'Tis a season to be jolly

I have been pretty dormant the entire December even with the holiday going on, but recently I have been going to quite a few gatherings and dinner dates, about...3 in the last 7 days maybe? But it's a good time and excuse to see people whom we don't usually meet, and I think it is quite important actually, to remember the past together with those who were in your life previously.

I've got a strange thing going against boisterous and noisy celebrations however - I like to interact with people in cosy settings, and I hate the soberness one feels in the silent night after something wild. Like you know it was just another day in your life that had passed just now, despite all those crazy things and good fun.

I wonder what I'll be doing on New Year's eve and New Year's day itself.

Some thoughts at the end of the year.

• Met some old Odac friends just now at dinner, and one of them told me incidentally that the internet was down in Singapore because a Taiwan earthquake had disrupted underwater cablings. My goodness. It is quite a surprise I didn't know of these things because usually I will read my papers religiously everyday, but now I don't have a subscription at home. I'm getting suaku I think.
• Roland was just asking me to go climbing tomorrow cos he got nothing to do, and he is contemplating getting new climbing shoes! Climbing as an activity is now very far from my mind usually, and to think I was the one who got Roland and a few others into the sport. There's a very underutilised climbing rope under my bed by the way.
  
• On the other hand, I am now taking badminton lessons from a coach four sessions for 2 hours each month, costing me $200 for it. I resolve to be a 'proper' player, not only being able to play but to be able to demonstrate correct footwork, which is a killer to learn because it have to be drilled in as a habit. Wish me luck.
• And I'm into my third driving lesson tomorrow, but the test date is freaking far away in May. Ok it's quite fun and interesting (like all new challenges for me), but no, I'm still not gonna get a car.
• Read Alex's blog and he promises to post his end of year reflections and new year resolutions soon - wow. I can't remember if I ever do those things before, but I think it will be a pretty pointless exercise for me, unless I pinned up my resolutions written on a huge board, and even then it might not be enough to induce me to work towards fulfilling them. All the best to you bro haha.
  

New wheels!

I've just got new wheels! Reputed to be of very good quality, and costs a small sum of $350, they are quite a steal. Ah...I can't wait to try them.


I picked them up from a little shop space in Little India, and after that I had dinner at 'Komala Vilas' just outside at the main road. It brought back carefree memories of my younger days, when as a sec sch kid me and my best friend Wenjin will go to Rex complex there to play pool frequently and once, we ate at that exact same place, marvelling at the huge ball of dough that the 'bhattura' was. The food is still good, and I stuffed myself with ghee masala dosai, a samosa plate, and masala tea (which I always have to remind me of the days trekking in Annapurna, Nepal.


On the way to the train station, I went by many jewellery stalls, those which caters to the Indian community and mostly didn't bother with stocking precious stones and pretty baubles, just pure illustrious gold. At the stairways, I saw two elderly Indian women sitting on the floor displaying (what I think is fake) gold chains out for sale too. I was hit with a truism of the capitalist economy upon the sight - we price gold and jewellery only because people think it's pretty and it happens to be rare. It's actual 'practical' value is almost zilch - what exactly is gold good for anyway? It doesn't gives us health nor is helpful for any purpose except to show off wealth. Then, if it only has show value, what's the problem with wearing fake gold (since no one will know anyway)

Christmas Day

After a dinner and KTV session on Christmas eve, I woke up to a sober Christmas day. It happens often, that the pre-celebration of some festival makes the actual day rather dull, or perhaps you sleep deep into the day because of the late night; and you realise that these holidays are just like any other day you get everyday.

I woke up to sunshine at noon, and that made me happy at least. I went down with skating gear to get lunch and then walked over to Bishan Park to skate immediately. Doing my rounds there, I realised that monkeys have since migrated from Lower Pierce reservoir to hang out at the end of the park now. I sneaked up behind one to get a better shot of its ass here -


Unexpectedly, I met Daoshen, a primary classmate and prime joker of the class then. He is now a bronzed botak who looked like he just came out from DB, and he was carrying this huge 10kg medicine ball with him, intending to carry it and run. He said he just signed up with SCDF and am going into the elite DART team, so need to do some training. Somehow, I was hit with this bout of nostalgia and melancholy sets in, that I lost my mood for skating soon after, and went home.

Next, I went to the void deck and played badminton against the wall, practicing my swing as well. When I got tired, I bought dinner, ate it, and went out to cycle after a rest. I intended to go up north to Kranji, Neo Tiew, down to Tuas and out of it again, before going east for the airport coastal road and back north via Tampines.

It was all fine and well except for the drenching I got at Kranji all the way to the end of Neo Tiew, but I gave myself a good break at Jalan Bahar to snack and rest after that. I went down to Pioneer road after that, and straight into Tuas.


It was a real eye-opener - the long flat and totally empty road stretched endlessly about 9km to Tuas, and a left turn to go to the southwestern end of the island took another 6.5km, and that's only one way! Very good training route for cyclists there, wonder how many people knows about this. You can incorporate sprints into the ride too; I got chased by dogs on 2 occasions, and saw a few more that didn't came to bother me. Don't even stop to look, sprint first!


The slight drizzle as I came out along Pioneer road turned into a downpour, and it was so bad water ran into my eyes and visibility was near zero as I reached the start of West coast highway. I had to stop at a petrol station, and after more half an hour of waiting/shivering without promise of the rain stopping, I called a cab and went home at 3pm. That was a smart thing to do, because the rain lasted all the way without stopping till the night after!

So, that was my Christmas, spent torturing myself physically for lack of better things to do.

Christmas shopping

Shopping season is officially open - I was at Orchard on Wednesday night and Jurong Point yesterday afternoon, and there was people everywhere in the malls.

Anyway, I was out shopping for presents to exchange at the Christmas eve dinner of my gang of friends. As the group comprises of the guys and their girlfriends, the presents have to be unisex, must not be size-sensitive to the individual, and to cost around $20.

So, what type of asexual gifts can I get? I thought hard and came to the conclusion that items which qualifies must have a practical use in themselves, and should not bear gender-symbolic meanings if they are merely decorative baubles. So things like stationaries perhaps. Toys and pouches will have to be of the type that both sexes will enjoy using, no barbies or models for the former and no wallets or purses for the latter.

The options are limited. But I think I'll get a toy haha. At least it's more fun!


Look! There's a Singaporean version of 'Taboo' with 'some true blue Singaporean words'! Also saw 'Risk' in a Star Wars version, looks really pretty.

Midnight ramblings.

Man. Everyday is such a routine. First, I wake up to see dark clouds or outright rain. Then I wonder what I should do for the rest of the day, when there's no one to jio for activities because most people are working. Tried to get my class to play tennis tomorrow but didn't succeed. But it's ok, gonna go gym myself, and maybe even blade a few rounds around Bishan Park if time permits.

And then, I can't get to sleep early for most nights. I have been sleeping at 3am almost everyday, and I go to bed cos I have to and not because I feel like it. At this time of the night, it's pretty boring. I mainly use the time to surf around aimless, play lots of Pacman (yes, I'm strangely getting addicted to it), and try to pack my time schedule.

By the way, I'm selling some major stuff, help me out!

1. Waterstick 'Zen' full carbon touring paddle, 2 piece take-apart, 220cm, 60 degrees offset to left and right and also zero offset. Selling for $250.
2. Mountain Hardware 'Skyview' tent for 2 man, 4 seasons solid construction and fabric (can read the reviews of it), weights about 4kg, very lightly used. Selling for $300.

Let me know if you are interested! Can give you more pictures, information, or let you view the stuff yourself.

The seasons

Who says there's no seasons in Singapore? There's the sunny season, and the rainy season. And we're in the midst of the latter now. When that happens...

• You can forget about cycling, unless you want to be pelted by raindrops and risk skidding on your flimsy 25mm wheels. And spending an hour cleaning it out after that.
• You can forget about rock climbing outdoors.
• You can forget about skating.
  
• In fact, you can forget about asking your friends out to do anything at all, cos they'll find it hard to get their ass out of the house.

It seems that the only activity left for one to do is to go online and write silly blog posts, and chat with people on MSN.

Blogs to visit!

Wow. I just found some pretty intelligent Singaporean essays on the net, and I didn't know why it took me so long to discover that. Please make your way down to Singapore Angle and The Intelligent Singaporean, where thoughtful essays responding to current affairs are posted by different people.

I read some interesting articles from the former on university educations are wasted on most undergrads, the historical background behind the movie Mo Gong, and why the local blogsphere do not need an association to regulate bloggers' activities (My take on this: Do you want Singapore to be an internet police state like China??)

Let's all be intelligent Singaporeans!

'Super Size Me', Singaporean version

It was another tough polo training session tonight, and I only ate a pau before it starts at 6pm (it ended close to 11pm). I was ravenous at the end of it all, and barely had energy to do complete the whole session. When my teammate drove me back to YCK and I boarded a bus to AMK, I headed straight to Mac and binged out.

(Aside: I had a packet of 'Hammer Gel' during mid-training, which helped. I was initially skeptical about the effectiveness of these products, but now I'm absolutely sure they help you keep going after trying it out for badminton and paddling sessions. Last Wednesday, I was hopping all over the baseline smashing every lifted shuttle right to the last game with the help of the gel!)

If you know me well enough, you'll realise that I crave fast food when I'm physically exhausted like this, trying to 'get back some fat' into me. It might sound unhealthy, but my body tells me it is necessary, and I just listen to it. I walked by S11 kopitiam along the way, and pondered a while on whether I should go for ba chor mee instead.

Now the question is this: Do you think that the ba chor mee will be a healthier choice than my McChicken meal? A more interesting question: If someone eats a $4 large bowl ba chor mee with a large bowl of ice kacang with it for every meal in a month, will the person end up like the 'Super Size Me' man? With all the lard oil inside, I actually think that will happen! What do you think?

Rain rain

I wake up at noon everyday, and look out of the window to see dark clouds shrouding the area. I want to cycle so much! And so I braved the rain, cycling out when a drizzle has already started yesterday evening. 1 minute later, it poured so heavily I had to stop at the void deck of a block to let the worst of it blow over. Totally drenched.

After badminton, I went over Sengkang to look for Roland - after a drink, the sky poured again! I tried to cycle through it but ended up at a bus stop a street away because the rain and wind made it too cold to cycle. I huddled under the flimsy shelter for 20 minutes before carrying on, and eventually realised that it was totally dry just 1km down the road.

Argh! It's starting again!

Outdoor pursuits

I was recently dreaming of going to a school with an Outdoor Activities Club that I can manage. I imagine planning outdoor modules for the students to progress through at each level, and having proficiency tests and certification lined up for them at the end of the modules.

I was also thinking of expanding the scope of outdoor activities that one can incorporate into a program for such a club. Perhaps kite-flying? Let the kids have fun making things and learn to fly kite and run around in the open field. Or how about Ultimate frisbee? That also allows them to soak up the sun and have fun too without too much demands on game skills. Tree climbing has taken off for a while here already, but how about real tree climbing, monkey-style, where students can test their coconut plucking skills? Or do some free-running?

Or perhaps, if the school has money, I can get it to buy some playboats/canoes/polo boats and start them off on obscure paddling disciplines ha.

More ideas from anyone?

Reading habits

Was on the train to NTU for training, and had to stand in the cabin cos it was peak hours. I couldn't help but look over the shoulder of the lady in front of me, reading a women's magazine. Every other page have a product advertisement, and every other article is about beauty and fashion, with articles discussing the amount of makeup one should use, and polls on whether people will go out without makeup on them.

I recall Karen telling me about a friend who's the type who almost never step outside and face the world without makeup, and it's something quite sad I feel, to subscribe so fully to conventional notions of beauty (and the need to beautify). And it all seems so frivolous to me, getting endless pairs of shoes and clothes and spending thousands on bags.

Anyway, Alex was just telling me excitedly about his new acquisitions on Sunday - 2 books on NLP/coaching, and one about thinking of getting rich. Now, that's the über-male executive read. And I have not seen any females who head straight for the 'money' section when they start on the papers, nor seen them read books like Rich dad, Poor dad.

So, what do you think I read? I go for neither - I opt to partake in the telling of man's history recounted in antiquated texts, to read of the struggles and trials of man at different moments and in different places. I read to be humbled and humanised, to learn about life from other peoples' experiences, or even from their fictions. But as a male, it is hard not to avoid professional readings that will improve work skills, so I have been reading more and more instructional books. Maybe I'll ask Alex for an NLP introduction too in the future...

So...what do you read?

New Skates!

"Goodness gracious! He's got another new toy!"

Yes yes...I've got myself an early Christmas present. Bet you guys out there never knew I was into inline at all. I didn't expect myself to be so eager in acquiring a pair too. Maybe it's the year end bonus, but probably I was influenced by Alex's devious NLP mind tricks, playing up to my learning values and enticing me with the exciting challenges that awaits me in the process of learning to skate.

I think it's a pretty great pair of skates, definitely a little wasted on me now with my current skating proficiency. After we bought them, Alex and I headed down to ECP to try it out. Woah. The bearings were very, very smooth. and I had not bladed for a very long time already. Every time I sat down and rest, and got up to start again, I would stumble precariously for a moment because my body would had forgetten how smooth and fast the wheels were. I fell twice and scratched my brand new wristguards, and also the skates too - Ouch.

And indeed, I fully appreciated the challenges of learning to skate. So many salient points about the motor learning process, memorised for the exam, came back to me. When skating, I was too consciously trying to take in a lot of proprioceptive data and processing it, making me lose peripheral vision and limiting my concentration to the spot a metre in front of me. I used too much energy just going in a straight line and my body was mostly stiff as it tries to control movement by freezing the degrees of freedom. Alex's simple word of advice "Try to bend your knees more" became a mantra that I inwardly recited throughout the entire session.

But oh well, it got better, I got the hang (somewhat) of swaying to the side of the planted leg when gliding, which is the 'go with the flow' movement people talked about I think. I am dead tired both mentally and physically from the experience, but guess that's what makes it a worthy challenge ha. I'm such a sucker.

We had a good dinner to recover from all that effort, having Dim Sum, then durian, at Geylang. Their Kong Ba Bao is interesting -

...the bao is just a thin layer of pastry covering the huge slice of Kong Ba. Alex couldn't even bear to finish one, but I ate it all up, fat, skin, and all. :p

Movie Review: A Battle of Wits

Do catch this movie before it closes real soon! I thought it will be a intriguing movie about war strategising, but it turns out to be a very thoughtful movie which delivers quite a bit of ideas for you to mull over. Karen didn't liked it because it left her heart heavy, so be forewarned, it's not a movie for mere entertainment.

Anyway, Andy Lau's character plays an admirable role model in the movie, a person who is against warfare but who empowers himself to engage in the issue in order to end it peacefully. Think we can all take a lesson from that - too often you'll hear people complain about their predicaments in the workplace etc without seeing them taking affirmative action to see things done right. As Ge Li says: "Freedom is valuable only if you have to fight for it."

And there's certainly one great unjust war that raged out of control currently. With 20/20 hindsight now, everyone could see how ridiculous that war was, and the ****** (substitute your own word here) who started it can only parrot catchphrases like "We will prevail" to all the problems that the war ignited. Perhaps the only good that can come out of this debacle is that instead of merely voicing out disapproval, the world can take firm actions to stop such rogue powers from starting new wars again. As is often said, it only takes good men to do nothing for evil to 'prevail'.

Post-trip aftermath

As always, lots of cleaning up after a trip. My stuff left all over the floor during the trip now have to be packed neatly into the pack again, along with little bits of stuff here and there that I careless throw onto the table.

I also packed my shoes neatly into boxes and finally put labels on them so that I can find what I want everytime without having to go through it all. Guess what, I have 14 pairs of shoes in all, excluding my chacos and slippers; never thought I have that much!

At times like these, I wish I can get my own house asap so that I can finally store all my gear neatly, display all the CDs I have, and line the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves I'll have with my books. I need my space badly. At the same time, the purchase of a house means the start of my life in debt, so I'm not looking forward to it that much after all.

I don't feel like growing up. And I have this feeling my debts will be more than just in monetary terms in the future.

Wolfie's limited guide to Perth

Getting there
Qantas airway tickets cost us $690 each, and when we checked in they were looking for 5 'volunteers' to switch to an SQ flight going Perth too flying an hour later cos they were overbooked. We volunteered ourselves, only to have SQ telling us they don't have seats together for us, wtf! Eventually when we boarded thankfully we managed to make a switch. Great to be able to watch movies on both flights. Qantas have aunties and ordinary-looking blokes for stewards.


Weather
It was quite alien to a suaku Singapore, to have a big blue sky without a whiff of a cloud greeting us at the airport. The wind could bring a chill especially when temperature drops, at about the time when the shops closes. Then there were two days of morning rain, which made temperature unbearably low for Singaporeans. The cold wind blew very strongly when we were doing our tour to Monkey Mia, but weakenedas the days went by.

Shopping
Almost everything is more expensive there than in Singapore, surfing brands, biking stuff, books, CDs, you name it. Only groceries are cheaper by a little, and Havaianas sandals at this surf shop. So spend only on stuff that you can't get in Singapore, like souvenirs. 70% of the stuff we bought were groceries, very weird.

Sleeping
Underground Backpackers:
Neat, organised, large reception area with cheap net access, and a nice bar with free pool table to use. Double room a little small though (walking corridor inside is less than 1m wide and 3m long), and central-controlled air-conditioning blasts at you throughout the night.

Hotel Bambu:
Horrible. It's NOISY, dirty, unorganised and crowded mostly by wasted backpackers of the sort I don't want to meet. The owner interacts with you civilly at best. The staff are punks who can only do the basics. Despite what the website says,

1. Soundproofing doesn't exists. They have their own party at the front within the premises, and there's a pub playing loud music just besides the hotel that rattles the walls with its bass. They wrote on the reception that Northbridge is a popular clubbing place and that complains of loud noises will not earn a refund, but apparently did not bother to state that on the website.
2. There's only 1 double room, the rest are all dorms. It doesn't even have the 75 beds that it boasts of. When we went there, the system triple-booked the room and we were offered dorms to stay for the first night.
3. There's no fridge in the room as promised, the remote for the dvd player disappeared, the TV is in the smallest size that you can ever find, and DVDs rentals are not free - it costs $2 and a $10 deposit.
4. Cereals and mueslis for breakfast doesn't exist, same for jams. Bread is made of very crummy matter.

The people there are the type that leave their room at midnight to go out partying, and come back at ungodly hours to puke all over the toilet seat. They leave a ton of crockery at the sink unwashed after cooking, or choke up the sink if they do wash up. They obviously like loud noise, and most of them spew the contents of their luggage all over their dorm beds.

I suffered for four long nights.

Grand Central Backpackers:
Creaky place, looks kind of rundown inside and outside, but saved by efficient service.

Activities
Surfing
It was a blast! We booked a 2 day camp with everything in, and went off to the beach within the hour of arrival, packed off in nice ripcurl wetsuits and even free sunscreen. After receiving 15 mins of quality instructions, I was quite surprised we were hurried down to the ocean as wave fodder!


Well actually the basic surfing skills are pretty simple in concept, but practice is key, hence the short instructional time. I developed a new-found respect for surfers (otherwise known as beach bums) after the experience, what with the daily 5 hours of aqua-aerobics that we did everyday. That comes after every attempt (mostly flops at the start) when you get toppled and washed up the beach, and have to walk back into the deep (waist-level) water for the next try while being whacked by numerous waves big and small. You have to do pushups on the board in order to stand, and at the end of Day 1, I could suan Karen all I want cos she can't lift her arms to whack me.

The fun is definitely there for all, and the thrill too, for people like me who eventually got sick of surfing the soup. Going out to deeper waters and trying to surf the curlers brings the experience to a whole new level. I endo-ed a few times when the wave picked me up and drove the board tip into the water in front, and that meant a few underwater somersaults. Not for the faint-hearted.


And oh, the place and food was good too! There's tons of dvds to watch, playstation and pool to play, and you could rummage the fridge anytime you're hungry. Too bad my tired body could only allow me to watch 1 dvd for that night.

Sea Kayaking
Despite it being just a day paddling trip, I brought my paddles, pump, and PFD along just so I can get to use them again. The company wasn't exactly punctual, and were quite slow with letting us start the trip when we got to the put-in point, but at least their Necky kayaks were in good condition, and we got pumps and neoprene sprayskirts too. We received very scanty paddling and safety instructions, which was a negative for them (neoprene skirts for total beginners, and not a word on how to do wet exits??)

The islands that we visited were damn near to mainland, about the distance to cross from Singapore to Ubin only. Headwind was very strong and steering had to be done with rudders as the kayaks had zero rocker at the bow. Initially we needed tremendous effort to do stationary turns on the spot when the wind blew our bow off cos I forgot about the rudder behind. Somehow, we were paddling the slowest throughout the trip, and I still can't believe my paddling skills have deteriorated to the point that beginners could lead me through an entire trip.

Seal Island lived up to its reputation - seals were everywhere, and not shy at all to appear all around us, popping their heads out of the water for our delight. Most were lying on the beach taking in the sun though. We went by another small island before we reached Penguin Island, which had very nice waters and scenery, and a penguin sanctuary which helps to protect those little creatures living on the island and those which couldn't live outside in the wild. The paddling back to startpoint from Penguin Island was 20 minutes only. Recommended for all!


Monkey Mia Tour
This package provided a comprehensive tour of all the sights worth visiting along its route, and we had a very experienced and knowledgeable guide who entertained us pretty well too. People who drive to visit Monkey Mia themselves will no doubt miss quite a bit of the more obscure sights and trails in the parks, and the tour provides for everything, so it's really worth it. You only have to bear with the engine noise and the lethargy of sitting for long hours. The only way I can see to get around the latter point is to do a cycling tour haha.


We saw countless miles of undulating bush terrain under the big blue sky, and spotted the occasional kangaroo sometimes. It was an almost sublime experience to see the ocean merge with the sky at the horizon at some parts of the coastal trail and at Kalbarri National Park, with shades of blue sketched out as far as the eye can see. Kalbarri town was a dream place to stay, situated at a river mouth leading to the Indian Ocean with the houses all staring out to sea.

Pictures paint a thousand words.


Interesting Notes

• Traffic in the city of Perth is very light, and when we got off the cab from the airport onto the streets in Northbridge, we were the only pedestrians around. There was a moment when we saw a road junction at the very heart of the city emptied of cars at 7pm!
• Bike commuters are everywhere! On smaller streets they have a left lane all to themselves, and there are parking facilities even in the heart of the shopping mall area. Interestingly, almost everyone wore plain shells for helmets and had boring bikes; the most impressive bikes around actually belongs to the police bike patrol!
• The world's greatest pizza maker is apparently in Perth, operating Il Padrino's Caffe in Northbridge. Takeaway pizza there is only half price at $13! My tastebuds are not discerning enough to tell that the pizza I ate was the best in the world though.
• I grew to love Kangaroos a lot - They are cute, have very nice fur and leather which made for several beautiful souvenirs, and taste really good too!

To Perth!

The day didn't start too well - wanted to wake up a bit earlier at 7am and revise a bit for th 9am exam, but that didn't work out. Got to school just on time, went in and whack. Wah lau, the questions are fantastic. Sport psych questions were pretty much regurgitated matter, but the motor learning questions are out of this world. Questions asks us to devise plans to select Olympians out of a pool of candidates and how to train a soccer team in 6 months, what the...

Anyway. Karen and I wanted to play tennis after that but it was really pouring outside. She forgot to bring her MC to submit to admin office and so from NTU, we drove back to her place where she pick up that slip of paper and off we went, back to NTU just to submit it. Along the way, we picked up one of Lana's famous chocolate cake, got pissed off by the NIE administration's ineffectiveness, and got overcharged by the NIE carpark.

Next destination: Mustafa center. Had a small meal at an Indian restaurant there, exchanged some Aust. currency and bought some travel essentials. Went back home, slacked a bit and I went back to have dinner and packed.

Caught up with Xia for coffee at Bishan while Karen went home to pack. She's getting married! Not very nice to say this, but it's really quite an amazing thing haha. Man, how our conversation topics have matured over the years, from our time in JC together. Bit/Tut, where were you two!

Karen just finished packing, and we're making a trip schedule for the family to keep. Flight at 9am tom, bye guys!

Alex: Will get you a stuffed Koala from there!

Roland: Thanks for the camera! I bought my paddles and my PFD along btw, just for a kayak day trip. Can't help but jump at the chance to use them again la...

Rest of you guys reading this: Don't miss me too much!

Classics worth revisiting

In the frenzy of mugging, and the impending examination starting at 9am tomorrow, I went back to listening to a few classics to make the reading less torturous. It was a wonderful experience, to experience again the evocative power of Debussy's String Quartet and the dreamy atmosphere brought upon with Enescu's first quartet.

I hardly listens to much new music now, but perhaps I should go back to listening to the good oldies instead, those that I started off my classical music experience with.

A dog's life.

That's a greedy dog obviously trying to act cute/pathetic so that the owner will give it some of the snack. The owner, of course, falls for the trick everytime. Some dog just knows how to play the sympathy card...

Here's the dilemma: Given the choice, will you choose to be:

1. A dog, living in a good home and pampered with food and showered with attention everyday, with the family members all fawning over you; or
2. A man, eking out a living in Calcutta, bathing at the public water pumps by the streets, sleeping by the pavements out in the open at night?

Come on, humour me and make your choice in the comments!

Monkeying around

I used to do all this when I was young too! Damn...was too young to understand copyrighting then...



The boy's 9 years old or something, by the way.

Round Island Challenge 2006

On Saturday night, Enric and I took part in the Round Island Challenge by Terra Outdoors; it turned out that the Odac gang consisting of people like Sophia, Alvin, Kelvin, Weilun etc etc signed up for it also, and we all congregate happily in the same group.

At such events, involuntary attention (from the occurrence of novel events...motor learning!) is inevitably drawn to the variety of bikes and cyclists in their different jersey outfits. From the loud, colourfully vulgar to the exotic, no two bikes and their owners look the same, hence the fascination. There's a mtb that looks more like a motorbike, with a box behind for the owner's poodle, and a mtb with syntace aerobars on.

We made good progress actually, having thought initially that the stipulated 22km/h pace will be too slow. Going through the various park connectors at the kallang area wasn't very comfortable for roadies like me and Enric, and we were much happier to hit the roads at city hall. The helpers for the event were pretty competent marshallers and I got to congratulate them for a job well done. Snacks and drinks were provided along the way at breaks too, very welcoming!

We cycled to Kranji, and after the dam area, me and Enric apparently went by the rest area unknowingly. Oh well, we proceeded back to AMK through Mandai road instead, had supper at S11; afterwhich he went back to support Real Madrid while I had an early night's rest.

Bike reborn!

Having bought my bike in February this year, I have went on to make quite a few bit of parts upgrading to it. From looking like this -


...it now looks like this -

A list of parts I have changed:

1. Handlebar - Easton EC90
   
2. Stem - ITM Millennium, 130mm
3. Cyclocomputer - Cateye Micro Wireless
4. Seatpost - Fusion carbon seatpost
5. Seat clamp - from Fusion too
   
6. Saddle - Selle Italia SLK Kit Carbonio
7. Bottom Bracket - ISIS Spline BB, titanium body with carbon shell.
   
8. Cranks - FSA SLK Carbon cranks, 172.5mm
9. Pedals - Look Keo Carbon, Cro-moly axle bearings
10. Chain - KMC X9 Gold
    
11. Cassette - Shimano 9 speed cassette
12. Wheels - Mavic Ksyrium Equipe (Black)

Removed:

1. Cinelli aerobars
   

Added:

1. Cage Rocket holder
2. Lights
3. 2 red Adidas bottles
   

Don't bother asking me how much it costs now... :p

Video analysis of technique in sports

I've always found video analysis of performances for technique useful as augmented feedback for the performer. Before my waterproof camera drowned, I've used it numerous times to provide feedback for people learning to do kayak braces and rolls, and also for myself when I do playboating tricks.

For example, when learning how to roll, kayakers usually do not have the fine proprioceptive sense to know how movement is generated by their body. Whether they roll up or not, they can't tell where the power comes from, whether the body or the head comes up above the water first, whether their body is perpendicular to the boat or leaning fore or aft at setup position, or even whether they managed to do the hip flick or not. In these cases, it is much easier to show them literally how they performed by reviewing the video, rather than trying to do an imitation of their performance for them to see their mistakes.

I also use it to review my own performance, like getting my friends to film me in action shooting a polo ball, so that I can see the extent of the shoulder-joint rotation in generating power. But to use video for your own feedback, you must first know what are the characteristics of good performance and technique, know which movement/limb to watch and critique, and then have adequate motor skills to adjust your technique towards the ideal example.

Now, I just need to get another waterproof camera first...

Great blog!

Visit the Dash Point Pirate and take a look at the vibrant paddling scene overseas! The author is getting his BCU 4 star training in surf currently, but has already made his own boats! Wow. The paddling scene in Singapore is very very sad in comparison, in everything like the variety of water conditions, ownership, training, and opportunities...

Aftermath: Grade review

Ok, my essay was read by 2 other tutors and the grade is up to either a B+ or an A-. My tutor keeps telling me I should be very happy. Actually I realised that not every watertight essay can get an A because it they need to have a grading curve and that means they can't put all logical essays up there. But still, her comments about my work was totally irrelevant, she totally missed the point of my complaint too.

And I wonder why I got so worked up on this stupid academic exercise which has zero application value in the real world. I might have felt that I'm defending my standpoint regarding that issue in the essay, but perhaps I'm already afraid that I'm becoming stupid already.

Can you blame the kids?

Anyway, I can't help but say that I'm sorely disappointed with the attitude of my NIE lecturer, who is apparently all too ready to propagate the oft-criticised kiasu trait with regards to pursuing academic results. I might have said elsewhere, that all through the course, she keeps talking about grading issues even though the class isn't that interested actually - she just assumed that all of us needed a good grade to find our lives worth living still.

Recently, I wrote an essay criticising the frequently-lauded reader-response theory in teaching literary competency, and got a 'B' grade for it, with some irrelevant comments behind and only one in the essay that says something like: "That might not be the case..." when I said that the theory is irrelevant in that teaching context.

Unhappy with the judgmental remark which is totally unsubstantiated, I wrote a lengthy email for her asking her to justify her remarks about my essay and the grade. She simply passed my essay on to another lecturer to review, and today told me loads of silly things like: "You'll find that our grading is really fair and well-moderated", and "It's just that we have a larger cohort this year, and you should see how good some of the essays are". Blah blah blah...

All this is making me sick. I NEVER GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MY GRADES, especially for something I enjoy and love. I simply stand by the point I made in the essay, and if she give me a 'B', she will have to tell me why my argument doesn't warrant an 'A' by showing that the argument is flawed somewhere, not because she doesn't like what I've said. I don't care if I get a 'C' if she can convincingly show that what I wrote was nonsense.

NIE needs to do more to convince people that it is an 'institute of distinction'; inwardly, I know many people think that what they're learning there is rather lame.

I'm a free man!

...Free from assignments for the semester, that is. Just handed in my last Lit essay and did my microteaching today too. It wasn't that hard to churn them out actually, this second essay was much easier to write, just that I kept procrastinating; I was genuinely interested in the topic that I did for my microteaching, so it was no pain at all. Fall short a little from my expectations for the delivery though, I was the last person and I made myself anxious to end the lesson on time, so spoke a bit too fast and zoomed through it, ah what a shame. Damn. I really wanted to enjoy the moment.

Anyway, next up is the exam paper for motor learning/sport psychology next friday, so gotta get down to studying from now. Expect more blog entries here - I think I'll blog more then I study, just as an excuse to slack.

A visit to Mr Azhar's place

My third Hari Raya Haji invitation within this period, the lunch at Mr. Azhar's place was great! Nice food and drinks, love the mutton dishes (Have always liked the way the malays cook their mutton), and of course, the great company of my class people. We played Taboo with Pictionary cards and had Isabelle as side entertainment, and admired the scenary outside his place, which overlooking a whole stretch of undisturbed forest and Sungei Serangoon (can paddle out to Coney Island from there!).


He kept two black kittens in his place, which hid themselves outside the house on the balcony when we arrived. Their bright eyes are so full of intelligence, look at them stare at my phone camera!

Badminton training

Went for my first badminton training session today at Assumption English School. It was a cycling trip there, going along the familiar route on Bukit Timah which I usually use to go to and from NTU, and I got to keep my bike securely there too.

The training starts with lobbing before going into a few drills involving players on both end of the court executing different strokes; most drills use a feeder to start, good for keeping up the activity level. It is good to do such isolated drill practice for me, hope that eventually the performance there will transfer into my game. The best learning pointers for the day for me is on my preparation during defence. Some drills started with a static right-foot-forward position, which is kind of awkward because there's bound to be some position adjustment after the shuttle is served, not sure if that's the best thing.

Also learnt a very uncommon position of preparing for smash/drop, which should take quite some time to get used to. But then again, I recall Chen Hong in that posture when they set up their smash in badminton clips too, so perhaps it's worth learning.

Wonder how the training progression will be, or if there's any plan at all. The last 15 mins was left for us to play a doubles game, and that's when the instructors smoke out, something that I frown upon (will try to keep them there to give me advice next session). Also, given that we practiced quite a bit of footwork during the session, shouldn't we be playing singles game at the end instead of doubles?

Football Carnival!

PESS 3C and 3D had a football carnival at The Cage today, playing at 2 pitches simultaneously for 2 hours.


Meticulous organised, the carnival comes with an entire playing schedule! With group members list, fixtures, schedules, and scoring record. Not to mention the cooler with ice and isotonic drinks and mineral water, plus lots of tidbits.


Tom Browne would be very proud of us indeed!

Singapore's Transportation Woes

Man, today I suddenly realised what a blessing it is to be a teacher, work at a place near my house, and being able to bike commute to work. I was on the road in Karen's car a few times today and to me the street conditions are really making the option of owning a car untenable to me even in the far future, what with the frequent traffic jams making the cars crawl in long lines at so many places. Can you imagine paying so much for a car to drive on these roads?

Travelling on public transport is an equally unpleasant option - SMRT must be deluded to dare report that their services are underutilised when people complain that buses don't come frequent enough; they probably just look at some ulu bus routes and not the few important services like 74, 133 etc. On these routes, many can expect to be packed standing upright for half an hour or more every morning. Like someone said in the papers, the bigshots of Singapore should use their services to serve as an example for the rest of the nation, if they really think it's good enough. And they still don't bother to put up route lines at every bus stops; how to give people confidence to transfer between services etc? Plus TVmobile irks me to no end.

So, imagine being tortured in the morning for more than an hour everyday and ending up in office half dead. I'm so glad I'll arrive at school invigorated everyday instead.

What?

Can you guys read clearly what's written after the 'Fully Sold' headline? Hm...what will you think if you were one of the unit buyers...

Floorball stunts

Here's a youtube clip on the different variations of the floorball technique called the airhook, where the stick blade hooks up the ball and literally attaches itself there while the stick is being swirled around to keep the ball there. Gawk and learn.

On Jackson Pollock

Christie auction house chalked up a record sales of £58m in a single auction recently, with Pollock's painting No.12 sold for £6.62m, the highest paid for a post-war US artist.


The painting's huge! The actual one that is. Totally chaotic, but fascinating for that very reason too.

Richard P. Taylor discovered that his paintings folllow fractal rules, where a minute part of the pattern is statistically similar to larger parts if you look at it in magnification.

Want to try doing a Pollock?

"A creative global city"

Do you think that it's possible for Singapore to be 'a creative global city'? A few random thoughts on it...

• Do we first need a stable Singapore's cultural identity before we can talk about the arts? What then, do we have to sing/write/paint/act about? The laudable successes of the artistic local film industry do give us hope, but in the other genres, the lack of a distinct national culture seems to impede artistic development somewhat. Do we need a Singaporean Sibelius to create something out of nothing first?


• What will our creative talents showcase? The virtuosic Singaporean pianist playing Chopin? A fresh interpretation of Don Giovanni by the SLO? We have the performers, but do we have a content and context that is truly ours?


• IMO, the masterplan have to start with a well-developed and thorough plan for arts education in school first. Without an appreciation of the arts and a recognition of its value (economical or otherwise), any plan will fall flat with a nation of philistines.


• Growing artists must have an avenue to pursue professional development here too. I am not sure, but I suspect that the majority of prominent artists in the various artistic genres here are educated overseas. It is probably a sign that local arts education institute falls short of international standards.


• What will turning Singapore 'into a wireless nation' do for the arts or for national creativity?
  

Finally, I guess everyone must have heard by now that creativity needs a free environment to be fostered, and that state campaigns can only do so much if the nation is not ready to give a free rein to creativity. Yes, censorship issues must be better considered.

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Just three hours after I wrote the above, I chanced upon a book review of 'Visual Shock: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture' at the Boston Globe, detailing the history of official resistance and censorship against modernist art. This quote from a judge involved in one of those legal battles to import modern art into the country: "conceptions of what is art and what is beautiful are not static. They change with time", is clearly relevant to Singapore. Progress cannot come without risks in adopting new ways of thinking. The country should be as daring in letting artistic endeavours break new grounds as it is willing to develop the gambling gaming industry in Singapore.

Smashing badminton clips!

Have been procrastinating in the midst of my work by viewing Youtube clips recently, the current craze being badminton videos. Here's one of the best I've seen, a match between Lin Dan (currently World No.1) and Peter Gade (currently World No.3).

Amazing pictures

This is my classmate Peng Kee, as we were having dinner at Chomp Chomp.

It isn't apparent in the photo, but he's actually drenched and wet from the heat produced in the process of food ingestion , with his chin dripping sweat nonstop. He's shown here being in the process of finishing up a plate of cockles himself; eventually he did finish all 30+ pieces of them of course.

Oh, and did I mention that that was dessert? He finished up a plate of wanton mee, a bowl of porridge, and a few Chwee kuehs plus a chomp-chomp size mug of sugarcane juice before that.

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I just broke my $190 Yonex MusclePower 99 racket! A shot coming at me and best partner William came diagonally from his side towards mine, so both of us went for it. He extended his arm for a backhand, and I smashed my racket down on his wrist. Next thing we knew, we saw a yellow racket face flew away and I was left holding a yellow wand. He survived with just a red welt across his wrist despite my smashing power.


It has never occured to me that the technical bombast scrawled on rackets, touting the superb technologies that goes into making the racket, can actually be true. Inside, there is a metal core (presumably titanium), wrapped up by a shell of graphite. Pretty cool to actually see it for yourself. Now...when will I be able to fork out another $190 for it...hm...

Tested!

Results from the last psychological survey I did...I'm not sure why people (myself included) like to see if ithey can validate and reaffirm their own identity using silly tests like these, curiosity perhaps? Though I can't really figure out why I should be curious about what the tests will say about me (after all, how does it matter whether I can 'prove' that the test is accurate/inaccurate?), since I'm fully aware that I'm a much more complex character than any description of my personality can do justice to.

(Btw, you can try it yourself here)

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Your answers suggest you are a Supervisor

The four aspects that make up this personality type are:

Summary of Supervisors

• Bring order to their home and work life
• Like to act on clear, achievable goals
• Think of themselves as stable, practical and sociable
• May be irritated when people don't follow procedures

More about Supervisors

Supervisors like to make plans, organise people and get things done efficiently. They are natural administrators who dislike chaos and strive to bring order to every aspect of their lives. Supervisors like jobs where the goals are clearly defined and there are proven work methods in place.

Supervisors are most likely to say they prefer a job which involves a series of separate projects, according to a UK survey.

Supervisors use logic to solve problems and believe in being open and direct in their communications with others. They prefer to work and socialise with like-minded people.

In situations where they can't use their talents or are unappreciated, Supervisors may reject the opinions of others and insist they are right. Under extreme stress, Supervisors may feel cut off from the people around them and lose confidence in their own ability to cope.

Because they like to take charge and organise activities, others may find Supervisors too bossy.

Stuff from the papers

On the fact that 1% of NUS Alumni donates to the University:

Given a choice of donating to NUS or any of the many charities around, which one will you choose? The answer is clear: NUS is not an institution that depends on donations for its survival. Although the fund might be used to give awards to needy students, it is simply infuriating to see how the university splurge on countless useless projects just to create a brand name for themselves. I can never forget their hypocrisy; saying on one hand that they want to encourage active student life on campus, but then wanting to charge small societies fees just to use a silly room for weekly meetings. And of course, they wouldn't spend a cent towards funding societys' activities, except for the glamour events like sending a bunch of people up Everest.

Anyway, why doesn't ST publicise the plight of charities out there who are barely surviving, with staffs working desperately day in and out trying to sustain their humanitarian efforts of caring for their beneficiaries?

On the defense of Ms Wee Shu Min by bloggers (responses posted on Digital Life in ST)

Some Singaporean youths really have an egoistic streak in them. How can they support Ms Wee's comments when she's obviously flaming that guy for sport out of boredom? Would they like to be targets of condescending sarcasm themselves? They are right that everyone have a right to free speech: Ms Wee had hers, and the public responded equally in protest. The fact that she abruptly cut off the debate by shutting down her blog is a sign of cowardice, not to mention the fact that she still had not issued an official apology in person. Her dad should be ashamed of her behaviour as a parent who knows better, for his lousy defence of her remarks. Without having even worked in the corporate world before, the brat is in no position to comment on the difficulty of finding employment in Singapore.

If she enjoys humiliating others in a poorer situation than herself by flaming them online, I dare her to open up her blog online again - then she can appreciate how it feel like to be flamed. Cowardice is a sign of immaturity - obviously intellectual maturity speaks nothing about one's character.

Bintan Coconut Blast Adventure Race

Just came back from Bintan yesterday, helping out as technical crew for this 'Coconut Blast' adventure race organised by Base Camp. My first time doing technical rope work overseas, but it wasn't very much different an experience la.

The technical crew stayed at this 'Bintan Lodge', off the radar of most visiting tourists to the resort island. It is a chalet style place looking like a mini 3-room HDB flat when you go in, with living room, kitchenette and 2 bedrooms.
Don't think it's expensive, but there isn't any leisure facilities there, just like a place for you to stay. Going around will be a problem if you intend to stay at that place. But it is operated like any other resort, with the staff dressed in flower-print shirts and with food order services available.

There were three rope stations, and I was operating the tyrolean traverse that day, helping to set it up, doing despatch, and also taking down the entire thing, coiling up hundreds of metres of rope.
The view from the site had a nice view overlooking the 'Kelong', which is an upmarket restaurant beside a golf course.
After we set up the line, we ended up waiting about three hours for the first racers to come. There was a small shelter where had lunch, took shade, and napped. Some pictures from the place there...
After a grand total of 3 racing teams went by our station, we dismantled the station when 5pm struck (Night falls at 6pm in Bintan). It was tough work lugging all the hardware and ropes on top of the cliff down to the entrance of the place, and when we had finished packing, we had to wait around for the vehicle to pick us up. Even the tide went down by then, creating a 'Chek Jawa' mud plain. Man, it reminds me of the countless times me and my buddies have to lug kayaks and countless bags of gears across muddy low-tide grounds when we finished paddling for the day on our kayak trips.

After the initial hype of doing a race up overseas was diminished, I felt that the trip wasn't worth it, all in all. Maybe I lost my enthusiasm in such things already, or did too much of it. Time to move on perhaps?