Moving Day

I finished University. Three years of papers, parties and parental freedom: perished. My standard campus room embellished with vast amounts of junk accumulated over the years has been packed into boxes, bags and bin-liners ready for their new home. My Father arrives and we load the car, a knowing look in his eye; he always knew I would be returning to the nest. The car reaches capacity; just one book, plate or stapler more and I doubt we would make it home. I sit in the heavy car, the engine starts its low groan and the depressing journey begins. As we drive, I watch the clouds covering the motorway; thick, grey, and chubby, threatening to splatter the dirty traffic at any moment. The English weather always manages to make disappointing situations just that little bit more disheartening and dismal.

My Father manoeuvres the car backwards onto our drive and my Mother and sisters appear at the door to greet us. I’m home once again – that stimulating university life slowly slipping into times of yore. It takes time to empty the car and I go it alone, transferring the various bags and boxes of belongings into my unchanged bedroom. We later enjoy a family dinner, my Mother rather satisfied and smug to have the whole family together again. The conversation that fills the room is worlds away from those indulged in a student kitchen; no debates about international politics, no disputes regarding current affairs, and no discussions concerning who drank the most last night and who got lucky. However, there were debates regarding over-the-road putting their rubbish out a day early, discussions concerning the contents of a package delivered to next door and disputes as to whether the hamster got the hiccups last night.... welcome home.

Home: Day One

I wake rather later, a lingering guilty pleasure of my previous student life. The house is quiet, not like my previous visits home. I realised that everyone was leading a ‘normal’ existence and were at work; causing the solitary silence to grow further more potent around me. I glanced at the clock – just past midday, I was pleased it wasn’t too late compared to my usual routine. I reach for my laptop and flip it open in bed; I might as well start as I as I hope to go on, and the job search was about to begin. However, after a couple of Google searches, this process had to be put on hold as the thought of a CV, or filling in any of the application forms suddenly made me feel unprepared and hungry. I hurriedly snapped the PC shut and moved to the kitchen.

Oh, such a treat to be home. The cupboards are full and the fridge packed, so unlike my pitiful student existence. And a bath! One must indulge in such luxuries after being so long without. However the excitement soon wears off once breakfast and a bath are enjoyed, so I wander the house looking for other previously restricted activities. The blank, black television screen sitting in the corner of the living room looks mysterious and inviting; surviving without a TV at university had not been a problem, but some old school day-off-sick-style sofa time could be enjoyable. I start flicking through channels, feeling somewhat like a cave-woman with the new sky+ system being completely unknown and new to me. I point the control at the screen, randomly pushing buttons in varying combinations, while making peculiar grunting noises as I attempt to decipher the new technology installed in my absence. I manage to find a channel which looks to be exhibiting old people with ever older furniture, but am unfortunately unsuccessful at being proficient enough with the machinery to elicit any sort of audio to accompany the images. Defeated, I mope back up to bed with a book, and hide there until the people with the jobs return home...

Home: Day Two

I set myself the task of unpacking, or at least to start the dispersing process, so that I do not have to continue to pick my way though the artificial maze of baggage I'd thoughtlessly laid. I began with books - they seemed easy enough, but as I started to shift though the volumes of text it became clear on further consideration this assignment was far more challenging than it first appeared.
I start with a sophisticated approach; Authors surname: A-Z.
(upload the rest)

Evolutionary Advertising

Advertising. The Modern Worlds most dangerous predator to the human race.

This persuasive literary form has led to the fall of many, and does what any good predator needs to do; prey on the weak, the needy, the susceptible.

Advertising has evolved substantially over the years and has advanced to one of the greatest accomplishments; becoming its own camouflage. The people no longer even notice when they are being eaten alive they are surround by advertising so much of the time, implementing itself in every aspect of daily life.

*to finished*

Rewording, Restructuring and Rewriting

I'm trying to write my latest paper to be published, but am struggling to get the balance right. When written for a dissertation it had a lot of basic knowledge that is just not needed when publishing into the current field. Anyway, that's my battle, but here is a little insight into my research:

Over the years medical decision making has evolved. There was a time when patients would just acquiesce to doctors orders, however in these modern times, the amount of control patients have regarding their treatment has changed, varying greatly between individuals. It is seen that it is generally the younger, more healthier patients who like to take a more involved approach, while others prefer a doctor to retain authority. For those who do desire to contribute to the process, the way a doctor gives the relevant information to the patient may play an important role in their decisions and future treatment plan. However, this is a relatively untouched area of research, giving doctors no help in meeting these expectations.

Past research has explored a description-experience gap in decision making. A doctor would normally make decisions from their own experience, and therefore lead to small probabilities being under-weighted, while patients would be basing their decisions on descriptions given by the doctors, leading to small probabilities being over-weighted. This can lead to conflict in the doctor-patient relationship.

My research re-examines this description-experience gap, which has been considered in numerous previous experiments. However, in the past, most of the research has been set in a 'lottery' type environment, whereas I want to move it into the medical world. Alongside this, binary outcomes have been the norm in this area, and again, I want to move away from this limited thinking, as there are normally a number of different outcomes, different side effects or range of improvements that have to be considered by the patient. Lastly, I aim to use new presentation format for doctors to be able to use with patients alongside a description.

Anyway, I hope that gives a little insight into my paper, and below is the abstract, for anyone interested :)....

Abstract

Research regarding the description-experience gap is extended by the re-examination of four components. The first further observed the role of description when accompanying experiential presentation, while the second sought to add an additional dimension to opposing patterns seen between decisions from description (overweighting of small probabilities) and sequential experience (underweighting rare events). The added experiential condition of simultaneous experience controls for sample size and recency effects, and presents a matrix of outcomes precisely representing outcome probabilities. The third considered complex decision making, with options having 4 or 5 outcomes to consider and compare, such as seen in more real-world decisions, and the final aim was to examine the difference between these decision choices in altered context-frames. Study 1 was designed to equate to previous experimental investigations involving choices between lotteries, while study 2 was intended to inspect these differences in a real-life risk setting, and was situated in a medical context frame. It was found that in both studies there were differences between description and simultaneous experience, which followed a similar pattern of description decision makers presenting more risky behaviour. These differences were predominantly seen when the options were more complex and outcomes could not be directly compared, and it is suggested that in these cases, participants were more open to using the experiential information to aid decision making and consequently more susceptible to exhibit behaviour which underweighted small probabilities. It was also seen that participants implemented less risky behaviour when choices were observed in a medical context frame.

Quartetto Testosterone - Philip Glass - String Quartet No. 5 - 5th Movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKMEtPeFFMY

My favourite piece of music at the moment 

I would literately do anything to be able to play the 2nd violin part in a quartet....

I love hearing and feeling all the layers of music (the more you listen to it, you can sense the layers and it just isn't a bit of a mess, you can feel the rhythm and harmony, the way it pushes forward, but the first time it can feel a bit awful if you're unsure what you're listening for) and it is pure heaven listening at 3:10 when they all come together and get a train-like section you can just lose yourself in...

And not just listening - That looks pretty immense to play! No effort with the bowing at all, just all natural movement and notes...

No dates in the UK to go to a concert thou... sad times!

Men

I always pick Intelligent and Good Looking...

I like an intelligent man as I love good conversation and someone that can tell me cool and interesting stuff, and therefore can inspire and impress me, and in turn want to learn from me also

and, well, I have to be sexual attracted to my man!!

So, that ends up with them being emotionally unstable... which yes, always happens to me. Can't have proper conversations about how they feel, and how we are going to make it work, or what we're going to 'label' as us, or what we both want. So I end up in an awkward, half-relationship with an ex for 6 months, a secret relationship with my manager for a year, or seeing a guy who's about to move to the opposite side of the world... but there's me, still hoping one day, one man will like me enough to want to be emotionally stable just cos I'm that special and totally worth it!

haha, pretty sure that's one of those happy endings that I so badly want to believe in!!

What do you pick?