Psychology, Society

Outsider Thinking

Writing

Writing (Photo credit: jjpacres)

I still make excuses for not writing posts on this blog.  Too tired, can’t think of what to say.  It’ll take too long to write, I’ll do it later.

I’ve found though that there is a problem deeper than that.  It’s a common feeling that you don’t deserve to be doing whatever you’re trying to do whether it be writing blogs, books, photography, graphic design, music or making hats.  It’s a kind of outsider thinking – that because you didn’t go to college or university to learn it, because you’re not a professional then you’re just playing, that you’re not part of the group, you’re not a writer or photographer.  It doesn’t matter how many people say that what you do is good the feeling that you shouldn’t be doing it persists, particularly when there are people around who do confirm your beliefs with words like “it’s just a hobby” like your creations can only have value to yourself.  You could even end up doing these things at work for free because you don’t feel your skills are worth any financial reward.

It leads you to read the work of published writers and journalists and so on and think I’m not as good as them.  There are some professions that require professional training but many that don’t, there are many writers and photographers who are entirely self-taught.

You’ll know, or discover whether you are good at what you’re doing the important thing is to not let the outsider thinking prevent you from learning and trying, or valuing what you create.

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Society

Christmas and Ebay

English: Where's the turkey.... Brussels sprou...

English: Where’s the turkey…. Brussels sprouts coming along nicely for Christmas, mmm! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the radio this morning, while I was half asleep still, I heard talk of a man who had sold two Brussels Sprouts on Ebay.  People were bemused as to why someone had paid £100 for them, I was too but considered the possibilities, was he in some way famous, infamous, did the sprouts have the face of Jesus, Santa or Wayne Rooney on them?

Once I dragged myself out of bed and to the computer a quick Google found the answer.  They were advertised with the information that the proceeds were going to the Make a Wish Foundation.  Someone bought them for the novelty, to give money to charity in a fun way.

That’s the thing about Ebay, people do sell and buy things for the amusement or notoriety.  The sprout was not the first – that ‘honour’ goes to a man from Darlington in 2005 and was followed by another in 2006 (both for charity) but presumably since then people have been holding on to their greens.

Wikipedia has a list of some of the more interesting sales including the wife of a radio dj who sold his Lotus car for 50 pence after hearing him flirting with Jodie Marsh on air.  Some unusual items increase in value because the sale itself becomes famous – like four golf balls removed from a python (A$1400).

Back to Christmas though, this year a woman is selling three unwanted and unopened gifts from her ex-boyfriend who was trying to win her back, they “must have been wrapped by someone else as he’s not clever enough to have done them” she added.  Just down the road from me a man from Worksop is selling a pack of unwanted doilies with a free Mother-in-Law who is “free to a good home” collection only.

According to Gumtree £2.1billion worth of unwanted gifts are given at Christmas.  I though was very happy with everything I got, including my Christmas dinner and I ate all my sprouts.

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ladyromp's avatarLadyRomp

 

By Michelle Castillo

(CBS News) What’s the recipe for a stress-filled life? According to new research, being young, a woman, having a low education level and/or having low income represent the most stressed individuals in the United States.

A new study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology in the June 2012 issue, marks the first time scientists have been able to track the level of stress across the U.S. over time. Self-reported stress levels increased between 10 and 30 percent over all demographic categories between 1983 and 2009.

“We know that stress contributes to poorer health practices, increased risk for disease, accelerated disease progression and increased mortality,” study author Dr. Sheldon Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa., said in the press release. “Differences in stress between demographics may be important markers of populations under increased risk for…

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More evidence that even in our modern world some attitudes and assumptions haven’t changed.

ladyromp's avatarLadyRomp

Female

First Posted: 05/09/2012 3:30 pm

Investors Less Likely to Back Women-Led Ventures

Businesses trying to raise money by going public may have a tough time finding investors if a woman is at the helm, a new study shows.

Researchers at the University of Utah found that despite identical personal qualifications and firm financials, female founders and CEOs were perceived as less capable than their male counterparts. In turn, the initial public offerings for companies led by those women were considered less attractive investments.

“Bias against top-level female executives seems entrenched despite strides women have made in filling management positions within firms making their initial public offerings,” said Lyda Bigelow, assistant professor at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business.

The study surveyed more than 200 second-year MBAstudents on their opinions of fictitious companies, some of which were led by men and some by women.  The results point…

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Gadgets, Society, Tech, Work

Adventures With a Chinese Android

It all started eighteen months ago…

Cheap, small, curvaceous but not as slender as more expensive models my droid arrived late and wasn’t quite what I’d ordered…

Chinese Android

Chinese Android (image credit: Andy Vickers)

The picture showed a proper USB port, this didn’t have one but never mind.

I’d been contemplating a tablet computer for a while but wasn’t sure I’d get much use from one so I didn’t want to splash out on a Samsung or Asus I might regret getting.  I could see the advantage of a handheld, touchscreen computer for web browsing, picture and video viewing, quick email or Facebook viewing and so on especially since Apple and Google had managed to make operating systems that suited the way people would use them, i.e. with fingers, and because unlike previous tablets they ran smartphone software not desktop software they could be smaller and lighter.

My MID Epad looked like a shrunken iPad and even came in a very nice, Apple-esque box with a magnetic closure and it was packed with technology that iPad owners would snigger at; old-fashioned resistive touchscreen, an old processor, little memory, low-res screen, plastic back – PLASTIC!  Short battery life.  Not being a perfectionist and being careful financially with such experiments I accepted that what I had wasn’t cutting edge, so far from cutting edge in fact that you could butter bread with it.  Anyway, it was quick enough to play videos, the screen responded well enough to flick through ebooks.  I could even play Angry Birds.

The first problem was that these tablets come with Android but are not approved by Google so can’t access many of the apps in the Play Store, the default Google apps such as the contacts app won’t synchronise properly and often you don’t get updates.  For some these are not problems, if all you want is to browse and get email and read ebooks.  Gizmodo UK recently proclaimed that chinese tablets were all “crappy” and that Google was having to keep Android open to support this flow of effluent but it depends on how you define crappy, what you find acceptable and whether you’re looking at your £65 tablet from the point of view of a well paid tech journalist, someone who just wants to look at the odd web page or a blogger on the minimum wage.

It niggled me admittedly but again I lived with it and was able to get round the issues in a way that isn’t possible with out of the box Apple devices – I put apps on manually, sideloaded them, having downloaded them from app sites.  Most were old versions and again they wouldn’t get updates.  Playing videos from the computer required some research on how to make the software access a shared network drive, though as usual the net provided excellent step-by-step guides, though if anyone mentions the word Samba near me I may cry.  Ok, so it didn’t “just work” as certain fruity products are supposed to do but as a bit of a geek it was interesting.  The hair I pulled out has grown back.

It was a challenging device all in all – it had to be charged after a couple of hours use so I had to make an adaptor lead so I didn’t have to sit two feet away from where the power supply plugged in and so I could have a right-angle plug into the device.  Sometimes the internet browsing was painfully slow.  I loved reading books on it, even using it in a tent in the middle of the Lake District until the battery died again, though using it outside in sunlight was out of the question – one-nil to Kindle and paper.  Being non-approved some of the apps I wanted I just couldn’t have, and the dream of sharing data across computer, phone and tablet would have to wait a while.

The more I used it though the more I saw that the arguments of those people on gadget blogs who complained that tablets were too simplistic, that you “can’t code on them”, and so on were wrong.  The tablet is the perfect consumption device, I can lounge on the sofa and read the news, read a book, browse a website, check mail, listen to music or watch video streamed from my computer, I even have apps filled with tasty recipes which I haven’t yet got round to cooking.  I can share things I’m interested in there and then, add to my read it later.

Now, of course, this is well known and Kindle Fires, Nexus 7s and iPad Minis have been this years big Christmas gift – my mum got a Kindle Fire for her birthday last week because it was the perfect computer for her; so simple to use, just point and tap to read, browse the net or get more books or games.  I now have an Sony Xperia Android smartphone and a Nexus 7 tablet myself, both have newer versions of the software, I can listen to music via bluetooth from either and do even more than with my Chinese Droid, my emails, contacts, to do lists, notebooks, reading lists and bookmarks are automatically synced and available wherever I want them, all from small, thin light devices.

I remember seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek and similar, seeing those little pads of information and thinking how great it would be to have all that in your hand.  And it is.  Amazing.

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Society, Tech

Tweeting 999 – No Laughing Matter

Texting on a qwerty keypad phone

Texting on a qwerty keypad phone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Recently in both the USA and UK emergency services have announced plans to allow people to inform them of an emergency via other modern communication methods like texting, Facebook and Twitter.

Cue howls of laughter and derision from writers about how it’s typical of our lazy society that people can’t be bothered to look up from their phones for thirty seconds to phone 999 or 911.  For once I partly disagree.

Normally I too would think it’s another example of people’s disconnection from others, that they wouldn’t want to actually speak to someone, they’d be happier texting etc.  And for some that may be true.  It could also be open to abuse by those who already troll the existing services using fake accounts, names and addresses.

But consider someone who can’t use a voice service – someone in peril and hiding; someone unable to speak or hear whose only form of communication at that moment is a mobile or a computer; someone who has no phone available but does have, for example, a 3G tablet; even someone who for perhaps psychological reasons can’t talk to someone on the phone.  Any communication would be better than none.

The emergency services have said that this is an attempt to enable communication with them through modern technology – this forward thinking should be admired not laughed at.  Or maybe we should abandon the new-fangled phone too and go back to bells and whistles.

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