Met hui for weights yesterday and did shoulders, lat and back.

As a result, was a little XD during this morning's canoeing sea training. Thought I was in trouble during the warmup rowing when shoulders felt heavy in the hot sun. But later during the sprints felt a little better:

During first sprint went off course and omg... that busturt melvin rammed the back of my T1 and made me swerve even farther to the right. Pulled up but came in very close with that bugger.

Next few sets went much better though. Managed to get direction right, and pull away from the other boats one by one. Got bigger and bigger leads too! Muhahahaha. Too bad Jag and Naresh weren't in T1s today... I need to pace with them and beat them damnit...

Did T2 with sebastian for a while after that, damn fast man. But, still no one to pace with. At least we tried harder to get the direction right that time. Its trickier in the T2 for some reason.

Peaked at the lineup for the march race. Holy crap.

Sebastian and Ruben (who spelled my name wrongly!?) - T2 500metres IVP
Naresh and Jag doing T1 IVPs
and me and sebas got T1 OPENS.

Opens... wth? Thats like nationals already. At least in IVP your only pitted against other polys and the unis.

Crap, must train harder.... get faster...

Bwahahah, I just came across a hilarious quote from Peter:

"It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."

XD

Dragonboaters bbq last night. Bought some veggies and made salad over there, since no one else was bringing any vegetables. Whats the point in eating so much meat if your not going to eat a balanced meal anyway...

Well, despite the numerous suans and comments from Daryl and etc about my cutting habits or the size of the cucumbers... most of it was finished. Reu is pleased.

Then the night turned to be a night of little injuries for me...

First Bernard took my lighter and gave me a burn mark on my right shoulder... which still stings whenever it comes into contact with water...

Then left elbow started bleeding due to a small cut which I got from the ground when I was wrestling with Jonathan on the pavement. Almost got a groin injury because he was desperately trying to squeeze that area when I had him pinned under me. Geez... talk about fighting dirty, thank god for jeans.

Sore right chest thanks to Daryl's psycomathical nipple twist attempt. I swear that was the most painful twist I have experienced in my life. First second your sceaming in pain, then you immediately shut up and get stunned or go into shock. Almost heel stepped and backfisted that ass.

And to round it off, I sprained my right thumb trying to take off my damn shoe when I reached home.

But we had fun playing cards for a while.


Then to add to that, this morning I woke up and yeap, left hamstring sore from thursday's legs routine. Damn muscles never get sore the day after, its always 2 days later or something.... good job, legs.

So I managed to hobble over to Kallang for canoeing sea training. It was selections today.

Stress...

Sore leg: Possiblility of kicking difficulty + possible problem swimming if capsized.

Sprained right thumb: Possibility of problem holding paddle.

Of all days to have selections for the coming race.... but I was determined not to let it affect me.

First T1 set, with Ezra, Jag and Melvin = Came in first, Ezra coming in close then Jag and melvin far behind. Aimed at wrong end point and Sensei pointed to the white house so I had to make a shard turn right but still managed to come in first.

Second T1 set, same people = Capsize on start >_< Some wave hit from the right side. Bloody krrrr'ock.

Third T1 set, with Sebastian, Ezra = Was leading until the end where both me and Sebas aimed for the wrong ending point, got suanned by sensei again >_<

Fourth T1 set, same people = Can't remember if I came in first or tied with Sebas.

Did a couple of T2 sets paired with Sebas after that, got progressively better.

So Sensei wants me to go in a T2 with sebas for the march race. But when I told him I wanted to go for T1 also he said there was one more slot.

I need to master that stroke... asap.

Went to school to do some weights with a couple of the dragonboaters and went swimming. Then went to J8 where Ben and Ben-sao had a stall up selling stuff. Bought some stuff for the family and Ben-sao gave us some friendship bands. I picked a black and white one, its pretty cool.

Back to the MUGEN project, a couple of character teams lagging behind by a mile. Reminds me why its better to work alone sometimes. People who lack discipline, character or drive for the project will just be a big bummer to everyone.

So you lazy sons of bitches, wake up your bloody idea.

Christmas celebrations this year wasn't much different from previous years, cept the training bit.

Monday - Got back from penang, went to Jon chan's place to use the condo gym with Jon chan, Winston and Willy. Then ransacked Jon chan's room, hehe and played his piano for a while. Quite lucky that some pieces can just be played without practicing sometimes. Heck, they better be rehearsaless, their my arrangements or compositions anyway doh.

Tuesday- Canoeing. Tried out a K4 with sam, joyce and naresh, and we spend 20% of the time rowing, 40% capsizing, towing, draining and embarking, and 40% laughing.

There was once when we capped near shears bridge, and since we all couldn't get back on the boat without getting to shore Samantha and Joyce rowed to the beach and me and Naresh swam back. But the currents were pushing us out to the open waters and no matter how hard I swam I seemed to stay in the same bloody spot. I thought that I was gonna die or end up on some faraway beach or something. Then decided to swim at a 45% degree angle to the currents and managed to make it to the nearby rocks.

Oh yeah, Joyce boards the boat from a capsize in the middle of the water like a gu-niang ahuahua. First her leg got stuck at an angle, then she tried to climb up on one side, but ended up going head first over the boat and onto the other side.

Christmas party over at Ezra's place in the evening. Awesome food, and played ps2 for a while before eating dinner.

Wednesday - Went to the school gym with Jeremy, had a good shoulder workout. Then went to Uncle's place for dinner. Food was good, altho the beef was a little tough >_<. Then quickly rushed over to Ben's place. Watched tv and played with his dogs for a while, very cute dogs, one of them was so fascinated by the dog scent I carried from home and my uncle's place. Then ate a little cake, D'oh!

Thursday - Jio'd Thomas, Jon Kang, Hui, Jeremy and Rendy to weights at school. Had a most awesome back and legs workout, and did a couple of off-the-wall kicks.

Damnit need to warmup waist more next time. Everytime I try one without warming up, due to the speed and pressure of the rotational force of the kick I end up with a little sprained side. Anyway, I found out that I can do 2 new kicks a cuople of weeks back. One is a turning, reverse kick, whereby your do a turning kick and lift off the ground, and rotate fast enough to throw out a reverse kick before landing. The other is a reverse turning kick. Which is the same kicks but in reverse order ahuahua. With a little practice they could actually look presentable.

Went to play basketball just now. Met Weekiat and a couple of familiar faces. Glad to know I still haven't lost my touch. Did a couple of insane 360 jumpers, w00t. And my team won 3 out of 4. These guys are pretty awesome. They may be really short, like sec 3-4, but their psycho motor skills, reflexes, speed and agility can be quite scary. Can't expect any less anyway, most of them are in the school or local CC teams, or play everyday. Glad to say I scored the majority of the points. Some of them were really intimidated by my height and size, but there are a couple of fighters who just don't care.

They see you as a bigger obstacle that they must and will overcome. You can see it in their eyes when they are dribbling and want to get the point. Drive, to do something, fighting spirit. Not something you will see often. I can't imagine a bookworm or nerd with that look. You just wont see it in someone sitting for exams or staring at the computer screen. Unless he's playing MUGEN perhaps ahuahua.

Its this spirit which will make them go far in any sport, or perhaps anything? Its part of character afterall.

I guess I should log down something about the penang trip besides the race.

Well we travelled aboard the super bus konsortium. Which looks like one of the better coach companies around.

Quite nostalgic of my trip there 2 years back with Jabez. We headed to that same roti canai store which is supposed to be pretty awesome. But it still can't beat the one in Bishan. Heck, not even Jalan kayu's stores can beat the one in Bishan.

Went to sightsee some temples, and I bought 2 slingshots and one of those jet butane lighters. But I picked the most awesome one - this one has not one but two jet outlets and its shaped like a gun. W00t. Fascinating, I found how to change batteries, what type of fuel does it use, and how to refill the fuel. The slingshot is pretty awesome too.

We headed to Parkson and I checked out the local arcade with Melvin. Quite retarded. The guy in charge thought that CVS2 had a 4 button attack layout like CVS. And they even had it layed out KOF style so guess what? You have 3 punches and 1 light kick to play with. Ridiculous.

Then headed to parkson, went to the arcade with Melvin cuz we had some hours to burn before we could check in the hotel.

Then checked into the crown prince hotel. Played in the pool a little, then went to Gurney lane/drive to eat dinner. Another familiar place.

I was set to have the most awesome penang laksa experience so I set out to survey the stalls.

Total 8 stalls selling asam laksa, most of them had diferent colored bowls so it was easy to survey which ones were more popluar, Unfortunately 2 stalls used red bowls so it complicated things a little. Finally I came to the conclusion that the orange, blue and red bowled stalls were the most popular, and people closest to either stall bought the one that was nearer. Hence, no one stall stood out too much, but these 3 were the most popular.

The other food there scared me. Fried kway teow, fried this, fried that, I'm suprised people around there don't drop down by 70 due to coronary heart diseases.

We headed back to another shopping centre. Not sure what that one was called, but they had a toys r us. I tried one of the hoola hoops and hidayah somehow managed to capture a video sequence with her digital camera and proceeded to taunt me endlessly throughout the rest of the day by showing the clip to every single girl in the team.

We headed back to the hotel and had a little suprise birthday celebration for jon and one of the girls.

Then the guys headed over to one of the guys room to "ambush" Jon. Jeremy was dead set to get "sexy nude poses" of Jonathan XD and kept bugging me to bring my digital cam over. Then Jon found out when he caught me behind him putting the camera down to push him in the room and decided to undress himself before we did it for him... then jeremy went trigger happy with the camera and we proceeded to pummel Jon under a blanket. Hui was hilarious. He's so politically correct and just... good and holy type... only took out his slipper and gently thwapped Jonny at intervals during the barrage.

Went to bed and had to beat on Thomas several times to get him to stop snoring in the middle of the night.

The race the next day was pretty awesome. Quite a number of top teams from the inter varsity polytechnic category was there, ntu, ngee ann. And the local teams... pretty impressive. The local buggers don't sit down to row, they squat on their seats, then towards the end they stand up and row. That was pretty cool! I'm inspired to try to squat and row in my t1 now :D

The race took place in a reservoir, near a dam. So that waters are so calm. And when you splash water in the boat and it gets in your eyes or mouth, hell, you can just drink it. Not like the putrid kallang water which will sting your eyes and send you into hypertension if you drink too much of it. The boats are alot lighter too, and so are the paddles. You could twirl one of their paddles easily around with one hand.

I was admiring some of the local teams strokes and was wondering about the concept behind their stroke. Ben came over and explained that some of the local teams brought their own paddles, which are longer than the default ones so that they can squat or stand and row and still catch enough water to pull. They also wear knee guards for their squat/stand strokes. Thats so creative and unorthodoxed :D. I wonder if we can bring our own paddles for local races too.

Talked with Agnes a little after the race. She's cool, and loves water sports alooooooooot. Canoeing, canoe polo, dragonboating, she's doing it all. And she understood my reason for picking up canoeing when she asked why I did it. She recognizes competitive spirit, or the lack of it, and anyone who knows that feeling, that fight or can recognize it in others, is highly respectable in my book.

We headed to grab some dinner, then headed back to the bus and slept the way back to Singapore. Pretty short trip :)

Dead silence.

"Attention!" The loud speaker sounded the starter's voice from the floating platform.

"Paddles up!" Ben prompted us in a soft voice, but the tone and accentuation showed great urgency.

I stared blankly at the lifejacket of the rower infront of me.

"Focus..."

Tilted my head up a little to look through the course.

"Lets fly!"

"GO!" The starter yelled through the loud speaker.

All 6 boats exploded with their different starting procedures. The waters flying out from behind the boats and onto the starting platforms behind us.

I looked at the waves rise from the front of our boat from the right side. So high, like a T1 under a hyperactive canoeist. The boats here were lighter, their paddles were lighter too. So light that if the coxswain lifted the rudder from the water and the boat is at a slight angle, it will swerve a full 90 degrees in just a few seconds. It happened in an earlier race to another team, and as their coxswain attempted to pull them back on course, the whole dragon boat tilted to its side and capsized under speed and momentum.

"Build your walls." I said silently as I stared back at the lifejacket of the rower infront of me, hoping that somehow my team mates would do the same. Concentrating to match my every pull to hers. I glanced at the side. All the boats were on par with one another.

Halfway mark.

"5 Hard ready!?" Ben yelled out.
"Ready!" I called out as I heard my voice merge with the boat in unison.
"GO!" We did the move, then the check was called for and we went back to long pull.

Sudden slow down in the timing almost caught me off guard. "What the heck?" I thought to myself. Breathing harder, recovering...

I saw the other boats slowly inching away. And I started to pick up the power. To yank and throw out the water from beneath my paddle.

"Enjoy yourself." I looked up and smiled. Concentrating on each twist and pull. Diana's face on the drummer's seat. Urgency in her wide opened eyes as she yelled out something to the front rowers.

We were falling behind.

"Another 5 hard!" Ben called out again. "Go!"
We did the move again, trying so hard to catch up.

Arm, tired. Lactic acid build up. I snuck in a big heavy breath through the fast rythmic pattern, must pull on and subside this! This is the last race! Pull until we die!

The sensation went away, and I begun my charging pull. Pulling up the water at each recovery. Momentum build up, go harder, longer, faster! But the other boats weren't getting any closer.

Then I realized that the team lacks the willpower to make up in such situations. Its happened before during training. Some of them lose the drive. But how can it be? These are the selected 10 rowers out of the whole team for the mixed event.

"Damnit not now... don't you dare give up!" I screamed in my head. Hoping that Ben would yell out something to wake them up.

Pissed off. I pulled even harder, and managed to do 'that' stroke. The retarded stroke that I love to do during pool rowing, where the water comes up in a huge wave behind you.

Looked up at the markers, second last buoy.... its over.

We came in at about the same time as NTU.

We had lost. I hate to lose.

I heard the team cheering from the nearby hill. But there was no point. We had lost.

It was my best set though, never managed to do 'that' stroke in an actual set. But the conditions are probably more suitable for it here.

I wondered if there was more I could have done to urge the rest of the team to not give up when we were falling behind. Throughout the whole thing I was silent, except for the responses and timings. I wonder if it would be better to leave it up to them to psyche up, or did I have a responsibility as a team member to do it?

Not serious. Even before the last event, they were doing the kallang wave to welcome the team back. They could've been focusing and concentrating on how to win the race. Instead, they were too happy already, celebrating, to show all their "support".

Discipline. Get serious and concentrate. But they were distracting themselves and in the end it showed. Perhaps I should have stopped them. Told them to wake up. But didn't want to be a killjoy. Even the captains are doing the damned kallang wave. They're new too. Perhaps don't know the discipline the previous batches had.

Whatever, its over now. And I hate to lose. So as usual this period will be a pissed off training period for me. Who knows where I'll end up after this transition in terms of fitness. I guess its good to lose. It drives me to train even harder. I only wish the rest of the guys would do the same.

The girls won the womens event that day. I worry about the inequality of the girls and guys team.

I wonder sometimes...

You see it all the time - people who act so tough and try to be confident just to bluff themselves. Then I wonder if I'm one of them. But then what does it mean to be truly be strong? Depending on someone else? Depending on some other thing or factor? Depending on God? Depending on self? Being able to see things in perspective doesn't put you in any higher position to judge oneself or others too.

I guess all I can do is acknowledge my weaknesses. I don't have to tell everyone about them, or show them off infront of others, but I had better now exactly where I am. That I'm not so far high up there, and by doing so not only will I be strong, but I will have enough compassion and empathy to the people around me.

Acknowledging and dealing with ones weaknesses - That's strength. And thats why I train.

Meeting up with winston and willy to head to bishan gym in about 30 minutes. My farewell session with them before heading off to penang tonight. Heh, its only 2 days anyway. No big deal.

No I haven't given up on chicken or anything like that. Blasphemy... its the type of chicken and which parts. Seriously, you can peel of the skin off a plate of chicken rice and clump it together, then imagine... "omg that damned thing almost went right into me and turned right into flab."

So yeah, chicken is still the most powerful food in the world. But things will try to stain its ultimate purity.

Anyway, been feeling a little down today. Its easy to get caught up doing the things you do until you stop and ask yourself, why the hell am I doing this again? I guess that goes for my intellectual projects... like mugen or the musical. But its easy when you enjoy it.

Things are different for the more physical projects, like training. It can be very dangerous to lose sight of your goal. Because once you do that, you will dread training, you will think why does this crap require so much discipline? You can't remember that its so fun to go out in the open water.

Its like when you wake up. Can you ask yourself what you are waking up for exactly? Do you want to wake up for that? If not, then might as well go back to sleep, right?

I constantly remind myself of the reasons that drive me to do something. There must be a damn good reason for everything. "Its fun", or "I dunno" are poor reasons which will lead to a waste of time. And sometimes when you lose sight of it, you can always wack some pushups to wake you up.

I have had to remind myself of my reasons for training these past few days as well. Sometimes you dread it so much... but when your actually there or doing it you enjoy it so much. Wacked the wts in my room just now. Sometimes it takes a concentration curl rep, where you're at your limit and that dumbell is inching its way up and you can feel your small little muscle fibres snap one by one, to tell you that your alive.

So why the heck do I train? Why do I want to push myself so hard? Am I a coward? Do I hate to lose that badly?

You could say that the people who train to be number one, are so insecure about their own worth, that they want to prove it to themselves that they are better than what they think.

Or maybe they are just tired of being looked down on, that they want to make it to show everyone.

Optimist/Pessimist view. One could say there is no one truth, only perspectives on facts or situations. Or what some people psycho themselves to think.

I used to look up to the seniors in the dragonboat team. And I couldn't believe that I couldn't accomplish what they have accomplished. That drove me at first. Then I met my Bro. He inspired me to work up to be like him, and I felt honored and grateful that he would accept me to train with him as his padawan.

I never beat hong before he left for NS... I could beat him in weights, but not pullups or running. Short of about 5-10 pullups from his 35 max. Running was more difficult due to runners knee.

Then before he left things were looking down for the team. Not enough guys, and that screwed up race. Totally screwed up. I didn't want to depend on the team anymore. I came over to canoeing, I would have my own race. Hong always said he wanted to join the canoeing team because it was an individual sport and he was dissapointed in our team. I would make our dream come true.

Then He left. I had no more target to beat. Instead just memories of him, the seniors, and faint glimpses of the strong opponents. Some other seniors in the team who were stronger in some areas, but weaker in some areas. I was the senior now. With my own padawan tagging along for extra trainings. Goal-less... Sensei sparked my interest in canoeing... I told everyone that I'm aiming for the gold. I'm improving fast but is it fast enough?

So now I'm left in a transition period. I am moving towards that gold, but I need to find my reason fast.

I want to become stronger. I will prove that someone who had a piece of shit level of fitness in year one will beat the secondary school and up school sportsmen. I will prove that you can work your way up from crap and beat those who are up there and take things forgranted.

Tomorrow I leave for penang for the mixed dragonboat event. Ben said he picked the couple of guys whom he felt were of higher calibre than the rest. Somehow I'm not flattered. With a team that mostly gathers together after the exams 1 month before the race. With crap attendance... maybe I'm looking down on us too much. But those guys had better not get happy with our silver for the mens ivp event. Even if we had a distinct disadvantage with number of rowers. The currents and lane were in our favour, enough said. And if they get too happy with how little they put in and how much they got from the race result, then we're screwed.

I know, not all of them are like that. Quite a couple have a genuine interest to improve. But the few of us is still not enough to row the boat.

Next semester will be a headache.

Just got Final Fantasy pray. Its a very scary soudtrack because its damn awesome. OMG OMG OMG they took those awesome melodies and added lyrics of choirs and ARGHHHH! I'm going mad!

Working on the MUGEN project can get quite... addictive. Have to pull myself away to grab food even when stomache is growling so badly, or to go and wack the pullup bar. Speaking of food... mom got kfc for dinner today. One year ago I would have dove into the chicken while glaring at anyone who meant to get near my chicken... but just now... was worried that it had insufficient carbs for a post-training meal, so mom cooked rice... then I tore away the skin and ate only the flesh.

I guess I'm turning into some kind of... health freak ahuahua. Pui. Last time I ate fast food for a meal was... last year maybe? And I refrain from chicken rice. Its not like I like to eat healthy or anything... like Ben said: You know why they call it junk food? Because its junk. And if I have to eat right to reach a more efficient functionative state to beat my competitors, then so be it.

Canoeing sea training in the morning, then dragonboat land training in the evening.

Managed to wack pretty hard during training... but now legs feel funny. Oh boy...

Thomas is an awesome training partner. We finished weights first today and he followed me to do extra calf raises and I followed him to do extra concentration curls.

Good news for canoeing... my pull is wudi! That means that I can pull damn hard and fast like a raging moron! But bad news is that I need to dip the blade further in. Need to hold smaller grip abit so the paddle can go furher in the water. Sha-neroh! I shall be the most awesome rower yet.

I think I'm going to slack and play FFX-2 for awhile... :D~

Had an awesome day in the water yesterday.

Got to use one of the red twins, which are my favourite racing Ts, because the black tamil tigers are so damned heavy... and the 218 brasca.

Sensei coached our strokes some more and I finally got the right angle during pull it seems. Still need to check entry depth though. Could feel the surge from every pull now... awesome :D

Samantha and joyce were in the K2. I think samantha was really crazy yesterday, laughing and giggling in the boat. She really loves this sport. Even yelled out to me to "Catch is if you can!", and I eventually did ahuahua. Then we were going to pace and I think they aet my backwash and capsized. It was damned hilarious... 2 girls screaming as they rotated slowly in the boat into the water.

Tried the K2 with yongqiang. Not bad for our first attempt... we managed to cover some 40 metres before we capsized. Mainly due to his good balance. Then we capsized and had to swim so long back to shore... and after we bailed... I felt something stick to my leg.

At first I thought it was a leaf... then I looked down and saw the shape and OMG IT WAS A DAMNED LIVING THING!? And yeah, kicked and screamed and lost my right shoe in the water. Had to fish my shoe back with absolutely no visibility in the water while hoping I didn't fish that damned sucker fish instead.

Then I mightly swung my paddle and created torrential currents to scare the suckerfish away... but it just kept going back and stuck upside down at the bottom of the k2. So we very swiftly towed the boat back to Sensei and He identified it to be a doctor fish. Not poisonous, not blood-sucking... but its damn annoying.

Tried the K1 after that... managed 2 strokes on my first attempt... its hard to balance that thing...

Went and paced with the ACJC team for a set. They've got one pretty fast rower... their more toned rowers are slower than the bulkier or heavier rowers. Kinda the same for hwa chong. Then why is it those damned skinny indians on our team are so fast.... nevermind... I have to beat them all.

Went to suntec to eat lunch then I headed back to kallang for dragonboat.

And for the first time in my 2.5 years in dragonboat I saw a sight to behold in the waters.

Some angmoh team... rowing a 24 crew dragonboat -

- Wearing outfits like angels and santa claus

- With a small christmas tree on the front of the boat

- Singing christmas carols while rowing

- And their coxswain who was dressed up like an angel had wings...

wtf...

It was greatly appreciated and quite amusing to the team though. Crazy americans...

I guess Christmas is coming.

omg I just played... the lord of the rings theme out on the piano. Come to think of it that melody is pretty captivating... although I condemned the damn thing previously because all it sounded like was C A, C A C A, C A C A, C A C C B B A... But apparantly the supporting harmony pushes and pulls this otherwise monotonous melody to new highs and lows.

Result of listening to the lotr soundtracks

The sung jazzy gollum's song is awesome... fabulous chords... although the lyrics are kinda depressing...

"where once was light, now darkness falls."

"Where once was love, love is no more."

"Don't say, goodbye..."

"Don't say, I didn't try..."

"These tears we cry, are falling rain."

"For all the lies you told us, the hurt, the blame"

"And we will weep to be so alone."

"We are lost, we can never go home..."

Depressing rite? Plus the melody I think can make a depressed person go and commit suicide.

Well, back to work...

Felt really overloaded during the weekend and wasn't feeling too good. So skipped training and the church camp. Woohoo.

Took the time to complete final fantasy X at last. Damn game... final boss battle has the boss doing one attack to do more damage than my max hp to my whole party in one move. Wtf? Died... 10 plus times, finally beat him by throwing out everything I had in desperation to rape that bastard before he had a chance to touch me. Awesome storyline, so I went out to get final fantasy X-2.

Damn thats a stylish game. They kind copied some aspects of charlies angels, but that helps a character driven story somewhat.

Had a good rest during the weekend so was ready to hit training again but sprained my leg... no idea how, so missed canoeing land training and went to do weights, then met up with Winston to swim. Freestyle sprints, I've never swam so hard since... dunno when. Till you feel yourself crawling so slowly when its supposed to be a 100m sprint.

Then DB training on tuesday... leg extensions and sprints from the previous day kinda took its toll I guess, we did more dashing. Could feel my legs not able to push hard, unable to feel the usual glide in the air, then saw the rest of the guys slowly pull away. Haha crap. Still ran until whole body went cold and lungs felt like they were going to burst although my legs were going to give way.

Jonny collapsed during the second round of dashing and just curled up on the side. I worry for the amount of stress he's giving himself, on one hand, nothing will get you further than to push yourself even during some sort of weak point, however aggrevating an injury might just make things worse or more serious, and I don't think his ligament's completely healed yet.

Had slight difficulty with the 5 sets of 10 pullups after that... I think my pullups are dropping liao... still remember the time I was chasing after tianhong for 10 sets of 10. Time to wack the bar again.

Weights with my training partner again, Thomas. That bugger is quite zai. Almost as zai as me as weights and pullups, but his running's better. I guess this would be a good opportunity to even out our weak points. The weights routine was quite siong... had to crawl out of the rowing machine again after squats... bloody legs damn weak lar... buck up you slackers.

Had a talk with Thomas after training about why he's always rushing off and so seriously after training. He has to wake up to sell vegetables at 4am to earn a living. Paying his own school fees, and everything while studying. He's finished NS and all, but its still hard to work, study and manage ccas at the same time. He told me to "treasure your life". I guess at times we do take stuff forgranted. But its this situation that I can concentrate on projects and ccas rite now. He's had his time during secondary school with his rugby and all. I guess he misses those days.

Kind of stressing out with ccas and managing this mugen project at the same time, but at least things are looking up.

Finally got some pics from the forum uploaded to webshots under my pics on the left side.

Feel kinda shacked these few days...

We won a silver for the ivp mens event, losing to NTU by less than a second, and got a bronze for ivp mixed event. Kind of a big thing, considering we had 19 rowers when the other teams had full 22 rower boats. More of that another time, I guess... not sure what's wrong... skin around my arms feels funny sometimes, and its peeling in odd ways.

Started during the cruise... could feel all my hair standing sometimes. I think I'm either having an odd reaction to their soap, or the pressure/altitude of the boat. Sheez... Oh well, lets shed to a lighter, fairer me!

During the race days felt kinda down too. Must be an overexpenditure of chakra.