Finally Feeling Better

My meds seem to be working. My cough is still kinda bad, and I have been taking my cough syrup during the day for it, but I won't be able to do that tomorrow with work and class. Should be an experience lol

First, sorry my background was messed up yesterday! I was giving it some time to see if it corrected itself. Apparently it did, so I'm not going to mess with it right now. I'm looking around for a new template, but I don't think I will change anything for another week or so.

Second, I would like to address my one and only comment yesterday :) As counselors-in-training, we are taught that we should not counsel family and friends. It is one thing to use our attending skills (listening, asking questions, etc.) but there should be a line between our characters as family members or friends and as counselors. I don't know the situation with your friend, but from what we have learned, he should reconsider trying to be a psychiatrist to his family and go the father route instead. But like I said, I don't know the situation so that is just my opinion.

Third, I saw the CUTEST thing on tv today so I just have to share it. This dog is adorable! Apparently he is narcoleptic and can't breathe through his nose, so he tries to sleep sitting up. My favorite part is the very end when he shoots back up like "What? I wasn't asleep!" haha, enjoy! (PS, the video might take a minute to load. My suggestion is to hit the pause button, and when the light red bar is all the way across play. Otherwise it may play then stop then play then stop etc.)

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Self Care

You have probably heard about the Fort Hood tragedy by now. This event others me on many levels. Obviously I am bothered by the lives lost and those still fighting due due to injuries. I am also upset that it occurred in a place that was suppose to be safe. The number one thing that upsets me is that the person responsible was a helping professional.

The shooter (last name Hasan) was a psychiatrist working on the base. I have heard that he had been teased because he was Muslim. I also heard he was getting ready to be deployed, and did not want to go. It is a real disappointment to my field when a helping professional abandons the promise to help and takes lives.

One of the things my professors stress in my program is self care. How can we expect to help others when we have problems to deal with of our own? They even suggest that we receive counseling ourselves, but there are no centers available that are willing to give students a discount rate. We can't go to the university counseling center because we may end up working there and that could be a breach in confidentiality. It was not until Thursday that I realized just how important self care is. I wonder if the events of that day would have occurred had Hasan been receiving counseling. I'm pretty sure it would have made ALL the difference. Maybe the university will work a little harder now to get us counseling seeing what can result.

OK, so now onto something a little less down. I always talk about whatever I am thinking/feeling/experiencing/etc. but I want to know what you want to read. Ask me a question... anything and everything. You can even ask more than one! I promise to be completely honest... nothing is off limits!! Let's see how this works :)

ps. sorry if there are a bunch of typos. I'm typing on my netbook with itty bitty keys, and I'm too lazy to read back through the post... Maybe later.

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A little Pavlov for your weekend

The Bestie sent me this video from "The Office" yesterday and it is absolutely hilarious.

Well, it is to me as a psychology person... I wonder if everyone else will find it as funny?

Anywho, I'm sure you have heard of Pavlov and his classical conditioning at one point in time or another... If you have you can just watch the video. If not, I'll put a little summary at the bottom.


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More DIY videos at 5min.com

The idea of classical conditioning (or Pavlovian conditioning as it is sometimes called) is that an animal (or person) can be trained to respond to certain stimuli based on what comes after that stimuli. Pavlov used a bell and meat powder for his experiment. He would ring a bell then put meat powder on the dogs tongues. After a while, he found that the dogs would salivate when the bell would ring, even if he had not given them the meat powder. They even began to generalize to hearing his footsteps since that would come before the bell. Pretty interesting stuff I think. Being the psychology nerd that I am, if you have questions or want to know more I will gladly talk to you about it :)

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Who is the bigger lab rat now?

*Just a heads up, I have a couple of things I wanted to talk about today, so I apologize in advance if this post is kind of random. *

I think I want to start with the story about money. Just keep reading, it won't be as boring as it sounds (I hope). Amanda and I were on our way to get lunch after class today, and she saw a dollar laying on the ground. After a couple of rounds of "pick it up" "no you pick it up" I picked up the money. It was actually $2 folded together. I was nervous about grabbing it, for a couple of reasons. First off, I'm pretty self-conscious anyway, so I didn't know who all was watching... which brings me to my next point. It could have been a psych experiment going on. You know, leave something like money laying out and watch to see if anyone takes it. Or maybe I'm just paranoid... whatev. Anywho, to make ourselves feel better, we first split it so we each got $1. Then, when we got to the student center, we saw an easy, guilt-free, way out of the money. There was a bake sale going on for Dance Blue. Dance Blue is an event that UK puts on every year to collect money for the children's hospital. I think it goes mainly towards pediatric cancer. So, we spent the money on chocolate chip cookies. We may have taken the money, but it went to charity, and we got cookies in return. Talk about your positive reinforcement :D So now we feel better. You don't have to tell me... I know we are dorks haha

So now for the story that led to the title of this post. As you may know (or not), I'm in a research lab for one of the psychologists at UK. He is said to be one of the top 10 psychologists right now in the nation, so it's pretty cool working with him. I have been in his lab since he came to UK fall of '07. This semester, there are only two of us in the lab that have been with him from the start. Everyone else came in at a later date. The other person, JimmyG, will do whatever Dr. D wants, even if that includes working weekends and nights. I use to pick on him for it because he just didn't know how to say no. I won't laugh anymore, because I'm the new JimmyG. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be acknowledged for my work, but I don't want to be taken advantage of. I will be working on a pretty cool project that is first of its kind. The bad part is that we are only running this study on Mondays, and Mondays were suppose to be my days off with Matthew. He asked me if I was available on Mondays, and I told him I didn't have anything all day. He said, "Great, so you can work for an hour... or more." CRAP! What have I gotten myself into? He also told the other people working on the project that I have a lot of experience running participants, and that I will be good for the study. At least I got a compliment out of the deal. I guess we will see how this goes. I'll keep you updated.

On a lighter note, I have managed to not fall today... but it's only 10:30, still have another hour and a half to go.... Now I think I'll go find JimmyG and we'll try and take over the world :D

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A Not-Twilight-Related Post

Alright... so back to reality. So where do I begin?

School officially sucks right now. There are roughly 5 weeks left of this semester, and I'm feeling the burn. I have papers and tests all creeping up on me. I got up at 5am today to finish a paper! The only reason I didn't finish it last night was because my laptop overheated and shut off. Oh well. At least that is one paper done... only two more left (too bad those two are monster 10-15 page papers....).

Lab is ok. We are starting a new study, which is frustrating because things aren't getting done like they should, but whatev. Good new, though, is that the amazing grad student Ryan is letting me tag onto one of his projects. I have spent most of the evening making a survey online for the project. It is just a rough draft and is no where near close to being able to be sent out to people, but it's my little survey that I made all by myself you know? I'm very excited about this project because I get to go deeper into the world of research than just running participants. I think it is an excellent opportunity, and I am very grateful to gs Ryan :)

I spent this past weekend in Indiana. I got to spend time with my Dad, and meet the newest member of the family, Oscar. He is so freakin ugly that he is cute! He has got to be the greatest puppy in Indiana for sure lol He looks like a little Ewok off of Star Wars. I'm having problems getting pictures up, but I promise they will be up soon :)

On an end note, here is my current favorite, song-wise. Everytime I hear this song I turn the radio up and jam along (when no one is around to hear me of course.... wouldn't want to ruin anyone's hearing....)

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The good, the bad, the ugly

So today was not the best day I've ever had. There have been a couple of good things, but mostly bad. Let's start with the bad so I can end on a good note lol

1. I got up super early this morning to go to the bookstore before my class to buy a study guide for developmental. I get there, and they are sold out. Figures.
2. I had to listen to an extremely depressing story by my professor, one that was very personal and I would rather have not heard. Also, I'm pretty sure that next class we are watching "THE birthing" video.... yeah, you know the one....
3. Everything I said today came out wrong, so now everyone thinks I'm a know-it-all or a complete idiot. I always try to make a good impression on people I don't know all that well, but end up only making a fool of myself. Also, I was just trying to help most of the time and came off as trying to be right and being a know-it-all. It really sucks because it shouldn't matter what other people think of me, but it does.
4. I have a re-test tomorrow. 'nuff said.

Now on to the good.

1. My geography test was moved from next Wednesday the 24th to Monday the 29th. It worked out very well because on the 24th I had two tests and an introduction due. And they were all back to back. At least now I only have the one test and the paper.
2. I went to get a Pepsi after lunch and I got the last one! UK went Coke last year, and it sucks because I am totally a Pepsi girl, and there is one place on campus that still sells it. I was so happy!
3. I found a very interesting article on MSN this morning(Read it here). It is about Phantom Limb pain, and a new therapy called "mirror therapy." As a psych major, this topic is relevant to my studies, but also to my interests. I wonder how the research will go, and 10yrs down the line if the findings will stand as they do now. I'm excited to find out.

Kind of sad, my "good" list isn't very long. Oh well. Off to study for my test and for a quiz I have on Wednesday :(

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