she messed up a few times in her choice of words in bringing a point across. Here, she obviously just means :

A lot of shit can happen in June, major table-turning events (such as a candidate getting killed) can happen, as has happened before; anything can happen, coincidentally, especially before or in the month of June which can dramatically impact the nomination, so stop bugging me about dropping out.

That’s how I see it. Yes her choice of words was a slip up or is politically incorrect once again, but hell these things happen, right sweetie? We shouldn’t get bitter about it.

However, Oba-mann threw a total bitchfit (see video), red-faced, going verbally ballistic on Clinton to the point of him apparently accidentally breaking a pencil or something on set, repeatedly showing the comments on screen and saying that it was “unforgivable”. He even spun the comment as Clinton calling for Obama’s assassination. WOW.

Its totally sickening. From now on anything political I’ll just inform my own self about it through the net rather than listen to the Obama lovefest between the borderline homosexual fan Chris “Shiver Up My Leg” Matthews and Keith-Obama-man. I know Reverend Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ has proclaimed itself as “unashamedly Black”…well MSNBC is unashamedly Obama. The research to conclusively prove that MSNBC, as well as a lot of other mainstream news networks are slanting greatly towards the idea of Barack Obama as the nominee or even President is beyond me, but on mere observation any random day its pretty obvious that there is a bias in Obama’s favor…and this issue is just another manifestation of that.

The whole coverage is basically : Obama can do no wrong and Clinton is a bitch from the start and we’re just waiting to prove it to you. I expect a flurry of loops of the video of Clinton making those comments, to see the comments scrolling in the ticker at the bottom, numerous comments from their many political analysts and the like. This may even be Hillary’s “YAHHHHHHH” moment.

I’ve already resigned myself to McCain winning so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Yes. Finals are over. 90 Level II and Level III credits have been satisfied. No more group projects, mid-terms or final exams. After 20+ years, I’m finally completely done with school. I say this because anything postgrad I imagine would not be as bad, more complex, but certainly not subject to the rigors of undergraduate life. The gap is so wide that postgrad students usually teach undergrads.

What now? Well, I plan to do like the elderly at Retirement homes. My first impression of retirement homes was “Wow, why do they send their parents there? And What do they do? Just sit around and wait to die?”. Depressing, but in actuality thats what it is. So far I’ve planned to laze around and watch out the rest of  La Femme Nikita Seasons 2 and 3. In a way that can be classified as waiting to die as well, both literally and figuratively, as I still believe university life is one of its own that I am about to lose or lost already, and I’ve heard the saying that scientifically once you start living you start dying.

Oh well. Fact of the matter is, my exams are over. A massive weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Call me crazy but I can see colours brighter and I literally just feel better. Its amazing what stress can do to you. The feeling of relief, exhaustion, accomplishment and happiness is indeed a great one.

Its been a long hard 2 weeks, and finally the Bleach folks have managed to make such a wait worthwhile. Episode 169 was funny, action-filled, suspenseful fanservice…but there a few things about it that are not quite right logically (in terms of the storyline, lets not delve into whether or not there actually are Shinigami in the real-world)..

Firstly, the most obvious : Chad, Rukia and Ishida are there. Now this is just impossible. Especially taking into the consideration the following point about Ishida’s bow which places the timeline of this story after Hueco Mundo or towards the end of the Arrancar arc. This then places them as being either beat up or too busy to be logically placed in the current Amagai Shuusuke arc.

The second peculiarity is Ishida’s bow. In fighting some hollow which surfaced over Karakura Town, Ishida, Chad and Inoue assisted Ichigo and Rukia in disposing of them. Interestingly, Ishida whips out his latest bow, the one he revealed in Hueco Mundo. 

If we were to refer to Episode #144 : Ishida, Chad, the Quickening of a New Power” we would see that this is the first episode where Ishida revealed his new, improved, and certainly more bad-ass bow weapon, Ginrei Kojaku (Silvery Mountaintop Sparrow). Prior to this, Ishida did not show any signs of having the ability to create a new bow or even officially regaining his Quincy powers after losing them as a result of using the Quincy “Final Form” and training with Ishida Ryūken in Episode #126 : Uryū vs. Ryūken! Clash of the parent-child Quincies. Even if he did, the episodes succeeding #126 and #144 were irreversible ; they could not have gone back to the living world, or took a break after having entered Hueco Mundo or beginning the fight with the Arrancar. I would like to see how this is explained.

 Is this “Jumping the Shark”?. Is the entire arc one of Aizen’s illusions? Are the people at Bleach running out of ideas? This is what happens when you try to dilute a series with so much bullshit. I’m interested to see how these inconsistencies are explained.

Is it that they totally ignored the threat of the Arrancar (who also conveniently stopped attacking) and also “vowed never to speak of it again” for the entire arc, even though the only possible timeline where the arc can be placed, with a large stretch of logic is between Episodes 127 and 135 where the Arrancar were an imminent threat? Coming to think of it even that is illogical because we saw a cool, nothing-is-going-on Hitsugaya in Episode 168, and between Episodes 127 and 135 where we are attempting to place the timeline of Episode 169, he was fighting Arrancar!

So in conclusion, Episode #169 of Bleach (New Development, the Dangerous Transfer Student Appears!”) and therefore this Amagai Shuusuke Arc, pending some fantastic logical bending and explanation, doesn’t make any sense at all. This could have well been fanfiction. It is however refreshing to see Ichigo and his dad fight in the morning, Keigo greet Ichigo, Tatsuki, Kon, Ichigo’s sisters, Rukia, Chad and Ishida. Now if only it all made sense.

*EDIT - a fellow fan is telling me that they “went forward in time” with Episode #169…still doesn’t make any sense..so they’re leapfrogging arcs now? Now she’s saying they can “do whatever they want to do” with regards to the timeline. Right…I can dance the macarena naked in the middle of the quadrangle at UWI, but it doesn’t have to make sense to other people…