It's been a very, well, odd couple of weeks.
This week, is the first week in a month, that I have gone into uni both days I was supposed to. Small achievement, although a terrifying eye-opener to the fact that I have to get going on my stats assignment! I can only say things this bluntly, I don't like Stats, I don't like Psy (the program, not the Psych course) and I don't like that I have to do Stats in order to ensure I graduate after this semester.
I've been purposely avoiding getting online lately, only because I am fully aware of how prone I am to staying on for disgustingly long periods of time and feeding any of my extreme obsessions (one of which, lately has actually caused more undue stress than was ever necessary). Plus, got assignments (I believe I mentioned them above...?).
Thus far, I've succeeded. Here's to hoping it lasts. I've given myself only a few valid reasons - Manda and Gill, research, email, job search, and checking to see how all the rest of you are via LJ or FF are headers on them... anything else, no (list seems a bit long. I don't know how this is coming across, but when I say undue stress, I mean it. Part of me never wants to go online ever again, but knows that isn't entirely realistic... heck, I'm reluctant to get onto this PC now... my laptop is just so much safer).
Yuck, that all sounds so bellyache-ish. Clearly I vent. Had to though, just now anyway. Tired... very tired. Ok, enough.
Katherine, Mel, Clarkey, Manda, Gill, Amanda G, Menchie... I love you people so much, you guys ROCK. You know why.
On the brighter side (for there is always one... at least in my opinion anyway), I finally got more feedback from my Journalism tutor and he wants me to approach an editor as soon as possible, about my last assignment :D My only pang is that I honestly do have to get uni work out of the way before I can completely go ahead with researching and setting up interviews, however, those done, hurrah! Gary is a really cool tutor... I only wish it were easier to contact him considering he's generally on assignment himself. But hey, so far, :D
I'm so broke! 21sts all over the place! Meanwhile, my search for a present for Amanda M (her one last Saturday, was BEAUTIFUL) helped me discover Boy Meets Girl, by Meg Cabot. Funny, funny book along the same sort of lines as Bridget Jones's Diary. No classic, but definitely a great laugh. I still have to get pressies for Amanda G, Kim, Sarah and Kasey. Sarah's one is on Saturday (hurrah!). I had to miss a lot of 21sts last year and the year before so this year, I'm kinda making up for it... big time! Cha ching!
Last night, was watching my bro's friend's wedding DVD... so sweet... and the groomsmen! LOL! Show offs! Before the wedding, while they were accompanying the groom from his place, they all had to showcase a little for the camera (incl. my bro, who was best man.. the dill, he showed up the groom! Silly, silly, silly) and they are a funny lot. Meanwhile, a couple more of my friends (younger than me!) have gotten engaged this year but the weddings aren't till next year so, hehe, pardon my callousness but it eases the pressure on my wallet.
... to all the mamas, mums, moms and mams out there,
Especially mine ;) Being able to admit to me for the past 21 and a bit years? If that's not admirable, I dunno what is.
Damned insomnia :P Amanda's party was loverly and she's an absolute sweetheart. Keeping a little more closely in line with my normal way (not drinking at all), I only had one drink - a cosmopolitan slushie (yep, she had a machine). Not a fan of the cranberry juice I must say but in slurpie form? Well, actually, all it did was turn my hand into an icicle considering it was - and still is - freezing tonight.The speeches were so sweet (albeit hilariously embarrassing as is 21st celebration tradition) and her mom had set up old pictures and drawings around their dining room. Hands down, the best one I saw was a drawing she had made when she was maybe around 5? It was an 'illustrated story' about a dot and a line who were in love, but whose love was torn asunder by a homewrecking squiggle (just not in those terms of course :lol:). How freaking adorable!
I'm getting ready to head off to Amanda's 21st but as I was checking train timetables, I got this 'note from Kyle and Angela' whose engagement party I recently went to, and I thought, ok, I'll share why I'm so red-faced right now :lol:'Thank you Jelynn for the absolutely gorgeous crystal basket. Also we'd like to thank you for celebrating our engagement with us. By the way, just confirming to let you know you WERE caught on tape dancing'!Thanks a lot Tracey (Ange's mom)! :eek: I am never going to imitate dancing purple hippos from TV ever again :P
I'm sitting here pondering whether or not I'll be hungover in the morning, whilst checking email (!).
Ah, we'll see.
And I still don't call myself an alco. Almost 10 drinks, once in a blue moon doesn't make me an alco.
Does it?
I'm not actually drunk, but I do feel a bit odd. I'm actually surprised at my tolerance level... I thought that not drinking would have made me more sensitive.
Like I said, we'll see.
Btw, just to mention since I've not done so yet this year.... Penrith won yesterday's game against the Tigers after 2 defeats in a row so hurrah! That made my Friday :)
'They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning..
We will remember them'
May we never forget the sacrifices made in WWI by the Anzacs
(the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps)
I love these guys. I've not laughed this hard in a looong time.
But damned if I know what's up with all the 'cakes'.
Although the time of relaxation in which I've been indulging lately is about to - nay, has to - end soon, it's done a whole bloody world of good.
Uni began again this week and I only ended up going in on Tuesday because I was sick on Monday. So I missed one RM3A lecture. Again. Second Monday Lecture I've missed in a row which is not fantastic since this is my second time around. And, to make that even more ridiculous (although at least this time, guilt-free), next Monday is a public holiday (ANZAC weekend) so that will make it the 3 for 3.
Tuesday was, to say the least, draining. Tolerable, but still draining. I was pretty keen to go in too, since I hadn't seen anyone all week break. I was all set, good mood and all. First lecture was sociology, which is generally ok, albeit a little sleepy at times because my lecturer is in the habit of rambling. I was only slightly bored since Travis and Adra are always great entertainment but then towards the end of the lecture, we had to watch 4Corners footage of the Rwandan massacre (the topic this week was Ethnic Cleansing). We were watching the testimonies made by some of the Hutu killers.
I don't know if I've ever watched anything so distressing in my whole life.
No, it wasn't extremely graphic (minus the shot after shot of bodies and bloodied streams - whether you would call that graphic, I suppose, is subjective), but... several times throughout the video, I wanted to cry and at the end, I was physically ill. The words of those talking didn't make things any better (sometimes describing what they actually did to people with more detail than was desirable). You could see they were remorseful and that they themselves, didn't seem to understand what they had been doing and why, outside of the basic hatred and wish to rid themselves of oppression. I won't go into any of it here... a woman who survived the killings at the church gave her account and I still want to cry just thinking about it.
The whole thing depressed me (I don't think I need to excuse myself for that). After studying Psych for 3 years, you stop asking how people can bring themselves to do that sort of thing. People are capable of anything. You certainly don't have to be a psych student to know that, you just have to watch the news. Of course, I can still ask why... but it doesn't make acknowledging these things any easier to swallow.
Adra and I were walking to stats and basically trying to work it through I guess... although the fact that stats was where we were headed didn't help things. My motivation was shot momentarily and listening to Melanie go over orthogonal contrasts was just a little too much. It's not an excuse, true, but my notes for that lecture are pretty poor. I also found that I was missing a page of the notes so that didn't help - ruddy printer - and I was also a little disappointed to find that a friend of mine wasn't there (Menchie and I are still in the process of trying to convince Reyna to come to class more often so I was glad to see her there though).
Those 3 painful hours finally done, I had a break and ended up having lunch with Mench, Mel and Kristine (who's still relatively new... only been here for a month! Hasn't stopped her from having already visited Taronga Zoo hehe). The mood was kinda sombre though because Mel wasn't well and we were all trying to help her out a bit. It was kinda nice towards the end though because almost everyone I hadn't seen in ages appeared from nowhere so I was talking to a lot of people (at different times that is. Travis rocked up and crashed eventually), but this meant that the others were sort of stuck watching. I felt bad, rude but stretched a little at the same time. I'm not the greatest at manning several conversations at once so I fall into (very self-consciously) ignoring people. Not nice.
Sociology tutorial. Death. I don't hate this subject. I brought it on myself anyway... you don't enrol in a socio class called 'Space of Terror' without expecting some pain. I was still reeling slightly from the video (yes, it takes me a while to get past things) and I didn't want to be there. Justin and Travis are cool though, so I don't mind talking to them about it all. My tutor is pretty cool too. I got to argue a bit with the American exchange student, Dean (slight crush... slight!) and then the rest of the time, discussed the prep questions with the others... typical tute. Nothing too shocking I guess. Then I got my essay back. I did hopelessly. I passed, yes, but I was upset. I'd worked hard on that essay and it was a slight knock. Plus, it's socio. I'm generally good at the subject. My mood basically plummeted.
I just checked the actual percentage received. It was a high pass - almost a credit. I didn't realise (I simply saw the 'P' and the mark out of 25)... ok, that makes me feel a little better. Sheesh, get all the facts first... heh.
The day picked up a little after that. Met up with Reyna and Menchie and the two of them were playing around with her new phone [rant warning - I hate these new phones. I seriously can't stand them. Polyphonic ringtones piss me off so much, I don't see the point of having a camera or video in your phone and I could never imagine myself surfing the net on my mobile. I get that other people want them so I don't rant about it too often, but as long as my phone lets me ring or text people and vice versa, then I'm set. I just don't see the need I guess, but how you use your money is how you use your money so... I'm not big on buying things I don't need, that's all. Ok, I'll admit to wanting a bunch of DVDs and books. They are my weaknesses, though I don't have the means and even if I did, doesn't mean I'd buy 'em. Yes, I'm a scrooge. And any friend who has tried to take me clothes shopping, knows enough to fuhgeddaboutit].
The rest of the day is a bit of a dreary blur, outside of my conversation with Duane which revealed that the two us have a lot more in common than I had originally thought. Then again, anyone who knows what Ciclosporin even is, gets points with me. Oh and Reyna's friend Ralph, is a gag. I don't get to see a lot of the homey-boy Filos at my uni so he was kind of a breath of fresh air (despite the fact that most of the time, those guys really shit me). Stats tute came and went and then Mel, Menchie and I met up with Jen at Central and headed home. I honestly envy Jen right now. She's working at ING at the moment and has deferred the year. Not thinking about assignments, classes, researching, etc... sounds positively loverly (May and Gill, seriously, I don't know how you handle both work and school, but bravo girls). I've a semester then I can do that, which I suppose is better considering Jen will have to come back to it. The job search is still on though and the job at uni is ??? Honestly, I've not heard a word (Ri!!).
Journalism is going well. My tutor is cool and I love that I'm not doing it at uni.
Yesterday, Menchie and I headed off to Parra to watch 50 First Dates. That's a really cute movie and at the same time, Mench and I kept thinking of secondyear cognition. We had to watch a video of a man who had a similar condition. It was so sad... every time he'd see his wife, though he knew who she was, it was as though he was seeing her for the first time. You could see the look on her face... though the movie is funny, you can't laugh at the fact that it's real. A lot of people live this way.
While at Parra, I found DVDs for It and NESII but of course, they were expensive as. I'm more glad to know they're available here in Oz. Not many Jonathan Brandis movies are (yes, I'm hoarding, so sue me) and I don't think I've much hope for finding the TV ones but thanking Jan for trying! And BJ for offering to tape and send :D You people are loverly.
Oh, and a hurrah! I found a bunch of songs I'd been wanting for the longest time! I first saw the Macross movies when I was around 12 or 13 and I loved the music... I was able to find Ai Oboeteimasuka from the original Macross. I love that song... it's in Japanese, yes, but it's still one of my favourite songs ever and it's way better in Japanese anyway (I've the english lyrics as well). Yoko Kanno's cello version of the Myung theme for Macross Plus and the vocal as well, and Between Heaven and Earth. I also got Cruel Angel's Thesis and Dance Like You Want to Win from Neon Genesis. I love manga soundtracks. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the themes for Battle Angel Alita or Tokyo Babylon but hey, I got a lot already.
Meanwhile, thanks to Rick Dees (though I never listen to you hehe) for bringing Hoobastank's The Reason, Switchfoot's Meant to Live and Five For Fighting's 100 Years to my attention. And Mel, thanks for telling me that there was a 9min version of In Da Club. Man! It's replaced my old one. My music collection grows... recent additions besides the aforementioned, were Chantal Kreviazuk, Bob Schneider, Casper's Lullaby, Jordan Hill, Cranberries, Gene Wilder (Pure Imagination was one of my favourite songs when I was younger) and some stuff from the Sister Act soundtracks (great Gospel-y stuff).
Ok, I've been somewhat overindulgent with my music. I can't help it. Writing and music sustain me(of course, outside of prayer and my family and friends).
And now that my writing energy has all been used up, I've some stats notes to go over and organise for my optional test, a new journo assignment to start and a socio journal entry to write. My sis just asked me to look up some N64 cheats for her and I'm getting a kick out of reading them. I may not play much anymore but hey, now I wanna try a couple things. I'm such a geek! (that reminds me, I gotta see if I can get a hold of any of Wil Wheaton's books hehe. One of them's called Just a Geek, but he's only just finished writing it. Go here if you're interested).
:D
Just got back from Esha's (really good uni friend) 21st out at Kensington... lovely :) I got the chance to see a lot of people I never get to see anymore thanks to conflicting timetables! So many of my friends have disappeared ahead of me, doing honours and worrying about their thesis and panel meetings and such, and the rest of them are no longer in my classes, so it was great getting to see them again! The night was pretty much spent eating, drinking, laughing and - in the grand tradition of all 21sts - embarrassing Esha :D I'd go into more detail, but as I said before, my body has been in constant rebellion lately because I've been severely depriving it of sleep... why am I even here? Well... I only came online to check mail and accidently opened this (was about to add 'by accident' to the end of that *rolls eyes* - clearly, I'm not thinking straight:P). I couldn't help thinking that it looked pretty neglected so thought to myself, 'why the hell not? A quickie update wouldn't hurt... and here we are.That was fascinating wasn't it? In clarification of the title, tonight's was something like the hundredth 21st I've been to within the last year and a bit and there are several still coming :) Man, I love being 21... the most immediate two coming up are for two of the many Amandas I know, one of whom drove me back tonight (glad you found your way home, despite my apparently pathetic directions, sweetie! :)) and they're both looking to be good. Anyway, am off to bed. Night to all and, because I'm sure I won't be diligent enough to update before then, have a Happy Easter! :D
... but I'm so glad that I have it back! :D It's been a little too long. I've missed so many people and just lost contact with so many people... I've been lucky enough to grab Gill, Manda and Je a lot already... I was able to finally get back in touch with a close friend from uni whom I've not had the chance to see in ages!Ok, basics. Some catch up. The last 5 months or so have been pretty damn interesting... unfortunately, I don't actually have the time to go into too much detail (sure, that's gonna stop me!). Life's thrown its fair share of curveballs at me over that time, but thankfully, things are pretty good at the moment (now if I could just get over my crippling lack of motivation to get down to work already! Ugh). I'm finally doing my journalism course, after waiting 4 years to get to it... and it's great! I love it! My tutor is really nice and extremely supportive and he's encouraged me to write up my article and send it in! Considering I was expecting all sorts of criticism for my idea (basically about inflating UAI cutoffs, their effect on school leavers and possible educational alternatives - outside of Oz, I don't know how much of that people'd understand) but he loved it! I'm working on it at the moment and I just have to finally get those interviews I need finished up :)I'm only part time at uni now, with a very sweet 2-day week, so I'm looking for part time work at the moment. That search has been, well, less than successful. Thus far anyway. Weight Watchers and Thomson Legal & Regulatory have me on file (no word yet though) and I've applied for a couple places on Seek.com (fingers crossed on getting an interview!) but unfortunately, with regards to ads in the paper, I always get the paper too late in the day (after business hours). I call a half day late and people are telling me that the position has already been filled. I've decided to somehow snag the paper first thing and then exploit these places' clear need for someone now. Unfortunately, all the better jobs I'm suited for are full time. Ah, c'est la vie. At the moment, I've just got a temporary stint, filing at uni and still volunteering to be meeter and greeter at open days. I complain not, because UNSW is extraordinarily generous to its employees. Late November, falling in line with this pc, my laptop decided it was time to call it quits and I lost a lot of writing. I wish I had meant it when I said I was going to put my writing on hiatus because then, maybe I wouldn't have lost so much. If there's anything I've learnt from this - besides the fact that I have a bizarre love/hate relationship with computers - it's backup, backup and backup! Now, I've got everything on the laptop (which we had fixed in January.. till then, no computer at all in the house), and two extra disks. I still doubt whether that's enough but... I'll live (I hope!).I was really out of it during the following months (although there were some pretty good distractions... a bunch of 21sts (including my own), good ol' Christmas...). I lost an entire story, and huge chunks out of almost all the others. I justify my lack of floppy usage with the fact that I lost some assignments because of disks which suddenly stopped working for reasons unknown so I saw no point. Not till I could get some new ones anyway... plus, the laptop had been reliable to that point so I guess I got complacent about the whole thing. Pretty big mistake eh? I tried writing by hand again (the keyboard has spoilt me. My handwriting isn't fast enough) and was able to punch out a few things. Re-writing is such a bitch though. I tried to stop thinking of it as re-writing but it's hard... you still can't help but think that what you are trying to write, is never going to be as good as what you had originally. Nevertheless, was finally able to 'rebuild on the ruins' as I kept putting it and, although not every lost scene has been rewritten, I've been able to write new ones quite well and begin new pieces :D Basically, I'm back on my way. Coz I was sick most of the holidays (the heat! Bloody, ghastly hell, the heat!), I was only able to pursue those less strenuous activities... aside from trying to write (I just couldn't do it for a pretty long time) did a lot of sketching and drawing, got started on some new piano pieces, read a lot (got some excellent books for my birthday and Christmas... to name a few; On Writing, by Stephen King, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Catcher In The Rye, Gibran's The Prophet... I also got Tuesdays with Morrie but my friend forgot it the day of my 21st so she gave it to me last week at uni, meaning I haven't had the chance to read it yet... been too busy), and basically added to my movie collection (aahhh cable...). Man... I knew the lack of time would do nothing. Ok, quickies:- Chris, that talk finally happened. I'll email you as soon as I can with the details :D but I can tell you... so much weight off my shoulders! Hurrah! ;) - Wedding notices! My friend Kirsty got married late last year and another friend of mine, Angela (Happy 20th darl and congrats!!), just got engaged. Angela and I were friends back when we were little and we've only just recently gotten back in touch... her daughter is so adorable! And pretty well-behaved for an almost 3 yr old!Ok, ok, I think I'm gonna wrap this one up now. Focus! Assignments! I've been ODing on the net usage over the last couple days (catch up was necessary, as well as fixing up a few new things) and I'm trying to avoid that AOL warning that fires itself at any users that go over 95 hours in a month, giving us a 20minute time limit online :P I just hope y'all are doing well :) Hmmm... maybe that would have sufficed as opposed to drivel above. Oh well, tough.
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 ;)
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.
...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.
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*
... mid session break begins. I breathe a huge sigh of relief... there it goes. A week off! Woohoo! (wanted to insert a cool Homer Simpson pic there, but couldn't find one :P)
I had no idea that it would take me this long to get this thing updated but unfortunately, my workload urgently demanded that much... damn uni for being such an attention whore. Although, with the downs came the ups this last week (hurrah!) and it's been pretty cool overall.
Some of the 'ups':
- (this is a major one actually) Kim's wedding
- the turnaround on my 'depression' (another biggie!)
- (this was clearly after busting my ass doing work) handing in my research proposal and finishing up my Psychopathology mid session exam
- getting the statistical analyses on my social psychology results done (Bill... you are a legend!)
I don't really think that bringing up the 'downs' would really go with the whole, 'they are over and done with' principle so I'm sparing people that. :P
FF is down again it seems :( Hackers suck. Spammers suck. That idiot ass who developed the frikkin Blaster Worm Virus, sucks. There is no other way to say it all, other than the direct way. So there it was.
I don't actually have a lot of time to go into much at the moment, but I did want to just sort of bring this up to date, considering I don't know when, within the next week, I'll be able to get hold of a computer which has the net connected to it.
Hope everyone's doing ok at the moment :)
Only today was I made aware of a couple of things, one however was something that only happened last night so that's no surprise I suppose... apparently, two students from my uni were found murdered in an apartment right by my campus last night. Apparently, international students (which UNSW is chock full of, btw) have recently been becoming targets of extortion schemes and kidnappings and police suspect that what happened last night, may be yet another case of this.
I looked on the SMH and the Australian news sites for a better article but, lo and behold, there wasn't even one. I really should've known. Both completly hopeless papers.
There have been a lot of similar incidents reported around uni lately... about a couple weeks ago, a friend of mine was walking along the street with her boyfriend when they noticed a car appeared to be following them. These two guys then jumped out and attacked her boyfriend and tried to rob them both. Thankfully, the guys then made a break for it, leaving my friend and her boyfriend there. He was pretty roughed up though... they were just walking back to where he had parked his car.
With this sort of thing happening, I'm glad that I use public transport. It's still makes me a little jittery though.
I also only just read Cranberry's post about the state of FF - btw, thanks for the link Chris :) - and although they've assured us that it's coming back online, I'm still missing a lot of people I only get to really talk to via FF... I did try and get in last friday and I remember that stupid page coming up. Hope it comes back on soon and to the admins working on it - you guys rock.
On some lighter notes, I have finally come up with a topic for my research proposal for Organisational (hurrah!). As it's due next monday, there goes a lot of weight off my shoulders! Now to just construct an experiment or a correlational study...
The Panthers beat the Broncos! The Panthers beat the Broncos! That completely made my weekend :) It started out pretty badly, Broncos getting an early lead, but once again, the Panthers kicked ass in the second half and won 28-18 :) I'll admit, Brisbane haven't been doing too well lately. I think they've lost 8 games in a row, but they're a pretty powerful team so I was still nervous as Penrith is only this year, bringing itself up.
And they won!
Ok, chin's up :)
I know that I didn't say much with regard to 911 yesterday and, in all honesty, I didn't really want to. I understand people wanting to remember such a terrible day... what it stood for and the effect it had on so many lives, and I respect that. But at the same time, I hate the fact that everywhere I turn, it's being flashed in my face by the media, like ads for some new product.
It's that part that sickens me. Nothing else.
I don't know about everyone else... I do remember where I was and what I was doing when I found out what happened. I also remember listening to my radio on the train to uni that morning and listening to update after update. It was scary, but at the same time, I don't think I was really feeling anything... not yet anyway. That didn't happen until all the footage was shown on all the news channels later that day. And the next day. And the days and weeks after that... and so on.
All I can say is that my prayers are with all those people who were, in any way affected by 911... it's the best I can offer.
That said, I thought that this very simple tribute was really beautiful.
Thanks for that Wil.
Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to wear to Kim and Shane's wedding on Saturday. It's finally happening! The two of them have been engaged for almost 3 years now and the original date had to be postponed and I am totally happy for them :D
I remember how back at school, we kinda threw around our ideas of who would be the first ones in our class to get married (if anyone! lol)... boy, were we wrong! Ok, so I don't think that Michelle (who got married last October) was that huge a shock but I'm pretty damn sure that not a lot of people would have put Kim down as #2 lol. Or Kirsty, whose wedding is coming up in November (I think), as #3 for that matter. What makes this whole thing even funnier is that onlynow is my 26 year old brother having to spend a fortune on wedding gifts, at the same time as I am. Then again, marriage isn't exactly the norm for 20-21 year olds is it? I've freaked out a lot of people with the news of my old friends' weddings and engagements, I have to say. Actual looks of terror even...
It's pretty damn funny.
I'm also expecting a couple more engagements over the next year or so... I could be totally wrong or goodness knows what might happen between now and then but well, I guess we'll see.
I am incredibly happy because I finished my data collection for my Social Psych experiment today! We needed 80 people and since my group has 4 people in it, we split into pairs and each pair had 40 people to cover each, 20 for the experimental condition and 20 for the control condition.
All of yesterday and today my partner, Melissa, and I trekked the entire campus (I'm not kidding... my feet... they absolutely hate me right now), approaching people and asking them to try some unusual food which, according to us, studies had shown contained particular food chemicals which have been found to enhance memory (for the experimental condition - with a cognitive load in the form of a memory test) or attention (for the control condition - without a cognitive load). We then administered the Stroop Test (do it if your game ;) It's pretty funny) and that was pretty much it.
Of course afterwards, we had to debrief each participant and tell them that our study was actually looking to see how they would react to the appearance of the bizarre looking food (would they blurt out or not?) and how that related to inhibition, which was measured by the Stroop Test. In both conditions, we had to totally up the food so that it would be at least somewhat inappropriate for them to blurt out something, especially something negative.
Considering how tedious that all sounds, we could see that some subjects saw it that way as well... that is, up until they saw the chicken feet and then did the Stroop Test. In the end, that had a lot of people laughing and relaxing a bit more considering they knew we were conducting a Psych experiment (honestly, we have the worst reputation for disturbing people during their lunch breaks and dumping weird and scary questionnaires and tests on them lol. The minute the words 'Psych students' came out, it would usually be followed by a bout of knowing or suspicious laughter).
We received a whole lot of different reactions, ranging from total disgust, to 'ooh yeah, I love this stuff!' and several in betweeners. We didn't approach anyone of Asian background considering we doubted that they would be all that schocked were they to see the chicken feet. More people than we expected were daring enough to actually eat the food - we were even running out! But all in all, people seemed pretty cool about the fact that we had *ahem* had to bend the truth a bit during the experiment :D
Oh man, I simply can't wait to get started on statistically analysing our data *shudder*. Now that's the real fun part.
Ugh... I'm gonna have to shudder again.
Oh yeah, adding to the above 'Hurrah!!' - Penrith got the Minor Premiership!!! They killed the Eels with a score of 40-22 (I despise the Eels so this was a bit of an extra bonus as far as I was concerned), with Rhys Wesser breaking the record for most tries scored in a season with 24 and Girdler's conversion rate actually improving, despite the fact that hardly a minute into the game, he was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. Awesome, awesome game... just bloody fantastic. I'm a little nervous because next week they're up against the Broncos - one scary as team - and these are the qualifying finals... here's to the hope that they do just as well in the finals!
I am in true Friday afternoon mode at the moment: keyed up and a little nuts! Fun place to be right now, especially after this week... it's been a bit psycho lately.
So, you want a Chupa Chup or not? I've got em all - fruity ones, cola ones, creamy ones... it's a little tantalising for me, walking around with a bag full of lollipops whilst my sweet tooth continues to act up but because they are our form of 'compensation' for anyone who takes part in our social psych experiment...
Bugger.
We've had to revise our method again but we begin conducting it formally on Monday (finally! We've done enough practice, I reckon). I only wish I could get a pic up of the food we're going to be showing to people... seriously mate, it's just bloody gorgeous. It's chicken feet, which I know quite a few people wouldn't find so shocking, but I swear, when I looked into that container, they looked to me like hands! Gnarled, bony, burnt hands!
Pardon me a moment while I get really girly here but... eeeeeewwwwwwwwwww!
I am aware that my lack of experience with Asian food is pretty shocking considering I'm Filo but coz I'm allergic to most other Asian dishes, I could NOT help myself. Hands I tell you!
The weekend looks to be dull and full of note taking... if anyone can think of anything they might be interested in investigating or studying concerning behaviour in organisations/the workplace, drop me a line 'cause at the moment, I am completely stuck for my Org. Psych research proposal hehehe...
:wave:
Again, I'm celebrating a Panthers win! Hurrah! Not only did they completely annihilate the Eagles (52-26!!) but they are back on top of the ladder with a real lead :D A bloody great job but also - Lewis, Wesser and Campbell... you. guys. rock! At half time, the score was a 12-26, in favour of the Eagles so the second half was just awesome. Woohoo!
Anyway, that made for a pretty sweet weekend, as far as I'm concerned. Although, there was the slight disruption which held back my completion of my Psych presentation and this came in the form of my little sister's friend, gracing us with her presence for the entire weekend. Now she's a cool little kid, but a weekend of her and my sister combined is just a little too much.
The result? I was up till 5am this morning, working on my assignment. The really cool part was waking up at 6am in order to get ready and catch my train (I had to get in early to fix up my overheads). I know, I know... I'm sick. I don't need anyone to tell me this (not that that stops people). Believe me, I know. ;)
I'm cool with it now though, considering the presentation is over, meaning I have a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. I am not the worst at presentations, but I'm certainly not the best. This is especially the case when the topic is one I'm not very familiar with at all par example, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It didn't help that the reading itself was badly structured and all over the place... my tutor even acknowledged this.
Tomorrow, Ri and I will be doing our child behaviour coding. We have to go to a family's house and observe a child during a supposedly high stress time, in our case dinnertime, and sit there for a half hour observing and coding the target child's behaviour and interaction with his/her parents. Ri and I know the girl we're doing but hopefully this doesn't disrupt things too much. The whole situation is most probably not going to be the most naturalistic but it's the best we can do at this point without the use of a lounge-like lab. The two of us there is to ensure inter-rater reliability between results.
Doesn't Psychopathology sound grand? ;)
Our Social Psych experiment is almost up and running... we just have to meet up with our tutor one more time to run it by him and also get ethics approval for it, then UNSW students on your breaks? Watch yourselves! Hehehehe...
Btw, Chris, I can't use imagestation on this comp :( because I don't have admin capabilities but hopefully when the comp at home is fixed, I can upload the pics there. But thanks heaps for the suggestion! :D
Anyhow, it's time to get back to work, I have a research proposal I have to also get started on for Organisational, which is due in week 9 and it's now week 6 :eek:
:D
