Miscellaneous Stuff

First, Seed is hosting a 500,000th Comment Contest, with a trip to "the greatest science city in the world," which you can vote on here. So be sure to vote and then comment a lot, preferably here at Mixing Memory.

Second, via Advances in the History of Psychology, I learned of an article in Teaching Psychology on "the 40 most well-known and commonly-cited classic studies would still be appropriate to include in a contemporary first course in psychology." Over at Advances, they list the top 10. I don't mean to brag, but #1 is a cognitive paper, as were 3 of the others in the top 10. Cognitive psychology rules!

Third, have you ever been to a movie that was so bad you couldn't even bring yourself to leave? That was my experience last night with The Ten. There were a couple moments that made me laugh uncontrollably, but for 9/10ths of the movie, I was simply awestruck by its suckiness. I wanted to get up and leave, but couldn't bring myself to do so. It was surreal.

Finally, I don't usually do memes, but I was tagged by Richard, and since I've been reading Richard pretty much since his blog started, and he was one of the first people to read mine, I think of him as one of my oldest blogospheric friends, and thus feel compelled to do this one. So here goes. Eight random things about me:

1. I had Reese's peanut butter cups and a 16 oz coffee for breakfast this morning, and that's not unusual.
2. I once went tubing in white water (mostly class 2 and 3 rapids), and afterwards my ass was so sore I could barely sit down for a week. Here's a summary transcript of the trip: "Rock! Ow! Rock! Ow! Rock! Ow! Drop-off! Shiiiiiiiit! Rock! Ow!" Repeat for three hours. Good times.
3. I was raised Catholic, and though now recovered, I still feel guilty about pretty much everything.
4. I'm deathly afraid of brown recluse spiders, and as a result of a brown recluse story I heard as a child, I can't put on a pair of jeans without shaking them vigorously first.
5. I take a book with me everywhere, partly because I tend to ride the bus, and partly because I've been stranded with nothing to do enough times to know that I should be prepared for that eventuality. People sometimes look at me funny when I walk into a club carrying Lord Jim or Negative Dialectics, though.

   By the way, is it just me or is the Stein chapter in Lord Jim one of the greatest ever written in the English language? With beautifully opaque passages like this:

   Yes! Very funny this terrible thing is. A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as inexperienced people endeavour to do, he drowns--nicht wahr? . . . No! I tell you! The way is to the destructive element submit yourself, and with the exertions of your hands and feet in the water make the deep, deep sea keep you up.

6. I have two tattoos, and neither of them is science related.
7. When I was in third grade, there was a teacher at my school named Ms. Trout, whom everyone hated. It was the same year that the Tears for Fears song "Shout" was released, and a couple friends and I rewrote the chorus as, "Trout, Trout, let us all out, this is the homework we can do with out, so come on, I'm talking to you, so come on!" I know, I know, but we were in third grade! Oddly, anytime I hear the song, I hear our version in my head.
8. I grew up in a small southern town where there was very little for teenagers to do. The local art house theater (the only theater in town for a while), which recently closed, played Rocky Horror every Friday and Saturday night (including Christmas!) for more than a decade straight. The combination of the two -- nothing to do and Rocky Horror every weekend -- means that I have seen Rocky Horror several dozen times.

That is all. I guess I'm supposed to tag someone. I tag Heo, both because her answers will inevitably be more interesting than mine, and because she's been quiet too long.