Zatlite

Rolling ankles [what to do while you're doing it]

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Rolled my ankle last night while playing badminton. It always seem to happen when I'm wearing my Asics shoes. It has higher heels than my other pair. The problem is not the shoe it's my footwork that's wrong and I was scrambling after a bad shot.

Anyhow, the ankle rolled side ways and while it was happening I did two things to minimize the injury.
First, I immediately shifted my weight off the foot that tripped.
Next, I let the ankle continue on it's roll adjusting my body to follow along in the direction of the roll.

This has the effect of pitching me side ways and causing me to fall but because I shifted my weight, there's no pressure on the ankle. I already know I'm falling so I'm able to brace myself for it without further injuries.
The only injury I had to deal with is from the beginning of the roll when I accidentally tilted the ankle sideways.

In this way, I am able to go from tripping to a controlled fall/dive to minimize injury and get up in time to retrieve the next shot. There was pain from the initial twist but it's nothing serious and went away after one game.
It's the next day now and I'm not hurt at all.

I've read quite a lot online regarding injury prevention. They talk about using the right shoes and using correct footwork.
I have not come across anything that tells you what to do while you're in the process of injuring yourself.
I'm hoping this post helps everyone keep the hurt to a minimum.

Best of luck.

The shoe doesn't fit.

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:19:00 +0000

When I find people working with the company who can't loop through a for loop on their own without others hand-holding them through, I fear for the health of the company.

I understand there are lots of people who don't "get" the basic constructs of programming. That's understandable. I was in the same class with many of them in uni and they all graduated with the same degree (as far as I know). They managed to get through the compulsory level 1 programming course by hook or by crook.

What I'd expect to happen is the people who found programming tough would find IT jobs that do not require programming and vice versa. There are after all, a wide range of IT professions that do not require coding skills.

So, why didn't this happen in the real world? Why do people accept jobs they can't perform? These Cinderella wannabes should realize the shoe doesn't fit and everyone knows them for the ugly step sisters they are. How did they get hired anyway? May be I've just found the odd case that slipped through the cracks and this is not common at all?
When I see a fish out of water co-worker like this, I try to help a few times. But I always lose hope very quickly. Maybe my expectations are too high.

I just wish these people realize their own limitations and find stuff they're good at instead of burdening the rest of their team with their ineptitude.

End Rant.

Edit: Here's a little venn diagram from the internet that I think would help people.

If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:16:00 +0000

It's happened to most of us. You have a bad day on the courts. None of your shots work or your partner's letting you down. Anger and frustration creep in from somewhere. So much so that you end up slamming changing room doors, throwing your racket or having a big argument on court.

I'd like all of us to be reminded the next time we're about to throw a tantrum, how childish we'd look from the viewpoint of a bystander.

If you're not having fun playing a game that's as enjoyable as badminton, you my friend are doing it wrong.

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:42:00 +0000

Why oh why can't visual studio let me keep my opened file states when someone else modifies the solution and checks in?
Every time I get latest, the last check-in's opened file states replaces mine. I lose my place and have go to through the trouble of opening all the files I was working on all over again.

I wish there was a way to stop that from happening.

Badminton Footwear Mini Review

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:10:00 +0000

So, I finally have a surplus of badminton shoes at home. That's something because, at one point, I was running around on court with a pair of Frankenstein's monsters on my feet. It had holes at the toes and it had strapping tape wrapped around to hold together the soles which came off. The things I do to avoid going shopping... ^_^
I'm a man. The "hate shopping" gene is probably in my genetics somewhere.

Anyway, want to show you guys the shoes I'm using these days.
The blue one's Asics and the red's Victor.

The Asics, like all Asics shoes I've had has really good cushion and high soles.
The thick soles make it weigh a ton.
Things I love about this shoe: It's really soft under foot.
Things I hate about this shoe: Awfully narrow at the toes. It was almost torture wearing it the first few weeks.

The red shoe is the first Victor branded thing I bought.
It's got a nice wide toe. THE END.

Ok ok, that's not all. It feels really flat when I switch to it from the Asics shoe. It must be about 1cm lower than the Ascis shoes. That's just my impression, I didn't really measure it.
It's inner soles feel like a board compared to Ascis's gel soles. I think I've been spoiled.
It's much lighter than the other shoe.
Things I love about Victor shoe: Wide toe area. It's wide enough for my big feet with enough room to wiggle my toes
Things I hate about this shoe: Ok, not hate but a bit more cushion would be nice... just saying.

So there you have it.
I'm really comparing apples to oranges because of the difference in brand, model, price ranges and personal preferences so draw your own conclusions.
Personally, I lean towards the pair that doesn't make calluses appear on my toes.

Cheers!

Nightmare

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:42:00 +0000

I had this horrible nightmare last night. In the dream, I had a stick through my head. I don't know how it happened. What's scary is when I pulled it out, I didn't die. The first thought that occurred to me was wondering if my brain would explode if I played badminton then.

Arrow through head image stolen from http://www.creativeparties.co.uk

Joke of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:51:00 +0000

me: Feels like I'm working at the mortuary

co-worker: hehehehee
What makes u say that

me: The freezing temperature in here and people who are dead to me

___________________________

Have a wonderful day at work :-P

Look what my awesome sister sent me ^_^

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:44:00 +0000

1TB WD pocket drive USB 3.0 :D

It's so tiny!

Ouch! Owie.

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:49:00 +0000

If you're learning how to hit a proper backhand, DO NOT watch me do it. My technique is in question after the way I pulled my back muscles having too much FUN hitting the shuttle.
What's scary about this injury is that it hurts when I take deep breaths. I even thought I might have hurt some ribs or something.
Well, it doesn't matter. I've been shrugging off injury since I started playing badminton and I'm not too old to stop yet.
I've often kept playing after I've injured myself.
I know it's foolish to risk aggravating the injury but I still like to believe I'm impervious to injury.

Lets see, a list of injuries that haven't stopped me from continuing the game/session
in no particular order
- A squash ball to the eye while playing squash (this one wasn't fun. 1 week of one eyed vision beginning the next day.)
- A shuttle to the eye
- Sprained ankle (obviously never bad enough that I can't move it)
- Sprained wrist
- Sprained shoulder
- Sprained neck (Ok this one needs some explanation. I foolishly jumped up suddenly from a sitting position and bumped my head on a low hanging concrete bar overhead. Yeah, look before you leap also means vertical leaps :D )
- Lower back injury (Once I had it so bad I couldn't bend to pick up the shuttle with racket. But it was tournament and I wasn't about to stop)
- Blisters on feet
- Blisters on hand
- Some funny knee injury. It was hurting below the kneecaps. Funny because I don't know what to call it.

By now I'm sure all the sensible people out there reading this must know how crazy I am. I know it too and I shall refer you to the title of my blog.

For the percentage of you thinking that list is impressive and amazing, STOP and be sensible instead.
I'm not trying to put the belief in your heads that you can keep playing after hurting yourself.
I'm just sharing some crazy stories like some people might share the crazy things they've done while drunk.
Except I don't drink and playing badminton has the same effect for me. I lose inhibitions and good sense.

Take care of yourselves dear readers. I hope none of you get injured playing your favorite sport.
If by some bad luck you do, I hope you find the good sense to know when to stop or continue.

Words

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:46:00 +0000

I've not learned to use them well.
I've not learned to speak well.
I've not learned to watch what I say.
I've not learned to be considerative of others when I express my thoughts.
These failings, I shall address.

I'm told one of my old blog posts invoked feelings of hatred and anguish.
Whilst I meant for the words to be taken in a satirical context, the party concerned did not see it that way.
It is my failure to have touched a painful subject without regard.

That being said, I'm not an enlightened being.
I don't consider every angle or view point.
In fact, I'm quite egotistical. I consider one viewpoint alone. That of mine.
My blog, my life is my stage and I'm the lead character.
There will be bias and the bias will be in my favour. Always.

Check-in Comments

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:12:00 +0000

Team building

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 04 May 2011 03:11:00 +0000

Had lunch with the Fiji Team today.
Will have to say the team building exercise was 50% successful.
We've successfully built the ladies team on one end of the table and the autonomous men's team on the other end.

My Partner

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:27:00 +0000

This is my partner for the tournament with two of his favorite things in hand.

Caption says it all and I didn't photoshop it if you were wondering.

Water Bottle Get!

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Sun, 01 May 2011 23:00:00 +0000

I finally replaced my water bottles.

Bye bye fiji water bottles.

Hello shiny new bottle :D

Cons: It doesn't hold much water. I'll have to start sipping instead of gulping during training.

Pros: It's shiny!

#Things I find amusing today

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:22:00 +0000

I chucked an old in-tray label I had on my desk. Now it looks like I tagged my waste paper basket the in-tray.

Update 27th April 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:03:00 +0000

I'm alive.

What happened since last update...

Visited sisters in Sydney.

Played badminton with Roger in Sydney. That's the nice man who came and played a few times here in Suva.

I posted about it here before.

I bought an android phone yay!It's a sony ericsson xperia x10 mini pro.

Pretty low end as far as android phones go. But it has the functions I want, and the price I was willing to pay for a mobile phone. I took it on vacation in Burma and read a whole series of novels on it.

I went back to Burma for a 2.5 months long holiday.

It was my first time back in over a decade. It hasn't changed as far as I saw.

Saw my grand father, uncles, aunts and cousins. They were nice. Met a few other nice people :)

Met some corrupt cops. They weren't nice.

Went to a nightclub. No more nightclubs in the future.

Played lots of badminton :)

Played in a badminton tournament. In the old timers grade.

Unashamedly bullied some old timers. Ok, lets rephrase that, I was ashamed but they made me do it.

Visited Bangkok.

Tiring experience. Do NOT go there with shopaholics.

I am convinced 1 day in Platinum Mall caused more wear and tear damage on my legs than a week of badminton.

Met another badminton friend through this blog. Apparently, my visibility is better than Fiji badminton's online presence.

Got back to Fiji.

Played lots of singles.

Took a long break from playing due to injuries. Ok maybe it was only 3 weeks but that's long for me.

Broke my promise to rest the shoulder and played while still injured.

Playing in Fiji Internationals next weekend.

Still injured. Not expecting to go far. Just have fun and gain experience.

There you go. Now we're up to date :)

Fiji Games Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Today went as well as can be expected.

I guess being seeded high has its advantages.

We finished off all the Singles matches except for the finals.

My semi-final match was very scary. I made a lot of errors and it was quite exhausting.

I was so happy when it finished in two sets.

The worst mistake I made today was not changing the pace of the game when I was in trouble.

I kept doing the same things and I was lucky that my opponent didn't start attacking aggressively. 17/21 19/21 shows there's a lot I need to work on with my strategy.

Tomorrow's matches: Singles Final at 10:30am and Doubles start at 2:00pm.

I'm looking forward to going up against everyone's best performance.

Coming up this weekend. Fiji Games!

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Fiji Games start this Friday. It will be a mad rush to the courts after work to make it on time.

I've entered my name in both singles and doubles. It's going to be an exhausting weekend.

I don't feel 100% and my knees are sore. I just hope I don't embarrass myself by losing too early in the rounds.

On the plus side, I won't be embarrassing myself on video as I'm without a camera until next week.

In other news, I've learned how to add text to videos in OpenShot. So the next match I record will have a score board :-)

In Brief: 03 June 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:36:00 +0000

So here's what I've been doing all this time.

Work. <-- yeah pays for badminton.

Play.

So many things wrong with my game that I hadn't noticed until I see it in third person.

See me walking off the court with my head down? I was disappointed at the number of mistakes I made.

And learning how to use OpenShot video editing software.

I know how to cut and fade out. Go me!

How I met a man from Berlin

noreply@blogger.com (Zatlite) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:17:00 +0000

First of all, I'd like to apologise to all ten of my RSS feed subscribers for not posting anything for such a long time. My work requires so much left brain activity that I fear the derelict creative half permanently impaired.

Right, back on topic...

I'm an international host thanks to this little blog. A few months ago, I forget how many, it may have been 1 or 2. I don’t ever track time. Anyway, a few months ago, Jörg emailed me. It’s the typical (as in I’ve seen exactly two)

“Hey, what’s up? I’m gonna be in Suva between these dates. Wanna play badminton, etc..”

OK, the email didn’t go just like that but I archived it in my gmail and am too lazy to dig it up now for your entertainment.

So I replied and let him know of the schedules for playing badminton. Unfortunately, during that time Badminton was not on a proper schedule because most players were away but we made do.

I’m going to cut the long story short just because I’m particularly lazy today. Jörg finally made it to Suva after a few weeks and we met up at one of the badminton venues. I had no idea what he looked like so was just watching for strange faces. Turns out, he is a well built muscular guy just a little older than I am. And that’s how I met a man from Berlin. The end.

Ah wait. We introduced ourselves next, and I had to find out what he was doing here in Suva so far away from home because he didn’t give away anything in his emails and I admit I get curious sometimes.
My new friend Jörg was here on holiday. On a long sailing trip with a couple of friends in his little yacht from Germany to destinations across the world. It all sounded wonderful. He made me wish I could forget my work load and take that overdue vacation.

We played quite a few sessions of badminton together so I got to know his style well. I think he plays singles better than he played doubles. Factoring in his fitness, he won a few sets off me.

I’m so glad I started this blog because it lets me meet new friends to play badminton with and I’m very happy there are people out there who would contact me to play badminton while they visit Suva whether they’re here for work, or on vacation. It is always nice to play against someone different.

Thank you Jörg for the game and happy travels.

Photo taken at Hyundai Fitness Center, Suva.
From left to right me, Jörg and me mum.

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.