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Showing posts from September, 2004

Swimming, Teamwork, and Individuality

It's been a while sice I last blogged about significant things in life. Well, mainly because events in my life have been put on a halt, thanks to swimming training, competitions, and a new outlook and more new goals. I've been training hard for the past few weeks, and now I'm feeling comfortable with my ability. I have to improve my kicking power for all the strokes, as well as my endurance and pace. However the technique of my strokes seem clean enough that now I'm just going to have to work on the power. Yesterday morning, I had the chance to represent the organization that I belong to (UPLB Computer Science Society) in the swimming events for the intra-collegiate sports-fest. I swam in the 50m men's freestyle and the 3x25m freestyle relay. Aside from feeling great because of the meal replacement diet that I've been taking for the past week (which are by the way VERY effective), I had a feeling of confidence in my skill even before getting into the pool.

Carbo Loading, Sprints, and More...

Just got home an hour ago from swimming training. We supposedly had a hard day of training for sprints in a 25m pool, but somehow I got through it. I don't know whether it's because of the rest (5 days rest without swimming) or because of the carbo-loading I did over the weekend until Monday evening. This is what I ate for the last few days (or what I could remember at least that I actually ate): Saturday: no breakfast; lunch = ?; dinner = grilled liempo and 4 cups of rice ; after-dinner = beer, grilled tilapia, fish crackers, deep fried peanuts. Sunday: no breakfast; lunch = omelette with cheese and garlic fried in butter salted and peppered to taste, a loaf of white bread; dinner = grilled liempo and 4 cups of rice. Monday: no breakfast; lunch = kinulob na itik and 3 cups of rice; merienda = pizza and ice cream ; dinner (after 4 hours) = pasta in olive oil fried garlic and pamaesan cheese. Tuesday: no breakfast; no lunch; merienda = 5 servings of Jollibee Spaghetti

Everybody's changing...

Yesterday (September 19), I saw keane's video of their single titled "everybody's changing". It struck a chord in me, and realized a couple of things that are pertinent in life. I have my own interpretations of some of the lyrics of the song, but the gist is something along the following lines: Everybody's changing, and I don't feel right. (Ok, so that was one line... This should be the second). But there could always be a duality to this: I'm changing, and everybody else is changing their attitude towards me. Maybe this could also be true, but nonetheless it never feels right whenever change is in the equation. It rareley is, until everything sinks in, and you tend to accept the changes as they come. This might be true for some people like me, but others like the status quo. There's an interesting article I read from Peyups.com about the apolitical intellectual. There are a lot of praises as to the well written piece (which in my opinion w

So much for that...

I just came home from the seminar regarding my proposed load balancing algorithm. I tried to get as candid as I can, but still half of what I said was jargon -- which made me explain the thing in layman's terms and using more colloquial examples. I was wearing a black suit, (chinese collared americana suit that is), gray slacks, black leather belt (perry ellis), and leather shoes (by bristol). I'm beginning to sound like a caption to a fashion mag's pic, but I digress... So there I was, waiting for the seminar to start. As a speaker, I conducted myself properly and tried to get things cleared out with my co-presentors. I was asuuming that they knew at least half of what they were supposed to talk about, and that they knew how to speak in front of a crowd. BUT NO... I sat through two presentors, the first one reading the presentation of the projection, and then doing no explaining whatsoever. I didn't get that because she prepared her own slides, and prepared the hand

The Pain and The Gain...

Been swimming for the past three days, and I feel great. I've missed this feeling ever since I stopped training with the swimming team. I've always wanted to feel the pain of lactic acid building up in my muscles as I work on my stroke and finish the workout given by my coach. I like the feeling of improvement, and the feeling of accomplishment even in such a small scale. Maybe it's my self-competing spirit that's enriching me again. I just love counting the strokes and checking it while keeping in mind that I'm working for my ever so sexy self. One day, it will happen (I pray). I've been going through a lot lately, mainly academic stuff. My thesis is going along real fine, and I'm already formally analyzing the significance of my study. Performing the ANOVA tests on the data I have come up with in the tests is a daunting task, mainly because of the number of treatments I will have to check. Not to mention the amount of writing I have yet to do. That'

Why settle for less?

I've been going around UPLB and Calauan, and have noticed a simple fact of life: Nobody wants to get less than they deserve. However, there is a corollary to this: But if there's a bargain in the next corner, go for it. The corollary isn't really something new, but I have an anti-thesis: If you can get some now, then why wait for tomorrow? Seize the day. But how do you know how much you deserve? In life sometimes we get a choice between abundance and abstinence. Sometimes we have a choice between indulging and controlling ourselves. But when do we know when enough is enough? How much is enough? They say too much is never enough -- but where is the line? Would you settle for second best? Of course you wouldn't -- but when do you know that you're just getting the next best thing if you haven't heard of/seen the best deal? Are you going to second-guess yourself everytime you commit to something or subscribe to something you think you believe in? Would you kno

Swim yet again...

Feeling great, and now I'm enjoying what the swimming has been doing to my body. I feel lighter, stronger, and finally ready to take on whatever I need to take on in life so that I could go on and finally graduate next semester. :) I will be talking to Dr. Albacea regarding my thesis and whether it would be possible for me to not graduate this semester and instead get the grade for my thesis next semester. Just for the SCUAA competitions. :) As for other things going on in my life, I'f finally traced that one friggin' bug that causes my tests to SEGFAULT in certain situations. I've seen the results of the tests, and I would say that they seem encouraging... In fact, the times for the MRADA test and the control test seem awefully close to each other. I have yet to see the whole picture though, but they are encouraging nonetheless. So much for that, I need to study for the CMSC 150 exam on monday. The last exam wasn't encouraging at all, and I'd need to lear

Bamboo, petals, and roses...

I got sick for a couple of days, brought down due to sinusitis. Spent whole wednesday in bed, recovering from the fever which was brought about by the infection that comes with *anything*-titis. Oh well, I miss swimming, and I miss the feeling of working through the ~2k workouts I was just getting used to. Maybe I should have taken more rests while I was doing my sets last Monday (August 31st). Or, I should have taken a paracetamol right away after getting off the pool. I should definitely try doing that next time I go swimming. Oh, and thanks to my bestfriend Mapet, this brainteaser has given more life to my otherwise lifeless day: Petals around the Rose . It's definitely worth a hack at, specially for the brean-teaser lovers. I'm not one of them, but I enjoy them brain teasers (and lovers) once in a while. I've been itching to do something here at my cousin's place, especially do something about the crashed hard drive on the other "more powerful" system.