Thursday, January 13, 2011

Memory trick

Some researchers say that people are more likely to remember unusual or unique information.  So, perhaps my previous slide should look something like this?

pig image from here
Pig riding at its best

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Valentine's day

While walking through Walmart today I happened to hear this exchange between two men in their mid-twenties:

Man 1:  "Oh no."
Man 2: "What?"
Man 1:  "It's Valentine's day already?  I see all this red stuff."

Oh yes, Man 1 (and all men reading this blog).  The countdown is on.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Nicknames

Today I took attendance in class for the first time.  Of course, several students wanted me to call them by a different name.

Some of their requests made sense:

(*Note:  Names changed to protect students' privacy.)

William Dykstra  would like to be called "Will"
Gregory Cesaer would like to be called "Greg"
Allison Reitsma would like to be called  "Alli"

And some of their requests made less sense:

Robert Thomas would like to be called "Frank"
Nicholas Hayes would like to be called "George"
Vannessa Heely would like to be called "Zambia"