I was so inspired by it I self-snooped. And here are 3 of my deductions — do share yours in the comments or in a blog entry (do link back to this entry, so I can I read them)!

Snoop #1: What My Music Playlist Says About Me

Gosling says we can infer personality traits from the music we listen to. You’d might imagine someone who loves religious music as someone pious, perhaps conscientious and not very open to new experiences. I find this snoop a little devious because you may fall prey to false stereotyping, if you don’t dig deep enough. Here’s my deduction of my own playlist as an example.

Top 25 Songs on iTunes

From this playlist, you might deduce that I love anime music. Before you accuse me of being a socially eccentric, cosplaying otaku, let me explain my listening habits. While it’s true I love anime, I don’t enjoy anime music all that much. Consider this: I only listen to music via iTunes when I blog. Music with prominent vocals or noisy electric guitars interfere with my thinking. In contrast, music from the ARIA anime is very soothing so it inspires me to write.

Top 15 Artists on Last.FM

My Top 15 Artists list from Last.FM is a more accurate depiction of my music preferences because it’s sortable by time frame. My music tastes have changed over the years. When I was younger, I loved Korean pop music. Now that I’m older, I’m much more into Kubota Toshinobu’s music (genre: soul) and other soothing genres like R&B, Jazz and Bossa Nova.

Gosling points out that people who listen to jazz are generally calm and collected. While that is true of me most of the time, notice that there are 2 anomalies — Lee Hyolee and 2NE1. Both are remnants of my favorite genre during my teenage years. That should point out that I’m not yet 100% calm and collected. Occasionally, I’m still susceptible to reverting to my younger, boisterous, not-so-calm self.

Snoop #2: What My Office Cubicle Says About Me

My company culture is fairly conservative and our office design is one that’s very open. Everything – including the number of shoes under the table – is viewable on plain sight. As you can expect, there’s not much decor going on around. With that said, my cubicle is more barren than the others.

I have no photos of my friends or family, no memento or souvenir on my table. Gosling talks about how employees who are disconnected or disengaged from their work have less personal belongings in their cubicle. While that may be true for some people, I just prefer to separate my work from my personal life. I also avoid revealing too much of myself. See Snoop #3 for reason.

However, I do have three personal items displayed on an inconspicuous corner on my whiteboard. Two of them are postcards — one of a cute cat in a beret, another with a colorful abstract design. At first glance, one might think I like cats and colorful postcards. While that’s also true, there are deeper reasons to why I displayed them. When you flip the back of the postcards, you’d see that they both have personalized messages. The one with the cat is from a very, very close friend from university. The colorful one was from the customer service personnel who decided to accompany the item I ordered online from Swedish retailer, DesignTorget with a hand-written postcard saying “Hello from Sweden “. The postcards remind me of the value friendship and reaching out to strangers. Not coincidentally, both of which I wish I could have more.

The 3rd item is a photo of my project team along with Singapore’s Prime Minister and my company’s CEO. This one’s a no-brainer. It just means I’m ambitious.

Snoop #3: What My Wallpapers Say About Me

Gosling also dabbles a little into what our blogs, Facebook profiles and usernames reveal about us. Personally, I think there is an even better way to snoop online — by ransacking people’s Google Search history. But good luck getting your hands on that… hahaha.

For me though, I think the single most telling item of my core being is my desktop / mobile phone wallpaper. I’m sure most of my observant friends have noticed various artwork displayed on my personal electronic devices. They are all paintings from Audrey Kawasaki. I haven’t fully figured out why I am enchanted by them but they give a vague inkling that no matter where I am and what I am doing, a part of me will never change. This is my favorite painting:

My favorite piece from Audrey Kawasaki
百鬼夜行 – Hyakki Yakou – Hundred Demon Night Parade

Most my friends comment on how haunting and creepy these paintings are.

Perhaps that is reason why that I don’t display these paintings on my work-related devices and why I endeavor to show as little of myself as possible. The core of my being might just be too haunting and creepy for people to handle — a stark contrast to my nanyate self — the perpetually shining, affable, easygoing optimist.

What most don’t understand is that both sides are equally me.

For one to embody the light, one must know darkness.

No related posts.

6.15PM: From Ritzy Restaurant to High-Class Hawker

ID and I met up yesterday to conceptualize a new layout for our new joint blog/vlog/podcast at ToiletRev.com. We spent many hours scrummaging around the corners of the ‘Net to look for a ritzy restaurant, and finally decided on Makan Sutra at the Esplanade. Turns out that the ritzy restaurant is actually just a high-class hawker in the middle of the city.

Hungry bloggers aren’t choosers, so we stayed and had our fill. As you can see, the hawker had quite an ambiance, completed with earthy umbrellas, fans, seaview and rocky tables. The added ambiance and the prime location also meant that we had to pay premium for otherwise average-tasting, affordable local food.

6.30PM: Dinner at a High-Class Hawker

I had Roti John (left), which is fried bread with beef and onions stuffing. ID had Nasi Goreng (right), which is Malay for fried rice. Talk about healthy

11.20PM: Midnight Walk in a Tropical City

Just in case you were wondering what we did from 6.30 to 11PM, we walked around Raffles City to check out some clothes and stationery. We then worked on the layout at Starbucks until its closing time at 11PM. We then proceeded to McDonald’s, where it was 24 hours. To venture our way there, we had to walk past the luxurious Raffles Hotel, which is one my favorite spots in Singapore. I’m in love colonial architecture; there’s just a certain romantic atmosphere about it.

12 – 3AM: Toilet Humor and Bathroom Design

We spent the first 3 hours at Starbucks throwing out random ideas, and spent the last 3 hours at McDonald’s finalizing a sketch of ToiletRev.com‘s first layout. Collaborating on a layout design was far harder than I expected, because ID and I have such different and distinct styles. Of course, ID will be illustrating, and I will coding. We will meet next week to work on the it.

Of course, for such a fun project, all sketches, all ideas, all jokes pertaining to ToiletRev.com will not be released until the site is formally opened to the public. So here’s a spoof of Nanyate?! instead by yours truly.

From the quality of the doodle, I am sure you are all now convinced that I failed art in school. I clearly can’t write, can’t draw, can’t color – by hand.

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To see the rest of the pictures, visit my Flickr account.

Related posts:

1. A Day in Photos