look at me! i'm not being emo!

[ijustdontseeit]

so i went to a conference yesterday (it was today too but i had do to homework all day...) called UTISM (university of toronto interdisciplinary symposium of the mind). it was all sooooper interesting. i learned about how we store mental images in our brains, and the different systems we use for mental mapping and memory, theories on the use of vague terms in our vocabulary (like the word "rich" can apply to someone who has a million dollars or someone who has a billion dollars - this one was really interesting because there's no clear point or in the case of rich, numerical value, where we say someone goes from being rich to not rich. there is at least a larger region, but even if we draw the line at say 500,000 we're not going to say that someone that has 499,999.99 is not rich when someone who has 500,000 is.) i learned about a theory of "extended mind" (this was the keynote speaker) whose theory is that our cognition extends beyond just our brains, and that we necessarily make use of our bodies when we are "cognizing" (using our cognition) to complete a task.  for example, we often gesture when are trying to explain something, and often do this subconsciously. interestingly, people who have been blind from birth do this, which indicates that it is not only something we pick up from observation.  another example is that we often need to write things down in order to fully understand them (like journaling).
some undergrad students also presented papers and posters which was really cool. it was really amazing to be around such brilliant people, even though i did feel a big out of my league.  there were some people from my class who had posters.. and it was really cool to see people with such like new, innovative ideas that are my age! it got me really excited about the field.... i have to admit though, it did make me feel a bit inadequate that i'm not that smart..... i guess thats one of the best and worst things about university - it really humbles you.

so most of that was probably highly irrelevant and made very little sense to anyone reading this but thats ok. at least i'm not being emo right?
oh and on that note... i decided to just bite the bullet and ask instead of waiting around for an opportunity to come whilst driving myself crazy thinking of all the possible things that he could say that i didn't want to hear.. and of course everything turned out fine and no big awkward conversations had to be had. so hooray for no emotional stress! yay!