My humor. Scary sororities. Dirty soap.

16 August 2011, 4:39 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Life, Questions

Three posts in one!

My Humor

I don’t consider myself an exceptionally funny person. But I’ve been told more than once that I tell funny stories. I’m just talking about my life. I’m not trying to be funny. It just happens that way. However, it is apparently necessary to have a developed pre-frontal cortex in order to find me funny. This weekend Brett and I were laughing like crazy about something we’d done. I told my mom the story and she laughed like crazy. I told another adult and she found it amusing. I told a group of 12 and 13 year-old girls – they just stared at me like I was weird (which I am, but that’s beside the point). I’m apparently much funnier with a pre-frontal cortex.

Scary Sororities

It’s been “rush week” or whatever they call it on campus the last week or so. That’s something I just don’t understand. They actually scare me a bit. I’m not afraid of them. But they are scary. They remind me a little too much of the planet of It from A Wrinkle in Time. They walk around in huge groups wearing their matching clothes. They repeat chants ad nauseum, and at loud volumes. They are entirely too matchy-matchy for me in such large numbers. Have some independent thoughts every now and then!

Dirty Soap

Here’s a question I wonder about from time to time (about as often as the commercials come on). Why does the fact that the soap dispenser is one of the most germy places in the home matter? It only makes sense that it would be, it’s the last thing you touch before you wash your hands. Right after you touch it you wash your hands. Then you don’t touch it again till you are washing your hands again. Telling me it’s dirty and I need a touchless one is just a way to make me spend money to solve a problem I don’t really have (which is how Brett describes all advertising).

13 Shared thoughts

Say it like you mean it

11 August 2011, 3:49 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Work

In addition to using the right words and making the best visual presentation of your ideas when they are in writing as possible, it’s also important to speak with conviction. Say it like you know what you are talking about, even if you don’t. A lot of people won’t be able to tell the difference (I present as evidence pretty much every politician).

Last year we studied the Old Testament in Sunday School. Anybody familiar with the Old Testament is also familiar with the fact that it has a lot of names of people and places that might have been real common back then but now nobody knows them any more. When people would read them out loud for class they’d hesitate and stumble and try it again (although one person just skips over any word she doesn’t want to try to pronounce). The thing with those words is, nobody will know if you got it right or wrong if you don’t already plant the seeds of doubt in your inflection. If people just went right on through with confidence everyone else would just think, “Oh, so that’s how you say it.” Which is true in a sense. That is how I say it. But that might not be how the Old Testament person said it. But they aren’t talking so much right now. Which defaults to me being right.

I had a student one semester that frequently answered questions I posed to the class. And she pretty much always got them right. But by her inflection she answered every question I asked with a question of her own. I finally called her on it one day (which just happened to be a day I was being observed) and told her she needed to answer the question again and this time mean it and believe it. It reminded me of the scene in The Rookie where Jimmy Morris has his student do the same thing when answering about the composition of the atom. If you know the answer, why are you asking me? Trust yourself.

I’ve also been in the position where I was speaking to a group about an idea I had and they were asking me questions about how it would work and what the details would be and I was honestly standing there making it up as we went along. Afterwards someone told me how amazed they were that I knew so much. I had to admit to them I’d been making it up. But because I stood tall and didn’t fidget, and didn’t put a questioning inflection on the end of all my sentences, nobody could tell. I promise I will only use my powers for good.

Say it like you mean it. If you’re questioning what you are saying, so will everyone else.

2 Shared thoughts

What a mouth!

8 August 2011, 5:03 pm by Giggles
Categories: Work

On July 29th I wrote a post about how email style says a lot about the person who wrote it. But spoken words also say a lot about the person who says them. The words you use to convey your ideas also influence how those ideas are perceived by others.

If you use a lot of technical jargon you can come across as someone who knows a lot about the field (as long as you are using them correctly) to other people in the know, or you can come off as pretentious to people outside of the jargon circle. Using overly large words in abundance also sounds pretentious.

Using slang makes you sound unprofessional. While in some situations you might not want to necessarily be professional, in a professional setting it makes it hard for others to take you seriously if you use slang.

I was in a situation with someone once where he was trying to engage in a debate about some piece of educational research with me. This is someone who is also in the education field and could be considered a professional. They were using not just slang, but swearing. And in that split second instance that person lost any respect they might have had in my mind and I have not been able to take anything they say seriously since. If a person has no greater way to express themselves than to drop into the gutter, their ideas deserve just as much thought as their words received, i.e., none.

You don’t use ACT level words when teaching kindergartners. You don’t use gutter language when talking with professionals (or kindergartners, or really ever).

6 Shared thoughts

Hodgepodge

3 August 2011, 6:28 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Life, Venting, Work

My main goal for this summer was to complete and submit all the paperwork for my last two research projects so I can start actually doing the research. I was 90-95% finished with the paperwork for my dissertation project. That includes 16 quizzes, 16 worksheets, time lines, checklists, verification forms, and an 18 page protocol proposal. I just needed a few more answers to some questions on the big form and some signatures. I’d be ready to submit it by next week at the latest.

Monday I got an email telling me that effective immediately all old versions of the forms were no longer good and only new versions of the forms will be accepted now. The quizzes, worksheets, and time lines are still good, but everything else needs to be redone. Can you see my motivation dropping before your eyes? :angry:

Last night was my first big night as Young Women president. We had a Personal Progress Purse Party based around the story of the lost purse from Elder Cook’s April General Conference talk. Because we are a new presidency I had all of us introduce ourselves with a “purse biography.” (I brought items you can find in my purse at some point – a notebook, a photo book, quilt squares, a flash drive, and my small Book of Mormon. I’ll let you decide what that says about me.) It was a great way to get to know a bit more about each of them. Then we attempted to make purses. Which wasn’t quite the chaotic disaster it could have been. In fact, I think most people had a good time. It helped that we had basically one adult for every two girls.

We have roadshow stuff for the next month, and the specialists will handle that, so my next thing is the ward party we have to do a skit for this Friday and a youth dance our ward is hosting next week. Brett and I need to dust off our dancing shoes.

I got home last night and it took my brain forever to stop going over the evening and calm down. Darn my introverted nature. I’d sleep better if mutual ended at 6pm, giving me time to unwind. Since it doesn’t even start till 7pm this could be a problem. While I was gone Brett had sorted and put away the laundry and cleaned up dinner (that he’d cooked).

This comic from xkcd, “Lanes,” has been haunting me for the last week. It’s a very effective way to illustrate the reality of cancer.

I’ve decided I really like Google+. I think I need to write a whole separate post about why though.

I think this Story People sums up how I feel right now, about a lot of things – Stress Management. I’m just waiting for life to prove me wrong. The grass, however, is growing. (So are the weeds. I haven’t had to pull weeds in months but I’m barely keeping on top of it right now.) We’ve even had to mow the grass once. And since our neighbors have moved, it won’t be long before the grass is greener on our side of the fence. I need to get out there and water it for tonight.

7 Shared thoughts

Intelligence

31 July 2011, 8:15 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Gospel

Yesterday I was asked me to give a brief 3-4 minute spiritual thought around the theme of “love life and learning.” Only 3-4 minutes?!? I could go on about that subject for a good half hour, easy. Since I couldn’t do that yesterday, I’m going to do a bit of it today.

When we think of the attributes of God we think of Him as being loving, kind, serving, sacrificing, and we know we need to be like Him in those things. But He is also creative (I have a whole post about the creative nature of God), so we should create. He is also omnipotent, all knowing, so we should know as much as we possibly can.

He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by him, and of him, even God, forever and ever.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:41

O how great the holiness of our God!  For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.
2 Nephi 9:20

In fact, not only are we generally asked to be like God, but we are also specifically commanded to learn things, and what to learn (hint: everything). The more we know the more useful we are in serving in God’s kingdom.

118 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
119 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;
Doctrine and Covenants 88:118 – 119

78 Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;
79 Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—
80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:78 – 80

Every commandment comes with blessings. And the command to learn, gain wisdom and understanding, gather intelligence, is no exception. We will be better able to resist temptation the more we know. And we will have a head start in the eternities.

36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
37 Light and truth forsake that evil one.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:36 – 37

18 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
Doctrine and Covenants 130:18 – 19

So, there you go. Learn. Learn as much as you can. Learn wherever you can. In the last week or so Brett has turned to me several times and commented on the great amount of random knowledge I have in my head that I have accumulated over the years. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment when he says that. As I thought about how we are supposed to learn throughout our lives I decided there were three main sources or types of learning we can do – formal, semi-formal, and informal.

Formal learning is that which takes place when you are a matriculated student. You are enrolled in official classes seeking a degree or certificate of some sort. School. Training programs. Those are formal learning situations.

Semi-formal learning, a term I have newly coined, would be things like community ed classes (belly dancing!) or lectures at museums. Things which have been formally arranged by others to some degree but are not large time commitments the way formal education is. I remember my whole family taking ASL classes at night through the community college (I believe) when I was younger, just because we could. That was a semi-formal learning situation.

And then there’s informal learning. And this category is so broad as to include all the rest of life. I’m reminded of Grandpa Giles who used to frequently tell us (especially when we were getting ready to start a new semester or a new degree), “Don’t let the book learnin’ interfere with your education.” My informal learning includes watching PBS, reading National Geographic and Scientific America, reading non-fiction books (I’m on W for the alphabet challenge with Amanda), reading dictionaries (I always get side tracked by interesting words when I’m looking something up in a physical dictionary, it’s lots of fun), going for walks, talking to people, and everything else that life has to offer. I’ve even been putting my “graduate student skills” to use doing something useful lately (aside from graduating) and researching actual vetted information for questions we’ve had. Learning how to look for things and how to judge their authority has been a great skill.

Brett and I frequently tell each other “Be good and learn something.” We say it so much in fact that I have plans to embroider it onto a something and post it next to our front door so we can always remember it as we go out into the world. We always have to report back on what we learn as well.

So, what did you learn today? How have you increased in wisdom and understanding?

4 Shared thoughts

What you say says a lot

29 July 2011, 10:59 am by Giggles
Categories: Life, Relationships, Science & Tech

It was 5.5 years ago yesterday that Brett first contacted me. I, wanting to appear aloof rather than desperate and needy, didn’t reply until 5.5 years ago tomorrow. And it worked! We then talked about shoes, soy sauce, and computer languages for the next week.

Yesterday dictionary.com had a blog post about what your email style says about your personality. I particularly like how they started the post:

Like a first impression, the emails we send allow the recipient to judge us solely based on our choice of tone, punctuation and writing ability. We may come across as educated or illiterate, happy or disgruntled – it’s all in the delivery.

Brett wasn’t the only guy to contact me through that particular site. But he was pretty much the only one I judged worthy of my time. And it was based almost solely on his use of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling – he used them, others didn’t.

One guy in particular got upset with me when I judged him based on his lack of punctuation and capitalization. He seemed offended that I determined from his email that he was lazy and not that intelligent. How lazy do you have to be to not move your finger ever so slightly over to push the shift key or a period? If he didn’t know how to type, what else didn’t he know how to do? (His profile picture was also of his abs, which also says a lot about the type of guy he was.)

More and more in our world, what you write on the internet, either in blog posts or in emails, is the first impression people have of you. And since it is possible to “think before you speak” in this electronic world, it isn’t hard to do a little more thinking. I often sit on important emails for a day before sending them. That way I can make sure they are saying what I need them to say.

I don’t receive emails from guys asking me out any more, but I have received some rather interesting professional emails in the last year. I got one that not only was just a text-speak reply, but it was a misused text-speak. “Txt” means “text” not “thanks.” Another email included six question marks after one sentence and two exclamation marks after another. I had no idea where that hostility was coming from and was not sure I wanted to work with that person if that was what they were like. Emails from students that use full sentences with proper capitalization and punctuation get faster responses than the ones who can’t be bothered.

I’m less likely, in fact I don’t, read blogs that don’t use capitalization and punctuation correctly. If they have centered everything or are constantly changing font sizes I don’t read them. I read for content not cuteness, and if the content is difficult to read I have other things to do with my time.

All that’s to say, I’m very glad Brett knows how to use a shift key and where the period is on the keyboard. It gave the impression that he was smart and that he cared. And it’s made all the difference in our lives.

Edit: Also see where I said almost the exact same thing last year. I should read my blog more often: First Impressions – Electronically

14 Shared thoughts

Blue eyes

27 July 2011, 12:29 pm by Giggles
Categories: Health

I ran out of contacts last year. And the last time I’d been to the eye doctor was when I was getting smart looking glasses to start my PhD with at the end of 2007. 8) I’ve been wearing said smart looking glasses for the last year but decided I’d like the option of contacts again. Which meant finding an eye doctor here.

It would be convenient to just go to Target or Wal-Mart to get a prescription. But all they can do is tell me how bad my eyesight is, they can’t tell me how healthy my eyes are. So even though my appointment on Monday took an hour and required my eyes being dilated (the drops sting, it hurts to be outside for a few hours because your eyes are so sensitive to light, and your near vision gets really messed up) and then numbed to check out the pressure in my eye ball, it’s worth it for me to go to an opthamologist and not just an optometrist. Now I know that I have a spot/web/thingy on my right retina that is common in near-sighted people but also puts me at much greater risk of my retina detaching. So no hitting me on the right side of my head, okay?

Also, my prescription has not changed at all in 3.5 years. If anything she says we might have been slightly over correcting on my left eye. A stable prescription means lasik would be great for me. Now we just need to pay off our other debts so I can do that.

2 Shared thoughts