I AM GOING TO GLOAT

Manikin presents the drawing that defines how the grounded theorist has outdone herself:

This drawing actually reminded me of my experience writing the discussion chapter of my Master’s thesis—I have no idea how I was able to come up with something this good (considering I haven’t done any art for a long time, let alone use a coloring medium). It felt great to get my hands dirty and be reacquainted with my drawing tools—my ever-dependable Colleen colored pencils (the medium that I was confident to use), my HB and 2B clutch pencils, my kneaded and rubber erasers, my brush thingy, my Uni fine point signpens, and of course, my Canson sketchpad. It is also because of this drawing that I’ve convinced myself that French curves cooperate with me more than rulers.

Of course, I had a lot of bloopers. For one, I forgot that when I used to draw, I draft the outline in scratch paper first before using the sketchpad-I completely skipped that part, and wasted two pages of sketchpad. Then, it took a while for me to realize how the human anatomy works and just how simple foreshortening really is; I forgot that 3 layers of colors will render the area un-erasable, hence, my plan to cheat on the highlights was foiled and that I misplaced my mechanical eraser. Nonetheless, it was a really nice experience to be able to draw again, and simply to know if I can pull “it” off.

However, despite this air of awesomeness I feel about myself, I also can’t help but feel a bit melancholy about the drawing. Fact is, this was a gift art and it will never be “portfolio-ed” along with the others I made. It was a wee bit sad to see the part of my desk bare where the drawing used to be. Thank goodness for Xerox machines and scanners! It will never be the same, but somehow the digital image of this drawing will join my other originals.

And so, while I recharge for the next project (whenever that will be), I shall enjoy this moment.

Time Out.

I don’t feel like working. Today, I simply wing it by rationalizing why I dismissed them early—since the kids will not have a free day for two interview requirements due next week, then why not plan what they will do when they are dismissed earlier than usual? Of course, it’s not like they will actually do that (yeah, right) but that somehow gives me insurance that they will get it if they don't come to class prepared next week.

I want to go home and draw. Or even check exams. Anything but be “not working” when I’m suppose to work. Let me clarify that: I’m teaching a laboratory course and part of that includes answering activity manuals. When students do that, I am left with nothing to do. Although I’m reassured by a colleague that that is the way it is, I can’t help sometimes but think that it look like I don’t do anything in class but talk to random colleagues who happen to be there during lab time. If only they know how checking their work is like. -_-

Actually, I wasn’t feeling this bummed out earlier. Sure, I do intend to dismiss them early but I did plan to do something productive which never really came to be. I think it has something to do with the almost smooth-but-not-quite-on-the-way-to-school-driving bit. Not only is All Neu showing signs that indeed something is wrong with the idling servo, but the stupid stick shift decided to go to third gear instead of first just when I was about to accelerate from a halt. That stalled the car for a bit which then somehow foiled my smooth overtaking of an idiot who must’ve thought it’s okay to run really slow on the leftmost lane of the road. Although I am thankful that nothing morbid happened, that definitely affected my mood for the day.

So much for being the noble prof today. *looks at watch* Gah, one more hour until second lab class.

WHOA.

Today, after a very long time, I have been re-exposed to a massive dose of shonen anime. After tennis this morning, mechafetish, ghostlightning, along with ghost’s waifu sat together with me as I got initiated in the following series that the guys thought as some of the greatest anime there is. By the way, as the current state of my neural conduction is kind of, um, idle (or as my kids would say, “sabaw!”), this will simply reflect a rundown of the titles I got a glimpse of and not really a review. No, I wasn’t O.C. about the spelling and writing the complete titles. For the last 5 hours or so, I watched the initial episodes of Monster, MS Gundam 08th Team, Gurren Laggan, MS Igloo 2 and Project A-ko (I hope I did not forget anything). Most of them won me over (especially GL!) sans Project A-ko. I’ll post reactions about these titles when I have more time.

As we talked about more titles, I actually realized that I’m not as hardcore anime/manga fan as I thought I was. I’ve heard a lot of titles in the past but never really got around to watching them. This got me thinking to come up with a general list of what titles I actually completed watching/reading and those that I mostly saw/read but never really finished. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do that this month, since I’m also curious just how much JPOP I’ve immersed myself into.

*Yawn* I need sleep and a sprinkle of shojoness. >_<

Writeshop Day 2

Today wasn’t much of a nosebleed compared to yesterday, maybe because I was able to go through the remaining activities pretty easily. Of course, there were lapses on my paper that still need revising; I suppose I had a hard time yesterday because it basically reflected my dilemma about the Introduction section even before I submitted it. Seriously, I was at a lost on how to collapse my entire literature review and choose which are relevant or not. Now, I know better.

What’s groundbreaking today is that we all have our journal article outlines and it’s somehow etched in stone—WE WILL PUBLISH THIS and Doc B is looking forward to seeing our names printed in ISI journals. Doc SM kidded that since Doc B did the workshop for free, it would be a shame on our part if we never publish. I’m excited to work on my paper (yeah, yeah, the Peer Group Youth research, too…) but at the same time, I get a bit anxious thinking that maybe I can tweak it some more so that I won’t be selling my ENTIRE thesis into just one publication. It would be great if I can squeeze out maybe 3 articles from my thesis and more importantly, I get around to actually doing it.

And there’s the youth research paper. The department just made a commitment to Doc B that we will turn in 7 papers from each group by January of next year. That means crunch time during December.

Yeah, baby.

Writeshop Day 1

So the highly anticipated writeshop finally arrived and the department was very honored to have Doc B as speaker. He was gracious enough to do the writeshop for free and personally, I would not pass a chance to learn something from this man.

*GEEK MODE ON*

It's been a really long time since I attended a serious lecture of Doc B so I forgot how engaging he was during discussion that the next thing I knew was..."Oh, sh!t! I didn't get to take notes!"

Among the JTRAPS, only R, P and I attended; P and I were getting into the whole journal publication thing most of the time, where quantitative sounded Greek to me (I'm a quali person) while P had the need to hold onto something concrete when qualitative was being discussed (he's a quanti person) while R was rather subtly restless since she's not into research at all.

The actual workshop for today was a minor nosebleed, but NOSEBLEED nonetheless. Simply put, the challenge was to consistently promote our research contribution while establishing a good write up flow with a target of 4,000 words maximum. No, it is not that easy.

I'd be lying if I say that I didn't enjoy this session. I enjoy this kind of stuff even if I am a bit slow in coming up with what I should write, compared with the others in the department. And if we have to actually write a manuscript, my Zen Stone Plus is ready for action with Gundam 00 and Macross Frontier mp3s as thinking music! Tomorrow's Day 2--let's see what's in store for the Green Psychologists.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Last week, one of my tennifriends, Mechafetish highly recommended that I check out Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I reminded myself that I always wanted to see the movie with all the raves that I’ve heard about so I thought of downloading it or maybe borrowing a copy (Quiapo utterly failed me in this). That is until I saw 7 volumes of Nausicaä graphic novels in front of me courtesy of said tennifriend. At the back of my mind, I could almost feel Kashima, Klein and Clark (2007) glaring at me and telling me that I should read them first.

Several id-superego bargaining and five days later, I have met and journeyed with Nausicaä and gained another perspective of what strong, women protagonists could be. I’m not exactly sure how one is suppose to feel after knowing the story but for some reason, I felt that there were some basic premises in the plot that were relatively simple, to mention some: Let’s try not to kill each other. Actions yield to certain consequences. I am by no means saying that the essence of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is reduced to something rudimentary. I actually feel that its essence is embedded in this incredibly well thought of make-believe world that one just can’t dismiss it as something mediocre, or childish for that matter, but could even be interpreted in a higher level that could cater to anyone. It just rubbed off to me as uniquely simple and it is why I appreciated it more. As I’ve said—it’s genius.

Now, let’s talk about the lead, Nausicaä. I really like her. I’ve always liked strong woman characters and it’s so refreshing to see a different side of the type of characters I’m much in favor of. Despite the skillfulness as a warrior and the mystical ability to bond with non-human creatures, what moved me were the glimpses of her frailties and vulnerabilities—that the situation can get to her. Nevertheless, she goes back to warrior mode, not gung-ho and all but responsibly calm and collected. I don’t know but for me, that just makes her all the more human and I guess that makes her character more believable, relatable even.

It’s unfortunate that I would end this piece with dissonance, that despite how I find Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to be really good, it can’t seem to top Spirited Away in my book. Maybe because the latter was a movie and the visual and aural cues added to the excitement. This is not to say, though, that I don’t recommend this piece—I do. Read it; appreciate it, for it’s a lot more than just flying insects and good versus evil.


EDIT: *Two hours later thanks to Quicksilverscreen* I just saw the movie and I want a copy. Even if there are clear differences between the anime and the manga, I think they complement each other and both deserve the praise from their fans. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is officially on my fave anime list.

What can idle time do to two psychology junior faculty members

…when a meeting ends early and there’s a couple of extra hours available?

1. They propose that they will work by either checking papers or make preparations for the coming week.
2. But not before talking about cellular phones and how the Dictionary works…or not work, in my case.
3. And not until one shares the audio functions of his new cellular phone and starts playing the mp3 opening and ending theme songs of then popular kid shows Maskman (IN FILIPINO!!! IN FILIPINO!!! O.M.G. *goosebumps*) and Bioman (in Japanese).

Thus marked the beginning of nostalgia when P and I began talking about 80’s cartoons, sentai series (refer to item 3), Filipino super heroes and the psychology behind them. No, we did not get any work done, in case you were wondering.

First, a disclaimer – the notions presented here were brought about by random observations of the available TV shows we know to the best of what we can recall about it. The arguments below are far from stable and clearly open for discussion. I do admit that at the end of the discourse, I was tempted to read about the history of our “variables” and really make a solid comparison.

So, we talked about Bioman and Maskman and we noticed that the trend of “5 people”—a team, tends to be a central theme in these shows. Hence, it’s a reflection of the collectivistic culture on Non-westerners. I stopped for a moment and thought about Voltes V and almost agreed when, playing devil’s advocate as usual, I raised the issue of Daimos, Shaider, Masked Rider Black and Ultraman. Also, what about the Uncanny X-Men or Justice League? They are a team, aren’t they so why single out superheroes that just happened to originate from the other side of the globe and label them as such? P said that despite forming team, the X-men and JL still have core stories centralized in them. Individually, they are able to convey their personal stories, about who they are, unlike their Japanese counterparts who give us simple glimpses of who they are but it’s the team’s identity that matter more. Thus, the theory of individualistic nature for the former and collectivistic for the latter came to be. Well, X-men did have the “accept-who-we-are” premise in the beginning and I remember Voltes V has a couple of family ties issue. Ultraman did have a team backing him up...I must admit I'm not very sure about my own counterargument as of this time ^^;.

Anyway, another thing that we talked about was how our local superheroes and maybe some of the non-Westerners as well get their superpowers from something else, like it’s some kind of divine intervention and rather unintentional. Darna and Captain Barbell initially came to mind. P mentioned that Darna is our local rendition of Wonder Woman but unlike Wonder Woman who is born into royalty, Darna is your ordinary girl who was fortunate enough to be given powers. It is the same with Captain Barbell. Now, because I’m accustomed to making even the mundane things go through “reliability testing”, I just *had* to look for another local super hero to see if the description fits. I looked up Panday and true enough, the power of his weapon of choice came from something else of which he didn’t ask for nor initially possess. This is opposite to the likes of Batman, Superman or even Elektra.

So the conclusion in my opinion is, this entire entry is full of loopholes and really vulnerable for rebuttals, which is why it will remain unedited and raw as it is. And if someone out there can come up with something that I can tweak and conceptualize as “Rationale” and “Theoretical or Practical Significance of the Study”, I swear I will attempt to make a research proposal with funding and finish it in a term.

And next time, start and finish a meeting ON TIME. ^_^

WriteShop

Thesis article - DONE. *fistpumps*

One more to go! Peer group, you're NEXT.