Follow the Sight 7/23/2006 08:10:00 PM

Earthquake hit my country again today. That’s the third time in a week. It also marked a series of earthquake which started in 2004; two of them were also followed by tsunami. There’s a concern amongst the people that it might not be the last one: a bigger and more disastrous earthquake are possibly on its’ way. What do people do to confirm (or refute, although people seem to be more thrilled if it’s proven right rather than wrong) their concern then? Surprise, surprise, they consult the psychic.

Despite being in a modern era, professional psychics always manage to attract costumers. In fact, a lot of their costumers are well-educated; the type of people that you would least expected to believe in anything remotely “paranormal”. Trust the psychic to give you all sorts of advice: health, romance, financial, career, you name it!

But what it is that makes all the hocus-pocus so appealing? Why do people turn to them in times of needs?

Thinking logically makes it easier for us to understand how nature works. Through this understanding, we’ll be able to “exploit” nature to make our daily activities easier and more comfortable. However, being logical and believing scientific truth all the time is hardly a choice for most people. Logic and science are alien compared to the traditional practices that had run for generations. These practices might not be logical (or “socially acceptable”, for that matter), but they’re more “down to earth” and less “cocky”.

As much as I hate to point fingers, it’s quite obvious that the intellectuals are the ones who are mostly responsible for this sentiment. There’s a pretty good example of that statement. Instead of trying to make his/her patient understand about their illness, a doctor is keener on spitting out all medical terms he can muster. Of course, the best response one could expect from the patient is confusion. The point is, not many intellectual bother to transfer their knowledge with a “language” which would be comprehensible for the public. As a result, science and stuff become more alien and slightly scary for most people.

Considering that humans have the tendency to ignore things alien and scary, no wonder people ignore the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency’s statement that earthquake is unpredictable. On the contrary, they choose to trust the psychic’s premonition of incoming earthquake and even spread text messages to let people know about it. Ah, well!

Glory Seekers 7/15/2006 10:01:00 AM

During the World Cup (which has just ended six days ago), I noticed the existence of seasonal football supporters. These people weren’t even remotely interested in football, but out of nowhere they suddenly showed their huge interest towards the sport. Huge is the imperative here.

They declared their undying admiration towards a certain team, usually the high-profiled team with famous names in it, while in reality they didn’t actually affiliate themselves with any of them. By the time that team lost, they picked another team to support. In the end, it’s the winner that they had supported all along.

There are a lot of names attributed to this kind of people. Glory seekers, glory hunters, plastics; you name it! None of them are flattering, though.

On a more general notion, glory seekers are the people who constantly feel the need to be hip and cool. The always keep their eyes on what’s “in” and what’s not. They consider not following the latest on-goings as a sin.

I know I shouldn’t waste my precious time despising them. Besides, if they want to be a bunch of glory seekers, it’s their right to do so. But I just can’t.

I suspect that these people do what they do out of their insecurity. They think that they have to be like anybody else to get accepted. Or probably they do it because their life is so boring they have to seek excitement somewhere out of their life.

I guess there are a lot of other reasons why these glory seekers do what they do. Nevertheless, I’m sure any of them would be as equally as pitiful. Seeing their miserable existence, can I bring myself to sympathize with them? Well, not really. They still bug me to no end. Ha!

Adrenaline Rush 7/03/2006 07:07:00 AM

I couldn’t sleep at all after watching the England-Portugal match (which ended at one in the morning in my country). One hell of a game, I must say. Rooney’s sent-off (another stupid mistake made by an England player at the World Cup), England played extremely well with only ten men (France 1998 second round revisited), the penalty miss (pointing out the fact that the English were incapable to shoot a penalty even if their life depended on it; the only England player that succeeded on it was the Canadian born Hargreaves); it was very intense. And I didn’t even support England (I supported Gary Neville, the Manchester United skipper; mind you, there’s a substantial difference here). It’s difficult to relax when your body was still pumping adrenaline; the inevitable side-effect of watching the football game.

But now, let’s begin with physiological overview (I know, it’s boring; but this is my blog, right?!).

When confronted with stress condition due to either physical or emotional activities, the body needs to be alert. Sometimes, it even needs to perform feats of unusual strength. As a consequence of this stimulus (stress condition), the body produces and releases more chemicals called adrenaline to the system. Adrenaline stimulates various physiological responses inside the body: increased heart-rate, faster and deeper breathing, increased blood sugar level, etc. Of course, watching a football match can be considered to be a “stressful condition” for some people (^_~). Given the physiological changes, no wonder I couldn’t sleep.

There’s nothing wrong with it, though. Being on adrenaline rush was actually quite good. I became more aware of the surroundings, not to mention more concentration. It’s like being on higher state of consciousness (or whatever you’d like to call it). You probably think that I’m over-exaggerating here, but that’s exactly how it felt. To think that I was only a mere football spectator, watching at home. Could you imagine how it must’ve felt for the footballers themselves? And for the people who performed death-defying acts like Evil Knievel and such?

Honestly, I’d never really been impressed by death-defying stunts. I used to think that they only did it for the sake of their ego, to get more attention. In short, total stupidity; considering what at stake here, one’s life, was way too priceless. But now I (sort of) understand why they did such things. The adrenaline rush; it was probably too good to miss.

Hmm, I should probably try the approach whenever I’m not in the mood to do anything. Watching football to get myself all excited. Nifty!

Author’s Note: As you know, this piece is begun with reference to football. Again. Please bear with me.... By the way, this piece contains some material taken from “Principles of Anatomy and Physiology” by Tortora and Anagnostakos. No copyright infringement intended.

When Heroes Become Villains and Villains Become Heroes 7/01/2006 09:23:00 AM

Ever care to check out the History books and wonder why it’s awfully similar to children’s bedtime stories? In children stories, good guys always win and bad guys always lose; such as the case in past events depicted in a scientific discipline called History. Not that I question the validity of methods used to gather historical information; there’s nothing wrong with them. The problem is, history is written by winner(s). Obviously, it gives them the prerogative to write anything they want. Or at least rephrase the account to fit their agenda.

So, don’t be surprised if yesterday’s hero suddenly turns into today’s villain and vice versa. That sort of thing did happen, when a regime fell and their successor felt the need to make certain “adjustment” to point out their better qualities compared to the old regime. Most of the time, the authority didn’t even have to make any justification about his rightness, because the people had already changed their view concerning the matter. Just look at Hitler. One day he was the national hero and the next day he was damned by the whole nation. Hitler was a villain for killing (or ordering to kill) a lot of innocent people and causing havoc all over Europe. But considering what he did for his people, gave them the sense of confidence and pride after suffering the agonizing defeat of WW I---no wonder the Germans saw him as hero.

Don’t be surprised either to see someone that you perceive as villain is considered hero by others. I read some time ago that the Koreans were extremely mad at Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for visiting Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine was built to honor the memory of the Japanese soldiers died during the Second World War. The soldiers who didn’t deserve any respect whatsoever considering what they did during the war, according to the Koreans (and people from other Asian countries who were under Japan’s aggression during WW II). Actually, the sentiments of both parties are understandable. Japan military administration in Asia did many upsetting deeds during WW II, from compelling the locals to hard labor to forcing women to satisfy their lust. On the other hand, the Japanese must’ve been very proud of their army for protecting the country and sharing their ideals all across East Asia.

No matter how much it seems to be oversimplified at times, History is in fact very complex. Because humans are such complicated beings, it’s expectable to have everything about their life equally as complicated. And in real life, nobody is truly evil or truly good. Good guys and bad guys couldn’t easily be defined just like in the children stories. All heroes have their flaws, just like all villains have the good in them.

Even though History is prone to manipulation and multi-interpretation, it doesn’t mean that History is not important. We could learn a lot by ruminating over the past. By learning from the past, hopefully we would be able to follow the ideal of our predecessor and at the same time, prevent us from doing the same mistake as they did. What must be underlined here is that History set examples, not moral values. History gives means of evaluation, not judgment.

The truth is, there’s no such thing as “Hero” and “Villain”. Only real people, living their life, merely doing their job. Point blank.

Moments of Sleep Deprivation 6/21/2006 11:21:00 AM

God, I’m sleepy. It’s been like this for the last four days, thanks to the World Cup. Okay, it’s all my fault. After all, I was the one who decided to stay up all night and watch the 2 am game anyway (it’s GMT + 7 hours, here in my country). Being sleep deprived is not lovely, I’ll tell you! Feeling sleepy all day long, having your brain too lazy to think about anything…. Doesn’t mean that I’ll stop watching the game, though. I just need some compensation (in other words, more time to sleep). That's all.

It's not the only time football match makes me sleep deprived. Some of those moments of sleep deprivation really worth it, though. Like the time Manchester United won the Champions League in 1999 (I know, that was ages ago; but I can never stop talking about it ^_^). I ended up yawning all day at school, but heck, who cares when I got lovely images of the players holding and kissing (eww....) the cup.

Anyway, there are other not-so-interesting ways to get sleep deprived than watching football matches. School stuff, for example. There were times when I hadn't finished reviewing materials for exams, which meant extra work the night prior to the exam. Or the times when I got Lab Report to hand out the next day, while I hadn't worked on a single thing about it until the day before the due date. I know, I'm not exactly the paragon of student's dedication.

Nevertheless, the worst two weeks full of sleep deprivation happened four years ago. At that time, I was attending the initiation to become a member of a student's organization. Overall, it's a very useful program. The main objective was to prepare freshmen to enter varsity life. It gave you a more insight look at the world of Medicine (FYI, I'm studying Pharmacy at college), it gave you the opportunity to develop your potential, etc. But the method was quite horrendous. In order to make it easier for us to receive whatever doctrines or ideas transferred by our senior, we were made to be exhausted, mentally and physically. We were required to be prepared at seven in the morning each day, and were not dismissed until, at least, midnight. With that kind of condition, there's not much time left to rest. The result was: extreme tiredness (and sleep deprivation) and (nearly) total submission. The latter was, of course, the thing expected by our dear old senior. What a pity! Honestly, I'm sure most of them didn't realize that they're applying brain-washing methods to us.

I apologize if I have bored you. Sleep deprivation makes me too lazy to think about anything else. I'll write something that has more quality in it, next time. Promise!

Lost in Translation 6/13/2006 07:49:00 AM

Lost in translation. I heard the term for the first time from the movie directed by Sofia Coppola (I hope I spell her name right). I fell in love with the term right away because I find it very applicable.

Speaking of which, what does “lost in translation” actually mean? Regardless of the broad use of it in connotative sense, knowing the real meaning is a necessity (because we wouldn’t want to use it out of context, would we?). Therefore, I would use some sort of illustration in an attempt to explain the literal meaning of “lost in translation”, before delving on the “lost in translation” state.

As you all know, language is the verbal representation of culture. Since culture is a set of ideas that gives pattern to human behavior, you would expect language to represent those ideas as well. You could tell what is important and what’s not in a certain culture when you look at the words, terms, and expressions in its language (the language which is used in that particular cultural group). One example is the availability of a specific term that refers to seniority in a family. The term is available in Eastern languages, while Western languages are lacking it. Japanese, for example, has the term onii-san and onee-san that refer to older brother and sister, respectively. Interestingly, there’s also similar term in other Eastern languages (Indonesia, Malay, Mandarin, Korean, etc). On the other hand, there’s no such term in English (and other Western languages, as far as I know). It needs additional word to explain relative position in a family (big brother, older sister, etc). It implies that even though seniority is not an important issue in Western culture, seniority does matter in Eastern culture.

Because different languages represent different basic ideas, it’s not always easy to transfer ideas from one language to another. Translation is undoubtedly, a difficult task to perform. So, there’s always the chance that you’re not transferring the whole ideas as intended in its real language when you’re translating it to another language. Some points are, inevitably, lost in translation.

In a more general notion, “lost in translation” is used to point up any failure to communicate due to differences in principles. The movie, for example (which I haven’t managed to watch; feel free to point out any mistakes that I might’ve made concerning the movie). Regardless of its setting (Tokyo), it’s not the gap between American and Japanese that became the main theme of the movie. Instead, it’s the feeling of alienation that became central. The main character(s) of the movie felt that way because they had different things in mind, compared to their surroundings (in the case of Scarlett Johanssen’s character, it’s her own husband that she failed to connect with).

Why does “lost in translation” suddenly catch my attention? Well, that’s because I myself feel very much that way these days. It doesn’t make me feel alienated though, at least not in the physical sense. When I’m around my friends, I’m still able to talk about many things with them, connecting myself to them. Nevertheless, my view has changed dramatically in the past two years and I realize; it makes me different in thoughts from most of my friends (and most people, for that matter). The path they’re going to choose after finishing school, their main concern, the way they see things---they’re all substantially different from mine.

I understand perfectly why they see things the way they do, because I was no different from them, until recently. But once I started to think differently from them, it’s like talking with a different language. Most people just don’t get my point. As long as they use their own perspective to interpret my choices, some things will always be lost in translation.

Of course, I couldn’t force people to see things my way, could I? I’ll just have to explain my side of the story as best as possible. If that still doesn’t work, let it be. After all, being true to yourself and having your thoughts lost in translation is better than doing what people told you to do and being lost in the waves of the crowded world.

The Steward and the Witch 6/12/2006 09:28:00 AM

WARNING! The following piece contains unsubstantial rambling. Read it and you’re at your own risk. Don’t go around and flame me for writing such a lame piece (I know that already, thank you very much).

Have you ever heard of word-association? You know, the game where someone says a certain word and then the others are expected to response it by saying the first word that come up in their mind after hearing that particular word (when someone said “Fire,” I would say the first word that came up to me: “Hot”, and so on). We have to response every word as quickly as possible and that makes it hard for us to think about the answer, which is why the game is said to be useful in revealing one’s hidden thoughts. For example, there’s a chance that one would say the name of his/her secret crush when the word “Love” is spurt out.

Besides its sharpness, human mind also works in mysterious ways. It could hide the unwanted thoughts beneath the surface, yet still give them room to manifest themselves. One impulse could trigger a chain reaction inside the mind; one thing reminds us on another, and another, and another. Speaking about sub-consciousness and chain reaction inside the mind, strange occurrences happened to me recently.

As you probably know, the FIFA World Cup causes such a fuss all over the world. Even in my country, which didn’t qualify because we obviously wasn’t good enough (it’s hard to believe that my country was actually the first Asian country that participated in the World Cup), the World Cup was greeted with full enthusiasm. Responsive to this condition, the country’s leading newspaper even has a special World Cup section.

Last Saturday, the World Cup section put the pictures of twenty-three Argentina players plus their coach on its front page. Naturally, I looked for Gabriel Heinze amongst them because Heinze plays (very impressively) for Manchester United and I support United. Of course, his picture was there and the first thing that crossed my mind was this: “If Faramir of Gondor had existed, he would have looked exactly like Heinze”. See how my mind made the association there?

But that wasn’t the end of the story. You see, Faramir has always been my favorite character in Lord of the Rings. His character was the archetype of the perfect gentleman: strong, smart, perceptive, courageous, tall, handsome.... I startled at that notion. “Did I just think that Faramir was handsome?” my mind said. “That means, at the same time I was implying that Gabriel Heinze was handsome as well. Oh My God!” I analyzed.

You must forgive me for being extremely shocked at that notion. The only (and last) time I ever considered a United player good-looking was when I saw a pure and innocent twenty year old boy named David Beckham (^_~). By the time I started appreciating United for their performance as a team (and Becks started to do all the weird stuff with his hair), Becks wasn’t looked that cute anymore.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only weird thought that was triggered by football-related stuff. Another one crossed my mind yesterday when I was watching Trinidad & Tobago played against Sweden. Even though I supported Trinidad & Tobago, because I love underdogs, I didn’t really expect them to be able to do much against Sweden. After all, Sweden is the better team amongst the two. On paper, at least. On the second half however, with Trinidad & Tobago ended up with only ten men, Sweden still couldn’t manage to score any goal. For a brief second, something very weird and unthinkable crossed my mind: “I wonder if the Trinidad team had some sort of witch to back them up. Considering that they’re Caribbean, they must’ve had a strong root...,” and at that, I stopped.

I’ve always considered myself a rational person. Mind you, if I had said about it in front of someone on an attempt to joke, it’s understandable. But I was alone at the moment and the possibility of supernatural intervention was something that I thought seriously. It’s obvious that Sweden owed their failure to their hasty approach in front of the goal, T & T’s back four’s good performance, and Shaka Hislop’s composure to secure his goal. So, what on earth made me think about something really ridiculous like witchcraft?

The incidents revealed two hidden thoughts in my mind. One, despite my appreciation of one’s ability, I still judge someone by his looks (especially if that particular someone happens to be good-looking). Two, apparently I’m not as rational as I thought I was. Damn!

The Muse 6/02/2006 08:10:00 AM

“Where you did get the idea?”. That question seems to pop up every time an interview with famous writers, musicians, or whatever, is held. I may not be a writer (to self-proclaim myself as one would be an overstatement), but as a person who enjoys occasional writing, I know that ideas can be found literally anywhere and anytime. So, it can be rather difficult to find the precise answer to that question.

I never really have problems with finding ideas. There are a lot of things to write about; you can never run out of stock. The only problem is, of course, how to put the ideas into paper. Most of the times, I know exactly how to begin and end an essay or story (although I never write any of my stories; I just keep them in my head). The difficulty always lies in the process of getting the essay (or story) from its’ beginning to its’ end.

Apparently, it’s a classic writer’s problem. I came into various lines from writers, stating that they know how a certain story would end but they’re still thinking how they would bring it to an end. In the case of essay writing, making sure that I’ve mentioned all the important things (without blabbing too much ;>) in order to show my point to the reader is the biggest challenge.

Whenever I came to a deadlock, the solution was quite simple. I would try to find books or any other sources related to the topic which I was trying to write about. Another approach was leaving the subject temporarily and starting on another one (like I said, there are always lots of things to contemplate about). Nevertheless, the most practiced approach in encountering a deadlock, in my case, would be: sit back, relax, and forget the whole idea. That is, until I had some spare time, like when I was on my way to school, when I was on a queue in a cinema, when I was impatiently waiting for a friend, etc. Mind you, the best inspiration often came in the most unexpected time. Ah, the beauty of divine intervention!

By the way, I think writing an essay is far easier than writing a fictional story. It takes a whole lot of imagination, as well as logic, to write such things. Fictional stories need the perfect combination of both things, imagination and logic, which is quite difficult to formulate. For me, it’s either logic with the lack of imagination or wild imagination that doesn’t make sense at all (“sigh”). So, I understand how hard it must be to write fictional stories and for that, I greatly admire them, fiction writers.

Well, I just hope that Ms. Rowling doesn’t have trouble finding her muse so that she’ll be able to finish the 7^th Harry Potter book as soon as possible. Cheers!

Manipulating the Mind 5/25/2006 10:18:00 AM

Humans are such strange creatures. I mean, humans have the sharpest minds amongst all the creatures that walk the earth. And yet, they’re so easily manipulated.

Check out this picture.

Which line is longer? If you use no other means besides your eyesight to figure out which line is longer, it’s only natural to conclude that the lower line is longer. However, if you get yourself a ruler and measure them, you’ll find out that neither is longer. Both lines are equal in length. It shows just how easily tricked our senses (or rather, our minds) are. It’s not necessarily bad, though. Magicians (nowadays they’re called illusionists, mentalists, or whatever) are masters of manipulation, but nobody ever sue them or anything. We, the audience, enjoy their tricks. We even crave for more of them. The real danger doesn’t come from (somewhat) submitting ourselves to manipulation. Not realizing that we’re being manipulated is

Over the years, science had successfully revealed the physiological process of thinking. Stimuli from external or internal environment are transmitted by electrical current to the central nervous system, which produce certain responses. Human mind is considered as a very advanced CPU, nothing more. The psychological aspect of human mind however, cannot be revealed with such a mechanistic approach. They’re more complex and more difficult to comprehend. Unfortunately, mind manipulation through psychological approach is a more common practice, which makes it more difficult for us to detect and avoid.

Remember nice old Adolf Hitler? This guy was certainly one hell of a great mind manipulator. When I say “mind manipulator”, don’t think about all sorts of weird stuff like brainwashing or anything like that. Hitler was simply very good at reading people. He knew exactly how to mesmerize people with his words. It’s not WHAT he said that’s important, HOW he said it that mattered. I read somewhere that Hitler’s speeches didn’t contain much essence apart of the continuous rhetorical exclamations about how good the Germans (Aryans) were and how inferior everybody else was compared to them. You know; the kind of speech that would make you either die of boredom or snort because of lacking of logic. But thanks to Hitler’s expertise, he managed to convince the people with the supposed-to-be meaningless speeches. Nifty, eh?

Even to this day, mind manipulation is still practiced. Not just for political purposes such as the case in the past, but also for economical benefits of the manipulator.

How many women have been manipulated into buying certain beauty products simply because a celebrity appeared on the commercial? Of course, the celebrity looked good with it, but it didn’t certainly mean that everyone would look as good as her when they used the same product. Marketing experts would say that it’s a part of their “strategic plan”; which was basically just another way of saying “shrewd way of tricking people in to buying our stuff”.

How many people have been allured by the fake reality of so called reality shows? Honestly, mate. Would you be your real self when you’re fully aware that there were dozens of cameras capturing your actions?

Humans have the sharpest minds amongst all the creatures that walk the earth. Then, how come humans are easily manipulated? I don’t know for sure the answer to that question. I do know though, that there’s only one way to save ourselves (or at least minimalize the possibility) from mind manipulation. Constant vigilance!

Author’s Note: Thanks to Yenny for the info. They’re very helpful! :>

First Thing's First 5/18/2006 08:32:00 AM

It was the 2006 FA Cup quarter-final and Manchester United played against Liverpool. Entering the second half of the match, United had already been 1-0 down. As time went by, I was becoming more anxious and more impatient, seeing that United hadn’t managed to produce the equalizing goal. The hope remained, though. And then, BAM!, Alan Smith fell with a very awkward position, dislocated his ankle, and broke his foot. Sounded scary, eh? United ended up losing the match.

The next day, as I was visiting a United discussion forum, I was prepared to see serial moaning from everyone. But apparently, instead of moaning and whining about the loss, people were more concern about Smith’s injury. Lots of people were wishing him good luck and hoping for a speedy recovery for him. It was very impressing, in my opinion.

What was so impressing about it? Because, in a competitive world where end result seem to be the only thing that matters, it’s good to see that football fans still value something other than merely a matter of winning (or losing). Passion, dedication, and determination—things that Smith had showed (for some people, it’s debatable; but I have my faith in him) ever since he moved to United—seem to be more important. The extent of his injury might have something to do with all the sympathy, but I doubt it if people would be just as sympathetic when the one injured was a player who showed less of those characteristics.

Now, what’s with Smithy’s injury and the aftermath, you might ask. Nothing much, except that it showed me that sometimes desperate measures are needed in order to realize what the most valuable, the most important thing is. Desperate measures which are unpleasant, to be exact. It took a badly injured player to appreciate his dedication, it took a war to value life’s worth, it took betrayal to respect loyalty, and so on. In other words, you often don’t know what you’ve got (or rather, how important it is) until it’s gone.

Of course, everyone has different agenda. Something that’s important to me can be entirely meaningless to others. Regardless of our different agenda, we have our conscience to guide us. If doing certain thing makes you uneasy, it’s definitely not important enough to begin with. If you’ve given your energy and dedication fully over something but you still feel there’s something missing, it might not be as important as you think. Some people have lost their conscience though. For these people, identifying what’s important and what’s not would probably be impossible. I could only feel sorry for them.

So, every time you’re going to do something, please consider this. Is it worth all the effort? Is it important enough? Is it going to make you happy with yourself in the long run? Or is it simply just a total waste of time?

Author’s Note: I know that the Smithy thing isn’t really befitting to the topic of “your most important...” (feel free to fill the blank with anything that you think appropriate). But since I love Manchester United Football Club and have wanted to mention something about United, I decided to insert some United-related stuff here. So, just bear with me....