Posts Tagged ‘pictures’

iPod Touch – a new toy!

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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Yaaay, a package!  Please excuse my haggardly look.

Yaaay, a package! Please excuse my haggardly look.

My wait has finally come to an end as my iPod Touch arrived in the mail today!  I’ve just started to play around with it and I’m ready to use it tomorrow morning on the way to work.  I bought it to have some music to listen to as I travel to and from work, which will be a nice way to put myself in whatever mood I’m looking for.  Sometimes I want to be energized, sometimes I want to be soothed, and sometimes I want to be uplifted.  Whatever the case, my vast collection of songs (4039 to be exact) is sure to be able to whip up the right set of songs for me.  I have a traditional iPod at home, but it’s bulky and I hardly ever use it, so I decided it was time for something new.  It was also a nice way to treat myself and brighten my mood as I work through stressful times.

In my fiddling around, there are some features I wish it had – bluetooth, a camera, and speakers – but it provides more functions that I’ll probably ever use.  I’ve enjoyed setting everything up though, for the rare cases where I actually would want to know the temperature or check on some stocks.  There are also certain moments where I wish I could just integrate the phone in there as well so I don’t have to carry around a phone, camera, and the iPod.  However, I certainly am not planning on using a media package phone plan in the near future, so getting an iPhone would have been rather pointless.  I much prefer my 32 GB worth of storage in this sleek little sucker.  I wouldn’t mind if they could have put in a camera, but truth be told, it wouldn’t suffice and I’d still end up bringing my camera with me.  After all, I need flash, different focus settings, and a myriad of the features a standard digital camera has.  The one thing I would use a camera on the iPod for would be quick shots of random things when I don’t have my camera handy and portraits of the people in my contact list to use in their info.

dsc04811I’m really excited to head out to an Apple reseller store tomorrow (Cathay Photo) to find a nice backing for it, as well as some sort of screen protector.  Then I won’t feel like it is so delicate and that I have to tote it around so gingerly!  At this point I don’t want to scratch it up more so I can get something to preserve its condition, which is slightly worn in the back (but hey, it’ll be covered soon enough and it was definitely worth the discount!).  There’s not much point to this post other than to share a fun, exciting piece of my life.  New gadgets are always fun to play around with!  Now I need to arm myself with some cool applications though – any suggestions?

Accents and self-deprecation

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , ,
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Nearly a month ago I came across a blog entry about speaking with accents (to me, there is no such thing as speaking without an accent – everyone’s got one).  Reading that led me to the blog post cited (written by Louis) and so many thoughts were triggered by these pieces.

Can't all speak like a news reporter!

Can't all speak like a news reporter! photo credit: lasplash.com

First, let me start by airing my main grievance: there is no such thing as NO accent!!!  Why don’t people get this?  Perhaps it is because Americans are so sheltered, so unworldly, so ignorant that they think they’re the center of the world.  Not having an accent does NOT mean having an American accent, yet you’ll find countless American writers acting as if that’s the case.  I’m sorry but since when did you get to act so haughty?  I’ll admit, I used to use the same terminology until I grew old enough to realize that it’s not that I don’t have an accent – it’s just that I have a thoroughly American accent.  So, to the people around me, sure I don’t have an accent – but what they mean by that is that I don’t have a different accent.

Secondly, and closely related to the first idea is that just because you have a “non-standard” accent (aka American/British/Australian accents found in mainstream media), you’re not as civilized or smart.  That is complete BS and everyone should know that.  Yet, I find the likes of commentators on Louis’s blog post acting as if this is the case!  In Singapore and Malaysia (and I’m sure many other countries as well), people will readjust and speak with more “proper” accents when they’re dealing with foreigners (namely white people).  Why?  Well, according to a commenter:

“Accent or no accent, i think its all about trying to prove and to impress. Humiliating as it is, we already have a bad impression on the foreigners and i guess speaking with a fake accent is somehow a try to change that impression…”

Excuse me?!  Are you SERIOUS?!!!  How much more could you put yourself down?  You’re the ones who have mastered multiple languages and can understand not only your local accents but American and British and whatever else ones out there.  Why can’t you think like that?  Why do you have to treat your own accent as if it’s not as good?  It’s just different!  This is after I had posted a comment saying that they’re able to do this because they’ve had exposure to foreign accents, so it’s a nice gesture for them to throw us a bone, so to say, and speak in a manner that is easier for us to understand.

You do, I do.  photo credit: eruptingmind.com

You do, I do. photo credit: eruptingmind.com

Honestly, switching accents should not be seen as some sort of a demoralizing act that makes the person changing accents feel like theirs is less worthy.  It’s completely natural for people to change their behavior to match the people they’re trying to communicate with.  There’s even a term for it: mirroring!  It happens on such a subconscious level sometimes that people may never notice.  Think about it – if someone is speaking to you and you two are building repertoire, you both want to be liked by each other.  How do you do that best?  Making each other comfortable through your body language, interactions, and conversation.  Well, the most basic of that boils down to speech patterns, movements, breathing, accent, attitude, diction, the list goes on…  Give it a try next time you’re talking to someone – lean forward, lean backward, slouch, stand up, cross your arms, start talking faster and watch what happens.  More than likely the person you’re conversing with will follow suit unknowingly.

So really, the change in accent should be more about clear and comfortable communication with the other party rather than consciously doing it to try to impress them.  It’s unfortunate that so many people seem to take it the wrong way and there’s a huge mentality change needed to accept this as a purely normal interaction between two people.  This type of interaction is no different from the expat who starts to use local slang, the immigrant who picks up certain parts of the accent he’s surrounded with, or (for a more extreme example) even the multilingual who uses a language that will allow her to be understood.  In the end it’s really just a simple case of making communication easier and more clear.  That whole “my accent is not good enough because it’s not what you hear on TV” idea?  It’s all in your head, or at least it doesn’t need to be true.  I wish people didn’t think it was true.

Fire in the soul

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Perhaps it is time for some soul searching of sorts (in terms of career potential).

Demoing health food forever?

Demoing health food forever?

A few weeks ago, Starfish requested a list of my passions to help me figure out what I want to do and where I can go.  It was surprisingly harder than I thought – after all, who doesn’t know what they love, right?  Yet, it seems that my trouble is what I truly love not always being a viable source of work to pursue.  First let me share what I came up with:

~ emerging forms of media (especially social media at the moment)

~ people’s stories (whether hearing them or sharing them)

~ observing people (their behavior, interactions, and body language)

~ novel things, places, and experiences (travel, broad interactions)

~ health issues (diet and exercise/fitness, organic/all-natural foods)

~ environmentalism (conservation, recycling, and sustainability)

My darling Simon.

My darling Simon. How can you not find him adorable?

~ volunteering with animals (mostly cats)

~ background/support work (researching, planning)

~ the military (particularly the Marine Corps!)

Ok, so where does that put me?

1. I’ve hardly used social media enough to claim expertise as so many do.  However, I am very dedicated to my blog and have made it a point to post on a daily basis.  Still, at best, this would be a supplementary service for some sort of package integrated marketing consultation service.

2. Though I like to hear people’s stories, I’m certainly not interested in journalism nor do I feel like the right vessel to help share those stories.  I’m also not that great a storyteller.  I have had dreams about talking to homeless people to find out how they got into their situation and then helping to groom them to reintegrate to society.

3. Noticing the little nuances in how people go about their days doesn’t exactly translate into a career and is more of an enhancement to how I learn to deal with people.  Maybe I’ll start a little side blog with snippets of the things I observe.

One of my favorite views - out a plane window.

One of my favorite views - out a plane window.

4. Being introduced to new people, new places, and new things would be a cool temporary thing to do or a nice addition to my job, but isn’t exactly a career in itself if I want to settle down.  This is where my dream of competing in The Amazing Race comes into play.

5. I’m not enough of a fitness or health food nut to delve into this so deeply.  At best I could be an advocate for eating less meat to save the environment, eating organic and local to save your community, and exercising regularly and eating well to save yourself.

6. I’ve been doing a lot of research and reading in the green field, since it is what I want to build a company from sometime in my life.  Starfish made a very wise suggestion in mentioning I can start to attend conferences of the sort, get involved in the field.  I’ll certainly be looking into that (hopefully there are free ones).  I’ve been meaning to go to the UCLA Institute of the Environment to see if there’s anything I can get involved in.

My precious Jerriey.

My precious Jerriey. Great for stress relief.

7. I actually started looking at cat sitting services and boarding houses to see the rates they charge at.  I’m not sure how I would handle spending time with all these adorable felines and not getting to keep them.  I think I’m more of a cat owner at heart, though I do like to go play with and take care of them at shelters.

8. Researching and other support work is yet another one of those things that I prefer to use to enhance my work rather than to define my work.

Yeah, I wanted to be one of them.  The first Marines I ever encountered.

Yeah, I wanted to be one of them. The first Marines I ever encountered.

9. Once upon a time I had fantasies about being a Marine.  Then lots of things got in the way and I decided that I was not meant for that path.  However, my love/obsession/fascination for the military will always be strong, so I’d love to find a way to work with them.  At one point I considered trying to do their marketing.  That’s still an option…

What really invigorates me?  Sitting at my computer reading articles about green technology, environmentally-friendly

One of the half dozen military boot camps I want to.  That's me holding the red guide-on!

One of the half dozen military boot camps I went to. They're strangely invigorating for body and mind. That's me holding the red guide-on!

products, and fresh wholesome natural food.  Spending time with and observing animals.  Traveling around the world and getting a peek at the lives of others so different from mine.  Hearing about the interesting backstories of people’s lives.  Spending time alone pondering and introspecting; also, watching people pass me by.  Contemplating (and trying to go out and do) fun ways to be fit and well.  Hearing about anything related to the military.

What I’m really looking for is freedom.  Freedom to sleep in and stay up ridiculously late.  Freedom to get work done in different places on different days.  Freedom to meet new people and learn new things all the time.  Freedom to step away from society.  Freedom to be on my own.  Freedom to think.

At the same time, I want financial security.  Enough to live comfortably, to support a family, and to send the kids off to college without loans looming over them.  Basically, what I had the privilege of growing up with.  There are few gifts like responsible and successful parents who allow you to start your working life loan-free.  I’d like to be able to provide that as well.  In terms of long-term career goals, my main focus is sustainability in all aspects – mentally, emotionally, financially, physically.

So… any ideas?

A bit of a loner

laelene Posted in general blog, relationships,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Growing up an only child, constantly on the move, and often home alone, I’d say I can be a hermit of sorts.  At home I’m used to holing up in my room, for the first half of my life reading books and for the second half spending time on the internet.  I’ll spend the entire day there, taking breaks only to go to the bathroom or go grab some more food from the pantry.  It’s a lifestyle that I think a lot of people don’t understand, either because there are too many people in their households or their parents didn’t offer them as much space and independence.  But for me, what is normal is to do my own thing.

My mom will call me for dinner when it’s ready and I’ll make my way downstairs when I’m ready, usually after my parents have finished eating their meal.  We’re not ones for small talk, so they’ll continue on with their lives, my dad sometimes flipping on the news and my mom burying herself back in her study material (she’s always teaching herself something new or playing with AutoCAD).  We have a very nontraditional family unit and I think outsiders would often see our relationship as cold and distanced.  I don’t know how to convince them otherwise (nor do I want or need to), but that’s just the way it is.

white hp laptop

Just me and my computer.

I get all the support I need both emotionally and financially.  When I need help or advice on something, I can go ask and though we’ll often disagree, there’s much to be learned from that.  As for money, I hardly spent any as a child, never really asking for toys or new clothes.  All I wanted was to be driven to the library on a weekly basis so I could drag a new stack of books home.  At one point, I wanted video games, but they refused and I didn’t pursue it very frequently so eventually the desire faded.  In my senior year of high school, I started to drive and since then my habits have changed quite drastically, where I am much more in charge of where I go, what I do, and what I buy.  I still try not to spend much, but I do splurge here and there and my parents are always there to help me pad my bank account if I need it.

Panda and I have talked about the type of family we would want and I think it will be much more cohesive.  I image going to the park on a weekend or wandering around some new part of LA.  It’s not that I don’t want to spend time with my family; it’s just that when everyone is busy with their own things, hanging out for no good reason seems a waste of time.  So yeah, I’d like to have a lot of time to do things together, but I hope that when it comes time for the kids to leave home and go to college, they won’t feel tied down.  I don’t want them to feel like they need to come back on weekends all the time.  I chose to go to a college near home not because of the proximity but because of the university itself.  I want that to be the case for my children too.  There comes a time when you need to leave the nest and start making a life for yourself and college is definitely a major transitional period where that starts to happen.

buffalo walks along side of road alone

A bit of a loner.

Lately I’ve found that my immense independence and solitude is not “normal” and I think it can be seen as being aloof.  To me, it’s leaving people alone and being left alone to do what we need to do.  Unless there’s actually something to talk about, trying to find things to discuss feels like a waste of time to me.  So I thought I was doing everyone a favor by staying out of the way.  Well, when I was told that that’s not what they wanted, I started to greet in a less timid manner, began coming up with follow-up comments or questions, and would occasionally make my way to the living room and watch some TV together (even though I have no interest in TV).  All the while, I wracked my brain for things to talk about.

At the same time, I was terrified.  I don’t know how to approach people who I perceive to be in a position of authority (teachers, bosses, parents) and even when they are extremely open and inviting, I proceed with caution.  I think much of this fear held me back and created a lot of self-doubt in what I was doing and what I could do.  I knew I needed to somehow be more talkative and interactive, but I couldn’t think of interesting topics.  Perhaps it was because I felt that everything had to be so meaningful and profound.  It seems that small talk isn’t like that though – so much of it is really just mundane stuff, isn’t it?  And everything is quite repetitive – what you ate, what you did, how the weather is – and really doesn’t change all that much.

I also stopped myself from trying to talk much when the TV was on or trying to enter a room if the door was closed.  Those are signals of “leave me be” in my world, so I respected that.  Yet, other than that time, there were not really other windows of opportunity.  It’s either nobody’s there, they’re in the room, or they’re watching TV.  Well, it seems that there has been discontent because of the lack of interaction, so I decided to give it a shot.  I sat there and tried to make conversation for 45 minutes, with many pauses and much of the time spent looking at the tennis match on TV.  A couple times, it was suggested that I go rest or that I must have other things to do, so I should go in the room and go on with it.  I didn’t know if those were just polite refusals as a gesture that it’s ok if I don’t stay or if they were a subtle dismissal and an attempt to get me to retreat to the room.

guy puts face into handSigh, everything is so complicated when it comes to relationships.  I’ve got no experience in this realm and it is kicking me in the butt.  Even when I ask what is going on and what thoughts and feelings there are, I get no answer.  It’s such an Asian thing to do and perhaps I am too Western in my behavior.  To me, it’s about sharing feelings and talking it through.  But I guess it’s not so easy.  There’s so much that is taboo in the Chinese culture.  I wonder if this is the case,where even asking will not help yield an answer.  It sure seems so because so far it hasn’t.  I know I have a lot to fix but I don’t know what exactly and, more importantly, I don’t know how.  I feel utterly powerless and useless.  Boy do I have a headache.

Public transport etiquette

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , ,
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Every day when I go to the MRT (mass rapid transit – basically the train/subway system here) station, it’s a constant battle between whether I should step forward to try to get on board earlier or whether I should sit back and wait for the train to arrive and the traffic flow to begin.  It seems that no matter what I do, there are always people who butt in in front of me and don’t allow passengers to get off before they barge ahead.  So really it’s a lose-lose battle that I just try to lose less in.  I’m still trying to figure out if this is because of the Singaporean culture, a crowded city culture, the overall Asian culture, or even a public transportation culture.

dsc04806Even after the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) kicked in and signs are showing up everywhere encouraging people to let people alight (get off) before boarding, I haven’t seen a change in behavior.  There’s no respect for lining up and even less for waiting your turn, so it’s an evil cycle of people being more and more rude just to get in or out of the train.  Now, to some extent I can see this just being a sort of “survival of the fittest” – those who can make their way forward first will get better chances at seats and also not worry about the doors closing on you.  However, the same exact thing happens when there are no crowds around and such behavior does nothing more than annoy people trying to get off.

So, why is this?  I don’t think it’s because Singaporeans are unkind – after all, I’ve seen a fair share of people get up to allow others to sit.  Yet, when it comes to the simplest bit of patience in waiting for people to get off before you get on and allowing those who arrived to wait before you to get on before you start pushing forward, there seems to be a huge lack of disregard.  The lines on the floor indicating where people should stand to wait and allow others to get off are completely ignored and fools like me may have thought we were first in line only to find that half a dozen people managed to squeeze ahead by directly facing off those who are stepping off.

SKM logo

It’s really amazing and I wonder if all cities work like this.  I can’t really remember a time in Europe or other large cities that I’ve been to where I noticed this, but I also can’t say that I was really paying attention.  Whether or not it’s widespread, it’s pervasive here and it’s one of those unfortunate things that you can’t really regulate.  Also, unless everyone changes their approach, those who honor it only end up getting screwed.  Sad, isn’t it?  So where’s the incentive to follow directives like that when there’s no way to keep others from abusing the situation?  I guess in the end it comes down to a cultural mentality change, but the problem is – which culture?  As I mentioned before, i don’t know if it’s limited to Singaporeans, city dwellers, Asians, or public transportation users in general.  So how do you go about making a change?  SKM is making an effort, but unfortunately, I think this is something that will take a lot of time (and perhaps some regulation) to change.

In the name of FREE

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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I, like most people in this world, love free things.  Free in the sense that I don’t have to use money to purchase it.  However, I am more than happy to spend my time and efforts to earn it!  (Which, in the end, may or may not pay off.)  It’s funny how this idea of “free” works.  I mean, if you really think about it, the time I’m spending at this very moment on the Burt’s Bees site trying to win a free lip balm is appalling.  And the effort?  Just short of pathetic.  For the sake of this free item I am refreshing their page at least once a minute, sometimes five times in a row because they’re giving away 1000 free lip balms a day for 25 days, between the hours of 9 AM and 12 PM.  I rushed home from work when I realized that I’d be getting back right when it opened up, even turning on my computer as I walked so it’d be loaded and I’d just have to wait for the internet connection to register.

photo credit: burtsbees.com

photo credit: burtsbees.com

Now of course, at first thought I figured I’d just have to catch them at 9 sharp and try to be one of the first 1000, but here I am, an hour later and they’re still “gearing up.”  So I guess they’ll open it up at an arbitrary time before 12.  I am fully prepared to wait until then so I don’t have to try this again tomorrow.  And try I will until I get so hopeless I don’t go for it anymore or the giveaway ends.  Amazing, isn’t it?  Why is it that for the satisfaction of winning this free little item, I’m willing to spend enough time and energy to earn enough money to buy dozens of them?  It truly is just a mentality thing.  There’s something so fulfilling in feeling like a winner and having this “prize” delivered to you, even if all you did was waste enough time sitting there, clicking to get your share.  It’s a great marketing tactic and I’m sure it has drawn a huge crowd, since the first 15 minutes of loading yielded either a blank page or just plain text with no images.  Obviously, there were a lot of other eager beavers too (haha, BEEvers).  I can’t even focus on writing this post right now because I keep going back to refresh the page.

Recently I’ve entered some other contests as well, but those were far easier because all you had to do was post a tweet and a blog post for entries, then it was randomly drawn.  Not too much of a time commitment, though with the blog entry, some thought and research was required for a semi-decent attempt.  Luckily, Alice is still a new site that people don’t really know about, so there weren’t that many people to go against and I had a very high chance of winning the Aquanotes and Pure Organics Lip Balm.  This week I’ve entered the contest to win a cleaning set that is environmentally friendly and apparently very effective too!  I’m not counting on this one just because there’s only one, whereas the other two they were giving away 15 each.

photo credit: thenaturalbeautyshop.co.uk

photo credit: thenaturalbeautyshop.co.uk

Well, at 10:45 or so, a good hour and 45 minutes into waiting, I finally got the form!  I happily filled it out and now a coupon will be coming my way in the next couple of weeks.  I’ll have to ask my mom to get it for me, but hey, s’all good.  Too bad when I asked Panda to fill one out it was already too late.  But hey, it’s only day 2 of their giveaway, so we’ve got until June 22 to make it!  Next time he’s on around this time I’ll be tracking it to see if I can score one through him as well.  😛  Can you believe I did all this for something worth about $3 retail value?  Panda’s also a huge fan of free things, so he often checks sites and his “sources” to see what good deals there are out there.  Between the two of us, we can get a lot of free things (and probably feel like life is so great)!

I think that free really is just a way to make you feel better about yourself.  Anyone can go work for their money and buy things, but when it’s given to you out of a select few items, that’s just cool.  The same reasoning explains why getting the perfect gift is so much more exciting than buying it for yourself.  You feel like you’ve gained something (even if that something may have been bought with your own money, like in shared accounts or with children who use your money anyway).  Winning prizes or getting exclusive deals may not always be worth the time commitment, but ultimately it’s often worth the payoff in quality of life improvement!  It makes you feel like a luckier person, which makes you feel near invincible.  At least, that’s how I feel and I’ll pay in time and energy!  Just goes to show what some people are willing to do in the name of free stuff!  Are you a sucker like me?

The economic downturn

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , ,
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I’m sick of all this talk about the economic “crisis” and all the problems it’s causing.  At least there are some articles out there that address the upside of a downturn though.  But the thing is, to me, that’s all it is: a downturn.  It’s not a crisis, it’s not the end of the world, it’s just another down in the cycles that we’ll all experience in life.  Sure, the economy is much slower now, people are less confident and not spending or investing as much.  Think of it this way though – the more you think things are bad, the more conservative you will be and the more conservative you will be, the worse things will get.  When can we break out of this?  Does the government just need to come out and falsely raise our hopes to get things going again?  Why do people fall prey to this so easily?

It goes up, it goes down, but it goes up again.  photo credit: financialsense.com

It goes up, it goes down, but it goes up again. photo credit: financialsense.com

Much of this is really just in our heads.  By allowing ourselves to believe that the economy is too weak and life just sucks too much, it limits a lot of people.  On the flip side, it’s a great time for innovation and creativity to find its way into life’s solutions as people have to figure out how to do more with less.  But really, this is really just a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you believe you can’t find a job or will lose the one you have, you know what, you probably will.  But if you believe that you’ll find something and figure it out, you may end up with a job you never thought you’d have, but at least you’ve got something.  And who knows, maybe that will open a whole new world to you and show you a side of yourself that you really love.

Having faith in your abilities and things just working out makes you much more open to opportunities that come your way.  You’re far more likely to see a chance to do something new as compared to those who have a negative mindset, or even compared to your own mindset last year.  Plus, having this pressure may lead you in directions you never thought you’d pursue, which in turn could create some amazing new opportunities that you never would have considered or taken before.  Hard times breeds creativity and innovation if only because people have to find a new way, a new method, a new thought process.  Besides, limiting spending and making people think twice before they make purchases that ultimately mean very little to them is a great thing too.  When the pressure is on, it’s like a quality check on our lives.

photo credit: makakmedia.co.uk

photo credit: makakmedia.co.uk

I personally like having this “problem” at hand because companies are now looking internally to see how they can improve efficiency and productivity while also figuring out how to add the most value.  Quality is increasingly important and we’re finally getting back in touch with this whole idea of what good service really is.  Sometimes people get so caught up in the bottom line and meeting projected earnings or whatever else that they don’t stop to think about how they can improve the way things are done.  It’s the old adage: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Well, as I read somewhere recently, “it is broke now.”  So it’s time to fix it.  And what is it?  Well, it varies, but generally it seems to be the way we look at and approach what we do, from work to family life.  And though I agree that families get more time together now, I hope that’s not backfiring as stressful family members infect the rest of their relatives.  It’s always a double-edged sword, isn’t it?

Really what it comes down to is how you choose to frame it.  It’s the classic case of the glass half empty or half full.  Depending on your perspective, you’ll see something different from what others will.  Whatever you do choose to believe, the more you believe it, the more likely it is to be true.  Your mentality affects the way you act and the way you act affects what will happen to you.  People who are down and depressed will start to withdraw from others, stop doing things they love, and other destructive behavior that actually makes things worse and that’s what I see here.  Unfortunately, we need the whole world to buy into the idea that the economic situation really isn’t that bad for it to actually start improving again.  And with all the job losses and paycus you hear about, it’s no wonder people are reluctant to behave as if there isn’t a problem.  It would be a start (however small) to at least frame things like this: it’s just an economic downturn or slowdown.  It’s NOT a crisis.  That in itself can begin a better pattern of behavior from people – a more optimistic and hopeful one.

Spirituality and atheism

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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I came across this NPR program today on the science of spirituality (go read all parts!), which I found fascinating, as I generally do with anything dealing with spirituality (which I consider separate from religion, but often intertwined).  Let me get right into it, since there’s a lot I want to say!  (Note: I’ll try to be as non-offensive as possible, but this is coming from an agnostic leaning atheist point of view.  I’m quite the skeptic when it comes to religion.)

brain

To start with, I was tickled by the quote: “neurologists suspect some of the religious giants were epileptics” because I often thought, wouldn’t it be funny (in a bit of a sad way) if religion was borne of some random guy hallucinating?  Turns out that the visions that prophets had are quite likely caused by epileptic seizures or hallucinations.  So was there a burning bush?  Were they touched by a divine being?  Perhaps it was all in their head.  However, I’m not a big fan of this idea that “whether those encounters actually happened — or whether they were all in your head” are two separate possibilities.  After all, everything we feel is processed by our brains or else we don’t recognize it as a feeling we had, no?  As Michael Persinger put it, “all experience is generated by brain function.”  So yes, it was all in their heads.  But to them it was very real because it was in their heads.

Thus, to me there is no other being or “god” that is omniscient, but rather, God/the gods are within us because we thought them up.  They are products of our minds, our thoughts, our feelings.  And all those feelings we get of being touched by the divine?  It comes from our own imaginations, taking experiences and interpreting them in our own mental framework.  There’s certainly no harm in attributing it to an outside source if it makes you feel more peaceful, happy, and healthy because of it.  Belief can give people hope and I think the positive emotions from faith is actually what does “magical” healing for people, though they’ll choose to attribute it to their spirituality.  Do their beliefs actually create visible, measurable changes?  Certainly!  Any thoughts you have can do so.

“The more you focus on something — whether that’s math or auto racing or football or God — the more that becomes your reality, the more it becomes written into the neural connections of your brain.”

~ Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania

photo credit: greenspine.ca

photo credit: greenspine.ca

You literally are rewiring your brain with every experience you have, including the very one right now of reading thing (and for me, writing it).  I don’t have anything against religion in its best form, but I don’t like when people use it as a scapegoat or security blanket and never take responsibility for their actions, good or bad.  Of course, I’m also not a fan of zealots who take things too far and harm others “in the name of God.”  That’s just stupid and irresponsible.

No matter what, I feel the debate will rage on because spirituality, like love and your thoughts, is something intangible.  And anything that is intangible cannot ever really be proven or disproven.  It just depends on if people choose to believe in them or not.  When it comes down to it, how do you know you’re in love?

“Everything starts from a thought, and then the thought creates a reaction.”

~Sheri Kaplan, HIV positive but “defiantly healthy” with no medication

Sure, your brain reacts a certain way and releases certain chemicals, but in the end it’s really how you interpret what you feel and experience.  And if you want to fall in love, that is how you will interpret the chemical changes you feel happening.  Otherwise, you may just blame your libido or the weather.  There are plenty of people who look back after a nasty breakup and claim they weren’t really in love or they’ll fall in love with someone new and say that they didn’t really know what love was until this person came along.  It is what you say it is (for you, at least).  The power of spirituality comes in the flexibility in how we choose to understand our thoughts and emotions, but none of that can be physically tracked.

“I think we’re wired for the supernatural,” says Scott McDermott, a Methodist pastor.

I think so too, because we need to be able to believe in things and have hope, or else life can really get us down.  We need to have the capacity to believe that there is more, there is better.  That’s also what drives us to pursue excellence – a hope for a better life, a better world.  What it comes down to, then, is that immeasurables are too subjective to be objectively measured.  And that’s the problem here – we’re trying to use science that is based in objectivity to measure spirituality, which is steeped with subjectivity.  A conundrum, certainly, and probably one that will last as long as time.*

Synergy ball.    photo credit: sculptors.com

Synergy ball. photo credit: sculptors.com

For me, spirituality comes down to believing there are forces in this world that we can’t explain.  For example, how do you explain consciousness?  Is that not but an inexplicable result of our web of neurons interacting?  I consider myself spiritual in that sense and in the pure sense of believing in a spirit within us.  To me, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.  I believe in synergy.  Two people working together can create things that they could not have done had they worked alone and then put it together.  Likewise, those billions of neurons in our brains get together and create more than what just a random pile of neurons could.  That extra bit that produces all these thoughts we have is what we consider our spirit.  From my point of view though, that’s where it ends.  Without the brain, there cannot be a spirit, though with a brain there may not necessarily be a spirit either.  Nature’s not always fair like that.  So, though the idea of an afterlife and our spirit continuing after we die is a nice one, it’s not one I buy into.  However, our deaths aren’t meaningless and can infect other people’s spirits to make them feel like ours has continued on, by touching their hearts and minds and rejuvenating their own spirits.

Also, it seems that people are brought closer to spirituality when their senses shut down.  From meditation and other forms of intense focus that take away from the ability to process senses to near-death experiences that rob the brain of oxygen to psychedelic episodes from hallucinagenics, people feel the closest to their spirituality when our brains are not functioning fully in reality.

“The brain function of many of these people who have undergone a near-death experience is altered,” Woerlee says. “That’s correct. It is altered. Extreme oxygen starvation does change brain function — because it causes brain damage to the larger cells in the brain.”

It’s brain chemistry, he says, not a trip to heaven.

You take a step away and see things from an angle you never did before because your brain is in an altered state.  The same thing happens with age; as we grow older, our brain structure and chemistry changes, so we experience the world differently as time passes.  Maturity and wisdom are actually changes in our brains that are reflected in our behavior, but really, what are they?  They’re just more examples of intangibles that can never be fully and satisfactorily measured.

Another thing, spirituality is NOT religion!  Religion is a form of spirituality, but I do not believe that all forms of spirituality result in a form of religion.

When it comes to the brain, Newberg says, spiritual experience is spiritual experience.  “There is no Christian, there is no Jewish, there is no Muslim, it’s just all one,” Newberg says.

<i>photo credit: pro.corbis.com</i>

photo credit: pro.corbis.com

Everyone can experience a connection with the world, but in different ways, like the athlete who feels their body move in just the right way at the right time.  As a swimmer, you get that when you dive and make the most wonderful entrance into the water.  Everything just falls into place and it all feels right.  Same thing with skating – there comes a moment when you become an extention of the board and you are in control.  It’s a sort of zen, even.  The most common one talked about is probably runner’s high, when you get into the groove and the world seems to fall away.  Really spirituality is intense focus on what you’re doing.  So much so that you don’t have room for your other senses to send their feedback to you, so all you know is the here and now and what you’re doing.  I believe that’s the “oneness” people who meditate feel.

“When people lose their sense of self, feel a sense of oneness, a blurring of the boundary between self and other, we have found decreases in activity in [the pareital lobes, where sensory information is taken in].”

You get so entrenched in your own mind, your own thoughts, and not paying attention to anything your body might be telling you that you start to feel more in tune with the world, as you do in a perfect dive, a glorious ride, or a unparalleled running rhythm.  It’s not just a mental thing; physically the part of your brain that processes your senses shuts down, presumably to allow the frontal lobes (where concentration happens) to work harder.

*Do note that this is different from things like wind, where you can feel it but not see it, because inner feelings are something that not everyone can agree upon.  When there’s wind, the person next to me can confirm that they feel it too.  You may not see it, but you feel it in a tactile way.  Similarly, air is even harder to sense, but once again, everyone can agree that they sense something and we have chosen to call it air.  But when you’re feeling from an emotional point of view, it’s completely internal and nobody else around you has to be sharing in such a feeling.  We’re all experiencing the same world more or less, but in very different ways mostly because of our minds.  Since everyone experiences their own feelings in different ways at different times, how do you come to an agreement?  Simply put, you can’t.

Cosmopolite

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , ,
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Today I got followed by @nanyate on Twitter and I was intrigued enough to go to her blog because of an offer for free SoyJoy for your office!  Turns out she’s one of five bloggers competing at SoyJoy‘s GI Joy challenge.  I’ll admit, I was tempted by her offer of a free customized WordPress theme!  Nonetheless, I love to help people out, so I went to vote for her and posted on Twitter about it.  The person who helps her generate the most votes will earn her prize.  I don’t know how she can track it, but hey, no harm in trying, right?  So everyone, go vote for her!  Her name is Ivy and she’s the girl shown doing the half squat that the SoyJoy commercials have been using.

Ok, now that the backstory is out of the way, let me get to the point.  I am a huge fan of “about” pages, so of course, what else did I do after being entertained by the SoyJoy challenge she wrote about but go check her story out?  Turns out she has a fabulously-written and immensely cute section dedicated to who she is.  Not only do you get the basics of her life like her educational background, but she also has five “Ivy the _____” sections detailing herself in different roles.  It was from here that I learned of this term third culture kid, which apparently means someone who moved abroad with their parents and took both their culture of origin and their culture of assimilation to create a kind of mesh of cultures, or a third culture.  As such, they tend to consider themselves more of citizens of the world than of any particular country.  As I was reading through the description, I kept thinking to myself, “Gosh, that sounds like my life.”  Yet, I felt like something was off and that I shouldn’t fit the bill, even though I moved with my parents and my culture is very much a confused mix of both cultural influences.

chinese and american passports side by side

Adopting both cultures.


Initially, I thought that maybe it was because these people moved later in life, like after they had started school in their birth country, but from the description, plenty of people could have moved as toddlers and still be considered TCKs.  So why, then did I feel like I shouldn’t belong?  Well, it turns out that I came across one line that made is all clear to me: “TCKs are distinguished from other immigrants by the fact that TCKs do not expect to settle down permanently in the places where they live.”  Ah ha!  I knew there was a tangible difference in being a first/second generation American and being a TCK!  And it’s a critical difference – I plan on spending the rest of my life with my home base in my adopted country whereas they plan on returning to their country of origin, so their immigration is always temporary, transient.  So in the end, I am an immigrant but they are essentially visitors, passing through (even if that takes many years).  We’ll both adopt certain parts of the cultures that we come from and live in, but in different ways and for different purposes.

screenshot of laelene's livejournalWell, in reading about all of that, it led me to the idea of being a cosmopolite – someone who is cosmopolitan.  I’ve never really paid attention to the word, probably because of the magazine that takes its name, which I find to be too focused on looks and being superficial.  I never thought of it as a useful way to convey being “at home in all parts of the world,” so I guess it was meant for the meaning of “conversant with many spheres of interest.”  Mostly I think they were just going with the image of being “sophisticated and cultured” without actually really going for a well-traveled woman.  Whatever the case, this is the first time I’ve actually given a second thought to the term and I find that I connect with the description quite well (except for the sophisticated part, perhaps… I don’t know if I can claim that much).  I feel like I am made up of many components from around the world, can feel comfortable in all parts of the world, and can connect with many spheres of interest.  This is exactly the look and feel I was going for in my most recent LiveJournal blog – a jetsetter who is elegant and sophisticated.  Well-cultured, well-mannered, and well-read.  So thank you Ivy for leading me to give this term a chance, this word that so describes what I’m striving for.

Haircut

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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I made my resolve to go get  a haircut today, after meaning to get a trim for a few weeks now.  Whenever I think of hair, I remember reading somewhere about how a girl got rid of her flowing locks and let go of so many of her burdens.  I feel like I’m starting a new phase in my life whenever I change my hair, especially when it becomes noticeably lighter.  It’s a powerful metaphor to me – that head of hair, which has been protecting and covering all your thoughts, filtering them, and no doubt catching many in their web, releases its hold and allows you to be free of your burdens.  Hair also moves around so much more freely when it’s lighter, allowing changes, occasionally getting caught up in a breeze and floating in ways it couldn’t when it was longer.  Kind of like my life now.  Similarly, my emotions can be filtered, with the negative ones falling to the floor as they are snipped off and the positive ones remain rooted to my head.

It was getting longer than it's been in a many years.

It was getting longer than it's been in a many years.

Maybe I’m taking the metaphor a bit far, but seriously, who doesn’t feel a bit liberated with each haircut?  Whether it’s guys who can once again feel the breeze against their scalp or girls who have happily gotten rid of those split ends, you feel lighter not only because you literally are, but also because there’s a certain mental lift that accompanies a good haircut.  It’s like when you first put in a new prescription for your contacts and suddenly the slightest rustle in the trees becomes obvious to you.  You’re more attuned to the world, noticing more, sensing more.  It’s enough to make the world look better.  At least that’s how I feel after each haircut, good or bad.  I’m not picky with how my hair looks as long as it’s not too short, so a haircut is always a positive experience for me and it really helps to imagine anything I’m not happy with being washed and snipped away.  Afterward, I’m ready to start anew.

I really like this idea of reshaping by cutting away the excess.  It’s a similar mentality for being green, which is definitely a prominent passion of mine that I have been developing more and more as of late.  I’ve also always loved to cut things, which is why paper cutting class at Chinese school was a great time for me.  I’m not hugely talented, but I can make some really nice flowers and snowflakes by snipping away randomly.  It’s intuitive to me and rewarding to share with others, who always admire my work.  I even won an art contest at Chinese school for it, despite all the paintings and sculptures that they went up against.  I wish I was as good at cutting hair, but the one thing I do like the way I approach my hair is that I’m not afraid to mess it up.  It’s been too many times that I’ve tried to give myself bangs only to have some awkward short hairs sticking out, refusing to be tamed.  But, it’s never much of a problem (the beauty of hair!) because it grows out soon enough, most people hardly even notice, and hair has this magical property of just falling into place to hide minor errors.  And that’s why I’m always ready for a new trim!

Chop chop chop.

Chop chop chop.

The past week or so has really been a turning point for me, as I try to change my behavior to be more vibrant, more proactive, more involved, and more active.  I talk more, asked for new work to do when I came to a lull, went out to meet some new people, and have started to plan my time better here in terms of how I will take advantage of the fact that I’m in Singapore!  I’m hoping inertia kicks in and that I will just keep on moving like this, because it’s refreshing.  I may not always be comfortable and I may want to revert to reflection and internalizing, so it will be a constant effort to not give in to that.  I’m looking forward to the new view I’m getting on things and really trying to figure what direction I can go in to pursue my passions, dreams, and fantasies.  To commemorate all this change and a look in a new direction, it’s only fitting to make a change with my hair.  It’s the fastest and easiest to make a semi-permanent change to your daily look.  I suppose I could get some new clothes, put on more makeup, or try colored contacts, but those changes are more transient and don’t reflect a new phase the way a haircut can.  In a way, this is my form of self-expression and I love it.

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