Really dead... or not?

First things first:

WUH-OH!

I think Jared put it the right way when he said my blog was dead. Considering that my last post was in July "07"!!! I don't really know what got me into the mood to start posting again today. Who knows? It could be a one time event and then another year pasts before another sighting. Much like the analogy of the elusive Big Foot.

Anyway, to all my "long lost" friends which I have been able to reconnect to and regained contact with, I am really glad and I hope everything is going well for all of you. I hope that we can meet again sometime in the near future before our faces get too wrinkled. Unable to erase pass events as our history is what shapes our present selves, I still wish to put the past behind and focus on what I have now because the history we are making today, will be what shapes us in the future.

This past few weeks, my life has been circling around my guitar and singing til my heart's content (more like singing til my upstairs neighbour starts stomping his feet). For quite some time now, playing music has become my sole refuge and retreat from things I'm reluctant to face. It's hard to describe how it not only provides me with an outlet for expression but also an immersion into focusing completely on one task, letting the rest of the world temporarily slip away from existence. However, it does make me warm inside when every once in awhile someone lets me know that they enjoy my playing and singing. I feel good when I play music for myself but in performances, I think it's great to just focus on making other people feel good when they can enjoy a nice song.

Week one of holidays gone

Saturday morning again. Hmm... I think this has become my usual blogging time. Anyway, here's a recap of my first week of the fleeting holiday, just gone with the wind but not without leaving good memories to look back on years later.

I've been attending an intensive Japanese course from Monday to Thursday, 9.30am to 12.30pm everyday. It was carried out by Japanese students and supervised by my lecturer, Lee-sensei. They taught us many useful conversational notes and expressions which I find invaluable in accomplishing my dream of visiting Japan one fine day. The best part of the course was the origami session, games and the self-made sushi party on the last day. The tuna and lettuce sushi we made was おいしい！We even received a certificate at the end. I really enjoyed myself through0ut the course. Plus, the cute, funny, helpful and understanding senseis made it even better.

On Tuesday night, I was invited to join Chern, Kwang and Alex to have $6 steaks in Dickson. I now have another restaurant in Canberra which I will definitely want to visit again. It's in a little Irish pub called O'Neil's where you get a $6 steak along with fries and salad but all you have to do is cook it yourself! Lucky for amatuers like Kwang, Alex and me, we had Chern to grill the delicious meat for us. Wahaha, with a bottle of beer, the medium rare beef spiced with tabasco, pepper and Dianne sauce tasted almost heavenly. Darn, I better stop thinking about it. It's making me drool. But just think about it... "$7 STEAKS"!!! ($1 extra for the sauce to be precise)

Apart from watching movies and eating instant noodles as a pre-bedtime ritual, nothing much has been going on. I've finally began working on my psyc essay. Guess I'll be stuck with "old age how it affects memory" for the next couple of days. Sigh.

Chef Chern working his magic.

Bon appetite!

Holidays at last!

Finally, the holidays are here. Darn, I've been waiting for pretty long. Many of my friends have already started the partying while I was still stuck at financial maths and Japanese conversational notes. Now the odds are even. Time to have fun and rejuvenate.

Seems like many of the bloggers I know have been getting rather philosophical. Is it an online trend? Anyway, the distribution from "totally incomprehensible nonsense" to "way-too-deep" is quite interesting and can be fun to read.

It's a nice Saturday morning and I'm spending my time blogging while munching on the gummy bears I got for wearing the Ursies Bear costume on Open Day last Saturday, thinking of people back home, pondering on the endless prospects for mischief this holiday and daydreaming of... umm... things I shouldn't say openly. Haha!

Unfortunately, as sweet as the holidays may seem, the thought of having to hand in my Biology lab report sheet and Psychology essay the first day after the break spoils the fantasies. Crap. Just like every cloud having a silver lining, every sunshine makes shadows. Lets just enjoy the moment and worry about the future later.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Sniffles!!

History

Some people believe without history, our lives amount to nothing. At some point, we all have to choose. Do we fall back to what we know, or do we step forward to something new? It's hard not to be haunted by our past. Our history is what shapes us, what guides us. Our history resurfaces time after time, after time, after time. So we have to remember, sometimes the most important history is the history we are making today.

- from Grey's Anatomy

Krav Maga

This weekend, I took part in a two-day self-defense course at the ANU sports centre. Tactical Krav Maga. It's an Israeli tactical close combat stlye which is all about survival in street fights. And yes, it means kicks to the groin, elbows and eye jabs all add into the equation.

I totally enjoyed the course. It was really intense in some sections where they got this huge guy with a "pumpkin head" on (It's a big body suit with extra padding and protection for the head) to lunge at us with a knife like a mad man and we had to deliver a punch and get past him. We even got to practice with rubber knives. There were many other adrenaline filled moments. Pretty awesome. Unfortunately for my poor friend Steve (who seems to be accident prone all the time) got kicked in the "you-know-where" by accident by the instructor. Hahaha, I know I'm sadistic by laughing, but it was so funny watching my pumkin shaped friend rolling on the ground with his hands at his crotch. Hahaha...

Pessimistic?

Phew. This week has been going pretty well for me. I collected my new passport on Wednesday, paid my tuition fees this morning, and confirmed my flight from Sydney back to Malaysia in November. But somehow, upon my sense of relief, I can't help thinking that something else is going to come up and muck up my smooth sailing. I don't know why, but the fact is, SH*T HAPPENS! I hate to admit it, but Murphy's Law has been proven right time and time again.

Up for CS anyone? Shooting down A.I. bots seems like an inviting idea to release stress.

Thinking

Another slow Monday. I never really liked Mondays. They signify the beginning of the week and loads of imminent work. However, this semester has put me in ambivalence because I only have 2 hours of class on Mondays.

My mind has been all over the place today (Not literally). I haven't stopped thinking for a single moment and I'm starting to feel fatigued and disorientated. Maybe I'm worried about something. But I don't think so, because I don't know what there is to worry about. Thinking too much messes with your head. I noticed that I tend to think too much on certain things that, in the end, seem so trivial. It's sort of like setting the mitochondrians in your brain into over-drive and blowing up a few neurons in the process. Neuro-collateral damage.

I had this sudden urge of mischief to play a prank or make a fool out of someone. Seriously, I wonder where it came from. Must have been some hidden desire in the depths of my subconsciousness. Then, I came across this comic. Awesome coincidence! Dang, I just love the Calvin & Hobbes comics.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see how the rest of the day will alter my sinister psyche and mischievious intent. ::Evil laugh starts, then fades into silence::