Mental Sampler 9
I think I just fell a little bit in love with Toronto. They set up a scavenger hunt to take people through all 100 branches of the library system. First of all, 100 branches? Love. Second of all, scavenger hunt? Double love. Third of all, mini passport book? Heart explosion.
*******
A super deep trench has been found in Loch Ness. Josh is sneering at this story because the person who found the trench happens to be a tourist boat captain or something like that. But that’s not the point, science is science! A trench — deep enough for a monster — has been found. I told you Nessie was real!
*******
Am I the only person who feels as if this election has become a giant game of Gotcha! Instead of listening to candidates, carefully weighing their worth or what they would bring to office, it feels as if both sides are more focused on catching inconsistencies, combing through personal history to find any transgression, or being offended.
Take for instance, the recent State of the Union. I loved Obama’s speech. He felt like a human Sorting Hat, reminding us that we don’t have to live our lives in fear, and that working together will actually get us farther than tearing each other apart. Like the Sorting Hat, he never named Voldemort, but we all knew he was speaking about Voldemort while we had our pudding. Amiright?
I hated all the commentary on both sides during and after the speech. I went offline and begged Josh to turn off the television. It was a little disheartening to hear someone saying, “Let’s not pick on each other,” while reading someone making fun of the First Lady’s dress choice or commenting on Paul Ryan’s expression.
Seriously, we have about 10 more months of this.
*******
Mental Floss reported on a new Fitbit-like contraption that tracks your emotions. Do I really need a wrist band to tell me that I’m cranky? Uh… yes.
What I think would be interesting is to have it tell me at the end of the day the break down of my moods. Before I looked at the facts, I would write down how I thought I felt during the day. It would be interesting to see if it matched up. I’m going to guess that it wouldn’t. I think we’re terrible at actually knowing our emotions on a day-to-day basis.
14 comments
I can see some serious flaws with a device meant to sense your emotions through a sensor worn on your wrist- would it say that I’m angry because I am hot and sweaty, even though I’m just doing hot yoga or going for a run (which is when I feel most at peace, in reality)? I don’t know… I’m a bit skeptical.
Listening to news about the American election makes me very glad to be Canadian. Not because our politicians have any integrity whatsoever, but just because our campaigns are much shorter, so we only have to listen to the bullshit for a short period of time. It really is sad- and a bit scary that these are the people running our respective countries!
If you think you might like Toronto, you should pay us a visit. We’re pretty nice here. 🙂
I second Catwoman’s invitation to come visit. 🙂 And the comments about the U.S. election. Dh gets all upset while watching the news and then I have to remind him that he doesn’t get to vote because it’s not our country. (Not our circus, not our monkeys, lol. Although, if we’re getting into circus metaphors, the father of our present PM once made a comment about a mouse sleeping next to an elephant that still applies.)
As for the emotion-tracking Fitbit, we already had something like that in the 1970s. It was called a mood ring. 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_ring
Regarding this election: I’ve been around for several decades and have voted in every Presidential Election since 1968. I always thought it was my responsibility as a citizen. I didn’t always vote for the eventual winner, but I got out there and stood in line and tried to make my voice heard.
This election is so different. The sheer numbers of Republican candidates is enough to make your head swim. And, as you said, the Gotcha factor is making most of the headlines.
Truyhfully, the thought of any of the Republicans winning scares me. And I grew up during the Cold War!
Just scratching the surface of my feelings, but wanted to throw them out there.
Ah yes! The TPL is the jewel of this city as far as I am concerned. My three favourite branches are my (old..sniff) home branch at Annette St, the Bloor/Gladstone branch, and Brentwood. So, so, so lovely. Toronto really does have a fabulous library system.
And as for the election… I’ll do the Canadian thing and politely keep my comments to myself. 😉
I remember being devastated when the USSC appointed Bush Jr after the hanging chads disaster. I never thought I would look back wistfully at those days but this current crop of republicans makes him look like a great candidate. And he never would have said (at least out loud) that we should ban all Muslims. I’m not at all saying he was even a decent president, just commenting on how the Republican Party has gone so far into the direction of hate and ridiculousness.
LOL about Loribeth’s comment regarding mood rings! I was actually arguing for someone to make mood-reflecting clothing the other day. Would be awesome.
I made the mistake of watching some speeches the other day with commentary in the background. I got more pissed off at the commentators than the politicians. Seriously, has everyone reverted to Jr. High? It makes my head hurt to know there is 10 more months of this BS.
Go Nessie!! Speaking of Nessie love, have you seen the Disney short “the ballad of Nessie”?
Now I want to go visit the Toronto Library system! Ah, that sounds so cool!
Ugh, the election. I just…oh, politics is not my favorite thing right now. It’s like all of a sudden, so many of the candidates and commentators are saying the nastiest, racist, sexist, xenophobic things that come to their minds, not to mention the petty picking at things like people’s clothing. I’m sooooo tired of the election and we’re still ages and ages off.
I used to wear a mood ring when I was in high school…as far as I can tell it never was quite accurate and I’m not totally convinced the fitbit thing would be either. On the other hand, if it was accurate, that might be rather interesting – I could see it being a good biofeedback sort of tool. Like if the device shows that I’m in the early stages of being angry/stressed perhaps I could head off serious issues such as being very upset or panic attack by being aware of the emotion more quickly than I would have otherwise and adjusting where I could accordingly – even if it just meant leaving the situation for a moment or taking a deep breath.
like others, I don’t really understand how it could be accurate, but if it magically was, yes, I think it would be really interesting to look over the day and see when I was happy vs. angry vs. sad and hopefully use that to arrange my life better—its difficult to synthesize all that data in retrospect to see patterns sometimes and we keep doing things that make us irritated & unhappy. Also like Katherine A mentioned, using the “warning” of an oncoming episode of anger or anxiety and taking the cue to do some deep breaths, or leave the room, has a lot of utility.
My dream is to fall in love with a Canadian. Seriously, it seems like they literally do everything better than we do.
I can see medical uses for that band, things like being able to make minute adjustments to antidepressants or when exactly pills should be taken. So on the one hand, that seems good. But on the other hand, there are things I think should be private. And it feels quite more Orwellian than I am comfortable with.
1. Totally agree with everything you said about Toronto/libraries/heart exploding.
2. There could defintiely be a monster in that trench.
3. I used to be really on top of the news, but lately it’s stressed me out so much that I’ve cut my news consumption waaaaayy back. Not ideal, but I just can’t handle all the nonsense.
Oh! And the feelings band. Even though I probably know how I’m feeling at any given time, it’s hard for me to look back and remember how I was feeling throughout the day/week/month and if it corresponded to anything else going on. So I could see how it would be really useful to take a printout of this to your therapist or doctor. Or bibliotherapist. 🙂
The US election is always seen as a bit of circus entertainment, down here in little NZ, we always feel slightly nervous about it. This year it is particularly disturbing. We can’t just watch the circus from afar, because whatever happens in the US will affect us, and other countries around the world. And we are totally powerless to do anything about it. So those of you in the US – please vote!
I am in the T.Dot and the library system really is that amazing. 🙂 It is so rare that they don’t have a book I want to read- with 100 branches, someone has it!
With ya on the scavenger hunt and Gotcha!
Clicking over about the Nessie Trench and the Emobit links.