Today I learned that the koala sleeps for 16-18 hours, eats for 3-5 hours and just plays with what's left of the day. I also found out that the koala is the only animal in the world with a reduced brained size compared to its prehistoric ancestors. Some scientists contend that it's Australia's version of the South American sloths. But Dani counters, "But its so much cuter!" And I agree.
In this blog, we aim to break the stigma of a koala while keeping the cuteness of the marsupial. Its not a bear, people! The Kurious Koalas aim to learn something new everyday. To be inquisitive, to be students for life, learning in every sense of the word. We can be hardheaded and set in our ways and not be open to experiences and lessons. For my entries, my bias will lean towards trivial things that I think will be useful in life. If there was something I learned in Philosophy classes in school, it was "Never lose the sense of childlike wonder. Ask questions and never stop looking for the answers."
I’ve said that more times than I can recall, whether upon discovering a new quirk about a person I thought I knew well, or at picking up a new tidbit of information that may or may not be useful. But why not make a habit out of that? Learning something new every day, I mean. After all, I dream of becoming a student for life. And my summer break from graduate school should not mean taking a break from my quest for knowledge or meaningful writing. Looking back, my last pieces of inspired writing were brought about by rich classroom discussions about great minds in the history of Psychology. But neither writing nor learning must be confined to the academic year. So here I am.
This is an attempt to return to writing in order to do my mind a favor. My memory has been faltering lately, and I have been lazy in my self-professed life of learning. Unlike the several blogs that I had religiously updated before, this will not be an inward look at my emotions or personal experiences. Yes, there will be experiences here and there, but they will be recounted from the perspective of learning and acquiring new knowledge. Hopefully, this will also encourage both pursuit and production of knowledge on my end, and perhaps encourage it from your end too (whoever you may be). Expect a bias for matters of a more psychological nature, but I will also try to stretch my limits to explore disciplines that are outside of mine. Entries are also not limited to new things I learned, per se. They can also be observations of ideas or theories in action, or an elaboration of existing ideas. Nonetheless, this will be an exercise of the cerebral sort. But yes, a healthy dose silliness and nonsense is also to be expected. This, along with an insatiable sense of curiosity, is something that I have picked up from the kids that I spend most of my time with.
Now to prevent an overdose of self-centeredness or pretentiousness (and also increasing the likelihood of habitual updating), this blog will be a collaborative effort between Aaron Vicencio and myself. He'll also give you a better idea of why this blog is named as such.
Pardon the long introduction that I wrote. My motivation to write comes in bursts.
For now, let’s learn something new. Shall we?
Today’s salient idea was brought about by a visit to Improv Everywhere’s website. As I was watching The Mp3 Experiment Seven , I realized the potential of the internet for mobilizing people. Yes, I’m sure that this idea is not new, especially considering the fact that you’re using the internet now to read this, but how much has it really been used? Certainly not to its full potential. Through this interesting project, they were able to bring people together to do something ridiculous. Not to belittle this event because of its silliness. I probably would have joined in if given the chance. But going back, it makes me wonder why it isn’t used as much for something that can make a profound impact on one’s community or nation? To a certain extent, it probably already is. On the local front, the youth’s widespread participation in Ondoy relief efforts and the clamor for or against the RH Bill come to mind. But more can still be done. How else can we use the internet as a channel for enacting a revolution?
May 28, 2011
Illustration by Noma Bar for TIME
I read Time Magazine’s article on The Optimism Bias just last Saturday, and was once again thrilled to see the marriage of Positive Psychology and Neuroscience. As an aside, I still dream of becoming part of an experiment that uses fMRI to get a glimpse of my brain. Going back, I found two points from the article particularly striking.
First, it says that our minds are positively biased towards our personal future. In imagining a future for ourselves, we are more likely to predict positive outcomes. At the same time, other research findings suggest that our minds are negatively biased towards recognizing cues about our present environment. That is, we pay greater attention to and have a propensity to remember negative details. We are designed to be cautious and realistic while still maintaining our ability to dream.
We are also hardwired to be optimistic, and this circuitry resides in the hippocampus. I used to think that the hippocampus was mainly in charge of our spatial memory. But apparently, it also takes hold of our more temporal experiences – the past cannot be recalled and the future cannot be envisioned when there is damage to this brain region. Isn’t there something beautiful about sharing brain circuitry for both our memories and aspirations?
May 30, 2011
Today I lived like a Koala.
That is, I spent most of it eating and sleeping. And with that, I am moved (at least figuratively) to talk about hunger. This was something I picked up from Gab Laurel, when he posed an interesting question about childhood and hunger. He had asked if we remembered ever feeling hunger when we were kids as we do now. Come to think of it, I don’t recall any such instance. As children (of course, infancy not counted where hunger seems to be a constant waking state), were we really too preoccupied with playing and having fun that eating was not a priority? Seems to apply to sleeping too, when I think about it. Our parents always had to force us to finish our food or take a nap when we refused to stop playing. By adolescence, the situation is reversed and we have to force ourselves to stop eating and stay awake.
At first, I thought that this was brought about by a heightened awareness of our physiological states. But looking at this occurrence again, maybe as kids, we just enjoyed what we were doing a lot more. Playing with our friends was simply too fun that food and sleep seem to be of little importance. Once in a while, it still happens. You’re so engrossed in something and you’ve achieved flow that you forget that you’re even hungry or sleepy. When they are not signaling actual physiological needs, perhaps an increased need to eat or sleep is actually a sign of boredom. We might not be exerting enough mental effort to push away such basic sensations. Now there’s another reason to get off my koala butt and look for a little more challenge.
