Staring at a screen for nearly 8 hours straight isn’t doing me any good. Even with the pretty lights (bridge) of the bay, the distant sounds of city sirens, and the muted voices.

How did I do this again in grad school? Or did I really spend that much time staring at a screen…

But unlike some people, I didn’t just quit smoking or stop drinking coffee. I am just experiencing another Monday.

sam: Jenn chooses to eat dim sum?
sam: Americanized asian food?
sam: alert the media

But fyi, Sam, only a few dishes are americanized asian food.

Normally, not by choice, I would go to dim sum. But this weekend with great company, I actually had decent dim sum. Who knew? The last time I went to dim sum without my family, I had to wait 30 minutes between dishes (read: one dish has 4 pieces of dim sum and most likely reheated from the frozen counterparts shipped from Toronto). What a nightmare that was.

Although ultimately what I find fascinating about dim sum is that it’s not really about the food. For my family, it’s the one time per week that I see my parents and my grandparents. And if anybody else is in town, it’s the time to see them. It’s the server that knows us by name and the food we order…and the dessert he comps us. And about the conversation that goes around the table–the exchange of letters that my grandmother cannot read, the latest news of Maria the helper for my grandfather, and news that my parents would tell about my sister and me. It’s a time of talking and discussing.

Perhaps, being somewhat Americanized (and my own need to be assimilated), I always thought it was rather repetitive and ultimately dull. But it’s my only one time a week (or every other week). Drink up, tea cups empty and magically full.

I have used craigslist to get rid of things my previous roommates left behind, sell my futon, find an apartment, find new roommates, garage sales, buy pillows, apply for jobs…and now most recently recruiting users for user studies.

Now I had never done the latter before. I used to recruit through flyers and through people I knew. I once posted on a mailing list, but that got students from the school I was attending. Relatively normal people.

But recruiting users from the masses is a completely different story. I got more than 150+ emails in one day, requesting to participate in a relatively minimal compensation study. At first, I was pleased with the results, but as I started contacting users for a screening, I realized it was much more.

Granted, most of the time, people were normal and usually earnest than expected. But there was one phone call. At first, I was going to reject him because of his lack of phone call consideration (calling after the cutoff time?) However, he passed my rigorous screening for the type of user we wanted, because he work was what we were looking for. Out of principle, I scheduled him for a test.

As I finished giving him our address, he suddenly asked me, “Are you Chinese?”

I paused, feeling slighted that he walked into my personal space.

“Because you talk like my ex-girlfriend. She’s Chinese.”

“I didn’t know that was something you can tell over the phone,” I said in a voice lacking in color.

He ignored my distaste and continued, “After the study, I can show you around my hotel. I can show you personally how I work.”

I ignored his comment and said that I would send him an email confirming the study, thinking what an interesting experience.

Then I told my boss the story on the day of the study. Almost immediately, my boss told me to cancel the study due to the user’s inappropriateness. I took a deep breath and made the call.

Reminder to self: Do not call people who respond to ads in caps. Do not call people who add “AND I AM SINGLE” at the end of their email response.

A new thing I learned today: the Pareto rule.

In particular:

1. Work: Twenty percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of the results.

2. People: Twenty percent of the people you know (friends, colleagues, family) provide you with 80 percent of nurturing support and satisfaction.

3. Business: Eighty percent of the sales are made by 20 percent of the sales team.

4. Focus: Twenty percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your success.

What I know from my undergrad days is that I barely remember much of anything from my classes. The place where I learned the most for my success today actually comes from my job at Rescomp–learning how to deal with customers and coworkers. People skills strangely enough contributes the most to my goals.