Normal Office Activities

On some Mondays, it's just way too early to share anything about the weekend. I take the lazy way out sometimes with the, "I don't remember" respond. I guess the more accurate thing to say would be "Sorry, it's just way too early for me to recall anything right now. Let's talk later." My co-workers must think that I'm either very secretive or have no life at all outside of work with my blank answer.

Anyways, talking about office life. It's annoying when the last person who finishes the coffee doesn't brew a new pot for the next person. Also when the restroom runs out of hand soap and no one seems to care enough to refill it. Doesn't anyone else washes her hands? Errr...I don't want to think about that too much. There's also the frequent spilling of coffee, sugar, etc. that people don't clean up in the kitchen. Sometimes people leave their dishes over night and not only in one sink where there are already dirty dishes in it, but in both sinks. Yes, please block both sinks so no one else can clean just like you.

No, these are not complaints. I'm only stating the fact of what I've seen before in an office. Is this normal office activities? My work is small, so our custodian only visit on the weekend. In a better world, more people would care and respect their working environment and not leave their mess for others to clean up after them. People would take care of one another and help each other out. Isn't it just common sense and common courtesy? I guess some people just don't have it. Sad.

On another note, I'm loving Neko Case right now. Her voice is always amazing to listen to when I'm happy or sad.

I Need a New Caffeine

Something is wrong; caffeine puts me to sleep. I love the taste of coffee, but most of the time, I want it for the after effects. What can be new anti sleep-stay awake beverage?

So I stopped drinking coffee about a week ago as an experiment to measure my sleeping time without it. Nothing changed much. It's weird how I tend to stay up later when I'm alone at home versus when I'm out. I caught myself yawning around 11pm the other night, but I can still go home and be up until 3am afterward. So we yawn because we're tired or bored but not that the body is sleepy. It could also be because you're low in oxygen or that you have too much carbon dioxide. Did you know that the fetus can also yawn inside the womb?


"Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World"
The Huntington Library

Celebrations

Is it that weird that my family and I don't really celebrate anything from xmas, Thanksgiving to birthdays? I feel like most people don't know what to say to me after I tell them this. They instantly become mute and wonder what I'll be having for dinner or if I ever have received any presents. When I was younger, we used to celebrate my birthday with the New Year celebration, since they are only a few days apart. I'm not sure how we stopped doing that but we did. Maybe it was after my sister and I moved away to college.

So my birthday is coming up and I will be getting that day off. My friends are more concerned about it than I am. This is not a complaint and I do appreciate that they care for me. Thank you. You know what I dislike about birthdays the most is when people demand for gifts or expect you to plan things for them. Gifts are not mandatory. Also having a wish list doesn't mean that these are the only things that your friends can get you. I actually don't really like the concept of a wish list, but I can see how it can be useful for some people.

Happy winter! Love this weather.

Morning Driving Thoughts

Do you have reoccurring thoughts while driving? Or play mind games to make the drive more bearable during traffic hours or on empty freeways? I imagine possible collision scenarios. They calm me down when certain things on the road make me nervous. Id est driving between two big rigs. So this morning while a school bus was on my left and a big rig on my right, I thought what would happen if they were to suddenly merge into one another. Would the top portion of my car get sliced off or crushed leaving me underneath one of them? One of my friend was in an accident a few months ago involving a big rig merging into her lane. Her car horn didn't alarm the other driving leaving her to merge right into the space underneath the big rig. All of the her windows shattered, but she came out amazingly undamaged. I can't imagine that my little Ford Focus would protect me as well as her BMW, but I still would like to know what my possible damage would be.

Rubik Cube and Age

Current obsessions: Antique wrist watches and Men's shoes. One is too expensive for me to own and the other is too big for me to wear. Nothing ever fits right. That's always the story.

I saw a Rubik cube the other day and fixed the first row, but got stuck on the second. Can't believe that I completely went blank on how to solve the rest of it. It was very disappointing. I promised myself that I would never forget it because one of my friend was doubting me when I was trying to learn how to solve it from a youtube video.

Have you ever heard about the age dating rule of half your age plus 7? It's this rule of the oldest/youngest age that you should date. So if you're 27, you would take (27/2) + 7 = 20.5 youngest age. For oldest age you would take 27 + (27/2) = 40.5 yrs. old. I personally have never been with/dated anyone beyond + or - 5 years of my age. I'm not against the age dating rule, I just have never been in a position where I had to think twice about someone's age before. Is age really just a number to you?


Cuties on Halloween

Quality of Friendship

What matters to you more, how many friends you have or the quality of the friendships that you have? I hope yours would be quality over quantity. Building a friendship is hard. With some people you meet, it's instant; whereas the rest may need time to grow. Sometimes you meet people who you think are extremely nice to you to find out that they have other intentions. It's hard to weed these out sometimes. It's unfair to both when one feels more for the other, but is there ever a relationship where two people can feel equally the same for each other? How do you be friendly without being too friendly? How do you care for someone without making them feel like you want more? How do you hang out with people because you want to go out, without making them feel like they're the only people you want to be with?

I went to a birthday dinner six hours ago. It made me think about who I'd want to invite if I were to have my own celebration. So many people are so far away. I miss you. I appreciate and am grateful for my low maintenance friends who understand that we're all busy and that we don't need to talk daily to remain good friends. It just isn't necessary and it's not high school anymore. I wish I have a recording of one of those high school days conversations. I don't know what my friends and I used to talk about anymore, but we would be on the phone for hours...or has something happened to me where I can no longer just speak forever and freely?


California Science Center

Taking a Basic Headshot

Some people just have no idea what to do when they're behind a camera and I know... it's not completely their fault. They just need more practice and some guidance. It bugs me when I get bad headshots from people for any print materials. These pictures are supposed to make you look better not worse. If you're not an artsy type of person, don't go for the weird angle pose. It supposed to represent you and not someone else. So here are a few tips for you to keep in mind if you need it for taking the MOST BASIC headshot.

1) What is a headshot? Remember that it's a picture of someone's head. So don't experiment with cutting off any parts of their ears, neck, head, etc.

2) Lighting: make sure that you're in a well lit place, but not so bright that your subject's forehead is glowing.

3) Size: yes, the size of a person's head matters. Make sure that you're not too far or too close to your subject. You only need the upper portion of the body. If you have more then that's too much. Just from the top of the head to the chest area is enough. Leave some background space in the picture, too. You don't want to make it look like there's no room between your subject and the frame of the image. They need space.

4) Surrounding: make sure there isn't any weird objects behind your subject's head. Try to take the picture in front of an empty wall, but preferably a wall color that isn't the same color as their skin color. It's good to have contrast between the subject and the background color.

5) Eye contact: Focus on the subject and make sure the subject have eye contact with the camera. You don't want them to look lost, confuse, sad, etc. Make them feel confident, happy, and positive.

6) Focus: if you have shaky hands, use a tripod or rest the camera against something.

7) Quantity: always take more pictures than you need and check the image if you can so you don't have to re-shoot later.

8) Image size: most places will ask for 300+ dpi image. If you don't know what this mean, just pick one of the larger size setting on the camera instead of the smallest.

9) Good luck and have fun.