archivalreflections

[archivalreflections]

The Red Palace

The Red Palace by June Hur is one of my most anticipated books of the year. I've read it shortly after its publication. But sorry for the late update. It's a 5 star read for me (first of this year).

al bacio 🖤

I completely adored this author's previous books, The Silence of bones and The Forest of Stolen Girls and looking forward for her upcoming books.

A short*Book Review*

Joseon (Korea), 1758. There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but through hard work and study, eighteen-year-old Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job, and perhaps finally win her estranged father's approval.

But Hyeon is suddenly thrust into the dark and dangerous world of court politics when someone murders four women in a single night, and the prime suspect is Hyeon's closest friend and mentor. Determined to prove her beloved teacher's innocence, Hyeon launches her own secret investigation.

This book is a non-european, non-western muder mystery set in the Joeson dynasty along with its social, racial commentaries. The characters are interesting and realistic. I am not someone who cares or like romance aspects in book but I am really glad to see a nontoxic healthy romantic relationship in a ya book. The Korean historical references and elements are well embedded in the story and the ending warped up everything in a good way. It's fast-paced, adventurous, very atmospheric, complex in its own way. I am in love with the cover too.

"When the time comes, You watch out for me. And I will always watch out for you."

"We are women,” she continued, “and nothing short of death stops us from doing precisely what we wish to do. That is what the laws and restrictions binding our lives breed: determination and cunning. The likes of you will not obey me. You will tell me that you intend to be as still as a rock, and yet I know you will dart from shadow to shadow like a fish." -June Hur

[archivalreflections]

Diabetes and Sleep: The Connection

 What do diabetes specialists have to say?

Diabetes mellitus has been a scourge of the developed world with an estimated 415 million people worldwide suffering from this disease which is estimated to be 1 in 11 of the world's adult population. The figure is expected to rise to 642 million people living with diabetes intercontinentally by 2040. Its early symptoms are increased thirst and large volumes of urine that are caused by the body’s inability to produce or properly use insulin with two types of diabetes – Type 1 and Type 2. Like diabetes, insufficient sleep duration is recognized as a prime unmet public health problem and increases the diabetes threat in the population. Vise versa, multiple studies have shown that irregular sleep patterns promote glucose intolerance which leads to diabetes. Needless to say, diabetes and sleep are important aspects of human health that are often overlooked. Despite their seemingly unrelated nature, they have a strong correlation.

On one hand, diabetes can root for changes in our hormones, which can impact our sleep. For example, insulin is a hormone that helps to regulate our blood sugar levels. If our blood sugar levels are too high, we may produce more insulin than we need, which may create a path to insulin resistance. This can make it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep as repeated awakenings at night, excessive sleep, lack of sleep, etc. On the other hand, it would be difficult to fall asleep at night since diabetes can generate nerve damage. Furthermore, diabetes also plays a huge part to fabricate changes in blood circulation, which in turn can make it onerous to get deep, restful sleep.

Sleep disorders such as insomnia, and sleep apnoea can directly affect your diabetes levels and as well as increase the origin sources. Studies found less than 7 hours of sleep regularly will make diabetes harder to manage and also increases the risk of type 2 diabetes among children. Qualitative sleep can be noted since some people may not feel rested even after sleeping enough or long hours. Through advancing technologies and scientific research, you can easily measure the quality, and time taken off your sleep, and snoring by taking a Polysomnography (sleep study.) Conserving a sedentary lifestyle along with nutritious dieting assists to make a proper balance between mind and body, and sleeping better.

In conclusion, although more research is needed to dig deep into this regard, there is enough evidence to suggest that there is a connection between diabetes and sleep. This connection may be because both diabetes and sleep disorders can cause changes in hormone levels, which can then affect the other condition. Therefore, if you have diabetes and are having difficulty sleeping, it is important to discuss this with your doctor, as there may be treatments that can help address both conditions or change your treatment plans. We hope to have our diabetes in control along with a regular sleeping pattern. But the question is: Can we have both?

[archivalreflections]

Post-pandemic work stead: Hectic or Hockey?

The COVID-19 pandemic has indiscriminately reformulated every county, development, and field on various levels and in unpredictable ways to humankind from our daily lifestyle to medicine, technology, economy, culture, agriculture, production industry, etc. Needless to say, our work and career progression are also going through enormous and monumental shifts with many new trends and possibilities where we are introduced to “Work from Home” and “Hybrid Work Models”. In the past, we were used to a more traditional workplace structure that took place in physical places under a top-down communication model, and all of a sudden we have to transfer to these unprepared practices not only for the job but also mentally. 

The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) has had to expand according to these drifts and employees’ expectations. This might be a provocation for specific organizations to follow their traditional systems but it is an exciting opening for a fresh, employee-friendly work-stead. These current changes can be looked at under three categories: Social and cultural level, Economic level, and Psychological level. 

Hybrid work became the mainstream of the post-pandemic world with a human-eccentric model by utilizing employee-driven flexibility, culture connectedness, and human leadership. Simply put, a hybrid worker or hybrid employee is a person who works from home part-time (or another non-employer location) and works at an employer location part of the time. Undoubtedly, our future is largely dependent on this work model when there is a risk of losing 39 % of the workforce if an organization were to go back to a full on-site arrangement. It made us re-explore how we work and how we choose a career. Shorter work weeks, changing employer-employee relationships, increasing data collection and virtual health offerings are some of the benefits embedded in the new work culture and on a social measure. 

On an economical level, the turnover has significantly expanded because of the lower emotional cost, flexible job policies, wage growth, changing values, e-commerce, and more. It also helped to build an internal labor market to attract employees and move to jobs without exiting the company as 52% of workers reported flexible work will affect the decision to stay at their organization. In most countries, the online job volume has turned down the unemployment rate and allows people to self-venture.

Psychological safety, the belief that one can speak up without the danger of punishment or humiliation, has been an effective driver of a healthy workplace and career dynamics in the post-pandemic world. A new study demonstrates that hybrid workers report higher levels of psychological safety, direct supervisor support, and autonomy. This benefit also enhances and provides space for people to engage in jobs and select careers in consonance with their personalities. For example, extroverts tend to thrive in social situations with strong communication skills, whereas introverts can be comfortable in their preferred environments to bring the best out of them. Here, well-being functions as the encouragement indicator to retain coherent traders and to avoid survival mode in offices. In order, these were the workplace perks those surveyed found most important for the workers’ well-being:

Employee discounts (50%)

Flexible working hours (40%)

Ability to work remotely (37%)

Time off for mental health (35%)

Unfortunately, we also have the flip side of the coin to understand the meaning of this work-stead progression. Lack of job security, the rise of “Anti-work culture”, discomfort and ambiguity that comes with the workstation changes, deficiency of critical talent, the great resignations, worldwide labor shortages, inflation, and deflation, worsening DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) outcomes, rising Gen Z’s engrossment in wanting an in-person work experience, declining outputs can be considered as the pitfalls of these new work models. 

Even though COVID-19 has brought numerous opportunities for careers and occasions to improvise the needed skills such as agility, time management, cross-cultural knowledge, etc., the durable-goods manufacturing industries and manual jobs are facing extreme downfalls. When it comes to determining a career, these new hybrid and work-from-home models have been drying out certain fabrications and at the same time enabling excessive supply for other ones since work gaps are explainable and challenging human capital through machinery and AIs to balance the demand. 

The planet is already experiencing disruption in the workspace, maybe in the form of furlough as a change in work responsibilities or a virtual working environment as we’re forced to rethink our methods and careers to capitalize on that force. By examining these factors, we can pinpoint that post-pandemic progression in work and career reflects duality in its productivity. On one hand, we could say that these changes will create new opportunities and pathways for fresh talents in the sense of looking at the upper hand. But on the other hand, it is still an ongoing process to articulate the actuality of the situation in this rapidly swapping world which is proven to be hectic and hockey. 

(Source:https://www.myhrtoolkit.com/blog/best-workplace-perks)

(Source:https://hbr.org/2021/04/what-psychological-safety-looks-like-in-a-hybrid-workplace)

[archivalreflections]

Eden

So I just finished reading Eden by Tim Lebbon. It's an eco-horror/ sci-fi novel following a group of explorers into a Virgin Zone Eden.

A short *Book Review*

I really enjoyed the book and eco-horror is one of favorite sub genres of horror. This book has a lot of similar promises as Annihilation which drew me in along with eerie and creepy, dark moments. The book holds some interesting discussion about humanity versus nature by reflecting natural side of horror or horror with humanity as how nature would fight against us and preserve itself. But it also shows the dark side of preservation.

One thing I didn't like about this book is its pacing. It is slightly off sometimes and very much slow at the beginning and suddenly took off at the end with nonstop actions. I think the ex- Israeli solider character aspect is not relevant to the plot and unnecessary but it didn't really discussed further in the novel.

The book definitely portrays Freud's theory of uncanniness with its atmosphere and descriptions which I very much liked.

I would give it 3.75 stars and recommend as it represents the eco-horror sub genre well which is embedded throughout the novel. Liked it. 😊

"Jenn often thought about what might be left behind if humanity finally wiped itself out. Selina’s comment that these Virgin Zones were glimpses of the future, not the past, had made her view them in a different way." -Tim Lebbon