Belgian GP 2008 aftermath: Amazing!

Wow!

I never thought it could be this exciting! I was literally on the edge of my seat, cheering Kimi Raikonnen on, while secretly hoping Lewis Hamilton would do a mistake. Sadly, he didn’t, and Kimi spun a full circle and crashed to the side instead. I have to give it to Lewis Hamilton this round for his aggressiveness and the drive to win this GP, although he’s not really a favourite driver of mine. If only it was Fernando Alonso who’s the one he was racing with just now…

According to Ross Brawn, Alonso is still the best.. Go Alonso!

P.S. As of now, the Hamilton-Raikonnen incident is still being investigated by the stewards. Stay tuned!

Photo credits: Planet F1

European GP 2008: Qualifying

  • Pole position: Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
  • 2nd: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
  • 4th: Kimi Raikonnen (Ferrari)
  • 12th: Fernando Alonso (Renault)

It’s sad that Alonso is only able to get 12th placing on the grid. At least Valencia is unlike other street circuits and provide opportunities to overtake. I’ve always rooted for Alonso; to me he’s an extremely talented driver (albeit a little whiney at times) in a still-lots-of-work-to-be-done car.

Go Alonso!

European GP: Watching F1 online

After 3 looong weeks of waiting, European GP is here! I can’t wait!

It’s going to be a close fight for the top 3 drivers with 6 remaining races to go; will Lewis Hamilton falter this round, will the Ferrari drivers take the lead from him? Or will Alonso stage an upset at home? Ah.. the rush, the excitement!

The Valencia circuit is a new one, and although street circuits like this usually are very narrow and have very little opportunities to overtake, making the starting grid positions extremely important to the drivers, the Valencia circuit is fast, sweeping and wide. (Source: Planet F1 – Ten Things You Should Know About Valencia)

Something tells me it’s going to be an exciting race to watch!

For those that doesn’t know yet, here’s how to watch F1 online for free:

http://byfallenangel.com/2008/08/how-to-watch-f1-live-online-for-free/

Daily Tips: Does the “increase your luck” tip work?

rabbit's foot for luck

Yes it does. And I’ll tell you why. (Refer to Daily Tips: How to increase your luck for context)

Basically, the principle of the tip is that with more practice, the more “lucky” you get. You may ask, “How does that make sense? No matter how much I practise, I don’t think it made winning the lottery any easier! And of course, if I practise something a lot, I’ll get good at it. That’s not luck!”

True. But, the statements made above are too widely scoped, and doesn’t take into account of the different scenarios that luck can fall on.

There are many situations that luck can come into play in determining the outcome, and these situations are made up of 2 elements: element of chance, and element of skill. Situations that are mostly made up of element of chance are called Game of Chance, and situations that are mostly made up of element of skill are called Game of Skill. The thing is, although there is Game of Chance that has elements of skill, there is no Game of Skill that has no elements of chance.

Point is, every situation somehow involves chance, but not every situation involves skill. Confused yet?

The graphic above illustrates that everything involves element of chance, and out of those, there are only some that involves element of skill.

An example of Game of Chance are the lottery, while an example of Game of Skill are sports. Oh by the way, did anyone catch the grand opening of the Olympics? If you didn’t, catch the rerun! It was excellent!

Back to the topic, now that you know the difference between Game of Chance and Game of Skill, the other thing that you need to fully understand is that both of these involves chance, or in other words, luck. The amount of luck that is involved vary from game to game, for example, in a game of snooker between pros, there’s very little luck involved. In F1, you might think it’s a game of skill, but there’s plenty of luck involved. The car may have engine problem, flat tyre, etc. In a game of poker, it involves both skill and luck, if you’re lucky, you may win big a few rounds, but a pro can outlast and outwin you if you stay long enough. The pro knows enough how to harness the element of luck in his favour so that over the long run, he will come out positive.

So, basically, in nearly everything, luck is involved. Life itself involves the element of chance. And that is why knowing as much as you can about this luck thing is important.

Next, I will share with you how to equip yourself with the knowledge and skill needed to harness the luck element and increase the odds in your favour. Stay tuned!

Daily Tips: How to increase your luck

Have you ever wondered about luck, and whether there’s anything you can do to increase your luck?

Yes, there is.

Gary Player is one of the greatest players in golf history, with 163 professional wins and 9 major championship wins. When he first played in the United States as a young man, he was generally regarded as a “lucky” golfer by the regular Tour players, as when he faced more seasoned and successful adversaries, he would end up winning, much to their disbelief.

And when someone commented out loud how lucky he was to keep winning the championships, he answered:

“Sure, I’m lucky. The harder I practise, the luckier I get.”

My Favourite Sports For The Summer Olympics

Olympics is just around the corner, gymnastic, rhythmic gymnastics, diving and equestrian are some of my favourite sports to watch.

Rhythmic gymnastic is a combination of ballet, gymnastic and theatrical dance. There are hoops, balls, clubs, rope and ribbon as their prop. I’m sure most girls fancy this sport as it makes the gymnast looks elegant and you can see the hard work they had put through. This is definitely my 1st choice.

Ribbon

Ball

Hoop

Clubs

Gymnastic, the modern form of gymnastics typically involves exercises on uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise, and vault (for women), and high bar and parallel bars, still rings, floor exercise, vault, and pommel horse (for men). It evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks, including skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and circus performance skills.

Uneven bars (one of my favourite)

Look at the height, isn’t it scary?. But this is what makes diving interesting, with all the flips and somersault. I was told that when they dive in the water with the least splash or no splash at all that would be a good dive.

Nothing says class other than Equestrian jumping. Equestrianism refers to the skill of riding or driving horses. I like to see when the horse start to jump over the bars.

I hope these few explanation helps you to understand what the sport is about. For more information you can visit Summer Olympics 2008.

Till next time…

How to watch F1 LIVE online for free

For those that’s stuck in office or have no cable at home: here’s how to watch F1 LIVE online for free! (You can find some live football shows as well, but you probably might need to browse the channels to find the right match.)

1. Download SopCast and install. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have any spyware. I have Norton Antivirus and I’m as paranoid as you, probably even more. If you face problems downloading from that site as I did just 2 days ago, you can download it from the download.com mirror. Much faster.

2. Click this link for StarSports:
sop://broker1.sopcast.com:3912/6029


3. Choose SopCast as the application to launch (if you’re prompted for it), and you should be logged in as anonymous automatically, and voila! Formula One :)

Note: As of September 2009, this link is NOT working. Will update this site as soon as I find a working alternative. Sorry.