The Wannabe Economist

This time i did it even better. Just 1 hr 36 minutes (unofficial time), which is wayyyyyyyyyy better than expected.

Never train for running this year (i maintain a training blog), just swam a few times altogether, and i managed to pull it off.

I’m happy.

I ran hard. I’m proud that i did that. But this comes at the expense of swollen knees. And having to bring them around Waikiki afterwards.

Ouch….

I should lose some weight.

But i’m saving that goal for after i catch up on sleep. It’s my 37th hours since i woke up the night after Bailamos en los calle. I think i napped only once, during lunch at the beach.

Got to get changed. Going out for dinner. Mrs Chongky’s sec sch friends.

It’s not a secret that i’m a sucker for sports inspirational movie.

And weirdly i tend to like American football movie the most. I’m not entirely sure this is contributed by my first such movie that moved me to tears (and if you know where i can get this dvd here, let me know, really appreciate that), or is it the physciality that attracts me.

And in case that you’re wondering, i do like rugby and Australian Rule Football as well.

Staying on topic, frankly i do care about how much the movie differs from the true story that it is based on. I would say compared to other so-called adaptions, i would think that Invincible is relatively closer to the real-life account of Vince Papale. That’s my opinion, seriously. Don’t bash me up for that. I deduced that from reading Wikipedia. Go read and make your comparison, or figure that out from other sources.

Hardwork, talent, character - recipe for a sportsman.

Sad to say, i don’t have all of these. I suck at sports, but i do love sports.

I even have a Greenbay Packers‘ no. 56 jersey Nick Barnett’s alternative away jersey (hey mind you it’s not a fake) that Mrs Chongky forbids me to wear. I’m not sure if the issue was the size, though it’s already a S. But i’m happy enough to take it out sometimes and walk around in the house in it.

Damn the adrenaline rush throughout the evening. And the good movie didn’t quite help either. 1 hour 10 minutes away from waking up time, 3 hours 40 minutes before the start of my wave at Singapore Biathlon 08, 5 hours 40 minutes from the start of games at Waikiki 08. I haven’t got my sleep…

LOL.

http://www.index.hr/images2/Taylorsenasmijesio.jpg

Was he smiling and making a taunting gestures with his fingers and arm?

I was about to come in and blog about Step Up 2 (which trailer was played in the cinema this morning) when i saw this article (caution: graphical pictures) on the wordpress main page. I am not a EPL fan and i have not read the newspaper (at least not the sports pages) over the last few days. But now this incident has caught my attention.

It appears to me that Eduardo is a talented young player and is most certainly going to make an impact on the Arsenal first team in the years to come (i’m sure my inference from reading statistics in Champion Manager is rather accurate). However check out the above website for the pictures of that tackle initiated by Martin Taylor.

It doesn’t take a first-aid trained person to tell you what’s wrong there. I play football on an every-sunday basis, and i understand how dangerous the game is (after all i almost always play as defender). I admit it might of course be tempting to give it a hard tackle sometimes to take out the key player and give your team the unfair advantage. HOWEVER THAT MENTALITY IS JUST FUCKING WRONG. WHERE IS THE SPORTSMANSHIP?

I had my share of lousy tackles, including one that send a opposite playing jumping into the air before being brought down by my tackle that hit the shin a couple of weeks back. However there is a difference between lousy tackles and mean tackles.

Lousy tackle = those misjudged ones but at the last moments there is a good chance of realizing the grave errors and lighten the impact, which was what i did when i went in hard but missed the damn ball.

Mean tackle = those go in damn hard regardless of whether you miss the ball since your intention is not going for the ball in the first place.

And obvious that devastating tackle can’t be a careless one. If it’s a misjudged one, Taylor could of course to a certain extent retract the leg and could have made a contact with his shin instead.

Then again i didn’t caught the video and all these are what i deduced with the accounts and my limited footballer experience as Sunday warrior.

Whatever it is, my well wishes go out to Eduardo.

I apologize for the lack of updates. I’m obviously facing some difficulties in motivating myself these days. I can’t up my running pace even though i’m merely jogging and not panting yet. I can’t revise often enough to cover more syllabus (and this is going to haunt me next week). And of course, i haven’t finish my assignments due this week.

Disregarding the tasks at hand, let me talk about the tri-challenge and the NUS Bi.

The Tri-Challenge is probably the only school event that i faithfully participate in throughout university. First year, in the open category, and then two years in the school category. And since i have never been good in sports, i appreciate the choice of different categories (and implicitly the choice in the competitive level).

I did the strong man challenge. Holding 40kg weight is not an issue, but holding the weights and running 460metre is not easy.

Of course i acknowledge that strength is sort of proportional to the upper body muscle mass and that the context of difficulty is only applicable in my case - someone who hasn’t ran much this year (save for training run 1 and the run-stop-walk-run run during CNY), and haven’t been to the gym at all this year, %&)@(*#%)T&)@(*#$.

I is weak.

I can’t really run with that weight, but not that i could really run well in the first place.

But it’s all in the name of good fun and the company of the econs people.

After that hand numbing and forearm pumping run (fortunately i wore the ugly knee bandage and the lower body continued to feel “fresh”), i went for NUS Bi on sunday.

Mrs Chongky accompanied me to ECP, though that means we both have to wake up at 6.30am. And while she was there people-watching, she took some photographes as well.

Multi-sports has gain much more popularity compared to the times when i did my first ever aquathlon in 2002 and the OSIM Triathlon official works in 2003 (i guess you could tell by the technical race attire that is becoming increasing common).

Despite the stronger than normal current in Singapore sea, the strings i gotten from god-knows-what while swimming, and all the wracking from the fuckers who would overtake damn closely in the swim leg, i had enjoyed the race. I didn’t run damn hard. I didn’t swim damn hard. I felt quite ok after the entire event, knowing that i can certainly improve with training.

I is contented. And looking forward to spending more time training. After this semester.

It buffles me why NTU students would be directed to this blog space through their intranet discussion board.

In any case i’m back from the long CNY weekend. Not that i went anywhere in the first place. But the joy from not doing anything studies or school related can be comparable to a short getaway.

NUS Biathlon is coming up. And i am proud to tell you that i probably can’t complete it. LOL.

Screwed.

I can continue to worry about that while swimming later on, after i have completed my work for the day.

It was shocking to find out that Sheldon Brown has passed away.

His enriching articles have accompanied me through the few past dry finance classes. Though i do not know much about him, i am impressed by his willingness to share his knowledge on bicycles, from the technical aspect to the introductory parts that appeals to novice cyclist like myself.

My condolence to his family and friends.

I don’t have time to upload the pictures yet. But the CNY gathering with the climb team friends was a blast (in Neh’s words). Lots of food for steamboat, almost everyone was around at some point in time, and everyone ends the day sticky and hot (after playing Wii you dirty minded fella).

More on this after Neh finishes the video she talked about (if she keeps to it). And after i get some sleep in order to wake up at 8am tomorrow for the 9am soccer match.