History & Fairytale

History has it that about 1400 years ago, a famous conqueror invaded a tribe during a war. Many people were killed. Those who survived the war were held captive by the invading army. Among them was a 17-year old girl known for her beauty. Her father who was the chief of the tribe, and her husband were both killed in battle. She was about to be taken as a slave when her beauty was brought to the conqueror's attention. The 60-year old conqueror offered to marry her, thus escaping the fate of becoming a slave. So she chose to marry the 60-year old man. It was said that although she was angry at the conqueror at first, she eventually forgave him; in fact greatly respected him later.

Now, 1400 years later, upon reading that story, I can't help but have doubts of its accuracy. For that history does not resemble anything like any human behaviour at all. It is beyond my imagination that a 17-year old girl whose father and husband had been killed by an invading army would eventually marry the leader of that army—a man old enough to be her grandfather. It is beyond me that the 17-year old girl would climb into bed to sleep with that man. I can't help but think the circumstances leading to the marriage had elements of force in it. But what do I know about history—I'm not a historian; I'm only relying on a bit of common sense and knowledge of human nature.

The thing about history is that many, many years ago, people who were supposed to have witnessed those events when it happened, put them down in writing according to what they saw with their own eyes. Or failing which they would rely on information they gathered from a third party who were supposed to have been eye-witnesses of those events. That sounds like a fair deal to me.

But how does one see the contents of the heart and mind? How can one be sure that a 17-year old girl, whose father and husband had been killed by the enemy, genuinely forgave the perpetrator and actually had great respect for him?

Was it really history or just a fairytale arising from a true event which we wish had happened according to how it was told?

Sometimes, it is possible that we are told things from our very early childhood—things that we have no means of verifying so that we rely totally on those who had originally told the story. Except that what would happen if some other people would come up with a different version of the story which changes the earlier version completely? How would we react?

Well, since a favourite pastime of Malaysians is lodging police reports, that's one of the first things they would do, as can be seen recently when the Mohd Sabu chap had a different version of the Bukit Kepong tragedy several decades ago.

I'm neither for nor against Sabu's version, as to be honest, I know hardly anything about the event! But I must admit that his version of the history does not accord well with what many people have been programmed to believe. The subconscious mind is programmed into believing that communists can never be heroes. And so Sabu's version can't possibly be right, no matter what. How many people would actually sit back, keep an open mind, and spare just a few minutes to listen to Sabu justifying his case? I doubt that there are very many.

Most of us are quite unwilling to listen and consider the opposing version. We prefer to believe in the version which we wish to be the truth, but not really wanting to know the truth...

Parental Instinct & Harsh World

For the most part of my early childhood, my parents were hardly ever around. I was one of those people who grew up without the luxury of experiencing love from their parents. Worse, the people whom we ended up living with were not very generous with love. Instead, life was something akin to slavery.

I had a long history of ugly childhood which I'd rather erase from my mind, but the human brain is a strange recording instrument—I have often wondered, at times I have a hard time recollecting events which have taken place only a week or two ago; yet I can remember vividly the events—as ugly as they may be—from all those years ago. I have shared bits and pieces of them at one time or another, here in this blog; but it's not exactly my favourite topic.

Against such background, one would be fast to dismiss me as a person who is unqualified to talk about parenting. But please bear with me for a minute...

Events over the recent days have inspired me to put my fingers onto my keyboard to share my thoughts about parenthood. The thing about being a parent is that there is that instinct to love and protect one's offspring. In some ways, even animals have that instinct.

When I was a small boy, I could hardly ever get the things that I wanted—I longed for love, and I got very little of it, if any; I yearned for toys, and I got hardly any. And as for the things that I did get, I had to strive really hard to earn them. But maybe that was a blessing in disguise; it made me see life in a peculiar way—that one should learn to strive and earn the things one wants.

I love my daughter with all my heart, and I make sure that she knows that I love her dearly. But while it's so tempting to shower her with all the things she wants, I refrain from granting her all her wishes, even if I could afford to. I practise the reward system; she has to earn them! So she got her PlayStation recently, but only after she got first in class. And in some cases, a "no" means "no", no matter what. Therefore, she is not ready to own a mobile phone, even if she gets first in class.

I see people trying so hard to demonstrate their love for their children by granting them all that they ask for. The kids always get what they want! And when they can't get what they want, even the parents will be sad!

I know that is probably parental instinct on auto pilot, but although I don't claim to be an expert in parenting, I don't believe that is the right method to bring up a child. Unfortunately, life is not always a bed of roses. Along the way, there will inevitably be some rough patches, like it or not, and the sooner these kids learn that fact, the better off they are! It doesn't mean that if the parents do not grant the wishes of their children, then they love their children any less.

Seeing the children playing in a group, I couldn't help noticing that one of them had the tendency to dictate what game to play, when to play it, and how to play it. And when the rest in the group disagreed, not only the dictator was disappointed, but even the parents were disappointed too!

In a perfect world, perhaps it's possible to get everything that one wants; everyone obeys one's wishes without question; everything is black and white, cut and dried, exactly like how one wants it to be...

But alas this is not a perfect world; one doesn't always get what one wants; people don't always agree with one's views; they don't always obey one's wishes. There will be disappointments upon disappointments. I think it is just impossible to protect one's child from such reality of life.

So I think if you really love your children, then please do them a favour; expose them to this harsh cruel world and watch from afar. When they fall, help them back to their feet if you can; for as long as you can. Pray that they will become strong individuals. For I say this solemnly—retreating them back into their world of pretense where everything is perfect will surely backfire in the long run. One of these days, that world will come crumbling down, and all that's left is the harsh reality that they will have to face somehow...

Trail Running—Back-To-Back Training Part 3

I woke up with extremely sore legs at about 5:30am. I had a solid 6-hour sleep, but it felt like just 3 hours. I could hear the raindrops on the metal roof. For a brief moment, I considered going back to sleep. But I received a text message from Esther, asking me if we're still on for jungle trekking. I in turn texted Liaw, asking him for decision; and he replied that we should all go to the meeting place in Donggongon before we can decide. This was the second day of a back-to-back trail training (30th & 31st August).

I arrived in Donggongon at about 7am and found Liaw and Esther waiting in front of the public library. It was still drizzling, but we decided that we should still proceed with the programme anyway. Some people, as expected, did not turn up, while others went straight to the starting point at the Kibambangan Water Resort.

In the end only Liaw and I were from the original group of trekkers the day before. The rest of them from Part 2 had opted either to rest, or to continue their training at the Bukit Padang hills. Almost immediately after we started, I could feel my quads burning up. I thought I would soon get the cramps. Thankfully, however, shortly before we started it stopped raining. We went up the steep path as usual, but when we reached the dirt road, it was exceptionally slippery.

Liaw was soon ahead of the rest, but Tania was tagging along. I could still remember that during one of the previous trips, I ended up walking alone with Tania from Terian. And I told her that "I suck on the hills". I meant that in a slang way, of course, so I hope she didn't misunderstand me—that I meant "suck" literally. Obviously, I had no intention of sucking any part of a woman's body on the hills, but, y'know, sometimes figures of speech can be quite mind-boggling.

Anyway, to continue with the story, we remained mostly together in a group, except for Lawrence, the forestry fellow who was terribly out of shape for this trip. I was for the most part walking together with Esther, Velerie and her sister, Judy, the self-proclaimed "biasa punya doctor".

A little over two hours later, Tania emerged from the opposite direction. She had only planned to trek up the hills for about two hours before turning back. The rest of us continued up the hills and finally reached the top at Pondok Tinipot where we rested while waiting for Lawrence.

We spent quite some minutes at the pondok, and Esther took the time to amuse herself with this colourful bug.

When Lawrence finally arrived, complaining about cramps and aching knees, we proceeded on the trail and then began descending to Terian shortly after. A little while later, Liaw, Esther and Judy left Velerie, Lawrence and I behind. The three of us were doing a nice comfortable pace when suddenly Lawrence, with his keen eyes, suddenly stopped when he saw this hardly-visible frog. If I were alone, I doubt that I would spot this creature, but now that it has been brought to my attention, I, too, spent a few moments observing it. To be honest, I can't see anything special about it, except that perhaps it has a striking resemblance with Bernard Dompok.

Further down the path, while we were doing a good brisk-walking pace, Lawrence suddenly stopped and told us to go ahead, saying that he needed to rest his legs for a bit. So Velerie and I went ahead; and I carefully refrained from telling Velerie that "I suck on the hills".

Well, I thought Velerie was doing great going downhills, and I found myself doing almost my racing pace keeping up with her! Eventually, we arrived at the stream where we had to cross by leaping onto boulders. Velerie decided to play safe and avoided risking falling off the mossy rocks by simply wading through the stream. I tried to balance on the rocks, but slipped and ended up soaking both feet in the water too.

We climbed a hill and reached the top where we could get a panoramic view of Terian.

Crossing the hanging bridge. We saw Liaw and the two girls waiting under a tree. We spent perhaps 15 minutes or so waiting for Lawrence. It was about 12:15pm then. We were beginning to get worried for Lawrence when he suddenly appeared from across the other side of the bridge.

We made our way to the top of a hill where lunch had been arranged. We took off our wet shoes and socks and dried them in the sun. And then while we were waiting for lunch to be served, a female cat which was pathetically in heat was going around, crying meow-meow, pleading for someone to relieve her urge! And just so that we are clear about the word "heat", I didn't mean heat as the one below as recommended by John Chin for this trip!

Anyway, Esther gave the poor cat a stroke on its head and she absolutely got a kick out of it. Ummm... I mean the cat got a kick, not Esther (no, I couldn't tell for sure whether Esther was also in heat then). But after a while, when nobody could do anything more for the cat, it finally decided to hit on our wet shoes. Damn!... where are the male cats when you need them to do their job?

After waiting for a few minutes, we all sat down to a glorious lunch. Very simple dishes but they all tasted so good, as can be seen from Liaw's gesture below.

It's hard to believe that such simple and good lunch came from this stove in the kitchen.

Throughout lunch, we could still hear the poor cat crying meow-meow. After lunch we spent a few more minutes resting. Finally, at about 1:30pm, we started our return journey to Kibambangan. I was fairly impressed with the girls, crossing the bridge—or what's left of it—with no sign of fear at all!

As usual, the climb from Terian to the midway shelter was very punishing; but especially so for one who has done another trip the previous day. I thought we were gonna get caught in the rain, but we survived the whole trip without any rain.

Somewhere in the middle of the jungle, the girls suddenly walked a little faster, and I followed suit. In fact, after a while, I decided to overtake them. I don't know if it was the glorious lunch in Terian, or was it because I couldn't wait to get home in the hope of finding Mia behaving like the Terian cat, but I reached the clearing at a little after 4pm. From that point it would take only an hour, give and take, to reach Kibambangan.

We arrived back in Kibambangan around 5:30pm, but we had to wait for Lawrence who was suffering from severe cramps. In the end the girls managed to get hold of him on the phone. It was fast getting dark; Velerie and Judy, and I decided to make our move, whereas Liaw and Esther waited for Lawrence.

Well, two days of madness. I think I must have burnt at least 5000 calories over the two-day workout. It was truly an amazing workout, but in the end I am still alive, though perhaps not exactly kicking because my legs are just sore beyond words.

Trail Running—Back-To-Back Training Part 2

I suppose it was just a matter of time, but because some of us signed up for the 100km ultra trail marathon this coming November, we had to accumulate sufficient mileage during training. It seemed somewhat impossible to find the time and proper training ground to achieve the total 100km, but we reckoned that we could at least come a little closer to that distance. To do this, we had to organise a two-day back-to-back jungle trekking session between the now familiar Kibambangan Water Resort and Terian.

Those of you who've not been following this blog, it's still not to late to follow the reports on past outings here and here.

A bit of clarification before I proceed with this report though. The title above, i.e. Part 2, may be a bit misleading. This trip on the 30th of August, was actually the fourth outing; not the second. Before that we've been up there in the jungle 3 times already. However, it wasn't until our third outing that we decided to set up a facebook group for training, and then invited others to join us. That first outing which was opened to others was then referred to as Part 1, and this outing therefore became Part 2. Part 3 (to be reported in the next post), though can be considered as an independent one on its own, should have been a continuation for a two-day back-to-back training for those who signed up for the 100km ultra trail marathon.

The crowd was much smaller than the previous one. It was after all the Hari Raya holiday. Most of those who were present were familiar faces, but we also had some new faces—Eric, a frequent adiNation runner who was up to some interesting new experience in the hills; Laurel, the chap who wore a pair of tights which attracted not only the girls', but also the men's attention; and Laurel's dad, who turned up and behaved more like a tourist rather than a jungle trekker.

Before we started, as usual we spent a bit of time chatting with each other while making last-minute checks on our backpacks. Teo, the most decorated trekker of 'em all, was also there. Except "decorated" in this case did not mean decorated as in a soldier awarded with war medals of honour. In this case, Teo was decorated with all his state-of-the-art equipment. Jonas unveiled his new hydration apparatus comprising a camel bak pack with a 1.5 litre bladder and two front pouches each holding a 750ml water bottle. I could see Teo just itching to outdo Jonas.

I think Dr Soma surprised everybody when he turned up, despite having suffered a severe cramp during the last trip and had to turn back long before reaching Terian. In fact, as if wanting to make a big impression, he turned up with a brandnew striking pink hat! Check out this photo below where Soma, the guy devoid of muscles is standing beside Boyd, the guy who's everything about muscles.

Judy took the opportunity to take a picture with Stephenie and Laurel. And at this point, just a friendly advice to the girls not to spend too much time looking at Laurel's amazing tights.

Some of us had a bit of time for some laughs too (check out Jonas' water bottles).

Group photos before we started the torture.

A few minutes after starting the journey, we took a short break in the jungle. By then Stephenie, Laurel and John Chin and the rest of the leading pack had already rushed up the hills. Stephenie and Laurel had intended to only do a 40-minute run before turning back. She's scheduled to fly to China on 1 September for a 300-km eco-race comprising 10 disciplines, so this was just "light" workout for her.

Upon reaching the dirt road, we started the climb. I had felt great then, but had to control my excitement from rushing up the hills. I had to keep reminding myself that there're still many more kilometres to cover not only that day, but also the following day.

However, a part of the training was also to keep a minimal pace to ensure that I can finish the race in November within the allocated 36 hours. So a few minutes later, I was already gradually leaving the pack behind together with Judy.

And then suddenly, we heard a kind of stampede from over the hill. We thought a herd of karabaus were coming our way. But then Stephenie and Laurel emerged and running from the opposite direction in annoyingly relaxed fashion. And I have to shamefully admit that instead of looking at Stephenie's fit body, my eyes were again drawn to Laurel's tights (Damn, am I absolutely nuts?).

I somehow had the impression that John was supposed to go all the way to Terian and Buayan with the rest of us. So I was fairly surprised to see him walking back not too long after Stephenie and Laurel.

Well, Judy and I walked together for a little longer up to the hut at the end of the clearing. Then I decided to increase my pace. I stepped into the jungle and pulled ahead of Judy soon after. For the rest of the journey I was walking alone. It was kinda weird—and boring—to walk alone for hours

I reached Terian about 3 hours later, crossed the hanging bridge, and then found myself not knowing where to go to next. I spent some minutes asking for direction to Buayan. I was finally directed to a steep hill akin to the Gunting Lagadan-Sayat-Sayat climb. That absolutely drained all my energy. But the good news was that after about half an hour's climb, I reached a moderately flat terrain. Shortly after that, I came to a camp where a man was busy chopping firewoods together with his wife and two young boys who probably forgot to put on their pants that morning. I stopped for a minute to ask about Buayan. He said, Buayan was about 2 hours away.

I continued along that path and was a bit worried that I was soon going downhill for some 2.5km. I was still thinking of the punishment of having to climb the hill on my way back when I came to a stream. I carefully made my way down to the stream and then suddenly realised that I had probably just enough time to return to Terian for the 12:30pm lunch as planned. And so I started the 2.5km climb, all the time thinking what the hell am I doing in this jungle alone on Hari Raya, when I could be enjoying a bunch of kuih mur at home!

Well, I made it back to Terian at about 12:45pm. And just a minute or two after my arrival, Boyd had also arrived from Buayan. I found out later that I was a mere 20 minutes away from Buayan from that stream. But just about then, the other group comprising Dr Helen, Judy, Teo and Mia were already done with lunch and were about to embark on their return journey to Kibambangan. Dr Soma had started back even earlier than them.

As we were eating, one by one the rest arrived from Buayan. Liaw arrived with a bright smile on his face. Jonas suffered a cramp in his calf. His 3 litres of water was not enough to support the entire journey to Buayan after all, and Dr Liaw had to ask for some water from the villagers there. I wondered how would it be like for a white man to ask for drinking water from the villagers. That would have been a pretty sight to watch... y'know, like chicken and duck talking to each other? Anyway, Eric was the last to arrive from Buayan, and he, too, suffered cramps in his legs.

I lingered on for a little longer. And then at about 1:50pm, about 40 minutes after Dr Helen's group left, I started off for Kibambangan, leaving the rest behind. The last I saw them, they were still enjoying lunch.

The climb from Terian to the top of the hill was so punishing that I had to walk very slowly. All the while, I had to keep reminding myself of another workout along this same route the following day. As I had expected, it began to rain heavily and the path became slippery, thus slowing me down substantially. But it stopped after about an hour.

I walked alone all the way until about 30 minutes before reaching Kibambangan when I caught up with Mia again. By then Boyd had overtaken me and finally finished a few minutes before us.

Dr Helen, Judy and Teo had arrived a few minutes earlier.

It was quite a relief to complete the workout, but we were conscious of more punishment to come the following day.

After a short rest, we went down to the stream to dip our feet in the water. Then as Judy was about to take this shot, Helen suddenly used her hands to cover her midsection. I don't know if that was to cover her tattoos. And speaking of tattoo, I have posted about it here, so I'll carefully refrain from repeating it lah.

Then suddenly we were wondering what had happened to Dr Soma. He started ahead of us all, but yet had not arrived. Then Liaw arrived and said that he overtook Soma a few kilometres back. We kept an eye on the other side of the hanging bridge, and every time we heard or saw people coming, we thought it was Soma. But each time we were wrong, until finally when we saw that grand pink hat bobbing from afar. Finally, the skeleton arrived and crossed the bridge in triumphant fashion.

But that was not the end of the story. Jonas arrived with his bottles on his chest, but no one knew where's Eric. He complained of having cramps and went slower than the rest. It was fast approaching 6pm and getting dark soon. We tried desperately to call him. We wondered if he was in some kind of trouble in the jungle and contemplated a search and rescue mission. Helen addressed us and asked if any of us would like to volunteer going up the hills again in search of poor Eric. I could see a flicker of excitement in Teo's eyes, and I could've sworn that he would offer to run up the hills to Eric. But instead, he shook his head!

Finally Boyd was able to get through to him. Eric, with his legs almost failing him, had somehow ended up at the Inobong Sub-Station some miles away. Liaw drove his car there to fetch him and brought him back to Kibambangan again where he parked his car.

It was also around then that Helen, Judy and Teo decided that they have had enough trauma for now, and opted not to do another trip to Terian the next day. Maybe they have become mentally unhinged because of the experience. They said they would rather go to Bukit Padang the next day. Come to think of it now, I'm not sure if they meant Taman Tun Fuad Stephens in Bukit Padang; or was it the Mental Hospital in Bukit Padang for treatment.

When we left Kibambangan, the Part 3 of the training scheduled for the following day was doubtful. Everyone was tired. But all I could think of was to go home to a hot shower and a big meal. I wondered what the next day would bring us...

The Typhoon Returns...

It's been about one-and-a-half years since the last time Typhoon Diana struck, and wrecked havoc in Kota Kinabalu with its mighty force. The turbulance went on for a few months, and by the time the typhoon subsided, we sort of went through a period of healing while picking up the pieces.

As a matter of routine, Mom would come to visit us every couple of years in between her holidays to Reno or Vegas to visit her friends—the one-arm bandits. But last year she had a bit of rough times when her doctors found a tumour the size of a tennis ball in her uterus. We dreaded for the worst, but a surgery to remove the tumour was successful far beyond expectation.

So at about 11am this Sunday, the typhoon will be arriving in Kota Kinabalu again. According to the programme, Taman Sinar Bukit will be the first stopover—probably for a week or two, before my other siblings take over the task of containing the typhoon in their respective homes.

So I suppose this Saturday will be a spring cleaning day for me. I'm not sure if I still have time to order a red carpet for the grand welcome. Maybe I will have to hire a part-time maid for a day to clean the entire house spotless.

Meanwhile, Flora will also be coming together with her 2 kids and maid from Brunei on the first day of Hari Raya. So I will be having quite a number of guests this coming holidays. However, Mia and I will be away for 2 days of jungle trekking at the end of this month, so JJ might want to stay at home with popo Diana, wathcing cartoon the whole day. Or maybe if she wants to see more cartoon, she can see real life ones at my in-laws.

For the first time ever in so many decades, mom will be celebrating her birthday with all of us A to F on the 1st of September. All these years we were unable to assemble all my siblings. But this time, Audrey, Bridget, myself, Dennis, Evelyn and Flora will all be there. Her pewter is all nicely wrapped up; the durian cake (I don't suppose they have that in Vancouver); as well as the food catering have been arranged by my sisters.

I foresee lots of tears of joy this September; so there will be more reports to come later...

Unprepared For Pre-paid Phone Service

Shortly after I moved back from Brunei to KK about 9 years ago, I bought one of the most primitive Nokia mobile phones and subscribed to phone services from MAXIS. Later on, I took up a "family plan", i.e. I took up the main phone line, and Mia as the supplementary line. Over the years, I've changed my mobile phones several times. However, I wish to say that I'm not one of those creatures who have the habit of changing phones solely for the sake of changing phones, or "keeping up with technology". In most cases, I changed my phones because they had reached their lifespan.

I see people changing their mobile phones almost annually; or in some cases, even twice a year. And these people would actually spend an entire month's salary—and ever more than that—for newer phones!

Mia had been using her Nokia for at least 4 years now, and had recently been liable to sudden shutdown for no apparent reason. Messages would disappear; and some important data went missing. In fact, it was obvious that it was probably time to consider buying a new phone. But since procrastination is a universal disease, she never actually made the effort to go mobile phone shopping—she merely grumbled to me every time her phone started acting up.

I think God must have been observing her patiently and sympathetically from heaven over the last couple of months. But in the end He ran out of patience and finally acted on it.

As part of our training for the 100km trail race this coming November, we've been trekking the Kibambangan jungle. Both Mia and I bought specially-designed trekking backpacks. But she saw to it that hers had many more compartments. In fact, she's proud of all those little compartments. She is very proud of having all her little stuff nicely separated into their respective compartments in her bag, you see. But I'm not impressed, because she almost always finds herself unable to locate her stuff when she needs them, quite often ending up having to ransack the entire bag to look for a single item. Some people!

At this point, you may be thinking what has all this got to do with the title of this post. Please hang on, I'm getting there sooner or later!

The last time we went up the hills in Kibambangan, Mia brought her forsaken bag again. But on our way back, it started to pour. No problem—she was prepared with a special plastic cover to protect her backpack from the rain. Again, she was very proud of her preparation. Only that when we reached home that night, she realised that she kept her mobile phone in one of those many compartments which were not protected from the rain. Needless to say, her phone was soaking wet and it was already dead by then. I, of course, laughed my heads off, until I remembered that I have been the one who bought all her phones all these years. After I became sober from my uncontrollable laughters, it dawned upon me that Mia would have to buy a new phone.

Enter the iPhone 4...

I've been meaning to switch from MAXIS to Digi for a while now. But again, procrastination is a universal disease, you see. And again, I suppose God thought he would help push us a bit to decide sooner. So since it's time for Mia to buy a new phone, I thought I might as well take the opportunity to finally make that transfer to Digi.

A visit to Digi revealed that it wasn't as simple as I thought. While it's possible to retain our original phone numbers with MAXIS, we had to convert to the pre-paid plan in Digi first. After that, we can then convert again to the postpaid plan.

They have numerous "special packages" in Digi, some of which come with the phone sets. Now my Nokia N97 is still usable, except for some keys which are no longer functioning. But since it's a touchscreen type, I could still use it. But I reckoned that I might as well grab the chance to change my phone too. Besides, I was pleasantly surprised that Mia decided to pay for her own phone! [God, I don't know how you did it, but thanks for the help!]

I must admit that I have a kind of phobia of using these so-called "smart phones", because I feel that I'm not so smart to use them! Moreover, since day one of my mobile phone history, I've never ever used a pre-paid service. I know so many people who are using the pre-paid service, but I've never actually investigated what's the difference with the postpaid system.

Actually, both systems are the same, except that in the case of the pre-paid service, as the name suggests, users would have to pay first before using the service. This is done by buying phone credits by means of what's called "reload coupons". While this may sound like a simple and straightforward procedure to most people, it sent chills down my spine. But, well, it's now or never!

So a few days ago was the last of our phone signal from MAXIS, and it was time to activate the pre-paid service from Digi. Of all the time for this to happen, it had to be in a restaurant while we were having dinner. Mia, who's probably 10 times worse than me when it comes to this sort of thing, passed her phone to me to help her activate her pre-paid line. Earlier on, we had already bought the reload coupons. Looking at the instructions on the reload coupon, I was quite relieved to note a very easy step-by-step procedure. First, one has to key in "*123*", followed by the 16-digit number on the card, and close with "#" before hitting the call button.

That looked simple enough, but after I followed the instruction with the 16-digit number, it was rejected! I tried again a second time. Then a third time. Then fourth...

The minutes passed. In the end, I decided that the simpler method was just to ask one of the waitresses. She merely walked over to my table and demonstrated to me how to execute the activation procedure. First, type the "*123*" (uhuh, that's what I did). Then type in the 16-digit number hidden under the portion of the coupon which I had to scratch, NOT the 16-digit number under the barcode; followed by the "#" key and the call button. And then, almost magically, voila!... the phone suddenly came alive!

I thought the waitress must have rushed to the toilet to laugh her heads off.

I think Digi should produce another type of reload coupon meant for dummies—one which actually tells the user to scratch that portion on the lower right hand corner to get the 16-digit number.

Well, Mia has since had her iPhone 4 and been spending like 23 hours per day playing with it. I think this morning she's trying to find out how to connect to the internet. I think by the time my Galaxy S2 arrives, I'm gonna spend something like a few days just to learn how to make a call.

Keeping my fingers crossed...

Theories, Experiments & Conclusions

Have you ever noticed what sports magazines—generally speaking—have in common? Well, they almost always come up with new research and experiments leading to new conclusions that would absolutely demolish earlier claims by experts of the old school. Y'know, things like drinking 8 glasses of water per day used to be good for you, but that is no longer true today based on new evidence; that when running marathons, "drinking to thirst" is better than "drinking ahead of thirst"; that when weight training, doing 3 sets of 10 reps each is no longer considered the best thing to do for best results.

I think there is a kind of expectation from the audience to see something new in sports magazines. Otherwise, there is no point to keep buying the monthly issues—simply buy a few months', and then those could be recycled over and over again, forever! Therefore, for the magazines to keep selling, there must be something new in them in each issue!

That's just one part of the story. The other part of the story is that I suspect the people who conduct those experiments have more or less made up their mind as to the conclusions that they can—and should—draw from their experiments. I'm convinced that even scientists of the best breed can sometimes fall victims to their own theories. That is human nature, you see.

Take the porn star as an example. I think even before she so much as lifted a scalpel or forceps when conducting the autopsy on Teoh Beng Hock, she had already had the theory of murder in her mind; and the autopsy was just a means to find the evidence to prove her theory. And if there is any hint in the slightest degree that can lean towards murder, then that will immediately leap to her eye; whereas the other facts that would rule out murder would be in danger of not even getting noticed.

If, for example, I have a theory that beer contains a very small amount of women's hormones, how should I conduct an experiment to prove my theory? Well, maybe I would find a couple of healthy men and separate them into 2 groups. I would let the first group drink a glass of plain water per 10 minutes each and make an observation of any effect on them. Then I would let the other group of men drink a glass of beer per 10 minutes each and also observe if there is any effect at all. At the end of that experiment, my report might look something like this:

"1) Those who consumed plain water were observed to remain normal in terms of behavior, except that the frequency of visits to the toilet is seen to have increased.

2) Those who consumed beer were observed to gradually talk a lot of nonsense and gradually lose their ability to drive.

3) The conclusion is that beer contains a very small amount of women's hormones, of which when sufficient amount is present in the body, the feminine characteristics will become apparent."

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a talk presented by a sports scientist from Singapore. Although he was not a doctor, he had been conducting research and experiments for some years related to sports in general, but perhaps more for running sports. In fact, he was also an avid runner himself.

It was an interesting talk to say the least, but as in the case of many sports magazines, I couldn't help but notice that quite a major part of what's discussed was to break a lot of myths about running sports.

According to him, in one of those experiments conducted, it was shown that when running marathons it is better to "drink to thirst", and not "drink ahead of thirst." He went on to explain that the recommendation to "drink ahead of thirst" had its origin in sports drink producers in the States, trying to boost up consumption of their products. So experiments were conducted in such a way to somehow arrive at the conclusion of "drink more of our products", though not in so many words.

Well, I am not a sports scientist, and I don't claim to know more than the speaker. But to me, drinking a more or less fixed amount of liquid—especially sports drinks—in a given workout time, even ahead of thirst, had always worked well for me. There were times in the past when I experimented with "drinking to thirst", and I got caught with severe cramps. And of course the terrible thing about cramps is that once you get them, the race is practically over!

So I must admit that I have doubts about the experiment conducted to conclude that "drinking to thirst" is superior to "drinking ahead of thirst". After all, each individual may be different physiologically, and may react differently to the timing of hydration. I'm not suggesting that all sports scientists are like the "porn star", but I would suggest that runners do what works best for them, even if what they're doing may not accord well with the findings of new "research and experiments."