Mike Experience Update 5/29

Life's been mad busy lately, with the whole three tests in three days thing and suprise test material in Biology on the day of. Regardless, Cambra and I survived and we're still pushin' on.

I was a little bummed to find that I couldn't perform at the Guitars Unplugged concert because I'll be coming back to the mothership that weekend but luckily BYU-I has the "acoustic cafe" which is apparently Guitars Unplugged Lite which I'll be auditioning for on Tuesday.

College spirit weeks seem a bit bland, in fact I would of had no idea that we were currently showing off our spirit if it were not for our dress up days at work. Of course, the only day I participated in was "Sports Apparel Day." Can you blame me? You know I'd wear my Yankees jersey any day of the week instead of my Business attire, come on.

Speaking of baseball, I used some positive reinforcement on myself which was on a fixed ratio schedule with Stephen Colbert being the stimulus. It worked, my biology test score went up 9% points and I also got to see this hilarious video. Watch it; seriously, it'll change your life.

BYU Idaho's Version of Rebellion

Student dissent has been a long standing tradition in the US as well as the world over. In America it's become somewhat of a sociological paradox. Why would a privileged group of young adults, keep in mind less than half of Idaho High School graduates attend College, choose to fight the system that'll give them success later in life?

Student activism has had many hardcore groups that did less than intelligent things, some bordered terrorism (Google Weather Underground), and protested everything beneath the sun (Google 1968). BYU-I now has it's own group of rebels who, taking the cue from their predecessors, have begun their dissent... in a neat little newspaper.

These privileged mormon kids aren't worried about insignificant crap like the environment, civil rights or any of that boring stuff you see on CNN, they have bigger fish to fry. Take for instance the on going battle over the honor code. Who cares about our energy crisis when you can't wear flip-flop sandals to class. I agree with them, however, having to shave before class is a pain but is it worth printing a newspaper about? I think we're pretty lucky if our biggest concern is having to wear pants during the summer.

Why We Get Hungry and Sleepy at Church.

Studying Psychology has allowed me to become acquainted with various schools of thought as well as their theories on what dictates our actions. It was this state of enlightenment that allowed me to come to a possible reason as to why we all get sleepy and hungry at church. That reason being prayer.

LDS doctrine states that we should pray often, most LDS families pray before eating and going to bed at night. The experiment of the behaviorist Ivan Pavlov has provided us with information on how we become sleepy and/or hungry after a prayer. In Pavlov's experiment he found that a dog had a conditional reflex that caused the dog to drool when presented with a certain stimuli, in his case chili.

Is it far-fetched to believe that we as LDS people have developed a conditional reflex? Is our desire for sleep and food triggered by the stimulus of prayer? I'm starting to think Pavlov was right. If you say a prayer before dinner each night of the work week, that's five different prayers signaling food. If a prayer is said before bed each night of the work week, that five prayer's signaling rest. Now it seems plausible to conclude that in a three hour block of church that, excluding sacrament, consists of six different prayers one could have a reflex action to such a stimulus. And in our culture, it appears as though that reflex would be food or rest.

If you're still confused, watch the Office explain Pavlov's findings. It's in the video 3:00 minutes in.

My Pez Wishlist

2008 appears to be an awesome year for new Pez, according to the official Pez Website they've released a commemorative Mickey Mouse Tin and also added to the Finding Nemo and Disney Princess series. A huge addition, because of my other obsessions, was the contemporary MLB series which was released in February and yes it includes the New York Yankees.

There are still two huge releases to come. One of which is the Pirates of the Caribbean series which includes Captain Jack Sparrow, Davey Jones and Will Turner. Yes I want all three. The second huge release is the Star Trek gift set that has the original crew, a great collector's item that will be coming in October. It's fun to see that ever since the Orange County Choppers tin that Pez continues to make realistic human dispensers, it really has become a new era.

Here's my wish list thus far:

Mickey Mouse 80 years collectible tin
Sours: Color Crystal set
MLB pez New York Yankees
Batman Offer
Lion King set total
Pirates of the Caribbean Series
Star Trek Gift Set

That's How I Do It...

I don't know why I'm even writing in this, I'm so disappointed in all 30 of you that have viewed my blog and haven't voted. Tisk Tisk Tisk, consider yourself chastised. Vote already.

Story Time
After some last minute cramming, which I've learned doesn't work thanks to my psychology book, I took my first university exam. Since I haven't ruled out the idea of graduate school I was really pushing for something over 90% however I pulled out an 85% after realizing there was a section I overlooked when studying.

In my book an 85% isn't anything to complain about, especially since this unit was based on Neuroscience and other biological crap that I suck at. Heck, if I'd gotten an 85% back in high school Mom and Dad would have taken me out to celebrate my rare moment of raising the bar. Speaking of which, mom and dad if you're reading this I expect some Spooky's Pizza in my mail box.

My Audition for BYU-I's Guitars Unplugged

So apparently, there's this huge show that takes place on campus once a semester that is strictly acoustic guitar performances; of course, being the seasoned performer that I am I decided that I should audition. The problem that I'm facing however, is what one song should I play. That's why I'm asking for your help, all of you who have watched me perform my set list over the last 4-5 years.

As you've noticed I've added a poll to the right hand side of the screen, what I'd like you to do is choose the one you enjoyed me singing the most as well as which one you, the audience member, enjoyed singing with me. I know I've played way over 4 songs in that time span so feel free to add one that you liked which isn't in the poll by commenting to the entry.

If you're a student at BYU-I that's interested in performing at this event click here for the audition information.

Rage Against the Machine and Mormonism

It has become a daily occurrence for me to notice at least one clean cut Mormon kid on the BYU-I campus wearing a Rage Against the Machine shirt. I have to admit, as a person who routinely wears his Rage shirt which was purchased in '99 after the release of Battle of Los Angeles, that it's comforting to know that other's enjoy their radically political rap-rock.

A brief history on Rage Against the Machine, they're known for their outspoken Chomsky loving rhetoric which flows through their heavy metal riffs; in fact, "the machine" is liberal double speak for "establishment." If you want to know what kind of band they are consider this, the official Rage Against the Machine website states that "following the 9/11 attacks, Clear Channel create[d] a list of 'songs with questionable lyrics.' RATM has the distinction of being the only band to have all its songs on the list."

Add that to the fact that 99% of Madison County voted for George W. Bush in 2004 and you have yourselves a culture erratic. Of course, it's not too odd to have political radicals, left or right wing, in the LDS church due to the neutrality stance in terms of politics. It's just a coincidence that the majority turn out to be right wing and/or constitutionalists.

Long story short, RATM if you want to play a show that will get you back in the spotlight fast come to Rexburg Idaho. You'll be playing in front of your fan base in a county where 99% of it's population see your political ideals as utter garbage. It's the perfect formula for the controversial show that will get you back on top.

What Happened to Summer?

This morning my Internet wasn't working so I meandered on down to the university library to do my homework. On my way there, my entire left side had been coated in white from the snow which was being carried horizontally to me thanks to the freezing wind. Which begs the question, what happened summer?

For those of you who want to know what it's like here look at the image, this was from http://www.weather.com no more than three minutes ago.



Enjoy your sunshine and BBQ's because I'm walking to work tonight in a summer snow storm. How great it is.