Twenty-Fourteen

Another year has passed already and only 7 posts from me haha, you know this has been a priority for me.

/sarcasm

Well it's time again to look back at 2013 and see what it's been like for me, I have to admit 2012 was pretty good and a bit hard to top but I think 2013 was just that little bit better. So here's a quick review of 2013 for me.

Uni - I had my First Last-Day which actually turned out to be my last first-day. That's right, I've finished studying and will be graduating in May next year. Yea yea! I was close to not finishing though, I failed a core subject by 5 marks but I was fortunate enough to have a generous lecturer who allowed me to sit a supplementary exam in which I passed with flying colours and by flying colours I mean a pass, 50 on the dot. Hey! As they say 'Ps gets degrees'. It was a bit anti-climatic but I can't complain, not many people get a second chance and I managed to make mine work in my favour. Oh I did get a distinction this year too! My first and only distinction and it was for an elective, Photography 2. It says a lot doesn't it. Sometimes I wonder why I study science too. So this will probably be my last post about uni until graduation rolls around next year.

Kendo - What can I say? My highlights would be going to Hong Kong for the Asian Zone Kendo Championship, my first international competition and it is one of the best kendo experiences I've had. Great company! I made great friendships from that trip. Next would be getting my shodan, so I'm a little fish in a big pond now and starting from the bottom again. Finally it would be the greatest moment in my kendo career to date and I think it'll be hard to top for a very long time, the 2013 Australian Uni Games. My first competition as a dan grade and even though I lost in the individuals I did not drop a match at all in the teams event and was nicknamed the 'ippon machine' haha. The best kendo I've ever played thanks to the coaching team and Fukuda Sensei. No victory has tasted as sweet as 2013 Uni Games. It puts a smile on my face every time I think about it. I was also awarded UTS' sporting scholarship, the Elite Athlete Program for kendo in 2013 and was again a recipient of a Half-Blues award, so close to Full Blues!

What's next? I don't know, life is starting to get in the way so I don't have much time for training. I was started the National Squad training for the World Kendo Championships in 2015 but that didn't last long due to study commitments. So I'm hoping to maintain my present level and get my life under control and try for the 2018 WKC so that gives me a few years to get back into it seriously.

Cars - Kim and I own 3 CRXs between us now, my EF10VE is still going strong and believe it or not but I didn't attend one track day this year, how disappointing but my sacrifices paid off as I focused on studying as much as I could. Since I've finished uni and have started full time employment (more on that soon), I'm getting straight into it and will be boosting my CRX in 2014. The parts collection has started and a lot of time has been spent researching online. For Kim's CRX we'll be dropping in a freshly rebuilt B16A and hopefully I don't have to trade a JDM SiR front for it, I'm hoping to get this done sooner rather than later as her CRX is blowing a lot of smoke. I have already installed a set of coilovers but no paint job this year, maybe she'll get lucky in 2014. As for the 3rd CRX, it can't be registered but it has a lot of goodies, so I'm hoping to transfer all of the good bits over to Kim's CRX then scrap it, I did have the idea to keep it and build a track-only CRX but I think 2 CRXs will be enough for now. I've been getting the urge to buy an S13 lately so we'll see what happens.

Personal shit - well my personal project for 2013 fell through, but another one started up without the intention of it doing so. There's a lot of things happening behind the scenes lately and we're still growing but keep an eye out for Honda Historics in the near future. Two members took home trophies from JDM Yard's Honda Showoff meet earlier this month so we're doing okay for now. Also I've decided to start something else up, let's hope this project gets off the ground and 2014 will be the year for me.

Employment - This is a new one! After finishing my last exam (before the supplementary) I got all excited and applied for a few graduate positions, around 5-6 in total. Didn't hear anything for about a month, during which I started working full-time at another call centre to make some money, then I received a call for an interview. It was interesting, my first real interview to become a NATA Certified Quality Control Agent working for a road paint company based in Ingleburn, which would have been perfect for me. It was close to home, good pay and I would be using my degree that took 7 years to get. The interview went well but unfortunately it wasn't me, got told I was no.2 from about 60-70 applicants and the only reason the other guy got the job was because he had experience by doing work placement during his degree. Well that's 0 for 1, but at least it felt good to know I was second best on my first interview. I'll be starting to look for a proper job again soon, just going with the flow right now as my current job is quite flexible and pays quite well and the work is relatively straight forward.