Thursday, June 22, 2006

Health Q & A (funny!)

Took this from an email a friend wrote me this afternoon. Hilarious...I especially love the end. Timely reminder.

I DON'T KNOW WHICH DOCTOR WROTE THIS, BUT I LIKE HIM!

HEALTH QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION

Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this
true?


A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer?

Take a nap.


Q:Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?


A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily
allowance of vegetable products.


Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?


A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms
up!


Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?


A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one.
If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.


Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular
exercise program?


A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?


A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!!... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the
middle?


A : Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.


Q: Is chocolate bad for me?

A: Are you crazy? HELLO. Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?

A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?

A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather toskid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride"

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

MindValley Retreat in Pulau Tioman

White sand, blue waters, palm trees, snorkelling, corals, brilliantly colored fishes, gorgeous sunsets, beer with grilled seafood

Sounds like a scene out of The Beach (yeah, the one where Leo Dicaprio starred minus the drugs)?

Actually, what I just described was MindValley’s annual island retreat on Pulau Tioman.

We left on Thursday night, and boarded the bus to Mersing from Pudu Raya (central bus station in KL). After traveling through the night, we arrive at the jetty in Mersing at 5am, and spend the next 2 hours trying to catch up on precious sleep. Well, actually that was just me…the rest of the team headed off to get breakfast.



Friday

At 7am, we boarded the ferry and began our lil’ adventure to Tioman. Probably about 100 meters from the jetty, the ferry comes to a grinding halt. It seems we have overloaded the boat, and the tide is way too low for us to "float". So we sit there and watch as other boats (with lesser people) slowly go past us laughing at our misfortune.

Vishen and Mike contemplate getting the entire MindValley team into the water to either raise the boat or push it (I’m not sure) but none of us are keen on the idea. Can’t blame us, we would be more heroic on mormal days but we just endured a stinky 5 hour bus ride.

Anyway, the boatman whips out his mop and starts jabbing it into the sand to dislodge the boat. The mop trick works…and we are free….this time, all the passengers sitting at the back move to the front of the boat.

Very soon, we pass one of the earlier boats that had laughed at us. They are STUCK too! We pass them, and Vishen dares me to flash the loser sign. I resist for fear of inviting bad karma.

Anyway, we finally get to the island, and get our second round of breakfast. At 11am, we are sitting under a shady spot on the beach running through mission, vision and strategy work. We all share our expectations with the team, and go through a year-in-review session.

The fun part was that I got to faciliate an appreciative inquiry session which would be useful for the recruitment, and HR side of MindValley.

We ended Friday with dinner and a few rounds of Mafia.
Tip 1: Don’t listen to Vishen because he always gets the innocent people killed. :P
Tip 2: Don’t let a Polish guy be the cop. (Yes, Uncle D..I am referring to you)

Saturday



We get into full beach gear for the snorkelling trip. Chetan and the IBM guys arrived over night to join us for Saturday’s fiesta. We split into 2 speed boats, and pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon swimming among the fishes and admiring the corals. Reinhart (Austrian - IBM guy) was the "merman" among us. Everytime we were looking for people, you would see Reinhart’s flippers in the air marking the spot where he was diving.



The rest of the evening, we sat on a wooden hut and had pizza and lots of "ethanol mixed with water". Hazy memories of Saturday night….

Sunday

We get up in the morning and find that the water supply has been cut. So we bake in the sun and play in the waves while waiting for the water to be pumped back up. In the end, only Anita, Khailee and I get to enjoy the luxury of showering which also causes us to be really late getting to the jetty. Eduardo (Peruvian - IBM guy) shows off his diving skills…

We arrive back to KL at 12:30am, hence marking the end of our MindValley Island Retreat.