Day Eleven

So, I really like to sporadically blog if you haven't guessed already, so don't expect a post a day. I try to put a bunch of days into one whole post. It makes it more interesting to read I suppose. So this past weekend was a really long weekend that involved a lot of workshops. The one on Saturday was from 9-5 and the one on Sunday was from about 9-12. They were supposed to teach us how to present and give professional scientific talks. So basically the guy who is in charge of the entire program Dr. Randy Smith invited this guy named Tobias from California to teach us how to present.

Pretty much Tobias is kind of a failed actor who attempted to teach us how to present, it ended up being like an acting lesson. We had to learn how to sing, whisper, yell, and normally say the introduction to our scientific talks. This guy is also trying to write a book on how to be a wizard, and I don't think it's going very well. It was a very interesting weekend to say the most. He also was obssessed with showing us various tidbits of like TedTalks and magic shows. My favorite TedTalk was this one: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html. Which was really interesting because it was one how you have to present for musical performances. It's pretty funny that I can also play all of the pieces in this video as well.

Another thing we learnt how to do was to create a memory palace. To create a memory palace you first are giving a set of things to remember. In our case we were given a set of random words to memorize. Then we associate this order of the set of words with a story. This story could possibly be about anything. Then we associate the words to numbers to further help us to remember the order. By the end, you have a story and a number to associate each noun with and you can say it in order. This method of learning, according to Randy allows us to even remember and memorize things we have to learn for classes.

Also interesting things that I took notes on throughout these various lectures...

• Albert Einstein once said, "Information is knowledge. The only source of knowledge in experience". 
• There was mention of an author or somebody famous, the name escapes me currently who once said "to stay alive is to do something that scares you everyday". I guess a challenge for all people would be to take that advice. I for one, am trying to do that.
• Tobias also mentioned his definition of what a wizard was. He said by his definition of wizard, Harry Potter was the only actual real wizard in the entire book series. Anyways, by his definition of wizard, a wizard is someone who goes out and find experiences to obtain wisdom. He or she uses leverage to find such wisdom. 

Fun activities so far this week!

We had a bonfire in these woods that were in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't really bonfire, but there were smores which are really yummy!

We also had a chance to go to Downtown Bar Harbor, which is literally the cutest place ever because it's write next to the actual harbor to see this steel drum band play. There were about twenty old people in total in the band and they did a really good job with what they did! 

While we were at the downtown Bar Harbor we had a chance to see the sunset on the water. It was literally the prettiest thing ever. It's probably just "normal" looking through photos, but in real life it was amazing. 

I'll post all about my experiences in the lab tomorrow and give a tidbit on the research I'm doing if you guys are interested in knowing :)