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!