Research Log

Definition Of Illness

My brother, whom I met in Bali is a genius, when he speaks, I listen. I remembered those nights we'd sit over discussion on Richard Bach's philosophy and such. He's going through a condition I never did suspect was psychiatric, always thought it was spiritual. He is so smart, oftentimes he'd have get into arguments with his shrink, reasoning. The more I look into it, the more I wonder, how many people out there who took too much drugs OR practice too little exercise face the same consequences? How many geniuses or artists or scientists out there had come to a point of "madness" before or while producing something that's "out of this world" ?

We're talking about hallucinations. I believe his perceptions, chemical imbalances in the brain, emotional instability, drugs causes hallucinations. If one do project signs and syptoms, apart from the psychiatrist her/himself, who is to say you have a "condition" unless you believe her/him? We believe what we wanna believe.

Taken from MEDLINE PLUS, all rights reserved

"Hallucinations are abnormal sensory perceptions that occur while a person is awake and conscious. Some common hallucinations are hearing voices when no one has spoken, seeing patterns, lights, beings or objects that aren't there, or feeling a crawling sensation on the skin. Hallucinations related to smell or taste are rare.

Many recreational drugs, including psychedelic drugs such as LSD and certain potent types of marijuana, can cause hallucinations. Hallucinations related to these drugs tend to be visual, such as geometric patterns or haloes around lights. A person who has such visual hallucinations after taking drugs usually recognizes that his or her perception is distorted.

Auditory hallucinations are more common in psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia, although they may sometimes be associated with high doses of cocaine, amphetamine or other stimulants. High doses of stimulant drugs also frequently cause a sensation of bugs crawling on or immediately under the skin.

If someone begins to hallucinate and is detached from reality, a prompt medical evaluation should be sought because many medical conditions that can cause hallucinations may quickly become emergencies. People who are hallucinating may become agitated, paranoid, and frightened and should not be left alone.

In some cases, however, hallucinations, may be normal. For example, having a hallucination of hearing the voice of or briefly seeing a loved one who has recently died can be a part of the grieving process.

Common Causes

There are numerous medical and psychiatric causes of hallucinations. Some of the common causes include the following:

1. Fever, which can occur with almost any infection, frequently produces hallucinations in children and the elderly
2. Intoxication or withdrawal from such drugs as marijuana, LSD, cocaine/crack, heroin, and alcohol
3. Delirium or dementia
4. Sensory deprivation such as blindness or deafness
5. Severe medical illness including liver failure, kidney failure, and brain cancer
6. Some psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia, psychotic depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder"

An email I wrote today

M commented about the advantages of Internet Blog, here's my reply

"The idea will virtual blogs will gradually cease the problem of forrest destruction YET raise the issue of virtuosity. These memories remain virtual you see, unless its printed out or physically published. I'm
venturing into the psychology of virtual identity, the potential virtual multiplicity, and the so called personal blog is part of self experimentation to define the cause of multiple identities. It raises social and mental issues too."

I realized it takes just about anyone regardless of race, gender, location and status as a potential mental hazard. Mental health circulates like the winds of change and only the mind is the hub to control of what one thinks and believe, depending on the circumstances they're in.

Access to Voices

Hi everyone, if you feel the need to get the real juices out my present life, for your own education or entertainment ... please do email me for the username and password. I start to realize that I tend to liberate myself and am only doing it out of protection, not knowing how many students or kids I work with may have access (although I doubt) to my so called "personal life". The explicit content may even lead to influencing self destruction, mental hydration, and bipolar disorder .. wahahah !! Ok I'm shit talking buy hey ..Holla if you will, I'm at mo@obviousreason.com.

My Travel Blog

Like everyone else, K thinks I should write a book of my many travel adventures ... finally .. here are my Lyfe Journeys

Alchohol Gene to Maori Origins

I was looking up on genetical discoveries as discussed by Prof. Pascoe and guess what it lead me to? My love for the Maoris .. I've always been keen on their history, although not fully proven, the legend was accurate.

"Adele Whyte is the part Maori micro biologist who used mitochondrial DNA samples to trace her peoples origins back as far as mainland Asia. But the big question was where in Asia? The mitochondrial DNA couldn’t say. The answer came from a surprising quarter – by looking at the gene for alcohol.
Adele’s supervisor, Dr Geoff Chambers found a match between one of the same variant genes for alcohol with people from Taiwan. So it seemed the original homeland of the Polynesian people was in fact Taiwan.

Or was it?

When Geoff’s team decided to study the male y chromosome, they got a shock, because it told a completely different story. While the female line is entirely Asian, most of the males came from Melanesia. In fact the men appear to come from PNG, and the women are from Taiwan. So now he believes he finally has the story that makes sense of all the different pieces."

It goes like this… full story please go to http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s823810.htm#transcript

Copyright of Adele Whyte. All rights reserved

Who are you in Cyberspace?

"One's online identity can be real-to-life, imaginary, or hidden. In some online groups - for example, professional e-mail lists - you are expected to present yourself as you truly are. You don't pretend to be someone other than your true identity. Other groups in cyberspace encourage or even require that you assume an imaginary persona, as in the fantasy worlds of MOOs, MUDs, and other game environments. In multimedia chat communities, you have no choice but to wear an imaginative looking avatar to represent yourself. Many other environments fall somewhere in between reality and fantasy. You could get away with pretending to be someone very different than who you are, or you could alter just a few features - like your name, occupation, or physical appearance - while retaining your other true characteristics. No one will know, especially in text-only environments. In fact, you don't know for sure if other people are altering their identities, or how many people are altering their identities. This power to alter oneself often interlocks with dissociation and valence. Hidden positive and negative parts of oneself may seek expression in an imaginary identity that comes to life online.

The tricky phenomenological issue with the real versus fantasy self is this: What is one's TRUE identity? We usually assume it must be the self that you present to others and consciously experience in your day-to-day living. But is that the true self? Many people walk around in their f2f lives wearing "masks" that are quite different than how they think and feel internally. All the time people are discovering things about their personality that they never realized before. Our daydreams and fantasies often reveal hidden aspects of what we need or wish to be. If people drop the usual f2f persona and bring to life online those hidden or fantasied identities, might not that be in some ways MORE true or "real"?"

Excerpts from John Suler, Ph.D, all rights reserved.

B-Boys Album Uploaded

Few kids with a hip hop gig. A strange experience after all these years, the culture have changed, adapted to the lifestyle here. These are rather talented kids I'm startin NOT to judge, a better form of expression aside from drugs, or gangs. It's beautiful that it's positive. The best of breakers are yet to come .. sheesh I need to use a digi cam for these events now :)

The Temperament Test

When D first gave this to all of us, we were grumbling a bit, yet after checking out my answers online ... I though .. hmn .. interesting. It goes in line with my present career though .. :)

You can take the Temperament Test Sorter too.

My Analysis
Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self -- always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials.

Idealists are rare, making up no more than 8 to 10 percent of the population. But their ability to inspire people with their enthusiasm and their idealism has given them influence far beyond their numbers.

The Four types of Idealists are:

Healers (INFP) | Counselors (INFJ) | Champions (ENFP) | Teachers (ENFJ)

Voice Over Part II

There's a good reason why I dreaded voice over jobs, they pay ok but your voice gets raw after all that recording. Just done helping students doing a voice over. C came in while we were talking shhh and ask "hey, anyone can pull off and "American accent" ? And guess who everyone else point to?! Pukilah!

Screaming for help and in agitation was all I did. Sakit tekak.

Interview Presentation

The Interview presentation is a mock up interview, my job was to sit as the Interviewer aka Manager / Boss and hire candidates for my new "business".

Even though I should've aced my presentation with detailed research, I think I did well. I peeped my mark from other peers and yipeee! I did fairly well. Average upper second class. :)

Poor S, my classmate whom I interviewed for the position of "New Media Designer" was clueless to what our company was all about. I showed him pictures of the people he's going to be dealing with, breakdancers, graffiti artists etc and I saw him frown in confusion. Now THAT made me nervous, but being a good "actress", I manage to keep my composure and smirk a little to keep him calm. It worked, the interview was slooooow .. or at least it felt like forever, and S himself is a Multimedia Specialist, Head of The Multimedia Department in real life. He's used to dealing with Corporate Clients ( that made him soo.. stiff! ), but breakdancers? It tickled me to see reactions of people upon the unknown.

All in all it was fun and entertaining, and due to my experience, I too, aced the other interview with Suria as a position of a "trainer". I got "hired!" The questions are all in tune with my present profession that made it easy to answer, I giggled so much at first, got the laughing bug but since I realize how serious she was .. since it's HER presentation .. I had to settle down and keep my mouth shut.

H point out a very interesting point about the entertainment business, how much it cost and how risky it can get when dealing with independant artistes, especially in the type of genre I'm indulging in. It depends on how smart and efficient a person is when making contacts and maintaining her networks, that leads to proposals and contracts. He strongly suggest that I "should" get some kind of royalties from artistes record sales after my services, as it play a huge part in artist promotion etc. Sitting on my desk listening to him, I knew then that I have finally set my path in the right industry, the one I dreamed of since I was 4. It was Multimedia (huge influence though), it was Music. Till this day, I'm still a proud fan of the Jackson 5!