The sky is cloudy tonight. So where is the moon?

But it doesn't really matter any more right?

_________________________________

Dear Princess,

I had a good session with the sage just now.

When I first posed a seemingly innocent question, his eyes lit up.

"The lesson for tonight for you would be to understand that a question has many layers to it."

"Giving a face answer to a question would be shallow and naive as it misses the core of it."

"Look through the different layers of the question. One good way would be to look at the intent of the question."

"For example, when asked whether certain actions are right or wrong, it is more than answering to the face value of 'yes and no' with examples to support it. Look deeper and find out more, like: 'What is the purpose of this question you have posed?' or 'why are such actions worth looking into?' etc."

"Answers could then be given to a greater understanding which would perhaps, solve the main issue given."

His advice for the night:

"Fear not the world if the intent stood tested against objective considerations, even if it were to produce undesired outcomes."

I have found a right sage.

I am overusing the word "Coolness" these days. I guess I need to look for another meaningful word to prevent the essence of 'coolness' from eroding.

But this is what I call real Cool:



Official MV here:

The Day I died - Just Jack

"I guess I never saw that taxi."

Now that's MEAN!

I was surfing around for some information of epee fencing when I came across this advice on distancing:

Squidoo Epee Fencing

What is proper fencing distance?

If everything being equal, the key to winning in fencing is distance. I don't have any real data to back me up, but I do think if you were able to measure winning touches and the distance between two fencers, I would guess over 75% of winning touches will occur when the "proper" distance was kept by the winning fencer. You hear this a lot on fencing strips - "keep your distance..." but no one explained what is the "proper" distance. As a fencer, you pretty much guess as you go and adjust constantly depending on the situation.

I want to attempt to explain it here. First of all, there is no one proper distance. It does vary between different opponents. Second, there are two "proper" distances. One when you are on offense and one when you are on defense. Depending on the height and speed of each fencer, the "proper" fencing distance can vary quite a bit.

Let me first define the "proper" fencing distance when you are on the offense. This is the distance you keep from your opponent when you are confident that you can hit the target with a simple attack. In most cases, this does not change from opponent to opponent. It is a factor of your own speed and technique.

The "proper" fencing distance when you are on defense is the distance you try to keep from your opponent such that your opponent is just shy of hitting you with a simple attack. This distance does vary depending on the height and reach and speed of your opponent.

Remember, during a bout, ther are two fencers and each will have their "proper" distances and during the course of a match, the distance will constantly be changing. The key is to know your distances while trying to fool your opponent to think he is maintaining his proper distance.

The other thing to remember is that the distance in question is a fixed amount of "window". It will not work if you keep a distance that is too far away. In that case, no one can be hit and the match will be boring.

Here is a real example.

Fencer A likes to fleche attack. Fencer B likes to play defense. In the middle of a bout, while the two fencers are bouncing around, fencer A will slowly creep forward with each bounce and try to reach his "attack distance". Once he has reached that distance, he will initiate a sudden fleche and more than likely will hit fencer B. What happens is that while bouncing around, he has created a situation that he has reached his "proper" attack distance while deceiving fencer B to think he is still keeping his "proper" defensive distance and out of range. The danger for fencer A is that while he is doing this manipulation, if he comes close to fencer B's attack distance, fencer B may decide to stike first and hit fencer A before he has a chance to fleche. That's what make an interesting bout.

Sometimes, especially when a short fencer is matched against a tall fencer, it is possible to use the "proper" distance to gain the upper hand. In this case, the proper distance for the short fencer is relatively close. To gain the upper hand, the short fencer can wait for the proper moment and close the distance with his opponent. This way, he will have a better chance of hitting his opponent while the taller fencer is too close to his target. His weapon will over shoot and pass his target.

_____________________________

Dear Princess,

I bumped into the old ice cream lady again.

I was taking my steed out for a morning walk when I hear that familiar creaking sound coming towards me. She stopped by the roadside, and unexpectedly, beckoned me to come.

"I saw that bright star too," She said before I could open my mouth.

"Oh." With that tinge of helplessness again.

"Here's a little something for you," she scooped a snowy white onto a fresh piece of waffle. The ice cream did not melt at all, surprisingly.

"Wow, thanks a lot Milady." I felt a little better.

"You're welcome." She grinned her half empty teeth and pushed her stall past me.

Moments later, I felt a magical strength flowing through my hands. It seems to tell me not to give up on the impossible task of finding the stardust that flew across the sky last night. Perhaps I should find a Babylon candle first.

The snowy white and waffle were sweet.

OMG How could I forget to share this over here??? LOL



Check out the official MV here:

Fireflies - By Owl City

____________________________________

Dear Princess,

The stars tonight glow exceptionally bright. I lay down onto the grass plains, feeling the radiant warmth of the starlight that made tonight seem so special.

Still, I am feeling the crippling numbness in my whole body. So I got up, shook myself a little bit, before getting onto my steed and rode towards the main road, in my futile attempt to catch the stardust that flew across the chilling sky.

Once in a blue moon, a song out there would move me so much, I would get past my inertia to share this song on my blog.



_______________________________________

Dear Princess,

I went to the tavern just now to check out some decent performances over there. I was lucky to have a famous bard playing his music at the stage. The audience was captivated, myself included.

I wanted to request an encore, but due to time constraints, he had to kindly refuse my request. After his performance, I went over and treated him with a glass of passion fruit juice.

"Why did you write this song?" I asked.

"For obvious reasons," he replied with a slight grin, before he excused himself from the tavern. I noticed his sizeable backpack when he was heading out to the door. It was a large, brown travel pack that seemed to be carrying quite a load.

I followed him out of the tavern for a while, before he surprised me by turning around and said, "Yes, what you see is what it is," before heading to the main road.

I felt a tinge of sadness for the bard. I could feel the burden he is carrying with him wherever he go, especially with the songs he had written for her.

I hope for him finding his way home one day.

Every time I have feelings for someone (except for my first crush in pri sch), there will be a song that comes along the way that would feel symbolic to the events. A song to remind myself the 5 tastes of those feelings in my life.

For the 2nd person:

(Eh i cannot embedd the video...)

Reason - by Hoobastank

For the 3rd person:



(I only realised that the previous songs have the same title just now >.<)

For the 4th person:



As for princess, well, I am intending to keep a low profile for now. Meanwhile, I shall end off this entry with the following to set the mood lighter ^^



____________________________

Dear Princess,

The other night I was sitting on my cottage rooftop drinking a mug of fresh fruit juice humming your favourite tune, when I saw the tower you are living in, with a faint glow of light. It was a moonless starless night, the glow from your room was especially eye catching.

I stared at it for a while, pondering, wondering and thinking. What would you be doing at this hour? Practising your dance for the ball that's coming up the following week? Revising the tome of spells so that you could maintain your magical touch wherever you go? Or perhaps staring out into the moonless starless night dwelling, deliberating, contemplating the absence of what makes the dark skies so beautiful?

A little inspiration struck me and I hopped down the rooftop and I went back to my room and I began to scribble a little of what I hope to fill the night sky with the moon and stars again.

Perhaps I would be taking out my laptop with earpiece to watch the remaining episodes of 'Chi's Sweet Home' while sitting in the cafe.

Or I would back away from the painting for a while, sit down on the chair next to me, and close my eyes, and breathe.

To be a little more in peace with myself first before my next decision.

Perhaps till someone daring enough to snatch the seat in front of me or enter the door and replace the painting.

You know that feeling when you are supposed to wait for someone to turn up at the coffee shop, and when that someone is not appearing for a long time, you begin to pay more attention to the other people in the coffee shop and out in the streets, when you are supposed to wait for that someone who is not appearing and you felt so tempted to get out of the seat and move around and sit down again and then perhaps even give up waiting and get out of the coffee shop?

Or the feeling of when you know you want to stay inside the house and look at that painting that means so much to you but the door is open such that there are many people walking past which distracts the hell out of you and you cannot concentrate understanding the fine work of art but there are just too many people walking past the door and yet you dont want to close the door?

A fine example of bullshitting myself with such emotions. Not pleasant at all.

***

Feeling calmer now. Many apologies for my cluttered writing in a fit of emotions. The following is a more straightforward version of the above rants:

I am sitting in a cafe right now, waiting for that someone to arrive. However, I know that that someone will take a long time to come. During the long wait, I am feeling impatient and distracted, thus constantly looking at the crowd in the cafe and out at the streets. Because of that waiting and distraction, I have the strong urge to give up waiting and leave the cafe. But yet that other strong feeling is stopping me from moving, stopping me from giving up.

Similarly, I am also studying and appreciating the painting on the wall in the art gallery. I know that it will take time to fully understand and appreciate the value of the painting, but the door at the side is open. Other people are walking by. Other seemingly 'superior' artworks are outside too. I feel so tempted to give up understanding that painting and move outside, but yet that other strong feeling is stopping me from doing so.

So this is the first 'official' trial that is bugging me for the past few weeks. It is not a pleasant feeling at all.

Will time be the best answer?

Main Entry: doubt

Part of Speech: noun, verb

Related Adjectives:

abroad, adrift, afraid to say, ambiguous, ancipitous, apocryphal, astray, at a loss, at a nonplus, at fault, at one's wit's end, at sea, casual, changeable, confused, contingent, contingent on, controvertible, debatable, deceptive, dependent on, dependent on circumstances, disputable, distracted, distraught, distrustful of, doubtful, doubting, dubious, enigmatic, equivocal, evasive, experimental, fallacious, fallible, false, fine-spun, hard to believe, hypothetical, ignorant, illusive, illusory, in a cloud, in a maze, in a state of uncertainty, in question, in suspense, inconceivable, incredible, incredulous as to, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, jesuitical, lost, mebby-scales, minimifidian, mystic, not to be believed, occasional, open to discussion, open to doubt, open to suspicion, oracular, out of one's reckoning, overrefined, paradoxical, perplexing, pettifogging, plausible, plausive, precarious, problematical, puzzled, questionable, quibbling, shy of, skeptical as to, slippery, sophistical, specious, staggering, subject to, suspect, suspicious, suspicious of, ticklish, unascertained, unauthentic, unauthenticated, unauthoritative, unbelieving, uncertain, unconfirmed, uncounted, undecided, undefinable, undefined, undemonstrable, undemonstrated, undeserving of belief, undetermined, unreliable, unsettled, untold, untrustworthy, unworthy of belief, vague



Main Entry: dream

Part of Speech: noun, verb

Definition: illusion, vision, conjure up scenario

Synonyms:

bubble, castle in the air, chimera, daydream, delusion, fancy, fantasy, hallucination, head trip, idea, image, imagination, impression, incubus, mental picture, nightmare, pie in the sky, pipe dream, rainbow, reverie, specter, speculation, thought, trance, vagary, wraith, be delirious, be moonstruck, be up in clouds, brainstorm, build castles in air, conceive, concoct, cook up, crave, create, daydream, devise, envisage, fancy, fantasize, formulate, hallucinate, hanker, hatch, have a flash, have a nightmare, have a notion, have a vision, hunger, idealize, imagine, invent, long, lust, make up, picture, pine, search for pot of gold, sigh, stargaze, sublimate, think, think up, thirst, visualize

___________________________________________

Dear Princess,

Sometimes I wish that you have never existed. Because you might only be a fragment of my imagination after all.

Almost half of a semester is past. So far, I did enjoy my life in school and in hall.

It seems crazy that I have 'joined' quite a number of ECAs, but the commitment levels are different.

Fencing - Aiming for competitive

NTU Toastmasters - once a fortnight

NTU PVS - Event based

NTU Deli Aprecio - Event based

NTU Air Rifle (Recreational) - As and when i feel like shooting something for $2 per 30 pellets.

So, it's still not too bad. I look forward to finish up the rest of the semester so that I could be sure on a number of issues yet.

______________________________

Dear Princess,

A few nights ago, I dreamt of you again.

We in the middle of the field, sitting in a tent. The tent was grey, I remember. It was snowing outside, filling the grass with specks of white. Then spots of pearl. Finally a sea of diamond dust.

It was cold. We did not have any other company, I wonder. Perhaps you were just a maiden then. Your guards were nowhere to be seen. Did I ask you why I was with you in this tent? I cannot recall.

It was chilling. We did not have a torch, I ponder. It was dark, yet I could see you clearly in the reflection of the diamond dust, when I reached out to pick up a piece of the diamond mirror. You were palely radiant.

It was freezing. We did not have a fireplace, I was sure. We were sitting closer to each other. I felt the warmth of your hand, your face, your heart. Even a blaze in the heart of the volcano would never replace that.

When I woke up, it was but raining outside.