BAO JiA WEI GUO (PASSION AND HONOUR)

passion and honour is a ch 8 series. it was the 9pm show not sure when.. but recently repeated again bout 12 midnight.. so i remember it quite vividly.

as lecture was going on about mass media and someone mentioned propaganda and such. i remembered while i was watching the show that it was like MAJOR message from the government. (GOOD msg. not bad msg.. ahhaha)

but yes. a lil overview of the show.

its about a family with one dad. hes like some sir in the army.. and he has 3 sons and a daughter. so all the boys go through army. one is a commando still. and basically the whole show is about them.. their various friends, love interest and job. the aunty also works in the army and one of the sons future girlfriend also in the army. so yes. the whole wide worlds in the army.....

throughout the show there would be episodes where they will launch into explanations of why the army does various things and what they do and such. eg. there was once one of the sons went running with his friends. and they were saying how good his timing is then still train with them. so his friends were thanking him. and he suddenly launched into an explanation of how we should keep fit for ippt and how you can earn money through getting gold or whatever and why the army has ippt for their soldiers blah blah.

also there were several parts where they introduce the weapons and tanks super randomly. it was like showing the dad's job and what he does. but it was so weirdly random.

i thought it was a good way to create awareness of what the saf does and how it helps build men out of boys.. but it was a too overwhelming i think. it lead my family and i to think that the saf were a bit too desperate to promote their things.. it didnt fit that well into the show part and it was so scripted and openhouse type when those episodes arose. maybe its only a good idea to use subtle mass media when its really subtle. like plant a little seed first instead of full blown advertising.. kinda turns people off i think. 

did any of you guys watch?? comment please, how you felt watching the show.. did you realize it was major saf promoting.. (im sure you did) it was with tay ping hui, bryan wong, nathaniel ho, felicia chin, dawn yeo..

Interpersonal relation in circle trilogy (book)

jx lent me all 3 books in the stated trilogy, and it was major cool mann! last book kinda spoilt the excitement abit by rushing through the winning of the war. but thats another story for another day.

Morrigan's Cross (September 2006)
Dance of the Gods (October 2006)
Valley of Silence (November 2006)

the author (nora roberts) stated in her site that relationship has always been a key role in her books, hence i wanna touch on the various interpersonal relationships that develop throughout the 3 stories:

Hoyt (ancient sorcerer) and Glenna (modern witch)

Cian (good vampire) and Moira (queen-to-be in another world)

Larkin (shap-shifter, prince of another world) and Blair (warrior)

Lilith (queen evil vampire) and Lora (french evil vampire) (( yup! lesbians!!!! ok no, vampires are bisexual. HURH)

basically im gonna touch on the stages of interpersonal relationship.. funnily all the relationships here (except the lesbian couple, has practically all the stages present.)

stage 1: initiating

first time hoyt and glenna met was actually in a dream/reality crap. so quite a bit of screening and filtering here, blocking each other out from their minds so on so forth. magic stuff. they were very cautious around each other cause of their different centuries existence. (they met physically finally in the 21st century)

cian is hoyts twin brother who accidentally became a vampire. but a good, with a bad attitude, one.

moira hated cian the moment she knew what he was - her mother was killed by a vampire.

there was a huge load of pretense and hiding from real feelings as she tried to not show her hatred.

he in turn didnt care about the first encounters although rather attracted to this plain looking girl. (not his typical type)

larkin and blair only met later in the trilogy, and the first part of their development centered around fighting with each other (fun and practise).. not much real feelings or backgrounds. (initiation moment)

lesbian couple didnt really go into the initiation stage...

stage 2: experimenting

hoyt and glenna had a tremendous load of cultural and social differences to talk about - different centuries and countries.. glenna - NYC, hoyt - ireland.

experimenting stage lasted almost throughout their blossoming relationship as he constantly learnt about her and technology, and she learnt about his family and background.

cian and moira had not much small talk.. cian doesnt do talk. haha. but yes, experimenting.. mostly in their own minds, thinking of each other, but wishing they werent. major denial actually

larkin and blair had quite a few small talk during their fights.. where they realize their attraction for each other. slowly larkin began to find out blairs feelings towards guys in general due to previous rejection. (she's a demon hunter and people of our world and time generally dont believe in vampires)

stage 3: intensifying

all 4 couples had physical moments with kissing and whatever nots, admitting their feelings to each other and to themselves, coming to terms with the commitments. blah blah blah.

stage 4: integrating

the first 3 couples are part of the circle of 6. theyre formed to fight againts the vampires who aim to take over the world.. sounds damn lame, but its nice to read. so anyways, yup. so this part was very very shown in the books.

as the 3 different relationships developed in different parts, hoyt and glenna first, larkin and blair 2nd, cian and moira last, the group had to balance and shift in terms of relationship standings, acknowledgement, and identity. the network that was once of strangers and family members now had to change and become one that had interpersonal relationships. was really a web of a mess actually. but they did quite a good job integrating couples in.

even vampire pair had to have this stage as the rest of the vampire clan had to bow down to lilith as queen, and in turn lora as princes.. 2nd in command due to her closeness and relationship with lilith despite both of them having their own little lovers on the side. the clan looked upon them as a couple and the circle of 6 knew that hurting one would hurt the other just as much.

stage 5: bonding

to cut the long story short, they all got married sooner or later.

in the epilogue, they all had kids as well.

even lilith and lora had a little demon child they shared.

stage 6: differentiating

there were some conflict with larkin as blair, as they fought over whether to burn the homes of larkins people down to not allow vampires to take over them.. 

the others were quite slight disagreements, but plenty of reaffirmation of their love. plenty of communication going on throughout the story within all relationships respectively. cian and moira however found it hard to express theirs as cian doesnt really connect very well with his feelings.

since these stories are happily ever after stories....

the vampire couple died before they could reach stage 7 and 8.. actually theyve been living for several centuries.. so i doubt they ever reached that.

all the other couples didnt reach that either! except cian and moira. cian returned to his own safe world and didnt want to risk things and shrinked from his relationship with moira til towards the very end of the last book.

happily ever after still, none of them died, all of them lived in everlasting love. stage 8, 9, ad 10 are non-existence.

thats all for todays post! haha. most lilkely not have any comments due to not many people reading the book.

cept jx of course.

but hey! post anything you feel like. cheers.

a lil behind time...

im a gonna go back a lil in our past lessons.. firstly because i cant really follow lesson by lesson what we're studying. im just gonna put in whatever strikes me or i feel like talking about.

Todays topic is Perception.

actually. thats general....

This post is not gonna have any video..adverts.. movies, or any media of those sort.

this is just gonna be an open discussion. so people, please feel free to voice your opinions and thoughts.

what id really like to talk about is prototypes and scripts.

for others who are not in comms... let me do a lil overview. 

for those who dont have time to read my looooong verbal diarrhoea , please share about YOUR own prototypes, and how you sometimes label people. (ps, jump to the 2nd last paragraph or so...)

basically, human communication is based on perception. a huge bulk of it anyways.

perception has several factors.. but the basic process of it is SELECTING information.. ORGANIZING them, then interpreting.. which results in whatever reaction we have as the communication part.

now narrowing down, ORGANIZATION of the info we have has many different parts as well. (isnt  it amazing how we go through all these million steps without even KNOWING?!?! and totally non time consuming whatsoever.. or so it seems.) so yes. there's the cognitive side  (brain matters), the principles of organizing.. and the structure of it.

going on to the cognitive schemata, its split into 4 sections - personal constructs, prototypes, scripts, and punctuation. blah blah blah. sounds pretty confusing and messy. but yeah, can you imagine we have to LEARN it. sucks. i like communicating.. without knowing the behind the scenes.

so anyways, a lil digression there, zooming down to prototypes and scripts. why these 2? embarrassing honesty is that i woke up from my trance during these 2 points. probably because i can relate to it, and i was thinking of my own scripts and prototypes i have in my head of people and situations. so yes.. after that i went back to my out of world state. (apologies to my instructor here, im sure you try hard to make things interesting)

so yes a little on what both points are, prototype is the way we kinda create a representation of various categories.

usually created through experience, and it differ from every individual

 eg, when we see someone with maybe a tattoo, we label him a gangster

or maybe to us, long sleeves and pants are considered formal though to others 3 piece = formal

something like that, script is when we have a sorta SOP (standard operating procedure) on what should happen in a situation. Eg. when you go on a date these are the steps to take. 1. do your hair 2. choose your clothes.. whatever.

so yeah. personally, i got plenty of prototypes in my head. like 1, people from st. nicholas secondary are generally bitches until i get to know them. horrible i know. i guess its imprinted in most ijians heads. well, ijtp anyways. so yeah. please dont take it personally or take any offense to it. i have plenty of st nicks friends around! well. 2 plus plus. haha. 

another is how guys my age.. are generally childish/morons. yes of course there are the few exceptions who are normal and level headed.. especially those out of army. but hey! its just a prototype. haha. (no worries, i think the guys in my class are fairly normal. FAIRLY.)

and everytime i see a butch/bung (whatever. girls who dress like guys and think they're guys.) i think that they try too damn hard to be cool. they act like they own the world and that they should be feared/admired. i dont know mann, its just a vibe i get. the aura they project.... hahaha. funnily, i dont get along with majority of them, cept for selected few..

and then we have people from dragonboating/canoeing. with their tan buffed bodies (bothe guys and girls) they walk like everyone should bow down to them! its just the swagger in them when theyre in a group with their num singlets and fbts (omg even the guys.) and holding oars. " look at me, im tanned, i can do pull-ups, and i can row a boat." well done, they all deserve a pat on the back. (:  haha. okayy dragon boaters and canoers.. please dont come after me though id welcome a debate. i was in dragon boat too for a while. and i loved the sun, sea, salt, training, rowing. in fact if i could, if i had time, if it was possible to train in sea during weekdays instead, i would love to be rowing again. so yes. its just a sort of across the board thinking/visualization of various people as i see them around or know them.

other smaller things are like.. when i see the sun blazing hot. yknow when you can REALLY feel it burning up your skin. yeah thats like major tan day please. id wish i was at a beach. or training. (bball)

for me formal is anything in a skirt/dress. HAHA. well, sort of la, though i know skirts are not formal. business formal is pants. def pants suit. a skirt is so not business to me.

for guys, formal is anything thats long sleeves and pants. 3 piece is for weddings/easter (maybe not for this generation..) coats are for guys who can pull it off. and not those who try to be cool with their blazers. pleaseee... dont try.

i think i've rambled for quite long. so i shall cut out scripts. thats all for today!!

please share what some of your own prototypes are.. or even if its the same as mine! (:

i know, one of nicolette's is that girls from all-girl-schools are typically bitches. HHAHAHAA. i disagreed obviously. but tab agreed though shes from crescents. hmmm. share your views please!

Everything- lifehouse

okok, firstly, i know i promised the ms eileen show, but im really up to my neck in econs studying, comms project, esl essay, tuition, and church. so let me just share this video i stumbled upon some time ago. its on my personal blog, but thought id share it with you guys. its basically a silent act together with the song 'everything' by lifehouse. one of their best songs i must say, one of the best bands as well. their songs are full of meaning and thought-invoking lyrics. i love it, it says so much about life, love, and faith. more after the vid, enjoy.

i'd just like to comment on the way they could dramatize sin and love so well. sin destroying and not letting go even though you're fighting for ground.. love from JC with just a simple turn and dance. its just almost indescribable and touching. without words at all. ok fine, the song lyrics.. but yknow. the facial expression.. the body movements. sin being obstacles blocking our way.

i watched this a million times alr, and it touches me every single time.

what do you guys think of it?