Choking

I am quite pleased to announce that I am going to submit my PhD thesis for external examination very soon. How soon? I don't know because it (the thesis) is currently with my supervisor now and he is having a final look at it. But I believe soon. Definitely within the month or next. I have done my completion seminar and that went well; all that's left to do is to submit the thesis (and maybe write a couple more papers or journal articles).

So with all that (submission) happening (soon), I am planning on what to do next. In fact late last year I went for a couple of job interviews. I got offered a project engineer position early this year (as opposed to a mechanical design position) and they wanted me to start almost immediately (which I did not mind that much), but what they were offering me was a rather junior role. I wasn't too happy with it. They were basically discounting a lot of my previous experience working as a mechanical engineer and as I looked at the roles and responsibilities carefully, the job itself wasn't too exciting as well. There was another product development company that I interviewed for that seemed to be keen in offering me a position but due to some hiccups - a project put on hold and another project not coming through, that offer was put on hold.

Anyway, last month I applied for a very interesting job. Interesting because it involves sports engineering and there's product development and project management all thrown into it. To me, it was the best thing to do. I thought I had a chance and I was optimistic that I would get a meeting and I did. I was very excited about it. I spent at least 2 days preparing for the interview, thinking about what they might ask me and what are the things I should say etc. But at the actual meeting, I choked. I had moments when my mind froze and I did not give them a satisfying response, at least not my best answer to their questions. After I left that meeting and when I was on my way home, I realised there were so many things that I didn't say - things that I usually knew, things that I would do and could do. Sigh. But I choked. Very frustrating. Frankly I wouldn't mind if I went for an interview and gave it my best shot and didn't get offered the position because they interviewed someone better. But I didn't even gave it my best shot.

Oh well. It's over. Mabel was kind. She told me that's how interviews are, it's a stressful situation and people do choke. Maybe I got too excited over it, over the sports related part of things that I forgot to bring out the engineering and project management side of me. On a positive note, I did meet some nice people in my overall "interview experience". At least I got to know a few more people in the sports industry and even if I don't get this job, they could still be contacts for possible collaborations in the future. God willing. You never know. Time to apply for more jobs. 

Stuff I like about being in Melbourne

So its been more than five years since we moved over to Melbourne from Singapore. What was initially a short stint of a couple of years became a couple more, and after having an addition to our family, we kinda decided Melbourne will be our home for while more. How long more? I can't really say for sure but just like what James 4:15 says, if it's the Lord's will, we will be in Melbourne for a long while.

Anyway, occasionally when I chat with some old friends via social media or email, I tend to get the question: what do I like about being in Melbourne? Or a somewhat similar question. So here's a list of what I like (not in any order of preference):

1.  The suburb we live in is nice and quiet; especially at night after dark. I remember there was one time when my bro-in-law came for a holiday and he was in our backyard having a smoke at night and it freaked him that the neighbourhood was so quiet and he could actually see the stars.

2.  Lots of parklands everywhere. Just around our house, there are at least 3 parklands that are within walking distance, each with a playground for kids. I think that is a fantastic thing to have especially having a 19 month old boy who has lots of energy to expend.

Gideon roaming around a park 

3. Many interesting places to drive around. I can't say we are very adventurous in our five years here but we do drive out to the country area at least once a year for a break. Either on our own, with family visiting us or with our church going for church camps. Some of the places we enjoyed include Daylesford (spa region), Grampians (national park), Phillip Island, Merricks (had a church camp there) and Lakes Entrance.

4. Work is flexible. At least the employers that I have had so far. I have changed my job from full-time to contract with the option to work from home, and having a part-time job that allowed me to switch days once in while. Taking time off for family emergencies or family matters is usually OK. It is also awesome that Mabel could get a part-time managerial position, so she can spend more time with the little man. To top it off, the work environment that me and Mabel have are awesome.

5. Awesome asian food. We don't eat out very often, but when we do, we often stick to our favourite malaysian or asian restaurants where they dish out our favourite stir fries - char kway teow, char hor fun etc. The other asian stuff we like are the vietnamese food, thai food, jap food and yum cha. I have to add we don't have very high expectations of food generally.

6. Sports engineering. This is one of the reasons I came to Melbourne, to pursue this interest and I have to say, I have been very blessed to have been able to do it for the past 4 years. There's probably going to be more opportunities going forward as a new industry network has been established last year to further this area.

7. Sports as a spectator. There are lots of interesting sports events in Melbourne that makes the weekends a bit more interesting like the Australian Open and the AFL. Cricket is also huge here but I haven't quite figured that out. My research in sports engineering also brought me to the local wheelchair rugby league a couple of times. One other event that I would be keen to go to (and obvious haven't) is the Motogp at Phillip Island. This year maybe?

Australian Open 2013

A Hawks game in 2012

8. Sports. Expanding a little bit on point 2, the many parklands also mean more places to run, not just on the roads but also on trails. There's the Yarra River which is a great place to paddle. There are also bicycle trails everywhere for riding - something I look forward to doing this year too (when I do get a bike); and if I feel 'strong', I may sign up for an adventure race like the Marysville to Melbourne which includes a total of 155km of paddling, cycling and trail running. Yeah, should be fun.

9. My walk with God. I have been challenged a lot more since I came to Melbourne. It might be the peace and quiet (and thus less distractions), or it might be being part of a smaller church (more opportunities to serve), or it might be age, or maybe a combination of everything. But basically I just feel the need to live my life more purposefully for the glory of God and somehow being in Melbourne brought that out.

10. Great friends. Although we don't have any immediate family here, but we do have great friends, friends who are like family to us. Enough said.

Of course there are stuff that I don't like about being in Melbourne but somehow I can't think of any right now. Might be the erratic weather that's messing with my brain...

Make it Count

"Make it Count" is the slogan of the Nike+ Fuel Band that aimed to encourage people (specifically the Gen Y) to live life to the fullest. Another popularly used term is Carpe diem or seize the day. Nike hired this guy to film an ad for the campaign but instead of following the original plan, him and the film editor spent the entire budget travelling around the world. It took them 10 days to use up the money, travelling 34,000 miles, visiting 16 cities in 13 countries on three continents. The result was a four-and-a-half-minute film. It wasn't quite what Nike had expected, but it still featured Nike's "Make It Count" branding and there were quotes from famous people such as:

• Helen Keller ~ Life is either daring adventure or nothing at all
• Franklin Roosevelt ~ Above all try something 
• Albert Einstein ~ I never worry about the future it comes soon enough 
• Giacomo Casanova ~ One who makes no mistakes makes nothing at all 
• Abraham Lincoln ~ In the end it's not the years in your life that counts it's the life in your years

In the video, the guy was running through the cities, doing handstands at renown landmarks or backflips and jumping off high places. Singapore was also one of the visited countries! The Marina Bay Sands infinity pool was featured in the video at around 4:09. Although I noticed that other than the scene where he runs off from his apartment and him coming back, he was not wearing the band in most of the other scenes. I am guessing the battery died during the trip and it was pointless to wear it. Nevertheless, he did make a point with his video, which was to live life to the fullest.

It's a very positive notion to live life to the fullest, except it places too much emphasis on the now and now. If life is just about this life then that will be fine. But the truth is, there is life after this life. My church pastor has a favourite illustration in his preaching. He uses a short piece of rope that's red and maybe about 30cm long, and one end of that red rope is tied to another rope green in colour and is many many times longer. The shorter red rope represents our life here on earth which is very short compared to the much longer green rope which represents eternity. Our life, from the day we are born will end after 30,000 days (assuming an average lifespan of approximately 82 years) and then comes eternity which lasts... forever.

Although there isn't much details in the bible about what happens in eternity or in heaven when we die, we do know a few things for sure. Firstly, if we believe in Jesus, we will have eternal life even after the physical death (John 11:25-26). Secondly, when we go to heaven, we receive an eternal inheritance (1 Peter 1:3-5) and would also be awarded a crown if we fought the good fight and finished the race (2 Timothy 4:7-8). The good fight of faith is to live a life holy and pleasing to God and also to be mindful of God's 'business'. This world can be full of temptations to lure us away from fighting the good fight of faith, but we need to press on to make our life count for eternity.

So this is my goal for the new year.

"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

1 Timothy 6:11-12

Tracking vs Reflecting

It came to my attention recently that there are quite a number of wearable activity tracking devices these days. From wrist bands for the sporty (Nike+ fuel band), and products for well-being (Fitbit Ultra, Jawbone Up, Lark Life), to the devices that monitor physiology (BodyMedia Fit & Basis), there's something for everyone. The idea is that you can wear those devices all the time, and it would track your daily activities, see if you are meeting the 10,000 steps a day recommended for healthy/active living (or whatever goal you set for yourself), and so motivate you to stay active and maybe even save you from a health condition such as diabetes.

I did a post about how these devices generally work and basically they have sensors to measure movement, heart rate, skin temperature and even sweat. Short of a mind reader that could document your thoughts and emotions (something this aims to do), and a video cam to record what you see (like the Google glass project), they function almost like an old fashioned diary.

Actually, I wonder if many people still journal, whether physically on a diary or electronically on their computers or tablets. I think the diary works very differently from tracking your life with whatever wearable equipment. That's because when I want to pen a journal, I am often in a reflective mode - thinking about stuff, like why something happened, what went wrong or right, what was the significance, how things could be improved etc. It takes a bit of time; quiet, uninterrupted time, not doing anything else, just reflecting.

Those wearable activity trackers on the other hand aims to keep people moving and doing stuff - go set a goal, try and achieve it, don't stop till you do, then repeat the next day. The positive outcome would be to have developed a healthy and active routine; and sure, its good to have a routine and stick to it, but if I don't have a think about the specifics and keep doing things the same way over and over, I might not realise that something was not right while getting injuries or not getting enough rest and getting burnt out.

Anyway, the past couple of months for me was extremely mundane. I was occupied with 3 things: 1) writing the research thesis, 2) taking care of Gideon and 3) thinking about what I am going to do after I submit my thesis. On a typical day when Gideon goes to childcare, I would drop him off in the morning, head to Uni to spend the next 6-7 hours working on my thesis, followed by going home to make dinner, then pick up Gideon from childcare, and finally feeding, bathing and settling him. About once a week (or fortnight), I try to squeeze in a run around the neighbourhood. So activity wise, there's really not much to track since I am obviously not that active these days. In the evenings or in between thesis writing, I 'ponder' about stuff like what to do next and how to take over the world.

At some point, I contemplated becoming a house husband to take care of Gideon and our home because as far as I could see there aren't any opportunities to do what I would like to do (and get paid to do it), not in the private companies or in the university (Well there might be contract research work to do but nothing is confirmed). Since we have decided to stay put in Melbourne, applying for overseas positions was ruled out. The other 'option' was to start my own business: research and product development of sports and health related products. I had that thought for a while and its one of those things that gets me excited but I think I still lack certain experience and certain level of drive, so I will hold that thought for a later day. So with no known opportunities in sight, I decided to send out emails to a few companies that (in my opinion) might explore product development in sports and wellness. The emails were of course expressions of interest to work for them if there are possible openings in the near future. After 2 weeks, there was actually a positive reply, that led to a casual meeting the week before Christmas, and I think the outcome of the meeting was rather positive. We shall see.

During the whole time of 'pondering' and exploring opportunities, there were two proper job applications that sort of didn't go through. In fact they happened before that 'good outcome' meeting. The first one was a product design job which I applied after I was approached by a recruiter. Not having much design experience (specifically industrial design), it was obvious why I did not get a reply. The second one was a mechanical design job that wasn't so much industrial design but more engineering design specifically in medical devices. I did get interviewed for the role but at the end of the discussion, the interviewer made a very keen observation - based on my resume and our discussion, I had very diverse experience but it was not focused on mechanical design. He used the term 'generalist'. The proper term would be 'project engineer'. True enough, I have dabbled with electronics, programming, mechanical design, data analysis, manufacturing, blah blah blah... but I can't say I am specialised in any. So there, I am a generalist. Jack of all some trades but master of none. I have to say its good to come to that realisation/conclusion/acceptance.  


   

In case of emergency...

Well a little 'emergency' happened last night. I was doing the dishes, putting them on the dish rack when a plate fell out and for some reason (maybe its reflex) I reached out with my right hand to catch it. I wasn't sure what exactly happened but the plate broke into a few pieces in the process and cut the back of my hand. Stupid reflex. It was quite a nasty gash and I sort of freaked out. At that point, Gideon was already sleeping and Mabel was resting in the room. I looked at the cut and didn't think it looked good, so I called for Mabel, she had a look at it and started to panic a bit.

We both agreed that the cut needed stitches but obviously I couldn't drive myself to the hospital and she couldn't do it without dragging a sound asleep Gideon along. Then we started to think who we could call to send me to the hospital. None of our closer friends lived near us (they were at least 30 minutes drive away) so our quickest option was our neighbours. Mabel ran to the first unit directly next to us but they weren't in. Fortunately the family in the next unit were home and in fact the guy of the house is a doctor! I guess some part of our brain knew that, just that it didn't occur to us that they might be home or I could say they weren't programmed in my head as one of the "in case of emergency" contacts.

Anyway neighbour doctor kindly came over to have a look at my hand. He sort of spread the wound to have a better look at the cut, made me move my fingers to make sure it was not affecting movement and also made sure they had strength and sensation. His conclusion: the wound is superficial and doesn't need stitches. Phew. That was a relieve and (I have to admit) a little bit silly that I over-reacted and thought it was very serious. But hey, how would I know? This also got me thinking: thank God it's not a real emergency but what if it was and I had a few young kids at home? To be honest, I cannot imagine and I hope that never happens.

I have to add, even though its a superficial wound, it hurt pretty bad (by my standard) and I bet there's some sort of injury to the nerves or tendon because there's a fair bit of pain in my first two fingers when they move in a certain way. So I am guessing I will have problems doing things with my right hand for the next few days - like cooking, washing and carrying Gideon and maybe driving. Now wouldn't it be great if one of our neighbours is a baby sitter and/or a house caretaker who could help with cooking and cleaning; although we probably couldn't afford it.

The Paralympic heroes/champs

The London Paralympics was a huge success. The coverage on television was good (well, better than the Olympics coverage here in Australia). There has been good highlights and also great stories of the athletes; like this video from CNN about war heroes and how sports has given them a new lease of life:

          

For some reason, I thought the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics were brilliant too, more so than the Olympics. I mean the Olympics was good, but kinda ordinary. But the Paralympics was just so much more interesting. Not to mention the opening ceremony had Stephen Hawking! Just look at some of the photos from the closing ceremony. It's awesome. Alright, maybe I am just a little bit biased towards the Paralympics because my PhD stuff has been quite focused towards wheelchair sports and I got the chance to meet with and do some testing with the Australian athletes. But I am sure that is the case for anyone who has worked with or been involved in Paralympic sports one way or another. Anyway, the Australian team has done extremely well this year and especially the sports I was gunning for: the track events and wheelchair rugby. I like this nice little clip that explains the game of wheelchair rugby complete with some mind-blowing moves, definitely not for the faint hearted:

The Aussie wheelchair rugby team or the Steelers totally dominated the games from day 1. They  played 5 games in total and won every game by at least 12 points. The most impressive thing is that even in the last quarter of each match, when they were already leading by more than 10 points, they were still going all out and making every effort to score the next point/block the opponents score attempts. No complacency. No holding back.

The Oz Steelers (photos from the london2012 website)

Some highlights from the gold medal match:

In the track event, Richard Colman, did an amazing race in the T53 800m. He had a great tactic - drafting for the first one and a half laps, conserving his energy for the final 200m burst. If you pay attention, you could kinda tell that he was staying behind intentionally, braking a little bit at several occasions in the first lap and checking back to see if the rest were catching up. Then he just surges forward at the last 150m and leads for the final 100m. Here's the youtube video of the race and Richard Colman is in lane 3 wearing yellow:

London T53 800m finals

I must say, this Paralympics has been quite phenomenal. The standard of the various sports have increased so much, with so many new world records, sometimes happening even in the heats, and then having another new one set again in the finals. There is a also lot more support and technology invested in the sports; and there is the explanation of classifications during different events which sheds so much light to home viewers and just makes the whole viewing experience so much better. So I think slowly people are becoming more aware of Paralympic sports and more are beginning to see that these Paralympians are not just disabled athletes, but elite athletes serious about doing well in their sport and even in life. They may not have been dealt with the best cards earlier in life but they sure are playing it to the best of their abilities and are all heroes and champs in their own right. Well, that's it for London, until the next time in Rio 2016! 

The Olympics (Paralympics) post

With the Olympics happening in another 8 days, the excitement is really building up. Some call it the world's biggest reality TV show because there is so much drama about it, on and off the court. The anxiety just before a race, the adrenalin shooting up during the finals, the disappointment of not making it onto the podium etc. In fact, even before the games has started, there are already tonnes of drama that has happened: There are the athletes who have been to the Olympics previously, won medals, broke records but couldn't make it this time round for various reasons; then there are the athletes who thinks they should be in the Olympics team but their governing sports bodies thinks otherwise possibly for strategic reasons; there is the athlete who would and should make the Olympics team until she got banned due to an absolutely honest mistake with drugs; there are of course the regular heart-warming stories of athletes who do make it to the team after much effort and struggles; and this is just in Australia!

Whatever the case, I applaud the athletes for getting so far, whether they made it to the team or not. These people have worked hard with their God given abilities, and made their fair share of sacrifices to get to that elite level in their sport. Plus most of these athletes are either self-funded or they get an allowance from the Australian Sports Commission which is usually just enough for daily expenses. Come to think of it, these elite athletes remind me of what PhD candidates go through. There are definitely some striking similarities:

Elite Athletes	PhD folks
Train really hard hoping that one day they become the best in their sport.	Study and research (till their brains are fried) hoping to be the top expert in their field
They eat, drink and live their sport.	They are bogged down by their research problems 24/7
They are not really paid to train so they either work part-time or try to get sponsors or do both.	They are not really paid to do the research so they either work part-time or try to get sponsors or constantly apply for funding
When they do get to the Olympics and get a spot on the podium, they do get a moment of glory but after that it’s back to the grind of life.	When they do submit and pass their thesis, they do get a moment of euphoria but it’s quickly back to the daily grind as well.
After their peak, it seems natural for them to become coaches, motivational speakers (entrepreneurs) or stay on in sports institutes working in other areas	After their PhD, most go on to teach, do more research (the horrors!), start-up a company, or join a government agency.

Shockingly similar I say.

On a separate note, the application of engineering and technology in sports have gained much more attention this Olympics year. From technology being used to help the officials and judges do their job better, to technology that enables enhanced viewing experience all over the world; and then of course there is the (controversial) engineering and technology used to enhance performance of the athletes by reducing drag or energy loss. The latter has actually brought about a report from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers that addresses the topic of sports technology 'doping'. At the end, they recommend that engineers, sports regulators and sports institutes and governing bodies should work together to set new policies and boundaries going forward, and come to an agreement to what is misuse of technology and what is acceptable. Yup, whatever. I think there is too much hype about this issue. Engineering does a lot more things other than just 'enhance' performance of athletes' equipment. I for one am doing sports engineering research that will do nothing to enhance the performance of wheelchair rugby athletes; but my brains are almost fried trying to sort out things like Renyi's entropy, capacity dimension, fractals and how all that is linked to performance and activity classification...

Anyway, back to the games; so other than the usual Olympic events (sprint kayaking, swimming, basketball, athletics) I would watch, I would also be looking forward to some of the Paralympic events like athletics, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair racing, especially since I have worked with some of them before and seen how hard they train. It would be awesome to see them get out there and win some gold medals!

 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27 (NLT)