Interesting Facts

I know I know..I mentioned in FB that I'm feeling fatigued from so much political vibes for the past few weeks.  I was going to declare that that I will not click on a single link today.  No news. No YouTube. No blogs.

Then I saw this.

Well, I'd argue that the content of this isn't really full fledge politics..but rather interesting facts if you scroll and look at the views/like/dislikes figures for the various youTube videos.

Quite interesting actually.

Source : The Malaysian Insider

Click HERE for full article from Malaysian Insider.

05.05.13

This coming Sunday, is a very very important and exciting day for Malaysia.  Probably the most exciting ever since independence.

A gym-mate at the regular Sunday class that I go to said.."ok..I won't be coming next week, hope it will be a new M'sia when we meet the following Sunday"

Just realised I've not posted much about political issues here despite all the hype.  Well, there's been so much, I didn't think I'd need to say anything.

In case you think I don't care, I do.  Hence, I'm taking time-off from my work to do this post.

I've been following posts and tweets of selected parties and politicians.  For several nights, I was very close to falling asleep, and ended up watching ceramah (talks) online.

I have short attention span on these kind of serious matters, I'm quite surprise myself that I could actually stay awake in the middle of the night listening to these talks.




Tony Pua at Taman Megah




Hannah Yeoh at Gasing





And this .. I don't understand Mandarin very well, but this is so hilarious yet informative.




A friend forwarded this to me...source unknown.

I'm still trying to get my head around this..

The Opposition stated that they need a comfortable 125 parliament seats to be able to take over.

Found another article from Malaysia Chronicle that had this analysis of possible outcome of GE13:

1.     Popular Vote Tie – If an equal number of voters vote for both sides, the popular vote will be tied at 50%-50%. A BN victory, because they will capture 133 seats versus 89 for PR. (How does this happen? GERRYMANDERING.)

2.     5% PR win – If PR has 5% more voters than BN, they irrationally will still lose the election. (Isn’t democracy about getting more votes than the other guy? Nope, not in the cheat-prone and antiquated British FPTP democracy.) BN will get 118 seats versus 104 for PR.

3.     10% PR win – But if PR gets 10% more voters, then there will be a reversal. The opposition will capture Parliament for the first time in history. PR will now get 119 seats vs 103 for BN.

Today is my Birthday

I did not display my birthdate in FB.

Only received 9, at most 10 birthday wishes.

Sad right?

Nevertheless, I had an awesome day :D

"You're not limited, you're Adaptive"

Not too long after the Boston bombings, my dad asked if I'd go running in these events.

My immediate answer was, "I'm not afraid to die, it's the disability due to loss of limbs that scares me.."


Here's a powerful message from the Wounded Military Community to victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.






"You're not limited, you're adaptive" was one of the strongest message that caught my attention.

Adaptation...is probably all we need in this journey of life..regardless of whatever happens..

The Downside & the Upside

I was 'caught' in a meeting from 10 am till after 2 pm.

It's been quite some time since I attended such a long meeting.

Before the meeting, the background work started way back in the beginning of the month.  I was roped in from the beginning as an overall support team member.  Although, a few times, it was mentioned that my role is supposed to be more than 'support', it gets a bit tricky when I'm not part of the organisation.

In a way, it's a blessing :D

Since the meeting was in town, I planned to go down town to visit my aunt and have for some 'real food', assuming the meeting ends by lunch time.  I was wrong, of course.

It was past lunch time, all of us had zoned out.  My other 'full time' team members had other meetings to rush to, so I excused myself from joining them for a quick lunch before they rush off again, I needed to get away from the busy area anyway.  Ermm..actually..I wanted to have a peaceful slow lunch instead of a rush one.


As I was approaching my car, I thought about this place nearby that I read about..I was in KLCC, no way I wanna have lunch in KLCC.  So, I remembered this place called That Latte Place..the blogger wrote that it's a quiet little place near Jalan Ampang just about 10 mins from KLCC.

So, I explored..with the help of Waze, and after a few u-turns, I found it!

Nice isn't it?

Food menu's limited, cos it's just a small cafe, operated by fine young man.  So, I didn't have my usual full fledge lunch.  But..hey..I had a fairly good cup of latte in such a beautiful calming place right in the middle of KL city centre at 3pm on a weekday.

So..that's the diff when one's not on a full time pay roll ..heh heh heh.

Well, the downside is, I don't get paid consistently.  In fact, it looks I may not have any inflow in April!  Payments comes in on a per job basis, most of the time in 2 parts, at the beginning and upon completion, ideally.  Ideally, yes.  Unfortunately, more often than not, I only receive payment 1-2 months after invoicing.  So, it's like..I know there's money coming in but it's not in yet. Unlike when I was employed..regardless if the project starts or end early, I still get paid at end of every month.

But as you'd probably know, the down side of being employed is..if need be.. you'd end up working more than 12 hours a day.  

Yeah..so it's kind of a chicken or egg situation..

Good news is I've been busy..just realised it's going to be May!

Bad news is....I've been busy, I think I'll still be involve in this project till end Aug! But I don't see alot of money coming in though.  Oh well...as usual..the 'future' is a mystery.  That's the 'thrill', supposedly.

Asus - 10 months later

10 months ago I decided to get a new notebook for work cos the old one was 'acting up'

Some keys didn't respond properly.
The screen was flickering.

So I bought the Asus Zenbook.

10 months later, I'm still using the old notebook for work.
Why?

Cos everything seems to be working fine now!
No flickering.
Keyboard's functioning.



Only fault is it without a battery pack, hence needs to be connected to direct power all the time when being use.

And..sadly and unfortunately, I'd have to admit that I prefer working with the old machine.  The screen's larger.  The keyboard's nicer to type on.  I make less mistakes.

Hmmm...

So..what's the Asus for?
My bedside partner. I use it at night before I go to sleep for leisure surfing, games, and online dramas.


Hmmm

Mr Carlos Arredondo

By now everyone would have heard about the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon.  So tragic. So sad.  Many victims lost their lower limbs, some were children as young as two.  An eight year old was killed. His sister and mother was seriously injured.  They were there as a family cheering at the finishing line watching their father completing the run.


I twitted a story about a 78 year old runner who was just about to cross the finishing line when the the explosion happened, he fell on the floor due to the impact.  Fortunately, he wasn't hurt, a few personnel helped him up, and he instinctively ran on to complete the run.

Many gruesome photos were shared across facebook and twitter.  One of the most widely circulated was of a young man with both legs badly shattered being wheeled away.  Besides paramedics, the pictures captured a man in a cowboy hat by his side.  Reporters managed to track down this hero of the day, he was labeled as the Hero of Boston Bombings.

Read the full story HERE

In short, he was just a humble immigrant from Costa Rica. His own son died while serving in Iraq.  His other son committed suicide due to depression after the brother's death.  He tried killing himself once..before becoming a peace activist eventually.

He was at the scene to cheer for a runner who dedicated his run to his son.  After the explosion, he was one of the first responders who rushed to help the victims.

"So many asking for help, but I can only help one at a time.." he said, his hands trembling, badly shaken by the aftermath.





Amidst of all sadness, it's comforting to know about Heroes like Mr Carlos Arredondo, and it's good to have some coverage on these instead of bombarding our news feed with bloody and gory images.

So..here's to Humanity.

My 3rd Half Marathon at MWM 2013

Went there did it, while driving back we were all tired and aching, I asked the two gals who decided to join us for their 1st Half Marathon (with limited training).  They are not regular runners, the furthest they ran was 7, may be 10 km, but they are quite active as in..they hike, go to the gym etc.  So I asked,  "What made you decide to sign up for a Half Marathon just like that?


"Well, we thought there ain't much time left to do something out of ordinary..."

Fair enough.

How often do you wake up at 2am to go out running?
Work till 2am, yes, many times.
Hang out till 2am, yes, numerous times.

Wake up at 2am to run 21km ... very rare indeed.

Was at race site the day before to collect our kit.  Traffic was terrible.  It was already about 4pm by the time we got back to town.  We sat down for a quick drink to rest and went back home.  

We were planning to hot to bed around 9pm, latest, you see.

I didn't sleep until close 1am.  Seriously.

As usual, regardless of the limited hours of sleep, the entire process was somewhat euphoric.  

Ya....running for 3 hours can be such a drag..but once completed, there's an unexplained sense of achievement..and you'd tend to want more and more.

By the way, I still couldn't figure out how come I got a better time, may be the route was easier, may be I was fitter than before..or it's really the wonders of RockTape haha.

I can't really remember the details, although it was only about a week ago.  As mentioned in earlier post, aches and pains were manageable throughout the whole run.   Much much beter than I expected, honestly, I was half expecting that I will either quit half way or drop on the floor due to severe cramps upon finishing.  Neither happened, thanks to diligent stretching therapy , RockTape and diligent trips to the gym and to the park :)  In fact, my back/butt hurt more now (due to sitting for too long) than when I was running for 3 hours.

Recovery period was shorter too..it took me almost 7 days to be able to walk properly after Energiser's 15.5km.  This time, I was feeling alright after 2-3 days. Returned to gym on the 4th day, legs were useless but I stayed till the end of class.  yay.

Overall, it was a good event.  Considered very well organised for a first time event.

Crowd was very much smaller mainly because it's only for 50% of the population.  Due to the smaller crowd, we got all the time we need to take photos at the official backdrops.  We never got a chance to do that in all the other runs as there were simply too many people :D

Males were allowed as pacers for their partners, i.e. they must complete the race together with their female partner, otherwise they will be disqualified.  I came a cross a few 'real partners' as in husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend who ran together side by side, more often than not the man will guide and motivate the lady to hang on.  Pleasant sight.

In my opinion, the registration fee was quite high (RM75 for HM) given that there wasn't any official running vest.  We got a pareo instead, which I don't intend to use at all.  Other goodies were Perskindol, some magazines dated January, Power bar, Nestle Fitnesse cereals, and that's all I think.  Nothing to shout about, really.

The only other highlight of the event was they brought in Kathrine Switzer, the running legend.

Well, some will say that true runners don't bother about prizes and vest..they only want to complete the run :)

Right..see below, a wonderful wonderful video that captured the real essence of a run, ermmm, basically it summarises what we do before, during and after a run .. see if you can feel the 'euphoria' and understand why runners do this over and over again :P

Personal Best so far .. at MWM 2013

It was a great achievement.

My aim was just to complete the run with minimal pain and hopefully be able to come back in 3.5 hours.

Was surprise to see 3:04 in Runkeeper, I thought, it must be some lost GPS signal along the way.. after all we were running in the suburbs of Shah Alam :P

Look!

Real-life tracker's Official time

Last two HM was about 3:15 or so.


I think the RockTape helped in some ways.  Secondly, I was relatively more diligent this time in making sure I run at least once a week, although not much but I think it helped.


I'm also very pleased with the after effect so far.  Aches are manageable. Definitely much much better than previous.

Knee's fine. Legs are fine. Hips are fine. Ankles are fine.

Once again, it's proven - when there's a will, there's a way.


RockTape Rocks.

I've been busy lor

Sorry I've not been updating.  Been pretty busy with not sure what.

Q1's looking good from a business perspective, the problem is I only have a pair of hands and one pea brain.  There's only so much I can do in a day, so when more things come in, it gets out of hand.  What I'm trying to say is, in real business sense, the volume isn't that much but when it's only me, I and myself doing the work, it gets tough.  In fact, I turned down some jobs simply because I don't want to work 24 / 7.

On the personal front, it's been busy too.  I got addicted to Candy Crush. I'm still 'managing' my Village Life.  I've been back to watching HK Drama.  I still go to the gym.  I needed to practice for the Half Marathon.  So there's just so much to do in that few hours before I dose off :D Last few nights I've been crushing candies till 2am hahhaha.


Later. going to go pick up the race kit for tomorrow's run at I-City Shah Alam.

Flag off is at 5.30am at the same place, that means I'll have to (ideally) sleep at 9pm, wake at 2.30am, pick a friend up at 4am (latest).

I'll be trying the RockTape for this run, it costs about RM60 per roll!  No choice I'm desperate.  With all the problems I have with my back, hips, legs, knee, ankles, I think I might as well tape the entire lower body!

Ok...gotta run.

Source: memebase.cheezburger.com via elifesl on Pinterest

Oh..that's me Crushing Candies at 2am :D

Big Black Dog

My latest craze:

Big Bad Black Dog

I won't bother elaborating on what goes into it..who cares, it's YUMMMMMY.

Best hot dog I've ever had.

My main problem is..it doesn't fill me up completely.

May be I should have two next time  o.O

My second problem, this damn dog is so good, I think I won't be able to resist ordering it again and again, visit after visit. So..I won't be able to try their burgers :(

The Grind Burger Bar

Jalan 17/45, Petaling Jaya

(Same row as Kanna Curry House Sec 17)

P/S: 

No queue like the infamous myburgerlab.  Ample seats too.

And, and, it's open for lunch!

And, there's a wider beverages options..in case you didn't notice the Asahi in my pic :)

And, and, pssst...menu is non halal :) porky available.

This is differentiation lor, in marketing sense.