Did some retail therapy today, courtesy of the hundred bucks in the form of a Borders gift card for winning that Creative Writing Competition thingey. Not so much 'creative' on my part, like I said before, I just handed in a homework essay. But then again the 3rd prize winner, some J2 girl did that too so all's fair. I'm left with a balance of 58 dollars plus - bought two books and a Warped Tour 2007 CD.

Chem test today probably won't be single digit after all, seeing how I basically copied the whole thing. It's not for a lack of trying, I did do a few multiple choice questions on my own okay. The rest, eh well don't know how to do la. So it was just handwriting practice, then.

I like getting free cash, so much so that I'm actually going to particpate again in the second round of a new creative writing competition. The magazine society seems to have too much money to give away, so I reckon why not try to get hold of as much of it as I can right. So this time, in addition to another homework essay which I'm actually going to bother to improve on instead of just handing it up straight, I'm going to try my hand at a narrative *gasp*(meaning I'll submit two entries). Stay tuned.

80-82-90-91-92-89 ----524

SIAN. Screwed up the first two series magnificently because the distance between the rear sights was so damn big, so it was hard to judge where to place the front sight between them. You probably won't know what I'm talking about here, but never mind. 3rd series onwards wasn't too bad, except that I couldn't really be bothered to push myself anymore, seeing how fked the first two were.

When the scores came out, the chief jury Mr Eddie Lim came round and asked what ours were. I told him 524 and he said 'Good'. I felt like telling him to shove a gun up his arse. Hahaha. He obviously doesn't know what I normally shoot la.

Anyway we're having this farewell dinner for Ms. Lim who's leaving for Japan to teach English. She was pretty good, and it's sad to have people not able to make it because they've got something else on already. Disappointing really. Oh well. It'll be fun with the rest though.

Off to church.

Something pretty shocking happened just now.

Was at Northpoint with Muthu, Val and Jolene because we'd gone to SAFRA to bring the riflers' suits over for storage in the lockers, and we all had to take buses from the interchange at Northpoint. We'd dropped at the bus stop next the the mall and were walking towards the interchange when suddenly this man came running straight past with blood running down his face, trying to get away from two other people who were behind him. Come to think of it they could've been trying to get away together, but it seemed like the two behind were chasing the guy in front.

Anyway, one of the men chasing the guy in front was carrying this crowbar thing that was being held in a plastic bag. A weapon, no doubt. At the bus stop area, the guy in front dashed to the right and ran off while for some reason the other two disappeared to the left. Obviously we were all left stunned there for a bit. You don't ever get to see this happen much, if at all, and it was definitely rather shocking. There were drops of blood in a short trail leading from the snack kiosk in the interchange where the thing had apparently started onwards. Pretty freaky, no? After a really short while the police and ambulance service came and that was pretty much end of it.

I'm falling asleep at the computer now, so I think I'll just end here.

Yeah so prize presentation was today. Amidst all the collection of medals though, I still remember one thing coach said. He'd gone to RJC to have a look and he told us after that,

"RJC said that they were only scared of us."

We lost to them by 1 point after our disastrous screw-up, but I'm not bitching here. It's just a reminder of how even though things can go horribly wrong in a competition, and nothing is guaranteed. The only way you can try and to up your chances is to train. Harder and better than others. Even then. Nothing is guaranteed.

It's not easy to keep one's feet on the ground after being lauded so much, but I think I'm doing fairly well at it. Sure it's nice to have all those medals to keep in that display case, but I constantly think to myself, 'Wouldn't it be even better if those things were all for first place?' I'm still a 540+ shooter, which I concede is something, but it's not good enough. You see, I'm ONLY a 540+ shooter.

Coach asked me to participate for the Singapore Open with Chris Chia and Mark Lee under his company's name. I've got two months to train and be even better than them, because I'm ONLY a 540+ shooter, who hopes to become a 550+ only shooter for monthly shoot this Sunday.

It gets easier with practice to remain humble amidst all of this. God gave a gift, and I'm looking to develop it as well as I can.

School prize presentation for all the competitions from June to the nationals was supposed to be this morning, but after we'd all brought the trophies and lined up on the second floor, Michael Tan suddenly announced that morning assembly was canceled. How retarded. Haha. So prize presentation's postponed to tomorrow.

Hao Feng, Clarence and I went SWIMMING today. At Singapore Swimming Club where Clarence's dad's a member. Left school pretty late at about 3.30pm even though we'd finished lessons at 3pm, and reached the place only at about 5? It hardly takes a hour and a half to get there on bus, but here's what happened:

1) we dropped WAY too early. Haofeng said there was a 154 at this bus stop. There wasn't. That was some pretty funny shit, now that I look back at it, but walking a distance of about 10 bus stops is hardly any fun.

2) After walking all that damned distance we realised we walked the wrong way.


Ended up taking a cab there. Problem solved. First time I wore trunks since forever, and I can't emphasise that I need quite a bit of work. HAHA. Anyway we wanted to do like 15 laps, but I did only 7 cause my knee hurt so I stopped. Got out, went into the sauna for a bit, showered and ate. SSC's a pretty cool place I guess.

Oh, and I finished Harry Potter already! I think it's brilliant, I've heard some people talking about how the epilogue was lame and all, but what'd they expect, some action packed chapter? It's an epilogue, mind you, so the proper ending was already before that. Awesome narrative la JK Rowling.




Tired. Shall go sleep.


P.S. I was informed today that I'd won that writing competition thingey for CJC, which I found pretty funny, seeing as I handed in an essay that I'd used for submission as homework. The teacher kept telling us that she wanted a submission from my class, so just take and use lor. It wasn't like cheating or what la, sure the essay scored top marks, but I didn't know what it got for a long while after I submitted them.

Heh yes I have Deathly Hallows already. Bought it on opening day for $48.05 at Orchard Popular. Was going to buy it from Borders with its brilliantly long queue while getting presents for Cheerin and Wei-Lyn when I suddenly saw TINGWEI. Haha that was some funny shit.

Me: "Hey why don't we get this one?" *points to Chicken Soup for the Singapore Soul*

....*notices a familiar guy browsing the shelf directly in front of me*

Me: "EH?! TINGWEI?!"


LOL and then he told me he'd gotten his copy of Harry Potter at Popular with no queue time at all. So we went there, bought the book and I'm now halfway through it. Woo!



Mizuno Wave Run today was pretty cool. Didn't stop at all, though my knee gave me problems. Damn pain, but surprisingly my sprained ankle wasn't a problem. It wasn't tiring cause I guess I was talking with Wei Bin and listening to music all the way, so I was preoccupied with stuff other than being tired. Haha. 10km in 1h 38 sec. Nothing fantastic, but I'm satisfied with it.

The piece of apparel they gave out this year was a singlet, and I don't look good in singlets cause I've nothing to show and stuff to hide. That means I need to train more.

Need to study for Econs test tomorrow, and I'm only at quesion 2 of my system of linear equations tutorial which was due the start of last week. But I think I'll continue with some adventures of Mr. Potter before I do anything else.

DAMN TIRED LA. Argh. Okay that's random, but true.

Mizuno wave run is tomorrow!

The swelling on my sprained ankle isn't so bad now - it's gone from the size of a small grapefruit to a slight bloat on the left side of my ankle. Oh if you don't know what happened, I was playing soccer and then I fell. Scraped the skin off my right knee pretty good too. The sprain hurt so bad yesterday morning that I limped like hell, taking far longer to climb stairs and all la. The cuts on my knee were far worse yesterday too. I didn't bother covering up the wound and just wore m uniform trousers after dabbing the wound clean, and after a while i could see brown patches on my trousers where the blood had seeped through. HAHA OKAY I SHALL STOP GIVING GROSS DETAILS.

Anyway. Went to the Home Team Academy this morning for the officers' .38 revolver shooting competition. Results wise it was okay, nothing fantastic cause I wasted like 5 bullets shooting too low cause didn't know how to align the sights, so ended up aiming wrongly. How superb. Corrected my aim after that la, but the damage was done. Still it was pretty fun. Okay I'm ranting here.

I'm still shit shagged la, and I've no time to recover that lost sleep. Looks like lectures will have to do. Hahaha.

We had this farewell party thing for the J2s today. Gave out the note card thingeys and chocolates to them; nothing that big in terms of monetary cost, but I hope they appreciate the sincerity.

Damn tired now la. Slept during lecture today. Worst thing is I can't go to sleep yet cause I've got a lot of stuff to do =/

Harry Potter 7 is out tomorrow! I'd better cough the book up somehow soon.

Succumbed to the urge of compulsive buying today. I bought an mp3 player, the new Creative Zen Stone Plus which cost $99 and which was one of the players I'd been eyeing for a while. I really needed one - I've been using that ancient square discman that would probably fetch 5 bucks if I brought it to sell at a pawnshop, not exactly something I'd bring out when I go running. It's not really a discman to play music either; it's supposed to be a VCD player which I appropriated temporarily for my purposes. It's got the words 'Karaoke' on a sticker pasted on it. How's that for retro, eh?

So we were at Heartland Mall when we walked past the computer hardware shop and I saw it. Went back after a short while and just plonked the money down. Oh well I'll take it as an early birthday present for myself la.



It's all well and good, I guess, except for the fact that I was already spending way outside my means and I'm now into negative figures in terms of moolah. I've got like 4 bucks in my wallet, but I owe 60 bucks for a concert ticket, need 60 bucks for that new Harry Potter book (because I told my dad I wanted it, he gave me the money and I happily used it on the new mp3 player. meaning the book has to turn up somehow or he'll get suspicious), and need another 25 for a knee support cause my knee is so screwed and I'm running 10km on Sunday. Oh and I need quite a bit more for something else too. Just won't say what it is here =)

And yeah my parents don't know I bought it. Haha.

33rd Student Council Installation Ceremony at St. Ignatius Church! I was there =D

I wasn't originally scheduled to go, but Hao Feng asked me today if I was interested and I said okay cause I could congratulate friends after the thing. So yeah, photos. Only got 2 at the moment, Matthias and Liselle if you please, send me the others yep?







Will update soon. Partly cause it's damn late already and I don't have all the photos yet.

Harry Potter was.....well, rather disappointing compared to the book. They cut out a whole ton and changed the story somewhat, which was expected because they had to fit the whole book into 138 minutes, but still it could've been more exciting. I guess only people who haven't read the book'll say it's not bad (not talking about you, Aaron), because it was more of trying to recognise familiar scenes from the book in the movie and spotting all the differences for me. Haha. The fight scene was tame, and possibly the most interesting part was the kissing scene with Cho Chang. I'd still have watched the movie nonetheless though.

I must say I'm no Harry Potter freak, but you'll definitely agree with me that what we have here is possibly what our kids will be reading twenty or thirty years down the road. What we have are seven books of modern literature.

I can't wait for the seventh book to come out. But I'm broke, so I probably won't get my copy so soon. Oh well.

Today is Friday the 13th, and things went bad. Very long story, but cut short it seems that Brother Paul misunderstood my mail to Mr Tan, my shooting teacher-in-charge and totally took it the wrong way.

And instead of helping us, another teacher decided to shoot me down on all the suggestions I made, making matters worse. Thanks a lot. Mr Tan and all the rest of the teachers have always been trying their best to help us - they've always been on our side, something which he obviously didn't realise, and he did the opposite by attempting to put down everything I said. Mind you it was Mr Tan who asked me for the email so he could have a better understanding of what was happening. I'm really touched by everything he has done for us la. He already has so much to do, and yet seeks to do everything he can for the club. Now that's what I call unwavering commitment.

Hope the misunderstanding with Brother Paul clears soon.

I don't fucking believe this.

I spent the whole past hour typing this long (obviously, seeing I took a full hour to type it) email to Mr. Tan, my shooting teacher-in-charge regarding some issues and hotmail decided to screw with me. I'd typed out everything so damn nicely and then clicked 'save to drafts' so I could go to my inbox to see what his email address is. And when I went back to my draft, which wasn't one already cause it was the fucking final copy I was going to send out, IT WAS BLANK.

Pardon the profanities, I'm just SO DAMN FRUSTRATED AT THE MOMENT. This is bullshit. ONE HOUR SPENT NOT DOING MY EOM WHICH IS DUE TOMORROW FOR NOTHING.

Wanted to talk about some other random stuff but I'm just not in the mood now.

In somewhat high spirits now, because I tried out my new LP2 today and it's absolutely shiok. It's not the best gun around, we can't afford LP10s, but hey it's still pretty cool. And shiny. It's so much easier to create a single hole from the shots now. The clumsy manual Bobby was supposedly more stable, but it was a little unwieldy and my grip didn't fit my hand. I expect a jump in my score now. Heh.

I've decided to name him Bobby Jr.

Failed Chem with an Ultrafantastic (ya la Ungraded la) grade, Chinese was a D and I got a B for Physics. Only left with GP now. I'm praying I still can get that A. A bit unlikely though. Oh well at least it wasn't as bad as it could be; didn't fail two of my H2s or something.

I've got quite a bit of homework which is happily stacking up. I'd do it, except that I don't know how. That's what you get for not paying attention in lectures. Bah, I need to study before I can do my homework, and it's after exams already. Maybe I just won't do it.

Shit my right knee is so bloody screwed. It hurts like hell whenever I go up or down any steps. Ran 15 rounds in school today and it positively throbbed after that, and when I tried doing a couple of grandstands I think my leg almost snapped. I don't usually classify my legs as twigly (yeah no such word but my blog, so.) but it hurt la.

I PASSED MATHS. THANK YOU GOD.

Econs was kinda disappointing cause I was expecting an A but got a B instead. Oh well.

Chem is a probable fail grade. Should be able to pass Physics. GP is a sure B and up la, but the marks just won't be pretty. My A for Chinese is a goner because I fell asleep while reading the passage and couldn't finish, so I gave away 7 marks.

I'm still sorta in the holiday mood at the moment. Oh shit.

Finally getting a new gun on Wednesday! Don't have to use a hand-cranked one anymore. Haha. Though Bobby'll always hold memories for me, LP2 (or P40, depending on which I take in the end) here I come =D

Aaaaand I might get an electric guitar after all! Hehe my Mom was super inclined to say no. And then I asked my Dad, who said some stuff about 'later studies how' and all, but I think he'll still give the okay. Yay Dad. And hey, my birthday's coming so *fingers crossed*

I'd originally wanted to start this post about nationals with one big 'fuck' but I didn't because what Hui Xin said was right; that it wasn't the people who screwed up most badly that made the most noise but those who supposedly did the best. So I'm not going to bitch. Much. =)

Here's how it went. My team got national 4th, and I shot 540. I've to admit I'm disappointed. As an individual I'm not happy with myself, to say the least because national 1st was a 552. I could've done 552, but I screwed up. Period. I had an 86 series, like what the hell man. My right contacts gave me some problems but hey, no excuses. As a team Irvis shot really badly, like 30 points below his normal average, and we went from a probably team 2nd to a 4th. I don't blame him, really, because he explained later on what happened, and add that to competition stress, eh well, shit happened. It's just a waste, you know?

Ok that's off my chest. Anyway.





CJC Shooting Teams of '07. It's just going to be so weird going to SAFRA or training in school from now onwards and not seeing you guys there. I've gotten so used to training with all of you already, at St Pats or SAFRA with Irvis, Ben and Keith, and always seeing the rest of you there too. I'll miss all of you la. I know it sounds damn bloody emo for a guy and all, but hey I'm human okay. I'll always remember the times we spent together, in fact I've spent much more time with you guys than my fellow J1s, and you guys have made sure I didn't regret it. Thank you all.

Not all of us won medals for nationals, and though I didn't get what I wanted and we didn't get what we deserved, we all won something:



This, if you ask me is the greatest prize of all. Not exactly this nice card and ice cream stick Yuanyu did for all of us, but rather the thing it represents - friendship. You can be sure that the card and stick I'll keep for many years to come, because I cherish what they represent. After all, I still have my letters sent to me by my parents and godparents from con camp 2 years ago. Ah, I miss the J2s already.

NATIONALS IN TEN HOURS.

Here's what's at stake for getting team 1st:

Wiping the smiles off XXX JC because all that sneaking did shit for them
National Champions!
A thousand bucks from coach (means $250 each)


Thus said, it's going to be more realistic if we just aim for 2nd, because XXX JC (you already know what it is but I didn't say it, heh.) are just damn good. Still it won't hurt to try. And thanks Yuanyu for the nice mini picture of Bobby which I'm going to stick on him tomorrow! =D

Bobby's my gun, by the way. Tingwei named his rifle Princess Peach and I named my pistol Bobby. Don't ask me why we did it. Haha. Bobby the manual Feinwerkbau 103 air pistol, serial number 510904 has helped me achieve a high of 547 so far, and he's going to try help me get that 560 later (calling it tomorrow would be incorrect, it's 12.25am already). Here's what Bobby's avatar looks like:






God helped me today. Before Chinese oral something just popped into my mind about the rise of China and we started discussing a bit on it. AND YOU KNOW WHAT. The oral question was 'Do you think Chinese is important?' Like. Wow. My friends are thanking me for the uncanny spotting ability. Ha.

I'd better sleep soon.

I guess I'm starting to feel pressure piling up already.

Rifle guys got us a brilliant team 2nd, losing only to RJC and gobsmacking NJC, securing for us our cool new air-con range Bro. Paul promised us. Now the pressure is on the other teams to win big too. I want us to win, you know? Not just my team, but across the whole board of pistols and rifles, because team CJC deserves it. But it's really not going to be easy for pistols. I want my medal to be at least a shiny silver. Okay so I want a gold.

And now the pressure is on me to shoot that 560. If I do it so many things will be much easier. The gold will be a possibility, both of them.

Some people crack under pressure, while others get forged into hard rock. Corny, I know, but I still want to be the one who performs even better under pressure.




Lord, help me overcome this obstacle, and let me draw from Your strength.

SHOULD I GO TO SCHOOL TOMORROW?!

Stupid Chinese oral, screwed up my day tomorrow. I'm excused from school for nationals but the thing is I've oral at 2pm. So I could either slack at home in the morning then go to school just for the stupid thing or just go for lessons in the morning and then oral after that. I can't decide. Church practice after that and then training.

XXX Junior College are a bunch of sneaky bastards. All this while we thought they weren't shooting for monthly shoots and training somewhere secret. Turns out they were, just that none of them registered under XXX JC, but under SAFRA, which they aren't supposed to do but do anyway. Better still for all other competitions except nationals they never send their best shooters so other schools get the impression they're easy to beat, which they aren't, of course.

Looking at this particular shooter's score, it's not going to be easy to beat him, but he's the biggest obstacle I see for individual champion, so if I clear him, which will probably mean 560 then there should be no problem. Of course I'm not going to be concerned when I'm actually shooting, but I guess analysing a little helps.

I can shoot 560.
I will shoot 560.
I must shoot 560.
I am a 560 shooter.


Oh, and don't tell me to dream on about getting an individual medal. People who don't have dreams don't have much. Besides, I could do it. I know I could. Haha.

Bumper crop of posts today, the first one cause I typed at 12+ am I guess. Nothing to do because for some strange reason I woke up at 3.45am. Meant to wake up at 5am to do revision for practical, but I kinda didn't realise it was that early so I started revision.

Debating whether to go back to sleep or not. Okay so I'm dysfunctional. Haha.

I'm really broke now. Watched a movie, bought a new T shirt, ordered Paramore and used 15 bucks on cab fare to SAFRA. Oh the joy.

But hey, Transformers was nice, I like the new T shirt, can't wait to get my hands on the new album and....okay paying 15 bucks for the cab fare still sucked.

Here's a rather interesting food centre stall name:





While it sounds pretty okay in Chinese, bet the owner initially didn't think of what the hanyu pinyin could suggest, eh?

My day didn't start off too well today. First thing I saw when I woke up (not literally, the first thing I actually saw was the underside of the upper bunk of my bed. It was just the first thing I actually did) was Aggie's sms telling me that somebody was pissed cause there was supposed to be church practice in the morning and I wasn't there. That pretty much sucked because knowing someone's angry with you immediately when you wake up sours everything. And practice was supposed to be cancelled, but I'm not going to go into any details. I'm just ranting. Haha.

Training today was okay. Coach says I'm ready for nationals. I may be that, because I'm making ragged holes in target cards now, but I'm not ready for 560 yet. I'll still try, of course, but it's hard to not get disappointed. If I DO get that 560 though, I can safely say I'm guaranteed to be national champion? Now, imagine that. Heh. The thing is to never let it get to my head. I'm not going to rest on my laurels, ever, because there will always be someone better than me.

And then I was supposed to go to Orchard but ended up not going cause I could only go for a while and Aaron didn't want to, which was fine, but I still didn't go. But at least I'm going to watch transformers there tomorrow =D Which means I can finally pop by Far East and order CDs again. Haha and get a new T shirt. Okay this post is getting wordy cause I'm basically just typing all the crap I'm thinking of.




Oh lookie here, I designed a cool line border to decorate my page!

560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560560.

=)

Ah screw the 555 for nationals. 560 here I come. HAHA that was some random shit, but I'll try.