Random Facts

Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave. 

Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards.  

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down -- hence the expression "to get fired" 

Before astronomers realized solar eclipses were caused by the moon, the Chinese thought an enormous dragon swallowed the sun, and they made as much noise as possible to scare the dragon away.   

Scientists suggest that most people will fall in love approximately seven times before marriage.

You cannot snore and dream at the same time.

In general, pregnant women remember dreams more than other populations.

 People who are born blind report no visual imagery in dreams, but they experience a heightened sense of taste, touch, and smell. Those who become sightless between the ages of five and seven may have visual images in their dreams, while those who lose their vision after age seven continue to “see” in their dreams, though images tend to fade as they grow older.

For reasons that are unknown, males dream of males more often than females dream of males. This sexual asymmetry is universal and has emerged from at least 29 different comparisons of male and female dreams—and it holds true for children, adolescents, and adults in all parts of the world.

Major Mystery

It really bothers me when people compare their college majors to other people's. It seems like whenever I tell someone I'm a psychology major they automatically think that it's an easy major. This is completely untrue. The reason we all pick out our majors is because we take what we do well in or what we like doing. I bet if people in other majors tried to take the psych classes I have to take they would not do very well with them because that's just not the way their mind works. Just because you may understand matrices and know the fancy names for the bones of the body does not mean you know how people work.

I will admit that certain classes are harder than others. But that's not the point here. The point is that people degrade other majors which is not cool. I admit that even I've done it but I was thinking about this and now I realize how wrong it is. You say English is easy? Try taking some of those writing classes and realizing how awful your writing is. People don't choose the so-called 'easy' majors because they're lazy; they choose them because that's their passion. I know someone who is an anthropology major and even though she knows how hard it is to find a job with that, she chose it because she likes it and that's the way I think it should be.

Some of the worst people are the ones who are doing pre-health or law or nursing just because they want the high salary. When they complain about how hard their classes are I just think about how much easier it would be for them if they were just doing something they actually enjoyed doing. If they were working towards a goal they truly wanted for themselves besides just for the money, the hard work they were putting in would mean more to them. I'm not saying that salary shouldn't affect your decision of a major, but doing something you hate just to make more money just doesn't seem logical to me.

Sometimes when I tell people that I got good grades for the semester they will say things like "well you are a psych major". Like that means anything? It's not like I didn't have to work hard to get the grades I get. There's no such thing as an 'easy' A unless it's one of those pointless gen ed classes.

The bigger point here is that we each have things that we do well at, we each have different things that we want to do, and we shouldn't be putting each other down for pursuing what makes us happy. (But we can put down the people who are doing something literally just for money those people are the worst [going against my hero Liz Lemon who says graduate students are the worst])

So you science people go on dissecting animals, you math people keep on somehow using both numbers and the Greek alphabet to solve your problems, and I'll just continue on watching people like a stalker

Ranty McRant Rant

One thing that really bothers me is when people complain that nobody likes them. Instead of complaining about it all the time to people who can't make others like you, why don't you just try and do something about it yourself?

Face the reality here, it's not possible for every single person you meet to hate you. Unless you're a criminal or something but hey even then you can find some criminal friends (if that makes you feel better). This is the main reason I get angry/annoyed when people just assume other people won't like them just because they exist or something. If you go in with that attitude, the other person will pick up on it.

For so long I tried to get people's approval of me and what for? I quickly realized they weren't even really people I wanted to hang out with anyways. If someone can't accept me for who I am and how I act then the friendship just won't work. You can try as much as possible to force it to work for as long as you can but in the end it'll just crumble apart.

This is not to say I like the people who have the "this is me so deal with it" attitude. Sometimes we really do have flaws that we need to sort out for ourselves and if we don't recognize it even after people have told us about it, then it'll never go away. It might hurt to hear certain things from friends, but if they really are your friend you should take their criticism and really think about it and if it's valid. The only person who can change you is yourself.

The big thing here I wanted to rant about is how people say "forever alone" all the time and just assume they will never find what they are looking for. There is the possibility that you won't find it, but in the end people can end up having something even better that they didn't even know they wanted in the first place. This is especially so when they aren't really "alone". I know the definition of "forever alone" is supposed to be about having a girlfriend/boyfriend but I can guarantee that 95% or so of the people who constantly say this have people who care about them. It bothers me because they just don't realize the support system they already have and just want more. It makes it seem like the people you currently have just aren't good enough for you.

Just because you might not have a boyfriend/girlfriend it doesn't mean your life is nothing and you should complain about it to the people you already have. Unless your goal is to chase those people away so you truly can use the phrase "forever alone" and mean it.

Le Ramble

This is a weird post because I'm starting it out about absolutely nothing but my mind has been like a mosquito on steroids flying around like crazy so it'll go somewhere I'm sure (or I hope).

Let's start with how I was talking to my dad today for a little bit (a little bit being like 10 minutes which is a lot for us actually) about how my brother blames his teachers for why he hasn't been doing too well in school. I'm not going to bother ranting about how annoying I find blaming others for your flaws is because I could talk about that alone for hours. Part of becoming a better person is taking things into your own hands and doing something about it yourself instead of just taking a passive role by saying it's someone else's fault for your shortcomings. And that's all I'll say.

When we were talking he kept telling me stories I've heard like five times from him and he thinks I always forget them. I know I forget a lot of things but I still don't like when people assume I just don't remember and they make fun of me for it; it's not like it's my fault my brain doesn't work too well in that department. Anyways, while he was telling me a story I'd already heard multiple times, I was thinking about how I wanted to tell him I remembered that story but then I didn't want to seem rude so I just listened to it again.

You know how when you're far away from a situation you think you'll do one thing but then as you get closer and closer to it you start doubting yourself more and more? I'm sure there's a name for that phenomenon but sadly I don't know it (even after searching around on Google for a little while). Yeah that thing happens to me all the time like I tell myself all the time, "Next time I talk to that person I'll tell them [insert thing here]" or "Next time I go to that class I'll finally talk to the person I sit next to". I go through all of this internal prep work to get ready for this situation but as it looms closer I back down from it and then it never even happens.

My dad was talking about how he likes to make his feelings clear to people and not hide them and I'm the opposite of that. I really wish I could be straightforward about that stuff but for whatever reason I just can't. I don't even think I can blame it on a trust issue type thing. I think it's just that I really hate talking about myself. Fun fact, when you first meet someone (and this is in general), if you let them talk about themselves a lot there's a higher chance that they will like you than if you just talk about random things. So basically people like when they can talk about their life.

I know how important it is for people to know what they mean to you and one of my favorite actresses says, “Don't wait until it's too late to say I love you.” I don't know why it is I just have a hard time telling people how much they mean to me. Maybe it's because I assume they just know it, which is not true. If you haven't voiced it they can't be sure. When you can tell someone you love them and you miss them and you feel emotions rushing through you, you know you really do mean it. Even if your feelings aren't reciprocated, it is definitely a good thing for people to know how you feel about them. And I do feel this way but every day I struggle to put into words all the things I want to say to people. It is getting better though.


So that was an interesting place I got to there. So this is my current mind spilled out to this page nobody looks at. K thx bye.

Tuck the Darkness In

I know the 2 people who follow this blog probably don't even go on blogger anymore but I really needed to talk about this somewhere.

So today on tumblr one of the people I follow posted something that basically resembles a suicide note titled "Goodbye All!" and reads as follows: "Things have happened in my life . Some horrible stuff . Well I always believed we can deal with anything . But turns out I was wrong . Some things you can never deal with . There is no going back , nothing to go back to . Everything must end here , Life must end here . Meet ya’ll in heaven . I have had a great time with you all and I have always loved you all . I’m leaving this blog behind as my memory . Goodbye all . Take care"

Now, this is someone I've never really talked to, never met, someone who lives on the other side of the world in India. Even so, I almost cried when I read what she posted. More than half of the people on my tumblr are talking about her and hoping she's okay even though none of us ever met her face to face. She blogs a lot about the show Castle and somehow word got out to the Castle cast on Twitter of what was going on and they have all tweeted to say they care. Nobody knows how she's doing now; she posted that about 8 hours ago.

This just makes me think that stuff like this happens every single day and we don't even know about it. It's really sad because it makes you wish you could have done something to make it better for someone who's in that state of mind. Even if it's irrational, it's hard not to think that you could have helped in some way. And even practical strangers care about people who are considering suicide.

In some way this whole thing has made me realize I could never do it. I used to have bouts of depression once in a while and it would cross my mind for brief moments, but now I know I wouldn't do it. There's just so much I have to live for.

Anyways sorry for the depressing post but I needed to get this off my mind.

Update: She just posted on her Twitter that she is alive

Where Are We Going?

While waiting to see Nick Offerman today, I noticed something I found really weird. One row in front of me there was a guy and a girl sitting next to each other but not talking to each other; the guy was on his phone and the girl was pretty much staring into space. I figured they didn't know each other but then a few minutes later they started engaging in what I have termed 'excessive PDA'. There I was thinking they didn't even know each other at all.

A few impatient minutes of waiting later, I noticed another guy sitting next to a girl and they also weren't really talking to each other. This time both of them were on their phones doing who knows what. I again deduced they didn't know each other because of the lack of acknowledging each others' existence. Yet again I was wrong; apparently they are a couple too.

I don't know if I can overgeneralize from this small observational study of mine but the implications for the direction 'couplehood' appears to be moving seems sad to me. If two people who are together can sit next to each other and practically ignore their significant other in place of doing something on their phone then what does that say? Seems to me people would rather be with their phones than with someone they care about. If that's where we're headed it's not like I can change it but I do want to comment on it because it bothers me more than it should.

Defensive Pessimism

Today when I was studying for my Personality Psychology exam I came upon a curious term: "defensive pessimism". When I read the definition I was really intrigued.

"Defensive pessimism is a strategy used by anxious people to help them manage their anxiety so they can work productively. Defensive pessimists lower their expectations to help prepare themselves for the worst. Then, they mentally play through all the bad things that might happen. Though it sounds as if it might be depressing, defensive pessimism actually helps anxious people focus away from their emotions so that they can plan and act effectively"

This sounds exactly like what I do all the time. It's nice to actually find a way to define it really. Even Oprah knows about defensive pessimism! Anyways I don't really have much to say about this just that it's interesting. Thanks to Andrew J. Elliot, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, who says "Research shows that if you pressure defensive pessimists into being optimistic, or try to manipulate their mood, their performance deteriorates". That at least could partially deter people from telling me I need to be optimistic.

My Opposite Self

So I'm taking a fiction writing course this semester and realized that I could actually write what I do in there on my poor, neglected blog. Good thing social services hasn't found me.

Anyways, the first prompt of the semester was that we were to write about our opposite selves. Who we would be if we were completely opposite of how we actually are. So here's what I wrote (and I know it's terrible):

My opposite self would be more outgoing and extroverted while also being the life of the party. I would be inclined to go to social events and would socialize with many people. I would also be egotistical and want to take credit for my achievements and would not be satisfied with allowing these achievements to go unnoticed by others. My opposite self would be confident in every situation and would be optimistic that everything turns out for the best and everything happens for a reason.

I found it interesting while I was listening to everyone say what they wrote. I listened for what each person decided to focus on about themselves that would be majorly different then who they are. Some people focused on how different they would look, some on how they would feel, and some on how they would act. Just made me think about what that says about each person based on what they wrote.