Lots of firsts:
– actually getting the pumpkins done from scratch in prep for Hallowe’en. They will rock.
– using the pumpkin for soup. done good.
– ordering the hallowe’en costume early enough to arrive for the boy’s first proper trick or treat. It didn’t arrive, delivery probs.
– mid-way through pumpkin shelling, new neighbour walks in and gives us said costumes, they were delivered to the wrong house.
A lovely, lovely cold and autumn Saturday.
There was a lot of talk about how “free” was going to rule the world. Much of that proved true, at least in tech and the world around it. Facebook, Instagram, news, most digital entertainment. And with a bending (err, breaking) of laws, much music and film.
How come books aren’t free? Given print on demand book machines and the faddish books that are doing very well (50 shades yada yada), isn’t this ripe for ads? How many more Casual Vacancies would have been sold had they been free.
Intrigued if anyone’s innovating here. In a week where Newsweek is taking painful decisions, someone must be.
This is one of the more interesting experiences of my life. Lots of my norms challenged.
Korean spas are an institution. They are not elegant olive oil and classical music places. They are more like a mix between a public pool, a wrestling gym, and a cinema in a mall. With a little nudity thrown into it all.
I had a free morning few hours today, a big presentation later on, and I’d been up late working. So I decided to give it a go. CNN and others say it’s one of the things that foreigners *must* try when in Seoul.
So, I took the metro to get to the one that cnn recommended, about 20 mins from where I Was staying. Dragon Hill Spa. I had about 3 hours before needing to be back at the hotel ready for the meeting.
I decided to go for the Luxury Super Deluxe package.
Up to the top floor, and suddenly that bit of the review that I’d slightly not believed is true – I’m the guys area and all the guys are naked. In a lots of 60 yr old men on a Thursday morning kind of way. I was to have a body scrub and massage. They ripped my skin to shreds, and I’ve been poked and prodded by some Korean guy whilst I was naked and had a towel on my head, covering my eyes. If it sounds even slightly sexual, it’s not even one little bit. It was hard scrubbing, as if cleaning the floor with a metal scrubber. 20 mins of that. If I didn’t shine like a clean glass now, I was never going to.
And then the hardest massage I’ve ever had. I was pushed around, in a way that I guess happens in polite prisoner camps or in a wrestling gym. For just under 1 hour.
And then it was time for baths. Hotter than I could tolerate and then colder than I could handle. And nobody talking, everyone just minding their own business. You go from one to the other as your body demands, apparently.
Once your done with the baths, you go to the clothed area for public (ie both gender) saunas near the general hall downstairs – apparently people sleep in these places. But I had got ready, got a vinegar drink and some interesting sweet potato sticks, and then sadly had to leave due to timing. I’d been there for almost 2 hours, and think that this was one of the most bizarre experiences ever.
Nudity, massage, relaxation, a very nice sense of conviviality, and a few sips of vinegar thrown in. Korea is incredibly Western in some cultural ways. This wasn’t one of them – and it felt really good to see it.
It’s hard not to get wound up by what’s going on in Syria. We patted ourselves on the back when the Arab spring started, how great technology and western values have been in helping promote democracy in these countries. Tunisia was easy – not many of us had been there and it wasn’t geopolitically important to anyone that important (sorry France). And then it got sticky – Egypt. Hilary supported the wrong people, and then worked out who she should be supporting.
And it carried on – Arab and other nations.
And Syria, run by Mr Assad (our optician friend from West London), and married to that lovely lady, is one of the most shameful episodes of the last years.
Never again – how many times have we said this?
We’re about to celebrate the Olympic games. That bastion of commercialisation, where sport moved mountains and brought down apartheid. But we’re happy to accept Syrian athletes to the games (that their team includes a sharpshooter is a bloody irony). And we barely say a word.
Scratch that – it’s easy to not get wound up about it. We all seem to be doing a very good job of ensuring that it’s not front page news.
Walking to work this morning and walking past a cigarette wrapper on the floor got me thinking. The best and most effect way to improve a general situation is not to complain about those that cause the problem – rather to start solving it.
Pick up litter when you see it.
Ask the tourist if they need some help when they’re clearly looking cluelessly at a map on a busy street-corner.
Make that introduction that will transform someone else’s life.
Tell the smiling lady that she’s about to drive off with a cup of tea on top of her car.
And then today, an optimistic and actionable blog post by Oli Barrett saying the same thing (but more eloquently). Either you’re the solution or you’re the problem. Like it.
There’s a lovely piece in the NYT about what actually it is that makes you happy. Under-indulging (i.e. going without) has been shown time and time again to create more happiness. Yet in this over-resourced world in which many of us live, it’s not at all great at all that we’re been programmed to indulge as much as we do.
Social conditioning? Evolution? Gluttony? All three is my guess. And a big chunk of not really knowing ourselves and what makes us tick.
Much food for thought, goldfish crackers even.
There’s a little widget on the NYT page that I was reading today, that gave me various recommendations of disparate articles. From Mexican politics to customer service limbo, Israeli immigration issues to Mitt Romney editorial. 7 out of 10 were worthy of a click and further investigation – probably the best experience with a recommendation I’ve had. Nicely done New York Times, good tool.
Monocle Man. I know him well, a fair few of these examples in the office and wandering around the streets near home.
Intriguing here that this doesn’t celebrate youth. In fact, I’m not even sure that this person could be less than 25. Or 28. Or maybe I’m just projecting.
Wanky coffee anyone?
There was a very good question in Quora that I found today which was all about what is life’s most valuable lesson.
Changing the question a little, made me think about what is the biggest lesson about the world that I’ve learned
I believe that (adult) life is all about getting people to do what you want them to do – and finding a way for them to want to do it.
This goes as much for business as sports, for government as well as possibly even family life. And absolutely goes for relationships.
It sounds highly manipulative and calculating. I think of it as actually being very genuine – the key point is that you’ve got to find a way for the other person to want to do it. Do that, and then you’re actually finding a want to make them happy.
And don’t forget, other people are thinking about this for you in exactly the same way. Getting you to do what they want. And ensuring that you want to do it.
Tongue in cheek, but begs the question as to what actually should a cinema now look like – in this age of phenomenal TVs and surround sound in people’s homes etc.
raam thakrar 