today this guy was talking about how you don't necessarily have to feel an emotion before you do the behavior associated with it. sometimes if you just do the behavior, you'll start to feel the emotion. for example, people generally think they need a reason to laugh. they think they need to something to make them feel joyful first. but if you just start laughing for no reason, at first it is forced but very quickly it devolves into real laughter and when you are all done you feel a bit joyful. i find it works with smiling, too. (and probably some negative emotions as well.)
anyway, the point of this is that my first thought about this phenomenon was that it is an interesting glitch in our psychology that it can work essentially backwards. i'm not saying we shouldn't exploit it for all it's worth, it has some great applications. but i think it's an interesting way for things to be set up and i wonder whether it is something that was selected for or if it just happens to be an interesting side effect of how our emotions and behaviors are connected.
discuss.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
teacher prep days
so not ready for school to start. i'm loving being in my classroom and finally being able to get that set up. i'm excited for my room - it's coming together fairly well. i still have some problems to solve which are keeping my mind plenty busy, but the major things are essentially taken care of.
the only problem is that taking care of my room is doing an excellent job of distracting me from the much more important questions about how i want things to run once the children are in it. i'm doing an excellent job of not thinking about the rules and procedures and behavior management plans that i need to be putting into place. i'm not thinking about what we are going to do the first week to ensure that we have a successful year full of learning. which seems to me to be kind of bad in that these things seem a bit more important in the grand scheme of things than the classroom. in all fairness, though, all i have done thus far is unpack and organize, which does seem inherently important in having a classroom that runs smoothly.
we'll have to see how the week plays out. i'm not sure if having such a short period of time to get ready will help the procrastinator in me kick it into high gear or if it will mean being less ready than i should be. sadly, given past experience, it probably means some mix of the two with at least a bit of the latter. but i can dream, can't i?
the only problem is that taking care of my room is doing an excellent job of distracting me from the much more important questions about how i want things to run once the children are in it. i'm doing an excellent job of not thinking about the rules and procedures and behavior management plans that i need to be putting into place. i'm not thinking about what we are going to do the first week to ensure that we have a successful year full of learning. which seems to me to be kind of bad in that these things seem a bit more important in the grand scheme of things than the classroom. in all fairness, though, all i have done thus far is unpack and organize, which does seem inherently important in having a classroom that runs smoothly.
we'll have to see how the week plays out. i'm not sure if having such a short period of time to get ready will help the procrastinator in me kick it into high gear or if it will mean being less ready than i should be. sadly, given past experience, it probably means some mix of the two with at least a bit of the latter. but i can dream, can't i?
Friday, August 13, 2010
letters to intangibles
dear English,
please be more confusing and arbitrary. that would make my job much easier. thank you.
kim
dear houston,
please help me make some friends. i don't mind getting lost if i end up where the cool people are. thanks.
kim
p.s. i have cookies.
dear public education,
food for thought: more does not necessarily equal better. discuss.
kim
dear computer,
please stop sucking. i'm tired of fixing you. and i don't want to call india anymore.
kim
dear TED,
thank you for taking a vacation from posting talks. i appreciate being able to catch up.
kim
dear kersten,
we need to find an outlet for our baking habit that is not my stomach. pretty pretty please? i'll put a cherry on top.
kim
please be more confusing and arbitrary. that would make my job much easier. thank you.
kim
dear houston,
please help me make some friends. i don't mind getting lost if i end up where the cool people are. thanks.
kim
p.s. i have cookies.
dear public education,
food for thought: more does not necessarily equal better. discuss.
kim
dear computer,
please stop sucking. i'm tired of fixing you. and i don't want to call india anymore.
kim
dear TED,
thank you for taking a vacation from posting talks. i appreciate being able to catch up.
kim
dear kersten,
we need to find an outlet for our baking habit that is not my stomach. pretty pretty please? i'll put a cherry on top.
kim
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
stolen lyric poetry
i sometimes collect song lyrics that i enjoy. bits of text and phrases that resonate with me for whatever reason. for some it's the meaning, for others i just like the way they sound. i've taken some of these lyrics and turned them into poems. i think the first one came out alright. the second one requires a little more mining for the meaning.
Let It Out
If you've got an impulse let it out
(With a smile)
Hear the bells are
Ringing joyful and triumphant
Be good to yourself today
Have no fear
Gamble everything
Go make out
Up in the balcony
The band's leaving
Old age is just around the bend
The Sound of Settling
Distance lends enchantment to the future;
but my bed's too big for just me.
So I hold you closer,
fumbling to make contact.
But when I'm leanin',
you just turn your head away.
We'd learn how our bodies worked;
think without boundaries;
be good to ourselves today.
But I always have to steal my kisses from you.
Can you tell I'm losing sleep?
Yeah, you make me merry,
but you just turn your head away.
So I learnt from you.
Goddamn the black night,
with all it's foul temptations.
When you turn your eyes,
I promise I won't care,
but my bed's too big for just me.
special thanks to the following artists for the use of their words:
Ra Ra Riot
random Indian man
Dove Chocolate wrapper
Ben Harper
Death Cab for Cutie
Kate Nash
Bright Eyes
Mike Doughty
Ben Lee
Let It Out
If you've got an impulse let it out
(With a smile)
Hear the bells are
Ringing joyful and triumphant
Be good to yourself today
Have no fear
Gamble everything
Go make out
Up in the balcony
The band's leaving
Old age is just around the bend
The Sound of Settling
Distance lends enchantment to the future;
but my bed's too big for just me.
So I hold you closer,
fumbling to make contact.
But when I'm leanin',
you just turn your head away.
We'd learn how our bodies worked;
think without boundaries;
be good to ourselves today.
But I always have to steal my kisses from you.
Can you tell I'm losing sleep?
Yeah, you make me merry,
but you just turn your head away.
So I learnt from you.
Goddamn the black night,
with all it's foul temptations.
When you turn your eyes,
I promise I won't care,
but my bed's too big for just me.
special thanks to the following artists for the use of their words:
Ra Ra Riot
random Indian man
Dove Chocolate wrapper
Ben Harper
Death Cab for Cutie
Kate Nash
Bright Eyes
Mike Doughty
Ben Lee
Saturday, July 31, 2010
adventures in moving
i got to be a grown-up today. kersten and i are moving and this time we decided to do it with a truck. you know, one of those u-hauls. we settled on one that was 10 feet long. in classic kim style, i thought very little of our decision. we'll figure it out, right?
and then my mom looked at me and asked, "it's an automatic, right?"
"of course, i'm sure, it has to be," i replied and tried not to give it much thought.
then today we were sitting at lunch and kersten goes, "what are we going to do if it's a manual?" and again, in my classic i-can-do-anything,-no-problem sort of way i answered, "we'll take it and hope ben peetz really did teach me something on the farm this summer. it'll be fine, we'll figure it out." kersten did not looked convinced.
a little while later, as i was sitting at barnes & noble waiting for kersten to finish stealing the internet, i gave this last exchange some thought. neither one of us really knows how to drive a stick. sure, we know how, but we don't really know how. nor has either one of us ever driven a giant truck before. and it's houston. there's traffic. i started imagining kersten and i in this truck and i laughed so hard i cried. right there in the barnes. we'd be going approximately 10 miles an hour and trying to avoid every major street we can, probably killing the engine at every other corner while screaming and flailing at each other in the cab. then i imagined the truck full and realized that there is no way to get from our old house to our new house without taking some major streets. i have no idea what gear i need to go 40 miles an hour! i think i'm going to start cracking up again, sitting here by myself...
at any rate, the truck did indeed turn out to be an automatic which i thought took some of the adventure out of things but was probably safer. little did i know what adventure would be in store for us...we had to wait a bit for our truck to come and they offered us the 17 foot truck that had already come back. we said we would wait. then, as we were filling out the paperwork to take it, kersten asked if it had a ramp, thinking that of course it would. of course it didn't. realizing that there was no way the 2 of us could get a washing machine into a truck without a ramp, we said, "what were you saying about that 17 foot truck? it has a ramp, right?" of course it does. and thus, kersten got to drive down the streets of houston in a 17 food u-haul truck. adventure was restored.
luckily, no accidents occurred, but it was fun watching her drive it. such good expressions...
it was also kind of fun loading it. i've never gotten to get in the truck before. i felt very grown up.
that said, growing up is kind of annoying. moving sucks. especially moving into a second floor apartment. and we don't really even have any furniture yet. good thing we like the place lots.
and then my mom looked at me and asked, "it's an automatic, right?"
"of course, i'm sure, it has to be," i replied and tried not to give it much thought.
then today we were sitting at lunch and kersten goes, "what are we going to do if it's a manual?" and again, in my classic i-can-do-anything,-no-problem sort of way i answered, "we'll take it and hope ben peetz really did teach me something on the farm this summer. it'll be fine, we'll figure it out." kersten did not looked convinced.
a little while later, as i was sitting at barnes & noble waiting for kersten to finish stealing the internet, i gave this last exchange some thought. neither one of us really knows how to drive a stick. sure, we know how, but we don't really know how. nor has either one of us ever driven a giant truck before. and it's houston. there's traffic. i started imagining kersten and i in this truck and i laughed so hard i cried. right there in the barnes. we'd be going approximately 10 miles an hour and trying to avoid every major street we can, probably killing the engine at every other corner while screaming and flailing at each other in the cab. then i imagined the truck full and realized that there is no way to get from our old house to our new house without taking some major streets. i have no idea what gear i need to go 40 miles an hour! i think i'm going to start cracking up again, sitting here by myself...
at any rate, the truck did indeed turn out to be an automatic which i thought took some of the adventure out of things but was probably safer. little did i know what adventure would be in store for us...we had to wait a bit for our truck to come and they offered us the 17 foot truck that had already come back. we said we would wait. then, as we were filling out the paperwork to take it, kersten asked if it had a ramp, thinking that of course it would. of course it didn't. realizing that there was no way the 2 of us could get a washing machine into a truck without a ramp, we said, "what were you saying about that 17 foot truck? it has a ramp, right?" of course it does. and thus, kersten got to drive down the streets of houston in a 17 food u-haul truck. adventure was restored.
luckily, no accidents occurred, but it was fun watching her drive it. such good expressions...
it was also kind of fun loading it. i've never gotten to get in the truck before. i felt very grown up.
that said, growing up is kind of annoying. moving sucks. especially moving into a second floor apartment. and we don't really even have any furniture yet. good thing we like the place lots.
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