8/31/08

So, I'm back at school which is really great.  I'm living in this awesome house with people I like and actually want to be around.  It's kind of new for me.  We still have to set up our study/lounge room.  I'm hoping to do that tomorrow night or at least in the near future.  We have to fix the futon and then I think things will come together much better.  Hopefully we'll be in the basement soon so I can do laundry because I feel like I'm running out of clothes.  Although I'm not, I just don't have my favorite t-shirts to wear.

OK, onto Spanish homework!

Using the Power of Scent

My previous post speaks to the power of scent.  Even though we can try to fight it, the memories that are associated with a certain scent are so engrained into our subconscious that it is truly difficult to fight them.  I'm waiting for technology to come out that will decide what memory comes flowing back to you.  Maybe the technology already exists and it's not available to the general public.  Either way, I'm just waiting for it to be released with some perfume.  Somehow embedded in the perfume will be trigger that will tell you brain what memory to experience.  The memory will be pre-planned and it will put you in the memory as the main character, since after all, it's your memory.

I think that would be awesome!  It would be like hypnosis (I just finished watching Alias) except that deep hidden memory doesn't actually have to be something you have previously experienced!

Of course this technology could be used for good or evil.  It can be used for good in situations like perfume or to trigger a certain emotion (like a scented pick-me-up).  It could, unfortunately, be used for evil in the situation like Batman Beyond; suddenly everyone starts seeing terrible visions and mass panic spreads through the world.  That would be bad.

Still, cool technology that I want to use someday.

The Power of Scent

Continuing this odd and likely short patten of giving my posts topics, I have another post with a topic!  Today's topic is scent-themed anecdotes.  Emotions are extremely powerful and the ability to recall certain emotions, I would imagine, would be quite useful.

Please understand, I'm writing this from my apartment (using Windows Live Writer, I definitely recommend it), which doesn't have internet, since I was unwilling to pay the exorbitant cost per month.  This means I can't cross check any of my theories with any scientific studies that might give this post some credibility.  Also understand that I am not a scientist, psychologist, or any other -gist.  So, everything I'm saying has no real clout and it's just from my personal experience.  That was a fun disclaimer.

Scent is the most powerful sense for memory recall.  I say this because I have a favorite scent of lotion from Bath and Body Works.  Last year I bought 5 containers of it at the Bath and Body Works' sale.  Last January I was on campus for Winter Term; I stayed in one of my friend's rooms so I wouldn't have to pay room and board at my sorority house.  I used that lotion every night and every morning.  Now I have some of that lotion at the apartment and I used the other day.  Immediately I was transported back to January in Shlea's dorm room putting on lotion in between the bed and the tv/fridge.

I have these two scented stuffed animals.  They are covered in scented soy wax.  Either way, I got them around Thanksgiving, an unfortunate time when I happened to be in the hospital.  The reason I bought them was so that my hospital room wouldn't smell like a hospital room.  I was wildly successful and every person who walked into my room mentioned how it smelled of Holiday Festivities, including but not limited to cookies.  And now, every time my dad smells either of my scented stuffed animals, he thinks of my hospital room.  He told me that the he tries not to think of the hospital room, but usually fails.

Lots of scents have the capabilities to transport you to a different time and place.  From the scent of food to the scent of perfume.  Because I've already written a considerable amount, I'm going to save the rest of the post for later.  *This is so exciting, a two-part post!!*

I spend my life reading

http://thepinkskirtproject.blogspot.com/

http://davidseah.com/

http://www.engadget.com/

http://ghcbloggers.blogspot.com/

http://hautenature.blogspot.com/

http://organizefish.com/blog/

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

http://superkjo.livejournal.com/

http://thinkwhatbox.blogspot.com/

http://yourselfinfiveyears.blogspot.com/

http://lifehacker.com/

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/

http://www.webdesignerwall.com/

http://news.cnet.com/webware/

http://zenhabits.net/

Friends vs. Work Friends

Usually I blog about random things that happen to me and it turns out to be quite boring and overall uneventful.  Today, I'd like to blog about an actual topic.  I have no doubt this is shocking new to all of my loyal followers, haha.  Of course I am aware that I could count on my fingers (no thumbs!) of one hand the number of people who read this with any semblance of regularity.

Moving on, as you know I've been doing an internship for a real company this summer.  I love being downtown and I wish I could take advantage of it more.  Being in a completely different environment than I am used to, I have come to realize a few things. *Side note: I like my laptop keyboard more than my keyboard at work.*  I've realized that there are lots of different types of friends.  I am positive that most of you already knew this and to a certain extent, I was fully aware of this as well.  What I was unaware of were the work friends you acquire.

Work friends fall into the special category of, you guessed it, work.  You become friends with the people you work with out of necessity.  Sometimes you can make a really great friend, but that seems more likely to happen when you choose your friends.  Up to this point, I have almost exclusively worked with people who have already been my friends.  Thus they fall into the friends by choice category, not work friends.

What it comes down to is choice vs. necessity.  Although nothing is really that black and white, I feel that my friends from work are relationships based on necessity or sometimes forced interaction.  The relationships with my friends from school are based more on my choice of who I want to be with and associate with.  I do realize that there is a level of necessity with school friends since I choose from the small pool of CS majors, but I like to think we'd hang out even if we didn't have the geek factor to unite us.

I hope that I stay in contact with some of my new work friends, since they are really great people!  I will most likely wind up losing contact with the work friends who were more of a necessity than a choice.  In fact I can think of several people where this will be the case.  That's not say they aren't great people, we just aren't great together.

Since I seem to have written a novel blog post, I'll end with saying that I hope there is always choice in my life and not everything is from pure necessity.

8/3/08

at home with internet. I got a text today from someone and it made me laugh out loud. In that special way that only conceited people who say really really stupid things can.