Me: "Why are they so fond of big words?! Why not use simple words like 'front' and 'back'?"
Dad: "You're going into a scientific field, what did you expect?"
Later
Dad: "At least you'll know all these big words and when people talk to you they'll say 'You're so smart!'....while staring at your dragon necklace"
Me: "But that's the fun part, people are so easy to confuse!"
Dad: "You like confusing people...?"
Me: "Of course! That's why psychology is so much fun!"
Dad rolls his eyes and walks away shaking his head.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Reasons I Love the 21st Century
1. Air Conditioning - can't imagine living in Florida without it...
2. Telephone - much as I dislike using it most of the time, it's a fantastic invention...and under telephone falls cellphone with all it's wonderful gadgets.
3. GPS - never get lost, or if you do, you have a convenient thing to blame it on. Men get thier toys, and get away with never asking for directions!
4. Computers - and all the lovely stuff you can do on it. Wordprocessing, games, pictures, the list goes on...
5. Internet - the world wide web...do I need to elaborate more? Information at my fingertips.
6. Electricity - without which none of the above would be possible.
7. Ipods/MP3 players - now you can have your own soundtrack through life
8. Planes - can go around the world in WAY less than 80 days
9. Digital Cameras - makes even an amateurs pictures look good!
10. And the myriad other things that make our lives so much easier...too many to list!
2. Telephone - much as I dislike using it most of the time, it's a fantastic invention...and under telephone falls cellphone with all it's wonderful gadgets.
3. GPS - never get lost, or if you do, you have a convenient thing to blame it on. Men get thier toys, and get away with never asking for directions!
4. Computers - and all the lovely stuff you can do on it. Wordprocessing, games, pictures, the list goes on...
5. Internet - the world wide web...do I need to elaborate more? Information at my fingertips.
6. Electricity - without which none of the above would be possible.
7. Ipods/MP3 players - now you can have your own soundtrack through life
8. Planes - can go around the world in WAY less than 80 days
9. Digital Cameras - makes even an amateurs pictures look good!
10. And the myriad other things that make our lives so much easier...too many to list!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
I won't grow up!
I saw this comic on XKCD, and it really struck a chord. When exactly did I grow up? When did I become an adult and (supposedly) capable of making my own decisons? At what point does one turn from a "kid" to an "adult"? And do we ever really grow up?
Monday, October 19, 2009
Classes
I don't think I really did a post on when this semester started, which is what I usually do. Cover what classes I'll be taking, which I think I'll love, which I think I won't be so fond of. Alright, the semester is already half over, but why not do that post now? I'm taking five classes, all of which are psychology related classes. This should, technically, make me very happy, right?
Wrong.
My first class is Biological Basis of Behavior, and everytime I go to this class I am reminded why I tended to skip anatomy in High School, and why I will never ever follow in my father's footsteps. It falls under WAAAAY too much information, and is (in my opinion anyways) too fond of big words for its own good.
My next class is Fractals in Psychology. The title is a bit misleading...what it boils down to is trying to convince a bunch of psych majors that "math is fun! and pretty!" At this point, I'm convinced that mathematicians are more than a bit crazy. Considering my college algebra teacher had a tendency to refer to problems as being "adorable" and "cute", and this teacher says "look at how pretty it turns out!" would you really argue with me? On the other hand, at least he tries to make it entertaining. Such as creating a hypercube ( a 4-D cube) from whatever you can find lying around at your house.
Class after that is the one I like the most. Social Psych, which has always fascinated me, as well as making the most sense to me. While I'm not into researching myself, the research that comes from this area of psych is pretty interesting stuff, all about how relate in our social settings, and how our cultures and environment effect us more than we think.
Second to last class, is probably my least favorite, if not actually tied with my last class. Billed as "Evolution and Animal Behavior" I was sold on it by the "animal behavior" bit. O'course, when I went to the class I was in for a bit of a surprise....we were gonna be learning Darwin...doing almost as close as we could be to meeting the man, we would be reading his biography, autobiography, and his most well-known work, "On the Origin of Species". Which currently, I have to read a chapter a week of and then come up with questions on it. And he is NOT an easy read, despite what my teacher seems to think. Plus I happen to completely disagree with one main part of his theory and have to sit through a 3 hour long class of people who agree with it...It's my once a week torture session.
The last class, which I hate almost as much as Darwin, is my Research Methods class. Now, I'm not going into the research side of psychology, however, the college I'm currently at only has a research psych graduate program, so that's what a lot of their classes focus on. So, like it or not, I have to write a research paper. Fortunately not expected to conduct a whole experiment myself, but I think I may have to do that before I can my B.A. And I'm a wee bit behind on it.
Well, that's it. All five classes. Thank goodness the semester is halfway over. Just need to survive the rest of it.
Wrong.
My first class is Biological Basis of Behavior, and everytime I go to this class I am reminded why I tended to skip anatomy in High School, and why I will never ever follow in my father's footsteps. It falls under WAAAAY too much information, and is (in my opinion anyways) too fond of big words for its own good.
My next class is Fractals in Psychology. The title is a bit misleading...what it boils down to is trying to convince a bunch of psych majors that "math is fun! and pretty!" At this point, I'm convinced that mathematicians are more than a bit crazy. Considering my college algebra teacher had a tendency to refer to problems as being "adorable" and "cute", and this teacher says "look at how pretty it turns out!" would you really argue with me? On the other hand, at least he tries to make it entertaining. Such as creating a hypercube ( a 4-D cube) from whatever you can find lying around at your house.
Class after that is the one I like the most. Social Psych, which has always fascinated me, as well as making the most sense to me. While I'm not into researching myself, the research that comes from this area of psych is pretty interesting stuff, all about how relate in our social settings, and how our cultures and environment effect us more than we think.
Second to last class, is probably my least favorite, if not actually tied with my last class. Billed as "Evolution and Animal Behavior" I was sold on it by the "animal behavior" bit. O'course, when I went to the class I was in for a bit of a surprise....we were gonna be learning Darwin...doing almost as close as we could be to meeting the man, we would be reading his biography, autobiography, and his most well-known work, "On the Origin of Species". Which currently, I have to read a chapter a week of and then come up with questions on it. And he is NOT an easy read, despite what my teacher seems to think. Plus I happen to completely disagree with one main part of his theory and have to sit through a 3 hour long class of people who agree with it...It's my once a week torture session.
The last class, which I hate almost as much as Darwin, is my Research Methods class. Now, I'm not going into the research side of psychology, however, the college I'm currently at only has a research psych graduate program, so that's what a lot of their classes focus on. So, like it or not, I have to write a research paper. Fortunately not expected to conduct a whole experiment myself, but I think I may have to do that before I can my B.A. And I'm a wee bit behind on it.
Well, that's it. All five classes. Thank goodness the semester is halfway over. Just need to survive the rest of it.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Right Name...Wrong Person
I was out walking Mariner tonight and a van pulls up next to me, a Jewish man is driving it, and he has two little boys inside his car.
"Excuse me, are you Mak?"
"Yeah..." I'm a little puzzled, since I've never seen this guy before.
"Oh, I'm CB, I've been getting your invitations all summer."
"OHHHHH"
See, my step-father has the exact same name as this guy. And to make matters worse, this guy also lives RIGHT around the corner from us. So apparently when people were calling to find my address, they gave my step-father's name. I had honestly been wondering why I hadn;t gotten some of those invitations (and I went to the weddings anyway) but I guess that would explain it.
So, now when I'm missing an invite, I know where to look...either at this guy's house...or my next door neighbor.
"Excuse me, are you Mak?"
"Yeah..." I'm a little puzzled, since I've never seen this guy before.
"Oh, I'm CB, I've been getting your invitations all summer."
"OHHHHH"
See, my step-father has the exact same name as this guy. And to make matters worse, this guy also lives RIGHT around the corner from us. So apparently when people were calling to find my address, they gave my step-father's name. I had honestly been wondering why I hadn;t gotten some of those invitations (and I went to the weddings anyway) but I guess that would explain it.
So, now when I'm missing an invite, I know where to look...either at this guy's house...or my next door neighbor.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
A Walk-y
"Hey Mariner, wanna go for a walk-y?"
Mariner pauses in his barking and starts bouncing around. I grab his leash and harness.
"Sit!" I snap my fingers at him, trying to get his attention. He lies down.
"That's not sitting...but ok."
*baaaarp* he burps.
I laugh, put on his harness and take him outside. He does his business, then decides to get playful and grabs his leash in his mouth. After a brief tug-of-war, I manage to get him back inside, where I take off his harness and leash, (so he doesn't eat through his 5th harness, how he manages to do that, WHILE he's wearing it, I have no idea, but it's getting ridiculous). He goes back to barking at something in the backyard.
Mariner pauses in his barking and starts bouncing around. I grab his leash and harness.
"Sit!" I snap my fingers at him, trying to get his attention. He lies down.
"That's not sitting...but ok."
*baaaarp* he burps.
I laugh, put on his harness and take him outside. He does his business, then decides to get playful and grabs his leash in his mouth. After a brief tug-of-war, I manage to get him back inside, where I take off his harness and leash, (so he doesn't eat through his 5th harness, how he manages to do that, WHILE he's wearing it, I have no idea, but it's getting ridiculous). He goes back to barking at something in the backyard.
What if people treated cars like computers?
General Motors doesn't have a help line for people who don't know how to drive, because people don't treat cars like they do computers. But, imagine if they did....
Help Line: "General Motors Help Line, how can I help you?"
Customer: "I got in my car and closed the door and nothing happened!"
HelpLine: "Did you put the key in the ignition slot and turn it?"
Customer: "What's an ignition?"
HelpLine: "It's a starter motor that draws current from your battery and turns over the engine."
Customer: "Ignition? Motor? Battery? Engine? How come I have to know all these technical terms just to use my car?"
HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"
Customer: "My car ran fine for a week and now it won't go anywhere!"
HelpLine: "Is the gas tank empty?"
Customer: "Huh? How do I know?"
HelpLine: "There's a little gauge on the front panel with a needle and markings from 'E' to 'F'. Where is the needle pointing?"
Customer: "It's pointing to 'E'. What does that mean?"
HelpLine: "It means you have to visit a gasoline vendor and purchase some more gasoline. You can install it yourself or paythe vendor to install it for you."
Customer: "What? I paid $12,000 for this car! Now you tell me that I have to keep buying more components? I want a car that comes with everything built in!"
HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"
Customer: "Your cars suck!"
HelpLine: "What's wrong?"
Customer: "It crashed, that's what wrong!"
HelpLine: "What were you doing?"
Customer: "I wanted it to run faster, so I pushed the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor. It worked for a while and then it crashed and it won't start now!"
HelpLine: "It's your responsibility if you misuse the product. What do you expect us to do about it?"
Customer: "I want you to send me the latest version that doesn't crash any more!"
HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"
Customer: "Hi, I just bought my first car, and I chose your car because it has automatic transmission, cruise control, power steering, power brakes, and power door locks."
HelpLine: "Thanks for buying our car. How can I help you?"
Customer: "How do I work it?"
HelpLine: "Do you know how to drive?"
Customer: "Do I know how to what?"
HelpLine: "Do you know how to drive?"
Customer: "I'm not a technical person. I just want to go places in my car!"
Help Line: "General Motors Help Line, how can I help you?"
Customer: "I got in my car and closed the door and nothing happened!"
HelpLine: "Did you put the key in the ignition slot and turn it?"
Customer: "What's an ignition?"
HelpLine: "It's a starter motor that draws current from your battery and turns over the engine."
Customer: "Ignition? Motor? Battery? Engine? How come I have to know all these technical terms just to use my car?"
HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"
Customer: "My car ran fine for a week and now it won't go anywhere!"
HelpLine: "Is the gas tank empty?"
Customer: "Huh? How do I know?"
HelpLine: "There's a little gauge on the front panel with a needle and markings from 'E' to 'F'. Where is the needle pointing?"
Customer: "It's pointing to 'E'. What does that mean?"
HelpLine: "It means you have to visit a gasoline vendor and purchase some more gasoline. You can install it yourself or paythe vendor to install it for you."
Customer: "What? I paid $12,000 for this car! Now you tell me that I have to keep buying more components? I want a car that comes with everything built in!"
HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"
Customer: "Your cars suck!"
HelpLine: "What's wrong?"
Customer: "It crashed, that's what wrong!"
HelpLine: "What were you doing?"
Customer: "I wanted it to run faster, so I pushed the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor. It worked for a while and then it crashed and it won't start now!"
HelpLine: "It's your responsibility if you misuse the product. What do you expect us to do about it?"
Customer: "I want you to send me the latest version that doesn't crash any more!"
HelpLine: "General Motors HelpLine, how can I help you?"
Customer: "Hi, I just bought my first car, and I chose your car because it has automatic transmission, cruise control, power steering, power brakes, and power door locks."
HelpLine: "Thanks for buying our car. How can I help you?"
Customer: "How do I work it?"
HelpLine: "Do you know how to drive?"
Customer: "Do I know how to what?"
HelpLine: "Do you know how to drive?"
Customer: "I'm not a technical person. I just want to go places in my car!"
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