Raffles Row 07

2009-01-05T14:41:00.004+08:00

hi all botaks to be!

goodluck for armyyyyyyyyy!!

shit it's finally here yo!

wtf im shitting my pants cos i havent even started packing :/

k anw for the 6/7/8/9 jan enlistees,

i thought of a damn good idea!

let's all take pics of our botak heads and then post here k!

on a bit pls!

k vic allan nathan and i will be posting tmr(though i havent told them abt this:s)

if you shave already just put laaa!!

greg(:

2008-07-22T22:28:00.000+08:00

shenghao, this one is dedicated to you for being such a pal, all these years...

2008-07-22T21:59:00.002+08:00

for those who just watched dark knight or are planning to watch dark knight...
see whether you can tell which one's the real trailer and which one's the fake. ;p

LOL.

2008-07-22T21:51:00.003+08:00

hey guys here's something which will aid in the destressing process.
Dedicated to nathan tan and his history of screaming.

2008-07-17T20:05:00.002+08:00

What exactly is success, and what does it really mean to be a champion? What exactly is raffles canoeing about? Is it really about the medals? Is it about being the best? Or is it about fighting to be the best, and being able to be content with the outcome, secure in the knowledge that nothing else could be done? Would you rather have a team that comes in through DSA with years of experience that clinches the gold, or a team that starts from scratch and comes in unplaced? What exactly is a team and what exactly is our tradition?

At the end of the day, Raffles canoeing is not about winning medals or getting the gold. Hell, it is definitely not about beating nj. What raffles canoeing is about is forging a close knit team of individuals who are willing to fight for what they believe in. It is about nurturing the next batch of raffles canoeist's, passing on what our seniors' have passed on to us. What they have passed on is an unyielding zeal in anything they do, a willingness to excel in all areas of their life - as one of our seniors once said, "The members don't make Raffles Canoeing, Raffles Canoeing makes the members". I have yet to see a canoeist who has given up once the going gets tough, and that is what raffles canoeing is all about, moulding the members by instilling in them the right attitude to face life, to move on and excel in their next phase of life. Raffles canoeing is about letting go, letting go of the result and being content with what you have. Being content with the fact that even if your best is not enough, your best effort is.

At the end of the day we will all(almost all) leave raffles canoeing after 1.5 years. After 1.5 years of smiling, of crying, of laughing and of fighting we will all eventually walk out of macritchie on the last day of nationals and leave it all behind, medalists and non-medalists alike. When the next batch walks out of macritchie, what are the thoughts that will be in their minds? Do you want a team to walk out having given their all to canoeing feeling disappointed if they did not get the gold? Or do you want a team that will be able to laugh and smile on the last day of their career, regardless of the outcome of the races?

The path ahead will not be simple, but the road for Raffles canoeists has never been an easy one. It is from walking across this uneven road blindfolded with nothing but the help of their team that the waves of raffles canoeists before us have learnt to deal with disappointments, fight with resolve and live with passion.

All the best and I hope you will carry on our heritage of what it means to be a raffles canoeist.

RAFFLES ROW FTW!

2008-07-13T06:06:00.004+08:00

If we live like this, we cannot lose.

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto Salvation for all who believe
- Romans 1:16

You know guys, this suddenly struck me while I was in my sleep. It was such a wonderful revelation that I felt I just had to wake up at 6 am in the morning on a Sunday to tell you all what God had revealed to me. Whether you are Christian or not, really my teammates, I regard you all as my Brothers.

Our team has quite a few Christians. Eugene, Chinks, Kennedy and I used to frequently remark and rejoice at the fact that our entire EXCO is Christian. We prayed before the next EXCO was chosen. We pray sometimes for direction, for the team. We pray before races. Yet sometimes I can't help but feel that many Christians on the team have led lives seemingly defeated by vulgarities, coarse joking, lack of self-control, etc. etc. I am one of the worse examples. The Bible tells me I'm not supposed to give into this crap, but I do. And whats worse is that when we do so we aren't ashamed of it. I think Brian swear until really funny. You know other than Mongs nobody else tells him not to? We all just join in - as Michael says, by "reflex action". And you know thats not all.

I have heard from my other friends and church members about how Christian family members and friends of theirs fell away from Christ's grace and love because they gave up hope on their Christian faith ... because they were discouraged that God was not working in their lives.

Because they "couldn't feel". They didn't know. But while I was sitting on my bed after waking up, there was one quote that just went through my mind -

If you step out onto the field and lay it all out there, if you give everything you got, then we cannot lose. We may be behind on that scoreboard, but we cannot be defeated.

Then I realised that as a canoeing life ends the big picture of life on earth remains and when life on earth ends the biggest picture of life in heaven with God for eternity truly remains. And even as we fought hard and finished the races of our canoeing life like winners, Jesus fought hard and bled on the cross to redeem us from our sins so that we might finish the race of life like winners.

We may loose the battle to sin daily, but we know that we have a God who loves us, Christ who gave his own life for our victory, and the Holy Spirit to guide us every step of the way. As Christians, we have won the battle. God sees and hears every hokkien vulgarity we use, the nasty shit we say about people, the ungracious behaviour towards others, the unwillingness to help even our teammates, the ugliness of what we think maliciously in our minds sometimes (even with the Jon Neo thing which we whole day laugh about lol), all our hypocrisies ... the Lord sees all this and then he sees Christ's blood on the doorpost of our hearts, and then he says - "ALL IS FORGIVEN." Such is the grace of God through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So what are we going to do with our life? Are we going to step out onto the field of the world and lay it all out there for Christ? Are we going to give everything that we've got for God? Are we going to make that choice, not just at the moment we said our Sinner's Prayer, but daily, to take up our cross and follow Christ? We may be behind on that scoreboard, but remember that in Christ, we cannot be defeated.

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31-39

2008-07-12T13:58:00.016+08:00

"The thing about Raffles Canoeing is not the medals or the championships. Its about the Spirit of Raffles, the dream which is passed on from batch to batch, captain to captain, senior to junior. It is that Spirit, that Hope, which makes Raffles Canoeing what it is, and what it stands for. Its not our dream; its a dream that has passed on from generation to generation. Its something that was given to us and we are to protect it and keep it alive and pass it on. It is this same dream which is to unite us and keep us going, no matter what."

- Eugene, NJCC 2008

"Make sure that what's in your heart, is shinier than any medal that you'll ever get."

- Michael (To Xin Er), Nationals 2008

"Actually I don't really like canoeing as a sport. I think what really keeps me going are the people, the people who care and push you on despite all the problems and challenges. I think thats what really motivates me to give my best while rowing."

- Kennedy, Random Emo Session 2008

"If its just how fast on the water you're talking about, then it doesn't say much about whats in your heart ... but if you've got a heart of Gold, you will naturally be fast on the water. And that's what really counts."

- Marcus, Nationals 2008

"Kaiyang said last year that we would rise above mediocrity, that we would give all of them a run for their money. Thats not good enough; I say we give them the fight of their lives."

- Chinks, NJCC 2008

"Maybe we are not there yet, but I just want to do something for the team, and thats it. So I'm not going to think about anything else."

- Greg, NJCC 2008

"I might have been beaten by others, but at least I have conquered myself."

- Michael, NJCC 2008

"I'm prepared to lose. I'm prepared for anything. But I'm not prepared to let anyone down."

- Stuart, Nationals 2008

"Give it your best. No regrets."

- Victor, NJCC 2008

"You know, seriously if we had been born a year earlier I think we would have stood a really good chance last year, considering the fact that we were so much faster than last year's team ... but it doesn't really matter come to think of it, cos we all did our best."

- Brian, Random conversation 2008

"Don't care just whack."

- Sheng Hao, Nationals 2007, Racing with Diarrhoea

"You know what? Every single Saturday morning when I wake up, the only thing thats on my mind is - I'm going to do all I can and try my best to rape Eugene and Stuart today."

- Michael, In response to Eugene's question: "How do we feel when we wake up on Saturdays knowing there's training?"

"I swear I will never quit!"

- Xian Chen, Nationals 2008

"Raffles Canoeing quite long already right? How many years already ... but there's one batch that'll always be special - our team!"

- Marc, 2007

the more nonsensical but memorable ones ...

"I joined Canoeing because I wanted to get a hot bod!"

- Liang Jie, Canoe Camp 2007

"NO BURST!"

- Sheng Hao

"stop hugging me i can't stop crying la! You know if you never hug me I nothing wan la but you all hug me only then I cry."

-Victor, after his finals race

"SHUNDA!"

- Kennedy, Randomly

"A-L-A-N !!!"

- Nathan

"Arhm!"

- Marcus

"SOO-LIN!"

- Victor and Chinks

"I don't mind giving you tuition!"

- Michael, Too smart already

"I feel that Kennedy is like ... the Mother of the Team!"

- Jarius

"Using a lifejacket (instead of a kneepad) is like ****ing with a condom - it takes away the pleasure!"

- Xingda, Ranting

"You nehnehjiao!"

- Kennedy, Pissed

"what the hell i was pumping la!"

-Aaron, after smiling throughout his 1000m friendly race

"Sorry, but not funny arh."

- Victor

"Wooooooooo!"

- Brian (with two fingers pointed)

"Are you planning to stagnate?"

- Marcus, after Sheng Hao and Winnie slack row

"WHAT ? ! ? ? !"

- Michael, While taking photos of the Girl's team, after we told him to hurry up from afar

"Seeeerious!"

- Winnie

"HOBBIT! Hahahaha."

- Mohandass

"Nathan stop being a butch/bitch!"

- Greg

"huh you talking to me ah?"

-Nathan, to Greg, in the C2, with no one else around

"I Slash your Dick!"

- Brian

"Kalaichelvan says he's going to, **** YOUR BRAINS OUT!"

- Mohandass, After Brian screamed into his phone

"Next time I go your weddings and ... toot!"

- Kennedy

"I'm Doin Preeetty Gooooooood!"

- Kenneth

"Eh, you guys keep rowing!You all must improve! I improve enough already!"

- Marcus, in response to the rest for saving brian and LJ when they capsize

"Oh ok, you good! World Champ!"

- In response to Marcus' above comment moments after the rescue

"So what kind of bikini are we getting?"

- Justin, Ideas for Liang Jie's birthday 2007

"R*** C*** can go suck my c**k!"

- Bernard, Hwa Chong Team

"Pung-Sai-Gao!"

- Chinks

"You think what i said, give head arh"

-Stuart on k4 to Shenghao

"if i win, i'll stand up and play violin on my boat"
- Marcus to K4 crew

"Noo, you have an ELDER SISTER"
- Winnie to Marcus

"I didnt know you go for older girls, like Kennedy"
- Eugene to Marcus

"Two of you can eat little kids together"
- Winnie to Marcus

Feel free to edit this post and add on to the stuff. :D

As the Day draws to a close

2008-07-08T17:28:00.002+08:00

I don’t know what to say, really. Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. Now I can't do it for ya, I'm too old. I look around, I see these young faces and I think, I mean, I've made every wrong choice a middle-aged man can make. I, uh, I've pissed away all my money, believe it or not. I chased off anyone who's ever loved me. And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror. You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losin' stuff. You find out life's this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game - life or football - the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, gentlemen, and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do?

TEAM.

RAFFLES.

2008-07-07T16:04:00.003+08:00

hello guys
today's boat cleaning and waxing session was quite memorable haha.. besides kenneth's comments on the epoxy and nathan tan's piss in the boat it was nice haha
the pond picture session was damn cool also haha.
anyway just wanted to say that it's been a pleasure rowing with you guys the past 1.5 years. great team(:

quoting we are marshall:
if we lay our hearts on the line, we cannot be defeated

haha or smth like that..
let's go get some points for raffles!

greg

2008-06-23T13:18:00.007+08:00

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

LEGENDS

It's not about the shoes. It's about knowing where you're going, and not forgetting what you've started
My Brothers, its time to finish what we started. Looking back, 2007, 2008. It's been two great years of adventure, sweat, tears and laughter. It has been an honour sharing these two years alongside all of you, feeling that same tiredness, crying that same anguish at last year's nationals, feeling that same joy together during NJCC this year, laughing at the same jokes, swearing at the same things, smelling the same odours after each and every training... it has been an honour being on the same team, being able to wear the name of Raffles on our backs.

It's about having the courage to fail, not breaking when you're broken
We left Bedok last year with heavy hearts. Some of us had a firsthand taste at the bitterness of defeat. Some of us swore almost to revenge our seniors. Some of us swore to recapture our pride. But all of us had a common goal - that was to prove the true mettle and strength and courage of Raffles Canoeing. We were broken, but we were not breaking. We swore to come back in glory and in power. Kaiyang kept telling us that we were going to give them the fight of their lives, a run for their money. Eugene decided that we'll give them more than just a fight.

Taking everything you've been given, and making it something better
By early March, the team of 2008 had already eclipsed the team of 2007. We pulled ourselves together and told each other that we would do a better job than our seniors, that we would train harder, row faster, fight smarter. Out of the comfort zone, with a team we could call our own, we delved head-on into NJCC. We came out stronger, more resilient and more persevering.

It's about work, before glory, and what's inside of you
All of us have gritted our teeth, have felt the pain of the last one hundred metres, the lactic acid coursing through our veins before that final crossing of the line. Whether win or lose we have glorified the name of Raffles Canoeing, we have done something beyond the limits of self and pushed towards achieving something as a team. But far beyond the race, the 2K timings, the land sets of no rest, the 500m sprints, the 40 x 10 bursts in the water, all these have agglomerated into the defining moment of: the race.

It's about doing what they say you can't
Michael once told me that the Spirit motivating us during NJCC was that of Surpassing our seniors and gaining recognition as a team; the Spirit motivating us during Nationals should be that of Proving to Everyone else that Raffles Canoeing is a team to be revered, respected, looked up to. Rafflesians excel at sports not because we have natural sportsmen, but because it is in the very nature of the Rafflesian to work towards excellence.

It's about doing what all these people, from MJC, PJC, NJC, ACS(I), ACJC, SAJC, say we cannot do and cannot be. They have overlooked the fact that within each and every one of us rests a true blooded Rafflesian (that includes you, Eugene) who will put excellence before pain, before defeat, before difficulty, before fear, that excellence which gives the team, the sport, purpose and meaning.

It's not about the shoes. It's about what you do in them
It is this same excellence which has to unite our team, it is this same excellence which should drive every single one of us, whether K or C, whether single or double (or quadruple). It is this overarching excellence residing within the depths of our souls, which all of us should bring forth, and shake the very perceptions of these people who have never believed in the success of our team.

It's about being, who you were born to be
Let us open both our eyes and theirs and let them see what Raffles Canoeing can and should truly be.

Let us all become

Legendary.

2008-06-13T20:03:00.002+08:00

this is the song i hum whenever shit happens =p random but it's a really nice song!

Fields of Gold
by Sting

You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in the fields of gold

So she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold

Will you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
Well forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in the fields of gold

See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that Ive broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in the fields of gold
We'll walk in the fields of gold

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in the fields of gold
When we walked in the fields of gold
When we walked in the fields of gold

2008-06-10T19:21:00.002+08:00

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon

What's Important Now? Search Your Heart. Then Act upon it by the Hope which we share united as a Team.

I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith.

2008-06-03T22:12:00.003+08:00

first things seem impossible. then it becomes difficult. then it is done.

impossible, difficult then done. how many times have we talked about wanting to do the impossible? how many batches have been called the dream team? how many teams have been said to be stronger than ever? we have been called all those at one time or the other, have dreamed the impossible at one point or the other. but how many times have we really put our minds together to doing it?

today, i want us to think about something very simple:

team.

together as a team, we will carry each other's dreams, we fight till the end for each other, for the people we love so much. every sacrifice will be worth it when the fight is over. when the last man crosses the finishing line and the last medal given out, we will stand tall as giants. together as a team, we will do the impossible.

people say winning is everything and it is true. people don't remember the way you row a race. they only remember who wins the race. they don't remember how close it was; only who won. but those people are not the people you know. they are not your friends. they are not your teammates. they are not your family. they are not the people that you love or love you. to those people winning is everything; but to everyone else

fighting is everything.

we come from a proud heritage. canoeing has been in raffles since the 1980s. not every single batch wins, but every single batch keeps on fighting. this is why we still stand today. when we row, we don't represent just ourselves, we represent each and every one of the batches that have gone before us and that will come after us. the sweet victory may not come in our batch or the next batch or even for tens of batches but if we keep fighting there will be a day where raffles will be crowned champions and there will be a time where we will win and keep winning. and when that time comes, not only will that batch be glorified but every single batch before that them be glorified. this is our history. this is who we are. we are Raffles Canoeing - fighters till the end. if we give up the fight today, we will lose our chance to rise from the ashes and grab glory.

when we go out there on 8th july and row our races for raffles. i want you to remember that you are carrying the dreams and hopes of not just yourself but of every single Raffles Canoeist that was, is and is to come. it is not easy but we will be there for each other. we will become each other's pillar of support. we will fight till the end together.

"we will be like ducks.

when the storm comes and thunder roars, ducks stick together."

- Mighty Ducks

so, lets prepare ourselves for one last chance at glory guys. lets grit our teeth and pull each other through till the very end. lets put in the 100% strength into every single stroke, cm, inch for each other. lets not give up but fight on for each other.

i ask you now, if you are willing to step up and put your heart onto the line for the person standing beside you, for the person rowing in front or behind or beside you, join me and let us fight the best fight ever and it shall be forever remembered that we, the batch of 2008, never gave up and stood up against giants and became champions.

WE WANT TO WIN

Determination

2008-05-19T18:50:00.000+08:00

The longer I live, the more I am certain that the great difference between the great and the insignificant, is energy -- invincible determination -- a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory.

- Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

Buck Up!

2008-05-09T00:05:00.002+08:00

Hey all, it's been a while since i've last posted. I may not be the most sensitive detector of emotions, but i certainly know a demoralized team when i see one. Yes yes a multitude of reasons come into play and i wouldn't pass them off as excuses because some are genuine. But for now, this apprehensive/demoralized/lost hope/can't give a shit mood will end now, because it's high time we buck up.
I'm going to do away with all big words and whatever quotes now because yes i admit i've become jaded in a sense. Too many cliches, too many water trainings, too many bad experiences and encounters i had with people and yes i guess we're all tired from training so hard and so long. What has the purpose of training become? We all say "PB, PB" and "rape nj" all the time but after a while the meaning fades and what's left is just the words alone. So what remains? What will not fade away in the face of time? Not your boat, not your paddle, not your strokes, not your body. All will die except for your heart and the love found within it. These two years i've been finding what is the best umbrella-termish biggest concept that can encompass our desire to row and train. Here's the closest answer: Love.
Undoubtedly, passion, discipline, desire to win, sportsmanship can all come into play. Indeed we all row for that, but there's been a dip in passion, discipline, desire to win etc. And now all we can do is to look back at the biggest main idea: Love. We all say "yea, i love ice cream, i love hot guys, lubz euxx worxx", words to the extent. But this concept of Love is what defines our team so aptly, and it definitely goes far beyond that of those silly examples aforementioned. When we started rowing, what made us continue? LOVE for the feeling of sitting on a chunk of fibreglass and trusting that it can take us 500m in 2 minutes. When we feel like dying at the last stretch of 2k timing, we could have said "oops i'm not feeling well sorry let's not PB", but what made us push that thought out of our heads and continue rowing with the bloody sun on our backs? Not fear of Jiaolian, not for showing off. It's LOVE for the team. LOVE for everyone else who is out there, uncompromising and expecting that you do the same for them, appreciating that the team is a body of canoeists who are willing to die for the cause. LOVE for the people who asked you to hold on one second longer so that your efforts will not be in vain. It is not the loud sound of "jiayou jiayou" from jiaolian's loudspeaker that eggs me to row faster. Definitely not. It is when hear victor's melodious voice singing "peng you" (friends), or when nathan accuses me of slacking behind that my muscles go into overdrive and my the pain is momentarily kicked out of my system. Why do we exhibit sportsmanship and respect our opponents out there? Again, LOVE. Love for them, for without them we'd have no one to own. Love that they are also part of this fraternity of mad people who are dedicated to propelling fibreglass chunks. Why am I so looking forward to Nationals? Because as scared as i may be, trembling under the pressure with the eyes of parents, coaches, match support ppl, friends, teammates, I know that I LOVE the feeling of having one lane entirely to yourself, no stupid boats cutting halfway, and compressing 1.5 hard years of training into that pathetic little 2 minutes, with teammates screaming hoarse for the burst, all eyes pinned on that tiny ray of hope that Raffles can indeed perform miracles. So find your LOVE once again, start afresh, and show that the heart of a Raffles canoeist is bigger than any other canoeist's lats, and that the mind of a Raffles canoeist is tougher than any other canoeist's abs.

Miracles are not random. Yes well maybe to an extent, like if you dont do your tut then your teacher is sick on that day well maybe that's a miracle. But we're not going to pray that other schools will suffer an epidemic of HFMD and we'll win this nationals! Won't happen period. We MAKE miracles bit by bit. Maybe the reason as to why there's this dip in morale/enthusiasm is because we've been losing teammates to illnesses, other commitments etc. Or maybe we see other schools out there looking fast and the fear gets to our hearts. That is when we've lost the battle, completely. Training is something like miracle-making practice. Every improvement to stroke, balance and fitness will ultimately give us that little increase in that little glimmer of hope that we can manipulate the odds. John Paul said in his exco interview, that he wants to change our stupid in-built ideas that we are the underdogs. We create excuses for ourselves for our inferior performance as compared to others: "oh they have 5 water trainings, we have like 3, which is not enough" or " they have 3 coaches eh, that's why they are so good!" or "but they don't study what, 100% of life is spent canoeing" But it has never occured to us, that when we beat them, we automatically prove that you don't need tons of water trainings or tons of cash to be the best. All we need is a heart that believes that we can.

I don't want to keep saying "no regrets" or "nationals is 2 months away! c'mon it's our final year dont waste our efforts", because by now, it is rather damn obvious to all of you. We're going to leave a legacy as the team that stood under giants and plucked their balls from beneath and crushed them. Let nothing come in your way these 2 months, and i promise we'll kickass!
Buck up!

2008-05-07T22:01:00.004+08:00

yo guys,

this video is the bomb man. hahahaha its super funny go watch !!!

some wise words

2008-04-14T22:13:00.006+08:00

hey guys,

i was at the girls' blog earlier and i came across something that minqi wrote and it really struck something within me. she has put some of the most amazing thoughts that i have read about canoeing in a really really long time. i believe that if everyone can look at canoeing from her perspective, everyone will emerge a much stronger person and much more powerful and convicted rower. so yeah, this is many wise words from minqi:

understand that everyone's putting their all into this. and this is what canoeing has taught me. despite being the underdog and despite knowing we're not the hot favourites, we are unafraid and undaunted, and willing to train so hard for the sport, the team and the school we love. we are so enthusiastic about giving our all into something we know may not even give us back tangible rewards. winning isn't the most important part of canoeing. sure, we all strive for the gold, but 10 or 20 years down the road no one is going to remember who got first in 2008, but we will definitely remember the team that has made an impact in our life. the passion is what flows in the blood of every raffles canoeist and that makes us one.

trials and tribulations should not be seen as tragedy, nor should adversity. on the flip side, we should be thankful for them, as it is only in times of adversity that we see those who really care for us. also, it is through them that we build resilience and determination. besides, what doesn't come by easily always is what we cherish for the most. victory is always sweeter when it's hard to get.

through the past one year or so, i've learnt the true meaning of perseverance, determination, resilience and to, as raffles canoeists, never bow down to fate but to, instead, fight on for what i love. i also learnt that our efforts may not translate to results, but dying after a good fight is always better than surrendering without a fight at all. our passion, love and enthusiasm may not dictate our results, but we will still do it, because we want to.

minqi

i think that her last 4 words were extremely impactful -- because we want to -- no one forced us into this, in fact no one can force you into this. not me, not chinks, not coach, not even mr go or your mother. the only person making you come to training, put yourself through all this suffering and enjoying it and coming back for even more the next day week after week is - really you.

so what do you want to do from now to july? think hard guys. because it will only come by once. this is your chance to make history, your chance to leave a legacy. think hard guys. think about your dream, your goal. and i want you to make this promise to yourself, not to anyone else, but to yourself -- that you will work hard every single day and will be willing to go the extra mile, no, the extra 2/3/4 miles to achieve your dream, your goal. promise yourself that you'll put in your whole heart and soul into it. just for this 3 months, everything you've got.

and when the time comes in july, i want everyone of you to be able to tell me that you've have reached your goal, i cannot have spent the last 3 months preparing for this any better, i've done my best, given my all and now i have no regrets. this is a heavy commitment guys, it is not an easy thing to do but to achieve great things, you have to put in an even greater effort. so this is it guys, are we going to fight and triumph as a team or are we going to crumble and fall as individuals?

2008-04-10T23:04:00.003+08:00

hey guys,

just dropping by the blog again. i believe many of us have like sunken into a kind of dormant and relaxed mode after NJCC. i know that we did well in the competition but i think we will have to work harder than this now if we want to repeat the good showing again at nationals. nationals is not another NJCC, its going to be ten times harder, ten times more pressurizing, ten times more painful to lose at. but no, this isn't a post to criticize ourselves or anyone. its not like that.

sometime in the future, we're going to look back at our lives and i don't want you guys to look at this 2 years that we spent as raffles canoeist to be a period of regret. i hope you won't go "shit i should have done that, shouldn't have done that; if i have known, i would have put in more effort in that 500m, done that extra pullup" we should all look back and think that it was a well made sacrifice and given a chance, you would not have changed anything. even if you came in 6th in a heat, semi or final. because you've raced a perfect race. not just on the day itself, but a perfect race every single training leading up to it.

having said that, i believe we should all look forward and really very very hard about what we're going to do in this next 11 weeks before the biggest race of our lives. its only less than 3 months. even so, a lot can be achieved during this 3 months. we'll take every single step towards realizing our goals guys. i believe that everyone single one of us have the ability to row a good race and win glory for our team, our school and most importantly for each other. but its not going to be possible if we don't hang in there for each other, support each other - be each other's pillar of strength and support. that is what we really have to do guys, its the only thing that will make us strong and invincible.

11 more weeks, 44 more trainings. i believe in every single one of us. i believe that if we want to do it and if we put all our effort into doing so, we can achieve miracles. you guys have written a wonderful intro to your legacy. now it is the time to finish it with a resounding end. remember, its not a question about ability, its a question about willingness. if you are willing to give each other your 100% dedication to the our team, i can ensure you that i will give everything in me, everything possible and i can think of to make sure our team is up there amongst the greats.

11 more weeks, lets go guys. everything we've got and holding nothing back.

Helpful links and cool stuff for everyone

2008-04-05T14:14:00.003+08:00

Hello all, i've been web-trawling recently in addition to my daily dose of long bus rides, and i've found a couple of interesting and helpful websites to supplement all your daily doses of flatwater.info.
Firstly, there's this thing called the Barton Mould. It was created by Greg Barton, 2 time olympic medallist. It's pretty interesting cos of all the theory behind muscles and strokes (only k rowers).

Here's the link:
http://www.epickayaks.com/content/?nid=1506
It's quite lengthy, so read it when you feel you need a breather from doing complex numbers.

For C rowers
I found this terribly imba website which gives stroke breakdown and comments on world champions' strokes. Plus all the comments are proven by physics knowledge. It's like having an online jiaolian who will come breathe down your neck and ask you to recover high and reach out. Good stuff, do check it out if you want better strokes!
Here's the link
http://snappyexit.com/

For Soolin and other aspiring C rower girls out there:that's nathan and i converted into female form and i changed to right side. WOW, it's quite an eye opener seriously, so anyone from the girl's team who wish to draw inspiration for rowing C boat, here's the link:

http://www.justcanoeit.com/ <---has uncanny resemblance to our blog name This one is Allan converted to female form

2008-03-31T22:41:00.001+08:00

Training!

Strokes!

Burst!

2008-03-30T23:05:00.003+08:00

Hey guys.. WELL DONE FOR NJCC! It was really a great experience watching everyone row AND cheer their hearts out for each other. And definitely, I think, we have really gelled together as a team over the past year. Keep it up, guys! And work hard in the coming months!

Here's another quote from the movie Eugene posted before.

***************************

(The team won the Pantheon Cup and the coach is talking to his star player, Beamen, after the match)

Coach: Well, glad to see success hasn’t gone to your head too much, kid..
Coach: It’s your moment, really. Savour it. But never forget, on any given Sunday, you’re either gonna win or you’re gonna lose…

Beamen: But can you win or lose like a man. I got it, coach.

Coach: You know, there was this great quarterback in the 70s that I knew and this guy was one tough son of a b***h. He fought for every inch he ever got. I mean, he didn’t have your natural skills, but he could make it happen. He could win. Anyway, I ran into this guy a few weeks ago in LA and we got a few beers and started talking.

Coach: You know what he told me?

Coach: He said when he looked back, he didn’t really miss the Pantheon Cups, or the girls, or even the glory. You know what he missed..? What he missed were those other guys looking back at him in awe. Those 11 guys, every one of them seeing things the same way, all looking down for you, together. That’s what he missed..

***************************

So guys, continue to support each other with everything you've got, because I know it's something I will never forget in the years to come, and I believe that I can say the same for the rest of you.

Well done, once again. :D

NJCC

2008-03-30T22:46:00.004+08:00

hey guys,

as you all know, i'm not much of a speaker at big events but yeah, i hope this message will get around to all of the guys, both j1s and j2s alike. so yeah here goes, (:

firstly, i would like to thank the j1s for all the hard work you guys have put in these 2 days. they say it is tiring for the competitors but i know it is even more tiring for the supporters. competitors race their own races but supporters race every race for the team. the cheering, the support, the food. our success won't have been complete or even achieved without you guys. so thank you and congratulations on a job well done. rest well and it will be time for you guys to step up soon.

~~~

j2s, 1 word: beautiful.

that is the only way i will describe our performance. from the team coming together to cheer to the way each rower pushed and fought for every single inch, every single stroke, powering our way towards our goals; it was simply beautiful.

i want to say that as your captain i'm really very proud of you guys as my team. you guys showed macritchie what RAFFLES CANOEING really meant today. the way our team stood by each other is the way of a champion team. win or lose, we are always a team. i think that today, you guys have proven it beyond doubt. i believe that if we continue to show this support for each other, we will go very far guys. we must continue to bing this spirit of holding up each other into our training, keep pushing each other and we will climb this summit together guys.

for the victors, you deserve the 100% elation, 100% joy and 100% satisfaction. you guys have trained hard and fought well. for the others, all that is left is 100% resolution and 100% determinaton to do better the next time. the second part of our dreams start now guys. we've been given an excellent chance to make history guys. the chance to leave an inspiring legacy, a motivating story is being handed to us on a plate. we have a chance to put raffles back amongst the big 4 of canoeing. we may have been trodden by others last year but this year we have shown that we've got the grit and the courage to come back and face these giants and that we're not afraid of them.

guys, today i saw a team that was ready to fight to the ends of hell for each other. we race not as individuals but as a team. today i saw a team that believed in themselves. i saw a team that was focussed on what they want was willing to fight every single meter to achieve it. i saw a team that was not afraid of others, a team that knows that they are here to fight and prove a point. but most importantly, i saw a team of 19 individuals held together by a common dream and goal and working together as one single solid unstoppable force to achieve their dream, their goal. this was what we were guys. and this is what we are going to be forever.

4 more months to the biggest race of our career as canoeists-it does not get bigger than that and the only way we are going to be standing tall and victorious on that day, guys, is by pushing ourselves as hard and even harder than we have for the past months.

Know what you want, stare at it hard, and work hard everyday to achieve it. EVERYDAY.

winning is not about going faster than the rest, it is about slowing down less than everyone else.

ps. listen to this with your headphones ya? seriously

2008-03-30T21:13:00.004+08:00

honestly ppl, for all my talk that 'anything can happen', i didn't dare believe it until the past two days. the turning point came when we were halfway through the 1k heats - while the 2 acsi pairs were charging ahead, i looked right expecting to see hci creeping up on us and instead saw nobody at all - it was like 'hey! we're actually going to qualify!' even after that, after the semis which we thought we got owned in, getting into a final, even the C final, came as another a shock to us.

so it's true guys, anything at all can happen between the sound of the horn and crossing the line, and that anything includes winning. you know that pause between 'start within 10 secs' and the horn? it's pregnant with possibility =D

well the medal didn't come our way, but we can understand why - it's like how jiaolian said that how we raced pretty much reflected how we normally did during training. we know our weaknesses, and we have plans to correct them =p

that said, well done everyone =D marcus especially, for his epic k1 final in the driving rain.

all the way guys!

2008-03-29T21:40:00.002+08:00

hey rafflesrow,
you guys are probably sleeping now..(you guys better be-.-)
anyway today's been.. both good and bad at the same time. but we all rowed like champions today and for that we should be proud. every boat fought with every stroke all the way till the end, "pump" button pressed and held throughout, everything we had squeezed out from every fibre.

today, we were a champion team.

we supported every rower from the shore. we cheered so loud that we could be heard from the 1km mark. for victor and i, the only thing we heard on the race to the finish was "RAFFLES, RAFFLES!" it was my proudest moment in rafflesrow.

what makes doing well in a race special?
its your team on the shore cheering for you. its the "well done raffles!" and the pats on the back you get when you dock.

winning a race with your team there with you at the finish is what makes winning winning. that's why in raffles row, every race you row your heart out in is a winning race. there's simply no other team which is there as much for each other as rafflesrow.

tomorrow.
we own.

greg

Less than a day left

2008-03-28T21:02:00.003+08:00

Hello all, not sure how many of you are hanging around online, catching some last minute moments of flatwater videos, facebooking or hanging around this blog frantically clicking "refresh" every 5 mins hoping to see a new post. It's less than 12 hours to our penultimate competition big day, so I'm here to post some stuff for those lonely cyber-souls out there who, like me, have nothing better to do at home than to await tomorrow.

It's heartening to hear all the input from yesterday's team talk, some regarding fear and how to overcome it, some encouraging us to cheer for our teammates, some ensuring our fearful hearts, that our opponents are as scared as we are. It's equally amazing that such an event, NJCC, can cause jokers and crapheads (me included i guess) to straighten up and give their best for just this once. All in all, i feel that we have really grown as a team in the face of adversity.

There's a chinese proverb which goes 台上两分钟,台下十年功(directly translated), "10 year's of work off the stage, for 2 minutes of performance on the stage".
Indeed, for most of us in this team, we have spent 2 years scooping oil off our soup, hardcoring gym, dedicating our mornings to stroke training, returning home at 8plus pm only to coerce ourselves to finish that bloody tutorial; only for that short 2 minutes (applicable to 500m rowers) in the water. Is it all that worth it? For your info, that was a rhetorical question and the answer better be "yes". For that short moment of intense excitement and fatigue, we have forked out so much more as compared to the usual RJC student. I believe it pays off. I'd rather join canoeing, torture my body using metal bars and carbon fibre sticks, burn my ass off with the sun on my back, for two minutes of thrill and glory, than to sit in an aircon library reading tintin and decompose at home on youtube.
All of us have chosen that path, all of us have dedicated our energy to this cause. And without regret, we're going to channel all that we've trained for, into this very two days. We are going down to macritchie tomorrow and show a sportsman's attitude. Win with humility, lose with grace (not really applicable, since who says we're going to lose?). As for nathan and i, we're going down to make friends with our opponents, and show our friends that our wash is bigger than theirs yo!

Have you got the spirit?
More importantly, can you SHOW the spirit?

2008-03-26T21:44:00.002+08:00

hi all.
i think with NJCC so close we're all starting to feel the pressure?..
its great we still keep our spirits up while we're back on land resting or after trg. I guess after pumping our hearts out in the water we can find comfort in each other.. i think nathan agrees with me on this cos we've got to pull 2 fat slackers behind us so we've got to pump our kidneys out along with our hearts hahahaha-.- k la no la. im sure chinks is as great a rowing partner to nathan as victor is to me(:
perhaps knowing that everyone else was experiencing the same amount of burn you felt during the time trials and sprints helps to make it seem lesser.

anyway, toughen up k guys.
fortify your will. impregnable.
we're all in this together.
row it hard.
rawr.

greg.

2008-03-21T21:52:00.003+08:00

With all the competition and harsh reality kicking in for all of us, we've lost sight of the real essence and spirit of our sport, that which constantly drives us and motivates us to excel.

Our love for the sport.

Haven't we forgotten how we fell in love for what we did at the beginning of last year? Have we forgotten the feeling of pride and joy in what we were doing? Have we, in the push to get better timings, smoother strokes, and meeting expectations, let go of the very thing which drives us to greater heights?

Have we merely remembered the pain of defeat, and forgotten the sweetness of putting in our all into each stroke, pulling faster, pushing harder and enjoying this sport, this livelihood that all of us share as a team?

Let us not let go.

Let us press on.

(And to the K4 people. These are people just slightly older than us pwnzing. Let's catch up. :D )

An emo post about life

2008-03-14T22:34:00.003+08:00

Hey everyone, i know emo and chinks do not go together, but i've been taking long bus rides lately and been thinking quite a lot. Today, I took the usual bus home, but i noticed many old people and i began to ask myself, gosh come to think of it, we'll all grow old like and be just like that, sitting on the green seats in the bus, digging our noses without shame, wearing asadi slippers. And i began to ponder, what is life all about? I know, for religious people, it's about touching lives and showing love to everyone on earth,. And for some, it's about enjoying company with family and friends, up till the very day we leave this earth.
I know it sounds melodramatic and after all, we're 18 (or 17) years old and how can i be preaching to you all about cherishing your youth? Take a different perspective and you'll see how precious life is now. The average human lifespan is around 75 years old, and 18/75 gives us about-whip out my newly conjugated GC with polysmlt2- about one quarter of our lives. In the blink of an eye, we have already walked a quarter of our lives and have never bat an eyelid.
What i have come to conclude, after this week of emo busrides and seeing lots of old people, is that our first half part of life is like a moulding and learning period. We learn skills, meet people, become wise, become fit, make girlfriends/boyfriends. And for the second half of our lives, we'd put our skills to use: impart to children, use them to serve society, inspire others to follow suit, etc. That's an ideal case, but how many people have actually done that? Al Gore, Einstein, Michael Jordan, just to name a few. Whereas many others spam fun things in their youth, pick up the bare minimal skills, and grow old, not knowing how to contribute to what, and eventually walk their last stretch on this earth, doomed to oblivion and footsteps on the sand washed away by the swash.
All that talk brings me back to canoeing. We joined canoeing with all that enthusiasm and eagerness to try something new, to feel the wind in our hair when we do that 30 stroke burst, to balance in a k1. But now we've already done all those umpteen times and the enthusiasm fades. We've did a lot in canoeing: made friends, learnt how to balance, got strong, became hot(esp llj), but ultimately, do you want that all? We're going to grow old and fat (sorry lj), lose our balance, forget our strokes, so what's the greater purpose in this CCA? Resilience, tenacity, discipline, passion. These are the qualities which i expect to see in myself and in everyone here, at the end of our walk in canoeing. These are the qualities which will see us through, all the way till we die, and which will make the difference in our lives as we go to work, have children, move on to inspire others. Let this upcoming NJCC imbue us with a winner's attitude; we're going in to show them who's going to rape ass.

"A true champion is someone who wants to make a difference, who never gives up, and who gives everything she has no matter what the circumstances are. A true champion works hard and never loses sight of her dreams."
---Dr. Dot Richardson

And one from Spiderman

We need a hero, courageous sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero, people line up for 'em, cheer for them, scream their names, and years later tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who told them to HOLD ON a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble. And finally gets us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want most, even our dreams.

-Aunt May

Let us not be that mediocre canoeist, always rowing just enough to keep jiaolian happy, or just to finish the race. We want that medal and we want to shove it down our opponents' throats so badly. So why not start making the effort to do so, one inch at a time.

video

2008-03-11T20:05:00.003+08:00

here's the video guys.

i hope it helps you guys to put things into perspective.

and this

train hard guys. lets give in everything we have and rip our enemies apart. show them no mercy for they will most certainly give you none. great athletes become great through sheer hardwork and determination. there is no shortcut and no other way. it is time to bring your committment and take it to the next level. take your committment and make it a leap of faith.

can you put everything on the line for this team? for your goals? for our dream? if you can, show me the fire and the desire in your eyes and put in that 100% effort 100% determination 100% resolution in every stroke, every set, every timing, every inch.

its not whether we can or are able to, it is a question of how willing you are ?

lest we forget

2008-03-03T21:13:00.004+08:00

a qoute for you to think about:

"Even though we are each our very own person. But we are connected by the same dreams. We are not you and me. We are RAFFLES !!"

my first time

2008-03-01T21:12:00.002+08:00

hey guys, i just watched some show and this thoughts came to me so yeah i just wanted to like share it with whoever still views this blog.

do you still remember the first time we canoed? the exhilaration that you felt when you stepped into the boat and managed to row your first 500m, 1000m, 2000m, 2000m timing? i guess many of us have forgotten what that felt like. when we first "met" canoeing, all of us loved it and wanted to row because it was fun, it excites us and we didn't care whether we were slow, fast, capping, stable; we just kept rowing cause it was all we wanted to do. but everyone started getting absorbed into the competition. when we started rowing for medals, placing, we became afraid of making mistakes, canoeing became a scary thing. a thing that must be done perfectly. i guess i made this mistake too. but i know now, i should row because i really want to. and i know i really want to. i've been doing it for so long yet i know it still excites me. it still feels really good to be in a boat and this is going to be what that will drive me on. i want to keep rowing cause i want to keep feeling that joy. i hope that everyone of you who reads this post will try and remember the first time you guys came for training and canoed. the fun. the rush. the excitement. the anticipation and the fulfillment. but most importantly, the joy. and keep that joy in your hearts guys. and for this last 5+ months till July, let's row our hearts out. let's not be afraid to make mistakes, let's row because we love rowing not because we are always pressured to perform. let's not dwell on our mistakes but always look forward to the next training cause we really love rowing. let's not be inhibited by our fear and let our true potential shine through. no more regrets guys. raffles!

duty roster

2008-02-23T22:13:00.002+08:00

hey guys, sorry for the late upload. had some trouble getting in. um yeah, the duty shifts are by monthly. so yeah, everyone only needs to help once per month.

week1 : mike, victor, nathan
week2: shenghao, winnie, kenneth
week3: liangjie, marc see, aaron
week4: hong chen, brian, gregory

so yeah, the roles of the helpers are just to guide the j1s when they are in the water and help them correct their strokes while paddling. the training programme would be given by the exco i/c of training that day. so yeah, very simple de la. jiayou!

rafflesrow ftw !

Chinese New Year '08!

2008-02-06T00:54:00.000+08:00

Michael's House!

Greg is on top of the world!

The man of the house!

Talking dirty..

Nou hei

Brian is in heaven..

Mohandass is in heaven too..

Pu bu gao shen! Or however you spell it. Nong li xin nian!

I see Marc See.

Willie looks like Mario.

Justin looks like a girl.

Kenneth surfing 'prawn'.

Boss looking boss.

The spread. More prawn.

Kennedy loves to stretch. On stairs. :)

Brian looks like he's on drugs. And thanks to Jean for helping out! :D

Greg and I.

What a night! We should do this more often guys.

Let us not forget what we promised to fight for.

2008-01-12T20:27:00.000+08:00

Guys, it doesn't really matter whether or not we continue posting on the blog really.

But it really matters whether or not we continue fighting.

I hope we haven't lost hope.

I hope we haven't lost the will to fight.

I hope we haven't lost that motivation to train.

I hope we haven't lost that faith and support for each other.

I hope we haven't lost ourselves to temporary defeat and setbacks.

And I believe we haven't.

There's time guys, and let's make full use of that time.

For those who have committed themselves to the race, let us earnestly and faithfully prepare for it.

Let us not complain about the things we do not have, but make full use of the things we have.

Let us not be marred by setbacks, but through setbacks, grow stronger.

Let us not be afraid to make sacrifices, but let each sacrifice be a testimony to the perseverance which will lead to victory.

And most importantly,

Let us not see victory as an end, but as a means to an end.

For as long as we do these things, we can proudly tell ourselves that regardless of the results, regardless of the outcomes, we are victors.

For us who have weathered the past long year of 2007, let us not forget what we promised to fight for in 2008.

RafflesRow For the Win.

Some song

2008-01-12T00:30:00.000+08:00

I find these lyrics quite meaningful for us all. It's taken from a Jap song, just the translated version.

I spend all my days here the same way,
chilling out, relaxed and unconcerned.
There are so many things to do,
a lot of them impossible for me.

It's totally overwhelming,
but I'm always ready to do what I can
because everyone here has a smile on their face.
I may not say if very often,
but I really am grateful for my family and friends.

The time we spend together is so special,
I could never replace any of them.
We've got this moment, we've got each other,
stopping, standing and laughing together.
I'm so thankful, I could cry.

This feeling is so wonderful,
it makes today seem like a wild dream.
I promise you, I'll never forget it, my precious ones,
who laugh with me, support me,
and keep me going..

:)

GOPENG 07

2007-12-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

hey people, i can't believe how dead this blog has become. anyways to revive this blog, i shall start posting about gopeng. (: anyone who still reads this blog shall add one/two/as many lines you want to the post ok? leave your name if you want or use a different colour. lets see what our post becomes. okays, so here goes. OH before we start, the trip photos are up on michael's LJ at reiterating.livejournal.com. okay, so we begin...

eugene// on the first day, everything seemed so normal, the girls cooped at the back while the guys broke into their own cliques at the front of the bus. i guess its normal, and because we haven't really warmed up to each other yet. so, we waited to see what happens(next person that continues)...

greg// ay.. i slept on the bus.. then at one pt in time victor and i wanted to piss damn badly but there wasnt an exit on the highway for ages argh. oh then there were the hiphop music vids. ERRR BODEHH IN DA CLURRBBB GEHHH TIPSEHHH.... i take you to the CANDICE shop... marcus gave candice lollipop.... hurhur. yea then there was shalala coffee thingy..
so we got to that ulu town place that looked a bit like china town, and we boarded the LORRY.
wooooohooooo. it was fun yea guys?

when we got to the resort my first few reactions were. 1)die.i thought hostel?2)wa daisuke stylo .. yea but once it hit evening the place became the most heartwarming kampung ever ahh ):

k gogogo!

The Inaugural Opening of Tai Chi Club!

2007-10-01T23:24:00.000+08:00

Hello guys, as we all know, the promos are over and everyone have been feeling stressed out for the past few weeks with the fast pace of life. Hence, it is necessary to take a break, and what can be better than doing some taichi in the mornings before training sessions to get rid of the bad Qi and absorb some goodness of nature?

As part of the club series (Fishing SIG, Titration Club), the Taichi Club has been set up in order to cater to those who require a balance of Yin and Yang in their lives. With canoeing training sessions taking a toll on your muscles, it's always good to have some slow and relaxing taichi moves to calm your tensed muscles down and keep your mind off bracing and rescuing.
Tai Chi training sessions start this coming Saturday at 6.45 before training, with Greg1 being our instructor. Hope to see you there!

1Instructor Greg Toh has represented his Primary School in Tai Chi competitions at a tender age of 7. The highlight of his illustrious career was in the year 2007, where he joined RJC Tai Chi Club as an Honorary Founder and Instructor. He is well versed in Yang-style Taichi and Swordplay.

2007-09-15T22:38:00.000+08:00

Erm, I know promos are coming but please do not end up like this. Ya.

2007-08-20T21:51:00.000+08:00

hey people! for those who didn't know, the canoeing world championships ended recently so yeah go look for the videos on youtube or flatwater.info. they are really nice(: can pick up some tips too about the way they row and yeah.. stuff like that! enjoy (:

2007-08-20T02:26:00.000+08:00

EHHH WALAO PPL, Y IS THE BLOG DEAD ?!?!?!?!

i shall revive it. (:

Revival attempt no. 1

ok first i shall talk trng that day. trng that day was fun n we got back our touch with rowing. yeay :D wad happened was that we took out the NEW C2!! and then we rowed it n it was dam smooth n sexy, oh yeaaa mun. the black pearl broke, n it became even more lanpeh than a boris II, cuz its now a BROKEN BORIS II, n for sth to b as lanpeh as that, it must REALLY suck ahaha ;)

so now we got 1 new C2 called KINKY (bernice the horny girl named it orr horrr bernicee -_-), 1 lanpeh boat called The Black Pearl (named by me n chinx), a borrowed purple boris thats not so lanpeh called Purpurple (named by victor), and 1 C1 called Tomahawk n 1 C1 called Evolution. hurhur yay. but we nid more boats, for K n all that! so we mus get more money :(

now i shall talk abt nice songs. erm, i think The Kill by 30STM rox. so heres the lyrics:

What if I wanted to break
Laugh it all off in your face
What would you do? (Oh, oh)
What if I fell to the floor
Couldn't take all this anymore
What would you do, do, do?

Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with you

What if I wanted to fight
Beg for the rest of my life
What would you do?
You say you wanted more
What are you waiting for?
I'm not running from you (from you)

Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with you
Look in my eyes
You're killing me, killing me
All I wanted was you

I tried to be someone else
But nothing seemed to change
I know now, this is who I really am inside.
Finally found myself
Fighting for a chance.
I know now, this is who I really am.

Ah, ah
Oh, oh
Ah, ah

Come break me down
Bury me, bury me
I am finished with you, you, you.
Look in my eyes
You're killing me, killing me
All I wanted was you

Come break me down (bury me, bury me)
Break me down (bury me, bury me)
Break me down (bury me, bury me)

(You say you wanted more)
What if I wanted to break...?
(What are you waiting for?)
Bury me, bury me
(I'm not running from you)
What if I
What if I
What if I
What if I
Bury me, bury me

n heres the vid :)

basically, the video storyline is freaking weird lah. its based on the movie called the shining, some horror movie, eeee yucks. sth like they goto a hotel n its haunted n they c themselves?! ahaha, but the song rox anw yay.

im like doing PW and its, wad, 2:30 am in the MORNING! n i have chem mockspa tml and bio spa on tuesday, AND econs test on tuesday and i must ahnd up PW wr draft 2 on wed n im oni abt half done....im deddddd :( nvm cmon guys, we can get thru this!

i <3 my new white converse. aku tear my heart ohh-penn....aku sold my self shuttt...

i injured my leg. it was dumb. dun ask why, now im limping like some hiphop dancer ahaha.

alan zhu sucks. he made me go with him to h3 math n i degenned. alan zhu u suck.

victor wong is a sayid da bian martian mushroom SMEAGOL. have fun managering.

greg joined C! yeay. HC too. must hardcore ah, comps less than 1 yr away..

wad else to say? erm. dunno leh, im randomly whacking anything i can tink of. im tired, i shall goto slp. PW can go n die. "how to die for PW" by nathantan. clapclapclap says victor n greg. OINK goes alan zhu. haha

byebye i shall make more revival attempts soon :D

2007-08-14T17:54:00.000+08:00

5 Important Lessons

2007-07-18T23:48:00.000+08:00

Hey all, thought I'd share this with you. Some of you might have already seen it in your email inboxes, but oh well..

Five VERY IMPORTANT Lessons

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop
quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:

"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class
ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet manypeople. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care,even if all you do is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2 - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 60s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached.. It read:

"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying,
"Yes I'll do it if it's good and it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we
all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his
smile faded.

He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

*********************************************************************************

"Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like you do when nobody's watching."

relay system.

2007-07-18T20:49:00.000+08:00

anyways, i can't scan the stupid thing into the computer. my scanner is screwing around with me. so yeah, i will just type out the chain. you just have to send the msg on to the next person in the chain yeah? simple.

chinyee - eugene bong - SH - Shawn Lim - Mohandass - Kenneth - Willie - Xinda (end)
marcus - aaron - hong chen - liang jie - justin - jerome - victor (end)
kennedy - brian - michael - marc see - nathan - jeremy - greg(end)

okay so very simple right? okay , last thing to take not, the people at the end, meaning mr zai, victor and greg, must send the msg back to me. (:

2007-07-16T01:04:00.000+08:00

i noe this is quite late, but there are a load of thoughts abt nats. so im going to type them down here, though my english may suck, i hope it can strike a chord with u guys.

i guess this year just wasnt our year. the whole nationals i saw the j2 team fighting, fighting for Raffles and the team, and see them fall. n it really hurts to see ppl i look up to, like kaiyang and muddy, defeated in their race just like that.

but u noe wad? to me, they r still champs. champs cuz they dint give up, champs cuz they fought to the end, champs cuz they lost with grace and carried themselves like winners. n they all learnt something from this, came out better people, as friends and teammates for life. to chiam, if what u said on the j2 blog really came from ur heart, then im really glad, n really respect u for that.

what makes a champion? even though my shifu, kenneth loo, dint win the gold medal, to me he is still my hero. cuz he holds himself like one. he never boasts, he is humble n he makes the best of what he has. though other rowers may have triumphed over him, he definitely does not need to show off, which is what others may do. n that is the hallmark of a true champion. looloo, i rly salute u, n ill try to beat ur timing next year :)

thanks j2s. thanks to chiam n seetoh n loo n timchow, hu taught me how to row a C from feb till now. i promise, ill win it back. n thanks muddy, for really helping with the jiaolian problem :) n thanks to all the j2 guys n girls hu were teammates n friends, for setting the benchmark for hard work n spirit. its going to be tough to surpass you all, but we will try, for the glory of Raffles.

now i think what we need are more trainings. as selwyn said, its better to train 2 hrs 5 times a week than 5 hrs 2 times a week. its consistency and hard work that work hand in hand to pay off. sadly, the circumstances were not in our favout this year. eugene n bernice, please do all u can for more water time, please.

n to the j1s, thanks for giving ur all too. we fought for Raffles n though this year we dint make it, lets learn from this nats n improve for nxt yr. let us prove that hard work and spirit WILL pay off in the end. let us believe that our moment of glory will come, n that God will reward those hu believe in him for it. n if ever we slacken of start to burn out during trainings, let us not forget that day when the team of 2007 went down fighting. let it be a reminder and in inspiration to us to work hard, train smart, and fight to the end. Raffles for the WIN!!

2007-07-15T16:54:00.000+08:00

2007-07-15T09:10:00.000+08:00

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

by Rudyard Kipling

2007-07-14T21:34:00.000+08:00

for many of us, there must be a senior who we all look up to. its crap to feel like you can never be as good as that senior, and it's even crappier to see that senior crash out.

how many of us can say confidently that we can equal muddy or kaiyang in a year's time.

we look forward to next year as being our year. i have been so sure that next year we're gna come back with a blast, but we cant just say "we're going to do it, we're going to do it", something should be done now.

if we continue what we've been doing for the past 6 mths, can we walk into nats 2008 and own? i really don't know. something drastic has to happen for us to improve, but training intensity wise arent most of us max out? NJ must be doing something we are not.

maybe we should alter our workouts for sets?

for example, different positions of your arm when you do chin ups/push ups work out different muscles.

how wide should we grip for chin ups to pump our backs?
should we do semi pseudo planche pushups to pump our delts/upper chest?

dont your delts die from recovering your stroke?are we focusing on the muscular endurance of our delts enough?

should we continue delayed sets? i read on askmen.com about delayed workouts. it said it improves strength. but is it the best work out to simulate rowing?

Conclusion. we need the expertise of siew hwa to help us train correctly.(that is, if we are doing anything wrong now. maybe we're doing the correct things). hurhur. i dont know but i am going to find out.

2007-07-14T20:52:00.001+08:00

I know you you guys will find the strength to pick yourselves up and bring the team towards natioals 2008. I finished the last race of my season with no regrets because i know i've never stinted myself in the training, i gave the best that i had these 1.5 years. The road ahead will not be easy and things may go wrong along the way, but keep fighting.

I was naive enough to believe that hard work + determination= results. It isn't always the case. but you know something? i still believe cos so long there's a glimmer of hope i will take the chance. People can say all the want, but they can't stop you from believing.

Lastly, don't let the negatives get to you. Your season next year is not about revenge or anything like that, it is something more honourable, something more glorious. It is about the reason you row, it is about dreams and the team. Stay humble, there is still lots more to learn. I wish you all the best. carry on the fight. go spartans!

raffles row!
muddy

2007-07-13T22:09:00.000+08:00

You leave the pontoon, with the rest of your teammates cheering you on. You know they have high hopes on you. Your heart beats erratically with the flurry of emotions surging through you; you tell yourself not to be anxious, not to be afraid, not to feel challenged, you earnestly remind yourself over and over again.

The sky is the least inviting, the water is choppy, and the wind is strong. Yet these are not the least on your mind. Your mind is on the race to come. It is the race, which you have prepared so long and so hard for. The wind caresses your arm, and you feel the droplets land sparsely on yourself, as the paddle surges through the water, and up, recover, through the water, up, recover...

It's your turn, as you slow down. You prepare to enter your lane, your heart beating harder than before. You know you are part of it, and you know that it is the time to face your fears; fear of inexperience, fear of fatigue, fear of the pain to come, fear of the result. No matter the confidence, regardless of the training, the fear creeps up to you. You live in full awareness that anything can happen during the event.

The umpire calls all boats hold. Uncertainty looms over you greater than ever before. And you know that you have to stand up to all that is before you. There is no backing out, there is no turning back. And this is a feeling we have not felt guys, you and I. We've been lying asleep these four years, and its the ripe moment to awaken the spirit of sportsmanship within each of us, that which embodies courage, discipline, fighting spirit, gentlemanliness, perseverance and passion.

"Start within ten seconds…"

The horn sounds.

A trigger sends an instantaneous surge of adrenaline into your very being. Everything becomes heightened. Your paddle hungrily digs into the water, and you give a powerful pull, your arm punching down with every ounce of might you can muster. The winds and the water suddenly become transient, and your entire being is thrown into the race.

Now it is just you, your boat. The finish line is no where in sight. You focus on the buoys, on going straight. Your every stroke is the culmination of strength, grit. It is a race of not only muscular endurance, power or stroke.

It is a race of determination.

You fight on. The pain begins to set in, even as your breathing has gotten from heavy inhalations to a furious struggle. You concentrate on keeping your composure. You know that a compromise on your stroke, on your frequency, on your power per stroke, may cost that goal you were striving so hard for.

Your vision condenses with the passing of each buoy. The pain now gnaws at your muscles. You know that not giving your all may cost you that goal. Relentlessly you force yourself to continue, in spite of the escalating fatigue.

You realise that this race is not only about the now. It is about everything that you've done thus far, all the trainings you went for, all the exercises you did, all the times you rowed, all the pain you went through, all the joy, the struggles, the times when personal bests drove you to exhilaration, the times when tiredness drove you to your very limits. You have somehow subtly known and acknowledged it all along, all that you've put into this race. Your hard work, your laughter, your smiles, your blood, your sweat, your tears.

All these things have culminated to a single event. And right at the moment where you are feeling the most drained and tired, this gives you hope.

You realise that you are no longer rowing for yourself, or that goal. You are rowing for God, for his Glory, for the School, for all the team mates who you love and share the same passion for canoeing with. They've placed their faith in you. This hope surges through you, more powerful than any adrenaline, it causes you to forge forward.

At this time, the pain is excruciating. Not just your muscles, but your lungs, your mind are in pain.

Burst.

You give your all.

You cross the finishing line, spent, drained. You've given your everything.

And you lost.

The feeling, that feeling of loss. You stop paddling, defeated. You gave it your all,
but it was just not enough. Those numerous times you trained, when you told yourself you were giving your hundred percent, perhaps those were lies. Perhaps those were a compromise. Perhaps.

You cannot help but let the tears well up. There is no way to escape the sorrow, let alone the defeat. You were not defeated by the winds, nor the water. You were defeated by men, by women, who trained harder than you, who sacrificed more than you, who were more deserving than you.

But in the end, you realise, that you were defeated by yourself. You were the one who chose to compromise, who complacently thought you were giving your all, when in actual fact you were less disciplined, less focused, and less determined.
And my friends, my dear team mates, my fellow canoeists. We are all like that. We have all been in slumber. It is time to wake up. To face up to reality. To reflect.

What has my attitude been. Have I really given my all. Have I really behaved in a manner befitting of my sport. Am I truly a Raffles Canoeist.

Come on guys. We are the present; the batch before us has gone. What shall we do? Are we going to just accept the status quo, or are we going to pick up the pieces bravely? Let us all awaken.

The pain is real, the defeat is real, but so is the strength, the courage, the discipline, the passion, the success. RafflesRow for the Win!

2007-07-01T15:37:00.000+08:00

10days.

hey guys, ten more days. i believe most of us are feeling the pressure already. for those who got a lucky draw, congrats but don't lose focus and think its going to be easy. anything can happen during a race so be prepared.

anyways, for those who are still very blur... those competing are:
liang jie - T1 500m
sheng hao & marcu - T2 500m
eugene - k2 500m
chinks & victor - C2 500m

hey, all of us are rowing 500ms. lol, anyways okay back to proper business.

okay, some things to take note yea?

1. don't neglect nutrition. drink plenty of water and eat normally. no point trying to pump food that is high in protein or whatsoever. just eat normally, and try to avoid oily food and chilli and stuff like that. i trust that you know all these le la. yea?

2. like what KY says, its going to take as much physical strength as mental strength to win it. 90% of the race depends on how far your training have brought you; but the last 10%, that last 100m, its going to depend on how much you want it. you've got to show that you want it, show them your hunger and desire to win!

3. do ALOT of visualization. alot of athletes dismiss this crucial part of preparation for competition. so yeah, everybody, before you sleep each night, think about your race. control your breathing, slow it down; visualize the environment - the people, the water, the trees; imagine yourself at the start line. pumped up, eyes on the finishing line. ; the sound of the siren, your burst. perfect from practice.; imagine each stroke. the power of your stroke. your boat gliding. your arms are burning with pain but it doesn't matter. you are used to it. you welcome the pain.

yeah, basically, i want to stress the important of mental preparation. its possible for anybody to screw up. so prepare well mentally and don't be that person. alright, ten more days to nationals. all those competing train hard. its the last stretch. time to show the world what RAFFLES CANOEING is made of.

here's a video to pump yourself up for tmr's training! (:

2007-06-24T20:13:00.000+08:00

hey yo boys. tmr is common tests. somehow i'm free enough to post at this time. so wishing you all good luck! in case you all need extra motivation to do well (excluding parental motivation such as allowance cuts xD)eugene says its 20pushups per failed sub per person or something liddat. so have fun xD
btw the last poster was the 111th poster. quite cool huh?

PROVE TO RJ PPL THAT CANOEISTS ARE SMART. for the guys anyway. the girls all like deborah, all braun no brain. typo intended

2007-06-17T23:50:00.000+08:00

today i went to hospital to collect shit sample results. then in the end the doc asked some qns, n at least i confirmed theres no piles or cancer or worms. anw it is a stomach ulcer. so its going to b there forever, unless i want to cut it out. but i ham ji so i guess its just going to stay there.

then in the morning i went to church n it was rly gd svc. abt glory for God. yay i felt better.

then later i went home n i slept cuz i was dam tired. oso dunno y maybe cuz its blood loss. yucks. anw i woke up at 8pm n went to gym, n after doing i bit i wanted to die alr. so i went home n feel miserable.

so life is bullshit now. haha n a lot of other stuff is rubbish too. 7 more days to CT, still have 2 more subjects to study. that 1 maybe still can pull off. but yea, theres some stuff i cant do anymore. n it sucks.

now i like disturbed. disturbed is a freaking gd band. it makes me pissed off. n story of the year rox too. it helps me get un-pissed off. so i shall give 1 song from each n go study chem energetics, which is a hell load of crap to remember.

n this is another super emo song that is nice. this 1 makes me emo n makes me think. a lot.

Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain

Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel Im getting old
Before my time

As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord Im doing all I can
To be a better man

Go easy on my conscience
cause its not my fault
I know Ive been taught
To take the blame

Rest assured my angels
Will catch my tears
Walk me out of here
Im in pain

As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord Im doing all I can
To be a better man

Once youve found that lover
Youre homeward bound
Love is all around
Love is all around

I know some have fallen
On stony ground
But love is all around

Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain

Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel Im getting old
Before my time

As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord Im doin all I can
To be a better man

yup hope i can b a better man in a lot of stuff.

N PPL PLS POST MORE PLEEEESSSSSEEE.

2007-06-11T23:23:00.000+08:00

Hey babies! we could plan a short team holidays overseas at the end of the year (:

i just got back from bintan, and i'm in love with that place!

Seoul Garden!

2007-06-08T10:16:00.000+08:00

Today we had team lunch at Taka's Seoul's Garden, and 13 ppl managed to polish off a whooping 30++ plates stacked with meat. well it was worth the 45min wait, plus some ppl got to relieve their childhood fantasies by going to LEGO, while the more hardworking managed to study, a LIL!

-damn we look hardworking.

-even more hardworking ppl

-this is what everybody has been waiting 45minutes for!

-oh, i't seems like such fun to watch meat cook

-we had this TIMES 30+

-kenneth's new shell collection. cockle's shells and egg shells <3

hmm, for ppl like Liang Jie, it really is one heck of deal,and to think he was the main supporter of the idea of going to food court when Seoul Garden was full. "I wanted to come here, because i know it would be full, and then we can go food court"-Lim Liang Jie!
however, after 5 minutes inside the shop, he changed his mind. and in two hours, he repeated this line "i'm going for another plate" countless of times. Value for money indeed!

now let me measure my costs and benefits

COSTS:
price of meal-------------------------$12.70
skipping one tuition lesson-----------$60.00
getting a scolding from my mummy------PRICELESS

BENEFITS
new additions to my shell collection---PRICELESS
eating so much shit from cockles and saving me one trip to the toilet -------$0.10
amount of protein taken = 3 servings of protein powder ------ $12.00
loving my team more--------------------PRICLESS

so BENEFITS - COSTS = PRICELESS-$60.60

hmm, so i guess i made a good decision to skip tuition.
a lunch worth skipping tuition for (:

2007-06-07T20:22:00.000+08:00

juz for fun. lighten up a little.

2007-06-06T00:30:00.000+08:00

hi i havent posted in a looong time! so im going to make a post now n i hope ppl will start posting again :D

erm ok so i shall talk abt trng. that day i din go for trng cuz i had food poisoning. like wen u shit it comes out like urine, yuckses. so yea thats all u nid to noe unless u wan more details haha

anw me n chinx found that if we stay dam near to each other like gay liddat, we can go straight HAHA so i think by being gay we are straight. ok not farni -_- haha.

anw we have discovered a new lethal weapon, namely jiaolians breath. haha victor said they jews died cuz the germans put them in chambers n made the china olympic team breathe inside.

anw the girls team said theres a croc sighted at macritchie but then now we can train. so i guess they caught it or killed it or sth. but wad if theres more? walao then die la...i dun wanan cap alr! n no more mangrove rescue for me, too scary alr :(

on a more serious note, theres 12 trngs left till nats? thats really very few. as eugene said, give no less than ur all for trng, n thats wad we all shuld b doing. lets give the other schools a gd fight in the nats!

looking at so many CCAs having won Golds this year, this realy puts pressure on the team. every year ppl keep on saying that "this is the year" and it turns out not to be. i feel that we shuld just give our all, and no matter what the outcome, u wun feel regret cuz u noe u gave everything. yea, so lets train hard k?

now i shall into a dam nice song its called they will return by kalmah.

yeaaaa hardcore :D:D:D

byebye :)

2007-05-31T14:53:00.000+08:00

Everyone wants to row...and everyone has the right to row
There has been an issue with regards to water trainings available to the team, and everyone, not just the non-senior team members have been fretting over this, because it affects the whole team, whatever affects one person affects everyone else. And the overall morale of the team has steadily became an object of concern, so its crucial that everyone remain optimistic about the situation.

*******************

At the end of our two years as RJC canoeists, what matters to us? What will we naturally hold dear most? Will it be the three days of competition we trained for? Will it be the personal glory which we fought hard for? Will it be the positions in the team which we have or wished we had? What will yours be?

And then i urge you to think of it three, four and even ten years down the road; when we look back upon our days in RJC, our memories as Raffles Rowers, what will we hold dear to our hearts? Will it be the medals, the positions, the glory, the honor the fame? Certainly not. We will be thinking of the people, of the trainings we enjoyed together, of the jokes we pulled on one another, of the frolicking in the changing room after trainings, of the names we called each other...

Above all we will reminisce the culture we shared, the pain we went through, the encouragement of our teammates, the bold vision we proclaimed, the fulfillment through the exhaustion, the laughter, the tears, the sweat and the toil we went through. And after all these things, the winning and the losing, will become secondary.

*******************

To those who are discouraged, may you find strength in the team. Recognize that above all, what matters is the experience. Nationals are coming, so naturally Jiao Lian will be focusing on the J2s and the senior team; its only a temporal period, so do not be discouraged. As canoeists we are not only strong physically, but we have to be mentally resilient as well.

2007-05-28T21:29:00.000+08:00

GUYS! I UPLOADED THE VIDS OF KEEGUAN ENGKIAT ETC ALREADY!

http://gregisnotgory.blogspot.com

2007-05-27T23:28:00.000+08:00

guys! dont eat pork with coke!!! dont ah!!! it'll mess you up!!

2007-05-21T20:30:00.000+08:00

HI GUYS! Greg here.
been sick the past few days, but the miracle is that i din lose weight! since all of us falling sick i shall teach you my secret.

damn simple. SPAM PROTEIN! i didn force feed meat etc lah, but i kept up my consumption of toufu everyday!... my neh neh, deltoids etc were still pain from the previous trg before i fell sick so i think the muscle growth covered up for the muscle lost.

and i noticed one irritating thing. if you don't train for more than 4/5 days right, you shrink! It's not THATTT obvious when you wear a shirt or anything but you can tell when you look at yourself in the mirror. if you get sian about this, just go do i set of 40 pushups then go back to the mirror and look at yourself. you would have grown.. wow...

My last advice if you wna look big, is to DRINK BLOOD!... cos when there's a lot of blood in your muscles, they grow bigger.. chicken blood not so effective. human blood best.

haha.. ok serious serious... building on the post below right..
guys go look at yourselves in the mirror now. do you think you are bigger, stronger than the NJ guy who's gna be in the next lane to you in the near future? for those j1 guys competing there's just about enough time to seriously pump up a heck load. RONNIE COLEMAN starts his pre MR OLYMPIA competition regime 10-12 weeks before competition to get into serious shape. you guys can too.

but most importantly..(koped a bit from deb's blog), when you rowing and you feel like dying, remember that cos of you someone did not get to row. make sure you prove your worth, and not let the other person feel that he could have done better than you. PWN NJ! RAAFFFLEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS row.

2007-05-20T17:18:00.000+08:00

for all those who still return to this blog. here's something to ponder about:

life is like walking down a dark tunnel. sometimes, we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. at times like these, we got to hang on to the faith that at the end, all will be worth it and put one foot forward at a time and walk on. champions are made when they say "no" to failure. are you going to say "yes" to failure now?- just because the light at the end is obscured and dim. guys! let's not give up and carry on fighting. to me, raffles canoeing is the epitome of tenacity and this is what our team is about-fighting all the way to the end. at the start line, everyone is equal. and what differentiates you from the rest at the end, is not the talent you have, nor the experience, nor the boat you row; it is the amount of hardwork you have put it, the desire burning within you, the hunger to do your team proud, the determination and the tenacity to press on. that is what determines the result of a race. to become a champion, you must do what others are afraid to do, you must train harder than the hardest other people train. it is daunting and scary but we must push on with courage. and this courage comes from within and around us. we must believe in our own ability; we must draw strength from our teammates and press on because we know that right beside us, is another member of our team giving their 100% effort for the team.

guys! we row not for ourselves; we row for the people we love. we row for Raffles Canoeing! R-A-F-F-L-E-S! RAFFLES ROW! RAFFLES ROW! RAFFLES ROW!

2007-05-19T15:45:00.000+08:00

motored kayak. LOL

2007-05-17T22:34:00.000+08:00

hey go read the j2s' blog for selwyn's post

ORA Proposal that got APPROVED =)

2007-05-11T20:39:00.000+08:00

Old Rafflesian’s Association Walk-A-Jogathon 2007
Raffles Canoeing

Food stall name: Ice-cream Waffle Stall

Introduction

This initiative would be raise funds for RJC and its constituents by selling various ice-creams waffles, cones and tubs on ORA day. This would be a feasible idea as everyone would be yearning for a reprieve after a grueling walk-a-jogathon.

We will be selling various lovely and delectable flavours that will enrich and stimulate tastebuds. We feel that this will definitely be a good way of making money and raising funds as many people will be encouraged to grab a tub!

Objectives

Our main aim would be to raise funds for charitable causes and contribute to the betterment of mankind. This is in accordance of our motto, “Auspicium Melioris Aevi” and this definitely reflects our goals and aims as true blue Rafflesians or maybe was that supposed to be true green-black-white Rafflesians?

Prices

Our prices will be able to raise money for our charitable aims, yet being able to cover and make up for our costs and at an affordable price where MSB = MSC which is the socially optimal output.

There will be 2 products –
a) Chocolate Waffle
b) Ice cream Waffle

The waffles would be priced at the socially optimum price of $2.50. We will produce ice cream to the point where the marginal cost of producing an extra ice cream outweighs the benefits of the extra single scoop that we have to produce.

Logistics and Manpower

We will have a roster to ensure a minimum of 3 people at the stall at any one time to facilitate the selling of the waffles. The freezer for the ice-creams would be provided by the company. It is
actually not necessary because we are naturally COOL people.

Hot people like YIannng NGEEHHH will be in charge of cooking the waffles. His left and right chest can be utilized at the same time to maximum effect to bake 2 waffles at once! This is called allocative efficient work! So YIannng NGEEHHH, pls be prepared to work hard 2moro!

The woMAN’s canoe team will be charge of the MANpower. Enough said. =)

Estimated costs and profits

The costs of buying the ice cream tubs will be = 10 tubs X $13.50
= $135

The pancake mix will also be needed and it will cost $30.00.

Amt of ice cream per waffle = 1.0/45.0 x 0.600 = 0.0133mol

Since 0.0133 mol of ice cream is needed per waffle, we encourage the sellers at the stall tomorrow to mug your Chapter 1 of Chemistry: Atoms, Molecules and Stoichiometry very well as customers might complain if they find less than 0.0133 mol of ice cream after back titration!

Ideal location

Beside a candy shop. =)

On a hind note, pls be punctual for tomorrow's ORA! =)

2007-05-09T19:50:00.001+08:00

Healthy Living Singapore 2007

2007-05-08T21:44:00.000+08:00

As we all know, many of our teammates have been coming down with injuries and illnesses of all sorts, ranging from flu and rashes to cartilage problems. So this goes out to all of you, Don't overtrain and have a healthy diet. Having good health is a benefit to our training as we do not waste time recovering from our bouts of illnesses or injuries, and we can devote our time to training. So here are some tips to improve general health and immunity.

- Do not overtrain. It may seem like a flagrant suggestion not to overtrain, but bear in mind that our body requires at least 12 hours of rest time in between workouts, so take some time off to rest on non-training days too. There are cybergaming club sessions on Tuesdays at computer lab 7 for those who wish to destress and bond over an exciting game of DotA or CS, so just drop by once in a while to relax.
- Have a balanced diet. Do not think that all we need to grow strong is merely protein and more protein. Carbohydrates are also an essential part of a healthy athlete's diet, but take good carbos like wholemeal bread and spaghetti, and not too much egg prata or ice lemon tea. For those who take bio, carbos are essential for forming glycoproteins which are embedded in our cell membrane, which helps in cell-cell recognition, very important indeed.

- Train smart. Know your strengths and limits and do not push yourself too hard in an attempt to beat the rugger/judoka next to you who is doing 150lb lats pulldown. The thing is that they are strong at low reps, but they cant do 30 reps for nuts. So do your weights and not others'.
-Last but not least, sleep a lot! Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep a day. Personally i try to sleep at 9 everyday, but due to other important stuff (DotA, TV, Dling music) i waste a lot of precious sleep time. So I'm a bad example. Hence I have found someone whom we should all emulate..

This is imba sleeping! The canteen bench is so hard but she can manage to get some good sleep! It's what we all should strive for- quality sleep anywhere under the sun!
All in all, let's strive to make canoeing an injury free CCA if possible! All the best for those with Bio and Physics SPA this week and the coming week!

2007-04-29T15:06:00.000+08:00

We had 1* course the other day again...

Here are the jokes:

#1
Instructor Goh: Erm, you all still remember your CAPsize drills or not?
Us: ... ...
Instructor Goh: Do you need me to reCAP?
Us: Er... *sweats (Pun intended?) reCAP... for us to see again izit?

#2
Instructor Goh: Okay the front of the blade is called the?
Us: Power-face.
Instructor Goh: The behind leh? Call what?
Us: ...
Instructor Goh: Is not the no-power face ah... its the "back-face".
Us: ...
Instructor Goh: Wait later i ask you then you don't know then you "NO-face"...
Us: wahaha *laffs

#3
Me: Sir, Macritchie got crocodile or not?
Instructor Goh: *thinks for a while...
You want to hear another version izit?
Me: *Oh... so you not so blur after all
Instructor Goh: Sorry ah. Joke tell once only no more effect already. You come 2* course i tell you more.
Me: No thanks.

Here are the new records:
Xingda capped 5 times (yesh, FIVE times) in a banana boat! W00t! So much for the unstable C1!!!!
Mohandas capped 3 times (while trying to get the ball...) but its okay cos he kena banged like crazy...
Keeguan capped while trying to save mohandass (o__o")

2007-04-28T20:46:00.000+08:00

hey guys. what happened today? i zhaoed off early after training to go back to school for the ptm rubbish. before i zhaoed i put jiaolian's favourite loudhailer and walkietalkies in the bag shed in a red pail on top of his funky hat. then in school i met maggie who told me jiaolian is pissed cos the loudhailer ended up on the floor in a puddle of water. did anybody knock it out of the pail by accident? cos i'm damn bloody sure i put it in the red pail. and it couldnt possibly have dropped out by itself

2007-04-24T22:37:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was an eventful day.

We celebrated Hong Cheng and LJ's birthday.

We gave Hong Cheng a card.

We gave LJ a flashy red, sequined ***.

Yes.

We sang their birthday songs holding our noses and twisting our tongues.

It was fun. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

Too bad the photos we took of LJ wearing his birthday gift were too explicit.

We are thus not going to upload them.

For enquiries, email us at rafflesrow@gmail.com

I think i should start writing children's books.

Haha.

2007-04-22T23:07:00.000+08:00

tml im going to c sports doc. hope everythings ok la.

ytd we had 1 star canoeing course. Goh rox la. hes fricking funny. these are a few of his jokes

me: sir, this reservior got crocodile or not
goh: no la. got no crocodile unless the crocodile take 1 star course

goh: hu wants to b the victim?
me: meeeee. MEEEEEEEEE!!!
goh: ok then we wait for kway teow. then can have kway teow mee.

goh: at sea when ure alone u dun do T-X rescue. u do the commando rescue. this rescue ah, is not u stay in the water call commando come in helicopter rescue u 1 ah.

me: eh sir, where u get ur jokes from ah?
goh: orh, this 1 i go to the street and buy 1 then come back and say.

LOLX HUHURRXX sh1t man dam funny. victor laffed his ass off n opened his mouth so big he culd have swallowed a kayak. so we r going to compile GOHs hokes n make a booklet so we can remeber GOH. maybe we can sell it at ora haha. jus joking

listen to this song its aclled dark blue by jack's mannequin. it rox:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDScNjxlScE

ok nid to go do chinese n econs byebye cya all tml

The Sandpiper

2007-04-20T21:30:00.000+08:00

This is a true and touching story which i chanced on while reading through friends' blogs; though it's long, i wish to share it with you guys.

The Sandpiper, by Robert Peterson

She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live.

I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me. She was building a sand castle or something and looked up, her eyes as blue as the sea."Hello," she said.I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child."I'm building," she said."I see that. What is it?" I asked, not really caring."Oh, I don't know, I just like the feel of sand."That sounds good, I thought, and slipped off my shoes.A sandpiper glided by."That's a joy," the child said."It's a what?""It's a joy. My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy."The bird went gliding down the beach. Good-bye joy, I muttered to myself, hello pain, and turned to walk on. I was depressed, my life seemed completely out of balance."What's your name?" She wouldn't give up."Robert," I answered. "I'm Robert Peterson.""Mine's Wendy... I'm six.""Hi, Wendy."She giggled. "You're funny," she said.In spite of my gloom, I laughed too and walked on. Her musical giggle followed me."Come again, Mr. P," she called. "We'll have another happy day."

The next few days consisted of a group of unruly Boy Scouts, PTA meetings, and an ailing mother. The sun was shining one morning as I took my hands out of the dishwater. I need a sandpiper, I said to myself, gathering up my coat.The ever-changing balm of the seashore awaited me. The breeze was chilly but I strode along, trying to recapture the serenity I needed."Hello, Mr. P," she said. "Do you want to play?""What did you have in mind?" I asked, with a twinge of annoyance."I don't know. You say.""How about charades?" I asked sarcastically.The tinkling laughter burst forth again. "I don't know what that is.""Then let's just walk."Looking at her, I noticed the delicate fairness of her face. "Where do you live?" I asked."Over there." She pointed toward a row of summer cottages.Strange, I thought, in winter."Where do you go to school?""I don't go to school. Mommy says we're on vacation."She chattered little girl talk as we strolled up the beach, but my mind was on other things. When I left for home, Wendy said it had been a happy day.Feeling surprisingly better, I smiled at her and agreed.Three weeks later, I rushed to my beach in a state of near panic. I was in no mood to even greet Wendy. I thought I saw her mother on the porch and felt like demanding she keep her child at home."Look, if you don't mind," I said crossly when Wendy caught up with me, "I'd rather be alone today." She seemed unusually pale and out of breath."Why?" she asked.

I turned to her and shouted, "Because my mother died!" and thought, My God, why was I saying this to a little child?"Oh," she said quietly, "then this is a bad day.""Yes," I said, "and yesterday and the day before and -- oh, go away!""Did it hurt?" she inquired."Did what hurt?" I was exasperated with her, with myself."When she died?""Of course it hurt!" I snapped, misunderstanding, wrapped up in myself. I strode off.A month or so after that, when I next went to the beach, she wasn't there. Feeling guilty, ashamed, and admitting to myself I missed her, I went up to the cottage after my walk and knocked at the door. A drawn looking young woman with honey-colored hair opened the door."Hello," I said, "I'm Robert Peterson. I missed your little girl today and wondered where she was.""Oh yes, Mr. Peterson, please come in. Wendy spoke of you so much. I'm afraid I allowed her to bother you. If she was a nuisance, please, accept my apologies.""Not at all -- she's a delightful child." I said, suddenly realizing that I meant what I had just said."Wendy died last week, Mr. Peterson. She had leukemia. Maybe she didn't tell you."Struck dumb, I groped for a chair. I had to catch my breath."She loved this beach, so when she asked to come, we couldn't say no. She seemed so much better here and had a lot of what she called happy days.But the last few weeks, she declined rapidly..." Her voice faltered, "She left something for you, if only I can find it. Could you wait a moment while I look?"I nodded stupidly, my mind racing for something to say to this lovely young woman. She handed me a smeared envelope with "MR. P" printed in bold childish letters.

Inside was a drawing in bright crayon hues – a yellow beach, a blue sea, and a brown bird. Underneath was carefully printed:A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY.Tears welled up in my eyes, and a heart that had almost forgotten to love opened wide. I took Wendy's mother in my arms. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," I uttered over and over, and we wept together. The precious little picture is framed now and hangs in my study. Six words -- one for each year of her life -- that speak to me of harmony, courage, and undemanding love.A gift from a child with sea blue eyes and hair the color of sand-- who taught me the gift of love.

NOTE: This is a true story sent out by Robert Peterson. It happened over 20 years ago and the incident changed his life forever. It serves as a reminder to all of us that we need to take time to enjoy living and life and each other. The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.Life is so complicated, the hustle and bustle of everyday traumas can make us lose focus about what is truly important or what is only a momentary setback or crisis.This week, be sure to give your loved ones an extra hug, and by all means, take a moment... even if it is only ten seconds, to stop and smell the roses.

2007-04-17T19:41:00.000+08:00

More an more of us are falling ill and getting injuries. (The nehthan unglam images have been removed due to the man himself complaining.)

*Guys, please take care of yourselves. We don't compromise on training, but as Mr. Go and the J2s have emphasised, we have to train smart, and regulate our own training as well. Don't compromise, push yourself to your limits, but do not overdo things. Remember that when we train, we should set our sights on whatever we want to achieve in order to forge towards next year's nationals. We certainly don't want to pwn ourselves rite?

On a side note, don't eat fast food. yeah.

Or potato chips. Double yeah.

Just kidding. In moderation guys! Not that we are banned from eating such things. Consumption in moderation! Erm. That means like eat them once every ten years. Yupp.

2007-04-15T23:04:00.000+08:00

LIFE SUCKS. MY HAIR IS NIGGAFIED.

its not even black. its PITCH black. like blacker than black. aw man.

and next wk tues got econs test n napfa. wed got napfa. thurs got bio test. wheeee

me n chinx havent repaired e boat yet. n i realized that a gd kneerest is dam impt cuz now my knee hurts like SH*T. i cant kick properly. oh well chinx lets go c a sportz docc.

ytd i went to see benny hinn. the annointing was so powerful i fell down like 2 times n culdnt stop trembing after that, and felt supercharged. suuuuper man

tmls trng. and tuesday is napfa. die. gd luk guys. childrem of bodom rocks forever :D:D:D

student canoeist

2007-04-12T21:58:00.000+08:00

Today during team run something damn funny happened. We were running on the outermost lanes when...

Mohan: ‘操他奶奶的, 在这儿跑得多跑一千五百米。真他妈的，都快累死了！'
Me: 'huh where got? its the same wad..'
Mohan: 'no you see, the horizontal distance between each lane is 1m, so a distance of 7 lanes is 7m. Taking the circumference of a circle to be 2 pie r, the total increase in distance is 14 pie * 12，which is...'
Me: '...'

I feel so noob now la pls to be around a true 'student athlete' lol. Made me laugh until I got stitch. But I also forgot the exact number which Mohan mentally calculated on the spot :p.

2007-04-12T21:29:00.000+08:00

How you begin to appreciate the serenity of flatwater kayaking...
Winnie... can you do that too? poohpoohpooh.

2007-04-11T23:26:00.000+08:00

BERNICE!!!! IM NOT A CHA BO!! ahahaha

if 10 more ppl say that im going to TOK TIAO.

anw today was a happy n nice day. i was a guaiboiboi and payed dam gd atention in class. and i talked a lot of kok with ppl. haha

anw, after lesson the fun stuff started. i had ISLE meeting. so i went there and for the lesson, our group was supposed to plan a service learning project that we can do in sch.

so me engwei wenyu nelson and weiqu wen out to canteen n planned dam hard, by drinking and eating. then we dint noe wad to do, so we went bak to class, and guess wad?

there was this group of retarded china man / china woman. and theyre not like the china ppl in canoe, hu are much nicer and who r reasonable. they wanted to use our classroom for ELECTRONICS CLUB..and they were dam serious. the leader, liu li (some girl) wanted us to get our bags out and said they booked e classroom

im sure la. ISLE always this class y suddenly got retards come and kaobei? so we called miss seetoh, and tha liu li person actually argued with her omg. and all the time we kept on lafing at the fact that a 8 man ELECTRONICS CLUB is high and mighty enough to chase 20 ppl out of a classroom

and liu li spoke dam funny. like she want to fight. i wanted to talk back,,,,

BUT!!!

i remembered i mus b a guaiboiboi and dun b bad with a capital B. so i just laffed in her face wen she asked us to siam. c im so nice :D

so miss seetoh came bak, and she decided to b nice to the ELECTRONICS CLUB and we moved. and then we had an inspirational idea for our Service learning project:

ANGER MANAGEMENT COURSES FOR STUDENTS (esp electronics club)

ahaha. so fun. so after ISLE i chiongged to trng. and then our C2 was spoilt so we used oompa loompas and shitto's C2.

so we trained. and i think we improved, escept my recovery was quite bad on one of the 500m sprints. but there was this time where we were chionging dam fast straight with no cap. i guesss we just have to perfect that till we can do that for 500m!

yaay. later i tried hongchengs t1 and capped. i felt n00bed.

then later i was standing on the pontoon and trying to grab our boat from drifting. and suddenly for no reason i fell into the water. means i capped on the PONTOON. demorale like sh1t.

lucky no sets i was dam tired alr. so we went to sch and had emo man 2 man talks. then i went home. the end.

haha how nice. o ya, there are interviews for J1s tml!! short ones. so just relax and talk! help tell e rest too!!

ok cya tml! rest well! rafflesrowrox!

2007-04-11T22:49:00.001+08:00

Here are the list of funny things that happened today which i feel are worth remembering and in certain cases, celebrating.

1) We found out Chiam capped in a k1 after 1 second. Jiayou!
2) Hong Cheng bettered Chiam's record by a second. Jiayou!
Hong Cheng agreed that rowing a K1 is hard. DUH!
3) Sheng Hao thought he could do better and tied Hong Cheng with 2 seconds on a K1. Jiayou!
4) For all his stability on a C, Nathan capped in a T1! While getting in... *sweats. Jiayou!
5) William got to the 250 m mark on a C1! Hooray!!! *we are soooo happy for you willie! Jiayou!

and just very very recently...
6) A certain female canoeist whose name starts with 'B' and ends with 'ernice' remarked that Nathan looks guniang in this certain picture...

aiyah aiyah. its okay nathan that means you are in touch with your feminine side... haha. Quite a good comment depending on the way you look at it...

7) It was kenneth Kong's bdae and his girlfren even came along to cho re nao...
8) Selwyn discovered fire. *ooooh!
9) All of us are happy.
10) All of us are happy. Really.

Continue to enjoy one another, build each other up, encourage one another in our endeavors and strive towards achieving success as a team!

chill

2007-04-10T20:52:00.000+08:00

nathan don't be emo! just join titration club and it will take your mind off things! i find myself most focused and concentrated when i'm doing my redox titration! give me your class and i/c no. by tomorrow yeah! then we'll be the titration club exco! and if we make it into a CCA, we'll get 11k bucks of funding a year, which means that we can get gold titration sets and used gold water to rinse our burettes and beakers! cheer up man, we still have to train hard tomorrow. ;)

Rowing competition and new club announcement

2007-04-10T20:38:00.000+08:00

hello everybody. I'm chinks, and i have some good news. For all those who didn't take part in NJCC, you'll still get to hone your rowing skills against many others at this rowing competition! It's on the 20th of May, and the distance rowed is 2km. It's going to be super cool, so do keep that day free yeah. and let me know if you're interested. One thing is that any rowers from t,k, or c can participate, as we will be rowing the rowing machines (you can find them at rjc gym) at UOB centre. Sounds highly exciting yeah? So do not hesitate to sign up now, it's something worthwhile to do when you have a free sunday to burn time on!

On a totally different note, my friends and I have been observing that many who take chemistry have not been coping with SPA very well, and in lieu of the upcoming SPA assessment which will contribute to your A level results, we have decided to set up a titration club. It is important that as canoeists, we also maintain a high standard of academic proficiency, so this club will be beneficial to your chemistry marks as well! It is going to be a SIG for the moment, so sign up with me if you wish to have a fun filled but at the same time educational and hands-on tuesday afternoon with everyone else! I'm going to get the start-up-a-SIG form tomorrow from the General Office, so give me your names latest by the end of this week, and I assure you guys that you all will score during the SPA! My chemistry tutor Mr Christopher Tan (Jiaqi and Soo's tutor too) has agreed to be the teacher mentor of this club, and he's super zhai at titration. We need at least 15 people to start up a SIG, so I hope for your fullest support!

All the way!

2007-04-10T20:37:00.000+08:00

life really sucks. i dunno la maybe its too bz or too tiring or too dunno wad, but theres a lot of crap to think abt and wen i tink abt it, its quite deepressing. nvm.

o ya chinx just posted abt the rowing comp on 20 may. lets all go! itll b fun n i think we can win sth.

the results arent out yet. i tink its on thursday. whatever happens well still be together anyway, so really guys dun feel so bad if u do not make it k?

my world by sick puppies rox. u all shuld go hear it.

goin to do work. arent i hardworking? haha work shuld burn...

2007-04-09T00:12:00.000+08:00

today i was a good boy. i did the most hmwk i did in the past 3 weeks. real achievement.

this is wad i did:
maths tut 4A (till qn 9)
maths asst 3
econs case study (half)
chinese worksheet 2

suuuper gooood mann. yay.

on a more serous note, tml is the day that a few people will b leaving the team. we all don't want this to happen but somehow fate isnt so kind. but to whoever does not make it, its not the end of the world. I found out that those who do not get into the team will still be in canoeing, but will be doing dragon boat instead. so dont fret ok guys?

sometimes its a question of morality vs practicality. morality tells us to fight to let more ppl stay in the team. but practicality tells us that if they stay, they may not be able to compete. its in in fact hamful...so i dunno. i feel ripped. im going to pray for everyone tml, n lets hope for the best.

ok lets dun b emo anymore. this whole week was emo n i feel so much better after church n trng on weekend. lets forget it n move on.

so cya all tml! or is that today? ahaha! 4.30pm at stadium steps!

2007-04-08T22:24:00.000+08:00

To those who thought C4 200m was powerful, THIS IS THE BOMB...

*
1) Their strokes are really really fast (too fast)
2) Their muscles are really really big
3) They make paddles look like toothpicks/earbuds (from aerial view they really do.)
4) Jiao Lian's home team is featured: Pple's Republic of China. Jiao Lian, be proud! >_<
5) One of the guys so strong the blade snapped from the shaft (jacked)

To all K rowers: watch and learn
*This vid has slo mo lah so its easier to look at their stroke and pick up some pointers

a nice day

2007-04-07T23:23:00.000+08:00

to day i woke up and went to water. i felt abit drunk-ey but nvm. we got the boats out and put on e lifejacs and went to row.

BUT!! BUT, there was no right side kneerest! looloo koped 1, timchow koped 1, and XD koped 1. so me n chiam were like stranded. jiaolian said use a lifejac. means ill b converting back to the n00bie times wen we used lifejac to kneerest. oh well.

the tilt was dam retarded, but me and chinx managed to paddle 2k despite that and the sun. then later my thigh cramped and i jumped off e boat. then i was saved by timchow

chinx was lind and let me take his kneerest. but it was a left kneerest, and the balance was even worse. aww man. i jumped out of e boat again.

so i dint achieve much today. later, we took e boat out..and realized....

THE BOAT IS BROKEN!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

the metla handle holding the boat together was detached from e boat. i think it came from capping too much. so jiaolian was pissed and said its our problem. mr go taped up e boat. its a temporary measure but i think itll work for now. we nid to go buy fibreglass glue chinx!!

ok then we had 1 star course. i met the funniest guy, the instructor. hes dam nice oso. if u wan to noe his funny jokes u can ask us got too many to type here hahaha. but one of them is...

why is the stern behind? cuz u turn to look behind. tuen sounds like stern. so stern is behind.

ha-ha-ha. and also got another 1:

i noe u want to go look at ur girlfriends or whatever paddling, but pls look at my ugly face for the next few hours for the course.

lol. hes dam nice la. so the course was dam fun. i capped for fun once and made him rescue me. then later we were doing bracing and my boat became the yellow submarine. and ppl had to save me again.

o ya for lunch we went to the canteen and there was a scammer aunty. she tried to scam us soyabean for $2.50. wth la.

so after e course i decided to b a guaiboiboi. i decided to cut hair WITH NO FORCING!! haha now mr park will think im a gdboi and wun thinki got AP anymore. i went to the one hairstyling salon n got an emo cut. i like it la...hahaha. now i can make emo fins at e back.

it was raining like sh1t and i had to run to the salon in e rain n i was dam wet. so i went home and bather and went to church and watched the emo drama again. niicee.

so from now on im going to b a good boy so ppl wun think i got attitude problem. the end.

2007-04-07T21:25:00.000+08:00

Since dontpissinthewater has their own share of silly advertisements, here's a few:

2007-04-07T01:05:00.000+08:00

today was good friday. it was gd. i woke up n smsed the guys to meet at 1230 for LAN..n i overslept and had to pangseh them to go church. sry guys...really. hope it was fun ill go next time to get owned.

i went to church. the drama was dam emo. i cried. Thanks God...for the amswers to my problems. then later we went to spam chinchow and i drank like 4 cups of chinchow in the whole day. then later we drank beer and i drank a lot n got drunk. haha now i feel high i noe wad im doing but i dunno y im doin it..

went home. jie yang sent me all the hardcore songs i wanted. now can share with e guys...those that like metalcore.

tmls water. me and greg are going on th great canoe exodus. we r going to canoe over the dam and to malaysia. hope the dam isnt too high or we may die going over.

if u all wanna join us, pls pack 3 days worth of food n water. clothes dunnid, ure goin to get wet anyway. gd luck guys. cya in malaysia. rafflesrow!

trial test

2007-04-05T23:27:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, juz wanna share with u'll some thoughts I have about this afternoon. I feel tht everybody did an awesome job today, not juz in terms of giving ur all but also encouraging your teammates in the process. Personally, although I wasn't fantastic, I believe that I've given my best, and tht would not have been possible without the encouragement I received today - be it Brian who was there helping me to count my pullups, Shenghao pushing me throughout my pushups (no pun intended :p), Maggie giving me the crunch I need for my situps, and most importantly all the people who've consoled and encouraged me after I completed an unfavourable 2.4 time trial. Frankly speaking, thts a station which means a lot to me, and having lost to Xingda and Eugene came as a shock and disappointment. But I realized tht although there are obstacles on the road to excellence, I'm not alone in my struggle, for we struggle together as a team. I thank all of you for making me realize tht, first hand. Losing has thus made me more aware of the areas I have to improve on, and more so the value of humility. To Xingda and Eugene: Well done! I am awed and humbled by your excellence.

Having been together as a team for almost 4 months, I'm really happy to see our team psyche maturing and taking shape, and I believe it is indeed this synergy which inspired us to give our best today - even under unfavourable conditions such as the hot sun, the late timing, the numerous stations and with a number of us nursing injuries. Rest well everybody, and although the team selection will still have to happen, party based on the results, lets take it in our stride, for when we have faith in ourselves, we'll inspire others around us and grow as team. And when a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality. As a young team we still have a long way to go, but I hope that we'll do it together, just like we did today.

2007-04-04T22:25:00.000+08:00

today is another good but screwed up day.

trng was gd. we paddled abt 4km, then paddled with chiam and seetoh. so 1st they challenged us to burst to the pontoon and we did n we beat them, but they said they werent even trying.

then i went with seetoh n chinx with chiam. then we went out, and me n seetoh capped n i felt like a n00b. chiam kept making fun of us. then later we raced them to the pontoon. chiam n chinx burst but they capped. so we won.

then later i went with chiam n chinx with seetoh. n we raced arnd n all that. i learnt alot abthow to make ur strokes better balanced and stronger n more abt J-ing. i think thats the most i learnt in a long time

thats the gd part. the screwed part is that during trng mr go talked to me and said "ya nathan, u another one." then i said "huh? another one?" then he said "ur CT is mr chan rite." then i said "yes" then he said "he tells me u r bad. bad with a capital B. please show me that u can be good not only in canoe but also in class" then i said "huh sir? what did i do? wad did he say?" and he said "confidential"

all i wanna do now is train like a rabid dog n do well in nats. hope everyone can too for e team. and theres that trial test at 5pm tomorrrow.

so nathan has an attitude problem. i was dam emo after that n was pissed for the whole tnrg. im still pissed now. im going to ask mr chan more abt this tml. till then im going to b an emo piece of S***.

emo

2007-04-03T19:27:00.000+08:00

i am very emo today. i emo the whole day in lecture n tutorial n my class thinks im dam emo. so here is an emo song to sum my how emo i am.

My Heroine

The drugs begin to peak
A smile of joy arrives in me
But sedation changes to panic and nausea
And breath starts to shorten
And heartbeats pound softer

You won't try to save me
You just want to hurt me
And leave me desperate

You taught my heart
A sense I never knew I had
I can't forget
The times that I was lost and depressed from the awful truth
How do you do it?
You're my heroine

You won't leave me alone
Chisel my heart out of stone
I give in everytime

You taught my heart
A sense I never knew I had
I can't forget
The times that I was lost and depressed from the awful truth
How do you do it?
You're my heroine

I bet you laugh
At the thought of me thinking for myself (myself)
I bet you believe (bet you belive)
That I'm better off with you then someone else

Your face arrives again
All hope I had become surreal
But under your covers
More torture than pleasure
And just past your lips
There's more anger than laughter
Not now or forever will I ever change you
I know that to go on I'll break you, my habit

You taught my heart
A sense I never knew I had
I can't forget
The times that I was lost and depressed from the awful truth
How do you do it?
You're my heroine

I will save myself

lets go b emo. maybe tml will b happier

2007-04-02T22:59:00.000+08:00

second day
http://reiterating.livejournal.com/54697.html#cutid1

2007-04-01T22:23:00.000+08:00

i want to thank everyone for supporting me and chin yee out there. i noe we dint race a perfect race, n we dint get into semis, but what the heck, we tried our best for raffles, and thats gd enough for now. we really appreciated it when ppl like jianrong tell us to jiayou b4 the race, and ppl like kaiyang and muddy hu tell us to go out there and do RJ proud, and shenghao n marcus n kenny hu helped us carry e boat, and everyone else who tells us gd job after that. thats the team i have grown to know n love. so yea

but this is also a wake up call. looking at ppl like ming shen and james goh hu r really experts of their craft i wanna say that we r really nowwhere compared to them. and knowing this we r going to work triply hard at every training, because evryone will be working doubly hard for nats, and we are not going to let them take that medal just like that. this year, and next year, are our years. and not oni for C class but T and K as well, today i have seen how stiff the competition is with national rowers and all.

but the strongest part of us is our spirit, and even thought we havent learnt rowing as long as them, so what. i tink if we train really hard, and observe the national rowers technique and learn from our stupid mistakesand their skill, we can really catch up. so lets dun die now, dun de-morale. lets fight. and lets win in july.

2007-04-01T00:16:00.000+08:00

njcc day one photos are up!
http://reiterating.livejournal.com/54359.html#cutid1

JIA YOU

2007-03-29T23:57:00.000+08:00

NJCC is in 2 days. very excited. so im going to say some random stuff.

1st abt trng. me n chinx have 3 goals:
1. Get across the finish line in the heats with no cap
2. Dun b the last boat
3. Be one of the top 3 boats, which means we get to semis

aim 2 n 3 r better scenarios, but we will make sure we make sure we fulfill aim 1 NO MATTER WAD :D

ok so anw, we trained like madmen. we can go quite fast now for a little while without cap, and at least that day during trng we got a feel of competition setting. and the best part is today we devised a strategy to go straight :D:D

ok so to eugene, all the J2s n other schools, JIA YOU!!!! NJCC is a comp for experience so lets go there, enjoy n make new friends haha. n win medals!! dun think i forgot that.

this is something KY said:

Be Fearless.

cool rite. dam nice. its ez to remember, cuz its not a long story or sth, just 2 words. so wen u all r out there, remember this!!

n me n chinx got a secret strategy. we r going to pump metalcore b4 the comp so we get high. hahahaha. and o yea we r also going to bring the song fearless by jay chou LOL

ok guys, rest well, n hardcore on sat yay! RAFFLES ROW!!

2007-03-28T23:08:00.000+08:00

heyy all! wahahaha.. not sure if i'm allowed to post anything here so sorry yeah!

i'm trying to get him to pay $$$ for advertizing here too leh.. :/ so anyways vote for naing yelin (: the guy on the right side.

(:

Council campaigns

2007-03-28T21:00:00.000+08:00

Hi guys! Heres some campaign posters for my classmate, she paid rental fees kay! If we keep doing this we might have enough funds to buy a NELO soon. yay.

hello(:

2007-03-27T21:22:00.000+08:00

hey guys! it's eugene here! the ng one. yeah, just dropping by our blog. and well, for my first post, here's a wallpaper i made: enjoy(:

anyways, all the best to the 5 of us that are competing this sat&sun. chinks, nathan, deb, bernice, it's your first competition in canoeing but well, it is definitely not the last. it might be daunting but don't worry, we will do just fine. we may be juniors but we must never let that stop us from doing our best. don't be afraid of your opponents and let's show that what is it like rowing against a rafflesian canoeist. must always remember that you are not alone. you've each other; your partner and your team behind you. trust in yourself and your partner. (: we will do fine! let's do our best for RJCanoeing! RAFFLES ROW!

2007-03-25T21:20:00.000+08:00

yo. feeling a bit emo after camp. so just wanna post something close to my heart to destress a little.

there are a few reasons why i joined canoeing actually. and its not the one i shouted out during the running. i didnt want to say it out cos its too long =.=

1. cos like michael i was in symphonic band and i'm sick of it
2. cos i was in band i absolutely hate people with indiscipline and i want very much to join a cca with discipline and canoeing is probably the best cca to join for that.
3. cos i like the way the water moves when i get a damn good stroke in and the way the boat moves too
4. cos i am a sadomasochist.

and now that i'm in. i absolutely love the cca. not just cos of the rowing. but cos of the team. cos of ppl like kennedy and chinks and all the cheerful people who always push you onwards as a team. when you first consider joining its usually cos of various reasons like 'iang 'ie 's "hotbod"reason. but the reason you stay is cos of the team and the bonds you form with them cos you've been through hell (or maybe what boon calls lalaland) with them and the bonds hold us firm.
so we stay and we grow strong and we gonna pwn nj and hcj and whatever else there is. cos of this team that will always support each other and push each other onwards.

safe distance

2007-03-21T23:09:00.000+08:00

Here's my take on all the events which happened today. Honestly speaking, even with all the team talks, emphasis on team spirit etc...sometimes when self interest is at state its difficult to translate that into action. Its always easy to be brave from a safe distance, and although ya I find all this hype about helping one another all tht very encouraging (ya thts what we should continue doing), its a different matter when you emphatize with those who're not in the 18 now, and our teammates who are among the 18, but at the borderline. Everything tht has been said so far is good, but the reality remains tht when we're cheering for those not in the 18 to be able to join us quickly, its inevitably sending a sense of dread to those who're in danger of losing their places. Ideally Jiao Lian would let all of us in la...but everybody knows tht will probably not happen.

I know tht this is a very sensitive issue, and all the more we have to handle it with care. By not raising it and pretending tht nth's gonna happen and nth's gonna change and everybody's gonna be happy isn't gonna work. To those who have secure places: do continue to encourage all ur other teammates , but be extra sensitive. Saying 'its ok if u dun get into the 18 la, we're still a team rite?' to a distressed teammate who got displaced or failed to make it ISN'T gonna work. Everybody's experienced this before. When u feel like shit after a major disappointment and somebody pro comes and throws some sympathy at u, regardless of how noble the intention, u juz feel even worse. To those not among the 18, or who have insecure places: work hard, and let nature take its course. Since competition is a reality, we juz gotta take it the best we can, as it comes along.

All's well and good with team spirit, but passion is nothing without reason. Work hard together team, and as individuals lets do our very best also - not juz for ourselves or for our sch, but also for the teammate who might have to lose an opportunity becuz of you. There's nth u can do about it if the system is this way, but let it be worth it. Reality really bites, and there r stuff which we dun wish to think about. But as a team, I believe for us to really bond, to form deep, lasting friendships, we have to have the courage to address our problems, insecurities and work our way towards overcoming them. The internal competition and limited opportunities which we face now is merely the initial test of our team bonding.

Lets do it.

2007-03-21T22:51:00.000+08:00

this is wad happened today n how i rly feel abt it. i may not b very gd with words but i hope it can help to say sth to all those hu read the blog.

today jiaolian picked 18 ppl out of like 28 guys. that means that 10 guys are not in the team. he sorted us out into 20 ppl, then chose 18 from there. n it rly touched me wen kennedy brian n darren were left n oni 1 culd b taken n kennedy said to jiaolian that brians stronger, take him instead. i think that is really selfless n kennedy i gotta say i wanted to cry then

jiaolian said, the rest have 2 weeks, if u want to get into the team, u must pull someone from the 18 down n get in. this is dam pragmatic n is a realistic system but its shit for the team. we compete against OTHERS, not among OURSELVES.

I rly think that instead of pulling ppl DOWN, y cant we raise them UP to a better standard? as a lot of ppl said today hu gives a shit about the gold if in the end theres no team to celebrate it with. if we are all individualistic pieces of shit then we can go win gold for all we care, but thats y we r not some shit sch, we r RAFFLES.

In this team, girls n guys alike, wad makes raffles row special is the RAFFLES, not the ROW. anyone can bloody row a boat if given time but no other grp of ppl can ever make up the RAFFLES. so lets stick together n not let this competition shit fuk up our spirit, yea?

to the guys hu dint make it, dun mope abt this. theres 2 weeks. well b mentoring n helping u all all the way, so dun give up. in a family, no 1 gets left behind, or forgotten. raffles row forever!

2007-03-20T21:23:00.000+08:00

2007-03-20T19:49:00.000+08:00

Hey nathan,

we joke we play we train together. And we are all concerned when we know that you've got this pain that doesn't go away. We may not be able to feel the pain together with you, we don't know what you're going through, but just know that we are behind you, so don't be worried or afraid. And we believe in your strength. We'll continue to encourage you on, and hey, whether you and chinks win anything or not, we'll be real proud of you guys. We always will be.

So get well fast, commit it to God, and set your heart and mind on it. We hope and pray for your speedy recovery.

Go kick NJC's ass.