Thursday, August 31, 2006

Dehydrating Movies

Have you guys ever gone to a movie, and cried so much, you felt a little dehydrated while exiting? Walking DOWN stairs begins to be an exhausting bout of exercise? And then when you've reached the bottom of the movie theater complex, you realize, damn, I need to go to the restroom?

Well, if you were paying attention, you would see that you have lost quite a lot of water throughout those THREE hours you were sitting on your bum wiping your nose on your sleeve, or palm, and waiting for it to dry off in between the comic relief.

I guess this could be generalized to all chick flicks, but more so to Hindi Filums. If you want to go see Kabhi Al Vida Naa Kehna, then take a box of tissues with you. No, actually, a towel would be better. Man, beginning to end. Shirin Bhabi & I were passing a pocket tissue packet back and forth throughout the whole movie, while my husband kept on patronizing me, requesting I try to turn the water-fountain off for a change--Sorry sweety, too late, pipes are busted.

When we walked out, I seriously thought my clothes were a little damp, and Hasnain offered to put them in the dryer when we got home, haha. I lost so much water (especially after the realized, "damn, I need to use the restroom" part, that I really had to get some fluids in me.

Pass me some Gatorade, please.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Enough is Enough

I've realized something, you know, something like an "epiphany" about Limits.

My main dilemma, or better word, problem, is that I don't know when to stop. When I'm helping someone, or giving a gift, or anything for someone else, I don't know how much is enough. I just keep giving, doing, saying, trying, helping, etc., without really realizing, "I think I should stop now."

There are people out there in the world who cannot sense pain. Physical pain. They have no nocireceptors (pain receptors), or they do, but they do not transmit any action potentials to/from the brain. Having receptors that sense pain allows us to know when and how to alleviate the harmful situation our body is in. By shifting our weight while standing in line, or by turning from side to side when we sleep, are all seemingly minor forms of the use of these receptors. Imagine bumping into the corner of the bed, or the nail protruding from the doorway frame, and not realizing you just cut yourself and are bleeding profusely. Again, instances of knowing that pain relates to some ailment in our physical being.

However, people who have no functional nocireceptors, do not know what their limits are to how much "pressure" their hips can withstand in a particular position while standing in line to be seated at a concert. How much is enough time on one leg? on the other?

Am I functionally lacking in a similar but different type of receptor? The receptor that sends a signal to your brain saying, "Alright, wrap up the advice giving, now," or "That gift is way to much for someone you barely met the other day," or "You know you can come home and stop intruding in on their lives now, and let them pack for their move to Oz," or "Stop being too motherly", and things like that. The last one is the most difficult one to control. Oh, I've gotten crap for that. Ever since I was 5 years old, I was nick-named: Dadima (grandma).

The thing about the advice, I've begun to learn, is recognizing the advice receiving person's reaction. If that person seems to become more distant (in conversation), then it's time to "wrap it up." And usually, I realize the reaction much later than I should have. haha. Sorry, all you unfortunate people. So, I guess I'm forming those neural interactions as I become more and more aware of the deficiency.

I know people appreciate my butting-in, but there is a limit. It's a good thing Hasnain is here to help me out with that. He's my "go to guy," and my biggest critic. He's the fella I can always count on to tell me the most brutal honest truth. Then I can cry, and say, "just tell me you like it," and then he'll give in to that, too. But, never without the truth. Hasnain's gotten much better at this truth telling business he's started. So, even when he wants to say something diplomatically (which I thank him a million times over for delicate matters) I can still tell what he's really thinking from his initial expression, the blank look he tries to keep on his face while he thinks about the "right" words to use. Thanks Dah-ling. I appreciate it.

He's my "Limit-man." He gives me that objective feedback I am dearly in need of when he says,

"Hey babe, BAS!"

*Bas means : stop, enough, no? Hey, actually what is bas's translation?
**For more Information on nocireceptors check out http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/pain.html

Monday, August 21, 2006

Commercials

Don't you just love commercials? I am definitely one of those crazy commercial lovers. I remember once my sister wanted me to go get something from the bedroom while we were watching some movie on TV. So, she immediately changed the channel to a channel that had a commercial on so that I would get up and go get it. Unfortunately, she didn't realize at the time, that putting on a commercial only kept me lingering in the family room longer.

It's so funny that I love commercials, that my siblings actually give me a call when they're watching really good commercials, they know I usually crack up at them just hearing about it!

Here are a few I enjoy:

Kate Winslet's Amex Commercial


Dairy Queen Killer Bee Commercial


Citibank Identity Theft Commercials

Little Richard as a Famous spokesperson for Geiko Insurance


Motherly Love Commerical by Cingular

Friday, August 18, 2006

Psych

Ever heard of Eddie Murphy's Delirious Stand up comedy, with the Ice cream man, and the kids and their daddies on welfare, and the infamous....Wanna lick? Psych! Or is it Syke?

Have you ever told yourself one thing, but decidedly never really believed yourself? For example, with regards to my exam, I kept telling myself, "I am going to ROCK it." But really, I was praying to God that by some miracle all the questions would be just the ones that I am most comfortable with.

In essence you're psyching or syking yourself out rather than the usual, someone else. Why do you think we would do this to ourselves? that we would fall under the false impression of what we would Like to happen? what we would Want to happen? what we would damn well do anything to attain? (okay, maybe not that extreme), but still.

Check out the link... Hilarious.. ehem, I meant, it's Delirious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpLhdsZuHs8

Saturday, August 12, 2006

1 week

In exactly 1 week, 7 days, I will be sitting in a room arms length from people surrounding me N, S, E & W. Oh God.

This is the time to remember the Beatles:

Help! I need somebody, Help! Not just anybody, Help!
(okay I don't know the rest of the song)
but HELP!
Save me.

God give me :
The Courage to
not fail my exam,
The Strength to last the whole day (8-5),
The Serenity to think straight &
The Wisdom to
know the difference between the right & wrong answers!

Once I calm down, I then say,
Bismilla-hir-Rahma-nir-Rahim.
Let's get this party started.


Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Resistance

V = IR
So, resistance in a wire is dependent on the length of the wire and permeability of resistance. Is there any connection between resistance in a wire and resistance in a being.

Why are we driven to be a little resistant to change? Is it the length of time spent in one set type of situation, and variability experienced in one's life that gives us the adaptability to "change with the times."

Two of my dear friends from Atlanta have left to begin another set of lives.

Zainab has left in support of her husband and family, to settle in Houston to form another set of friends, and a circle to call family. Zainab, is one who is deathly scared of her memories here in Atlanta fading away, although she pretends she'll never forget anything. She has a distant relative there, but I told her, my family is her family. I will over the course of the next few days give her a list of my close family in Houston and their contact information.

Our silly times together has been transformed into a form of a bond. She is one of2 to 3 people I can talk to, in my natural state, without having to wonder if she "gets" me or not. I have a tendency to analyze, speculate, and over-analyze. I DO do that with my sister. And I do that with her, too. Zainab's son, Mohammed, is like a little experiment to us. When he was 16 months old, I told her about something I had learned in Developmental Psychology, and we tried it out on him. We put lipstick on his forehead, and about 5 minutes later took him to the bathroom and sat him in front of the mirror. We wanted to see if he had developed the concept of "self". If he knew who he was, that he was a person, that the being he saw in the mirror was himself. He didn't notice a thing. We tried it again at age 20 months, and not only did he immediately wipe off the lipstick as soon as we entered the bathroom, he even answered some questions that we asked him absolutely correctly. We asked where is Mohammed, (he pointed to the mirror) Where is Lulua Masi, (he pointed to the mirror at me), where is Mama (pointed to the mirror at Zainab.) Wow. Experiment successful! Yippee.

The car drives to and from parties that became excessively long drives because we were deep in conversation and I would end up taking 285 and completely not realizing we had already passed Atlanta. The u-turn is definitely one of our things. My getting a ride with her & Qusai to the markaz, and then my horrid display of snoring and drooling in the front seat the whole 30 minutes. And our unnecessary Thank yous, and You're Welcomes until we have to beat each other shut. Bas!

Zainab and I have had multiple fascinating experiences like these over the course of the 3 years I've been here in Atlanta. I will miss her dearly. She is my sweetheart.

My second good friend, Yoko, has departed to Pittsburgh to begin her life as a graduate student in a completely new environment, culture, people and weather wise. She knows only the few she has met through orientation, and is hopeful to begin anew, but anxious about creating the same environment: having the same enjoyable comfortable surroundings she's made for herself here at GA Tech.

Yoko is part of an Aikido community, that has engulfed her life, as does most religions. Thankfully, even before moving out to Carnegie Mellon, she's found her niche there, and has choices between three Aikido class settings. Yay, Aikido! But besides, extra curricular, the people she's considered family here, her close friends, routine restaurants, cafes, even Lab-mates, is like a little comfort zone for her. Now that she has broken that zone, she is going to have to create one somewhere else altogether. Hopefully it will take her less than the 5 years it took here. Her creative edge, and grounded sense of being will only be to her advantage in the next few months she settles in. I am confident, she will be happy.

Someone once said, The only thing constant in life is change.

I think I got it. We are made for change. The way we are built. Genetic Diversity, From the first moment our homologous chromosomes separate, they go through periods of recombination, swapping of bits and pieces of the chromosomes, one for the other. If that isn't an appetizer for change, what is? From the moment we are not even a zygote, a precursor to a zygote, as a gamete, we have already experienced change, then how can we not expect it to come as a fully developed human being, with capabilites of understanding adaptation in all necessary situations?

Whatever the case, this change is going to be difficult. I know that the effects of the change are temporary. Everyone falls back into their routine, I guess like the Social Withdrawal post I made earlier. Just give it time. Everyone falls back into routine.

Even without the scrapbook, I know the memories will last longer.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Procrastination

I just realized, that when it comes down to crunch time, there are two types: The time that you keep saying is crunch time, when in reality there is still some time, and then there is real crunch time, where the only time left barely makes it possible to complete the task with any decency.

Right now, I'm in the former crunch time. Even with signs all around the apartment,
"I am not Lazy"
"I do not believe in Procrastination"
"Get into Med School"
"Study for the MCAT"

I sometimes feel jazzed up enough to get some work done. And sometimes, my mind just wanders in the creative realm. These are the times I want to:

  • sew a couch cover, pillows,
  • crochet
  • learn to crochet
  • make some scrapbooks
  • buy plants
  • not kill the plants I do have
  • cook
  • learn to make roti
  • read an interesting book
  • watch a movie I've seen over 40 times (French Kiss), make that 60.
  • talk on the phone with old friends and family about memories and laugh until my tummy hurts, or I have to run to the restroom
  • listen to Hasnain's heartbeat
  • pretend like I'm studying while actually blogging
  • do whatever
But this is the time, when I just want to do something other than study. Why?

That whole release your inhibition song, really just puts me at a loss. I need some inhibition. I need to control myself. I need to put away this computer, and just take another practice test.

I will triumph (that's from French kiss, too.)

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Social Withdrawal

We've all heard of the withdrawal syndrome. Once a behavior is in the process of extermination, the addicting force that drives behavior to reestablish is an effect of withdrawal.

Have you ever felt the void after a long weekend of having fun with friends, family, someone in your presence? That resistance to fall back into routine?

Well, I think I am going to append the Withdrawal category with that associated feeling as Social Withdrawal Syndrome. There is an incentive, almost a motivation to continue relations with those who contributed to the syndrome. Writing emails, talking about them and the events that transpired to whomever comes in contact with you, replaying the events in your head while lying on the bed, or taking a bite of cereal. Those behaviors are your endeavor to fill the void that all that socializing has left.

What are ways people overcome this void, this Social Withdrawal? Is it the perpetual "routine" that we are so hesitant to return to? Wake up, make chai, eat breakfast, go to work, park car, walk to building; all the while, plastering on the smile that is partially a residue of the exhausting but entertaining weekend, and partially a workday ethic. Even at work, the first day back, you entertain your colleagues with a few anecdotes in remembrance of your socializing, trying to hold on to the dimming, thinning thread of the events of your socialization. But, inevitably, your partial social withdrawal smile fades over the course of hours, days, weeks, months, and your work smile consumes your countenance. What enables this feat?

Maybe it's the law of diminishing returns. Remember in Econ, the first bite of pizza is the best bite, most delicious, and the consecutive bites just don't give you that special feeling as did the first bite. The repetitive action ends up eliminating the fancy and excitement of it all.

Is this what happens? The long weekend, is short enough to enjoy but not long enough to get tired of, so it's still considered a novelty when it's over? And the repetitive motion of speaking, thinking, replaying of the events of the weekend, is just a method of diminishing the return?

So, how do we keep the memories the longest, and keep the feeling the longest? Experimental Analysis of Behavior would suggest you talk, and think about the events in a random variable manner. So as to not get you too used to the memories, or events. That way, when you do happen to encounter someone, you don't know if you're going to talk about the event or not. But usually, this method is only performed on OTHERS. Rarely on oneself. You control your thoughts. So you would know if this was the "variable time" or not.

But what if you can't control your thoughts? Sheesh, this can go on forever. I think I'll stop here, I've exhausted my enthusiasm for this topic with the repetitive behavior of "writing about it."