Now I’m no psychoanalyst so I don’t have the knowledge to analyze every choice and every placement, but I’m going to attempt to psychoanalyze myself in hopes you could pick up some clues about yourself from your own Pet Society rooms.

Main Room

This one is a bit of a no-brainer. The main room represents the how you want the world to see you. I like to be seen as someone who’s organized, open-minded and fairly straightforward. I think that’s the feel I try to project here with the large windows and minimalist decor — kind of like nanyate, don’t you think?

Bedroom

I’d like to think that the bedroom represents how you see yourself. It’s also a measure of your self-esteem. I’ve been playing with Pet Society for years, and I have to admit I’ve never been satisfied with my bedroom. For me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing because it means I always leave room for myself to grow.

The ghost is an interesting point, since it’s a very accurate reflection of my sleeping habits. I turn 25 this year and I still sleep with a night light on. That’s because every time I try to sleep with the lights off, I would dream about being haunted by something from within. So the ghost represents my fear—my fear for a part of myself.

I guess it’s no accident that I display my awards here. (Most people would display their stuffed toys here.) I have a feeling that my self-esteem depends on my career achievements to a certain extent.

Bathroom

I have no clue what the bathroom is supposed to mean but if I had to make a wild guess, it’s probably how you choose to pamper yourself. If my guess is right, people who struggle with loving themselves would probably not like their bathrooms or avoid having a bathroom altogether.

And so my Pet Society bathroom makes me the ultimate narcissist. Bathing Japanese-style while watching the sunset and then getting out to have a cup of tea would while idly philosophizing about the world would be heaven on earth for me.

Kitchen

The kitchen is probably a reflection of how you view your family and/or your home. I admit I’m not a homely or family-oriented person. So I guess it’s no surprise that it’s the only room that I’ve not bothered to re-design for almost a year.

Hobbies Room

Most higher-level Pet Society players have a room to showcase their hobbies—be it a large walk-in closet, a piano lounge, or in my case, a reading room.

One of the things that I feared most after I started working was that I would eventually stop learning. In an effort to keep learning, I’ve voraciously devoured management and communication books, and used my Tumblr and Google Docs (represented by the laptop in the picture) as learning notebooks for quick access to my newly-acquired knowledge.

An interesting highlight to this room is the presence of a door. It’s the only room (aside from the main room) in my house that has a door. The door represents openness. The hobbies room is something that I’m open to changing and that I openly share with everyone.

I wonder if that means those who have doors for every room are generally more open people.

The Extra Room

I don’t know about other Pet Society players, but 6 rooms is enough for me. So the 7th room is an extra room I use to play around with the latest decor. For now, I’ve turned it into a veranda cafe (because this weeks’ items are all cafe inspired). I can’t imagine what I will do with the 8th and 9th rooms when I get them.

Or perhaps the extra room just represents that I’ve not discovered enough facets of myself yet.

Fantasy Room

And to save the prettiest for last, this is the whimsical, fantastic room that represents the child in me. It’s the dreamy side of me where I wished everything in the world would be poetic, pretty and peaceful.

A few points of interest: my petling is here, I guess that means I’ll never own a pet in real life. Like most of my other rooms, it has no door—evidently, it’s not a side that I like to admit to.

Some Caveats…

I think analyzing your pets only works if you had a few conditions fulfilled.

• You need to have played while perceiving your pet as a representation of your self – whether consciously or unconsciously. If you see your pet as Johnny Depp or Miley Cyrus, then I don’t think it’ll work.
• Your decor choice should not be constrained by the lack of cash. If you bought the cheap wooden bed because you don’t have enough money for the princess bed, then you’re not at a level where you can accurately analyze your state of mind from your room. Looking at my friend list, I think most people start to cross to the “analyzable stage” at around Level 25 – 27.

And this ends my random, lunacy-infested post on Pet Society!

Your Thoughts?

• If you play Pet Society, do share the decor of your rooms!
• If you don’t, what do you think of my analysis? Do you think it can be applied to other games like Farmville or Cafe World?
• If you a psychology expert, I’d like to hear what you think.
• And if you have nothing to add, feel free to jeer at my lunacy.

Related posts:

1. Cleaned My Room; Cleaned State of Mind

Although no world-changing ideas came out of it, I think everyone learned something. For me, it’s that social media is like dough. It is what you make of it. You have the choice to mold it into anything you want with any ingredients you like. How successful you are depends on how much your audience appreciates the outcome – just like your reputation amongst your friends. In a way, social media is a virtual extension of your social network.

Social Media and Corporate Culture

As a PR person, I had a different takeaway. The PR people disagreed with each other on certain points, and I think that’s a good thing. It means there’s diversity in the field, but more importantly it supported one of my suspicions.

Now I’m no social media veteran or expert since I’ve only be actively doing into this stuff for a year. As a newbie, I did notice from various social media blogs, books and events that some social media practitioners have a tendency to share a set of guidelines on social media best practices like being more engaging, being more transparent or being more authentic, for example.

This past year, I’ve learned that social media for companies isn’t just about best practices and emulating what the successful early adopters are doing. It’s about tailoring social media to corporate culture and the brand’s personality. Generating buzz for a health campaign is very different from generating buzz for a service provider. And while some brands could use all the buzz they can find, others are naturally buzz-generating. It’s not possible to expect all brands to be more transparent or more open because these traits may not be part of the corporate personality. Or worse, it may be in direct conflict to the corporate personality. And just because a brand’s not open doesn’t mean their doing bad job in the social media space. Think Apple, for example.

Social media is simply another social sphere for companies and individuals to establish their reputation in – so complementing a company’s social media actions with its personality is probably more effective than blindly following a set of best practices.

The Rise and Fall of the Bloggers’ Voice

As a blogger, this growing trend of blog monetization concerns me. I’m not talking about the bloggers who balance their original content with paid content – especially when they are endorsing brands they care about. Getting paid for one’s passion should be celebrated.

I’m talking about bloggers who make it their sole goal to be paid for blogging, and pander to every brand willing to pay them out there. At that point, they are compromising their credibility and integrity for money. Let me put this in another way:

Is your credibility only worth $200?

Okay, granted $200 is a lot of money for certain people. Or perhaps money is more important to them than airy virtues like honesty, credibility and integrity. But for me, these abstract virtues are far more important.

Here’s why: I started out blogging before the word “blogging” was invented. I kept a journal on a Geocities site back in 1996, where every entry had to be painstakingly coded in HTML. Prior to the Internet, only large organizations, newspapers and authors good enough to be published had voices. The fact that the ordinary man could have a voice was revolutionary.

And now, to be paid by these same organizations to compromise our voice seems like we’re going one step backwards.

So this is how I shaped my dough. I started out blogging because I can – and I don’t think I’ve strayed far.

How have you molded your dough?

Related posts:

1. The Wonders of Social Media
2. Life of a Social Media Rockstar
3. Blogger Business Cards

The Bag

I’m a low maintenance kind of person, who loves black leather and solid shapes. I don’t really take good care of my stuff (except electronics). So I carry a relatively inexpensive solid black bag from Braun Buffel.

The Stuff

Like a low maintenance girl should be, I don’t bring too much around with me. Just the essentials.

• Automatic umbrella from Esprit – I’m quite afraid of the blade-like thing used to close umbrellas. So I invested in an umbrella with a button instead. Hahaha. Pussy.
• Black-rimmed glasses from Versace – My astigmatism is off the charts. Since my eyes are too dry, I can’t wear contacts. So I wear this instead when I really have to see. But most of the time, I prefer to walk around half blind.
• Name card holder from Tumbleweed – Been searching for a patterned business card holder for the longest time. It’s nice to have those usual metal or leather card holders, but I always feel that they lack a certain personality. Then I chanced upon this cart at Clarke Quay selling handing handmade trinkets and got this.
• Padlock – for my gym locker.
• Wallet from Danier
• Lipstick from Yves Saint Laurent – This little thing is the most beautiful and functional makeup piece I own. It’s got two colors + a mirror + a brush. How cool is that?! I got it in #1 Sparkling Beige.
• iPhone, LG Viewty, HTC S630 – I work for a telecommunications company. So carrying around 3 phones shouldn’t be too surprising, should it? I don’t really own the iPhone by the way. I just borrow it from the department to check my work email and occasionally tweet when I’m on the move. The Viewty is my office line. It’s also my backup camera. The 5MP camera really comes in handy when I attend events and forget to lug my Canon A590 IS with me. And the HTC S630 is my personal line. I want to replace it soon though. It’s too slow! Palm Pre, where are you!?!
• Cowon D2 MP3 Player – I’m a bit of an audiophile. I need high quality music. So an iPod could never make the cut for me. The Cowon sound quality is simply amazing. On top of that, it has an English-English, Korean-English, English-Korean dictionary. It also has a 52 hour battery life. I rarely ever charge this thing; once every few months at most.

Blogger Cards – Close Up

Oh and here some close up shots of my blogger business card for the non-believers. (Hello Sigg3!)

You’s Been Tagged

I know a lot of people are aversed to memes, so I’m not forcing you to do it. But I’m gonna tag ya anyway!

• Dayna of AmourChaleur
• Katy of TwentyFourCarat
• Iva of Iva is Me
• Tara of Aigoo-Chamna
• Wendy of Rin-Wendy

Related posts:

1. Review: LG Viewty KU990R

The quiz scores you according to 4 categories:

America, England & Israel

“You are often business oriented and enjoy status symbols. You are confident and impatient and sometimes prone to making blunt statements. You see yourself as adventurous, skillful and competitive. The bottom line – you like to be in charge. Your main strengths – you are decisive and efficient, but can often be perceived as intimidating and alienating. You find inefficiency and indecision irritating and are motivated by a challenge. During group projects, you don’t want to be micromanaged and you expect others to be efficient and responsible.”

Italy, Lebanon & Brazil

“You are stylish, animated and talkative. You enjoy interacting with people and can be dramatic. You see yourself as an expert communicator who is compassionate and caring. The bottom line – you like to be admired. Your main strengths – you are persuasive, fun loving and optimistic, but you sometimes have trouble following through on commitments. You find routine boring and enjoy being in the public eye and receiving recognition. During group projects, you enjoy team members who are friendly and creative.”

Mexico, Netherlands & Thailand

“You are casual, conforming, quiet and relaxed. You tend to be loyal and agreeable and see yourself as responsible, helpful and dependable. The bottom line – you like to be liked. Your main strengths – you are patient and steadfast, but sometimes gullible and indecisive. You find insensitive, overbearing people irritating and work best with people who are sincere, good listeners and proceed at a leisurely pace.”

Germany, China & Japan

“You are formal, precise and conservative. You tend to be accurate, reserved and often uncompromising. The bottom line – you like to be correct. You see yourself as predictable and factual, but others sometimes see you as stubborn and unimaginative. In a business setting, you appreciate others who are consistent, well prepared and tie new ideas to what has proven to work well in the past.”

How did Ivy score?

Given my heavily American and British-influenced childhood, it’s not too surprising that I scored highest for “America, England & Israel”, with a whopping 11 points lead. With that said, I don’t think England is that similar to the US culturally-speaking. I’ve never been to Israel though. So I can’t really make a judgment there. I blame it on the fact that I owned a Malaysian passport for large part of my life. (Yes, Malaysians are not allowed to visit Israel).

As for Italy, Lebanon & Brazil, I scored a 6. Well, I’m a Sagittarius; being social is like breathing air.

For Mexico and friends, I scored an gasping 0. I think I need to learn how to chill and be more peace-loving. Maybe I what I need is more salsa and merengue in my life – both the dance and food are fine by me.

And finally, for Germany, China & Japan, I scored a 1. So much for preserving my ancestral culture. LOL! To my defense, my moral code is heavily influenced by Confucianism, so I don’t think I’m as un-Chinese as this quiz claims.

Awesome Blogs on World Cultures

Since we’re on the topic on world cultures and my nomadic childhood, you might want to check out these great blogs on culture too!

• Pocket Cultures: Founded by Liz, a British expat living in Turkey, who’s passionate about raising awareness on different cultures. I recently wrote guest entry on the perils (and rewards) of learning Chinese.
• Denizen Mag: An awesome online magazine that captures the essence of the lives of third culture kids. Founded by Steph, a fellow TCK and fellow alumna of the Singapore American School.
• Aspiring Polyglot: Another lover of languages like me, although Kelly is just a whole lot more dedicated to language learning than I could ever be!
• Angry Angmo: An expat’s take on life in Singapore. Absolutely hilarious and true to life. I highly recommend this blog to anyone who’s just moved to Singapore. Made me wish I had kept an expat blog when I was living in Indonesia. Although my content could never be as amusing as his, since life in Jakarta revolved around escaping sinophobia, bomb threats and natural disasters. :S

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And on a completely unrelated note, I had a very authentic, enjoyable Korean dinner for the first time in Singapore, thanks to HisFoodBlog. Also met some wonderful people at Social Media Breakfast Dinner #6 today. Special thanks to Claudia and Daryl for organizing it!

Dear readers, so which part of the world should you live in? Which part of the world do you want to live in?

Related posts:

1. Goodbye Toronto

And here is how Nexus graphed my social network:

Clusters Based On Stage of Life

While there is a discussion here on whether friendship is primarily bound by geography or shared interests, my graph shows that it’s neither. My social networks seem to be based on the stages of my life. Well, that’s kind of obvious to me because that’s exactly how I organize my friends mentally and on my MSN account. I always group my friends according to when I meet them, and who I met them through.

Clusters Reflect Culture

However, what I did find particularly interesting is that the clusters reflect each network’s culture. The more clustered the network, the more conducive the network’s culture is for people to be closer. And all this has little to do with the size of the network. Take my Singaporean high school and Indonesian middle school for instance. Both schools were obscenely large. But my high school in Singapore had no system to ensure people from the same grade would know each other. We didn’t necessarily take classes with people from the same grade, and everyone just shared the cafeteria. So friendships were formed purely by interests. The blonde cheerleaders would sit together during lunch. The rich Asian girls would hang together after school. The British outcasts would aimlessly roam around the libraries. And of course, there would be no reason for the rich Asian girls to talk to the outcasts. And all that is reflected in my Facebook clusters since the network is a lot less dense than the one in Indonesia, where there were designated areas for each grade level – and everybody just knew everybody.

Clusters Reflect Inter-network Connections

And for the observant, you would’ve noticed that there are very strong connections amongst my networks, despite the geographic differences – especially amongst my high schools and middle school. No surprise, actually. They were all part of the same interscholastic association that allowed the schools to compete with each other in sports, forensics and music every quarter. So everybody knew everybody. And these people, mostly nomadic like me, spread across the world like a bunch of dandelion seeds to germinate universities. So, no surprise that there are links from school to university as well.

Limitations: Doesn’t Determine Who I’m Close To

With that said, that’s all Nexus is good for. It doesn’t quite track who I’m close to maybe because I have almost 900 friends on Facebook. But perhaps it’s because, as a nomad, who I’m emotionally close to is not necessarily who I’m geographically close to or who I share lots of interests with. I have extremely diverse interests, so I have hardcore party poopers and social hermits as close friends. Come to think of it, I share very little common interests with my best friends. And we don’t even live in the same countries for goodness’ sakes. But I deeply care for these people, as I would for my own family. So I know my close friends aren’t primarily determined by what they do and what they like, but more by how they think and how we get along.

And Nexus can’t possibly show that kind of dynamic.

How do you organize your friends? And does Nexus depict how close you are to your friends or how close your friends are to each other?

No related posts.

Shamelessly, in the middle of the office, I exclaimed “NANYATE?!” And decided to do this:

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Yes, this is a crappy entry. And yes, betcha everyone said “nanyate?!” when the logged into their Gmails today, because everyone has Gmail. I am just busy. Sorry! I will try my best to write a not-so-slapstick-and-retarded-entry in the weekend. Toodles.

No related posts.

I’ve been tagged by tagged by Tosha and Lissy to do this random facts meme. It’s a lot less evil than the vices meme Teddy tagged me for, the last time.

Here’s how to play:

Once you’ve been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random facts, habits, or goals about yourself — at the end choose 5 people to be tagged. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re It!” and to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you.

10 Random Facts About Ivy

• I am afraid of fish: They are freaking scary. Every time I see them at the market, they look like they are still alive and if I were to chop off something, they’ll wake up to bite me with those horribly sharp teeth.
• I am afraid of dentists: Owners of the blogs I frequent will know that I never ever comment on posts where they write about a trip to the dentist. And if I do comment, it’s to apologize for not reading it. My fear goes back to my first grade. I absolutely abhor the school dentist. She’s mean and cranky and evil. And she pokes around my mouth with tools, without ever thinking about my pain. Argh, just the word ‘dentist’ gives me the goosebumps.
• I am 157cm or 5’2″ short.: Because of my outgoing and dominant personality, most people who’ve met me in person perceive me to be taller than I actually am. Considering that I played 10 years of basketball, 157cm is just…pathetic. But thanks to all those who perceive my height to be taller than 160cm. You all make me feel better about myself. LOL!
• I am a tomboy.: With the amount of makeup and skirts I wear, most people perceive me to be a girly-girl. WRONG! I was a tomboy in my teenaged years, and I still carry a lot of masculine personality traits. I also check out girls when I go out; not because I’m interested in them, but just out of habit, since I spent most of my life hanging out with boys.
• I speak with an American accent: Yes, I was born and raised in Asia. But I also went to a school taught by British teachers from 2nd grade and continued in schools taught by American teachers since 8th grade. Most of my classmates were American too. So I inadvertently speak like them. I can speak with a Singapore and Canadian accent as well. But when I’m angry, I will revert back to my American accent – that’s how I know that it’s my original accent.
• I watched 3,000 episodes of anime in the last two years: I kid you not. Check out my complete anime list at myanimelist.net. So, all you anime fans and anime curious, you know who’s the definitive source for anime recommendations now. As an unintended side-effect, I can now understand conversational Japanese without trying.
• However, I am not an otaku オタク.: I don’t own any anime memorabilia, I don’t play games adapted from anime and I don’t think I will ever engage in cosplaying. Although… I admit that I like checking out cosplayers. I have also never been an anime festival nor do I intend to. I also have a life aside from watching anime. LOL!
• My favorite color is turquoise…which explains why my last two layouts had different variations of turquoise on them.
• I have a broken ankle and a broken arm: Long story short, the broken ankle was caused in a street basketball incident and the broken arm was caused by a sailing certification incident.
• I can’t draw on pencil and paper… even if my life depended on it. I call myself a design enthusiast and I even have a deviantart account to show off all my vexels. I also drew the freaking flower in this layout, but the fact is, I can’t draw with pencil on paper – even my stick figures look horrible.

And that brings my long-list of random facts to a close. I will bring upon the horrible fate of internet meme-ing to the following people:

• Teddy – for my sweet revenge
• Tammy – to encourage more frequent blog posts
• Terin Selena – for kindly writing an entry about my entry
• Melle – for making a cute new layout for her blog
• Katy – because she’s hot

To the tagged people, let me know if you don’t do tags, I’ll add someone else in your place. To everyone else…

What are some random facts about you? Do we share any similarities?

Related posts:

1. Five Vices: An Internet Meme

I apologize in advance if this post is lackluster. I’m so tired I’m typing with my eyes closed. There’s a surprise for my regular commenters/visitors, though!

Google Docs: Web 2.0 of Microsoft Office!

I absolutely hate editing my own essays for mistakes or major revisions once I put in the last full stop. Maybe it’s because I’m never really proud of my essays, so I get stricken by some sort of fear and embarrassment. So, I always get my boyfriend (who used to write articles for magazines) to check my arguments and grammatical errors.

And here’s where Google Docs comes in. I can upload my essay, add him as a collaborator, and while he makes corrections, I can read them in real time. It’s like an MSN chatroom with Word functions. How freaking cool is that?!

But that wasn’t what I intended to rave about. (See how the lack of brain cells is affecting my post?)

Readability Index and Reading Ease

Google Doc’s most interesting features are the readability indexes, which actually measure the ease and quality of your writing with the audience in mind. It’s a great tool for high school and college students, and even bloggers if you ever want to see how difficult it is to read your own posts.

Flesch Grade Level & Automated Reading Level

Both these indexes tell you how many years of school your reader needs to have attended to be able to fully understand your writing. For this specific essay I wrote (see screenshot), my reader needs to have gone to at least 2-4 years of university.

Flesch Reading Ease

This tells you how complex your writing is. It measures the complexity of your writing according to the amount of syllables in the words you use. The higher the score, the easier to read. So a score of 90 is easily understood by an child, while a score of 30 can only be fully understood by university students.

Clarity is very important for me, so I try to write so that everyone can understand. Usually my essay reading ease is around 40-45. This particular essay is written for a grad school course, so I’m quite happy with my score of 38. As for my blog posts, they have a reading ease of 75 on average, so I’m sure most people can understand what I’m saying.

So what are your reading indexes for blog entries and essays (if you’re a student)?

Actually, scrap that. I’ve done it for my regular commenters. If I missed you out, no hard feelings. I am just far too sleepy. Just let me know and I’ll add you to this list! Those with the asterisk beside their names have English as their second language.

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Prologue: Off to bed for me. And the 30 post ideas I’ve collected will be released all in due time. Come to think of it, that’s enough material for 2 months. Oh, I finally learned how to use Twitter. Add me, if you like.

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