memorization schmemorization

one thing that really bothers me about school is when teachers expect you to remember formulas and other schematics for solving problems.  don't they know that right after a test, test takers usually forget about 70% of the information they learned for the test? and if that formula isn't part of that 70% of information that we forget, why do we need to memorize it in the first place? when are we ever going to be in a situation where we need the formula or whatever it may be and not be able to look it up? i realize that this doesn't apply to concepts in the least bit. i'm not saying that we should never have to learn material and retain it in our memory because that would be a completely outrageous idea to say or believe.  conceptual material is a completely different case because, not only do you need to know it, but you need to be able to understand it on a deep level and then apply it to situations which can only be accomplished through some level of understanding.  formulas, like the formula used to calculate the volume of a trapezoid, volume = ½(A+B)*Y*Z, are always going to be accesible, rather quickly might i add with the help of the internet.  we shouldn't have to waste our time trying to cram our brains chalk full of the equations when they are so readily accessible.  i really wish more teachers and professors would catch on to this and realize it is completely unnecessary.  i know i praise the teachers that already believe in this.

the silent assassin

if you could be any animal in the world what would you choose?  and why? i don't mean which animal do you think represents you best, i mean you can be absolutely anything.  if i was given this choice, i would choose a black panther.  at first when i was thinking of animals i thought, well i would want to be something big like an elephant or a rhino so i could overpower whatever came my way.  but then i quickly decided that speed is more important than power to me, so i thought of the king of the jungle, the lion.  then i thought, too cliche.  yeah they are king of the jungle and everything but people also keep them as pets. i decided i wanted to be something that is pretty well known but still mysterious at the same time.  that's how i landed on a black panther.  i mean, what is more mysterious than a fast, black jungle cat.  you probably won't hear of too many cases of people keeping one as a pet.  i feel like black panthers are the quiet type that you always have to keep your eye on because you never quite know what they are going to do next.  something about a black panther just seems like they are always respected and command attention when they walk into a room, not that most animals wouldn't if they walked into a room full of people, but you know what i mean.  so that's me, the jungle's biggest badass.

inside the labyrinth

in one of my classes this semester we received an assignment to write a five page paper over the social psychology subject of our choice. we were told to write the paper in apa format, which before writing the paper i had no idea even existed.  we were also required to have at least 5 sources, only two of which could be from the internet. so i dragged myself to fondren library and basically didn't leave for two days straight.  i spent the entirety of the first day simply trying to figure out what apa format even meant, this definitely took me longer than actually writing the paper itself.  the next day i started searching the web for sources and once i got my two internet sources out of the way i realized that i would actually have to start looking for books to use to fulfill the requirement.  once i searched for the appropriate books on the library catalog i had no clue where to even begin to look for the books.  i can honestly say that i am a junior in college and i had never looked for a book to check out, let alone checked out a book from fondren.  so of course i went straight to help desk and was told that one of my books was located on the first floor, one on the second floor in fondren west, two on the third floor of fondren east, and the fifth on the third floor of fondren east.

*this picture was actually taken in fondren while i was lost

not confusing at all.  after finding my first two books, not very easily might i add, i promptly found myself lost among the stacks, not knowing if i was in east or west, or really positive what floor i was on for that matter, due to the tricky stairs.  i felt like i was in the movie labyrinth alongside jennifer connelly trying to find my way out of the goblin king jareth's labyrinth so i could finally start my paper.

everywhere i turned all i could see were books, books and more books and every aisle looked exactly the same.  i literally had to walk to the very end of one of the rows and just follow the outer wall all the way around until i could find a door that led out of the stacks.  a quick lesson to all you freshman out there: learn the dewey decimal system...and maybe go in pairs.

behind enemy lines

i've personally never had any interest in being in the army or any of the other armed forces, in fact, i've never even seen a real gun in person, let alone held one.  however, i've always had the utmost respect for the individuals that choose to do so.  i've always wondered what life would be like if you were a trained to be combat soldier.  while us civilians are waking up and brushing our teeth and getting ready for a day of school or work sitting at a desk, these soldiers are brushing their teeth and getting ready for a day of learning how to fight and kill the enemy out on the battlefield.  of course because i have no experience with anything even remotely related to the armed forces, the only thing to guide my thinking and imagination of what a day in the life of a soldier would be like are the countless war and fighting movies i've seen.  i'm sure like most other movies, the roles are somewhat exaggerated or altered in some way to add entertainment value, but i've always wondered just how much is changed or if it is at all.
sometimes i try to imagine the mindset of a soldier.  they basically wake up knowing that they might have to kill someone that very day.  i'm almost positive that with whatever career path i choose i will never wake up with that thought rattling through my brain, which can probably be said for the majority of other civilians.  but here they are, training, day after day, after day in case they have to do just that.  sometimes sleeping in a foreign country, virtually in the middle of nowhere, not always knowing where the enemy is.  talk about a job for the mentally tough.  i know i couldn't do it.  kudos to them.

welcome to the future

do you ever think about what you thought your life was going to be like when you were a little kid?  i remember being in third or fourth grade thinking about what i wanted to be when i grew up, something that most children do.  i wanted to be a nurse because i thought that men were doctors and women were nurses, both being equivalent.  then once i hit fifth or sixth grade, all anyone could talk about was high school, turning sixteen, and getting your dream car.  i remember thinking that i wanted a lime green volkswagen beetle, and i always pictured myself driving around and blaring "i'm real" by j. lo and ja rule over and over everywhere i went.  at this time, i was playing four sports and of course i saw myself playing each sport in college and then naturally making it to the respective professional leagues upon completion of college.  then, once i finally got to high school, i started thinking more realistically.  i picked out a 1995 bmw for my first car, but it turned out to be a death trap so we sold that and i got a volkswagen jetta, in the same family as my original dream car.  i also started thinking more seriously about my future career and took up and interest in chemistry and wanted to be a pharmacist, that is until i took ap chemistry my senior year and found out that chemistry become a tad bit tougher than i was used to in the introductory course i had taken my sophomore year.  right about the same time that i realized chemistry wasn't for me it was time to start filling out college applications.  then i really started thinking about my career and what i wanted to do with the rest of my life.  i got one thing right when i was dreaming about my future back in middle school; i'm playing volleyball in college, but i'm more realistic about my hopes of going to play professionally because it is not a very reliable career path.  instead i decided that business was the route for me, accounting in particular but i was still curious about other things that i could possibly take and that's how i came to my double major with advertising.  i just think it is really interesting how some of your childhood dreams stay with you throughout life, although they made be altered just a little bit, and some you quickly outgrow. it'll be even more interesting to see which dreams continue into the next phase of my life.

heebie jeebies

i think most of us are familiar with the tv show monk.  i caught a rerun the other day and i had somehow forgotten just how many things he was afraid of.  every episode he had to solve the cases while somehow dealing with his seemingly infinite amount of irrational fears and phobias.  phobias are an interesting subject to me.  obviously they are caused by situations that could possibly cause you harm, but i don't understand why some people are afraid of some things and others aren't.  thinking about my fears, i am afraid of heights, spiders, open water, falling down stairs, small spaces, being in my house or apartment by myself, most large animals, people in masks, rodents, getting stuck in an elevator...i could probably go on for days, so i'll just stop there.  but my roommate has no problem with heights, open water, stairs, small spaces, being alone in the apartment, people in masks; in fact, she probably doesn't even have half of the same fears i do, but she definitely has fears of her own, some of which i might not have.  also, unlike my sister, who is an ever bigger scaredy-cat than i am, i am not afraid of ants and lady bugs, trust me, i know she's ridiculous.  what i don't understand is when you are dealing with things that can cause you harm, why isn't everyone afraid of it? why aren't we all afraid of the same things when we all have the same chance of being harmed?

"my trampy little sister says myspace is the new booty call"

of course you are welcome to watch the whole trailer, but the section i want to point out in particular begins at 2:10.  drew barrymore's character says "i had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so i called him at home, and then he emailed me to my blackberry, and so i texted to his cell.  and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. it's exhausting!"  when i think about all of the technology out there in the world today i could not think of a better way to describe than what drew barrymore said in this movie.  many people say the world is becoming "flat" because everything is so interconnected through technology that you can almost instantaneously communicate with basically anywhere in the world at any moment.  i was talking to my sister one time and we were talking about all of the different ways that we had to get in touch with one another.  we had phone calls, text messages, the heytell walkie talkie application on the iphone, the kik messenger application on the iphone, facetime on the iphone, skype, ichat, google video, 2 different email address apiece, facebook wall post, message, or chat, myspace, xanga, aol instant messanger, and google instant messanger.  and i'm sure we could probably continue to add more to that list.  all those different channels for two people to communicate.  the world really is becoming "flat," so to speak.
this really got me thinking.  i realize for the convenience factor that all of this technology is a good thing, but what about for the other aspects of our lives. with all this technology to hide behind, we don't really ever have to interact with people face-to-face if we don't want to.  sure you can pretty much personalize the output on all of the aforementioned channels of communication but nothing can compare to level of interaction you receive in a face-to-face situation.  with all this technology we don't even have to be ourselves or let people get to know the real us.  i realize that sometimes it is easier to communicate through all of these different channels in the short run, but isn't it hurting our face-to-face social skills in the long run? pretty soon people aren't going to know how to hold a conversation with someone in the same room without text messaging them.