*bloop*

01 July 2005 @ 03:22 am

This thought occured to me as I took my shit out of the car at the gym today. I was just looking at the state of the boot of my car and thinking, what a horrible mess. I have bags and bags of clothes, spare gym stuff and clothes, and TRASH. Geez. Then I thought gee…this isn’t very good for a car like mine. That caught me. Hmm. A car like mine? So what about my car? It’s a Megane. So? The image. Sigh. I guess it’s one of those status things. I don’t it and I don’t like to have to have this status thing about me but then there are those people who I sell insurance to that I just HAVE to. It sucks but it’s true.

Anyways back to the subject at hand. Sometime ago, I went to Naveen’s place to pick meet him so that we could go to the gym together with Pi. So we sat on his verandah waiting for him while he warmed up the wRx and stuff his boot with his gym stuff. He loaded it with about 4 Keppel Club plastic bags. Then I just blurted out, “Nav could you possibly f—g get yourself a proper gym bag to dump your stuff?” He goes, “Why? The plastic bags suit me fine and I take them from the gym when I have dirty shit.” Then Nav’s mum said, “No… Julian. You don’t understand. It’s Reverse Snobbery. I mean look at me. I wear these clothes and slippers. Even when I go out to buy things.” She said it like it was some simple Truth that everyone knew - common sense. Nav sat down across from me looking very earnest, lit his fag, and piped in, “Yehhh! What’s the point of buying a bag when I have these plastic bags that I can use? Besides I don’t need a silly gym bag just to show people at the club that I’m not a poor wannabe.” (ok he didn’t say that per se but I’m paraphrasing.” So that intrigued me. But then that wasn’t my point. I didn’t really care if he used plastic bags to go to the gym, “Naveen, that wasn’t my point! I was just saying that it’s simply easier to carry ONE bag to stuff your things! Sheesh.” I was rolling my eyes as I waved my fag around, much to the amusement my host.

So that’s it. Reverse Snobbery. That made me think about what my dad related to me when he was manager for HSBC 20 years ago. There was this guy who made his MILLIONS1 from this factory he had selling nuts and bolts. Literally. The point was that this guy literally worked his way from selling spare nuts and bolts on the street at the old Sungei Road, to having a little pushcart, to a shophouse and up till that time a factory in Singapore and Malaysia, and finally a factory in China. Hmm. So this guy was drop dead rich right? And he’d bank with HSBC. And my dad would often get called out to the front counters because this chap would walk in looking like an old trishaw rider in CLOGS with a crumpled paper bag. He’d simply walk over to the security guard, and hand him the bag and say, “I want to deposit $10,0002. I’ll come back for the rest later.” Does that make you gape or what? Who’d have thought that a man dressed like that would have 10,000 in CASH.

So my point is? Let’s consider this. Humility on the man’s part. Trust. and Reverse Snobbery. Outside the bank was the man’s Jaguar. Sheesh. I swear I want to be able to do that. Walk into a bank in slippers, shorts and a tank top, looking like a chao beng and telling them, I’d like to invest my millions! haha!
1 Back in the 80’s a million was worth a LOT of shit.
2Invariably the security guard was either a malay chap or an indian chap. This man had quite a time trying to say that in malay (considering that he possibly couldn’t speak indian, being chinese). So this was actually said in Hokkien, malay and gawd know what else.

Ok. I’ll be able to get my 40% off GNC stuff in July. Who wants stuff?

I’ve been thinking how cool it would be to organise a MP3’s exchange party. All I’d need to do is to bring my wireless AP to a location and get all invitees to sit around and exchange mp3’s It’d be cool. I wonder if the Ventures’d be interested?

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Sex Bomb - Tom Jones

I’m feeling a little under the weather today so I decided to stay home. I was going to go sun tan in Sentosa or something but I think my body is telling to rest up. That last super workout on Friday must’ve taken its toll on me. I guess I shouldn’t have gone to the gym on Sunday and Monday. I blasted my legs on Sunday though the workout was short. Yesterday’s workout was another short one. Only did about an hour and half or was it two? Oh well. Anyways I worked out what I couldn’t finish on Sunday.

On Sunday I went to the Cali at Raffles for the first time and was pleasantly surprised at how few people there were. But as usual there were a number of baffling machines that I had to spend time trying to figure out how to use. Give me a Smith machine, some benches and free weights please! Then on Sunday night, Pi said, “eh. Why have your biceps grown smaller?” Tsk. They haven’t! It was good meeting up with Nav and Pi at Fong Seng’s. It’s been a while and it’s quite nice to just simply talk cock with close friends from bygone school days ! Pi and Nav showed me their latest body composition analyses and I was pretty impressed. Nav dropped another 1% or so of body fat and he’s now like at 7.8% body fat. Damn. It’s funny I was just reading an article on the Tanitia Corporation’s Body Composition analysis machines just that morning. Pi did it with Fitness First and Nav with his club. I’m going to head to Keppel to do it with Nav this Sat! Yay! Let’s see how far I’ve gotten. My body fat% must’ve gone up I think, but then wait. I think I already whined about this.. I should’ve taken my new test a month ago!
My arms are not really killing me per se. But I did think about what i’ve been doing for my biceps. Absolutely NOTHING. Dammit. I’ve always believed that the arms should be one of the last groups to be worked out and I realised that since I’ve been doing whole body workouts most of the time, by the time I get to my arms, I’m already dead tired and I don’t really do a lot for my biceps. So I’m going to make another slight change in my workouts. Get my bloody arms up to form! For some reason, it’s been nearly 9 months since I started working and I still haven’t gotten that cut in my upper arms that I’ve been trying to get. Sigh. Maybe I’ll do this mass gaining stuff for a month more and then head back and do my superset work out. It would be right about time considering that I have broken that old plateau that I hit in jan.

ANyways…the pics from BKK are here. We spent like 5 days in BKK and we chilled out a LOT. Which was good. We didn’t have run around like headless chickens to do our shopping, we took our time and we had a blast. We were saying that it might’ve been nice to have some of the guys along, like Eugene (& Fabs of course), Neu and Toey, and prolly Al. I’m really glad I didn’t extend my stay the last time I went to BKK with the Company. Otherwise I’d have to do shopping with Eile.

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We saw this on the first day we arrived at the Princess. We decided to drop our stuff off and check out the MBK shopping mall that was right next door. Actually we were looking for food. Recce-ing. I was rather amused and surprised (albeit acting a bit sua koo) when I saw the Ronald M. It didn’t occur to me that they would actually have him in this pose. So I whipped the cam out and snapped…much to the bemusement of white tourists and locals. Oh well. I’m a tourist, I can be excused. haha! We decided to spend half the next day on some silly day tour that visited 2 temples and a gem factory (read con job).
Click on the pics to enlarge them in a new window!

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Another temple. This one was big, and quite nice. Next to the royal palace and it’s the royal temple I think. It has the world’s largest reclining buddha. Whoopy.

More shots of us in the temple of the reclining Buddha. The view from our hotel room at dusk. And then there was the train… what’s wrong with it? It’s bedecked with “Uniquely Singapore!” The whole friggin’ sky train was covered in singapore adverts. Inside and outside. At first we didn’t notice then I realised, “hey we’re in BKK” :). The rows upon rows of chic paper lamps were taken in Chatuchat market. I think it was the second time we went on Sunday. I thought it looked good so I framed a few shots with the cheapo cam. Then we went back and when I came back from the gym, later that evening we had more shots of the view from the bedroom. :). Every morning we had a free buffet breakfast. We decided to steal some of the yoghurt as night snacks so I snapped a few silly food pics. Last pic in this series… Siam Square. I snapped these coz I thought it looked a lot like Calgary.

ok took more silly pics on our second last and last day in BKK. Right at the bottom…our loot! We went with 2 bags and came back with 3 stuffed bags. Thankfully we brought the extra backpack!

I went to the gym the and I decided to do an extended workout. I’m trying a new routine yet again coz I’ve realised that I’ve lost some focus on the workouts. So far everything has been real slow going in terms of growth and I guess I’ve done quite a job of maintaining. I think I wanna be a lil bit bigger just a tad, I still can’t seem to get the inner chest much and i’ll stop the lower chest workouts. I used one of them Oregan Scientific portable body fat analysers in BKK and got 9.8, 11, 9.6 and 10. So my best guess is that I’ve at least dropped my body fat by 1%… which might mean that I was closer to 9% last month but went back up again. Friends and relatives were saying I was too “skinny” so I went back to eating like a pig. I stopped cardio for a month now, not including yesterday due to 1, sheer laziness and 2, the bout of ‘flu I had for about a week and a half.

Anyways, I was trading workout tips online and someone sent me this rather shady article on supersets. There were some handy tips in there but what was shady about it was the fact that it was written in such a way that made this guy’s method definitive. I’m a strong proponent for supersets but I realise that there are many ways to skin a cat, and likewise many ways one can execute the superset ideology. This guy seemed to insist that a superset consisted of 2 exercises which worked opposing muscle groups. He kept the idea of not resting between sets of reps but was pushing the idea of doing heavy weights. So for example, one would do 3 sets of 8 reps for exercise A followed by 3 sets of exercise.

Leg Presses: 300lbs 10reps 2sets
hamstring curls: 60lbs 10reps 2sets
leg extensions: 60lbs 10reps 2sets
calf raises: 300lbs 10reps 2sets
decline crunches: 10kg 10reps 2 sets
seated pec flys: 49kg 10reps 2sets
hanging leg raises: 15reps 5sets
lat pull downs: 100lbs 8reps 2sets
seated reverse flys: 35kg 10reps 2sets
bent over barbell rows (olympic bar): 20kg 10reps 3sets
seated dumbell press: 12.5kg 10reps 2sets
alt bicep curl: 10kg 10reps 2sets
lateral raises: 7.5kg 8reps 2sets
reverse barbel curl: 15kg 10reps 2 sets
treadmill: 3mins 10kmh run 2%incline, 45secs 17kmh sprint, 3mins 10kmh run, 17kmh sprint, 3mins 10kmh run, 17kmh sprint,
5mins 6.5 kmh walk, 45sec 17kmh sprint.

research ideas:
1) how exactly does body fat analysis work? when is the best time to take the test? what is the best analysis technique?

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i got bored today so I made a photo montage of the shit taken with my phone cam. And stuff sent to me.

Click to view big assed image in new window.

14 June 2005 @ 03:35 am

“I won’t let the sun go down on me” - Nik Kershaw.
I think it’s really interesting how some song lyrics have this profound effect on its listeners. But more on that later. Here I am at the gym after an illness break of about 5 days. I’m huffing and puffing and feeling more light headed than normal. As it is I’ve already completed 25 mins on the bike, doing my usual hill routine at level 11. I was while-ing the time away playing this silly game on my handy Treo 650 called “Noah’s Ark”. Very distracting. So after wiping off my puddles of sweat I tried doing my pull ups. Only 10 before I started feeling dizzy. That’s it I said. I’m going to take longer breaks so I don’t fuck up my workout. Okok. I’m ill. Who cares? I’ve been cooped at home, in bed and literally suffering from heat exhaustion and lack of water from the constant sweating….even in the air conditioned room.

Anyways, I went to the office to submit a case today and get Chris’ signature and he invited me for a drink on the 2nd floor (!) So I relented and let him make peace too. Oh well. Anyways back to Nik Kershaw. Nobody could really say they could actually catch what the hell he was saying in his songs…but you could catch some words. Like that above. That’s a motto I’m going to follow…or at least try to. I’m not going to let the sun go down on me. If they say I can make it then I’m jolly well not going to let down am I? Why should I let the little, freaky things pull me down. I just have to find my own pace and be patient about things.

“Hey don’t put yourself down…” - Jimmy Eat World.
This has pretty apt lyrics. I’d have to applaude this relatively new group (at least to us 80’s kids) on this song. They’ve got the sound that angsty teens like (I was there… I know. Haha!) And the best is that they’ve got the lyrics that really count. It’s a positive look on life and that things will be alright….it just takes a little time. Patience is something we have to cultivate the young to have and something we have to remember to maintain throughout our lives regardless of age!

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.hexlet.com/]

Current Mood: Sick
Current Music: Doctor, Doctor - Thompson Twins

Jun. 14th, 2005 @ 03:37 am
holy. i haven’t heard this track in over a year! how could I have actually missed this in my winamp shuffle? I LOVE Nick Warren. His dark sounds are just plain awesome. I have to dig the CD out.
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Nick Warren - CD2 - Global Underground - Budapest

I had a fruitful day today. Thanks to 2 people! Talked to an existing client and friend today, he offered to be my kid’s god mother! haha Opened some biggish cases with him. 10-15K cash, single premium, bonds, 10-15K single premium ordinary account, 5-10k single premium special account, 3k recurring premium OA, 2.5K recurring premium SA, $50 increase to RSO, and $50 increase to regular premium! SO happy!
Then I went off to the gym. WOrkout routine later. Closed one deal tonight. Quite happy with that considering the shit that’s been happening with Chris and all. Then went to meet 2 more clients/friends for coffee so I could hand one of them his policy and the other one to sign some documentation. Not bad. I met 4 people in a day, ok…so the last 2 came together but hey!
Talked to E¹ and E² whilst having coffee about Chris. I guess people are tired of hearing the same things about Chris. So I stopped there. E¹ and I teased E² about enlisting this Fri. I’m quite honoured that E² invited me to his place for a little party on Thurs. It’s a pre enlistment thing! haha
I just realised the other day that my incline bench presses were a little off. I have been raising the seat too high. That would explain why my shoulders got such great workouts!
My workout routine today was short.
started with 14 pull ups then
Did the usual hill routine on the bike at level 11 for 20 mins. Covered 10km.

Inclined bench press, giant sets
reps: 15-12-10-8-6-4-15
kg: 20-25-30-35-40-45-50-20

Weighted Hanging Leg Raises
5x reps of 15
kg: 2.5kg

Calf Raises, Giant Sets
reps: 15-12-10-8-6-6-12
lbs: 140-160-180-200-220-240-260-140

Weighted Dips:
5x reps of 12
kg: 7.5kg

Seated Shoulder Presses, giant sets
reps: 15-12-10-8-6-4-8
kg: 7.5-10-12.5-15-15-15-7.5

Standing Bar Bell curls
3x reps of 8
kg: 30 ez curl bar
followed by 1x rep of 15
kg: 10 ez curl bar.

Then i ran out of time and had to go meet a client. I think i’m going to start researching stuff and writing articles on working out and stuff. Considering that I will be taking the Singapore Sports Council’s Basic Exercise Course followed by the Fitness Instructor’s Course, I think it’ll be nice to have some credentials to write stuff that I like.