Teehee. The title says it all :X I had two huge bottles (okays normal wine bottle size? heh) of 38% alcohol for analysis. Liquid-liquid extraction was necessary so I was measuring out the amount and added a bit more than needed so I took a small disposable spatula, threw into the sink a couple scoopfuls and sipped the last extra scoop.
IT WAS AWFUL.
hahahha. Yea. Actually I expected it to be. Just wanted to try. And anyways the beverage application head who brought it told me if I want to drink I can. Erms. I admit she was joking cos she said drinking not sampling. One rare department head who can be crazy enough that I dare to joke back agreeing to drink.
Most people are trapped trying to impose their viewpoint on the world. They carry around beliefs about what is right and wrong, and they hold on to these beliefs for years. “I am right” brings comfort, but not true happiness. The people you feel wronged by will never apologize and make your wounds and grievances go away. The people you judge against will remain isolated from you. No one has ever been made happy by proving that they are right. The only result is conflict and confrontation, because the need to be right always makes someone else wrong.
There is no such thing as one and only one correct perspective. Right is whatever conforms to your perception. You see the world as you are. Others see the world as they are, too. This insight is tremendously liberating because, first of all, it makes you unique. Ultimately it makes you a cocreator with God. For as your consciousness expands, so does reality. Tremendous hidden potential is revealed.
The opposite happens if you insist upon being right. Because others will disagree, your need to be right will generate antagonism and rejection.
If the world is a mirror of who you are, it is always reflecting a point of view. Objectivity is an illusion of the ego, created to bolster its insistence that what it sees is right. It’s tragic that people sacrifice the real goal of life, which is increasing joy and happiness, for the cold comfort of judging others and feeling superior to them. If you see the world with judgment instead of love, that’s the world you will inhabit.
Adapted from The Ultimate Happiness Prescription, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2009).
It’s been long-known that physical activity boosts serotonin levels and makes people feel better, but exercise is now being called the “magic drug” in combating depression and anxiety, according to an AOL health story.
Scientists at Southern Methodist University and Boston University believe that, when it comes to easing anxiety and addressing depression, working out is even more powerful than previously believed. The researchers reviewed dozens of clinical studies on the relationship between exercise and mental health and found that patients report less anxiety, depression and stress after working out.
“Exercise appears to affect, like an antidepressant, particular neurotransmitter systems in the brain, and it helps patients with depression re-establish positive behaviors. For patients with anxiety disorders, exercise reduces their fears of fear and related bodily sensations such as a racing heart and rapid breathing,” said study co-author Michael Otto, psychology professor at BU. Otto and co-author Jasper Smits, director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at SMU, presented their findings at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America’s annual conference in March.
Smits says as little as 25 minutes of physical activity can mean the difference between a bad day and a good one. Apparently, a little (exercise) goes a long way to a good mood.
Deep down we all wish to live a rich and enlightened life. That is why we make those resolutions every year, for greater biological efficiency, less disease, increased finances, a more successful career, and an increasingly better quality of life. It is still not too late. Only a few months have passed and there are several glorious months left to turn a new leaf, open a new chapter or just quietly revel in the sudden newness of your life.
You can still make your decisions about how you can add more life to your years.
Here is a good list of some wise suggestions to enhance the quality of your life on day-to-day basis. I hope they will bring much sweetness and a tremendous change in your outlook towards life.
Great love and great achievement involve great risk. Take the risk anyway.
When you love someone, love them deeply and passionately. You might get hurt, but it is the only way to live life fully.
Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship. Make amends immediately.
When you realize you have made a mistake, hurt someone’s feelings, take immediate steps to correct it. Ask forgiveness.
Keep your arms open to change, but don’t let go of your personal values.
Talk slowly, but think quickly. Rationally.
Quiet the voice in your head that says “I can’t do this.”
Don’t quit, no matter what. Confucius said, “everything comes to those who wait.”
Always live in a radiating possibility; become part of life’s song.
Make conscious effort to change at least one negative attitude in your personality everyday. Surprise yourself.
If you must fight, do it in a fair manner. Without calling/dropping names.
Avoid judging people by their relatives. Accept them for who they are.
When someone asks you a question that you wish to avoid answering, smile and ask, “Why do you want to know?”
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Spend some time alone. It has great potential to recharge your energies.
Try to live a good and honorable life because when you get older and reflect upon it, you’ll get to enjoy it a second time.
Marry the man/woman with whom you love to talk with. As you get older, the conversations will essentially become a more important feature, in your life with each other.
Be kind to the environment for your own sake. Avoid litter, plastic, defacing walls and natural surroundings.
Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
Once a year plan to go to someplace you have never been before. It rejuvenates you like no other.
When you are having disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current problem. Never rake up the past.
When you lose out on something, don’t lose the lesson.
Written by Keiron Walsh The circadian rhythm that quietly pulses inside us all, guiding our daily cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again, may be doing much more than just that simple timekeeping task, according to Stanford researchers.
Working with Siberian hamsters, biologist Norman Ruby has shown that having a functioning circadian system is critical to the hamsters' ability to remember what they have learned. Without it, he said, "They can't remember anything."
Though not known for their academic prowess, Siberian hamsters nonetheless normally develop what amounts to street smarts about their environment, as do all animals. But hamsters whose circadian system was disabled by a new technique Ruby and his colleagues developed consistently failed to demonstrate the same evidence of remembering their environment as hamsters with normally functioning circadian systems.
Until now, it has never been shown that the circadian system is crucial to learning and memory. The finding has implications for diseases that include problems with learning or memory deficits, such as Down Syndrome or Alzheimer's disease. The work is described in a paper published Oct. 1 online in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ruby is lead author on the paper. Siberian hamsters, also known as dwarf hamsters, are about the size of a mouse.
The change in learning retention appears to hinge on the amount of a neurochemical called GABA, which acts to inhibit brain activity. All mammal brains function according to the balance between neurochemicals that excite the brain and those that calm it. The circadian clock controls the daily cycle of sleep and wakefulness by inhibiting different parts of the brain by releasing GABA.
But if the hippocampus - the part of the brain where memories are stored - is overly inhibited, then the circuits responsible for memory storage don't function properly. "Those circuits need to be excited to strengthen and encode the memories at a molecular level," Ruby said.
"What I thought was happening was that our animals were having chronically high levels of GABA because they had lost their circadian rhythm," Ruby said. "So instead of rhythmic GABA, it is just constant GABAoutput."
To test that idea, Ruby and his colleagues gave the circadian-deficient hamsters a GABA antagonist called pentylenetetrazole, or PTZ, which blocks GABA from binding to synapses, thereby allowing the synapses to continue firing and keeping the brain in a more excited state. It worked. The learning-impaired hamsters caught up with their intact peers to exhibit the same level of learning retention.
Research on people with Down syndrome has shown that one reason they don't perform well on cognitive tests is that they grow up with what amounts to an over-inhibited brain. Studies on mice that exhibit symptoms of Down syndrome have demonstrated that when given PTZ, the mice demonstrate improved learning and memory. That research, conducted by Fabian Fernandez, then a graduate student in the lab of Craig Garner, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, prompted Ruby to investigate whether using PTZ to reduce GABA levels would improve memory function in the hamsters.
Other researchers working with mouse models of Alzheimer's disease have reported similar findings. When those mice were given GABA antagonists, their ability to learn was restored, suggesting a possible link with their circadian system.
Ruby's findings may also have implications for the decline in memory function that older adults in general experience.
"In aging humans, one of the big things that happens is the circadian system starts to degrade and break down," Ruby said. "When you get older, of course, a lot of things break down, but if the circadian system is a player in memory function, it might be that the degradation of circadian rhythms in elderly people may contribute to their short-term memory problems," he said. "There are a lot of things that could cause memory to fail, but the idea would be that in terms of developing therapeutic treatments, here is a new angle.
"This is also important because it is one of the first lines of evidence that shows losing your circadian timing actually does cost you something," Ruby said. "It makes it hard to learn things. And the underlying mechanism is that you have too much GABA."
Ruby said researchers have known since the early '70s that the circadian system modulates learning in humans and other animals, but no one knew what the effect would be on learning if the system was completely wiped out. Laboratory animals-rats, mice and hamsters-whose circadian systems have been disabled as part of a study typically live long and healthy lives.
"We thought it might be possible to wipe out circadian rhythms and eliminate the rhythm in learning, but that the animals could still learn something," Ruby said. "But they don't. That is what was so surprising. They actually can't remember anything. Losing their rhythms costs them a lot."
The researchers knocked the hamsters' circadian systems out of commission using a new noninvasive technique they developed involving manipulating the hamsters' exposure to light. The hamsters were first exposed to two hours of bright light late at night. Then the next day the researchers delayed the usual light/dark cycle by three hours. "It is like sending them west three time zones," Ruby said.
After the treatment, the normal light/dark cycle is resumed, but that one-time treatment is enough to wipe out their circadian system.
To assess the effect of the treatment, Ruby's team conducted a standard test called a novel object recognition task that takes advantage of animals' innate tendency to explore their environment. Using a box roughly 2 feet square, the researchers put two identical objects in adjacent corners, such as two saltshakers or two shot glasses. The hamster is then placed in the box, on the opposite side from the objects. As it explores the box and the objects, the hamster spends approximately equal amounts of time on each of the two identical objects. After 5 minutes, the hamster is removed from the box, and one of the objects is replaced with a new, different object. After a span of time-in Ruby's study, the time was varied between 20 minutes and an hour-the hamster is put back in the box.
"A normal animal will spend time with both objects, but it will spend easily twice as much time with the new one," Ruby said. "It understands that it has seen the other one before."
But when a hamster that lacks circadian rhythms is put back in the box, it's as if it is a whole new world for the hamster. Whether the hamster is out of the box for an hour or as short a time as 20 minutes, it spends the same amount of time with each object, Ruby said.
"What that means is they don't remember the object that was in there before," he said. The finding is even more striking when you consider that when a hamster loses its circadian system, it gets even more sleep than usual.
"What our data are showing is that theseanimals still performed terribly on a simple learning task, even though they're getting loads of sleep," Ruby said. "What this says is that the circadian system really is necessary for something that is deeply important: learning."
Thursday, 09 October 2008 12:57 Source: EurekAlert (Press Release)
Have you repeatedly made a commitment to do something and continue to put it off? Or have you thrown yourself into it for a while and then suddenly lost steam? During workouts or other tasks, do you often get impatient, fidgety or easily bored? If these descriptions ring true for you, there may be a hidden cause that could be derailing your efforts: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
ADD is a disorder that is characterized by a problem with concentration and staying focused. People with ADD tend to be easily distracted and have trouble following instruction. Moreover, they’re often forgetful and not well organized. Experts often refer to the following subtypes of ADD: predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or some combination thereof.
The exact cause of ADD is unknown, though experts suspect there is a relationship between ADD symptoms and an imbalance of certain brain chemicals that help regulate attention and activity (the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine). Another possible cause is abnormal function of the prefrontal cortical lobe, which causes problems with attention and impulse control.
When it comes to fitness, ADD can sabotage your efforts by causing you to procrastinate. You may also skip workouts, fail to complete full sets or get bored easily and quit your workouts early. In fact, ADD can keep you from even beginning a fitness program.
DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT
There are general tests and symptom checklists that can help determine if you suffer from ADD (see “Do You Have ADD?” page 3). If you suspect that ADD affects you, consult your doctor for a diagnosis. Then investigate your treatment alternatives.
Medication is one option: Wellbutrin (an antidepressant drug) and stimulant drugs like Ritalin and Cylert (which Rob effectively used) can have remarkable results. Yet you may also want to investigate natural treatment options. For instance, many experts believe that food and chemical allergies, food intolerances (especially to sugar) and nutritional deficiencies (of omega-3 fatty acids, for example) can all contribute to ADD, so you may wish to consider seeing an integrative practitioner familiar with the disorder.
What about exercise? Well, it’s a Catch-22: Regular, intense exercise has been shown to have a positive effect on neurotransmitters related to ADD, but, as noted, ADD can make it tough to stick to a regular routine.
Some experts recommend that people with ADD alter their workout regimens to make them as structured as possible. The idea is that, in addition to building in more accountability and minimizing opportunities for distraction, making exercise a formal ritual can help you solidify your commitment: It can help prevent you from “forgetting” that you’re resolved to get and stay fit.
You might join a group activity, such as a spinning or strength-training class, that meets at a certain time and location and always on the same day. You may also want to consider hiring a personal trainer and setting up a firm schedule of appointments. Even participating in a team sport like basketball can help because the element of competition generates greater concentration and focus.
Don’t allow ADD to keep you from reaching your full potential. Explore it, address it, and see what happens when your focus is strong and clear.
You often procrastinate and have trouble beginning tasks
You often experience a sense of underachievement or of failing to meet your goals (regardless of your status or the amount of success you’ve achieved)
You often act impulsively and have a tendency to “speak before you think” (you often say what’s on your mind at inappropriate times)
You rarely follow through on new ideas or simple tasks
You often sabotage your efforts as you’re about to achieve a goal (pursuing a goal excites you, but achieving one leaves you flat)
You’re often very disorganized (your office or house is a mess)
You crave stimulating and new activities and challenges
You are prone to extreme and inaccurate self-observation (you tend to exaggerate how good or bad you really are)
You’re easily bored — it’s rare that anything interests you for long
You either have trouble focusing or are focused to an extreme (you either get very distracted or you’re so focused that you’re able to block everything else out)
You’re intelligent and creative, with a strong intuitive sense
You tend to be very impatient (about trying to lose weight, for example)
You are prone to obsessive-compulsive worrying — or to not worrying when you should (for example, you’ll stay on the golf course in the midst of a lightning storm)
You are prone to restless thoughts and behavior, such as pacing or wringing your hands
You have a tendency toward addiction and/or habits you can’t break
Details make you crazy — you’re put off by tedious tasks
You have a family history of manic-depressive illness, ADD, depression, addiction (substance abuse) or problems with impulse control
You often experience muddled or racing thoughts that feel like they’re out of control
If you responded with a 4 (”somewhat agree”) or 5 (”strongly agree”) for five or more of the items above, it’s quite possible your fitness (and life) may be hindered by ADD. Seek a professional diagnosis and investigate your treatment options by consulting some of the recommended resources at right
Can loneliness hurt your health? And what defines loneliness? Even as modern technology increases our access to other people, our intimate relationships are becoming more scarce. Families are smaller and relatives don’t always live in close proximity anymore. More people work from home, and busy schedules and “to do” lists keep us from connecting in a meaningful way. That same modern technology that permits us to easily connect with people from all over the world also tends to get in the way of time spent in real face-to-face relationships. Our inborn desire for intimate relationships with other human beings is, for many of us, not being met. I recently happened across an article reporting on a University of Chicago study that says that long-term loneliness can be a risk factor for hypertension in people aged 50 and older, even when depression and stress are factored out. The study also took other risk factors, like body-mass index, smoking, alcohol use, and demographic differences, into account. Researchers concluded that loneliness is a unique health-risk factor in its own right. A 2007 article in Medical News Today links the risk of developing Alzheimer’s in old age to social isolation — feeling disconnected from a social environment and close relationships and a general feeling of abandonment. This feeling of loneliness can happen even when one has many social contacts, and increase with age as our circle of friends and family gets smaller after retirement, death of loved ones, and loss of mobility. Researchers found that loneliness was linked to lower levels of cognitive function as well as more rapid decline of function. People who identified themselves as lonely experienced double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s than those who described themselves as least lonely. Notably, actual physical isolation was less important than perceived isolation. Studies indicate that a sense of isolation disrupts not only will power and perseverance, but key cellular processes deep within the human body. So said a 2008 article on Psychcentral.com. The article goes on to say that chronic loneliness belongs among risk factors such as smoking, obesity, or lack of exercise, and feeling a sense of social connection is vital to mental well-being and physical health. A 2008 article by USA Today suggested that the pain of loneliness is less about being alone than about feeling alone. Loneliness is a biological process and the effects of this feeling of loneliness can take a physical toll. The mind/body connection is a powerful one. Loneliness can hamper the immune system, reported WebMD in 2005. A study of college freshmen showed that social isolation can have a stressful impact on the immune system. Search the web and you will find that such studies about the impact of isolation and loneliness on the body abound, and most point to the importance of perceived loneliness rather than specifics about actual social interaction. Most of us have had at least some experience with feeling lonely even while in a crowd. You can’t gauge loneliness by how many people with whom you surround yourself. How many “friends” do you have on Facebook and other online networking platforms? Do these people meet your need for companionship? The social networking available online can help ease the sense of isolation, especially for people with mobility problems, but only to a point. Getting out of the house and into social situations can help us to feel like active participants in the world, but it is still not enough. What we need, and what is increasingly lacking, is face time with people we feel comfortable with, people we trust, people with whom we can let our hair down and be ourselves. In my book, face time means turning off the trappings of technological distractions. No texting while visiting, please. When I was raising young children as an “at home mom,” my life was the perfect storm for isolation and loneliness. Most mothers in my neighborhood were working and I lived 1,000 miles away from parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other assorted family members who would otherwise enrich my daily life. Fortunately, I made a couple of friends who, although we now are also geographically separated, remain part of my most cherished memories of that period. One was a fellow at home mom. Living in the same neighborhood, we saw each other often, but set aside some “coffee time” every other week or so, alternating in each other’s homes. While our children played, we sipped coffee and shared our lives, our hopes, and our dreams. Our simple cup of coffee generally lasted two or three hours. The other was a working mom, a teacher, who every so often would drop by for afternoon tea before going home to prepare dinner for her family. The children played while we laughed and cried and supported one another through all manner of good times and bad. Sometimes talk was serious, sometimes silly. Always enriching. Those associations have remained with me as some of the most valuable friendships of my life because I knew that I could (and still can) count on these women for support and mutual respect. I didn’t need a lot of friends to stave off the feeling of isolation, just a few solid friendships. There was no way that I could have felt the pang of loneliness while these women were in my close circle, and it did us all a world of good. It always comes back to that old mind/body connection. We all need to feel part of something meaningful, and we owe it to ourselves to make an effort to connect and reconnect with our fellow human beings. Our health and well-being depends on it.
Increase vascular blood flow and oxygenation of the blood
Give a workout to the diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles
Reduce certain stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline
Increase the response of tumor- and disease-killing cells such as Gamma-interferon and T-cells
Defend against respiratory infections–even reducing the frequency of colds–by immunoglobulon in saliva.
Increase memory and learning; in a study at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, humor during instruction led to increased test scores
Improve alertness, creativity, and memory
Humor and creativity work in similar ways, says humor guru William Fry, M.D., of Stanford University–by creating relationships between two disconnected items, you engage the whole brain.
Humor works quickly. Less than a half-second after exposure to something funny, and electrical wave moves through the higher brain functions of the cerebral cortex. The left hemisphere analyzes the words and structures of the joke; the right hemisphere “gets” the joke; the visual sensory area of the occipital lobe creates images; the limbic (emotional) system makes you happier; and the motor sections make you smile or laugh.
Today's the first day I'm taking over my supervisor's job... and every bomb that can possibly drop on me did. How lucky...
First time I had to shutdown the GCMS machine (It was NEVER shutdown for the WHOLE of my IA so far)
Then there were TWO sets of URGENT QC samples... One I managed to send the results out before lunch, the other, cos of the shutdown, and subsequent complications during startup and conditioning, I can only send the reports on Monday. Now the delivery has to be delayed and air freight charges will come in... (the original delay had nothing to do with my side but the whole issue has added to my already highly stressed state of mind).
Then there was changing of gas cylinder which I'm not really familiar with (thank goodness a guy colleague was around to help).
And we went out for lunch cos its my hplc sup and mh's birthdays i.e. came back late and had to rush to settle the gas and the post-shutdown complications and the second set of QC samples.
And there are two samples of 900+ peaks each pending for evaluation.
And some other colleagues played an April's Fool Day prank call on my hplc sup (i was sitting opposite her so i heard her response) which also stressed me out cos I was trying not to laugh when I sensed it was probably a prank call but wasn't 100% sure cos she was so serious and all...
Sigh....
I don't feel like doing anymore socialising...pretending to be happy and enthu and all that...but there's mh's bday celebration tonight and I am the organiser...
Have Read
'04 year-end holidays (highest number of books read in a long time)
-The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (gd read)
-Princess Diaries: Third Time Lucky by Meg Cabot (fun read)
-Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom (must read - inspirational)
-Slab Rat by Ted Heller (full of office politics and R21 stuff - not for kids)
-The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (makes u want to finish it)
-A walk to remember by Nicholas Sparks (simple but meaningful)
-The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (can identify with)
-The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (romantic love story with too much R21 stuff)
-Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks (even more R21. ugh)
-The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
-Unstrung Heroes by Franz Lidz (autobiography about his four uncles and father)
-The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (very unique POV of an autistic boy)
-The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux (love the breadth of the plot, one of my favourites)
-Wild Orchids by Jude Deveraux (alternating between two first persons' view - unique, but don't like e plot)
-Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (philosophy tb in a story; gets abit dry though plot saved)
-forgot what i read...-
-Working Wonders by Jenny Colgan (story of an urban planner)
-Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (impressive intelligence with bits of great humour)
-Just between Us by Cathy Kelly (thickest bk i've ever read-600+pg, too long for me but not bad)
ha, started a few bks but didn't enjoy them enough to read more.
'06
-Life of Pi by Yann Martel (novel based on true story; a lot to learn from the book - animals, religions,
survival, appreciation of simplicity; marvelous descriptions of both the tangible and the intangible,
such that I could feel their realness; bits of very enjoyable humour; a must read)
-The Complete Analects of Confucius, Volume 1 - Asiapac Comic Series (some good teachings.
didn't read everything though)
-The Parable of the Pipeline by Burke Hedges (lent to me by Shujun; like she said, its a short version
of Rich Dad Poor Dad - good financial tips)
-The Alchemist by Paul Coelho (simple story with deep meaning)
-Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
(hai, doesn't seem to be working for me - cos im not applying..)
-haven't been updating from Jun'06 to Jul'07-
'07
-Take a Chance by Sarah Webb (very interesting twist towards the end)
'08
-A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer (very saddening. made me realise how significant family is in how a child behaves)
-Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden (refreshing book with many pics)
-The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Rui Zafon (amazing how people can think of so much plot to pack into one book, wld b a gd tv series)
-The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (the story is interesting but i think the ending cld hv been better written)
-This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes (a bit thought-provoking on relationships but i didnt like e abrupt ending)
-Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner (gd knowledge but partly qte repetitive)
-For One More Day by Mitch Albom
-The C Words by Mark Mason (made me keep wanting to read on. light & funny)
'09
-Return to Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux (another good read from Deveraux)
-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (gosh such vivid descriptions! very well written book. i liked d theme of friendship and the realness of the story)
'10
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (a must-read!! i love the expressed thoughts of the protagonist, esp those about friendships, and the writing style - it seems like she's telling me her story specifically to me)
How to Save Your Own Life by Michael Gates Gill (an inspiring read, for emotional liberation and greater joy in life)
Reading
on hold
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
Waiting for chance to get hold of
The Little White Car by Danuta de Rhodes
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
My Left Foot by Christy Brown
Gotai Fumanzoku or An Unsatisfactory Body (Translated into English as No One's Perfect) by Hirotada Otatake
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Other Recommended Readings by Marc
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin – Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – This is a tale that lingers on the topic of attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s emotional and moral life. Dickens states that we must learn to go against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”
Lolita – This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption… and at times makes you deeply question your own perceptions of each. The story is as devious as it is beautiful.
Getting Things Done by David Allen – The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done. Nuff said.
How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman – 900 pages of simple instructions on how to cook everything you could ever dream of eating. Pretty much the greatest cookbook ever written. Get through a few recipes each week, and you’ll be a master chef by the time you’re 30.
Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner – Franz Wisner had it all… a great job and a beautiful fiancée. Life was good. But then his fiancée dumped him days before their wedding, and his boss basically fired him. So he dragged his younger brother to Costa Rica for his already-scheduled honeymoon and they never turned back… around the world they went for two full years. This is a fun, heartfelt adventure story about life, relationships, and self discovery.
Self-note: Tip for my future business =D
give employees reasonably high pay to keep them- otherwise they are unlikely to stay loyal.
treat employees not according to how well they treat me but how conscientious they are at work
(of course, musn't expect them to only do work throughout the entire working hours -
give some breathing space too, we are humans, not machines) Movies watched(listing started on 6jan08)
in cinema from VCD/DVD
1Sep07: "Hairspray" w TK, GH & SH
14Sep07: "Ratatouille" w mom & extended family
28Dec07: "The Pianist" w Jus & Pam (heartbreaking but good lessons; i recommend!)
2Jan08: "I Am Legend" w Sherm (scary! but good acting; thought provoking; i recommend!)
5-6Jan08: "A Good Year" alone (excellent show! i like the acting; funny; good lessons; touches my heart; i recommend!)
11Jan08: "Le Grand Chef" w WLing, JT & Irene (good! funny, very touching, :) nice; watch if like humour+meaning+food)
7Feb08 (CNY 初一): "Ah Long Pte Ltd" w parents (pretty hilarious - but u gotta understand dialects, some teary parts. wells typical of jack neo movies but with diff content)
11Mar08: "The Leap Year" w Sherm (so sweet! :) and apart from couple relationship it touches the theme of mother-daughter and best friends too)
6Jun08: "P.S. I Love You" w Sherm (don't know if its coz we watched it on laptop, coz it didn't impress me as much as it did for him in cinema)
8Jun08: "The Forbidden Kingdom" w Lisa, Karen & Sandy (ums..guess i'm really not into kungfu)
8Jun08: "What Happens in Vegas" w Lisa, Karen & Sandy (simple,relaxing show)
7Jul08: "我和狗狗的10个约定" w Sherm, his ma & sisters (very simple,touching but actually not my type of show)
10Jul08: "Before Sunrise" w Sherm (hmm maybe watchg on laptop really affects appreciatn of movies..)
30Sep08: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" w Sherm (i didn't like it as much as i thought i wld when i saw the ads)
31Dec08: "Yes Man" w Mom (inspiring and funny)
11Feb08: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" w Mom (not as impressive as i thought it wld be)
1Jul09: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" w Yumei, YY & Matt (the best thing was the soundtrack. heh.)
14Aug09: "GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra" w Joyce (it was awesome! best action movie i've ever watched)
17Aug09: "Food, Inc." w SYL & RuiQ (learnt some stuff abt the American food industry but it was a bit boring and not worth the $10)
22Sep09: "The Time Traveller's Wife" w WB, VanD, WLing, CHL, Irene, VanQ, Mf, Pg (i liked it. having read the book really helps w udsg)
21Nov09: "Gokusen" w Mf, Eva, Tony, Sarah (funny inspirational movie)
24Dec09: "十月围城" w Tony, WLing, VanQ (action action and a bit funny? tony criticised the plot. my fav scene was the running n jumping through the crowd along the five-foot ways w/o cuts)
30Dec09: "Sherlock Holmes" w Irene, Tony, Sweetee (my favourite genre of books made into a movie - what else can be more cool? acting effects humour excitement suspense all in)
12Jan10: "Avatar 3D" w Mom (didn't appreciate the digital effects which everyone wowed about. content etc was so-so. cathay's 3D glasses were too heavy for me)
8Feb10: "The Truman Show" w Ky n sis n Yuhshin (a must-watch. very thought-provoking, funny. reminder to be spontaneous and create your life the way you want, instead of falling into a typical routine
14Feb10: "New York, I Love You" w Mom (I loved it! a good couple movie with meaningful pointers to keep it going. but i think some stories could be more developed)
16Feb10: rewatched "The Pianist" (still find it good, tho i still feel first viewings are the best)
17Feb10: "Valentine's Day" w CHL n WB (laughed throughout - a feel-good movie; liked the fact that the various stories binded tog so well with the little surprises here and there, vs NY ILU in which each story was separate)
20Feb10: "赤壁二" w Addy, Karen, Sharon, SJ (should have watched the first one first cos i ended up not knowing who's who and what's happening and had to keep asking :/ and couldn't pay attn.. if not i think it should be a pretty good movie..)
4Mar10: "Alice in Wonderland 3D" w Mf (i found the 3D effects of this @ CCK Shaw SO much better than Avatar @ The Cathay =/ and the movie was much more enjoyable too! - cheered a sad me up :)) favourite quote - the Mad Hatter: “You used to be much muchier before. ... You have lost your muchness.”)
18Mar10: "Nodame Cantabile" w Irene, Mf (i thoroughly enjoyed some of the orchestra pieces - SO impressive! the expressions of the actors were really amusing :D)
23Apr10: "Ice Kacang Puppy Love" w Mom (funny, touching and meaningful - about love between friends and family. i cried 3 tissues! cos some touching parts i could really understand the feelings of the characters involved)
Inception
Letters to God (very simple Christian movie)
22Nov10: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" w Ame, Irene (they loved it. pretty good, i guess the main problem i had was that im not familiar with HP :X)
13Dec10: "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" w Sj (not bad, could follow the story unlike HP. like the meaningful teachings, too long - in a post)
2Mar11: "The King's Speech" w Ame (hilarious, inspirational, tho it doesn't impress me that much to understand why it's the Oscar winner)
Mar11: "10 Things I Hate About You" very funny. silly sweet high school romance. just right for having breaks in between doing homework
23May11: "Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides" w Wb Yl Ame Pg (pretty good - scenery, freakish parts, fighting scenes, dressing, humour, bits of Christianity like when the Spanish said "only God gives life")
6Jun11: "Xmen First Class" w Wb Ame Pg (i was very keen on watching it and it was really good! intellectual, makes sense, cool action, some humour)
9Jun11: "Legally Blonde 2" w Irene (seems like some dumb blonde movie but kind of meaningful too - speaking up for yourself and what you stand for)
17Jun11: "Something Borrowed" w Sandy Lisa (quite funny, somewhat meaningful wrt friendships. they didn't like the lack of sense for one part tho)
16Jul11: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" w Irene, Sweetee, Kw (not bad. i didn't understand some parts again but the humour and effects were pretty good)
Aug11 "Horrible Bosses" w Ma (she fell asleep! gosh. the movie was very crude i must say but there was the humour)
25Oct11: "The Three Musketeers" w H (i would rate it 3.5 for humour/intellectual language and 4 for action. it's by the same producer or director as Sherlock! but a bit less awesome albeit a good chill out movie)
5Nov11: "Real Steel" w Hl (action packed but not too hardcore for me. i liked that there was the father and son element and how the father eventually softened his heart and especially the part when charlie was having trouble telling max sth and max was so understanding saying "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." touching and demonstrates true fighting spirit)
12Dec11: "50/50" w L (adopting her words - a heavy topic put across in a lighthearted way, but not taking away d meaning. most of it was rather hollywood-ish trashiness but there were a couple of punch lines "u can't change ur parents, but u can change d way u respond to them.")
25Dec11: "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" w KY (ultimate action packed! super tense almost throughout the movie, and interesting Tom Cruise made it such that not everything happened smoothly - he would jump and misland and get all sorts of injuries..it's really the courage to jump without hesitation even though you are not sure you'll be alive after that. KY loved d movie and said she would watch it again!)
3Jan12: "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" w KY (i love mystery (: and the witty sarcastic dialogues. good level of excitement with the action. didn't understand some parts as usual. i like Holmes and Watson they depict such a true pair of buddies ;D)
23Jan12: "You are the Apple of My Eye" w mom (now i understand why guys like this movie so much - the anxiety of chasing after a girl and the acts schoolboys do to get the girl's attention and hopefully affection. the initial fluttering and the subsequent quarrelling)
22Mar12: "The Iron Lady" w KY (really love Thatcher's sharp words. inspiring and thought-provoking, tho i was still left uncertain of what to do with my life, the movie is definitely an encouraging one)
29Mar12: "Barney's Version" w SJ (a funny movie of a screwed up life of a man who had 3 wives, smoked and drank but very heartwarming at the same time, the relationships with the dad and the 3th wife - quotable quotes!)
27Apr12: "The Hunger Games" w Mom
4May12" "Avengers" w MF n PS (funny, action-packed)
7Jul12: "The Amazing Spiderman"
21Jul12: "The Dark Knight Rises" (fantastic depth, loved the twists)
20Aug12: "ParaNorman" w Mom (simple funny animated movie, heartwarming support)
Performances watched (listing started on 25Apr10)
20Jan10: Patrick Marber's Closer by outoftheBLUE, NUS Science w Pam (
13Mar10: The Rain Came Down Like Pearls the Night I Died... The New Musical - Sing & Tell by Mark Chan w Addy & Jy
21Mar10: Quintessence by NUSCO w CHL