Monday, May 05, 2003

So I have a lot of things going on. It's not making for the best of emotional or physical states, but it is what it is and it could be a lot worse. I guess I'm not actively complaining.

Even though I'm down to two classes, both classes have fairly sizeable projects due in the coming month. Guess who's done very little work so far?

Need a hint?

Yeah.

I've started researching what the hell I can do my psych paper on--it's a meta-analysis or something--and it requires at least five papers with something that measures the same dependent variable somewhere, even if it's not the main point of the study. After skimming some of my initial research, I've determined that heart rate is the DV I'd like to look at. Heart rate and children playing video games. Maybe I'll even come up with a hypothesis one of these days. There will be nothing groundbreaking here. The papers I've found in PsycINFO are all available from UW-Seattle libraries, but nearly all of them are in different libraries. Enough are in Suzzallo that I can probably get away with not bothering with the other locations, but still.

The papers do look interesting, I must admit. The ones I've read so far do things like make kids play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Tetris and ask them questions or hook them up to machines to measure breathing and other physiological effects. There was another study published in a book on gender differences that had kids design their own games. Kind of cool stuff. It's good to know that not ALL the studies look upon video games in a negative light. In my first search, I ignored anything related to the effects of violence and aggression, figuring that would be the bulk of the research. Mortal Kombat makes little killers, dontchaknow.

I don't play video games hardly at all, but they are pretty interesting. I just suck at them. I haven't the hand-eye coordination or something. I have tried to play some games and really can't get into them for more than 20 minutes of death. I just hit buttons at random; if I actually try to do it right, it's frustrating. And who really needs to pick up another time-wasting habit?

Yesterday I got a lot of stuff done--laundry, cleaning, organizing crap to be donated to Goodwill, copying psych notes, reviewing for my media law midterm. I was in a bad mood still. I went to Burger Hut and got a veggie burger and fries. The veggie burger was good--I don't know what's in it, but it has a kick, maybe cayenne--and the fries, while not amazing, were starchy, salty, fatty-fried goodness, a rare treat for me. I originally wanted to be "bad" and get meat, but I couldn't bring myself to eat hamburger and chicken on a burger is unappealing. I will probably get teriyaki when my sister's up.

Kevin came over in the evening and ate a couple vegan trail mix cookies dipped in jasmine tea. He said it was really good, but he wouldn't have thought to try it unless I had accused him of plotting such weirdness before his first bite of cookie. Doh. On an unrelated note, he gave me a hickey on my shoulder. I haven't had a hickey for a long time! At least it's covered by my t-shirt.

What a stupid word, "hickey." I remember there was someone who went to my school when I was in seventh and eighth grade whose last name was Hickey. I always snickered quietly when her name was called over the PA. Also, I swear I went to grade school with a kid named Justin Case.

I need to read the full Supreme Court decision on ALCU v. Reno (1996) by Thursday evening. That's the one where the court totally overturned Congress' stupid Communications Decency Act, saying it violated First Amendment rights an' stuff! Ha, ha! Ohh, that's a good one. Man, Congress passes a lot of stupid shit and it takes a long time for it to work its way to the high court to get overturned. That is lame. Even lamer is that a lot of cases end up settled or something because it's the little guy versus the big guy, and the little guy just can't afford to keep playing. Oversimplified, yes; still wrong, definitely.

Right after work--hey, an hour from now! Woo!--Chris, Graylan, and I are hopping in Kevin's car and speeding over to this house we want to see in Wallingford, #1. If we like it, we're gonna take it. We're gonna dominate. If we don't, I think we will settle for #2. If not that... we must keep looking. Looking is a bitch when you're out of lease in a month.

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