documentary overload

i had a fever this morning until afternoon. i seem to have recovered from it by taking Panadol and Advil (not at the same time, of course). then i slept until i had enough energy to get up from bed. i showered for the second time because i felt icky although i slept in a very cold room. i think it was the heat coming out from my body because of the medicine.

the rest of the afternoon i was glued to the tv watching documentaries on The Discovery Channel.

documentary #1
the first documentary was called Brain Emotions. there were scientific explanations on psychosis like this man who killed his ex-wife when he violated the restraining order against him. he went to his ex's house and when the ex started calling the police, he snapped and killed her. in court, his defense lawyers claimed that he was mentally ill and should therefore be considered not guilty. according to a top forensic psychiatrist, his was a case of psychosis, alright but somehow his brain knew what he was doing. but this guy had a long history of violence whenever he snaps. when he was younger he bit his brother's ear (sounds familiar?) and threatened to kill a grade school teacher. neighbors as well as other people who knew him testified that he was even called "the fuse" before because he had a bad temper.

medical studies prove that this kind of bad temper which results to violence is hereditary. it's in the genes. plus, there's a certain part of the brain that excretes a certain type of substance that triggers anger. the man who killed his wife, for example, has the worst case of this substance. but he still lost his case and is now on death row.

this australian guy grew up in a family with a father who has the worst temper. his childhood was a nightmare, he said. there were times when he'd hide in a closet just to not watch his father's raging temper. when he became an adult, he subconsciously picked up his father's bad temper and the turning point was when he yelled at his children and realized that he was acting like his father. so he realized he had to change and devoted his time to teaching anger management to adult men who has the same genetic problem as he did.

i want to study psychology. man, the human mind is so fascinating!

documentary #2
i don't know why i watched it when i knew i was going to depress myself in the end. the 2nd documentary is called The Last Hour of Flight 11. yes, it's the plane that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 2001 at New York City. from hearing the actual voice recording of two flight attendants who called the Boston control tower explaining the status of the hijacking of the plane's cockpit up to the crashing of the plain into the North Tower, it was unbelievable. i had goosebumps in the end. imagine what it must have felt like knowing how low the plane is flying and seeing the Twin Towers as they loom closer and closer.

at the end of the documentary, the husband of one of the flight attendants was interviewed along with the wife of a pilot and the husband of a woman who worked at the North Tower and was on the phone when the plane crashed into her office. she just broke the good news to her husband that they were going to have their baby.

***

the other day i watched a documentary on National Geographic. the show is called About Asia. last week featured the foot binding of Chinese (although it's no longer practiced today). the old Chinese women explained how excruciating it was for them as children when their tiny feet were wrapped with cloth and then bound to hinder its growth. as if this was not enough, their bones would break because of the binding and it would hurt to walk properly. when the colonizers came, they ordered a stop to the gruesome foot binding but not everyone complied even if it was punishable by law to not follow the order. Chinese men actually thought it was beautiful to have small lotus-shaped feet and it (sexually) aroused them.

this practice was started by an emperor who had a favorite concubine dance for him. this concubine wrapped her tiny feet and performed a dance for the emperor. the emperor was very pleased and soon, the art of foot binding spread throughout China until it became the basis of having beautiful feet. women were forced to have their foot bound because they were forced to by their families. men did not like women with big feet then so they only married women with lotus feet.

plus, men liked women with lotus feet because they're mostly a size 4 and this contrict their movements so they tend to depend on men a lot when moving about. talk about machismo.

but really, it must have hurt a lot. *shivers*

after About Asia, there was another documentary on White Elephants in Thailand. apparently, the white elephants are sacred there because they believe that white elephants are sent from heaven & it brings blessings. the present King of Thailand has the most white elephants in all the previous line of rulers of Thailand. he has 11 white elephants. before the appearance of a white elephant, it was said that a white monkey will appear first.

i haven't seen a white elephant. me wants to see one.

there's another documentary that i want to watch. it's a documentary on the Columbine High School shoot-out on the 26th on Discovery Channel.

okay i'll continue working on my report for history class now. buh-bie :)