15 Recently...

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/11/15-recently.html

In response to a friend's quest to write down 15 items of "what's happening to me recently."

Feel free to leave me a comment and share with me what's happening to you recently. If you'd like to create a "15 Recently" list, you're more than welcomed to do so.
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RECENTLY, I'm getting used to my commune life of 1.5 hrs from home to work, and 1.5 hrs from work to home. (nuts?)

RECENTLY, I randomly saw some familiar faces that reminded me of some lovely friends, beloved ones whom I missed so deeply.

RECENTLY, I got a lucky trip to visit Hong Kong with coworkers. Interestingly that brought me back to that one-week business trip memory in G Beijing. So miss the latter one.

RECENTLY, I often saw my lovely cat Pipi and realized how wonderful life is to have him with us by accident.

RECENTLY, I miss my lovely friends a lot and the interesting moments with them. How come I am so far away that I hardly can plan a dinner gathering with anyone?

RECENTLY, I spent time coaching interns for Taiwan Model UN Development Association and found the incredible potentials of college students nowadays.

RECENTLY, I started to drink more juice or to eat more fruit, and try to eat more vegi than meat. Why? Oh my..... I guess I'm really getting old :(

RECENTLY, my time on the MRT were spent on (1) taking a (long) nap or (2) reading magazines/books. I killed many 天下/遠見 and is reading "The New Art of the Leader." Well, if I can stay awake more often...

RECENTLY, "Daily Wendy" turned into something more like weekly Wendy. Sigh, so wish that I still have that much time and exciting discoveries to share as before.

RECENTLY, my skin allergy came visit without known reason from time to time. I WANT MY HEALTHY SKIN TO COME BACK :(

RECENTLY, I only sent out less than 5 postcards within a season. Where did that caring, warm Wendy go?

RECENTLY, I cannot find the motivation to play my piano. Even the piano cannot release me?

RECENTLY, finally I decided to buy some clothes in colors other than blue. Life is not only black and white, neither blue ;)

RECENTLY, I am thinking about what to do for new year countdown. Suggestions please~

RECENTLY, I desire to get phone calls other than business calls. The more, the better. Call me, would you?

一眼 也是瞬間

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post_11.html

捷運車廂打開的那個剎那，從身邊穿出車廂的那個人長相氣質穿著打扮髮型眼鏡都好像你

於是我在那個微涼的夜，那陣風裡，倚著車門－－呆滯

伸手就能搆著的彷彿就是你啊！

也就在那個瞬間理解到，自己曾經有多在乎

或者，自己還有多在乎.....

台灣人們，英文真的要加油，好嗎?

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post.html

Concall裡面出現了雞同鴨講。對方講的很清晰，我方負責人聽得就是很模糊，大半時間用在一來一回確認那些問過好幾次的問題、答過好幾次的同一個答案，已經有點分不清到底是能力不夠，還是不夠用心?

對外國媒體的presentation除了內容本身的難懂性，讓人更難參透的是口音，還有要把中文腦同時打開才能理解的文字句法。也別忘了，還有那些重音怎麼放都放不對，得一邊聽一邊把重音歸位的「艱難字彙」。

Email裡面正式溝通使用的文字、句法、語氣真的有看場合需要符合不同的搭配標準，就算文法先不用力挑問題，字彙你也得挑對啊～尤其讓我害怕的是，連外語學系、或者所謂的歸國華人都有離譜言不及義的狀況，我眉毛都擠成一團，腦子都打結了啦～～～

親愛的可愛的台灣人們，我們的英文真的要加油，好嗎？

Cool Doors

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/11/cool-doors.html

Please check THIS SITE for the entire collections. Trust me, you'll LOVE THEM!

Example 1: Door that meets everyone's needs- across sizes.

Example 2: Multi-function door, and ping pang table!

Example 3: For your garage door, or.... wait?Example 4: Also for your garage door. Uh, okay, can't you think of better ways to utilize your space?

Happy Halloween on the 73F

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-halloween-on-73f.html

This was a party with a theme: Men and women in service.

This was a party with friends: Old and new; friends, and the friends of those friends.

This was a party with excitement and nostalgia: excitement for those first comers, nostalgia for me.

I lost my words when seeing the night view from that gigantic window again...

Oh, I miss you SO MUCH.

Vince helped arrange the venue and prepared some drinks, food, and great music to impress all visitors; Noah kindly prepared some Sangria for everyone to drink; I helped, sometimes, to answer questions about the office and about the life there; everyone who were there jointly helped create one of the best Halloween nights in one another's life!

We got 4 female cops, one navy, one stewardess, two male nuns(?!), three baseball players, one nurse, two Japanese service lady, one female servant, one pretty female bartender, one Miss identification card lady in Chinese dress, one girl scout, one bee, etc. Oh yes, we have around 30 people gathered together, and that's why we had the varieties. Those who came without a costume: got face painted! (oh I LOVE that~) I felt so lucky that everyone could be so open-minded and just freely had fun together. There were several that I met for the first time, some second, but we all shared the moments like the way we spent with long time friends.

I am also impressed by how tiny the world is: I found a primary school friend's friend; I met the business partner of an HBS girl friend, who she planned to introduce me to but couldn't find the time; I found yet another primary school pal; and we bumped into a group of friends on the way to Barcode (uh... why were you there, girls?).

"Show me the photos!" you might say. Unfortunately I didn't take any, but I could possibly get some from others later when they share. Stay tuned!

From 091031- Halloween Party

Thank you everyone once again! It's great to have you adding colors to my life :D

My Work @G is LIVE!

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-work-g-is-live.html

Hooray~~~~ I'm purely happy :D

Add Some Creativity in Life- Take the Piano Stairs for example

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/10/add-some-creativity-in-life-take-piano.html

This is awesome! It successfully encourage everyone to use the stairs instead of escalator. You felt happy when you see those people "playing" with the stairs, elders or babies, humans or dogs.

Maybe not fully related, but I saw an article today and I'd love to share it here as well. "萬馬齊瘖的遊戲時代"on蘋果日報(Mandarin). It discussed about the recent banning policy to block playing Facebook games- Happy Farmers- during working hours in Taiwan. Companies did this to force employees to concentrate on work, 100% without break and entertainment; authors of this article believed, however, appropriate work-leisure-work-leisure intervals worked much better to ensure working efficiency and quality. That was why and how games like Happy Farmers became popular- since it provided the slight/loose leisure and entertainment, PLUS! the interactivity among friends.

What stroke me more, for sure, was the Google office sentence.

Google在辦公室裡擺滿了玩具和遊戲，但同時也期望員工下班後「自動」留下來繼續工作。(Google places all kinds of toys and games in the office, but it simultaneously expects its staff to stay in the office "working" after the working hours.)

Ah.... What more can I say....

To sum up and to return to the topic here, to regulate strictly or even to force people to complete a task could only ensure things to be done right- in the way that everyone else knew and did before. Given some space and allowed creativities with some outside-of-the-box time, people could get the right things done in the impressive way. Just like this piano stairs case!

Emilie's Villa Herbs Restaurant, My Pleasant Home-coming Night

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/10/emilies-villa-herbs-restaurant-my.html

託壽星的福，我們跑到了這家隱身在樂利路巷子裡的精緻休閒餐廳Villa Herbs Restaurant吃喝玩樂。周日的晚上客人很少，我們因為有事先訂下包廂，所以偌大的二樓其實只有我們在其中一個房間旁若無人的喧鬧，餐點和飲料我們很隨性的點、隨性的分攤，話題的流動，我們隨性的讓其蔓延、流轉。

From 09 Autumn

出現的人，有好久不見的G同事四枚，教我好多好多東西的前Maps team專家Emilie與Andy，隔壁cubical常被我們吵到、也常一起跟著出去玩的Vince，完全看不出來籃球打這麼好的Jane。還有因為常到sports day一起打球而結緣的Maureen，還有兩個壽星的高中美女同學Allison和Alicia，以及IMC帥哥Noah。我還記得自己在看到老朋友時的興奮，還記得自己講到舊時光時的神采飛揚，還記得我們開的那幾個玩笑，還有那些你的、我的、他的、她的糗事......我也記得大家在討論Halloween Party的熱烈，還有你一言我一語講著國中叛逆往事的高潮迭起，不過印象最深刻的是：

我記得，與你們在一起的時候，我在活自己。

餐廳選得好！慶生的這個場合挑得好！因為有你們的陪伴，讓我覺得自己又活了起來更好！

I've always wanted to be someone like you. At least- I've always wanted to be someone you cherish. Thanks for giving me the privilege. Thanks for the home-coming evening that was full of joy and happiness. That meant a lot to me. Really.

And again: Happy Birthday! Emilie :D

　

The Villa Herbs Restaurant(借用別人的網誌分享)

台北市樂利路11巷32號

(02)2732-3255

心電感應

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-post_15.html

你出現的時間都很準，準到讓我起雞皮疙瘩，讓我頭皮發麻。

難不成這個也可以解釋為我的念力足夠強大，把你「震」出反應了？

last 4-digit of my mobile#

我們明明就這麼有緣!!!!!!!!!!!!

從星國【海峽時報】即時新聞十分鐘名單術，窺看Facebook小遊戲大熱門原因

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/10/facebook.html

概念引用自星國《海峽時報》只靠加入「Breaking News」，流量一年翻三倍？by 劉威麟。所謂的「十分鐘名單」概念是這樣的：

我們的工作習慣已有點改變。我們現在都有一個「十分鐘名單」，在這名單中的網站，我們都會為它們好好開一個視窗，有時候那些視窗甚至是自動會變動的，如同Gmail有信會自己跳出來，那一行白花花的「新信件」你不可能不看到。現在大家都已經習慣，當它變動時，先去「Interrupt」自己正在進行的工作，先去處理一下。現代每個人都像一顆CPU一樣，可以「多工運算」，可以隨時被「Interrupt」，有的更厲害的還會看看哪個優先做、哪個隨後做。

注意，如果一個網站不會一直變動，我們就不會將視窗一直開在那邊。也就是說，這個網站就不會被列入我們的「十分鐘名單」。

此外，一個網站就算沒有被上班族一直開在那邊，也有可能會被他/她列入「一小時名單」，也就是每過大約一小時，就會固定檢查一次。

劉威麟的這個觀察我十分認同，很快讓我聯想到的，就是最近在Facebook上面火紅的小遊戲們。這些小遊戲除了技巧性運用了Facebook平台的社交互動性以外，他們各自也都成功應用「十分鐘名單」這個技巧，只是預設的時間長度巧妙各自不同。以下拿出三個遊戲舉例（歸結本人玩耍心得如下）：

=RESTAURANT CITY=

• 遊戲賣點:經營自己的線上虛擬餐廳，雇用朋友當廚師、店員、清潔工，賺進滾滾鈔票和經驗值，用以為餐廳添加更多裝飾、擴充餐廳規模、購買更多食材
• 互動性:
  1.雇用你的Facebook好友來餐廳工作
  2.跟朋友交換食材/拜訪朋友的餐廳賺免費食材
  3.拜訪其他Facebook用戶的餐廳打分數贏獎勵
• 「十分鐘名單術」：
  1.每三小時餐廳裡的工作人員就會餓，需要餵食或休息；理想一點的狀況
  2.每天登入餐廳會有一個食材獎勵

=Happy Farmer/開心農場/FarmVille, etc=

• 遊戲賣點:經營自己的農場種菜種花、養牛羊雞狗，賺取經驗值與金錢，用以為農場購買更多種子、添加更多牲口、擴充農場規模
• 互動性:
  1.幫Facebook好友種菜養牲口
  2.偷取Facebook好友的心血結晶變賣
• 「十分鐘名單術」：
  1.每X小時(根據植物/動物所需生長時間不同)就需要收成，不然就會被其他好友偷走變賣(減產)
  2.每天登入農場會有一個種子/肥料獎勵

=Enchanted Island=

• 遊戲賣點:當巫師用法術變出一盆一盆不同的花賺取經驗值與金錢，有些時候會出現「衍生種子」增加困難度與趣味性，並非100%的用咒成功率激發玩家挑戰野心
• 互動性: (無OR弱)因為僅供遊戲中的forum平台與素不相識的其他Facebook使用者交流討論，沒有與既有Facebook好友互動的設計
• 「十分鐘名單術」：用咒兩次後無論如何巫師就會氣力放盡，需要15分鐘休息時間養精蓄銳，才能再次發功

注意到它們對「十分鐘名單術」的運用了吧？這樣看來是不是更覺得劉威麟的分析很有趣很有道理？不過也值得各位注意的是，從三個小遊戲的比較中我們也可以歸結另一個讓Facebook遊戲熱門與否的重點－－互動性！Restaurant City和眾多的農場經營遊戲因為有互動元素，快速吸引眾多使用者投入而無法自拔，Enchanted Island因為在互動性上明顯衰弱，了不起讓部分誤打誤撞闖入的玩家(譬如我)投以三分鐘熱度的注意，遊戲的續航力堪憂。

有其他想法嗎？歡迎丟出來討論！
（哎呀呀，我真是個軟體人.....）

Work, Mixed

http://wendysdreamland.blogspot.com/2009/10/work-mixed.html

Work learning summary:

• Manufacturing process is super complicated. Step after step, detail after detail. One little mistake will lead to so many steps of corrections. Later when I can no longer claim myself as a newbie- will lead to shouts from boss
• Web communication related: When an organization grows to the Godzilla scale, it's highly likely to lose its flexibility to win online- especially when people use the dated style and attitude to run the business
• Media review is crucial for this industry. Detailed and thorough communications (even crisis management) is necessary, while effective evaluation is important as well.
• Another evaluation index: number of awards the products win (where, from whom, why)
• ...
• I still have my value, for sure :)