2010

start of a new year! re-energised after the trip to hampi and raring to go for the upcoming competition season. funny how energy levels drop linearly throughout the course of the semester only to bounce back again after each roc trip! the hampi trip was really excellent but i guess it'll be some time before i go back to the place again. mostly because i still need to recover from the nasty aspects of indigestibleindia and also because i need to up my fitness level and technical abilities to have any chance of sending my projects at all.

my CAP did a little merry-go-round with me. results of 3.9, 3.7 and 4.1 for the 3 respective semesters spent here in NUS resulted in a back to square one circumstance. 3.9 is a bitch because it's not low enough for you to totally screw studies and enjoy the more laidback aspect of university education. 3.9 makes you want to aim for second upper honours - which means another semester of hard work (which you may well not be rewarded for). oh wells.. in the pursuit of CAP (and materialistic happiness)!

got 2nd for bouldermania (again!). that 1st place is still eluding me despite all that effort. nevertheless, this hide-and-seek makes the chase all the more fun! i know that given my continued break-me-down training methodology, that 1st place podium finish cannot continue to evade me forever! hmm i think i scare people sometimes with the intensity at which i pursue the sport, but i believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well. intensity is the price of excellence, and i'm willing to pay that price.

i'll end off with two quotes i really like from american president theodore roosevelt:
far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

it behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

which brings me to my 2010 competition goals.
open men finals by the end of the competition season. easily granted/accomplished.. no doubt.. for most of my competitors, but this is my goal, at least for now. towards it.. with unwavering focus..