Life in Hawera

It seems my thoughts have been rather scattered a bit in regards to a blog post, so my apologies for the possible lack of thought-flow by the time I'm done writing this.  I was at the Hospice Shop on Thursday this week for my usual morning of volunteer cleaning and pricing.  I mostly worked by myself since several of the ladies were upstairs getting things ready for their yearly fundraising auction.  Throughout the year when they receive items that are antiques or could potentially be worth more than a regular op-shop customer might pay they store them until the next yearly auction.  Jax, one of the managers, asked me if I'd be interested in helping out this year, as it's on the 29th of this month.  It seems they have trouble getting the regular volunteers to help because of family obligations over the weekend.  In addition, many of the regular volunteers are in their 70's and 80's so it is quite tiring; Jax was very diplomatic about it, but since I'm young by comparison it would be helpful for her to have me there.  I have no idea what this entails, but I told her I'd be happy to help.  Who knows, it could be fun!  Everyone got together for a special coffee break, and these ladies are a hoot.  I only really know Margaret and Yvonne, but the banter around the table even had me cracking up.  I don't know how long they've all been working there together, but they're all so lovely.  One of the items I cleaned that reminded me that I'm "not in Kansas anymore" was a set of canisters for your beverages.

My view as I work

Tea, Milo, and Coffee - a trifecta of hot drinks

I took these video clips while watching one of the Maori TV channels the other day.  Thought you all might enjoy a glimpse into their culture and a chance to hear some of the language.

As far as my psychology class goes, I'm still enjoying some of the material, but the pace is definitely getting old.  On the plus side, I'm over halfway through the class so the end is in sight.  The most recent chapters were about Motivation, Emotion, and Personality, so that was far more interesting than the regions of the brain.  It was odd in the personality chapter, I recognized some of the names of the researchers and their testing methods from a book I read while in Christchurch, The Secret Life of Pronouns by James W. Pennebaker.  Although I'm sure it isn't everyone's cup of tea I found it to be incredibly fascinating.  A great mix of odd facts and ways of using language to understand people.

  As the title says, it focuses on pronouns and "examines how and why pronouns and other forgettable words reveal so much about us...At the heart of this book is the idea that our words leave indelible fingerprints of personality, our relationships and backgrounds, and even our plans for the future. "  One of the neat things about the book was that it has a website where you can find some of the tests mentioned; you can actually do them and test for yourself how analyzing word use gives clues about ourselves.  There's even a link to a website that allows you to enter a person's "Twitter handle" to "learn their emotions, social styles, and the ways they think" after it analyzers the things they tweet.

Also, here's a blurb from the textbook with a link for a test on your emotional intelligence if anyone's interested:

Recall that some psychologists believe that the ability to identify and regulate one's emotions is a kind of intelligence. Emotionally intelligent people are also thought to be better at reading the emotional expressions of others. Do a web search for emotional intelligence tests and take some online quizzes, or just try this one at http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ei_quiz/. Do you think you are emotionally intelligent? Does your performance on the test seem to reflect your actual experience? What is your opinion of the test you tried?