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!