You've Come a Long Way, Baby

We've come a long long way together

Through the hard times and the good

I have to celebrate you baby

I have to praise you like i should

-- Praise You, Fatboy Slim

----

Not the most profound lyrics unleashed on man, but certainly resonating with me at the moment. Things continue to astound me about this place, and I have a raft of visitors coming through in the coming months for me to look forward to.

After a hiatus while life got crazy, the Masters is commencing again, I start in two days and am looking forward to tucking into some academic endeavour. Not biting off too much, just one subject, but it should help keep my mind sharp. The subject is Writing History and while history is not my strong suit, I am eager to learn and apply myself.

The Marshwah Project has been a good laugh, with my foray into video logging providing some entertainment for myself and others. I think initially I was gunning for a new video every 3-4 days, but this is a shade ambitious for a number of reasons.

1. I have a day job and will be studying again very soon
2. The production elements of the task takes longer than I anticipated, with the whole rigmarole taking a good few hours
3. Being the complete narcissist that I am, I need to acknowledge that me talking about just anything doesn't really make the cut - I need engaging material and I think it's quality over quantity

Having said that however, I'm enjoying it quite a lot and one a week should keep me out of trouble. The feedback has been amusing too, it's ranged from "go Marshy!" to "GTFO" to a tongue-lashing from one of my old friends who is resoundingly anti-digital (in good humour though). We'll see if the novelty wears off or if it continues to prosper.

Probably need to lose the headset though, I'll do that when I get a new computer!

So previously I mentioned that I'm not drinking for two months, and if you know me well you might be surprised to read that I haven't caved yet! It's been 15 days without a drink.

To be honest, I haven't missed it as much as I thought. The culture is a bit different in Singapore and despite being out and being offered free drinks on several occasions, I haven't felt the need. Alcohol's main allure for a lot of people is the lowering of inhibitions and relaxant effect - I'm a very uninhibited person anyway so it's not really affecting my enjoyment. Add to this, my head's feeling much, much clearer. I feel like the guy in Limitless.

But there's more to it than that, I've commenced The Couch-to-5k Running Plan and have completed my first week. I've had this program recommended to me several times over the years, but have always essentially ignored it because I don't like the clumsiness of time-based running ie. Run for 60 seconds, walk for 90 seconds etc. But with my new open and fog-free mind, I discovered a set of podcasts that counts the time for me.

The music sounds like what would happen if you froze 50 kilos of frozen tripe and spun it around in a cement mixer, but its utility is unquestionable.

It also has the added bonus of reinvigorating the RUN FOR COVER MOTHERFUCKER Facebook fan page which has received a deluge of spam-like weather updates.

There's a lot to pleased with this year and I have an inkling things are only going to get better.