09 Jan 2019
Hurt my back two days ago. No numbness, motor control all ok, so doctor thinks it's just a sprain. Probably the worst sprain I've ever had so far, because it hasn't healed in 24 hours. It's still uncomfortable to sit for long, and standing and walking straight is tough.
Started during the MMX session in P90X3, while I was doing a jab/cross combo, and it got so bad even sleeping was a problem because it started aching after several hours even when I was sleeping on my back the whole time.
Hopefully it will go away in a few days because not only is there a reservist training coming up in two weeks, there's a ski trip scheduled in almost exactly a month.
In the meantime, I can't exercise for a week, followed by nothing strenuous on my back for the rest of the time till the trip.
Well, at least I've lost about 2.5 kg so far, at 96.8kg on Monday as compared to 100kg when two weeks ago just before I started eating healthy, eg salads for all meals. Salads weren't a fantastic idea for every meal because I started feeling weak during workouts, so I'm trying out other food from places like YOLO that sell healthy meals containing skinless chicken breasts with vegetables.
By the end of the week I should lose more weight too, from loss of muscle mass.
12 Jan 2019
Back still aches from sitting up for an hour or more, but it's much better now. At least I can bend in all directions and there's no pain from walking unless there is a hard impact, like if my feet don't cushion my steps by pointing my toes down as I walk down a ledge.
Anyway, I saw Nanyue on the front page of Wiki yesterday and one thing led to another, I decided to check out the history of Cantonese and other southern Chinese dialects. Here is my summary of mainly Cantonese.
It all began in about 3300-5500 BC, with the Hemudo and the Majiabang people near Hangzhou (near Shanghai if it helps)
The Hemudo were Austronesian people living at the coast who cultivated rice, hunted animals like deer, domesticated animals like pigs, and used jade.
The Majiabang people were the Chinese staying inland west of the Hemudo, who were very similar to the point where some historians see the Hemudo as a subgroup of the Majiabang, except, for example, the Hemudo lived in stilted houses.
Anyway, these people eventually evolved into the Liangzhu culture whose influence spread to southern China like what is now Guangzhou, and to northern China like Shanxi. It is also theorized by some that this is where all Austronesians came from, like the Hawaiians, Maoris, Javanese, Taiwanese aborigines, and Filipinos.
It is currently believed that the center of this culture was in what is now Zhejiang, which is a bit south of Shanghai with Hangzhou being its capital, due to the discovery of artifacts from that era. Somewhere around 2250BC, they suddenly disappeared from this area. Currently, evidence show that there were multiple floods that might have destroyed them. One theory is that Taihu Lake, which is at the border of Zhejiang, is an impact crater that was formed near that period.
Then we jump all the way to the 9th century BC, when a Zhou prince (you know, the dynasty after Shang) was exiled south and he caused a great deal of Chinese influence in two tribes living in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu (the province north of Zhejiang and Shanghai, with Nanjing being its capital).
By the time of the Spring and Autumn Period, these tribes have evolved into the Wu and Yue states. See the link there? Cantonese is the main branch of a group of languages known as 粵语, the Yue language. Although the state used 越 while the language uses 粵, back in ancient China these two characters were used interchangeably.
At this point, things seem a bit blurry in my research. One source said that Wu conquered Yue and Yue's ruling family escaped in 334BC to Fujian and established the capital for their new kingdom, Minyue. Another source said Minyue was established by them in 192BC after the fall of Qin. In any case, what is agreed upon by both is that that family escaped to Fujian and about 130 years later, the kingdom existed.
Anyway the people living in Minyue at that point are now called the Baiyue 百越 people, probably because there were hundreds of tribes of Yue people over there. Not Chinese, but Yue, so they were probably closer to Malays and Javanese.
The Minyue kingdom survived for quite a while. At the same time, when Qin fell, the general Zhao Tuo who was in charge of conquering the Yue people decided to hold on to what his army had at the time and established the Nanyue kingdom, which is what the name "Vietnam" was derived from, east of Minyue.
They basically reversed the two characters of this kingdom when they named their country. Also, and of course, Zhao Tuo is considered to be the first emperor of Vietnam.
Right after Qin is Han, and Han eventually annexed them all, which ended the story of separate states and kingdoms.
Throughout all these rises and falls, lots of Chinese migrated from the north to escape the chaos of the falls (just like the Yue ruling family). These brought about a lot of intermixing of people and languages, leading to our dialects become so Chinese and so unlike all other Austronesian languages. In fact, they are more like Chinese languages with a trifle of Austronesian influence.
14 Jan 2019
It's 95.1kg today.
My physical condition is improving, but recently healed injuries are dampening the progress. My sprained ankle still feels funny sometimes, and my back's still aches a tiny bit at times, although today's Eccentric Upper session went fine. My cardio is so bad though, so tomorrow I'll have to pause it a few times.
Seriously though, this has to be normal. I mean, if you haven't sprained anything badly or dislocated something after over 30 years of life, you haven't really tried anything physical and exciting, now have you?
On the other hand, when I have kids, I'll make sure their physical education is more all-rounded, instead of focusing solely on the lower limbs like my childhood was. Having a disproportionately weak upper body does affect many facets of life, like handling luggage.
Physical fitness will be a must because right now, I'm glad I'm way fitter than I was several years ago. For example, if I had sprained my back back then like I did last week (and spraining your back happens to everyone eventually), life would have been much worse, because I would be roughly as heavy, but without the strength in various parts of my body to brace for anything and limp to anywhere. Like the strength to cushion with my feet as I walked down a ledge or stairs, since the impact of landing on a lower step would have killed my injured back otherwise.
Fitness plays a part in the entire life, in all the small things you may be taking for granted. It's not just about being able to run a few kilometres, but the ability to handle any unexpected inconvenient physical task. Take the bus/subway ride as another example: if you're fit, you can handle sudden stops better without needing to hold on to things, as compared to when your legs and core are in bad shape and you need to hold on to the rails just to be able to stand as the vehicle is accelerating and stopping.
These individual differences are nothing, but they accumulate. When you're stronger and more agile, life is just easier.
15 Jan 2019
After that whole week of rest, my cardio stamina is total crap now. My heart struggles hard even before my threshold for the burning sensation in my muscles is reached. Got to keep training.
I like Tacoma. It's really what I talked about way back with regards to 3D films. The game is really just a movie in which you can move around in the scenes, pause, rewind, read/observe objects and even access the characters' computers and whatever locked stuff if you watch as they press the keys ( or find where they keep their codes).
Too bad this genre is not more popular, but maybe it's because it's a little tedious since you don't get spoonfed the way watching a show does.
16 Jan 2019
Was watching a short video on the restaurants with no human servers - food is brought from the kitchen to the table by robots.
Notice how these dramatic advances are usually in places where things are malleable due to either being really far behind or having non-existent infrastructure.
On the other hand, wealthier countries can't do this as quickly, hence ruining their chance of becoming pioneers.
For example, yes, we do have an automated supermarket at Habitat and so does the US through Amazon, but are they anywhere as widespread as they are now in China? In terms of this sort of automation in the service industry, China is YEARS ahead of even the US!
My conclusion is that to advance as rapidly as possible, we need to keep getting rid of things that aren't as new. In other words, we should stop focusing on permanence, on durability, on things that last, because they are obstacles to technological advancement.
For example, in Singapore, if there's any more efficient form of transport out there that can replace our MRT system, we can't adopt it because so much as been invested into the MRT system that is supposed to last... well, lifetimes, I guess. In fact, we already are seeing a huge effect of this obstacle to advancement - the ability of the MRT system to adapt to our growing population has been hamstrung by the fact that our stations are built to accommodate only a certain length of tracks and a certain height of trains. We simply cannot have longer or multi-storey trains because to do so, we're going to have to do MAJOR renovations on almost all stations and may even cost the government money to buy land that is already occupied by other entities.
While it may seem cheaper in the long term to construct structures that can last a century, I believe it is time we look at all the opportunities these durable infrastructures are costing us. We can come up with this, with that, and they can be great for us, but we can't build them because it would waste the fortunes we have invested over the decades on what we already have and would cost more to replace or adapt them.
Our infrastructure needs to be modular, disposable, easily adaptable and replaceable. Durability hinders progress. How far behind do you want us to be when our kids grow up?
11 Feb 2019
Knees are bruised. Day 4 of my snowboarding trip.
Second day of snowboarding, the first being a half day that was on a weekend, and weekends turned out to be terrible for learning because the crowds get in from 11am onwards.
Fortunately, the pension owner was ok with driving me there at 8am everyday for the best snow possible so I could get some practice in my best condition in the best environment Phoenix Park Pyeongchang can offer.
But by 3pm my knees couldn't take another fall anymore and I stopped for a break. Problem was, by the time I felt well enough to get back into the fray, it was crowded by what I think is about 150-200 schoolkids, so I just stopped.
3 runs on the really long beginner/intermediate Panorama trail and 2 runs on the beginner Hawk 2 trail.
Also, I went to one of the two stores selling accessories in the resort and bought a set of protective pads for the butt and knees for 52k KRW, and that was 20% off of the original 65k.
Ridiculous. Fortunately, I've been staying way below budget so far and this won't hurt it much. I mean, I estimated S$15 a meal daily and it's been more like $5 per meal instead, and that's an overestimate.
Anyway the set is their largest so I took it knowing the pants won't fit, which actually doesn't matter since my butt seems tough enough to give me far less pain than my knees.
As long as the knee pads fit, it's fine. I really need them to continue.
On a brighter note, today I've managed to complete a few C turns, aka just turns. However, I'll need to get used to doing it, then link the C's into S-turns, which snowboarders normally do.
Also, the pension owners have been amazing to me. Maybe it's because I'm the only guest here while everyone is staying closer to the resorts. But I did ask before booking if the shuttle was nearby and the answer was yes, hence I dared to book beyond walking distance of any resort.
Turns out, they were planning to drive me there themselves.
Unfortunately for them, I want to go at 8am when it's still freezing. I mean literally freezing, because there's frost everywhere outside at that hour, and he drove with one hand on the steering wheel and the other between his legs.
That cold. I don't know, I think it's like -11 or -5 degrees C, usually, in the mornings. Nights are guaranteed around -10 degrees.
Oh, and he gave me two large apples 2 days ago. I think they are local produce, and one is still in my fridge. Not too big on fruits now, the exercise is making me crave meat all the time.
He also introduced me to his son who's traveling in Bangkok now, but despite him being a translator, he's not too extroverted either, so we didn't say much to each other in the video call.
Then just now, he brought his wife along to pick me up from the resort, and his wife offered to make me some coffee tomorrow morning, instead of giving me more packets of instant coffee.
This is more like an Airbnb place than a pension I found on Booking.com.
And yeah, they were so surprised when I said tomorrow it's the same timing as today, 8am to 5pm. I don't actually spend the entire time snowboarding though. How do you stretch 5 runs into 8 hours? It opens at 8.30am and closes for a break at 4.30pm.
Most of the time, I stand or sit around and watch others, or chat on my phone. I need the breaks, snowboarding is tough.
19 Feb 2019
Two days remaining, leaving Korea for probably a very long time the day after tomorrow.
Yesterday, I finally returned to the really long Panorama trail that's for beginners and intermediate, or green and blue, and learnt that my plateauing at bad S turns is not solely because I'm afraid of speed, but also because I've been looking at the learning process all wrong.
I do not have to get good at turns in the green beginner slopes!
When I tried S turns on the steeper slopes along Panorama, my turns got better - I slided less and my back foot moved less during turns!
So finally, after a whole week of getting stuck there, progress has been made!
Then I lost an ankle strap somewhere, likely from the bottom of the slope back to the ski center where I was planning to take a break after the long journey down. The Panorama is the longest in the resort, IIRC over a km in length.
I definitely would have noticed while unstrapping my feet that it was gone, so it must have dropped off during the walk back to the ski center. How it was discovered was when I was removing snow and ice from my board using the public blow gun things attached to pressurized gas pipes outside the entrance, and a black bit fell onto the snow.
It looked like a screw, so I picked it up, kept it in a pocket, finished the removal, and walked to the public repair bench where the screwdrivers are.
There, I realized that was not a screw, but a nut in the form of a hollowed bolt - raising the question of "Where's the bolt then?"
So upon a closer look at the bindings, something else was missing - whatever was attached to that bolt and nut. A comparison between the two bindings revealed that it was the entire angle strap.
I never knew these things could come off!
After reporting it to the Customer Service where the representative took down my number and said she would call me if it's reported found, I went to google for parts.
Union binding parts aren't cheap and aren't easily available. The ankle strap was US$65 and the ankle ratchet (which grips the belt attached to the other side of the ankle) was US$25. Union only ships within the US and this costs US$10, forming a total cost of US$100, if I were in that country.
But I'm not there and have no plans to visit there before my next possible snowboard trip, so I may either buy new off-season bindings in the next cold place I visit, or post a request on Airfrov.
I mean, it's about S$140 just for the parts. For the single strap and ratchet, this is a lot compared to the cost of the entire set of bindings.
As for the lost strap, it's quite unlikely to be found. It's black so if it's not already buried in the snow, it's going to blend in with any trash on the ground if it landed on the floor, or after the snow melts, not to mention the tiny bolt is guaranteed to disappear.
Anyway it's 9.40am now and it's probably the heaviest snow I've ever seen so far throughout this trip. Yes I wish I were out there even if it's just till the afternoon but such is life.
01 April 2019
Went for a 6-day trip to Rovaniemi last week. The thing I like about the Finnish language is that due to its relatively young age, the pronunciation of the letters are always consistent, making it very easy to speak the names.
Everything is expensive in Finland, probably because of its distance to everything else, but one thing is much cheaper than in Singapore - tuning and waxing a snowboard only costs 19 euros (about S$30) as compared to S$50 here - plus I got it done right there in Ounasvaara Ski Resort instead of having to bring it to the shop in Singapore so there wasn't a need to get a car or taxi which would have incurred further costs.
Everyone is also honest there, so there wasn't much of a need to stay on guard for BS like tourist pricing, tips and hidden charges. Things are so simple there, even the 7-seater van taxis have the exact same rates as normal taxis.
Downside is my sleep schedule is FUBAR! I fell alseep at 11pm the night before last, woke up at 1am, and finally managed to sleep again at 5am. Tonight, no sleep at all and I'm typing this at 4.27am.
Tomorrow is a short one to Penang so maybe that will help me adjust.
Anyway, the snow in Finland was absolutely lovely! After Pyeongchang, that snow was magical. Tbh it was only poorer than that of Niseko in that there was almost no powder since we were there at the very end of winter.
The 3 days spent there also got us more confidence in our snowboarding ability and pinpoint some of the issues we had. Now I dare to take the drag lifts and chairlifts, albeit still with the risk of falling when I get off, and she now needs to work out more to get a better sense of balance, with maybe a greater focus on side lunges and forward lunges.
But ultimately, with the private classes, we are now capable of doing turns so we won't need classes anymore, saving us a ton of money in future snowboarding trips.
Speaking of saving money, we also did what we had done for the Czech/Austria trip - get a service apartment and cook most of our meals. In fact, most of our lunches were rye bread sandwiches, the most common sort of bread in their supermarkets, with ham and cheese (and pepper provided probably by previous tenants).
On a side note, pure rye bread is bloody coarse. No wonder almost all rye breads I've seen before this were mixed with wheat flour, usually to the point where you can't tell the difference in taste between regular wheat bread and those rye breads. The main benefit of that bread, however, is that it's higher in protein and lower in calories.
Main lesson I find here is that life in Finland must have been so harsh before the Industrial Revolution. With the really cold winters in Lapland (it can go as low as below -50 degrees C), and the lower energy values of the food available here before the advent of oil, like this rye bread, even the animals they could hunt or herd couldn't have been particularly fat. Heck, the reindeers adapted by eating lichens, which tells you something.
Funny thing about this trip is that the initial focus was Santa Claus, but that took the absolute least amount of time. We basically said hi, had a few words, took a few photos, and out we went. The rest of the time was spent on shopping, chilling in the apartment, and 3 days of snowboarding.
It is really my intention to keep as much of my trips focused on snowboarding as I can, and Santa really didn't need much time.
Been playing a lot of LifeAfter lately. Really fun game, mostly short enough to require little time, with just a few requiring more uninterrupted time.
Passed my IPPT yesterday by 12 seconds. When I got stuck at 29 sit-ups, I thought I was screwed since it shortened the max amount of time I had for the 2.4km run to 14mins and 20 seconds.
My expectation for the run was 15 and a half minutes.
Somehow managed to get it done in 14mins and 8 seconds. Phew! The annoyingly long safety brief was so annoying I really didn't want to return for a retest.
