The Bystander Effect

Yesterday I witnessed the bystander effect. In fact, we witness it everyday. While cycling up a slope on my way home I didn't have enough strength to conquer the gradient and lost control. I spotted a car turning in and quickly dragged myself with the bike off to the side. At this inopportune moment my legs turned to jelly and I couldn't hold onto the bike while walking properly, so I stumbled-fumbled. A couple of people walked by and just stared. Not much of a bystander effect, because there wasn't even a handful of people to begin with. But it made me ponder about the cold society we are living in right now. On the other hand, perhaps I didn't look as if I was in sufficient distress to warrant an outsider's help; I look young, healthy, and perfectly capable of handling it myself - and not forgetting I wasn't riding safely - I guess those were the reasons I wasn't offered a hand.

When I was riding at Sengkang Riverside Park a family of four was taking up the entire pathway in front. The parents were coaching the elder sibling on cycling, but I wished they would also guide her on social graciousness and be good role models as well. Education starts from the home.

Back to the bystander effect: I was at Bugis and there was a middle-aged man in a wheelchair, manually powering himself along the narrow passageway. He seemed to be experiencing some difficulty in propelling himself forward, but nobody seemed to notice that. I offered him some help to get out of the place, and even though he was pretty brusque and didn't look me in the eye it felt like the right thing to do. Later on we met again, he was attempting to hail a cab at a busy junction - the roundabout at Fortune Centre. There was a taxi stand about 15 metres away; I wondered why didn't he just wait there. It was much safer and it wouldn't be unfair to the commuters who were queuing up. There was a security guard directing traffic, and he seemed to be equally perturbed as I, though he did help the man to a more secure location. Everyone else was an uninvolved actor on this stage.

I approached the man again, but he insisted on flagging down cabs at the current spot. I could probably have a fundamental attribution bias and judged that he was a stubborn old man, or I could justify his actions by thinking that he probably had numerous experiences being turned down by cabbies at taxi stands. I would never know. We had been turned down by four incoming taxis, and the taxi hotline was busy. When we dismantled his wheelchair and helped him get on a willing hirer's vehicle, we finally had eye contact.

It seems pretentious that I would describe this parsimonious experience in so many words. I hoped to record this so that it can become a reference point for me in the future.

Sometimes people need to rethink their surveys

This post is for undergraduates.

Sometimes people need to rethink their surveys. I like doing surveys, but more often than not I simply click the 'X' when I come across an extremely long and repetitive survey. Looking at the barrage of surveys appearing on Facebook - mostly for undergraduate reports - I wonder how the surveys made the vet in the first place. Keeping in mind that most of your surveyees are doing it for no incentive, you ought to refrain from setting long questionnaires. I guess from your viewpoint, you probably want a representative set of statistics that cover every angle of an issue. But it starts to come across as amateurish when questions repeat, with the replacement of single words that are underlined to remind viewers of the difference. It makes the respondent feel as if one is answering the same question over and over again. I know it's just for an assignment, but the academic rigour is lacking and the practice shouldn't be able to serve you when you graduate.

AND

I went to Rock & Ash, had fries with three dips that I couldn't finish, and a crispy waffle with New Zealand Natural ice cream.

Incomplete

We were pretty excited when we first did the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment a few years ago. It seemed almost magical that a personality scale was able to sort us into sixteen premeditated "character types": If you were an INTP you might enjoy being a scientist; if you were an ESFP you might probably end up as a performer. We like to associate our future selves with our perceived abilities, and our assumption is that there is perfect congruence between our self-perception and reality.

Four or five years down the road, when I began to be introduced to more personality scales such as the NEO-FFM, and various other abbreviated versions of the five-factor inventory, it struck me that the MBTI, or rather, its administration, was strangely idealistic and seemed to be conveying the message that everyone has it in themselves to make something out of their lives. The administrators of the scale assigned career types that have a certain level of social standing - and therefore a sense of social desirability - to participants. They also listed famous characters who were apparently of a specific character type, as though each and every one had been assessed through the MBTI, such that students might feel assured of their future success through the identification with successful persons.

I am tired and don't know what I am writing. I have been praised recently for writing decently, albeit by someone who doesn't know who the hell I am. But it still is a positive reinforcement.

I want to eat at Rock & Ash. The fries, freshly made, I wanna try it with the chocolate dip. If I'm hungry enough for a main I'd down a grilled chicken black pepper udon or an emperor chicken cutlet. But the mains don't seem fanciful enough :( Probably should add in some signature meatballs.

Exciting but unpleasant dreams

A couple of days ago I dreamt that Sparta Kooks was dressed in Superman garb and we had superpowers. Initially we were on the same team and had to kill ordinary humans (who could still fly around). I was conflicted and refused to kill people so all I did was to generate some energy to keep them from attacking me. When all but one human were killed, I became an ordinary human, then Sparta Kook and company outnumbered me. They were setting off on a minibus to get me, but I was on the same minibus and was hiding behind the last row of seats.

Early into my sleep I dreamt I swallowed something huge and had to cough it out. I woke up coughing really hard until my mum woke up too, and asked me what I was doing. In the murkiness (I was already half-awake) I replied that I nearly swallowed something. Then I went to the toilet and took a piss without switching on the light because I didn't want to be "flashbanged". Note to self: Don't be lazy and hold your bladder when going to bed.

I remember another one, where I was kidnapped and time-travelled to a remote rural location. I had to work for a pittance so that I could catch a flight back home. The cruel boss took every opportunity to dock my pay, yet I was adamant and did not give up, despite somebody who said I would never make it (not trying to discourage me but in a note of resignation).

This one was an earlier episode: I was lying flat on the top rack of a rover (the newer one) being pursued by very persistent light infantry with small arms. Rounds were flying past. The driver was doing pretty much of offensive driving and I had to hold on really tight while remaining as streamlined as possible because the overhead bridges the rover was going under were just a few inches above my body.

I was being pursued by mercenaries who used large but harmless guns. They used big bouncy balls as ammunition and after an intense manhunt I escaped detection by hiding in what I thought was a washing machine. Turned out it was one of the numerous cubicles set up in two rows of two along a corridor, for couples to make out. (I think I blogged about this before.)

Setting things right

Mini salmon-fest at Sushi Tei with salmon mentaiyaki and salmon yoshidori; getting a three-for-35 takeaway promo at Häagen-Dazs with seven other people; having chicken rice two hours before gorging on and being disappointed with Kenny Rogers' sub-par roasted chicken and ribs; Everything with Fries' NZ king salmon with original shoestring fries preceded by an unimpressive one egg soup, flushed down with bell-ringing uncle brand of ice cream in bread; and boring sausage mcmuffin with egg.

Probable dim sum next week.

Mall-hopping

When I was a child, they knew everything.

When I was a teenager, they knew nothing.

When I exited my teenager years, they knew something again.

Guess who?

Took the day off to go mall-hopping with mum; Clementi Mall, Star Vista, and Tiong Bahru Plaza. Intended to go Parkway as well as Changi City Point but we decided to call it a day. Star Vista wasn't very exciting, far from the glamour of its website. The building was just this lump of rock between buona vista mrt and park avenue rochester. There's not much of shopping to be done, and the number of restaurants/cafes just doesn't do the space justice (but there is this korean BBQ Bornga that has gotten decent ratings on hungrygowhere!).

Huge flight of stairs leading from the second floor to the basement, not extremely useful for getting up and down, and the top landing is exposed to the elements. There is no air-conditioning between shops - building probably designed to be energy-saving - so the shops are enclosed glass bubbles lined up on two sides. It's pretty warm in the afternoon. The coffee at Owl was decent though, not the instant kind that they themselves sell in supermarkets. They had this caramelised banana and chocolate ice cream (dno if i mixed the ingredients up) on toast, but we were too full to try that. Just shared a kaya butter toast, comes with cute slabs of butter on brown kaya and sliced baguette.

I had gone to tiong bahru plaza on one occasion for a movie, and the cinema sucked because the gradient of the seats is too smooth. You will get blocked and you will block people. Otherwise, the mall has a bit of old plaza sing feel to it and there is a cafe run by ex-drug offender mr benny se teo: eighteen chefs. They are coming up with a 64degrees egg soon and it sounds like a wonderful poached egg kind of thing to me.

Dropped by at bras basah to collect a complimentary textbook (ORD eprep course!) and went to cool down at nlb. Borrowed some freud books. :)

Cheescake day

The amount of food cues at home is overwhelming. Weekends spent at home are great opportunities for gluttony. Chee cheong fun, pancakes, matcha souffle cheesecake. Haven't started on any important endeavours, have a test tomorrow! Only constructive thing I did was to go cycling this morning, usual route to punggol waterway and riverside park and back again.

:/