Skills vs Stamina, Which Comes First?

I did a very simple experiment these past few months...to determine the single most important aspect in squash.

Some say squash is the most demanding sports in the world in terms of fitness. High level of fitness is greatly required to properly play this fantastic game.

I had doubt about this claim, although I admit fitness/stamina is crucial towards how far a player can move up the rank in squash.

I placed more importance on finesse, because to me, squash is about technique. I remember, during my younger days, watching in awe how (King) Kenny of Malacca beautifully control the ball and made his opponent move like a headless chicken around the court.

Kenny was the man who inspired me to take up squash seriously. I met him before I knew Fahmi, another squash's gem from Malacca. These two were the biggest impact that influenced my early life.

I had been playing squash without the aid of stamina last year (played one week, rested three weeks, played again, rested another month). The result was humiliating...I lost even to the young player who took up squash just recently.

So I tried a new formula...build up my fitness before I hold squash racquet again, by concentrating on badminton.

I played two to three times a week (badminton), sometimes until my body told me to stop. I also played ping pong sparingly (at least once a week) and watched my food intake. I tried regulating my sleep pattern to ensure that I sleep around the same time every night.

After a month and a half, today I picked up squash racquet and headed towards the court. I'm fairly confident that my level of fitness has arisen significantly, although the same could not be said of my skills. Skills and techniques improve and rot in tandem with practice...if you didn't practise, your skills and techniques will surely deteriorate with the passing of time. 

I played against Cyrus and comfortably won, which was strange. I used to struggle against him, but not this time. We played a total of five games, and I won all.

Next was Megat, my long-time friend when off court, but arch-enemy when inside court. Megat is now a coach for Penang under-12 category. I never beat Megat before, and this trend seemed to continue when I went down the first two sets against him.

But something strange was happening, as the match went on, I felt more and more comfortable moving around the court. As the match progressed, his point lead was narrowing, and I won the third set after levelling the score.

I strongly believed this miracle has something to do with my fitness level. I used to think fitness is second after finesse, but now after this experience, I think fitness is more important than finesse, at least in squash.

Where are the Women?

"Romeo died for love, Valentine died for love, Jack of Titanic, Samson from the Bible, Hercules, Achilles, and even Jesus died for love"

Where are the women?

As tomorrow is Valentine's Day, this amusing anecdote is again gaining momentum in the cyberspace.

I first read it last year, mentioned and elaborated passionately by a female editor of our local daily English newspaper.

She tried (a bit) hard to expose the fallacy of this passage, but in the end, she must have realised that there is no fallacy in the above statement...

...because it is entirely true (apart from Jesus, where we Muslims have different interpretation about his final moment on earth). 

Women always cry foul that they sacrificed a lot for love, but the truth is, as was proven time and time again over the course of history, men sacrificed a lot more than women.

Men even died for the women they love.

I do not celebrate Valentine's Day, but for one (especially women), just take a moment to appreciate men around you. 

Time is Important; Facts are Sacred

I'm seriously considering elaborating my last post (The Last Lecture) into a full-length article, but time is of a concern. 

Nowadays, I rarely had time to do any extra reading on subjects related to my work, let alone putting down a complete write-up of a farewell speech, even though its message was overwhelming and its relevance was far-reaching.

For now, I'm just concentrating on my work, trying to stay on course on my work's schedule. I was given much leeway now compared to the yesteryear.

Out of boredom, I read a posting by a facebook page called PseudoScience Watch, in which they tried to expose a scam purportedly committed by a researcher.

What PseudoScience Watch intended to achieve was noble; they tried to expose the scammer. But in so doing, they inadvertently committed a grave mistake - they mixed up their facts.

First, they claimed a supervisor shall be the first writer in every journal's article, not the student. This is blatantly not true as it is a common practice for a post-graduate student to be the first author, with his or her supervisor as the corresponding author.

Second, they had the audacity to claim that only a certified medical doctor could conduct a medical-related research (P/S: This comment was made by a commentator, not admin). Visit any research institution related to medical/healthcare or any pharmaceutical company, hardly any medical doctor is stationed there. Most of the researches are conducted by chemists/biologists or even pharmacists.

Two of well-known examples are INFORMM (Institute For Research in Molecular Medicine) in USM and IPHARM (Malaysian Institute of Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals). Not even one medical doctor is currently working there, yet these two institutions are actively conducting research related to medicine/vaccine/drug.

PseudoScience Watch is a good page, but their young admins need to refrain themselves from talking about subject that they knew very little about. Facts are very sacred nowadays; once you lose your credibility, it's hard to get it back.

Correction 13/2/2017
I was made to understand that the second claim was made by a commentator, not the admin. For this, I apologise and have made necessary correction, although I left the accompanying comments for clarification purposes. 

The real comment by the admin was "only a certified medical doctor could prescribe drug to combat diseases in human body", which is factually correct.

The Last Lecture

A month has passed since my last progress report presentation.

I woke up early today, in order to finish up my presentation's slide. I laid out the draft of my slide early yesterday's night, before leaving it unfinished to attend my weekly badminton's session.

There was nothing to present actually, as I had just completed my study. I summarised what I'd done for the last two weeks in a very basic slide.  

The prime focus this time was on what our ED (Executive Director) had to say. If everything went as planned, this was to be his final session as the top person in the institute.

I wished I could write down (here) everything that was delivered by our ED in his (apparent) final speech, but we were forewarned in an e-mail earlier this week to be careful of what we wrote in cyberspace.

"Once on the internet, it will stay in it forever" was the gist of the e-mail's message.

Although it was not directed specifically towards me, I felt the need to abide by the advice, more so as Ipharm was planning to make full use of social media in the very near future to solidify its position.

There was no question from the audience when I wrapped up my presentation, but ED and my current Division Director stopped me halfway as I was leaving the presentation's area.

ED asked me some familiar questions (to which I'd already answered, as recently as yesterday). I was fully aware that he was still not fully satisfied with my earlier explanation (not his fault as I withheld certain information from him).

The next ten days would be very crucial as we wait for the final confirmation from the ministry. The minister in charge holds all the card.          

New Year 2017

So, I wrapped up my study today.

I successfully presented our findings to Ipharm's top echelon in today's monthly progress report meeting, albeit in a comically nervous manner (I'm always uneasy facing a crowd of people).

There are too many things in my mind right now, but for a moment, I just wanted to put it aside. I just want to have my much awaited holidays (I was working for two straight months without any days off).

It's 2017 already, and Pancasara will be celebrating it's 10th anniversary come this September. It's not easy to keep writing when no one even realises you even existed! So I will pat myself on the back for this unusual self-accomplishment.

Here's to a more productive and meaningful year of 2017!

Alone

It was a lonely working day as almost all my colleagues were away in KL, attending a seminar.

The seminar, centred around Drug Development (Pre-Clinical Model), is jointly organised by ARF (Animal Research Facility) of Ipharm and IMR (Institute Medical Research) under a grant from MOSTI.

It was purportedly a very technical seminar conducted by a renowned cancer specialist from New York, Dr Elisa De Stanchina. I haven't read her resume yet (already downloaded her CV attachment given via our internal e-mail), but based on the circulating e-mail, she was described as an expert.

It could take up to two years to obtain result of carcinogenic study on rats, depending on the circumstances. Two years is a long time to conduct a study, more so for a flagging student like me. For comparison, I am currently halfway through an acute toxicity study involving rats (in vivo), which only lasts fourteen (14) days* to achieve the final result, and I am already exhausted.

Kak (Dr) Adel tried (unsuccessfully) to squeeze me in for a slot in the seminar, in view of my future study in this corresponding field. But her request was decently turned down by my Study Director, who insisted that I stay behind to take care of the animals.

Honestly I wanted to be in the seminar. Maybe lady luck was not on my side for this one. 

There were only Syafif and Suraya left in this building. Both were stationed in Staff Room 1, which left me being a solitary person in Staff Room 2. Around noon, a short-circuit temporarily disrupted our internet connection (or a circuit test, I was given to understand that a test run was being conducted for our facility's wiring certification purposes).

Out of internet, and out of anything worthwhile to do since I had already wrapped up all my required task for today, I inserted my pen-drive and watched Captain America: The First Avenger on my laptop. Turning the speaker to full blast, I pretended as if I were the big boss of this room. 

If only there were more days like this.

*Although the main observation (sighting) study of acute toxicity runs for a period of fourteen days, it is preceded by quarantine and acclimatisation stages, and subsequently succeeded by a post-mortem. Together all these steps run into a month before the final report could be issued.   

Dietary Advice - Time is of an Essence

Just finished my dinner. I am currently re-orienting my dinner time, as it is not very healthy to have dinner too late into the night.

As I'm about to venture into another squash odyssey (I will make a swift return to squash arena beginning early next year), my first step towards improving my below-terrible fitness is to have my body back in good shape.

While I'm still considered by many to be thin, only I know how my body has deteriorated over the year (I hibernated for almost a year during my sabbatical leave).

So, what is the best time to have lunch and dinner? 

An ideal lunch and dinner time should be six hours apart; meaning if you had your lunch at 12 noon, you should have your dinner by six p.m. But this simplistic approach is laden with complexity as not everyone could keep consistently to this schedule.

But try to stick to this schedule; if you have a weight issue, this will help a lot.

Between your lunch and dinner, you could always have a chew or two on your favourite snacks...but try your best to limit this. There's give and take on dieting...you give away your snacks to take home your ideal body weight.

Just remember, time is of an essence to retain or reach your ideal body weight. Maintain a regular timing for your lunch and dinner, your body will automatically do the rest.

I'm having a light squash training right after this just across the road in USM (8.00 - 10.00 p.m). 

So, till then.