Board Chopping, Paper Folding Art

Dear bloggie,

Rather cool title eh... I actually took this title from one of my holy bibles "The Art & Craft of Problem Solving". What it means literally is that one need both tough and softness.

I recently taken a test in an interview where the result rather surprised me. I scored 39/60 but it's not the mark that put me in alarm. It's how I obtain the mark. I always prided myself as a hands on guy especially in programming. Hence you can imagine my state of mind when the test revealed I scored more in theory and experience based question compared to syntax strict programming questions. While the syntax strict programming questions are really trick questions, but it does make me wonder have I lost my edge in programming by doing to much to practical programming?

When the interviewer went through the question with me, it hit me hard just how much fundamental basics of Java, went dormant in me because I do practical programming. What do I actually mean by practical programming here? Practical programming I talking about is the programming habits we have when we strive to maximum output or get the system to bend at our will. Often, we will draw the Force from the "dark" side to get the system to work, especially when there's a insanely short dateline. I can't remember the amount of times when I , "OMG WTF!!? Where got enuff time la? %#&^&$#!!!" then proceed to hard code everything as they come into my mind without proper analysis/planning/etc in a mad rush to get the module working in time for the dateline. Evil indeed... And another one practice that I think all of us programmer tend to do, over rely on our editor. I had a collegue that practically use the editor to do everything, create ejb, create hibernate dao, create hibernate beans, eat dinner etc.. The problem you see is we lose our ability to program without our editor. If you gimme a plain notepad and console to do programming, I will hang myself on the spot. While we all have a rational logic to over rely on the editor, I means why not delegate the API and syntax things to the editor and concentrate more on important task like designing OO structure, etc.

So what is the solution? I think we need our editors, we will need to hard code, we will need the "Dark Side" of the force to meet our dateline, but ultimately we need to be aware of it's effect. Maybe we ought to revise our ancient old text book once a while or take online java tests to maintain our edge? Coz u definitely dun want to break down in a sweat when u see a syntax specific question in a interview test (with no editor in hand) for a job u really want.

Wet Monk

Dear bloggie,

Was washing my eye, ogling at "wet" luis running at the Setia Eco 1/2 Marathon Run when I spotted...



At least beats last year photo finish...



Lesson of the run, when you know you got photo finish pix, near the finish line, dun run like 1/2 death man even if ur 1/2 death...

Invidiualism

Dear bloggie,

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not ~Andre Gide.

I recall my first encounter with the bombastic word "Individualism" way back in High School Form 2, when my BM teacher was using that word to describe the negatives culture of the modern society. Back then, I merely accepted the fact "Individualism" as a bad thing. Fast forward 10+ years, I now see it in a different light. While it's all good and etc to have a united human race that tries to thinks alike, pretends to be alike and try to bullsh*ts alike...

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not. ~Henri Frederic Amiel

I think ultimately we aren't alike and shouldn't have to pretend to be alike nor force others to be alike. We should be who we really are... For good or bad... But problem is what is really who we are? How do we separate the true us from the us that been brainwashed by our society norms and ethics? Does there even exists a true us deep inside of us? Or are we just who we pretend we are...? After all, I think I am, therefore I am...

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss

Having worked/slaved as a javammer for quite some years already, I know how hard it is especially for introvert peoples like me to adapt to this career line. We came in this line to deal with logic, yet we ended up dealing with illogical dateline, clients and technology. Our employees expect us to adapt to changes, be a team player, blablabla... And I understand our employees pay us to be productive, but it's time like tis that I really feel like a hooker. Not only programmer line, almost every career, there is a stereotype mold which we need to comply to. And what strike me as funny is most of the time, it's we whom bend to fit these mold rather than the mold bends to fit us. Why do I find it funny? Because we are the ones that created these stupid mold to begin with and yet here we are at the mercy of these molds. I not saying that we should just run wild like a cowboy or etc but I guess what I'm trying to say is we should not forget or ignore who we really are.

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise. ~Johann Von Goethe.

Running in the rain

Dear bloggie,

Tis without a doubt the most amusing, nostalgia and 2nd toughest 10K (1st is Adidas King of The Hill Road) I ran. Quite a memorable run as I manage to accomplish 2 things.

First I managed to clock a 56 min 13 sec time, which is a HUGE improvement over last year run where I clocked 1 hour 9 min 44 sec. But in positioning however, only manage to improve 4 rungs, from 132 to 128.

Secondly, I did what I wanted to do for a long time, walk in the rain. Yea, was raining pretty hard at the 3 quarter of the run. For a brief moment, I felt 14, the age when I also happened to ran in the rain for my school's "Merentas Desa" event.

Personally, running in the rain is pretty hard. While the rain cool my body down, the rain water gets absorb by my vest, pants and shoes makes me feel heavier. Besides the gust of wind provides resistance while running, making me either slowing down or pushing my quads harder to run forward. I ran a pretty slow 1st quarter, reaching the 1st water station at the 2K mark at around 18 min but I surprised even myself when I reached the 2nd water station at the the 5K mark at 26 min! Then I ran outta gas at my 30 min limit. Recuperate for 3 min before hitting the road again. This was when it started to rain. Had to break down and walk a few times before somehow managing to cover the remaining 5K with a few minutes left from the 1 hour mark. Ended soaked wet and with blurry vision (glasses wet) when I crossed the finish line. Don't think I will get a good finishing photo (Yea, they will attach the photo to the cert, last year one my finish photo damn cacat, was with 1/2 dead face walking to finish line).

Resistance Band

Dear bloggie,

Yea, spoil myself again. Bought these bands from Fitness Concept for a hefty RM57.



And no, I'm not into rubber toys sex.

Bought these suckers mainly to do the reverse fly exercise which I have problem doing using dumbbells. I tested the resistance, too weak for my other muscle except for my posterior deltoids (back shoulder). Can easily do a bicep curl, maybe should have gotten a level 3 resistance one (My one is level 2). Will test doing these workout by stretching the band longer tomorrow, if snap got 3 days warranty >_<

Anyway, was planning to buy the cheapest one but while testing the cheapest band, the band suddenly snap. After considering decided to fork out more moolah to get better one as I dun fancy this band snapping when I really pulling this band to max. Imagine the band snapping and flying to ur face...