It must have been a case of Friday Afternoon Syndrome, or something… because it seemed like people here had a bit too much time debating a rather mundane topic.
But then again, they’re engineers. Nothing is mundane for engineers.
So it all started off with an email from someone from Admin requesting that meeting room etiquette be observed after a meeting has finished. In this particular case, that the meeting rooms be restored to their original configuration after a meeting has concluded.
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Yesterday, I walked into one of the kitchens at work and I found a brand new toaster. Now, this is not just any old toaster… it’s an electronic toaster and comes with LED displays and a slick, brushed metal construction that just yells out “nouveau”.
A few seconds later, another guy walks in and spots the brand spanking new toaster. He too, was momentarily mesmerised by the shiny new toy. Brief discussions involving reprogramming the toaster ensued.
By the end of the discussion, there was a sizable number of engineers gathered in the kitchen and the discussions turned into a brainstorming session (complete with scribbling on a nearby whiteboard) about how it should be possible to integrate a webcam and a wireless network into the toaster so as to facilitate efficient toast production.
It’s not exactly plans for worldwide domination, but it’s a small step…
Recently, Joyce and I have been discussing about personality types. In particular, our own (rather different) personalities based roughly on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Now, I have my reservations about putting too much faith in any sort of psychological profile, and the MBTI is no exception. I just think that it’s somewhat limiting categorising human personalities in just four dichotomies (which I think aren’t as orthogonal as they should be, and don’t encompass the full gamut of human personalities… hmmm… sounds like an incomplete basis for a vector space… but I digress, as usual).
Hence, I view these “indicators” as simply a rough guideline of my functional preferences – not a definitive labeling of my personality. That being said, I can say that according to the MBTI, I am an ESTJ. After reading a profile of a typical ESTJ personality, both Joyce and I agree with the classification (in fact, Joyce said that she laughed out loud when reading it because she said that “it was just so you”).
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A number of you probably know of my “diaphragm exercises”. You know, sometimes after eating a very large meal, and you’re feeling really full, I recommend doing the “diaphragm exercise” to try to make you feel less bloated.
For some of you, it has worked before; for the others, not so much luck. Some of you have asked me how I came up with such a ridiculous thing in the first place. Well, now that I have sufficient interest, here’s a brief history…
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It was very interesting today. Three people I know told me that they got engaged today. (Congratulations!) One of them is my distant cousin with whom I keep in contact, another is a sister in Christ who I taught piano for awhile back, and another is my brother in Christ with whom I used to do mission with. Freaky that all of these pieces of happy news came on the same day! (And it’s not even Spring, it’s Autumn! (Sorry Grace, I think our theory about Spring and love has been shot down :p). Thus this further confirms the sense that I am definitely in the ‘age’ of engagements and weddings (as compared to the ‘age’ of going to 21sts every few weeks).
Also interesting is that all these people had spread their news by technological means through mass email / sms. How did people in the ‘olden days’ manage to tell their family and friends without these technologies? 
:P
Currently suffering from Monday Morning Syndrome. So, instead of utilising copious amounts of unavailable brain-juice trying to write something, I’m just going to plagiarise my album description.
I was waiting for a dinner at King St wharf and so I walked around the CBD to get a bit of late night shopping atmosphere.
Since I don’t work in the city, I found all the hustle and bustle quite different to boring North Ryde. Everybody seemed to be absorbed in their own little world as they ploughed their way from point A to B. I doubt many would have even noticed me camping at busy intersections trying to get some shots of the hectic shopping night life.
The word “automaton” comes to mind…
Anyway, I wish I had a tripod that night… but I didn’t. Oh well.
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I’m not sure about everyone, but I seem to pay pretty much no attention to email signatures. Now, I’m not a psychologist, but I think this has something to do with operant conditioning (see Joyce… I do listen).
To quote from Wikipedia:
Extinction is the lack of any consequence following a response. When a response is inconsequential, producing neither favorable nor unfavorable consequences, it will occur with less frequency.
So, in this case, the response is reading the signature. Reading the signature is inconsequential (and often full of disclaimers about receiving this email in error, yadda yadda). Every time I read an email signature, I get neither a positive nor negative (well, sometimes) response. Hence, according to the concept of extinction, I’m going to read email signatures with less frequency.
Oh, and the fact that I get many emails where the signature is longer than the body of the email itself, doesn’t exactly motivate me to read them at all.
Do you read signatures every time you get an email? Do you actually “notify the sender of this email and delete this copy” every time you receive an email in error? Feel free to drop a comment on your response to email signatures.
According to this test (which I’m sure is scientifically proven to be accurate, unbiased, and hence to be taken seriously), I’m in the wrong career…
Your major should be Art. You are sensitive, creative, and you don’t follow established rules. Unfortunately, you’ll have to follow some rules if you ever want that promotion at Starbucks.
Interesting…
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Often people ask, “When is the right time for me to go out with someone? How do I know I’m ready?” Even if you’re not dating or not thinking about dating anyone soon, I think it’s still helpful to read the stuff below. These are just a collection of thoughts accumulated over the years from books and observations from others.
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I was doing a bit of cleaning up around my room this morning and I stumbled upon my good ol’ Sony Cybershot DSC-P9 gathering dust in the bottom corner of my wardrobe.
Ah, the memories… my first ever digital camera. And to think that I paid almost HK$5000 for the camera + accessories (worked out to be around $1000 at the time) when it first came out in 2002…
I guess it has served me quite well – lasting till July 2005, when I bought the Canon Powershot S2 IS. I then bought the EOS 30D in August last year.
Since then, I’ve spent like a further $3k+ on more equipment… which is kinda depressing if you think about it too much (I try not to).
It’s pretty scary how fast technology changes…