To give you a glimpse at what I do at school every day, here's the introduction to a paper I've been working on.

 Most of us have experienced the surprising evocativeness of odor. We have all been allured by a perfume or cologne, repulsed by a body odor, or like moths to a flame, drawn to a kitchen or smoking backyard grill by the mouth-watering aroma of a favorite dish. Scents, as they waft slowly past our noses, conjure long-buried memories and emotions, and they even influence our behavior. Yet, we do not typically spend large portions of our days analyzing the significance of the many odors that are the subtle subtext of our immediate environments. Why is this the case? It seems intuitively obvious that it is because we have more pressing matters at hand. When we attend dinner parties, it is not particularly important to discern whether that faint flowery smell is coming from a rose in the vase on the shelf or the carnation in that man’s lapel, but it is important to listen to his banal work-related anecdote while we, with furtive glances, assess the degree to which our children’s roughhousing is going to affect that vase. So the question for this paper is not whether our behavior is influenced by scent-related information, because it is undeniable that scent does help us navigate our social worlds and rear our children. The question is instead whether the same scent can have domain specific effects according to cues in the environment.

Throw in a bunch of emails, a scant few interpersonal interactions, and a bunch of thinking, reading, and memorizing, and there you have it.

I haven't had a whole lot to talk about this week. For the most part, I've just been keeping my head down and trying to get things done as the semester winds to a close. I finished one final paper and am almost done with a second (which I should be able to finish up tomorrow). All that will be left after that is my neuroscience final on Friday. All that will be left after that is several more years of school, punctuated by a bunch of insignificant accomplishments, a career, and a short retirement. The end.

When I arrived at my new school in August, they told all the incoming students about the importance of getting involved in research. They said that there was nothing more important to our academic careers and that we should be as active as possible.

A fellow student and I decided that, if we worked together on most everything, we could get twice as much done. As it turns out, we could. In fact, we did so much research that they changed the rules about how much any one student is allowed to do during a semester, because apparently, we were taking away opportunities from other students and faculty. Oops.

I always have tended to over-do things.

I play basketball 1 - 2 times a week at noon at the campus rec center. It's sometimes fun, sometimes not. You'll recall some of my previous posts about altercations with professors and such. Anyway, today I had a great time. Most of the fun had to do with the fact that I made almost every shot I took, including about 10 in a row, and I scored the last two baskets in a 15 - 14 thriller that ended with me shaking one defender and, with another in my face, draining a long fade-away three-pointer for the win.

Someday I hope to be able to have fun while (a) losing and (b) playing poorly. Today, fortunately, didn't need to be that day.

This was posted anonymously online somewhere and then reposted here. I found it via here. It's a great commentary.

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.
At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.
I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

I've never considered myself the absent-minded type. Earlier, I was busy working when I realized I had headphones in my ears, but I wasn't listening to any music. I had been working like that for at least 15 minutes.

Awhile back, I learned in class that during REM sleep our brains are rapidly firing their neurons in a random, asynchronous manner. A few days later, while I was doing something completely different, I remembered that one of the jobs of the neocortex is to synthesize information from our neurons.

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Here's a long story about our deep freezer that includes a brief lesson on my personal approach to approaching customer service representatives.

Hello again X (insert name here),
 
I am still an extremely dissatisfied customer. Below is a timeline of all the events of my horrendous purchase experience at (insert store name here). At the bottom, there is a short summary of all the events.

Timeline:

3/18/10: I ordered the freezer online, estimated arrival 3/19/10

3/19/10: No arrival; no notification

3/21/10: I called my local store to find the problem. It turns out that local personnel called the wrong house to schedule delivery. The person at the other house knew nothing of the delivery, and it was canceled. I was not notified. When I found the problem, I was told that I could not re-order online or over the phone, and that I could not receive the freezer for the price for which I initially purchased it (I had a coupon).

3/21/10: I emailed customer service with my problem.

3/23/10: I received a response from customer service requesting more information.

3/23/10: I supplied the information.

3/23/10: Customer service forwarded my information to my local store.

3/24/10: I received a call from the local store. I was able to re-order the freezer at the original purchase price. I scheduled delivery for 4/3/10.

3/29/10: I learned later that the local store attempted delivery on this day. I was not expecting delivery and was not home.

4/3/10: At this time, I was still expecting on this day. I waited all day. There was no delivery and no call.

4/6/10: I called the local store. I scheduled delivery for Saturday, 4/10/10. I asked for a discount on the freezer and was offered a 10% discount if I brought my credit card into the local store to have the discount applied.

4/8/10: I received a voice-mail message from the local store. They said my freezer was ready for pick-up.

4/8/10: I called the local store. I spoke with 2 representatives. The first transferred me without telling me. The second said that delivery had never been scheduled. I re-scheduled delivery for 4/10/10.

4/10/10: The freezer was delivered. The delivery personnel slammed the side of the freezer into the door frame on the way in. The door of the freezer had numerous dents (unrelated to the slamming). The delivery paperwork noted that the freezer was sold AS-IS. I did not purchase an AS-IS product.

Summary: I purchased a freezer online. I expected next-day delivery. It was delivered 22 days later. I had numerous problems and horrendous customer service. When the freezer finally arrived, delivery personnel slammed it into my door frame. It had numerous dents, and it was marked AS-IS on delivery paperwork.

If I am going to remain a satisfied (insert store here) customer, I would like three things. 1) A written apology from store management, 2) a free extended warranty on the freezer, and 3) a refund of 75% of the purchase price of the freezer.

Sincerely, (Your name below)

The conclusion to this saga is that they actually gave me what I requested with no more hassle. They didn't even try to negotiate, and they kept me as a customer. Win-win.

Note: I didn't actually expect them to give me what I wanted. I was hoping for 30% off. Aim high!

Some of you may know that I've been looking for quite a while for a good deal on a used car. Today, I pounced.

It's a 2006 Saturn Ion 2 Quad Coupe. It's very sporty (5 speed, 145 hp). Most importantly,  it's only got 27,000 miles on it! The Edmunds True Market Value (more accurate than Blue Book) was about $7,200. We paid $4,800. One reason is because it was going to be a tough sell here in Hades: no air conditioning. Thank you Craig and your great list.

Oh, and also God. Thanks to you the most. Shouldn't thank Craig without thanking God. That would be a mistake.

Update: just saw the same car being sold by a local dealership. Same year, same mileage (with air)--$9750. Hopefully this isn't one of those too good to be true type stories...

I'm still in that super-busy time at the end of the semester, so there's not a whole lot to report. We did just have a fun week with Mom and Dad, but I, unfortunately, still had work to attend to every day. My semester is over in another couple of weeks, and I'm looking forward to the relative decrease in work that should occur once 'summer' begins. I'm not taking any classes (none are offered this year), but I will be doing some teacher assisting and probably a good deal of writing and getting all this year's research (mostly done already) ready for submission for publication. That's all for now.

Have you seen this?