Month: June 2010

This is another question that I’ve had in mind for a long time. It might sound very basic and stupid for those who know it.. but I thought it made intuitive sense to brush after food in the morning to clean everything once and for all. And some Yahoo! Answers threads seemed to agree. That doesn’t mean I did it – luckily, I thought I’d check..

So, why do we brush our teeth before food in the morning?

As my dentist explained, saliva is the mouth’s natural cleaning system. As we salivate during the day, bacteria and other impurities are constantly washed away. However, when we sleep, salivation is cut down to a bare minimum and in such conditions, bacteria thrive.

As a result, it’s vital we brush those bacteria away and restore normalcy before taking in any food.

Does brushing more than twice a day take off the enamel in our teeth?

I’d heard that brushing more than twice is bad and from what my dentist said, it is very okay as long as it’s not overdone. If we do choose to brush during the day after a meal, it’s just enough if we give every tooth two strokes – which is incidentally all every tooth needs.

As enamel ensures a polished surface, all we need to make sure is that every tooth gets 2 strokes. This was useful as I used to freak out watching some friends brush for 5-10 minutes every morning! Quality, and not quantity, as always is everything.. :D

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Nice to have these myths and questions patiently answered.

Thank you to my doctors! :)

I’ve been curious as to why our doctors do what they do but somehow managed to keep silent (atleast where my eye doctor was concerned) for a whole 9 years!

Anyway, for those who have a healthy pair of eyes, I hope you continue to keep them that way.

For those who don’t and have the privilege of looking awesome with spectacles, here are the tests that would normally be performed. The names of the tests are given by me for simplicity.. not sure what the clinical names are –

1) Power test: This test involves the patient to stare into an image (one eye at a time) that is initially blurred. This image is adjusted to help find the right focal length and hence, calculate the power.

2) Retinal check(basic): This involves the doctor checking out the patient’s retina’s by using directed light and a magnifying glass to check if the retina’s are doing fine. However, under normal conditions, only 1/3rd of the retina’s are visible to doctor’s and this is the reason why we are periodically asked to dilate our eyes. More on this below..

3) Pressure test: This involves a puff of air being blown into the eye. The speed at which the air bounces back off our eye determines the pressure and high pressure in the eye is unhealthy.

4) Dilation – Advanced retinal check: Dilation involves administering drops in the eye of the patient followed by a 1 hour wait for the necessary dilation to take place.

Why dilation?
Typically, our eye lenses contract and dilate according to the closeness of the object, clarity required etc. As a result, under normal conditions, only a small portion of our retina, typically near the center, can been seen by the doctor. However, weak spots in the retina are generally in the periphery and hence, it is advisable to dilate our eyes once every year to make sure our retina’s are doing fine.

After dilation, vision at short distances is blurred as our eye loses the ability to contract for about 3 hours.

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That’s Eye Doc 101 ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you and good day! :)

A man hated his wife’s cat and he decided to get rid of it. He drove 20 blocks away from home and dropped the cat there. The cat was already walking up the driveway when he approached his home.

The next day, he decided to drop the cat 40 blocks away but the same thing happened.. He kept increasing the number of blocks but the cat kept coming home before him.
At last he decided to drive a few miles away, turn right, then left, past the bridge, then right again and another right and so on until he reached what he thought was a perfect spot and dropped the cat there.

An hour later…. The man calls his wife at home and asked her, “Jen is the cat there?” “Yes, why do you ask?” answered the wife.

Frustrated the man said,“Put that damn cat on the phone, I am lost and I need directions to reach home!!!”

Moral:

“However much we dislike somebody, someday we will need their assistance. So never worry how many people dislike you… ”

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Haha.. Loved the joke and the moral.. :D

Loved the thought! Here’s to having a nice balance between exercise on the outside and inside today..

Good morning and good day! :)

Period..

Moments of lots of happiness are few and far between (sadly enough..). I guess it’s one of those funny things about modern life (as George Carlin’s message below best puts it..), this over emphasis on ‘stress’ and under emphasis on everything else.

I hate the stress word, love the happiness word.

Let’s have more of it.. when we find ourselves experience it, let’s share..

We grow by it..

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A message by George Carlin –

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete…

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, ‘I love you‘ to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. An embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

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Love it, love it and love it!

A call for moderation between the goal and the path.

That’s a big part of what life is all about isn’t it..

Have a nice day! :)

As a consequence of the interesting last couple of days, there’s a bit of an issue that’s cropped up. Seems major, but definitely not I think.. (and why I feel this way is below..)

Anyway, that is not the humbler I’m referring to. Firstly, by ‘humbler‘, I mean an incident that changes your paradigm or perspective. Even if the effect is short term, it goes a long way in making an impact!

A close friend told me this today over lunch..

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His relative had just landed in Chennai on Saturday and called them at 10pm and said he’s dropping in for dinner on Sunday. At midnight, he started feeling a pain in his leg which spread across his body till he was breathless. So, he was admitted in Apollo. Soon, they realized they would have to do surgery as there was blockage in his heart. He was in good spirits despite the pain and waved to all before going in for surgery. Things got complicated. The docs soon said they would need a special injection – 1 shot would cost Rs.1 lakh (i.e. 3300 odd SGD). They told them to go ahead.. that didn’t work. They tried administering a few more such shots and soon they realized that all his organs began to fail. By Sunday evening, they let the family know that there’s no hope and it was only a matter of a couple of hours that he would pass away. They’ve now been taking his organs off 1 by 1 as it’s causing blockages..

He is only 40 and leaves behind his wife and a 6 year old daughter. Apart from the fact that his wife’s sorrow is uncontrollable, they are agonized that he thought it was just a minor surgery and that he would be out in a few hours. Regret of the many things they did not say or do..
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And I was considering complaining..

Our short stay on this planet is a gift. Every moment can’t be a celebration because life does throw up the odd curve ball..

There’s no one stopping us from smiling.. even if we are struck out though..

It’s a wonderful day.. hope you have a good one!

These are 5 things I expect from myself at all times-

1) Be un-worried (i.e. to be objective about problems and know that they will pass)

2) Stay calm under pressure (i.e. show grace and class)

3) Breathe and smile.. throughout! (i.e. be positive)

4) Think, and then act (i.e. to not rush and get caught up in emotional reactions)

5) Look for learning and growth in adversity (i.e. be proactive rather than react)

I realized that a few of these expectations were mental. And it’s nice putting it down. These are not necessarily all true – i.e. they may not happen all at once (much as I’d like them to) but I like to think this is what I can expect from myself.

And soon, it will happen (hopefully)..

Every day we get better after all.. :)

‘Beuuutay’ – as a friend would put it.. :D

Great week coming through guys.. Good morning and have a great day! :)

Just when it was most unexpected, life threw up another whole bunch of incidents.

I think I learnt a few valuable things –

-> Happy I went with my gut of not rushing into a decision/judgement. I’m still not feeling pushed or rushed, disappointed yes.. but pushed or rushed, no.

-> Things go wrong all at once and sometimes we miss the good things. Today, to take my mind off things, I decided to head over to the gaming arcade and right at a minor junction, our two wheeler’s tyre got a flat! Now, luckily we managed to stay balanced and were left wondering how this happened when I thought..

It’s so lucky that the flat happened –
1) At a minor junction so we didn’t get hit..
2) At a minor junction with not too many cars
3) When we were driving straight rather than turning as we might have fallen off…
4) At some other place with big trucks (hypothetical on sunday afternoon, but you never know) and we could have gotten hit..

Thank god it happened when it did. I like to think my luck turned right from that moment..

-> It didn’t quite, things still went wrong.. but I was happy to be lucky on the flat! (Exaggerated as it may seem, happy to be alive) :D

-> Was an interesting time getting our flat repaired by an old old mechanic. He charged an exorbitant fee for the pump and shrugged – ‘It’s sunday, what can you expect?’..

All in all, it’s been a rather forgettable 3-4 days. It gets worse before it gets better people say..

Here’s hoping..