Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Point and shoot

Holiday trip to some places are good time to educate us on with whom we share the world and how different is the topography from our area of habitats. In fact, according to many views, travel or going places is a better investment compared to buying gadgets and such. Memories increase in value, the experience lasts forever and non-tranferable. Gadgets and other nice to have items don't. In fact,  some of the items are liabilities as they depreciate in values.

During travelling the tendency is to record as much of the scenery by pointing and shooting the camera almost at any point of interest.
Recently Nakamora reviewed all the photos he took and raised many questions to himself. What happens at the edge of the picture. Why the person has no head, etc. That's point and shoot.
He tell himself that next time he need to take more time to compose the picture before shooting. But then, that is not always possible. Perhaps it is better to just enjoy the view, record it it memory, and snap only as as appropriate. Well, in the end, it all depends on the situation and the opportunity of the moment.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Here, there, and everywhere...

A view of Stephansplatz, Vienna
Can one truly claims that one has been here, there, and everywhere when in actuality one has been to the airport, hotel, and airport again but nowhere else here, there, and everywhere? Probably not. But correct to say that one has passed through those places.
That was Nakamora many years ago for work-related travels. Vienna, Monte Carlo, Ljubljana, Paris, Sydney, Seoul, Takasaki, Tokyo, Beijing, Dhaka, and Bangkok are some of his here, there, and everywhere places. Years later, Nakamora tried to recall what was it like in so and so place when he was there. How's the food, the weather, the people, the transport other than the taxi from airport to hotel and back? He neither strolled along the streets nor mingled with the crowd in shopping arcades, etc. He has no idea, no recollection beyond the meeting room in the hotel.
Not anymore. Nakamora really feels that he ought to know more, to see more, including the nearby places that can be reached in a fair amount of time by bus or train from a place that he considers his base. Brussels is only a few hours away by train from Paris. Prague isn't very far from Vienna by bus. Hiroshima can be visited readily by train from Osaka, etc. Well, that's what he is doing now, and he feels that he can claim that he has been here, there, and everywhere; not just passing through here, there, and everywhere anymore...

Thursday, January 08, 2015

To whom or what loyalty belongs?

At a seminar towards the end of last year Nakamora listened to a presentation related to human resources, particularly on employees attitude towards the organisation. It's said that there are three categories of them: engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged.
Nakamora surmised that the level of engagement must be correlated to the loyalty or sense of belonging of the employees to the organisation, which in turn are related to factors such as environment, renumeration, and opportunities to grow. However, for certain groups of employees, particularly the professionals, organizational loyalty is not relevant. Their loyalty is to the profession, not any organisation. That perhaps is the reason for giving professors tenured status, so that they won't likely go away.
As the talk is moving to it's conclusion, the speaker presented a video clip on who's sinking your boat. Well, Nakamora thought that not every organisation can be likened to such a ship, as the employees loyalty belong not to the ship, but to the domain of discipline that take them to the boat in the first place...