I noticed starting the last year or so, my physical recovery time has been getting longer. Sunday sport has taken more toll on me than before, I think my reaction has been tad slower as well. 

I am quite happy with my current form, I have been able to be more consistent with the weights. I think I’ve got a routine that works for me, although I am thinking of re-orientating my workout to include more core exercises which focus on stability and balance rather than strength/muscle building, but I don’t know how to do that yet, got to read up.

One sign of getting older is this annoying pain on my right ankle area since few months ago. I am not sure what’s causing it,I’ve got a feeling the one Sydney basketball meetup that I went to few months ago, might have something to do with it, but it could also due to other things like incorrect running technique. The pain has prevented me from running too long on treadmill, which is quite disappointing as running is definitely THE aerobic exercise for me. I have been doing elliptical instead, but it’s just not as satisfying.

I think a visit to physio is long overdue.

I just finished reading The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell recently. I borrowed the book from my company’s library.

I’ve listened the audio book of the original Five Love Languages which is directed for couples. This book is a spin off from that.

I’ve learned a great deal from the original book. Especially I found the categorizing how people want to be loved into these 5 languages making the abstract nature of love to be more understandable (and actionable). I was also aware that the concept can be easily transferable to different groups of people (ie not only to your spouse). 

So naturally I am excited reading "the children version" of the book. I did find it to be helpful and practical. For example, from the section on punishing the children, Gary and Ross suggested that parents should first of all assure that child felt loved (making sure his/her "love tank" full) before delivering the punishment. They also suggested against using the primary love languages as a mean to punish children, for example: if a child’s primary language is physical touch, then punishing the child physically might have a more detrimental effect than intended. Some other useful points include:

• Age and sex determine the appropriateness of showing your love, example: if have a boy whose primary language is physical touch, when he comes to his teenage years, refrain from showing your love physically in front from his friends or in public.
• If you are a single parent, seek help from your church or community, especially when your child is entering the teenage life, which he might withdraw himself from you.
• Use persuasion/request, command, gentle physical, punishment and behaviour modification in that order.

I found the authors have communicated the true sense of love quite strongly in this book, that is: love is all about the other person. You want to learn how to communicate love to your children for their sake not your own. The same message I also found from Gary’s original book.

I think the book can be made more concise, by cutting down the testimonies and stories, I just found them repetitive and too many. Although this book I think was intended for parenting in general, the authors being Christians themselves, they communicated how their faith made an impact on their understanding of love. They quoted some Bible verses to show how some of the points are supported by the Bible. I applaud the efforts from Christian authors writing to not necessarily Christian audience to do this. However I found that the usage of the Bible passages is often out of context (although I can’t remember an example and I have returned the book, but most of these out of context quotations were from the Old Testament).

I would strongly recommend this book for parents. It’s all about knowing your children better and then love them in the way that they understand best.

Book 14 finished!

Side note, I am also reading What Colour is Your Parachute, which is a very2 good and thorough book on career in specific and life in general. I think I need to buy this book (currently borrowing it from library) as the vast material in it needs to be digested slowly perhaps in the span of months. I think now my reading time would be taken by my SCJP Exam prep, so i won’t be able to finish too many books.

Well, it is getting easier, I wasn’t in tears as often as last year. Perhaps I can now move on a little bit. Instead of focusing on the sadness, perhaps I can think of the good times (and the bad times) spent with my dad. Below are random memories and reflections.

Having read (or listened to) the 5 Love Languages, I gained a better insight of myself. I think my primary languages are words of affirmation and physical touch. My dad definitely not a touch-y person. I wonder what his primary languages are, perhaps one of them is act of service, thinking how mom making sure everything is in order for him, he is quite particular in some of the things.

I remember he had a favourite chair in the living room. He strongly prefers that no one sit on it, especially our guess’. He always wipe the chair with his handkerchief (or maybe lap) before his sitting on it. When he got home from work or tennis, he’d sit there and read his newspaper.

I remember when I was little (maybe SD) I used to sleep on the same bed with my dad. And apparently he didn’t like it much, since I often pushed him to the edge of the bed (unconsciously of course!). I also remember that I often fall asleep watching TV (either on the floor or on my mom’s bed) and he had to carry me to my bed which was on the other room.

Finished reading this book sometimes last week. It’s the story of the most successful Turtle traders, Curtis. You’d heard of the story of Turtle traders if you are into trading.

Usually trading books are full of charts and formulas, so I am bit surprised by the simplicity of the methods outlined in this book. The trading system that Turtle uses is quite simple but Curtis assert that Trend Following system requires a very large fund to start with as you have to consistently follow every signals as well as be involved in several markets (he’s thinking $100k is a bare minimum).

Not sure whether I gained anything practical from the book since I no longer trade.

Book no 13 finished.

I had my 29th birthday yesterday. This year it was a little bit different as I was away at Engage Conference 08 with a bunch of Pelita people.

It was very nice of them getting me cake and all that. Thank you.

Usually me and Lina would go out on a date on my birthday, this year I think our date will be touring the Doulos ship. She’s very excited about it, I don’t know anything much about Doulos but I’m keen to find out more about them.

I also ha’ve been thinking about what should I blog about this birthday. I think I have written down some ideas/points, I just need to make sure that I do get it written.. Otherwise I’ll just settle with this uninspiring post..

I recently bought Street Fighter Anniversary Collection from Amazon.com (tried Australian Ebay, but couldn’t find one for PS2).

All I can say my PS2 controllers sucks (I have 4 controllers and none of them without any problems) and my skills have decreased so much.. sigh. I finished 3rd Strike using Ryu after reducing the difficulty to level 2, I played even worse on SF II.

Finished reading The Best of Software Writing I by Joel Spolsky.

I think I will write a short review or some sort when I got time later. In short, it was good reading, some of the essays warrants a second read. I want to read the second volume.

No. 12 done, I’ve met my target of finishing 1 book a month.

One of the benefits of long commuting is you get your readings done.

Went to Indonesia Bisa (concert) last night. It was a great experience watching the great bands of Indonesia performing (Dewa 19 and Andra & the Backbone (AATB)).

Although Dewa 19 supposed to be the highlight of the show, I think AATB stole the limelight. The audience seemed to know AATB quite well and they responded to the band the best compared to the other performers that night. I think the highlight was the duet between AATB and Jessica Mauboy on Sempurna. I hope that they consider recording this song together.

I quite like DewiDewi, one of the vocalists got a very strong and husky voice, very nice rock sound. I’ve never heard AATB songs before, they sounded better on stage compared to their recordings (well, I only just watched some of their clips on the youtube ..), their songs are quite nice. Dewa 19 was ok too, Once was charismatic as always, Separuh Nafas was a fitting opening song for them, but the songs after that weren’t that interesting (I want to break free, Sedang ingin bercinta).

I went home with a back pain (3.5 hours standing) and half deaf, but I was quite satisfied watching DewiDewi, Mulan, Jessica, Dewa 19, AATB, The Rock Indonesia all for just a mere $10. Definitely value for money. Keep on rockin!

47 biggest Mistakes made by Property Investors and How to Avoid Them - Hellen Collier, it was an OK book, I couldn’t remember reading anything new from other books and magazines..

No Country for Old Men - Comac McCarthy. Normally people read the book and then watch the movie. I watched the movie first and it made impression to me (especially the antagonist Anton Chigurh, played brilliantly by Javier Bardem), so much that I don’t mind reading the book after knowing the story. It was a very good reading, I loved it. It’s hard to describe why I like the book, perhaps it’s the style of writing which unusual, perhaps it’s because I can relate to Sheriff Bell’s reflections of his life. Despite the ending which a little bit hanging, I do think it’s a book with one message at least. And that message is: If you stumbled across a scene of a drug transaction gone wrong, leave it alone.

That’s number 10 & 11 finished. Currently reading 3 books in parallel, blame it to my short attention span: Getting things done, The best Software Writing 1 and The Way of The Turtle(another gem discovered on Bowen Library).

After few weekends inspecting properties on Hurstville and Parramatta, we finally found one in Parramatta that fits what we are looking for in an investment property (a near cash flow positive).

So I’ve got everything almost ready now, got the loan arranged etc. So it’s just a matter of signing the dotted lines I thought. But I was in for a shock on Friday when the I got the strata report back.

Apparently there are problems with the building caused by negligence on the builder part. The Owner Corporation(OC) has been painfully trying to chase up the builder to rectify the defects but to date it still hasn’t succeeded in doing so.

While I think the defects will be fixed sooner or later (if the builder won’t do it, the OC will claim it from the building insurance), but it is still potentially a troublesome property. And for your first investment property, you don’t really need that extra problem (not to mention special levies that might be needed to cover the legal fees to bring the builder to court).

I’m really disappointed with this development, honestly speaking we are quite tired inspecting units already.. Wife will give the strata inspector a call tomorrow, ask for some opinions on the seriousness of the problems. It is quite unlikely that we will go ahead with this property.

Use your head not your heart (keep telling myself again and again, as I really fond of this property). Sigh, sigh, sigh.