Conditioned Fear...

Fear could be a lot of things. It could be the fear of change. It could be the fear of the unknown. It could even be a phobia. Fear is something that keeps people from doing something. they were too afraid to take that writing class and therefore missed opportunities to be a better writer. Fear could be something that is taught, or something you develop on your own. In the experiment with "little Albert" he was taught to fear rats. Little Albert was an infant. John B Watson actually believed that phobias were conditionally controlled. He used little Albert as an experiment. He brought different animals to little Albert sitting on the floor. Things like rabbits and dogs and even rats were brought for him to touch and play with. Watson would then exchange it for another animal. This went on until he was comfortable with the animals. Next Watson brought out the white rat. When he brought the rat out this time he banged on a gong, making a loud noise that upset Albert. And every time Albert reached for the rat he would again bang the gone. now anytime Albert was around or tried to touch the rat or anything small and fuzzy like the bunny rabbit, Albert was terrified by it. They called this process Conditioning. Believing something can be taught and conditioned to be feared. If a fear can be conditioned, could you also be conditioned to not be afraid of something? The Little Albert project was cruel to me. But was a very informative experiment. It really makes you think about the way you fear.


 I believe if someone can be taught to fear it can also be taught to not fear. It would be like trying to conquer your fear. You could conquer your fear of heights by climbing to the tallest building, or hiking the Grande Canyon. Being at peace with your fear. Knowing that you can handle it and everything will be just fine afterwards. Some people conquer their fears of flying by getting in a plane. Just doing what ever it is that you are afraid of helps reassure us that the fear is not as great as we make it out to be. Spiders are scary, but they are needed. Sharks are scary, But they are needed too.I think that we were trained to like something, it could also be conditioned.  I used to be scared of heights. I went to the grande canyon and hiked down it. I sat on the edge and watched a chipmunk jump off. I am still uneasy about heights. But I wouldn't say I am scared anymore. I conquered my fear, and put myself out there. And best of all I didn't fall.

Spiders are actually very useful in the animal kingdom. First of all they keep the pest control down in the flying insect department. They catch annoying moths and flies in their webs. People are mostly afraid of them, but don't realize they are more afraid of us. A grand daddy long-leg is probably the most poisonous spider on earth, but he has such a small mouth he cant bite us. so therefore almost completely harmless. But people are extremely afraid of them! Will refuse to touch them, or will kill them on site! But I also think that a fear of spiders could be conditioned. My son wasn't afraid of spiders until he saw daddy freak out about one. Daddy being the alpha in the family, the son looks up to him. If he sees that daddy is afraid, he will think that he needs to be afraid too. Daddy was also conditioned to be afraid of spiders. So it starts a cycle. Every time Bahnam sees a spider, he now screams and wants to kill it. Because he was conditioned to do so.  But we have to realize that the things that we are afraid of, can also be a necessity  So now we nicely "put the spider outside" so it can still live and be apart of the circle of life.

Fly free

Dreaming of leprechauns

I would like to go to Ireland. I was adopted. well half adopted. i know who my mother is but not my father. and what makes it more complicated is that she was adopted too. The only think i know about my heritage is what she has told me about my dad. that he was irish. When my grandparents adopted her, it was a closed adoption, and that was all they knew about her. They were getting a girl, and her mother was Swedish, her father was Irish and they were both very young. My mother and I have talked about family history quite often. It has always been a dream of mine to visit Ireland. I dream about seeing the beautiful rolling hills that could go on for miles. I dream about how the smells would be different than in America. Their culture has always fascinated me. And i really love Celtic music. I think I would fit in quite well.. It almost feels like something is drawing me towards it. I have to learn more.

Car accidents

I am accident prone. Things like to hit me and I like to run into things. I have been in a couple car accidents. excluding ones with my parents  that i don't really remember. The first one i  had just moved to Missouri and had never driven in the snow. it was my first car. I was working at Grande Crown Resorts. They don't have a large parking lot and most people park on the street. So i naturally followed suit. I got into my car, distinctly don't remember looking before i turned out and WHAM!! there was a car in my door. I felt pretty stupid saying that everyone was standing outside and watched me gracefully maneuver myself in the line of on coming traffic. totaled my car. The second accident was pretty major in my life even though i was not driving. I went back to GA for vacation and was visiting a friend. There is a dirt track there called Dixie Speedway. they have races and monster trucks and demolition derby. tonight was monster tuck night. and it was awesome. We had been drinking. but thought we had stopped in plenty of time to sober up, we were going to down town Atlanta to a party afterwards. Now this is defiantly  boonies country. so the roads are super windy. We were going down a straight away (which i knew ended in a nasty curve) and my friend looks at me and says "have you ever gone 100 down this road? what about 120?" obviously trying to show off. next thing i know we hit the curve and lost control. spun around and hit a telephone pole. that was probably my scariest accident to date.

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Lincoln Logs in the classroom

       Lincoln Logs remind me of my childhood. I remember playing with them with my little brother. Now I have passed them down to my sons. but the dog also likes to chew them up. They are great for kids developing motor skills.My teacher found a Lincoln Log in the hallway today. I wonder if it dropped out of a teacher's bag. Maybe they were teaching a child development class. I also wonder if a child put it in their parents backpack so they would find it for them. Kids have a funny way of saying I miss you.Lincoln Logs are one of those toys that goes back to the age before technology took over.  When children played with blocks instead of i pads and wooden trains instead of leap frog toys, When the simple bells and whistles were literally bells and whistles. I think that we forget about the simplicity of how life should actually be.you don't have to have a bunch of gadgets to make your life interesting. You could sit down on the floor with your kids and turn off the t.v. and tap into life a little.