Damn It, Missed March LOL

Damn it. Looks like my streak has ended yet again. Gonna try harder to stick to it

So what’s happened? Major events include going on a 2 week trip to Melbourne with Jenny in February (fantastic city. Seriously considering moving there!) and celebrating my quarter century birthday with Mum, Dad, Dill, Steph and Jenny at an Italian restaurant in the City called Da Vinci (very nice food and atmosphere, if I may add!).

Work-wise, just been working at Newmarket a few nights a week (including the odd extra shift when Pete needed cover), and pretty regular locum shifts at St Lukes, Avondale and Epsom. Quite steady.

In the MLB and NBA sports world (I don’t care much for cricket )…
- The Phillies just routed the Mets 11-0 behind Doc’s stellar 7-inning shutout;
- The Yankees edged the Twins with smart hitting;
- Mo picked up his 4th save of the season, quietly marching towards the record books. I believe he needed 42 to tie The Hoff’s 601 save record, so 42 – 2 = 38… 38 saves to go;
- Cole Hamels was raped a few days ago in the third inning. Hope he regains his 2008 playoffs MVP form soon!! The Phils need him;
- The Lakers have been slumping (2 game losing streak) since going 19-1 after the All-Star break. Not too worried about them. They’ve already clinched a playoff berth I think

Predictions

Turns out my MLB postseason predictions were way off. The Yankees were kicked out in six games, followed by the Phillies (in six as well) a day later. Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Didn’t think I’d ever say that out loud. Nevertheless, this should be a good Series to watch indeed. Two Aces going head-to-head; Texas’ Cliff Lee vs. San Fran’s Tim Lincecum.

Prediction: Lee’s stuff when he’s firing on all cylinders is, in my opinion, more consistent and solid than Timmy’s. I’m not knocking on Timmy’s game, but if I were to choose one over the other, I’d give Lee the slight edge. Texas in 6 games.

The 2010-11 NBA season just started today. The Miami Heat lost their first game, while the Los Angeles Lakers won theirs. Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol combining for 56 points. Good start to the season, boys!! Three-peat!!

MLB Championship Series

American League Championship Series:
** New York Yankees vs. Texas Rangers **

What I want to see: The Yankees to win the Series, setting up a World Series re-match with the Phillies

Prediction: Tough one. As much as I like the Yankees, NY’s pitching seems to be a little shaky… CC Sabathia should have lost Game 1 against the Twins, but the Yankee bats picked up his slack. CC will need to step up even more and eat up innings as usual, Andy Pettitte will need to step up even more and prove to the world that he is still indeed the Postseason King, Phil Hughes must continue to shine like he did against the Twins, and A.J. Burnett needs to start pitching again.

Yankees in 6 or 7 games. HOPEFULLY…

National League Championship Series:
** Philadelphia Phillies vs. San Francisco Giants **

What I want to see: As above. The Phillies are my favourite National League team, so I definitely want to see them win this one. A Yankees vs. Phillies re-match would be epic!!

Prediction: The Phillies’ “Monster Three” (haha that reminds me of Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro and Sanji from “One Piece” LOL) of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt are more imposing than the three the Giants (Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez) are pitting them against. “The Freak” will probably be the most difficult to crack for the Phillies bats; Cain and Sanchez shouldn’t be as troublesome. The Phils had a “cold bat” slump in the regular season, so let’s hope that doesn’t happen in this series!!

Phillies in 5 or 6 games. Fingers crossed!!

Yanks Pull Even

A solid 7.0 innings by AJ Burnett coupled with a 2.0-inning, six-out save by Mariano Rivera usually means a win for the Bronx Bombers, and today was no exception. Although Mo kind of struggled in the 8th. Nearly gave me a heart attack; figuratively speaking Nevertheless, as Mo has done countless times in his illustrious career, he escaped the jam.

Homers from Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui paved the way for the win, along with a pinch-hit RBI by Jorge Posada. Alex Rodriguez, however, continues to struggle. Similarly, the Phils’ big first baseman, Ryan Howard. also struggled. Hopefully A-Rod wakes up soon. Otherwise his so-called postseason “transformation” thus far will be quickly forgotten.

Super OSCE went quite well yesterday (I hope!). Cellulitis with a penicillin allergy. One down, three more to go (4th, 7th and 11th Oct). Wish me luck!

Brad Lidge = EPIC FAIL…

Omfg… Brad Lidge blew another save  today… That’s “good” for ELEVEN MAJOR LEAGUE-LEADING BLOWN SAVES…

It’s a miracle the Phillies are even still top in their division…

The Yankees on the other hand were the first MLB team to clinch a playoff spot yesterday with a win over the always dangerous Angels. Late-game heroics (sac-fly) by A-Rod. I’m hoping that’s a preview to how much he’s going to step up (finally) these playoffs! They also won the game earlier this morning; Mariano Rivera coming through with the save = 524 career saves WOOHOO!! Mo also picked up the save yesterday, and was part of a sweet “double”-play (strike-out + throw-out) yesterday with Jorgie (Jorge Posada) in the 9th.

At Grafton IC as I type this. Trying to read the pre-reading for law (there’s a shitload today for some reason). Gonna be a boring workshop…

Photo Update

I just realised I ranted on about my new N95 8GB a few months back but never posted any photos of the phone itself! Apologies!

First week of my mid-semester break just breezed by. Been at uni for 2 of the days for dissertation, and managed to wash Emmy again this past Friday afternoon (weather’s been BEAUTIFUL, but still somewhat chilly). I really hate bird crap.

The 40D’s been hibernating all winter as well, so I thought what better time to wake it up! Was initially thinking of snapping a few photos of Emmy after the wash, but ended up taking 129 photos of her LOL. I’ve included a small handful of them below

Looks like the Yankees are cruising through the remainder of the season. I smell #27! If not them, then I hope the Phillies take it all once again! Now if only Brad Lidge can wake the hell up and start closing out games! 10th blown save today! FAIL.

The King of Kings in all its boxed glory. Simple box, but very nice nonetheless!

Very nice presentation once you pop open the lid. Love it!

The NSeries flagship. 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera.

Dual slider. It slides this way to reveal the keypad...

... And it slides this way! Revealing the dedicated media keys!

Frontal view, on an angle. Very nice and sunny day. Perfect for photos.

Emmy's Avantgarde grille. Up close and personal!

Frontal view from the other side.

My beloved pseudo-AMG W202

Dinner plates! My current laptop wallpaper; I quite like this shot. Love the depth of field.

"Dinner plates" from another angle. AMG Monoblock II replicas. Made in Taiwan.

K-Rod = FAIL

First of all, I’d like to wish my girlfriend a very Happy 23rd Birthday for yesterday! I hope you had a great day cuz I did!

Watching the Yankees @Mets game on Sky EPSN as I post this. Yanks lead 4-2, bottom of the 9th. Wang pitched pretty solidly through 6 innings, but definitely not fully back to his old self yet, although his velocity and sinker are returning slowly.

I LOL’d hard when in a dream matchup, closing pitcher vs opposing closer batting, K-Rod vs. Mo, resulted in K-Rod walking Mo, helping Rivera pick up his very first career RBI LOL!

A lot of people speak highly of Francisco Rodriguez, but I really don’t see what’s so great about him. His command is ridiculous. And if you manage to walk the opposing pitcher (esp. if this is Mariano Rivera, who’s hardly had an at-bat; this one being his 3rd. to be precise), you must be pretty useless.

UPDATE: The game just ended, with Mo breezing through the bottom of the 9th, picking up his 500th career save. Yankees win it.

CONGRATULATIONS, MARIANO RIVERA!! The greatest closer of all-time!! 500 career saves!!

On other news, Michael Jackson sadly passed away a few days ago… Why do all the legends die so young?…

Rest in Peace, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop… 29th August 1958 – 25th June 2009

Finals-Bound Again!

35 points (on 12-for-20 shooting), 10 assists, 6 rebounds. That’s all the Lakers needed from Kobe Bryant to punch their ticket to their second NBA Finals in as many years. I watched the game on Sky/ESPN earlier this afternoon with Dill, and boy was I ecstatic. After Game 5, I knew it was time to strike. With Game 6 at Denver, I had a strong feeling Kobe would sense the urgency to close the series off, and he did it spectacularly. After the game, George Karl called what Kobe did divine intervention. I call it Black Mamba going to work as usual, working his magic.

Of course, Mamba didn’t do it by himself. Who did all those assists go to, you ask? Well, I’m happy to announce that many of the other Lakers also stepped up. Pau Gasol had a double-double as well (20 points, 12 rebounds; along with 6 assists); Lamar Odom picked up exactly where he left off from Game 5 with 20 points, 8 rebounds; Trevor Ariza and Luke Walton both had marvelous games too, especially Ariza, setting the tone early in the first two quarters.

Congratulations, LA!! Whoever your opponent may be, I’m behind you guys all the way!!

And a quick MLB update for today; both the Yankees and Phillies won today woohoo! The Bombers have also taken first place in the AL East yay!!