we've found ourselves a home

wheeeeeeee

back from training and rg cca orientation. yay, mrs d. tan is right, can't let go. but i like it that way (: rg is well, home. haha, walking around, still see many familiar faces though it's really a pity the security guards change; the old uncles could recognise us. very happy to go back, see all the little juniors grow up and wow, all of a sudden it's their turn to bring rgs to greater heights. whether it's the ccas, or houses or boards or even class, definitely takes the combined efforts of the whole batch to make it one good year for rgs. to the sports ccas, here's to a powerful sweep of the medals and championship trophies again (: for the performing arts, all the best for syf (: clubs and socs jiayou for your various competitions and for helping the school function nicely (: and ugs! WHEEEEE, happy gold units (: haha, hope we (the super old batch of 2005) have inspired you all to dream further than what we have dared.

and somehow if any of you all read this, trust that you can always count on your seniors. yep, you all just concentrate on pia-ing, pia house, pia board, pia cca... everything. do some cip if u can, special o was a good experience for me, go to know some juniors besides the many things that i've learnt. whether it's sln or psb, can confirm you all that our connectiosn and network are still intact and when there's a calling, we will rise to the occasions. haha, though we're old and stuff, still can help in our ways. anything for you all to take rgs further than we've done.

yay, i'm very happy now (: wheeeeeeee. the few rg kids who came today were super brave (in hannah's words) and powerful (: haha, hope we get a good bunch next year. yay (:

happy (:

...rgs, rgs, all the way
we like it here we like it here
we've found ourselves a home,
a home, a home sweet home (bang!)

feeling smart

wheeeeee

finally blogger is working properly.

watched space jam yesterday. haha, it's really cool having mum around, someone to buy the G1 0.5 black refills, get the listerine, search for that space jam vcd somewhere in the house, go on a hunt for Drumline, someone to answer all muddy's questions (:

yep, yesterday i learnt that somewhere in the yellow pages, postal rates tables are there. anw found postal rates to Laos. learnt the difference between airmail, surface and package mail. and the origins of yellow pages. (started in america when some printer company ran out of white paper, so had to use yellow for a directory). found out the pronunciation of 'seconded', other meanings of provost, turkmens are from turkmenistan and turks, turkish and turkic are all people from Turkey.

i think wikipedia random article super cool.

ahahhaha, muddy feels smart and powerful after training. WHEEE

muddy is convinced some higher power out there is doing all it can to help us.

most of our old injuries not acting up
jiaolian starting a proper weights thingy for us

more importantly:
decent no. of sec4s interested in canoeing (:
weather is good when we train; weather is bad when we don't train (:
and random stuff keeps happening, like today we don't train and macritchie is suddenly closed.
and good stuff keeps happening, like the chicken soup book, and today finaly took 165 after a long time, suppose to change to 200 but was thinking maybe i should walk home. and guess what? this is super ggxx, they change the 200 bus route so it wasn't even passing that bus stop! yay, took a nice long walk home (: 1 hour
and just arranged to go for a run with darinne... on christmas day (: how cool is that? haha, what are the chances of all these happening?

yay, after speaking to jiaolian today... guess it's all up to us now. Muddy still needs to do alot of thinking...

might as well make new year resolutions now (never really believed in them till the 10 pullups goal was acheived)
let's keep to 3 things, always knew that 3 is a powerful number.
GOLD. gold medal(s), team gold... and extreme race that muddy promised belinda.
As. Straight As (: Get decent grades throughout the year, keep working hard. Be disciplined and stick to a nice schedule consisting sleeping, eating, studying and training.
muddy (: be muddy and happy. live to be my best.
2007 sounds super exciting don't you think? powerful muddy, powerful year ahead. haha, can just imagine my life. Training, eating, mugging, sleeping.

power of the dream (:

happy

yay (:

muddy's very happy now.

alarm clock fixed
half way thru sorting my stuff
and... found some time to fix muddy a new notebook (:

yay, work in progress, the pages are from a thicker notebook my mum gave me last yr, cover from this black pillowcase box (bro's bday gift to me)

anw, my bro invited 2 friends for sleepover yesterday. wah, confirm they are deaf. were blasting cable mtv at volume 40, playing some cs thingy on the laptop and com and shouting at each other. and it went on for like 30 hours. gao gao xing xing.

and of course, getting pumped up with all sorts of new canoeing info (:

p.s. very happy with the recruitment so far (: thanks for all the support!

Something special (:

muddy woke up today, could hear the rain outside. Something told muddy that training should continue. muddy heads down to MacRitchie, bright and early (: The rain slows to a light drizzle, comfortable enough for us to start our run. muddy thinks one day we will all come to the final realisation that muddy is some psycho kid, insisting on training in this kind of weather and some ungodly hour. YAY! Muahahahahahha. Are the heavens on our side? Seems like the rain stops when we go out to train (: It's a sign (: Anw, muddy likes it that we do not let our circumstances defeat us and instead find ways to overcome.

After weights (yay, muddy owns the weights, powerful imba reps) and shed cleaning and lunch, time to head home. Long ride back on the mrt...

Coming down from Bishan, passed through several stations then Orchard. and muddy's feet took muddy off the train, blending into the crowd thronging up the escalators. Well, no mrt muddy can always take 143 back. Walking out of the control station area, suddenly had another urge to head to Popular. Went in looking for a good read, couldn't find anything nice, almost about to leave. Put on the powerful windbreaker, then muddy saw "Chicken Soup for the Soul 10th Anniversary Special: Living your dreams". Got the book with the rest of the $$ in the wallet, walked out of Pop stoned from the whole morning/early afternoon. Walking towards underpass thinking of stuff, saw Jasmine (: or rather she saw me first (: that brightened up muddy's day a little (:

Crossing through orchard underpass is super comforting despite the crowd, went to see the uncle and dropped some coins in for his music (: merry christmas (: Up the escalator, heard that familiar jarring ringing of the salvation army volunteer. Saw this middle aged man and a kid sitting against a pillar (his son i guess) and just wondered what they were feeling right then. People rushing about, walking past them, partly due to the rain that was getting heavier. Wonder what the little kid thought about spending his afternoon half drenched by the rain, watching dad trying to collect donations. Yep, something in muddy said go ahead and drop another few coins. "i already have the calender, thanks. merry christmas" Hope it made a difference to that kid.

As if everything was orchestrated, 143 came promptly, and muddy's favourite seat on the upper deck was free (: very peaceful and calming bus ride to think about stuff.

muddy's just finished reading the chicken soup book, good stuff. and muddy got more inspiration from there (: holidays a good time to start charging up for next year. visualisation.

anw, this gut feel thingy was strong today (: haha, i like, no need to think too hard. training (:

drumline

yay (: clinic today went well, happy.

google is taking over the world! hahahhaha, but they got gmail, blogger and nice canoeing vidoes so i'm okay with that!

macritchie flooded today/yesterday! trees were submerged, water mark rose and the main pontoon couldn't be seen! haha, had to "walk" on water to launch our boats. saw many important looking people coming to inspect the dam, which had water gushing thru it like no one's business. flood recurrence interval, largest in 25 years.

anw, was on the bus home and scenes from this movie suddenly flashed past in my mind. watched it once on cable, something about high school marching band. somehow images stick. went home to google/wikipedia; it's called Drumline. nice, inspirational movie, go read the spoiler on wikipedia (: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumline_%28film%29

muddy's favourite movies: Space Jam Drumline Coach Carter Bend it like Beckham

maybe muddy thought of it because jiaolian was commenting we lack "sha1 qi4" .

muddy's favourite part:
"Morris Brown's second cadence includes their snares moving forward and playing on the A&T drums then throwing down their sticks, showing their desperation to win and similar to the incident that got Devon kicked out of the band earlier that season. The A&T line retains their temper this time around, however. They play their answering cadence and in the middle throw down their sticks, mimicking Morris Brown, but then suddenly the entire line pulls out another set of sticks and continues playing, earning them wild applause. They end their routine face to face with the Morris Brown drumline, but instead of playing on their drums, the line drops one of their sticks onto the other drumline's drums--basically stating that they don't need to be rude to win."

let's see how things go from here. To have that desire to win, but not to let it control us.

training=hope

played a game of solitaire with a deck of cards...and muddy won, yay.

over the past few trainings, beginning to respect jiaolian even more (: muddy thinks jiaolian very cool and it's true that if you show you're willing to train, he won't give up on you. Really impressed by the extra stuff he does for us, setting up the weights for us, giving us pointers along the way and all the constant reminders to be careful while training. After all we're paying him rite? some things are worth so much more.

right now he's coaching sji and cjc. The latter makes interests conflicting, but you know what? We'll prove to him we're the better team and his efforts have paid off. Better than any other team out there. Not just the written-off underdogs who have seen many humbling defeats, but a team who chose to be here, who chose to train and row for raffles canoeing.

*getting into the training momentum brings many bursts of inspiration.

ru2 guo3 lai2 lian4, chuan2 bu4 kuai4 ye3 nan2
roughly translates to if you train, it's hard for the boat not to be fast.

training in it's simplest objective gives us a shot at beating the rest. Gives us a chance to improve. Brings hope (:

water

water yesterday was ggxx.

muddy came a little early so decided to go say hi to jiaolian, and guess what? he already set up weights for us to complete BEFORE training. but i've changed my opinions on gym/free weights, might be useful after all. ahhhh, anw the last time we accepted chocolates from him, got some imba 4 x 50 twisting situps. moderate for normal land, but heavy stuff for after water.

got soaked after doing sets. dried up during warmup. wet again while rowing. dry again taking cover in the shed. wet again rowing. not dried, but burnt from the sun soon after, worked up a sweat from the lim bo seng run, then ahhhhhh finally dry and nice. haha, muddy loves the team singlet. and of course lifejacket number 27! will get it fixed soon, one side of the styrofoam fell out from the tear.

water was 14km instead of the usual 12km. but muddy likes (: did k2 with javine and did a sub 11 timing! yay (: the first 2km was challenging, having to row through rain that progressively got heavier; was rowing in some mini sub. muddy thinks rowing in the rain (without lightning) is a good experience. For one it's about getting back to shore alive, another is the bonus of the rain. bonus? any sort of sweat you worked out is covered by the cold rain splashing incessantly against your body. distractions are instantly blocked out cos there's hardly anything else to look at besides the falling rain. The sounds from the raindrops and the waves (yes, waves in a reservoir) help to eliminate any furious heart pounding within.

muddy likes the feeling of rowing in the rain; ready for anything (:

another new discovery yesterday... for both 2km races, went into this special powerful zone again. thought muddy was going to ggxx after the initial start burst, but nope (: kept the frenzy going, followed javine's strokes, trying to match each blade angle and stuff, very good feeling. and of course, at the end of the 2km, exhausted.

gtg read diablo book 3 now, wheeeeeeeee, training tmr!

happy thoughts

was lying in bed last night and mind drifted off to happy stuff (:

haha, first was today's training program of course. totally destroyed but feeling more powerful by the day. it's been 4 trainings since we got back, sat, mon, wed, thurs but had really solid trainings, i like.

second one, was a nice happy thought but can't recall it now (:

yep, and 'real man party'! haha, everything great starts with a vision? maybe (:

well, right now muddy's looking for a hint of confirmation that with few more months to go, everything's right on course. (soothing music playing in the background) when we train, there's hope (:

bike trip

Back from dinner! I think my extended family very cool, ahahahhahaah. anw, finally found some answers, the teochews have their porridge and orh-nee, the Hainanese have their chicken rice, pork chops and stuff, so what specialities are there from the Hokkiens? Pork ribs soup, glutinous rice thingy (not the urghewww gross ones), and of course, hokkien mee!

anw, today was another... experience. firstly, really love (haha, this is a strange word to use in this context) my bro, can trust him, no doubts at all.

yep, cycled to shmote's house, haha, her sister super cute, looks exactly like her, not so chao ta only. and the hamster called penny! wheeeee (:

finishing book 1 of the Diablo trilogy, yep, series of books based on the game itself. there are warcraft books too.

today was another experience. life-changing? maybe, haha, one of the super happening things in muddy's life. Guess sometimes the spirit of adventure comes with its own rewards and payments. it still hasn't registered yet.

oh yarh, one more thing,
NOISAN THANK YOU VERY MUCH already thought of special xmas present (:

yay, i've lost my tagboard for the 53249764323th time.

haha, need miao to rescue me again.

anw, muddy's aching like don't know what! that's a good sign, can feel the muscles coming back. yayness (:

wheeeeeee

muddy attempts to learn how to write with the left hand. yay (:

read a book today!

went on a reading spree! yay

harry potter book 6, finally got hold of the book after 1.5 years. (spoiler for those still lagging) dumbledore died? ahhhhhhh. lots of confusion in the book though, about people doubting each other, and this general lack of mistrust within the wizarding community. but, my all-time favourite characters are still mcgonogall and fred+george weasley. yay (: it's a good read and haha, i think rj house system trying to follow harry potter's. that's good, then we'll be as imba powerful as gryffindor. wheeeeeeeee

next book muddy read was the five people you meet in heaven. yep, like the reviewers say, it is a very touching book. the story itself was about the protagonist eddie, but i felt that it represented many people. well, adults mainly, people who felt they've wasted their lives being normal and leading ordinary lives. yea... gleamed some insights. Like the interesting (and seemingly commensensical) idea that all our lives are intertwined and it's always different seeing from the viewpoints of various people. The many acquaintances and strangers we meet along the way, ever wondered how life is like for them after that brief encounter? and the best part, that no life is lived in vain. Thinking about it, it is pretty hard to simply go through the motions of life without touching another's life, or accidentally inspiring someone or unintentionally given another a motivation to continue and walk on. Back to the idea of self reflection, that it helps us understand our lives as it is; where we have the power to change things.

Moving on to the third book, Blink!. that's right, blink! the short excerpt taken from this book that we had to crunch down for promos. another introspective book, go have a read and you'll know what i mean. Lots of useful stuff there, but after a whole day of reading the one thing that stuck in my mind was from the last few chapters, about mind-blindness. a term coined to describe when our mind stops functioning in the normal sense. Maybe i remembered it the most because i could relate to it best...

(koped from various parts in the book, with more explaination) The book talked about reacting to extreme stress placed on the mind/body, where we automatically narrow down the things we perceived through our senses. Extreme visual clarity. Tunnel vision. Diminished sound. Sense of time slowing down. If left alone, these sensations can take us to drastic levels as mentioned in detail of a person firing a shot. (officers in particular) it's said that they go numb, and become temporarily autistic, meaning they can't interpret what another person's action is suppose to indicate, or in the broader sense, they can't mind read the body language and facial signals of other people. For example, most of us would turn to look when someone points; but these people by default don't. In the shooting example, people and objects become one so the pursuit of a criminal could become just a little overboard and freaky.

it's like an entirely new frame of mind that we enter.

Extreme visual clarity

Tunnel vision

Diminished sound

Sense of time slowing down

doesn't this remind you of...

focus

in the book it talks about the possibility and happening that excellent sportspeople like Ron Avery (champion marksman) and Larry Bird (retired NBA great) do experience this feeling when they're really into the game. but just imagine, all that power coming from you... and controlling it...

it happens rite? for muddy at least it does. now there's some validation for that weird feeling mr siva likes to call "the zone". where everything seems so perfect, all strokes are clean and powerful, the weather's good, muddy's feeling imba strong. At the same time, the images in front of muddy becomes so clear, so sharp... and muddy can only see what's just ahead of you, no peripheral vision. muddy sees the water ahead, the buoys. Then there's no sound, despite the knowledge that the dipping of paddle blades does produce a generous splash of water, so does the water parting at the bow. and slow motion...either maintaining pole position or slowly pulling forward (anyone watched the asian games china-japan men's 4 x 200m swimming relay?) after eternity or so, suddenly everything comes to a halt. ahhhh, a good race. maximum concentration.

and muddy thinks reading is very good. yay, although of course, muddy does come up with brilliant theories occasionally, respect for writers who think of stuff muddy doesn't. (:

gtg sleep now, asian games in 1h 10minutes, stay tuned.

do something exciting today

today was spent slacking, reading TIME, economist, reader's digest, playing SEGA. and muddy's glad this is the holidays. Muddy needs time to get back into the swing of things. It's been 2 days since coming back from Laos, getting some sort of hangover.

Ever woke up one morning feeling that there's absolutely nothing to do at all? yea... that's the feeling muddy's been getting. Unlike the trip, where every day is scheduled, where there's always work to do, things to write and reflect, language to learn, nice scenary to marvel at. Here muddy's currently lacking the motivation to wake up early and start the day. haha, must be because training's only starting on Saturday. so a few more days left to sort out my thoughts before sinking into training (: wheee, muddy likes that idea, something to occupy muddy's mind. The whole notion of training towards a dream has been and is certainly enticing.

Asian games! makes muddy pick up the papers just to check out the highlights. haha, i think joscelin yeo damn cool. hope she wins something coolios in her 200m IM. yay. and elsie lim, sole singapore rower at the games, wonder whether she got into finals. she was first for the heats, that's a good sign (: yep, can't wait for the canoeing action to start!

and you know what?

it's time to do something exciting. just whack (: do something exciting each day! have a great holiday friend (:

same same but different (:

wheeeeeeeeee

muddy's back!

was checking email, guess what's the first thing i saw?

Sender: Army Recruitment Centre
Subject: L.I.V.E to be your best

wheeeeeeeeeeeee (: this must be a sign! and muddy's very happy, got the nice pictures attached plus the coolio updated website and safos no need H3s! but if safos cannot do combat then no fun, must check this out properly first. muahahahahahahahha. the study award for military academy sounds good too! yay

anw, more good news, somehow muddy's auto-detoxing after coming back. too used to the food there now! for the record, was swamped by vegetables there! ate more veg in the 17 days than the current 17 years of muddy's life, how amazing is that.

was feeling damn sian, go went to start up the good old sega machine, yes, muddy still has a working sega! played bare knuckles, destroyed the hardest difficulty single-handedly. and guess what? more good news, now muddy unlocked a mania level! muahahahahaha (:

xinying, pingni and sau, got a surprise for you all! mega screwed up tshirts that say on the front, "same same", and the back. "but different"! muahahahaha, in super screwed up colours that i think you all will like (: sau, hope everything's smooth on your trip, pingni and xinying leaving this wed rite? happy trip (:

oh, and luckily still can do pullups! haha, haven't done for 2 weeks plus already. wheeeeeeeee, dinner time!

wheeeeeeeee (:

happy (:

looking back, 1 year since

wheeeeee

woke up this morning on the sofa, can't remember what happened after i watched fairly odd parents (7.30pm)

anw, the time now is 6.22pm. and muddy's got a new watch. yep, slightly bigger face so muddy can test how long it takes for the existing orange/bronze tan to fade. ahahhahahah, ok, fact is muddy gei kiang and tried to replace the previous watch's battery. and er... somehow screwed up, haha. the uncle at the shop said the watch spoil, and since the light function wasn't working properly, got a nice and (hopefully) durable one.

went for the sln november gm yesterday. must say i'm impressed with them; then again, their last gm was so much different from the one we had. yea... but well, this way they get more exposure, do it's good too. the atmosphere was... different too. yep, must say i was quite disheartened (is that the word?) when ms lim said some new applicant commented on sln being a slacker network with free food. that aside, sln is a pretty new kid on the block after all, haha, remember all the mind numbing meetings we sat through thrashing out our mission, our aims and stuff. haha, and muddy loves to say this all the time, our batch is powerful (:

here's wishing all the sec 4s a happy J1 year (: wheeeeeeee

today's prom for them. coincidentally, our last gm was held one day before prom, but muddy seems to recall it being held at night. haha, visual learner, yay.

had a good time chatting with some of the sln-ers, and er... promoting canoeing at the same time, thanks. muddy was being nice, so mentioned the other ccas that rg doesn't have, like lion dance, touch, floorball, soccer, archery and ultimate frisbee! ahahahahah. haha, one thing i picked up from sln, perticularly from mrs loh, was the importance of reflecting. yep, after something goes well, after something screws up, after... everything lah. so it was a good session, having to try and answer questions like "how's the leadership out there different from rgs?" "on average, what time do you get home every day (night!)". then the questions get harder "do people change when they get to rj?" and dear bernice had to interject (do they get skinnier?) hahhahaha, good question (: and the hardest 2 by far, can't decide which is more unanswerable "so is rg or rj better?" "do you like rj?"

good questions rite (: rgs... was a comfort zone, everyone had their little corner and you more or less know everyone in your batch, everyone in school. familiar faces everywhere you go, be it canteen, pe blocks, bus stops, even far east. and of course, sec 4s own the school, thanks. to top it off, rg is built such that on a normal day, if you close your eyes and walk randomly in any direction for 30 seconds, chances are you'll walk into something. yep, and personally, i am still very thankful for all the opportunities rgs offered me. got a chance to be involved in sln, pioneer year trying to network the 'leaders' and connect everyone in school. to Share, to Learn, to N-hance. psb, brought out the nicer side of muddy, haha, having fun at orientation, convention, carnival, learning what it means to be a role model and putting words into action, and our promise- "riding the waves with you". then there was tarbet house comm, under leadership of belinda (: farhanis (: getting to know the juniors in the house, interacting with the sec 1s, trying to ignite a passion for the house "Tarbetians, are you ready?", doing the hoo-ha cheer, success, dui mian de wu zi, and the all-time favouritest tarbet is a wonderful house. yep, then all the classmates i've had in 4 years (: haha, we survived rgs and got the raffles rings! yay, and most importantly, the one thing that defined my rg life the most, rgsncc. yep, 4 years of the widest range of experiences, happiest times, toughest moments, to serve with pride and dedication. platoonmates, heart to heart we will prevail. yep, and there was the pride of being an rgs girl. everything the school stood for. our beautiful school song (which unfortunately is pitched at some imba tone (: ) the diversity of people in pursuit of excellence in their chosen fields. people around you who believe that we are the best, yet at the same time posess empathy. noblesse oblige. so richly received, so willingly give. to aspire, strive and dare to be active creators of a better age for all. filiae melioris aevi.

no matter how time flies, some things simply won't be forgotten. then suddenly it's off to rjc, big, new, sprawling campus at bishan. suddenly hanging out after school option(s) became J8. and there are a gabillion people in school and it's mega big. yep, first few months trudged around a little confused, so you mean rj life isn't fun? of course not, rj life is good, but what you get out of it is what you put into it. most important thing for me at least was to find a passion, someplace where i know i want to be. and i guess i found it, in raffles canoeing. haha, if you're looking for a bunch of very special and multi talented people, it's here in canoeing. for those who want a challenge or simply a new experience, we're waiting for you too (: let's do some advert here, no prior experience needed, no selections; as long as you stay in canoeing, you're in. yep, if you're super super interested and happen to chance upon this, can tag my blog. we'll be sending out invitation emails from december onwards so look out for that. yep, and if you need to ask questions, just shoot them here! yay, can't wait for another promising batch to join the team (:

yay, haha, but here's the cool part (back to the question). treat the whole thing as one rp journey. yep, that's why raffles programme was started for us rite? maybe not, but it's nice to see it this way.

yea, but i know that no matter how far i go, rg will be a part of me. tradition of excellence. and for things muddy really believe in, muddy will do what muddy can for it. that's why muddy came back. simple as that, because muddy believes it's a good thing that should be continued. speaking of which, mrs loh still owes us our shield. it's something we each drew at our last gm, sealed in an envelope addressed to ourselves. something about 4 quadrants, who i am, my interests, the future and some other thing that i can't remember. but i know for the motto, i wrote 'no challenge no kick' haha, and i was looking for something in canoeing terms to substitute kick, then i long knew i wanted to join.


...and of course muddy loves rj. live the life you love, love the life you live (:

happy

argh, the house just blacked out again

haha, anw, in the short span of time, got an invitation to join the nov gm. hm.. it's tomorrow (:

anw, what do you think are the chances of seeing someone (just an ordinary person on the street) with the same t-shirt as you?

wahahha,was on the bus today, then this person boarded the bus and she was wearing the same "PADDLE OR DIE!" whitewater rafting t-shirt from malaysia river bug! haha, coincidence or what?

wheeee, leaving for laos on friday (: muddy loves packing for these kind of stuf (: yay

time to go sleep, guess i've sorted out my thoughts, feeling quite at peace with everything now. last training tmr till we come back from laos, here's to a good one (:

from jo's blog:

reason no.3: to train

i may not remember why i joined canoeing, but i think all that matters is i know why i stayed. to know what it's like to overcome barriers and fight for something you feel for and to do it together. which is what makes reason number three a valid reason.

jo, muddy's inspired (: was packing my table and guess what i had to come across? the H3 physics course outline, haha. yep, looking back, must agree with jo.

reason no.1: was falling asleep in lessons half the time. spent 16 hours of my life there already but was dozing off through most of it.

reason no.2: more free time, to study, to rest.

reason no.3: to train. thinking long term, muddy wanted to be training with the team; next year when the J1s come in, how would their twice weekly land training be like? I think it makes alot of difference whether you come for training. captain, exco member, team member, anything, one person missing from training doesn't feel right (for muddy at least) shows how much each of us matter.

and this is where muddy will delve into deeper thoughts

muddy's commitment is to the team. muddy would like to say everytime, but in reality it's as often as possible, the team comes first. well, for one the team take priority over schoolwork, family, most friends, and the non-existent social life. that's how muddy sees it as least, that the team is of that much importance to muddy.

that's why muddy can't understand how some people/systems/things work. maybe it's just the way it is. maybe there are some things, or many many things that muddy doesn't understand. luckily muddy is in a good mood today. haha. ahhhhh, isn't the point in being dependable? muddy can't stand leaving things hanging and waiting... ahhhh that's evil, waiting and waiting for something (nothing) to happen? just waiting. confused, undirected, clueless; well, whatever it is muddy sincerely hopes they know what they're doing.

and before you start thinking muddy is some psycho slavedriver (wait, muddy IS one, no doubt) muddy still believes it is a personal choice. and you know what? for people who have other passions/interests like er... higher academic pursuits, or art, or maybe church stuff, but still show their commitment to the team, one word, respect. show their commitment? by thinking of training, by sacrificing tv time to "make time" to study, or rest for the next day's training/ to muddy, these little stuff say alot about one's sense of responsibility to the team maybe?

another good reminder

rank is what you wear, respect is what you earn.

it's that easy for someone to lose trust in you; and it's equally hard to regain that trust. sometimes muddy's just waiting for things to get better (it's one big window of opportunity to make timely corrections) but things don't. and muddy gets disillusioned and wonder if all that waiting is worth it after all. muddy, you know how even heroes have the right to bleed? i'm sounding a little confused here. i can't express my discontentment (wait, no such thing in muddy's vocab); i get more reply talking to bear. well muddy, have you ever considered, what if one day you found out superman isn't really superman? haha, then he can bleed all he want, heck. right. anw, came across this phrase in my powerful book. noblesse oblige. rgs founder's day theme. so willingly received, so willingly give. the call of duty... "to those whom much is given, much is expected"-Mary Gates (Bill Gates' mum)

haha, being reflective. a good round of intellectual thought.

anw, training today was good. the rowing part was tough no doubt, but muddy learnt alot today. muddy decided that the best way to learn and improve was to go with a positive attitude. yep (: and i hope it made that difference for you too (: today muddy did not let evil thoughts enter muddy's head, as what has been happening for the past 2 trainings. muddy... went in with a more open mind i guess, yep, good experience today.

muddy believes that if you're serious about getting it right, you will eventually. if you want to train, if you want to do something, you'll find a way no matter what. haha, that's why excuses don't cut it for muddy. admitting a fault and saying sorry's tough and that's precisely what muddy thinks is something every good leader, friend, or just a person as he/she is ought to possess, that courage to step out and say i'm wrong. putting it into the canoeing perspective, i guess it does help by firstly listening to others and realising my common faults/ bad habits; that's a sure way to improve.

hm.. getting late now.. oh, one more thing! the phobia of the pullup bar is gone (: yay!

Ironman

the ironman story...

During the awards ceremony for a Hawaii running race, a debate ensues among competitors about who is more fit -- swimmers, runners or other athletes. One of the participants, Navy Commander John Collins and his wife Judy, dream up a race to settle the argument. They propose combining three existing races together, to be completed in succession: the Waikiki Roughwater Swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (112 miles, originally a two-day event) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). "Whoever finishes first we’ll call the Ironman," said Collins.

Astrid Benöhr (born 8 October 1957 in Bergisch Gladbach) is a German endurance athlete, multiple world champion and world record holder in various multiple Ironman (also known as ultra-triathlon) disciplines.
Her 1997 world record in the quintuple ironman (about 74 hours for some 19 km swimming, 900 km bicycling, 210 km running) is more than 2 hours less than the men's world record; her 1999 world record in the deca (ten-fold) ironman (about 187 hours for 38 km swimming, 1800 km bicycling, 420 km running) is about 5 hours less than the men's world record. In this event, her total time of 187 hours included some 8.5 hours of sleep.

She also holds the women's world records in the double, triple and quadruple ironman. In 2001, at age 44, she became world champion in the triple ironman, finishing before the male world champion. She has also won women's world championships in the double, quintuple and deca ironman.

She began to run in her twenties, to aid her efforts to stop smoking She started collecting ironman titles in 1987, working without a coach to this day. She is a housewife and has three children, born in 1980, 1981 and 1985.

Prior to racing, each athlete received three sheets of paper listing a few rules and a course description. Handwritten on the last page was this exhortation: "Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life", now a registered trademark

muddy will take part in an ironman race.

one day muddy will finish the original Hawaii one under 9 hours, but Langkawi first. 4km swim 180km cycle 42.195 run. anyone wants to come?

then at age 70+++, start an Ironwoman race (:

2nd link run

happy (:

before muddy attempts an 18-hr nap...

woke up early to go for the 2nd link bridge run! yep, reached the mrt station so early that there was no train to jurong east. haha, waited 15 minutes.

then it's off to the run! wheeeeeee

shawna, joo, xinmiao, java, loo, timchow and muddy finished the run! yay, 10km! wheeeee, saw kelly and some odacians and mr siva! haha

56:18:14. more than 15 minutes improvement from standard chartered last year. yay (:

anw, the winner for women's open super cool, besides her imba 38minutes run, she looks more like a gym trainer than a runner. wah, respect.

going towards johor was harder somehow, took 36minutes+++, but coming back was easier! just run and run and run (:

ahhhh, reason 193843827 to run: so i can eat macdonald's without guilt

muahahahhaha

wave across the expressway! wheeeeee, it's super fun (:

holidays is a good time for trying out new stuff (:

live to be your best

hi blog! muddy's back.

had the weirdest dream just now. somehow it was ncc day parade, and one of my juniors was the parade commander. yea... another ncc friend and her platoonmate were the guards or something, with an extra t-shirt slung over their backs. I was in this row of nice comfy chairs, and tracy was in front of me. Then i saw beatrice and some more seniors. some of the people marching were wearing a complicated uniform, dark blue and with traces of red, and they weren't ready. like the collar not buttoned properly, headgear off.

the next thing i knew, this guy was handing out envelopes containing $$ for good performance. yep, and i dream in colour, there was a gold envelope, a white one (actually they all looked more like long, ROD-like invitation cards) and mine was green and inside contained a $285 (exact amount) cheque. and someone passed me this stack of papers, which turned out to be my cca records from primary 4 till now, the first sheet was pink, with the most recent being completed CIP card, whatever that is.

that was damn random. but it was a good rest, and muddy's still alive after ingesting some green/white slimy looking cabbage! wheeeee, it wasn't too bad, haha. random impulse made muddy order the cabbage side.

anw, had lots of fun sitting in the middle of the canteen with sau, xinying, xiumin and shawna after pw yesterday. it's over anyway, last 2 excrutiating hours stuck in the com lab piaing group submission file. wheeeeee, ggxx super fun! haha, just sat there laughing and laughing while eating lunch at 5pm (: it's nice to have good company around (: moments like this make school life fun (: and one must be thankful for what one has, yep, can't wait for another whole year!

back to this morning, reached school at 7.05. nothign to do so just walked around, yep, then... the air smelt quite good so was the weather. went for a short run, really short, wanted to do 6 rounds max. then mr koh came on the 5th round, lol, without my specs, he looked like some tracker. er... that should give you an idea of my eye power. haha. did 7 or 8 in the end. yep, teaching pe at rj sounds like a really good idea now (:

then training, wasn't too tiring, but was productive somewhat. yay, special secret training strategy.

back to yesterday, morning went to macritchie to meet darinne. and even before i left the house, javine msg me, muddy, sorry i'll be late. huh? training was at 10.15am... and it was 7.15am. haha, so we all went for a nice slow slow jog. both of them are good running partners, loads of entertainment and nagging along the way, haha. and muddy's really thankful for them (:

darinne thinks jiaolian is damn cool, haha.

javine and muddy carried 2 boats at a time, thrice! winner! muahahha, super efficient, thanks.



well, not everyone is like you.

wheeeeee

wheeee

wheeeeee

popped by saa to submit the 2nd link run forms. wheeeee, guess what muddy saw there? these huge billboards of local sporting heroes (: still uncompleted, the display wasn't fixed up nicely yet. muddy wonders if there's a hall of fame.

anw, muddy can't find the tagboard link so it's still dead. yep.

and rj is recruiting pe teachers! ahhhhh, if only muddy was one year older!

had training today. was good, yep (:

fairly odd parents now!

9.44pm! yay, do you know your time of birth?

wheeeeeeeeeeee

muddy's seventeen now! yay (:
let's see, the day started out normal, decided to sleep in (until 8am!), then read the papers and national geog. then somehow knocked out till late afternoon.

(ahhh, tiny font size, k, wasn't really feeling well today so wanted to stay home)

bro's at a friend's house, dad's at work though he promised dinner tmr. yep, so was getting dinner ready and was ready to spend a nice and quiet day...

guess what?

the canoobs came! (:

omg, totally unexpected and very very sneaky (: super contented now, spending my birthday with my teammates (: yep, thank you for making today extra special (:

after all that's happen in the past few days... this means alot to me (: thanks team, all 11 of you.

yep thank you everyone for today, for all the well wishes for muddy to do more pullups (: sabby! my classmate of 7 years! sau, Kindergarten classmate, pingni, xinying, jerryca, miao, boon, seetoh, joel (: yay, trix! yishan and kelly (: lulu! wheeeeeeeee

and joo, you high C person, heard about how you went hunting for the shirt (: it be my new favouritest shirt! thanks for going through all that trouble (:

and van's lending me "learning to sing" by clay aiken (:

(:

wheeeeeeeeee, have a good weekend everyone (:

wheeee

ran 6 rounds in the morning... ahhhhh, super good. must control, resist the temptation to siao and run and run. been one whole month since the last time. yep, lesson learnt.

btw, happy farewell assembly sec 4s (:

yay (:

just when i thought everything was screwed up, a good friend's having it worse.

lost and found

i think i've just found what i'm looking for. very good muddy. time for a manual on training secrets.

suddenly it seems like nationals are approaching very soon.

there's hope (:

fly

guess sometimes playing by the rules is a must. seems like we're stuck, trapped but it's times like this when that extra special bit of spirit comes out. rethinking the strategies. yep, when there's a will, there's a way. if there's a strong desire for it, there will be means to achieve our goal.

it's not the fears we have, but how we face up to them that matters. well, this works for muddy; even muddy can get unmuddy sometimes. see, but that's when muddy knows there's a fear to confront. the awareness itself is powerful. if muddy can recognise it, muddy can change it. listening to chariots of fire now, chanced upon the song title while scanning thru some ex-raffles canoeists' blog. perfect music for some emo ppt slides with pictures.

muddy has a new theory, the more trecherous the journey is, the more motivated one will be (provided the stress doesn't kill first). let's start with the less positive side first, fear of losing, failure, disappointment, all these are strong feelings evoked in us and they can push us on. the images, the memories, something that can't be forgotten that easily. unfortunately/fortunately, this method works. something abt the human instinct for survival. in the same logic, it's when we lose something that we start to treasure it. will the title always remain elusive? does the title belong to us, or anyone else for that matter, or do we belong to it? each team that won the title, definitely poured their lives into it. positive stuff, the feeling of pride, the thought of success, camaraderie, feelings best experienced. the team.

muddy's conviction: I still believe we all can fly.

monster training

monster training has begun (for real this time)

some psychotic training, number-crunching= 540 pushups, 200 situps, 26 modified suicides thingy, 150 IPUs, machine row, twisting.

very good, muddy likes.

keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others. yep, with great power comes great responsibility... one thing abt a team, everyone shares a common fate. with every decision there's an outcome, good or bad, muddy likes to believe the intentions were always good. sometimes muddy wonders what all these is for (problems, the trite "communication breakdown" , screw ups and all), then muddy is reminded, it's been 5 years, 10 years, doesn't matter, point is we should at least give ourselves a chance; it's a cause we've committed ourselves to. well muddy, do you expect anything from the team? live to be your best, tough call no doubt. should you give without any expectations? good point there. somehow it's back to 12. as strong as the weakest link? are we ready? standards wise and... as a team? something's lacking and it's bugging muddy but muddy doesn't know what. read an article on individual vs society today, seems like no matter how much people are governed by self-interest, there's a need for a community. the gizmos and gadgets invented serve to max personal satisfaction (according to the article), where then is room for a group to exist? it's pressurising, it's demanding... why do we row? not just why "I" row, but why we row.

and so there's nothing to fear. have you got the spirit?

GE women's 10k

today muddy woke up at some imba time, left the house at 4.30am for elisa's house first then padang! ahhhh, the ndp place (:

was er.. dark there, got the volunteer's t-shirt-cap sponsored by Adidas and breakfast was a slice of Pelican pizza! haha, not the bird, it's a brand.

drinks station was super super fun (: was chionging to hand out water/cups of sportade/bottles, uncapping the bottles, pouring into cups, stabbing holes into the mineral water cups (my favourite!)

but the coolest part was watching the runners come by, especially the imba fast runners! some trivia java told us, someone estimates that taking a drink slows you down by 30seconds. anw, when you hand the drinks to the runners (it's like some baton relay), WHEEEEEE, 3/4 of it does an upward projectile and lands on the floor/all over you (: super fun!

yay (:

wheeeee

wheeeeee, finally blogger's working properly.

last day of school on thursday, didn't feel like it though. wheeeee, end of J1 (:

more exciting stuff, training on thursday and training today! wheeee, thanks van and joo (: super powerful! yay!

muddy's happy (:

can feel the boat moving
and everyone's improving YAY

randomly on thursday, was waiting for the rest to come out of the toilet, yep, so doing pushups, then someone called "raffles", so muddy turns around and there's this trio sitting/stretching. they're from MR25, macritchie 25! to join the club, guys need to complete 5km in 25 minutes, girls 4.8km. haha, yay, the coach asked if muddy was interested! woohoo!

but seriously, the club's quite imba.

muddy: how often do you all run?
coach: not very often, just seven days a week!

yay (:

wheeeeeeeee

haha, just realised the dob on the meet the parents paper is 19891103! yay (:

today's a happy day (:

last pe lesson

lots of complex thoughts today, about laos and everything. brings back to mind about special olympics. yep, the one thing where i think i understood what service learning meant. really grateful for the opportunities.

crap, and one thing that irks muddy is ponners. if you're damn smart then go ahead and pon lah, might be better to explore in the library or something. but after the ggxx promos, after all the "i really really really want to do better"s (right), still pon?

hm.. muddy, you must understand that it's a personal choice after all. one thing for sure muddy, you won't want to remember jc life as cutting classes to hang out at j8. so don't blame it on the school, on the system and say jc life isn't good. or for that matter, that life sucks. it's a choice as to how good you want it to be.

complicated thoughts, first sparked off today by GP. some imba people wrote the essay on elderly in society, and what they wrote shocked the markers. abt how the elderly are weak, physically and mentally unfit. but on the other hand, they're good to be table cleaners at the food court. wow, nice balance? the world is weird, muddy.

on to happier stuff

wheeee, had the last pe lesson for the year today. played badminton for the third time in my life and table tennis for the third time too. yep, super fun (:

hm.. ever noticed how relaxed you feel being with a certain group of friends? wheeeeeeee, happy (:

muddy thinks mrs ng is getting nicer; econs today was talking session because we didn't feel like studying and she didn't feel like teaching! woohoo!

the good old nan hua days (: talking childhood memories with sau is super fun, somehow we never get bored repeating the same stuff over and over again. yay, thanks friends (: the guai kias for today, miao, xiumin, xingyan, sau, xinying and pingni (for pe), muahahahahha, happy (: powerful abs building session!

live the life you love, love the life you live (:

happy (:

feeling very happy now (: contented, at peace, yea (:

water training today was powerful, felt the glide, the water. k1 tiger, then rj advantage. today i rowed my guts out. rowed until i couldn't balance anymore. painful, but good. come next year we'll be ready.

what's the best part of today's training? that everyone's rowing better. ahh... but some of the best things can't be put in words. the team (:

listening to muddy's favourite song now, i believe i can fly. yep, that's the space jam song. and muddy's wearing the favourite shirt, rj pe shirt!

things are going pretty smoothly now, yep (:

"when we train, we're giving ourselves hope" muddy (:

the most important thing

muddy realised something today, hm.. wait, this is hard to phrase properly. muddy realised that it's true; we're our strongest critics.

yep, took a bus ride with darinne, got muddy thinking about stuff. every cca has their own set of challenges to face; so do people too. muddy thinks it's important that we love the way our life is, or otherwise, be in a position to change it for the better. yep, maybe sometimes we worry about funding and training time and yea.. that is definitely alot to cope with but just take a look around, there are many problems that thankfully we don't have to face, coach fees, coach personality and things like that.

today was suppose to be one of those normal slack tuesdays, but it turned out pretty fruitful. hadi was trying to do some new art work, so he asked us "what's the most important thing to you?"

If you have it, you'll be happy
If you lose it, you'll be sad.
If somebody took it away from you, you'll be angry.
If you get it back, you'll be contented.

family? friends? love? acceptance? dignity? confidence? happiness?

strength
courage
integrity
hope

promos ggxx

promos! muahahhaha, promoted! still 07S05B! yay

Let's see:

• GP B (common test B)
• Econs C (D)
• Physics C (S)
• Geog B (B)
• Maths A (B)

yay, maths got 88! super happy and muddy passed physics and econs! wheeeeeeeee, feel motivated to continue working towards straight As, woohoo!

training yesterday was good! back to the noob days (: happy

happy boss day

happy boss appreciation day! thanks team (: wheeeeeeee, sneaky, haha, didn't notice anything, thanks for the spongebob (: yay

"Only gods and saints run around unafraid. And liars..."nike

just a few more cushion thingys to go

end of the week and homework's still undone! haha, not like there's really much, but it's always good to get a headstart on work. yay, muddy feels powerful (: can feel all that strength rushing back, but just become muddy's good to go, need to sort out all these random thoughts since children's day. yep, the only day in a year where muddy realises muddy is only a kid at heart.

randomly, who says rj is a cold, unfriendly place?

got to admit though, some people here are mega smart, some are as weird as muddy, yea... but here you find a good school with strong grounding and friends! not to mention canoeing (:

if there's one thing good about the whole pressure cooker mugging system, it brings like-minded people together. yep, i never had so much fun mugging until this year. and besides, muddy likes to think there's a place for everyone in rj. there are cliques, the sports/performing arts/ clubs people, arts/science streams, the evil ri/rg/others classification, but that's where the diversity stems from. "whatever their chosen paths may be"

on the less patriotic aspect for sceptics out there; since you're already here, make the best out of it. love the school! feel proud for being part of the legacy and for all those opportunities.

(muddy likes the word opportunities)

that aside, every time the college anthem plays, muddy feels a great sense of pride.

anw, let muddy tell you more about the durian. it's a fruit grown in the tropics and takes years to mature. It doesn't bruise easily, its shell makes it highly durable (is that the word?) to transport. solitary, doesn't grow in close bunches; one tough fruit. then again, its hard, spikey green covering hurts unforgivingly. painful, dangerous, but the durian doesn't get damanged one bit. handlers beware. what about its insides? hm.. maybe it's not so tough after all. the flesh can be hard, soft, sweet or bitter, depending on the surroundings it was grown in. what is the value of the durian?

literally food for thought from ccal conference.

might as well put it here, who knows? maybe few months down the road muddy's perspective might change.



anyone who lasted through reading about muddy's crazy fitness escapades, pullup stories and psycho theories, well, hi friend (: been thinking about it for quite some time, muddy's 2 deepest, darkest fears:




btw, back to old school training tmr (:


1. one day muddy wakes up and forgets what it's like to dream.
2. when the durian destroys others

not a very good idea to wear my heart on my sleeve, opening the flood gates for all sorts of crap, but muddy guess it's only realistic to admit that these fears will always remain, and guess what? it might not be such a bad thing after all; will this shield?

"Only gods and saints run around unafraid. And liars..."nike

day 89

law of muddism: think positive

so muddy shall rephrase:

muddy likes people who keep their promises, who know what they're doing, who're always early! and who care about others and less of themselves. and are fair.

anw, happier stuff, now that training's in full swing, time to indulge in a training diet! mega high calcium high protein meals to build imba muscles. yay! lots of chicken (: fish pork eggs! and um.. eat cheese drink chocolate milk and loads of fruits! muahahahha, and the once a week spinach. yep, this is exciting, can feel pullup number 17 coming (: power surging through muddy!

two days of water training. did I row my best? yep. could I have rowed any more than what I did? nope. so do I think I know what it means to give until I can't give anymore; row until I can't row anymore? muddy thinks so... but this is just the beginning.

"I refuse. I refuse to lose. To be average. To fail. I refuse to die. To be afraid. I refuse to be taken. I refuse." Gatorade

If someone’s gonna beat me, they... better not think about it at all.

raffles row!

ahhhh

and it's muddy's first time watching this show, didn't expect it to be so powerful! yes muddy, today's a good day, that's the way (:

coach carter

wheeeeeeeeee

good training today (: rowed K2 with amanda, then java, imba! yay

coach carter's a great movie. yep, parts that left an impression on me (spoilers!):

• the contract signing
• the imba training
• winning their first game
• winning the championship
• and all the screw ups along the way that the team committed

haha, too much to type here, but the stuff i picked up will stick in my head. a great inspiring movie (: haha, i shall play it in my head before going to sleep.

team gold yo!

1 for raffles canoeing!

wheeeeeee

1 for raffles canoeing!

yea (:

CCAL conference

2 days of ccal conference has ended, must say it was good. For muddy at least, the internal talks were much more useful than those by the external speakers. mr siva's lecture on sports psychology was interesting, haha, what i liked best were the photos+quotes. Michael Jordan, "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them" Mark Spitz "I swam my brains out" some tennis player "I playing much better... I'm enjoying myself"

yep, and one important lesson learnt: Whether or not your team shares the same goals, you all share the same fate.

(randomly inserted here) it's a privilege to attend the conference, don't understand why some people choose to see it otherwise. and more randomly, muddy doesn't know how people's minds work, but for me, once i've chosen something to dedicate my life to, i'll make the best out of it. (back)

powerful questions:

• What do we want to acheive?
• How are we going to do it?
• What are the problems?
• Where do we go from now?

the longest journey in the world is from the head to the heart.

mr ortega's presentation was inspiring. he showed us quotes from various J2 ccals and also shared with us about serene, bball capt and hongsheng, softball capt, both who won the plaque leadership award. out of 20+ recipients, only 3 from sports and games. it's up to us now. you know what? his is the best presentation i've sat through in a long while, every single detail was good for me, from the content, to the visuals, right down to the ppt background and font size. omg, and high D high I person here, muddy totally loved the way he bullet-train through his presentation. efficient, muddy likes. and we were released early as the day before, "you guys have too much energy to be sitting in this lt". lol (: someone who understands, in a way, mr ortega is a leader to us too. he managed to connect very well with us.

something else i picked up, the lessons we learn from geese. when geese fly in formation 'V' they gain 71% speed from the uplift created by other geese. If a goose falls back, it will do it's best to catch up, because it's easier to fly with together. When a goose is sick/shot, two other geese will stay behind with it till it's ready to fly or till it dies. When the leader of the flight tires, it will rotate position with the next goose in line, and use its uplift to carry on.

so what can we learn from geese? If we had as much sense as geese, we'll stick together as a team, and acheive more than what a lone ranger can ever do; we'll look out for one another. Even the leader doesn't have to be in front all the time, once the direction is set, let the other geese take over the parts where they're better at.

yea.. see, evidence of an effective presentation, muddy remembers everything (:

walked out of the lt feeling inspired. "The CCAL conference gave me the impetus to explore my leadership." Strongly agree. muddy's brimming with ideas, new ways we can make things work even better. wednesday, we will churn out our ultimate plan! whether it's 5 years or 10, it's been a long while...

will we rewrite the record books?

"when we train, we're giving ourselves hope" muddy (:

day 81

yesterday had team dinner at some imba eat-all-you-can steamboat. yep, figured we'll eat them broke when our whole team of 70+ go there in full force to whack! muahahahhaa

back in the water today! happy!

and we need to train harder. promos is evil, all the training gets sapped into the books or something.

was flipping through the newspapers today, saw a short section on respecting yourself (heard on the radio before) hm.. isn't it interesting how easy it is to wallow in self-pity? people do it all the time, most of it subconscious i guess. but the law of muddism has no place for that! MUAHAHAHAHAHA

train hard. train often. train together.

"The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching." Anson Dorrance

when no one else is watching.

let's scare the crap out of everyone when they return.

muddy feels strong today.

a short walk to school

muddy's plan was to walk from home to school. and muddy did it! in only 3 hours. yep, super exciting and muddy felt adventurous walking and walking (: by some chance, met a tarbet sec 1 (now sec2) at the most ulu place under a random flyover, and she offered muddy a lift to bishan because she stay opposite! another chapter in the weird things muddy do.

muddy's in a reflective mood today, yea... after a 3-hour walk and an hour of swimming (:

yea.. happy, finally got back my life from promos.

As we grow up, we meet more people, make more friends, widen our social circle. but then again, who would you really consider a friend? muddy thinks bus stop friends don't really cut it as friends. yea... what muddy would like to think a friend is: someone who can accept you for who you are. people whom you're happy talking crap and being as unglam as possible with, people who encourage you to be imba in your talents and support you without expecting anything.

yep, and it's never too early to tell your friends how much they mean to you. muddy would like to think random emails/sms or special stuff do make a difference (:

muddy believes the things we do can change our lives, and that we are in control of our lives. make or break, win or lose, it's up to us.

training is addictive, muahahahha. bet some monster training gene hopped into the bloodstream. all ready for training! (spongebob: i'm ready! i'mready, i'mready i'mready i'mready) yep, we will definitely need some time to get back to full swing, not just physicaly but mentally. think most of us have been drained by promos and morale's not exactly at it's peak now. but we will do it!

muddy wonders how many of the promises we made on day zero still hold, how much do we continue to believe that the dream is still alive. how far away is gold?

No one expected miracles to happen, but they did. It will take a miracle for us to win? Who knows, it just might happen.

Legends begin with the simplest dreams.

muddy's plan

wheeeeeee

the nail polish remover is killing muddy.

*muddy and nail polish remover?

muahahahaha, the biathlon markings refuse to come off, argh. my skin's coming out already, wheeeeee, haha, but the markings are nice (: but er... 5 markings are a bit too much.

tmr muddy will embark on an ambitious plan. haha, when it's completed then say.

today is the day after biathlon=aching like crap all over, darinne and bel don't laugh, thanks (: haha, maybe the playing yesterday killed muddy, but how could muddy resist a whole row of pullup bars? ahhhh, too tempting.

yep, so muddy's upper body is super stiff now, but can feel the imba muscles getting more imba! YES! and since the calf muscles are tight too, the best thing to do is...

go cycling!

muahahahhaha, yep, met guangyan while cycling, he is super imba, longest cycling trip was 18 hours (2am-8pm), 200+km (hm.. geog student tells you singapore is max 40 by 20km without getting on the smaller islands, that is you travel end to end)

wheeeee, my longest was a 3 hour, 36km ride. ok, i got lost, haha. my first cycling trip with darinne i think, somewhere sec 4, took an evil turn, so i landed in clementi. and found myself on the expressway (:

yay, muddy feels super accomplished over the last few days. can't believe it's only 3 days since promos ended on friday.

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY!

only 1 month 2 days to muddy's birthday!

btw, watch Fight Science on National Geographic channel if you have, it's good. the mechanics of martial arts. a boxer can deliver 500kg into your face, a taekwando spinning kick does 800kg worth of damage. but muay thai knee is the most lethal part of the body, yep, can compress your chest by 5cm. the art of ninjitsu (ninja) and the samurai sword is supposed to be the most deadly art/weapon. one hit K.O. oh yarh, it's possible to deliver knockout punches and kicks. and the samurai sword can easily chop you up into a million pieces. check out the cool technology they use to measure and how physics comes alive here!

nie biathlon

yay, muddy's perfect post promos celebrations!

went to ntu campus today for the nie biathlon! yep, for the record, mok just swept all three races he entered!

Besides a fumble when my watch came off after the first lap, a not-so-accurate push off after a somersaut turn that sent muddy towards the lane barrier/buoy thingy (thankfully i wasn't in lane 1 or 8) and er... the occassional crashing into the thingy (2 people to a lane),

the swim was good (:

muahahahhahahah

10 laps 10.16

after promos, without training, last yr was some crapping 12-14 minutes, can't really remember. haha, bel said my face was damn red after coming out, and er... i think if someone tapped my shoulder during the transition, i would have piaked and died.

ok, then the run gg. haha, it was quite scenic running through ntu, lots of slopes, well, definitely more than 5km though. so total time was 49 minutes, damn gg, minus 10 for swimming, minus abt 3 for transition (mok was some imba 13 sec transition), 36minutes for the run.

wheeeeeeeeeeeee, darinne and bel are powerful (:

yay, the race felt good, yay, the gg-fying swim was a bonus (: haven't swam since don't know when.

time to play pharaoh!

wheeeeeee

hey, my post after geog and maths disappeared! anw, i thought of a list of stuff i want to do after As (:

• hop onto the Tibet express, go backpacking in Asia
• find a job with an adventure travel agency
• come back to rj to teach pe (:
• standard chartered full marathon!
• IRONMAN LANGKAWI!

yep, happy (: well, so promos are over. haha, nothing spectacular's happening after it, apart from the planned celebration=biathlon tmr!
anw, was thinking of random stuff, everyone needs a hero! yay, muddy's super lucky to be surrounded by many imba people (like belinda, clara, darinne, alisa) mega strong people, inspiration to train (:

yep, from now till laos trip, it'll be training training training. yep, just took some time to draw a no. of pullups against time/month graph, wheeeeeeeeeee (: and er... 'by a graphical argument', it is a bit siao to whack 14 MORE pullups in a month, that's like 3 a week. so there, if i train slightly siao-er than in may (where pullups increased from 6 to 12) btw, may went for more water, hardly had land, so the trick is to keep running? yea... that must be it.

23 pullups by the birthday (: 25 by laos, and 30 by the year (: YES
11.20 2.4 by the birthday, 11.10 by laos, and sub 11 by the year

yea, ok very good. time for another peak (: yea, run more and build abs! muahahahahhah (:

day 2 (:

wheeeeeeeee, muddy's so glad econs is over.

haha, studying geog now, and you know what? muddy feels super happy mugging geog (: compared to yesterday's econs... wheeeeee, can't believe muddy actually finds seemingly boring topics like horton's over land flow, water table and storm hydrographs super interesting (: yay, happy (:

can't wait for tmr, muddy's two favouritest papers, 3 hours each! yay, maths and geog, wheeeeeee (: 6 hours, just muddy and the two nice subjects, yay (:

exams (promos)... hm.. seems like some time freeze thingy, where you're not bothered by anything else except er... the paper lah. haha, wheeeeee

spongebob's calling (: yay

happy promos (: and bring jacket!

gp promos day 1

yay, had a happy gp paper today (: wheeeeeee

hoped it went well for everyone (:

haha, i looked at the paper, and realised the 1st question was undoable, so were the er... 10 questions, yep, so only got question 2; was on sports! yay (:

happy!

econs await!

happy promos (:

YES

HAPPY PROMOS (:

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

time to get back in shape, muahahahhahahaha. yes, muddy has new evil plans. wheeeeeeeeeeee

wheeeee

hi muddy! muahahahhaha, happy!

spent the day rotting away, reading lots of economist and time, yep, i can't believe i'm saying this, but BRING IT ON EVIL PROMOS!

wheeeeeeeeeeeee

happy (: doing stuff to boost brain power now= neopets! yay, almost got a trophy for koujong, haha, close! wheeeeeee

wheeee

wheeeeeeee

neopets is good for building brain power (: wheeeeeee

another can't sleep day (nite), but well, at least there's the playground to keep muddy busy!

wheeeeeeeeee

wheeeeeeee

wheeeeeeeee

muddy feels super smart now!

yay (: happy day (:

1 more week to mega playing time!

nie biathlon

YES!

NIE biathlon, here i come!

wheeeeeeeeeeee

30 sep, saturday, perfect way to celebrate end of promos (:
swim 500m (10 laps) run 5 km
categories: men's/women's open/doubles, mixed doubles
registration fee $10, sign up by 25 sept, yep, contact me if you're interested (:

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

happy (: haha, last yr's biathlon was muddy's first proper race (:

day 66

2 months already

YES! muddy feels powerful, recharged! wheeeeeee, yep, today muddy remembers what it's like to have a dream, a vision to work towards to! something crazy, something 'they' said couldn't be done, a challenge! to feel inspired, to feel motivated; there's a purpose to all these after all (:

it's payback time! MUAHAHAHHAHAH (: in a good way lah, nothing sinister. service to sch, haha, that sounds damn noble. but it's really about giving back, doing your part. think the big picture is lost once in a while, and if opportunities don't come, create them! YES! WHEEEEEEEE

muddy, the world awaits!

a new day awaits tmr, tmr is declared playing day

yay, think writing aqs kinda make sense after talking to mr hau. yep, everything suddenly seemed to click into place, very good. and the evil pw report is done; lol, we didn't want to read through again just in case we found mistakes.

very good.

no matter how tough life gets, don't forget to play.

what happened can only bring everyone closer. rj is like how big, it's hard to know everyone, then again, you might just know almost everyone as a bus stop friend or just a familiar face. the kind you meet at the bus stop and say "waiting for bus? going home?" or at lunch "eating ah?"

another reminder to stop procrastinating, to get things done, to look around, thanks for the lesson.

time to play

second day of term 4

yay, pe lesson was super fun today (: we played volleyball! memories of the disastrous volleyball pe lesson days of sec 2 come flooding back. wheeeeeeee

haha, we got hidden talent! wheeeee, shawna, lemin, xinying, me against sau, pingni, jerryca and mr leong. my funnest, funniest and most successful volleyball game ever! wheeeeeeeeeee, did i mention we used some weak noob ball? haha, shawna is mega powerful! nus volleyball!

gp was good i guess, yea... guess what comments i got for acheiving my best ever compre score 34.5/50?

"Cheryl, stop sleeping in class! " then plus more stuff lah.

lol, i didn't sleep today! wheeeeeeeeee, it's a good start. yep, i tried to be very interested in the ppt slides and focused on the words. see, usually whay it doesn't work it's because visual learnes (see!) need the other person to look at what they're talking abt/presenting.

anw, die evil aq and summary, i will gg you during promos. wheeee

yay, then went to gym. quite happy now, aching (: haha and guess what again? my brother came home today and plonked a pullup bar in front of me! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee happy (: now to look for a nice place to fix it up.

feeling very awake now, muddy's a night squirrel! (omg, muddy's damn traumatised after hearing you can eat squirrels in malaysia) yep, it's more peaceful, quiet and nice at night. good time to do some thinking (:

wheeee

wheeeeeee

it works!

first day of term 4 (:

back to school!

yep, what a great start to the week! happy (: yep, first lesson of the day was with mr kadir! wheeeee (: and mr kok patiently answered all my math questiosn thru email! pro (: yep, and geog lecture today was good, watched a video clip: dying to get in. it's abt illegal immigrants, a case study of a chinese illegal immigrant trying to get into north america thru canada.

i think most Singaporeans would share the same view as the canadians, "deport them! lock them up!", some xenophobic thinking? on one hand there's nothing wrong with that, for singapore it's more of a concern of security and economic interests i guess. yep, but when you hear abt the stories of these illegal immigrants in the us who finally made it big, you can't help but wonder if well, they're a bad thing after all.

gp was writing essay. wrote something geog related again, haha, useful.

ahhhhh was feeling not weak, but um.. less powerful haha. wheeeee, too long never train. yep, but momentum's setting in, yay (:

yay, muddy has a new secret training strategy! muahahahhahaha (: must test if it works first.

wheeee

yay! playground! muddy misses you alot! yay, see you tmr (:

wheeeee

ahhhhh

still can't sleep

no stars tonight!

just a bright bright moon.

and red sky

and the resonance from the ships docking at the port

crap, yes, i better go lock the door and BOLT it shut. got half a mind to run out and play! or cycle (: control muddy, control.

muddy wish muddy had a pullup bar at home, the (exact) same one as SDBA. the rusty bar with nice hinges at the side for you to step up on. after promos muddy will get a pullup bar at home! don't think the door frame one will work, yay, muddy wants the sdba one! you think they will give/sell it to muddy?

ok, shall go play neopets (: hope to feel tired by 2am.

wheeeee

lalala, this is no fun, i can't sleep! argh

even after 100++ pushups

and attempts to do one-arm pushups

so now muddy's left with the 20 pullups and sub 11.30 2.4 for 6 week plan.

lalala (:

happy now (: milo and bread with peanut butter (crunchy!)

the mugging plan's alive! econs more or less covered, maths left chapter 9 and 10 and the stack of revision questions, and physics tmr! geog is under control (: yay, i like the way geog is super logical! haha, but must pia for physical geog, later get owned by karst!

ahhhh, interesting fact: guess what you can find bird's nest? that's right! tropical karst! somehow these bird nest thingy can be found in limestone formations (caves and just random chunks of limestone)

wheeeeeeee (: shall go outside to gaze at stars (:

sea games 2013!

GUESS WHAT?

sea games 2013 comes to singapore! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (:

by then i'll be 24!

wheeeeeeeeeeeee (:

fruits and smileys (:

day 55 already. almost 2 months since nationals.

ahhhhhhhh

yesterday and today muddy was itching to play. wheeee (: pushups and stuff no kick, even the makeshift rowing thingy muddy set up. yep, so hopped over to... the playground! muahahahha, it's a real playground, complete with little kids running around. yep, made do with the monkey bars! felt powerful (as usual!) muahahahhahaha (:

mugging is under control (: yea.. it's starting to get fun. wheeeeeee

ahhhh, yes, finally found it

"share your inspiration with others, but keep your fears to yourself." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

haha muddy don't be scared, you have special alien powers (: muahahahhaha

muddy feels powerful doing 1 week's worth of 1100 words in 5 minutes instead of the 50min to 1h15min as stated in the book. yep, did another month or so of 1100 words! muahahahhahaha (:

hm.. anw, my dad bought fruits, loads of them. for this week alone: 35 red apples, 13 green pears, 9 yellow pears, 4 korean pears, 2 pineapples, 5 kg of longans.

yep, my maid doesn't really eat fruits (she eats vegetables), my bro doesn't like pineapples/pears/red apples (somehow he eats vegetables), dad's working most of the time (wait... even dad eats vegetables, hm...) so....

for this sept hols, every day muddy eats: 3-5 apples, 2-4 pears, a bowl of longans plus random pineapple. YAY!

healthy? healthy! muahahahahhaha (: the vegetable plan has been shelved. dad's going malaysia= no spinach.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

and smileys look better this way (: a right tilt smiley!

wheeeee

something random popped into my head. why do we train so hard? we're up against people, some have been rowing for 4 years already, so some simple maths, for every one hour they train, we must train for five. for every day they train, we train 5 days (:

and knowing some of these imba people train.. (give discount, 5 days a week?) = we need to train... 25 days! muahahahahahaha

anw, steve irwin, also known as crocodile hunter, died in a freak accident 2 days back. got stung by a stingray. my brother watches his 'croc files' show and stuff but i don't. yea.. saw this in the papers today, "he died doing what he loved". twisted yea.

mum, if you're reading this, the govt and moe is making teaching more attractive! lots of new benefits and $$$ for teachers (:

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee (:

reading a couple of quotes now, draw power to begin mugging!

"...we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." Thomas Paine

"Somewhere, someplace there is a person that is practicing while you are not, and when you face that person face to face he will beat you." Bill Bradley

yea... the 6 week plan might be over, but the fight's not finished yet. if we believe in ourselves, we can do it (:

psl camp day 52 (:

wheeeee

felt really good to be back! the whole happy happy atmosphere (:
and for once, there are uber many tarbetians in psb! wheeeeee (:

went to crash psl camp today (: haha, must say i'm very impressed with the new psls (: yay, the red name tags, our sec 1s! super proud of you guys (: the tarbet kids (103,108 didn't really see 113). and part as (: congrats to 3 of you (: 45 powerful people! yay, we see alot of potential in you guys and you're living up to it (: haha, it's this thing abt sec1-sec4 batch. wheeeee, when we were sec 1s, yea, we worshipped our sec 4s, and we always told ourselves "when we become sec4s, we want to be just like them!"

haha, think we somehow managed to pass it down to you guys (: yea.. and tradition holds, when it's time for you all (our little sec 1s) to lead orientation, we'll be back!

all the best for a great journey in psb (: still rmb during my psl camp, mrs chia said something like "with great power comes great responsibility", wearing the psl badge is an honour, wear it with pride. mrs wee said the same thing today, that with the badge comes a duty to the school. do us proud new psls and spsls (: haha, and even the old 06 spsls! no matter what happens, stand tall, stand proud (:

haha, and all the psychoing works (: yay, all the rg sec 4s who've decided to join canoeing (or want to come down for clinics) well done! you all have made a very good choice (: muahahahhahahaha, haha, kope swimmers (:

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, happy (: and econs is under control (:

teachers' day

happy teachers' day (: all the super teachers!

YES! muddy planked 6 min on tuesday! muahahahhaha

happy now (: eating apples

yay, got my specs back today, thanks javine (: wheeeee, haha, muddy's specs got gg on monday. muddy left the specs on er.. specs gall, then got stepped. so muddy had to dig out the contacts that's been sitting on the sink since alma mater. and u noe what?

specs limit your vision; you can only clearly see whatever that's lying within those two little lenses. anything outside is is blurry for 600 degrees people. anw, somehow this time the contacts fit better and it's been a long while since muddy got 'perfect vision'! wheeeeeeee (:

the joys of not having to adjust your specs periodically, or worry abt condensation stepping out of aircon, and the fun of being able to just wipe your face after a good long run without knocking your specs off! now muddy's feeling a little weird wearing specs, wheeeeeee.

oh... finished the apples, time to get some more!

ok, last apple already! wheeeeeee

this is random, finally figured out what's been bugging muddy: i get damn irritated with people who don't follow through on their commitments. if you're not willing to work towards it, don't promise anything. to muddy, promise=hope. breaking too many promises destroys trust i guess.

anw, WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

a perfect long break to trainstudyeatsleep. yay (:

wheeeee day 45

7 August 10.4 km (26 rounds) 1h 20 minutes
28 August 11.2 km (28 rounds) 1 h 10 minutes

yay (:

today's a really good day for muddy (:

chionged PW report, so more or less settled. geog lecture by mr kamal was super interesting (: went to see mrs ng during break for econs, quite productive (: then lalala, GP didn't fall asleep! 1 and a half hours!

then went to play... 10 x 10! yay, that last time i did that was 1st august. and went to gym, wheeeeeee, 14 plates! all the small ones plus one bigger plate for bench press! YES! tmr muddy will attempt 130 pounds=confirm more than muddy's weight!

physics H3 wasn't very engaging, got gged from questions 5-7. out of 12 questions i think.

then muddy went to run! wheeeeeeee (: was dismissed early from physics, so started running at 6pm and ended at 7.10pm. 28 rounds= 11.2km thank you thank you! (: running's good for relaxing and ggxx, my shoes are super nice for running! bouncing on the track instead of piaking my shins, haha. very good, that's the way muddy! train hard, be imba, then get pro equipment and whack, haha (: yay, die 2.4 die! only 6 rounds.. that's not even 1 quarter of what muddy ran today!

wheeeeee, positive reaffirments make muddy train even harder (: shawna, shmote and noisan!, er.. mrs ng, siaurui, yang, florence, sruthi, joohui, elisa, gerald, amanda, shawn, wenloong, javine, janice (: sometimes our actions might seem insignificant, but it does make that difference, the difference between pia-ing one more round, one more pullup, thanks (: yay, i think i'm uber lucky.

muddy's feeling very powerful (: wheeeee

wheeeeeee

yay (:

DIE PW DIE! muahahahhahha

muddy's becoming even more confident of last minute pia-ing skills. (which of course is reserved specially for projects and un-fun stuff)

fun stuff like mugging for promos must be done way before to maximise utility! muahahahahha (:

looks like there is is tremendous support for muddy to be pe teacher, thank you thank you.

wheeee, notice muddy is trying to use big words, muahahah, all "gleamed" from the "plethora" of words "blatantly" er... koped from the 1100 words book. muahahahahha

a dog is known as a mastiff
reprehensible is blameworthy
impugnacious means aggressive, war-like
stymie means to hinder
and many other more cheem words

suppose to do one exercise a day (only 15 minutes a day!). the first time i laid hands on the book, i did 2 week's worth.

today's the second time i'm working on the book. and guess what? i'm at week TEN now! imba? imba! week 10, that's 8 week's worth, 40 days worth plus abt 10 miscellaneous exercises.

40 days work=40 days x 15 minutes= 600minutes=10hours

muddy took less than 2 hours.

YES! i'll finish the book by this hols, then i'll go get the evil red bk, the right word, heard it's much harder.

yay, tmr is a happy day (:

some meeting in the morning at 7 if i'm right
1 hour each- physics, geog, math
break (econs with mrs ng: saving muddy's essay)
1.5 hour each- gp, pw
break (yay, play (:
4-6 H3 physics... haven't done my tutorial yet
6-7+ 28 rounds, muahahhahahaha, yes muddy you will do it! yay, finally replaced my shoes (after extreme race, after 26 rounds, after canoe duathlon, after... yep, made sure i settle everything today!) think i'll wear the nicely seasoned pair to laos (:

btw, newbalance is having some 30-40% discount at most shops at queensway. can easily get a pair under $100. yep, got mine for abt 80, should last till next yr! yay (:

my first pair of newbalance was some white shoe (rg sch rules then), lasted from sec 1-4! super worn out, all the grooves evened out, all the cushioning flattened. hm.. what else? oh yarh, the heel was chipping off from all that friction.

second pair: the nice black/grey one that lasted from sec 3 till now! super functional, went through standard chartered, trainings, imba running, everything with it! both left and right shoe starting splitting open at the inward facing seams, quite cool, can see the different layers of shoe material. yep, figred i flattened this pair too, all the grooves gone, even the nice little "Ndurance" is blurry.

and intro to the 3rd pair! it's yellow and black! all the other nb shoes were white plus some streaks of colour. um.. looks good for running, and purposely picked a slightly fitting one so it's lighter and can run faster! muahahahahahha (: figured the other 2 pairs were ok in terms of width but lenght wise a bit too large. new balance is super cool, got different widths for your feet! yay, width E. wheeeeee (:

gtg catch some sleep and (thinking of cheem word) er.. accost my bed. haha, wheeeeeeeeeeee

wheeeeeee

omg, 75 pushups in 1minute plus. blood rush to muddy's head, all the better for mugging. heart beat quite powerful now, muahahahah, even better than running 2.4. muahahahhahaha (: have a nice and happy day (:

day 43 (:

wheeeee, woke up at 7 and went for a nice run (: muahahahaha, ran to dover, had breakfast (tau huay is powerful stuff)! while running, stopped a couple of times to guess what? pick trash. yea.. was feeling damn gek abt all the litter lying around, on the grass patches, at the bus stops, at the small "park" at dover, everywhere. damn irritating lah, those bloody litterbugs, especially smokers. i used to be damn on, especially in primary 5 (see, good nanhua education thanks) but somehow, it died out.

anw today i decided that instead of feeling gek or guilty when walking past litter, muddy will actively help to keep singapore clean (: yay, i love singapore! yes.. the rubbish might seem never-ending, and people might give u weird stares... but just do it anyway. rj people, let's keep our sch clean! the lts are super littered, all the evil buggers who can't even bother to clean up after themselves.

was looking for a playground and found one! 3 red bars, 2 super low, and 1 then involved lots of jumping to reach. haha, 16! ggxx (: still 16 but 16 nice and proper ones! yes, stretching, muddy's going to get even more flexible! muahahahaha

this week went by super fast

anw, yesterday's gym session was super productive. van's classmates are damn cool, class gym session! and charmaine is mega strong muahahahhah!

back to the 6 week plan, update: muddy hit 120 for lats pull! and it wasn't really max because muddy did it TWICE! YES, just one more to more than cover muddy's weight!

lol, remebered some anime charater's quote that vanessa told me a long time ago, "I can't respect anyone who's weaker than me"

so muddy, what do you think? of course "strong" and powerful people earn my respect. then again, it's about trying and wanting to be your best.

we share the same coach as sji for canoeing. and there's this one sec 2 boy, he doesn't look like your average heavily muscled canoeist and he even gets owned at the pullup bar. but thru the june hols, i always see him training on sji's extra training days. from capping frequently in a k1, he managed to balance in it (:

and my powerful teammates, from zero ipus to 40, from 16 minutes 2.4 to 13.

these are strong motivations for muddy to train hard. btw, training with some random wong fei hong song, yes, that song, is conducive for pushing yourself.

woohoo, rj pe dept super cool (: can't believe pe lessons are over (no more pe next week) haha, and maybe muddy will consider writing an essay, "From zero to 15...+++" yay, saw the uncle at macritchie yesterday, haha, my running shifu, picked up loads of tips from him.

currently muddy thinks the best job is teching pe at rj. wheeeeee, the whole school will be super fit! hm. let me leave u with a happy thought, just imagine muddy teaching pe...

excellence day 40

watching spongebob now! yay (:

didn't feel very powerful this week, but today was imba! muahahahhaha, total 70 after water!

neil humphreys came to rj for gp talk today, must say he's a great speaker! for once the whole lt was paying attention! shucks, it's a waste he's going back to australia.

we must train harder. excellence. haha, i believe there's nothing wrong with being imba! muahahahahahaha (: believe you can do it and you will! anyone can do it too so long you're willing to train (practise day after day after day)

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it." --Anonymous

excellence. is that what being rafflesian is about? wheeeeeeeeee

"The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching." Anson Dorrance

YES!

new challenge!

http://www.maniacworld.com/bruce_lee_3.htm
powerful!

muddy's new goal: do a couple of handstand pushups, one arm pushups (2 fingers!) and one arm pullups

yay, wikipedia has lots of good stuff on basic non-gym weight/resistance training!

the strongest diamonds are formed under the greatest pressure (:

day 38 (:

lol, xinying! ggxx i didn't sleep for physics, geog, math, er... break, haha, gp and pw! but i died during h3 physics!

yay, the start of another busy week! lots of stuff coming up.

yesterday muddy slept at 3.40am! pia maths assignment, mug differential equations, er.. organised my notes and ggxx, EOM! muahahahahahahha, die eom die!

lots of accomplishments... ate spinach yesterday, took injection without breaking the needle today! muahahahahhaha (:

anw, muddy is too stiff, help. haha, really, back muscles damn tight, it's super irritating lah, interfering with muddy's playing sessions.

but anw, guess what? surprisingly, the GP bk 1100 words is super fun to do! did 2 weeks worth in er... less than half an hour! brings back memories of those P6 assessment bk days!

wheeeee, jiayou sec 4s, have fun! your last exams in rg!

wheeeee

die EOM die!

yay, less than an hour and eom ggxx! WHEEEEEEE

i feel super accomplished now, muahahahhaa, and differential equations and starting to make some sense! yay!

what a productive studying day (: finally got down to some serious work!

anw i figured i will only allow myself to study when i really want to study, haha, doesn't make sense? hm.. muddy figured there's no point trying to mug when you're thinking of stuff, or too tired to concentrate, so muddy rather chiong 2 solid hours of undisturbed mugging rather than 4 hours with lots of walking around the house (:

yay, happy (:

dragonboat! 36

another day without training... ok, not really, had dragonboat in the morning! uber fun, got to steer (coxswain)! yay, our back pack is super powerful and we own the front pack! MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHA (: wheeeeee, dragonboat super cool lah, and it helps muddy lian dong zhuo also. wheeeeeeee

the dragonboaters are super fit and muscular! haha, watching them do pullups is good motivation for muddy to train!

i wish i could just row and row and row. row through this year, row till next yr nats then WHACK! but that would be too easy, stuff like promos creates exciting challenges that muddy will overcome!

lol, can't imagine if i stop training completely. canoeing gives muddy lots of motivation to go to sch, study hard, be a good person (: that's how powerful it is.

random thought: there's nothing wrong starting off as the weakest, the slowest, the most pathetic, whatever else you can think of, but there's something wrong if you don't do anything about it. yes muddy, remember muddy's wise words, muahahahahha. 10 months plus to go, there's still time to wake up and push. tried this while setting new yr resolutions and somehow it works, so muddy take a good look at this:

this is your 6 week plan, 2 more weeks to go!

• 20 pullups (possible, will keep playing during breaks!)
• 100 pushups (have not tried yet, doable)
• 80 IPUs (GGXX muddy has done it!) now will push for 100!
• 6 min plank (have not tried yet, doable)
• sub 11.30 (revised from sub 12) 2.4km (2 weeks muddy you CAN, that's only 1 minute down)
• 14 plates for bench press (max 13 so far, that's all the little plates! CAN!)
• 110 for lats pull (yay, can do 80 comfortable, 10reps of 100 and one rep max 110 DONE!) new target:120 max (lol, going to fly up soon!) hm....130 would be more than my weight already.

YES! powerful! go study now muddy! pain is temporary, pride is forever!

Raffles Canoeing- A Clash between idealism and reality

something i koped from one of my canoe senior, horse! thanks horse, it's a very powerfully written entry and a sincere, honest one too.

"Joining canoeing with no prior experience was quite literally a step out into deeper waters. Though a semifinals placing was the final reward for over a years expenditure of physical energy, mental strength, and time, the intangible benefits far outweighed what the final result might suggest. RJ Canoeing could be summed up as a perpetual clash between idealism and reality. Rafflesians, used to being at the top, sometimes hold a smug, foolish belief that being from Raffles means deserving success. Coming in dead last against others who were simply better at the NJCC in April, with many other teammates achieving similar results, foreshadowed a poor showing at the Nationals. But waking up to that brought new epiphanies. Kayaking in this context meant learning that even in a loss, there could be victory in the knowledge that one had tried one's best. It illuminated how even after pouring in lavish amounts of effort, one might still not succeed, a minor revelation in a sense, and it also helped one learn to accept it. Stepping out of the comfort zone in this manner helped reveal what one could achieve through effort and rigour, even as it exposed what one could not.

Medal hopes degenerating to a race with a teammate for the last competing berth shattered a year long dream that the entire team could compete together. Having something at a friend's expense highlighted the callous nature of sports and life starkly. But team spirit and friendships, especially in facing adversity, was a valuable and heartwarming experience. Knowing we were ultimately a team, even if individually we faltered, collectively we could not better our team placing, and even if some might even have misunderstood us as having failed, was a paradoxically undesired yet enjoyable emotion.Saying sports is not simply about winning suffices only on the most general level. The experiences derived from the time spent paddling at college remain fundamentally unique, and immeasurably valuable."

some random thoughts (practise GP!) Another inspiring bit by muddy to inspire muddy and er.. anyone who chances across this (:

what we lack in years of experience, we make up for it in passion and spirit. All of us chose to be here and that's what makes us special. We came knowing canoeing isn't an easy sport; it's tough by all measures. We've heard the horror stories (of crazy people running 10km and doing all sorts of rubbish), we took our detractors' doubt in our stride (Are you sure you want to join canoeing? Later get big and black). Some of us dreamt of being a raffles canoeist way before. Some of us were unsure, but made the commitment to stay on. Somehow, we're all here and that's what matters.

our competitors may have the $$$, the boats, the equipment, the support, basically everything we possibly want and disadvantaging us in every way possible, but there are several things they'll never be able to get nor take from us. They don't get the pride of being a raffles canoeist, nor the honour of wearing our team singlet. Passion and spirit. it's ours to protect and it will see us through if we believe.

As idealistic as it may sound, we're a team built on dreams. No raffles canoeist left not knowing what it means to dream. Despite our different backgrounds, we have one thing in common and that's our dream. our team goal: team gold. Every batch of raffles canoeists experiences the same struggle our seniors did as they fought for the title.

shucks, can't think of anything to type already, but just as well, the storey continues... the legend unfolds...