The Musings of Q

Decision Making

I was lying in bed last night, contemplating life and the way the world works, and I started thinking about the Republican Presidential Nominating race. Now, this isn’t going to be a political blog, so please don’t run for the hills yet, I’m just using this as an example. But I was thinking about the candidates, and the kind of information I can find out there about them, and the process I used to make my decision on who to support. And then I started thinking about how the majority of people went about making the decision of who to support. Do they do research? Do they listen to what everyone has to say and figure out who agrees with them most? Do they just do whatever the television tells them to?

I only ask because I have this feeling that people do not make conscious decisions based on fact and reason most of the time. They go by random images stored in their memory banks, or gut feelings they experience, or something they remember hearing in a soundbyte. I mean, I read up on all the candidates, weighed the pros and cons, and came to a decision based on all the information I could find. Why don’t more people do this?

Accessing Memories and Rapport

Everyone accesses their memories differently. Some people recreate images from the time they are remembering, some “listen” back to the things they heard, and some go within and remember certain feelings. If you are very astute, you can tell what a person’s mode of memory access is just by watching them. Their non-verbal communication will tell you much more about the way their brain works than anything they every actually say. If you can pick up on these hints, it makes building rapport with someone a wee bit easier…because you can adjust to relate to them in a way they are comfortable thinking already. For instance, if you pick up that a person is a very visual person, then you can create pictures while talking to them, and talk about the things you see…and they will relate to that much more than if you talk about the things you FELT when you were someplace.

I think this could help in teaching kids too…especially kids who just aren’t getting it. Figure out how they access memories. Maybe you’ve been lecturing the class (auditory), but this kid learns better visually…so when helping him out later, you can change how you are teaching him.

Anyways, no real point to this. Was just reading about it and have started looking for it…found it kind of interesting.

Meeting People

I feel like I might have screwed myself over here. I’m 28, single and looking. But it turns out, I’m getting kind of old! And when you work in a job with no women, and your friends are mostly married off (and have no single friends), well, it makes meeting new people somewhat of a challenge. Trying the online dating thing a bit. We’ll see how things turn out.

Travelling

I’m getting that antsy feeling again. And no, it’s not from the caffeinated large green tea I just finished! It’s that “I wanna get away” feeling (sorry to use the Southwest phrase, but its pretty spot on). I’m a traveler by nature. You can blame (or, as I do, thank) my parents for this one. They took me on vacations as a kid, and now as an adult (ugh, am I really an adult now…damn), I want to keep doing it! So I do! Often! Travelling, though, is expensive. So I’ve had to curtail my travelling a wee bit. Which leads to long travel breaks like this one. I think the last real trip I took was in October to Disneyland (which barely counts)…or we could count Thanksgiving in Lancaster, but that seems to count even less. I wanna go places, see new things, have new experiences! But, alas, I must wait until the end of February…at which point my 2012 travel schedule begins with a trip to the icy North…St. Paul, MN. I have a feeling it will be cold…as well as awesome. But, for now, we wait. January will be busy enough anyways…I hope! :)

Cancer

I’m pretty sure everyone will get cancer at some point. These days it seems inevitable. Even though I believed that…it’s still a shock when it hits close to home.

My first brush with cancer was my grandpa on my mom’s side. How old was I…15? 16? That was shitty. He got lung cancer, probably from all those years in the Air Force in the smoke filled briefing rooms. And he died a few months after diagnosis. I believe they caught it really late. I honestly don’t remember much from that time (I think I have effectively blocked it way, way down…as a male is wont to do)…but I have images (memory accessing cue…see above) of him getting worse, being bedridden when it was time for Hospice care, and it was a sad sight. But I did get to say good bye to him…I still remember the feeble pat on the back he was able to give me when giving me his final hug. Tough memories.

Then, the next brush with cancer was Chris Piccardo. I’ve written about that one extensively in the blog…especially back around when it happened. Chris was my brother, for all intents and purposes. And losing him at the young age of 20 to brain tumors was terrible. I’d rather not write about it anymore, but you can go back and look at it HERE.

And now, it’s touched my immediate family. My mom is going in for surgery tomorrow for endometrial cancer. I believe its stage 1, and the early prognosis is pretty favorable, from what I understand (or at least from what I’m told…which could always be untrue). Even so, it’s scary. I’m not entirely sure how to even react to this news. I mean, my mom says everything will be ok, my dad has said things look good…I just don’t even know what to think! The worst case scenario is so horrifically bad that if I dwell on that, I’ll drive myself and literally everyone around me insane. But it does creep into my thoughts from time to time. And I beat them back down. I think I’m dealing with this the same way I deal with everything else that really bothers me…like Ron Swanson would do…I bottle it up and hide it away. I’ve talked about it sporadically with a very limited number of people; but never at length, and never in depth. I’m just not like that. Maybe I should be better about that…but such is life. In any case, if I’ve been somewhat distant lately, this is why. My brain is kind of scattered at the moment…so apologies for that.

It would be nice if you kept my mom in your thoughts tomorrow. If this is weighing on my mind, then I know this cannot be easy for her. She’s a strong woman, though…she’ll fight this every step of the way. Here’s to hoping for the best…because we should expect nothing less.

Everything Else

After such news, everything else seems to take somewhat of a backseat. My mind tends to wander, but there’s still other things going on in my life. Work has been ok…we’re moving offices next week, so that’s keeping me somewhat occupied.

The Sharks are in the middle of their season, and it’s been an ok season so far. So, I’ve been going to plenty of games and enjoying being a season ticket holder.

The Niners have their first playoff game in like a decade this weekend. It would be super epic if they won…but they’re playing the Saints (who I think will win the Super Bowl), so it seems unlikely. But I’ll cheer them on either way.

I’m playing in a softball league starting this Friday. Hopefully I remember how to hit in short order. My timing is way, way off right now. Need to go buy cleats today. Better remember to go do that.

I guess that’s about it. Take care, all of you. Tell your loved ones that you love them. And be good people…it makes life more bearable.

Cheers! :)