What?
Running.

Who?
Me and this good friend of mine: myself.

Why?
Because I was (and am) susceptible to depression and I needed a goal to keep myself from feeling useless. And because I was out of shape.

Where?
Kardinge, a sports area in the northern part of Groningen. Just 10 minutes from my place (well it really depends on which route. It took me half an hour to get there the first time).

How?
Well just, run.

But here's the complete story. For the previously mentioned reasons, a few months ago I decided to start running. There's a 4 miles running track in the sports area, with distance counters along the track. Since it says 4 miles running track, I thought the counter was on miles and that by reaching the sign 2.0 and back again, I had run all the 4 miles. But of course, nothing is ever that easy. Turns out the counter was on km.

Increasing the length little by little every time, though, I finally made it to a real 4 miles (around 6.4 km) today. It really gave me a sense of accomplishments. After all, running is one way of getting some warmth in a minus 3 temperature. And not to mention the magnificent view along the track: wide fields with a windmill, ducks, cows, horses, houses that look like hobbit holes, and a lake with frozen surface.

I'm a slow runner, by the way. But as Confucius said:

It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.

If my mother could see what I'm eating now, she would be very proud. No, not that I've become a good cook (I think this is what happens to most of my friends, you know, living alone and having to learn to cook, etc. But not me, I'm hopeless. I do cook sometimes: pasta, salmon, tumis kangkung. But everyone can do that, cooking pasta is no rocket science). It's just the fact that now I can eat vegetables.

Back in Malta I could find halal chicken nuggets in the supermarkets (might be unhealthy but they were tasty so who cares), we often ate in a halal Indian restaurant, and I had a Muslim friend who was kind enough to invite us for dinner every now and then. I could continue my habit of avoiding green things on my plate. Here, however, I don't have such luxury. There are several halal meat shops around the city centre, but, having reached a certain level of laziness, I decided it was too much of hassle to go shopping for main supplies in Albert Heijn and go for halal meat in a different shop. So I tried vegetables.

Now I can't even imagine how I managed to spend more than 20 years of my life without vegetables. Here is my favorite snack now: broccoli with hummus. I get this from my friend. Basically you can cook or not cook the broccoli. Some people think raw vegetables are healthier, but I prefer raw because it's tastier, and most importantly, easier ^^.

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it, and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing, and life would not be worth living. I am not speaking, of course, of the beauty which strikes the senses, of the beauty of qualities and appearances. I am far from despising this, but it has nothing to do with science. What I mean is that more intimate beauty which comes from the harmonious order of its parts, and which a pure intelligence can grasp.

- Henri Poincaré

Too often I hear people say, "I don't see when I will need to apply this stuff in real life" when they're studying something they don't like. Poincaré was right, I think: it doesn't matter.

Except when you're studying syntax from minimalist approach, which is neither beautiful nor useful. In that case, it does matter -_-

I still regret the amount of time and energy I spent on that course.

Lama ga ngeblog, yang rindu tunjuk tangan. Sekedar update saja sambil menunggu isya:

• Ujian kelar. Sepertinya yang tadi siang itu adalah the last exam of my life. Sekarang tinggal ngerjain proyek Semantic Web. Kuliahnya sendiri cukup santai, namun jadi ga santai gara-gara saya salah milih partner proyek. Tapi sudahlah, ga baik ngomongin orang.
• Weekend lalu saya mengalami cobaan yang cukup berat, yaitu... internet mati karena kabel LAN bermasalah. Buhuhu, menderita sekali rasanya. Sekarang sudah beli kabel yang baru, sepanjang 30 m. Jadi saya tidak perlu meninggalkan tempat tidur lagi.
• Saya sedang tergila-gila dengan seri A Song of Ice and Fire. Setelah terjebak dengan buku fantasi ga mutu (uhuk, Inheritance) and beberapa buku nonfiksi yang ternyata terlalu berat buat saya, senang rasanya bisa kembali terlarut dalam bacaan.
• Sesungguhnya saya sudah muak dengan winter. Udara dingin hanya salah satu dari beberapa hal yang menyesakkan. Belum lagi langit kelabu. Malam yang terlalu panjang. Tanaman mati. Pengen pulang, uhuhu.
• Susana hati belakangan ini sungguh busuk. Mungkin pengaruh cuaca. Mungkin pengaruh partner proyek yang menyebalkan.

Sudah itu saja. Lagi bt memang. Baiknya baca A Clash of King sahadja.