Did you create the universe? (Thoughts that keep me awake)

It is 5 AM. I apologize if this becomes dumb or if it is continuously dumb throughout. Ok. Lets begin. Vibrations do not have intrinsic attributes like color or sound. Ok, so what? So everything that you have seen or heard has only been your mind's way of interpreting all the junk around you.

Want to Accomplish A Goal? Then Keep it To Yourself

keep it secret.

Here is a fun bit of psychology for you.  If you have a personal goal that you really want to accomplish then do not tell anyone about it.  Studies have shown that any time you share a personal goal with someone, you are less likely to accomplish said goal.  Hmmm interesting.

Facts on Impact

• It would take about 732 quintillion packets of Kool-Aid and 91.5 quadrillion metric tons of sugar to turn the ocean into cheery Kool-Aid.
• One atomic bomb can destroy an entire city.
• If everyone on earth was standing shoulder to shoulder, you could fit all of us within the city of Los Angeles
• Everyone on earth could live in a state the size of Texas. If they were willing to live New York type of conditions.
• The average American lives to be about 28 547 days old.
• If you made a new friend every single month of your life, you would have around 900 friends.
• Unfortunately, according to Dunbar we can only hope to keep real relations with 100-230 people. That means each person with 500+ friends on their facebook will never really know about half their so called friends.
• If you have a youtube video that has been seen 100,000 times.  You have been viewed by more people than you could ever realistically hope to meet in your life. 
• There are around 7 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 atoms in the human body.
• Deep down at an atomic level the sub-structure of mass becomes a haze of energy.
• There are about 400 000 000 000 000 stars in the milky way galaxy alone

You Are A Bit Psychic, and Have Been Since Late Adolesence

I go through these phases where things interest me.  I don't know what it is, curiosity I suppose.  Someday it will probably kill me.

Lately I have been reading, watching, and listening to neuroscientists discuss their latest discoveries. I learned something from a women named Rebecca Saxe. She said, and I am paraphrasing, "Thomas Valadez you are a psychic person".  Now I am pretty sure I think that is what I thought she said, but then again perhaps what I heard wasn't exactly what she meant.  

People have a small part of the brain called the RTPJ (right temporal parietal junction) that is completely specialized to think of other peoples thoughts.  As you read this that little part of your head is going "why is he writing this blog" and the little part in my head is going "cool, someone is reading my blog". Throughout life this area of the brain becomes more and more specialized, and it isn't completely devoloped until late adolescence.

We are basically the same as these two.

• At age 3 a child doesn't understand that different people have their own thoughts.
• Age 5 a kid understands that people have their own thoughts, but still doesn't understand morality in others.
• Age 7 kids learn to understand morality in others, though it is still confused.
• Eventually around 15-18 children finally become able to fully grasp the concept of "other peoples' minds", or at least they understand it as well as an adult does.

Interestingly side note, this part of the brain looked to be about the same size of the Broca (the area of the brain specialized for linguistic skills.)

Reading the thoughts of other people isn't easy though.  Think about it.  You are not just a linear black and white thought process.  You are feelings, emotions, moral mazes, complex experiences, sensations without words. The real neat thing is, the brain is already working to understand all those feelings, thoughts, emotions sensations and moral convictions of other people. Immediately when you see a picture of someone, you have a sense of what they felt and thought.  

Up till now I didn't know that such an area of the brain existed.  Now I wonder. Would it be possible to develop this specific area of the brain.  I am sure it could be done. I mean, would their be some drastic change in society if we made that part of a public school regimen?

You are smartest when alone, that is a fact.

Unfortunately for you, and everyone else on the planet earth, no one will ever know how truly intelligent you really are.  For some people I imagine this knowledge will come as a weight being lifted off the chest. No longer do you have to be concerned about showing off your intellect in group settings, because now you know full well that it simply can't be done.

It is a scientifically proven fact that group settings diminish expressions of intelligence. So these scientists, who probably could have done a better study on their own, hooked up some sort of nueroimaging apparatus to peoples' heads and found out, yup, people in groups are idiots. It isn't that the particular people that go to groups are idiots, but rather just being in a group setting drastically lowers your IQ.   

It makes sense though.  Think about all the brainpower that goes into not scratching your butt in front of others. Basically just acting socially acceptable takes a lot away from actually thinking of the task at hand. The best part about this little study is that women are affected more than men.  Oh you vain, self-centered, over-concerned females constantly making a foofaraw(word of the day) out of naught.  My apologizes for the sockdolagar(another word of the day), I don't mean to be bumptious (word of yestday). --I had to force some absquatulation of elucidating terms, so I could incorporate the words of my day. Also I am not sure if I used 'absquatulate' in the right context there, but I am sure you know what I mean.


 Anyway, back to the topic, women work in groups about as well as a bunch of miniature yorkies. Of course we have to take into account that  men automatically become idiots when there is a girl present. In fact, studies suggest men become mentally impaired simply by thinking about interaction with a women. That is sort of pathetic.  And, yeah... it sucks.

So if you are a women stay away from group settings. If you are a man you too should stay away from group settings, especially the kind that have girls mixed into them.  My suggestion is that you  distance yourselves from everyone. Get as far away as possible.  That way you can preserve what little brain juice you may have left. Also talking to yourself helps stimulate cognition, so do that whilst sitting alone in your makeshift fort out in the middle of nowhere. 

Music Actually Changes Your Brain

Music is universally known for its ability to change hearts. There is something in the sweet cadence of a catchy tune that makes peoples' hearts just melt. 

"one foot then the other" it's so true.

Then it has also been demonstrated to change peoples minds.  Usually songs are used to brain wash little children into learning good grammar skills.

Neurologists are saying that music actually changes the brain.  Like the actual organ part, you know that tangible glob of fats and water that is supposedly in your head.  Yeah these freaking brain scientists are saying that basically every thought that goes through the head helps to shape the brain.  

There are many facets to the mind-music connection.  Lets look at some.

• Music mood connection
• Music memory connection
• Music pleasure connection
• Music and impulsive tapping connection
• Music language connection

Now imagine the power this knowledge could give us.  We know that music can totally alter someones heart  and brain, but what do we do with this knowledge.  Some punks are going to listen to gangster music, and then some rattle headed teeny boppers are going to be brainwashed by dubstep.  

Here is the thing.  Music is feeding your brain with all sorts of information and it is literally becoming a part of your neural network.  The music you listen to makes up a large portion of who you are. 

So here is what you do.  Listen to the playlists I have created on Spotify. 

Also look at these blogs I did for work about belly fat and about running around topless.  

-Thom

Hack Your Brain Become More Creative

Hey Friends,

If you made it here from my Facebook post you’re probably expecting to hear some personal story about my life.  Like maybe you want me to say something about how my heart feels like woodland critters playing with a slinky on a mountain last night at two in the morning, but I am not going to tell you that.

If you made it to my blog by some other route then I honestly don’t know what you are doing here.  No, don’t go. Stay and enjoy the post, you creeper.

Osama used creativity when folding the airplane

The reason I made this post is cause I want you, my friends, to be more creative.  Well, In reality I guess it would be nice if you were more creative, but honestly it isn’t like a major concern of mine.  I am just trying to be real.  I really do appreciate all your creativity, but if it didn't exist its not like it would be the end of the world for me. yaknow?  

There is an easy way to become more creative, according to Art Markman (Ph.D) who writes for psychology today (as if you care about sources).   All you have to do is improve your working memory.  Now I am not sure what constitutes working memory, but I imagine it is everything that is not long term memory.  Think back, can you remember the third sentence in this post without looking? If you can that is rad, and that probably means creativity comes really easy for you.  If you can't, well, you know, whatever the opposite of rad is, that's what you are.

Art goes on to say that a good way to improve your working memory is by developing a larger vocabulary. My word of the day is omphalos (OM-ful-luhs). It means central point, navel, and it is also a specific spot in some Greek temple thought to be the center of the earth. Example "The omphalos of his blog was confusing and convoluted, and it seemed to be uncomfortably contrived". I actually don't know if it works in that sort of context.  Another way you can improve your working memory is by developing better reading comprehension.  Practice paying close attention to what you read.

Don't worry if you are not creative because it is easy to develop... maybe. On the other hand, plenty of really great things that I love have no creative faculty at all. Like rocks aren't creative but we all love a good rock.

Anyway, (check this out).  This is just the first to come of actually helpful ways to improve your brain.  This one is more geared toward problem solving, but you got be creative for that.

Talking to Yourself May Save Your Brain

Sorry about the alarming title to this blog.  I wasn’t trying to insinuate that your brain needs saving. However, if it does then this post could be very beneficial to you. 

Ignore this picture and keep reading.

 

Don’t ask me how I came across this information because I am about to tell you right now.  So every once in a while, while I’m at work swimming through the massive septic tank that is interweb, I find a small gem.  Like when someone accidently swallows a marble and then forgets about it. Well don’t worry I am down below wading in the fecal excrement of every internet user who ever existed just waiting for such gems to fall into my crudely fashioned net (I use stumbleupon and digg).  When they finally come, I sneak ten minutes away from work and type a quick little blog about it.   And today's little tid-bit of information is golden.  Like one of those eggs that the geese in Willy Wonka lay, right from their bakoocas.  

Sometimes I talk to myself because I think it is funny.  Turns out it is actually majorly beneficial for your brain.  So those narcissists who talk to themselves all the time, who think they are so smart, well they probably are.  According to Wric, talking to yourself improves memory. ABC said that it accelerates cognitive functioning. And research from some fancy Harvard study showed that talking to one’s self and about one’s self actually stimulates the ‘reward’ center of the brain, or as they say in their fancy Harvard talk it is "intrinsically rewarding". 

I think this talking has to be out loud. Blogging doesn’t count.  But I am sure there are plenty of mental benefits to blogging, just nobody cares to do a study on that because it doesn’t make any interesting titles. Plus the blogging industry is quite dilapidated already. We don't need any more competition.  Thinking about it, yeah, it kind of makes sense that talking to yourself would do all those things.

I mean I talk to myself all the time, and that is probably why I feel great all the time too. 

Like this one time I was at work I was talking to myself.  Then one of my coworkers is all like “what was that?”
Then I was all like “excuse me. Was I talking to you?” Then I walked away laughing and mumbling to myself  about how fun the other night was. Yup, you can bet I felt real good after that. And I did.   

PS. Quick little side note. That Harvard study showed that people were actually willing to forgo money to answer questions about themselves rather than about, you know, things that weren't themselves. So mull that over in your conceited, narcissistic, bigheaded head of yours.  

-Thom

Adapting to Stockholm

Of course I like you, you're my captor.

I heard that when POWs are locked away they sometimes begin to feel compassion and emotional attachment toward their captors.  It is called Stockholm syndrome. This isn’t because of some creepy mind control, but it is actually a paradoxical psychological phenomenon. Sometimes people will even defend their captors and take “lack of abuse” as an act of kindness.  People do this as a natural way of adapting to their environment.

The reason people start to develop these emotions toward their captors is so that they can feel comfortable, or, at least, a little comfortable.  I think most of us would agree that many of the places we go, we do not feel comfortable.  For some people even posting silly blogs is uncomfortable enough.

But if POWs and little kids who have been abducted can start to feel comfortable, then I should be a freaking fizz headed bubbly bastard. I mean for crysakes, I am neither abducted nor a prisoner of war.  I just work and go to school, and still I get anxious.  Nothing I do should be considered stressful, I am hardly ever in any life-threatening situations, and I have so much money I can buy food almost every day. All I have to do is sit in a chair and type things, or, if I’m at school, write things.

I remember back when I was a kid I hated typing/ writing. Partly because spell check wasn’t readily available to me, so nothing I wrote every made any sense at all.  But as I have aged I have started liking it a little more.  There seems to be some sort of value in seeing your thoughts become fossilized in ink.  As soon as you record an idea it becomes eternal.  I think that is neat.

I think the whole point of this blog is that it is easy to adapt to uncomfortable situations.  Alls U gotta dew is get out and put yourself in somesorta situations you aint never been in affor.