00:11
Alright, so I was just about to start talking with you on
風水, the new stuff that I learned about 風水 from my local colleagues. I forgot what it's
called in Cantonese, like feng shui or something like that, right? But it's the same character,
like 風に水っていう。 Well, I mean, I am no 風水 expert, but I, you know, like I have heard
about it. I generally thought, you know, it's one of those things where like you should put yellow
items on like your western side of your house to enhance your financial stability or something
Is it 風水 too? 北枕? Like when you sleep? So I think 北枕 is also probably feng shui,
but like, so it's so three of us colleagues, it's me, a Hong Kong girl and Korean girl,
and we all realized that each of our home, like respective home countries have
slightly different like versions of 北枕 and I forgot which one, but like
we all have a common direction that you shouldn't face when you're asleep, but it's different,
like it's not always 北枕. And there are some other, I forgot exactly the details, but yeah,
so we were just like comparing this like feng shui thing because, and the whole discussion started,
and by the way, this is three scientists, right? So, you know, just be mindful about that. But
so this whole thing started when we went out to get lunch, buy lunch one day, and we, you know,
passed by 7-Eleven and my local colleague was like, oh, let me check if they have the feng shui
calendar already. Yeah. And we were like, what? Like, what do you mean feng shui calendar? And
why are you buying them at 7-Eleven? So it turns out that in the Hong Kong variety of feng shui,
they change this like, you know, whole directional instructions or the color instruction, they change
every year. So, right? Like, I thought it was like a fixed thing. And I mean, I don't know
what is right. I'm just like speaking out of my ass now. But, you know, like a red wallet is good
for your finance or like, you should have a green item in your bathroom to like, circulate your chi
and stuff like that. So every year, I thought it was fixed. Yeah, me too. I thought it was fixed.
03:06
But so every year, all the feng shui, so the details of the directions.
Yeah, the combination of the direction and the colors and items. They change. Crystals. Yeah,
they change. I didn't know that. And that's why. Yeah. So, I mean, what is all depend on?
So how does it? Is it because of the? I don't know. I guess, I guess it's like the. So at least
in Hong Kong, she said that there's like one or two, like two major, like, feng shui master,
you know, feng shui sifu, who
are like the
Do they discuss with each other or they just publish it separately?
No, no, it's just one book. It's a joint publication. But I don't know if that means
like the two of them discuss or if like one of them do like first half of the year.
And then the next day, they just take turns. I don't know. Yeah. But
yeah, I have no clue. It's I just thought it was fascinating that
because I thought it was fixed. It's like Kitamakura, right? Yeah, it's always, you know,
we were taught that it's always bad to have Kitamakura. Not that I don't know. I don't
even know which direction my apartment is right now. So I don't know which way is Kitamakura.
But you don't know the direction of the, for example, I mean, I never thought about it.
But okay, so this way window. So this way is central. So central. So that's how does the
light coming through your window in the morning or in the late afternoon?
I didn't pay attention to that when I was getting the apartment. But now that I think,
okay, okay, my bed is safe. It's not Kitamakura. Well, I think it's okay.
I have both like the biggest windows are facing. This is south. Oh, nice. It's, it's,
it's like my, my apartment is facing the street. Okay. And across the street, there's a taller
building. So like, I see the light. And it's quite bright in the morning, but it's not like a direct
light. And I also have, like smaller bathroom window in the in the in the north direction. So
06:04
yeah, but no, I remember thinking that, oh, I get a lot of natural light, but I didn't really
consider which direction it's coming from. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so well, back to Fonsui
though. I just think it's interesting that it changes every year. It's such a good money making
scheme for these people, you know, like they get to say whatever every year. And it seems like a lot
of people purchase these like Fonsui instruction calendar thing every year. So I wonder if it
applies to all the human beings or all the animals. So I'm not sure. I mean, like, I don't
know about animals, but like, you know, how can you verify that? Right? Like, can you ask your
dog? Like, hey, have you had a good year today? How's your money going? Financial status. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. But so my local friend said that they consider her age or her birthday
or birth time sometimes for like a more accurate thing. So I guess I thought Fonsui was all about
direction and colors. But I guess that's only one part of it. And there's like a bigger sort of
like bigger chart or some kind of statistics. That's another thing. She said that it's like,
they believe that it's based on this like gigantic population wide statistics. And it's not just
like some voodoo magic pulling shit out of their ass kind of like BS.
And she said that it's kind of, yeah, it's accumulated statistics, which isn't so obvious.
I mean, obviously, as scientists, we had questions about, you know, how exactly they're collecting
these data or, you know, how long back it goes, like how long of a historical data we're talking
about, you know, are we talking about like, ever since China existed or like, you know, and so there
are lots of, you know, questions. And generally, I say to anything that involves Uranai or Fonsui,
anything, just take it as a grain of salt, right? Like, you don't want to fully believe in it. But
like, if it's harmless, why not, if you want to, and if it makes you feel, if it makes you feel
better to have a yellow wallet, you know, by all means, do it, right? Like, I'm not stopping you
from getting a yellow wallet. But if that yellow wallet costs you like 500,000, then maybe think
about it, right? Yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, do you believe in, it's like, you know, knock on the
09:10
knock on the wood thing? How do you call this? You know, jinx? Yeah, jinx type stuff. Do you have any
particular practice that you do? Like, like, when I'm nervous? Yeah, it's something important to do.
Right. When you feel like you need some luck? So I generally, first of all, by principle,
believe that if you prepare enough, you don't need luck. Yeah. And I don't like saying good luck to
my friends, especially if it's something that is like, that they work super hard on. Like, sometimes
it's just luck, right? Like, you know, I don't know, good luck on your first day, because you
can't do anything about it, right? So that's, that's how I use good luck. But if they are,
let's say, defending their thesis, or doing something like that, I don't say good luck,
I'm just like, do your best or like break a leg, just like say something else. Because I do believe
that they've prepared enough to not need luck. Having said that, from my performance days from
dancing, I have learned this really interesting trick of like calming your nerves. So right before
performance, you're really like, you know, adrenaline is rushing through, you're kind of
excited, you're like restless, right? But when you're in a restless state, sometimes it works
in your favor, you have more energy, right? But more often than not, in dancing, when you have to
physically perform something, having too much adrenaline tires you out more quickly than you
normally can perform. Sometimes that's how you get through a really difficult piece. But some,
some other times, I mean, most of the times, you don't want to be that tired. So my choreographer
taught me this trick, and it's like a breathing technique from yoga, I think, that she learned.
Basically, you close one nostrils. So like,
and then you repeat that over and over again. Basically, and
it really slows down your heart rate. Okay, I don't know why I think it's like, I think it's
some like physiological reflex. Okay. Yeah. Like when you when you breathe in a certain way,
12:05
you're like, I can, I can hear my heart slowing down. And, and when you hear that, I think your
brain associates that with you becoming calmer, right? So you kind of, like you, you get into
sort of like a semi zoned out kind of state. And I found that to be helpful right before my
presentation, if I'm especially nervous about it. Because, you know, a few minutes before your
really important talk, like, you're not going to fix your PowerPoint, you're not gonna like,
go to the bathroom, but you have a couple of minutes, you need to kill time by yourself.
And it's good to have something to do sometimes.
Um, I often fix my slide until until like, right before you go on.
And then I just jump into the presentation. Yeah, that happens. Maybe, maybe that's what you can do
when you're like a veteran researcher, you like get to that level. And well, I don't know why,
but usually it works better than just waiting. And yeah, with Yeah, well, everyone needs to
do something with themselves, right? Whether it's Yeah, like, doing something. Yeah,
a little different story. But because there are several, there are usually several different
presentations going before my present my talk. So I think about the context of this, all these
talks, and then I kind of make minor revisions. And also, depending on the atmosphere of the
symposium itself, I kind of adjust to make it like a little bit of
a little bit of, um,
Oh, they look sleepy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
But this, yeah. I mean, yeah, I realize, yeah, I realize we, we, we started off with
Fousey, and now we're talking about presentations. Sorry.
But, um, yeah, that's what I do. The breathing technique, the four counts in four counts,
stop four counts out, I think you can do it with eight counts also. Yeah. But the Yeah,
and then once you go from left to right, you do right to left, and then left to right,
and back and forth. It seems to work. Yeah. If you if you if you don't want to fix your slides
right before, but you still want to do something yourself. Okay. All right. Thank you.
15:08
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us on X at Eigo de Science.
That is E I G O D E S C I E N C. See you next time.
