2014 Ahoy.

:b

Rules of Coffee

"One kopi o kosong upsize, take away. thx"

PERSONAL RULES OF COFFEE CONSUMPTION
1. Only consume coffee if it preceeds exercise (meaning a RUN or GYM session, not an extended walk)
2. Coffee can only be obtained after a walk exceeding 30 minutes. Wake yourself up.
3. Do not use coffee more than 4 times a week.

So I've been trying out coffee as a stimulant to exercise. Findings so far from taking SAFRA Ya Kun's coffee in the morning, roughly 1 hr after waking (before any meals) are as follows:

-The full effects kick in 15-25 minutes after consumption. FOR ME.
-A second wind occurs at the 1h 45min mark.
-While it does not make my body less tired in the gym after a set, it keeps my willpower strong, which will push me to do more. It's like my mind throwing my body around.
-Excellent for endurance training (distance runs)


That's all so far.


-Zan

Monkey Talk

So I was walking up Mount Faber.

Before entering the canopy-like entrance to the green, upward trek, a new set of signs caught my eye. They provided guidance to dealing with monkeys. One instruction, in particular, was worth significant attention and subsequent over-thinking: "DO NOT CARRY PLASTIC BAGS".

This must have resulted from previous occasions of monkey thievery on the bright, hanging plastic bags of innocent nature-lovers. I wondered what the first time must have been like.
A curious ape must have ventured enough to grab a bag at some point, in lack of visible food items and the presence of a desperately hungry belly. (Or it might have smelt something in the bag, but whatever.)

Grabbing the bag, finding foodstuff, and eating it would encourage this monkey to do the same the next time he/she/it saw a plastic bag. If it were a particularly communal monkey, which is generally the case if you have a family of your species to help feed, it may have communicated to less daring apes that going for the bag is a good idea!

And now I begin over-thinking.

I entertained the thought that the monkeys may have some sort of language between each other, an oo-oo or aa-aa that would make sense only to them. Some kind of verbal structure, within which each unit (like a word or letter) meant something.

But what if that were not the case? what if verbal sounds were just that - meaningless sounds?
How then, would a precise message be conveyed? Telepathy?
Then my imagination kicked in. What if monkeys instead conveyed certain states of emotion to each other that LED to the receiver doing what the communicator wanted the receiver to do? Lets say Thing A wants Thing B to do Action X. Thing A makes a sound that causes Thing B to be in a particular psychological/physical state that leads to the performing of Action X.

In our context of the monkeys and plastic bags, it would be something like..
Monkey George finds out that raiding plastic bags can be awesome source of food. No monkeys in his tribe before him have done so. He wants others to do so. (Because sharing is caring.) George, Monkey Bubbles and Monkey Kong watch from the trees as an innocent auntie dawdles along with two plastic bags. Bubbles and Kong see no visible food, and so do not wish to bother the innocent auntie. George makes some sort of sound conveying the mind state 'suspicion' and 'curiousity'. (maybe it would sound like a questioning "ooo...?" to humans. haha i dunno) Bubbles and Kong may not know it, but hearing this sound makes them wonder what lies within innocent auntie's innocent bags. And they go pester this poor woman.

Come to think of it, even we do such things - implanting certain states of emotion with verbal sounds. The simplest example I can conceive is the war cry. It is, more than anything else, a sound. a sound that ignites excitement and physical tension and vigour in the minds and bodies of others.

I didn't go much further after that, just branched off a little into the implications for sea creatures and things that may be isolated from each other in communication.

My main point is - HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE IF IT WERE INDEED THE CASE? I do think it is totally the case though. But bah what do I know.

ciao



-Zan


 PS: I find that one can say Thought moves like a bolt of lightning. Not in terms of the speed, but moreso of the shape / action. It bolts in one direction (the main thought), briefly stimulating other branches in this process, which bolt (albeit slightly more weakly) in their own directions (secondary / tertiary thoughts).
If the strength of the secondary thoughts was not weakened, and the mind branched infinitely outward into increasingly divergent directions, I would liken this to a fractal-like mind. But I think such a state would be one of insanity / genius, or of a fellow drugged by something that prevented the weakening of secondary synapses from a primary 'bolt' of thought.

Reflections on Thinnest Cookies Ever

Just recording some knowledge for further use.

Made cookies with a new recipe this time, just for experimentation.

The cookies were SUPER flat, SUPER wrinkly, and super chewy.
They turned out like little puddles, much like so.

OVEN OCCURRENCES:
This time, without the chilling, the batter balls melted way faster.

Stage one: Ballz
Stage two: Ice cream tops
Stage three: Cookie-like structures


At this point, little mini bubbles appeared on the cookie surfaces.
One by one, wrinkles started to deflate into the cookie, from the outer rim to the centre. This brings us to

Stage four: Cookie Puddles

Soon after, (9-10 minutes at this point) I removed them and left them to cool for ~ 2 minutes.
Then cool on the racks for ? minutes (dependent on my patience).

And NOM.

Again - SUPER CHEWY, SUPER THIN (and super oily, actually).

I can't wait to see how they turn out after an overnight rest.
Note: This is not a recipe, this is simply a record for my information and future baking expeditions.
ciao


-Zan

Week 1 Review

Yo wsap

-Paleo: Going well so far, only broken today, when I had the spinach wrap at Starbucks. Should phase out cheat-day in a couple of weeks.

-Airborne: Not much to romanticise during training. I think I should revise the resolution to "Romanticise the air-borne experience as much as possible."

-Exercise: Gymming on the weekends is fine, but not enough running. Not as free and easy in camp now.

-IF is goin' good.

-Haven't drafted a letter for CDA yet. Will start by reading the last letter from them..

-Got my documents photocopied and stamped at Nanyang, haven't scanned them into one doc yet. Chop chop.


I tried making a sweet potato casserole yesterday, based on some tweaking of the recipe vic left lying around. It turned out good! I'd say I needed to roast the sweet Ps for longer before grating them into the dish. Just to get the flavour out. I'm thinking I'll just roast, peel and mash the next time. As for the topping, I learned afterward that some really hardcore whipping is required for the meringue top. I didn't have enough patience then, but the topping ended up nice and crunchy anyway, with the egg whites and walnuts.

That's all fo now.
Relatively early book-in. On a SUNDAY. Maannn.... I need to make the pain of trainee deal feel lower than the joy of man-mode. Let it come soon.


-Zan

And so marks the end of triplet dates

MAN, the second barbecue of the month is doing a number on my guts. And brain. These last minutes of 2012 are being spent in groggy digestion.

The number and proximity of recent family pig-outs has been ridiculous.
-The entire Bali trip
-Pre-Christmas BBQ
-Christmas
-New years BBQ!
Coming soon: CNY!

Here goes 2013's resolution list. I realised I missed one out for the start of 2012. Ah well.

RESOLUTIONS (want-to-do):
-Totally romanticise the Airborne course experience as it happens
-Maintain a weekly minimum of three days of exercise per week throughout 2013. (A 'day-of-exercise' = no less than a gym session / a minimum of 6km running.)
(3 minutes left!)
(Happy new year!)
-Slowly transition to paleo
-65 / 9% by June (Yay crypticism!)
-Maintain and record a steady 7-8 hour IF window throughout the year.
-Spending way less time doing NOTHING (aka youtube, music and random shit) in front of the computer, replacing it with outside activity.
-Have a regular conversation with my grandparents, via letter or other means. There's no excuse.

-Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield

-Not worrying about striking a balance between staying academically focused vs. socially active in Uni.

TO-DO LIST (must-do):
-Prepare them application documents for when it's time to send em in.
-Complete BAC!
-Pass TP!
-Scan documents for the UoW application
 
HIGHLIGHTS (gonna-happens)
-211 BAC
-TP

-XSL
-ORD!!!
-U
-Possibly my first Christmas outside Singapore and without family / relatives. Oh my.


kthxbaiz


-Zan

The other face of Hope

Just looking hurts.

-Zan