Blog 29: "Studying"

So I haven't updated in a while because I'm busy and wouldn't have time to be able to write anything that lives up to this blog's high standards. *cough cough*

I realised this when in last week's workshop quiz, I read the following question...

Draw the structures of the ionisation of the following amino acid side chains: Arg, Ser, Phe, Gln, His and Cys.

and thought, "Oh fuddle duck, I have absolutely no knowledge in this matter".

And then I thought, "Oh well, at least I have psychology to fall back on."
That was until I saw the following question...

What theory of altruism, ethical hedonism or aversive-arousal reduction model, is to do with relieving negative feelings connected to empathy?

And though, "Altruism? Hedonism? Hedon. Edon. Eden. In the garden of eden ba-beh!"

So yes, I've concluded I should be studying. And have better concentration too.
But I'll be back for the big finale, the supposed blog 31!

Blog 22: The Rules of Sneekies

So my 30 blogs in 31 days have totally gone down the drain. I've been studying and what not for the past week, but I'm back! With the long awaited 'Rules of Sneekies'.

The other person besides me who may be slightly interested in this is Zef. And he won't see it because he actually has a life now that Steffy's bounced back into Aus.

SNEEKIES: THE WORLD'S GREATEST GAME

Background Information

For many years, the Eight Mile Plains Chinese Methodist Church Methodist Youth Fellowship have met every Monday night for what they call..."Bible Study". Shocking, I know.
When the meeting is over, it was everyone's favourite part of the night...Refreshment Time! But it was also time for something else. A game. A sneeky game.
Zef, one of the founding fathers coined this growing tradition "Sneekies". Quite an appropiate name for a game which requires the player to be patient, strategic, have quick reflexes, and above all else, stealth.

History (2007-07)

A member of the EMP CMC MYF called Fanny Dong had very unusual habits. One of them was to gain someone's attention by caressing their arm accompanied by a very long "heyyyyyyyyyyyy..." Not only was this invasion of personal space frightening, it gave one the feeling of immense awkardness. Fanny is somehow immune to this as she continues this habit to this day.
Vanessa Tay, another MYF member, described one particular incident, where Fanny Dong's hand caressing was so slow, it slid all the way down to Vanessa's elbow. She thought, "surely I am not the only one who gets this painfully awkward feeling" so she tested it out on Anna one bible study. The shudder and slight wailing of Anna told Vanessa one thing. VICTORY. She had found a weapon. A weapon of MASS AWKWARDNESS.

Zef had found this action quite intriguing. And so Sneekies begun. Many rules and strategies have developed, which are described in more detail below.

Rules

1. The giver's hand must make direct contact with the reciever's elbow or knee.
2. The hand must make a definite caressing motion.
3. The reciever of the Sneekie must be unaware of it until it is too late. In other words, the giver must do it when the reciever isn't looking.

Point system

Elbow from the back= 1 point
Elbow from the front= 2 points
Double elbows= double points
Knee= 1 point
Double knees= 3 points

Strategies

1. Guard your elbows and knees with your life.
2. Be patient. Wait for the right moment, otherwise the reciever will be more on guard then ever.
3. For easy points, it has been found that the best way to get an elbow from the back is when the reciever is busy reaching for food. As the arm becomes unguarded...CARESS! Victory is yours.
4. Another one is when the reciever is deep in conversation with someone. Any number of points is possible here.
5. Referring to strategy 2, it is probably best for the reciever to talk to no one and roll up in a little paranoid ball in the corner.
6. Always be on the lookout. One incident (which Vanessa is very depressed about) is when she took her eyes off Zef for a split second, and CARESS! He had taken advantage of that moment and got a front on elbow.
7. A highly skilled strategy is for the giver to make sure the reciever sees them in the corner of their eyes. This makes the reciever think that they can't possibly be Sneeked upon. The giver then slowly steps backwards until they are in the reciever's blind spot. Then they make a quick dash or dive towards the target. This one takes skill and time my friends.

So there you have it. Sneekies. No equipment or expensive things needed. Just two quick hands and a sucker willing to play.

Until next time, good luck everyone with their upcoming exams!

Blog 16: The Coochi Island Adventures

Technology is very frustrating. I tried to upload photos yesterday to my laptop and it didn't work. It had morphed into a screaming toddler - "I WON'T DO IT! YOU CAN'T MAKE MEEEE!"

So I shut the whole thing down and wouldn't touch it. But I'm back! And it's working! So here's blog 16!

(If you've noticed, I'm naming blogs by the date, not the number of blogs I've actually written. That's to make myself feel better when I get to number 30. Back to the story...)

Yesterday, we went to COOCHI ISLAND! I've been tricked by the weather before so I decided to go all out and bring half my closet so that I was prepared for any weather, desert storm or hurricane!

Frank brought along the family camp hula hoops, which was a great source of fun as you will soon read.

Girl Power (minus Max, plus Sven) went into Kent's car. Bui deliberately went into a separate car. We got there and boarded the barge. Notice the man in the truck who's a bit frazzled by the sudden onslaught of asians.

Tim was so excited he wet his pants.

I felt like we were a boat full of illegal immigrants on our way to the Australian shore.

We did a lot of walking (in a circle) trying to find a good place to have lunch. We finally settled for a spot with a table, BBQ place and logs to sit on. The only problem was that two old ladies were sitting there. So in true Asian style, we kicked them off by dumping our bags on the bench and glaring at them.

I soon found a great photo op while having lunch. No one else was quite as enthusiastic.

A great rendition of 'If I was a Butterfly' soon burst forth. You know how it goes -

"If I was a butterfly, I'll thank you Lord for giving me wings.
And if I were a robin in a tree, I'll thank you Lord that I could sing."

And then Song comes in with -"And if I were a washing machine..."

We were all like, "what??!! It has to be an animal, not a random object!"

Sharon, Heidi and I soon took it upon ourselves to make soup and rice cakes, I mean clean the pan.

Hulan hooping action soon broke forth and many new techniques were formed. The favourite of the day was Mikey's "Windy Palm" or "Wildgrass". This is where he would wildly flap his arms above his head. The funny thing is that it actually worked.

We then went fishing. I caught nothing. Kent worked his magic and caught a few. Frank was really good at it, and caught a whole family of small ones.
Sven decided to roll his pants up into short shorts for no apparent reason.

Check out my Facebook for more glorious photos like the one above!

Friday night: the August birthday extravaganza.

Blog 14: Fernwood, Fernwood...

Just got back from FERNWOOD! The friendly neighbourhood women's fitness centre.
I went with Max and Viv. Was soooo much fun!

We got there at 5 and joined the BODY COMBAT class. Or what I like to call it, the I'm-so-unfit class. Seriously, my arm nearly died after just two air punches.

Then we went on the treadmills and cycling machines for about 40 mins and then did some stretching. All to the sounds of Fergie's glamorous. Can never get enough of that song, can you?

And to finish off, we went into the Detox Box (was like a not so hot sauna) for 20 mins where we talked about blackheads, excema marks, toning and other girly things. Seriously, when 3 girls get together, we can talk our heads off till they explode.

Then we went to Sunnybank Oriental to have dinner + milk teas and a gossip. I mean, chatter. *shifty eyes*

All in all, it was a really good night where we all just really enjoyed being together. We've made plans for an all girls day at the beach where we can get a tan and as Viv put it, "not look like I'm going to church" =)

Coochi Island tomorrow! Oh yeahhh...

Blog 13: Make Us a Bungalow

Family Camp 2007 evaluation: 10/10

As some may have noticed, I haven't blogged for 3 days, because I was at Family Camp!!

edit: make that 4 days. Yesterday, my computer was down again, so I'm putting up the post this morn.

Even though there was no net at Camp, it wasn't like we were out in the wilderness or anything. I mean there was a projector, sound system, bed sheets and a bowling alley down the road, so I definitely wouldn't call it real camping!

So here's a breakdown -

Penandkarin came to pick me up round 7pm with Bui and Sandie bouncing around at the back. I joined their bouncing in the middle seat. The bouncing soon died down as we went along, put to sleep with Karin's mix of "acid jazz". At least I was half entertained unlike the other two because I could see the music player screen with Penandkarin pictures smiling back at me. Ah, newlyweds.

Sandie and I also entertained ourselves talking about nursing labs ("Today, we will all be stripping down and walking around naked!") and how Bui drools in his sleep (jokes :D)

We got there and joined into praise and worship. Sandie and I found out we were with Frank in a cabin (B21!) and got real excited. Pen found out he was with Simon and Sven. Not so excited.

Food was really good there as well. Eggs, sausages and hashbrowns for brekkie, the best cookies I've ever tasted for snacks, kebabs for lunch and meat and veggies for dinner. Oh yeah, trifle and cheesecake for dessert. Mmm...slobber...

The speaker was really good. He was given 1 1/2 hours and I was like nooooo...i can't last that long! but he was so good i stayed awake throughout all of it!

During our free time we had 5 options:

- volleyball championships
- footy championships
- cricket championships
- nature walk
- walk along the beach

Just the word 'championships' scared us girls, so we went for the beach option. Ems, Karin, Tim, B, Zef and I (Frank and Viv were 'studying') took a walk along the beach trying to find alive things. All we found were crab balls. And I just realised that sounded really bad. I mean sand balls.

We then went in search for ice-cream, and then went for a VERY long walk around a pond, or as we like to call it, 'the duck detention centre'.

As there weren't many sightseeing sights, I decided that what I could see will have to make do. Sadly, I accidently deleted all the photos off my camera so I can't show any of them. I love technology.

But basically I took photos of construction, the path, tadpoles and 'do not feed the ducks' signs. I'm sure everyone is disappointed about not being able to see the pics.

Games was also really good. Many ideas which the Youth Camp can steal...

And now for some funny moments/quotes:

Frank and me: Welcome to our lair! I'm an 8th level ogre magii with invisibility, and this is Randall!

Frank: There's no cups left. I wish there was an endless supply of cups.
Ems: If you wish for an endless supply of cups, you'll regret it.
silence.
Frank: I wish for an endless supply of cups.

Mary J Blige: mmm, mmmmm. Get out of my way Bono. Woahhhh, oh oh oh.

Everyone's hula hooping techniques -
The sky diver (Andy Lou)
The foot pedal (me)
The standing still (Viv)
The crazy hip spinning (Fong)
The backwards and forwards thrusting motion (Zef)
The no technique (Uncle Albert)
The Elvis Presley (Chloe)
The look at meeeeee! (Most of the little kids)

Me: I've got flour all over my face! (from a game)
Zef: Must run in the family.

Connect camp '06: Bec aka Flour face

Tim changed the words to the camp theme song. The original version is:

Make me a blessing, make me a blessing,
Out of my life, may Jesus shine.
Make me a blessing, oh Saviour I pray,
Make me a blessing, to someone today.

The new and improved version is:

Make me a bungalow, make me a bungalow,
To some bum today, may bungalow shine.
Make me a bungalow, to some bum today,
Make me a bungalow, to some bum today.

Hmm...not so creative though.

Going to Fernwood tonight with Max and Viv. This will be interesting...

Blog 9: Bus Adventures

Blog 8 doesn't exist because the internet was down last night. But I guess it doesn't matter as most of you don't care going by your comments.

So only a quick story today:

Today I got onto the bus as usual. We rumbled along until I heard this huge whip, crash.
Before I could go "What was that?" there was another whip, crash.
I looked up to see what it was. Seemed like the bus was nearly mounting the curb because we hit about another 10 trees growing along side the road before the bus driver noticed and violently swerved off.
The people at the QEII stop looked highly alarmed as we pulled up as they must have seen the whole thing.
The bus driver opened the door and stared down at them expectantly, The people looked quite relieved as the 120 pulled up behind us, and they all jostled quickly towards it.

Sigh. Public transport. Nothing like it.

Family Camp's this weekend, so won't be here for a few days.
And probably won't make up for it either.
Be back on Mon! Yea! Happy camping.

Hmm...better go pack.

The Epic Blog (consisting of blog 5,6 & 7)

Wow. My blogging efforts have got about as much encouragement as the dam levels in Queensland.
And I don't blame you. My last blog wasn't even in the right Mastercard ad structure (as Mikey so kindly pointed out). But I've been very busy, specifically, creating a 20 page story for Frank's bday present. So that's my pathetic excuse.

But to make up for it, I'm going to post up a very large blog, so large in fact that hopefully no one will be bothered to read it and I can slip in a few textbook extracts here and there.

By varying the experimental conditions, Milgram discovered several factors that influence obedience. One is the proximity of the victim to the participant. Obedience declined substantially if the victim was in the room with the participant, if a voice replaced pounding on the wall and if the participant had to force the victim's hand onto a shock plate to administer further punishments (see figure 18.8). Proximity to the experimenter also affected the decision to obey. The closer the participant was to the experimenter, the more difficult was disobedience; when the experimenter sat in another room, obedience dropped sharply. More recent research implicates personality variables such as authoritarianism and hostility that can influence the likelihood of obedience as well (Blass, 1991, 2000) Conversely, gender had little effect on obedience in Milgram's studies - women were as likely to comply with the experimenter as were men.

There's one right there if you didn't notice. That's from my Psychology textbook, which to my surprise is quite an interesting read. We're learning about social psychology right now and how much others and influence our behaviour, attitudes, values etc. And this is from every end of the scale mind you. From persuader techniques of telemarketers to the Nazis.

Boring uni update: tick.

Last night was bible study, led by Max! Was very good. Discussion was on an all time high, special guest Carson always had worthy comments, and Emily appeared and disappeared under her hood throughout the night.

B just looked murky under his hood.
And I just realised I described B as looking murky, like a swamp. What's a better word...broody?
My English vocabulary astounds me.

Cousin update: tick!

Throughout Sunday night and Monday, I thought I had lost my mobile. Obviously this boring bit of my life calls for a bit of spicing up in the form of a short story.

DETECTIVE NESS AND THE LOST MOBILE

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.
Detective Ness sleepily opened her eyes. She looked at the time. No wait, she had to put on her glasses first. Let's start that again.

Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep.
Detective Ness sleepily opened her eyes. She put on her glasses and looked at the time. 8:30am. She pondered on whether to get up. Her dog Wrinkles happily trotted into her room and licked her face. No choice now. Ness had to get up unless she wanted to smell like dog saliva all day. Once she washed her face, changed and had breakfast, she packed her unnecessarily extra large bag. Keys. Purse. Bible. Blistex. Tissues. Scarf. Extra jacket. Fluro bouncy ball. Mobile.
Time to go!

After church service, Ness put her bag on the seat outside the kitchen so she could start kitchen duty. She told Tim she didn't want to wash or rinse today. He asked why. She replied, "Because I don't want to get my hands wet." Tim was not amused. For the next 20 minutes, Ness had fun bouncing her bouncy ball over every hard surface there was. The bench, sink, door, and Tim's forehead. Soon it was time to go. She grabbed her bag which had fallen over and jumped into the car.

Ness and her mum went to Pho Phang for lunch. Her mum kept telling her it's not actually called Pho Phang, but they neither knew the real name so the argument died pretty quickly. Like every Sunday lunch, they both pulled out their mobiles for some lazy Sunday texting. Well, at least her mum did.

Ness looked into her bag. Oh crap.

They arrived home in peace. Ness had decided not to tell her mum just yet. She thought, "Time to put on the detective gear". She dressed herself in detective gear, but only in her mind because she didn't actually own any detective gear. Not even a magnifying glass. But she did have a notebook! She decided to make a list of where her mobile could be:

1- Church- seat behind computer
2- Church- around seat beside kitchen
3- Market Square- lost/no hope

She thought option 2 was a safe bet so she rung RL. He said he'd look. As Ness hung up, she thought it was time to tell her Mum. The usual followed, "WHY? HOW? WHERE? WHEN? SO IRRESPONSIBLE LAH!"
Ness took refuge in the shower. As she came back out, she saw her Mum had a very smug look on her face.
"What?" asked Ness.
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"Er...well yes I would."
long pause
"I just found your mobile"
"Where?!"
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"YES! I WOULD! VERY MUCH!"
long pause
"I found it..."
"Yes..."
"In..."
"Uh huh..."
"the car."
"oh. whoops."

Case of the lost mobile? Solved.
THE END.

Worst story ever. Tick!

Blog 4

Getting two plastic forks stuck together for the price of one: 15c

Bargaining a textbook down 40% its original price: $30

Getting a large Macca meal for the price of a small: $4.80

Sneaking through 3 zones on a 1 zone bus ticket: $1.20

Staying true to my Asian heritage: Priceless

Blog 3: Yeah...I know what I'm talking about

Firstly, I would like to address an issue raised by the commenter Dr. Zef.

Just because blog 2 showed some interesting, highly humourous videos, doesn't mean it did not count as a blog. It had writing which not only accompanied these videos, but enhanced it.

A video by the way is just a collection of moving pictures.

And if a picture is worth a 1000 words, a video must be worth a billion times more.

I win.

Me: 1
Zef: nil.

Onto better things, today I had to fill out a survey for an honours student in Psych (to gain credit points).

Anyway, their thesis was about society's view on mentally ill patients.

It took me up to an hour to fill out this survey stating my opinions with truth and conviction (like I knew what I was talking about). At the end, the student was like,

"By the way, have you ever even come into contact with a mentally ill patient?"

Me: Ah...no.

Student: You do know your comments are totally useless then?

Me: Ah...now I do.

silence.

Me: Can I still get my credit point?

Student: silently hates me through her stare.


Hope that was to everyone's satisfaction.

Goodnight!

Blog 2: Tyra Banks is cra-zee!

Goodness, nearly forgot to blog. I nearly failed without even trying!

Watched this infamous moment a few days ago. I'll set the scene:

This is America's next top model season 3, and Tiffany has just been ELIMINATED. Tyra gets a teensy bit annoyed (note: understatement) because Tiffany's not taking Tyra's mega awesome show seriously enough, but instead she's...bah, just watch it:



And this is Family Guy's take on it. Pretty accurate I say.

30 BLOGS IN 31 DAYS!

It's August! Glorious August! There are many reasons to love this month:

1. Last month of winter!
2. Many birthdays to celebrate!
3. Halfway through Britain's NTM Season 3!
4. Changing to a brand new toothbrush!
5. August starts with a letter in my name!

To celebrate this splendid month, I'm going to post 30 blogs in 31 days.

Some of you would exclaim, "Impossible!", or "You couldn't even past 1 week!", or like most of you, "I don't even care!"

So to defy all odds, I'm going to do it. (And also because I'm going to pretty much spend all these lonely nights in front of my lonely desk. We're going to be lonely together.)

But because I realise there is a big chance I might fail, I've given myself some leeway of 30 blogs, not 31.

And also, this counts as a blog.

DISCLAIMER: The writer does not take any responsibility of anyone who comes to the realisation in the next 30 days that they have just wasted glorious August reading this worthless blog instead of doing other glorious things.