i miss glasgow! this is the kibble palace in the botanic gardens..super pretty, and the air inside is super fresh..makes u want to stay inside, read a book, drink coffee and laze the day away..

25th, monday

not a particular good day..

lab was crap. i have a lab partner who turns and ask me what to do next every moment, we had to redo a gel, and i was almost doing everythg myself since she kept chatting to this guy from another table..i really wanted to kill the guy, especially when he walks over to chat with her and takes my seat at the same time, so i was moving around them doing the experiment, and wondering whether the experiment is pair work or solo work..throughout it all, i did try to get the lab partner to do sth, like "can u make that gel?" then she will say ok, and do it the londoner 'slow and steady' way.. -__-"

and the guy beside me, his lab partner was absent, at first the lab partner told him he will be late, when he had been late for like 6 hrs, we concluded that he's absent..and that guy was so blur, he was messing up his gels..so when i was done with my stuff, i turned to tell him what to do [i think i have become the walking lab practical manual]. then he went for his break and forgot his time, so his SDS-PAGE nearly overran out the gel..then i dunno what i was doing la, but i ended up helping him do some of it while he wasnt around..RARRR..just couldnt make myself not bother..

i was trying not to roar at my lab partner in the meanwhile.

anyway i decided to go for raquel's badminton practice..i conclude i'm a noob :(
oh but i met a girl there who goes for psychology too, so one new friend..

me and raquel were chatting in the room after badminton, then letters were slid under our doors regarding keeping quiet at nights etc etc etc [we wanted to shove all into our common neighbour's room so she can be quiet at night when she has friends over] anyway, tobias came in holding the letter "i believe this letter is meant for you all, making so much noise etc etc etc etc" then i turn and stare at him "do you want cookies?" he promptly said yes and sat down -__- lousy excuse to kop my food..HAHAHA..

26 tues
uneventful day.. went for coffee with raquel before lecture..havent drank starbucks for a long time :) been going into cafes, but usually order their muffins or cakes since i'm usually hungry..but i had a full lunch, went to the cafe and ordered cafe mocha..YUMYUM! haha..
lecture on ageing, quite interesting..mentioned sth about combating infections so as to live forevermore..

raquel cooked dinner..yumyum again..roast turkey leg..haha..forgot to take a picture of the turkey leg, then raquel carved it liao, then i didnt bother taking picture..all 3 of us had dinner together. tobias did the cleaning up.. i conclude, he cant wash dishes well..my bowl and spoon still have stains on it..

and i just found out that tobias is also an exchange student..only that his exchange is a full year, while mine's half a year..tobias and raquel are incredulous that i only found out after like two months, though they said they did tell me.. -__-" imagine my surprise..

27th wed
had psychology..its on compliance and obedience..compliance applies more to sales [how to make ppl buy stuff] while obedience tackles how people listen to orders though those orders involve harming fellow humans or life..
really interesting, but creepy..there were two experiments that the lecturer touched on..

first there's the milgram experiment, which started off because he wanted to explain the german holocaust..how come german soldiers can carry out all those despicable acts, killing so many people, to be so obedient to hitler.. so his hypothesis is that germans are intrinsically weak/evil..basically, the experiment involves three people each time, the experimenter, a learner [who is actually an actor] and the teacher [the volunteer]. volunteers were recruited thru newspaper advertisement [they were told its a psychological study on memory, they got cheated la], they get paid $4 for their participation, but the amount is so small, their participation wasnt based on their pay but rather, they really wanted to participate. basically the teacher is supposed to go down a list of words, and the learner is supposed to say the word associated to each word [like a memory test] only in this case, the learner is an actor, and will act like he dunno. each time he fails to answer, the teacher must administer an electric shock to the learner [but of course, the electric shock wasnt attached to the learner, the learner will act like he got electrocuted] Right at the start of the expt, the teacher was given a small electric shock to convince him that they are using real electric shocks on the learner [so those volunteers get cheated again] anyway, each subsequent time the learner gets the words wrong, the teacher had to administered electric shocks in increments of 15volts. so they start with 15, then rise to 30 and so on and so forth. there's a list of voltages placed in front of the teacher, next to the switch, that describes the danger and pain of the shocks of different voltages, e.g. 450volts DANGER: SEVERE SHOCK. milgram did it with americans, and then with germans.. and the results are consistent between the two groups, about 65% went all the way to 450volts..basically they were trying to find out, how many of those 'teachers' will disobey the experimenter. so this basically disprove his hypothesis that germans are intrinsically weak, but it also demonstrates that humans in general, any ordinary people can obey a figure of authority.

to quote milgram, "It would be a mistake to make simple-minded statements that kindly and good persons disobey while those who are cruel do not...often, it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act."

there's a number of variations to the experiment, but i'm too lazy to go through them all, basically they got replicas of these results in europe and australia too..and of course, this is too simplistic to explain how those germans did what they did during holocaust, and there's the fact that those volunteers were psychologically affected [trembling, stuttering, sweating profusely] while administering the shocks. they were obviously not thrilled with shocking people, but they continued to obey when the experimenter says please continue etc etc. NOTE: they were told, they can leave the experiment at any one time, and that they will still receive the full sum of $4 for the experiment if they left early.

the second experiment is zimbardo's prison simulation experiment..its quite creepy as well..volunteers were recruited, did personality tests to make sure that they are all equally matched on personality traits, that they are not necrotic or psychotic. then they were divided into two groups: one the prison guards, and one the prisoners. this touches on both the obedience level of 'prisoners' and what happens when ordinary citizens are put in positions of power and authority..i'm lazy to go thru the whole details, basically the experiment was supposed to run for 2 weeks, but was aborted in 6days, cuz the prison guards were getting overboard and the prisoners are breaking down. but the conclusion that zimbardo had was that 'our study .... reveals that the power of social, institutional forces make good men engage in evil deeds.' how true is that is nobody's guess. but its really scary, cuz he filmed the whole experiment without letting the volunteers know, and the verbal abuse and humiliation the guards did to the prisoners is just disgusting [the guards were told explicitly not to do physical violence but need to maintain the 'prison']

anyway today's lessons really make me think. what makes one obey? why would one obey one's parents, their gf/bf, the law etc? of course one can say there's penalties etc, say parents will cane, will disown the child, the gf/bf will breakup, the law throws one in prison, fines etc..but what about moral values? what if what we think is right or wrong differs from what these 'figures of authority' think is right or wrong?
some parents let their children down again and again, still, what makes these children obey?
some partners are extremely unreasonable, but one obeys again and again, knowing that their actions will affect people around them, can one just say oh the reason is love? that in essence is way off..
obeying the law..that makes me think of love in harvard that show..HAHA..nvm..

interesting questions..i think i might do obedience for my psychology essay..still considering all options though..

as usual i had my mushrooms and long bean rice with some protein source, so i cooked my scrambled eggs in a pan..realised that my scrambled eggs were cooked before my rice is done, i want hot food so i dumped the done scrambled eggs into the rice cooker so that it can be kept warm while the rice is being cooked..end up the scrambled eggs taste alot like steamed eggs [u know chinese steamed egg?] only these eggs are alittle harder than the really-soft-like-tofu steamed eggs..enough about food :)