Santa Came To Town

Merry Christmas!  I hope Santa treated you well this year.  I know he treated us all well.  Mom scored with a Kindle, Becca got lots of gift cards, Dad was super excited about chili verde that was brought to him from Dos Carlitos, and I got a new iPod!  Of course we all got other really good loot but those were kind of the star gifts this year.

After breakfast, stockings, and gifties we played some fun games as a family.  We started with regular Trivial Pursuit (made in the 80s) but I was doing so bad that we had to bust out the easy Disney edition questions.  I was then able to get two wedges but Dad won that game.  Next we played Apples to Apples, one of my new favorites.  I ended with the most cards (the goal) but Dad did get to the goal number of cards first.  So I figure that I won, Dad’s just the first loser.  Hehe.

Then last night we played Wits and Wagers, another fun one.  Mom and Becca we doing so good that we ran out of chips to pay them out just before we finished the game.  Dad and I finished at 8 and 4 chips respectfully.  Mom and Becca were close to each other as well but Mom came out the victor on that one.

I also brought my Wii down so we’ve been playing Wii Sports a bit and I even got Dad to play MarioKart with me.  He did surprisingly well considering he’s not one to play video games.  Though I did take off the items so he wouldn’t get attacked or have to worry about throwing items at others or me.

Tomorrow night I’ll be hanging out with Mike, Lauren, and Lindsay and we’ll be trying out two new games.  After going to Tom’s Burger for dinner that is.  I’m excited for tomorrow!

Hope you all have a great end to 2010!

Loves.

Super My Butt…

For those of you who don’t work retail I’ll update you on what today is.  It’s “Super Saturday”, the last Saturday before Christmas, when people that are not quite waiting until the ultimate last minute (I’m talking about men that shop on Christmas Eve) will go crazy shopping.  Both crazy while shopping and shopping like crazy.  It’s super for businesses that want to make lots of money but very not super for people who are trying to get to the mall or find parking.

It usually only takes me 15-20 minutes to get to work but I knew that today was going to be a hard day to find parking.  So I gave myself 40 minutes.  I was 15 minutes late.

It took me 30 minutes to go the 3 blocks closest to the mall.  Then I still had to find parking!  /faceplam

I finally found parking behind the mall in the tiny parking structure on the top level.  Oh, did I mention that it was raining today?  I love the rain, but not when I have to park on the top level then walk slightly far to get into work.  I almost was one of those really rude people that ninja a parking spot from someone else but the car way behind me was waiting for someone else.  So as I was sitting, plotting my next move to find a vacant spot I see a man walking up the ramp with his shopping bags in his hands.  I give him the “Are you leaving? Can I have your spot?” face and he points at the truck that I’m idling next to.  Jackpot!  So I back out of his way (told you the guy behind me was far back) and wait for my spot to become available.

Recently Penn State did a study about how as primal, and thus territorial, beings we tend to take longer to pull out of a parking spot if someone is waiting for it compared to if nobody is waiting.  Well, this guy was quick so I appreciated his not hesitating to relinquish his claim on that temporary territory.  (If you were wondering it’s about a seven second difference.)

After work it was pouring.  That’s right, it upgraded from raining to pouring.  I managed to cut through one of the bigger stores to save from walking in the rain for as long (though wet is wet so it didn’t matter all that much) and made my way towards the parking structure.  I also unintentionally made my way through quite a few puddles…not as much fun when you’re wearing cute slip-on shoes.  When I got to the stairs that I used earlier this afternoon I found a waterfall!

Like this, only on a much larger scale.  I was not going to be using those stairs.  Turns out that the genius who designed this particular parking structure decided that all the stairs should be located on the lower end of any given parking level.  Because it never rains in California, right?  So I had to walk to JC Penney and use their escalator to get to the top level since it had a connection from their store to the upper level of parking.  And then I found yet another giant puddle to step in.  Sigh.  I got home and I was wet up to my calves.  But at least my jacket’s hood is nice and big so my head was dry!

Here’s hoping your rainy days are filled with hot chocolate and fun movies!

Loves.

Not Learning My Lesson With Smoke Alarms

Yesterday I did my yearly check to make sure that my smoke alarms are working.  You may remember my first check that I unintentionally performed.  Well I checked it again in nearly the same fashion.  Hehe, get it?  I totally wasn’t planning that but when I typed ‘fashion’ I knew that it’d be comedy.  Those are my skills people.  And managing to be slightly in the way.  I’ve determined that’s my superpower.  But that’s not what this post is about.

Yesterday I took a shower, listening to my music and singing along to Maroon 5 but this time I had the door open so that the warm air could freely escape.  Apparently I didn’t have the door open wide enough because it was still funneling out while focused at the smoke detector.  I’m nearly done with my shower but still have conditioner in my hair and soap suds all over when I hear the magic little chirpy beep starting.  Great.  At least this time I knew that I was the cause of the alarm going off and didn’t panic.  And neither did Dixie, so either she learned from my first lesson or I check the alarms more often than I realize.

Which brings me to my next smoke related story.  Not often I get to segue, most of the time I just change my ramble.  You’re welcome for a slightly more coherent post.  :)  I bought this super cute luminary from work for the holidays and have been burning either my Twisted Peppermint or Caramel Apple candle in the evenings when I get home from work.  It glows so pretty!

Well last night I got home and lit my super yummy smelling caramel apple candle (seriously smells like you’re baking caramel apples, which I know you don’t actually bake) while I relaxed and caught up on my Tivo’d shows.  I went to bed around midnight and read a little bit before I tried to get some sleep.  My sleep schedule always gets a little (ok, a lot) off during school breaks.  Well, just as I was thisclose to sleep I suddenly realized that I didn’t remember blowing out the candle.  So I crawled out from under the toasty blankets and snoring (excuse me, musically breathing) cat to check.  Sure enough the little house’s lights were softly flickering.  Oops.  I told them lights out and went back to bed.

I promise to be better about checking the house lights in the future.

Loves.

Scholarships For Me!?

The other day I received an email from a website I use for graduate school information letting me know that I qualify for some scholarships.  Most of the time I just delete these e-mails because I don’t actually qualify (apparently the initial criteria is that I’m alive and registered with their site) but I opened this one to take a quick look-see.

I qualified for both scholarships based on my religion.  This I found interesting because I don’t recall informing the site of my religion.  Maybe somebody there is psychic?  Anyways, the first scholarship was for Baptists and the second was to Muslims.  So….apparently I have a really cool, new hybrid religion.  Go me!  I think that totally warrants me the honor of naming this religion.  Now I don’t think that I can compete with that Flying Spaghetti Monster (or whatever) one that some people made up.  But it’d still be pretty spiffy.  Oh, that gives me a good idea.  I’ll call it something like “awesome” so when people ask your religion you could answer “I’m awesome!”  I’ll ponder this and get back to you on my final decision.

Then I got another e-mail so I had to open it.  I qualified for a scholarship based on something silly but it’s for international students studying within the United States.  I wasn’t aware that currently residing at the gateway to hell would count as international especially since I’m not from here.  Guess there are benefits to Bakersfield!

Loves.

Soliciting Donations

When I go to PetCo to buy more food for Dixie they always ask me if I want to donate money to help feed and find homes for local animals.  Is it wrong that I want to reply “that’s what this is for” while gesturing to my purchase?  Sure Dixie has found a home with me but she still needs to be fed!

Quite often when I’m going to work I get stopped at the mall entrance by teens and adults asking me if I can spare change so that they can catch the bus home.  I just want to ask them why they came to the mall if they cannot afford the 90 cents to go home?  And if you arrived at the mall with money but couldn’t even save less than a dollar for bus fare then maybe you should get some sort of shoppers anonymous assistance or stop eating so much in the food court, it’s not that good of food.

But if you’re willing to donate to me I won’t argue.  ;) hehe

Loves.

The Experiment: Find a Penny, Pick it Up?

In my Social Psychology Lab we had a group assignment to develop an experiment, collect data, and perform data analysis for our final.  Or if you’re really bad, you do it on your own because you got kicked out of a group.  Luckily nobody got kicked out of a group though a few people were close to being “fired”.  My group wanted to examine how social norms of luck and superstition can play a role in behaviors.  More specifically, if people are more likely to pick up heads-up “lucky” pennies than tails-up pennies.  We predicted that a significantly significant difference in the number of lucky pennies picked up compared to unlucky pennies.

To try to manipulate the situation and to bring luck and superstition to a salient state in our subjects’ minds we handed out fliers that read “Good Luck on Your Finals" half the time and a non-luck related flier the rest of the time.  We had two experimenters handing out fliers and one to record any data and to replace any pennies that had been picked up.  The two of us handing out fliers stood on either end of a section of pathway on campus and in between us was the “penny drop zone”.  Within this drop zone two pennies were placed about three feet away from each other, one heads up and the other tails up.  The pennies were placed close enough that people would see both but far enough away from each other that they could easily pick up one and exert themselves to grab both.

After three hours, nobody had picked up a penny.  Not one person.  Nothing.  Nill.  Nada.  Zip.

We felt there were a few factors working against us that day and came up with a second experiment to try to get some data.  For the second experiment we would set up at the main vending machine location on campus.  We placed the pennies in front of the vending machines in locations that would be visible by subjects collecting their purchase and change.  Rather than hand out fliers this time we had the fliers taped to the machine at eye-level.  As observers we were sitting at a table nearby but not so close that it was obvious that we were watching if the pennies were collected.  Again we stayed for three hours and only one group of people picked up the pennies.  One guy stopped and stared at it for a while, considering the penny, but did not end up picking it up.

Here’s what happened with the only penny collection from the two days: a group of three girls came to the vending machines to buy a water and one of the girls saw the tails penny and picked it up.  “Scha-weet, a penny!”  (Most likely not a direct quote.)  But her friend noticed that it was not heads-up and urgently prompted her to put it  back because heads-up is for good luck.  So she puts the penny back as a heads-up penny.  Her friend then picks up the newly lucky penny and the first girl spots our heads-up penny and grabs that.  Follow?  Grab tails, put tails down as heads, grab new heads, collect original heads.  Excellent.  That’s the way to make your own luck!

I’m sure that you’ve assumed that we found no statistical significance in our data.  Hard to when you have basically no data!  Oh well, it was fun either way and we even came up with more ideas of how we could continue to improve our experiment.  Such psychology nerds.

Loves.