A little over one year ago I attended, as a participant, a workshop called HeartChange which was chronicled in an earlier series of posts. Now I am on the eve of another HeartChange workshop. This time as an assistant.

Tonight there is a training session for all assistants then, tomorrow morning, bright and early until dark and late, the workshop will begin as participants line up to complete the signin process. Due to my “evangelism,” I have some good friends attending the workshop along with (I expect) scores of others.

For the last week I have been trying to “purify” and prepare myself so “me” does not get in the way of the training and teaching that God will be overseeing. The process has been somewhat successful, possibly a huge failure and everywhere in between.

One thing is certain, when God is about to do a great work, the forces of evil are working overtime. I have been attacked – sad to say not from the outside, but from the inside. I know of God’s mercy and I pray that he can use me to reach someone, not for my pride or ego but for their life. All I can say is that anything good that comes out of me is a work of God. There will be much prayer tonight during our training. I’ve also got others bathing me, personally, in prayer. Additionally I asked some to pray for my family during the next few days and the participants.

Lord, I know your truth will set men free! Thank you for these words that I need this day!

Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him. So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth.
Colossians 3:1-5a – New English Translation (NET)

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

I wasn’t there, but I’d wager a good amount that what Popular Mechanics referred to as a computer would not even touch the increasingly ubiquitous iPhone. Not that I am an Apple fan, those days are long gone when Apple left me to pursue other ventures, but I must admit the everything-in-one gadget is pretty appealing. It’s like consolidating my cell phone and Palm into one unit to remember to take, charge and use.

Where would we be if in this future computers “weighed no more than 1.5 tons?”

“Good heavens! Something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now it’s another, and another. They look like tentacles to me. There, I can see the thing’s body. It’s large as a bear and it glistens like wet leather. But that face. It … It’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate…. The thing is raising up. The crowd falls back. They’ve seen enough. This is the most extraordinary experience. I can’t find words…. I’ll have to stop the description until I’ve taken a new position. Hold on, will you please. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Orson Welles – The War of the Worlds (1938)

Mass hysteria, fleeing people and holing up inside homes. That was the scene 69 years ago today. My generation looks back and wonders how something like this could even happen. How can people be so easily led to believe such extraordinary, outlandishly improbable news?

This generation is so much more astute. We’d never be led to believe that aspartame kills ants, that if we don’t forward an email to 10 people within the next hour the chain will be broken, that Bill Gates is giving $100 to every Windows user or that because a “news” show said it that makes it a fact. You can’t catch this generation of thinkers.

One of the reasons that I decided to keep track of what I am currently reading is to publicly force me to make the time to finish what I start. I love reading a variety of things, but time is always in short supply. A quick glance at my reading list (to the left) reveals that I am in the middle of 5 books right now! OK, only 4 if you remove the book my wife and I were reading together – then lost, then only recently rediscovered and now have yet to find time to work through it together yet once again.

In the last few days I stopped in a used book store and saw one book after another that I just wanted to pick up, take home and read. I had the fight the urge and remind myself that I could get it later, but for now I need to finish the ones I have started. Due to my schedule and “spare” time constraints the progress on five books at once is extremely slow. Here’s a basic accounting

My psychology textbook is getting read at the rate of one chapter/week and by the end of Psych 2 it will be done. That is if I take Psych 2. Not really sure if it’s required for my major but I hope so. I really enjoy the class.

‘Word Origins’ is my bathroom reading so we’re talking a few pages/week but I am making my way through the muddle of words that comprise the history of the English language.

‘A Voyage to Arcturus’ is my workout reading when I ride the exercise bike at work. I had a goal of riding the bike at least once per week, but the elliptical is much more interesting. I am about 50% of the way through this work and at the current pace should be done in a month or two.

‘The Story of Redemption’ is progressing as well. Looks like a few more months to go. This is more something I am reading to satisfy my curiosity about differences/similarities in core beliefs.

My list is forcing me to keep picking up these works even though my life is very busy. That is good. It is satisfying its goal so all is pronounced “right.”

This past weekend required that I make a “speed” run up north to visit my vacation rental property in Big Lake, Alaska. Once the work requirements of the trip were accomplished I had a few minutes to marvel at, of all things, the weather. It was partly cloudy, partly sunny, crisp, clean air with snow covered mountains that looked so close you felt like you could touch them.

According the the thermometer in my rental car the average temperature was on the lower side of the 20’s. Don’t think me strange but I did not expect it to feel cold. This expectation was based upon my experience last year as I vacationed over the winter solstice. The average temperature at that time was between 13 & 19 degrees and there were many times I would go out in shorts and T-shirt to get firewood or do some other short term task. It never once seemed cold. Felt like mid-50’s. But not this weekend. I would go out all bundled up and couldn’t get my hands in my pockets fast enough to keep them warm. What’s the difference?

A little trip to the Weather Underground website revealed that it is currently 24 degrees, 89% relative humidity and no wind. That got me to thinking that maybe humidity has a lot to do with perception of cold, just like it does with the perception of heat. You know what I learned? It does, according to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, “Cold air with high relative humidity ‘feels’ colder than dry air of the same temperature because high humidity in cold weather increases the conduction of heat from the body.”

I suppose this should have been obvious, but it was news to me. I’ve never heard anyone say “but it’s a dry cold.” Guess it doesn’t help to have grown up in a more temperate (and hospitable) climate.

Do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

According to the Australia’s Herald Sun website most of us would see the image turning counter-clockwise but with concentration should be able to see it turn clockwise.

I’m not sure how accurate this test is to determine left brain/right brain dominance but it is interesting. I immediately saw the image turning clockwise and had to focus for several minutes to see it turn the other way. This is the first test that has labeled me as right brained. Interesting.

In case your interested here are basic functions of each hemisphere of the brain.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS (image turns counter-clockwise)

• uses logic
• detail oriented
• facts rule
• words and language
• present and past
• math and science
• can comprehend
• knowing
• acknowledges
• order/pattern perception
• knows object name
• reality based
• forms strategies
• practical
• safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS (image turns clockwise)

• uses feeling
• “big picture” oriented
• imagination rules
• symbols and images
• present and future
• philosophy & religion
• can “get it” (i.e. meaning)
• believes
• appreciates
• spatial perception
• knows object function
• fantasy based
• presents possibilities
• impetuous
• risk taking

Of course, we all use both left and right sides of our brains. The question is dominance. As I look at the list of left/right functions I would say I am overwhelmingly left brained – but then how do you explain how I perceive the image?

What about you, how does the image stack up against how you’d rate your characteristics?

I’ve had a note self to post this video for some time now. The clip depicts an interesting study of human behavior. When passersby are presenting with receiving something for nothing or having to do something to earn it, they somehow feel the “free” is a scam whereas they’ll do wacky things in public to earn the same $1… go figure.

Enjoy “A Fool and His Money”

I’ve been hearing more of this recently. Physical exercise keeps the brain young. Interesting, and possibly a motivation to pump some iron, walk the neighborhood and just get outdoors.

“We need to understand how to defer normal cognitive aging … the way we’ve invested in fighting heart disease and cancer.”

What’s the advice for now?

Physical exercise is the best-proven prescription so far, the scientists agreed.
By LAURAN NEERGAARD – AP Medical Writer

Baby Boomers, Shadow Boomers, Echo Boomers where did these terms come from. For years I have heard Baby Boomers thrown around. Sometimes I was included in this group, sometimes not. In case you’re as in the dark as I was let me educate you a little.

Baby Boomers – born January 1, 1946 until about 1957 thru 1964. The end date depends on who and how they looked at the data.

Shadow Boomers – Born between 1958 and 1964.
This group seems to also be known as Generation Jones or Trailing-Edge Boomers

Echo Boomers – the children of Baby Boomers

Generation Jones? Well, that’s a new discovery as well – at least to me. It seems that Generation Jones is the term created to define people born from mid-1950’s thru mid-1960’s. This is considered the lost generation between the Baby Boomers and Generation X. In other words Generation Jones is either a large anonymous generation or, based upon the slang “jonesin”, would refer to the unrequited craving felt by this generation of unfulfilled expectations.

Maybe more on this topic in future posts.

I spent a bit of time over the weekend working on putting my research paper together for my psyc class. So far I’ve put in a total of about 8 hours on it. Fortunately it’ll be fairly simple overall. As I was working on the paper yesterday, I realized that the best approach was to work backwards.

Since it’s a “personal” research paper based upon my experience I started by drafting the personal experience with what actually happened. This was the easy part since what I say is the truth of the matter. Then as I looked at how to proceed, it seemed the next logical step was to look at my experience in light of the psychological principles I have learned thus far.

To do this I moved onto phase 2: I found the required terms that seemed to apply and the required number of “credible” sources that seemed to apply plus a quote that seemed to apply. I documented these in my paper.

Phase 3 of creating a rough draft – which is where I am at now – is to ensure that the ideas flow as I re-draft the personal experience narrative to fit into the parameters of the research.

Finally phase 4 will be to review the rough draft and clean it up to presentation quality.

I am not sure if this is an appropriate approach but it seems to get the job done, especially with my limited knowledge of the topic, after all this is just a psych 1 course.