Strange Effects of Weather

I have done nothing of any interest these past few days.
Wednesday night I called Yi Lein, for no reason, and bothered her. She was watching Prison Break, "You should watch it; it's a really good show." So I eventually took control of the TV in the lounge and was rather lost. "*sigh* You should have started watching from the beginning." Well yes dear, I can see that.

She zoned out and there were rather long periods of silence as she concentrated on the show. It was kind of odd...and then afterwards we were watching nightline (see we are involved in today's world) and commenting on the relevance/irrelevance of some news story about illegal music downloading and the dress the reporter was wearing.

It was from this conversation and probably the book I was reading that led me to do some investigation yesterday on the psychological effects of birth order. Joanna was there when I was at the height of my reading, and I think I may have bored her with it. But it's really quite interesting. Reading about such a topic led me to personality psychology in general which is also fascinating. There are quite a few theories and models that I looked at which seemed to make a little sense in their own way.

The book I was reading (and finished this morning) is by Michael Crichton, it's called Next. Part of the blurb says "Welcome to our genetic world. Fast, furious, and out of control. This is not the world of the future - it's the world right now." It's not a good book to be honest, was rather boring and it's not one I'm 'wow'ing about. What did intrigue me was the idea of patenting genes. In the story, a compan called BioGen took tissue samples from this man who had cancer and successfully recovered. They used these tissue samples for research and for some reason (I told you, I wasn't paying too much attention to the book) it became very valuable for the company, which was experiencing legal issues anyway. The company apparently had patented his cells and when the Burnet Cell Line (the man's cells) became contaminated they sought to get more from his daughter and grandson. The daughter was, according to BioGen, liable for citizen's arrest, why? Theft. She had her father's cells/DNA in her body tissue and the company owned the patent, they therefore owned part of her DNA and her son's DNA. How twisted is that?

There was also the idea that certain genes controlled personalities and characteristics. Therefore things like alcoholism are inherited. Odd thought isn't it? Some of what I read yesterday addresses this conflict as well. Do we have control over who we are? Are our personalities made for us or do we make them? As you can see, I could go on about this for a while. But I think this is enough. Hehe.

I was going to go down to Hamilton for that Hot Air Balloon show today but the weather seems a bit anti-hot-air-balloon-ish.
Everyone seems to think this weather is so shitty and horrible. Well it isn't exactly pleasant, but I usually become more pleasant and bright when it's raining. Like proper raining, not just on/off showers. I'm a strange child I know, you don't need to tell me haha.

Tomorrow Shelley, Della, Divya, Tamsin and I might go play badminton. Hopefully we will be able to, I feel the urge to play these holidays. Not that I think I'll get any better any time soon without proper training or coaching ^^"

And just as a note, I really like this song by Sarah McLachlan called Ordinary Miracle, if you get the chance I would recommend you listen to it. It's so sweet and just makes you smile :) I just found out that it's actually from the movie Charlotte's Webb. Cute ^^

Now, erm...I'm going to practice cello (which I do everyday now, I have somehow found motivation). Have a great weekend everyone!