Posts Tagged ‘opinion’

IM etiquette

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
21 November 2009
0

“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.  🙂

Windows 7 was my idea

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
19 November 2009
0

windows 7 proMicrosoft has been working really hard to promote their newest operating system with their “Windows 7 was my idea” campaign.  Though I think they’re trying too hard to some extent, I think their efforts are catchy enough to be interesting.  In fact, that phrase really does hit on how many people must feel about the product.  No doubt plenty of people look at the new features and think, “I totally thought of that!”  And indeed, the combined wisdom of Windows users is something not to be overlooked.  Certainly their suggestions were instrumental in the changes made for Windows 7.

I just got Windows 7 installed on my computer last night, thanks to Doc, who trekked out to Panda’s place to help me out.  Opti kindly allowed us to use two of her CD/DVD-Rs so I could boot the new operating system from an external source.  Thank goodness we had two, since the first disc Doc burned didn’t work!  After many hours waiting for my computer to do its thing and process whatever it needed to, I was finally able to boot with my brand new system.  Gotta love that Panda’s an engineer who gets access to a free version of Windows 7 Professional, courtesy UCLA.

window 7 was my ideaNow that I’ve been using it for a couple of hours and have viewed the tutorial videos, I’m getting a good handle on its new features.  One of my favorites is the rotating backgrounds, which makes so much more exciting.  I’ve set my desktop background to change every 10 minutes, just to keep things fresh.  It’s also so much nicer to scroll your mouse over things and get previews popping up before you commit to clicking.  I kind of miss the long task bar buttons that would have the icon and first couple of words for each program you had open, but I’m getting used to remembering what each icon stands for (and I could always revert back to what I’m used to if it gets too confusing).  Another thing is that the quick launch icons are gone and now any of the programs can be “pinned” to your task bar quickly and easily.  They basically took the quick launch and made it the task bar, but also allow you to open up the open windows of a program using the same icon you use to open up the program in the first place.  If that makes any sense.

One of the things I remember hearing about before the release of Windows 7 is the “clicking” into place.  Whenever you drag a window to the left or right side of the screen and your mouse hits the edge of the screen, the window automatically resizes to fit the corresponding half of the screen.  Saves me the work of resizing windows that they take up about half the screen whenever I want to see the contents of two windows at the same time.  I think that’s a key feature that makes everyone exclaim, “I’ve wanted that forever!”  They’re also much better with docking windows to the edges of your screen so you don’t have to approximate anymore.

Check out the cute little hummingbird!

Check out the cute little hummingbird!

The new library feature is something that will take some getting used to, since it’s another way of organizing things.  From what I gather, it will be very useful because it allows you to group folders together without actually moving them into the same parent folder together.  That way, you can access certain files across all of your documents, pictures, or videos and easily search within these libraries that you create and define.  The preset ones are pretty intuitive too: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos.  Sometimes I have videos that are actually in folders within my Pictures folder, so having a Video Library makes it easier to find the videos I’m looking for without having to search all over the place.  Another thing is, I can add an external hard drive folder to the library so that when it’s connected, the library will access the files in my other hard drive as well.  Nice!

Seems like Microsoft is making a nice step towards better usability and functionality.  I don’t believe that the Mac commercial poking fun at Microsoft is true at all.  Sure, there may have been some empty promises in previous operating systems, but I never felt they were that bad.  And even if they were, Windows 7 is truly a huge improvement.  Besides, I don’t respect Apple for making a series of commercials where they just ridicule their competitor.  Whether or not what they say is true, it’s unsportsmanlike to say it at all.  If they are really that great, then they’d be just fine touting their strengths without stomping all over Windows.  Yet another reason why I’m not a Mac person.  But anyway, like I was saying, I think Microsoft’s done well with this new operating system and the corresponding marketing campaign.

Community bond

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
17 November 2009
0

I just came back from watching a screening of No Impact Man tonight, which left me with a thought: it is important to have a sense of community.  One of the last things talked about was what Mr. NIM would recommend for people if they were to do just one thing to change their lives to be more environmentally-friendly.  His advice?  Volunteer for an environmental group because with that comes the community connection.

Typical Chinese meal: lots of dishes shared between everyone.

Typical Chinese meal: lots of dishes shared between everyone.

I find that to be a really good point – we’re not on this planet alone and we shouldn’t live and act like it (though oftentimes we do, especially in the American culture).  Much of the poor behavior that we’ve learned is because of this mentality.  Everyone wants a house to themselves, a car or two for their family, and their own share of everything.  The concept of sharing even extends to how our meals are eaten, with individual portions given out rather than some of everything that is shared amongst a group.  When we’re all too busy thinking about me, me, me, we do a lot of things that benefit us, but harm those around us, humans, animals/plants, and environment.  Plus, having that sense of community bond keeps us grounded and centered so we don’t lose sight of ourselves and fall into the throes of negative behavior (assuming your “community” is not a gang or drug cartel).

This point seemed particularly relevant for a poster I saw on the walk back.  It was advertising a young man who was struck by leukemia and was in the Intensive Care Unit at our local hospital.  He desperately needs a bone marrow match and as the poster said, he needs your help.  I thought of how when we as a population share our resources (which sometimes means donating blood or cells or the like), we are so much better off as a whole.  There are so many lives that could be saved if the healthy people in the world were willing to share some of that health with those less fortunate.

Typical American meal: individual portions of each dish.

Typical American meal: individual portions of each dish.

I actually just made a friend with a young lady in a similar situation (she just doesn’t need to be in an ICU).  In her last video update, she said something that I feel is something more people should think about: if the person who got leukemia was your mother, father, sister, brother, cousin, aunt, uncle, etc., then how would you react?  Would you still be so reluctant to donate cells that your body easily reproduces to save a life?  We’re not even talking about organs that can’t be replaced or something that drastic.  Sometime it’s blood, bone marrow, or plasma, but it’s all things that you can make more of in the coming days, weeks, and months.

I really think that this wouldn’t be so much an issue if we were more connected to our communities and had a better sense of those around us.  Honestly, how could you continue to not offer what you can if you cared for the people around you?  Once people start realizing that they won’t need to undergo the scary spinal tap procedure they thought was what you need to donate bone marrow, I think they have no excuses.  It’s either just like giving blood or you’ll be under anesthesia anyway.  In this case, sharing is caring!

Similarly for the environment, if we just cared more about others, we’d be able to move away from the individual cars per household mentality to the public transportation mentality.  One reason people tout buying local so much is because it supports others’ businesses and prevents you from getting outrageous out-of-season foods that are harder to find during certain times of year.  (Local produce may not actually be better for the environment though, but that’s an issue for another day.)  Other ways to be environmental and help your “neighbors” (including those in other cities, countries, and continents) is to reuse things rather than creating more trash that will end up in somebody’s backyard.  Too many people are living in dumps and all because of our irresponsible consumerism.

So moral of the story?  Care more about your neighbors, local and global.  It’ll make things so much better for everyone.

Best Buy(ing) experience

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
16 November 2009
0

For some Best Buy’s Reward Zone members, an invitation came to a private event from 7:30 to 9:30 last night.  The rechargeable USB batteries were an incentive, to be given to the first 50 people to arrive.  My mom and I decided to make the trip, invitation card and member ID in tow.  We weren’t in much of a rush, arriving just 15-20 minutes prior to the start of the event.  It’s a good thing we showed up when we did – a line of 40 had already formed!  Thankfully, batteries were given per member card, so we were well within the first 50 to show up and get a slip to exchange for the free gift.

After waiting in the cold for anywhere from 20-30 minutes, the line began to move.  We heard some hootin’ and hollerin’ in the distance, which confused us until we reached the entrance.  Inside, all the employees of the store were standing facing us, clapping and cheering and ushering us in.  A lot of thank yous were thrown out and one of the guys standing on the checkout counter was holding a big sign that thanked us for being their loyal customers (or something to that effect).  I felt at once silly and appreciated, which was a great way to start their two-hour event.  Now that’s what I call a great way to shop!  It’s a pity I didn’t have my camera on hand to document the moment!

A raffle was held every fifteen minutes, with $50 gift cards given out.  Employees swarmed the place, offering help to those with questions.  Games of Rock Band and DJ Hero were set up for people to try and a special offer on Wiis was front and center by the checkout stations.  All in all it was a festive time and a truly great way for Best Buy to make their members feel special while priming them to be in a spending and jolly mood.  Now that’s the kind of service and experience more companies should go for!  After all, happy customers make loyal customers.

Brown is the happiest color of all

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , ,
14 November 2009
0

white frame sunglassesLately I’ve been wearing a pair of white-frame sunglasses that I got at the LA County Fair.  They’re modeled to resemble Ray Bans (I think that’s what they’re called) and because of their shape, they fit my face easily.  I often run into trouble finding sunglasses that fit my head because I tend to have a wider distance between temples.  Most sunglasses hug my eyes and leave red marks on my cheeks after wearing them for awhile.  I usually end up with a headache too.

It’s a fortunate thing that I bought this pair, because I’ve been using it consistently ever since.  It seems the more you wear shades, the more you need them.  Is it just my imagination or have my eyes really gotten more sensitive to sunlight?  Whatever the case, psychologically at least, I need sunglasses on a bright day.  I actually just got these on a whim at the fair because I thought that the white frames were outrageous enough to be silly, yet mainstream enough to not get stares.  I’m always on the lookout for a snug pair that will fit my face and I suppose now I understand why the real Ray Bans are so expensive.

Well, using and abusing the white pair so much, I found one day that I didn’t know which bag I had it buried in.  My purses become black holes, so it was hopeless to find the things without dumping out the entire contents of my bags.  Unfortunately, I was on a time crunch, so I grabbed the first pair I could find – a brown pair I’d bought a long time ago.  I think I got them at my favorite (and now non-existent) shop in Westwood, Good Choice Gifts.  I do remember I had gotten the matching black pair because I couldn’t decide (as usually is the case).  I’ve since misplaced the black version.

Look at how happy I am!

Look at how happy I am!

I ran off, sunglasses in tow and put them on just before driving the car out of the garage.  And suddenly, bam.  The world looked beautiful, happy, better.  After so long wearing my black shades, I had forgotten the miracle a little brown shading can do for your eyes.  Forget rose-colored glasses!  Brown is most cheerful color of all.

If you’ve never owned a pair of brown sunglasses, I highly recommend them!  I’d say lighter shades of brown are better, giving just enough tint to the world without darkening it too much.  Filtering everything through this new lens on life makes greens greener, blues bluer, and everything richer!  I swear the sky has never looked so appealing than when I saw it through these sunglasses.

And hey, if the world looks happier to you, you’ll probably end up being happier too!  🙂

Small world

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

Living and working in the microcosm of UCLA can be quite the experience.  With each person I meet, I can find about three different ways that I connect to them, whether through mutual contacts, shared passions, or similar work/volunteer/student organization involvement.  It’s really crazy when you meet someone and connect to them on so many fronts, which just makes the bond that much stronger.  I probably also experience this a bit more because of my tendency to be a social butterfly, with my contacts spread out far and wide.  I’ve been involved in so many things in many different ways that there’s bound to be some common ground beyond just the UCLA connection.  It’s really cool!

Perhaps that’s part of why it’s so hard for me to leave this Bruin world.  I quite enjoy walking around and running into people I meet.  There’s really nothing quite like catching up with an old friend and seeing how much things have changed.  It’s also so nice to make a new friend and already have so much in common with them.  This campus really is like a little world of its own and it’s a wonderful community to be a part of.

Residential life

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , ,
03 November 2009
0

canyon point

A lovely neighborhood to spend your undergraduate years in. 🙂


I lived on campus at university for four years, three at UCLA and one at York.  Though at times I felt a little old, I never regretted it and I’m really glad that I had the foresight to do so.  After all, apartment life is plentiful after graduating, but dorm life is limited to those few years.  Or should I say, residential life?  The Office of Residential life was always very picky about what words they used to describe things: residence hall, rather than dormitory; learning center, rather than computer lab; dining halls or boutique eateries, rather than cafeterias or restaurants.  It’s true enough, the words you use do carry a certain connotation, so residential life it is.  Sounds more homey, doesn’t it?  Exactly the point.

So anyway, I loved the residential life experience mainly because of its openness.  Where else can you keep your door open whenever you’re in, say hi to your neighbors for no good reason without getting weird looks, and hang out in the hallways and lounges for fun?  Everyone is free to be wherever they want, whenever they want and they’re not judged for it.  Imagine laying around in the hallway of an apartment complex.  It just feels wrong.  Yet doing so in the middle of the night in the res halls was perfectly normal (and could even make you some new friends).

Pow wows in the hallway... not so much uncommon.

Pow wows in the hallway... not so much uncommon.


People feel safer and are more trusting in an environment where everyone is the same.  We’re all just students, barely adults, all new to the place and finding our way in life.  It’s great to have the freedom to sleep whenever we want, eat (nearly) whatever we want whenever we want, and socialize however we want.  It also helps that we have food available to us from about 7 AM to 2 AM every day!  We don’t have to worry about cooking our own food and a delicious meal is but a card swipe away.  That also makes it much more conducive for people to socialize over shared food.  I really do think there is no better uniter than a good meal.  In fact, I do most of my socializing with some sort of nourishment, whether it’s a meal, dessert run, or just a drink.

Bruin Cafe is a popular place for students to get grub!

Bruin Cafe is a popular place for students to get grub! photo credit: ASiUU on flickr


Besides all of that, being in college in general is just great.  Thousands of students of (generally) similar caliber are alongside you, everyone learning amazing things in their respective majors.  Most have no idea what they’re going to accomplish in their lives and have a world of possibilities ahead of them.  For many, it’s the first time they’ve lived away from home and get to experience the freedom to schedule their lives however they like.  There’s a great energy in the air in residential halls, which are bustling with life anywhere from 8 AM to 2 AM.  And there certainly is no other place like it on earth.  Especially none quite like UCLA on-campus living!

Ultimately (in professional terms)

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

In the struggle to find a job to even begin a career with, I’ve had quite a lot of time to think of where I want to go in my professional life.  I’ve known for a long time that I want to start my own company (or maybe even many).  In fact, I’m going to say I will start my own company.  I just haven’t quite settled on what it will be yet, though I’ve been thinking eco-consulting for awhile now.  But I’ve realized that that is not what I want to do ultimately.  It’s a milestone that I will cross at some point, however well or poorly it goes.  But ultimately?  I’d like to be an angel investor, making sure the solutions I see in life are executed.

Of course that means that I will need to somehow become super rich first.  When I told Ninja that what I really want is to be really rich, he was like, “Duh, don’t we all?”  When I went on to explain why, however, he understood that I wasn’t making just a shallow comment.  I want to make a difference in this world and there are so many places I can see myself doing that, if only I had the money!  I would really just love to spend my time thinking of solutions to problems I see and then finding the best people to execute them.  I’d set them up with the resources they need and give them whatever guidance necessary to get them on their way.  From there, I’d hope they’d be able to take over and run a profitable and socially-conscious enterprise.  If I could do this, then I’d start a company like Mary Qin, Inc., to be a holding company for all those little niche companies I could create.

I’d go about getting a sensible public transportation system, sharing riding system, or something set up for the Los Angeles area to ease the traffic and pollution problems.  I’d get an electronic receipt system going so we stop wasting paper on receipts that most people are unlikely to look at and most will just lose anyway.  I’d also get that system linked to our credit cards so that whenever we check our bills, we can see the receipt associated with each charge.  No more hunting through piles of paper!  I could finally get a vocational school for athletes going both here and in the UK, so we could cultivate athletes who are ready for all stages of life.  Then I could set up a research think tank where people can submit ideas for researchers to carry out.  I guess Google’s kind of already doing this, but it would be free for people to send in ideas and no guarantee on if their submission is chosen (whereas Google’s is contracted).  Really I’d love to tackle my “hopelist” and parts of my “ideaslist.”

So here’s to getting a job, being extremely profitable, then setting up a foundation or something to implement the solutions I so dearly want to see.

A drop in the ocean

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , , , ,
24 October 2009
0

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!

Business sense

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , ,
03 October 2009
0

Just a quick thought for today.

As I mentioned before, I’m waiting for my invitation to Google Wave (yeah, apparently it takes way more than one day to process).  Now I wrote about it naught but two days ago because it’s putting together some great features, but over the past 24 hours, that excitement and interest has dwindled to disappointment.

Here’s the thing: you make a great product, you make it exclusive to up the value and hype, then you need to make it actually useful for people!  The success of Google Wave depends solely on people’s desire and ability to collaborate creatively in many ways in a virtually live sense.  There’s plenty of that out there, but then when you put on the restraints like invite-only access, you’ve got to be careful with how that works.  In this particular case, the very thing creating the hubbub over who has it and who doesn’t is also turning around to hurt Google.

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why the invite-only way of spreading access is a great idea.  It worked well with Gmail, but only because you can use that account to e-mail any other e-mail address.  That way, people who don’t have it could see that you have it (a bit of a status thing at first) and you can still use the functionality on your end to organize messages and whatnot while not getting a disruption in your service.  But imagine if you got a Gmail account back when it was fresh and new and you were only allowed to e-mail other people with Gmail accounts.  It kind of kills the buzz, doesn’t it?  Well, that’s kind of what’s happening with Google Wave right now.

Early adopters were looking forward to trying out all the functions of this new application (or whatever you want to call it).  However, they’re stuck waiting around for days, maybe even weeks, just to be able to share it with their friends.  With all that Google can do, they can’t even create a system of approving invitations within the hour (or at least the day)?  I’m sure they have their reasons, but I don’t know if they can outweigh the loss of momentum between the initial burst of excitement surrounding getting invited and the follow-up burst of excitement when the invitation arrives and an account can be set up.  I imagine it would be like showing up to an exclusive event that you managed to get invited to only to be forced to wait in the lobby for hours.  Once I do get the full access I was looking forward to getting, I’ll be less enthusiastic about it from the impatience that built up during my wait.

To me it’s ironic that they’re handicapping the system by not giving it its lifeblood: connectivity.  I definitely think things are working against them in terms of the viral spread that is possible.  Wave’s growth is stunted by the fact that great, 100,000 people have it to test out now, but a good portion of them don’t really have anyone to use it with!  I know I’ve got some friends who have had it for a few days and don’t really get to use it creatively because all the people they invited still haven’t received the activation link.  Instead they’re sitting around waiting with us as well.  It’s a pity, really.

And though I’ve resolved myself to waiting probably another week before I can really try it out, I still hope that I get my code soon and keep checking my inbox, despite knowing deep down that I more than likely won’t get it in time to test it out before things pick up again and I have less time to spare.  I hope it’ll actually be impressive enough to reignite my interest once I do get started with it.  Otherwise, this whole delayed invitation process really was a bad business move on Google’s part.

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