Kaka, Clarence Seerdorf and Gilardinho showed their class as AC Milan completely destroyed Manchester Utd by beating them 3-0 at the San Siro. A very sad time perhaps for Manchester Utd fans but it has to be said that the better team won today. The Red Devils looked very nervy in the beginning and conceded 2 early goals. The traveling fans would have been disappointed because none of the devastating forwards of Manchester could muster up a decent move. Gattuso was amazing and literally stopped Utd from making any progress in the Milan half.

Taking nothing away from AC Milan but it has to be noted that the champions league is all they had to play for this season. Whereas Manchester Utd have competed on 3 fronts with injuries that saw the entire back four out for quite a long time. And yet Manchester Utd made it to the semi finals which is really amazing. Also the Premiere league is the top priority this season and that goal has almost been achieved by the Red Devils; so that is a very positive sign. It would have been amazing to see this present team emulate the 1999 treble but it wasn’t meant to be.

You need a combination of great skill and lot’s of luck in cup competitions and Manchester Utd ran out of luck in the semi’s. Nothing worked out for them tonight but this is not the end because the double is still on the cards this season. And the players will know that all their fans are still behind them.

Jose Mourinho who calls himself the ‘Special One’ has finally lost it. After drawing a home game versus Bolton on Saturday, Chelsea FC have lost in the semi finals of the champions league again to Liverpool. What’s disgusting to hear is Mourinho’s comments after the game.

Chelsea tried to win it in 90 minutes. Chelsea tried to win it in extra time. The best team was the team in blue.

It’s quite possible that the deafening audible’s created by the Anfield faithful somehow re-arranged his brain. Because the whole crowd in attendance (including Chelsea fans) and the world wide audience saw a Liverpool team dominate possession, create chances and stop any attempts by the Chelsea midfield to get settled. It’s ridiculous how a man who speaks so much can achieve so little this season. Yes. I can hear you say - “But he has won two back to back Premiere leagues!” - and I say to you - “So WHAT ?!”. Any decent manager given 200 million dollars or whatever it is that Chelsea have spent in purchasing their players can win the league. And to be fair both Manchester Utd and Arsenal were busy rebuilding their teams in the past two years. Not everybody can just buy a new team you know.

But I really think Mourinho is definitely the special one. Because It’s amazing how a manager who has some of the best attacking talent at his disposal in the form of Robben, Wright Phillips, Lampard, Shevchenko, Drogba and Ballack still makes the team play such pathetic football. Teams like Totenham and even Reading play much more attractive football as compared to the million dollar team. Sometimes I wonder if it’s Manchester Utd that have spent the 100+ million dollars. Well at least they play as if they have.

Phil McNulty has written a nice little article titled - Mourinho the deluded one. And I quote the following from the article to end my perhaps slightly cynical blog post -

But they were pedestrian, unambitious, and seemed to have a simple plan A aimed at securing a goalless draw.

Once that went west, plan B was a horribly basic approach of hoofing the ball in the general direction of Didier Drogba and crossing fingers that these scraps would lead to a feast.

It did not work and never looked like working, hence general astonishment at Mourinho’s swiftly drawn up attempt to re-write history.

Chelsea ultimately paid the price for failing to kill Liverpool off in the first match at Stamford Bridge, a game Mourinho was well within his rights to say his team dominated.

This game was Liverpool’s and Benitez’s. They will not care one jot for the somewhat bizarre analysis offered up by Mourinho.

Liverpool, fuelled by another firecracker of an Anfield atmosphere, deserved their place in the final.

The following is an extract from Yahoo! news :

Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films.

A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional Kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero’s nemesis Lex Luther to weaken him in the film “Superman Returns.”

“We will have to be careful with it — we wouldn’t want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!,” said Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London’s Natural History Museum.

Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.

“I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing Kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns,” he said.

Although it has to be said that the real Kryptonite is not green in color, it’s powdery white. The mineral will be named Jadarite. Oh well maybe someday they’ll find Superman ?

Manchester United have been sensational this season! So why am I so awfully quite ? Why am I not writing boastful posts of how my favourite football club is performing this season ? Well  I am too busy enjoying the one touch passing and killer finishing. And also I am usually lost for words when it comes to writing a post match blog post.

Probably the biggest influence on Manchester Utd’s fortunes this season has been Cristiano Ronaldo. A quote that sums up his abilities :

Nobody can stop him. Probably the only way to do it is to kill him. When he runs at you, you try to grab his shirt or do whatever you can. But he just goes past you, makes fun out of you and leaves you kicking the air.

Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra waxes lyrical about team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo.

For somebody who get’s booed by opposition fans every time he plays because of the world cup fiasco. England fans removed their frustrations of a miserable world cup on the Portuguese step over maestro. Sir Alex Ferguson did his best to protect the gifted winger and has received the benefits of having faith in him. Ronaldo recently signed a 5 year contract which keeps him at Old Trafford till 2012. This huge contract extension has brightened the hopes of seeing some big star player joining Manchester United.

Invariably when talking about Manchester United, the name of a certain club called Chelsea does pop into my head. After all they have won the previous two premiere leagues and are as of now only 3 points behind Manchester United. Before writing this post I had a lot to write about Chelsea but Robbo Robson has written a nice little article for BBC. I quote the following from that article which emphasize my thoughts on Chelsea

Even Ballack, who has spent the whole season looking like he’s wading through a sea of loose change, managed to bag a winner on Sunday[v/s Blackburn - F.A cup semi’s]. I loved the way he hauled off his shirt and held it aloft as if to say: “See! I’m not here for the money! I’m here for love!” Yeah right.

As a neutral you end up permanently underwhelmed. All that cash, all that talent, all that managerial mouthwash, all those victories… and a team with all the charm of a cockroach. The trouble is cockroaches always survive, don’t they?

At least Man U have mustered a swagger to go with their progress and the two R’s were deadly on Saturday. But that swagger won’t get them anywhere.

They’ll hold on to the Prem, but Chelsea will wind their grim, cheerless coils around the lively front four in both Cup finals and we’ll have to endure a miserable evening where the immoveable crushes the irresistible once again. I hope I’m wrong.

I hope you are wrong too Robbo! For heavens sake a club that has players worth $200+ million playing like a team fighting off relegation. Yes. That’s what the Special One a.k.a Jose Mourinho is capable of doing. I feel pity for the Chelsea owner Roman Abrahimovic - I bet every time he sees Manchester United or Barcelona play he wonders why can’t Chelsea play like that ? Well I wonder too sometimes.

Wow even writing about Chelsea makes me fall asleep. Back to the more exciting Manchester United - who are 2 games away from a champions league final with either Liverpool or Chelsea. Everybody is talking up Chelsea’s chances of a quadruple but I am sure Manchester United can pull of a treble this season.

Leftovers / Beautiful portfolio.

The Left overs is the portfolio of Eric Sin. Very beautiful pieces of art to be seen here. Oh and did I mention he is only 17 years old ? Age doesn’t matter after all!

Susanne Paschke/ Clean and crisp. Yummy!

This has to be one of the most clean layouts I have seen. It’s really amazing! The layout is very usable and the focus on the work is also perfect. All in all this is one of my favorite sites now. Go clean!

That’s all folks! Tune in next week to the same blog on the same day of the week by entering the same URL!

Almost 2+ years since Linkin Park have released a new single, and on 2nd April they finally released their newest single - What I’ve Done. And I have to say that it’s awesome! It’s not the typical LP song, however it’s closest match would have to be Breaking the habit (Meteora). Anyway you can hear the track on the official Linkin Park site or download the video (is it legal ?). The following is believed to be the cover for their upcoming album - Minutes to Midnight. You can catch up on all the gossip and news related to LP’s new album at the blog - Minutes to Midnight.

Here are the lyrics of What I’ve Done :

In this farewell
There is no blood
There is no alibi
‘Cause I’ve ? regret
From the truth
Of a thousand lies
So let mercy come
And wash away

What I’ve done
I’ll face myself
To cross out
What I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of
What I’ve done

Put to rest
What you thought of me
While I clean this slate
With the hands
Of uncertainty
So let mercy come
And wash away

What I’ve done
I’ll face myself
To cross out
What I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of
What I’ve done

For what I’ve done
I’ll start again
And whatever thing
May come
Today this ends
I’m forgiving

What I’ve done

I’ll face myself
To cross out
What I’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of
What I’ve done

What I’ve done

You’re still here ? Head over to Linkin Park (official) or Minutes to Midnight (Blog + Exclusive Downloads) to get the latest!

Desktopography / Very beautiful wallpapers.

Desktopography is a selection of nature themed wallpapers for your computer made by selected designers from all over the world. This project was established in 2005 and has acquired a beautiful collection of wallpapers. There have been three exhibitions so far. The current exhibition, exhibition 3 has to be one of the best with some gorgeous wallpapers. Even the site for destopography is beautifully done. So if you are looking for a new wallpaper - look no further!

Bruno Omerovic / Blog design that makes good use of wood.

Bruno Omerovic has made fantastic use of wood in the design of his blog/playground. Also very nice use of some Ajax. All in all this is a very well designed blog with a large header graphic which keeps changing.

That’s all folks for this weeks Sunday Refresh! Tune in next week, same place, same time and same blog.

It has been a long time since I have posted a new desktop. Why ? Because I was very happy with the previous set-up. But after a long time - a change was mandatory. I was browsing the new pack from depthCORE - Untitled Dreams, and I found this wonderful piece of artwork - Apocaliptic Visions. It is absolutely beautiful and created by Nelson Balaban Jr. I just had to have this as my wallpaper. The size was also large enough so without asking permission from the creator I have set it as my wallpaper. I hope this is not a violation of any copyright/rules ?

The main core of applications that power my desktop have not changed. I am still using BBlean for the menus and Launchy to launch frequently used applications. Yes. I don’t like the default windows explorer shell - even with themes it’s still boring. As you can see I have installed the albums lists plugin for Winamp. I suddenly have the desire to organize all my albums. Let’s see how that goes.

Google shocked all web mail providers in 2005 by offering 1 GB of inbox space. This was a huge improvement over the other competitors. Some of the other web mail providers like Yahoo! and Hotmail also followed suite and upgraded to a 1 GB threshold for their free web mail accounts. And to push the limits further - two days back John Kremer announced on his blog that Yahoo! will begin offering everybody unlimited storage starting in May 2007. Sounds exciting doesn’t it ?

This seems to be an exciting time for Yahoo! After loosing out to Google on various fronts(search engine and web mail for examples), they are finally making a comeback. Yahoo! Answers was much better then Google Answers. So much so that Google Answers is no more now. And now this announcement proves that Yahoo! are not going to be left behind in the web mail arena either. I don’t really see Hotmail giving any real competition to either Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. So it’s really between Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.

I also like John Kremers vision of a future without limits where hard disks can’t be filled and photo cards that never need to be emptied. And it’s also likely that other Yahoo! services especially Flickr will also be upgraded to an unlimited storage threshold soon. It is amazing how times have changed. There was a time when offering 2 MB of inbox space was cutting edge. And now, 2 MB is the individual attachment limit (on most email services). I wonder what they will think of next!