Drew85's Xanga

The most stupidest superlative ever!

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:39:22 GMT

Actually that title is totally misleading. No superlatives are involved. But I thought it was kind of funny. In my head.

Anyway.

Olympic announcer: "Here we see the Bird's Nest, which is quickly becoming every bit as iconic to China as the Great Wall."

No.

Nope. Nuh-uh. No.
No. Nope.

Wrong.

No.

Best Onion Ever

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:37:40 GMT

Social Studies Experiment

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:03:25 GMT

Those social studies son-of-a-guns tricked me.

I mean, they were totally honest, I guess. But in a tricky way.

I was to be paid $10 to participate in an experiment. The experiment would be to determine how I would split up money. That's all I knew.

Maybe I should have put 2 and 2 together and figured out that 10 minus my donation equals the REAL amount of money I'd be earning. Let me describe the setup:

They sat me down in front of a spreadsheet and had me respond to questions-- how likely would you be to do/say/feel the following, in each situation-- from 1-5. You entered your answers into the spreadsheet, and it calculated a score that I wrote down anonymously. Then they explain that at the end of this test, when they give you the $10, you'll have an opportunity to donate to Doctors Without Borders. You can either donate $5 right away and walk out of the room, or you can donate any amount anonymously in another room, by putting money in an envelope with the test in a box.

Next they gave me a little form with 2 questions: how much money do I think a generous person would donate, and how much money do I think a non-generous person would donate? (I said $5 for generous, $0 for non-generous.) Next, they asked me whether my score was above or below 450 points. (Laugh-- I scored 113.4!). Then they said, based on your score, you're most likely to donate $2. Then they handed me the money, and said "would you like to donate $5 now, or make an anonymous donation?" I said anonymous, went into the other room, and left all $10.

I'm like this-- I'm not particularly generous or selfless, but every so often, for no good reason, I decide to do something nice. I mean, I'll walk by homeless people 99 times without giving them a penny, then I'll give some random person a $20. I'm not exactly sure why-- I guess it's sort of a desire to look good, you know? Giving $1, even $5 won't make an impression, so why bother? Giving $20 will get a reaction.

Here's what I think: when it comes to projects where I'll see the outcome, I'm fine working behind the scenes and doing my part, and I have no problem being anonymous, even if other people are getting a lot of credit. But when I know I'll never see the results of what I'm doing, I guess I prefer to make an impression. I'm insecure? I think that's the bottom line-- I need to know my work accomplished something, and if I can't do that, I at least want a reaction from someone.

Anyway, enough lame self-analysis. I wanted to mention some of my thoughts on the experiment:
1. I filled it out in a red pen. Ha... reminds me of a Dilbert comic, where Dilbert is asked to file an anonymous boss-evaluation, using purple marker, on a page with a carefully bent corner, and with his ethnicity pre-marked as "eskimo" "for statistical purposes." (This is only a joke-- honestly, I'm 99% confident that everyone used red pen, not least because the entire university could come under sanctions if they were found doing experiments without full disclosure.)

2. The only correlatable (?) information they received from subjects in the end was the test form and the amount of money you donated. (They collected the paper with the predictions on donations separately, and it was anonymous, so there was no way to match it back up with your other responses. Interestingly, the only two pieces of information on the test form besides the actual test questions were "religion" and "major." It crossed my mind that the major purpose of this experiment could easily have been to correlate religions with generosity in donating, removing social factors. (This is important, because simply measuring amount of money donated per capita in the population has a lot of misleading factors-- ie, when people gather together and donate in front of each other, as in a church, they are obviously under more pressure to donate than someone who isn't in that situation regularly, but that my not reflect their actual generosity. There are lots of other good reasons, but I just deleted them since this is one long parenthetical.)

3. It also occurred to me that this whole thing was a great trick for funneling taxpayer money to Doctors Without Borders. Get funding for a sociological study, give $10 to a couple hundred students, then subtly pressure them into donating it before they even walk out of the room!

4. I wonder so many things about the experiment-- were they simply trying to measure correlations between things like religion, major, or test score with generosity? Or were they trying to impact your generosity? Maybe some forms didn't ask for your religion-- since it seems to me that having the money tied to your religion makes people more likely to donate, since it's a great way to make your worldview look good. Maybe some forms asked different questions, designed to make you reflect on different things. Or maybe when they told you what you were likely to donate, they gave you an arbitrary number or something, and determined its effect on your donations. (That might skirt the borders of ethics, I dunno. Not that I care.)

5. They gave me my "likely amount to donate" score after asking one question: above or below $450. Since I said "below" and they said I was likely to donate $2, it seems reasonable to conclude that 0-450 was the lowest possible bracket, and had I said "over" they would have said "over or under 600" or whatever. So, really? Based on my personality (the test didn't ask anything related to money or generosity, it was mostly how you felt about awkward or distressing situations, ie, you break something at work, do you feel bad about it, blame your boss, want to quit, etc) I'm in the lowest possible bracket of generosity? Interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the study when it comes out.

Mooo!

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:53:06 GMT

Some friends from work:

Rock, Baracko, and... I forget the other one's name.

Rock likes me. I give him alfalfa every day, and he lets me rub his nose.

Oh, and there's Joe. He's not a cow, but he's still cool.

I'm participating in an experiment today. I guess I have to decide how to split up some money... I dunno any details. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Pot Pie

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:35:35 GMT

I just wanted to let everyone know that I made the most delicious chicken pot-pie, with made-from-scratch pie crust!

Sooo good...mmmmm.

PS- I'm typing entries up on Microsoft and saving them for when I get to the library, since I don 't have the internet at home. Prepare for delayed entries! OH NOEZ!

Fill in the blanks

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:43:54 GMT

I’m a ________________(your religion or worldview.) I know that if I had been born in very different country, to parents with different beliefs, it’s likely that I would hold those beliefs instead. Yet I believe that as long as I were (raised with/had access to) ____________, I would have arrived at essentially the same worldview that I have now.

[edit]
(*Note: this in no way implies that you currently hold the same beliefs as your parents. However, the vast majority of people practice the religion of their region and family, and so even if you are one of those rare individuals who went against familial or regional pressure and picked your own worldview, it's unlikely that the same conditions that led you to reject that belief system would be present somewhere else. What I'm interested in is, what are those conditions? If you think whatever you believe is true, I wonder what conditions, tools, or characteristics would be necessary for someone born in Iran, or Beijing, or Honduras, to come to the same conclusions as you-- ie, to figure out the truth for themselves.)

Oakland

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:58:32 GMT

I think it's odd that when I think of Oakland, what comes to mind is the black and silver Raiders logo and the idea of crime and smog. Well-- that's not odd. What's odd, to me, is that I never once thought of "land of oaks." Not once!

Scary Lab!

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:22:47 GMT

Today I explored an abandoned laboratory. Apparently, quite a few years ago, a professor retired, and just up and left his lab. No one took his place, and no one feels responsible for cleaning up.

It is so creepy in that room. It's in a locked building that is also abandoned, though it remained in use a few years after the lab closed down. There are dead mice on the floor, but lab coats still hung over the backs of chairs. The refrigerator is still running and full of chemicals. I found colostrum (the milk that comes from a cow the first hours after she gives birth) from 1988, epinephrine from 1994, boxes of unopened test-tubes and tins of God-knows-what. There is still a full beaker and a syringe under the fume hood, covered in cobwebs.

I also explored abandoned mouse rooms. I had to open a thick metal door to enter the hallway where the mouse were kept. That hallways is like the inside of a submarine-- pipes and electrical wires from floor to ceiling, with knobs and dials sprouting off here and there. Most of the lights were burnt out, and man, it was creepy.

Anyway, that was fun.
Enjoy some pictures!

Friends

Birthday!

Nelly

Catch!

Birthday Present from Nick

And perhaps my favorite picture of all:

The state, not the city

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:09:24 GMT

I spent the week in Washington with two of the world’s cutest things! One of them showed me a wonderful time around Seattle, and the other mostly chewed on my watch. The cuter one prepared a delicious picnic with cookies, chicken salad, and hummus, which we enjoyed together on a hill overlooking the Puget Sound. We also saw the Troll under the Bridge (she calls it something, I can’t remember what—the something troll), and Gas Works, a park of the remains from an old gas company. I got to spend time in the Experience Music Project, a museum dedicated mainly to Seattle musicians. (I got to jam with strangers, scratch on a mixer, and sing Karaoke with Lilah in a soundproof room.) We walked through the sculpture park (pretty cool) and watched kids get soaked by a big fountain with a million jets that changed pressure and direction. We ate Ethiopian food and toured Snohomish, where we walked across an abandoned bridge. I spent much time playing with dogs, before picking up an adorable Mini Dachsund (hopefully soon to be named Albert Einstein).

So anyway, that was my fantastic week. Now it’s back to work. What kind of work? Well, a nap, for starters—night shift starts at 11pm.

Going With the Flow

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:18:31 GMT

Have I ever talked about the time I was "hyponotized" on here?

No?

Well...

I volunteered myself at a hypnotist show. The man was Kent Sorrels. I believed it would work. Here's what happened:I went up on stage and sat in a chair. I was made to relax and close my eyes. I would have closed my eyes anyway; I think it's natural for many people to feel less embarrassed in public when they close their eyes, at least until they're old enough to realize that makes them look even sillier.

Anyway, after 5-10 minutes of buildup, the hypnotist began his work. He had us do something small. At this point, I was groggily awake and aware of my surroundings. I had my eyes closed, and was feeling a bit silly. Mr. Sorrels told everyone to lean on the shoulder to our left. As in many hypnosis shows, they sat us boy-girl-boy-girl. As a young teenage (pre-teen? I don't remember) boy, I was quite happy to lean on a girl's shoulder. Anyway, I'd have looked like a doofus if I didn't-- who wants to be the only one on stage not following directions? It seems like in every hypnosis show, it seems someone goes left instead of right-- it's embarrassing. I think it would be just as embarrassing to remain bolt upright while everyone else is slouching to their left.

Next he had us sit back up and do something small. It's been so long, I hardly remember anymore, but it was one of a number of typical routines-- pretend you're on a roller coaster, or pretend that you're really really hot, or pretend that you're really really cold. Again, I took the path of least resistance-- just play along with it. It's getting embarrassing, but everyone else on stage is doing the same thing. The only thing worse would be to stand out.

The hypnotist slowly progressed to more embarrassing commands. These are the things that everyone agrees "Jack would NEVER have done that in real life, he was DEFINITELY under hypnosis." At each step, I had a choice: follow the next command, or suddenly sit down/stand awkwardly after having been apparently under hypnosis for the last 20 minutes.

The antics demanded of me get more and more outrageous. By now, this stuff isn't funny at all to me. I remember having a hard time at the beginning keeping a straight face, when we were doing the YMCA or pretending to be farmers visited by space aliens. But now it seems cruel. I'm tired of it, I want to be let off stage, and I have never felt so foolish or small in all my life. It feels dishonest, but (as I think is the case for most humans) the choice between dishonesty and ridicule is one of the most difficult decisions for me to make.

Finally, we're allowed to sit back down and close our eyes. The guy is counting up again, and playing the soothing music. I can't wait to get out of there, to be alone, out of the spotlight and away from the crowds. But Kent Sorrels isn't done. He has 2 more tricks up his sleeve. First, he gives me a little plastic trophy, telling me "if anyone asks, you have to exCITEDly shout 'I was a star at the Kent Sorrel's Hypnotist Show.' I'm supposed to be confused afterwards when everyone is looking at me strangely. Next, he tells my neighbor (who also volunteered) and I that for the rest of the night, when he says a certain word, our chairs become "hot" and we have to jump out of them.

It was easy to act the part. After jumping up, I knew I had to act confused, but I was also pretty upset and frustrated. I realized that anyone who was being stared at by the whole crowd would naturally be frustrated and angry, so I just let my annoyance show. This is the part that really turned me. I was annoyed, embarrassed, and frustrated before, but in the end, it was for fun, and of course I wasn't alone. Now my greatest source of comfort-- other people doing the same stupid things-- was taken away from me. Even so, the path of least resistance was still to continue the sham. It's only till then end of the night.

The rest of the night, I kept trying to put my trophy down and leave it somewhere, but my family and friends kept asking to see it or handing it to me. It went on forever. My parents followed me into the bathroom that night, and that was the last straw. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I made up some lame excuse why it wasn't working. I awoke the next day to knowing smiles and "mysterious" questions. "So, did you enjoy last night?" "Is your chair comfortable?" "Do you remember anything about a trophy?"

There is only one response that will make this nightmare end: "Um. I don't remember. Gosh. How strange."

I don't think everyone knowingly lies. I think a lot of people convince themselves that they really were hypnotized. I think a lot of people really forget a lot of what happened. It really does happen in a blur, and you really are groggy as you do it-- after all, you just closed your eyes and listened to a deep soothing voice for 5 minutes. It's not hard to forget, or to let it all run together. I have the same vague, run-together memories from my high school play. It's probably not that hard to bury those memories. And so what if you weren't hypnotized? What are you gonna do? Tell everyone-- "Oh, I wasn't hypnotized, I just felt silly not doing those things"? In one sentence, you've just admitted to doing embarrassing things in front of a huge crowd WHILE in control of yourself AND lying about it (by acting as if you were under hypnosis the whole time). No-- the proper answer is "I can't really remember it." Even if you are honest, most people who saw you won't believe you. It's just too much fun to buy into it. My own Dad, when this conversation came up years later, laughed when I told him. After suggesting that I was lying (now) because it fit the argument (we were talking about supernatural phenomena) he finally gave me that patronizing "Okay, if you say so."

Does hypnosis work? I suppose another way to ask it is, do you really lose voluntary control over your actions? Of course, my experiences don't necessarily speak for everyone. But I guess the key is, changing the context amounts to the same thing as changing the mind. In a way, my voluntary actions were under the control of a man skillfully manipulating context. I'm still shocked at the naivete of people who ask of the Germans under Hitler, "How could they let that happen?" I think they would do much better to recognize the awesome confidence required to speak out against overwhelmingly accepted absurdity. You can change the world though intelligence, wit, creativity, or any of a thousand other talents and characteristics. To change the world's moral outlook, though, requires something much rarer-- the ability to choose ridicule over dishonesty.

Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmmm

Once there was this kid who
Got into an accident and couldn't come to school
But when he finally came back
His hair had turned from black into bright white
He said that it was from when the cars had smashed so hard

Mmm...

Once there was this girl who
Wouldn't go and change with the girls in the change room
And when they finally made her
They saw birthmarks all over her body
She couldn't quite explain it, they'd always just been there

Mmm...

But both girl and boy were glad'
Cause one kid had it worse than that'

Cause then there was this boy whose
Parents made him come directly home right after school
And when they went to their church
They shook and lurched all over the church floor
He couldn't quite explain it, they'd always just gone there

Mmm...