Noise pollution is frustrating

In this part of the world where I happen to live and work, there is train service which understands that there are commuters who really appreciate the downtime while commuting. Thus, there are "silent" carriages where people are meant to keep silent as best as possible.  I get it.  Sometimes there are just no spots left in the other noisy carriages so people come to the silent ones.  The thoughtful and cognisant ones try to speak softly.  Others silently type away on their phone communicating using WhatsApp (great app) or other silent mediums.  However, there are also people who talk in their normal voice engaging in spirited debates of sorts. 

This brings me to a specific group of people who really puzzle me, or maybe it is the designers of their gear that annoy me.  I am referring to the people who put on their earphones or headphones listening to music so loud that others within 1.5m or more can hear. 

Let me just check if I get this right.  Earphones and headphones are meant to restrict the sound to just the users' ears alone.  However, they seem to sound like annoying tweeter speakers that emit annoying sounds to nearby disinterested audience.  To take things further into the future, I do hope that these people who listen to loud music at the expense to themselves and others do not rely on public health to provide hearing aids etc.  My guess is that these people in their comforts of their own home do not soundproof their homes such that their music philanthropy overflows into being the neighbourhood noisy.  And even winding down their windows as they drive - again exhibiting their music philanthropy.  I do hope that these people who unconsciously are annoying people do change their ways. As for the others who consciously do it, the rest of us civilised ones will just have to tolerate.

I do hope that there is a designer who can design earphones and headphones that fully trap all sounds.  This way users and others around will benefit.

A Nose... Wouldn't I like to be one?

Well, we are not talking about childhood dreams today...  but we are talking a little about it.

When I was younger, I wanted to be "A Nose".  To be A Nose, one would need to be able to distinguish quite a lot of smells (~500, if I recall correctly).  Wikipedia has this lovely definition -- "The perfumer is effectively an artist who is trained in depth on the concepts of fragrance aesthetics and who is capable of conveying abstract concepts and moods with fragrance compositions."  By the way, go click on the Wikipedia link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfumer) to look at a perfumer's workstation.  Cool, right?  Sure beats a desk full of papers and books etc. 

Anyway, today, I came across one of my all time favourite shops (Perfect Potions) in a somewhat local shopping mall.  How this shop qualifies as all time favourite beats me because I had only been to the original shop once in my life while today would be my second visit to a Perfect Potions shop.  Now, this shop used to be cool shop for me years ago -- I felt like a child in a candy stall, being able to mix and match, chop and change, jiggle this and wiggle that...  However, today, I was a little disappointed.  Not only can I not do the above, apparently, there is no perfumer who will come up with a scent for me (just for me).  In my defence, I had been physically incapacitated yesterday (vomited twice and had a massive 36hr headache marathon with myself); thus, was out trying to get some herbal remedies.

Well, I can get some basic aromatherapy oils and mix them myself.  I did consider the latter option BUT I decided against it for a good reason.  I have come to realise that my previous keen sense of smell has become less sharp (okay, I accept that it is duller -- but less sharp sounds less demoralising).

I used to be able to distinguish smells just like that... but today, I was struggling to work out this from that...  Lavender, I can do it with my eyes closed.  Orange, come on.  Cloves, that's a walk over.  These are smells from my childhood.  These are smells that must be locked into my brain's filing cabinet.  However, I struggle with the others -- names that I had heard of but never really smelled before.  Guess what I found???  Yes, I am right...  as we get older our sense of smell goes downhill (read http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2579627/).  I am sure there are articles similar to this. 

There goes another childhood dream!

Can we learn from history?

Dr Phil is famous for saying on tv something like "If you do what you always do, you will always get what you've always gotten".  Thus, the question is "Can we learn from history?"  Yes, we can...  However, I think the biggest problem is that we suffer from amnesia.  If we do not have significant amnesia before we hit the age when most of us have dementia, dementia is bound to get most of the remaining survivors. 

We can predict with some degree of certainty the likelihood of future offending by looking at past behaviour...  Of course, forensic psychologists cannot always get things right because there is always going to room for human error because psychology is not a physical science but rather a social science (http://psychology-resources.blogspot.com/2010/01/psychology-is-social-science-not.html).  This means that there are significant variations and factors to account for which makes it impossible to work out how things will turn out.

This is much like suicide risk assessment.  There is no absolute but the educated assessments are better than guesswork. 

In short, can we learn from history?  Yes, we can...  but do we and are we able to apply everything that we learn daily... maybe not.

Habituation...

Alright, habituation is a word... in layman's explanation, it is simply the desensitising of one's senses after repeated or prolonged exposure to the same stimulus.  For example, after using the same perfume or EDT for some time, you may probably no longer smell it as acutely as you did.  You still spray x number of times (everyone is different - some spray 5 times, other spray continuously) at the same spots.  Now, just because you cannot smell it on you does not justify you spraying more times.  What you need to do is just spray as many times as you would normally -- no need to increase the number of sprays.  What you are experiencing is simply your sense of smell being less responsive. 

Well, one issue with habituation is that I now no longer get as excited smelling coffee because I drink it daily.  I did struggle with the perfume scenario but I managed to work on a "life hack (I have worked out that this is a cool term to use instead of "problem solve")" around this.  My life hack is to buy a few different perfumes, then chop and change.  I have also worked out how to wear a few different perfumes at the same time without smelling like a smelly bouquet. 

Habituation has an evolutionary value...  it helps us to tune out of common everyday scenarios so that we can focus on new tasks or challenges.  Remember how difficult it was to learn to drive a car.  Now, you can drive and still be able to keep an eye on your GPS. 

My olfactory sense is a little problematic.  I seem to habituate to nice scents which increase my productivity but struggle to habituate to offensive odours which decrease my cognitive capacity.  Thus, when I have a migraine, I find that I need to keep smells at bay. 

I am also photosensitive -- my computer screens always have to be dimmed significantly before I can actually work because I get headaches looking at bright screens.  It is hard to believe but, for some screens, I can turn it to "0" brightness and "0" contrast and still find it bright.  I cannot really sit out in the sun for extended periods of time.  I avoid going out during the day.  I dim my mobile phone screen too.  My current life hack around this issue is a pair of polarised sunglasses but it comes with problems too.  (BTW, isn't it annoying that some car companies use the really bright headlights which blind other drivers?  Should this even be legal?)

I used to be able to hear my quartz Swatches tick like crazy and had to keep them in my drawer before I can actually fall asleep at night.  I don't habituate to that...  If I hear one ticking in my meeting, I just struggle to concentrate.  Thankfully, I have now upgraded to automatic watches -- less noisy and more classy (I guess).  No life hack on this problem of mine too.

Alright, not going to go through every sensory life hack that I can think about...  Remember that if it is your problem, only your solution will fit.

Ciao!

$1 loaf of bread, anyone?

If you paid attention or read all my blogs, you will now know that I am a bit of a hoarder (a bit means not enough to seek professional help but enough to be problematic).  So, apart from hoarding material possessions which can be seen (remember we learned that objects have weight and take up space), I also hoard emotionally and psychologically. 

In order to illustrate my point, I am using the example of $1 loaf of bread.  Back in the good old days, a loaf of bread would go for about $1.  These days, I go to my local store and expect to find $1 loaf.  I hold on to those good old days.  Of course, apart from the $1 loaf of bread, there's also other groceries that were cheaper.  Do you hold on to the good old days for sentimental reasons or worry about what happens if you move on? 

Now, in the year 2014, you must realise that computers are getting cheaper (though mobile phones are getting more expensive).  Isn't it funny how we just never think about that at all? 

My point is that, as humans, we choose to make salient the points that objectively benefit us the most?  In addition, we choose to ignore or put aside the other points which we dislike possibly because those do not benefit us.  If we like something, we can think of a million and one good things to say about it... and vice versa. 

Gone are the good old days...  let's create more good old days starting from now, so that when we look back in the years to come, we can say that every day that we live from here on is a good old day in the making.

Going for broke... emotionally bankrupt

If you live in Australia and work a regular job, you must have been enjoying a long weekend from Friday to Monday.  I don't know I enjoy taking a break because not working leaves me with a lot of time to think...  Don't know why but I have been thinking about many unpleasant things which occurred in the last couple of years. 

Today, I find myself forcing myself to leave my home...  to get out for some fresh air.  Thankfully, I did not meet anyone I know when I was out...  Don't want to meet my colleagues because I see them from Monday to Friday usually.  I also am one to compartmentalise -- so colleagues are to be seen from Monday to Friday (having said that, there are exceptions -- I do work on the odd Saturday). 

You can say that this long weekend has led to me breaking my emotional bank.  Such bankruptcy is operationalized by low frustration tolerance, perennially annoyed look, melancholy, lethargy, negative cognitions...  Not depressed...  just emotionally bankrupt.

Note to self:  Maybe I should learn not to go for broke before the start of a long weekend, or any weekend for the matter.  I tend to give it my all especially when I know that the weekend is coming up.  Maybe when I go for broke on Friday, I should anticipate being emotionally bankrupt over the weekend. 

Korean Teacher commits suicide after being rescued from ferry disaster

Hi all, I think you must have read by now the South Korean ferry disaster.  Not sure if you are aware that what followed after was the suicide of the Korean teacher?  Read http://rt.com/news/korea-ship-suicide-dead-388/. 

It is likely that the teacher had committed suicide out of survivor guilt.  So, what is survivor guilt?  As I mentioned earlier, I do not try to paraphrase or rewrite things that are already well explored on the internet (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_guilt,

If you followed the news of the ferry disaster, you will also be aware that the Captain and crew of that ferry actually abandoned the ferry (read http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-21/korean-president-says-ferry-captain-actions-like-murder/5401880?section=world).  Now, there is already widespread uproar about this.  My money is on my hypothesis that the Captain and the crew will also experience survivor guilt.  Thus, I urge my readers to not be harsh on these survivors who may have survived the tragedy but may or may not survive this guilt. 

I also note that the Captain and crew left a brave but inexperienced third mate in charge.  It is likely that this third mate may experience some form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD).

My heart goes out to all affected -- the people who lost their lives, their parents, the crew etc.  Having said that, I also must say that it is human nature to flee.  I understand that all sea vessel captains and crews would have had extensive training about what to do if something like that happens.  However, not every one of them would have had the experience to manage such chaos in their careers.  It is like your pilots may know how to execute an emergency landing BUT, I assume that, not all pilots had to do that in their careers. 

I hope that my readers can understand that humans err.  Admittedly, the Captain and Crew made a big mistake on this occasion.  However, if you agree with me that all lives are precious, I hope that you will dig deep to understand that accidents happen and this is time to support one another because more suicides may follow if this is not managed properly.  It is human nature to attribute blame somewhere but let's just channel our efforts to support those who need us.  I do hope that media will reduce the reports of this tragedy to give everyone some room to breathe.