Berkeley Blog: Warm, Amnesic, Smelly Chicken Underpants
Warm Underpants:
I love having a dryer. Every morning while in the shower, I put the clothes I'm gonna wear in the dryer for a few minutes. Warm clothes against my skin and no wrinkles on my clothes equals happiness. My brother used to do this every morning too. He said a nice warm pair of underpants was like a cup of coffee in the morning. Hello! The sun was out this morning. Sometimes I think of the song famous song "Tomorrow" and the part that goes "The sun will come out, tomorrow!" whenever the sun shines after a rainy day. The last time I heard that song was a few months ago sung by comdian Louis C.K on Conan O'Brien's show. It was a hilarious bit.
Smells, Sounds and Sights:
While on the way to campus on the train, I could smell my backapck. I put two chicken wraps in there and the smell was potent. Which means everyone on the train could smell it too. I swear I wasn't smuggling anything! At school I could hear the streams rushing for the first time. That was a pleasant noise while I waited for my first class to start. Later, I heard the Berkeley choir practicing. One of their tenors was having trouble blending I think. They were singing "Emotions" by Maria Carey and it didn't sound very good. It brought me back to my high school choir days and the anxiety of trying to hit the right notes while going through puberty. The Berkeley choir started singing the theme song to Super Mario Bros and that made things better and put a smile on my face.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrJEFrth27Q[/youtube]
Near campus, I saw a guy jogging who clearly needed a sports bra. He wasn't terribly overweight but his breasts seemed large. It reminded me of the neighbor kid I used to live next to. Many years ago, this kid waltzed in to my apartment when my door was open and showed me his tits. He was going through puberty and he was concerned that his changing body would remain "girly". I'm not an expert at such things, but considering he didn't have a father at home, I felt it was my reponsbility to tell the kid "not to worry" and "your tits will not be big forever." I didn't realize how big they were until the day he bear hugged me while I was walking to my apartment. He was in tears after nearly burning down his apartment, crying and fearing that his mom was gonna kill him and all I could think about was: "damn those are big!"
Book Learnin'
In Cognitive Psychology we learned a little about amnesia. Retrograde and antegrade types. We discussed a bit of the film Memento as well as some real cases of short-term memory loss. The class seemed more focused on the IMDB Memento page than on the lecture after that. Interestingly, those without the ability to form new, explicit memories still can remember new things like how to play the piano or trace a picture. When doing these acts they have no conscious recollection of practicing and have no idea how the are good at them. This suggests that some parts of memory are unconscious and implicit, and that our senses: sounds, feeling, emotions, etc have the ability to bypass the main conscious memory systems in the brain like the hippocampus and temporal lobes.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vS0E9bBSL0[/youtube]
In Stigma and Prejudice, the lecture focused on "priming" which is the notion that ideas that have been recently encountered or frequently activated are more likely to come to mind. For instance, in one study, one group was shown five words that described a selfish person and the other group was shown five words that represented a successful person. Both groups then read the exact same story about a man's life and were asked if they liked the person in the story or not. Those that were primed with the selfish words did not, but those that were primed with the successful words, did. Other similar research shows the same types of "priming" occurs in the media especially with racial issues. The other part of the lecture was about "racial preference" as showcased in a Dateline video.
In the Mental Illness Focus Group, the facilitator set up interactive playstations showcasing each condition of depression. At the binge eating station, she asked us to eat 3 cups of popcorn in 30 seconds. I refused on the basis that 10 years working for movie chain has turned me against popcorn. At another stage, she asked us to stare into a light bulb to produce a sensitivity to light. At another stage a fellow student held my legs back as I tried to walk forward in an effort to reproduce the effect of "walking in molasses". At another station, while one student did a math puzzle, another student loudly shook a tub with keys inside of it. I think this was done to mimic lack of concentration. I didn't like this test, my sensitive ears made the rest of my body sweat. I'm not sure how scienfitic these stations were but I think children would find these games entertaining.
I love having a dryer. Every morning while in the shower, I put the clothes I'm gonna wear in the dryer for a few minutes. Warm clothes against my skin and no wrinkles on my clothes equals happiness. My brother used to do this every morning too. He said a nice warm pair of underpants was like a cup of coffee in the morning. Hello! The sun was out this morning. Sometimes I think of the song famous song "Tomorrow" and the part that goes "The sun will come out, tomorrow!" whenever the sun shines after a rainy day. The last time I heard that song was a few months ago sung by comdian Louis C.K on Conan O'Brien's show. It was a hilarious bit.
Smells, Sounds and Sights:
While on the way to campus on the train, I could smell my backapck. I put two chicken wraps in there and the smell was potent. Which means everyone on the train could smell it too. I swear I wasn't smuggling anything! At school I could hear the streams rushing for the first time. That was a pleasant noise while I waited for my first class to start. Later, I heard the Berkeley choir practicing. One of their tenors was having trouble blending I think. They were singing "Emotions" by Maria Carey and it didn't sound very good. It brought me back to my high school choir days and the anxiety of trying to hit the right notes while going through puberty. The Berkeley choir started singing the theme song to Super Mario Bros and that made things better and put a smile on my face.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrJEFrth27Q[/youtube]
Near campus, I saw a guy jogging who clearly needed a sports bra. He wasn't terribly overweight but his breasts seemed large. It reminded me of the neighbor kid I used to live next to. Many years ago, this kid waltzed in to my apartment when my door was open and showed me his tits. He was going through puberty and he was concerned that his changing body would remain "girly". I'm not an expert at such things, but considering he didn't have a father at home, I felt it was my reponsbility to tell the kid "not to worry" and "your tits will not be big forever." I didn't realize how big they were until the day he bear hugged me while I was walking to my apartment. He was in tears after nearly burning down his apartment, crying and fearing that his mom was gonna kill him and all I could think about was: "damn those are big!"
Book Learnin'
In Cognitive Psychology we learned a little about amnesia. Retrograde and antegrade types. We discussed a bit of the film Memento as well as some real cases of short-term memory loss. The class seemed more focused on the IMDB Memento page than on the lecture after that. Interestingly, those without the ability to form new, explicit memories still can remember new things like how to play the piano or trace a picture. When doing these acts they have no conscious recollection of practicing and have no idea how the are good at them. This suggests that some parts of memory are unconscious and implicit, and that our senses: sounds, feeling, emotions, etc have the ability to bypass the main conscious memory systems in the brain like the hippocampus and temporal lobes.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vS0E9bBSL0[/youtube]
In Stigma and Prejudice, the lecture focused on "priming" which is the notion that ideas that have been recently encountered or frequently activated are more likely to come to mind. For instance, in one study, one group was shown five words that described a selfish person and the other group was shown five words that represented a successful person. Both groups then read the exact same story about a man's life and were asked if they liked the person in the story or not. Those that were primed with the selfish words did not, but those that were primed with the successful words, did. Other similar research shows the same types of "priming" occurs in the media especially with racial issues. The other part of the lecture was about "racial preference" as showcased in a Dateline video.
In the Mental Illness Focus Group, the facilitator set up interactive playstations showcasing each condition of depression. At the binge eating station, she asked us to eat 3 cups of popcorn in 30 seconds. I refused on the basis that 10 years working for movie chain has turned me against popcorn. At another stage, she asked us to stare into a light bulb to produce a sensitivity to light. At another stage a fellow student held my legs back as I tried to walk forward in an effort to reproduce the effect of "walking in molasses". At another station, while one student did a math puzzle, another student loudly shook a tub with keys inside of it. I think this was done to mimic lack of concentration. I didn't like this test, my sensitive ears made the rest of my body sweat. I'm not sure how scienfitic these stations were but I think children would find these games entertaining.
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