Category Archives: Daily Scribble

My random thoughts of the day.

Daily Scribble

6 levels of mitigation

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When I am reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outlier, his main concept is not that great, but I picked up something else that is very useful. When you want to persuade someone, there are many ways to say it. Depending on the power distance between you and your target, you may want to phase your words differently. In the book, Malcolm outlined 6 levels of mitigation, from direct and explicit to soft and subtle. For example:

Command: Turn right at the stop sign.

Obligation Statement: I think we need to turn right at the stop sign. (The key word is we, less specific, softer tone)

Suggestion: Let’s turn right at the stop sign. (Implicit suggest we are doing it together)

Query: Which direction would you like to turn? (the speaker is concede that he is not in charge)

Preference: I think it would be wise to make a turn.

Hint: There is a stop sign.

Daily Scribble

Nutcracker

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Nutcracker

I watched Nutcracker with Pat tonight, to be exact, I was sleeping next to Pat when she was watching the ballet. Originally I wanted to write an review about Nutcracker, then I realize I didn’t watch much of the show. My eye lid already felt heavy after the opening dance. I struggled to keep myself awake, trying hard to appreciate the movement on the stage. The dance is all about meaningless ponite toe spins and random arm movement. I gave up soon after I failed to make any sense out of the dance.

Then I try stay awake by thinking whether ballet is an art using art theories I learn form my atheistic class. Tchaikovsky created the music, it’s definitely an art. The plot of Nutcracker is adapted from a children story, which is also an art. However are there any arts in the ballet dancers? Undoubtedly, there are strict technical skills a dancer has to master in ballet, but they are just the puppets of the director. The dancers did not create anything new in the process, they can be replaced by robots that can dance the same movement precisely without affecting the artistic value of the show. I was thinking and thinking, my mind wandered further and further away from the stage, eventually I doze off in the middle of the 2nd scene. I slept through the whole act II after the intermission, only briefly awake when I heard the familiar Nutcracker theme music.

After I came home, I did some research on the history of ballet in Wiki. It started in Renaissance Italian as performance and developed by the French King in 17th century to become today’s complex system. My hypothesis is ballet is not an art, it is merely an trade to serve the royals and the nobles. Since monarchy is obsoleted in modern society, as a symbol of the past, ballet should also be discouraged or even abolished. I am still formulating my arguments to support my hypothesis. One day I will able to justify why no one should go to watch a ballet ever.

Daily Scribble

Nevus of Ota

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The son of my friend got this rare “Nevus of Ota” disease. It start with a small birthmark on the face and it grows bigger as the boy grows. My friend is worrying about the condition of his baby. Luckily, according to my other doctor friend, the condition is cause by the pigment under the skin goes wrong. It won’t affect the health of the boy, except the appearance. I feel sorry for my friend, yet he shows how a loving parent will accept anything from his child. I accept the fact that his boy may not be cute, but still love him and never give up the hope of finding a cure.

I remember I had a friend in university with similar problem. Half of his face is much darker than the rest of his skin. When I know him, I am old enough not to make fun of his appearance. He is a nice guy and reasonably good in school and sports. Actually, after we get to know him, we quickly overlook the mark on the face, and treat him just like any other one of us. I think he even manage to get a girlfriend in school. Ok, he is a bit ugly, but so what? Guys should not worry too much about his appearance. For guys, it’s what underneath the face hide inside the skull counts. I am not too worry about my friend’s boy. Maybe he will have a few harsh years in kindergarten or elementary school. But once he survived that stage and develop a healthy personality, he will be on equal foot with another for the rest of his life. On the other hand, if a baby girl got this “Nevus of Ota” disease I can’t image how miserable her life will be.

Daily Scribble

Photography

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I am pretty late to join the DSLR bandwagon. I just bought my first DSLR two months ago. In fact, it’s not even my camera, it’s the birthday present for my wife. When I first got it, I took some snapshot to make sure it works fine. Then camera hide itself behind the boxes when I moved and I just rediscover it this week. So I took some serious photos to explore the function of the new camera.

I am not new to photography, I had a have a film SLR camera lens in high school. I was the photographer with the best camera for the school year book, even better than the teacher adviser’s of the photo club. I was not that interest in photography back then. I got into photography because my best friends got a SLR and taking portrait is a cool excuse to ask the girls out. I didn’t touch the SLR since I got my very first digital camera in university. I always boast to my friends who get into DSLR in recent years that I was using SLR long before them. I know the use of shutter, aperture, ISO and filters and how they can affect the photo. However, it quite a shame that I never truly understand theory of photography.

This time when I pick up the DSLR again, I decide to have a complete understanding of photography. I bought a beginner photography book, read it from cover to cover, but still couldn’t get a very clear understanding. I still get the same fuzzy concept I know since my high school days. At last, I decide to learn it hard way. I log on the internet and read how DSLR works. I get to the root of the problem, understand the physics and optics of a SLR. Vola! Suddenly all the pieces fit together and I can link up all the photography knowledge I already know to form a big picture. The technical part of taking a perfect picture is simple. There is only two things you need to care about: exposure and color.

Exposure is controlled by three parameters, ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Shutter speed is the easier to understanding, it’s how long the shutter stays open. In film camera, ISO is the photo sensitivity of the film. In a digital camera, ISO becomes the signal to noise ratio amplifier. Aperture controls how much light arrive the sensor. Choose the right value of the three parameters allow the the senors collects the right amount of photons, so the image will not be too bright or too dark. The histogram is a handy tool to examine the exposure of your photo. The trade off between these three parameters is the artistic part and each one has its pro and con. The higher the ISO, the nosier the image. The slower the shutter speed, the more ghost in the image. The effect of aperture is the hardest to understand. Knowing how depth of field (DoF) works is some real hard physics. It took me almost two hours to completely grasp how the human eye’s field of confusion (FoC) determine the DoF of a given aperture. Color is not a pure optics effect, it is how the thermo-properties of light source affects the sensor. In a film camera, we use color filter correct the color, so a white object will show up being white in the image or we use the temperature of color to introduce mood to the image. In a digital camera, we can simply tweak the RGB algorithm in the sensor to correct the color of the image.

I found one advantage of DSLR over SLR. It is much easier to learn photography using a DSLR. The camera setting is saved with the photo and the image are ready to review instantly. I can take many pictures with different setting and compare the effects side by side. Most important, take photos is virtually free, so I can practice as much as I like. Unlike in the film camera days, buying film is expensive and you have to wait patiently for the film to develop. No wonder we have so many armature photography these days. DSLR really lower the learn curve to become a decent photographer.

Daily Scribble

Writer’s block

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Many writers often develop writer’s block after they have been writing for a while. They found their creativity dries up, could not write even a single sentence. I have been writing blog for almost 3 years, recently I found I have a mild symptom of writer’s block. In some day, I just could not think of anything. I still write TV, anime and book reviews. Writing review is relatively easy, the theme is already there and I just have to write down what I think. Putting a topic to write is the difficult part. Well, it is not that I am less creative, rather hold myself to a have higher standard now. I don’t my writing merely repeating what others say. I want to make my own point of view that is original. The problem is that I seems to start repeating myself. What’s the point of saying the same thing of similar issues many times? Maybe I should shift the emphasis of my writing. Instead of always trying to come up with new ideas, I should be content with my old ideas and focus on refining my writing skill. The same idea can be present in many different ways, some are more efficient and elegant than others. I should explore different style of writing other random scribble. I think I have hit a plateau in my writing skill, in order to have progress, I should learn about more advance writing skills. Now, the question is where can I find those materials.