on time orientation

This is a super-interesting, 10-minute talk about "time orientations." It's given by Philip Zimbardo, an influential social psychologist, who is perhaps best known for the Stanford Prison Experiment. The animations totally make the talk.

do the right thing

Come on Selig. You know you can do it.

Update: COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

r is for reject

Remember how I mentioned last week about how I was submitting research to a prestigious journal? I believe I had this to say,

Naturally, I'm confident that we'll be rejected immediately (they reject 85% of their submissions, the vast majority of which are from some the of the best researchers in the world), but the good news is that when we are, we can just re-submit to a less prestigious journal.

I shouldn't have been surprised, then, when the paper got stamped with a big red "REJECT" a week after we submitted it. (At least, that's how I imagine it happened. They notified us through email). Surprised? No. Disappointed? Sadly, yes. Apparently our results were "too specific to appeal to psychologists across disciplines." Oh well. Revise and submit elsewhere.

our garden guest

Sarah was in the house talking on the phone and spotted this guy on our back fence. He was pretty nervous about the doves on the phone lines overhead, so I couldn't get close enough for a close up. I'm guessing that trait is how he ended up so big. My six-year-old self would have killed to have had one of these in our back yard. And by 'killed,' I mean, 'would have caught and put in a fish tank, attempted to have fed crickets and spiders to, and would have literally killed, due to not knowing how to care for.'

 

who doesn't love mud?

Our St. Augustine grass has a fungus called Take All Root Rot, which destroys the root systems of the grass, eventually killing it entirely. It doesn't sound good, and it isn't, but it is actually a pretty common ailment in area yards.The neighbors, from what I hear, are combating it with fertilizer, but I read a few things online that said fertilizer actually makes it worse. I'm guessing that the previous owner of our place fertilized heavily, so I'm using peat moss to lower the soil's pH. I'm not entirely sure what the means, but the stuff I read said it was a good idea.

I don't mind dead grass so much in the short term. You won't find me complaining about having less yard to mow. But I am afraid it might be harder to re-sell the house in a few years if we don't have any grass in the yard. I can see the advertisement now.

For sale: Small house in established neighborhood. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms. Kids will love making mud pies in the barren yard, just add water.