A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson THE LITTLE LAND
Little thoughtful creatures sit,
On the grassy coasts of it.
@Skineart
.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Moleskin Love
A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson @Skineart
Hundred-million year old feather
"Seven dino-era feathers found perfectly preserved in amber in western France highlight a crucial stage in feather evolution, scientists report.""The hundred-million-year-old plumage has features of both feather-like fibers found with some two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods and of modern bird feathers, the researchers said.
This means the fossils could fill a key gap in the puzzle of how dinosaurs gave rise to birds,.."
Article at National Geographic.
Oldest living tree found in Sweden: 9550 years
"The trunk of the above tree is less than 600 years old—but its roots date back to 9,550 years ago, making it the world's oldest known living tree, scientists say.""The study team also identified other ancient spruces in Sweden that were between 5,000 and 6,000 years old."
Article at National Geographic.
Monday, 21 April 2008
Ning's Infinite Ambition
Interesting article. Thanks PL!
"Here's something you probably don't know about the Internet: Simply by designing your product the right way, you can build a billion-dollar business from scratch. No advertising or marketing budget, no need for a sales force, and venture capitalists will kill for the chance to throw money at you.
Full article at Fast Company.
"Here's something you probably don't know about the Internet: Simply by designing your product the right way, you can build a billion-dollar business from scratch. No advertising or marketing budget, no need for a sales force, and venture capitalists will kill for the chance to throw money at you.
The secret is what's called a "viral expansion loop," a concept little known outside of Silicon Valley (go ahead, Google it -- you won't find much). It's a type of engineering alchemy that, done right, almost guarantees a self-replicating, borglike growth: One user becomes two, then four, eight, to a million and beyond. It's not unlike taking a penny and doubling it daily for 30 days. By the end of a week, you'd have 64 cents; within two weeks, $81.92; by day 30, about $5.4 million.
Viral loops have emerged as perhaps the most significant business accelerant to hit Silicon Valley since the search engine. They power many of the icons of Web 2.0, including Google, PayPal, YouTube, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr..."Full article at Fast Company.
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand
How sad that this is no surprise. As disappointing as the findings of this report are, it is still heartening to see that at least in the U.S., unlike other countries that spring to mind, corruption still has the chance of being revealed/discussed."Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.
Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.
Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks."
Full NYT article here.Courtesy of niubi on Twitter.
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Moleskin art
A wonderful, eclectic collection of gems from various artists' Moleskin notebooks at skineartCourtesy of BoingBoing
New Portishead album available for streaming next week!
The legends are back!!The album 'Third', will be available for streaming from April 21 from last.fm
More info here.
Portishead official site here.
Chuckler blog post:
"mixing
2007-10-02 17:14:00
hello we have mixed all the tracks and the whole album is shit, so were going to start all over again. ok only kidding...sorry ! its sound pretty good but we have to go back to a few things in the next few weeks though. it sound pretty different from what we have done before i dont think the fondue society will be happy oh well , like the bee joke ends....... fuk em bye geoff"
Monday, 14 April 2008
Thursday, 10 April 2008
BRB - Feeds for now
It is day 4 since we discovered we have a stalker on our hands. Yes, I am angry about it at the moment. But, I will be over it in a few days. So, instead of inflicting angry posts on my readers (however few or many that may be), I'm going to hold off until the fumes abate (unless I come across something really cool in the news that just has to be shared).
Meanwhile, my feeds (located in the right column) will continue to be updated. Even the Skank does not get in the way of my news junkie habits 8)
Meanwhile, my feeds (located in the right column) will continue to be updated. Even the Skank does not get in the way of my news junkie habits 8)
Ditty for CC the Skank
"Buongiorno! I'm hot and single and feeling terribly glam,
all my guy buddies want to nail me,
I think people love me
coz I'm so spunky and sexy,
But I have no idea
that people just think
I'm a lonely old desperate skank." (Skank, FYI, 'desperate' was the word most consistently used by various parties to describe you).
Inspired by the Skank's own words (extracted from screenshots - I couldn't make up this drivel if I tried):
Favourite Movies:
(Top of the List) When Harry Met Sally
Skank's comment: I am still not cynical enough to think I have real guy friends who are my buddies w/o agenda.
Tequila Sunrise
Comment: restaurant/ bar/ beach/ 2boys4eachGal.. my favourite things in the world
Favourite quote: "girls like me don't stay in the open market for very long"
Skank's thread in the pathetically sad lonely loser support group - My Friends Are Getting Married. I'm Just Getting Drunk: "Let's face it, all my married friends are secretly envious"
"Seriously! Getting married? been there, done it! had a fab party! no regrets! Now that the marriage thing is out of the way [divorced, and thereafter dumped], there's no more pressure!
Meanwhile I'm having a fab time as serial monogamist [neglected to mention 'and shameless family-wrecker-want-to-be', and see also above 'dumped'] - thankful that I can get intoxicated on a whim!
don't get me wrong, I applaud all my friends who make that brave decision [it's not a 'brave decision' for everyone darl. Some couples actually love each other] In fact, I will not rule out doing it again myself [whoa nelly... good luck with that] - but while I'm hot & single, I'm feeling terribly glam!
oh yeah... what am I doing back here? my best friends are having a baby.. inevitably they'll be engrossed with the new baby for a few years before they find me facinating [sic] again.. so I figured it's time to find replacement-friends! [good luck with that one too]
My favourite sms from the Skank to The Boy (Skank was spending Christmas alone in a foreign land, and knew The Boy was home with his wife for Christmas)
"Are you missing me? Just getting drunk for the season and wish you were around."
Quintessential Predatory Shanghai Skank
Amongst plenty of other antics (including harassing me), and shortly before the abovementioned "I miss you. You miss me?" sms, whining and crying at an uninterested married/unavailable man about how he won't spend time with her anymore after his wife gets back into town.
Skank, you're all class. Some kinder sorts seem to initially feel sorry for you and your pathetic machinations, before quickly concluding that you are just delusional navel lint (which, I was quick to point out, is an insult to navel lint, since navel lint do not reach out from its pathetic existence to annoy anyone within striking distance who is willing to pay it attention).
Skank, seek help. Probably should start with Alcoholics Anonymous, then Narcissists Not-So-Anonymous (this is pretty evident every time you open your trap).
(NOTE: HPD individuals are prone to alcoholism and drug addiction and are quite adept at denying the related behaviors. They seek easy escape from pain, deny negative consequences, and fail to observe or accept responsibility for the impact of their behavior on others...
... individuals with HPD may become involved in drug or alcohol abuse because the substances can free them to act out in ways that are congenial to their inclination to be stimulus-seeking. Through drugs and alcohol, these individuals are able to transform themselves; they gain feelings of well-being, bolster a flagging sense of self-worth, and perhaps even come to feel omnipotent. Drugs and alcohol can disinhibit controlled HPD impulses so that there need be no assumption of personal responsibility or guilt for behavior.")
It continues to astound me that someone like Randy Pausch is dying, and the Skank continues to suck up Earth's resources. Skank, watch this and sit down (without a bottle) to re-think your life.
Also, those images of little girls that you chose as your Facebook profile photo were remarkably paedophilic. I especially liked the pouting toddler girl with the cigarette in her mouth. Nice one. Note: The Lolita act does not work when one is 38 years old.
You might also want to quit SHOUTING IN YOUR WOULD-BE-NIFTY-IF-I-WERE-A-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD EMAILS IN ALL KINDS OF SUPER COOL FONTS, FONT SIZES, AND COLOURS!!!!!!! Freakshow.
It is also not a good idea to repeatedly shout at a person when meeting them for the first time. If you recall, "YOOOUUUUUU!!!!!!! YOU'RE THE REASON HE'S LEEEAAAAVVVVIIIIINNNGGG!!!!" intermittently shouted at me the entire evening when I met you: the accompanying finger point/wag was an especially endearing touch. You seem rather fond of this gesture: you did it again when you shrieked at the boy, "CHAT CHAT CHAT!!!! MUST MUST MUST!!!" that more recent day when you failed to notice we were both trying to ignore you. I resisted embarrassing you in front of your friend ("Hi G!"), but of course, as witnessed by many on numerous occasions and explained to me, and as clearly evident in your online rants (some of which are excerpted above), you never need any help with embarrassing yourself.
Skank, you sure make a piss poor first impression. Seems first impressions really are rarely wrong. I immediately had you pegged as an overcompensating loser - as the boy explained to you, I said I'd leave his friendship with you up to his judgment. Pity he gave you the benefit of doubt far too many times, and took a touch longer to come to his senses. Yes, he was an inordinately large horse's arse for not seeing through you but it is forgiven since, as pointed out to me, part of his naivety stemmed from what I love about him: "his loyalty, his belief in people... the way he treats women with such respect." He now has a keener sense of what kind of person is deserving of his time and respect.
The other part of his naivety stems from growing up in the lucky country, and his good fortune of having an abundance of great people of integrity and honour around him. Game-playing mind-fucking losers were the stuff of bad tv-dramas, not something he encountered on a regular basis. His guard was down (ill-advised for a life in Asia, and arguably, especially Shanghai), and he was far too trusting of you.
Having spent some time in Asia during my childhood years, and growing up in the lucky country with Asian extended family/acquiantances, my radar for game-playing mind-fuckers is far better tuned and I could smell you coming from a mile when you escalated your antics last year. Pity circumstances were such that I did not have the opportunity to confirm my suspicions about who you really were before that happened. From all the way in Melbourne, 8025 kilometers away, I chose to trust his judgment of you since, in the 11 years of our relationship, I had always liked and respected his close female friends (one of whom you became in 2007). We were both mistaken but we are both chalking this up to the vicissitudes of life. The positive in all this is that I am grateful the boy's eyes have now been opened even wider to the reality of life in Shanghai, where wolves skulk in sheep's clothing at every turn.
cheryl chong shanghai china chong poh kin
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Shanghai-ed by CC the Singaporean Stalking Skank
Was just about to get back into the swing of blogging but lo and behold, The Boy and I now have to deal with a stalking Skank. Yes, the same Skank as previously mentioned. We have just learned that it recently moved into our building.
The Boy ain't never livin this one down! At least I'll get plenty of mileage out of this debacle.
Boy: I want to watch X movie.
Me: I want to watch Y movie.
Boy: But X movie is better and I don't want to watch Y movie.
Me: Skank.
Boy: Shhhrmrmrmrmrmrmr
Me: Turn right up ahead.
Boy: No, it's a left.
Me: Skank.
Boy: Shhhmmrmrmrmrmrmrrr
Me: Let's go have hot-pot.
Boy: Blurgh! I hate hot-pot.
Me: Skank.
Boy: Shhhhmmrmrmrmrmrmrrrrr
Boy: Let's send our kids to Kendo class.
Me: But Aikido is better for them.
Boy: But Kendo rocks.
Me: But they'll be able to take down skanks with their bare hands.
Boy: true.
China is so adept at producing its legions of skanks (female and male), it really did not need to import one from Singapore. One just has to laugh...
Ahhhh... gotta love living in Asia. So many skanks, so little honour.
cheryl chong shanghai china chong poh kin
The Boy ain't never livin this one down! At least I'll get plenty of mileage out of this debacle.
Boy: I want to watch X movie.
Me: I want to watch Y movie.
Boy: But X movie is better and I don't want to watch Y movie.
Me: Skank.
Boy: Shhhrmrmrmrmrmrmr
Me: Turn right up ahead.
Boy: No, it's a left.
Me: Skank.
Boy: Shhhmmrmrmrmrmrmrrr
Me: Let's go have hot-pot.
Boy: Blurgh! I hate hot-pot.
Me: Skank.
Boy: Shhhhmmrmrmrmrmrmrrrrr
Boy: Let's send our kids to Kendo class.
Me: But Aikido is better for them.
Boy: But Kendo rocks.
Me: But they'll be able to take down skanks with their bare hands.
Boy: true.
China is so adept at producing its legions of skanks (female and male), it really did not need to import one from Singapore. One just has to laugh...
Ahhhh... gotta love living in Asia. So many skanks, so little honour.
cheryl chong shanghai china chong poh kin
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Note to Skank:
Individuals with Histrionic Personality Disorder exhibit excessive emotionalism--a tendency to regard things in an emotional manner--and are attention seekers. They have an overwhelming desire to be noticed, and often behave dramatically or inappropriately to get attention.
Behaviors may include constant seeking of approval or attention, self-dramatization, theatricality, and striking self-centeredness or sexual seductiveness in inappropriate situations, including social, occupational and professional relationships beyond what is appropriate for the social context.
They may be lively and dramatic and initially charm new acquaintances by their enthusiasm, apparent openness, or flirtatiousness. They commandeer the role of "the life of the party". Personal interests and conversation will be self-focused. They use physical appearance to draw attention to themselves. Their style of speech is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail.
They may do well with jobs that value and require imagination and creativity but will probably have difficulty with tasks that demand logical or analytical thinking.
Histrionic personality disorder does not usually affect the person's ability to function adequately in a superficial work or social environment. However, problems often arise in more intimate relationships, where deeper involvements are required.
Symptoms
* Excessive dramatics with exaggerated displays of emotion
* Self-centeredness, uncomfortable when not the center of attention
* Tendency to believe that relationships are more intimate than they actually are
* Constantly seeking reassurance or approval
* Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expressions of emotions
* Overly concerned with physical appearance / Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self
* Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
* Excessive sensitivity to criticism or disapproval
* Has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
* Opinions are easily influenced by other people, but difficult to back up with details
* Low tolerance for frustration or delayed gratification
* Have difficulty maintaining relationships, often seeming fake or shallow in their dealings with others
People with this disorder are usually able to function at a high level and can be successful socially and at work. They may seek treatment for depression when romantic relationships end. They often fail to see their own situation realistically, instead tending to overdramatize and exaggerate. Responsibility for failure or disappointment is usually blamed on others.
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Frances, et.al. (1995, p. 373) describes individuals with HPD as manipulative, vain, and demanding.
Akhtar (1992, p. 259) notes that the current description of HPD corresponds to the previous idea of an infantile personality. These individuals had few sexual inhibitions, were impulsive, experienced identity diffusion and emotional lability, and demonstrated what the author referred to as moral defects. Yet, as described in the DSM-IV, individuals with HPD demonstrate what our society tends to foster and admire -- to be well liked, successful, popular, extroverted, attractive, and sociable (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 366). In fact, Widiger, et.al. (Costa & Widiger, eds., 1994, p. 47) describe HPD as an extreme variant of extroversion. Extroversion involves the tendency to be outgoing, talkative, convivial, warm and affectionate, energetic, and vigorous. In a non-pathological form, extroversion is being high-spirited, buoyant, and optimistic. These factors coalesce into a personality disorder only when the needs behind the behavior are pathologically inflexible, repetitious, and persistent (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 366). It is then that the corruptibility, manipulativeness, and disinhibited exploitation of others become factors and the personality disordered version of extroversion becomes apparent.
Women with HPD are described as self-centered, self-indulgent, and intensely dependent on others. They are emotionally labile and cling to others in the context of immature relationships. Females with HPD over identify with others; they project their own unrealistic, fantasied intentions onto people with whom they are involved. They are emotionally shallow and have difficulty understanding others or themselves in any depth.
Individuals with HPD may decompensate in later adult years due to the cumulative effects of:
1) the incapacity to pursue personal, professional, cultural, and social values;
2) the frequent disruption of and failure in intimate relationships; and
3) identity diffusion.
These factors interfere with ordinary social learning and consequences grow more severe with age. The usual course of untreated HPD is precarious as life opportunities are missed or destroyed
Self-image
Individuals with HPD view themselves as gregarious, sociable, friendly, and agreeable. They consider themselves to be charming, stimulating, and well-liked. They value the capacity to attract people via their physical appearance and by appearing to be interesting and active people. For individuals with HPD, indications of internal distress, weakness, depression, or hostility are denied or suppressed and are not included in their sense of themselves (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 369).
For individuals with HPD, vanity and seductiveness function to bolster and maintain self-esteem; they often become overinvested in how they look and dread aging (McWilliams, 1994, pp. 312). Growing old violates the view of themselves as glamorous and attractive people who are admired by others.
Individuals with HPD are consumed with attention to superficialities and spend little time or attention on their internal life. Because they know themselves so little, they often have no sense of who they are apart from their identification with others. They are able to change their attitudes and values depending upon the views of significant others in their lives. These individuals also fail to attend the details and specifics of their experiences. They have, accordingly, memories that are diffuse and general with a tremendous lack of detail (Will, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 99).
View of Others
Individuals with HPD focus on others to the point that they obtain their own identity from those to whom they are attached. Yet the attention they focus on others does not allow them to gain understanding of others or to become effectively empathic. Their intense observation skills are dedicated to determining what behaviors, attitudes, or feelings are most likely to result in winning the admiration and approval of others. Essentially, these individuals watch other people watch them. Their actual focus is on how they are doing and how they are being received by others. As a result, they are not particularly effective in understanding how others are feeling.
Individuals with HPD are inclined to define relationships with or connections to others as closer or more significant than they really are. They do not see when they are being humored or placated by people who may have lost patience with their relentless need for attention and the failure to relate in a genuine way. Others may eventually withhold their own efforts to relate to individuals with HPD once they become aware that there is no real attempt to connect -- rather there is a continuing demand to be attended to and admired.
Relationships
The HPD failure to view others realistically is reflected by their difficulties in developing and sustaining satisfactory relationships. Individuals with HPD tend to have stormy relationships that start out as ideal and end up as disasters (Beck, 1990, p. 214). These individuals are unable to tolerate isolation; when alone, they feel desperate and are unable to wait for new relationships to develop gradually (Horowitz, Horowitz, ed., 1991, p. 4). They will idealize the significant other early in the relationship and often see the connection as more intimate than it really is. If the significant others begin to distance themselves from the incessant demands, individuals with HPD will use dramatics and demonstrativeness to bind these people to the relationship. They will resort to crying, coercion, temper tantrums, assaultive behavior and suicidal gestures to avoid rejection (Beck, 1990, p. 51).
Even though individuals with HPD will attempt to bind others to them, they are often dissatisfied with single attachments. They tend to be lacking in fidelity and loyalty; they are seductive, dramatic, and capricious in personal relationships (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 357). Their interpersonal dependency is not expressed through faithfulness and commitment. They start relationships well but falter when depth and durability are needed. There is a paradox in HPD relationships of coercive dependency and infidelity.
Individuals with HPD have a strong fear of being ignored; they long to be loved and taken care of by someone who is both powerful and able to be controlled through the use of charm and seductiveness. They become helpless and childlike when faced with potential rejection (McWilliams, 1992, p. 307).
HPD Behaviour
Individuals with HPD are overreactive, volatile, provocative, and engaging in their behavior. They are intolerant of inactivity, impulsive, emotional, and responsive. They have a penchant for momentary excitements, fleeting adventures, and ill advised hedonism (Donat, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 47). The HPD behavioral style is charming, dramatic, expressive, demanding, self-indulgent, and inconsiderate (Sperry, 1995, p. 97). They tend to be capricious, easily excited, and intolerant of frustration, delay, and disappointment. The words and feelings they express appear shallow and simulated rather than real or deep (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 366-367).
These individuals can be quite effective in situations where a first impression is important and vague expression of ideas is preferred over precision. They are less effective where performance is measured by objective measures of competence, diligence, thoroughness, and depth. Acting, marketing, politics, and the arts are fields where individuals with HPD will do well and manage competition effectively (Richards, 1993, p. 246).
The body, erotically or via illness, is often used by individuals with HPD to attract the attention of others (Horowitz, Horowitz, ed., 1991, p. 5). They will engage in inappropriately exaggerated smiles and continuous elaborate hand gestures. Movement and expressions are designed to have a pleasing effect (Turkat, 1990, pp. 72-73).
Individuals with HPD are fraudulent insofar as their inner emptiness is in contradiction to the impressions they seek to convey to others. They hide their true cognitive sterility and emotional poverty (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 370). HPD cognition is global, diffuse, and impressionistic; these individuals appear incapable of sustained intellectual concentration; they are distractable and suggestible (Beck, 1990, p. 215). They avoid introspective thought. They are attentive to fleeting and superficial events but integrate their experience poorly with a cursory cognitive style. They lack genuine curiosity and have habits of superficiality and dilettantism. They avoid potentially disruptive ideas and urges by dissociating from thoughts, people, and activities that threaten their view of themselves or the world (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 369).
Individuals with dependent personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder share important traits: they both turn to others for protection and the rewards of life; they are socially affable and share an intense need for attention and affection. Individuals with HPD have a more vigorous and manipulative style; these people will take the initiative in assuring that attention is forthcoming. They will actively solicit the interest of others through a series of seductive behaviors (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 357).
Affective Issues
Individuals with HPD express their emotions intensely yet remain unconvincing. They appear warm, charming, and seductive, yet their feelings appear to lack depth and genuineness (Beck, 1990, p. 213). They have an infantile quality in their emotional expression. They experience exaggerated feelings that change frequently. They become so involved in their emotional dramas that they are unaware of or are uninformed about the world they live in. They cannot stand frustration, disappointment, or delayed gratification (Oldham, 1990, pp. 143-144).
Individuals with HPD are subject to distortion in their emotional reasoning. They accept their emotions as evidence of truth rather than just a statement about their current emotional state (Will, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 99).
People with HPD experience recurrent flooding of affect. Somatic preoccupations and sudden enraged, despairing, or fearful states may occur. Patience is rare and these individuals may use alcohol or other drugs to quickly alter states of negative feeling (Horowitz, Horowitz, ed., 1991, p. 4).
Defensive Structure
HPD defenses include dissociative mechanisms. Individuals with HPD regularly alter and recompose themselves to create a socially attractive but changing facade. They engage in self-distracting activities to avoid reflecting on and integrating unpleasant thoughts and feelings (Kubacki & Smith, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 168). Repression is also a HPD defense; frequent splitting off from conscious awareness of self results in an intrapsychic impoverishment; psychological growth is precluded. These individuals remain immature and childlike in their behavior. Through repression, individuals with HPD remain unaware that their thoughts and feelings are attached to their behavior. Accordingly, they claim innocence when their conduct results in interpersonal conflict (Kubacki & Smith, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 171).
Millon (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 369-370) also noted the HPD defense mechanisms of dissociation and repression. Individuals with HPD are attuned to external rather than internal events. They dissociate entire segments of memory and feelings that prompt discomfort. They, in particular, must keep away from awareness the triviality of their entire being, its pervasive emptiness and paucity of substance (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 369-370).
Alcohol & Drug Addiction
These individuals are prone to alcoholism and drug addiction and are quite adept at denying the related behaviors. They seek easy escape from pain, deny negative consequences, and fail to observe or accept responsibility for the impact of their behavior on others.
Richards (1993, pp. 227-239) believes that individuals with personality disorders have an increased inclination to use drugs and alcohol as alternative solutions to life problems. Faulty adaptation to normal stressors and frequent failures in self-regulation can be attributed to deficiencies or disturbances in the personality. This accounts for continued addiction even in the face of catastrophic negative consequences.
For individuals with HPD, the shallowness and absence of internal integration are mirrored in a superficial involvement in the details of life; they have little ability to understand and integrate emotional experiences across situations. Alcohol and drugs serve as an alternative to personality integration and increased maturity. This is particularly effective for individuals with HPD because drug use facilitates dissociative behavior. Not only will they use drugs and alcohol for self-regulation and as a self-soothing alternative to facing life problems, they will view themselves as victims to their addiction. They often cycle rapidly between the role of enraptured drug user and the victimized person suffering from the illness of addiction (Richards, 1993, pp. 240-247).
Millon & Davis (1996, p. 378) state that individuals with HPD may become involved in drug or alcohol abuse because the substances can free them to act out in ways that are congenial to their inclination to be stimulus-seeking. Through drugs and alcohol, these individuals are able to transform themselves; they gain feelings of well-being, bolster a flagging sense of self-worth, and perhaps even come to feel omnipotent. Drugs and alcohol can disinhibit controlled HPD impulses so that there need be no assumption of personal responsibility or guilt for behavior.
Individuals with HPD are vulnerable to addiction via their immaturity, inclination to avoid unpleasantness, and stimulus-seeking behavior. They define themselves as victims to their addiction and describe themselves as powerless, not over addiction, but in relation to recovery. These individuals usually have little experience in recognizing and tolerating the painful in life. They do not define reality as a positive force; they are much more inclined to prefer the fantasies they have about both themselves and others.
Richards (1993, p. 278) notes that individuals with HPD will demand to be special in treatment. They are inclined to become the star patient in a treatment group or the problem child due to relapse. They may also, consciously or not, view service providers (or their group) and their drug(s) of choice as jealous lovers fighting over them and for their allegiance. This is a situation these individuals tend to relate to with relish (Richards, 1993, pp. 247-248).
Dual Diagnosis and the Histrionic Personality Disorder
Individuals with Histrionic Personality Disorder exhibit excessive emotionalism--a tendency to regard things in an emotional manner--and are attention seekers. They have an overwhelming desire to be noticed, and often behave dramatically or inappropriately to get attention.
Behaviors may include constant seeking of approval or attention, self-dramatization, theatricality, and striking self-centeredness or sexual seductiveness in inappropriate situations, including social, occupational and professional relationships beyond what is appropriate for the social context.
They may be lively and dramatic and initially charm new acquaintances by their enthusiasm, apparent openness, or flirtatiousness. They commandeer the role of "the life of the party". Personal interests and conversation will be self-focused. They use physical appearance to draw attention to themselves. Their style of speech is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail.
They may do well with jobs that value and require imagination and creativity but will probably have difficulty with tasks that demand logical or analytical thinking.
Histrionic personality disorder does not usually affect the person's ability to function adequately in a superficial work or social environment. However, problems often arise in more intimate relationships, where deeper involvements are required.
Symptoms
* Excessive dramatics with exaggerated displays of emotion
* Self-centeredness, uncomfortable when not the center of attention
* Tendency to believe that relationships are more intimate than they actually are
* Constantly seeking reassurance or approval
* Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expressions of emotions
* Overly concerned with physical appearance / Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self
* Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
* Excessive sensitivity to criticism or disapproval
* Has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
* Opinions are easily influenced by other people, but difficult to back up with details
* Low tolerance for frustration or delayed gratification
* Have difficulty maintaining relationships, often seeming fake or shallow in their dealings with others
People with this disorder are usually able to function at a high level and can be successful socially and at work. They may seek treatment for depression when romantic relationships end. They often fail to see their own situation realistically, instead tending to overdramatize and exaggerate. Responsibility for failure or disappointment is usually blamed on others.
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Frances, et.al. (1995, p. 373) describes individuals with HPD as manipulative, vain, and demanding.
Akhtar (1992, p. 259) notes that the current description of HPD corresponds to the previous idea of an infantile personality. These individuals had few sexual inhibitions, were impulsive, experienced identity diffusion and emotional lability, and demonstrated what the author referred to as moral defects. Yet, as described in the DSM-IV, individuals with HPD demonstrate what our society tends to foster and admire -- to be well liked, successful, popular, extroverted, attractive, and sociable (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 366). In fact, Widiger, et.al. (Costa & Widiger, eds., 1994, p. 47) describe HPD as an extreme variant of extroversion. Extroversion involves the tendency to be outgoing, talkative, convivial, warm and affectionate, energetic, and vigorous. In a non-pathological form, extroversion is being high-spirited, buoyant, and optimistic. These factors coalesce into a personality disorder only when the needs behind the behavior are pathologically inflexible, repetitious, and persistent (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 366). It is then that the corruptibility, manipulativeness, and disinhibited exploitation of others become factors and the personality disordered version of extroversion becomes apparent.
Women with HPD are described as self-centered, self-indulgent, and intensely dependent on others. They are emotionally labile and cling to others in the context of immature relationships. Females with HPD over identify with others; they project their own unrealistic, fantasied intentions onto people with whom they are involved. They are emotionally shallow and have difficulty understanding others or themselves in any depth.
Individuals with HPD may decompensate in later adult years due to the cumulative effects of:
1) the incapacity to pursue personal, professional, cultural, and social values;
2) the frequent disruption of and failure in intimate relationships; and
3) identity diffusion.
These factors interfere with ordinary social learning and consequences grow more severe with age. The usual course of untreated HPD is precarious as life opportunities are missed or destroyed
Self-image
Individuals with HPD view themselves as gregarious, sociable, friendly, and agreeable. They consider themselves to be charming, stimulating, and well-liked. They value the capacity to attract people via their physical appearance and by appearing to be interesting and active people. For individuals with HPD, indications of internal distress, weakness, depression, or hostility are denied or suppressed and are not included in their sense of themselves (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 369).
For individuals with HPD, vanity and seductiveness function to bolster and maintain self-esteem; they often become overinvested in how they look and dread aging (McWilliams, 1994, pp. 312). Growing old violates the view of themselves as glamorous and attractive people who are admired by others.
Individuals with HPD are consumed with attention to superficialities and spend little time or attention on their internal life. Because they know themselves so little, they often have no sense of who they are apart from their identification with others. They are able to change their attitudes and values depending upon the views of significant others in their lives. These individuals also fail to attend the details and specifics of their experiences. They have, accordingly, memories that are diffuse and general with a tremendous lack of detail (Will, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 99).
View of Others
Individuals with HPD focus on others to the point that they obtain their own identity from those to whom they are attached. Yet the attention they focus on others does not allow them to gain understanding of others or to become effectively empathic. Their intense observation skills are dedicated to determining what behaviors, attitudes, or feelings are most likely to result in winning the admiration and approval of others. Essentially, these individuals watch other people watch them. Their actual focus is on how they are doing and how they are being received by others. As a result, they are not particularly effective in understanding how others are feeling.
Individuals with HPD are inclined to define relationships with or connections to others as closer or more significant than they really are. They do not see when they are being humored or placated by people who may have lost patience with their relentless need for attention and the failure to relate in a genuine way. Others may eventually withhold their own efforts to relate to individuals with HPD once they become aware that there is no real attempt to connect -- rather there is a continuing demand to be attended to and admired.
Relationships
The HPD failure to view others realistically is reflected by their difficulties in developing and sustaining satisfactory relationships. Individuals with HPD tend to have stormy relationships that start out as ideal and end up as disasters (Beck, 1990, p. 214). These individuals are unable to tolerate isolation; when alone, they feel desperate and are unable to wait for new relationships to develop gradually (Horowitz, Horowitz, ed., 1991, p. 4). They will idealize the significant other early in the relationship and often see the connection as more intimate than it really is. If the significant others begin to distance themselves from the incessant demands, individuals with HPD will use dramatics and demonstrativeness to bind these people to the relationship. They will resort to crying, coercion, temper tantrums, assaultive behavior and suicidal gestures to avoid rejection (Beck, 1990, p. 51).
Even though individuals with HPD will attempt to bind others to them, they are often dissatisfied with single attachments. They tend to be lacking in fidelity and loyalty; they are seductive, dramatic, and capricious in personal relationships (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 357). Their interpersonal dependency is not expressed through faithfulness and commitment. They start relationships well but falter when depth and durability are needed. There is a paradox in HPD relationships of coercive dependency and infidelity.
Individuals with HPD have a strong fear of being ignored; they long to be loved and taken care of by someone who is both powerful and able to be controlled through the use of charm and seductiveness. They become helpless and childlike when faced with potential rejection (McWilliams, 1992, p. 307).
HPD Behaviour
Individuals with HPD are overreactive, volatile, provocative, and engaging in their behavior. They are intolerant of inactivity, impulsive, emotional, and responsive. They have a penchant for momentary excitements, fleeting adventures, and ill advised hedonism (Donat, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 47). The HPD behavioral style is charming, dramatic, expressive, demanding, self-indulgent, and inconsiderate (Sperry, 1995, p. 97). They tend to be capricious, easily excited, and intolerant of frustration, delay, and disappointment. The words and feelings they express appear shallow and simulated rather than real or deep (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 366-367).
These individuals can be quite effective in situations where a first impression is important and vague expression of ideas is preferred over precision. They are less effective where performance is measured by objective measures of competence, diligence, thoroughness, and depth. Acting, marketing, politics, and the arts are fields where individuals with HPD will do well and manage competition effectively (Richards, 1993, p. 246).
The body, erotically or via illness, is often used by individuals with HPD to attract the attention of others (Horowitz, Horowitz, ed., 1991, p. 5). They will engage in inappropriately exaggerated smiles and continuous elaborate hand gestures. Movement and expressions are designed to have a pleasing effect (Turkat, 1990, pp. 72-73).
Individuals with HPD are fraudulent insofar as their inner emptiness is in contradiction to the impressions they seek to convey to others. They hide their true cognitive sterility and emotional poverty (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 370). HPD cognition is global, diffuse, and impressionistic; these individuals appear incapable of sustained intellectual concentration; they are distractable and suggestible (Beck, 1990, p. 215). They avoid introspective thought. They are attentive to fleeting and superficial events but integrate their experience poorly with a cursory cognitive style. They lack genuine curiosity and have habits of superficiality and dilettantism. They avoid potentially disruptive ideas and urges by dissociating from thoughts, people, and activities that threaten their view of themselves or the world (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 369).
Individuals with dependent personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder share important traits: they both turn to others for protection and the rewards of life; they are socially affable and share an intense need for attention and affection. Individuals with HPD have a more vigorous and manipulative style; these people will take the initiative in assuring that attention is forthcoming. They will actively solicit the interest of others through a series of seductive behaviors (Millon & Davis, 1996, p. 357).
Affective Issues
Individuals with HPD express their emotions intensely yet remain unconvincing. They appear warm, charming, and seductive, yet their feelings appear to lack depth and genuineness (Beck, 1990, p. 213). They have an infantile quality in their emotional expression. They experience exaggerated feelings that change frequently. They become so involved in their emotional dramas that they are unaware of or are uninformed about the world they live in. They cannot stand frustration, disappointment, or delayed gratification (Oldham, 1990, pp. 143-144).
Individuals with HPD are subject to distortion in their emotional reasoning. They accept their emotions as evidence of truth rather than just a statement about their current emotional state (Will, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 99).
People with HPD experience recurrent flooding of affect. Somatic preoccupations and sudden enraged, despairing, or fearful states may occur. Patience is rare and these individuals may use alcohol or other drugs to quickly alter states of negative feeling (Horowitz, Horowitz, ed., 1991, p. 4).
Defensive Structure
HPD defenses include dissociative mechanisms. Individuals with HPD regularly alter and recompose themselves to create a socially attractive but changing facade. They engage in self-distracting activities to avoid reflecting on and integrating unpleasant thoughts and feelings (Kubacki & Smith, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 168). Repression is also a HPD defense; frequent splitting off from conscious awareness of self results in an intrapsychic impoverishment; psychological growth is precluded. These individuals remain immature and childlike in their behavior. Through repression, individuals with HPD remain unaware that their thoughts and feelings are attached to their behavior. Accordingly, they claim innocence when their conduct results in interpersonal conflict (Kubacki & Smith, Retzlaff, ed., 1995, p. 171).
Millon (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 369-370) also noted the HPD defense mechanisms of dissociation and repression. Individuals with HPD are attuned to external rather than internal events. They dissociate entire segments of memory and feelings that prompt discomfort. They, in particular, must keep away from awareness the triviality of their entire being, its pervasive emptiness and paucity of substance (Millon & Davis, 1996, pp. 369-370).
Alcohol & Drug Addiction
These individuals are prone to alcoholism and drug addiction and are quite adept at denying the related behaviors. They seek easy escape from pain, deny negative consequences, and fail to observe or accept responsibility for the impact of their behavior on others.
Richards (1993, pp. 227-239) believes that individuals with personality disorders have an increased inclination to use drugs and alcohol as alternative solutions to life problems. Faulty adaptation to normal stressors and frequent failures in self-regulation can be attributed to deficiencies or disturbances in the personality. This accounts for continued addiction even in the face of catastrophic negative consequences.
For individuals with HPD, the shallowness and absence of internal integration are mirrored in a superficial involvement in the details of life; they have little ability to understand and integrate emotional experiences across situations. Alcohol and drugs serve as an alternative to personality integration and increased maturity. This is particularly effective for individuals with HPD because drug use facilitates dissociative behavior. Not only will they use drugs and alcohol for self-regulation and as a self-soothing alternative to facing life problems, they will view themselves as victims to their addiction. They often cycle rapidly between the role of enraptured drug user and the victimized person suffering from the illness of addiction (Richards, 1993, pp. 240-247).
Millon & Davis (1996, p. 378) state that individuals with HPD may become involved in drug or alcohol abuse because the substances can free them to act out in ways that are congenial to their inclination to be stimulus-seeking. Through drugs and alcohol, these individuals are able to transform themselves; they gain feelings of well-being, bolster a flagging sense of self-worth, and perhaps even come to feel omnipotent. Drugs and alcohol can disinhibit controlled HPD impulses so that there need be no assumption of personal responsibility or guilt for behavior.
Individuals with HPD are vulnerable to addiction via their immaturity, inclination to avoid unpleasantness, and stimulus-seeking behavior. They define themselves as victims to their addiction and describe themselves as powerless, not over addiction, but in relation to recovery. These individuals usually have little experience in recognizing and tolerating the painful in life. They do not define reality as a positive force; they are much more inclined to prefer the fantasies they have about both themselves and others.
Richards (1993, p. 278) notes that individuals with HPD will demand to be special in treatment. They are inclined to become the star patient in a treatment group or the problem child due to relapse. They may also, consciously or not, view service providers (or their group) and their drug(s) of choice as jealous lovers fighting over them and for their allegiance. This is a situation these individuals tend to relate to with relish (Richards, 1993, pp. 247-248).
Dual Diagnosis and the Histrionic Personality Disorder
Monday, 31 March 2008
Machismo wankers on rampage in Mexico
The knuckle-draggers among our species continue to disappoint. Emo kids in Mexico are being set upon by testo dickheads.
"Most of all, however, the assailants target the emos for dressing effeminately, still a provocative act for many in a macho Mexico. "At the core of this is the homophobic issue. The other arguments are just window dressing for that," said Victor Mendoza, a youth worker in Mexico City. "This is not a battle between music styles at all. It is the conservative side of Mexican society fighting against something different."
This is just so freaking insane.
Time article here
Also on Wired.
Short vid of the emo scene in Mexico.
"Most of all, however, the assailants target the emos for dressing effeminately, still a provocative act for many in a macho Mexico. "At the core of this is the homophobic issue. The other arguments are just window dressing for that," said Victor Mendoza, a youth worker in Mexico City. "This is not a battle between music styles at all. It is the conservative side of Mexican society fighting against something different."
This is just so freaking insane.
Time article here
Also on Wired.
Short vid of the emo scene in Mexico.
Roundup of picks
I've been rather hopeless with posting in here. Hope to remedy that soon with a roundup of favourite picks from March. In the meantime, my feeds (located in the column to the right under 'Scoots' shared items') are more frequently updated.
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Hero news! Dean Kamen and his amazing water distiller
Gimme Gimme! This is just what I need for living in Shanghai!!
If you have trouble viewing the vid, try Gizmodo or Comedy Central.
More about Dean Kamen and DEKA R&D.
If you have trouble viewing the vid, try Gizmodo or Comedy Central.
More about Dean Kamen and DEKA R&D.
Monday, 17 March 2008
Strangers in Strange Lands
It was most fitting that Shaun Tan's magical book, The Arrival, was the first thing I pulled out of my boxes once they arrived in Shanghai.My comfortable reality in Melbourne was certainly challenged after I packed up my life and headed to Shanghai. 'Strangers in Strange Lands' is an apt summary of my experience.
Best if I just lead you to Shaun Tan's words to describe this most amazing work of art, and one of my favourite books in life to date. Bonus that he is such a wonderful guy.
"...Beyond any personal issues, though, I think that the ‘problem’ of belonging is perhaps more of a basic existential question that everybody deals with from time to time, if not on a regular basis. It especially rises to the surface when things ‘go wrong’ with our usual lives, when something challenges our comfortable reality or defies our expectations – which is typically the moment when a good story begins, so good fuel for fiction. We often find ourselves in new realities – a new school, job, relationship or country, any of which demand some reinvention of ‘belonging’...
This was uppermost in my mind during the long period of work on The Arrival, a book which deals with the theme of migrant experience. Given my preoccupation with ‘strangers in strange lands’, this was an obvious subject to tackle, a story about somebody leaving their home to find a new life in an unseen country, where even the most basic details of ordinary life are strange, confronting or confusing – not to mention beyond the grasp of language. It’s a scenario I had been thinking about for a number of years before it crystallised into some kind of narrative form...."More here (click on The Arrival - and be sure to have a look at Tan's other gems)
Sunday, 9 March 2008
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
BRB
Will be back posting soon. Been busy with relocation issues. Should be all settled within the week.
Ciao fer now!
Ciao fer now!
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