8 more weeks!

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee, haven't updated for a long time.

had napfa 5 items on friday, mega disaster lah! wahahhaha, those items that muddy cmi really cmi till max. standing broad jump, 169, mim for C grade, sit and reach, still passable lah, 45cm, B. and the EVIL shuttle run, 11.9, D! AHHHHHHHH, short of C by 0.1s. this is the 4th time muddy's getting an evil D for shuttle run! P4,5,6 and now! all by 0.1s! ARGH!

ok, let's move on to happier stuff, about how muddy OWNED the other 3 items. 2.4 run, timing wasn't my best but still good enough to own. was 4th for my pe class, and there were 3 cross J2s who obviously were 1st, 2nd, 3rs. wah, the first person got 9.08! and she lapped the pack twice and me only once! haha, was quite close to third, but lost steam for the last two rounds.

1at round-1.40
2nd round-3.25
3rd round-5.40
4th round-7.40
5th round- slightly below 10, abt 9.50?
6th round- 12.10

yep, so the last two rounds were evil, if not i could have done sub 12, but nvm, i broke my record! 12.13 in sec3, and i thought i'll never ever get anywhere close that. A is 14.03

and situps! not my best either, 48! haha, good enough to own, A is 31.

IPUs! the favourite station! FIFTY-ONE! WAHAHAHHA, could have been 4 more, if the timing wasn't stopped 0.7s early and the coutner got confused halfway. totaly ownage at this station, A is 18 i think. haha, the other canoeing girls all OWNED this also lah! wahhahahahah, spoil the market.

java was saying her pe teacher was keying in IPU score for J2 girls, 4,4,3,3,4,3,4,3, 63, 4... 63!!?!

WAHAHAHHAHAH, must be peishan or sarah. wheeeeeeeeeeee

yep, heard the j1 guys owned the pullups, 30 seconds most of them did above 20! A is eight i think. wahahhahahaha

yay, will take retest in week 9 if not tmr! right leg behaving a little weirdly, so i just doused it with medicated oil and i accidentally touched my neck and ARGH! omg, mistake. haha, got sunburnt from training, but i bet you can't tell.

"owned" is my favourite word now, and it's proper english! wheeeeee, ownage! haha, keep getting owned at training but it's ok, what's most important is to continue the fight! wheeeeeeeeeeee

had canoe exco interview that day and java and joohui are right. the motivation for me to join and stay on canoe was never to get into exco and it will never be as well. the sport itself is great but the people are even better! seniors, teachers and fellow j1 canoiests! wheeeeeeeeee, haha, no matter what happens, we will be here for each other (: (advert for canoeing, wahahhahaha)

wheeeeeeee, one of the questions in the interview was "Waht other commitments do you have besides, canoeing and school (and family and friends) hm.. good question, ahahahahah, what else is there? wheeeeee, yep, i'm proud to declare my obsession with canoeing! wheeeeeee, hey, wait till you check out people like elisa and shaun, who felt their toilet bowl tilting! and shaun braced and whack his elbow. or shawna and elisa who felt that they were capping ON AN SBS BUS!

raffles row! raffles row! raffles ROW!

wheeeee

ahhhhhhhh, feeling a little weird now. the weird things people do that makes muddy feel even weirder. ahhh, really can't stand it when people suddenly start being so damn nice to you "for no reason".haha, don't they know that it's super obvious? argh!

but it's okay! (law of muddism states that every post must end of positively) muddy is here! mr whale is here! muddy is muddy! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

let muddy be unaffected by the weird things people do.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

9 more weeks!

wahahhahahah, this week's gonna be a long long one. 5 days of school! wahahahhaha, last week had too many holidays.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ahahahhaha, i finally got my strokes right! whee-ness! but still can't 'kick' properly, yep, practice makes perfect! getting the hang of it now and i got my own stick to practise at home! technically it's not a stick, it's this cardboard roll that's left after you use all the wrapping paper. wheeeeeeeeee, joohui uses mahjong paper! ownage!

went to visit today, most of part a ncos, their ncos and part c ncos were there. yep, msg weiqi told us msg lynn was in canoeing too!

9 more weeks! exponential improvement! yay!

platoonmates! (:

wheeeeeeeeeee, ok, maybe not wheee, but yea, went to visit 1sg today, didn't go in the end because she didn't want visitors. yea...

is it affecting us? yes. is it affecting me? sort of, makes me realise how precious time is... which brings me back to "10 more weeks!" i'm obsessed, yea, ahahahhaha. canoeing is on my mind, haha, and it doesn't help to be constantly surrounded by fellow canoeists, but hey, who said that's a bad thing?

it's funny how we don't treasure the people around you, yep, thanks platoonmates, van, java, noisan, shmote, platoonmates plus ex-classmates too. noisan's mum is right, all you need are a few good friends who will always be there for you. and i'll be there too (:

ok, yay, going to play happyland. wheeeeeee

first friendly race

wheeeeeeeeeeeeee

had training this morning, haha, we were all like, wah, we pon-ed school to come for training! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

yep, did T1 today. warmup 2km. then was 3 x 2km. Racing with the K1s and T1s. hm.. quite screwed lah, haha, got owned, then did 4 x 500m sprints. total 12km. (for sprints must get to the 500m mark first then sprint back)

wheeeeeeeeeeeeee, but you know what? i really learnt alot today, it was definintely a very good experience (getting owned! wahhahahaha) see, here's what i learnt today:

1) When starting, just chiong the first bit then maintain, if not you'll eat the backwash and just die. don't worry abt capping in a T1.
2) Twist more! very important, strokes getting koyak, left elbow and right shoulder paying for it.
3) from ky, optimal zone for strokes is anything in front of you up to your waist, so don't go any further back if not wasting time only.
4)brac 3s have bigger faces than brac 4s!
5) from java and from the session today, keep the seat at a comfortable length! even one stupid hole difference will irritate the crap out of you.
6)higher frequency! this one was due to the brac 3, so can't really be help. was going at a relatively high freq compared to what i usually do, and burst some more? haha, hands going all over the place.

not forgetting, focus! block out all distractions in the other lanes, it's just me and the buoys. me and the lane. me and my T1 and my brac!

hm... but most importantly, must play fair (: yay!

haha, the whole idea of racing felt damn weird. esp since with the good upbringing from ncc, or any ug for that matter, seniors first, and you should NEVER EVER compete against your batchmate. haha, was not used to it at all, yea, not that i intentionally held back for the first 2 2kms and the first 3 500s, but i know it wasn't my best. yea, the other 2 races i only started chionging at the last 25% of the race. today seemed more of a personal best thigny to me, was totally unprepared, mentally especially when jiao lian asked us to race with the seniors.

hm.. strength doesn't help much, i'm not even aching a single bit now, i need technique! msut start practising with the bamboo pole now. and muddy, here's the challenge, slightly more than 10 weeks to nationals, by then i will OWN! WAHAHHAHAHAHAH (: (see, i'm already trying to get into the competitive mindset, though it will take some time)

wheeeee

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, it's 12am now and there's training in 8 hours' time.

muddy was thinking of a lot of deep stuff while playing icy tower and happyland! ahahahhaha, suddenly felt like playing those games again! they used to be super popular like 4 years ago, yea. the happyland music makes muddy happy! yay (:

so here's what muddy has concluded!

there's really nothing wrong with mugging (:
tmr at training, i will focus on my strokes and ignore all distractions! and stop slacking, and start focusing!

haha, feeling kinda weird right now, what makes us get irritated at other people? wheeeee, bet there are loads of factors, but muddy has decided that muddy will try to be nice and not get provoked easily, yea, that's it, relax. wheeeeeeeeeeeeee

wonder what boat i'm going to use tmr! wahahahahhahaha, van's a really good k2 partner, haha, we have improved tremendously since the first screwed up time. ahahahaha, today (yesterday) is the first day after 20 days of not seeing my fellow canoeists!

Sunday, February 29, 2004
Speech after National Schools' Championships

The NJC Canoeing Club fought well in this National Schools’ Canoeing Championship, reclaiming both the Boys’ and Girls’ title after 15 years.

For the boys’ category, our team won either gold or silver in all the ‘T’ events, setting a championship record of 61 points, beating RJC by 15points and Hwa Chong by 30 points. For the girls’ category, our team, with only 7 J2 girls, created the biggest upset in the Championship by edging out RJC which has 12 year2 girls and Hwa Chong which has 10 year2 members.

The results may be flattering, but I don’t think this is what the NJC Canoeing Club would like to be remembered for. In that case, what is important to us?

Maybe we will share the Olympic Creed with all of you. It reads: “the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to have take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

We would like to be remembered for all the struggles that we have been through, as a team as we would like to be remembered as individuals who have fought well in victory or defeat. I can say that the NJC Canoeing teams, past or present, are the most committed, toughest and the most united team in the ‘A’ division category of canoeing. Every individual in our team now is a principled, wise and happy fighter. Winning the titles is just a bonus for us.

We are not a skilful team like Brazil, Italy, Spain or Portugal, but we are a fighting team like South Korea, Turkey, Republic of Ireland and Japan. We are not a club full of stars like Manchester United, but we prove that fighting teams too can beat the winning teams just like Arsenal winning the Double earlier this year.

For the seniors, I hope that you would put in the same amount of commitment and hard work into your studies. For the juniors, you have to study hard too, but at the same time, defend the titles. The defence of the titles is already on… the race has begun.

I would like to repeat the quote from Steve Prefontaine once again, ‘ There are people out there who can beat me, but they will have to bleed to do it.’-Mr Yong

yea, very inspired and encouraged by this, though it's from the nj teacher for the nj canoeists. same principles apply. anw, i shall write here what i remember from mr koh at our first real training and all the inspiring stuff the seniors said to us throughout these few months and stuff i thought up of (: (haha, let me psyche myself up for a fulfilling training tmr)

there's something abt us being the underdog, and to accept the underdog mentality, it's the best position to be, there's nothing to lose and everything to gain. Dynasties don't last forever, it's time for us to start the new legacy in canoeing. We don't have the experience, but we have the determination to succed, courage to overcome and the spirit to challenge.

"pain is temporary, pride is forever!"

and yay, my hp keypad is working properly again! wheeeeeeee (:

wheeeee

ahhhhhhhh, muddy's ranting now for muddy's entertainment, just skip this post.

ok, screwed up by right leg majorly during pe or something, it hurts like siao but i can't seem to stretch it. yea, and i don't trust doctors... wahhahahaha, afternoon pe yesterday was damn sad, only 3 of us.

wheeeeee, i'm using almost all my free time to mug, not really mug, but just do work, yep.

OK MUDDY, TIME FOR MUDDISM TO KICK IN ONCE AGAIN! It's time to pia and just chiong for everything! Erase all negative thoughts, be nice to everyone, relax, be happy! muddy will train hard, muddy will study hard, muddy is qiang! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (:

ok, no more titles for posts, too hard to think of (:

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

just got back from swimming! yay, ownage, swam 100 32m laps! that's 64 laps in a 50m pool! in one hour! so that's abt 55s to a minute for a lap! wahahhaha, i feel powerful! and besides, went for morning training and there was pe today! yay!

nat jnrs day 1

today was national juniors' canoeing competition day 1. ok, must admit, rj's performance wasn't that good, but today was definitely an eye-opener. but u know what? I think at the very least, rjcanoeists showed everyone what true sportsmanship is all about. everyone who competed today completed the race, despite the capsizes, despite the competition, every single person chiong-ed their best. raffles row!