Saturday, May 21, 2011

Early Morning Jog

I decided to wake up early this morning to go for a jog and start the day early as I could not really go back to sleep after waking up around 6am.

The message from Chris Guillebeau keep on playing through my head while I lay in my bed contemplating on getting up.

"Why do you get out of bed in the mornings?"

Here's what he wrote in one of the articles that he emailed to every subscribers. A little motivation for your guys today.


May 19, 2011

Rain Running


Every Sunday morning that I'm in town, I head out for a long run. Two weekends ago at the waterfront, the weather was glorious. The whole city of Portland took up jogging or cycling.

Last weekend at the waterfront, the weather was more to our usual end-of-Spring form... rainy and gloomy. The whole city of Portland stayed indoors.

On the sunny day, joggers and cyclists smiled at each other with a mutual appreciation of our good fortune. The implied message was, "It's good to be alive!"

But on the rainy day, a much smaller crowd of amateur athletes nodded at each other with mutual pride. The implied message was, "Nice job. Glad to see you made it out while other people are sleeping in."

If I don't feel like running one weekend, I go anyway. It's not just out of duty -- nine times out of ten, I'm glad I went. The days I feel bad about my writing aren't the days when I've written poorly. It's the days where I've done everything but write -- those days are killer. If you base your workout schedule on the weather, you'll never build a habit of exercise.

The same is true for writing or any other creative practice: base it on anything outside your control, and good luck getting anything done.

In a creative practice, waiting for "inspiration" is the worst. I follow the Somerset Maugham school of inspiration: "I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp."

It might not be every morning at nine o'clock sharp for you, but the point is that inspiration shows up when you have a deadline to meet. If you don't have a real deadline, better make one up.

***

I always like to hear about other people's goals and projects. One interesting way to find out what motivates someone is to ask:
"Why do you get out of bed in the mornings?"
Sometimes the answer is "school" or "a job," and that's fine -- I don't think everyone should walk away from schools and jobs without a plan. But the obvious follow-up is, what if you didn't have the obligation; what would you get out of bed in the mornings for if it was completely up to you?

I get up to run on Sundays, rain or shine. I'd rather it be shining, but regardless, the shoes are by the door the night before. The other six days of the week, I get up to write. I'm working toward something; I'll put the miles in.

How about you -- why do you get out of bed in the mornings?

Friday, May 20, 2011

Emo

Not really in a fine mood these last few days. I'm not going to let it show and hopefully I will feel alright again. What's wrong? I don't exactly know.

wtf$%^&#$!!@#it

Monday, May 16, 2011

Elmo & Sin Chan

I have always love Sesame Street. Especially Elmo. He's just so adorable and cute. This is what happen if you have children at home and the only way to stop them from fighting with each other is to let them click the TV remote to their heart's content.


I remember when my niece, Lisa and nephew, Ian were just learning how to draw and learn names for things, Elmo was one of the character that I used many times to help them identify stuff like...'nose', 'eyes', 'circle' and so on. I will draw Elmo starting from the neck, circle head and add ears and hairs...etc, and teach it to them so that it's easier to remember when they're drawing it at the same time.

 It look something like this but I swear I'm much better at it then.


I can't really blame the kids for loving Sin Chan so much now that they are older. Look at what they have been exposed to. Sigh~

I have a song sang together with the drawings too. That Elmo drawing will go something like this...'I draw long, circle, eyes, nose, mouth, ear...and hair...Elmo!' It was a bit monotonous but those children have no idea about being sharp or a bit flat and stuff yet right...?

The Sin Chan song was a bit more creative since I got the lyrics from the comic book and I only have to make the whole melody up. It goes 'Ada sebuah bukit, berupa sebiji guli, sebiji kacang muncul di sebelah...buah ceri...buah ceri..Ulat bulu menyalam khabar baik..Jadi lah Sin Chan yang comel...' I hope I got that one right since I don't have the book anymore.

My sister was much better at the drawing stuff compared to me during those time. She will draw something more educational-type and the pictures look nicer every time. Sorry lah budak-budak, Ini ja aunty mampu. hahaha

I tried searching every mall but I still couldn't find the Sesame Street's T-Shirt (with Elmo in it of course) so if anyone of you out there who happen to see one please buy it for me first and we'll discuss about the details offline. Hahaha

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Evening Run

I'm feeling great running this evening and I'm determine to be more discipline in jogging everyday. I've had quite enough of people telling me that I gained some weight or that even though I did join a race events here and there but there's really not much of a difference in my body, etc. Plus, I want to feel more comfortable with my body (currently I'm feeling self-conscious so much, I don't like the feeling) and also as a way of boosting confidence and also there's the need to test just how much I can achieve in the next marathon event that I'm going to join.

3Km run will seems so easy for some people but for me it's a start. I jog for that exact amount of distance this evening without stopping and I'm feeling really happy because I didn't feel tired at all. Like what most people say about running, it's all pretty much depends on psychology. I decided that I'm just going to run happily and not going to think about the tiredness and that's exactly what happen. Wohoo!

Let's see how it goes tomorrow.

Enjoy The Ride



It's a very good reminder for me who likes driving fast every time but apart from that, this also applies in life...sometimes, it's great to just slow down and appreciate your surroundings.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Events Tracking...

Done/ Registered...
Penang MALAKOFF Run, 8Km - 27th March 2011


 Sepang Energizer Night Race, 11Km - 16th April 2011



Larian Perpaduan, 6Km - 08th May 2011



Coming up/ Yet to register...
- Kuala Kangsar Larian Hari Keputeraan Sultan Azlan Shah - 22nd May 2011
- SPCA Penang Charity Run - 29th May 2011
- KOMTAR Tower Run -  12th Jun 201
- Ipoh International Run - 03rd July 2011
- Penang Bridge International Marathon - 20th November 2011