Apple's Recent Education Envent

It was interesting watching the recent-most Apple keynote event, and for me it wasn't about necessarily about the products (hardware and software) announced. Instead the event highlighted what I said before about the focus of American education: maximizing participation and engagement. During my easily distracted time mostly listening to the event, never did they stress increasing test scores as a completely objective measure of success among the schoolchildren as part of their salespitch. This is in comparison to the annual publication of list of schools with the best SPM results and source of bragging rights. American educations looks to be very focused on the process while ours is heavily results based (and influenced by our British ex-colonizers). I guess both are needed: a good process ensures that education is fun and doesn't skip steps in creating a human. Having a bit of a results-oriented mindset gives a nudge to compete and give a bit more effort, but not to the point of kids committing suicide from "poor" results. Nevertheless, with the economy as it is, I don't see the competitive mindset cooling down anytime in the current generation of generally East/Southeast Asian schoolchildren.

Do spend your time watching it.

Taken Together, A Not So Rosy Picture is Painted

All quoted from Bank Negara Malaysia, via the Star:

“The survey showed that in Kuala Lumpur, the provisional estimates of a living wage ranged between RM2,700 and RM6,500 per month.

It said the living wage for a single adult was RM2,700 per month; RM4,500 per month for a couple without children; and RM6,500 per month for a couple with two children.

...

The central bank also said the living wage estimates in Kuala Lumpur were below the median income (in Kuala Lumpur) of RM9,073, emphasising that up to 27% of households were earning below the living wage.

“In terms of household type, a larger share of single-adult households and couples with two children were earning below the estimated living wage in 2016, compared to couples without children.

“The finding for single-adult households is consistent with the fact that graduates with a first degree or diploma earn on average, starting salaries of RM2,207 and RM1,346 per month, respectively.””

A provisional living wage in KL as low as that? Let's not kid ourselves.

“Unsold housing units increased on an annual basis by 22.7% in 2017 (2016: 41%) to 129,052 units as at end-September 2017.

More than 80% of the unsold units were priced at RM250,000 and above.

Many of these units were high-rise residential properties and were mainly in areas located far from major economic centres and with limited public transport facilities.

“The high number of unsold housing units also reflects the persistent mismatch between the selling price of houses being built and what most households can afford,” according to the report.”

That's not sustainable for buyers.

“Bank Negara pointed out that activities in the commercial property segment (comprising shops, office space and shopping complexes) remained soft, amid an oversupply in these segments and challenges faced by businesses in the oil and gas (O&G) sector.

The volume of commercial property transactions declined by 8.2% (2010-2016 average: -4.7%) to 16,025 units during the first nine months of 2017. The value transacted nonetheless increased by 3.8% to RM17.8bil driven by higher transactions of properties priced RM1mil and above.

Slower activities in the commercial property segment were observed in most major states such as Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor and Penang.”

It's not hard to find empty shop-lots and empty malls (I'm typing this in Quill City Mall). And if people lose jobs because of bad business, who's gonna pay for those property purchases?

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The Eleiko IPF Powerlifting Belt

The belt

As I mentioned before in a previous blog post, I managed to burst open my previous powerlifting belt made by Strength Apparel. Having felt the difference between a proper powerlifting belt and a cheap lifting belt, I knew that I had to buy another powerlifting belt; the security during a final set is real and not a placebo effect kind of thing. Another fellow "competitive powerlifter" (you can train and have a day job, or should I say need one) suggested that I buy an IPF-sanctioned belt so that I can compete in IPF-sanctioned meets, which have 2 distinguishing features: there is drug testing (so the playing field is much more fair), and weigh-ins are basically just prior to the meet (so you can't play around with weight manipulation which can lead you to be competing with athletes up to at least 5 kg's heavier than their weigh-in weight). And so I stumbled upon Zealfit, who apparently sells such a belt, made by Eleiko.

Search results on Google

The belt on the website

Online it’s difficult to find a price internationally to compare the value. This is basically the best I got:

Which amounts to like 1230 ringgit

After getting in touch with the rep (it's basically a one man shop selling stuff from his house at the moment, but having good enough business to even be fitting commercial gyms like Celebrity Fitness with heavy metal), he managed to give me a discounted price of 950 ringgit. That's more than 4 times what I paid for the Strength Apparel belt, but I've made more "expensive purchases" (think fountain pens). And so we made a deal to meet up, tried out the belt and bought it (no credit cards accepted at the moment, just hard cash). And so here's the belt:

It actually appears as thought the Eleiko belt is a bit thinner than the Strength Apparel belt; otherwise they weigh more or less the same (the Elieko belt weight is stated as 1 kg while there is no weight stated for the Strength Apparel belt on the website). The circumference of the loop of the Eleiko belt this better; the one on the Strength Apparel belt is too small, making it difficult to thread the strap in (important for lifts such as the deadlift and squat). The Eleiko belt feels a bit softer when trying to bend the belt in the superior-inferior direction as well as when trying to wear it. Performing single rep lifts with the Strength Apparel belt felt sturdier because it is much tougher, but it is not so suited for doing lifts with multiple reps. Only a few weeks prior to the belt bursting did it feel comfortable enough wearing it, where it did not pinch my skin at my chest/lower abs when in the bottom position of a deadlift or squat (this made my tempo slower and made it harder to deadlift multiple reps with my weak grip strength).

Comparison of the three belts

Comparison of the buckle end

The inner side of the belt

The scuff marks on the old belt rubbing agains the loop can be appreciated. I hook the old belt into the third pair of holes and the new belt into the second pair.

The bane of white; any scuff marks are easily seen

So I've run it through it's paces of a "training week" and this is what I'll say about it: So far so good. There's a balance to be ensured between stiffness (and hence support) and comfort and I believe this belt is more in the middle than the stiffness extreme. No more bruising at my lower ribs/lower abs from pinching by an extremely stiff belt; there is no acclimatization period. And yet it is still stiff enough to give proper support. I think that the slight softness of the belt may provide some longevity by allowing it to withstand the stresses of lifting. But I do not really like the white color; it's just asking to be stained. Unfortunately, there is no black option (my favorite color). The strap length beyond the first set of holes is also a little short, making it a little bit harder to slip it into the loop (not needed when performing military presses), but at least the loop isn't too small such that I have to use strength to pull the strap in.

According to the seller, this belt was with him since 2016 but otherwise untouched. Let's see how long it lasts; preferably at least 2 years to make the belt worth it's expense (as well as the brand's reputation) compared to the old belt.