I had a pretty interesting night yesterday hehe. After much procrastination and indecision,  we (Gab, Charm, Jean, Dylan and I) decided to meed at Kallang Leisure Park, purportedly to go ice-skating. Imagine my surprise when upon reaching, they announced that we'd be going to Geylang for dinner instead. So off we went, thankfully Gabriel drove, parked at Lorong 2X and we walked around looking for somewhere to grab some dinner. Well anyway it was a pretty eye-opening experience, you know, you hear about it but I never knew prostitution in Geylang could be well...so...blatant. Scantily dressed women just standing along the streets not-quite soliciting while the intent was so explicitly obvious, massive groups of guys, some of them lining up in what seemed to be queues, some of them engaged in apparent discussions, the content of which I can only shudder to imagine, money changing hands and also random "couples" with an age gap that seemed too great to look any decent stepping out of some Hotel 81, steadfastedly not looking at each other after the event. So it was pretty interesting to walk through the throngs of people conducting their business, taking sideways glances at some of the products laid out by the more enterprising ones, various tablets of IDK what, performance enhancers I suppose, laid out neatly along the sidewalk, and I can only wonder what the conversations that take place between buyer and seller must sound like... "Sooo...what does this blue one do?" "It makes your @#$@# @#$@#  #$%$5" "Then what does that one do?" "...." I guess sometimes...it's better not to ask so many questions..

Dinner itself was good, followed by much wandering around Geylang looking for some place that sold dessert, which was unfortunately nowhere to be found. After much random wandering, wherein the above ^ observations were made, along with much random BS, we decided to give it up and go for a driveby instead, stopping at Jean's place for awhile before heading home. All in all an enjoyable time, though we didn't really plan that well in advance x.x

I was dealt a pretty cruel blow last week, for shooting, NOT anything else xP Team selection trials for the NUSIS, and before my detail, I happened to see on the coach's laptop that the next lowest shooter, the only guy I had a realistic chance of beating to get onto the final team of 3, shot 548. So, I set that as my aim for the trial. Things started off badly in my first series, I was unable to quite find my proper form nor the feeling to shoot a 9, let alone a 10, so it was always going to be an uphill task playing catchup with the subsequent 5 series. I somehow managed to recover somewhat, and was counting my score in my head, trying my utmost to hit +18 (because I use 9 as my baseline, a 8 is -1, 10 is +1).My form improved, and I managed to break even before making some headway, reducing my misfires to a minimum but eventually -by my count- missed on by about 5 points. My coach tends to be a little more lenient though so he eventually gave me a score of 548, target reached, right? But it was not to be, cause in some pretty sick twist of fate, either I remembered the score wrongly or he noted it down on his laptop wrongly; that guy got 549, 1 point higher than I did. Pretty ironic and sad, I guess, after counting so closely, and actually attaining my target, that target turned out to be off, by just that little bit. Maybe I shouldn't have been so focused on the score, but this time I didn't really get the impression that it was an incorrect focus that held me back, I don't think I could have done much better at my current standard tbh. Can't help it, I guess, I don't quite know how the team will turn out now, but it's all out of my hands.

Hmmm idk, maybe what holds us back just when we're thinking of taking that one step forward is the thought that it'd mean 2 more steps to just get back to where we used to be if things didn't turn out as expected, and even that is just an unlikely possibility. We can't just continue standing where we are, yet we're so afraid to step forward, trying to pick the moment, when things feel right. As with so many other things, it's all a matter of timing. It's all so very confusing >< And in part it's not fair to carry on with such uncertainty, is it? You get one hand clapping, with the other not quite sure where it wants to be. Or maybe that other hand is just thinking too much and should just give it time to see how things develop.

It's been a fine day.

My Chem results were singularly unimpressive, though I guess I should be content with them seeing how the rest performed. I'll do better in the promos! It's really amazing how I managed to lose 26% of the marks so easily just like that. Gah.

Contrary to what yi ling said earlier, the suits arrived today!!!! I feel stupid for being so worried about nothing back then XD Mine's white with black patches, which purportedly looks either like a panda or a cow. Not very flattering images D: Looks aside, I'm overjoyed to finally get my own suit and be able to train fully suited. It makes a hell of a difference in terms of stability, grouping and ability to consistently carry out the action. It's just the beginning though. From today's training, I realized the enormity of the task I've set for myself. Once I shot with the suit on, I fully comprehended the "gap" between myself and the "pros" and realize that I'll have to pile up alot more work, alot more effort and alot more juice into training before I can even think about rubbing shoulders with them. I'm not satisfied with today's results; in fact, they don't matter at all hehx. Coach really enlightened me this time. When I asked him: 这个grouping还可以吗？ His reply was: 到你能60发都打到十才算还可以。So that's my final aim, though of course for now, I'll be focusing on the "basics":

*Always ensure that both left and right, top and down 指向 are adjusted correctly. Re-check this every 1/2 an hour as variations in the action might occur.

1. Make sure that lower body is stable
2. Put the shoulder butt against the same spot on my shoulder
3. When elbow down, make sure my arm is firm against my hip and that it is straight
4. Relax my right shoulder and left arm as I settle my upper half down
5. Contact my cheek with the cheek rest, look at the rear sight for awhile as I feel my body's stability
6. Cheek down fully, bringing this sense of stability with me into the shot
7. Move the gun down the short distance to overlap the sights with the target
8. Fire at will. At moment of firing, right shoulder is relaxed, left arm is relaxed - not exerting force
9. Follow through

Follow the whole sequence faithfully, and DON'T rush it. 

My takeaway from today is to do the actions faithfully,  to re-do from the start if there are any mistakes, and that having a suit totally rocks!

I'm going to step on the gas now, and improve improve improve!!!