Human Alterations

The other night I chanced upon a TV documentary on plastic surgery in third world countries and was shocked at how the industry turned into a multi-billion dollar business despite the seeming unaffordable cost of such scary procedures. In 1994 China began to celebrate the art of cosmetic surgery through a Miss Plastic Surgery beauty contest showcasing the best of the best product of human scuplting work. The award doesn’t honor the artist but the art work itself, the humans who underwent alteration of their bodies to create beauty that is deemed artificial but closest to natural beauty. For indulging in this vain and hypocritical contest the winners were awarded $6,000 for the first prize, pretty paltry compared to the thousands of dollars and the physical and psychological pain some of these people have to go through.

The TV documentary also said that went for height augmentation had to deal with months of pain and immobility to allow the bone graft, normally done under the knee, to heal and achieve the desired result. A maximum of 3 inches increase in height is most ideal. A woman who underwent the procedure, an aspring young woman who wanted to get into modeling said that the problem with height increase is overall proportion of the body. Depending upon the person’s physique, long legs may look disporportionate with a shorter torso so it is important that the surgeon needs to factor this relationship in his design.

The human alteration trade is also prevalent in Eastern Europe where such operations are much cheaper. Medical tourism is a word coined for people to visit the area and scout for nose lifts, height augmentation and other forms of plastic surgeries. Height augmentation for example isn’t exactly cheap - $75,000 in the U.S. and as low as $10,000 in Egypt.

Where does one draw the line in human alteration? Obviously there are tremendous costs involved so it follows that the wealthy or “can afford” are the prime customers in this industry. It also follows that today the “haves” are the more vain because they are braver than most of us to take the health risk to achieve that quest for perfection. I also think that if these surgical procedures become cheaper in future, the middle class or even the have nots may take their shot at altering their bodies, a previlege that the haves once enjoyed in the past.

An error in these type of procedures might be irreversible - the main scare, the reason why most people shun the thought of going under the knife, even for those who can afford. I am reminded for a radio talk show on this topic I listed to a couple of weeks ago. One guy who called it said it in the plainest language - ” I am married, I have a wife and I have no to reason to change my looks”. Makes perfect sense to me and I will argue no further.

 

Trivial Perceptions….

I remember one time I was at Toronto’s Pearson Airport and wanted to relieve my bladder so urgently and hurried to the closest washroom. I couldn’t find the men’s urinals so I quickly went to one of the stalls. I was suprised by the amazing cleanliness of the washroom, washed my hands, wiped them dry and exited the door. My cell phone rang and I stopped walking to answer it. As I was conversing on the phone, I noticed a woman come out of the washroom ! When there’s no men’s urinals, it ain’t the man’s washroom dude. Geez, brain malfunction or was I just plain dorky ?

My 6 year old daughter who is now in Grade 1 is showing some sense of self-assertiveness lately. Last winter we checked in for 2 days at a downtown hotel for a change and just loafed around the city. Upset that she couldn’t get things her way, she told me - “Dad, we’re no longer at our house and this is a hotel and you’re not the boss in this place ” Nice try sweetie. That’s the benefit of going to school and chilling out with little imps I guess. But that’s perfectly fine with Dad

Do you hate it when Pinoys speak English at a Pinoy store of all places? I’m a little ticked off with cashiers and attendants speaking English at their fellow Pinoys like ” ahh, dis is a pour ninety nine combo, rice, two dishes and a drink” and turns to the folks at the kitchen replying to a question and says “no, no, they went to tsartz ( church) together “ Geez. While queueing up at the cashier’s line at a Pinoy store, I was irked at a customer who took forever to place her order, speaking English the whole time. I was nodding my head to my wife who was just in front of me in the line and I was almost ready to give up when my wife whispered to me ” hey, she is not Pinoy. I think she’s Indonesian ”

What did I do on Mother’s Day? No, I didn’t go to church devil me I had an 8am tee off with my buddies so I woke up at 600am while the wifey was asleep. Had a light breakfast and packed up my gear with a couple of chocolate bars, a banana and bottle of spring water. Before I left I conspiciously placed my daughter’s Mother’s Day card as well as mine with my “little gift” inside the card, by the dresser mirror. The wifey will never miss the cards when she wakes up and when she opens mine, I was betting she would smile and not think - “hmmm.. that dork is out for five hours again on Mother’s Day at that *&^%$# ”

I came home past 1pm and while driving close to the house, came across my wife’s car on the road, opened my car window, waved and greeted her ” Happy Mother’s Day ” hahaha She was taking our daughter to the pizza parlor for lunch. They came home around 3pm and we all spent the rest of the day just bumming around town, had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the evening. Man, it was a rather tiring but enjoyable day

 

Tipping Tips

One of the free local papers in this city had an interesting headline about tip giving appropriately titled  “ the Tipping Point”. Unfortunately I can’t seem to get a link to the May 7 edition any longer  The article said that people feel they are tipped out and being ripped with their money when in truth, tipping is not mandatory and depends on what one can afford. Today people seem befuddled with the concept of tipping – must I give or not ?

 

It is said that tip was derived from the word “ To Insure Promptness” by an enterprising innkeeper in England in the 18^th century . A tip is a gratuity or in essence a gift or token of appreciation of a service over and above the payment for a service rendered. While it is true that tipping is not mandatory and dependent on the person’s generosity, it has become part of etiquette and good behavior in our society. In short, it has become a MUST DO kind of thing to be considered a cultured person. The bad consequence of tipping is businesses in the service industry had capitalized on their employees’ tipping income as an excuse to reduce wages. You often see waiters and servers in restaurants making minimum wage because they can rake in additional income in tips. An acquaintance of mine who worked at a trendy coffee shop made $80 in tips in her 8pm-2am shift on  Friday nights.  At one point a group of 4 people left her a tip for 70 cents, which she promptly threw at them when they left the restaurant door and resulted in a brief exchange of unkind words.  Definitely bad behavior on the server that nearly got her fired. Again, it goes to show that sometimes no tip is better than an insulting one.

I’m not sold on restaurants that include service charge on the customer’s bill.  Customers  consider service charge a tip therefore it is not necessary to give one.  Here’s a question. If a service charge is a tip, then it is pegged on quality of service.  Isn’t it overly presumptuous for the establishment to assume that every  client is entirely satisfied with the service ?  I would probably make an exception for the “all you can eat or buffet restaurants” that have servers deliver food to the customer’s table rather than customers serving themselves with their choice of dish at a central table.  It’s is a grind for the server to be going back and forth delivering everything the customer orders on the menu.

 Here’s a guide, sort of a rule of thumb on how much we should tip for services. Some people feel guilty if they don’t tip properly. You won’t get penalized if you don’t meet the suggested percentage.  It is still the customer’s prerogative to judge quality of service so we must not feel compelled to adhere to the suggested percentages without evaluating quality . It makes us feel good to be generous but at the same time, I don’t think we must reward sub-standard service. But as the guide aptly suggests, when in doubt, tip.

 

Ken Lee and the Idol Fiasco

Now I reckon why Simon Cowell made some 30 million quid last year and that’s because his Idol brainchild is a hit all over the world. Yes, there is a Bulgarian edition of the proverbial Idol and this particular videocap is a glimpse of how the Bulgarians have to deal with the elimination round surprises. If we think our Pinoy Keys Me version butchered the English language, this one would have chopped and grounded it In fact I am quite at a loss of adjectives as to how to describe it

A bit of trivia now. Singing diva Mariah Carey made this song a hit one more time after Harry Nilson made it a runaway hit in the 70’s. The song is called Without You and not Can’t Live , where the Bulgarian lass obviously took her clue when she transliterated it to Ken Lee, in her futile attempt to make it sound English - Bulgarian version, or perhaps a pidgin version thereof. Not a problem though as she just made the song a blast for the third time

 

An Afterthought To A Previous Post

This post is an afterthought to my previous post about animal cloning. It took me a while to dig out the excerpt below from an online forum  I participated a few years back. To my surprise the forum is still online but no longer active and my posts are still intact ! I’m disappointed I could no longer recall the article where I took the excerpt from hence I am unable to make reference to the author. The PC I used to browse many years ago at this forum is now a dinosaur sitting is in my garage - hard disk erased, waiting to be disposed.

 

quote

“Creative response to challenges is good; evil is stagnation. Unlimited power or unlimited knowledge is not good. If perfection were obtained, it would be boring. Only where there are limitations and challenges is there a game. Things that seem evil, such as dark ages and barbarism, often clear the way for a greater good. What appears to be progress, such as technological growth and natural science, often destroy things more valuable than itself. Good and evil are real enough from one point of view, but from a higher point of view, it takes both together to produce growth. Good may be bad if it leads to stagnation. Destruction can be as creative as construction. Graceful acceptance or retreat is often more creative than strength, initiative and bravery. Forgetting can be as useful as learning. Life is beautiful, in its evil and terrifying aspects as well as its good and gentle. Indeed, one requires the other to complete it. Stagnation is the only ultimate evil, and because of the devil in mankind, stagnation is always temporary. “

unquote

People would not hesitate to speculate that the above article must come from a pure materialist’s point of view for they will ask the question  – “where is God in  this ? ”. Whereupon someone will likely answer “ God made the world this way in the first place “.

The quote “change is inevitable; growth is a choice “rings aloud when I read the above excerpt because permanency seems to be an illusion, that whether we like it or not, things will have to change.  We resist change because we dread the loss of our comfort, our loved ones, our wealth. We insulate our children from the world for fear that they will be harmed , totally ignorant of the truth that they need to see and experience the faces of good and evil, of success and failure to be able to be enlightened , grow and survive in this enigmatic world of ours. The irony is that the most painful changes we go through in life are the ones that make us stronger, like a resilient and fearless battle tested warrior wading through the dangerous battlefield of life with confidence and indefatigable drive.

The seemingly chaotic and random behavior of natural events and processes in this world affirms that nothing can be permanent.  Change can also manifest itself in self-destruction or eventual decay,  which is an intrinsic attribute of every life form in this planet.  The inevitability of the destruction of the human body is real and our fear of such eventuality is paramount. Like shipwrecked bodies floating in wooden rafts  being tossed around by the giant waves  we plead to God to spare us from drowning but we know we ultimately will.

The inevitability of our mortality is real but it doesn’t mean that life is a terrifying journey. It won’t be unless you want to make it one. As one saying goes , “the problem isn’t adding years to your life but life to your years.”  As paradoxical as life is, there is beauty and happiness waiting to be experienced. At some point in time we give up trying to understand why we are here. We even talk of eternity and infinity when we can’t really comprehend them.  But that’s alright because as they say, knowledge requires proof, faith doesn’t.  A certain level of spirituality, not necessarily religiosity, is essential to achieve that much needed sense of enlightenment and the acceptance that we must be here for a reason and even if we aren’t, we would want to make our journey a pleasant one. 

 

ON ANIMAL CLONING ; HDTV DEMYSTIFIED

The Korean government had confirmed the news that it had successfully cloned seven Labrador Retrievers from a super canine skilled in sniffing drugs and explosives. The Magnificent Seven , being replicas of its cloned source are expected to inherit their biological master’s exemplary skills and are therefore deployable at the front lines with minimum training. We dread the thought of this Frankenstein-ish experiments proliferate in our world today as we all know that policing the four corners of the earth to regulate such an activity is a daunting task.

Here’s a question that had been nagging the human race since the fictional days of Dr. Victor Frankenstein – is cloning justifiable and what are its limits? The conservatives among us of whatever religious persuasion consider tampering the human genes an affront to the sanctity of creation and must never be condoned. What about animals ? What about the cloning of animals for the utility of man ?

We have heard about cloning of sheep, to produce a superior breed that provides quality meat and wool. Imagine a specie of pigs, cattle and chickens – all cloned so man could avail of the perfect meat. But then there are those that would clone for different reasons , like a California woman who was willing to spend $150K to clone her dead pet dog, a pit bull that had been preserved in a freezer. She wants her dog back, an exact reincarnated replica of her beloved pet. Aren’t we likewise tampering the sanctity of creation with this eerie proposal albeit they are animals with supposedly no souls? And what happens next – cloned super race horses that would win forever, cloned vicious dogs that would be marketed as guard dogs. If we open the door to animal cloning with no restriction, we might just admit to playing God and risk the destruction of animal life in this planet.

 

8 Random Facts ++

Here’s the meme tag that blogger friend Thess tagged me - 8 Random facts about me :

1. I don’t wear cologne. I’m happy with a quality after shave lotion that lasts for a better part of the working day. I love scents that are mild and makes people sniff around for the seemingly disappearing scent

2. I love caps. I have more than 2 dozen baseball/golf caps notwithstanding the ones I misplaced and lost over the last 2 years.

3. I adore kids for their happy disposition and the purity of their innocence. I don’t mind waking up with my daughter’s Webkinz stuffed toys all over my bed.

4. I hate people who exploit the green movement like politicians who increase taxes for the “benefit” of the environment, like proposing to impose green “fines” who use their cars to drive downtown instead of public transportation which to me is plain hogwash

5. I hate movies with lots of crying episodes, especially Pinoy dramatic movies. Since movie is an art form, the message of misery or tragedy can get across powerfully and poignantly minus the “huhuhu” or crying hysteria. You can either relate a sad story or start wailing like crazy to evoke emotions and Pinoy movie makers seem to prefer the latter.

6. I’m not a fan of fiddle (violin) music. Please don’t take me to a show or pub with people jumping up and down with fiddle music in the background. No offense here but I am incredibly bored with it.

7. I bloghop at the office but unfortunately our network security rules don’t allow the Blogger comment pop up window So what I do is comment on the WordPress blogs ( and others ) at the office and do my Blogger comments at home

8. I’m a generally impatient person but not one who would easily lose his temper. I absolutely believe in the saying ” the size of a man can be measured by the things that make/him her angry”

Consistent with my anonymous blogger profile, I had to age my pic several years over so I can hide my identity I won’t be tagging anyone so please feel free to tag yourself

 

MANAGING THYSELF AND MONEY

I’ve been picking on the book Rules of Life for more than a year now, promised to blog only 4 topics from the book but unabashedly did 8. I short, broke my promise much like a politician and decided enough is enough . Last week however I chanced upon the sequel to the Rules series - The Rules of Wealth- and thought it was interesting couldn’t resist the urge to buy it and blog about it. With a rule limited to 2 pages, you could read this book with its 100 rules in one day. Now that’s the kind of book I like to read - simple, no need to get a dictionary or thesaurus - it takes me back to my elementary grade years and makes reading extremely enjoyable

Here’s a rule that I thought was spot on and hit the bulls eye :

Rule 18 : It Is Harder To Manage Yourself Than To Manage Your Money

quote

So how well do you know yourself? Pretty Well? Not at all? Vaguely? We think we know ourselves until we come to give up smoking, lose weight, get fit, get rich. And then we realize we are lazier, have less will power, less determination, make less effort, get too easily dissuaded, fall by the wayside too early.

If I wanted to tuck you under my wing and make you wealthy, the first thing I would ask is: “Do you have what it takes to be wealthy? Are you determined enough? Will you work hard enough? Will you stick at it? Do you have backbone? Stamina? Guts? Relentless focus? You see if you don’t, the chances are you won’t succeed. I am not trying to put you off. I am trying to make you see, that making money is a skill that can be taught - as long as the person is ready to learn and apply themselves diligently.

If you decided you wanted to win Wimbledon you would have to start playing tennis when you were about five and have been winning junior championships by the time you were fourteen. It is the same with money. You can’t expect an over-weight, middle aged person to suddenly be in the final.

When I was a young struggling student, I once sold a valuable book so I could eat. I made a direct choice between owning something that was going to increase in value, and thus potentially making me wealthy, and having a slap up meal for one. You see what I mean ? In essence, chose - at that time anyway - to be poor rather than wealthy. I saw the same book recently, in a bookshop and, believe me, I made a bad call that day.

And what I have noticed is that the wealthy - when they are starting out anyway- have enormous drive and are prepared to make enormous sacrifices. They manage themselves and forego instant rewards for bigger payback in the long term. Self-control and delayed gratification are useful arts to learn.

unquote

The author’s example of selling a valuable book so he can enjoy a gourmet meal is akin to selling your blue chip stocks so you can go on a vacation. The impluse for instant gratification could be too much to resist that you waste opportunity to reap wealth to feed an instatiable appetite. When the author mentions delayed gratification I am reminded of a suggestion that we must always sleep on a craving and see if it is still there the next day. I have many times refrained from buying something I really want, slept over it a couple of nights and see if I really want it. It does work but on ocassion it merely prolongs he agony and when it does so, it’s time to buy it It’s better to be un-wealthy than to go ballistic The reality is, most of the things we buy are those that we don’t really need.

About six years ago, I was invited by a friend to attend a network marketing presentation at the house of the Pinoy president of the business venture. His large house situated in an opulent neighborhood in the suburbs, no less than 6500 sq. feet in size had a full sized tennis court, a large pool and an outdoor spa and there were about 60 guests like me sitting a conference type setting at a large solarium beside the large, oversized kitchen area. The kitchen had lots of Pinoy dishes in the heated casseroles. This was a regular Sunday setting, where Pinoys congregate to listen to the man’s sales pitch. There was no obligation - the food was free and all you had to do was listen to the man talk. I distinctly remember the man pull out a wad of 20 dollar bills from his pocket, held his hand and said ” those of you who were able to sell today, you get 20 bucks bonus of every unit sold. Just present me the receipt.” A bunch of people stood up and went to the front to claim their bonus.

The short end of the story is - this man peddled everything from encyclopedias, to casseroles and skillets, wheeled and dealt and dabbled in all sorts of business ventures until he reached the pinnacle of success and achieved wealth. One thing that I sense with wealthy people is they don’t seem have the compulsion to stop and declare contentment. The adrenalin is ever flowing. It could be greed but they’re not known to say - ” oh, I have 100 million and I’ll just spend this money until I die”.

 

WEIRD DRINKS

This post is inspired by two events :

a. blogger Tutubi’s interesting post on Kopi Luwak , aka “cat poop” coffee

b. my recent trip to North Carolina where I had a chance to visit the birth place of the drink that had been a fixture in our households for the last century - the venerable Pepsi Cola.

I have long been puzzled by man’s penchant for concocting every imaginable potion under the sun and his motivation for doing so. Couldn’t we survive with just plain water? I could understand the need to quench thrist with sweet and satisfying drinks other than water, like fruit juices and milk but why coffee, tea and liquor ? Might it be that the motivation has to do with the mythical and magical notions that such strange tasting potions supposedly bring about power, strength and longevity to our bodies or perhaps it has to do with the feeling of euphoria as the result of the inebriation that these potions induce to our brains ?

Man has learned how to fashion alcoholic concoctions from an incredible list of vegetation since time immemorial - be it rice, grape, sugar beet, coconut sap, malt, barley and lately, beer from the lowly dandelion flower. But when we hear about weird drinks concocted from utterly bizzare if not ghastly processes that involve fauna we shudder in disgust and swear we desire zilch of of the repulsive looking brew.

Here’s a few of the yucky drinks that ranks high in the list of extreme cuisine that would frighten a normal person

1. Kopi Luwak - exotic and expensive coffee made from cat droppings. The cat is supposedly a herbivore feeding mostly on coffee beans ( so they say hehe ). I’ll leave Tutubi’s blog to explain it to you. In short, would you fancy brewing a cat poop on your coffee filter ?

2. Baby Mouse Wine - this one ( see photo above) is akin to a death wish for my wife, who fears rats and mice more than an evil curse, like Lucifer himself One may call this concoction exotic but I wonder what embellishment the tiny rodent has to offer to the drinker, other than an affectation with the powers of Speedy Gonzales or an infatuation with the super rodent hero - Micky Mouse Beats me. They say the drink tastes like gasoline. Well, it better be because at least it deludes your brains into believing that the gasoline kills all bacteria that had been infused into the brew with the year long aging process

3. Seagull Wine - a brew invented by the Eskimos and Innuits of the Arctic. It’s the most no brainer concoction ever made by man. Simply find the dead bird, stuff it into a bottle filled with water and leave it in the sun to ferment - who would ever err on this recipe ? Those who tasted the brew swear it tastes like oil from your car’s carburetor but kicks you quite hard on the brain rather quickly. I say this this would be a fitting finisher to a death row inmate’s last meal. It does give you enough reason not to endure a gruesome hangover

Would you dare sample any of these weird drinks ? I think I could do the cat poop coffee but I’m no Anthony Bourdain when it comes to the other two hehe

 

The Marriage Enigma

“Getting married for sex is like buying a 747 for the free peanuts”
-Jeff Foxworthy

“My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.”
-Rodney Dangerfield

“I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her own way. And second, let her have it.” -Lyndon B. Johnson 

 ”There’s a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It’s called marriage.” -James Holt McGavran

“Why does a woman work ten years to change a man’s habits and then complain that he’s not the man she married?” -Barbra Streisand

I got the pic from a friend’s email the other day.  It gave me an idea why the divorce rate in North America is so high.  Emotional issues aside,  harmony in marriage seems to work if one party concedes to be the assistant manager of the household After all, a family is an organizational unit  and needs a manager or a leader to function effectively doesn’t it?  Conjugal dictatorship is a chaotic proposition and never seems to work Who do think should be the manager of the household?

Hmmm…. best of luck actor Michael Douglas forked out some $50M in a divorce settlement so he could marry Catherine Zeta Jones.  He sure looked like he spent some 747 money in pursuit of the golden peanuts

So what do you say folks ?