Monday, November 03, 2008
1st November 2008
Things have improved since I dropped my hard drive. No, I am still as clumsy as ever, and my hard drive issue had yet to be resolved. But at least now I don’t feel as sad as I was a few days back. See, the good thing is, I get over stuff quite easily, which is good and bad at the same time. I learn things the hard way haha…and I sometimes, NEVER LEARN~! But I am really glad to learn that I have friends who understand and are forgiving. I mean, they are people who know who I am and accept me for being me, though of course they would hope that I change my ways a little too.
Anyway why am I so estatic and happy lately? Well I got to go to the set of Latte@8 at Starbucks Sunway Pyramid last Friday and I got to meet Jason LO!!!!!!! (Will post the photos soon maybe on Facebook) He’s like my fave local artist and though I’ve met him once before, it’s just great to be able to see him live on set. Plus it is a bonus to get to see how a live show is conducted. Basically, it is not much different from what we see on TV, but then of course you get to see the various camera positions, the lighting and the crew members involved in it. It actually reminds me a bit of my internship shooting, just that that was a movie production and is not live.
College has been as slow as ever. The 5 hours of classes per week is not fun at all. I guess all of us missed the multiple hours spent together last time. I’ve been so desperate that I’ve actually visited the library a couple of times this semester. Believe me, it’s desperation in search of activities to fill time (especially when you’re broke). See, I never go to the library – yes, very sad indeed but that’s a different story. Lately, I actually would walk all the way to the college library in search of books. Usually, I am so unmotivated to read because it is so hard to find good books that have a magnetic function but thank God my previous few visits to the library were fruitful.
I’ve just finished “Profiles in Murder”, which is a fantastic book about criminal minds. The interesting part is all the crimes in the book are true stories told by a former FBI agent, Russell Vorpagel, who pioneered the Behavioral Science Unit. Now if you actually watch the TV series “Criminal Minds” (starring my fave Matthew Gray Gubbler) then you would actually have an idea of what this Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI is all about. In the show, the department is known as Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). I’m a huge fan of the TV series (it's on 8TV) because I enjoy crime solving shows and therefore this book really appeals to me. It’s like translating the show into reality because the stories in the book are real.
BSU or now known as BAU is a department that deals mostly with psychotic criminals and they do profiling of potential murderers. It involves studying crime scenes and clues and then trying to solve the murder by producing a list of personalities or characteristics of a potential murderer. Of course, they not only solve murder case, sometimes they are involved with rape cases as well as prevention of murder. These agents delve into the minds of the criminals, trying to understand why they do certain murder. You’d find the craziest and insane true murder stories in this book. Believe it, there are really some disturbed people out there. They are just ruthless and cruel, but mentally unfit. Sometimes, as much as you want them punished in hell, you really don’t know if you can blame them.
Wikipedia's definition: "The mission of the BAU is to provide behavioral based investigative and/or operational support by applying case experience, research, and training to complex and time-sensitive crimes, typically involving acts or threats of violence. The program areas addressed include Crimes Against Children, Crimes Against Adults, Communicated Threats, Corruption, and Bombing and Arson Investigations."
There were a few memorable cases, but it would be difficult to tell them in details here. One involved a guy who kills just so he can feed on human blood because he thinks that his blood is intoxicated and he needs fresh blood to survive. Then there is one about a guy who sodomises little boys and then in the end his fantasies with little boys drew him to murder.
The most insane thing that I’ve learned in this book is autoerotic deaths. Autoerotic means sexual feelings or gratification self-induced without having sexual relations with another human. It can be categorized into dangerous and nondangerous. The nondangerous type is familiar among us la – pornography, masturbation etc. But it’s the dangerous types that stunned me. The dangerous types involves inflicting tortures on oneselve to get the sensation – like hanging oneself to get the suffocating sensation or stiffing carbon monoxide.
This is one interesting and ghory case in the book. It’s about a male victim seated on his chair and in shorts and socks. He had his 2 fingers and an ear cut off. His penis was on the floor and scrotum in his mouth. Looking at the scene, authorities would definitely suspect foul play = murder. However it turns out to be an accidental death. What led Vorpagel to think that it was an accident was because this man was wearing his shorts. According to Vorpagel (the agent), it is uncommon for killers to put the victim’s shorts back on. An autopsy was run and it revealed that the fingers and the ear were in the man’s stomach and also drugs. This man is into autoerotic behaviour – which explains everything.
Another interesting part of the book is how the agent uses clues in the crime scene to determine whether the case is an accident, murder or suicide. Sometimes, some scenarios may look like suicides but are actually accidents. Some looks like accidents but could be murder etc. The case above was an example of how sometimes crime scenes can be misleading and we cannot judge a crime scene just by looking at it. We have to go deeper and think. Why does it matter you ask? Apparently it does because if it is suicide, the insurance company doesn’t pay. So usually the insurance company will try to push that the incident is suicide. Also if it is suicide, the family members usually feel tremendous amount of guilt and pain. They usually would blame themselves.
Vorpagel’s motive of writing this book is to get people to train coroners and authorities involved in crime scenes (Police officers etc). According to him, a stylist goes through more training than coroners or law enforcement personnels. Some coroners mistaken small animals as babies, pronounce homicides as suicides. To him, if they are not properly trained, crimes cannot be accurately solved. I think it’s so true. I mean, after reading this book, you just feel that investigating a crime scene is just not as simple as it looks. We really need trained, professional people with logic and brains in the field in order to correctly decipher the happenings of the crime. The book is a really good read and if you are a TARCIAN you can borrow it from the library haha. I’ll return it soon.
Anywayz that's all for now...gonna post about a few movies i've watched in the next installment
take carezzz....
With lotsa love & hugs,
tammy the awesomist...
;)
With Lots of Love & Hugs & Kisses & Chris Richardson's scent from BabyT ;
