Zatlite

Something I always forget about Nullable Types

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:20:00 +0000

int? foo = null;
foo += 123;

So what's wrong with this picture?
Well, if you apply arithmetic operations to a null value, you get a null value in return.
So instead of foo being 123, the value of foo is null.

It's easy to spot in the above example the fact that foo is null. But when you have lots of lines of code, it's easy to lose track of the fact that foo is a nullable type or that it could be null at the point in time you wish to perform calculations on it.

The correct way to perform that calculation is like so:

int? foo = null;
foo = foo.GetValueOrDefault() + 123;

So if you're working with nullable types you gotta keep in mind that null + 1 = null.

Problem with the code at the top is that it compiles fine.
You never know you made the error until you find your values are turning out as null.
Which in some cases will take you a few days to even find out something's not working right.

So always check your variable types. Hover the mouse over or hit period after the variable to check what pops out.

Happy coding!

1 + 1 = 10 ;)
1 + null = null :O

Anger Management. I need help.

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:47:00 +0000

I'm unhappy. I haven't played a single game of badminton for over 2 weeks.
Our favorite place is being renovated and no one wants to play at the other venue.
I've been feeling grouchy the whole week.

When I'm grouchy...
I don't complete my sentences in IM.
I use more colorful language. (pissed instead of angry, fucked up instead of messed up etc ...)
I start replying to every stupid email in my inbox.
Flame wars get started and Trolls get fed.
People having their 'Water cooler' conversations when they're not near a water cooler makes me mad.

My friend says

ur getting cranky in yer old age
u got cabin fever!

Maybe he's right. Or maybe what I really need is a good badminton session.

Oscar was stolen from here

Savvy

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:38:00 +0000

Got a kink in my back from sitting too long at my desk. So I got up to stretch my legs.
I see two guys poring over this screen umm-ing and ahh-ing saying "I think it's frozen"... "I think it's stuck."
I thought he had some performance issues. I always find hardware performance a nagging issue with my own machine so I thought I'd gloat over someone else's misery for a change.

Sadly, the machine was just fine. It had better specs than mine. Crap! Nothing to gloat about.
One glance at the guy's screen tells me he's got a dialog box open which was misplaced off the display area. So all he saw was this program with a grayed out title bar showing his window as inactive. Using your laptop with an external display will do this sometimes.
Simple fix, Alt+SpaceBar, out pops the control box of the missing dialog box.
Choose Move. Press the arrow keys on keyboard until the dialog box is dragged into viewable area.
Another way to fix it would be to open up your computer's display properties and reset to using only one display.

Moral of the story? Experience beats two smart IT guys huddled over a machine. Any day!

When you're faced with a problem, there's no tool more handy than experience.

Ambition

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Pain... dull numbing pain.

My body aches. Shoulders, arm and left ankle. All the muscles below my waist are stiff. I feel tired but refreshed at the same time. I think it is the endorphins kicking in.
This pain is nothing new. I feel this way after every serious tournament. It is a good pain if I won and it adds to my misery if I lost. What do I feel today? Can't say it is bad or that it is overly good. Just a 2 hour training session. Yeah training... if you know me, you know how much I hate training.

I'm trying to change that. I've been to two training sessions and today was even better than the one last week. Two. That's not much. Anyone can do that much. To keep going week after week, now that's hard. It takes commitment and dedication. I guess time will tell how I hold up.

So why the sudden change of heart about training? Failure.
I've won and I've lost. I've never been one to hold my ranking however high or low it may be. When I say ranking, don't misunderstand me. I'm not a world class player. I mean it as a rough idea of who you can beat and who can beat you if you were to play in a competition against say club members.
Back to my ranking then. Well, I rank myself, as a player who can beat everyone currently playing badminton with me and also as a player who can get beaten by everyone of those players.
You have to work hard to win against a strong opponent. You don't have to work hard to lose to a weaker opponent and guess what? I don't like working hard.

I've been losing more than I won. My current competition record is a joke. Attribute it to my lack of will, skill, fitness or desire to win. No one wants to lose but some people desire the win more than others. I've never had the burning desire to excel in anything. Never coveted for the top position. Never put myself forward as a leader. Ambition is not something I have in vast quantities.

I lack ambition because I have it too easy. I'm gifted. Not gifted as in super genius, IQ in the hundreds gifted. I'm gifted as in I'm born with a natural ability. An ability to do “well enough”. Everything I do, I do well enough without trying. Other have to work consistently to be where they are at. I'm above average without even trying. So where do I find a desire to work harder? Like I said, through failure. I've failed at things. Lost many tournaments. Failure is nothing new to me. It takes a special catastrophic failure that will make me feel real small to knock me off my high horse.

Losing to a girl many years my junior at singles, in two straight sets with me not even coming close to winning a single set, in a badminton tournament with quite a number of people looking on. Yeah, that fits the description of catastrophic failure for me. Losing is not a bad thing at all, if it lights a fire in my heart. Make me want. Really want the win. So I lost and I waited to play her again. I did last week and won in two sets. How long is this motivation to win going to last? Who knows? Habits are hard to break and I'm a habitually lazy person. In the mean time, I have to do my best to stay in the best shape so that my last win wasn't a one off thing. Ergo the training.

Playing squash with friends in the morning and I still haven't finished watching the movie I was watching so that's it for today. Good night.

July 26, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:01:00 +0000

Sunday...
Nothing interesting happened today.
Played squash in the morning and walked home.
Weather is great today.

I'm reading The Great Gatsby because a friend of mine mentioned reading it.
I really like the expressions used by Fitzgerald. I'm enjoying it slowly one page at a time.

“There was so much to read for one thing and so much fine health to be pulled down out of the young breath-giving air.”

I like that line. I've become jaded in my set routine of work and play that I forget the simple pleasures. Everyday is a good day. It's only how you perceive it that makes things different.

By the way, you can find the book at http://www.gutenberg.org it's a great resource with thousands of out of copyright books.

Making new friends

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:48:00 +0000

It is wonderful! One of my readers accepted my open invitation to play badminton in Suva.

He emailed me last week saying he will be in Suva for one week for work. Could he have a game or two during his stay? So I sent him our badminton schedule and my phone number.

He calls me up this morning, asking if we were playing today? I replied yes, at the Yat Sen Secondary school hall, 7pm to 9pm.

So I picked him up from his apartment in town and we played some games. I really enjoyed today and I even played better than last week. I think it is because I had a spectator. Can't have my readers thinking I suck at this game can I?

Thanks for the game Roger, you're welcome anytime.

Oh and thanks for bringing that tube of Aeroplane feather shuttles.

Image source: borrowed(without asking) from some user's upload at badmintonforum.com

Feather shuttles are out of stock and quite impossible to find at the shops here.

Shoes shopping in practise

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:43:00 +0000

I've been busy this long weekend. Playing badminton and squash, getting my bike well acquainted with some pot-holes, and doing laundry after all the activity. One can only hang out so many sets of shirts and socks before suffering sun stroke. The rest of the day is then spent shirtless lying around in front of the fan, drinking a lot of water to stave off dehydration. Resting, in preparation for the next day.

Yeah, we've been having what some crazy folk would call "Beautiful weather". I'd like to trade them these sunny days for a nice cold and chilly day. I'd even toss in some sweaty clothes and an extra dark sun tan.

Anyhow, what I really want to talk about is my new shoes.

I bought these last week but I've been holding off writing about them because I wanted to try them out a few times first. We found these Ascis shoes at Deoji's in Mark Street, Suva.

My mum took me shopping because she knows me well. I like buying stuff but I don't like going all over the place to find a single item. That Saturday, we went from one end of Suva to the other end, visiting all the shoe shops in between.

We went to Tappoo and to Prouds but all they had were some running shoes and dress shoes. We went to the sports shops but they only had soccer boots and really old tennis shoes that's been on sale forever. We visited the Adidas outlet in Mid-city mall but the only shoe that looks suitable had really hard soles and I didn't think it would suit me well. I didn't think I'd find a suitable pair but my mum being the experienced shopper, kept on looking.

After walking most of the streets in town, and doing a bit of shopping on the way, we reached the other end of town. Deoji's is a pretty big shoes dealer in Fiji but they were at the other end of where we started looking. We were coming down Mark Street after visiting Yon Tong the Chinese shop for some groceries. I had given up on finding the right shoes so I was just concentrating on carrying the shopping when mum saw the shoes in the window and asked me if I wanted to try one more shop.

So we went in. They had a small rack at the back holding sports shoes. All but one of the shoes on display were running shoes. The sales man was helpful in getting me a couple of different sizes of the remaining shoe to try on. I normally wear a size 8½ but this shoe is narrow in the front so I tried a size 9. That was still too tight so I finally settled on a size 9½. I didn't check myself in the full length mirror but I may have looked like Ronald McDonald.

The shoe was on sale for $99.00 that's a huge drop from the marked price of $156.00. The huge drop in price can be fully understood when one looks at the display piece. The white canvas looks dark grey from a distance. It's been sitting on the shelves collecting dust for that long. Yep. Welcome to Fiji :-)

It passes the bend test. That's where you try to touch the toes to the heel to check for flexibility. There's a good arch in the middle that fits my foot's natural arch. So important in a badminton shoe as it helps you stay on your toes and prevents flat-footedness. The soles are nice and soft. That translates to good traction. The heel is a little higher than my old shoe. Making it heavier but also making it easier for me to jump backwards which I do a lot in badminton. The insoles are padded with GEL™. Ok, so I don't know what it is but it's nice and spongy. I had another Ascis pair about 4 shoes back that had the same thing and it was wonderful. That sums up the good.

I've worn them in two intensive badminton sessions and they're still too tight. I pulled the laces to the maximum extension and still feel crushed (I wasn't born with shoes on my feet so yeah I've a pretty wide foot). That shoe gave me a blister on the side of my little toe. I hope it stretches out before I get more blisters.

Post Scriptum: The Ascis socks in the photo costs $10.80 a pair. I bought them to match the shoes. They feel so good.

Changing Phones: A downgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:21:00 +0000

I got my first mobile phone when I started university. My course had some evening classes so I needed it to call for transport after class.

It was a Nokia 3310 model. That phone was quite popular at that time.

I really love that phone. It could live through falls and other maltreatment. Many times, I dropped it from a height and it survived. The covers would come off when dropped from really high places but then snap them back on and it's good as new.

I had it with me for about 6 years and that's like 60 in gadget years.

In that time, I had very little to complain about.

The battery life became shorter lasting about 3 calls per charge in the later years. I don't really care because my mobile's main function is to tell the time not making calls.

About 6 months ago, the keypad started giving me some trouble. I had to press harder for it to respond really slowing down my input.
Last week added yet another wrinkle to its face. The phone's screen went off. I guess it was aging gracefully because even with all its problems and the dead screen, I could still make and receive calls.

I would have kept using it just to see when it would finally give up but my sister walked into the Digicel shop the next day. She checked on the phone prices and the different models for me. She knew I wasn't interested in a fancy phone so she found me a simple one that I would like.

This is my new phone. It's a Samsung SGH-B130S. I've used it for a couple of days now and I think I like it.

Looking at them both, I like the look of the Nokia phone better.

The Nokia keypad gave good solid feedback and was easy to type on. The Samsung's keypad is all crammed together making it hard to type one handed.

The new phone is shorter, thinner, narrower and a great deal lighter.

My new phone has a smaller, lighter battery.

It lasted 5 calls and 2 days on the out of the box charge. No dropped calls. I'm not sure if that's an improvement. I sort of like having my calls dropped. If you read my 25 things post, you'll know why.

My Nokia phone which was a lot more expensive than the new phone had more features.

It had voice dialling. It was cool to try out that feature but I didn't get in the habit of using it.
The new phone doesn't have any games. I'm not going to miss those.
The old phone had a lot of ring tones on it. The new phone pre-loads just one.
The Nokia phone would make lots of noise if it's battery is low. The new phone just dies quietly. The screen stays off as a battery saving feature and there are no blinking lights so I have to make conscious effort to keep it charged.

All in all, my new phone does what it is supposed to. That is display the time.... Oh and making calls too.

Post Scriptum: One thing I'm really going to miss with my old phone is having so many chargers around. We have three at home and there are a couple more at the office. New phone is not as popular. Oh well....

Brief recount of 22nd Feb 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:56:00 +0000

Sunday

Morning
Played badminton in the morning with my mom's group again. Not very challenging.

The rest of the day
Watched DVDs.
Took a nap.
Looked up a blog post written in Burmese about me. Hmm.... Not so bad. Not many people swearing at me. Although I think 34th commenter "Anonymous" wants to shoot me.

Evening
Dinner party at home. An all Burmese affair attended by a physics professor, a doctor and a mobile networks specialist. Nothing fancy. Food is catered via mum's kitchen. Water-cress, chicken, sea prawns, fish and fish cakes.... served fried. Chicken curry. A light soup made from aubergine and mustard leaves. Thai-style papaya salad made with grated green papaya and carrot, tomatoes and chopped green chillies prepared with pounded dried prawn and a twist of lemon.

I loved the papaya salad and so, the long winded explanation of its ingredients.

Party conversations are interesting. I love listening to them tell their stories. Sometimes, two interesting conversations will be going on at the same time and I can't decide which to follow.

Went to sleep early. Monday is badminton day but it may be cancelled. One of the guys got a misaligned disk in the back bone :(

Squash on Tap!

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:40:00 +0000

I've been playing squash the last couple of weekends with a group of people my friend John introduced me to. They are a great bunch. We have a Google group on the web aptly named Squash On Tap. We play squash on Saturday mornings at the Defence Club and when we're done, we sit together for a drink and some conversation.

Most people go for beer while I get myself a soft drink. Most of the people in the group work for foreign governmental organisations. They are people who have been to many countries so conversation is very interesting.

I'm not a great orator so I mostly listen. Today's conversation topics turned to American politics and the world financial crisis. I was out of my depth because I don't understand politics at all and the only economics I know is how much money is currently in my wallet. It was educational and I guess I need to do some reading.

Today is bright and sunny so I took my bicycle there and back. Since I started playing with these guys, my Saturday mornings are a lot more enjoyable. It beats sitting at home and watching DVDs.

Of trials and errors

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:55:00 +0000

Today was an unproductive day. Woke up to a water cut. There was a burst main in the neighbourhood. My squash plans for the day went down the drain. Can't play squash if I can't come home and get a shower.

I didn't get much done in the office either. Spent the day struggling with replacement hard drive for my laptop. I needed to clone my old drive onto my new bigger disk so I wouldn't have to reinstall everything. Cloning disk takes about 2 hours because I had to attach the new drive to an external enclosure.

I did the cloning thing a total of four times today. The first three times, the data was copied successfully but whenever I installed the cloned disk in the machine, windows wouldn't boot up.

I asked all the pc technicians in the building what to do. One told me to clone the drive again. Another guy told me to clear my event logs before cloning the disk. I didn't think it would have helped but I did it.... Of course it didn't work. I tried a different disk cloning utility and that didn't help. Also tried repairing master boot record using recovery console from Windows XP CD with no luck.

The whole time this cloning was going on, I searched the internet for the same problem and tried the suggestions posted there. I tried everything except for the suggestion that the new disk should be installed in the machine as primary drive. I couldn't try that at work because I didn't have a bootable disk cloning CD at work. It was very frustrating to fail again and again after waiting a couple of hours for the disk to copy.

When I got back home, I searched my CD drawer for my utility disk with bootable disk cloning software. I plugged in the new drive into my laptop's hard drive bay and popped the old drive into the external enclosure. I plugged everything in and cloned the disk. The process took about 50 minutes to complete. It was faster because all the disk writing bypassed the USB interface. When it was done, I tried booting from the new drive and it worked! Cleaning up took longer. I had to boot from the utility disk again and repartition my new drive to more sensible proportions. Next on the list was disk defragmentation. My old disk was overstressed and often filled up to the brink. That left it fragmented beyond the help of any defragmenting software. With the extra space in the new disk, Windows could defragment the drive and it is much better now.

If you ever have to clone a laptop hard disk, you should install the new drive in your machine and put the old drive in external enclosure or secondary hard disk bay set as slave.

Okay, that's all I have to share today. I'm going to turn in early because I'm playing squash Saturday morning.

Police bean counters

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:22:00 +0000

Spent the day running around Suva. I needed to get a police clearance report for Fiji work permit application. So I walked to the police offices beside the central police station in town. When I got there, I was told they weren't doing the reports in town any more. They only accept the requests at the police headquarters four miles out of town. I wasted a trip out in the sun and you know how I hate the sun. I had to go back to the office because I didn't have small notes for taxi fare. Some taxi drivers won't change a $50 dollar note.

Back at the office, I worked on my laptop. Needed to upgrade to a bigger disk. My original 40gb disk was full and very fragmented. Cloning the disk and de-fragmenting it took a lot of time. I still haven't got it installed yet because I'm missing a small jumper switch.

I left the office again after lunch. This time to go to the police headquarters. I don't understand why they moved their services out of town. It is very inconvenient. As far as I'm concerned, 4 miles, Centre Point is the middle of nowhere.

When I got there, there was just one lady in front of me so I thought I didn't have to wait long to lodge my application. That was just wishful thinking. The bean counter at the desk was particularly slow at everything he does. He wrote the cheque numbers down very slowly. He printed the words on the receipt one letter at a time. He took about 3 minutes to take the woman's cheque and give her a receipt. The whole time I was there, he kept up a running conversation with the clerk sitting beside him. Sometimes, pausing whatever he was doing to look directly at his colleague so he can pay more attention to the latest gossip. If that's what they do all day, I don't know how they never run out of things to talk about. I don't think I've ever encountered a slower bean counter. The only redeeming qualities about these guys were that they were polite and friendly.

Finally, with the application lodged, I returned to the office. Processing fee for police clearance is $22.50. The taxi fare to 4miles and back from town was $10.50.

Post Scriptum: In other news, I played squash today. Today's players were of a higher level than Tuesday's. I got many good games. Haven't got any sports scheduled for tomorrow. Thinking of playing squash again.

25 things about me

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:12:00 +0000

I am not big on tagging games. Yet here I am writing this post. I guess it is like the Mecca of blogging. Every blogger gets tagged at least once in his life time and sooner or later, ends up writing a post like this. Linus wrote the best one I ever saw in his version.

I blame this post on dawn_1o9 who tagged me in her post. Dawn writes a very frank account of her life on her blog. When I read her writing, I'm amazed at how she can share very personal feelings. I lack that courage to speak out and I guess that is why I am drawn to her writings.

Moving on to talk about me...

I can't sing a note or hold a rhythm. My mum tells me that my voice can't be categorised in any of the seven tones. (Ah well, it sounded funny when she said it in Burmese.)
I don't have a favourite genre of music.
I don't drink.
I don't smoke. I don't like having my air polluted. I can't even stand the smell of strong perfume.
I hate the telephone.
I hate the smell of fish and will spit it right out if I can taste the smell in my food.
I often focus on getting things perfect that I can't complete the task quickly. That's why I can't finish all those RPG games I've tried.
I don't understand Art. I can't draw a straight line and draw like a preschooler.
My handwriting never stay the same. I haven't written a page full in years.
I sit in front of my computer almost all my waking hours and sleep with my computer on my night stand.
I hate conflicts. I believe in the "Live and let live" philosophy.
I've never been in a fist fight.
I don't pay attention to the passage of time. Today, yesterday, last week, last year, they are all the same to me.
I don't wear a watch unless it is absolutely necessary.
I don't know or care about cars.
My favourite mode of transport is the bicycle. The most energy efficient transport known to man.
I like chillies.
I avoid parties like the plague.
I like reading.
I prefer winter over summer.
I hate getting hair cuts. I always ask to have my hair cropped really short so I don't have to go as often.
I don't want to shave my face and luckily I don't need to shave.
I don't talk a lot and there is only a small number of people who can get me talking.
I am not ambitious.
I haven't grown up. I still watch and read cartoons.

Phew! That was a long list. I chose to keep the above unnumbered because the order is insignificant.

As my last act of defiance against this game, I'm tagging no one. So there!

Post Scriptum: Tradition dictates I mention playing badminton today. Today was badminton day and we had great games. Oh and playing squash tomorrow.

Instruction

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:25:00 +0000

As I've mentioned before, I'm no good at following instruction. I've been taught a few things but most of what I know about playing squash, I learned from the Internet. When people are trying to teach me a particular stroke or footwork, the information comes in too fast for me to absorb. I'm just a slow learner.

As I'm not paying for one on one coaching sessions, I think I'm better off reading and watching instructional videos. With those options, I can take my time absorbing the information.

I played squash after work today. The training squad I watched last week was on the courts. They either finished training early or their coach didn't show up. They weren't seriously training when I arrived, so I joined them. I've developed an aversion to serious training.

Spent the last few hours on youtube watching badminton and squash videos. There are some good instructional videos on the Internet and some of them are quite good. High resolution videos at short enough length to keep my interest. The best thing is you can always pause and rewind. Something you can't always do when someone is showing you the technique in person.

So yeah, I've learnt a few things I can try out on the badminton courts tomorrow.

Starting the week

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Monday night is badminton night. Barring natural disaster like cyclones or unnatural disasters like power failures or new year functions, we never miss badminton night.

Today wasn't a good day at work. Problems with my machine revoking all my network permissions. Things got so bad, I couldn't print anything or access my emails at one point.

That doesn't matter. My Mondays really start at 7pm anyway. The weather permitted me to ride my bicycle to badminton. I rushed to get there on time but when I got to the courts, only one guy was there. Next time, I'm not going to kill myself rushing up that hill.

My leg muscles were tight from the bike ride, I had no choice but to do some stretches. I'm usually very lazy with regards to warming up and doing stretches. I think I should start riding to my games every time.

Badminton was very good. In one game, we got 8 points in a row on the first serve. I'm trying out a new stance for receiving serves. Normally, I crouch low at the service line to attack the serve. The thing is, standing at five and a half feet, I don't think there's a need to crouch at the service line. So, I'm testing if standing straight would present a more imposing figure at the net. All in order to force a serve to the back court. I have the leg muscles to push off and jump backwards for a smash. So, I tried it today. I think it is still too early to tell if the change is beneficial or not.

We finished the session around 9:30pm. My dad came to pick me up. My bicycle doesn't have reflectors or lights installed so I don't ride on the roads after dark. We packed my bike into the station wagon. Yeah, it fits. Just barely. Then, we drove home.

So ends my first day of the week. Tomorrow, I have squash to look forward to.

Sunshine is better than rain

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:21:00 +0000

Ride to Yat Sen School. Map via openstreetmap.org

Today, I played badminton from 2pm to 5pm. One good thing about the sunny weather we've been having is that at least it's not raining. That means I can ride my bicycle for transport.

It is very environmentally friendly. You know, save the non-renewable petrol that the car uses... less greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere and all that. I'm environmentally friendly when I can. It is not a hippy thing or something only people in rich countries do. We can all make a difference. I'm sure you will find ways to contribute if you read some of the climate change awareness sites like 1degree.

Ok, back to badminton. It was a good day. Playing for three hours straight means we got many games. It was so hot indoors that when we left, the sides of the courts were all wet. I've that bad habit of just wiping my brows and shaking off the sweat on the side of the court. I should start wearing a wrist band on my left hand too to wipe my face with. I sweat a lot more than everyone else. I don't think it's because I'm unfit. I'm slim and light on my feet. There are other guys in worse shape than me and they don't sweat as much. It's one of life's mysteries I need to solve.

Anyway, we left the courts after 5pm. The ride home wasn't tiring. The distance is not far on a bike. Although I should have done some warming down stretches, I pretended the ride home was my warm-down.

Post Scriptum: Speak of the devil! Just when I typed "at least it's not raining", it started raining.
Badminton tomorrow. Yay!

I hate sunny days

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:50:00 +0000

Woke up to sunlight streaming in through my window. It was around six thirty in the morning and the sun was already quite intense. I didn't feel like getting up so I just sat in bed and watched some Japanese anime.

I've been overdoing it lately with badminton and squash in the evenings and blogging about my day before going to bed. I'm not a natural born writer. It takes me a little longer to put the words down. That means I go to bed later and I haven't gotten used to the new routine yet.

I would have stayed in bed watching anime all day but I had squash this morning so I got up after watching one episode. Breakfast was a big mug of Milo and cookies. I don't do breakfast everyday but I need to keep my energy levels up for squash. After breakfast, I got my things together and headed out on my bicycle.

The ride to the Defence club is not long but it is not all flat terrain. When I got to the club, I was already warmed up. More than warmed up actually. In the heat of the sun, I had already soaked through my shirt.

David and Tony had an early start. They've already had a few games when I got there. Roko, Andrew and Terri, Trevor and the tall bloke came later (yeah, I need to ask his name again). I played some games with Tony, Roko, Trevor and Terri. I'm mentioning all those names here so I don't forget like I did last time.

It was very hot on the courts too. Even though we were out of the sun and with the ceiling fans going all the time, everyone was struggling with the heat. People were dropping rackets and my hands got so sweaty, I almost lost the grip on mine a few times. Today's games were fun. I really wanted to play the guys I lost to last week but they didn't come today.

When we finished, some people sat at the tables for beer and conversation. I don't do either so I watched some good players who came after us. I didn't want to go home straight away. I needed to cool down some before riding my bicycle home in the sun.

The ride home was quick. Most of the way was downhill. Near my home, there's a hilly section. That was a hard climb as it was around noon. That short climb felt as if I was climbing for ten minutes; all the time working against the sun and gravity.

When I got home, I had to cool down again before having a shower. Then I had lunch and slept for the rest of the day. The sun may give reptiles energy to move around, it just does the opposite with me.

I don't know why people like sunny weather or sun bathing. Too much sun makes my eyes hurt and UV rays can cause cancer. I personally prefer cloudy overcast days.

Six stolen hours

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:26:00 +0000

Sunk six waking hours of my life in a fruitless exercise. That of sitting in the passenger seat of a car travelling between Suva and Nadi.

I was rushed out of bed this morning. I had to go to Nadi with my manager to meet some clients. Instead of being ready to travel at 6am, I overslept. We left Suva at around 6:30am.

It is approximately 3 hours drive to get to Nadi. We almost got stranded on the road with an empty fuel tank. Through sheer good fortune, we managed to get to a service station. We must have been running on fumes when we got to the pumps because the fuel indicator flashed its warning a couple of times before that.

The ride was boring. I've been on this road a few times already so the scenery was not interesting. I'm not one to make small talk so conversation died fairly quickly. We listened to the BBC on the radio instead. In some hilly areas, reception was bad so things were very quiet at times. It was hard to stay awake during the trip.

We got to Nadi around half past nine. We met the clients. Had lunch at Lc's in Nadi. We finished our business around 4:30 in the evening.

On the way back, we had company on the road. Some cars leaving Nadi airport were going in the same direction towards Suva. We travelled in a convoy of sorts. Every once in a while, one of the cars would overtake another. It was like a pack of slipstreaming cyclists switching the wind breaker in the lead. We overtook the leading car when we got close to Suva so, I think we won that race.

Reached home around 7:30pm. It was a long and boring trip. I'm glad I don't have to do this kind of thing regularly.

When I got home, mum asked me if I got car sick from all the travelling. I said no so she invited me to play badminton with her group. They were sending off one of their good players with one last game before he had to go back to the Philippines for study. So we played badminton. It was near closing time when we got to the gym so, we got about 2 games each. I enjoyed the games and the chance to shake off the aching pains in my limbs. Sitting in a car for about half a day is not fun.

Post Scriptum: I fell asleep writing this post last night. I was exhausted from the travelling and badminton. So sorry if I kept you waiting for my new post all day :P

Tired

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:23:00 +0000

I'm too tired and sleepy to write today. Arrived home from badminton at around 10:00pm. A good shower, dinner and clean up makes it 11:20pm when I finally sit in front of the computer.

Seriously considered not writing a post today. I have to wake up early tomorrow for a work related trip. 6am is an ungodly hour to be up and about IMO. I also don't want to type up something incoherent in my impaired state. I wrote this post in spite of my concerns because I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I don't get into the habit of writing regularly, I'll get into the habit of procrastinating. I really want to avoid writers block. @Sanjuroku did tell me the cure for writer's block is to lower my standards. So, I'm lowering my standards today.

When I arrived home from work today, I was greeted with bad news. There was no water in the tap. During the day, the PWD (Public Works Department) has been fixing that low pressure problem we'd been experiencing. That's a major inconvenience because I like having a shower to freshen up before leaving home again for badminton. Don't think I'll cancel badminton just because there's no water. I can shower at the gym thank you very much. Ha! The whole of Fiji has to experience a water cut before I cancel badminton. Anyway, the water did come back on after a few minutes but it was very muddy water. I wasn't about to take a mud bath so I did without my usual shower.

I left home at half past six. It is about 25 minutes walk from home to badminton. It was not tiring at the pace I kept but I did get some sweat out of the exercise. I got to the courts early. There was just one other guy there before me. The rest of the group turned up on fiji time (See Badminton on Fiji Time).

When we entered the playing hall, another badminton group was on the courts so we had to wait for them to vacate the courts. Usually, we have the hall all to ourselves but today, the other group felt they needed the extra training. We're planning to have an inter-club competition sometime this month. I'll write more on that, when it happens.

Waiting that team out meant we started our session about 45 minutes late. Today's session was good. We added a new player to our group (new as in he hasn't played with us regularly before). It is interesting to see how people adjust to someone new. My performance today was not the best it could be. I failed to select the right shots and my game suffered. However that maybe, badminton is as always great fun!

I could go on and on about today's games but I can't keep my eyes open to type it up. So sleepy... I'll wrap up here. I'll do a more satisfying post next time, when I'm more alert.

Good night everyone... ZZzzz ZZz zzz.....

To train or not to train...

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:11:00 +0000

That's the question. I have never been good at following direction or drills.

I arrived at the Defence Club today ready for a good work out on the squash courts. However, I was greeted by the sight of a great number of youngsters learning drills on the court. There are two courts at the club and the other court was also in use.

I had time to kill while I wait for a court to become available so I sat and watched the junior squash players at practice. Their coach was having trouble getting them all to go left when he said left and to go right when he called right. It was a bit funny because they were standing in single file facing the coach and when he called out left, some would jump to the left and others jump to the right. The coach then said "No, your left!" and the next time he yelled "Left!", the players who jumped left the first time jumped to the right and the guys who went to the right now hopped left.

That is a common occurrence in a coaching clinic. Some people in a hurry don't know left from right. Some people are confused and some are just blindly following along with the rest of their peers. I have been one of those people so I know.

Later, the trainer asked me to join them for practice. They train on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It doesn't clash with my badminton schedule so I was tempted to say yes. I held back because deep down, I hate training. I'm never comfortable doing repetitive drills. When I attended badminton training, I always managed to mess up one thing or another. If the drill calls for a drop, smash and lob in order, I'd foul up sometimes, smashing when I should be dropping or dropping when I should be lifting.

You will be correct in pointing out that the whole idea of doing drills is to correct those errors. That is true with those who respond well to instruction. Everyone makes mistakes but some people learn and I don't. I'm very bad at the "monkey see, monkey do" game. When a quick sturdy makes a mistake, they go "Hmm, that's not correct, lets fix it next time". When I make a mistake, my brain freezes. My mind drops everything else and fixate on the fact that I made a mistake. This is followed by an involuntary utterance of phrases like "Oops!", "Damn!" and "Oh shit!". In thinking about that mistake, I lose concentration and make more mistakes. It is like a series of dominoes falling one after another. At the end of a training session, what I retain most is the count of the number of times I failed.

All excuses aside, I do need some training to improve my game. I am seriously thinking of attending the training sessions but first I need to change my attitude towards making mistakes.

When the courts finally freed up, I played a few games of squash. Today was not a good day for me. On top of having to wait a long time for a free court, I lost my last double-yellow-dot ball. It flew out the open shutters at the back of the courts, never to be found again. I regret the loss because it was fairly new and each one costs 7 dollars. After that, my backup single-yellow-dot ball broke during play so that killed my fun.

Post Scriptum: I apologise for the disjointed discourse. I tried but couldn't come up with proper flowing paragraphs. You may think of it as my style. Interesting how my brain works isn't it? :D

A good day

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:33:00 +0000

I got this email through the mailing list this morning.

On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 10:06 AM, Arch Nemesis wrote:
Nemesis#2,
didn't realize it but yesterday was our first zero loss performance.
Regards
Arch Nemesis

So, I replied with a short message:

Oh that makes me want to try harder. Today, you won't be so lucky :D

You see, I had always been the big dog in our little pack. That is until Arch Nemesis joined our club a few months back. Since then, I had been losing more games than I won against Arch Nemesis. So I decided I'd do something about it today.

When I got home from work, I went straight to the shower. The AC in the office dries me up and I just wanted to feel refreshed today. Next, I had a good snack. Nothing special, just a pack of boiled noodles but it keeps my energy levels up. I packed my gear and got to the courts early. I was the first person there.

I lost the first game we played. I didn't mind that because my partner in that game wasn't my usual partner.

Next game, I partnered up with my usual partner against Arch Nemesis and Nemesis#2. I had my game plan ready and that was to use Patience (see my post on Patience). My nemeses love to play a fast game. They always try to take advantage of my slower partner. So I asked my partner to slow the shuttle speed at every opportunity.

My game plan is simple. Play a tight game, create our own opportunities and set up smashes for each other. We were surprised when we won that game without much effort.

We switched partners and played the next game with the same result. In every game, I was in control and defeated Arch Nemesis in every set. I was in the zone and was serving very well. My drops were at the right height and depth. My half-smashes kept the opposition on the defensive. Even my defence improved. That had a lot to do with being in the right place and on time. I wasn't worried about covering my partner because I was more confident. I knew the opposition did not have plenty of time to play the smash.

The last game of the night was a bit more challenging. We were down 17-20 against Arch Nemesis and Nemesis#2. The possibility of losing the game crossed my mind but I was not overly concerned. I knew that when people reach game-point, they relax and wait for their opponents to make a mistake (I do that too sometimes). So I just asked my partner to get the serve in. I was determined to not make any mistakes. I was not about to let Arch Nemesis take the last game of the day. Mentally, I was calm like I had been the whole evening. My partner served well and we played the rallies. I did not try to make any quick killing shots. A mistake could have cost us the game. We caught up to 20-20 in a short time. At this point, our opponents knew they were in trouble. They were under pressure at deuce, with us in possession of the serve. There was no possibility for them to wait out our mistakes now because it appeared we weren't making any. My partner and I played consistently and won the final two points in succession. At the end of that match, I was so happy I let out a whoop! It was a perfect end to a great evening of badminton.

Today's performance should reinstate my position as the top dog and I intend to stay at the top. If I play consistently and stick to my game plan, I should do fine. I do not intend to have another horrible day as described in this post: A horrible day

Guard dog

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:42:00 +0000

The following post contains words written in anger and totally one-sided opinions.

Played badminton at 2pm. I did not play the morning session because when I checked my wallet today, I was running low on cash. Badminton is not a cheap hobby and I had blown my budget with the reintroduction of squash into my sports calendar.

Today was a sunny day so I went by bicycle to Yat Sen hall. When I arrived, I was the first one there and the gate to the hall where we usually enter was chained with a padlock. I looked around and found the watchman sitting in the shade about 40 feet from the gate. He had this stereo blasting Hindi music.

The music was really loud but I had confidence in my abilities. You see, I'm known to have the loudest voice at home. I was sure I could shout loud enough to drown out the high decibels of his music. So I give him a really loud "HELLO!!". Drats! No reaction. I let loose with a louder yell and still no reaction. I tried shaking the gate to make a different kind of noise hoping it might get through to no avail. I was getting annoyed with yelling because the people in the houses nearby can hear me making all this noise.

I shouted a few more times getting angrier and angrier with each breath. I was hot and sweaty from the bike ride in the sun. I really wanted to sit in the shade and get off my feet but this fucking deaf watchman was not looking my way! I am sure a few of those HELLOs would have made me champion of those shouting contests the Japanese are famous for and here was this deaf guy sitting in the shade listening to his annoyingly loud music totally ignoring me!

I used some colourful and creative language to vent my anger but it only made me angrier. I'm sure the dude sitting in the shade didn't hear me anyway because I didn't yell those words.

Finally after about 4 minutes of standing around in the sun, the dumb guard happened to look my way. At this point I was all yelled out so I just glared at him and pointed at the locked gate. Every thing he did just made me more angrier and he was dragging his foot walking slowly towards the gate. I was really pissed off. When he got close, I said didn't you hear me yelling? And he didn't say a word. I was beginning to suspect he heard me and just ignored me while I was shouting for him.

I didn't want to say anything any more so I just walked through the gate and ignored him. When the rest of the badminton guys showed up I was still fuming so when they greeted me I didn't say anything. I just sat there trying to calm myself down. Another guy showed up and he asked me what's wrong and I just said "I'm feeling a bit hostile right now".

It took me quite a while to calm down and then I went into the hall to have a good badminton session. On my ride back home, I was climbing up a steep hill and a dog came out of nowhere and started barking at me coming very close to my bike. My usual reaction to these stray dogs is to get angry and to go after them. At that point in time, I think I ran out of anger. I didn't feel anything. It was trying to chase me or scare me and I was just yeah, whatever you dumb dog! I just kept climbing that hill at a steady rate. I guess the dog got bored after getting no reaction from me so it left.

A word to those of you who are afraid of dogs. Don't ever run if a stray dog comes right at you. They would love to chase you and those son-of-a-bitches can run faster than you can. I usually stare them down. If the dog or dogs think you're not scared, they lose confidence and leave you alone. Unless if you're dealing with a mad dog then you may try to get as far away as you can. I've never been bitten but getting shots for dog bite can't be fun.

Anyway, I got home safely on my bicycle. No cars tried to run me over and dogs didn't maul me. Tomorrow, badminton.

Acquaintances

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:57:00 +0000

I went to Defence club this morning. I was supposed to get there at 9AM but I was late so instead of cycling there like I intended, I crammed the bike into the back of our car and hitched a ride with my parents on their way to shopping.

My friend John was there before me so he introduced me to his friends. I met so many people today. I'm by nature, an introvert so I don't usually attend parties or gatherings. I think today, I was introduced to more people than I've ever been introduced to at one time.

This is what I do when I meet new faces. First, I grin like an idiot. Then, I shake their hand. I listen to them say their name or listen to the person introducing us tell me their name. I say my name and or mutter something under my breath like "Nice to meet you". Somewhere between my saying something and letting go of their hand, I forget their name.

Names just don't register with me on the first time. It's not about the names being easy or hard to pronounce either because I once forgot another person named John right after he told me his name. I had to ask him his name again and he said "John!" and looked at me like he couldn't believe I just forgot his name.

I did remember the names of some people I met today. Like Scott, and Matt. The two guys I had a match with. I remember Dave because just before we were introduced, I realized I was forgetting people's names again so I paid extra attention. I remember a lady named Terri because it sounds like the name Terry. I forgot the name of the man she was with. It was either Alex, Andy or something. My mind was fixated on the similarities between the names Terry and Terri. There was a really tall guy I was introduced to but I was too busy watching his cute kid to hear or remember his name. There were more people there but I've forgotten their names too.

When it comes to meeting new people, my brain just switches off. Sometimes, I'd meet someone I know on the street and I'd recall their names about 5 minutes after they'd gone past. It usually takes about two, three meetings for me to remember people's names. I hate having to ask someone their name again when they've just been introduced to me so I usually wait until someone mentions that person's name in conversation. If their names don't come up in conversation again, well, you can forget about that person because I sure have.

Well, I got a bit long winded there. Squash today was good. I still need to get more length out of my shots but overall, it went ok. I rode my bike home and reached home around noon. Looking forward to playing some badminton tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I might get two sessions. One around ten in the morning and one after lunch at 2pm.

Disappointed

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:02:00 +0000

Fiji's rugby sevens team lost to USA.

Via Fiji Times: USA upset Fiji, 15-10

Refer to the post labels for my views.

Squick squack squash!

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:03:00 +0000

Today marks my first squash session for the year 2009.

As I promised yesterday, I went and played squash today. I was supposed to play with a work colleague but he didn't feel like it today. This from the guy who suggested I play squash with him today.

I had already lugged my sports gear from home to work so I wasn't going to go home without having hit a few rounds. So I walked up to the Defence Club to see if I could find someone to play with. I found a whole group of people playing on the courts at the club, so my day wasn't ruined. So yeah, I'm not mad at you SSP.

Today's session was fun. I didn't see the experienced players I usually lost to but there was enough competition to keep me happy. One guy even beat me because I totally underestimated him.

Yeah, I have that bad habit. The first step to solving a problem is to admit you have a problem. See? I'm on my way to fixing it already :D

Other things I need to fix:

Receiving a serve.
I totally suck at this and tend to return weak shots that bounce out into the middle of the court.
Serving Consistently.
I had many shots going out of bounds on my serve today. That is unacceptable.

Well, apart from those two major problems, I played well for a guy who hasn't played in months. I've no games scheduled tomorrow. I guess I'll take a day's break.

For my readers who've never heard of Squash: Squash is a racquets sport played by two players (or four players for doubles) in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball. See Wikipedia.

Post Scriptum: Ok, that was a lame title for a blog post. My creativity well is dry today.