Round 1 of a badminton tournament I've been participating in is over. The preliminary round featured everyone into groups of 4, playing round robin style within the group. Ranking in your group determines your respective pool for next round, with top 3 advancing.
In singles action, I managed to finish with a respectable 2-1 record, good enough for Pool B in Round 2! Given the limited number of courts, I hardly ever play singles matches. Man, playing three sets without any breaks is quite draining. My first match was against the group favourite. The guy has a deadly drop shot, which effectively took care of me. Dueling drop shots isn't my forte, and clearing behind him == setting him up for a smash. My second match-up was against someone who is technically more skilled than me. However, my stamina was better, so I manage to tire him out and take the game. The extra weekly squash regiment is finally yielding some benefits. One thing I need to improve on is the ability to finish a person off when I'm ahead. That last point takes so much effort for some reason. Last game was against a weaker opponent, so I didn't have much trouble.
Doubles action didn't go as well, as I lost both my matches. The pairs I went up against were very skilled players, so my partner and I didn't stand much of a chance. It's pretty amazing when some people can play on a totally different level. My third match-up was defaulted, since the other team didn't show up. Team Tochi advances to Pool C of round 2. :)
Overall, I'm really enjoying the competition. Playing where points matter is a different pressure, especially when you are dead tired but have to play on. Round 2's competition looks very stiff, but hopefully I'll be able to pull off some upsets. :)
It was a tough night. The great folks at Global decided to air this week's episode of Heroes at 9pm on Sunday, so the biggest question of the night wasn't what would win best picture. It ended up being whether I would watch people getting little gold statues or save the world. Well, my fellow Americans, as a hero, saving the world is more important, especially when someone goes nuclear. I managed to catch the last 3 hours of the Awards though (the important parts anyway).
The Academy Awards wasn't that bad this year. As usual, there were a few surprise winners, some pretty horrific speeches and no important announcements. Some random thoughts on the night. Pan's Labyrinth started the night strong, but somehow managed to lose to some German film and Little Miss Sunshine?!!? (To be fair, I didn't watch either of the latter films, but still... ). Leo and Al Gore's little act was one of the best of the night. Gore didn't win the White House, but he won his Oscar. Good for him. Ellen DeGeneres did better than I expected. Her little in-the-crowd antics were a little over the top, though getting Spielberg to take a picture for her was quite funny. The silhouette dance troupe was so awesomely amazing. Jennifer Hudson's pure "I didn't expect to win" speech was actually quite convincing. A quick rise in AI, now her own Oscar. Wow. Celine Dion's new song (I forgot what it's called) was pretty good. Celine is a great singer, but I had trouble making out some of her lyrics. Finally, I really didn't get Jerry Sienfeld's joke about leaving garbage in theatres. I bet so many movie theatre owners were cringing when one from their own industry is telling billions of viewers to leave garbage in their seats.
I need to watch The Queen, Last King of Scotland, and Babel now..... and maybe English version of Infernal Affairs.
Went to some late CNY dinner party tonight.... In one of the games, each table had to come up with a "good luck/fortune" phrase using the following words:
- PIG
- FORTUNE
- FACE
- ASPHALT
- VITAMIN
So... I took the bait. Wii-motes and Wii Plays are as hard to come by as Wii consoles themselves, and since I'm getting a Wii sooner or later, I might as well order the Wii Play now. Just like T & R. So at 6:50 am this morning, I somehow managed to land an order of Wii Play from Amazon.ca. When I got to my order confirmation screen after checkout, I saw:
Thanks for ordering from Amazon.ca. Your purchase information appears below.WTF is right..... APRIL... I am so speechless... d*** those b***ards for toying with Tochi's poor little heart.... :-(
Shipping estimate: April 20 2007
Delivery estimate: April 24 2007 - April 25 2007
Year of the Fire Pig is upon us! Wish everyone a healthy and prosperous new year! For the ladies - marry into a rich, famous family. For the gents - promotions and BIG gambling winnings. :):)
Aside from having dinners with family and friends, and eating lots of festive foods, I managed to catch the CNY-eve show from the folks at Toronto's First Radio (AM770/1540). Got to Pacific Mall at 9pm, to make sure we got the best standing room (only VIPs got seats, aye). The official show didn't start until 10pm, but the Dynasty Music Group was here to entertain with some live music. The band was pretty good. Their lead singer, Noella Choi (蔡瑋瑜), was the winner of 1999 Toronto New Talent Singing awards. With impressive command of her voice, she performed great renditions of My Heart Will Go On, 童話, 風繼續吹 and one of those K-mix of pop songs. The group finished off their show by performing an arrangement of 最好的時光 (The best times), one of the mood melodies from the TVB series 火舞黃沙 (Fire dance, yellow sand). Apparently, Noella WAS the singer for that song in the series. I couldn't remember that particular song from the series when she mentioned it, but memories flooded back as she performed.
Next up were some kids performing Shaolin karate. They were a disgrace to Shaolin arts. Enough said.
The show was sponsored by Telus, so the games they played were all Telus-related. In one event, they had volunteers from the crowd play a verbal form of Pictionary/Charades. One person had to give verbal clues to the other person to guess a certain phrase/term. The first pair got a bunch of Chinese New Year words, but the guy giving the clues was so bad that they only managed 3 correct answers. However, the second pair got totally owned, not by the first team, but by the Telus cell-phone related words that came up. How do you give clues for "Call Display", "Unlimited Calling"?!?
Another event was one of those read-the-paragraph-as-fast-as-possible (急口令) games. Despite asking for volunteers who can read Chinese, some kid managed to get selected to go on stage. After realizing what the game required, he was a good sport and decided to give it a try. He was good to go after a couple quick Chinese lessons on stage. Performance was much laughter fodder for the crowd. :)
The highlights of the show were the singing performances of the AM1540 DJ's. 小麗couldn't sing, but her dancing and arse-wagging brought down the house. 廖主輝 sang 張開眼晴 - very beautiful lyrics for the new year, whether you have good or not so good fortunes. Everyone's favouritest DJ, 劉建民 (aka 阿牛），sang three songs representing different eras of his love experience, much to the joy of the crowd. Everyone couldn't stop making wise-cracks after the fung-shui master said that people of Year of the Cow should match someone from a Year of Chicken. 阿牛, only "find" a chicken, don't "call" a chicken (hooker). Anyways, 阿牛 put on his shades and performed 兩隻蝴蝶 representing his first love at 16. Then he followed up with 你怎麼捨得我難過representing his feelings when his girlfriend complained about his fatness, big head, lack of life goals, etc. and decided to break up. Now at his "old" age, all he can do is cry alone with 淚的小雨. (These oldies took me a while to find!)
After 阿牛's performance, it was time for the countdown. 3...2...1....bang, lots of confetti (too bad no firecrackers) and lion dance ensued. I managed to land a red pocket from the "God of Fortune" after the show, so I'm all SET for this new year now.
Cheers to the Year of the pig!
Labels: Chinese New Year