The Implicit Unconscious

So this is going to be a pretty random post, because all my other posts are completely logical and organized, but anyway I have about three (at the moment) thoughts. First about my trip, I'm so dang excited to go on this trip I can hardly wait until Tuesday!! So here's my itinerary and I'm sure understand why I am so excited. So Tuesday we leave. Whoa wait I should probably explain that I'm going on this trip with my best friend Cory and maybe our mothers. Ya that sounds lame but they're completely awesome and they'll only be with us half the time anyway so after they leave we'll be able to do what we always do: go out drinking and pick up strange men. HA just kidding. Anyway back to our itinerary... Tuesday we leave here (New Mex) and drive to Anaheim, oh ya 11 hours in the car just talking and snacking and driving, it'll be awesome. So then we'll spend Tuesday night through Thursday at the Disneyland Resort. I've never been to Disneyland so I'm way excited about this. So we'll be at Disneyland all day Wednesday and Thursday. Then Friday we're going to drive to Tahoe to Cory's grandparent's cabin, I've never been to Tahoe... Then for almost a week we get to chill on the beach doing absolutely nothing but reading and watching DVD's, again I submit AWESOME. Our stay in Tahoe will end on the following Tuesday when we drive whatever mothers are with us to the Reno airport, then we drive to Concord to stay with Cory's grandparents. They will tour us around San Francisco which I've also never been to. Hopefully we'll be able to get a show and wander around the crazy streets and everything. Then we'll drive back to New Mex 16 hours on Sunday where we will then proceed to take Monday off and sit in our house and do laundry! I get to do so many new things which I love to do and I think it will be so much fun! And I plan on taking MASS amounts of pictures because I love pictures!

Okay so enough of my rambling about things probably only I care about. Second thought, and the reason it has taken me half an hour to even get this far, I'm watching the UEFA Cup Final in Moscow between Manchester United and Chelsea. So this is soccer (although you should know this! ;) and I'm not actually in Moscow but the final is. These two teams are so evenly matched that in the Premeirship they were seperated by 6 points, Man U. first then Chelsea! And all the analysts before the game couldn't really pick a clear favorite because their strengths balance so well. But look at the greats involved in this game: for Chelsea - Ashley Cole, Lampard, Didier Drogba, Terry, Ballack, for Man. U. - Rooney, Ferdinand, Christiano Ronaldo oh my gosh I could gush for much longer than this! The point is that this game is so amazing, they make the game look so pretty and it makes me wonder why I watch MLS when it's like me playing against professionals. So ya this game is amazingly pretty and SO much fun to watch, plus the fouls are so much better it makes me laugh. And English announcers are just so much dang fun to listen to. They just get so into the game you can tell they care, and they're not morons like Marcelo Balboa or the other announcers we have. They don't get as into it as Mexican announcers but still fun. Right now there is 20 minutes left in the game and it's tied, I know it's going to over time but I don't know who wins because I was denied the information.... I don't much care though because I'm basically rooting for both teams because they both are amazing and have people I love to watch.

Okay now the actual reason for my post. I've been reading this book called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell that is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. It's all about what happens in our minds when we stop thinking in the analyzing sense, and start thinking using our unconscious. The kind of thinking that occurs when we're reading people's facial expressions to see if they're sincere, or when we have to make a decision so fast that we can't look at facts and think logically but instead go with our 'gut'. Anyway the book is flippin amazing psychology that fascinates the crap out of me, but just one part that I got out of it is a study that Harvard does to try and get you to tell them what your values are in your subconscious instead of what you think you are. It's at http://www.implicit.harvard.edu/ and you go through a series of tasks where you have to pick one decision or the other (for example good or bad) as fast as you can. Some of the things they test is whether you discriminate old people versus young, black versus white, democrat versus republican... What's insane about these tests is they ask you at the beginning if you think that say white people are better than black people, let's say you tell the survey you see no difference between the two races. Then you take the test, when you associate good words with white your reaction time is about 300 milliseconds. Then it switches and you are associating good words with black people, now your reaction time is 700 milliseconds. That's slow for your mind and it's on-the-go reactions. This type of reaction would show you have a preference for white people over black people. See how it works? It's so amazing because your subconscious mind is maybe telling you something you don't know about yourself. It's not saying that you are racist, just that if forced to make this kind of decision you may choose white over black.... They are also careful to say this is not definitive, it's just one type of test. And don't be like my gay psychology class and ask for my evidence and data, it's NOT DEFINITIVE, just interesting. The most interesting one for me was the political one, I guess I think the most negative about Obama and then Hillary and McCain are the same.... So ya, the book is amazing and if you have some time go to the site and see what your subconscious says about you, you may find out something you didn't know!

And I just rambled so dang much I'm surprised, sorry if it's random and repetitive haha just my mood today I guess.