6 posts tagged “presentation”

Today in class half of the class convinced Dr. Rackley to bump our paper due date (which was next Monday) to the week after that. I really had no preference either way. I'm still having quite the time trying to narrow down a topic in spite of extensive research on a plethora of areas in search of inspiration. In any case, I'd like to say that I'd write the paper in spite of things, but I can't make any promises. I feel rather lost with this paper and having to choose. Not because I don't have anything I want to learn about, but more that the things I want to learn most about have very little research to support it and then other topics I choose are so broad that reading 2,500 articles will take up the rest of the semester and my mind will be about the consistency of mush by the time the day is out. Family story is due next Thursday and I'll be happy to have that over with even though I'll have the presentation for Pollard's class the day after the new deadline for Rackley.

I think we are going to have a study session for Abnormal tonight. That will be rather helpful for me, but either way I'm going to be spending time studying tonight regardless. There is much to be done in the next couple weeks. It is all piling up at once.

I've heard several second years say that these two breaks of Thanksgiving and Christmas should be taken advantage of because next year we won't really have a break. I mean, how many therapists do you know that can take a month off of seeing their clients?  Yeah, I didn't think so. Some of the places will require us to work Saturdays for sure and I'm a little concerned about Sundays for a series of reasons. Just thinking about it begins to exhaust me, so I'll not think about it until it is upon me.

Another cool thing, I now have unlimited invitations to this site so if any of my readers want to join in let me know and I'll send an invite to you. :)

Monday's test didn't go half bad. I finished second which is acceptable considering myself and the person who finished first have begun an unspoken competition that keeps us motivated in quality as well as speed. :)

The presentation didn't go half bad either. They laughed, it was great and many compliments all around. I'm not sure about Dr. Moore though. We'll see next week.

I've got a presentation in Dr. Hickman's class either tomorrow or next Thursday (based on time I think next week) so I'm meeting my partner tonight after he's done at church.

Also tomorrow I'll get the rest of the 12 Trust Bridges so I can post them while I'm at work.

I was watching the DualDisc version of Ben Folds' Songs For Silverman yesterday and he said something about how there's a lot of pressure to get married in the world, especially in the South.  I laughed.  He said that the only reason they're pressuring 20-year-olds to get married is that they want an excuse to throw a party, haha. Good times. We Southerners are a partying people, it comes with all that Hospitality we are guilty of passing around so freely.

On Monday, in the midst of not studying for my test, I was indirectly accused of having a God complex. To me, it's funny to even think that, but I think sometimes I might act a little like that.  In that context, I was explaining that once I knew something then further studying would only disrupt what I already know. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that happened when I took Statistics and I was better off knowing it once and not studying any more.

Now, for your reading pleasure, a couple quotes from Metaframeworks that I've noted.

"The second assumption is that the same positive feedback escalations that characterize polarization in 'external' families also characterize polarization in internal families. For example, the more Johnny is excluded by his family, the more he, attempting to protect himself from feeling hurt, acts apathetic and distant toward the family, and the more his family, interpreting his apathy as his not wanting to be in the family, excludes him, and so on."

Sometimes, what we think works, only further damages the situation. Such is life.

"All systems--families, organizations, nations--function best when leadership is clearly designated, respected, fair, and capable."

There was an immediate joke in class about our President in relation to this sentence.

"Extreme parts do not enjoy their roles. They want to return to their nonextreme, valuable, appreciated roles, but they are afraid. They fear elimination or punishment. They are so identified with their current roles, they believe that there is nothing else they can do, or that they will be punished by other parts if they back down. They also fear revolution--if they back down, parts or other people whom they oppose will take over and harm the person or make him or her extreme in an opposite way. If the Self can demonstrate the power to prevent such consequences, the part often gladly adopts a valuable role and maintains it as long as the Self maintains effective leadership. For change to last, one cannot change one part in isolation. One must consider and change the part's relationship to the Self and to other parts."

To explain a little, the perspective of this book says that we all have "parts". When you say "a part of me wants to do this, but a part of me doesn't" is basically where they get their idea of that. In any case, the "Self" is the one who manages each individual part and creates the balance. So, if you're confused by the "parts" section, that's what they mean.

It was a crazy messed-up weekend in regard to my sleep patterns, which is completely my fault.  I really recall very little of what happened this weekend although, if asked, I would say it was a good weekend.  I am pretty sure I watched some movies (well, that's usually always a guarantee of a weekend).  I cleaned my kitchen (and dirtied it). I read some of my Metaframeworks book and wrote my paper.  Saturday I woke up automatically at 6:30.  Forced myself back to sleep (it was Saturday after all) and woke at 8:30 again, wide awake.  I ate breakfast after waiting the usual hour and was immediately tired again, so, back to bed.  I think this time I woke about 1:00 or so.  I read a couple chapters in Metaframeworks and then got tired again at 4:30, decided sleep wasn't a bad idea and went back to sleep.  I woke again around nine, realizing I had literally slept the day away and began writing my paper for my presentation on humor.  I stopped writing around midnight (I really do stick to that whole, no homework on Sunday thing as best I can) and I think I watched another movie.  Before get chastised in your mind for sleeping so much, you should understand.  The weekends here are three days long.  I have three entire days to do nothing but eat, sleep, watch movies or study.  With those choices, I would rather sleep than eat for those several hours because 1) I'd gain LOTS of weight and 2) I don't have the money to eat that much!  Boredom is not a reason to eat!  Sunday I came home with full intentions of staying awake and getting something accomplished (like, cleaning the living room or actually making dinner).  I watched a couple of "church" movies and around 3:30 had given up hope of remaining conscious the rest of the day.  Round about 9:00 I woke which I decided was okay because I did need to be up at midnight to tweak some parts of my paper and plot out my presentation.

Classes today were interesting and cause for many thoughts.  First of all, test two . . . A!!  Okay, I'm not sure if I'm really that smart or if the tests are that easy or maybe it is just that I really like this stuff so I remember it and because it has meaning to me I can do well, but I'm liking this getting As thing.  It's been a while since that happened!

I didn't get to do my presentation today.  It turns out that we have an exam on a book we haven't even talked about in class (before today) so we had to go over it and all my time was taken up. *shrugs* That just gives me more time, right?  The crazy thing is, everyone seems to think that the fact that my assigned topic is "The Role of Humor in Therapy" means I'm going to be making them laugh all the time.  I mean, I get that I'm funny.  I get that I'm a quick wit, but when I'm trying to be funny, it turns ugly.  I hope next week it goes better than my own expectations.

While thinking about my presentation I started thinking about my name. Then I thought about how I'm the only one of my siblings that doesn't have a family name passed on.  Okay, technically my middle name is after a woman in the Bible, but it's spelled differently and she's not really a direct relative.  Then I started thinking about the isomorphism within my name.  That I feel a little set apart from my siblings and although I have many negative qualities of members of my family, I seem to have made a point to set myself apart from them in the kinds of goals I set, etc.  Just an interesting thought.

We talked today about the story of two buckets. There is this girl who picks oranges.  To carry the oranges she has two buckets; one labeled "negative" and one labeled "positive".  The buckets are tied to ropes which are connected to a bar that she carries over her shoulders. When she starts out carrying them she has an even amount of oranges in each bucket.  Sometimes she'll put more in the negative and have to walk bent over a little, but it works

.  Same for the positive.  Eventually she gets to the point where she is carrying all but a few oranges in the negative bucket.  She goes to the psychologist and tells him to fix her.  He takes one orange from the negative and puts it in the positive bucket and continues to transfer the oranges, one at a time, until they are again even at which time he declares her "well".  The girl insists that he take all the negatives and put them in the positives.

Of course, putting all the oranges in either bucket would create discomfort and isn't necessarily the best option.  We should work with what is wrong and what is right.  Then we discussed the use of strengths and res

ources.  "Not knowing, or using, your strengths may discount (or be) your problem." Just a thought.

I'm hungry, I have case studies to do, a chapter to read, and two books to read. :)

There are thoughts to be posted.  Most of which are at home. I have a five-day weekend because of a seminar in Fayetteville.  Hopefully I'll have gathered my thoughts by tomorrow.  I got a B+ on my presentation. First exam on Monday.  I'm going to be busy collecting things other than thoughts for the next couple days. :)

I started reading one of the books for Dr. Hickman's class last night.  "Life Without Father"  After about twenty or thirty pages of basic . . . statistics and percentages I became fed up with the book.  It didn't interest me, at least not on that level.  You don't have to tell me that the divorce rate has increased.  You don't have to tell me that there are more children living without their fathers than there were thirty years ago.  Does it really take a book to tell someone that!?  I'm sure there is some substance to the book, further on, but I became tired of it and decided that sleep was more important, especially considering how little sleep I've been getting lately.  I went to bed.

The presentation today went well enough.  I got them to laugh, which is good, I guess.  I'm still not sure how I did on the project though, I suppose I will just have to find out.  I did end up making the cheesecake, but due to time constraints the game never finished and it was just a situation where whoever wanted it could have it.  Some of that overflowed into the Counseling Center: Mrs. Dawson, Paula, and both Dr. Moore's had a piece as well.  (The second Dr. Moore, the chairman, actually tracked me down to get a piece!)  Fortunately, I had a couple left.

I learned through my time on campus today that Dr. Hickman changed the book in the last few minutes of class and said to start a different one.  "Raising A Modern-Day Knight" The book has a good point.  Defining what a man is, etc. and then it comes to a point where it starts talking about the "two Adams".  First it talks about Adam, from the creation.  It talks about how Eve was being tempted by Satan and claims that Adam was standing right next to her and let it happen.  It said:

"The stage is set for Adam to intervene. After all, Adam has been given responsibility for the garden; the prohibition against eating fruit was spoken to him (Genesis 2:16-17). God has given the first man a will to obey ("don't eat the fruit"), a work to do ("cultivate the garden"), and a woman to love (Eve). These are his explicit responsibilities as a man.

"You fully expect Adam to come running with a garden hoe, cut off the serpent's head, and end this heinous approach of evil. But confronted with his social and spiritual responsiblities, Adam becomes, of all things, passive."

Following these paragraphs there is a short delving into this saying that because of Adam men all around are shirking their responsibilities, becoming passive, etc.  While I agree for the most part that the role of fathers and men in general has definitely changed over the years and there are some slackers of fathers in the world, I am becoming strongly irritated with the continuous efforts to convince people that everything that is wrong with this world is Adam's fault!  I didn't make it a page after that before closing the book.  The next page talks about how Jesus Christ is the second Adam.

"But thank God for the second Adam --Jesus Christ! Unlike the first Adam, who stood flatfooted in the face of evil, Jesus Christ initiated.  He refused to do nothing when sin encroached upon the created order. He was spiritually and socially aggressive."

I think that is the line that killed me.  Can people seriously say "created order" in the same chapter where they talk about Adam screwing everything up?  Are there really people out there that believe that our experiences now are some type of God's plan B?!?!  Everyone is thanking God for Jesus Christ.  So thankful for the Gift.  Very appreciative while at the same time almost saying that it a completely obsolete thing.  It's like saying that wasn't the point at all.  Jesus only came because Adam screwed everything up?!  In class the other day I hear Dr. Hickman say something about us all living in the Garden, growing, learning, like it was all going to be perfect.  Days later we are talking about the gift of agency.  I do not fully understand how someone can agree with that, just never question what everyone is saying when so frequently half conflicts with the other half!

I got so frustrated with reading that I stopped reading.  Sure, I did that with "Wild At Heart" too, but to pulled me back in to a degree.  Sure, I'll read it tomorrow when I have cooled off some, but seriously.  After putting the book down I immediately went to my Institute manuals.  I mean, if you can't check out what the Church Education System is saying about Genesis and The Fall, then where can you look?  So, these are a few things that I found, just to make myself remember that there is some support somewhere for what I think I believe.

"When Adam and Eve were placed in Eden they were not subject to the power of death and could have lived, in the state of innocence in which they were, forever had they not violated the law given the in the Garden.

"The earth was also pronounced good, and would have remained in that same state forever had it not been changed to meet Adam's fallen condition.

"All things on the face of the earth also would have remained in that same condition, had not Adam transgressed the law.

"By partaking of the forbidden fruit, and thus violating the law under which he was placed, his nature was changed, and he became subject to (1) spiritual death, which is banishment from the presence of God; (2) temporal death, which is separation of the spirit and the body. This death also came to Eve his wife.

"Had Adam and Eve not transgressed the law given in Eden, they would have had no children.

"Because of this transgression bringing mortality, the children of Adam and Eve inherited mortal bodies and became subject to the mortal death.

"Because Adam transgressed the law, the Lord changed the earth to suit the mortal condition and all things on the fact of the earth became subject to mortality, as did the earth also.

"To defeat the power which death had gained it became necessary that an infinite atonement be offered to pay the debt and thereby restore Adam and Eve and all of their posterity, and all things, to immortal life through the resurrection." ~ Joseph Fielding Smith

Interestingly is the last paragraph. "Became necessary" stands out.  Of course it was necessary, but we had already decided who would be our Savior (or rather, He volunteered and we agreed) <i>before</i> Adam and Eve were even sent to the earth.

"Adam's status before the fall was:
1. He was not subject to death.
2. He was in the presence of God . . .
3. He had no posterity.
4. He was without knowledge of good and evil.

He had knowledge, of course. He could speak. He could converse. There were many things he could be taught and was taught; but under the conditions in which he was living at that time it was impossible for him to visualize or understand the power of good and evil. He did not know what pain was.  He did not know what sorrow was; and a thousand other things that have come to us in this life that Adam did not know in the Garden of Eden and could not understand and would not have known had he remained there." ~ Joseph Smith

These statements remind me of the whole idea of being "frozen" emotionally.  No sorrow=no joy, etc.  Then the last little quote:

"Eve was fulfilling the foreseen purposes of God by the part she took in the great drama of the fall; yet she did not partake of the forbidden fruit with the object in view, but with intent to act contrary to the divine command, being deceived by the sophistries of Satan, who also, for that matter, furthered the purposes of the Creator by tempting Eve; yet his design was to thwart the Lord's plan. We are definitely told that 'he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world' [Moses 4:6]. Yet his diabolical effort, far from being the initiatory step toward destruction, contributed to the plan of man's eternal progression. Adam's part in the great event was essentially different from that of his wife; he was not deceived; on the contrary he deliberately decided to do as Eve desired, that he might carry out the purposes of his Maker with respect to the race of men, whose first patriarch he was ordained to be." ~ James E. Talmage

Sure, none of these things hold to a grain of salt to anyone in my class because these are not their prophets or apostles (according to them), or their scriptures or books for that matter, but these are not my books, these ones that talk of Adam as making a <i>huge</i> mistake in his choice.

Being so extremely distraught by the book; exhausted at the idea of having all these things to back me up and nobody with which to argue my point(s), I wanted to watch a movie that would inspire me; remind me of the good in people; one that showed there are people in the world that succeed in spite of the terrible things that happen to them like divorce and "invisible fathers" and things such as that.  I looked to my collection for a movie I haven't already watched in my time here (which isn't getting easy) and one that met the criteria.  I skimmed past all those action movies (all of which I have been avoiding for the most part), past the animations (knocked all but one of those out over the weekend), tempted by "Tuesdays With Morrie" but I knew it wasn't quite right.  Then I stopped upon "Finding Forrester".  I'm not sure who of you have seen it, but I don't really care, watch it.  That movie, plus two others in my collection, will most likely always have meaning to me in a roundabout type of way.  I watched it with a renewed faith in society as a whole and listened to the final song.  If you've seen it, you know it.  You know, the one from those commercials about kids who are thinking, imagining, creating.  To me, and my family, it symbolizes something completely different.  It reminds me of a father.  Not an invisible one, but one that does not have the chance to be the father he wanted to be to his son.  He cannot screw up, change to be better, or watch him grow into a man.  Not for now at least.  In a matter of three weeks, Clay died two years ago.  It still makes me cry.  Funny how a book about knights and fathers - Adam - The Fall - a movie to inspire me - all brings me back to fathers and a child growing up to be a man. You'd be amazed at how frequently that happens to me.

Wednesday was a day filled with studying and trying to catch up on work that didn't get done because I went to Institute on Tuesday night.

Class was really good today.  We talked about "Wild At Heart" and had some really interesting discussion about the book.  Dr. Hickman said something really profound, but, in typical Holly fashion, I don't remember it aside from the note I have in my notebook and trying to remember on a nice four hours of sleep isn't much promise.

On the plus side, I ended up on campus early to get to work and Steve and I went over our "group" assignments this afternoon instead of our scheduled time of 10:00 tomorrow morning.  I'm all about sleeping in, especially considering how little luck I've been having in the sleep department.

Presentation is due on Tuesday and I've also got to read "Life Without Father" over the weekend, so we'll see how great that turns out.  I have lots of ideas, but teaching a whole class about phobias and panic disorders should be interesting.  Wish me luck.