Cardio Dance Videos Part 2-1

Yay! More videos of me flailing hopelessly around!

Video recording date: 27 July 2007

Track 1 & 2:
Warmup (Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind (Tracy Does Paris Remix))
BodyJam 39 Isolations (PCD - Buttons)



I contemplated for a while whether it would be wise to post this video full of bloopers, but I hope the boringness of watching me warmup should make you sleep before you see them. As a bonus, there's the isolations track from BodyJam 39 - one of my all time favourites! I think I did that one pretty well. At least, better than her. But it doesn't excuse the mistake I made near the end. More proof that instructors are error-bound humans too!

Track 4: Hi/Lo (Cascada - Ready for Love)



This choreography is a hybrid of "Miracle" from BodyAttack 50 and "Everytime We Touch" from BodyAttack 54, both from Cascada. So it was only fitting that I used one of their songs too. Interestingly, most of their songs are set to the same beats and structure...

That's all for today! Hang around for more dance-based videos. I'm really busy at work, and the Deathly Hallows is not making it any faster! I finished the book yesterday, and I agree that Rowling kept the best for last.

RM599 Brick

If my new phone says "Low Battery", you had better believe it. During lunch I got the notification and 5 seconds later it shut itself down and refused to start, even though I plugged it into my laptop's USB port. I'm not even sure if it IS charging at all! I'll have to wait till I get home for a proper AC supply charge.

Motivations of A Group Fitness Instructor

The most popular question I'm asked is, "Why did you become a fitness instructor?" For a guy who lingered around during Pendidikan Jasmani and showed no disposition towards exercise, this has been a 900-degree turn.

However, for those who know me well, this doesn't seem like a wrong step at all. I have always stated my ambition to be a lecturer one day, and this is a logical stepping stone. With my current job I don't have much opportunity to teach, but as an instructor I get to do what I love (though in a different subject matter).

On whether I might one day drop everything and become a full time instructor, I highly doubt that. The instructor pool is becoming saturated, and it'll be unlikely one can teach enough classes per week to live comfortably. But it's my safety net, something I *could* do if all computers died tomorrow night in a worldwide EMP attack by overzealous aliens.

Perhaps people won't be too keen on BodyStep in such trying time but I hope the aliens might want to stay healthy while dominating Earth.

Maha Sanghikadana 2007

Last Sunday I helped out at the 17th National Maha Sanghikadana at the Che Hoon Kor Moral Uplifting Society building. It's an annual event that brings together hundreds of monks and nuns for a lunch dana (offering).

When all was still quiet...

I arrived before 8am even though the actual lunch started closer to 11am. Lots of waiting and briefing. A lot of students from Penang Free School came - there seems to be an endless source of young helpers from that school!

Going through the things to do

By 9am the crowd started coming in, but after the briefings all we could do was sit around and wait...

Jastin, HM, CK, WK

As the monks start to arrive, the catered food is brought out. They are arranged into little plates and spread out on the long tables...

Devotees waiting while a human chain places out the food

Here's a look at the vegetarian dishes served this year. They are quite tasty, but I don't know who's the caterer who cooked all this. There's always leftovers and at the end of the event after the monks have left, we turn into greedy cretins and swoop up whatever's left. I would have taken some photos of us eating, but my hands were dirty from picking up the food...

Sambal "prawns", curry "fish", cabbage stir, brocolli + cauliflower stir, "fish" fillets, fruit platter, and vege appetizer

We finished at 12pm and I went home to get a good rest. Last weekend was quite a whirlwind and I didn't get enough rest!

Warts and All

Seems I have enough health problems to warrant a new label. But I'll have to be brief. Workload is up to my neck right now.

For those of you gym rats, let me ask you, "Do you wear sandals when taking a shower or changing out of your filthy clothes?" If your answer is no, I recommend making it a yes.

I didn't know any better, and as a result I have an annoying and painful viral wart on my right heel. And somehow it got on my left index finger too. As I know, it spreads by touch so now I am very very careful with where I lay my finger. I've also resorted to wrapping it in plaster before I go to work.

I've been treating it with salicylic acid for months now with varying levels of success. I recently visited a dermatologist who did some probing and digging and it resulted in much less walking pain, but more wallet pain (RM80 for that session!) I even tried some traditional healing (think: drinking burnt paper). ANYTHING to solve this problem. Will blog about it when I have more time.

I could have taken some pics, but the ones on the Internet should suffice to make sure your feet is adequately covered when walking in a shared bathroom (swimming pools included). As for me, I now embody the saying, "Loving me, warts and all".

Day Off

I woke up at 3am with a strong desire to... diarrhea! Same thing at 5am. Now I'm a bit off the mark, and I've already taken the rest of the day off to recuperate.

Orange... Milk?

It was after lunch and I suddenly had a hankering for orange juice. So I went to the convenience store in my company (yes, it's big enough to have it's own mini mart) and got the only box of orange drink left. I've never tried this brand (Goodday) before, but it was the only one around. As I walked back to my cubicle farm I glanced through the ingredients and saw... "Susu Lembu". WTF?

I thought it was just a typo, but it was indeed mixed with diluted milk. The funny thing is, if not for the ingredients list I wouldn't have known it had milk. Sure, it looked milky but it tasted like any other artificial orange juice. I suspect this must be a conspiracy by the company to increase milk usage! Goodday sells pasteurized milk too, after all.

(I wrote this post before I bought my new phone, so no pictures of the offending item.)