Hey everyone! Hope everyone's doing ok! I've missed y'all big time. Hope everyone who had finals got through them all ok! I'm extremely busy at the moment but I just got this in an email and I had to put it up:
The Buffalo Theory
(In one episode of 'Cheers', Cliff is seated at the bar describing the Buffalo Theory to his buddy, Norm. I don't think that I've ever heard the concept explained any better than this...)
'Well you see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the lowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.
In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."
I don't even drink but I found that bloody hilarious.
Cheers all ;)
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Monday, October 13, 2003
Ramblings...
Ok... most of this entry is simply to achieve some mental organisation so I can finally finish up my assignments... if there has been anything I've been neglecting lately, it's been those and I really need to fix that... I finished Apt Pupil last friday and I've decided to leave the last story till when I have the time. Meanwhile, that story is well written, but twisted... part of the reason it freaked me out a little was the fact that I could honestly see it happening in real life *shudder*
Anyway, I tend to just type and let things roll as I do so, so I'm expecting the rest of this entry to be really disjointed and very rambly...
Just some ideas to jot down for the ‘acting class’ that we’re going to put together for Behaviour in Organisations… I've not been able to properly meet up with the other members in my group considering everyone is so busy, thanks to the semester getting closer and closer to finishing...
We could look at the ways acting have changed over the years and pinpoint particular styles which we could cover in the class and those who were major performers in those styles, because I think that as part of teaching the class, we should also further advise our ‘students’ to do their own research on these styles and eras, by watching the old movies, observing the actors and reading up on old acting books and reading about what actors do to prepare (such is the advice of Mr. Wil Wheaton anyway. Not to say that there is no other approach or view on the subject, but it does sound pretty sensible to me…)
We then could select 2 or 3 styles which we can actively cover in the class. I already know of (or at least, have heard of) method acting, for example, for his short stint on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Charlie Sheen had to play a druggo at the police station. If my info is correct, to look the part, he actually did not sleep for 72 hours beforehand...
Outside of method acting, what else have we seen? The change in standard – in the early stages of cinema, it was a running joke, as well as almost a fact, that women who knew how to ‘faint’ and ‘scream’, had what it takes to get into the silent movies. Now, one might say that all a woman needs is a great body and face and voila! You have a successful actress, and this may also work for guys. Although personally, I don’t reckon you could say the larger, more powerful actors and actresses can’t act… I don’t think they could have maintained their careers if that were the case. Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise… and all the rest. I never cared much for how Brad looked, but he is one helluva good actor in my opinion. Not to mention his adaptability with accents.
Depending on who you are, the ways of approaching a role vary. We should look into that because people are different so we want to adopt a training style which will benefit all the students... I'm having trouble trying to use the last couple of lectures we had on training, with acting...
Up to this point, film acting has been the focus. However, there is TV (live or cartoon), theatre and other miscellaneous activities which involve a degree of acting, such as mime (I had to put that in… Chris is really jumping up and down to do his mime act for the class).
Theatre is very different from onscreen acting because you have to involve the live audience (TV or movies can have the actors try to involve the audience however, in the end, they are really only talking to a camera, as opposed to a live group of people again leading to different approaches). There is also the issue of positioning yourself on the stage. From every time I’ve been in a production, it appears to be a strict rule, never to turn your back on the audience. If you’re not facing them fully, then you should at least be in the position to allow you to have them in your sights and engage them in your dialogue. You’re addressing them just as much as you’re addressing the rest of the cast.
Oh my gosh! It just occurred to me to ask Xan and anyone else who’s in the Fellowship, if they’ve done any drama and what sort of stuff they did! Cool!
I think it would be a good idea to address the fact that while some people are brilliant actors, and others mediocre, there are those who couldn’t do it to save their lives… how could we include them in our training? I’m sure there are ways to get around that. I keep thinking of Joey (Friends) here and his little ‘tricks’… I’d like to see that actually hehehe.
I know there’s more, but I’m kind of tapped for now… as I watch an insane amount of TV and an equally ridiculous number of movies, Chris wants me to write the report up for the group. The dill. Meanwhile, I need to begin the research on that…
Ok, I now have to do the same sort of brainstorming for Psychopathology. This one is going to be a lot more difficult I’m sure, but it’s still worth half a shot or more.
Wow… this is proving to be harder than I expected… ok then. The experiment Ri and I carried out was looking to replicate the findings of past research investigating the relationship between particular parenting techniques or behaviours and non-compliance in normal families (the majority of past research looks at more extreme cases of noncompliant or aggressive behaviour in children, these kids having been diagnosed with actual behavioural disorders. This is why this experiment was only looking at non-compliance as it was assumed that more severe behaviours would more likely be rare in normal families).
Ok… according to research, particularly that which has been conducted by Patterson, it appears to be the case that parents of more aggressive or non-compliant children are more likely to give more commands, provide less positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviours (including compliance), and use ineffective strategies like threats, criticism and sporadic physical punishment to discourage inappropriate behaviour in their kids. These have been termed, ‘reinforcement traps’. This leads to children being less sensitive to patterns or reward and punishment and may be likely to simply increase their bad behaviour when they are punished, as was found by Snyder.
Hmmm… ok, that’s what I have so far… right now though, I can’t help thinking that although there are a lot of apparent relationships between aggression and physical punishment in families, I personally still reckon that some kids really need a good thwack on the butt once in a while… I’m not trying to endorse child beatings or anything, but I’m not quite sure I’d totally write off spanking just yet. I just reckon the issue differs from child to child. Some kids may benefit and others might not.
Anyway, back to the study. Did our experiment further support past research? I... don't bloody remember right now...all the correlations, positive or negative, were pretty weak however, there were some apparent effects, if not incredibly significant ones, so that's all I can really focus on. Ok... I gotta go over my results and my other readings again.
Ok... this has actually helped out a little bit :) I've got quite a few references for it, but I've still got to look up more info on acting :P For now though, I'm not as lost as I was before. Cool.
Anyway, I tend to just type and let things roll as I do so, so I'm expecting the rest of this entry to be really disjointed and very rambly...
Just some ideas to jot down for the ‘acting class’ that we’re going to put together for Behaviour in Organisations… I've not been able to properly meet up with the other members in my group considering everyone is so busy, thanks to the semester getting closer and closer to finishing...
We could look at the ways acting have changed over the years and pinpoint particular styles which we could cover in the class and those who were major performers in those styles, because I think that as part of teaching the class, we should also further advise our ‘students’ to do their own research on these styles and eras, by watching the old movies, observing the actors and reading up on old acting books and reading about what actors do to prepare (such is the advice of Mr. Wil Wheaton anyway. Not to say that there is no other approach or view on the subject, but it does sound pretty sensible to me…)
We then could select 2 or 3 styles which we can actively cover in the class. I already know of (or at least, have heard of) method acting, for example, for his short stint on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Charlie Sheen had to play a druggo at the police station. If my info is correct, to look the part, he actually did not sleep for 72 hours beforehand...
Outside of method acting, what else have we seen? The change in standard – in the early stages of cinema, it was a running joke, as well as almost a fact, that women who knew how to ‘faint’ and ‘scream’, had what it takes to get into the silent movies. Now, one might say that all a woman needs is a great body and face and voila! You have a successful actress, and this may also work for guys. Although personally, I don’t reckon you could say the larger, more powerful actors and actresses can’t act… I don’t think they could have maintained their careers if that were the case. Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise… and all the rest. I never cared much for how Brad looked, but he is one helluva good actor in my opinion. Not to mention his adaptability with accents.
Depending on who you are, the ways of approaching a role vary. We should look into that because people are different so we want to adopt a training style which will benefit all the students... I'm having trouble trying to use the last couple of lectures we had on training, with acting...
Up to this point, film acting has been the focus. However, there is TV (live or cartoon), theatre and other miscellaneous activities which involve a degree of acting, such as mime (I had to put that in… Chris is really jumping up and down to do his mime act for the class).
Theatre is very different from onscreen acting because you have to involve the live audience (TV or movies can have the actors try to involve the audience however, in the end, they are really only talking to a camera, as opposed to a live group of people again leading to different approaches). There is also the issue of positioning yourself on the stage. From every time I’ve been in a production, it appears to be a strict rule, never to turn your back on the audience. If you’re not facing them fully, then you should at least be in the position to allow you to have them in your sights and engage them in your dialogue. You’re addressing them just as much as you’re addressing the rest of the cast.
Oh my gosh! It just occurred to me to ask Xan and anyone else who’s in the Fellowship, if they’ve done any drama and what sort of stuff they did! Cool!
I think it would be a good idea to address the fact that while some people are brilliant actors, and others mediocre, there are those who couldn’t do it to save their lives… how could we include them in our training? I’m sure there are ways to get around that. I keep thinking of Joey (Friends) here and his little ‘tricks’… I’d like to see that actually hehehe.
I know there’s more, but I’m kind of tapped for now… as I watch an insane amount of TV and an equally ridiculous number of movies, Chris wants me to write the report up for the group. The dill. Meanwhile, I need to begin the research on that…
Ok, I now have to do the same sort of brainstorming for Psychopathology. This one is going to be a lot more difficult I’m sure, but it’s still worth half a shot or more.
Wow… this is proving to be harder than I expected… ok then. The experiment Ri and I carried out was looking to replicate the findings of past research investigating the relationship between particular parenting techniques or behaviours and non-compliance in normal families (the majority of past research looks at more extreme cases of noncompliant or aggressive behaviour in children, these kids having been diagnosed with actual behavioural disorders. This is why this experiment was only looking at non-compliance as it was assumed that more severe behaviours would more likely be rare in normal families).
Ok… according to research, particularly that which has been conducted by Patterson, it appears to be the case that parents of more aggressive or non-compliant children are more likely to give more commands, provide less positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviours (including compliance), and use ineffective strategies like threats, criticism and sporadic physical punishment to discourage inappropriate behaviour in their kids. These have been termed, ‘reinforcement traps’. This leads to children being less sensitive to patterns or reward and punishment and may be likely to simply increase their bad behaviour when they are punished, as was found by Snyder.
Hmmm… ok, that’s what I have so far… right now though, I can’t help thinking that although there are a lot of apparent relationships between aggression and physical punishment in families, I personally still reckon that some kids really need a good thwack on the butt once in a while… I’m not trying to endorse child beatings or anything, but I’m not quite sure I’d totally write off spanking just yet. I just reckon the issue differs from child to child. Some kids may benefit and others might not.
Anyway, back to the study. Did our experiment further support past research? I... don't bloody remember right now...all the correlations, positive or negative, were pretty weak however, there were some apparent effects, if not incredibly significant ones, so that's all I can really focus on. Ok... I gotta go over my results and my other readings again.
Ok... this has actually helped out a little bit :) I've got quite a few references for it, but I've still got to look up more info on acting :P For now though, I'm not as lost as I was before. Cool.
Friday, October 10, 2003
Pardon my french...
...but Stephen King is a fucking fantastic writer (I don't tend to swear when I write but, having just read two Stephen King books, it sort of just came out ;)). I've just finished Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption and, to put it simply, I loved it. It's such an incredible, not to mention well written, story. That and The Body are two booksI could probably, and most probably will, read again and again... and again. I will say that I felt I could relate more to what he wrote in The Body, but Shawshank Redemption is such a great story, and Andy and Red are both characters I love. I had never thought of Stephen King as anything more than a horror writer... I'm glad to have found I was wrong (although I will agree with those who have bemoaned his rather graphic detail at times, although I think it just adds to his writing).
Alrighty then, on to Apt Pupil.
Alrighty then, on to Apt Pupil.
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
'It's been... one week since you looked at me...'
At this very moment and sitting in this insanely bright comp lab (which is also freezing), when I really should be doing the research I was simply unable to do whilst waiting around for my brother to get our computer back from being fixed at his friend's house (I sound disgustingly ungrateful don't I?), I can certainly say that I am in no mood whatsoever to get onto any of that... I'm thinking that this entry is going to require a warning due to pending length and potential tangentiality (if there is a better version of that word, I would be very interested to know what the hell it is)...
Oh, before I get onto anything else at this point… Penrith won the NRL Grand Final!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurrah!! They’ve been my team ever since I began following the footy (which admittedly, is not that long… I only began following mid-yr 12 and part of that was because I found out that they were Ryan Girdler’s team :P) and my sisters and I have had to watch them go from almost getting to the Final in 2000 (they were beaten my Parramatta, which is part of why I despise them so much), to getting the Wooden Spoon in 2001 (meaning they came dead last), to coming third last in 2002… and now this! :D Hurrah the underdogs (or cats, in this case)!
Sunday night, they were up against the Sydney Roosters, who were defending their title, which made victory just that bit sweeter, considering hardly anyone believed that the Panthers would actually do it… the conditions in which they had to play were severe… the rain was coming down in buckets and player after player fumbled with the ball or stuffed up at the drop out. Meanwhile, the media was going berserk what with it being ‘East VS West’ (Sydney used to be the Eastern Suburbs and the Panthers are from Penrith, which is at the foot of the mountains, way out west), ‘no.1 VS no. 2’ (Penrith were on top of the ladder before the qualifying finals and the Roosters were coming second) and (my personal favourite – do not ignore the sarcasm here –) ‘Café Latte VS Nescafe’ (easy explanation? East = posh, West = not so much)… and of course, you couldn’t forget the fact that almost everyone had betted against the Panthers (Joey Johns, the best player in the game wasn’t one of them, the legend)… I cracked up laughing when my dad bought the paper the next day and I saw the words, ‘Cinderella Story’ in bold, black print.
I won’t go into too much detail… that would take forever, but honestly, during the game, which up until the last 10 minutes or so was anyone’s game (10 minutes feels so damn long when you’re watching), my family and I had yelled so hard that my throat felt sore by the end… and when they actually did win? Forget it… my sisters and I were still able to somehow wrench those hollers right out… it was one helluva night. Katherine called me up the next day (in my ‘delirium’ I had texted about 7 or 8 people about the win) and told me that she ‘got [my] message’, I’m betting she later regretted that considering I ended up going on and on for about 15 minutes :P
Seriously, a huge congrats to the Panthers :D
Hehehe… the way I go on about League surprises a lot of people who don’t think they can really picture me yelling my head off at the TV during the game, or going on and on about defense and attack, etcetera, etcetera… which puzzles me because these people are often the same people, who refuse to believe me when I tell them that I was (and continue to maintain that I still am now!) shy back in high school. I know I can be pretty loud (believe me, family complaints have acted as a constant reminder) and my friends know it… I guess I don’t look like the sporty type. I’m not anyway, I just like to watch. Crap, I could never play League! Those guys go out there, guarded with just a cup underneath their uniforms (shorts and shirt and that’s it) and nothing else… if they want a mouth guard, they get one… if they want headgear, ditto… the majority of them have broken noses (as far as I’ve been able to see) and the way they tackle is brutal! There is a reason they have the Blood Bin as well as the Sin Bin…
Anyway, enough about NRL… I’ve been able to look up a couple journal articles for Psychopathology on Patterson’s Coercion Theory and child-family relations… they’re a start. The report is due next Friday and I’m less than thrilled about that considering the week after, I have 2 presentations to do, one being an acting class… explanation? For Organisational, groups of 4-5 have to conduct a training program in a particular occupation… when one member of my group suggested acting, we all began joking about it and laughing… it wasn’t until about 15 minutes later that I realized that we were seriously deciding to do it. In the end, we decided that this assignment was supposed to be fun anyway so why the hell not? Chris is dying to do his mime act in front of the class! And I admit, I’m dying to watch ;)
I've put my writing on hiatus for a little while - I'm currently working on about 8 things at the moment - and have decided to do a bit more reading... something I've not been able to properly sit down and do since high school (text books do NOT count!) as well as allowing myself to just think things through a little better before I continue... it's been suffering and I've not liked my most recent additions or updates as much as I would like. Right now (my timing sucks by the way, considering the amount of work due), I'm reading Different Seasons by Stephen King (it's four stories put together - Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body (on which Stand by Me was based) and the Breathing Method) and Wilfred Owen - War Poems and others. I finished the Body and am on to the Shawshank Redemption... and I'm still reading the biography section of the Wilfren Owen book but I'm more familiar with his poetry :) I've missed doing this... I really have. I didn't think I'd like Stephen King so much either...
I realise that I've still not said much about Kim's wedding... next time ;) *Dodges a missile from May*
Oh, before I get onto anything else at this point… Penrith won the NRL Grand Final!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurrah!! They’ve been my team ever since I began following the footy (which admittedly, is not that long… I only began following mid-yr 12 and part of that was because I found out that they were Ryan Girdler’s team :P) and my sisters and I have had to watch them go from almost getting to the Final in 2000 (they were beaten my Parramatta, which is part of why I despise them so much), to getting the Wooden Spoon in 2001 (meaning they came dead last), to coming third last in 2002… and now this! :D Hurrah the underdogs (or cats, in this case)!
Sunday night, they were up against the Sydney Roosters, who were defending their title, which made victory just that bit sweeter, considering hardly anyone believed that the Panthers would actually do it… the conditions in which they had to play were severe… the rain was coming down in buckets and player after player fumbled with the ball or stuffed up at the drop out. Meanwhile, the media was going berserk what with it being ‘East VS West’ (Sydney used to be the Eastern Suburbs and the Panthers are from Penrith, which is at the foot of the mountains, way out west), ‘no.1 VS no. 2’ (Penrith were on top of the ladder before the qualifying finals and the Roosters were coming second) and (my personal favourite – do not ignore the sarcasm here –) ‘Café Latte VS Nescafe’ (easy explanation? East = posh, West = not so much)… and of course, you couldn’t forget the fact that almost everyone had betted against the Panthers (Joey Johns, the best player in the game wasn’t one of them, the legend)… I cracked up laughing when my dad bought the paper the next day and I saw the words, ‘Cinderella Story’ in bold, black print.
I won’t go into too much detail… that would take forever, but honestly, during the game, which up until the last 10 minutes or so was anyone’s game (10 minutes feels so damn long when you’re watching), my family and I had yelled so hard that my throat felt sore by the end… and when they actually did win? Forget it… my sisters and I were still able to somehow wrench those hollers right out… it was one helluva night. Katherine called me up the next day (in my ‘delirium’ I had texted about 7 or 8 people about the win) and told me that she ‘got [my] message’, I’m betting she later regretted that considering I ended up going on and on for about 15 minutes :P
Seriously, a huge congrats to the Panthers :D
Hehehe… the way I go on about League surprises a lot of people who don’t think they can really picture me yelling my head off at the TV during the game, or going on and on about defense and attack, etcetera, etcetera… which puzzles me because these people are often the same people, who refuse to believe me when I tell them that I was (and continue to maintain that I still am now!) shy back in high school. I know I can be pretty loud (believe me, family complaints have acted as a constant reminder) and my friends know it… I guess I don’t look like the sporty type. I’m not anyway, I just like to watch. Crap, I could never play League! Those guys go out there, guarded with just a cup underneath their uniforms (shorts and shirt and that’s it) and nothing else… if they want a mouth guard, they get one… if they want headgear, ditto… the majority of them have broken noses (as far as I’ve been able to see) and the way they tackle is brutal! There is a reason they have the Blood Bin as well as the Sin Bin…
Anyway, enough about NRL… I’ve been able to look up a couple journal articles for Psychopathology on Patterson’s Coercion Theory and child-family relations… they’re a start. The report is due next Friday and I’m less than thrilled about that considering the week after, I have 2 presentations to do, one being an acting class… explanation? For Organisational, groups of 4-5 have to conduct a training program in a particular occupation… when one member of my group suggested acting, we all began joking about it and laughing… it wasn’t until about 15 minutes later that I realized that we were seriously deciding to do it. In the end, we decided that this assignment was supposed to be fun anyway so why the hell not? Chris is dying to do his mime act in front of the class! And I admit, I’m dying to watch ;)
I've put my writing on hiatus for a little while - I'm currently working on about 8 things at the moment - and have decided to do a bit more reading... something I've not been able to properly sit down and do since high school (text books do NOT count!) as well as allowing myself to just think things through a little better before I continue... it's been suffering and I've not liked my most recent additions or updates as much as I would like. Right now (my timing sucks by the way, considering the amount of work due), I'm reading Different Seasons by Stephen King (it's four stories put together - Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, The Body (on which Stand by Me was based) and the Breathing Method) and Wilfred Owen - War Poems and others. I finished the Body and am on to the Shawshank Redemption... and I'm still reading the biography section of the Wilfren Owen book but I'm more familiar with his poetry :) I've missed doing this... I really have. I didn't think I'd like Stephen King so much either...
I realise that I've still not said much about Kim's wedding... next time ;) *Dodges a missile from May*
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