Florae trend

I rarely follow trends when it comes to my home's interiors but as I love to keep up with what's going on, I read an article on the trends in home furnishings 2007. Apparently, country style is so hot with leaves and flowers at the forefront. I'm thrilled! I'd love to have the bureau to the right, with all sorts of peonies on it.

The science of the tingling sensation

Yesterday afternoon, my head hurt, my eyes were sore and there was not one thought worthy of a single moment of attention passing through my system. Luckily, I know what makes me hurtle out of such a coma and back to reality: running. While sweating on a tread mill last night, I localized the deep, pleasant and highly rewarding feeling also known as runner's high. For me, it's like a jellyfish of power mooching about in the center of the abdomen, with tentacles injecting tingling sensations. One had better feed this jellyfish of strength as when it's awake, it makes you feel like you're God almighty crossed with Popeye and Forrest Gump, who ran across the continent. (And yes, it's the same jelly fish arms that arre somehow annoyed when you get a stitch.)

While jogging on, I started pondering whether the runner's high experience is somehow interlinked with my barometer of a good game. According to me, a good computer game is one that makes my stomach tingle. Following the Burning Crusade of WoW, I created a Draenei character (I'm on the Al'Akir server, named Paeonia, so there, now you know to whom you want to address coins of gold) and while learning the secrets of totems, I gained wings and flew off a mountain. And I'll be damned, it actually felt like I was flying myself. The moment my character had no soil under her hoof, a tingling sensation spread in my stomach just as if I was flying myself. This emotion was more temporary and diffuse but nonetheless real and more intense than the runner's high. I'm playing with the idea to wire up some of my friends, or myself, to the skin conductance and pulse electrodes in our lab at work while playing - or flying for that matter - in WoW. There hasn't been all too many studies measuring bodily responses to playing games, although I recently read one where the researchers found a significant effect of conduciveness for pride and joy. That is when the game runs smoothly and you're likely to achieve your goal, emotions like joy and pride are likely to rise. Perhaps it is joy, or pride, I'm feeling as I'm improving my character's skills by flying off the rock, but that's not the whole truth, I suspect.

And speaking of running, why is it that one's strength and stamina improves and lasts longer when someone is running next to you at the exact same pace? Is it an heritage from our 9 months spent in mummy's belly and experiencing the simultaneous beat makes us feel secure and relaxed? I wonder if there's a relation between the heart beats of the child and the mother. Do they beat simultaneously and if the mother's heart beat takes off, does the child's heart pace keep up with her beat? It's funny how I benefit from one rhythmic beat, that is having someone next to me who's heel touches the ground the exact same second mine does while others annoy me. I utterly recent playing the piano with a metrometer accompanying me. I guess I've always regarded the metronome as an intrusion in my creativity, something that limits my freedom to interpret a minuet in my own way. Unfortunately, my piano teacher back in the 1980's didn't agree...

Schlager slayer

The truly excellent video produced in house and shown at last year's Christmas party at my work is now available on youtube. The Schlager slayer is a thriller with a great pinch of humor, made by the media students.

I'm a piece of white chocolate

I attended a seminar on language and media last weekend and opinions were raised regarding the preferences of language style of different generations. The assumption was that elderly people don’t really like reading English words in the news paper, slang or expressions like rofl. About midways in the debate, I started reflecting on which generation dwelling I confess to (I’m born 1978). Am I a Generation X:er (people born 1965-1978)? Or do I belong to the Generation Y (1979-1999) or even the MTV Generation (1974-1985)? At times, I feel like I belong to Generation Y, that is net-savvy folks brought up in an wired world where a natural source of news is the online version of the local newspaper. But then again, I don’t really feel like I match the description (although I was fortunate enough to have a commodore 64 in my room with the splendid game Boulderdash). I feel like I’m a piece of white chocolate, which is referred to as chocolate, but contains neither cocoa beans nor caffeine. It is not real chocolate, close but no cigar, kind of. Shortly, I feel like I’m too old for the net generation category but too young to tick the generation X box. I’m somewhere in between two distinct generations.

So I started listing what stands out for people, born like me in 1978 and teeter-tottering between Generation X and Generation Y. This is a highly non-scientific, statistically non-significant but indeed a subjective identification of a pattern: Many of my friends in my age value friends and family (as opposed to the job), money (ironically enough considering the earlier parenthesis), sharing and connectedness. They tend to think in terms of chains instead of hyper links. They are net-savvy and wired, but still don’t give the possibility of leveling in WoW higher priority than strolling around in the park a beautiful, sunny winter’s day. Right about here, a label for this group of people came to mind: Generation W. The “W” would be ideal, not due to the evolution of www (the web) while we were young and neither due to our life being pretty wired, but because of the typography. The W is basically two V:s in one, which symbolizes a fellowship, a togetherness. Depending on the font used, the first V is mirrored, that is identical but yet different. And because it is mirrored, it’s easy for another letter to take over (like WW). That reflects the sense for justice and thinking in terms of chains. The letter W also, depending on the font, resembles a pot which of course makes one associate to inclusiveness, togetherness.

Excited about my “new” notion, I googled it to see in what contexts it has been used and whether it is a widely used term. Apparently, there’s a tv-series with this name aired in the late 1990’s. But other than that, I did not manage to get a clear picture of what “Generation W” stands for, or who it comprises. According to one source, it’s been applied to persons born in 1980-2000 (the W stands for web perhaps). Another blogger writes about the war generation, in other words kids born or brought up while Bush is in the White house. If any of you readers are familiar with the field of generation research and how the notion of generation w is used, please let me know!

Content manifest

When people learn I blog, the general reception is a joyful “Ah, yes, I regularly read some blogs myself, it is an interesting phenomenon.” Some ask what I blog about, and with what software and ask for the url, but not once has the question of why – the reason for my blogging - been posed. I’ve pondered why that is. Perhaps it is so, because those who know me know that writing is my true element and therefore, it does not really come as a great surprise that I’m writing blog posts on the internet. Or perhaps one of the greatest human basic needs is so widely recognized that most don’t reflect on it, that is the need for self-expression. Maybe when they learn that someone blogs, they automatically think that “yeah, putting down one’s thoughts and sharing them with the world, that makes perfect sense” and wouldn’t come to think of questioning it or digging into it.

To be honest, I’m glad I’ve never been asked to “justify” my blogging as I haven’t had a clear, pin-pointed objective. I had to reflect on it when I recently updated the layout and template of my blog. I figured I should add some sort of product description of Paeonia to guide new readers. I’m not assuming people have the time to read through half my archive just to get a grasp of who I am or what topics I write about.

Tangled up in thoughts on motives for blogging, while updating my template, I came to think about the papers I used in my teaching on blogging last autumn. Susan Herring found in her study that “surprisingly many” blogs contain few or no links at all. The blogs were not as interactive as one would expect, but rather individualistic, even intimate, and they seemed to play the role of a tool for self expression. Again, the self expression. I believe that is a huge drive for us humans, perhaps increasingly more so these days. People love to talk about themselves, their life and to share stories and experiences they’ve had. Nothing new, nothing bad about that. Perhaps the fact that the majority of blogs are personal, diary-kind of blogs mirrors the need to express one-self.

Another assumption would be to consider the blog a means to reflect upon one’s identity, using Gidden’s thoughts on self-identity. He basically says that our self, our identity, is nothing we simply inherit from our parents. It’s not static or impossible to redefine, on the contrary. Our self and identity is rather a story or biography that we keep telling ourselves around us, by our clothes, our actions, hobbies and tales we tell. Naturally, this is not done in a vacuum either, the tale you tell about yourself to others and their feedback is important. This is of course something that goes on every day, you can’t build it one day and preserve it like that forever. Now, is this why diary-like blogging is so popular, because it serves as a tool to keep our story, our biography, going? Is blogging a tool to keep reflecting on ourselves and the world, and to (re)define our place in it? The beauty of it is that as you keep the story of yourself going, you also get to share it with an immense audience, who can actually give you feedback on your biography.

One thought that lands close to the one above is that the limit of how far the individualization of our society can go is perhaps close. Maybe people want to take a step back, maybe they want to be individualistic by blogging, but together with others, in blogging communities on the net. Like small islets forming an asymmetric pearl necklace in a lake, individual but still together, within reach.

Well, I did manage to identify the two main ingredients that make up Paeonia. There’s, firstly, a need for storage for thoughts, links and ideas. Secondly, I think better when I write. I formulate myself better then as I need to visualize an imagined audience. It helps getting to the core of loose thoughts. (A friend who I went to university with had a complete opposite way of doing things. At exams, he sat for hours simply thinking, with an entirely blank paper in front of him. Then the last 30 minutes, he put a perfect answer to paper, handed it in and got straight A:s. I on the other hand need to draw and write while trying to figure out what to say.) So voilà, the answer to why I blog is that I need 1) a place to store interesting things I stumble upon and 2) a creative sandbox where I can grow loads of toys and then refine those I believe in. What really bugs me though is that I don’t have much time to actually sit down in this sandpit and play with the thoughts and develop them into something. Thinking requires time and I’ve been short of that lately.

Crisp thoughts

Best idea of the day: while struggling with narrowing down and concluding my thoughts into an abstract on 200 words, I decided to take a walk around the block, in an attempt to produce some new ideas (I trick I learned while working at Åbo Underrättelser, thanks Yrsa!). Naturally, it did the trick. It's -8 outside, sunny, a small chilly breeze, these are such beautiful surroundings I live in. Life and blood returned to my head and synapses reproduced at a massive rate. There, a free tip for all with challenging tasks ahead.

tv quiz solution

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the buzz word quiz I did on hot words at the conference on iTV in London I attended. Well, here's the solution (as a pdf-file).

My blog went wii

This is how my blog appears when read on a TV screen, using a Wii. I feared that browsing (in Opera) and reading the posts on a TV screen would be troublesome, near-sighted as I am, but it wasn't. And there was no need for squinting either as the "zoom in" feature made the text intelligible and clear.

Have your say on three pilots on science

Here’s an interesting interactive project involving the TV audience as content experts. PBS, a public broadcaster in the US, is asking the viewers for help in deciding which of three TV pilots – “Wired Science”, “Science investigators” and “22nd Century” - will become a regular science series on the channel. You can watch the three pilots free of charge at the PBS website and then comment on them. Based on audience research and on the feedback of the viewers, PBS then decides which pilot makes it into a series.

New look

Last night, my fiancé and I, we were preparing our New Year's stay up north by packing overalls, warm winter ski outfits, cameras, the whole works really, firmly believing we were going to head north early this morning. Just before heading into the sauna last night though, our eyes fell on the printed reservation for the place we'll be staying at and what do you know! The reservation we'd made was for the 31st December 'til 2nd January, not 30th-2nd! If we hadn't seen that, we would've driven up there, without a place to stay that night! So I realized I gained, or won, a day. One additional, entire day without any plans, completely up for grabs for the best ideas. That truly was a strange feeling! So I started off by going out for some drinks with friends, getting home way too late and thus ensuring that my body opposes any activities today. It's not the most cleaver way to spend a day earned but hey, the human mind does not work rationally all the time.

So I'm parked in the couch with three heat generators, the cup of coffee, the laptop and the peach blanket I got for Christmas way way back, and I'm pondering what to make of this sorry day. Et voilà, I'll do a new template and layout for my blog, something I've been meaning to get around to for quite sometime now. When I'm hangovery, I'm always very creative - I get my best ideas in a weary state of mind - and thus this current project.

I did an eye tracking study about two months back on my blog. I had a couple of colleagues, who hadn't visited the blog before, to look it up and read what and as much as they wanted. Turns out that the heading is of no interest. That could imply two things, that a heading to someone entering the site is of no interest, or that my heading simply does not attract any attention. As my heading does not cover any substantial information that you absolutely have to know, I'm keeping it simple. No photos, no fancy graphics. Just two sentences.

Another finding is that the readers all started off by reading the blog posts, which were earlier to the left. This is interesting as there were several images, that usually attract the gaze, in the blog roll to the right. I'm guessing they have learned to ignore small features to the right as sponsored ads and other commercials are often in that very place, to the right. Therefore, I'll do a switch now, I'll have the blog roll, links and archive to the left as that is substantial information that I'm hoping people will see.

I was also thinking about coloring "Comments","Posted by Paeonia..." with a greenish nuance but judging from the heat maps, people tend to read them anyways, perhaps 'cause they're so obviously separated from the blog post. Therefore, I see no reason to color them, but one. It would be awfully boring not to blend the brown text with another color, my visual eye won't rest until something breaks the brownish advantage.

Only one more thing to do now really, and that is to figure out how to accentuate the links in a blog post. Now, they're not highlighted at all, which makes them disappear. I need to work on that...

Update: an image of the snowy slopes, when we finally got there

New year's resolution

Being a former journalist, I know what makes the press tick and therefore, I rarely complain on news stories. I do not approve of the negative, sensational perspective many news stories are presented with, but hey, I can always choose not to read them. I'm quite good at browsing further down after spotting a heading containing chock, porn and scandal.

But last Wednesday, I simply had to shake my head and complain a little. I was listening to the radio while heading to town and the news were on. The anchor informed me that the firework sale for making the New Year's Eve a bit brighter had started that day. And she continued: "Many are likely to hurt themselves while attempting to light a sky rocket or a Roman candle." The big event, the New Year's Eve, was still four days ahead and already there were speculations on how many was going to get hurt! Not if there would be any accidents, that's taken for granted, but how many. It wasn't a bit from a press conference or a story on accidents, the piece of news were basically three sentences, the first being that the sales started that day, followed by many will get hurt and finally for how long you'll be able to purchase fireworks.

Firstly, I wonder where's the news in this piece of information? Every year, accidents related to fireworks do happen and are very well reported on in the news. Secondly, why kill the excitement and joy? Why not report on the issue of New Year's in a positive, enlightening manner? Why the constant negative perspective? I guess the intention was to enlighten and to make sure that people are aware of the risks involved and to promote security while firing up the rockets. This is a good thing of course, but is this necessary every year? Why not at least add something like tips on how to spend it, what events are happening in major cities, some historical spice like how the Chinese invented it as a means for entertainment or whatever. People are interested in other things than death, injuries, sex and violence. Therefore, I suggest that some media folks ought to make it a New Year's Resolution to try to see things out of a more positive perspective.

Well, enough complaining, Happy New Year everyone! I'll be making an old dream come true, finally, which is waving off this year and embracing the next one in Lapland among deers and snowy mountains.

Is money loosing its value?

After an evening of intense wii playing in the living room (no, nothing broken yet except illusions of being a champ at tennis with a good old retro graphics) I decided to calm my brain with some aimless browsing on the net. I stumbled upon a recent study by the research company United Minds on what’s high-status and what’s not according to Swedes. It turns out that status is not for sale, as non-material values top the chart (these are all my home brewed translation):

1. To be well read
2. To be a good and engaged parent
3. To possess a fortune derived from one’s own work
4. To be capable at work
5. To master several languages
6. To be able to be on vacation the entire summer
7. To spend time and money on helping people in need
8. To have many friends
9. To live in a big villa/apartment
10. To have an entirely own style

To be able to buy posh new clothing brands did not make it high up the list. Qualities you can possess without a chest loaded with money by your bed, like being good at what you do and being a good friend, did however, which does not surprise me. I’ve sensed a change for a long time now. I’ve seen indications perhaps not on an anti-movement to the consumerism, to the materialistic society characterized by an “the one with the most gadgets when s/he dies wins” attitude and a love for “hard values” but certainly on a large scaled, firm declaration that “my choice is different”. That “Although I accept that you do the race, I choose not to participate in it. I don't need a 300 square meter house with exclusive floorboard from Africa in order to be happy and content with my life.”. I thought about blogging these signals that I pick up, lastly when commenting the President’s choice to wear a gown dating a couple of years back at the Castle ball. But it sank into oblivion until tonight when I read this press release on the status list.

Status can’t be bought, says United Minds, and neither can happiness, according to Kari Nars, whose book Pengar och Lycka (Money and happiness) I just finished. KN claims that the more a society stresses material efforts in order to land a happy life, the less it values the search for a deep satisfaction with life and the inner meaning of life. “Materialism marginalizes religiosity” he writes and gives as an example the great number of people resigning the church in Finland.

I’m not convinced this is the case and I don’t equal the fact that many do leave the church with a poor interest in religiosity. Maybe there simply are better ways of practicing it, according to many. I think on the contrary that more and more people are searching more and more for a meaning of life and take and interest in spiritual nourishment, religiosity and non-material values. Perhaps as a consequence of being tired of living in the material world that KN depicts. The great interest in self help books, the great number of days devoted to team building at work places and seminars on how to be a better employer/employee/father/lover/friend are examples of the evidence of a big interest in the meaning of life and spiritual matters, in my eyes at least. I don’t believe people read a book on, say, ”Making the most out of your job” in order to advance to become a boss in 2 months time. I believe there’s a desire for spiritual nourishment, for getting to know who you really are and who you want to be that lies beneath. And in a broader sense, speaking of the material values getting cold, I notice that many dig through their grand parent’s attics now, hoping to find a vintage/retro beautiful handbag to go along the city shopping afternoon, instead of simply buying a brand new bag with a rugged look. More and more people are actively supporting locally produced food and handicraft. Another signal of a declining materialistic view on life is the collective spirit found on the internet. I know of many who don’t pay for support when setting up their own websites. In stead, they consult discussion forums and user forums, where other people are glad to help and trade advice, for free.

In short, I see people striving to be and genuinely valuing what’s on the top 10 list in the beginning of the post. To them, money, gadgets, costs and surface is not as hot as are values, engagement, reliability and to dare have a deep and intense discussion on things. I for one would love to see more of that!

tv quiz

This is a puzzle (a pdf-file, print it if you like!) I created when I got back from London. The hot words that I repeatedly scribbled down on paper during the conference are to be entered into the quiz, with the help of clues. There’s no prize to be won unfortunately, other than the great personal satisfaction of completing it successfully. Enjoy!

Consumerism

I did make it to the V&A Museum in London last week. It was a thrill, I spent most of the time at the exhibition of da Vinci's notebooks. I love it how he used mirror-writing, due to lefthandedness. It was a real challenge reading his notes, especially as he didn't exactly waste any paper, the words were close to one another. I guess it's a lazy but yet very effective way to learn things, to watch the movie or go to an exhibition instead of reading the book. I did it with Mahatma Gandhi and now with da Vinci. I read about half way through a biography on da Vinci, but after realizing it was more beneficial for my sleep than for my curious mind, I threw it out and decided to go to the museum instead. Which worked just fine, I didn't for instance know da Vinci studied the anatomy of the tongue when we produce sounds and that he was a gifted musician. Luckily enough, I had time to visit the exhibition on fashion as well. There was one section devoted entirely to 60's UK fashion, fabulous! I totally love skirts and dresses. Having said that, I regret to say that though I spent one afternoon hunting for skirts and dresses, I bought none. Not a single one. The problem was that they were all too expensive considering a couple of buttons and seams were hanging loosely. A friend questioned my sanity, going to London without bunkering up clothes, like squirrels! But I've never been into consumerism of that sort. I've sewed skirts of old table cloths and curtains because I absolutely adored the fabric. I re-use my mothers dresses from the 70's and buy second hand. I avoid to all cost the Christmas season rush in the stores because I get totally stressed out watching how people run around buying - in my view - unnecessary things. The joy of small funny plastic toys is particularly ambiguous to me. It seems that this sort of recycling in clothes has reached many others. I watched the ball at the President's castle on the telly last night. Apparently, President Tarja Halonen's black dress, which was very beautiful, was the same one as she wore a couple of years back, only a bit moderated this year.

More photos here

Music in games

Yesterday, I did a quest south of Menethil Harbour, in the Wetlands region, in WoW. The waters were new to me and so was the music played there. It was oriental, something I'd listen to while doing my yoga. In fact, it was quite irritating and it disturbed the game play. But apart from this particular area, I love the music in the game as it's extremely subtle, it reinforces the gaming experience depending on whether you're flower hunting or fighting troggs and it sticks to my mind like rabbits to hay. I sometimes find myself humming the tune played in Inns and in Stormwind. So, last night, I thought I should do something out of my passion for classical music and playing the piano. I'm not much into playing pop music but rather classical and instrumental and I figure that computer games must be a market for that. The sort of pieces I play at home are exactly what I want to hear (or not hear but on a subconscious level) in games. Perhaps I should start my own company for it. Then, I'd only have to find myself a symphony orchestra to accompany me :)

Think for yourself

It is often said that most users don't want to think when they're online. Whenever it's possible, they should be aided in appropriate ways, like when Google suggests phrases in your search. Naturally, I'm the exception. Among the first things I did when I got a new phone was to switch off the function where a dictionary suggests words based on the first syllables when I'm composing an sms. Neither am I a fan of my car's rain sensor nor the auto correction feature of Word. But at times, it's quite fun to have the program think for you, like I did today when spell checking an activity report I'm writing. Instead of EuroITV, Word suggests Erotic and Neurotic. Hmm, maybe not.

PhD comics

I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this comic site on the hardship of being a PhD student before. Well, all the more joy to catch up with now then. (I adore comics, hope Santa Claus reads my blog...) Regarding the strip, I sure hope I never find myself in the same situation!

telephone of the future

I'm in a vintage phase again, as looking at things out of a time perspective sort of puts them in perspective. That goes for a lot of things, not only societal phenomena. I found this old ad in the comic magazine Kapten Stofil (4;2006), I especially like the byline claiming that this is how the telephone of the future will look like.

Three step model in London

I'm off to London in a week, exactly 2 years since I last visited this marvelous city. It'll be a brew of "very old", "old enough to be vintage" and "brand new" which I'm looking forward to. The "very old" and "vintage" part is covered by the Leonardo da Vinci and Sixties Fashion exhibitions at the V&A Museum. I'll be very short of time but I just have to make it to these two events, otherwise I'll be very disappointed. The Digital Hollywood event we'll attend - iDTV Lab is participating in a session called "Research, development and investment in internet, entertainment technologies and media studies innovation." - takes care of the innovations bit. Many of the sessions during this three day long media conference will focus on the future, what's hot right now and what's the industry focusing on right now. I wonder what the verdict on UGC will be, is it a hit or not?, and whether there will be any consumer research results presented. In a week, I'll be wiser.

News flash

A usability report I just finished is being news flashed, apparently :)