Texting Can Cause Stress and the Death Star Conspiracy

Long distance relationships are hard enough without having to be in war jobs. I cannot imagine being in a long distance relationship with your whole family and being in the armed forces. I bet soldiers and others think that they are helping by texting and emailing and so forth and in some cases they are probably doing a better job of being present to their families than previous generations had been. However, I know first hand about the miscommunication which can happen as a result of just seeing words on a screen without the inflection and the tone in which they are said. I hope that whatever guidelines psychologists come up with, soldiers and families can find better ways of being present to each other without causing extra stress.


In some very serious news, a video was released which showed that the Death Star destruction may have been helped by an inside man. The inside man. The evidence is quite good. You might be convinced.

Life is Amazing

http://scienceblog.com/60944/institutional-betrayal-magnifies-post-trauma-effects-of-unwanted-sexual-activity/

Today is Friday. An ordinary Friday. However, it is amazing what can happen in a week.

Two cases as examples:
First, we all complain about institutions. Especially ones which we feel did us some harm or feel that they handled something incorrectly. How much more so for people who have suffered from sexual abuse or harassment in an institutional setting, like colleges, military, and so on. As humans, we walk a fine line of being responsible for ourselves and responsible for others which gets lost in the fog of control.

Second, my personal week. In the last week I have written a sermon, hosted a special dinner party, run a 15K race, given a sermon, taught an Adult Christian Ed class, gone to class despite the distraction of my boyfriend visiting, gotten officially a year older, driven through five different states, seen an old friend, failed a major test, and been given wonderful presents, all with the prospects of good old friends to visit and more interesting work to come.

How much love do you have in your week?

Watching Brain Drain

The articles I read today were about how your brain gets tired while doing physical activity and shuts down the muscles and how researchers were able to tell who people were thinking about in an experiment given the personality traits given to the models. I think the second ability is quite impressive. I love learning about human brains, part of knowing myself. So effectively I can learn from this article that my brain processes people differently because of the personality traits that I perceive in them. I use different parts of my brain to think about different people. I am very glad that no one watches my brain, but I am glad that researchers are doing brain research. I wonder what else we can see in the brain images given by thinking. If I am thinking about a certain type of game, will that show up differently than other types of games? I bet it would, but I wonder how far that ability goes? Can we see how much of one personality trait is being thought about by the amount of activity in that location of the brain? How much can I really learn about myself in learning about my brain? Is neurology the same as psychology where people who study it go through stages of thinking that they have the latest problem they are learning about? There are definitely a few neurological and psychological problems that I do not have. What can you learn about your own brain from self testing and experimentation? 

Delusional Trust

http://scienceblog.com/60653/trust-makes-you-delusional-and-thats-not-all-bad/

This article seems funny to me. I have no doubts about this conclusion. How we look at the world is determined by how we remember other experiences and ideas. Trust is built over time and through certain kinds of situations. I am very glad that I trust my boyfriend and I am very glad that my trust can be a positive force in our relationship. It is funny though how we look at 'being delusional.' As if having a lens through which you view reality is a bad thing. We cannot get away from the lenses we use to view reality. We cannot comprehend reality without any lenses, we would not be able to assign any values to our experiences or feelings. I would not want a world in which I could not understand anything in any way. I may not always like the lenses which make me delusional, but I can work to change them when they make themselves known. I rather accept trust as a positive delusion. I do know that some day that may hurt me, but then it also may not. The uncertainty is probably worth the forgiveness and happiness which I have experienced in my life so far. I wonder what other value lens make us delusional by psychological standards. I would guess love also for sure. Love colors our worlds and makes us able to live with and accept other people despite lots of bad experiences. Those experiences matter less when you love another person in any way. I might rather have a kinder world in which we are all 'delusional' because of trust or love. How about you?

Psychology of Giving and Other Stuff

http://ucresearch.tumblr.com/post/43085813026/if-your-valentines-day-is-less-than-ideal-dont

I am thoroughly enjoying getting to explore scienceblog.com. It is helping me feel more connected to the world while here in seminary without having to watch or look at the news and feel depressed about all the bad things being reported. I do care about the bad stuff that is happening in the world, and it is now very close by with the internet, however I do not need to be depressed about it all everyday. I would like to be able to think that there is good stuff going on in the world every day. I know there is. Good stuff happens in my life, so it has to happen in others' lives too. That is one reason I am liking exploring the science. There are good and bad things going on in science and obviously people are passionate about these things. Passion makes life more vivid. I really enjoyed the comic above, not because I have broken up ever, but because of how the science was easy, accessible, funny, and makes you feel better. Your hat is awesome. Especially if someone who puts you down regularly speaks against it, as a general rule. And speaking of people who build you up versus people who put you down, I also read this article: http://scienceblog.com/60480/in-rich-and-poor-nations-giving-makes-people-feel-better-than-getting/ about how people feel better after buying something for someone else rather than for themselves. It is really funny in a culture that highlights and emphasizes retail therapy and buying stuff for oneself, that we actually feel better when we buy stuff for other people. Even more interestingly enough, people across the world have the same feeling when it comes to buying stuff for other people. How great! We should spend more of our money on others and making sure other people have what they need as well as ourselves. Sadly, as the person who commented pointed out, this does not work in some situations. We do not feel the same way about giving part of our money to the government or other organizations who will then buy stuff for the poor themselves. I wonder if it also has to do with the reception. One of the reasons I was turned down from a summer mission trip to Panama was that I would not be able to eat the food the poorer folks I would be working with would try to feed me. I was slightly appalled when I read that the trip planners allow the volunteers to eat the food of the poor. However, I know how hospitality works. When you invite someone into your house, you like to be able to offer them something. I have myself gotten told off for being rude for bringing my own food into other people's houses, even when they know that they cannot adequately feed me without making me sick. I get stuck in that catch twenty two frequently. Most people just then shy away from inviting me into their homes. It works. The feeling of being able to give something to someone else, to share what we have, to provide for someone is powerful. Psychology and science may link it to the evolutionary needs of humanity. Humans helping humans probably will allow the species to live longer than us always cutting each other throats. Religion will link it to the gifts of God. I think both are true. Loving one's neighbor is sometimes easier than you might think.