Passion in What You Say

I love to sit in at seminars, listen to people talk, preach about things they are passionate about. Their eyes gleam and it’s an amazing feeling truthfully. If you have ever seen Ted Talks on youTube, you would definitely know what I am talking about. For the past few months starting the Masters program, I was given an opportunity that I took without a hesitation. I was given opportunities to attend a lot of short talks where I could listen to people who spent months, years researching and sharing with us what they found out or their experiences they had encountered along the way. Even sitting with classmates who have years of experience, it is something that is indescribable when they tell the struggles and joys they went through.

You see it in their eyes… the passion of “this is what I have done and I have made it so far.” I want to have that same desire as they do with my work but sadly I am not there yet. I came to the course not knowing what I wanted in my life and which direction I should be heading. Months of people saying, you should know what you want and work towards that mission with goals set up that you want to achieve and try and do them. Setting a goal on what the market needs may not make one happy but setting on something that makes you happy, realistically it may not even pay for bills. I sometimes wonder if I will get there to the same level these people are experiencing rather than stick to a job because it pays for the bills.

Lately I have been receiving tweets about Pat Law giving a lecture to a group of students where the students wrote blog entries about the event. As I have been a follower of her written work that she posts on her blog Blankanvas and previously elsewhere, I believe her presentation would have been an experience. Definitely something I wish I had gotten the chance to sit in. But needless to say, to be where she is today she gave a lot of her blood, sweat and time which is admirable. So have you found your passion in life?

Testing Purposes

How long do you think it would take a person to type a blog entry without going psychotic using an iPhone? As a matter fact, I find it rather hard to type.

Plagiarism

Picture taken from: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/abl/quilt/tilt/tilt/module3/images/plagiarism.GIF

Plagiarism is often spoken of at Universities, Colleges, saying that one should never take credit for the things that others have done. Recently at work, someone won $200 for a story writing competition. I read his story and I couldn’t help but think, how in the world did he win it since the introduction and closing paragraphs are both taken from other people? I was baffled in how the company supported plagiarism. Is it so hard to mention the source of the information? I must admit at times I will forget to quote the source but I truly believed that he had no idea about plagiarism.

His first paragraph he wrote (taken from the company portal written by CS):
“Continuous learning is not about continually taking courses – it’s about developing skills, reflection and recognition – it’s about learning how to learn so that our life’s experiences became our own learning lab.”
Found this at the following website:  http://managementhelp.org/trng_dev/design/cont_lrn.htm

Second paragraph:
“Our future depends on our continually renewing and regenerating our management and building upon past experience, learning from the circumstances of the presents, and preparing for the challenges of the future.”
Found this at the Ministry of Education Singapore website: http://www3.moe.edu.sg/corporate/mission_statement.htm

Second last paragrah:
“More and more jobs require continuous upgrading, and that all workers must continue learning in order to keep or to grow with their jobs. Then the following will become essential skills:-

•  Knowing how to learn
• Understanding one’s own learning style.
• Knowing how to gain access to a variety of materials, resources and learning opportunities.
• Training in job- related health and safety.
• Obtaining and updating credentials.
• Learning about new equipment, procedures, products and services.”

Found at the website: http://www.ebcm-vet.net/index.aspx?GroupId=35

All in all it would have been greatly written with his own story incorporated. If it was only his complete work.

Lost In Myself

My cousin J got married to his sweetheart A on Friday (16th Oct) and they held a wedding dinner. I never really fancied weddings that involved relatives. You get the usual questioning of “When will it be your turn?” And I also got the, “Why have you not been coming out?”. I smiled and ignored as much as I could.

The school projects and study has been crazy, the work at work has been incompleted. Dates of friend’s birthdays have been forgotten and promises made a few months before had been dragged even longer. Books that I said I would read have been sitting on the shelf collecting dust.

People at work that are like big sisters and brothers giving me their perspective of my life. Sometimes I wonder if I am stuck in this job because I feel comfortable here and I know how to get things done. People tell me to hang till the end of the year before I make any changes. Lately a lot of changes are happening and I can see that more responsibility is being put on me to help with the transitioning but I think of what Q said of how she loves what she does but it’s the environment that is killing and demoralising everyone’s spirit. I don’t feel the same passion as she does with my work.

Maybe I should really fill out the forms and send them all out… What have I to lose anymore?

Jason Walker – Down

The video is posted by Badpacifist on youtube. I heard this song on “Vampire Diaries” on episode 6 sang by Jason Walker. It hit a place close to my heart… Why do we always aim high for so many things when at the end we know we may possibly fall and hit the ground? I guess it’s hope that one day… one day we can make it.

Lyrics by Jason Walker

Verse 1

I dont know where Im at
Im standing at the back and Im tired of waiting
Waiting here in line, hoping that ill find
What ive been chasing

Chorus

I shot for the sky,
Im stuck on the ground
So why do I try
I know Im gonna fall down
I thought I could fly
So why did I drown
I never know why, Its coming down, down, down

Oh im going down, down, down ( On 2nd time around )

Verse 2

Im not ready to let go
cause then I’ll never know, what could be missing
but I’m missing way to much
So when do I give up, what I’ve been wishing for

Bridge

I cant find another way around
And I dont want to hear that sound
Of losing what I never found

Zebras or Donkeys?

Last week I had the opportunity at NTU to listen to a famous motivational speaker / psychologist, Dr Mel Gill. Sitting in one of his talks for the very first time and having him share his wisdom on “Unleashing Your Potential as a Learner”. His witty humourous comments and how he shared his perspective on how limitations and frames could cause one not to aspire to their full potential. 

After listening to his talk, I bought myself a copy of his book, “Uncommon Sense” that I have yet to read through. I was hoping that this book will be one of those guides that will answer my questions of turning my life for the better and in understanding things about myself. I do find myself distress and lost in what I want to do with my life while others walk the path of knowing where they see themselves.

Truth be told I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. To be told what I should do with my life and make certain choices because it will contribute to happiness, has made me question more in why it is so important at the end of the day. It is like painting stripes on a donkey to convince people it’s a zebra. At the end of the day you may fool others but not to oneself.

Are You Missing Out on the Trend of Cloud Computing?

The digital revolution and trends of globalization has led us to see the importance of becoming an Information Knowledge society. The perception of having information on the go (mobile information) seems to give people the competitive edge and the need to be more mobile is so important that work no longer remains at our office desk! Do you feel it has become a norm in society to have information at our finger tips where we use our mobile phones to go online to find information (what time is the next movie at so and so, where is the best place to dine, whether the item is the best price or not) or check emails, etc.

Then steps in cloud computing as teh solution. According to InfoWorld, it’s “a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software.” In listening to a talk presented by ”John Larkin” last week on “Cloud Computing: Making the Internet work for you”. He mentioned how the applications of the cloud could help us with our daily activities of “syncing” ourselves from our home to our office and to where we were at all times. We could also use bookmarks to keep track of sites that we need and share it to the world so that if people were searching for the same thing they will find your bookmarks as well.

With cloud computing one doesn’t have to worry anymore if they forgot their thumbdrive at work because they already put it in their “Dropbox” which can be accessed at home.  No more worries in having to feel that the computer in the office may not have the same version as at home when you worked on it last night because cloud computing ensures that your home and office computer synchronizes and that you have the latest one at all times.

The trend of cloud computing is creating documents, storing it online and sharing it (if so desired) so that one can manage things on the go. If one does not learn how to manage all the information and work in their lives, it is expected they will feel overwhelmed with information which directly causes stress. However, cloud computing does come with disadvantages and one core problem is security. But is cloud computing just a trend that will die off in the future? What do you think?

Honey Bee

I bought Zee Avi’s album and I was listening to the track named “Honey Bee”. I love the way she sings. The track triggered several things in my life.

Why had I chosen to stay? Why had I not taken the initiative? 

I was starting to doubt myself again. Why can’t I be more like the honey bee? I had been contemplating the past week of quitting my current job and looking for a part-time job while I study part-time. I have conformed to all that my parents asked of me but lately… I was at a loss of words in what I was doing with my life as my feelings spiraled. I asked myself: what was it I wanted at the end of the day? I still feel like I am not achieving what I want with my life.

I am stuck where I am and I continue to be stuck because I let myself to be here. I know very well that I need to work from the bottom up and I knew that the reason why I took this job was mostly because I knew the current information system needed a revamp so I worked on it after learning about the domain.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I just dropped everything and be like the honey bee… Would I be as courageous? But then again I need to find my other honey bee first. I will leave you with the song and lyrics posted by bitterheartbee on youtube.

Tweet On Facebook

So for all those social media loving users and those who would like to have their social media platforms to  talk to one another, it’s possible from a developer side of things since all platforms have their own APIs (Application Programming Interface).

API in layman terms is just how two programs can communicate to each other so that either program can request the other program’s services even if they do not have the same layout / backend system / programming structure. (Read Wiki here is you would like to get more information).

So my post today will be having Twitter tweets appear on Facebook. However, sometimes friends aren’t really big fans of reading tweets of what one does that may not be “good valued information”. Good thing about Twitter is that the development team has constructed a widget for you to put it on your Facebook so you don’t have to go through the hassles of a developer of using the Twitter API libraries. 

1. Login to Twitter in your account. 
2. The top menu on the left hand side select “Settings” link.
3. Under ”Account” tab, scroll down till you see:
   More Info URL:
   Click on the link (You can also add Twitter to your site here)
4. Once you get in the Widget page, select the “Facebook” widget.
   If you want to install it for other social media platforms go ahead.
5. Click on “Facebook Application”.
6. Click on the button “Install Twitter in Facebook”.
7. Follow the instructions. It will take you to Facebook. If you have an account just login on the top right hand corner. If you don’t have a Facebook account set up one. (I am assuming you have a Facebook account).
8. Once you logged in, click on “Allow” for the Twitter access.
9. TA DAH! You’ve done it!

So tweet with care and don’t be an annoying twit who tweets about what they do every 5 seconds.

Profiling of Users on Twitter

Yesterday I attended my Professional Seminar and my group prepared for the presentation on “Ethics in Information Professions”. The group that we were in discussed a case study that was brought up about a Casino having a loyalty membership program which basically did data mining. Based on the data presented, the Casino then strategically targeted their consumers to spend more money. In a way profiling their customers. What was said though was if it targeted an 86 year woman who was spending her life savings then this would be ethically wrong, but if it was a 25 year old guy then it was ethically right.

So today, I came across the TweetPsych Beta from Pat Law which is created by Dan Zarrella who is a “social, search, and viral marketing scientist”. It profiled Twitter users. The more you twittered the more accurate it would be. As I find  myself going back to studying for my Masters course, I can’t help but find an interest in the area of the cognitive side of things, whether by understanding the mental models of people whether we can create more human like thinking which truthfully I do not believe that computers will out smart humans anytime soon even though it may one day do more computations than one human.

The world is changing so fast because of the Internet. Social media is growing and whether Corporate companies will take advantage of the situation and future interviews could be considering what you have on your facebook account.

I will leave you a video of “Did you Know”. There is a shift happening due to the Internet whether they like it or not. I believe it is a shift to the people.