Reflections on 8th IOP Conference

Went to Sydney, Manly last week for the 8th IOP Conference. As this was my first conference, I was very excited about it! About 300 delegates were expected... and the program looked very interesting. But, it was not as good as I thought it would be. It's not bad, just not as awesome as I thought it would be. Overall, the keynote speakers and sessions were good. Gained some new knowledge from these sessions, such as team-building exercise do not actually improve team work, but it does provide more role clarity and future directions that organisational psychologists could expand into.

The other sessions were not that great. I had expected at least to gain some concrete knowlege from these sessions. However, quite a fair bit of these sessions were reporting of findings of preliminary research! So it's not even sure whether what they reported could work! >_< Felt like some of the sessions were a waste of my time. Sigh. They need to provide more description on the program next time. Bleah.

I will be typing up the notes that I took from the conference. There are a few computer programs that I want to check out, as well as some journal articles and books. Not too sure whether the slides will be available from the APS website, but I hope so.

Ok, time to sleep! Back to placement tomorrow!!!

Break in Sydney... 8th IOP Conference...

Went to Sydney for a week. Main aim was to go there for the 8th Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference at Manly, but took additional days to go around Sydney again. Haven't been there for about 4 years now and well, it's still the same. :P Still very busy, lots of people... kinda like Singapore, except something always change in Singapore even if you've been away for a few months. Still, the trip was good. Thanks to Ariel for letting us stay at his place. Really nice of him!! and the hospitality of his parents too. Had a catchup dinner with Jamang too. Here are some photos from the trip!!

Sydney Opera house!

Harbour Bridge (yes, I cant resist taking another one of this)

Darling Harbour at night

Darling Harbour in the day

Ariel's granny flat that we stayed in when we were in Sydney.

Went on a Whale Watching cruise! It was an interesting experience since I've never been on one of these before. :) And really awesome!

On the way out to see to see whales!

Sydney CBD

Whales!!!!

Manly
Manly Wharf at night

Manly Beach

This is a college of tourism I think. Not too sure, but a very cool building. Took us about 30 mins to find this. Hehe.

Photos from the day my laptop went crazy...

For those who don't know, my laptop went bonkus on me last month. And these are what I see when I on my laptop... imagine yourself in my shoes, and tell me you were not shocked / upset / scared....

Yap, screen was split into 6 smaller screen. Scared me...

See the weird colours? That's what I see when I try to log in... on times that I can actually get that far...

Blue screen of death. I knew when I see this (the hardware error part) that it's not a software problem and I NEED some professional help...

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Today I finished reading The Lexus and the Olive Tree, a book by Thomas Friedman. It's an interesting book, and talks about the world going after prosperity and development (the Lexus), and still wanting to retain its own culture, traditions and identity (the Olive Tree). Go read it!! =) Though it was published in 1999, some part of it is still applicable...

After reading this book, I thought to myself... I must do something to preserve my culture... which led me to think... what is my culture? o.O To my horror, I am quite vague on a lot of the cultural stuff and practices that we have!! Need to read up... and actually remember...

On other things... sad to say I have NOT finish my lit review. I dunno what is stopping me from finishing it. Argh. Some one help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Have started placement at Locher. 2nd day and I am swamped o.O should be exciting though and will be learning a lot more new things. So that's good...

Should be watching Angels and Demons this weekend! Am looking forward to it!

Will be going to watch a fencing competition too. Nope, I am not competing. Why? Cause I sux XD

That's all folks!