Monthly Archives: September 2006

Victory

★ Posted on at 08:52 pm ★

victory

Hardly do I get pictures that sum up an event, but this was how the atmosphere at the Telstra Dome in the match between Melbourne Victory F.C vs Sydney F.C yesterday night. Soccer is not one of the more popular sports in Australia, but it is definitely picking up momentum. Getting to the round of 16 made Australians believe and they were just a hair’s width away from getting to the quarterfinals.

The Telstra Dome is much smaller than the MCG was, and was almost filled to capacity with nearly 40,000 people in attendance. That’s pretty good actually and the Melbourne fans offered their roaring support. Sat behing the goal post again and this was a much more exhilarating match compared to the Australia vs Greece match. There was 5 minutes of madness where two goals occurred, one with a penalty, and a very bad tackle involving the send off for a Sydney player. Both sides charged on goal and while there isn’t the same brilliance you get in the European leagues, this was still a pretty good match with 5 goals in total.

It’s just different watching a match live on the stands as the cheer from the crowd and the stampeding sounds of feet on the metal surface just made it all the more exciting. A Mexican wave passed us by for a few rounds and everyone just cheered until their throats became coarse.

It was rather comical, as we sat beside some really loud Melbourne fans, who were sitting beside some Sydney fans (on seats I think were specifically allocated for them, as they were clad in the Sydney colours), yet the Melbourne fans were much louder than the Sydney fans.

Match ended great, other than the rain while walking back. Friend commented that they were Sydney’s tears. Heh.

Starting September

★ Posted on at 10:16 pm ★

Heh, wrote a post earlier in the morning, but my computer ate it while I was trying to edit a picture for posting. Now I have to recollect what I tried to convey this morning, or I could probably just start from scratch.

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Today is officially the first day of Spring, I suppose. The weather’s been getting much warmer now, with intermittent showers every now and then. It’s like my woeful graduation two years ago, it rained and it poured. Just recently attended a friend’s graduation, and that part of Melbourne University, the parents, the friends taking photos, it all feels very nostalgic. At the same time, it feels like an entirely different world altogether, being detached from it all. Work just seems like a natural extension of the self now, and usually everyone is too busy with their daily lives to give the bigger picture much thought. We have so many things we hold on to, or look forward to, or remember and cherish. It’s like its hard to let go.

* * *

*semi recollection in progress*
It’s like trying to recover a lost file when your computer does something screwy on you. A personal rant. Computer at work is dog slow and has only recently become unreliable. Computer at home is wicked fast, but terribly unreliable at times. My local machine is probably one of the least stable of all my recent builds. It’s probably cause I’ve been tinkering with the ‘do not touch me’ settings and also because I’ve spent less time trying to fix it. Heh, I have to note, that when you want to do something, no excuse on earth can stop you from doing it other than your own reasons. It’s like perfectionism, if you want to start doing something only when you are confident in it, you’ll never get it started at all. I’d like to remind myself to eat my own advice as I can be resistant to trying new things when it involves OTHER people watching me do it. Heh, can blunder all you want when learning a new skill as you can ignore the emotional letdown on your ego when you fail. Doing it in front of someone requires juggling between learning said skill and trying not to embarrass yourself. Well, again I should remind myself that it is OK to embarrass yourself.

* * *

September is like so close to December that it doesn’t feel long before you can experience the full heat of summer (in Melbourne) along with the regrowth of trees and plants. Having recently acquired a macro lens a few months ago, I’m more observant of the local vegetation and when they are in full bloom, it’s nice to take pictures. Only downside of city flowers are that they are dusty, and the magnification of a macro lens makes all this apparent. *doh*

Looking forward to the year end, away from work, to go back to KL for a brief moment in time. Heh, this is unprecedented, going home to Malaysia twice in a year. It’s for a good reason though, and hope it’s an auspicious occasion to be at. Want to play photographer when I go back, with my arsenal of lenses now. Dig prime lenses for the wide apertures for good focusing and low light action. Not as versatile as zooms, but it forces you to frame stuff from a different perspective. Would like a 20mm prime lens now, although the 1.5 crop factor of DSLRs suck, making it into a not so useful 30mm (but for indoor shots, I think it’s perfect).

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Heh, nice and warm in my room now, with no need to hide my feet under a blanket or in front of a heater. I shall post this before my computer dies on me again.