Kitchen Appliance Propaganda.

Blat Blat Blat

2012-01-31T00:30:00.000+08:00

Here are the coolest evil creatures I can remember seeing. They're very simple and remain scary, even when dead. The production utilises them well, seemingly using a good physics model for the movement, making it very believable and organic, rather than some crass robot model. I also liked that there's a sense of heft to them and that they aren't impossible to beat.

The monster aliens invade a council estate in London. More praise is due for making use of the setting well. You get a sense of the building, three-dimensionally. The architecture is shown-off pretty well. There's also praise for localising it instead of making it another science fiction epic without the epic gut impact it needs to sit well. This decision equals blat blat blat instead of po po po. I propose informally calling this the Dawn of the Dead clause.

♥

Mirror Camp

2012-01-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

This movie is a remake prequel of a 1982 movie that is highly regarded, but I wasn't in love with. Same sentiments here.

It's pretty much the same thing, but with even less recognizable characters. There's a sort-of boyfriend character here but that is not exploited (a good thing, but that I sort of got a whiff of it is a bad thing). Mary Elizabeth Winstead isn't an attractive lead. She isn't wooden, but she isn't really engaging. She's the lead so a lot of plot development is for her, what else with the minor characters?

♥

Quit Bucky

2012-01-29T00:30:00.000+08:00

I had a whole sack of points and elaborations prepared about how, among all the comic-book characters out there, Captain America was one that I was very excited about an adaptation of.

This is mainly about the action. Look at the Marvel Ultimate Alliance franchise and Cap is one of the more enjoyable characters to utilise (at least for me). He has a shield, a physically separate weapon which makes his moves and combination of moves one of the coolest this side of a very complicated Spider-man simulation (or Kyle Rayner). He can throw it and wait for it to boomerang/ricochet back to him. He can use it as a shield, he can uppercut people with it, he can bull-ram people with it. So cool, and something very visual that could be translated very well onto the big screen.

♥

Pidgin

2012-01-28T00:30:00.000+08:00

What if fate steers you to what isn't allowed? What if that is also morally unacceptable? Tim Robbins' character is faced another question, what if you want it too?

This is a subtle movie. The questions, they aren't broached, they aren't asked directly, they aren't even minded much. Everything is done with a slight air of matter-of-fact-ness. Coupled with the mutedness is a bit of distance, even alienation.

We get shots of a compound metropolis edited from establishing shots of Shanghai, Dubia, and a number of other locations. This establishes a foreign, and legitimate, fututropolis that is both unfamiliar yet apparent enough in its roots to have a slightly stronger impact (than a wholly new landscape). That editing, the pidgin that has words you don't quite catch, and the handheld (-like?) camera work sets our two central leads against a backdrop that is unforgiving. They're alone.

Tim Robbins is an inspector who uses an 'empathy virus' to help him read people. Samantha Morton is a suspect who he takes a liking to. Robbins is married but that's easily forgotten in a foreign city miles from home, where no one knows you. Morton reciprocates and they part ways. All the while, since the title card, Morton's been narrating in the past tense. So she doesn't die, maybe. But what happens from now to when she is narrating?

There are hints and you know what's up before the two leads. You look on at their adventures, how they deal with conflict, etcetera. This is really more of a mood film than a story film. The aces are there. That isn't to say there is no story, or that there is one but it's horrible. It's just a bit of a low. You figure things out much earlier and surprises and far between. The story also isn't something very novel. It isn't used to bits, but when I figured out what was happening (I go into movies with as little plot as possible), it didn't make me restless with interest.

(Code 46 - Michael Winterbottom)

Romantic Gruff

2012-01-27T00:30:00.000+08:00

In a sort of Bond retrospective, I checked-out an informal duology that's had a bit of flack thrown at it, but also some praise for being dark and gritty and generally not Roger Moore. I remember liking them when I first saw them many many years ago.

This second look, not so much. It's not depressingly dark and that may have dimmed my outlook on it. And I do see the loss of flair people have complained about. They were really pretty okay. I didn't feel really bored that I wanted to do something else. But it didn't grab my attention with a compelling story and great visuals.
♥

Mission Comedy

2012-01-26T00:30:00.000+08:00

I really do think you'll enjoy this when you go and see it, but I seem to have lost the appreciation for these fun popcorn sort of things.

Some things that the production wanted seem to have been accomplished. Tom Cruise is a legit lead. The supporting cast has a significant role here, but Cruise still works as a good hook to follow. His Ethan Hunt, though an old character, never felt strained or rudimentary or boring. He still has that wile to him. The same goes to the goal of adding a sense of showmanship. It's decidedly playful, and it's a fun romp from the opening sequence to the title sequence, to the final fight scene. The problem is that this isn't my sort of thing. It's admirable and does lend a dash of flourish to what you expect of a stock action-thriller. But I'm more of a gritty realism guy and much of the draw fell flat for me. It could be argued that I didn't watch on an IMAX screen, but that doesn't deflect comparisons to better-punching movies without that technical luxury.

♥

Burmese Nights

2012-01-25T00:30:00.000+08:00

Camphor hung in the air
mixing with what the monsoon rain left
making things seem worse than they were

the sheets clung
with sweat and damp
naked back

♥

Foggy Weather

2012-01-24T00:30:00.000+08:00

Chapter Two Reflection

People are vain. Even if they insist that they are not, or even if they don't seem to be, they are full of self-serving biases. The chapter starts off with spotlight effects and illusions of transparency which, if you think about it, are forms of self-handicapping. By using these big terms, you're relaying that your not-so-stellar paper presentation was out of your control. It's not that you didn't prepare or you weren't able to catch your audience's attention, you simply are an anxious wreck and that botched the presentation. This semi-subconscious relinquishing of control works by absenting you from fault (at least in your eyes).

The underlying mechanism here is the self-concept and the sub-related self-esteem and self-efficacy. To go through the definitions: self-concept is how you see yourself (in whole), self-esteem is how good you feel about yourself, and self-efficacy is how good in a certain domain you are (for example, academic self-efficacy). The multitude of research cited in the Chapter gives evidence or proves that these cognitive constructs are affected by the social environment a person moves around in.

♥

Shrinkage

2012-01-23T00:30:00.000+08:00

Our Heroes and Science Reflection

There exists this stereotype of the 'nerd', the 'dorky nerd'. They're not even 'geeks' who are now crossing the line of coolness. There are people labelled as nerds and much maligned for being such. What is the image that comes up in your head when you hear 'nerd'? They're academics, they're obsessive with knowledge, they don't have the greatest attachment to hygiene, they're the antithesis of physical achievement, they aren't very attractive. But when you think about it, some of our National Heroes were, well, nerds.

Now whether you're fiercely nationalistic or very blasé towards the whole Pinoy, World Class ideology, these people are very impressive. A case in point during the lecture was Antonio Luna. Post-doc, brilliant military strategist, and enviable moustache. Even if you hate Jose Rizal, he was,well, better than you and used his potential. You have to respect that.

♥

Common Sense

2012-01-22T00:30:00.000+08:00

Chapter One Reflection

A good place to start this is something we've brought up in class, that's also something I just noticed while reading a few chapters of Myers. A bunch of stuff doesn't get published. And a bunch of stuff doesn't get published in the journals with really large readership.

We brought up how politics and economy mainly influence these, but the bigger matter is that only a modicum of the sum total voices are actually heard. We've discussed how the East (and Europe) managed to form journals of their own and create discussions of their own. The under-appreciated phrase there is 'of their own', which is to say we haven't really solved the problem.

♥

Making an Experiment

2012-01-21T00:30:00.000+08:00

Hi, I'm Jethro, and I do like my name even if baristas have a hard time getting it right. I don't think I have a rather well-built self-concept, but that may be modesty kicking in, or a case of multiple selves—which I admit to. I'm pretty different, I think, when I'm at school to when I'm with relative to when I'm home to how I am on the internet. And it's a bit of both me acting differently and people in these different contexts perceiving and treating me differently.

I enjoy movies and comic books. I enjoy this, I think, more than most people enjoy them on average. I hunt for copies and I'm generally very selective to what I watch/read. I'm sure I enjoy other things more than the usual as well. They might come up later on, but these two are the ones that are most accessible to me right now, the recency effect having, well, an effect.

I think these are two under-appreciated art forms that are worth more than what the normal person thinks. You could link that back to me psycho-analytically for fun, I guess.

♥

Some school organizations ask more of you during application than the Order of the Phoenix.

2012-01-20T00:30:00.000+08:00

A Spell

2012-01-19T00:30:00.000+08:00

In the vein of Le Samourai and the antics of The Transporter comes another character in that good righteous loner archetype. Ryan Gosling plays him in the same coolness we've seen with the archetype, and adds a bit of weakness and humanity to the role. He's cold, and probably a psychopath, but he's capable of feelings and attachment. This brings him farther from Delon and closer to the more mainstream Statham, without distancing himself from our sentiments.

That was a cheesy line. In contrast to the adjective-less title, this is all about the adjectives. The plot and the characters are constructs we have seen before countless times. Gosling is a garage mechanic who does some work as a stuntman and moonlights as a getaway driver for hire. He is even less adorned than Delon. His apartment lies in the shroud of darkness, as is his past. We are told about how he became, or if he has a personality, or how he feels about certain things.

♥

A Better Way

2012-01-18T00:30:00.000+08:00

Movies aren't great dates because I watch movies. What is, is something I came up with, but still haven't found a name for. It's like a road trip, but without the necessary preparation and packing. You take a road trip..around the metropolis. An 'Urban trip'?

Food detours are optional. The important part is have a sublime soundtrack setting the mood. I would suggest primarily melodic jazz pieces. Nothing supremely complicated or very atmospheric, then pepper that with some very moody melodies (I would suggest the songs Kaneda and Tetsuo) and some sing-alongs and slightly obscure music that you really really like. Again, keep the music light, but still personal.

♥

Bugenhagen

2012-01-17T01:00:00.000+08:00

Here, we can easily see the different paradigms in (horror?) cinema. I kind of like the full-on, more naturalistic theme of more recent movies, rather than the more melodramatic, even romantic, look of horrors past. This sort of works against my appreciation of the film since it has a tendency to get in the way.

You, no doubt, are familiar with the story and the baby switcheroo. In the details, there's the pretty scary moment of the dog in the house, and the dogs in the fog. But you wonder if they could have been scarier if they weren't just dogs (scary, but not that scary). It the same thing with the music. There's a good bit with the dogs, but it comes up short when it comes to the drama, with the music coming off as fluky (through no fault of theirs, just the times moving on). David Warner's hair was not a problem, though.

♥

Two Become One

2012-01-16T00:30:00.000+08:00

This was great. The effects stand up nicely to age and definitely preserved its original impact when it was first shown in cinemas decades ago. We have Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle (a scientist) and Geena Davis (Veronica) as a journalist. Brundle tells Veronica that he's working on what is essentially a teleportation device. Forgetting she's a journalist, some hilarity ensues and Brundle makes a deal with Veronica.

They become fast friends and lovers. Well, Veronica basically seduces Brundle. Yay for the woman who knows what she wants, I guess. Of course, things go wrong. It's something that was novel to me, but maybe not to you, but certainly a favourable take to the 1958 version of this story that eschews most of the plot progression and complication for probably something else.

♥

No Bees Here

2012-01-15T01:00:00.000+08:00

Another slightly disappointing movie in this Halloween Countdown. I was vaguely familiar with the plot beforehand, seeing some parts of the unfortunate remake with Nicholas Cage. The lead is a policeman (Edward Woodward) who's been sent an anonymous letter reporting the disappearance of a child on the island of Summerisle. He goes and investigates and slowly realises that the whole island is covering something up.

I think it's more of a thriller in this sense, and the horror is only a secondary element. We get the horror from the bizarre sense of normal the isolated locals have. Their rituals, their teachings, etcetera. It's certainly more revolting if you were a fast Christian with all the details unnerving your sensibilities.

♥

Safest Place

2012-01-14T01:30:00.000+08:00

I tried cheating my Halloween Countdown so it cheated me back. This was a terribly boring movie with little in the way of excitement or endearing characters. It wasn't funny either.

The plot is that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (in their usual derpy selves) are suddenly faced with a not very violent zombie apocalypse and what follows is a bit like Cloverfield. They're sort of in the safe but they see thay they've left someone behind, someone they like/love/etcetera is in danger and they think they're fully capable of salvaging the situation. Deaths happen in very undramatic fashion and things conclude.

♥

Hair and Moustache

2012-01-13T01:30:00.000+08:00

Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie's kid daughter drowns at the country home they are staying at. Depression, of course, follows. They've tried to put things behind them and Sutherland is working at Venice, restoring a church. The macabre follows them to Venice though. Soon, there are unsolved murders, someone with a red shiny mac just like their daughter, and two Scottish ladies. Also, accidents and freak happenings.

I think people who study film will appreciate it more than I did. The jump-cut editing and the pervading use of symbolism certainly holds some attractiveness. It may have been the dated-ness of the film, but I think these effects would be more effective if they're reworked in a remastering or even a remake. Blasphemy, maybe.

♥

Switch

2012-01-12T01:00:00.000+08:00

Two girl friends go off to spend the weekend with one of the girl's family. A serial killer comes in the night to kill all of them. Said serial killer manages to kill everyone but the two girls. He abducts one of them, and the other sets out to save her friend.

It's a pretty standard serial killer horror movie. It's good that it manages to maintain the ramped-up action throughout. It doesn't give us time to breathe and think, and this works very well for it—exploiting the tension and reeling us in. Everyhing is energetic and we're saved the burden of too much talking.

I also liked how well it defined the setting. There aren't rambling establishing shots and the film instead rolled the setting quite deftly with character focused sequences (as it should). This parsimony allows us to recreate (and have a good sense of) the general location, the characters, and most importantly, the mood, in as few sequences as possible.

♥

Tuna sandwiches and bad shrimp

2012-01-11T01:30:00.000+08:00

The DC soft reboot marketing machine is rolling out great books (Morrison, JH Williams, Azzarello), potentially great ones (Grifter, JLDark), and horrors (Leifeld, Krul, Suicide Squad). Allow me to—like many others—be sentimental and grieve the old books loss in the shuffle and restructuring like a parent does a child going off to college (or something like that inappropriate American metaphor). Allow me to mourn the loss of Xombi. It never really fit into the Flashpoint crap (nothing really did, of course). It didn't have any of the recognizable superheroes, and was, for all intents, a Vertigo book misplaced onto the DC stable of pastel spandex and Geoff Johns.

After getting past the admittedly horribly done logo, you find yourself surrounded by the universe that Dwayne McDuffie created all those years ago for Milestone Media. Penning this modern series is John Rozum who has my admiration for effectively summarising this pocket universe, this sequence in comic-time.

♥

Spoilers

2012-01-10T01:30:00.000+08:00

Let's be honest, those filler episodes were horribly bad. Going into the mid-season break, I was losing interest fast. Then we get back to regular programming and it was more of the boring same. I mean, don't get me wrong. They weren't The Event horrible, but they were just not on par with what you expect from the series.

I guess that speaks a lot about how Steven Moffat and the rest of the crew have been so good. The first two episodes were very good. I liked how it started. It was a novel territory (America) and tapped into the cool of espionage and state secrets and aliens in post-war America. Of course, the second half of that story kind of lost track. Even then, it was the first time I actually 'reviewed' a television episode. That is to say, it was still really something.

Like I said, the rest of the season kind of overstayed and things were pretty bad between me and the series.

♥

Polaroids

2012-01-09T01:00:00.000+08:00

We start off on a dark night with a car running along an underlit road. We expect the passengers to seem something and hit it and get into an accident and die. Everything but the last comes true. They survive which means they're our protagonists. They run over a girl but reluctantly decide to drive away even if i was an accident, not checking if the victim actually died. That is, the girl will surely get back at them and haunt them and kill them.

It's something very derivative. For something famously very scary and spooky, it is. From the pretty long opening credits with the spooky music up to the end, there are a bunch of scares hidden within the plot of a ghost/restless soul trying to get back at the two lover protagonists.

An element here is film and how it's capable of capturing after-shadows of the restless. We expand a bit when we meet an editor of a ghosts-in-photographs magazine that elaborates on this phenomenon (cameras, ghosts existing), but it isn't followed through save for a footnote at the end. Few things happen so you strain your eyes to see what's going on, then bam. Heart attack. It's not a very deliberate progression.

♥

Duguan

2012-01-08T03:15:00.000+08:00

Shakespeare transferred to the Philippines. It's pretty novel, and certainly interesting. The adaptation is set in around the present day, likely in the provinces, during Election Time. The plot revolves around this theme and we are introduced to characters that have a specific interest in this election.

There are factions. One is of the Torres and another is the family of Castillo. From the start, we see the parallels between the plot and reality. There is the phenomenon of political dynasties, the escalating violence, and the lies and deceit and double crossing. The two families generally fight rather violently and much blood is sprayed upon the audience. This mindless violence and over-the-top quality pervades the whole production like the Kill Bill movies. There are pangs of black humour further intensified by the violence everywhere. A scene that perfectly illustrates this is one with the Superintendent and the character Chua.

♥

No Winners

2012-01-07T01:22:00.000+08:00

This was the only other film that day that you could call 'good', but even then it's still a bit undercooked or not as tight as it could be.

This tells us about an old lady. She's a widow and she's poor. She sings Pasyon songs since she needs the money. In a twist, she decides to line up for one of those noontime game shows. What follows was rather painful to watch. Painful not because it was bad, but painful because it was true.

I think it effectively replicated the farce that is local television on the side of the noontime game shows and how they shame their participants in the vein of 'helping them' and 'giving entertainment'. It is later revealed that she had a daughter who was in UP and was killed (just three days ago) and is pending burial (because she doesn't have the money). It's a nice (unintentional?) touch that she's looking for help from the exact evil her daughter was presumably fighting (capitalism, taking advantage of the poor, commodification of people, etcetera).

♥

Toothless Propaganda

2012-01-06T01:00:00.000+08:00

Another short feature about student activism, we have two characters and two stories here. We of course know that they'll intertwine later, but first: the individual stories.

One is named Maris, the other I didn't quite catch. They both have issues with student activism in that both want to be one, but circumstances are against them. With Maris, she's out of school (not clear why) and her mother disapproves of her activism vibes and continues to harangue her for these beliefs. The other girl is split against getting a paid student internship (she needs to go to an interview first) and going to a protest march. Maris is sort of motivated by her absent father who seems to have been killed or something, probably for complaining to the government. The other girl is being swayed by letters from her friend who is in jail for such activism.

♥

Cardboard in a room

2012-01-05T01:30:00.000+08:00

This is your standard rich family reunion drama fare. There's quite a bit of clunky English dialogue and snapping at each other. We have a spat between the patriarchs, some animosity between a patriarch and his only son (made to be gay, but this detail seems to be unimportant), and some hanger-ons from the dregs of the family (possibly) using the name for themselves.

The problem here is obvious. We don't really like the characters, and they don't make cases for themselves either. We are fed some drama but it doesn't stick, exactly because we don't care a bit for these characters. There's a lot of data being given, but it's never summated into something sensible. It gives a bad illusion of having depth where there is none. It's a thin story, and it comes out as knowing it and trying to hide it with all these superfluous details like a mentally handicapped kid, the secretary who's the new wife, the boy toy.

Then we end with an ending, though clear, has faulty foundations. How did we go from the twenty minutes of previous film to this? And what is it exactly trying to say? What is this movie trying to say?

(Austria 2011 - Geli Blanco)

Postpone

2012-01-04T01:30:00.000+08:00

The parents have gone missing (abducted?), and it's inevitable that the kids ask questions and worry. The grandmother (the only adult left) is worried. You worry too, and the kids worrying only doubles your worry. It's still unresolved, so there is hope. But it's a delicate matter, how do we tell the kids?

Here, the older brither (but still a kid) fabricates a story of their family being The Incredibles for his younger sister. They're superheroes and their parents are D' Osom 2 (the awesome two, but their surname is Osom; it works). The story works and delays the unhappy ending for a while longer.

Coming into this, I had very low expectations. I do not like kids in movies. But this works. I was thoroughly surprised. And beyond some minor qualms, it's really quite good.

♥

Yearning as well

2012-01-03T01:00:00.000+08:00

This looks at three characters and three stories. They meet, but don't really interact.

All three are students in Diliman and their plotlines revolve around the student protest that afternoon. It culminates with an ending that had to be explained to me. It has one of the characters (the second one) running across a pedestrian walkway along Commonwealth Avenue. She was being pursued by cops (that was sort of hinted, but still unfounded). There were also swirls of smoke that had me interpreting it incorrectly. Pretty sloppy there. Anyway, the characters:

One is a Chinese girl who has a prohibitive mother (second guessing letting her child study in the 'hotbed' of student activism; she also has a clunky accent, we never see her face so she might be our age). This girl is with the 'in crowd'. She would be that standard girl from CBA or Econ who could be from Ateneo. Her friends are in the similar mould. Of course, she's special. She sort of understands the issues activists are protesting, and is contemplating joining them. She doesn't.

♥

Armchair Victims

2012-01-02T01:30:00.000+08:00

This one talks about the resettlement issue. For those who don't know, illegal settler or residents of an area about to be subject to Public Works projects (road-widening, etcetera) are relocated to new settlements by the government. Of course for the hassle, you're also given a sort of severance sum. This shows the problem with that arrangement, and how unfair things are for these people. This is an important issue and I didn't know it existed before. So props for that.

However, that's a news report. Or maybe a news documentary. It doesn't get into you beyond the facts, and this is a feature proposal .In that, it fails miserably.

♥

Max the Dancing Chicken

2012-01-01T01:00:00.000+08:00

This talks about a sort of cult (thankfully the non-violent kind) that worships a local (deceased) rock star.

We look at a family of believers and the token non-believer from the city. This non-believer is also the filmmaker and an estranged member of the family (her mom left the town). These two elements aren't really played well (we have to remember that this is, at best, a short feature so there are constraints). The movie sort of goes forward with a countdown to the time of reckoning and a cock (by that I mean the avian sort; and wonderfully named 'Max') 'dancing' (off-screen) and we have some interviews with locals (like the family members, the mother of the rockstar, someone from the local government). We visit the home of the rockstar (now a museum) and see trinkets and holy items being sold as well as the number of believers. Later we go back home for midnight (as the apocalypse always starts at 00:00 local time).

Nothing, of course, happens. The filmmaker sees this as proof of how misguided the townsfolk are, but the townsfolk see it as Claudio (the rockstar) postponing and being good to them. Bless Claudio! The film then cuts to an epilogue of tabloid snippets of how the film has gained renown and made the town a laughingstock, with reactions from the townsfolk in more interviews.

♥

Red State

2011-12-31T12:14:00.000+08:00

Second time to be at Likha Adarna so you can expect a few paragraphs over the next few days regarding the shorts I saw. I think most of them revolved around the idea of film as mapagpalaya at mapagpasya. Films sort of had student activist themes and general student problems. Nothing genre, so that may have diffused my enthusiasm a bit. This batch was generally less entertaining, pretty unimpressive and even boring. But there was a surprise here and there, so it's all good. I saw seven, missed one because of an exam, and saw about a third of one.

That third is Working While in Class (Mai Calapardo). The one I missed was Ugoy (Maxine Adriana Agutaya Casaclang). According to this poll, I didn't miss out on a lot, so that's great. I obviously can't talk about the latter, but about the former, some words:

It was okay and a bit unimpressive. I of course, couldn't relate, but the film was sort of able to make me feel the crossroads. I wasn't a fan of the talking heads segment where the lead (her, but not shown onscreen until much later) keeps rattling and complaining, while her friend is onscreen being looked at for a reaction. Friend is of course speechless. This is realistic and scripted, but it came off a bit Bendis. Same thing for some shots. They looked nice, but I didn't feel a connection or a cohesion to make me like them, and they weren't great enough to have merit even without.

♥

First of the new

2011-12-30T00:30:00.000+08:00

I've read through the whole DC New 52 First Issues, so here are my thoughts now going past three sentences a book. Potential spoilers.

G for Go Pick it up, I command you.
P for Potential. Didn't really do much, but seems promising enough to merit your time.
C for Carry On. Unimpressive, didn't like it or hate it. I won't miss it, but I would hold it against you for liking it.
T for Think. Bland enough to consider dropping. Only when you still have a lot of spare time and you've gone through the Gs, Ps, and Cs.
D is Drop. Bad book. I don't hate it (I hate few things) but I really didn't like it, or just see reading it as an effort.

The line is a lot of Cs and Ts, and a lot of Ds, but that there are Gs and Ps is a win for me.

♥

Children with stereotypes and French mindsets.

2011-12-29T00:30:00.000+08:00

Service Learning Reflection

First of all, the experience was rewarding. Throughout my seven semesters in Diliman, I've had a number of service learning activities as requirements for classes (not counting helping the community outside my High School even before), and 'it never gets old'. Yes, of course it's tiring. And sometimes, as this time, the location is quite out of my way, so it's a bit of a hassle. Many times, we're just lazy. But nonetheless, there is the rewarding part of activities like these.

I'm going to make this bit of the report short as it doesn't really help anyone, and doesn't really present areas for improvement. I just want to emphasise that going through the activity was rewarding in the sense that you could see that you were helping these kids. I don't fancy myself a teacher. I'm not very clear and definite when it comes to discussing concepts. I'm not resourceful. I'm not a lot of things educators are. But in this small instance, I was allowed the joy of teaching someone, and that someone learning from me. I didn't waste my time by wasting their time. They actually got something from me, and that—in itself—is/was worth everything.

♥

And old tire. My dream evaporates.

2011-12-28T01:00:00.000+08:00

I see trees and I see
the earth trying in vain, to
pull away
from the
black blood and bad blood
sowed by men.

I wish I could smell the dew on the grass before I go.

2011-12-27T00:30:00.000+08:00

Coverage Four Reflection

The last part of our semester is about, well, the last part of our lives. It looks at what (I guess) our parents are going over at the moment, and will be going over very soon. It's also what our grandparents, and maybe great-grandparents are going through. I believe no one in our class is at this stage of their lives, and that is an interesting point.

Since this is about older people, we are sort of 'forced' to put ourselves into their shoes, into their lives. But much more difficult is that we haven't gone through the experience ourselves. Similar to never knowing loss until loss itself looms over you, it is rather hard to imagine it. It isn't the same if we talk about childhood, or adolescence, or the near future. We've either experienced it, or can sort of see a bit ahead potential roadblocks, experiences you are excited about, etcetera. But this age group, and beyond, how can we? We can't even understand our parents.

♥

How Sure Are You?

2011-12-26T00:30:00.000+08:00

Chapter Twelve Reflection

This chapter basically talks about Decision Making and Reasoning (hence it being the title of the chapter). Going through the chapter, it first looks at how exactly people make decisions. What models seem to work (to explain) the behaviour (of making decisions). And how is the step-by-step process. The chapter then looks at the idea of heuristics, and how our usage of heuristics affects our decision making.

On later sections, the chapter discusses Deductive Reasoning and Inductive Reasoning, and the models we have of those. Deductive Reasoning, in simple terms, is making sense of the relationship between truth statements. Do you 'follow'? Gets ba ? The common set-up is that you're given two statements you assume are true, and a bridging conclusion that you put through the test of logic to ascertain its truthfulness. You've probably encountered this if you took Logic (horrible). The most important thing to remember with reasoning is that in Deductive Reasoning, you can ascertain the validity of a conclusion. You can be sure. Inductive Reasoning involves some guesswork as it involves predicting behaviour, and making inferences from data. You've probably encountered this if you took Psychology (not horrible). And although we try to be as exact and as accurate as possible, we cannot escape that small element of error when we are making conclusions and inferences. We are very close to the exact thing, but we can't be sure.

♥

Sight Beyond Sight

2011-12-25T01:00:00.000+08:00

Chapter Eleven Reflection

The first part of this chapter deals with The Problem Solving Cycle. It's a step-by-step process and resembles the primary school trope: the Scientific Method. It has steps from problem identification, definition, organising information, through evaluation. I want to look a bit into two steps that are less the-name-says-it-all.

One is strategy formation. Besides what you already know, the book also mentions the idea of analysis and synthesis (breaking down, and then piecing up ideas and theories), and divergent and convergent thinking (looking at all the possible options, and pitting them against each other). Another is allocation of resources cognitively which mentions—don't miss it—the idea that good problem solvers focus more on the big picture, than be sticklers about the details. Some things you might want to know.

Just one more thing about The Problem Solving Cycle. Looking at it, it's a step-by-step process (as mentioned), but it is also important to have some degree of flexibility when it comes to cycle. As it is with human situations, it's good to have a system in dealing with problems. It means you're prepared. But you also have to know how to adlib a bit when the situation calls for it. Stiff was never a wholly positive adjective.

♥

Listen to the music

2011-12-24T00:30:00.000+08:00

Psychoacoustics is the scientific study of sound perception. More specifically, it is the branch of science studying the psychological and physiological responses associated with sound (including speech and music). It can be further categorized as a branch of psychophysics. That is the first sentence of the Wikipedia entry. Making things simpler, it is the study of sound and how it translates neurologically. It is essentially the study of the perception of sound. With this simpler definition, we automatically see possible avenues for research. We have music therapy, we have more technological applications like optimising presented sound and music, as well as digitally compressing music.

Looking at our previous lectures, it does seem to make sense. We know that hearing is not only the physical compression and reverb, the vibration. It also involves a perceptual comprehension of the vibrations. As there is the physical, mechanical collection of sound in he auricle, there is the conversion of the sound waves into action potentials once they get into the cochlea's cilia. Here, the action potentials go through certain regions of the brain, being received, translated, and responded to.

♥

Celine Dion

2011-12-23T00:30:00.000+08:00

The RH issue has been a theme in my college life. The very frist lecture I attended as a student here had Kit Tatad talking about RH. Just last week, I want to the RH as HR forum with Senators Cayetano and Santiago. The department I come from has a very pro-RH stance when it comes to the students and the faculty. I guess you could say that I am for the RH Bill. I am in agreement with what it wants to push for, but there do seem to be some loopholes and revisions may help. This is apparent. Not so apparent, but we should also know is that this is as much of a political undertaking as a human undertaking. As long as our fellow Filipinos keep voting these people into our government, we can't escape the fact that there is a lot of tedious lobbying and ceremony for common-sense things to get passed. Until things change, we can't push for 'solid arguments'. It's politics. We have to put up appearances. And even then, there is the fiercely negative that distrusts the RH Bill as much as some people believe in it.

♥

Milktea Education

2011-12-22T00:30:00.000+08:00

I remember seeing the Honor and Excellence video way back and saying 'What's the big deal?'. I have ethnic Chinese roots and come from a local Chinese school (that failed at teaching me Chinese) that was very conservative. Being from that subculture in the community, people expect me to be 'culture shocked'. I'm supposed to be this Chinese dude who never used public transport by himself (before getting into Diliman). People have this impression that I don't eat streetfood or Casaa food (not a fan, but no complaints), and that I can't cross the street.

But I guess I 'owe' my parents for being someone who breaks the stereotype. I fully understand Winnie Monsod's points even if people were shocked by these things, even if the exact same people who raised me to be who I am are sort of pushing me to get a 'nice life through good work abroad'.

♥

Manhid

2011-12-21T00:23:00.000+08:00

Chapter Ten Reflection

More than how language is discussed by English majors, we are interested in the practical nature of language. There is reason to study the bottom-up and top-down process theories of languages. How phonological coding, phonological reading, phonological awareness, and lexical access work. It is pertinent to know how we are aware of sound structures (accurately), how we understand words in isolation, and how we remember confusable phonemes. These are interesting and, come to think of it, similar to how we dissected knowing and cognition in the earlier chapters of our textbook.

But from a popular viewpoint, it's decidedly boring. I once had a discussion with a friend on how our batch was so focused on 'practical applications' of every single thing. A popular point in the First Day Sharing Activity (or the one written behind the index card with a horrible mugshot of yourself) is a desire to see the lessons in class relate to something that would work from an occupational standpoint. That a number of our batch are unsure of their plans after graduation (based on a poll), is irrelevant. People want to see a 'practical application' or else they will sleep in class.

♥

Down Under

2011-12-20T00:22:00.000+08:00

Activity Nine Reflection

I'm technically multilingual. I know English and Filipino (as all of us in class do). But I can also speak a fair bit of Hokkian and Mandarin Chinese. Now, although my family is ashamed of my (lack of) Chinese proficiency (and my accent, such a subject of ridicule), I'm confident I wouldn't be completely terrified of being lost in China as I would be if I were lost in Korea, or Thailand, or a hundred other countries.

I have had some practice in conversing in Chinese (not enough, my parents would say) and will eventually find myself back to wherever I'm staying (and whoever left me to fend for myself) by asking for directions. I can generally understand menus and know how to ask for the rest room. I can understand the gist of newspaper articles give or take a noun I promise I've never encountered before. I can't follow my wuxia movies without subtitles but I can follow noontimes pretty well. I also don't have reading using the new phonetic system and can form sentences. I know the basics and a bit more. That is, I can learn Chinese much easier than the next foreign language offered to me by the DEL. This past paragraph was a point to defend my pretentious stab at calling myself 'multilingual' and not (just) 'bilingual'.

♥

When you are in the pitch-black deep of depression, hurt, and pain, think of the sound a black owl makes.

2011-12-19T00:30:00.000+08:00

♥

Read Me

2011-12-18T00:00:00.000+08:00

Chapter Nine Reflection

A key element of this chapter was conventionality and (versus?) contrast. 'Language', as we know, entails certain properties. It has to be communicative, arbitrarily symbolic, regularly structured, structured at multiple levels, generative/productive, and dynamic. The conventionality/contrast duology specifically looks at two properties, but can also apply to some of the others.

First look at the idea of conventionality. A point-to-point link would be that language is arbitrarily symbolic. It's something agreed-upon by a significant group of people. In ways, it also connects to the idea of being regularly structured. By being a system, and a system beyond an individual, it has to be practical. By being agreed-upon, we assume that the 'speakers' to be called 'speakers' must be able to use it with proficiency and, as such, has rules intended to keep people's inflections within an accepted variance of a 'word'. In a sense, it also links with being dynamic. A language, by being of 'convention', entails a significant people to recognise it and use it and be proficient about its use. This amount of active users would presuppose

On the contrast side, in keeping with the idea that it is a system of communication, it has to contain distinct words (because a *word* with 48 different meanings just isn't very sensible not matter how you look at it). It doesn't stop a bunch of languages being overly complicated from an outsider's point of view, but let's agree that it's a bad artefact. Contrast also looks at the productive and dynamic nature of language. Assuming, again, that things are easier if it's arranged into a one word-one meaning set-up, this set-up looks to cultivate polishing and change, and creation of new words for new meanings (because if everything could be holed in a single word, why make an effort to create a new word with imagination).

♥

Impositions and own volitions

2011-12-17T00:00:00.000+08:00

Coverage Three Reflection

Adolescence and Early/Middle Adulthood are the most important stages in a person's life. You could say that I'm saying that because I'm at the middle of those stages. And you'd be right. But more than that, it really does seem so.

Of course, one could say that all the developmental stages (if you subscribe to the view that development is a stage model) are important in their own way. You'd be right too. But look at the theorised conflicts on these two stages.

Adolescence has Identity vs. Identity Confusion. Right there, you see how important it is. Frequently mentioned is 'finding your niche'. And we see that it seems this stage is key to that. Of course, people do change over their lifespan. Most people say they do. But looking just at our five meeting-long sharing (of course, they are from the same age category as me), we see a trend of this part of the lifespan being incredibly important. Though many say that this was an awkward phase for them, they nevertheless recognised that the events of that time frame helped mould them to who they are now, or defined who they are now.

♥

Anong nasa likod ng scandal?

2011-12-15T00:30:00.000+08:00

What did I learn from class?

I learned a lot of things from the semester long class (of course, and thankfully). Pretty much everything that was discussed was new. I didn't even know Bonobos existed, and I sure didn't know about their Monkey Heaven. If anything, the class provided/equipped me with scientific evidence for things I already knew, I figured (that girls are very complicated).

A good take-away from class is the idea that things aren't as they seem, or that we should be the much idolized 'critical thinkers'. Sure, we can see that this and that happen, that Bonobos get laid as often as we wish we did. But why? Why, and how? We can't and should just go by observable behaviours. Kind of like in Psychology, we can't look at purchasing behaviour and just say that they just like this product so much. We have to ask why they do. How do they relate with this product so much that they just can't help but purchase boatloads of it?

In the same way, we can't just say that person A is buying a whole bunch of, say, this deodorant because a long time ago he was jealous (still is) of his Dad swinging with his Mom and this deodorant reminds him of his Dad and he wants to be like him and likely wears his late Mother's clothes while looking out into the endless road where life goes on and shit. For one thing, that's a pretty long explanation. Another is that it's rather antediluvian and isn't really in tune with our current knowledge, our current science. Another is that it just doesn't make sense.

♥

Filipino people, you're complaining as if the value of our nation rests on a popularity contest.

2011-12-14T01:00:00.000+08:00

♥

Vous êtes boiteux

2011-12-13T01:52:00.000+08:00

Investiture

2011-12-12T02:38:00.000+08:00

Last September 15, UP President Alfredo Pascual had his investiture rites. Basically, even if he was president for a long time already, he only had presidential powers after those rites. If was a boring affair (I am, of course, writing this before it even happened). But you know what would have made it great?

♥

Segue

2011-12-11T01:35:00.000+08:00

Chapter Eight Reflection

I remember watching an episode (or rather, part of an episode) of Big Bang Theory to introduce our topic of conversations. In a way, it demonstrated the Theory of Unconscious Inference—or what I understand to be a nephew of the local concept of pakikiramdam.

In that segment, one of the characters (Sheldon) keeps interrupting the lunch conversation of his friends. He broaches topics that are unrelated to the current thread and doesn't wait for any of his friends to finish their say before speaking. Loading this with our previous knowledge, we can describe his behaviour as 'butting in'. The idea itself of 'butting in' is loaded in that it signifies an interruption, which then connotes that there is a certain 'flow' of things (in this case, conversation) that should be left alone, or at least followed. It's more than a semantic network (a network of concepts) and encompasses relationships among concepts, attributes within concepts, specific concepts and general background knowledge.

In other situations, a script is expected. That I called a sequence of events a situation connotes that a script is involved. There are props, and roles to be played. There are opening conditions that set the start of a situation requiring a script, and it's generally much less flexible than a schema. Think of a schema as a general understanding of a situation, a pool of concepts and movements. It's a general plan of attack while a script is more of a strategy with scenes and an expected set of results. The latter is more in line with a routine (something planned-out every step of the way). We could look at a routine as something testable by printing out a story (but having omissions) and people quickly fill the gaps of the story and generally agree that that's what should be in that gap, having in their head a serial overview of the event.

♥

Please stop dressing like you’re half as hot as you are.

2011-12-10T09:10:00.000+08:00

Jump-On Point

2011-12-09T09:06:00.000+08:00

The DC Universe has rebooted. For people who've been reading comics for a long time/some time, this is betrayal. Usually, stories and events and developments (character, plot, universe) that you read, loved, hated, discussed on end are now non-canon. Think of it as annulment. You read it, I read it, they published it, it's on the internet, there are pictures, there are records. But it didn't happen.

This allows the current/new editorial board to remould the characters as they want, for a new generation of readers, for their own ego trip. On another level, it's also an insane marketing strategy. The benchmark for big 'events' is a hundred thousand issues sold. That basically means it's a success. We haven't reached that benchmark for a couple of year and then this DC New 52 comes along and a couple of titles clock one hundred thousand in pre-orders. This title, the flagship title, went past two hundred thousand. DC has basically reserved half of the top ten best-selling comic book issues of 2011 in one fell swoop.

This whole marketing strategy (that's how I see it) is thinly veiled as a way to get new readers on to comics and I really have no problem with that. I advocate comics, and this is supposedly engineered as a good jump-on point (which is to say, you don't have to deal with, or with a lot of baggage to understand and hopefully enjoy the story). People can get up to speed in no time.

♥

Material Gifts

2011-12-08T01:24:00.012+08:00

Fountain pens. Not choosy at all, but better if it isn't NBS fare, and ink bottle loading of course.
PKD. Those that I don't have, or vintage editions of any of his.
Good books. Not something on a bestseller list, but something you read, loved, and want to share.
Good comics. (see above)
Music. Your own mixtape, or a CD from an artist I love (Urban Hang Suite, yes?).
Movies. DVDs are great.

Bumper to Bumper

2011-12-07T01:07:00.000+08:00

Proposal

There's a joke that you would could single out a person from UP-Diliman from a sea of people from Ateneo (the school across McDonald's) by looking at the feet of the subject pool. Simply look at their sakong or talampakan and the person from Diliman has the darker, dirtier pair.

Kidding aside, there is some truth to the joke. We are famous for being a 'big' university where people have become hopelessly lost before (and continue to do so). And surely, everyone has experienced having a class from KAL, the next in PHAn, and then KAL again, then a class in AS (on the fourth floor too!). And don't get me started on having classes in Math and CHK.

What I want to look at is apart from our cognitive map of Diliman, but also similar to it. It doesn't look at the areas you may be unfamiliar with, or at least have never been to. But similar in the way that some people from the class misrepresented certain structures as larger, smaller, or closer or farther together/apart. And maybe not just in my case, but I want to make use of my time going to and from class. Sometimes, I wonder, how much more energy am I using by walking this way rather than another way? Why is it that walking on this path seems much shorter?

♥

Aversion

2011-12-06T01:00:00.000+08:00

I went to a forum that was titled: 'Sangley: Tricks of the Trade (Learn to do Business – The Tsinoy Way)', which, when you think about it, should be all about business tricks and tips. UPCSA had Charlie Yu (from Megaworld) and Robert Kuan (formerly of Chowking, now of St. Luke's), and this further supported my expectations coming in. Oddly (and for the better, as I will explain), the talks and the forum was more in line with the third speaker, Francis Kong.

Francis Kong labels himself as an 'inspirational speaker', which usually means he tells people simple things that they should already know. It's a vocation subject to much criticism, but it also fills a need. Which brings us to our first point.

I am Chinese. I'm a Philippine-born Chinese, which involves all sorts of stigma (at us, and from us). All those stories people hear about Chinese-Filipinos (not Filipino-Chinese), although sometimes exaggerated, do have some trappings of evidence. Going into the world of business, there's a stereotype of Chinese being very rich, very stingy with their money, and very slimy dealers.

The first two, I think, can be traced more to first-generation immigrants/industrialists, not just locally, but all around the world. People leave their home for a reason, and it's these circumstances that probably influence their stinginess and 'business-smarts'. Charlie Yu shared an anecdote.

♥

Reconstruction

2011-12-05T01:57:00.000+08:00

Activity Six Reflection

Christopher Nolan's Memento is probably one of the most original movies to have come out of America in the past decade or so. It was part of a small bubble of refreshingly original films. Pi, The Usual Suspects, The Matrix, and Fight Club. And came just before Mulholland Drive. Stretch the range a bit and we have Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Moon (though the latter is a very long stretch of time).

And though that may have been a huge block of qualifiers and comparisons, none of them detract from what I value in a film: entertainment and the ability to thought-provoke.

Guy Pearce is Leonard Shelby. He has anterograde amnesia which doesn't help in his 'quest for justice' over the murder of his wife. He's created a system, he calls it, to offset his 'condition'. He uses polaroid pictures and tattoos to constantly remind him of what he's learned, and what clues he's uncovered. Through this ordeal, he is helped by Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) and Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss). Or are they really helping him? Which is which? Who is lying? And can he trust himself? Will his wife (Jorja Fox), ever be avenged?

♥

Baggage

2011-12-04T01:49:00.003+08:00

Chapter Seven Reflection

With these reflections, I try to wrap my thoughts and points around a central metaphor. Something witty (for better recall later), and something rooted in my other interests. This time, I have three: brain/body lateralization, The Matrix, and religious dogma. Bear with me a little as I relate these to knowledge in memory: images and propositions.

The first thing is brain/body lateralization. It's a product of evolution and we have to remember that evolution isn't a goal-oriented process. It's as random as they get and these products are more or less chance results. But apparently, nature prefers symmetry and this is what we have all around. And the good thing is that nature is pretty brutal so this development is not without special benefits. So in the horrible odds that something takes off with one of your arms, you at least have another arm. Not as great, but workable. This is replicated 'inside' with our 'wiring' like our optic nerve decussating and branching off to both ipsi and contralateral brain sides. In a way, this is both efficient and also a sort-of back-up plan.

And interestingly, this is also standard procedure for neural things. In memory, we have declarative and procedural knowledge. I noted in the previous activity that it seems that they mix with each other during actual actions and behaviour. But that is sort of after the fact, and we can see from lesion studies and other neural studies that it does seem as the brain processes different things separately, and not collectively. We can link this symbolically to functional equivalence where we understand ourselves as having different ways of processing information, that nonetheless serve a common purpose, and is better understood as a streamlined way of segregation, and optimising processing.

♥

Illusions by yourself

2011-12-03T01:55:00.050+08:00

It does seem that Floy Quintos knows my kiliti. Here, he concocts a story of trusting and believing. Is something false (believed to be true) defensible when it brings about so much good? Are white lies really that bad? Does the end justify the means? It's a dialogue applicable to many situations that we encounter all the time. Here, Quintos sets it with real life historical characters and a bunch of fictional (though wholly three-dimensional) ones. In a way, the two-act plays dallies the line of historical fiction. Bringing something obscure and filling the gaps with dynamism and daring.

We starts off first with Miguel (Gerard Pizarras) and his friend Lobo (Bojong Fernandez). Miguel came across as one of those hoax-busters that go to haunted places and places of miracles, and debunks these as smoke and mirrors. He did come off as a bit younger than his mentioned 42, but think of him as a similar character (at least in temperament and beliefs) to John Cusack's in 1408. In any case, he here, up in a mountain with Lobo.

Now this mountain is home to a certain Sister Emily (Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino) who has the gift/curse of the usual religious pilgrimage sort. She can heal the sick (sometimes), make roses fall from the trees (sometimes), make rosebuds come out of her bosom (sometimes), and other things (sometimes). The problem is, as is probably for a lot of people in this predicament, this isn't an in-command situation. These abilities aren't on-call, and it just doesn't work sometimes. This puts a lot of pressure on her with all the pilgrims expecting miracles all the time. This is without pressure from herself, being an all-around good person who only wants to help people out. Things become complicated when she gets a vision of the Virgin Mary (the one who gives her powers) will be gone for a while. And of course, Miguel being there adds to the stress.

♥

Last House on the Left

2011-12-02T01:20:00.001+08:00

Activity Seven Reflection

I think, for this activity, everyone was pretty consistent on trying to take from experience the images (and the ensuing model) to compose the map of sorts. But a point the book made about my mental image of a 'pliers' and your own mental image of 'pliers' aren't the same. Or at least we can't be sure it is. That is unless we do this. And well, it is pretty obvious that we have different models for Diliman. And though different, they enable us in the same way to get around this space, in a sort of between-subjects functional equivalence.

But besides these, I noticed few similarities (at least from our group). In a way, individual experiences shaped our maps in different ways, but something besides it also influenced the functional relationships of objects in our mental model (if we assume that we were able to translate our model to paper; I'm sure a lot would say they weren't) and I wonder if those certain eccentricities are correlated with anything, and are not just incidental individual differences.

For me specifically, there were a few things that made sense, and a few things that didn't so much. Take, for example, me drawing my map as you come from Commonwealth. It is the route I use going into Diliman, and also the route I use leaving. The only other access point was Katipunan, but I've only ridden the Katipunan jeep less times than I have fingers (and I don't have extra fingers). And the best route I know from Katipunan is through C.P. Garcia, which also goes through University Avenue. So this unfamiliarity makes sense to transfer over to my map, and also maybe my mental model. I mean, this is still a map, and it's a map for probably someone who is asking you for help in getting around Diliman. So it makes sense that in reconstructing a map of Diliman from your past experiences, you would start with something that you know (much) better. And in a practical sense, it would be better to help your friend (who hypothetically needs the map) with something you can elaborate on, and something you are comfortable with in the first place.

♥

Struck, Stuck, Starstruck

2011-12-01T01:00:00.004+08:00

Coverage Two Reflection

My Anthro professor shared a Psych article just this morning on Narcissism. And I was going through it and trying to check their evidence against my own behaviours, checking if I was actually a narcissist without knowing about it. A good line was that narcissists know that they are such, so I'm probably clear, maybe.

But going back to our topic, a line (citing research) struck me: 'combination of childhood experiences may help to explain the paradoxical combination of grandiosity and fragility that is so characteristic of adult narcissists.' I, of course, didn't know it could work like that. I immediately thought of what could maybe be called 'narcissists' that I was classmates with during primary school. And the second thing I thought of was whether they were 'already narcissists', or just starting to be. Could I have done anything?

But in any case, the point of the quote is as a sort of metaphor for this section's learnings. Throughout the chapters for this section, we looked at the normative development of people from infancy all the way to middle childhood. And as we all know, a lot of things happen here. There is possibly no greater activity at any other point in a person's life. But what struck me the most was the repeated mention of how..sensitive people are at those periods.

♥

Review: suppression of the truth. (Dimaano, 2011)

2011-11-30T01:35:00.000+08:00

The moment of Inception is near, far, wherever you are.

2011-11-29T01:48:00.001+08:00

Chapter Six Reflection

In line with my reflection on the previous chapter, the most memorable thing for me in this one is probably the parts on memory strategies (which we could somehow relate to Piaget's 'schemas' as a recurrent way of thinking, dealing with problems). Several strategies were presented (mnemonic being IAM PACK), and though I don't really use any of them a lot, some points were interesting nonetheless. I think I should mention that I'm finding great difficulty with 'interactive imagery', the 'pegword system' and the 'method of loci'. My thinking is that you would use one main strategy and maybe supplement that with others if the information is that important. I imagine a practice effect contributes to the effectiveness of the strategies themselves besides the effect of time spent on repetitive rehearsal. I figure simply seeing the book and adopting a particular strategy won't work as well as it could because you're still unfamiliar with it, and in cases such as 'interactive imagery', the 'pegword system' and 'method of loci', it may be require too much effort to be sensible (unless that is the whole point) and it may be advisable to stick with your tried-and-tested.

Another memorable point for me is 'relative effectiveness of encoding is influenced by the kind of task' which is perfectly common sense. The book goes on to give examples where particular methods are better than others. And lo and behold, the three I mentioned (with 'interactive imagery', the 'pegword system' and the 'method of loci') are better than any other method the book mentioned when it comes to both serial recall and free recall.

♥

Is Magikarp sexually enticing?

2011-11-28T00:37:00.001+08:00

I do not understand elaborate make-up. Am I supposed to be turned on by 'mermaid eyes'?

How is aquamarine/carnelian/etcetera eye shadow supposed to turn me on? How are they anything but extremely awkward? How can anyone even put them on with a straight face? It's garish and it reminds me of the cat-eye contact lens fad:

'omg gurlfriend, you look like Meowth, do you want to check out my etchings??'

On the Waterfront

2011-11-27T01:44:00.016+08:00

Coming into this (before having seen it), I imagined Bayaning Third World turned into a (straight) comedy. People quickly mentioned that they were only similar in premise but nothing else. With that comparison out of the window, what was left was to compare it as it is, as it should. A film, and a funny entertaining picture. Is or should?

The premise is two young people who want to make a film. I guess you could say that they've studied the 'indie' scene quite a bit, frequently citing elements of a 'formula for success/awards'. Outside the film proper, this is apparently sort of a satire, or a critique of current local independent cinema, with all the 'poverty porn' and everything being impossibly similar to each other. One can even suggest that it's 'ironic', or even 'reflective of actual society' that these 'well-off' kids (given that they have Apple products and drive cars, etcetera) are, in a way, using the poor for their personal gain (awards, recognition and fame). One would ask if they really do 'feel something' for their subjects, or is it a purely pragmatic approach.

Within the film though, it should be the fuel of the plot, the overarching theme. The cannon fodder for hilarity. It should. With people commenting on how bad it actually was, on how it was, well, over-hyped and without merit, I was decided on giving it an 'it was entertaining'. It should.

♥

Christopher Lao

2011-11-26T01:35:00.001+08:00

I am not judging his character based on his driving his car into a body of water (of unknown depth). It is easy to laugh at his actions because it is common-sensical for all drivers (at least those that I know), to not drive a car into an area where you can't see the road anymore. Because you don't know what's there, you don't know how deep it is. You're better 'safe than sorry'.

There are countless videos of 'fail' moments like these on the internet. It's nothing new, and I was yawning through that part of the video. But the reasoning part is offending and confusing. I'd like to think that some people actually learn from their course. If it isn't something about the course proper, it's at least something about 'real life'. So for a person from Philo and from Law (both UP-Diliman) to go to such ecstatic lengths in blaming someone (the government! such a cliché) else for a personal lapse of judgement.

Well, there. It's pretty saddening.

Sacred

2011-11-25T01:07:00.001+08:00

I don't like the idea of sacredness. I think it gives certain things an undue advantage over what is right-er when the foundation (sacredness) is little more than a social construct.

And really, anything Eric Manalang supports, I am against.

Forcing Functions

2011-11-24T01:17:00.000+08:00

Activity Five Reflection

I understand explicit memory be composed of semantic (facts, what things are for) and autobiographical (where my things are, personal memories). And since these are routines that more or less operate on the subconscious (or semi-conscious) level, we can classify these actions as procedural memory (under implicit memory). This brings our first learning point: the two classifications of memory (explicit and implicit) don't really work independently usually. It may be if you were answering an objective test (say a simple recognition type of exam, but not in something computational if you are one of those lucky people good at that). I don't really see how procedural, semi-automatic memory would play a part in answering a multiple-choice exam. And if it does, it isn't advisable.

The procedural side of things also plays a part in how these everyday things are underrated in a way. People generally agree that it is great and important, but very few have actually paid any attention to it, or care about it (how many people have seen Citizen Kane, for example?). And through this activity, you slowly (well not really, because it's all 'uh-oh' and 'horrors' just at the first step) realise that, things will be very hard, or nigh impossible without memory. For details and discussion, let me take you along my normal school-day routine.

First, I wake up. This very first step is already a very complicated one. I have to check the time. Where is my watch? What time is it? What does the time connote (are you late for class)? How do you read the time? What is a watch in the first place?

♥

You Know My Name

2011-11-23T01:16:00.003+08:00

Chapter Five Reflection

I remember when I was a Freshman and we had to be guinea pigs for undergraduate Psych experiments (mandatory), and I had to participate in a bunch of cognitive experiments testing memory. I always wondered how I did, but I don't think they're allowed to look at individual scores. Memory is an important thing. This is obvious from the numerous chapters dedicated to it just from our textbook. In Cognition especially, it's impossible to decide what particular aspect is most important or what particular aspect 'we can't do without'. But without memory, we won't even remember what these things are, or how to use these things.

Like many other topics, it is all-essential and taken for granted. This is, perhaps, the fascination for exceptional memory. We lust after outstanding memory and cringe and empathise with those who have deficient ones. Everything must seem like a haze (I think HM used 'haze' actually to describe his situation once). Imagine that time (numerous times?) in an exam when you could remember reading about it but can't grasp it completely at the moment. Or that horrible item that blind-sided you and you have no idea what cranny of the course your professor fished it from. But imagine that happening completely, perpetually.

And what about those, traumatised or (and?) love-lorn. Haranguing you with their despair, repeatedly saying they want to forget what happened, what had happened (of course they keep repeating it and we know how rehearsal affects memory). A good example would be Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (whose director, Michel Gondry, is adapting Ubik which has a part dealing with memory too).

♥

Cow, frog, same thing.

2011-11-22T01:53:00.068+08:00

or: Please hand me the patis.

Loy Arcenas, the director, kind of beat me to it. In a hypothetical future where I'm capable enough to facilitate and finance a film, a multi-generation story is something that I would do. Think of it as Mano Po, but edgier and much darker. I want it to slowly open and reveal itself in stages, in layers. This beneath a shroud of dread and mystery. Of course, I haven't seen Mano Po, so I wouldn't know. But the odder thing is that I haven't seen a comparison of it to this.

Which is odd, at face value they seem to be similar. They deal with a relatively large family. At least a family that has had time to grow and be more complex. They have strong characters and quirky characters and characters at different stages of their lives. So what does this improve on?

One place would probably be acting. Mano Po has had a number of people work with them in the past, and I'm sure there were a couple of good, solid performances. But I don't see how they could have had the punch of having Fides Cuyugan-Asensio, Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino, Tony Mabesa , Raquel Villavicencio, Erlinda Villalobos, and Art Acuña all in one scene. And when you get down to it, it's really a bit of an acting showcase between Asensio, Buencamino, and Villavicencio. The rest of the cast is solid and hardly cardboard, but it's this three pushing the envelope, smarting each other, chewing scenery.

And it really helps to have a solid cast. The script is great from the start. We get a good mood in of a better-left-unsaid past that slowly unravels with secrets. Throughout, the personalities are trading barbs. But I can't get away from the feeling that there isn't much of a plot, much of movement. We get into the characters and into the atmosphere, but it doesn't move forward. We understand that this is a formerly glorious family holding onto memories of the good old days, but we're left with that exposition and little else.

Now no, I'm not saying there should be 'improvement of conditions'. I think it's apt that the conclusion doesn't really shed light on the future. But it's bothering me that although I can say I was interested in the characters, that I knew them a bit considering that this is a bit of an ensemble, I wasn't made to care and wonder. I couldn't care less about what would happen to them, if it was good or if it was bad. If their lives would change or stay languid.

And this is an offence because I can take quiet and uneventful, but this lack of engagement is disappointing. It isn't played out as well or as neatly as it could maybe be. I mean, it isn't even uneventful to justify this. Quite a lot of things are going on. We've got Acuña and his kid again half-begging for some money. We've got the by-default matriarch Asensio in limbo. The single, still-at-home not that young anymore token person (Buencamino) of the family trying to keep the accounting and the family afloat. The older sibling (here a cousin) who is kind-of better-off, has emigrated to America, but has skeletons and demons of her own. I was expecting a big climax with a lot of building-on that didn't materialise. We get a few pre-emptive clashes which fit the bill but doesn't foot it. This leads up to what I felt was the climax. The little note of pulling the kids (kid singular, here) away before the grown-ups talk is great. The ensuing 'clash' is also pretty solid and well-delivered.

But I was looking for more. In a way, it's underwhelming. The parts are there. We have a good premise/intro (with notes of secrets and dark pasts). We have well-constructed human, palatable, familiar characters with flaws and all. We have skirmishes and (slightly) bigger bangs. But it's all done in such a smaller scale than you're used to that it isn't hitting as hard as you believe it can.

You can still feel it, but it's deaden and duller.

(Niño - Loy Arcenas)

When you're driving up NLEX and 'Kaneda' comes on.

2011-11-21T01:24:00.001+08:00

110727: I still want to know who Tricia G's boyfriend is.

2011-11-20T01:06:00.036+08:00

I tweeted last night:
It's super duper that everyone's pissed about CHED di dahil maa-absent sila kundi dahil tinatamad sila pumasok. #kabataanngayon

'College students are not waterproof.' Wimpy shits. #eyeroll

'Buti naman/nalang walang klase, hindi pa ako ready/nag-aral.' I present to you youth, the future of humanity, sarili lang ang iniisip.

Puro no classes shit ang posts sa Group/Page. What is cross-posting.

And earlier today:
'Senate nga walang klase, college students meron pa rin?!' I refuse to consider our sigawan senators to be my peers. (Congress too)

See, the Executive Branch still has to go to work. Can you stand the idea that Malacañang not as wimpy as you?

Areneo offices are still open today.

♥

Swirly Man

2011-11-19T01:01:00.051+08:00

People are underground and naturally, some of them are intrigued by what lies above. Legend has it that nothing is above, and that a lot is above. Stuff happens and we get there and more stuff happens and this is only the beginning. I only saw the two movies (that sort of summed-up the storyline with more budget).

The most important thing for me when introducing a new world is to get a feel for it. We need to get a sense that we are a bit familiar with it. The production teams usually does this through the token story filler where our heroes go meet some normal people and there isn't much by way of evil monsters messing up things. This being abridged, I didn't really get that. I did see something in a sort of flashback where they meet other minor heroes. I imagine this is where we get our context with the different locales (although it seems the whole Earth is a desert), but I can't say for sure if they made it to maximise the emotional bit rather than just be an avenue for another baddie.

♥

Alisbayan Box

2011-11-18T01:54:00.060+08:00

or: You can sometimes wear leggings as pants.

Coming in, Twitter was abuzz with praise. Tim Yap tweeted about it. Is his opinion worth anything? Does he like the same things as me? Probably not. But anyway:

So, Rizal X isn't bad and it definitely had some parts I loved, but it isn't something I would recommend (that would be Shock Value). I prefer single stories, or something very compact with lots of power. This was more of something experimental in nature. It wasn't as much of a non-linear narrative as it was a narrative at all.

♥

Running Away with Me

2011-11-17T01:24:00.000+08:00

Activity Four Reflection

Our group sort of had contradicting results, but this reminded of the phenomenon where (you think) you hear your name being called out. It automatically catches your attention and makes you wonder if you're paranoid or self-important. Looking at it in a more scientific way, you were probably subconsciously processing unattended stimuli.

The activity was geared to present us the idea of dichotic listening which would allow us the set-up of one specific stimulus affecting a particular field of hearing, and another the other. Through this, we would be able to observe a dominant, attended stimulus affecting as much hearing capacity (not considering dominant ears) as an opposing, confounding stimulus. Through this level playing field, we would be able to ascertain that the unattended wasn't simply lacking in stimulus salience or whatnot.

But like I said, our results were a bit different from the other groups. And though the sample size is admittedly small (probably only the result of individual differences), they are good points on dichotic listening and have parallels with attention in the natural environment.

♥

Squirrel

2011-11-16T01:23:00.000+08:00

Chapter Four Reflection

Attention is a funny thing. It kind of develops the idea of perception a bit, getting past the unconscious and into the conscious. I think this helps make it appealing to most people in that it isn't something hidden from view, something very theoretical and hard to conceptualise. We all know what attention and consciousness are, and it obviously helps that this is also the psychological definition agreed upon.

And as is with most topics in Cognition, it is something familiar, it is something we've had to deal with in the past, and it is something that we have laughed about. And sometimes, reading the theories and the past research humours you in the way those articles about the real name of familiar things humour you (like what the name of that plastic thing at the end of your shoelaces is). It's something like, well, a cognitive bias that has befuddled you before and multiple times at that, but now you suddenly know what it means. It's sad sometimes that the name is pretty self-explanatory like hindsight bias or the ambiguity effect. But sometimes, it's some fancy figure of speech like l'esprit de l'escalier (staircase wit) that you can name-drop in conversations and sound smarter than you (already) are. Admit it!

Personally, the most familiar aspect of attention is the lack of attention. Or divided attention. In the same way the Dug character in the movie Up is, I am also easily distracted (aren't we all). Maybe we could chock that up to stimulus salience. We're familiar with the idea of a short attention span (something my generation has been seemingly branded as, I doubt without evidence though), and there's the popular misconception about goldfish.

♥

You don't have to be dead.

2011-11-15T00:25:00.000+08:00

Activity Three Reflection

In many of my classes, it's been repeated said that teaching is the best test of mastery. In my EdCo class, we were persuaded to teach if we were good/experts. But in the undergraduate level, when you're hardly an expert or anywhere near that good, it is a good test of how much you know about a topic.

In my Physio Psych class over the summer, the class was divided into groups and were randomly assigned a region of the brain. We had to discuss our portion in a relatively brief time, enough to allow our classmates some idea of it, and pique their interest too. And it wasn't just some fun activity because even if our professor went over them again later, this was on an assuming-you-know-the-basics-already-and-that-your-classmates-did-a-good-job-of-layng-the-land basis. It should probably be said that this happened over the first week of classes.

And though brain parts is relatively (maybe not) non-complex, we were arranged in 7-8 'stations' (groups), and with the amount of information on hand, we had to stop it from being tedious and keep it short and interesting and only-the-important-stuff. And, of course, you couldn't get confused yourself or flunk the explanation as that would incite doubt in your classmates, and well, it's confusing and that is no fun at all.

♥

Harry Potter

2011-11-14T01:39:00.000+08:00

I apologise to everyone who grew up with Harry Potter for my blasé attitude towards it. I grew up with John Cazale and wouldn't have it any other way.

♥

110707: Heterosexist Crap.

2011-11-13T01:20:00.000+08:00

I imagine they're going to make a Scrabble card game too, huh?

2011-11-12T01:18:00.000+08:00

♥

'For me, this loses something in translation.'

2011-11-11T19:34:00.005+08:00

The History of Sex

A lot of 'moral' pundits keep telling us that we are embroiled in a falling spiral decadence and that we're moving further and further away from what 'God wants us to do'. In a way, they mean that we are going back to our 'inherently barbaric ways' and that we are 'falling into sin'.

Condoms would increase promiscuity. Recreational sex would result in the vengeful spirit of Charlton Heston smashing a stone block over your head. And that every time you masturbate, Pikachu dies a little on the inside. Stuff like that.

But what does it all mean in the context of the few millennia worth of written records we have since Ancient Civilization? What do these say about our views regarding the bond between sexuality and spirituality (or even religion)?

We starts at the earliest records we have (from Mesopotamia) where we have just-for-sex slaves and marital sex being more of a one-sided business arrangement. We have tales of the king having a yearly sex ritual with the priestess of (the god) Ishtar to promise a good year and a bountiful harvest. We also have the tale of Gigamesh and how he used sex to subdue Incadu (a savage beast). This links with the earliest records of erotica where sex is something not just for procreation but also a powerful pleasure giving force that would help you achieve spirituality.

This more liberal view of sex also appeared in Egypt.

♥

Further

2011-11-10T01:32:00.000+08:00

Activity 2

The point of the activity was to try and anchor it to both top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing. We eventually got to there after the excruciatingly long time trying to figure out the picture.

I myself didn't pick up on a lot of things before grouping up. You would have noticed that I 'finished' fairly early during the individual part of the activity. While my classmates were busy poring down at different angles and quickly scribbling down notes after sudden gasps of excitation, I was leaning backward and coolly regarding the piece of paper.

Now, while it would be cool to say that I figured it all out by myself and that I was smirking joyfully at my classmates' conundrum, you've read the preceding paragraphs and know what's what. The truth is that my cool stance was more of submission and dejection and defeat. I had actually thought it as two independent pictures and couldn't for the love of anything figure out what stairs the caption was talking about. I was half expecting us to conclude that it was a trick photo/question and that there really wasn't anything in it.

♥

Hexagram 61

2011-11-09T00:10:00.070+08:00

This is unsurprisingly brilliant. It follows the parallel stories of three characters who *spoiler* will not meet at this reality. Through them, we view this alternate reality. Americans lost the war and the Axis won. It's something familiar but never brought to great heights.

In a way, this alternate history genre is much like it's sibling the utopia/dystopia novel, and the zombie apocalypse genre. In most cases, elements within the genre look alike and are alike. They deal with the genre in different ways, some deal with the source, the bigwigs, while some deal with the ground, the people toiling on and surviving. In a way, there's a bunch of different way you could approach it, but the sheer number of other works means it's already probably been done before—multiple times. But the appeal is there.

For the alternate history genre, it's the appeal to my inherent history nerd. The way the writers pick a divergence point and dictate the dominoes is something I find quite cool. I like to see how the writers reinterpret historical characters and play off their caricatures. In some cases like The Plot Against America, there's even an appendix for a short history lesson. The logic is there. There's a whole thick of history for every issue that might be remotely interesting. The endless Wikipedia entry is enough to realise that. But through something like this, we allow readers to invest in the characters, be sort of familiar with them, be interested in them. Then fluff like introduction is now much easier.

♥

110701: Celebration

2011-11-08T01:46:00.073+08:00

I love UPFI. In more times than none, there are free good movies (I've seen more than a dozen since I've been going regularly), and in some cases, good but not free but still cheaper. It doesn't detract from the quality, in fact you'd want to like it more because you paid for it. Le's hope it isn't that way. Let's move away from that because it's too far from the film at hand.

This talks about two people (French people) trying to undermine an upper-class family. From the start, Sandrine Bonnaire is spooky and Isabelle Huppert s crazy. This are constant elements and the rest react to these two. We've got Jacqueine Bisset as the matriarch of the small unsuspecting family. Jean-Pierre Cassel is here in a sliently solid turn. They're all orchestrated by Claude Chabrol.

Just from that, your expectations are raised. You may not know all of them. You might be unfamiliar with their work. But you have heard of them (right?). You have heard of them being quite good. But after this, there's isn't an excitement to explore and lose myself in the vast filmography as had happened with, say, seeing Kurosawa and Mifune for the first time

A part of it can be chocked up to the subject matter. Even if I am a bit of a liberal, I am still excessively sheltered and silently conservative. I am the typical loner who wouldn't really welcome fame, but rather recogition for being good and efficient. In this way, if I become ridiculously rich, I'd like to think that I wouldn't spend it on phat wheels and diamond-encrusted anything. I'd like to think I'd invest it and purchase in minimal, very well-made things. They don't scream at you 'I'm expensive!', but they're too good to be something from the depot. I'd live in a silent place, packed with stealth security because I'm paranoid like that. But the essential thing is that I still won't want a lot of visitors (in fact, I'd rather be the visitor than the host) and I still don't want people calling my phone and ringing my bell.

The family here is sort of like that. They're well-off, but doesn't really show (that much). They have a Civic and some dinky French cars. They don't wear a lot of jewellery and don't really flash designer bags. They had work clothes. But then Huppert is his annoying little gnat who's rude and tries very hard to offend people. She's the sort of person who thinks highly of herself and would say that she's poor but she's ____. She's the sort of person you would describe as always looking for a fight and you're sure she would never back down from anyone.

And there lies the problem. She's not the spoiled brat that she so despises, but she's still a brat with a huge sense of entitlement. Essentially, she's a hypocrite. You could go on, telling me off and my bourgeois sensibilities and bias, calling me a fake and unsympathetic rich kid. A pretender. You could. But I wouldn't fight you. I think my only sense of entitlement should come from my ability. Going into arguments about social hierarchy, is to me just like debating whether Jews should live or not. It's silly. Of course the Jews taking 'back' Palestine is a perfect example of a fat-ass sense of entitlement.

So Huppert reasons that she knows the truth behind the family, that she knows their secrets. But why should she care? Why is she so competitive? Why is she so interested? If my annoying neighbours turned out to be smugglers and really screwed people, I would be interested, but I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. I wouldn't push it up their face as they were being escorted to the squad car. It's not that I am timid and shies away from encounters. There is simply no point to it. It doesn't even benefit me at all, even psychological. In common (heterosexist) parlance: Nakakalalaki ba ako?

I don't, and I don't care. So this movie was mildly offending and totally did not sit well with me. Sure, I dream of being well-off and am interested in stories and gossip about the rich. But have I harboured feelings to destroy them? No. I don't think so. So this celebration was off-putting. People will point out the fundamental hate for the rich, that they're entitled no-gooders.

Maybe they are. I'm sure some of them are. ut my context of being in the middle, of not being rich and not being *that* poor allows me the perspective that we can't assume. We can't assume that all rich people are 'helping' just for popularity and good juju. In the same way, we can't assume that all poor people want to steal from the rich, steal from anyone, and are savages who would screw a panty-adorned lamppost. It's idiotic but this exemplifies that thinking.

Front and centre is Sandrine Bonnaire. She is dyslexic and coldly efficient in her job as hired help. She hides her dyslexia. She thinks of herself as well-rounded and complete and doesn't want people interfering in her life. She is, in a sense, proud. But she isn't proud in that she hides her dyslexia in the same way you can't be proud but be a closeted LGBT. It's fundamentally crooked.

But let's say she's okay. There's still problems that unnerve you. Are the stories and rumours about her and Huppert true? If so, what does that mean? And did Bonnaire not notice that she was guided along by Huppert (unless that was her original plan, but then her former employer is alive, unless that's a confederate). And well, I don't see how you can be a willing pawn and still be proud of yourself being an independent person who can deal with life.

Maybe you really are a *bad* person. Maybe you aren't, but you willingly participated in murder. Of four people. Who though don't like you very much, was your own doing. You were the one not following the 'rules'. I could tolerate you being best buds with my sworn enemy (actually not), but you're not gossiping with her about us, entertaining her in our house with our food. There has got to be something about that in our contract. You can't even justify you escaping. It is your job and you are being compensated for it. It's not like you're doing it as a favour (and even then).

You see, you're an incompetent fool who doesn't complete their commitments and allows herself to be controlled by a silly woman with a huge sense of entitlement (sense of entitlements do not have basis, ever).

I simply cannot celebrate that.

(La Cérémonie - Claude Chabrol)

Rediscovering

2011-11-07T01:26:00.000+08:00

Coverage One Reflection

These first few chapters were an overview of the semester ahead. It showed us the importance of development and the course with respect to us being future parents, maybe teachers, our own personal history, and our future. They also introduced the paradigm we were using (the 'eclectic theoretical orientation'), and made a brief background of the course.

Now while some parts of the coverage were more of a review (like the Bio parts that were more or less covered in 160, and the research methods covered in 118), there were also things that were new to me.

And even in some cases, it's a matter of the old, should-be-familiar finally being familiar. This happened in the very first part with Locke (tabula rasa) and Rousseau (innate goodness). I was familiar with them in the past, and I also studied them in SocSci2. But if anything, I was studying them for their contributions to philosophy and political science. Little did I now that they had an influence on our field of interest, even being initial proponents of differing views, of nature and nurture. I'm not exactly sure if we tackled this in our SocSci2 class, but it's something interesting and something sort of gratifying. Kind of like a feeling of everything coming together.

♥

110630: That was one really hot dream.

2011-11-06T01:08:00.000+08:00

Newfangled

2011-11-05T01:59:00.000+08:00

Activity 1

In very basic terms, the activity required us to plan a study. We had to choose a particular cognitive phenomenon and try to design a study, weighing between an experiment, and a more naturalistic method.

I'm not sure if my groupmates (or classmates) have taken both 115 (Experimental Psychology) and 118 (Field Methods)—or my Physio Psych class with Ma'am Morales (Field Experiment), but memories of those kept coming up while we were meeting and discussing. In the same way as was in Chapter 1, we were synthesising what we knew and what we thought we could do.

In the end, we finalised on an experimental set-up and I remembered how fun it actually was to design a study and throw ideas at each other, what would work, and what would work better. As I said, we were coming from different points of view. I'm not sure if any of them had worked together on a study before, but I haven't with them.

So, sitting down, we didn't really know what each other's interests were (or for some, who each other were). In that line, we could have been trying to give the best impression we could, we wanted to give a research question so ingenious that it was at the same time familiar, yet completely boggling the mind. But of course, this is Cognition class and we didn't really know a lot of cognitive phenomena that was up in he air.

We were stumped.

♥

Face/Off

2011-11-04T01:57:00.000+08:00

Chapter Three Reflection

This chapter sort of jumped my Perception class in that it went immediately into the meat of most Perception—that is, vision—before my Perception class even got anywhere near that. Well, we are sort of looking at it as we speak, but I advance-read (woohoo).

The first part is more of a follow-up of the previous chapter (Cognitive Neuroscience) and expands, refreshes, and reviews us with more we wished were discussed in our required Biology class instead of, well, a lot of things. This goes on for a bit until we go into a few sample experiments.

This is what I like about the book (so far), and my Perception book (Goldstein). It gives us a lot of fun examples and relates them to things that have befuddled us in the past (could have helped in our first activity?). And in the case of Goldstein, even has replications of these so we could try out and see the perceptual oddities for ourselves, to supplement the text.

♥

Kaibo Zonshinzu

2011-11-03T01:56:00.000+08:00

Chapter Two Reflection

This chapter was similar to the one before it (and in connection, our first activity) and my Physio Psych class during the summer.

Whereas the first chapter introduced us to all these different methods, we more or less only looked at basic experimental or naturalistic set-ups during our activity on procedures. This chapter however gives us another option, the neuroscience approach with all its intimidating machinery and brain slices.

And while it was unnerving to see another homunculus (it really looks like something straight out of Minagaki Yasukazu's Kaibo Zonshinzu), it was an efficient chapter with solid ramifications. As we know (and as forwarded in 160) from the first chapter, neuroscience is the current endpoint of all the previous paradigms in psychology. It's considered to be the most efficient, the most clear-cut, and generally pretty good.

♥

Shattered Ego

2011-11-02T01:54:00.000+08:00

Chapter One Reflection

This chapter was more of an introduction (actually, it really is) and what it covered generally was the relevance of cognitive psychology. Besides being the whole point of an introduction, it is good that it gives strong evidence and not just ramblings on the topic. It brings-up history that we might (though we should) not be cognizant of.

Introductions usually work as a History 101 short course. We're given a bunch of names and a bunch of dates. This turns off a lot of people, or stresses them out because they keep thinking that this is one more thing the professor is going to ask that he wouldn't know the answer to when judgement comes. Even in our case when students are required to read a lot, introductions are still off-putting. Most students don't really want to know things from the past. Maybe they think/know that these aren't that important. That current theories, even if they were based on these, have been revised and tweaked countless times that there's already a wealth of literature on the current state of things. There's little time to be wasted on something you can't use immediately. Students want to learn about what's current, what experiments they can reproduce, what new things are hot and widely talked about. They want to be hip.

♥

It's the South China Sea, not the West Philippine Sea.

2011-11-01T01:35:00.001+08:00

♥

Dinosaurs

2011-10-31T01:46:00.194+08:00

You should know three things about me. One is that I do not like looking at symbolism. Two is that I like looking at pretty things. Three is that I think this is the best new release this year.

This is something different. It's been called a poem. It's been called a prayer. It could be. In snobby parlance, 'it's more of an experience than a straightforward film'. It could be all these things or none of these things. But the last point is an important point in that it points out the needs to stay away from explanation and technical assessment.

In the way this frequently echoes Christian-Catholic sentiments and parlance, it reminds me of the essence of religion. It's really an individual thing. It isn't something that you should ask other people about, or let other people dictate the nuances of. As is in most films, and most obviously and especially in this one, It's not really important what other people think or want you to think. This is as open as a movie has been in recallable memory, and the only important thing is that you felt a connection and that you were moved.

♥

True Normal

2011-10-30T01:08:00.045+08:00

There are two ways of looking at this. One is that the best fight scenes were in the start. The other is that you wish you didn't have expectations.

Looking at the second part, it's easy to see how you've been set-up to shrug. The director (and we figure is the fight choreographer too) is Yuen Woo-ping. Whether you know him or not depends largely if you've been watching bad-ass movies over the past thirty years or not. You may know him as the director of the films that launched Jackie Chan's career. You may know him as the fight choreographer in Once Upon a Time in China and Fist of Legend.

But there's more. This is his first movie to direct after a long hiatus staring in the mid-nineties, after some small hits like Drunken Master and Iron Monkey. And though he has been active since then, working as the fight choreographer in some movies you may have heard of like The Matrix (Trilogy), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill, and Kung-Fu Hustle. But you see the point that he has a following and there are really big expectations.

♥

You don't look like a Colin

2011-10-29T01:03:00.000+08:00

How do I start this? Well, my name is Jethro and I wish I was named after a better looking guy. 'Laurenz' also comes off as a bit too hipster sometimes. Would anything be different if it were 'Laurent' instead?

Probably not. Labels are so unimportant that we take them for granted (unless of course if you're living in the present day and your name is Methuselah). But they're also very important that people associate things with your label and with your name, be it to aid their memory of you or be it some random fluff that is a total disconnect. In some way, it's just a place marker and a name tag, but it's also an anchor for everyone you'll ever interact with.

Can you ever imagine someone named Jeeves as a person who never had pretensions of being a butler (also, a British accent, but that holds true for a lot of us non-Jeeves). So what's in a Jethro?

♥

In Taken Liam Neeson gets to do all the badass ex-CIA shit that was so sorely lacking in Ethan Frome and Les Misérables.

2011-10-28T01:13:00.000+08:00

From Vern's review. My poorer one here.

Eggs

2011-10-27T01:46:00.068+08:00

Compared to the explosion-showcase sequel, this is more subtle, and really much, much better. People have pointed out that the sequel was more in the vein of blockbuster fare while this was more of a haunted house movie.

What we've got here is little in the way of weapons, where suspense is the keyword. It has all the elements of things-gone-wrong. The crew wakes up (from freeze-sleep), that means they're close to home and they rejoice. But they later discover that they're only halfway back. The ship waked them up to respond to a distress call. You know the rest, they respond even if they shouldn't have (even if it was against their contract), they 'get away', they realise that they aren't alone, and well, they die one by one.

It's a really basic story and this was the tail end of the seventies. But you really wouldn't notice that. What you would is the crazy-good camera work, and the perfect sets. It's something that really holds up even now. There aren't any crazy explosions, and the titular villain is a pro in shadows and so works more like a phantom menace than something in-your-face that would probably be more sensitive and affected by technological advancement. With all this lurking and unknown, the tagline really rings true.

♥

Reboot

2011-10-26T00:32:00.013+08:00

I'm not terrible picky when it comes to reading, especially comic books. I've been able to go through crap like Lord of Light and come out (sort-of) happy, having something to say that would pass the censor. But I'm also very picky and particular.

For one thing, the art has to be stellar. And I don't mean it in the not-Rob Liefeld way, but also like that. It's not exactly about being technically sufficient/excellent, it'salso a personal thing. I have to like the art, and what art I like is spread-out. When I like the art, I will make an effort to read and enjoy. If it isn't 'up-to-par', I just can't, even if the writing is supposedly beyond excellent. It's what happened with Sandman, a bunch of Grant Morrison, Astro City, etcetera etcetera. Of course I wouldn't continue to read it (and waste precious bandwidth) just because it's pretty.

I, Zombie certainly qualifies here, and The Walking Dead (where issues have been unspectacular, and boring lately, but lives through goodwill for good deeds in the past).

There's a bias against something I think resembles 90's art and early 00's. It's something I can't describe, but maybe best exemplified by Jim Lee X-Men. It didn't stop me from enjoying Hush (which sort of got me back into comics). It's something about making a character look like Cable with all the unnecessary details and costume fluff (and very pastel colour combinations too), when that character isn't cable. I'm currently in a minimalist phase and I imagine it the ideal style would be something like a minimalist Spawn poster. The essentials, with sharp detail and good atmosphere. Something like that.

♥

Before the Credits

2011-10-25T01:13:00.000+08:00

Inception is really very good. Forget for a minute that given enough research, the ideas aren't that novel, and could almost be ripped-off (maybe even from my favourite novel of all time, Ubik). But think about it for a couple, just think and relive it. Maybe even watch it. Then look past all the movies for the past (half?) dozen years.

Don't look at something that isn't a blockbuster/effects-heavy or something that isn't meant to wow us. Movies have their own subcultures. Some are moving in that they destroy you to pieces, something that is an epic story. Forget that and try to remember the last time something moved you because it was cool and awesome and very, very entertaining. It was big-budget, and it was a big studio production. For me, that was Children of Men.

But while that made us go 'WOW' with the gorgeous long takes and how, for once, action felt realistic. There, Clive Owen didn't evade that bullet because he was good, he got lucky. Through that, every bullet, every explosion we escaped from got us to 'wew' and that upped the tension immensely.

♥

110610: Sexy Chair and Kwisatz Haderach

2011-10-24T01:17:00.000+08:00

Why do you press on
and why do you question?
What do you gain
from meddling?

These and this
are none your affairs

So what do you gain
what do we gain
what do they gain
What do you have to offer?

♥

Ensconced

2011-10-23T01:54:00.003+08:00

It may be gone
it might be done
you might be none
(It actually never was)

But between
(not) noticing
and (not) caring,
even hating
as you do

♥