Runner

One thing I discover recently is that come summer, every run gives me buckets of sweat. That's fine. Runners are addicted to perspiration, desperate for the runners' high.

My favorite Sunday evening activity is running to Science Park for dinner. Off I ran tonight. A silver lining in running 8 kilometres as mercury rises above 36 degrees is the extra highs. My head burnt with unwavering joy and endorphins.

After dinner, I saw a waiter running even faster than me, and probably close to Usain Bolt. I fixed my eyes on this extraordinary runner, puzzled with his pace. Eventually he stopped running. He turned out to be chasing a customer who had left a bottle behind.

That is a splendid run. Random act of kindness, according to American psychologist Martin Seligman, gives us the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise that has been tested. To return my kindness, I went to tell him he is splendid. 

The waiter must have had even more endorphins than me. If you ask me, mine is a close runner-up.

 

Tech

I stopped at public library en route to running home this Saturday, and borrowed a novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Tyler: Redhead by the Side of the Road.

To my surprise, I'd finished reading the story within three days. That's about Micah Mortimer, a self-employed computer fix-it guy calling himself the Tech Hermit. To be precise, the Tech Hermit mostly serves old ladies in his neighbourhood.

I don't want to compare myself (but close enough) to the computer illiterate customers of the Tech Hermit, but Micah conjured up the technical support hotline I often encounter at work. Micah's favorite answer says it best, "Did you try turning it off and then on again?"

No single advice better expresses the essence of what we need to deal with a computer glitch.