5 Things Over CNY

1. Catholic High Toilets Suck 

Apparently, the toilets in the school are in such a sad state that kids are afraid to use them. There are apparently creepy crawlies about and the kids not used to objectionable live insectoid or arachnid content have to hold it in till they get home or find a bush outside. Parents have apparently complained about the situation to the folks in charge at the highest levels. Does alumnus Lee Hsien Loong know? 

 2. A Rhyme For Bear Mitigation

I was relating to one friend about another mutual friend’s acquisition of a cabin of sorts in the woods in a relatively nearby destination. A charming set up one might say, not quite without the inconveniences of rustic life like a portable heater, wood burning stove, and also bears in winter time. Lovely. Friend A was slightly aghast and remarked there’s a rhyme about what to do when encountering the cuddly things. She later forwarded me this little colour-centric ditty: “If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, good night.” (The “good night” means you’re done for. Also you’d be in the Arctic and best have the right means of weather and other protection.) No word on meeting a Yogi Bear. Namaste perhaps?

 3. Router TTL 

I've jumped ISPs, from ViewQwest whom I’ve been with for about 3 years to Whizcomms. The only reason for jumping is budget. I am now getting the same service output for half the price. When the Whizcomms guy came around to give me the network terminal, he told me that my Nighthawk Mesh would take a 5-10 minutes to latch on to the new service. Guess what? It took hours. I was in the middle of an episode of Law & Order SVU when the break in transmission had to happen. I tried restarting and resetting the routers, upgrading their firmware, trying a direct wired feed - nothing would get the base station working, it’s angry orange light projecting its disdain of uselessness at me. I gave up and went for yoga in the evening, and met a pair of friends for dinner. Upon understanding my tale of telecommunication woe, the more technically inclined part of the duo told about something called router Time To Leave. This is when the main router requests a new IP address from the ISP to keep everything running kosher. Apparently, this could be happening every 4 hours. When i got home that night, all was good. Blue light indicators for peak connectivity. 

 4. Mahjong Noises 

After a bit of cajoling, I ended up playing mahjong on the first Saturday of the Snake Year. ("Wah wah wah Gurmit, you can play mahjong ah?!) At this event, it got cute. One player who needed the Cat tile made meowing noises to elicit the said tile at her next pick up. And it worked! All of us had a good chuckle. Then another player asked “Then Centipede how?” and Cat Tile Diviner replied with a snippy kind of noise a beaver might make. I replied “No, the only noise you can get is when the Centipede bites someone, and the victim goes “Ow!””. So said second player went “Ow!” and immediately drew up the Centipede tile. OMG. We all went berserk and nearly woke up the sleeping baby in the other room. 

 5. Cedele Chocolate Cherry Loaf 

OMG it’s da bomb. Rich and delicious, perfect with coffee. https://cedele.com/products/chocolate-cherry-loaf

I Saw Conclave - Spoiler Alert

 **SPOILER ALERT**

You would think that selecting the Pope would be a boring, systematic affair but the writer Peter Straughan and director Edward Berger turned the Robert Harris novel into a riveting cinematic experience. A beautifully shot film that makes the most of art, angles and architecture in a supposedly small space to creates a wonderful display of motion and colours. The director’s manipulation and clever use of light and space makes for a lovely visual journey. The quick scenes of the cardinals’ arrivals is a lovely introduction to the reality of old men hanging about - it made me laugh inside, even the low shot of the many cigarette butts from the corner where some holy men had to light up prior to being 'locked up'. Clever and insightful. There’s one scene where all the cardinals in red robes over white frocks walked slowly across a square with white umbrellas for a rapturous 30 seconds to give everyone a magical treat of contrast, movement and quiet determination. And you’ll hear English, Italian, Spanish and Latin across the 120 minutes, all the languages of the powers that defined the Church’s proliferation across the world. 

The wikipedia page describes Conclave as a political thriller, haha. You wouldn’t think that members of the clergy were so driven for power but i reckon this would hark some semblance of reality when a Pope does need to be chosen. When the proceedings start and the cardinals are isolated to make their decisions, one cardinal who remarks over a meal how the group was split by language and ethnicity, and that was how the voting would align. He was not wrong, initially anyway. Secret little groups form, and people talk to persuade. Rumours arise, confrontations happen and secrets are unscrambled. The fun takes time to be revealed so be patient. 

Also brilliant was how what was happening outside the closed door proceedings affected the cardinals in terrifying split-second drama. I literally gasped and held my hands to my face when the glass shatters, splintering the scene of calm, resigned process and prayer to one of shock and awe. Amazingly, that scene lets in light reminiscent of focused beams from holy heaven on high in some of Renaissance art, illuminating the face of the reluctant leader. 

The writing is superb. From little jokes that give the cardinals a sense of regular humanity to the multiple, passionate (yet sometimes subtle) monologues, there is additional triumph from taking the words of a book and bringing them to life. Of course, the actors made and stole the show. Ralph Fiennes is remarkable. From the lines of his face, his gentle expressions, the composed demeanour to the outbursts and emotional weight delivered, Ralph Fiennes encapsulates what it means to be the lead actor. You'll feel his inner and outward torment, from screen to your seat. He is in almost all of the 2 hour film from start to end. Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow play great supporting characters but Ralph Fiennes as Dean Lawrence does the heavy lifting with aplomb and finesse befitting an Oscar winner. The great thing about some actors is the subtleties in their expressions and actions. I don’t know if the director would have asked them to change something for a retake but nonetheless it is the actor who has to make things happen for the cinema patron. And Ralph Fiennes is definitely that kind of actor. 

Another actor worth mentioning is Sergio Castellitto who played Cardinal Tedesco. His one minute of deliberate anger aimed at securing his votes for the Papal throne is exquisite. One must of course also give kudos to Isabella Rosellini for her two separate minutes of delightful gravitas, one in silence where she gives Dean Lawrence a countenance on the edge of a death stare, and another where she simply takes control a scene of bickering men and provide a sharp verbal delivery of veracity. (Then we hear “Judas!” - one of the best moments of the film). 

This film is too good. Conclave for the win everyone. All the stars. 

Hello HR, One Interview Only Please

I met a couple friends for lunch a few days ago and we happened to chat about job interviews. One friend mentioned that his wife who’s a C-suite in an MNC has to go through 5 rounds of interviews with a panel for any new significant hire. I related that I know of someone who had to go through 8 or 9 rounds at another firm for job (another he didn’t get the job, boy was he pissed). 

Same friend then told a story where 1) he interviewed with someone who truly wanted him for the role, 2) helped this potential future boss plan out work for the current team and 3) iron out budgets  - all this during the hiring process. Potential future boss then said there was one step left - to meet the CEO. The boss of bosses met my friend for all of ten minutes max and reported to HR that he didn’t like the candidate. My friend said after that the CEO was looking for someone better looking and in a skirt. We all had a chuckle but appreciated how painfully farcical the situation he endured was.

I talked how in my last job I sat in with my then boss to vet through a number of candidates. I felt we had a ‘good enough’ person at interview no1 - good enough experience, knew the landscape, logical thinking, and sounded trainable. The next few people we saw all were oddballs looking for a pedestal or a way out. My boss wanted someone who “had new ideas” on top of managing a team for “excellence”. In the end, we hired no one and lost the headcount. LOL. All that time down the drain. Imagine the manhours. I have another friend who works in one team but gets asked to sit in a panel to interview new hires in another team to assess for “fit”. He rolls his eyes he says each time he gets these invites. If a 5-person panel has to sit through 3 rounds for an hour, that’s 15 x whatever baseline manhour rate each person is worth. Easily thousands of dollars right there with just one candidate! 

We all agreed that all this madness could be better tightened up through the probation period. Get a “good enough” candidate to start, monitor his/her KPIs, check with the team about fit and decide at the end of a month if he/she is the right hire. Simple. Why go through the madness of time wasting with multiple interviews? No one is perfect but let them develop into perfection. 

Ozempic Weight Loss Is Having A Wider Impact Than You'd Imagine

The drug du jour making the news is Ozempic. The medicine was developed to help people with Type 2 diabetes curb hunger pangs by mimicking a natural hormone that tells the brain that the stomach is full and doesn’t need to eat anymore. And what happens when you eat less? You lose weight. No surprise but it’s hard to do.

So everyone else who isn’t diabetic (yet) and interested in losing the pounds without exercising are keen on Ozempic to rewire their brains and body functions. However Ozempic isn’t approved as a weight loss enabler. So Novo Nordisk, the drug's clever manufacturer, decided to create another GLP-1 (glucagon like peptide-1) drug with same active ingredient, semaglutide, under another brand name, Wegovy. 

Lots of people get sick because they are too heavy. Consumption of these drugs may not be so bad after all, if people get healthy. Here’s perhaps the unintended and unexpected part of this wonder drug story - weight loss is affecting other parts of the economy. Here’s a list:

Snacks
Sales of everything from soft drinks, chocolate, ice cream, chips and dips, biscuits etc are on a downward trend in the US because their loyal, larger customers are not craving snacks as much. In fact, grocery sales by GLP-1 drug takers are down 6% within the first 6 months of taking the appetite suppressant drugs. Processed snack sales are down 11% within the same consumer group. The big boys are taking this revenue impact seriously by creating new growth segments aimed at Ozempic and Wegovy consumers e.g Nestle launced a new line of high-fiber, protein-packed foods called Vital Pursuit specifically directed at this burgeoning American market. (I had to make the pun).

Restaurants
Still on food, restaurants might start to serve smaller portions to accommodate active weight watchers and their reduced needs. They’ll save on ingredient costs and prep time possibly. Prices may not come down though, haha. On a less rosy note, fewer people are eating out because they want better control over the food they eat and now choose to prepare instead. Though the same customers might spend more on alcohol and drinks because I think they’ll likely compensate on other gastronomic pleasures. Wonder if someone is going to put calorie counts against cocktails? Some of those are ripe with sugar. Low carb cocktails might become a thing. How do you make a drink with protein powder? 

Clothes
What do you when you can’t eat? You exercise! As folks lose weight, they are more motivated to hit the gym or take a run around the neighbourhood. And what do you need to enhance the sweat generation? The right clothes of course. Morgan Stanley has reported that GLP-1 takers have been buying more shoes and athleisure wear. Good news for sportwear brands and bad news for specialty shops stocking XL sizes. Some bespoke clothes manufacturers are reporting that their regular customers are ordering clothes one or two sizes smaller. Less material used, less resource cost, increased margins. 

Oil
This is going be interesting yet quite simple. Your car will need less petrol to run if you weigh less. Money saved! The airlines are celebrating too. Lighter passengers means less airplane fuel to fly planes. Also if they’re eating less, it might mean airline kitchens having less food to prepare. Will ticket prices come down?

Elevators
We’ve all seen the sign that reads “Capacity XX people (YYY kg)” in lifts. If the average weight of human beings comes down, then lift manufacturers could actually reduce material costs by not having to support higher loads at the same safety factor. In fact, this will affect the whole construction industry! Support less loading per square metre equates to dollars saved. 

Fitness trackers
With the ozempic working and with same motivation to exercise might spur a parallel inclination to track progress. Health tracking devices from the Apple Watch to Garmin have been around for a while now and they’ll become more popular as people start comparing their actual less heavy lives with digital reporting validating their achievements. 

Pets
Turns out there’s some work done with GLP-1 and pets! Some diabetic dogs and cats have been injected with these drugs with positive benefits. It might be some time before these studies are sufficiently validated for prescribed use but it seems like we’re gonna get there soon. Happier, healthier pets means happier owners. 

Hospitals and insurance
If people become healthier, will people need doctors as much? Will insurance companies need to pay out less for the same reason? 

Will umbrellas and sofas become smaller? Hmmm.