Waking up early is becoming routine now. i've decided to surrender and stop fighting for the luxury to sleep in a little longer in the mornings. the ultimate sign i'm not fated to sleep in is when i'm woken up by a bad dream at 4:25am, which is a full 1.25 hours before my scheduled wake-up time, and only 3.5 hours after i fell asleep. i figure that since the odds are stacked against my waking up late, i might as well get (re-)used to the idea of waking up early.

the reason i was insane enough to wake up at 5:40am this morning is due to driving. today's circuit went pretty well...no major screw-ups except for an accidental kerb-mount. still can't do a nice, smooth parallel-park yet. i seem to have developed a fear of the rear poles. guess the memory of knocking them down is still fresh in my mind. definitely need some brainwashing to overcome that. otherwise, the rest of the stations are reasonably manageable. i have 2 more circuit sessions before my test date to sort everything out.

personally, i don't really mind failing the driving test once, or even twice. the main reason i don't want to fail NOW is because of the massive inconvenience that additional lessons would cause after university begins. just imagine - the majority of my mornings and afternoons will be spent in school, so that leaves only evenings, nights and weekends free. and i don't think i'll be crazy enough to book a night test date, so that leaves weekend tests as my only option. come to think of it, that may work in my favour. i hear the roads aren't as crowded on weekends. whatever the case is, the best (and easiest) possible outcome is a first-time pass.

not attending training for slightly more than a week has given me a pretty bad case of judo withdrawal symptoms. what's worse is that i came across this interesting new technique that i want to try. the physics are quite ingenious, and everything (limbs, positioning) fits into place quite nicely. i think it'll work well for me, which is why not being able to test it out is frustrating to no end. hopefully i'll be able to make it for training either tomorrow or saturday. then, all i need to do is find a willing victim partner.

i can't continue this post any more. despite the fact that guys work better in noisy environments, there is an upper limit. and i suppose the type of noise makes a difference, too. my conclusion thus far - female voices (especially real live female voices commenting on a predominantly female-populated TV show) = no good. so, i'm off to bed, and resigned to the fact that i'll be waking up early tomorrow.

-random thought of the day: There is truth in the phrase "I can't hear myself think".-

Apparently, someone up in the sky is against me sleeping in. first, it was the infamous SMS on friday, then one of my students forgot that i had a 9:00am lesson with him today (he thought it was at 5:30pm, even though i informed him otherwise this past wednesday). this effectively means i woke up nice and early at 7:00am for nothing! so, i floated around north point for a couple of hours to kill time before the subsequent appointments. floating isn't as easy as it sounds...especially with 90% of the shops closed (hey, it IS sunday morning). ended up browsing around in cold storage just to relieve boredom. it wasn't completely wasted time though; that trip around the supermarket got me thinking about ideas for my cooking project. nothing concrete yet, but at least ideas are forming.

this week's tuition went better than last week. the sec 4 kids did their work! looks like they're waking up as term 3 approaches. i believe that the standard could be better, but i'll take what i can at this point. it's not time to push them all the way yet. that'll happen around their prelim period.

last thing i want to blog about before i go to bed is driving. i can't believe i just agreed to lessons every day from tuesday to sunday. cost factor aside (it comes up to around $600, btw), there's also the stress element. 7 days of driving (including the test date). well, on the flipside, i'll probably be driving every day sooner or later in the future, so better sooner than later, right?

final thought before i go - i suddenly feel like throwing and/or choking someone. probably judo withdrawal symptoms.

-random thought of the day: I won't wake up before 8:30am tomorrow!-

I don't know which is worse - being woken up by an SMS at 8:30am on my designated sleep-in day, or that the SMS read, "omg mj's dead!". it took my sleep-fogged brain a while to decipher the meaning of "mj"...my first thought was mahjong, but that was illogical. the next logical thought was michael jackson, and i really wish i'd been wrong about that. sadly, logging on to facebook and wikipedia proved that it was true.

now...i've never met the guy, or even attended any of his concerts. the closest i've come to being in his presence is probably watching his performances on youtube. despite that, his music has left me with several memories, like the music video from heal the world in sec 2 geog lessons, trying to figure out how he did the anti-gravity lean in his smooth criminal live performances, and of course, thriller (part of it, anyway) as the mass dance song in JC.

i find it quite regrettable that he was so heavily plagued by scandals, especially in the 2000s. some of them were due to him behaving a little irrationally (eg. dangling baby incident), while others were blown up thanks to excessive media attention (eg. the whole child molestation saga. i still believe he's innocent, btw.). well, that, and the fact that i'll never get the chance to watch his concert(s) in person. sucks to think he was planning to tour again in less than a month's time.

well, that's pretty much all i have to say. as a mark of respect, i won't mix this post with my normal routine blogging. so, i'll be heading off now.

-random thought of the day: R.I.P., Michael Jackson, and thanks for the music.-

Despite having a lousy circuit session, i find myself not annoyed in the slightest. i think it's because my instructor was extra-nice today (probably to make up for oversleeping and being 25 minutes late for the lesson). either that, or i'm becoming used to messing up in the circuit (hopefully not).

anyway, today's circuit was arguably the most horrible one out of my 4 or 5 sessions thus far. knocked down 3 poles in 2 attempts at parallel parking (2 on the first try, one on the second) and hit the kerb while doing reverse parking. if i was on test today, my major errors (along with several other minor errors in the circuit and on the road) would have had the potential to triple-fail me. lucky my test isn't for another week and a half.

other than that, nothing really interesting has happened today...except that training's been cancelled until next wednesday due to H1N1 stuff. that means i'll only be able to go back 2 saturdays from now since next wednesday afternoon's taken up by primary school kids, who according to current information, resume their normal training on the first week of term 3. who knows? maybe the school will cancel training too, then i'll be free to go back.

right now, it's about time for me to go to bed. i'm still feeling a little tired, even after the (involuntary) nap i took earlier on. must be from waking up extra-early this morning. and guess what? i have driving: round 2 tomorrow. thankfully it's not as early as today's session, so i can sleep in a little bit more. 2 hours isn't much, but i'll take what i can get.

-random thought of the day: Just a small update...-

Yes! by a series of nice coincidences, coaching has been cancelled tomorrow. one of the kids has tuition (thankfully not with me) while the other kid will be celebrating his birthday. so, we decided to give them both the day off and cancel the session. that frees up my afternoon and enables me to attend training without rushing from point to point. latest word is that tomorrow will be a short session, so i guess i'll debut my new rank on saturday. no point wasting water, soap and effort washing a gi that has been used to a point where it's almost too clean to wash, but too dirty/sweaty to take off and put on again without getting a sick feeling. pity that my wake-up time is unchanged, since i have a driving circuit lesson at the ungodly hour of 6:30am. at least i can come home and catch a nap if i really feel like dropping dead after driving.

since i would be out of the house due to coaching in the morning, i figured i'd go down to the marina square branch of liang seng sports to get my new belt. turns out they didn't have it in stock. the nice salesperson called their tanjong katong branch, and to my great fortune, the stock over there was down to its last piece. so, rather than wait till friday to have it transferred to the serangoon outlet (and waste even more time travelling), i took a largely-unplanned bus ride from the esplanade area to tanjong katong road to get my little errand done. luckily the salespeople from both branches were helpful enough to give me clear directions, especially considering i've never been to the tanjong katong branch before. even more luckily, they had what i wanted in stock, even if it was the very last one. imagine the horror and frustration if there was completely no stock available at this time! what makes it a little worse is that it would have been faster and cheaper for me to go to tanjong katong from yio chu kang (which is where i was originally), as opposed to detouring to city hall first. moral of the story: call in advance to avoid making extra trips.

wasted time and bus fare aside, something good did come out of this. as of today, i know where all 3 branches of liang seng sports are located! now all i have to do is figure out the location of its head office. i remember going there once around 4 to 6 years ago, but the memory's kind of vague. oh well. i don't think i'll be required to go down there anytime soon. but i think i'll look it up on streetdirectory.com later anyway just in case.

i have driving tomorrow...but you know that already. this "2 lessons a week" thing is busting a big hole in my (scratched *cries*) wallet. hopefully i'll be the bearer of good news on 6 july. good news in the form of me being a qualified driver, and not having to waste even more money to book additional lessons and a re-test.

-random thought of the day: I'm half-tempted to scratch the rest of the oxide layer off of my wallet...-

True to expectation, grading (which was held today, and not on saturday) went smoothly. i'd even go as far as to say it was better than i'd hoped for. watching the rest of the people take grading was kind of a shocker. it's one thing to be a novice and not know the relevant japanese terms, but not knowing them after 3 or 4 years of practice is inexcusable. good thing i managed to do everything correctly in front of the juniors, or else my face would have been thrown to the winds. so, it's more or less confirmed that i've been promoted to green. happiness (it's about damn time, too!). looks like i'm still on track to meet my target of black belt by the time i turn 25. i think i even have allowance to miss one black belt grading if need be. but...future concerns belong to the future, so i'll worry about them when the time's right. incidentally, i just found out that first-dan grading costs $100 (with each successive dan grade's price increasing by $100 per grade). better start saving up!

tuition is starting to stress me out. out of the 3 SJI boys, one has managed to severely piss me off by not doing my homework. how hard is it to do 8 questions in 2 weeks? what's worse is that i gave him constant reminders throughout those 2 weeks, and even warned him of the consequences if he blew it off to the last minute. you'd think that my students would learn by now that it is almost impossible to chiong my work last-minute, but NO...they still try it. come on...there's no way a sec 3 kid can outfight a last-minute master like myself. but in all fairness, he's USUALLY not this bad. must be the holiday mood.

after today's lesson, i'm having second thoughts about taking on the newest student. he's in sec 4, but his chem standard is somewhere at the sec 2 level. even my sec 3 kid wasn't this horrible at the start. i don't know whether he has a horrible teacher, or whether it's his attitude (or maybe both), but i have my suspicions based on his performance in the dojo. i am half-inclined to drop this kid, but i'll stick it out for a few more sessions to see if there's any improvement. damn me and my benefit-of-doubt mentality.

by some infinite grace/mercy, the last of the 3 kids isn't giving me any grief. he's actually cooperative and catches on pretty quickly. it makes me feel a little better about giving him a discounted rate (even though i still find his financial difficulty rather dubious...). hopefully i don't jinx myself by saying this, but it would be really nice if he keeps this attitude up until the end of the year.

my stuff keeps getting scratched up. first, it was my phone, and now, it's my wallet. the heart-pain over the phone subsided quite a while ago (in fact, i'm now trying to remove the entire black paint coating), but my wallet's disfigurement is hitting me kind of hard. arrgh! chem knowledge says i can use electrolysis to re-anodize the aluminium, but i don't have the facilities to do that. perhaps i should have gone for a wallet without a metal plate thingy. or maybe i should stop putting my house keys together with my other stuff. they're actually the main cause of the scratches and whatnot. then again, the focus should be on functionality and "inner beauty", right? looks don't really matter that much. besides, with my stuff looking this beat-up, thieves are less likely to pay attention if i leave anything lying around.

coaching and driving are forcing me to wake up early every morning. it's to the extent that i'm starting to wake up a few minutes (and sometimes, a few hours) before my alarm sounds. not that that's a bad thing, especially since university's starting soon. i have to get used to reduced sleeping hours. accomplishing that will be easy, especially since my next few days are occupied by coaching, training, driving and tuition. not to mention i have to help my boss pack up for his house-moving. nice to see my schedule filling up. it's something like progressive training in army, where your training load gets heavier and heavier as the critical event approaches.

well, i think i'll end off here. there's actually some more stuff in my head waiting to be written, but it's in a big mess. guess i'll wait until it sorts itself out, or until i forget the entire thing, whichever happens first.

-random thought of the day: Need to sleep early tonight.-

Having a pretty relaxed day today helped to boost my spirits quite significantly. spent the top half of the day catching up on my reading, and managed to finish a chicken soup for the soul book, as well as a bit more of a tale of two cities. i swear, that book's cursed or something. i can't seem to finish it! the worst thing is that i'm a pretty fast reader (by normal singaporean standards). so far, no book has survived more than a week of regular reading without being finished...except this one, which is into its 5th week already. guess the old-fashioned writing style slows me down, and the fact that i only read it on weekends while travelling between tuition venues doesn't really help either. at any rate, i have to finish up the remaining half of the book within the next 3 days, or else i'll have to renew my library loan (again, which is not something i want to do more than once for any given book).

my plan for this sunday was to test out whether i could arrange my schedule so that i could meet all 3 of my SJI boys for tuition. thing is, i hadn't counted on a little stumbling block, in the form of a friend's (well, more like a close acquaintance's) wedding dinner. lucky i remembered it early enough (i'd thought it was scheduled for the 21st of NEXT month, but then i realized that that particular day wouldn't be a sunday, which i knew was the day that the dinner was planned for), so i was able to shift my timings around. the latest development is that i'm seeing 2 of them on sunday morning and afternoon, and the last one on monday morning. hopefully i won't be drunk off my ass from the previous night and miss the lesson.

you know, something's still bugging me. as far as i can see, my current solution to the scheduling problem is the best possible one. nevertheless, i can't help but feel that there's something i'm NOT seeing, and that there is a better solution, in which i can squeeze all 3 kids into 1 day and still make it in time for the wedding dinner. am i being too ambitious? probably. i should just accept it and stick to the present arrangement. after all, i'm still getting my job done, just that it has spilled over to an additional day. no worries.

now that my driving test is a little more than 2 weeks away (*gasps and screams*), i've started taking 2 lessons a week. in fact, i just had this week's second lesson today. the lesson focused on test routes, and while i wouldn't call it fantastic just yet, it was definitely better than my circuit lesson this past wednesday. hence, my belief is reinforced - circuits are bad for my health and morale. if only there was a way to get my license (without leaving the country) without going through the circuit. i'd willingly take an alternate version of the test in which they make me drive through all 10 test routes, with the circuit portion completely omitted. do you have any idea how happy of a driver that would make me? less skilled, but much happier as compared to at present. sounds like a worthwhile trade to me! sadly, the traffic police doesn't share my views on this matter. good thing too. i can just imagine the astronomical increase in parking- and slope-related accidents if my idea was implemented. really have to start brainwashing myself to believe that the existence of driving circuits is for the greater good. arrgh.

grading's tomorrow! after watching the others demonstrate the techniques during wednesday's training, i'm not THAT worried any more. turns out there are juniors who don't know their japanese terminology at all, and are unfamiliar with their basics. i'm not going to be arrogant and say tomorrow's a sure-pass, but i'd say my odds aren't as low as i'd thought...as long as my knee holds out, at least.

-random thought of the day: Circuits are good...circuits are good...-

Originally, i was feeling way worse than i am now. thank goodness a little nap helped to improve my mood. that's not to say i feel fantastic, but at least things don't seem as horrible as before.

driving's driving (pun unintended) me up the wall! my instructor seems to have lost all confidence in me...he's going back to controlling the wheel and exhibiting increasingly kan-cheong body language. can't exactly blame him, because honestly, i can feel that my performance level has decreased in the past few sessions. i really wish i could be a passenger in my own vehicle, so that i'd know how he feels when i drive. now that my test is drawing nearer (2 weeks to go!), i've increased the frequency of my driving lessons. hopefully that will bring my skill level up enough to justify the extra $$ spent on it.

just when i thought my coaching obligations were over (temporarily, at least) my boss called to tell me that 2 of the primary school kids requested for extra training. so, i've been waking up early for the past 2 days. maybe the long waking hours are contributing to the moodiness...i don't know. the private coaching is actually done almost for free thanks to one of the kids' parents bargaining for low rates. factoring in transportation and meal costs, i think we lose money on some days! but once again, earning money is not the primary goal. that's just a nice bonus. it's the learning opportunities that are the real reward.

recently, the change-resistant part of me is sort of wondering what it would be like if i decided to pass up on university, and continue tutoring/coaching as a career. while it is a tempting option, logic tells me that it's unfeasible, and is like taking the easy way out, in a way. looks like that'll be relegated to a side-line after all.

well, i'd best be off to bed. need to get an early start since there's tuition tomorrow, and i have to go to serangoon to get my replacement gi pants.

-random thought of the day: I still don't feel 100% fine...I wonder why?-

Sian! all 90 vacancies for the upcoming NCAP level 1 course (aka. basic coaching certification, if you haven't been following the acronyms) have been taken up, within the short span of TWO DAYS. i mean, i'd be a little less pissed off if i had waited a week or two and was told that the course was full. looks like i have to camp by my computer to get a spot in the next course, which i may eventually end up passing over due to university obligations. whatever the case, i intend to get it over with by the end of 2010.

another reason to be sian is that my knee popped again during training yesterday. this time, it was thanks to one of the juniors, who didn't know/realize i had an injury. while i am (was, anyway) inclined to slap him silly on the spot, i later rationalized that bu zhi zhe wu zui (a chinese idiom that basically means ignorant parties cannot be blamed for their offences). besides, i was too focused on the minor pain and weird sensations in my knee to carry out any violent thoughts. at least he apologized, so that helped a little. and of all the unfortunate times for it to happen, my gi pants tore! i thought they were supposed to be long-lasting and wear-resistant. now i have to schedule a trip either to liang seng or that shop in kallang which my friend told me about. i think i'll do that after driving, which is set for this coming tuesday.

normally, i would have followed each of the above paragraphs with a short "moral of the story" kind of thing. you know, like "don't procrastinate (no matter how long/short)" for the NCAP thing, and "don't kay-kiang and train when you're not at 100%" for the knee. well, i figure anyone with half a brainstem can figure out these morals for themselves. besides, i did kind of give it away, only that it's presented in a more roundabout fashion.

ok...enough unhappy stuff. let's move on to something brighter, like the fact that my coaching's over! surviving five consecutive mornings spent seeing primary school kids is no mean feat, especially considering i'm not a morning person. this is the only time i'm going to admit that in all honesty, it wasn't that bad...especially towards the last few days. we even celebrated three kids' birthdays since they fell around that time. call it coaching with a human touch. thanks to that, my wallet's $150 heavier (it would have been $200, but we covered the cost of a birthday cake and their shoe rentals). not bad for a couple hours' work per day, eh?

the second thing to be more or less happy about is that i've started tuition with 2 new students! as mentioned before, one of them's my nephew. he's a little slower in picking up some concepts (that's not to say he's stupid or anything like that, mind you), but i think he got them eventually. he should be ok with a little prodding.

my other new student is the SJI judo captain. now, this guy needs WAY more stretching. his concepts are either shaky or nonexistent, mainly because he's been sleeping in chem class since sec 3. so, you can probably imagine the magnitude of the miracle that i have to work. lucky thing's that he's a pretty fast learner. now that i've been to his place, i find one thing a little hard to believe. he previously told me that he had some financial difficulties, so i agreed to a lower rate. but when i went to his place, i noticed he has (1) a PS2, (2) a PS3, (3) cable TV, (4) a maid, (5) an ipod nano, (6) a well-furnished bedroom with air-con, which is not all that common for HDB units. despite my suspicions, i'll still give him the benefit of doubt. from what i understand, he's paying part of the fee himself, so maybe the financial difficulty applies to him, and not his parents.

recalling my conversation with Mr Lee some months ago, my primary aim in giving tuition is not for the money. my primary aim is to help my friends (and by extension their friends, should i choose to take them on) to understand the subject better and score well for their exams. sounds so noble, right? but seriously, i think it's the influence of people whom i hold in high esteem. somehow, very few of them (if any at all) are overly concerned about money issues. well, even if they were, i doubt they'd tell me about it. as you can see, that's somehow rubbed off on me. in the end, my students are the ones who gain. with any luck, they'll learn the same from me.

oh. i have yet another potential student! he's also from SJI judo (good decision for me to resume training!) and is, unfortunately, in sec 4 this year as well. i'll look through his mid-year paper this wednesday after training and see if my initial estimations are on-target or not.

i'm noticing a trend among my sec 4 students. seems like all of them can't get the hang of some of the inorganic chem topics, especially electrolysis. personally, i find it kind of odd that they have trouble with it, since i got it in 10 minutes. then again, my students don't have the privilege of having (arguably) the best chem teacher in the country explaining the topic to them. i suppose that chem teacher's student (that refers to me, btw, in case you haven't figured it out yet) can pass off as a substitute. it's an imperfect substitution, but take what you can get, right? besides, i think i do a pretty good job of explaining electrolysis. call me shameless, but that's what i really feel.

well, this has been my most substantial post in a while. took me 3 hours to write (factoring in short breaks and all)! lucky i don't have to wake up early for coaching tomorrow. time for me to do one last round of upgrading in galaxy online before going to bed.

-random thought of the day: I need to reduce my sleeping hours!-

Please excuse my lack of updates for the past few days. getting up early in the morning to prepare for coaching and actually conducting the coaching itself is quite a significant strain on my energy levels. i really wonder how i'll survive uni life in 2 months' time. one thing i'm thankful for is that the kids are better-behaved than the primary 3s. no need to put on a stern face all the time. so far, i've done 3 out of the 5 days, and if everything goes as smoothly as it has so far, it looks like i'll be in for an easy time. i just wish that the kids would do exactly as we told them though. it's like, you watch them bowl, then you plan a suitable line for them. but when you tell them to try it out, something goes wrong. their aim will be off, they'll change the way they release the ball...in general, they'll just do something that makes the nice line not work. so horrible. well, at least there's not much pressure on them for the competition. no need for a top 3 finish or stuff like that. takes stress off the coaches too.

had circuit driving this morning, which means that i got up extra-early to be on time. turns out my instructor was 20 minutes late. this circuit sucked big-time. could be because we got the lesson started on the wrong foot. somehow, things didn't go that well. screwed up perpendicular parking once, parallel parking multiple times, the S-course (which i thought i'd mastered during the previous session), and the crank course (which i never thought i'd mastered). all in all, quite a buanged experience. and guess what? my test is in less than a month's time! looks like i need to up the frequency of my circuit sessions. the only thing preventing me from doing that is the cost factor. 2 circuits a week = $149 total! plus waking up hell of an early as an added disadvantage. all for a card that says i can drive cars not exceeding 2500/3500kg(?) in unladen weight. oh well. what to do? it's the price of convenience.

my NUS orientation package came in the mail while i was away at camp. i've looked through it, and i'm actually pretty overwhelmed with all the information. so far, my tired-out mind has managed to process that i have to go down to NUS sometime in late july to register for the course or something like that. i also have to matriculate, but i don't know when that happens. apparently, signing up for orientation camps and stuff like that is optional...or at least i think it is. headache. i think i'll sort it out after coaching tomorrow.

i was planning on going to the library to return my books and borrow some more, but...nah. no energy. i'll leave that for tomorrow as well. meanwhile, time for dinner and some TV to destress.

-random thought of the day: Brain...exploding...-

Well, training camp's over and done with, and i'm now back at home with a whole new load of aches and abrasions. not to mention a (re-)popped left knee, which is becoming quite an annoyance. oh well. back to the nice chinese doctor for more needles and pain soon.

this particular training camp was pretty successful, but not as good as it could have been. for one, it was too quiet. not enough cheering/shouting. didn't really feel the team spirit for the majority of the training sessions. second thing is that the J2 and sec 4 captains didn't really push/encourage their juniors that hard/much, as compared to my year. then again, the present captains aren't semi-inhuman, so i guess that's to be expected. the training was more slack, too, since the present juniors aren't as fit as the people from my year were. i'm amongst the less-fit ones, so i can't really comment much on this. but i guess what i can talk about is their mindset. the kids in school today seem to put CCA as the very last item on their priority lists. i'd be a little more forgiving if only the sec 4s and J2s were doing it (what with major exams at the end of the year), but that's not the case! well...the juniors will probably regret that a few years down the road (those that care, at least).

ok...i'm not going to turn this post into a comparison between different eras/generations any more than it already is. all in all, i had fun in the camp, and got free food, lodging and training. i even got to bond a little more with some juniors as a bonus. what more could i ask for? hmm...monetary remuneration would be nice, but let's not push my luck.

surprisingly, i got 2 potential tuition students over this weekend! one of them's the SJI judo captain, while the other's my nephew. i really wonder how both of these will turn out. funny thing about this year's sec 4 kids. quite a few of them are actually aiming for poly instead of JC. nothing wrong about that, but i'm just surprised by the number of them who share this train of thought. heh. different times, i suppose.

i'd really love to blog about every single detail of the things that have happened over the past few days, but my brain isn't being cooperative now. so, time for me to sleep and recharge. 15 primary school kids await me tomorrow morning.

-random thought of the day: Bedtime!-

It's been about 45 minutes since i got back from my run. the pace was reasonable (if just a little bit slower than usual), and it was nice to have company for a change. turns out my friend's more cui-fied than i am, but that's due to 4 months of not exercising. even though i slowed down for him, it didn't make that much of a difference, because i felt myself dying too. let's do some number-crunching:

total distance - 8km (rounded off)
total time - 65 minutes (rounded off)
average speed - 7.38km/h (3sf), or 123m/min (3sf) or 2.05m/s (3sf)

compare this with my cousin, who ran 8km for some mothers' day event in australia:

total distance - 8km
total time - 36:21
average speed - 13.2km/h (3sf), or 220m/min (3sf) or 3.67m/s (3sf)

data shows he's about 1.79 times fitter than me. depressing. but hey - it sounds better than "i'm 1.79 times more cui than him", right? still, regardless of how it's phrased, what makes it worse is that training camp's in a couple of days. while having "senior" status is good in some ways, it also means that your standard (in technique, knowledge and fitness) has to be at least equal to, if not higher than, the current students/juniors. you know, with great power comes great responsibility, or something to that effect. like that how!??

several times during the run, my friend and i were forced to divert our course due to couples occupying the entire width of the footpath. normally, this wouldn't even be worth mentioning, but there were quite a lot of them today. what's worse is that while i was trying to avoid one of these couples at the start of the run, i somehow stumbled on a tree root or something (bad army habit - not running with glasses on) and fell. lucky i've been going back into judo. managed to do a half-assed breakfall and reduced the damage to a scrape on my left elbow, a slightly strained left ankle and some wounded pride. quite annoying. are people really so occupied by their girl/boyfriends that they can't see/hear a large, heavy-breathing mass entering their immediate vicinity? if i was feeling evil and sadistic, i'd have just ran between them, sweat and all. but...nah.

ok, now about the money thing that i briefly mentioned just now. for some odd reason, my dad wants me to take a study loan for my university fees. now, i'm actually quite against borrowing money, be it from a person or an organization. unless i have no choice, that is. also, my reluctance to borrow the money is directly proportional to the sum of money i have to borrow. right now, the impression my dad's giving me is that he wants me to take the loan not because we're unable to cough up the required sum, but because of some economy/economic thing that helps us to save money when we get out of recession. its finer points elude me, but that's the general idea. personally, i don't see why we can't just pay upfront and forget the hassle of loans, repayment and interest. unless i am sadly mistaken, and we don't have the required sum off-hand at this time (improbable, but not impossible), or my dad has other plans for the money (more likely, since he's a financial planner and all...). whatever the case, i suppose the worst thing that could happen is that my savings go into funding my first year, and i give WAY more tuition to re-boost my bank account.

but...let's not worry about the distant future yet. the near future's put enough problems on my plate already. as a reminder, these are the things i have to do tomorrow:

- consider going for a recovery swim
- dropping by the library to return my books and borrow new ones
- getting AAA-sized batteries
- HAIRCUT!
- getting 22 packets of electrolyte salts
- finish setting the remainder of the holiday homework
- messing around with the mp3 player and uploading stuff into it
- looking for more motivational/fast-paced songs to upload for running/training use
- deciding what to pack for training camp

quite a lot of stuff, isn't it? it actually looks tougher and more tedious than it actually is. i figure i'll be able to finish the majority of the stuff (if not all of it) by tomorrow night. then, the top half of friday is dedicated to relaxing, before i go up the training camp lorry. but first thing first - time to head off to bed. need to recover after the run, and what better way to do it than sleep?

Right now, i'm giving second, third and fourth thoughts to my decision to take a long run. while i am tempted to call the whole thing off, i know that i'll hate myself for it later. as such, i'm sticking to it, i guess. besides, one of my JC friends expressed interest to join, so that's additional motivation to get it done. in view of my running buddy, i've changed the route from the bus 410 one to an extended version of my normal route. total distance is around 8.4km, so it's slightly longer. target time remains unchanged - 1 hour.

with approximately 80 minutes left until the commencement of the run, i'm feeling nervous/apprehensive. kind of unnecessary/stupid actually, since i'm not being timed and i don't have any expectations (except my own) to live up to. oh well...i figure i'll blog about other stuff to distract myself.

had driving today, doing test routes. traffic was especially horrible, probably due to the rain. today's lesson showed me that i still panic under stressful situations, but thankfully, no major mishap happened. i wonder...does getting your license bestow some magical "ai-zai" power upon you? i don't really notice fully qualified drivers having off days on the road, and i'd hate to be the only one that does. bleh. think i STILL need more practice before i can be fully confident. i just wish it would be a little easier though.

did some shopping after driving. i did get the mp3 player after all, along with some water- and sweat-resistant earphones. wanted to get the electrolyte salts too, but guardian didn't have stock. looks like that's an errand for tomorrow then. oh. i brilliantly forgot to get AAA-sized batteries for the mp3 player. one more thing to push back! in addition, i managed to set 4 holiday homework questions, with maybe 2 more to go. just need to find suitable values for the calculations. somehow, i don't think i'm focusing enough on the theoretical aspect. then again, it's pretty annoying to ask long-winded theory questions. think i'll give it some more thought and work on it a bit more tomorrow.

minor hiccups aside, i'm pretty on-schedule! yays. the biggest downside to all these preparations is that the size of the hole blown in my wallet has increased exponentially. then again, i stopped using my budget spreadsheet a couple of months ago. now, my budget is more of a damage control issue, where i must have a bare-minimum sum in my account when university begins.

speaking of university and money, there's an issue i want to blog about. but not right now. with half an hour to go, my mind just isn't working well enough to process the information. i'll save it for the next post then. meanwhile, i'm going to get physically and mentally prepared for the run.

-random thought of the day: Arrgh.-

John Denver - Leaving On A Jet Plane

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

There's so many times I've let you down
So many times I've played around
I tell you now, they don't mean a thing
Every place I go, I'll think of you
Every song I sing, I'll sing for you
When I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

*Guitar Solo *

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time let me kiss you
Close your eyes I'll be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I won't have to leave alone
About the times, I won't have to say

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh baby, I hate to go

Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

i was feeling a little restless/irritable just now, and that is not a good frame of mind to be in in general. that, and it made setting my tuition kid's holiday homework a real bitch too. so, i went to youtube and put leaving on a jet plane on. there's something quite calming about certain types of music. or maybe i just needed some background noise. it's proven that guys work better with some form of sound in the background, like music from the TV, radio or computer. girls...not so much. they need quieter environments.

ok...so much for my occasional pointless fact. on to marginally more serious business. every time i give tuition on sundays, i keep getting the urge to get on amazon.com to buy a replica captain america shield. reason? to bash through the crowd that, for some odd reason, must congregate at the MRT door, even before the train stops. looks like the government wasted all that money on courtesy campaigns. it's getting really annoying, actually. not like the train's going to leave before you get in, right? the worst thing is that some people rush into the train cabin, and stay close to the door, obstructing traffic and slowing down others' entrances and exits. i mean, it wouldn't be so bad if they pushed their way in to stand in the centre of the cabin, thus making room for other passengers. i'd even understand if they pushed in to grab the good seats (though that's still frowned upon). but NO...they fight their way in to stand at the door. anyone else sense a logical flaw somewhere along this line? so, i've taken to just walking out of the train door when it opens, too bad for anyone who's in my way. sure, it's a little immature, but nobody's perfect. besides, nobody gets seriously hurt, and it helps me to blow off steam too. at least i don't try to sweep up any feet in my path.

my shopping/errand list still has not been reduced to zero! this is bad, considering training camp's coming up, and i have to get the majority (if not all) of the stuff done before then. the list includes things like:

- getting a haircut
- seriously considering getting the mp3 player
- uploading motivational music and voice tracks into the mp3 player (provided #2 is done)
- getting more electrolyte salts
- packing for the training camp
- getting a birthday card, and depositing it and the present at a friend's place
- sticking to my training plan
- setting holiday tuition homework
- possibly cooking lunch/dinner one of these days

everything needs to be done by this thursday night, except for the last item, which probably looks a little out of place, but i do miss home-cooked food. sad to say i haven't had a home-cooked meal since february, around the CNY period. it's understandable, since everyone at home either lacks the time or the skill to cook. but i think i'll give it a try, probably after training camp and coaching is over, ie. the third week of june at the earliest. should be fun.

-random thought of the day: There goes my budget plan...-