There are so many strange things about the class I’m teaching this semester. Of course the teacher being strange is a given. Next is that I have four students. But that part is actually an awesome strange.

The strangest part is actually the room I’m teaching in. It has a TV with a VCR/DVD player. So that’s nice. But then it has a sink, with no paper towels so I’m not sure what to do with that. And it has an overhead projector. And that’s the limit of the technology in the room. Welcome to the 21st century folks!

There are white boards and I do have the cool clicky whiteboard markers. But me scribbling on a board is going to get real old real fast. Although I am quite good at it. I had to take a class on board writing in college. It wasn’t a whole class, but we did have to pass it off in three main handwriting styles.

So we’ve had to be a little creative.

The department has a small computer projector and so I’ve been loaned that for the semester. And I have my netbook. But then the trouble is getting everything situated right so my students and I don’t feel like we’re sitting front row at a movie theater.

Today I figured out how to use the overhead though!

The cart the overhead sits on works as a great extension cord to the middle of the room. Then I can set my computer and the projector on top of the overhead. And from that point in the class the projection is just the right size.

Brilliant! If I do say so myself.

I’ll let you know when I figure out what to do with the sink.

Brett came home Thursday and laughed at me. This is getting to be a regular occurrence. He just laughs for a different reason each week.

This week he laughed at me because I was in the Tigger room (we’ve named our rooms) working on hand quilting the quilt I’ve been working on for a while (six years). I set up the quilt in our kitchen back in May with the idea to work on it during the summer and have it finished by now. I wasn’t going to classes so of course I had plenty of time to get it done.

And then I didn’t work on it at all over the summer. Eventually it got moved out of the kitchen and into the Tigger room.

School started this week. So what have I done? Did I take the quilt down? Nope. I spent several hours on Tuesday and Thursday sitting in the Tigger room (the ceiling fan really cools it off and I watch shows on Hulu while I’m in there) working on the quilt. In fact, I’m almost ready to roll it so I can reach further in.

And that is why Brett has laughed at me. Also because I’m sitting on the other side of the quilt from the door so it looks like I’ve wedged myself behind the quilt (the quilt is as long as the room). He just hasn’t seen me crawl under the quilt a dozen or so times in the last week. He thinks my scheduling issues are funny.

During the summer I had the wonderful problem of having not enough to do and too much time to do it in.

Now I’m on campus for large chunks of my week and so I’m spending my time at home actually doing stuff.

I have the same “problem” with my reading for fun. During the summer when I have plenty of time to just sit and read I get almost nothing read. But when I’m taking the bus to and from campus several times a week, a round trip of at least 1.5 hours every time, I get a LOT read (only 10 more books in the alphabet!).

Having a schedule makes me get things done. I’ll let you know how this quilting on my days off each week goes.

I admit I tried the internet “dating” thing. I actually signed up for the site to laugh at the profiles my friends were laughing at. And some of the profiles were down right laughable. In the end it worked for me. That’s how Brett and I met.

But I also had an opportunity to learn a lot about a lot of different people, or types of people. And especially the importance of a first impression.

They say that “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” and this is true even in an electronic world. It’s why there are now companies out there just to help people create that good first impression on-line.

On-line the first impression can start one of two ways, either with the actual profile or with the messages being sent out. And while the profile has it’s weird quirks and pitfalls, I want to talk about words and how the words used on-line give a certain impression of the person using them.

The thing that would really get me when I was meeting people on-line would be how they would say what they wanted to say. Did they capitalize correctly? Can they use punctuation? Because a person who doesn’t know how to use a shift key is probably lacking in other skills. I know some people consider it their style. It’s not a style that appeals to me. One guy actually got upset with me because I called him on his lack of shift key and punctuation. He said I shouldn’t be judging him on that. I told him it was his first impression and asked if he really want to come across that way. I didn’t hear from him again. His photo was also of his “six pack.” Definitely not my type.

I get the same thing when I read blogs. A person who can express their ideas with proper capitalization and punctuation automatically carries more weight for me than one who doesn’t. This is also true for the justification of the blog (right, left, centered). What is it with all the center justified blogs? It makes it real hard to read and follow paragraph breaks.

I know of someone who used to participate in on-line political discussions. I could never give their words any credit because there were blatant misspellings, punctuation and capitalization issues, and an overabundance of text-speak. It was like showing up at a debate in your pajamas. No matter how good your ideas are, if you look like a fool people will think you are one.

There. Those are my internet pet peeves. Punctuation. Capitalization. Justification. Abbreviations. If you want to sound intelligent, look intelligent. It’s the same whether we’re talking about the physical world or the electronic world. If 90% of face-to-face communication is nonverbal, a good chunk of on-line communication is how the words are presented and not just the words themselves.

This week I found these two articles, one about e-mail and the other about on-line profiles (specifically facebook). They’re worth a look.

• KSL – Bad e-mail etiquette can hurt you.
• My Life Scoop – Facebook Etiquette: 11 Dos and Don’ts

I have said “this one has my name on it” many a time when talking about different things, especially things made out of chocolate. Because if it has my name on it then I just have to eat it. That’s all there is to it. But I never really thought about where that saying came from.

I’m still not sure where it started, but I do know that it has a very long history.

Brett and I watched a PBS special a while back about the town of Herculaneum. 1,931 years and two days ago the town of Herculaneum was a bustling town in Italy. And then on August 24, 79, the entire town was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Because it was situated on a different side of the volcano than Pompeii, the destruction in Herculaneum was by hot lava rather than hot ash, but the destruction was still complete. And much of the town was preserved in similar fashion.

In fact, they even found bread at the bakery that had the names of nobles stamped into it. It had their name on it because it was their bread for them to come and buy.

So things really can have your name on it!

And now you know.

A proposed Mosque in New York has been making the news lately. Actually it’s more the controversy around it, who’s for it and who’s against it, that is the news.

I have two thoughts on the matter.

First. How do you answer the question how close is too close? Or even how far away is far enough? Nobody will be able to answer that question satisfactorily for everyone.

My next thought is my main thought. And to illustrate it I have this selection of news articles from the past year (except the first one, which is from May 2008):

• LDS Church to build new temple in Phoenix – 24 May 2008
• Phoenix neighbors voice opposition to LDS temple – 17 Sep 2009
• LDS temple causes controversy in Phoenix neighborhood – 18 Sep 2009
• Loud protest against proposed Phoenix Mormon temple – 23 Nov 2009
• City council OKs addition to Phoenix LDS temple – 31 Dec 2009
• Residents oppose LDS temple, challenge city council’s ruling – 31 Dec 2009
• Phoenix Mormon temple foes claim enough signatures to overturn council action – 31 Dec 2009
• LDS Church agrees to lower temple height, raise spire – 18 Aug 2010

And this isn’t an isolated incident. It just happens to be the one occurring near where I live right now. This is a regular occurrence whenever the LDS church decides to build a temple. The Boston temple was dedicated in October of 2000 but did not get its steeple until September 2001 because of controversy.

It’s at least a different perspective to think about things.

When I was in high school I would wake up before 6am on Saturdays and climb into a mini-van with my mom and several other women in the ward. One person would be the navigator. One person had a map and a newspaper. And we would go around our side of town, piling out in clown car fashion at different stops. All for a sort of contest – Who can get the best deal?

Now, neither my mom nor I are morning people. So for us to get up that early, and on a Saturday no less, was highly unusual. But if we weren’t out the door that soon all the good stuff was gone. That’s right, we were going garage sale-ing. And it was a blast.

That’s how we outfitted my kitchen at college, complete with crock pot/deep frier, electric frying pan (still in use), and my Bosch mixer (which we got for $25 thank you very much, and I still use it to make bread now). We’d get books, jeans, dishes. My mom even came home with a glass top table for our dining room one day (that was the win of the day in our group).

So when I saw this story yesterday on NPR – Do’s and Don’ts for the Great American Garage Sale, it took me back. There is haggling going on. There is stiffled laughter you let loose back in the car that someone would be selling that for that price. There’s that feeling of victory when you get a great deal. There are the early-birds (which is why we had to get out early too). In El Paso all the good stuff was gone by 8am. So it’s strange for me to see sales that don’t even start till then here.

What did I learn from all of those Saturdays with those women? I learned what’s really worth my money and what isn’t. I learned to get a good deal. I learned that even if it is a good deal doesn’t mean you need it. Some times we saved so much money we went home with exactly what we left with. These lessons are also very appropriate for shopping in places other than garages.

I learned if you are going to haggle to make sure you have small bills in your pocket and to show the money you are willing to pay (there’s something about seeing the money that makes people more willing to sell), and that haggling to get something for $1 and then asking for change for a $5 or $10 doesn’t quite go over well.

And I definitely learned that I don’t want to have a bunch of junk for people to go through if I ever have a garage sale. Because, well, people judge you by your junk. Speaking of which, I have a few boxes I should probably go sort through.

In the BBC today they have a story titled “Cult of less: Living out of a hard drive.” Apparently there are people whose main possessions are their electronic ones. This, I think, is taking minimalism a little too far.

One person featured in the story doesn’t even have a physical address, only a web address to identify him. He sleeps on friends’ couches. Which to me also makes him a moocher. I’ve opened up my couch to friends before, once even for a week while they were between apartments. I myself have done that for a week when I was between apartments. But it wasn’t a way of life. His life might be less cluttered, but what about the lives of others that he’s cluttering up?

So I like having an actual physical address (I love the book Maniac Magee for that very idea of having an address that is yours). I also like having my own physical bed and couch and fridge and stuff.

I’m also not quite the techno-maniac in that I prefer reading physical books with pages and I prefer hand writing my journal.

But I do handle all of my bills and such online and paperless. And a big thing on my to-do list is to figure out how to scan in all the papers that I have boxed up so I can save them on a CD (or 2) and shred the papers. That would be awesome. And take care of several boxes I have stacked in the closet too.

All of my photos are digital any more. And the first thing I do when I get a new CD is rip it onto my hard drive. There are a lot of things that I can keep on the computer and it makes it very handy to keep them there.

But as long as I’m a physical being there are certain things that I need to actually be physical in my life and not merely a series of electrons.

I like thinking about how the mind works. Not necessarily the neurons and all of that, but the thinking and understanding and remembering and learning (that’s probably why I study in the field I do).

Yesterday I finished teaching my summer course. It was a great class. I had a real good group of students who brought a lot to the discussions. In the course of 4.5 weeks (23 days, 5 of which were test days), we learned about:

• the history of educational psychology and research
• physical, cognitive, linguistic, moral, and social development from birth through adolescence (and death for two of the theorists)
• behaviorism (which can be a LOT of fun to mess with)
• cognition – including information processing, cognitive constructivism, social constructivism, and various cognitive processes
• motivational theories
• learner diversity – culture, socioeconomic status, gender, and differing abilities (including the vague notion of intelligence)
• classroom management and instruction.

It was awesome! And fast! We watched clips from The Office, Simpsons, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, You’ve Got Mail, Remember the Titans, and I forgot to bring in the clip from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We talked about Sims and the theories that game is based on.

We also had to deal with construction workers putting in a new fire alarm system this summer which involved a lot of buzzing and banging while we were trying to have class. And the sororities started herding this week so parking was a bit interesting for me. There was also the bus strike to work with. And I took cupcakes to class on my birthday.

Now I’m crossing my fingers that the class carries in the fall. If it does I’ll be teaching it again. But because of budget cuts and degree cuts the class isn’t getting that much attention. I really hope it does carry. All of those topics are why I got into this field to begin with. I love them. They’re fascinating!

I like reading what comes out in the Mind & Brain section of Scientific American too. There’s always something interesting going on there.

I just saw this trailer today. Gotta admit. I got chills.

And then I immediately watched it again. And I got chills again.

(see how I did that with the font? You can get Harry Potter fonts at MuggleNet)

I must ask though, why is everything in 3D now?

And a follow-up question. Will the 3D glasses work with my HP movie outfit?

I was invited to visit the BYU campus in the fall of my senior year at high school for a weekend while BYU tried to “woo” me a bit (I don’t know if it worked or not since I’d decided before hand to go there). We visited with professors and departments and got to experience some classes they put together for us.

There was one point during the weekend when we had some free time and I ended up sitting on the steps below the bell tower. I sat there for a while and just kind of took in the whole feeling of the place. I’d been to BYU many times before when we lived in Utah. But there was something about sitting on those steps at that moment that was different.

As I sat there I felt like I was home. There was no place else I wanted to be.

My mom said when she picked me up at the end of the weekend, which ended with the first football game of the season (which I’d painted my face for, like I did the majority of the ones I went to while I was a student), that she could also tell something was different. Part of me had already moved out of the house and was at BYU.

The whole time I was a student at BYU I liked to pass the bell tower whenever I could. It was always a special place to me, a symbol of my home there.

There are those places in the world and in life where you just feel at home. Places where it seems you just belong, where you are comfortable, where you feel like you’ve always been there. Even people I’ve met have had that feeling for me. The bell tower was just one of those places for me at that time of my life. Since then I’ve certainly felt that at other places as life has taken me where it has. As my life has moved, so has that feeling of home.

Right now, that feeling of home for me is in our home, together.

Where have your homes been? Where have you felt that you’ve come home to?