Being the slacker that i am, i pushed off tonight's run to early tomorrow morning. going to take it easy this time round and go for 4.5km, which is a shortened version of my usual route. right now, i'm still working at short to medium distances (around 5km, +- a little). i'm not crazy enough to try doing half-marathons or anything like that. not yet, anyway. still need to regain the lost stamina. my next training objective is to complete a lap of the bus 410 route before the training camp. according to google earth, it's approximately 8.3km long, so i'll be nice and give myself an hour to complete it. training up to run 8.3km in an hour in a week's time sounds...possible. if i could run 10km in an hour while in army, what's 8.3?

normally, i blog about past events before going on to the future. this post, let's try it the other way round. my schedule for the next half a month is shaping up nicely. main events: training camp (with grading!) and primary school coaching. of course, there's the usual routine stuff like driving practice and normal training. all in all, it looks like it'll be a fun couple of weeks.

before all that, though, there's tomorrow. there's the morning run, and i'm meeting a friend at tiong bahru/redhill in the afternoon. if all goes well, i may slot in a swim in the evening to recover from the run. all this before training on saturday (at least i THINK it's on). heh. garang bo?

ok...now to talk about the past. well, nothing really significant's happened over the past 2 days, except that i went for a long-overdue shopping trip. in the process, i spotted a non-rechargeable battery-operated mp3 player at best denki in J8. to think i went all the way to sim lim to look for it! well, the unexpected happens. was a nice surprise. i think i'll enquire about it tomorrow when i go get a knee guard to increase my survivability during the training camp.

for now, i'm off to bed. there's a run waiting for me tomorrow morning, after all. and i can't afford to miss it, because knowing myself, if i do, all the good momentum will be lost.

-random thought of the day: I suddenly feel like foot-sweeping someone.-

Today's circuit driving experience turned out WAY better than expected! i actually managed to do the S-course and reverse parking smoothly. still having a little trouble with the crank course and directional change though. parallel parking and slopes are more or less neutral. will need more practice before i can safely say i'm confident. i think part of the reason that today went so well was that i had more control of the car, because my instructor didn't reach over every minute or so to correct my steering. maybe he's reading my posts? well, i doubt it. but if he is, so much the better.

i'm actually pretty amazed that driving went so well, considering that i had only 4 hours' sleep. for some reason, i had trouble sleeping after my late-night run (yes, i finally overcame the inertia and went at it last night). maybe it's because my system needed more time to return to normal levels of activity after being excited...or something logical and scientific like that. anyway, i took a ridiculously long time to complete the (approximately) 5km run. really need to keep the momentum going. after all, training camp's in a couple of weeks. judging from the aches, i know at least i'm doing something right! either that, or i didn't stretch enough during warm-down...

was slightly late for training today. as luck would have it, i was the only senior who showed up. due to the above 2 reasons, i felt a little out of place initially, but the feeling went away soon after we began doing stuff. the coaches covered grading syllabus today! in general, i think i'm ok with most of the techniques, except for one or two whose finer points still elude me. now that grading's internal/decentralized, i think the chances for passing are much higher. BUT, i won't worry about passing or failing yet. there are a few more training sessions before the actual exam, and i'm bound to get better with time.

right now, i'm pretty annoyed with myself. back in sec 3 (i think, or it might have been sec 4), i was given an audio CD on training up mental strength. being the genius that i was back then, i only burnt the important parts into another CD. in the course of my massive area cleaning project (refer to the previous post), i discovered both the original and the copy that i made. sadly, only the copy is readable in my CD drive, so i've lost 4 of the original 16 tracks. on one hand, i'm quite happy and thankful that i was curious enough to test my CD burner and make a copy. but i'm more annoyed that i didn't copy/burn all 16 tracks. oh well. at least the most important stuff's in there. now, i have to upload them into my phone for easy access and constant listening.

well, i think i'd better end off here. despite my little nap in the afternoon (which is incidentally what caused me to be late for training), i'm still feeling a little tired. what's more, tomorrow looks like a long day. going to do some shopping for essentials, then meet with my boss to find out what's happening for the school's june holiday training.

-random thought of the day: My legs ache...-

Driving turned out pretty well (for a change) yesterday. didn't stall the car, was reasonably relaxed, and enjoyed myself much more in general. still facing some minor problems, like kancheong driving, less-than-ideal clutch control, and SLOPES. i think i'll be happy as long as i stay away from the circuit. too bad going through it is mandatory in the course of getting a license. well, such is life. not everything can suit you. that's further underscored by the fact that i have a circuit session scheduled for this coming monday.

in a sudden neat-freak attack, i cleaned out and reorganized my cupboard, throwing 2 plastic bags' worth of stuff out in the process. i guess you could say that i was a bit of a hoarder in pre-JC days. it's kind of funny how some things that meant a lot to you 5 years ago suddenly don't have the same value (if any at all) today...hence the large volume of trash. my cupboard looks positively spartan now compared to before i got started on it. only thing troubling me now is the absence of a grey folder which contains my o-level certificates, testimonials and quite possibly the most treasured document in my life thus far - a referral letter which Mr Lee wrote for me when i was trying to get into VJC back in 2005. the attempt didn't work out (as you smart people would have figured out by now), but the letter's contents did wonders for my morale and self-confidence. that's why i have to find it again. i have a faint idea where it might be, but the thought of digging deep into the store room makes me weak in the knees. maybe another day, when i'm freer and braver.

quite a few posts back, i briefly mentioned something about my cousins in australia not getting along. ever since then, the situation has deteriorated to the extent where they're getting separate living arrangements. previously, i believed all they needed to do was talk it out. now, after reading several blog posts and talking with one of them, i'm not so sure that'll work. then again, i'm not getting the whole picture, so i don't know. i'd really really like to fly down to australia to talk to them, but time and money do not permit this course of action. i'll just have to wait for one of them to come back this june i guess.

over today's mahjong session (at which i won the most!), my boss told me that there'd be training every single morning for the second week of june. so, there go my plans. not that i had that many, or that i mind at all. in fact, it would be fun (and most probably borderline traumatic) to see the kids again. lucky june training is only for the kids in the competition teams, who are much better behaved than my usual primary 3 group. i'm actually looking forward to the start of training.

all right...looks like i've overshot my 11:30pm bedtime by a bit. aside from today, the plan has been adhered to since it was started. going to start on the running tomorrow, before i head down to bedok to watch the judo competition and get my SJF registration stuff.

-random thought of the day: Goodnight!-

Friendships are kind of funny. as in, sometimes you don't click with people whom you see every day. other times, you lose contact with a reasonably good friend for a couple of months and find that you're complete strangers when you next meet. then, there are those rare cases when you don't see a friend for a year or so, and when you meet up again, it's like you just parted company yesterday.

and speaking of yesterday, that was when i met up with one of the (very very few) friends who fall into the third category. she's a first 3 months classmate, who subsequently went to temasek poly and then NTU. now, before anyone gets any ideas, let me make it clear that she's already attached (to a cat high old boy who's 1 year my senior). we've met up about once per year since 2005, and it's really quite amazing how we just pick up from where we left off the previous time. kind of fun too, actually.

so, we met at vivocity and had dinner at Shin Kushiya. as always, it was a good choice </shameless advertising>. browsed around in daiso, hung out a bit more and did some catching up/talking before heading home. pretty normal stuff, really. despite the uninteresting-ness of it all, it was fun. good to get out of the house once in a while too. only little hitch in the entire scheme was that the sunburn on my back chose that evening to begin peeling. such good timing! luckily it wasn't that obvious, so managed to ignore it until i got home. by now, most of the crispy dead skin's gone, and it doesn't hurt any more than usual. managed to get through a training session without any major complaints, so it's as good as healed.

training today was, sadly, yet another reminder of how cui my fitness is. how to be prepared for training camp and grading like that? so, as my facebook status now reflects, i'm going on a 2-week stepped-up physical training programme - army style - in a (desperate) bid to regain some fitness before the 2 major events mentioned above. in addition to daily runs and other exercises, this also means a degree of army regimentation, like sleeping by 11:30pm and waking up by 6:30am. will take some getting used to, but hey, i've done it for 2 years! 2 weeks (or more, should i choose to extend it) shouldn't be a problem. oh. just to make myself more committed to it, i'm now announcing to the world that it starts TODAY. so, if anyone who reads this catches me online after 11:30pm, please feel free to chase me offline.

negative feelings about fitness aside, today's training was pretty productive. got my grading technique questions more or less sorted out. definitely will need some hands-on practice before i'm confident though. that's what this coming saturday is for. too bad my knee's still not at 100%. will have to go for a follow-up this weekend. hopefully there won't be any more needles.

that's all i have to say at the moment...i think. can't think of anything else that might be interesting, except maybe that i have driving this coming friday. thankfully it's on the road, and not in the circuit. that lessens the chance of me being in a bad mood after the lesson. well, so much for this post. time to go onto galaxy online and upgrade my buildings.

-random thought of the day: Repeated questions are annoying, especially when asked at high frequency.-

Was planning on going for training today, but decided against it in the end. reason is because i'm nice and roasted from spending too much time under the sun on friday. my shoulders and back are still sensitive to rubbing, touching, or any form of physical contact, really. just imagine the abrasions from a thick gi! horrors. so, i'm going to bear the words of my BMT OC in mind - there is always another day to train. from the way things look, i think that day will be this coming wednesday. my burns should have more or less disappeared by then.

so, what did i do on friday to get burned? believe it or not - swimming! made a decision to get more physically active (something which i have tried - and failed - to do for a while). seeing as my knee wasn't feeling 100%, i thought a low-impact activity might be more suitable at first. so, swimming was the first thing that came to mind. it was a good idea, but the execution probably wasn't the most well-planned. if i ever plan on swimming for extended periods of time again, i'm going to (1) go in the evening, or (2) use sunblock. sucks that i burn so easily. it only took 2 hours for the burn to develop. sad, isn't it?

on the bright side though, i met one of my secondary school classmates at the pool! it was definitely unexpected, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless. come to think of it, i haven't seen him since results day in 2005. heh. seems like that's a common trend with most of the people i know from secondary school, especially when we go to different JCs. of course, there are a few friends whom i still keep in contact with, even after separation in JC and NS. guess it boils down to how hard you work at keeping the friendship alive/active.

jumping quickly back to the topic of training, i've indicated my interest to take the june grading exam. that should give me the incentive to get back into training soon. anyway, i've looked at the syllabus, and it doesn't seem TOO difficult (provided that the copy of the syllabus i've obtained is accurate, that is). have to iron out a few doubts, but otherwise, it looks do-able. the formal sparring match is my biggest concern at the moment, but i shouldn't worry too much. after all, there shouldn't be any problem if i've trained sufficiently, right? right.

i've been feeling extremely restless for the past 2 days. it's the kind of restless where i want to go to the top of the highest building and scream really loudly. ok...perhaps "restless" isn't the best way to put it. "i've had excess pent-up energy wanting to escape" sounds a little more accurate. it's probably due to hormones or something. funny; i thought i was past that stage already. perhaps i should do a bit more exercise to drain that excess energy off.

-random thought of the day: My student did well for his mid-years! Yays.-

Going to do a small little update before i (try to) sleep early tonight.

went for the job interview thing on tuesday. wasn't so much of a formal interview as compared to a sit-down and chat session. in the course of our talk, i found out that i will most likely be working together with another tutor, who is 1 year my junior and is currently studying statistics at NUS. kind of weird, isn't it? a stats student giving chem tuition. well, i won't pass judgement yet...not until i meet her sometime next week, at least. for all i know, she could be REALLY good at retaining knowledge. after all, i considered giving GP tuition myself. chem and english are even further apart than chem and stats, so i shouldn't be that skeptical.

also, as part of my taking up the job, i've been told that i have to dress up a little. to classroom teacher level, to be exact. worst part is, i can't believe i agreed to it! feels like i just sold my soul. well, i'll probably have to be attired like that way more often in the future, so might as well get used to it now. besides, what's the worst that could happen? nothing life-threatening, so whatever it is, i'll live through it. and speaking of that, i'll have to go shopping for a few more light-coloured shirts. i realize the ones i currently own come in mostly dark blues and greys.

unfortunately, that's about all i can spare time for at this point. i really have to be going off to bed. there's lots more i would like to write about, like how i'll be preparing notes, what teaching style i may consider adopting, and such related topics, but not at present. the rain's good enough for sleeping, but not for staying up to watch. see you all!

-random thought of the day: Why is there canned wine in the fridge?-

Yesterday was the first sunday in 6 weeks where i didn't have to give tuition. strangely, i was pretty bummed by that. despite the long travelling time and just-sufficient pay, i find myself looking forward to tuition. quite paradoxical indeed. my most logical theory is that this current student is better/easier to teach than the previous one, so the job satisfaction makes up for the negative stuff.

anyway, i (finally) decided to get my knee looked over, and what better time to do it than on my sunday off? went down to east coast to see the family chinese doctor, who diagnosed it as a misalignment. basically, everything was manoeuvred back into place, and needles were used to stab the area a few times to drain the bad blood which had been accumulating there. so far so good (though i didn't really like the stabbing part). then comes the killer. the nice female doctor heated up a paste of herbs and patched it onto the outer side of my left knee. what i didn't realize was that the extremely sticky herbal paste was in direct contact with my skin (i'd thought that it was in a sealed pack). what SHE didn't realize was that sticky herbal paste tends to get VERY attached to leg hair...literally! despite my best attempts at painless removal (using water, soap, rubbing it off etc.), i was faced with no better alternative than to scrape it off. did my best to minimize pain and losses, but still ended up losing quite a bit of leg hair in the process. luckily, the damage isn't THAT visible, unless you look really really closely. i figure nobody will be as bo-liao as to do that, so all the better for me.

now, i'm in the recovery phase of the treatment. i'm supposed to take things easy for the next couple of days, and maybe try some light swimming on wednesday. then, possibly a relaxed training session on saturday, with a follow-up check on sunday if anything feels out-of-place. experiencing the almost-instantaneous relief after the popping, stabbing and sticky herbs has made me regret not going to see them about it earlier! instead, i (idiotically) chose to bear with it for a month in the hopes that the ache would magically disappear. well, now i know better. only thing i dislike about the treatment (aside from the loss of leg hair) is the bitter medicine i'm supposed to take in order to help the recovery and improve general well-being. but, as the chinese say, bitter medicine is the most effective. so...that's good i guess. i know the saying's mostly true and all, but i'd still like to meet the guy who coined that particular saying, so that i can determine what sort of mental illness he must have had to say things like that.

got tired of cooping myself up at home, so i went to the library today. spent close to 4 hours there, just reading. managed to finish a couple of books. would have been more, if not for the crowd and the noise. thank goodness for a little thing called the "quiet reading room". it was the one place in the entire library that the noise couldn't penetrate. my reading speed just about doubled once i'd settled down in there. since my primary school days, i was trained to maintain absolute silence in the (well, any) library. too bad students these days aren't learning the same thing. i swear, go to the upper floors of the bishan library on any given afternoon, and you'd think it was just a general study corner/building. it's really quite annoying, especially when you're looking for peace and quiet.

tomorrow has the potential to be quite interesting! i'm meeting my army fracquaintance to discuss the possibility of joining his tuition centre. the only possible disagreement we might face is that i don't want to be the main writer for the notes which the students will receive. it might mean me taking a pay cut, but there are bound to be tradeoffs. will have to see how it goes. also, i'm meeting a couple of friends to go watch the star trek movie. i've heard pretty good stuff about it, but i don't really follow the series like i do for say, marvel comics. i'm definitely going to miss some inside jokes and other stuff that the die-hard fans would get, but it's ok. worst case is i ask my friends (who are the type of die-hard fans that do catch obscure references).

but before all that, i have to take my medicine (ugh) and get sufficient beauty sleep. even though i know my interviewer, it still wouldn't be professional (or nice) to put across a bad image.

-random thought of the day: Going to sleep early from now on!-

I've been thinking long and hard over a couple of decisions over the past few days.

first is the decision on whether to shift my blog to wordpress or not. at this present point in time. my answer is "no". the main reason for this decision can be summed up in a quote, which goes, "don't fix something that isn't broken." blogger may not have the idiot-proofness of wordpress, but i'm not exactly an idiot either, so that works out. besides, there's that little consumer/brand loyalty thing going on too. my only (minor) regret is that blogger doesn't allow password-protection of individual posts. it's too bad, but unlikely to sway my final decision. after all, i've survived without that particular function for coming close to 6 years now. with any luck, some blogger developmental staff will chance upon my blog and get the inspiration/motivation to start working on it. quite far-fetched, but who knows?

the second decision i've been deliberating over involves a close acquaintance/distant friend (sort of a "fraquaintance") from army. he's set up a tuition centre with a few of his other friends, and is hiring tutors to teach A-level chem (amongst other subjects). so, i've been considering whether to join him or not. i like his tuition concept (which is group tuition, 8 students maximum per class), and am fairly confident that i can do a good job. not to mention that we know each other from army, so there's some common ground/existing foundation to build upon. unfortunately, the pay's a little lower than private tuition...but then, that's to be expected.

only 2 things are holding me back right now, one of which is that i'll have to write/come up with notes and study packages for the students, which is not one of my stronger points. i'm more of a "listen to what i'm saying" kind of tutor. the other concern is that i'll be too busy to continue teaching the class once school begins in august. tutoring is a commitment, and it would be really irresponsible of me to ditch the class halfway if the university workload demands that something else in my life gives way.

actually, i'm not too worried about the latter point. at most, i'll do some scheduling tai-chi with my current student in order to accommodate the class. extreme worst case scenario is i give up my saturday night to take the class. i'm ok with making these sorts of little sacrifices, if it helps the students to score better and especially if, as an added bonus, it puts money in my wallet.

instead, it's the first point that scares me. generally, i don't like coming up with notes, because i tend to focus only on the important "die-die must know" concepts. i'll usually leave the student to read all the small little details him/herself (of course, they're free to ask me questions if they have trouble understanding anything). while this style of teaching practically guarantees a pass, it will not guarantee an A, because "A"-calibre answers tend to have these small little details that few others will pick up. so how? i think i'll email him to tell him that i'm interested in the position, but i won't come up with notes for the students. naturally, i expect that to lower my chance of securing the job, but as i've said before regarding tuition assignments, they'll come, or they won't. either way, i'll accept the outcome.

-random thought of the day: Finally won at mahjong today!-

My bedtime has been postponed due to the rain. ironic, since rain is supposed to be conducive for sleeping. originally, i was planning on going to bed as soon as my buildings finished upgrading in galaxy online (which is a free MMO that's occupying most of my online time at this point), but the sudden downpour made me stay up a little longer. reason is that i like watching heavy rain, provided that i'm safe and warm indoors, and not caught in its middle. it's been raining almost every night/early morning for the past few days, but today's rain was (well, is) extra-heavy. "raining monkeys and elephants" kind of heavy, where anything more than 10 metres away looks blurry. it's this kind of rain which i like to watch the most. as an added bonus, there's lightning! not just flashes, but streaks that illuminate the night sky. only little issue with the atmosphere/environment is the presence of thunder, which is unusual (and frankly, quite unnecessary) for nighttime rains. but then, rarely do we have exactly what we want in life. all i'm missing now is someone to watch it with me. heh.

anyway, i was going to save this upcoming topic for tomorrow, but the rain helped to activate my writing/blogging mood. the topic is this: after following my cousin's blog for the past few months, i'm actually quite tempted to switch to wordpress as my primary blogging service. now, i've been with blogger for coming to 6 years now, and i've watched it evolve (from back when the post list and posting window were on the same page, amongst other things) to what it is today. as you can probably tell, there's definitely more than a little attachment and familiarity here. so, i figure the best way to settle this is to do a little evaluation on the benefits of each host. let's start with blogger:

- fully customizable blog layout
- (linked to above) able to include cbox/tagboard in layout
- (linked again) able to link to friends' sites
- excellent help/support team (all emails are personally answered...or at least i think they are)

now, for wordpress:

- able to password-protect individual posts (biggest plus point for me)
- looks sleeker/more high-tech
- able to track statistics
- easier to add widgets, as compared to blogger
- easier to change templates (however, there's a limited selection of what looks good to me)
- generally more idiot-proof, but at the cost of customizability

decisions, decisions. in a nutshell, the biggest turn-off factor for wordpress is that i can't have 100% say in what my layout looks like. of course, i could pay US$15 to change that. the cost is a minor factor, but it's too much of a hassle to process through paypal and all that. besides, blogger provides it free. in fact, the only thing blogger does charge money for is if you want a custom domain. that aside, the only thing they ask in return is that your blog links back to them. what nice people!

wordpress, on the other hand, charges for quite a few things, like added storage space, ad-free status, and of course, the ability to customize your own layout. none of these things will significantly affect your (my) blogging, except maybe that last item. in fairness, wordpress does offer a few more services than blogger, like tracking statistics and links to related articles/posts. not to mention its user interface looks cooler too.

you know what? i think i'll sleep on this. maybe i'll be capable of coming to a logical decision after my brain's fully rested and recharged. oh look...the rain's stopped. there's nothing else to keep me awake, so off to bed i go.

-random thought of the day: Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain...-

Ever have one of those days where you just want to lash out at any/everyone around you? i'm having one right now. in fact, if i was given the opportunity, i'd gladly chop a tree into toothpick-sized pieces using a vegetable knife...just to get rid of all the pent-up aggression/violence. this isn't really surprising, considering i've been in a less-than-good mood for the past few days. guess today's driving lesson was kind of the last straw. at present, i'm not sure who/what my anger should be directed against. listed below, in no particular order, are my choices:

my instructor - for being late a few times, over-controlling the vehicle from the passenger seat and not giving me the chance to correct my own mistakes. for giving pressure when i don't pick things up as fast as he thinks i should. for pointing out my mistakes in a not-so-nice way (according to him, if i had taken my driving test today, i would have failed no less than 5 times.). for giving conflicting instructions sometimes.

myself - for not picking things up as fast as i want to. for letting idiotic things get to me and affect my mood. for not being a better driver. for my lack of common sense. for poor judgement and feeling. for wanting to put every driver that messes with me on the road into a painful armlock. for a whole ton of other stuff that would take up too much space here (and wouldn't make much sense to anyone else) if i chose to type them out.

the weather - for raining on my past 2 circuit lessons, inhibiting the learning process and screwing up my mood.

so? who should get the biggest bullet? personally, i think that distinct honour's reserved for me. i'm still affected by factors/circumstances which i have no control over. should learn to let go of stuff over which i have no influence. not as easy as it sounds, but then, things rarely are.

after today's experience, i also promise NEVER to yell at any of my students, be it for tuition or bowling, if they have trouble picking up a certain skill/concept. the fact that they can't do it probably means they feel crappy about it already, so i'm not going to make it worse for them. this, however, does not extend to disciplinary, behaviour and attitude issues. just thought i'd make it clear in case any of my students (present or future) chance upon this and try to use it against me.

well, now that that's out of my system, i do feel better. you know what they say...misery loves company. why keep everything to yourself when you can share it with an audience? maybe someone out there will empathize. and i realize i'm beginning to sound emo. time to switch topics...

in more light-hearted news, one of my friends lent me the Get Smart DVD. the show was pretty funny, good jokes and all. think i'll watch it again later, but with the alternate/deleted scenes this time. should be worth a few more laughs.

on the way home from the circuit, i saw a certain (in)famous personality on the bus. not going to mention names or nicknames, but secondary school students who frequent J8 might - or rather, should - know who he is. kind of odd that in my 8 years or so of going to the J8 area, i've never seen him before today. perhaps that's a good thing.

well, i think i'll catch a nap, then have lunch, before starting on my cleaning/tidying project. hopefully clearing up my computer table doesn't take too long.

-random thought of the day: Tired.-

5 days without blogging...guess i'd better do something before the accumulated pressure makes me explode.

it's been routine stuff for the past few days. nothing really remarkable happened, except for mahjong on saturday. sometimes, i think i should really spend less time with this particular group of friends. there has to be a nice, politically correct way to say "know your limits and back off", right? kind of sad that my supposedly above-average command of english can't help much here. arrgh. talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place.

my mahjong luck's been pretty bad for the past few weeks/months. then again, it could be because i've been out of practice. all the instinct's gone down the drain (or up the lorry, whichever you prefer). took some badly calculated risks, and ended up paying the price, literally. luckily i didn't lose that much.

gave tuition today, as usual. today's session made me really happy! i think my student finally got the points that i've been trying to convey to him, namely that (1) chem is brainless, (2) he's a smart kid, and (3) if he applies himself, he can do really well! he scored 52/72 for his retest, which translates to 72.2% (inclusive of bonus questions). i'm more than satisfied with the result, but there are some concepts where he needs some clarification.

sometimes, seeing the same people for extended periods of time is not good. this is especially true when you haven't been used to seeing them at home for the majority of the day for the past 15 years or so. as horrible as it makes me sound, there IS such a thing as too much interaction with family members. trust me, i know this after 5 months of being inside of home more than out of it. sucks when you don't feel at home at home. if i could, i'd like to stay over at my cousin's (or maybe even at some good friend's) place. but that's proving to be an impossibility, due to certain circumstances which i cannot control. so how? i'll let you know when i figure it out.

anyways i'd better wrap up this post fast. my driving instructor rescheduled my lesson to 6:30am tomorrow, and i have to get sufficient sleep. wouldn't want to trash the car now, would i?

-random thought of the day: I hereby designate tomorrow as spring-cleaning day!-