Friday, April 24, 2009

Day 24: Fiji and Ouija.

I just gave myself a MASSIVE papercut pulling my laptop out of my backpack, and I am extremely unhappy about it. :(

I am not going to think about my throbbing finger and instead tell you about the weird things I have thought and seen today.

First of all, I am not a HUGE fan of the college lifestyle. But sometimes, like today, there are things that make me feel so lucky to be here. I was rushing from one class to another and then when I was going through Red Square, I see this stage setup and a huge crowd of people. So naturally, being a curious human, I wandered over to find that it was a big island tribal music festival thing. I walked up to hear 4 women singing a Fijian melody of some sort, and then immediately after all these people in red and white dresses came up and did a Hawaiian dance thing. I completely forgot I was supposed to meet with a group member to talk about the presentation I had to do in an hour because I just got swept away in the dancing and the music.

I really like that I live and go to school in a place that on any given day, there may be some random festival going on. I walk by different things happening in Red Square all the time and it's just... fun. One time there was a guy in a giant dragonfly suit just walking around shaking people's hands. And one time someone lit himself on fire, but that was just scary and sad.

In my theory class, the TA used a Ouija board reference to explain a concept to us. Naturally because I think this class is boring, my mind started to wander and I began thinking about Ouija boards. I own one, and had it at prime Ouija board time in a young adolescent girl's life. (I would say this is about 9-14). I will be the first to admit that I was always the one who cheated, because somehow I always knew in my brain what the word was going to be before we spelled it out. But I was always super amazed when halfway through I would stop pushing it myself and the rest of the word would be spelled without my help. It's like they KNEW.

Today, because I gave it half a second of thought, I realized why.
It's just like predicted text on a cell phone. If the question is "Which boy at school has a crush on Alice?" and I want to gross her out by making the Ouija board spell out Brian, the name of the weird kid who picks his nose, then all I do is sneakily urge the planchette toward "B". Well, suddenly it's been narrowed down to just the Bobbys, the Billys, the Bens, because everyone playing has a shared knowledge of the boys at our school. With skill I then switch course and send it over to "R" and now we're down to two options, Brandon and Brian. At the first sign of an "I" next, suddenly everyone knows what name we're spelling and whether or not they realize they're pushing, my work is done. The giggles are already erupting and Alice's face is bright red.

It's that easy. It's not magic. It's the power of suggestion.
Maybe this is obvious and I'm just slow. But regardless, I thought it was a really neat psychological discovery.

In other news, in my Geography class, I noticed today that up front there is "Clock Needed Here" written on the wall in sharpie. I found this incredibly funny. I wonder how long that clock has been needed there. I realized I didn't know what time it was.

This is how my mind works: I walk around life all day, inputting sights and experiences and cataloging them in my brain in little files labeled "Use in a Video", "Tell Alex", "Complain about to Eia", and "Blog About". My "Blog About" file has been particularly active lately, and sometimes I have to think of ways to remember things I see so I remember them. Often it's a little chant. Today's was so funny that I am going to share it with you: "Fiji and Ouija, Fiji and Ouija..." xD

Today's Word: Offixation
Fixation with The Office! -Natalie
(Pretty self explanatory)

Doctor Who: Season 3, Ep. 3
The Office: Season 5, Ep 14

Subscribers: 18,169

11 comments:

Jessamyn said...

Oh wow, the 'clock needed here' makes me want to go write that in my biology room where we don't have a working clock.

cancari- a car in a can :)

anna said...

I have the same kind of "filing system" for my thoughts. Things happen, I have thoughts, days go wrong, and parts of those events get told to certain people.

Unknown said...

Have you ever seen the movie Sugar and Spice? It's about high school cheerleaders and the captain gets pregnant and so they decide to rob a bank to help pay for it, haha. Anyway they use a Ouija board in it and that's the first thing I thought of :D And the clock on the wall thing made me laugh really hard too.

Unknown said...

btw, I'm sazmuffinnn from youtube hahha.

VicMorrowsGhost said...

If you never update your daily booth again the picture of you to the right of your blog with be you trapped in the green floaty FOREVER!

Musiside: Like genocide but for music.

Mily Cyrys was charged with Musiside.

Jordiekins said...

hemitn: mittens for men.

Anonymous said...

Omygosh, I do this too!
I categorise my daily stories/happenings for telling my friends/family! Yaay.
Someone smart should think of a word for it- I'm no good at your game, but I love the suggestions people come up with.
:]

Ana said...

I love it when I find something hilarious written somewhere unusual. This week I was in class, pretty bored and not really paying attenion, and I was moving my legs a lot and I just opened them randomly and I looked down and saw "Close your legs". I thought it was brilliant and hilarious xD

Jordon M. Birk said...

If you have the time, I highly recommend Jonah Lehrer's (author of How We Decide) blog, The Frontal Cortex. It uses psychology and neuroscience to explain things a bit like this--and even more of the day to day, as well--and make them highly interesting.

Also, Here's a link to his appearance on the Colbert Report.

Jonathan B said...

Are you taking a music theory class?

Sammie said...

I was totally the kid that cheated in Ouija too...and i did wonder how when i stopped pushing it went where i thought...but that totally makes sense! haha.