Photo Blog 04: Siblings

Syazani, Aira, KakaNaja, and myself. In a family outing to the Oil and Gas Discovery Center.

How nostalgic! I remember all of us went there and checked out the amazing exhibits. There are fun and games (I couldn't tackle some of the puzzles). What I remembered more vividly than the rest was the earthquake simulation where mom holed us up in this shaking house ..got out screaming for land!

Now why did I pick out this photo? This was one of the few fun times we had as a family. Plus, we were all slimmer then (*cries*).

Exercise

Jogging, sit-ups, push-ups, squats, weights...
Now the real problem is decreasing my food intake.

My ultimate goal in this golden year of 2007: to become thin again.
What started this quest was from an old picture I found in the store (I remember it vaguely because the next day I got sick from all the dust), it was myself when I was maybe 5 years or much younger, and I was stickly thin.

Then I looked at myself in the mirror and saw how much I had changed over the years. Bearded, more muscular, and overall; chubby.
It wasn't till I took Rugby when I realised what a lazy bum I was. Low on stamina, afraid of contact, complain a lot.. I was pathetic.

So I took to weight lifting, then jogging so I can bring down that giant bag of a stomach and work hard to aim for the Under-19.

Also, most of the girls say I'd look very nice once I'm thin.
Plus, chances that I get a girlfriend once I'm thin is ....HIGH....

Photo Blog 03: Trinity of Sport

Rugby Ball on the left, water bottle on the right, blood on tissue in the middle

Took this photo when Shido accidentally threw the ball to my face, the inside of my lip then scratched on to my braces which results in bleeding. Looking at the tissue I used to wipe it off, I thought of taking the picture next to the ball and bottle. To me this symbolises my experiences in Rugby.

The word 'Spartan' on my ball, for my warrior spirit.
The need of water in training and games.
Unexpected injuries.
All in the name of 'Sport'.

Rugby is my game.

Friend's ok

Went to the hospital today to see my friend. Still couldn't talk but can still take a laugh. His mouth was torn and stitched, his head also stitched due to glass lodged in, and his legs still recovering from the shock of the crash.

I told him in these kind of situations where your life nearly ends, I'd suggest a new look: meaning Cutting his hair to (preferably) very short, new glasses, maybe grow a beard.

I'd do it though. To mark an event that scars a lifetime.

Photo Blog 02: Best Friends

"Three best buddies"

Daus, Jess and myself had known each other since Form one in SM SMJA, bonded with the love of drawing anime/manga.

This was our last picture together. Daus is now in Maktab Duli while Jess and I are in PTEB. From time to time we would talk about how Daus's drawing are more progressive than ours and how much our styles differ from each other.

Daus, his very manga-inspired cartoons.
Jess with fresh and simple shoujo drawings.
Mine with my more american oriented drawing style.

Like three points of a triangle.

It's sad

In a very tragic and unfortunate event, two of my good friends got involved in a car crash. One of them is currently in the hospital.

I was informed during my Sociology class (couldn't concentrate after that, I was terribly worried). I didn't bother to figure out why both of them weren't in the registration room that time.

Then before I left the school, I met my horribly depressed friend who, normally would laugh over most of her serious problems, had lost her shine and had been reduced to tears over the whole matter. A hug is all I can do to comfort her.

This Monday I'll go see my friend in the hospital to see how is he doing. Got his face bruised and torn and hasn't talked yet.

It's sad.

Photo Blog 01: Me vs the Elephant

"Come here you big meany! I'm gonna rough you up!"

This is me starting a fight with an elephant. During my visit to Davao last year. This was when I entered the crocodile farm and there were some statues of animals used for photo taking. There was another one with me under the powerful grip of a venomous snake (see below).

"OK! I'm sorry for roughing up your meal!"

Back to Guitars. My favourite technique...

..is Harmonic Screams.
AKA Squeals or the Dive Bomb technique

It's those very sharp sounds that rise up to a climax in some songs. Particularly in Pantera and Slayer. I also found out Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold also used Dive Bombs in his solos (if you heard Good Charlotte's "the River", it's the part before the ending solo).


S.Gates and his Dive Bomb technique using simple Pinch Harmonics.


Here's one from Dimebag Darrell, using only his left hand. This got me into Harmonic Squeals.

Instructions:
-First you need a tremolo bar (floyd rose trems make it better)

-Either you use Pinch Harmonics: Pick a string then lightly touch with your thumb of the same hand, but do it in half a second. Then you raise or drop the trem bar. (like in S.Gates's video)

-or you can use Dime's style, let your left hand do all the work:
Flick the G-string with the left finger, after that use your Thumb and pinky to block the other strings, letting the G string to sound on it's own.

-Lightly touch the string on the 5th, 7th or 12th fret (same ad natural harmonics, but best sound you can use is at the 3rd fret) with the same finger you use to flick the string and try getting a sharp harmonic sound.

-If you got it, try practising the range of the the Squeal by dropping the bar first then create a harmonic. After that you raise it up and presto! Harmonic Squealing!

45-15

What's 45-15 you say? That's the score of our 4th Rugby match, with SM Awg Semaun again.

And yes, we won.

Our first victory with the same team that defeated us in our first game has 4 times the points than before. COOLNESS.
Marvellous tries today, Izzat was a great captain.

It seemed I was too spunky in that game that Izzat and Sofian had to shut me up before I make a real mess.
Izzat gave me some words of confidence. He said to stop whining and groaning (it was ruining our morale) and stay focused on the game. He then said that many of my teammates including himself still believe in me.
Amazing how much I improved after that! I finally grabbed high balls (I thank Sofian for that, and practice!), did more running and tackling (thanks also to Rashidin) and finally improved my defence.
I thanked Mr Stuart for not letting me out of the game even when I was exhausted (and like a premonition my exhaustion dissappeared).
And the coolest thing is I lasted in the whole hour of the game.

So the lesson here is always push yourself when you think you're tired.
The pain will dissappear without you noticing it.

Awg Semaun did great too. Still high tempered but fast. I don't want to go through what kind of stuff happened during the game, but I can tell you the referee wasn't pretty happy.
One rule is to always listen to the referee, no questions asked.
Should I also mention how slippery they are?

Tomorrow...
Sports Day. I was forced to join the march pass.

Mistake

Match was on Friday, yes it's today. The error regretted.

aHA!

Match on Thursday, against Awg Semaun.

AHAHHAHAHAHAHAH! COOLNESS!

It's May

Just finished my last assesment test yesterday. I had to do an essay in Sociology, and while anyone would normally dread from the word "essay" and "test", I enjoyed it. Exploring Comte's view of Sociology as a science and Durkheim's interpretation is very intersting.

The tournament has arrive, and sadly, we lost the first match. It was against the Knights again, but the funny thing is that the game wasn't as aggressive as the last match. Our scrum were uncontested, resulting in no pushing during the scrum.
I was subbed in the first half and did not enter in the second. Maybe it's because I panicked and end up my focus on the tacklers than my teammates. This means I have to get this fear away, get more exercise and learn to tackle better.

Simon said I was better in diving through (I think he meant the move I did in the first Knights match, most of my teammates were impressed by that). I hope I'll do better next training.

Yesterday during my EAS class, Mr Kendrew called me to his table. I thought it had something to do with my commentaries on previous texts, but it wasn't. Instead he said:
"How would you like to be on the telly?"

*Shock* (Note: Telly is an english slang for Television)

"Why would I like to be on the telly?" I replied.
"Mr Thompson today was asked by Mrs Lim to present student for an interview by RTB. So I thought of you, since you like to talk and you have very good english."

So he said if I'd like my name written down. And of course, I have to take in many opportunities, I said yes. If I get chosen, my interview will be on Monday afternoon.