13/3/13
My feet hurt, I'm tired and I'm hungry.
Maybe fast days aren't particularly good for me. I get moderately cranky, and after waiting for 1 hour for taxis (and get turned by by 5 in the process [a slight improvement from 9 taxis from the other day]), I'm at the stage where I'm saying to myself, "Ugh. Stuff it. I'm going home."
I'm currently doing research at NUS with a final year student and I am getting to meet all different kinds of people. Students, mainly, quite a number who are non-Merlion City citizens and one question I always ask them is, "So, what is your major? Why did you choose X?"
Oh, it reminds me so much of what I once was.
A few of them proudly proclaim their majors - Biophysics, Life Sciences, and then proceed to astound me with what they are studying. Research, DNA stretching to understand how protein folds so that once this is plain for the world to see, how they can unravel the DNA of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Wow. How do you explain having a part in curing one of the most infamous medical conditions in the known world today?
One student I talked to is a BioEngineering student whose final year research project entails growing ligament cells - tissue engineering - and they currently practise using pig ligaments as human trials have been unsuccessful so far. By manipulating bone marrow stem cells, they will one day be able to engineer ligament tissue that will change entire perspectives of ligament repair surgery! Imagine the implications of being able to use your own cells to grow tissue that fit YOU.
And then you get the few who obviously entered University at the behest of parents or friends, thinking that it is the right thing to do, to go and get a degree. I talked to this girl by the name of Melanie. Cute, young thing, obviously her first time away from home and her first year in Merlion City.
"How do you like it?" I asked.
Slightly raised shoulders. Hand lifted, palm parallel to the floor, fingers splayed, wiggled side to side in the expression of, "It's okay." But her eyes said it all.
"Stress right?"
"Yeah." It was not a sentence meant to agree with my query. It was a death sentence.
"What are you studying?"
"Accounting."
"Oh, wow. That's a tough subject. What made you choose it?"
She hemmed and hawed but in so many words (Or lack of it), she could not express to me why she had chosen that major. Maybe it was a major that supposedly put food on the table. I have heard that a lot. I use it a lot myself. Maybe her friends were studying that so for companionship, she chose it.
I wanted so bad to grab her by her shoulders and shake her.
"Don't make the mistakes I did! I'm stuck in this company with no future and yet I stay because it offers me a hefty paycheck! Pursue your dreams, live your passions, find something that will make you open your eyes wide every morning without a need for coffee or stimulants! Don't be like me, dragging my feet to work everyday, looking for something more!"
But all I said was, "If you could pick something to study, what would it be?"
She thought for a moment and as she was called to the research room, I heard her say softly, under her breath, maybe not meant for my ears but hers alone, "Something else."
I hear ya, sister. I hear ya.
*****
Anyone else aware of the fact that Google Reader is going under? I'm needing to relocate all my feeds somewhere else and especially for those people, (ahem, Sociologist, ahem) who track via Google Reader, you might find this useful reading.
*****
So I'm attempting to get myself into some semblance of shape this year (yes, I have procrastinated for far too long and let myself go worse than a pregnant lady. No offence to pregnant ladies everywhere, I know your cravings for durians and mojitos during non-durian season is totally understandable. Plus, alcohol is not good for baby you) and reading up (as I do) on ways to try and lose a few pounds (hopefully, more than just a few) as well as bulking as much as required. I'm taking protein shakes with packets that scream, "MUTANT MASS! - LEAVE HUMANITY BEHIND!" and all that jazz, waking up at ungodly hours to bust out exercise routines/regimes, drinking cups of green tea in order to boost metabolism and hopefully stimulate fat cell apoptosis enough so that I can look something like this.
(courtesy of Muscle & Fitness)
Friggin' scorpion.
Today, so far, I have ingested two cups of green tea, enough water to start the Flood that Noah was building the Ark for, and soon, I'll be chowing down on my "mutant dose" of a protein shake.
Good times, eh?
Good times, eh?
As per Tim Ferriss's recommendation about thermal loads and how we need to stimulate brown adipose tissue, I also have an ice pack sitting on the back of my neck. It is not exactly uncomfortable but my skin tends to sting after a bit.
On a positive note, my clothes have started dropping off me a little. And I've managed to maintain consistent workouts for a full 4 weeks! Oh my!
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