Ted Talk 8.

I watched a talk given by Neil Burgess on how your brain knows where you are and where you're going. He gave the example of a rat in a maze looking for food. Whenever the rat had been a certain place in its environment, its neurons would send an electrical spike signal telling the brain it has been there before. All of the different neuron signals put together actually form a map for your brain, telling it where it is in its environment and where it can go. The talk definitely changed how I see the world, because in everyday life there are times where it seems your brain automatically knows where to go, such as remembering where you parked your car or knowing you're moving in the right direction.

Mason Augustus Wheeler

Green Screen Test.

Me on the beach.

B-day Memories.

My favorite birthday memory comes from my eighth birthday ten years ago. They just re-released my favorite movie E.T. in the theaters for its 20th anniversary and my dad took me and all of my friends to see it. We had the whole theater to ourselves and it was totally awesome. We got to all just hang out and watch the movie and have a good time, then afterwards, we went home and had delicious cake and ice cream. That's my favorite birthday memory.

Mason Augustus Wheeler

Superbowl.

I didn't watch the entire Superbowl, but I did see the halftime show and I caught a few commercials. I think Madonna did a good job, even though everybody's all mad at her for lip syncing or whatever. The commercials were really funny, particularly the M&M one and the Audi one with the vampires. Overall though, I'm not really phased by who won since I wasn't rooting for the Giants or the Patriots.

Mason Augustus Wheeler

Ted 7.

The talk I watched was given by Lisa Harouni and was about the future of printing. Soon, a technology will become available that will let people print in 3D. People will be able to print anything they want, including intricate objects that were once impossible to create. 2012 just might be the year that this technology becomes accessible and even commonplace. If this happens it would be a huge change on how we obtain items and, ultimately, how we live our lives.

Mason Augustus Wheeler

Day Off.

My day off this week came after another day off because I was absent. Pretty much both days, I just slept all day and didn't do anything. That's usually what I like to do with my days off, since I never get any sleep when I have to wake up and go to school at the crack of dawn.

Mason Augustus Wheeler

Important Beliefs.

An important thing I believe is that you shouldn't make assumptions about people, and you especially shouldn't use those assumptions to judge another person. People can be doing anything at anytime and you have no idea why they're doing it or how they got there. Why should you assume that you do and start judging them like you know everything about them? For example, I'm in the library right now because I don't have a first hour. I go to sign in and the lady is like, "Do you have a pass to be here?" all rude like. I'm like, "Umm, no. I don't have a first hour." I mean, jeeze! I've only been in here for the whole year during first hour, maybe she could've figured it out by now? I don't know. Things like that just annoy me and most of the staff here do the same thing. You know, they really shouldn't work here if they don't like talking to or dealing with kids. That's another important thing I believe.