learning less everyday
I have been trying to clock more distance for the Nike Charity Run. I’m glad to say that I’ve met my own target of running at least 40km for the charity. That’s worth $200! I’ll try to do a bit more before December 5th. I really don’t know how someone can actually clock close to 300km within 3 weeks!
If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
Nah, our annual offsite was not a visit to the Heroes set, like the lucky bunch who gave us Google Reader. And I thought I was already quite close when I saw some of the Heroes cast here! Our offsite this year was a milder version of the Amazing Race, without the “strange things you have to eat” stations… oh wait, we did.
One of our things-to-eat was a strange concoction of leaves, some hardened gum, and a white paste. It’s a race, so we didn’t try to find out what all three things were and just made the “dessert” and chewed on it. The hardened gum turned to a red goo after plenty of chewing. The taste? Hmmm… You just have to taste it yourself.
Anyway, solving the puzzles under the sun, asking strangers for directions, avoiding the other teams… all in all, the day spent wasn’t that bad. It might be a tough call between choosing that from working. The puzzles weren’t too well thought of – and at the end of the day, the day’s activity was strung together to show the company’s values, which was a bit stretched. No mention of how to marry theory with practice.
How would you like your offsite to be? A day of fun? A day of challenge? A day of relaxing? I guess it comes back down to what is the purpose of the offsite?
An offsite involving different departments and people you have not come in contact with will have quite a different purpose from an offsite for a small team of 6. I don’t believe the BIG offsites actually work. In fact, it’s only at the end of the race that we actually bonded more. After a few glasses of wine, we knew more about each other than during the entire race! And there were less than 10 of us left.
Small somehow works better than Big.
I’m not a celebrity who has to do my rounds, show my presence, make the small talk. I’m just someone trying to get to know others better so that we can get along better when work crosses our paths. In some small way, I just want to be the small Hero to the person where our paths happen to meet, not a Hero to everyone under the sun.
You might say – at least there was some effort to bring everyone together. Would your rather have this opportunity? Would you rather have a choice? A vote to what constitutes a better offsite? A vote even to not have an offsite at all? Incidentally, such voting wasn’t allowed for ours. But i shoudn’t be asking questions, should I? After my rant on questions… and my rant on the word “should“… I’ll shut up now.
If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
Questions. They’re easily recognisable. It’s when a kid asks why the sky is blue, or why can’t I have that ice-cream. It’s when a tourist asks how to get to Chinatown, or when a girl asks a passer-by where are we (because guys will never ask for directions).
And then there are those that reside in our heads, constantly questioning our actions, why am I in this job, what am I having for dinner, what does my boss think of me, why am I not improving, why am I not practising hard, why am I still fat, why haven’t that guy approach me yet…
In keeping with the spirit of learning less everyday, I find that I need to lower the number of questions. I normally find that the more questions I ask, the more questions will appear. And it’s exponential, the questions somehow attracts a trail of other questions, and the trail will only stop if you stop questioning.
As I learn more about Tai Ji, I find that we tend to answer questions that aren’t being asked at all. We tend to tell others, regardless of whether we really understand what we’re saying, that you shouldn’t be doing this, you should be moving like that, you should be more relaxed, your hand should be here, your leg should be there etc. If there’s no one there for you to impart your “wisdom”, you’ll start asking yourself – why does this not feel right, why can’t I relax my kua, why can’t I bend lower, why does my knees hurt…
Somehow, we are just asking too many questions and the answers are just not catching up fast enough. The race to understanding the world around us and ultimately understanding ourselves seem to have only one winner – the Questions. Answers are constantly losing every round of this race.
Is this a fair race? Should we be constantly asking? Questioning? Is this how humans grow? Look, more questions.
It comes to a point that I hate questions. So much so that I want to stop asking, and let the Answers come to the Questions, rather than letting the Questions go seek the Answers. So I’ve cut down on questioning myself why and just ignore the Question until the Answer presents itself. By then, the Question will be irrelevant as the Answer cancels out the Question.
So if the next time I did not answer you, it’s because I don’t know the answer, and you shouldn’t be asking as well, because by telling you the answer does not actually answer your question. To really answer your question, you have to answer it yourself. Are you patient enough to learn the answer truthfully? I guess that is the real question.
If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
For every 1km you run, Nike will donate $5 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation! The catch? You’ll need an iPod and a Nike+ Sports Kit so that the information will be uploaded onto the Nike+ website. I suppose this could be a sales booster for both Apple (not that they need more sales from the bestselling iPod!) and Nike’s footwear / Sports kit!
Assuming you already own an iPod, for an extra $50, you can get the sports kit and run 10km with it. So you’ve essentially donated your $50 you paid for the sports kit to the Make-A-Wish Foundation! What’s more, you can run anytime you like, anywhere you like. You’re not in some competition. All you need to do is to clock in as many kilometers as you can, and the donation will pile up.
Anymore small prints? Yes. The donation is $5 worth of Nike products. Whether you think this is a philanthropic act on Nike’s part, or just another sales gimmick, the donation could be a real wish to a kid somewhere. It’s only until 5 December 2007, so get your running shoes on, and start running! I’m off… 
p/s: Figures quoted are in Singapore dollars. So i’m not sure if this is solely for Singapore. If you’re running elsewhere in the world and manage to clock into the donation, let me know!
If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
What’s your favourite word? Does any one word ignite a particular emotion from you? Does any one word stir you on? Makes you want to get up? Or do you just hate a particular word? I seldom have such passion for words. I prefer actions. Although actions do speak louder than words, sometimes, a word just jump at you and say…
hey, wanna get more of me?
I came across the word “Elemental” in a book by Robert Fulghum called All I really Need to know I learned in Kindergarten. He cites the rules in Kindergarten applies to life itself. If followed, you don’t need to try to understand the common jargon that permeates our language today.
For instance, instead of saying
“Studies have shown that human society cannot function without an equitable distribution of the resources of the earth.”
The Kindergarten rules say
“To be fair, we must share.” Period.
I guess adults just have the knack of complicating things. We are so used to complicating things that we hardly see the simple rules that we learned in Kindergarten anymore. According to Robert Fulghum, Kindergarten rules are not kid stuff.
It’s not simple. It’s elemental.
Maybe we should* remind ourselves these elemental rules that we learned when we’re young. To give you some common ones:
Can you think of more? Have you been using them? Have you forgotten them?
* I think the word “should” should be banned. You either do it or don’t. That’s one word I don’t want to use if possible.
p/s: If you want to keep a list of your favourite words or a list of your hate words, try Wordie.org. Warning, you might get addicted!
If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.