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In the morning, someone mentioned that EH101 was the best he has taken in his life. I take it that EC101 and all the other ECs weren’t much fun then.
My dad said I had selective hearing choosing to listen and pick up evidence to support my already existent view — but… I wasn’t lying. Its like showing an entire transcript which really did occur and which really does entirely support your view.
sigh.
Here’s a trivial reason as to why I should just go into academia:
In the few instances where my mind is troubled with some uncertainty or problem of sorts, I plunge myself into trying to study some complex concept or breaking down some argument — it takes my mind off things.
The scary alternative is I end up a workaholic.
For a person with not many strong conscious desires, wantings and drive, I have a funny feeling that everything gets relegated to my subconscious being — which turns out to be a powerful force!
Academically, I practise “sleeping on it”. Bertrand Russell actually recommends it in his book “Conquest of happiness” — which involves going through something intensely enough for it to remain in your mind before going to sleep or doing some other thing and letting your subconscious do your work for you. I would say that this was the case for my 4000 word essay and more evidently for the two literature presentations where the topic was formulated in a dream!
Bates-wise, perhaps the subconscious drive to win plays a role. Say perhaps, I do better when some people are present/opposing, meaning to say a subconscious drive to impress.
Relationship wise,
Physically (and this is the scary part), I think it has the power of inducing psycho-somatic illnesses. The first instance would be the cough that did not go away until the very final day where Island life ended. The second instance, more scarily, was the first day of Forest where I was trying to rack my brain to be sent back, only to get a high fever. (Perhaps I actually wanted heat exhaustion).
The third would be — how my leg hurts more now upon finding out the next place I’ll be sent to.
…
Well, its a lazy person solution — it does all my work for me. One day my subconscious monster might overpower me and consume me tho!
Having received phone calls from various big organisations (i.e. scholarship boards), I was quite impressed with their quality of secretarial voices. Coho says that these are honed over many years of practise and makes all of them sound like younger women — when in reality, most are like his mum.
This was until I had to call the Conscriptors twice in a day. I have a feeling their Secretarial Voice actually added lengths to their years.
I spent a fair bit of time by myself today reflecting while going on long walks from orchard to city hall and back — three laps in total.
Things I learnt:
1. Long walks are a form of good exercise that is actually satisfying and leads to better rest later — but better to do it when the sun is down.
2. Thinking back about the past week and the past seven weeks, time is more important and useful than money. You can save money, you can’t exactly store up time the same way. In some way, I’m learning to treasure every fleeting temporal moment.
3. Basic stuff: The Japanese recession was due mainly to a lack of domestic demand as firms diverted profits to paying off debts from the plunge in asset prices. (Who borrows more when they are busy repaying debt even if interest rate is Zero?) Despite being regarded as unnecessary and wasteful by critics, government spending was actually necessary in preventing a further downturn…
On a side note, if the Japanese wanted to increase domestic demand, they should give longer holidays, like the French! (Whats the use of so much money if you cant spend it!)
don’t ask me why i was thinking about the third thing ><
There is a six pack of beer.
If I’m happy and excited, I need to celebrate — with that six pack of beer.
If I’m sad and worried, I need to mourn and drown my worries– with that six pack of beer.
…
And all those treats I probably have to end up giving.
Chee, another twelve hours.
Be Empty is finally over. I spent seven weeks with you people, and you want me to go for this large gathering which includes people I don’t want to meet???
Of course I did form good and close friendships — but its almost as if i’m making the conscious choice to simply move on, as i always do with every big conference or party I have been for…. or even school for that matter.
I’m surprised though — that even seven weeks is not enough. Then again, I never liked large gatherings, usually for those people i don’t want to meet.
In short, if i’m still meeting with you till now, you ought to be appreciative — its scarce.
[...]
It seems that I am one who can cherish good things that have passed, rather lament how they no longer are present — the fact is, they happened before and it was good.
When it is actually taught properly, the Theory of Knowledge course is useful in making students question and rationalise. Most students, who are actually taught properly, will realise that a clash of dogma leads nowhere. That things are true because my text says so because they are true, your text says differently therefore is wrong.
The mindset that arises is:
I am right, you are wrong.
I am right, therefore I’m superior.
You are wrong, therefore you’re a moron and a sinner/infidel.
When religious dogmatic enough: I don’t want to associate with you apart from impose my belief system over your perverse heresy and crusade your ass.
Simply put, I think that Principled people are usually not nice people, especially when people (HEATHENS!) deviate from their Infallible&Unquestionable Principles. Sometimes I believe its due to an underlying pharisical sense of envy that you get to pursue hedonistic pleasures more than me.
[...]
This principled sense of superiority is supposed to be dissipated upon realising that we ourselves are flawed beings. I think Timothy Keller sums it up quite well in The Reason For God (though I disagree with quite a number of generalisations , mainly the discrepancy between what ought to be and what is):
His grace both humbles me more deeply than religion can (since I am to flawed to ever save myself through my own effort), yet it also affirms me more powerfully than religion can (since I can be absolutely certain of God’s unconditional acceptance)
Life has still been good — to the extent that I have had the time to go through two books in two days. By the second day of the week, I had completely run out of books to read, so I had no choice but to re-read the book from week one in addition to reading Matthew and Mark in the bible, often while on the phone/listening to music.
The past few weeks have been useful and applicable to real life. Essentially, over the past few weeks, I have learnt how to read faster and efficiently, cleanandcleanandclean, and read bible more — only that and nothing more, it seems.
I could live with this lifestyle, but all I hope for is to have normal workhours rather than have to “sleep over” perpetually.
In the field of rhetoric, there is probably nothing as powerful as the Appeal to Parents, or rather Appeal to Filial Duty, especially given the ingrained values of this asian society.
It speaks of the hardships of your parents, the sufferings and sacrifices of your parents and their supposedly unconditional yet unappreciated love for you — all of which are probably true and hard to dispute.
This device is supposed to target the emotional rather than rational faculty, namely that of guilt and belated appreciation. Subconsciously, it might be due to how you’ve been raise to view your parents as a figure of authority — and now their name is used, much like a shadow. Under such emotions you have an inclination to ”Pay Back” — how then do you pay back..
You then have a duty to pay back by doing as you’re told(to whom, i do not know) because of the mention of their name.
[...]
In the field of logic however, it is simply a silver bullet with hardly a logical link. It can be broken down to a structure of “do X so that you will do your fathermother proud” — with X being Anything you’re instructed to do.
X can range from diggingholestofillthemupagain, manufacturing pins, constructing highrise buildings, to even being ushers at the Beijing Olympics (real-life example of this rhetorical device!)
Essentially, the appeal to parents is most useful in making a person look less at their selfish interests, and to look at the bigger picture, give to the greater good, and do their fathermother proud. Don’t think of yourself, think of your parents.
It seems as if every week I have a song in my head while on The Island, and they are as follows:
Week 1: (I Can’t Get) No Satisfaction — Rolling Stones
Week 2: I’m Only Sleeping — John Lennon
Week 3: You Were Meant for Me — Bellefire
Week 4: Enter Sandman — Metallica
Week 5: She’s My Man — Scissor Sisters
Seems that they are either old school or girlysort (im somewhat embarassed to admit!)… ><
I wonder if the songinmyheadoftheweek correlates with the events of the week and weekends which set the mood for the rest of the week.
And I wonder what this week’s will be.
*****
TWO MORE SONGS LEFT, BITCHES.
Upon returning to civilisation, I passed a few bus stops with ads…
- and in my half awake state, I actually thought:
Huh, Fann Wong got 45 Points?
An old cold war joke:
Why are the meatballs of cubic shape?
Perestroika!
Why are they undercooked?
Uskoreniye!
Why are they bitten?
Gospriyomka!
Why are you telling me all this so brazenly?
Glasnost!
Lessons in history show that openness, or the revelation of truth, or even in the form of relaxing of controls should never be introduced too suddenly, much like a shock. Instead it should be a gradual process…
… which, even then, usually ends up accelerated.
In the art of marketing, where the ‘Imaginative Space’ to be depicted is important, I sometimes wonder about what sort of Expectation to create.
1. You want people to know that whatever you’re recommending is good and worth buying
2. So before they see the product, you either
a) tell them not to expect much — so that their expectation is easily met.
b) tell them to expect good because that will slant their perspective in a positive way.
It’s a bit hard to tip the argument without experiment/statistics — even then experiments have too many variables and “environmental differences” to extrapolate a principle.
So what do I do in such situations?
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Nothing.
*****
Actually the correct answer according to marketing (and proselytizing) is b. Either way you need to maximise the good and hide the bad.
“It has to be good, credible source X told me that it is!”
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