Thursday 20 December 2007

Keane...Keano....Roy Keane


I really wanted to read this book since it was first published in year 2002,and only now...5 years after that,I get a chance to read it and I discovered that it was brilliantly written by him. "KEANE"...an autobiography written by ex Manchester United captain Roy Keane.This book is a must for all man utd fan out there.Very honest and frankly written but maybe not very suitable for under age due to some explicit words being used,but not that vulgar that we must kept this book locked inside a secret chamber or something.

Contrary to his high profile football career,Roy Keane is a late starter in the English Premier League scene,well not to his fault,somehow back then clubs hesitated to sign him in his early age due to his small physical figure. He only sign with a major club,Nottingham Forest in his last teenage years.But from that point he never really look back anymore.So like we all know, after that Sir Alex bought him for a British record signing back then and since then he became a cult hero for the red devils.This book tells a lot about his involvement in the Republic Ireland national team as well.Do you all remember when Roy Keane almost walk out from the Irish team during world cup?This book tells you all about it.Remember Alfie Haaland?Manchester City player which injured Keano and somehow after he recovered,he "accidentally" injured Haaland back during a game a year after that...this book revealed all,which I think Keane had been banned for few games and few thousand pound due to the confession of the intentional act on Haaland.

Keano...either you hate him so much or you just love him...he admit that he is a hot headed guy but reading this book,the are few occasions that we can blame him when he was in a fight or something.It is like somehow he was always surrounded by some moron that will pick a fight with him.Well maybe he can easily make people piss or something.I remember somewhere in the book where he involved in a pub fight with an Irish guy that slam his hometown football team,well even I would react like that if my hometown was insulted.I think that he is just an honest and a very frank guy,well...too frank sometimes maybe.Obviously he respect Sir Alex very much,from this book he always mentioned how grateful he was when given chance to play under Sir Alex.Even though his man utd career ended not in a way that we expected,we knew that he is in love with the red devils....aa Keano...its a pity you didn't end your career at the old trafford....I don't remember if Man utd did arranged any testimonial game for him...did they?Well...wish you good luck with Sunderland....maybe who knows you will be the next gaffer at the old trafford...time will tell.

(rating : 8/10)

Tuesday 18 December 2007

That boy Anderson


"That boy Ronaldo..." is a chant song created by Manchester United fans for Cristiano Ronaldo and whenever he strolled pass defenders or do some step over, the fan at the stadium will sing the song to lift up his spirit.
Well my Man Utd fan friends...I think its time for us to write song for Anderson!
That boy is special.Only 19, yet last week he commandingly run the show at Anfield like he owns the place.What a terrific player.I think Man Utd had bought one gifted football player.
Paul Scholes will not be getting his place in the center of the midfield straight away after his injury,I think.Well at least if Anderson maintained his current form.
Even though Anderson is playing good football now, somehow I sense that there will be more to come from him in this very near future. I think maybe now the coaching staff somehow restricted him from going forward too much and currently building up his defencing skill. From what I saw during his time at Porto FC,he is more and out and out forward,always running to the defence and have an eye on the goal.But currently I think he restricted his attacking game, maybe due to the coaching staff advices or something.But last week at Anfield,we can see how he did the running from the center towards the Liverpool goal,only for Gerrard to nastily tackling him down.His run was magnificent and I believe it was only mere glimpse of his attacking ability.Surely more to come from this boy,Anderson.

Wednesday 12 December 2007

Fuel cells ...no more engine?


Found this book at the library. Fuel cells is not actually my topic of interest as I am trying to narrow my view more to the classical internal combustion engine type of problems/solution. Yet I found quite tempted to read this book and I had a go with it. After that, I am very impressed with the author/editor of the book, Prof. Rob Thring from Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering Department at Loughborough University, UK. (I might have ended up there actually, I had chance to join this university but I decided to go to Newcastle University)The writing is good and very easily understandable for a person like me, a guy who know nothing about fuel cells.
This book tells you about types of fuel cells, such as alkaline fuel cell, solid oxide fuel cell and direct methanol fuel cells. Fuel sources such as hydrogen also were discussed. This book also tells you on the concept of how to store the hydrogen inside the vehicle. Simulation of fuel cell vehicle was also discussed.
I also noticed that this book was first published in year 2004, so by now probably all the technology mentioned in the book might probably have some updated version. But even so, I am very excited about one particular thing mentioned in the book. It is about an invention by General Motors(GM), where the demonstrated a fuel cell vehicle known as Hy-Wire which reflects the idea of reinventing the automobile to take the advantage of a fuel cell power plant’s characteristics. So I looked up for it and found that Hy-Wire is quite a cool invention. The car operates by hydrogen fuel cell and do not have an internal combustion engine and hydraulics system. All are control by a controller. You can check this site for more information about the car http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hy-wire.htm or http://archive.cardesignnews.com/autoshows/2002/paris/preview/gm-hywire/
The car invented in year 2002, so imagine by now the technology must be more highly crafted.
Well, just want to say that this book is quite enjoyable to read and very informative if you want to know about fuel cells. [Rating: (9/10)]

Wednesday 5 December 2007

Gazza - His story


Do you guys remember Gazza?He used to be a football super star in the English Premier League.He had quite a carrier as a footballer and I think now he is into management of one of the club in the lower league.I think now he is already near to 40 years old.
When I bought his biography book "Gazza-My Story", I don't really intend to read it immediately because I am not such a big fan of him.But one night, I just start to read it and somehow I find myself really enjoy reading the book.
Gazza or his real name Paul Gascoigne was born in Newcastle,UK. Since his young age football is his life.In fact, it is the only thing that he likes and that is the thing that he want to do for the rest of his life.
In the book, he mentioned lots of places in Newcastle that I am familiar with.Kinda cool to think that I have been to the place that he had been.
For your information,Gazza has always being the star of any football team that he has ever joined.And this was back dated way back since his first involvement in a junior club level.
Even though people from his club always joked about he was too fat to be a footballer, he never gave up in being a footballer.
He make his debut for his hometown team Newcastle United FC when he was 17.He do not take that long in making headline on the press.He also involved with England U21 team.
He wass so good during his day at Newcastle United that even Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson approached him.But to his silliness he rejected the offer and somehow decided to accept offer from Tottenham Hotspurs FC instead.
Well I have to agreed with Sir Alex,Gazza made a bad choice.If he joined Manchester United instead,I do believe he would be a better footballer because Sir Alex is so good with managing young footballer.
Gazza had his ups and down at Spurs,winning one FA Cup medal and broke his leg in that FA Cup final.
During this time,Lazio FC from Italy swoop in and bring him to Serie A.
His involvement in the England senior squad is quite memorable. I do remember his "crying face" when England went out from The 1990 World Cup semi final lost to West Germany. After that baby face cry,somehow Gazza was saluted like a war hero by his fellow countryman. Maybe it shows his patriotism.
In Serie A, he did not play much due to injury.His hot headed attitude did not help the situation to be better as well.Then thing started to get wrong very much for him.Reading the book, I found that Gazza is a spontaneous kind of guy and obviously a little bit crazy minded guy.(A happy go lucky should be more appropriate I guess).He had a spell with Middlesbrough,Glasgow Rangers, Everton and he even had a stint at a Chinese football club.
I believe he did not finished his carrier on high.If only he accepted the offer from Man Utd!!
It will be a major turning point in his carrier,I believe.
Well,overall I enjoyed reading the book and actually it is fun to learn about other people's life.
This reading is a must for every Gazza fan out there.(rating : 7 / 10)

Tuesday 4 December 2007

Return of The Blogger(Not Jedi)


It’s been a while since I last wrote here. Actually there are so much things going on in my life lately. It’s just that I don’t feel like sharing it in a blog. You can call it my private emotion…hehe...But that is just how I feel. Well, obviously you can also call it inconsistency, laziness, or should I say that my blogging rhythm has been off tuned by my current life in Newcastle UK. (More excuse coming up….hehe)
So here I am, in school again. Going to lecture hall, tutorial classes and going anywhere within the university areas without leaving my backpack (school bag) behind.
My course here is okay I guess, not too dull, not to hyper extreme, not to difficult and yet not too easy. I have friends all over the world, from Russia, Greece, India, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, China, Africa, and obviously from UK. They are a bunch of nice guys. I am quite happy to get to know those guys. If you want to know about how my family are doing here, well I can tell you we are doing quite fine here. (You can check my honey’s blog mummyvaio@blogspot.com for more details)
But one thing I tell you, if you think that if you are in England and you can always go to the football stadium for EPL game, well you wrong man. First, you have to fight for the tickets because it’s like there are 50,000 tickets available and there are like I don’t know…millions (obviously this figure is questionable…) of peoples who want to buy the ticket. Second, if you get the chance to buy the ticket, you have to pay it for good money (around GBP20 to 30) and third, it is always raining here.Man...I hate the weather here. So at the end, you think…” Hey, instead of going to the stadium, why not I just lay back on my sofa in my living room and watch the game from the SKY SPORT CHANNEL…hehe...Not such a football die hard fan I guess.
But I planned to go and watch EPL game at least once this year…wish me luck guys!
And also wish me luck updating this blog regularly…although I think nobody is actually reading it though...Hehe...