Mellow Marshmallow

I always find baby names interesting because it's a reflection of our cultural influences, and it's important. You're naming a human being. I've heard that people with weird or ugly names are more likely to be bullied and so on. Lately I even heard that people whose last names are at the end of the alphabet have lower self-esteem. Names are important things.

The predicted 2013 baby names make sense. They predict that names related mythology from TV shows will increase, such as Thor.

The phonological "bug" was planted in expecting parents' minds with all the talk about hurricane Sandy, so they expect names which are phonologically similar to Sandy (i.e. Sandra, Alexandra, Cassandra) to increase as well.

Middle names are expected to be more unique, place names are expected to increase (i.e. London, Paris), as well as some "retro" names like Maxwell, Fay, Hank, and Millie.

Names with /l/ in them are on the rise! Like Lilly.

I like the wildflower name trend. Names are growing short and sweet (Cole, Will) or lengthy (Penelope).

There are more details here, if you want to read more. Makes me wonder what I'll name my kids. I always like Mariah or Ariel for a girl, and Russell and Todd for a boy. How about you guys?

I love reading books written by people with disabilities and impairments because it offers insight you just can't get anywhere else. It shows the challenges people face, even for the most basic things that we take for granted like holding a spoon, blinking, getting into buildings, and saying your own name when introducing yourself.

Reading these books helps me connect with the people, because the people are who matter. They may have cerebral palsy or brain injury, but they're first and foremost a person with a story. They are a person, a human; they have unique strengths and weaknesses like we all do. Theirs are just a heck of a lot harder in different kinds of ways.

Reading about these personal accounts helps me learn how to better help people with disabilities. I'm going to be a speech-language pathologist within a year (only one more year till I graduate -- yes!!!) and I will work with many of these unique people. I'm an speech-language pathologist intern at a small hospital right now and it's the most amazing experience ever. I can't believe this is my career. I love it so much. How can I get so much joy from going to work and doing a job, and not even getting paid for it (not yet at least)? I'm so happy!

Ok, excuse me for that happy outburst. I had a wonderful day at the internship today. Anyway, underneath the cut, I list and post links to such books I've read and talk about them a little. :)

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This was a cool thing to read when I try to imagine what it's like for the Kaulitz twins living in the United States. This covers a lot, from the media, politics, religion, society, culture, money, attitudes, technology, age, sex and gender roles, jobs, socioeconomic status, and all the things we live every single day but aren't aware of.

I was impressed by how much training it takes in Germany to become a schoolteacher. I was surprised to hear of the racism there, though; I thought the United States was bad. There is more jelly in American jelly donuts, but here, waiters and waitresses are annoying. There is more environmentalism in Germany, but no "give a penny, take a penny" cups at the store.

It's really interesting! Click here to read.

Our brains are wired to recognize faces. Even babies a couple of days old will respond to a simple smiley face drawn on a piece of paper. If there's no smile, and just two dots for eyes, they don't respond. It's easy to see faces everywhere! I do it all the time. My brother did too, when he was younger. He would see faces in his room when he went to bed and he had nightmares. :( But he wouldn't have nightmares about these cute faces.

A lot of major designers made Christmas trees! Look and see! These include Dior (theirs was my favorite), Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gaultier, DSquared, and some others I don't recognize the names of. Honestly, I only recognize some of them because Bill wears their stuff... I liked this suspended one, by Dries Van Noten.

They considered using glitter in the air force!

All That Glitters: The History of Shiny Things from Etsy on Vimeo.

Animals even as "simple" as rats may be able to feel empathy. Loose rats free trapped rats -- choosing to do so even over the offer of food. They don't free a fake rat, and they express no interest in freeing when the box is empty. <3 This suggests that empathy is a primal thing, programmed in our limbic system of basic emotions and instinct. The article is here.

Picspam commence! We went on November 6th, last Sunday.

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Loss of knowledge, something you take for granted.

Akinetopsia - loss of motion perception. Can you imagine not seeing motion? You wouldn't pay attention to someone waving to you. How would you perceive the world, then?

Auditory agnosia - difficulty in distinguishing environmental noise from speech. How could you listen to people? I tell you how-- you wouldn't. You wouldn't even know how.

Semantic agnosia - wtf!! You look at an object and have no idea of what it is by sight; the moment you touch it, feel it, smell it, taste it, hear it... anything that's not seeing it, you might remember what it is.

Form agnosia - in which you can't perceive an object as a whole, but only its separate parts. What in the world would this feel like?

Interesting stuff. Wear helmets, people. Don't want you getting brain injury and losing abilities you didn't even know you had.