The blog was my outlet for my day-to-day musings, gossips, info-sharing, complaints and bitchings. But ever since I got an account each on Tumblr, Plurk and Twitter, I did not have to do them on my blog anymore. I now share links, videos, photos on Tumbling jinnPod. I muse, complain and bitch at Twitter and Plurk. There's really no need to have a long blog post for these stuff anymore.

So follow me at these places:

• Tumbling jinnPod
• Twitter
• Plurk

A week ago, I finally went for the LASIK surgery on my eyes. I had been thinking about doing it for a long time, but it had always been very expensive and I wasn't sure about the reliability; you know, the complications after the surgery and whether you would get the perfect eyesight even after going through with it, that sort of things. It wasn't until a handful of colleagues went for it last year and the results have been nothing but positive. And they all got theirs eyes done at the same clinic - Lasik Surgery Clinic. That was when I decided I should do it too.

You see, I was never a fan of contact lens. My eyes never felt comfortable with them. But I wore them when I did sports. It became a bit of a chore to put them on and take them off. Sometimes I would forget to pack them.

It still cost me a lot of money but it's definitely worth it. Immediately after the surgery I had regained back most of my vision. I couldn't believe it. The next day, I could actually drive myself to the clinic for the 1st review. Right now during the day, I would say my vision is clear. But at night, things get a bit blurry because of all the lights; I see halos around the street lamps. In about 2 weeks, I'll be going for my 2nd review and the doctor will be testing my eyesight.

So, no more:

• fogging up of my glasses when I get out of an air-conditioned place or drinking hot soup
• feeling the chore of putting contact lenses before sports and taking them out later
• waking up to the world of blur
• wiping accidental finger prints off my glasses
• wiping off oil and prints off my glasses after shooting every picture when using my DSLR
• wondering what kinda haircut my hairdresser is giving me

Plus, I can wear sunglasses that can be bought off the rack and looking all stylo-milo.

Another group of people was having a discussion next to our table and it was distracting. I stood up and walked to the whiteboard in front. I decided to draw out what I wanted my vendor to do. Maybe then the guys would understand better. I held up the marker but suddenly my mind went blank. I wrote something, I erased it off. I wrote again and erased again. This happened for 3, 4 times. I felt 2 pairs of eyes eyeing me from behind, wondering what the hell I was trying to do. I was staring blankly at the board when...

"Eh, time to wake up," my mum called out.

I opened my eyes and silently thanked Mum.

How To Be Good by Nick Hornby

Every Thursday, at the gym I work out at, there is a low impact aerobics class that ends at 7:30pm. Usually that is the time when I'm doing my SMFR, activation and stretches and the Stretching Area. Now, the Stretching Area is rather small. At any one time, there is only enough room for 4 people, and usually people will spill to the walk-way.

At 7:30pm, after the aerobics class finishes, this 50-ish lady whom I will henceforth call Madam B, will emerge from the class and head to the Stretching Area. She will take 2 mats and lay them down side by side. 5 minutes later, the class instructor, will appear.

Both of them will then start to do their stretchings, only Madam B's main objective isn't in stretching but to chit-chat with the instructor. She will start yakking and yakking away like there is no tomorrow, mostly about the other people in the aerobics class - how some of them can't do the turns, how this girl finds the moves difficult, how the instructor should introduce more difficult moves, etc. She almost never ever stretches. Or stop yakking.

For the love of god, if you just want to chit-chat, please use the lounge area. It has comfortable leather sofas and lots of space. It is fucking irritating to hear someone yak yak yak beside you. Non-stop. For. An. Extended. Period. Of. Time. It is so irritating that sometimes I wish I have the guts to hit her with the foam roller until she pengsan.

The other day, the Stretching Area was rather crowded. There was only space for 1 more person, which the instructor took. She spilled over to the work-out area on my right. I ended up sandwiched in between them. Madam B decided that she still wanted to chit-chat with me in between them. OMFG. Fortunately, the music in the gym was loud enough that their replies to each other were mostly HUH? So Madam B gave up (FINALLY!). I was sniggering so hard inside.

So Madam B proceeded to do her stretching. But as I mentioned earlier, she hardly ever stretches. So that day I observed her just to see if she would actually stretch since she couldn't yak. All she did was bend forward with legs straight to sretch both hamstrings, bend forward with left leg straight to stretch left hamstring, bend forward with right leg straight to stretch right hamstring. When you think she had finished with her hamstrings, she stretched out both legs and bend forward again. Yes, you guess it - stretch her hamstrings AGAIN. Wash, rinse, repeat. So for 15-20 mins, all she stetched were hamstrings. How fucking long does one need to stretch those fucking hamstrings??? Jesus.

Finally she stood up and told the instructor that she had finished and would head to the shower first. And she would see him later for dinner.

If I have been observing correctly, she follows the instructor to which ever branch he conducts his class in.

God, I pray that the Gym would reschedule this aerobics class to another time slot.

Then We Came To The end by Joshua Ferris

So one table tennis player was without a coach during his match. I don't think it was done on purpose. It was explained that the said player's coach had to cover another player whose coach had fallen ill. It could be an administrative error, I don't know. But how could that take away the fact that the coaches and officials in the table tennis team helped Singapore win her precious Olympics medal since 1960?

Ms Lee Bee Wah only took over as STTA president last month. Does she even know what kind of hard work the whole team, including the coaches and managers, have gone through to achieve such success? It didn't happen overnight.

So there was a slip-up. Couldn't it be handled in a better way? What kind of message are you giving to the athletes? That they can't make a mistake? How could we then breed Olympics class athletes if we continue to instill this kind of kia si behaviour?

I don't know what she was blabbering about getting a new CEO and Technical Director. You are managing a sports team for goodness' sake. A good and sensible sports manager will tell you to never change a winning team. Just ask Alex Ferguson.

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer