Hi Gang! Hope you had a nice long weekend! This week we examine our perceptions, experiences shaped by the 5 senses: Hearing, seeing, tasting, smell and touch--Consider a statement such as: I know it happened: I saw it with my own eyes! Sounds convincing, right? But what if the one-who-saw-it was not sober? What if the witness was color-blind? What if the person watching was prejudiced against the type of person they claim to have seen do something?
For this blog, give us an example (personal or an experience of a character in a book or movie) of a time someone thought they were certain about something, I mean really sure things were one way, only to discover later that there was more to the story, things weren't quite as they originally seemed...According to Wood on p. 78, we explain our perceptions in ways that make sense to us--TO US...there's the ego and our "self" making it about us...we construct explanations for what others do...fill in the blanks with our own sets of ideas, thoughts and experiences...please apply this concept of interpretation to your example. Adios amigos! --S
There is one french film whose name I cannot recall- but I will find out as soon as I contact my french teacher- whose whole turning point is the shift in views. It begins with the view of a young lady who is falling in love with her neighbor. In her point of view it seems that he is hinting at her first subtly then a little more obviously. It seems he begins seeing someone else and things are just not working out so she turns on the gas valves of her stove and lays down (suicide). Then the film stops and rewinds. You see everything from his point of view for the next half, or more like last third of the movie. He is married, about to be a father and she is stalking him. It turns out she has a psychological problem- maybe something that stretches this ego view much farther than normal. I wouldn't want to spoil everything if you wish to see it but let's just say it does not end well- but it IS a great movie.
ReplyDeleteZuleika
I have one of those instances. It was when I was back in high school actually. I had a group of friends and I really liked on of the girls so much so that in my eyes she could do no wrong and she was perfect. Well as it turns out not the case. She was a very bad person and a pathological lair. But I was so sure she was just miss understood and was a great person. I stuck by her no matter what. It wasn't until I started loosing some of my other friends not only because she was driving them away but I was to because I would defend her to the ends of the earth. Luckily before I had damaged the relationships with the rest of my friends to badly I finally saw her for what she really was because she did something so horrible I just couldn't turn a blind eye to it.
ReplyDeleteWill A.
I work in the city cafe. There was a fellow emoloyee who could have sworn that another employee only charged a customer for a cup of ice, when they had a whole hamburger meal.The customer had come up to the counter with her food and paid for it but she wanted to go back in get a cup of ice. So when the cashier charged her 15 cents for her cup the other employee saw that and went to tell.It was really crazy she had to go chace the lady down and ask her to come back and show her boss the receipt.after that the boss told the accuser to just mind her buisness. It was really funny. U-kyra
ReplyDeleteIm an avid swimmer and surfer, I was in half moon bay, located off high way 1, south of San fran, my friend and I were surfing and I saw him take a dive into the water unexpectedly, he comes up and says theres someone down here.
ReplyDeleteI swim over and we see a body under a rock. We dive down trying to find it we can't see it so we come back up and its done, nothing. We just looked at each other in shock and go down one more time and again see nothing.
So creepy
Well, I have a whole group of people who hate me right now: my ex-boyfriend's family and friends. After he "proposed" to me, I broke up with him. Even after, he kept buying me things like dresses, perfume, flowers, cookies, etc. They think "Jessica's such a horrible person! All she did is take advantage of his kindness and use him and I'm sure she cheated on him and blah blah blah!"
ReplyDeleteWell that's easy to believe! But the truth is that this ex-boyfriend proposed to me after only 2 and a half months of dating each other! I never cheated on him, and I never asked for all those nice things. I've even told him to stop giving me gifts. He's obsessive and easily jealous. He's even read my e-mail and sent me weird text messages. He's downright CREEPY.
Restraining order, please! :)
It's amazing what people can believe only after hearing/seeing just one side of the story.
I have a group of best girlfriends. We are really close. On of my friends met this guy and started dating him. After the first few dates she came to us and asked us to meet him and give our honest opinion because she was not sure. So after meeting him most of us thought he was little weird and controlling. We told her out honest opinions. Well she got really upset and said that she was hurt by what we said about him. Well so much for honest opinion. huh? We said ok that’s fine if you want to be with him. Anyway then she stopped coming to our get-togethers and birthdays etc. She did come to few but stayed very distant. She was not the same person anymore. We tried to tell her that but didn’t work. I emailed all the girls and planned a girls day out to sort things out. She was actually excited about it and said she would come. The next day we get an email from her, in which she just went off on us about how much we hurt her and never include her in anything, just leave her sitting in the corner at parties. I was shocked. I realize that she was feeling that way because she assumed that we were judging her because she with that guy. She thought that now we did not like her because she was with the guy we said was not the right one for her. It is so interesting how one’s perception can change the way they see something that is not even there but there are so convinced that the truth is what they see, feel and hear. We love unconditionally, with or without that guy. I hope we can make her see that.
ReplyDeleteA.Brar
One example i can think of is an episode of The Simpsons. They did a parody of a movie i think its called "The Window" Well the character "Bart" breaks his leg when he falls off a tree attempting to do a jump into a pool. He has a cast put on and is pretty much stuck in his room all summer. He has a telescope set that he got for his birthday that he decides to use.He starts off people watching until he hears screams coming from Ned Flanders' home........ He hears screaming, Sees his neighbor digging a hole in the backyard. Smells a bad stench like a rotting corpse. Feels a substance he believes to be blood on the ax. In the end what he thought was the murder of Ned's wife turned out to be a simple misunderstanding.
ReplyDelete-AiR-
The only example that comes to mind is from an episode of The Office. Michael (played by Steve Carrell for those of you who don't watch), forms a team of five with employees he deems capable of being skilled enough at the game of basketball to play the warehouse workers. He insists Stanley, the only African American employee in the office, participate in the game because he's absolutely sure Stanley is an amazing athelete. And he couldn't be swayed from his opinion by anyone else - even when Stanley tells him he can't play. So Stanley shows up to the game and is terrible - he can't even dribble the ball. And Michael was in shock because he was convinced that Stanley had to be good because he's Black.
ReplyDeleteBharathi Natrajan
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ReplyDelete"Things are not always what they seem." I'm going to take a break from talking about myself for awhile but I will be back. Alot of what we see, hear, taste, smell, touch are concluded by our interpretations. All of us gather data and make a final analysis on that information differently. Some of us come to the same conclusion and some of us are totally opposite of each other, when those moments occur; I consider those times where "we agree to disagree."
ReplyDeleteSince my honey(boyfreind) and I have made a committment in our relationship to be open about our communication no matter what. I learned that men and women definetly come from two different sides of the planet! For most of our time together we are mobile. We go everywhere together and there are times when we have these litte tiffs about what proper turns to take on the road or why am I tailgating the driver in front of us, (his interpretation,not mine)I find myself having to learn how to compromise and coexist with another person,by listening to what his perception of my driving is or what I'm doing period. Sometimes he gets on my nerves when he is in the car with me because he is a "passenger driver" and it drives me crazy!! If we are not having a debate about my driving we are having a debate about something else. When we arrive to our destination,most of the time we are on our way to my mother's house or a family gathering, a basetball game,or one of his fraternity functions where we are around a bunch of people. We both have to readjust our attitude to exemplify this "happy all the time couple" to everyone by putting on a big fake smile or walk in holding each other's hand. I find it hilarious at times because once we leave the function, we are back to our happy normal selves, but I always wonder if other people have sensed/read into the drama we just had in the car before we walked into the environment. I guess I will never know that answer unless someone mentions it to one of us. So for now, I will just enjoy the compliments about how good a couple we make and how happy we look together. I guess we are doing something right by being able to hide what coud be interpreted by others as a bad relationship moment.
Mimi L.
Mimi--did I see you at Arden FAIR Thursday night with Bebe bags? Hi everyone--great comments--good examples too! See ya Wed!--S
ReplyDeleteI took a quiz recently and I was convinced of how I read them to list the factors of two numbers so I did the number trees for each of them. I was sure I had found all of them. In class when the instructor went over an example of it I realized that I had missed several for each number. I even had gone back over the quiz before I turned it in. I was heart broken when I realized this,but on the flip side I am trying to look at this as an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of my math, and how it is all supposed to work together. I see how I really have to slow down in this area of my studies and it forces me to confront my ego behaviors that specifically I can work fast through this and that i will get it it. I see each day with my math that it is in someway a metaphor for how my life has changed and that I have to go step by step in each of my daily actions so that I don't misunderstand how an assignment is coming to me, or instructions for anything I do in my life today.Michelle P
ReplyDeleteI can remeber one time when a friend and myself went up to Chico to visit some of his friends. He claimed to know the entire city "like the back of his hand". That is until it got dark. Little did I know my friend hadn't visited that part of the city in a long time and in the process got us very, very lost. To me, it seemed amazing how just navigating in the dark is 3 times more difficult than in the daylight. That night was a good example of how sometimes you need to put your ego aside and invest in a map...or a TOM-TOM.
ReplyDelete**For two years I dated a guy that was totally wrong for me but during those 2 years for some reason I wouldnt see it. (I know you remember him Bharathi) For the period of time we were dating he would always find a way to make his faults become mine... he would do something wrong then find a way to twist it up and then tell me it was my fault for so and so reason. I being in "love" totally would believe him and felt that it was my fault he did what he did. Every one, my family, his family, my friends and even one of my high school teachers knew what he was up to and they would try to tell me and explain to me the real situation. But like I was so in "love" with this guy I would get mad at them for saying such things about him, and I would get offended for them practically calling me dumb for not seeing such things on my own. After 2 years I finally began to really open my eyes and see the situation in another perspective. That was when I realized that he was totally just playing with me, my mind and everything. Now that i left him and Im in a new relationship I can trully see how one, a relationship should be and two, that I really was being dumb for not seeing right through him.
ReplyDeleteCristina Jimenez
This is in reply to Cristina - Yeah I remember him, and I'm sure G does too. You're right, some people are blinded by the depth of their feelings into believing things that seem preposterous in hindsight. Because their ego tells them they are extremely justified in dealing with or portraying such behavior. I guess the best thing to do is be metacognitive - be aware of your thoughts. And try to differentiate between ego and your own opinion.
ReplyDeleteBharathi
An example of this that comes to mind is from the Lord of the Rings. When Frodo Baggins is traveling with Sam to Mordor, to destroy the one ring, they run into Gollum. Sam is convinced that Gollum is pure evil, but Frodo grows to like Gollum. Later on in the adventure, Frodo (who is a bit naive) believes Gollum is steering him in the right direction so much, that he ends up, for a time, abandoning Sam. However, in the end, Gollum proves to be treacherous and Frodo's trust misguided. When Frodo is left to die, Sam comes storming back and rescues Frodo.
ReplyDeleteDaniel McNeil
A while ago I watched this crazy movie called "Wild Things" were there were a group of characters, Matt Dillion, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, and Bill Murray, who were all in a very twisted plot about double crossing people in a murder/insurance scam. At one time or another in the movie, it followed each character's perspective of what happened at the scene of the crime. At various points in the movie, it seemed as though one of the character's stories started to become clear and the others were all lying about who was killed.
ReplyDeleteIn this movie much of the story's twist relied on what people saw and heard (sight and hearing senses) while disregarding the other 3 senses of taste, texture, and smell.
It was only at the end of the movie where the true occurences were revealed and as it turns out that all of the characters had been telling true accounts of their side of the story, but all were incorrect in one way or another becuase they failed to use the other senses of taste, texture and smell.
It emphasized the fact that you cannot believe everything you hear or see, because there is always more to the story than this. I would recommend this movie to other people in the class if they are looking for a good "who did it" movie.
Tim Cereceres
I was watching a show called "Bad Girls Club" on oxygen. Some of the girls went out to the club and was having some drinks, when one of the girls sat her urse down and went on the dance floor to start dancing. A few minutes later she turned around and noticed that her purse was gone, this girl started screaming and hollering swearing that she new that someone stole her purse. This girl caused a big scene throwing things every where and screaming at everyone. It turns out that her friend grabbed her purse so it wouldn't just be sitting there for someone to take. This girl was so enbarrassed and ended up getting kicked out of the club. This is a prime example of someone thinking that something is one way and ends u being something comletely different.
ReplyDeleteBless McCrary
an example of this would be the movie "disturbia". Its about this boy who loses his father and punches out his teacher and then after becomes under house arrest. While under house arrest he starts people watching, looking through binoculars and keeping track of what his neighbors are up to. In one part of the movie he spies on his neighbor next door and see's him dragging a black bag into his house. suspecting that the neighbor is a killer he gets one of his friends to sneak into the garage and check out what was in the bag. His friend gets scared by something and runs away, thinking that his neighbor killed or did something to his friend, he calls the police and runs over to his neighbors house to check on his friend. The police come and arrest him for leaving his house because he is under house arrest and at the same time find the black bag in the garage and open it up. It turns out to be a dead deer that the neighbor picked up on the side of the road and was going to dispose of it. If you havent seen the movie the neighbor does end up being a super killer though and thats my example of deception.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Tacotaco
Of course something happened at work today that made me think of this blog and what i could write about. I work at a deli and was on a tag and could have sworn it was a medium. I continued to make the sandwich a medium when another employee asked why I was making a medium when it was a small. Obviously I could not have been wrong so I said it's a medium. Only after I looked at the tag again and it was actually a small. it was something so minor, but it made me think that in the everyday routine of life this happens a lot. I don't always stop to think about what I am doing and in the end it can make everything more stressful. But as easy as it sounds to stop and think, it is harder than I thought when I'm in my routine in any day. Paige Miller
ReplyDeleteI can think of an example where one time I thought for sure I've lost the keys to my house. One day I come home from school and no one was around leaving the door locked. I tried calling where everyone was and turns out they all went out somewhere, so I didn't want to wait outside for a couple of hours so I just thought looks like I have to break into my own house. I drop my stuff by the front door and I climb over my tall wooden fence thinking this would be the hard part, where it turns out my dogs were I guess in attack mode hearing me jump over my fence. So after I fought off my dogs and they realize it was me, I checked the back door seeing if it was open, but it was locked. Then I thought okay it looks like I have to use my dogs door to the garage to see if that door was open, but it was locked as well. I thought all hope was lost until I saw my brother's window was open. I slide the window open and jump over his dresser, knocking over some things, and finally made it inside. I go to the front door to grab my stuff and pull some stuff from my bag to find my key was in there this whole time ...................... I was so certain that my key was gone, I thought it fell out of my pocket a while back, but I guess it was there the whole time.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Flores
[attempt #3]
ReplyDeletea little over 2 years ago, my ex-roommate (who was my roommate at the time) swore he saw me across the street from our apartment while he was sitting in his car. across the street was a parking lot for dollar tree and a liquor store next to it. i was working out at the school gym during the time and i got a call from him asking "what the f* are you on?? how come you're not answering me when i call you??" i was perplexed by this call "huh??".. "where are you going??" *hangs up*
later he calls me back: "where are you?? where'd you go?? what the heck are you on??" i told him i was @ school and he didn't believe me until i had him pick me up. when he saw me he was shocked b/c i was wearing different clothes and he asked if i changed clothes. i told him yeah (b/c i was just working out and it was raining outside so i put on my jacket). then he asked how i changed clothes and got here so fast because he just saw me. (we were both going to ucd during this time and our apartment was about 2 miles from campus, it was raining that night, i didn't ride my bike to school that day, and the bus comes every hour)
he tells me the story later about how he saw "me" in my gray hoodie and the exact same white tennis shoes roaming about the parking lot across the street. (when he first called me). then he saw me head towards the parking lot in back of the liquor store and he went to follow me (that's when he hung up on me). when he reached the back parking lot, there was no one in sight. he asked a guy and his son where the girl that just walked here went. both the guy and his son told him that no one passed by.. and that's when he called me the second time.. he was still convinced that it was me and that somehow i was able to change clothes and get back to school (without my bike or driving or using the bus)..
on several occasions after that, he claimed that he saw "me" sleeping in my bed when he got home from school. but then later on that night, i would come home for the first time from work/school, and he and the other roommate would be shocked when they see me walk through the front door. they would open the door to my room and look in there and look at me and ask me how i left the apt w/o them seeing me. i told them that i just got home and i've always thought that they were trying to scare me (b/c i'm a girl) and talking about this matter would get us nowhere b/c i was in sacramento after class and my car wasn't even home. perhaps they did see someone, and it was a ghost or something (i joked) since there was a cemetery down the street (across from the liquor store).. but they were convinced that i was lying and that somehow i slipped by them. eventually i kicked them out because i became agitated by this everytime i came home by myself from work and talking about this matter lead nowhere..
apparently they told a bunch of their friends, our mutual friends, and classmates about how i'm a crazy/psychotic person who stalks them, i.e., they would see "me" walking down the street from their friends' houses or wherever it was that they were at. i found out later that they even reported me to the cops that i was a crazy stalker (this was after i kicked them out, possibly for revenge from my point of view). many of my so-called friends (at the time) and outsiders believed their story though b/c why would a girl (like me) live alone with two guys if she didn't like them right?? only every select few of my close friends believed me because they know how tomboyish i am and that i get along with some guys more than i do with girls (sorry, i got got up in telling the story)..
--JKong
Way back in high school one of my male friends--lets call him Mike--started falling for one of the girls in our group, let's call her Michelle. Now, the rest of us girls could see quite clearly that Michelle was using him and that she would only break his heart in the end, but he refused to see it. To make matters worse, all the other guys in our friend group took her side and accused the rest of us girls of being catty-bitches. It's quite typical that any time women see something in another (cute) woman that the men don't want to see (because she's cute) we get accused of being catty. When will they ever learn to listen?
ReplyDeleteAmber Beckton
adam {pac man}jones. once he got reinstated back into the leage to play football again i really thought he had turned his life around. After sitting out a year he got traded to a potential super bowl team. but pac man diddn't leran his lesson and got into a fight with his bodygaurd after having a couple of drinks. he later got kicked off the team and all the confusion he put on his team for this year cost them a shot at the championship. PS. GO NINERS
ReplyDeleteHAROLD DAVIS ///
I had this friend. She was the biggest jerk and totally decietful. She never did anything in particular, but it was her action and inactions that i personally observed that made me see the flags. We would hang out with other friends and she would always seem to be caring or concerned with others and situations; but i knew she was faking it. I could just tell, it was wierd... it was like somehow i knew she was going to do something evil one day. I did'nt say anything to her directly, but i did try and probe about what the others saw, felt or thought about what i was observing. Nothing, she had everyone fooled. and i recieved some negetivity for even questioning her alligence to us. Well unfortunatly, to our groups utter dismay ( and mine), this girl ended up stealing a bunch of stuff from one of our guy friends and seriously just dissapeared. It didnt make me feel good that i was right, it actually scared me. The idea that you think you know someone well, and you trust them to be around your life and personal belonging can backfire on you at any moment. You can't live your life not trusting people or not giving them the benefit of the doubt, or stop having faith in mankind....you just have to believe that people are innately good.
ReplyDeleteA movie that I seen,cant remember what ot was called but i seen it on the lifetime movie network. Now you know us girls be glued on that chanel..lol.. anyway it was about how this couples daughter was abducted and killed and found behind a garbage can. They started to assume that the parents did it. There was even an eye witness that said he seen his car and seen who was in it. It was pitch dark outside. The couple had hired a investigater and when he tryed to look and see with lights off who was in a car it was impossible. The old man swore up and down though he remembered the mans nose. This movie was based on a true story and the man actually went to prison for his daughters murder. Brianne K
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese drama entitled "Maou" is about how a brilliant lawyer uses his clever mind to kill certain people related to what he believes to be the murder of his brother back in high school. In all actuality, the death of his brother was an accident. Even though the convicted killer was acquitted of all charges, the lawyer still believes him to be a murder. It's not until the end that he realizes how wrong he is.
ReplyDeleteI know that was a very confusing summary for a 10 episode series, but the drama itself has many twists and turns so it's hard to summarize it in one paragraph. Anyway, that is one example of how one person saw something in one way, but was drastically wrong and in doing so, the person wrongfully ends the lives of countless innocent people.
Heather Ito
It is very interesting to me how we have explanation for everything and every one. We are so sensitive to criticism and yet we never miss a chance to construct a explanation of what other do. It’s all about interpreting it the way it suit us the best. This reminds me of a family friend that my parents used to hang out with. She was nosy to begin with, but she was the extreme example of this concept. For example, if somebody said that so and so’s son is not well in school or got in trouble etc, she would totally start analyzing their life and the way they are. And she would have theory of why and how that person is the way she/he is. And trust me she wasn’t very kind. Oh and God forbid if someone mentions her son or daughter. She would go on and on trying to explain or make excuses for their behavior. Like oh they have so much going on, they are so busy, they work so hard and it’s their teacher’s entire fault for whatever reason. It is same as the example in class that Sandra gave, about being late and blaming it on the traffic. It’s intriguing how subliminally we do it. ABrar
ReplyDeleteOur ego allows us to have thoughts about whatever comes to mind and how someone might be before even having a discussion with them. In the movie Boys in the Hood by John Singleton there are African American men who grew up in poverty, or the ghetto. One of the characters Trey was known around the hood just like his other friends and because where he was from the cops pulled him over and assumed he was a 'gangster' or a 'thug', not knowing that he was a college student. The ego of the policemen pushed them to act as bullies to the men not correctional officers because they were pulled over because of profiling.
ReplyDelete-Jacqueline Green