iNever mind colors March 18, 2007
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , add a commentHave you ever got to the Staples store to buy StickIt notes for your computer screen and did not know which color to chose? I have news for you. According to the newest research conducted by Industrial Logic, you shouldn’t mind colors at all. This conclusion can mean only one thing - colors became too political of an issue for an average person to care. Indeed, look at this - green parties, yellow press, orange revolution.. We almost forgot that the the original meaning of yellow color as water resistant was originally brought by Sony, who designed their first walkman being yellow. Businesses may easily get lost in selecting colors for their brand by only trying to follow this year popular color trends. Looks like this year popular colors are Black, Blue, Orange and White. At least I can see these colors everywhere, whether I walk in a city or notice a fresh look on websites.
Some marketing people are going even further. According to TrueColors association everyone’s personality could be attributed to a distinct color too. Does personality stick to people as StickIt note? I do not think so.. TrueColors association provides certification for trainers all over North America. According to them there are four Primary colors for basic personality types: Orange, Gold, Blue and Green. If you are Orange - you are an entrepreneurial type: an energetic risk taker. If you are Gold - you a managerial type: loyal, organized and as a name implies you are quite materialistic in nature. If you are Green, you must be a scientist of a sort. Greens are deeply intellectual and heavily rely on information and data in their judgment. If you are Blue, well, you are out of luck. Well, not really, you are a romantic type. Senses make your world go round. When money is a concern, Blues usually lose to all other types.
The “prestige” of being Orange and Gold is usually very high and since we live in an information age, the hint is right there to turn Green, although Orange may get a flu and turn Blue. I am just kidding. The thing is that it doesn’t matter what color you are, you are still “expected” to follow a year trend on your website. I would rather select colors, based on my personal preferences. So I cast my vote against color absolutism and in favor of color relativism. Why? Because it looks good when colors match and feels good, when they suit you.
Ace Your Next Interview February 16, 2007
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , 3commentsHave you ever dreamed on landing that dream job and were lucking skills in resume writing and confidence in presenting yourself to HR person? An information session at BCIT that I attended yesterday was specifically addressing needs of BCIT students and graduates seeking full or part time employment.
Antonio Daluz from Vancouver Sun was presenting on this topic and answering audience questions and I was taking notes. The presentation raised some important questions and took a form of a dialog when answering these questions from the audience.
Do your research first
Research is the main pet peeve of HR. What companies are looking for from you is that you do your research before coming to their door. Company website is a very important tool for you to learn. You should study as much as you can about the company and look at company values carefully and see how they apply to you.
Have a conversation
When coming to the interview, direct yourself in a professional manner, have a conversation rather than questions and answers shootout. You want to know about their goals and expectations in the same manner as they want to know about your goals and expectations. Knowing how to “bragg” about your job experience is also an important skill to have.
Ask questions
One of the most important questions you may ask them is about your future career development pass. Setting your career development pass is very important and can save you a tremendous amount of time and time is the most important thing we all have.
Show your competitive edge
From hundreds of applications companies want to hire only the best people. Companies want to hire a talent, so bring to the table what makes you unique. HR like to put the candidates in a corner with tough questions. Do not be afraid of these questions and stay positive.
Then Antonio answered questions from the audience:
Q: How should I answer a question about my weaknesses and strenghts? I have studied English for the past 2.5 years.
A: Turn your weakness into strenghts and say I studied English for 2.5 years and I improved that much.
Q: How to answer “Why should we hire you? What are your salary expectations?”
A: I can work with people. I am a hard worker and we worked together to achieve common goals. My study is an experience working out real life scenarios. Also give them a range while being asked for salary expectations and most of the time $25,000 with career development is better than $40,000 without career development.
Q: What about references?
A: References are very important. Someone should truly believe in you. Former clients are important references for example, together with professors and past employers. Speak to your references beforehand and give them heads up.
Q: What about a medical condition? I have migraines, which take some of my time.
A: How much to disclose is up to you. You should also look at government booklets (WCB etc.) to find out how much to disclose. Bring it, say I have some downfalls. Also the relevance of this information to this position at hand is very important.
HR provides a very important function of screening hundreds of resumes and subsequently passing top ten resumes to the hiring managers. Then hiring managers select top 3 candidates and interview them for the position.
That was a good event to attend and I learnt a lot just by coming to the presentation, listening to the questions and taking notes.
What is behind BlueFur name? February 4, 2007
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , add a commentI came across BlueFur proposal to review their new corporate name and a logo while visiting Johnchow website. Without hesitation I jumped right into it.
BlueFur.com as a service provider is new to me, so its logo and and a tagline form firm’s brand in my mind. Two basic questions I asked myself were whether the brand message was clear enough for a first time visitor to enter the site and was it genuine enough for him or her to stay? And I answered “Yes” to both of these questions. “BlueFur” associates with “rare” and “warm” and projects “welcome” to the visitor. Intrigued by the appearance of an unearthy creature, I stayed on a page for long enough to glance over the first four lines : gotcha!
“BlueFur is Canadian web services company…” Now you can laugh your socks off. Wherever you came from, the creature suddenly looks familiar. For Linux guru the creature looks like GNU, while Windows fan may find a beauty in his eyes and recognize an explorer in him. Apachees may be surprised to find a happy buffalo northern of the border. Show them some meat and the resellers will come. For the multinational corporate clients the creature is a viking. He knew his stuff even before Columbus was born. They will find an edge in a double-word name that stands out not less than RationalRose or RealPlayer. Small business clients could be assured with a firm grip on their data ( I assume he holds a server in palms of his hands) and a subtle yet philosophical “Canada, Eh?” smile.
A tagline is massive. It hints, but hides in the same time. It hints just enough to leave you hanging on the edge of a cliff begging for more. And you have to keep reading to experience it. You get closer with every chapter. You can feel it when suddenly.. One thing is for certain - what is hidden behind this tagline is a secret weapon of mass seduction. Did anyone say Global warming?
Feeding squirrels January 17, 2007
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , add a commentAbout two weeks ago I went to the park to feed squirrels. We have a nice park here in Richmond near Minoru arena. I had a bag of walnuts with me and not a long time after noticed two squirrels: one was black and the other was white.
A white squirrel was a very well mannered and ate everything I gave her from my hand, while the black squirrel was fussy and only ate the walnuts that I dropped on the ground. Either she was afraid of me or simply did not know well how to eat. Every time the white squirrel took the walnut I gave her, the black one started chasing after her trying to steal the walnut. Rounds and rounds they made - on the ground and in the trees.
Pedestrian crossing January 17, 2007
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farEveryone says that if there is a problem somewhere one needs to look for a woman to answer it 
This is not exactly the way French described the situation, but this way works for many men, solving money problems and such.
One day a young man in his 30’s approached a crosswalk talking on his mobile phone. This was in England by the way. A car with Chinese couple in it stopped in front of him on the flashing red light. He established an eye contact with a driver just before stepping off the curb without considering that the driving wheel is on the right side of the car. As a result he was threatened with an axe the very next day. The question is what side of the road do you drive in China: left or right?
When I was in England I couldn’t get accustomed to the positioning of the driving wheel and while crossing the street smiled politely to women passengers till I discovered that men drivers look back at me quite suspiciously. I stopped that habit and had no problem crossing the street in England during my trip.
New Year presents January 2, 2007
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , add a comment
- What a pretty dress for a bottle! We received this bottle of a fine liquor as a present from our friends for New Year. I really like how it is crafted so I decided to take a photo. In case you do not see all the fine details on the photos, I’ll explain a bit here. There is a green insert made of two shifted half rounds forming S in the front of the dress. A horseman and two guards are following a chariot on one half round of the green insert. The other half is some kind of pattern.
When Six Days Mean Eternity December 26, 2006
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , add a commentVancouver columnist Douglas Todd presents an intriguing view on the creation theory from the scientific prospective (”"Science-based spirituality”, Vancouver Sun, 12/23/2006). He interviews Jack and Alice Newton - a couple of amateur astronomers, who spend their winter months in Arizona Sky Village running 10 high powered telescopes. Some of these telescopes are located on site in Arizona and the others in their summer home in Osoyoos, BC are operated remotely. Jack Newton is a widely published author whose articles and photos appeared in Newsweek, Canadian Geographics, Life and Astronomy magazines and a popularizer of the astronomy worldwide.
Comparing the scientific theory of the Universe creation also known as Big Bang to Genesis in Bible, Jack Newton does find an agreement between the two. “Scientific understanding of creation”, he notes, ” just changes dates a bit”. Indeed, who cares if the Creation lasted 13.7 billion years or six days. The main point is that we are humans and citizens of the earth live now and should do something with a time alotted to us given the means we have.
What fascinated me the most is comparing living and non-living things based on their survival instinct. On this scale a fish can not be compared to a tree for example. Jack also explains that “ordering principle” that stops Universe from spinning into the chaos is guided by some form of intelligence. The question that is left unanswered from my point of view is how that great intelligence is bridged with a survival instinct of living things. Both a science and a theology agree that a supernatural intelligence created living creatures and these are in turn have a survival instinct. But what part is a core of survival in living creatures?
A simplistic answer for that question would be a heart.
I dived into Wikipedia to find out more details. Apparently humans’ cardiac muscle is very special in a sense that it can relax and contract on its own whereas sceletal muscle requires some kind of stimuli. The same goes for fish gills. But an earthworm does not have a heart for example. Another observation is that a heart rate changes by doing exercise or due to a perception of a danger.
So, to summarize we can conclude that the first words G-d said to Adam were:” Have a heart and get to work now or I will punish you”.
“What about brain?” some people may ask. “Isn’t a brain a reason that humans superior by far beyond all living creatures?” First of all, studies showed that some sea mammals, such as dolphins have even more developed brain organization than humans. Second of all a human intelligence is not given at birth, but developed during the lifetime as a result of a life activity. According to Wikipedia, a newborn child brain mass is only 25% of the adult. Brain controls many finest motor functions, such as hand movements. Who knows, may be that was the reason that for ages men offered a heart and a hand to women of their choice. That offering must have symbolized their vitality as well as a highly developed brain organization.
Gold rush December 3, 2006
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farWhat a day was on Thursday. There was a white snowing for the past couple of days and I had to attend to my car a bit earlier to dig it out of snow. I was almost half-way done when I realized this pile of anger growing inside me. I threw my cleaning tool (apparently a car water brush can be used as a snow scraper) and then I used my shoes to bump my car tires out of snow. After three trials me and my car were all cleared up and ready to go. I called #TAXI that readily informed me that since I’m not at my place, but on an intersection, they won’t be able to provide the service. The receptionists acknowledged that fact by handling a call in a professional manner and hanging up on me. So I arrived at doctor’s office and parked at my usual spto. Not to mention that this time an appointment was half-an-hour later than a sign on the side of the road had to say. What happened was that my car got towed again. I rushed back to the office looking for a toll-free number to call. Then I rushed back again to look for the number on the meter. After all set was done I got connected to the right towing office that offered for me to attend their lot under Granville bridge. I started walking towards the bridge scoring points a long the way just to discover that I was losing time. I needed a northern end of the bridge to attend. But then I spent some time in a washroom in Arts Club stage Lounge, which was nice. So I got to see my car back at merely $54.06. This is much cheaper than in San Francisco 6 years ago where I had to pay $120. It feels good to tell you that all.
Hello world! November 29, 2006
Posted by soniadomain in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farGood evening. Time to start this writeup and mark my presence on Wordpress. Enjoy your stay and be well.
