My Ankle Has Miraculously Healed But I Can't Run Just Yet

What's so great about (the late) Prof Gould's books
For one, it is scientific high-brow content, written on a subject dear to our hearts about flora, fauna and anthropology in the most grandiose of grandiloquence. Many of its scientific principles could be used in our daily empirical observations.

Unlike Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code", you can't flipped the pages quickly (somehow the cinematic version didn't measure up to the pace of the novel, wouldn't you agree?). You have to stop to ponder and then read again.

Prof Gould writes in clear crisp English and every word or sentence he enunciates means something important. This is a hallmark of good writers and lecturers who prepare their drafts or notes thoroughly where each and every word counts.

Doggone it
After seeing all those dogs at the dog-run area, I decided to read up on them. My read threw up some very interesting facts.

Some breeds could be mistaken for another. Like the Shetland sheepdogs for the collies and the Maltese for the Bolognese. In fact, I am not very sure if what we see here is the Bolognese rather than the Maltese for I have yet to see a Maltese in all its long flowy hair crown glory. But then again it could have been shorn short. Like the Shih Tzu.

Then there are the short-haired, short legged and smaller breeds and their longer-haired, taller and bigger counterparts. The Chow-chow and Collies can be both long or short-haired and the Jack Russells taller or shorter. We see only the Miniature Schnauzers here but there are the Giant varieties. The pomperanians used to be a big dog but has been bred shrunken in recent times. That explains why it barks a lot as it still thinks of itself as a BIG DOG. All the same, it has no qualms in challenging bigger dogs when push comes to shove.

Of Bomohs and Spirits
Yakking with Muiz had me recalling the period of difficult times when my mom and brother actually sought the help of Malay bomohs. As you remember, my dad is Straits Chinese/Peranankan/Baba ( there is some distinction here among the three but I don't or don't wanna know) and my 4th aunt had married a Moslem and had converted to Islam. Thus in a way, we were greatly influenced by malay culture.

Those were the days of watching the bomoh going into a trance and speaking in tongues. Not that the sulfur thrown into a tabernacle of red-hot glowing coal didn't ignite more than just sparks. The usual prognostication at the end of everything was to bath in some fragrant flowers and wear amulets wrapped in yellow cloth.

Technophiles Or Luddites
I embrace technology like I would embrace a wringing wet naked hunk just out of the showers. If and only if it confers a single good or benefit - in the case of the hunk, sex.

Comparing 2G and 3G technology, I cannot detect that whiff of good apart from enhanced video-conferencing and downloads. So too with magnetic strip cards or chip cards. To me they are about the same and one does the job as well as the other.

It is worse if one actually hinders the other like my chip cash card. It works perfectly well on buses but not on trains. It isn't about "progress" but about significant improvements if it does purvey them at all. There are swings and roundabouts with anything new or old.

Mathematical Puzzles
I am onto my 5th Sudoku puzzle in the "Moderate" category and it was a cinch once I got into the swing of things.

The 2nd mathematical puzzle I was puzzling over was deciding which of the two parks near my home is bigger. One is a shorter but broader strip of land while the other is its diametrical opposite. But we cannot ascertain which is the larger of the two simply by determining its shape. A Math lesson of old came to mind and this was to have cut outs of each and then carving one up into parts and superimposing them over each other for comparative purposes.

The literature says high-carbo diet but more proteins for body-building
The 3rd mathematical puzzle was arriving at my bi-weekly need for protein supplements. The pack weighs in at 2000g and one serving amounts to 75g. Assuming I work out 4 times a week and the RDA is 3 servings for workout days and 1 serving for non-workout days, it would amount to 225g x 4 + 75g x 3 = 1125g worth of protein a week. That pack would last me about 1.77777778 week, not even the full 14 days.

Conventional health literature still points to carbo as being the 50-60% fuel provider for sports and workouts. Protein is recommended at 1g per kilogram of body weight only for body-building. Carbo provides glycogen and protein amino acids. It is mythical that more proteins are needed for building bodies, this is what the literature is saying.

Case for a gay Singapore
Singapore was an aberration, so goes the grapevine. We were not expected to have survived on our own after being booted out of the Malaysian-Malaysia merger. Gays, especially in religious circles, are sorta of an aberration (abomination even ) too. You can abhor other gays (like Daniel, Mr Psycho and so on) but not moi please. Moi is a special gay.

Note the parallel tracks between gays and Singapore. There comes a vanishing point when both parallelism disappear and converge. Thus gays and Singapore are intertwined in our destinies. We both live to see day. By logical supposition, we should embrace each other to make this place a gay Singapore.

Why can't we have an all-embracing comprehensive design sitting tight amidst a central and convenient location ?
Some flats are located in very central and convenient places like where I am now. There is a choice between the park, the park connector or the stadia for jogging needs. There are neighborhood shops and eateries. There are sporting amenities like gymnasiums and swimming complexes and libraries for intellectual pursuits . There are cyber-gaming and internet kiosks for edutainment. A bus interchange and the MRT are just a stone's throw away.

In fact I can virtually walk anywhere to get to any of these hot spots for my daily fixes. All the same, if it rains, gets too sweltering hot or I am old and infirmed, all of 30 minutes or more can be a teeny weeny tortuous.

But the flats' designs don't allow in natural breeze or light.

I have visited slabs of apartments in a certain locality and this was tastefully and thoughtfully designed (full glass windows to allow light and wind in , well-proportioned sitting room, bedrooms and kitchen, non-clustering because the blocks were arranged in a clove shape to allow good views and let in breezes).

Sigh - if only they build such apartment blocks where I am now.

This is rent-a-room and there ain't no landlord and so who frigging cares
I am glad the dudes here don't niggle much about the place. That is because the owner doesn't reside here and he has all intentions to let the premises on a continual basis. This is evidenced from the sludge of turds caking the toilet cistern or the disrepaired hand-basin which must have been inherited from previous tenancy.

Having said that, our public loos are a class above what we are having here at home. I will defecate and bath at public joints rather than at home. Paradoxical irony isn't it. As I mentioned, the whole WC and shower has been shoehorned into a tight little space. Today, the hand towel railing has just come off. That is how bad it gets. And I can't be sure who is culpable.

In case you are wondering, it is always my custom to sandwich my carriers between my legs while peeing into urinals. That will free my hands to unzip, untie or unbutton as the case may be and just sprout a fountain.