LBE

One of the most fundamental tenets of leadership is Leadership by Example. If you have been through military leadership schools, you would have been exposed to this, either in a positive light, or negatively. We've all had our fair share of "Do as i say, not as i do" leaders. Bastards who tell us to do one thing while they skive off and go for extended lunch breaks. WTF listens to this people?! On the other hand, we respect those who feed us first, then feed themselves. "Take care of the troops first, ourselves second".
As we all know, there is this thing called the TAF program in schools, for the, ahem, un-thin. Of course, recently, it has been scrapped, in favour of a Holistic Health Framework. What baffles me is the kind of message we've been sending. Without a doubt, there are un-thin teachers in school, some even ... very un-thin. Aren't we subliminally telling the students that it is okay to be un-thin? That you can still be a functionally, patriotic, fully useful citizen even though you are, gasp, FAT? So why is there a need to torture these kids by stigmatizing them and making them come early every morning? If we are being principled about this, all these un-thin teachers should be made to come early everyday as well.

Starfish

Many have heard of the Starfish story. Heck, i get reminded of it everytime i whine about my job. The Starfish story has a moral to it - That no matter how hopeless the situation seems (millions of starfish washed up on the beach!), you should still do something because your efforts matters to that particular one (it gains another shot at life), even though its might just seem like a trickle in the sea. But this story, while apt, trivialises the effort in saving a starfish. Pick up starfish, throw back into the sea only what, how difficult can it be?! That is why this story was chosen. Pick up starfish so easy, why you dont pick up?! Can save one life leh! A slightly more accurate version would go something like this:
Once a man was walking along the beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a few cranes and barges, with groups of people frantically moving back and forth between the surf's edge and the beach. As the man approached, he could see that there were hundreds of whales stranded on the sand as a result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was struck by the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many whales. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the scene, the people down there continued about their seemingly impossible task.
As he arrived on the beach, he said, "All of you must be crazy. There are thousands of whales here. You can't possibly make a difference with your meagre supply of cranes and barges. The group of people looked at the man. They then proceeded to load one whale onto a barge, using one of the creaking cranes, bring it out to sea, before releasing the whale back into the rough seas. After 4 hours of herculean effort, upon returning back to shore, one of the crew turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"

On *gasp* religion

Amidst a bevy of beautiful, overwhelmingly non-chinese, Hooters girls and 10 pieces of Hooters wings at a dollar a piece, coupled with a pitcher (not a jug) of Tiger Beer, the topic of pre-marital sex naturally popped out. Of how its immoral and all that. Well..... whatever.
The more pertinent question is on religion, on how some people choose to devote themselves to one religion, and of course, in the process, condemn me to hell. Of course, all is good if they are just ignorant, with little exposure to the internet, or education, having been brought up in a religious family etc etc. But what happens if this guy/gal happens to have had the opportunity to study overseas, have straight As, touted as an "elite", with critical thinking and all that? And then he goes on to refute carbon-dating?!? Of course carbon dating has its limits, maybe about 50000 years or something, but there are other isotopes with much longer half-lives than carbon!
What this guy doesn't understand is that most of us (including him) are atheist to some extent. Most Christians, like him, dont believe in the Jade Emperor. Or Monkey God. Or any of the Taoist deities. I'm like him! I dont believe in all these either! Except that i go one God further. I dont believe in his God too. =) That's all there is to it.
But of course this generic issue of religion is not as sexy as the topic of sex (by definition). in particular, pre-marital sex. As a swinging bachelor, i support his views on pre-marital sex. Its sinful, and in older days, its called fornication. On the "things not to do if you dont to burn in hell" list, its ranked up that with the other big no-no: Adultery. In fact, all guys should hold his view. Do not have sex with your girlfriends before marriage. In fact, to be absolutely safe (since you dont really know what "sex" means 2000 years. You could probably get hanged for wearing a bikini just a 100 years ago you know), no kissing or fondling or holding hands in public allowed. Just dont tell the gals that its sinful. Heh. =)

Training continues

Woke up at 745am on sat, swam 2.5km with a float. Swimming stance is still like shit! Gotta find some real coach or something.
Woke up at 8am this morning, proceeded for a 11km run. Speed is kinda slow, gotta start building it back up. Sux.

Vroom

8km in 43:27. Right knee.... OK. All systems go!! Haha. Looks like i'm ready to seriously begin training for this season's races. Woohoo.

Back to Basics

Woke up at 7:15am, and went for an easy 5km jog, coming in at 27:32. Right knee feels okay. I think the worst is over! Woohoo! Time to start getting some serious training in. City Duathlon on 20 May, OSIM on 28/29 July, Desaru on 18/19 Aug, AHM in Sept, StanChart in Dec. I think thats basically the schedule for this year. Gambatte!