Update

Hi.

'Twas my birthday yesterday. Mum gave me my presents early in the morning (circa 4.30 a.m.) when we got up for Sahur. A collection of poems in this really nice, huge thick and beautifully illustrated book, another book (one of those gift books for daughters), and a credit card. Haha! Dangerous stuff, me being the shopper I am.

Had a really short birthday run, but quite satisfying. Last week's mileage was 63km, not bad considering the fact that I'm fasting. But I've stopped RPM, for the time being anyway, until my fascia lata feels a bit better.

Today I went for the Merdekaton thing at the gym, and it was quite fun I must say, although for some reason I was particularly thirsty, and my mouth was feeling funny so I skipped the weights bit. When we were doing the treadmill session (everyone was supposed to start off with 7.5kmph, increase it to 9 after 10 minutes, and then finally to 10 for the last ten minutes but I went straight to 12kmph because that's like 5 minutes a km which is pretty slow anyway and my normal warm up speed), after a couple of kms I increased it to 12.8kmph (which, seriously, isn't that fast! But I told myself not to push too hard on account of the thirst, and I was getting a really bad stitch on the left side of my stomach) and David went around saying "FASTER! FASTER! YOU SEE SARAH? 12.8! 12.8!" Walauweh pai seh OMGWTF? Anyway I had already done a run (albeit really short 4km one in the morning) and double runs just don't seem to work for me. But yeah. It was pretty good. I wish I hadn't been fasting then I would have been able to do it properly. o Lord I should slap myself for saying that. Such blasphemous thoughts.

I'm reading this really, really good book called "Calculating God" and it's about an alien who lands on Earth, convinced of the existence of God and the alien tries to prove it scientifically to a paleontologist (who is also an athiest), Tom Jericho. It's so bloody fascinating.

Alien: "The suggestion that essentially a scientist created our current universe would explain the long-standing philosophical conundrum of why this universe is indeed comprehensible to the scientific mind; why human abstractions such as mathematics and induction and aesthetics are applicable to the nature of reality. Our universe is scientifically understandable because it was created by a vastly advanced intelligence who used the tools of science."

"We grow up to realise that theft is wrong, and yet.. yet why do we feel it's wrong? If it increases reproductive success, shouldn't evolution have favoured it? For that matter, we think infidelity is wrong, but I could obviously increase my reproductive success by impregnating multiple females. If theft is advantageous for everyone who succeeds at it, and adultery is a good strategy, at least for males, for increasing presence in the gene pool, why do we feel they are wrong? Shouldn't the only morality that evolution produces be the kind Bill Clinton had - being sorry you got caught?"

Nice. :)

Oh ya, Happy Merdeka, Malaysia, sad though you may be, I still love you. You're home.

P.S: Thank you Jasryn Ng, for the lovely present.