Intense Play

I read some online article about how hackers build their reputation and the pre-requisite skills like programming and such. One of the sentences caught me. It said that their work should not be viewed as a chore, but rather, as a form of intense play. I should apply that to my studies.

I also have an assignment to do about heroes. I'm picking John Aaron, and from what I've read and watched so far, I would guess that he was one of those people who did the intense play thing, otherwise, he would have been a lot less likely to know what to do when the Signal Conditioning Equipment was affected by the lightning strike during the Apollo 12 launch.

------------------------

If You Can't Create or Innovate, then Cheaper, Better, Faster is the way to go.
This seems to be happening a lot lately. For example,If you aren't the owner with the patent for a product, you can't leverage the patent period to get a head start and jack up the price charge for your technology. So if you can't create something new, do something old cheaper, better and faster. This might explain outsourcing. And because some of us can't keep up, we have to create space for ourselves by moving up the value chain. So instead of maintaining and repairing aircraft parts, we crawl up to manufacturing, and then designing the parts, and then I hope, designing the aircraft.

------------------------

Okay, here are the links to the videos of the free sparring sessions I wrote about earlier. I shall crawl into a cave and hide from the embarrassment. Or I could laugh it off and suck it up.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oDhWUk72aA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuIQLJ436b0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o413JIdf6tw

Hitting People I Don't Know

I had my first free spar against a different club today, and I learned quite a bit. Many people perform differently under stress, and I find that I'm no exception, in this case, I have to admit that I did pretty badly.

It made me realize that I fight one dimensionally, by this I mean that when I fight, I tend to only move backwards and forwards. Sideways movement makes for more opportunies. Someone also pointed out to me that I need to activate my hind leg when moving, instead of freezing it there, and slowly dragging it along like a ball and chain. When moving backwards, I also need to not-commit to retreating so much, so that I would be able lunge fore sooner, I guess I can do this by moving to a smaller (with tension) stance for that moment.

I also need to pigeon toe a wee bit more to guard from groin shots, and to help me exert the hip power better. Also need to shoot out my punches instead of just pushing them out.

For kicks, I think I should chamber more before releasing. I also need to think about what to follow up with after my kick, because that seems to be an important moment in which I got caught. Same for punches. Also need to take note of my posture when kicking, think I tilt too much. Need to practice more combinations.

One last important thing. Facial expressions should remain neutral, and not frowning and straining, maybe a smile would do.

Looks like I got a lot to drill. Might as well throw in some stamina building stuff too.

Sort Stuff Soon

This Saturday I'm going to have an exam. An exam for SDC. System Dynamics and Control. This exam will remind me that I enjoyed myself too much in China. That's because we were supposed to be learning the stuff and immersing ourselves at the same time. The final exam has a weightage of 40%. I have built a ceiling over my self. The best I can reach now is a B+, assuming I ace the the final.

Another thing on my mind is reorganizing my music. I realize that I listen mainly to 6 kinds of music. But I think I'd just store 3 or 4 kinds on the music player.

Somewhat intense rap; e.g Nas - Hero
Somewhat laid-back rap; e.g Wyclef Jean - Slow Down
Grungy Riffy Rockish Stuff; e.g Creed - Higher
Laid-back not so intense stuff with guitar; e.g Matchbox Twenty - If You're Gone
Vocal-centric poppy stuff; e.g Joss Stone - Understand
Oldies; e.g The Carpenters
But, I'll do the playlists that after this exam.
/edit: There's 1 more - Instrumentals. e.g Moonlight Dancing Song

I also realized that my laptop's main drive is almost maxed out, and so Vista keeps giving me that Low disk memory crap. Unfortunately, I can't seem to single out any particular software in my C drive, because they're all utilities that the computer uses and I don't! Maybe I ought to remove all the support stuff and a certain piece of software that grows really fast. It's called Symantec antivirus.
Again, after the exam.

The last thing to mention would be Chengdu photos. I haven't given thought to which to upload, but I do know that a lot of us would not be very comfortable with some photos being uploaded. Have to pick carefully.
After exam.

回来了!!!

Back from Guanghan, China

Can't help noticing the sound of an endless amount of traffic rushing by.
Can't help noticing that the banana trees here are shorter than 4 metres.
Can't help noticing the presence of double decked buses.
Can't help noticing that pedestrians have right of way at zebra crossings.
Can't help noticing that there are many big though not straight trees along the roads.
Can't help noticing that the portions of food here are smaller but more pricey.
Can't find my ez-link card. May have left it there... Bleh.

How have I grown this trip ?
I'm not sure I have. Made a few friends here and there though, at obviously a shallower level than a lot of my peers. Still, I'm learning trying to learn. Core module in bad shape. Need 97% for the final paper for a chance of finding an A.

Was it fun ?
Definitely.

------------------------

F&B I liked and will miss
盖焦饭 (Rice covered in sauce)Variations include 回锅肉盖焦饭 which I have no idea what to call in English

肠（Sausages)

Meat on sticks like upsized satays with lots of chilli powder and 花椒 (Peppercorn)

500ml Yoghurt drinks

王老吉 (Wang Lao Ji)

Some variation of Xiao Long Baos called Guan Tang Baos, 3 Yuan for a tray of 8 !
(Wish I knew the Chinese words for GTBs)

-------------------------

Guess the first line said to me by my mum
a) "could you help me clear the rubbish"
b) "Welcome home"
c) "Where are the photos?"

Well you know what, it's a). Back to real life. Suck it up.
Intend to stick some pictures up here soon.

Kelabing

On Friday night, I did something new. It's called clubbing. I guess that there are 2 important parts to this activity (to make it 'fun').

1. Get tipsy.
2. Convulse within a tiny pocket of space.

Sometimes, a person gets too tipsy. At this point, instead of feeling 'high' they must feel pretty shitty, judging from the their sprawling on the floor and attempts to force vomit.

Not being used to social settings such as this, I started to have trouble with vocal communication and spent majority of time in the club with jaw locked shut. Fortunately as the night passed, I began to speak to a few of the people I was more familiar with. But I still felt very uncomfortable and out of place.

All in all, it was pretty okay. I liked the music save for a few songs. And the bass was super strong, to the point where your whole body vibrates as the speaker or sub-woofer of whatever you call it blasts out its sound.

An eye opening experience for me.

General Holiday Objectives

1. Run: Minimum 3.2km. Alternate running and jogging. Approx. 15 sec run, 30 sec jog. If weather and air quality permits

2. Read: Minimum 2 books. One must teach me something new or how to do something better.

3. Ready: Prepare for next school relevant modules/semester. Pack stuff properly.

4. Rest: Sleep by 10.30pm every night.

5. Resistance: Do 20 push-ups and 20 sit ups at a set time at every waking hour.

Lazy Rabbits

The place at which lily bulbs were planted had a hut with two rabbits in it. My family used to keep rabbits, but the way I looked at the rabbits was different from them. I saw those long eared things in my pot of curry. Someone told me that rabbit curry is delicious. When I wanted to kill one to cook, they made such a fuss. In the end one died when they brought it out and some SUV driver reversed onto it's head, and the other, didn't die in an exciting enough way for me to remember.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that these two are really lazy!
We had sugarcane, and I decided to share with the place's rabbits. I stuck in a quarter cane, the rabbits hop up, take a bite then back away. Then when they see my semi-chewed cane with strands of sugar-caney string hanging out, they rush out to pull the strings into thier mouth.

Are domesticated animals just that lazy?
Maybe it's a good thing, because then I won't have to chase my ingredients.