“The full moon reminds me that sometimes we shine with the help of another.”
- Jackson Kiddard
Tags: inspirational, quote
help another.
12 AprWe are all a little weird…
14 FebWe are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love. — Dr. Seuss
Quote that has recently become a favorite.
Tags: love, quotes, valentines day
Twenty Two (22)
24 JanTime for my annual birthday lexicon! 21 was a fun age, here’s hoping 22 is even better!
1) I’m obsessed with the show “Jeopardy”
2) Probably because I like knowing about things
3) And like knowing obscure, miscellaneous facts.
4) According to the Enneagram test, I am a 7 (an adventurer).
5) I am currently planning a trip to Seattle and I can’t wait.
6) I’ve never been to California, but want to visit ASAP.
7) I still want to be an astronaut.
8.) I only went to one concert last year, which is the fewest I’ve been to since 2007.
9) However, that concert was to see Incubus for the second time, so it was awesome.
10) I want to go to more concerts this year.
11) Though I need to find a concert buddy up here in DC (applicants always welcome!)
12) I will be attending 2012 MegaCon in Orlando again this year.
13) I absolutely love black & white photography.
14) Actually, I just really like the color combination of black and white, in general.
15) I can’t stand tuna – or pickles.
16) I read 56 books last year and I’m aiming to beat that this year.
17) I recently got a MacBook Pro and I like it a lot.
18) But I’ll always still be a PC girl (65/35, PC/Mac)
19) I am aiming to run a 5k this year.
20) I really like statistics.
21) I’m a dork, but I like being a dork, so whatever.
22) That last one was a total cop out as I am running out of things to say and have homework I should be doing =D
Tags: dork, enneagram test
2011 in Review
13 JanThough I’ve been slacking (read: MAJORLY) at blogging recently, I couldn’t NOT post my annual year in review post. So, better late than never, my 2011 in review. Busy, busy year, but it was overall great and I’m looking forward to what 2012 brings! [If you feel so inclined, check out my past years!]
January
-Otronicon! (Orlando Science Center)
-Survived my 21st birthday!
February
-Grad school interviews
March
-Spring break in North Carolina
-Megacon! (Orlando)
-Officially decided to attend George Mason!
April
-Finally went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure!
-Stopped working at Dominos
-Helped launch the first UCF Honors Seniors Giving Campaign
-Carmen the ballet at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center
May
-Graduated from UCF!!
-Attended Dwight Howard’s twitter-planned BBQ (so random! I love the internet, haha)
June
-Crazy 6am workouts with Jackie
-Lots of freaking out about moving/thesis
-Read a lot of books
July
-4th of July in North Carolina! (First time mountain biking and white water rafting)
-Harry Potter 7: Part 2 midnight showing! (end of an era – and a major part of my life to date, haha)
-Presented at the 2011 Human Computer Interaction International Conference (Orlando, FL)
-Defended my undergraduate thesis!
-Started my Project365 (picture a day for 1 year)
-Moved to Fairfax, VA for grad school!
August
-Started grad school at George Mason University!
September
-UCF Alumni Football Watch Party event in DC
-Incubus concert at the 1-800-Ask-Gary Ampitheatre in Tampa! ( only concert this year :/ )
-Attended the 2011 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Conference (Las Vegas, NV)
October
-Capitals pre-season hockey game
-Lightning vs Capitals hockey game (Go Lightning!)
-Fairfax Fall Festival
-Freak snow shower on Halloween!
November
-GMU Basketball vs Rhode Island (1st GMU sporting event!)
-Metropolitan Cooking Show with Savannah
-Thanksgiving in FL
December
-Survived first set of grad school finals!
-Enjoyed a really long break in warm, sunny FL =D
Books Read in 2011
13 Jan
Another year done, another year of books under my belt! My annual goal of reading 50 books was met in 2011, with a total of 56 books completed! It was the year of series, with a good number of Richelle Mead’s (13) and J.R. Ward’s (9) books making up a good chunk of my reading. My favorites are asterisked. What are some good books you’ve read recently? Feel free to keep track of my progress in 2012 via my 50 Book Challenge Page or my visual bookshelf on Shelfari!
2011 Books
1) Shadow Kiss – Richelle Mead
2) Blood Promise – Richelle Mead
3) Spirit Bound – Richelle Mead
4) Last Sacrifice – Richelle Mead
5) The Reef – Nora Roberts
6) Honest Illusions – Nora Roberts
7) Matched – Ally Condie
8.) True Betrayals – Nora Roberts
9) Jarhead – Anthony Swofford
10) Delirium – Lauren Oliver
11) Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen *
12) The Search – Nora Roberts
13) 13 Little Blue Envelopes – Maureen Johnson
14) Red Riding Hood – Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
15) The Mating – Nicky Charles
16) The Keeping – Nicky Charles
17) The Finding – Nicky Charles
18) Dark Lover – J.R. Ward
19) Lover Eternal – J.R. Ward
20) Lover Awakened – J.R. Ward
21) Lover Revealed – J.R. Ward
22) Lover Unbound – J.R. Ward *
23) Lover Enshrined – J.R. Ward
24) What Every Body is Saying – Joe Navarro
25) Lover Avenged – J.R. Ward
26) Lover Mine – J.R. Ward
27) Lover Unleashed – J.R. Ward *
28) Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares – Rachel Cohn & David Levithan *
29) Titanic: The Long Night – Diane Hoh
30) Dead to the World – Charlaine Harris
31) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
32) Shiver – Maggie Stiefvater
33) How Doctors Think – Jerome Groopman
34) Linger – Maggie Stiefvater
35) Forever – Maggie Stiefvater *
36) Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
37) Secret Society – Tom Dolby
38) Jellicoe Road – Melina Marchetta *
39) Sunshine – Robin McKinley
40) Asylum – Patrick McGrath
41) Beauty – Robin McKinley
42) The Last Werewolf – Glen Duncan
43) Succubus Blues – Richelle Mead *
44) Succubus on Top – Richelle Mead
45) Succubus Dreams – Richelle Mead
46) Succubus Heat – Richelle Mead
47) Succubus Shadows – Richelle Mead
48) Succubus Revealed – Richelle Mead
49) World War Z – Max Brooks *
50) Storm Born – Richelle Mead
51) Thorn Queen – Richelle Mead
52) Iron Crowned – Richelle Mead
53) The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky *
54) Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater *
55) Cum Laude – Cecily von Zeigesar
56) Tribute – Nora Roberts
Update
15 NovLife has been crazy! Started grad school at George Mason in August, then blinked and realized it was the week before Thanksgiving! Though I’ve failed at blogging, I have been doing pretty well with my Project365, Picture-A-Day project on Flickr! Below is one of my recent favorites. Feel free to click through and check out the entire stream, since that’s essentially been my life day-by-day for over 100 days =D
Ok, back to work. Only a few weeks left in my first semester of grad school – crazy!
Transformers 3 Review
30 Jun
It’s officially summer, which means the big summer blockbusters are now free to wreak their havoc on the box office numbers and appeal to the masses of moviegoers. Last night I watched one such movie, the somewhat anticipated Transformers 3, directed by Michael Bay and starring Shia LaBeouf and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
I’m just going to come right out and say that I did not like this film. In fact, I abhorred it. I have not disliked a movie with such a passion in a LONG time and I considered more than once during it’s ridiculous 2.5+ hour runtime leaving and getting my money back, considering the brain cells I lost en route collateral damage. Mild spoilers ahead.
Tags: shia labeouf, transformers, transformers 3
‘Dash’-ing Through Life
29 JunBeing summer (and the summer between undergrad and grad school), I find I have a lot of
time to read – which is absolutely fantastic. I’m almost at 30 books of my 50-books-in-one-year goal! Anyway, I recently did one of my favorite Barnes & Noble sit-and-read trips and stumbled across the book “Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares” and decided to read it.
And read it I did, in one 5-hour sitting at B&N. From the first line, this book pulls you right into the quirky, somewhat jaded, world of Dash and his discovery of a fascinating adventure via Lily’s planted bookstore scavenger hunt. The book only gets better from there, with Dash’s honest self-narratives, memorable dialogue, and unexpected plot twists/near-misses.
While Lily is a bit mundane (and the only reason this book isn’t getting 5 stars from me), Dash was definitely one of the most interesting fictional characters I’ve ever encountered; I now definitely plan on reading more books by David Levithan. I’m happy I chose this book at a whim.
Some notable quotes:
“But isn’t this a dance? Isn’t all of this a dance? Isn’t that what we do with words? Isn’t that what we do when we talk, when we spar, when we make plans or leave it to chance? Some of it’s choreographed. Some of the steps have been done for ages. And the rest – the rest is spontaneous. The rest has to be decided on the floor, in the moment, before the music ends.” – Dash (My favorite quote.)
“I figured being a bed salesman was a job of biblically bad paradox. I mean, here he was, forced to stand for eight or nine hours a day, and the whole time he’s surrounded by beds.” – Dash
“It’s hard to show that you tried unless you end up succeeding.” – Dash
“It’s moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest.” – Dash
“The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There’s no getting over that.” – Langston
time flies, etc, etc.
6 JunOk, I’ve been severely slacking on updating this blog, but I think I have some legitimate reasons. Over the past ~4 months, I:
Dressed up as one of my favorite superheroes for MegaCon 2011
- Graduated from UCF!
- Got into grad school!
Went to the beach!
Along with other things of course! But yes, it’s been a busy, busy last semester of undergrad. I’m excited to have completed that part of my journey through life and am excited to be starting the next one. Come August, I will be starting the Human Factors & Applied Cognition PhD program at George Mason University! [I do a happy dance in my head every time I think about it, haha] Yes, the late nights of homework often sucked, the application process was stressful, and I had some freakouts along the way, but it’s all been worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. So, remember to keep your head up, keep your eye on your goal – and that sleep is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Ok, off to do summer things like work and research and stuff =D
The Grad Student Shuffle
2 AprThis is my treatise to undergraduate psychology students about the issue of research participation. I know that there are other undergraduate majors that often participate in psychology research studies as well, but as the majority of them are psychology majors, they are who I am directing this towards.
With my vast experience of having been an undergraduate psychology major and current psychology doctoral student at two different large research universities, I have some inside perspective to both sides of the issue. The issue? Many undergraduate psychology classes require students to participate in research within the department for course credit of some kind and I believe that these students don’t understand why they need to do that. So I am here to inform them.
For all the psychology majors out there who “just want to understand people”, “just want to be called Dr. So-and-So”, and “just want to go to grad school and will figure out what you want to do then” [all reasons I’ve heard from undergrads for wanting to go to grad school], grad school involves getting a higher degree and getting a higher degree involves conducting research and conducting research involves having participants. Many universities have the psychology students participate in the aforementioned research for the graduate students so that the graduate students can have participants to run and the undergraduate students can learn about various types of research within the field of psychology and possibly more about what they would potentially be doing in graduate school themselves. A win-win, right?
Wrong. Because I don’t know if some students realize that there is someone on the other side of their signing up/no-showing/cancelling a research study. For instance, the time now is 9:13am on a Monday – and I have been sitting here for over 90 minutes for students who voluntarily signed up for 8:00/8:30/9:00am timeslots [and were reminded last night via email, mind you], yet I am currently 0/3 of people showing up. No cancellation of their appointment, no email sent to let me know they’re sick/car is broken/decided to join the circus/etc. Yes, if any of those things occurred, you may not think to email a researcher about your life events – but maybe you should think about it, as that researcher will be there diligently waiting for you to show up.
“But Melissa. Couldn’t you just do homework during that time or be productive somehow?” No. Because I will be constantly jumping up/pacing/asking anyone who walks by if they are my participant so much during the timeslot, that I could not possibly retain anything I tried to productively intake. I call it the Grad Student Shuffle.
Alas. My takeaway point from this is that if you are a psychology undergraduate student and you sign up for a study, show up. Or cancel your appointment. Because who likes to be kept waiting? No one.
Tags: commentary, grad school, psychology, research, science