Thread: Rant and Rave, Cry and Complain

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

You know, Wikipedia is an amazing resource. You shouldn't just accept everything you read on it as absolute fact, but that doesn't mean it's not a wonderful tool. I don't think there's anything wrong with the world arriving at this point.

Sure you can use it as a little boost to the right direction, but if you live breathe and eat Wikipedia, eventually something will be up, especially those people who literally copy paste quotes and expect it NOT to get hunted down from essay checkers like Turnitin.com for plagiarism.

I was just focusing on the fact that she uses it for everything, and considering when she is in a University that I'm in, and is basically one of the top ranked colleges here, if you rely on Wikipedia, and you get found of plagiarizing, they're going to stamp you with an "F" with a star on it, meaning it can't be removed, meaning it's harder getting a job because it's basically a Crimson letter on your chest that says "I'm a cheater, and even though I'll say I won't cheat, I'll still cheat."

Thanks Zhaylin, I'll try not to explode my brain haha.

Originally Posted by Zhaylin

*stomps foot* Well, well, I just cannot except that Tommo. (My p-doc used your examples- great mind think alike, I guess)
There HAS to be some sort of consistency. Some sort of universal truth. Either something happens or it doesn't.
Universal truth isn't quite the right phrase, because I live by the saying "There's your side of the story and his side and somewhere in the middle is the truth." As I said before, I can accept slight variations... but completely opposing accounts?
Why have memory at all if it can't be trusted? For survival, sure, but what else?

It isn't like you can't trust your memory at all. Severely flawed memories will mostly happen only in cases where something happened a long time ago or quickly under extreme circumstances. But even if we could hardly trust our memories at all, it seems that if you're unwilling to accept that fact for no reason other than that it makes you uncomfortable, you don't really care about truth as much as you say you do.

Zhay I have to agree kind of with both you and Tommo. Memory can vary a lot in some cases, but to me it sounds like you're saying it's practically useless, Tommo. (No offense if you weren't trying to come off that way.) The examples given before are things that should be at least a little bit closer in memory (between Zhaylin and her brother) but they really aren't, like I have a pretty hard time believing that some of that is just because memory isn't exact. Now, both of the possible explanations given (repressed memories, drug abuse) can go a long way in distorting memory, but it's definitely not just that bad all the time for the average person.

As far as knowing who you are.... Well, I don't think that really changes with this. Well, unless it's as a result of something like repressed memories, but that's a whole other thing. When it just comes down to two people remembering a situation differently, I'd say keep in mind that what they remember is only what they perceived as the important details at the time, and what you remember is what you perceived as the important details, then over time as the less important things fade your mind will kind of fill in the blanks to keep the memory stable, but the main details should still be there. I think that still says a good deal about who you are. After all, there's never going to be a time when two people perceive something in the exact same way, you can't really be too broken up if some people have certain things stick out in their mind differently than you. But like I said, that would apply more to just remembering things differently than actually modified memories, but this works with the examples given about things like eye-witness accounts.

Originally Posted by Linkzelda41

Sure you can use it as a little boost to the right direction, but if you live breathe and eat Wikipedia, eventually something will be up, especially those people who literally copy paste quotes and expect it NOT to get hunted down from essay checkers like Turnitin.com for plagiarism.

I was just focusing on the fact that she uses it for everything, and considering when she is in a University that I'm in, and is basically one of the top ranked colleges here, if you rely on Wikipedia, and you get found of plagiarizing, they're going to stamp you with an "F" with a star on it, meaning it can't be removed, meaning it's harder getting a job because it's basically a Crimson letter on your chest that says "I'm a cheater, and even though I'll say I won't cheat, I'll still cheat."

Well, you don't have to plagiarize to use Wikipedia as a source. If she gets caught doing that it's her own damn fault. :T

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

Zhay I have to agree kind of with both you and Tommo. Memory can vary a lot in some cases, but to me it sounds like you're saying it's practically useless, Tommo. (No offense if you weren't trying to come off that way.)

No, I didn't mean that at all. It's completely useless for remembering specific details. Yes.
But general things can easily be remembered and that's what it's useful for. Of course those general things can easily be
distorted by how you felt at the time, how you feel when remembering it, etc. etc. (there's shitloads of variables, but you get the point I'm sure).

^ Assuming one does not have an eidetic memory.

God damn, who the fuck does my Dad my think he is? We get along great most of the time (hell, he still tries to tuck me in at night every once in a while [my parents are weird >_>]) but when he's drunk, he's absolutely insufferable. And then, the next day, when you try to tell him just how belligerent he gets when intoxicated, he just assumes that you're exaggerating and goes on his merry way.

Originally Posted by tommo

No, I didn't mean that at all. It's completely useless for remembering specific details. Yes.
But general things can easily be remembered and that's what it's useful for. Of course those general things can easily be
distorted by how you felt at the time, how you feel when remembering it, etc. etc. (there's shitloads of variables, but you get the point I'm sure).

^ Assuming one does not have an eidetic memory.

I still don't think I would go so far as to say completely useless. I think you're just kidding yourself if you don't believe there will still be several, several times in your life when you'll be able to correctly remember specific details about certain things, especially in significant memories. I'm not saying you should trust your memory completely 100% of the time, but it is a pretty powerful thing. I think the fact that eidetic memory exists at all is a testament to that. There are definitely a lot of variables, but not every single part of a memory has to factor into that, and things will vary a lot from person to person. I know for a fact that I have pretty good recall at least for some amount of time, I've verified before that very rarely do I not remember a very if not completely accurate way that people worded their sentences at different times, at least until the memory is pretty old. (This timespan though, unfortunately, is not nearly as long as it was before I did a ton of drugs and lounged around at home for a year straight. T-T) I may not even remember the situation at first, but once I do it comes back to me and that's generally something that never changes for me.

Since I was about 10 years old or so, I've had an irrational fear of getting amnesia or forgetting who I was some other way. I started keeping diaries because of that fear because I wanted to be able to look back and see what actually happened. (Those diaries, however, were destroyed in 1996 or so). I guess that's part of the reason the idea is so upsetting.
I also have an irrational fear/fascination of repressed memories.
But there is no video; no way of verifying one way of the other so I tend not to think about it.... until I speak with people from my past and everything is so different. Which is, perhaps, another reason I avoid such people
And I do care about truth. If it was proven, for example, that my brothers version is the correct one, I would shrug and shake my head at my weirdness for having gotten something so wrong.

It's hard to talk to people because they say stuff like "You remember this or that..." and I'm thinking "Are you high? I have no recollection of any such thing." But I say "Nope." which makes me look stupid or completely insensitive. Sort of like those people who will create some fantasy world with a person they like and then they're snubbed are are like " I thought you loved me?!"
I don't want to take peoples illusions away from them, I just want to be certain I'm not the deluded one lol

I LOVE wikipedia! I use it as a quick resort for finding info which often introduces other lines of thought which leads to chasing down other sites and reputable sources. Copy/pasting from anywhere is just silly but doing it from Wikipedia or CliffNotes is worse because I'm sure those are the first two places checked for plagiarism.

Originally Posted by GavinGill

God damn, who the fuck does my Dad my think he is? We get along great most of the time (hell, he still tries to tuck me in at night every once in a while [my parents are weird >_>]) but when he's drunk, he's absolutely insufferable. And then, the next day, when you try to tell him just how belligerent he gets when intoxicated, he just assumes that you're exaggerating and goes on his merry way.

Video him. Usually once a belligerent drunk sees what they really act like on tape it hits them like the cold hard slap of reality and can make them rethink things. I'm not saying it'll make him stop drinking or anything though.. but at least he won't be able to shrug it off anymore like you're just full of shit. People have no idea how they act when they're drunk until you record them and show them.

Zhaylin - in a weird way getting amnesia sounds nice and peaceful to me. Like letting it all go or something. It's only a temporary condition anyway, so you'd 'wake up' from it in a few months at most. My friend recently got amnesia at a really stressful time in his life and I think it helped him to relax because he completely forgot all his problems. In fact I think that's why he got it in the 1st place.

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

I still don't think I would go so far as to say completely useless. I think you're just kidding yourself if you don't believe there will still be several, several times in your life when you'll be able to correctly remember specific details about certain things, especially in significant memories. I'm not saying you should trust your memory completely 100% of the time, but it is a pretty powerful thing. I think the fact that eidetic memory exists at all is a testament to that. There are definitely a lot of variables, but not every single part of a memory has to factor into that, and things will vary a lot from person to person. I know for a fact that I have pretty good recall at least for some amount of time, I've verified before that very rarely do I not remember a very if not completely accurate way that people worded their sentences at different times, at least until the memory is pretty old. (This timespan though, unfortunately, is not nearly as long as it was before I did a ton of drugs and lounged around at home for a year straight. T-T) I may not even remember the situation at first, but once I do it comes back to me and that's generally something that never changes for me.

Do you remember what they were wearing when they said it?

(no) lol

Originally Posted by tommo

Do you remember what they were wearing when they said it?

(no) lol

What... does that prove?

That you only remember specific things.

Well I never said that you don't. (In fact, I think I distinctly said that you do earlier.) All I was saying is that memory isn't completely useless.

True. But depending on what it's being used for, it can be.

Speaking just for myself, and I know this is not typical - I cant remember a damn thing from before I was 6. My first clear memory is of the day my family moved into the house where I spent my childhood and teen years. From before that I have maybe 2 very weird and suspect memories that I think are mostly just because I remember being told about things I did when I was younger.

From the age of 6 up until high school my memories are very spotty and unreliable. There are big chunks missing - in fact it's more like there are just bits and pieces I remember as if they're floating in a grey mist with large empty spaces in between. Sometimes people will remind me of things and I just can't remember at all, or sometimes it will come back to me vaguely or somewhat clearly.

Hell now even high school is getting pretty spotty for me! Of course it was 30 freakin years ago..

I'd say my memory is pretty decent* going back 3 or 4 years, and beyond that things start to drop out.


* "pretty decent" being a relative term. My short term memory is terrible!

Without a doubt. But, I think it would be a mistake to just assume that your memories aren't accurate when there's no evidence to the contrary. What you really need to do is just keep an open mind about it and accept that memories aren't perfect.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Speaking just for myself, and I know this is not typical - I cant remember a damn thing from before I was 6. My first clear memory is of the day my family moved into the house where I spent my childhood and teen years. From before that I have maybe 2 very weird and suspect memories that I think are mostly just because I remember being told about things I did when I was younger.

I think that's pretty normal, actually. I know plenty of people who say most things before they were 8-10 are not very clear. I only remember maybe a second worth of material from before I was that age. Although...

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

From the age of 6 up until high school my memories are very spotty and unreliable. There are big chunks missing - in fact it's more like there are just bits and pieces I remember as if they're floating in a grey mist with large empty spaces in between. Sometimes people will remind me of things and I just can't remember at all, or sometimes it will come back to me vaguely or somewhat clearly.

Hell now even high school is getting pretty spotty for me! Of course it was 30 freakin years ago..

I'd say my memory is pretty decent* going back 3 or 4 years, and beyond that things start to drop out.


* "pretty decent" being a relative term. My short term memory is terrible!

...as an ex-drug addict who grew up repressing memories left and right and having lived totally in the moment with no responsibility whatsoever for the past year or so, my memory is absolutely atrocious. I'm about to turn 21 and I barely remember anything except important information and very few vague things here and there up until around a little bit into my senior year in high school. And that was when I STARTED doing drugs! After that there's just more blur... blur... blur.... Actually, most things that happened to me before I started dealing with my depression seem like a different lifetime than the one I'm in now.

Strangely, my short-term memory is actually not too shabby. Most of it doesn't get stored very well, though.

Yeah, I think my memories, those that I do have anyway - are pretty accurate. And I've never encountered any evidence to the contrary.

However there are things that I remember quite differently than other people, but like Tommo said (if I remember right.. ) it's more a matter of me focusing one one aspect of something while they were focused on a different aspect.

For instance my moocher/freeloader/con man friend who used to come over in high school days when I was first learning how to make stopmotion puppets and he'd be all like "Aw cool - let me make one!" See - I remember the fact that he'd make some mega-gigantic monster puppet that used up all the wire and cotton and latex I had bought with my saved-up allowance after riding my bike all over town to buy the stuff. He somehow happily managed to forget that part and remembers it all like "No dude - the way I remember it you were sitting there making these little dumbass puppets and I came in and showed you how to make a real badass one!".

Of course he's all bluster and bullshit all the time, so it's partly not really that his memory is different so much as that he has his own - slanted way of looking at things he's involved in.

Yeah, to be honest it kind of just sounds like he's being an asshole about it.

I'm sensing a return of depression (pervading thoughts and feelings of "what's the point?" and "the things I enjoy don't make me happy")... could it be a placebo reaction to me lowering my dosage just a tad from usual? I'll get through it with exercise, hobbies and other productive activities.

Deery. Sounds like it could, indeed, be a response to lowering your meds. It's very good that you know how to work through it though


No real rants from me- but it is early
I'm hungry but I don't want to venture out into the world just yet. I may crawl back in bed for a couple more hours...

I'm feeling incredibly tired (the kinds that's not cured with a good nights sleep), and I can't stop loving this girl I have no chances with.
I don't know how to get through the year >.<

I went to my Sociohorticulture class, and the TA was being a little too fast with the slides. She said they would be online, so I thought "Oh okay, I'll just write down the main points when I get back."

Then this old dude who's a student at the class says in a loud and almost disrespectful tone if she could slow down a little bit and go back to previous slides.

I mean, at least use a respectful tone, just because she's the TA, doesn't mean you treat her like shit. After all, she IS responsible for the side work for the professor, and what's worse, she just took it as criticism and thanked him for telling her she was being too fast and that she'll talk louder.

She put on that fake smile to try and not make herself embarrassed from the students, even though they were shocked the guy said it as well. I could just feel the rage inside her while she bottles it up with and still portrays a kind attitude towards him. You think a male TA could've done that? Nope...which is why women are far more humble than that shit for brains old man.

I could almost feel how pissed she was at the dude, but she couldn't show it. I hate people like that. Do old people always have to be more bold just because he thinks he has authority just because the TA's are young and barely adults? That's bullshit and disrespect....you old fuck. Burn in hell and learn common human language. No human being is going to take shit like that without holding a grudge on you.

And I was riding my bicycle back to home, and this girl is walking with her Chihuahuas, when I get close to them, of course they would come trying to attack me, and some dude going perpendicular to me was laughing...like really dude, you're going to laugh at that? I suppose if I decided to take the initiative and stomp the fuck out of those dogs and claim they tried to bite me, it would be a whole another story. And the owner of the dog is just oblivious to it all.


I also find that I'm a complete dork when eating at fast food chains within the college. I really hate that, I feel like 12 year old all over again sitting by myself. But when I'm alone at my apartment, I'm completely different. Ugh...guess we have to compensate some qualities for others.

Take a book or magazine with you when you eat alone. It gives the impression that you're alone more by choice. If you pick something interesting it could be a great conversation starter too.

Sympathies for you TA. The older student sounds like a real jerk.

Khh

Headache.

My bio teacher doesn't know what the hell she's doing. Seriously. Last year we had an amazing teacher; she was older but she really knew how to prepare us for university without being a total hard-ass, and I loved her! But this person acts like they literally just came from teaching school and she can't even explain things properly. She uses her hands a LOT and always has to pause to find comparisons to describe things, and her explanations are so fragmented it's hard to pick up anything. She doesn't even notice if someone doesn't hand in their paper. I returned from a trip and she didn't even talk to me about an assignment that I missed [while I was away] until nearly a week later. She gives half the class one variation of a test and the other half a different variation. We did a unit on mitosis (which we did last year, but there were a bunch of new students so she was just like "let's do it again!")... And when the test came around, a good chunk of it was that we were given the phases of meiosis and we had to number them in order. Half the class got them jumbled up, while half the class got them in 100% the right order already! How is that fair? This stuff is extremely easy to tell whether it's already in order, but I happened to get the jumbled version so I was pissed.

We mark our tests with each other in class, for crying out loud. THEN she takes them in to mark herself. She misses a whole bunch of marks on my tests because she "makes mistakes". She tries too hard to be friendly with everyone.

Tomorrow we have a test on "gel electrophoresis" or something stupid. She gave us the notes in class, told us to work on the practice which she would then check over in class (she never does this, including this time), and then we'd have a test this Friday. Half the class doesn't know what they're doing because the notes are confusing and she can't explain anything worth a shit. What's sad is that I don't care to go in for "extra help" because I find her so lame of a teacher that I don't want to be around her.

URGHH!