A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

One of my all time favorites.
Click here for trailor: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3945071385/

05.06.2010

Already, I have found 2010 to be an awful year: personally, financially, and emotionally. I hope the year changes, for the better, soon.

Schemas

Let's do (well, actually replicate, thanks to Bransord and Johnson-- gotta cite those sources). I want you to read this passage and, without cheating, memorize as much of it as possible. Better yet, just try to understand it:

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one never can tell, After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life

Okay. Now memorize it. I'll wait...

Not happening, right? Now I'm gonna let you in on something. This passage was about laundry. Now that you know this, go back and read it again. And see if you can understand/memorize it.

Better?

It's called schemas, or conceptual representations of our world. You see, memory is much more than mere, memorizing, for lack of a sufficient word. It's pretty cool. How many times have you gone into a classroom? Yet, I bet if I took you into a completely different classroom in a completely random town and you saw the desks, the board, etc., you'd know where you were. You'd also know how to behave (don't talk, raise your hand, learning environment). We have this "classroom schema" that kicks in, letting us know these things. This is how our brain operates, this is how we make sense of the world. There's more on this, but I have Finals to study for...

-Chastity M.

Maybe I do Love New York after all

So I went to my poster presentation in Chicago yesterday and it went pretty well. Nairne (the guy I based my research on) was actually there and gave me a run for my money. Boy was that intense! I'm not too sure if he liked that I put so much emphasis on levels of processing and not evolution. Oh well.
The best part of my trip, though, was the ride home (I got a window seat). I love sitting by the window on airplanes. It's something about flying above the clouds that I find so relaxing. Kissing Heaven, I call it.
I guess the pilot took the scenic route this time, or maybe it was just the direction we were coming from. Either way, I found myself overlooking Manhattan, cruising over the Hudson, gazing at Liberty's everlasting flame. Beautiful. The colors, the infamous grid lines that shapes downtown, those lights. It wasn't until then that I realized I Love New York. All of my life, I've taken for granted the beauty of the overcrowded city. Scowled at the traffic, the pollution, the loudness of life, the random tourists taking pictures of buildings I've seen a thousand times. But as I flew over the city last night, I grew nostalgic. For the first time, I wasn't a part of it. I was thousands of feet in the air, looking at it from a distance.
And then the pilot did something interesting. He turned the plane so we can reach our destination. The thing is, when a plane turns in the air, one side goes down, and the other up. So as that right wing tilted downward (and I was on the left side), I could see my city no more. I was forced to stare at the blank black sky. New York City was taken away from me. Or did I abandon it? Did I just say goodbye to the town I've known all of my life? Just walked away, leaving Times Square and forgetting to turn the lights off. Goodbye New York. I love you.

Chastity M.

(This image is one that I took on the plane yesterday)