Badminton rackets!!! G*#@$$@@ weight markings!

I wanted a light badminton racket, but some guy came up with a douchie system of 1U,2U,3U, and so forth for weight; making it hard for me to figure out what is the proper weight. Intuitively, assuming U is a variable for a number, I thought the higher U, the heavier the badminton rackets. More simply, 5Us are definitely heavier than 1Us right? Unless U is negative, which is just retarded since weight is almost never a negative number.

I saw a 2U and a 3U racket. Assuming 2U was a lighter racket, I picked that. It even felt lighter than the 3U. That just goes to show you how bad I am as a human balance scale.

Anyhow I ended up googling after the purchase on how to determine weight with badminton rackets. Guess what I learnt? Higher number U is lighter than lower number U. W.T.F. Even the guy at the store mentioned to me that the higher U rackets were heavier. Thanks...whoever made this system. you owe me 150 bucks.

Yonex Muscle Power 3... a 2U racket

I just spent 150 bucks thinking 2U was lighter than 3U. Why can't the manufacturers just put the weight on the racket? in numbers! I'm talking to you Yonex, Carbonex, you douchebag companies!

Xbox 360, live service, trampling on consumer rights

I've been checking out this issue on Xbox live banning modded Xbox systems. They seem to have overstepped their boundaries as a business for the following reasons:

Case 1: Their reasoning does not match up with their actions. They claim to ban modded xbox systems so they "do not have and unfair advantage" over un-modded systems. This is a fair enough reason to ban cheats, but they specifically ban the hardware mac id of the systems. If they were to un-mod their system, i.e. restore the system to its original state, they would still not have access to the xbox live service.

This is an open and shut example of where they claim reasoning yet blatantly overstep their boundaries by not letting restored/unmodded systems back on xbox live.

Case 2: Their methods of detecting modded systems on xbox live is flawed. A modded xbox can still get on xbox live with another system's mac id and thus the system is modded. So if the service can't reliably detect whether a system is flawed, they may wrongfully ban people. I argue that as long as the system is detected as unmodded it should be allowed on xbox live. This is the only solution. Banning of specific systems doesn't make sense and oversteps on the rights as a consumer unless they know for sure the system is modified. I just proved they cannot tell for sure.

In a more general sense, TOS really is a copout for most companies. They blatantly put whatever they want without regards for consumer rights. TOS should be about protecting the company from consumers who make frivolous court cases, i.e. suing for delivering a pizza with the wrong toppings. Nowadays, most companies abuse TOS so they can forcefully take care of problems with no regards to the customer. Ludicrous!

Twitter wins out, six packs

This is one ghetto blog. I haven't updated in 5 months...lol. Anyhow. I am back on twitter. It just turns out that everyone is using that and there are some things about twitter that are good. It is simple and really easy to use. The only problem is that twitter is a bit spammy.

So, what else is new? Well, I have been getting educated on fitness. For a while i had the goal of trying to get a six pack. I had the diet all planned out and everything. I even was on it for a month... but alas, six packs will not happen. Why? Because, losing enough fat for the six pack abs to show will require a low body percentage of under 10%. Getting that kind of body percentage fat will make a person of my weight of 130 lbs look incredibly skinny at 120 lbs. I would get my six pack abs, but the rest of me would be almost twig like. Maybe i'll try again in 2-3 years after gaining some muscle.

Little known truth. the human body is only capable of gaining 5-10 lbs of muscle a year. There is no such thing as someone putting on 30 lbs of muscle. If someone says that, they actually put on 20 lbs of fat and 10 lbs of muscle if they are lucky. In order for someone to put on 50 lbs of muscle, they will need to have worked out consistently for a period of 5 years at minimum.

Just got plurk...beats twitter anytime

I don't know what all the big hooohah about twitter is. It's really bad.

First of all, I can't change my display name. Yes whatever your username is, that's what you are stuck with. I don't mind the url being my username, but the display name should be changeable.

Second of all, its really bland on options. Any idiot can make a twitter site. It has no options. You can post messages and embed it on your website. Why is it so hot on the net? I got no idea.

So, I joined plurk.

Now this is really good. First of all, you can change your display name! Thats awesome.

In addition, if you really don't have any idea what to plurk about, it has verbs to help you get the gears in the head turning, thus producing more content, than twitter which has really no imagination.

Lastly, it also looks professional and has tons of options. Anyways if you like twitter, try plurk out, you won't regret it!

Adidas Predator Absolados review and football shoe buying advice and guide

First and foremost, I mentioned that there were three versions of shoes in a previous post. There is the full blown top of the line expensive shoes that are used by Premier League Players. These shoes use the finest materials and technology by the manufacturers. Next is the middle tier shoes which use good quality materials and some of the up to date technology. Finally we have the economy versions which use cheaper materials and very limited amounts of shoe technology.

I've recently had the opportunity to examine each of the shoes in general and can now give a quick guide so i can pass on the information to interested buyers. This advice can apply to any type of shoe as most manufacturers follow the lower, middle, and upper tier version of shoes.

Here is a picture of the top of the line Predator power swerve series:

Predator Power Swerve

These are the shoes that David Beckham and Steven Gerrard wear when they play their games. It's easy to tell the difference. The shoe material kangaroo leather is extremely soft and top of the line. Almost like tissue paper. The plate underneath the shoe is very extravagant. The studs are also extravagant. Some will have metal tips like this one or will be transparent. The cheaper shoes are usually solid plastic and look generic.

Also the price will be insane, somewhere in the range of RM500-700 or 150 USD. Honestly, I think these are way too much for the average person. I for one know that soccer shoes will fall apart quite quickly compared to other sports. I played basketball and the shoe never fell apart, compared to my football ones.

My last pair of shoes had the sole come out from the shoe. A big piece of mud was stuck inbetween the bottom plate and my shoe. Soccer shoes can't be built to last and have fantastic feel, unlike other sports. So dispel any notion that more expensive shoes wil last longer in football. All people in this line care about feel and control, hardly anything about durability. Anyways, it's not that they don't care, but it's impossible to have it both ways.

Moving on, here is the Predator Absolutes, Absolion, or ABS, the middle tier versions:

Predator ABS/Absolutes

These shoes may be worth it. They cost generally about RM 100-150 more than the cheapest versions. I would have gotten these but they didn't have my size. Size is very important with football shoes. You can tell the middle tiers because they are more complexly built compared the lower tier versions. The material used is mid-tier calf skin leather or microfiber. Microfiber is a synthetic leather that was developed for better feel of the ball. It has pretty good feel, but not as good as the top tier shoes.

The base of this particular shoe has two plastic plates at the heel and forefoot and a carbon-fibre plate running underneath the arch of the foot connecting the two parts. The cheapest version has one full plate covering the entire foot. These shoes probably will last slightly longer than the lowest tier shoes due to the higher quality design of the shoe. The leather also feels quite strong, not like the tissue type leather of the high end shoes. You also get a decent feel for the ball compared to the lowest tier shoes.

Here are the Predator Absolados, the lowest tier shoe of the family:

Predator Absolados

These shoes are the cheapest versions of the predator series. They are simply constructed and look quite generic compared to the more extravagant designs of the ABS and powerswerves. They use synthetic or full grain leather. Actually the synthetic leathers these days provide quite decent feel. Also for weather in Malaysia, they are ideal as they absorb less water than real leathers.

I'm not too convinced that the shoes will last though. This particular synthetic leather they use seems quite a bit thinner than the nike's synthetic leather. The ball does slide off the shoe a bit when kicking, meaning you will have to kick the ball with little spin or the ball will fly off in a different direction. The top has very little grip. I took a look at the ABS versions of the shoe and concluded the grip on the top of the shoes were suffice to put spin on the ball. The top of the Absolados have almost no grip at all.

There you have it, I think the middle tier shoes may be absolutely worth it compared to the cheaper end of the shoes. Personally I love the predators, they fit my feet well and I can play decently with even the cheaper aboslados. I just have to adjust and try to kick straight on instead of putting any spin on the ball at all. My game doesn't really depend on technologies as I developed my skills from playing in cheap shoes. I'd recommend the second tier for the fact that quality looks much better than the absolados and is only a hundred more ringgit or so. The cheap ones cost around RM200 while the second tiers will be around RM300.

Earth hour - an april fools joke for some people

During Earth Hour, everyone turns off their lights. Well, If I was one of those people who got robbed during earth hour as the crime rate quadrupled during this time, I'd be ticked off as hell. A little early for April fool's eh?



Even in my apartment, there was a robbery. It might not have happened during Earth Hour, but the other residents didn't find out til the following day, so the exact time is unknown. But the robbery could have happened during earth hour.

Imagine, how stupid people would feel if they knew that they helped made it easier for theives to rob their neighbor's house by switching off their lights.

Cat Burglar

Mercurial veloci FG follow up

I've now had a chance to try them out on the field. In a lot of ways they are very good. The feel was much better compared to my last pair. The synthetic leather was quite decent especially compared to what I read about it. The only major problem was, the more I played in them, the more I felt uncomfortable. I had blisters! ouch! The shoe design doesn't leave much in mismatching foot sizes.

The blisters were on the right foot, which unfortunately is a little smaller than my left. The major problem is that the heel kept slipping up, causing my heel to blister. I truly think the shoe design isn't as forgiving as most boots if the feet aren't perfectly sized.

Well, I found out I wasn't the only one with blisters from the mercurial line of boots. I've read numerous postings on people having the exact same problem as me. Basically I had to wait till my heel callused over, then I wouldn't have any problems. Nah, no thanks.

I went back to adidas and bought the predators. I guess my feet are only meant for adidas! I wore them out for a couple of hours and didn't have much of a problem. The feel was almost similar to my old beat up pair. Possibly my old pair were based on the predators as well. so a lesson learnt. For football shoes, buy what you are familiar with. don't fix what ain't broke. If you are going to change boots, be careful that the feeling is not too different.