Save our Bluths

Remember when my version of studying for economics was listening to The Hives' Supply and Demand? Remember that? Well, it seems my version of studying for Social Psychology, which is watching the entire third season of Arrested Development, is equally ineffective. I took the first two exams today. I have a B. Which is unnerving. Because they won't tell me which questions I missed on either exam. I am not good at multiple choice, though, and that's what I now know. I may or may not know the details of the self-cognition approach to blah-blah-blah. How can I know what I know if they don't tell me? Frustration!! And I did learn in chapter 12 frustration can lead to aggression and violence. So they better watch out.

partisan science

So, something strange I noticed about both my economics and my social psychology textbooks is they've cited a few passages of literature in the course of their "scientific" reasoning, to varying effect. I was kind of put off by the social psychology excerpt (to follow) until I read this horrifically clunky one from microeconomics:

Even Nathantiel Hawthorn was troubled by moral suasion, as evidenced by his classic novel The Scarlet Letter in which the humiliation of public exposure was used as the deterrent against adultery. These days, moral suasion is most likely to take the form of ad campaigns aimed at the public.

I didn't even feel that The Scarlet Letter at all accurately exemplified the idea. I felt like they were trying to sound erudite and well-read, and they thought of all the books they read in their life (which I'll assume because of the eventual choice were all in high school) and took the closest one. Even *Nathanial Hawthorne* thought it was a bad idea!! No! Not Nathanial Hawthorne! My illusions have been shattered about moral suasion!

Random pet peeve: Use of the word "troubled" and "troubling" unless ironic. (although an ok example is also "i find your lack of faith troubling.")

Here is the mitigated passage from social psych:

In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, a mob of white southerners was assembled to lynch Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape. Only Atticus Finch, the defendant's lawyer, stands between the mob and the jail. But then Scout, Atticus's 8-year-old daughter, walks into the middle of the crowd. Here is what the mob looked like through her eyes:

I looked around the crowd. It was a summer's night, but the men were dressed, Most of them, in overalls and denim shirts buttoned up to the collars. I thought they must be cold-natured, as their sleeves were unrolled and buttoned at the cuffs. Some wore hats pulled firmly down over their ears. They were sullen-looking, sleepy-eyed men who seemed to unused to later hours.

In other words, the men were highly deindividuated. It was night, they were dressed alike, and it was difficult to tell one from another. It was a mob with one purpose, not a collection of individuals. At that moment, however, Scout recognized
one of the men, a farmer named Mr. Cunningham, and greeted him by name:

"Don't you remember me, Mr Cunningham? I'm Jean Louise Finch. You brought us some hickory nuts one time, remember?" I began to sense the futility one feels when unacknowledged by a chance acquaintance.
I go to school with Walter," I began again. "He's your boy, ain't he? Ain't he, sir?"
Mr. Cunningham was moved to a faint nod. He did know me, after all.
"He's in my grade," I said, "And he does right well. He's a good boy," I added, "a real nice boy. We brought him home for dinner one time. Maybe he told you about me. I beat him up one time but he was real nice about it. Tell him hey for me, will you?"

At first, the crowd did not respond, so Scout continued her banter.

I was slowly drying up wondering what idiocy I had committed. I looked around and up at Mr Cunningham, whose face was equally impassive.
Then he did a peculiar thing. He squatted down and took me by both shoulders.
"I'l tell him you said hey, little lady," he said.
Then he straightened up and waved a big paw. "Let's clear out," he called. "Let's get going, boys."

Scout succeeded in turning a faceless mob into a collection of individual citizens, who
had children who went to school together and to dinner at each other's houses. She had unwittingly performed a brilliant social pscyhological intervention by increasing the extent to which the mob felt like individuals who were accountable for their
actions.

Even though I like the passage as a way to describe the concept by showing a scene that hopefully rings true, the way they were talking about "her brilliant, unwitting decisions" even though she's a fictional character was kind of confusing, and as much as I already scoff at the way some actual experiments are designed, this just seemed so beyond scientific, I was astounded.

Anyway, in some ways, the two ideas these passages deal with are one of the "convergences" I've noticed between economics and social psychology in these last chapters. In this case, I guess the similarity would be "threat of public exposure as a deterrant to mob mentality and the tragedy of the commons." Blah. Something like that. Oh, I will not be doing well on these papers and tests.

Umm. Yeah, so you might think this sounds like I've been studying, making connections, really thinking about stuff. But no. I've been blogging about insignificant parts in both the textbooks, discussing the second-to-last episode of Veronica Mars, and going on walks with my iPod, which I got to work right-ish. And now it's almost 1am. Again. It was just 1am 24 hours ago!!

ADDENDUM (24 hours later):

I also wanted to quote this part of my social psych textbook:

Research indicates that reciprocal liking and attractiveness are powerful predictors of falling love amoung many people, including Anglo, Mexican and Chinese Americans, as we as Russians and Japanese.

I imagined all the researching renting romantic comedies of the world and writing their research paper on what they found: "Good looking people who like each other tend to fall in love."

it's one of those days where even though i'm working nonstop, it's not taxing my brain very.... at all. so my brain entertains itself quietly, then eagerly taps me on the shoulder and says "Google 'Fear and Apathy,' and see what it's all about!!" and I comply before thinking, "Wait--what?"

Googling reminds me of two things. One is on some Austin web-forum, a girl asked where one could go to get cheap eye exams in Austin, and the first response was some guy who linked to his Google search of "cheap eye exams Austin" with no other commentary. She wrote back "Um, thanks. I know how to Google." And I just found it very funny. Was the guy's comment hostile, or just clueless?

And second, after years and years, I'm pretty comfortable using "Google" as a verb. I don't know what it is about slang and neologisms I hate so much. Maybe if I were actually a word historian, it would be interesting to see the language in action. But generally I'm put off by the kids today (and yesterday) and their hip speak. I find some phrases moderately interesting, and sometimes funny ("snakes on a plane" finally struck me as hilarious last week). But there's nothing I hate more than apocope, because it's overly-hip AND uncreative. It makes me think of an old SNL-skit for an informercial that would help you shave "literally SECONDS" off the time it takes you to talk by teaching you simple abbreviations (Example phrase "Hey, bud. How's the weath?").

Okay, back to work. Fantastic!

Down the old black hole
Once for you, once for me
Once for the nighttime

I don't have anything to post. I just feel I should write something.

Something something something.

I'm tired. I'm tired of working. And I'm tired of feeling guilty for not working when I'm not working. And I'm tired of worrying about the 5 exams and a paper on social psychology that are due next week. Because woah holy crap 5 exams and a paper, you know?

TinyBehemoth sent a link to an article about Megan McCafferty's books being plagiarized. So this might be a good time to plug Charmed Thirds, which I haven't read, but maybe I will after all this stuff goes down with exams and houses and loans and work and exhaustion.

I got my boss a card today. I am pleased with the lettering job I did on the inside.

I did finally have a dream. It was pretty substantial, but it evaporated like dew in the morning. I posted the residue. Ha. Residew.

• The Old Black Hole, The Fruit Bats

in defense of my spelling

I had no trouble at all spelling anything in the following sentance:

Endocervical canal curettage—endocervical glandular mucosa with squamous
metaplasia and reactive squamous epithelial changes; no diagnostic dysplasia
or malignancy identified.

Heck yeah! I think this covers my obscure word quota for a few updates to come.

LA Stories

Here are some important facts about my trip to California.

---

The town where my brother will probably go to college is kind of spooky. It's cool, too, but it's perfectly constructed. It's like a Hollywood set of a small town. There are quaint record shops and used book shops, and a quaint movie theater:

But all of the inhabitants are either exactly what you'd expect (like hired extras of old ladies walking their tiny dogs) or kids who look like they're in costume as Goth. This shop on Main Street would also imply there is a sizable pirate population. This shop was nothing but pirate costumes and treasure chests. It was decorated with posters from pirate movies and had a projection of pirate movies from the 50's on the wall. There were two parakeets (the most piratic of birds).

---

This conversation:
Mark: You guys are both wearing boots!
Me and Sara: We did that on purpose.
Mark: That's how I know I'm a guy. I've never thought "Hey, Danny's wearing boots. *I* want to wear boots, too!"
Danny: Yeah.
Mark: I guess I've thought "Hey! Danny has a beer! *I* want a beer, too! Then we would both have beers!"

---

We went to a great Thai restaurant. All the greater because of the Thai and Lebanese Elvis impersonators.

---

We had Persian ice cream. I had rosewater flavor. We had just driven on Sunset Strip to get there, so we had this conversation:

Eric: Sunset Strip is where all the cool clubs are.
Me: Oh, so that's where all the celebrity feuds go down?
Eric: Yeah. And people keep track of who goes where. Like if Paris Hilton goes in a club one weekend, it'll be packed the next weekend.
Me: Why? People WANT to go where Paris Hilton might be? Or is it because they know she won't be there two weekends in a row?
Eric: Because her being there confirms how cool the club is.
Me: Yeah. It sure does.

---

We went to the Museum of Jurassic Technology again. I don't want to upload all the pictures I took from that, so you'll just have to see the "MJT" pictures from the camera phone link at right. They are Artistic.

We watched a film about how the Russian space program was founded by crazies. It was a good video, but I fell asleep during Chapter three. We also looked at all the portraits of the Russian space dogs, including Laika.

I also was about 20 minutes into a film about Microminiatures when a kid came into the room, and didn't see me. But when he turned his head from the video, he jumped out of his skin and just said "OH!" and left. Then another kid came in, and stood right in front of the screen, and just when I was about to ask him to move, he just said "Ohh, cool, hey! Mickey Mouse!" and then reset the whole video. Which was kind of obnoxious, but I guess he just didn't see me. That was the day Willie and I were invisible to all.

In the tea room, several groups went up at the same time. A boy and a girl (David and Molly) came in and David said "Hey are you here for the party?" Eric went right with it, and said yes, and we began talking about the museum. A group of girls (Andrea, Carol and someone else) came in, and we all talked. Then we all dispersed as though nothing had ever happened. How many things in LA can I liken to a David Lynch scene? The tearoom was like a bright white box in the center of the dark, bizarre museum. Maybe it was more like that place with the little girl and the panther in Angel.

Speaking of David Lynch, Sara's house is right by the cafe where they shot Mulholland Drive. Also, Pulp Fiction. We walked past it, and it took forever "just to get rid of this god-awful feeling."

---

We passed that diner on the way to LACMA, where we saw Indian artifacts, and Gustav Klimt paintings for free. Sara's friend worked there. I had never seen Gustav Klimt's "Beech Woods," but I think it was my favorite.

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The last night in LA, we went to a Rock Paper Scissor throwdown under the first street bridge. Willie dressed in drag. (awesome). Sara and I dressed in wigs and various eccentricity. I didn't get very good pictures of us with my camera phone, but hopefully Sara will send me hers. People kept taking pictures of us, too. Here's my brother. He kind of looked like Hyde from That 70's Show with those glasses. So, he was wearing a dress and a cute pink leather jacket, and a pair of purple wings, but I guess I shouldn't say he was in drag, since he's got that beard. He was just dressed up as fairy. I mean, mystically, not derogatorily.



The best part of the night was at the end, when 2-time undefeated Rock-Paper-Scissors champion Caine was being interviewed about his streak, and Sara heard him say "The key to RPS is to have a sense of when your opponent is going to throw Rock."

We got a picture of my brother with Caine's RPS trainer. I hope Sara sends that one.

---

Saturday morning, they were shooting a sketch in the back yard. It was a 3 minute sketch, and they must have shot for 4 hours starting at 6am. So we had it memorized by the end. Willie and I were asleep, and I said from the floor, not sure if he was awake, "Here comes the loud part again..." and he answered "Yeah. Are they yelling the Rime of the Ancient Mariner?" I said I didn't know (it turned out they were), because the only line I could make out clearly was "I CAN'T HAVE SEX IN FRONT OF VEGETABLES!!!"

---

Oh, right, so I met James Woods at a wrap party for a new pilot the first night. It's a legal drama, currently called Shark, sort of like House, but for lawyers. He was a wee man. Sara talked to him for a while. Then I talked to a guy who was really nice and funny, and he and Sara kept talking about Spike. All I could think was either James Marsters, or my dad. Then later I remembered the pilot was directed by Spike Lee, and it turned out the guy I was talking to was his assistant. He was really nice. Then he said I looked like Mallory from Family Ties!!! Remember a few updates ago when that happened? Let me look up a picture of her. Oh, good, I like the way she looks.

Sara, incidentally, has met Mallory from Family Ties because Sara worked on Arrested Development and was on the last episode along with everyone else from her production company.

better update

okay, so the last update, from my phone, got cut off. i was on my way to a rock paper scissors throwdown under the 1st street bridge. we had on wigs. there are pictures from my camera phone (see links, right).

i'll update more about my and willie's exciting visit to los angeles. and the 80% of the time we spent in the car, lost.

Am in los angeles. Met james woods, talked w spike lee.s assistant, saw adam sandler. More later... Am on way to rock paper scissors tourn

hmm.

So, this was just a tiny bit odd, so I thought I'd update it.

A few weeks ago, when I went climbing, we had to learn some knots with which we tied ourselves to the rock.

The main one was the figure-8 knot, to the left. The way I knew when it was done correctly was, I told myself, when it looked like The Auryn from Neverending Story (Below)


The coincidence happened when MimiSmartypants used the word ouroboros, which had been bugging me since the climbing day because I couldn't think of it. Now I'm all jealous that she got to use it. But more grateful that she answered my question. How often does that word come up, though? If not for that update, I could have been waiting years.

Also weird is that all day, I've been pining after PJ Harvey (this happens every once in a while), and MS's sign-off phrase was from a PJ Harvey song, from the same album as the one that's been stuck in my head.

at least it wasn't 'free willie'

If you're in the New Orleans area, and you see any shirts that say:

FREE
DIRTY D

That's for my brother. It's his reward for being an idiot.