21. Why Black People run faster, White People Swim faster?

Back in my school days, one of my coach told me that Black People have a denser bone, so physically they are born with a strong skeleton system which can hold together their muscle and body mass stronger than the rest of the people. So, whenever they run they can run faster than the rest. However, since their bone is denser, whenever they swim their body will sink and create a big drag. That why U C in Olympic 100m run most/all are black in color and in swimming event all is white/yellow color.

Once can always count argue that black are generally poor and there is no access to swimming pool other than river, pond and seas. Swimming may cost $$ in certain country, googles, fin, etc. Then it is a technical sport because water is 780x denser than air. Good coaching for improved swimming skill is required so that one can swim with less drag. Well, the argument goes on.  Running is free and running skill is pretty much established in africa. For more than 30 years, I did not progress with this theory, a theory without any verification. Then one fine day, I came across an article in a medical journal. That somewhat confirm my coach statement. 30 years confirmation. In summary,

“The prevalence of osteoporosis is influenced by ethnicity and race. African Americans have both lower rates of osteoporosis and higher bone mass. However, the consequences of fracture are not lower in this ethnic group. Mortality after hip fracture is higher among African American women than among white women [22].Mar 23, 2011”

The full article can be found below.

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111798/

that what I want in life, not just theory2 only. Confirmation!==> then in become a FACT.

20. "Won't do issue" vs "Can't do issue"

 Long ago, I overheard my boss conversation with another boss over a company meal. The discussion focus on how to get their employees to perform. So, he said it all boil down to 2 issues which is “Won’t do issue” and “Can’t do issue”.

In “Can’t do issue”, the employee does not have the skill to perform the required job thus you should give him more training and opportunity to learn. You must get to the bottom of this and properly assess whether the employee have the required skill to perform that job.

In the case of “Won’t do issue”, the employee does not want to do it. It may due to “attitude problem” or “remuneration problem”.  Their conversation stopped there. The rest of the details below is my own interpretation.

First, one should properly assess their employee potential. What they are capable of and what they are not? Then only address the won’t do issue. For attitude problem, it is may be due to fairness or ego issue. This has to be addressed at company level. For remuneration problem, perhaps the incentive structure is wrong. For example, a big Telco operator would like their staff to be certified in Cisco CCNA certification but most of their staff is reluctant to do so. Well, the manager can say it is part of their KPI but then not concrete came out from that. I told them just make a new scheme, “Certification Allowance of RM100 per month”, then every staff will get their certification done without much issue.

So what is the worst case scenario? Over the years, I came to a conclusion for a nasty situation. Let assume it is Mr X. Mr X is not capable of doing the task begin assigned to him. Yet not only he grabs the task and prevented others from performing it, he also boasted that he knows all the stuff. Then he will assign the task to his lower sub-ordinate. He will not be able to properly supervise them. Then, in case the job get partial done, he won’t remunerate his lower sub-ordinate and take all the credit. This is a typical mid-level manager in Malaysia. So, it is “Can’t do and won’t do + lie (won’t tell U the truth) Issue”.

19. Grab Driver Stories.

 Story 1: Jump airplane and work in Korea, Japan, Australia before

In Australia I Slaughter pigs. If you did not break the law, you can move around easily. No one will be there to stop you.  I thought the emigration department will send people to check. Well, he told me that is on the remote farm side. He said “Over my place, I even got a car under my name, I move around easily. As long as did not break the traffic rule or commit crime, I am good to go. The toughest to work is in South Korea, expectation is higher there. “

Story 2: Canteen operator.

The toughest part is when your worker did not come to work. Then you become a slave. You have to do everything. The factory provides everything kitchen, rent-free, cooking utensil, gas. All you need is to buy food and cooked them for factory workers.

Planning is important, Pork is not halal, most of the time you are stuck with chicken and eggs cause nepalist worker does not take beef. Lamb is too expensive so does prawn, fish and sotong. From time to time, you may get few fishes if it is cheap.

10 kg rice bag can be eaten by 80 persons or 60 persons if it is foreigner.

Each chicken can be broken into 12 parts, each part you earn only 50 cents.

Foreigner will take lot of rice, 1-2 dishes and many curries. There is nothing much to earn from foreign worker, on top of that you have to wash all the dishes for them. For 3 years I never have rest. Sickness come. The $$ is there but your body just could not take it anymore. The factory did called me back but  I cannot tahan already. So I left.

Story 3: Restaurant

First you must learn how to cut vegetables and meat. Then only you learn how to cook. The fried rice, fried mee is given to low ranking cook. The high end dishes you (restaurant owner) prepare yourself. It how you innovate, yesterday rice become today fried rice sell at cheaper price.  

Story 4: Longest Distance

What is the longest distance you drove? Well, there was one family missed their flight in KLIA. Their destination is Krabi, everything was booked. So, they asked me (the GRAB driver) to drove them all the way to Krabi. So, I drove them to Bukit Kayu HItam and liased with a Thailand VAN driver there. The van driver took them to Krabi. It was a very tiring trip.

 

Story 5: Economy Rice Operator Cum Taxi Driver.

I am earning double income, KLIA Taxi Driver + Economy Rice. U C I now own a new Nissan for the taxi operation. I earn about RM10K a month for my taxi operation. Then, I asked another independent taxi driver with private clientele. He told me in great detail that even if that fellow work 8 hours a day, he cannot make RM10K a month from taxi. On average 1 trip will be RM150/= then when u reached KLIA there is a 2 hour queue for your turn. So, all in 1 day you can make about 3.5 trips. Which is RM525/- then minus the expenses and car rental+maintenance. It will be a good around RM200 a day x 30 days = RM6000/-. Where got 10K. True enough later a few year onwards, he sold off his Nissan and no longer drove taxi. I asked him why few years later? He said he saw GRAB is coming so he got out early.

Lately, I bump up with that independent taxi driver, I asked this COVID-19 pandemic, how are you managing yourself. He said “Well, luckily I got some saving. If not I will be starving!”

18. ZI Wei Dou Shu A waste of time.

 It is a great waste of time studying something where the opportunity to apply it is limited. Many people are scared to disclose their date and time of birth (compulsory element in Zi Wei Dou Shu fortune telling calculation). Some scare that you’ll make witch craft (I bet even if I study 10 Phd I won’t be able to do it). Other simply felt it is a breach of their privacy. More than 50% will give a hypocrite answer or action, “Oh I don’t believe in fortune telling”, yet they did not disclose their details.

 So, you end up with a limited set of people who are willing to provide you with such data. Therefore, your ability to practice it is limited. Most of the time, it will be self-experimenting whether your own life calculation is right or not. One of the important things, is to have a brief characteristic of people behaviour especially those who you are dealing with frequently. Well, in this case, physiognomy (Facial fortune telling) will be a better option. Aiyah! Got to study again.

17. Morning guy, Evening Guy, Neither one.

 

In the evening guy theory, it goes like this. When I woke up, I am fresh with ideas. It a great waste to put my energy into exercise. After I done with my morning exercise, my body became very tired and the whole day is spoilt as I unable to concentrate on my work. I ended up sleeping in my office. I am a writer, I need fresh brain power to do my creative writing. Thus, after I have exhausted my mental energy by noon or evening, it is time to go for an exercise. My mind is tired but my body still has plenty of energy. After exercising, both mind and body is tired, so there is a high probability that I will sleep well during the night and the cycle repeat itself.

Surprising there also exist a morning guy theory, every morning I must go for a medium to heavy workout before I go to work by 10am. If I did not do that, that by noon, my body engine will be overheating. It’s difficult to do work by then. Thus, I must burn off a great part of my energy in the morning, then I have less energy problem to deal with in the evening.

There also exist, people who can do morning and evening without any major side-effect to their work. Which type of person do you belong to? When you are still young, you can give it a try to see which one is more suitable for you.

16. Saucony 30km 4th August 2019 . Personal Race Report.

A day before a group of students promised to come to a class, at 9 am. I planned out everything, as I switched on the car, the car cannot start due to a battery problem. Damn, I got to rush to my office. Well, let cycle there, just about 40 mins cycle I can still reach there. I thought I was late, and then when I pump and cycle to the office, there is no student. All of them FFK, (let go airplane), shit. I should have called the GrabCar service. Then I won't be so tired.

So, on the way I cycled back, I took my breakfast at the food court and went to a car workshop. I asked them to come to my house to fix the car battery at 10 am. Well, I the boss, my workers haven' t arrived yet, they are still Zzzz. I think they will come at 11-12 am. OK.lah. No choice I have to wait for you.

Later at 11:45, he came to change the car battery. The car was functioning again. I told him what happened to his worker, well their family are too rich. Even if I deduct their salary, they will still be more than willing. Every month I deduct RM300/-, they don't feel any pain. Otherwise, how do you find workers? Soon after he left, there was heavy rain.

Then I went and collected the race kit. I was thinking of selling off my BIB as my hamstring is still pulling. Then I tried to find out more information, whether there is a luggage keeping facility, where to park the car for the race. I cannot find such information. I asked for help in Alam Damai Whatup group, and someone forwarded me with the info. Later I filed a complaint at the Saucony FB page.

"very poor organizer. No road block information, where should we park our car. WHich route will be closed on that day.  this information not given. No luggage drop off for participants. Shit organizer. Later i found out the info in https://www.facebook.com/Mysportsdiary/posts/1289859947855489

You want to give info, give properly lah. Don;t give one piece here and there. Hell finding these informations. You put it at https://www.ticket2u.com.my/…/127…/saucony-run-malaysia-2019 then habis cerita lah. Lucky I know some runner, if not tomorow, i may missed out something.

"

36 hours b4 the race, I took calcium and magnesium pills. Sleep early at about 10:30pm. Set my alarm at 3:50 am. Then around 2:30 am I woke up. WTF, I want to wake up at 3:50 mah! Not now. Then, I sleep again at 3:00 something! Got alarm mah. But the bell did not ring!

"When I woke up, damn it was 6:30 am. The run starts at 5 am. Worst, I forgot to lock the side gate; some foreign workers went into my house to sleep at my couch. Damn, I have to kick them out. What should I do? Then I don't know what happens?"

Then I woke up again it was 4:25 am. Thank god it was a bad dream!. Thank god for giving me a 2nd chance. I rushed to the car. Damn, the car did not start again! WTF. I just changed the battery yesterday. Don't tell me I have to cycle again. Oh! I just put the gear in park mode then the car can start. It is a vehicle safety feature. Thank God.

Then I rush to the race location, put some deep heat on the hamstring. Hopely I can last for 30 km without hamstring. Well, no hamstring but cramp elsewhere. Well, I learned my lesson from my last marathon. I need to control my pace. So I keep it with 6min to 6:20 per km. when my pace is 5:50 and below I tried to slow down. I was able to keep this pace till 21km. Then I started to bonk.! Damn, it must be due to the cycling done yesterday which I have yet to recover. I was trying to make

sure I do not pull my hamstring, so my running is compensated with other muscle groups. Some parts of your muscle which you never think it will cramp started to cramp. This experience is worse than my previous marathon. Then my feet cramped cannot move at all. So later, when the cramp recovered, I tried to run 50 meters and walk 20 meters. It was working for a while. Then at KM 22, the 3hr:15min (30km) pacer went past me for the last time. I thought 3:15 is gone lah.

Then during a downhill, I ran too fast and did not recover from that. From the last 28 km, I virtually walk to the finish line. Then I reached 30km on my watch, damn the finish line is still 500m away. Damn, later the clock show it was 30.62km. My time was 3:41. Well off my initial target 3:15.

Later I saw my Alam Damai runner friend. I asked what is your time 2:47 or 2:57 I cannot recall. He said "Why so slow?". In my mind well, I run much faster than you wow! During the ADR interval training. How come you finished so fast?. Later I found out, while they took their group photo I was still running!

Now I learned my lesson, only 1 big event every month. Max 2 events but must be 2 weeks apart. Before any event, I will have sufficient rest and don' t get injured. I must start to do some weight training as my muscle is not strong enough and can get injured easily. I planned to do more BRICK training such as cycle for 1.5 -2 hours and run for 1 hour after that. It's less damaging for my leg. 


Let hope; I can achieve my dream sub-4 hour marathon — still a long way to go. Later on Tuesday, some of the Alam Damai runners did hill interval after 30km run. Well how can their body standard such a work-out, my whole leg is still in aching pain. I guess my age is catching up.

15. Why certain stall’s food is always fresh?

June 09, 2019
Some food operator depends on supplier to supply them the raw fishes, prawn, vegetable and etcetera. Some go to NSK supermarket, pasar borong etcetera to buy themselves directly. Some do half-half, where certain things they took from suppliers, specific things they will go market to buy themselves. Unless you are a restaurant with a guarantee payment to supplier and willingness to pay for a higher price most likely, you will not get fresh raw material.

Good food operators must source their critical raw material themselves and do not depend on supplier delivery. There was one Char Kuey Teow Seller whose mee is very delicious because all the crucial ingedient like prawns, cockles, bean sprouts are fresh. He goes to market almost every day to get his supply. In the past, he used to get it from a few suppliers, but the freshness is not guaranteed. It only takes one or two stocks of spoilt prawns, then most of his customer is gone.  Thus, in the end, he had given up on suppliers and sourced it by himself. The rest like noodles he can source from suppliers. Going to the market may involve extra cost and effort. Imagine your stall open at 8 am,  you need to prepare by 7 am. Thus you may need to go market at 5 am to source the material. So, some buy expensively from the nearby supermarket, freeze it and then give you a smaller prawn. Others may give you alternative meat.

On top of that, the operators are not greed. They roughly know their daily sales and most of the time there is very little wastage, all food is sold out. There is a high probability that you will not get an overnight prawn or cockles. I wonder which seller is willing to go through these extra miles to deliver their food.