Bundoora X-country

Just got back from a great race! probably my best race of the season thus far. It was down in Bundoora (or up actually if u think about it, cos bundoora's altitute is higher than melbournes). But all technicalities aside, it was a beautiful park in a beautiful suburb made marginally less beautiful by the mud-covered cross country route. It had been raining the past week, and about 2000 little kids had just run a high school x-country in the morning before us, so by the time it was our turn to race, there was mud everywhere!

The race itself was 12km....4x3km laps (shudder). I went out pretty hard cos i squeezed my way to the front of the start, and everyone in the front usually go hard at the gun. I ended up running a 45.30 which i was extremely pleased with. My past couple of races werent too good, so it was nice to get back on track with this one. Now looking forward to the half marathon in september. BUT, theres still two more shorter races to get thru before then!

Its back to uni on monday. I had my last day at work on friday. What a relief! I know its good and all, but man...it was tiring. School is so much better. Only one more sem to graduation..better enjoy it while it lasts!

Ta. till next time.

back from sydney..

setting off early in the morning

My cousin, Terrance, came to visit me all the way from US and A recently for 8 days. I havnt seen him is almost 4 years! Its funny, bcos he's one of my closest cousins despite living the farthest (by far!) away! I felt kinda bad cos i couldnt take too much time off my full time job at the archi firm to show him around melbourne. I did manage to negotiate for 3 days off (out of the 8 days that he was here) and we planned a trip to sydney along with my housemate, Jeff, and usual suspects Esther and Crystal! To spice things up a little, we decided to drive up to sydney instead of flying. Its said to be one the "those things" that one needs to do while studying in melbourne, so we decided to give it a shot.

and what a looooong ride it was!

we set off at 6am in the morning and reached sydney at 7pm!! although, we did stop over in the nation's capital, Canberra, for 2 hours. No sign of John Howard tho.. haha. In total, we travelled jsut over 1000km in one day!!! thats like going to Malacca and back 4 times!!!! holy cow! Jeff and i took turns to drive. Esther came up with the idea that we should all make our own 'road trip mix cd' and play it along the way. haha. thats was good fun.. listening to all the various music tastes. Terrance and i also made a "best of the songs-u-love-to-hate" cd with such infamous hits as "Toxic", "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely", "Cry Me a River", and "Baby One More Time".

Parliament House, Canberra. (from left: Crystal, Jeff, Terrance, Me, Esther)

The first thing i noticed when i got to syndey was that there were so many more cars!! I felt like i was driving along orchard road during a TAKA sale. CARS EVERYWHERE! stress! stress! Through jeff's skillful navigation, we arrived safely at our backpackers and to my surprise (and delight!), it was located directly opposite the road from the COMIC STORE!!! we went out from some food and then turned in for the night.


(ok im gonna start doing this in point form)

Day 1: Took a morning jog to the opera house.
Visited Paddy's Market. (like a pasar malam but in the day)
Went to the Toronga Zoo.
Visited opera house at night.

Day 2: Visited opera house and harbour bridge in the daytime to take pics.
Went to the FISH MARKET!!! this place was seriously heaven. I could spend soooo much money here eating fresh seafood!
Terrance and i went to the casino at night. He won 30 bucks. haha. (its scary how much money some of the other casino patrons were spending! like hundreds of dollars on a single bet!)

Day 3: last day. Went around the city shopping. (and i spent a bomb on comic books. I wont disclose the figure, or what items i spent on, cos you'll all think im crazy. and you'd be right.)

Went to visit some film locations!!!! THIS WAS REALLY INTERESTING! It dawned on me that The Matrix and Superman Returns were filmed in sydney, so i went location scouting with terrance and we found these two KEY locations from both films. see if u can recognise them!

Metropolis General Hospital from Superman Returns.

"Were you listening to me Neo, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress? Look again. Freeze it!"















Alas, it was time to go back to melboure after a sweeet holiday. Blew quite a large amount of money, but thats what holidays are all about, no? Back to work now to recover my finances and prepare for the next big splurge at the end of the year (and boy is it gonna be a BIG one).... NEW ZEALAND!!! get your kiwi game on!

still dreaming the dream

work at the archi firm has been going well. I'm getting much more comfortable with the inner workings of the office, and gradually getting to know every one's name. the workload is still considerable...and at times stressful...but im coping. So if its all going well, why do i still feel....(whats the word im looking for...).... hollow? yes.... hollow. why do i feel hollow? There is no drive.. no passion. Its a day job. nothing more. It could be because i'm not actually directly involved in any of the projects. I just do whatever my boss hands to me. Granted, he does give me things that flex my creative muscle, but im by no means involved in the running of the firm. maybe thats why i feel unfulfilled. i hope thats why...

still.. i cant help but think that now, more than ever, i really really want to be a comic book artist. what started out as a dream, has now become an obsession. and somehow...i dont think i will ever be completely satisfied with my life unless i achieve that dream. when i come home from work, im so utterly drained....but still, instead of playing video games or watching tv for hours, i sit at my table and i draw and draw...and it just brings me so much joy... so much pleasure. And i dont mean to brag or anything, but i've been working really hard on my art style over the past year or so, and i think its come to a level now that may be sufficient to start sending out to potential publishers. Thats what i intend to do anyway. THE SAVANT is now at page 12. The first chapter should be about 30 pages long...which means i'll be done roughly by the end of the year... and then it'll be time to try and get it out there in the market somehow. I have no idea how i'm gonna do that. Its scary...but at the same time....interesting, and fun! who knows, eh?

meanwhile....check the comic site for updates:
www.savant.smackjeeves.com

blue collar dude

today was day 4 of my time at the archi firm.
work's been really busy... quite stressful at times... but i've learnt so much in these past 4 days. For the most part, they've got me doing autocad stuff on the computer. And those who know me know that i am one of those architects who's totally against computers!! we should all go back to the good ol' days where everything was hand drawn. But now its all about computer renderings and you dont need to be able to hold a pencil properly to be an architect. Sigh. This is just something that shits me... but ultimately, technology will win out and in 10 years time, hand drawing will be a thing of the past. Even today, we hand-drafters are already a dying breed.

Where was i....

ah yes. So they had me do lots of computers stuff. Had to learn a lot of things pretty quick, and i feel a little bit of info overload over the past few days. When i get home im so tired i just wanna eat, watch tv and sleep. now i remember why satiish n i used to sleep at 9 or 10pm in OCS.

I had a very wet training session today. It started raining as i was leaving the house, but i was already psyched up for the run, so i decided to go to uni anyways and if nobody was there, i would just go for my own long run. But to my pleasant surprise, there were quite a few of my teammates warming up in the rain. lets hear it for HARDCORE!!!!! ended up doing one of the toughest but most fun sessions i can recall. stepping in massive puddles..feeling the rain smack me in the face at high speed...the insane winds. woohoo. its this kinda stuff that reminds u that youre alive!! and my times were not bad too... seem to be slowly improving. thats good.. i hope to peak in august for the 21km.

ah...its still raining ouside... perfect for sleeping!!

16 km of hills!

phew! i just got back from a very tiring race....16km of good ol' fashion cross country racing with lots of hills. ah...yes...yet again i find myself asking..erm..myself...why do i do this?? i dont know exactly... but its somewhere along the lines of "so i can continue to eat tim tams all the time".

anyways...
the race was down in geeeeeeelong. (ok, its really only spelt with two "e"s). its the second biggest town in the state of victoria after melbourne, and about 70km southeast of the city. I caught a ride down there with Alison, Jasmine, Sophie and Al's mega cute doggie Becky, who has unofficially become the team mascot.
We reached the start line at 1.30, well in time for the girls to prepare for their race at 2pm. Now here's something interesting: for this race, the girls only run 4km while the lads have to do 16km!! yes, thats 4x4km laps. very sian and definitely screws with your mind. but thankfully the course itself was quite scenic, running through the botanical gardens and catching a glimpse of the seaside at some parts. However, by the last lap, i didnt notice the scenery at all cos i was DYING!
Ended up doing a 65mins flat.... quite pleased with that. My initial target was to do it in 64mins (so 4mins per k pace). But with all those hills, i'm happy with that time. Its a good lead up to the half marathon in august which i hope to run in sub-1hr24mins.

In other unrelated news....

Ive now worked two days at the archi firm in collingwood. Its been a great learning experience so far, but i must say... I FEEL LIKE A DUMB SHIT! i was so so lost the first day at work, and my boss handed me this autocad plan to ammend, but seeing as i have very limited autocad knowledge, i had to ask him how to do most of it. by the end of the day i had learnt a lot, but i think i also pissed him off quite a bit with all my questions. second day was better...and im hoping next week will go smoother. I'm working there every weekday 9am-5pm till next sem starts. (yay great holiday for meee!). Its all good stuff tho. great experience.

ah.. tonight is kick back time and pig out time. i went to the supermart to get chocolate n chips after the run. time to put back all the carbs i lost in that race, and probably even more!

waiting game...

I went for an interview last wk with an archi firm for some work over the holidays.
INterview went well, and the dude said he'd call me back early this wk to let me know when i'll be starting. Well, its one day gone now and still no call. Still anxiously waiting. I keep worrying that he's gonna call when im taking a shower or on the crapper or something. I knwo its silly... we live in an age of voicemail after all. I stopped working weekdays at nandos now (and potentially stopped working altogether for the holidays, unless i can get wkend shifts), so if the dude at the archi practice suddenly decides not to employ me, then i could potentially be unemployed this holidays! GASP!! now u see why im so anxious to get THE CALL.

been catching up on my comic drawing too...its so good to just sit there for hours and draw. been a long time since ive been able to do that. I finished pencilling and inking one and a half pages yesterday and today. Will upload them soon once ive scanned them in an photoshopped in the text. I still catch myself thinking sometimes...'why am i doing this comic book stuff... is it really gonna lead anywhere? I mean, it takes a lot of time. too much some would say. oh well, at least i can show my kids someday that daddy was an uber-nerd.'

there was a shooting here in melb earlier today. two guys got shot for trying to help out a girl who was being abused on the street. whats the world coming to... everytime i turn on the news its all about 'war' this, and 'war' that. fight fight war war....thats all thats going on. at this rate, i dont believe the human race will last much longer. we're gonna wipe ourselves off the face of the planet soon enough. just as well...look how we've treated it. we've made one hell of a screw job.
hmm... i seemed to have digressed a bit here.
its late...
time to zzzz
going riding tmr!

"may we be cursed to live in interesting times"

freedom is less than 15hrs away!

done my studying for tonight. (which was only about 1hr)
i had a quite a tough session at training tonight.
we had to do 5 x 1000m intervals. usually, we get either 4min or 5min rest in btw each one. but tonight, tony told us to have a decreasing recovery time, which means that the first interval will be 5mins recovery, then 4mins for the second one....and so on. so by the last interval there was only 2min rest. and boy did that 2mins go by quick!
i was pleasantly surprised with my times tho. managed to maintain under 1.20 per lap and under 3.20 overall for all the 1000s.
im thinking the time may be right for me to try and break that elusive 8min mark for my 2.4.... if i dont do it now, who knows how unfit i'll get next time. trouble is, theres nobody to pace. and i think to run a sub 8mins i'll NBED a pacer.

ohh ive got an interview with an archi firm this friday! my friend is working in an archi firm now and she put in a good word for me and they want to meet with me this friday to discuss potentially working for them over the holidays. im so excited! hope i get it! pray for me ppl.

right, i need to free my mind now and not think about the exam tmr. the last thing i want on my mind now is information overload.

i think i'll watch borat. that should clear things up!
yagshemash!

new page

updated a new page of The Savant today.
http://savant.smackjeeves.com/comics/168853/

just two more days to my exam!
i met up with some friends yesterday to go thru a couple of exam papers. it was a good wake up call for me to get more studying done, cos i barely contributed to the discussion!
but based on the assignments that ive done so far for the subject, i already have 48.5%... so i only need 1.5% in the exam to pass, which makes me that much less motivated to study.

then again, im also not looking forward to starting the job hunting. i have no clue where to start.

i dont want to job hunt... i want to plan vacations!! hehe

one of those days

feeling slightly depressed today.
had a shit time at work yesterday. i accidentally tipped some the mayonaise bucket over and it fell.....well, to cut a long story short....it caused a chain reaction that led to a plate being broken and about 10 chicken wings dunked in mayonaise. not to mention a gooey mess on the floor. boss was pissed.

my exam draws ever nearer, and i still have no motivation to study for this paper. partly bcos...i dont know WHAT to study. i looked at the past exam paper and i might as well have been reading a greek manuscript. i didnt understand anything. at least if u read something and dont understand it, but you know what u need to do to understand it, then u can go and study what u know u are lacking. am i making sense? i dunno. i just re-read that sentence and it makes no sense to me too. but hopefully u get the idea.

i admire those ppl who are so mentally strong... who can look past the little setbacks in life and move on. im so not one of those people. i must live in my perfect world where all is good and the sky is bright n sunny, and everything that i planned to do goes off without a hitch. anything contrary to that, and i get...well.... depressed. its so bad...
well, im working an extra two shifts over the wkend, so hopefully things get better. not sure what to make of my exam revision strategy yet...heading to uni later to try n figure it out.

usually when im depressed i feel like running. but today i dont. i feel like being a lazy ass and eating nachos n ice cream while watching DVDs.

yknow what..... i miss home.
i miss my parents, and i miss suresh n satiish n all my friends.
wont get to see them till the end of the year. thats a long time to wait.

someone once said that life sucks, but thats what makes those happy moments all the more precious.

2500 in 2 days... argh..... i promise....i will never procrastinate again

in about 2 hrs time, i will be handing in my LAST LAST LAST LAST LAST history essay of aaaaaaaallllll timeeeeeeeee!!!!
this sem's essay was terrible... i totally left it to the last min. i left myslef one week to borrow books, read em, and write the essay. And even then, even within that one week, STILL i procrastinated and didnt start writing the essay till two days before it was due!
never again.
writing 2500 words in 2 days sucks.
especially when u write like me.....veeeerrrrryyyyy ssllllloooooowwwllyyy.
by the time i got to 1500 words i had run out of points, so i had to go back and re-read some books and try to squeeze out more things to say. Its a torture. a sheer torture. how some people enjoy writing essays i'll never know. I'm just glad my time is over. Next semester i have ZERO essays!!!! hurrah!!!!!! and i have a drawing elective!!! (if my application is successful)

im going for some max brenner later!
mmm.....chocolate.

eeaaaaoooouuuch

so yes....the massage was....erm.... painful!

i gotta say... i used to think that massages were pleasurable experiences where u could fall asleep from sheer bliss. but apparently, to quote borat.... NOT!!!!
it was painful!
granted the massuese was my running friend and he said that he would go easy, seeing as it was my first time. (a massage virgin he called me) but still...it hurt a bloody lot. when he did my calfs it felt like someone stabbed a knife into the back of my leg then ran it along up to my gluts. its even worse cos ive never gotten a massage before, so my muscles were really tight. and im ticklish too. haha. whcih makes me tense up very easily...and that only makes it MORE painful.
but this morning i felt great. went for a 1hr run with tyler and felt really good...felt lighter. i'll prob go back for another massage after the 16km race on 23 june, which i anticipate is gonna be another killer.

3 more days till my essay is due. the plan is to finish reading my books today and then start writing tmr. 2500 words in 2 days... can it be done? well, it doesnt matter. it HAS to be done. it WILL be done one way or the other. good thing is, its only due at 4pm on monday, so effectively i have almost 3 days to write it in.

i miss drawing. havnt had to time to do it lately.

a new beginning

with final submission over just a few days ago, the time felt right to give my 'blogging' another reboot.

i checked the last post and it was over a month ago, so its a bit pointless (and incredibly difficult) to recap whats been happening in the last two months. if you've spoken to me on msn, you'dve known by know the ins and outs of the last 60-odd days of my life.

so i'll just move on to whats been happening over the past week or so.
well, for starters, the semester is OVER!!! this sem felt faster than any that went before it. i was super busy and super stressed for the most part. looking back, i dont think that was healthy living. but now that its over, i find myself feeling a bit lost. i feel like im SUPPOSED to be doing SOMETHING, but i dont know what. gasp! have i forgotten how to slack!!!??
granted, i DO have an essay due in 7 days, for which i have only read one book so far. thats what i SHOULD be doing now. working on my essay. i hate essays. writing is such a chore to me. i spoke to hannah, my uni friend, today about it and she said she'd rather write an essay than do design work this week. its the absolute opposite for me. give me drawing and design anytime. at least u can do the latter while watching TV!!

had a 10km race over the wkend too. the conditions were HOT and WINDY, and i hadnt slept at all two nights ago. (as u can see, im building up the excuses for my bad timing). yes, crap timing. sub 37mins was the target. i blew waaaay past it with a 38.17. sigh... feels like lately my running has been deproving. even at training sessions i can feel that im not as fast as i was earlier in the year. elaine suggested that i get a massage. she even got me a massage voucher for my bday which was awesome. ive booked myself an appointment this thursday, so we'll see if things get better.

brrr! its cold here. erratic melb weather rears its ugly head yet again.

sat rants

sorry guys... i know its been a long time since i posted anything.

its been a long time since ive done a lot of things lately.
been a long time since i played my ps2
been a long time since i watched smallville (long for me is 2 wks)
been a long time since ive been sick. (which i am now... augh... annoying)
been a long time since i just sat on my couch and did NOTHING for a couple of hours.

after a slow start, i am in semester HELL now.
this wkend i have to write am 800word formal letter thingie, do two A3 collages, and make a "cool design artefact". im still going cycling tmr tho... i dont care. been looking forward to it was too long now...ALL WEEK!!! i'll be cycling up to Mount Dandenong with the cycling club tmr morning. its about 40km from the city, so should be quite a ride. Aparently u can get a good view of melbourne city from some points on the mountain!
last week i went with them to frankston (42km from city)... but they went at such a fast pace that i couldnt keep up on the way back. the headwind was terrible that day....ive never been so shag riding a bike before. but its good training! stronger quads = better running! its all, how do they say...erm....complementary training? haha. ok...i made that up.

been struggling to keep posting one page of THE SAVANT every week. its up to page 6 now, so if check it out if you've been missing out. I really dunno how long i can keep this up tho... it takes about 8-10hrs to finish one page, and as it is i'm stuggling to find the time to do it. With Archi Design getting busier by the week, i might have to give the comics a break soon.

i spoke to one of my friends at training on thurs about his trip to europe. he took a semester off last year and toured europe for 6 mths. it sounded so awesome! i know its now become this cliche that architecture students do the "euro-trip" after 3rd year, but now i REALLY WANNA GO!!! and of course old trafford will be right up there on the to-visit list.

my baby!

its finally heeeeeere!!!!!!!!
went to the bike shop today with my housemate to pick up our new road bikes.
i got home at 4.30, and i knew i had running training at 6, but i just HAD to take it out for a spin. haha. and damn..it was smoooooooth as!
i cant wait till saturday to take it out on beach road and really stretch its legs. (..or wheels....watever)
meanwhile, heres a pic of my beautiful baby! hahaha.

go see pans labyrinth NOW!

if u havnt seen this show get...GO GO NOW!!!
its absolutely stunning.
forget the fact that its in spanish...after a few mins, you'll forget that you're reading subtitles.
im totally blown away. gonna be thinking about it for a while to come, and probably see it again soon. (downloaded of course.. haha)
phew... mentally shag. best show ive seen since the prestige last yr.