The great divide (between grad students and non-grad students.)

The last guest post in this wonderful series is from one of my favourites, in blogging and real life, Distracted Spunk. This post hits a little close to home...

***

Non-grad students say, "It's just school. Why can't you come out on Friday night?"

Grad students respond, "It's Friday? Shit. I thought it was Tuesday. Wait, which week is this?"

Non-grad students gasp and say, "Oh my god, you wrote 82 pages?"

Grad students exclaim, "Is 82 pages enough? I knew it wasn't enough. I have to go write some more."

Non-grad students are secretly thinking, "She used to be so much more interesting before she went to grad school."

Grad students are secretly thinking, "I wonder if that paragraph works in the context of the larger argument. Is my argument clear enough?"

Non-grad students point out, "You used to blog frequently."

Grad students say, "I have a blog? Oh crap, I have a blog!"

Non-grad students talk about all the sex and relationships and adventures they're having.

Grad students talk about their latest conversation with their advisor and whether or not they might be able to publish an article based on their work.

Non-grad students roll their eyes when they come across a faction of grad students.

Grad students nod and shake their heads in shared understanding when they come across a faction of grad students.

If only we mere grad students had a secret handshake. Then our lives would be infinitely more interesting. Or lame.

Compliment of the day

Received today in an email:

"Your neuroses are of endless benefit to those of us who lack that kind of focus."

Score one for neurotics!

Stranger than fiction

So the documentary film festival is in town this weekend.

This means that I spent a good chunk of yesterday's sunny hours in a dimly lit cinema, processing narratives of African dictators and European counterfeiters.

(As a side note, the Duke just bought me the Planet Earth/Blue Planet DVD boxset. 10 DVDs full of David Attenborough goodness? And a day long date of documentary films? I just had a geekgasm.)

In all honesty, as a whole, I wasn't blown away by the festival. Some of the work was pretentious at best, as were some of the attendees.

(A note to the fellow comparing our premier to Robert Mugabe... seriously? I mean, I agree the guy is an asshat, but cutting social funding is hardly equivalent to torturing those who oppose you. You need to drop the shock tactics, and go back to first year poli sci to learn your facts a little better.)

However, after learning about the case of Lucio Urturbia, an apparently simple bricklayer and family man, who, after being arrested for one of the largest counterfeiting scams in history, managed to negotiate with CityBank to pay him(!) to stop his scamming, I began wondering why, as a society, we're so entranced by fiction.

Sure, I enjoy escapism as much as the next person. I can admit to plans to see the Sex and the City movie one night and go to the documentary film festival the next without feeling like too much of a hypocrite.

But, really, though, aren't the stories of real people infinitely more interesting than the same old tired cliche of boy makes bet about girl, boy meets girl, some hilarity ensues, boy and girl fall in love, girl finds out the truth and freaks out, boy convinces her he loves her despite it all, and they live happily ever after?

Most of the real life stories I've seen documented on film or on paper elicit way more ideas and conversations than the average Hollywood fare, and stay with me for exponentially longer. Not to mention that I have tremendous respect for the art and effort behind such filmmaking (in fact, I am completely guilty of over-romanticizing it)-- the idea of being so passionate about a story or an issue that you feel the need to dedicate years of your life to sharing it is astounding to me.

I suspect I may be preaching to the converted, to a certain extent. While I doubt that the majority of you have watching documentaries in the bathtub as your back-up Friday night plan, the regular reading of blogs seems to me to convey a bit of fascination with real life over fiction. There is something compelling about following along with someone else's life through their words. Similarly, though I'm not one to spend much time praising the intellectual merits of reality TV, one has to wonder if the current fascination with it may be in part to the (apparently) real stories of everyday (or not so everyday) people being more provocative than the laugh track enhanced tales of the poor emasculated father in a house full of women.

I think it kind of comes down to the adage of "The more you learn, the more you realize that you don't know." And the more I realize that I don't know, the less I feel like ignoring it all for the sake of a story for which I already know the ending.

And it's good for you!

An article I thought my bloggie peeps may find intriguing...

Blogging's Good For Your Health
Claudine Ryan, ABC Science Online

March 3, 2008 -- Blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face, new research has found.
The research, from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, found after two months of regular blogging, people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who didn't blog.
Researchers James Baker and Susan Moore have written two papers investigating the psychological benefits of blogging and regularly updating personal Web pages with information that invites others to comment.
The first, published in the latest issue of the journal CyberPsychology and Behavior, compares the mental health of people intending to blog with that of people not planning to blog.
Moore says the researchers messaged 600 MySpace users personally and directed them to an online survey. A total of 134 completed the questionnaire; 84 intended to blog and 50 didn't.
"We found potential bloggers were less satisfied with their friendships and they felt less socially integrated, they didn't feel as much part of a community as the people who weren't interested in blogging ... they were also more likely to use venting or expressing your emotions as a way of coping," Moore said.
"It was as if they were saying 'I'm going to do this blogging and it's going to help me'."
And it seemed to do the trick, as the researchers' second study shows.
This study, which is yet to be published, was conducted two months later. The researchers sent out questionnaires to the same group of MySpace users; this time 59 responded. Bloggers reported a greater sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people and feeling more confident they could rely on others for help.
All respondents, whether or not they blogged, reported feeling less anxious, depressed and stressed after two months of online social networking.
"So going onto MySpace had lifted the mood of all participants in some way," Moore says. "Maybe they'd just made more social connections."
Moore acknowledges this is early research and hopes to follow a larger group of people for a longer period time to test some of the research findings.

***

Okay, so maybe not the best designed of studies (pssssh, myspace blogs? So 2005!). However, I do find it interesting when a subculture, such as this one, becomes a formally recognized as worthy of research. I also am fascinated by the effects of technology on our culture and psychology-- for instance, I previously pondered the connotations of Facebook taking away the experience of losing touch with people, an experience I would argue is a reasonably vital part of the transition to adulthood.

These findings actually mesh really well with research showing significant psychological and health benefits of writing about one's  secrets, even if no one will ever read them (by Jamie Pennebaker, if anyone's interested). It seems to be an interesting combination of catharsis and gaining insight-- which seems fitting for this particular endeavour we are all engaged in, doesn't it?

And, yes, apparently my geekyness has officially seeped beyond all walls supposed to contain it. That's what overwork will do to you, I guess. I've forgotten how to even pretend to be cool.

Thankfully, I'm in a slight pause at the moment, sort of a brief stop on a boulder in the midst of a rushing river. I will try to come visit your sides of the world soon, I promise, before the currents rush to sweep me off again!

A nerd tribute

(Remember those bad high school reports that started with "Webster's Dictionary defines love as a strong affection for another..."? Here's my juvenile attempt!)

According to the test below (which is surely the definition of academic authority), a nerd is someone passionate about learning/being smart/academia. And, according to the extremel diagnostic quiz below, I am a nerd.

Your Score: Pure Nerd

82 % Nerd, 34% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.


You scored better than half in Nerd, earning you the title of: Pure Nerd.


The times, they are a-changing. It used to be that being exceptionally smart led to being unpopular, which would ultimately lead to picking up all of the traits and tendences associated with the "dork." No-longer. Being smart isn't as socially crippling as it once was, and even more so as you get older: eventually being a Pure Nerd will likely be replaced with the following label: Purely Successful.


Congratulations!


THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

***

It's interesting, considering I have always self-labelled as a geek, which sounds a little more appealing to me, although apparently a little incorrect.
However, I do like to consider myself a bit of an incognito nerd. As perhaps indicated by my low levels of dorkyness, I can hold my own in social situations. It's only once you get to know me a little that I start recommending documentary films or picking apart films that misrepresent random psychological facts.

I don't do a good job at hiding the nerd clumsiness factor, though. I most recently managed to dump a glass of wine on my laptop.
See... trying to be suave with the wine... not so much.

But this post is not about the nerd in me, but rather my fondness for others in this category. For instance, after going to see Super Bad this weekend, I desperately wanted to stroke Michael Cera's character's hair (in a totally platonic and comforting manner), as his social awkwardness was so very endearing.


However, the #1 Nerd?
(totally not Steve Urkel, who is pretty much 100% dork!)

Dilton Motherfuckin' Doiley!!!

He's short, wildly intelligent, wore round classes before Harry Potter made them cool, looks great in a lab coat, and delightfully awkward.

In short, screw deciding between Archie (ugly and a bit of a man whore), Reggie (vain), Moose (seriously? "Duh"? How about "Um" instead?), and Jughead (gay or maybe even asexual).
If I lived in Riverdale, I would totally seduce Dilton Doiley.
And then we could hang out in his basement lab after school in lab coats and talk about how platypuses are goddamn cool.
He might even disassemble his robot girlfriend for me.

Quest for the Galapagos Bad Ass Continues...

Okay, guys.
I'm a little disappointed.
Perhaps I am one of the only geeks (high fives to those who did participate- and don't fret, as your votes will still be considered!) to get excited about this contest. At first I thought it was probably just poor turnout over the weekend-- but then site meter told me that people are still visiting the blog-- but apparently not voting!

You have a voice, readers!
Think about the poor brother killing booby baby who hasn't even received one vote.

In an attempt to remedy this situation (because I don't have much faith in my guilt-tripping abilities), I have created a simple and easy poll. You don't even need to comment (although I always appreciate that)-- just click a button!
It is lurker-friendly... you don't need to identify yourself!

It'll only count one vote from one person at a particular location, but for those of you are especially invested, or can't decided between, say, the two iguanas, you can be crafty and vote from work and home!

Excitement!

Winner to be crowned in a week.

Lesson of the day extravaganza-- Bad asses of the Galapagos Islands

This movie is pure goodness. I'm seriously going to marry the BBC simply on the basis of their documentaries (and their hot abs).

The Galapagos Islands, almost 1000 km off the coast of Ecuador, are the inspiration for Darwin's theory of evolution. They contain a myriad of animals that exist nowhere else on Earth, and have adapted in amazing ways to the harsh and unique terrain of the islands.

In an attempt to breath life back into an idea I had near the beginning of my blog, the bad asses of the animal kingdom series, I present to you a smattering of the bad asses of the Galapagos.

Humour me and vote for the baddest of them all. The creature will get the joy of a photoshopped crown of some sort in a future post... and all associated glory.

Bad Ass #1- The Marine Iguana

The marine iguana is the only modern lizard that has the ability to swim.
But they don't only swim... they dive off massive cliffs into water as deep as 15 meters for up to half an hour just to munch on some algae, then dodge hordes of chasing sealions to scale back up the cliff again.



Bad Ass #2- The Galapagos Land Iguana

Not to be outdone by their marine counterparts, the females of this species will scale up to the top of volcanoes to find the best places to lay eggs, and will brawl other women to obtain the best spot. If there are no spots to be had at the top, they will crawl down a cliff into a volcanic crater!


Bad Ass #3- The Nazca Booby

The Nazca booby may look a little dull when compared to its more famous Galapagos cousin, the Blue-Footed Booby.
However, these creatures are vicious from birth. Two booby babies (yes, I'm immature and giggled while writing that) are always born several days apart, and the eldest, nearly without fail, pushes his/her younger sibling out of the nest where he/she dies in front of his/her seemingly uncaring mother's eyes!

Bad Ass #4- The Giant Tortoise

Over 500 lbs and live over 150 years. They don't even need to do anything to be bad ass!
Although do they eat cactus with the spines on.









Bad Ass #5- The Galapagos Penguin

How can penguins essentially living on the ecuator not be bad ass?




















Bad Ass #6- Vampire Finch

Pssh, you may say. How can a wee little finch be bad-ass?
By feeding on the blood of blue-footed boobies, that's how!
(That is seriously the most ominous photo ever)





***

And a few creatures that don't quite fit the contest, but are still cool nonetheless.

Frigate bird

The fact that they viciously attack other sea birds and relentlessly seduce the ladies with their throbbing orange throat certainly sounds bad ass- but these avian casanovas are found elsewhere in the world, and thus excluded from competition.



Ghost crab

Though the fact that their awesome eyes mean they can have 360 degree vision, these guys also aren't unique to the Galapagos, and cannot be in competition for the crown.






Now, what are you waiting for, people?? Go vote!

Voyeurism

I was at a busy coffee shop this morning at the busiest transit station in the city, sitting in a comfy chair with my caffeine and yet another ethics code (the two things you can most regularly see me accompanied by these days!). I found myself becoming distracted by the people surrounding me... not their conversation per se, but by what I perceived to be their stories.

I am a people-watcher, sometimes to an extreme degree. I take care to identify most of the people in a busy bar, and point out odd details about them to anyone with me. I eavesdrop on conversations. I look in people's windows when I walk by. I make up stories about the other people in the coffee shop, and theorize about their relationships to one another. I have hampered this tendency somewhat via my assimilation into the norms of the big city... as such, I put on my headphones like everyone else, and stare off into the window. However, I still covertly turn off my iPod if something interesting seems to be going on around me.

Once a friend told me that he sometimes thinks in music. I believe that I sometimes think in movies. I take a setting, picture the opening camera angle, background noises, and integrate the people around me into the various scenes. Sometimes I do this in an overly conscious manner, planning exactly what would be the next thing to happen. Other times, I just sit back, and let the film develop, and eventually determine who the chief characters would be.

I suppose this fits well with someone in my field. I remember when I was in my first practicum placement, one of my favourite new priveleges was having access to client files, and being able to read the background stories of the people I met. Apparently other students found this novel at first, but eventually bored of it. Not me. I also devour case studies.

One of the weirder things about this tendency is that I also assume that others are doing the same thing. I then put myself into their heads, and imagine what they must be thinking about me. What stories do they project onto me? How accurate are they? The funny thing about this self-centred indulgence is that they likely do none of this... but I still pretend.

Join my club!

For those of you not familiar with the notion of hipsters, I present to you the Wikipedia definition. I also admit that, at least according to the music and filmmaker subsection of this definition, I have a bit of hipster in me, so take this whole post with a grain of salt!

***

After a lovely date of Mexican food and sangria, the Duke and I split up for the evening, as he had an indie concert to attend. However, on the way to the train, we got into a conversation about the likely hipsters that were going to be there, and eventually decided that we should start some sort of unhipster (and very geekish!) club based on a key tenets:

#1- Members shall always claim that a newly hip band's second album is better than their first, or even better, that their major label debut is clearly superior to their independent original release.

#2- Members shall recognize that Space Oddity and the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust can hardly be considered the best of David Bowie. Instead, Bowie clearly reached the peak of his career with the release of Let's Dance.

#3- Members also recognize that musicians tend to make their best work once they have sobered up. Prime example: Metallica's St. Anger.

#4- Members agree that large stadiums are clearly better concert venues than small intimate clubs. Furthermore, back-up dancers and costume changes clearly make the music better!


#5- Members recognize that, contrary to popular opinion, The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Rapper's Delight by the Sugerhill Gang, and Walk this Way by Run DMC are not the songs that brought hip hop music to the mainstream. This feat was accomplished by Humpty Hump's catchy little ditty "The Humpty Dance".

#6- Members shall swear on a stack of Bibles that Phil Collins was a better frontman to Genesis than was Peter Gabriel.

#7- Members will proclaim to anyone who listens that Kraftwerk really hit his stride in the late 90s.




#8- Members scorn zombie films. Instead, they prefer both teen horror films from the 90s (double bonus if it stars Jennifer Love Hewitt!), made-for-TV-movies (triple bonus if it stars Jennifer Love Hewitt!) and Elvis musicals from the 50s.

#9- Members shall forego small independent coffee houses serving only organic free trade java. Even Starbucks will be considered too off the beaten path. Instead, they will get their coffee fix only from McDonalds or 7-11.









#10- Members shall consider functionality as dominant over style. As such, fanny packs will become de rigeur among members, due to their convenience and availability in all sorts of awesome colours! Giant rain slickers will also be worn for practicality sake.

***

So.. what do you guys think?? I still need a name for my club and a vice-treasurer. New tenets are always appreciated, too! But you better hurry if you want to join, as spots for the Saturday night Bingo Game are filling up- and I'm making macaroni salad and bringing out my showtunes collection!

Further proof that I need a life

On the Simpsons this evening (which is getting decidingly less and less funny each time I watch), Bart goes to see a psychiatrist.

Mistake- On his psychiatrist's door, she is referred to as PhD, not M.D... meaning she is not a psychiatrist at all, but one of us (aka. a psychologist). This would also explain her use of projective techniques rather than ritalin!

Correct- Bart is only able to see his psychologist for the 5 sessions paid for by the school. Ahhhhh.... the joys of managed care.
His issues are remained horribly unresolved at this point, although, granted, his therapist did a pretty poor job of preparing him for termination and the associated abandonment issues he experienced.

I am such a geek.

Lesson of the day

The blue whale can be up to two times larger than the biggest dinosaur!



You'd think I would be training to be a marine biologist rather than a psychologist if my lessons of the day were any indication.

Bad asses of the ocean

Bad Ass # 1- Phacellophora camtschatica, aka. the fried egg jellyfish.
This guy is a cannibal! It uses its big poisonous tentacles to trap other innocent little jellyfish, and slowly pulls them in, letting them struggle hopelessly, until it eats them.



Bad ass #2- The Humboldt Squid
This vicious mofo also occasionally dabbles in cannabalism. And I quote: "The squid use the sharp, barbed suckers on their feeding tentacles to pierce the flesh of prey and drag it to their mouths where a fierce, baseball-sized beak tears it to shreds." Although they tend to focus on the more typical prey, like lanternfish and shrimp, they have been nicknamed "diablos rojos" ("red devils" in Spanish- side note, that sounds way more bad ass in spanish; side note #2- red devil was also the nickname of my evil 70s style metal framed backpack I used when backpacking though Costa Rica. That thing was a true bad ass), due to their tendencies to attack divers. They also flash several different colours when attacking. Some suggest this is due to vicious squid rage (that's the technical term).



Bad ass #3- California Mantis shrimp.
It was hard to find a picture of this guy! Every time I did a google image search, all I got back were images of shrimp cocktails and shrimp sandwiches. Although this guy doesn't look very tough, they are seriously hardcore. They are really antagonist and will fight off anything that threatens them- I saw one scare off a hungry octopus. Furthermore, their claws are faster than a .22 caliber bullet and can break through double safety glass. I'm pretty much hiring one as my bodyguard.



Bad ass #4- Wolf eel
Look at this guy! Do I even have to explain? He is totally making that sea cucumber his bitch! He also regularly dines on super spiny sea anemomes. And he has one hell of a heinous mug. Okay, so apparently the wolf eel is actually remarkably gentle and prefers to spend time at home with the missus than out whoopin' fish ass. I don't believe it. This guy totally eats whales for breakfast.


Bad ass #5- Nudibranch
This guy looks like a big mass of goo. But don't let its tame appearance fool you. It launches sneak attacks on tube anenomes. While most predators can't eat the tube anemones, because of their super venomous tentacles, the nudibranch rips them off, and through some super digestive process, eats them and somehow has the stinging cells transferred to their back for their own defense. Double burn to the anenome! And I watched these big lumps totally avoid a sneak attach by a big lumbering sea star.



Bad ass #6- Crown of thorns sea star
Look at it. Do I even need to explain?






So, yeah, the Duke and I went to see Deep Sea Imax in 3-D today , hence my wealth of knowledge. It was seriously one of the coolest things ever. Very highly recommended. It looked like jellyfish were inches from my face! The kids beside me were trying to battle off enormous octopii. I was giggling like a little girl when scallops ran away from bumbling sea stars, and I jumped when sharks came towards me.

Votes for the most bad ass??

Do you like how I'm pretending that someone actually reads my blog??

I'm totally going to make up alter-egos and vote.