Searching for someone who can lie down with me on a beach, underneath the blinking stars, and just talk for the whole night...
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An extract from the online news article from: http://www.smh.com.au/news/weightlifting/grieving-steiner-wins-strongest-man-tag/2008/08/20/1218911797232.html German weightlifter Matthias Steiner won the super-heavyweight gold and held up a picture of his late wife Susann, choking back tears over the promise he made to her that he would keep their Olympic dream. "She is always with me, in the hours before the competition, she's there," said Steiner, who made the pledge to Susann at her bedside in hospital while she lay dying after a car crash in July 2007. "I'm not the superstitious type, don't believe in higher powers, but I hope she saw me. I wish," said the 25-year-old. Steiner, who won with a total of 461kg, claimed the title of strongest man in the world with a last-ditch lunge for gold, lifting just one kilo more than Russia's Evgeny Chigishev. He snatched 203kg, a weight far below his closest competitors, but raised his weights dramatically for his final lift in the clean and jerk and hoisted up 258kg. "I managed to lift it because I had this strong, innermost urge," said Steiner.
time is such a powerful tool that i can somewhat see the people out there after 9 months...
i will watch out
what sarah said
23:36Sarah, "love is watching someone die".
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
it's the same feeling again when i sent my mum for china and walked my way back alone from the mrt station.
it's the same feel again.
around this time last year, i was extremely emo just because of a xxx that i fell for. thinking about it now, i was so stupid and naive. and so i had to cope the pressure of EOY with this unnecessary emo feeling. to be honest, i felt so bad that i had sleepless nights.
then just now, as i walked back from the mrt, it drew a direct parallel from the night when i sent my mum off around this period last year. everything is the same, the empty streets, the few old men and cats loitering on the street, the greyish-darkblue sky, the cool and silent night, and of course, me. Comparing myself from last year, i don't think i have changed much. it's still the zb who always sighs at so many things about this world.
Haiz..........
glad that the situation this year is nto as bad as last year, i am not sure why it always happens around this period of the year. maybe late august and september are not my months. or maybe i can study better when i am engulfed in an atmosphere of grief?
Sunday, August 24, 2008
response to hong's tag
22:35xZb to hong: no, i didn't mean that. what i meant was that those medalists like Phelps are getting more attention and glamour than they should, we should give more attention to people like the amputee olympic swimmer, Natalie du Toit, and the germany weightlifter, Matthias Steiner. There are more touching stories behind these olympic participants than Phelps and Bolt which the media has neglected. I think people should know more about these stories because these are the best displays of true Olympism. Olympism is not just about winning medals...
Natalie du Toit in the swimming marathon in Beijing Olympics
Matthias Steiner and his wife and their gold medal in the Beijing Olympics
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Some extracts from Guojie's blog "http://chinguojie.blogspot.com/" about olympics, for those who watch olympics just to flow with the trend, to feel hip and sporty, support handsome athletes and whatever, it is worthwhile to spend some time to read these:
"Sports has evolved into an entertainment industry, with spectators more interested in dribblers than goal scorers and swimsuits than swimmers. Fans are more than willing to take it all in, to accept athletes as role models, to worship them and call them “the most focused and talented” people on earth.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge sports fan. But these things we call sports nowadays, I don’t see what other purpose they serve but to entertain. I doubt anyone’s inspired by Michael Phelps’s 0.01s victories of sheer luck. Sports used to be about honour, about fighting for a purpose greater for your own; your country, the ones you love. Now they’re about endorsements. Athletes switch allegiances at the sighning of a cheque.
The Olympics hasn’t really been about the human spirit in decades. It’s been a long time since the Olympics have lived up to the hype, a long time since John Stephen Akhwari finished the marathon with a dislocated knee, a long time since Shun Fujimoto scored a remarkable 9.7 (still an Olympic record) on the rings with a broken knee and an even longer time since Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals in front of Hitler, debunking the myth of Aryan superiority. When asked why he pushed himself to finish the marathon, Akhwari said, “My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me to finish.”
There’s no lack of such stories nowadays, the press just focuses on different stuff, the type of stuff screaming girls (I still haven’t forgiven all of you for the fish tank incident) like to read about.
Did you hear the story of Lopez Lomong, the US flag bearer? Lomong was born in Sudan. As a child, he was held in a detention camp, before he ran for 3 days straight to cross the border to Kenya, where he spent the next 10 years in a refugee camp. He gave up his life savings to watch a telecast of Sydney 2000 and, inspired by Michael Johnson, vowed to run just like him one day. He was finally adopted at 16 and brought to the United States, where he excelled at the 1500m and 3000m. On July 6th, 2007, he became a naturalized citizen of the US.
Here’s another one. A few years ago, a young lady by the name of Susann tuned in to a weightlifting competition on television. On the screen was Matthias Steiner, all 140kg of him, red and puffy from exertion. She was instantly smitten. She emailed him and they met. It was love at first sight and they got married in December 2005. They were happy. Matthias, born an Austrian, had become German, just like his wife. Susann had been starving herself to save money to see Matthias compete in Beijing. But 19 months after their marriage, something tragic happened. Susann was in a car crash. Matthias rushed to the hospital and, as he lay at her bedside watching the love of his life fade into the darkness, he made a pledge to win the Gold in Beijing. A year later, he lifted a massive 258kg to come back from an early deficit and claim the title. Later, at a press conference, a teary eyed Steiner, with a picture of the late Susann in hand, said “she is always with me, in the hours before the competition, she is there… I'm not the superstitious type, don't believe in higher powers, but I hope she saw me. I wish.” I hope that wish came true."
"Everyone’s calling Phelps a champion, a real winner. Usain Bolt too, has been called great. I don’t think they’re quite there yet. I’m not saying they’re not winners. I’m merely proposing that they haven’t proven anything yet. Physical ability, yes. But mental strength, no.
Over the past week, I’ve become cynical. I thought these athletes were champions, real winners."
"I’d like to present the story of Hicham El Gourejj. In Atlanta 1996, a then 22 year old Gourejj was tipped to win the 1500m, but 400m from the finish line, he tripped and fell down on the track. He picked himself up, but finished last, shattered and devastated. In the following years, he broke numerous world records and became the only middle distance runner to claim 4 consecutive world titles. In Sydney 2000, he was more mellowed, and raring to go. However, he could only manage a Silver. 4 years later, in Athens, it was his last chance. He led the whole way, but, in the last lap, he was overtaken by Bernard Lagat. With 100 metres to go, Gourejj found that little extra burst of energy and surged past Lagat in the last 10 metres to claim his first Olympic medal.
All that said, what is a champion? I’m sure most would agree that what makes one great is not in the physical, but in the mind, in the heart. I like to believe that what differentiates a champion is desire. Champions don’t throw in the towel. Champions don’t pray for the game to end so they can go home to their mothers. Champions want to push themselves. They want the pain. Some champions are motivated by commercial reasons, think Tiger Woods. Others, for reasons greater than their own, think Jesse Owens and Matthias Steiner. Either way, they want a chance for greatness. Champions can last forever and, for that reason, in our hearts and minds, they’ll live that long."
No doubt, Phelps is the greatest swimmer ever (in terms of physical ability), but what endowed him with so many Olympics medals is more of the system of the competition. think about it, since running different distances, like swimming, requires very different techniques, what if running is divided into 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1.6km, 2.4km, 5km, 10km, 20km, 30km, 40km and 50km, 4x100m, 4x200m, 8x50m, 16x50m, 110 hurdles, 220 hurdles, 400 hurdles, 800 hurdles, 1600 hurdles, backward running for 100m, 200m, 400m and so on? i think kenyans and jamaicans would get a lot more medals in track alone if this happens. there will be more people like Phelps and Bolts too. what if rowing and sailings and other sports have as many categories as swimming? i think more olympics medalists will be created.
ok, sorry for being too imaginative and irrelevant, but hope you get my point.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
defeatist
23:24i strongly disagree with Mr. LSL regarding the import of foreign talents in sports. If i remember correctly, he said something like this in his chinese national day speech: China has 1.3 billion people, singapore has 4 million people, which is 300 times as singapore's population. that means singapore will get one olympic medal when China gets her 300th. And then he tried to use this argument to justify the government's effort in importing foreign talents to represent singapore in her sports arena.
frankly speaking, i thk his argument is damn flawed. Not only that, how could a prime minister of a nation say something which was so defeatist? how can a prime minister not have faith in his own people, but instead, tries to somewhatjustify his mistrust in his people? instead of encouraging his people to work and train hard to bring glory to the country, he is providing excuses for his people to slack off and increase their reliance on other people. what a defeatist.
let me give an example. i just watched the 1.5km olympics final, the participants are mostly from developing countries, like kenya, bahrain (i am sure many of you havent heard of this name before), south africa, qatar and morroco. i am sure none of these countries can beat singapore in terms of economic and social advance. okay, in the end, one of the Bahrain runners got first (that's when i come across this country). and out of curiosity, i wiki about Bahrain.
Not to my surprise, it is another ulu country. but on further reading its info, what surprised me was its size of population. singapore's population rank 115th in the world, while Bahrain rank 159th. Bahrain only has 1,046,814 people. well, that is only 1/4 of singapore's... maybe these figure mean nothing to you, but there is one thing i am sure, Singapore's olympic medals are not 4 times as Bahrain's.
At this point, i don't think i need to elaborate my viewpoint any further, you know what i want to say already. i just don't understand why a prime minister can make such a xxx argument.
singoreans, hope you all can prove him wrong man.
Monday, August 18, 2008
rest well
21:14
Let's wait for his comeback.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
money
23:29it's interesting to see how singaporeans cheered their table tennis team on with hearts and souls and how happy they feel after getting a long-awaited olympics medal after 46 years with the team's win against the korean team, while most, if not some of them, dislike prcs actually.
what an irony.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
i always admire morrie's attitude at his apporoach to life. when i first read "tuesdays with morrie", i was greatly amused by what he said, "we should embrace aging".
today, i have finally realized that to attain the level of maturity which morrie had obtained or to get any nearer to it, it is an extremely formidable task.
i don't understand why so many people look forward to their birthdays so much, think they are too eager to receive wishings and gifts from their friends ba... i don't understand why people like to make a big hoo-ha about their birthdays as well,like wanting the whole world to know that it's your birthday or some sort.
anyway, i didn't feel quite happy today because it means that i am one year older, i feel that i am aging (haha)... think about it, it is like more than 1/4 of my life is gone and to reflect upon the 1/4 of my life, i feel that i have done nothing much. what's worse, i feel guilty of wasting a lot of my parents's efforts, time and money for failing to achieve what i supposed to achieve. and this sense of guilt became more intense today. on this very day 19 years ago, i was delivered into this world in the expense of my mum's 9-month suffering, my parents' fear of an inevitable operation to articially bring me out of my mum's womb and the pressure and the uncertainties faced by them for having an abnormal child who came out buttock first (normally is head first).
after thinking the countless things that my parents have sacrificed, the chances given to me by my benevolent parents for doing things wrong, the invaluable things that i got from them in these 19 years, i really would like to thank my mum and dad for giving me what i have had and providing opportunities for me to become what i am now. 真系多谢晒！
for those out there, please don't be too obsessed with your celebrations and joyous mood during your birthdays, think of the sufferings they went through for just giving birth to you alone and please feel thankful for what your parents have given you because our birthdays should be a memorable day for them,
and not for us.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
got a damn low mark for chem again, damn sad, made it such a bad day for me
Luckily, the long awaited break-through has finally arrived after more than 6 months
and
i can finally touch the rim again after 4 long months since my ankle injury... the touch of the rim is so shiok!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
have been feeling quite strange recently... my mood is always turning 360 degrees after 360 degrees. like now, i am feeling anxious for no reason, can actually feel my heart pumping quite randomly.... maybe my internal self is trying to alarm me that promos are just few weeks away. but then, i still cannot really feel the urge and the emergeny. maybe it is because i don't see many people around me mugging hard for promos, or maybe it is just a facade?
anw, olympics is coming (maybe i am anxious of the olympics?), it is a once-in-a-four-years event and once-in-my-life-time olympics which is going be held in my homeland, let's enjoy my lifetime's most meaning olympics first.
so it will leave me less than one month to prepare for promos. if it is more than sufficient for the EOYs for the past 4 years, is 3+ weeks enough for this coming promos?
hmm....................