New Word #13: Learned Amid Pandemic
oximeter: an instrument for measuring the proportion of oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood. zoonotic: pertaining to a zoonosis, which means a disease that can be transmitted from animals to people or, more specifically, a disease that normally exists in animals but that can infect humans. endemic and epidemic and pandemic: Endemic means the baseline, or expected, … Continue reading New Word #13: Learned Amid Pandemic
My Special Diet
I owe my little “fame” on this special diet to the ex-prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, who resigned last year due to health issues. Suddenly his illness, ulcerative colitis, was in the news, with a little paragraph describing his suffering and his battle to get better. Several of my friends, who had been skeptical … Continue reading My Special Diet
Let Me Sleep
I am so afraid of my insomnia that I started to dream of not sleeping last night. I dreamed of myself walking about in dread of going to bed to lie there without feeling sleepy. My grandma appeared in my dream too telling me that if I am not as headstrong as I have always … Continue reading Let Me Sleep
Good And Bad On Standing Up
I can’t remember who told me this–a person has to stand up or walk around for at least four hours a day. If not, the bones will not be healthy and the body will be in decline. Well, if the decline is impossible to stop, at least the four hour rule will help slow it … Continue reading Good And Bad On Standing Up
Friendly Advice
I got a friendly advice today when N told me to sanitize the second hand book I ordered from betterworldbooks.com in case there are remnants of Covid19 clinging to the pages ready to jump on anybody who touches it and send the person to fever, ventilator, or even an early grave. “You know the virus … Continue reading Friendly Advice
Insomnia vs. Somnia
“Somnia” is not a word; “insomnia” is. That’s just English. Non-native speakers (like me) beware. There are as many exceptions to the rules as those that follow the rules. Not only many words starting with “in” don’t have corresponding antonyms that lose the prefix “in”, but also some “in” and non-“in” pairs completely disregard the … Continue reading Insomnia vs. Somnia
What A Headache
I’ve heard the drill many times before. “Don’t take pain killers for your headache. Stop thinking too much.” “Don’t take sleeping pills. Just listen to music or count sheep.” Among my friends, the general attitude towards medicine is–not to deal with medicine. This is why I often feel it strange that many Asian parents here … Continue reading What A Headache
Different Body
I’ve heard similar incidents happen again and again here in the Asian community in New Jersey. This is one story I heard about five years ago. One manager in a big drug company suddenly fainted. He is middle-aged and held a lower level management position, which is reachable by Asians before hitting the usual bamboo … Continue reading Different Body
