Think Great, Pose Great, Feel Great

There is no doubt of the fact that our verbals and non-verbals are influenced by what we think. We react according to what our brain processes.

Then there comes ideomotor effect - the influencing of an action by an idea - that we will unconsciously act based on the words, sentences or concepts that have glimpsed through our thoughts.

The other day, I went out to town with a friend of mine and the distance was like 30 minutes from our campus. We took too much time waiting for our food during dinner that we were actually really late for an event that we wanted to attend that night. So the driver - me - who had a thought - of being late and imagining a situation where we went in after almost an hour past the entry time - unconsciously hit 130 km/h mark on the speedometer. There was no pure intention of being that fast though we were in fact rushing. We had normal conversation to fill up the journey back, acted and behaved like we were still on time. And yet I sped.

Or simply notice how you start headbanging your head, stomping your feet on the floor while listening to some pop songs. Or how fast your walking pace is when you think of how hateful you are with those who walk slow. Or notice how the thought of the words FOOD and WASH will prime the word S_ _P respectively. 

And do our non-verbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves?

In one of the Ted talks that I watched, Amy Cuddy said that how we pose indicate what we feel. And it affects how we think.

Hunching usually makes one feels less confident, powerless and afraid. Take some time observing how people pose when waiting for their turn to be interviewed for a job. You can notice how one's facial expression is affected by his/her pose - the indication of how they are feeling.

That is why you can see Usain Bolt spreads his hands high up in the sky when he is the first to cross the finish line of the 100m sprint competition. He wants to feel great of his achievement. He wants to feel proud. And you can pretty easily notice the difference between a confident presenter with a nervous and shaky presenter. See how they move around and control their hand movements. They control their cognitive association through each of the movement made.

When you are feeling nervous or not confident, try to 'force' yourself to pose in the way that people - and you yourself - feel comfortable when approached. Try take a pencil and stuck it crosswise in your mouth to make yourself 'smile'. Try to cross leg, open your chest wide open, put both of your palms in the back of your head and spread your hands wide. Make yourself feel great. You might feel a bit odd and kind of faking but truly speaking, faking is not always bad. It might lead you to actually really feel good.

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Being Vulnerable

One of my good friends once said, people especially women are so vulnerable after they have just clashed that any guys who are at their disposal to console them during their sad days stand hypothetically higher chance of dating the girls.

I do not know if that is true enough. I firmly believe that is his personal observation. And if that makes any sense at all. I did not ask him back. I remembered I said he was right about it but I also remembered that I agreed without actually think more about it.

He was right about one thing for sure; being vulnerable. Everyone does when dealing with failure and sadness. Genders do not make any difference. You can be a tough guy with a stone cold heart but there is still that soft spot that will somehow make you feel so lost of your own feeling after being dumped, for an instance. There is suddenly a big dark hole in your heart. A hole that was once filled with unconditional love. The spot that has been your source of inspiration, courage and happiness.

At the times we are so in need of people who can comfort us, these people come in. We allow them to. They patch the hole little by little. We cannot afford to let the hole gets bigger. We are so prone.

We give them too much space to them that to some extent we feel like they can replace those who have gone leaving us drown in our sadness. We feel like they are our ultimate saviors that can lift us up again, seeing the other bright side. We somehow let emotion empowers us. We despise our brain's capability of making wise decision.

Our heart is now like Walmart's front door wide open on Black Friday. Anyone can dash in. 

I see the question of "how vulnerable are we?" depends on how we control our emotion. To what degree do these events impact us emotionally? I never come across a case where people have emotional epilepsy. Emotions are triggered by events. Predictable events, non-predictable events. How much space do we give those people - the ones at our sides - to venture into our heart and exploit it? Questions that we need to constantly pose to ourselves.

Some believe that girls are not good decision makers simply because they tend to make decisions based on emotion rather than logical thinking. That somehow  sounds pretty correct yet debatable. We are not going to debate it here now though. I guess that is why my friend said so earlier.

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Waking Up From Sleep: Feeling Fresh or More Tired?

There are times when even after having enough sleep hour, you still feel like you are not ready for the day. You hit the snooze button to give your body what you call as 'extra minutes'. But do these 'extra minutes' can really give your body the extra minutes it needs and kick the sleepiness away?

When we doze off, there are five distinct stages that the body cycles through over roughly ninety-minute periods. The first is so light that if you wake up from it, you might not realize that you have been sleeping. The second is a stage where you will know you have been sleeping when you wake up. This second stage is just before our body falls into a deep sleep and our brains are practically unconscious.

Stages three and four are considered deep sleep stages. Stage four is the deepest form of sleep and is a stage when you want nothing else but to go back to sleep so badly. The final stage is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in which most dreams occur and the brain is as active as it is when it is awake. 

So what happens when your alarm rings out loud and interrupt your sleep cycle?

When the alarm goes off in the morning, the sleep cycle is usually already reaching its final 20% of the cycle in which will cause slight fatigue because your sleep cycle is yet to complete to feel fully recharged. But when you hit the snooze button and try to give your body few extra minutes of sleep, the body starts its whole sleep cycle again and it can probably go back into the deep sleep mode. When the alarm goes off for the second time, the body is interrupted at Stage 3; deep sleep stage - and therefore causes you to feel even more sleepy and tired.

The following video explains a little bit more of this:

So what is the lesson learned? DO NOT hit your snooze button when you are waking up in the morning. Frankly speaking, I did try this and guess what? Yes it does actually make some difference. Waking up at the first instance gives a little more energy as compared to when I give my body some extra time to make love with the bed.

Give it a try!

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Imprints

One of the best perks of being a writer is that, with planning, you can live long past your death — with a little luck you can even be immortalised. At least for the foreseeable future our physical bodies are set to end, and we who don't want to die have very few ways to skirt death.

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In The Age Of RSS Readers And Read It Later Services, Do Blog Designs Matter?

First thing's first: Hi everybody! It's been a long time since I've published here, and it's good to back. In my time away I've been through a massive slump and I've just pulled my way out of it in a big way, and I hope that I won't take a break from writing for you guys for a long time (at minimum). Thank you.

As alluded to above, I have more energy than I've had in years. I feel younger, I look younger, and my productivity has increased tenfold. With that I'm refreshing my two blogs and webcomic, and questions such as their designs crop up. For years I've focussed explicitly on text, however now I'm learning how to make generative designs which could spice things up in a couple of months if I so choose.

But how much effort should I put into adding personality to my sites beyond the text? Every WordPress user that follows my blog on WordPress reads my entries in WordPress's reader; I could give my blog the best design on the planet and my followers wouldn't notice. The people that subscribe to my blog via RSS or e-mail wouldn't notice. People that have my articles saved to "read it later" services like Pocket wouldn't notice design changes.

What do they see, though? The content within each article I publish. Just plain text and any images I include in the articles — nothing else. Blog design doesn't matter at all to this group of people, they only want to see text. Based on my own anecdotal evidence, that group is growing, and my desire to focus on anything more than text is shrinking.

Heck, the high majority of blog articles that I read aren't even on blogs — most of what I read is in an RSS reader or read it later app. I expect "most of" to become "outright all" in a very short amount of time, and it'd be foolish to assume that it won't also become the norm for most people.

Does this mean that if you're a blogger you shouldn't focus on design at all? No, your blog(s) should be attractive to its browser-based visitors in order to get their attention. But the most important thing which is becoming increasingly more important is the quality of your articles — the topics and the writing.

To any interested bloggers, my recommendation (again, based on anecdotal evidence) is that you should take a hint from the popularity of RSS readers and read it later services. Make your blog(s) simply — but beautifully — text-focussed. Make your articles the main attraction and have nothing distract readers from them. That makes the experience for your browser-based readers the same as people who read your articles in an RSS reader or read it later service.

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The Wants & Needs

My degree and profession left me a great impression about the importance of working hard and not working smart. While we can study smart but not study hard, it's entirely the way round for working life. It's about the money we are earning for to support our living or it's about what we love to do that matters most. Why can't have both? Most of the time. We don't. We do have a choice but we doesn't dare to make the move.

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The Pick For 2012's Albums

I'm neither good at describing how music sound nor how awesome an album is with words. But I tried my best to present you my list of 2012's worthy albums. I have a lot in my mind. And I think I would give the underrated and debut albums a chance to be mentioned here. I will still list a few other albums from well-established artists because they deserve the mention.

1. Coexist - The xx

It came to an absolute shock when this album was not listed in NME's top 10 albums of the year. Tracks from this album was also none to be seen in Spotify's top 20 songs streamed.

Coexist is the second album to be produced by this trio. To no surprise, they still carry the same tempo as in their self-titled debut album 2 years ago, with a huge difference in music arrangement. The duo vocal interplay fits the music arrangement very well and it's much obvious when you hook on to your headphone with a quite surrounding. They play with minimal instruments and listening to them in a crowded place will not get you to the album's best delivery. My highest rated track for this album is Chained.

2. Night Visions - Imagine Dragons

My most awaited album of the year. And it is absolutely worth the wait. I can at least have something to cure my disappointment with Muse's The 2nd Law album. They have a bright future ahead. Album's reviews on iTunes Music are outstanding with positive reception everywhere to prove how successful this album is.

3. Picture Show - Neon Trees

A successor of Habits album. Never listen to them? Head to Picture Show's Everybody Talks or Habit's Animal. Two songs that can describe them best in my opinion. A good album with a good value.

4. Suicide Pact - JJAMZ

We tasted fame, we made our fortune
It was stripped away, now memories long past
Then you were tamed and I was tortured

An indie pop band that consists of 4 individuals from 4 different bands with an additional member. Suicide Pact is their debut album and launched somewhere in July. Their songs are not only love-based but more to life-oriented. One or two tracks might sound pretty familiar to other indie pop songs but the lyrics are something worth to give attention on. Recommended track from this album would be Suicide Pact itself.

5. Gold Motel - Gold Motel

My list will not be complete without Gold Motel. Second album came out after a successful debut album, Summer House. A great album for an easy-going environment. Make sure you have it on your playlist when you are out to the beach. Your day would be better with this easy-listening album.

6. Vital - Anberlin

To be honest, Vital is the first album of Anberlin that I listen to. Anberlin is a well-established rock band since 2002. I listened to their 2007, 2008 and 2010's abums right after I finished listening this album and I would say this album will not be a disappointment.

7. Make It Right - Abel

A rock band that has not received much spotlight through their debut album, Make It Right. An album that gets you on the fragility of life and love. From the opener of the album; I'll Be Alright - till the last track; Comfort and Truth - each track sounds pretty related to each other.

8. Hello, My Name Is... - Bridgit Mendler

I guess no introduction needed for Bridgit Mendler. She has always impressed me with her outstanding vocal. She is absolutely amazing even on live performance. Get her best voice with a bright vocal on her acoustic videos in Youtube. And this debut album is a must-have.

9. Esc - Clara C

I guess she first made her appearance on Youtube before moving on to produce two albums. Another Asian who has successfully cemented her name in the US market. Catchy songs accompanied by acoustic guitar performed by herself.

10. Red - Dia Frampton

If you like Kimbra, Bridgit Mindler, Birdy or Duffy, then you must listen to this pop artist. Don't Kick The Chair, Love Can Come From Anywhere and Stairway To The Stars are my three recommendation if you're up to a pre-listen on Dia Frampton. Why three? Because giving two is too mainstream.

Still want a few other albums that worth your money? Hmm... Let's see. Matchbox Twenty's North and Keane's Strangeland are also in the list. I rated Strangeland as their second best album after Hopes & Fears. Among other albums that worth my money go to Walk The Moon self-titled album and Gossamer from Passion Pit. Well, The Information Retrieved from rock band Pinback and Yuna self-titled album apart from Frank Ocean's channel ORANGE and The Weeknd's Trilogy also deserve a mention here.

Ouh bad bad me. Apologize me for giving you a heck of list. They at least deserve a recognition from an unknown little Asian, don't you think so? So enjoy your listening and hopefully they can suit your music taste!

Disclaimer: This is writer's personal view based on his listening. This is merely a sharing by him based on the albums that he has downloaded until the end of November and might not covered all released albums for the year.

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5 Common Mistakes In Website Design

Producing a great website is hard, let alone designing a beautiful one. Assuming that you already have a good set of content, you will need a design that will not only grab your readers right away, but to keep them drool over your content. However, some might have went too far in their way. Here's ten common mistakes found out there when designing a website:

1 - Bad Navigation

Navigation is crucial for any website. Complex and inconsistent navigation not only frustrates visitors, it also leaves them wondering where to go. It's like a map that's confusing and complicated for average user. Many websites buried deep links in a place that's not so obvious. Where's the about page? How do I contact the owner? And so on. On the contrary, some websites put these links front and center which can make it looked cramped and overwhelming to the user, all in the name of traffic. If they can't find what they're looking for, don't expect them to stay. If they don't know what they're looking for, they will go away. Simple.

2 - Too Many Ads

There's no any other reason to put ads on a website other than to generate some cash. We get it, we put it on ours too. But having too many ads not only frustrates the visitor, but might also impact the performance of your website. These ads often use javascript or flash as a container so having these many plugins load up all at once may slow down your site. If your site takes time to load, they will leave. But even if they stay, they will only grab the content and never even bother of everything else. Smart users would stop visiting the site altogether, and would rather use an aggregator like RSS to read just the contents of your site — nothing else. Some ads are not only distracting and ugly (eg: flashing banners etc.), but can be annoying too, especially pop-ups.

3 - Bad Content Structure

As silly as it sounds, content structure also played a huge role in designing a great website. We found that there are hardly any sites that got it wrong, but some might have abuse it for the sake of having everything shown to the visitor. They make ad-banners bigger than the site logo itself, worse, even placed it before the header of the site. Best example: Engadget. Having ads prominently featured at a wrong place is one thing, but having navigation links spread out everywhere like weed is another. These approach not only makes the website looked inconsistent but also portrays how desperate for traffic the owner is.

4 - Duplicated Links/Content



Another common mistakes often made by some websites, even major ones like Google search. Duplicated links make the visitors wondered which link point them to the right content. What would happen if they chose one over the other? You don't want your visitors to go back from a link they clicked on. In fact, some websites even put special links repetitively; one on the top, one in a middle, and another on the foot (eg: links to Facebook and Twitter). Duplicated links is fine if there's only one instances across several pages, but having multiple links that screams the same name, same URL, and same content on one page is a big-fat-NO.

5 - Lack of Consistency

Consistency might only be a cherry on top, but some people will appreciate it if you put some love into it. Many websites we stumbled-upon used more than three fonts across several structures of the site; different ones for the logo, content, and footer. You can tell that the owner lacked the taste in consistency, familiarity, and personality in making a website. The same is true with colours. What's with the multitude of bright and dark ones appearing all on a same page? Unless many of us like rainbows, there's no reason to paint every single colours on a page, let alone a website.

Conclusion

With the plethora of computers, tablets, and smartphones used to access a website, it is important to make it looked right, in addition of delivering the right content. While I've heard whispers of responsive designs (eg: one consistent design across many different devices), it's really important to get the low hanging fruit above settled first. I could go on and on, but these are the common mistakes I found that needs attention.

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