Reality TV is getting downright low!

Since the screening of Survivor where contestants competed to last 30 days in the wilderness, there are all kinds of reality series such as American Idol, The Biggest Loser etc. Some are inspiring while some are plain stupid.

I found the latest reality, The Moment of Truth, screening on Fox45 disgusting. Participants will be put on a lie detector to answer a series of personal questions where they may win up to $500, 000. As the price money goes up, the questions get more personal.

Why are people so nosy to know a stranger's secrets? Is money more important than relationship? Are TV broadcasters pushing the moral boundaries of audience? Is human moral suffering from decadence?

Weak knees from running

Recently, my knees have been feeling weak or painful which put me out of the gym for almost one month now.

I had been using one pair of running shoes for almost a year. It was high time for me to throw them away.

There is a good website at Road Runner Sports which can help you to select the right type of shoes for your feet. Since I have a medium arch, stability shoes are good for me.

From among the listed, I bought Asics Gel-1130 but I have not run with them yet as I need to recover from my sore butt injured from snowboarding.

Speeding down a snowy slope on a board

After spending my third winter here, I finally got myself to go snowboarding. The small steps leading to it were asking friends to go and buying a ski pants.

It was decided between Wenmin and I that we would go to Liberty Mountain in Pennsylvania, an hour's drive away. Kian Meng was undecided because he did not have any ski gears.

On Saturday, Jan 19, we rented a car from Enterprise in the morning. There was a miscommunication between Enterprise and Wenmin where we waited for 45 minutes for someone to pick us up from our location to their office. Upon speaking with someone on the phone, we were told that they did not have enough manpower to pick us up and we had to hail a cab instead.

We finally got our rental car around 11am and proceeded to pick Kian Meng up and drove Northwest towards Liberty Mountain. We dropped by Sports Authority at Pike Park Plaza where Kian Meng bought over $130 worth of ski gears such as snow goggles, Under Armor thermal, hat and gloves. I found a $25-off-every-$100 coupon and managed to save us some money.

By the time we were done shopping, we were hungry and proceeded to Be-Se-To for lunch. However, the food was pricey after they renovated. I brought them to H-Mart instead where we ordered the spicy pork meal (Number 14). Wenmin and Kian Meng had to pack the left over while I finished mine. I also bought a box of sashimi since food would be expensive at the ski resort.

At 3pm, we reached our destination and took our snowboarding lesson at 4.30pm. Walking in the snow board shoes were like walking with a cast. The lesson occurred at the foot of the hill where we learnt how to move around with one foot secured to the snowboard while the other was free to move around.

The theory was to always bend both knees, keep hands to the sides instead of stretching out and apply 70% of body weight on the leading/front leg and 30% on the trailing/back leg. Turning was by tip-toeing to go forward and sitting down on an imaginary chair.

We practiced these movements and were told to take the lift to reach the summit. While sitting on the lift, I was happy that I was finally snowboarding. In retrospect, I had always wanted to try it after watching it on television when I was young. The lift could accommodate four persons which was squeezy since we had to snowboard down a small slope at the summit. I always ended falling and once grabbed Kian Meng to prevent myself from falling.

For beginners, there was no stopping down the slope except to fall on your back or front. Since I had not mastered my turning, I fell to avoid people on the slope too. When I placed 70% of my weight on the back leg, I felt I was going faster which was not intentional.

After about five trips down the slope and endless counts of falling on your back and front, my butt was sore, my knees and ankles were complaining, and my forearms hurt from absorbing the impact.

Despite the pain and bruises, I intend to go back again for at least one more try before winter ends. Next on my adventure, I am thinking of doing tandem skydiving before my guts shrink further as I grow older.

Singing vs. losing weight

Yesterday was the premiering of American Idol 2008 which I had been waiting since Jordan Sparks was crowned in season six last year.

It clashed with The Biggest Loser which was also airing between 8 pm to 10 pm.

I had my remote set to both channels so I could switched during the long and 'timely' commercials. I guess this would be repeated every Tuesday.

2008, a year of change

After 12 days into 2008, I finally started to write again. Firstly, happy 2008 to my friends.

This is my final year of my post-doc contract. So, I have to speed up my experiment and publish. Meanwhile, I also need to look for a permanent or some would say a real job within this year. I am torn between academia and industry.

I am going snowboarding next Sat, and would try tandem skydiving when the weather is warmer. Yellow Stone National Park trip is roughly in the first week of June before summer break. Sunny Florida is calling me to tan at its beaches.

So many things to do. Let's hope I have the energy and mental focus to accomplish these goals!