After the AHM, comes the....

And as always, the AHM marks the beginning of training for the Stanchart marathon. 

My motivation in doing Stanchart marathon was to stay fit & have fun at it, since I already did the Sundown marathon - which satisfied the whole rigamole of training and then running to a plan.

I did not even intended to do up a training plan, until Peter pressed me for the plan last night.  He wanted to know what my plan since he intended to run with me.

Now that I have the plan mapped out, the mileage intimidates me.

So as requested, I sent this plan to Peter via FB message and he replied with 3 simple words "ok, no problem.". 

Really?  I wish I had the same confidence.  I think I'll skip the opener run, and do 20km this Sunday.

Emotions & Jesus

Matt 14:22 to 33 - The Walking on the Water.

Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone.  Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.

During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.

At once [Jesus] spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.

But when he saw how [strong] the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”

This was a passage given to us during last weekend's retreat by Father Vaz.  I feel too much of late, insecurities, work frustrations, anxiety, nervousness... I have let fear overcome me - much as the disciples did, to the extent of failing to recognize Jesus (it is a ghost, they had exclaimed) & sinking into the water.

Refocus I must.  My peace and calm is in the Lord.  Deep breaths!

Implications of HP selling of it's PC business

My initial thoughts was wow, Taiwan & Singapore economies are going to be affected...

Here's the expert's analysis:
http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800649877_499489_NT_e6a6bc24.HTM

Currently I am wondering how this affects Seagate drives and how I can push this as good news...  Hmm..

Change - the only real constant

First Google (who denied ever wanting to be in the hardware business forever) suddenly acquired Motorola mobile.

Next HP's CEO (who was asked to leave from SAP due to poor performance) announced plans to sell off/spin off PSG and to kill off tablets running WebOS (which was purchased at a ridiculously high price from the Palm acquisition).

And today, Steve Jobs retires from Apple.

What a week!

Overnight, Motorola is hip again, HP steps towards impending doom and Apple could run dry of ideas soon?

I love the IT industry, woot!  (not).

A daily struggle

Romans 7:15

What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.

Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.  Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 

So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.

What do you need in a job?

What do you ask for in a job? $, a good & fair manager (a mentor), a role you enjoy, nice teammates, good company.

I am now aware of what I want in an ideal state.

Counting my blessings on a Monday morning

Been feeling "yeesh" for quite a while.  The last 3 Sunday sermons were really good at SFX, really like Fr Bosco and yesterday we had Fr Eugene Vaz himself.  Wow!

So I will take their advice and focus on the good things I have, to be grateful for the blessings I have been given.

In no special order
- family.  Being back and with family I can appear before in 10mins for dinner is really nice.  Matty is a bonus.  Cousins gave me some recycled clothes last night.  I love family - especially when you stand to gain.

- sports.  Was a little deprived in Taiwan.  Now I have so much sporting events, it's throwing my life out of control.  I recall sitting at a weekday mass and thinking to myself to have to tone down a little.  I love all the opportunities I have, but just need to regain a little more control.  The more important part is having hard-core friends.  Friends equally crazy, possibly more!

- church.  I miss aspects like reading at mass & Fr Cary's fantastic sermons in Taipei.  But today I have my old ministry which forces me to sit and talk/think/dwell on my faith once a week, there's daily masses I can attend within easy access, multiple Sunday masses to attend giving me huge flexibility.

- job.  When I was without, it was really awkward.  Now, while it's not the perfect role, the company is pretty ok and I love that I am 10mins drive away from Ian's house - so I can tabao lunch over and play with Matty for a while.

- Singapore.  There was a time I didn't care whether I lived in the country or not.  Now I have to admit this place is pretty darn liveable, except for the weather and possibly too many foreigners.  On the cusp of national day, I must say this, Majulah Singapura!

Guess what came in the mail?

Surprise 1 :
A fridge magnet, roughly the size of your palm.  Personalized with my name, photo & run times.  Thank you Passion Run organizers for sending me this!  I love it!

Surprise 2 :
So I ordered wheelsets on Tue morning and guess what.  I received an SMS from the friendly neighbourhood postman on Saturday afternoon asking if anyone's home for him to make a delivery.  CRC delivered in 4 days.  Amazing. 

I promptly brought it down to Rodalink.  No more pinched tubes from now on!

Skipped tonight's ride cos I'm tired - chose to nap a little & have dinner with Matty and his parents.

BTW, Matty can flip over from belly to front and vice versa.  Comes complete with sound effects, "eeeeeeeh!".  Simply adorable.

Wheels - good and bad news

Speedy's (my bike's name) back tyre had deflated yet again Monday late in the evening.   I've had the rim tape changed, tyre changed and countless tubes replaced, yet it persistently pinches itself.  Angry!

Had to rush to Rodalink before the ride yesterday, Mickey wasn't on duty, dang.  Herman checked it perfunctorily, pronounced it pinched, then proceeds to pull a new tube in.  I saw red.  Started whining about how many tubes I have spent on this back tyre - enough to have funded an entry level wheelset which is still better than the stock wheels I currently have on.  So Herman was nice enough to offer me a spare wheel while he tried to pinpoint the fault with the errant wheel.  Incidentally that spare wheel is much lighter than my own.  As it turns out, I will need it :)

Just setting off on the ride, I already felt ominously sluggish.  At the end of Coastal Road, I was broken from the peloton by traffic lights.  Dragging the remaining guys behind me, with great effort I chased and slowly closed the gap but it was not until that last steep slope before the Shell petrol kiosk rest stop did I succeed.

On the return, again, I found myself with only JC.  Swinging turns to drag & holding 33-35km/h.  Not sure if I was tired or hungry or the headwinds too much, but I started to see stars - literally.  Fearful of falling off the bike dizzy, yet reluctant to give up the partnership, midway through Coastal Road, I had to give up - gasping at JC to go ahead.

And then like a Godsend, from behind came a train of Weeli dragging Paul, Zi & Roger.  So glad to see them, I immediately joined in the drafting all the way back.

Soon I can practise dragging on my Ultegra wheelset (yeah, I did it finally! Prompted to action by anger that Monday night).  Perhaps swing turns to drag as JC suggests.  I learned last night that drafting is not only mental, but physical!  My legs were burning, I could barely hold myself upright, I was mashing away, forget pedaling technique!  I was so tired, I was dizzy!  Yet the next instance I was back drafting, I could almost immediately recover yet keep their pace.

A new route to work

A colleague just shared a new route to drive to work.  It sounded so convoluted when I first started here that I dismissed it.  But when I heard it again yesterday, I tried it and it really is much smoother - I maintain 50-80km almost all the way, minimal stops.  And it works like a dream both ways - morning and evening rush hour.

The route : Lornie Road, turn off at Braddell towards CTE, turn onto CTE, get off at AMK Avenue 5.  It's strange eh?  Instinctively, if you want expressway, you'd take PIE-CTE ; and if you were eschewing expressways, then it will be Lornie-Marymount-AMK.  This route is a combination of both.  Like hybrid.  Like the hybrid drive I am supposed to market.  Groan.

Hardship trip to Pulau Aur for the weekend

Philip was leaving Dell and wanted a dive trip.  After eliminating various options : no leave, too far, too expensive.. we reduced to 1 destination - Aur/Dayang/Tioman weekend getaway.  Essentially just to clock some underwater mileage.  It was touted as "hardship trip", so everyone else duly backed out.  I felt a little obligated, cos no one else was going to go, and besides since I have not been to Aur/Dayang for at least 5 years, so WTH, hardship diving, here I come!

The journey there was uneventful, Philip and I chatted all the way to Mersing in a comfortable AC coach, we were then transfered onto a boat that had en-masse sleeping pads, everyone could lay down flat, albeit a little squashed.  Since I brought a warm fleece blanket, I could sleep fairly comfortably. 

First instance of 'hardship' was when we were on the little transfer boat to the resort and Philip shone his flashlight into the dark and muttered : staghorn coral.  The tide was really low and the boat was scrapping bottom, we had to jump overboard and wade in, yes, stepping on staghorn coral while carrying our luggage to make it to land.  It was hard cos the coral is uneven and sharp, it was 4am and pitch black, I was wearing long pants and carrying luggage.  While staggering in the 30m into land, I ended up with a cut on my left heel, a deep flapper.  Damnit.

Not sure if the eruption of  Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi was a factor but it was cloudy skies the whole weekend.  Which made for lousy vis.  I barely took any photos.  Instead took the time to practise my kicking underwater, need to learn to fly to chase big creatures.  Truth is, Philip and I hoped for a glimpse of a passing whaleshark - in vain.  Seriously, even if a whale shark did pass us by, the poor vis would have shrouded it!

The highlight of the trip were the doughnuts from the Divers Lodge - served as afternoon tea.  I ate 6 and almost puke the next dive.  Worth it, nontheless.  Actually the food per se, was excellent. 

Or it could also be the time when I let Philip shower first since I was still digging for clean clothes etc.  Now the generator only starts running at 7pm.  I was shampooing in cold water and wondering what time it was, when suddenly the lights and hot water kicked in.  Perfect timing! 

Did we see anything special in the waters of Pulau Aur?  Hmm... actually the marine life and condition of the corals is quite bad.  From my last dive 5-6 years ago, much deteoriation.  The only plus is that the water is cold, 26-27degrees, so hopefully the corals will start to flourish soon.  Bleaching is rather bad at this moment.

Me smirking for the camera

It was not that bad a trip afterall.  Other than some wounds : beside the heel cut - which hurt the whole time since the booties would touch it.  I also cut my right knee while washing gear after the last dive cos my flesh is softened from soaking in the sea.  Also sustained a small bump on the side of head after I was thrown off balance sitting on the boat & struggling to pull my 5mm thick wetsuit on.

Besides that, the transfers were smooth, diving was safe and food was good. 

More pictures : http://www.flickr.com/photos/8062670@N07/sets/72157627220886454/

Mid week rambling

Amazingly I had a pretty hectic week thus far.  Should stop saying this place is slow-paced!  Back to back meetings, then last night was on a conference call til about 12:30 midnight.  This morning back in office at 8am for a quarterly update session.  I need more sleep!

Found myself talking to a HK software vendor just now and he started off the conversation in Mandarin.  Both of us struggled during the conversation.  Wonder why we can't just switch to English since Mandarin is still a foreign language to him.

Cycling.  Reprieve.  Have excuse to go slow tonight since my colleague Jasmin & also CY (he just bought a road bike on Sunday) are coming tonight.  Will need to accompany them cycling within the back pack.  Think I can pretty much volunteer to be sweeper, unless Monica is coming - she'll be slower than them and I will leave  her behind.  Hee hee...

We are all dispensable... really?

You've heard it numerous times over, no one is indispensable in a company.  Especially true during bad times when retrenchments happen.

Yet, once in a while, along comes a person like Rupert Murdoch.  He stood by his editor so much, he closed a 168 year old newspaper?

Sure there's more in it that they reveal, but nontheless, I never expected this outcome.

From the New York times today :

A Tabloid Shame, Exposed by Earnest Rivals

By DAVID CARR

Published: July 10, 2011

In America, newspapers have been seen as an expensive hobby for Mr. Murdoch, the bane of the News Corporation’s shareholders, but as it turns out, the newspapers in Britain may end up being more costly to him in the long run.The phone-hacking scandal that is mushrooming in Britain, with arrests, skullduggery and influence peddling, would be a delicious story for The News of the World if it were not about the newspaper itself. Instead, the hunter became the hunted, and last Thursday Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation summarily slid the 168-year-old News of the World under a double-decker bus. Its final issue was Sunday.

So useful in wielding influence, if not producing revenue, his newspapers are the very thing that brought his company into the cross hairs, and delayed, at least temporarily, his efforts to expand it by gaining full control of British Sky Broadcasting, the largest pay television company in Britain.

Logic and fairness would suggest that it was folly to concentrate so much power in the hands of someone who already controlled many national media assets. So where was the outrage? Well, check who owns the megaphone. The News Corporation has historically used its four newspapers — it also owns The Sun, The Times of London, and The Sunday Times — to shape and quash public debate, routinely helping to elect prime ministers with timely endorsements while punishing enemies at every turn.

Don’t take my word for it. After David Cameron was elected prime minister, one of the first visitors he received at 10 Downing Street was Mr. Murdoch — discreetly through a back entrance — and Mr. Cameron spoke plainly last week about the corrosively close relationship. “The truth is, we’ve all been in this together,” he said.

“The press, the politicians and leaders of all parties.” To which a dumb Yank like me might say, “Duh.”

The only thing Mr. Cameron didn’t do was point to Mr. Murdoch himself. But he didn’t really have to after the tactical ruthlessness of Mr. Murdoch’s familiars was laid bare for all to see.

Newspapers, as anybody will tell you, aren’t what they used to be. Part of the reason that the News Corporation was willing to close down a paper with a circulation of about 2.7 million copies every Sunday was that its revenue was under $1 billion. (The News Corporation’s heir apparent, James Murdoch, has always seemed eager to shed some of the company’s newspapers, though I doubt that putting the nail gun to this paper was what he had in mind.)

Still, how did we find out that a British tabloid was hacking thousands of voice mails of private citizens? Not from the British government, with its wan, inconclusive investigations, but from other newspapers.

Think of it. There was Mr. Murdoch, tying on a napkin and ready to dine on the other 60 percent of BSkyB that he did not already have. But just as he was about to swallow yet another tasty morsel, the hands at his throat belonged to, yes, newspaper journalists.

Newspapers, it turns out, are still powerful things, and not just in the way that Mr. Murdoch has historically deployed them.

The Guardian stayed on the phone-hacking story like a dog on a meat bone, acting very much in the British tradition of a crusading press, and goosing the story back to life after years of dormancy. Other papers, including The New York Times, reported executive and police complicity that gave the lie to the company’s “few bad apples” explanation. As recently as last week, Vanity Fair broke stories about police complicity.

Mr. Murdoch, ever the populist, prefers his crusades to be built on chronic ridicule and bombast. But as The Guardian has shown, the steady accretion of fact — an exercise Mr. Murdoch has historically regarded as bland and elitist — can have a profound effect.

His corporation may be able to pick governments, but holding them accountable is also in the realm of newspaper journalism, an earnest concept of public service that has rarely been of much interest to him.

The coverage last week, on a suddenly fast-moving story that had been moving only in increments, destabilized the ledge that the News Corporation had been standing on. James Murdoch regretted everything and took responsibility for almost nothing. What looked like an opportunity for him to prove his mettle as a manager of crisis might yet engulf him.

Andy Coulson, the former editor of News of the World who became the chief spokesman for Mr. Cameron, has been arrested. And Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International and previous editor of The News of the World, responded by saying that it was “inconceivable” that she knew of the hacking

Sunday

Sunday July 10, 2011 was a really fulfilling day.

6am - woke up to run with Peter.  His planned route this week was 1 loop of Mount Faber - hill training!

4:30pm - Matty's baptism.  Like a little trooper, he performed brilliantly until the much bigger kid in front of us started bawling, affecting him. Michelle quickly started to pat him to sleep and he slept from midway through his baptism right through the evening mass that begun after.  So our little Catholic boy attended his first mass (albeit in his sleep) :)  The whole baptism is quite mayhem-ish.  The priest, to his credit, just keeps ploughing through the proceedings.  There were people taking photos all over the place (including me & Ian), quite messy really.

7pm - Back at Ian's place.  We were all tired.  So I went out to Chomp-Chomp, bought dinner for all of us : stingray, carrot-cake, hokkien mee, satay, satay bee hoon...  Super greasy!

10pm - washed car and decided I'll do a quick wax job.   Biceps sore from carrying Matty for 1.5hrs or I'd be quicker.  Took me 45mins.

11pm - Cold Storage to buy milk for the week.  Picked up a hunk of bread (not the sliced soft bread that Singaporeans like, but a hunk of multi-grain bread) & some aged Gouda.  Originally wanted to get brie, my favourite, but the Gouda looked good.  This will be lunch Monday.

Well accomplished day.

After-note (Monday)
- wax job was still blotchy.  Dim lighting at the car park not good enough.
- wolfed down my sandwich.  Fantastic.  Gouda tasted great!

Symphony of gears whirling

The cards were for a slow ride yesterday.

1. Invited 2 newbies : my cousin (who just bought a new Scott road bike but fearfully riding alone along Clementi PCN to build up confidence and skill with the cleats) & Jasmin, my colleague. But both declined me last minute.
2. Climbed too much Tuesday night.  I did perhaps 7 (relatively easy) climbs but still, 7!  Egged on by Jo - she was on fire!  
3. Still sleep deprived from last week - so bad I overshot my ECP exit (always a first time!) and had to turn around just before Changi airport. 
4. Hectic!  Need to rush home.  Need to pick up Speedy from Rodalink.  Get to East Coast by 7:30pm.
5. Very strong headwind.  Conversation as we cycled along the PCN leading to Coastal Road needed to be held at a shout to be heard!

Then,
- Traffic was not too bad, made it home early enough, wanted to pick Zi up, but she MIA.
- To Rodalink.  I left Speedy there since Sunday evening to oil the sticky gears - the left side gear was permanently stuck to the bigger gear and I need the smaller gear for hills!
- Got to East Coast 7:30pm on the dot - despite my missing the turn.

How it become my fastest ride :
The ride started out smooth - we were bunched up to shield each other from the wind, so it was really nice.  I tried moving to the front and with just the lead cyclist blocking me, the wind was pretty bad -  dropped back down to the middle pack.  At Shell, we first noticed Anne.  She was bitching about how she was cycling alone, unhappy that her group's missing.  Simon went over to talk to her and she joined us from there on.  The return was fast.  At some point, I found myself leading & pulling the group at 34km all the way from one of the traffic lights along Loyang until almost Coastal Road.  After I faltered, Peter gamely took over.  But he too was tired & something's wrong with his gears, it was ticking loudly. The calvary came up : Paul, Bryan, Isaac, Kah Hoe, Simon and Anne.  We bunched up again.  Nice.  Nearer to the fire station, we met Grayson!  He intersected through the group to friendly greetings, then fired off.  Splintering the group.  I got dropped.  Holding 33-35km, I was dropped.  Kah Hoe, Anne, Isaac and I tried but failed to chase the leading pack - later I found out Paul hit 53.8, Bryan 51km!   Back at F2 carpark, Anne and I exchanged FB accounts - she's 1 cool cyclist!  She's apparently a friend of Simon's friend.  And she did start off with our group from the start!  Guess she somehow followed a wrong group mistakenly cos it was a pretty crowded night last night along the Coastal Road.

Either due to headwind or the crazy speeds, there was no conversation even though we cycled bunched up (2 or 3 abreast).  All I hear is the whirling of our bicycle chains roaring away.... sheer music!

I didn't expect to be able to go so fast consistently.  Think Speedy was nervous cos I had no time to pick him up - he slept 3 nights in the shop.  The longest time he spent away from home.  Decided he'll prove himself a fast bike to me.  Haha!

Cookies are back!

For the longest time in my life, I ate to survive.  I didn't care much about food except that it does not fall into my list of 'don't like's.

Today, I still maintain a long list of 'don't like's, and I prefer if it be easily accessible : car-park nearby, no need to travel far, does not require long cooking times or difficult de-skinning/peeling etc.

Somewhere down the line though, I got infected by the foodies in my life.  I now harbour cravings.  What happened?  Gah...  My current fixation is on Old Chang Kee deep-fried, arteries clogging curry puffs & trans-fat laden cookies.

I welcomed the return of the blue cookie can in the pantry by eating 10 cookies.  Unbelievable.

How can a 5kg bundle of baby be that exhausting to look after?

I babysat my 3-month old godson yesterday from lunch til about 9pm - with his parents' assistance until they went out to a wedding dinner at 7.  Between 7 to about 9 when my mom returned to take over, Matty and I flew solo.  Well, kinda solo since Janet the helper, got me 2 bottles and warmed them up for me too :)

But I ran the full gauntlet : fed, burped, changed his stinky diaper, played with him, swaddled him..

You play with him when he's wake, and you think you can nap when he does, but just as I nod off to sleep, he stirs and cries.  Need to carry him til he falls back asleep.

I got home around 10, was in bed by 11, and woke up 9 on Monday morning.

Somehow I feel more tired than if I had ran and cycled long distances!

Vultures

Apparently, vultures exist in every office.

The guy next door to me quit.  Last day yesterday.  This morning I walked in to a aisle conversation, a colleague commenting on wanting his chair.  Me, I want his bigger LCD monitor since I have a paltry 17".

So, she broke in the door (it's easy, just open the cubical flaps, stick hand in, unlock!).  She substituted chairs, I swopped LCDs, someone else took his desktop printer...

Vultures.

I recall a similar incident in HP when the vultures circled before the final throes of death.  We pasted post-it notes on what we wanted to inherit, days before Lee Lin's last day at work.  That was simply hilarious.

BTW, I now have a 24" LCD, it is bloody huge!

To zhng or not to zhng

It all started 1 month back in a conversation with Isaac over a cycling evening.  Isaac used to ride a Rodalink 200 as well (like me) but back then he was in the midst of building a new bike and we were talking about wheelsets.  He believes wheelsets are the first serious upgrade in order of priority.  He rides on Shimano Ultegra and loves them.  The other night over a west side 65km ride, JC was also talking about that to someone else and I overheard the conversation.  Hmm... CRC has the Shimano Ultegras for ~$500.

Sounded that off Isaac last night and he thinks they are a good deal since he bought his second hand for the same price but with tyres included (perhaps another $100 he estimates).

Last night's ride started out nice.  We rode in a big pack all the way to Shell, en-route I was chatting with Isaac about wheelsets, cycling at 32km/h.  If you are thinking, wow, Fel, you are a strong cyclist, well, that I had the same sentiments only to have them crushed during the return ride when I struggled to maintain 30km/h.

Question 1 - if it's raining, would you be able to ride faster or slowly?
Question 2 - should I change my wheelset?
Question 3 - who is the target segment for a hybrid SSD drive?  Opps, been so preoccupied with this question these days...

Little things that we take for granted

A new colleague saw my FB update one evening when I checked into Novena church, came to ask me if I could do her a favour and buy her a book.  Apparently she was told that the bookstore at Novena sells Henri Nouwen books rather cheaply.  She wanted the Return of the Prodigal Son.

I recall reading it years ago, but nontheless, I bought her the book over a lunch time mass one day.  It was all of $5 and I gave it to her as a gift - thinking nothing further of it.

She came gushing to me a couple of days later about what a fantastic read it was and how much it related to her, leaving her in tears as she read it.

A few days on, she asked for a second book, Inner Voice of Love, also from Henri Nouwen.

I got it for her today, $7 this time.  She was so happy to receive it and started gushing about how she found an iPhone app for daily reading/meditation from a Catholic source.  She's amazed that all Catholics the world over (all 1.18 billion of us) read the same daily readings.  Note - she's a Christian who attends the same church as a couple of my good friends.

Just hit me how I take it all for granted, the resources I have at my fingertips : well stocked bookshops with good books at really affordable pricing & a church that prays universally together every day.

While at Novena bookstore, I also bought Matty a book on New Testament children's stories.  Now I can read to the little hyper kiddo.  Unfortuately his book cost $26 :)

Keeping in a Paceline safely

9 tips on keeping the paceline while cycling :

KEEP THE PACE The number one mistake riders make is picking up speed when they get to the front, says Ignosh. "Some guys just want to show off; others are well-intentioned—they just aren't in tune with their effort and feel like they're supposed to take a pull, so they pull." As you're riding through the line, pay attention to the group's average speed and effort. When you get to the front, do your best to maintain those levels. The goal is to keep the pack together, not blow it apart or shell riders off the back.

MICROADJUST It's nearly impossible for everyone to put forth equal amounts of effort, especially on undulating terrain. You need to make adjustments along the way to prevent what Ignosh calls the Slinky effect, where the line alternately bunches together and becomes strung out, with big gaps. "It's better to make two small undercorrections than one big overcorrection," he says.

"Think of it like driving: You don't slam on the brakes, then hit the gas; you moderate your speed." To do that in a paceline, try one of these techniques:

Soft pedal: If you feel like you're getting sucked into the rider in front of you, take a light pedal stroke or two to adjust your speed accordingly.

Air brake: An easy (and safe) way to trim speed is to sit up and catch some wind. It'll slow you down a notch without disrupting the rhythm of the line.

Feather brake: Gently squeeze the brakes while continuing to pedal. You can scrub speed while shifting up or down as needed to alter your pace.

DON'T STARE Focusing on the wheel directly in front of you is a natural instinct when riding in a line, but it gives you zero time to react should something go awry. "Keep your head up and check about 10 meters down the road," says Ignosh. "Look through holes in the leading rider—over his shoulder, under his arm or through his legs—and ride proactively instead of reactively. This will help keep the line moving smoothly."

EASE OFF THE GAS Rather than accelerating when you pull, try to ride in the line at a steady pace and decelerate as you pull off and drift to the back. "This provides the right work-to-recovery ratio without all the punchy surges that tend to blow the weaker riders off the back," says Ignosh.

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE Pacelines are designed to share the workload, so limit your pulls to a few minutes to stay fresh and give other riders a chance.

CONSERVE ENERGY If you feel tired, sit out a few turns until you're ready to take another pull. Simply open a spot for riders to rejoin the line in front of you, or come to the front and immediately pull off and drift to the back. You'll do the pack a favor by staying with them rather than working yourself into the red and falling off the back, which makes the group slow down to let you catch up.

Ever since Sin fell, everyone read up on trying to keep a paceline and doing it safely.  JC now rides like Grayson, steady constant 30km.  I've been trying to follow his super steady speed, not easy I must say, needs constant adjustment.  And the other thing, I tend to fixate.  And I mean, really fixate.  Usually like a moth drawn to light, I stare at the blinking red back light of the bike in front of me, not thinking anything, just following.  As it is with life, I am trying not to fixate on the immediate (usually small things), and to focus beyond (larger picture).  Funny what goes through your head during a 15km commute to work daily.

Tiring weekend

What a weekend!

Fri evening 10pm - cycled 55km with Peter through the hilly slopes of Jalan Bahar & Neo Tiew.
Sat morning - 5 exhausting climbs, included the overhang, twice!
Sun dawn - ran 7km of hilly slopes, climaxing with a run through Mount Faber!
Sun evening - cycled 65km at a brisk speed, up and down hilly slopes.  Naive me had assumed a comfortable pace when I saw 3 women, never have I been proven so wrong.

Total mileage of the week (Mon to Sun) : 12km run & 160km cycle.  A painful refrain this week - uphill & downhill!

My abs are sore now, not sure from the hilly run/cycling yesterday or the overhang climb Sat.  Or perhaps all combined!

BBC - Eat more nuts and fruit to 'help weight loss'

Hmm...  Chris has been right this whole time with the saying "stop eating crap"!  Fill up with high fibre foods leaving you little room for crap.

Eat more nuts and fruit to 'help weight loss'

Eating larger portions of healthy food is more important than dieting when it comes to staying slim, say scientists.

The US team found people who increased their intake of more high-fibre food like nuts, fruit, yoghurt and vegetables actually lost weight.

The Harvard School of Public Health researchers believe consumption of these products left less room for fatty foods.

The study of 120,000 people appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The participants were monitored over 20 years.

Unsurprisingly, the food linked to the greatest amount of weight gain was chips. An extra daily portion led to an increase in weight of over 3lbs in four years.

Similar results were seen among people who consumed extra portions of crisps, sugary drinks and meats.

Go nuts

However, there was less weight gain as time went on among people who ate more of certain foods, such as yoghurt, vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

For example, an extra helping of yoghurt led to a fall in weight of 0.37 kilos (0.82lbs) and for vegetables it was 0.1 kilos (0.22lbs).

Dariush Mozaffarian, associate professor at Harvard and lead author of the study, said the fibre content of these foods could explain their effect.

"Their inverse associations with weight gain suggest that the increase in their consumption reduced the intake of other foods to a greater (caloric) extent, decreasing the overall amount of energy consumed.

"Higher fibre content and slower digestion of these foods would augment satiety, and their increased consumption would also displace other, more highly processed foods in the diet.

Yahoo Finance - Ten Brands That Will Disappear in 2012

I remember when all my friends left Uni and joined Erickson and it was cool.  

Or being addicted to Kellogg's corn pops while in school in Oz (the Oz version is fluffier and heavenly!).  

And A&W?  I love the ice cream floats!

Fine, I'm just old and nostalgic..   

Ten Brands That Will Disappear in 2012

1. Sony Pictures

Sony has a studio production arm which has nothing to do with its core businesses of consumer electronics and gaming. Sony bought what was Columbia Tri-Star Picture in 1989 for $3.4 billion. This entertainment operation has done poorly recently. Sony's fiscal year ends in March, and for the period, revenue for the group dropped 15% to $7.2 billion and operating income fell by 10% to $466 million. Sony is in trouble. It lost $3.1 billion in its latest fiscal year on revenue of $86.5 billion. Sony's gaming system group is under siege by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - News) and Nintendo. Its consumer electronics group faces an overwhelming challenge from Apple. The company's future prospects have been further damaged by the Japan earthquake and the hack of its large PlayStation Network. CEO Howard Stringer is under pressure to do something to increase the value of Sony's shares. The only valuable asset with which he can easily part is Columbia which would attract interest from a number of large media operations. Sony Entertainment will disappear with the sale of its assets.

2. A&W

A&W Restaurants is owned by fast food holding company giant Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM - News) which has had the firm for sale since January. There have been no buyers. The chain was founded in 1919. The size of the company grew rapidly, and immediately after WWII 450 franchises were opened. The firm pioneered the "drive in" fast food format. A&W began to sell canned versions of its sodas in 1971 — the part of the business that will survive as a container beverage business which is now owned by Dr. Pepper/Snapple. The A&W Restaurant business is too small to be viable now. It had 322 outlets in the U.S and 317 outside the U.S at the end of last year. All were operated by franchisees. By contrast, Yum!'s flagship KFC had 5,055 stores in the U.S. and 11,798 overseas. Two massive global fast food chains are even larger. Subway has 35,000 locations worldwide, and McDonald's has nearly as many. A&W does not have the ability to market itself against these chains and at least a dozen other fast food operators like Burger King. And, A&W does not have the size to efficiently handle food purchases, logistics, and transportation costs compared to competitors many times as large.

3. Saab

The first Saab car was launched in 1949 by Swedish industrial firm Svenska Aeroplan. The firm produced a series of sedans and coups, the flagship of which was the 900 series, released in 1978. About one million of these would eventually be sold. Saab's engineering reputation and the rise in its international sales attracted GM to buy half the company in 1989 and the balance in 2000. Saab's problem, which grew under the management of the world's No.1 automobile manufacturer, was that it was never more than a niche brand in an industry dominated by very large players such as Ford and Chevrolet. It did not build very inexpensive cars like VW did, or expensive sports cars as Porsche did. Saab's models were, in price and features, up against models from the world's largest car companies that sold hundreds of thousands of units each year. Saab also did not have a wide number of models to suit different budgets and driver tastes. GM decided to jettison the brand in late 2008, and the small company quickly became insolvent. Saab finally found a buyer in high-end car maker Spyker which took control of the company last year. Spyker quickly ran low on money because only 32,000 Saabs were sold in 2010. Spyker turned to Chinese industrial investors for money. Pang Da Automobile agreed to take an equity stake in the company. But, the agreement is not binding, and with a potential of global sales which are still below 50,000 a year based on manufacturing and marketing operations, and demand, Saab is no longer a financially viable brand.

4. American Apparel

The once-hip retailer reached the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year, and there is no indication that it has gained anything more than a little time with its latest financing. It currently trades as a penny stock. The company had three stores and $82 million in revenue in 2003. Those numbers reached 260 stores and $545 million in 2008. For the first quarter of this year, the retailer had net sales for the quarter of $116.1 million, a 4.7% decline over sales of $121.8 million in the same period a year ago. Comparable store sales declined 8% on a constant currency basis. American Apparel posted a net loss for the period of $21 million. Comparable store sales have flattened, which means the firm likely will continue to post losses. American Apparel is also almost certainly under gross margin pressure because of the rise in cotton prices. The retailer raised $14.9 million in April by selling shares at a discount of 43% to a group of private investors led by Canadian financier Michael Serruya and Delavaco Capital. According to Reuters, the 15.8 million shares sold represented 20.3 percent of the company's outstanding stock on March 31. That sum is not nearly enough to keep American Apparel from going the way of Borders. It is a small, under-funded player in a market with very large competitors with healthy balance sheets. It does not help matters that the company's founder and CEO, Dov Charney, has been a defendant in several lawsuits filed by former employees alleging sexual harassment.

5. Sears

The parent of Sears and Kmart — Sears Holdings — is in a lot of trouble. Total revenue dropped $341 million to $9.7 billion for the quarter which closed April 30, 2011. The company had a net loss of $170 million. Sears Holdings was created by a merger of the parents of the two chains on March 24, 2005. The operation has been a disaster ever since. The company has tried to run 4,000 stores which operate across the US and Canada. Neither Sears nor Kmart have done well recently, but Sears' domestic locations same store numbers were off 5.2% in the first quarter and Kmart's were down 1.6%. Last year domestic comparable store sales declined 1.6% in the total, with an increase at Kmart of .7% and a decline at Sears Domestic of 3.6%. New CEO Lou D'Ambrosio recently said of the last quarter that, "we also fell short on executing with excellence. We cannot control the weather or economy or government spending. But we can control how we execute and leverage the potent set of assets we have." D'Ambrosio needs to pull a rabbit out of his hat soon. Sharex are down 55% during the last five years. D'Ambrosio's only reasonable solution to the firm's financial problems is to stop supporting two brands which compete with one another and larger rivals such as Walmart (NYSE: WMT - News) and Target (NYSE: TGT - News). The cost to market two brands and maintain stores which overlap one another geographically must be in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Employee and supply chain costs are also gigantic. The path D'Ambrosio is likely to take is to consolidate two brand into one — keeping the better performing Kmart and shuttering Sears.

6. Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson was formed by the two large consumer electronics companies to market the handset offerings each had handled separately. The venture started in 2001, before the rise of the smartphone. Early in its history, it was one of the biggest handset manufacturers along with Nokia (NYSE: NOK - News), Samsung, LG, and Motorola. Sales of Sony Ericsson phones were originally helped by the popularity of other Sony portable devices like the Walkman. Sony Ericsson's product development lagged behind those of companies like Apple (NYSE: AAPL - News) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM - News) which dominated the high end smartphone industry early. Sony Ericsson also relied on the Symbian operating system which was championed by market leader Nokia, but which it has abandoned in favor of Microsoft's Windows mobile operating system because of license costs and difficulty with programmers. In a period when smartphone sales worldwide are rising in the double digits and sales of the iPhone double year over year, Sony Ericsson's unit sales dropped from 97 million in 2008 to 43 million last year. New competitors like HTC now outsell Sony Ericsson by widening numbers. Sony Ericsson management expects several more quarters of falling sales and the company has laid off thousands of people. There have been rumors, backed by logic, that Sony will take over the operation, rebrand the handsets with its name, and market them in tandem with its PS3 consoles and VAIO PCs.

7. Kellogg's Corn Pops

The cereal business is not what is used to be, at least for products that are not considered "healthy." Among those is Kellogg's Corn Pops ready-to-eat cereal. Sales of the brand dropped 18% over the year that ended in April, down to $74 million. That puts it well behind brands like Cheerios and Frosted Flakes, each which have sales of over $200 million a year. Private label sales have also hurt sales of branded cereals. Revenues in this category were $637 million over the same April-end period. There is also profit margin pressure on Corn Pops because of the sharp increase in corn prices. Kellogg's describes the product as being "crispy, glazed, crunchy, sweet." Corn Pops also contain mono- and diglycerides, used to bind saturated fat, and BHT for freshness, which is also used in embalming fluid. None of these are likely to be what mothers want to serve their children in an age in which a healthy breakfast is more likely to be egg whites and a bowl of fresh fruit.

8. MySpace

MySpace, once the world's largest social network, died a long time ago. It will get buried soon. News Corp (NYSE: NWS - News) bought MySpace and its parent in 2005 for $580 million, which was considered inexpensive at the time based on the web property's size. MySpace held the top spot among social networks based on visitors from mid-2006 until mid-2008, according to several online research services. It was overtaken by Facebook at that point. Facebook has 700 million members worldwide now and recently passed Yahoo! (NYSE: YHOO - News) as the largest website for display advertising based on revenue. News Corp was able to get an exclusive advertising deal worth $900 million shortly after it bought the property, but that was its sales high-water mark. Its audience is currently estimated to be less that 20 million visitors in the US. Why did MySpace fall so far behind Facebook? No one knows for certain. It may be that Facebook had more attractive features for people who wanted to share their identities online. It may have been that it appealed to a younger audience which tends to spend more time online. News Corp announced in February that it would sell MySpace. There were no serious bids. Rumors surfaced recently that a buyer may take the website for $100 million. The brand is worth little if anything. A buyer is likely to kill the name and fold the subscriber base into another brand. News Corp has hinted it will close MySpace if it does not find a buyer.

9. Soap Opera Digest

The magazine's future has been ruined by two trends. The first is the number of cancellations of soap operas. Long-lived shows which include "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" have been canceled and replaced by talk shows, which are less expensive to air. The other insurmountable challenge is the wide availability of details on soap operas online. Some of the shows even have their own fan sites. News about the industry, in other words, is now distributed and no longer in one place. Soap Opera Digest's first quarter advertising pages fell 21% in the first quarter and revenue was down 18% to $4 million. In 2000, the magazine's circulation was in excess of 1.1 million readers. By 2005 it fell below 500,000 where it has remained for the last 5 years. Source Interlink Media, the magazine's parent, which also owns automotive, truck, and motorcycle publications, has little reason to support a product based on a dying industry.

10. Nokia

Nokia is dead. Shareholders are just waiting for an undertaker. The world's largest handset company has one asset. Nokia sold 25% of the global total of 428 million units sold in the first quarter. Its problem is that in the industry the company is viewed as a falling knife. Its market share in the same quarter of 2010 was nearly 31%. The arguments that Nokia will not stay independent are numerous. It has a very modest presence in the rapidly growing smartphone industry which is dominated by Apple, Research In Motion's Blackberry, HTC, and Samsung. Nokia runs the outdated Symbian operating system and is in the process of changing to Microsoft's Windows mobile OS, which has a tiny share of the market.

Nokia would be an attractive takeover target to a large extent because the cost to "buy" 25% of the global handset market would only be $22 billion based on Nokia's current market cap. Obviously, a buyer would need to pay a premium, but even $30 billion is within reach of several companies. Potential buyers would start with HTC, the fourth largest smartphone maker in the world. Its sales have doubled in both the last quarter and the last year. HTC will sell as many as 80 million handsets in 2011. The Taiwan-based company's challenge would be whether it could finance such a large deal. The other three likely bidders do not have that problem. Microsoft, which is Nokia's primary software partner, could easily buy the company and is often mentioned as a suitor. The world's largest software company recently moved further into the telecom industry though its purchase of VoIP giant Skype, which has 170 million active customers. Two other large firms have many reasons to buy Nokia. Samsung, part of one of the largest conglomerates in Korea, has publicly set a goal to be the No.1 handset company in the world by 2014. The parent company is the largest in South Korea with revenue in 2010 of $134 billion. A buyout of Nokia would launch Samsung into the position as the world's handset leader. LG Electronics, the 7th largest company in South Korea, with sales of $48 billion, is by most measures the third largest smartphone company. It has the scale and balance sheet to takeover Nokia. The only question about the Finland-based company is whether a buyer would maintain the Microsoft relationship or change to the popular Android OS to power Nokia phones.

My 1:1 with my senior VP

He was warm, honest and really down to earth.  He asked me a few questions :
- my on-boarding experience
- my expectations of the company during the interview versus now
- where I want to be in this company, my personal goals

Of cos I answered positively - which is largely true anyhow.  Except the last question, I didn't have a real answer, and he looked me in the eye and wanted me to think hard about it.  That it would be a pity if I left this company (one day) without having maxed out my potential.

I am impressed.  Really.

Mileage

The marathon's over yeah, but last week I clocked 20km spread over Tue/Thu & Sun morning.  Not bad indeed!

No excuse living

I've always espoused living life without excuses.

Let's say running. Other than with Hon (my ex bf), I've always been a solo runner. Occasionally people run with me, Kuansie while still in HP, Viv on a few occasions last year. It's nice sometimes, but then you compromise your own pace or gameplan. The lack of a run buddy is no excuse - just chalk it down to tiredness or plain laziness.  Really no excuses.

Or the familiar, no time. We all have 24 hours regardless if you're a CEO or a manual worker. It all boils down to time management and your priorities.

Or religion. People stop attending church because the sermon's no good, or the pastor was rude to you or cell group wasn't welcoming.  These are really excuses - change churches if you must, but keep going!

Today, I'm glad I have a run buddy in Peter. Simply cos it gets me out of bed at 6am to run 12km. At this rate, the Army Half Marathon will be a breeze :)

Mobile telephones more common than toilets in India, UN report finds

Mobile telephones more common than toilets in India, UN report finds

What's a laptop?

It's been years since I said the word, laptop.  Within HP, so for the last 11 years, we've always called a notebook, a notebook. 

I realize outside of the notebook world, people actually say, laptop instead. 

Like as if anyone puts in on their laps anymore...

Another half marathon race set in the evening?

What is this?  Caught my eye today, another evening race?

http://www.marina21k.com.sg/events.html

I'm tempted!

I'm tired!

I'm tired and feeling flu-ey since returning from KL last weekend & just never had the opportunity to sleep it off cos I've been getting home only around 11pm all week.

Last night, right after Jo's housewarming party, I went to bed at 11:30pm.  Feeling better now.

Marking my first month

Has it been 4 weeks already?

Tue this week, I had my first sync session with my worldwide counterparts on the hybrid product to launch.  Wed, I had a session with the person who generates all the sales reports.  I wasted Wed afternoon and Thu I was distracted cos my new notebook (a Lenovo Thinkpad) arrived.

And suddenly it's Friday!!  Generated a few charts, put content into a few more slides of my launch plans, hopefully by Monday, I'll have something decent to share as a first version.

I am thinking now, I need to poop...  I'm a little backed-up right now. This heatiness thing is contagious, probably caught it over the weekend sitting too close to the unhygienic one.  Which reminds me of Asterix and Oberlix comics from childhood - this character in the village called Unhygienix.  Haha...

A blast from the past

Met this guy Simon cycling last night.  I thought I saw him a couple of weeks ago in the carpark after the cycle although he didn't cycle with our group then.

Ok, I digress.

So this Simon, we dated for a bit, waaay back in time, perhaps 18 years ago?  Went on a couple of hikes - I recall 1 mountain & 1 waterfall trip, perhaps more...

Anyhow, he told me last night that he is now a father to 4 kids & he cycles a lot.  (puts paid to the notion that cycling causes impotency)

I wonder if the Lord has perhaps forgotten my prayer, I need to shout my prayer out loud (maybe tonight in the privacy of home) ;)

Cubical wall decoration

Building my wall of pain...

Weekend in KL

It was a great weekend.  Thanks to good buddies, Zi & Peter!  Love u 2!

It was intended as a trip to take Maggie Lee to climb in Malaysia - I used to climb with her in the 石牌climb gym in Taipei.  Roping along Derek, Zi & Peter to make it a comfortable small climb group.

Zi very generously offered her car again, and we got to KL rather uneventfully, Peter's a really steady driver.  Straight to Batu Caves without much difficulties, Maggie, Peter & I climbed Nyamuk ; Zi went with Derek to climb multi-pitches in Damai. 

I had forgotten the path into Nyamuk and led us all too deep, beyond Nyamuk into primary forest.  We were bashing for some 20mins before retreating back to tadah! Nyamuk itself.  It's been 10 years since my last foray into Nyamuk! Thankfully we met some fellow Singaporeans at Nyamuk, so we weren't too lonely at Nyamuk and they gave us some rather helpful beta as well.

I full led 3 climbs quite easily - really happy with the technical nature of the long routes.  3 persons on 1 rope takes a while, so close to 5pm, we started to pack up.  By 5:30pm, we were happily eating ice kacangs at the Malay stalls just outside the crags, adrenaline from our day's climbing still gushing through our veins.  Peter had his first encounter with outdoors climbing,Maggie her first Malaysian climbing and I was reaquainted with Nyamuk after a decade. 

Over at Damai wall, Derek was pleased to climb multi-pitch climbs all afternoon with Zi.  He was saying he normally cannot be hogging 1 rope since we typically climb in bigger groups.

Perfect day 1 for everyone.


Day 2 we climbed at Putrajaya.  Routes were reset for a recent competition, so we had new routes to climb.  I did 5 climbs this time, all leads.  Am pretty pleased with the climbs - I'm happy!

The only down side was stupid Sai hotel giving up our reservations.  Yeah, we got walked.  But it is a small hotel and I didn't leave a credit card number to hold the room. Nontheless, at 12 midnight, with potentially no place to sleep, it was not exactly the best predicament.

Thankfully everyone stayed cool.  Using the GPS, we were led to the Pullman hotel which within the Putrajaya precinct, literally next street from Putrajaya's climb gym.  We had to pay a little more for Pullman which is a 5 star hotel - squeezed all 5 of us into 1 room.  At 1am in the night, none of us really cared too much that the cheapest available room was a "jacuzzi deluxe room" - it had a huge jacazzi by the bed in the open and the bathroom was totally transparent see-thru glass.  Totally no privacy, but then it was just 1 night and we were all too exhausted to care too much.

And my menstrual cycle was spot on.. NOT.  Coincided exactly with day 1 of the trip - no thank you hormone.  Yeah, I was little tired, didn't climb as hard as I otherwise would have.

Maggie had plenty of climbs in, and she just texted me asking me to purchase for her the Climb Malaysia climbing book and to ship it to her in Taipei.  She must like it here!

Thank you Jesus for good friends, good opportunities and good times.

2 cookie a day

There is a free flow of Danish butter cookies (in metal tins) & Ice Mountain bottled water alongside the typical coffee/tea beverages in the office pantry.  Also huge cans of Khong Guan biscuits which aren't popular.

Very generous indeed!

Without marathon training, I have restricted myself to 2 cookies a day.  I had 4 today to compensate for the weekend ;)

My dream last night

This week has been zero activity since the marathon over the weekend.

It has been raining, so all climbs/cycling has been canceled.

Last night, I got back early, vacuumed & moped the house, completed the posters/adverts for the next upcoming Cafe event to be held at St Bernadette's in July, then retired to bed early (before 1am).

Then I had this really vivid dream.  Came upon some guys capturing a long dark snake.  They placed the snake in an huge flower pot/urn-like holder, then transferred it into a plastic bag.  I carried that plastic bag with the snake for a long while, before finally deciding to feed it some water.  Funnily enough, in the dream I didn't seem to be that terrified of snakes. As I opened the bag, tipped water in, I found it was dead.  Tipped the snake out of the plastic bag into the toilet bowl to confirm.  End scene, toilet bowl with a huge dark dead snake with its dead head sticking out of the WC. 

Think I need to watch less Fringe and be careful in Batu caves this weekend ;)

New focus : work & God

Maggie from Taiwan is here on a visit and we decided to head up to climb the natural crags of KL.

My initial plan was simple, jump on a bus to KL, then public transport around KL.

I asked around and Derek said he wants to come - if I will drive.  So fine - drive.  Thankfully for me, Zi & Peter (my best friends of late) are also able to join, making it a 5-some.

Last night Zi mentioned that in asking Derek to come along, I might have pressured him into sacrificing 1 cycle (Sunday night).  I was really dismayed to hear that.  I thought I was being nice by inviting Derek and ironically, he might be also "trying to do me a favour in coming along to climb with me?!".  That's the last thing I want! Already he has been so prima donna of late... Zi said she'll speak to him to clarify.

My new mantra is not to be complicated.  I will not let this bother me.  Derek & I are still friends - I will not let this get to me.

My new focus is now less on sports (now that the marathon is over), and more on work & God.  I might need to un-clutter my work week, perhaps skip all Wednesday cycles,  for more evening masses after work.