Limping Marathon Runner

*Counting down 4 more days before I get salt deposits on my face*

Last night, it was fun having dinner with Kitty, Lambie and Beng. KittyTrainer was suppose to join us. But, he had to work instead. Gang4 missed the fun too. We always have loads of stuff to laugh at. Mostly, due to Lambie's hearing.... wool is always in her ears. StarBucks called it a day (at the particular branch we went to). Otherwise, we would have sat around longer. I became the topic of the day with regards to the SMS and IM messages that I received. Well .. ... I don't really agree with Kitty and Lambie's view on Turtle was hoping for some reply from me.

Now, about the last day as the post title, tomorrow would be my last day of work at my current work place. I made a couple of good friends in this workplace. I learned some stuff too. I guess its not about how the length of stay in a company. It is what you have learned from the work experience there. But, this also translate to something else. I can't blog for a couple of days!! Friday to Sunday, I'll be at a chalet. Sunday is the Triathlon race. My new job starts on Monday. What coincidence?! I am asked to attend the course / seminar happening on Monday and Tuesday. Effectively, I would reporting to work on Wednesday. By then, I'll get a notebook. Meanwhile, I'll try to get my hands on a terminal that has Internet access. Keep a lookout! I hope to take more pics at the BBQ happening on Saturday night!! Smile at the camera please? Don't be shy. Looks like I will have a lot of catching up on reading other people's blog by then.

I'm eyeing on the Terry Fox Run that is coming in September too... I missed the run last year, due to work commitment. Since last year, I promised myself for a rewarding trip to Vertical Marathon at Banyan Tree Bangkok. Since I'm changing my job, I'm not too sure if I can make it. Let's see how it goes.

1st What??!!
Violet. How nice ..... . !@%$@! How bloody crappy is this color for my swim cap in the triathlon race? VERY COOL, NOT. *eyes roll* I would have preferred a white or light blue. Since I am on a official half day off today, I went to the Race Expo to collect my race pack. When I saw the color of my swim cap, I almost passed out. I thought I was teleported via time travel to the "FlowerPower" 60's. Violet color. How yeah. Okay, probably colors like these are for old farts like us. Now, I look like a blackcurrent. Ribena. Purple swim cap, you complete me.... KNS.



Other goodies in the goodies pack include:
1) A OSIM Pill Timer (Maybe Bala will find some good use out of this)
2) A Freebie health magazine
3) A pen (BAX Global printing. Sponsor?)
4) 3 x LaraBar health food (energy / health bar)
5) 3 x Tatoo looking OSIM stick-ons
6) Tons of race day info for me to digest
7) A can of H-Two-O sports drink
8) Subaru cap (More on this later)

2nd What??!!
Now, A Subaru Cap joke. I'm no race car fan. Since Conan is a tires-burning (burn-lubber, in our local context), hot rod car racing fan, I called him.
Muggs:Uncle, race pack has Subaru Cap. You want? I don't like cars.
Conan:Whoa! I wan I wan I wan.

Muggs: Since we're having BBQ before my race day, maybe you want to contribute some good food in exchange for this Subaru cap. I like crabs.
Conan: I can give you crap.

Muggs: That kind, you can keep it to yourself. I have loads of them.
Conan: I can exchange some valuable information.

Muggs: None of your information is useful. Not to mention valuable.
Conan: It concerns you too. I will tell you later.

Muggs:*whispers* *pssst pssst pssst pssst* (Muggs guessed the secret information correctly himself)
Conan: KNS. Ack-Hahahaha (Mechanical laughter in attempt to mask the "leaking secret")

Muggs: Talk again. Later.
Conan: Heh heh heh

An hour later, I received a lovey-dovey SMS.

[insert Nokia SMS ringtone] Hahaha. Miss u. 2nite see u ok. My fren, Muggs, give me Subaru cap from this sunday race. Hehe. [text removed by Muggs] Hehe.

Bloody hell. I fell off my chair. Since when did Conan take a different and 180 degree turn in his sexual preference? SMS sent to wrong recipent. Ahh.. so, I discovered. I replied.

[insert Nokia SMS ringtone] Stupid old fart! I dun miss you. U send love msg to me for Fish? Goon-head. Buzz off.

Instantaneously, I heard my phone's SMS ringtone again.

[insert Nokia SMS ringtone] Shite! Sent msg to wrong person.

I stumbled upon a little secret. Told ya that the information does not concern me. Valuable? Never. But, at least, it is a good piece of news for my friend. Going for my swim later. I'll try not to laugh my swimming trunks off in the pool. By the way, Conan has requested me, at spear point, to add in codename "Xena The Warrior Princess". Shite. Eeee. I'm getting goosebumps already.

Lesson of the Day: Double Check Triple Check who you are sending an uplifting SMS to.

What have I gotten myself into again? More head knocks? You have no idea. Muggs never learn. Always back for more.

Had a day's worth of hard work at myFTOgpx's place last night.... . whopping some a**es on PS2 Dynasty Warriors for the whole of yesterday. I went through a little of his holiday pictures in U.S. with his love. I saw Yosemite!!! This guy actually went there!!! No kidding ... But, I'm glad that he and Sammy enjoyed the place. Yosemite has always been my dream vacation. If possible, do a camp and trek, it would be heaven. Imagine sleeping under the star filled night sky. Simply breathtaking!! Some pictures of places like Anaheim Disneyland and San Francisco certainly refreshed my memories. There are a few shots taken by myFTOgpx which I think are really beautiful. I love the combination of color blending. Didn't have much time to go through all the photos .. . Got to "borrow" a couple to post them here, especially those shots on Yosemite. Thoughtful myFTOgpx and Sammy bought me a box of See's Dark Chocolate Almond. You see .... Muggs is not exactly a chocolate person. Not that I do not like chocolates. But, if I cross the border of a certain dosage (like 2 morsels from a chocolate bar), I will get sore throat coming my way, long before I know what hit me. See's chocolates .... mmm *gobble* *gobble* .... so, last night, I took a little more than the specified dosage limit ... "What is death, without some sinful dark chocolates!!??" Okay. Now, I'm gulping H2O like a lunatic .... remedy actions to prevent sore throat outbreak....

A E-newletter caught my attention. Army Half Marathon is back and registration is going to be up in mid July.

RanchuKing, ChiefClerk, Conan and Muggs caught the movie, InitialD, at 1640hrs. Some people gave negative feedback about this movie. But, I think this movie is not too bad. If you are hoping for something like "Gone in 60secs" kind of show, then look elsewhere. We had dinner and a little coffee before heading home. I had my swimming gear with me. Too bad, there wasn't enough time for me to squeeze in a swim. Cycling is still possible with my BlackSteed. A 25.8km and yet, things to see again. 5 - 8 mountain bikers cycling westwards. A pair of lovebirds locking lips at a bus stop. (^.^) At 0130hrs?? Oh yeah .... you can do pretty much what you want at the bus stop at this hour. A motorcyclist giving me a friendly warning honk.

Now, I'm hungry and eating some chips. Later at 0900hrs ... . Dynasty Warriors shall battle it out again. I'll take a look at myFTOgpx's holiday pics taken in U.S. too. Time to shower and sleep. It was good brute force training just now.

They left me a present. A really crazy day at work. Loads of stuff to settle. Meetings, patches and evaluations. Now, I understand what "No Fear" means to them. It equates to "No problem, even if there is its not my problem". I had a great lunch with ZhiMien, leaving me a little recharged. This guy is always in deep thoughts. He's might be thinking of what new electronics gadget to own!! Strangely, at a hideaway place in the CBD area, there is a little restaurant that serves japanese food showed to me by ZhiMien. Left work at a later than usual timing and it costed me a swim session. Mm .... I used the time for my run. A short 5km slow run before I brought my GreyHound out for a spin. Some guy's car got smashed up pretty badly at the junction. I sure hope the driver is fine. They had to get the police to direct traffic. 14.8km, a short ride for my GreyHound. More long swim and medium run tomorrow. Not too sure if RanchuKing and Conan have gotten the tickets for InitialD. Likely to be a 5pm show.

Suddenly, I recall that I still have a half day off to be exercised. Tuesday, it shall be!!

Real Run is back!! This year, by New Balance, the race is on 28th August. Registration is open now. I've registered for the run and bought a pair of swimming shorts (serves as my tights for my race on 3rd Jul).

Cross-Terrain
Road - 6km, Sand - 1.6km (killer), Trail - 2.4km

Anyone wants to have fun?

Strange but true. Last night while lying on my bed, I had flashbacks of a family day event in those days when I joined TD as a rookie. Oh my! That was donkey years back. But, it seems like yesterday. Our Tech department staff, all of which were some young 20-somethings, were having the best time of our lives. Images .. Memories... of these "young guns". We hopped into vans and go anywhere. Movies or dinners. Holidays are the best. Chirstmas or New Years, our desktop PCs would be wrapped up, water-proofed. For the next second, the office would be turned into a battlefield. Flour, water bombs (plastic bags filled with water) are thrown all around. Just for the record, we even had a torn breast pocket of a shirt incident. Yeah .. . we were doing the WWE Wrestling thingie. The guy (which happens to be the manager) didn't want to tap out. So, we thought that it would be nice to have a little souvenir. A piece of cloth ripped from the breast pocket. Good old times.

Now, everyone is getting on well in their own career and family life. This is good. Once in a while we get some bits and pieces of information about who's moving where. Only those few that is really close, still keep in touch with one another.

A couple of days back, I saw my colleague ordering the weirdest combination of drinks available. Sure. Fine. We've all heard of Teh Halia. Now. My colleague order Kopi Halia and Holicks Halia. Ewwwww. I cannot imagine Holicks Halia. I've tried Kopi Halia once and I am sure that it is one of the weirdest drink I've ever tasted. My taste buds refuse to register the idea of having to try out Holicks Halia.

*Updated at 2310hrs*
I thought I still had concentration during my swim just now. *Sigh* It's lost now, almost in an instant, right after my swim. Everywhere, I see Turtle's face. Here we go again. *Knocks head* Focus. Got to take my bike out for some spinning.

My nightmare. Scary shittey stuff.

Restrained by cable ties, onto a flag pole, made to see people participate in the Triathlon race.
Reason? I was late for registration.

Crushed. Totally. Watching people swimming towards the end of the swim course and making a transition to the cycling course. How evil can that be??!!! Made to watch people race.

I broke loose from the nightmare when there was a thunderstorm again this early morning at 5am. *Grumbles* I better don't over sleep on race day.

No morning swim, it was still drizzling. Mission abort.

We are already doing some prep talks on the BBQ that is happening next Saturday night. These people can have all the fun. No boozing for me. No extra spicy stuff too.

While on movement for RTU, after tactical break, I saw TGL driving across the street. He honked and waved at me. I waved back. I keep bumping into ManInGreen these days. Seems like we are going to have another ManInGreen gather soon, next year.

Heh heh heh ... I've managed to have some good progress on my next layout using CSS, getting the layout that I want. A better layout. Happy little man.

I hope to do some swim and cycle tonight. Let's see how the weather holds since we have a thunderstorm around 2am plus this morning.

*Updated at 2145hrs*
Woot! A good swim tonight. 100m warm-up swim, 1.5km swim and 200m warm-down swim. I've performed some self-correcting moves as I observed how I swim (by feel). At least, I don't feel like I'm "bulldozing" through the water. 1.5km was completed in 40mins. Oh dear. I think the waves will definitely take up a bulk of my time. Let me stock up my reserve tanks (makan-resup). Hungry. Starting work later tomorrow. So, a little time for me to squeeze a swim in the morning and then get my swim tights before heading to office.

A check at the Triathlon website, it displayed a "Triple Threat" "Dual Dare" challenge.

• Race starts at 0715hrs
  
• Swim course closes at 0805hrs (50mins for athletes to clear swim course)
  
• Cycling course closes at 1000hrs (1hr 55mins for athletes to clear cycling course)
  
• Running course closes at 1125hrs if you fail to hit the halfway mark (1hr 25mins for athletes to clear 5km of the running course)

Round trip distance of 38km today. To tuition location (tutoring KK), then to RanchuKing's place (discuss about our BBQ / Chalet plans and food preparation) and back home.

While at the junction leaving RanchuKing's place, Conan came up beside me in his SilverHawk. Waved at me and I waved back. Then, the lights turned green. He turned left and I turned right. I notice a bike (an uncle riding it) behind me trying to speed pass me and cut left into a carpark after we both turn right. When he knew he could not make it in time, he did the E-brake. So did I. My tires kissed his. Locked lips. His engine stalled. While I didn't have an engine to stall. ;p He wasn't shouting but he raised his voice slightly asking me why didn't I zipped straight when I turn right, when what I did was a right arc turn. I found it useless to argue. No one was hurt anyway. I took the bullet and made the first move to apologize. Sensing a defusing move (maybe), he asked if I'm okay and whether any on my bike is broken. I checked and said everything is fine. We went our separate ways. So many automobiles out there trying to cut corners and into cyclist tiny little one third of the left most lane. *Sigh* Oh well .. there isn't much education on this area anyway. Ride on.

Not again. *shake your head* More about terror munchies nightmare later.

My ride last night was just a 25.8km, using my Black Steed. Hence, I guess it was pure brute force? I saw a couple of mountain bikers heading in a different direction across the road and a lone racer on a separate location. It's cooler to ride at night. No escape. You'll still sweat profusely though. That is if you put in a good workout.

A good workout deserves some good treatment. I had Ben & Jerry. Woo-Hoo!! "Shiok" is the word. After for about 2 month, staying away from cold, spicy and sour stuff, I had my first freezing cold ice cream last night after several days of good workouts.

If possible, biking to work would be great (which was what I did today). Not a long ride. Just a 11.7km to another 11.9km back. Today's (Saturday) traffic is light, IMHO. Something which I think would not happen in places like ours, would be massive biking to work campaign. Most people are obsessed with cars. So, right after work, I picked up a pump (with a pressure gauge) for my bike. Wow! So much better than the cheapo pump that I have for my Grey Hound.

Definitely NOT for The Non Gung Ho
Now ... on to the main point of this post *drum roll*

Celebrating Father's Day a day earlier, my parents and I went for a dinner. I thought the dishes that we ordered were pretty good. Thai style fish head, deer meat with ginger slices, mushroom with vegetables and watercress soup. The Thai style fish really whipped my appetite because I've not had anything spicy and sour for more than 2 months. The watercress soup tasted great too. Pondering over what they might have for special ingredients, I observed a "rolled up leaf" of the vegetable. Don't smoke me. I do cook. Leaves don't roll up after boiling in soup. Upon closer examination, the special ingredient that made the soup tasty happens to be a caterpilla. *drum roll x 2* KNS. *pengz x infinity* Okay. I'm over the I-am-The-Great-White-I-smell-blood role. Now, I feel like a Whale Shark. No plankton leaves this hatch alive!!

No Kisetsu, still no Guinness Records intention. No Fear Factor either. :p

No training tonight. Rest day. Cycling and jog .. tomorrow.

Shocked. Yeah right. That's the word. Petrified? Yeah, could use that too.

Definitely NOT For The Faint of Heart
I almost swallowed a staple. Didn't know how it got in there in the first place. I was munching on some titbits. A crunch on something hard alerted me. Next thing that I know, I pulled out a staple. *faintz* What a screw up method to die of internal bleeding in the office. Okay. I need to make some coffee to calm my nerves now. *shakey-shakey* I don't intend to leave my name on the Guinness World of Records this way.

Now, I know how the Predator of The Deep - Great White Shark, feels like. Swallowing metal trash. No, I am not "Built For The Kill" as in National Geographic.

Notice some changes? Yep... Created some shortcut buttons. Is the yellow color too distracting? Free to comment

*Update at 2130hrs*
Swim is rather good today. 1.4km inclusive of 100m warm-up and 200m warm-down. Happy that I achieved a little more than expected. Wrist feels okay. But, still ... I have to be careful. I hope the sky is still clear tonight. "Black Steed .. c'mon"

Low in batt when I woke up at 7am, still ... I got to drag my ass to work. I boarded the train and starting reading my book as usual. At the next stop, I got a pat on my shoulder. It's Mr. Fong! Hey hey! It has been some time. The last time that I saw Mr. Fong was when its Samantha's first month celebration.

:) My day just started with a warm smile

Whoa... this Conan uncle wants a customization on his Mugen sticker. Type R and all kinds of ideas. Must charge this fella sky high. I still need to submit my drawing for him to vet through. KNS

*Updated at 2144hrs*
Clocked 1.2km in the pool (100m warm up, 200m warm down). Correcting a little of my own strokes as I swim along. Best news I've known for today, Water Polo team training is not going to be at my area's swimming pool anymore!! Alright!!! I don't have to travel to another neighbourhood to swim on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays anymore. Black Steed ride starts at 2330hrs. 54Brownie and Chini just gave me a call to tempt me with Roti Prata supper. Kiaoz.

Maybe, I'm slow. I stumbled upon the detailed routing feature (on streetdirectory.com) for bus / driving with a selection of either using the expressway or major roads. I could very well use it to plan my routes to my destinations when I'm biking! It documents the exact turns and direction (with distance included). I was using the old can.com till I found this. Anyhow, I still have my trusty hardcopy of the road directory.

Received a not so good sms from my SecSchool friend, mentioning about her dad. Right after work today, I needed to hurry off to the swimming pool. Clocked 1.1km. Really tired. Showered, get changed and rushed to meet my SecSchool friends to attend one of our classmate, her dad's wake. I always love meeting ups with my pals. Reminiscing those days that we've been through during our younger days, never fail to put a smile back on my face. Now that I'm home, I can't help but think when would we all gather again. Dinner? Coffee perhaps? Ooops. My fingers can hardly coordinate with my thoughts for blorging. Keep hitting wrong letters, need correction. I was thinking of testing my Enduro8 on my BlackSteed while at work. Okay. Safety first. No ride for tonight. Sleep early for swim/run tomorrow night. Early? Almost 12am soon. Early.

Just discovered this at BlueCollarMTB pointing to SingleTrack's Kona 2006 range of mountain bikes. Too bad, I just got my GT Ava 3.0. The new Caldera, Blast and FireMountain looks yummy. Anyway, its all going to be like cars, stereos and computers. Endless new models will be out each year. Endless tempting upgrades for each year. So, its eye candy for now. Or ... it could be someone's wishlist.

Last night, I came across a black and white Tie Fighter Squadron decal that looks exactly like this on the rear of a SUV. Damn ... I couldn't activate my cam on my mobile phone in time and the white vehicle sped off.

I saw this Internet Joke while browsing for coding, at W3 Schools. A techie joke.
*Quote*
Customer: "I want to download the Internet. Do I need a bigger hard disk?"
Download the Internet here.
*Un-quote*

Wait a little longer for the ultimatum, killer message!!

For Techies Only: Fedora Core 4 is out. Redhat, anyone?

Conan should be back from Bangkok today. Guess this uncle must be smiling from ear to ear. Where are my presents?

You bet.

rather than
Upgrade from the previous 80 x 15px hamster picture for Kisetsu. I tried to draw and squeeze in the foldable beach chair. But, it looked more like a few broken poles and a piece of table cloth. So, I roamed around online for inspiring designs and found the sandcastles with a spade. Splendid idea! Why didn't I think of it in the first place??!! Now, this button looks cleaner than the other button with a beach chair (In my recycle bin now).

Here it is ... for LMD. As compared to this .. .
Yesterday, I create the neon sign button for her too. Her button, like EndlessTrail's, is one of those few "early" buttons that I have created. *Feelin lousy* So, its time to give their buttons some facelift. Come to think of it .... my own button looks kind of crappy now. Got to think of something ....

I updated my F.A.Q.s a little.

Fox racing logo. ... Niceeee ... I think this decal is going to be on my frame. I saw the decal design right here. Maybe I can include the word, Muggs, in the decal. Anyone interested? Probably you might want to take a look at my finished product before Emailing me.

If you have noticed by now, I'll be doing revamps on buttons. Trying to upgrade all to 80 x 30 px. I'll either trash and re-draw or work on the existing design. Patience ... people.

*Updated at 2317hrs*
Swimming pool session. After such a long break, its time to test the waters. I got to see if my left wrist will protest once I touch the chlorine water. Inital 3-4 laps wasn't good. Out of the waters for too long, even my inner ears are shouting, "Quit drowning us! Here comes the flood again". I decided to go slower and monitor the performance of my wrist. After another 2-3 more laps of warm-up, it felt better. I clocked 850m in the pool today. I went slower than I should be, allowing breaks in between. *Staring at my wrist* Just in case ...

I picked up several books at the library after my swim and met up with OCS for dinner. Since he just knocked off, I met up with him at our ex-office nearby place for some food. Some chit-chat .. told him that I'll drop by his office on one of these days when I knock off early.

Shite. Just got a piece of ugly news. Well, how shall Muggs put it?? No, its not me ..

Things in this area ain't the easiest to deal with. *Rest of the contents taken offline by Muggs* I guess by not posting it... would be better for the parties involved.

Finally swapped the Enduro8 and Mitty8. Ha... so, I just have to bring either one out for a ride tonight. *Lame excuse* Got to return some library books before the librarian chases my ass around.



Mmm.... I think the DSLR is quite achievable here .. after punching some buttons on the calculator.

*Update 2340hrs*
Damn it. The skies are red again. Looks like Black Steed is sitting around again. Alrighty!!! My comrade and his love have touched down at the airport last night around wee hours. I guess they must be having the economy class syndrome now, after flying 10 over hrs back from U.S..

Today, I came across this song on TV again. Sometime way back ..... (._.) since I last heard this song on radio.

Garth Brooks: To Make You Feel My Love
Written by: - Bob Dylan

When the rain is blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

When evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet
And I would never do you wrong
I've known it from the moment that we met
There's not doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawling down the avenue
There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on a rolling sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change are blowing wild and free
You ain't seen nothin' like me yet

There and nothin' that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the earth for you
Make you happy make your dreams come true
To make you feel my love

For people involved in the shitey news. *Don't take things too hard*

Whoa. ... super sleepy after a makan movies session over at CLong & Liz 's place. It was great meeting everyone.

But, my day starting a little late like 10-ish am where I was online looking for info. Chatted with ZhuiTeLun via IM and I found out that this blur king has just splashed his new shirt with car coolant. Apparently, he was checking his van if he needed to add some more. Lazy to fetch his rag, he just open the cap and viola ... splashes. Even though he has left his van to cool for an hour before checking, he conveniently took it that the vehicle would have cooled off. Oh brother ....

Around 12pm, I got offline because there would be some discussion on an upcoming trip. Met some friendly folks there, though I've seen their faces at the Charity Race before. We would not be doing the full blown bash trip. But, I guess this will be a recon mission and an assessment of our physical fitness for the showdown. More or less that we have concluded our discussion for the day and some of us went over to Campers' Corner. They are having a 30% sale now. Fay bought a Whisperlite, which I seriously think that it is a neat piece of equipment. Ooei oei oei. Whisperlite is not some "my-gf/wife-use-one-ah". Guys and gals can use it. It effectively replaces your camping cooking gas in blue little containers. Imagine. No more cold nights. Drink teh-O, kopi-see, teh-tarik .... steaming hot.

Since I'm going over to the East side CLong & Liz 's place, I dropped by at one of the LBS to pick up a Mitty8. Now, got to swap my Enduro8 on my racer to MTB. I should have bought another Enduro8 to save me the hassle. I guess I was a little early too. I walked around a little to delay some time before hitting my destination of the day.

Earliest at CLong's place, I watched cable TV while playing with his dog. Smart little fella, I tell you. My knowledge for dog species is limited and therefore not able to tell. While the guys arrive slowly one by one, we started our dinner a little late. So, it was a makan-movies rather than a makan-games session. Best of all, apart from the wide spread of food, Liz's honey lemon tea is really fantastic!! It something un-explanable. Something like a warm glow in your heart that starts emitting, after several sips. SpaceCadet finally introduced her HoustonControl to me. Nice meeting him. Getting late ... senior citizens like us all got to turn in early ... all looking like sleepy heads. Hah .. had too much fun till I forgot to take out my digicam during the party.