Are You a Left or Right Brainer?

After reading about comfort zones in our cerebral system, I was drawn to reading about our left and right hemispheres. Researchers say the left hemisphere of our brain is the control centre for our problem solving ability while the right hemisphere is where our creativity centre resides. Are you predominantly left or right brained?

A Left Brainer
A left-brained person generally processes information in a linear and sequential manner. He takes the pieces, lines them up in a logical order then draws the conclusion. He also takes pleasure in making lists and checking them off when they are accomplished. If you are more comfortable with linguistic and mathematical endeavours, can memorize vocabulary words or mathematical formula with ease and will pay attention to mechanics such as spelling, agreement, and punctuation, you’re likely to be left-brained. People who are left-brain dominant deal with things the way they are, with reality and when affected by the environment, they usually adjust to it. Left brain people want to know the rules and will follow them. if there are no rules for situations, they will probably make up rules to follow. In other words, rules cannot be broken.

A Right Brainer
A right-brain dominant person processes information from whole to parts holistically. He starts with the answer and sees not the details but the big picture first. He can randomly flit from one tack to another, without having addressed priorities. For those who have difficulty following a lecture unless an assigned chapter was read before hand, you’re likely to be right-brained. You need to know why you are doing something and want things to be concrete i.e. you prefer to see, feel or touch the real thing. You may have trouble learning to read using phonics, preferring to see words in context, to see how the formula works. If it’s not written down, you probably can’t remember it. You basically need to make a mental image of things as you read or hear them. Those who process solutions using intuition and have difficulties explaining how the answers are derived are also likely to be right-brained. You are creative and will probably remember well anything you become emotionally involved in as you are trying to learn. When affected by the environment, you will try to change the environment. If you’re right-brained, no rules is the rule.

After learning a little bit about the functions of these two hemispheres, I can understand better why certain people behave in certain ways. People who are regimental or orderly and stick by the rules are probably left-brain dominant while people who are disorganised and free with feelings are likely to be right-brain dominant.

I took several online tests myself and strangely enough, the results seem to indicate I’m a balanced-brained auditory learner. Some famous balanced-brained auditory learners include Madonna, Mozart and Robin Williams. Hmmm…that makes me quirky and yet can be dead serious when I want to. I am supposedly able to pay attention to both small details and larger issues when circumstances require and am able to capitalise on the left hemisphere’s skills in verbal communication as well as on the right hemisphere’s focus on patterns and association making. The result says this combination makes me a creative and flexible thinker. Really? Somehow I feel that I was born a right-brainer. I am naturally quite disorganised and can work with mess. Studying logically was never easy for me. I am more analytical and prefer to look at things from a wider perspective. I have the habit of doing a lot of things at one go without any focus and end up achieving nothing.

In the past, I’m sure teachers prefer the left-brain dominant students. But today, creativity is encouraged and the in-thing. Personally, I think there is no such thing as good or bad, right or wrong brain dominance. We’re born with two hemispheres for a good reason. So let’s try to maximise the use of both sides and take the middle path.

Want to know more traits of a left or right-brained? Here they are:

Left-brained
Rational
• Responds to verbal instructions
• Solves problems by logically and sequentially looking at the parts of things
• Looks at differences
• Is planned and structured
• Prefers established, certain information
• Prefers talking and writing
• Prefers multiple choice tests
• Controls feelings
• Prefers ranked authority structures
Sequential
• Is a splitter: distinction is important
• Is logical, sees cause and effect
Conclusion: Draws on previously accumulated, organised information.

Right-brained
Intuitive
• Responds to demonstrated instructions
• Solves problems with hunches, look for patterns and configurations
• Looks at similarities
• Is fluid and spontaneous
• Prefers elusive, uncertain information
• Prefers drawing and manipulating objects
• Prefers open-ended questions
• Free with feelings
• Prefers collegial authority structures
Simultaneous
• Is a lumper: connectedness is important
• Is analogic, sees correspondences, resemblances
Conclusion: Draws on unbounded qualitative patterns that are not organised into sequences but that cluster around images.

Any Mugus Amongst Us?

This couch potato caught part of the Oprah Winfrey Show last night. The billionaire showhost was talking about online scams and I find it most incredible that so many people, including very intelligent and well-educated people have fallen prey to the Nigerian scams. According to an ABC investigative correspondent, the scammers have managed to con thousands of Americans of millions of dollars…to be exact, more than $3 billion a year. Apparently, the “mugus” - a term used to refer to the gullible fools - in US and Great Britain are most popular among the Nigerian scammers. About one per cent of Americans actually fall for the scams. Amazing huh?

I can’t understand why anyone would want to send thousands of dollars to a stranger whom they’ve never even met, just based on an unsolicited email or fax. I’ve personally received numerous of those Nigerian originated scam letters via snail mail, email and fax. From the look of the letter, you can already tell it can’t be real and never once did I even bother to read the entire letter but dump it straight into the trash bin. I mean, why on earth would some multi-millionaire living in some faraway country resort to appealing for help from total strangers like me to get hold of their legitimate inheritance? Haven’t they heard of lawyers and judicial systems? Even if they claim that they want to donate their inheritance to charity, why would they pick me to help them? And by coughing out just a few thousand dollars, I will be rewarded with a million dollars. Doesn’t it sound obviously incredulous and fishy?

Investigators said people fall for the scams mainly because of pure greed or were truly compassionate and wanted to help someone out. I’ve not heard of any mugus here who emptied their life savings to “help” but you never know. If it can happen to one percent of Americans, it definitely can happen to one percent of Singaporeans.

As what the investigator and Oprah advised, if anything sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t be greedy and please…don’t be a mugu.

My First National Dog Walk

I attended my first ever National Dog Walk last Sunday at the West Coast Park…without a dog. Some of you must be wondering…Huh? No dog but went to a dog walk??? I know, I know, I don’t own a dog but my two ex-colleagues from MINDEF do. One brought a Jack Russell while the other brought a Shih Tzu. It was supposed to be a gathering as we’ve not met for 10 years because one of them works overseas. I know it’s a strange place to have a gathering but we all love dogs. I must say just walking with other people’s dogs and seeing the multi-varieties of dogs congregating together was also a lot of fun. The dogs came in all sorts of attire…t-shirts, dresses, scarves…some even wore shoes!

The walk wasn’t very long…I think only 1.5 or 2 km but it was kind of messy and some dogs got tired. My friend’s Shih Tzu decided to sprawl himself on the footpath at one point in time but fortunately, he spotted a dog he liked and kept following it, sniffing it’s backside. That attraction managed to keep him moving until the end point.

I was quite surprised that quite a number of dogs, even huge ones, were unleashed and allowed to run around freely at the end of the walk at the dog park but they were of course quite well-behaved and didn’t cause any problems. Some dogs did have “squabbles” at the event. The fat Corgis especially were the most quarrelsome. There were also a couple of “fights” but the owners were quick in breaking them up before any damage was done to the pedigree dogs. From my observation, the smaller dogs seemed to be more aggressive than the bigger ones. Hmmm…

I took some pictures at the event but it was tough trying to capture nice shots of moving animals so naturally I ended up with a lot of blur shots. Anyway, here they are…some of the 1000 dogs with their owners, relatives and friends at our National Day Dog Walk.













Lots of Golden Retrievers at the walk.
Dogs just love to smell each other.
My friend’s Jack Russell. It’s the first time I come across such a small and well-behaved Jack Russell. Her name is Buffy but my friend prefers to call her “Dog” O_o.
This is Scooby, the Shih Tzu. He wasn’t as cooperative as Buffy when I tried to take pictures.
My favourite dog of the day was this huge, white, fluffy, playful dog…a Siberian Samoyed.

「人生目標」

最近又開始迷上電視
台灣娛樂節目、 港劇、韓劇我都在看
昨晚看的港劇剛巧提到我最近在思考的一件事
那就是「人生目標」

劇情是說有一名富家子整天遊手好閒
他老爸就逼他一定要想出自己的「人生目標」
他一天不把「人生目標」想出來
他老爸就會每天把一百萬捐給慈善

那富家子從來就沒認真的做過任何一件事
所以完全沒頭緒如何找到自己的「人生目標」
於是就委托一間偵探社幫他找出他的「人生目標」
私家偵探發現他很喜歡看電影就提議他去嘗試當演員
他對拍戲產生了興趣也終究找到了自己的「人生目標」

怎樣才算有「人生目標」
當你不愁吃不愁住不愁穿的時候
為甚麼還需要「人生目標」

雖然我說不上已經不愁吃住穿
但我沒甚麼夢想
不需要住大房子或坐大汽車
也不渴望有數不完的鈔票讓自己無度的揮霍

以前習慣過著忙忙碌碌的生活
生活一旦越過越簡單
需求越來越少
節奏越來越慢的時候
內心就會開始不平衡
無形中會開始喊…悶

活著就一定要有「人生目標」
匆匆忙忙、汲汲營營的追求著目標
這才算有意義
是這樣嗎

我還在尋找我的「人生目標」
或許是應該找偵探社幫忙的時候了