Fogged up

So my article about me swimming in the blind got some of you amused. I know, I know there are options available to not let your swimming goggles get all fogged up. And to be frank, I have used a few of them. So this blog post is all about how to prevent goggle fogging. If you are a recreational swimmer (like me), fogging is not really a big issue. I am generally so slow in the pool that other swimmers do watch out for me. I just need to worry about not bumping into the side walls.

I know of at least 3 ways. If you Google you will get a lot more ways, but I haven’t tested them. Living up to my cheapskate roots I will start with the cheapest and go onto the most expensive method:

1) Spit – I know this sounds gross and unhygienic but well it is the cheapest solution to your fogging problems. Just spit in your lenses before you are about to swim, use your finger to spread the spit around and then simply rinse it with water or let it dry. Should last you for a few laps after which you have to repeat the procedure. Remember to rinse your mouth before you go swimming (else your eyes won’t be happy about it)

2) Baby Shampoo – This thing is dead easy. Just get a regular Baby Shampoo (I have only used the one by Johnson & Johnson). Squirt the liquid onto your lenses and then wash them a bit. Let the lenses dry and then use them. No more fogging problems.

3) Anti-fog liquid – This is the one that everyone recommends. And like you guessed its the most expensive option. It works, but yeah it costs a bit. In my quest to spend and pretend to be cool, I have this solution. It works like a charm (if you remember to use it regularly though!).

Healthy Fast Food

Disclaimer – Be warned of reading nutrition advise from a guy who has been fat all his life and who hardly has a thorough understanding of what a balanced diet consists of. But yeah, it’s my blog, so I write what I feel like.

So McDonald's has been in the news lately because some science teacher in Iowa ate in McDonald’s for 90 days and managed to lose 37 pounds. The media has gone crazy and I have my two cents to add.

Over the last several decades of my life if I have figured something out about food it is this – most of the times, it doesn’t really matter what you eat as long as you control how much it is.

So the saying “eat everything in moderation”. To a certain extent this principle works, but yeah – you have to be fully aware that you might end up getting deficient in certain nutrients if you do not eat a variety of stuff. (Okay, for laymen like me – if I just eat a perfect 2000 kcal meal everyday, but I stick to eating the same thing (e.g – Rice with a veggie) then over a period of time my body will end up getting deficit in nutrients that are not available from that meal).

Anyway, many a times in my life I am faced with situations in which I either have the option of – fast food or no food. And in such cases, given an option amongst fast food chains, I somehow end up choosing McDonald’s. That is because, I have sorta figured out a pseudo-healthy meal option in McDonald’s that I stick to. So here it is:

1. Filet-O-Fish
2. Corn Cup
3. Roast Coffee

A meal in McDonald’s generally consists of a Burger + Fries + Soda (produced by the Coca Cola company). The reason we end up overeating is because – the Fries and the Soda actually contribute more calories (mostly from fat and sugar) than the main burger itself. So though we pretend to think that they are side orders and subsequently are “smaller” they are the main cause of adding in those excess calories to your meal.

McDonald’s has this neat site that lets you calculate calories in your meal. So if I look at the Filet-O-Fish meal in it’s original form the nutrition contents are:

Filet-O-Fish: 325 kcal

Medium Fries: 384 kcal

Medium Coke: 213kcal

That’s a total of 922 kcal almost 50% of my daily RDA.

However if I replace my coke and fries with a Coffee and Corn Cup (McDonald’s in Singapore lets me do it without any charge), I bring down my total calories to 418 kcal. The Coffee and Corn Cup together bring in only – 93 kcal and deserve to be called “side orders”.

In conclusion, I agree that it may not be the most nutritious meal that you can get out there (yeah the sodium content looks horrific and dietary fibre is really low). However, being informed is a much better option than going into a fine dining place and not even being aware of how many calories you are putting in.

Precognition

If you have not yet seen the movie Minority Report, I would highly recommend that you do. To give a 1 line gist – the movie is based on the premise that in the future we will be able to predict crimes and in turn police will be able to prevent crime even before it happened. Now rest of the movie is a typical sci-fi Hollywood movie that takes a lot of popcorn and soda to digest.

Now, Target (the retailer) has been in the news last week for managing to expose 40 million credit card details of its customers. To put things in perspective 40 million is 8 times the population of Singapore and roughly 3 times the population of Mumbai. Now, how we could have prevented it by not using Magnetic stripe credit cards and how rest of the world is far ahead of the US when it comes to core Banking and Credit Card security is beyond the scope of this blog post.

What I find interesting is – Target. It is the poster child of analytics. It is “THE” company that I site each time I try to convince my retail clients to invest in analytics. It is “THE” company that managed to successfully predict with a fair degree of accuracy which of its customers are pregnant. If you still have not read this article, I suggest, you stop whatever you are doing now, and go and read about it.

While what Target could achieve (with the limited datasets it has) is impressive. What is equally impressive (and downright scary) is – what the internet giants – Google, Facebook, Comcast and a spy agency that shall not be named can do with the kinds of datasets they are collecting.

If Target can predict pregnancy, I am sure with the datasets that Google and Facebook has, they can probably predict every instance of your life going forward (and with certain extrapolation) of all your future generations that are yet to be born. And then, the spy agency that shall not be named is out there building a precognition network, like the one envisioned in Minority Report.

And I am loving the fact that I am living in this period of history. Hold on to your seats people, we are up for an amazingly scary ride ahead!

Healthy 2014

Okay so here we are at the brink of another year and another 365 days of monotony. Yawn. 2013 is gone. Welcome 2014. Make me older, make me more cynical.

Well, well jokes apart – this is the year everyone of us should keep a resolution. With spiralling healthcare costs in most countries, by the time my generation is senile (okay just too old), it would be just impossible to bear the costs of maintaining our well being. If there is something we can do now is – eat well, sleep well, be well. Yeah so here I am wishing for everyone a very healthy, active and fit 2014. We will all be in the pink of our health while welcoming 2015.

To-dos

I belong to the older generation of people who still use a notepad to write down their action items (To-do lists) and then strike the items out once they are done. I tried a lot of web-based and mobile-based alternatives, but none can give me the satisfaction (or the pleasure) of physically striking out an item off the list once it is done.

Now, most of my weekends start with me writing down a huge-list of action items for the weekend and then when Sunday night comes, more than half of them are not done (there is a reason why I call myself the God of procrastination). Maybe that’s what makes me grumpy on Sunday nights.

Long time ago I had read this story of an old woman, who sits down to write a small little mail (yeah postal mail) to her grandson, and ends up taking the entire day cause that’s the only thing that she had planned for the day. The moral of the story was – work expands to take over all the time that you have.

However, I generally face a different ordeal. Small and easy things on my list I end up doing. The boring difficult ones keep getting postponed till I hit a day on which I have no option but to do them.

This weekend however was a surprisingly satisfying one. I ended up almost finishing my entire To-do list (yeah the most difficult item on the list was done from 2300 to 0130 on the Sunday night!). Ha, the sweet smell of success. Thought I put up a blog post to celebrate this achievement.

Anyway, I am toying with following the pomodoro technique of time management. Let’s see how it goes.

Lazy Training

Gyms in general and exercising in particular is a very boring and tiring activity for me. So much so that, I have managed to be a lazy bum most of my life (and I continue to do so!). Recently however, I used guanxi (with my German ex-boss) and managed to get 12 sessions of free training on a rather new kind of training regime.

So what do I mean by it’s a new kind of gym? Well to begin with – their are no weights. There is cardio equipment (like bikes, elliptical machines and tread mills) and then there is this small little device called the NMES. It’s amazing to note that NMES has been around for more than 40 years but has rarely been used outside the realms of professional sports.

A typical session consists of me gearing up in a specially designed suite that plugs into the NMES device followed by 20 minutes of floor based or cardio exercises directed by an instructor. That’s all it is. I could be in and out of the gym in less than 40 mins (yeah changing, exercising, showering – the whole nine-yards). And in those 40 mins I could burn well over 300 calories along with a nice feeling of my muscles having worked out.

So what does NMES actually do? Well like the name says – it’s neuromuscular electrical stimulation. So the NMES device makes my muscles workout the same way my body would have if I was actually doing strength training. But the cool part is – in strength training, we are only engaging targeted groups of muscles at a time. But with NMES, its possible to strengthen a bigger set of muscles at a higher intensity and in a shorter time.

So, do I look like Arnold Schwarzenegger (yeah I had to Google his last name to get it right) now? Nope. But well, to be frank (and truthful) I tried quite a bit of strength training long long ago (in 2008) and what I could achieve after 3 months of dedicated strength training, I could go to the same level in less than 6 sessions! And then it seems a safer option than lifting weights wrongly and injuring yourself. And for busy (a.k.a lazy) people like me, 20 minutes of workout is easier motivation 2 times a week!

The Chope Inefficiency

People in Singapore food courts generally follow a practice of holding their seats before going to buy food. In the local lingo it’s called to “Chope” seats. Now, over the last several years, I have perfected the art of chope-ing as well.

Unfortunately, I ended up being at this very popular food court the other day where people were much more efficient at the game than I ever was. I ended up waiting for more than 30 minutes just to get a seat to park my bum, before I even went to a food stall to get my food.

That’s when my empty mind, realized the extreme inefficiency of this practice. If I am a hotelier, one of my key KPIs is – table-turnaround time. In layman’s terms – it’s just the number of tables (and subsequently people) that I can serve in a given unit of time. This KPI includes the time required to take orders, serve, clean table and then get the next set of people in. If you wish to see this efficiency – go see an Udupi restaurant in India or a Ramen place in Singpaore.

Now when you chope a seat, you are effectively keeping the table empty (which could have been occupied by someone else while you were ordering your food. If you order from good stalls, on an average it takes 10+ minutes to get your food. And during lunch times, people eat for approx 15+ minutes anyway. So almost 2/3 of the turnaround time of an average lunch time patron is wasted because of the chope! If we stop this practice, the number of people eating at a seat can go up from approx. 2 an hour to 4 an hour? (Yeah my math may be way wrong out there! But I hope you get the concept!). So next time you go eat, don’t chope, just order and then take your food and scout for a place. You will be doing the food court a great service!

Tradeshow booth

After having spent more than 20 “Business Days” in a year (almost a business month to be precise) manning tradeshow booths, now I have become a self-proclaimed expert at Tradeshow Booth Management (TBM). Before I start charging you guys for opening my mouth, I thought I give you all a free preview of what to expect (after all, you guys are my loyal audience!).

So what exactly is a Tradeshow?

Officially – Tradeshows are events to put the customers and suppliers in the same location so that meaningful conversations evolve naturally and you have a better prospect at forming business relationships. I know, I just made that up – but well – that is the spirit of a Tradeshow anyway.

Unofficially – It’s an event where bargain hunters and senior people with lots of free time on their hand come looking for well-made goodies and free gifts to collect from all the booths out there and eat good food. Rest of the time, try to catch up on some winks here and there in the conferences or pretend to be working hard while checking your Facebook. If nothing else, then it’s a place to court your potential employers and look for industry connections who can introduce you to those.

Now for some background. Presently I sorta earn my living by telling people how great is analytics and how everything will change the moment they start analysing stuff in their organization. I am mighty impressed by what I sell and most of the times, I do sound and am completely genuine. But, I am not pretty, handsome, attractive or anything that can make someone stop and notice me. Mediocre at best and with a smile that can even cause me problems at the remotest of places, I do not exactly qualify as a “booth” candidate.

Though my company invests in attractive goodies and we have a brightly colored (read tempting) goodie bag I only encounter goodie-bag seeking tradeshow delegates approaching me. The true “potential” customers either shy away or are too busy in pretending they are busy and not interested. So all day (and sometimes all night) I stand there waiting for the perfect customers to come, only to give away goodie bags to cheapskates.

Here is my advise to companies buying booths in Tradeshows:

1. Don’t waste your money and your employee’s time. You might as well treat them to a spa. At least they will be happy
2. If you still plan to waste your money, then put a good looking (read – beautiful or handsome) employee who will attract hoards of people by their killer looks
3. Prominently display your goodies, but have a strict policy on giving it to only those people who are ready to listen to your boring 20 minute Powerpoint presentation on how amazing your product and your company is. The goodies should be “earned” not given away!

And why am I writing this? I just spent an entire day grinning into the void and listening to an irritating jingle coming from a booth next to me. Now I can’t freaking get the tune outta my mind. To top it all, my legs and back hurts because of standing in a suite for 10 hours doing absolutely nothing.

Urban Forest

For over the last 5 months I have been using this device to consciously track my steps, the floors I climb and my sleep. It serves as a constant reminder of how lazy I generally am and encourages me to get my daily dose of 10K steps and 10 floors. I know it is just a glorified (read expensive!) pedometer.

Now doing 10K a day requires moderate effort like taking occasional casual walks during lunch and late in the night. However, what amazes me is – Singapore as a country is so vertical that doing 10 floors a day is absolutely effortless. Most of the times, my first 10 floors of the day are done even before I reach my office just because of the maze of stairs that I have to climb to go the train station and then change trains at the interchange and finally walk down to office.

Never before in my life do I distinctly remember having so many places that I had the option to take stairs. It is truly amazing to see how built-up this little island is and how vertical spaces have been used!

Clarity

Got myself a new pair of swimming goggles. It is sort of an annual event. Whether I swim or not during the year, I always buy a new pair. However, the kind of goggles that I buy, over the period of several weeks, become increasingly foggy till one point of time I am swimming blind with goggles on my eyes. So they only serve the purpose of protecting my eyes partially from the chlorinated water.

Anyway, the new goggles now clearly show me what I actually swim in. Swimming pool waters seem to have the most disgusting things floating around. Besides all kinds of human excretions there are dead insects, band-aids and other kinda filthy objects – the less said the better.

With the new goggles now, I can clearly see where I am going and what I am headed into. This slows me down tremendously as I try to dodge, avoid or turn course to keep me away from it. Now frankly speaking, it’s the same water I have swam in for the past several years. The only thing that has changed is my vision of the reality.

This is sort of analogous to what happens to me in real life. When I have clarity of thought and a very good idea of what is gonna happen to me in the future, I am scared, and I slow down in my pursuit of happiness. But when I have no idea what I am heading into, and the future is all foggy with me running blind directly into it is the time when I perform to the best of my abilities. Yeah a philosophical post but resonates with my general fear of the future!