Daily // February 2007
February 28, 2007
Discrete math midterm was difficult.. I barely had time to finish it much less think through every one carefully. I was totally caught off guard. Anyone interested in this event?
Greg Ball, professor of psychological and brain sciences at JHU, presents "Birds of Baltimore, past and present" at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 1 at Homewood Museum.
Jesus, Take the Wheel Carrie Underwood
She was drivin' last friday on her way to CincinnatiOn a snow white Christmas Eve
Goin' home to see her Momma and her Daddy
With her baby in a back seat
Fifty miles to go and she was runnin' low
On faith and gasoline
It'd been a long hard year
She had a lot on her mind and she didn't pay attention
She was goin' way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinnin' on thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was so scared, she threw her hands up in the air
(Chorus)
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
'Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
Give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel
It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder and that car came to a stop
She cried when she saw that baby in the back seat sleepin' like a rock
For the first time in a long time she bowed her head to pray
She said I'm sorry for the way
I've been livin' my life
I know I've got to change
So from now on tonight
(Repeat chorus)
February 26, 2007
Bleh. Two midterms tmr. Come back for a song I think many of you will like.
February 25, 2007
I enjoy the freedom of being a college student. At night, feeling alone and tired, I could just knock on Joe's doors and then he serves me turnip cake! Haha. But it applies to many other things too. There is this freedom to choose what you want to do, and I like it.
Only 12 days till spring break! Time does tick fast, doesn't it?
February 24, 2007
Where do I belong?
It's another of those lonely nights where I just want to waste it. You feel empty, deprived of emotions, and questions flow in your mind.
It is not mine.
You're a no good, heart breaker!
You're a liar, and you're a cheat!
February 23, 2007
Life is full of doubts. Sometimes you need to guide yourself. Sometimes without a TomTom.
Today was fun. In intro psych we talked about sleep and circadian cycles. At night for small group we watched "Something the Lord made", which was quite good, and watched "The Guardian" afterwards, which was quite good as well.
February 22, 2007 American Idol Top 12 Women - Thoughts
Knocked out of the park performances by the ladies last night! My top three:
[1] Lakisha Jones: "And I Am Telling You, I'm Not Going"
[2] Stephanie Edwards: "How Come You Don't Call Me"
[3] Jordin Sparks: "Gimme One Reason"
Let's face it. These three women sang amazingly well. I do like Melinda Doolittle's performance too; she's hugging my fourth spot. Anyway, you really need to hear it to get a sense of how well Lakisha Jones did.. She sang a finals song in the first round. Man did she throw down the gauntlet! I wish she'll go far and do well.
On another note, 4 singers (2 male, 2 female) were voted off tonight. I won't tell you who did to spoil the surprise though..
On another much different note, the day 2/22 always bring surprises. Last year on 2/22 a headmaster's holiday was announced. Two years ago on 2/22 I was hospitalized (long story..). Well, today FFC held a Karaoke night and needless to say, it went horrible (at least for the people who performed when I was trying to eat..). But oh well.
February 21, 2007 American Idol Top 12 Men - Thoughts
So, the top 12 male singles performed last night (the 12 ladies sang tonight, but we'll talk about that tmr). Here's my top 3 performances:
[1] Blake Lewis: "Somewhere Only We Know"
[2] Chris Richardson: "I Don't Want to Be"
[3] Phil Stacey: "I Could Not Ask For More"
Blake, an award-winning beatboxer, sang well and I really like his tone. Chris, who resembles Justin Timberlake in subtle ways, performed well and I see him moving on for the next few rounds. Phil was and still is my favorite singer among the top 12 guys. He blew me away by his rendition of "Have you ever really loved a woman" in Hollywood week and this week his song wasn't bad either.
On the other end, Sanjaya Malakar didn't do well tonight. He's too shy and lack stage presence. We'll see who gets kicked off..
5 hrs of Idol per week is not enough!
February 20, 2007
"絕不回頭, 絕不後悔." - If only I could live that way. A sensible motto for life?
February 19, 2007
My gosh..how I hate programming sometimes.
February 18, 2007
恭喜發財! 祝大家新年快樂, 豬年行大運!
February 17, 2007
Oh my gosh I had so much fun tonight. Happy Chinese New Year to you all!
February 16, 2007
Psychology midterm was okay. Hopefully I'll do well. Hanahreum was awesome. Feels amazing to shop there! I got so many snacks that I never imagined I'd be able to get here. Anyway, I better sleep now to get energy to make all those undone cakes tmr. Good nite.
February 15, 2007
Psychology midterm tmr. See you after that. And those not here this weekend, let me give you an early Happy Chinese New Year as well.
February 12-13, 2007
Feb 12
Firstly, I apologize for delaying this entry. Our Ski Trip on saturday was extremely fun. I started the day taking the beginner's beginning lesson and skied twice down the bunny (and inevitably fell many times). Tired of all the falling, Derek and I resorted to eating overpriced luncheon. After that, we joined Joe and Eleen on the green and improved massively. There was one time that I fell only twice (it's a huge achievement)! Each round took about 30 mins, and I took about 7 rounds on green, which resulted to >20 falls. No wonder why my body still aches. We stayed till 8, stopped by a desserted barn to gaze at constellations, and had late dinner @ Red Robins, which was sooooo gooooood.
Why am I talking about my ski trip on a psychology column? Well, I thought you want to know what happened to me the past few days. We'll return to altruism tmr.
Feb 13
So, the big question: What characterizes altruism? Firstly, it is intentional. You might say, "Well, I intentionally drive towards the puddle and splash the homeless person awake." Since this is obviously not altruism, the second qualification is that an altruistic act involves a cost to yourself. Take the ground squirrel example I mentioned: they make alarm calls to warn their relatives (and friends) about lurching predators. This altruistic act puts the actor at risk and benefits the recipient(s).
The reason behind this behavoir is, in one word, nepotism. Nepotism is favoritism shown to relatives (especially jobs in modern human society). Why do their help their relatives instead of just warning their own sons and daughters? This is because it is better to have more nephews than 1 son in terms of genes. Ever heard of the term "inclusive fitness"? In genetics, it denotes the ability of an individual organism to pass on its genes to the next generation, taking into account the shared genes passed on by the organism's close relatives. Because of this, genetic inheritance increases if you help your relatives.
While human's altruistic acts may not be motivated by passing on their genes, there is one general fact about nepotism that applies to us all: that blood is thicker than water. We treasure family. The best compliment we can give a close friend is "he/she is like a brother/sister to me". What do they call each other in fraternities and sororities? Brothers and sisters! Familyhood is the fundamental factor in human's behavoir.
See you next time in Psychology Psyone.
February 8, 2007
I've always wanted to write a special weekly column here, and today I finally found some suitable material for this purpose. Why not a Psychology column? Let's call it Psychology Psyone. Every week, I'll share with you a tidbit, a delicacy, a bonne bouche, une connaissance (I almost forget the genders in French!), a piece of knowledge in psychology.
If you read February 2nd's entry, you'll see that I explained what innate knowledge/behavoiral trait is. To briefly recap, I used the example of a Cuckoo birdling - after being placed in a "host's" nest and hatching, it inherently pushes off the remaining eggs in the nest and chirps for food. It doesn't not learn this after being born; afterall it is still blind when it neutralizes the hapless eggs. This innate behavoir gives it a huge reproductive advantage by parasitically growing up, because it is often costly to raise the young.
Today we're going to talk about altruism. What is altruism? Professor Ball gave us an interesting example:
Every morning, I drive to school along the streets of Baltimore. One day, I accidentally drove by a puddle of water and as I looked back from the mirror, I saw that the water splashed over a homeless person and it woke him up! Well, he needed that. Maybe he had a job interview scheduled and if I didn't drive by the puddle and splash him awake, he'd miss the interview. I feel good about this.Let's say the homeless person did have a job interview and it helped him wake up. Is this altruism? What characterizes altruism? Why do we perform altruistic acts? Why do ground squirrels make alarm calls when they sense a hawk flying above it?
Find out in part 2
February 6, 2007
Let's just say there're many things going through my mind at this moment.. I'll come back with something legible tmr.
February 4, 2007
Martina wins 5th Tokyo Pan Pacific Open title
Woohoo! Martina crushed Ana Ivanovic 6-4 6-2. The last time they played, Ana won in the finals of Montreal (last October). Sweet revenge! Weeeeeee!
More.. On a different note, take a look at these wonderful demonstrations of hair-styling, sponsored by Derek, who sports a new star-inspired hair style..
February 3, 2007
Blah. Haircut. Blah.
February 2, 2007
It's February and I missed the first entry. How did that happen. Anyway, Joe asked me what went on in psychology today, and I muttered an incoherent story about the Cuckoo bird's famous "brood parasite" example. So basically we were talking about the evolution of behavoir. One idea is that animal instincts are automatic and innate in the sense of genetically determined.
Cuckoo birds are infamous in laying their eggs in the nests of other birds. The cuckoo egg hatches earlier and when it does, it instinctively evict the other unhatched eggs from the nest. They grow up and leave their "mum" and find their real cuckoo cousins. This is actually a hugely successful reproductive strategy (but should be forbidden in my opinion due to its atrocity).
But wait. Isn't learnt experience better than innate knowledge because environment changes? Well, there's no definitive answer to this question.. This however leads to another idea, that behavoirs and instincts are species-typical and that natural selection occurs when these traits are passed on from our ancestors to us. Such traits are inherited unequally. What you inherits differentiates reproductive success, which keeps the population stable.
Good luck understanding this extremely condensed synopsis, and good night.
P.S. The visit cut for January is 14549-14980, averaging 13.9 visits per day. That's a new low we haven't experienced for a long time.. What's for sure is that this won't discourage me. Anyhow, thanks to those loyal visitors who come everyday.
February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day.
***Coincidentally, school was canceled today due to snow. It made an ordinary day a little bit less ordinary. There really isn't much to talk about today, besides that we walked in the snowy weather to CC carry out and retreated back since its closed.
Sometimes when you like a song, it is because of its melody, its acoustics. But this time it's because of its lyrics.
假使不能公開妒忌 學習大方接受
同行時要殿後 誰冷落舊朋友
節日約我三位一體的慶祝 沿途明亮燈飾閃映著沉重
言談越熾熱 內在更冰凍
誰當初無心將兩方綴合 然後留低 只得這寂寞人
仍是你們密友 呆望你們熱吻 應該傷感還是快感
* 能迴避嘛 我怕了當那電燈膽
黏著你們 來來回 委曲中受難
一個我被撇低 卻又很不慣
要走的一剎又折返
能承認嘛 我故意當那電燈膽
他日你們完場時 入替也不難
善良人埋藏著最壞的心眼
妄想一天你們會散 會選我嗎 *
對換了你身份可應該滿足 情人還是知己都擁入懷抱
同情或眼淚 讓別個得到
留低的原因 一世的秘密 其實明知只得我是外人
仍是你們密友 呆望你們熱吻 應該開心還是痛心
Repeat *