June 2007 ~ TRISTUPE.COM

Friday, June 29, 2007

StarCeleb.tv

*This is a Sponsored Posting - ~~or sort of la!~~ PAID!*

I'm sure most of you that visit this blog would had noticed the StarCeleb.tv advert on the right side of this blog and even at every end of my blog entry.

Have any of you went for the audition last weekend at Parkroyal Hotel, KL?

If not, fear not, for the next audition will take place this weekend, at the same place and time!

Basically they are looking for 2 winners which will get RM25K each and one year of hosting/modelling contract. Not a bad deal, really.

They will choose 60 individuals with a spectrum of talent which will then take part in the contest and be featured in the new television reality show.

So, this time, you don't really have to sing like Vince of AF1 fame, or be able to dance like the You Think You Can Dance program, or even have powderful voice like Jaq Victor of Malaysian Idol. If you could play flute with your nose, make music with your armpit or even create a symphony with your farts, i'm sure they would love to hear from you and see you at the audition.

So, if you think you have the look, the walk, the talk and the charms (plus the X-factor i just mentioned above), go ahead, click on here and apply online

The next best thing? There is a clause in the Rules and Regulation that forbid current artiste and models to take part!

All you need to do is to comply with the age requirement of 18 to 30 years old and be able to converse and read English OR Mandarin, if you could do both, i'm sure you stand a really good chance to win!

Oh ya, did i mention that Daniel Tan and May Wan (as with the two pictures above) will be hosting it, so, you also get your few seconds of fame la!

So, if you are not as old as me and still within the age bracket, go ahead, count yourself lucky that i'm not eligible to enter or i will definately be one of the finalist to bag the RM25k!

And no, i can't make music with my armpit!

It Will Be Major Adjustment

I went for an interview yesterday. First in my life after the last job i actually had with Naga DDB after i graduate. Infact, my CV and resume writting skills are so bad i was stuck after filling up my own personal details.

Was i scared? A little i supposed. The company that i went for the interview was a subsidiary of some larger company, US based, dealing mostly with US company.

I have no idea what position i was to apply, as it was a "shoot blindy" application; send CV and cover letter and keep finger crossed.

"Ee-Van, can you come for an interview this Thursday at 6.30pm", the Director/Regional Manager asked me on Tuesday, barely 2 hours after i sent my CV to them.

Yesterday was a walk in the dark. I have no idea what i was in for. I read the company's profile on their website and granted that they offer services as per what they said, i only have a vague idea what it was all about.

In short, the interview went well, in my opinion at least. I've not went for enough interview to actually know or read other's body language.

The job will be completely different from what i am doing right now, which is being the receptionist, office admin, engineer, site worker all rolled into one.

One Leg Kick.

I would say, the total relevency of what i'm doing and what they (the interviewers)are doing, on the scale of 1 to 10 (10 being most relevant) would be 2.5

But i see it as an opportunity to enrich myself with new skills.

That would be the first major adjustment should i be offered the job.

On the other hand, should i get any other jobs, it would meant a total revamp of my life, biological clock included.

1. No longer would i have the luxury of waking up at 8am everyday, play with Ryan, breakfast with wifey before i head out to office by 9am.

2. I would not be able to blog as often as i want to. Will you all miss me?

3. No more long lunch hours with friends and wifey, or stealing time away to go fix the bike.

4. I could not go to work wearing jeans and polo-t anymore, except friday, maybe.

5. I no longer could leave the office early to go and train for the coming IronMan, or any race for that matter.

6. I must prepare to work way over 6pm everyday, taking away precious family time as well.

7. My weekend might be spent in the office, rushing for deadlines.

8. I no longer could afford to stay up late, a i need to get up early everyday, possibly to escape the traffic.

Yes, i'm pampered for the past 6 years, working in this company. But i've given equal energy to complete all the work i was tasked to do, at times running up and down North South Highway every other day and going down south every week.

I had my honeymoon time, some would say, when other struggle to climb the corporate ladder/race the rat race, i was comfortably doing what i do best at work, and enjoys it.

I have all my fingers crossed, i hope to be offered a job somewhere soon, which pays me relatively ok compared to my current job.

Changes is good, some says, and i hope, when the time comes, the change that i will embark, will be for the better.

Both in my own personal achievement and family commitments.

Cancer Scare

This morning, i brought my MIL to see Doc at UH.

Called him up by 7.45am to tell him i'm in the vicinity and he told me tell the front desk that i want to see him, specifically.

My MIL's left eardrum has ruptured for sometime, causing infection if she isn't careful and get water into her ear canal. As we all know, the Ear, Nose and Throat are all connected. So, her ear infection has caused her to have sore throat as well, due to the inflow of mucus down the throat when she lie down/sleep. This is something i learnt from both Dr. Hisyam and Dr. Amir when i had a bout of bad viral infection a year plus ago.

We registered, paid the RM30 and took a number. Within 20minutes, Doc called for our number and in we went.

Routine check on the ear reveal that there is loads of pus inside the left ear, as per what he saw when he was attached to the hospital in Klang.

He then check her right ear.

"Auntie, any history in the family with cancer?", doc asked.

"yes, my mother", MIL answered. I could clearly see she was starting to worry...

"The eardrum is retracted inside towards your middle ear, and there is a small hole which appears to be healing compared to the last time i saw you", Doc explained

"we go to the microscope room first", Doc added.

So, we went out of Room 2 and headed to the microscope room. MIL was made to lie down and a few apparatus were used and the pus from both ears sucked out.

Loads of it. I could clearly see it as it was shown on the monitor which was attached to the microscope itself. Doc proceed to clean her middle ear as well (Ear Drum no more mah...so, it's all the way through).

Ear's Anatomy

After that, we went back to doc's room and was later told that he need to check for more things.

"auntie, i need to scan you for nose cancer la", doc broke the news.

"You see, the eardrum on your left side is retracted, meaning there might be a blockage in the passage which connects to your nasal passage. It might be because of recurring infection and it might be cancer. Chinese are prone to nasal cancer, unfortunately, so, we need to scan to make sure things are a-ok", doc explained.

"Don't worry mum, doc just looking for excuse to use some expensive machine", i jested, hoping to make her feel a bit better.

So, we followed the nurse to another room with different apparatus.

"Auntie, you can see the screen as i insert the scope into your nasal passage", Doc told MIL.

It doesn't help with the scope being a good 25cm long and my MIL thought doc will shove the whole length in. I assured her just a few inches in.

As doc probe deeper into the nasal passage, i could very well see how worried my MIL was.

Inside the Nasal Passage

"It's ok auntie, you're cleared of any cancer, it might just be infection which caused the eardrum to retract", Doc said.

I could see MIL smile.

The nasal passage' picture above was of my MIL's. The huge piece of thingy there is the "check valve" that connects to the throat, the very same one which when you vomit, food comes out from. This is also the very same passage which will let the mucus flows into your throat.

The worry that doc has is that the hole on the furthest left is blocked, which could had been cancerous. Now that all orifices are cleared, MIL could literally breath with a sigh of relief.

And yeah, her hearing came back after the tonnes of pus being sucked out of her ears.

Thanks Doc, for the very personal service!

Transformers

This post might be the millions in the blogsphere and internet that will talk about the upcoming Transformer : The Movie.

Being an 80's kid and grew up watching cartoons like MASK, Smurfs, Fraggle Rocks, Jems, Care Bears, Voltron, just to name a few, one can't escape and not know about Transformer.

The tagline was also changed twice. From the original MORE THAN MEETS THE EYES to ROBOTS IN DISGUISE.

Autobots

Decepticons

Back in those days, we all culd draw both the logos without refering to any artwork. I tried doing so yesterday, but i guess it comes with age, the memory part of me, i meant.

One thing that irk me most is why the upcoming movie shows Optimus and Megatron to be looking different compared to the cartoon?

Optimus Prime - Then

But of course, loyal follower would know that Optimus was killed by Megatron in a battle and The Matrix was passed to Ultra Magnus before Optimus dies, the leadership was then given to Rodimus (previously known as Hot Rod, why they change name, that one maybe inspired by Prince, or the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, or well, just a Symbol...)

Hot Rod before he becomes Rodimus

But the movie is showing Optimus as the leader in this movie, and he looked, different...not what i expect it to be!

Optimus Beng???!!!

Maybe the see too much of Pimp My Ride and also those Import Tuners thingy and sort of gave Optimus som very Ah Beng stripes...sigh...

I wouldn't had mind if Optimus looked like this even (as in picture below)

Optimus Prime - in his prime...

See, even Megatron got a makeover

Megatron - Then

I think the older Megatron looked more like a Megatron compared to the new one, which looked like a piece of scrap metal!

Transformer or Scrapyard?

Lastly, i got this video on the email from a friend. I know some of you might ahd seen this, but nevertheless, it's a pretty great effort and above all, i bet the guy is in his early 30's!!!! hahahaha!

Proton - QC

As we all know. Proton is notorious for bad QC. Don't get me wrong, this is not anohter post to bash Proton, but merely to highlight why we Malaysians are so forgiving.

Lets face it, Proton cars aren't the cheapest around. At almost RM30K for the most entry level car, it's still expensive for some. So, what do you get for RM30K anyway?

Look at both the pictures below. Both cars are the same variant, the Iswara "facelifted" version.

Silver

Black

To start with, notice how the parts are assembled? one of them is flushed to the edge of the car body, the other is, well...not so flush la.

If you are wondering why i showed both the pictures above, it was because if you do notice it, the black iswara's gap between the body and the boot door was really huge compared to the silver Iswara!

Silver Iswara : +/- 6mm gap

Black Iswara : +/- 8mm gap!!!

OK, much ado about that 2mm differences, but trust me, to the naked eyes, it's really really obscene! Fault me for being detailed with these things. But it speaks volume of how accurate the assembly lines is!

The Black Iswara was with WLM number plate and the Silver one was a WMB plate, giving them essentially about 9 months of differences in manufacturing date (going by the convention that KL plate moves by one alphabet within 3 weeks max).

I'm sure some of you had seen Proton cars door not being able to shut tight/flush with the body once it was closed. This again, is evidence of poor manufacturing standard!

I'm not saying that Proton is a bad manufacturer, other cars manufacturers has their defects as well, but not as often seen in them compared to Proton!

Now that the VW-Proton talk is back in order, i shudder to think that one day a VW Passat or even Golf assembled in Malaysia has these manufacturing imperfection (because it's not defect, but imperfection!)

ISO 9001:2000??? Give me a break!

Ps - i was waiting for wifey in the car when she was at the bank, so all i did was reverse and go forward and took both the car's picture at the same zoom level and distance...and as a contractor, i always have my measuring tape with me!

Tuesday Run

I did not update this yesterday.

Did a run from, the route was Home - Pencala - TTDI -Kiara - KLGCC - Gym. Covered 16km of distance, of which initially i thought was only 15km. The extra 1km was a welcomed surprised.

Home - Pencala - TTDI -Kiara - KLGCC - Gym

Wasn't really feeling well due to lack of sleep/sleepless nights but decided that i need the run, no matter what.

Here is the stats

Time: 1:41:54
Ave HR : 145bpm
Max: 166bpm
Kcal : 2057kcal

I did not do anything yesterday except picking up milk for Ryan and then went to buy Durian for my parents to eat with the Advertlets money i earned couple of weeks ago.

heaven

Claimed to be D13 variant, it cost me RM7/kg, the 5 fruits above was RM65, that works out to about RM13/fruits.

Was it good? Well, yes. I still smell of durian today, and i hope that smell won't offend the possible employer that i will see later today.

I Dreamt Of IronMan

It was a nightmare.

I couldn't find my goggle, i can't find my PowerGel, i can't find my race belt.

My bicycle had both wheels punctured, the chain snapped.

My shoe were torn and my nipples were bleeding.

I woke up thinking if all this will happen next year.

RMC - Bukit Unggul - RMC

Last Saturday,OP Fadzil Chief Kutu, OP Ahmad Ramli, OP Aziz Youp "Pedro", Kutu Azharuddin, Azly "bandit", Ismadi "Chipang" Ismail, Harry Toolseram, OP Azudin and me tested the 28km route out in conjunction with the 7/7/07 cycling to Port Dickson to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 1957 FMC intake.

There is a lot of publicity going around for this celebration, the first being the appearance of Tun Ling, Dato' Seri Radzi and Tan Sri G in the TV2 Fast Forward, and yesterday, it was published in The Star, inclusive of Dato' Yahaya.

Come 7/7/07, there will be about 50 cyclists ( i say will be because some confirmed, some 50-50 and some maybe) will cycle about 88km from RMC in Sungai Besi to Pulada, Port Dickson.

Here is some pictures which i managed to snap on Saturday. It was a slow ride and i spent most of my time behind the pack, as a sweeper.

Distance : 57.56km
Time: 2:39: 14
Ave: 21.6km/h
Max: 57.5km/h

Harry On MTB

Wet Wet Water la!

From Back to Front : Bandit, Azhar, Pedro, Harry

Carbo Reloading for some of us...

Trying to break speed limit

With Chips

Road leading to RMC...tranquility

After the cycling, i went to Sungai Besi town to get some Apam, Apam Balik and Air Tebu. This is one place when you could still get decent food at decent price. RM1.00 for 3 Apam is ok, considering that most places now charges 40sen for one and one whole jug of Sugarcane juice is only RM2.00, which is a good 2 liter!

Fresh...

The sugarcanes

it was a slow good ride for my run recovery. No complains as the company was great too.

The Day I Ran More Than 21KM And It's Not A Race

I went to meet up with a senior from School (yes, we share common schools, both RMC and VI) as he was looking for engineers to fill up the vacancies at his office.

Meeting him was good and bad. Good because i know i might qualify for at least one job there. Bad because it brought me down to reality.

After working in the same place for the longest time since graduation (and by my standard, that is at age 24), despite having the experience in Construction, Structural, Mechanical and Electrical field of work when i am actually a EE graduate, i find myself not qualified for a lot of things.

"Power Engineering?", he asked.

"How about Process Engineering, it s abit boring, but it gets you by", he added.

"You do know Visio right, since you are more of a Project Management person", he asked further.

"OK, how about ISO standards?", he probed furhter.

It was also then i realised that for the past 6 years, i am nothing but a highly paid office boy.

I was really frank with him, i know of nothing that he asked about. if it was an official interview, i would had been asked to get out of the room.

He gave me a few advices and i told him i will get back to him soonest.

Feeling shitty? Yes, i was.

And nothing would do it better than doing a long run.

So, at 5.30pm, i started running. Home - Pencala Link - TTDI - Kiara - TTDI - Pencala Link - Hartamas - Pencala Link - Home.

I reckon the distance to be somewhere of 24km. It is not even any race day and i found myself doing a half marathon.

Therapheutic to say the least.

When you got nothing else to do...

Here is the timing split.

5km (TTDI park) - 28mins
7.56km (Kiara bottom after cross junction) - 44Mins
9.17km (Kiara at crossjunction after 1 loop) - 55Mins
17km (Gym) - 1hour 47mins
21km (at highway 5km mark) - 2Hours 16mins
24km (Home) - 2hours 43mins

Training log

The Heart Rate:
Average: 152bpm
Max: 171bpm
Kcal : 3460kcal
Recovery 1st minute : 154-134bpm
Recovery after 5 minutes: 126bpm

Knowing that i would be chaffed on the underarm and nipple, i took extra effort to wipe some vaseline under the side of the arms, where it would brush against the running vest and covered my nipples with vaseline. it seems to help as i suffer no chaffing at all.

Magic Goo...

I refilled water once, at KM17, i hid a botle of water in the bushes a couple of hours before started running. So, all in all, i took in 2x750ml of water for this run, carefully rationing the supply.

I reached home almost at about 8pm.

Then i had a shock when i went to pee. The urine was cloudy, which means there could be a lot of protien in it and there were a bit of blood as i urinate. Kidney failure? I did not tell wifey. Was i scared? Hell i was. Just wasn't my day.

The blood went off a couple of hours later when i went to take another leak. It came out clear, no sign of any blood or cloudiness. I just googled for the cause and i'm happy to say that it might be because of EXERTION and STRENENOUS EXERCISE. I just hope it's not any form of cancer, hematuria or even anything serious. But since i've monitored it from Friday and there isn't any more traces of it, i guessed it's a-ok and it's caused by the 24km run.

The next day, ie Saturday, i went for a short 60km bike from RMC to Bukit Unggul (midway between Bangi to Nilai) and back. Urine clear as it should be and i put to rest any worries. Yes, i was actually calculating if i had a kidney failure, the cost of dialysis and replacement of one kidney! With the current cash flow which seems to vegetate, that would be the last thing i hope i don't need to go through!

The 24km run did me some good. I was feeling rahter miserable in the afternoon about the job and my experience, i can't help it but felt that my experiences doesn't meant anything should i change job.

On Saturday, i went through the classified and did circle a few possible job that i could do and i could apply for. Unfortunately, most of them are out of Klang Valley (or KL/PJ to be exact). I'm not ready to be relocate somewhere should i get anohter job.

And just today, i went for yet anohter business opportunity talk. The person introduced herself through some friend and told me she was into some biometric scanners, so, i thought it might be worth checking them out, as i could do this part time.

Little did i know it was some MLM thingy, using some photovoltaic machine to measure the oxidation level in your body. Sad to say, i'm like the hardest person to convince, especially when health, supplement and diet/food intake is concerned, you need to be very knowledgeable to convince me when it comes to your vitamins, supplement and things like that, i could had say something, but i guess sometimes, it's better to just keep the mouth shut.

What made it worse is that i need to fork out some money to even start them. RM1.8k to be a franchise holder (or whatever that meant) or be a user at RM440 and subsequently, anyone that signed up under my name, i would get 10% or 5% respectively.

At this point of time, if i were to go to the ATM machine to withdraw money, i can't even do so as the minimum is RM50 at the bank i subscribe to. Granted i got RM300+RM100 from my blogging income thus far, but those are meant for groceries and household expenditure, which is slowly running out. It would not be long again when i have to pass the baton to wifey to ask her to settle the bills again.

Meanwhile, all i could do is to keep applying for jobs. and Swim. Bike. Run. Of course.

IronMan Langkawi 2007 Video

Play the video above. Better yet, don't.

Why?

To start with, it is not as inspiring as it should had been compared to the other IronMan videos i've seen.

I attribute it to the MUSIC SCORE. It sounded like some B-rated (hell, make that Z-rated) hero/superman/batman/ultraman soundtrack. Can't they just put in some nice music?

Then, the speech by the minister and him making a fool out of himself going around the Pro's table giving the thumbs up are just plain lame. Also the ending speech by the other minister...lame!

The video keep showing mostly the mat salleh doing it, how about the the Asians??? Where are the overweight people like me? The Older folks like Patsy?

If the want impact, they should just give equal coverage of the other average people that finished the race as the sun goes down.

They should show people fainting, and then carrying on the race like how Azwar did. How Doc vomitted on the swim and continued on. How we, human, struggle, all in the name to finish and complete the IronMan race.

Show how the race started from the break of sunlight, until the sun goes down. It's a 17hours race for some of us, and for a number, even after passing the 17hours qualifying time, they still go on and finish the race in say, 20 hours? (no, i'm not giving/paving excuse for myself in case i can't finish in 17hours).

But in all fairness, thank you for the video, for that is about the only video of the Langkawi race that i could find in YouTube which shows triathletes in MOVING action.

They should had just played the song below to accompany the video.

Corny but works everytime...

Why did i say MOVING action as per the last paragraph above?

That is because i found another one, and i tell you, despite it's a pictorial-video...i give it them 4 thumbs up (that include both my big toes already). Definitely better than the looked-like-government-done-video.

Video by HamburgerMan who finished the race sub 10hours

It's official now, i will be going to Langkawi minus the family. I will book the flight and hope to share rooms with friends heading that way next year.

Menu for Today : Run +/- 24km : Home - TTDI - Kiara - TTDI - Pencala - Gym - Pencala - Home.
Menu for Tomorrow: Cycle +/- 60km : RMC - Bukit Unggul - RMC

IronMan : What's The Big Deal?

I read Olivia's blog and apparently, even when her blog (she says) was filled with swearing words and all, she was rated a G ( as in the rating :General, suitable for all)

So, when i decided to try the same,thinking i will be rated same as her as well, i got a surprise when i was rated PG (Parental Guidance)!

PG???

The rationale was because the rating system based it on some key words they found in my blog.

huh???

Apparently Pain, Dead and Hell are not as forgiving than say, F*ck, Shit or anything other 4 letter words (which i'm sure did appear in this blog, Shit for example) that maybe should be rated as R, or even X.

And the 3 keywords above (Pain, Dead and Hell) were often used by me to describe the training, the races, the insanity of the sports (Triathlon, Adventure races, Rugby, Duathlons).

So, what's the big-a-deal with IronMan?

Wait, before you even answer that, think about the up coming Singapore's 70.3 (that's half IronMan) has their big major advert campaign, which seems like a big deal.

By the way, we in Malaysia also got our own unofficial 70.3 race. As you see, to use the word IronMan would require someone to pay royalty to the franchise holder (ie IronMan, duh!), which explain why it's so expensive to even enter (we in Malaysia is luckier as we get discount to enter the race in Langkawi), so, Mr Chan, the Man behind Triathlon scene in Malaysia, has been organising Desaru Long Distance Triathlon, a 2km Swim, 90km bike and 21km Run, and if i may say so, is 100meters more swim compared to the 70.3miles, to be exact, 70.625 miles (can't help it la, got to be Kiasu also). But what's the big deal? We triatheltes are bonded by the same aim.

That is, to put our body through the most gruelling challenge. (ok, there are those that goes to races to show off their gears, but that is anohter story, for anohter day)

So, can i say that IronMan (140.6, which refers to the miles covered in the whole race), is double the deal?

Apart from someone that don't understand why i choose to torture myself to go through the 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run back to back, lets take a few minutes to reflect that there are thousands out there which has completed this race at least once.

Doing it once is crazy, a few times maybe insane, every year without fail? Masochist ?

Contarary to popular beliefs, you don't need to have a muscular body, nor do you need to be perfectly normal, to do IronMan.

I've written about this here, Bacin has also written about it here. Please, do see the videos, i have goose bumps just seeing them.

I guessed races like these are akin to exams. When you sat for your SRP (Sijil Rendah Pelajaran), that was the biggest exam you will ever sit. But once that was over and SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) is infront of you, you fret out. Then, after you're done with SPM, you don't view SRP to be as hard as it was anymore.

Lets just say that IronMan to me, is like taking STPM. Yes, i find STPM to be the hardest time in my life, Diploma and Degree were a breeze compared to STPM.

And once i'm done with IronMan 2008 next year, I know anything else that comes, will be a breeze.

Meanwhile, just forgive those that do not understand why you swim, bike and run under the hot afternoon sun, get sun burned, suffer in Pain, Feeling Dead and Putting yourself in Hell.

So, yes, it's completely OK for this blog to be certified as PG, because i truly believe that to compete in this sport, it's not kids' play.

You train whole year long. You sacrifice your time. You put your body in Pain. You will drop Dead. And it will be nothing less than Hell.

To all the Triatheletes out there, I salute you.

Edited: Apparently, this entry "upgraded" me from PG to R...

It's Suicidal Stupe!

After coming clean with my Boss, i felt kinda difficult to breath. So when you have loads of things in you waiting to come out, what do you do?

Cycle.

I took the usual Home-Pencala Link route, but this time, rahter than going up Bukit Damansara, i decided to go straight, passing Jalan Damansara and towards Jalan Duta before turning off back to Pencala Link.

I thought it would had been further, distance wise. But i was dead wrong. (Dead is the operative word here)

Short of 1km...figure rounded up as distance was about 29.2km

As i enter the road where Victoria Station/fancy-memancy/swanky eateries were, and exited the backroad at Esso Station, headed towards Manu Life and turned up the flyover towards Jalan Damansara, i know i was in for some adrenalin rush.

After Office traffic.

I cycled pretty late yesterday, started only at about 6.15pm.

Traffic infront of KLSE and UN building was so heavy, it wasn't even funny.

Malaysians were oblivious to cyclist. I for once, felt how it is like to be at the lowest level of the food chain where traffic is concerned.

Cars were cutting queues, honks were blasted, vehicle stopping at the road side where the previous Ministry of Housing (where Department of Irrigation and Drainage was), Lorries were pushing their way through, cars tailgating so close and suddenly stopping, motorbikes shouting at you. Man, if i'm a mat rempit, i would had lived the moment...

Man, it was almost suicidal.

And yesterday, i felt that way.

But it felt good, should i get a job in the middle of the town, this is definately one way to cut cost and get some training done. Overtaking cars in traffic and reaching the work place earlier. OK, Earlier and Sweatier. So, whichever place i'm going next, they better have shower facilities.

Yeah, i know, like some headless chicken cycling

The distance was nearer than i expected it to be. My aim is to do 30km. But when i enter Pencala Link from Jalan Duta, i only clocked about 17/18km and the distance from there forth is less than 7km.

So, i decided to turn into TTDI after the tunnel, cycle until the last traffic light where the previous IBM (Now VADS) building is and u-turn back to Pencala and home.

And the result? I clocked 29km plus plus. The MapMyRun thingy showed i covered 29.32km, my meter showed 29.2km, i round it up to just 29km.

Stats:
Distance: 29km
Time: 55.54min
Ave Speed : 31.1km/h
Max: 60.9km/h
Estimated Kcal Burned : 800kcal(?)

Then, as i finished the cycling, my Boss called. He was locked in the office without a key to get out as the downstairs grill was locked by the upstairs neighbour...

What is he gonna do when i'm not around anymore?

Jump down the window from the first floor? Are you crazy? That's suicidal!

Ryan : 7 Months 2 Days And Crawling!!!

OH MY GOD.

He has started to crawl! Initially he took some baby crawling step, much like you were limping on one leg (just imagine that you are walking, but hopping on one leg, now, imagine you are on all four and you are crawling on one knee) and yesterday, after bringing him down to the park with my cousin for some playtime, he started to crawl!

Ryan on swing...and loving it

I brought him down to the park after i finished cycling 30km yesterday, he love the to and fro movement, the above picture says it all, his mouth was open as mine was!

Next to us was my cousin, cheeky 4 year old girl she is. My mum has been babysitting her since she was 1 month old, she only go home on weekend as my aunt and uncle were working 24/7.

I believe i can almost fly...

I'm pweety!

Ryan loves to play, and whenever he chuckles, he light up everyone's world! Don't believe? then be prepared to be lighted up, see the video below...

Now see me and wifey's attempt to check his baby teeth out!

No, i'm not torturing my son, if any of you are wondering.

So, after the play in the park, i brought him back up home, gave him a bath and suddenly, he started crawling. Show off!

The videos below was taken this morning, to show all of you (that wants to see) how he ~~done~~DID it!

Attempt No. 1...Papa, my pants too slippery la

Attempt No. 2 ....bugger la this pants...no grip

Attempt No.3...Mummy took my pants off and Papa think i'm a dog playing fetch...

I get all fuzzy seeing him in the video, do all of you?

It's akin to see a lotus flower bloom...

Not bad huh my photo skills, taken using my K750i

Text Link Ads - Not Too Bad!

*This is not a paid posting*

Had a surprise this morning when i received and email from Text Link Ads.

For as long as i had maintained the url feed for the ads to come in since April 2007, and after waiting for almost a month, i had some text link ads coming in, eventhough i placed it at the bottom of my blog.

In May, i got USD3.50 by just posting it up and i've been paid via PayPal that amount. Yes, it's not a big amount, but it's a start.

So, today, i get one more ad that came in, making it a total of 3 so far. Each URL Feed allows up to 5 ads to be placed. So, in time to come, should that number grow, i will put up one more url feed to accommodate more text link ads!

I just checked my account and i have USD9.75 for placing the ads this month! The rate are calculated on a daily basis on a 30 days/1 month ad placement. Converting them to Ringgit, that is a good RM30++ extra a month.

I am certainly not complaining over this good fortune, so i decided to blog about this here, like i said, this is not a paid posting, nor is this a review, i'm just telling all of you, which like me, have a low Google PageRank, low traffic to the blog and almost incognito in the blogsphere that it's possible to earn some decent (though small) amount of money via TLA.

Just sign up here, put the url feed and wait for a month or two (like i did), then start seeing some cash flowing in.

Good Luck!

Done. Relief.

No, i'm not talking about going to the toilet to do business.

I finally voiced out what i wanted to say.

Between loyalty to my boss and my own survival-bility, i choose the latter.

I've been working in this company for the past 6 years, overseeing from the start from the renovation stage, until today, we are finally struggling to keep the company afloat.

No pay for the past 3 months and i soldier on.

Uncertainties for the past 6 months and i try to look on a more positive side, like being able to train whenever i want.

I am now officially out in the job market again. I will continue serving in this company until i get a job offer.

Do i feel any better?

Yes, and No.

Yes, because i finally get to say what i want. He is my friend first, and boss second. And you don't forsake a friend in the first place. If he is just MY boss, then it would had been much easier. I can just drop a letter, hope for a counter offer and consider to stay on.

But he is a friend. That makes it harder.

No, because, i felt i've betrayed a friend.

Menu for the day : Bike 30km.

MyList Final List

It's finally over, the whole MyList Campaign.

Thank you to all that ook part and thank you to you, Daryl for initiating it!

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17km New Record

Did the 17km run yesterday.

Home - TTDI - Kiara - TTDI - Gym.

When i first did this run, i clocked 1:58:31.

Yesterday i did a proud 1:48:44, a good 9 minutes plus improvement! And i actually ran all the way to the Hartamas underpass and came back to Gym, compared to the usual turning into the Gym from the mainroad!

It's nothing to shout about for those than could finish 15km in time way less than what it took me to do 17km, but as i said, i simply can't compare myself with anyone. I run my own race. Improvement is for myself to see.

I noticed that i could run faster as well nowadays, instead of trying to kee my pace, i find myself pushing and maintaining my heart rate to be around 153-158bpm on the flat and push furhter while going up hills.

It certainly paid off as i reached the Kiara Hill, the so called mid point in 45 minutes, compared that the usual 50 minutes! I even reach TTDI park, marking 5km ran in 25 minutes!

Yes, i did feel like im gonna die at one point when running up Kiara. The lady joggers/hikers must be wondering why i'm breathing so HARD and SHORT, almost snorting as i make my way up Kiara.

I swore a few went more to the side to let me pass, even when i'm running in the middle of the road!

Here is the stats, if i recall correctly:

Time: 1:48:44
Ave HR: 155bpm
Max HR : 175bpm
Kcal : 2557kcal
Recovery 1st minute: 161-130
Recovery 2nd minute: 130-128
Recovery 3rd minute: 128-118
Recovery 4th minute: 118-115
Recovery 5th minute: 115-110

Got to work on my recovery rate. Maybe because i pushed harder than usual yesterday ( i actually pick up my pace in the final 2km), the heart was palpilating as i warmed down in the gym.

I make it a point to run faster on the downhill, the only way i know that i could improve on my time. Thanks to Azwar, which once shouted to me why "kau lari sentimental masa turun bukit", it echoed in my mind whenever i see any downhill and i make subconcious effort to run faster.

Oh ya, i have the Shuffle back, i got a brand new unit FOC. This is what i call customer service, Thank you Apple Malaysia!

My Bak Chang is Boric Acid Free

Recently, there is news that the Bak Chang, or meat dumpling sold in some states recorded high level of Boric Acid which were used as preservatives.

Though i agree that yes, it does happen, even in the yellow noodle that we eat at the stalls outside. But do you know that the level of boric acid in those yellow noodles are way higher? That is the reason why if the food preparer doesn't wash the noodle properly, the noodle are usually bitter to taste?

Today is Bak Chang Day. What is the significant? Oh well, just lets put it this way, Chinese loves festival, it's about the only time they can eat without guilt.

"Eat, Drink and be merry", they would say.

Some Chinese believe the history is traced to the legend of Qu Yuan, a well-loved poet who drowned himself in a river. To stop the fish from eating his body, people made rice dumplings and threw them into the river, so fish eat the dumpling, not the body. I tell you, this is the problem with artistic people, too emotional!

Other Chinese believe the history is traced to an official called Zhang Zhongjing who created a food to help poor people keep warm in the cold winters during the Eastern Han Period. I think this is more logical, but as with all myth and legend, it's much open for debate.

About 1 month ago, my mum brought along 30 dumplings to my home. Home made. even the string used to tie the dumplings are biodegradable ie organic substance. Most people uses rafia strings to tie the dumplings, but as what we "ulu" chinese believe, we use what we have, and hence, the string is made from the leaves itself.

Fresh

These stuff has no preservatives and we kept them inside the freezer, taking out only to steam for about 20 minutes before serving.

Made from glutonious rice, filled with chestnuts, meat, chinese mushrooms and beans, it's a very fullfiling meal, and sinful, as it's oily.

Human Dumplings

As my dad is vegetarian, mum has some made which are vegetarian. I enjoy them more than the usual non vegetarian version as i do not fancy pork as much anymore.

Imagine Ketupat with all the work inside

So, while some of you were unfortunate to be eating the boric acid laden dumpling, i have with me, the preservative free version.

But will i live longer? I doubt so, with diet like these, it's food to die for! Literally!

Well, if you are really worried, there is always ZENTEL!