The nice thing about Facebook

is I can hide all the posts of the idiots that I'm too polite to unfriend. Seriously, once upon a time if you found someone annoying you could avoid them. With social networking it seems like you can never get rid of anyone.

Student Logic

Yesterday I had to deal with two students who handed in the exact same lab report. The department has a very clear policy on the matter which they are informed about during the first lab.

The first argument was "I didn't know I couldn't copy off of him".

The second argument was "I did all the work so I should get full marks".

The third argument was "We live together and copying saved me a lot of time".

The argument degraded to "C'mon, you should give us a break".

I'm not sure how anyone of those arguments is supposed to help them. They fully admitted what happen but tried to justify it.

Simplification

For weeks, it has been bothering me how much stuff I have and have no place to put it. I'm partially frustrated because I have so few days where I feel good enough to do anything about it. The rest of the frustration comes from not knowing where to start. I know things could be much worse but I want everything I keep to have a place. I came across this article tonight that I think will be useful:

Deciding what to get rid of is hard, but it must be done.
Our teacher told us the story of a man she had helped on a big cleaning project. He was hanging on to things like a plastic bag from a bookstore in Paris that he felt reminded him of his college travels. The bag, he said, had a special place in his memory.
Fine, she said. Let's get a nice frame for it and hang it on the wall. The man looked at her like she was nuts. You don't frame and hang a plastic bag.
No? Well, let's take a picture of it, then frame that picture. Again, the man stared at her like she had lost it. It finally dawned on him that the bag wasn't the source of his memories, but merely a souvenir, and a junky one at that. Toss it, he said.
Our teacher recommended that we use this rule for each item that we hem and haw over:
1. Would you want to frame and display it?
• Yes = Keep.
• No = See step 2.
2. Would you want to take a picture of it?
• Yes = Take picture, get rid of item.
• No = Get rid of item.
If you can take a picture of something that you want to remember, but can't use, do so. Put it in an album with a label. But let it go if it's taking up too much space.

Behold, Betty White (with a special appearance by centaur John Ritter)

Two separate people today thought: "Hey, Janice is my source for Bea Arthur wrestling dinosaurs maybe she wants to branch out to other Golden Girls."

This week's Portland Mercury cover:

Inconsolable

I'm tired and I'm discouraged. Part of it is frustration from school. Part of it is feeling very unattractive. Part of it is feeling left behind and left out. Part of it is being frustrated that I'm sick so often. The worst of it is sometimes my best efforts aren't good enough. I need a good sleep. I don't know if it is all the anti-histamines I've been taking but I've had nightmares 3 nights in a row:

The first night, I dreamt I woke up and there was a child standing by my bed watching me sleep. In my dream I didn't believe it was actually happening so I forced myself awake.

The next night, I dreamt there was a dragon attacking my house. I was a hobbit and I ran down to my cellar to hide. There were all these other hobbits in my cellar and they appointed me king. As king, it was my job to get rid of the dragon. Just as I was going up the stairs of the cellar, the dragon came crashing into my house. His head got a little stuck in the cellar door so I cut off his hand and slashed his throat before he could get free. I then stabbed him in the heart to make sure he was dead. The cellar was filling up with his blood and we all ran towards the small window to escape. Then I woke up.

Last night I hiked to the top of a really steep hill. I was taking pictures and the hill started shaking. The hill was an active volcano that was starting to erupt. I ran down the hill as fast as I could. As I reached the bottom I turned around to watch lava start pouring down the sides. I wasn't watching where I was going and I tripped. Then I woke up.

Even though I woke up terrified, thinking about me being the dragon slaying king of the hobbits is making me laugh. You see this ridiculous brain I'm dealing with? If only I could get it to figure out how fast water is flowing between concentric pipes (AKA fluid mechanics question that made me cry).

Change

She started to cry to her mother as she read what she needed to do; each was completely unreasonable. As much as I hope that she will get better, I doubt she will. Any change you make in your life will not stick as long as crave how things used to be. When she becomes unsatisfied with her current state then she'll get better.

I don't make New Year's resolutions. If something in my life needs to be resolved why should I wait?
"One last time"
"One more week"
"I will when..."
You are only fooling yourself into thinking you are ready for the change. As long as you love what hurts you, you'll keep coming back.

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
- Mark Twain

You might think I'm being negative but I'm trying to say that people go about change in the wrong way. Some common mistakes:
- trying to change too many habits at one time
- no accountability or support system (trying to do it on their own)
- quitting after failure
- not recognizing habit triggers
- not planning for habit triggers
- not logging progress but rather dwelling on failure
- trying to "re-invent the wheel" (not doing their research before)
- replacing old habits with new good habits

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
- Jim Ryun

I forget sometimes that I used to bite my nails. My nails and cuticles were terrible looking. There were times I'd chew my nails until they'd bleed. I got to the point where I was truly disgusted with how my hands looked. Stopping was difficult since most of the time I wouldn't even realize that I was doing it. I didn't have any real success until I recognized the reasons why I bit my nails in the first place. If I caught myself biting my nails, I'd stop then think about the situation I was in and the reason why it was happening.

If you made New Year's Resolutions, think for a minute:
"Did I take on too much?"
"Did I prepare myself enough for these changes?"

Recognize that you are a human that makes mistakes and it will take some time before you can kick your old habits. Trying to think of slip ups as learning experiences ("How did I get to this point? What can I do next time?").

Putting the Fun in Dysfunction

In recent weeks, two people have blamed me for their problems. Both have a long history of dysfunction so I'm not sure why I, someone recently met, am the source. While resisting urge to sucker punch, a couple thoughts come to mind:

"When you blame others, you give up your power to change." ~Robert Anthony

And the classic folk song:

"Jolly Old Sigmund Freud" - Anna Russell

I went to my psychiatrist
To be psychoanalyzed
To find out why I killed the cat
And blacked my husband's eyes.
He laid me on a downy couch
To see what he could find,
So this is what he dredged up
From my subconscious mind:

Refrain:
Hey, libido,
Bats in the belfry,
Jolly Old Sigmund Freud.

When I was one, my mommy hid
My dolly in a trunk,
And so it follows naturally
That I am always drunk.
When I was two, I saw my father
Kiss the maid one day,
And that is why I suffer now
From kleptomania.
Refrain:

At three, I had the feeling of
Ambivilance towards my brothers,
And so it follows naturally
I poisoned all my lovers.
But I am happy; now I've learned
The lesson this has taught;
That everything I do that's wrong -
Is someone else's fault.
Refrain:

The Good in Everyone

I sort of feel stuck in the middle between two groups of people who don't like each other very much. From my point of view, it is a long history of hurt feelings, not admitting fault, foolish pride and all that fun stuff. Neither party is a bad as the other one claims and both parties are to blame for the state of affairs.

I was listening to my IPod as I rode the bus home when the song by Sloan "The Good in Everyone" came on. A thought popped into my head "If you look hard enough you can see the good in everyone. Also if you look hard enough you can find fault in everyone." Made me really think about how I see the people around me. Am I looking for their faults? Am I waiting for them to fail?

Edgar Wright Here

I came across Edgar Wright's blog Edgar Wright Here. Thought all the fanboys and fangirls may want to know

Not being heard

It is extremely frustrating to have something to say and
- you aren't given a chance to speak
- you speak and it was completely disregarded

In the first case, I feel like may I am trying to talk to people that are so concerned about getting their own point across that they don't even notice that others are trying to speak. I'm not the type of person to interrupt when someone else is talking. If I know someone else has something to say or notice that they were interrupted, I try to make sure they are given a chance to speak. One rare occasion I do get to speak, often try to interrupt and if I do not stop talking they just start talking "over top of me". It is totally bizarre.

In a linguistics class I took, we learned that the amount how much time a person talks in a group shows how much power they have in the group.* Are others around me not willing to give me the power to speak? Are they not willing to give up their own power? Are they not willing to recognize me as having something meaningful to say? This might sound strange to people who have known me for my whole life that I am going through this.** Once after admitting I maybe overly assertive, my grade 10 English teacher told me that was grossly understated. How can the overly assertive compete with the hyper-aggressive?

In the second case, it is a really a problem with one person who often asks for help and has difficulty hearing "no". You know when telemarketers call you house and keep on talking even after you say you aren't interested? Imagine if those telemarketers came into your home everyday, followed you around bugging you. This is a little bit how I feel on a daily basis.

Not meaning to be ranty but these things have been bugging me for a long while. Today I a had a little bit of validation from a causal observer that had noticed the on-going pattern. At least I don't think the problem is all in my head...


*It doesn't necessarily mean that if you talk the most you have the most power in the group, silence can show authority.
** Certainly not sound like the girl who made a peeping tom cry.

Mutualism

I've spent 10-14 hours each day this week in class or on assignments. What do I not want to hear as my work is past due? I don't manage my time properly. Let me lay out my week for you:

Monday - 1 assignment due, prepare handout for work
Thursday - 1 assignment due, 2 labs due, prepare handout for work
Friday - 2 assignments due, prepare handout for work

Not managing my time properly and not having a enough time are entirely different. I was told my problem is I help people with their work (hypocritical statement coming from the person who asks me the most questions). Group dynamic amongst the physics students: I help others and others help me. Yes, I spent time helping others but how much time did I save by getting help from others?

Breaking Hearts and Pushing Carts

Tonight I busted a shoplifter at Walmart. So why was I suspicious?

Out of place object or person
Man appeared to be homeless -- did not look like he had bathed in a very long time.


Unexpected behaviour
Man was kneeling in a very close to a wall and had taken three shirts off the hanger. One was bunched up in his hand as he looked at the others carefully -- he did not look like the comparison shopper type.


Gut feeling
I know guilty behaviour when I see it. As my sister and I walked by, he kept on looking over his shoulder at us with a panicked look on his face. When I first saw him he looked like he was trying to tuck the bunched up shirt under his own shirt.

As I left the store I told an employee what we say. He grabbed a co-worker and they went to the men's section. As we were walking out the door, the co-worker was calling for the manager over the intercom.

Part 2: Wall may move ahead of public opinion on nuclear reactor

I said there would be more later...
I see both sides of the issue. Yes, SK needs a way to reduce CO2 emissions, there is a present need for medical isotopes and SK’s power needs will soon not be met by the current output capacity. This a case of an uninformed decision on part of the government. First, there is no possible way that a nuclear reactor could be operational in three years, as the government hopes. Usual time line suggest it be closer to 10 to 15 years. Second, the problem with shortage of medical isotopes is not a case of a shortage of reactors but a shortage of processing facilities.

It's the production facilities that we use when we take those targets out of the reactor and process them to remove the medically useful isotopes -- that capacity around the world is very limited. So we don't need necessarily to build any more reactors; we need to build those processing facilities."
The president of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, Dr. Robert Atcher on Canada AM.

The Saskatchewan government is not making a decision based on facts and that is what bothers me.

Wall may move ahead of public opinion on nuclear reactor

Wall may move ahead of public opinion on nuclear reactor - CBC News Online, Last Updated: Monday, June 22, 2009


At this point I'm neither for nor against nuclear power in our province but this really burns me up. The government is going against its own committee's recommendations to wait and it is not done its public consultation sessions. Reading the UDP report (warning opens a pdf file), I get the distinct impression the main reason the government are purely economical.

You will be hearing more about this from me...


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PSYCH 101

One of my greatest pet peeves are people who have taken a psychology class who know think they are experts at diagnosis. A couple examples:

• I overheard a girl telling her friend that he had Asperger syndrome because he doesn't like small talk. Idiot. Asperger syndrome is difficult to diagnosis even by professionals and is also characterised by physical clumsiness. Considering that this guy is a lifeguard and avid bike rider it is highly doubtful.


• My grade 9 English teacher took me aside because she was concerned I had a drug problem. A 14 year old girl with well-behaved friends, good marks and a well kept appearance having problems staying awake in class. Doesn't that scream drug fiend? As a teacher I would have loved if my students would finish their work early and the room was so quiet they fell asleep.
  


• Don't get me started on people diagnosing ADD, ADHD and OCD.
  

Mr T Elbow Drops a Bee

Pride Comes Before the Fall

"You want to know my philosophy? One day a peacock. The next day a feather duster."
PAT QUINN, the governor of Illinois, on his turn in the spotlight.

I'm that good...

Yesterday I busted my brother for cheating on a high school calculus test 8 years ago:



I admit that catching it after he finished university defeats the purpose but in my defense I didn't even live in the same city as him at the time.

Carol, you're pants are ready

Marilyn called to let you know. Since I do not know either of you, I hope you get this message.

Walker, Texas Ranger Commerical Transcript

Announcer: "Walker, Texas Ranger, serving up justice on DVD..."
Chuck Norris: "He deserves a beating"
Random Dude: "He sure does"
[Round house kick]
[Explosion]
Announcer: "...one fist at a time."
[Jumping from moving helicopter and tackling dude]
Chuck Norris: "You're under arrest."
[Explosion]
Announcer: "With all 23 action pact episodes."
Black Texas Ranger: "Maybe we should call for back up."
[Round house kick]
[Double ear slap]
[Quickdraw]
[Kick a dude through a window]
Chuck Norris: "Why?"