No wasted efforts

Its amazing how October has gone so quickly and November is almost gone. As I look back at the past 6-7 weeks, it has been pretty hectic although I am not sure what I have actually accomplished.

Some of the activities that took my time include:
1. volunteered for a Talent ID testing session for Canoeing Victoria (VIS attachment)
2. got a bit involved in a cycling crank angle measurement project (VIS attachment)
3. analysed wheelchair rugby match data (PhD)
4. trying to develop a sensor for a cricket project (PhD related)
5. wheelchair racing testing (PhD)
6. figuring out application of the ANT+ protocol (PhD)
7. part-time work stuff at Catapult (work)
8. write & submit abstract for 2012 ISEA conference (PhD related)

Only one of those things listed above can be considered done and closed (at least for me), and that's the Talent ID testing. The rest of the stuff are either on-going, in progress, or requires follow up or more work.  It sounds like I am saying the same thing but it is actually different.

Firstly, on-going stuff is like my part-time job - as long as the company is still running and has work for me, it is on-going and the scope isn't going to change much.

Secondly, stuff that is in progress would be me analysing wheelchair rugby match data and getting the ANT+ thing to work the way I need it to. They are in progress because I haven't reached any sort of milestone or goal yet and I know more or less how I am going to get there.

Thirdly, stuff that requires follow up would be the cycling project. I have done my part and now the ball is in someone else's court. I may or may not have to do more work on that but that is what I need to follow up and find out. To be honest, I have a feeling that my bit of contribution would not be used in the end, which would be slightly disappointing. [The up side is that I did learn something useful during my involvement that I could apply in the cricket project]

The last category is stuff that requires more work; this includes the cricket project, wheelchair racing testing and the 2012 ISEA conference paper submission. The cricket project was a bit of a bummer initially because I spent a couple of weeks trying to troubleshoot an issue with a micro-controller that turned out to be simply a wrong boot loader burned onto it. But as I mentioned briefly earlier, I transferred what I picked up from the cycling project and ended up with a simpler solution of using a simple data logger board instead of programming a micro-controller. If only I came to that solution earlier (pfft). Anyway there is more work to be done in this project like testing and other stuff. The wheelchair racing testing and the conference paper submission are inter-related. The plan was to run some lab tests (which I had done); from the lab test results, work out a field test protocol, run the field tests and publish all those results in the conference paper (since the abstract I submitted was accepted). Unfortunately, the results from the lab test was not exactly what I had expected and it would take some brainstorming before I could go ahead with the field test. Plus the fact that I am planning to go for a extended holiday beginning of December, this means I would not be able to finish all the work and meet the paper submission deadline which is 21st Dec. Sigh. So actually there is no more work to do for the ISEA conference because I will not make it!

Nevertheless, the work of the wheelchair racing project still has to go on. Hopefully at the end of the day, I get some results or analysis that can give the athlete some insight into how he could improve his performance and win some (more) gold medals!

The racing wheelchair 

So for all the effort that I put into doing stuff the past weeks, some worked out according to plan, some efforts were kinda wasted (submitting the abstract only to realise I can't submit the full paper) and some worked out in an unexpected way.

Going back to the first activity on the list: the Talent ID testing. There was actually something interesting that I learned from that experience. I realised on that day that none of the young people (13 - 22 year olds) who turned up for that testing had any experience in canoeing prior to that. Most of them were either in life-saving or triathlon or some other sport. I had expected them to have a certain level of physical fitness but I was wrong. I guess the whole point of that exercise was to find talent outside of the sport of canoeing; and if it was detected that there was some potential in a particular person, he/she would be put under a canoeing program and monitored for the next year. From there, the VIS would then decide if it was worth training and mentoring that athlete, and also for the athlete to decide if it was worth pursuing the sport of canoeing competitively. Looking at the selected squad, it seems more than half the people who turned up for the testing did not make it through. But I can't say they have wasted their time or effort in going through the testing because they probably found out a bit more about themselves that day, and this might just lead them to understanding where their strengths really lies.

Working intentionally

I do work everyday, whether it is paid work or volunteer work. For me, volunteer work includes doing my PhD (because I chose to do it on my own free will & I am not getting paid to do it), helping out in church stuff and doing housework (if that counts). Paid work is of course just work that pays (monetarily). For a good part of my life, I worked on a reactive kind of mode: something happens and I react to it, or somebody tells me I should do something and I do it. It is probably the way that I was brought up - to follow a certain pattern of doing things, to follow instructions and 'protocol', and take on whatever comes my way. But over the years I have began to feel tired of working that way; and at some point I decided to make some changes - to pursue the things that I have a passion for and try to avoid doing things that doesn't interest me (at all). So I came to Melbourne... and I am still on that journey... trying to work out some way to do the things I like and hopefully get paid (enough) doing it.

Recently I had this meeting with the boss (of my part-time job) to get some review of my performance in the past four months and to find out if I met the expectations of the role. I was given some positive feedback and also some suggestions of areas where I could improve on. Overall it was quite a standard type of review meeting and in my opinion, the outcome was positive. But there was something else that I took out of the meeting.

The boss was explaining to me during one part of the conversation about spending time and resources on a project and how every bit of effort put in could have some outcome. However, some input could have a slightly worse outcome and some could have a much better outcome. But what really counts is when the outcome goes past a threshold and becomes profitable or successful. That could be like: developing a consumer product that goes through a few prototypes and finally becomes mass produced and sold to the customers; or a new software update that has gone through a few rounds of testing, then it is finally published and it benefits the end-users. But then, not all developments become a final product or something deliverable and useful. Some just stop at a certain prototype stage and 'die' off. So the goal is to have as many 'deliverables' as possible with the amount of resources spent. I imagine this would require having some form of vision of the outcome, proper planning, and working intentionally - spending adequate resources (time, effort & money), not getting distracted by other things and making sure that every effort spent is intended to reach the goal.

I am not 100% sure if that was exactly what I heard but that was what stuck in my head. It made sense to me, and I think I could definitely apply that while working on my PhD because I really need to work more intentionally, to have outcomes that count - like doing testing and analyses that will complete certain chapters in my thesis or even publishing journal articles & conference papers from my research. There are many interesting ideas and 'projects' that distract me every now and then, but I really need to start intentionally filtering them and just stay on track to finish this PhD and finish it well.

APCST 2011

The 5th Asia-Pacific Congress on Sports Technology was recently held in Melbourne (for a second time). Almost 100 people from around the world turned up for the congress which took place in the Storey Hall - RMIT's premium exhibition and auditorium facility. The attendees include academics from various universities, scientists and researchers from sport institutes, engineers of various disciplines from organisations of technology and innovations, and representatives of sporting goods companies.

Keynote speakers

The first two days of the congress was packed with keynote speeches and presentations discussing the impact of technology on sports. Sessions were organised either according to the type of sport (winter sports, swimming, ball sports, cycling, track & field), engineering methods (design & analysis, modelling & simulation, aerodynamics), sports wear (garments & footwear) and the most popular topic in this congress which is sensors & measurement methods. Use of inertial sensors and the application of smart phones in various sports covered more than half the presentations under the category of sensors & measurement methods. I too, had the opportunity to present a paper on the use of inertial sensors and smart phones in wheelchair sports. 

Obviously the potential of wearable technologies or wireless technologies in sports is huge, which is why more and more people are getting into the research and development of this area. One of the reasons for this is it's increase in demand. It probably started with the sports institutes where coaches and sports scientists recognised the advantage & benefits of tracking and measuring their athletes' movement and performance not just in the lab, but in the field during training or during actual competitions. It then trickled down to the professional team sports that has the funding to use inertial sensor technologies. Then what more, with smart phones such as iPhones and Android phones that are built with inertial sensors and a-GPS, and SDKs that allow almost anyone (with the interest and programming knowledge) to develop customised Apps for sports applications. There are Apps that simply use location data to track running or cycling routes, giving the user information on their speed, distance and elevation. There is an iPhone App for rowing and there are iPhone Apps that simply gives you access to the accelerometer and gyroscope data (which I used extensively for my research). Anyway, my point is that more people can have access to wearable technologies with the development of smart phones, and thus the growing interest.

I actually came across this blogpost that criticised the conference and the purpose of research in sports technology. The writer had the mindset that research in sports garments for improved performance (reduced drag) or analysing the aerodynamics of balls (golf & soccer) or instrumenting sports equipment for performance analysis is a total waste of time. That seems to be a very narrow-minded view of sports engineering. Objectively speaking, many new technologies that are developed from sports engineering research, whether in universities or research institutes are often adopted later on by other industries either in healthcare, manufacturing, construction and even aerospace engineering; and vice versa. The innovations developed may not have an immediate impact but it often brings people to a new level of understanding of the possibilities of such innovations. Also, who can deny that controversies in sports science and technologies make interesting discussion topics? Here's one for example.

Louise Sauvage showing us one of her racing chairs

But back to the conference itself; other than the many thought provoking discussions related to sports technologies, a highlight of the conference is the social events. On the second night, there was the dinner at the Melbourne Cricket Ground that was combined with a tour of the National Sports Museum. Louise Sauvage was a special guest for the dinner and she gave a special closing speech to mark the end of the conference. She shared about her journey as a disabled athlete, the different struggles she went through and some of the experiences she had that were truly epic. It was the perfect closing speech for a sports technology conference; because not only is she an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racer who has won numerous gold medals (Paralympic games, Olympic games and international athletic championships), she experienced first hand the impact of technology in the improvements of her racing wheelchairs. But even though technology had a bit to play in her success, I would say the major contributing factor is her discipline in training and determination to succeed. A truly charismatic and inspiring person; I am sure she has been a huge inspiration to many Paralympians in Australia and I am pretty sure she inspired many engineers and scientists that night during the dinner.

Industry tours: There were some industry tours on the third day at different locations including the Kookaburra Sport manufacturing facility, Sports Technology International - a sports surface manufacturer, and the Victorian Institute of Sport combined with a sports science presentation from Catapult Sports. There are several more sports technology companies based in Melbourne that I have come to know since I started my post-graduate studies in sports engineering. Then there are at least 2 universities with sports engineering programs (Victoria Uni & RMIT); which really makes Melbourne a sort of hub for sports technology developments, and I am pretty glad to be a part of it. :)

The APCST is a biennial conference, so the next one is going to be in 2013 and if I'm not wrong I think its going to be at Hong Kong. Two years might seem like a gap but there is still the 9th ISEA conference that takes place next year! In the meantime I better get some more work done so that I can publish more ground breaking stuff!!

Empathy

In order to get some extra 'funding' for my PhD, I decided to take up a part-time job. By God's grace, I found one in a sports technology company that manufactures sensors for tracking athletes. Well in fact I interviewed with them once previously but the position required more electronics experience which is beyond me. Anyway, this time they needed someone in a customer support role, preferably someone who had experience using their sensors and study/work in the field of sports science and engineering; and they wanted someone doing it part-time. I fitted all their basic requirements, the job fitted my 'fundings' requirement, plus I was really keen to get some experience in a sports technology company, it was a win-win. So yes, I took the job.

It actually has been over a month since I started this customer support role and it has been quite an interesting experience so far. There are some technical aspects to the job - it requires some basic understanding of how inertial sensors work, a logical troubleshooting mind and mainly how to use the proprietary program to get the relevant data out of the sensors. But knowing the technical stuff is only a minor part of the customer support role. The more important part is connecting with the customer that I am supporting. This means understanding what the customer needs and providing a solution or explanation to their problem. It also goes to the extent of ensuring that the customer is satisfied. This means that even if the customer is wrong, I shouldn't point it out too blatantly, instead I should tactfully highlight that he could be wrong and suggest possible alternative methods to work out his issue.

Unfortunately, I learned that from experiencing it myself. I told a customer the truth, the reality, and that did not sit well with him and his own agenda. To give an analogy of what happened: A customer bought a bicycle and wanted to attach the bicycle to his lawnmower so that he can cycle and mow his lawn. Somehow he got someone to modify his lawnmower and made it to work, but after a while the bicycle stuffed up and he got a replacement from the manufacturer since it was under warranty. He then realised that the replacement bike has some new enhancements because it is a newer model and now it can't work with his lawnmower anymore. He gets annoyed and he calls the bicycle manufacturer demanding that they change the design of the new bicycle so that it can fit onto his lawnmower! Obviously it doesn't make sense for the manufacturer to go back to an older less effective design; moreover the bicycle was designed to be a bicycle and not for fitting onto a lawnmower. If he really wanted to, he should design his own bicycle lawnmower that could look something like this:

http://www.totallyabsurd.com/tricyclelawnmower.htm

But how should the customer support person respond? Well what I learned is that not everyone can handle the truth, and as the customer support person, I should empathise with the customer. Instead of telling him the truth, I should explain in a nice way that the new bicycle design makes it more ergonomic for riding. But if he really wants it to work with the lawnmower I could find him one of the older design bikes in the dumps, oops I mean in the store. Or I could point him to someone who could modify his lawnmower again to fit the new bike design. In essence, the goal of customer support is to please the customer. If customers are unhappy, customer support has to appease them, sugar-coat the truth if necessary so that its easier for them to swallow; although at the end of the day they still may not accept the truth.

Fortunately, there is one truth in this world that I do not have to sugar-coat to tell others. That is: Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). People may or may not like to hear it but it is the truth, and the goal of telling it is not to please the listener but to please God.   

Mentoring support

This is kind of a delayed post. Anyway it's related to the VIS sports science traineeship.

The VIS sports science traineeship began with a three day induction session for all the trainees. That included an orientation of the facilities; an overview of lab and field testings with emphasis on health and safety issues; meeting up with some of the staff; and more importantly, the various sports science staff made sure that we understand what the VIS is all about and what is the purpose of the sports science department. The motto of the VIS (as anyone will see on their website) is: Success in sports and life. There is also a quote from the VIS chairman which says:

Our mission is to provide an environment in which talented Victorian athletes have the opportunity to achieve at the highest level in sport and life.
– Kate Palmer - VIS Chairman

Anyway I gather that the focus of VIS is on the athletes (duh). The athletes are valued because they have the talent and the skills to do well in their sports. So VIS dedicates a whole bunch of people who takes care and keeps track of the athletes to make sure that they are moving forward in their sports career and are on the right track towards the goals that were set for them. Those people can be from sports medicine, nutrition, sports science, psychology, sports coaches and even people who provide guidance and counselling on their career, education, life after sports, time and stress management etc. I will just label them generally as the athlete support group. Then the athletes usually have performance evaluations done on a regular basis and if something is not quite right (maybe their performance is dropping or they are not meeting a target),  a few of the athlete support people will try to find out what went wrong. Could it be the training program is not appropriate? Does the athlete lack motivation or discipline? Is the athlete going through any family or emotional problems? If yes, they will try to rectify the problem and basically, no effort would be spared to give the best support to the elite athletes to ensure that they become the best that they can be.

This leads me to think: what about regular people? I reckon everyone should have some form of support in their life. It could be from school or work or church or family or even friends. Most people will probably talk to people around them and get advise at different points of their lives, especially when they are at crossroads. But I also reckon there are people who don't bother and they simply cruise through life and end up not fulfilling their potential in life, which is kind of sad. I believe God made everyone for a specific purpose and more often than not, we need mentors who we can talk to, consult, pick their brains and from there we learn to identify our strengths and weaknesses,  be inspired, and become more like the person God designed us to be.  

Removing gunk

With a new person in my life now, a huge part of my time is spent feeding him, changing his nappies, changing his clothes, winding him, carrying him and the list goes on. One thing that I can't get used to, is his crying. His crying can be a few short bursts of grunting and wailing or wailing continuously or wailing continuously with bouts of high pitched screams. The third one can bring intense pain to my head especially if his mouth is within half a metre from my ear.

Most of his cries and whimpering are because of hunger, a wet or poopy nappy or wind in his tummy. But sometimes its because of the stuff that I am doing to him. I don't intentionally make him cry, it's just that the things I do bring some discomfort to him. Those things include:

1. Changing his nappy - especially when I am wiping his bottom with a wet wipe after he has had a poop; and because he sometimes has such a big one that there's poop everywhere! So the cleaning takes slightly longer to make sure all the 'cracks and crevices' are poop free. This longer cleaning annoys him and he will either start crying or give me more work by 'spraying' on me.

2. Removing dried milk bits on his face - when I have the opportunity to feed him with the bottle, I will spend at least 30 minutes staring into his little face. During that time, I will notice dried milk bits around his eyes or nose. Usually I will make a mental note to myself that I have to clean his face with a wet towel later or give him a bath if he hasn't had one the day before. But sometimes after 20 minutes of feeding him and noticing those dried milk bits, I can't help but try to pick them off with my fingers. This clearly annoys him and he wails for a couple of seconds till I stop doing it.

3. Trying to pick up his boogers - also happens usually when I am feeding him with the bottle. I can see up his nose and in his nostrils are humongous dried chunks of boogers. If they are close to the edge of his nostril, I will use my pinky nail to pick it out. Again, this usually results in him wailing for a couple of seconds to express his annoyance.

From my point of view, I am cleaning his bottom so that he will not develop a nappy rash; I am cleaning his face so that he will look fresher (and cuter :D); and I am clearing his nostrils so that he can breathe better. For him, its just discomfort that he doesn't like to go through.

This sort of reminded me of a clip that one of my pastors showed during our prayer meeting a while back. It's called God's chisel. God's chisel can often make us feel uncomfortable but it's only when He removes the gunk in our life that we become the masterpiece that He has designed us to be.

 

Exciting times

June 2011 marks the start of an exciting period for me; cos many new things are happening (or happened) at the same time. Even though I did plan for them to happen, I definitely didn't plan for them to happen at the same time, it just... happened that way. It would be nice if each thing happened at least two months apart of the other so that I could ease into things better, but then where would the challenge be??

Early arrival of baby Gideon

His actual due date (as calculated by the doctors) was supposed to be the 24th of June. His grandma even planned to fly in to Melbourne on the 21st so that she could help out here and there prior to his arrival. But baby Gideon (or Prince Gideon as the Missus prefers to call him now) couldn't wait till the 24th and 'decided' he has to pop-out 15 days earlier! What's more exciting is that I actually had my PhD confirmation presentation scheduled on that exact day! By God's grace, I was given a window of opportunity to scoot off from the hospital to Uni to give my presentation, nail it (thank God!), and rush back to the hospital to hold the Missus' hand while she went through her contractions and finally push out the baby 7 hours later. So now we have this little bundle of joy (and cries and pee and poo) keeping us occupied pretty much 24/7.

PhD
So it seems like the PhD didn't have a fantastic start with my first presentation not going well and my second presentation clashing with the birth of Gideon. Still, it has officially started. Now, although I have a rough idea of what I am working towards, it really is murky waters I am swimming into, unexplored grounds I am entering, and new insights I am hoping to gain; and that I guess is the whole point of doing this PhD. But to really put things into perspective, what I might achieve at the end would probably be like contributing a small drop of water into a whole ocean of knowledge in engineering and science. Nevertheless, it will be hard work and it will take up every ounce of brain juice I can muster up. I am hoping to complete this within a year though I have no idea if it is actually possible.

Sports science traineeship
The Victorian Institute of Sport runs a Sports science traineeship program every year that lasts for twelve months and it is usually open to students doing a exercise and sports science degree. However this year they decided to open this traineeship to students from other disciplines such as statistics, nutrition and engineering. Needless to say, I applied for it and with only ten spots available in the traineeship, it is definitely a miracle that I managed to get on it. From a discussion with one of the resident sports scientist, I was told that I would probably be given work on a project basis, to resolve technical or engineering issues pertaining to performance analysis of athletes. However I still put my hand up to be involved in the traditional sports science stuff; so I might have opportunities to do some physiological or field testing of athletes down the road. Interesting stuff I reckon.

Anyway, as I was saying, it's going to be exciting times ahead... exciting times.

Being prepared

A couple of months ago, I have decided that I would convert my Masters project to a PhD. It wasn't what I had in mind when I started out doing the Masters but somehow things just panned out differently - I was supposed to develop a suitable sensor for measuring performance in wheelchair sports and after that was done, it led on to the possibility of using non-linear methods for performance analysis (that's where the PhD will come in). Anyway, in order for me to do that, I need to convince a school panel that I know what I am doing and what I am hoping to achieve has real value and contributions to science and engineering.

A day was set for me to present to the school panel. I presented the work and findings that I did in the first 2 years; how those were published in various conferences and journals, and a summary of what I am planning to achieve if allowed to do the PhD. Following that were tonnes of questions about what I am trying to achieve and where is the real value of the research. Filled with apprehension and anxiety, I either answered the questions haphazardly or I took too long to come out with an appropriate answer. The outcome was disastrous. The feedback from the panel - I didn't appear to have a clear grasp of my research topic!

So how did I stuff up that presentation? Well firstly, I only put together the power point slides 2 days before the actual presentation, then after I showed it to my primary supervisor, I was given some additional new ideas, which I had not fully internalised, and most importantly, I did not rehearse through the slides. So even though I blurted out everything I had in mind to the panel, it didn't come out the way it should, it didn't make sense to the school panel, and I panicked and fumbled when the questions kept coming. Honestly it was quite embarrassing and disappointing but thank God they decided to let me present my case again a couple of weeks later.

For my second attempt, I made sure I was prepared (and my primary supervisor made sure I did). I re-did my presentation slides - removed as much text as possible, made the graphs bigger and clearer, made sure the slides (and argument) flowed in a clear and concise manner, removed unnecessary details so that I wouldn't lose focus. Then I practised. I gathered most of the peeps from the sports engineering group, went through my presentation with them - not once but twice. Each time I did it, they  gave me feedback on what I should be emphasising on and what needs to be improved and I incorporated their input into my presentation. I even made the Missus listen to my presentation several times - I wonder if that caused the early arrival of the Bub (but I will leave that for another post). The result - the school panel were finally convinced after my second presentation and gave me the go ahead with the PhD.

Fractal dimensions, here I come!

On hindsight, I realised that I stuffed up the first time not because I didn't know what I was doing nor that I do not have enough knowledge on the subject matter. Rather I was simply not prepared adequately to argue my case, I became intimidated by the professors, and appeared unsure of my work. On my second attempt, I was much more prepared and more confident and any doubts that the school panel had were all cleared.

This incident led me to think about how prepared am I when it comes to sharing the gospel with friends or acquaintances or even strangers. I do know about the gospel, I have read and studied the bible for a big part of my life, but am I always prepared to share it with someone who hasn't heard about it? It might be a good idea to practise sharing the gospel so that I can share it more effectively; and I should probably start soon because unlike school presentations that have a specific date, opportunities to share the gospel can come at any time.

  

Never give up

Came across this clip recently of Heather Kampf (formerly Dorniden) running a collegiate race in 2008. It is a really good portrayal of never giving up:

In her interview after the race, she said this:

"I try to tell myself before the start of every race that all things are possible through Christ, and first and foremost I have to send the credit his way, because I certainly didn't feel like I did that all by myself. Immediately after the fall, I told myself, you have to get up to at least get a time that will score-- the team points were very close and I know everyone was counting on some points in that event."

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me - Philippians 4:13. Hallelujah!

What also struck me was what she said about scoring for the team. She saw that her finishing the race was more important for the team than for herself, and that was possibly one of the things that helped keep her going. She ran for something bigger than herself. In the end she not only scored one for the team, she also scored a big one for herself.

Time and again I find myself falling off in my walk with God. Sometimes its hard to pick myself up and keep going. When I am down, I sometimes feel dejected and ashamed of myself; I become inward looking and even to the extent that I feel like giving up. Fortunately the Holy Spirit rebukes me and reminds me of what Christ has done for me, that there is no condemnation in Him (Rom 8:1), that I already have the victory through Him and He has already overcome the world (John 16:33). It also helps to have fellow brothers and sisters-in-Christ who encourages me, keeps me in check, and gently nudging me forward in their different ways. So when the going gets tough, it is really God and the body of Christ that keeps me going and not give up.

Adjusting

The weather is starting to get cold in Melbourne, winter is coming. This also means the sun rises a little bit later in the morning and sets much earlier in the evening which leaves less time for 'day-time' activities. Just the past week when I went canoeing, I started at 5pm and by 545pm there wasn't much light left and I had to hurry back to the boathouse, otherwise it gets a bit creepy paddling in the dark and I can't see what animal is moving on the river. But back to the weather being colder. It has made a casual everyday action much harder to do or should I say requiring more time for 'adjustments'. This very simple everyday action is none other than getting in and out of bed. At night when I climb into bed, I find that the bed is colder than the room. Even when I am under the down blanket and huddled next to the wife, it still takes a couple of minutes before I feel comfortable enough and fall asleep. During that couple of minutes, my body is frantically generating more heat to fight the coldness of the bed and to warm up my immediate surroundings - which is the small amount of air between me and the down blanket. In the morning, getting out of the bed and blanket requires my body to go through a bigger adjustment, this is done with the aid of: washing my face with warm water, blowing the hair dryer on my head even though my hair is not wet then having a warm mug of milo. Yes, I am starting to do this almost everyday.

On a bigger scale, we have to adjust to changes everyday, every week, every month and every year. New job, new project or assignment at work, or new responsibilities in general; new boss, new colleagues, new neighbours, or forming new relationships in general; new policies at work, new legislations or standards, or simply new rules of how things should be done; new tools, new equipment, new programs, new gadgets that are supposed to make your life 'easier. With every new 'thing' comes a period of getting used to, a period of adjusting.

I think getting in and out of bed when it gets colder should be probably one of the easier adjustments I need to go through this year. The other slightly tougher one would be getting papers piled higher and deeper. I have no idea how I am going to get through that but somehow I have been 'highly recommended' to do it. Then there is an even more challenging adjustment which I (and the wife) have to go through in a couple of months. It has been highly professed that nothing in this world can prepare a person (or couple) to go through this change - having your first bub. How comforting. Although I must say it does make life more exciting.

Nevertheless, with all the changes that will be happening for me this year, I take comfort in knowing that God never changes - He is always the same yesterday, today and tomorrow; His word never changes and He is always faithful. Amen!

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Psalm 62:1-2

  

The correct technique

I went paddling last week and as I was launching my kayak, another guy joined me. We launched out from the platform at the same time and when we were out in the water, he started chatting with me. We were initially going at around the same speed, and after a while, I realised that I had to put in more effort to keep up with him. The only reason I did that (keep up with him) was I was trying to be polite and carry on the conversation he started. But once the conversation ended, I simply slowed down naturally. I couldn't keep up with him. As I looked at him slowly pulling ahead of me, I couldn't help but notice that he wasn't executing the proper technique (at least not the way I was taught). He was not punching high enough, not having proper torso or shoulder rotation. One of the best display of the correct technique was shown by a Norwegian canoeist called Knut Holmann - three olympic gold medals, four times world champs in k1-1000m. Here's a very short clip of his paddling technique which I got from kayaksport.net:

and here you would find videos of some races he was in. I think the best one is the Sydney Olympics k1-1000 final where he was not leading at the start, then he took lead after 500m and subsequently powered ahead to win by more than a boat length. That was truly impressive. If you have a look at that clip, past the finishing line, Petar Merkov the Bulgarian guy who came in second seemed to be staring at Knut Holmann with amazement. Unfortunately he lost to Knut Holmann again the next day, coming in second in the k1-500 finals. But I digressed.

Back to the guy who was paddling ahead of me. I guess my point is that even though he was not having the best technique and in my opinion I was doing it (more) correctly (or at least trying to), he was going faster. The reason is simple: he has much better fitness and conditioning. He probably goes to the river much more regularly than I do. So even though I have been trained with good paddling technique and I still attempt to execute it, the end result is still lacklustre because I don't do it regularly and my body is not conditioned well for it.

This reminded me of my walk with God. I know that having an intimate walk with God is usually a result of communing with Him regularly; praying, reading and meditating on His word, and living by His word (Psalm 1). But knowing it is simply not enough. Knowing it and not doing it is pointless, and I will never have a closer walk with God simply by knowing it. So I need to actually do it and do it regularly; only then can I be an effective salt and light (Matthew 5:13-15).

Extreme fanaticism

I watched this clip during church service today and I was quite blown away. There is such an uncanny similarity between the two things that were compared that its freaky. It also made me realise how easy one could become like that and not be aware of it.

Anyway, here is the video:

I think that there is essentially nothing bad about playing sports or watching sports. For me, I learned a fair bit about discipline from doing sports - through the physical and mental training, the controlling of my diet, management of my time so that I can do all the things that are important.. etc. I also learned about humility and camaraderie among other things. So yes, there is value in sports, but I guess the problem comes when we give more importance to sports than to God our creator (Exodus 20:1-3; Matt 4:10).

Moving to the next step

Recently we attended church camp which was held at a wonderful campsite called Lyrebird Park. The facilities are fantastic, the food was great and the hosts of the campsite are just a lovely bunch of people. I also found out that the Lyrebird is an Australian native bird that has the amazing ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds in its environment. This made me wonder if the moo-ing sounds I heard every morning were from real cows or a Lyrebird.

Church camps are good because they are a time when we get away from our usual routine to focus on God and wait upon Him and let Him realign things in our life. I know we should be doing this everyday but I admit that I get distracted easily by a billion things that happen everyday. Somehow, driving to somewhere further and more rural reduces the distractions to just two - drinking and eating. I believe it is biblical because people in the bible used to climb up mountains or go to deserts or get away from the crowd and to somewhere secluded to pray and commune with God. This often results in God giving them a word or a revelation.

For me, I felt that God spoke to me about one or two things during the camp. One of it was during the group activities when we did rock climbing. Rock climbing was never one of my strengths, I am usually better at coming down than climbing up. Also, my natural talent for procrastinating makes rock climbing even harder because I'd be stuck in the middle of the wall and I would be looking up, indecisive of which hold to go for and by the time I want to go for it, my arms are worn out from gripping the holds for too long. Anyway, after 2 failed attempts at reaching the top (which actually isn't very high but that's not the point), I was feeling quite exhausted and rather perplexed as to why I couldn't get past the last two meters. Then after a while, someone came and told me this: you can't rely on your hand holds, you should use your legs to step up even if you don't have a very firm hold on your hand, you can't wait for your hand to get a 100% secure grip, otherwise you won't move up. How true that is. My procrastinating, or lack of faith or focusing on plan-Bs keeps me from moving forward in God's plan for my life. By gripping and hanging on to the holds I am on and wondering if the next 'hold' would be secure, I'm just waiting for the inevitable to happen - my strength and confidence to be fully zapped and me falling off the wall.

Before attending the camp, I kinda have a feeling where God is leading me next in my life, and I have roughly decided what I would do; but at the same time, I can't help but keep thinking of the 'what ifs', and either consciously or sub-consciously, I create back-up plans for the different 'what if' possibilities, which wears me out. So this camp has reminded me once again that I have to stop doubting (it will be a struggle) and just move forward in faith.

By the way, I did climb to the top of the wall on my third try (by the grace of God of course). :)

How do you get people on your team?

Just some randoms thoughts I had recently...

When I was in the canoeing team in university, we had a recruitment drive every year to get new 'blood'. We usually try to get experienced people who has paddled competitively and especially those who were really good and have the medals to show for it. But for various reasons (maybe kayaking is not as glamorous or interesting as other activities) so it's difficult to attract good talent. The problem or risk of getting people who had no experience is that if they have absolutely no talent or perseverance (the latter is more important) and give up trying halfway, a lot of time and resources are wasted training them in the first place. So I would rather have a small team of good and dedicated athletes than a big team of people who may not stay on.

I think it is somewhat similar at work. A company wants to hire the right (or most suitable) person for the job - a person with the necessary skills, attitude and even personality so that everyone in the team could connect and work well together. A recruitment ad is put out listing out the requirements, and assuming it's a well known company with great career prospects, there will be tonnes of applications and the hiring manager will have to sift through them and pick out a few good ones to interview and determine if one of them is the right fit.

I reckon that should be common in well known industries and companies with well established career progressions. But what about new and specialised fields with unknown career progressions? Something like sports engineering. When I first got interested in sports engineering back in 2003/4, there weren't much information available about it and the only thing I found was this book: High Tech Hot Shots: Careers in Sports Engineering. It gives a great introduction to sports engineering and the opportunities available, which actually isn't  much and they are mostly in US. I consider myself very blessed to have the opportunity to do a Masters by research in this field and even had the chance to attend a biennial sports engineering conference organised by ISEA last year. From my observation, there were approximately 150 people who participated in this particular conference and I would say more than 80% of the people were in academia and less than 20% were from the industry. Even though this may not be an accurate representation of the sports engineering field, I think it still reflects how small is the group of people involved in sports engineering in the world.

As a result of going to the conference I was made a member of the association. However the membership only lasted a year and when it was time to renew the membership, there was actually a special deal - if you recommend someone new to join the association, both you and the new member could get a membership fee discount. The way I see it, this is their way of getting more people to join the 'club'.

It's odd because I assumed that sports engineering/technology is an extremely interesting subject and lots of people would be interested in it, so it shouldn't be necessary to use gimmicks to draw people in. But the truth is far from it. Having been doing research in this field for the past 2 years, I have seen my supervisor having problems recruiting post-grad research students to do sports engineering projects even though he has got funding; and I have seen days when not a single student turn up for his "Design of Sports Technology" class which is unbelievable. Maybe it hasn't gained enough popularity in the traditional science and engineering field?

So how do you form a (good) team of sports engineers? I guess first of all you have to find people who are interested in sports engineering with useful and relevant technical and analytical skills. Then they have to be passionate enough about sports engineering and be willing to find their own funding, because there aren't many companies that will pay you to do it. I know this sports technology guy who is self employed and he does a lot of work with cyclists and rowers and optimising their equipment and other stuff; he said it's always interesting to test out the latest technology and gadgets and how they could be applied to sports but the bottom line is you have to put food on the table; so he has to do work that pays, not just work that is interesting. So basically being a sports engineer can involve hard (and possibly not profitable) work which makes forming a team of sports engineers even harder.

Then I read about Jesus and how He got His twelve disciples, and it's really quite fascinating. Most of the disciples were fishermen, one was a tax collector, there was a zealot (or rebel but not sure if that is considered an occupation) and although not much was mentioned about the jobs of the rest, I reckon they should be blue collar workers or maybe jobless. So they don't seem very 'talented' if you ask me. Jesus first met four fishermen and simply told them to follow him (Matthew 4:18-22). Then He met a tax collector and did the same thing (Matthew 9:9). The rest either joined in because they had nothing better to do or maybe they could tell that Jesus would be the next big thing. On the other hand, it wasn't just them who decided that they wanted to follow Jesus; Jesus picked them. He decided that those were the twelve people who would form His core team. I think His requirement was straight forward - the disciples had to be willing to follow Him at all cost - including leaving their previous jobs and their families in order to follow Jesus. A rich man couldn't do that (Matthew 19:20-21). We know that following Jesus was extremely hard work because most of the disciples ended up being martyred. But we know that Jesus picked the right disciples because the message was preached (and without using any gimmicks!) and today we have churches all over the world. Praise God!

Electronics is not my cup of tea

Many years ago when I decided that I wanted to studying engineering in uni, it was by process of elimination. I didn't like business or commerce or accounting, I am not any good at the arts subjects, I didn't take biology or chemistry for my 'A' levels which rules out medicine and many other science faculties, and lastly I did like physics and maths. So naturally I opted for engineering. Then during the first year of engineering studies, I realised that I was always struggling during the electric circuits or electronics lab sessions. What made it worse was the technicians at the electronics lab were quite mean and sarcastic. So after my first year in engineering, given the choice of civil, electrical and mechanical, I picked mechanical engineering.

Fast forward past graduating and working a couple of years as a mechanical engineer in manufacturing, I wanted to explore something more in engineering and I found sports engineering. Sports engineering basically involves using engineering tools and concepts to analyse sports movements, optimise sports equipment so as to improve performance (reduce energy loss) or prevent injuries and design instruments to aid with coaching or to enhance spectators viewing experience of sports. So my exploration of sports engineering led me to do a research program in RMIT which has a research institute focused on sports technology. The main project I am working on requires me to design and develop a wireless sensor for measuring performance of a sports wheelchair. Unfortunately at some point, it required me to work on electronics! With help from several blogs and internet forums, a kind lab technician and research fellow, I managed to come up with a working prototype of a wireless sensor. Although it is kind of working, I am not completely satisfied with it. I thought the electronics design and the custom program I wrote could be better.

A simple circuit that took me ages...

Anyway, I reckon a real electronics design engineer would take half the amount of time I took and could probably do a better job. So electronics is not my cup of tea nor my strength but by God's grace I managed to pull together a simple solution for my problem.

The interesting thing is I got a call from a recruiter several weeks ago who had a position in a sports technology company that made wireless sensors for football players. This got me quite excited because its a sports technology company looking for a manufacturing engineer which I have the right experience. The ironic part was that the position involved troubleshooting electronic problems. Dang. But I went for the job interview anyway, not feeling very confident and I even told the company directors honestly that electronics is not my cup of tea. In the end they found someone else who is more competent in electronics. Oh well, I would have struggled if I got the job plus the timing wasn't good for me anyway; I wasn't done with my research studies.

But it doesn't end here, my supervisor had a discussion with me recently and he wanted me to be involved in this other project working on another wireless sensor that is smaller and has different measurement capabilities. This means more electronics work! The positive part of this is that this being a university project, it would be more forgiving compared to working on a commercial product. Also, it will be a good challenge for me. Maybe after this I might start to like electronics or I might become an expert in wireless sensors.

Canoeing (or kayaking) can make a difference

There is this canoeing race in South Africa called the Dusi Canoe Marathon. The race lasts for 3 days with the first day covering 45km with approximately 15km of portage (running or walking on land with the canoe), the second day covering 45km and 10km of portage and it ends on the third day with 35km of paddling. So it is a total of 125km of paddling and it is not just on calm flat water but there are sections of large rapids where you wouldn't think that an ICF standard kayak could go through but they do (although I notice the rudder they use is the kind that folds up).

But it is not just the physical demand of the race that got my attention because there are a number of canoe marathons in the world that far exceeds it in terms of distance. For example there is the VicSuper Murray Marathon in Australia that lasts 5 days and covers 404km, then there is the Regata Del Rio Negro in Argentina which is divided into 6 stages, lasts 8 days and covers 653km! 

What got my attention is that people who took part in the Dusi Marathon took the effort to make a difference in the lives of people who live along the Msunduzi (or Dusi) river. Like there is this group called the Canvas Dusi who are dedicated to the environmental health of the river. They got this name because they paddle wooden canvas canoes for the race and during the race, they take note of things like soil erosion, industrial pollution, water borne diseases, etc and subsequently come up with sustainable solutions for these problems! 

Then there is this guy Martin Dreyer who started an academy called "Change a life academy" to train youngsters from the Msunduzi Local Municipality in canoeing. This academy basically transformed the young people sitting at the banks watching the race to participating in the race, having a goal and something to be excited about, and ultimately becoming successful in the sport and winning medals. Getting them involved in canoeing definitely changed their lives!

Personally, I feel that canoeing has made a difference in my life. It has taught me to be more disciplined, focused, determined. I learned about perseverance and team work. Somehow God has also taught me through years of competing, the importance of humility; and to some extent, it is a lesson that I never stop learning.

Anyway, here's a great documentary about the Dusi Marathon:

2010 Land Rover Durban Hansa 50 Miler from D4 Productions on Vimeo.

There's something about kayaking

Sprint kayaking is probably the first (and only) sport that I trained competitively in and at some point I was even hoping that I could possibly become good enough to take part in international competitions. Somehow that didn't come to pass but kayaking still became something I enjoy doing on a regular (if time permits) basis; which actually means once a week or even once a fortnight.

The awesome canoeing club I go to

The thing about kayaking is that it is quite a difficult sport to pick up. The real sprint kayaks are really hard to balance and the correct technique for paddling could take a long time (most take years) to master. Even if one has kind of mastered the technique and the balancing, it still takes a certain amount of concentration and discipline when you are out paddling. This is especially true for someone like me who goes paddling once a fortnight or sometimes even longer. Each time I go paddling, I spend about 60% of my energy on balancing and 20% on getting a proper technique; and since delivering a proper technique also contributes to good balancing, that makes 80% on balancing.  So what do I focus on when I am paddling? I try to keep my upper body straight (vertical), not slouch or leaning to either side; control the amount of force I put on each foot; make sure my hands don't go too far back during each pull; maintain good rotation while not leaning to either side and not letting my bottom slip to either side. There are probably a lot more details but the general idea is: balance the forces between the left and right and you should be fine. It sounds simple but execution is hard and if at any time you lose focus, there's a high chance you are going for a swim.

Too bad I don't have any photos or videos of my paddling sessions. Well if I could get a sports cam like the GoPro, or even if someone could loan me one (or even give me one :D), I could take a shot of paddling at the Yarra river. 

Anyway, I find that my thought life is very much like going kayaking - it takes discipline and effort to keep my mind in check. I have to be alert and constantly aware of what is in my mind and take captive of every thought like what Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). If I don't manage my thoughts purposefully and allow tempting thoughts to infiltrate my mind, it's just not going to turn out well. So just think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and anything that is excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8) and I should stay afloat just fine.