1:58:34

The alarm goes off. It's dark. The sun won't be up for another 2 hours but you're already eating breakfast. Is it worth it?

HELL YEAH!



The number of people this year was insane! It took me 6 minutes after the sounding of the Go siren before I even reached the starting line. The first 3km was basically a relaxed jog (except for the fact that everyone was elbow to sweaty elbow). Didn't get the results I wanted (1:58...9 minutes slower than last year) but at least I came in at under 2hrs.

You know, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they run in the marathon. For example, I saw Half Marathon people walking at the 3km mark. 3km...really?! How do you expect to finish a 21km race when you can't even make it past the 3km mark? And then there are those who keep cutting and pushing through the crowd. There are a couple hundred people in front of you; how far are you going to get?

Kenya won again. These winners are amazing; they run for 42km at speeds faster than 80% of the 10km runners. Respect!




Later in the day, I was on a bus to Central. It was funny feeling looking at all the traffic, knowing that just a couple of hours ago I was running down the same road.

Going through the motions

Today was the first day of the Lunar New Year. As always, in between all the rush of the day's activities, I found myself thinking about the meaning of the festival.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Chinese traditions, the first and second days of Lunar New Year are usually spent visiting familiy and relatives. We bring gifts of fruits and confections and the elder and/or married relatives give red lucky money packets ("lai see") to the younger generation. During these 2 days, we usually see a lot of relatives that we don't see that often.

And therein lies my quandary.

I guess one's views on visiting depends on whether you're a glass is half empty/half full type of person. One view is that because we don't see these relatives that frequently, visiting on Lunar New Year is all the more important otherwise we'd lose all contact. And on the flip side, some would argue that since we don't see these relatives that much anyways, there's not much point in visiting at all.

Being the pragmatist that I am, I fall into the 2nd category. If the reason you don't see these relatives that often is because of geography (i.e. you require a plane ticket to visit them), then I can understand the desire to see them once in a while to catch up. But if you live in the same city and you still only see them once a year, chances are you don't place much value in keeping contact, and going through the motions to see them seem insincere and superficial. Visiting someone because "it's traditional" is hardly a good reason. If you really thought of them as family, you wouldn't need an offcial holiday as a reason to see them more often.

Probably not a very popular point of view (especially on a day like today) but frankly, sitting around for an hour and making small talk while trying to avoid awkward silences is not my idea of making connections.

The Blue Contagion?

Is it just me, or does the success of "Avatar" baffle anyone else?

Yes, it was an entertaining movie but I can't wrap my mind around all the accolades that this film has been getting. To me, "Avatar" is like a ride at an amusement park; it's enjoyable while you're on it but the experience soon fades after you leave the park.

Sure, it was nominated for 9 Oscars, but 5 of those are for technical accomplishments and none of them are for Acting or Writing. Which makes sense because the story basically follows the same formula as "Dances with Wolves" and "The Last Samurai". And even though "Avatar" was a leap forward in terms of movie making, from an audience's point of view it's nothing that we haven't already seen in "Beowulf" or "Up".

Again, I'm not saying that the movie was bad. But I definitely fall into the confused minority who can't figure out what the commotion is all about.