January 2006 Archives

Need a break? Hallmark's shorts or "toons" are a delight. My favorite is "Peanut Cops." Closely followed by "Belly Up" and "Banshee on a Date." Have a video iPod? Bonus! You can download these and watch them anywhere you please. Or if you're like me, you can enjoy them wherever you're near a computer. What a great way to market a brand. The video iPod has opened up a new avenue for marketers. Now I'm inspired! Maybe I'll have to come up with a toon of my own. Hmm...now what should that be.

Sometimes change can be scary or uneasy. But change can be good. And most of the time it's not as scary as you think it might be. I believe that change brings upon opportunity. The fears you have around a change usually don't happen. Change is sometimes needed in order to grow mentally and spiritually.

When I think back to the time I left a job in Wisconsin for one in Chicago, I remember feeling afraid, anxious, nervous and excited all at the same time. I was afraid that I'd fail at my job, lose it and then have to start all over again. Or that I'd hate it and regret making the move. I felt anxious at the thought of not knowing anyone and having to be the new person all over again. It took a while to feel comfortable at my old job and having to start all over again didn't seem easy. Also moving to a new city and not knowing anybody was also nerve-wracking. The night before I started my first day at work, I don't think I had slept at all. I laid in bed with thoughts racing in my mind.

But I was also excited at the thought of a new beginning and the opportunities that would open up for me. I think back to the first day that I decided to change my life; to the first day that I moved to Chicago; to the first day I started my job now and then and wonder what if I didn't make that change or would I feel the way I did then if I knew where I am today?

No matter what decision I make, I have made it a resolution to never regret it, but accept it even if it doesn't turn out favorably. Because even though it may seem like a wrong decision, it maybe that you had to make the wrong one for an opportunity to present itself. It is one of the ways I can feel positive about change.

I came across some interesting news online about a growing social phenomenon called the hikikomori in Japan. The hikikomori are characterized as locking themselves in their room for six months or longer and having no social life. They usually feel depressed and cannot handle the pressures of society, which lead them to this state. Most are young men and usually live with their parents having little or no social interaction with family members. The length of time some have shut themselves out of society can range from a year to over a decade.

In other news, a school in the UK has made it mandatory for students to learn Mandarin Chinese. The article goes in depth on the degree of difficulty it is to learn Chinese. Here is an interesting snippet that explains the four and a half tones that exist in Mandarin:

Tone one - A fairly high, even tone
Tone two - A rising tone, much like the sound at the end of a sentence with a question mark
Tone three - Falls then rises. Like the second, but must dip first
Tone Four - Sharp falling tone, a little like how the end of a sentence with an exclamation mark sounds
Half tone - Pronounce words with light tones in about half the time you would a normal word, without putting emphasis on it
-BBC News online

I didn't know there were 4 1/2 tones in Mandarin! I studied Chinese for two years and was taught that there were only four. Anyhow I liked how the tones were described. I wish Chinese was mandatory when I was in school.

Nothing is more important than your health. I'm sure everyone would agree. But it's not easy, especially in this fast food driven society we're in. With busy schedules, it's easier to pick up dinner at McDonald's or any fast food joint. Lately, discussions regarding the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and in developing nations have come to the forefront in the media.

A recent article in the New York Times, "East Meets West, Adding Pounds and Peril" provides a closer look at the effects of the American food culture on Asian Americans. It was enlightening to learn that Asians are 60% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than whites at any weight, which makes it more difficult to detect the disease. In the past diabetes affected mostly older adults, but today a growing number of young children are diagnosed with diabetes. Much of it has to do with our society's addiction to fast food and sweets. Children today do not lead as active a lifestyle as kids in the past due to the advances of technology and cuts made to school budgets often affecting phy ed programs. It's not hard to understand why kids choose sugary snacks and fatty foods over healthier alternatives with the numerous TV ads of fast food in sight.

I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of education that is given to kids about eating healthy. Even with educating children about making healthy choices in terms of their diet, it's much more important for parents to encourage a healthy lifestyle and practice one. Without their parent's guidance and perhaps enforcement, a healthy lifestyle would be harder to attain.

I'd like to propose to the national council of scientists, astronomers, smart people, whoever - that time elapses at a different rate for adults than children. And I don't mean it in a perceptual sense. How is it that almost always when you check the time it is several hours later, but only feels like 30 minutes has passed? Isn't it strange especially when you are busy that time moves faster? It's like time is playing a game with you. Time is betting that you didn't realize how much time has gone by before freaking out that you have only accomplished half of what you hoped to. A lot of people may think their biggest competitors are their peers, but I think it's time. You run out of time and that's it. You're pretty much screwed. I like to compare it to a time bomb. There's no negotiating with a bomb that's set to explode. You either figure out how to unwire it before time runs out or you die.

The strange thing is that as a kid time seemed to move so slowly, especially when you were in school. I remember grade school - we had three recesses: one at 10am, the second after lunch and the last one at 2pm (can you tell what were my favorite times of day?) It was torture waiting for the recess bell to ring. And if I remember correctly the first and final recesses were only 15 minutes long, yet it felt like a very long time. A lot was accomplished at recess even though we had 15 minutes. We had time to play tag (using the dumpster as the safety area), Red Rover, Duck-Duck-Goose, jump rope, hop scotch, chinese jump rope, talk about who's the cutest singer in New Kids on the Block, get the latest Green Bay Packers trading cards from the police officers who'd stop by in their cruiser (sometimes get a ride around the block in one) and the list can go on. Now? I can't even get to work in 15 minutes let alone get ready in that time for work.

I've come up with more resolutions for the new year. This year I will work smarter and not harder. I've told this to myself before, but I will be even more vigilant on everything I do. It will be my motto for the year.

I've always wanted go to an opera, but this one seems quite appealing.

Is it just me or does it seem like the years are going by faster and faster? I don't even know what happened to 2005. It went by like a blur, but I remember it so clearly that it seemed like yesterday.

Anyhow, I hope 2006 will be a great year. I haven't really come up with any new year's resolutions other than to eat more, drink more, cuss more, sleep more...ok, seriously I'd like to come up with something than the usual like exercise, eat healthy, spend less money, etc. One thing I do want to do is to redesign my digital portfolio. I'd also like to go on some sort of adventure, but I'm not sure what that would be. Maybe a roadtrip to somewhere I've never been or travel to some foreign country by myself. Just to disappear for a while and see life elsewhere would be great.

Workwise, I hope this year I'll be working on some more fun and exciting projects. The kind of projects that really get your creative juices going. I just started on a project to create a slide show with music which will be a tribute to those who were affected by Hurricane Katrina and Rita. So far I already have lots of material to work with in terms of images and music. I've been listening to the Hurricane Relief cd (a 2-disc compilation of mixed artists) and Marc Broussard's Carencro. They're both great cds. I'd never heard of Marc Broussard before, but ended up really liking his music. He's got a great voice and a terrific blues/soul sound to his music.