honey you sure are tough

Tonight I will be getting more than 4 hours of sleep. Rock on.

As an aside, Matt has introduced me to a solo album produced by Dustin Kensrue, the lead singer of Thrice. Great, great album. It’s got a folk edge. I guess I’m just in that kind of mood. Thrice, in contrast, does not have a folk edge. I was about to compliment Thrice while previewing their music in Itunes, and then I chose a song with screaming in it. Some of their material sounds okay though.

I participated in a psychology experiment earlier today on campus. This is my 5th one during the summer and by far the strangest. These two girls, Amber and Shaniqua (I'm not actually sure if it's Amber or not), explained the experiment to me and had me fill out a questionnaire. Standard business. Next they measured my head. It is normal sized. After all the measuring was done they marked my scalp and placed a cap on my head. The cap had about 40 electrodes on it and each had a long wire extending to a computer. Then they spent a good amount of time putting gel on my head with q-tips so that the electrodes got a good connection. The whole preparation was kind of strange. At one point Amber asked if I felt comfortable and I just started laughing. I felt like I was about to go on a space mission (which kind of excited me). Amber had seen Waking Life, which is a superb movie. I didn’t get to ask her much about what she though of it though.

After all the preparations were made Amber explained to me that I would hear sets of tones. There were only two tones (a high pitch and low pitch), and during the experiment I was to count how many times I heard a low pitch. I did a couple practice runs and then they put me in a nice chair, connected my cap thing to the chair, closed the door, and dimmed the lights. The experiment was to last 40 minutes. I fell asleep during part of it.

It was a horribly boring experiment, but I found ways to keep myself entertained. My mind wandered a lot and towards the end I was trying to send them secret messages telepathically through the electrodes. Somehow I don’t think it works like that, but it kept me awake.

Though the experiment and its goals were explained completely to me, I still have no idea what the point of it all was. Psychology is a funny science. I really enjoy it though because it’s generally applicable to real life. How people learn and think and behave plays an incredible role in how everyone interacts with each other. I just wish they didn’t have to put an electrode hat on me to figure everything out.