running with music

I have been running for exercise, and I found that listening to work-out type of music is great for running. I like Rocky's type of music. I just use an old IPOD. The music is spirit lifting, and makes the run more enjoyable. Note that if you run on the streets, loud music may affect your safety since you would not be as alert to the cars around you. I mainly run on trails.

it is not always about starting over

Very often we heard people say they wish they could start over. It's as if they found the situation impossible to correct. Starting over would give them a new opportunity to do it right the first time. But the common truth is starting over does not often yield the results one want as things tend to get bad again. I think it is more about how to make the best use of the moment and situation to get the best possible results. “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” Maria Robinson

What is happiness?

I read about the following while I am on vacation with my family in Hong Kong. Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them. If Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Matt Killingsworth are right, we should be paying far more attention to how we spend our time than to the stuff we accumulate. They argue that it’s not the activity we choose to do that’s important to our happiness: that turns out to have little to no effect on our state of mind. Instead, it has everything to do with the quality of our mental focus in the moment. I would add to the above that happiness is also about the successful outcome of how to deal with the problems. Life is full of problems. As Bruce Lee put it, life is a process o preparing of death. It is the process that counts, since everyone will die. What do we want people to remember of us after we die? What good do we want to have done to this world after we die? Don't we want to have made some good difference to this world due to our presence? Everyone may have different answers to the above questions, but it is important that we each have some answer instead of no answer at all.

Xiom Sigma 1 Pro Table Tennis Rubber

Today I tried the Sigma 1 Pro rubber. It felt pretty good. Since I have been using Xiom Vega Asia rubber, I did not need to make much adustment to use Sigma 1 Pro. Sigma is definitely faster and louder than Vega. It has a distinct pop sound to it. When I smashed or fast looped, the ball speed was excellent. It does look like Sigma 1 Pro can produce kill shots.

Aoshima 1:24 2004 Skyline R34

I recently finished this car model. The original racing livery decals have gone really bad, so I put on some comic decals that came with a Japanese magazine. There are fitting problems for the wheels because the body wheel well openings are not in line with the wheel centers. I suspect Aoshima used the same chasis for a few model cars to cut cost at the expense of accuracy and fit. I ended up sniping the wheel center connection rod from the brake assembly and used super glue to position the wheels as centered as possible.

Revell 1:24 2004 Corvette Coupe Snap Kit

Today is the day after Christmas. I just finished this model car kit. It's always a good feeling to finish something.

Earlier I finished Tamiya's 1/24 Honda CRX:

2010 Challenger (AMT)

I finished this model a while back. This is the first model I finished ever since I became a father 19 months ago. It is a simple snap kit.