Sidekicks

I am happy to report that my insatiable lust for the Polar RS200sd has subsided somewhat.

Went for a lovely music-filled run at Mt Faber last night with my trusty gear, the Timex Ironman and Ipod Shuffle. I've had the Timex for 7 years or so and it is still going strong. It does laps, countdown (in three ways), has a soothing blue indigo light, and a wrap-around velcro strap. I love the wrap-around velcro strap for the way it curves smugly around my wrist.

I really ought to do this route once a week. It has all the ingredients of a perfect route. An uphill climb; a scenic downhill, a few traffic light rest-stops ;) and it is close to home. I did it clockwise this time round -- it's amusing that the scenery always looks better on the downhill, no matter what the scenery actually is.

Mt Faber Loop (clockwise) --|-- 9 km--|--52.2 mins--|--10.3 km/h

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How it changed my life

1. I do not go to the home pages of any of these sites anymore -- wikipedia, google image, google news, amazon, national library board, or merriam webster.
2. My homepage is no longer BBC.com. Instead, all their headlines are in a live RSS feed on the right panel.
3. So are the headlines for National Geographic, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, and others.
4. My homepage is now http://localhost:2500/.
5. I don't have twenty internet browser windows open at any one time anymore.
6. The location bar is now my best friend.

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New tricks for an old dog

I feel the beginnings of carpel tunnel syndrome in my right hand. Sigh. I'm too young for this. I'm not even 30 yet! So I've moved my mouse over to the left and will begin training my left hand to use the mouse.

Desperately need a weekend to rest the right hand. Desperately want a weekend anyway.

In other news, I actually dreamt of bloggers I've never met last night. This is going too far. Nameless bloggers are actually taking over my imagination. Yikes.

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Please stand behind the yellow line

(Since tinkertailor wrote this story as a female, I will try my hand at writing his story as a guy.)

I held her close. Her softness clung to me like a pillow in a prison cell -- she comforting, womanly, full of life, I, a dried barren place with a preserved plum for a heart. What did she see in me anyway? I think I understand now, I did not understand for the longest time -- it is all my fault, she had fallen in love with an empty shell and now she sees me as I am, and she wants a different future.

Oh God. I will cry.

She says it is not my fault. How can it be when she won't give me a reason? Am I too controlling? Too whiney? Don't have enough ambition? I can get a new job; I promise I won't call her twenty times a day anymore, or get jealous when she goes out with her girlfriends; I'll stop whining; I'll be strong for her; I'll stop making demands; I'll have no expectations of her; I promise; things will be different... I just need you back with me.

"The next one," I hear myself saying.

It was a dark and quiet night. The moon was only a sliver of silver in the sky, like it was the night when we went driving under a skyful of stars. We stopped the car in the dirt track, got out of the car, turned off the headlights, and gazed at the sky. I was holding her like this; it was a perfect moment; I wish I wasn't in such a great hurry to get to where we were going that night; I wish I knew then that we did not have the rest of our lives.

"Please stand behind the yellow lines," the familiar voice droned in English, then Chinese, then Tamil.

I let go. She will leave on the last train tonight and I will watch her back retreat from me and I will not cry.

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Instiki

On the recommendation of popagandhi, I installed Instiki. It was somewhat complicated installing it on Windows, but here are the step by step instructions.

Those instructions worked pretty well for me. The command prompt "ruby instiki" did not work for me though. But I realised that all you actually had to do was to get into your instiki folder (cd\instiki) and run "instiki". After which, go to "http://localhost:2500" to view your page.

Another comment: the command prompt window has to remain open the whole time you are using instiki. Otherwise you will get this error: The connection was refused when attempting to connect Localhost:2500.

I've enjoyed using it so far. It's like an online brain really. This is the page I created on the book I finished reading recently, Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett.

Taking notes like this makes me want to be a student again.

Now I just need to figure out how to delete orphaned pages, access my wiki from home, and stuff like that.

Best thing about instiki so far: the ability to link, the ease of creating new pages, and textile editing (so intuitive!).

Update: What is Instiki, really?
Instiki is a wiki. It is not a blogging tool, but a kind of software that allows various authors to collaborate on a single text. Right now I'm just using it to organise my thoughts which probably does not do the programme justice.

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Firefox

I feel like a fool for not having installed firefox earlier.

Tabbed Browsing
You can choose to open new pages in a new page or in a new tab. This means I can organise my web searches better by opening all the pages related to a particular search on the same page in different tabs.

Smart Keywords
Smart Keywords simply rocks. Using the National Library Catalogue as an example, this is how it works.

1. Go to NLB Catalogue.
2. Right click the search box and click "Add a new Keyword for this search"
3. Input a name and a keyword for the search. In case case I used "nlb" as the keyword.
4. Go to address bar and type in "nlb (book title)". And the search will be done for you.

Preloaded keyword search includes dictionary (dict), wikipedia (wp), urban dictionary (slang), and others.

Live Bookmarks
Live Bookmarks are sweet too. This means you can get an RSS feed on your bookmark page. So far my live bookmarks include BBC and my Ta Da List.

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One for the women

I've always wanted to pee standing up. Now I can, thanks to a new disposable product known as the P-mate. It is easy to use -- just lower pants a little, slip underwear to the side, place P-mate in position, lean forward slightly, and pee. Brilliant.

If you are queasy about peeing on cardboard, `firm and reliable' cardboard nevertheless, try the reusable Whizz instead. The Whizz helped an all-female team race to the North Pole, according to Gizmag. Attach a rubber tube to the nozzle and you can pee easily into a bottle, even while sitting down.

And this is really cool too -- the Whizz Midstream. This is an innovation that ensures the accurate collection of midstream pee, absolutely essential for medical tests. See how it works here. Smart eh?

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Hurricane Rita

Thank God it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. I have dear friends and family in that part of the country and it was a great relief to hear the news that Rita went from a Category 5 hurricane to a Category 4 to finally, a tropical storm.

Neither Texas nor Lousiana has reported any deaths in the aftermath of the hurricane. Power is still out in parts of Texas and Louisiana, affecting roughly 1.1 million households. A portion of the 2.5-3 million evacuees are returning despite advice from they don't.

3 million evacuees... that's impressive. That is like moving all the residents from Bedok, Tampines, Jurong West, Hougang, Woodlands, Ang Mo Kio, Yishun, Bukit Merah, Choa Chu Kang, and Bukit Batok (approx 56% of the residential population, or 2.4 million residents) to Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia.

Sometimes the world really feels like a stage.

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At work

Everything that could go wrong today went wrong. Okay, perhaps not everything, but it certainly left like it. First, my Pentium II laptop decided to go geriatric on me in the middle of a projection to 80 bigshots. It was awful. It took something like five minutes to load up, and finally when I got it going, it would only respond to my mouse clicks ten seconds later! I had to source for a faster laptop in the middle of the talk and change it over quickly.

Later, when it was time to play the DVD, it sounded like Mickey Mouse was stuck in the DVD and worse, Mickey was doing really really bad lip syncing. Gracious me. I muted all the mikes, took out the wire connecting the laptop to the sound system, but Mickey Mouse still persisted. I could see the horror on the Executive Director's face.

Altogether, five powerpoints, one DVD, and one flash with music. All I really need is one decent DVD-playing laptop and all my problems will be solved. Will probably bring in up next week. Otherwise, next time we do this, I am moving my desktop computer to the hall and projecting from it, I swear.

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Tip from a great cook

Didn't know this about soy sauce. No wonder I can't cook.

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We are the plodders of the world!

In preparation for the half marathon at the end of the year, this is our simple plan:

1. Increase the length of time we can keep jogging.
2. Increase the speed of short-medium length runs.
3. Do other types of sports when we get bored.

To this end, we hope to run one slow and long distance a week, slowly increasing the length of this jog until we are capable of jogging for two hours or so.

We, the plodders
Last week we jogged a wonderful route from Bishan Park to Esplanade via the kallang park connector. It was mid-autumn's night and the night was full of sparklers, lanterns and candles. It felt like a tour through the heartlands of Singapore -- we ran past the Indian temple with their drums, the Chinese temple belting karaoke, the neighbourhood crime watch patrol with their neon sticks. We ran for 78mins -- approximately 11km.

This week, we jogged at East Coast Park. The breeze was great but the route far more boring than the Bishan-Esplanade route. The only good thing about East Coast Park is that the road never ends (the road ending is a big problem when you live on a small island) and you don't have to worry about traffic. Otherwise, it is quite boring. We sang, "We are the plodders of the world!" at the top of our lungs (took up all of one minute) and ran in silence for most of the way. We ran 1 hr 41mins, approx 13.5km. The sky was dark by the time we finished.

We, the bounding gazelles
For the first time last week, through some cunning manipulation, we managed to get to MacRitchie by 5:45pm to run the 10km route. Was a bit worried about it being too deserted on a weekday evening but it wasn't too bad. We ran this route at a medium pace, finishing it in 67mins.

This week we also ran two rounds of Bishan Park, 3.3km each. It was fast enough that we couldn't talk. There was a thunderstorm looming that night -- the kind of night where you can almost feel the static electricity in the air, when every five minutes or so, the blood red sky would streak with distant lightning, followed by a low deep rumble. Ran the first loop in 19mins, the second in 21mins.

We, the salamanders
Cycled to and from work twice this week. It takes the same time to cycle as to take public transport. A bit of the hassle with the working clothes and smelling decent for work, but it means I get to save a little money that I can spend on other things, like the Polar RS200sd or a night out with the gals. I will have to cycle back and forth everyday for six and a half months if I wanna save enough for the Polar RS200sd though. Bah.

So what shall I run tomorrow?

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Am-I-Fat?

Smole told me yesterday -- I don't like to read other people's blogs -- which made me want to ask cheekily -- so do you like to read my blog?

(This question is along the lines of the perennial female question Am-I-Fat? which cannot be answered truthfully while keeping the peace. My suggested reply to such a question would involve taking a deep breath, holding her close, and saying, of course not, darling, I like you just the way you are; but of course then she'll say, I'm not asking you whether you like me, but Am-I-Fat? to which I will leave you to your own masterful resources.)

Sad to say, I didn't ask the question so I can't report how to dodge this equally thorny question. I only know, never ever ever ever say, you know how busy I am at work, etc etc. Better off saying, of course! You write as well as (insert favourite author here), even better! I think that answer deserves at least a kopi for the flattery.

But what I really want to say is this -- I keep getting distracted -- i was surprised that smole didn't like reading other people's blogs. I thought it was only natural to like reading other people's blogs. Well, I like to read other's people's blogs, in fact, that is what I do everyday at work, again and again, checking back faster than some of my regular fixes can post. What is my problem??

I think I am at heart a voyeur.

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I am

I am the guy who thought of you first.

I am the guy who was so thrilled with that thought that the thought took substance. I am the guy who loves your body; yes, I am the guy who chose the flat nose that you hate.

I am the guy who watched you grow up; who watched you say your first word; who watched you become the apple of your entire family’s eye; who watched you bully your little sister.

I am the guy who loves you – your quirky thoughts, your best intentions, the soft spot in your heart, your voice, your very essence. I am the guy who hates your flaws – when you do what you said you wouldn’t; when you didn’t do what you said you would, when you do what you know that I hate.

I am the guy on the street you bought the tissues from; I am the guy who smells on the bus; I am the guy in the nursing home with the paralysed face and idiotic smile; I am the guy who needs your seat on the bus.

I am the guy who couldn’t give you up.

I am the guy who did the unspeakable just to have you back.

I am the guy who knows that you think that I’ve forgotten you. I have not. I only have to look at the palm of my hand to read your name.

I am the guy who waits for you to come home.

I am.

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Gatorade Bottle

This is my new water bottle. I think it's cool. My friends think it is ugly though. Smole thinks the label and the cap is too green. Pinktutu says it looks like a alligator because of its ribbed sides. And the clincher, Jamieoliver says I have as much taste as a 13-year old boy. Bah!

Really, do you think this bottle is ugly?

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I'm that girl

(A meme started by mercermachine. See all trackbacks at tomorrow here.)

I am the girl who told you in kindergarten that tap water was recycled urine even though I knew better.

I am the girl who wrote `I hate Madam Sin’ on the back of a Chinese Spelling Exercise Book that got flung right across the classroom; the girl who hated Chinese ever since; the girl who still can’t speak Chinese to save her life.

I am the girl who can't dance to save her life, either.

I am the girl who drank a spoonful of Tabasco on a dare; who dared you to eat a plate of left-over laksa with a piece of soaked tissue paper in it, and you did.

I am the girl who let you read her diary, who held you when you cried, who cycled to the hospital at 3am to get medicine for you, who stayed up beside your hospital bed watching you sleep, who would fly all the way across the world to be at your wedding, even if it means that I would cry.

I am the girl who bought you the gifts – the Deuter bag, the Sony Ericsson phone, the Timex watch, the Asics running shoes, the Clarks, the Fossil watch, the guitar, the Camera that you showed proudly to your friends.

I am the girl who drove four hours across the country to surprise you, who changed her windshield wipers in your driveway, who lost a hubcap in your po'dunk town, and who drove four hours back again because you were not at home.

I am the girl who kissed you good night.

I am the girl who breaks your heart, but would never admit that you broke mine too.

I am that girl. Who are you?

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How to trim an oversized event Tshirt

This is the size Medium Sheares Bridge Run Tshirt I got two weeks ago. It is way too big. So I decided to trim it down to size. Here is a step-by-step guide.

1. Find a Tshirt that fits you. Place it over the oversized event tshirt.

2. Trim off the difference, leaving an inch for room.

3. Tack sides together. Sew up the sides. I used the stitch where you stick the needle through both layers of cloth (always from the bottom up), swing the string over the needle, and then pull the needle through the cloth.

4. There you have it.







I love my trimmed Sheares Bridge Tshirt. It fits better and it is so much cooler without the sleeves and all that extra material. My mum insists that my lousy sewing will only hold up to two or three washings at most, but we'll see about that.

Category: Running

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I won the quiz!

I won the quiz on The Fire Ant Gazette and correctly identified the table featured as a gear inch ratio table! (clap clap! pat back! clap clap some more!)

I have to confess: I didn't know what the table meant until Eric explained. I do cycle, but in a from point A to point B kinda way. It is just a matter of knowing what to search for in google, and in this case, the winning combination of search terms were: cycling table ratio.

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Pyramids

Not as good as Equal Rites, but perhaps it may be just that I like witches. This novel by Pratchett is about how belief shapes reality. The pyramids warp time, which is a very interesting concept. Religion plays a large role in this book too.

(Am apparently on a light-hearted reading roll.)

Category: Reading

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Mike and Psmith

Very entertaining. Read it all in one sitting last night. I shall have to read more of P.G. Wodehouse's work. It isn't the belly-splitting type of humour, but the compulsion of a light-hearted story well-told. Gotta love the character of Psmith.

Category: Reading

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Weekend Report

Had a good weekend everyone?


The Terry Fox Run was rained out. The winds started whipping furiously at 5:30am and it kept raining and raining till about 7:45am. But my friends and I weren't about to be put off by a little bit of rain so we turned up anyway. By that time the rain had become a drizzle and the worst were the muddy puddles underfoot.

The most unfortunate thing was that the 8km run was cancelled. I found it amusing that they had a large banner stating "8km Competitive Run" while in their flyer said in no uncertain terms that participants should not push and shove as the run was "not competitive". A bit of a miscommunication going on?

But everybody knows the Terry Fox Run is for Cancer Research and everybody knows you should not push and shove anyway. The route was not well planned; the lanes were overcrowded; the spirit of the event was somewhat dampened by the rain; but it didn't matter, it was all for a good cause at the end of the day.

My friends and I had a good time anyway. We kept on running to the end of Siloso Beach just because we wanted to, made a U-turn back to the finish line, ate a banana and drank some water, listened longingly to the lucky draw prizes being given out, and then trooped off for breakfast at Tiong Bahru which was superb. Wan ton mee, chiu kway and teh-O bing... how could it not be a good day? ;)

Started and finished the project of trimming down my over-sized Sheares Bridge Run Tshirt. It is now a sexy sleeveless top! Very successful (at least until my lousy stitching falls out). Will post pictures soon once I get my camera, the cable, and the computer in the same frame of reference.

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Surfin'

This blogger is the female pastor of a church that is about to close down for good. An interesting perspective of the cycle of church life.






Student gets caned for truancy and for vulgarities in his blog.








Young lawyer dude moves to the USA to be with his wife.

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Hedged in by the edges

Sometimes I don't know if it is the claustrophobia of a small country or if it is the claustrophobia of a small mind.

Both perhaps.

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Garmin Forerunner 301

This powerhouse uses the GPS system which is apparently more accurate than the foot pod system used by Polar, barring tall buildings, cloud cover and overhanging trees.

It is able to plot your route on maps (not sure if they have maps in Singapore though), but according to this forum, the maps aren't too accurate. One user said that the Garmin plotted most of his route in the middle of the lake! Ha.

It also plots elevation, speed, distance, and heart rate.

I think I may stick to string, map, and my good ole Timex Ironman.

Search Technorati: Garmin Forerunner

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Suggestions?

Mind-numbingly bored at work. Vavoom says that it is important to dig in -- to try your best, work hard and feel better about yourself at the end of the day. I agree but the only thing I want to dig in now is lunch. Or a nice fried chicken dinner. My expectations are not high (nor healthy).

I want a new moniker. Getting sick of mis_nomer -- hate that underscore and it conveys nothing at all. Of course when I first chose it three years ago I wanted it to convey nothing at all. But maybe I've gone past that point. Any suggestions for a new moniker? (I am also sick of my layout and my haircut, but too troublesome to change for now.)

I've been on a link chase this morning. What I'll do is open any one of the blogs on my link page, look for their links, click on whatever catches my fancy, rinse and repeat. Found a few interesting blogs this way. May expand my blogroll soon.

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Fiesty

Link

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Sometimes

Sometimes it feels like my heart has gone
on a holiday, sun-bathing on a tropical beach
under coconut trees nailed with warnings
of falling coconuts that never come true.
Sometimes the sky seems extra blue,
the lilt in the voice, a melody of a yellow humming bird
soaring above the humdrum of diesel generators,
above foul mouth mahjong players
in the dead of the night.
Sometimes I laugh
A ripple, hilarious
Toppling all
Philosophy
And the body
is found
together.

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New fangledness

How serious a runner must you be to have one of these powerhouses?

The Polar RS200sd calculates distance, speed, heart rate, and even has an auto lap function.

Check out the sgrunner's forum here. You can get a good price from Bras Brasah.

Then again, there is the Garmin forerunner and the Timex Speed and Distance too. Argh... I need to run more and check out new fangled gadgets less.

Search Technorati: Polar RS 200sd

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Sheares Bridge Run

An epiphany after the run -- the view from the Sheares Bridge looks a lot better when you are in a car, preferably air-conditioned.

It was hot. Thank God for clouds though, 'cos it could have been hotter. I was wearing this blue sleeveless top which had two layers of material for some inexplicable reason. It was so thick that the safety pin could not penetrate both layers and I had to content myself with piercing it through one layer only. I think the next long run I do, I'll have to wear one of my lighter and cooler tops and just get over the four pins holes that I will have to put in them.

They also did not have Gatorade. The 12.6km runners were like the prodigal children in this event -- no baggage services, no Gatorade, no water stations at the starting point... But I didn't mind too much. The race was well planned overall. Near the end of the run, there was a water station which was giving out Gatorade cups and many runners stopped to get a drink, only to find water masquerading as Gatorade. Liars!

Things I consumed the day before the run:

1. 1.5 litres water
2. 2 pieces kaya bread
3. 1 cup coffee
4. 2 half boiled eggs
5. One quarter boiled sweet potato
6. 1 plate duck rice with tofu, peanuts, and half a hard boiled egg
7. 1 cup Sprite
8. 1 Yoshinoya Bento set with rice, beef, vege and tempura
9. 1 cup Japanese green tea
10. 1 bag Taiwanese crispy chicken snack

And for breakfast at 5:50am:

1. 2 pieces kaya bread
2. 1 soft boiled egg
3. 1 cup coffee
4. 150ml water
5. A bit of boiled sweet potato

Very pleased with my carbohydate and water intake before the run. Had to keep going to the loo in the middle of the night, but well worth it.

Now to plan for December!

Category: Running

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Sweating while eating

I have a friend who sweats every time he eats. It doesn't matter whether he is eating chicken curry or the coldest ice cream, he will break out into a sweat whenever he starts eating. He told me that his wife used to be mildly disgusted when she sees him sweating into the dinner they are sharing but I'm sure she has gotten over it by now.

Gustatory sweating could be related to the following:

1. Frey's syndrome, where the parotid gland is damaged. This condition is very rare.


2. Rare complication of diabetes mellitus.


3. A symptom of Riley-Day syndrome, which has an incidence of 1 in 3,700 among Jewish people. A symptom of this syndrome includes an insensitivity to pain.

And I'm not sure what else. Sweating while eating spicy food is nomal beacuse of the increase in the metabolic rate. Did you know that spicy food increases your metabolic rate? So theorectically, if you want to indulge in that calorie loaded chocolate sundae but don't want to put on the pounds, add a healthy dose of chilli padi!

Anyway, I think this is a cool way to test for sweat.

1. Apply tinture of iodine of skin and allow to dry.


2. Apply thin layer of powdered cornstarch.


3. If the patient sweats, the cornstarch will turn black as it reacts both to the sweat and the iodine.

Think I should apply dried iodine and roll in cornstarch before the Shears Bridge Run? That would be a hoot! :)

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Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

So good. It kept me up two nights last week.


Category: Reading

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The World is Flat

In his previous book, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”, Friedman stated that globalisation is making the world go from a size medium to a size small. In “The World is Flat”, he goes one step further to say that because of the increasing collaboration among suppliers and companies across the globe, the harnessing of powerful communication technology such as fiber optic cables and the internet, the world is rapidly becoming flat.


He has quite a few interesting examples to justify this statement, such as call centres being outsourced to Bangladore, Japan outsourcing data-entry work to China, radiologists outsourcing reading of CAT scans to doctors in India and Australia, America outsourcing accounting work to India; as well as the global aspect of the supply-chain of companies such as Wal-mart and Dell. Imagine, you can get your US tax return done, taking into account particular state laws, by a person in India! The Indian accountant accesses your tax records through a server loacted in the US, thus maintaining privacy laws.

Friedman also includes an interesting passage from the “Communist Manifesto” by Marx which foresaw this flattening of the world in 1848 and warned that if capitalism was adopted everywhere, it would make religion, culture, and the nation state irrelevant. However, Friedman is still firmly behind the theory that if more boundaries came down and perfect free trade realised, it would lead to economic revival. He even has a theory that if more countries were involved in manufacturing, supplying, distributing and consuming goods, they will have such a large stake in the global supply chain that it would make them think twice about starting a war!

Perhaps overly optimistic, but an interesting thought nevertheless.

Category: Reading

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I'll have my oatmeal in a cookie, thank you v much

I wonder if I'll ever develop a taste for the mushy gooey mess that is oatmeal.

While I was in the UK, I participated in a community breakfast with the people at the local church. You should see their faces when they walked into the spacious hall and found out that there was oatmeal prepared.

"Porridge! Ooooh! We have porridge!"

All of them, I swear, exclaimed excitedly about the porridge like it was some treat. The way they were exclaiming, I almost thought we were going to have century egg porridge with you tiao with a hot cup of black coffee for breakfast, but no, I checked the pots, only oatmeal. I passed.

So I had toast with butter instead.

Therin lies the difference between a Singaporean stomach and an English stomach.

During a recent company conference, we catered breakfast for the participants as the meetings started early in the morning and lasted all day late into the evening. First day -- mee siam, very happy; second day -- laksa, good response; third day, chicken porridge, yum; fourth day, small crossiant with ham, we found half of the participants in the canteen eating wan ton mee instead.

Therefore, if you are in charge of catering food in Singapore, don't go for the continental breakfast option. Also, don't order sandwiches for lunch. That way sure confirm gurantee 100% everyone will be happy.

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Resolute me

If P.J. Thum can swim continuously for 12 hours across the turbulent waters of the English Channel, I can run continously the 12km this Sunday.

Yesterday's run wasn't too good. I did two loops of 3.6km around my workplace in 42.9mins. I'm not unhappy with the time -- in fact it is the second fastest that I've ever done this hilly route -- but it was more of the mental torture during the run. I kept thinking -- even if I run three rounds, it'll still won't be 12km! It was as if I was only starting the first lap of the cumulative distance this week, a whopping 28.2km, and my thoughts were all about conserving energy.

Music irritated me; couldn't focus on the route 'cos I kept thinking about Sunday; stopped a few times 'cos of the daunting cumulative distance.

In any case, will run the 9km Mt Faber Loop this evening to get the hills in, drink lots of water this week, and hope for the best!

(By the way, Safra does not provide baggage service for 12km runners, only 21km runners.)

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Ponder these numbers

123.4 ----The number of minutes ran last week
11/9 ---- In 1989, the date the Berlin Wall fell
9/11 ---- In 2001, the date of the Sept 11 attacks
9/11 ---- In 2005, my first 12km run

My USB thumbdrive crashed. I caved in and re-formatted it today. Had to rely on my memory to update the backup running log on my hard drive, but luckily it was only a week's worth of runs.

Quote of the day: "I run for my Excel File."

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Dinner at Dan Ryan's

The dining experience at Dan Ryan's yesterday evening was out of this world. I cannot remember the last place I've been to where the service was so friendly, prompt and helpful. It must have been still in America!

The staff took the trouble to ask how the food was and to say little things like "Enjoy". They were quick to fill up our glasses of water and bothered to check with the kitchen to answer our questions. To top it off, it was calm and quiet in the restaurant -- most stress-relieving on a Monday night.

We ordered a cup of the soup of the day (good), a cup of chilli (oh the memories of the south! the melted cheese! crackers and onions!), and half a BBQ chicken (okay, a bit dry). The food came with a warm basket of bread. There were three types of bread in the basket -- french loaf, corn bread and a walnut muffin -- so good with the whipped butter they gave! I would have been happy just having side dishes there, they were that good.

I had an excellent evening out in more ways than one. I'll definitely be going back. Meanwhile, I'm going to try to cook chilli at home. Does anyone have a recipe to share?

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Do eyes sweat?

Do eyes sweat? Just a random Monday morning thought.

I doubt they do, if the point of eyebrows and headbands is to keep the sweat out from the eyes.

Then again, eyes tear. Interestingly, tears are salt water just as sweat is salt water, so perhaps eyes do sweat after all?

In other news, next week is the Shears Bridge Run! Went and got the tshirt from Safra this past Sunday. Quite ugly, too big, and made out of this polyester material, but can't complain. I'm on a Tshirt collecting rampage. Next stop, Terry Fox.

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Fugitive

Sometimes places evoke powerful emotions.

There is a bus stop on Hill Street that makes my mind suddenly leap back five years of my life. The bus stop is in the middle of nowhere, in between places of importance, in front of an empty field. If you were to plot the bus stop on a bus route, it would be the blue line joining the dots – nameless and unimportant, the epitome of ubiquity.

It was night. I was still together with my ex-boyfriend at the point and I forget if it was a weekday or a weekend, if we had dinner or not, if we had arranged to meet, or how the terrible fight began.

We were in a dark alley behind a building where delivery trucks unloaded their goods. No one was around. We fought, word for word, will against will, straining to find a compromise but finding that we were as fire and ice. We fought until I felt my insides churn inside me and I felt sick to the stomach, filled with an irresistible urge to run away. Before I knew it, I had said “bye”, turned my back on him and walked away in a motion swift and final.

I started running. Into the building, up the escalators, through the corridors. There was no one in the building either – it was too late – the escalators were frozen, the shutters showing their dead eyes to the cold white light of the corridors – only a security guard at the ground floor watching guard.

I ran and I ran and I ran, translating into motion what I felt so keenly in my heart. Pulling away until I could breathe on my own again; yet I knew at the back of my mind that he had followed. I took the lift to a random floor, turned out and saw him. I tried to run away but he caught me roughly and asked me angrily why I was running away. I didn’t know what to say.

I was trapped.

I walked with him to the bus stop, both of us exhausted from fighting. We sat there looking at the buses go by, staring at the colourful windows of the building across the street shrouded by night, mocking us about a time not too long ago when things were not like this.

I looked at him, sitting there with his head hanging, and pitied him. I knew I had the power to make it alright – it was simply a matter of whether I was willing to give up what I wanted. I looked at him and asked if he was hungry and offered him a squished three day old tuna sandwich from my bag. He smiled slightly and ate it. We went home quiet, saving the fight for another day.

In some ways, I have not stopped running. In some ways, I still fear, the way a fugitive fears, capture.

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Quotes

Two quotes by Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew. (The geopolitics of babies, ST Sept 2, 2005)

Demography is destiny. Governments will be forced to deal with delicate matters of personal choice hitherto considered outside the purview of the state. Can we afford to continue to treat sex, marriage and procreation as amtters in the private domain and out of bounds to government influence?

The human race is at risk because it has mastered technology but not mastering the human's natural desire to push for more of the benefits of technology without going beyond the limits.

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Letting out steam is a good thing

Today, something out of the ordinary happened. Usually the morning bus ride to work is a quiet affair. Everyone on the bus sits quietly and broods about life. Today, as I was trying to squeeze past the bus inspector standing at the door of the bus, it suddenly exploded.

Lanky Indian man flared up at bus inspector for blocking the entrance. Bus inspector yells back at him. Lanky Indian man walks back to the front of the bus to confront him. Hokkien vulagrities. Lanky Indian man walks into bus to find seat. Bus inspector still yelling. Lanky Indian man walks back. More yelling.

Later the bus inspector came by to check our EZ link cards and he had to check the card of the lanky Indian man. Bus Inspector says, "Take it easy. Relax. We are all Singaporeans. One nation."

Lanky Indian man still pissed but says, "Ok." And then it was back to the quiet brooding, with the slightest hint of tension in the background.

We are about to burst at the seams. It comes from being too goody-two-shoes, having too many rules, not enough outlets for play and expression. One day, the seams will burst and there will be a riot, or worse, we will produce our own home-grown serial killer, God forbid. Do you know that our police force is not equipped to cope with serial killing, if it should happen? Even Adriam Lim, who lured and murdered a few children, did it for religious rites rather than for the pleasure of killing. God forbid.

Personally, I desperately need to gripe about work before I burst at the seams. Friends can only take so much griping before being affected by what you say. I also find it is better not to talk about general problems you have with your work because it is inevitable that there will be comparision -- you are bored at work? lucky you, I have to be on my feet all day; you are stressed out by your responsibilities? lucky you, at least you are getting some where in your career, not like me; or even, stop griping already and change a job if you're so miserable! One person's stress/ boredom is another person's envy, if you get what I mean.

So I'm assuming it is easier to gripe on my blog. At least if you don't want to read this you can close this window and only come back when I'm sprouting cheerier messages. Of course griping about work is only safe if you keep the details of the work out of the post, and if you remain reasonable in your gripes. The only way about this for me is if I stick to how my work makes me feel, and so the gripe of the day:

My job is like getting the same assignment in school for four and a half years running and having to do it over and over and over and over and over again.

There, now that it is out of my system, I'm gonna get back to it so that I won't get sacked so that I can keep on griping about work tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow.

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