Bloody fucking hell

It's been about 3 weeks since i last posted anything... i've become a little bit closed off from the world since my computer's now officially moved back to my place. As the title says 'bloody fucking hell'... The world's best ever game franchise has just launched it's newest edition and i can't wait to get my grubby little hands on it. I've been playing FM06 like crazy the past couple o' weeks thats why i ditched the blog.
It's the best ever game to have ever come out and the only reason i'm writing this blog is because i've got nothing better to do.... gotta go get it, the reviews are in and noones giving it less than 9/10 so kiss my loved ones goodbye, i'll be in my room, hopefully clean.

Proud papa...

Watching a skilled surgeon is about as fascinating as watching a skilled football player. They both, in their own way have a subtle beauty and confidence in how they handle the tools of their trade. It really is a pleasure and an honour to watch.

Sometimes editors don't have that kind respect given to surgons and footballers. My blog 'beyond the door' was finally edited and posted yesterday(i know it was only a few days, but they seemed so f*ckin loong) and it was a pleasure to watch what happened to it.

The blog turned from an alright piece of observation to a more personal, more intimate view of the world in a way i couldn't have articulated. check it out at caughtoffside.com. The irony is that the editing team of COS was much better at speaking my mind than i was.... well what can you do?

I love this life!!

Moving day

Today is a sort of moving day. I'm making it official, I'm moving out of my old blog and into the new. It's not really that difficult coz i've even moved all 10 posts here... Horay... Nooot tooo difficult....See my old blog 'Random Heights'. -->

The stupid thing is I'm gonna make a link to that old blog for nostalgia.

Oh R.H you were so faithful. I'll never forget the whole 3 weeks we were together....so sad...

But enough of that shit really i want to talk about something. Imagine all of us here in this mini universe we all call the internet. We are all here to reach out to someone anyone in a way we can't in the parallel real universe. It's just a shame that we don't get to do that. I try to reach out by writing stuff and hoping it'll pique someones interest long enough for him/her/it to give me some food for my thoughts. It's discouraging that we don't put up enough effort for that.

So new months resolution number

1. Try to comment on every single piece of writing in this place that somehow, someway manages to interest me.
2. Nothing yet, but this could be a good place to start. What do you think would make a good new month resolution.
Cheers, all...

Me? A writer?

Wow, dreams do sorta come true. Well in all my 20 something years of wisdom i've found something out. The best time having a dream is when the door to that dream has just opened. It's full of untapped potential and the only obstacle barring our way has just been removed.Blue skies ahead.

But for most of us, dreams are unrealistic. Be wary of the storm brewing beyond the horizon. So here comes opportunity and he's a'knockin on my door.

'Hey Jolly Goon, d'ya wanna be a writer?' he says.

'Not sure actually, Opp.'

'You sure bout that?Isn't that one of your dreams?'

'Well yeah, but it's only a dream. If you try and you don't make it, you'll lose your dream. I don't want my bubble to burst.'

One of the most dumb stuff i've ever written surely. (I've sent a sample of my writing (beyond the door) to caughtoffside.com and they decided to post it on the site {i'm not sure it's up yet, but i'm really excited. I hope this'll start a whole new thing for me, but i'm not putting my hopes that high})

Turns out it's not so dumb.

My Arsenal door opened the summer of 2004. The previous season was the best season in Arsenals history and the best ever in Premiership history. We were feeling it, we were certain that Arsenal would be all conquering and the first few games showed all the promise in the world.

We had it all so it seemed. Apparantly not. We had an alright season 04/05 winning the Charity shield (woohoo....) and the FA Cup. For most of the other premiership clubs winning those cups would've been a dream come true, but not for the mighty Arsenal, nooooo.... We were supposed to be the kings of the world. A charity shield and an FA Cup weren't good enough we wanted the league, FA cup, champions league Treble. For god sakes we went thru a whole season undefeated!! We were good enough. We just didn't perform.

So after that alright season we should have gone on to better things. We didn't win the league but we could only improve right? The Door Opened. But, no. It wasn't to be. The sale of captain Patrick Vieira did not show a comitment to improve, it just left a (then, and still now for a matter of fact) mediocre player in Gilberto who did not work hard enough for his place, and a comparatively inexperienced but hell of a talented Fabregas in midfield to try and fill in the shoes of the immovable object that is Vieira.

With that kind of hole in midfield controling and containing the opposition was bound to be a lot harder. It stang but the acquisition of Hleb did put a little ointment on(little did we know that Hleb's slow start was gonna take a year, a bit like Ljunberg). So we thought that our Arsenal would have more attacking options, and even though we'd concede more goals we'd just score more. If only it were that easy. Cue the sound of a locking door.

So after winning nothing last year (we got to the champions league final, a good thing for Arsenal but still no cigar, yet) and nearly not getting into this years Champions league it looked darker than ever. But after watching how our guys did in the World Cup it looked as if a candle was lit and some light was able to penetrate that darkness. Cue unlocking sound. Then 3 games, no wins. Cue locking sounds. And then 3 consecutive league wins plus good results in the champions league. Bloody hell, quit playing with the door will you?

Now after one and a half months of the football season I have to admit that this Arsenalsquad is filling me with hope and confidence. Hleb's playing well, so is Van Persie. Rosicky is showing all the promise that the world cup gave, and Gilberto who still can't pass but now he's making an effort there. Also let's not forget that little uberkid Fabregas. It looks like we know who the squad will be built around in the future. With the emergence of Eboue, Djourou, and Adebayor as potential stars it looks like this Arsenal team is capable of doing things that can only do us proud. Well done, Arsene!! We sing your praises.

But even though it looks like a bright future for my beloved Arsenal, it's still discouraging to know that every single season we football fans are subjected to the opening and closing of the door of opportunity. Our disability to not not care about our clubs leaves us especially vulnerable.

Normal people don't have to deal with this crap every single year don't they?

Oh, how I love the Arsenal.

A matter of perception

You don't get a second chance to make a first impression. Very obvious but still true even though.

I remember reading something in the WoT series by Robert Jordan, it ran along these lines:

'if you are first seen as a king, then even though you are rolling around with the pigs people will sympathize with a king that has lost his greatness. But if you are first seen as a farmer, even though you come to be a king people will look upon you with contempt and see a farmer that has struck lucky.'

Not so obvious. Or maybe just a diffrent way of saying the same thing. Okay this might sound out of left field but here it is anyway. I still don't like Jens Lehmann. There i said it.

I hated him from the first time i saw him in the red and white of Arsenal. It goes to show how important that first impression thing really is. Look at what he's done for Arsenal now. He was the keeper that helped us get to 49 games undefeated in the premiership. He's the guy that led the defense in getting the most clean sheets in a row in the champions league. He blocks shots that are certain to hit the net, case in point: Solksjaer, 17th september 2006.

He's done so much for the club and every Arsenal fan knows it. But why do i still hate him? Easy, i pretty much had no opinion of him for a while but one thing made me start to dislike him. He stopped the game and brought on a physio because he wanted to change his boots!!Fancy that!! Bloody small thing to not like someone about (he was preserving Arsenal's goal) but it still happened.

He held up a game for near to nothing, bloody crybaby!! Jensy want a 'nuther pair o' boots? Go and ask yer mum, son...

It's stupid i know and I'm probably due a really long look in the mirror (i mean i you hate a guy for changing his boots in a nothing game? yeah, but he did it sooo arrogantly)

I need help....

Beyond the door

Watching the match with my girlfriend was a sobering experience. After conceding the first goal i was dejected i was sullen i wouldn't talk. She doesn't like football, and acted all normal like. But me being an Arsenal fan, i am emotionally connected to my team. only after i left did i realize how stupid i looked to her.

But after celebrating Arsenal's first goal (a yell of 'AAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!FFFUUCCKKK YYEEEESSS!!!' was certain to annoy her neighbors, and it might sound as if we were having very, very loud sex) and then their second (pretty much the same but shorter due to the stern look i got) i got shot back down to earth. We're 2-1 up but charlton were still playing pretty good.

So it turned out that the end of the second half was not the most perfect time for a conversation. Whenever we're leading by one goal and we're playing good and so's the opposition, my heart just freezes up and i'm incapable of any sort of communication except for pointing grunting and saying 'shut up'. Only after the final whistle is blown that we fans come out of this trance and are able to join the rest of the world. I know my girlfriend loves me and so I just assumed that she'd be alright with me being a bit thick for a quarter of an hour. She'd understand.

Yeah...

You would never believe me if i said that a lot of relationships are strained by this love for our teams. Not only guy-girl relationships but also fan-boss, fan-client, fan-restofworld. As far as I know losing 2-0 at old trafford isn't a good enough reason to have a hangover on the Monday. Ask my boss. Again

You can actually say that our love for club is a serious deterrent of emotional growth. It's fair to say that for us fans, watching football reverts us into pre-adolescent children. Gimme gimme gimme that win. If we don't get it we cry like the child we are, but if we do get it we'll feel good for a week and then when Arsenal plays again we'll get all grumpy all over again.

But nearly all serious fans are like me in this sense, we love our teams (despite never being loved in return, and yes we know all the jokes so shut yer yap) and even if we could change, we probably wouldn't have it any other way. We love our subject of obsession but it isn't and never will be a healthy sort of love, it's more of an infatuation. And the stupid thing of it is when we have lost faith with our love we can't go out there and try to put our moves on another club. Would you?

So i motion that being a serious fan should universally be labelled a handicap and all fans should be given perks such as lisence to a hangover on Monday morning if our team got thumped.

Any takers to second the motion?

The Good Day

I love Sundays... Not only is it the best holiday (52 times a year!!) It's a day of quiet reflection on saturdays scores. That's why i hate sunday fixtures, here in Indonesia a 1 o'clock kick off will start at 1900 zulu. So a late kickoff really sucks in this part of the world.

If you watch football on Sunday night there's absolutely no buffer to the Monday if you get a bad result. A bad result the previous night is never a good excuse for a hangover on Monday morning. Ask my boss.

But a great Sunday is one where you (your team) gets a result you wanted and at least got another good result (a rival crashing and burning oh, so sweetly). And Today is a Good Sunday.

Truth be told i was a bit dissapointed when Rosicky and Baptista weren't named as part if the starting XI, they had an exciting bit in their last games, so i was a bit down hearted, but it turned out all right. Gallas' injury proved not to hinder him and the decision to play Van Persie ahead of Adebayor was enlightened one.

So we got off to a good start but not good enough. We had an okay start but a lapse of concentration left Hasselbaink in the clear, we could've got to him if it were on our right side(with Eboue's pace) but i still reckon it was a good decision by Hasselbaink not to try to blast it in the net but to just jink it across the face of goal to an unmarked Darren Bent who got a free shot at the coconut.

Down 1-0. But not to worry. We always play better when we're down and anyway our quality showed. 30th minute and when the ball was nearly certain to have gone out (from a badly overstrong pass to the front where someone just kicks the ball forwards in the hope of a striker being able to get anywhere near it) Henry charges in and takes the ball just centimeters away from the line. Then he passes the ball thru the legs of a defender to find Hleb whose skill amazed, confused and embarrassed charlton's defence which gave him enough room to lob the ball to Van Persie who just smashes the ball into the bottom hand corner.1-1.

And then after the restart we got the lead from a smashing 18 yard first time volley from Van Persie which is way to difficult to describe. You just had to watch it. Contender for goal of the season that is. After that it looked like we had control of the game. Henry and Van Persie both missed easy goals and we were coasting all the way except for a scary cross which Hasselbaink thankfully failed to convert.

So that was that 2-1 to the Arsenal. Not to toot our own horn but we were great, the score could've been 6-2 even. Add to that liverpool dropping 3 ponts and ch**ki 2, it's a good sunday.

Honk honk!