her own eyes

first day of school!

9:30am. neural basis: vision & audition.
11am. lab in visual cognition.
1pm. neurophysiology of memory.

here are some interesting things i learned:

being tested on something may help you retain the information better than studying it, once you've learned it. [the critical importance of retrieval for learning]

~90% of the serotonin in your body is in your gut

"Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250" [Harper's Index, October 1989]

ps: tyler, i hope you are reading this in class on your iphone.

courtesy of wikipedia

1 When she was young, she and her father would sometimes wake at 3 a.m. to hunt moose before school.

2 She finished second in the Miss Alaska pageant.

3 She sold her predecessor's private jet on ebay.

"The Missouri seventh grader was suspended from school as soon as it started this year because she'd dyed her hair pink over the summer[...]Administrators argue that the dye job is a 'distraction' to other students, but with the full support of her mom, Amelia's choosing to fight the suspension rather than adopt a more conventional hair color."

1 she's so picky and unadventurous about food that this year she's going to keep a list of all the new foods she's tried. so far zucchini, yellow pepper, and fava beans made the list from our tyler-cooked dinner the other night.

2 when she was home a couple weeks ago her mom helped her make a dress.
lauren: charlie, guess where this dress is from.
charlie: i dunno, a store.
lauren: no, i MADE it.

3 super strength

4 sometimes when we are playing scrabble, out of nowhere she moos at the board.

5 we are a match made in heaven

so i've started french 101 on livemocha.com (which i highly recommend as it's tons of fun. at least it is if you think learning new languages is fun to begin with, which i do. also if you enjoy incessantly reciting elementary phrases in foreign languages at your friends.)

so i'm at besk clicking on the french equivalents for english sentences that the computer is reading out loud when the bexley housemaster and mit chaplain walks in.

"i am not fat. i am thin," my computer intones in a female computer voice.

the chaplain looks at me.

"um, i'm learning french?"

what i've been spectating: roller derbyyy!

what i've been reading: graphic novels (watchmen, blankets, and more to come hopefully. cue mandatory heckling of friends about "children's books")

what i've been listening to: lykke li

what i've been watching: the office!!! i'm up to season three, thanks to netflix instant watch.

what i've been eating: trader joe's fruit wraps nom nom

"If you buy enough bottled water annually to fill your recommended daily requirement of water, your cost would be around $1,500; with tap water, your cost is around $0.49."
--- from feministing interview with hanaa rifaey

"Junk mail consumes more energy than 2.8 million cars every year."
--- learn more & find links for getting off junk mail lists at idealbite.com

also, unrelated, an update on my extended warranty claim: american express credited my account with the $104.93 my now broken phone initially cost when i bought it over a year ago. sweet!

thx, christinahahaha.

the guy in front of me at laverdes asked for a plastic bag even though he was wearing a backpack that could totally have fit his naked juice and little box of pizza rolls, which he also could have easily carried in his hands.

nearly all my friends are out of town this weekend. okay, all two of them.

lauren went home on thursday. clifton went to montreal on friday. egg is going home today.

that left me and the chu, so we decided to entertain ourselves with ARTS N CRAFTS saturday. we started out going to the salvation army on saturday morning to get material, inspiration. the chu was considering getting silverware or martini glasses to decorate, but we ended up only buying clothes, which is just as fun. 1 houndstooth & 1 purple skirt for me.

back at bexley, we started our projects. the chu painted a lamp we had trash picked a while ago so that now it looks pretty much exactly like this polo shirt.

i cleaned & decorated a little table that rian had inherited from his ex-girlfriend (i finally removed the shipping sticker with her name on it from the underside) and left to me. i used my favorite artistic technique: découpaging with delia's catalogues.








the finished table in use:

we ended the night with a romantic candlelit dinner. i whipped up my speciality: macaroni and cheese (arthur shapes) with frozen vegetables mixed in (peas, corn, carrots, green beans, lima beans, yum!). also a $3 bottle of red wine.