Time is a Commodity-Living in Multiple Time Zones

Dec. 29th 2011

The Big Bang Theory

I recently watched an episode from the Big Bang Theory. For those that don’t know, it is an American sitcom, it’s a comedy show. The specific episode I watched was when Leonard, one of the main character in the show bid and won a Time Machine on ebay. He and his other super nerdy physicist friends took turns playing with the Time Machine. However, Leonard regrets buying the machine and wishes he could go back in time to not buy the machine, in which his roommate Sheldon tells him that in doing so would create a paradox because if he really could go back in time to prevent himself from buying the time machine then he wouldn’t have been able to time travel in the first place. What Sheldon described is actually known as a Temporal Paradox.

[My Serendipity]
It got me thinking about how time has the ability to subconsciously control how we view the world and thus our decision making.

How Time Perspective Influence Our Behavior and Decision Making
Although, I have come across a temporal paradox story before, I decided to Google up “the time paradox” and up comes Philip Zimbardo’s The Paradox of Time lecture video (Sources at the bottom). It is quite an interesting lecture to listen to since it provides insight on how humans view time and thus their decision making. It describes how there are 2 types of “Time”, the objective kind such as hrs, minutes, etc and the subjective also known as psychological time which is in terms how one views time. Subjective time is broken up into 3 perspective: past-oriented, present-oriented, and future-oriented. Each of these categories are broken into 2 types.

Fundamentally, we all must make decisions throughout our life, our day, etc and that we make these decisions based on past experiences, present moment, and future consequences (+ and -). Zimbardo broke it up into 6 different time perspective zone
Past
               Positive- Thoughts and memories of the good times
               Negative- Thoughts and memories of the bad times
Present
              Hedonistic- High risk takers, living for the immediate pleasures
              Fatalist- One’s destiny is predetermined and there’s nothing I can do to change it so I’ll just accept whatever I get.
Future
             Life goals - Goal planning, achievements in the future.
            Transcendental- Living with the vision of an after-life

The video has a better and more detailed explanation.

Living in Multiple “Time Zones”
It seems that each one of us are actually living in several “time zones”. No one is living in the absolute or extreme side of any spectrum, we don’t live in only a single time perspective, but rather multiple time perspectives. Sadly, most of us live predominantly in one time perspective which prevents us from making the most and the best of what we have. Therefore, the challenge is learning how to balance living in those time zones in order to optimize our life experience by shifting views to meet our personal affairs. Zimbardo suggests the mixture that will optimize our life is

High- in Positive Past Times
Moderately high- Future goals
Moderately high- Present Hedonistic
Low- Negative Past times
Low- Present Fatalism

This video pretty much answers a lot of my questions. Like why some people do the “stupidest” thing.

Sources

http://fora.tv/2008/11/12/Philip_Zimbardo_The_Time_Paradox#fullprogram 

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200911/life-in-balance-timely-makeover

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/200805/past-present-future-does-time-orientation-influence-procrastination

“Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.”

-The Social Nerd

The Fear Blog: I try to avoid random postings about the project and fear in general....

The Fear Blog: I try to avoid random postings about the project and fear in general....

the-fearbox:

I try to avoid random postings about the project and fear in general. But today I ran across a quote from Don DeLillo, my favorite writer, that summed up my project perfectly.

“How strange it is. We have these deep terrible lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk…

30 Day Life Trial

The 30 Day Trial: How to live a happier, more dynamic, and adventurous life!



Dec. 25 Simple things to try out to live a happier, healthy, and morefulfilling life!Start small. Many of us want to try something new orwant to do something grand, but those great goals need to be brokendown first then you start conditioning yourself to achieving smallergoals. Make life memorable, like Matt Cutts says, the days are going topass you by whether you like it or not…so why not try something alittle different.

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”

-TheSocial Nerd

DIY external laptop fan

Not a phenomenal post…except that I made my own external laptop cooling fan!! 
I have spare computer parts, which includes 3 internal fans and a screwy usb A-B cable.

TOOLS
so even though the USB is screwy…I still could use it because all I really need are the two cables that transfer power to the fan for it to spin, not the cables that transfers any data. The reason I bring this is up is that the USB can’t seem to read my external HD but it powers up so therefore I know the powering works just perhaps not the data cables.

Anyways, with that being said…I first cut off the usb end that would be connected to the other device which reveals 4 cables: green, white, black, and red. I stripped off the red and black coating exposing the filaments inside. Then I proceeded to strip off the red and black coating on the fan too. Now I twisted the redUSB-redFAN and blackUSB-blackFAN together and then connected the other USB end to my laptop and viola! it spins! 

I promise you, it is spinning…you just can’t tell because it’s going fast. Otherwise, if it’s not spinning then you could actually see the propellers…like so…
 
see how the actual propeller blades are visible? 

I just created my own external laptop cooling fan! 
GOOGLING! 

I had to do a lot of googling to find the SIMPLEST and “EASIEST” way of making this work since some of the DIY tutorials added in extra nonsense junk…that makes it more complex to follow and get to work correctly. There are actually 2 more sources to the one below…but I cannot find the link at the moment. Will update when I do! 
The fundamental parts that you need is really just the fan and the usb cable…the wire cutter, and wire stripper can be done through other means!

Miscellaneous note- Ok, so yeah I could probably buy a nice laptop cooling fan and pad by cooling master for ~10$ with 2 removable fans. I did this because I had SPARE desktop fans and spare hardware. I, personally would not go out and buy each one of these parts individually just to make an external laptop cooling fan. I just innovate and improvise on what I have!

Sources: 
http://www.techtree.com/India/Guides/Make_Your_Own_Cheap_USB_Fan_DIY/551-113022-695-2.html 

http://www.howcast.com/videos/186279-How-To-Make-a-USB-Fan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWWUAOqmWj0

http://talk.thewebhostingdir.com/how-tos/25869-how-make-your-own-usb-cooling-fan.html 

Google search terms

build your own external cooling fan, How to make your own USB cooling fan

If you want something done your way, do it yourself!
 -The Social Nerd

Sync up my browsers!

Dec. 16, 2011
Syncing across my two most used and favorite browsers :
Firefox and Chrome
Ok so Firefox has a Sync feature that allows you to synchronize your preferences, bookmarks, history, etc on all your PCs that uses Firefox. Although, i have known about Firefox sync for some time, I never really bothered to use it until recently because I own multiple personal computer…seriously, I do. I don’t particularly designate each one for a specific type of work e.g work, school, home, gaming or anything like that. However, I do have 1 “clean” laptop in which I really don’t have anything installed except for MS Office, Firefox, and Chrome so that it can perform faster. Then I have what was once my “software experimental” laptop where I tried out software, but now it has become more of the dutiful and diligent laptop where I use it for all sorts of activities and tasks.  I have gotten to the point where I’ve passed the software application experimental phase and I’m onto better things like experimenting with slightly bigger things such as learning Linux and playing with its various distributions.

Anyways, the point being …I use all of my PCs on a regular basis and sometimes almost all of them are actually turned . So I have bookmarks here and there, it becomes inconsistent and sometimes I want to get to a particular site, but I bookmarked it on my other PC…so then I’d have to turn that on(that’s why sometimes I have all 3 PCs turned on at the same  time) …and it just gets tiresome plus it makes the user experience awful!!

Therefore, I decided to set up Firefox sync on almost all my PCs (except for PC, gotta sync that up soon) thus allowing me to access not only my bookmarks but also history from other PCs since sometimes I find some really interesting articles, reads, or tutorials, and I would want to be able to access those tabs from other PCs.  I’m super happy about that now!! Yeah, I don’t know why I hadn’t done this early…would have saved myself a lot of grief.

Sync-ing Chrome?
So Firefox and Chrome are my two favorite and top used browsers, inevitably I also have some bookmarks that are scattered here and there on chrome. Luckily though I don’t have as many chrome bookmarks as I do with Firefox. My first reaction after I synced up my Firefox was..how about I sync all my chrome stuff?

Well isn’t that a genius idea! So I hopped on that task too, signed into the chrome browser account, tools—>options—personal—Sign into Chrome(GOODNESS I LOVE GOOGLE…but I’ll save my google rant for another day) and sync-ed up all my extensions, bookmarks, etc. Definitely saves me the time of installing these extensions on various PCs…it’s such a hassle and super inconvenient.

“Synchronizing” Chrome with Firefox
Finally, I thought to myself, there’s gotta be an easier and direct (preferably built-in) way to import data or sync across different browsers, without going through the trouble of exporting the bookmarks then importing them. Well maybe it already does exist…I don’t know, but if it doesn’t perhaps I can create one. Luckily, the day after I discovered (thanks to an article on Lifehacker) that apparently you can set up chrome’s default behavior to open the pages I previously closed. Again, SUPER excited to find this out…and as I was doing that I noticed that there is a “Browsing Data: Import data from Another Browser” in the tools—options. Hah! that’s fantastic since I have already synced all my Firefox stuff, now I can just DIRECTLY import them! Furthermore, since I have chrome linked across all my PCs, when I import the Firefox bookmarks it will then sync with other chrome browsers that are signed in! BOOM!! Now both my favorite browsers, Firefox and Chrome have the same bookmarks and similar history!
Super Win!

Alright, I know importing data from another browser is NOT considered syncing, however, it does provide me with a better user experience and a much more efficient and effective way of keeping my data consistent + up-to-date!
A built-in import data from another browser is exactly what I wanted/needed!

Lastly, I’d like to mention that Firefox does not have the “Import data from another browser” built-in option like Chrome does, but according to 1 news article it will be developed in a future version of Firefox, version 11. Links can be found in my sources at the bottom.

So in a nutshell
1. Sync all your firefox browsers

2. sync all your chrome stuff (signed in through chrome browser account..which is your gmail account)

3. Import your Firefox data into Chrome through Chrome browser. Go to tools—Personal—Browsing Data.

Sources

Lifehacker

Chrome
http://lifehacker.com/5867446/the-always-up+to+date-power-users-guide-to-chrome

Firefox
http://lifehacker.com/5867444/the-always-up+to+date-power-users-guide-to-firefox

Techdows
http://techdows.com/2011/12/firefox-11-to-support-chrome-data-and-settings-import.html

-The Social Nerd

The Art of Gratitude

December 11
**NOTE-This is what I perceive and believe, and I’m not saying that everyone is how I described, but perhaps the majority. I have no statistics or any data to back up what I describe and state, but rather based on what I experience and observe. I believe the overall patterns of life are similar.**

Grateful (to me) means that we experience an emotion of acknowledgement and recognition of something positive happening to us. Being grateful comprises of the intangible and tangible, even down to the simplest form of having clean water and food to eat.

Too often are we too quick to criticize and condemn others for insignificant matters. Yet, we are too slow to recognize and appreciate when others do something great. We will lash out at them if they accidentally do something that displeases us, however, we won’t bother to give a simple “you did great” or a “thanks” when they’ve helped you several times.

Granted
Perhaps one of the contributing factors is that we take things for granted too easily, especially for what we always have growing up or see on a daily basis.

Entitlement
The other issue is that we might not even think of it, not notice it, because we feel that we are entitled to those simple things.

Remedy
Maybe if we focus less on all the negative occurrences that makes us unhappy and that are out of control, but instead focus more on what we can control and the decisions that we can make to allows us to be happy. We’d be a lot more grateful for our existence.

Simplify it…
So just think, I may not have the fanciest or newest car, but at least I have a working car, in which I can go whenever to wherever I please. Be grateful for what you do have, not what you don’t have. List them all out, it will help.

Link to one’s well-being.
Grateful people will probably be more satisfied with their social relationships and mental health.
Personally, I have tried this gratitude thing…and it definitely gives life a great new feeling!

So what are you grateful for?

Don’t get lost in society’s materialistic competition.
-The Social Nerd

Initial Impression is a Lasting Impression

NOTE*- These are my observations and personal experience.

You ever notice how the circumstance in which you meet and/or you are introduced to someone else will likely determine how you perceive, behave, and interact towards them?

When Age Difference was significant
When we were younger and we were introduced to us someone “significantly” older than us, we tend to address them as Mr. or Ms./Mrs. During this period of time in our lives how we address, interact, and perceive people seems to be dependent on the age difference. However, by the time we reach a certain age even when we are introduced to other people older than us we make the shift towards calling them by their first name. By this time, age disparity becomes less significant and the emphasis shifts more towards how you met them, in what circumstance or setting.

Even when we have reached an age where we address just about anyone we meet by their first name, it will be unlikely that we will be able to start calling those we met (when age was a bigger factor) in the past where we initially address them as Mr. Smith or Mrs.Smith to call them by their first names.

Title to our encounter
I know of several graduate students, most of them going for their Master’s and a few for their PhD. For the ones that I met when they are PhD students, I perceive them as another college student, a classmate, someone on the same playing field. And assuming these PhD students one day goes onto becoming professors (since most professors have PhDs) I will still perceive them as an equal, as another person that I have a “real” conversation with outside the scope of academics. Simply because I met them when they had a different and more personal “title”. I can continue to call them by their first name e.g. John Smith instead of Professor or Dr. Smith. I don’t feel obligated or awkward to address them by their title.

Setting of our Encounter
In one instance I arrived early to a ballroom club meeting and so I got the chance to practice with this young guy who apparently was going give us lessons because he is an international ballroom dancer. This guy appeared to be in his mid 20s, and at the latest late 20s. We introduced each other. I don’t want to reveal his real name so I’ll just give him another name of Markus Spinner. He taught me some of these basic waltz steps for a bit. Later when I sat down to take a break from waltzing, I started talking to the other lead instructor of the club and I learned that Markus is actually a professor in the CS department. It is surprising to see a professor participate in a student organization. It’s like “WOW! you’re human and know how to socialize!” haha…I know, I find it difficult to picture a professor outside a classroom environment. Anyway, since I met this person as Markus Spinner and not professor/Dr. Markus Spinner, plus he is not my professor and won’t ever be, therefore I never felt strange awkward after that to address him by his first name or interacting towards him as another person, as oppose to another professor. I would feel less inhibited to converse with him about non-scholarly content.


Reverse the situation a bit
Let’s reverse it a bit and let’s say that I entered my class and my professor introduced to the class professor Markus Spinner, then I could almost never go shift to the mentality of this professor is just another person. The setting in how we meet Markus this time stamps in our mind and categorizes Markus as PROFESSOR and automatically semi-separates and determines how we should interact and what we can talk about with this professor. We are not on the same equal field to start out with, so we feel the need self-segregate ourselves. Whereas, in the former situation, we start out on the same field…it was something we had in common that we were doing at our own leisure. Personally, it would be very difficult for me to engage in a conversation outside the scope of academia, unless I can somehow engineer the conversation. Much like the Half Empty, Half Full glass image, it’s basically the same glass of water, but viewing comes from a different people thus with a different point of view, plus each person is viewing it from a different angle.

Observation Summary
Perhaps it’s in their, or our title, status, and/or the environment setting in which we meet that influence our relationship with people. Whichever and whatever it may, it does have a subconscious impact on how we interact with others, how we perceive others and ourselves, as well as our perception of situations.

Quote of the day
”What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing”

-The Social Nerd