Bluntly Speaking 1

Punctuality
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It is a matter of discipline. It is a reflection of how important you place that particular meeting, gathering or event in your heart.

If you are late or going to be late, make an effort to inform the respective organisers about it, and apologise when you arrive. Don't even think of acting as if nothing happened when you arrive late.

If you are consistently late, examine yourself. Observe your tendencies and scrutinize the way you plan your schedule and time.

If you tend to dilly-dally, prepare in advance so that you have more time as buffer just in case anything unexpected pops up along the way.

By the way, don't expect others (who came earlier) to wait for you, to prepare a grand ceremony for your arrival, etc.

Instead, you should respect those who came on time. Respect them for making the effort to observe punctuality and be fair to them. So, blame no one if you miss out on any parts of the event.

Remember, it starts with us.

I do have severe tendencies to be late. I think I have set aside sufficient time to make my way there, but many times, I'm wrong.

Therefore, (like what I said), I prepare in advance, I wake up earlier, I allocate buffer time. I need to do all this so that not only we can start things on time, but we can also end it on time.

Let's be punctual, shall we?

Bluntly Speaking (Prologue)

For this category of posts, I shall speak from the bottom of my heart. I will be very straight to the point, so you don't have to read it if you don't want to.

I'm sorry if I may be a little too harsh or blunt with my words, but...nvm...

Fact is, there are certain issues bugging me which I need to address. And I will.

3 papers down, 3 more to go!

This morning's Computing paper wasn't as nerve-wrecking as I thought it was to be. Thank God for His comfort, reassurance and most of all, His wisdom.

I've never felt this confident in dealing with a paper of a subject which I can't really get a hang of. I was uncertain and definitely anxious about it at first.

A glance at the past year papers invokes unspeakable fear and stress in me.

"How am I going to handle these questions?" "What if this sort of stuff really come out?"

Fears, uncertainties, worries, concerns, etc. The whole band of emotional stress twisting my head in knots, including the apparent fatigue and exhaustion from lack of sleep.

But God overcame them all.

And lifted me high above my problems.

Those who soar on wings of eagles will realise that the size of their problems is not a matter of difficulty but of perception.

In the midst of the stress

My buddy and I will always do the countdown. So for today, it's 8 more days to the end of the exams.

Yes, I can't wait for the holidays to come. But before I go into the details of what I plan to do during those few months of break, I shall get a little serious now with certain issues.

During this period of examinations, I must really take a tough stance against procrastination and complancency. Even on the last day of the exams, I mustn't let my guard down. For a single weak point in the formation will lead to the collapse of the entire army.

This morning I took out my laptop and I got distracted. Wasted quite a bit of time surfing around instead of diligently pracitising my guitar playing and mentally preparing myself for the afternoon paper.

I'm not being harsh on myself. I'm being firm. And certain things cannot be compromised. Because after the exams, I have (somewhat) all the time in the world to do whatever I want, so for now, I'll concentrate on my exams.

Reality is, for certain things in life, we only have one shot at it - so give your best. Do whatever you want to do later.

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I long to have another jamming session with the rest of my cell-mates after the exams.

In view of this, after evaluating our previous jamming session, I noted one major concern: the need for more dynamics.

How?

• giving more space during parts of the song
• listening to one another
• varying touch and volume
• exercising variation in playing

In line with this (plus the guitar lessons I'm currently taking on in church), I have looked at my personal playing skills and I realised that there is a dire need for improvement.

Which is why I'm constantly on the look out for more ideas, techniques, tricks, advice, etc from various sources.

And to enhance our playing dynamics I'm spurred on to learn damping techniques, to sharpen my fingerplucking skills, and most of all to have pick-independence - to strum, pluck and do everything with my fingers only.

I have thought of picking up the bass guitar during the holidays too, but I'll see how it goes first. Still got way too much things to learn and do on the acoustic.

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Will share more in the entries to come. Back to studying. God bless!