R.E.T.R.O. | Apr 2024

Rabbit hole • Experience • Teach • Run • Office

Rabbit hole 🐇

For the past couple of months, I’ve been struggling with acne. I used to think acne disappeared after puberty, but it doesn’t.

I have combination skin, with an oily T-zone and dry cheeks. Most of my breakouts occur in the T-zone.

Acne can be triggered by various factors.

I suspect mine include hormonal factors.

In my battle against acne, I’ve scoured the internet and am trying a combination of methods:

Method 1 — Limiting germ and microbe transfer by:

• Avoiding touching my face

Trying to stop unconsciously touching your face is hard.

• Changing my pillowcases more frequently

Method 2 — Using topical skincare products to remove dead skin cells:

Acne is a skin condition that occurs when hair follicles become plugged with oil and dead skin cells.

Clogged pores lead to acne.

Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the top layer of your skin. There are physical exfoliant (such as scrubs) and chemical exfoliants (such as AHAs and BHAs).

• AHAs (alpha-hydroxy acids) tend to be water-soluble.
• BHAs (beta-hydroxy acids) tend to be oil-soluble and include compounds such as salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide.

In the skincare community, BHAs are used to treat acne.

I am trying the CeraVe Acne Foaming Cleaner containing 4% benzoyl peroxide. I heard benzoyl peroxide is more potent than salicylic acid.

Method 3 — Changing my diet by:

• Reducing sugar intake. Excess sugar can cause inflammation in the body. Since acne is an inflammatory response to bacteria and clogged follicles, eating less sugar may help reduce inflammation.
• Reducing dairy intake. Dairy products can contain growth hormones that may disrupt the body’s hormone balance. If my acne is hormonal, reducing dairy intake might help balance my hormones.
• Eating less red meats. Red meats may also contain hormones that can disrupt the body’s hormone balance.
• Drinking “leung cha” (herbal tea)

According to traditional Chinese theory, eating greasy, fried, and spicy foods is considered “Yeet Hay” (literally translated as ‘hot air’). When the body has too much Yeet Hay it is thought to cause body ailments, including skin conditions.

To counteract the Yeet Hay, the theory recommends drinking “Leung Cha” (literally translated as ‘cool tea’) / Chinese herbal tea.

Chinese herbal tea: history, health and how to make it

I don’t know if I believe in this theory.

There are many types of Leung Cha.

I’m drinking Chrysanthemum Tea.

Method 4 —Getting more sleep:

The body repairs itself during deep sleep.
My goal is to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night.

Experience

I’m not a hockey fan, but this feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity:

We watched a Canucks game live from a private suite.

Here are some photos from that night.

Round 1 Game 5 — Vancouver Canucks vs Nashville Predators. The score is 3–1. A win tonight meant proceeding to the next round.

In the suite, food awaited us. I watched my colleagues buy jerseys and beer, take photos with Fin the Whale, and have an overall good time.

The stadium erupted when the Canucks scored the first goal in the 3rd period. However, to our disappointment, the Predators emerged victorious.

Teach

Ever wonder about death? In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, funeral director and mortician Caitlin Doughty gives her professional stab at answering “big questions from tiny mortals about death.”

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads.

I found these sections interesting:

> Will I poop when I die?

You might poop when you die…if you happen to have feces or urine in the chamber at the moment of your passing, they’re free to go.

She then goes onto describe 3 ways morticians prevent “leaks” when the family comes to visit the body. The third method involving cotton and 🧵…

> If someone is trying to sell a house, do they have to tell the buyer someone died there?

The laws differ from place to place on what someone selling a house is legally required to tell the buyer. Generally speaking, if someone died a “peaceful death” in a home (meaning it wasn’t part of an ax murderer’s chopping spree), the seller doesn’t have to tell the buyer. The same goes for accidental deaths (say, falling off a ladder) and suicides.

Good to know.

> I went to the show where dead bodies with no skin play soccer. Can we do that with my body?

If you choose to donate your body and be plastinated, you’ll be preserved with formaldehyde, dissected, and dehydrated.

TIL — there is an exhibition that uses real human corpses.

BODY WORLDS - Take an eye-opening journey under the skin!

Run

Almost every year, it rains during the Sun Run. However, this year, the weather was perfect.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, we wait for the starting bell. The black arch marks the starting line.

The Sun Run is 10 km. I finished in 1hr 8min.

Racers gather in BC Place to celebrate and get some free stuff. Growing hungry, we stopped at Five Guys for lunch.

Office

April 1st is April Fools’ Day, a day when pranksters come together to play tricks and practical jokes.

We got and email.

The facilities team announced the office renovations are complete and we would be able to move back upstairs on April 1st, with the assurance it was “no joke.”

I found it funny xD

Here is an Instagram reel of our office walkthrough:

Visier on Instagram: "Join us on a tour of our newly renovated Vancouver office! ✨ When redesigning…