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Archive of posts tagged opinion

how bored are you?

if you’re connected online then you definitely know what facebook is. and if by chance you don’t, then chances are you’re not reading this either…anyhow, if you visit facebook once in a blue moon then it’s safe to assume you’ve seen the following ‘test’: ‘how well do you know ‘x”, ‘where should you live’, ‘what color are you’, and so on. why would i say this? well, as you log on the first things that pop up are…so and so took the following test/quiz…and their result is… (of course you can probably disable this newsfeed, but then again…what’s the ‘fun’ in that?)

while i agree that a social online network page must continue to add rather small yet addictive pieces to keep the interest of its users up (given that the lack of this sort of activity is what started the downfall of the other older social networks once facebook sort of came onto the scene – and yes i’m talking about myspace, hi5, etc.) however, this latest trend tends to not only shock me but kind of surprise me. the surprise part is more on the lines of who take these tests…i would never have expected some of the people to complete some of these tests…i did think they had something better to do with their time (and yes…i am imagining that some of you might want to say a few ‘kind’ words to me now as you’re probably realizing this is about you).

let’s look at a few of these ‘test’. first off one of my favorites is how well do you know person ‘x’. well…i’m assuming that answering 10 questions about this person won’t make you an expert of the person…nor will it tell you if you’re great friends. but then again, while at work….might as well. another one, well ‘what kind of color’ are you? seriously…i highly doubt i need to spent time on this. how will this tell your personality based on some random questions that will pop out with some shade of some color. quite pointless…but then again…

next on the list…is, what does your name say about you? first off, for most of us we had no choice in our name (excluding those who changed their name)…so, there goes that test. your family name…well, just your luck you were born to that set of parents…and your first name…no comment. but then again, there’s the test of ‘what does your name mean’

the ‘where should you live’ combined with ‘which state should you live in’ and any other test that has any implication of a location to live in…why even bother taking this test? you know it won’t be the place you live in now. and it’s not like you’ll move the next day once the results pops up. furthermore…if it’s not the place you live in now…what does that really say about you? you didn’t quite make a good decision of where you live? and no, the argument i don’t have a choice…doesn’t quite work (well that’s if you’re not a minor).

another one of my favorites is ‘which greek god are you’ (or anything else that is related to some sort of mythology god…may it be roman, or anything else)…first off…they’re not real…made up mythological beings…regardless of the results…what does it really say about you?

another one…is which character of some lame tv series show are you? seriously?…c’mon, based on some questions…you’re like some tv character that is made up to be some generalization of a group of people…not to mention the character itself…has probably characteristics of different types of people just so that he/she can be related to by the viewers. this is quite similar to the horoscope…and you guessed it…there’s quite a few tests that will tell you what you’re horoscope sign means and what it tells you about you…again…same argument…generalization with far to many vague characteristis to be true.

the last two i’ll mention…well one is ‘how good is your ‘x’ language’…and the test is written in english…do i even have to say it? it’s definitely not good if you take the test to see how good you are at language ‘x’ and you take it in english…c’mon? how lame must you be to be proud of scoring 100% on language ‘x’…when the 10 questions (or so) are in english…

the best for last usually…and this is one of my favorites…’how well do you know females (or males – depending on your preference’…definitely not good enough if you must take a test to figure that out…either you don’t have any sort of confidence in yourself (for which this booster won’t help) or you simply haven’t learned yet…you can’t learn how to behave with your partner our of a book (yes…the reference are there)…

overall…i’m just very happy facebook took the ‘requirement’ of send this application to your friends once you complete this test (which they had for their previous ones).

must wash hands

during yesterday’s coffee break, i stopped at a starbucks in vancouver to have the morning ‘fix’. while i was sipping away…i had to take a short trip and ‘check-out’ the facilities at the location. the first thing that jumped at me was the sign ‘employees must wash their hands’. first thing i thought about was something along the lines…’great…but have you told them how to do it properly?’.

make my way to wash my hands, and i noticed the short ‘how-to-wash-your-hands’ picture-gram (and as soon as i get a chance i’ll post a picture of it). in short, the diagram itself was made up for five pictures showing different stages of the washing procedure. as you can imagine, i was quite pleased that the instructions were there, they were clear and had subtitles to each picture in order to explain what to do. first you wet your hands and then you get soap. then you wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds, and after you rinse them. you take paper towels after and turn off the water with the paper towel (as to not contaminate yourself from the dirty handle…thumbs up for this to starbucks).

seeing this brought a few questions. i do wonder if other training was offered to employees besides the posted information (which does most often get ignored). the second thought was…i wonder why they did not put a picture to tell the employee to use the paper towel to open the door when getting out of the bathroom…afterall there are some who do not wash they hands and will have to use the door handle to get out. so…for the same reason as to why one should use a towel to turn off the running water in the sink…one should use the paper towel to open the door when coming out (thus one would also require a garbage basket at or near the door). and the third thing (and this is probably nit-picking) is…to my knowledge one should wash one’s hands with soap form 30 to 60 seconds (given different sources). perhaps i am being picky on this…but at least they have these up there.

overall, i am quite pleased to at least see information about this posted. yes, most employees tend to ignore signs, but at least efforts are being made. i hope that training went along with the information, but if not there’s still time. and while i wonder why the employees bathroom is common with the public bathroom at starbucks (most likely due to space constraints)…it’s comforting knowing they took the time to instruct about washing procedures, unlike others.

this is love…

one could arguably define it as the most complex and important emotion that humans hold…it comes in various shapes and sizes, and for the most part there’s as many definitions of love as there are people. instinctively each person at some point or another will say they felt as if they did ‘love’, however agreeing on how it feels and what it is…that’s another story. quotes and various ideas about love have been spread around through civilizations. it has been used as a reason to smile and to hurt, a reason to cherish someone and to fight with or against someone…it’s been written about and it’s been sang about…everywhere you go there’s some sort of reference about love…yet for the most part it remains an emotion…an emotion that is so vivid to those who believe they feel it…yet illusive…

on the other side, science seems as if it has no boundaries…as long as there are unknowns there is someone that will be willing to study it…as it turns out there is someone studying love, helen fisher, and she’s been studying for around 30 years so far. without entering the discussion of when do we draw boundaries about what we study or how far we study…her research is bringing about evidence of how one starts to love, how it expresses itself in the body and it is starting to hint at us being able to determine why sometimes we just can’t help it but feel the way we do about a particular person…so love might be blind…but as it turns out it’s only blind to the human eye…

here’s a video (it’s about 20+ minutes long…but i can assure it’s worth it), enjoy…

at some point…i’ll have a bit more time to fully state my thoughts on her research and what this means to me in particular…but also to what this can mean to society as a whole…