Dom? :

Dom, who is that? I'm sure you have another answer to this question than I have. Well, actually, do I have a conclusive answer to this question myself? Isn't this one of these eternal questions that makes our lives spicy until they end?

Recently, when I was looking into peer review methods, I was asking myself this question again. To what extent are we actually what others perceive us to be? To what extend can we influence who we are in the eyes of others? And, how relevant is what others perceive us to be?

A potential answer to the first question is: to the extent we choose to. But then, the second question kicks in, isn't there limits to our personal influence on how we are perceived by others? Would I be perceived as the same person, independent, for example, of my physical appearance?

Guess we don’t have to elaborate on the advantage of being colourblind at times.. (Morph)

But then, how relevant is this sometimes suprising, somewhat "external I”– how important is the “Fremdbild”? While it can have detrimental effects – eg. people trying hard to produce the “right” Fremdbild, loosing their actual identity while trying to do so; they end up being a façade – it can be of great help. To be aware of ones Fremdbild can make sure one is actually aware of ones weaknesses and strengths. Therefore, it can provide helpful to work on your weaknesses, or, alternatively, to focus your efforts and energy on tasks that do not expose / involve these weaknesses. In the same way it can help crystallizing one’s strength, which one can then actively exploit, develop and further. Hence, to do a reality check from time to time, to, in my case, compare the “Dom” as he is perceived by others to the “Dom” as I perceive him myself (getting tricky here.. ;)), can be helpful and healthy..

An interesting tool to use in this respect is the Johari window. It is a basic but rather effective tool to compare your "self-image" with your "image of other people" (what are the proper English terms for "Eigenbild" and "Fremdbild"? The two I just used, found on the Leo Forum seem a bit unconvincing). Fancy contributing to my reality check? Great! Please turn here. (no need to cootchie-coo ;))

^^

Check out www.bloglines.com :

This tool constitutes a little revolution in my life: www.bloglines.com. It's service:

"We track your favorite news, blogs, weather, and classifieds so that you don't have to."

Well, thanks a lot. It's most definitely helpful! Check it out (if you do not already know and use it). Thanks for sharing roomie!

Switzerland is voting for a new capital!

Today's highlight on answers.com struck me. Switzerland, that is S W I T Z E R L A N D (not Sweden.. We are S W I S S, not Swedish (this just as a random note.. ;)) is "voting" for a new capital city*.

What is Switzerland's capital anyway, some of you are wondering? See, that's the vivid proof that Switzerland really needs a new one since who - outside Switzerland that is - really knows our beautiful, but somewhat museum-esque capital, Bern?

So what are the options? BASEL! .... well there may be other options. :)

Geneva is stunningly beautiful and, because of the presence of a considerable number of MNCs and even bigger number of international organisations, an exciting melting pot. Personnally I love this city and consider it my second home, not at least because I spent 4 years of my life studying (among other..) in this city. However, it may be a bit too "international" of an entity to be a good, representative captial of Switzerland.

Well then, that is saying that the choice of potential new capitals boils down (at least in my eyes) to two: BASEL and Zürich (you see already, I'm veeery objective..).

So which one to choose?

Basel OR Zürich

• Quality OR Quantity (well, put into an international context, 450'000 inhabitants may not actually be considered real quantity yet.. ;)
• Cultivated "Fasnacht"/Carnaval OR "Böög verbräännä" (Litteral translation: burning a booger..)
• Zybele OR Bölle
• Tinguely fountain and Fondation Beyeler OR Bahnhof Letten (ok, this one may be border case.. ;))
• Roger Federer OR hmm, who is there..?
• THE (unpretentious...) town in Switzerland OR "Downtown Switzerland"
  
• Open minded and in direct contact / interaction with 2 neighbouring countries OR SVP

Ok, I won't waste too much of your time that you could spend voting (how to? eg. below) with further elaborations. You wonder why I did not mention the beautiful lake of Zürich; Zürich's proximity with the Alps (and their fantastic ski ressorts); the not so cultivated consumption of alcohol during the "Fasnacht"; Freitag; etc.. ? Details... ;))

So, for everyone among you with a Swiss cellphone: VOTE (until today, Jan 14th midnight (GMT +1h) by sending a text message saying "BASEL" to 977. Everyone else: support us by keeping your fingers crossed, or however you wish others luck! ;)

Currently (07/01/14 5.40pm (GMT +8)) Zürich takes the lead with 41.7%. Basel is only lacking 0.4% (absolute numbers not indicated..)! Hence, Bebbi's, it's time for a final spurt!!

Check the results of this pretty cool campaign here. I'll keep you posted. ^^

___
* This vote is not one of the numerous official votes we Swiss have. It's a pretty efficient (and cool) campaign by a (still) unknown campaigner.

Engaged

Two more "down"! On December 9th, Jessica and Winston got engaged!

We spent a great night together with them, their families (eg. the ladies of the evening below) and friends at Jessica's house in Shanghai. The evening was, unsurprisingly, very romantic and charming to the last detail - some of the music we listened to: the soundtrack to "Amélie". I love this soundtrack, and apparently so do Jessica and Winston.

May the two of you go on shining!

Fancy a Chinese name? :

I just discovered this online tool. Rather fun but not all that serious, since it comes up with names that are composed of the characters that are closest to the pronounciation of one's English name and, I cannot really tell to which extent, the desired essence of your name. In real life, however, names are choosen by someone who knows the nuances (and there is plenty of them..) of Chinese language and culture.

Some (random) facts and anecdotes:

• The surname, which is usually 1 character, comes first - Hence, avoid calling Hu Jintao "Good morning Mr. Jintao".. Apparently, there are over 700 different Chinese family names, but as few as twenty (Li, Wang,..) cover a majority of the Han people. List of most common Chinese surnames here.
• The given name follows the surname. It is normally composed of one or two which are chosen by the parents (or the grandparents in traditional Chinese culture). It's the given name that causes the variety of Chinese names, since one can potentially choose from the whole range of Chinese characters. Names can be choosen according to birthdate, the perceived (and expected) characteristics of the person, the family's background, gender traits, the fortune tellers recommendation, etc. More here. They can even be influenced by the period of time they are born in - during the cultural revolution names such as "eastern wind"(東風, 东风) were reportedly rather frequent. Some of the limitations: it is considered inappropriate to name ones child after a famous figure and offensive to name it after an oldermember among the family or even distant relatives.
• What do Chinese people do that emigrate or frequently deal with foreigners?- They either reverse the order, hence Yao Ming becomes Ming Yao (surname - given name) or find themselves an English given name, followed by the Chinese surname (eg. Peter Yao). While the first one can be confusing (since if both sides try to adapt and the Western side has difficult to distinguish given from surnames, then one (as a Western) can still end up dropping a clanger. The second option can be funny since some people probably simply use google language tools to translate their name, others use a (sometimes "the"?) English word they think to know - I got introduced to "Rock", "Potato", Watermelon and even a "Dying Duck". I'm still figuring where the last one got his inspiration from..
• 大 明 meaning as much as da ming or "big bright" is the name that was choosen for me. Let me highlight that it's "bright" in the sense of “radiant”, shining, not in the sense of “intelligent”.. I was baptised at the very start of my China adventure but still suffer from it since there is a story/ deeper meaning to it (which I still not quite understand) that causes everyone reading it on my business card either to smirk or to laugh out loud.. ;).. I might have found an indicator, while googeling for the deeper meaning of da ming, on (yes, seriously..) Greg Mankiv’s Blog, In the comment of anonymous regarding the name of her dog (...) Anonymous said:
  

  I named my jokey dog "Da Ming".Because in China there are two comedic actors respectively named Guo Da and Cai Ming. And my dog often does some antics just like a comic.He always walks leisurely around the living room lowering his head,sometimes knocked by the wooden chairs,and snarling "them" as if "they" want to provoke a fight,and he is read to. After smelling "them",he realizes that "they" are not creature.Then he walks away shaking his head.

  I promise I didn't "snarl" any wodden chair... so what? I walk away, shaking my head.. :) Sometimes I simply refer to myself as 多米尼克 - meaning as much as Duō mǐ ní kè which is the phonetically closest translation of my French/English name. Wanna find out how yours would be translated phonetically? here
• Within families given names are rarely used to address adults. Instead one uses the relationship, hence ayi (for auntie) and other titles. Hence, I can forget Sheila's name and simply call her mei(4) mei.. ;) Read more about the incredible maze of titles here.

So, what is your Chinese name? ^^

chinese, chinese name, language, fun

Using the Taiwanese earthquake as an excuse, or simply (a delayed) 新年快乐 !?:

Scandal, the Taiwanese internet broke "my" internet!! Should I sue it for the serious damage to my reputation and honour as committed e-mail writer and fervent and frequent Blogger (well, that might be overdoing it.. ;)) But well, a potential excuse why some of you may not have received an e-mail from me yet to wish you a happy new year be constructed about as follows:

When the earthquake struck Taiwan on December 26th, rock slides took out submarine cables near Taiwan. Internet and telephone networks toppled like dominoes. Consequently, access to numerous webpages hosted outside the Mainland was pretty much impossible or, where already rerouted, as slow as back then, during the good 'ol days of internet (when I was still young, etc.. I'm not sure if we were more patient at that time or if our excitement about that thing called internet and e-mail was simply strong enough to make a minute appear like a second..).

My initial reactions was threefold

1. boy, this feels like I imagined information access to be in China before I actually came here
2. man, just imagine I lived in a world without gtalk, Skype, all these other web 2.0 thingys, only usual mail, fax and telegraph, only 70% of the Spam (apparently worldwide Spam dropped by 30% when China got "disconnected"..), if I had to go to the bank to transfer my money (well, this is still the case here since ICBC e-banking software does not run on Linux (hint ICBC... ;)) and go to the supermarket to buy my groceries myself (well, also this doesn't really apply to China. But hey, would I know the elderly lady cooking in one of the corners of the supermarket downstairs if it existed..?).. I couldn't even bother you via BLOG and Flickr?! Seriously, it felt a bit like back in the days.. Quite intriguing as an experience.
   
3. hey, hey, isn't this THE excuse for my delayed e-mailing in 2007..?

Well, well, I know that, given my past record this excuse would not only be lame and lacking the required credibility, but also simply not true (since gmail was actually working pretty decently (linked to Google's distributed server strategy?)).. Let me, therefore, grab this opportunity to wish all of you...

新年快乐 - Xin nian kuai le or simply a happy new year, bonne année, feliz año, ein Gutes Neues Jahr, e schööns Nois (ok, ok, I'll stop showing off with my google translation skills.. ;))..!! I hope you had a smooth start and will be enjoying an exciting, inspiring and rewarding 2007 full of little BIG moments!!

How I started my year? Ask Andrew (if he remembers..) ;) Thanks for the pic Claire and starting the year off with me all of you guys!


Hugs, Dom *^^*