Funny Video of Terrorists

Barbell Deadlift

Supplemented my back exercise regime with barbell deadlift in the gym on Monday. Last set was 70kg of 6 reps until my grip gave way. Am still having lower back muscle sore today! I like the feeling of having the sore of muscles well-trained. Ahhh...

GU vs. PowerGel

Read on for the comparison between GU gel and PowerGel! Sourced from BeginnerTriathlete.com.

GU (www.gusports.com)
Flavors Available:		Banana Blitz, Chocolate, Espresso Love (w\double-caffeine), Just Plain, Orange Burst, Tri Berry, and Vanilla Bean.
Cosmo Factor:		A nicely unassuming mix of homespun and hi-tech.
These are my favorite gels because they do everything well and most of the flavors are quite good. All versions have some caffeine and they now offer Espresso Love, which has twice the caffeine. GU is not available in every sporting goods store, but can be easily found (especially at bike shops). If you return five empty packets, they will send you a free one. GU is sold in single serving packets and five serving Flask Filler packets.
Category Score Notes
Taste			Natural, not overly sweet. Chocolate flavor could use some help. Favorite flavor: Vanilla Bean – just like pudding (did not taste Espresso Love).
Consistency			Thick, but not heavy
Initial Boost			Takes a moment to get there, but it’s like a shot of adrenaline when it arrives.
Sustained Boost			Long lasting with no hard crash.
Overall			Good results and a variety of tasty flavors.

PowerGel (www.powerbar.com )
Flavors Available:		Chocolate (w\caffeine), Green Apple (w\caffeine), Lemon Lime, Raspberry Cream, Strawberry Banana (w\caffeine), Tangerine (w\double-caffeine), and Tropical Fruit.
Cosmo Factor:		Attempts to be flashy and modern, but ends up being, well, kind of ugly (on the bright side, they’re really easy to spot from a long distance).
PowerGel is the easiest product to find of the bunch. In fact, many races I’ve been to offer them at aid stations. Anyone who’s tasted a PowerBar knows that the company puts more emphasis on performance than flavor and PowerGel is no exception. The packets were the biggest of those tested, which could make it hard to take quickly. They also offer the most calories per serving, which aids the overall boost. PowerGel is sold only in individual packets. For some reason, the packets occasionally can be hard to tear open.
Category Score Notes
Taste			Light, slightly metallic, and generally not great. Favorite flavor: Tropical Fruit – think pineapple on a sunny beach (did not taste Strawberry Kiwi).
Consistency			Thick, but easily swallowed.
Initial Boost			Understated, no big spike.
Sustained Boost			Kept feeling strong.
Overall			A solid all around performer but taste should be better.

He said Dua, I say Diu!

The godfather of medicine Health Minister, Latok Chua announced yesterday that newly graduated medical doctors will have to undergo TWO years of hell-holeship housemanship compared to the previous one year! What pissed my willy off is that the salary will still be the same for the entire 2 years.

Today's paper said that those bargers will seek to promote doctors to the U43 Grade only AFTER housemanship. You and I know what "will seek" means in Malaysian context! In other words, for the first 2 years of fresh graduates' life, we need to eat shit to survive. They claimed the consolation for prolonging the housemanship for another year is that we can enjoy a RM500 pay raise (upon approval of "will seek") and be allowed to pursue further studies right after housemanship. Be realistic lah, we often hear stories in the past that people got into a postgrad program as early as during HO (the rule was 3 yrs after completing houseman). Why still need to "will seek this" and "will seek that" when you have confirmed the duration of housemanship? Just blardy confirm the salary lah! We are ready to give and take if the deal is right, don't make it so arbitrary ok latok?!

Footnote: Sigh... there goes my 4-year plan of replacing Latok Chua! Niamah...

Trip Down South

The last time I went Singapore was almost four years ago, according to my now expired Restricted Passport. That was before they legalise nicotine chewing gum, LOL! Anyway, a burning question for you guys (especially for the intergalactic extraterrestrial currently parasiting a state city down south): is the ultra-modern EZ-Link card still being used for public trasportation? Or has Singapore moved on with scanners that can detect stored credits in brain implants? Please enlighten. I don't wanna make a fool out of myself holding an EZ-Link card and waving frantically in search for the card scanner aboard SBS buses. LOL!

Two more weeks to go... sigh!

Sony NWZ-S616F/P

Say Bye to iPod Nano Video, and Hi to the latest Sony video mp3 player. I got a girly-pink one! Hmm, can hear someone insulting my machoism edy... LOL!

It is an mp3 player...

... with nice design, unlike the overly wide iPod Nano Video...

... it plays video ...

... and is good at it too (the photos here didn't do justice to the great vid quality)...

... it also serves as a photo album (again, it displays great pics)...

What more can one ask for Christmas present?! Girly PINK (it's wrapped in Sony's silicone case priced at RM69), 4Gb of flash memory, 33hrs of usage per charge. This little gizmo costs me RM599.00, and it's for my darling who's gonna fly to Phillippines come X'mas, sans yours truly... Isk! Isk! Imagine 4Gb of TVB series on the plane... who needs a boyfriend nowadays?!! Damn Sony!

GNC Deal

I chanced upon this mystyle mobile voucher-on-demand when I visited the GNC store in Jaya 33 shopping mall last month. The GNC cashier passed me a mystyle booklet with info on discounts and promotions for a variety of brands, merchants and diners.

One of the deals is this "Buy 1 Free 1" voucher which enable the holder to buy any two GNC products for the price of one! What a gym-rat and a self-proclaimed health freak to do when confronted with such a fat deal? *thud thump* Two fat tubs of GNC Pro Performance 100% Whey Protein (6 lbs each) suddenly appeared on my desk... with an almost instantaneous wallet shrinkage worth RM348.00! Normal retail price for one tub is RM348.00, so with the mystyle voucher, I paid RM174.00 for a tub of 6 lbs of whey protein!
The voucher is limited to one mobile number (applicable to all mobile service provider) once a year. The SMS sent will be charged RM3.50. Head over to mystyle website for the latest promotions and new merchants!

Disclaimer: I'm using my 2nd (prepaid) mobile number for this voucher thingy, just in case it's a scam that's gonna leech money via mobile phones. Will update if something goes wrong, but in the meantime all's well! :)

Kuey Chap

I was hunting for food after my gym workout last Wednesday. There wasn't much choice around Rambo Gym, as the Swee Bee Chicken Rice Shop was closed. As I was rushing for my bus journey back to KL, I ended up ordering a bowl of kuey chap from Restoran Soon Lai, which is directly below Rambo Gym.

Kuey chap is a Teochew dish of flat, broad rice sheets in a soup made with dark soy sauce, served with pig offal, braised duck meat, various kinds of beancurd, preserved salted vegetables, and braised hard-boiled eggs. I opted for beancurd and two braised hard-boiled eggs. They came up to a total of RM3.50, if memory serves me right. They are nothing to shout about, MSG-laden, but a cheap and good source of quick-food!

Rambo Gym

What does a gym rat does when he moves to a new place? Look for a new gym lor... And Batu Pahat doesn't disappoint! In the middle of the town where pre-war buildings are scattered among dizzifying and seemingly erratic one-way streets, one of them houses the Rambo Gym!

This gym was recommended by one of my recently graduated seniors, who was a hardcore gym rat himself. I joined this gym in September, as soon as I moved over to Batu Pahat. Back then my body was totally out of shape (think inverted "V"). Two months down the line, my body is... not much difference lar (LOL! modesty... modesty...).

Rambo Gym is the old-school type of gym, no fuss, just heaps of free-weights and muscular Ah Peks (and Ah Bengs) with minimal weight-machines. The guys are friendly too, as with all Batu Pahat inhabitants.

The gym members here are really friendly. I've got to know two of the veteran bodybuilders quite well, and received quite a few invaluable pointers from them too! One even offered me his RM10,000 mountain bike so that I can join his gang for mountain-biking! Speak about hospitality!

Rambo Gym used to be the head office of Persatuan Bina Badan Batu Pahat (Batu Pahat Body Building Association), which is currently a defunct association coz no one pays the association fees (according to the gym keeper Mr. Soh).

Working out here is a great experience, with it's conducive environment and the friendly regular muscular kakis. It's affordable too! Registration fee for first timers is RM30, and the rate for students are RM40 per month, while adults pay RM60 per month. I'm paying the student rate, of course. This is definitely better than the UAV Gym and Family Gym, the two gyms I used to frequent when I was in Seremban.

It is worthy to note that the recently crowned Mr. Universe, Mr. Sazali, used to train in Rambo Gym too! He was in the gym during the Raya break, but unfortunately I missed the opportunity to cam-whore with him as I was back home in KL.

Finally, a short message from the Rambo Gym's janitor:

Operating hours:
Mondays to Saturdays, 2.00pm to 10.00pm (Closed on public holidays).

Address:
Will update soon!

Fuel price hike! WTF??!

According to paultan.org, the government is studying on the possibility of finding reasons to increase the fuel price yet again, and they're going to implement it real soon too! When are they gonna increase Malaysian doctor's salary gddmit!!

Note to self: No more driving back from BP to KL!

Curbside.MD

This is a new search engine for EBM. In contrast to the other search engines which require the old school way of using keywords, Curbside.MD provides evidence-based answers to real medical questions! Forget the keywords, ask a question like you would ask a medical expert. Enter patient’s info, diseases, drugs, even paragraphs of information. The more the better. This is because Curbside.MD uses a technology called semantic fingerprinting, which essentially works quite similarly to geocoding.

Click here to read more on how it works, or go to the main page to start searching!