Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) November 24, 2009

What is interesting about MBTI is not the type it results in, but the realization of how you identify with questions/ statements as presented.

I just did a few different free versions of the test (http://www.personalitytest.net, http://similarminds.com, http://www.humanmetrics.com). Seemingly I show consistent preference as ‘S’ (sensing) and ‘J’ (judging), while less consistence amonst extroversion and feeling/ thinking. More detailed description about the test and interpretation of types can be found on wikipedia.

From answering some of the questions in these tests, I can recall situations where I am more extroverted (when hosting a social event, or leading activities), and vice versa (sometimes taking more of a listener’s role in meetings, or meeting new people), i.e. my personality adapts to situations and needs.

Specifically Similar Minds provided a breakdown:

ISTJ – “Trustee”. Decisiveness in practical affairs. Guardian of time- honored institutions. Dependable. 11.6% of total population.

and description of personality type:

ISTJ – “Trustee”. Decisiveness in practical affairs. Guardian of time- honored institutions. Dependable. 11.6% of total population.

Personality Test gives quite a surprising description, which sounds very good but I can’t exactly agree it’s 100% accurate:
ESFJ: “Seller”. Most sociable of all types. Outstanding host or hostesses. They may be dependent, first on parents and later on spouses. They excel in service occupations involving personal contact. 13% of the total population.

Had an Awesome Birthday November 15, 2009

Happy birthday to me! Yesterday was awesome (despite a bit of angst in between, but what’s high in life if there’s no low?). Got up to row in the morning. Weather was (relatively) nice, sun was out (a bit) and it wasn’t raining. We had 2 quads and a double out, rowed through the cut and back. I stroked for my quad yesterday, quite rare as I typically bow and cox in quads (come to think of it, even more rare is for me to be in 2 or 3 seat). Felt pretty good to lead overall.

Digits were a little frozen after rowing so we went to Le Fournil’s with our rowing buddies/ classmates for a Mocha to get warmed up. Gossiped a bit about somebody who got blacklisted from a class. It’s a very strange scene, since people are typically very nice and friendly in the rowing world.

We then went over to OP’s for brunch. She made pancakes and waffles with fruits and we brought over bacon and sausages and eggs and made some omelets. Invited Adriana too. OP also made parfait but we were pretty stuffed after numerous pancakes and waffles and eggs, so I just had one Spent the rest of the afternoon getting the remaining accommodations for Puerto Rico and Florida booked, while watching Battle of the Wedding Planners on TLC and mimicking their evil laughs. Then we went to Target so Ani can do his returns and we picked out a couple of games (Funglish and Madgab) for the night. Rushed home got changed vaccummed up broken bulb and dashed over to Kingfish Cafe for dinner. We had drinks and chatted during the 1.5 – 2 hour wait (they don’t take reservations). Food was DELICIOSO and portions are good enough to feed 4. Mac and Cheese hmmmmmmm Thank you kutti for ordering a side. Even though it’s supposed to have onions and peppers (gagh) I only got bites of cheeeeeessseee and macaroni. yuums! and My gumbo was super tasty and gigantic. Barely took a tip of the iceberg.

Hula and Nanna got me gift cert. to JL Racing

We went to Susan’s for cake and Funglish afterwards. Cake was chocolate with custard filling super tastttty and Funglish was hilarious. We had a good time.

Woke up this morning thinking it was Monday and dreading a bit about what to wear to work and why I didn’t set my usual 6:30 am alarm. Then my 7:00am alarm came on and I suddenly remember that’s the alarm for rowing, i.e. IT’S SUNDAY! yaaaaaaay. Thank god for Sunday.

Had a good row this morning. We had 3 singles in the class, rowed out to Lake Union all the way through Fremont Bridge and down the channel. Water is sooooo calm once we passed Gasworks park and just glassy after the Fremont bridge. It was beautiful. We got some really good practice in. My hands didn’t freeze today, probably also because I was busy rowing around It started drizzling when we were heading back from Fremont, but overall it’s a nice morning.

Dream A Little Dream For Me October 16, 2009

In my dream job, I would travel, maybe 30% of the time.
In my dream job, I would be doing something new every day, not mundane day-to-day tasks.
I look forward to intelligently stimulating work.
I would work in a productively competitive environment, where people I work with are smart and well educated.
I want to work on something that people can see the results of, something high visibility, preferably something that people would benefit from.

Meanwhile, it would be interesting to do something creative, like create a pretty website, on the side, for fun. I know creativity and artsiness are not my strengths so maybe this would remain a dream.

You & Me: Dave Matthews Band October 2, 2009

Check out Dave Matthews Band’s “You & Me” video premiere on Yahoo music
http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/premieres/

This is one of my favorite songs (amongst many many other favorites from DMB) from their newest album. They played them at the Gorge over Labor Day weekend. Love the lyrics!

Wanna pack your bags, Something small
Take what you need and we disappear
Without a trace we’ll be gone, gone
The moon and the stars can follow the car
and then when we get to the ocean
We gonna take a boat to the end of the world
All the way to the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We’re gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yes, yes (x2)

You and I, we’re not tied to the ground
Not falling but rising like rolling around
Eyes closed above the rooftops
Eyes closed, we’re gonna spin through the stars
Our arms wide as the sky
We gonna ride the blue all the way to the end of the world
To the end of the world

Oh, and when the kids are old enough
We’re gonna teach them to fly

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yes, yes

We can always look back at what we did
All these memories of you and me baby
But right now it’s you and me forever girl
And you know we could do better than anything that we did
You know that you and me, we could do anything

You and me together, we could do anything, Baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby
You and me together yeah, yeah
Two of us together yeah, yeah
Two of us together, we could do anything, baby

to reach the end of the world

Olympus Customer Support Dissatisfactory September 29, 2009

There’s something wrong with the OS in my Olympus camera such that I can no longer change modes between camera vs. video camera vs. panorama or much of any other functions that the camera should be performing. Since it’s still under warranty, I have sent it to Olympus’ California service center for repair. It was returned within 2 weeks and I was really excited to get my camera fixed and returned. However, the big disappointment comes when nothing was done on the camera; it was returned exactly as I have sent it. The protective film on the screen has also disappeared in the process. There was no note and I have received no calls or emails about why the camera was returned as is.

So I wrote them an email to inquire what’s going on, and here’s what I get:

Thank you for contacting Olympus Imaging America Inc. regarding our product repair service. We understand that a product failure is inconvenient, so we work to make our repair process as easy for you as possible. Olympus repair service will bring your product back to full working condition. We will also provide basic maintenance for the unit, making any adjustments, calibrations; software upgrades (if applicable) and will clean the unit as needed. Your repaired product is then backed by our six-month service warranty.

For further details about our repair program, warranty, policies and procedures, please visit our website at:

United States Customers:
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/repair_pdfs/uschecklist.pdf

Canadian Customers:
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/repair_pdfs/cachecklist.pdf

To download the REQUIRED Repair Submission Form -

UNITED STATES CUSTOMERS: http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/repair_pdfs/REPAIRFORM.pdf

Please fill out and return the required Repair Submission Form along with the product, to one of the following service centers.
For warranty repairs -no charge to you for the repair -please include a copy of the date stamped sales receipt and the warranty card.
For a billable repair (no longer covered by warranty) a free no-obligation estimate on the cost of repair will be sent to you.

East Coast/ Mid West

Olympus Imaging America Inc.
400 Rabro Drive
Hauppauge NY. 11788
Attn: Consumer Product Repair

West Coast/ North and South West

Olympus Imaging America Inc.
10805 Holder Street Suite 170
Cypress, CA 90630-5145

The UPS Store has offered a discount on the packaging of your item to be sent in for repair. The discount is anywhere from 30-40% off of the packaging (Box, tape, bubblewrap, etc). Please present the bottom of the Repair Submission form to the UPS Store associate.

CANADIAN CUSTOMERS- http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/repair_pdfs/REPAIRFORM.pdf

Please fill out and return the required Repair Submission Form along with the product, to one of the following service centers.
For warranty repairs -no charge to you for the repair -please include a copy of the date stamped sales receipt and the warranty card.
For a billable repair (no longer covered by warranty) a free no-obligation estimate on the cost of repair will be sent to you.

Olympus Canada Regional Repair
Consumer Products Division
151 Telson Road
Markham, ON, L3R 1E7

As a valued Olympus Customer, we ask you to take a moment and complete our Customer Care and Support survey. We always strive to improve in any way we can. You can find the survey by choosing the following link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/OlympusCC

For customers needing repair service outside of the United States and Canada, please contact the Olympus distributor for your part of the world:

SOUTH AMERICA:

Olympus Brazil
http://www.olympusamericalatina.com/home.asp?region=3
Customer Service Telephone -0800 72 66 72 0

Olympus Latin America
http://www.olympusamericalatina.com/home.asp?region=1

Olympus Mexico
http://www.olympusamericalatina.com/home.asp?region=2

EUROPE – OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO. EUROPA
http://www.olympus-europa.com

ENGLAND -OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.UK LTD.
http://www.olympus.co.uk

ASIA -(and ALL OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD)
http://www. olympus.co.jp

Note: There is an English language option, found at the bottom of the Olympus Japan home page, over on the right. Left click on the word ” English”.

Sincerely,

Customer Care and Support
Olympus Imaging America, Inc.

* If you would like you may take a short survey to tell us about the service you received from Olympus Customer Care. Please follow this link: www.surveymonkey.com/OlympusCC – Thank you.

> —- Original Message —-
> From : website@olympus.com
> To : Olympus
> Subject : Ask Olympus:Repair [INTR:713638]
> Date : Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:22:33 GMT
>
>
> Category: Repair
> Model:
> Question: I had sent in my digital camera for warranty repair. It was, however, returned to me un-repaired. The protective film on the screen was also removed. I was not contacted neither during nor after the process to notify that the camera would not be repaired. I’m very upset and dissatisfied with this event. What do I have to do to get my camera fixed?

It would have been nice if they would try to address the previous issue rather than asking me to blindly send in my camera again. I’m not very happy with paying for Shipping & Handling twice without knowing if I’d get the warranty repair as promised.

Should I switch from T-mobile to AT&T? September 17, 2009

Background
I’m currently 4 months into a 2-year contract with T-mobile. Been with T-mobile for 4 years now and starting to become very unhappy with what I have. I have an almost 2 years old Motorola W490 which I got for free at the end of 2007 when I signed up to recontract for 2 years. The phone is nice as it’s compact but doesn’t have any smart phone functions that are becoming more and more common in the marketplace.



Problem
I had a ‘loyal customer’ 800 minutes a month up till 5 months ago which I pay $45 – 50/ month for. It includes unlimited week nights and weekend minutes. Since my bill average 300 minutes a month, I thought I could change to a smaller plan and save some money. However, the smaller plan does not include week night minutes, and I have been running ~100 minutes over my plan a month in the last couple of months, and ended up paying about the same when I had the 800 minute plan.



Dilemma
I want a minute plan that would fit my usage needs, I don’t really want to change the plan and re-sign another 2 year contract (which was stupid to begin with). It prompted me to start considering moving away from T-mobile, which doesn’t have as good coverage as AT&T in Seattle area, and perhaps getting a smart phone (like iPhone or Windows mobile) instead. It implies I would likely ended up signing for another 2-year contract, and paying more for minute plan and data plan anyways (which doesn’t solve my initial problems, but makes me happier since I would ended up with a better phone and stress-free minute plan). Another small caviat with moving to AT&T though, is that I will incur early termination fee from T-mobile and activation fee from AT&T.



So, what do you think?

Social Media Revolution September 14, 2009

Pretty fascinating stats. The background music helps too.

Flying Trapeze (Not Too At Ease) September 14, 2009

Went flying trapeze with a few peeps from Marketing team last Friday afternoon. Feeling pretty traumatized and broken (mentally) ever since.

Couldn’t do the knee hang and flip like some of others successfully did. O well, I guess circus is not my fate. Back to rowing.

Stomach started aching on Sunday morning from either the attempt to tuck/ knee hang or the super tight safety harness/ corset. Rowing not feeling so good lately; feels like I’m not rowing properly no matter how I try. Maybe I have been too tired lately.

Puppy Can’t Roll Back Over September 8, 2009

super cute puppy
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/09/08

Row for The Cure September 8, 2009

Please support me and my team in the upcoming fundraising event Row for the Cure in Seattle!

http://www.active.com/donate/rftcseattle/pococki2

This would be my first race and my first Row for the Cure event. The race is on 9/20 in Lake Union. It is a 5.5K head race (more details here: http://www.rowforthecure.com/cities/seattle.htm).
We have been practicing weekly in addition to the usual intermediate classes (our team members are all in the Pocock Rowing Center intermediate class level 2), up to 5 times a week. I will be rowing in the bow seat of the Pocock Rowing Center’s Women’s quad. Donate and/ or come see us row!