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Posts Tagged ‘thoughts’

  1. Making the Extraordinary, Ordinary

    August 8, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    This week’s required reading was about design fiction and I really enjoyed reading about it.

    It made me think though, are the stuff that we use in our daily lives a product of design fiction? Like the phone. So many years ago, one in a thousand households owned one telephone (not real statistic). Back then, the people probably thought that such a thing was bizarre and uncommon. Nowadays, everybody above the age of seven owns a mobile phone and some even consider it as a part of their body to the extent that they admit if they lose it they would die.

    In a way, I suppose DF COULD be the basis for new inventions in this day and age. That kinda defeats the purpose of it being fictional and creating a whole different world, though but  still, what if? What if one day, there was this teleportation device outlet outside of your home nearby that allows you to teleport to other outlets? You’d have to pay a fee though. Some might get nauseous from using it. Planes and cars and other common transportation we see now would probably be gone and the thought of using them would be considered prehistoric. Also, everyone would get fatter. 

    OR what if one day, there was a device that allows you to enter a game’s reality or any kind of vitual reality? You could be in space, without being in space. You could have a totally awesome zombie apocalypse setting and bash zombies. Even better, a Jedi battle with a virtual light saber and crazy Jedi powers!? Of course, there would be consequences like making you see hallucinations from extended use ’cause your brain got confused. You could die like this guy.

    Kinda sucks.

     


  2. The Game of Thrones

    August 1, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    While researching about piracy a few months ago, I came upon a video mentioning that the Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show ever.
    Curious, I went ahead and bought a Season 1 box set to find out why this was the case. I had to know, why is this show the most pirated?
    So I popped disc one into my Blu-ray player and boy, I was not prepared for what this show had to offer.

    The show’s first episode puts you straight into the story. There’s no narrator to tell you what was going on or to introduce you to this vast, imaginary world and explain how things work. Nope, you’re on your own to figure it all out yourself. It does however, introduce it to you visually and this is done immediately when it shows you the disembodied bodies laying in the snow as if it’s telling you that this world is brutal and you’d best prepared yourself for it.

    And then the chase begins. Running, running, running, running, are you ready yet? If not, too bad, you’re still going to see some gloriously gory stuff in action. By the way, it won’t stop there, oh no, you’ll see more of that if you continue watching. The show then cuts to its opening sequence, and after that we are introduced to its various range of characters, mainly the protagonists and there are a lot of them which classifies this show as multi-protagonist.

    After the first episode ended, I still felt a little lost and confused. I mean there was just so much to take in, my brain had to have time to organize and make sense of what had just transpired. Then, I moved on to the second episode, the third and so on.

    There’s no mistaking it, this story was set to reveal more and more, episode by episode. With so many main characters with their own respecting stories, you have to think about them as a whole and weave it altogether yourself so you can make sense out of it.

    Here are my thoughts after watching the whole season:

    • My first impression was, “Wow, this show has a really big budget. So many actors… such high production values. You don’t see many TV shows that have this.”
    • What took me by surprise was the nudity. I was not informed about the nudity. Wait, not JUST nudity. Throw in the full-on sex into the mix and you’ve created this slightly awkward atmosphere when your parents are watching the show with you.
    • So much chocolate, wasted! Because fake blood has chocolate and stuff…
    • How did they get the money to make all those props and sets and hire all these great actors!?

    Why is the Game of Thrones the most pirated TV show in the past 2 years? Well, the answer is simple, it’s just a really good show.  Some may like it, some won’t, but apparently the majority of the public do like it so it gets downloaded the most.

    Am I going to continue watching it? Heck yeah I am. After making sense of the whole story/world, am I just going to discard it out of my mind? Besides, those cliffhangers make me want more.
    I’m already lookin’ forward to Season 4.


  3. Reading 02: Single/Double Loop Learning

    August 1, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    This week’s required reading was about Chris Aygris’ theories of action, double loop learning and organizational learning.
    Aygris and Schon suggests that there are two theories of action which are espoused theory and theory-in-use.

    Espoused theory: “The words we use to convey what we do or what we would like others to think we do.”

    Example:

    We might explain our sudden rush out of the office to
    others, or even to ourselves at some level, by saying
    that a ‘crisis’ had arisen with one of‘our’ clients.”

    Theories-in-use: “The theory that actually governs his actions.”

    Example: 

    “The theory-in-use might be quite different.We may have
    become bored and tired by the paper work or meeting and
    felt that a quick trip out to an apparently difficult
    situation would bring welcome relief.”

    Then there’s single and double-loop learning. Single loop learning involves looking for a different strategy when the current approach is unable to achieve the goal. The new strategy must work within the confines of the governing variables. The current goals, objectives, values and beliefs are unquestioned and will remain unchanged. To put it simply, strategy changes, everything else, no.

    Double-loop learning, however, allows the governing variables to come under criticism and to be changed if the need arises. This results in a change in the way strategies are made, so in other words, the conceptual framework changes.

    Finally, there’s Model I and Model II, which inhibit and enhances double-loop learning, respectively.

    From what I understand, Model I has an autocratic style of leadership because decisions are more likely to be made objectively and are imposed upon others. Its characteristics include showing weaknesses like emotion, incompetence, ineptitude to be frowned upon which in turn creates a need to suppress negative feelings.There is a higher chance for resistance against changing goals to “win” in a sense that the goal is expected to be made a success and if not, it is seen as a “loss”.

    Model II, on the other hand, has a more participative style of leadership because control is shared and opinions and inquiries are encouraged. Theories are tried and tested and information circulates within the organisation easily.

    It’s interesting to see that Model I seems to reject innovation whereas Model II enhances it because it allows more creativity due to open communication and more freedom of choice.


  4. Reading 01 Interpretations

    July 31, 2013 by kimberlyteoh

    This is really late but I’m gonna go ahead and post anyway.

    Last week, Adrian wrote and posted a very metaphorical reading. I have to admit that I literally imagined this while I was reading it.

    I have a simple mind

    Obviously, I’m sure he didn’t mean to produce a mental image such as this when he wrote it so I gave it a bit more thought.

    Instead of a boat, I thought of a mouse cursor. I replaced the ocean with a cloud and put in network resources such as videos, blogs, audio files, etc. which are the ideas that other people have contributed to the cloud. None of these are connected to each other but you can certainly ‘access’ them when you touch them.

    Basically, the ocean/cloud is a gateway to a world that has an endless amount of ideas that other people have put in. Although Adrian only described and mentioned one boat, who says that there can’t be more boats? Anyone can be in it or access it. I believe that’s what network media is.


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