once again, its going to be a new year soon, it being minutes to midnight (linkin park screams in the background: ...what i've done, to face myself...) lol that was lame. i can only think of one thing to do when its minutes to midnight, to a new year, to one where is full of nonsense, fun and hope. well, at least i can manage to start studying hard. and the thing to do to receive the new year is to review the old one, and then chuck it one side, never to see the light of the deh again. (since when did dehs give out light? they are dehs leh.) lame attempt at being puny. never mind.

all in all the year is a good one. 2007 is for me a memorable year, the best year so far in my ri life. it is certainly a year with more ups than downs, more joy than sorrow. the year didn't start off too well, but by the end of it all i emerged from it a much happpier person.

it all started with obs. how my reluctance to put sunblock resulted in a painful week of skin peeling. how i experienced the worst night of my life. how i started to have a phobia of rain after that. quite hard not to actually, if u spent the whole day trekking in the rain, carrying a damn heavy bag while having ur burnt skin stung by the thick and coarse poncho.

of course, it was at obs that i started to know the wonderful class that is 3K better, though not the whole of it, seeing how the class was split into 2 watch groups. theodore, shanzhi, junyong, thom, timo, koonz, were just some of the members of 3K that i got to know better during this time. of course, there were downs too. i remember developing a huge dislike of hrishikesh and sagar, both for their reluctance to contribute to the class yet their great fear of being left out of anything good, like food. and of course, a reunion with old classmate spencer thang, and being reminded that he hasn't improved much since i last talked to him. oh and a reunion with my p3 classmate wayne.

then the next highlight of the year is inter-house track and field. 2 bronzes and a 4th isn't too bad, but considering the circumstances in which they were gotten, maybe it isn't suprising. bronzes in 3000m, in which i was running alone, and 1500m, in which we fixed the result out of laziness, were ok. 4th in 800m was of a result of really trying but just couldn't. add that to a 4x400m silver, in which i avenged my personal disappoinment of the year before, when i ran 1.08, to improve to a 1.03.

while this time, i was also training hard for cross-country. at first i didn't believe i could make the team, and was training out of obligation rather than ambition. but as april approached, i started to catch up with better runners like cho-han, kml, mchia, guan lin and timo. i actually thought i could make the team, that is, until a series of poor training performances put paid to my hopes. i didn't make the team, though in the end they went on to be champions.

it certainly hurts that not to be in the team that made history, one that won cross-country for the first time ever. but i would never forget the experiences of pain and endurance and perseverance that we undergone together. even though i wasn't part of the team proper, but ultimately, i still trained with them, i still am part of raffles cross-country. the joy at winning is undescribable. and when we sang the school anthem, i would say that at that point i was very proud to be a rafflesian.

now about academics. i remember the first maths test of the year, where i got 9 1/2 out of 30, and i think half the class failed. and vijay was suanning us as though he had too much lime and lemon to spare. damn funny, come to think of it. and i think we hated vijay then.

but not enough to prevent us from buying him a man utd scarf on teachers' day. haha that was damn funny. the look on his face when kieran drapped it around his neck is hilarious to say the least. its one of the whacky things that 3K do. its one the whacky things that only 3K would do.

oh, and the other time, when liverpool lost to besiktas. we wrote the scoreline across the whole whiteboard, and formed a guard of honour for him when he walked in, playing you will never walk alone in the background. and he was so amused he punched kieran. haha. 3K i love you guys loads.

the difference between us and other classes is stark. during eoys, we went for lunch together. 15 of us 3K-ers and a clinton teh of 3L. at food junction, we saw 3 members of 3L eating at a small table, whereas the 15 of us had to occupy the whole enclosed eating area next to the jap store. it really speaks of the unity of the class when ur own classmate chooses to eat with 15 members of the class next door.

i spent the afternoons of eoy period studying with 3k in the library. i would go for lunch with 3k after the day ends, then it was straight to the library to study. we would always have a problem in finding seats, as bishan library is a crowded place and we had such a big groups, most of the time including auxilary members of 3K, namely aaron tiong, clinton teh and lim jian xiong. sometimes i wonder who's actually my classmates, them or people like sagar and spencer and ryan. i guess you can count daniel ng as another auxilary member too.

class outings with 3K were always a fun thing, whether it was to the national stadium or daniel's house or just to taka to see ions. i remember how i got everyone lost in kallang due to the 2/3 rafflesian in me acting up. the thinker and pioneer bit, i wasn't being much of a thinker, thus getting lost. daniel's house with the swimming pool is always a fun place to go. it may be a house to him but its a holdiay resort to us.

ok enough about 3K, its not as if we are going to part anytime soon. like it or not (its quite obvious which), i'm stuck(think glued) to them for another year. so let's not get any more touchy for the moment, or else i think i'm going to break down while typing this post.

wait i think i shall write one more thing about 3K. its a downlight, nolight, badlight, whatever. its interclass. this year's interclass was a pure nightmare for me. i'm still at a loss to explain what exactly went wrong, why we couldn't score when given 7 open chances against 3F, how we got spanked 3 kosong by 3Q, and how we even manage to lose to a badly weakened 3M. i'm sorry guys, i'm not blaming you all, not blaming anyone in particular, i'm still a little pissed off at the manner in which threw everything away.

in fact i think i should shoulder the most responsibility. i tried to instill a different tactic for the match against 3Q, which i believed wasn't understood by anyone except daniel and koonz and myself. the first goal was my mistake, i lagged yet still went for the ball. the second goal i wasn't anywhere near quang when he jumped higher thank kieran and thom. third match i hardly got any ball to try and dictate play. oh, and i got screwed by slim after that for missing training to play soccer. damn david beckham-esque. sent home in shame.

but i think there are positives to take out of it. there certainly are. we all learnt, whether first-hand or from visual experience, that thom is the best-fouler ever in the history of ri, commiting the most ludicrous of fouls yet not getting caught at all. this can only work in our advantage. and also, kieran's failure in the role of central midfielder may have confirmed by belief that the role of a central midfielder in interclass is only useful defensively, yet the success of lennie and eugene in the role contradicts this belief. both of them are experts are dictating play, and were certainly huge reasons why their classes went to the final. kieran is definitely inferior to them in this role. kieran is not able to fulfill the defensive requirements of central midfielder, and is also not good enough offensively to dominate the game. so the alternatives are that we change the formation, or we put in someone else.

if we change the formation, the way we build up our game, so that the role of central defensive midfielder is solely defensive, then i believe koonz is perfect for the role. so with that, we either put daniel or kieran beside me in defence. with daniel we would lack technical ability at the back, with kieran we would lack physicality. its like choosing between hyypia and agger. or we could just replace kieran in the central midfielder role. and the only person whom i can think is myself. i would relish the challenge. definitely. but whether 4k would agree to me being free of purely defensive duties is another thing. i think this year we lack team cohesion. we lack match practice together as a class. and we still don't know how to get the best out of timo, thom, shoujian, and kieran. i still don't know. i believe if we can achieve tactical discipline then flexibility, we can play very fluid, sexy and moving football, like the holland of 1970s. total football is not impossible with the versatility of our players, but it remains an ideal.

personally, as a footballer, i'm playing smarter now. i'm able to spread play better, i try to look around me, to get a grasp of where everyone is, before i get the ball. my short passing ability i believe is exceptional for this level of football, as for long passing its sufficient. i need to get into shooting positions better. but i'm currently adopting a shoot-on-sight policy when playing on astro, something which i think should work. my shots i think are relatively powerful, product of 3 years of cross-country training.

this year i also got confirmed and am now eligible to get married in church, not that its the reason why i got confirmed. after 9 years of sunday classes i'm finally free ... ... to go home and mug. lol. but i think a while later i will start feeling empty and bored, now that i'm free on sundays.

i think i've improved as a person. i'm more filial and obedient (most of the time) to my parents, i'm not as rebelious and rude to teachers anymore. like wine, i mellowed with age for the sweeter and better. i've made a lot more friends this year, after not kept sticking to the same crowd all the time. lunch now can be with anyone from x-country, to 4K, from jingxian to zhiming.

i've also gained weight and grown taller. i've grown 4cm this year, from 175cm to 179cm, and am finally the tallest in my family. i've finally hit 55kg, a year after the deadline slim set me to hit the weight. i'm definitely stronger, as can be seen from my shots in soccer, though not from my model-esque legs. my legs are sexy and i'm PROUD of it. lol.

but i've not achieved my new year resolution of being president by 2007, though this is something i intent to rectify as soon as possible, preferably by january. my blogging abilities have received aclaim (thank you guys for humouring me). so as a prize, i shall give you all two examples of terrible blogging for you guys to critique and flame and humiliate (yes matthew, i'm looking at YOU).

http://the-soccer-life.blogspot.com/
http://a-perfect-murder.blogspot.com/

i, sean lim, owner of the hottest pair of legs in town, hereby give all readers of my blog the invitation and due permission of myself to flame and defame the aforementioned blogs at their whim and fancy, on the condition that they do their best and not mention my name at all.