Revision Week: Day 2

So continues the exciting saga of Erin's revision week before exams. I have to say, I don't think I'll ever get use to this whole exams after winter break thing. Though, I'm surprisingly more prepared this year. I've actually studied. Sign of maturity?

Anyway:

8 days until the English exam
9 days until the Psychology exam

"There is evidence that infants can not only imitate facial expressions but can understand the emotions behind them. In a study, infants were tested to see if they could understand emotions. The experimenter first got the child use to passing objects back and forth. Then the child was presented with a bowl of broccoli and a bowl of fish crackers (you know...the snack the smiles back). The child was encouraged to choose a snack to eat. Inevitably, the child would choose to chow down on the fish crackers. After the child has sometime to eat their snack the experimenter would take the two bowls. He tried a bit of broccoli and made a pleased face with satisfied "yum" noises. Then he tried a fish cracker. He looked disgusted and made "yucky" noises. He then passed the two bowls back to the child and asked them if they could give him something to eat. In most, but not all cases, the child will eventually pass him a bit of broccoli. This provides evidence that young children can use facial expressions to guide their own social interactions." There are videos to go along with this of babies who "pass" and "fail" this test. There was one we watched which was absolutely hilarious. This little girl looks at the experimenter as if to say, "Really?! You want this!?" Adorable.

But quite possibly the most important thing I have learned (or revised I should say) today is something my lecturer said during the original lecture. "If you give broccoli and fish crackers to a child they will never eat the broccoli." Life lessons right there.

Revisions Week: Day 1

For revision week (well, really 9 days) I've decided to post something every day that was part of my studying. I'm hoping this makes everything stick in my head even more.

Revision Week: Day 1
9 days until the English exam
10 days until the Psychology exam

Children gain a better understanding of their own mental abilities as they age. If you were to ask a young child what they could expect themselves to remember when learning a list of words they would overestimate by quite a bit. They would average about 3 more items than they would really remember. As children grow up they begin to be more realistic as to how many items they can remember. By about age 10 children are not far off when guessing how many items they are able to remember. They still overestimate, but only by around one item.

A Happy New Year's and Updates

I've been a little busy the past week I've been home. So, I'm sorry that I haven't been posting often.

I had a...pretty good new year's eve. My friend hosted a party and I went. It was the first new year's party I had been to where I was legally aloud to drink. Did I feel grown up? Kinda. I mean, it was nice to go out and buy my own alcohol and then go and drink the alcohol and a party. It did end a little sooner than expected, but wasn't and overall bad night. Well, it wasn't the best night I had ever had either, but that had very little to do with the party or Friends or other stuff like that.

Anyway, my brother came in for a visit on the 2nd and then just left yesterday morning. It was good to see him again and good to have family. I wish I had taken pictures of his visit, but it would have been of food he taught me to make since we really didn't travel. The next time he comes for a visit I'm hoping that we won't both have exams to study for and I'll have found out how to get buses to fun places here. I'm thinking next time he comes we'll go to Loch Ness. I haven't been there yet so it seems like a good place to go. Anyway, I really enjoyed his visit. He made me feel better and he brought me Swedish chocolate. Both are always appreciated.

Now it's on to studying for exams and forgetting. Well, not forgetting but...oh what's the word? Well, I don't know the exact word or phrase. But, it's a new year and everything will be better. Hope you all had a great new year's and have all of your resolutions put together. I've got mine. *smile*

Back Already?

I can't believe that I'm back in Aberdeen already! I know I only left for 10 days for a reason, but at the same time...I can't believe I'm home. I've been sitting in my living room watching TV, eating some food, and just relaxing after my flight.

It feels nice to be home, but at the same time...I miss my many feet warmers.

Well, it's a busy day for me tomorrow. I have to put money on my phone so I can call people and get food so I can eat. And probably give away some Christmas gifts. Now all I need are little baggies for some of the treats I brought back.

Anyway...sleep now I think.

Sunday Subjest #2: Happy Holidays

Oh gosh! Has it really been two weeks since I last posted!? Don't worry, I didn't die on the plane ride from Aberdeen to California.

Anyway, it's Christmas here in the household. We opened presents this morning, visited family this afternoon, and we're starting on the Christmas dinner now. Hopefully we'll be eating by seven or eight...haha! Yeah, I guess we got a late start.

Anyway, I've realised that I'm very happy that I came home for the holidays. I love seeing my dogs and my cat (Sweet Sylvester left his earth life a few weeks ago so now it's just cat instead of cats). I knew I missed them, but I didn't think that I would feel so much better. I think I need animals in my life. I've never not had an animal in my life. Hehe!

My cat Mia sitting in front of our very small Christmas tree on presents.

Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say about Christmas now. Had a good time opening gifts and seeing people and cooking. It's definitely hard to believe that I'm leaving soon.
Well, happy holidays!

Sunday's Subject #1: Cold and Grumpy

Right, this is a new thing that I'm going to try in order to be a better blogger for this blog. It's called, as the title would imply, "Sunday's Subject". What my plan is for this is to come up with a subject for every Sunday and make it almost like a conversation. This means that all of you are encouraged to disagree, debate, and comment (you don't always have to disagree, but you're welcome to post your thoughts). Today's subject is "cold and grumpy". Basically, it's cold here and I'm perpetually grumpy. Here's the story;

So, I'm leaving home in a week right? Right! So, I should be happy about this. I'll get to cuddle my little lab Hilly, get cuddled by my giant golden retriever Arwen, and patronize the labradoodle Rosie. Not to mention I'll get to see my cats again and my cats always make my day. I also can't forget the friends I'll see and make merry with over the holiday season. I should be happy about all of this right? I'm not. Not really.

Alright, I am excited to see my animals, friends, and family again. I can't deny it because it would be lying, children, and lying in wrong. So, yes excited. But no, not happy.

You see, I'm a desert child. I grew up in the hot and dry where you had to drink your body weight in water every day and couldn't go outside if the weather man said not to for risk of asthma attacks and heat strokes (not that we always listened to these warnings as children...which, come to think of it, is probably why I developed asthma). I do well in heat...not so much the cold. I know how to deal with the cold (sometimes I think better than some of the teenage girls who have lived here all their lives. You should see some of the things they wear in the winter) and I can keep relatively warm with three layers on my legs and 4 layers on the hips up. As a desert child I think I was taught what to do in the cold just in case I ever happened into a snow storm in my shorts and t-shirt.

Why is all of this important to my bad mood? Because, I like snow even if it means the cold has to come with it. Have we gotten any snow? Nope! It's just been cold and wet. There's a great picture that my friend Sandy drew and I don't think he'll mind that I'm sharing it with you.

A picture my friend Sandy drew. On the right there is a small picture labelled "Winter Wonderland" with a happy, smiling guy. On the left is a picture labelled "Aberdeen" with a sad, downtrodden guy walking through the rain. In between the pictures is the "does not equal" sign.

Pretty much sums up what Aberdeen is like in the winter without snow. He drew this the day we had snow for 5 minutes and everyone got excited and posted their excitement on facebook. He was rather disappointed to wake up to find that there was, in fact, no snow to be found.

Unfortunately, it's not the fact that Aberdeen is cold but isn't snowing that is putting me in a perpetual state of grumpiness. If it were it would be an easy fix of hot chocolate, a blanket, and a good book/movie. The cold is just heightening all the things that are agitating me right now. I don't want to go into too much detail about my private life over the Internet, but how about we just say that it hasn't been the smoothest of months for Miss Erin. And I'm fairly certain that if it weren't freezing and I could sit down with a delicious hot drink and think about the events of the past month that have led up to the "blues" without having to worry about my fingers falling off then I might actually be able to get past them. It is not be. 

I also don't think it helps that someone had the bright idea to have an essay due the last day of term! I mean really? Who thought that would produce well thought out and coherent essays? Especially when they decided to give us crap questions. It baffles me. Truly. 

Anyway, I know this probably just sounded like a rant about how horrible my life is and how hard I have it, but I promise, it wasn't. I do have a small point to go with all of this woe. And that is that frustration and stress and...just plain sadness are, I think, a big part of being a University student. This is a time when everyone is truly discovering who they are and where they eventually want to be. There's gotta be some emotional trauma that goes with soul searching.

Anyway, I have to get ready for the committee meeting that I really don't want to go to because I got all of 2 hours of sleep last night (oh yeah, insomnia is also a symptoms of my "blues" because my mind never ever stops). But I made a commitment to the society so I'll go. I might even stay in the library to get some work done.

Wordless Wednesday...

Will just have to start next week! Haha! Instead I thought I would tell you all of our first snow fall of the year. That's right! It's taken until Decmber 7th to start snowing up here! So, let me tell you all about it;

It was the crap kind of snow. It lasted 5 minutes. Then it was just cold and wet. The end.

I think this is what is called a snow fail. *sigh* I'm just hoping we don't get snow storms next week. If my travels home get delayed at all after it's been unseasonably warm until now then I would go bananas!!