pai seh pai seh... been stuck playing SPORE, sleeping and watching crappy Japanese dramas! 

haha... anyways, i've signed up for the Singapore Sprint Series and OCBC's Cycle Singapore to keep me occupied till my first quarter. no lah... no hope to win one. at most got luck, i'd win their lucky draws! wahahaha... 

i'm still debating whether to train for a half-iron man event. it should help me to lose some weight also. hur hur... putting up some weight for x'mas liao. 

anyways, swimming training starts next sunday! woohoooooooo!

Aibi Eastpoint 12 Hour Endurance Race

sigh! my weekend is gonna get eatened for the next 3 weeks... sian! can't do this race. but hey, this means you other ppl got chance! 

well, this is the first of the urban races that i intend to put up. can't cover the event either, cos sigh... i'm on course this 2 weekends. 

all you need is a team of 2-4 ppl. clock the longest mileage on the treadmill in 12 hours. then ta-dah! 2000bucks! 12 hrs work. split between 4 also have $500 each! shiok ah!

details here: www.aibifitness.com

retrenchments and contests

don't you just dislike the immense amount of bad news? has it hit you hard yet? i suppose so... i've got colleagues whose family and friends are reeling from their retrenchment. the only good news is... its not at the doorway of my own family and friends... yet. 

i've been a believer that we should all live within our means. and saving for a rainy day. i've got a day-job for my 9-to-5pm. i've even got my own little business running to occupy me at night. in between time, i look out for contests which can enrich myself! (both literally and materially!)

yes, that will be my secret to staying alive this period. i guess i'm quite used to doing all that. when i was in uni, i'd be studying, teaching tuition and taking part in radio contests (to win $ lah). 

depressed? join more contests. 

the adrenaline rush while in the race will help you feel better than moping at home over the situation. and you get a work out from running around even. at least can get fitter with the number of racing contests!

and if you win something, you'd get some seratonin and dopamine rush in the head. these are 2 of the brain chemicals that make you happy! no drugs required!

if you win a holiday... take it as a time-out! consider where your life's going. 

if you win some prizes, can sell for money! fund-raise!

if you win dining vouchers, can give yourself a treat!

if you win money, huat ah! best lah... can sustain for a bit longer even. 

and for those who thinks that i should have left my job and pursue these activities full-time, hey... you have the opportunity to do so and make a living out of it now :) look on the bright side yeah?

monty hall problem

i recently caught the show 21, where a bunch of MIT students picked up what they call as card-counting techniques to beat casinos at blackjack. 

the lead was chosen because that he answered the monty hall problem.

simi lai monty hall?

well, its actually a gameshow-based question. if you have 3 doors where there is 1 car and 2 goats behind them, you pick a door out of it. if you get the car behind, BINGO! otherwise, you win the goat. bleah... 

so, you choose door 1. the host opens door 3 for you and there's a goat behind it.

now the host asks you "would you like to switch your door?"

aye or nay? 

i bet you'd say nay. the gameshow host is just trying to confuse you right? you got 50-50 chances of getting it right?

actually the answer is aye. change the door. this is the best explanation that i found so far. you'd prolly need a bit of statistical or mathematical head to grasp this. i took many a night to grasp the concept behind it. 

3 doors - Red, Green and Blue. 

P is for probablity. 

1. "Let us call the situation that the prize is behind a given door A_r, A_g, and A_b. To start with, , and to make things simpler we shall assume that we have already picked the red door."  That means the probablity of getting the prize behind any door is a third.
2. Let us call B "the presenter opens the blue door". Without any prior knowledge, we would assign this a probability of 50%. 
3. In the situation where the prize is behind the red door, the host is free to pick between the green or the blue door at random. Thus, P(B | A_r) = 1 / 2
4. In the situation where the prize is behind the green door, the host must pick the blue door. Thus, P(B | A_g) = 1
5. In the situation where the prize is behind the blue door, the host must pick the green door. Thus, P(B | A_b) = 0

Thus,

So, we should always choose the green door.

Note how this depends on the value of P(B). Another way of looking at the apparent inconsistency is that, when you chose the first door, you had a 1/3 chance of being right. When the second door was removed from the list of possibilities, this left the last door with a 2/3 chance of being right.

my aspiration

a short interruption in my tactical racing series! 

i just errr... wrote my aspiration to cycle-tour again on M1's My Aspirations . i was once a part of expedition 360, considered to be one of the last world greats in the adventure cycle for 5 weeks. it was really one of the best times in my life. the freedom was fantastic. you'd need to get up 1 hour just before daybreak (around 6am mostly), brush teeth and wash face, eat a lil.. pack up and cycle. everyday is just a continuous journey! but there's so much to see... so much to experience. sigh. makes me want to go back to where i belong liao. 

so many things to do... so little time!

anyways, do look for my aspiration! its on the recently submitted! 

playing... tactically (part 4)

4. be resourceful

when you are on a race, just use what you have. whatever you are wearing. whatever you can scavenge onto your hands. and whatever brains you and your partner(s) have.

the idea behind this is to save time. as much as you can, since every minute and every second is crucial to winning. there's a thin line between the winners and losers frequently and it bears down to the 2 seconds you can save at each stage. 

at this race that i went to, we were supposed to collect lipstick mark on a piece of tissue in a shop. first thing i thought of was... the girls who work in the store! cos its just part of professional ettiquette for them to be groomed with some lipstick. i slipped towards those girls quietly, as my competitors were just behind me. rats, they don't have any. my eyes started roving for other women in the shop! found one! i quickly explained the situation in a whisper to her. and she had that last piece of tissue. fantastic.

all this was done while.... the other team dashed out of the shop... to god-knows-where in the mall. well, do it discreetly and do spend the time explaining to people what's going on, so that they'd be cooperative and not scare them off! 

this pair of funny uncles thought they needed to keep the lipstick mark after they threw it away at the next station. they started traumatising some old japanese lady who was on tour for it. wah lau... see your desperate face liddat, you think people will give? don't scare the poor old lady lah. just tell her the situation! 

think fast on your feet and be resourceful. this is the difference between a lucky winning team and the less lucky other teams.

playing... tactically (part 3)

3. be knowledgeable

i'm both a geek and a sportsperson. i read a lot. my favourite activity on anyday is to comb the newspapers for information. no no, i don't look for the tangs sale or club21 sales. i like to read numbers, because i was schooled in statistics. i like to read about the less fortunate, and do something after if i can. i like to read, because i feel knowledge is the most important thing in the whole wide world.

i value knowledge. i splutter information out like there's no tomorrow even! haha...

this part of me helps me at races when they ask all sorts of strange questions. you puzzled about the clues? sometimes, if you had just spent 2 seconds more reading the papers, it could have helped. (otherwise, just dial your internet crew member's telephone number already!) in a race, every minute, every second counts!

either you be knowledgeable, or just k-n-o-w someone else who can do it.

and... reading helps you to find contests online too! wahahahah... ST has plenty of them every week! do i reaaaaally need to point them out? ;)

playing... tactically (part 2)

2. read your clues. REALLY carefully.

how many times in your academic life have you lost points just because you were plain careless to miss something out in your exams?

same thing here.

i've seen people trying to act smart (myself included) to try to cut some corners here and there. some people cut the right corners and others... obviously don't.

if you read your clues correctly, you waste less time trying to ho-hum around things. you can also get to exercise some creativity on how to tackle that race leg. and the best part is... you don't get DISQUALIFIED.

i feel sad for those people who try to act smart, cut corners, didn't realise its the wrong thing and end up.. disqualified. cos really, we all will get caught in such situations. illegally jaywalking when the race rules said obviously not to do so. i've seen people who were ranked 2nd end up going home with nothing just because they failed to comprehend the rules. they decided to be "smart" and failed to follow the rules.

and yes, which brings me to say this... its not just good enough to read the rules, its even more important to understand it.

some races tests both yours and the station masters' understanding of english. so read it, make sure your arguement is coherent and sound before going forward. its not fun to argue with the station master, only to have them saying judges decision is final and you have wasted time, effort and your breathe on it!

so read your clues and rules. know the regulations inside out!

playing... tactically (part 1)

you and the next team are probably on the same fitness level. you guys are probably stuck at the same leg of the race. alamak... how ah?

then it boils down to a few things...

1. you smarter or they smarter?

obviously you need to outsmart them on a particular level. there was one race where there was this bunch of really irritating uncles (i reaaaaaaaally didn't like how they were blocking my way on bus exit at the beginning of the race), some other nice people and my team stuck at the FINAL leg. my partner who's a super runner told me to relax. i knew i couldn't... i'm not a fast runner. so end up, there's only 2 ways around it. either i move faster than them at the right moment or i have to delay them somehow.

i opted to move faster than them. there were 2 bus stops nearest to the endpoint. i noticed that they were all raring to go for the latter bus-stop. so at the very final moment, i signalled to my buddy and we dashed out of the bus. hahahhaha... gosh. should have seen those uncles' faces! they scurried down the bus and tried to catch up with us.

if there is 2 kinds of people i don't like, it will be the dishonest and the unoriginal sort. wah lau, uncle... don't monkey see monkey do. you think following us will give you the break? door also no have! (chinese statement here). this is the kind that i'd do a margaret chan... CRUSH LIKE A COCKROACH!

you know the ending. of course it was a sweet one. :)

race equipment

race equipment is one of the small things that matters in how you end up performing in both urban races, triathlons and marathons.


the right shoes make sure that you go the distance without you getting blisters, sprains, aches (provided you are conditioned). the right socks make sure that your shoes work well.


wearing a comfy dri-fit helps as well. sleeves or no sleeves? need to wipe your perspiration? sleeves then. rather tan your arms? or use your scary arms to freak out the other racers? wear sleeveless! hahaha, i'm really kidding.

i usually like to wear what is called a buff as well. its a multi-function head-gear, which acts as my: towel, hairband, rubber band (to tie hair) and sports band. i perspire pretty easily, so really need to get the perspiration out of my face and eyes! (ouch! the salty sensation...)

if you are in the mood to shop this weekend and errr... help to save our nation's economy, do go to the following places! race gear sale is on! wahahhaahahahaha...

• Saucony Warehouse Sale: 15 Kaki Bukit View. got shoes between $49 to $79! i got me a new pair of racers from there.. wahahahhaha... got other stuff like running vests, shorts starting $4.90.
• Crocs Expo Sale: At the Expo lah... shoes for you to go into and out of the water. i like crocs personally.
• Millet Sale: Tat Ann Building in Jalan Pemimpin. Somewhere on Level 3. good to pick up backpacks for travelling.

contrary to what CJ from contestjunkie.blogspot.com thinks... i'm as human as it gets. really lah, i'm not invincible... just plain lucky with good team-mates and slightly blessed with brains. and sigh... i'm really really slow at running. maybe just a little faster than your average "office office" worker. 

i tell you... office workers this days are damn hardcore. while waiting for my friends to go catch madagascar today, i went running around the park just behind the office. wah, saw like at least 4 teams of runners out there. they look pretty fit and solid! and i'm like... fat from my last few weeks of inactivity (post-race syndrome... nuah!)

so i decided to commence on my training programme again. another 3 months to my first sprint aquathlon! its going to be quite an exciting first quarter in 2009! the first task at hand is to start disciplining myself. here's the plan (that i hope to stick to!)

1. bike to work starting monday (save money and keep fit!)

2. eat my $2.70 staff meal more often(cheapest you can find in town! balanced meal somemore)

3. drop weight. need to keep lean, less fried food (sigh, so hard... especially when i love my crispy lard in char kway teow...)

4. time to start the daily cross-training... (argh, so hard...) bike-swim, bike-run, bike-rest, bike-run, bike-swim... 

don't worry, i tend to cheat also. wahahahaha... aiyah, sometimes lazy lah. but definitely... no more buffets or beer till i clear the first of the races! (must at least celebrate with a beer after!)

between races

between races, i eat, i sleep and i train. 

hahaa.. just kidding. i lead a pretty normal life. i go to work, eat, sleep, train, shit, watch tv, movies, daydream, surf the web (like contestjunkie's site), read, play games (SPORE!), cook and blah blah blah... 

but of course, when you are between races, its just important to watch your direction. 

are you... 

growing fat?

becoming slower?

less witty than usual? 

ah... now you are really letting your guards down. 

you can probably take it easy, but hey... you never know when is your next race! (be it urban, adventure, triathlon, gameshow and what-not) best to stay sharp. 

how do i do it? i do my basic race training... i run, i bike to work, i play strategic games with friends at games cafes. i lurve games cafe! especially ticket to ride! (i lurve it so much that i would actually try to agitate my friends into taking me down... then i'd mount an attempt to trash them flat out. no mercy!)

if you guys are interested in games cafe stuff, just drop me a note :) 

basic racing training

macham bmt... except this is brt. 

there's no such thing as a free lunch. and as you might have read by now... i is a VELY slow runner. in fact, some race mates call me "mel the slow-ass". sigh... these people born without lungs one, they are super human fast! amongst them are some of the BEST adventurer racers in singapore (apparently they got ranked at dusk to dawn by ace adventure) and there is one more iron-man "wannabe". how can i join them? 

aiyah, anyways... i know i'd never be there. but its ok! i got brains to compensate. wahahha... 

now then onto the real topic. 

T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G

most people find it incredible how triathletes even can get themselves into a race. i find it incredible how they don't think its possible. 

its possible. if anyone asks, tell them i told you so. (just like the many other i told you so... like i told you that i'm a smart-ass right?)

i personally train myself to run at least 5km twice a week. on sundays, i swim, run and go for my yoga class. now that's around 4 hours of exercise over there. this is the reason why we know how far our limits are. everytime that i race, i know that i can last 4 hours at this pace that i go. 

other people go in point-blank thinking with some stroke of luck, they can win. yes, they can. but what's the chances when you have some ultra-fit triathlete/ironman against you? better luck next time! 

i suck at running, so all the more i put time and effort into this. hey, we can all say we are zonked out, wiped out and whatever... but when it comes down to the crunch, you'd wish you had just won by 2 seconds ahead of that chao *beep* kuan uncle. (happened to me before, but i beat the uncles still. wahahah...)

so yes, train. run. swim. yoga. bike. whatever. 

even half an hour a day goes a very long way. i trained for around 7 months before embarking onto my first olympic distance triathlon this year. must say i was fairly impressed by what 7 months does. my friends are talking about doing the half-iron in desaru or prolly the aviva 70.3... sigh. if only mel finds the courage. then again, she just might. :) 

train!

contest junkies unite!

i is very excited as someone in the contestjunkie blog team actually found me blog! wahahaha... 

thanks, this was intended as a tempsite till i find a more glam name you see. looks like my branding is stuck for good now. =) 

cj was featured on tnp the same day as i was... i guess we all would like to help the small guy win, take something home and be happy. especially in this uncertain economic times, its just a nice bonus to have to perk things up for us and all once in a while. 

my friend's the journo and at the interview, i told her that i'm really not a hardcore contest junkie... despite my uni friends telling me to quit my job and pursue this fully. oh come on, we all know the truth... 

as singaporeans, we will always always prefer to have a stable day job. play stocks in between. win a little something something in between. and life's sweet.

and frankly, i think only the americans can do so. if only i was ever selected on who wants to be a millionaire... sharks, i tell you... if i won, i would have just packed up the bags and go live in kenting, taiwan for as long as i wanted to! hahahaha... 

that's us, the contest junkies, the dreamers, the wannabes... hey, you buy toto for a small glimpse of hope... don't you? 

the categories

most urban racers don't realise it... there are categories in which they fit into:

you've got the:

1. super fit athletes (who can win out of pure strength and little wit, just because they are able to arrive earlier by sheer power).
2. the uncles and aunties out to make a buck (who really can only win with nothing but luck)
3. the students (there to have fun)
4. the strategists (think that they are so damn smart and sure will win)
5. the friendly ones (there also for fun)

actually, there's no such thing as 1 category. typically the winners are made of some of the characteristics above.

i think i behave like 1 (only that i'm really just a below average runner), 4 and 5. i guess my mind had been long built to be a strategist... even my personality test thinks so too. i'm right smack between an Introverted and Extroverted person, with Intuitive Thinking Judgement. that's right... in the myer-briggs test, i'm both an intj and an entj. by being an entj, i suffer from the ceo's personality - which also gives me an extra edge to cut off the 2s and 3s. the only ones who can beat me, will be number 1s. really.

online crew

your online crew is just as important as your onsite team-mate. as seconds and minutes tick away while your team races away physically, your online crew can help you to shave off minutes, make better informed decisions and essentially make or break your race.

what are the essentials to your online crew: he/she has to be...

• resourceful with online materials - google, skypigeon, streetdirectory
• have a pair of sharp ears - how to hear you when you are panting for your breath and reading instructions otherwise?
• quick with his/her fingers to tap out everything and click!
• discerning enough to sieve through the data that google sends
• be able to provide precise and sharp instructions.
  

i've found my best online crew to be christine. she's great i tell you. fast, accurate and incredibly resourceful. our bus journeys are smoother thanks to the fact that she's a bus person. and she's very fast with information, since she is a researcher professionally. i am really glad to have found her, because anyone can do the job, but no one can deliver as well as she can.

i dedicate this post to christine goh.

partner choice

this is something that nobody can ignore. if things don't work out while racing, you can put it onto luck... you can put it onto lousy organisers who never forsee bottlenecks... and so on... but if there is one thing you have some level of control over - it will be your partner/team-mates.

i've been "racing" on tv, radio and offline since i was in uni. now that's a full solid 5 years of experience. i realised that despite all the "brillance" that i may have, there are still portions of imperfections... with my plans... with my lack of experience... with my horrible running technique... so on.

the only way you can compensate, is to find a partner who can complement your skillsets according to the race needs.

example 1: dumb tv gameshow - even the lowest position gets a prize. that means i don't have to win the top necessarily, since i'd get to walk home with some prize money regardless.

i just need a partner who is family. anyone can deliver... even my ridiculous and silly sister (more about her another time). so all i have to do, is convince her to do it. since i'm the one with the brains, she is co-oped for the reason that i need family to do it and nobody else in the family is free. needless to say, she has to be someone cooperative.

example 2: any race requiring endurance - obviously it will be my everest brudder yk. he's the only one nuts enough to give up school for 1 year to pursue everest. and he's got himself a reputation since he won some paperhouse challenge a few years back.

he's also like what i call as "the brudder from another marder", we think very alike and behave extremely alke. we could say the same thing at the same time in the same tone. scary, isn't it?

however, since i've discovered C... everyone else pales in comparison.

example 3: any race requring speed and brains. since i have the brains to plan tactical and i obviously cannot run well enough to save my life, the only sane thing to do is to pick someone whom is fast and willing to take your advice. ego gets you no $ in a race, only quick thinking with quick feet does.

choose someone with a complementary skill to yours. otherwise, there is nothing new brought to the table in terms of experience. its like a marriage of sorts, getting someone or a team who can bring your skills higher and in turn... maybe take a little something home.

"you complete me" jerry macguire.

luck

while we can all be high-handed schmucks and be total unbelievers of a thing called luck/destiny/fate and so on... more often than not, this is the most important factor. you might be able to run fast, you may be reaaaaaaally good at the tasks, or better still... you have the best tactics.

but!

its no point the moment you don't have luck.

luck accounts for at least 30% of your race. like it or not, this makes or breaks your race. and i put it down to something really simple to get you some GOOD luck - karma.

example 1:
2 guys that i know were in the same urban race as i was. while they were still at their 1st stop, my team has already scored at an earlier location. my team gave them help to their 2nd and 3rd point. not only did we not get a thank you for helping, they sprinted off without giving us any help to the next location. i was annoyed, but i didn't realise how strongly this would come back onto them eventually.

they came in 2nd. however, its a FIRST-OR-NOTHING race. the 1st prize winners got a trip overseas and they had to be permanent residents to enjoy it. now, the winners were foreigners in my land; BUT unfortunatedly for the 2 guys, they are PRs.

see how karma bounces back? always in the worst possible means.

example 2:
when it feels like its all.. fated. i was in another race, where every single leg was somewhere at or near places where i used to work! lets see... i was working at the port authority, that covers vivocity and harbourfont. i worked along bukit timah road, where a 2nd location was. and at my latest workplace in orchard, the race location is directly opposite my current office.

this is fate. you can't beat fate.

karma and fate. how do you accumulate more of the good ones?

1. pay it forward. return favours that other racers or it will be like example 1.
   
2. be nice. when racing, we probably are too competitive to be nice. but, make sure at least you are nice off-racing hours.
   
3. donate a portion of your winnings. this is a policy that i've stuck to. at least 5 to 10% of my winnings find their way to a charity which i select. previous year winnings have gone to tsunami aid, hurricane and earthquake relief in the region.
   

zettai!!! means 绝对 in japanese.

this blog is zettai-mel. absolutely mel.

ppl know me to be:

• organised
• tactical
• athletic
  
• funny
• a nightmare to deal with if you cross my path

now, why does this place exist? is it to tell you about what i am? no, its not.

the purpose is to talk about being a better player when you go out to play in races. races of any nature - urban races, triathlons, gameshows and games cafe etc. a lot of things in games are really just pure common sense, a whole host of discipline and snap moment decision making skills.

lets share our gaming knowledge and become better players!