Here are a few interesting facts I found while doing some health psychology study during the past week:
Men who understand others well which means being able to read their emotions are likely to be more socially successful and compete more successfully for females. Thus males may have pressures both to feel and not to feel...
Men inhibit expressions of fear and sadness more often whereas women are more likely to inhibit expressions of anger. How much gender differences in regulation of anger are not entirely clear though. Recent research has found that women express as much anger as men but only if the target of their anger is not present.
Females are more cognitively complex (the reason behind their attitudes are more logical and specific) than males but men and women in close relationships have similar cognitive complexity. We are drawn to people who are at the same level of cognitive complexity to us.
Research consistently finds that when people feel and act attractive, others are more likely to see them that way.
- From Psychology : Australian and New Zealand edition by Drew Westen, Lorelle Burton, Robin Kowalski
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Monday, 15 October 2007
Nope
I've been reading a chapter on cognition memory all night as part of my health psychology study, about how we have sensory register, short term memory, long term memory, so on and so on and so on...Seems as though I only have short term memory! I'm not too sure how long I'll remember it all though.
There have been an interesting selection of movies broadcast on TV this weekend. Last night there was 'Death to Smoochy' which was about some crazy guy who lost his kids TV show to some hippie who created this character called Smoochy, and 'The Girl Next Door'.
I watched The Girl Next Door with considerable interest, seeing as it is something I could vaguely relate to. Unfortunately it didn't even come close! The geeky guy who had ambitions of one day becoming the US president witnessed his new hot neighbour undressing through the window, and from there things developed, until he found out she was a porn star! Nope, can't relate to that!
There have been an interesting selection of movies broadcast on TV this weekend. Last night there was 'Death to Smoochy' which was about some crazy guy who lost his kids TV show to some hippie who created this character called Smoochy, and 'The Girl Next Door'.
I watched The Girl Next Door with considerable interest, seeing as it is something I could vaguely relate to. Unfortunately it didn't even come close! The geeky guy who had ambitions of one day becoming the US president witnessed his new hot neighbour undressing through the window, and from there things developed, until he found out she was a porn star! Nope, can't relate to that!
Saturday, 13 October 2007
Coming Close
Exams are just about a week and a half away now, and after realising how badly I have to do (I actually mean how well) I've been trying to get back into full study mode. I had one of my most productive days yesterday managing to study for several hours straight, covering a grand total of....four lectures (in-depth though!!) before I went to the KiwiAsian Club AGM.
I actually saw the boyfriends of two of my friends for the first time yesterday...I think! I saw Josefia (this girl from my school last year) walking by holding hands with her boyfriend. I haven't actually talked to her in ages!! I heard she's doing well though so that's good! I also saw the boyfriend of another friend, but I won't disclose who because I don't know if I'm allowed to...
Anyway at the KiwiAsian Club AGM there were video presentations and slideshows of photos of club events over the past year. Of course yours truly didn't feature in any of them as he only took part in a grand total of two events! After that though, the seven 'P-Execs' - members vying for positions in the club executive had to give speeches one by one, followed by questions from the floor. Our very own Melissa and Kat did their speeches, along with a few others. I only really knew five of the people - Kat, Melissa, Mark, Le-yo and Bettina. They all gave pretty good speeches, but then the questions from the floor were dominated by this row of people who seemed intent on trapping our poor P-Execs! They were asking all these petty questions, with the relevance of some of them being questionably trivial! When Kat was about to face question time, I had an easy question prepared for her just in case she needed respite:
"How well do you think you will manage to juggle both the workload of being a KAC executive and a busy fine arts student?"
OK that would have probably taken a dig at her being a fine arts student (she gets a couple days off a week! How unfair! I'd need that at the very least to recover from three days of Health Science classes!!!) Anyway she didn't need it as she wiped the floor clean with those question-askers!
The voting forms were then handed out. We were allowed to vote for four people and four people ONLY. I was having trouble deciding who I would vote for, as I had promised five people I would vote for them! So the next best thing...vote for all of them!! That obviously meant my voting form was deemed invalid, but oh well at least I kept my word!
In the end Marcus, Kat, Bettina and Danny got elected. Congratulations guys, even to those guy I don't even know! I voted for you all!
On the topic of voting, who here has actually voted in the local body elections? I know I'm a keen follower of NZ politics and a bit of local politics to a certain degree. This has also been my first chance to exercise my democratic right, but for some reason I just couldn't be bothered. The little booklet they send out to you with the voting form containing paragraphs about each of the candidates isn't that substantial. Each of the candidates just talk about their background and what they've done for the community, but not really much in terms of what they stand for or what they'll try and achieve if elected. The issues that seem to have been mentioned by a few candidates this time around though seem to have been paid parking in the Henderson CBD and rate increases.
According to a NZ Herald poll though, incumbent mayor Bob Harvey is about ten percentage points ahead of the second-highest polling candidate John Tamihere, and I doubt that is likely to change. And here I was thinking about voting for poor Peter Chan, just because he's Chinese...but then that would be a silly way for me to make use of my vote...
I actually saw the boyfriends of two of my friends for the first time yesterday...I think! I saw Josefia (this girl from my school last year) walking by holding hands with her boyfriend. I haven't actually talked to her in ages!! I heard she's doing well though so that's good! I also saw the boyfriend of another friend, but I won't disclose who because I don't know if I'm allowed to...
Anyway at the KiwiAsian Club AGM there were video presentations and slideshows of photos of club events over the past year. Of course yours truly didn't feature in any of them as he only took part in a grand total of two events! After that though, the seven 'P-Execs' - members vying for positions in the club executive had to give speeches one by one, followed by questions from the floor. Our very own Melissa and Kat did their speeches, along with a few others. I only really knew five of the people - Kat, Melissa, Mark, Le-yo and Bettina. They all gave pretty good speeches, but then the questions from the floor were dominated by this row of people who seemed intent on trapping our poor P-Execs! They were asking all these petty questions, with the relevance of some of them being questionably trivial! When Kat was about to face question time, I had an easy question prepared for her just in case she needed respite:
"How well do you think you will manage to juggle both the workload of being a KAC executive and a busy fine arts student?"
OK that would have probably taken a dig at her being a fine arts student (she gets a couple days off a week! How unfair! I'd need that at the very least to recover from three days of Health Science classes!!!) Anyway she didn't need it as she wiped the floor clean with those question-askers!
The voting forms were then handed out. We were allowed to vote for four people and four people ONLY. I was having trouble deciding who I would vote for, as I had promised five people I would vote for them! So the next best thing...vote for all of them!! That obviously meant my voting form was deemed invalid, but oh well at least I kept my word!
In the end Marcus, Kat, Bettina and Danny got elected. Congratulations guys, even to those guy I don't even know! I voted for you all!
On the topic of voting, who here has actually voted in the local body elections? I know I'm a keen follower of NZ politics and a bit of local politics to a certain degree. This has also been my first chance to exercise my democratic right, but for some reason I just couldn't be bothered. The little booklet they send out to you with the voting form containing paragraphs about each of the candidates isn't that substantial. Each of the candidates just talk about their background and what they've done for the community, but not really much in terms of what they stand for or what they'll try and achieve if elected. The issues that seem to have been mentioned by a few candidates this time around though seem to have been paid parking in the Henderson CBD and rate increases.
According to a NZ Herald poll though, incumbent mayor Bob Harvey is about ten percentage points ahead of the second-highest polling candidate John Tamihere, and I doubt that is likely to change. And here I was thinking about voting for poor Peter Chan, just because he's Chinese...but then that would be a silly way for me to make use of my vote...
Sunday, 7 October 2007
What a SAD Day
The All Blacks lost!!! I'm so depressed I even skipped church because I was so sad! I can't believe it! Now I know how the Aussies must've felt earlier this morning!
Who wants to go French hunting with me? haha
Who wants to go French hunting with me? haha
Jacqueline's Birthday Get-Together
Tonight a 'sausage-fest' gathered to celebrate Jacqueline's birthday! Well not quite a complete sausage-fest, as there were one or two girls including Jacqueline, but most of us guys went over to Gengy's for a buffet dinner and then Spooker's for some..after-dinner entertainment!
Initially, my mum was worried when I told her that I would be going all the way to South Auckland. Because Jacqueline would be giving me a ride, she kept going on...
"Has she got her full?"
"Has she ever driven to South Auckland before?"
"It's dangerous at night, especially when you're driving to a faraway place like South Auckland"
I kept reassuring her that I trusted my friends!
Anyway I eventually persuaded my mum to let me go. I went over to Shen's house to wait for Jacqueline to pick us up. When she eventually arrived, TJ and Michael were behind her in their 'souped up' car. We went over to pick Nick up before we went to Gengy's in South Auckland....oh and don't forget a few wrong turns along the way!
We got there and got into eating! The whole process was a little different to what I had experienced before. You had to pick your own raw food and put it in this little bowl. Then you handed it to these cooks who put it on this big stove/grill thing and they diced it and cooked it there on the spot. They would then hand it back to you so you could add rice or whatever to it afterwards.
The first time I went to choose my food I didn't know this, and I was looking at the different options, a little confused as to why everything looked uncooked! My first plate was therefore full of vegetables! The following plates contained heaps of meat though!
I had an interesting and intellectual discussion with Nick tonight about politics and issues amongst other things which was pretty refreshing!
After we had had enough rice and meat, we had some pancakes with ice-cream, before we sang happy birthday to Jacqueline and let her cut the cake! I don't think too many people actually ate the cake since they were already so full!
We then jumped into cars to head off to Spooker's. I jumped into the car with Micheal, TJ and Ben which was pretty loud (I think it had turbo and these huge subs, like a boy-racer sorta car?). We just went driving around in circles, in between times when Micheal jumped out of his car to chase cats! They then pulled into this car park of a motel. I think all the people in the motel rooms must've heard the car because these people were coming outside and looking out over their balconies at us! Eventually Geoff, one of Jacqueline's friends, returned from having gotten changed into different clothes and so we followed him out, while Gavin, Issac and Shen in the other car followed us.
The drive there was really long and dark!! We eventually got there but had to wait a while for Jacqueline who went to pick up Teresa. Spooker's is located at this former mental hospital. They've jazzed it up a bit and have all these zombies and weird people who try to scare you. After hearing stories that you can wet your pants, the guys were busting to go to the toilet! While we were standing there, you could hear all these people screaming from inside the building! We were all testing our torches for the forest as well, as we were required to have a torch for every four people.
Micheal kept creeping up to me and trying to scare me, making me jump! I don't know how he managed to keep doing that to me for so many times! Inside the haunted house and the forest it was a different story though!
At Spooker's the birthday person gets to wear a fluorescent bib and they get to be scared even more than the others, and so as soon as we found this out, we all got Jacqueline to wear it, and this really freaked her out!!!
When we went into the haunted house Jacqueline, Teresa, Gavin, Issac, Shen and I were in one group, and it was really funny. Jacqueline and Teresa were screaming and shrieking and grabbing onto Shen who did really well to look after the girls! We went into this area where these freaky army guys with guns (not real ones of course!) made us line up and face the wall, then told us guys to do press-ups one-by-one. When I got down and did mine, the guy kept telling me I only did two! I did another one and he would just say
TWO!!! TWO!!! TWO!!! GET UP! YOU'RE WASTING MY TIME!!!!
Gavin and I got ahead of the group so we sneaked around the corner and managed to scare the others! There were also these little side rooms, such as this dentist's room where this freaky dentist guy grabbed Shen first and put him in the operating chair, before chucking him out and grabbing Ben. There were also these guys with chainsaws who crept up behind us, old ladies with fake blood smearing it on people's faces and screaming girls!
We went into the forest next. We remained in the same group, and this time we had to rely on torches to find our path. There were these ghoulish people who jumped out from behind the bushes, causing Jacqueline and Teresa to scream!! The sign if you were too scared and wanted to be left alone was to shout out STOP and hold your hand out, and they definitely did that a few times! I even managed to scare them a few times by suddenly turning around and shouting out loud at them!
A funny part was when we had to walk into this shed and these dead-looking people were calling out
"Jaaaaaaackkkkiieeeeee....Jaaaaaccccckkkkiiieeeee.... Which one's Jackie?????"
The girls all pointed out to Issac, and then they went
"Teeerrreeeeeessssaaaa.......Teeerrrrreeeeeeessaaa...."
They then said I was Teresa and one of those people came up to me and kissed me!!
I don't think anyone quite wet their pants in the end but I'm sure a few of the guys....well especially the girls...got heaps of frights! I was told by Teresa that I had the biggest balls which kinda makes up for constantly being jumpy when Michael kept scaring me at the beginning! While a few of the others went off clubbing (I was thinking of just going for an hour but I had dressed in my worst clothes for fear of getting them stained with the fake blood!), I caught a ride home with Michael and TJ, and experienced my first drag race...of sorts! They were travelling down the motorway when this Asian-driven car was alongside them. When the guys speed past the Asian, the Asian started speeding up! Then on the other side of us these Pacific Islanders in their car started trying to race us! We fortunately slowed down as we came up to another car in front of us!
Thank goodness I made it home alive! Anyway it was a pretty fun night and now I've just got to get my birthday present for Jacqueline sorted so I can give it to her on Tuesday (her actual birthday!!!).
Initially, my mum was worried when I told her that I would be going all the way to South Auckland. Because Jacqueline would be giving me a ride, she kept going on...
"Has she got her full?"
"Has she ever driven to South Auckland before?"
"It's dangerous at night, especially when you're driving to a faraway place like South Auckland"
I kept reassuring her that I trusted my friends!
Anyway I eventually persuaded my mum to let me go. I went over to Shen's house to wait for Jacqueline to pick us up. When she eventually arrived, TJ and Michael were behind her in their 'souped up' car. We went over to pick Nick up before we went to Gengy's in South Auckland....oh and don't forget a few wrong turns along the way!
We got there and got into eating! The whole process was a little different to what I had experienced before. You had to pick your own raw food and put it in this little bowl. Then you handed it to these cooks who put it on this big stove/grill thing and they diced it and cooked it there on the spot. They would then hand it back to you so you could add rice or whatever to it afterwards.
The first time I went to choose my food I didn't know this, and I was looking at the different options, a little confused as to why everything looked uncooked! My first plate was therefore full of vegetables! The following plates contained heaps of meat though!
I had an interesting and intellectual discussion with Nick tonight about politics and issues amongst other things which was pretty refreshing!
After we had had enough rice and meat, we had some pancakes with ice-cream, before we sang happy birthday to Jacqueline and let her cut the cake! I don't think too many people actually ate the cake since they were already so full!
We then jumped into cars to head off to Spooker's. I jumped into the car with Micheal, TJ and Ben which was pretty loud (I think it had turbo and these huge subs, like a boy-racer sorta car?). We just went driving around in circles, in between times when Micheal jumped out of his car to chase cats! They then pulled into this car park of a motel. I think all the people in the motel rooms must've heard the car because these people were coming outside and looking out over their balconies at us! Eventually Geoff, one of Jacqueline's friends, returned from having gotten changed into different clothes and so we followed him out, while Gavin, Issac and Shen in the other car followed us.
The drive there was really long and dark!! We eventually got there but had to wait a while for Jacqueline who went to pick up Teresa. Spooker's is located at this former mental hospital. They've jazzed it up a bit and have all these zombies and weird people who try to scare you. After hearing stories that you can wet your pants, the guys were busting to go to the toilet! While we were standing there, you could hear all these people screaming from inside the building! We were all testing our torches for the forest as well, as we were required to have a torch for every four people.
Micheal kept creeping up to me and trying to scare me, making me jump! I don't know how he managed to keep doing that to me for so many times! Inside the haunted house and the forest it was a different story though!
At Spooker's the birthday person gets to wear a fluorescent bib and they get to be scared even more than the others, and so as soon as we found this out, we all got Jacqueline to wear it, and this really freaked her out!!!
When we went into the haunted house Jacqueline, Teresa, Gavin, Issac, Shen and I were in one group, and it was really funny. Jacqueline and Teresa were screaming and shrieking and grabbing onto Shen who did really well to look after the girls! We went into this area where these freaky army guys with guns (not real ones of course!) made us line up and face the wall, then told us guys to do press-ups one-by-one. When I got down and did mine, the guy kept telling me I only did two! I did another one and he would just say
TWO!!! TWO!!! TWO!!! GET UP! YOU'RE WASTING MY TIME!!!!
Gavin and I got ahead of the group so we sneaked around the corner and managed to scare the others! There were also these little side rooms, such as this dentist's room where this freaky dentist guy grabbed Shen first and put him in the operating chair, before chucking him out and grabbing Ben. There were also these guys with chainsaws who crept up behind us, old ladies with fake blood smearing it on people's faces and screaming girls!
We went into the forest next. We remained in the same group, and this time we had to rely on torches to find our path. There were these ghoulish people who jumped out from behind the bushes, causing Jacqueline and Teresa to scream!! The sign if you were too scared and wanted to be left alone was to shout out STOP and hold your hand out, and they definitely did that a few times! I even managed to scare them a few times by suddenly turning around and shouting out loud at them!
A funny part was when we had to walk into this shed and these dead-looking people were calling out
"Jaaaaaaackkkkiieeeeee....Jaaaaaccccckkkkiiieeeee.... Which one's Jackie?????"
The girls all pointed out to Issac, and then they went
"Teeerrreeeeeessssaaaa.......Teeerrrrreeeeeeessaaa...."
They then said I was Teresa and one of those people came up to me and kissed me!!
I don't think anyone quite wet their pants in the end but I'm sure a few of the guys....well especially the girls...got heaps of frights! I was told by Teresa that I had the biggest balls which kinda makes up for constantly being jumpy when Michael kept scaring me at the beginning! While a few of the others went off clubbing (I was thinking of just going for an hour but I had dressed in my worst clothes for fear of getting them stained with the fake blood!), I caught a ride home with Michael and TJ, and experienced my first drag race...of sorts! They were travelling down the motorway when this Asian-driven car was alongside them. When the guys speed past the Asian, the Asian started speeding up! Then on the other side of us these Pacific Islanders in their car started trying to race us! We fortunately slowed down as we came up to another car in front of us!
Thank goodness I made it home alive! Anyway it was a pretty fun night and now I've just got to get my birthday present for Jacqueline sorted so I can give it to her on Tuesday (her actual birthday!!!).
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