k r i s a n d r o

It’s week 2 of my training and things are going smooth so far. I’ve clocked 30km so far with a good mix of interval training, quick and long runs. I also managed to keep quite strictly to the schedule without affecting my social life. Or maybe the schedule didn’t affect it because I wasn’t having a social life anyway. Haha!

I did face a little obstacle last Friday on the day for my 8km long run. I made a brisk 10min walk to the stadium beside Yio Chu Kang MRT from KuKuNehNeh’s place and to my horror, the stadium was closed for a rugby event. Not wanting to spend another 10-15 mins walking to Bishan Park for the run, I unwillingly spent $1 for a towel and $2.50 for entry to the nearby gym. And for those who knew that I nearly blacked out from a treadmill last year, it took a lot of desperation for me to decide to run on the ‘belt of doom’.

I had already planned to run a 6min/km pace and programmed it on the treadmill to only find it weird that I am exerting more effort than a 5min/km pace on the roads/tracks. Not sure whether to listen to my body or the treadmill, I decide to stick to the latter and continued jogging while I sped away. Another thing I hate about the treadmill is that while the display indicates that I am running pretty far away, I am still seeing the reflections of the same few guys admiring their muscles as they pump iron in the gym. So much for having good scenery during runs and clearing my mind.

As I approached the 3km mark according to the display, I really felt that the treadmill was vastly inaccurate as I am panting and losing energy faster than I should for a 6min/km pace. I eventually broke down mentally and ended the session after 26mins of running with no correct indication of how far I actually ran. Only fact is that I definitely did not meet my 8km goal and it was both frustrating and tiring at the same time.

Treadmills are seriously not my thing. It is troublesome to change the pace constantly. It is uncomfortable to run in an air-conditioned environment. The stationary view screws the brain up as I jog. The inaccuracy of the treadmill. The vast difference of feel on the belt and on the track/road.

[Image by zebra.paperclip]

I am swearing off treadmills for good.

[Image by crowt59]

The closest I ever got to Christianity was at a very young age when I would follow my Dad to a church. He would go for the mass while I would attend the children classes where the teachers will tell stories of the bible that appealed better to children and the public. I don’t know why Dad stopped going to the Church after some time but I stopped going as well because of that and maybe it’s why I became a happier kid as I could spend the weekend mornings watching cartoons on TV instead.

At that point in time, God played a role in life; like those times when I prayed that my Mum would get me the toy that I was eyeing at and also the time when I prayed that she wouldn’t find out that I failed my Chinese test.

She did find out eventually of course.

I love reading books and I came across a bible lying in one of my house’s cupboards when I was around 12 years of age. Out of curiosity, I read the bible from start to end and instead of enforcing the belief of God in my faith, I started to believe that it’s all fiction. Interesting isn’t it? As I think back into the thought process and life experience that I had back then, I begin to wonder if the books I’ve read prior to the bible were the cause of my detachment with faith.

I read up to 6 books a week back then and amongst the books of fiction like Greek folklore and princesses in distress, I had a great interest in science like astrology, physics and dinosaurs. I think the knowledge from such books gave me a good perception of what’s fact or fiction and build my interest in science over faith. So as I flipped though the pages in the bible, I had the same feeling I get when I pick up a book of fiction. Adam and Eve; their children living to hundreds of years; their children, having children, children and more children; and the sort of stories that fit very nicely into tales of the incredulous or such.

I begun to question the existence of God and I tried to look for his role/presence in the living world as I see it and found nothing. As science improved by leaps and bounds and explained more about the wonders of the universe, the smaller the credit I give to a ‘higher being’ that gives life.

As I mature in my years, I do start to be more encompassing in the fact that everyone has their beliefs and faith in a religion like Christianity does more good than bad usually. I do not deny God’s existence anymore but more then ever, I question the legacy and teachings he supposedly left behind and scoff at the ways that his children act in his stead, like the recent AWARE issues.

If you ask me about God and my take on him and Christianity, my answer would be that he could very well exist but I choose to question his existence till the day I meet him or truly feel his existence. I hate the fact that non-believers go to hell (if it ever exists). If I do ever meet God, I hope I can have a lengthy discussion on the criteria for entry into the gates of heaven (if it ever exists) and other questions about life.

And I’ll tell him to set up a blog and a Twitter account so that he’ll reach out better to the youngsters.

Elise was asking over in Plurk yesterday for people to tell her something funny and I don’t know why but I immediately thought about this incident I had when I was young. Be warned though. After recounting it, I realize it’s more gross than funny. So if you are having dinner right now, go finish it and have it digested before reading the rest of this entry.

I was about 13-14 years-old back then and I was leaving my friend’s place in my neighbourhood when I realized that I had a tummy ache. Not wanting to go back to his place to borrow the toilet and potentially render his toilet and house hazardous, I attempted to make my way to the lift landing to get down to a coffee shop or my home which was about 10mins walk away.

I barely made my way up the stairs to the floor of the lift when I couldn’t hold it in any more. I’m sure you guys have such moments before. The urge to release is so great that your rectal muscles can do little to hold it in. The release was imminent and hurriedly climbed to the higher floor where it’s quieter and released the contents of my stomach troubles right into my underwear.

Scanning the surroundings quickly for any possible eye witnesses, I quickly removed the terribly stained underwear and it didn’t take long for the devil in me to decide the next course of action.

I left the ‘package’ on the floor and quickly scurried home.

To the residents living at Jurong West Blk 4XX in 1994-1995…. I was young and inconsiderate. I’m sorry.

On behalf of Hasbro Singapore, a PR consultant contacted me and offered to send 2 of their newly launched games from Parker Brothers (a subsidiary of Hasbro) to me so that I may share the joy with you guys. One of these games that I got from the mail man was called the Monopoly Deal Card Game.

Monopoly Deal Card Game!

Monopoly, being the most commercially successful board game in the world has little effect on KuKuNehNeh. Thinking about it, she is probably the only person that I know who hates playing Monopoly. So it took a miracle for her to sit down and play a few games with me and it probably helped that Monopoly Deal is actually card game instead of a board game.

Cards that can turn the game around!

The game is played by drawing and trading cards till a player manages to collect 3 full sets of property cards. As simple as it sounds, I actually realized that Monopoly Deal requires less of luck and more of strategy when compared to the board game. With 2 players in my case, the games are short, which lasted around 15 to 20 mins per game and are pretty fast paced. All players get to stay in the game until a winner emerges and players who are seem to be on the verge of losing can actually turn around the situation with a little luck and some strategy. If not for the fact that we had to turn in earlier for the night, we would have carried on playing past the 4th game that we had.

The only cons that I see is that the ‘Shuffle Shaker’ that the game provided seemed to be more gimmicky than functional.

Just say No to the Shuffle Shaker

It was super noisy when I tried shuffling the cards with it and the cards are much better shuffled if I do it manually.

The above doesn’t take anything away from the fact that Monopoly Deal is a compact card game that you can easily carry around to provide a fun and fast paced game for 2 – 5 players. KuKuNehNeh thoroughly enjoyed the game although it may also be attributed to the fact that I lost 3 games to her out of the 4 that we played that night.

Monopoly Deal Card Game (with Shuffle Shaker) is sold at Toys “R” Us and major departmental stores in Singapore at S$21.90. For ages 8 and up!

Watch out for the next game that I will be reviewing from Hasbro!