Sacrificing my sleep is not something i tend to do easily. usually, i'll willingly give up sleep for only a few things, namely: good friends, family, deadlines and emergency. yet, i actually have no regrets/complaints about waking up at 8:30am and travelling for an hour and 20 minutes(!) to choa chu kang (or more accurately, to upper bukit timah road) to give tuition to the SJI kid i've been mentioning in a few recent posts. first impression's that he's a pretty smart guy, with interesting thought patterns. as a bonus, his parents are very supportive (at least his mum was...i didn't meet his dad), so that's quite a few factors in his favour. only thing is he tends to be quite careless, especially when doing the more mathematical stuff like mole calculations. on the bright side, it's nothing some practice and increased observant-ness won't solve. after today's session, we have a rough game plan and targets set out, so there's something for us to work towards. unlike my previous student (OH THE HORROR!), i find myself looking forward to subsequent tuition sessions! lucky we got off to a good start.

went to lot 1 to kill time before my next appointment. finished up reading the catcher in the rye while i was there, and i have absolutely NO IDEA what the book's talking about. the ending wasn't really that conclusive, and it left me stumped for a while. not surprising, considering literature was always the weakest of my humanities (which is quite odd, since i believe my english standard is slightly above average for my age range). unfortunately, i never understood all that deep, hidden meaning/symbolic junk. it just isn't that interesting when a boring teacher's explaining it to you. looking up the book on wikipedia did help in the understanding quite a bit. who would have guessed that it was about the loss of innocence? definitely not me! seems like people stay at both extremes about this book; they either love it or hate it. personally, i'm indifferent. finishing the book hasn't brought about any stunning revelations or changed my life in any way. about the only thing it's done for me is that it's given me the ability to cancel one more book off the BBC's 100-book list. i was tempted to borrow anna karenina (which was another book on the list), but got intimidated by its thickness. think i'll settle for something more digestible for my next book, like lord of the flies.

ended up going to AMK hub after that to meet my secondary school classmate/good friend. played pool for a while, where i made some pretty interesting shots (considering my lack of practice and rustiness). another couple of friends joined us for dinner at bishan (luckily someone could drive, and he had a car handy). bought (and drank) a bit of beer there, as it was one of the stakes in the pool games. not drinking for about 5 months has really trashed my tolerance level. perhaps it was also because the only thing i had to eat for the entire day was a bowl of laksa. anyways, caught a lift home and fell asleep for a couple of hours before starting to write this post.

there's training tomorrow, and i'm torn between going or not. on one hand, i'm still aching from yesterday's session, and i'm supposed to be on-call to help another friend with potentially urgent/important matters. on the other hand, training helps to build fitness, and interacting with the people there is always fun. oh well. guess i'll see what time i wake up tomorrow and how i feel then. as a random parting thought, i just noticed a small, bleeding cut/scratch on the back of my right hand, and i have no idea how it got there.

-random thought of the day: Refer to above.-

Looks like giving mahjong up for training today was a rather questionable decision. somehow or another, the fengshui in the dojo wasn't conducive for training. or perhaps it was because a couple of seniors were just promoted to black belt this week, and they haven't brought all that newfound power under control (i'm kidding about the power part). there were a total of 4 to 5 casualties today, which is startlingly high for a standard training session. even worse, i was the cause of one of the casualties, and my victim was the SJI captain, no less! lucky it was some not-entirely-serious muscle strain/pull, which, if given the proper treatment/attention, shouldn't bug him for more than a few days, or a week at worst.

arrgh. so annoyed with myself. it's the first time i've caused this kind of injury to someone. oddly enough, i don't really know how it happened. i went in for a throw, rolled a little on the floor, crashed into another pair of sparring guys nearby, and next thing i knew, i heard him yell in pain. scared the hell out of me, and got me feeling guilty for quite a while. actually, the guilt still hasn't worn off yet. it probably will by the time i see him at the next training session, though.

another of my juniors was even less fortunate. she got thrown onto her back, and received a more severe strain. it was pretty horrifying, actually, since back injuries are no laughing matter. lucky she was able to walk (slowly) without much pain by the time training was over. here's the funny-coincidental thing. she's from st. nick's, and both her dad and twin brother are cat high old boys! so, with three times the school ties, not to mention that she's in CJC, and judo as well, i had to make sure she was ok. ended up staying in school with her until her dad arrived to pick her up. got a lift back to j8 as an added bonus too. maybe going for training wasn't such a bad idea after all, since i was on-hand to offer assistance. funny how fate arranges these little things.

i, too, wasn't spared from injury. my chest and arms are currently aching like hell. i'm guessing it's because of the moving push-ups we did at the start of training. or maybe i didn't stretch sufficiently during warm-up. at present, it's bugging the hell out of me, but one way or another, i'm sure it'll recover.

tomorrow's the first tuition session! oh noes. i'd really like to leave a good impression, but it's not as easy as it sounds. still, it's only sec 3 stuff. can't be THAT difficult, right? have to see how it goes...i still need to find out more about the student and his needs before i make judgements/decisions. can't assume anything without solid proof. only thing that's bugging me at present is the travelling time. i think the time spent on MRTs and buses to and fro from his place is equivalent, or even slightly more than, the time spent on tuition. almost makes me wonder if i should be charging more...but nah. the rates have been fixed, and i'm not that much of an asshole to suddenly raise prices.

well, the training session's left me pretty wiped out. probably going to shower and read a little before turning in early. like i've mentioned several times, i want to create/leave a good impression, and being late isn't going to help very much.

-random thought of the day: "Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups."-

Now more than ever, i'm convinced that i NEVER want to have kids. it's mostly due to yesterday's coaching session, where i had to take charge of FOURTEEN hyperactive, not-so well-behaved primary 3 kids. at this point, you must be thinking that 14 kids doesn't seem like a big deal - after all, teachers in primary schools take care of class sizes twice to thrice as large. i agree, but please remember the following: i'm not formally trained as a primary school teacher, and that i have next to no experience with crowd control at that level. the suckiest thing is that they were having some difficulty with the only thing they were supposed to do, which was to get down on one knee and throw the ball down the lane. it's actually the simplest drill in the book, and i just couldn't figure out why they were so lost doing it.

during the routine AAR session after training, i found out that 9 year-olds have an average attention span of 30 seconds. it struck me as weird, because i don't remember being that flighty/inattentive back in 1997. i suppose i should take part of the blame too...feedback was that i was talking too fast (and a little too much), which i admit that i am susceptible to doing whenever i'm nervous. also, kids are apparently very good at picking up on emotions, which means that they should more than likely have sensed my frustration/annoyance. so...key points to take away: talk slower, less, and hide emotions better. do-able, but definitely not easy.

long story short, it wasn't a complete bombing, but it could have been way better. well, there's always next week. i'll try out some of my just-acquired kid control technique. i hope nothing nasty comes out of it.

driving is slowly becoming more difficult. today's lesson had me driving in loops around the upper thomson area, going around the narrow roads in the private housing estates, as well as up and down the ramps/slopes at thomson plaza's entrance. kind of sucks that i still have trouble keeping loose/relaxed hands while steering. right now, my most serious problem is that my perception of speed is really really distorted while i'm in the driver's seat. it's like i find 40km/h in the driver's seat the same as 60-80km/h in the passenger seat. yet, at low speeds, i can't sense the momentum and worry that the car will stall at any time, resulting in me travelling at faster-than-safe speeds. on the bright side, this means i am unlikely to speed on major roads and expressways, but watch out for me in carparks/confined areas! arrgh. am i not cut out for driving? only time will tell i guess. now that my test date is set, i have more specific training/learning objectives for each lesson.

sneaking peeks of the channel 8 show to my right reveals quite an interesting trend. over since the little nyonya ended, the subsequent 7pm and 9pm shows all seem to have a few common elements, namely: an elderly person with alzheimer's diease, a cheating husband, someone facing exterme financial difficulties, and someone absolutely loathsome. it's just that the relationships between them may change, but that's the general template. so overused/uncreative. kind of sad.

youtubing has yielded some interesting finds, such as this cute happy hippo video *link*. too bad the uploader disabled video embedding. luckily, i can embed this queen video. it's amazing how they got the crowd so worked up!

listening to queen has resulted in several of their songs getting stuck in my head. for once, i don't really mind. having a tune in your head is a right-brained thing, so that's good i guess. i'll be fine just as long as it doesn't play in an endless loop.

dehydration is coming back to haunt me...another ulcer has formed, this time in the back of my upper lip, about a finger's space to the left of the centre of the lip. should remember to drink more water, but it's difficult to do so when you're out of the house. bugger it. worst thing is, that's not the only problem bugging me now. my bum elbow from a week or two ago is still achy, and it's getting a little worse. i used to be able to crack the aches out, but that's not as effective any more. worst case is i'll go see the nice chinese physician if it doesn't (literally) straighten itself out in a couple of weeks.

-random thought of the day: I'm reading Catcher In The Rye!-

Finally...tuition's taking off! i just got confirmation from one of the SJI judo guys that our first lesson is on for this sunday. yays. so far, he's the only one who has committed to tuition. the rest are probably not in need of it, or are waiting for their schedules to clear before taking up anything else. i know at least one of the sec 4 guys wants to get nationals over with before starting lessons with me. slight problem is, the absolute last date of national schools is in july, and i just worry that there won't be enough time between then and his o-levels.

speaking of time, i really really wonder how my first month of school will be like. tuition and judo commitments, NCAP course, not to mention the expected busy-ness associated with university life. definitely won't be a walk in the park. at least i'll have stopped bowling coaching by then, so that leaves some breathing room. even then, it's going to be hectic.

in preparation for tuition, i've spent the past 2 hours or so on microsoft word, coming up with a common ions table, which is slightly more detailed than the one my teacher gave me back in sec 3. it's for the best i guess; it'll last the students until J1 or so. by that time, they should be so proficient in writing ions with the correct charges that it'll be more of a reference instead of a bible. since i was in word already, i figured that i would also do a table for the common oxidation states of some elements, as well as one for the reactivity series. amazingly, it all fits on one page! i think i'll be doing a lot more of this kind of stuff in future, like for mole calculations, electrolysis, redox, and whatever else comes to mind. never hurts to do some value-added stuff.

due to my lack of experience with sec 3 kids, i called up one of my friends (who's a tutor as well, and with considerably more expertise in dealing with 15 year-olds) to ask for advice. basically, he recommended some assessment books to me, and told me to get them for my students. it's a rather autocratic style of teaching (which i'm not too comfortable with). i'd rather let the students themselves decide if they needed the books. another reason i don't like assessment books is because i believe they're mainly for weaker students. then again, doing the physics TYS in JC really did help me, so perhaps i should consider the idea?

teaching sec 3s is going to be a pretty new experience. i'm having slight dilemmas over which teaching style to use. personally, i think i'm a pretty slack teacher, but i do tell students which concepts they "die-die" must know, and which ones can be left to rot at the back of their brains. i don't want lessons to be dry and frustrating, since it does both teacher and student no good. after all, my main objective is to make the subject fun, and believe me...it's a lot more difficult than it sounds. on the bright side, i have more than a year to psycho my sec 3 students into thinking chem is easy. either way, i believe it's manageable. this time, i'll definitely give better results than an E.

-random thought of the day: I need to do some reflection...-

Good thing i decided to come online for a bit before heading off to sleep. one of my juniors just told me that tomorrow's training is cancelled since the teacher didn't book the training facility. annoying. that has freed me up for mahjong, but the current worry is that we have too many players.

if i may use an analogy, plans are like turning gears in the machine of life. occasionally, there may be friction between the gears due to poor scheduling and all that - fair enough. but it really sucks to have a wrench thrown into the middle, messing up the entire system. thing is, this kind of stuff has happened so many times (particularly in NS) that i should be more or less accustomed to it. but oddly enough, the feeling of major irritation never really seems to diminish. i should refer back to the number one lesson in bowling mental training - expect the unexpected. guess i still don't do that well enough. for shame!

this really short post is just for me to let out whatever irritation i've been accumulating since i received the news. better head off to sleep now...i have to be out of the house in another 6.5 hours.

-random thought of the day: At least I have a contingency plan for tomorrow...-

Today's one of those days where i just want to rot at home. it's most likely due to the fatigue from yesterday's training. anyways, i did exactly that, except for a short trip to the library and to get my hair cut trimmed. borrowed a foxtrot comic (which i've just finished reading) from the library. kind of pointless actually. think i should have just finished it there, and saved myself the extra trouble of a return trip tomorrow.

as for the haircut, i feel that i didn't get my money's worth! didn't really take that much hair off...just shortened the sides and a bit of the front. in retrospect, i should have asked the nice barber to take a bit more off the sides. the hair's still touching my ears. but well, that won't kill me. added bonus is it shows that i'm no longer bound by the hairstyle restrictions of the SAF!! i'm still letting the back grow out, though the length increase isn't as rapid (or as noticeable) as i'd hoped it would be. nevertheless, it should be fun to see how long it gets by june.

term 2's almost starting, and cat high hasn't got back to me about the relief teaching thing yet! annoying. well, there's always CJC. thing is, i'm less confident of teaching JC-level chem, especially after that whole E fiasco. i'm starting to second-guess myself on a couple of decisions, and applying to be a relief teacher is one of them. for some reason, i don't think i'm ready to give up my flexibly-scheduled lifestyle yet. call it having too much freedom i guess. kind of difficult to imagine waking up at 7:00 (or maybe even earlier!) every morning when university begins. perhaps i should think of scheduling my classes after a certain time...like 9:00am?

another thing i'm starting to regret is agreeing to join my friend in his business thing. it's not as easy as it looks. and given the results of one of the character profiling tests i've taken on facebook, it shows that my character type is not suited for business. arrgh. am i really that easily psycho-ed? just think - all that mental training, wasted. horrible. guess i should be more careful when meeting people in future. somehow, something about the way they do things goes against my moral/ethical beliefs (which is something the test said i value a lot). when i meet up with someone, i don't expect an agenda/ulterior motive behind it. sadly, that's the way they conduct business. it's kind of irritating that i have to do things in a way i don't like to. then again, a lot of thing in life are this way. so...suck it up? or try to change it? i don't know.

actually, all my little problems/issues have to do with time and (im)patience. there's a chinese idiom called "li gan jian ying", which literally means "stick a pole into the ground and see its shadow". it's more commonly used in a sentence such as "zhe zhong shi yao kan chang qi de qi duan; ni bu ke neng qi dai li gan jian ying de xiao guo." roughly translated, it means "these things should be looked at on a long-term basis, and you can't expect instant results". (excuse my horrible chinese standard, btw.) i suppose i should give both my tuition and business things more time. after all, some things are best left to simmer for a while.

just booked a couple of appointments/dates, one of them being my driving test. it's set for july 6th, which is a monday, at 9:15am. hopefully the tester won't have monday blues, and i can get my first-time pass. sadly, the date doesn't allow me to complete my resolution of getting the license by may, but there's nothing i can do about it. i'm really really hoping for a first-time pass, both for bragging rights and cost savings, since i'll have to renew my PDL if i fail (it expires in end-july, and i can bet the next test date won't be so soon).

the other appointment is my NUS medical checkup, scheduled for tuesday, april 7th. i think that'll be one of my multiple-destination trip days again. i'm tentatively planning on going to visit my JC home tutor, who's teaching in ACS(I) now, as well as checking up on those steel blues. sure, it seems a little empty at the moment, but i'm sure it'll fill up as time passes. after all, i have another 2+ weeks to slot stuff in there.

-random thought of the day: I need to chase the sports school for payment!-

Couldn't muster up the energy to blog yesterday, so i'll make up for it now.

not much has happened in the 1 day of non-blogging, but i thought i'd blog about it anyway. yesterday's main highlight was training - all 4 glorious, painful hours of it. realized (yet again) that i really need lots more training to catch up to, and eventually match up against, the rest of the seniors. sad as i am to admit it, i'm most probably the weakest link in the old boys' group. nevertheless, i shouldn't let that demoralize me. if anything, it should provide greater motivation to train.

an additional benefit of training is that it's an additional avenue to source for tuition students! i was chatting with some of the SJI guys, and the topic of studies inevitably came up. a few of them mentioned that they could use some chem help, and that's where i come in. turns out the namecard thing was a really good idea. and i do have to thank some of my friends who were hanging around for the free publicity/affirmation. if all goes well, i should be expecting some calls in the near future. i just hope my phone doesn't go into PMS-mode again. it would suck quite badly to miss a potential contact. now all i have to do is refresh myself on the various topics and the tuition thing will be good to go.

one of my friends passed me the new MLTR CD. i've been a great fan of their songs from the 1990's (less so for the 2000's), so i was hoping for something of similar magnitude. so far, i'm about 3/4 through the entire thing, and my opinion is that while it's easy on the ears, it's not at the level of their classics (like 25 minutes, paint my love, sleeping child, etc.). somehow, the feeling is not as intense this time around. this is, once again, not to say that it's bad, just that it's not as good as before. i must say though, that it's actually pretty good blogging music. nice and moderately-paced, without themes of violence or any other nasty stuff. puts me in quite a zen-like mood actually. the last track, eternity (which is also the album's name/title), just finished playing. i'm wondering whether it was meant to be a purely instrumental track, or whether my computer's CD ripping ability is messed up. assuming the former, i think i shall revise my previous review and say that i generally like everything EXCEPT the last track.

tomorrow's coaching is off, so that means i'm freed up for training. i must be sick...looking forward to 4 hours of exercise, breakfalling, sparring and other assorted stuff. heh. it'll be fun. managed to arrange for driving before that, so less time is wasted as i do everything in a single trip out of the house. how's that for efficiency? meanwhile, i'm off to enjoy my off-day and catch up in CoH. i've been neglecting it a little too much for the past week.

-random thought of the day: Still need to drink more water!-

I'm going to try and compress the past 3 days or so into a short-as-possible post before fatigue claims what's left of my wakefulness. my estimation says i have only about 10 to 15 minutes tops before my blogging mood evaporates. so, without further ado, here we go.

one negative thing about my decision to join this business thingy is that it leads to a lot of late nights. i mean like 2am kind of late. i suppose i should be more careful when i plan my driving lessons. having an 8:30am lesson after only 5 hours' sleep is not a good idea. believe me, i tried. woke up late and had to trouble my instructor to come over to pick me up. can we say "malu"? another thing i should learn is to note down stuff immediately in case i forget later on. case in point: the main reason i was late for driving was because i'd assumed it was at 9am, so i thought i could sleep in a little. that, coupled with my need for a few extra minutes' hours' worth of sleep caused me to be horrendously late.

still, the lesson itself went pretty well. didn't get as much driving done, since we went to enquire about test dates at ubi. looks like i'll be getting a late june/early july date, so there goes the "pass by may" target. oh well. uncontrollable factors. i know what everyone says about ubi having the highest pass rate, but i personally find that hard to believe, especially after driving around the area myself. traffic's a little heavier than normal, and most of the four-way junctions are on raised ground, meaning that proficiency in moving off on a slope is required. it was a good experience, and definitely one i'll have to get used to since i'll be taking my test there.

while booking the test, i realized that the driving centres are very good at swallowing money. they do double-charge, as you apparently have to have an account with them in order for them to process your bookings. so, i had an account with SSDC in yio chu kang (since i took all my theory tests there) and they told me i had to register with CDC (since i will be taking my practical test there). that's an extra $10.70 gone! too bad accounts aren't transferable between schools. they really should be! maybe it's time for the government to unify all 3 schools?

the memories for the rest of friday are pretty blurry, but i don't think i went out at all. kept myself occupied by watching the big bang theory DVD, which my friend passed me. it's about 2 physicist roommates and the stuff they do. quite a lot of scientific stuff in there, mostly beyond what we learn at a-level. so far, i've finished the entire first season! it's pretty entertaining, but a tad too...unacceptable for the typical conservative singaporean viewer. must be the reason why we don't get it through cable or conventional TV. lucky thing my friend got the DVD in...i'm having many good laughs over it.

saturday was spent at turf city and training. i still feel a little bad about giving saturday afternoon mahjong up, but it's not really affecting me as much as before, since my spot has been filled by someone else. training was a little more intense, probably because they're preparing for nationals. felt good to be able to provide some challenge for the competitors, and to mess around with the new J1s. the forearms are still aching a bit, but the slightly more serious thing was that my left elbow suffered some compression injury while i was trying to block a throw. it's still a bit sore when fully extended or bent even now, and i really hope it recovers sufficiently to be functional for tomorrow's training. yes, i was crazy enough to agree to attend all 3 holiday training sessions, on monday, wednesday and saturday. don't know what i was thinking then, but it's too late for second thoughts now. besides, it'll be good for my health.

made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go out for dinner with some of my old schoolmates (who were attending training too). normally, i don't really hang out with the judo people - not even back during JC days, and definitely even less so now. so, decided to perhaps socialize a bit more. went down to paragon for dinner, then to dempsey hill (where i saw the HUGE-ASS fish!) for dessert. due to the unexpectedness of the decision to go there, i was a little under-dressed for the occasion. luckily the nice people were, well, nice enough not to bring it up. then, off to siglap for a bit of guitar hero and soccer-watching (uncharacteristic, but yes. well, the rest were playing guitar hero. i was watching bits of soccer and dozing off.) before taking a nice long car ride halfway across the island.

had mahjong today (well...yesterday, by the time this is published) too. guess the rest of them didn't play enough on saturday. went on for 3 rounds (which only felt like 2!). net result: up $10. we weren't playing for money this time though. seems like the really good hands only come when you don't have serious stakes. in fact, today was the only day i've done three 6-double limit zi-muos. that's a total of $19.20 each time, which means i should have been up $57.60 at least. of course, the ups are accompanied by downs. i dropped my fair share of grenades too, which resulted in the (comparatively) small profit at the end. nevertheless, it was good since (1) we weren't playing for money anyway, and (2) it was all done in good fun amongst friendly company. i actually think the laughs we shared and the enjoyment we had were the real prizes.

i think i'll wrap it up here. not only am i feeling sleepy, the mosquitoes have also started their attack. better head off to bed so i won't die during tomorrow's training.

-random thought of the day: Need to control spending!!-

Listening to music helps me get into a blogging mood, and also provides a convenient way to start my post.

though only 2 days have passed between this post and the last one, quite a lot of stuff has transpired in that period. tuesday had me going down to OCC to watch the last day of the national schools competition. true to prediction, we hentak kaki-ed around 6th to 7th (or possibly 8th?) place. can't say we didn't see it coming. went to safra yishun after that for a junior to do up some of his equipment, and had a little coaching training session before calling it a day.

yesterday afternoon was spent at the sports school for the primary school training. it was slacker as compared to normal, since they were having a rolloff. dealing with kids is quite taxing, patience-wise. their attention span is such that they retain only about 40% of the stuff you tell them, so you have to repeat your point 2 or 3 times before it fully sinks in. then again, i can't really blame them either, since they only train once per week (and not every week!). i'm actually expecting them to forget even more stuff after they came back for training 2 weeks later after their term break. but well, that's what the coaches are there for, right?

re-visited safra yishun to clock in some training of my own. the private training session showed me that i still have a LOT to improve on. think i haven't caught the timing and feeling yet. that's not good! sucks that i can't seem to apply my knowledge to myself. i probably need more practice.

met up with a couple of friends after that for a late-night drink and chat. discussed the business thing at length, and i finally decided to take the plunge and commit to it. quite surprising how good it feels to get major decisions off your chest. so, i'll be going down to ajuined later this evening to settle the paperwork and listen to the presentations. i really really hope this decision won't come back and bite me in future, but if it does, i'll just take it as a very expensive lesson. but given what i've seen so far, i think it won't come to that.

i'm actually pretty surprised that i woke up at 10:15 this morning, considering that i got into bed at 2:00 last night, and only fell asleep after half an hour or so of tossing and turning. bonus is i woke up briefly at 6:00+ while my siblings were getting ready for school. so...i'm surviving on about 6 hours of sleep. quite unexpected, given my busy day yesterday. on the other hand, it's not really a bad thing either. need to reduce my sleeping hours to accomodate my expanding schedule.

oh. i'd wanted to mention something in the previous post, but it slipped my mind at that point of time. it's about my tuition student from last year, and her a-level results. much to my horror, she got an E for chem. but before anyone says anything, let's put it in perspective. her best subject is literature, and she got a C for that. doing some adjustment, she would have got a C for chem if she had got A for literature. so...yes. i think i can live with that. after all, i can't expect her to get the same grade for her best and worst subjects. having a student with an E reflects pretty badly on me, but well, it wasn't really within my control. besides,her family seems to be taking the news reasonably well.

while transferring stuff over to my new wallet, i chanced upon my safra card, which i vaguely remember applying for. i realized that i haven't used it at all since i received it sometime after BMT. all the wasted years! well...not really. the promotion at that time was sign a 10-year membership and get 2 years free. so, i guess you could say that my 2 free years have been used up. it's time i start making more active use of the card, and the attached benefits. one particular area i'm looking at now is the free entry into the swimming pools. only issue is the nearest safra is at toa payoh, which means i'll have to take a bus there. assuming entrance fee at bishan pool is $1.10 (that's what i paid last time, i think), it's still more worthwhile to go to bishan because even though safra has free admission, the bus fare comes up to about $1.42 both ways. maybe i should think along the "2 birds, 1 stone" line, like going to safra yishun for swimming when i'm scheduled for bowling training as well, or finishing up my driving lesson within walking distance of any safra. something like that.

choosing the omnia over the HTC is proving to be an increasingly questionable decision. i'm actually pretty satisfied with it, as it's meeting all my basic needs. the ONE major problem is that it still has the habit of automatically cutting off all contact from the outside world every now and then. worst thing is, there's no indication when it happens! in fact, someone tried calling me 26 times last saturday, and i didn't realize it at all. a typical scenario is i don't recieve calls for a few days, then finally smell a rat and switch my phone off and on again. either that, or some friends will MSN me and go "eh KNNB pick up your phone!" or something along that line. from what i understand, this is caused by the windows OS being a resource hog. it's getting pretty annoying. at least it hasn't caused me to miss any critical stuff yet. perhaps i should get it checked before anything like that happens.

in my search for an mp3 player, i realized that i missed out amazon.com, which turned out to have quite a bit of potential. in my time browsing through the site, i found at least 4 mp3 players that met my needs. best part, the cheapest one and ironically, also the one with the most memory space, costs just US$32. now i have to coordinate with one of my friends (who's also getting stuff off amazon) so that we can share the shipping costs. yay internet! of course, i may end up dropping by suntec to kaypoh around the IT show, just in case it's available for sale in singapore too.

that just about wraps up the past few days' events. going to slack around a bit more before i have to go return my library books and head down to aljuined after that. i really really hope i won't regret my decision.

-random thought of the day: I need to organize my music files!-

Getting up early in the morning is something i have to get reaccustomed to.

woke up bright and early at 7:30 to go watch the first day of the national schools quartet event. misread the text about the shuttle service on the OCC website, and ended up waiting on the opposite side of the road. must have been 20 minutes before i realized my mistake. still, got to OCC on time and didn't miss much of the action. today's performance had some highs and lows, but i think we did better in general. tomorrow's the last day, so i'll probably be going down again after driving.

throughout the entire 3-odd hours i was there, i noticed something pretty disturbing. the reserves were more focused on their PSPs, phones and other funny gadgets than they were on the team! of course, they did their score-recording duties and stuff, but it felt so totally different from my secondary school time. granted that PSPs weren't commercially available when i was in sec 4 (the system was released in japan on 14 december 2004), but you get my point. it's true that reserves don't get to compete unless something horrible happens, but they're still an important part of the team! they can help to get the players fired up/calmed down, or raise the morale when it's low. better yet, they can serve as the coach's additional eyes, and inform him when any of the bowlers is facing difficulty. whatever the case, they should be taking up a much more active role than their current one. kind of sad, really. couldn't really feel the team spirit today. was initially stunning, but eventually quite entertaining to watch one of the kids' parents play maple story on her laptop though. i'd always thought that that game was for 16 years and below...

made a last-minute decision to drop by cat high after that to check on the relief teaching thing. i swear, sometimes computers make things so much more complicated. the nice lady in the general office told me to submit my application through email! whatever happened to good old forms? but the trip wasn't completely wasted though. ran into my old form teachers, Mr Tan (sec 1 and 2) and Mr Leong (sec 3 and 4). had a little chat about some of the classmates, and about old times. saw a few other familiar faces too! it was nice to be in the school compound for a while.

each subsequent time i go back to cat high, the feeling of nostalgia gets reduced by a pretty large amount. most of our teachers have left, and i think i'm considered lucky if more than 10 of the present-day teachers in the school know me by name! quite a far cry from when i was still a student. the students, too, are mostly strangers to me. of course, i can't really drop the blame on anyone. after all, they were probably still in primary school when i graduated. the thing that i can complain about, though, is the change in their attitude. for some odd reason, the kids are too well-behaved. no general sense of havoc floating around, unlike back in the day. i wonder...will it ever reach a point when there's nothing in cat high worth going back for? no more old teachers, no juniors still in school, complete change of infrastructure (so there are no more familiar hangouts). come to think of it, it's already very close to happening. i'm estimating another year or two for the students side, and another 5 years maximum for the teachers. must remember to go back one day after i graduate from university to test my theory.

it started raining a few minutes after i was safely under shelter in cat high, and the rain didn't stop for a long time after that. so, i was stuck there from 12:15 (which was when i got done with meeting people and stuff. it only took 45 minutes, compared to hours a few years ago...) until around 1:30. i finally figured that i could brave the light downpour/heavy drizzle to catch a bus to J8. lucky thing i got a new pair of shoes that day. the old ones can't even survive a journey across a wet road any more. one such trip like that made my socks wet, and left me significantly irritated.

bought 2 pairs of shoelaces, which are ironically shorter than the default ones that came with the shoes. i can't believe that not a single store in J8 had decent-looking 54-inch laces! ended up getting the 110cm ones, in 2 different shades of grey. i'm using the lighter grey right now, because it suits the rest of the shoe more. in retrospect, i think i should have gotten the bright orange shoelaces instead of the dark grey ones. they'd have probably looked better. too bad my conservativeness got the better of me at that point. anyway, the laces turned out to be too short for the conventional lacing method (ie. criss-cross all the way), so i improvised a bit, thanks to inspiration from this website (hint: it's a link!). not too sure how it'll hold out while running though; have to give it a try sometime later this week. i'll post photos when the mood strikes.

continued on the shopping wave and got myself a new wallet. figured i might as well get it now, since i would have to do so eventually in order to replace my army one. the new wallet's from a brand called urban stranger, and i think it looks pretty good. only problem is that it looks a bit overinflated after i transferred my stuff over. mind you, this was after i got rid of the outdated/unnecessary receipts, cards, pieces of paper, and other random stuff. perhaps i need to use a higher level of space-shrinking technology. either that, or i have to let my wallet expand a little with time (which i believe will eventually happen). cutting down on coins wouldn't hurt too. that naturally widened the hole in my pocket a bit more. luckily i gave myself a larger allowance for savings target this month. it's for this precise reason that i need to start on my potential jobs soon!! arrgh. i guess i'll have to accept a fact that someone shared with me before - you have to spend money to make money.

my ulcer is still giving me some problems, but less so than last week. i'm starting to suspect that it's not actually an ulcer, but an irritated wound instead. the fact that the tooth directly above the wound is slightly out of alignment is reinforcing my conviction. looks like this may require a visit to the dentist, provided that it doesn't heal up within the month.

tomorrow's going to be busy as well. have a driving lesson and an appointment (both of which were pushed off from today). not to forget going down to OCC in the afternoon. i'm still undecided about the business thingy, though i'm actually 85% convinced that joining it wouldn't be bad. have to find out a bit more tomorrow before i make my decision.

-random thought of the day: I wish some decisions were easier to make...-

Seems like i can never complete all 100% of my objectives on my round-the-world (umm...island) journeys. today's trip went better than the last one though, seeing as i accomplished 3.5 out of 5 (or was it 6?) objectives.

going by chronological order, driving was a little rocky at first due to lack of practice. apparently, i'm one of those drivers who must be driving constantly to keep the skill level up. looks like my plan of passing the test, then not driving for a year in order to get rid of the triangle-plates without incident is not going to work out after all. lucky i found that out today instead of when it actually happened. at my instructor's suggestion, i'll be going down to ubi to book my test date next monday. he says i still have a pretty good chance for a first-time pass, which i find to be incredibly motivating. those words don't seem like much, but based on my driving history with him, i'm surprised that he still has that much confidence in me.

went to buona vista after driving to sign up as a relief teacher. the tui thing i found out there was that i could have done it from home! so irritating. wasted $1+ of train fare. maybe it wasn't a complete waste after all, since the nice ministry people were available on-hand to explain some of the options put forth in the list. anyways, that's done, and i can probably start talking to either cat high or CJC to see is they need any teachers for term 2.

since i'm more than likely going to be called up for a few relief teaching jobs, i figured i'd have to do some shoe shopping. that, and my current casual-wear track shoes are beginning to (literally) fall apart. it's only logical that my next destination was queensway. after some browsing, i settled on a shop, and fell in love with a pair of steel blues (that's the brand, which i had some difficulty recalling initially.). the shoes are more suited for industrial use, like in construction sites and factories, but i figure they'll work for school and casual wear too. they have several safety features, like steel toe caps (which i think is a bit overkill for my type of usage, but i can make do. besides, think how fun kicking any annoying people will be!) and water-, oil- and chemical-resistant surfaces. would be good for lab in case of spillages! unfortunately, they had the correct size (which fit like a dream, btw.) but not my preferred colour. the next shipment is coming in on the second week of april, so i'll have to make do with other shoes until then. or maybe i might get crazy and call their supplier to enquire. well, i suppose i can hold out, unless i'm forced to get those pointy-looking shoes. total eeeew. worst case? army boots. the pants will cover up anything above ankle level. hmmm...maybe i should have got those technician servicing shoes after all.

to ensure my queensway trip wasn't wasted, i got a pair of track/running shoes, to replace my 4-year old asics ones. econs teaches us about brand loyalty, so no prizes for guessing which brand of shoes i bought. they're mainly white-ish, with orange highlights. a bit too bright for my taste, but i'll adapt. since they're newly-bought, i'm expecting it'll take some walking and running to get them broken in. gives me more incentive to exercise, no?

next on the list was sim lim. i can't believe that not a single store sells the type of mp3 player i'm looking for (the type that doesn't use rechargeable batteries). seriously! i went up, down, and all around the entire building, but no luck. the closest was a stall owner offering to sell me a 256mb, second hand one for $20. maybe i should have taken up his offer? anyways, i remembered that creative used to sell such things, so i made an impromptu detour to marina square...on foot. the magnitude of that decision isn't really fully conveyed when i type it out, so allow me to substantiate. people who know me well enough will also know that i rarely head to the town area of my own accord. so, it should be understandable if i got lost. "lost" is quite the understatement though. it would probably be more accurate to say i got totally horlan-ded. ended up walking one big round around several really wide buildings, and ended up back at sim lim. finally got tired of walking around aimlessly like a headless chicken and activated the phone GPS. let me pause for a moment to publicize my love for my omnia and its GPS/maps function. finally found some direction and ended up at my destination after a total of 25 to 30 minutes of non-stop walking. i think i covered more walking distance during that time than i have for the past week or two!

it was only at marina square that i found out i made a wasted trip there. the damn creative shop was closed for renovations! and to rub salt into my nice, gaping wound, there was a notice saying, "meanwhile, please visit out nearly store at plaza singapura." (that was to be my next destination, by the way.) i really hope nobody in my vicinity at that time could read lips. well, the one good thing that came out of it was that i got a lot more exercise than i would in a typical week, and that i got to practise my jaywalking skills on city roads. all i'm hoping for now is that nothing cramps up later at night, while i'm asleep.

rounded off the day's pit stops at plaza singapura, where i met up with one of the ex-officers from my ex-company. i really really REALLY think i should think twice when agreeing to out-of-the-blue appointments. we were supposed to meet for dinner, but i ended up having dinner, and an extended sales pitch on why i should take up that too good to be true job offer (mentioned a few weeks ago) for dessert. i'm beginning to suspect that they pass the tough nuts around in the hope that one of the more persuasive speakers will be able to crack them. well, i've agreed to a follow-up meeting this sunday, just to see what they have up their sleeves. that, and because i have slightly more trust in this person. for all i know, throwing all that $$ into the business might reap benefits after all.

all in all, it's been quite an active day, and i'm starting to feel the after-effects. just found out tomorrow's training is SJI only, and the lazy side of me is thinking of all sorts of reasons excuses not to go. will have to see how it goes tomorrow. come to think of it, i don't know where the training venue is. doesn't seem logical to hold it at CJC, since they're not training. better get in touch with someone in the know soon.

oh...the fact that my juniors got their a-level results today just re-occurred to me. for the judo side, it's pretty good. heard plenty of A's flying around, and so far, the worst result i've come to know of so far is AABC, which is what i got! all of a sudden, i feel so...sub-par. luckily my place in university's been confirmed already. wouldn't really fancy fighting with all the kids with 3 A's or more apiece. haven't heard anything from the bowling side though; only thing i'm going by is facebook comments, and they look quite worrying at the moment. maybe i'd better send them an SMS or get in touch with them through MSN to find out more.

just a quick point, there's an additional decimal place in my blog version number. this means i've changed something, namely introducing the nice translucent blue backing behind the main blog text. hopefully it's a little easier to read now.

looks like the rest of my week (and weekend) is shaping up. how did it ever become so busy!? as i see it, saturday and sunday are full. so is the majority of monday, and half of both tuesday and wednesday. then again, business (busy-ness?) may not be so bad after all. keeps the old motor running. meanwhile, it's time to get some sleep. still have to worry about training tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: Time to dig out my chem guidebook!-

Zits has been helping to keep me occupied for the past few days. now, before you criticize my poor grammar, let me say that "zits" here refers to the comic strip, and not pimples or acne. so, saying "zits is" in this context is grammatically sound. and, in case you haven't noticed, i've completed my 26 consecutive A-Z posts! yays. now that i'm done with it, i can safely say "never again!" well...maybe not never, but not anytime soon again. maybe next time i'll go from Z to A instead? still, that'll be a long time later, so i'll just put that idea on hold for now.

like i was saying, zits (and other assorted comic strips) have been killing time quite effectively for me. only drawback is that i have to make frequent trips to the library to return the books i'm done with and borrow new ones (come on! you didn't actually think i went to buy them, right?). come to think of it, it may not really be a drawback, seeing as it makes me get out of the house for some fresh air and (minimal) exercise. probably should keep it up.

went to watch cat high bowl in the B-division competition yesterday. my personal assessment is that we didn't do too badly, but avoiding certain mistakes might have helped to boost the standings a little. at present, we're in 7th place, behind RI, both ACSes, SJI, MSHS, and the sports school (i think, though not in that precise order). seems like that's as high as we'll go this year, since dislodging any of the schools above us will prove to be problematic. can't say it wasn't expected, but well, it still sucks. hopefully the bowlers can work a miracle in the quartets event next monday and tuesday.

managed to catch Mr Fernandez for a little chat when he wasn't that busy. ran the relief teaching idea past him, and he thinks it's pretty feasible. lucky thing i did too...i had thought that registering with MOE wasn't compulsory, until he informed me otherwise. looks like i'm due for a trip to buona vista sometime soon. sadly, it looks like my hair-keeping plans will have to be suspended if i should choose to take up the teaching thing. can't be setting a bad example for the kids, right? it kind of sucks, but we all have to make sacrifices here and there. besides, it's not like it'll never grow back.

by some nice coincidence, my driving instructor just called. he's back from his (slightly longer than) 2-week china trip, and is ready to resume lessons! FINALLY. we're set for 9am tomorrow at bishan MRT. looks like tomorrow will be quite a busy day after all. driving in the morning, followed by a trip to buona vista to get registered as a relief teacher, then to queensway to get new shoes (my current ones are about to give way anytime). after that, it's off to sim lim to get a new non-rechargeable battery-powered mp3 player, then finishing at orchard/somerset to meet an army friend for dinner, before heading home. wow. just looking at the various buses i'll have to take (and the resulting bus fares) is already causing my head to spin. i am grateful for one thing though - that i can rely on one bus service to get me from point-to-point, ie. i don't have to change buses halfway through any of my trips! what a stroke of luck. i was kind of surprised when i checked streetdirectory.com, but i'm not complaining. will definitely have to get lots of sleep tonight to be fully charged for tomorrow.

aside from being a busy day, tomorrow will also be a day of tension, suspense, joy (for some) and grief (for others). reason being that last year's a-level results will be released at 2:30pm. now, i shouldn't really be affected, since i got my own results 2 years ago, right? wrong. my student will be getting her results back, and that, by association, makes me as nervous as she is, if not more so. despite receiving assurance that i will not be held responsible for any poor results, i still can't help but feel anxious. after all, her result is a reflection of my reputation/capability. hopefully she pulls through with a B, or at LEAST a C. i'm not going to be optimistic to the point of silliness and ask for an A, but i think a B or C should be manageable. nothing below that please (is this a statement or request? i don't know myself.). well, either way, i'll know by tomorrow afternoon.

the sky's looking grey. could be because it's about to rain, or that it's evening. anyways, i think i'll pop by the library to return my comics, and maybe borrow a few more. better take advantage of the not-bad weather while it lasts.

-random thought of the day: Need to tidy up my computer table.-

Youtubing is not only a great way to kill time and get rid of boredom, it also helps to get rid of my emo-ness. yes, you read that right. i normally wouldn't associate myself with being emo, but having too much time to think about the past and worry about the future will do that to a person. of course, the fact that it's been raining EVERY afternoon/evening for the past week doesn't help to lighten the mood either. so annoying.

anyways, this is one of the songs i re-discovered in my media player:

with accompanying lyrics:

Lifehouse - Hanging By A Moment
I'm desperate for changing
I'm starving for truth
I'm closer to where I’ve started
I'm chasing after you

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

Forgetting all I'm lacking
Completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation
You take all of me

Now...I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with you

There's nothing else to lose
There's nothing else to find
There's nothing in the world
That could change my mind
There is nothing else…
There is nothing else…
There is nothing else

Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
Closer to where I’ve started
Chasing after you

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

I'm living for the only thing i know
I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with you

Just hanging by a moment
(here with you)
Hanging by a moment…
(here with you)
Hanging by a moment...
(here with you)
Hanging by a moment here with you...

it sort of resonates with my current thoughts and feelings, though i'm not quite sure who the "you" in the song refers to in my life. good thing is that music does help to lift my spirits, provided it's reasonably fast-paced and doesn't have to do with people dying or breaking up or other associated sad stuff.

remember those mosquito repellent patches i was mentioning a while ago? they're actually pretty effective, because mosquitoes haven't really been bugging me since i put one on the inner left side of my table last thursday or so. they're rated to last for 12 hours each, but this one lasted 9 times that duration. only thing is, the adhesive took off some of my table's paint job/finishing when i removed it. now the grain of the compressed wood is visible. heart pain! lucky it's not that big of an area (it's around the length of the end joint of my thumb, and 1/3 the width) and that my table wasn't too expensive to begin with. at least it's only a cosmetic flaw. after all, it's not good to judge books based on their covers, right? worst case is that'll be the location where all my mosquito patches get stuck on in the future.

i think my fluid intake hasn't really been sufficient for the past week or so. apparently, newest information is that 3 litres is the target volume of water intake per day. i've definitely fallen WAY short of that mark. alternatively, to put it in chinese medicine terms, my system's too heaty. i've been suspecting it for a while, and the recent formation of an ulcer in my mouth confirms it. irritating thing is the ulcer's located exactly where my wisdom tooth used to be, before it was removed in J1. i can't even clench my jaw properly! went to rinse the site with salt water earlier today (too bad i didn't recall it earlier), and of course, i'm making a conscious effort to drink more water. hopefully it clears up by the end of the week.

tomorrow's coaching has been cancelled, because the primary school kids have their common tests. it's just as well, i guess, because that frees up time for us to go watch cat high bowl in the nationals. i wonder how they'll do? i don't really know most of them (i only know some of the sec 4s, who were sec 1s when i was helping out in J2.), so i can't really make accurate estimations. being an old boy, i'm definitely hoping that they make a clean sweep of the medals/trophies. but i know that's unlikely, thanks to some other schools around. oh well. so long as they perform well enough to keep everyone satisfied, i suppose that'll be good enough. anything more's a bonus.

uncharacteristically, i'm wishing that school would begin a little earlier...like in may or june. i figure i've done enough slacking for a while, and that something to keep myself busy would really be nice right about now. sort of makes me wish that i signed up for the special term. then again...maybe not. starting school while almost everyone is still slacking sounds kind of demoralizing.

ok...figure i've said enough for a while. now, it's off to the library to return my zits comic books. with any luck, there'll be more available for borrowing.

-random thought of the day: Wasabi macadamias...good stuff!-