…my cuppa iced coffee…

The tournament continued with the second category: Women’s Single. Representing Etiqa were Salbiah, Mahani, Salwa and Mastura, 4 strong bowlers who, more often than not, challenged the men with their high scores.

Salbiah, Mahani, Salwa and Mastura

As in the Men’s Single category, each bowler will also play 3 games and the total score will determine the champion for the Women’s Single category. Added to the total of bowler’s individual score in Women’s Double, we will see whether they qualify for the Masters.

As it turned out, Etiqa lady bowlers performed much better than the men where 2 of them ranked 3rd and 5th. Congratulations, ladies! This is a marked improvement from last year. May you get higher scores in the Women’s Double category.

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Related post:

• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 1
• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 3
• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 4
• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 5

Etiqa has never failed to send teams to participate in the annual Maybank Bowling Tournament since the name was inaugurated in 2006. Though we are yet to become the champion, the spirit and efforts to achieve the title are foremost in the minds of the Etiqa bowlers.

This year’s edition of the tournament was held in Ampang Bowl, The Summit in Bukit Mertajam, Pulau Pinang from 27/03/2010 to 28/03/2010. Bowlers representing Maybank branches from all states in Malaysia will be competing in 6 categories: Men’s Single, Women’s Single, Men’s Double, Women’s Double, Team and Masters.

The game started with Men’s Single category. Etiqa fielded 4 strong bowlers: Sheerzan, Azman, Redza and Tajuddin, each played 3 games.

The result was excellent for Etiqa.

Sheerzan scored 247, 216 and 160 (total 623) to grab the champion title for the Men’s Single category. Congratulations! 2nd and 3rd places were won by Menara Maybank (605) and Maybank Pahang (603) respectively.

The other Etiqa bowlers were not so lucky but let’s hope they will pick up in the double and team categories. We want all Etiqa bowlers to qualify for the Masters event.

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Related post:

• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 2
• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 3
• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 4
• Maybank Bowling Tournament 2010 – Update 5

So. I finally got to watch the much-touted-movie-since-Titanic last Monday, 16/02/2010, 2 months or so after its release. I thought I might as well watch it in 3D just to maximise the experience.

My comments?

1. It’s really as good as they say and I really loved it. The visual effects used were really excellent . Of course, this is not really something new. If you’re a gamer (even a once-in-a-blue-moon one like me), you’d realise that this technique has been used for a while already.
2. Watching it in 3D is really a waste of money. Yes, really. There’s not much 3D effects other than the negligible bit of depth the images have (as opposed to flat). I was expecting some leaping-out-of-the-screen effects, especially during the aerial fight, that would make one goes ooohhhh and aaahhhh.. but nope, nothing whatsoever. Indeed, it was such a terrible let-down. I wonder if I can get a refund. Hey, it costs me RM19 wot…
3. Remember the issue on racism raised by I-dunno-who not long after Avatar was released? Seriously, for the live of me, I could not see how the movie relates to it. All I could see was greed and a total lack of regard to the environment. Somebody must have had an overworked imagination somewhere.
4. I also like the messages in Avatar:

• Save the earth.
• Do not destroy what you don’t understand (especially the natives – either plants, animals or people).
• Humans are a heartless, selfish and greedy bunch and they are the actual cause of the troubles currently faced by the earth.
• Mother nature will attempt to restore the balance and fix the damages to the earth. How?  Removing the cause, of course. That brings up armageddon, doesn’t it? Hehehehe…

All in all, it’s really an excellent movie. I would consider watching it again, although maybe not in 3D. But that really depends on the crowd. They watch 3D, I watch 3D. Hehehehe… So, if you have not watched it, please do.

As for achievements, Avatar’s are pretty impressive. To name a few:

• 9 nominations for Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects).
• 8 nominations for British Film Academy Awards (Best Film, Best Director, Best Music, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Sound and Best Special Visual Effects).
• 9 nominations for Broadcast Film Critics, out of which they won 6 (Best Action Movie*, Best Art Direction*, Best Cinematography*, Best Directing, Best Editing*, Best Picture, Best Makeup, Best Sound* and Best Visual Effects*).
• 4 nominations for Golden Globe Awards, out of which they won 2 (Best Director*, Best Film – Drama*, Best Original Score and Best Original Song).

Click here for the full list of accolades received by Avatar.

The words are there will be 2 sequels to this movie as confirmed by James Cameron due to the success of Avatar. Unfortunately, they will not be around anytime soon, probably another 2 years or so, but let’s hope that it won’t be the case.

Can’t wait for Avatar 2.. or whatever the name will be.

Verdict for Avatar:

Delayed a couple of times (the tournament is usually held in July), this was the last netball event for men and women before the fasting month this year. Organised by the Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ), the tournament offered RM 2,000 cash prize for the champion, RM 1,000 for the first runner-up and RM 400 each for the teams who reached the semifinals.

10 teams participated in the men’s category, including 1 new team, and 16 in the women’s. The venue this year was changed from the usual indoor court in Kelana Jaya near the MAS building to another indoor court in Petaling Jaya near Jalan 222.

Not that I have any issue with that. As long as it’s indoor, I’m perfectly okay!

Here are the results for the preliminary rounds for the men’s category:

It was a bit of a misfortune that my team, Legend Deluxe, lost to Cobra A by 1 point even though we led by 2 points (twice!) during the game. Otherwise, we would’ve made it to the semi. Ah well.. better luck next time.

In the semi-finals, team Royale (the defending champion) met team KL Tower Y and Legend Premium (the defending 1st runner-up ) met Cobra A.

And for the 3rd year in a row, team Royale met team Legend in the final.

And for the 3rd year in a row also, team Royale beat team Legend in the final.

For the women’s game, as expected, the teams who made it to the final were team UMW (the favourite) and the host, team MBPJ. And as expected, team UMW won the game comfortably.

Congratulations to the winners. For the other teams, better luck next time. Keep practicing.

I really really like this year’s US Open, especially in the women’s singles. There were so many upsets that ranking became irrelevant. Out of the 32 seeded players, only 2 reached the semi-finals: Serena Williams, ranked 2nd, and Caroline Wozniacki, ranked 9th. Their opponents were both unseeded Belgians: Serena Williams against the come-back sensation, Kim Clijsters and Caroline Wozniacki against WTA 50th ranked Yanina Wickmayer.

Williams against Clijsters would be an interesting game to watch and personally, I’d rather see them in the final. It was unfortunate that they have to meet in the semis. I was expecting the American Melanie Oudin to reach the final but her tame lost to Wozniacki, 6-2 6-2, was really disappointing.

Here’s the list of the women’s singles seeded players and their journey in the US Open 2009:

Source: usopen.org

As you can see, the majority of the top 32 were defeated by non-seeded players. The more outstanding ones were the 17-year-old Melanie Oudin, 19-year-old Petra Kvitova and of course, the 2005 US Open champion, Kim Clijsters.

So, unlike the men’s, it’s clear that women’s singles are anybody’s game. And it’s more fun to watch too.

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Updates (13/09/2009)

Kim Clijsters beat Serena Williams in the first semi-final. Apparently Serena was penalised because of her rather unprofessional outburst at the linesman. Or was it lineswoman? I’m guessing she will meet Caroline Wozniacki in the final. Go Clijsters!!