I find it amusing that the Facebook group, “I Tried Being Normal Once. Worst 5 Minutes of my Life” has nearly a million users. What’s more, it looks to be a relatively new group, with its only “recent activity” according to the wall is that it joined Facebook. And when I refreshed the page just a couple minutes later, the number of users grew by about several hundred at least.

However, as a social psychologist, one thing I’ve learned is that it’s actually probably quite normal for a person to think that they are different or in some way not normal. As a related tidbit, according to several psych classes that I took as an undergrad, teenagers (at least those in the U.S., I’m not sure if this has been replicated elsewhere) also commonly describe themselves as different from other teenagers because they believe themselves to be complicated or complex. Apparently, the notion that one’s behavior often (appropriately) changes according to one’s social settings constitutes “complexity,” lol.

In any case, it seems the actual behavior of defining oneself as different or not normal probably simply serves to classify that person as, in fact, normal. Please don’t be insulted though; “normal” is no more an insult than it is a compliment. It is merely a statistical term, after all.

Yesterday, I defended my master’s. And yes, I passed.

Taking the weekend off and celebrating the end of the semester/my successful defense at Sake (酒 or さけ) Café tonight. Hooray for sushi!

So in my weekly meeting with my advisor today, I mentioned how I had been sick during most of the winter break. I only got sick after classes were over, and I started feeling better right before they started again. Also, the doctor wasn’t sure what it was that was causing my fevers, but suspected it was some sort of viral infection.

Advisor, however, had a different theory as to the source of my illness: “You were having grad school withdrawal syndrome.” Right. That must have been the problem…

–Tati

Yes, I am still alive and I still plan to update this blog. This poor little blog needs a new post though, and I need to set myself reminders to write. I’m not sure what to write about now, but I just felt the need to update, so my blog wouldn’t feel abandoned I guess, lol.

I just found and installed a cute new widget for the blog, “Now Reading.” I actually saw it on husband’s blog (john.nachtimwald.com) first, but I thought it might add to my blog too, so I copied him. On the right hand side, it’s the little part that shows books I’m currently reading, books I’ve read recently, and books I plan to read. I’ll try to remember to update that. It even has a section for ratings and reviews, so maybe I’ll do those for a few books. But reviews tend to be a lot of work, or if not that, they turn out poor or mediocre at best. And I’m quite lazy, and not a fantastic writer, so any reviews may well turn out to be lousy. But whatever, we’ll see what happens.

Right now, I’m reading Outliers (a.k.a., Outliers: The Story of Success) by Malcolm Gladwell. Well, I guess technically I’m still reading it. I’ve finished all the chapters and the intro and all of that, I’m just not done with the epilogue yet. I should have finished long ago — I read the last 3 chapters on Christmas Eve — but I haven’t been feeling well and headaches make it hard to read. But anyhow, basically I’m done with the book, so far the epilogue doesn’t contain any surprises or major points that weren’t already articulated in the actual chapters. And it is a good book. Since I began studying social psychology and the external forces that influence our own lives and decisions, I’ve started to realize that people don’t just get where they are through sheer talent alone. I’ve also noticed the lucky breaks and fortunate timing in my own life. That’s basically what Outliers is all about; how things about our culture and history, or even just timing and lucky opportunities, have been significant factors contributing to the success of extraordinary people and groups — the “outliers” of society. Even beyond intuitive influences of success (e.g., family background and economic status), this book highlighted some weird, arbitrary advantages that some “outliers” have had, for example, how lucky the greatest hockey players were to have been born early in the year, especially January, otherwise they may not have had the opportunity to become the great hockey players that they are today (read the book for explanation; I’m too lazy). Even if I wasn’t interested in the influence of external factors on success, I probably would have continued to read because the book also provides interesting tidbits of history on various successful people, such as Bill Joy, Bill Gates, and The Beatles. It wasn’t as statistical or research-oriented as I had expected, given the title, but as I was on break while I was reading it, I don’t really mind that so much.

And here I thought I was just going to write a quick update saying that I’ll make a real post later. Well, I do plan on making more posts soon, but I think I’ve written enough for now. Also, I’m getting a little dizzy and tired from staring at my computer for so long. I think I need to adjust the contrast. Adios.

–Tati

Last Friday was my birthday and it was a pleasant one, so I thought since I haven’t posted in a while, this was a good enough topic. (Plus, this is my blog and I can post about wtf I want.)

There was a bit of a fiasco in the days leading up to my birthday, but luckily everything turned out okay in the end. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a birthday dinner with my fellow grad students or where I wanted it, so I dilly-dallied around and still had not made any plans. But then, the weekend before my birthday, one of the grad students made plans to host a special event and invited a bunch of people to it. And of course, the day he was hosting this event was none other than my own birthday. Not feeling it would be right to invite those same guests to celebrate my birthday on the same night, I felt as though the decision of whether or not to have a dinner or celebration was taken out of my hands — and naturally, as soon as I felt I no longer had that option, I wanted it. Of course, there were several people who had planned on celebrating my birthday with me that night even before the other grad student made plans, as well as people who the other grad student didn’t know (so obviously didn’t invite), and these people were able to make it to my birthday dinner.

I stayed up until midnight the night before my birthday, as usual, because I like to be awake to enjoy the first few minutes of my birthday. Plus I very much enjoy the competition between friends, cousins, and siblings to see who can say happy birthday to me first. Eventually I went to bed and got a few hours of sleep before heading to brown bag. It was a good talk. Laura made cupcakes for everyone and put sprinkles on mine, and it was very tasty. I also devoted several hours to my favorite game, Kingdom Hearts II. I was in the middle of a battle and couldn’t get to a save point when it was almost time for us to leave for dinner, so I almost declared that dinner would just have to wait. Fortunately, I kicked those Nobodies’ and Heartless’s little butts and made it to a save point so I could safely put away my game.

John and I met up with everyone at Momoyaki for dinner at 7:00. Delicious Japanese-Korean fusion and entertaining conversation ensued. This was followed by Cold Stone, where a single bite of my friend’s ice cream was rich enough to give me a tummy ache. Yet despite the tummy ache, I took a second bite. But it was worth it; it was really good coffee ice cream…

After arriving home I got to open my presents, which were awesome. I had asked John for The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD, but in addition to that, he also got me The Corpse Bride, Coraline, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. John’s mom also took me shopping for a birthday gift on Sunday. I must admit, the shopping itself kinda drained the life out of me, but I ended up getting a nice corduroy jacket and a really awesome pleather jacket which makes me look like a bamf (bad-ass mother… well, you can figure out the rest). I also got a nice corduroy jacket.

So, all in all it was a pleasant weekend. I played some much needed KHII, got to have dinner with my friends, spent a little time with the in-laws, got some really cool gifts, and just had a good time. Oh, and did I mention how cool the jacket was?

Happy Birthday to me!

image taken from flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97968921@N00/672049353/

Wow, I haven’t updated in a really long time. For shame. Well, here’s a quick, miscellaneous-topic sort of update.

• As of July 12, John and I have officially been married for a year! John likes to brag that he finally beat his cousin at something.
• John and I went to The Laboratory for Trivia Night tonight and it was more fun than I expected. (I love being pleasantly surprised.) The Laboratory is a recently opened, “mad scientist” themed bar/cafe owned by some people we know, located just northeast of campus. I think I’m addicted to their Cuban espresso, very tasty. Overall it’s pretty much the most awesome place.  The Laboratory facebook page
• Classes start in like a month or so, which means I need to get going on getting everything ready to run my master’s study. Joy.
  • On a related note, I’m finding that the more I think about my master’s project, the less I like it, but more importantly, the more skeptical I am of actually getting the results I’m predicting. Stupid 6 cell design (12 if you count gender, which I think I am).
• We’ve purchased a Playstation 2 and many fun games. The ones I’m most excited about are — surprise surprise — Kingdom Hearts I, II, and Chain of Memories, as well as two different DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) games.
• John also got me all the Kingdom Hearts manga that’s out so far: Kingdom Hearts I, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II. So far I’m enjoying it. Excellent anniversary gift.
• The trailer for The Last Airbender came out a while ago and left me with mixed feelings. I’ll probably make a separate post, or series of posts, about this topic. We’ll see.
• I saw the latest Harry Potter movie and I was pleased. I was apprehensive to see this movie because The Half-Blood Prince was my favorite book of the series, but I think this film did a better job of sticking with the original story than did the last.
• Visited Arizona, came back last weekend. It was a great trip. I’ll probably devote a separate post to the trip later as well.

I think that’s all for now. I think I’ll bake some cinnamon bread.

–Tati

My social cognition final exam is little more than 12 hours away, and I still want to go over my notes and summaries at least one more time in full between now and then. I need to sleep and shower at some point between now and then too.

But the stress is nowhere near over. As soon as this final is done (6pm tomorrow, or I guess technically today now), I have to write about a thousand more pages for my master’s proposal so I can get a draft in to my advisor by Wednesday. He really wants my proposal approved by the end of this month, and I really have no idea how that’s going to happen, considering that means that he’ll want revisions of that draft by Friday. My statistics final exam is also on Friday.

I keep reminding myself that by this time next week, I’ll be done with all this — I’d have to be, my deadlines will have already past. I just really don’t see that happening…

So it’s nearly 10pm and I’m in the psych building, waiting for the rest of my study group. The final exam for social cognition is on Tuesday and I’m dreadfully unprepared; it’s going to be a long night.

–Tati

Dear JPSP,

This isn’t working. It’s not me, it’s you. I’m sick of your 4+ studies per week-long article, and my eyes grow weary of your microscopic font. Mostly though I think you’re just too verbose for me — and I’m a girl.

I was at first willing to get over these issues. I’ve read many, many pages, multiple articles, without even so much as a coffee break on countless occasions, yet you apparently don’t understand reciprocity. I’ve read for you, the least you could do was shorten a bit for me — just a page or two, every once in a while. But instead, your articles grow increasingly longer.

I tried to make this work, but we’re just too different. And as it turns out, there are indeed other fish in the sea, so I’m leaving you for Psych Science.

I wish you all the best and am sure you can take comfort in knowing that you have plenty of other subscribers who will try to read you.

Sincerely,

A Short-Attention-Span Graduate Student

I feel as though sleep has become my new lover.

Allow me to elaborate. The last four days, it’s all I can do to keep myself from going to sleep. Any idle moment when I am awake, I am thinking about sleep. Every working moment sleep is calling to me from the back of my mind. I’ve spent a good deal of time with sleep the last four days, yet I can’t get enough of sleep. I want more of it, I must have more of it. At the moment I am totally obsessed with sleep.

For fear of merely categorizing myself as a lazy, sleep-addicted sloth, let me address a couple issues. The last few days I’ve been feeling dreadfully ill. Fever, sore throat, losing my voice, coughing my lungs out, sneezing and dripping everything else out, muscle aches, exhaustion, chills, cold sweats, a little nausea, and sinus pressure like perpetual explosion from the inside of my skull. (John thinks it’s the flu, what a nuisance.) I think it’s fair to say that my physical maladies have something to do with my constant cravings for sleep. But it’s not just that. Like I’ve mentioned before, the last couple weeks I’ve started to get in the habit of going to bed early at least a couple nights a week, and it’s so nice to fall asleep with John, rather than being lonely when he goes to bed and not joining him until much later. It’s just such a nice treat, and now I miss it. I miss going to bed early and sleeping all the way through the night, and not wanting to hurl my phone at the wall when the alarm goes off the next morning.

Of course, I think I always enjoy sleep. But even that being said, my affection for it has increased substantially in the last four or five days. And when I was thinking about sleep earlier, and writing down my thoughts, I couldn’t help but be struck with how much my musings on sleep must resemble an enamored person’s feelings towards his or new lover.