The English Ministry is going to have a Sushi night on Sunday 6th September after church. It should be fun as we have not had Sushi Night for a couple of years now. I look forward to it. Had originally hoped to visit Yo! Sushi at Silverburn Shopping Centre with someone on Monday to take advantage of the Blue Monday £2.20 plate special offer. Or to take a brother for birthday dinner on Tuesday with 40% off total food bill offer. Neither came to light for various reasons. Today is Wednesday. It is currently 4:30pm and I have half an hour before I head home for dinner, rest and then head out to Church Centre for the first EM prayer meeting which starts at 7:30pm. It is billed as 7:30pm-8pm, but I don't think a prayer meeting can start and finish on time, at least not within 30mins. People will inevitably arrive late. And after time spent settling down and "warming up" by asking each other how things are, what we want to pray for etc, it'll be half an hour. Nonetheless, I am going expecting to spend the night there, expecting to deliver our praise and requests to God as part of the English Ministry and Chinese Church as a whole. Not to forget some other personal prayer items: relationships, exams etc.
For the past three weeks in August, I have been working out to a different regime. I really wanted to focus on losing body fat and building a six pack. Instead of running long periods of up to 45 minutes on teh treadmill at 10km/h, I do High Intensity Interval Training running short bursts between walking 6km/h and sprinting 17-18km/h. The H.I.I.T. can only be maintained for 20 minutes out of my 30 minutes run and afterwards I am totally drenched with sweat and with heart pumping like crazy. This style of running not only burns more body fat overall, but trains the heart to handle intensity. Marathon or long distance runners' heart rate will stabilise after a while running. However with H.I.I.T. the heart beat range increases and the heart muscle is strenghtened as it goes through such intensity which is a good thing. After stretching my leg muscles I would then proceed to work on my abdominals - lower abs, middle abs and upper abs (yes there are different areas within the stomach you can work on!) and work till it burns. After that I move on to my free weights training. All the hard work has indeed paid off. And now when I look myself in the mirror I can see the packs have indeed come through. They are much more evident than ever and I am proud of my achievements. However, this has come at a price.
Whilst this regime, along with my changed eating habits, has helped me achieve my current goals (less fat and more packs) it has also rid me of some muscle mass. And I find myself looking skinner than before. Before I started this program, I was a bit bulkier. I was broader at the shoulders and my arms were bigger too. T-shirts were tight too. However, I don't feel or look that right now. In fact, I feel I've sacrificed my main goal for working out, for something of the short term, shall I say. I mean, really. I don't really need a six-pack, or do I need bigger arms or look bulkier. But if I were to choose either or, I would choose to be bulkier. Why? Because, to me, being bigger gives me the feel of being a man. I don't want to be a scrawny person who cannot put up a fight. I don't want to appear to be a weakling. I mean, I am a man after all. And men, from the very beginning, were hunters! How can we hunt if we feel weak? There are advantages to exercising core muscles, and that is having a stronger core which helps with standing and sitting posture and actions like lifting things etc. However, having a six pack does not have any other uses besides it looking nice, esp on magazine covers. But honestly speaking, I am not wanting to be on the cover of Men's Health magazine, so there isn't really a need for me to have a six pack. I've wanted to get one, I've got one and you know what, it's not all it's hyped up to be. Maybe because I am a Christian man, I do not venture out topless at beach, showing off my bod. I don't pose online to show people what I have. I am not promiscuous show off my body whilst I bed women etc. So what other "use" does a sick pack have? None, really. None that I can think of. A sense of achievement if anything. Because it isn't easy to get it really. Lots of hard work has to be put in. Determination to work out. Willpower to avoid junk and "bad foods" that would set up back two paces for every step you take going forward. I've been there. I've done that. And I've got it. Now what?
Now... I want to go back to being what I am good at. What I am known for. Being Big G. This name originally developed at the time Gordon Cheung started working with us at Chinese church. Before he came, there was only one Gordon at young adults. Then there were two. So how can you decipher between the two Gordon's during conversation? How can you call out to one Gordon without the other one turning around too? Call one Big G and the other... well, nobody calls a paster Little G, but there you have it, I was Big G from then on. I was big not because of working out or intentional body shaping. I was big due to my height and my waistline which was developed through careless eating and little exercising. I was fat. I didn't know it. I didn't admit it. I even comforted myself by saying I was "big-boned". But honestly, I was fat. Anyway, 2003 I turned that around and started exercising LOTS and eating much less. The result: I started looking better. I felt better in clothes. I achieved what I thought was unachievable - weight loss!
Since then I've been really into nutrition, into exercising and studying what food can do for and against the body and the same with exercising. I started looking into body-building and learnt lots more and developed a passion for developing my body into another level. For a while I bulked up and got quite muscular. But today, I seem to have lost it. Not lost it all, but lost what I orginally had. I want to pick up from where I left off now. Forget the six-pack and go for strength and power!!
(4539)
26 August 2009
20 August 2009
A devotional to share
(Taken from Upper Room Devotionals 20 Aug 2009)
CHILDREN have fun blowing the seeds off dandelions and watching them float away in all directions. Sometimes the children are disappointed when the fun is over; they want the heads back in one piece so they can experience it all again. But no amount of glue could put a dandelion together again in the way it was created. This dispersal of the dandelion head occurs for a reason: it maximizes the chances of one of the seeds finding a suitable place to set down roots and continue the life cycle. The simple act of letting go and allowing the forces of life to propel it is an integral part of the life process for dandelions.
When life blows us in new directions or propels us into a new stage, we often become uneasy. We may try to cling to the familiar rather than holding on tightly to life and allowing change to carry us along new paths. Fear of the unknown overwhelms many of us, preventing us from enjoying life in all its abundance. However, God calls us toward new horizons, new adventures, and new paths.
We may feel at times as if we are being blown apart, just like the dandelion head. God, however, already has a place prepared where we can put down roots and bloom afresh.
Meg Mangan (New South Wales, Australia)
Lord, as our paths change, help us to seek your guidance. Help us to put our trust in you, wherever we may be. Amen.
Life's winds blow us to new places and toward new growth.
(4431)
CHILDREN have fun blowing the seeds off dandelions and watching them float away in all directions. Sometimes the children are disappointed when the fun is over; they want the heads back in one piece so they can experience it all again. But no amount of glue could put a dandelion together again in the way it was created. This dispersal of the dandelion head occurs for a reason: it maximizes the chances of one of the seeds finding a suitable place to set down roots and continue the life cycle. The simple act of letting go and allowing the forces of life to propel it is an integral part of the life process for dandelions.
When life blows us in new directions or propels us into a new stage, we often become uneasy. We may try to cling to the familiar rather than holding on tightly to life and allowing change to carry us along new paths. Fear of the unknown overwhelms many of us, preventing us from enjoying life in all its abundance. However, God calls us toward new horizons, new adventures, and new paths.
We may feel at times as if we are being blown apart, just like the dandelion head. God, however, already has a place prepared where we can put down roots and bloom afresh.
Meg Mangan (New South Wales, Australia)
Lord, as our paths change, help us to seek your guidance. Help us to put our trust in you, wherever we may be. Amen.
Life's winds blow us to new places and toward new growth.
(4431)
12 August 2009
It's Magic!!
Just looked at my annual leaves this morning and I saw I still have six working days to take off between now and end of September!
That's fab! I have been working hard throughout the year and not taken many days off work and now I am left with lots of options of days off before they get taken off me at 30th September and I get my new allowance as of 1st October. Not sure what I'll use the leave for really. Of the six days I will take one on Monday 31st August, the bank holiday, so will have a long weekend then. The remaining five, I will use one for my final driving instructor test and there are still four more!! =D Ah, if only Elaam lived in Glasgow then I'd be able to plan more dates with her or something. Soon, soon. Term will restart mid-September, right?
So last Thursday I received my new HTC Magic phone, as a free upgrade from Vodafone. I had my eye on that phone since a long while. I think I first caught sight of it on the Vodafone website and started to check out the properties on various sites including GSM Arena and HTC's own site etc. Seeing it in real life when Vivien Lai allowed me to see it in church, really deepened my desire for the phone. It's so cool. Will start telling you what's so good about it. It is a smart phone powered by the Android operating system and runs alongside Google. Without getting too technical here are the great things I love about this phone:
The Good
All my contacts were imported within seconds after I signed onto my Google account. My contacts have an email address and phone number so I can contact them any way I want: email, call or text. Basically, those who use Gmail will have a Contacts list. It is that list that HTC Magic gets its data from. So you can imagine the convenience of adding/ removing/ updating Contacts details on the computer rather than typing them in one by one using thumbs! Any changes I make to my Contacts list on the computer is instantly updated to the phone.
My Google Calendar is worked in the exact same way. Setting up Events, Appointments and Tasks have never been easier. Because all previous appointments were on Sony Ericsson K810i, you could imagine the hassle of going through the whole calendar and typing everything all over again. However, doing through Google Calendar online I would make sure every appointment is accurately entered and reminders set as and when I want them.
Because both Contacts and Calendar are online, this virtual storage system would mean if I ever lost my phone or used another Google handset I could port the data back into the new phone again, hassle-free! =D
WAP is constantly on in the phone. It does regular checks for updates in SMS, MMS, Gmail AND GoogleTalk (the left-hand side chat for Gmail users). Whenever I get a notification through on the phone, it could be either a text, a new email or someone chatting to me (so far Alfred! Haha!) So it's quite exciting really! I'm always available for you to reach me! =D Whenever I am at home, I switch on wireless connection for faster connection to Facebook where I can view the full site as opposed to the mobile version which I used to get through my Ericcson K810i! =) I get to watch Youtube and BBC iPlayer as well, with smooth High Quality when streaming through wireless.
Google Maps is another great feature on the phone. I get to pinpoint my location wherever I am, provided I have WAP signal, and from there I can find my way home or find route from a particular place to my current location. Google Street View works well too and I managed to impress my mum when our flat appeared on my phone. Haha! All these things, and many other great things are reasons to get the HTC Magic.
The Bad
Nothing is perfect. There are also downsides to it. There is no physical keypad where you can slide out or whatever. The keys are touchscreen and whilst writing texts or emails, I find my big thumbs get clumsy and I touch the wrong buttons sometimes. When I turn the phone on its side, it does auto-rotate to a lateral keypad that gives bigger keys. However, that can't always happen, esp when I can't hold it with two hands all the time.
There is no built-in FM radio on it. The only music I get from it would be from my music files which I import via USB data cable, or when I download an application that receives radio signals.
Bluetooth, at the moment, can only be used to paid up devices like bluetooth headsets etc. It cannot be used to send or receive common files like pictures, mp3's etc which is a bummer. I read that they are developing an update for this. Hopefully soon as I know this phone is capable of it!
The camera is 3.2MP, the same as my previous Ericsson K800i and K810i, but does not have a flash. The quality of images are just so-so compared to the Cybershot cameras the Ericssons offered. However this is one thing I can overlook in place for the many great things it offers.
I initially had a concern with the battery. The first overnight charge lasted less than 24hrs. Although given the time I spent on it, installing, importing, tweaking etc it would have drained it, but I felt it wasn't holding it's charge and I was a bit concerned. After turning 3G back to 2G and few more charges later, I find the phone battery life more "normal" compared to my Sony Ericssons. However, if we consider the amount of things this phone has to run, who can blame it for running low on energy at the end of the night?
The Ugly
There is nothing ugly about this phone. I was thinking whether I'd look professional with this phone as opposed to an Ericsson. Being a driving instructor in the future I should / would be more practical with my phone and there is no need for fancy features or widgets etc. However, I am growing more and more fond of this phone as times goes on. I know having this phone will be great to store client details and they can contact be via call, text, email or even chat and I'd be reachable virtually any time of the day :)
A picture of my new handset: The HTC Magic
Picture of my previous handset: Sony Ericsson K810i. Click on the picture for a gallery of some pictures I had taken with the phone in the past year :)
(4252)
That's fab! I have been working hard throughout the year and not taken many days off work and now I am left with lots of options of days off before they get taken off me at 30th September and I get my new allowance as of 1st October. Not sure what I'll use the leave for really. Of the six days I will take one on Monday 31st August, the bank holiday, so will have a long weekend then. The remaining five, I will use one for my final driving instructor test and there are still four more!! =D Ah, if only Elaam lived in Glasgow then I'd be able to plan more dates with her or something. Soon, soon. Term will restart mid-September, right?
So last Thursday I received my new HTC Magic phone, as a free upgrade from Vodafone. I had my eye on that phone since a long while. I think I first caught sight of it on the Vodafone website and started to check out the properties on various sites including GSM Arena and HTC's own site etc. Seeing it in real life when Vivien Lai allowed me to see it in church, really deepened my desire for the phone. It's so cool. Will start telling you what's so good about it. It is a smart phone powered by the Android operating system and runs alongside Google. Without getting too technical here are the great things I love about this phone:
The Good
All my contacts were imported within seconds after I signed onto my Google account. My contacts have an email address and phone number so I can contact them any way I want: email, call or text. Basically, those who use Gmail will have a Contacts list. It is that list that HTC Magic gets its data from. So you can imagine the convenience of adding/ removing/ updating Contacts details on the computer rather than typing them in one by one using thumbs! Any changes I make to my Contacts list on the computer is instantly updated to the phone.
My Google Calendar is worked in the exact same way. Setting up Events, Appointments and Tasks have never been easier. Because all previous appointments were on Sony Ericsson K810i, you could imagine the hassle of going through the whole calendar and typing everything all over again. However, doing through Google Calendar online I would make sure every appointment is accurately entered and reminders set as and when I want them.
Because both Contacts and Calendar are online, this virtual storage system would mean if I ever lost my phone or used another Google handset I could port the data back into the new phone again, hassle-free! =D
WAP is constantly on in the phone. It does regular checks for updates in SMS, MMS, Gmail AND GoogleTalk (the left-hand side chat for Gmail users). Whenever I get a notification through on the phone, it could be either a text, a new email or someone chatting to me (so far Alfred! Haha!) So it's quite exciting really! I'm always available for you to reach me! =D Whenever I am at home, I switch on wireless connection for faster connection to Facebook where I can view the full site as opposed to the mobile version which I used to get through my Ericcson K810i! =) I get to watch Youtube and BBC iPlayer as well, with smooth High Quality when streaming through wireless.
Google Maps is another great feature on the phone. I get to pinpoint my location wherever I am, provided I have WAP signal, and from there I can find my way home or find route from a particular place to my current location. Google Street View works well too and I managed to impress my mum when our flat appeared on my phone. Haha! All these things, and many other great things are reasons to get the HTC Magic.
The Bad
Nothing is perfect. There are also downsides to it. There is no physical keypad where you can slide out or whatever. The keys are touchscreen and whilst writing texts or emails, I find my big thumbs get clumsy and I touch the wrong buttons sometimes. When I turn the phone on its side, it does auto-rotate to a lateral keypad that gives bigger keys. However, that can't always happen, esp when I can't hold it with two hands all the time.
There is no built-in FM radio on it. The only music I get from it would be from my music files which I import via USB data cable, or when I download an application that receives radio signals.
Bluetooth, at the moment, can only be used to paid up devices like bluetooth headsets etc. It cannot be used to send or receive common files like pictures, mp3's etc which is a bummer. I read that they are developing an update for this. Hopefully soon as I know this phone is capable of it!
The camera is 3.2MP, the same as my previous Ericsson K800i and K810i, but does not have a flash. The quality of images are just so-so compared to the Cybershot cameras the Ericssons offered. However this is one thing I can overlook in place for the many great things it offers.
I initially had a concern with the battery. The first overnight charge lasted less than 24hrs. Although given the time I spent on it, installing, importing, tweaking etc it would have drained it, but I felt it wasn't holding it's charge and I was a bit concerned. After turning 3G back to 2G and few more charges later, I find the phone battery life more "normal" compared to my Sony Ericssons. However, if we consider the amount of things this phone has to run, who can blame it for running low on energy at the end of the night?
The Ugly
There is nothing ugly about this phone. I was thinking whether I'd look professional with this phone as opposed to an Ericsson. Being a driving instructor in the future I should / would be more practical with my phone and there is no need for fancy features or widgets etc. However, I am growing more and more fond of this phone as times goes on. I know having this phone will be great to store client details and they can contact be via call, text, email or even chat and I'd be reachable virtually any time of the day :)
A picture of my new handset: The HTC Magic
Picture of my previous handset: Sony Ericsson K810i. Click on the picture for a gallery of some pictures I had taken with the phone in the past year :)
(4252)
07 August 2009
Non-transparent
If there were any radiographers in this office, or anybody wearing x-ray specs, they'd see through the contraction of facial muscles and display of teeth on the exterior and see that I'm actually quite down inside.
Finding it strange. Nobody to talk to. Well there are, but I'm at work, so can't even have a proper conversation. Will be meeting my instructor Ronnie after work tonight. Hope I can focus and give my best with him. I'm just losing it. Too much on my mind.
Career-related mainly. Matters of the heart secondly. No, before you jump to conclusions, we are not having troubles there. It's just something else on my own part.
Sigh... Right now life feels mundane. I get up 7am for work each morning, regardless of what time I sleep the night before, or whether I've been to the gym or just chilled at the cinema after work. The weekend is here, but tomorrow I need to get up early again. I've not had a lie-in in ages man!! Meeting with Gordon Cheung at 09:30am at Beanscene Woodlands for an hour before our PEB (my very first!) meeting with other church members. That meeting is 10:30am and I have heard it can last up to three hours. So I estimate a finishing time of 1:30pm before I head to the gym. Saturdays are my gym days you see. Hoping to meet Alfred for some workout. I might not run so much tomorrow. Being doing High Intensity Interval Training on the treadmill in the past week, but tomorrow I'm gonna focus on weight training instead.
Och, I can't be bothered writing anymore really... just want a punch bag!!
(4199)
Finding it strange. Nobody to talk to. Well there are, but I'm at work, so can't even have a proper conversation. Will be meeting my instructor Ronnie after work tonight. Hope I can focus and give my best with him. I'm just losing it. Too much on my mind.
Career-related mainly. Matters of the heart secondly. No, before you jump to conclusions, we are not having troubles there. It's just something else on my own part.
Sigh... Right now life feels mundane. I get up 7am for work each morning, regardless of what time I sleep the night before, or whether I've been to the gym or just chilled at the cinema after work. The weekend is here, but tomorrow I need to get up early again. I've not had a lie-in in ages man!! Meeting with Gordon Cheung at 09:30am at Beanscene Woodlands for an hour before our PEB (my very first!) meeting with other church members. That meeting is 10:30am and I have heard it can last up to three hours. So I estimate a finishing time of 1:30pm before I head to the gym. Saturdays are my gym days you see. Hoping to meet Alfred for some workout. I might not run so much tomorrow. Being doing High Intensity Interval Training on the treadmill in the past week, but tomorrow I'm gonna focus on weight training instead.
Och, I can't be bothered writing anymore really... just want a punch bag!!
(4199)
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