Work Work Work!

Today was a super long day at work. I spent almost 12 hours at the office, at site, etc.... I'm supposed to be coming home to a good workout, good homecooked meal and a good read in the evening. But instead, its just work work work, more work, and crappy fast food! Not to mention my schedule is almost packed all week with meetings and such on so many different projects that I can hardly have time to sort it all out! We're not talking about efficiency anymore. How can you be efficient if you don't even have time to think through what you are doing? Work work work, and I'm very sure I'm gonna just end up stepping on someone's nerves or missing out something important this week. Oh well, guess that's what u got to do when the department is understaffed.

I saw the new canoe pics that Kyle posted up. It's just awesome! And good 'ol Chris is back to cast the boat. Chris, Kyle, Rory, Danny, Salman, Aviva, Margarita, Mary, Christi, Hank, Lacey, damn I miss the canoe team of 2003! Ok, I must have said this a million times already, but I'd much rather work 12 hours on canoe (remember Calcatraz? Part 3....) than on this work right now. In fact, doing individual research without being paid 12 hours a day was probably even more exciting. I think part of the reason was that we set our own goals in school, not anymore. Someone else sets the goals, and the rewards, and I'm not sure if they match up anyways (though if you screw up real bad it will match up for sure!). Other reason is probably that I'm getting old, no more energy for 12 hour workdays.

So I read this article in the paper today that Singaporeans eat almost twice the daily recommended amount of salt when they eat out. Especially when you eat a bowl of noodles. Soup noodles apparently has much more salt than dry noodles. In fact, every single thing in the hawker center is just laden with salt! And I'm just so used to it that I can't stand eating something like a sandwich for lunch, and come to think of it that's probably because of the lack of salt! We are a nation addicted to salt (just as America is a nation addicted to sugar....)! Which is worse? Sugar makes you obese and diabetic which eventually leads to heart disease. Salt gives you high blood pressure, which eventually gives you heart problems too. Incidentally, just look around your office, I'm sure you find lots of people with blood pressure on the high side. It's almost too common even among people who haven't hit 30. We got to eat less salt!

If you eat too much sugar, working out probably will get rid of it. But can you reduce your body salt content by working out? Through sweat? Not so sure about that..... Anyway, everybody here is too overworked and underpaid to worry about salt, sweat or working out. Comon, after a long hard day of work, just grab a bowl of noodles or fatty pork rice on your way home huh? Forget about the salt and the cholesterol. After all, work is so depressing, let's enjoy life by indulging in the good food huh? Just like the smokers always tell me, life is short, enjoy first! Yah, tell that to the 40 year old on his deathbed.....

They say people with a lot in common should have no problem getting along. Well, look at the Jews and the Muslims. They actually have so much in common but they have been fighting for the most part of modern history. Both do not eat pork. Both have stringent dietary restrictions. Both subject males to circumcision. In fact ultra-orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Muslims have the same practice of separating men and women in society. These two religions probably have more in common than any other religion e.g. Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. Just as the Muslims have Shias and Kurds and Sunnis, who are at loggerheads with each other, so do the Jews have Ashkenazi, Sephardim and Ultraorthodox who are at loggerheads with each other. But the sad thing is, even with all the bickering and fighting going on all day, most of the world's people don't really care about the conflict in the Middle East. What's in it for them anyway? If you talk about magnitude of conflict, Africa probably is much more worrying. If you talk about economy, eyes are focused more on India and China. If you talk about global harmony, we look to the EU, US and their dealings with Iran and South Korea. The world is probably too troubled today with other more important things than to worry about the bickering between Israel and its occupied territories (or Russia and Chechnya). Meanwhile, innocent people continue to be killed everyday.....