What did you do today? 4/9/09

I broke up a fight between some chinese and some malay/phillipino. right hip hurts.

Getting back to my senses

Every time I go on the road I can't help but to think about the 10 plus deaths that occur to cyclist every year on the road. I think to myself, were they skitching? Probably not. Were they swerving in and out of lanes? Once again, probably not. Then I ask myself, "Why are you risking your life doing such dangerous antics like skitching and going beyond the first lane towards the other lanes?" What if a mistake happens and I become another yearly statistic.

Fundamentally, it is an issue of ego. I fear cars and trucks. The first time I went on the road with my bicycle I had respect and awe towards motorists. I used hand signals frequently and gave way to cars by cramming myself up to the double yellow lines. But you know what? They don't give 2 cents worth of thought towards me and honk and come up to me tailgating my back wheel forcing me up towards the curb where the drainage grate is (where my thin tires will get caught). The worst are the cars that honk me while I'm traveling at the same speed as the car in front of me, to which I do a no-hander 'what's the matter' gesture towards them. Like jeez! Even if I wasn't there you still couldn't go ahead of me. After the frequent bullying I've received from motorists, the slumbering anti-establishment demon inside of me stirred. I hid my ego from the motorists at the beginning out of respect of the road and the law, but now its like this: "If you don't want me slowing you down then I'll be traveling as fast as you so you can't complain, catch is, I tag along your ride.". I'm taking charge of the way I travel on the road and I'm not letting anyone push me around.

While other cyclist cope with this 'bullying' problem by traveling in a group or just plainly ignoring their speed and keeping up the cars behind them, I cope by developing a skill that doesn't hog the roads and allows me to travel faster and further with less effort. The trade off is that I have intrinsically more risk to manage. But it is my strong belief in my skills that I can consistently perform the way I want to and anticipate any obstacles during my maneuver. I have become such a passionate skitcher that it is no more a risky stunt to perform, but instead it is a skill that allows me to function better as a cyclist. I do not see skitching as dangerous anymore than you think about walking down the stairs as dangerous.

It is my wish that, there would be a certain population of road cyclist here in Singapore that share the same passion for more efficient functioning of road cycling, other than just another way to keep fit. To keep in mind, like any sport, there is room for perfection of form, of endurance, of skill, of talent and of creativity.

PLEASE CURE MY ADDICTION!!!!

Audio Recording 2 Mar 5.02AM:

Hungry. Slept early last night- around 8PM. Missed my Left 4 Dead session with my mates. Screw that... I'm hungry.

Audio Recording 2 Mar 5.42AM:

Tuned my bicycle seat. Took a test drive. Loving the new tilted down seat, allows for more power transfer into the pedals. OMG what's that shiny thing! I told myself just one round around Bt Panjang! OMG God save me! I don't have my gloves!!! OMG can't RESIST!!!! ARRRGGH... must pull shiny lorry railling.

Audio Recording 2 Mar 5.56AM:

Son of a bitch! This guy's testing me. Fuck I'll show him what I'm made of. OMG going so FAST!!!! LIGHTS... TURNING... TO... STREAKS!!! Whats this place? Feels like Nirvana. WOOOOOOOO...

Audio Recording 2 Mar 6.05AM:

Where the fuck am I. Nevermind, U-turn and head back. Man.. This shit will be the end of me; I think I'm addicted...

Son of a bitch, where's a video camera when I need one...

What now...

Jeez, when the last paper was over, I got high for some reason. It like being released from toil. "le petite mort" if you will. Google it I dare you!

Anways, wazzup dawgs! I'm looking forward to this 7 week vacation with a checklist of things to do:

1. Get a cheap hand-held camera.
2. Film a youtube instructional video of skitching.
3. Film a youtube montage of skitching.
4. Buy a good quality helmet.
5. Play everything till my guts spill out.
6. Sleep when tired.
7. Eat when hungry.
8. Do random shit.

Woo, that covers everything!

Death Wish: Day 2

Man. Right after doing practice sets I was getting adrenaline withdrawal, and what do you do when you have a craving? You satisfy it!!! Haha.

Have an exam tomorrow so gotta make it a short bike trip, this time, to Lot 1. Today has been a really skitch friendly day. Seriously! Probably the best day in all my future skitching adventures. There were 3 really amused drivers today. So amused, in fact, that they were smiling at me. One was even laughing with his wife. Probably laughing at this crazy kid with blantant disregard for his safety... Didn't meet any really angry drivers, just 3 that honked at me at the traffic light coz they didn't like what I was doing. There was one driver that gave me a very cautious look at me through the side mirror, but I returned him with a serious and confident nod... then, ready, steady, green light! and VROOOOOMMM!!!! haha.

Awesome day.

Skitching is really taxing on the muscles. Think of your worse day and moment standing in the bus. Its like that but over a much longer period. Here's a pic of my arm and my glove that I could never have made it this far without! =)

Holy Crap!

News is spreading about a mother in the US who just gave birth to Octuplets (that's 8 for you folks out there) and she now has a total of 14 children, and I ask myself just what in the world was she thinking!?

Here's the link for the news: http://www.jossip.com/how-much-nbc-paid-octuplet-mom-nadya-suleman-for-her-today-interview-20090206/

It comes with a news interview attached and reports say that she's "struggling" to support her children, but refuses to receive welfare nor marry the father of the children.

Personally, I believe that each person must give their children as many opportunities in life as possible to do what they love and to excel in whatever area they desire. But when you go above 3 children, you're really limiting the opportunities you have to offer for them in life because of limited resources. Now isn't this just irresponsible. Her previous 6 children are being looked after collectively by her parents and her, and with an additional 8, I wouldn't be surprised if they had to be forcibly taken from her by welfare services. I'm giving her a benefit of a doubt in that she really does have the intention to look after all her children properly. Bless all forms of life on Earth.

Wazzup! >>> on to my latest hobby

Hey folks!

Now the purpose I'm writing this blog today is coz i realized that my current hobby could actually kill me.. seriously! and dying without a reason (or legacy) is probably quite stupid, so I'm documenting my escapades into this new hobby called -> SKITCHING

Basically its grabbing onto cars on a wheeled device, and in my case its a racing bicycle borrowed form my neighbor. Now this deadly attraction started when I first borrowed this antiquated racing bike from my neighbor with the intention of making travels around Bt Panjang more convenient for me. Particularly traveling to my tennis training grounds which is a 15 min walk away but only a 5 min bike ride away. As I got aquainted with this lovely bike I started traveling around my area and towards the CCK region.

Now here's where my sick obsession came around. I don't have enough f*ing speed to beat the cars!!! No matter how hard I try... So then I remembered how the dispatch riders in Boston and NYC go about holding on to buses and vehicles. Then I go, "Now there's an idea.".

SO off I went to learn about the art of skitching. The first 3 days I started out on was really scary. I practiced on taxis and lorries during low traffic conditions after midnight (coz I've been going crazy lately). I didn't fall once but its like my bike wobbly and sometimes the cars pulled my bike at an awkward angle like a 30 degree bend till I had to push away to prevent falling into the asphalt. But on the third day I finally got it right. I new how to absorb the acceleration of the vehicles into my body and down to the wheels and BOY WHAT A RUSH!!!

So today, I decided to travel to school to see if anyone's playing tennis and to put my skitching skills to good use. On the way to school I've had 4 attempted skitches, 2 successful ones and one ended with the driver horning at me from behind, sped to the front horned at me somemore and wound down his window to scold the shit outta me. He was like so angry that he didn't know what he was saying. It went like "THIS IS MY CAR.... YOU STOP RIGHT NOW... THIS IS MY CAR..." I had to smile and shrug it off coz I seriously didn't want to talk to that guy. A few turns later and I was at Kismis Tennis courts. Saw Jace and Dennis, played some. I really liked their racquets.

It was getting dark so I bid farewell and this time, I timed my journey back, clocked 20 mins. It was relatively uneventful. The jam at Upp Bt Timah allowed me to travel faster than all the cars (so shiok!). During this trip, had 2 attempted skitches, 1 failed coz of a too fast acceleration and had to let go coz my fingers hurt, means there's room for improving my skitching skillz, and had one good clean skitch up the hill to my house.

Been a really sicko day. I will follow up with more crazzzie stories... so stay tuned to the natural high junkie channel!