fallin'

Okay, so this season has been the best. I love fall, but you see... Texas doesn't do the "seasons" concept very well, and the last two "falls" were spent under extreme situations regarding unpleasantry. ANYWAY, this fall has been amazing! My apartment has always had the fall color/decor, which makes it extra festive.

 I get to take the residents through various fall traditions. I just love it. I wish that I could post pictures of them, but I can't. :( Here are some boring, non-resident, work pictures. Just know that my oldies are super awesome and the pictures I took are super adorable. I know, super.









To start off, we went camping last weekend. But that's another blog post... once I get Amanda's pictures that she took. ;) I really enjoyed the 15 hours we spent there, and I can't wait to go again! These people are pretty cool. I'm not an incredibly social person, but I really liked hanging out with this group of people. Here is a preview...

I've been baking like crazy... and I'll post that stuff later, too.

Anyway, even though it hasn't rained very much, being a Texan, I still think that the leaves look amazing. So Antho and I went to the nature center yesterday to go for a walk.

We did a bit of trespassing... WE DO DANGEROUS THINGS BECAUSE WE ARE DANGEROUS PEOPLE. Just kidding. I just wanted a picture. Thank goodness I didn't get poison ivy.

We stopped to get pumpkins for Lindsey and Brendan's birthday party today... HUGE! I lost ten pounds carrying it to the car.

(I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!)

I got home to my mail box and found this:

It's official!!!!!! I have a degree!!!!! I actually did it!!!! I was so scared that some fluke would keep me from graduating. But no- it is October, and I have official looking proof that I did indeed graduate in August!!YAHOO.

In other news, I've been baking, playing WoW with Anthony...



... watching Community, which is a hilarious show. WATCH THIS. (I only started watching it a week ago, and then Suzy posted a video a few days ago... it was a sign. I was meant to watch it. Ha.)

... and enjoying life in any way I can. My family is coming to Springfield for Thanksgiving, and I cannot wait. I'm surrounded by people I love, and everything is beautiful this time of year. This was extremely picture heavy, so I'm sorry that I just dumped a month's worth of stuff into one post. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Everyone's a little bit racist?

***WARNING: Some may find this content to be offensive. I promise that my intent is not to offend.

To preface this post, I am taking a class called, "The Psychology of Diversity." Needless to say, things can get... interesting. But I always leave the class thinking, and that's more than I can say about the majority of my college classes.
For some reason, I kept thinking, "Everybody's a little bit racist." I figured that I had heard it somewhere before my own head, so I YouTubed it and found this:





(I heard this a while ago but had totally forgotten about it-- I'm sure you all have seen it at some point?)


The main thing that I've been thinking about this week has been the concept of "illusionary correlation." It simply means that we often develop associations between two things based on one situation. This is (obviously) not a very sound habit, since we are almost always wrong about our assumptions. My friend Cameron made me extremely aware of this a few years ago when I purposely sat on the opposite end of the room from him, only because of one situation I had seen him in. (We're pretty good friends, now.. so this is sorta a joke between the two of us.) 
For example, if someone asks you to smoke pot with them, and they happen to be pierced and tattooed, many people would automatically associate the smoking of illegal substances with tattooed and pierced people. I can say this because I've had several instances in which people have admitted that their first impression of me was that I was a pothead. Weird, eh?


In class yesterday, we watched, "A Class Divided." If any of you have taken any psychology classes, I'm sure you've at least heard of this experiment.
Keep in mind that this was filmed in 1968. The ethics board was not created at that point. For more information, or if you want to watch the whole thing, follow this link. Basically, a third-grade teacher decides to take a unique approach to teaching about racism. She divided the class by their eye colors: blue and brown. The first day, the blue-eyed people were superior, and the second day, the brown-eyed people were superior. You'll hear her quote at the end of the clip that sums up her results. This is extremely powerful. I never cease to be shocked by human capacity.
(You can start the video at 1 minute.)





What'd ya think? Crazy, right?

We also watched part of "The Colbert Report," where Colbert features Rush Limbaugh "speaking Chinese." This was used to promote discussion on the different ways in which racism sneaks into our everyday lives, namely through the media. And yes, I found this humorous; but, it's definitely something that's made me more keenly aware of what I say and what I think.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Rush Limbaugh Speaks Chinese
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive

And finally, when we walked into class yesterday, our professor put labels on our foreheads. We then were told to interact with each other, solely based upon the label on our heads. It was hilarious, but the point was made. I felt like everyone hated me, since they kept commenting on my jewelry. "Is that gucci?" "How much did you pay for your shoes? A lot, I bet." "Are you going to graduate? Do your parents pay your way?" "Do you have a job?"

Well, I hope I didn't offend anyone! We're all a bit racist, after all, right?

Cheers.

Just a few things..

For anyone who may not know me and are, for some reason, reading this blog, here's some introductory information, since I didn't really provide that initially.
1. I tend to dye my hair in accordance with the changing seasons in my life. I guess this gives it away, but whatever.
2. I have two tattoos: one on my foot and one on my back. Both of them have a lot of meaning behind them, so if you're curious, just ask.
3. I hate feet.
4. I hate it when people say "sherBERT" instead of "sherBET." I know that Webster's includes both variations, but honestly, it's because people have screwed the actual pronunciation so much that it's become a word! Language/word choice changes, but this is one word that just rubs me the wrong way.
5. I am not grammatically correct all of the time, and I don't expect anyone to be; yet, my biggest pet peeves deal with capitalization, comma usage, spelling, etcetera.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/skywriter-trailed-by-skyeditor,9824/


6. I play the violin. I mostly play with an elderly woman at the nursing home a few times a month, but sometimes I end up in random jam sessions with my friends, Cam and Elena! Those are my favorite times.
7. I have recently taken up painting! I am awful at it!
8. I have two frogs that should be dead, since I almost never feed them or clean out their tank.
9. I am adopted, and I have three adoptive siblings and four birth siblings.  The youngest one is twenty years younger than me! CRAZY, I know. I love my family... all of them. I am truly blessed with so many people in my life that care deeply about me.
10. I plan to be graduated in July with a bachelor's degree in Psychology! I love to know why people do what they do, so maybe this degree will give me more reason to inquire.
11. If you don't know that I adore the elderly by now, then you are stupid.
12. I love to read. I mean, I LOVE to read.
13. I adore music. Everybody says that, but I really do mean it. Different stages of my life are narrated by different artists, and I think I like it that way.
14. My favorite color is orange.
15. I love tulips.
16. I want to get married, someday. It's gonna be to the right guy. I've dated quite a few jerks and I refuse to make that mistake again.

Okay, I give up. That's all I can think of right now... Looking back, this post is kinda boring, but my mom was begging for more posts! (Haha.)

Today, I am grateful for Finding Nemo, sherbet, and Wii. Oh, and my friends.
It's been a great weekend!

Riggghtteeouuss....

(google images)

Cheers.

The Man with a 30 Second Memory

Today, there are many things that I am grateful for. This is one thing that has been sticking with me for several days...

I am so very glad for my memory. I don't need to go into detail, because this video pretty much sums up how good we all have it. I mean, I shouldn't bother studying for tests, since my mind is so awesome! Haha; just kidding. But really, check this out. As rare as this is, it can happen! (This man suffers from both retrograde and anterograde amnesia.) My physiological psychology class is fascinating!

If that didn't make you think, you are dumb. ("You are really dumb, fo' real." And if you don't catch THAT reference, we are not friends.)

Cheers, friends.