Everyday's like Sunday

I did miserably last week. I'll add my scores later. For now, here's this:
Cle <> Det
Jac > Hou
Atl > NE
GB > STL
NYG > TB
KC > Phi (I gotta do what I gotta do)
Ten < NYJ
SF > Min
NO <> Cin
Den <> Ari
Car < Dal

It's not gonna come out like I wanna say it

Some people, like my best friend, aren't in to updating their facebook status ever. Some people, like me, take great joy in updating it a few times a day. We each believe that we are somehow superior to the other for our choice. That's fine though, because we realize that and are best friends anyway.

Because I'm such a seasoned status updater, I have a few tips and tricks for being able to regularly update your facebook status and still be "cool." (Because I'm cool... right? Please tell me I'm cool!)

1. It's best NOT to update more than once in a 3 hour span, though it is sometimes acceptable. You really just need to read the situation and decide if a new update would merit better response. Sometimes, if I choose to do this (like when posting football scores/reactions) I will go back later and delete those updates that didn't garner feedback.
2. Airing your dirty laundry over your facebook status is NEVER a good idea. Don't sling mud at an ex, don't bare your frustrations at close friends, don't divulge details that you wouldn't say in public to the amount of friends you have - because essentially you are public speaking and no one wants to feel awkward after reading something like this "I guess we weren't worth it after all. Thanks for wasting my time."
3. Song lyrics are ok but try not to make them too morose or angry. People will start to worry about you. Also, see #2 about how nobody likes feeling awkward. Too many angry lyrics (especially when it's not clear that it's lyrics you're posting) are just going to lead to people hiding you in their feed.
4. When it comes to details, less is usually more. If you are really frustrated with a headache and want to share that with your friends, that's fine. Use something like "Marissa wishes this headache would LEAVE." Do not use something like this: "Marissa has had a migraine headache for 3 days and just wants to cry because it's so bad I took like 6 ibuprofen and it's not getting better maybe I'll go to the Doctor tomorrow oh well it's off to bed tonight I hope I can sleep with this knife like pain in my skull."
5. On a related note, it's also fun to withhold details as little teasers to leave some to the imagination of your readers. "Marissa is ready for some action packed fun" might be more fun to read then "Marissa is going to go dancing then play some skip bo and watch some football this weekend." Always leave them wanting more. That's really the key to any status update.

pump up the jam.

So I got 10 right last week. It's not terrible, but not great. I'm hoping to improve this week.

Time is not something I have a lot of so this will be a quickie before I do some homework and indulge myself in an early bedtime.

I'm going to use the greater than/less than symbol. Obviously, the greater than side will indicate who I believe will win. (example win >lose, lose < win)
Carolina < Atlanta
Minnesota > Detroit
Cincinnati < Green Bay
Arizona < Jacksonville
Oakland < KC (I'll be going to this game to take care of it in person.)
NE > NYJets
New Orleans > Philly
Houston < Tennessee
STL < Wash
TB < Buff
Seattle > San Fran
Pit > Chicago (Sorry, Bears, I think I'm done rooting for you. I just REALLY REALLY REALLY don't like Jay Cutler.)
CLE > Denver (Denver could be playing a pop warner flag football team and I still wouldn't pick them to win.)
Baltimore>San Diego
NYGiants > Dallas
Indianapolis > Miami (how do the Dolphins get on Monday Night Football?)

I like to move it, move it

In case anyone is interested, here are my football picks for the week. I definitely picked Pittsburgh to win last night, and they did. You're just going to have to trust me on that.

Here we go:
Atlanta over Miami
Kansas City over Baltimore
Cincinnati over Denver
Cleveland over Minnesota
NYJets over Houston
Indianapolis over Jacksonville
New Orleans over Detroit
Dallas over Tampa Bay
Arizona over San Francisco
NYGiants over Washington
Seattle over St. Louis
Chicago over Green Bay
New England over Buffalo
San Diego over Oakland

Comments: It's hard for me to root for Chicago now that Jay Cutler is their quarterback... but I'm going to try once. I'm also going to try to root for the falcons a little bit, so as to show my support for Tony Gonzalez. He is the Godfather of my cat, who's name is incidentally, Tony Gonzalez (but I call him Gonzo).

In college football, I'll be watching some DII magic with the "Fall" Classic at Arrowhead tomorrow. Fall is in quotes because they moved the game up and it's more like a late summer classic this year. Otherwise, I'm not really that great at following college football but this year I've decided to make it a point to root against MU, OSU, and NE whenever possible. I'll root for KSU, Iowa (Hawkeyes!) and KU as much as possible too. Maybe I'll find some more teams to follow.

How much do I know, to talk out of turn?

I have psychology on the brain right now, and also football. This is easily explained. I'm knee deep in three different psychology classes on three nights a week. When I'm not in class or at work, I am probably reading for class. NFL football season starts officially tonight, and I've already had the chance to watch my Bearcats in action on TV.

All that being said, one of the most interesting things I've been reading about is for my Advanced Social Psychology class. We were assigned an article on a phenomenon known as Moral Hypocrisy among individuals and social groups. Basically, the idea is that an individual will judge a behavior as unacceptable or unfair when done by others, but excusable when done by themselves or a member of their in group. You get the idea. Hypocrisy is not a new thing.

Researchers created an operational definition of hypocrisy by creating a situation in which individuals were told that there were two tasks that they and an unknown partner would have to complete. Each person would have to do one of the tasks. One task was much easier and took less time, and another task was more difficult and time consuming. Subjects were given the option to choose whichever task they would do, or to have the tasks assigned randomly. This gave an individual the choice to take the harder task, make the chances fair, or take the less difficult task for themself. People who acted altruistically or chose randomization were then removed from the study. Participants were then asked to judge the fairness of other individuals who made the same choice to perform the easier task.

Basically, it goes like this. People picked the quick and easy task, leaving the tough stuff for their anonymous partner. Then, when they watched other people do the same, they called it unfair UNLESS the other person was a member of their social or cultural group. They were more likely to make allowances for people who were like them in some way.

To understand this better, I'm comparing it to football. One of my vivid memories of Bearcat football is when I watched one of those MO West classless assholes hit our quarterback HARD after he had already gone out of bounds, injuring him. To me this was a cheap shot, a blatant late hit, and something typical of a MO West player. I was furious. However, if it were a Bearcat that did the same, I would likely see it as a stupid mistake, an accidental continuation of the play in the heat of a game, with an unfortunate consequence. The Bearcats, members of my social in group, are given more leniency and allowances than those dirty Griffins.

In football, that's a typical rivalry. What's scary, is how people can allow this on a much larger level - politics, church, etc. What do you think? Any examples?

These are the words you wish you wrote down.

If I didn't know better, I would think that John Madden had a hand in writing my textbook for my Personality Assessment class.

I've spent the holiday immersed in reading homework for my three grad classes this semester. For the most part, it has been very interesting and eye opening. However, I was most anticipating the Personality Assessment course and it is currently disappointing me with the most dry and unreadable subject material of the three classes (the other two being Social Psychology and Developmental Psychology).

Here are a couple of examples of statements I consider to be unnecessary words to fill the page:

"In some circumstances, self-prediction has been found to be more accurate than psychological tests, whereas in others, tests have been found to be more accurate."

Awesome. That's very helpful.

"In some cases, clinical judgment is clearly in error, whereas in others it can be quite accurate."

Great. Did you know that sometimes people are right and other times they're wrong? Blows your mind, doesn't it? Let's see how many times we can say the same things in different ways.

So no one told you life was gonna be this way...

It's old news. We're talking like 5 years after the last episode old news. I don't care. I love Friends.

I love the characters, the attitude, the setting, the time of life. I liked it a lot in HS in college when I was watching it in real time, but I think now that the characters are more like peers to me I can really get into it - well, the first few seasons for sure. They are a bunch of 20 somethings figuring out what they want from life. I'm in a similar place.

I think the characters of Friends are so popular because they are so easy to relate to. I mean, I can find something with each of the 6 Friends that I connect to somehow. Some more than others, obviously. Let's look at this.

Rachel - I identify with her the most. She's impulsive, inexperienced to life's major inconveniences, loves to shop, and is interested in fashion.
Monica - I wish I could say I identified with her clean freak mentality. However, this is where I own up to the obsessive/neurotic nature. She also likes food a lot but can't eat it all the time because that's a bad idea.
Chandler - He has an appreciation for sarcasm, satire, and irony. He also spends a large portion of the series struggling with the idea of career and what it should mean to him.
Phoebe - Thoughtful, sensitive, and loves to be silly.
Ross - Appreciation of academics and also a little obsessive
Joey - Well, I also really love sandwiches.

See? Something for everyone.