Family life

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , , , ,
10 April 2009
0

At times I wish I had more family living near me, or a greater extended family sprawled around the world.  I have always dreamt of having an older brother to rely on (or a gay best friend).  Since I tend to connect a lot better with guys, I have always wanted to have one who was very, very close to me in a platonic way.  Unfortunately, though such figures have come and gone, I can’t really claim one guy who I can run to when I am hurt or scared or just have a great secret to share.  More than that though, I wish that my cousins and I were closer.  When I was young, I would always follow them around so closely that they nicknamed me their shadow.  It was true enough, since I only got to see them once a year for a few weeks and that was my only tie to my background.

I have lived my life very much alone, or in a tiny family unit consisting of me and my parents.  I always love to have people over to my house simply because nobody ever visits!  It’s always just me, my mom, my dad, and for some years, my cats.  There are no random second cousins or great aunts, twice removed who can swingby to say hi.  In fact, there isn’t a single other person in our family in the country, from either side of the family.  So, other than the summers that I got to go back to China in my childhood, I’ve hardly ever seen my relatives.  Lately, I have also spent a lot of my time on my own, first as I went off to college, then as my dad moved back to China, then as I studied abroad in England, then as my mom moved back to China as well, and finally as I moved out to Singapore to work.

Granted, I am not alone alone.  Yet, I have had nobody I can call family in the same country as me for the past two and a half years, but for the few months my mom came to visit, the couple of weeks my dad has spent back, and the lucky few days that some of my aunts and uncles got to come watch me graduate from UCLA.  Family, after all, are the only people who are linked to you from day 1.  And in my life, they are the only ones who have always been there, even if it was largely in the background and rather out of reach.  But year after year, they are there, growing in their own ways, and eventually we will catch up again.  For me, friendship has not worked out quite that way, since each move brought another group of people to leave behind.  I can never claim a best friend from my childhood who watched me grow up.  The only people who truly watched me grow up were my parents.

I have certainly been blessed with a lot of wonderful people in my life, but once again I find that they come and go.  I’m so used to people leaving my life and becoming a great memory that I didn’t even notice I do that, until a close friend pointed it out.  Perhaps I got too conditioned to having to leave people behind with every move we made over the years.  I don’t have the mindset that makes me think of someone, pick up the phone and call them, or drop them an e-mail to catch up.  Instead, I just wonder whatever happened to them and how they are doing.  I am always grateful when I do hear from a long-lost friend and get to see how they are doing in their lives.  I love that we are becoming a more globally connected world now and facebook was the first social media tool that allowed me to get in touch with friends from lives past.  I also love that you don’t need to be maintaining a conversation with each other to keep tabs on and be able to find each other years down the line.

I like to dream about a handful of aunts and uncles and dozens of cousins bustling around during Chinese New Year, as the whole family makes time to be together.  Sadly, I’ve only been in China once during that time of year since I left (which was when I was too young to remember anything anyway) and I don’t recall a thing about it.  My dad has told me that to truly experience Chinese festivities, I need to spend Chinese New Year back in his hometown, the little place that he grew up in.  Now that truly has small town flair in its celebrations, with all the stops pulled!  Maybe if I have time next year, I can make it come true, in the second Year of the Ox that I will experience since the one I was born in.  2010 will be an important year for me because I will have gone through two full Chinese zodiac cycles.  I’m sure that has some sort of significance.

Someday, I’d like to be able to gather with all my relatives (or at least one representative from each family unit).  But over the years, even our not-so-big family has had trouble reuniting as my cousins married off and started to create their own little families.  Between work, children, spouses, and friends, it’s hard to find time to get together like we used to when everyone lived in the same town and the only ones missing were me and my parents.  Now I’m embarking on my own life as well, sacrificing time with loved ones in hopesof building a strong foundation for a successful future.  Work is hardly as flexible as tertiary education was, with more hours and less ease of changing schedules.  Plus, there’s a lot less time off per annum.  On the other hand, I am very fortunate to be working for a company that would, like no other, work with me to try to make it happen, if I so chose.  One of the things I will miss most about education is the lovely summer months filled with enrichment learning, extracurricular fun, and personal fulfillment.

Despite all this daydreaming about a huge family, I still don’t want more than two or three kids, if only because I don’t know if I can handle any more.  Growing up so independent and with all the attention focused on me makes it difficult for me to conceive how it would be with a handful of children running amok.  The grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it?  And that is why I wish I had a companion to grow up with, whether sibling, cousin living nearby, or best friend from childhood.  But, because I know there is this tendency to think that the other way is so much better, I do recognize the benefits of only childhood.  Thus, I don’t want to overcompensate by having so many kids I don’t know what to do with myself.  Instead, to create that feel, I’d like to live in a neighborhood where everyone knows each other and the kids can play together.  This would also be a great way to expose them to how others live their lives, especially if it’s a multicultural communit

Doctor Qin, Professor Qin

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
09 April 2009
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This summer when I was spending time with my parents in Beijing, I got a chance to drop by their office and see where they work (and who they work with).  While I was there, it was the strangest feeling to see my dad’s fancy pants office, with mahogany furnishings and all kinds of cool decorations.  It reminded me of one time when I went to see him at his last US office (in LA county), where he had a secretary to liaise with.  People had to go through her to get to him and that, to me, was so odd.  After all, I’ve always had full access to him!  What was all the more strange this time though, was hearing him being called and referred to as "Dr. Qin" – umm, what?

I don’t often see my dad operating in his element, working hard at what he does best, so I’ve been rather sheltered from the professional side of his life.  He gets a lot of respect in the office and seeing that really reminded me that my dad is a valuable resource at my fingertips.  He has a lot of work experience, especially in mangerial and executive level work, plus he’s always willing to advise me for anything I need, me being his only child and all.  I often lose sight of that, which I shouldn’t, since there is so much wisdom he has to share.

I think it’s funny that my parents named me Qin Bo (??), where the ? (bo) part, which is my given name, represents the ? in professor.  The complete term is actually ?? (bo shi) and ??? (Qin bo shi) translates to Doctor or Professor Qin (aka someone who has earned a doctorate degree).  In actuality, ? by itself means "rich, abundant, plentiful, win, or gain" so that works out to be a good meaning too.  My parents had decided to name me this because professors are one of the most highly regarded and respected positions in China.  Thus, in naming me this, they wanted me to become a successful, smart, and respected figure later in life.

So, when people call my dad Qin bo shi, it’s a bit awkward for me not only because it’s odd for me to see people so formal with my dad, but also because my name is nestled in there and at first you can’t tell who they’re going to call.  All my life I’ve grown up wanting a docorate degree if only to be able to call myself Qin bo shi as well.  I’m already halfway there with the "bo" part, so now all I need is years of hard work to get myself a "shi" part as well!  😛  Unfortunately, the path that I’m taking and the subjects I’m interested in don’t lend themselves to needing a doctorate, so it doesn’t look like I will be going in that direction.

In fact, I may go get my MBA more as a rite of passage than for any real purposes.  I’m sure there’s still plenty to be learned, but in terms of the extra mileage I could get from business school versus what I learn every day at the office, it may not be worth it.  Instead, I’m still aiming for business school because I want to prove to myself that I can do it.  I can also use it as another way of networking and truly finding like-minded people who are every bit as amibitious as me.  And who knows, maybe a few years down the line I will want to try a different line of business and it will be useful for my transition.

Creating a signature you: a lesson in personal branding

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
08 April 2009
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Nowadays with the market being so competitive, personal branding extremely important to stay on top of things.  It’s no longer just an issue of how your company is imaged, what your logo looks like, how your stores are presented, and what type of packaging you use.  As social media is on the rise, so is the need for personal branding.  It has become more and more about the individual and as such, it is paramount to present yourself with the image you desire.

Basically, you need to have a consistency in how you look, act, speak, write, dress, and live, among other things.  A top executive must looked well-groomed, act professionally, speak eloquently, write lucidly, dress in business attire, and live in a respectable community.  It would not make sense if they looked shabby, acted improperly, slurred their words, used poor grammar, wore sweats, and lived in the slums.  Granted, this does depend on the organization you are meant to represent.  Perhaps part of the image is someone who is from your local impoverished neighborhood or is promoting casual, comfortable clothing.  But you should get the idea.

Generally it’s just a matter of making sure you maintain a congruency about yourself.  Anything you do that doesn’t match who you say you are can be hugely detrimental to the message you are trying to convey.  Especially in this day and age, there are eyes everywhere, so in all parts of your life you should live and breath your mantra, whatever that may be.  As soon as you make one error, it makes it infinitely harder for you to garner a good enough reputation to project yourself in the way you meant to.  So, it’s also about knowing who you are, what you value, what you want, and where you want to go with it.  Understanding yourself is a key journey in formulating an effective and accurate public image.

If your image is more specific and you want to focus on just one aspect of your life and interests, it’s definitely easier for people to understand what you are about, so you can work in that niche market.  Otherwise, it’s often hard to consolidate any single person’s multitude of hobbies, interests, and experiences, so it’s more of a matter of what your personal beliefs and outlook on life are.  That will in turn affect you view and interpret everything that you experience, which can create a framework for your personal brand.  Sometimes it even means deciding between using your real name or a pseudonym, depending on the nature of your intended image.

This is all stuff I have been considering (and occasionally struggling with) over the past couple of months, as I have delved deeper and deeper into the world of social media.  As I try to create a name for myself, I want to make sure that that process is going in the right direction and I can end up in a position where I will be respected as an authority in my chosen fields.  I think it’s great to have a vision, purpose, goal, or something similar written down somewhere that is visible and accessible so you can always remind yourself of what you’re striving towards (and if you need to revise it).  That is why I have written my philosophy in my description box – so I can always reread it to make sure it is still relevant, but also to make it something others will learn to expect from me.  That is a form of quality control to also keep me along the right tracks.

Of course, there are many more layers of me that can be peeled away to reveal so much more, but my position in life and the way I think about and handle things is largely influenced by my belief in the power of change and the need for it.

Camera eyes

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
07 April 2009
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Every now and then, I come up with some outrageous idea that I really wish was possible.  One that I’ve been thinking of is if our eyes could be cameras.  I absolutely love to take pictures and I try to keep my camera on me at all times.  Sometimes, things just happen too fast for it to be pulled out, turned on, aimed, and shot.  So many brilliant pictures and shots have been lost that way.  To some extent it preserves the beauty of life, making living in real time worth so much more than trying to live through still shots.  However, those are often the very moments you really want to remember and be able to look back and share with others.

So my idea was that if there could be a pressure point with the shutter button at your temple, so whenever you want to capture something, all you need to do is press your temple.  Shots recorded from there would be taken exactly as the eyes see, with no altered colors and all the details we would normally distinguish with the naked eye – none of that distortion junk that happens with most cameras.  The downside to this would be not having a flash to illuminate things when it’s just too dark.  But generally, I find that I like things just the say my eyes see them.

Of course, this begs the question of how technology could possibly make this happen.  And in short, that is why this goes under my "ludicrous" ideas bag and gets stuffed away in a dusty corner for an indefinite period of time.  The plausibility of converting your eye into a camera without damaging your vision, making things captured just the way you see it (which would likely require access to your brain), then finding a way to store it without all kinds of crazy equipment is just nil.  Even if it could be developed, the legal issue of recording things without consent could crop up as a greater and greater issue.  Plus, the time and resources would likely not be worth the investment.

Sadly, I have to resort to just pretending, in my mind’s eye, that I can capture a moment so beautiful and memorable just the way it is to me.  I’ll never have anything concrete to share with others, so I guess I’ll just have to work on improving my memory.  This type of thing is borderline robotic, almost as if you’d have to start to convert the human body into a machine.  Now that is certainly not the direction I think we should be going in (or ever go in).  I guess we have an imagination for a reason: to let us live out all those silly things that cannot be, should not be, or will not be.

Webcam magic

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , ,
06 April 2009
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I have gotten the pleasure of being able to chat with Panda online while on webcam for the past two weeks and I am so grateful for this technology.  Although it took me awhile to convince him we (or at least I) needed this, he finally decided to go for it and I’m quite confident he hasn’t looked back.  Our chosen medium of video chatting is TokBox, which is what Meebo uses.  I used to sign on to my AIM, MSN, and other accounts by using the in-browser service so I could access it from any computer, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to load at the office, so I have had to revert to using Trillian.  Unfortunately, due to compatibility issues, I can’t video with him on that, so we make our way over to TokBox to see each other.

I can’t even begin to express the joy it brings me to be able to see Panda’s face and use my own facial expressions and body language to interact with him.  So much is lost when our lives are too digitized, so it’s nice to use technology in a way that brings us more together rather than keeps us apart.  Being so far away from him is tough, but because I can still see him and hear him, it makes things a lot more bearable.  Perhaps it is also because I know that we can do this, so it’s almost an expectation, whereas I’m sure in the past, couples dealt just as well when they had nothing more than snail mail or brief phone conversations.  However, in this day and age, it is becoming far more normal to be thousands of miles apart, but just a few clicks away.  Thank goodness for the internet (all things free on it).

I’m even cheesy enough to be happy with working away at my tasks at my office desk as he scribbles away at his homework at his dorm desk.  We don’t need to constantly talk to each other or interact, as long as I can feel he’s near me (in a sense).  I love the accessibility I get this way, being able to see what he’s doing whenever I need a break and say a few words to himas thoughts come to me.  Plus, this has given me a look into his life in a way that I never had access to before.  I never really got to spend much time in his room, but now I am there with him, watching as he struggles to answer tough assignment questions or takes a break for a nap.  There’s something so comforting about that.  It also allows us to show each other things that may not be as well represented in still shots.  I feel so much more connected this way than just typing, though we did share a lot when the written word was all we had.  🙂

Of course, everything has its pros and cons and, for a packrat crazy sentimentalist like me, chatting on webcams means no lasting record of our conversations.  I still value being able to read back on what we wrote to each other, whether it was the notes from before I left or the e-mail updates after I arrived.  Being able to pull out a beautiful card written with a heartfelt message in his handwriting is also a comfort, and I cherish that too.  Even the IMs and e-mails we exchanged have so much character and so many great moments, a constant reminder to me of why he means so much to me.  I’ve been here for a month now and I miss my Panda a lot, but he has made his own sacrifices to help me enjoy myself more while away from him.  And we both have modern technology to thank for that.

Thank you Panda.

Inspirational reality shows

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: ,
05 April 2009
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I spent the day watching America’s Best Dance Crew and The Biggest Loser.  I love these two shows because of how they show you people’s accomplishments and the powerful journeys they take.  From amazing physical skills to amazing physical transformations, it really is inspiring.  I’m not much of a TV watcher (in fact, I only watch things if someone else is watching it already), but there are certain shows I really like.  Reality shows can be good or bad, depending on if it’s all about people being dramatic with each other or if it’s about learning, growing, and improving yourself.  And these two, in my eyes, are really nice shows to watch to feel good about things.

ABDC is just so cool to watch.  The stunts these people pull, the unbelievable talent they possess, and the creativity and versatility they exhibit… really, it’s astonishing to me.  I have always respected people with such mastery of an art, sport, or academic discipline.  I especially admire those who can dance, sing, or create art, because that is something I have never quite had a knack for.  I can write, I can run, I can swim, and I can excel academically, but the fine arts baffle me.  So, I love to see a show like this, where it’s not just intense skill, but also so much more.  Dance forms are so expressive, so beautiful, so entertaining!  I really can’t describe what it is – perhaps it is because I wish I could do it myself.  Whatever the reason, I absolutely love watching dance performances!

A few things I’ve noticed from the show:  First, I’m just a little concerned that so far the all-female groups haven’t won ABDC yet.  In fact, not a single girl has been in the groups that have made it to the top so far.  Some have gotten close, but not quite there.  So I’m still sitting tight, waiting to hear of the first female team to launch themselves to the top.  Second, most of the guys who won (or even all of them?) are an ethnic minority.  Finally, they all hail from the Western states (namely, California and Nevada).  I don’t know if this is all a coincidence, a byproduct of the circumstances, or if there’s something to be seen in this, but it certainly intrigues me for how upcoming seasons will pan out.

Now Biggest Loser is great to see because the change is so drastic and so inspiring to watch.  It makes you reevaluate your own life and if things are satisfactory for you and how you treat yourself.  Although much of the show is centered around weight, it is important to remember that there’s more to it than that.  Overall health is extremely important, from other measures such as BMI and percentage body fat to things that cannot be measured, like increased self-confidence and a more positive mentality.  Plus, there are so many other health factors that aren’t always related to weight, including cholesterol and cancer.  The show often talks about how it’s not just about losing weight, but it’s the whole life-changing experience and new outlook, which is good.  However, physical health is far more complicated than weight lost, so I wish the show had a more sophisticated measuring system that takes other factors into account in judging the contestants.

In watching this show, I noticed that as the people got smaller, they also got tanner (which makes sense, what with all the time they spent working out outdoors) and, for the men, grew more hair!  At first I thought it was a curious thing, but then Marylin reminded me that hair does not grow as well through thick layers of fat.  So, as they slimmed down, the men also started to regain some of their chest hair.  Very interesting.  It also seems that women win this significantly less than men, though a lot of that has to do with how much you have to lose to begin with.  Granted, they measure percentage loss, but still, it gets harder and harder to lose weight as you get smaller (until you get to a point where you just shouldn’t be losing any more).

Singapore Kindness Movement

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: ,
04 April 2009
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April is, apparently, now deemed Kindness Month and thus the Singapore Kindness Movement was launched today, the first weekend day of the month.  If nothing else, just being at event about kindness really makes you much more aware of it.  I definitely was much more conscious of how my actions could be interpreted and affect others.  I made sure I walked around with a soft expression on my face, if not an outright smile.  I made sure I was courteous to others, saying sorry if I bumped into them and thank you when they were nice to me.  I even asked for some napkins to help clean off some chairs that had gotten stuff on them and made sure the people sitting in them were aware of the gooey drips of cotton candy that had gotten stuck on their seats before they sat down and dirtied their pants.

I was also much more aware of how the people around me were or were not polite to each other.  We all glanced over to hush these old women in the row behind us when they showed up late and loudly greeted their friends as the minister present was giving a speech.  I sighed when the children in the surrounding area were screaming and shouting in the background, oblivious to the racket they were causing those trying to listen to the speeches.  I noted the celebrity there, who graciously and patiently signed autographs for, took pictures with, and chit-chatted and joked with his fans, young and old.

Sometimes it seems that these types of campaigns are worth it if only to bring light to a problem.  I don’t think it is that human nature is bad at all; I think it is just that we just need gentle reminders of things as we get overwhelmed with the details of life.  Or, sometimes is it just the ignorance and lack of exposure we get to certain issues.  After all, we can’t all know about and be experts at everything.  So, every now and then we just need to be informed and other times we just need to be reminded.  Plus, we can get people to look at an old issue a new way and give them the support and encouragement they need to go do something about it.  And that is exactly what this month is all about – reminding everyone how a little positive gesture can go so far, showing them things they may not have considered to be outright kindness before, and encouraging them to go forth and spread the joy.

So go!  Be a nice person, hold a door open, say thank you, smile.  Be humble, be grateful, be KIND!

My blue, blue brain

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: ,
03 April 2009
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Today I really felt the effects of having what is dubbed a “blue brain” in Emergenetics terms.  Blue-brained people are the thinkers who sit there, rationalizing things and using logic to solve problems.  Learning is done best by mental analysis.  And that, is exactly how I am.  I’ve been laboring over a project this past week, trying to turn all the information for our training branch into a simple, comprehensive slide show.  I had originally written a script for it, typing out what I thought should be spoken and what images/words could coincide with that.  I sent that out to the boss to look over and got back his edits, showing me the type of language he prefers to use and the style he was looking for.  From there, I changed things up as needed.

However, Marylin then told me about the time she made a Powerpoint of what she wanted and then turned it over to our creative head to edit and touch up as needed.  So, of course, I decided to give it a try and make his life easier.  Little did I know the ensuing headache that I would encounter.  First of all, this type of thing takes a very yellow brain.  What do I mean by that?  Yellow-brained people are conceptual learners, with vivid imaginations, reliance on their intuition, and a penchance for the unusual.  They are the groundbreaking visionaries who try out new things and don’t mind experimenting around to find what they like.

I amnot very strong in this area.  AT ALL.  Though I have some ideas for certain transitions we can use and ways we can display the words and pictures, I am far from the artsy creative type.  No, in fact, my creativity is more in terms of words and thoughts.  I also don’t like to make mistakes.  So you can see, there’s a bit of a clash here, between my learning and working preference and the nature of the project I am trying to produce.  Marylin is very much a yellow brain, which probably has something to do with why she was able to whip up a presentation.

Instead, I have spent days first figuring out how to cut down the message yet still convey all the information.  It’s still not enough!  On top of that, I have all these ideas for images I’d like to use, but I don’t know where to find them in past event photos.  I also have very few new ideas on how I can display the pictures once I do find them, so they sit lamely on a page, surrounded by text.  Not exactly the eye-catching presentation I was aiming for.  So today, I started to get rather frustrated with all the things I wanted to do but couldn’t and all the things I knew I should do but didn’t know how.

Thankfully, I took the issue over to the green brain in the house and he put his practical, structured way of thinking to work.  Green brains learn best by doing and that is exactly what he set out to do, helping me explore the options I had and how I could go about creating the effects I was looking for.  He also asked me a lot of questions to figure out what I want to convey (but still, I had the issue of HOW to do it nagging at me).  With his help, I have planned out more of what I need to do.  Now there’s the issue of getting that out of the way so I can get back to how, how, how!

I have always appreciated people with great artistic abilities, from dancers to pianists and interior designers to graphic designers.  My respect was built off of the simple fact that I just don’t have a knack for that!  My deep appreciation for skills such as video editing stem from a certain intimidation though.  Because it looks so daunting to me and something so out of my reach, I put it on a pedestal and call it a day.  When I do go about trying to tackle that task myself, it takes painstakingly long, but I can do it.  I don’t think I do it very well though; there are certainly people who have a natural talent for those things.

So, with this work sitting here, waiting to be done, I am trying not to get too discouraged at the prospect of all the effort it will take me.  Instead, today I got to distract myself by helping Marylin edit some material she was writing.  I have a near anal tendency to pick out grammar and spelling errors and it comes quite easily to me, so it’s almost fun for me to read through documents over and over, picking out all the typos and awkward sentences.  I was quite happy to have some “mindless” work to do as I took a break from the video/slide show haunting me.  Sadly, it seems that I am quite good at the very work that people get interns to do.

Thankfully, I am also a brainstormer, constantly getting little epiphanies about random ideas that have been floating around in my head for awhile.  That is why creative consultant work sounds perfect to me!  I get to sit around and analyze things like I prefer to do and also tap into my red brainedness – the social part that is sympathetic, empathetic, and socially aware.  This part of me learns from others by interacting with them.  But for the life of me, I cannot get my yellow brain to come to the forefront, much as I need it now.  That’s a pity.

Twitter craze

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: ,
02 April 2009
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For some reason, I suddenly got followed by a good dozen people on Twitter today.  I’m not really sure why or how they found me, but it was quite the mix of people I know, people I don’t know, and organizations I’ve never heard of.  Up until now, I could usually understand why someone would happen upon me, because I’d have a recent post that was related to something they are interested in.  However, today’s follows don’t quite make sense to me and I’ve been trying to find some sort of a pattern to it.  Is it because I posted a bunch of Twitpics yesterday?  Is it because of all the random links and resources I’ve been “tweeting” about?  What is driving traffic to my page?

I’ve been getting more and more into Twitter, happily sharing a slew of websites and articles of interest with my small audience.  Through the various outlets that I get my information from, I have so many things to share with the world at large!  I talk about anything from all the free offers at various stores to the cool new resources that are popping up left and right.  I have about twenty tabs open currently, with the sites that I want to share loaded so I can start putting them up one by one.  I am trying to space out my tweets so as to not overwhelm people with a whole page full of them, then stay quiet for a few days.  However, it does seem that I sometimes manage to accrue more to share by the end of each day than I manage to get out to the world.  I will have to start increasing the frequency of my updates!

With all this new activity, I have been slowly acquiring a larger follower base, with a stray add here and there.  For each user that follows me, I will go check out their profile to see what they are all about and usually pay their website a visit to decide if I’m interested in following them too.  I’m sure a lot of people follow people just so people will go see who they are and hopefully follow them back.  This is a great way for users to spread the word about their existence and try to lure people to their page in the hopes of catching some of their visitors’ interest and gaining another follower.  Every now and then I will get a few people who will stop following me and I know that it is because I was not intrigued by what they had to offer and decided to opt outof adding them to my growing list of people/groups to keep track of.

The powers of viral marketing are alive and well, but it seems that the social media outlets themselves aren’t faring as well.  Hmm.  Now there’s something to think about.  Nevertheless, the powers of grassroot marketing really do amaze me.  Just look what it can do for raising money for the homeless!  I’m still trying to understand how it works, why it works so well, and how I can maximize my desired exposure to the big, big world.  I tried sending out a message asking how people stumble upon me awhile ago when I was still fresh and just started to get random adds, but nobody responded, so I am less than enthusiastic about doing it again.  Perhaps I should give it a go anyway, since the numbers are greater now and there’s a better chance someone will reply to me and explain how they chanced upon little old me.

Peace and quiet

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: ,
01 April 2009
0

Today was the first time I stayed in the office rather late unaccompanied by Marylin.  It was just me and Goof, working away at our given tasks.  I quite liked the atmosphere, which was much more conducive to working for me than most.  For one, there were fewer distractions around – during the day, people are bustling in and out and random spurts of stories and sharing will interrupt the flow of work.  A lot of people are also online to distract me (namely, Panda, who I now get to sit and watch working as I do my own work) and the light outside makes the world itself a distraction.

After everyone else left tonight, however, it was very quiet at our little corner studio and the dark outside provided nothing to attract my attention.  I had my music playing, contributing to the background noise.  Other than that, I didn’t pause to do anything else, like check e-mails or browse links or look things up online.  Instead, a sense of calm overcame me and I just worked away.  I always knew that I perform better at night, but I think a lot of that has to do with the simple fact that I have time and space to myself.  No other people, no other sounds, and no other light to make me lose focus.  I come alive when the world around me puts itself to rest.

I really like that feeling of actually being productive and efficient, rather than sitting around all day slowly getting work done.  I do enjoy the vitality of our interactions though, so it’s a difficult balance between wanting to get stuff finished and wanting to enjoy the company I have.  I certainly don’t expect work to be a powerhouse unforgiving of human interactions and breaks and distractions.  Yet, I still can’t help but feel guilty when at the end of the day I have taken longer at a task than I could have, merely because I had fun with everyone.  So, it’s nice to have more productive days here and there, to even things out.

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