HILARIOUS

O MY GOODNESS. 2 hilarious things happened today. which i HAVE HAVE HAVE to talk about. one was not really that funny.. but the other just completely killed me off.. ahhhh!!! hahahahaaaa!!!!

im actually not supposed to say anything about this.. because right now im doing the course intro to psychology. and it's a requirement that we have to take part in 6 psych experiments that researchers are conducting on this campus, and most of these researchers i think are either grad students or senior undergrads who are doing psych research under the supervision of a professor. ive just signed up for 3 this week to clear them as fast as possible.. went for my first one today. it was HILARIOUS. o yea the point is im not supposed to say anything because if potential guinea pigs (i cant think of any other word right now) hear of it, it will affect the results. but since i highly doubt anyone from urbana-champaign comes here... here goes.

i first went into this room.. alone. im supprised coz i thought that it would be a few students maybe just doing some survey on the computer or something. but the researcher was there.. let's just call her K. ill try to cut a long story short. she first gave me a form to sign in agreement to take part in this experiment. and then she explained what it was about. basically, she said the purpose of the study was to examine the effects of regression therapy on adults experiencing chronic stress. regression kinda just means like going back to a previous state - and the state here meant childhood. so this therapy consists of going back to relive our stressfree carefree childhood days as a solution to the huge amount of stress we are facing... and it consisted of four parts

(1) pre experimental questionnaire
(2) computer task, where i will play a computer game of like.. just throwing the ball around.. with other participants who are connected to me online to kinda relive my childhood days
(3) a ROLE PLAYING TASK she didnt elaborate on that.. but in my mind i was like.. shit.
(4) lastly a post experimental questionnaire

(1) the first was easy enough. i filled out a form about like.. what are my earliest childhood memories.. descriptions bout it.. etc.. and then how am i feeling now.. level of sadness, anger, calmness.. etc. it was quite cool to see how psych experiments were conducted. coz she really had to be very.. formal about it. she would leave the room when i was filling in the form and then come back after.. that kinda thing.

(2) then we went on to the computer game. she got me started in the game and there were 2 other participants on the screen. so she said there were 2 other people connected to me online and basically we just had to play by throwing the ball around and clicking on the person you wanna throw the ball to when it comes to you. then she left. and the game was quite fun honestly.. hahaa.. but after a while.. the other 2 people started throwing it back and forth to each other only and totally left me out... honestly i did feel kinda ostracised then coz it went on for very long.. (started to get slightly suspicious at this point.. also because the theory of 2 other participants playing in another room didnt really make sense becaue she seemed to 'attend' to me the most)

(3)role freaking playing K gave me a bib. yes. you heard correct. a BEE EYE BEE - BIB. and a milk bottle and a monkey soft toy and asked me to take off my shoes and sit on this mat on the floor. and wear the sacred bib. (yea.. i was regretting signing up right at this moment...) she said this part of the experiment consisted of me having to take myself all the way back to my childhood.. she would give me 3 scenarios and i would have to act out all 3, how i would respond if i was a baby.

O MY (@*$&(@$^!(@$!)*@

im a SUPER RESERVED person... and to do this.. it's basically a life sentence. but anyways the rules were she gave me 2 mins to think back about how i was like when i was a baby.. then she'd give me the first scenario.. i had 30 secs to think how i would act.. and then 1 min to act it out for her.. and the same for the rest. hahahaa. i was petrified... but anyways ok so 2 mins.. basically there was an internal struggle going on.. like.. hey wl just let urself go man! and on the other hand.. like seriously.. get me out of here now.

ok. the end of 2 mins. 1st scenario: how did you act when you got up from a nap and was tired and hungry.. (im a kid of 1 years old... K reminded me i could only say mama and papa.. and yes i was totally freaking out now..totally freaking out) ... 30 seconds... GO. all right. i wont describe what exactly i did because i wanna save some dignity for myself. but let's just say i tried my best.. but still ended up a pretty abnormal reserved baby. ok done. i was crapping in my pants... not literally. i wasnt THAT into the role play. 2nd scenario. act out how you would behave when playing with your toys. so basically.. i just fed milk to my monkey.. played with it.. things like that.. hahaa!!! O MAN. and last scenario. this one KILLED. ME. OFF. how would you act if you were playing a game of peek-a-boo. peek-a-boo is kinda like there's a blanket or cloth over your head... and then u know.. suddenly you open it.. BOO.. then laugh like a maniac.. repeat... you know. kiddy game. o my goodness. i tried my best. i really did. but again let's not go into details.

i was SO SO SO GLAD when (3) ended. PHEW. i even stopped her halfway and said i cant do this.. i was a rather reserved baby even though i was trying my best... damn. ok on to...

(4) filling in a post expt questionnaire. good. easy. just asked for my feelings now.. and whether i could think of earlier memories. weirdly enough.. i did feel kinda less stress coz (3) was just so damn amusing.. more for K than me i guess though ):

after that K dropped a bomb. she told me that there'd actually been a camera recording me all this while and coz the professor was going to appear on america today, and they wanted like.. some tapes of his research and things like that, and if i could sign a consent form to say if i agreed/disagreed to my tape possibly being used. honestly.. at that point i was just what the heck. just use it im not gonna watch anyway. so she left the room... i filled it in.. ticked agreed.. dropped it into the "consent form" box.

she came back in and asked me what i thought of the experiment.. and whether i understood.. so i just explained the whole regression thing to her again and told her that i found the computer game kinda weird though coz they werent passing to me at all. then she dropped an even bigger bomb. she kinda just basically told me the whole experiment was a hoax. it wasnt about stress. or childhood. or regression. the computer basically generated a scenario whether either i would be (a) ostracised or (b) they would keep passing the ball to me.. and they wanted to see if being ostracised might lead to me wanting to seek more attention.. in which case i would really totally act like a crazy baby and sign the consent to the video for attention. so that was the experiment.

typing about it now seems so anti-climax. but at that moment i was completely like.. what the heck just happened here.. and although it was such an awkward experiment to say the least.. (you wear a bib and see).. i thought it was super super cool! hahaa.. very interesting.... i wished her all the best in her research... but i hope i NEVER see K on campus ever again. i might not live that down.

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i went to donate blood just now coz they have these blood drives occasionally in our hall. so they have to kinda like check you know.. like.. im from singapore so whether it's malaria infected or whatever it is.. so the nurse started looking through this book.. and she was like.. let's see.. here it says china is one of the "infected zones"... -_-.. i told her that singapore was NOT in china.. then she said really? there must be another singapore in china then coz she knows there is one. so she called her colleague who supposedly had a better grasp on geography.

nurse: how do we check on singapore?

colleague: just look under china...

hahaa. sigh.