A Holiday in South Dakota

I was delirious when I said I was looking forward to cold weather in South Dakota while we were back. On the drive north, Meagan and I talked about the psychological make-up of the people who populate areas like Canada, Alaska, SD, ND, MN etc… I grew up thinking people who lived in the way north were crazy (the psychological makeup) but coming from Texas and seeing fields of snow blowing and negative degree temperatures in South Dakota is also crazy, as such people here must be crazy. Everything is relative.

However, I did enjoy a few things about the cold weather. Scooping the sidewalk with my father and using the snow-blower was most definitely a highlight. The snow blower has an excellent range, so does my farmer-blow, I wish I had a picture of both. 

Whenever I get a chance, I also like to use Gary’s four-wheeler. Robyn and Gary live on land by the Sioux River so it is fun to head down to the river and tool around in the wooded area that leads up to it. I’ll usually get stuck but manage to remove myself somehow. Over the holiday I scared up at least a dozen of South Dakota’s bird, the pheasant. A little later on, I went across the road and into the ditch (on purpose). It is fun to drive over the field approaches and have the feeling of jumping, although Gary’s four-wheeler is a sportsman ATV and is heavy and stable (like Bowser on Mario Kart). Adding snow to the “jumping” equation turned out to be good and bad. After I jumped the approach I banked into the ditch incline and made a sharp left turn, I was successful doing this the first time only. The second time I was thrown from the four-wheeler into a snow bank. I was fine, the snow padded my landing, but the ATV was tipped on its side. A motorist stopped and helped me right the ATV. There was no damage to the machine or myself. 

Meagan and I, and our mothers, were able to figure out much more details about the Wedding. We went to the Winery on two occasions to figure out the menu, decorations, cake etc…  We also saw the barrel room which was neat. In all the wedding plans are coming along nicely, now we need to plan the honeymoon. 

A few of my favorite gifts include: 1) The new Kanye West album 2) A Leatherman multi-tool 3) An umbrella 4) A Cohen Bros. box set 5) And a 32′ Samsung LCD TV

Blog Roots

As I originally conceived it (link) this blog was supposeed to be a little like Twitter. It was supposed to contain updates, other news, and a state update, which usually amounted to be talking about the weather, exciting I know. While I haven’t strayed too far, I have sometimes neglected the objective. Let me return to my roots. 

T$ update:

I’ve been done with classes for over a week now. My first semester went off without a hitch, honestly I can’t believe its already over. The cognitive psychology course I took was always interesting and helped me think more on the topic. I’m happy I didn’t test out of statistics for two reasons. First, I recognize statistics is the language of science, as such one must be fluent. Any review of statistics or opportunity to learn new techniques should be snapped up. Second, multiple regression was mostly unfamiliar to me, now it is not. Furthermore, advanced topics such as logistic regression and path anlysis were wholly unfamiliar to me, now they are not.

Research my first semester was intense and continues throughout winter break. Without classes I’ve been able to focus on a side project regarding the history of psychology. I am tracing the intersections of psychology and the White House Conference on Children and Youth from 1909-1971. Probably the most notable intersection was a paper by Kenneth Clark on racial identification in African American children (aka the “Doll Studies“). Later this paper became a central point of the NAACP’s case in Brown vs. Board of Education (wiki). My other projects on metacognition, stereotype threat, perceived social support, and cognitive writing continue and are nearing the end of data collection.

Other News:

Christmas shopping and wrapping is done! Meagan and I are leaving for Nebraska and South Dakota tomorrow to spend the holidays with family. I’ve been helping Meagan with the baking a little bit (i.e. retrieving flour from the grocery store or mixing ingredients when her arm is fatigued). Webster continues to jump on the kitchen counter, I scold him when he does but I don’t think he cares, cats…

TX update:

Per a previous blog, readers know it has snowed here. The snow didn’t last long. Now we’ve been socked in the last three days, the fog makes it dreary but keeps the temperature up (currently it is 74 degrees).

Winter Wonderland

A picture from my apartment patio in Texas. Thats right, its snowing in Texas two hours from the Gulf of Mexico. People are already talking about it being a winter wonderland. Guess we’ll have to turn on the heat after all. 

Thanksgiving 2008

Meagan and I hosted our first Thanksgiving. My parents came to College Station the night before Thanksgiving and stayed until early Sunday morning (my birthday). The meal preparation went off without any significant problems, but I can’t say that I was super involved. It was nice to have my parents here, they met and got a kick out of Webster, and Webster enjoyed having other people to lay on, at least I think he did.

For my birthday, we played a game of cribbage and then went to a German restaurant in Bryan, TX called the Brauhaus. It was pretty tasty, my parents and I had the schnitzel with spatzel and Meagan had roast beef. Playing cribbage with my family is one of my favorite things, we all seem to enjoy it and its fun! We also went to the George Bush (41) Presedential library and my parents acted as participants in my research (although I won’t use their data).