Brief Update

Nothing much have been going on but I'm just going to leave some updates here since we'll be entering a new month tomorrow. I've kind of lost the motivation to blog (and I haven't been writing on my journal for weeks!). Gah. I guess it's because there's nothing much to jot down anyway.

Some random updates:

Guitar

-Still crazy about guitar, but haven't been practising much. I don't think I'll be continuing my previous goal of playing Adam Rafferty's arrangement of 'I'll Be There.' I'm a bit disappointed with myself especially that my fingerstyle channel on YouTube is a bit dead since I kinda stopped practising during my finals last sem. I thought that I had to take a break from fingerstyle to avoid as much as distractions during exam week but that kind of caused my momentum to stop there. My goals about fingerstyle guitar isn't as high as it used to be.

-I'm trying to play Tomi Paldanius' arrangement of 'Livin on a Prayer.' It's really different from the previous arrangements of other songs that I've played before this, because it requires thumb independence like what Tommy Emmanuel always stresses about. Developing thumb independence is what I've been doing for the past week, and just two days ago I kind of got the hang of it. If I don't lose my motivation this might be the next piece that I'm going to upload.

Books

-I've just finished reading John Irving's 'A Prayer for Owen Meany' which is a really good book. It kind of reminds me of some books that I've read earlier this year. Reading this took me about three weeks I think? And it's a bit special because it's my first book to have its spine broken. I don't know how to explain it, but before this I always take extra care when reading thick books. I never break my books' spines before because I try really hard to make my books look brand new. This time it was just..you know..eff it, books with broken spines are sexy too.

-Currently 9 books behind schedule on my  Goodreads' reading goal, and I honestly don't think I'll be achieving my goal this year, unless I cheat a bit. Kinda losing the motivation to read as well. My current book, 'The Godfather' is not that bad but I'm beginning to feel bored of reading because I have too many goals to accomplish this holiday. (We'll get to that soon). My sem break is really short and I have less than two weeks before I enter my new sem. 

Basketball

-Yep you've read that right. Thanks to this semester break (albeit being really short), and the recent Eurobasket tournament, I've been able to catch up on some basketball stuffs and it made me realise how much I miss basketball, and that court next to my block in Akasia, and my A-Level season which I spent more time shooting balls than studying (hahaha).

-I haven't been shooting balls since July 2013 but my basketball is something that I touch and dribble daily in my room. I wish I had some friends and a place where I can play basketball in Kuching, but too bad I don't know anyone and any places which allow people to shoot basketballs for free..alone..without being judged (cos obviously I'm not that good).

-Talking about the recent Eurobasket, well, I've been developing this weird love towards Spain because, lol, obviously, I've been watching the games of Spain versus other teams and these Spaniards are so cool with their glorious beards. I've been rummaging through my folder of old newspaper cuttings and was amazed that I actually kept newspaper cuttings of Pau Gasol when he was in the Lakers. That was..kinda back when I was still in secondary school. And honestly..I wasn't a fan of Gasol back then. I just kept newspaper cuttings of NBA games cos I loved the pictures. I know, weird. 

-Anyway. I'm going to talk about Spain because: dang, these guys revived my love for basketball. It reminds me of the days when I watched Slam Dunk on Animax. Sergio Llull reminds me of Ryota Miyagi. I'd like to say I really love Gasol, but Llull's moves as a point guard is so admirable. (Gasol is like a combination of Akagi Takenori and Hisashi Mitsui, if that's even a legit way to describe him). I also love Mirotic. You gotta love his massive beard. I've been really enjoying the games that they played in and that kind of makes me miss playing basketball more. 

Other Stuffs

-During my final exam some one or two weeks ago, I planned that I should start learning Mandarin. Just like anything else that I've learnt, I thought that hey, maybe I can find free resources and start teaching myself. I've taught myself some basic things, but I still still don't get how the Chinese characters work. You know, like how the Thai alphabets work.. I gotta find out about things like this first because I am more interested in reading a language before being able to converse in that language well.

-I haven't been driving for weeks omg. I seriously don't know how am I going to be able to drive well after this if I don't keep on practising.

Well, that's about it, I guess. Can't believe October will be coming so soon and this year is going to end in just a few more months. Still haven't jogged. Still haven't exercised. Still haven't done the things I thought I'd be doing by now.