The year that is 2006

Again, the end of 2006 has come, and of course I'm in one of those reflective moods again. This blog is the perfect medium to reflect on my thoughts, so I'll write what's happened to me during this year.

2006 for me was all about goal setting. It was about getting out of my comfort zone and doing something totally different. After last year's successes with meeting some predefined goals, I decided to set a few extra special goals which, if you told me a year ago that I was going to achieve them, I probably would have laughed at you in disbelief.

But I did achieve them and I'll elaborate on what they were.

Since the beginning of this year I haven't been on a holiday for five years. It was about time that I went travelling to see more of the world, get to know more about myself and become more independent. In March and April I went on a 3 week trip around Malaysia and Singapore which turned out to be a great time. It was a well deserved break from the humdrum of cutting code. It was also a chance to free myself from my piano responsibilities at church. There was a five Sunday absence. The church folk were definitely suffering! Normally I'd feel guilty about not attending because there is no one in church to replace me to play the piano. However going on holiday only made me more keen to skip church whenever something comes up, like running events that were set on Sundays. Anyway, the holiday was a real life experience. Since going on holiday, I'm trying to make more of an effort to go to other overseas destinations and/or getting around to planning my OE someday.

Self improvement ranks very highly on my list, and 2006 saw the birth of the Orion Health Toastmasters club. I think that is one of the best things I have decided to involve myself in, as it is designed to improve public speaking, confidence and leadership, essential life skills for everyone! And I've noticed a personal change. During meetings, I'm more open to dialogue and I am more extroverted. I laugh a lot more, and my public speaking has improved. This wasn't at all possible without joining the club, and the supportive environment within the club. I will still support the club into the next year and the future...until I finish with the company.

My brother and I started up in property investment. Immediately after getting back from holiday I got introduced to a wild and crazy scheme that will make me rich very quickly. Well not exactly very quickly, but hopefully in the long term it will make me rich! We purchased an apartment, and have received steady rental payments since. This wasn't possible without the help of our parents who used their house as equity to finance the mortgage. Next year, we will take it one step further and decide on investing in other areas. It's something that I should take a keen interest in.

The final goal would be the most significant and the one I am most proud of achieving. Last year I started running. I started out small by doing various fun runs. This year took a more serious turn. I decided to do the Auckland Marathon, which was a massive undertaking! It was four months of hard training and was an example of self sacrifice and denial from certain things that I normally do or help myself to. I even had to forego things like weight training and dancing, which I'd normally be doing if I wasn't running. Running is a solitary sport, unless you belong to a jogging club. I spent most of my mornings and evenings quietly pounding the pavements in earnest, getting my fitness levels to a point where I was confident of finishing 42.195 km. And on race day, I started slowly, had a strong middle, and held on right to the end where it mattered the most. 4 hours 17 minutes and 4 seconds later I crossed the finish line a winner.

Goal setting, like the four above, was the theme for this year. Other things that happened/I have done are:

I finally got my Sun Certified Web Component Developer certification after much procrastination. I sat the exam two days before the Auckland Marathon, which caused me no end of stress, especially when scheduled a couple of days before a major event. So if I decide to do another certification, make sure to not schedule it during an intensive time.

Expanded my piano repertoire to pieces that I've always wanted to play, but was too afraid to learn. This involved more hours in front of the keys, but the effort was worth it. Still not up to performance level, but more or less have the notes under my hand so to speak.

I took part in more running events, as build up to the marathon. I did a half marathon, which was real fun, and an off road race along tracks, forest, and sand. Both events come highly recommended, and was great preparation. I'll definitely do those next year.

Through serendipity, I have moved to a new team within the company. I have finally got rid of the old product code that I've been maintaining for most of the year. It means I get to work on new stuff and work with different people, which is always a refreshing change. I'm now part of a new and upcoming group that will do custom work and also streamline all implementation processes by integrating different products into a solution before deploying to the customer. By doing this, it means that implementation won't have to re-invent the wheel all the time, saving costs and earning money in the process. Good times ahead for the company? This year wasn't a great year for the company as we have put in measures to cut costs through restructuring and freezes. Good times ahead for me? Perhaps; before that I was always grumpy with having to maintain old code or attend to various support requests. I was definitely not enjoying it, so it may be just the thing I need to stay working at my company a little longer.

Now to things which I have failed to do for whatever reason:

During the marathon, I haven't been going to the gym as often. This resulted in wasting $45 per month, and at one time I didn't go for two months. Now I've been steadily to make up for my absence, but somehow I have to keep on going even when training for the next marathon.

I didn't manage to gain two or three Java certificates this year. I only gained one, through much procrastination. Next year, I'll be more realistic about my expectations and only try to gain one certification, mostly in part to my company only being able to pay for one each year.

I hardly read many books this year. In fact apart from reading around five last year, I only read a single book that counted as serious mind enriching literature, not including the many marathon books that I borrowed from the library. And I didn't get into new activity, which I promised myself last year. I wanted to get into DIY and cooking, but these have totally fallen off the 2006 radar.

The beginning of 2006 saw a renewed interest in dancing, but since then, my interest in dancing has been fleeting, mostly due to marathon training, and the fact that I haven't found a regular partner to dance with. Not even excellent shows like Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, and the movie Shall We Dance could fire up the Cerocstar inside. On the dance front, it doesn't look good for next year which is very bad, since dancing has made me a happier person. Is this the incentive I need to get back into it?

Again relationships haven't been the focal point for 2006, unfortunately. Because of the activities that I chose to do this year, I didn't find that special lady. I'm not sure whether 2007 will allow me to focus on relationships since there are so many things that I want to do. Cutting back on social activity, e.g. dancing, as well as taking up the lonely sport of marathon running, didn't help with establishing relationships.

So that basically sums up what I've done this year. Overall I've done well in some areas and abysmal in others. Running, travel and self improvement have been good; reading, dancing and relationships have not. Despite the setbacks and disappointments, 2006 has been a good year. I've done some useful and life-changing stuff, my health has definitely improved thanks to marathon running, and work looks like it has taken a turn for the better!

So 2007 will bring many challenges. Right now, my mind is in a jumble deciding what I should really be doing next year, considering what I achieved this year. Should I do this new activity, should I not do that activity? How much time do I need to devote to a particular activity? The remaining days of this year is going to require a serious evaluation of what I want to do next year; hopefully this blog entry is a start to this complicated decision making process. If getting older has taught me something, it has taught me that time is precious and that you should appreciate what you do with it! Apart from trying to continue on with the good work of this year, there will be new and better things that will occupy my time in 2007. As always I will train for marathon events and go to the gym. I would like to get my Sun Certified Java Developer certification, which is going to be a very difficult undertaking. I'll continue practicing the piano as there are so many virtuosic works that I want to learn and get under my belt. And I'd really like to learn new things that I didn't get a chance to do this year, like cooking, DIY, and take part in new activities and sports. And I really want to get back into dancing!

Well I'll leave it there for now. You'll definitely be hearing more from me again in future. I hope that 2006 has made you into the best person you can possibly be, just as it has for me. And I hope that in 2007 you will continue to prosper and be challenged in what you do. Finally I hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Moving Desks

I am finally free from my previous development team. Moving desks sealed the deal. In doing so, I had to transport all my belongs up two floors as I am now elevated to working upstairs.

The upside of working upstairs is that I work with new people and see new faces. The downsides are that it gets very hot during the summer and the kitchen is not as nice as the one downstairs.

A refreshing change since I've always worked downstairs. Best of all I get to work on new things and not have anything to do with the products that I was working on previously.

It may be just the thing I need to stay working at my company a little longer.....

Change in Teams

Wow, this week was a pretty interesting week.

On Monday, my team leader talked to me explaining that after my current tasks have finished, there is absolutely no work scheduled for me. Because of this, the guys at the top wanted me to move to a new team within the company. This new team will streamline all implementation processes by integrating different products into a solution before deploying to the customer. By doing this, it means that implementation won't have to re-invent the wheel all the time, saving costs and earning money in the process.

The reaction? Absolutely stoked! It's about time I shifted teams after being in the same team for two years, and I don't have to maintain the codebase for two dead products, which I've been doing for the past year. From what I can see, there won't be any support issues to deal with, it's new and exciting work, and the work will benefit the company greatly (which brings increased personal satisfaction). Last, but not least, I get to work with different people, so it's all quite refreshing.

Well this week was spent frantically finishing off those remaining development tasks and doing handovers to those poor developers tasked to maintaining the codebase I've been faithfully looking after. I wish them well; it's not a pretty job maintaining stinky product code.

Christmas Party

Our company's christmas party was held last night at Float on the Viaduct. The food was average, but at least it was more spacious, unlike the last two christmas parties where everyone was cramped up like sardines in Santos.

Was an okay night, nothing special really...............

Getting Back Into It

I have been going to the gym regularly now since the marathon finished. I'm still pushing the same weights, but this time I will approach weight training a lot more smarter now.

One thing I noticed from my long absence was my form on some of the exercises was still very poor, such as the lateral raises and the bicep curls. On the lateral raises my shoulder and trapezius muscles would seize up after around 4 repetitions. One of the supervisors suggested that I lock my shoulder blades together, and I noticed that it made lifting the weight easier without my trapezius locking up as quickly. I will have to try this later on!

Also instead of doing just circuit exercises, I will make a point to do some supplementary exercises to work out those favourite body parts. Legs, shoulders, chest, arms, everything really!

I also met Al today, who I haven't seen in the gym for a long time. He does not work at the gym anymore, but he still trains as a member. He was the one that actually got me pushing very hard, and to this day I still train under that policy (well I try to).

Suffering From PMS

I am now going through Post-Marathon Syndrome. It's a complex time, so to speak.

Immediately after the race I felt a sense of euphoria conquering 42.195 km. Then as the pain went through my leg muscles, a thought of "I am not doing that ever again" came over me.

Hours after the race, my body went through a slow transformation. Even though you should eat high-carbohydrate foods to replace all the lost glycogen, I had a weak appetite. My pulse was weaker than normal. And even though I had very little sleep in the hours prior to the race, I could only grab a few hours of sleep after the race as I found sleep to be uncomfortable.

Walking was uncomfortable, especially going up and down stairs. I had an obvious stagger which I tried to hide. If I moved the legs slowly for a prolonged period of time, walking became easier. I found that not moving your legs for a couple of hours tended to bring more discomfort when I tried to walk.

Then the pain started to subside, and the thought of "I am not doing that ever again" turned into "I can't wait for the next marathon!". In fact, I have made a goal to run at most two marathons a year, which is a very good goal. I'm still young and I can fit in a lot of marathons in my life, provided the body stays in shape and I can stay injury free. One day I may be able to run a prestigious marathon, such as Boston or New York.

However, preparing for marathons takes a lot of time and energy. There's a whole lot of other stuff that I want to do as well, so I need to be careful in allocating my time towards certain activities. For example today I was considering whether I should prepare for another Java certification, listing out the pros and cons for each decision. I'm still undecided on whether I will do another certification. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks to see what kind of things I want to do, and what I will end up doing.

It's all part of the PMS, I assure you.

I Did It

Today would have to be the most significant day of my year. I competed in my first marathon, the Auckland Marathon, and finished it in a time of 4 hours 17 minutes. I was planning to do it within 4 hours but I was not too hopeful.

Woke up at 2:30 am to have a breakfast, and get some stuff in order. Around 5:00 am I took the ferry over to Devonport where I waited for over an hour for the race to start.

Finally the race was off. It took around two minutes for me to actually get over the start line, but once I crossed it I took things very slowly. The pack went through Devonport, Takapuna and Northcote along undulating roads. By 10 km I had a time of 64 minutes.

Definitely the highlight of the race was getting to cross the Harbour Bridge. The climb was tough. It wasn't too steep, but it was very long. It was around the 2nd quarter of the race that I started to pick up the pace as I increased my pace on the hills. Around the 20 km mark, I was running just under 2 hours.

Then the pack got smaller and smaller. The third quarter of the course took the runners all the way along the waterfront to St Heliers. The windy conditions along the waterfront made the running very tough and it was around this point that I started to slow down a little. My legs seemed to get heavier and I felt like running through a thick mud. Finally I reached the 31.5 km turnaround point in just over 3 hours.

The final leg back to the city was the toughest. I was definitely hitting the wall and my legs were starting to cramp up. It was here that I had to run intelligently. I was forced to run slower but I tried not to walk, and I was conscious about landing on my feet so that I didn't cramp my legs accidently. I remembered thinking that each step is just one metre closer to the finish line. The distance markers kept coming along, 33, 34, 35, 36 and so on. I gritted my teeth, ignored the pain in my legs and kept on moving. It was the most horrible feeling to be in, but at the same time it was rewarding.

Eventually I got to the 39 km mark at just under 4 hours. I remember picking up the pace. Crowds were willing the runners to go on. There was only 2 km to go! Eventually I reached the 42 km mark, turned the corner with the finish line in sight. I made a final sprint, took out two runners who were obviously in agony, and crossed the finish line with my arms in the air. I felt like a champion.

After the race, I had to participate in a dehydration study. It was obvious that I was dehydrated as I couldn't produce enough spit. When they took my weight, I was actually heavier than when they took my weight the first time. I attribute that to too much eating in the days before the race, and it probably slowed me down a touch.

And I had difficulty walking afterwards as my legs started tightening up. It's a bit better now, but it will take some time to recover from this huge effort.

The feeling of completing the marathon is unlike any other feeling experienced. Only a tiny fraction have completed this and it puts you into that special category of people. I highly recommend it to everyone and I can't wait to start getting back into training for the next one.

Every finishing line becomes the starting line for the next goal. Impossible is nothing.

The Final 24 Hours

The final 24 hours before the marathon seem to be the most trying period of training. It seems difficult to do anything right with thoughts constantly on the race.

I slept in this morning, something I try not to do on Saturdays. But just letting myself sleep in felt really good, and made me think that with all those early Saturday morning long runs that I've been doing for the last four months, I can spoil myself to a couple more hours in bed.

Had a big, high-carbohydrate breakfast, and I will need to have the same on race day. I didn't really do much at home, other than sort out my racing gear for the big day and the energy supplements I will consume whilst on the run.

Throughout the afternoon I surveyed the course, to appreciate how long it really is and how much of a challenge I am going to undertake. The first part of the course is described as "rolling", with many uphills and downhills. The second part is very flat along the waterfront. Somewhere in the middle I get to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge, which should be very exciting. How many times does anyone get to do that? And no, not in a car!

For lunch, another high-carbohydrate meal of Wendy's, and mucked around in Borders just having a peek at some books. After that I decided to head home and rest.

At home I helped myself to three small-ish servings of pasta (and still counting while writing this), rather than one big meal. This is all part of the carbo-loading exercise that I am implementing during these last days. The premise is that the body is only able to convert glucose to glycogen at a certain rate. If the body is bombarded with glucose, it converts a given amount to glycogen and store the rest as fat. Obviously the more glycogen I can store, the better chance of not hitting the wall.

With all the excitement of tomorrow, I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight. The amount of sleep I get, or don't get, won't make me a faster runner on the day.

All the hard work that I've put in over the last four to five months has finally come down to this. I had a single goal: to complete the marathon, and hopefully finish within 4 hours. I received an excellent training programme. I stuck to the programme as best as I could, though there have been times where I have missed a few training runs. I kept in touch with my "coach" and entered a couple of races to a get a feel for the real thing.

And come tomorrow, the entire journey, starting from the moment I set that single goal to the time I cross the finish line, will all be over, and the hard work and the self-sacrifice will have paid off. This is something which I can be truly satisfied with. Only a small fraction of the world's population have participated in marathons. I am just one of them.

Now a Sun Certified Web Component Developer

I finally sat the Sun Certified Web Component Developer exam today and PASSED!

After buying the textbook over a year ago, not studying for a long period of time, getting a voucher from my company, then resolving to myself twice to sit the exam earlier in the year, only to delay it even further until the voucher was about to expire.... I finally got around to sitting the exam.

And the timing of the exam couldn't have been more unfortunate as the marathon is two days away. However that was purely my fault as I procrastinated too much. Sacrificing some of my late nights, weekends and a bit of my running (though the reduced frequency of my training jogs was fortuitous because of the crap weather lately), I bit the bullet and studied for the exam for two weeks. After scoring a so-so mark in the mock exam I was slightly confident of a pass.

It was a difficult exam. But I passed with 75%. Could have done better, but hey, a pass is a pass and that's all you need to get certified!

The textbook that I had purchased (over a year ago!) was tailored to help candidates pass the exam. Though it was a great textbook, it doesn't fully prepare you for the exam and you will have to do a little more outside reading on certain subjects. There were a couple of questions that appeared to fall outside the scope of the book. But if you just want to pass the exam without caring how good you did, then the textbook is all you ever need.

Finally, the ghosts have been laid to rest! And a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. In a few days when the marathon is over, I'll evaluate whether I am able to do another certification.

Reaching Boiling Point

This week was all about emotions and the degree in how they can reach boiling point.

The last week of the marathon proved to be a up and down feeling for me. It's my first marathon, and so far it's the hardest thing I have ever done. Every moment of the day is consumed by thoughts of the race, and it seems difficult to do anything right. I feel that I want to get it over and done with so I can get on with my life, then another feeling of being not ready as I think I haven't done enough running.

Also I am scheduled to sit the Sun Certified Web Component Developer exam tomorrow, and I haven't had the best exam preparation, partly because of its proximity to the marathon. Nevertheless I gathered all my available time this week to study for it, even studying during working hours! Though I'm not confident of doing well, I'm striving first and foremost to pass the exam. The fear of failure once again rears it's head.

To finish it off, it was a hard week at work. How can you work with people who are sarcastic and condescending?

Home Straight

Marathon training is a long and difficult journey. How do I know? Because I've just been through it.

Even though I have trained for four months, it feels like I have trained forever. And during those four months, I wasn't doing anything else apart from pounding the pavements. It takes a hell of a lot out of you! I haven't been to the gym for a month. I gave up alot of my free time, which I could have used to do other things. And when I'm not running I'm usually resting my feet, body and mind, not able to do anything else.

But the pain, the countless miles, the sacrifice and the self-denial did pay off! Otherwise I've just wasted four months of my life having gone no closer to achieving my original goal. I'm now prepared to run the marathon, I've run a half-marathon in a good time and I feel fitter and healthier. And funnily enough I enjoyed every mile of the long journey.

The title Home Straight means that I'm at the last part of a long and difficult journey. The last week before the marathon is going to be a roller-coaster of emotions as I wind up my preparation. For now I'll do a series of shorter and more intense runs, try to stay injury and illness free, and work on my nutrition. All things considered, I think I have what it takes to get to the finish line, ultimately marking the end of a long and difficult journey.

And frankly I cannot wait for it to be over. It means that I can get into activities that I want to do, without needing to think about training, or feeling guilty when I skip a training session. Already I've thought of a list of things that I want to do post marathon. Such as getting back into dancing, reading more, doing another Java certificate, taking up another sport, getting in contact with a few friends, expanding the social circle, etc. These things I couldn't do whilst training for a marathon.

But I did enjoy the journey. And when I undertook this long journey it became clear to me that I enjoyed running immensely. I've found something that I enjoy doing, and something that I will continue to do many times in my life. No matter what place I get in next week's marathon, in the bigger scheme of things I'm already a winner.

Tapering

Just two more weeks till the Auckland Marathon, and I have just finished my last long run, a slow, but still gruelling, 32 km run. I say last because now is the time for decreased training, called tapering, before the big event.

There are no workouts I can do in the last two weeks that will improve race performance. But there are lots of workouts that will hurt my race. In other words, there's very little benefit to the training done in the final days and a very steep downside.

My tapering period will involve decreasing the mileage from previous weeks. Two weeks before a marathon, the mileage will be reduced by 50 percent and then by 50 percent again in the week before the race. For example my total mileage this week was around 80 km. Next week, the total mileage will be 40 km, and the final week's mileage will be 20 km.

So now that I've managed to complete all the long runs up till now, I'm in the frame of mind that I am now sufficiently prepared to run the Auckland Marathon. I've had over four months to prepare, I have done countless long runs over that time, and generally I feel like I've trained forever for this event.

This tapering period will allow me to focus on studying for my exam as well. It's a pity that I have to sit the exam two days before the marathon, so hopefully I can handle training and exam study, like a fleet footed tight-rope walker during her delicate balancing act.

The Half Marathon

This morning I competed in the Waitakere Half Marathon. And I managed to complete it in a time of 1 hour 55 mins (approxiamately). I had hoped to do it comfortably in two hours so I'm pleased with the result, especially competing in a half marathon for the first time.

I enjoyed the event immensely, and will definitely take part in this event in the future. I was very happy with the way I ran; it was an excellent run and today's performance should hold me in good stead for the ultimate test on October 29th.

The best moment was definitely entering the stadium where the finish line was. The feeling of accomplishment surged through me as I did a final sprint around the stadium track. It was great to see the supporters cheering the runners on no matter how fast or slow they were, and hearing the loud music blaring away.

I did start pretty slowly, and saw many people pass in front of me from the outset. Once I got onto Lincoln Rd I started to pick up the pace a little. In the latter stages of the run, once I hit my straps and got into a good rhythm I managed to pass A LOT of runners. This was definitely a good feeling as I know that I won't be last to finish!

Also I was pleased with the way that I attacked the hills. A lot of runners struggle on the uphills, but for some reason I feel that I'm reasonably fast up the hills. I definitely have some sort of running style that helps me negotiate the hills comfortably. Equally so with downhill running; I tend to increase my stride and shuffle quitely down the hill for extra speed without my legs tiring. Most of the time passing other runners was on the hills.

If there was one thing I'm concerned about, it would be my start. I think I started a little too quickly, and probably picked up the pace too early in the run. This will NOT work on Marathon day, so I'll have to come up with a strategy to avoid this from happening again. I felt like I still had gas in the tank after the run, that is, if I didn't do a mad sprint for the finish. Let's see if that is enough to carry me through 42.195 km, come October 29th.

Overall I enjoyed every second of it, and will definitely continue to compete in events like these. The feeling of accomplishment that you experience once you cross the finish line cannot be described.

Final phases

I've been very quite on the blog front these days. I have been mostly busy with marathon training and trying to study for an exam.

The final phases of marathon training have been quite promising. Yesterday I did a 27 km run in 160 mins. Although I was a bit tired and sore afterwards I thought that was an encouraging run. I will follow this up with another long run a fortnight prior to the marathon.

Next week I will compete in the Waitakere Half Marathon. This is purely for simulating the race conditions that I will get on October 29th. I still think I can comfortably do it in 2 hours. Any faster would be great, but I don't think it's a good idea to chase personal bests on this event. As I have a 100% week after the half marathon, I still need a lot of energy to get through that 100% week without feeling burned out.

Another thing that I have to prepare for is my Java exam. Unfortunately I have procrastinated too much on this and must sit this by the end of the month, which is, surprise surprise, marathon time. Because of training demands and other commitments, I'm finding it quite difficult to set aside some quality time for study. I guess I have to take the hit and do whatever I can to prepare for this exam.

And Sickness

During recovery week I had the big misfortune of getting sick. This meant no running at all during my recovery week and my 60% week.

After consultation with my coach, we decided to revert back to my original training schedule before it was modified to push me harder. Instead of a 60% week I will do a 20% week, and instead of an 80% week I will do a 60% week. Very disappointing but when you have a runny nose, sore throat and sore muscles you can't really do much.

Hopefully I don't fall sick again on the day!

Recovery

I have just finished the second phase of my marathon training and am now in a recovery mode.

After consultation with my coach, the third and final cycle has been modified, so that I can take on an increased workload in the weeks before the marathon. This is because I have managed to endure the two consecutive 100% weeks I had before. Despite the increased mileage, I still managed to recover properly and put in some good running efforts during this time.

This does mean less time pushing weights in the gym, which I have been neglecting lately (I can feel myself getting weaker), and more late nights/early mornings doing those long runs. Still I feel I need to keep going to the gym, at least once a week, to do some strengthening exercises for the legs.

Essential Marathon Preparation - Increased Mileage and The Long Run: Part 2

Another 100% week, 8 hours of running and more.

Already before doing the weekend long run I had already run 50 km in 5 hours. The long run was going to be a repeat of last week's colossal effort.

And I started very slowly, so slow that it took 67 minutes to do the first 10 km. I managed to pick the pace up a bit, but felt myself going slower and slower as the miles dragged on.

At the end I managed to haul myself over 32 km in 3 hours 23 mins, an improvement of 1 minute! Really glad that those 100% weeks are over, and now I am in recovery mode for two weeks.

Only 8 more weeks to the Auckland Marathon. Can't hardly wait; hopefully I can do a bit better on the actual event.

Essential Marathon Preparation - Increased Mileage and The Long Run

This week was 100% week, which basically amounts to 8 hours of running, and I came pretty close to that requirement.

In my first two days of the week I had run 3.5 hours, a 14 km distance and a 20 km distance. I felt pretty good after that effort.

This morning I just had to do the long run, the longest run I have ever done so far. A colossal 32 km effort in 3 hours 24 mins. And though the feeling of accomplishing such a feat is great, the after effects are not. I am now having trouble walking normally, and I have very very sore feet and thighs.

I guess the thighs need work (leg presses in the gym) and maybe a change of footwear too? Maybe I should have stretched immediately after the run, but I felt that eating everything in the kitchen and drinking lots of fluid was more important.

I felt that I ran as best as I could, given my current fitness. Hopefully I can improve on this in time for the marathon. My pacing was okay and I didn't take it too fast in the beginning. Though near the end after 2 hours 30 mins, my heart started racing at close to around 170 bpm even though I thought I was going at a very slow pace. Either I was hitting the wall, or bonking, or I wasn't used to the excessive workload.

Still, this was a good experience at how the marathon run might be like. I may run tomorrow, albeit very easily. However next week is another 100% week, so somehow I have to match this effort, or better it.

Off-Road Run at Woodhill

Today I took part in the Leppin Off-Road Run at Woodhill Forest, the third run in the Leppin Off-Road Run series. Simply awesome.

The terrain was off-road, of course. Paths, tracks, sand, forest, twists, turns, grass and lots of mud. Not the usual road running I am accustomed to, so it was a different feeling to run on these surfaces.

At the start of the race, I took the start too fast and felt tired early on. This is one area I have to work on; start slowly and run my own race.

Also I rolled both ankles a few times when my feet landed on the uneven surface. Fortunately it wasn't serious and I managed to keep running at the same pace.

During the race I took a bottle of Powerade and an energy gel, which was very beneficial! I managed to pick up the pace in the latter stages of the race, managing to overtake some racers who passed me earlier on. That's one area that I'm happy with.

Eventually I finished the 13.5 km course in 82 mins and I'm pretty happy with that effort. Also I had lots of energy left in the tank so that is quite encouraging.

So, bring on the Auckland Marathon.

Essential Marathon Preparation - Increased Mileage

This week was 80% week. In other words, a lot of running.

Tuesday I ran 12 km, the next day I ran 15 km, and the very next day I ran 13 km, a total of 40 km in three days. I decided not to go to the gym on Friday since I was buggered. And today I managed to get in 11 km in 62 mins. That's marathon distance already! I suppose it's to make up for those crap weeks before where I didn't run as much as I should have.

Tomorrow, I'll take part in the Leppin Off-Road run, which will be an excellent supplement to my training. My knee is currently sore from this week's increased mileage, but I think I'll take it slowly anyway. I expect to finish within two hours.

The next two weeks will be interesting. There are two consecutive 100% weeks, which will be taxing on the poor body. Definitely no gym sessions for me during that time.

What a shame!

I'm quite disappointed that I didn't do a long run yesterday. The rain, followed by some sun then some more rain, put me off completely. Still all wasn't lost as I went to the gym to do some intense cardio for an hour. Not sure whether it was of any benefit but at least it got the heart pumping, the blood flowing, the legs moving.

Also the reason for the cross-training was to put some pressure of the knee. I fear that I may have developed runners knee as part of my running. It's very disconcerting as it could mean putting off training or, even worse, not being able to run the marathon, let alone run at all.

Next week is my 80% week, which I did miserably last cycle. This better be a good time, dammit!

Also, on the running radar I have decided to enter the Leppin Off-Road run series and the Waitakere half marathon, as preparation for the full marathon on October 29, hopefully. The Off-Road run is next Sunday (day off church, yay), and the half is on October 8th, 3 weeks before the full marathon. I think that is enough time between the two events to recover sufficiently.

Essential Marathon Preparation - The Long Run: Part 8

Well this morning's run was great. I managed to start running at around 7:15 am. That is a very good time to run; it's not that dark and very cool. I planned to run the 22 km course again.

The run was pretty slow-going for the first 30 mins. The legs were a bit sore and uncomfortable and it was only a matter of time before they can fire on all pistons and move into another gear. While I did my best to keep within or just over my 6 mins/km splits, it was in the latter stages of the run that I picked up some speed and managed to run well within my splits.

I stopped for a minute water break in the reserve opposite Marina View school, which will be one of my water stops. Being from a public fountain, the water isn't the best but at least it does the job, i.e. preventing dehydration.

At the end, and what seemed to be a bloody long time, I made it back home in under 2 hours 12 minutes (132 minutes), exactly 6 mins/km. This is fantastic as I know my marathon pace and I can sustain this effort over 22 km. In the next run or so, I'll increase the mileage to 25 km and see how long that takes.

Essential Marathon Preparation - The Long Run: Part 7

This morning, I got up at 6 am and did a 19 km long run. I managed to finish in 111 mins, a 3 minute improvement on the same course a few weeks back. Hopefully it will set me up for longer distances in future.

Something of concern, I should probably refrain from running in the dark, because of all the horrible things that have been happening to people in the news lately. Sometimes I might encounter a drunken idiot along the way. But I find that there isn't much time in the day to schedule these long runs, due to work or other activities. I'll figure something out.

The run went very well. I didn't have any trouble breathing and I kept a good pace and rhythm, keeping within my 6 mins/km splits. However a few hours after the run I'm feeling a little sore in my legs, particularly the thigh area. Might need to do some strecthing, methinks.

Essential Marathon Preparation - The Long Run: Part 6

I have been feeling very slack with regards to running. There have been days where I just did not feel like going out for a run. Perhaps it was because last week I missed three important long run sessions. Yesterday I decided to sleep in. Today I thought I might sleep in but after a lot of trying I managed to pull myself out of my warm bed.

This week was recovery week, so I thought I should just do an hour or so. And once I was 2 mins into the run it felt fantastic to actually get out and finally do it after all that procrastinating, which I seem to be very good in doing.

I managed to run 11 km in 66 minutes, exactly 6 mins/km. I didn't feel any pain in my legs or stomach region and I kept a good rhythm and didn't even need to stop for a walk!

It's also good to note that with the recovery week over this completes my first cycle of training. The next cycle will, of course, be tougher than the first as I brought forward the training intensities of the second cycle a week earlier so I could squeeze in an extra 100% week near the end of the second cycle. This is to make up for the missed long runs earlier last week, which happened to be my 80% week.

Oh well, this will also be a test of how well I can stick to my programme. I also need to find a way to motivate myself to run especially since I find it hard to get up in the mornings to run.

Essential Marathon Preparation - The Long Run: Part 5

Again not one of the best long runs I had. I only managed 16 km in 97 mins, approximately 6 mins/km. The shorter distance was influenced by the bad weather, again. This time it was actually raining but it wasn't heavy to stop me running the full 22 km or longer.

The good news was that I managed to pace myself evenly within 6 mins/km splits, even when going uphill. And I didn't need to walk either. Unfortunately I kept feeling some discomfort in my tummy region and I don't think it's a stitch that runners often experience. I think if I feel this, then I should break into a walk until the pain goes away. Next time, maybe.....

Also my calves are very tight, since I did some calf raises in the gym yesterday. I'll get used to it someday.

Trip to Hamilton

I got a call from James who required my indoor cricketing talents for the Mens 5 Superleague competition. Apparently half the team had pulled out, meaning that if there isn't at least 6 players present, the game cannot go ahead and 8 competition points will be deducted. I said yes to help them out. The catch was that the games were to played in Hamilton.

I got a ride with Glen and his brother, who play for Mens 5. I was a bit nervous at the level of competition in Superleague level, but apparently, as I'll explain later, it was not much different than Monday nights, in fact it was probably easier.

Unfortunately we could only muster 5 players plus 3 outside ringers. This meant that the team will get 8 competition points deducted, but at least the team didn't have to pay a fine that would involve them paying for the other team. That meant that our opposition won by default! Since we drove all the way from Auckland, and not wanting to feel shortchanged, we decided to play a non-serious game with the opposition, which game us license to play around a bit.

We batted first and only scored around 90 runs I think. The very first ball that my partnership faced, I got run out at the keeper's end since the ball bounced so far from the net that it virtually ended up in the keepers gloves! Those nets are very bouncy unlike the ones in St Lukes where the ball virtually drops dead to the ground. That was the only time I got out. Then I played some watchful batting and managed lots of 1's and 2's. Nothing fancy, play it safe. The opposition put up a good bowling effort.

But their batting went to crap. Literally. Instead of playing it safe they decided to go out and slog. In the best of times, this tactic can win matches in quick time. But the risk factor also increases. When I was brought on to bowl some slow offspin, the opposition saw that I could be slogable, and I got hit for a couple of 7's. That was inevitable. But the nets can also be your friend as a couple of my balls bounced off the nets in the back and went to the safe hands of the top-sticks fielder. Another delivery got hit very straight over my head, but the top-sticks fielder took a brilliant jumping catch over his head preventing the ball from going for 7. He later mentioned that the ball went in slow motion, which was amusing since any ball that goes for 7 always goes at a rate of knots. To round up my list of dismissals I bowled someone off a full toss after he charged, misread the huge flight, plays a hook shot while the ball was still above his read and then drops like a stone onto his stumps. Not the prettiest dismissal, but still it was worth -5 runs to the team.

Even though we officially lost the match on default, we still murdered that team. I may even try out for the Superleague competition next year as I had an enjoyable time. Ah that was a great outing.

Essential Marathon Preparation - The Long Run: Part 4

Not one of my best runs I'm afraid. I intended to repeat the same course last week and possibly cut 5 mins of my time. This time I could only do a 19 km run, though my decision not to do the full 22 km run was based on whether it was going to rain. Sure enough it did not rain, even though the clouds were looking very ominous. Bad call.

In the latter half of the run I bought some Powerade from the service station for drinking, with some interesting effects. Although it tasted better than water, I started experiencing something of a cramp in my abdominal region. Initially I thought it was a runners stitch, so I slowed down but the feeling didn't go away. This forced me to run very slowly throughout the course, and it had an effect on my mental state as well. For no reason I'd stop and reduce to a walk and find it very hard to get back to a slow jog.

Eventually I completed the 19 km run in a time of 114 mins, exactly 6 mins/km. Next week I will try and get in 25 km and see how that goes.

So What Have I Done This Year?

So it's been 6 months into 2006, and I thought to myself, what have I done this year? I read one of my past posts and I'll refer to it while writing what I've been doing the past 6 months. Have I done anything useful or is 2006 turning out to be one of those not-so-great years?

For me, I set myself a handful of goals to achieve this year.

And yes I have done the same this year after I was quite surprised at how many goals I achieved in 2005. Unfortunately this year I have only achieved 3 or 4 out of I-cant-remember-how-many.

I hope to further my running next year, and maybe run a half-marathon or marathon soon when I have a few more races under my belt.

Good news on that front. I made a commitment in late May to run the Auckland Marathon in October. So far the training has gone well and I hope to be better off because of it. I also did the Round the Bays run in March, but only improved by 5 seconds from last year!

Orion coincedently gave me a BodyTech gym membership ..... and I hope to continue going to achieve my fitness goals, that is to get fitter, get stronger, build muscle mass and gain weight.

I have reached a goal weight of around 70 kgs, and have already progressed to heavier weights through a strict superslow programme. Unfortunately with marathon training my gym visits are becoming less frequent, around once or twice a week. I can just see myself getting smaller and weaker again. To counteract this, I have started drinking protein shakes, which serves two purposes. The first is to speed up recovery after marathon training, and second is to maintain muscle mass so I won't lose weight drastically during my marathon period.

I have taken up indoor cricket again. I haven't played indoor since 2000 and my friend James decided to get the same team together this year and play in social games every Monday evenings.

Still play every Monday nights with the same group of guys. And we're getting better as the team becomes a better unit. We even made the final, only to lose it in a very tightly contested affair. It was a good experience and there will be many more finals to come for this team.

Unfortunately, I haven't been dancing since April ..... Hopefully I'll start taking it up next year.

This is a bit unfortunate. I got back into dancing at the beginning of the year till March when a friend wanted to learn Ceroc for her wedding dance. This was a chance to get back into it, but since the wedding I have not attended classes at all, and I can't see myself going to dance class with my current commitments. The Cerocstar is not back yet! But watch this space for a comeback!

Mentally, or academically should I say, I've gotten back into reading now, long lost from my days in high school.

Argh, not really great on this one also, I'm afraid. Since the start of the year, I've managed to read zero books. I did get out one book from the library but I abandoned it after 5 pages. It was Lord of the Flies as well, something I should have read in high school. The books I've been reading lately are books on how to run a marathon. Helpful I know, but not the sort of books I set out to read in the first place. Hopefully this will change in the latter half of this year.

I finally earned my Sun Certified Java Programmer certification ..... Now I have started studying for the Web Component Developer certificate. I hope to get this certification next year, as well as other Java certifications. And I hope to stay committed to the task, because it wasn't easy to stay motivated to study, especially when there isn't really a time limit.

Yet again, not going so well. I resolved to do this by March, then got slack. Then I decided on May, and got slack again. Finally I decided for July, and again I got slack. The good news is that Orion is going to pay for it, and now I have a voucher, which expires in October. The bad news is that the Auckland Marathon is at that time, so I have to sit it before October and during a time when training isn't so intense. And again I've been very slack with studying for the exam.

I have managed to learn several new Chopin works and hope to learn many more as well as improve myself.

Yes I've put in some crazy hours in front of the piano. I've outlined a desired repertoire list and chosen some songs that I want to learn. Unfortunately these songs require a lot of virtuosity, so in the meantime I've scaled back the piece difficulty so that I can pick up the technique which is a prerequisite for the more virtuosic works. This has allowed me to expand on my current piano repertoire. I've included many Chopin, but have expanded to Schumann, Schubert, Rachmaninov, and *cough cough* Mozart. Unfortunately I don't see myself learning from a teacher as I don't have the time. So I have taken it upon myself to learn by myself which is more difficult.

Financially, I think I'm pretty well off, considering my current situation. Instead of buying my lunches, I've took the time to prepare my lunches which has saved me a ton of money. With the rising cost of petrol, I've managed to spread out my petrol spending to around $120 a month.

I am still bringing lunches, which has saved me a great deal of money. Unfortunately petrol has risen to $1.70, which costs me around $70 each time. Now I'm spending around $150 a month on petrol. I've started out in investing in property, and started a Loss Attributing Qualifying Company (LAQC) to do this. The name of the company is A J Capital, which I share with my brother. I hope that it will be a good move, especially long term, as I start to learn the in's and out's of investment, and get rich in the process. I know it's not a get-rich-quick scheme; it takes a long time and some luck as well. And I got a pay rise too, so I guess I'm financially well off. Woohoo!

I am still attending church, and I still play piano week in week out for the service of the Lord. I imagine that I'll have to hand in my piano service in the forseeable future after having played for nearly 11 years.

Still going to church. The elders kind of reacted negatively to the news that I quit the church band. Not really a part of the church band anymore; I still play for them, but have excused myself from practice, which was great, and still is. Means that I don't waste 2 hours of my day doing something I already know how to do. It frees up my precious time for other pursuits.

Relationships haven't been the focal point for 2005, ..... I'm not sure whether 2006 will allow me to focus on relationships since there are so many things that I want to do. Cutting back on social activity, e.g. Ceroc, also inhibited this as I devoted my energies into other aspects of life.

Sigh this can be quite frustrating as I go through life without a companion. I have cut back so much on social activity, and indulged in activity which can be quite, ahem, detached. Running is predominately a solo effort as I run by myself. I should probably join a club but I can just see the picture clearly: multitudes of elderly people wanting to get a new lease in life by jogging. Indoor cricket is for the boys only. Though I did say that there are so many things that I want to do this year; I just chose the ones which doesn't involve girls!

As always I will train for running events and go to the gym.

Yep, I'm currently training for the Auckland Marathon, but not going to the gym so much to pump weights. Hopefully this will change if my marathon training becomes easier, and when the marathon finishes.

I will continue to work hard and try to gain two or three Java certificates next year.

I'm still struggling trying to prepare for the Web Component Developer exam. I don't think I will go for any other certificates this year, which is a shame since I said earlier that I would.

I'll continue practicing the piano as there are so many Chopin works that I want to learn and get under my belt.

Yeah, as I stated before I'm still doing this. It's going slowly unfortunately, but that's what it's all about really. Slow practice and do it right.

I'd like to read more serious mind enriching literature and learn new things, like cooking, DIY, and take part in new activities and sports.

D'oh, haven't read a single book that qualifies as serious mind enriching literature. And I haven't learnt new things like cooking or DIY. The only new activities that I can say I am attempting is the Auckland Marathon (and that itself is a big undertaking), investing in property and joining the Toastmasters club at work. I think that is one of the best things I have decided to involve myself in, as it is designed to improve public speaking, confidence and leadership, essential life skills for everyone!

I'll also be going on holiday to Malaysia and Singapore, which will definitely be exciting; so far April is the target month. While doing the travel, I'll consider the OE.

Best holiday in a long time. Had a blast in Malaysia and Singapore, and wanted it to be longer. Definitely good to be away from NZ, family and work, and just experience life in a different environment, by myself as well. A real life experience. As for the potential OE, I'm still not sure when that's going to happen, but I reckon I'll probably end up in Europe as I've always wanted to go there.

And then I'll try and get back into dancing, which I must admit has made me a happier person back then. Hopefully I can find some special lady to share my interests next year.

Well that didn't really last long. I think dancing has made me happier, but I really can't fit it in this year. Unless that special lady comes my way, then we could enjoy it together.......

So that sums up what I've done in 6 months. Overall I've done well in some areas and abysmal in others. Running, piano and sports are going well, reading, dancing and relationships are not. There's still 6 months left in this year and hopefully I can use that remaining time to do all the stuff that I set out to do at the start of the year. I've done some useful stuff, and hopefully will continue to do so, in order that 2006 won't turn out to be one of those not-so-great years.

Essential Marathon Preparation - The Long Run: Part 3

This time I embarked on a 22 km run around Massey, Hobsonville and West Harbour, an extension of the course I did last week. This time it took 133 mins, with some walking in between. So if I ever ran the half marathon, I'd expect to complete it within that time. That is around and over 6 mins/km. Hopefully I can cut it down to 120 mins, though not any time soon though.

And I went very slowly. The calves were definitely hurting, and I started fatiguing near the end of the run, forcing me to long bouts of walking. At one time, I was talking to myself to complete the course. "C'mon you can do it, nearly there, just a few hundred more metres", something along those lines.

Put it simply, it was a very hard session. I wonder if I can last 3 hours.

Essential Marathon Preparation: The Long Run - Part 2

I just went on a 16 km run around Massey and West Harbour, the same course that I did last Saturday. This time it took 91 mins, with some walking in between. That is an improvement of 5 minutes. Around the 10km mark, I was doing around 6 mins/km, then the last 6 kms I increased the pace to 5 mins/km, which is quite encouraging. I think the muscles were used to the strain of running that it was able to take on more strain without dramatic fatigue.

And I haven't got sick yet, which is great since I was battling the elements on my last long run. Next Saturday, I'll increase the distance to 20km, slightly shorter than half marathon distance, and see if I can do that in under 2 hours. Now that would be fantastic.

Threads

I found myself on a loose end with Threads today at work. It was just awful struggling my way through Thread concepts, which I should have a solid understanding on. Everything that I learned about Threads were just defenestrated; it was horrible.

My team leader basically had to write the code for me..... definitely not a good look with the performance reviews coming along next week.

Oh well, glad it's Friday. In my spare time, I will resolve to brush up on Thread concepts.

Essential Marathon Preparation: The Long Run

Yesterday I took went on a 16 km run around Massey and West Harbour. It took me 96 mins to do, with bits of walking in between in order to have a swig of water. Overall that is 6 mins/km, which is what I want my marathon pace to be. The next step is to increase the distance slowly week by week, to build the endurance necessary to run 42 km at that marathon pace, and maybe speed up my marathon pace to 5 mins/km.

Near the end of my run, the rain started pouring down. Since I wore my thermals, a t-shirt and a jacket I wasn't totally soaked. However I think I'll have to wear a waterproof jacket instead when running.

I hope that I don't catch a cold from training in cold and wet conditions, reason being that it's a bad idea to train while you are sick, and my throat seems a bit scratchy. Might come down with a sore throat in a couple of days......

I also started buying protein supplements as well. The idea behind this is to boost recovery after exercise so that you can train intensely without wearing yourself down. Exercise damages the body, it is only through recovery that the body gets better and stronger. Overtraining without a sufficient recovery period is also bad for the body.

Mortality and the Hourglass

My next-door neighbour had suffered a tragedy. The eldest daughter, Olivia, suddenly passed away last night at a very young age.

Me being 26 at the time of writing this, passing away at an age very close to mine made me seriously think about my own mortality. I value life dearly and have recently taken personal steps to improve my physical life, to delay my mortality which comes through the process of aging.

A nice metaphor to illustrate this is the hourglass. People are hourglasses. From the moment people are born into the world, their hourglass has only just started pouring their life sand at a constant trickle.

Some people are big hourglasses, some are small. Some people's hourglasses take 90 years to finish, others take only a few minutes. But at the end of the day, the life sands of one's own hourglass will eventually run out, sometimes unexpectedly.

No matter how fit you are, or how strong you are, death is cruel. It can strike anyone, anytime, unexpectedly without warning.

No one is invincible.

Marathon

This morning was my first training session for the Auckland Marathon, coming up on October 29th. I did a ~6 km run which took me 37 mins. A shocking time considering I've done 5 km in around 23 mins. However the point was to slowly build endurance through long slow runs, which will help me last the 42 km distance.

I had a training programme devisied by the amazing Wayne Oxenham of Orion Health. Basically he stressed that I start slowly, then each subsequent week I put in a little more effort. Once my effort reaches a peak I taper off my effort. This is what is called a recovery period, which is critical to building performance. After recovery I start small again, then put in just a bit more effort until I peak again. The idea is that I should be able to hit my peak more readily and recover quicker from that peak.

After training I went to Kathmandu to buy some Polypropelene clothing. Since winter brings all sorts of rubbish weather, especially in Auckland, I felt that this item will be crucial to my training in the winter period. Basically Polypropelene, or in lay terms Thermal Underwear, will keep me warm whilst running in cold weather. It will also keep me dry if I happen to be caught in a rain storm. Well I'm not exactly sure how dry but obviously I'll have to wear some sort of light waterproof jacket on top!

NZ Music Month

May 2006 was NZ Music month. This was the month where a lot of New Zealanders can appreciate homegrown music and when the New Zealand music industry heavily promotes NZ artists, bands and their material through various media.

Throughout NZ Music month, Sky City Auckland acted as a venue where various NZ bands can perform live to the public for free. Lots of acts, from Katchafire to Nesian Mystik were involved.

One of my favourite NZ bands is Goldenhorse. They are an easy listening group that targets a more mature audience. Their music is an infectious, quirky combination of rock, pop and folk, and contains that unique, yet recognisable, NZ flavour. One of their earliest songs, Golden Dawn and Maybe Tomorrow, contains some very sensitive and beautiful lyrics, which made me a big fan of Goldenhorse. They also write their own songs, which is a testement to their abilities. Here are some lyrics to Golden Dawn and Maybe Tomorrow:

Like the red sunlight, when I wake up, It's streaming through my window shining through my bedroom door, You are the golden dawn and I'm loving and I'm loving you.....

There's a story I know, we all leave and let go, there is nothing to hold us. In a moment of time when the fruit becomes wine, and the thought becomes the memory.....

To conclude NZ Music month, it was fitting that Goldenhorse would get to perform the final act at Sky City. And it was crowded! Luckily myself and a friend managed to get up to the front of the crowd, cold drinks in hand. Goldenhorse performed around 17 songs, including Golden Dawn and Maybe Tomorrow. It was great to see them live and to see the crowd getting into it and being receptive to their performance.

I managed to take some pictures of the gig, which I've attached below. The picture shows the lead vocalist of Goldenhorse, Kirsten Morell.

Internet Explorer Sucks

Okay so I won't go that far to say how much it really sucks, because I still use it, and I haven't really made the big leap to Firefox just yet. But let me tell you why it's caused me a bit of grief lately...........

So I had to investigate why some of our custom error JSP pages weren't displaying properly in our yet-to-be-released app called Soprano Clinical Documentation. When an exception is thrown, instead of showing the entire scary stack trace on the page, a custom error page is shown that displays the error in an easy to read, user-friendly format. Now the good thing is that one of the existing custom error pages was working, so I copied the content of the existing page into the problematic JSP pages. Booyah, it fixed the problem, but why???

After many hours of debugging and a bit of googling, it turns out that IE cannot display custom error pages if the page is less than 512 bytes. All I had to do was to add some cruft to it in order to fill up the page so that it is at least 512 bytes. Now how the hell was anyone supposed to know that???

3 points:

• Make sure your error pages are at least 512 bytes.
• Develop your web apps for both IE and Firefox.
• IE sucks.

Apparently I'm a DJ

Taken while I was on holiday. I didn't know I had mad DJ'ing skillz.

I'm Back

Last week I returned from my 3 week intrepid journey of Malaysia and Singapore. There is only one word I can use to describe it: awesome. I needed the holiday since I haven't had one since finishing study and starting work, around 3 years ago.

The weather was hot of course, the food was excellent, the shopping was cheap, and the places were interesting. Landed in KL, went to Genting, Penang, Singapore and Malacca. Saw many things which I would never see in NZ. Let's get into more detail.......

Touching down at KLIA was the start of an intrepid journey. I collected the luggage, took the KL Ekspres to KL Sentral, and then took a taxi to the hotel. Hotel living is just fab, long showers, big bed, room service, just for me. That was for 4 nights. While there I went around KL, enjoying the efficient and easy-to-use public transport. I went on the city and country tours provided. Once I finished my stay at the hotel I took shelter at my aunt's condo unit in Petaling Jaya. When I wasn't out and about, I was staying there. It was modest, but comfortable.

Saturday on the first week, I went to Genting Highlands, a Vegas type resort in the mountains. The selling point of Genting is the cooler weather 6000 feet up in the hills, unlike the sticky heat at sea level. I gambled at the slots, lost my money, then headed to the theme parks. It was great to go on those thrilling rides.

Monday to Wednesday on the second week, I went to Penang, and stayed at yet another hotel. The road to Penang took 4 hours by coach, I think I slept most of the way there. There I had a good look of the island, from Penang Hill to the beaches, from the temples to the butterfly farm. I also looked at the residential jetties, occupied by folk who share the same surname. Penang is a contrast of rich and poor in a small space. It reminded me that a lot of people are not as fortunate as me.

Thursday to Saturday on the second week, I took another bus ride to Singapore. Going through customs at Malaysia and Singapore was interesting, but easy. Finding accommodation was a challenge but I was fortunate to get cheap lodgings at a budget hotel. I booked a city tour and a tour of Sentosa Island, which I thoroughly recommend to anyone going to Singapore. If you haven't been to Sentosa Island, or Raffles at night, you haven't been to Singapore.

I would describe Singapore as a big shopping mall. There's a shopping mall next to another shopping mall, and there's a shopping mall across the road of another shopping mall, and there's a shopping mall at the next train station. However shopping is generally expensive so I tried not to buy too much.

Monday to Wednesday on the third week, I took yet another bus to Malacca, the hometown of my father and grandfather. There I stayed with my cousin's family. The accommodation was comfortable, but I had cold showers, and my uncle and aunty didn't really speak any English. In fact, my uncle was ailing so I didn't really talk much to him. In Malacca I managed to view most of the historical treasures of the city: Portugese forts, Dutch forts, and churches. I also took a trip up and down the very dirty Malacca river. On Wednesday, I drove to Port Dickson, another town where my grandfather had stayed. There I farewelled my cousin and took the bus to KL via Seremban.

Three days in KL before I returned to NZ, I used the time to buy various items. I checked out mobile phones and computer hardware but in the end I decided not to purchase. The safest bet was clothing, and I managed to buy good quality leather belts, branded t-shirts, jeans, shoes and a denim jacket. Considering what I bought, it would have cost me an arm and a leg in NZ, but only a finger in Malaysia.

Saturday on the third week, it was time to say goodbye. Departure time was 8:35 in the evening. At 4 o-clock I went to KL Sentral and bid farewell to my uncle and two aunts who had come to see me off. The flight checkin only took 5 minutes(!), unlike the long waiting times you must go through at airports. That being done, there was nothing much to do in KL Sentral, so at 4:30 pm I took the KL Ekspres to KLIA to wait for my flight.

What seemed like a minute later, I was back at Auckland. Upon descent, I saw the lush green fields, farm animals, and the Manukau Harbour through the window. Those familiar images, which I've seen time and time again in books and through experience, confirmed that I was finally back in the land of the long white cloud.

On reflection I loved Singapore, and Malaysia was cool too. I wouldn't live there though, mostly because of the general living environment. In Malaysia, salaries are lower (because their cost of living is lower), their driving is suicidal (that's where I got to appreciate bad asian driving), and housing is cramped, small, and less spacious than in NZ. In Singapore, the cost of living is expensive, and it's damn crowded. Things we take for granted everyday such as cars and houses are just so expensive over there. For a car or house, you'd expect to pay three times more than what you'd pay in NZ.

Now I'm back, batteries recharged, back to take on what I've set out this year. A few days later I managed to drag myself to the gym and was surprised that I lost weight after all the binge eating I managed to pull off overseas.

Back to the grind, but that was a well deserved holiday!

Black Cox vs Jamie's Heroes

After Round the Bays, I went to a stag party held at Riverhead forest. The activity on the agenda was Paintball.

Two teams were formed: Jamie's Heroes, headed by the groom Jamie and The Black Cox headed by yours truly.

It seemed that the Black Cox were too strong and too strategically savvy for the wannabe heroes. We formed an impentrable line across the playing field, which the heroes had a hard time trying to bust through the blockade. When we took out each person in the opposition, we would advance up closer to the enemy flag, taking over the position that the opposition had occupied before. It worked very well, and we managed to capture the flag twice, while the heroes somehow managed to break through our blockade to get our flag once.

5 minutes from the end, most of the players on my team had run out of ammo and decided to sit out the game. It was a 7 against 2 game where myself and one of the groomsmen were solidly defending our flag at the base. The funny thing was that the groomsman had no ammo and fired blanks to ward of the opposition. I had about 30 rounds left and backed him up, I had no interest in capturing their flag and held out the heroes until the time ran out. The heroes were on the fringes of our base, but made a feeble attempt to raid it. Who knows, they probably ran out of ammo as well. Maybe I should have just walked to the enemy base and grabbed their flag while they helplessly fired blanks at me. Now that would have been classic.

After the hard game we had a BBQ and drinks. Good times.

Round the Bays 2006

The annual tradition of fun-running that is Round the Bays reared itself today for the 34th time. I got to the start of the line 2 hours prior to the race.

While I waited I saw Gabriel, a supervisor who works at my gym. We exchanged pleasantries and I learned that he resigned from the gym and is leaving the country tomorrow to head back to Brazil.

2 hours later the run started. I had a good start but somehow faded later on. At the end, my unofficial time was something like 40 minutes 40 seconds, although I'll have to wait for the official time to be posted. Even though I improved on last year's time by a matter of seconds, I didn't run the perfect run. I felt that I tired too easily in the latter stages of the run, which is something I'll work on for next year. If only I managed to sustain the effort for longer I would have probably cracked the 40 minute barrier, which was my original goal from the start. Maybe I should alter my training a bit?

Oh well, that's something I'll have to work on later. Running is now something I'll take up semi-seriously in future. If only my poor left ankle is in better shape; I sprained it a fortnight ago and it's still tender when I give it a little stretch.

New present

I have purchased a new digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix S3. This is for my trip overseas to Malaysia and other places next week.

Key features are its compact slim body, 6.0 megapixels shots, nice LCD monitor, and 3X optical zoom. And it only cost me $469

Overall, a very sexy product to have............

Toastmasters

Sometimes I get a little flustered when I have to speak off-the-cuff on topics that I am not familiar with. Sometimes when I prepare a good speech I happen to ruin it on the day because my delivery wasn't good. And often I tend to repeat myself because I catch myself speaking too softly or too incoherently.

Not any longer, because Orion has started its first Toastmasters club!

I went to the first Toastmasters meeting tonight after work, which was held by some Toastmaster members who basically demonstrated what is involed at a Toastmasters meeting. Around 40 employees turned up to listen and observe. What followed was a very impressive display of public speaking, something I wish I was good at doing. Basically everyone who attends has to speak on something, which will slowly encourage you to speak more. It will also teach you to listen carefully and run meetings. Long term you'll develop communication and leadership qualities, which are essential life skills.

One of the challenges that I laid out for this year was to become a better communicator. What better way to achieve this than to become one of Orion's first toastmasters!

Why I'm proud to be a part of Orion

.....Because it got a mention in the NZ Herald on the subject of Trade Me being sold to foreign ownership.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=00015C39-7F0E-1413-BA2683027AF10414

And if the article happens to go offline, here's the full text of the article pasted below for your reading pleasure. I've put the reference to Orion in bold.

From NZ Herald:

The news of Trade Me's staggering $700 million sale to newspaper group Fairfax lingered like a mist as I made by way from bank to barber to post office in central Wellington last week.

Everyone seemed to be talking in bemused tones about the big sell-out. There was lots of talk of new Ferraris and round-the-world trips. But the words were shot through with surprised awe.

Internet companies in New Zealand don't go for that sort of money, people seemed to be thinking. Especially not internet companies run out of scruffy little buildings in Wellington.

From the few conversations I've had with mid-sized internet business owners in the past week, the Trade Me deal has generated a lot of giddy excitement. They've been doing the math, poring over the new figures disclosed in the Fairfax deal, comparing Trade Me's measurables to their own. They're trying to figure out how much their own virtual empire might be worth in light of the deal of the decade.

The reality is that the Trade Me deal is a one-off. No other websites, bar XtraMSN, Stuff and the Herald Online, have nearly the same audience share or revenue-generating potential as Trade Me. It will now take a major strategic blunder by the online auction king to change that.

The Trade Me sale is the epitome of the old saying: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

The media companies would love to have squashed Trade Me on their own terms.

It was Trade Me founder Sam Morgan's certainty that online classified adverts were the future, his demolition of the insipid local arm of eBay and the desire to keep the Trade Me user experience simple, that led Fairfax to his door.

He could always roll off some formidable figures, culled from the Nielsen Netrating figures, to show what a powerful hold Trade Me had on the internet. He viewed would-be competitors with disdain. He's had buy-out offers before, but the numbers were never realistic.

Hopefully Fairfax won't start charging for listings or mess with something that's all but perfect. And while it's always a bit disheartening to see New Zealand companies pass into foreign ownership, I'm less sorry to see Trade Me go than some of the other tech companies put on the block in recent years. The Trade Me sale is sort of like if Stephen Tindall had flicked off his chain of Red Sheds to the Aussies instead of taking The Warehouse public. Trade Me is a national institution, but it's not making the world's smallest GPS chip like Rakon is. It's not putting Kiwi-made software into hospitals around the world like Orion is.

Trade Me took a proven internet concept and made it work in New Zealand - no mean feat. In Morgan's case the whole process took a mere seven years.

It's not with great sadness that I see Trade Me flung into the arms of the media barons. Instead, it's with admiration for the Trade Me shareholders who stuck to their guns and believed in the worth of their venture. They could easily have flicked it off at $100 million or $300 million and our jaws would still have dropped. I think history will show their timing to have been impeccable.

New Team

My development team has underwent a bit of a face lift recently. Starting from last week, the Soprano team has now become the Forms team. This is in response to the new and exciting Soprano 8 architecture.

Basically the different products in the Soprano suite will be replaced with Soprano components, which can be plugged together to form a solution. It's all quite fascinating and I haven't really understood the entire architecture, but they say that this thing is going to earn us heaps of money!

The old Soprano team has split in two, with three developers going to another team to work on another Soprano component, and the other three (myself included) working on Soprano Forms.

Soprano Forms looks to be a new beast altogether. I'll have to upskill myself on new things that I haven't worked with before, things such as XForms, XSLT and heaps of XHTML and JavaScript. Eeep........

But still, it's pretty cool.........Good times for the company ahead, I hope!

I HATE AUCKLAND TRAFFIC

I left work at 5:15 pm hoping to get home early. Just before hitting the main road, the radio reported that there was a big accident on the motorway and that the traffic was backed up all the way to the city. Not wanting to sit in traffic for ages, I decided to take the "scenic route" through the suburbs, which was longer but hopefully the traffic moves faster while everyone else tried the motorways....

Big mistake!! Almost everyone decides to avoid the motorway altogether. The traffic was even worse than on the motorway. Cars were virtually stationary. I didn't get home until 7:15 pm.

Argh, Auckland traffic sucks arse!! Unless you're a boy racer or a P user, you can't negotiate your way through packed Auckland traffic. So if you hear word of a big accident on the motorway, stay where you are, don't even try taking alternative routes, don't even go home!

Calculus Calculus Everywhere

Yesterday I went to the dental hygenist. Apparently I was alerted to A LOT OF BADNESS in my mouth, specifically my teeth, and gums. Behind the teeth was a lot of calculus and what's worse is that it spread all the way under the gums, which cannot be removed by brushing or flossing. Left alone, it leads to gum disease, which leads to your teeth falling out.

I've never been to the hygenist before to have my teeth cleaned, so that explains the badness in my mouth. However my home care has been rather poor. I scantly brush twice a day and I don't take any mouth rinse. My gums are a red colour, which indicates that they are unhealthy, and look like to be receding! They bleed every time I floss or brush hard against the gum.

The whole procedure was rather painful as the hygenist did her thing. She removed most of the calculus, but as I felt a lot of pain and bleed a lot during the procedure she wants me to come back in a fortnight to remove the rest of the calculus and when my gums aren't so tender. Most of the calculus has been removed though.

She advised me to brush for at least four minutes, paying particular attention to the gum line, especially massaging the gums. This will prevent the gums from bleeding too easily or becoming red. She gave me a mouth rinse to use, as well as miniature brushes which are used for those hard-to-reach places that plaque build up in.

From now on I promise to be extra vigilent towards my teeth and gums! I now appreciate the value of proper dental care and will ensure the longevity of my chompers.

Oh the Pain!

This morning I got my wisdom tooth extracted out. Just one, the one on my bottom left. I already had the top left taken out around 4 years ago, but the bottom left didn't come through. So it seems that I'm not going to be eating a hell of a lot today........

Which is pretty bad, since I went on an hour long run very early in the morning and haven't had anything to eat afterwards. I woke up at 5:45 am for this.

At least I have the tooth extracted which I've been meaning to do this year. Unfortunately the dentist needs me to go back next week as I have serious badness on my teeth, something like periodontal disease?? It sounds bad and it looks bad, so I guess I have to take care of my pearly whites more often now!

Learning Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement

I've decided to blog my progress with regards to piano......

Beethoven Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement

This movement I have been meaning to learn for 15 years, after learning the 1st and 2nd movements with relative ease. The third is a difficult beast to learn.

So far, I've taken the piece slowly. I think it's easy to learn the notes, but diffcult to get up to speed in certain places. Changing the melody between the left and right hand is quite difficult as well, especially when playing at speed.

The good thing is that it is quite repetitive in places (arpeggios, melody in different keys), so hopefully that will help the learning.

At the moment I'm working on the melodic section in the middle of the movement where the melody changes hands from right to left. That is the part that keeps tripping me over. Who knows what other trips and traps will be in store......

Slow practice and do it right. Hopefully in a month, I should have this one under my belt, and at last the whole sonata is complete. Woo hoo.

Fitness Goals

Starting from now, I will endeavour to run 5 times a week in order to train for the upcoming Round the Bays. Even though I am fit, I would still like to improve my running times. The time I got in Round the Bays last year was 41 minutes 15 seconds, and I would definitely like to improve on that time.

I can run in the evenings, but there is an opportunity to run during lunchtimes. However, the tempature during that time of day will probably deter me from training, not to mention the sticky muggy weather, which feels like you're running inside water. There's a nice park near work, and there is Mt Eden which has some walking tracks available.

On the other side of running, I am also setting goals for weight training. I'm still doing the superslow exercises, and I think that it is of great benefit. I'm going to do a Body Composition analysis in a few days, which measures the amount of muscle, fat and water inside your body. The aim is to get an initial reading, and improve on those results, preferably by increasing muscle and decreasing fat, then get another reading to verify any improvements.

Currently I do weights 3 times a week, and go for 100% effort. I'm also conscious of my diet too, such as increased carbs and protein through increased food intake.

All very exciting, yes I know. Hopefully I can get the results I want, but also enjoy the journey along the way. There is a saying in sport, if you want to achieve something, such as better fitness, focus less on the results at the end and concentrate on the journey that you are currently undertaking.

Orienteering

Yesterday I participated in Orienteering with the Orion social club. The only time I did Orienteering was when I was a kid in primary school. Not wanting to strain myself, I decided to do the medium course, which was 2.5 km long. It took me 29 minutes to complete the course, and it was the 12th best time. Maybe I should have done the long 4.7 km course instead.

Anyways, it was fun, and the view on top of Mt Eden was fantastic. I am interested to take this up even further, maybe participate in more Orienteering events?

Why am I always at, uh, weddings, and never actually getting married

From Four Weddings and a Funeral. I have reached an age where I'll be going to a lot of weddings and engagement parties. Just like the time when I was around 20; I went to a lot of 21st birthday parties.

Yesterday I went to Glen and Zarah's wedding. It was a lovely time for all. I was rather surprised that Glen only invited James and myself as representives from indoor cricket and high school. Most of the young people there were mostly Zarah's friends, and most of the people from Glen's side were family members and relatives.

Anyways I witnessed the vows, and the exchanging of rings, and the kiss. Then it was off to the reception held in Kumeu. Good food, good wine, funny speeches, lots of talk about cricket with people at my table, and dancing to loud music. Overall I had a good time and I wish Glen and Zarah all the best as a married couple.

In response to the question in the title, it's probably because I'm a bit scruffy. Or it could also be 'cause I haven't met the right girl. Ah, but you see, is that it? Maybe I have met the right girls. Maybe I meet the right girls all the time. Maybe it's me.

A Painful Learning Experience

Over the last week, I had to help an Orion Implementation Consultant fix a problem she was having with one of the products that I look after. Everytime she tried to access the application, an exception was thrown which produced a message "Authorisation Failed. Access Denied".

A bit of background........

One of our important clients is currently in the process of upgrading their IT infrastructure, this also means an upgrade of Concerto from 5.2 to 6.2.3. That was done and she installed Soprano Medical Documents and Soprano Medical Records as well. Uh-oh, it seemed that the install of Concerto 6.2.3 may have broken the Soprano products.

This was brought to my attention the Thursday before last. She showed me the problem, and sure enough it was quite clear that the products failed to work. I checked the code where the exception was thrown, and the code was correctly written but the cause of the problem in this scenario was unknown. After much thinking I could only conclude that the problem was with Concerto, so I advised her that the upgrade from Concerto 5.2 to 6.2.3 was the problem. She took this onboard and approached the Concerto team. For two days she did not get back to me regarding the problem, so I assumed the problem lay with Concerto.

On Monday, the team leader for Concerto emailed back his findings and said that the exception was generated by the Soprano products, so the problem lay with Soprano instead of Concerto. D'oh, back to square one. Without any clue as to how to proceed, I advised her to do a full clean install of both products on the client's site and on a VM used by PSG. Both environments were approximately the same, with the same products versions installed and configurations applied. Strangely enough, the problem still persisted on the client's enviroment, yet the PSG environment worked. This clearly indicated that there was no problem with the compatibility between Concerto 6.2 and the Soprano products.

Wednesday, the Concerto team leader and myself used Fiddler to check the HTTP traffic between Concerto and Soprano. We didn't find anything odd and the Concerto team were unable to offer any insight to the problem. Resigned in defeat, I went back to double check the Concerto configurations between the client and the PSG VM. No differences came up, especially in the security settings.

Thursday, we noticed that the Java VM versions were different. On the PSG VM, the version was 1.3.1_08. On the client site, the version was 1.3.1_16. Based on past experience, discrepencies like that may break products. First of all we tried installing 1.3.1_16 on the PSG VM. This didn't break the product. On the client site, we rolled back to 1.3.1_08. This did not fix the original problem. So it seemed that Java VM versions was not the cause of the problem.

Friday, I went through the Fiddler traces again on the client's enviroment and noticed something very odd. Apparently the session id's assigned to the requests were all different for every request sent to the server. Then I ran Fiddler traces on the PSG VM. Sure enough, the session id's were identical. BINGO. The different session id's were causing the problem. The question was: why are there different session id's for every request?

We figured that the client must have a special security setup with their browser. Maybe the browser was not set to accept cookies, or the security level was too high. We compared browser settings, and they were different; the security setting on the client site was too high. But when we lowered it to be identical to the PSG VM browser, the problem still remained. Finally with all avenues exhausted, I tried typing a different URL for Concerto in the browser address bar.

What followed was a realisation that hit me like a kick to the teeth. Apparently we were all accessing Concerto through the URL: http://localhost/concerto. However the server base for the Soprano products was set to http://servername/concerto. When Concerto sends a request, the server cannot determine where the request came from. It treats the servername and localhost as different machines, even if the servername is the same as the localhost machines. This explains the change in session id's previously. What I typed in the browser address bar to access Concerto was http://servername/concerto. I tried accessing the Soprano products, and voila, the problem was fixed.

After all that pain and futile exercise, the problem was caused by the wrong address in the browser!!!!!!!! So the lesson is: do not use localhost, it is evil!!!!! Use the servername or an ip address instead!

Stag Do

Today I went out to Glen's stag do, which took the entire day. Unlike the usual routine of getting trashed or hiring strippers, the men opted for activity for their pleasure.

The stag do commenced with go-karting. We did two races, but each race was only eight laps, so we felt shortchanged there. Perhaps that is why only six guys turned up to the party, but what can you do? Unfortunately I didn't do so well there, wasn't aggressive enough, but the previous times I did go-karting I got warnings for being too dangerous, so I have toned down my aggression.

Next we went on a ropes course in Woodhill Forest. This is where you are harnessed to metal cables high above ground, and negotiating obstacles while suspended in the air. Examples include rope bridges, swinging bridges, log bridges, and flying foxes. The metal cables, which you hook on to via carabiners, are your lifelines, and they are connected between tall trees. It was very gruelling on the hands when you have to pull your body weight, and I think I have come down with rope burn or blisters. They will come into effect the next day. There were eight courses, one more challenging than the rest. Each course took approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Finally we ended at the driving range, where we smacked a bucket of golf balls. We weren't Tiger Woods or Michael Campbell, but we managed to smack the ball passed the 150 metre mark on occassion.

Overall I enjoyed the ropes course the most. Even though there was only six of us, we all had a great time. Next week will be Glen's wedding, and I wish him all the best for the future as a married man.

First message for 2006

Happy New Year! Only 9 days late I know, but better late than never.

Anyway, 9 days into the new year and still haven't knocked off a single goal. Eeep. Well I've been practicing piano heaps, so much so that my forearms are tense, and my hands are about to fall off at the wrists. Hopefully the effort is worth it......

Still haven't got around to studying for my Web Component Developer certificate. Geez, 6 months since I bought the books and they're just lying on my desk collecting dust! God help me get started.......

I wonder if I have too much on my plate. I don't think I have, I probably just need to manage my time better? Or maybe start drinking cans of V?

Anyway, we'll see how it all goes............