I'm Still Here

It's been a while since I last posted. I guess the stress and responsibility of third year are getting to me. While I only have about 7 hours a week on campus for lectures and workshops, I'm doing background reading and the like for the classes, reports, and short essays that are do.

Speaking of reports and essays. I know that separate departments shouldn't be expected to coordinate their assignments and that sometimes you'll just end up with two papers due in the exact same week. I expect that when I'm taking classes from two different departments. But Psychology is all ONE department. You would think someone out there might have said, "Oh look! The third years have a practical report and a perception essay due on Thursday and Friday of the same week. We should probably push one of the back a couple days. Make one of them due on Monday of the next week." Of course that didn't happen and because my practical report advisor is so laid back my group is about a week behind the others. While they are getting their sections looked over and edited, we are just getting our data back. And I know that the perception thing is a max. of 600 words, but that's going to make it more difficult due to the word limit. *sigh*

Also, finding a computer on campus is so frustrating sometimes. Yesterday I decided to work on campus because I tend to get more writing done that way. I started off in the Hub and there was one free computer there except for the fact that someone was sitting at it reading. I mean really!? Couldn't she have been reading in the library or at one of the various tables and leave the computer to someone who needed to work on it? So I tried the library and as it always happens I spot a free computer on the first floor and start heading towards it. Just as I'm about three quarters of the way there someone who is standing a little closer and wasn't paying attention before turns around, spots it, and like runs to the seat. This always leaves me feeling like a small child or a teenage girl fighting over a cute boy; "It's mine! I saw it first!!" Usually after that it's an absolute miracle if I can find a computer in the library. I trek up the rest of the six flights of stairs and then trek back down feeling a little disheartened. Mostly because you see computers that have empty seats but have people's stuff at them. These computers can stand empty and logged out for sometimes over and hour as the person has decided to go take a smoke or eat some lunch or both and has just left their stuff to hold their computer and block all others' attempts at working. I did find one up on the fourth floor yesterday which was great. But still, I kinda wish there were library police or something. If someone has left their computer long enough for it to log itself out then they move their stuff to the front desk or something.

Anyway, my day today is filled with a 9am lecture (sleepy face), a hair appointment (I'm pretty darn shaggy), and then hours of working on the report and perception paper. I'm sure everything will get done, but I'm so ready for a short break. English always had a reading week where there wouldn't be any lectures or tutorials so that you could catch up on reading and work on essays. I wish that psychology had that too. It would be nice to sleep in all week for a change.

Advisor Appointment

Today was my advisor appointment. It was almost depressingly straight forward. These are your courses, you can't take any outside classes this year,here are the induction meeting times, and have a good third year. He did also say that he say that I got some good marks and some not good marks and that he hoped I would get those not so good marks up to good marks. In my defense, all of my not so good marks were in courses that were not applicable to my degree which I only took because the course description looked cool. Turns out that it wasn't and I stopped caring. Hey, if I can pass well (if not great) when not caring and putting no effort into the work then I think I can manage getting good grades on something that I actually care about.

I have four courses each semester each worth 15 credits. At this point, I have no idea what these courses involve since my class schedule is not up yet. I'm sort of hoping that it goes up before Monday...since, you know, that's when classes are suppose to start.

I'd also really like it up in the next day because guess what. That's right! The Dell repair guy never came yesterday which means that I can only schedule appointments on the days when I can be in from 9am-5pm (like that'll happen). But since they really screwed up this last appointment I'm thinking I could probably say that since there are no days that I can be in or arrange for someone to be in for that length of time and since it was your fault for not contacting me on Wednesday you should work around my schedule this time. I at least hope that can happen.

It really is beginning to look like term time again.

Eye Movement Study

Alright guys, so I've had a fairly good day. Besides having to wake up early for my one class which is at 9am (couldn't have been in the afternoon, oh no!) and a complete bother when it's your only class of the day and a class that you really can't skip, nothing else has gone amiss. Well, I did have to spend money on food, but I hear you need the stuff to live. I have tried to go without in the past, but it's only ended in problems for my body. Needless to say, I'm not too bothered by the fact that I was completely out of food and needed to buy more...too bothered is the important word there.

Anyway, my life's trials and tribulations are not what this post is about. This post is about what really made my day. So, for my Practical Psychology course I have to partake in a few studies through the "Sonar System". The Sonar System is basically a site where Psychology students at Aberdeen can find studies to participate in for class credit. We're expected to do at least 6 credits worth. I did one last Thursday called "Dining on Your Imagination" which was worth 1 credit. I was suppose to do one about Blind Communication and how two people communicate when they can't see each other (this one was particularly interesting to me as I have and interest in the blind and visually impaired). It was worth 2 credits, but the researchers never showed. I still got the credits since I was there, but still, I wish I could have done it. Today though, I did the one I was really looking forward to. It's called "Eye Movement and Emotion".

Basically what happened is I went into the room and got hooked up to electrodes on both sides of my eyes and on my right ear. The researcher was my Practical Tutor, so I had no problems with her scrubbing my skin down and placing tiny things on my face. Then I faced a monitor and was told that a few faces would appear on the screen really quickly and all I had to do was move my eyes towards the faces as quickly as I could. I was warned before hand that I wouldn't be able to notice anything in particular about the face as it would be on the screen for too short a period. There were 5 rounds of *I believe* 80 faces. We took breaks in between each trial because it is tiring! After all of those trials were done I was asked to look at the faces again and rate their emotions and how emotional they were on a scale of 1-5. Again, the faces popped up on the monitor far too quickly for me to actually see them, so I just guessed for a few of them. Then I was done.

The point of this experiment was to judge whether or not we can tell the emotion "FEAR" apart from all other emotions even if we aren't aware the fact that we are seeing a scared person. It has to do with a survival technique. Here's a bit of my debriefing sheet: "Previous research has shown that emotional facial stimuli resul in faster saccadic eye movements." In this study the "not knowing that the person has a scared look on his face" was taken farther in that they also tweaked the faces ever so slightly. Some were upside down and others and different spatial frequencies.

It was pretty fun, but very tiring on my eyes. But, I really enjoyed getting to know my Practical Tutor a little better during the breaks and she was able to help me in writing my report. It's my first one whereas most of the class have done one from last semestre.

All in all, a good day. If I can get two more sections of the report done today I'll go to the pub quiz tonight!

Oh, and guess what came under my door while I was gone doing the study today?

What is this you ask?

Why, it's a census. Erin is filling out her very first ever census. Otherwise I get finned a lot of money.

"The Complete Maus"

Ok, so I know I haven't really written in a while. It's been crazy and I've been working on my RP study for my Dog Blog.

Anyway, a little fact that you might not know about me. World War II has always been my favourite war. That sounds a little weird to say. What I mean is, it is the war that has always interested me. Even when I was little I would read books on the German Camps and what America did to help. I think we I was 5 I asked if we had any relatives who went through the holocaust. Ah...I was so much more enthusiastic about learning when I was little. Maybe if I pretended I was 3 again I would find joy in sitting down with an encyclopedia and just reading. It's something I'll look into.

Back to the topic at hand.

My English course for this semestre is called 'Controversial Classics.' We're reading books and plays that were thought controversial when they were first published, but are now considered classics. We're going into detail about why there has been this flip of opinion by the public. This week's lectures are about a graphic novel.

It's "The Complete Maus" by Art Spiegelman.

Spiegelman wrote and drew this novel to tell the story about his father and mother who were Auschwitz survivors. It's a really compelling book and I highly recommend it if you are or ever have been interested in WWII.

Only 2 More Days

Alright guys. I only have today and tomorrow of class and then I leave very early on Friday. Am I excited? Of course I am! I can't wait to be back in Sunny California...even though I hear there has been little sun as of late. All of my friends have told me that it's actually really cold and that it's been getting close to freezing most nights. You know what I say to that? That they should try getting below freezing everyday during the day for the past 3 weeks and then they can talk to me about cold. I'm going to be going around in tank tops and shorts during the days I can assure you.

Anyway, today I'm doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Getting the last present to wrap up and sent to Freya and her family and picking up a few things for my parents and friends. I think I'm going to get something pretty and Scottishy for the annual PWAP Christmas Puppy Meeting. I'm also waiting for some Gaelic children's' books to arrive. The manufacturing centre is in Glasgow which isn't that far from here...maybe an hour or two by car. So, I was hoping they would be here by today and that I would get to pick them up before I left. But, I know buses and trains have been cancelled to Edinburgh from Aberdeen, so maybe the delivery from Glasgow is delayed. In any case, I'm really hoping that they get here by Thursday at the latest. A little girl in my puppy group asked for something Scottish and I wanted to get her a Gaelic Children's book...hmmm...if I don't get word that it's in today then I might just by her a cute Loch Ness Monster Doll. :D

Besides that, I'm packing and enjoying my last few days here in Scotland before I head back to the States.

November 28: Fail

Well, I failed the November Post a Day. Oh well. I just totally forgot that I hadn't posted anything yesterday. I was going to write a short poem about the snow and how it looks a bit like a winter wonderland out there right now. Especially last night. It was just amazingly gorgeous. I mean we got I want to say a good foot of snow last night. And when you're standing out there watching it fall in soft, neat piles all over the sidewalks and houses...well, there's just something magical about it.

Anyway, I hope the Blogging Gods forgive me.

I've been pretty busy with my sonnet for the past week and I finally finished it so now I just have to write an analysis on it in 500 words. I'm thinking this will be pretty easy since I wrote the thing and know exactly why I put this line here and that line there. Sure, a lot of it was because it rhymed, but there are a few strategically placed lines. I don't know if I'm going to post it up here though because I don't want anyone to steal it as their own. Not that I think that anyone would want to steal my sonnet as their own, I'm not that conceited, but you never know.

Only two days left of November! WOW! It kind of flew by so fast. At the end of this month I'm making an exciting announcement. So, stay tuned.

November 22: Sad News from the Homefront

My fish has died and I'm in a state of Mourning right now. Poor Cunningham supposedly froze to death. What a way to die. :( I kept that fish alive for over a year and it only took two months for him to go belly up without me. Sigh, life is short isn't it? Perhaps this is what I'll write my sonnet on. The short life of a beautiful fish.

In other news, I was told to calm down today but my oral Gaelic teacher. Would you be surprised that she wasn't the first teacher to tell me that exact phrase?

Dropped Philosophy

I don't know if I ever posted about how much I really wasn't enjoying my Philosophy course. I really like Philosophy, don't get me wrong. I don't mind studying the different schools of ancient Greece and all theat. I even want to name my next cat Socretes. But any class can be ruined when you don't have the right teacher and the lecturer for my Philosophy course just wasn't the right one for me. She's a nice enough lady and I think I would really enjoy just talking to her, but she just didn't hold my attention in the lectures. I've never before fallen asleep in school because I really enjoy school. I really do. I'm quite the bookwormish nerd, but there were a couple of times when I found myself drifting off during her lectures. So, what did I do. Of course I dropped the class. This might seem like the easy way out for some of you out there, but rest assured I stuck through it for a month and still wasn't enjoying it and wasn't able to focus during class. And I was already taking one extra course so I don't have to find another course to supplement the credits I'm going to be losing. So, I'll have a normal workload, I won't have to go to a class that not only gets me no closer to my degree but also doesn't hold my attention or interest, and both of the days that I stay until 5 I now only go until 4. It seems like a win/win situation to me.

So, I have a question for you guys. What classes were ruined for you during your college years (or right now if you're still in your college years) because of a teacher who just couldn't teach? Did anything good come of it (like finding a new interest and course that turned out to be your true calling)?