Archive for August, 2008

The Very 8 Seconds

August 31, 2008 at 4:22 pm · Filed under Health & Fitness

It’s said that there is a revolutionary workout method called “8 Seconds Intervals” that had been just devised by some Australian research people. The study actually found some proof which shows this new training method can burn out 3 times the amount of fat.

The way to do it is to use some intervals. For example, get on a stationary bike and you sprint for 8 seconds (by all means you’ve got to try your best within those 8 seconds), then followed by a 12-seconds of cycling lightly. You can practise this 20 minutes each time, 3 times per week. By doing so, you can lose three times more weight as those people who exercise at a continuous, regular pace for 40 minutes.

It sounds very interesting, so I immediately tried it out on my stationary bike this afternoon. Here is a journal about how I did it.

The 1st round of 8 + 12 seconds:
“This feels actually quite good. Oh, I like the idea of sprinting…. at least I finally have the opportunity to totally go nuts….”;

The 2nd Round:
“Yes, this probably would work, as I can feel something….. I think those 12 seconds are quite important”;

The 3rd Round:
“My God, this is definitely something….it’s not an easy job…”;

The 4th Round:
“Oh….I need to catch my breath….I am glad that it’s only going to be 8 seconds…”

The 5th Round:
“Oh my legs…how much longer do I have to wait for those 12 seconds…”

The 6th Round:
“No….my heart…my legs…and….I think it’s the time to get off the bike….”

The 7th Round:
“(Grunting)No…no…not good…no…”

The 8th Round:
“FUCK…..@#$%^&*()_+~?><}”:%$#@”

The 9th Round:
“………………!!!!……………………………….!!!!…………………..!!!…………………………………..!!!”

The 10th Round’s record is missing, as I couldn’t hold myself up to there.

20 minutes for each time??? Seriously, I think there is a reason for me being “NOT PERFECT”:-)

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Trail or no trail?

August 29, 2008 at 8:09 pm · Filed under Health & Fitness

We went to see my husband’s specialist today in Canberra Hospital. The appointment was scheduled a few months ago before we went back to China, so it is not supposed to be a big deal at all.

I guess even sick people would get used to their own situation after a period of time of treatment. My husband, who had taken Warfarin for six months and just off it two weeks ago, looked very relaxed this morning and couldn’t be bothered to think of it even a bit.

We were running late for at least 5 minutes. It was pretty much like we rushed to a supermarket in the last minute to get something instead of going to see a doctor. So when I was sitting there in the waiting room puffing, I couldn’t help thinking that we actually made A DOCTOR wait for his patient :-(

Well, the appointment was pretty much a follow-up meeting with no more new information provided. The mystery remains a mystery, and the clear things are still crystal clear. So far no reason can be identified and we seem living well with the idea that the reason might never be able to be found. All the tests that had done so far are all clear and good. My husband’s GP was happy and so was his specialist.

The very last test is going to be Protein C study, which will be taken in another two weeks time when Warfarin gets washed out from his body and we all know it’s pretty much the final hope of finding a reason. But how are we supposed to response to it if the test result turns out either way? If Protein C were still low, it would mean that we at least find a reason, but an infinite intake of Warfarin might be required as well; But if the Protein C gets normal, we still go back to the circle of living in no reason.

Then the new idea is to participate a trial to take Aspirin. It is probably just our contribute to modern science rather than benefiting the individual. I was fascinated with the research idea of being randomly selected to take either Aspirin or just placebo. Aha, then I thought…I have to remind my husband to take “nothing” to fulfill his commitment to a research for 2 to 6 years….Goodness me, how interesting this is gonna be! ….

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How much is your privacy protected?

August 28, 2008 at 9:49 pm · Filed under Opinions & Thoughts

I spent two days on Privacy and Documentation Training. Although sitting there for two whole days is not something I prefer the most, the training did get me think of some interesting experience that I have had in the past two years, which directly can be linked to what was talked in the training.

  • Example 1:
    I remember one day I got a phone call at home from a guy trying to promote some mobile and home line plan to me. He had very strong Indian accent to make me believe that it was another case of outsourced overseas call centre operation, which I hate the most. So when he asked me “how much do you normally spend on your land line telephone and mobile”, I burst out with something I normally don’t say, “why should I tell you about that? That’s my personal information….”

    Well, the poor guy was in a shock and the conversation obviously couldn’t go any further because of my refusal of answering his logically designed and leading questions. You know what? I never had felt so good about myself being on phone and reacting to those Telecom people. The things that I had said would have given him something to learn :-)

  • Example 2: I had one time when I had to return the product that I bought to the shop and get the full refund. There was no problem around that. The only thing annoys me was when the shop assistant was typing this refund order into her computer, she asked me “what is your post code”.I knew this could be just their procedure to deal with refund request, but out of blue, on that day I behaved quite strangely enough and even questioned her “why do I have to give you that information? I think it’s totally irrelevant”. The girl tried to explain to me that’s for the record and a mandatory requirement for their database. It sounded really not convincing, as I did have impulsion to tell her “to fix your database”, but that’s just not being me, I guess, so I told her my post code at the last.
  • Example 3: The worst experience with giving out my personal information was once I got a phone call from a Chinese girl who rang to carry out a survey on my opinion about if I supported the idea of opening a Cruise between Sydney and Mainland China. I was happy to give her my opinions, but when she asked me to tell her what my name was, I got a bit cranky.The feelings around that were “why?” “what the hell is this about?” “Haven’t I been being polite and patient enough?” “What does she need my name for?” “What is she going to do with it? ” and at the last, she still couldn’t give me any reason to tell me why she needs my name. So I told her “you do know that I could give you a false name, do you?” Then I told her my name is Hilary (Clinton).
  • Example 4: I have a colleague who told me a story about how she communicated with her bank people. One day her bank rang up and checked something with her. They asked her “what is her Date of Birth”. My colleague said “NO, YOU TELL ME what is my date of birth…as I gave the information to you and you have the responsibilities to keep them”. Isn’t this a good example? I just love it.
  • Example 5: This happened on my dad when I was in Beijing a couple of months ago. My dad, who was a very healthy and self-content man until early of this year he got attacked by some shingles. It took a couple of months time for all the rashes disappear at the last, but the prognosis seems not very good and it has really been a long journey for him to put up all that had happened. When I was in Beijing at that time, he was still suffering the pain from the tips of affected nerves on the face and nobody can tell him how much longer this is going to take to fully get him out of this.I remember one day dad went to see a doctor who practised the Traditional Chinese Medicine in a hospital. By the lunch time, dad came back and looked very depressed and held even more negative feelings about his illness and the future treatment.

    Later on, when my mom and sister asked him what had happened, my dad told them that the doctor had a group of medical students coming in today on a rotation internship, and that doctor pointed my dad to them and said something like, “see, this is such a bad example of shingles and this man must be suffering a lot…..”

    My dad was struck and devastated. And badly enough, what that doctor did made him feel very low and bad. I couldn’t help getting so angry about it. That doctor had no rights to do such things without my dad’s consent to be presented as a medical case to any other people, and I hated the way how that doctor took it for granted and was so lacking of sensitivity about his patient’s feelings.

    Would you say that’s a privacy protection issue? and how much was my dad’s health information protected even in front of those HEALTH PROFESSIONALS? There are some real question marks over here….For ordinary people, like us, it’s not very hard to give those examples as they just happen in our life EVERYDAY :-(

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Ear Piercing Care

August 25, 2008 at 7:31 pm · Filed under Health & Fitness

I decided to take a risk to put my old earrings back on my pierced ears. I remember I had my ears pierced in 1994, but I only had kept them busy for the first 5 years. Since I came to Australia, I hardly wore any earrings.

I guess one of the reasons for that was I am prone to get inflection all the time, it really takes time and patience to care for those inflamed red-ish ear lobes. Every time I insert or take down earrings, for some reason, it will tear the wound up and make a lump around the piercing. Healing just seems quite difficult and takes longer time for me.

I had to clean it twice a day with salty warm water, apply right antiseptic liquid (the best is to use lavender oil) and wear ONE pair of earrings all the time even in a sleep (Yes, no taking-out and re-inserting, as this could cause damage to wound and delay the healing).

Normally it could take up to 4-6 weeks to get fully healed. If I can put up those 6 weeks time without touching them except when cleaning, I will be fine at the last. But the problem is, I never had done that properly :-(

Now, I decided to give it another shot, and these are things that really motivated me:

  • First, pierced ears can help to repel demons. Many primitive tribes believe that demons can enter the body through the ear. Because demons and spirits are supposed to be repelled by metal, ear-piercing prevents them entering the body.
  • Sailors used to have an ear pierced to improve eyesight. So I am hoping little pressure from wearing earrings can help to stimulate my pressure points on ears for my eyes.
  • Wearing earrings does improve your look: it can adjust facial shape slightly and brighten up your whole appearance. Sounds encouraging, does it?

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How do you deal with those house oldies?

August 24, 2008 at 9:34 pm · Filed under Home Sweet Home

We went to Salvation Army today and threw lots of pairs of shoes into that big charity bin. After that, I just got very curious about what other people do to deal with their oldies that had piled up in their houses over the years time.

I guess this is a timeless question for all women or housekeepers. Some people might have their smart answers for it, but are those answers practical enough?

When you are adding the new seasonal clothing pieces into your limited wardrobe, or when you are updating your house appliances or work stations, how do you face the dilemma between staying in and not-that-in items which are still in excellent conditions? How do you balance between your old beloved and new lovely pieces? And how do you chuck them into the bin without guilt?

I personally found it very hard, even though I noticed that I am actually doing a not bad job. Over the past a couple of years, I have been extremely confining my desires to buy any new clothes, and I normally go through all my clothes twice or three times a year to take out something I no longer like to wear or something I haven’t worn for more than 1-2 years.

I keep a big carton box aside our wardrobe to hold all the unwanted items, so I can throw them out when the box is full. Mind you the instability of my mind caused the content of this box has been changing all the time, but I do have the courage at one point to simply get rid of them all without missing them a bit.

Things are like that, aren’t they? -If you don’t see them, you don’t need them.

I did hear about people talking about some swap meetings so they can get rid of unwanted things and get something they like from other people, but I don’t think I have energy to organise that and I don’t think I have a network to support it. We tried eBay but eBay only works on certain things, not all of them. Besides, we are not able to do a garage sale as we don’t have a garage, so our oldies for sale won’t build up to a garage-sized one…lucky they won’t, otherwise I will have to go totally mad :-) I did take some clothes back to China to give them to my niece, but I only go back once every 2-3 years.

So, what else can I do? When a woman refuses to wear something that makes her look like coming from 80s or 90s , is it possible to find a new home for all her oldies? To be honest, I think the best solution so far is simply to take them to the charity bin at Salvation Army.

Do you have any tips of flight over your oldies? Tell me about it, but please skip the part of “keeping a vintage style”. I love the idea of it, but my opinion is, nothing from the last 40 years can genuinely create a vintage style. Let’s face it, we are not at our 60s or 70s. It’s just too early to talk about it.

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Swans and Synchronized Swimming

August 23, 2008 at 9:37 pm · Filed under Opinions & Thoughts

晚上在电视上看到久违了的水上花样游泳，神经大受刺激。记得小时候花样游泳是我认为最美丽的、也最有观赏性的运动项目之一，可是今天却觉得仿佛看恐怖片一样。

表演的女孩子是我见到的化妆得最灿烂的猪（我想象着出睫毛膏和眼影的化妆品公司应该找这些人代言来宣传它们的防水彩妆品）。音乐仿佛是给落水的猫配音一般， 紧张而痛苦；演员们痉挛般地机械拍打着肢体，让我感觉不到任何速度带来的美感，反而感觉万分难受；更可怕的是那些从水下伸出的七八对大腿张张合合，说句难听的话，难度高是高，但是很Gross，我突然觉得很恶心。再加上这些人夹变了形的鼻子和张着大嘴呼吸的模样，简直可以说是不堪入目。

总之我是一点找不到小时候看花样游泳时那种享受的状态，也许我好多年不看这项比赛，所以不知道这个项目如今已经发展到什么程度了，还傻傻地期待花样游泳应该如早晨清新的朝露一般舒缓、洁净，让人置身一种仙女下凡般的琼瑶仙境。

说到水中的仙境，看完花样游泳之后突然想起了早上的一幕。我和老公买完菜后，曾去Kingston的湖边闲逛。岸边水中随意游着的就是著名的、也是我们已经司空见惯了的、堪培拉湖中的黑天鹅——它们用红色的长嘴打理身体上的羽毛，看见有人在湖岸边走过，便发出吱吱的叫声游过来看看有没有吃的。

这两只天鹅基本上是旁若无人地自我表现，细长的脖颈极度富于柔韧性；身上的黑色羽毛和我小时候在挂历上看到的《天鹅湖》芭蕾舞剧里表演者穿着的裙子也差不多。唯一富于戏剧性的是：我老是受《天鹅湖》的影响，把黑天鹅情不自禁地想象为反派人物。

就这样在湖边踌躇着，任由天鹅在身旁游过，无拘无束地感受那种人与自然和谐共处的气氛，仿佛一切都是习以为常。我甚至想：如果你现在让我在看花样游泳和看天鹅之间进行选择，我可能更愿意看这些“反派”黑天鹅。说心里话：我觉得现代人类在运动领域里对身体的自我控制和对其机能的挑战已经近乎疯狂，可缺少的却是那一点随遇而安的轻松。

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