20kg and growing
Yes, I have added up to 20kg today. No, it's not my weight I am talking about.
This is the weight I am adding to myself, in the form of iron bar plates, during my strength training sessions. I am doing 5 reps of chin-ups with these dead weights. I have been working with these weights for the past 2 weeks but everytime, the weight gain has been in slow increments.
Today, at the end of the 4th (and last) set, under the 'encouragement' or 'instigation' from Ben, I piled an extra 7.5kg to the usual load and went for an extra set. I realised I could make 3 good reps!!! A silent 'wow' to myself. 20 kilograms! That's 4 bags of rice! Ok, maybe just the standard packaging type... Still, I was really happy. The next moment was even more wonderful; I dropped the weights and did another 3 more pulls. My body felt paper-light! Ha! Suz was joking that this is probably how Sibin felt all the time when he climbs. And I do believed her...
I am glad that I could start to feel some results after these 2 weeks. Mental note to self: keep at it, persevere and go for 5 set of 5 reps with 20kg!
And that 7b doesn't seem so far now...
The Queen and The Coconuts
The big day of the Bloggers.SG conference. Out of curiosity, I decided to drop by, to see for myself some of these new celebrities made famous (or infamous) by the internet. 看看你们的庐山真面目. Is the Blog Queen really that short? Is Mr Brown really that "Uncle"-looking and is his running-slimming working yet? Does Kenny Sia really have coconuts-sized, umm, assets?
Firstly, the venue - DXO. Holding a conference in a Club, tsk tsk, what a novel idea. New business venture for Mohammad Sultan area leh... Their slogan can even be: "Talk first, Party later!"
The conference was already in session when I reached. 2 people on stage were easily recognisable - Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi, and two other folks which I presumed were some other heavyweight Bloggers whom I still yet to know.
Although this was a gathering of the vocal voices of the Sg virtual world in life, somehow, the atmosphere doesn't appear too lively leh... I expected the ground to be abuzz with lively and colorful exchanges, thought-provoking and mind-enlightening speeches intermix with humor, wit, sarcasm and profanity.
Oh wait, yeah, that's only the real virtual world these buggers bloggers live blog in mah.
In the real world, everyone was so well-behaved, so quiet, so cordial, so... ermm, nice.
Maybe it was still early, folks need to warm up. But somehow the feeling of reserved-ness was heavy in the air. A lot of camera flashes, video cams hovering up and down; I might have thought this was a fan club gathering of some boy-band pop-singer group, but the missing hysterical screams of early-adolescent girls reminded me it was not.
I looked around trying to identify any known Bloggers. And I saw them.
我看到他们了! 下雪and Kenny Sia!
Damn this low lighting, cannot see clearly if Xiaxue really got make-up so thick that can stop an Armburst round. Also not close enough to hear her speak. Wonder if she sound like Ah-Lians with an A-me-li-can slang? Or she speaks with the cool demeanor like Diana Ser?
And that chubby guy beside her, so easy to recognise - Mr Sia, didn't see your coco-nuts leh... Anyway, so nice of the organisers to fly you in and you really give them all the face man... You must the only guy today to wear like you going ROM - long sleeve and tie leh!!! I supposed you want to look presentable, but really, I thought you got wedding dinner to attend later tonight.
Anyway, the session was not getting any livelier by the minute. Even Kenny's moment was rather low key. But hey, these are bloggers, not stand-up comedians. If I wanted entertainment, I am in the wrong shell, the Durians are next door.
But I was really getting bored. Some kid was blabbering about his experiences since the era of homepages, in the years of 1-9-yawn-9-7. I wasn't getting much of his words, partly because my mind went off-line, partly because the dude was covering the microphone with his hand while speaking. I didn't even noticed he finished but when I heard Mr Brown declared a 45-min break, I was out of the door.
I missed the session on Blogging and the law. Oops, I hope I don't break any in the future.
Oh btw, Xiaxue was really as short as she claimed.
Office Work-Out Exercises - Skip the Gym lah...
Are you working too hard at office? Always wanted to keep fit and work out but can never find time for it?
If you are a office cubicle dweller in the modern day corporate world, you will realize that opportunities are abound around you to work out within that 8 hours.
Take a look at some of these great exercises that require minimal space and equipment. Heck, you don't even need to change into sports attire to do them!
Back aches? Weak lower back muscles? Try these Back-strengthening methods.
For starters, ever heard of Ass Kissing? This is an age-old exercise that needs no introduction and probably no training to execute. It's an easy feat for most, even first timers. However, it is advisable to complement this exercise with Bending over backwards. You see, too much Ass kissing will bias your back towards only trunk flexion. To strike a balance, you need to do the antagonist motion and that is trunk extension.
IPPT coming and can't do even 1 pull-up? You need to strengthen those Upper limbs then. To develop marble-hard, Arnold-size biceps and triceps - try Back Stabbing. There are 2 variations of this exercise - the High Stab pose where the action starts with hand overhead and plunges downwards. Remember to complete the rep by raising the hand overhead again. This exercise trains your biceps and triceps. The other variation is the Level Stab pose. You hold the hand at waist level, extend the elbow and retract. Trains forearms, biceps and deltoids.
If you find Back stabbing too distasteful to master, here are some other upper limbs strengthening exercises to consider - Pushing your luck and Beating around the bush. For those in management, you may not realize this but - Shooting "Arrows" - is also a very effective technique to develop strength in your wrists, arms, shoulders and upper body in general.
Weak knees? Legs looking like satay sticks? Tone those calfs and thighs with Lower limbs strengthening. The best method so far is Dragging your feet. The slower you do this, the stronger you become. The next best exercise is of course Dodging responsibility or Avoiding "Arrows". This is super intensive on the leg muscles and develops agility.
Aerobic exercises are an integral part of any fitness routine. Likewise, there are various methods you can use to train your aerobic fitness in the office. For the beginners, try the simple Jumping to conclusions. Your increased rate of breathing is a good gauge that you are doing it right. For those experienced, you can up the ante with Running in circles. Good idea to reverse the direction once a while so that you don't get too giddy. For the super-fit, try Flying off the handle. Watch that heart rate though, and never attempt this exercise if you have been diagnosed with High Blood Pressure.
To finish your session, remember to do some cooling-down routine with stretches and easy breathing. For stretching, I recommend Finger pointing. Do it with the index finger and point in all directions. If you are into Yoga, try Putting your foot in your mouth; very challenging pose, I can't do it yet. Finally, simple breathing like Tooting your own horn is a good way to call it a day.
See, the 9-to-5 office is so full of opportunities to work out. Who needs an expensive membership at California fitness? Oh wait, people go there for the social work out.
The Importance of Timely Communication
Had some fun with the Signboard Message Generator and Error Message Generator. All found here.
made the above and also this one. 
Another good quote found...
Read from the comments section of a blog:
We have no precedence, which is precisely why we should invent them. If Singapore keeps looking to the past for answers, when will we move forward?
So well-put. How come I can never think and write stuff like that?
Too much engineering thoughts in me? Maybe nothing to do with Engineering.
My train of thoughts seem to only move forward and back, like current through resistors connected in series. Or sometimes, it is locked up like a cross-linked epoxy; too rigid and frigid to twist and bend, rock and roll anymore...
I need to read more; 也许才能解开这脑筋死结, 打破这思维僵局...
About that excellent quote above, it sounded ironical to me at first. All these years as an engineer, I have been drilled that 'leverage' is the key to a shorter learning curve, faster time to market and lower costs. But the act of leveraging is, to a large degree, looking at the past while trying to move forward. By leveraging, I take all good things I have done in the past and use them in my next steps. Isn't that analogous to driving a car forward by looking at the pot holes I avoided, through the rear view mirror?
Maybe I over-generalise. I am probably on the border of belittling the need to study history... haha.
I have always believed in learning from the past so that I don't make the same mistake twice. But I know, not all answers are to be found in the retrospection. Discoveries are only made when a step is taken in the forward direction.
A step.
A B o l d S t e p.
The question is: Am I bold enough?
