Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Lelong
Who wants my Osprey Ceres 50?
Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 12:17 AM with 0
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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
He Who Has A Student Pass
2 weeks ago, I wasted a good 2 hours haggling with him (You can cancel a policy within 14 days of receiving your policy, I have yet to smell mine). I already considered myself to be kinder than my usual self. So much for coming from the top agency on top of "Always Listening, Always Understanding". He was a mule who not only did not understand, did not listen too. Allan Pease is right (Men do not listen).
It makes no sense, I explained, I justified in every way logical and mathematical. It turned on deaf ears. All he was interested in was to convince me what he is selling is good, despite the number of times I repeated my stand. I don't deny its a good plan. But I love HL milk, why insist I must like Daisy? It must be the commission.
It was not until I smacked him in the face by telling him that he should be customising the plan to my needs/preferences instead of trying to force me to be thinking like him. He finally gave up and counter proposed plan B, insisting we meet up so I could bring my other policies for him to review. He didn't get it that I was giving all sorts of excuses to prevent myself from seeing him another time.
I'll analyse it one last time. This first class hons chap, is just practising what has been taught to him, regurgitating whatever he learnt with engineering precision， its what I call, 死读书，读死书.
Today, almost a month after I first expressed my disinterest in the policy (or him), he reluctantly cancelled it. I found the perfect excuse, my policies were with my agent. With his last breath, he got referals (while scrolling through my mobile, knowing the answers myself, I blatantly asked, want financial planners?) He tried to make another appointment for introducing plan B and C to me because "I needed to think about it". If I need you, I'll look for you. Peer pressure doesn't score points with me. He said I had no empathy, sympathy, whatever. He's right, I'm cold-blooded. Dinnosaurs SHOULD be cold-blooded.Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 1:55 AM with 0
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Pulau Ubin
Being the only gal (again), I didn't in particular look forward to it. I wasn't that I didn't learn my lesson from diving. But it was more tiresome to wait for a gal to join me, so I could do what I wanted. Actually, there was almost another, I was hopeful but alas, the vaccancies were taken.It has never been my favourite activity. It's quite meaningless to climb all the way up so I could get down on a descender. The thrill stales. Period. An afternoon out in the hot sun despatching people feels just so-so. No doubt, you do feel motivated when you see excited faces. You certainly need patience to coax as well. I still have much to learn.
The exciting part of it comes in the design. How a mere few ropes could be configured so its the safest and most secure way to enjoy the activity. How the same few ropes and basic techniques could be configured to save someone.
At a 3-storey height and hanging by a rope with nothing but empty space around you, you think extra long and extra hard when you want to remove anything. Let your imagination run a little wild and you start imagining yourself as a pancake with strawberry syrup on the bare ground.
It's about you, you and your equipment. A wrong step could potentially cause you your life. So, learn to save yourself, very well. Prior to this, I never thought too hard about requiring at least 2 safety backups except that it was correct and had to be done. No, its not that I didn't understand the part about "if one fails, you have another". Add fear to that equation, I finally understood the criticality.
I never thought myself to have a fear of heights but it is only human to fear height. In fact, you should start to worry if someone comes to you, wants to abseil and does not fear height. The fear of falling is more than just real.
The weekend felt like the longest weekend I've spent in a long time. It was a long day which started early in the morning and ended at 11pm on Saturday. I learnt a lot. At the end of 2 days, it certainly feels good to be back on your own bed.
I'm going back to see the "Jay-Chou-look-alike" (which I hardly think so) next weekend. Just hope I don't have to get stuck at a height of 10m again :P
Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 1:52 AM with 0
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Friday, May 12, 2006
I Found A Titan Triggerfish
The Titan Triggerfish (Balistoides viridescens) is the largest of the Triggerfish species and can grow up to 75 cm in length. Their range includes reef areas in the Indo-Pacific region, including Australia, Fiji, Thailand, Indonesia and the Maldives. The fish is not a pelagic species and generally lives in the flat areas of the reef.
Titan triggerfish feed on shellfish, urchins, crustaceans and coral. They are the workers of the reef, often being busy turning over rocks, stirring up the sand and biting off pieces of branching coral. This is why one often sees other smaller fish species around it who feed from the left overs.
The fish can be very aggressive towards divers and snorkellers. Especially during reproduction season it is very territorial and will guard its nest, which it lays in a flat sandy area, vigorously against any intruders. Due to its size and strong teeth it can inflict serious injury. Bites may also be ciguatoxic.
Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 1:42 AM with 3
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Ms Body Perfect
I'm Ms Body Perfect, like real. Not many people have that "correct" postural alignment. It affects the way you do many simple things such as walking, standing, squatting, lying etc and how it causes strain on the rest of your body unnecessarily if you don't do it right.It was exhausting attending a workshop that teaches integrated corrective exercise. You get an insight into the locomotion of the musculoskeletal system and assessments are carried out to discover weight shift ability. Strategies are developed to address postural control and integrity. You are scrutinised for the simplest activities such as walking and the implications behind it. For each exercise, you can't do much more than 5 repetitions without losing form.
There's a story that goes about how a burly man can lift the heaviest weights in the gym but get injured picking up a piece of paper on the floor. The body is just not accustomed to such light weights it does not know how to react.
It comes as a surprise that many of us actually do not know how to recruit our muscles properly and end up using the wrong muscles for the wrong thing. We cause injury to ourselves unknowingly. The body compensates through some other means. And we all know what happens when you use something for a purpose it was not designed for.
