2009 <> 2010

This is the last page of 2009. it has been a year of fun and laughter, pain and sweat. And, a few "FIRST" in my life too. These events does not follow chronologial order.

1. First time i manage to produce my own garage kit, and make copies of it. Sold to US, France, German, Korea, Singapore, and Japan.

2. Learned sculpting in wax.

3. Build the wax warm box.

4. Took Air Asia flight for the first time.

5. 8 hours plus of bicycle tour, cycling around Labuan Island.

6. Bought my first Casio watch, the previous 2 were gift from friends.

7. Tasted "Around the World" and "Long Island".

8. Run the 1/2 half marathon on Penang Bridge.

9. Bought the first pair of running shoes. And it would be the last!

10. Run barefoot for the sake of running. It is FUN!

11. Own my first pair of Vibram Fivefingers, probably the first pair in Penang too.

12. Finish my first audio book.

13. Bought the first non-academical 99.67% fully text English book. The only picture in the book is the cover.

14. Gave my email contact to a total stranger in the bus.

15. Build the whole web site in less than 24 hours.

16. Writting blog.

As for 2010, here is the list :

1. Run with better barefoot running technique.

2. Read more books. Think wisely.

3. Sculpt more, at least, practice more.

4. Learn more programming tricks.

5. Train harder on basketball skill.

6. Try to find the right soul companion.

7. Save up some money.

8. Learn to swim free style.

9. At least finish one marathon gracefully, or easily :-)

10. Clean up the house more often.

11. Pay the debt on time!

12. Work faster.

13. Forgive and forget.

14. Laugh harder. Get angry less.

15. Eat more natural food, less medicine.

16. Rest well.

17. Eat moderate.

Well... lets see how many of those will get executed by the end of 2010 :-)

Jones's first Half-Marathon

My coleauge and I signed up for the Penang Bridge International Marathon under 1/2 marathon group, some 7 weeks ago. We wanted to just enter 10K category, yet the 10K Open category are just for 16 years old and below. if we insisnt on running 10K, we have to enter the 10K Fun Run category which does not enter Penang Bridge. So we took the challenge of 21km. The trainning started about the same time. Prio to this i have been regularly running and my base was 3km. First 4 week the trainning was smooth and the progress was very positive, with some minor ankle pain. I thought i was making positive progress jumping from 3km to 5km then 8km routine run, while getting 8 km to 20.5 km for long run, big mistake! I was increasing the milage way too much in such a sort period!

Week 5, after some shit dude stole our shoes (6 pairs in total, including my 2 weeks old NewBalance 758), i didn't do the routine run for a week. When i finally got a pair of new shoes, i jumped into doing the long run with the new shoes. Big mistake number 2! I chose the wrong shoes this time, my right foot is supinator, yet the shoes i bought was supportive type, which, increase the supinator. The sharp pain strike at the lateral of the knee, right after the long run. My right knee can not bend at all, every slight bend cause ultra pain and i have to walk with my right leg extend straight, like somebody balls just got bigger overnight! Yet after few hours, the pain just gone like it never happened.

I thought this is simply some normal knee pain and the wrong shoes issue, i quickly bought the same model exactly as the stolen one, New Balance 758! Big mistake number 3! There is nothing normal about knee pain. I keep up the routine run and long run, and each time the pain strike, i have to walk like the dude who have a big ball! The worst part is, the running time just get shorter and shorter before the pain strike. 4 days before the 1/2 marathon, i can't even finished 2km, the pain is just too much. The same day, finally i found out the pain i am suffering, is something called, ilitiobial band friction syndrome , ITB syndrome. I was suppose to REST when the pain strike but i kept training.. it is too late now. Bad news turn worse when my coleauge also suffer the same syndrome.

i spend the last 3 days gently massage the tight, and doing some stretching exercise, and taking NSAID.

Today is the running day, surprisingly the pain doesn't hit me for the first 13km. I was like, man, This is too good to be true. :-). just when i was feeling relief that the pain might not strike today, at km-14 the pinch began. oo crap, i don't want to walk 7km back to the finishing line walking like a dude with big balls! "Bite the bullet, 'enjoy' the pain" i kept telling myself, while increasing the volume of the mp3 player. Some cool gel ease the pain. The pain subside after i run slightly faster than my previous pace. The pain just dissapear after several minutes. Yet, every 7 to 10 minutes the pinch came back, and subsided... the last 6km was like never ending. I dare not walk more than 6 minutes even when my leg was so tired, knowing from experience the super-pain strike the moment i go too slow. When i was about to run out of battery, i reached the banana-station. Banana never taste this good!

Finally I saw the board showing that it is 40KM mark for full marathon, that mean, we are 2km from finishing line.. 2km, piece of cake! Wrong again! The final 2km still seems endless. My leg was really tired and it took me about 15 minutes to finish the last 2km. My mp3 was repeatly playing "Chariots of Fire" for the last 1km. Funny part was, the MP3 player also ran out of battery the exact moment i step on the finishing line sensor carpet. My record was 2 hours 30 minutes on my stop watch, I shall get the official result when they send me the certificate few days from now. With the timing chip, the official result is more accurate.

4 hours after the run, the super pain attacked the right knee, once again I transformed into the man with big ball :D

So far this has been the longest run of my life. The pain was really annoiying and frustrating, yet we have hell of fun time running along thousand of good runners! Hopefully after some good rest and treatment exercise, the ITB syndrome will be gone for good. I will try the full marathon next year!

350 metres from home

Caught in heavy rain on the way home. I took shelter at a bus stop, can't do anything but to wait for the rain to stop.
The camera still have 60 minutes battery life, worth make use of it.

life is hard. protect that which matters the most.

under one roof.



line clear!!

Labuan 090909

This trip was planned for Mee Huat wedding dinner, but he changed the wedding to June, so i am 3 months late for his wedding dinner :-D.
I have been thinking of a vacation ever since i saw Jason Mraz 'I'm Yours" MV, so, this is it!

Some shots from the marine center. Day 2.





This does remind me to the Deus Ex Machina in Matrix Revolution.

nice sculpture.


Day 3, cycling around the island.

the awakening giant

Cross Road. Left or right? Lets take the hard way!

End of construction, i can get back on the bicycle.

i walked thru this path with bicycle, the road condition is too bad for the type of bicycle i rented.

trespasser will be executed, i mean, prosecuted

End of the road. Turn back and take the last junction.

are we there yet?

almost..

ok, we are here...

put the camera on the ground, set the timer, ran to the bicycle, pretend to be cool, stop gasping, 3..2..1.. !

millennia....

7 hours on the road,
Day 4.

lets have some drinks.

laugh while we can... hehehehehehe....

天盖高而无阶，怀此恨其谁诉？

壮志未酬

赵明福 (生:1979 )

壮志未酬.
安息吧,含冤待雪的烈士!
http://justiceforbenghock.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla!

Nikola Tesla (born 10 July 1856)
Great man never really die, they live on in people memories and the world they shaped.

Capturing Thor

These are some of the photos out of 500 snaps I took during the heavy storm last night.

shape of the thing to come - mark09

In year 2004 I made a "half-naked" robotic figure and name it mark-04, simply mean "mark year 04", actually i still have to sculpt mark 05 & 06 and before i started on this one.

Anyway, here is a glance of the thing to come, Mark-09.

This piece had been baked a few time, it is far from complete. I am estimating this will take around 6 months to complete.

Highly creative Malaysian episode 1

12 years of free education produced some of the most creative individuals in Malaysia. Maybe when your hand feel itchy next time, you can unleash the creativity on your own house's wall or your father/mother car's cushion, it will make your parent proud!