Thursday, January 25, 2018
25/1
A rare day that i tried to overachieve.
Woke up pretty early for lessons from 930am to 130pm. Lessons went pretty smoothly, usually stuff, learning and internalizing stuff, but one interesting thing that happened in today's lab was that we made a beam. Very seldom are there hands-on stuff and there are so many details to look out for when fabricating something. All the equipment got their own tips and tricks on how to use it. So that was fun.
After that i went to OCBC arena for my first volleyball meetup. Oh it was intimidating at the start. I saw people wearing school jerseys, proper volleyball shoes and the few of them who were there early, all sat alone. When the ograniser came, that was when things started to pick up. He organised everyone into 3 groups and we started playing against each other. It was 2 rounds of playing and one round of rest. Didn't really get to play much because i couldn't do anything well. They emphasized a lot on getting a good first ball so the more experienced players had to cover me most of the time. It wasn't too physically intensive but hey, i learnt a lot by watching and playing alongside them today. T'was good.
Rushed over to fort canning to meet the bromosaurs after volleyball. Did beep test today, only managed to survive till 7.3?? Super bad score by the way. While the runners, Kenny and Teng ran till 11.4 or 11.5. That was pretty impressive. Stretching came right after that and we screamed while being stretched to our limits, literally. Most of us felt really good after because we felt a lot looser after that.
I'm starting to feel a bit disappointed and that is making me feel less motivated. I'm disappointed with my weight loss, i thought i would lose more weight at a faster rate if i up-ed my workouts, it didn't. I'm disappointed that i'm not able to do my first muscle-up by the end of this month. I'm disappointed that right now, i don't feel strong. There are many people who can do calisthenics moves that i can't, yet when i try harder for it, it seems to be counter-productive. It is hard to strike a balance. I'll try. For the most part, i gotta make all these my motivation, and not my disappointment. LET'S GO
Brian
11:59 PM
Sunday, January 21, 2018
20/1
It's been a day with much uncertainty. From a chance of turn out to the exercise session almost getting cancelled, it has been pretty nerve-wrecking.
So last night, my platoon commander whatsapp-ed everyone to check if we're ready in case of a turnout. Of course, we were! But that also meant that there's intel. Unwillingly, i went to ready my stuff and left them in the living room. Morning came, no call. Noon came, no call. 2pm came, no call. WHEW! I'M SAVED! So afternoon/evening exercise session is confirmed.
Until, it started to rain at 3? When we were supposed to meet at 4. Delayed slightly, waited for the rain to stop before the call was made. Ended up being a pretty enjoyable session even though there was SO MUCH RUNNING. Ran around punggol, to the park which really is a pretty place. Did statics at different locations, ran in the rain at some parts of the route, it was a good time for sure.
So i was being asked this question today, 'Why the drastic measure to start living a healthier lifestyle, and it evolving into me being so enthusiastic about exercising?'
I guess it really first started out as an ego thing. Many people whom i were close to, told me that i was getting increasingly fat. It didn't really bother me until my Pastor casually commented that i had lost all my muscle and i'm just fat now. I took it pretty hard because it is that obvious to people. From then, i changed my diet, started making it a point to exercise at least 3 times a week.
It wasn't until i set out to do my first muscle up that made me super motivated to exercise. Slowly, i started to watch more videos about what's good and what's not, learning new exercises which eventually led me to skipping rope. I also chanced upon this youtube series called 10000 hours. It's a series about a basketball coach going across different states in US to train people. He believes in hard work, and so the philosophy of 10000 hours was introduced to me. If you wanna get good at something, you need to put in the hard work, the effort, the time. So that really shaped my mentality towards exercising because it's something i can keep doing no matter what. Right now, i want to push my physical limits and see how far i can go. Yet, I've came to realise today that rest is a super important part of it too. I shouldn't be taking it so extreme. Tomorrow will be a rest day, yet there's a part of me that doesn't want to stop. This might be addiction, an addiction i never thought i'll develop. An addiction to exercising.
So, that's my answer. I might look back on this blog post and think i'm crazy. But right now, exercising is really something i enjoy.
Brian
12:25 AM
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
16/1
Classes haven't started yet so i'm really just still staying at home, having the freedom to plan my day. Managed to workout twice today, with the second workout being a last minute one. Didn't expect to do that though so it felt pretty good after. Feeling more confident for muscle up now, whether i can achieve my aim of doing one by the end of the month is still.. uncertain. Let's see how it goes.
25 Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” 26 So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.” ...
32 Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.” 33 As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.
Read this this morning and i wonder how Abraham felt when the Lord said He will not destroy the city on account of the ten. Abraham knows fully well who God is. God knows full well that there ain't 10 righteous people in the city of Sodom. I think Abraham felt sad, partly because Lot was staying there and maybe because there weren't even 10 righteous people. I mean Abraham didn't go looking for righteous people and went back home for a reason. He knows God well. This really reveals a lot of God's attributes. I just hope to live like i know God as well as Abraham did.
Brian
12:13 AM
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
15/1
Yet another amazing day. AMAZING.
Just came back home, blogging after a nice shower. All clean and refreshed to reflect on what happened tonight. So bromosaurs signed up for the Spartan Sprint which will be held on 24th March. As the name suggests, it won't be easy. We have to train. Tonight marks the first training session we had in light of the upcoming OCR. Boy was it good.
Guys, if yall are reading this, we definitely have to step up our game. We are not ready for it at all. I think we have to work on everything. It's only 2 months to go, so time isn't on our side either. No matter what, i think our goal isn't to win or anything so okay la let's just have fun HAHA!
I think my focus for tonight's workout was definitely upper body strength, yet it ended up being an endurance training too. That's really the beauty of circuits. Girls did all 3 sets, damn proud of them (especially Jo). All the guys really tried their best too, even though there were many signs of giving up, they still managed to do at least 2 sets. Teng really motivated me a lot throughout the entire session, kept me going and reduced my rest time to a minimum. Got to see where everyone's breaking points were in terms of upper body strength and endurance, except for the girls. Genuinely think they can handle tougher routines.
Thank God that there's this bunch of people to workout with, and really for the weather too. Felt like i really had to push myself today too, but exercising in a group setting, i didn't really think about the pain. It was just fun. I just felt like i had to keep going till i finish the entire routine. This feeling is amazing. Some things are just better with company. It's such an amazing feeling, this. Hopefully tomorrow i'll hear about ALL THE GOOD THINGS about their bodies HAHHAHA! Till next time, I'm out.
Brian
12:33 AM
Monday, January 15, 2018
14/1
Not a good 2nd sunday of the year. Might have partied a bit too hard last night. Felt super sleepy throughout service today.
Covered THLS for teens' worship today and man, I'm thankful i got the chance to lead the first teens' sunday worship of the year. Gave me context to talk about the upcoming year and i hope i was able to encourage them to include God in their lives this year. It feels so weird to see some people in teens now. Like, Jubilee is in teens now?! Time passes by so fast..
Completed my first week of exercising everyday. It's really not easy to keep this up. I'm already looking forward to week 4 when it's my rest week. Even then, it'll just mean exercising 3 times a week. I'm really interested to see how this will turn out so i'm going to stick to it. Really can't afford to fall sick and miss a day, if not the momentum will be disrupted. I really can't stay up late too often too. Today felt bad, took a 3hour nap in the afternoon and then the inertia to exercise after that was so huge. Stomach felt weird after staying up too, this always happens to me after a late night, don't know why. So, I'm gonna continue sticking to my exercise plan and work towards the end goal. #10000hours
Brian
12:22 AM
Sunday, January 14, 2018
13/1
Another rainy day. But that ain't gonna stop me. Was supposed to be upper body day but ended up just skipping rope (and a whole lot of dancing, don't ask me how that happened) Then from here on out, it just went crazy.
So the first event for today was teoheng with the bromosaurs. Guys were late, so it was just me and the girls at the start. Man was it awkward. Don't know what to sing, voice still cui cos haven't 开嗓, don't know what song they know, plus it's just me singing while they eat, WHAT. Singing ain't foreign to me so i just picked easier songs to sing then the guys started coming in one by one. Glad Hud joined too! Ended up being one of the craziest k sessions i've ever went for. Sang quite a lot of songs that everyone knew and we all just sang together, it was really fun. Went over to Teresa's house for a bit before i left for dinner plans.
So i traveled far to beauty world mrt to go to bukit timah food centre and boy was the food good. Satay Beehoon(i'm going back for this), Assam Laksa, and the CARROT CAKE, oh gosh the carrot cake.. Besides that i'm really thankful for my 2 gems. People i've learnt the Bible together with, people whom i'm comfortable with sharing so many of my secrets with (even though sometimes i don't want to but they always make me feel comfortable in saying them), and just people whom i can trust. It's always a joy talking to them and having nice food together.
SO, just when i thought the bromosaurs would've have all returned home, NOPE. They were still at Teresa's house. Instinctively, i went to join them, of course without knowing that we'll end at 2.40am? We played some dancing game on the kinect, beat professional bots in some volleyball game and that was undoubtedly my second cardio session. Had a lot of fun at the expense of Ter's family though, feel bad and thankfully they are gracious enough to let us play there till such an hour.
So here i am, waiting for my hair to dry so i'm blogging. Everyone's back home safely so that's a good thing. Really felt very energetic today, for some weird reason. Maybe it's the exercising that gave me that boost i need. I cannot stop this, exercising just helps the human body in too many ways. #10000hours
Really thankful for today, i think it's time for me to be more honest with myself and learn to love others more so that i can be honest with them in a loving manner. That's tough. It's so hard to be objective sometimes. Oh well, enough for these late night thoughts. Hair is dry and i need to wake in 3 and a half hour's time. Good luck have fun.
Brian
3:37 AM
Friday, January 12, 2018
11/1
Today had been another good day. Full day of activities yet I feel so refreshed at the end of the day. Shall start with the first part of the day.
Been almost one year since i went rock climbing. Even though pull ups have improved but that don't matter for rock climbing, at least that's what i learnt today. Really have to give it up for those rock climbers, their grip strength is insane! I got really envious of those rock climbers but i realised i'm only a man, i can't have everything so i'm just gonna focus on what i can do and slowly improve from there. Nonetheless, it was a fun day of rock climbing. Been awhile since we did it and now there's one additional member:) Hope it all works out for them!
Us and our matchy matchy shoes!
Of course, our mandatory every time we rock climb
Well, today was really my cheat day. Ate lunch, dinner AND SUPPER(?!) HELLO BRIAN WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? Okay okay but this really is once in awhile. I gotta say though, dimsum for supper really feels good. Met the bromosaurs after their MT lesson for dimsum, mm the dimsum was goooood. It was just fun getting all high at night while vlogging and we might have ordered a bit too much food uh.. All was good though! No food wastage, that's one of the most important things. To all of yall reading this, shout out to yall! Honestly, i didn't expect anyone to bring up this blog anymore so it's kinda embarrassing now. Also, shout out to Cheok! Most eventful person tonight having his leg eat porridge and an exploding LSB!
Was talking to YE today on the way back from rock climbing, about how days like these will be increasingly rare. When all of us start working, it'll be hard to find a day where we can just spend time together. We are all gonna grow up, start working, start our own family, doing adult things and time for ourselves will gradually decrease. I really cherish days like these nowadays since i'm close to the next phase of life. I hope the people i care about will stay for as long as possible too, because in all these people, i find a bit of myself in all of them. They remind me of who i am.
Brian
12:54 AM
Monday, January 8, 2018
主日学日
A day in the church where we kinda so some reflection? It's a day where different sunday school classes will perform or present something that they've learnt throughout the entire year. And usually the sermon will be to encourage us for the upcoming year. Although, i can't help but feel that this year is super daunting. sigh..
Watched 'The Greatest Showman' today and it exceeded my expectations. To be honest, i didn't think much of the movie. It just felt like another of those musical movies so i didn't watch the trailer or listen to any of the songs. It might have made the show a lot more enjoyable but boy was the music fantastic! Hopefully i'll be able to do a cover soon.
That reminds me, i'll have some time tomorrow. Gotta do some self-reflection and come up with my burdens for the year, so that i'll note down somewhere about the things i want to work towards to.
Brian
12:09 AM
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Time check: 11:31pm!
Total hours slept in past 2 days: 5hours
Absolutely amazing youth retreat 2018. It was so simple yet we got everyone to participate, we played, we laughed, we shared and we prayed. Got to talk to a few people about things I never would usually. Got to spend more time with the younger ones who are coming to youths and i really hope they will mix in comfortably.
So what's coming up next is probably gonna be slightly emo, so skip this if it bores you or there's enough emo in your life already.
Ever since the bromo trip i've been thinking about how this year's gonna be. 2017 started out exciting and a few things happened that made me really jaded about life in general. Didn't see a point in putting in so much effort for anything. Come 2018, new year, not necessarily a new start. Many things carry on from 2017. I don't find 2018 particularly exciting. If anything, i think it's gonna be tough. There are some things i'm afraid to even think about, afraid to confront my own sins. This fear is good, yet there are times it can be slightly overwhelming. I'm treading a few fine lines here and I really hope it'll all turn out alright.
Okay now back to the usual stuff! So, i think new year resolutions are really lame because I never ever stick to these far fetched ideas. I shall just note down some things that I feel a burden for currently. Oh wait, let me just clarify first, i haven't done it yet! So, perhaps in the next few days, i'll have some alone time to do some reflection. New year resolutions are always like this, if you ain't honest with yourself, they crumble like a sandcastle being stepped on.
I'm thankful for the reminders and the fellowship I've had during this year's youth retreat. Simple prayer for me today: pray that my relationship with God will be good this year.
Brian
11:47 PM
Friday, January 5, 2018
Aaaaand i'm back once again with another post!
So here goes!
Just a random day today, still missing the bunch of people i traveled with. Miss the view, miss the adventure, miss the temperature.
Then i was watching this series on youtube called '10,000 hours'. It is a series about a basketball coach and his own journey in coaching. His belief was that, if someone spent 10,000 hours on something, they would eventually be good at it. I can't say that doesn't make sense. In fact, i feel like it has changed something in my mind quite a bit.
So as i was watching, i felt more motivated and climbed stairs as my training before having my lunch. Weather looked gloomy and in the end, because YuEn ended work late, we cancelled our workout session. Just when i thought i wasn't gonna exercise at night, teng jio-ed and boy was i glad.
I ended up working out more than i planned to. Did my usual leg routine and my new muscle up routine. I'm spent, but it felt good. I have no idea why i'm so motivated. Maybe it's because i only have these last 6 months where i can plan my own schedule, or i'm motivated by the people with the 'never say die' attitude, or maybe i just wanna be a better version of myself.
No matter what it is, i want to try out this '10,000 hours' concept. I'm nowhere near it as of now, but i'm working towards it. I want to see how far i can go. #剩者为王
Brian
12:39 AM
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Alright, so i'm back here because i was reminded by a close group of friends about my love for fried rice. Nahh i'm just kidding, It's just because i had one of the most memorable trips yet and what a way it was to start the year.
Started out as 7, 1 more joined halfway through. There were so many things to be thankful for. So before our trip to Surabaya, Indonesia, weather forecast was full of pictures with grey clouds and tiny droplets beneath them. Now that's not a good sign when you're preparing for a hiking trip. Nonetheless, we prepared for it, both tangibly and mentally.
Well, not to our surprise, it started raining when we were travelling to our first destination. What took me by surprise was that none of them were fazed by the fact that it was raining, maybe the card games were a good form of distraction.
Just moments after we stopped at a minimart for a quick break, rain seemed to subside. By the time we reached the waterfalls, rain has completely stopped. If it hasn't, we would've been denied entry to the waterfalls and on top of that, wasted a lot of time.
Come the next two days, travelling to mount Bromo and Ijen, we were expecting rain, yet there was none. We managed to hike comfortably without having wet clothes and soggy socks. On top of that, we were rewarded unconditionally with a spectacular view from a vantage point we would never have locally.
What a way to start the year.
With people i grew up with, and making one new friend in the process.
This really is one of the best trips I've ever had, because I saw how God blessed me with all these things. From giving us good weather, to giving me this amazing group of friends, to allowing me to see how almighty He is to have created huge mountains like these.
This trip will probably stay in my mind for a long time.
I'm glad I can call these people my friends.
Brian
2:26 PM
