Trying to figure out this life.

earworm: [avril lavigne - I'm with you]

I'm standing on a bridge

I'm waiting in the dark

I thought that you'd be here by now

There's nothing but the rain

No footsteps on the ground

I'm listening but there's no sound

Isn't anyone tryin to find me?

Won't somebody come take me home

It's a damn cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Won't you take me by the hand

Take me somewhere new

I don't know who you are

But I... I'm with you

I'm with you

I'm looking for a place

I'm searching for a face

Is anybody here I know

'Cause nothing's going right

And everything's a mess

And no one likes to be alone

Isn't anyone trying to find me?

Won't somebody come take me home

It's a damn cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Won't you take me by the hand

Take me somewhere new

I don't know who you are

But I... I'm with you

I'm with you

Oh why is everything so confusing

Maybe I'm just out of my mind

Yea yea yea It's a damn cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Won't you take me by the hand

Take me somewhere new

I don't know who you are

But I... I'm with you

I'm with you

Take me by the hand

Take me somewhere new

I don't know who you are

But I... I'm with you

I'm with you

Take me by the hand

Take me somewhere new

I don't know who you are

But I... I'm with you

I'm with you

I'm with you...

This will be my final post. I'd initially thought of deleting it altogether, but I've had this blog url since 2002, so I couldn't bear to.

My darlings in happier times.

An hour before Nelly died.

My life will go on as per normal of course -- I will continue train hard, study even harder and live life to the fullest (I seriously mean it this time). I regret not taking the dog out for walks and not taking photos with her on my 21st; I simply didn't expect her to not live past her 5th birthday. A good friend told me that a part of me died when she died and I fully agree with him. Maybe someday I'll get the answers I'm looking for.

Now I finally realise what people mean when they say that martial arts is a way of life. Ju-jitsu has become a way of life for me and I'm lovin' every minute of it. I got into it entirely by accident, but I really believe it wasn't by chance. I have no idea if I will go for grading, because I feel like I'm not up to standard, but then again, there's still time to train for it. ;)

Many thanks for reading my blog since 2002, in spite of the fact that I've been updating pretty sporadically in the past three years or so.

Take care and have fun, y'all! =D

I've been watching films on TV today and I'm telling myself that I'm doing it as research/homework for my English module. Haha. It is, in a way, because we analyse films - or rather, snippets of films - during our classes anyway and for our group project, we're analysing a MTV. I usually have to bid for film modules, because I can't get what I initially want, but they generally turn out to be pleasant surprises, with lots of film-viewing and watching TV for homework. :)

Tomorrow will be the third week of school. It's been nothing short of boring with a capital B so far. Boring is good though, because that means that I have more time for other things. Oh yes, I'm hoping that I'll get a reply - if I get any at all - soon! -crosses fingers really hard-

Alrighty, I'm off to sleep now. Enjoy the weekend!

Deadlines, deadlines, dead...

I have one last project group to finalise by tomorrow. I'm starting to drown in my work now -- I have a 54-page psych-stats reading to do by tonight, submit my application, prepare for 10am meeting tomorrow, post some intelligent entries on the forum and think about whether I'll have the mental capacity for tomorrow's training 8-10pm, since I'm busy from 10am to 6pm.

I'm not trying to be Wonder Woman; it's just that everything is suddenly falling on me like an avalanche. My sincere apologies to Johnny, whom I was supposed to meet for dinner with tonight, but had to cancel at the last minute. In any case, my first psych-stats presentation is next week! Really, really soon. Research methods isn't the most interesting fields for me, but I can live with it.

I need to start watching more films for my film module. Yes, I watch films for homework and analyse them. How fun, right?! It's beginning to be quite interesting, especially when the English language prof incorporates cognitive psychology into his classes; the same thing happened with my other English language prof. I'm okay with cognitive psychology, not strictly as a discpline on its own, but within the field of social cognition. ;)

I'm off to drown in my work. More later.

Today was such a long and tiring day. So far, only one out of my four project groups have been finalised. Big fat headache man. And I have a 10am project meeting this Friday -- so early! -whine- To make matters worse, I can't seem to get my readings for all but one of my modules this sem! This will mean that I will have an avalanche of readings dropping directly on my head very soon. Pffft.

On the lighter side of things. There's training tomorrow night. I really need to work on my punches, blocks, tai-otoshi and mae-mawari-ukemi. Yes, mae-mawari-ukemi. -palms face in embarassment- I've either skipped too many warm-ups which is why I can't remember how to do them or I'm starting to lack confidence in my ukemis. I only dare to jump over obstacles during grading season, because I need to. Haha. Gonna meet Johnny before warm-up to practise stuffs! Yay!

Okay, I'm off to sleep. Tiring day...

Photo post!

I hope this week will turn out better than last week.

Both my mum and Johnny said that I am fated to stay in training when I told them what happened last Friday. Am I? Perhaps. I tried to go back to salsa again, but alas, due to very unforeseen circumstances, I'll be training my heart out once again. Not that I mind of course, because I've got nice Senseis and dojo mates. Yes Johnny, you fall under the 'nice dojo mates'. =P

Thank you Bestie for coming down on Saturday! Really appreciate it! *hugz* Now I truly know what best friends are for! =D

Okay, I shall post some pictures from Saturday night. Haha. Enjoy!

Me, Bestie and M acting cute! We've known one another since we were around 11 years old.

F and me! That is his natural height, around 2 metres. Whoaaa.

ZW, HJ and me eating ice-cream! We usually go home together. Haha.

ZH and me! I demo-ed with him the kote-gaeshi, waki-gatame and kuzure ode-osae. I am like how gentle lah! =P

The demo didn't really go as well as we had expected it to. Then again, casualties are not uncommon in this sport; it's more common to get injuries than to be injury-free actually. I have had so many bruises that I've lost count. It takes me about a month to recover from each sprain or abrasion. But it all pays off in the end, as any jujitsuka would tell you. ;)

Okay, I'm off to sleep. Enjoy the week, y'all!

How do you expect me to be serious when you paired me up with him?! Thank goodness a certain someone wasn't around, cos his jokes are really lame. Haha. Anyways, I am doing nice, simple stuff like kote-gaeshi, waki-gatame and kuzure ode-osae; however, I seriously don't remember learning waki-gatame, although it looks like a kesa-gamate done backwards to me. I need to mentally run through them when I have the time and do them properly on Friday. I know what needs to be done -- it's just that I'm better at the theory than practice. Haha.

So my fourth module turned out to be slightly better than I had expected. I think there's a lot of hot air and smoke though, but we shall see. Somehow, I find that people outside the Psych department are always intrigued whenever I go 'Yes I'm a psychology major', especially when I reveal such knowledge in a room full of English majors. Haha. I enjoy my English modules -- they're refreshingly different from the numerous experiments, empirical evidence and statistics that we do in Psych. In any case, I still have one last module to sample on Friday -- a psych module that's very heavily based on statistics. Ahhh.

Oh yes, I'm waiting for my CJ Xiao Long Bao from Johnny, because he got silver for his IPPT! Congratulations, Dude! Rest well and I'll see you on Friday, ok? No more skipping warm-up man -- I almost forgot how to do a mae-mawari-ukemi today! Really. Sheesh. Bad bad. Haha.

Okay, I shall go sleep now. So many readings to do for Friday! Laters!

First day of school.

The first day of school today. Nothing exciting really; I shall just briefly summarise.

If it weren't for CW's SMSes asking for a class reunion/outing this morning, I don't think I would have woken up on time. We were supposed to have our third year reunion, but I guess everyone's just too busy lazy to organise one; I organised the first two, so it's someone else's turn.

I went for my first (psych) lecture of this sem and it was bad -- really bad. The pretty lecturer had this East-European-mixed-British accent and I had difficulty deciphering what she was trying to say 99% of the time; basically I learnt nothing from this lecture. Seems like I'm not the only one, cos I bumped into my project group mate from last sem and he shared my sentiments. Haha.

Then I headed off to Vivo to do some shopping and bought 2 tops (one red one for CNY). My mum just asked me where I was when there was a heavy storm in the afternoon and I told her 'Vivo'. Haha. I spent about 2 hours there. After that, I came back to school (Science fac) for another lecture. It was supposed to be 2.5 hours, but turned out to be 50 minutes! ^_^ So I went home, was starved and ate a whole lot of sultana biscuits and oat-choc biscuits, because I had a huge sweet craving.

The new fish are doing fine. I'm hoping to do some amateur landscaping, but that will take some time and effort. I'm not doing the rocks/shiny pebbles, driftwood and real plants thing again -- just some pretty ornaments and more fake plants will do. Low-maintenance and good-looking. =D

Okay, I'm off to watch TV. Hope this sem moves a little more slowly than the last one!

Fish!

So school begins tomorrow! Of course I'm still in the holiday mood. I just came home from buying fish with my mum -- live fish, that is. After three years of breeding guppies, I've decided to stop, mainly because the last batch (both adult and youngster guppies) died suddenly like three per day within a few days, possibly because I had accidentally over-chlorinated the water. C'mon, I won't deliberately kill my pet fish ok!

Anyways, I got 10 large neon tetras, 5 balloon platys (3 males and 2 females -- yes I know how to differentiate them), 3 sterbia corys (bottom-feeders) and a pair of Shubunkin goldfish. I didn't want to buy more, because I've only got a humble 2-foot tank.

I have kept neon tetras before and I know they are pretty hardy. I have bred balloon platys before and only got one offspring. I haven't kept the bottom-feeders before, but I have kept feeder goldfish before, one of which grew to a good size before it died. Haha. So yup, I'm hoping that the Shubunkins will do well too. =D

My mum refuses to let me keep suckerfish anymore, ever since Monster the humongous suckerfish died two weeks after Nelly died.

Here's Monster, my pet suckerfish which I had kept for 2.5 years. It grew to more than twice its size, which was really unexpected. I really like keeping bigger-sized fish in addition to breeding small fish, because then I can track the number of months/years that I've kept it.

I've just observed the new fish and they seem to be adjusting, although the Shubunkins and sterbia corys are still quite shy. I shall observe them for the next couple of days and see how it goes. =))

Hope the first week of school goes well and that I picked good (read: fun and interesting) modules! Enjoy the week, y'all!

I've finally settled my timetable this sem. Twice, I had to do last-min timetable-restructuring, because I couldn't get module A yesterday and then I couldn't get module B today. It was extremely unexpected that despite the major changes, I still got a decent timetable, probably better than the original one I had planned! Two wrongs do make a right on occasion, it seems.

Later, I'll be heading down to school to get my texts and readings, come home to put my stuff, and then go for training and learn whatever they want me to demo. I hope it's just some simple wrist locks. The guys will be doing sticks demo I think, which I am really bad in. Haha.

Okay, I'm off to sleep. School starts this Monday!

I'm really glad that I got both elective modules that I bidded for today! I was quite worried that I wouldn't get them, because they were Plan B; I got outbidded in Plan A, you see. Thanks Bes once again for helping me check the results! Hope you get your elective(s) too okay! ;D

G just told me that "all seniors cannot escape the demo". Ahhh!! Okay, let's just hope I get something easy like kote-gaeshi or ura-kote (wrist locks)! Just so you know, the ju-jitsu demo will be held at Tanglin CC on 19 Jan (Sat), around 6.30-7pm, I think. If you need more details, please feel free to ask me! :)

Another day of packing my room and starting ready for the new school term today.

More later!

873 bid points and counting...

earworm: [christina aguilera - what a girl wants]

They say if you love something let it go

If it comes back it's yours

That's how you know

It's for keeps, yeah, it's for sure

(taken from Christina Aguilera - What a Girl Wants)

I guess I will help out in the demo next Saturday -- y'know, just go there and learn some locks. I usually don't like doing this kinda thing when school starts, but I'll do it because the instructor who trained me asked me. Heh.

Anyways, one of my GEMs is seriously difficult to bid for! Within 10 minutes or so, the number of people bidding had already reached double its quota and now the minimum bid points is 873. Scary!!! Just a note, my other GEM's minimum bid point is 1. Haha. Hope I have enough bid points to get them both, because I've already created a nice timetable for myself this sem. :)

Okays, I'm off to watch TV on this lazy, rainy Tuesday afternoon. Thank goodness I didn't agree to inline-skating today, because I'd already predicted a rainy day today. Haha. I'd rather go ice-skating than inline-skating anytime though.

BESTIE! How are you doing siah? Just let me know when you are free okays, then we will hang out. Your place, my place, SK, anywhere also can, except for your uni and my uni... too far lah! Hahaha. ;D

Sigh. I seriously miss Bestie's company man. I know your lessons start on Monday dearie, hope everything turns out great! :)

As for me, well I have this brunch thingy organised by my Finnish friend later; a bunch of us used to go salsa clubbing a lot back then. I only know one person who's going as well, so yup.

Okay, because my photos are on Facebook, here's the link to view them. It's so much easier to upload photos there than here!

I'm going to go sleep now. One last week of bidding for modules with high bid-points, packing my room part 2 and shopping for the new sch ssem! ;D

More soon!

It's going to be one tiring weekend -- I can feel it already.

I tested out the Asics Gel Kayano 13 (women) today and I think it's a good buy! Of course it still feels stiff since I just got it two days ago, but I think they'll fit nicely once they're seasoned. The man at the shoe shop estimated my shoe size just by looking at my feet, which I thought was pretty amazing -- such skills only come from lots of experience! I had given him a random size, but he gave me a pair that was a half-size bigger and when I came home to compare with my old Kayano, they were numerically different sizes but physically the same size! Btw, I bought my old Kayano at the same shop years ago. Haha.

My free day for next sem should be Wednesday, if all goes well. So far, one of my psych modules (a lab module, which means that it is much more heavily based on statistics and experiments than usual) has only 5 people in it, beating the social cognition module I took last sem which had 8 people. Haha. How strange is that?!

Anyways, I'm going to go sleep now. Enjoy the weekend! :)

Planning for this sem's timetable has been a pain. Oh wait, planning timetables every sem is always a pain! I am probably going to take 2 psych electives (1 theory, 1 lab), 1 english and 2 UEs, which I haven't quite figured out what yet, although I've narrowed it down to science GEMs so far. I've heard horror stories about business modules, so I'm steering clear of them. Haha. In case you're wondering, yes we have lab modules in psychology that mainly consist of a lot of psych statistics (the dreaded SPSS programme!), experimental designs and of course, experiments and more experiments! We don't just study the mentally unsound all the time, yah? That's just one tiny aspect of psychology.

Anyways, I don't understand why the modules that I had picked for MPE weren't pre-allocated this time round! This means I have to bid later at 9am. Sian. I wake up at 12 noon these days, so waking up at 9am will be difficult. Hope I get the psych modules I want.

In any random news, the holidays have been nothing short of good - lots of catching up, good food and time to think about stuff. However, I'm still hoping to stay at home more to do more spring-cleaning of my room though, because I'm only about halfway done. Oh yes, training resumes tomorrow night and I'll be having dinner with G before we head down for training; think I might persuade him to skip warm-up! Heh. G and I are expecting some new faces, because we assume that people make New Year resolutions such as "Want to learn a new and obscure sport - Checked". Haha.

School begins on 14 January. Hope I can do everything that I want to do by then! =D

Nite.

Hello 2008, Byebye 2007!

Happy New Year in advance!

Bidding is in 3 days and I still haven't decided on my timetable yet -- should I have my free day on Monday or Wednesday? Haha. I guess I'll enjoy the NYE countdown first before making my decision. :)

Hope everything works out for Bestie! ;D