cukursēne
13 February 2014 @ 01:27 am
what i learned  
Dreaming is a cognitive achievement that develops gradually over the first 8 or 9 years of life.

The association cortices, paralimbic structures, and limbic structures may operate as a closed loop to generate the process of dreaming. This loop is the starting point for the neurocognitive model proposed in this book. On the one hand, this subsystem is cut off from the primary sensory cortices that provide information about the external world and, on the other, from the prefrontal cortices that integrate incoming sensory information with memory and emotion in the process of decision making (cf. Braun et al., 1998, p. 94). This model implies that an unconstrained and freewheeling conceptual system can operate when sufficient activation occurs. (..) On the basis of current evidence, it is more likely that dreams are an accidental by-product of two great evolutionary adaptations, sleep and consciousness - many structures and processes persist even though they have no function; dreaming may be one of them (Flanagan, 1995, 2000a).

Dreaming cannot be triggered by external stimuli and it is difficult to influence dream content with either presleep stimuli, such as fear-arousing or exciting movies, or with concurrent stimuli administered during REM, such as a spray of water, sounds, or the names of significant people in the dreamers’ lives (Foulkes, 1985, 1996a; Rechtschaffen, 1978).


Everywhere in the world, for example, women and men have the same differences in the percentage of gendered characters who are men or women. Women dream equally of men and women, but 67% of the gendered characters in men’s dreams are other men (Hall, 1984). (..) For both men and women cross-culturally, dreams usually contain more aggression than friendliness, more misfortune than good fortune, and more negative emotions than positive emotions. In addition to these similarities, there are also a few differences that make sense on the basis of cultural differences. For instance, people in small, traditional societies have a higher percentage of animal characters in their dreams than people from large, industrial societies. Moreover, there are large variations from society to society in the percentage of all aggressive interactions that are physical in nature, although men in most societies have a higher percentage of physical aggression in their dreams than women do (Domhoff, 1996; Gregor, 1981; O’Nell & O’Nell, 1977).

The studies attmpted to find personality differences between those who recall dreams and those who do not (..). The most important finding from the studies, which used a wide range of personality tests, is that no consistent differences exist between recallers and nonrecallers (Domhoff, 1996, chapter 3).

//G. William Domhoff, 2002, The Scientific Study of Dreams
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cukursēne
13 February 2014 @ 02:09 am
 
i can’t help thinking that ‘getting a life’ is something only a complete idiot could believe. like you can just drive to a store and get a life. see it in its shiny box and look inside the plastic window and catch a glimpse of yourself in a new life and say, ‘wow, i look much happier - i think this is the life i need to get!’ take it to the counter, ring it up, put it on your credit card. if getting a life was that easy, we’d be one blissed-out race. but we’re not. so it’s like, mom, your life isn’t out there waiting, so don’t think all you have to do is find it and get it. no, your life is right here. and, yeah, it sucks. lives usually do. so if you want things to change, you don’t need to get a life. you need to get off your ass.

//John Green, David Levithan, 2010, Will Grayson, Will Grayson
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cukursēne
13 February 2014 @ 01:05 pm
ups!  
nez, kāpēc vienmēr UPS kurjeri Latvijā runā vai nu krieviski vai vismaz ar tādu diezgan uzkrītošu akcentu? būtībā jau tas mani netraucē, saprotamies tāpat (izņemot sen, sen atpakaļ, laikam pirmoreiz, kad kaut kāds pirkums internetā man tika sūtīts ar tādu, un es biju palaidusi garām, ka piegādās ar kurjeru, domāju, ka būs jāiet uz pastu, tāpēc tad, kad mājās guļot slima un knapi saprotot, kas apkārt notiek, saņēmu zvanu no sveša vīrieša, kurš man krieviski jautā, vai es tuvāko divu stundu laikā būšu mājās un ka viņš tad pie manis atnāks, drusku sabijos un palūdzu, lai brālis katram gadījumam atnāk ciemos; bet tā jau nepavisam nebija valodas vaina), bet tā interesanti.
 
 
cukursēne
13 February 2014 @ 07:48 pm
growing up  
bērnībā mēs ar brāli vannā spēlējāmies ar tukšām pudelēm un sūkļiem, mums nebija nekādu konkrētu vannas rotaļlietu kā rāda filmās, parastās mantas lielākoties arī neļāva ņemt līdzi vannojoties. tagad esmu pieaudzis cilvēks bez bērniem, un man pieder četras koši dzeltenas, pīkstošas vannas pīlītes dažādos izmēros un vēl četras zaļas vardes, kas tām samērā nesen piepulcējās. kopā jautrāk, tā teikt.

un vēl - esmu pamanījusi, ka man pēc vannas kādu brīdi tā jocīgi niez pēdas. tas ir normāli, jums arī tā mēdz būt?