The Laws of Traffic

Just some feeble-minded attempt at updating my blog.

Fact:
Was travelling to work today.
Just 2km outside my home before the Great Selayang Wet Market, I am overtaken by a Green Proton Saga aeroback(?) model driven by an elderly Sikh with the usual Sikh decorations (ie Khalsa symbols) on his car. Traffic conditions was a mere crawl.

Immediately diverted to usual backroad behind the market and headed straight for lunch at my favorite curry restaurant about 200m away from the jam. Rejoined the crawl (with a full belly,) 12 minutes later and 500m down the road. Noticed said Sikh driver and his car immediately on my right hand side, crawling in the fast lane.

Mr Singh overtakes me again somewhere in the crawl and I lose him. 5km later when I hit the freeway, I find him driving 4 cars ahead of me again being held up by some other car in front of him.

Hypotheses to be discussed:
1. Selayang Traffic Jams are so bad that you can actually have lunch at a wayside restaurant in exactly the same time it takes you to crawl 500 meters.

2. The Fast lane only allows you to go faster than most other cars for less than 10kms until you crash into some slowcoach driving in the fast lane at half the speed limit.

Discuss in the comments boxes please :P

Who moved my thumbdrive?

Searched my pockets this morning - no thumbdrive.
Went through my backpack - no thumbdrive.
Riffled though my drawers, clothes on the floor - no thumbdrive, nope!
One room upheavel later - still no thumbdrive.
One house rampage - no thumbdrive yet.
Vacuum the car (I really did it) - no thumbdrive yet.
Went through the dustbin - no thumbdrive at all.

Let's face it, this tiny little miracle of technology somehow has managed to turn my life upside-down when it decides to play hide and seek. It does contain a lot of important business documents (among other things like music, personal CV, blackmail material; all crammed into just 256 MB of disk space. I really want to upgrade to a 1GB thumbdrive to make space for more incriminating documents to blackmail other)

And I found that it was still sitting at the same terminal since last night......

At least no one has bothered to access my files. (or a secret stash of XXX, which is also password protected anyway)
Sometimes, I wish I wasn't so absent minded these days.

10 reason why I am a lousy Scrabble player

I can't think of one.
Why don't you readers post as many reasons as you can think off (in the comment section) and I will choose the 10 best ones.

The actual reasons:
1. Can't win a game to save my life.
2. Can't see common everyday words.
3. Can't draw decent tiles
4. Don't have enough time to study
5. Can't even beat a computer at this game (Record against Quackle thus far: Quackle 378, Me 0)
6. I get distracted easily.
7. I talk too much.
8. I always overtime.
9. I play phonies (all the time).
10. I failed every spelling test since 6 years old.

Blind Masseur

Pretty effective,

And you get to have it in your birthday suit since they can't 'see' anything.
RM60 for 90 minutes is a bit on the pricey side (but much cheaper than the bangkok one)

I got one and now I can't even get myself to even walk into any gym, much less my usual one.
Anyone want a spine-cracker?

Henry

Forgot to post my Friday gym workout

But I am not going to be bothered about it.

So weekend with college frats.
And I ended up at the curve with two of them (you know who you are),
And we sit around discussing the MSA.

Let's face it,
what is so appealling about the MSA?
(No newsletter, no gathering, the Scrabble corner was obtained from Mrs Yap's effort, ratings officer is never ever appreciated, neither is the archivist, is there enough tournaments in a year to recoup one's membership fee through discounts?)

What has the MSA organized last year and this year?
(1 tournament in 2005, 1 tournament so far in 2006)

What has the committee been doing? Are they doing their job? Does the MSA even updates it members with the latest development?

Still a gym weenie

Arrived, warm up and sat on the bench waiting for a free platform for 20 minutes.

Did the clean & jerk,
started out with 50kgs, 3 reps.
60kgs, 3 reps
70kgs, 4 reps, all failed.
downgrade to 65kgs, 2 reps, still fail
My confidence really has taken a blow.

Pull was typical.
70kgs, 1 set of 3 reps down and 3 reps up.
moved up to 80kgs for 2 sets
and did 90kgs on the last 2 sets.
But still not doing it perfectly.

Front squat was pretty good for me this time.
Did 70kgs for 5 reps.
Then banged out 80kgs for 2 sets of 2 reps.
Decided to up the ante with 90kgs.
On the 1st rep, coach helped me on the upswing,
while I managed the 2nd rep on my own (albeit a bit dangerously awkward upswing).

Pressed about 35kgs back and front for 1 set (3 reps each) and called it a day.

Gym report #pain

Started with snatch 30kgs for 6 reps,
moved up to 40kgs, doing 3 sets of 3 reps each.
Aimed for a peak of 45kgs. Could do 4 reps nicely.
Coach came back and I attempted 50kgs --- both reps were unsuccessful.

Oh well, move on to the pull.
60kgs with no straps, no problem but man! my wrist do hurt.
Did 70kgs for 2 sets,
And attempted 80kgs on the last 2 sets.

Back squat.
60kgs for 6 reps,
70kgs for 3 reps,
75 kgs 3 reps,
80kgs 3 reps.
85 kgs 2 reps (broke my personal best)
90kgs 2 reps (yay! another 5 kgs before i can back squat my body weight)
90kgs 2nd set, 1 rep good,
2nd rep slipped off my back and nearly bowled over my coach :P

I want my music!

I live in Malaysia and am starting to appreciate jazz but I have a difficult time tracking down the music that I love (Currently collecting Lee Rittenour and Ramsey Lewis, among others).

It is very frustrating to find that elusive album by an artist, especially if it is not some pop-driven, mass-marketing, brain-dead piece of work. After my normal supplier closed shop four years ago, I was forced to switch to Tower Records; Now, they tell me they no longer do special order to help me get the music that I want, which means......Hello, Amazon.com!

I haven't switched to online music downloads because most of the music is not portable (hence, cannot download) unto my peripherals, hence my reluctance to spend money on them. Would rather just get my hands on the album.

Just wish that there was an easier way to make music more accessible to the masses. The current claims by the industry standardbearers is full of crap.

On sore muscles and achiness

When i first started my weightlifting sessions, I had achy and sore muscles about 24/7 in the first two weeks.

After the Penang/Bangkok hiatus, coming back to it almost made it me regret taking it up since it was worse.
But now into the second week, I find none of the achiness or soreness in my muscles anymore even if I skip practice for 2-3 days.

Can anyone give me an explanation?

Workout for the 26th

Nothing much,

did Clean & Jerk, started out at 40kgs (3 reps).
upgraded to 50kgs and banged out 2 sets of 3 reps each.
Did another 3 more sets of with 60kgs.

Coach moved me over to the pull.
Still have some issues with my technique and timing.
Anyway, did about 60kgs and pulled 2 sets (usual reps) before hiking up to 70kgs on the last set.

On the back squat.
I did 1 set (6 reps) at 50kgs,
repeated the set at 60kgs,
The next 2 sets (3 reps) were done at 70kgs.
Then at 75kgs, I did another 2 sets (2 reps).
Final test, 80kgs.
Down, up (with coach's help) return weight to stand, dismantle it. (Next time, I will make it)