Bombs in Bangkok

and Jamie Oliver is there. Argh. I hope she's okay.

I'm taking comfort that as for now, there are only two dead and twelve injured.

Damn this modern terror.

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The Adventures of Yertle the Turtle

These photos were taken with a point-and-shoot. At some point, I want to re-take all of these to see if I can do better with a digital SLR. Some of them will be easy to improve upon -- such as "Turtle admires himself".

Turtle, of course, is only too happy with all the attention he's been getting. He likes excursions.

TURTLE SQUISHED BETWEEN A BIKE AND A TREE


TURTLE AND THE STEAMBOAT(the non-edible variety)


TURTLE TELLS THE TIME


TURTLE ADMIRES HIMSELF (where is my nose?)


TURTLE RIDES A HELMET


TURTLE THINKS HE'S FAMOUS

(DLSR. Point-and-shoot here.)

The weather was perfect for an excursion with Turtle and my bicycle yesterday afternoon. Teenagers were out flying their kites; folks were out jogging. It was a beautiful day. Even when a construction worker rolled down the window of his pick-up and whistled at me, it felt more like college guys being friendly in Spring-time. I almost hollered back hello. :)

Marina South is mine. That expanse of water, the pavement by the sea, the breakwaters, that ugly sun-dial, it is all mine.

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Learning to use a digital SLR

I'm teaching myself how to use a digital SLR.

Over the weekend, I picked up three books from the library: Digital Photography, Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies and Digital Photography in Available Light, and I've been slowly ploughing through them this week.

Digital Photography in Available Light by Mark Galer is my favourite because of the way it explains things and for the unexpected humour. I was surprised that a non-fiction photography book could be humourous, but I found myself chuckling aloud twice. I can't remember over what right now. I'll have to go back and check.

The way it explains stuff is also cool. For example, to explain why when you decrease the f-stop, you are actually increasing the aperture size, a lot of authors say it is because it is a fraction. That makes sense. Mark Galer explains that the f-stop is obtained by dividing the length of the lens by its diameter. An f-stop of 4 means that the diameter is four times smaller than the lens length, which results in the same exposure regardless of the lens length because it takes into account the distance the light as to travel to the sensor. I mean, that's a cool explanation.

The way it explains histograms is also more thorough. Digital SLR Cameras & Photography explained histograms by showing three shots of an American flag against a blue sky, one overexposed, one underexposed and one correctly explosed. As you would expect, the correctly exposed shot had a nicely distributed histogram, and so I thought that was all to it. The second one I read, Digital Photography, showed two pictures, one of a black cat and one of a white something or other, which was very confusing because it seemed different from what I read in the Dummies book. Only Mark Galer explained that the example given by the first book was of neutral tones, while the example given in the second was of predominantly black, or white tones. When taking a picture that it is predominantly black, the camera tends to overexpose the shot, making the black tones look grey. Hence the photographer ought to adjust the exposure component down to compensate. This same is true for predominantly white tones. That's a much better explanation!

I'm probably only about two-thirds through, but I'm sure I'll find more gems. I think exposure bracketing is very cool too.

Right now, everything's just a concept, but it is so much fun! :)

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A butterfly flaps its wings....

... and causes a hurricane halfway across the world.

Except this time, it's the other way around. This morning, the internet connection was suddenly cut. Thinking that it was an internal problem, I quickly went to restart the modem before my colleagues could notice. But restarting the modem didn't help.

I quickly realised that it was an island-wide problem and so relaxed and waited for Singtel to do something about it. Until I got this email:

There was a major earthquake in Taiwan and a number of major cable systems are affected. Your internet access to certain sites in US and North Asia and USA may be affected.

I almost wish that it was an internal problem. Please pray for Taiwan.

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Low productivity days

I'm back at work. It has been raining and raining since early this morning. It's the kind of weather meant for snuggling under the blanket with a book and a hot cup of tea, not for hitching up the pants and wading through cold, dirty puddles of rain to catch a bus that will splash water at you as it zooms past.

But I'm dry as long as I remain in the office, and all I've done this morning could have been accomplished in about 5 minutes flat. I reserve the right to a low productivity morning the day after Christmas. I'm just not cranked up yet.

Typically, on a low productivity day -- all my colleagues are moving in slow mo too -- the servers also want to take a break. So just one hour ago, while I was sitting in the pantry having my scrounged together lunch (half a can of opened tuna, three slices of toasted frozen bread and a cup of minestrone soup), we stopped receiving emails.

The servers know what's good for them. I think I'll go cut up some Christmas log cake now.

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Merry Christmas!

To all my friends online: b, brenda, canopy, carine, colin, elle, eric, gwynne, ivan, jim, joan, MOFW, milktea, otterman, reno, smudgi3, tetanus, thc, titania, tribolum....., and all who stop by,

A very Merry Christmas to you and those you love!

(This post will self-destruct at 12 midnight.)

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A game of mahjong

Because Smole forgot to bring the mahjong chips, we played the game with packets of seaweed instead. Smole the philanthropist opened one of her packets in the middle of our game and shared her seaweed with everyone, which made everyone laugh. Will you eat and share your seaweed in a competitive game where the goal is to accumulate the most packets of seaweed?

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The season of giving... and stealing

My poor sister got the cables to her Treo and camera stolen from her luggage on her flight to Detroit. Since she will not have ready access to an internet connection where she is going, I was counting on her being able to receive emails and SMSes on her trusty Treo, but now it seems that it will eventually run out of its charge because some ?!?##? fella stole the cables.

What does a person want with cables anyway? My buddy got her Treo stolen earlier this year too. I guess between my sister and my buddy they have a complete set.

What's up with all this thieving? Smudgi3 lost her favourite umbrella to a thief; smudgi3's brother lost a stunt bike; popagandhi never found her natasha; the guy at the camera shop tried to cheat my buddy and I by placing a non-high-speed SD card into our bag, thinking that we wouldn't know the difference. Oh, that last one got me so mad.

But well, what does it matter. This is all just stuff anyway. I doubt the stuff will add any happiness to the thieves, apart from that brief satisfaction of getting something for nothing. It is far better to have the satisfaction of working and making a living, and being able to bless other people from the money you make.

So, merry Christmas to all, even to you who steals. Because God gave all of us -- thieves, adulterers, cheaters, murderers, jerks, bitches and bastards alike -- the greatest gift ever. The one that we don't deserve and can never pay for. The one you can never steal from me. :)

God bless!

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Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Frankly, if I had been given only the text of this novel and hadn't known who the authors of Good Omens were before I read it, I would have guessed Terry Pratchett in a heartbeat and completely overlooked Gaiman's contribution.

This novel screams Terry Pratchett. The style and wit is the same. Even good 'ole death WHO SPEAKETH IN CAPITALS is given a part. All through the first half of the novel, I found myself forgetting that I was not reading another novel in Pratchett's discworld series.

Granted that I am more familiar with Pratchett's style than Gaiman's, the sense of this novel being "all Pratchett" may not be so off target. Gaiman said that it was easy for him to use a ‘voice’ close to Pratchett’s own writing style in Good Omens, because he’d recently been working in a style borrowed off Douglas Adams, a style he calls “classic English humour: there’s a large chunk of P.G."

I am beginning to think that Gaiman is quite the master of styles. (The only other book I've read of his is Stardust which is written in the fairy-tale style.)

Good Omens is written from a decidedly humanistic perspective, and so it is very hard not to like. How can you not like a story that affirms humankind's quirkiness, flaws, and moral waffling? And it is funny to boot. Just don't use it as your theology textbook.

So this means that I am still in search of Gaiman's voice.

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The desk meme

via Jim (you can see his desk here)

My office desk is very large and very messy. Click on thumbnails for a closer look..

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ITB Anonymous: Session V

Hi, my name is mis_nomer and I have a problem.

I went to see the sports doctor at National Stadium this week. I was nervous about seeing the doc 'cos I felt like an impostor. After all, I'm not exactly an athlete. But I felt a little better when the person after me was an auntie whose sport was "aerobics". Sports is for everyone; it is just hard to imagine it so.

Anyway, it turns out that my ITB problem may have a biomechanical origin. My left leg is 1 cm longer than my right, and my left knee naturally tilts inwards. This means that every time my foot hits the ground, it rolls inwards and the ITB strains to keep the knee straight. After a while the ITB rubs against the bone and becomes inflamed.

I was a bit appalled to hear about the discrepancy in my leg length, but the nice doctor assured me that a 1-3 cm discrepancy is normal and the only reason I feel pain is because small discrepancies become magnified when you multiply it over in long distances. She thinks that thrice daily stretching will help, followed by short runs (starting 3km, increase 10% per run) in the new year. Hopefully, my body will know how to compensate for the quirks in my leg structure. If the pain comes back, I'll have to consider making an insole.

These are the four ITB stretches she recommended:

For the ITB, this is her preferred stretch. This stretch reaches the hip as well, so if you suffer from hip ITB, this is a good one to do.



This is my preferred stretch. I find it hard to feel the stretch in the one above because I'm fairly flexible and have to lean really low to feel anything at all.



This is another one.



This stretch is good because I can do it while I am sitting at work.



You mustn't forget to stretch your calves and quads too.

I had a lot of questions to ask the doctor and she gamely answered them all.

1. Can I swim the breaststroke? What about cycling?
"Everyone is built differently. Of course the frontcrawl is the best for swimming because the breaststroke shortens the ITB, but if it doesn't bother you, go ahead and do it. In your case, it may be that only running/ walking is the precipitating factor." Whoohoo!

2. What do you think about the Walt Reynolds' ITB Special?
"I can't comment on that because we haven't tested it out."

3. How long must I stretch for?
"Three times daily: morning, afternoon, night; and don't forget to stretch before and after your runs." What! I was thinking along the lines of five minutes before and after my runs!

4. How can I stretch for hip ITB? (on behalf of Smole)
"All of the regular ITB stretches work for hip ITBS. The leaning on the wall stretch is the best. Some athletes use a rubber ball with rubber spikes to rub against the hip ITB. That helps too."

5. Can I buy an insole from the store?
"No. If you have a specific problem like you do, it is very unlikely that a store-bought insole will help. You need one to be custom made. Our podiatrist is a runner and comes in every Friday if stretching does not solve your problem."

6. Is this something that will heal and resolve itself? I want to run for a long time.
"Stretch a lot and if that doesn't work, make a prosthetic." Hmm. Not quite what I was looking for. The doctor said she has the exact same problem as me and hers kicks in at 7km. I wonder if this is going to be a long-term issue if even the sports doc struggles with this...

and these are the questions I didn't get around to asking.
7. Is it possible to stretch too much?
8. Can I do speed training, run on hills, run laps, play squash?
9. What do our athletes at the Asian Games struggle with?
10. Hey doc, nice Treo!

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Blogger and Gmail

Just what is wrong with blogger and gmail today? Everything is so slow! I can't get to my gmail because I get a time-out page and when my blogger account finally loads up, there are very important buttons missing...I'm blogging this via my yahoo account now. Grr.

I think why everything is so slow is because Blogger came out of beta today. I'm still on the old version and have been resisting going to beta because this new version integrates gmail and blogger. I use my regular name in my gmail account, and it is just too scary to see my name suddenly appearing on the comments I make. I'll rather be mis_nomer, thank you very much.

I hope it irons out soon. This makes me want to plonk down good money for a domain name and server space.

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Cold and wet no more

I'm so glad to be home and dry. It has been raining for 12 hours straight. Foreign parts get snow in December; we get dripping umbrellas, wet socks, and freezing cold public transportation.

Of course, Canadian resident b who thinks that -5 degrees is "balmy" will snort at my definition of "freezing cold public transportation". Well. I can only say that equatorial Singaporeans are more susceptible to tiny downward shifts in temperature than our temperate counterparts. It's in our genetic make up. Just check out the pictures of kops21 running the NY marathon and you'll see why.

(Congrats to kops21 for running and finishing such an iconic race!)

What always amazes me (in a bad way) is how the bus can still smell so bad when there is all this water washing everything away. The people who smell bad obviously use umbrellas. The people who don't smell bad use deodorant.

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Tip #1

You should not have an over-ripe banana for breakfast, followed with by coffee and milk (somewhat cuddled curdled from swishing around in the bus), the morning you are in charge of a company function.

Just don't do it.

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Judge me

Take out your measuring scales --
___I will stand still --
Against your ruler etched
___black with moral markers
the how what why wherefore the colour
___of underwear worn on Tuesday last
of righteous behaviour.

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Three years running, two weeks lazing

Dang it, I am getting fat! It took me three years to look somewhat like a runner, but it takes only two weeks to accumulate a happy soft layer over the chin and belly. How horrendous.

I must, I must, I must cut down the sugar in my beverages. Until I can run again, it is kopi kosong (black coffee) and water for me. How to tide through the Christmas season?

Isn't it strange that it only took three years to go from fretting about running the first 10k to fretting about the first marathon? In June 2004 I said: "the thought of being able to complete 10k gives me a high." Wow. And then I said something deep about how training for a physical race is like training for the spiritual. Three years, but I haven't progressed much in the latter.

This is a photo entitled "Three years running": from left, 10km Gold Coast, Australia; 21.1km Standard Chartered; Mt Kinabalu; 21.1km Sheares Bridge; 42.195km Standard Chartered. There was a 12km Sheares Bridge Run between the 10km and the 21.1km too. Step by step towards the prize, if you know what I mean.



I can't help but wonder if the elation I felt when I saw the finishing line will be akin to my feelings at the end of the world.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Tim 4:7

I hope.

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Sorry about the tardiness (and randomness)

I've finally got down to responding to the comments on my earlier posts. Sorry about the tardiness. I'm going to blame it on blogger though: for some reason I couldn't access the comments on a few posts the last few days, but today everything kicked into place. Yippee.

I've updated the "Where to find that elusive locker" post with this very important and happy piece of news: lockers at the Central Library are now free! Yippee! Now I don't have to plan my library days around minimizing the number of times I have to take my stuff out of the locker! (Effectively this means I can take a tea break whenever I want.) A piece of advice -- I'm so irritatingly full of advice I irritate myself, but I really have to get this off my chest -- please watch over your laptop when you're at the library, even when it looks like everyone there is a genuine library user. The last time I was there, a man had his laptop stolen. Not fun.

In other news, the folks in the US can get a free Treo 680 if they sign up a 2 year contract with Cingular! The lucky buggers. Lucky for me I'm in love with my Sony Ericsson.

I was sad to read about James Kim who died while trying to get help for his family when they got stranded in a car in the Oregon wilderness. My sympathy and condolences to the family. What James did was heroic. I can't help but wonder if it would be better if he had stayed in the car though. When two British teenagers got lost on the slopes of Mt Kinabalu, the one who stayed survived, the one who went to look for help died. Sigh.

Now that I've included the flippant and the heroic and made this post truly rojak (mixed up), I think I had better stop here.

[bold where I repeat myself]

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This post has been archived

I am an email-writing machine. But no one seems to be answering my emails. Is everyone on vacation?

It says something of my Frame Of Mind when all the files and documents pertaining to an event I'm helping to organize is stored under "Archived Events" and I can't be bothered to put it under "Current" since it'll be over soon, anyway.

What do you call people like that? The people who have such a sense of the onward march of time that the present slips into the past even before they can live it?

Maybe I'll call it living out of the archive folder.

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Wake me up when September ends

Driving away from a week-long wedding celebration at a remote beach house, this song comes on the radio.

"It's kinda melancholic, isn't it. Is September supposed to be a melancholic month?"
"Not really. This song is about September 11 and the Iraq war."
"Oh." And it hits me like a ton of bricks.

Last night, I insisted that it is much too early to buy Christmas gifts since it is only November. My buddy looked at me incredulously and said, "November?"

"Oh."

I woke up this morning and lay in bed and wondered where November went.

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5 niggly things bothering me today

1. My socks won't stay up.
2. My eyes won't stay open.
3. There is a large chip off the heel of my left shoe.
4. My socks won't stay up!
   
5. It is a very long draggy Monday.

What's yours?

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Public Pools in Singapore

Swimming is just not my forte. Today, I was nothing like a swift swimmin' tuna. Instead, I swam like a waddling drowning duck. Waddle, waddle, BREATHE!, waddle, waddle, BREATHE!, drink some water, exhale, spit, waddle, waddle, BREATHE!, *where is the ?!?!? wall?*, waddle, waddle, BREATHE!

I waddle on land; I waddle in the water. Why should I be surprised?

Anyway, since it is a lazy Sunday afternoon and I jia ba bo dai ji zuo (eat already nothing better to do), here is my take on the public pools I've visited in the last three weeks.

Cost:
Per Entry (Adults): Weekdays $1; Weekends $1.30
Locker: Small $0.20; Large $0.20 x 2

Yio Chu Kang Swimming Pool
Smole thinks the lights in this pool are very bright and distracting. The toilets are okay, just a little dark and a lot of algae on the walls. The free-form pool is decent for swimming laps if you're not very confident about swimming in the deep pool. The only thing is that there aren't any lines and because the pool is weird-shaped, you may end up not swimming in a straight line. [map]

Buona Vista Swimming Pool
I like this one. It is an "old-styled" pool with the drains at the side of the pool and slippery porcelain-like tiles. I like the sound of water lapping at the sides of the pool. They remind me of swimming in Yan Kit back in the old days, except that Yan Kit had nasty rough walls. Buona Vista also has dry changing rooms -- a big plus! Buona Vista only has one 50m pool. [map]

Ang Mo Kio Swimming Pool
For some reason I can't remember Ang Mo Kio very well. There were a lot of kids the day I went. Erm, that's about all I can remember! [map]

Delta Swimming Pool
Delta is supposedly cruising ground for gay men in Singapore. I wouldn't know. But the signs in the toilets are telling: "G-strings, transparent and translucent swimming attires are not allowed" and "Please do not walk around naked as there may be young children of the opposite sex." Okaay. There were lots of kids taking lessons on Sunday afternoon though, and its fair share of hunky looking guys. Perhaps it was a Sunday, but a lot of the shower stalls had shampoo packets, tissues that people had left behind. Eeck. At least it had dry changing rooms. [map]

Jalan Besar Swimming Pool
There is a friendly lifeguard there who would give you swimming tips if you're lucky. Jalan Besar is the newest swimming pool in Singapore, built only in June 2003. The kids pool has one of those fancy plastic playground things, and everything is new and clean. The non-deep pool is great for laps too as it has painted lines on the floor for you to follow. I think the length is about 30-odd metres. My only gripe? The shower stalls are way too small! [map]

Aranda Country Club
Okay, this is not a public pool, but I got a chance to swim there anyway. It is really small, but hey, the clean and new toilets are worth the numerous times you have to turn around. No wonder people want to live in condos. [map]

Full list of swimming complexes here. Note that you can't swim at Farrer Swimming Pool as it is run by Ang Peng Siong now and it requires a membership.

Stealing Runner's World John Bingham's tagline: Waddle on, friends!
Read more

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Swift and fat as tuna

So I ran 42.195km on Sunday, and four days later, what does my mother say to me? She says that I've put on weight and that I look fatter in my face! Gracious me! There is no winning this race.

I'm inclined to agree with her though. All that carbo-loading before the marathon has increased my stomach capacity. The day before the marathon, I ate enough for a small army. I'm still eating enough for a small army.

Anyway, I've stopped running for now 'cos I want my Illiotibial Band to heal up properly. I've set up an appointment to see the sports doctor because I want to run for life, not just one brilliant, exploding spark the year before I turn 30.

Meanwhile, I'm working on my freestyle in public pools all over Singapore. I'm going to write a review on public pools soon: toilets, cleanliness, price, the works. Swimming the freestyle still tires me out completely, but Smole tells me that I'm actually getting better! My new mantra is: "Swift as tuna!" (as opposed to my mantra the weeks leading up to the race: "Ma-ra-thon. Ma-ra-thon" as I gasp for air and sink...)

There are so many new things to learn and master.

[I can't open the comments on this post for some reason, very strange.]

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The bibs on our backs

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The dog and I,

__
____hanging out at labrador park.

Isn't she a sweetie?

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My mother is 58 this Sat

My mother has fallen twice this month. The first time, while trying to manoeuvre between the pavement and the grass, she fell on her face and chipped her front tooth. She sprained her ankle and her upper lip was red and swollen for days.

Even before the swelling on the lip has completely subsided, she fell again. It was late last night and she didn't see the speed hump. This time she fell on her hands, but her face hit the ground anyway, breaking her spectacles into two and bruising her cheek.

Heart pain, you know what I mean?

Fortunately, my mother is strong and well-built. She is taller than both me and my dad. She can also walk faster than both of us put together! When she was younger, she beat everyone in the company's badminton tournament and emerged the women's champion. She is a very brave and amazing person, very much the opposite of me.

I just wish she would walk slower and watch where she is going!

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The amazing human body

Smole and I celebrated our finish Singapore-style with a very large 1kg chilli crab last night. Chilli crab must have some secret special qualities 'cos I woke up this morning practically pain-free. Climbing Mt Kinabalu made me walk funny for two weeks and it has only been three days since the marathon! I'm pleasantly surprised. The human body is amazing in the way it regenerates itself.

On one of our long runs, I asked Smole if it was possible to re-create a human brain since brain cells seem fairly simple in its structure. If we can grow nerve endings, why can't we create a simple brain that sends signals and controls the other parts of the body? We know what kind of signals the brain sends. Smole said that while it is possible to grow brain cells, it remains a mystery how the brain creates new connections, i.e. the process of learning. Hence, scientists haven't been able to create a self-functioning and self-renewing organ. The way we learn is mysterious: Eric for example has taught his brain to is wired such that he different hands for different functions, like throwing a baseball with his left, and batting with his right . Some of us are effectively bilingual; some of us not. Some seem born to learn, some take longer.

Sometimes we forget that the human body is still remarkably mysterious. We think that the human body is something like a car and going to the doctor is like going to the mechanic. We expect the doctor to have the diagnosis in black and white and to be all-knowing. But it is not like this at all. Amanda from London wrote in to BBC and asked why the hospitals took so long to diagnose the Russian ex-spy of Poloium-210 poisoning, as if it is so easy to tell what exactly is wrong when a person falls ill. Sure, now in the aftermath of this poisoning, everyone is testing for Polonium, but this is the way medicine is, it is a trial and error process rather than a process where you possess the blueprint to begin with, the way you do with a car.

I am all for pushing the frontiers of knowledge. It is better to know than to be ignorant, and the more you observe, the more experienced you will become. But I think it is imperative that we retain that sense of mystery and awe, because after all, we are not man-made products; after all, even if we don't have a blueprint, we do have a spark of the divine.

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Handlebars and segways, some of my favourite things

I love the handlebars in the handicapped toilet. When I grow old, I want handlebars like that in my toilet. The way I've been recklessly plopping myself on the seat, it is only a matter of time that my derriere will one day miss its mark and fall right in. I also want a multi-terrain segway, or a walking stick, or a trolley with a butler. If you cannot tell by now, I'm having mobility issues.

Kops and Reno have both suggested that I go for a swim or brisk walk to aid the recovery process. What a good idea. Now if I can just remember how to walk...

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We are the plodders of the world!

We are the plodders of the world!
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the plodders-
We are the plodders
No time for losers
'Cause we are the plodders- of the world!

Sung to the tune of Queen's "We are the champions"

Smole and I made this song up the very first time we ran long enough to feel bored -- it was a 13.5km training run at East Coast Park -- back then, the plan was to work up to where we could run for "two hours or so". Today, we ran for five hours and fifty-four minutes. What a long way we've come.

Of course it hurt. My ITB gave way at the 18km mark. There was a sharp pain and the knee just stopped being able to bend. I popped two ponstans, two panadols, and hobbled on, and waited for the painkillers to kick in.

Thank God for painkillers and deep heat and painkiller gel and friends who wait at the 33km mark and a buddy who inspires; but most of all, for the cool weather today and the strength to run.

The psychological turning point for me came at the U-turn at East Coast (27.5km mark). From then on, we were on our way back, and we had Jamie Oliver to look forward to at the 33km mark. It was so good to see her. We stopped for about 5-10 minutes, and she ran with us to Fort Road. That was possibly the most light-hearted stretch of the race.

From then on, it was sheer grit. Step by step, psych-ing myself with "Pain is Nothing"; "Pain is Nothing"; "Pain is Nothing". It was only at the 37km mark that I felt somewhat confident that we would finish, and I started crafting a post for this blog. This was the post I crafted in my head:

"ITBS and fatigue, I laugh at your face!

But now I succumb to my bed."

It is probably indicative of my frame of mind then. ;)

I was so happy when I ran under the Esplanade bridge and someone shouted: "400m more!" and there were photographers and supporters and I knew I would finish that I just about teared up. Turning that corner and seeing the finishing line, looking at Smole and pointing and smiling, and finally, running, running, hand-in-hand to the finish, a dream come true.

Perhaps we are champions after all. :)

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finished

ecstatic.

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Don't panic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had so much carbo today that if I don't run tomorrow, I'll put on weight. Seriously, you'll be surprised at how much this moderate-sized girl can pack in in a single day when she puts her mind to it. Be awed:

1. One coffee
2. Half pack fish crackers
3. One banana
4. One prawn yellow mee, soup
5. One orange and lemon fountain soda.
5. One curry pumpkin soup, with
6. One and three-quarters bun
7. One crab-craw spaghetti
8. One bite mudcake
9. One Vitamin C effervescent drink
10. One duck rick, with duck leg

I think I can feel my ITB throbbing in anticipation as I type. I've been sneezing and sniffling all day too. Pscychosomatic I am.

This is my revised marathon to-do list on protopage. Note that "carbo load" is crossed out. And guess what? I bumped into Jamie Oliver today and she said that she will be at the 33km mark to cheer us on! YAY! She's so sweet. Hence I have a new category: "Things to leave with J".



It is 8:15pm and I'm too nervous (and full!) to fall asleep. I think I'll go deflect this restless energy and pick up my messy room. Thanks for all the well wishes!

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Foolhardy plans

My Marathon To-Do list:


I forgot to add "stretch" to the "day of" list.

Just watching the cursor move through the route on this page gives me the heebies jeebies.



Imagine this. It is only 200m as the crow flies between the start and finish point. Somehow we're going to make that 0.2km stretch to 42.195km.

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Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

I heard the names "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego" twice in a matter of three hours today. It was very strange -- the first time was when my friend wanted to talk about the story out-of-the-blue (I still don't know why), and the second was when I opened the door of my room and heard the remnants of an audio sermon wafting from the living room.

Hearing "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego" twice in three hours was so uncanny that I had this conversation:

Me: "So, erm, God, why Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?"

*silence*

"Erm, are you telling me that I ought to eat only vegetables and drink only water and I'll finish the marathon well?"

*silence*

"It's something about the fire right? The fact that Jesus was with them in the fire and that the fire could not harm them?"

*silence*

"Gosh. That's very sweet. But I wonder why you have to resort to such coincidences to speak, you know what I mean?"

*silence*

"Okay okay, I know, if I don't read my Bible, how else is it supposed to happen..."

*silence*

"But, you know, I'm not so sure about not being harmed by the fire. I'm not even sure of my salvation..."

*silence*

"Go fill up that form on my table? What kind of an answer is that? I ask you such a profound question and you give me something to do?"

Sometimes, just sometimes, he gives you exactly what you need.

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sshhhh, don't tell anyone

If my colleagues noticed, they are too polite.

*whispers* I'm wearing exactly the same thing I was wearing yesterday.

And it isn't even a generic black top, but a multi-coloured and striped long sleeve shirt. Heh heh heh.

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It makes me happy

Objectively, this week in MN's life doesn't look too hot. There is that marathon at the end of the week that she is not prepared for, and there are those two niggly, worrying hospital visits this week. But somehow, in the midst of all this leg dragging and general grouchiness, some things make her feel better, like that smiling log bench with the twig in its mouth; like the following God-sent people:

1. A lifeguard who says to her: "?????????????????" (Miss, you need to pull harder on your stroke, all the way back to your thigh.") And the ensuing conversation on the marathon and how he once had to be carried out on the twenty-something mark and could not pass motion for a week after. He thought my Chinese was good! He must have had chlorine in his ears. ;)

2. A colleague who brings a ??? (hard-boiled egg cooked in tea leaves) in a paper cup covered in tin-foil.

3. A married pastor friend who buys me lunch and is real enough to whisper over kaya toast and teh, "eh, do you think that lady in white there is gorgeous?"

4. A friend who calls on the phone and tells me she is going dancing with the penguins in the arctic.

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er, does anyone know why Chinese doesn't show up on my blog?

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A simple life

The death of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko from Polonoium-210 poisoning reads like something out of a thriller novel. The ex-spy was in the midst of investigating the murder of his compatriot Anna Politkovskaya -- Anna Politkovskaya was shot to death only last month -- when he himself was poisoned. The day he fell ill, he met two Russians and later in the day, his Italian friend at a sushi bar. Just before he died on 23 November 2006, he made a statement blaming Mr. Putin for his death.

I was following the story on the BBC news and I had to have some serious suspension of disbelief. A sushi bar, an uncommon radioactive substance that is not easily traced, a statement blaming the top man in Russia, what in the world is going on?

It reeked of the Cold War and the ubiquitous fear in the 80s that a nuclear bomb would take out the entire civilized world, except that this time, it was somebody else's problem. In a completely selfish way, it made me grateful for the simple life. It is enough when you can have the peace of mind to sleep at night and the composure to enjoy the little things in life.

The situation concerning powerful nations, policies and hidden agendas is so complicated that I don't even know what to hope for. The naive hope that the world will be a better and more ethical place? Perhaps. Because I don't know how else to articulate it.

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory,
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,
Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,
Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,
Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,
Thanks through all eternity!

Believe it or not

Sept 11, 1978
A man in a bowler hat fires a pellet of ricin from an umbrella into the thigh of Georgi Markov. He dies four days later. An umbrella! That's like the The Penguin in Batman!

September 2004
Viktor Yushchenko, an Ukrainian opposition presidential candidate, is poisoned with dioxin, causing a drastic change in his appearance.

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Getting rid of the search bar in Firefox

Do you know how Mozilla makes money? Every time you use the Google Search Bar at the top right hand corner of the Firefox browser and click one of the sponsored links (Google Ads), Mozilla gets a cut. It is rumoured that Mozilla made something to the tune of 72 million in 2005.

I'm not against them making money or anything. I just like a clean browser. Everything ought to be useful, and the search bar isn't for me as I do my searches through the address bar. I already have keywords for all my favourite searches. So I removed it.

1. Right-click the menu bar > Customize
Drag the search bar into the box that popped up.

It's that easy.

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ITB Anonymous: Session IV

Hello everyone, my name is Ms. Nomer, and I have a problem.

A bit of trivia before I start: what is an important difference between running and swimming?

After a swim, you're not smelly!

This past week, my bedroom has been suffused with the antispetic smell of chlorine, unlike the usual musky smell emanating from the laundry basket at the corner of the room. I almost like the sweaty smell more than the chlorine smell, just because it is more familiar and it always makes me feel happy and accomplished.

So after a week of not running, I went for my first run yesterday evening. My mind had grown soft -- I wasn't looking forward to exerting myself at all -- but once I got started, it felt so remarkably good to get gloriously sweaty again. Great big glops of sweat, like a labourer at work. And the cadence of the feet, the ability to breathe whenever I wanted to, the music in my ears, the road before me, it was all very good.

And then of course, the pain set in.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not be able to walk after the marathon this coming Sunday. It is not like I haven't cut back my mileage. My total mileage this past week was less than 10km. How I am going to go from less than 10km to 42.195km this coming Sunday is going to somewhat of a miracle on the Moses-parting-the-red-sea scale. Not to mention the ITB. My longest run so far is about 26km; my ITB is probably irrevocably inflamed; the die is cast.

But dang it, I'm going to finish it anyway, hobbling if required.

So, since it doesn't help to ruminate on this matter any more as the die is cast, I'll just do what I have to this week (swim the freestyle, eat, drink) and think about something else altogether:

Do people sweat when they swim?

If so, is that why public pools taste salty?

Food for though eh? :) Have a good day.

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A Good Year

We were going to watch Happy Feet with the tickets J gave us -- according to Gwynne, Happy Feet got rated "PG" in the US for "mild peril", haha! -- but the folks at the cinema said that we couldn't watch Happy Feet with free tickets.

So we watched A Good Year instead, starring Russell Crowe as Max Skinner. You know, despite the bad reviews, we actually really liked it. I tend to end up liking the movies that I know nothing about going in. I think the lack of expectations really helps. It works like this: if you don't know it is supposed to be a romantic comedy, the humour takes you by surprise. If you know that you are going to watch a romantic comedy, then you expect it to make you laugh, and if you're particularly demanding, you'll even expect it to expand the boundaries of its genre.

So on hindsight, knowing that it is supposed to be a romantic comedy, it isn't fantastic 'cos it doesn't make a person root for the couple the way the best romantic comedies do. The falling-in-love-couple-thing is a side plot in my opinion. But taken on its own, labels aside, A Good Year is actually quite funny in a slapstick kinda way. The vineyard it is set in is also gorgeous; dappling sunlight through leaves... you can practically smell the wine from your seat.


One of our favourite scenes from the movie.

This movie has a preponderance of female flesh for some reason. No nudity or obscenity or anything (not that I can remember anyway). Just that the camera pans and lingers, for absolutely no reason at all. I suppose that for some folks, that is reason enough to go watch it. But if you do, don't expect too much. Set out to have a good time, and you'll probably will. :)

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A to-do and a to-wish list

Running late. I have five minutes. I wish I could draw.  And run.  And dance the tango.  And settle down.

I've done no running this week -- only freestyle, back and forth until my lungs cannot take it anymore, which doesn't take very much at all.  I've been eating and sleeping in and getting lazy.  So I must -- I tell myself  -- I must go for a short run this evening and hope that it will not protest. 

Running late.  I may have to skip the shower.

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Musings after midnight

I'm a prolific blogger. I know it when it is 2am and I'm sitting in front of the computer blogging. My last post was about 12 hours ago, yet I feel like I still have so much to tell you.

I know it because I don't keep a paper diary anymore. I had one for years and years -- they ran into volumes, the pink one with the lock when I was younger, the fancy hard-backed books bound with blank paper, then the sensible black with a spiral ring -- they all lie dusty with secrets under my bed now, this love affair with my own words, and all I have is this.

I have gained an audience, lost an autobiography.

I don't do names anymore, or details, facts, or precise emotions that can be pinned down to a single person, day or moment. I distill my life for the general, stick in a few acronyms so they cannot find the name behind the moniker, and post it here -- my life as it is, for you to read and find something you like, for me to have a record, a catalyst for the past.

This wedding I was at -- surely you were at one just like it only last week; this marathon, your life feels like an uphill course with setbacks at every corner; this Monday blue feeling; this missing; this feeling of being in love; this terrible slapstick humour.

Heck, I could even be you.

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Bootylicious Snippets from my Morning Surf

I'm a little coffee pot. (www.comics.com)


This is for you, Smole! Guess why it is for you? :) Monty is possibly my favourite comic of all time. (www.comics.com)








Bootylicious is actually the word for the day on the Oxford English Dictionary. Not just any 'ole dictionary ok? This is THE OED we are talking about.

And finally, Virtual Map which runs www.streetdirectory.com is being sued by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). SLA just launched its online map portal yesterday. What goes around comes around. Now that I've said this, I'll probably get sued by www.comics.com. [Story via Otterman.]

(Click on comic for larger version.)

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H's wedding in photos

Okay, it's time for photos. I realised this trip that H and I haven't been in the same country for over ten years now. She visited me when I was in Arkansas; I visited her in St. Louis; then she visited me in Singapore; I visited her in Sydney; and like this, a decade has come and gone. It is kinda neat that I don't even notice it though. Time, distance, new accents, professions, boyfriends, husbands, girlfriends.. all just negligible blips. :)

Bridal paraphernalia


Bridal shoes


Flowers for the bride. Pretty eh? My friend Scrabby did them.


Bridemaids' dress


Kissing on a cake

Wedding day


That's me lacing up the bride. I was still wearing my sports watch.


Arrgh! Rain! Holding up the bride's train and hitching up my skirt. I have no grace.


Watching... and getting a tear streak in my make-up.


I got to be a witness!


The precious red-headed flower girl.

Some photos of food.


Shabu-shabu. Gosh.. the beef! the tofu! and onions too!


Scallops.

And to round up, a photo of the happy couple


On the morning of the wedding day.
See photos below

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Why run?

Have you seen the latest Adidas advertisements? Where these guys wear bibs declaring the reason they run, like "Because No. 2689 talked me into it."? I think they are great!











I especially empathise with reason No: 2418, taped-nipples and all.

Guess what? Guess what? They will be giving us these special bibs to wear on the back of our shirts during the marathon! :)

Ooh ooh ooh.. what shall we write?

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Update: ahhahaha, we know what we're going to write and it's going to be funny and obscure and pay tribute to the 42.2km!

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