pencil shavings: August 2005

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

The many faces

These are my shoes. I bought them probably two years ago and they are wearing out. Let me show you where.

First, the sole. See how the strips of white are worn down? The wear and tear of the sole is most visible in the next picture.

This is the sole of the left shoe. The sole on the outside heel of the left shoe has worn down so that you can see the white underneath.

Then, there are the holes. There are holes on the front of the foot, one on each side, four altogether.

The heel is pretty bad too.

And the reflective strip on the side is peeling off.

And there you have it, the many faces of my running shoes.

Category: Running

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

One of the methods used by multi-national corporations to cut costs in this globalized world is outsourcing.

US telecommunications companies are outsourcing their call centers to India where highly educated Indians sit under banners such as "Microsoft" and "IMB" to answer phone calls about computer problems from thousands of miles away.

Singapore, being quintessentially Singapore, cannot lose out. So we outsource to who? Our telecommunication companies are outsourcing their call centres to............ Changi Women's Prison. I kid you not.

Free labour, no need to pay health benefits, no risk of strikes, a contained and controlled labour force... why not?

Rich-Poor Divide in Singapore is Widening

According to a report by consultancy firm Cap Gemini Merrill Lynch released this month, the divide between rich and poor in Singapore is widening. Did you know that the number of millionaires in Singapore -- some 48,500 -- rose at the world's fastest rate in 2004? Even though 20% of the population earns less, in real terms, than ten years ago? And that one third of the working population does not earn enough to pay income tax?

During the economic crises of 1997, the average income of Singaporeans fell by 2.7%, while that of the poorest families fell by a staggering 49%. What's going on? Why is the Government still implementing "unfair" policies that favour the rich, such as a reduction of taxes for the richest to encourage entrepreneurship, implementing and increasing taxes such the GST that will affect the poor more than the rich, and increasing prices for basic amenities such as public transport? Where is the promised `trickle down effect' to less wealthy citizens?

As Singapore celebrated its fortieth year of independence, the divide between the rich and poor in the city-state is widening. Taxi drivers, sales staff and factory workers do long shifts at minimum wage, while the number of millionaires - some 48,500 - rose at the world's fastest rate in 2004, according to consultancy firm Cap Gemini Merrill Lynch. "Twenty percent of the population earns less, in real terms, than ten years ago and a third of the working population does not earn enough to pay income tax," Sinapan Samydoray of Singapore's Think Centre told Adnkronos International (AKI).

At forty, Singapore is South East Asia's pearl, a real political and business miracle which made the city-state far richer than its neighbouring countries.

But according to most, living in Singapore requires a minimum monthly wage of 1,500 Singapore dollars, around 734 euros. AKI spoke to three average Singaporeans who live in the city who say that they don't earn that much.

"I work twelve hours a day, seven days a week. I never go to the movies, never take holidays and yet I don't earn enough to support my family", said Lion, a 52-year-old taxi driver.

Another Singaporean Fil, a 20-year-old saleswoman who works at the Suntec commercial centre, said that her wage doesn't allow her to live by herself. "I work extra hours but the extra 990 Singapore dollars (440 euro) that I earn are not enough to make me independent. I still live with my parents and if I want to move out, I would have to find another job," she said.

A security agent, Razman, 30, who works at the supermarket chain Carrefour also works extra hours and has a second job in a gym. "I work 14 to 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. And then I work as a private gym instructor 3 days a week", he said, adding that he does all these jobs to earn a total of 1,600 Singapore dollars (783 euro).

According to Samydoray of Singapore's Think Centre, these three cases represent the living conditions of the majority of the city's inhabitants.

Samydoray explains that Singapore doesn't have minimum wage and each employee has work out the conditions of his or her own salary. The local population has been left with virtually no negotiating power since cheap labour is available from neighbouring states and the government tries to limit the wages in order to attract foreign investments.

The situation is completely different for the wealthy portion of the population which rose at the fastest pace in the world in 2004, according to a report by the consultancy firm Cap Gemini Merrill Lynch.

Singapore's millionaires rose 22.4 percent to 48,500 people, the report said. In the US, the number increased 10 percent to 2.5 million and in Hong Kong they rose by 18.8 percent to 67,500. Asia had 2.3 million millionaires last year, up 8.2 percent, the research showed.

Mukhopadhaya Pundarik, a professor at Singapore's National University, said the rich-poor divide in the city-state has increased during the economic crisis which hit South East Asia in 1997. In that period, said the professor, the average income of Singaporeans fell by 2.7 percent, while the that of the poorest families fell by a staggering 49 percent.

Despite the gap, Singapore remains an efficient state. The former British colony, which gained independence in 1965 from Malaysia, has become in just a few decades a financial and technological centre as well as one of the world's busiest ports.

"For the rich and for foreigners, Singapore is an exceptional place. I have no doubt about it. I only hope the majority of the local population could have the chance to benefit from the city," said Samydoray.

Published in AKI, 10 August 2005

Read on for full report.

The Perfect Run

It was the perfect run, really. A new route, a view from the top of the hill, an unrelenting stretch of upslope, a new distance, and a new experience. I was very pleased that I did not stop at any point of the run, even after the horrible ten minutes or so uphill (See striped yellow on route). Somehow I managed to keep going and after a while, the road eventually went downhill and it felt a lot better. :) Really, another reason why this route is perfect is because you get the uphill done early in the run, and after that uphill, flat terrain is like child's play!

Actually, not really like child's play. It was tiring. But at least it was lots of fun, and I got to draw a cool map!

Distance: 9km ---- Time: 54.1mins ---- Speed: 10km/h

Category: Running

Monday, August 29, 2005

Monday Morning Post

Photo courtesy of the celebrity dog, Jessie.

Woke up this morning and wanted an MC.

My forearms are spotted red and are very very tender from playing volleyball yesterday. Dang, they hurt even when the water from the shower hit it, and the pressure of the water supply in my flat is pathetic. Doctor friend says the red spots and slight bruising look exactly like the rash you would get if you were to contract dengue, and then I thought, "Ha! Now no one would know even if we got dengue from all the mosquitoes in the park."

One friend had ten mosquito bits concentrated on her elbow. Another friend had flattened bites on the forearm (playing volleyball, you see). I got bites on my calves and upper arms.

Anyway, the picnic was a blast. The mascarpone dessert was a disaster though -- tasted like raw egg. Had to throw the whole thing out in the end. Possible reasons:

1. Not chilled enough.
2. Not enough sugar.
3. Egg yolk not required.

Ah, live and learn. :) Now all we have to do is to play volleyball again within two weeks to permamently destroy all nerves in forearms so that we can actually dig the ball without swearing. (Also so that we don't have to set the ball from squatting and weird positions just because we don't want to dig it.)

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Blog-less Weekend II

It is 12:30pm, Sunday afternoon. Cheesy chicken sausages in the griller, hot dog buns, 21 pieces of sushi in the fridge, tube of wasabi, Ritz crackers, camembert cheese, grilled tomatoes, sour cream and cheese ruffles chips, chipped chocolate, jasmine green tea, and one whopping mascarpone refrigerated dessert with blueberries.

We're going on a picnic!

(The mascarpone refrigerated dessert is a bit of an experiment. We substituted practically everything -- instead of blackberries, blueberries; instead of blueberry jam, marmalade, instead of mascarpone, philadelphia cream cheese; instead of chocolate chips and almond slices, chipped up hazelnut chocolate bar. Ah, the foolhardiness of youth.)

Happy birthday S! You're the blue saga seed in a handful of red...

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Blog-less Weekend

This post is a contradiction, the way this sign is a contradiction. But contradictions can always be renamed paradoxes and suddenly become very profound and sexy.

Like the story of Abraham being called to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain. This is the contradiction: If you know that God detests human sacrifices, but yet he also says in a dream to you, "Go and kill your son and sacrifice him to me," which do you follow? Abraham did not tell anyone what God commanded him to do -- it was a personal, divine command to him alone -- how did he know that it was not the devil who planted the thought in his head, or that he was going mad with the demands of bringing up this promised son? But Abraham obeyed this divine voice in his head and he was called righteous because of his faith.

But call this a paradox as Kiekergaard did and suddenly it all becomes very profound. This was the event that was the seed for the formation of Israel and so it means that even in the beginning, even before the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, righteousness came by faith, not by works. It also means that although God is love, love is not God, if you get the drift of my meaning. God is a person. He is not a concept, a way of life, a theory, a principle, or a set of rules. Obedience to God means more than obeying a set of rules, because faith must be in a person, and not a rulebook. And so Abraham's actions, in an extreme, mind-blowing way, set the tone, once and for all, of the type of relationship between God and his people. It was to be based in faith in God.

What does it mean today?

Friday, August 26, 2005

New working partners

This new committee I'm in is a hoot. The work is gruelling but it is worth it. Things I learnt from today's meeting:

1. The best Cold Crab can be found at Eunos Link. The second best is at the Singapura Restaurant at Siglap. When you go to Singapura Restaurant, order the cold crab, hai piah, and the foochow noodles.

2. Carl's Jr has opened in Singapore. They claim to have premium quality hamburgers (along with a premium price I assume) and free flow drinks. They have a branch at Marina Square.

3. Never blow out a candle with your hand cupped around the other side.

4. Never leave your mouth open while blowing out a candle with your hand cupped around the other side.

Only in Singapore

I saw this sign on the back of the driver's seat in the van beside me on the way to work.

And came to the prompt conclusion that someone is really stupid.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Running Update

To make up for the pig week I had last week, I ran on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Three days in a row! My timing is slightly down and I felt like shit after the run (which was slower than the previous two runs on the same route), but I'm not overly concerned. A week or two of running should put me back on track.

Mon: --- 4.8 km --- (8.1 km/h)
Tue: --- 4.5 km --- (10.1 km/h)
Wed: --- 7.2 km --- (9.8 km/h)

I've realised that it is easiest to train up in a gym. During my two week free stint at the gym, I managed to do some stuff that I've only dreamed about. Too bad I don't earn enough to get a credit card that gets me into the gym for free. I've been at my company four years and I spent four years in a university for a double degree overseas and I still don't earn enough to get a credit card. Damn it lah.

Smarts don't get you anywhere, you know that? Only ambition. Oviously I'm channelling all my ambition into running.

Category: Running (and griping)

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Wanna speak like a Beng?

Wah, Kenny Sia's English to Beng Translator very funny leh!

Daryl Sng's (his England very powderful one ok?) latest post:

No Jargon is a "campaign for web simplicity". I don't think this site qualifies - certainly there are moments where I am overly flowery - but plain English has always been a useful goal to strive towards.

become liddat!

No Jargon is a "campaign for web simplishitty". Limpeh donch think this site qualifies - certainly there are moments where Limpeh is overly flowery - budden hor, plain Engrand has always been a useful goal to strive towards.

Haha!

After Lunch Update

One reason never to post details of your personal and possibly scandalous life online is that once you post it, it never really goes away. You could take it down from the internet, but it is possible for someone to put the cache content up again, even under the original url, as this person has done in this site.

It has been said that technology is advancing so quickly that they will soon be capable of recognising faces in the photos you put online. Mark, a contributer to Boing Boing, shared this in an interview with The Straits Times this past weekend.

Not to mention the fact that the more details you put online, the easier for acquaintances to search for your blog. (I confess, I have searched for and found websites of aquaintances by this means). Even if people don't search for the site, it becomes easier to recognise the owner if you were to bump into it accidentally. (That too, I have experienced.)

All in all, I was going to post about what we did for lunch and the route of my runs yesterday and the day before, but this is turning out to be a largely paranoid post. So don't mind me as I log off for a while now and go get some real work done. Like chilling a few cans of iced lemon tea for later.

Word of the Day

soi-disant
"ownself say one", more high-class only.

Find out how to pronouce this sassy French word here.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Calculating Distance

If you live in the US, you could use Google Pedometer to calculate the distance of your jogging route.

If you live in Singapore, you could use streetdirectory.com.

But you'll have to pay $0.53. (evil laugh)

Category: Running

The space of enlightenment

After consuming my morning teh, I had something akin to an experience of enlightenment. I felt like I had transcendent knowledge, as if a million neurons pathways were suddenly connected within my brain, and I came to these conclusions:

1. The best teh is always ordered from an Indian stall, not the Chinese stall. If there is only a Chinese stall available, go for kopi.

2. Young working men wear plain long sleeved shirts in a new age colour, smell of cologne and carry suitcases. Therefore if you want to look important, carry a suitcase and invest in an iron.

3. I can't listen to my Ipod without feeling the need to jog. Also on the topic of jogging, I know it is my first jog in a while when I itch during the jog. Did you know that exercise releases histamine? I usually only notice the itch if I haven't been jogging for a while.

4. I also had a relevation concerning postmodernity and religion while crossing the overhead bridge but it is too long and boring to put in here. Perhaps I'll post it later in the day.

Meanwhile, have a good Tuesday everyone! Because Tuesdays are better than Mondays.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Aftermath

Weekend getaways wreck havoc on running goals. Worse, they sap me of all desire to run, and all I want to do is to curl up with a good book or movie and snack on junk food all day and long into the night.

Total mileage this past week was 5km. 5km!! That is like a 75% reduction from the previous three weeks! I swear I have a new belly already.

On the plus side, the less I run, the more I read. I've gone through two or three books this week while lying on my new belly. On the minus side, in addition to the already-stated belly, my level of statisfaction with life now is at an all-time low, approximately the level it was when I was in Junior College, and that is low.

So really, the moral of this post is, pigs can't fly, but this one's sure gonna run tonight.

Category: (Not) Running

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

I love the opening paragraph.

There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. It stood by a mournful sea full of glumfish, which were so miserable to eat that they made people blech with melancholy even though the skies were blue.

Rushdie wrote this story for his 10 year-old son while he was in exile. The characters are quite extraordinary -- perhaps similar to the characters Alice meets when she falls through the looking glass in Alice in Wonderland. The story line is unique too. It is a quest to save the power of stories and imagination.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is also an allegory of the Kashmir dispute. Rushdie openly champions the freedom of speech in this story in the fight between Gup and Chup. It is the story of light against darkness, speech against silence, and in the midst of this, Rushdie also pokes fun at hierarchcy, political figures and the election process.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by Tolkien. Rushdie's story-telling doesn't come near the fluidity and power of Tolkien's prose. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining read.

Category: Reading

Friday, August 19, 2005

Equal Rites

Two days. That was how long this third book in Pratchett's Discworld series took. This one didn't have Rincewind or Twoflower or the luggage in it, and it was a great read, the best so far, actually. It was kinda nice not to have the bumbling ill-fated Rincewind but instead have a precocious eight-year old and a fiesty granny witch against the entire wizardry establishment at Unseen University.

Anyway, this one is funny. Find it in a library close to you here.

Category: Reading

Thursday, August 18, 2005

The Island

Quite a fun movie. Caught the 5:30pm show. We probably chose to watch `The Island' because neither of us knew the first thing about the movie. Sometimes not knowing anything about a movie adds to its appeal. The other choices were `Bewitched', `Wedding Crashers', `Mysterious Skin', and `Land of the Dead'. So, armed with a colleague's recommendation and the ticket seller's summary (`cloning lah'), we bought our tickets. No regrets. :)

Update: One of the themes of The Island is that humans would do anything to survive, similar perhaps to the concept of "Grun-tu-molani" in Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow. "Grun-tu-molani" is roughly translated as "Man wants to live." But The Island is not completely damning in its protrayal of the survival instinct of human beings (afterall it is a hollywood flick). The heros in the movie make the selfless decision to save the rest of their friends from certain death. I think that is why the idea of a selfless hero, or Christ for that matter, is so appealing to humanity. It goes against our human nature, therefore we are drawn to the heroism, the way opposites attract.

wet

Morning inventory:

Wet pant legs dragging on the floor.
Soaked running shoes stuffed with newspapers.
Soaked socks lying out to dry
Kung-fu style manoeuvres to dry wet pant legs with hand drier in the restroom

Too exciting of a morning I say. Hope shoes dry in time for run this evening.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Links to Christian Classics

I'm simply outdoing myself with all this linking I'm doing. But still cannot compare to this guy who is the King of Links.

Today's link is a bit on the nerdy side (as in, you won't be interested in any of these links if you are not a. a Christian; b. an academic; c. a very curious non-Christian.) In any case, in case you turn out be both a and b, or b and c, or just plain c, here are the places where you can find free Christian classics online.

The Church Fathers
This is a list of works by the Church Fathers compiled by the Roman Catholics. But since we are talking about the first 500 years of Church History, the history of the Protestant church is one and the same as the Catholic church. Incidentally, Protestants have been going back more and more to these early church fathers to seek the tradition and depth that they find lacking in theirs. Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom in an excerpt from their book "Is the Reformation Over?" talks about this phenomenom in the section "Shared Historic Roots".

The Christian Classics Ethereal Library
This site has a much larger range of classics that have have become royalty-free because of time. You can find key Protestant texts such as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Milton's Paradise Lost, etc. You will also find works from the Early Fathers such as Augustine's City of God, and even John Donne's devotions if you are interested.

And now, ladies and gentlemen,

I present to you the DVD Region Master!

Have you ever bought a brand new DVD, stuck it your computer and it says, "Sorry, this DVD is of the wrong region code"? Have you pulled out your hair because you only have FIVE chances to change the region code on your DVD combo drive after which your DVD drive will be FOREVER stuck in whatever code you had it last, and you have already used up THREE chances? Have you ever been a dilemna between watching imported USA flicks and DVDs you can rent from the DVD auntie downstairs? Or wondered why the world is cosmopolitan but DVDs are not? Or have been tempted to write to Thomas Friedman (the Lexus and Olive tree guy) to ask him to kindly explain globalization to the DVD manufacturers?

Well, angst no more, for there is the DVD Region Master to take care of all your DVD swapping regions needs! Never worry about how many chances you have left to swap your DVD region on your computer! Never feel played out by the big players again! All you have to do it download it here.

Caveat: I haven't tried it myself. It sounds promising and I hope to install it at home as soon as I get a chance to. So don't blame me if your computer crashes and refuses to talk to you after you download it.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I feel like..

..a hard-boiled egg sandwich.

You know how you have all these left-over red-dyed hard-boiled eggs the day after Easter? My family always has a bunch because my parents are usually in charge of the dying of the the eggs. Or at least they used to dye the eggs red in large boiling pots of water all through the night before Easter until someone said that the red dye was bad for health, after which they resorted to wrapping the egg in cellophane and ribbon. Personally I prefer them dyed red and given out in transparent plastic bags held up by orange string. In any case, if you have a bunch of left-over hard-boiled eggs and you don't know what to do with them, make filling for hard-boiled egg sandwiches!

Peel hard-boiled eggs
Smash hard-boiled eggs
Add mayo until right consistency and taste
Spread on bread

And there you have it! :) Except I don't really have it. Sulk.

The Light Fantastic

Found this second book in the series more enjoyable than the first, maybe because I finally got the hang of all the strange physics and specialised terminology of the discworld.

Terry Pratchett's humour is very visual -- a lot of elbows in stomachs and quick dialogue. Someone should make his work into a movie. I have a hunch that it may work as a movie.

In other news, Pratchett voices his annoyance about an article in Time that said that Rowling didn't even know she was writing fantasy. Here is Pratchett's definition of fantasy in a speech given at the Carnegie Awards.

Category: Reading

Monday, August 15, 2005

Back at work for ONE day...

.. and I feel like griping already.

Sigh. This gripe is along the lines of more and more work without a corresponding increase in pay or responsibility. This is about as much as you get when you strip a gripe of its juicy detail.

Strip a gripe; bone to pick... notice how these phrases run together and makes you think of a dried out chicken bone? Okay, maybe not, but humour me.

Tales from Tioman

Well, I'm back from three days of frollicking at Tioman. Snorkelling, nasi lemak, lontong, sunset, bbq squid, bbq chicken wings, ramly burger, swinging from a tree, stories of a giant montary eel, what more can a person ask for on a holiday? :)

We tried running on the sand for the first time in Tioman. Some stretches of sand were better than others. The worst stretch of sand was too soft. Your foot kinda crumbled into the sand after you take a step, and it doesn't crumble evenly either, so it made you lunge sideways a little before you pick up your foot again. Quite a waste of energy I say! I could feel the sand sucking out all my speed and, er hmm, grace.

But it wasn't too bad, really. I'm kinda regretting being a wimp and not signing up for the Real Run this weekend, but I've such a large and full belly from being on holiday that maybe not having signed up may be a good idea after all. I also have blisters on my heel from the snorkelling fins and blisters on my little toe from running with sand and bits of coral in my sandals. Haha! I'm such a wimp! :)

Anyway, I'm thinking of going for a slow jog this evening to get the miles in this week. I am so not a water lover. I was telling my friend that while I admire and respect the sea, I don't love it. In water, I feel out of element. At least when I run, my movements seem to make aerodynamic sense -- I can exert more energy and speed up if I wanted to; in water, all my strokes seem a waste of energy. Even if I used all my strength, I would only be making bigger splashes in the same spot, which is very depressing.

And I really have to get back to work now.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

We, the citizens...

...of alienpore.

Screenshot of National Day Parade, 2005. First blogged about by mrbrown.

Comments on his post are hilarious!

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Thoughts on the way to work

The new SMU looks like an overgrown fish tank. I think it is the green glass effect coupled with their over-enthusiastic effort with the hanging creepers from every freakin' window.

Singapore is so small that no matter where you stay, the airplanes from the National Day Parade would have flown past your house, if not, the army trucks would have driven by, failing which, you would at least be able to see the fireworks from your kitchen window.

Singapore is so advanced for her age that she ought to have at least two birthdays a year so that she can get to a respectable age faster, and people like me can get another day to lie around at home doing nothing.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Operation Mole Express

East, West

East, West is a collection of short stories by Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial book The Satanic Verses.

Did you know that Rushdie is married (for the fourth time) to Padma Lakshmi, a very sexy Indian model? See her photos here and tell me she is not gorgeous. How did Rushdie pull that off? I guess intellectual men have their own appeal. Or perhaps men on the death row by Islam... Ha!

Friday, August 05, 2005

It's the weekend!

Dance of joy! :D

All I'm doing this weekend is lots of running, eating, hanging out, reading and watching DVDs! Yeeha!

Have a good one guys.

What do you think?

Do you think that to be happy, you need at least a certain amount of money?

I've been thinking about the veracity of this statement -- that every endeavor, both noble to base, requires money -- and I'm not quite sure what I think.

For sure, you need money to contribute to society. You need money to build schools, hospitals, nursing homes; you need money to employ teachers, nurses, social workers; you need money to buy meals, food and transport vouchers for the poor; you need money to help the unemployed tide through a rough patch. In a way, you can't do very much to help others if you don't have any money. In fact, most of the social work in Singapore is achieved by the donations of the rich.

The need for money on a personal level is even more apparent. You need money to chase love; you need money in your quest for knowledge, for dinners, movies, running shoes, presents, clothes, bills, bus fare, send your kids to school, buy textbooks, buy medicine, toothbrushes, etc.

There are only a very small number of people who could say, hand over their hearts, that they would be happy with nothing at all. These are usually the monks and religious types who have reached some level of self-sufficiency (or dependence on God) to be happy. This is not your average church-goer. In fact, the average church-goer here in Singapore thrives on money. This is not saying that they don't use money well, in fact, most are "good stewards", giving a significant percentage to good causes. But they are just not "nothing types".

"Nothing types" are people like St Francis of Assisi, a rich man who took the vow of poverty, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, and other types of monks. These people have lost that edge that makes a human being fight for his own survival, and are happy to either live or die for God. Even so, they still depend on the generousity of other people to pay for their food and for the orphanages that they run, which comes down to the necessity of having money, again.

Given a choice between lots of money along with the great power to do good and super-spirituality where you know the deep things in life, I'm sad to say that I'll choose lots of money. But with great power comes great responsibility and despite my utopian ideas of doing lots of good, I know that in my heart, I still haven't really really figured out that money is only the means to an end rather than the end itself.

Solo entertainment

Last night, instead of running, I da-baoed dinner, rented a movie, ate with the parents, and then buckled down in front of my computer with its five-speaker awesomeness to stare at the eye-candy on the screen. Ocean's Eleven is just full of beautiful people and well-crafted characters! Plus, it has an elaborate heist. I couldn't resist watching most of the special features on the DVD, which meant that I only got into bed at 2am.

I always thought the neighbourhood rental shop only rented Chinese serial dramas. I guess I was wrong. Though the shop auntie didn't hestitate to try to convert me. We had this hilarious conversation (in Chinese):

Me: So I return it on Saturday?
VCD Auntie: Yes. Do you watch Chinese serial drama?
Me: Er no, it takes a long time.
VCD Auntie: No lah, one, two weeks can finish already.
Me: Oh.
VCD Auntie: You should watch. This (waving at my English Hollywood flick) only a little bit exciting, cannot compare to Chinese serial drama.
Me: Er ok. I will consider next time.

Hee hee. If Hollywood flicks are the high jump in the Olympics, Chinese serial dramas are the ultra marathons in the desert.

(In other news, because of work, I haven't run since Monday. Am contemplating a jog at 12 noon today, but I vaguely remember that being a mad sort of thing to do.)

(Oh, and ~~Tom Cruise~~ Brad Pitt in eating in every scene in this movie. Seriously. How does he look so cute chomping down on nachos?)

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Tantalising morsels

1. Adidas is buying over Reebok???? This makes me want to buy an Asics running shoe. In fact, I think I will.

2. A sanitary pad firm in the US are using the tagline `Have a happy period'. I don't know about you, but I could never have a happy period. I would love to have a painless, content and oblivious period, but happy is pushing it. Are these people from Mars? Maybe they are just men.

And I really need to get back to work now.

the she-cow mooooves

I'm getting strangely fond of the dancing cow with the bananas on her head they've been showing on tv. The pic on the left isn't the right cow, I picked her up at this site, but she'll do for now.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Crossing the English Channel in nothing but your trunks

P.J. Thum will be swimming across the English Channel this Friday. To qualify to even attempt this mammoth feat, you must first show that you are capable of swimming 6 hours non-stop in frigid waters. His training blog is replete with stories of massive stinging jellyfish...

Just as I began to tire from battling the waves, I felt a cattle-prod to my ribs: a jellyfish had smashed into my side, and I grunted, loudly enough for Norman to hear. My side was on fire, but I forged on and it eventually grew numb.

swimming though sewage...

As we entered the Mediterranean, the water slowly turned murky and began to smell. All signs of life disappeared and all I could see were shredded bits of sewage, suspended in the water around me as if in a colloid. "Don't swallow!" was all I could think of, and I tried not to gag and retch at the stench around me. I focused on Norman, and kept moving forward.

vommiting while swimming...

Things, sadly, got steadily worse. At the three hour mark, I swam in for a drink and my hands were trembling so violently that I think I spilt more than I got down. Someone on the beach tossed me a small chocolate cupcake to swallow and I forced the little bite-sized piece down gratefully. Twenty minutes later, after all the excessive saltwater in my stomach, nausea finally overcame me and it all came up again. It was oddly comforting, because as I swam through the vomit it was warm. The chunks of cupcake brushing against my legs as I kicked didn't bother me in the least. I had reached the stage where I'd have swum through urine if it was warm. I really didn't care.

In a way, it was good to practice vomiting, because inevitably while I'm swimming the Channel I will need to vomit while on the move, and so I should get some practice in it while I can.

muscles cramping up from the cold...

Still, it was barely two hours in and I was already shivering, which I knew was my main enemy. Once I start shivering, the cold has penetrated, and my core muscles would slowly cramp up. True enough, over the next three hours all the muscles in my stomach and groin area slowly locked up, and I learnt that stretching them only made it worse. The only fix, albeit a temporary one, was to work heat into the region by "jogging" on the spot.

And other very scary stuff.

A ten hour swim in the sea! In nothing but swimming trunks! It makes the marathon look easy.

I wish P.J. every success.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

The words of a song

Strangely irritated today. Not a good sign. So I'm going to post the words of a hymn that moved me this past weekend. `O Crucified Redeemer' is sung to a lilting Welsh tune and it draws a parrallel between Christ's anguish on the cross and our bloody wars and battlefields.

Frankly, I have never thought of it this way. Our wars, our blood, our epidemics, our hungry, dying, sick children, have always seemed to be our problem, not his. But this hymn seems to say that it is Christ himself who is crying out in anguish in the most horrible and shameful moments of history.

The author of the hymn, Timothy Rees (1874-1939), was a chaplain in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I and must have seen the worst of what human beings could do to each other. He received the distinguished Military Cross for his service, and became a bishop in 1931.

O crucified Redeemer, whose life-blood we have spilt,
to you we raise our guilty hands, and humbly own our guilt.
Today we see your passion spread open to our gaze;
the crowded street, the country road, its Calvary displays.

We hear your cry of anguish, see your life outpoured
where battlefields run red with blood, our neighbours' blood, O Lord;
and in that other battle, the fight for daily bread,
where might is right and self is king, we see your thorn-crowned head.

The groaning of creation wrung out by pain and care,
the anguish of a million hearts that break in dumb despair;
O crucified Redeemer, these are your cries of pain;
O may they break our selfish hearts, and love come in to reign.

Monday, August 01, 2005

SNAKE! and other scary things

I saw a snake. Within the first ten minutes of the ten km trail run at MacRitchie, I saw the bronze coloured snake slither from the middle of the path into the bushes. My foot was 10cm from the tail of the snake when I saw it. I yelped and jumped. It made me somewhat jumpy during the rest of the run too. Later, I jumped again when a twig hit my foot, and another time when I thought I saw something shiny slither away from the side of my eye (probably an insect). Eeuw. But the adrenaline rush was useful. :)

I was running the trail route alone for the first time too. After the snake, the only other thing that really scared me was this young-ish guy walking and listening to music. I supposed he scared me because he didn't fit into any category. Usually the guys who are alone on the trail will be running and the middle-aged men with the familes will be walking. Rarely will you see a lone fit-looking male walking on the trail. When I stopped for a drink, the scary guy ran and overtook me for a short while before I overtook him again in the last bit of tree-root ridden trail by the golf course. It was a bit scary overtaking him and having him behind me.

Women running alone have so many things to worry about. I ran with my handphone and a bottle of water. I didn't use the hp at all during the run but was happy to lug it along just in case I get bitten by a snake, or someone gives me trouble, or I run out of energy... Of course there is no reception right at the heart of the trail, but hopefully nothing untoward will happen on that stretch. I keep thinking about the poor girl who was left on the MacRitchie trail with nothing on but her tennis shoes.

The next mobile phone I purchase will come with emergency tear gas. (I wish!)

Route: 10k MacRitchie. Time: 61mins 40secs. Mileage this week: 29.5km

Category: Running