This play was based on the Stanford prison experiment, where a group of volunteers were randomised into either prisoners or guards. It was actually boring but became very engaging towards the end, when the guards became too engrossed in their roles and abuse became rampant. Not a bad effort at all. And there were a lot of parallels to the real world.
There actually was another similar social experiment dealing with the subject of authority. In this case however, instead of being given authority, the Milford experiment dealt with how people respond to an authority figure who commanded them to do things that were in conflict with their own morals. It gave very disturbing results.
And finally on a related subject, I came across this concept of cognitive dissonance. In essence, it is an awkward feeling you get when you have 2 simultaneous, contradictory thoughts - like when you spend that $500 on something you really like, or buyer's remorse. And when dissonance occurs, we come up with justifications to do one or the other. Of particular interest especially to our teachers-to-be would be the toy experiment by Aronson and Carlsmith which tests the power of self-justification and external justification in a situation of dissonance. In a first set-up, children were forbidden from playing with a toy. Some were threatened with severe punishment, the others were warned with milder punishments. They didn't play with the toy in this scenario, but later were told they could play with the toy. In the latter, it was found that the children who were told the milder punishments paradoxically refused to play with the toy. Without sufficient external justification, these children subsequently devalued the toy as they had to self-justify the reasons for not playing with it.
***** Photoshoot
I borrowed Eng Soo's gear and had a good weekend trip at the Botanic Gardens taking photos! OK, it's actually very bad, since it's really tipping me over into splurging on stuff that I want. Probably not impossible to do with simple cameras, but these were just so awesome for the amount of effort put in.
Best shot so far, one which I was really happy with:
***** Wagyu burger
Did up a hurried dinner on Sat for 4, with some wagyu beef burgers that I bought some time ago. Calorie galore! It was a simple stacking of ingredients: grilled zucchini, asparagus spears, beefsteak tomato, wagyu burgers grilled over fresh rosemary, egg, bearnaise sauce and a touch of truffle salt.
And I quote, "In response to the contention that the Japanese market is shrinking, as environment groups maintain, she said: "We don't know just how big the market is before we start, but I'm sure it can be re-developed.""
Excuse me? Whatever happened to the right to hunt whales because your natives depend on it for survival? Or as Japan alleges, because it is tradition? If you have extra to sell, or extra to store, then obviously you do not depend on it.
Alas, before I rush off for work - something rather interesting. A modular camera! They should have done this eons ago. Instead of buying a new camera every year or so when new technology comes out (remember the "Oooooh!!! 1 megapixel camera!" era?" or when a component of the camera gives up the ghost, you simply get the part you want and fit it in! It looks great too. Reminds me of those skeleton electric violins - just a hint of the traditional thing, but looks to put Robocop to shame. Click on the pic for more.
Yep, I was just talking about the botanic gardens. Maybe I was at the wrong side of the park, but the plants there were simply just less-than-interesting. The only nice subject was a torch ginger in flower, but that was about it. Knowing how un-artistic I am, Yx helped me set up this shot. Minimal cropping, a slight boost to saturation and slight sharpening done. We were looking for the Orchid Gardens but ended up horribly lost. Attempted a portrait shot in the bamboo grove, which really was very nice. Had to touch up just a tad on this photo to add a subtle vignette (can you tell?) to mimic a professional flash, haha.
Been almost 2 weeks already. Not pleasant, of course, but then again not as terrible as it could have been. Still, I can't help but keep comparing everything to NUH. Like how their evidence-based medicine is rather dubious. (yes, do quote papers, but what's the point of quoting poor quality papers just for it's own sake?) And how I miss all the nurses in NUH. Sure, things mess up once in a while, but trust me - the ones here mess up a hell lot more. And the level of friendliness between people leaves much to be desired. And the department secretary is a complete idiot - my grandmother would have done better administration. I miss knowing and loving everyone. I really do. Finished my share of calls for the month, and I've successfully set 2 IA lines so far. I actually wouldn't mind staying in the CCU for the whole 6 months.
Hmmm ... what's left now? A lot to do in the months ahead, I think.
Been recently very smitten with off-camera flash, but still can't afford anything of the sort. Bleargh. Need more practice! Last weekend's trip to the Botanic Gardens wasn't very fruitful.
It was exactly 10 years ago that I kept and bred my first scorpions. My uncle's plantation in Malaysia used to be teeming with them, and I did a whole crazy thing with ThinkQuest and Projects Day and the NUS Venom and Toxin Research Group and everything else with KHY. All centred around scorpions. It was fun!
10 years later I'm slowly amassing another such collection. It does bring back nice memories. I still wonder how I managed to do it all. It was a wild and remarkable phase of life.
