Exercising Complains

My arms are still aching like mad. It was so bad that I woke up in the middle of the night in pain. They are like attachments to my body that I have little control over. I wonder if they have grown longer from being pulled by the boat. Maybe I look like a monkey now with super long arms hanging by my sides. Just swinging them around as I walk. *grin*

I was too ambitious also. I went jogging last night, thinking that the workout would help ease the aches. Instead it added on more strain to the already-torn muscle tissues. So, even though I was very inspired to run or play badminton at my workplace today, I did the smart thing (finally) by resting my body.

My body feels like it's swollen all over. My clothes even feel tighter. Is it cause of the expanded muscles or cause I'm simply too fat! Well, I will never know.

Anyway, this is the time to start my regular runs till the shape run event. Not training lah, just maintaining my stamina. I know I can never do long runs anyway. The longest I've ran on my own is around 1.5km. It's just keeping my body used to running so that I won't suffer on the actual day.

I'm super keen to go wakeboarding again. I'm just afraid of over-exerting my body cause I'm not that young anymore. But I'm craving for it. Haiz. Kakis kakis..??

Live Concerts? NLB@esplanade

The amazing treasure that the National Library Board @ esplanade has been hidding from us. Or maybe it's just me. Actually, someone has revealed it to me before. Just that I wasn't interested back then. Let me list some of those things. DVDs, VCDs, CDs, CD-ROMs, music scores, film scripts and theatre/film related books. It's like the DVD rental shop except it's FREE!! Well, actually you have a pay $21 for it's premium membership to borrow up to 4 AV items. But then now you have increased your borrowing quota to 8! Not bad, right?

I've been searching around the shops like mad for Japanese live concerts as mentioned before in my previous post. Like I said, not many available and they're either not the ones I want or they're too expensive (no lah, I'm too stingy to spend the $$$). So when I searched the NLB catalog and found some, I was so excited. So I went today & managed to find a few to borrow!

Sadly, I realised not all the singers give good live performances (not like Ken Hirai's anway). Got this Tackey & Tsubasa 2004 Spring Concert and was so disappointed. First of all, they're teen pop stars (maybe not so teeny anymore). I was hoping to see solid rocking performance, yet turned out they're so lacking in energy. Since they're singing those super fast pop songs, I guess it must be tiring. Cause majority of their songs are not sung live! Well, Tsubasa has the kind of voice I like but he's like so uninterested in performing. When they did sing live, it's nothing impressive at all. Maybe they're just lacking in confidence.

Then I watched BoA's Live tour 2004 Love & Honesty and it gave me a bit more hope that there are some good ones out there. She was full of confidence and gave her best. Smiles and stares unwavering at the audience. Guess the eye contact makes a lot of difference. At least, I enjoyed it much more than the Tackey & Tsubasa's one. Again, guess it's due to the energy-sucking dance steps, quite a number of songs were lip-sync. However, those live songs were done rather well, cause she has good control of her voice and it's powerful enough to be projected well.

So now, I'm left with the Ayumi Hamasaki's one. Will update again. Since she's a really experienced performer, I except it to be better than the previous two. But I've seen her live performance of 'Dream' on 'Music Station' before and she went off key on the high notes. Erm.. well maybe I should just lower down my standard.

I'm sure however, I can count on a few Japanese artists to do well. The MTV unplugged one by Utada Hikaru will definitely be good (even though her voice a bit soft at times). Also, Namie Amuro's Live is good because of her dance steps (though she's another cool faced performer) and she's singing live majority of the times. Amazing stamina for a singer! Then I can always trust Ken Hirai to give the best of best live songs!

Yup all those borrowed from the NLB@esplanade. I think I've borrowed enough today to make up for that $21 premium membership fee :)

Introduction to Wakeboarding!

YES! I DID IT! My first wakeboarding experience! Yipee!

I signed up for this course at CSClub which roped in Extreme Sports. Paid only $55 for more than 3hrs shared with another 4 gals. The instructor was very good and encouraging. He didn't force us to get the techniques right, instead focused on the thrill & enjoyment of flying on water!

Also, they were flexible enough to let us get on the boat to watch a professional demonstrate. His name is Roger, apparently very famous in the Wakeboarding scene. Wahlau! I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to watch a pro do the stunts right infront of me. I was sitting right at the end of the boat (almost as good as roller coaster ride) and stupidly I fell backwards when they stopped the boat abruptly. So malu (read: embarrassing).

Well, I had 2 slots of water-time. Both times, I kept falling but once I got it right, I was flying all the way through to the end. Wah, damn shiok (read: enjoyable). It reminds me of riding on a bike. They're all called riders anyway so haha..you see the link lah. I love riding the water! No chance to learn how to ride the waves yet. Fell flat when I couldn't maintain over the waves. Then my water-time was over (*SOB*).

This is what I've been missing out on! Goodness, if only I had the opportunity to try much earlier. I'm super thankful I noticed this course by CSClub. Anyway this instructor, Hardi, is really patient and yet was able to spot your exact error and correct it. Do ask for him if you want to sign up. They are providing it for $150 for 4 lessons package. Sounds like a good deal. Click the link below for more details.
http://www.extreme.com.sg/

P/S: Sorry, as I went for the course alone, I've no one to take photos of me (I didn't bring my camera also lah). Wish I had. Aiya, nevermind, next time. :) Yes, Carolyn is right, I'm aching all over today haha.. But they're good aches, cause I love to know I've put my body through the stresses from Sports! The adrenaline! Wahlau Shiok! I'm addicted to another hobby! Oh! I also discovered I'm a left-footer, maybe cause from using it more when I played the electronic organ and also using the clutch pedal for 2 yrs.

2008 Shape Run Singapore

The 2008 Shape Run is happening in July!
Registration starts 26 April 2008. So do sign up!

Please go to this website for more details:
http://www.shape.com.sg/shaperun/
I'm definitely signing up!


UPDATES:
I've signed up the moment it was past midnight (aka 00hrs on 26 Apr).
I'm no 322! hee.. Talking about KiaSu :)

Locked Blog

Blogger is saying that i have a spamming blog???



What? First time. I'm confused. How do i spam my blog?



haha..anyway.. hope for a fast review & revive my blog..



Else be deleted in 20 days..wahlau..

1 day later. Thank goodness it's been unlocked..

Now better not link photos to original sites ..just incase..still not sure if that was the problem.

Japanese Music, Manga & Anime

I was shopping one day and entered a CD shop that sold all sorts of disc items. With my recent interest in animes, I searched the Japanese section and chanced upon an old DVD of Ken Hirai that marked his 10th year in the music industry in 2005. Since it was cheap and I liked some of his songs, I bought it. Actually I've seen his performance in 'Music Station', the Japanese music variety show and was impressed with his live performance.

It is so darn great! His voice control is good and had great showmanship. It's enjoyable to watch him perform. I actually felt as if I was there in audience itself. WOW, it's so moving and his singing is so mesmerising. The Japanese are really into music cause their song production is so great and the audience is always so supportive and raving all the way through til the end.

Now I think I'm addicted to Japanese Live performances. It's a matter of finding them. I tried a few shops but they all had the same boring old titles. Nothing much to choose from. I wonder if there is any place in Singapore where I can have a better selection.

Anyway, I've watched quite a few animes. I'm going to list those I've watched here:

Bleach

Naruto

D.Gray Man

Fullmetal Alchemist

Those are the 'Shonen' (manga for boys). As the first 3 animes listed are still on going in Japan, I've no choice but to wait. However, I'm the kind of person who hates waiting. So I bought the manga magazines, hoping to catch the latest chapter.

Sadly, the English verion (made in Canada) is always way behind the Japanese ones. So instead of satisfying my urge to find out the latest, I've gotten myself addicted to some more manga/animes. Well, maybe cause I also bought the 'Shojo' manga which is manga for girls.

Now I'm into the 'neoromance' manga, Shojo manga created by female, usually about a heroine surrounded by loads of handsome looking males. Wah.. reminds me of 'Meteor Garden' which I've watched back in 2000 on cable. That's an old neoromance manga which was made into anime. Then later on the Taiwan's drama version and then the Japanese one much later on. Some of the Shojo animes which are currently aired on the 'Animax' channel on our Starhub cable are 'Honey & Clover' and 'La Corda'.

Haiz, I'm still not desperate enough to want to read the Chinese manga of those animes I'm following. (Those are more up to date.) So I'm trying to keep myself busy with learning how to draw manga now. Only drawing the handsome, cool male characters. I'm not good, only can copy existing pictures. However, I am picking up the basic of manga drawing from doing those. Samples of my copied manga: (The first two are from a manga drawing book and the 3rd one is my first attempt on copying from an actual manga.)


As usual, work is busy. I'm still preoccupied with marking and planning things. Nothing much to say about that. Not in blogs anyway. :)