...and I'm back. I think. 

I know it's definitely been a while between drinks but I certainly hope this will change. 

Why, you may ask, what's different? Well, as of tomorrow I actually start uni again. It's my fourth year studying Psych and it's my Honours / Research year. Frankly, I'm rather excited and looking forward to actually having a purpose again.  Students do not need, nor do they deserve, a 3-month holiday over the New Year. I can understand arguments for working to earn money for the rest of the year but I do not personally know anyone who actually operates like that. Fortunately, however, this big blank has ended for me and I have something to do. I swear there is a reverse Parkinson's Law - which states:

Work expands to fill the time available for it's completion.

The reverse occurs when the time available is ostensibly without purpose... which might be stated as:

The longer you have to do nothing, the less likely you are to do anything.

All the things I intended to do I haven't done. It's a little demoralizing, I suppose... but that's why I'm looking forward to going back.

Anyways, to catch anyone who may consider themselves regular I'll fill you in on what's been going on - psych-wise. 

First off, I got my first choice in supervisors - Prof. Bill von Hippel. I've been involved in his lab for more than a year now and know the folks in it fairly well. Among his interests I've (initially) chosen to look into the nature of self-deception and the idea that we self-deceive in order to better (more successfully) deceive others. I just had a quick look through my posting history and I've tangentially referred to it in other posts, but nothing that summarizes the area. Looks like that's something to write on in the near future. However, to further that end it makes sense to look at self-deception in the context of something. Given that I have a bit of an interesting in fighting (it's what I do when I'm not doing psych-stuff) it seems natural to look into the area of formidability.  There's a bit of research coming out from the way of Cosmides and Tooby (you know, the early evo-psych guys) which is provocative... but I've always been a little wary of some of their reasoning and conclusions. This will be a great opportunity to really critically assess what they have to say within the lit, and perhaps even within an experimental context. Having said this class hasn't even technically started yet and this area of interest/research may change significantly in the next few weeks.

Second, my last post addressed a question proposed by some arty types. I was pretty happy when I found out they really liked what I wrote (despite noticing some stupid spelling errors and lack of narrative). So that led me to a night of contemporary theatre (wherein I can claim to have 'contributed'). Have you even been to contemporary theatre? That stuff is weird. All I know after seeing a few shows is that I do not know enough to appreciate it. People were barking, performers were drinking beer mid-performance, women ran around without clothes on, people wore masks over other masks (which were of the same image)....  strange stuff.

Finally, Psychobabble is still going strong. Tomorrow (the first day of Uni) we'll be recording a show that explains what an education in psych is all about. My experience (and the experience of most people, I think) is that no-one really accurately knows what to expect when they enrol to study psychology. The show tomorrow covers the very early years (undergrad) up to honours (Jess and myself being the experts here), to the life-cycle of a PhD (where we have a new PhD student - Kate - and a more experience PhD student - Nerisa) all the way to international Post-Doc (Shelli). If you're considering Psych or not really sure if Psych is for you this will (hopefully) be a good resource for what to expect and a good measure of what you might hope to accomplish (in the first 5 - 10 years or so). 

Anyways, the blog will become more active with posting regarding all the stuff I'm reading for honours, all the stuff I'm interested in personally (been reading a lot of about dating - online and offline - lately), all the stuff I read for the Psychobabble shows, and hopefully documenting my year as an honours student. 

Wish me luck.