It’s the end of the week and I feel so drained and exhausted. It’s a long tiring week and it is showing. I’m being cranky and irritable. Is this a sign of being burned out? I’ve been working with the company for most three years. Long by my standards. Also, it’s been a hectic year in terms of objectives: MBA, ISO 9001, etc. They left me exhausted, but they were what drove me on. But right now the only thing motivating me is mentoring my unwitting protege. It’s quite ironic since just this morning I asked her if she is having fun. She said she is. And I told her that it’s good since work should be fun. But I’m afraid to ask myself the same question. Maybe a short vacation will fix me.
Val learned about this new restaurant along Morato called Nasilemak. So she, Rose, and I decided to meet up there. I found the place quite easily. It is in front of the McDonald’s at the intersection of Morato and Roces and beside an Office Warehouse branch (Let me practice my French: Il est devant McDonald’s a l’intersection de Rue Morato et Rue Roces et pres de un Office Warehouse branch).
The interior was well done. It is minimalist and Zen-inspired. The furniture is dark and the walls are light. Reproductions of paintings are hung here and there. The lighting is subdued but not too dark. At a corner, I saw Val chatting with the owner and I joined them. After a narration of the history of the place and the menu by the owner, we sat down and checked out the menu while waiting for Rose who arrived a soon after.
We ordered fried rice with dilis, fried fish with sambal sauce, pata tim, and milk tea. They actually come with more exotic sounding names but I just couldn’t recall them. The fried rice was good. The burst of flavor when you bite on the dilis is just great. The fried fish with sambal sauce was also good. The aroma from the sambal sauce is mouth-watering and the fish itself absorbed some of that. The best has got to be the pata tim. It’s a bit salty but it’s still so good I even sampled the fatty stuff :D
It’s a bit expensive but about still worth it for that occasional food splurge.
Rating: 3/5
I awake. Early in the morning. Again. On a Sunday morning. Two things on my mind: Hibernate and OPI3. Work-related issues… puzzles… and they’ve followed me home. Argh! My mind just can’t let go and I just have to research more. But at least I think I’ve found some answers. Good thing the code is at the office otherwise I’d be hacking through it.
I’ve heard and read about capoeira before but this is my first time to see it for real. It was a bit underwhelming since most of the performers were apparently new students and the instructors were also playing it lightly. Of course, they could just be trying to fool me. If so, they succeeded.
I watched as the practitioners go around throwing kicks high and low. There’s also the occasional hand strikes. The instructors also employ sweeps and other take-downs. Definitely it is graceful. But overall, it just seemed too flashy and looks ineffective. But that’s just me. Of course the the music and dance aspect add quite a bit to the fun factor.
But martial is the operative word here. I have decided that a good martial art must be easy to learn and proven to be effective. Easy to learn because you don’t want to spend a lifetime to be able to defend yourself. And proven effective because you don’t want to learn that your martial art is far from it while you are facing a drug-crazed maniac in some dark alley.
I think that the closest it gets to this simple ideal is a grappling art like jiu-jitsu complemented with some kickboxing (which originated from muay thai, karate, and boxing but is now essentially a distinct art). This mix is the usual combination that has been proven time and time again in the UFC which is about as real as it can get.
In the UFC, you don’t see flashy martial arts like Wushu, Tae-kwon Do, Aikido, etc. Maybe, these are effective once you master those but apparently the fighters representing these arts in the UFC needed to study a bit more. There goes easy to learn.