Nik & Jay - Kommer Igen

A Danish Hip-pop song.

Kommer Igen Lyrics
(Nik)
jeg træder ud a min port, mandag morgen.
sædvanligt trafik rundt om hovedbanegården.
Folk på den ene og den anden side a loven.
Følger nogen mon med fra oven.

(Jay)
For her nede fortæller forsiderne mig.
At hele verden går den forkerte vej.
Jeg prøver på ikk at tro på alt hvad jeg lÊser.
Prøver p at tro p det bedste i mennesker.

(Nik)
Der sidder fire mænd p en trappe sten.
Tomme blikke, Heroin.
Byen vokser, Kaster skygger.
Byen kan slå liv i stykker.

(Jay)
Så hvordan kan jeg tænke på de penge jeg skal bruge.
og om boligmarked mon vender nu.
Trækker hætten over hovedet, gÂr over vejen.
for mon ik det trækker op til regn.

(omkvæd)
Hvor kommer det fra, hvor ender det henne.
Dem du møder på vej op møder du p vej ned.
kan jeg gøre det hele bedre når jeg kommer igen.
er du sikker på vi satsede nok på kærlighed.
Hvor kommer det fra, hvor ender det henne.
Dem du møder på vej op møder du på vej ned.
kan jeg gøre det hele bedre når jeg kommer igen.
er du sikker på vi satsede nok på kærlighed.

(nik)
Hvad med teenage piger der glipper deres ungdom
gir deres krop for en Dom Perignon,
siger deres job op for at blive berømt
blandt andet fordi DU har solgt dem den drøm

(Jay)
Hvad med hende jeg kender der så svær og modstå
hvad er det der gør hun er sin kæreste utro
hvad er det vi løber fra, hvad skal vi nå.
og vil glem hvem vi er når vi når vores mål.

(Nik)
jeg har tanker for ti, tænker ting itu.
Jeg har trådt på andre, jeg har været jaloux.
i 2001 stemte jeg p anders fogh.
Men jeg ved bedre nu.

(Jay)
og clubs fyldes med folk.
der fyldes med drugs som selvfølgelig vil slås.
og en knytnæve blev til en kniv.
der blev til en pistol der blev til et næste liv

(Nik)
Men der er en ting jeg ikk fatter.
det her land burde være i vatter.
Ring til mig når kærligheden er her.
Jeg skrider for min datter kalder.

(omkvæd)
Hvor kommer det fra, hvor ender det henne.
Dem du møder på vej op møder du p vej ned.
kan jeg gøre det hele bedre når jeg kommer igen.
er du sikker på vi satsede nok på kærlighed.
Hvor kommer det fra, hvor ender det henne.
Dem du møder på vej op møder du p vej ned.
kan jeg gøre det hele bedre når jeg kommer igen.
er du sikker på vi satsede nok på kærlighed.

ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH

og sig mig fik vi satset nok p kærlighed

ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH

jeg ved at der er større ting i verden at tage sig a

ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH ÅH

men jeg starter med min egen verden idag.

Popping

Really love popping style.

M's Birthday Party 2

Related Post: M's Birthday Party

C, Small Yin 3, and I went to M's birthday party last Saturday. It was crowd. There were twenty people there, including V, F, and YA.

F still tried to mention W to me. He thought I was still into W. In fact, he didn't understand what I really want. Years back I thought F was a talented guy in interpersonal skills, because he could spot other people's thinking easily. But now I understand that he is still as same as us that we all live in our own small world. He just applied his theories to other people. I remembered what Prof Ling told me. He said if intelligent creatures living in Mars want to model human, they may use a car model, which can describe heart as engine, blood as petrol, and etc, and the model do work sometimes, not all the time.

The Secret Garden Party

A invited me for a party called "The Secret Garden Party" last Friday.

To be on the guest list, I had to send an e-mail to the organising group. They have their page on facebook. It was said that beer would free of charge from 8:30pm to 10:00pm.

When I arrived there, I found out the party was not at a bar or a club. It was at a small garden beside a bar. I guess that's why they called it the secret garden party. It was teeming with more than one hundred people. There was a DJ in the center of the garden. Inside a house in this garden, there was a place selling all kinds of wine. In one spot of this garden, people lined up in several queues for free beer.

I arrived there quite late. It was almost 9:50pm. A and her friends had already reached there before 9:30pm. Before I met A, I saw S in the crowd. It was really unexpected. I chat with S for a while. She seemed quite pleased with her current job and was having fun in the party with her friends. Later on, I found A and her friends were standing near the DJ. She was thoughtful that she took almost 10 cups of beer for me and her friends. We had a long chat. A's job was about marketing even though her major was mechanical engineering. I think engineering involved many hands-on works which was not preferred by most women. Then I introduced A to S. They had a nice chat. Unfortunately, I left at 11:00pm, because I still got some samples to handle in the lab on the next morning.

I do like that they offered a lot of free beer and the party was crowded. However, the garden is small and there were not many seats. When I talked with S and A, we kept in standing posture. I think I prefer a party which can not only offer drinks but also places to rest, because party is about socializing and we can't always stand too long. Probably a pool party, which offer drinks, pool, and music, is what I want. I only heard about it, but never experience it. If there is one, I will be looking forward to it.

Playoffs Time

I just found a nice designed wallpaper about NBA 2010 playoffs. The painter didn't draw all the tattoos of these star players, because it would be too time consuming. However, it is still a well designed painting.

A Transformation from Bear to Frog

I remember when I was a small kid who was shorter than one meter, my parents brought me to train swimming. That swimming complex was located in the center of He Ping district, Tianjin. It was called "the second swimming pool of Tianjin". At that time, the training was tough. I was not a kid with perseverance. I had only trained for one and half years. I quit it when I began my primary school.

Back in the old days, most swimming pool's water was in green color, not blue color. Those old swimming pools were not advanced enough to integrate with water circulation system. As a result, new water was only refilled once per week. To keep the water clean, large amount of bleach was dumped into the pool. Even I stood in front of the gate of the swimming complex, I could still feel the smell of bleach. Usually after a training session, my hair turned yellow a bit. In fact it was a cheaper way for Chinese people to color hair to yellow than going to a hairdressing shop. A chemical compound in swimming pool even worse than bleach is urea. Urea in a pool did not come from fertilizer, because human body does not generate fertilizer but urine. It sound horrible, didn't it? Yes, it was true. Ten years ago, the worst swimming pool in Tianjin was in Tianjin Medical University. The urea level in that pool the urea was reported 25 times more than the minimum standard. Luckily it was closed down and filled by land a few years ago.

When I first saw the green color water, I was scared. I didn't want to jump inside, because I was afraid of choking underwater. I just stood at side and hesitated to take any moves. My coach, Ms Cao, was famous for being strict with kids. She kicked my ass then I fell into the pool. That was how I get into a pool for the first time. Then I stayed on for training for one and half year, but I only learned frog style swimming. Ms Cao's daughter, Q, who was a very cute little girl like my sister's daughter, trained much harder then me. She took swimming as a part of her life and eventually became very successful in back crawl style swimming. Compare to her, I was not that cute and I haven't achieve much in swimming.

After I quit swimming classes at the age of six, I have almost never been to swimming pool again until I began my study in Nanyang Polytechnic. There was a beautiful blue color swimming pool equipped with water circulation system located inside the campus. Sometimes, my friends V, G, and K (also called big Yin3, there also a small Yin3) asked me to join them for swimming. At that point I pretty much forgot all the techniques of frog style, all I did was some kind of "frog style" which looked like "bear style".

My friend A is an expert in swimming, who was also a important team member of NYP swimming team. She could switch flawlessly from one style to another and not reducing her speed. I was shocked. At that time, I thought mastering all the four styles was an extreme difficult task. And to swim fast would be a even more difficult task. Not even compare to her, just comparing with my friend V, G, and K, my speed was as slow as a turtle. But somehow I could still do the "frog style". I was not aware that my movements were quite ugly until my friend C pointed out my mistakes.

C is one of my good friends. And he is a talented swimmer. During secondary school, he represented He Xi district of Tianjin in swimming competition. His coach Mr Wu was the 200m free style swimming national champion of China. His "big brother" LS was the 200m butterfly style swimming national champion of China. One day, only C and I went to swimming in NYP's beautiful blue pool. When C saw how I swam, he rocked with laughter. He said I was indeed a bear struggling in water, because my techniques were all wrong and my speed was slow despite using a lot of strength.

On that day, he taught me the proper techniques of frog style (Breaststroke): Breaststroke seems easy, but most people did it wrong. The leg movements are quite simple, which look like a "frog kick". Most people can master it quickly. However, the arm movements are not easily to be trained. Most people did their arm movements wrong, because their both arms sweep in circular motion. Thus it is hard to get more power to push head out of water to breath. The right way is to sweep arms until they reach the vertical planes of two shoulder. Then sweep elbows back to chest to press water down. As a result, there will be a big power created to push the body out of water.

As C was professional in swimming, he corrected me all my techniques during that training. Now every week C and I go to swimming. In each session he tried to spot my minor mistakes and corrected them. Thanks to his guiding, I have improved a lot in both techniques and speed. For the frog style, I have transformed from a bear to a frog. I am still on the journey of mastering other styles. C also trains me free style every week. For butterfly style, I may have to look for the help from C's "big brother" LS. And I will probably left back crawl style for Q to teach, since she was my childhood friend.

My transformation from bear to frog was just finished while my new journey in swimming has just started. Although I am not going to be as cute and professional as Q; I am not going to be a champion like Mr Wu and LS; I am not going to be an expert like A or C; I am even not going to win any medals, I will continue my learning with C and enjoy my learning experience. I keep in my mind what the founder of the International Olympics Committee Pierre de Coubertin said "The important thing is not to win, but to take part".

The Gap 2

Related post: The Gap.

In October 2008, I had a visiting training at a competitive Judo Club in Haarlem Netherlands. The club is well-known in Europe, because many excellent Judo players come from this club. One of them is Guillaume Ricaldo Elmont. He won the World Judo Championship in 2005. It was a great honor for me to trained with him for one session. After experiencing his Judo moves, I though I would never meet a better Judo player. Ironically, I was wrong. It is said there is always someone who is better.

In May 2009, the Singapore Judo Federation hired a coach from China. His family is Zhou and everybody calls him coach Zhou. When I first met him, I was surprised that he is only one year older than me. I showed some interests of his training. He told me that he can throw me more than ten times in a minute. I was laughing inside, because even in Netherlands' national team training, the worst case was I got thrown 6 times per minute. I felt like a pizza. I told coach Zhou that I don't believe he can achieve that and I will prove he is wrong. In the end, after I tried once with him, I regretted for what I said earlier.

In his training session, I fought 5 minutes randori against him. Last time in Holland, I felt like a pizza being thrown around. During the fight, Coach Zhou threw me like flying a roti prata. In one minute, he threw me around 12 times. He reminded an old Chinese quote "There is always another heaven beyond this heaven".

I was shocked that he played so well and yet he was not a world champion. He told me his was not lucky that he only got number 5 in world judo championship. However, he trained with Kosei Inoue (the "Lebron James" in Judo) before. He threw Kosei hard and Kosei respect him and trained with him for a whole afternoon.

I was not the only one who experienced this roti prata feeling from Coach Zhou. I met a Janpanese student from Osaka. His name is Koji. He looked polite, sincere, and humble. In fact, one of my schoolmates told me her sister was very into him. In Judo, he is a smart player with sharp techniques (not like me, I use a lot of power). He is a guy who seek for strong player. After knowing him, I informed Coach Zhou and invited him to Zhou's training. Usually in the fighting session, each of the student play only one round with the coach. When Koji fought Coach Zhou in the first round, Zhou didn't use all his strength. But still Koji was thrown like a doll. To our surprise, Koji didn't walk away and fought two more rounds with Zhou. As Zhou got warmed up, his movements and techniques turned sharper. And I became a witness of how the coach "cook" Indian prata. After the training, Koji told me he respect Zhou a lot.

Without any doublets, there is always someone better. And the gap between professional players and armatures is undeniable huge. But I don't feel sad. Through experiecing top players in the world, I learned solid skills are the basic to be a topdog.

M's Birthday Party

M is going to celebrate his XX years old birthday this month. He has booked a place in downtown east. There will be more than 15 people attending his party, including my friend F, C, V, LV, and YA.

It sounds a bit exciting. But for me it means I will meet F again and I am certain that he will "educate" me on his advice about W, which I have listened for many times. Being micro managed is not a pleasant feeling.

Before M decided to organize a party, he provide us two opinions for polling. One is having a party in downtown east. The other is having a dinner at Clark Quay. I was in favor of dinner at Clark Quay, because there are a lot of nice restaurants. Against my wish, most people chose downtown east.

M will order buffet from F's uncle company. After dinner, we can play poker, mahjong, or Play station 3. It will be an interesting night.

The Spirit of Sports?

Marion Jones, a former world champion track and field athlete, has won five medals in the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney Australia. In October 2007, Jones admitted taking steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. All her medals and prizes dating back to September 2000 were forfeited.

Tong Wen, a former champion Judo athlete, has won three times gold medal in the world Judo Championship and one gold medal in 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. She failed the drug test after the world Judo Championship 2009 in Holland and was banned for competition for two years. Her coach excuse is "She trained in Europe and was sick of the food so we gave her a lot of pork chops when she came home."

Performance-enhancing drugs are substances used by athletes to improve their performances in the sports. Not only these two, but also a lot of famous athletes used performance-enhancing drugs to get advantage in their games. Since there are only a few athletes who were reported using performance-enhancing drugs, most people believe that it is rare for athletes to use drugs. When I was discussing with one of my junior yesterday about Tong Wen's drug test failure, he was convinced by the news from Sina that it was because of pork chops. However, I didn't believe the story. I think she defiantly used drugs. It is because pork chop is a common dish in Holland, Germany, and Denmark and there is no drug test failure news from these countries' athletes recently. Plus she is the only one from China Judo team who failed the test, and it is not reasonable for a national team to serve food to their player separately. Although I was certain about her usage of drugs, at that point, I still didn't believe using drugs is a common act in competitive sports.

Last Sunday, my friend C and I went for a dinner at his coach Mr Wu's home. We had a dinner with Mr Wu, Mrs Wu, and LS who was a student of Mr Wu's friend. Mr Wu was a famous swimming athlete in Tianjin, he was the China national champion in 200 meters freestyle swimming. LS was a famous swimming athlete in Tianjin as well. She was the China national champion in 200 meters butterfly style swimming. Most Singaporeans may know Ms Tao Li very well, who is an immigrant from China and won many awards in swimming for Singapore. But comparing her with LS, the former China national champion, Tao Li is no match. LS could beat her easily. It was an honor for me to meet these champions face to face. At that night, we talked about several different topics, including Singapore politics, working culture, and the use of Performance-enhancing drugs.

Based on his 40 years experience in swimming, Mr Wu told us that performance-enhancing drugs are wildly used by athletes. There are varieties of drugs. He explained to us the two basic working principles of drugs. One principle is increasing the oxygen delivered in blood. Once there are more oxygen circulates in blood, human body can burn energy in a faster rate. It can be achieved by increasing the heme level in blood. A simple method is to draw large amount of one's own blood out before the competition, store it in a fridge, and inject it back to the body on the day before the competition. By using this method, the heme level in blood can be even doubled. The other principle is increasing androgenic hormone. There are numerous drugs for tuning androgenic hormone. They are mainly used by female athletes like Marion Jones.

LS also shared us her experience on using performance-enhancing drugs. She said almost everybody in competitive sports uses drugs. It is an open secret. There are people who failed drug test, because the drugs they used are not state-of-the-art. In the record of the World Anti-Doping Agency, just simply the names of the banned drugs can be written as a thick book. Besides these drugs, there are still new drugs, which have smaller side effect and are hardly to be traced, being developed every year. She said in swimming, the leading country in these drugs research is the United States, and other countries including China buy drugs from US. However, the US society is less tolerate with dishonesty. As a result, Marion Jones had to apologize for her past mistake. The problem with China society is sometimes "pride" of the nation is more important than dishonesty. It is sad that a lot of my friends rather believe that Tong Wen's drug test failure is due to pork chops.

After the dinner, when C drove me back home, I was lost in thinking. What is the real purpose of sports? The founder of the International Olympics Committee Pierre de Coubertin stated that "The important thing is not to win, but to take part". Where did the spirit he emphasized go? Is it because this spirit left us or we, the "modern" people, abandoned it?