OMG! I haven't blogged in two weeks?!

I didn't even realize!

So sorry! But I've been really busy (yeah I always say that). I spent the week before finishing up the final assignments in my course, and this week I'm busy with a new member of my family.

We got a new puppy! He's a Pomeranian, born on 7/7/07! We had to do the obvious; we named him Lucky. =)

Sorry I haven't got any pix right now. They're all on my brother's camera and I haven't had time to upload them just yet. He's the cutest little puppy you could ever imagine, though taking care of him has been taking up a LOT of my time this week. I hardly had time to do anything else, except play with him, train him, feed him, hold him, clean him...etc.

Poor Baby is so jealous, she hasn't been herself lately. She's been really morose and anxious that we don't care about her anymore. But of course we do! Baby's the best! It's just that you can't pick her up and carry her around coz she's so big and heavy, but we still give her the same amount of attention we normally do. In fact, we give her more, because we're worried that she's getting so sad.

Hmm... maybe she's just acting sad so that we'll give her more attention. Smart dog, that Baby...

Well, anyway, I'm so glad I finished all my assignments before we got Lucky, else I probably wouldn't have the time at all to do anything! I haven't done anything productive at all this week!

I need a puppysitter! Who wants to volunteer?!

It's always obvious when I haven't had a life...

My blog posts consists of mostly opinions or quizes or whatnot, instead of pictures of the places I've been and the people I've met.

Sighz...

It's not fair! I wanna be happening too! *wails*

Oh, whatever, I actually don't really care if I'm not as happening as others because I really do enjoy my work and studies and hobbies, but honestly...sometimes I just need to go out and stretch my legs, you know.

All the things I do, like studying, or writing for the web, or reading, requires that I sit at home at the computer. I'm taking an online course, so there's no college to go to. I'm freelance, so there's no office. Reading is a hobby, so obviously I read at home too.

I enjoy it all, but I'm seeing the same scenery all the time. If I had a college or an office, my days would be spent in first in college, then in the office, then I could go back home. But now it's just, home, home, home. And no people!!!!

I don't have classmates or colleagues!

Well, actually I do, but none that I can actually see or go out for drinks with...

It's a sad, sad, lonely life. =~(

But I'm enjoying every minute of it! LOL! =)

I was having a conversation with Lone about communication and the roles of body language, tone, and words in communication. I don't know the exact figures, but I think it's something like 70% of your communication is your body language, 20% your tone of voice, and only 10% your words. I believe most of us have heard that, though I'm quite sure my figures are wrong.

So anyway, we were talking about that, and the fact that with internet chats, text messaging, and emails, 80% of our communication (body language and tone of voice) are effectively lost. Smiley faces help somewhat to communicate that in real life, we're smiling when we say what we say, which might have been construed as something negative if there wasn't any smiles on our faces. But take away the smiley faces, and you'll have to be very careful of what you write and the way you put your words together.

For most professional writers who write articles or reviews for newsletters and magazines, or bloggers who write for company blogs, the only form of communication they are able to use is words. No smiley faces allowed, no "=)", "=P", "=(" or stuff like *grin*, *LOL*, *smirk*, and etc. All they have are their words.

Some people say that personal interaction is best, so you can read other people better. You can understand them better because you can see their body language, hear their tone of voice, and the words they say.

Well, of course that's true. But there's something special about being able to communicate using only words too. I kind of likened it to a handicap that makes your other senses stronger, like the blind man whose sense of hearing is extra-sensitive (DareDevil comes to mind...).

When you are 'handicapped' to only be able to communicate with words, you do tend to develop sharper skills with forming your words and sentences carefully to communicate what you really want to say. Of course, it's not a real handicap, coz you can go back to using the rest of your 'senses' anytime, but while you are communicating via writing only, your sharper 'sense' of words turn on, and you use different words and sentences from what you might use if you were talking to someone face to face.

It is a skill, and now that more and more communication are going digital, we should all develop this skill, and make ourselves better understood with only words to help us.