Well, school is about to start. It starts tomorrow but there isn't actually a lesson tomorrow. Just the orchestra/wind band placement audition for 5 minutes and that's it for the day. Nevertheless, my days are going to become much busier so I can foresee that this will be my last post for quite a while. Well I've a concert to play later so I guess that can help bring me back to shape. Speaking of which, I just realised over the past rehearsals how much motivation I've gained from playing in a group and preparing for a concert. Hearing so many capable musicians just motivates me to push myself. I almost overdid it a few hours ago with my practice and I realised it and wisely (hopefully) cut the practice short in consideration of the concert I'm about to play. The groups of musicians I play with, be it Slide That or the Nanyang Festival Winds, NAFA's ensembles, the Philharmonic (Youth) Winds, OMM etc., they all contain fantastic musicians and I really hope I can somehow live off the motivation I get from listening to these players and hopefully one day, all that motivation to surpass them pays off. It's that desire in me to want to do things well.

I just had a thought: I keep this handwritten journal where I write many things I rather keep secret for the purpose of me recalling them as I grow older. I just realised it's so foolish. The idea is foolish and the writing in it is foolish. As soon as I can, I'll remove the pages and it'll once again become an empty sketchbook. Right now with my present state of mind I just can't stand reading words I wrote years ago at a time when I was much more foolish than I am now, or so I think. I just don't see the point of me trying to recall them anymore. I've decided that all the worthy memories shall be kept either in my own memory or in pictures and videos. Perhaps some of those memories can be kept in this blog too!

Right now I'm much more up-to-date about the news because I use RSS feeds now. But just reading the news it's so much more negative than positive. Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, political issues are the main headlines I see. Hardly anything is actually showing something really good. I mean, I saw that SMRT is buying 13 more LRT cars and that's great! Other than that, Singapore's win over Malaysia in football, that's great too! But everything else just seems so negative. The world seems to be near or at the bottom end now. Yes there's no recession going on, or so I think, but there's war, massacres, natural disasters, general unhappiness in the population towards the government, the lot and there's only one thing to blame it on: people. The question is why? Is it because more people are better educated hence there are more idealistic people in the world expecting a much better life than what they're experiencing now? I admit, I am idealistic. I'm an optimist most of the time and as long as I believe something can be done, it can be done. But have I, and also many others, pushed our idealism too far? So far to the point that we have brought negativity upon our world? It's something to think about.

I think for now that's it. It's time to get some good rest before the show and also for the start of hopefully a good term at school. Hopefully I can still remain active here and keep this blog updated. Till then, bye!