cycling
Hey, it's exam season （＞人＜；）
I've been feeling quite stressed lately. Any time I would decide to do something I enjoy, like rewatch House M.D. or read a book, I'd feel immensely guilty for wasting time. My brain would annoyingly tug at me, whispering that I should be studying, asking if I had forgotten about the piles of practice papers I hadn't done yet.
Needless to say, this relentless torment has resulted in a tense demeanour and a subtle but not imperceptible ache between my eyebrows. As such, I took a day off this Monday to go cycling with my father -- an activity I've long withheld from.
Why did I stop myself from cycling, you may ask. Well, this sort of restraint was not internal but external. This year, in early February, my brother had a biking accident which left him with a long scar on his knee and one less tooth in his jaw. Don't fret! We brought him to the emergency ward at a hospital, where the doctors tied his tooth back in place. They reassured us, saying that it was likely the tooth would reattach itself to his gums. The only downside was that he had to eat liquid food for about a month, and wash his mouth with a foul-tasting antiseptic to keep the regrowing site clean. I'd describe the solution as astringent, since it was an antiseptic, but I would not know for I never tasted it myself and my brother is not present to advise me.
Why the need for this antiseptic mouthwash anyway? Well, the tooth was practically digging its way back into the gum, or the gum was reaching out to the tooth. Many blood vessels supply nutrients and oxygen to the gums, so any bacteria in his mouth could easily infiltrate into his bloodstream at this pubescent regrowing phase.
Here's an overview of what we experienced on that fateful day:
Once you arrive, your practitioner will carefully examine the area and clean the dental socket to prevent infection. The tooth may be reinserted and stabilized using a small wire or splint that connects it to the surrounding teeth. This helps hold it in place while the bone and tissue begin to reattach.
If the tooth is out of the socket for an extended period of time, you may need to have additional procedures. Sometimes, a root canal may be necessary to remove the damaged pulp and prevent future infection. In some cases, the tooth can be successfully bonded back to the surrounding bone if it is stabilized quickly and correctly.
Over the next several weeks, your emergency dentist will monitor the healing process. Your reimplanted teeth need time and proper care to reintegrate fully. This is why your practitioner encourages you to return to the dental practice for periodic checkups and X-rays for a fast recovery experience.
Source: Can a Knocked Out Tooth Be Reattached? - The Village Dentistry
My brother's tooth was outside his mouth for 4 hours, which originally gave the doctors much doubt over whether it could reattach to his gums. A few days after the original visit, my brother and mother returned to the hospital for a root canal. From that point onwards, dental appointments have become a frequent occurence in our household. He had to go about once every week at the start, but now it's more like once every month or two months. He has an appointment today, and I bet that he's just jumping with glee as he gets to skip his extracurricular classes. Instead of socialising with his classmates, he'll be hanging out in a sterilised dental office, swinging his legs as he sits on the elevated examination bed.
Enough about my brother and his tragic accident. It was raining quite heavily on Monday, but the elements never deterred me from doing what I wanted. As such, I donned a huge waterproof jacket and my favourite hat, trudging forwards in the pouring rain. My face was upturned and the water streaked down my face, making it feel like nature's best face mask.
Speaking of face masks, my mother had used one yesterday night, during our nightly House M.D. episode binge. Not only that, she interrupted my serene viewing experience by asking me to help her tighten her hand masks. Yes, hand masks. What?
Anyways, away from face masks, onwards to cycling! We had to stop multiple times under a small, wooden shelter because the rain was so strong. Plus, my father didn't bring a single protective item, not even a hat! As we set off into the storm, he had mumbled to himself, "I should get a jacket, hm?"
While we were waiting for the rain to get weaker, my father exclaimed that he was losing money! See, apparently his key for his bicycle lock was rusted to the point where it simply could not fit in his lock anymore, let alone unlock it. As such, he had to desert his bicycle and use one of the rental bicycles instead. The way these rented bicycles work is that they charge you, in this case $1 per hour, for using the bike, regardless of whether you're actually cycling or not.
So, as we sat there in the slanting downpour, my father grumbled to the rain gods and threatened to cancel the trip if they didn't stop their tomfoolery. Now, he didn't actually threaten to cancel our cycling trip. He was referring to the bicycle rental app, where you had to click the button labelled "cancel trip" to stop the timer and stop paying money.
He actually did press the button, but was unable to actually stop bleeding from his wallet as we were nowhere near a parking station. See, if people were allowed to park their rental bicycles wherever they wanted, how would anyone actually rent one of these bicycles, when they were stranded in the middle of nowhere? As such, this business strategy made a lot of sense to me. Weirdly, it didn't make sense to my father, who was pretty well-versed in business strategies, being a former salesperson and all. Furthermore, he always boasted about having expert entrepreneurial knowledge.
As he was lamenting about parking spaces, the rain suddenly let up. My dad shot me a toothy grin and dramatically announced, "The gods have answered my prayers!" He wasn't even religous.
The rest of the ride was pretty good. Since it had just rained really heavily, the temperatures were low and the air sort of misty. We were riding on a track I probably know by heart now, so I expected a smooth-sailing journey. Pleasantly, though the road stayed the same, the sights and scenes changed. New roads were paved and areas were expanded as construction works progressed. I commented on this new landscape to my father, who replied with a rather wise line.
The city is always changing. It waits for no one.
I didn't see this as a bad thing. No, I was never one to long for past wonders or dwell on things bygone. Instead I marvelled at how, despite riding down the same trail I've rode 10 times before, I can still be surprised by the sights I come across. The fact that I can ride on a different surface, my wheels sliding at a different angle, despite being on the exact same trajectory, takes an immense amount of energy (and cement) to reform roads and guide them into new dimensions and elevations. Such a powerful force is modern construction.
As I talk about this, physical construction, my mind is also reeling back to biological construction. From CRISPR, a sophisticated gene-editing technology, to bone cement that literally rebuilds your spine, bodily construction is just as amazing as infrastructural construction. The ability to mold and alter something to your desires, to make it as efficient or beautiful, as in plastic surgery or visual gentrification, as possible. Construction of any kind has always effortlessly demonstrated mankind's power over his environment.
With power comes abuse, and I'm sure you're well aware of the various environmental problems that come with excessive urbanisation. This also applies to bodies, of course, as seen in surgeries gone wrong and horrible mutations arising from gene-editing experiments. But, like all endeavours, perhaps these mistakes need to happen, in order for advancement of any kind? Without environmental pollution resulting from physical construction, would we have architects scrambling for sustainable designs? Without experiments gone wrong, would we have stricter laws and more concerns surrounding biological construction? With every mistake is a piece of knowledge gained, and with that puzzle piece we can step forward, with greater certainty that we will be right the next time.
This train of thought is why I dislike people who call for more sustainable designs, safer surgical techniques and error-free gene-editing technologies. How do you expect them to obtain such technology without making a few mistakes down the road? With all this media scrutiny over every little mishap, there is no room for mistakes, good-natured experimentation that brings about such revolutionary advancements. How about we stop oohing and aahing at every bad thing that happens and trust in the scientists and experts that they are doing the best they can to minimize these events? Because they are, and our relentless bickering about things bygone contribute nothing. It already happened, so the only thing we can do is find out why it happened. And rest assured, the experts already know how to ensure that it probably won't happen again. But there's never a guarantee, this is not a controlled environment. Stop trying to control it and be satisfied with 95%. Because without that 5% of errors, there is 0% of progress.
After reaching our destination, a huge park comprising of a dense mangrove forest, we cycled around languidly, tires rolling on the smooth wet pavement. My father led me down a rocky dirt path, intending to ride down it. Unfortunately, his rental bicycle's wheels were too thin and the grainy particles that made up the path proved too unstable for him to cycle properly. As he bobbed up and down on the uneven ground, my father let out an amused yelp and I couldn't help but laugh at his predicament.
He got off his bicycle and pushed it down the path, which led to a community garden area, with plots marked out for each gardener to make use of. As we examined the various plants, my father would quiz me on what type of plant we were looking at. Not to brag, but I got most of them correct. Every time he said, "Correct!" with a twinkle in his eye, I would feel like an intrepid naturalist, seeking out the natural world with my two peckish eyes, binoculars strapped around my neck and decked out in a green, badly-camouflaging outfit, complete with a red bandana and a little dark green hat. Despite my hat being black and white and me not having any of the other items aforementioned, my naturalist persona was undampened and roared into a fire inside me.
The garden mostly contained chilli plants, most of which were red but one of which was a green chilli plant. The little fruits were adorable, and the intricate weaving stems and branches were simply mesmerizing. Unfortunately, the garden was largely untended to and several ripe fruits had fallen to the floor, while others were left on the plants unharvested. Out of the selfishness of his heart, my father suggested taking a few. He reasoned that they were going to go bad anyway, so if they were going to fall, why not into our hands?
Honestly, I had been thinking the same thing. But thinking is not the same as doing. Stealing from a public community garden was probably a recognised crime carrying a hefty fine or even a jail term, but this didn't seem to deter my father. He wanted those free chillis and he was going to get them. As I acted as his lookout, I couldn't help but feel a thrill at this highly illegal thing we were doing. It was fun.
After stashing our hoard into my father's Under Armour backpack, we cycled one round around the park before heading back home. Due to the steep incline we had to traverse, coupled with the sheer distance to cover, my thighs were burning by the time we got back to the little shelters we had camped out at earlier. My father suggested getting a pizza as a late lunch, and my stomach hungrily agreed.
Under Armour has always fascinated me, ever since I was walking along a fancy gentrified street and stumbled upon one of its stores. The name gives off a very militaristic vibe, which is compatible with most sports junkies: men. I mean, my brother definitely liked it.
Under Armour, Inc. is an American sportswear company that manufactures footwear and apparel.
Source: Under Armour - Wikipedia
Intrigued by the company's name, its apparent success and my brother's admiration for it, I scoured the Wikipedia page of Under Armour to gain some juicy knowledge. Shockingly, I found many references to media publicity being the reason for Under Armour's success.
People began to take notice of the brand when a front-page photo of USA Today featured...wearing an Under Armour mock turtleneck. In 2000, Under Armour became the outfitter of the new XFL football league.
Also, the fact that Under Armour went on a shopping spree for fitness apps gave me a shock. Why would they do such a thing?
After its November 2013 acquisition of digital app maker MapMyFitness for US$150,000,000... In February 2015, Under Armour announced it had purchased the calorie and nutrition counting app maker MyFitnessPal for $475m, as well as the fitness app maker Endomondo for US$85,000,000.
That's a lot of money.
Kevin Plank, Founder and CEO of Under Armour, said, "We will build on the community of over 20 million registered users that MapMyFitness has cultivated... together we will serve as a destination for the measurement and analytics needs of all athletes..."
Source: Release
A huge challenge that Under Armour faces is its ability to effectively utilize the data that it has captured to drive higher retail sales. While Kevin Plank argues that Under Armour’s data apps drive people to be more active, and more active people buy sports gear, I’m not entirely convinced that this helps drive more Under Armour sales (which typically sell to a premium of other more traditional sports brands). Under Armour also faces heavy competition from peers such as Nike who have also developed a digital war chest and are following a similar strategy. Lastly, Under Armour will need to hire and retain the technical talent to effectively analyze the data it has captured. With the fight for technical talent at an all-time high, it will be challenging for a retail company such as Under Armour to encourage technical talent to work at their firm over other tech-savvy firms in Silicon Valley.
With Under Armour’s 2017 sales only growing at 3.1% y-o-y, it is highly unlikely that the Company will achieve its originally stated goal of generating up to $7.5bn of revenue by 2018 based on organic growth alone.
Well, appearances can be deceiving. Who would've known that a chic, modern sportswear boutique on a high-end street could've actually been struggling financially? Personally, I think that the company blew most of its finances on aquiring those 3 fitness apps. If only Under Armour had the hindsight of every programmer scrambling onto the app scene and developing multi-functional, stylised and integrated apps for just about every use imaginable. I mean, if you could see the productivity app landscape now, would you still invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a few measly apps with barely a million users?
Well, regardless of how Under Armour's fiscal year is turning out, it undoubtedly is a cool brand that ticks all the boxes. My father attests to its long-lasting quality, and my brother likes the shoes appearance and feel. Last but not least, everyone likes the name!
After our very filling lunch, we slowly made our way back home in the pleasant coolness of a usually humidly hot afternoon (～￣▽￣)～
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