Social Appearance

I wanted to blog about this topic, but I already made a post today. So I'm giving myself a head start and writing this for tomorrow. I thought it was a good discovery on a conversation I was having with someone. I learn t that cosmetic for some people is like a hobby or a collection. You can get obsessed and start buying them like baseball cards it is for guys. Its like boys and their toys. Girls also have their toys. So from the talk of cosmetics I soon to discovered men created many things. Even things that you would not quickly think, oh, a guy can be in this business. Oh and please forgive me if you learn t this already in your history class or somewhere else. What things was I thinking of men wouldn't be doing as a regular job which most guys wouldn't do. Well something in the lines of cosmetology, hair designer, fashion designer. These jobs don't fall under really manly jobs. *no offenses to anyone intended*

Then I start thinking back to the times way back. Realized women was usually suppress by the male race and would be the decision maker and doing everything. Everything would include these jobs such as clothes, hair, makeup. So this translate to the modern time when these jobs would be professions of a female.

Now looking at fashion. There are lots of renouned female designer, but there are still lots of males that exists or influence fashion such as calvin klein, tommy hilfigure, versace, louis vutton, valentino, ralph lauren.

So you must be thinking why I keep on writing about men doing these jobs. Well lets go back in time again, when men did all these jobs. They make clothes for women and of course they would create them as they see fit, since they don't have a say. They would put make up on them to make them look pretty, also for themselves to be more presentable. As time passes this started becoming a norm, where women would look nice for their significant other. Now lets fast forward to the present. Alot of girls in society obsesses over designer clothes, cover their face with makeup, to make yourself perfect without any flaws, wanting to be accepted in society and have to be super thin. What are the causes of these? I would say because men has created all these idealistic for women which has been in existent for centuries. These idealistic surely still exists but has taken a new role. Clothes and makeup has more meaning then to just pleasing men. It has become an art form, and fulfillment process. Looking good/presentable is the norm, male or female.

I know this has been a horrible post for grammar and my thoughts floating all over the place. I hope you can piece this together because it seems such a good idea to blog about when I was having this conversation, and I cannot put the pieces back in which the conversation formed.

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Brands

I just thought of the brands I love to buy and why. The number one factor for clothes, is style and comfort I guess. And for electronics and computers, I just base my decision on reviews from professionals. Also, I guess cost will have to be a big factor as well. Needs and wants also probably help me decide how much I would pay for this item.

I came across blogging about this topic whenever someone talks about purses. What makes a purse worth more than others? Then I started analyzing the same factors I would use when I would buy something. Branding actually doesn't mean that much to me, but I noticed with higher brands there seem to be more quality there. So for instance, a stitches tshirt ($10) compared to a nike fit dry tshirt($40). Well there is actually quite a big difference, and the benefits are huge cause you don't want to be running around with a sweaty tshirt. But then I went to compare a lululemon tshirt to a nike fit dry shirt, and actually the difference was that large, so I would go with a nike tshirt cause it would cost less, and there would be a larger selection. So does the same thing apply to a purse, to compare a coach purse with an LV purse? well I wouldn't know since I don't use them.

The internet has been such a good place for people to voice their opinions and experiences and it has helped and affected the purchase decision of the consumer. I do read up reviews on clothing and the technology behind it and all the features it has. The only flaw to online browsing is that the product may look nice on the web, but may not fit so well on you. I guess this is the big difference with electronics and clothing. Let me stick to clothing. Style I think is important, and one of the major factors when someone selects something, going to a store, and just picking up the item that looks good, you don't know the price and how it feels. Then look at price to see if its within my budget, then if its worth while I might try it on.

I guess there are times when I really wanted something and just bought it no matter what the price is, cause I really needed it, or really wanted something. At these times, there are no other rational for purchase decision. But price does kick in somewhere along the line when I purchase stuff. Clothing is a bit harder to find better deals since there isn't much of a selection compared to female clothing, and sales do come often but might not be for the product you want. Unless you but something that is already on sale you like.

North Face
Their items are expensive in canada. Why I love this brand? They make very good outdoors clothing and equipment. I own jackets and shirts and gloves and they all perform very well under what it was designed to do. The cost isn't so nice, so waiting for sales is the only way I would buy their products.

Lululemon
Their items are very expensive. I would say above North Face Pricing. I got a zip-up sweater, tshirt, pants, long sleeve shirt. Feels nice on the skin, and very comfortable to wear, but their prices are too expensive and I would settle for other brands such as nike or north face. I found their stuff on sale to be fairly cheap at the warehouse sale.

Nike
I own so many nike products I can't keep track. Their shoes are designed quite well compared to addidas, and I notice an actual performance difference. They have very comfortable clothes ranging from tshirts to hoodies. Prices are very reasonable, but by far not the cheapest. They have plenty of outlets and stuff that goes on sale. I say the majority of the clothes I own is nike.

Others
Everything else I love in tech or electronics will have to based on positive reviews and doing researching on what the best products is.

I haven't read much into marketing and how people purchase things. I'm just curious how other people decision making is when they are purchasing an item. Some people say how can girls spend so much money on a purse, but I been guilty of spending so much on things like a camera. But I'm sure everyone loves a sale and not have to spend the full amount when they can get it on sale.

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CRCT

I guess I haven't blogged in a while. I was always thinking of a good topic, and I been caught up with photography, reading up and doing things with pictures. Well I just read the star this morning and it has to do with the CRCT. Most of the things they are doing I don't really agree with because it seems like they are holding back alot of things trying to protect what is so called canadian. But now they seem like they are just about making money and doing big monopolies favors.

So what do I have against the CRCT? well just a few things.

1. They are trying to control the internet and allowing internet service providers to shape traffic. So basically, your paying for a 5MB or whatever speed connection to do whatever you want with it. Then they put certain restriction so you cannot download the speed you pay for. Although this doesn't effect me, but it could, I don't find it fair at all. Its just like buying a very fast car, and they only allow you to go 40 km on it.

2. TV options in canada is pretty sad. With all the extra fees, and all the monopolies. and you can't really pick your package. and basic tv package is basically free with an antenna.

3. They are now not forcing the tv stations in cities less than 300 000 people to give free over the air signals. Although its less than 10% of the population that uses these things but that is a big number of people. People just don't know they can get stuff for free. The big companies have so much control and power.

I really wonder what they are going to do next? They only seem to be working for the big companies, and holding back innovation. and its all about the money. Sure, even the government needs to make money, but its like canada is so behind in so many things that has to do with technology. The only canadian tech thing I can think of that is big is blackberry. I hope there is going to just have more choices in providers and technology available to us. God Bless the CRCT

My new hobby

I recently picked up a new hobby. Photography. So far its been fun trying to capture items, people and landscape. It actually makes me want to get out more, or even revisit alot of common places I usually visit and try to capture something new about it. I find it quite easy to grasp the concepts, but one of the hardest thing to do is to find meaning into the photos that I take. Finding new angles, envisioning how I would enjoy this photo, how the picture can give depth, and how to bounce light off.

I got a digital slr, and I can play around with alot of settings, snap the picture, if it doesn't turn out right I just hit the delete button. It is very easy to play around with it and learning is quite enjoyable. I just think if you were into photography before the digital scene, how much more harder it would be. There would be no preview. You wouldn't know how your picture looked like until you develop the photo. I am glad there is so much technology around which makes learning easy. I am wondering if I should of gotten into this earlier.

Finding a new hobby is quire fun, and I enjoy reading up on techniques on how things are composed. Looking through other people's photoblog gives me more appreciation for photographs and how they appear every where. And reading about equipment and how things work is also very interesting which sounds very techy. I can see why this can be a very expensive hobby and the amount of things you can buy for your camera.

Just like everything else, practice. Even photography needs practice. So many settings and how u want to capture things. After owning a dslr for a week, I now know what a point and shoot camera can do, and why a dslr can cost so much more. Deep down, I can see, the vision or the creative ideas behind the photographer is the most important. Something I think I need more development, or develop a style of shooting.

Aside from just taking the pictures, there are so many things you can do after wards to make your photos even better. It can also take way longer than the time it takes to take the picture. Just so many things to learn. I see people with almost the same equipment as me, and the picture quality is just amazing. So that proves to me, its not the camera in a sense, and its whats behind the camera.

Want to start a photoblog, but there isn't much I can put right now. but I now can write about something that I took a picture of. I would for sure consider photography to be art. I dont know why they don't teach you these kinda things in elementry school, to expand you interest. I have a few ideas that I can write and post photos about. so hope you can help give me some feedback once I get something up.

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Watches

I love wearing a watch. Its the only accessory that I wear, and my glasses don't count, cause I probably not wear it if I didn't have to. But I noticed now watches isn't a very popular thing to alot of people. I am not sure if its a North American cultural thing or if its just a Toronto thing. And has watches become an accessory as well, just as though u would wear it once in a while like earings or necklaces?

I think knowing the time is an important thing. But there are just so many avenues of finding out what the time is. And also the time can be found in many locations everywhere in the city. In New York I was once asked the time, and plenty of times I can remember in toronto. I think alot has to do with cell phones and how everyone uses that as an accesory just like a watch, and I now believe that more people bring and own a cell phone than a watch, which gives you the time. Thanks to the cell phone, I would believe that people would ask the time much less from strangers.

I think in my parents generation in Hong Kong, having a watch is very important for the working and upper class. Owning a specific watch also is like a status symbol as well, just like how alot of older chinese people have rolexs, by the way which I think is not a very fancy watch no matter how much one is worth. But I guess that hasn't evolved much because if back then it was considered a fashion statement, today is no different. Perhaps a white baby g-shock which looks very stylish, or a calculator watch which is very rare, but very functional and old school style.

Whatever the case may be, there are just fewer people wearing watches. And the cell phone I believe is the main source of where people get the time from. It is just annoying how someone would ask you for the time, since its everywhere now, like on the pay phone, or the subway screen. I personally always wear a watch, I know many people who actually stop wearing watches and abandoned it after years of wearing watches, and its become a fashion statement in a way. But in the end, as long as you know the time, whatever way you find out is a good thing. Don't be late as well.

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Overtime Pay

I was in a conference today and I am usually good at zoning stuff out. But today was different. Near the last 15 mins of the speaker's talk, he was talking about overtime pay. From what I heard today, it is some very interesting thing that everyone should know about. Only people who are professionals and truly only manage or supervise at their jobs will not benefit from this blog. It also shows how some people just believe in what their superiors tell them for the good of the company.

So the speaker today that caught my attention name was Richard Nixon. His name was interesting I guess since it was the same as the past President of the USA, but that was not what caught my attention today. It was his topic about Overtime Class Action Lawsuit: Is your organization next? He basically summed up what is happening out there in the workforce.

So to start it off, Professionals under the Employment Standard Act says that these group of people are not entitled to overtime pay when you are working on things that are related to your profession. Sorry to all the lawyers, engineers, doctors, accountants out there, to be more specific you will have to look at the ESA. But there is an exception where if you are a lawyer who wishes to work at McDonald's and works over 44 hrs, then you are entitled to overtime pay. If you are a manager doing non managerial work that your employees do, then you are entitled to overtime pay.

Also another thing that came to my mind that was quite interesting is that, if you decide to work overtime and kept track of the hours you worked which differ from the employers. Also, if your hours were not reported to management, you are entitled to the overtime pay. I learnt that the employer must enforce the hours of work and recognize what the employees are doing.

So after 44 hrs of work you should receive overtime, but I didn't know that by law the maximum work week should not total more than 48 hrs. I know there are exceptions to all things and one of the exception is if you are required to work due to an emergency. But no one should be working more than 48hrs including the professionals.

So when I was working at my previous jobs, I notice management work an insane amount of hours, and mostly totaling more than 48hrs, and although they were managers, they were on occasion doing non managerial work, which qualifies them for overtime pay. I am sure if all these people at their work place came together and put together a class action lawsuit, the employers would lose. The speaker today, truly believe that the employees should be educated, and should not be taken advantage on. At first I strongly believe he stated this because he wanted more lawsuit cases, but he really wanted to educate more people because his daughter was taken advantage of by a reputable canadian financial institute.

Mr. Nixon made a good point that, what if the company wants to pay the overtime, and the employee is willing to work these extra hours, what is so bad about this case? So after working numerous hours, you tend to be tired and burnt out. In some professions people's lives, depend on your job, and also your safety. So one construction worker was killed on the job, and the first thing they looked at is his, work hours for the past 20 weeks, and he worked around 50-70 hrs a week monday to saturday. So I guess he has a point, and I in other industry I guess you might miss something, and might lose millions of dollars. I'm sure there are other reasons why working too much is bad.

If you are to leave your company on bad terms, or if you believe in the principal that the law exists for a reason, you should let your employer know that they should be following the labour law. Whatever you decide, I hope this blog has help opened up your eyes. And Sorry I don't have a direct link to the ESA. I encourage you to read up on the ESA or the labour act.

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TV/Movie Quality and Experience

When you go buy a television now there are some numbers like 1080p and 720p. That is the amount of lines you see on a screen, the larger the number, the clearer the image is. That is also what people refer to as HD. With the days of regular tube televisions (the bulky thing) the max lines that are available to your viewing pleasure is 480 lines. So enough with the definition of what the technology is.

There seem to be a general push in society about things that are visually appealing. So a clearer picture is something good. Many televisions shows, even youtube has started pushing out HD content. I am actually curious what everyday, people who don't care much about what they watch care about this high definition phenomenon.

One thing that comes to mind is people who watch things off youtube. I think the content being played is far more important than any other factor. If you truely enjoy a certain show, or want to watch your favourite actor/actress then I think those people will watch it off anything like a small screen on youtube, very pixelated picture quality.

Another medium which has pretty bad picture quality are those pirated movies that people film with their camcorders in the theatre. Sometimes depending on the film which requires lots of big sound to get the perfect exploding effect, or a hair pin dropping, or someone chasing a character in a horror film requires the full movie theatre experience. When a person watches something like that off youtube, its a total different experience, and might have a different opinion about the film, but again, down to it, when the story is not so great, no matter how well the sound and image is, it will be a bad film.

I've inquired from a few people people and they cannot tell the difference between the high defintion video than that of regular non high defintion. I don't know what the reason for this is, and cannot come to a conclusion or a theory behind this. But I personally enjoy watching things with more details during a sporting event and even a movie. The only good thing for people who cannot tell is that they won't have a bias opionion about the quality since they cannot tell the difference, because once you start liking the good quality stuff all the time, its hard to go back.

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