FS 101.30 Didem Uca

I apologize for another late entry, but I didn't get out of bed for much of yesterday because I have a bad cold.

Overall I was very impressed by the segments that my classmates created. While I was proud of my fellow group 2 members, whom I believe did a fantastic job, I throughly enjoyed the other group's episode, too. The segment that stood out to me was Lexie's on the true beauty of Meadville. Besides for the importance of the topic (Lexie, I totally agree that Meadville is under-appreciated!) her argument was very well presented. Her pictures and script were cohesive and inspiring. Great job! I also loved Julia's segment on Habitat for Humanity, one of the most active organizations on campus. I wish I could devote time to volunteer for what proves to be a worthy cause. I didn't know that Julia was involved in this activity, and respect and admire her for the time and effort she and other members of Habitat give to families in need. Group 1 was a hard act to follow! I can't wait to see Group 3 on Tuesday--I'm sure its members will remind us of the cliched saying "last but not least".

Well, my computer is finally fixed, programs are installed, and the internet is working. Life is good and technically sufficient. Sorry for the delay on posting, but the Library hours are crazy during the weekend--I'm actually never sure when it is open. This bothers me immensely.

On a class related note, I really enjoyed the relaxation techniques that we did in on Tuesday and Thursday. The complaint choir exercise was awesome! My group and I had so much fun creating our song, and i loved hearing what my classmates had to say. It really made me feel better--I was much less stressed out because my problems seemed so much smaller when I could make them comical. I also liked the meditation podcast. It opened my eyes to the world of mindfulness meditation. I've always wanted to learn the art of meditation, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was. Thursday's class served as a good introduction.

Overall, great final class discussions. I can't wait to present my group's episode next week!

This was the last week we were assigned to watch Sunday Morning. Overall, I'm happy with the experience, because I think that I've learned a lot. Despite the fact that the knowledge seems random, I find that I can apply some of those little snipets of information to my life. For example, I've learned about many artists, entertainers, and scientists. I never would've learned about these people if I hadn't watched Sunday Morning. I appreciate the hour and a half a week of relaxing, yet interesting commentary about everything from state fairs to pumpkins to old friends to the sun. I'm excited to write and present my segment of the episode, and am happy to work with my group.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with macsupport for an hour and a half, after which point, I had to drive down to Cranberry to see an apple trained technician because apparently my hard drive is corrupted. I bought the computer two months ago. On the drive home, I wondered how I would cope without a computer for the 3-5 days of inspection and repair. By the time I got back to school, the Library was closed for Friday, and most people were out for the weekend. I didn't even have a computer to write my debriefing for my blog. I felt completely loss without my computer, something that I carried almost everywhere before it broke inexplicably. This morning, as I write in my blog on a borrowed computer (can I have it back in an hour, please?) I'm wondering how dependent we are on technology such as laptops and the internet. For schoolwork, especially in college, a computer is a necessity for typing papers, researching sources, and making presentations using different programs such as powerpoint and publisher. On a recreational level, the internet provides hours of entertainment and socialization opportunities. If these resources didn't exist, we would have to use books to research, telephones to find out about parties, and good old elbow grease for those presentations. The internet is a very valuable tool, and anyone who doesn't use it is deemed old-fashioned. But somedays I wish that my computer would mysteriously vanish, so that I could have a few days of peace without the instant news, instant messages, and instant gratification of the world wide web. Be careful what you wish for.

On a more class related note, I've really been enjoying the commentaries this past week. As a class, we have become much more articulate. We are well-researched, and create well-developed stories in which to fit this information. Molly's commentary about the gatorbikes provided a good start for us, because she was passionate and spoke knowledgeably about her topic. Alex's commentary was fun and informative--I can tell that he read a lot about the topic and that it interests him, because that rubbed off on me. And I guess I proved the primacy and recency effects because Molly presented first and Alex, last, and those are the two I have the clearest memories of. Overall, I'm very impressed with and proud of my classmates. I look forward to see what the last group of commentators are going to present.

For today's class we did readings on IQ, and Humor, which were two of the topics of our class podcasts. Though the articles were separate, I think that their ideas were definitely related.

Scores in certain subtests of the WISC IQ test have been increasing in some countries for a century. Was each consecutive generation that much smarter than the previous? If that were so, then wouldn't it make it difficult for the currrent generation to read books from the past, and to discuss these books with their grandparents or other elderly people? But the level of conversation isn't getting higher between generations, so why is the IQ score? The realization was that because the IQ test encouraged abstract thinking, when it was first administered, people had more trouble because they approached the world concretely. Now, with so much of the world obsessed with abstractions, a child will be expecting that the question must be answered abstractly, and therefore perform better. Another complex paradox of IQ's true measure of intelligence was the IQ of identical twins separated at birth, who received very similar scores. This was meant to prove that genetics play a vital role in intelligence, and environment plays only a limited role. Why, then, do parents who are genetically related to their children, have such different IQ scores from them? The only explaination is environment--but we have already disproved the importance of the outside world on our IQ. Also, IQ does not measure "coping skills" of a mentally disabled person; even if the person makes gains in IQ, it does not mean that that person has made emotional gains as well. Mentally disabled people who perform very well on some sections of IQ tests are still beyond functioning in certain social areas. The debates, discussions, and inconclusive data has made IQ an unreliable source of information on a person.

So, then, where can one look for an idea of someone's intelligence? Humor is one place! Children as early as 25 months recognize humor and can laugh predictably, and children as early as 19 months recognize when a person is intentionally versus unintentionally doing something, which is an important step to recognizing humor. A person who is unable to recognize humor on an emotional level often is mentally disabled. Their concept of humor is sometimes on an intellectual level, or can sometimes be fostered through music or math. Testing one's sense of humor can reveal "coping skills", and is therefore a more reliable judge of social intelligence.