Kayaking, Running, Work, Writing....

Kayak = fun

Yesterday about 10+ of us went kayaking at Swan River, that was the first time I went kayaking. We went for an hour, and I kayaked doubles with Diana, she does that almost every week last year and starting to get into it again. It was freaking painful, because the kayak we had was kind of small and I could not put my legs straight. So every time I tried to paddle, it kept hitting my shins. So today I have bruised shins. Anyways, later when I compare kayaks when we pulled in, actually the kayaks are the same size. Only the seat in ours was smaller. What a stupid thing. But it really was very fun and a great workout. Shall maybe go once a month for this perhaps? It was really fun. We would probably all do singles next time and have a great big race, all of us lined up and racing all the way there and back, it is going to be awesome!!!

Today I did about 10.4 km in 1 hour 07 minutes. This is the first time I have ran properly this year of such a distance. My legs did hurt a bit when I started but then it went away in the 2nd 5 km so perhaps it is just nothing. That is for training for the Asics Furn Run in April, which is 10 km I think. I will try to improve my time. Me and several other will be running it, I hope to do it in a much better time, that would be great.

Have also just joined the Western Australia Marathon Club WAMC. They have lots of activities and about a run every fortnight, so I am really looking forward to joining and jogging more. I just love jogging, it is a wonderful feeling. And every time I think of running I would think, 'cue eye of the tiger'. I know that is and amazingly cheesy song, but it is a great song to get pumped up and go for a run.

A pair of Vibram Five Fingers

Couple of things I am looking to do, is to look into maybe getting Vibram shoes, not sure if those are good or not but I really am thinking getting one and testing it out. And I am also looking at getting Adidas MiCoach but it is quite pricey in Australia, $250 whereas the price in US is only $120 or something, which is simply ridiculous. So I am still considering what to do about this.

Need to permanently fix one of these to the top of my head

On a separate note, my research work has definitely moved forward quite a lot in the past week. Had a discussion with my supervisor on Friday on the way forward and we thought of some things to try to hopefully make things work, but it is never certain. That is the problem with computational research. With experimental even if good or bad, at least you get some results and can comment on those results. But with computational work, I need to at least get the thing to work before I am able to comment on anything at all. So it is indeed frustrating.

Also, every time I have solved a problem, another new and challenging problem seems to crop up. So a lot of the time I feel incompetent and once I am competent, a new incomptency creeps up. I guess that is just a measure of me as a person and the steepness of the problem I have at hand. I spoke to a colleague about the matter, and he we made a pretty good analogy, of a leaky bucket. That when you start your PhD, there is lots of holes in the bucket. But as you start to learn more and know more, you start plugging up all those holes and can retain things. Then at the end of the PhD, you pour out all the water in the bucket, i.e. the thesis write up. But what is ominous is my rate of plugging matches up with the actual time I have left and whether the water in the bucket is enough to quench the thirst of my review panel. Oh well, anything in life worth doing is always challenging. So, all I can do is work hard on this and hope it comes out alright.

is what one writes when experiencing empty-page paralysis

Also, I will start writing again. The AHWA competition is due in June I think and I will start writing now, writing several pieces of work so I can choose which one to submit in the end. I will not say more on this and just get on with the writing.