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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cumaeansibyl | |
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Hey all, I'm back! Thanksgiving was good, we watched a ton of football and argued about the BCS and ate about a metric ton of pie (okay, that was mostly me). I'm eagerly anticipating the Notre Dame/Stanford game. GO GET 'EM TREE (Their official mascot is the color red and their unofficial mascot is a tree. Kind of wish I'd gone to Stanford now.) The Central/Northern Illinois game was excellent; we came out to a big early lead, and then NI decided "hey, um, we don't like being blown out" and started playing super-hard. We still beat them by two scores, but they made it interesting. Being the Huskies, they also had their mascot with them -- a real live husky whose owner took him for a jog around the end zone after every score. Yay, pup! Central's QB, Dan LeFevour, is really something else. I've been watching him for four years now and he's just great -- very mobile, not afraid to take the ball and run. Rumor has it he's being scouted by the Colts to develop under Peyton Manning -- what an opportunity that would be! Someday I can say "yeah, I saw him play as a true freshman and I knew he was going places." Hey! Any of you folks have football fans on your holiday list? Sure you do. I recommend this. History of the Super Bowl with recaps of every game through 2009, plus lots of history, plus top-10 lists that will surely foster some good arguments. I recommend it not only because it's good (okay, I didn't read the whole thing, but I read some games and the writing is great) but because the author is Charles's uncle. My uncle-in-law, I guess? Anyway, go buy it, football fans will love it.
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) neopian_adults
hufflebunny | |
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HI everyone! So I've been in bed sick for the past couple days, and my mother called this afternoon to see how I was feeling. She was working when she called, which involves going into stores/comparing prices. She was at Walmart when she called, After asking me how I was doing, she was like, "Out of curiosity, which Neopet is your favorite?" This struck me as really weird, since I rarely discuss Neopets with my family. I asked her why, and she said she was just wondering. I knew if I named a species, she'd have no idea what I was talking about. I was like, "uhh.. I like the little ones with wings and a tail that kind of look like a dragon." She simply replied, "Oh, ok!" I was totally embarrassed by the question. I figure she was looking at plushies or something for Christmas. I still don't know why she asked, exactly. I hope I have a yellow Cybunny jumbo plush coming my way! So here's my question. What do your family/friends/significant others think about your Neopets? I know Joel thinks Neopets is silly, but he knows it makes me happy. Come to think of it, Neopets is silly. It's fun, though. He has a tendency to feed my habit, as well. He bought for first NC Card and now I can't stop. D: He also has his Warcraft which is silly, but it's fun (I've been taking over his WoW account recently to play.) A lot of the ideas (Especially the supply and demand and inflation/deflation concepts) are really similar. I am funny. Discussion time!  You! You are my favorite!I'm feeling:  Icky Sicky
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pne | |
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Today was the ward's Christmas celebration—a bit early (even before the first Sunday in Advent).
It started off in the chapel, with a short talk and a video about the birth of Christ (with dialogue only in—presumably—Aramaic, and no subtitles). A couple of songs, including one by the ward choir.
And at the end of that segment, we were asked to leave through the front door of the chapel because there were some angels standing there who would give each person a little bag of biscuits and a booklet.
The booklet was about four Christlike virtues or attributes that the bishopric asked us to focus on in the four weeks of Advent, and which would also be the topics for the next four Sundays: faith, hope, charity, and patience.
The angels were the young women: Esther, Jeva, Verena, and Melissa. The last three were even dressed up as angels, with white blouses, white dresses, and white wings.
So, after that, we went into the cultural hall, where a buffet table had been prepared; everybody chose a seat at the tables which had been put up and set, and when the buffet was opened, could help themselves to the cakes and biscuits that had been provided, as well as to the fruit tea, cereal "coffee", or mineral water that was there.
After a while, three wise men (who looked rather similar to the bishop and his two counsellors) came in, bearing a big wrapped box. They each told a short story and then asked one child to unwrap the box carefully.
The box inside bore the inscription, "For the Primary children of Wilhelmsburg Ward". Inside were individually addressed envelopes with a card in each and small chocolate bars stuck to the outside, as well as a couple of somewhat bigger presents, two of which were for the missionaries and two of which were for the Primary as a whole; those last two ended up being xylophones (since the one the Primary has now is missing some of its "keys"(?)).
Amy exemplified the spirit of Christmas when she brought me the card and confided to me, "But I wanted a real present!". Ah well :)
What was less nice was getting Amy home afterwards; she didn't want to leave and kept disappearing rather than getting dressed. Tags: christmas
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l33tminion | |
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Thanksgiving break this year was amazing. Was wonderful seeing Cleveland family and friends. Lots of good food, too. Dined with my brother at the Baricelli Inn (an excellent restaurant recently improved under new management), was invited to two fantastic Thanksgiving dinners... Helped my mom shop for a new computer early in the week, she bought one of the new Acer desktops. Their new case design is amazingly compact. Windows 7 actually seems rather okay, they seem to have fixed a lot of the bugs of Vista and improved the UI. They seem to have ripped off a lot of Mac UI features wholesale, but I don't really object to that, since it's an improvement. (I wonder if that will be detrimental, though, sales-wise. A lot of people are skipping XP to 7, and while I'd conclude that 7 is superior for new users, I wonder if it will be too much of a change for those used to XP.) Got in a DnD session in that still-running-very-infrequently campaign of Xave's. Saw Sleep Dealer with Dan and Xave last evening. Was an awesome near-future cyberpunk drama set in a world of closed borders, decidedly weak AI, and ubiquitous telepresence; think Guil Gómez-Peña meets Phillip K. Dick. Strongly recommend it. Tags: dnd, holidays, self, technology
I'm feeling:  happy
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ask_an_aspie
rikuxsora | |
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I have a little brother who is 7 years old, and he has aspergers. Conflict already exists because I'm over 10 years older than him, but because of his condition I have a hard time understanding him. My brother is extremely difficult to get along with. He is stubborn, self-centered, and hard-headed. He refuses to listen when people are trying to help him, and he wants his way, always. I know that these aren't traits that every kid doesn't have to some extent, but his are extreme.
My concern is in regards to his absolute dedication to defiance. It seems like he does things intentionally to get negative attention for it. The biggest thing, in my opinion, is when he uses the restroom. If it's at home, he doesn't close the door unless instructed to. No matter where we are, he doesn't wash his hands. I try to explain to him the importance of washing his hands, but he won't do it. Every time he comes out of the bathroom, someone asks, "Did you wash your hands?" and he gets a guilty smile as if he enjoys it. When told to wash his hands, he gets extremely upset and says things like, "Fine, fine! Okay, I'll go wash my hands!" He'll slam the door and run water over his hands. And then the question becomes, "Did you use soap?" and it just repeats the situation over and over.
My question is, is he just acting out, or does it have anything to do with him having aspergers? Like I've said before, I try to understand him, but more often than not I just don't. Sometimes it seems to me like he's just aching for attention, but I'm not really sure. I don't know if it's because I'm just so much older than him that I can't understand, or if it's because we don't think the same way.
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castle_tv
ng_x | |
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Icons 206: Harry Potter Films, Harry Potter Cast, J.K. Rowling, Stark Treki XI, Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, Jeff Buckley, George Harrison, Castle, Matthew Gray Gubler, Criminal Minds, Taylor Kitsch, Johnny Depp, Elisha Cuthbert, Imran Khan, Arjun Rampal, Zooey Deschanel, An Affair To Remember, My Sassy Girl, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Glee Cast and Glee.
Banners 26: Harry Potter Films, Harry Potter Cast, Stark Treki XI, Zachary Quinto, Jeff Buckley, Criminal Minds, Taylor Kitsch, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Glee Cast and Glee.
Wallpapers 3: Harry Potter and Jeff Buckley.
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) languagelog | |
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http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1927 David Brooks, starting his conversation with Gail Collins on why "Western Men are Doomed" (NYT, 11/19/2009):
China always gets me thinking big. I look at the long history and bright future of that civilization-state and suddenly you’ve got to chase me down with a butterfly net to impose the grip of reality on my grandiose and free-floating ideas.
Wielding a butterfly net would be a welcome change, in my opinion — I feel more like the guy with a shovel assigned to follow behind a circus elephant. Luckily the elephant is putting out pretty much the same old stuff, which makes the clean-up easier.
David Brooks:
Asians place emphasis on context while Westerners place more emphasis on individuals. This seems like a gross generalization but it is robustly supported by hundreds and hundreds of studies. Richard Nisbett’s book, “The Geography of Thought” summarizes some of the evidence.
If you show Americans a fish tank, they’ll talk about the biggest fish in the tank. If you show Asians a tank they will make, on average, 60 percent more references to the context and the features of the scene. Western parents tend to emphasize nouns and categories when teaching their kids, Korean parents tend to emphasize verbs and relationships. If you show Americans a picture of a chicken, a cow and grass, they will lump the chicken and the cow, because they are both animals. Asians are more likely to lump the cow and the grass because cows eat grass. They have a relationship.
The mode of thought more common in Asia is better suited to the complex networks that make up the modern world. The contextual, associational style is simply more valid. The linear style we’ve inherited from the Greeks is less adaptive toward the modern age. I think the West may be doomed.
Me with a shovel: "David Brooks, Social Psychologist" (8/13/2008); "One question, two answers, three interpretations" (8/14/2008); "How to turn Americans into Asians (or vice versa)" (8/15/2008). See also James Fallows, "David Brooks from Chengdu: my lord" (8/12/2008) and "More on Chengdu and collectivism" (8/13/2008).
David Brooks:
I haven’t even mentioned gender differences yet. I think the same things I’ve said about Asians can be said about women as compared to men.
[M]y understanding is that the cognitive processing of male and female brains is mostly the same except for in one area: social cognition. Women, on average, pick up more social signals.
Me with a shovel: "David Brooks, Cognitive Neuroscientist" (8/12/2006); "David Brooks, Neuroendocrinologist" (9/17/2006). For some discussion about sex differences in perception of "social signals", see e.g. the discussion here of Erin McClure, "A Meta-Analytic Review of Sex Differences in Facial Expression Processing and Their Development in Infants, Children, and Adolescents", Psychological Bulletin 126:424-53, 2000; and the discussion here of Jennifer Connellan et al., "Sex Differences in Human Neonatal Social Perception", Infant Behavior & Development, 23:113-18, 2000.
As James Fallows wrote:
In my twilight years, I am not looking to pick a fight with anyone, and explicitly am not looking to do so with the amiable David Brooks. But I didn't like the argument or craftsmanship of this column, and I do hope he recognizes the danger of applying this kind of theorizing to big, important parts of the world.
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retreat.... 
cynical
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hyper
cheerful
sleepy
good
