Brand Loyalty

Whether it is the Apple fanboy who has his up-to-the-minute countdown for the release of Apple’s latest deus ex machina (which, as of this writing, my spam queen advisors inform me that the DEM is the 3g iPhone) or any of the anti-Apple, fiercely loyal audiophiles who cling to their anything-by-iPod music players, the brand loyalty phenomenon and its followers stroke my often untouched sense of curiosity.

I mean, I can understand that people will be happy with the products they select to buy (possibly to ward off a sense of buyers’ remorse, maybe?), but I think that some people take an almost fanatical approach to things.

I guess I’m just extremely butthurt and this has caused me to shut myself off of my natural, human desire to be a part of something greater than I am. Or at least, I guess that’s how the rhetoric goes. I do admit I like to buy things that are practical…so if a brand is consistently practical, then I guess I will continue to buy. That’s not the same as saying the brand or company can do no wrong.

I guess a case of brand loyalty that caught my eye was that for Moleskine notebooks. When I first heard of it, already I was put off by the extra e at the end…but then I decided to do research. Apparently, I am to believe that Moleskine was used by Picasso and Matisse and other super-duper types. Sure, the marketing department notes that it’s just exaggeration…marketing, not science, so to speak, but already, it’s clear that Moleskine presents itself as the embodiment of pretentiousness.

I checked out this Ultimate Guide for Moleskines to get a user perspective on how to make these things so great. After an introduction of the line, what they are and what they do, I realized that I didn’t get it. I guess it’s something you just have to experience for yourself. Nevertheless, I continued reading the stages of addiction…but all the while, I thought to myself, “Why? Why fall for it?”

I suppose I’m just not hardcore enough. Meanwhile, my brother spends $293408 every other day at Starbucks…

Summer cleaning

First, I want to say that spring cleaning is a dumb name for the concept.

CLEARLY, the best seasons for cleaning are summer and winter…during these long breaks from school when things have a heightened probability of getting boring. (I wonder what I will do when I get a year-round job? Join the masses of adults who live by spring cleaning?)

I guess cleaning allows me to get back in touch with some of my humanity. For most of the year I’m a terrible slob with unorganized desks, stuff on my floor, etc., It’s the sign of my ongoing productivity, I believe. At least, that sounds somewhat quote-worthy…That’s not to say I’m dirty, however. In fact, I guess I shouldn’t say what I’m doing now is summer cleaning at all. It’s more like summer straightening up. I guess, even though my mom doesn’t believe it, I have a ticking sense inside me that screeches whenever my room is too dirty that compels me to clean at least somewhat regularly. I just have a whole lot more tolerance for messiness.

However, when summer and winter come along, I find a new joy in order. And so my cathartic process of cleaning/neatening begins.

Most people have items they feel connected to…I guess they maintain these keepsakes to reminisce with their idealized pasts…I think I do that too. When cleaning, I find the most interesting items…I found a collection of a bunch of my *old* short stories…stories I wrote with some friends over ten years ago. I took the time to read through some of them. Wow! They were elaborate. To think that all these years ago, I voluntarily created outlines, character sheets, brainstorm pages, illustrations, everything. The actual stories were only remarkable in their poor writing, but still (it’s the thought that counts.) So, I read them.

And then I placed them in a white plastic bag along with the rest of my trash.

The most invigorating thing about cleaning is realizing that in the end, I don’t really need all of those material goods that I’ve collected over the years. I can minimize my life to essential things, and when I do, my room looks empty and beautiful.

I still have quite a way to go…

iPhone killers kill themselves.

I remember the time right before Apple was ready to release their iPhone. The entire technology industry had something to say about it. Some people thought that Apple was crazy. The Apple fans thought the rest of the world was crazy (but they also thought they’d look supertrendy with yet another piece of Apple hardware attached to their hips). After the release, billions of iPhones were sold (yes, billions, all other sales counts are inaccurate) and the new game for everyone in the smartphone industry was to create the perfect assassin.

Who would be the one to kill the iPhone?

Would it be the LG Prada? …No.

How about the HTC Touch? …Not quite. Thanks HTC for not including drivers in your products, BTW.

Geez? What happened, everyone? What was so hard about making a touch screen that would be as responsive as the iPhone’s? I don’t know. Fortunately for Apple, however, the iPhone still lives.

The would-be killers never had a chance. I don’t say that as an Apple fanboy…heck, I don’t even particularly enjoy the things Apple does (cough cough macbook air cough). However, I do know that Apple did some very crafty things to give the iPhone its invincibility.

Apple used its marketing genius, of course. The marketing wasn’t very clear, but all that did was help. Apple successfully portrayed the iPhone as being the perfect device for consumer and business user…even if that was not completely true (the iPhone originally lacked several features that were commonplace for either consumer or business phones). That way, even trendy teenagers knew that when they wanted to ditch their crappy Razrs (those are some crappy phones, I’m sorry!), they would move up to the more perfect iPhone. Even if they didn’t really need any of the features provided.

This isn’t to say that iPhones suck. That’s the problem for everyone else…like all of Apple’s products, iPhones make things just “work.” Even while you’re lamenting the fact that you’re surfing the internet on a 2g network, you’re wowed by the fact that Safari is the first browser to bring you the “real web.” Windows Mobile developers are still scrambling to get a decent browser, although it seems that Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, and the newcomer Skyfire are getting the hang of things. However, as of now, trying to view youtube is painful. So what if the iPhone technically doesn’t support flash? Technicalities aren’t for cool hipsters — the fact is that Apple thought enough to include a youtube app that plays converted videos. Why couldn’t a PocketPC developer think of that first?

The so-called killers didn’t even get the basics right. They generally had smaller screens (and resolutions that couldn’t match the iPhone’s), subpar keyboard experiences (of course, call me old fashioned, but I’d keep my Tilt’s hardware keyboard over something that supposedly melds to my mind and can autocorrect my touches…), with clunkier interfaces.

Even good phones that didn’t try to keep up with the Jobses couldn’t edge out the iPhone. Blackberries just seem so…yaaaaawn. Even though I love my AT&T Tilt/HTC TyTn II/HTC Kaiser/whatever you want to call it, it’s not “sleek.” It’s fat. It’s technical. It doesn’t have frickin’ video drivers. Why would you want something like that over Our the iPhone?

Well…I must say…I am skeptical of anything to come out of the jaws of HTC since…did I tell you…they don’t know how to put video drivers in their phones? BUT, notwithstanding that…I don’t know…I must say I am looking forward to something that might be sharp enough to spear through even the invincible iPhone: the HTC Touch Diamond.

Oh wait, only time will tell.This note was made so I could post eye candy.

Advanced Placement

It seems perfectly apt to me, after the end of a school year, to talk about AP classes. Good ole high school days, right?

My high school only generally allowed juniors and seniors to take AP courses (but even in junior high, people could take honors or pre-AP classes). Every year, I tried to max out my schedule with some kind of weighted class.

But why?

First, I wanted a perfect GPA. Doesn’t a 5.0 sound nice (especially in comparison to a dull 4.0 or a 3.something or other)? Sure, I knew that it wouldn’t mean anything for college (PRO-tip: college admissions unweight or reweight weighted grades as they see fit, of course, so as to not give anyone and unfair advantage due to their high school’s bureaucracy.) But…much like in video games…bigger numbers just feel psychologically better (experiment: if you play an RPG, analyze how many games feature hit points in the hundreds as opposed to the thousands…)

OK, so that was my bad answer. I have a worse one. Or rather…my pseudo-intellectual elitist answer. Quite simply, honors and AP classes were the only thing that even resembled challenge at the high school level. This isn’t to say that AP classes were particularly grueling…but I remember taking a few non-honors classes. To say the least, they depressed me about the state of education. I’m sure anyone who has compared their school’s AP or IB classes with the non-honors classes can tell of similar stories (assuming, of course, they don’t go to a completely higher caliber school in the first place.)

Another answer that seemed somewhat acceptable to me at first was the economic one: AP credits are a very worthwhile investment. AP classes lead to AP tests, and AP tests lead to AP test credits. At least…ideally. I entered college with 38 hours of credit (mostly AP credits but with 6 hours of dual enrollment) — to put that into perspective, I entered as a sophomore. Furthermore, that’s not even the best possible setup…others I knew entered as juniors.

There was a problem with this philosophy, however. Many students have dreams of going to super-prestigious schools…and in current years, these super-prestigious schools are less and less likely or willing to accept AP or IB credit (they have several reasons, many of which may be completely justified so that’s not the point). What worth is taking an AP or IB class and actually risking a lower grade when it will not offer any advantage?

I go back to my “worse” answer. Once again, AP classes are probably the most challenging opportunity at most schools, so academically-minded students (and especially those that dream to attend Ivy League or equivalent schools) have a duty to challenge themselves as much as possible.

Seriously…how pathetic is it if you take basketweaving? No offense to basketweavers…but that’s what extracurricular activities are for. In fact, if you start a basketweaving class at your school instead of wasting one of your hours taking a course, you look more impressive. PRO-tip 2: extracurricular activities are your friend when you’re trying to distinguish yourself from every other 5.0 student out there.

That being said, something I see people do is that they take AP classes, pass the AP tests…and then take the course over in college even though their credit counts. Most of the time, they expect to breeze through the class in question to easily cushion their grades…but sometimes, they are proven wrong. With disastrous effects for their grades. If you have AP/IB/CLEP/dual enrollment credits, why would you throw them out the window?

Beginning of Summer Break

So, oops, haven’t written in a while.

So, Tuesday, was my last final! Wednesday, I moved out. My first year in college…is over.

But no more talk about silly academic matters…That last day was interesting from a social perspective…my dad came to help pack stuff. He was irked. He usually is, but why this time, I wondered. The foyer by the stairwell he had come up was crowded, he told me. There were several people just sitting around on the floor holding up space, laughing around: having a good time in general. This population mass spilled over into the narrow hallway (which leads to the rooms, including mine) and these migrants refused to even keep their legs out of the way! They had made what seemed to be a permanent settlement, complete with their food, and they were opposed to any attempts to relocate them or their stuff.

My father and I were trying to pack up stuff and take it downstairs, then outside, then to the car. Did we bargain for any more of an obstacle course than what we obviously expected? I think what was most irritating was that even when we came through their masses with big heavy containers, the people lying around in the hall did nothing. At one point when we were coming, one remarked, “The British are coming!”

Sometimes, I wonder if I’m a bad, rude person. I don’t go out all the time to consciously render community service, but at the same time, in local situations (as in, people in the same room), I try to help out. I open doors for people…or at the very least, I stay out of someone else’s way. I don’t…enter a building, see someone coming with heavy equipment, look them straight in the eye, and then walk away without helping.

People want to get on *me* for not being so open and outgoing and whatnot. Certainly, if I were in the “in-group” of that particular community, then I could expect privilege and nicety and they probably give each other. Instead, I have people who look me straight in the eye, smile and say hi, and then walk away. Some people, even worse, try too hard to be nice up front…but can’t be anywhere around when there’s real work needed.

It makes me ask myself: why would I want to join such a group just to gain their consideration? Why should I uphold a system of insiders and outsiders? I will be an outsider, independent, but self-reliant.

Such a silly ideology, I suppose. One day I’ll have to mature. Or sell out. Or maybe they are one and the same.

People always remind me, “Not all others are bad…there are good people in the world.” I agree. I have no problem with a lot of people. In fact, I don’t have problems with anyone as a person. Maybe with their actions…or with their beliefs…but not just because they are a person.

Agh. How terrible.

Approaching a familiar issue

On another message board, I heard the cry for help…someone wanted to know how he could improve his social skills. I went in the topic amused…not expecting to do anything…but the topic creator said something interesting: his own thoughts on how to improve were to pretend to be interested more.

I had to comment…If you have to pretend, then this should tell you something.

The topic creator misinterpreted what I meant (focusing on the have,) but revealed something more:

I have to pretend. i cannot honestly say that i am interested in what most people are talking about. perhaps changing my current, shitty character to something more appealing is a more suitable way to describe it

Not interested in what most people are talking about..? I took the opportunity to jump into the fray. I suggested that maybe his personality wasn’t to be an extroverted butterfly.

Sure, sure, even if you aren’t extroverted, that doesn’t mean you should be a social shutoff. You have to know the basics and you have to know the way to work the system for networking’s sake. You don’t have to like it and you don’t have to prefer it. But that’s something you have to do. However, what you do in your free time should be what you want to do. That’s, I think, what introversion is about. When you are free, do you want to spend time with others…or not? If you don’t, then I don’t think you should be pressured in slaving your life away at every party or every movie or every…everything. Every everything is something you should only do if you want…because you are a free person.

Well…anyway. I was not unmatched. Immediately, someone leaped at me.

“face the fact” is a bullshit idea. Anyone can change from intro to extrovert if they’re willing to try. Your views suck.

I was unaware of which line to parry first…so I wanted to be sure that this guy was really talking about changing a core aspect of his personality. Introvert to extrovert is paramount…it’s not like changing the clothes you wear. Going to party more might be changing the way you look on the outside, but it doesn’t change how you perceive yourself on the inside. So I asked my opponent: do you really think you can change who you are deep inside?

Yes, and I have. I used to be a shy, introverted little nerd in middle school, then I stopped being stupid, realized that I was heading towards a horrible direction, and started working on change. Now I’m a senior in high school and most people that would meet me (who didn’t know me from middle school) would say i’m an extrovert.

I was still skeptical on whether he had changed his actual thought process or if he had just changed his public facade, but now his true line of attack was clear. He hated being introverted…it brought him down. So he embraced change and sought it.

Of course, as I pointed out, he also hated being shy. I always must point out that shyness is not introversion…so if this person actually hated shyness, he shouldn’t hate introversion too. I couldn’t help him, though. He was set in his mind…

All I know is, ultimately I do not want to be an introvert, because i think that introversion and shyness aren’t personality traits, they’re weaknesses that inhibit a person’s real personality.

If you believe this…then there is no question that you should change. I think that this person, however, has let his personal experiences with shyness cloud his opinion on the legitimate introversion. I…as much as anyone…will fight to always raise awareness for the fact that you can be introverted without being shy. I agree with this poster on his description of shyness, because I more often see people limited by their shyness — who want to change but feel they cannot — than I find people who are ok with it. However, I don’t say the same for introversion.

That is why I must respectfully disagree with this poster. I only what will happen with the topic creator? Will he decide that who he is is less important than a societal ideal of who he should be? Or will he decide, as the poster who opposed me did, that introversion itself can never be who he is!?

Not a math person…

I was thinking about high school again (as my first year in college comes to a close). I realize that back then, I was comically bad at math. Even worse, my reputation seems to have traveled with me a state over to college.

It’s not that I was bad at math (that is, if you can bear that finding that 18 divided by 6 = 4 is not bad math)…I was just bad at calculations…and I still am. If I can latch on to a general theory or the rule behind a system, then things are a little better…but then I’ll make thousands of errors in application.

I wouldn’t say that I hated math back in school. I actually liked most of my math classes…until I got to the point (which always happened very quickly) when I couldn’t figure out the correct answer…one way or another. Sometimes, the theory I needed to use would escape me (or maybe I had never learned it)…other times, I just wouldn’t be able to calculate correctly. In these cases, I really was trying to do things right (no one wants to be frustrated and wrong), but…I guess…as some might say…I was just not a math person. Interesting factoid about me: every B on my otherwise beautiful transcript came from a math or math-like class (chemistry).

It’s funny. Math is supposed to be super logical…so someone who likes logical things should like math. Unfortunately, in my personal pain olympics, I’ve never found that to be true. I find that math is increasingly convoluted and illogical. Its rules are dreamed up by select oracles of autism with the penchant for revelation from the devil on how to make humankind suffer a little more (plz don’t sue me, numerous parties blasphemed just now). Maybe it started with my geometry class…whose teacher never used proofs (how do you to go through a geometry class without ever using a proof?!)…but somehow, since then, I’ve lacked this foundation for math logic that has never quite caught up to me. Things that should be logical don’t seem that way, as a result.

I loved my AP Calculus class, though. It was like a mutual struggle for most of us…my teacher know about the particular geometry teacher and her ill-begotten legacy (everyone in that town does, of course), and so he had taken it upon himself to get us up to scratch with the basics while teaching us the new things (it also helped that he taught a PSAT prep class for sophomores and juniors, so we were able to absorb from that too.) Come to think of it, my AP Calc teacher (also my AP Econ teacher) kicked butt. Also, his wife who was my AP English teacher. There was lots of awesomeness between them and it’ll be sad when they finally retire (which they keep prolonging, fortunately), because then I’ll know that every class that doesn’t have them just won’t be good enough.

Well…even though it was only Cal AB (there would not have been enough interest for a BC class, the school administration told us), I felt good about math. To be honest, I still thought I was hopelessly inferior in the subject…after all, I wasn’t a “math person,” and in some of my other organizations (Academic Decathlon, Panasonic Academic Challenge, quiz bowl in general), I was surrounded by guys and girls who could outrun me many times around the mathematical race track…but I was feeling better about things.

Then came that fateful AP test of 2007. The free response…ugh…brutal…we all thought we had failed. No doubt about it. But I was ok with it, I thought. After all, I wasn’t a math person.

I got a 5.

I had never gotten one on any of our class’s AP run-throughs, of course. I couldn’t quite believe my 5 on the real thing was official (except for the fact that this was the most official result I had ever gotten).

That was a roundabout way of getting to here: what’s the deal with being a “math person” or not? Can’t we be competent either way? Sure, I can’t solve most problems in my head (or on paper) with any reasonable accuracy, but I know how they should work theoretically. It is excruciatingly frustrating and I’d never want to live my life doing it (which is why I’d never become an engineer, but that’s another story), but I am not hopeless and helpless. The moral of this story, I suppose, is that we can’t let labels be our handicaps…we do need to capitalize on our strengths…this is true, but we can’t let or weakness atrophy into nubs.

P.S. Accounting is not about math. I don’t know where people started this, but I really want to punch the person who started this. I have to explain ad nauseum about how the little math that is in accounting is not very advanced and can be outsourced to computers anyway…

Seeping Religious Fringe Paranoia

As the title so aptly puts it, I just had a moment where my realization of being part of a religious fringe seeped in some (probably healthy) paranoia.

I disagree with the idea that we should legislate morality as an extension of our religious principles.

Wow. Where did that come from? It’s all related, I think. I look at this from my LDS/Mormon perspective…and this is a very different kind of Christian religion, whether Salt Lake City wants to admit that we are sufficiently different (or whether other denominations care to concede we are Christian at all, for that matter.) From my fringe position, I have to look at people’s motives a little bit differently. When I see people saying they want to legislate ideas founded from religion (especially those in the church), I want to ask them, “What will happen when they come for you?” This happened before, after all…the result back then was that Salt Lake got rid of polygamy (after being chased to Salt Lake in the first place, no less!) and became a state (and the Fundies didn’t get the memo, apparently.) The real question: what’s to prevent it from happening again?

I mean…right now…everyone in the conservative religious family should be somewhat happy. All they have to do is show a united front against things like gay marriage or abortion. Everyone in the family can agree about that, so family reunions don’t degenerate into food fights yet.

However, as Mitt Romney probably *still* feels hardcore, there are black sheep in the religious family. The fact is there are irreconcilable differences (and if someone jumps in and point out those differences now and why I should renounce everything, I will kill you with a spork.)

One of my secret pastimes is watching religious communities bash each other. Especially when it’s between different denominations in Christianity. It’s so much more fun than watching different religions stab at each other or than watching nonreligious people swipe at the religious (or more often, the other way around.) I think it’s because within one religion, you realize how fragile everything is beyond the overarching name that everyone claims to share. This same family who comes together to put their foot down against gay marriage can come back around to stab each other about the nature of God or the respect Mary deserves, or whatever incredibly stupid thing. Everything seems so cutthroat. You have to be on guard, always, in this kind of environment. You might be next.

I was reading a post on another blog that touched upon this inner-Christian struggle from a writer/publisher/Mormon perspective (and I must admit: blogging from a publishing industry viewpoint is pretty interesting). The writer, Kent Larsen, noted:

An author asked me to review a contract recently, and I was surprised at something the author said. The contract was with one of the larger Mormon publishers, and the author hoped that the book would become a big success in the Christian market in the US through that publisher.

…I told the author that there was no chance, and it doesn’t look like there will be in the future. In fact, the fact that the author is LDS means the publisher is irrelevant. A Mormon author can’t succeed in the Christian market.

…For many LDS Church members this seems strange. On most political and lifestyle issues they feel so close to Evangelicals that they assume Evangelicals feel the same. But many, if not most, Evangelicals disagree.

Why? I admit that it does seem strange that Mormons would be so objectionable. Let me see if I can make an analogy that helps explain it. Imagine that a polygamist in Utah wrote a book for the Mormon market. Would any traditional LDS bookstore carry it? Would the LDS public criticize bookstores that did?

So, how can we decide on “safe” issues without hitting hot-button issues? It leads me to believe that what we take prima facie because of religious tenet cannot really be trusted very far in public…we might think we are safe believing that gays shouldn’t have the right to marry (or even that our books will be safe to market), but what if our belief has no grounding outside of our thin religious precepts and we don’t realize this? At least…I won’t get into it today, but that’s what I think most arguments against GM end up being…As long as we agree on the precept, we have no problem. But when we don’t..?

I try to stay as far out of it. The worst part, I think, about it all, is that instead of one side showing that they are “better” or more correct than the other, everyone degenerates into gnashing beasts. They all prove that each one of them is flawed and broken in their special ways; each isn’t worth the effort. On the other hand, that gives me a great escape: if I will be deconverted any time soon, I will be free to go all the way. No inter-faith pond hopping for me!