This weekend I managed to push my limits and see how much better I could do with my running.

Quite proud of myself to be honest.

On Friday, I ran 11km without stopping. That’s probably the longest distance I’ve managed ever. Not one for being a slouch, I decided to do a 9km run on Sunday during the daylight hours. Not my favourite time of the day to run but then I’m helping Comic Boy with his preparation for the Corporate Challenge at next years Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore. He’s doing the half marathon run while I’m doing the 1.9km swim.

At least I have the stamina to hold out… Now to improve my speed. My team mates want me to knock 10 mins off my time from 2009.

A challenge but doable…

• Dropbox Comes to the iPhone and iPod touch [Downloads] – Dropbox comes to iPhone… Finally! Yay with offline browsing too!
• Google’s Monopoly: The Board Game, Not Antitrust – Take over the world with Google – this does sound like fun.
• Keeping Google out of libraries – Google is threatening freedom… my feelings on Google have gone from admiration to quiet concern. What seems like a good idea to move towards a digital future, I do think that this gives one company too much power over something like the written word, which should essentially be freely available. Of course, I'm not overly concerned since most of the Big G's offerings have a great initial hook but really don't deliver once you get down to actually using them.

At 3.30 pay attention, this made me and the missus piss ourselves with amusement. You’ll see why.

Also worth looking at from this guy – Meat Loaf’s I would do anything (Literal Video Version) and The Monkees’ Daydream Believer (Literal Video Version).

Sometimes I see the funniest things. A biker pulled up in the lane next to a BMW when the light was red. The bike was only a few centimeters in front the BMW, but its driver still felt the need to be that much further forward than the rider. So the biker did a little experiment.

While the light was still red, he false started his bike forward with much gusto and appropriateness of looking hasty though his bike never moved one bit forward. Lo and behold, the BMW actually took the bait and accelerated forward before the light had turned. The rider was clever in that he had timed it perfectly so that the driver would have had to stop, take stock, feel embarrassed and start forwad again before the light changed to green.

It was quite amusing to watch.

I’ve signed up again for the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore triathlon that is taking place next year on 21 March, 2010. Well, to be entirely truthful, I’ve signed up for the corporate challenge which isn’t nearly as grueling or physically taxing as the actual event. Yep, the corporate challenge lets you get away with just doing one of the component sports for the event – swimming, biking or running. So this year, I’ve signed up for the swim and with only 7 months to go, I’m hoping to be fit enough to take it on.

Regular readers (all 36 of them¹) of this blog will know that I’ve been on a bit of a break since the beginning of summer, so my training hasn’t been all that consistent. Last week I managed to get into the swing of things by swimming at least 3 times, which isn’t all that impressive. On Monday, I did manage a 3.23km run in the morning. With this in mind, I wanted to know how well I do swimming approximately a kilometer non-stop to set my benchmark. Previously, I had been swimming about 1 km in about 38 minutes using breast stroke.

I was a little disappointed to learn that I’m a little slower. Not really surprising given my inactivity, and although respectable, it was no where near my timing for the actual swim I did earlier this year at the Ironman in March. Of course, it was breaststroke so I’m not going to beat myself up too badly over it. I’ll have to start swimming front crawl soon though. One thing I am pleasantly getting reacquainted with is my monumental appetite, which I fear will continue until the event. It also means I crash pretty quickly at night too.

1. Incidentally, to my 36 readers, do feel free to give the occasional comment. If we keep meeting like this, I’ll start getting paranoid.

• Aw hell yeaaaaahhhh! BAD BOYS 3! BAD BOYS 3! — Ain’t It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news. – Mixed feelings about this… Martin who again?
• VapURL – Disposable URLs (beta) – The disposable URL – Interesting concept and I imagine would be useful for competitions and other online contests.
• iPhone vs Blackberry – YouTube – I'm hoping that this settles the Blackberry vs iPhone debate.

Making the rounds in Singapore is a video of a boyfriend being scolded by his girlfriend as they have an argument outside their car. The woman is unleashing all fury at the guy and eventually attacks the guy’s groin. Here is the video showing the woman attacking her man.

Now, I’m one to find amusement in just about anything given that I just spent 120 mins looking at Sacha Baron Cohen running around, posing as homo provocateur, Bruno. Like that film, I’m smelling something not quite right with its authenticity and I can’t help but think that it is fake. Here are five reasons to think that:

1. Firstly, we have netizen “James” to thank for this 41 second clip. Oh the joys of anonymous citizen reporting via mobile phones. It saves actually having to check the facts or get the full story or check the credibility of the source. This trustworthy source, of course, was so civic minded he whipped out his camera and filmed an assault taking place¹. Okay, fine, he might be recording it to take to the police but obviously youtube and Stomp were probably the best place to go first.
2. I don’t care how under-the-thumb of a Singaporean male you might be or femi-Nazi she might be, there is no way that taking a shoe to someone’s groin is going to illicit such a docile response in the guy. And sign up for more when she tells him to stop protecting his private parts? Please…
3. The number plate seems a bit bogus. I’m no expert on Singapore number plates, but SCU 148L is a personalised piece of work. Hmm… beginnings of Scum perhaps? Inside joke maybe? The mind boggles.
4. Cameras are notorious for not really picking up body movements that well. The exaggerated movements of the woman are surprisingly well picked up, don’t you think?
5. It’s all surprisingly well shot – cropped in quite nicely with no other real detail being shown, nice vantage position, the proponents clearly visible. I get crap on my camera phones usually.

So perhaps it might be a truthful video but me gut feel tells me that something more is at play and two folks have just got their five minutes of fame on an unsuspecting public.

1. I believe Singapore is still one of the countries in the world where the threat of violence itself is a crime – it is enough for someone to feel threatened to make it a legal issue.

Neo: I know Kung Fu!

Morpheus: Then hit me… if you can.

MSNBC has compiled the best of 10 years of The Week in Pictures.

• bit.ly blog – Sync bit.ly + Delicious + Twitter – Looks like a nice way to sync up the three services…

Over dinner tonight I spotted a father who had an ingenious way to keep his baby daughter amused while he ate quietly – he sat her down in front of his iPod and played cartoons on it. It seemed to work quite well as the kid seemed to have that same plugged in look that I have had since I got my iPhone. The one where I am caught wandering around, iPhone in hand twitching for the latest shot of information. I was remarking to the better half that I wasn’t sure if plugging in a kid at that early age was a good thing or not.

On the one hand, I think the child needs time to just sit and explore the world, be restless, push the boundaries and well, cry and laugh as he or she tries, fails and succeeds to engage with things around it. It sort of feels like a much too simple way of child rearing to be entirely wholesome. Of course, not having kids myself, I might feel otherwise when I’m trying to grab a few minutes of quiet without a kid trying my patience. Still…

• BBC NEWS | Technology | Facebook changes privacy policy
  A move in the bloody right direction. Who do you think you are? Google?
  (tags: articles social)

I managed to stay true to the fitness regime I had in my head by successfully taking the second step. Actually, I think it is hard to take the second step since you’ve tricked yourself into believing that it’s okay to skip it since you worked so hard earlier in the week. Before you know it you’ve let a month pass before you actually do anything about it. So I’m quite pleased that I trained for the most part in Zone 2¹. The only drawback is that I’m now bloody tired that I’m trying to write this blog post and I keep forgetting why I started a sentence by the time I get to the end of it.

Advise on pushing through to get past the Step 2 barrier? Commit that exercise appointment to your partner or training buddy. You’ll be less inclined to bail out. Two months with hardly any exercise and it definitely made me lose a lot of what I built up².

1. According to my Polar FT-60
2. No, not my paunch.

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  And the morbid posthumous gravy train continued to run…
  (tags: article)
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  Thank goodness for that…
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• Argentina rules on marijuana use
  Another enlightened approach…
  (tags: crime drugs)
• Fruity wrapper leaves sour taste | The Sun |News
  Bugger, I think they sell this one over here in Swingapore. Won't somebody think of the children?
  (tags: humour branding)
• He poses as his twin to sleep with his brother's girlfriend
  One more reason why identical twins are a little strange…
  (tags: articles)
• How many roads? Dylan could voice sat-nav directions
  No please… The fall of an icon…
  (tags: articles music)
• The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers – CNN.com
  Yes, I think I fit into one or more of this category. But what can you do?
  (tags: humour social)

I started training again tonight after taking a *cough* 4 month break. I have plenty of excuses on why I didn’t keep up with my fitness regime and I am sure that none are original, but for the purposes of your reading amusement I shall list them out here.

• (May) I fell sick.
• (May) My CEO took a personal interest in my boss’ project.
• (Jun) My CEO took even more interest in my boss’ project and I got to spend quality time with my complete reporting line day-in and day-out for 10 whole days.
• (Jun) Recovery time from previous two points.
• (July) More recovery time from previous three points.
• (July) Holiday with the girlfriend.
• (Aug) Fell horribly sick and got to spend quality time with myself for 10 days at home.
• (Aug) Told not to exercise on pain of dying by a “specialist”.

So, there were my excuses in a nutshell. Anyway, the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore is coming up on March 21, 2010. That only leaves me with 7 months to get in shape for the corporate challenge. I think I’ll give the full Ironman a miss for 2010, instead focusing on improving my time for the swim part of the corporate challenge((Incidentally, I never claimed to be a full triathlete anywhere, contrary to popular opinion.)).

With the better half back from her travels, I finally managed to get myself into a cinema and watch a film, albeit a chick flick. We ended up watching The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Which surprisingly wasn’t bad – it had an engaging storyline (predictable, I’ll grant) but the characters did develop nicely and more importantly, the comic timing was spot on so there no complaints there. Of course, as a guy, I should say it was crap.

• is sure that F1 is coming to Singapore as in-town is starting to look like a prison camp. #
• must reduce his dependancy on coffee. #
• thinks it's right time for the folks of the teenager sitting next to him at the teppanyaki place to introduce him to deodorant. #
• thought that The Proposal was a surprisingly good film. #

• The Golden Hour Calculator | Sunrise and Sunset information for …
  A useful site for working out the Golden Hour for photographers and well, anyone who pretty much wants to track sunrise and sunset in their location. Of course, you could just check out your local weather website but this is more fun.
  (tags: calculator photography tools sunrise sunset)

Okay this is a mobile post from my iPhone using Blog Press. We at Eshin Direct love promoting our friend’s business ventures, especially ones that have taken a lot of heart and soul. So I’m shamelessly plugging my friend’s online jewellry store. She even makes her own custom designs and I hear husband went through a crash course in programming to get the site up. Check out Urban Nook.

As those of you know, I love the New Paper as it seems to be the only paper that isn’t in puppet mode and its headlines are somewhat entertaining. Of course, what amuses me is that Singapore goes through the efforts of building not one but two casinos, and then spends an equal amount of time, money, and energy in making sure that everyone knows an activity it is encouraging (the income generated is to benefit of its citizens naturally), is actually quite evil. The Electric New Paper kindly informs us that Singapore Problem Gambling Conference 2009 is kicking off today with a helpful article on gambling. And bless the New Paper, as they’ve kindly provided us with a foolproof list of tips to identify the innocent victims with all this readily available monetized risk.

SOME SIGNS OF A PROBLEM YOUTH GAMBLER:

Odd hours

If your child returns home very late or sleeps at odd hours.
If he’s always locked in his room and you hear computer sounds, he could be tracking soccer results online.

Needs and splurges

Sudden need for large sums of money or a sudden splurge on expensive items or treats.

Falling grades , secret calls

What kind of friends call him? Does he talk openly or in secret? Is he avoiding calls because of his creditors?

Emotions and behaviour

Signs of depression, loss of interest, isolation, changes in mood or behaviour. Or even a loss of valuables or cash from the home.

I’m far from an expert on gambling but this curiously sounds like the profile of an average household teenager. To be fair, it is a fairly fail safe method to identify a gambler hidden amongst you. No, I’m serious. For the uneducated minds amongst you, these are the habits of gamblers and there are subtle distinctions from other forms of addictive behaviour.

SOME SIGNS OF A PROBLEM YOUTH GAMBLER:

Odd hours

If your child returns home very late or sleeps at odd hours. (A druggie probably wouldn’t return home.)
If he’s always locked in his room and you hear computer sounds, he could be tracking soccer results online. (A World of Warcraft addict, addicted to another potential evil, would probably be muttering sweet nothings to his in-game bride).

Needs and splurges

Sudden need for large sums of money or a sudden splurge on expensive items or treats. (Druggies will not splurge on expensive items. Bonuses come but in only two times of year folks!)

Falling grades , secret calls

What kind of friends call him? Does he talk openly or in secret? Is he avoiding calls because of his creditors? (Talking in secret is bad. Do note that the druggie will probably be quite happy to talk to his other druggie friends on the phone in code to score his fix.)

Emotions and behaviour

Signs of depression, loss of interest, isolation, changes in mood or behaviour. Or even a loss of valuables or cash from the home. (Yes, emotions are also bad. Best keep an eye out for them. We all know that a drug addict can’t be depressed – it’s sort of the permanent high they are on being druggies.)

Of course, you can always rely on a gambling addict to come clean on it. Everyone knows you can’t trust a druggie.