Chills

I generally try not to judge people. To each his own, I say.

However, there are 2 people I have met that will forever be imprinted on my memory, and will forever haunt my dreams.

I grew up with a girl who started out a little bit strange, but I was a little bit strange, so it was all cool. As time went on she just got stranger and stranger. A high schooler, who talks in baby talk. She not only is into anime, (not that I have a problem with people who are) but she was so into anime she thought she was the character she pretended to be. Then she got into playing a certain card game related to a certain anime show. She went to a club where they played this game. She met some "friends" there, and decided to bring them to school for an event of an organization of which we were both members. These "friends" - one of them was male, probably in his forties. Before I get on to his description, there is something inherently wrong with a 40 year old male being friends with a high school girl. But I digress. he easily weighed 3 or 400 pounds, his teeth were rotting out of his mouth, he was scruffy and wearing glasses circa 1970 something. His odor filled the entire room. He scared me. A lot. And he was her "friend."

Secondly, there was a girl. I say a girl even tho she was supposedly 32 or so....she looked like she was 12. She was extremely petite and pale and quiet. And eerie. If ghosts are real, she was one. There was something about her presence that sent chills down my spine.

What was up with these people? Mr. Creepy probably lived in his parents' basement and had never had a job, except maybe for making kidde porn. Ms. Creepy could have just been developmentally challenged and extremely shy. I'm sure she was a wonderful person. I swear she was a ghost though.

Lazy

That is what I have become since I have come home for break. I was lazy at school too, but I had all these plans for waking up early and walking the dog and getting all this exercise...but it hasn't happened. When given the opportunity, most people will become lazy. Not everyone, however, some people can't stand the idea of doing...well...nothing. If this wasn't modern times, we would all starve to death if we were lazy. Sometimes I think all of the modern technology we have isn't always a good thing. This post is more of an apology than anything else, I haven't updated in a few days, although since I haven't gone anywhere, I haven't seen much of anything to update about! However, I will be going out and running errands today so perhaps I will have something interesting for you all later.

Androgyny

We, as people, feel a need to categorize everything. Ask any biologist...Every animal has a Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. It is amazing that I still remember that from 4 years ago. Anyway, a few weeks ago I saw a band. One member was androgynous, but appeared to me to be male, but I wasn't quite sure. I had an argument with the person I was with, who thought it MUST be a girl. I just determined that it was a boy. Recently however, I was dining with some friends, and who do they invite to the table and who do they invite to sit with us? None other than the androgynous musician! Apparently they knew him/her. Well to my surprise, HER name is Jessica. Jessica? I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. Yet, I know 2 girls who have chopped off their hair and dress in a masculine manner. One prefers to be seen as a guy, while the other just dresses that way because she likes to. Yet, I still see them as female because I can remember a time when they looked that way to the rest of the world.

I can see the need to label when trying to address someone and not knowing whether to use Mr or Ms, and I can see how people may be offended if mis addressed. Not knowing can make someone very uncomfortable, because they want to use a label to be polite, but do not want to make the mistake of picking the wrong one. What can we do in this situation? I say that we propose a new title to address people, and abolish Mr and Ms and Mrs and Miss altogether. In this day and age it is becoming more and more common to see people who do not feel that they fit into either gender role. Why not just add a new title? Some may wonder, well, then when it is used, people may be offended that they appeared androgynous when they intended to appear one way or the other. I know this is a radical idea...but who's with me?

Illusion of Security

Why do people prefer an illusion of security to facing the fact that the world is a dangerous place, when doing so could help them prepare for the danger?

In the building where I live, we are required to show our key and ID to a security guard behind a desk. It used to be that we only had to show our key between the hours of 8 PM and 2 AM. This policy arose when campus police received a phony call that there had been a shooting in the building. However, there was no shooting. The caller was apprehended and is banned from campus. There was never a real danger, and the nut who put a campus in fear is in the hands of the authorities.

Do the desk and security guard actually make my building any safer? No. Here's why. They are not allowed to carry weapons. They are only there to call campus police if something happens. I'll tell you something, if I wanted to do whatever this "something" is that everyone is afraid of, id get a big group of people and tie up or knock out the guard, which would not be a daunting task considering they are mostly old men rent-a-cops. Then I would run and go do whatever the hell it was I wanted to do.

Also, several of these guards don't really look at your key and ID. I walk past one of them every day that hes working and he barely notices me or moves his eyes from his computer screen. That's right, the guards are allowed to have laptops and they will go on-line or watch movies while they are on duty. Earlier today, I had forgotten to bring my key and ID when I went outside briefly to record video. When I came back inside and realized that, I was fully prepared to go through the steps of being looked up in the directory and signing out a key and everything that I needed to do, but the security guard didn't feel like doing all that work. He merely said, "Oh, I've seen you" and let me pass.

The school is wasting thousands of precious dollars on this "security" and people feel safer. But hey, it's more important to feel safe than to be safe, right?

To cheat or not to cheat?

Today I will discuss cheating. A guy friend of mine, Steve, not only doesn't mind when his girl fools around with other guys, he gets turned on by it, so long as it was only physical, and that she still loves him and only him. On the other hand, I know guys who will become very upset if their girlfriends so much as hug another male. This got me thinking and I decided to look at what people consider cheating and why, and if the same rules apply to same-sex relationships as well.

Personally, I want to be the number one girl in my partner's life. If he or she needs to flirt with other people or do anything physical with other people, then they obviously aren't getting enough of these things from their relationship with me and we should both look elsewhere. I am not overly jealous however, and I know that a friendly kiss or peck on the cheek can be just friendly.

So why does Steve like to share? This is kind of puzzling to me. What I think is that he wants everyone to know how hot and amazing his girl is in bed. I'm not quite sure why. He might want to make the rest of the male population jealous. I'm not sure if they would be though, they get sex that they know will not result in a clingy girl. Isn't this what men want?

Dreams

Why is it that our dreams aren't logical? People don't know when they are dreaming, they think that what is happening is REALLY happening, even if they know that it is impossible. Is this nature's way of giving us entertainment while our body is recharging? In this day and age we seem to need entertainment during all of our waking hours. Just look at how many TVs and mp3 players are sold every day.

Well, I don't know if G-d, Mother Nature, Allah, or whatever deity you choose programmed us to have entertainment in our sleep. However, I do know that the prefrontal cortex needs a break. This is the part of your brain that makes decisions. Ever noticed that you can't control your dreams? That's because your prefrontal cortex isn't active. There is an exception to this. Some of you may have heard of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the ability to realize that you are dreaming, and be able to control it. While this may make for a more enjoyable experience, your prefrontal cortex isn't getting a break. I have had lucid dreams, and you don't wake up as refreshed as after a normal dream.

Enjoy your dreams the way they are, and remember them if you can. They are the only way to see into your subconscious mind. While movies and tv shows have portrayed psychologists as dream analysts time and time again, the only person who can truly analyze your dreams is you. Try writing down what happens immediately after you wake up. Write things down the way they happened, even if it doesn't make logical sense. Remember, your prefrontal cortex wasn't regulating the dream. Next, look at what happened. The dream should reveal something about your emotions or other subconscious thoughts. You'll know you've gotten it right when it makes perfect sense, yet it's something you may not want to admit. Things get buried in there for a reason, you know.

Who is the Mental Ninja?

My name is Rachel. I am a freshman Psychology major in college. I'm glad that you have found my blog and hope that you take the time to read it.

I'm very observant. Combined with my love of Psychology and wanting to know how we think and why we behave certain ways causes me to analyze the world around me. I decided to share some of these observations with the world.

You should know that everything on this blog is anonymous. If I name anyone, the name has been changed, and used only for clarification purposes.

I hope you come to wonder like I do! Comments are always appreciated.