Naughty boy

Haha.. I did something bad today. I'm currently not supposed to do any form of exercise whatsoever as it will make me strain and cause me to clench my jaw muscles. Supposedly this can move the mandible fragments causing malunion. But it's been a whole month of avoiding the gym and frankly I've been feeling strange, like I'm missing something. The inactivity seems to have contributed to my visibly shrinking muscle mass and rapid weight loss refractory to increased caloric intake. So today when nobody was home, I bladed out to the MRT to deposit some cash and reset my IB password. (good excuse huh?)

It was a good day to blade albeit a little hazy with a PSI of 74. There was a light breeze though. I was done in probably under 20 minutes. On the way back I picked up some low fat milk at NTUC without taking off my blades! Surprisingly, nothing untoward happened when I tried this stunt. No middle aged aunties scolding me for endangering their poor kids who are entitled to run around like monkeys who've contracted SSE (the simian variant of BSE?)

The fresh air and exercise certainly felt good. My exercise tolerance is still low though - felt exhausted after coming back and the medial aspect of my knee joints were hurting. The knee pain was probably due to bad form.

Thankfully, this random act of recklessness did not result in any mishaps. I almost fell down once but regained my balance. I should probably stick to my ban on exercise from now on - I might not be so lucky next time. Bad ck!!

Room rearrangement

Spent most of today shifting my room furniture around. Yet again. This time, since I'm planning to keep constant track of my inventory (aka possessions. haven't played role playing games (RPGs) before? welcome to the modern world, Mr Cro-Magnon. mozzies and roaches? still around.) I've been categorizing all my junk, selling the unwanted stuff and junking the worthless trash.

For some weird reason when we moved into our current home, I decided somewhere along the line that I need two tables in my room. One for the computer and one for studying. And I stuck to that over-indulgent, greedy and wasteful thinking despite the shopkeeper telling me that perhaps I needed only 1 table (this really goes to show how redundant two tables were - the thought was so stupid even the shopkeeper was willing to lose profit to make me wake up my idea). And so we bought two tables and shifted them into position. Predictably, one of them ended up being a white elephant. And neither of them were really good at what they were meant to do.

The computer table had a special feature which allowed you to hang your CRT under the table and look down on it as you worked. I remember being quite impressed (in fact i thought it was cool & unique.) While it seemed alright in theory, the actual implementation left something to be desired. There's a reason most monitors are placed flat on tables. At least the monitor bracket thingy worked fine albeit a little weird when I was using my 15" CRT. But my 15" died and I replaced it with a 19" behemoth which predictably didn't fit the damn holder. So I placed it on the desk itself, left the holder to rot and ended up paying a premium for a useless feature. Damn I am an idiot.

The other table didn't fare very well either. This table was much simpler in design. But it was not meant to be. Despite my good intentions in buying a study table (to study on of course), I failed to take into account my own needs. I ended up spending all of my time at the computer table and turned the study table into a convenient parking space for all my junk.

I took like half a decade to realise the enormity of my retardation and hence was in a hurry to salvage whatever I could of the situation. How? By listing the computer table for sale (since it had such an extravagantly redundant feature, I was hoping to find another person who fell for such gimmickry). Sadly, all the bids were way too low.

So I handed it down to my youngest sis since she didn't really have a proper study table (hers was quite small). She didn't seem very happy about it - "okay lor.. can lor.. whatever lor.." - in fact she seemed to be positively sulking. Hmph. Wonder what's up with her. But I must give her credit for being sensible - we were going to buy her a K700i but she is still thinking about whether she needs to buy a handphone! That's rather good thinking from a 14 year old - judging from my past record, if it'd been me at 14, not only would I have bought a new one but I would have picked an expensive model with useless frills. Like with the tables. Urgh! Thinking about it makes me mad.

Oh well now that I've cleared some more space in my room I can rearrange it again! More fun..

In the course of packing my room, I've really discovered lots of unwanted things that I spent money on without thinking about whether I truly needed it. So I wrote down a few points about how to buy things in future:

Buying

1. List and prioritize.
2. Buy only if it's really really really needed.
   
3. Do research before buying - make sure you get what is suitable for you. Don't regret later and change because you lose money with every transaction.
   
4. Consider how much you can sell it for before buying it then try to get it lower or as close as possible to the selling price eg if buying a handphone, look at the trade in and resale prices - pay less or close to these prices.
   
5. Buy second hand if possible
6. Buy bulk & wholesale if possible
7. Don't buy if you can't get a good deal

Selling

1. Always keep your stuff in as mint a condition as possible - you'll get a better price when you sell it plus it lasts longer too.
2. Have an inventory so you know what you have at the moment.
   
3. Always file your receipts, warranty cards, packaging and documentation nicely - you'll get a better price plus you can check your records easily when you need to.

Long winded huh? There's plenty more where that came from. I've been creating many lists. I find that they help me to make decisions faster and easier. If there's anything I've learnt over the past few weeks it's that it pays to be organized. Being organized improves efficiency, freeing up time to do the things you like. I'd rather get the boring stuff over with fast than spent hours tormented by doing it slowly. It's like venepuncture - the faster and surer your needle, the less the patient suffers.

Blog migration

Still thinking about whether I should migrate to MSN Spaces and abandon Blogger. Shall sit on it.

MSN Spaces

Pros:
1. Neater - easier to edit layout, design
2. Linked to MSN Messenger - automatically informs my list when I update, possibility of limiting access
3. Easier to manage - photo album, music, custom lists, built-in trackback support

Blogger

Pros:
1. Much more customisable, not limited to dull and uninspiring templates - can edit template directly, many custom templates available
2. Direct url - "evilck.blogspot.com" vs "http://spaces.msn.com/members/evilck/"
3. Management options not built in but can definitely be added with some effort - trackback, photo album, etc

So the only real difference is the MSN Messenger integration? Have come to a decision - shall stick to blogger and update MSN Messenger via RSS feed. Time for breakfast!

KFC porridge?

Sneaking in a post while I defrag my C:\ drive - it's been quite stressed out with all that backing up, restoring and file moving. The free space is getting quite fragmented. Now's a good time to tidy it up since I've finally finished straightening out my HDD contents. Yay!

So anyway, I got quite bored of the usual food today so I decided to try something new. KFC porridge! You heard me right - just blend in the chicken meat like any other meat. Turns out the spicy version is extremely salty and spicy. It was quite tough to swallow down and I ended up having to dilute it quite a bit. But it was interesting to try.

I think my fondness for KFC has decreased even further. When I was young (primary school?), my parents were quite strict about fast food and we hardly ever got to eat it. One of the rare occasions which warranted such unhealthy food choices was the birthday of either of the 3 kids. We would all troop down to the Toa Payoh KFC (think it is still in the same location) and stuff ourselves silly with chicken. The Toa Payoh branch used to be one of the better branches in terms of chicken QC (a term that I think Andrew the purveyor of fine chicken rice will be familiar with). They also had nice big tables that could fit our larger than average family. Anyway, I think we kids soon outgrew our infatuation with fast food when we could have much of it as we wanted in secondary school. Forbidden fruit when made freely available somehow loses its sinful appeal. The fact that Mum cooks really nice healthy food (i love her vegetables) also helped a lot. I think you'll find that I don't really have a taste for unhealthy food, maybe a very occasional craving for ice cream or Chinese sausages at the maximum.

But I really need to increase my caloric intake right now: my latest weight is like 10% off my pre-operation weight. 5 kgs weight lost in 2 weeks - definitely significant. definitely envy inducing (for girls who think they need to lose weight ie all the fairer sex). The combination of dexamethasone, physical and mental stress from the operation and blood loss as well as reduced caloric intake sure is effective. No wonder those cancer patients look so cachectic.

Hmm I guess I'll have to take more meals.

My plan:

1. 4 meals a day - breakfast 9-10am, lunch 1-2pm, dinner 6-7pm & supper 10-11pm
2. Ensure x 0.5l x 3 - breakfast, lunch, supper
3. Half boiled eggs x 3 at breakfast, fruit juice + low fat milk at lunch, porridge and Fybogel drink at dinner, milo at supper
4. Stick to the damn timings, eat in 15 min and brush in 5 min - I am the king of procrastination and dragging out my meals.
5. Proper meal preparation - Blend, sieve, repeat x1. What doesn't go through the sieve ain't gonna get through my wired up teeth - mai tu liao throw it away

That should give me about 3200 Cals at least. Should be enuff. Hope my weight goes back up, but it'll most probably be fat because I am not exercising. Can only walk around. *sigh* walk more lor...

P.S. Think I might be shifting over to MSN Spaces if I can be bothered to copy this site over. It's neater there but not so customisable. A big plus is that you can limit viewers to those oKIV la.

Tidying up

Wow, it's only been 4 days since my last post, but it already feels like an eternity! Many things happened. Right now, I'm in the midst of restoring the backups for my computer after I formatted it.

Backing up 50Gb of data sure is no mean feat. Took me more than a day to accomplish. Even copying it back to the harddisk is a hassle. It takes so long! I can't even play DOTA while waiting because there isn't enough free disk space for me to install anything. So I'm stuck here typing while taking a break from packing my room. Yes, you heard me right - the usually messy and slack ck actually bothered to tidy up his room after millions of failed attempts. I must say that I am in fact progressing quite well and fast! The room already looks quite tidy. I think the main reason why it's so simple this time is because I've had time to think it through.

I think going for the jaw operation and the subsequent bed rest (house arrest?) has really been of great benefit to me. For some unknown reason, I started thinking about the direction my life was taking. Had many many brilliant ideas, (If I do say so myself, heh heh..) so much so that I only slept 4 hours from Monday to Wednesday 2am. That was quite weird. I would feel quite tired (physically, not mental fatigue) but whenever I tried to sleep, I kept getting great ideas! Bizarre, isn't it? It was almost like I had tapped into some enhanced mode. At one point I started to suspect that I was bipolar and this was in fact the first presentation (mania). Luckily I finally settled into a more or less normal sleeping pattern last night (2am -> 9am). Such a great disturbance in the Force - must be the result mental and emotional stress from the operation. So anyway, my thoughts are now quite well prioritised - shall post them when I've polished them further.

Oh, not to forget updates on my healing status! I am glad to announce that I have graduated from Syringe School! It is with great disdain that I throw aside these flimsy implements (they kept getting stuck towards the end) and embrace the culinary progress afforded to me by the cup! My blending powers have also leveled up. Eating is great!

Only B to C need apply! Haha.

Follow up with the surgeon today - bad news - the wound is infected with heavy growth of E.coli (the doctor took a sample and sent it for culture on Monday). I bet it was injected into the wound from a dirty syringe. Syringes are really difficult to clean. *sigh* Change of antibiotics to Ciprobay tablets which taste really bad and are damn expensive. Should have asked for the generic syrup version, damn!
Proceeded to collect the sisters' PC from my cousin (he's a damn nice guy, always helping with computer problems) at Funan then went to TTSH to buy Ensure, gargle and paracetamol in bulk. Also closed a deal yay! Quite a fulfilling day, shall finish up my study table tidying!