During dinner today, my housemate (she's technically not my roommate since i don't share a room with her, just the apartment) and I were watching Awake.  It wasn't a great movie so I wouldn't recommend it... anyway the premise is about this dude who had anesthetic awareness. So while I was washing the dishes, Lori (housemate) sighed and complained about how we have so many years to go and I mourned (okay, maybe that's a tad exaggerated) with her.  Then she said, I feel like my work is not really that important (I'm guessing it's because we just saw doctors doing open heart surgery in the movie).  And I was like, oh, did you wanted to change the world? She said "Yes!"  I joked and said, well, you're in the wrong field.  She said, researching is rather a selfish act and does not really change the world.  And I thought about it and I disagree with her.  Researching is anything but selfish.  I feel like we're giving up alot of things in life to research.  And it's not exactly glamorous.  We sacrifice many different types of joy (leisure time, socializing, being away from loved ones, a less stressful life, family etc) to find some greater good... the so called truth.

Today, my regression II professor said, "you will never ever find the Truth of human behavior because they are not governed by laws.....  BUT you can get close to it." 

And that is what research in social sciences is about.. sacrificing the best years of our lives to get close to some type of truth that we'll never truly reach.  Selfish?  Not in my opinion.

so i learned something cool in class today...

coding:

a=1, b=2, c=3, d=4, e=5.... z=26, blank=27

coding scheme:

1    2
3    4

decode the following msg:

2     7/2     -7     15/2     -17     31/2     -32     26     8     -3/2     -4     9/2     -12     27/2     -1     3     11     -5

go ahead, impress me, decode the message :D (sorry, typo :P)

 

*** so i've been reading alot of research articles about asians and asian americans.. about their attitudes with food or body image and their identity. and it's almost like therapy for me.. i am reading all these things about my culture or my struggles  as an Asian American:

here's a qoute from an interview that I can really relate to (Viver & Jenkins, 1999 p.13) in terms of biculturalism:

"You start building a home in one place with one culture, you get about so much done but do not complete it.  Then you continue to build your home withint antoher culture; you leave it there and go somewhere else.  At the end, you have different pieces of home in different places.  You can never put them together because they may contradict or conflict with one antoehr.  If you try to piece the parts together, you make 'home' collapse."

me:  Hello?

Friend:  Hi, Mei.

me: Heyy.

Friend: How are you?

me: good..... i am good..................

me:.........how are you?

Friend: i am good. listen, i was thinking so and so and blah blah blah

*******************

I just realize how much I hate what i have presented above.  The hey, how are you thing.  it's not like we really want to know.  At least I don't want to know.  but it's so American... be all positive to everyone we meet.--hey how are you? good. good. and how are you? good. great... now on with the business.--it's so ingenuine and fake.  And it's not like you can not say "how are you " back.  there were several times where i either forget to say it back or i am just really slow (because i didn't honestly care at the moment) but the other person kind of just waits there until you say it back.  Also, it's not like they want to hear how you're really doing.. for example if you're sad or depressed or angry about something, they don't want to know too much.  they are just saying how are you doing to be polite.. it's not an actual question that you're supposed to put thought into. ugh, that just annoys me.  *shrug, maybe I am just anti-social.