Posts Tagged ‘behavior’

Brand loyalty

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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dog, loyaltyI am a brand loyal type of gal.  There are definitely certain brands that I prefer and remain loyal to, whether or not they are the best product/service out there.  I believe this stems from my loyal nature in general.  I’m certainly very loyal to my friends, my schools, even the places I’ve lived.  I do what I can to be on their side and defend them against differing opinions.  The same goes for products I use – it seems that part of why I learn so much about them is so I can explain them to the ignorant or the skeptics.  And when my beloved brands are in trouble, I’m fretting along with them, hoping they’ll survive and giving them as much business as I can manage (like today at the Mongolian Grill place, where I even left a tip).

I have pretty strong convictions about the Asian food I eat.  In fact,I can think of exactly what brand of soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, shrimp crackers, fish sticks, and saqima I always go for.  I’m a little less picky with my American brands (food or not) and there tend to be one or two major ones of each category that I like.  I’ve stuck to mostly one store for clothes, one bank for checking and two for savings, two brands for computers, one for shampoo, one for toothpaste… you get the idea.

cattle getting branded

Yikes, not that type of branding!

I’m fascinated by branding and what motivates me stick with the brands that I end up choosing.  Once I go for one, it’s really hard for me to switch to something else.  It’s kind of like when I go to a restaurant and choose an item on the menu, the next time I go I’m likely to order the same thing, no matter how hard I try to force myself to get a different dish.  Much of it is because I have expectations the next time I go and no other dish satisfies what I was craving quite like that original one.  And that’s exactly why I wanted to eat at that particular restaurant in the first place: because I was in the mood for that dish I had there.  So similarly I wonder if perhaps I stick with my brands because I expect something very particular from them and I know that I won’t be disappointed.  Though other brands might be better in other areas, those aren’t the areas I value as much.

Yes, now that seems like a reasonable explanation.  But how do they get me in the first place?  I know there’s a certain aesthetic appeal, as well as practicality/functionality.  Sometimes a logo can really make or break it for me.  That first impression tells me a lot:

Is the company innovative and advancing?

Is the company fresh, hip, and cool or too stodgy?

Did they put enough effort into the logo for me to trust that they’d put enough effort into their product/service too?

Does the branding reflect what their company is about or are there mixed messages?

And so images that are too boring, not eye-catching, or memorable are often thrown out pretty quickly.  Names and color schemes have a similar effect, but don’t affect me quite as strongly.  The ones I’m drawn to are also judged based on usefulness and ease of use to determine the ultimate choice.  Oftentimes it’s quite a hard decision, especially when it comes to technology.  With all the new ones coming out, it’s hard to choose which company to go with.  At least in the other arenas, things don’t move quite at that breakneck speed and I’ve settled pretty comfortably into a brand I love.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to which ones can grab my attention, then give me a good enough experience to not want to try somewhere else.

Grazing

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , ,
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Recently, in an effort to save money, I’ve been limiting myself to eating a few large meals throughout the day.  I’m the type of person who loves snacks and usually spends the day munching on smaller portions.  Apparently, experts studying eating habits call this “grazing” and find that it’s not as bad as people have been led to think.  Being a lifetime grazer, I certainly know that that is true, since I’ve always been extremely healthy, despite my so-called “bad” eating habits.  Plus, it has played a role in my relatively steady weight by keeping my metabolism up.

snacksI’ve found that I’m so used to eating small meals throughout the day that this change in eating patterns has really disrupted my body’s rhythm.  Since there is so much time between meals now, I feel ravenous much of the time and even woke up on occasion to be so nauseatingly hungry that I grabbed the nearest snack to scarf down while still lying prone in my bed.  I could barely open my eyes for how tired I was, but I could taste the bile creeping up and I knew I and to something so save my poor stomach.  It was not a pleasant experience and I certainly don’t want to have to deal with it on a weekly basis.

So, I have decided that I really should adhere to my original philosophy of eating when I want, which is nearly constantly throughout the day.  After all, I’m not at the point where I can’t afford to eat when my body says I should, so that attempt at saving money just wasn’t a good idea, considering how much my body had suffered for it.  Therefore, I’m going out to the store in the next couple of days and stocking up on snacks again.  I guess I just can’t live without my little munchies to sustain me every hour or so.  Bah to all those who think that three meals a day is the way to go.  At least for me, it’s just about the worst thing I can do for my health.

IM etiquette

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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“hey”

It’s the most common instant message I receive and the one I’m least likely to respond to.  It’s an opener with no purpose, no direction.  Hey can lead you anywhere, yet nowhere, which is why I usually don’t bother to reply to most people who think that’s enough to start a conversation.  No, I’m a doer.  I need some sort of action and interaction, whether through sharing a statement or asking a question.  A simple greeting via the internet just doesn’t cut it.  Imagine if that’s all you got in e-mails.

“Just wanted to say ‘hi’.”

I wouldn’t even bother answering back to that.  To me, it’s like great, thanks for saying hi… now what?  Why did you greet me?  Did you want to catch up after a long time?  Did you have a question for me?  Did you just want to share a bit of your life?  Give me something to work with here!  It annoys me when people wait hours for me to reply to their one word before finally getting to the point.  I like to get the point as fast as possible and know exactly why I’m spending time interacting with someone.  And so, if people won’t even make the effort to type more than a single greeting to me so I can get an inkling of where they’re trying to take the conversation, I won’t make the effort to get the point out of them.

Even something as simple as “Hey, what’s up?” is fine!  At least then there’s something I can do right away – answer the question!  The conversation may last no more than two lines that way, but I’d at least give you the time of day to respond to the question.  Hey means nothing to me.  The most pointless conversation I ever had was an exchange of “hey”s followed by “what’s up” and “nothing much.”  Seriously, you have nothing better to say?!  -___-  I’m not looking for spectacular conversationalists, but some people really need to get the hint that when I’m not talking to them, it’s because they have given me NOTHING to talk about.

Rant over.  Thank you for listening.  🙂

A drop in the ocean

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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It frustrates me when people don’t do anything because they think it won’t matter.

“Oh, it’s just a drop of water in the ocean, a grain of sand on the beach, a star in the night sky.  Without that drop, the ocean is still as expansive; without that grain, the beach is still as solid; without that star, the night sky is still as bright.  You’ll never miss it.”

Everything has an origin point.  Don't underestimate just one little thing.  photo credit: shannonstanley.wordpress.com

Everything has an origin point. Don't underestimate just one little thing. photo credit: shannonstanley.wordpress.com

But you know what?  It does matter!  That one drop creates ripples, affecting its neighbors that then affect their neighbors until a wave builds up.  Besides, actions reflect a mentality, so not making one small change here can lead to not making another small change there.  If you work incrementally, the next thing you know, you’ve made a huge change.  It takes time and patience to see results that are truly worthy of gaining, as well as persistence.

Every time you leave the water running, don’t turn off the lights, don’t donate your time or money, and otherwise deem things too much effort and not enough tangible reward, you are increasing the vicious cycle of inaction and indifference.  Aggregated, each little action adds up to become a trend, a movement.  And thus, nobody should ever give up from the get-go, thinking, “Well it won’t really matter that much overall.”  It can and it will, if you stick to it, then start to affect the people in your life too.  Eventually, you’ll have something on a scale you never imagined, because the power of compounding has taken effect and created something much larger than just you.

And so, I’m going to start increasing the number of registered bone marrow donors (particularly ones of Asian descent), one person at a time until we get a massive database.  It’s pathetic that there’s only 7% of Asian Americans on the US who are currently available to donate when there are thousands of people in need.  I’ve already gotten some friends to enter themselves into the registry and slowly started to educate them not only on the need, but the misconception that it is a painful procedure to extract the marrow.  What are you waiting for?  Go register yourself now!  And also go learn more about one young lady who is fighting the battle against leukemia right now.

I’m also taking environmentalism one step at a time, constantly weeding out the things and habits in my life that are unsustainable, replacing them with more globally-friendly alternatives.

Be the impetus for change.  Start something.  Then keep working hard as the effects ripple further and faster.  This goes for anything you care about, from our deteriorating environment to our broken education system to poverty to deadly diseases.  Everything has got to start somewhere!

Strange obsession

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , ,
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Sometime last week I realized that I lost a pen that I really liked and since then I’ve been obsessed at finding it.  It’s a silver and blue pen that looks quite sleek and pretty.  The text says something along the lines of UCLA Alumni or something and I believe I got it at one of the alumni events I attended recently.  Though the design isn’t anything too extraordinary, what I loved was the smoothness of the ink.  It wrote like satin, gliding along the surface of paper, leaving a lovely blue trail of words.

Currently I’m stuck using a pen that often refuses to dispense ink and gets stuck when you try to click it in or out (so it always needs a bit of a extra boost).  In comparison, the other pen was absolutely amazing and it’s a pity that I can’t locate it.  I wonder if they’ll have them at the next alumni event, or even in the alumni center.  I just might need to get a replacement so writing becomes a much more pleasurable experience.  I suppose I could go over my extensive collection of pens that I’ve collected, but I just can’t forget about that pen and I’m fixated on finding it.

I’ve always had a bit of an office supply fetish.

The benefits of being a night owl

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , ,
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I came across an article that yet again confirms my sleeping habits as not bad, if even good!  🙂

Hahaha this was just too funny.  Lighting has changed our way of life!  photo credit: gearfuse.com

Hahaha this was just too funny. Lighting has changed our way of life! photo credit: gearfuse.com

Sure, there are all those sayings about how sleeping early and getting up early is good for you and certainly that’s how people have lived for centuries, but it’s a new age now, with new rules.  After electricity became common and staying up past sundown was no longer an issue, a whole world opened up to us humans.  We can now operate continuously throughout the night with little inconvenience, thanks to our friend the light bulb.  Artificial light allows us to do things at night and I see no reason why we shouldn’t take advantage of it if our biological clocks don’t complain.

I’ve always been a night owl, staying up until the early hours of the next day, then sleeping in until the afternoon.  It’s just how my body functions and I, as a fan of what is “natural,” feel that I should just listen to my body.  It’s nearly impossible for me to get up in the early morning without multiple alarms and a few minutes of extra napping.  I also tend to tire out in the middle of the day and have a lull after eating lunch.  I also can’t fall asleep before about 1 AM, tossing and turning impatiently if I try.  On the flip side, sleep comes easy by 2 or 3 and I wake up on my own around noon (or even earlier at times).  My body is happier with me, I feel well-rested, and I can stay active through the night again.

Now here's a fellow who looks mighty alert!  photo credit: telegraph.co.uk

Now here's a fellow who looks mighty alert! photo credit: telegraph.co.uk

This study confirms this behavior, where early birds tend to crash earlier after waking up than night owls.  Those who naturally wake up early got tired ten and a half hours after getting up, whereas those who naturally wake up later got more alert!  Late risers’ circadian clocks gave them a boost around that time to keep them going, but early risers didn’t get that.  So certainly if you’re naturally a late riser and forced to be up early in the morning, you’re going to be crashing sometime in the afternoon as you fight your circadian rhythm and the afternoon heat (and likely food coma from lunchtime).  I also found an article explaining why some people may be night owls – it’s a mutation of a gene.  It seems that night owls are on a cycle longer than a 24-hour day (mice that exhibited night owl tendencies were found to have up to a 27-hour day).  Yet another thing that supports the idea that night owls’ energy levels last longer.  I guess we just weren’t made for the rotational speed of this Earth!

All in all I’m not looking to say that getting up later is better, but I just like when I find justification that it’s fine for me to go on my own schedule.  Where did this whole idea that early birds are healthier come from anyway?  The only way I can see that is that when they wake up, the air is cool from the night and more encouraging for exercise.  By the time I wake up, it’s far too hot out to reasonably work out outside, so then I’d have to wait until after dinner sometime, when I get lazy.  Other than that, does it really matter?  Feeling well-rested and alert is what is most important, whatever you need to do to obtain that.

Internal internationalism

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , ,
2

chinese flagI’ve noticed that I tend to make more Asian type noises when I’m in this part of the world.  I’ve always done that whenever I’m speaking Chinese and occasionally with Asian friends when I’m speaking English, but now I find I’m doing it far more.  It’s strange because I’m usually either in one mindset or another, but now there’s this mixing of speaking English but making more Chinese noises.  This ranges from saying “wah” instead of “whoa,” “aiyah” instead of “ugh,” and “ah?!” instead of “huh?!”  They’re subtle differences, but I notice them and I wonder if other people do too.  Isn’t it interesting how different the sounds we make are?  I guess that means that every language also has it own distinctive onomatopoeias to reflect the way they perceive the sounds that are made.

british flagAdditionally, I’ve been thinking in a British accent lately, which makes no sense to me since I’ve always sucked at pronouncing things the way they do.  Of course, in my mind it all comes out right, but that still doesn’t explain why that happened to begin with.  Perhaps I’m getting confused by all the British and Australian accents I’ve been surrounded by while traveling.  It seems like everyone but Americans are out and about exploring the world, and now I sound like them too, in my mind.  I’ve always switched between thinking in Chinese and English, but I must say this is the first time my English has taken on a new accent.  o.O

I seem to be very confused internally.

Habits die hard

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Habits are these persistent still suckers that get ingrained in your very subconscious, affecting how you behave often in ways that you can’t help.  Since you’re so used to doing things that way, it takes a lot of conscious effort to change how you do it.  Even a lot of effort may not always be effective, though with time they can slowly take effect.  I’ve been having trouble with this for awhile now, with a very silly behavior.  You see, I’m a fidgety person – I like to move around.  Well, one of my fidgets is clapping the palm of one hand on the loose fist of the other hand.  Can you imagine what that looks like?  Turns out it’s considered an insult in Singaporean culture.  -___-  Hence, I will not take a picture to show you what it’s like.  I’ll leave that to your imagination.

I think this is a pretty safe universal sign.  photo credit: wpclipart.com

I think this is a pretty safe universal sign. photo credit: wpclipart.com

It seems that I like to do it for the very reason it is considered rude – there’s a nice echo and a sort of popping noise you can make by slapping your hands together like that.  I also snap my fingers and crack my knuckles because of this desire to make small movements and create a little bit of sound.  It breaks both the monotony of staying still and being quiet at the same time (which usually make me feel antsy).  Unfortunately for me, I was caught doing this by a very shocked Starfish, who immediately gasped at my gesture and frantically asked me what I was doing.  It was also brought up once when I was out with Mizu and some friends.  Throughout the rest of that night, I found myself catching myself right after doing it, then hiding my hands or trying to keep them from moving around so much.  But time and time again, my hands would find their way from under my legs or untangle themselves from an interlocked clasp to do that action again!  It really is difficult to adjust behavior.

This reminds me of my first few weeks in Singapore, when Mizu was overcoming a tendency to overuse “actually” with the help of Starfish and Marylin.  Whenever we caught him using it when it wasn’t necessary, someone would be there to clear their throat and ask, “Actually?”  Whether he was speaking to us, on the phone, or presenting, Starfish and Marylin kept a close ear on what he was saying.  With that sort of persistent watch kept over him, Mizu quickly learned to stop using it and it’s been a long time since he’s used that sentence more than once in a sentence.  (Because, actually, when do you actually need to actually use it so many times in a sentence, actually?)  😛

photo credit: weightlosswiththefabulousfatties.wordpress.com

photo credit: weightlosswiththefabulousfatties.wordpress.com

The good thing about behavior is that you don’t need to spend too much time thinking about doing it because it’s rather automatic.  However, for that same reason, it can come kick you in the butt because you may automatically do something that you don’t want to or shouldn’t.  It’s a trade-off between having more brain resources that can be directed to other thoughts and doing things that you may regret and will have trouble not doing.  According to popular knowledge and based on research, it takes 21 days to break a habit.  I think I’m nearing that mark…  Ultimately, it really is important to develop good habits at a young age, so you don’t have to work so hard to try to adjust your behavior when you’re older.

Take right now, for example.  I’ve made a lot of typos because I’m training myself to type with my left thumb and keep my right thumb off the spacebar.  Since I’m not used to that sort of coordination, I make the strangest typos without even realizing at times, because my brain sent the right signal, but my fingers didn’t execute properly.  Similarly, everyone has certain typos that they tend to make frequently (and often this doesn’t get corrected because of autocorrect) because of how they learned to type.  I know I always stumble on certain words and almost never get them right on the first try.  I remember I noticed that Katana used to do that a lot with “the,” which always came out as “teh.”  Such things are natural when you start typing quickly, but it’s still interesting to compare what I mess up on versus someone else.  Old dogs are slow to learn new tricks, aren’t they?

Fear

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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I just finished powering through a book called Turning It On by Robin Speculand, which is basically a collection of stories for the business world meant to be fables of sorts – they all have a specific point and lesson to be learned.  There were some great points I took from it, though I feel at this point in my development, nothing is new except the way and how well it is presented to me.  I mean, I know all this information, but hearing it again and again is what will help grill it into my life and make good habits out of them.  As the 7X7 Rule of Communication states, tell it 7 different times in 7 different ways!  So, though sometimes it feels repetitive, I push on in the hopes that these constant reminders will guide my behavior down a good path.

Fear makes my heart hurt!

Fear makes my heart hurt!

Now what I came across that did intrigue me was a new way of putting an old idea: FEAR.  In this case, it’s “False Evidence which Appears Real” and the four most common ones that are identified are fear of failure, rejection, being wrong, and emotional discomfort.  Funny, I was just talking about this with Starfish yesterday, because I often hold myself back, too afraid to jump for fear of all but the last one, pretty much.  I spend so much time thinking and analyzing, but my fear is what keeps me from putting everything into action.  It’s also what creates a lot of self-doubt, which otherwise is really not justified.  I don’t horrible feedback and I haven’t had a traumatic experience, yet I worry about so many things and how they are wrong, wrong, wrong.  And I hate to be wrong!

Part of the reason I believe in reminding myself is because for something like this that is so ingrained in my way of thinking and framing things, it’s very challenging to change.  But of course, I must strive for nothing but, since it’s obvious that I’m missing out on a lot, whether actually accomplishing what I dream of or learning valuable lessons from my stumbles, falls, and the resulting bruises.  I’m fine with physically tripping and messing up, but I dread doing so professionally and personally in the work that I do and the ways that I handle things.  Alas, so much of life is learning from your experiences (which inevitably include mistakes).  Just knowing I need to work on this doesn’t make it any easier and doesn’t make it happen any faster, but at least I am aware and trying right?  Right?

So, reading about this new way of putting fear really struck a chord with me since this is the very thing I am struggling the most to overcome internally.  After all, I can get a lot of outside support, but I need to change my mentality to truly stop behaving in a timid, fearful manner.  I’m not very good at it, but I think I’m better or at least more willing to consider facing and overcoming my fears.  It’s so strange that I am so hesitant when I’ve had certain failures that I have put behind me and nothing so terrible has happened because of them.  So why, why is it still such a challenge?!

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