San Diego Day 4 29/01/2012

I bid farewell to Little Italy, my comfort zone for the past three days. As wonderful as the accommodation is, I figure that if I continue staying there, my efforts and motivation to meet people and do shit will be stifled. So I also bid farewell my receptionist friend, Jay, and went off to Lucky D's hostel.

By the way, waking up late in San Diego (which is after 10am) is a really bad idea because your day is drastically shortened - sundown happens around 6pm and aside from the bars, nothing else stays open. Jolene, Sharon and Laysee got on a boat to see the whales and dolphins early in the morning, but I guess I'm mentioning the negative aspects of waking up late because I got my lazy ass up only at 11am. No more!

These are the stairs leading up to the reception area at Lucky D's.

Yes throw away that TV! And the computer too! And your gaming consoles and smartphones! Make love. :)

These computer terminals provide good internet access. Intermittent internet is usually a problem when traveling.

Hmm I can't find some photos I snapped of the room I was accidentally given. Anyway, nothing drastic, just that the receptionist handed me the keys to 308 - the wrong room - and when I got in the whole room was a mess. My immediate assumption was that I was the last guy in a room of three people, so I was gonna have to deal with that. But I'd noticed that none of the beds were untouched, so when I clarified things, the receptionist was quite apologetic about her mistake and got me to room 408 instead.

I entered 408 to a white dude sitting reclusively at the bottom corner of his double decker bed, working on his laptop, his things still packed inside his bags beside him. We introduced ourselves. He's Greg, a Canadian political psychologist who attended the SPSP conference too. Unsurprisingly then, I later discover that he was buried deep in PASW/SPSS Statistical analysis on his laptop. I would've liked to chat more about his research interests since I'm also quite interested in the psychology of politics and power myself, but after some brief small talk I had to head off to meet Jolene, Sharon and Laysee at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

The girls had returned from their whale and dolphin spotting trip and we were planning to meet Oliver at the famous San Diego zoo, but after some dire miscommunication we reached Balboa Park where Oliver supposedly was for the most part of the day, only to learn that he had returned to his own room at the Marriott Marquis.

No matter - we set off on our own little tour of Balboa Park.

Sneaky sneaky. That's what I is.

Jolene spots a huge dog and can't help but go over to lovingly disturb it. I've no idea about dog breeds and stuff, but it is quite an affectionate big dog nonetheless.

A lot of San Diego features nicely preserved and reworked old architecture. Same goes for the museums, botanical buildings, art galleries and other structures at Balboa Park.

LOL I am very tempted to caption the following two pictures.

"I just moved from England...like accents? lol. joking. kind of.
So I'm all about the fun times and adventure. If you fancy meeting a stranger give
me a shout, you can show me around and/or we'll grab a drink or 3.

CHEERS! "

Haha WTF I am using a public computer and accidentally hit shift+insert, which is another way to paste copied items, and that text appeared. The user before me was either writing up an online traveling profile or flirting with somebody on this computer before my turn to use it.

This building looks like it has been inspired by architecture from the Mughal empire. It has a brick red and dome-shaped roof, the windows look dome-shaped at the top too, and it has that waterway in front of it, just like the Taj Mahal.

I'm not particularly fanatical about plants, so I don't have much to shout about the botanical place. But I did smell some natural spearmint plants, which felt kind of strange since I always associate that smell/taste with toothpaste. And I have no idea what the flowers in this photo are, but they remind me of Richard's attempts to get the girls to tell him what they think it looks like during Jacq's birthday a few years ago at Wild Rocket.

There were lots of live performances at Balboa Park. Look what we've got here... It's Capoeira! Okay, I don't think it's very visible from the picture, but there was some Capoeira going on. And no, I did not have the balls to compra their game.

As the day wore on, we got hungry and decided to get a bite at a recommended cafe in some museum. This is one of the most mouth-watering things I've ever eaten. It's called the Ultimate Grilled Cheese (for ultimate vagueness) served generously with fries. Just an awesomely toasted sandwich with melted, peppered cheese and perfectly fried?/grilled?/cooked? ham. And other things. Sorry for my very un-connoisseur-ish attempt to remake the Ultimate Grilled Cheese in words.

I think this picture is about Jolene asking why Laysee isn't eating her salad. That's a ton of salad, by the way. I would've forgiven them for eating the grass too by accident!

The girls, being girls, wanted to sit on the grass and eat picnic-style, so that's what we did.

Another look at my meal of awesomeness.

A very sociable and attention-seeking dog comes by, which sparks a long conversation about pets, dogs, dog names, etc.

This is a very funny looking sculpture. If you can't see it, just ask any dude what he thinks it looks like, and brace yourself for the answer.

So our funny story for the sculpture goes like this. We were looking for a good spot to picnic out, so we gravitated towards the shade this sculpture provided. Me being me, I instantly saw the doggie-style in this thing, which is actually officially called Reclining Figure/Arch Leg by the artist (I... guess I could try and see that). But as I was with three ladies without sex every 7 seconds on their fluffy cotton candy minds I didn't verbalize what I thought and, as we settled into the grass to eat under the shade from Doggy-Style/Reclining Figure/Arch Leg, the thought very quickly vanished from my mind and we just chatted about other things.

Until this white couple comes along near to us, scrutinizing the sculpture, and the girl simply exclaims, "is it just me or is there something really wrong with this sculpture?" And I was like "YES!"

Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

After Balboa Park, we head to Fashion Valley Road. We took a cab and while on this journey along the highway it really hit me that I need to get out of the Downtown area of San Diego if I want to see more novel things.

So anyway we hit Fashion Valley Road, which is like the biggest mall in San Diego I think. Which is still puny by Singapore's Suntec City and Vivocity's kind of standards. But malls in the US (at least from what I've seen in San Diego and Washington DC) and in Singapore appear to be very different.

The Cheesecake Factory. Not my kinda thing, but the girls were exclaiming to no end about it. They didn't go in though.

On the way back to Downtown San Diego, I had a fascinating conversation with the taxi driver. He's a very zen and knowledgeable-sounding 31 year-old Ethiopian who has lived here since 1991 (his family was seeking refuge from the civil war) and can't wait to leave the US, especially after a new act (I can't remember what the acronyms are exactly but it sounded like NDDA) was passed recently that apparently makes him more susceptible to getting charged without recourse for offences (which can be quite arbitrarily defined). In his own words, "I don't like it here." We had a pretty deep chat about politics and religion in the twenty minutes it took for us to get back, and he's just looking for a place he can migrate to where he can practice Islam without it being tainted by politics. Malaysia's on his mind right now, but he still needs to earn enough money. In his spare time, he reads very widely and he says that it's hard not to think about these political issues and things like poverty and oppression once you're aware of them.

One amusing thing I learnt from him though: the burgers and fries Americans eat everyday is SAD - Standard American Diet. He thinks Mexican food is the best thing that happened to the US.

We finally get back to Downtown. Personally, this is not the kind of day I envisioned myself spending in post-conference San Diego with too many touristy things done (three hours of shopping and three cab rides, but it was the girls' last day here before heading back to Singapore (and it made economic sense to share the cab between four of us), so the company was worth it over my selfish interests haha. I still have three more days at least to do what I want.

The girls wanted to take-away dinner and eat back at the hotel, so I headed off on my own and revisited Berkeley Pizza (above photo). I love their pizzas - it's so huge and thick (that's what she said)! This time I just got one $3.50 slice, no frills. Nice.

Back at the hostel, Greg was nowhere in sight, so I decided to pay the kitchen a visit, since they were providing free hotdogs and ice cream. It was nice because the other hostel-dwellers were there and I got to know a few people. There were three girls - Kim from Canada, Lisa from Germany and Natalie from Scotland - who got to know each other because they just happened to share a dorm. There was this dude, Julio, from Brazil who's here in San Diego on a clothing design assignment. And there are all these other guys who work for the hostel part-time so they get free lodging while in San Diego for all sorts of reasons.

I ended off the night on my first pub crawl overseas; these two very random pictures are all I have to show for it haha. It was supposed to be a whole hostel thing but because it was a Sunday night I guess bars close a little earlier and some people might have early morning plans, so in the end it was just Natalie, Lisa, Kim and me heading out.

I return to my dorm to find Greg back at the very same position I saw him earlier in the day, buried again in his PASW/SPSS work. Sleeping early tonight, just past midnight, so that I can have an early, full day tomorrow. I have Tijuana at the US-Mexico border lined up!

San Diego Day 3 28/01/2012

Kicking off my third day in San Diego and the final day of the conference with a last long walk down to the convention center. Along the way I passed this flea market, which mostly features food, fruits and vegetables. Couldn't see all of it as I was in a hurry to catch the talks. But regardless east or west, flea markets always have a universal appeal that attracts people to have a look.

Managed to meet one prospective mentor briefly during one of the talks, so this conference has had some direct payoff. Preferably would have liked to get in touch with more people but I'll take what I can.


This was my free catered lunch - some really crappy tasting grilled prawn sandwich. Still humungous at any rate. Spent the whole day at the convention centre, going through talks and posters and mingling with other SPSP attendees.


With nothing much to update on this last conference day, here's a photo of a very irrelevant banner that caught my attention because that twirly whirly design looks like a subliminal pair of boobs.


Newcastle Brown Ale - the beer that sponsored Newcastle in that awesome season that I fell in love with them. The Newcastle Brown Ale jersey was the best ever!

End of conference. Tomorrow my San Diego tour begins proper! The first thing I'm gonna do is check out of this comfortable room and go to a dorm instead where it's cheaper and I'll probably meet more people.

San Diego Day 2 27/01/2012

It's another very cheery looking day in San Diego, but my day pretty much began with a rant from the hostel's reception guy. I woke up sinfully at 2pm, so I was in a hurry to get to the convention center to attend some of the talks. On the way out, I passed the reception dude and he was being friendly (as most Americans I've come across appear to be) and asked where I was headed to. So I told him that I was going for the psychology conference at the convention center. That got him started, with him asking, "what are you gonna do with a psychology degree? It don't pay shit man."

I can't reproduce exactly the entire dialogue, but the idea is this. He thinks there is no market for psychology and, if there is, it's a retarded market that doesn't pay well. As I wasn't sure how much he knew about what falls under the huge blanket term of psychology, I told replied that it really depends. His misgivings soon made sense, or at least I could understand. He eventually revealed that his girlfriend is pursuing a Masters in marriage therapy and counseling. They're getting buried in debt from her school fees, since she goes to a private school, and he's very sure she's only capable of finding work that will pay $20-30k per year after she graduates. If she doesn't go into the marriage and counseling stuff, she won't be able to get a job because nobody hires psychologists, or at least what he thinks psychologists are, because "every idiot out on the street can be a psychologist." And she still expects him to pay for her daily stuff, so he's visibly stressed out and pissed off.

I tried to familiarise him with broader ideas of what psychology can be, although I didn't refute his notions of psychology because I can't disagree with him on the fate of his girlfriend's education and employment, and indeed yes, compared to many other jobs, psychology jobs generally aren't the highest paying of the lot. The US government typically associates psychology with health, and we know what sort of stance the US government has when it comes to providing funds for health. And, if I'm not wrong, I think it is true that many Americans see pursuing psychology as a backdoor career if you can't do anything else. In Singapore, on the other hand, relative to the US, people do not simply jump into a psychology-related career and spend years on it expecting little financial payoff - the norms tend not to guide thinking and behaviour in this manner. And for those who have prudently chosen to do psychology (I must emphasize once again that this is relative to the US), there are job opportunities that are adequately emphasized by the Singapore government, with particular focus on behaviourally driven research guiding the country's policies. Singapore's academic landscape is also relatively young and new universities can be expected to emerge, with opportunities for professors and lecturers.

I can sympathize with the dude though - with only his hostel reception job (I'm not sure if he owns or manages the hostel; I hope he does), his debts won't go away and his wife may not be able to help much, especially since "she'll probably wanna start a family and then we'll also have to buy stupid shit. This is why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, because the rich can get into good jobs and won't have to make stupid decisions like getting a job in some psychology thing. If Obama gets re-elected, we're all gonna be dead. This country is a stupid shithole!"


So, on that note, I took a pensive walk to the convention center (it's a 2-mile walk by the way - lots of good walking exercise everyday).


Eventually, I'm back at the convention centre. I attended a few very interesting talks, mostly evolution-oriented.

One looked at the typical psychological concept, Belief in God. The gist is that (if we are allowed to be scientific and amoral about it) God serves an adaptive societal function - it allows altruistic punishments to be meted out while minimizing the costs to the punisher. Because if let's say you were attempting to punish a transgressor, society will definitely benefit but you could incur a cost to yourself since attempts to punish a person can result in retaliation, or you might be seen as an overly aggressive, violent person, etc. So, in other words, societies create gods to outsource the costs of punishment to them, thereby reducing the cost and responsibilities of the persons or institutions dishing out the punishments. This talk also showed that Belief in God was insufficient as a psychological concept, because priming a Belief in God can sometimes lead to conflicting outcomes. Instead, God is in the details - whether people believe in a benevolent, loving God or a domineering, punishing God can lead to different outcomes. In a few creative behavioural studies, it was found that people cheated more when they were primed with ideas of a forgiving God than when they were primed with a punishing God. An analysis of 53 cultures with data on whether they believed in heaven or hell and their crime rates also showed that cultures that believe dominantly in heaven have higher crime rates than cultures that dominantly believe in hell. While certainly correlational, I'd say this finding is still pretty fascinating.

Sat through two other very interesting talks that touched on dopamine receptor dimorphism and serotonin transporter dimorphism, and their effects on prosocial behaviour and religion. But I shan't go through those haha.


I had an hour and a half to kill before Jolene presents her poster, so I decided to get some pizza (probably the cheapest meal you can get in the US). I went to this place called Berkeley Pizza and tried to order a slice and a beer (that's my almost-finished pizza and brown ale in the picture - forgot to take a shot before chowing down!). The cashier suggested that I take up the two slices and a beer offer instead. I decided against it, because (1) I only wanted to eat one slice, and (2) I was naturally assuming that, while I would be economically getting more for my money to take up the offer, the one slice and a beer combination should still be somewhat cheaper overall. I didn't check the prices. The guy said okay and served.

Guess what? One slice and a beer cost $9.50. Two slices and a beer? $8. What the? I guess the cashier must've thought I was a retard, since the deal was meant to make it a no-brainer that we should all get two slices instead of one. But, that simply leaves me to conclude logically that if I really wanted to only eat one slice and a beer, I should still have bought two slices and a beer anyway, and throw one slice away. Amerika!



Berkeley's Pizza was reeling Star Wars IV on DVD though, pretty awesome.

Went for Jolene's poster session, and mingled a lot with other people while checking out their posters. I came across quite a number of posters that focused on the relationship between women's alcohol consumption and their subsequent or associated lack of sexual inhibition. Turns out they were all from the same university. I tried to probe them on what they thought the implications of their studies might be. They all remained tight-lipped like some conspiracy was happening.

One study that stuck in my head was on achievement-oriented individuals and how success or failure in a task led to changes in their collective self-esteem. When achievement oriented people failed in a task, they were more likely to dislike their group and want to dissociate themselves from those they are associated with. On the other hand, success in a task didn't make them like their groups more, because they were already expected to succeed anyway. Competitive rats.


Had fried cod fish tacos for dinner at the Tin Fish. Really super, and that's a huge-ass taco in the photo! You probably can't tell, because the Pepsi next to it is colossal too.


A photo of a bustling Friday night in Gaslamp Quarter.



Making my way home past some dark alleys. That's a tent with a homeless man sleeping inside. I had earlier passed another homeless beggar who had a sign next to him that read, "SHE HAD A BETTER LAWYER."


Just two streets away from me - ELM STREET. Hahah.



Tried to Skype home to make my dad happy but it turned out to be a very failed attempt because, while I could hear him, he couldn't hear me at all for some reason. I ended up writing what I wanted to say on paper and flashing it to the camera. But he still looks happy enough so I guess I'm off the hook a little now for always not calling home. Good night!

San Diego Day 1 26/01/2012

I was all prepared to bear the wrath of a terrible jet-lag borne from 20 hours of traveling, but awesomely after a solid night of sleep it was gone. I was set to go at 10am today!

One night, and this is what a guy does to his room.

A view of my accommodation from the outside bathed in the light of day.



Sunny sunny San Diego, with it's cool breeze, is about a very comfortable 15 degrees Celsius in the day.

Psychic services just around the corner of my inn. Amerika!



Nothin' comes close to the Golden Coast!


I'm located right next to the inspiring waters. I need to go for a run here one of these days!


Just a submarine.


Just a ship turned into a museum.


Just some old school pirate-looking ship.





Found a place selling hotdogs. Did I mention that I love hotdogs covered with mustard and sprinkled generously with onions?!





That's just a miltary vessel with chinooks.


And just some fighter planes.



That's a giant statue replica of Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph of the soldier's kiss, showing a soldier passionately kissing a girl on the street when WWII was declared over.




Just a carousel. These shots above are shops and eateries at the Seaport Village along the harbour.


Just a frickin' horse.



As I walked along the port towards the San Diego Convention Center, this tiny blue tank-top jogger kept lingering nearby. So I conveniently snapped a shot of her.


Stairs leading up to the convention center.



Another view of the convention center.


I got worried for a moment that I was at the wrong conference!


After registering, I decided to take a walk around the historic Gaslamp Quarter while waiting for the conference poster sessions to start. The name "Gaslamp Quarter" is a reference to the gas lamps that were common in San Diego in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The place features nice cafes, shops and picturesque architecture.





Found this hostel. At US$22 for a shared dorm, it beats the usually very competitive Hostelling International, which offers US$28 for its cheapest room. I'm thinking of shifting to here after the conference ends on Saturday! Or maybe I'll just trek to some other part of San Diego and see what I can get.


Jacques Lelong is having a 50% off lelong.


Another photo of the trolley tracks, transporting those mini trains through the roads of the city.


Spotted a zeppelin in the sky, which can only mean more advertising going on. Amerika!


Moving barriers and traffic lights, specially made for guiding trolley/car traffic, prevent cars from crossing the tracks while the trolleys are passing.



This was a big-ass pizza slice for US$3. Keeping my meals cheap!



The lit sign actually says Dick's Last Resort. I must check this out one of these days before I leave Little Italy.



Looking ace. Ready to take it away for the poster!


Finally, I'm at the conference proper in the evening, and I'm presenting my poster on the first night! As my Nokia phone camera is not quite the DSLR, I enlisted Jolene's help in taking a picture of me next to my poster with her iPhone, so that one will have to wait. Meanwhile, here's a picture of my poster, made up of A3 sheets of paper, an upgrade from the cut-up A4 papers when I was at APS!


Just a picture showing that the dude next to me is old school, cool and uses A4 paper too.

His poster showed that when people (both men and women) are primed with "ideal models" - i.e. very attractive same-sex persons - they were more likely to buy image-enhancing products, like clothes, make up, etc. We chatted, and mused about our lousy poster location - a secluded corner that did not have good human traffic - and our unsexy poster titles. Mine was "The Effects of Birth Order on Social Group Formation"; his was terrible, something like "Alterations in Consumer Behavior Due to Ideal Model Exposure" (that's a lousy attempt on my part to recall his title but it's something as dry and unappealing as that).

While standing there waiting for people to come by and chat about the poster, I thought of a hook. Whenever somebody walked by and looked vaguely interested in reading the text on the poster, I'd smile at them and say, "are you a first-born?" It did not matter whether they were first-borns, later-borns or only children - asking them the question and getting a reply did the trick 100% of the time, making them to stop and find out more. Just another one of those typical psychological hacks that exploit human social behaviour. One curious girl exclaimed, "No! Why would you think I'm a first-born?" And I replied, "well, there are naturally more first-borns in the world, since first-borns would have to come first before later-borns, so I was just trying my luck with a reasonable statistical chance of success." She couldn't stop laughing for a whole minute LOL. And it was indeed true; most people I threw that question to replied affirmatively that they were indeed oldest children, and my seemingly 'amazing' ability to predict their first-bornness probably made it more interesting to them. Additionally, if the research confirming birth order effects is true, there should be more first borns in academia anyway because first borns are supposedly more intelligent, conscientious, introverted and conservative - traits required for and associated with pursuing an academic career.

So, by the end of the poster session, I'd spoken to about 15 people and gotten 8 emails (poor ideal models dude had 3), pretty decent! One reason why I don't like to print handouts is because it allows people to get away without leaving a contact. By getting people to leave their emails on the pretext that I would send them more details on the study, I can establish contact for further collaboration. Interestingly, a girl from MSNBC (who wasn't a psychology student or academic) came for the conference to get ideas for her various columns and stopped by to chat, and was keen to follow up on this birth order effects research. Some potential media exposure sounds just about nice and useful to me!

After the poster session, Jolene, Sharon and I went for the SPSP social night held at Tivoli, a bar at Sixth Avenue and Island Street. Laysee just concussed, falling victim to jetlag. Compared to APS's social night place (named something-Buffalo), Tivoli was crappy because it was small and very warm. But we tried to make as much of the night as possible happen, having good laughs and trying to get happily married Sharon, who claims she's left her drinking and smoking days behind, to drink more. San Diego is apparently famous for its India Pale Ales, but IPA tastes like sour piss to me. Their brown ales are really good though! We ended the night at an early 11.30pm, as jetlag started getting the better of Jolene and Sharon, and Sharon has a poster to present at 8.15am tomorrow anyway. As bad as I might feel about it, I'm sure I won't be up to support her haha.


Snapped this on the way home. This 7-11 looks like a resort. Bought myself some burritos to microwave. Yums!