Rant 1036 / You Know You're Unhealthy When You Are Using Your Dead Dog's Collar As A Belt.

Tried the resistance tubes my bro gave me last month. Didn't think much about it at that time and left it to gather dust at the bottom of my wardrobe.

But after some discussions with him and together with my experience with dumbbells so far, I changed my mind.

The problem is that the dumbbells he gave me are too light for bicep curls. They're heavy enough for shoulder training but that's it. Doing more reps won't make it any better since I'm doing strength training, not endurance.

So I took out the bag of resistance tubes he had bought with the mistaken impression that they were stronger than the ones he already had.

Apparently, they turned out to be too easy for him.

For me, they're not just hard; they're impossible.

Seriously, when I had all 5 tubes on, I was unable to do a single bicep curl.

At best, when I tried an upright row, all I could do was get my upper arm perfectly horizontal, which is markedly different from what he could do:

A perfect upright row

To clarify, the resistance tube/band is very different from dumbbells in that the resistance does not remain the same when stretched to different lengths. Try stretching a rubber band and see. The resistance increases exponentially and not at all proportional to the length it is stretched to.

Hence the difference of the height of a chest means a lot more than one might think.

The 5 tubes are coloured red, yellow, green, blue and black. The seller had claimed that these represented different difficulties, but my bro couldn't tell the difference.

I could.

When I used the red, yellow and black tubes, I couldn't do a single bicep curl. But when I switched the black to a blue, I could. Needless to say, he could do it even with all 5 on.

That's my target at the moment. Of course I also gave myself a generous time limit: a whole year. By July 2013, I should be able to do bicep curls with all 5 on during my regular workout routine, as long as they haven't snapped by then.





















The first Indian Playmate. Now I've seen everything.

FYI porn is illegal in India, and Indian porn is hard to find. Due to the scarcity, good ones are almost non-existent.

"The moral guardians have never done any real good to me or the society at large. So let them do whatever they are good at while I do what I truly enjoy."

To each his own. Or in this case, her own.

It also highlights the truth behind something a comedian named Doug Benson once said:

"If emotional scars were visible, porn would be disgusting."

A plane ticket on Qatar from Singapore to Tehran costs around S$1000. A good Persian rug there costs 4-digit numbers in USD. What.

I should just buy a Chinese imitation. They only cost around 300-500USD for a 4*6ft wool rug, excluding shipping. However, silk ones still have mindblowing prices despite being imitations.

To be fair, the Grade A silk imitation rugs are so good it's been said that even Iranian/Turkish rug dealers can't tell them apart.

Real top-grade Persian silk rugs are meant to last, and by "last" I don't mean 10-20 years - I'm talking about family heirlooms. I don't believe even the Grade A imitations can handle that but still, a 4*6ft rug sold at over a thousand USD by a Chinese manufacturer that's been certified to have been in the imitation rug business for at least 8 years can't be too badly made.

In addition, Zhenping is known for its imitation rug exports to Turkey where they are sold as "authentic" Persian rugs to gullible tourists.





I have so many things I want to buy.

It is just as I thought. Exposing myself to advertisements daily is as dangerous as I expected. Look at what I've become! No wonder there are people who want to become hermits and live in the wild. They aren't crazy; they're just removing the root of a very major problem.

Another thing I must say is that Qoo10's aggressive email marketing campaign does work. In fact, it works very well. I'd unsubscribe or block it but I can't! The fact that they offer so many different items is the cause of this - they might one day sell something that I might really want.

I'm not saying I'll need it. No, far from it. Just "really want".

I have also figured out yesterday one other thing that can separate "need" from "want":

If I need something, I'd have thought of buying it even before I'm aware of what exactly is being offered by the shops.

However this isn't foolproof. For example, in the case of my leather shoes, I knew I had to get a pair even before I first saw the suede oxfords on Gilt. Theoretically I could wear sneakers to work like my mum did but it just doesn't feel right. It's kinda like eating pork in Islam, but less extreme.

This isn't truly a need either because I later realized I needed another pair just for rainy days, and that pair could be worn even on normal days, making the suede shoes redundant, practically speaking.

This kinda justifies the air purifier, now that I think about it. I did think about buying an air purifier but was undecided about it till my bro suggested it.

In contrast, if I think of buying something after I saw it, that would be purely a "want". Like that hammock. While it is true I have been trying to think of a way to make my mattress last longer, the hammock was nowhere near the top of my list of possible solutions. In fact, I've never thought of using a hammock as a long-term replacement for the conventional bed.

I only decided to try it after googling on how to use a hammock, which led me to the realization that there have been and still are many people who sleep on these instead of mattresses.

If these can't replace beds, they would have rather slept on hay, right? I mean, I've slept on roots and rocks before during BMT and I can safely say that it can be done. If hammocks can really destroy your back like some people say, those American natives would have slept on the grass instead.

Think about it. The Americas had so many grassy plains they even have a word for them: "savannah", which originated from the Arawak word meaning "land without trees but with much grass."

Moreover, what about European sailors? Didn't the entire British Royal Navy use to sleep on hammocks while at sea? How would they have survived all those weeks and months on their ships if hammocks are that terrible?

All these pretty much persuaded me to give it a go. $10 though.

If it works at all, I'll consider upgrading to a better, bigger hammock. $10 can't possibly give me a good one. It might even turn out to be too small.




















Came up with another idea for online window shopping. Obviously I can't say what it is but let's see if that works. The last time I did something similar it didn't go very well, but this time it's more refined because I know what I'm doing.




















My printer can print on the common DL-sized envelopes! Yay! No more worry about making a mess while writing the addresses.

The problem is not just about the cancellations but also my already bad handwriting made worse by my infrequent usage of pens. These days, I only use the pen to sign documents, and that's entirely muscle memory.