Tag: Monday

Monday-morning quarterbacking

We can’t change history, but we can sure learn from it.

Just view training film, freezeframing it, and nail down some take-aways.

What did we do wrong? why? what did we fail to do? Where?

Avoid assigning blame.

Move forward.

America is all about the future.

Sarah who?

Sandusky who?

Just do it (BTW, Nike removed JoePa’s name off list).

Brand recovery. Monday-morning quarterbacking.

Some companies insist on hiring people who have failed.

It costs them less to have workers who learned hard lessons on someone else’s watch.

Second chances.

Know what not to do, or dare not repeat the same mistake.

As human, we adapt well. Survival of the fittest.

It’s by no chance that our life expectancy has risen from 49 to mid-70. Go oatmeal go.

For Joe Paterno, it was 85. A lot of Monday mornings during his tenure.

It ended just short of a Greek tragedy.

Now we know. In hindsight. On Monday morning. We who are smart and stand on moral high ground.

Do we know what it’s like to be on that field, in those shoes, during the heat of the game?

Right there! Freeze frame it. you see? What should we have done. Best thing is not to have it happen the second time around, not in this life time.

P.S. From the President’s desk comes this announcement on Monday AM

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Announcement-from-Penn-State-College-3877559.S.135017698?view=&gid=3877559&type=member&item=135017698&trk=NUS_DISC_Q-ttle

Happy Monday

Yes, one might feel Wonderful Tonight, but not the next morning, Monday that is.

Unless, it’s a keeper. Passion doesn’t push it way in, since it’s intrinsic in nature.

Yes, we are alloted only 24 hours a day.

But some of us can connect the dots faster than others.

Then there are those who can help others make those connections.

Blessed are the peace makers.

Former President Carter made a comment the other day about the agenda Occupy movement.

He was into Habitat for Humanity. Why not start Jobs for the Jobless.

Happy Monday to those who got work.

Happy Monday also to those who look for work.

Happy Monday to stay-at-home mothers whose sacrifices are much needed.

The innocence of the late 50’s, early 60’s showed forth in “Monday is Happy Day…Tuesday is Happy Day”.  Wonder if those sentiments will ever make a comeback. Please hold the grease and the hairspray though. Those who find Monday a Happy Day can surely handle Friday’s Happy Hour.

My left eye

A speck of dust hit my left eye.

It’s all red and feels painful.

Then I thought of my friend from Junior High.

He was drafted and went to war.

Just to come back with one eye left.

We have hung out at cafe, more than any other classmate since that time.

Just a few nights ago, I said goodbye to him before he went back States.

I can relate to his condition just now: he has seen and will continue see his world with only half his vision.

However, it’s he who has been in better spirits than I.

His memories serve him better than most people.

A black-belt in Tai Kwan Do, he manages to live independently for years before getting married  late in life.

Even after surviving a stroke, he still carries himself with full optimism.

I guess when you have less to see with, you filter less, hence see more.

In 11 years since we reconnected, I have heard not a self-pity word out of his mouth.

The funny thing is, those who have never been in the battle field bragged about it more.

Until they come face to face with his fake eye. Those with one mouth and two eyes decide to speak less and see more.

For me, one’s full body parts are irrelevant when it comes to friendship. Just shared time and shared memories.

We accept each other, taking turn at talking. Our group have music and movies lovers. We were not into power or the struggle for it. I wish for him safe passage and quick jet-lag recovery. Since he paid for our coffee last Monday, the next time it will be on me.

My left eye, although hurt, yet helps me appreciate  my friend more. Better than other days, when I got both eyes but saw less. (We can now fade in Lennon‘s Oh My Love…for the first time in my life, my eyes can see).

Get fat, get fit

I was crunching, when the PA system announced “free pizza at Planet Fitness, 1st Monday of the month”.

Might as well. Indulge.  After all, it says “No judgment zone.”  Get fat, get fit.

Carrot and then Stick.

In a blog I recently subscribed to, I found : ” the extent that we help fulfill other people’s dream,we fulfill ours.”.

We know that life is not without paradox.

Past choices limit future options.

(We did not then have the benefits of hindsight).

Pleasure and pain intersect right there on the exercise mat: one more crunch, reverse crunch etc.. just to build up a better appetite (which gets us right back to the beginning).

Who among us lives without self-conflict, let him cast the first stone.

We want the oil, but also a  clean beach.

We dress up to see Les Miserables, at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, but hurry up across the street when a homeless guy approaches.

And we can’t wait to tell others ” I told you so” when the chips are all down.

Pundits, politicians and pollsters, were in denial about the “black swan” of the Financial system, which gave us all a “black eye”.

A suicide here, and a robbery there. Not sure how the consequences will play out. Wall Street watches Main Street. Main Street waits on Wall Street. All one-way streets (as of this edit, unemployment in Greece still at 26.9 per cent).

There have been more migration to the dust bowl, where not too long ago, Dorothy couldn’t wait to leave home on a Greyhound bus. These states now seem attractive with tax incentives, and rural broadband connection.

And a story that we all missed: Vietnam was at the top of Emerging Countries chart 3 years in the row (2007-2010) even when they have yet exploited the wheels of industrialization. Just cheap and surplus of labor. But everyone seems to be fit, not by going to the gym, but by default (no “free pizza” every first Monday of the month.)

Here is our last paradox, in the absence of plenty, everything tastes sweeter. You should see how aggressive people were with Moon Cakes during the weeks that lead up to the Festival. It’s not the mix of flour and sugar. It’s flour and sugar that have been denied for years, and only recently made available and affordable to all. Free Moon Cake for every sign-up at Planet Fit.