Experiment...

I was bored today. So I decided to do an experiment of sorts - I would test out my hypothesis on my friends (well, the ones that were on skype at the time - yes this is a convienince sample. Thank you AP stats).

I wanted to find out if people with different career paths thought differently. So I presented each of them with a set of silly questions designed to produce some sort of creative thinking. Since this is not an actual experiement, you will see my answers too. That's legal. It's my experiment.

Okay, first, a little background. I interviewed four people (myself included).

I asked them what their dream job would be. Our answers were, in no particular order (to protect Joanna's identity... oh damn... :)) are mechanical engineer, magazine editor, pediatric occupational therapist (OT), and manager of a non-profit which will help to educate the less fortunate by building schools, providing books, and training teachers. For easy reading, their answers will be color coded.

Here are our majors. All of us are either freshmen or sophmores in college, having graduated together in 2009. Engineering, new media publishing, occupational science, and english/soon to be switched to international studies.

So already some differences have become clear. The english major is more wordy with her answers. Just wait until you see the real questions. :)

Question 1: If you were a cannibal, what would you wear to dinner?
Answers:
A big bulky parka so none of my fellow diners look at me for dessert.
Something nice to attract my dinner.
Clothing. But that wouldn't be an issue because I would pretty much kill myself before I resorted to cannibalism.
My normal clothes.
Analysis: First, notice how the english/international studies major is not only the wordiest, but also the only one who mentions the amorality of cannibalism. The engineering major seems to be focused on solving the problem (aka securing the food), while the future OT is focused on the results/consequences. Unfortunately, the future magazine editor does not offer much data on this question, as she seems relatively unfazed by the question.

Question 2: Why is it that if someone told you there are a billion stars, you would believe him, but if someone told you there was wet paint on the wall, you would have to touch it to be sure?
*There is not much difference between answers here, but notice the differences in wording, and the oddball :)

Answers:
Because how would you test that theory? If someone said there are a billion stars, you couldn't prove or disprove that. Now, wet paint on the wall - that you can check yourself.
Because you can't verify that there are a billion stars, but you can make sure that the paint is in fact wet or that the person is a lying bufoon.
Experiential learning! (shameless shoutout to Keuka!)- People naturally learn by figuring things out themselves.
I wouldn't touch it.
Analysis: Lame answer from the engineer. Also, notice how the future editor spins her answer - it is way more dramatic and attention grabbing than the other answers - like a headline.

Question 3: What do you plant to grow a seedless watermelon?
Answers:
Pollination
The rind from a seedless watermelon
Plant the whole watermelon. Or just plant the seeds. They're just a variation.
Why do we as humans create species/mutations that cannot naturally reproduce? Then again, we use this same theory on humans. By prolonging the lives of people with genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, we are allowing for those genes to be carried on.
Analysis: Everyone but the future OT gives a direct and reasonably logical answer. The OT relates it to health care. What a suprise.

Question 4: What would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?
Answers:
Spherical, like an exercise ball.
The same.
We wouldn't have chairs. I can't picture them. My mind doesn't work that way.
The chairs would have to be more like a recliner, and be able to stand you up like those chairs they make for paraplegics - or that guy's chair in Private Practice. The whole world would have to be redesigned. Proves that humans are designed quite well.
Analysis: Lame answer from the engineer again. I mean, especially because your job is going to be to design stuff. The english/international studies major shows why she is majoring in and aspiring to more social fields. She does not think with that visual/design component like the engineer needs to. Her job will be based on people skills and networking.The OT's answer shows that her education is serving her well. Most suprising though is the editor's answer. Maybe people's job choice isn't dependent on their thinking style, I mean, the editor gives a wonderful and out of the box answer, which shows why interdisciplinary cooperation is useful.

More movies

Cant wait till movie gallery gets some good movies!!

Anyway, Transformers 1 and 2 were really good, for corny action movies. Kept my attention, which is good, but I mean, there were some really corny lines, and some really melodramatic parts.

Movies I want to see before Christmas:

Night at the Museum 2
The Ugly Truth
the Blind Side
The Time Traveler's Wife

Cooking

First of all, I am sucking at this 365 photo thing. It just hasn't caught on with me... oh well. Maybe when I have something to take pictures of.

Anyway, my new project is going to be cooking. I had relatives come over today- really Italian relatives, which I absolutely love, btw- and the food was so good. I mean, fabulous cooking all around. So I realized that pretty much everyone in my family can cook but me. I mean, everyone makes their own sauce, and fancy soups, and I even have an aunt who makes her own gnoccis from scratch. She actually made all the food for my grad party, which was absolutely fabulous.

So I realized I have all these fabulous resources around me, so I should have them teach me how to cook. I want to know how to make something awesome, instead of just scrambled eggs and ramen (and I'm not even that good at the scrambled eggs lol. Ramen on the other hand... I am the master of Ramen. A ramen noodle connoisseur of sorts :)). And I really want to learn how to make things from scratch, because that concept fascinating and admittedly very foriegn to me.

So, I've made a list of the things I want to learn how to cook and the people who can teach me how. Here goes:

1. Pasta sauce (any number of relatives could teach me this)
2. 3 types of cookies, from scratch (Gramma, and others.)
3. Pasta primavera like my dad makes.
4. A good omelet, or fritata I think my dad calls it. There may be some kind of technical difference here...
5. Perfect the pancakes and french toast.
6. Cake. (Aunt Liz)
7. A superb sub (Dominic, who by the way has a shop called 'A Taste of Italy' in Victor where you can go and get a wonderful sub and other great Italian stuff, including Marticello's bread, which is possibly the best stand alone food on earth.)
8. Gnoccis and all the other stuff Aunt Ducky makes.

Okay, so this is my mission for the next couple months...

Thanksgiving! (Day 8 of 365)

Got to see my cutie pie little cousin!!

This is her imitating my face. lol. "angry face!"

Clearly I did not take this picture myself, but I think that can be forgiven. Thank you Matthew, for taking a few good pictures among the millions of junk ones you take when you hijack my camera. I mean really, pictures of the tv? Not cool. Video of you walking through the house? No.

Day 7 of 365

The day before Thanksgiving! Actually, it was quite uneventful, as I was babysitting my siblings all day. Although... we did have hot chocolate...which makes me very happy because that means it's almost time for... SNOW!!!!

Day 6 of 365

My last class was cancelled, so I got to go home early! (should have just skipped Tuesday like my friends uh... suggested...)

This is the day we actually put that fiber optic tree up. :)

Day 5 of 365

Monday, Monday, Monday...

Before a break no less. Knowing you'll be home in just a short bit of time does not help with concentration. Especially when you're in college and ALL YOUR FRIENDS HAVE IT OFF!!! WHY!!!!!???

Anyway, harrowing drive in on monday. It started out fine... in fact it was all fine until I realized I was in rushvillle and had obviously missed the turn to Penn Yan and was now 15 minutes out of my way. So rather than just flipping a u-ie and retracing my steps, uh, tire tracks... I turned on the navigation thingy on my phone and it led me down the foggiest, curviest roads imaginable, and kept losing signal. And then it died. Thankfully I somehow found my way to school, in time for my first class too!

Anyway, here is the picture for Monday...

This is the lovely view from my dorm room window. Now prepare to laugh, because I only realized that I could see the lake from my window like two weeks ago, after having been there for months. Granted, this picture is zoomed in, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if the lake was THAT CLOSE.

Also, this was taken later in the day, so you can't quite understand how foggy it really gets there some mornings. I'll work on getting a picture of that.

Day 4 of 365

Okay, I'll admit I didn't take any pictures on Sunday. So here's a good one I took later in the week.

This is the inside projector-ish part of this fiber optic Christmas tree we have. We went down and looked through crates and crates of stuff, and this was all we found. Of course, when my mom went down there, she found like 6 crates of stuff. Why can moms always do that?

Thankfulness, and to balance that, some complaints. :)

1. I'm thankful for my family, as annoying as they may be sometimes, especially for my dad and my little cousin (this is only her second thanksgiving! Can I hear that collective "awwww"?)

2. I just picked a zit on my nose and it bled like I was hemmoraging. I actually wondered for a bit if I had nicked a nose-artery.

3. Lots of good food yesterday. Lots. I gotta learn how to cook like that. Maybe that will be my next project.

4. Running sucks. I decided yesterday that tomorrow, (which is now today) I would try to exercise a little everyday, with the goal of looking good in a bathing suit this summer. (If I do really well I might even go bikini :) lol) So anyway, This morning I played twister with my sister (which not only rhymes but definately counts as exercise, as I was sweating. It was a very intense game of twister.) Then my brother asked me if I wanted to run with him (he is a cross country runner - one of those crazy people who likes running) so I said fine, I'll go 2 miles, but definately not the whole 4. So Olivia and I did some plyos (Which I learned should always be done AFTER running - NEVER BEFORE.) while he did the first two and then joined him - ran maybe half a mile, went on the swings at the park, and walked a mile, but made up for it by sprinting the last 200 yards, Indian run style. I realized this is definately not the way I wanna exercise. My soccer training completely betrayed me here. Now lets be clear, I'm not in the best shape, but I'm not pathetic. I just have no motivation to run in circles with no goal. My brother argues that the goal is to finish, but that doesn't do it for me because I can just stop running whenever I want. Running in a soccer game is completely different. Anyway, I also run like a soccer player, which means I run like I'm sprinting all the time. It feels weird to have my heels touch the ground when I run, which is what you're supposed to do when you're running a long distance. Anyway, I am no longer running with xc superstar over there - and I'm gonna have to get more creative...

Day 3 of 365

When pigs fly. lol. This pretty little lawn decoration was in the yard next to the church (that house where the priests live - I know it has a name... but I can't think of it.) I had the occasion to look because my two youngest siblings did their first reconciliation. It was remarkably simple. I mean, almost every other sacrament in the catholic church has crazy amounts of fanfare involved... but this is a "solemn sacrament" so there is no record of it and the deacon can wear jeans. lol, I say that because my mom made a big deal of all of us dressing up, and I had to search all the old clothes I had for a nice shirt that still fit. ( I didn't bring anything nice home from college).

Oh, btw, just wanted to note: this is proof that priests do indeed have a sense of humor. Lol, swine flu is ravaging our country, and they have a light up piggy outside.

Day 2 of 365

This is the butt-bump section of the secret handshake that my sister and I have now perfected. The rest is top secret. buh buh buh.

Day 1 of 365

KITTENS!!!!

These are the some of the smallest among the kittens I played with at the Yates County Humane Society today. They were so cute. Not much bigger than my hand and really playful. One clawed its way all the way up to my shoulder and sat there like a parrot. Another scared my friend to death (and almost made me die of laughter) when it decided to jump up and cling to her butt with its claws. She screamed bloody murder and was like "get him off!!" It was absolutely hilarious. Anyway, I think this makes a very good first entry for my 365 photo project.

In other news, my roommate says I was talking about farmville in my sleep last night. I think it's time for rehab.

Poor Sportsmanship

Elizabeth Lambert, a "villified" college soccer player for New Mexico, deserves to be villified. And I think her actions on the soccer field will have more severe and widespread consequences than she realizes. In case you missed the video which was all over the news and viral on Youtube, Lambert played an EXTREMELY dirty game against BYU. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNmPybFK2_o Lambert punched, tripped, elbowed and hair-pulled her way to national villany all in the course of one game. Maybe she has something against Mormans...?

Seriously though, this kind of play is absolutely unacceptable at any level, but at a high level like college soccer whre you have younger girls looking up to you. Lambert's actions reflect badly on her her family, the New Mexico socer program as a whole, and unfortunately, women's soccer. It rflects very well on the BYU players that there was no ovious retaliation and they wonthe game regardless of their opponents blatent and violent disregard for the rules.

Also, where was the ref? She should have gotten a straight red for the hair pulling alone. Where were her teammates? They should have told her to cool it. Where was the coach? He should have pulled her after the first hin of dirty play. Where is her conscience? She didn't even give a proper apology (read the article below) just saying that that's not who she is or how she plays. Obviously it is. This was not an isolated incident but a series of cheap shots and blatent attacks. She shows no remorse, only regretting the image it has given her.

Either she does not have the skills to defend properly and cleanly or does not have a conscience. Either way, she needs to be dropped from the program or at least suspended for a lengthy period of time.

And lastly, blaming it on her gender is not only wrong but absolutely infuriating. The reason it got covereage was not because she is a woman, but because her behavior was absolutely attrocious, for either gender. Women's soccer can be rough, and tends to be more rough than the men's game because women seem to spread/pass the ball less and tend to play close and attack the ball rather than containing defensvely like you would see in a men's game.

Anyway, I'll end this rant with a statement and solution. Lambert deserves to be suspended and humiliated like Zinedine Zidane in the world cup. (I doubt her reason was as good as Zizou's, at least he was retaliating, not instigating) The solution: Lambert should be dropped from the New Mexico team and made an example for athletes everywhere, showing that this kind of play is unacceptable. I would even force her to do some community service or something until she's really sorry. Because as of now, she's still making excuses for her behavior and doesn't seem to feel any kind of remorse for her actions.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/post/Vilified-New-Mexico-soccer-player-breaks-her-sil?urn=top,203447

Update: Lambert has been suspended indefinately (like she deserves). Her coach said, "Liz is quality student athlete, but her actions clearly crossed the line of fair play and good sportsmanship." You think? Obviously, overwhelming pressure from the media and the public forced her into this decision, because if she really believed this, she would have pulled Lambert as soon as she saw a hint of any of these atrocious fouls. Unless the coach is blind, she has no excuse either.

And a minor correction: Lambert did say she was "deeply and wholeheartedly regretful" before she went on to make excuses and prove she really wasn't sorry. She even goes on to say that she is sorry to her coaches and teammates and that she takes full responsibility for her actions - before she equivocates again and fails to take that responsibility, saying that she let the situation get the best of her, and that her actions were "in no way indicitive of [her] character." Way to take responsibility Liz.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4629837

Field Trip!!

I now have a car on campus, so I am officially no longer trapped! Yay!

So, with this new found freedom, I decided to take a trip.

Heidi and I went to the Dollar General and bought GIANT SMARTIES. Seriously. They're huge, and in the trademark wrapper and everything. About the size of an ipod click wheel, and thick. Definately worth the 65 cents.

Then we went to Movie Gallery and rented movies and I opened an account (which is way harder than you would think. I mean, really, two forms of ID? Is this the FBI or a movie rental place?) So now I will be renting movies like it's my job.

What do we remember of tragedy?

My morning Ethics class brought this question to my head. How much does a young child remember about a public tragedy? I decided to examine my own childhood memories and find out.

1. Kidnapping of Kaylee Ann Poulton - this whole ting played out when I was about three, so I'm retty sure I don't have any direct memories of it... it was very big in Rochester though. I did rememer her name off the top of my head though, and that she was kidnapped from her front yard while riding her tricycle. I think I remember that because this was the fear for years after - that I (or my younger brother) would be kidnapped from under our parent's noses. It seems to have served as a wakeup call of some sort for my parents, and my mom says that's the reason she stated going back to church again, and bringing us.

2. Columbine School Shooting - This took place when I was about nine, so I believe it is safe to say that I should have significantly more memory of it. I don't though. I remember being in a hotel in Philadelphia, on vacation, and watching the news coverage and only partially understanding the tragedy. Sadly, this came to mind again last May at the Academy, when we marched out with our hands on our heads (just as I had seen on the Columbine news coverage) and later learned of the tragedy that had occured.

3. 9/11- I think I was 10 at this time. I recall that day being very confusing, from the time when our fifth grade teacher took us all over to the carpet and explained something about protesters and planes and not liking our country that I didn't really listen to. It didn't seem like a big deal to me, until my mom picked me up from school early because she wanted us to be close if something else happened. I remember arriving home and seeing the plane hit and the firey collapse of the tower played over and over on the tv. Then the other tower. On endless loop. I don't think any American will forget that news footage that played over and over that day, regardless of their age. We had a picnic and my mom tried to act as if everything was okay and normal, but that inexplicable change had already occured.

So, in summary, kids remember more than you would think. Examine your own memory and see what images are ingrained in your head.

Headlines

1. Sesame Street's 40th anniversary.
Yipee! Imagine how old Big Bird must be by now...! Jk, really though, the idea for an educational television program is amazing. How better to help our country than educate our future?

2. "Walmart to stay open 24 hours on Black Friday" USAToday.com
Really Walmart? What made you think of that? What a clever way to make sure none of your "associates" get trampled this year. This headline makes me sad. It reminds me how greedy our society is. This poor "associate" lost his life because someone wanted a good deal on a flatscreen. Really? Is that the value of human life today? And nothing has changed. Walmart, a multi-national, enormously profitable company can't think of a better solution than staying open longer? Really? That will solve nothing. Hmm...I wonder if this idea had anyhitng to do with the fact that if they stay open longer they can make more money...? Nah. Corporate greed was definately not the driving force in this decision.

untitled ramblings

keep your head up, and your eyes and ears open.

Often those who think they know the most know the least, and those who think they don't know anything can teach you the most.

Life is more than facts from a book and numbers in an equation. Life is about relationships and experiences; and sometimes, the experiences that you like the least teach you the most, and the people you least expect have the most to teach you.

Favorite Quotes: can you guess who said them?

"I find that very few people are scary once they've been poked in the eyes."

"WHO IS THIS SHE!!!???!!" (refering to "that's what she said")

"My face smells like ketchup"

"Scars are souveniers you never lose"

"They make us wear pants!!"

"Hair counts as pants!"

Farmville: Friend or Foe?

Aside from being a fantastically addicting time-waster, Farmville has the added entertainment value of producing some really interesting quotations, such as:

"Why are my squash sparkly?"
"Did you get my cow? I sent you a cow."
"I fertilized your raspberries."
"Pink cow up for grabs!"
"I named her prudence... She likes it"
"Oh crap, I have to go harvest my strawberries."
"I saved the pink cow!!!"
"Good to know you value my gifts."
"It will be my favorite of my like, 26 cows."
""I've decided to expand my farm"

You know you're jealous you non-farmville users. :)