Life has been pretty different since I've taken up the challenge to attempt a Triathlon several months ago. There's the time spent on training, making new friends and a whole new view of work-life-balance.
Having to train 3-4 days a week with each session lasting 2-3 hours is not easy to maintain. There are always times when I ask myself if what I'm doing is worthwhile, and what is it for? I don't have an answer now, and I don't think I'll have answer later. At least I know I'm enjoying the entire process, the process of training and sufferring and then enjoying the race day high.
OSIM was a wash-out. Bad weather caused the organisers to cut the race short, even shorter than the sprint. The transition area was also a muddy mess, literally. This is my first major race, and my first DNS. A major disappointment.
I had to have something to fill for the missing gap, to remedy the disappointment. I found The Frog Race, a charity run-swim-run. It was to be held at ECP with an open water swim, but they moved it to NTU later, with the swim at the SRC pool.
I guess I completed the race ok. It was thoroughly enjoyable. Biscuit was also there to support and take pictures.
30 August 2007
5 June 2007
History Lesson 3
About 12 years ago...
Einstein, photons, light, wave theory and particle theory intrigued me. Something funny though I thought, why should wave and particle theories have to co-exist to explain the characteristics of light? If there is an universal theory as Einstein has envisioned, shouldn't there be just one theory that explains light itself?
Is there such a unified theory for light now? I don't know. But if there still isn't, here are my ideas:
Particle theory should hypothetically able to encompass all of light's characteristics. Photons are particles with mass, however negligible. Due to their free running nature, unlike electrons, and with such a small mass, enables them to travel in what we now refer to as light-speed. All particles have a natural frequency, and this determines the radioactivity of the photon itself. It vibrates as it travels through space, and coupled with the tremendous velocity, emits electric and magnetic fields, which we now know as EM waves.
All right... then what this there within this freak idea that can explain how light penetrates transparent matter but not opaque ones? What about reflection?... Got to think more. Thinking since 1 decade ago...
Einstein, photons, light, wave theory and particle theory intrigued me. Something funny though I thought, why should wave and particle theories have to co-exist to explain the characteristics of light? If there is an universal theory as Einstein has envisioned, shouldn't there be just one theory that explains light itself?
Is there such a unified theory for light now? I don't know. But if there still isn't, here are my ideas:
Particle theory should hypothetically able to encompass all of light's characteristics. Photons are particles with mass, however negligible. Due to their free running nature, unlike electrons, and with such a small mass, enables them to travel in what we now refer to as light-speed. All particles have a natural frequency, and this determines the radioactivity of the photon itself. It vibrates as it travels through space, and coupled with the tremendous velocity, emits electric and magnetic fields, which we now know as EM waves.
All right... then what this there within this freak idea that can explain how light penetrates transparent matter but not opaque ones? What about reflection?... Got to think more. Thinking since 1 decade ago...
29 April 2007
History Lesson 2
About 15 or more years ago...
I was almost always the first to arrive for any appointment, and usually more than 15 minutes early. And often I have to wait for more than 45 minutes for my friends to arrive. Waiting is no enjoyment, especially alone and in the days where mobile phones are unheard of and pagers are only just created and are meant more for businessmen. What about public phones? Well, if your friend is already 15 minutes late, and you are still able to get him at home, I'm not sure if it's to congratulate you on having contacted him or having such a latecomer as a friend.
Anyway, during those long waits, I thought that it would be good if there's some means to find out if the friend is indeed on his way. No, I'm not thinking about mobile phones. I'm thinking of a watch-like device which somehow calculates the distance between him and me. And it will provide a sense of how fast he will be arriving.
Ahh... riding on that, another application of it will be to enable my mum to know if I'm really on my way home, and perhaps with an estimate of how soon that will be (assuming I'm already on my way home).
Then also, travelling to an unknown place, if this device can somehow lock itself to my eventual destination, I will somehow get there eventually as long as the distance between my current location and destination decreases.
I was almost always the first to arrive for any appointment, and usually more than 15 minutes early. And often I have to wait for more than 45 minutes for my friends to arrive. Waiting is no enjoyment, especially alone and in the days where mobile phones are unheard of and pagers are only just created and are meant more for businessmen. What about public phones? Well, if your friend is already 15 minutes late, and you are still able to get him at home, I'm not sure if it's to congratulate you on having contacted him or having such a latecomer as a friend.
Anyway, during those long waits, I thought that it would be good if there's some means to find out if the friend is indeed on his way. No, I'm not thinking about mobile phones. I'm thinking of a watch-like device which somehow calculates the distance between him and me. And it will provide a sense of how fast he will be arriving.
Ahh... riding on that, another application of it will be to enable my mum to know if I'm really on my way home, and perhaps with an estimate of how soon that will be (assuming I'm already on my way home).
Then also, travelling to an unknown place, if this device can somehow lock itself to my eventual destination, I will somehow get there eventually as long as the distance between my current location and destination decreases.
26 April 2007
History Lesson 1
More than 20 years ago...
Long bus rides are exciting; looking out the window and just filling in with the sights and sounds along the route. Then somehow, I started to wonder where is exactly the midpoint of the bus route. I started to have a fascination for looking out for the same bus service, but running in the opposite direction. I will often be disappointed if I didn't spot any, but when I do, I would conclude that is roughly the midpoint of the bus route.
Long bus rides are exciting; looking out the window and just filling in with the sights and sounds along the route. Then somehow, I started to wonder where is exactly the midpoint of the bus route. I started to have a fascination for looking out for the same bus service, but running in the opposite direction. I will often be disappointed if I didn't spot any, but when I do, I would conclude that is roughly the midpoint of the bus route.
21 March 2007
Twice murdered
It's at least twice now. I'm murdered in my dreams, more accurately a nightmare. And no, I didn't wake up in shock, shouting or in perspiration. But I did wake up troubled and not have a good rest for the rest of the night.
The scary part is not being murdered, but the aftermath. I was till there at the scene, as a third person, analysing how the murder could have taken place. It's my subconscious that's scary, to always take a step back and look at events and things from (hopefully) a different angle. This happens even in my dreams, and this is a nightmare that I'm referring to.
I don't think I should have posted this. It is disturbing, very disturbing, to me. But in hope of having putting this down in words, at least the nightmare will not recur.
PS. Having the Pathetique playing in the background just adds to the disturbance :(
The scary part is not being murdered, but the aftermath. I was till there at the scene, as a third person, analysing how the murder could have taken place. It's my subconscious that's scary, to always take a step back and look at events and things from (hopefully) a different angle. This happens even in my dreams, and this is a nightmare that I'm referring to.
I don't think I should have posted this. It is disturbing, very disturbing, to me. But in hope of having putting this down in words, at least the nightmare will not recur.
PS. Having the Pathetique playing in the background just adds to the disturbance :(
24 February 2007
In search of...
The nice me seeks for happiness, to be in a blissful state always, allowing nothing to thwart it. The morbid me seeks for a curse, a curse on... hmmm... me. Suffer I must, forever and ever.
Something seemed to have connected during my 12hour visit to Hong Kong recently. Alone, looking like one of them, yet not speaking and understanding their language, I felt I'm home, yet not quite. Searching for my destinations, or simply plain wondering around, it just seemed like it was meant to be whether expected or unexpected to me. It was strangely silent, something is different, or becoming different, or felt like becoming different. Perhaps it was just the contrast from my 13 days in California prior to Hong Kong that I felt such.
Then, an interviewee seeking to fill a new position in my team said this during our tele-conversation: "I'm seeking to leave my current job, not because I'm not up to the job, but because I cannot connect with it." It struck a chord within me, it resonated with something within. Doesn't matter if the interview results in a totally different outcome, I'm just glad someone pointed that out to me.
Things in the office is never the same after the episode last August. Not many of you knew what happened, but I'll leave it as "it was a failed attempt, which gotten worldwide attention, almost". Anyway, the difference seemed more stark since the year started, though on the surface we have started to have normal and non-awkward conversations, both work and non-work related. Whatever that I'm feeling, which may be due to my usual uber-sensitivities, I'm glad normality is returning, at least on the surface.
The Poi within is looking for inner-peace, not happiness, not suffering.
Something seemed to have connected during my 12hour visit to Hong Kong recently. Alone, looking like one of them, yet not speaking and understanding their language, I felt I'm home, yet not quite. Searching for my destinations, or simply plain wondering around, it just seemed like it was meant to be whether expected or unexpected to me. It was strangely silent, something is different, or becoming different, or felt like becoming different. Perhaps it was just the contrast from my 13 days in California prior to Hong Kong that I felt such.
Then, an interviewee seeking to fill a new position in my team said this during our tele-conversation: "I'm seeking to leave my current job, not because I'm not up to the job, but because I cannot connect with it." It struck a chord within me, it resonated with something within. Doesn't matter if the interview results in a totally different outcome, I'm just glad someone pointed that out to me.
Things in the office is never the same after the episode last August. Not many of you knew what happened, but I'll leave it as "it was a failed attempt, which gotten worldwide attention, almost". Anyway, the difference seemed more stark since the year started, though on the surface we have started to have normal and non-awkward conversations, both work and non-work related. Whatever that I'm feeling, which may be due to my usual uber-sensitivities, I'm glad normality is returning, at least on the surface.
The Poi within is looking for inner-peace, not happiness, not suffering.
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