As of today, I am officially majoring in psychology and sociology and minoring in criminal justice at my university. I managed to meet with all of each department’s advisors and declared my majors within the past one day.

I realize that most people were convinced that I was going to major in computer science, but I decided against that a handful of months ago. The computer science courses at my university were literally the worst classes I have ever taken. The things I learned had almost no real-world use. The homework assignments and projects that we had to do were built so unrealistically that nobody would ever make such programs in the first place, but if they did, they would use a completely different and more logical method. The main reason I wanted to major in computer science was because I thought programming was interesting and I liked working with computers, but the material I was learning in my classes was nowhere near what I like to do.

In other unrelated news, happy Friday the 13th.

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Topic #109: Do you think Donald Trump would make a good U.S. president? Compare and contrast Donald Trump with Ross Perot.

I don’t think that Donald Trump would make a good United States president. I don’t know that much about Donald Trump’s background, but I do not think his attitude and way of doing things would lead the country in the right direction. Donald Trump does not give the impression of being an intelligent, calm, collected, and wise person.

I have no idea who Ross Perot is, but based off a short segment I read off his Wikipedia page, it appears like he has past political experience and has gained a relatively large support base. If I was voting for the next president and my only two choices were Donald Trump and Ross Perot, I would most likely go with Ross Perot.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

I am officially done with my first academic year of university. I finished my last assignment of the semester yesterday.

I wasn’t able to get a ride home organized until next Monday, so I’ll still be around Madison for the next handful of days.

In other random news, I intend to answer some questions on Formspring sometime later today or early tomorrow, so if you have some questions, you should ask them.

http://formspring.me/Parkzer

As you can probably see, I don’t answer questions on Formspring very frequently. I think I’m averaging about once every six months right now, but when I do answer questions, I usually answer about a few hundred at once. It’s been over half a year since I last answered questions, so now’s your chance to get some questions in and not have to wait several months for me to answer it.

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Topic #108: Describe the worst driver you know. What do you do to avoid ever having to get in a car with them behind the wheel?

The worst driver I know is my mom. She has been driving for decades, but she still engages in dangerous behavior while driving and cannot operate the vehicle in a smooth manner.

I don’t (and can’t) avoid getting in the car with her because she is a family member with whom I spend a lot of time when I am at home. However, if it is an option, I prefer to drive myself when I am going somewhere with her.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

I have my last final exam tomorrow – an essay exam for philosophy. If you didn’t catch it from a few days ago, I’m cutting down on my blogging so I can focus on studying, which is why my blog posts have been so short lately.

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Topic #107: According to a Gallup Poll, nearly 70% of Americans believe in the Devil. Do you? Why or why not? Why do you think 70% of Americans believe as they do on this issue? Do you think this number is higher or lower than other countries in the world? Why? Do you think the devil is behind the choice of this topic?

I don’t believe in the devil because I think the debate of whether the devil exists or not will be extremely similar to the debate of if there are any gods, and the god debate has not convinced me strongly one way or another.

I think that a large number of Americans believe that the devil exists because there are a large number of Americans who believe that at least one god exists. They most likely find it difficult to justify the bad things in this world because they claim that their god(s) is/are all-good, so they credit the bad things that happen to the devil.

I think the 70% in America is about the same as other monotheistic religions, but higher than polytheistic religions. For example, in Greek history, there are many gods, some that are good and some that are bad. As a result, the ancient Greeks did not need to justify the bad things in life by stating that a devil exists; instead, they can credit that to the god of evil or the god of malice. However, in monotheistic religions, there is only one mighty being that controls everything, so it’s difficult to say that an all-good being causes or allows bad things to happen in the world.

And no, I don’t think the devil is behind this choice of topic, but I do believe that there is still a slight chance that some negative force is acting upon us that is gravitating us towards discussing where this negative force originates.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

I have a fifty-question multiple-choice final exam for my criminal justice course tomorrow.

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Topic #106: Is Nuclear energy a menace? or the future? Should the recent events in Japan define how we think about nuclear power forever? Why or why not? Are there any major sources of power without risks or downsides?

I think that the disaster in Japan that caused a nuclear power plant to malfunction is not enough justification to stop researching nuclear energy. Pretty much everything good has some sort of consequence or requires some sort of sacrifice; in order to advance our technology, we have to take associated risks.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

If you haven’t noticed yet, or if this happens to be the first blog post of mine that you’re reading, I have two more final exams coming up in the near future that I have to study for. As a result, I’m going to cut back on blogging for the next handful of days to save time and focus on my academics.

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Topic #105: Forget 2012, when do you think the world will end?

I think that the world will end in several billion years when the sun runs out and the universe is covered in darkness, or when there is some massive natural disaster that wipes out massive portions of the planet. However, these random natural disasters could happen at any time, so I guess my main conclusion is that I don’t know when the world will end, but it will end within several billion years.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3

If you’ve read my blog posts from early April of this year, you know that I participated in a psychology research experiment where I had a salty net placed on top of my head to measure my brain wave activity. Today, I attended the second part of this experiment.

No, I did not have to wear an uncomfortable, wet net above my head this time. Instead this one involved how much I could control my emotions and how much I showed them. I filled out a handful of questionnaires about how much I express my emotions to others and how much I rely on others to relieve negative emotions. Then, I was shown a slideshow of photographs that either had a positive, neutral, or negative depiction and I was supposed to either enhance or suppress my emotions to the particular photograph.

For the second part of the experiment, I had a little heat block strapped to my wrist that would heat up to up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and cause discomfort or pain. Following the instructions from a recording used for the research, I would either have to try and enhance the pain I felt, or try to suppress it.

If you remember from last time, I got $200 from participating in that study. I didn’t make another $200 today, but I made around $150, for a total of $350 spread out across two days. If I scored exceptionally or did particularly well on the tasks, I may qualify for bonuses, which will bring my total above $350.

I spent a total of about 11 hours in the lab – it was supposed to be 8 hours a day for 16 hours total, but I ended up finishing about 2 hours early on both days, and spent about half an hour each day eating lunch. Even if I didn’t get any bonuses, $350 for 11 hours calculates to about $31.82 per hour. That’s about $66,181.82 per year at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks.

I wish my full-time job could be participating in psychology studies.

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Topic #104: If you had to debate a version of yourself that was ten years younger, who would win? What about a game of chess? Or a 5k run? How are you better, or worse, at various traits than you were then?

If I had a debate with my nine-year-old self, I think that the victor would be determined by the nature of the topic. If we were debating about something basic, my nineteen-year-old self would probably win because I would be able to outthink and outsmart my nine-year-old self. However, if we were debating about something advanced that my nine-year-old self simply did not understand, my nineteen-year-old self would probably lose because it would see that the argument wasn’t going anywhere and disengage in the debate to conserve energy.

I think it’s pretty obvious that my self now would be able to defeat my nine-year-old self both in a game of chess or in a long-distance run because I’m a lot more intelligent and intuitive than I was ten years ago, as well as much stronger.

So Far in 2011…

Number of Taco Bell tacos eaten: 24

Number of times I did my own laundry: 3