RSS Reader

Memory

drkmchow | Aug. 24, 2021, 9:12 a.m. | Original

A slew of papers has shown that the best chance of rating an experience happy is to create peak moments. Rather than spending a fortune on a fortnight holiday, we should probably try splitting into smaller chunks.

The thing is when we recall an experience, we tend to ignore how long it lasted. We focus on few mental snapshots, so-called peak moments, and craft them into a movie memory.

Think of what I did today. Being the invigilator of an international examination means a day chock-full with

Pause

drkmchow | Aug. 18, 2021, 5:02 a.m. | Original

The school term is beginning. And, strange as it sounds to me, my daughter's summer holiday ends at the very height of summer. The day is still simmering like a freshly made hot dog, and it's intermingled with rainy spells, the way it can be in midsummer.

Before her school starts tomorrow, I have taken a day off to let our brains enjoy downtime. We had a short waterfalls hike to fuel up and to cool down. Downtime gives us the pause button, making us

Connection

drkmchow | Aug. 15, 2021, 9:01 a.m. | Original

I recently came across this quote from James Wallman's book - and I think it sums up perfectly my family holiday this Sunday: "There is no Wi-Fi in nature, but you'll get a better connection."

Ten miles adrift of Sai Kung, in the northeastern New Territories, is a tiny island called Port Island. We picked this location as summertime temperature leaves us few options to escape the city; we'd better opt for the nature at coastal margins. This Hong Kong UNESCO Global

Questions

drkmchow | Aug. 14, 2021, 12:34 p.m. | Original

Having signed up to a study involving Delphi method, I had to sit in front of computer answering bunches of questions this afternoon.

Now I should mention: that's a rather boring exercise when we're supposed to mull over a set of questions over multiple rounds. Delphi studies can - by their very nature - be repetitive. And downright time-consuming too. We do have opinions, of course, when we are being asked about judgment like "important uncertainty", "possibly important uncertainty", "

Mackesy

drkmchow | Aug. 7, 2021, 10:12 a.m. | Original

When my wife waited for the release of Harry Potter series previously, she didn't pause after each chapter once she got the new novel. The miracle happened more than twenty years later, when our daughter devoured the pages-turned-yellow handed-down novels avariciously. And I have to admit, she's tethered to the pages. So much so that I believe in a gene named Hogwarts-fans.

I wonder what it would be like to find a book that captures the shared attention of our whole

Nomad

drkmchow | July 21, 2021, 10:20 p.m. | Original

I love books. I always have. The only thing about reading is I mostly borrow or reserve books from public library.

Determined to read the original nonfiction book after watching the American movie Nomadland , I made a library reservation three months ago. My enthusiasm for the book grew when I found out nineteen persons were queuing for the book in front of me. Oh, it's going to be a powerful and highly entertaining book, I rhapsodized.

And it is.

That's a provocative story of Linda May

Signs of Life

drkmchow | June 30, 2021, 2:15 a.m. | Original

Hospital is a messy place, where trivial symptoms can turn nasty within minutes. And even messier in July.

It's hard to get too excited about July. Hard, that is, unless you've never met new doctors. They were medical students who have completed rigorous training for six years.

But do we actually grasp the know-how of being a doctor after graduation? Hardly.

I have been reading the story of an intensive care doctor, Aoife Abbey, who reminded me the first time we experienced

Alaska

drkmchow | June 23, 2021, 9:06 a.m. | Original

Bears killing you faster than pistol, daylight shorter than the runtime of the movie The Lord of the Rings , and winters darker than shit.

That's Alaska.

I haven't been there but experienced the harrowing story of a teenage girl Leni moving to Alaska during my recent reading of Kristin Hannah's novel The Great Alone .

Alas, the life of Leni is even spine-tingling than the hardship of Alaska. Leni didn't have much difficulty in mastering the skill of shooting to keep herself safe and

Injury

drkmchow | June 19, 2021, 4:24 a.m. | Original

Good writers bring us up and down a repertoire of life events. At the very bottom are bloody stories of injury, such as the Good Friday when Melanie Reid fell from her horse.

The moment Melanie, the journalist with The Times , was pinned to the ground with a broken neck and fractured lower back, she knew it was catastrophic, fully aware that her life as she knew it had ended. She chronicled her nine years of daily life following her chestnut mare accident in The World I Fell Out Of .

Her

Grebe

drkmchow | June 12, 2021, 9:22 a.m. | Original

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

Or is it?

The vibrant spectrum of plumage in the bird world often fascinates us with surprises. That's how I had the duck test during a recent trip to birdwatching site near Sheung Shui. Beneath the shade of giant lotus heave pad, a small water bird with deep chestnut cheek was swimming like a duck.

Before the what-I-thought-to-be-duckling

Menu