Who Needs Joe when You Can Have JT!

Taylor: "This makes it all better.."
Album review is coming up in a week.

~deyao~

Win or Bust November

1st quarter champions, Liverpool and Chelsea. Arsenal , six point behind. The bad news....................Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea have all played each other and Arsenal have played none of them. Bad enough.No actually, title is always decided among matches between the top four. Could it get any worse? Yes. Arsenal lost 3 matches in the entire of last season and finnished 3rd and this season they have "used" up all three matches. And lastly the most beautiful fixture list.


Stoke City - Lost
Fenerbahce - Did not win despite winning away
Man Utd - Champions
Wigan - Nothing will change if we win the Carling Cup.
Aston Villa - One of the better teams with Young, Gabby, Carew and Barry
Man City - One word : Robinho
Dynamo Kiev - Formality
Chelsea- Easiest match of the month?

November or Bust as I say. With injuries to Ade,Theo, Gallas, RVP's ban of 3 matches, and the yet to be impressive Silvestre, daunting seem a nice word actually. Not even the best players are on the pitch to save us.

Squad prediction for-Arsenal against Man Utd


Technically we're doomed. No one is going to score really unless Bendtner gets on a header or an unlikely long range shot from Nasri, Fab or Diaby. Only Walcott may deliver some surprise. Vela may come off the bench and give Bendtner some support or some miracle Wilshere(16) and Ramsey(17) come on for the match of their lives. haha.

If we do make something out of November, at least when we meet Liverpool in December it would mean something. God breathe some life into the Gunners and the suffering fans

~deyao~

Awaiting Fearless Taylor!

In a week's time, Taylor Swift would be releasing her new album Fearless, her second album. Love Story , Fearless and White Horse all have been released as singles and surely the rest would be as good. Previously in my review, I heap praises for her unbelievable debut self-titled album. She is so talented and I am very certain her album would be nothing but top notch again. Not mentioning her great personality too.
Cover of the album
I also can't wait to listen to her duet with Colbie Caillat, one of my other favs recently. It's called "Breathe". Found a pic from Coco's(Colbie) MySpace with her and Taylor during their writing session. You won't find this pic anywhere else.haha.
I love them both! Awesome musicians.

The release is on 11/11/08. Make sure you catch if you can. You are assured of great music. I'm done here......

~deyao~

Capricorn

First impressions on Jay's music always failed me. The last time I heard "Niu Zai Hen Mang" (first song from the previous album), I was like this is a complete disaster, what has happened this time. Then, at the end it turned out to be a great album. The previous album had great hits like Cai Hong, Yang Guang Zai Nan, Wo Bu Pei and the wonderful Zhui Chang De Dian Ying. I've been proven wrong many times and this time I threw first impressions out the window. I told myself, listen to the whole album first. The negative comments were there to be proven and damn hell they are all untrue. The Capricorn album is great! Every song was "very Jay" and he definitely has not lost any of it. Negatives to rest...
So here's the new addition to the collection.


His ninth album so far....erm wait.....did I lose count again....ok...it's 9!
This album has not many surprise elements, as I said it's still very Jay. Maybe a few songs might sound weird at first, but surely it becomes nice as always, don't know why.
Recommended tracks. My translations are bad, so I'll leave it.(edited: translation by JCNET)

2. 給我一首歌的時間 (Gei Wo Yi Shou Ge De Shi Jian) 4.花海 (Hua Hai) - Ocean of Flowers
6. 說好的幸福呢 (Shuo Hao De Xin Fu Ne) - Where Is Our Promised Happiness?
7.蘭亭序 (Lan Ting Xu)
8.時光機 (Shi Guang Ji) - Time Machine
And of course
9.稻香 (Dao Xiang) Paddy Fragrance -How can anyone not like this song I imagine.

The rest are not bad, but are not the ones you can sing along too, so that should be reason.
And also, my Jay collection is complete. Thanks Bin, Sylvia and Loon Hung for the gifts.

They got me Fantasy and Jay. The collection is done. Yay.Wondering how I should arrange all of them for a shot. I'll do it soon.

And finally, an unexpected addition this week.

Marie Digby Unfold Japan version. Never thought I could get it, only available in Japan. Thanks to my Ah Chi (cousin) and her connections, or else I wouldnt think of getting it. 2100yen is like Rm80. Nice booklet and pictures with a another booklet with translated lyrics for the Japan people. Acoustic version of Traffic, Spell, Miss Invisible and Unfold are included compared to the normal version. And obviously a full Jap song called "Kolewa" concluding the album. Sounds a lot like Utada Hikaru and due to her proficiency in Japanese, sounds completely like an ordinary Japanese. haha.

I might have a America's Next Top Model review when the show ends but definitely not the usual long post due to my dissatisfaction with the last season. Lauren Brie has a crazily stunning face but lacking personality =(. Astro is doing a very fine job, showing the current season, very surprising. Interesting week ahead, last week in uni sem 1, US elections, Arsenal vs Man Utd (trouble). And whether the RBA cuts the rate this week.


~deyao~

Investing in Gold

This has become one of my research throughout the year. How does a piece of metal and a world economy be linked to each other. It's quite puzzling but gold has been bought by many not only to preserve their wealth but also to make some $$.
Here are a few Q and A's you may want to know.



Q1:Why do people buy gold?

Gold is been long regarded as a safe-haven for an economic downturn or crisis when people lose confidence in equities and paper money. This is because gold does not lose much of its real value in most of the situations. Furthermore, trading gold involves only a small spread as small as 2.8 % which is attractive. Gold is highly demanded and almost anyone would want to buy gold and even have ready quoted prices for buying gold. Thus, there's little risk for holding it.

Q2: Can people really profit from buying gold?

Yes of course. Gold would be regarded as a conservative investment as people always turn to it many economic situations and demand for gold is strong from emerging countries. Gold can be quite volatile and thus if you have the foresight, you could easily make some good money.

Q3 :What affects the price of gold?

I would say three factors. The US Dollar, inflation rate and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). It's simple economics actually and makes common sense. When the US Dollar appreciates, people gain confidence in the dollar and would demand less of gold and thus its price would fall, vice-versa. Gold has also been called the "inflation" hedge. When inflation rates are high and paper money is losing its value, people turn to gold to conserve their wealth. Thus, inflation pushes gold prices up. And example is when crude oil prices rises indicating inflation, people normally turn to gold and thus these two commodities may be seen rising and falling together. This however does not always happen.The DJIA is the equity index in the US and this is also very similar. Confidence lost in the equity market, people jump to gold or cash. Of course, when money market rates are low and inflation is eroding paper money's value, gold is the option. Hence, gold rises.

Q4: You previously said when people lose confidence in equity, they jump to gold. Everything from commodities to stocks are tumbling now? How can this be right?

The credit crisis at the moment is worse then anyone could have expected and the lack of credit in markets are forcing people to liquidate anything they have. When the bailout bill was tabled, gold soared at a record overnight level because people feared for the collapse in equities and jumped into gold as safe-haven. Now, the situation is worse than expected causing central banks to bring down rates and governments to pump in money into the economy, thats how bad it is. Now, people are even selling gold to get cash. The huge sell-off is causing the huge drop in gold.

Q5: How much is gold's real value?

This should NOT be the main reason people should buy gold. But estimates based on the increase in money supply (M3) in the economy over the years, gold is worth ($20,000) compared to $ 700 now. But this is based on that measurement and it is quite impossible that sort of amount will be reached. However, this goes to show the amount money increasingly printed.


Q6: Will the price of gold go up?

The amount of money injected by governments into the economy would suggest inflation will have its place in the near future, and gold comes in again as the "inflation hedge" and a rise could happen. However, if the slowdown persist and demand is still slow, gold will not rise and we could be headed for some trouble.

Q7: Will gold match its $1000/oz record ?

Personally, the situation is terrible and I had many predictions gone wrong so I wouldn't give a yes or no. What I would say is by 2009 January , 900/oz.

Q8: Can I invest in gold by buying jewelery?

The term investing involves returns and gold does not pay any form of dividends or interest for holding it. You only make by trading. Jewelery prices are at 30% above market price for gold obviously for its premium in design and workmanship. Thus, investing by jewelery is out of the topic. People do invest by buying gold coins and bars can be easily traded with bullion dealers and banks.

Q9 : How about other metals such as silver and platinum?

I have not much knowledge about the two metals and I cannot make a fair judgment. But the fact is both of them has lost more than half of its value in the past year from their record highs and gold only lost about 20%. I hope I don't have to spell out which metal is in demand.
Here are some numbers based on 1 year
Silver : High $ 20, now 8.90, change : -55.5%
Platinum : High $ 2252 , now 798 , change : -64.6%
Gold : High $1002 , now 735, change : -26.5%

Q10: How do I track gold prices?

Most of the financial websites do quote the prices. Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Kitco are examples.

~deyao~

Taylor Swift and Grey's Anatomy

One is my current craze in music and the other is the best series I've watched yet. Why are they on the same title? Read on... As big tv fans welcomed the return of Grey's Anatomy Season 5 on Friday, I barely knew where was I. In short, I was really sick, accumulated sleep for the day was abt 16 hrs, quite sure I screwed up my presentation in marketing as I was preparing it in "fever shivers", the "fastest thing that takes me down"(Tag Post). Then Saturday came, things improved, opened up EZTV and was like "Grey's is back?", so unlike me, I even wrote the date down on my previous post. This shows how drained I was. So downloaded Top Model as usual too. Havent watched the last 2 episodes. Seriously I can shelve Top Model anytime now, I haven't missed it on week to week basis almost ever. And since the show has showing dwindling signs that it is really deteriorating, I am just not that interested as b4. Coupled by the last season's winner, a friendly conclusion would be 'Fashion experts make mistakes too'.


Grey's Anatomy is back with a 2hr premiere and producers of the show should really do a better job than pretending to kill Derrick!! I was like yea yea, just an imagination. Then....hey this imagination looks pretty long for an imagination. Then when you get the first signs of worry they snap you out of the imagination. Conclusion, they mostly likely caught you out being worried. bloody hell.



So here's the point, as usual when you watch shows you get songs and you'll be concentrating on the shows rather than the songs unless its a familiar song. We almost never remember what song was played. It was a 1 hr and 24 min show so it must have been a little tiring. But it came this moment where just 3 secs of this person singing, I was like "HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON", I told myself "THAT IS SO TAYLOR SWIFT!, FOR SURE". I've listened to enough of Taylor Swift for the past many weeks to sing any of her songs. She is just so talented. 43 secs of the song was played.
True enough, I looked up her MySpace Post and bingo. The song is called White Horse which will be in her upcoming album Fearless. She must so happy being a big Grey's Anatomy fan.
3 days of productive time used. Back to work again...have a nice day.


~deyao~

Tagged by someone in the UK

RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves..
RULE #2 Tag 5 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.
Tagged by you know who la

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
We'll sort things out like Ashley Cole and Cheryl.

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be
There's too many. Let's start with poverty eradication.

3. Whose butt would you like to kick
The person who tagged me. But very far away lah.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Buy a nice piece of Berkshire Hathaway and donation of course.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
I don't think so.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Of course someone loving you.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
I must say I am a very patient man and it could be long.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Do nothing unless I really know and 'love' the person.

9. Is there anything that has made you extremely happy?
Sara being back in Prison Break !!

10. What takes you down the fastest?
Fever. haha.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
Happily married with kids.

12. Who do you miss the most now?
Family in Australia, All my L3 mates, Besties and bros (you know who you are) and Li Min.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
A really good bro.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?
Married and poor. But can get rich after that right?

15. What's the first thing you do when you wake up?
Get out of bed immediately as I am always late.

16. Would you give all in a relationship?
Definitely.

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
Why are these questions so subjective. Intuition and instincts would get me there, no worries.

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing the someone has done?
Depends how serious it is. But definitely not as simple as forgive and forget.

19.Do you prefer being single or having a relationship?
Never been attached before, wouldn't know.

20.List 5 people to tag
Forget it.

The Q & A 2nd edn

The summer transfer window has officially closed for the now till January. So here's a Q & A, both by me, on the highlights of the transfer activity which happened all the way from July till minutes before the window closed at midnight of 1 September.

Interviewer - Neutral
Pundit - Arsenal fan

Q : We'll start of easily, which club pulled of the "coup" of the season?

A: Hands down Man City with Robinho as the main reason, but Spurs would be a close second if that had not happened. Robinho with Wright-Phillips, Kompany and Jo would be enough to convince me that they have come up tops in terms of signing players.

Q: How about overall in terms of buying and selling?

A: This one would go to Spurs. Modric, Dos Santos, Bentley, Pavlyuchenko, F.Campbell and Corluka form a pretty impressive line-up of signings. I must say they too did a fantastic job in terms of selling players, 31 mil for Berbatov and 20 mil for Keane, that's good business. Plus, they got rid of Kaboul , Robinson and Lee which I felt were poor and the reason Spurs conceded so many goals last season and had only few clean sheets to show for. My hat is off to Ramos, I could really see that he is in control. He sells two tops strikers and brought in three where one of them is experienced and the other two has so much potential (Santos and Campbell) and is left with Darren Bent at his disposal as well. The Spurs team is really taking shape, they got Bentley and Modric playing the creative role , they got Bale and Lennon pushing down the flanks, Zokora holding and an added strength in defence with Corluka. I don't think Man City is the only team to look for this season.

Q : How about Liverpool, one of the big 4s that hasn't won the title for a very long time. How'd you think they fared?

A : This season again I am asking many questions of Liverpool. Where is the quality coming from. I still do not see it. They got Keane who could do the job for more goals which is the only improvement I really see. Ngog, Degen, Flora and Riera...I actually have not heard of any of them before so I am neutral . Back to the question, who are the big players? I really just see Torres and Gerrard again frankly. Based on the team's performances in the first 3 matches, the outlook doesn't look that bright to be honest. I might be wrong but based on last season's play, it doesn't really look much improved.


Q : Man Utd with the one and only signing, your take?

A : Actually it's two if you take into account Tevez' permanent deal. Two signings for a cost of 63 mil pounds is no small amount (B:31m + T:32m). Judging teams based on their signings is just 1 angle you can look at this. A really good analyst would look at things like this:Man Utd has kept their double-winning team together and added more quality upfront. Now they have I would say the BIG 4 (Berbatov, Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney). Could you find a better combination of attackers? Certainly not in my book. Selling Silvestre, Pique and Saha. I don't think it would affect much, they weren't the main contributors to their success last season. I don't think there should be any criticism for keeping a winning team.


Q : Now to your team , Arsenal. Let's hear an overview.

A: I am actually reasonably satisfied with what we got except for a defensive midfielder which I have been hoping since Flamini, Diarra and Gilberto all departed. I've analyzed this team long enough this entire summer and I have an idea why Arsene hasn't made major changes. The defence is reasonably well-equipped. Sagna, Clichy, Gallas, Toure, Song, Djourou and Silvestre would be good enough for defensive covers. Now this is the part many people fail to see in this team. I call it hidden quality. The signings were Ramsey, Nasri, Bischoff and Vela.
Why haven't we bought a striker? Did you know we have Adebayor, Van Persie, Eduardo, Walcott, Bendtner and Vela as strikers?
Are 6 of them enough?

'Top scorer' Adebayor - Power, creativity, towering presence
'Flying Dutchman' Van Persie - Shooting, crossing
'Fox in the Box' Eduardo - Finishing and intelligent play. His conversion rate last season was amazing.
'Pacy' Walcott - Pace and drifting on the lines
'Confident' Bendtner - Heading from set-pieces, physical presence
'Creative' Vela - Cameo role
I don't see a need for a striker if you asked me.

Midfield - Fabregas , Rosicky , Nasri , Eboue, Diaby, Ramsey, Denilson, Bischoff
This list shows the weakness of the team. The defensive midfielder is lacking here unless Diaby steps up and fills that difficult position. He might do it if gets injured less often and does less of two-footed lunges. Bischoff and Song can do the DM job but not at the highest level I feel. On the brighter side, Fabregas , Rosicky and Nasri are the really dangerous prospects. I like to call them independent players. This means if they had make a run through a few players and make a shot on their own, they could do it. They technically have the abilities to do it individually. When the score is at a stalemate, the game is relatively open and one moment of magic is required, these 3 could deliver.
I know many gooners are really disappointed with the lack of big names, but keep faith, this squad is capable.

Q: Does Wenger's policy annoy you?

A : Sometimes.I'm sure he knows what he is doing but at times he could have done a bit better. I'm quite sure Flamini would have stayed if he was paid a bit more and this would have solved so many problems. Another thing would be reading "Wenger's 40mil warchest", "Wenger brings his cheque book to Euro 2008" and stuff like "Wenger vows to spend". I know they weren't promises but he hasn't given fans the confidence. This season spending amounts to 17.75 mil and return from sales amounts to 15 mil + 6 mil from the compensation from David Bentley. This means out net spending is NEGATIVE 3.25 mil ! Is the transfer market for making money? Which club has that sort of cash flow from the transfer market, you've just seen the only one. This means we have plenty to spend and yet I am not seeing my long awaited defensive midfielder either in the form of Veloso or Alonso. I really wonder sometimes what is on the professor's mind.


Q : Players to watch out for in the BPL?

A : Everton broke their record for Marouane Fellaini for 15 mil which I really got no clue about. I have mentioned Robinho and Deco in my previous Q and A. We'll have to see how Berbatov does at Man Utd. As for the rest who moved within the premier league, it's a pretty long list to mention. sorry.

Q : Last one for you , title hopefuls?

A : Despite everything I said, the big 4 stays realistically in the top 4. The most under threat would be Liverpool.

Q: Positions ?

A : (Takes a deep breath)It's a very hard one. Competitiveness is down to the wire. Last season it was all the way till the last day. I'm kicking myself for saying this.
1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. Manchester United
4. Liverpool

~deyao~