What a finish!

The F1 season is finally over! And what a great finale it was. Stayed up late in the wee hours to watch the Brazilian GP ... Hamilton went into the race with 4 pts over Alonso and 7 over Raikonnen. It was his race to lose.

Remember Shanghai? When he parked his car in the world's most expensive parking lot ie the pit lane gravel pit?!?! What was he thinking of? A decent finish and the title was his. But that moment of sillyness, losing his head when he could have slowed down more going into the pits, showed a weakness mentally. Can he handle the pressure.

Going into Brazil, I was telling some friends that I expect Alonso to finish strongly in the top three. That's because he has a really cool and mature head on his shoulders, winning 2 championships already. Hamilton will be too eager, and it will be interesting to see if he crumbles under pressure. Raikonnen... 7 pts behind, nah no choice unless the Mclaren blows up. Thus I think Alonso would win, even though I was rooting for Hamilton.

Guess what. He did lose his head once again. Start of race was frantic, Raikonnen got up to 2nd, Hamilton got caught behind a little and let Alonso past. 2-3-4. finish in that order and we have the world's 1st ever rookie F1 champion. but NOOOOO. Turn 4 and you know he wasn't thinking properly again. He's a racer no doubt, wanting to win the title with a victory, but it was barely 1% of the entire race and he didn't need to go on the outside of turn 4. Not very likely. I would say give any driver the chance to finish 4th and win the title and they will snap it up. Perhaps some youthful exuberance from Hamilton? In any case, he ended up 7th I think in the 1st lap.

Of course the electronics problem later didn't help and when he got to the back of the field I knew the title was lost. A brilliant attempt to get into the points got him into 7th , but he was hoping for a miracle (ie a crash from the front runners) to get any chance to win. Ferrari 1-2, so obviously Raikonnen would get no. 1 . Alonso would finish a strong 3, but 1 point short of the title... Raikonnen world champion! Wow. I think the crowd was quite stunned. in the end, the top 3 drivers were separated by 1 point only! Very very close.

In any case, we can judge the drivers by comparing them to their teammates. Hamilton has had a wonderfully successful season and should take heart from his rookie year. Same points as previous world champion is a remarkable achievement. Alonso won't stay in Mclaren, I don't see that happening. Racing is rather pro british if you look at all the key players. he's probably better off joining a non-british team.

Anyway well done to them. a juicy season indeed .... =) next year! (n the night race !!!)

Today's Stock Market lesson.....

... be very, very careful on intraday trading.

Ok. I'm no stock expert, even though I'm holding some counters. I've never tried intra-day trading before, but was tempted to try once, since the returns seem so good for the short time involved.

Uni-asia has been performing hot for the past 2 weeks. It IPO-ed under 60 cents and it opened today at 2.6-ish. Since mid August only! It was rather weird. Obviously there was some speculation going on. So now, do I ride the wave, or just stay back. I know nothing much about Uniasia besides they have some insurance services. That's all I know. I may even be wrong!

This is exactly how speculators do. Ignore the fundamentals, just gamble.

And so I did. Bought 2 lots at 2.6. (abt 10am)

Within the next 30 mins, it went down 2.55. I was sian diao. I really ignored my strategy, fundamentals, research everything out of the window because of this greed. Should I sell? Wouldn't that be so stupid. 2.55. hmm. I don't feel so good. Stupid decision? What was I thinking! It's such a ridiculous idea at this point to even buy it!

Went for lunch and back. Did some calculations, told myself. ok sell at 2.65 if it ever goes there. can cover transaction costs. hope and cross fingers.

1pm, started watching webcast. Saw that the counter was rising. hmm quickly put in my selling bid. I didn't want to have heart attack playing this speculation. It wasn't very fun ... too exciting for me even though not a lot was at stake (pple were buying 100 lots at a go). queued in at 2.66, and within seconds it sold. ok not too bad. made $70 in 3 hrs. Take profits, watch webcasts.

2 hrs later, 3pm. Saw that it had went up to 2.77. Damn! Why couldn't I be more patient. What was I thinking of? Where's my guts?! Hello .... this is trading. can I be more risky. :S

Or... maybe I should short? Since this was totally a rubbish price based on spec. Aiyah. stay off it la. Not worth the heartache....

Went to do some other stuff, TV, newspaper. came back at 4:30. Took a glance. Blinked, and blinked again. What's going on??? from a +10% it was now -26% ! Price = 1.88!

Frantic sell queues, trades made by the second. Volume up and up, prices down and up, fluctuating in the region of 1.9. What can I say? I must have been really lucky. Teresa was just telling me to be happy with my gains (and buy her sth ... ... ... ) Bless her for her advice!

End of day, closed near $2 region.

Moral of story? Buying low selling high is a simple concept. buying low ain't hard, its often the selling high that's the problem. Want to take risks? Be prepared for roller coaster ride. You will enjoy magnificent gains, but also astounding losses. Game for it?

Uni-asia's intraday stock for 15/10/07.

Roman Tennis

Wow this vid creator is such a creative genius... he/she made 2 vids which combines 2 of my loves, the Roman Empire and Tennis! haha and obviously a fan of Rome the TV series as well...

So let's go back to 44 BC when Gaius Julius Caesar was dictator of Roman lands....




... where he was enchanted in Egypt by the Queen Cleopatra... but had to fend off his greatest nemesis in the clay of Paris (de Gaulle??? From another era leh. haha)

Go Kart, go Fast!

ok I hope not too harp too much on the karting thing but it's just quite a momentous occasion la... hahaha oops. Anyways, AsiaOne carried our story here....!

Go fast, Go Kart!

A total of 96 go-karters representing 15 nationalities from various walks of life competed in the finals of the Caltex National Karting Challenge 2007 held at East Coast Park on Sunday.

...

APEX OF THEIR AGE-GROUP

AsiaOne chatted with the winners of Category B (19-25 years), Team Apex, which comprised of four young men who came together for this challenge only a month ago.

"It was great fun preparing for the competition. We met each other just a month ago. It has really helped us to get to know each other better," said 24-year-old Apex team-leader Melvin Teng.

To prepare for Sunday's race, the team made two trips to their Johor Bahru training base, where they spent a total of 40 minutes on a rain-swept track, prior to competing in Sunday's final.

The ace in the Apex pack according to his team mates, is Chen Zhonghan, who has five years of karting experience in places like the UK and the USA.

The 'Lewis Hamilton' fan humbly declined to be identified as the team's 'best racer', suggesting instead that all the team members had learned from, and helped each other in the process of racing together.

hahaha I still remember that interview it was rather funny. But yeah well the media as usual do their usual 'framing' of articles so it didn't exactly come out as expected, but its good enough lah, can't complain. Will update more here if I find more articles hehe.

clean tech!

I honestly believe that clean tech will be one of the main driving forces of the next 'growth' technology. Well we shall see. Anyway here is a great invention, in my opinion, which could really go a long way in helping reduce wastage ...

How 'disappearing ink' can cut waste paper

Scientists have unveiled a new kind of 'ink' that disappears from a page 24 hours after printing, allowing paper to be re-used

Mission Impossible-style self-destructing messages may soon cross from the realm of fiction into the wilds of the nine-to-five office, according to scientists who have developed printer ink that vanishes after 24 hours.

Read more here ...

Anyway, I'm not saying that karting is exactly a very environmental friendly sport ... haha! But it's fun nonetheless!

Pictures from the National Karting Challenge 2007!

Here's some pics as promised ....


Here's us before the race. Excited, but not THAT happy yet haha. Brandon, JP, me, Melvin L to R.

Us again ...

heh like some MTV. We were about to do our routine track walk...

Race to begin soon ... tension in the air...
The Start/finish banner ..

The karts lined up ... we were kart 3. 3 is really my lucky number....

Race underway! Don't know who's this though .. but definitely not me. Think its Brendon

One of us .... could be me. Ooops but that was a poor line into the double right heh.


Then it was announced... we won! Up on stage with president of NUS motoring and Minister of State.


Yummy medal. This was the media room where we had our interviews... (sadly tho none were published in today's papers...)

Another pic... we wonder why the Chevron backdrop

Chatting with the ST photographer haha nice guy.

Along team Speedy Gonzalez (Cat A winners), who were all over the news. 3 of them had no driving licences! Really impressive young team...


Tada! Our winning medal. =)

Champions of National Karting Challenge 2007!

Wow. What a day.

Ok let's just start from the beginning ... our team Apex (Melvin, jp, brendon and me) formed about a month ago to enrol in this competition. None of us were professionally trained in karting, but we all had a passion for speed....This challenge is open to anyone, and every team was classified by the age groups. So we were in the group of 19-25 yrs old. It was a relay, so each driver had to do 5 laps (400m each), total of 20 laps. Results were determined by time trials. Place was ECP carpark E1 converted to a mini race track.

So Friday was qualifying, and we clocked a total time of 12min 13s. Not bad. We felt quite quick that day, and kart was good, no spins nor crashes. Got the call on Sat night that we'll be racing on Sunday, where the top 6 teams on Friday will get to the finale race.

On Sunday ... I know that qualifying and racing are just 2 totally different things. How many times have I seen on F1 the pole holder lose his position later on. Or crash. Or complacent. We qualified as the 3rd fastest team, and the 2 teams ahead of us were more than 1 minute faster than us based on Fri time trials. It was going to be hard, but we had a podium chance.

Walked the track as usual. Talked through the corners. Discussed the new chicane. All was ready. Focus... focus.

When the race was underway everything was a blur! Brendon was unbelievably quick, and before long he had managed to overtake the 1st 2 teams, out of sight! Just a small lead then, but the 2 teams had started a good 5-10 secs ahead of us, so we were positioned very well.... fingers were crossed. maintain, maintain....

Melvin hopped on next. Kart 1,2 came in, so his exit was delayed. Race on! wheel to wheel, the 1st 3 karts went. At the start finish straight, Melvin applied the forward jerking technique, and helped gain 1 place!! Subsequently he was bumped at the back by some other kart but thankfully all was fine, very well in fact. He came in 1st again...

JP's turn next. quick engine on, and go go go! I was busily putting on the rib protector, gloves n helmet, psyching myself up.... come on. a few more laps to go. Pit in sign shown to him. He was coming in.. and I had the last leg.

JP off, I was on. Pit marshall said "Wait" but the karts in front were out of the way already. come on, let me go!!!! Pit was clear, and I didn't need the delay...

Finally gogogo! Grip was good. In fact damn good, better than Fri's already very good kart. The double right can be taken without lift off. Chicane 1... chicane 2... hairpin, ... double chicane... left-right and back to the straight! 1 lap done. no one behind me , no one in front of me. It was my race to lose. Gotta maintain. No pressure. Uneventful racing will win. Keep cool. No spinning. Get the tunnel vision.....

Yellow flags on last turns! Darn! Gotta slow down.... kept checking my back to make sure no one was closing on me..... and still had to squeeze into a small slot between the fallen tire and the side of the track. slowly... slowly.... I don't need the fastest lap. Just finish 1st.... when will the "pit in" show? It was to be my chequered flag.

Finally....... I saw the "Pit in Kart 3" on my last lap! It was the chequered flag!!!!!! Fist pumps... woohoo! Did it.... Went back to the pits, still quite not believing that we pulled it off. But we did! Super exhilarating!!

Handshakes with competitors .. "you guys were damn fast...." Wow. Soon after, the media flooded us, interviews and pictures (I kid you not... watch out for AsiaOne and CNA. Sadly ST didn't find us, but they had our pic) We had our 5 mins of media fame. haha. What an experience. But it all gone away when the celebrity race started and all the media focused their attention elsewhere. I saw Andy Penders, Melody Chen and Wong Lilin! heh.

Prize persentation, quite a formality.... Got a Timex and a medal. Damn cool. My 1st racing medal! yay! After that, more photographs, a few random interviews, and yup that's it. We managed to catch some precision driving by some professional stunt drivers that was really cool. tyres were burnt out! heh. Quite an eye opener.

Then the sky opened and the rain fell. Ooops. Sorry Cat C and D. Wet race for ya. Enjoy it!

End of day, our total time was 10 min 25 secs. That was really unbelievably quick... for us. We expected to go under 12 but not so much! Really proud of everyone in the team... cos we helped each other so much along the way..... even though none of us were very good. In fact the fastest lap time went to a team which didn't even make the top 3. Guess this really shows how important the team is. Racing is really a team sport!

Still we know that there are so many people who are better than us. Perhaps they didn't join this challenge. We also knew some teams in Cat C (26-35 yrs) who did 9.55 which is really impressive. But at the end of the day, we were the fastest team in our age group in Singapore, and that counts for everything! It was soooo worth the effort put in!

Whew! What a Sunday. Pics to come soon, so do watch out for them.... next time... if anyone of you goes karting.... do jio me along too! =)

The irony ...

... when I'm sitting in a HR office, speaking to a HR officer, and there she was, telling me that she's considering leaving the firm, but is clueless about where to head towards.

Guess no ones an expert when it comes to careers eh. Hmm. Interesting....