Health
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30+ Chinese women start protesting the label of “unwanted” goods. Tunisian Topless Jihad set a World Religion on fire. Men teetering on retirement seeking work and love in the wrong place. A friend in search of affordable physical therapy and health care coverage. Dilemma called Life. If it’s easy and smooth, it wouldn’t be called…
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Jet lag makes you feel hallucinating. Your body clock is still in sync with the old-time zone, and so, your sleep is out of whack. Brought back a memory of a minor jet lag (East coast, West coast), whose hotel bed could not even induce me to sleep. Then I visited my mom at her then…
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As a child I feared rising flood water (drowning). I feared thief by night, bully by day. I feared having to stand out in the crowd (wearing bright colors). For a nail that sticks up will be hammered down. Fear of being drafted, of being called out in class to recite something in English. Fear…
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Tragedy and triumph seem to go hand in hand. Past pain could be paralysing yet addictive. Those who couldn’t get over it end up going back to it. Not for the broken experience but for the context where pain first occurred. When shattered, we threw the baby out with the bath water. In coming back, with time…
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I walked by a shop today and I saw a girl holding a knife, crying. She was peeling onion for the restaurant. Artificially induced tears. Not triggered by sad emotion. Real, nevertheless. It made me appreciate behind-the-scene people (since I happened to have breakfast with real onion, the same kind this girl was peeling). Nickel-and-dime…
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A few blogs ago, I wrote about Noel Decoration in Saigon. A few weeks from now, the glitters will have been all gone. Party is over. Then, it’s a long grind. 2013. The quants have already crunchedl year-end data: sunk costs, margin, consumer behavior (irrational at times – hint: sell spirits over the holidays). The monks look on…
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Not the Seine in Paris. But Rach Nhieu Loc in Saigon. She wore a cone hat. Baby tanning in the morning sun, resting in her bosom. The other hand, she checked her messages from a mobile phone. It’s Thanksgiving in Vietnam. People have a lot to be thankful for. It’s now ranked second on Happy Country…
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Organizations and people in them tend to take this path. Status quo. Business as usual. The comfort of routine. The predictable, mechanical rhythm. Makes the world go round. Until we drop out. One person at a time. Dust comes to dust. But the morgue still sends the bills. Please pay by a certain date, or else,…
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The more you try, the less likely it works. Paradoxical as it may be, relationships don’t operate like other laws of physics or economics i.e. pour water in, out on the other end you get, if efficiently, the same amount. Sometimes, your ROI are so low that you wish you had never commited to it. That’s when…
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I saw Clinton’s book on Giving at Goodwill store. The irony did not escape me: its donor must have thought he/she should act upon the idea right away. Christmas might be the season of giving, but not when we are at a stop light, ambushed by the man with the “Help me out” sign. Our…
Thang Nguyen 555 