How about that?!

Few days ago as I was driving home from school I heard this news on the classical music station and I had a few good chuckles.

There is a pair of friends, friend A played a practical joke on B. Friend A thought it was clever to have B think that he has accidentally swallowed B’s truck key. Except that while playing the practical joke friend A ended up swallowing the key! In a panic the pair rushed to the hospital to see a doctor. The doctor informed the pair that it is best for the key just take the natural course to let it pass through the system on its own. Problem is though that B needed to use his truck to complete some work. So, the pair came up with an idea and took the x-ray to a locksmith and made a key to the truck. Not only the locksmith was able to make a key from the x-ray, it worked!

I think the moral of the story is: find a good locksmith when you need something done right…

Amazing

I wrote about my new neighbors, and this is an update. Yes, the birds are still there, however, I don’t see them as often anymore. Probably due to the fact that I am rarely home and I am just not as aware of their presence.

Few days ago it thunder stormed around here, and I didn’t think much of it expect that I was very thankful that my powder remained. The next morning as I was backing out of my garage I looked up to see if the birds are still around, to my surprise the rain had washed off most of the bird poop on my windows! I was so excited. Although I still will have to scrub the stuff off of my door, but at least that save me some work in trying to clean the outside of the windows too. Can’t complain about that!

That was nostalgic

I have been helping to run a summer camp for a week now. Since today is the last day of the week, we thought that we should give the kids a treat and let them get wet a little. So we came up with this game of hot potatoes that’s played with water balloons. I ended up leading few younger kids in my group and as we were throwing the balloons back and forth the first one burst as I was catching. The kids were screaming and laughing. I didn’t mind much as it was hot out anyhow. I just remember that I haven’t played with a water balloon in ages!

Later I was talking online with Ginger, and the term TGIF entered the conversation. It brought back so much memory as I started watching those programs as we first moved to the States. I haven’t thought about that in such a long time, it just brings back a lot of mixed feelings and memories.

Such a nice day!

There has been a string of nice days here in DC lately. I have been feeling good with my hair down and the wind blowing. At one point I actually thought the sound of the birds living next-door fighting is cute! I wish this nice weather continued for the remainder of the summer.

Suggestions or real recovery?

I am currently taking an online class titled Cognitive and Affective Processes and this week we had to complete a group project (an online group project, a very novel and laborious process!) and my group decided to talk about pressed and false memories. I was responsible for the implication section and a question that is associated with the topic.

Well to make a long explanation short, repressed memories are those memories that are so traumatic to the individual that they are pushed into the unconscious (as indicated by the psychodynamic thought). Usually these memories are only recalled when the individual is emotionally able to deal with the event or issue. However, since these memories are usually unearthed long after they are buried, it is difficult to ever be sure what had taken place when the event first happened.

So I came up with this question for the class: Is it ethical for a therapist to suggest to a patient that they have repressed memories? Why or why not? Which to my surprise everyone who is not in the group participated in the discussion.

I started thinking while responding to some of my classmates’ comments. Since these memories are very fluid and can be easily affected by suggestions from the therapist, what the therapist says to the patient then becomes very important. The therapist can mislead the patient one way or the other depending on how they work with patients.

I came to the conclusion that since everyone has different life experiences, another can interpret the way you state a thought as something very different. As you can never be 100% sure of how others will take your comments. No matter how clearly you think you have expressed yourself, there’s always that chance that someone can take it very differently. So I started to wonder if the mere act of talking with a patient about their repressed memory actively altering that memory? No matter now neutral a therapist is while exploring the topic.

I don’t have an answer to that question, but it’s certainly an interesting thought.

Mexican?

For some reasons I was mistaken for a Mexican at least twice within the last couple of months. On Monday we had a guest speaker, a Central America spiritual man, spoke in my Diversity course. As this man and I rode the elevator down to the ground floor, while joking, I mentioned that I had been mistaken for a Mexican. So, apparently there are some indigenous tribes in Mexico that looked very much like Asians. Who would have known?!

Being diplomatic

I posted something about my professor yesterday that I have decided to pull. The thinking behind it is that I still have some potential to need to deal with him in the future. Although from the way I feel about him, I will do anything humanly possible to avoid working with him again. I doubt that he would search for me online, but I also don’t want to run that risk. It is always complicated when it involves other people.

Phew, what a relief…

It’s done... it’s finally over! I spoke with my professor for my diversity course yesterday during break for my class. I am getting myself a new advisor! I am so excited :) and such a relief… I will post more about the reasons for my change later. I am just excited to be able to work with someone that’s sensitive to her students.

My new neighbors

A few weeks ago while laboring away washing my car I looked up and saw a bird sitting rather protectively on my neighbor’s roof.

“What was that all about?” I thought to myself. As l looked closer another bird climbed out of the metal covers that lie between the roof and the house. “Oh, no, they are nesting in there” and that can’t be good. The very next day, I saw some bird droppings ON my front door and few twigs and pine needles on my lawn. Yes, not only they have nested there, they keep constant watch at the hole and become very defensive as I try to get into my house. Right, like I can climb 3 stories up so that I can steal the eggs. I can also hear them strolling leisurely across my roof first thing in the morning.

Needless to say, the birds are still here and they keep pooping on the front side of my house. It looks very attractive by the way, with all the visible bird droppings on the windows and door. Maybe I should conjure up some plan to “help” them move out.

My therapist told me this is therapeutic…

So now long after being temped by my friends and their blogs. I have decided to try one myself.

No, I don’t really have a therapist that told me that this is therapeutic (well that’s if you exclude myself as one), but it might achieve that objective anyway.

I can’t claim that this will be insightful. I just want it to be some urgently needed ranting and some mindless fun!