Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Love sometimes is a burden and we must learn to let go...

The Bible overflows with verses about love, with passages that speak of divine love, brotherly love and romantic love.

Proverbs 5:19 A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.

Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Song of Solomon 1:2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.

Song of Solomon 4:10 How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice!

Song of Solomon 8:6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.

Song of Solomon 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8a and 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails....And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Ephesians 5:33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Colossians 3:14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Mijatovic :"I wasn't surprised that Cannavaro won the Golden Ball"

Real Madrid's Sporting Director wanted to be present when Cannavaro was awarded the Golden Ball, an honour very hard to win, even more so for a defender. "It didn't come as a surprise to me being that I know a little about the football world," said Pedja Mijatovic to Realmadrid.com and Realmadrid TV.

The Golden Ball indicates that things are on the up and up this season.We are very happy because we are here with our player who was named the best in the world. It's very important to him and us as well, because he will help us a lot in achieving our objectives. And let's not forget about his teammates, because he is a player that contributes a lot. And he's a defender, something rarely seen.He's had a very good year. He won the League with Juventus and played a great World Cup. It didn't come as a surprise to me being that I know a little about the football world. It's very complicated for a defender to win a title like this one.What other players could have won the Golden Ball?I don't want to think about other possible winners. I wasn't surprised [Cannavaro] won looking back on the great year he had. After winning the World Cup, it was obvious they were looking for someone on the Italian national team. Henry and Raúl have always come close. I hope a Madridista wins it next year. It would show that we won everthing.

Being 33, it's amazing how eager he is still is to play and win.He's a great professional. He lives for football and age for a player like him means nothing. That's very important to us. He is still very hungry and he wants to win the Club's tenth Champions League, something out fans really want. We also want to win the League. We're on the right track, and I think we will have a title in hand when all is said and done.

Ramón Calderón on Cannavaro

The President of Real Madrid attended Realmadrid.com and RealmadridTV after posing next to Cannavaro with the Golden Ball. Very satisfied with the award, and more importantly, with the player, Calderón stated, "He's a great person and an adorable human. He's an exceptional player."

Cannavaro brought up the name Real Madrid several times during his press conference. A class act. He's an exceptional player and this recognition is evidence of that. He's a great person and an adorable human. I have gotten to know him over the three months he's been with us and he is optimism, happiness, enthusiasm, and desire to build a winning team. Everything that makes him a great person. It's we who should be thanking him for coming to Real Madrid. He had several options and he chose us.

He also brought up other Madridistas, Hierro and Ronaldo.I really enjoyed listening to him. It's true that Hierro is often left out, but Cannavaro mentioned him. We still remember Madridistas like Hierro who moved around the box with those long passes. It was a nice detail and very important for me. And Ronaldo as well. [Cannavaro] told me he was impossible to mark when in form. Both reminders were very nice.

This Golden Ball could be the start of a great season for Real Madrid.I am sure of it. We did a great job signing a great coach and allowing him to bring in footballers that put us in a position to win titles. Cannavaro is only missing the Champions League. He has told me he wants to win it this year. It would cap off a perfect year for him. I really hope that's the case. It won't be easy, but the team is finding itself little by little.

Cannavaro is 33, has won virtually everything, and still has the desire to win a lot more.It's as important as his sporting value. He's an exceptional player in the human aspect, on the bench, on the pitch, in training. His happiness is contagious within the squad and I think he will be a very important player for us.

Goal-line technology coming soon?

Goal-line technology is in an advanced stage of experimentation and could soon be used in major soccer competitions.FIFA president Sepp Blatter, speaking at the Soccerex conference, said Monday that the technology could be introduced in time for the Club World Championship in Tokyo in December 2007.

FIFA has been working on several ides, including the "smartball," which was used at the U-17 world championships in Peru. A microchip is embedded in the ball, which sends a signal to the referee whenever the ball crosses the goal line. "We have to help referees and have correct control," Blatter said. "We will conduct experiments during the youth competitions and I am convinced we will be able to use it soon."

Blatter again said he is against video replays. "We want to keep the human element. The use of video replays would take away the spontaneity and what is fantastic about football," Blatter said. "As long I am president, it will only be goal-line technology and there will be no chance for video replays."

Blatter also pushed the "6-plus-5" system, which means 5 players on a club team must be from the country in which the team is based. Many of the biggest clubs in Europe are overloaded with players from overseas. "We believe '6-plus-5' will give more incentive to young players. All the big clubs have youth departments, but there is no chance for these players to play in the first team," Blatter said.

sometimes in e course of my work, i felt so fortunate to have so may rendering their assistance to mi. although e company has abt 50 people, yet we are so close to each other. we treat each other as though we are one big family. ya, u can safely say its my second home.

today, went for e 180 event after work.was invited by carmen. there, i learnt and realised alot of things tat really shook mi up as a human being. we might not be waking up from our sleep. we will never know when we will meet with an traffic accident. we never when we will lose those things that is so close to our hearts. yet we failed to really treasure our life. we must live life to e fullest, of cos in e good way.god sent 4 'danger signs' to protect us, to warn us, to keep us safe-friends,family,tragedy and conscience. when we lose our way in life, God will send danger signs to deter us from danger. all 4 play a part, but we ignore them, we expose ourselves to danger, so irreversible tat we might lose our lives.

so guys,living everyday is a gift from God, a gift we musnt take for granted. to lead a happy life, no quarrels, no fights. settle any dispute u have among friends, family members,anyone.choose to lead a happy life.

whispers of joys in times of melancholy. tats our privillage, not our right. don take everyday for granted. choose to lead life fruitfully and with no regrets.

phew!

finally got time to update my blog liao.the past few days were really busy and tired,especially yesterday first day at work.so exhausting.yet after work need rush home to change for the prom night.prom nite was quite glamarous.most of my classmates dressed up and boy, dont they look magnificent! my eyes was treated to a feast.haha.didnt really eat alot cos i was busy looking at girls.haha.and one girl particularly left an impression on me. oh my! she's so gorgeous.her smile,the spark in her eyes,her body...alas she went home early.if not i would have asked her for her number. never mind, i got back-up plan.don worry.wait for the good news!

tuesday i went for e bbq-cum-gathering organised by my class people at my form teacher house.haha..sneaked into e gym and trained a while before hunger steam-rolled my instincts and i proceeded to finish 2 plates of bee-hoon.lucky never kena food-poisoning. in e end, it was quite emotional as we begin our different journeys in life.the past 2 years have given mi alot of memories, whether happy or sad,forgettable or unforgettable. it was indeed a part of my life i would never ever forget.the times where i chased after girls,the time i got detention,the times when each and every of my classmates cheered for one another during the interclass games.the scene of me and my frens having recess,the many times that i used handphone in class,the many times i fell aslept in class.

the o level period is finally over. i can say a new beginning has taken place. i never studied so hard before during my o levels period.serious.tat was memorable too.e times i persisted when i felt like giving up,e times i told myself to to work hard.all i can say is those are happy memories.

these few days a lot of things have been running through my mind.i really thought through plenty of issues.firstly, my heartfelt apology to e someone whom i scolded 'srcam off' on monday night.im sorry and i beg for you forgiveness.

secondly, those few days during my work, i felt i have changed as a person, for the better. i began to realise somethings that i have done in the past, i was too insensitive and impulsive. many times i was impulsive and luckily for me, im still in a piece. i began to realise e better side of the human face. i began to realise that even though sometimes many people nag at you and u find them naggy, they have your interests at heart.they nag at u because they care for u. i must start to treasure those people. these people are those who care and would like to see u become a better person.understand them to understand yourself better.

at work,i met some really nice fellas who helped mi thru my difficult first few days.the help they offer to u really came from thier heart. i really felt the warmth they gave.it was something that i realised it was there all the time but we failed to treasure it. i learnt a lesson: winning does not make u happy,neither will losing make you sad.

we must not take everything we have now for granted, cos it will not be there forever. treat everyone the best way u possibly can, cos it is a gift from God to us.im glad a realised all these things in my work, im fortunate im led to e correct way.thank god for it.

Finally the o levels is over! Yes! Im so happy!

Born April 2, 1927
Wore shirt no. 10
Passed away November 2006
Aged 79

The 'Galloping Major' captained Hungary to winning the 1952 Olympic title. In '53 the 'Mighty Magyars' became the first overseas team to beat England at Wembley when they crushed them 6-3. However, in the '54 World Cup, the much-fancied Hungarians lost to a lucky W.Germany in the final 3-2 having already beaten them 8-3 in the group stages! Puskas picked up an injury in this match and played, although not fully fit in the final. Although being overweight and one-footed Puskas managed 83 goals in 84 games for Hungary. He won the Hungarian league with Honved before moving to Real Madrid after the Hungarian uprising of 1956. In Spain he topped the scorers chart four times and won la Liga as well. He won the European Cup four times including the 1960 final where Real crushed lowly Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 with Puskas grabbing 4. Puskas scored another hat-trick in 1962 but this time he was on the losing side.

It's with a heavy footballing heart that I have to comment on the sad news of Ferenc Puskas's death at the age of 79 . I'll now will say that true footballing legends like Puskas don't come along very often and it's with great personal regret that he was several decades before my time. There will be many fans of Honved, Real Madrid and Hungary in particular with heavy hearts tonight but hopefully they'll be buoyed by the wonderful memories that the great man gave them on the football pitch. Rest easy Ferenc, football will never forget your talent.

Every Bernabeu fan on its feet and the eleven starters of Real Madrid in the centre circle, paying their respects for the loss of a wonderful Madridista: Ferenc Puskas.Sad days for Real Madrid CF as Ferenc Puskas, a legend of the Whites, passed away. The special tribute that the Bernabeu crowd paid him today honoured his memory.
For the first time ever, the video with the images of the extraordinary Hungarian footballer displayed on the stadium's electronic scoreboards was joined by a live rendition of a musical piece by Spanish virtuoso cellist Pau Casals called El Canto de los Pájaros (Song of the Birds). The cello solo was interpreted by Laura Benítez, making the homage that much more emotional. The players stood in the centre circle, embracing each other, some looking up at the sky, others with their heads hanging low, all remembering the remarkable footballer.
People of all ages congregated in the White colosseum to watch the Real Madrid-Racing Santander match and to pay their personal tribute to the Galloping Major by standing up and observing a minute of silence that gave way to a fierce ovation.The attending fans at a Bernabéu full to capacity also displayed other tokens of appreciation in memory of the late Puskas, including banners and signs and a few mourning armbands.

Two years ago, Mr Tan Wee Yee flew all the way to Las Vegas to enter a poker tournament, and promptly found his wallet fatter by US$60,000 ($93,634) after finishing in one of the top groups. On Wednesday afternoon, the 29-year-old, who works in the finance department of a hedge fund, was among 313 hopefuls - 11 of them Singaporean - who began their quest for a slice of the prize pool of more than US$1.5 million at the first officially sanctioned poker tournament in Singapore. Some local hopefuls are from the property sector, others from banking. One, a final-year undergraduate at the Singapore Institute of Management, tore himself away from his textbooks just so he could be part of this "history-making event". After the qualifying rounds, the inaugural Betfair Asian Poker Tour shifted into high gear as the three-day elimination main event began on Wednesday. The tournament - the largest ever in Asia and co-organised by local company Capital Events - attracted more than 700 players from 32 countries. The final 313 made it either by winning online tournaments, forking out a US$5,000 "direct entry" fee, or via qualifiers. Singaporean Low Chin Han, 25, admitted the lure of a possible US$451,000 first prize was "too much to resist". The senior associate at a bank first picked up the game four years ago as a student in Melbourne, where he routinely visited the Crown Casino to play poker. Others, like Mr Jenn Ong, 31, a real estate developer, parted with his US$400 qualifying fee "just for the fun of it" and is now in the finals. Top Singapore-born player Willie Tann believes the game is fast catching on in Asia, due to online gaming and major sports networks broadcasting high-stakes tournaments on TV. Said the 65-year-old, who has amassed more than US$1 million in prize money: "I see boys, young men, coming to play, and to them, it's becoming really macho to be a good at poker, to be able to outwit your opponent at the table." With poker being a game of both skill and luck, he believes an Asian player has "as good a chance as a European or American" of bagging a top prize. Already, one Singaporean has stamped his mark by coming up trumps in a "no limit hold 'em" side event which ended on Monday night. Mr David Kiu, 29, paid just US$150 for a seat and, 12 hours of poker later, came away US$12,940 richer after beating 277 other players. "There were really strong players from all over the world, which makes it particularly sweet," he said.

I feel something in my heart, it’s like a little flame, every time I see you, this flame lights up, this flame is special for you, because I LOVE YOU!


There’s a warmth in my heart. It haunts me when you are gone. Mend me to ur side and never let go. The more I live the more I know, what’s simple is true, I love you.

You showed me how it is to be loved. Now I know what really love is. 1 day we will be together forever. I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again.

Love is to think about someone else more times in a day than you think about yourself.

People say you only fall in love once, but when I hear your voice I fall in love all over again.

US Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, whose ideas helped shape a conservative policy revolution in the 1980s, died on Thursday at the age of 94. Friedman passed away at his home in San Francisco, near Stanford University where he taught most recently, Cato Institute spokesman Jamie Dettmer said. The Wall Street Journal reported the cause of death as heart failure. Friedman won the Nobel prize for economics in 1976 and his thinking greatly influenced the policies of former US president Ronald Reagan and ex-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. From 1946 to 1976 he taught economics at the University of Chicago, a bastion of free-market thinking, and remained a professor emeritus there. He was also a senior figure at Cato, a libertarian think-tank in Washington. Cato president Edward Crane remarked that Friedman, who coined the phrase "There's no such thing as a free lunch", earned fame as a Nobel prize winner and a great theoretician of economics. "But ultimately, what Milton believed in was human liberty and he took great joy in trying to promote that concept," he said. "In my view he was the greatest champion of human liberty in my lifetime, certainly in the 20th century. And he didn't slack off in the 21st century." Friedman's work was often contrasted with British economist John Maynard Keynes, whose belief in the necessity for governments to intervene in times of economic strife dominated policy thinking from the 1920s to the 1960s. Rejecting the Keynesian model, both Thatcher and Reagan used the Friedman school to help inform their vision of small government and free-market policies. "Governments never learn. Only people learn," Friedman once remarked. "I am in favour of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible." Among his other notable phrases was "The power to do good is also the power to do harm". Friedman was born on July 31, 1912 in New York, the youngest of four children to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. He received his BA degree in 1932 from Rutgers University, an MA in 1933 from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D in 1946 from Columbia University. Friedman was an adviser to Republican presidents including Richard Nixon and Reagan. His "monetarist" theories emphasised the crucial importance of getting a grip on inflation to put economies on a stable footing. A prolific writer, his books included "Capitalism and Freedom" and, co-written with his wife Rose, "Free to Choose" and "Tyranny of the Status Quo" which both accompanied television series. He also contributed columns to Newsweek magazine between 1966 and 1984 which helped to popularise the ideas that took shape in government policy on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1988, he was awarded the the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States. He and his wife established the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, to promote parents' right to choose the schools their children attend, at Indianapolis. "America has lost a true visionary and advocate for human freedom. And I have lost a great friend," lamented the foundation's president, Gordon St Angelo. "Milton's passion for freedom and liberty has influenced more lives than he ever could possibly know," he said. "His writings and ideas have transformed the minds of US presidents, world leaders, entrepreneurs and freshmen economic majors alike. "The loss of his passion, incisive mind and dedication to freedom are all national treasures that we mourn for today." - AFP/de

My love, I have tried with all my being
to grasp a form comparable to thine own,
but nothing seems worthy;
I know now why Shakespeare could not
compare his love to a summer’s day.
It would be a crime to denounce the beauty
of such a creature as thee,
to simply cast away the precision
God had placed in forging you.
Each facet of your being
whether it physical or spiritual
is an ensnarement
rom which there is no release.
But I do not wish release.
I wish to stay entrapped forever.
With you for all eternity.
Our hearts, always as one.