watch your front.

thursday morning firers, watch your front. magazine of five rounds load. figure eleven, standing shoulder, fifty meters. own time own target. carry on.

inhale. squeeze. exhale. inhale. squeeze. exhale. inhale. squeeze. exhale. inhale. squeeze. exhale. inhale. squeeze. exhale. unload magazine. check clear. put to safe.

firers, watch your front. load grenade. aim. fire.

miss those days.

wild weather.

tuesday night the weather's a bit cranky the past couple of days. winds have picked up so much that in sydney, cables and trees came down. winds between 80-120km/h have been blowing consistently throughout the day. even in canberra. it's not as strong... yet. my windows rattled throughout the whole night.

cleared one essay last week. i think i should do them a little later instead of starting them early. i realize that the earlier i finish an essay or journal, the more likely it is for me to make mistakes in my framing of arguments and general structure.

so anyways, shaun koo is off to the states. feeling quite funny that i'm unable to send him off. he was there when i first left for australia and when i was back. now it's his turn to go but i can't be there. oops.. so that's one less friend to look up end of the year. in the not too distant future, a couple of others are heading to the states too. that kinda stinks. everyone's heading overseas at one time or another..

1 essay, 3 math assignments (!), 2 course projects to clear. 1 mid-semester exam next week.. fun times indeed..

what in the world?

monday morning i know i'm not the only one when i say the scottish judiciary system is a joke. how does one justify releasing a terrorist on "compassionate grounds" when he had killed 270 people by blowing up a plane?

now it becomes "right" to release someone who has killed many innocents because he has cancer whereas others who have done similar but on a smaller scale, continue to sit in jail? forgive me when i say i don't believe in life sentences for murderers.

the past week was hectic, reports, assignments and preparations for a couple of events were concurrent. i have slept a grand total of 20 hours the past week and i paid for it this morning when i failed to wake up for my lecture.

anyways. i've blogged about how some people can be friends and not co-workers and vice versa before. unsurprisingly it's manifesting itself again and this time round it has become so political that everyone's being cordial on a professional basis (which is good too) and then the stabbings go on in the back, each knowing what the other is saying and doing.

let me just say that weak leadership leads to weak cohesion. weak cohesion leads to unhappiness and unhappiness leads to a whole world of pain and hardship. while i have said before that leaders can't always make everyone happy, it's the method of one's leadership that decides greatly if people are going to be open to things or not. in the midst of all that, other people step up to the plate and carry everyone on. so tell me, who is to blame for the mess? the weak leadership or those who have stepped up?

one has failed for so long despite being given more than enough chances to make up for it and now he wants to make up for it by being authoritative? not a chance. the irony is this: i made it very clear early on that i'll speak up whenever i felt something was not right so do not come back to me and whinge about me being anal about things. to add on, don't call someone else to throw a tantrum.

but hey, who am i to comment right? different people have different management styles.

all smiles.

wednesday morning as the title goes (:

Rob Thomas - Someday

You can go
You can start all over again
You can try to find a way to make another day go by
You can hide
Hold all your feelings inside
You can try to carry on when all you wanna do is cry

Maybe someday we'll figure all this out
Try to put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to make things better now
And maybe someday
We'll live our lives out loud
We'll be better off somehow
Someday

Now wait
Try to find another mistake
If you throw it all away
Then maybe you can chance you mind
You can run
And when everything is over and done
You can shine a little light on everything around you
Man it's goof to be someone

I don't wanna wait
I just wanna know
I just wanna hear you tell me so
Give it to me straight
But tell it to me slow

Maybe someday
We'll figure all this out
We'll put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to just feel better now

Sometimes we don't really notice
Just how good it can get
So maybe we should start all over
Start all over again

---

monday morning the past weekend has been a smash. snowboarding was partially fulfilling only because i didn't get to go to the highest peak like i wanted; i did though, try some stunts to varying degrees of success. i can now jump low obstacles but when i tried a full jump (with an airborne flip included), i landed knee first into the cold hard ice, not snow. ouch.

national day screening was a bigger success than expected. almost 130 people turned up, the high commission's 1st secretary and defense attache were the unofficial guest-of-honors for the night. i cannot describe how i felt during the singing of the National Anthem and the reciting of the Pledge. a mix of patriotism and home-sickness is probably as good as i can describe it.

anyhows. the song. someday. it's a song about starting anew despite all the negativities that we stumble upon. it takes courage, strength and fortitude to pick ourselves up after every fall and failure and well, while it takes a lot from within us, it serves only to make us stronger. we learn from the past and move on right?

oops.

friday afternoon woke up late for my lecture for the 2nd week in a row. damn it. tennis was bad. the wind was too strong such that we couldn't really control our strokes. was somewhat irritated with my serving today too.

floorball yesterday was so-so. lost the match 5-1. am happy that i scored that 1 goal but it was shit. not playing for a month or so and i can't shoot for nuts. dribbling and ball control is still good so that's something positive.

band practice was well.. unproductive. it doesn't help that every practice we go to, the song list keeps changing. it's even more annoying considering that the musicians (anqing justin zan and i) have to learn 20 songs within such a short period of time..

red and white.

thursday afternoon i've got a singapore flag hanging from my curtain stand and i realize how prominent it is even from downstairs looking up. looks kinda cool and i'm not ashamed to have it up there. so stop bloody questioning me about it.

the 3rd week of school is about to come to an end, one lecture in 10 minutes time, another lecture tomorrow morning and i'm off for the weekend. should be playing tennis with hianyang again after class before going to watch the singapore netball team play against the aussie team at the australian institute of sports at night. it should be really interesting though i have no idea how netball works. haha!

snowboarding is on saturday and i can't wait. hope i don't have to end up teaching and catching people skiing again like last year. not that i'm very good at it but somehow i have a knack for such things (ie extreme sports). it gives me the itch to go skydiving again.. and again.. and again.. and again..

so yeah. final year is feeling pretty miserable now actually. i'm at the point where i'm having second thoughts of pursuing my honors here. as it is, i'm still above the credit average that is required so it's all good. my problem is, i no more information systems modules that i can take. and that sucks because now i have to do more computing modules which i absolutely loathe. my alternative plan? head back home to work for a couple of years and then do masters. i'm thankful my parents are pretty supportive about it and frankly, as long as my family is supportive, that's all that matters.

random though: how the hell does one get a cramped up thigh whilst sleeping?!

paper planes.

wednesday school's in full swing now and work's piling up pretty fast. it's a shame that i have to stop working as a referee and coach, my regular floorball on wednesday has stopped too. sigh.

anyhows, had the most fun tutorial/practical ever today: folding paper aeroplanes. it was hugely fun and very interesting a way to present project management concepts. comp3120. best module i've taken thus far. even my lectures are entertaining, one lecturer throws money at us for asking "good" questions and the other is very animated when lecturing. it's hugely motivating too if i might add.

and.. i'm having a writers' block. i had a plan of what i wanted to write just now but they have all disappeared now. damn it.

back to good ol' robocop!