I severely underestimated the amount of readings I had, and ended up reading cases until about 3, then woke up 4 hours later. Ugh.

It’s kind of weird, but today marks the first day I have ever entered and exited AIM’s doors as a student. Which is funny because my mom’s worked there my whole life, the guards and other employees have seen me grow up. But I’ve never had an interest in management, nor even took a management class at Arneow.

The first day of the seminar was pretty cool. Met my discussion group, learned a lot about the world of modern dance, the life cycle of art, a lively discussion on Live Show that ended up in heated debate, raised voices, and people rising out of their seats (most of the time when we speak we remain seated). Certainly an eclectic bunch. In my discussion group alone there’s the Japanese cellist, the gay guy from Bacolod, the Program Director’s husband, a classical guitarist (it’s kind of funny that he’s taking the class, Cecile keeps needling him in front of us and it makes for comic relief), a teacher from AIM who taught Psychology at Arneow (Mila Lagrosa, if anyone knows her), and a sound teacher from Benilde.

Cecile reminds me of the teacher in Hogwarts who taught them how to fly. I don’t really give a crap about Harry Potter so I don’t know her name. Nor am I interested. She looks like a lesbian, though (the teacher, not Cecile).

Cool things I learned today: took the enneagram, which I’ve taken before, and realized that I have moved from being a withdrawn person to an aggressive one. Must’ve been all those fight clubs. Also, not only is there IQ (intelligence) and EQ (emotional intelligence), which is more or less accepted now, there is also IQ2 (cognitive and learning capabilities), AQ (adversity quotient; how we adapt to critical situations) and SQ, a spiritual quotient that has higher significance since it integrates everything else, and primarily involves intuition.

I took a test to see if I’m right-brained (artists) or left-brained (logical; accountants) and was surprised to find that I was left. Kind of disappointed and surprised, since I thought I was an artiste. Then took another test, which revealed I was right-brained. Confused, I asked Cecile, “What if the results contradict? Each test tells me I use a different hemisphere.” To which she replied, “Well, that means you’re double-dominant.” WOO-HOO! I mean... shit, yeah.

Saw the video of the conference where EQ was first introduced to the world. Cool.

Occupations with the most number of mental disorders: 1. Writers (expected this) 2. Artists (ditto) 3. Professors (hello!)

Found out my personality test through the enneagram, which I thought was really interesting and is the kind of test I find useful (long uncomfortable stare at Ozzy). I’ve kept it in case any of you want to give it a try. Some of it’s pretty accurate, some of it’s off the mark (or maybe I just don’t want to believe it, hehe…). For example, I am aggressive and assertive, according to my profile. I can see that sometimes, but not as dominant. However, when provoked, I will attack. My defense mechanism when under duress is to completely and utterly shut down all emotion, and try to get away from the source of duress, whether person or place or event. The worst thing you could possibly do to me (and I suppose this is putting me at risk) is cheat me. Not only will it be a blow, I will remember it forever and it would taint whatever relationship we have. For a while, if you asked me what my scariest movie was, I’d say Malice, simply because of the infidelity. Now it’s either Ring, Ring 2, or Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, so I guess I’m over it.

Cool stuff to know about yourself, eh?

More: Emotional energy is highly potent and can be transferred: two complete strangers answer a test detailing their mood, enter a room and meet, sitting opposite one another in silence for two minutes. Then they exit the room, fill out the same test, and get the same results. The dominant person’s emotional energy transferred to the other person, or was “picked up” in as little as two minutes, and after they felt almost exactly the same. A highly effective example of empathy.

The video was mostly about the importance of emotion. The speaker gave a talk about the amygdala, a part of the brain responsible for your emotional memory. If someone holds up a pen, for example, in 2/100ths of a millisecond, before it even registers in your brain that “Ah, he’s holding up a pen,” your amygdala will go through your ENTIRE LIFE experiences with pens, and your emotional responses to them, and will emerge with a pattern saying whether or not you like pens. It moves much faster than the other structures in “brain time.” O diba? I’m learning! One serial killer, who’d killed 8 people, including family members and strangers and classmates before being caught, was asked “How could you do it? Didn’t you feel any pity for your victims?” He replied, “Oh, I couldn’t do it if I felt anything for them.” It was later found out that the link between his amygdala and frontal cortex (thought, logic, rationality) was severed.

Seizures can either lead to genius when you experience a positive reinforcement, because brain connections are “shook up” but reattached in new and “exciting” ways, or to schizophrenia when the attachments are awkward, resulting in a negative reinforcement.

I remember reading a book on corporate negotiation one summer, out of sheer boredom and nothing else to read, and recall one passage about tone of voice being very important. That was reiterated today in another example, wherein a drunken man boarded a train, challenged everyone, just aching for a fight, but when greeted politely and warmly by an older man, started bawling and confessing that he missed his wife who’d left him, he had no home, no job, etc.

Well, I better go. Have another shitload of stuff to read for tomorrow, and have to start making a journal (I wonder if Cecile would accept this blog? :) Except I’ve nailed some of my classmates already).

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What is it with hot chicks and yellow jumpsuits these days? I barely gave that Uma Thurman picture and then come across this dazzling piece from the So Close website, which looks like a kick-ass pic from Corey Yuen. Click on the picture to go to the website.