Agnus MacKinnon, Espnstar.com: Arsenal were never going to give up their record-breaking unbeaten run in the Premiership lightly. But the manner in which Manchester United brought it to an end after 49 games at Old Trafford on Sunday is guaranteed to leave a legacy of lasting bitterness.
Sunday's defeat was Arsenal's first in the league since they lost to Leeds at Highbury in May, 2003.
Referees are like gods in football. I thought cricket had a major chink in its armor with flawed umpires. Looks like football is nowhere non-synonymous. Mike Riley seemed to have everything baneful in store for Arsenal. He behaved like he had to shed some of his yellow cards in his inventory. Very reluctant till somewhere near the end of first half, where Ferdinand must have been issued one for his brutal Freddie push, there were some erratic decisions from the referee. One of those days Sol Campbell would never forget in his life, he was made the scapegoat. I believe that foul was never worth awarding a penalty. Cole must be very frustrated after this one.
Agnus MacKinnon, Espnstar.com: Regardless of whether the penalty was justified or not, it did offer van Nistelrooy the opportunity to exact his revenge for the way he was jostled and taunted by the Arsenal players after missing a penalty in the goalless draw between the two sides in last season's corresponding fixture.
On that occasion, the Dutch striker lifted his shot over the bar and his miss proved the catalyst for a post-match fracas. This time round he coolly sent Jens Lehmann the wrong way and there was no way back for Arsenal.
Lehmann (Raj calls him Superman) did a great job until the bolt from blue struck him in the form of an unexpected penalty stopping job. Nistelrooy stuck to his basics, flicked the ball into exactly the opposite direction. The next goal by Rooney was the effect of last quarter hour pressure on Arsenal.
Agnus MacKinnon, Espnstar.com: Rooney raised the biggest cheer Old Trafford has heard for a long time by tapping home his first Premiership goal for the club in stoppage time after substitutes Louis Saha and Alan Smith combined on the right.
With a proper pass from Scholes and timing as right as it could get, all Rooney had to do was to make proper contact and placement, with him so close to the goal.All in all, the first half of the match was drab, but there were dramatic twists in the second. I wish Arsenal won the match to make that magic 50, as the adage goes Man proposes, God disposes
This is my message to the world. Don't trust the sunsign prophecy column in your daily. Precisely, all the foreboding they do applies to only a few, I guess it is only to support the theory of probability. Not long ago, I was bluffing my peer at CS, after which in our early morning elite discussion, he says No more relationships with Leos, but zodiac on paper is self-contradictory when he declares how his life has been in perfect synchronization with all those predictions for the past few weeks, though the one about chemistry between Leos and Capricorns has not sufficiently worked out for him. I believe in this destiny and fate stuff, but these daily, weekly, monthly blah-blah they give me the impression of a far-fetched rigmarole. If you are a regular reader of this blog, this is the same guy who smirked at my prototype adventures in the DCP lab.
I have no clue where the weekends went. It's like I wished them a welcome only to realise they vanished into thin air even before I could say Jack Robinson. I slept through them. It's so disgusting. CNS lab on Tuesday gave me a sick stomach. Consider this both a metaphor and a truth. I had no lunch before I went to the lab, because I had to attend it after a drowsy UCD lecture, giving me exactly the time I needed to finish reading the write-up for the day's lab work. We've got an instructor to stir our blood, but what if the same was cause for an anticlimax ? The caption on her shirt was "Born to be wild". We all realised it by the end of the lab, when she kicked up a fuss about something insignificant. She was enquiring about this guy who wrote down the professor's name in the list of people on the attendance sheet but she could not tolerate the silence after which she broke into a total shrieking avalanche of high-pitched assailing words. She had our lab cancelled due to the person who did not stand up to accept his act of mischief. In my opinion, it's equivalent to sending a criminal to the gallows for stealing a blunt needle.
We had a volleyball match again. In 7 sets we played I did only 5 serve faults and that's an amazing fact. It's not that I am drastically improving at the game, it's a good sign that proves to be an asset for a game played in high spirits with no great concern for win or loss. It looks like I need some practical tutorials with the Projectile motion chapter of Kinematics because all my attempts are still erronous. But, but, but I continue to enjoy the game because Hand of Bob (synonymous to Maradona's Hand of God) is always a pleasing shout in the court, compared to Outside Bobli. Akshay Moorthy was playing the game for the first time, he was arrogant. I know there's a limit to taunting, but the fellow has no idea of how others get scoffed and derided before they get into a proper form. At least in the end, he somehow turned dormant. The last game turned out to be a bore, with neither me, nor him getting a chance to be in action. We were playing 8 on 8, but we were the unlucky two who never (not even once) had the luck of making a contact with the ball in the last game.
After a long slumber I went for a bath, after which history repeats. My goddamned roommate has absolutely no idea of when I'm in the bathroom. Why is it always me who gets locked out of the room ? DCP cam sessions are quite interesting. For two days now, on the first of which I ran around the food courts, I've been trying to get snaps of important people in the college. I was successful to an extent yesterday. In spite of intermittent efforts, there's not a worthy result. So I've decided to make it more frequent now.
Vamsi says he would no longer give his password to others. He thinks he's been sharing his resources in a manner that could affect him. True. Sarat, Arun, Uday, Gautam were playing Two barbarians, a paladin and a druid respectively in Diablo yesterday. Gautam was having all the fun with the wolves he summoned. There's a small book exhibition at college. I had been looking for a good book from noon, and finally found the ultimate one before dinner. I own a book whose title reads The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian Poetry. It's selected and edited by Vinayak Krishna Gokak. It's wonderful and worth every penny I spent on it. Raj found a book in the afternoon that was marked at nearly thousand bucks. Now I found something to rejoice, with my book being an ample anthology of few Indian poets, and I had to shed only 75 rupees in exchange for that. To name a few there are poems Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, Sarojini Naidu, Rabindranath Tagore, Kamala Das, Vivekanada, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya, Sri Aurobindo and V.K. Gokak himself. I'm very happy about it. I'm planning to spend some time on it after the second mid-semester examinations.
Counter-strike today was fun, until Mr.Exodus bumped into the server and banged us left, right and center, add any more dimensions if you want to, but none will suffice the aftermath's description. I was trying not to take any positions instead rush to attack him, but he tells me later that I was not "much of a delay" for him. No trepidations of any sort, all I happened to descry is that I was dead, slain by him almost every round. I hate the tingles he gives me. It gives a joy to know intuition works, but then it's always bad to be killed early in the round and be of no use to the team. I mean, there should be at least some damage I have to afflict on the opponents. Nemesis was also in my team hiding his identity, due to which I had run through wings to know who he actually was. It's always problem playing with newbies. Well, it is not much of a difference when people like Exodus are trying to hinder you. I was in the server when in came streaks of profanity hitting right and me which got me a bit agressive, as a result of which I played well for a few rounds. My score was 32 kills, 11 deaths before Voodoo came in, but ended poorly at 42 kills, 28 deaths. There was one round in which I was very irritated by this fellow, later in which, I happened to snipe this fellow. That event kept me in bliss for the last three rounds. I neither did buy anything nor attacked any of my enemies. We realized it was time we fed ourselves, so Arun, Akshat and me were out for it. Arun says the game needs more patience and bursts of aggression at strategic times but one should never scout all over the map. We discussed about having a proper gaming tournament this time at the Techfest. We could invite some external clans, considering the opulence we show in the number of CS players, screw the talent, all we need is fun and more people who play to make it big.
Somewhere midway in our conversation, Akshat mentions his awareness of my blogs after which Arun literally demanded his inclusion at some place in the blog. Akshat said he was in the habit of reading IIM graduates' blogs. Akshat found some crap in my and my apparent soulmate's blog. I still cannot comprehend how he just glues to that opinion. I tell him I do justice to my blog, and include in it whatever is necessary, honest and significant. Arun says we'd start a group blog to try and have debates in it, but I know it will be a fruitless effort. After few days, people will gradually lose interest in these things. Akshat says he might plan his 10 MB space to accomodate a blog in it. Thats a good idea, I am wondering why it still did not hit me. Anyway, I got them to read my blog on some recent adventures, prior to which someone in this two said they'd send the blog address to the whole college for such spicy stories I wrote down. But, later Akshat advises me never to send it to that female which would eventually get his reputation and mine (as if I have any) blemished. I wanted to watch "Darkness Falls", so I copied it from Nemo's. After something close to quarter hour, I knew the movie wouldn't interest me any more. The theme of the movie is about a tooth-fairy whose curse still haunts the town of "Darkness Falls". It's about an old lady Matilda, who would exchange gold coins for last tooth as a symbol of affection. She gets involved in some accident due to which her face is now gruesome to look at and is very sensitive to light. She wears a porcelain mask to hide her face and protect her face from light. Later she's accused of a crime which she does not commit. I think people can guess that her evil spirit wandering in those places for revenge is but an obvious storyline. This was meant to be a story line for kids if this was intended to impress people as a horror movie.
I used to be a Volley champ off-field if my memory serves me right. Actually I'm still an adept off-field Volley player. For the uninitiated, there's a game called Blobby Volley by Daniel Skoraszewsky in which I simply rule and outclass all else. There's only one Sitaramaraju who can give me a tough fight at that. Others equal pieces of straw. I think I am rightful arrogant in declaring this, because such is my skill at the game. There are veterans in this game Ravi, Rambo, Dudum whom I want to fight to prove myself all-time great but I guess none of them would be interested in playing one now. If you still think this is all about a keyboard addict's game, hold on there's more to come.
After a gap of two days, I am back to the court, on-field this time for a refreshing game of Volleyball. We "bent" most of the rules with maximum players in a team - no exception. We've all been given some ludicrous nicknames now. Awesome Avi is for Avinash, Naveen is called The Hole, Recca was the usual Saand, Sasank was Model cum Saand. I won't be surprised if at some instant in near future I'll be quoted Blunder Bobli. Vamsi and Shikhar were doing well as strikers. Arku was in our team making his trials for smashes because he wouldn't be allowed to attempt them later in official matches. It was total fun. Although I enjoyed playing, I was half the reason for the atrophy in our team's performance. I never took the ones that came straight to me, and attempted all that were definitely going to land outside the court. Standing on the back line is surely a tough job. We decided to call for the shots, and for a long time I did only that. I changed my position to middle, then my game improved to some extent. We played for two hours until we got exhausted. I was glad we won at the last set in action today. We had ourselves dispatched for dinner immediately. I'm sure I've had bellyful today. I tried that South Indian Thali which people have been praising for days now. Alas ! It did not stand up to my expectations. It was good enough. I enlightened JP on my eating habits for which he replied that he understood the reason for my growth after I came here.
Moments ago, Raj was uttering some Devnagari babel. We both were trying to bug Bharath about his grades he's been securing for two semesters. Bharath is surely an inspiration to me, if I was ready to extract some sense out of it. Hallelujah, thanks a lot !
Ok people this is what I've said to myself today, don't bother trying to crack the rest of it, it's in my mother tongue Telugu. I wanted to leave these feelings unfeigned, so I consider this appropriate.
"Take it easy policy ani okatuntundi telusa. Daanartham venaka oka chinna twist undhi le. Naku matram adhalaa kanipistundi. Meeremanukunna sare. Entante... edhaina easy ga theesukone thathvam neeku erpadela nee margam nischayinchukomani danartham. Inka cheppalante lifelo okka ambitionni matram seriousga theesko boss. Migataavanni vaatikave "Take it easy" routeloki vasthaai choodu. Anthe kaani pai sentenculni katterinchi, atu itu perchi, lifeni "Take it easy" ga teesko boss ani maatram settle avaddu."
In a more familiar dialect of mine
"Take it easy policy otuntadi erkanaa. Daanenka gisinta fitting untadi. Nakgatla kanpistadi, evadetlankuntado vaan marzi. Gadhendhante lifela emanna sare light teeskovach ankune positionki try kottale. Okka ambition dikkula jarranta seriousga kashtapaddavanko anna, gante saal, annostai. Ganthe gani adinta geedinta koshi petti, lifeko light le annavanko, mungipotav biddaa."
It was a philosophy trivia, summary being - "Take everything easy expect life and its ambitions."
Yesterday was a lot of fun. To start with, I was locked out of my own room by an awkward customer - my roommate oblivious of where I was then. I was confused, on what to do next, not that I am not used to these things, but I was heading towards my room after a refreshing bath when I realised this. With just a towel on, I had to find my way in through the window and used the same to get out. I am very loyal to "Procrastinator club", the phenomenon called punctuality occurs very infrequently in my case. Prior this, I kept wondering whether this would be one of those properly attended labs, until I realised that my roommate unknowingly threw me another challenge. Well I was sharp five minutes late. Yes, I made it to the lab, yet again on the delayed dot. After the attendance was over, I went out to drink water. On coming back, I find a friend of mine under the misconception that I missed it again. I do not certainly know the reason, but these sort of looks have stopped getting my goat. Now, I am practically immune to them.
I think I deviated a lot from the actual fun part of DCP lab. She came to the lab, pink top, blue jeans, and that definitely constitutes to a mind blowing attire. All along, I had to keep reaffirming, that I was not watching an angel, she definitely wore an angelical smile in the bargain. I was gawking at her, my lab partner - Uday noticed it. He advised me not to, but I wouldn't listen. I told myself, that if it were not today, then opportunity would never again knock at the door. I rushed to the dorm to pick the camera, temporarily flicked Sandeep's 50 bucks to buy a battery, just in case it was needed. Half the battle was getting close to her, because the camera does not have zoom. I was very tentative, unable to decide what to do. I could have humbly gone to her asked for a permission, but that could make her gorge rise. The last thing I wanted was her getting the wrong end of the stick. On one ocassion, she was exactly on the opposite side of the table on which I was doing my experiment. I tried to gird my loins, but I still remain a coward by my own admission. There was a teaching assistant clearing someone else's doubts, and she was waiting for him. The best view I could get, but nay, I still could not grit my teeth. She went back to her table, I still had chance. I managed to get a few snaps, still hoping that I could get a bit closer. Then Giridhar was walking away, with his Arsenal jersey on. I stopped him mid-way and captured one. I took a few for Rajeev too.Back on the mission, with Rajeev's help, I made some more trials. Only one picture was pretty satisfactory, still the game was not worth the candle. One snap was very close, but for Sridhar's hair. Uday wanted to play Diablo, so he quickly finished the experiment, but I would not go out. Firstly I wanted to stay there for knowing more about the experiment, but now it would serve dual purpose, so I was reluctant to leave the lab. But even Raj misunderstood me, he thought I decided not to go, just because of her presence in the lab.
I went to the cafeteria, saw Akshat talking to her and her friend. Then again, I was very disappointed, because I can never start the ball rolling. I never understood what makes people good listeners. After he came out, I had this little conversation with him.
I say : Tell me, what if someone comes up to you and asks for a snap ?
I heard : Well, it depends.
I say : As in ?
I heard : Whether it is a male or a female.
I say : What if a female came up to you and asked for a snap ?
I heard : Again, as I said, it depends, whether she is good-looking and all that.
I say : What if it was a good-looking girl ?
I heard : Whoa... that would be like...
I say : OK. What if you had to ask such a girl, the same question ?
I heard : It depends on who the girl is.
I say : What if the girl was 4n!|_4 ?
I saw : A wide giggle
I talked to him about all my efforts and stunts in the laboratory. At the end of it, he advised me to fly by the seat of my pants and not think instead, the next time I get such chances. He said, the more people think, the more people fear. Oh yes, I could compose a book titled "Axe Adventures - Version DA-IICT". If you wish to know more about this fellow, ask me. He said he was ready to do it, I don't know how much of what he said was true.
Evening, there was a volleyball match between the students of 2002 and 2004 batches. Taunting our juniors was fun. Actually spectators played a lot of mind game, compared to which very little was happening on the court. Not as all that, it was a tight competiton. We won the first set 25-23, then lost two sets to them. It was decided that the game be resumed today, due to bad light. There is this guy called Nimesh, whose game was appraised flawless by one and all. Rahul and Vijay played well. Rahul couldn't smash as strongly as Nimesh did. That I believe was the key for success of our sub-juniors. Later, I knew from Anand that my UCD instructor could get mad at me, if I wasn't attending his classes. He told me about the activity prescribed for today's class.
Back in the hostel, we decided to play cards, but there were members in excess. Some of us had to leave, and we wanted adopt a fair means to do that. Amidst all the hullabullah, Rahul came in and got the better end of us. We went to "Salt 'n' Pepper" to dine. I was in no mood to eat heavily, but after I had one dish, I knew it would not extinguish my appetite. So, I ate some more. He was playing "Troy" there, so it was kind of timepass, though I was in a room, where I could only see the movie, but not hear the dialogues. Sandeep, Chaitanya and other juniors were also there, because some people were throwing a party for buying new computers. On our way back to the hostel, I called home, had a little talk. I came to Chaitanya's room to blog, but accidentally, somewhere in between, I closed the window. That pissed me off, I decided to complete the whole thing today. I played Counterstrike for a while, showed Sandeep my very own collection of idioms, browsed for a while, mailed Rajeev and Akshat the result of today's lab adventures and went to bed.
© Rahul 2005 - Powered for Blogger by Blogger Templates
