Edition Notes For the Beginning of 2010 (For All Blogs)

 

I will resume normal blog posts next week. The structure of the blog will be as before but since my schedule has been getting busier and busier I will do the essentials first. The posts in the order of least significance are: The weekend editions will appear on Sat and/or Sun, the book reviews or mentions will appear daily, at least one mylife post on weekdays, at least one photo review on weekdays, and the wineby and the writingby posts. The last two blogs have their own posts and I have posted the most number of posts of reflections, short pieces and essays in that order. I have been told short pieces (which are short essays) are more useful than reflections. The only significant change will be the bias toward writing more short pieces at the cost of reflections.

In short, my blog will publish daily Monday through Friday and each day will have at least one book review, one photo review, one mylife piece, one short piece for wineby, one short piece for writingby and at least one reflection post. Essays require more time to write and will appear as possible. I hope to bring the number of blog posts back to normal but my busy schedule will probably be a challenge for this objective. The weekend edition will make up by contributing on Sat and Sun. The short pieces carry far more thought value than the reflections and I see this change in favor of the basic objective of the blog in the long run. The writing of two short pieces, on the average per day, equals half-a-dozen regular posts. I look forward to continuing my blog editions. I will also write several short pieces to recap the progress of each thread and series of blog posts. Some of the objectives set in 2009 have been achieved and some are in progress. I will discuss the details in January posts.

*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Writing by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.

The Time for Mandatory Exercise and Nap Time at Work Has Finally Arrived (short piece 7)

Napping is a known activity worldwide but only some cultures practice routine napping. Germans and some Middle Eastern cultures nap in the afternoon daily. US does not follow any established rules and napping at work is definitely out of question. Most employee handbooks list sleeping on the job (or any like activity) as cause for dismissal. Corporate executive offices have included a couch for many years. This couch serves several purposes one of which is a short nap when needed.

Nap is not real sleep but the body takes care of many functions done during real sleep time. Napping may not be a complicated activity but has many characteristics. The most common nap is the afternoon nap usually after lunch. This nap is usually associated with eating a large meal. People who work difficult schedules often break their sleep time into nap and sleep combined. I know a restaurateur who has followed this for forty years. He sleeps at 1 or 2 am and wakes up around 5 am to visit his restaurant and check things. His afternoon naps begins at 2 pm and ends about 5 pm when he returns to work again. This schedule may seem unusual but is quite common in the business world. An executive works anywhere from 65 to 110 hours weekly. I have worked such schedules (in retail management) for extended periods of time and can tell you firsthand no allowance is made for easy sleep time. The late hours result in difficulty going to sleep which shortens the night time sleep time. When the person wakes up in the morning, the chances of being sleepy and having a poor night of sleep are high. A nice afternoon nap balances this equation. This is not universally accepted in the American work culture.

The American culture has always been in favor of continuous labor at all levels. One of the basic assumptions of the informal labor code of America is that all employees are inherently lazy and seek to avoid work in any possible way. The majority of American employers treat anything similar to sleep as such and react harshly. Napping may equals laziness in many contexts but is a good practice to maintain health and performance. American employer has a hard time understanding many things and what contributes to performance is one of them. A typical employer brain is incapable of processing a short nap as a prelude to better performance. The battle for napping at work has already been lost unless one is management and not subject to supervision.

Many famous people were regular nappers. Regan, JFK, Churchill, DaVinci and Salvador Dali are a few. Dali is famous for sleeping with a spoon in his hand. If he were to fall sleep during his nap, the spoon would drop into a pot making much noise thus waking him. Reagan slept regularly on the job and referred to all these periods as naps. JFK slept after lunch daily and was not to be disturbed. These are not the only individuals who understand the value of napping for good health. The world is run by people who understand superior performance requires good health, mental alertness and high level energy. Exercise, good diet and plenty of sleep maybe the obvious necessities. However, sleeps takes away 1/3 of our lifetimes thus the obvious problem area for a busy person. Naps and sleep times must be combined to allow superior performance for long periods of time in American business. American culture does not understand many things because of its recent history. Only 20 years ago, computers and Internet made our world a smaller place but a more realistic one. Arbitrary and arrogant work rules that have been in place for decades could finally be changed. The relationship between good health and job performance is not considered a management topic of importance. The closest corporate America has come to this idea is accepting the high cost of health care and all possible means to avoid the costs. Napping maybe a practice with a long history but a poor history in the American work culture. This keeps millions of people from reaching optimum performance daily. Maybe America ought to force workers to stretch and exercise on the job as the East Asian companies do and allow a nap period similar to standard break times to encourage maintaining a fresh and alert mind at work.

*This duplicate post is from this week’s edition of Writing by Cush blog and is published early in World of Cush

Shouldn’t Everyone and Wine Professionals Learn Neurobics? (Short Piece #1)

I read a very interesting book by Katz and Rubin “Keep Your Brain Alive” which I recommend to everyone. My volume was 1999 edition and if I find newer editions, I expect to give this book as a gift many times in near future. Brain is an important muscle that receives little attention unless a medical issue arises. Humans do very little consciously to take care of the brain. The interesting fact is brain regenerates itself beyond what is culturally believed.

Neurobics exercises (termed after aerobics exercise for the heart) for the brain require us to use our five senses, and emotions as the sixth sense, in novel ways. Information is stored by building networks in the brain. Visual information has huge networks because we rely on our sight much. Brain likes to form associations between different kinds of information. Our brain links to events, people and places and the links are the associations. Humans learn and remember by associating to what one already knows and has in store. Information is usually associated with one sense and Neurobics exercises teach us to tag information with more than one sense. For example, when you meet someone new, close your eyes and shake hands. Your brain lacks the visual information for remembering that person but will try to remember touch, smell and sounds. This will be hard at first but in time, the brain builds networks for these non-visual sensory information and become very adept. The eye closing forces brain to exercise and make new networks for remembering. Brain loves novelty but Neurobics requires novel things to happen properly. If you write with a pen, the switching to a pencil will not qualify as a Neurobics activity but the switching from one hand to another hand for writing does qualify as a Neurobics exercise.

Neurobics has three requirements for an activity to qualify as a proper exercise: 1. The use of one or more of the senses in a novel way such as putting your clothes on with your eyes closed to use other senses only. 2. The breaking of your routines such as taking a new route to work. 3. The engaging of your attention to what you are doing such as turning the photos on your desk upside down to stimulate your brain and build new networks. I have tried a few examples myself already. Brushing with the left hand, showering with my eyes closed, and walking with my eyes closed. I learned a few things by walking blind. I have a built-in limit in absence of the visual cues to navigate. I knew how far the path was clear but after eight seconds of blind walking, I felt stressed and had to stop. The path had not changed and I was unable to navigate using non-visual cues (sounds, smells, etc.) and was sure I was about to collide with something because I could not see. For the next attempt, I pushed passed eight seconds threshold but felt stressed again at 14 seconds. The path had not changed again and this limit was internal. I now know I use visual cues too much for navigating and could not navigate for more than a few seconds by using sound and other senses but the barrier is easy to cross by increasing it.

Many other exercises exist and the best ongoing lifetime exercise is social activity. The brain receives good Neurobics exercise by being active socially and this becomes more decisive as we get older. An interesting exercise is learning Braille to force brain into making new networks. A casual but ongoing exercise is visiting farmer’s markets, ethnic markets and specialty stores to learn to identify foods by smell and touch rather than seeing them. Neurobics is a system of activities to help the brain rebuild itself and use the existing networks. The proper application of techniques ensure results at any age and the system works by regular use. The system not only keeps the brain healthy in prevention of illnesses but also makes the mind stronger. Some professionals will have additional benefits: A person specializing in wine tasting will find the blind exercises will in time build many strong networks that an average person lacks. These networks will be extremely sensitive to and able to recognize smells (and sounds, etc.) which will make very competent wine professionals in this one area. Overall, the learning of this simple system is a great investment of time at any age.

*This post is from this week’s edition of Wine by Cush Magazine blog and published early in World of Cush

Will WiFi Make Coffeeshops Into Public Living Rooms Again? (Essay #1)

 

WiFi is a standard for communication between a device and a signal center usually called a hub. This wireless signal transmists information enabling the device users to benefit from a network such as Internet. WiFi is available free at many coffeehouses, public buildings, organizations and similar locations. WiFi signal usually is not secure and can be intercepted but does move very fast making it attractive.

This fast, cheap and available signal has spawned a new lifestyle. Many people, such as myself, are used to dragging a laptop to a coffeehouse as an alternative location for doing online work. The presence of many individuals at a coffeeshop make for a different atmosphere and culture. What is this new culture? What is this new lifestyle? I have been spending a good deal of time sitting a coffeeshops using my laptop and WiFi. I am not alone. I see dozens to many more who also use Internet as I do. What are the implications of individuals moving workstations with them and using Internet at very casual and public locations?

What about WiFi bringing professionals into coffeeshops as an alternate workspace? Will they make this trend permanent and coffeeshops once again become THE alternate office space for professionals? Will this result in a new lifestyle of spending a few hours in a coffeeshop regularly to use Internet and socialize? Will coffeeshops become THE place to gather for low key social gatherings on a regular basis because WiFi users frequent them anyway? I would like to know.

Coffeehouses originally were places of gathering and doing business by the locals. Much political activity also took place at the coffeeshops to such extent they were banned and closed often historically. The coffeeshop does have the dynamics for individual and group activities. We know this from history. The chaotic and unrestrained atmosphere of a coffeeshop probably had a good deal to do with this. I believe coffeeshops, historically, were public living rooms and that is why so many of them were needed. People visited the locations frequented by those of like minds and interests. The purchase of a coffee or tea was not the basis for the existence of coffeeshops. The meeting of numerous regulars with similar interests was.

I am interested in coffeeshops as locations capable of more than simple coffee and tea sales. I believe coffeeshops have the potential for very strong informal social lifestyle activities. I believe only a small portion of the population actually take advantage of the potential of coffeeshops. I would like to know if the coffeeshops can become a strong social hub as they once were. I am curious if every neighborhood would have dozens of coffeeshops someday and locals, by habit and lifestyle, would frequent them as they do their living rooms. I am curious if WiFi will make coffeeshops vital again?