lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

Interesting bits from the paper Managing Impressions Online:Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment

In the section Self-Presentation and Self-Disclosure in Online and Offline Contexts

Therefore, if participants aspire to an intimate relationship, their desire to feel understood by their interaction partners will motivate self-disclosures that are open and honest as opposed to deceptive. This tension between authenticity and impression management is inherent in many aspects of self-disclosure.

In section The Importance of Small Cues

For instance, one participant said she looked for profiles that were well-written, because "I just think if they can't spell or" formulate sentences, I would imagine that they're not that educated." Because writing ability was perceived to be a cue that was "given off" or not as controllable, participants noticed misspelled words in profiles, interpreting them as evidence of lack of interest or education. As one female participant put it, "If I am getting email from someone that obviously can't spell or put a full sentence together, I'm thinking what other parts of his life suffer from the same lack of attentiveness?"

This is something I completely agree with. I form an opinin of people based on how they write their emails. Emails with too much slag or sms-lingo turn me off.

In section Theoretical Implications

Additionally, our interview data suggest that online representations of one's ideal self — when combined with the increased accountability engendered by an anticipated face-to-face interaction may serve as a tool to enable individuals to minimize the discrepancy between their actual and their ideal selves.

An example of this is

In another case, a woman who misrepresented her weight online used an upcoming meeting as incentive to minimize the discrepancy between her actual self and the ideal self articulated in her profile: * I've lost 44 pounds since I've started [online dating], and I mean, that's one of the reasons I lost the weight so I can thank online dating for that. [Because] the first guy that hit on me, I checked my profile and I had lied a little bit about the pounds, so I thought I had better start losing some weight so that it would be more honest. That was in December, and I've lost every week since then. (MaryMoon, Los Angeles Female)*

Original Jesus Official Random Quote (TM)

Why do people keep asking, "What would Jesus do?" How the hell should I know? I died for you, damnit! Haven't I done enough for you already? Pop gave you free will for a reason; make your own decisions!

— 'Original Jesus on the tribulations of being Himself.

This is taken from some blog

"Where do you see yourself in five years time?"
"I don't know - I don't have any special powers like that."

I have come to a realization. Any project, no matter how small or big, should have a way to measure how sucessful it is. We should be able to define the metrics which would make a project sucessful and ways to measure those parameters. There should be a objective way to measure these metrics defined before we start the project. I am using the term project in a generic term - it may be something as mundane as learning chess (in which case the metric can be - I should be able to defeat the chess program at level 4) or something as challenging as losing weight.

Some months back, I had written down a list of the areas my life sucked. Here is the status on those things again

• Health - Getting better. Instead of just whining about how I was getting fat, I am taking steps to reduce weight.
• Volunteer work - I am not still satisfied with this. I am a lurker on many lists and irc channels instead of being an active participant. I need to think of ways to change this maybe just concentrate on just a few projects.
• Book reading - I am more than happy about this . My book collection has expanded a lot, to include fantasy and non-fiction books. More importantly, I have read most of the books in my collection.
• Hacking - Not enough hacking. There should be someway in which I can club my hacking and volunteer work together.
• Fun - One of my good friends has moved to Bangalore and I can now hang out with him instead of cribbing about how much Bangalore sucks

A good thing about having a short, but intense attention span is that I can work on many interesting things at once. It also means that I can sometimes concentrate only on the unhappy (or more precisely, worrisome) parts of my life with all intensity, making those 15 minutes quite depressing. Luckily, there are not many unhappy episodes that I have to dwell on, but this is something that I should watch out for.

One life - live it.

— Seen on someone's t-shirt

Today was my third day at the gym. I can see that going to the gym has become a part of my routine now and I don't have to make any mental effort to motivate myself to go there. There is one good thing about getting older (FYI, I am 27 now), it is quite easy to discipline myself. The process of getting into a new habit requires deciding that I want to do it, finding a good enough time slot for it and doing it. I was able to transform my habit of reaching at lunch time at the office to reaching at 9 AM just by deciding that I wanted to do it and then doing it. I can feel the difference from my college days, when I would make all kinds of excuses for not doing something.

Today completes my one year at Yahoo! Bangalore. This is the first time in my life when I am not thinking of quitting a job after six months. A big thanks to spoOnman aka Pankaj Kaushal for referring me here. Looking forward to another fun filled year here.