You know, the fact that my previous post (from school) was the 500th post in my blog eluded me at that moment of posting. how lucky i noticed it now. yay! *holds huge celebration* it's taken about 2.5 years to get here, and well, maybe i'll be happily announcing post #1000 in another 2.5 years' time or shorter. incidentally, how do you pronounce "500th"? five-hundredth? fifth-hundred? perhaps fifth-hundredth? i know it's not "five-hundred". someone care to enlighten me?

after reading some of my ex-SJI friends' blogs, i'm starting to wonder again. might it have been better for me to have gone to SJI instead of cat high? even though i talked about this sometime last year, i don't know, and most likely won't know for sure. SJI has a pretty interesting culture and the environment seems good. but then, as mentioned before, cat high has given me a great deal as well, and i don't think i would trade the friends/acquaintances made in my 4 years there for anything. ah well. i suppose the "grass is always greener" syndrome is getting to me again. in some aspects, i guess i'm lucky to have been in cat high instead of SJI. no offence to any Josephians past, present or future, but i notice that SJI has the power to influence relatively weak-willed people to try and be something they're not. and in sec 1, "weak" would be a gross understatement as far as my will is/was concerned.

let's see, what else do i have to do for the remainder of the week? umm...hand in the pink NYAA form and do last-minute shopping on friday, maths and econs tests on thursday, helping the bowling team out tomorrow, aaand...that's about it i guess. looks slack, but then, so does the labour market, and we all know how un-slack and tortrous (and chim and horrible etc etc) that is.

lucky tomorrow is a slack day. no tutorials at all. just lectures, 1 per subject, plus break and PE. i feel like ponning PE though. my skipping pe isn't completely unjustified though. today's training was kind of tough, but it had nothing on saturday. oddly, my left inner thigh muscle hurts whenever i put it in a certain position. i don't know why either. if a leg should be hurting, it should be the right leg. maybe it's because of all the breakfalling my legs endured today. whatever it is, i don't think it's anything a little (or a lot) of menthol counterpain can't solve.

well, i'd better end here. i'm kind of sleepy.

Haven't blogged in school for a really long time...which is what i'm doing now. good thing about 1-hour breaks is that there's usually plenty of time to do stuff other than eat. downside is, we only have one break per day. there's something like 15 minutes left before my next class, which, incidentally is a GP lecture, so i can take my time for now.

actually, i can just go home. you see, Mr Loh isn't in school today, and GP's not that worth staying for. so, if i leave now (12:45) and only come back for training (at 4:30), that would give me about 4 hours and 15 minutes' worth of free time. sadly, my sense of responsibility (and fear of getting caught) won't let me do that. oh well. guess i'll be staying after all.

10 minutes to go before i have to be in LT4. well, technically it's 5, plus travelling time. for once, i'm not feeling the pressure of school, and that's good.

-thingy of the day: I'm relaxed.-

Realized i haven't updated over the weekend, which is odd, especially seeing as so much has happened over the past 3 days.

saturday was mainly training day. can we say "pt regime from hell"? thanks to Eugene who led the xiongest training i've had in quite a while. my gi was soaked by the time we ended. found out that my mentality needs improvement and that i'm not pushing my body to 100% efficiency. lots of additional training needs to be done. but it felt good though, getting such a tough workout, especially when it feels like you're taking out the week's frustration on your partner when you throw him.

we went for pre-CNY lunch on sunday, where i met a few relatives i haven't seen for quite a while. some say i've changed a lot over the 2 years of non-face-to-face contact. really? maybe it's because i see myself every day, so there are pretty few really sudden changes that i notice. so i'll just have to take their words for it.

after the lunch, we went to do some new year shopping. got a pair of pants, 3 or 4 long sleeved shirts (which will come in really useful in future), and...that's about it. there's still a bit more stuff i intend to get, maybe a pair of jeans or something. but that'll have to wait, until say, friday?

then, today was pretty standard. lessons as normal, except for an econs essay test which was pretty much a surprise. i happened to screw the physics SPA up again, and my error was the same. UNITS!! i can't seem to get them right, no matter what i do. arrgh. looks like it's a level 6 or 7 out of 8. damn it. oh wells, no use crying over spilt milk.

we had the NYAA AGM also. turns out bowling can be a skill for me. yays. looks like my major worry is settled. now all that's left is the expedition, which will be settled in march. looks like that gold is within my grasp after all.

so that's it for the last 3 days. i'll update more whenever something more interesting comes up.

-thingy of the day: I hate backseat drivers.-

Today marks the day i have officially gone off my rocker, lost my marbles, and simply put, gone mad. i still can't believe i did what i did. in case you're wondering, i didn't commit murder, rape or arson, even though right now, the repercussions of my action could be as serious as that of those crimes. ok, enough talking in riddles. basically, something possessed me to sign up as a facilitator for orientation 2. quite uncharacteristic, i know. but Mr Loh has given me the green light, and since orientation's going to be held over the last week of term, i figured why the hell not? after all, catch-up work can be done over the holidays, or so i hope.

now i'm still unsure that signing up for this is the wisest thing i'll ever do. not only will there be a week of backlog, but meeting new people can be kind of intimidating at first. but i'll have to remember what it's like to be a scared J1 entering JC and try to be nice to them. of course, that is if i can even earn a spot as a facilitator in the first place. from what i see, there are about 80 to 90+ candidates fighting for maybe 70+ spots. my chances may not be that high, but what the heck. if i get in, well and good. if i don't, then well, i won't brood over it.

so, training tomorrow. apparently, there's a policy stating that anyone absent from 3 consecutive lessons are expelled from the CCA. arrgh. well, i should be able to stay in the CCA easy, but being good enough for competition is a totally different matter. oh well.

crap. i just remembered i signed up to help out in chingay. there's supposed to be a briefing sometime next week. seems like i'm biting off a bit more than i can chew right now, but, as i'm fond of saying, everything will work out eventually.

-thingy of the day: Physics SPA on Monday.-

Just one s-paper will be enough to kill me, as i've figured out today. we had the first physics s lesson today, and i got out of school at 6:45. not the best way to end a day, if you ask me. we had this little mock test thingy, and i think i didn't fare too badly. luckily it was on vectors, which is one of my better topics.

at first, i was kind of hesitant to show up for the lesson. but i'm sort of happy that i did. the teacher seems kind of nice (and knowledgeable too, an added bonus). in the hour or so i was in LT6, i actually felt that physics was something that i could do. maybe taking the s-paper would be beneficial for my a-level physics. of course, my first personal requirement to take any s-papers of all would be that i get selected to do chem. it's either chem and physics, chem, or nothing.

i'm really really tired. side effect of being stuck in school for almost 12 hours i suppose. i'd like nothing better than to jump into bed and KO right away, but there's an ongoing discussion of class blogs and other stuff now, so i have to keep awake for at least another hour.

my motivation is slowly draining away. so early in the year some more. not exactly good. i guess i'd better start finding new sources of inspiration/motivation and get into gear soon. a-levels seem far away, but things are not as they seem. harsh reality. oh well.

-thingy of the day: Somehow I think S-paper lessons will clash with training times.-

If there's one thing i did wrongly today, it's attempting to do the standing forward roll thing at training today. my back feels screwed because i landed wrongly in one of my attempts to do it. while i don't think (and hope) that it's nothing serious, my back is telling me otherwise. so far, the only other injury to cause me such pain was my sprained ankle. well, i think i'll take it as it comes. for all i know (and touch wood about this), i may not be able to move tomorrow. then again, maybe the pain would have faded completely.

ah well. school's pace is picking up again. everyone's trying to drive us hard this year, from teachers to the principal, as proven by last night's PTM. for political correctness (and to avoid the risk of having my blog shut down), what the exact contents of the talk (and my responses) shall not be posted here.

so...that's all i got so far. i'm keeping up, life is almost as good as it gets. except for the back though.

-thingy of the day: I need to sleep earlier.-

Friday the 13th is traditionally associated with bad luck. i guess yesterday was an exception. i managed to hand in my chem assignment on time, and finish a maths tutorial, amongst other productive-y stuff. things are looking up again, except for one tiny little kink in the whole chain of events, namely a certain someone who "joined" our class this year. it just doesn't feel right. last year's combination was perfect. then this year's change screwed it up. maybe we should sign a petition to ask Damo to come back. although i think chances of success are slim, but we should give it a shot. maybe i'll suggest that on monday.

training today was...kind of slack, yet tiring. "tiring" mainly comes from the fact that it was morning training, at 9am. usually, i'm not even awake then. today was an exception. i think i'm making some progress in judo, and that's good. there's that competition today. i wonder how the teams are doing.

something just occurred to me. grapes grow from seeds right? so how are seedless grapes grown? seedless grape seeds sound kind of improbable, so i'm guessing they genetically modify seedy(?) grape seeds. talking about genetics brings some...umm...unsavoury thoughts associated with a certain subject in school. ah well. i'd better be off. have to be at cousin's house later.

-thingy of the day: I need Counterpain.-

Going for training twice in 2 days is really not doing your body a favour. in addition to the previous aches and pains, i've acquired some new ones, mainly in the upper body and legs. i predict that some part of my body will cramp up when i go to sleep later, and that will wake me up and leave me extremely uncomfortable for the rest of the night/early morning. no use worrying about it now though.

today's training was quite routine, except for a few new exercises. one of them involved doing a handstand, then lowering yourself gradually, sort of like the worm from WWE. and that was the least tortorous exercise. so i guess you can guess how fun today's training was.

it's friday tomorrow!! yayness. one week passed kind of quickly. now if only the remainder of the year would go by just as fast. i think all of us will gladly welcome the weekend break.

and since it's going to be friday, chem is due tomorrow. need to spend more time on it, or maybe put in an hour or two after school.

that's all i have for now i guess...and there's yet another training on saturday. glory.

-thingy of the day: My internet's behaving oddly.-

I am aching all over. let's just see, my right forearm, left bicep, stomach, thighs, and the last toe on my right foot hurt like hell. in summary, my whole body aches with the fury of...never mind. i realize i tend to use that phrase a lot. so, for once, i'm going to be original and say that my body hurts like i just ran a marathon. and i'm hell of a tired as well. training on wednesday is seriously not a good idea, especially with training again on the very next day. ah well. have to adapt. all the pain is bearable, just that my last right toe feels like it's been sprained or something. not good.

also, it seems that i've been taking a lot of bumps to the head; about 1 per training for the last 3 sessions to be exact. arrgh. the risk of getting concussed is actually quite high. this high incidence of head-bashing could be because my partners take their throws seriously (read "are pretty rough") and mainly because i still screw my breakfalls up now and then. so if by some sadistic twist of fate, i really happen to get a concussion *touches wood*, it'll mostly be my fault. but luckily, i'm not feeling nauseous (yet, *touches wood again*) and that's a good sign.

speaking of training today, we met the new J1s. they seem to be nice, with a couple of ex-cat high guys. they also appeared to be able to keep up in training, even though they got a slackened-down version (kind of like us last year). nevertheless, it was a commendable effort. of all the 30- or 40-plus people, i think i know the names of less than 5. oh dear. well, there's always the opportunity to get to know them on subsequent wednesdays and saturdays. i just hope the second intake will bring just as many new judo people.

training never fails to make me feel old. all the aches and pains don't exactly make you feel ready to take on the world, know what i mean? but it's nothing a good sleep won't cure (or at least suppress). still got chem s-paper stuff to finish. oh boy. it's going to be a long night. or i could just put it off to tomorrow. ok, compromise time. 2 to 3 questions today, the rest tomorrow. sounds good? of course!!

-thingy of the day: Taking hits to the head is not a pleasant feeling.-

Man, that day off was just the thing i needed. i feel fired up and ready to go, and will most likely continue doing so until the next big load of work comes.

the past 2 days have been pretty productive. completed the enrichment tutorial to the best of my ability. there are a few blanks here and there though. it's helped me see that i'm really weak in equilibria and kinetics. need to brush up on that.

luckily, tomorrow is a short day. oh wait...no it's not. i almost forgot that training got shifted to tomorrow because of the J1s (and because today is a holiday). oh well. at least there'll be an hour's interval where i can do my s-paper stuff, which incidentally, is due on friday. i'm quite worried that the work i hand up will not be up to standard.

oh crap. i forgot that there's an s-paper qualifying test on friday. daaaaaaaamn. better yet, friday's the 13th. joy to the world...or not. chalk up another worry to my nice long list. oh well. the boat will naturally straighten when it reaches the bridge. sadly, this bridge may be approaching too soon.

you know, i noticed something funny. only 3 guys in class (including me) have blogs. maybe the rest of the 19 guys hide their blogs from the public eye. i don't know what the general trend is, but there are more guys' blogs in my links list than there are girls'. granted, that may be because of 4 years in cat high, but i could be wrong.

better go offline soon. tomorrow is a very very physical day, and i'll need my rest.

-thingy of the day: I don't know.-

You scored as Chemistry. You should be a Chemistry major! As if that isn't clear enough, you are deeply passionate about Chemistry, and every single chemical reaction and concept fascinates you. Pursue that! Chemistry 92% English 83% Mathematics 75% Philosophy 75% Engineering 67% Journalism 67% Art 58% Sociology 50% Linguistics 50% Psychology 50% Theater 50% Biology 42% Dance 42% Anthropology 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3 created with QuizFarm.com

Heh. i like this quiz. serves to reaffirm my suspicions. i'm surprised maths ranks so high though. almost makes me want to go back and doctor the results a bit. but nah. waste of time.

sadly, i have so much chem undone that my future as a chem major is in quite serious jeopardy. i'll have to hyperdrive chem throughout hari raya and the rest of the week, even on schooldays. maybe i should self-declare holiday tomorrow. sounds like a good idea. but i'll need an MC, which translates to potential waste of money. oh well. tomorrow brings what tomorrow will bring.

-thingy of the day: To skip or not to skip, that is the question.-

*Note: this post is not meant to offend anyone. it's a pure description of how the author (me) feels. should anyone take offense, please contact me and we'll work something out. contact details (both email and phone) are given below the big "KL".*

no rational person likes to be told they're inferior, inadequate, or just lousy, even if it's true and they know it. that's probably why i'm feeling a bit down now.

ok, so the story goes like this. we had training today (which, by the way, i was early for. go me!). after training, we (the CJC people) were given more details about an upcoming competition. turns out it's 6 people per team, including reserves, and we had 15 or so interested people. do the maths, and you'll find that in order to form 2 full teams, 3 people would have to drop out. (see where this is going yet?) i happened to be one of those 3 whom the coach thought shouldn't compete. of course, i understand his point. not coming to training for a long time leaves a not-so nice-impression and a lot to be desired skills-wise. i have no right to be pissed off at/with him either, because that would be totally moronic and childish.

then later, another suggestion came. so now, there will be 3 teams of 5, 5 (no reserves) and 6 (with reserve) people. that way, everybody gets to compete. but then, the ex-SJI guys wanted to come together and send in a team of their own, for old times' sake. but this means all the more experienced players will be together, and the beginners will most likely form another team or two, enter the competition anyway, and siasuay themselves so badly that it won't be funny, which is something the coach won't allow. so we have 2 alternatives. either withdraw completely (which we won't do), or send selected people to join up with other SJI guys who aren't a part of "XJI".

by the looks of things, the chance that i will be among the 4 selected people from CJC is close to zero. once again, i have no right to be pissed off at/with anyone. i understand the need for doing something together with friends, since i would probably do the same if it was cat high bowling in that situation. i know that there will be other competitions and thus, other opportunities, but still, that doesn't stop me from feeling the tiniest bit of bitterness.

i guess the real pain is being given hope that entering was possible, then to have it taken away. oh well. the way i see it, there are 2 ways of reacting. one would be to take serious offense and do something drastic (and dumb) like quit judo and join some other CCA. the other (more sensible) way would be to stay in judo and continue training harder to earn a spot in some upcoming competitions. and that's exactly what i'll do. who knows? maybe it's for the best if we don't enter the competition and get the living hell beaten out of us.

aside from that, some other screwed up things have happened today. it almost makes me wish i had stayed in bed throughout. arrgh. i feel like blasting some really loud, angsty song and singing along at the top of my voice. but that won't be possible today (or any other day in fact, as long as i'm not alone at home). damn, life sucks. time to seek comfort in chem questions. but judging by how the past 6 to 7 hours have been, i think i'll get even more demoralized, especially since i have the s-paper set as well.

-thingy of the day: Go away. I'm not very sociable at the moment.-

People often say that the first impression you get of someone is the deepest and most long-lasting. it also helps you to figure out what you think the person will be like, and dictates your subsequent attitude towards the one in question, especially before you get to know him/her better. well, if today's first impression counts for anything, GP going to royally suck this year. apparently Damo got promoted, and she had to give up some of her classes to re-balance her workload. sadly, she had to (or chose to, i don't know) give our class up. so now, we're stuck with Ms Rani.

while i have nothing against her personally (except maybe how her voice sounds), the way she's going about teaching is a huge turn-off. previously nonexistent GP homework has suddenly materialized, and from the way it sounds, lessons are going to be less fun (read "less slack time for us"). maybe it's my intuition or something, but i feel that she won't be as easy to talk to (and joke with) as Damo was. worst of all, i'm in the front row, right in front of the teacher's desk, so i bear the full brunt of her voice. oh boy. the fun-ness never ends.

nevertheless, i shall stick to one of my new year's resolutions and not judge people before really getting to know them. for all (the rest of my class and) i know, GP may, *just* may, turn out to be fun. and i take great comfort in the fact that it could have been worse, like Fahy. although i still have a problem with the whole " regular GP homework" concept, i think everything will work out just fine.

in addition to that, our physics teacher may change as well. turns out we (2T14, 19 and 20) are getting banded according to last year's grades. and guess what? Mr Loh isn't in charge of my band. damn this sucks. my prediction for my physics grade is a downward spiral. for once, i really, really hope i'm wrong. but as i've said before, i won't judge things based on face value.

went for training today. managed to survive, and i'm proud of that. ok, maybe today wasn't that tough, but still, we all need a motivational boost ever so often. will need to train much harder in this pre-nationals period though. must improve general fitness; not only for judo, but NAPFA as well.

since this is the first week of school, workload hasn't been that heavy. it's mostly assignments that can be completed in class, or going through easier sections of holiday homework. teachers either have too much experience in teaching, or have not forgotten what it's like to be a student as we received extensions for almost all of our supposedly-holiday assignments. yay for us. let's just see what i have left:

- Chem holiday tutorial
- S-paper questions (7 and 8 missing)
- Econs essay and case study
- Maths

better get everything done soon before new work comes is by the truckload. snowballing work is not a good thing, nor is rushing to finish snowballed work a good experience.

i believe everything will work themselves out in the end, in some way or another.

-thingy of the day: Why do Chinese diary entries include the weather?-

Two days of school have passed. based on this first impression of the new year, i can safely conclude that it's going to be a bitch. there's assembly every day. timetable's still as long, perhaps even longer. and it operates on a bi-weekly basis now. we do have one-hour breaks, but only one per day. dismissal times range from 2 to 5, but most days it's 4 to 5. i guess i was a bit naive to assume that we'd have more early days. as one of my friends puts it, we have long days in J1 where it doesn't really matter that much. why should our days be shorter in J2, when it DOES matter?

our teachers haven't changed at all (with the exception of GP). i think that's good since we've got a good bunch of teachers, and they've known us and our habits for a year, so there's not much awkwardness around. and that translates to more efficient teaching.

watching the orientation is kind of fun (especially the mass dance). i think i may consider being a facilitator for the second intake. that is, if my grades aren't screwed in the first common tests. otherwise, it's kind of pointless to miss a week of school if your grades drop like crazy. it was also kind of fun to meet and talk to cat high people again, especially if they're old friends. talking to cat high people is incredibly easy. maybe it's because i'm an old boy, but it's more difficult to strike up a conversation with some random person in CJC.

sadly, tutorials and lectures have already started. teachers have outlined their expectations, and they seem like a lot to live up to. oddly enough, my class is ranked among the top in maths, physics and econs. when did that happen? anyways, this means that we are expected to work even harder to outperform ourselves (yet again) this year. not an easy task. but once again, we're 1...um...2T20, so that shouldn't be impossible.

borrowed 4 nice thick books from the library in preparation for the chem s-paper. arrgh. i think just 1 s-paper will kill me, let alone 2. so for now, i'm just setting my sights on chem. i might take the maths qualifier for fun, but that's about it. oh well. the teachers aren't pushing for a decision just yet, so i'll backburner that and focus on more important things, like certain econs articles.

-thingy of the day: 2 school-less months decreases your stamina a lot.-

My oh my. i'll have to wake up in about 8.5 hours for school. feels kind of surreal. can't believe i'll be back in school tomorrow. while that's not exactly a bad thing, it's just odd. it's even odder to spend the absolute last day of holidays painting, but that's what we (the judo people) did. had to get ready for the CCA bazaar. it was great fun, but took too long.

thanks to certain friends in the council and/or orientation facilitator programme, i've gotten wind of some of the changes which will be implemented next this year, with hour-long periods and daily assembly being some examples. they don't sound that appealing now, but i guess we'll see when we actually experience it. logically, that means there'll be hour-long breaks too right? *hopes* maybe this won't be so bad.

as for whether all our teachers will follow us up, i'm not too certain. all i know is physics and econs are set. i can't say anything about maths and chem, but i'm hoping things (or people, rather) remain the same.

right now, i'm just hoping they don't demand homework on the very first day. and we have training too. how fun...ending the first day of school at 7pm. happy happy joy joy. well, as long as our timetable has shrunk from last year's, i'm not complaining.

-thingy of the day: Things will look up.-

Hello, 2006. it's nice to meet you. here's a very warm welcome to my life. i hope you'll be nicer and much more fun than your predecessor. enjoy your stay on earth!

now that introductions are out of the way, let's get to it. goals and resolutions for the upcoming year. most people say resolutions are made to be broken, but i take pride in the fact that i've managed to fulfill the majority of my resolutions since i started seriously making them (which was about last year). while that's not much to boast about (yet), i plan to keep it up.

this year's resolutions (in no particular order) are as follows:

- Take chem s-paper.
- Learn to drive!!!
- Maintain a B average or better up to (and including) prelims.
- Aim for 4 As and s-paper distinction at A-level.
- Go running at least 4 to 5 times a week (excluding PE).
- Attend as many training sessions as humanly possible.
- Represent school in nationals.
- Make more effort to socialize with classmates.
- Be present at any primary/secondary school gathering.
- Visit primary and secondary school on teachers' day.
- Once again, not to judge people solely based on looks and/or gossip.
- Only get seriously drunk after A-levels.
- Spend less money and save up more.
- Not to give up, no matter how hard life gets (occasional breakdowns are ok).
- Be nicer to everyone in general.
- Not to be intimidated by fear.
- Do all homework promptly.
- Sleep earlier (around 11:30) on schooldays.
- Cut down on computer usage (1.5 hours a day max).
- Never give up on this blog.
- Do my utmost to carry out all these resolutions (self-trapping clause).

quite a lot to live up to, no? some are really easy to do, while others require more willpower and determination (read "are more of a pain in the ass"). nevertheless, i believe that these things won't be that difficult to accomplish. of course, that's what i think now; what i think a few months (or maybe weeks) later might be totally different. nevertheless, it's good to set high expectations. there's this quote about aiming, moon, missing, and stars, but i won't mention it. sounds too cheesy, even for me.

with that out of the way, let's see what's coming up on the horizon. judo meeting tomorrow, possibly going out for a while, *maybe* touch up on some homework, get ready for school. school. oh wow. the holidays sure whizzed by. doesn't even feel like one month, let alone 2. i'm going to miss my freedom.

as i round off this post, the staff (well, just me actually) would like to take this opportunity to convey their (my) best wishes to all readers of [Open Up Your Mind]. may you enjoy 2006, and may it bring better things for/to you.

-thingy of the day: 31 hours and 22 minutes to when school reopens. Oh noes.-