Oceanshaft

Some of the ume trees in school have started blooming. For the record, the same trees bloomed last year at the end of February / beginning of March. That's a whole month early this year. It's really a strange winter this year. Japan is having record lows for the amount of snow falling, and not just in one area. Too bad for Fadil, who wants to see snow.

On the bright side, it was pleasantly warm yesterday so I took a drive to nearby Ushikubi (牛頸) dam. That's the place in the photo. The weather didn't feel like winter at all. Wonder if it will turn cold in February or just stay this way till March. Maybe the sakura will bloom early too.

Hey, according to this article Street-fighting robot challenge announced, Singapore's own DSTA has launched a contest with a prize of one million Singapore dollars for a military robot, specifically for urban warfare environments. Well, they gave the contest a very typical Singaporean name: the TechX Challenge.

Tired and aimless in the lab, took out some origami paper and started folding. Started with two rabbits, which I first learnt to fold 2 years ago. Had to look up the diagram on the web though. Continued with a crane and then a turtle, both from memory. The crane, I learnt ages ago. The turtle, I learnt in JC. Folding it brings back memories of those days spent at the back of the lecture theatre, in the canteen, doing inane things like writing in the class journal and folding paper animals.

If you're from my JC class and reading this, can you still fold? I never learnt the deer properly though, too difficult. Besides, it involved scissors, always a bother...

Pretty tired right now, so I'll just post up some football news below. The link to the article is here if you need it. So the semi-finalists for the Tiger Cup/Asean championships are Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. Hardly know any of the Singaporean players now...

On another note, they've shown the Thierry Henry goal against Liverpool on Japanese television quite a few times now - the one where he passes the ball into open space on the left and then runs to get it himself, beating a defender near the sideline, dribbles it back into the box and then scores with a deceptively slow ball. Yah, if only I can run like that...

Edit: found a video of that goal in case you don't get my poor description.

Football: Singapore, Vietnam advance into Asean championship semi-finals
Posted: 17 January 2007 2347 hrs

Football: Thailand, Malaysia qualify for Asean championship semi-finals

SINGAPORE : Vietnam sensationally leap-frogged Indonesia into the Asean football championship semi-finals on Wednesday thanks to a 9-0 pummelling of Laos.

The Vietnamese were third in Group B after two draws in their opening games, but join Singapore in the last four on goal difference after the defending champions held Indonesia 2-2.

Singapore will play Malaysia in the two-legged semi-finals starting on January 23, while Vietnam face regional powerhouse Thailand.

But the result spells heartache for Indonesia, who miss the semis for the first time despite not losing a match and with the group's top three teams all finishing on five points.

It may also mean the end of Indonesian coach Peter Withe, who was told he must win the tournament to keep his job.

Vietnam started their goal blitz early, with Le Cong Vinh getting the first of his hat-trick before a minute had passed.

Phan Thanh Binh got four and Ngueyn Van Bien added another two, while Le Cong Vinh passed up the chance to hit double figures by missing a penalty on 56 minutes.

Hapless Laos leave with a lamentable goal difference of minus-22 in three games, their sole strike coming in the 3-1 loss to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Indonesia twice came from behind against Singapore but could not find the winning strike in the tense 2-2 draw at National Stadium.

Noh Alam Shah put Singapore ahead with a 10th-minute penalty before Ilham Jaya Kusuma levelled for the visitors.

Indra Sahdan restored Singapore's lead shortly after half-time only for Indonesia's Zaenal Arif to hit back minutes later.

Singapore 'keeper Lionel Lewis made an excellent save from Ponaryo Astaman in the dying moments that kept their title defence on track.

The championships, being played in Bangkok and Singapore, were formerly known as the Tiger Cup. - AFP/de

Had dinner at a friend's place, and on the way it started snowing. And then some more. Although by the time I got back it had lightened up. Here's a picture from inside my car. Not much snow this winter so far.

Hmm, what is this fruit? It's from those trees that line the driveway into my school campus. It's not maple or chestnut, but the tree has leaves like maple leaves, although the leaves for this tree are three-lobed. Anybody know?

Update: After some searching on the internet - using terms like "three lobes", "palmate" "maple", etc. I think I can conclude it's a sweetgum. From the japanese sites, it's probably American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) or Chinese sweetgum (Liquidambar formosana) since they seem to be the only ones planted in Japan. Well, something new learnt today. Cheers!