Tennis insights

Was playing on saturday with a friend, and realized something new, so am going to log it down so that i'll remember it easily...

Everytime i hit the ball with my forehand, and my backhand as well, realized that i tensed up too much, and hit the ball in an arc way above my natural swing. I started relaxing my arm, consciously lowering it each other just before i swing out, and it really works! the parabola is really smooth and the ball stays in, and i feel alot more natural hitting it again and again.

Must say my tennis really improved after this, next is to keep the consistency and work on the same concept with my backhand swing: to untense,to lower the arm, and to swing in a natural, slightly upward tilt.

Can't wait for my next tennis game...

:)

I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!

I know it's sorta terrible and bad-ass, but i can't help it, i LOVE this song!


"It Wasn't Me"
(feat. Ricardo Ducent)

Youtube Video

(Yo', man) Yo'
(Open up, man) What do you want, man?
(My girl just caught me) You let her catch you?
(I don't know how I let this happen) With who?
(The girl next door, you know) Man
(I don't know what to do) Say it wasn't you
(Alright)

Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
Creeping with the girl next door
Picture this, we were both butt naked, banging on the bathroom floor

How could I forget that I had
Given her an extra key
All this time she was standing there
She never took her eyes off me

How you can grant the woman access to your villa
Trespasser and a witness while you cling to your pillow
You better watch your back before she turn into a killer
Best for you and the situation not to call the beaner
To be a true player you have to know how to play
If she say a night, convince her say a day
Never admit to a word when she say makes a claim
And you tell her baby no way

But she caught me on the counter (It wasn't me)
Saw me bangin' on the sofa (It wasn't me)
I even had her in the shower (It wasn't me)
She even caught me on camera (It wasn't me)

She saw the marks on my shoulder (It wasn't me)
Heard the words that I told her (It wasn't me)
Heard the scream get louder (It wasn't me)
She stayed until it was over

Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
Creeping with the girl next door
Picture this, we were both butt naked, banging on the bathroom floor

I had tried to keep her
From what she was about to see
Why should she believe me
When I told her it wasn't me

Make sure she knows it's not you and lead her on the right prefix
Whenever you should see her make the giggolo flex
As funny as it be by you, it not that complex
Seeing is believing so you better change your specs
You know she not gonna be worrying bout things from the past
Hardly recollecting and then she'll go to noontime mass
Wait for your answer: go over there
But if she pack a gun you know you better run fast

But she caught me on the counter (It wasn't me)
Saw me bangin' on the sofa (It wasn't me)
I even had her in the shower (It wasn't me)
She even caught me on camera (It wasn't me)

She saw the marks on my shoulder (It wasn't me)
Heard the words that I told her (It wasn't me)
Heard the scream get louder (It wasn't me)
She stayed until it was over

Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
Creeping with the girl next door
Picture this, we were both butt naked, banging on the bathroom floor

How could I forget that I had
Given her an extra key
All this time she was standing there
She never took her eyes off me

Gonna tell her that I'm sorry
For the pain that I've caused
I've been listening to your reasoning
It makes no sense at all
We should tell her that I'm sorry
For the pain that I've caused
You may think that you're a player
But you're completely lost
That's why I sing

Honey came in and she caught me red-handed
Creeping with the girl next door
Picture this, we were both butt naked, banging on the bathroom floor

How could I forget that I had
Given her an extra key
All this time she was standing there
She never took her eyes off me

Self-discipline...

Weaning off msn on weeknights...

They say it takes 21 days for a habit to form... I have to endure it for 3 weeks...

Swimming...

Distance: 35 laps
Time: ~50 mins

Overall:
Great. Sun was quite light, and took the liberty to go for a slow and leisurely swim. Realised the trend that pool is usually empty at 12pm, which will then be populated by mostly guys at around 12.20 onwards. Nearly 12.50pm, the composition changes, with more ladies than men. In fact, when I left the pool, there was only 1 guy, as opposed to 5 gals. Will go and observe again soon to confirm hypothesis :P

Suntec to Vivo

Distance: 5.72km
Time: ~38 mins
Route: From Suntec to Vivocity
Overall: Very tiring. The knees were quite badly pounded by the track, running up and down. The terrain wasn't that great, and was running along the main road, filled with cars, trucks and alot of manure smell. Well, it was a new track, and after that felt good.

Oh ya, at the Vivocity 7-eleven, had tried to buy 100+ drinks using my ez-Link card, which the lady assured me that they accepted. So I got the drink, and as my friend was paying using her card, we started drinking...

Her card FAILED!!!! So nonchalently, I passed the counter lady (Jessie was her name) my own card to try, all the while convinced my friend's card was just an ordinary mishap.

Who knew? MY CARD FAILED AS WELL. All we brought from Suntec were our door passes and our ez-link cards to bus back to Suntec... So there we were, drinking drinks that we couldn't possibly pay. It was then that we realised this little-known fact: Apparently Ez-link cards with GIRO enablement are NOT able to be used to make retail purchases... I was blooming furious, while at the same time, exceedingly embarrassed!

And this Jessie was pressing us on how we were going to settle... Do you have ATM card? Do you have any friends here who could pay on your behalf...Oh manz, never felt so bad before! I even wondered if Jessie was going to call the police and arrest us for not paying for our stuff...

At our wits' end, a ray of hope emerged. Jessie offered this... She said, "Well, it wasn't so expensive the things you bought ($2.60), so why don't I pay for it first, and I take this $2.60 as the cost of making friends. When you next come back, (I recognise you anyway), just pay me back lor."

Such a nice person!! I guess kindness still exist. To actually offer to help strangers like that! I'm not sure that in the same situation, I would do the same for others...

Felt great after that... Good deeds make the recipients feel good, and also make the givers feel great as well... Perhaps it's time to start being kinder and gentler after all...

I must definitely go back soon to repay her ($-wise), but I also wonder if there's any way I could repay her (kindness).

Tired

Distance: ~5km
Time: ~ 36min
Rest: 45 min :P
Condition: Outdoors
Location: Running along East Coast Road

Overall:
Running outdoors is infinitely harder than running on the treadmill. There's alot more impact, alot of upslopes and downslopes, cars to avoid, intersections that hurts the momentum...

I'm just slower when I'm not dependent on a machine moving me... Gotta restart my outdoor running enough for Stanchart...

Sunday morning jog.....

Distance: 10km
Time: 65min 40sec
Rest: 0 min
Feeling: Good!

Overall: Not out of breath. Breathing was controlled. Knees were ok, but a little cranky at the start and the end. Ankles were aching, the right one more than the left.

Hmmm, this is improving, not out of breath means that perhaps I can go a little faster, but don't want to aggravate the knees...

:)

Watch out....

People who are habitually late, or no-shows, please stay away.

I have grown tired of having 'friends' who keep showing up late, or keep missing appts, citing ridiculous reasons, like "I overslept", or "Sorry, last-min farewell drinks", or "My cat died", etc.

My time is precious too, as well as the resources I have invested into making the appt, sacrificing my opportunity costs, committing my friendship. And people just easily discard these things when they keep canceling/ being late on me. I would rather sit at home and watch my toenails grow, watch paint dry, then waste another second standing there waiting for you, or another beautiful sunday morning getting cancelled on and disrupting all my other plans.

I AM TIRED OF THIS.

If you cannot make it, say so in advance. Not wait till I check with you why you not around yet.

If you know you will be late, change the appt time EARLY enough to give me a chance to plan something else. Not when I'm down there waiting already for an half hour.

If you don't want to meet me, just say so. Not just push and push, or accept and cancel.

Either you value my friendship, or you don't. For those who obviously don't, please please screw off...

Singapore GP - 28 Sep 08

AMAZING RACE! All the thrills and spills! Just DAMN fantastic! It's certainly going to be the highlight of the Formula One championships from now onwards! Will post more later...

Jogging

Distance: 6.5km
Time: 43 mins
Rest: 0 mins

Slowly improving...

Diet Resolutions

Don'ts:
1) No fried food
2) No oily food
3) No chocolates
4) No ice-cream
5) No durians
6) No soft drinks
7) No alcohol
8) No rice
9) No buffets
10) No KFC

Dos:
1) Eat fruits for lunch (esp. grapefruit)
2) Exercise in some form or other daily
3) Run 3 times a week
4) Sleep at least 7 hours daily
5) Green tea daily
6) Drink a lot more water
7) Eat multiple small meals, but no snacking
8) Eat at home and go out less
9) Even if not lunching, make sure to walk around lots during lunch-time
10) Eat more protein, like fish, or chicken, and less carbs

Current Weight Wagers...

1) If I lost enough weight to fit into my pink clubbing shirt, J will get me a Zara work shirt
2) If I lost 5 kg, WY will get me a Zara shirt
3) If I lost 10kg, I will get myself an Oakley Radar Path Asian Fit Sunglasses
4) If I lost 10kg and maintain for a year, WL will cut off his tonkers
5) If I ran the marathon in sub 5h30m, S will buy me 10 chicken wings

Anyone else wants to make bets with me?

September 15th, fresh beginnings...

Shall start to record down the training sessions from today onwards.

Distance: 6.58km
Time: 44mins
Rest stop: 5mins

Surprise drop in retail sales

http://www.thomsonfxhub.com/fxhub/forex-news-detail.jsf?newsId=18091&title=Singapore%20retail%20sales%20expected%20to%20slow%20in%20February%20as%20car%20sales%20drag

Can't seem to find a free copy of the Straits Times Article online. But here's some version of it elsewhere...

First thoughts: Economists are morons... Think they are all just wildly creating estimates for growth... I sincerely doubt that an economist can predict the economy better than a PSLE-educated weatherman. In fact, a weatherman can probably do it more flamboyantly, whooshing his arms around excitedly as he predicts the drop/increase in growth of the retail sector.

If an economist can't do a good job predicting the future, but is only good at reasoning the past, what use is he? Seriously, attribution is so easy; anyone who understands causality and can find a link between his supposed reason and his past outcome can be an economist...

Let me take a stab: Today's Papers:

Nonsense Statistics Number 1:
Article 1 : Retail sales dipped in February 2008, citing poor car sales.
Article 2: Hand Foot Mouth Disease hits the highest in Singapore ever in March 2008 with 1,000 cases. Super virulent strain Enterovirus71 pervasive this year but doctors don't know why.

Hah, simple wat... means that people in Singapore buying less cars in Feb = more walking and over-crowding on the streets in Feb & March = more interaction between people = more interaction of the HFMD infected = more infections + incubation period...

Don't believe, just look at the statistics... less cars, more HFMD cases

QED...

How to profit from it?
Be a car salesman. Tout cars as the best cure against HFMD. Prove it. Go down to all the childcare centres and set up car showrooms. Hire doctors and statisticians who are willing to assert that your statistic is correct. Get them to sell the 'scientific correlation' between cars and HFMD. Talk to Health Insurers and get them to subsidise cost of cars as part of medical prevention expenditure. Make it easy to buy a car. Put out national campaigns that shame parents who don't buy cars as ignorance, unloving parents. Earn big bucks! Sell your car business, expose the scam.

Oh ya, by the way, FIRE ALL ECONOMISTS... they are good-for-nothing morons who live off everyone else and produces nothing of value to society. Save their salaries to hire road sweepers. A road-sweeper is infinitely more useful than an economist.

Get rich, die evil...

It's time to think creatively...

Perhaps I'm rather dissatisfied with work because it doesn't provide much of an opportunity for creative thinking... Everything is "template this, template that", so that there is a consistency, a uniformity, a conformity...

Well, until I am no longer there, there must be an alternative outlet for me. I believe this is what is driving me to the brink of insanity. I need someplace to output my juices, be it creative or not... Else I stagnate, and my brain will fizzle out, and life will get emptier and emptier...

I shall try something. It will just be an objective and thinking exercise, without consideration of the political correctness of the statement. I will, on a regular basis, look at articles in the papers/online, and identify one of them, and examine how one can possibly profit from it, be it by scrupulous means or not... The ideas can be outlandish, evil even, but it's not a reflection of my character, but a training of the mind... Will appreciate your comments on them...

Priorities

One needs a mirror to know where he is,
One needs a trail to know where he was,
One needs a compass to know where he is going...

Have gone too damn long without those. The result: Lost, a feeling of hopelessness, a sense of aimlessness... of drifting along the river, pulled by the current... of helplessness, that everything is beyond my control...

No longer.

In the next few days, I shall identify my mirror, my trail and my compass... small steps to living my life, the way i envision it to be...

a better man.

and so it ends...

A dream into a nightmare...

The Wall

There comes a point in every race, could be the 5th mile, could be the 25th, but eventually, you are going to hit what every runner calls "The Wall". And when you do, you won't be able to breathe, or think, or even move, and all you want to do ... is give up.

That's the difference between getting a girl, and keeping a girl...

I run marathons, haha!

Run, Fat Boy, RUN!

What do you think?

I called this guy up today, and asked him if he had any stock available for two board games that I wanted to buy...

He said he'll check, and call me back later...

...

Call back he did, and told me that there were only one each of the two board games I requested, and he told me to "Come by tomorrow" if I really wanted it...

So I did... Fearing that they will run out of stock if I didn't tarry, I came down immediately. Then he told me that he didn't have it in stock, and actually he meant "Come by TOMORROW", instead of "Come BY tomorrow". Coz he will get the single leftover stock in tomorrow from his warehouse; he didn't have it at the store currently...

Sheesh... over the phone, I couldn't tell the difference. I thought he meant the latter...

Would you have thought the same???

Just Chillin'

The boom of an approaching plane...

Peering out the window, I can't seem to make it out... Though I can't see it, I know it's there... and it makes me calm.

Sitting back, the radio playing light jazzy tunes, gotta admit, life's been pretty decent to me. I don't get everything I want in life, but, who does anyway?

Everything in life simply gets better when you are not hankering desperately after some object of desire. Perhaps this is middle-age thinking, when the rashness of youth is replaced by a jaded acceptance... or is it called a tacit understanding...

I lean back on my chair, eyes closed, hands behind my head, stephanie singing a slow, low ballad, the song interspersed with the drone of the fan. No cares in the world, just a little "me time" before I head to bed. A grin, shoulders down, as i think about how the bedsheet is warming up under my feet...my own style of "meditative pose"...

I am happy...