Meh..

This week, I don't plan to run at all. I had aches in my chest area, left calf and right knee since tuesday. But nothing too serious though. I feel so restless. I need the outdoors. I need the sun. I want to have a slightly reddish tinge on my black skin.

The final installment of my 'board. Traded the muddy-as-hell John Bull for an MJM Blues Devil. Best trade I ever made. John Mayer tones? No problem for the BD. It's got that whole 'blues' vibe surrounding it. True enough, I can coax awesome OD tones from it. Amazing pedal. It retails at USD165 plus USD 20 for shipping, traded my SGD90 John Bull for it. 1 to 1 exchange. Awesome deal.

Not sure if one would call it a change of habit, but I went from using my computer mouse right handed, to using it left handed. It kinda started when I was mugging for my exams two weeks ago. All the revision and practice papers were online, so I had to download them and open them up in either pdf or ms word. So I had the pdf on my desktop, my foolscap paper under my right arm and a pen in my right hand. Problem: The pdf had to be scrolled down every other time to reveal the next question. Everytime I had to do that, I had to let go of the pen, reach for the mouse, roll it's wheel down, then I can grasp the pen back and continue. Now I'm a man of convenience. Those steps are too long-winded for me. I realised that my left hand never does anything more than fretting guitars and cleaning the shit outta my ass. So I went into the control panels and configured the mouse for left handed operation. Never looked back since.

Today marks the first day of the year that I didn't get a seat on the train either on the way to school or on the route home. My left calf hurts. I can run for 90 minutes non-stop but I can't seem to 'senang diri' for even 45 minutes. Did revision for Maths exam just now, among other things.. Mmussst smmmile buuut faaace crrrramp... Rare occasions without hairband and glasses..

After almost 2 long weeks of waiting, the scrawny NS guy finally decided to take time off his busy schedule to meet up and deal the John Bull with me. Honestly, I've never taken the said pedal for a test run before, but only because the major shops here do not carry such what many consider to be 'boutique', so when I plugged it up, boy did I get a rude shock! The bass was overwhelming. Chords sound like mud. There wasnt any single note clarity even with gain knob at minimum. 'Crap' is an understatement when describing the sound this garbage excretes. After two days of testing, it still didn't yield the results that I wanted. I boxed it back up and put it up for sale on soft.com.sg

Strangely, I had the urge to try out the John Bull again this evening. I hooked it up into the chain. Doodled some stuff. Same result. Same disappointing result. Then I unknowingly meddled with the sliders on my EQ pedal. I cut out some of the low end frequencies while leaving the mids and the highs untouched. Stomped the EQ and the John Bull on. WOAH. There was a drastic tonal change. Way less bass. The overall tone was brighter. Chords shimmered like Jennifer Love Hewitt's teeth. I heart that tone. When I switched off the John Bull, my cleans were more 'cleaner'. After turning the EQ on and off, I realised that all this while my tone had been pretty dark and boomy. The humble EQ corrected that. Just some minor tweaks on the crunchbox's and LBMP tone knob and then I'm good to go. No more room on my 'board now. I'm done. Now to save up for an epi SG..

I had a seriously shitty run this morning. It's one of those I-should-have-lazed-in-bed-and-fantasized-about-Tina-Fey runs that every runner gets once in awhile. Be it in the early morning or late evenings, I have always enjoyed running. This has never happened to me before, until today. I left home at 6am, planning to do 9.3km at sub 6-minutes pace, a pace that I've always done my runs at, except for LSD runs. Kept a comfortable pace for around 8 minutes. But then things went downhill after just 1km. My pace increased to 6:03 mins at the 2km. At 3km, it fluctuated to 6:24 mins. I kept at that pace for another 2km. By the 5km marker, my pace was 6:45 mins. I was totally bummed out. I didn't wanna carry on any longer. I just wanna go home and laze in bed and fantasize about Tina Fey. I forced myself for another 2.7km before finally kicking the bucket. 7.7km for today. It isn't the 9.3km that I expected. Feeling a little disappointed with myself. Hope it goes well tomorrow.

On the up-side, MCT exam today was a piece of cake. Reached school at 9am to do the test, which has a 2 hour time limit. I finished it in 40 minutes. Propped my head on the table. Sleep. Wake up. Wow, still got 30 minutes left..

After lunch, we intended to go to the library to revise on SERVO. Instead, me nas tim esther yusof mansur wenbao borrowed dvds and played them in the glass rooms on level 3. Wow, 4 hours wasted just liddat..

A week ago, I saw an ad for a Toadworks John Bull going for $90 on soft.com.sg/ I couldn't believe my eyes! $90? Its listed at $195 on mrmisse.com! I've never seen any pedal for sale below than 50% of it's retail value. It's gotta be spoilt. But I decided to take the chance. I pulled the trigger on it. I got him to reserve it for me until 12 August. Yesterday I pmed him again to confirm. But he didn't reply. Today I pmed agian. Still no response. I figured that he had sold it already. So I decided to move on.
Went to guitar4christ.com and spotted a Boss TU-2 for sale. $70. i figured since I'm not getting the John Bull, I'd get the pedal tuner. I arranged to deal the tuner on tuesday. Wohoo. Done deal. But it get complicated.. JENG JENG JENG!!

The guy with the John Bull smsed me saying that he didnt know that I pmed him. He had reserved the John Bull for me since last week. Aiya how seh liddat I already arranged to buy the tuner.. But do I need another tuner? And do I need another dirt unit? I already have two leh! But it wouldn't hurt to have another.. =)

Finally! Lab test week is O-V-E-R!! AEF was so-so. SERVO is going to be a complete fluke. OOP is distinction-able. MCT was surprisingly easy.

I signed myself up for the Standard Chartered HALF-MARATHON. Cost? $45. OUCH. But it is THE running event of the year, and I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world. Plus (wait for it...), they're giving away a nice shirt (you saw it coming didn't you? =) ) and a bag. They're also giving a one-time 20% discount on Adidas stuff. Hmmm, maybe I'll get some shorts from Adidas.

I ate a McSpicy meal for lunch today. MMMMM...