This is Halloween!

It’s October, and I can’t be more excited! The summer heat has finally broken, leaves are falling, and it’s gearing up for one of my favorite holidays- Halloween! It’s a time for candy, costumes, parties, tri-colored wax passed off as actual candy, pumpkin carving, monsters, long scarves, scary movie marathons, and pumpkin flavored beer. I enjoy some more than others, but I will not tell you which.

What better way to welcome the holiday than take a listen to its theme song? I will make a nod in the direction of the 1962 hit “Monster Mash”. While it lasted for decades as the only song directly relating to Halloween, its cornball charm was blown away by the next contender. “This is Halloween” from the Tim Burton movie The Nightmare before Christmas encapsulates the wonderful fun of the season. It has a creepy but bombastic tune, a roster list of nightmare inducing monsters, and is just an overall blast to sing. Not to mention it features the classiest undead to ever grace the silver screen, Jack Skellington. Forget every metrosexual vampire and charming ghosts, Jack is the true king.

And apparently I’m not the only one to think that this is a fantastic song. I’ve heard so many worthy covers of “this is Halloween” that I will dedicate this blog post for posting youtube links to the best ones I could find.  I will start you off, of course, with the classic. Great harmonies along with goofy monster voices make it light hearted and fun. The Claymation video is still a sight to behold with dark but kid friendly imagery. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpvdAJYvofI

For the more hardcore fans, there is the ever popular Marilyn Manson cover. It adds a great electric kick and deep bass to an already pumping song. It loses a lot of the harmony, but Manson makes up for it by keeping some of the different spooky sounding voices. His vocals also have a harsh electronic edge to them that makes the song seem more serious, but you can still tell it’s all in good fun. A great subculture take that still keeps it light hearted.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVSpfQHEsNY

Voiceplay is an amazing acapella group, who has also done the Disney classic “Grim Grinning Ghosts”, which I also recommend you check out. Their rendition of “This is Halloween” is a punchy swing cover. It has a great rhythm and very interesting changes to the pacing and some of the main melodies. The harmony is absolutely gorgeous of course. They carry the entire song with only a drum for accompaniment. I also like their take on the monster voices, while their normal singing is just fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MovZl4qfykY (I apologize for the MLP video, I couldn’t find an alternative video.)

And I knew that there had to be at least one good techno or dubstep cover of this song. It would be a great thing for a DJ to play at all the upcoming costume dance parties. I had to sort through a couple of mediocre ones, but I finally found Whiiite’s dubstep version. The artist used very tasteful use of samples from the original song, both with the lyrics and the music. My favorite part where he repeats the “in this town we call home” before finishing with “everyone hails to the pumpkin song” and a great bass drop. This song sticks with the original tempo, which I thought would be too slow for a dance song, but Whiiite somehow makes it work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK_HvyRg4Hw

So sit back, enjoy your seasonal pumpkin/apple related treats, and enjoy some spooky seasonal music everyone!

30. Burning calories while writing

Woah, this is blowing my mind right now. I hadn’t actually thought about using writing as a means of burning calories! But this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eml6f9g_Yhw&feature=player_embedded shows weird ways to burn 200 calories. Since for some weird reason I’m drawn to math problems in these blog posts, here’s how long it would take to burn an entire pound of fat by hitting the keyboard. It takes 4,800 words to burn 200 cals. Since there are 3,500 calories in a pound, that means we just need to multiply 4,800 by 17.5. If I wanted to drop some weight, I just need to write a 84,000 word story.

I Googled it to see how roughly long a story that would be. I had to do a little sorting through an organization named 84,000 that was dedicated to translating the works of Buddha. Weird, but I found that this is close to the length of George Orwell’s 1984, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, or your average mystery novel. My first thought was “holy crap, if I have to write a book as large as that, I better be burning calories.” You could probably get a better work out just carrying those books around than writing them. Alas, though I would like to think that I could combine two of my hobbies, I will probably have to keep my work out time and my writing time separate.

My writing has taken such a strange turn lately. I wind up writing during breaks in classes (or sometimes during classes. Sorry profs, sometimes 3 ½ hours is just too long for a lecture). Or start writing at eleven, looking at the clock and realize it’s 3 AM and I’ve ruined the rest of my day tomorrow. Now that I have a dedicated writing journal, I’m going to try to be creative as I pull my night shifts at work. I wonder what on earth I will write at four in the morning after two cups of coffee and still falling asleep. 

Maybe there are other ways to kick start my writing. I have a couple stories I want to write, like my magical girl plot, my fantasy setting zombie plot, or my virtual reality horror plot. But I either get bogged down in the details or start to lose interest. In my previous word count search, I found a post by a guy named Brian Keene. In three days, he wrote 85,000 words. On his best day he wrote 40,000 words. Yeah, think of that second Harry Potter book again. He does say in his blog that other writers do this kind of work, and that the products of writing sessions like these are usually unpolished turds (or first drafts if you’re kind), and that at the end of the day the word count doesn’t really matter. But that’s still really, really impressive no matter how many asterisks he tacks onto his claim. 

As I eagerly turn towards August, I have a small chunk of time at the end of the semester I could dedicate to a huge write session. I think that if I write as much as I could for one story then bounce to another, I wouldn’t get as bored and still feel generative. Perhaps I’ll be able to get more work done in one big burst rather than trying to write every day *awkward cough*. But hey, thanks for the idea Keene. And you’ll be glad to know after your three day ordeal, you were one whole pound lighter.

29: mindfulness class

I am a little apprehensive about staring one of my classes this summer semester. As an elective, I decided to take mindfulness meditation. This is a pretty new field in psychology. It’s heavily based off the teachings of Buddhism, where learning the universal truths of the universe and freeing the mind from earthly desires is the way to attain enlightenment. In psychology, it’s more about using meditation to reduce stress and explore thoughts and feelings more deeply within the self. Because after all, Religion and Science just don’t get along (even with a sect as chill as Buddhism).

I’m quite ambivalent about the topic myself. In theory, it’s quite impressive. Meditate for a small amount of time every day and you’ll have less stress and become more aware of your own mind. I think casual relaxation techniques, learning how to accept thoughts and feelings, and deepening awareness all are wonderful skills that quite frankly everyone should know. Just like how I mentioned in an earlier post that talking to yourself is good exercise, being able to honestly and non-judgmentally identify your feelings is a great skill to have.

But in practice… I fall asleep. There’s no two ways about it. I close my eyes and breathe deeply for about two minutes and then my mind starts to drift. I try to fight it, but the downfall seems inevitable. At around the five minute mark my head is hitting the desk. That’s why I’m worried about this class. I already fall in sleep in class sometimes without any help! Trying to do meditation in class is going to be a disaster. I’ll be so good at the deep breathing exercises that when we go back to the regular lecture I’ll “meditate” through the rest of the class!

Even setting the sleeping aspect aside, I find I don’t really have much patience for meditation. Breathing winds up feeling artificial and causes me to yawn. The slow pace of spoken exercises like head to toe muscle relaxation bores me to tears. I have found that repeating a phrase in my head or looking at a mandala is a much better practice for me, but those aren’t popular exercises. I guess I just don’t have a lot of patience for trying to practice this stuff no matter how much I like the theory.

But one of the things that struck me while I was reading my mindfulness textbook today was that I had heard this theory before. The humanistic, or person centered, approach of Carl Rogers states seemed eerily similar to mindfulness to me. This theory states all that is needed for change in a client is for the therapist to provide three things: Congruence, empathy, and unconditional positive regard. This means that the therapist is being real and present with the client, that they clearly understand the person’s emotions as they relive them through the therapy, and that the therapist passes no judgment and places no conditions of worth on the client. By being in a warm and caring place, clients get the space, time, and support to be able to think through their own emotional problems.

My little ‘aha’ moment today was that perhaps mindfulness meditation is simply the humanistic theory without the therapist. Inside of your mind, you create your own place where you can be present with yourself, caring towards your own feelings, and giving yourself the love and warmth needed for change. The language is different, and of course there are some key theoretical differences. Therapy has a goal: to no longer need therapy. Meditation is more like a journey (and here’s where the new age sounding, hippy like BS comes into play). There is no ultimate goal really, unless you count reaching nirvana. It’s just getting to know yourself better. I’m sure nobody can ever know themselves well enough to understand every facet of their mind and emotions. So really, the journey of self-discovery never ends. (Hey everyone, let’s get this drum circle started!)

27., 28: NCE and NCMHCE

I cannot believe it. I can’t freaking believe it! In this day and age, I want important information at my fingertips. I do NOT want to be rooting around in confusing websites and scrounging for the information I need to plan my future!

*Deep breath* Ok, I think I’ve got it out of my system. You see, much like teachers, counselors need to be certified in the state where they practice. One of the many requirements to getting a license is to take a big hairy test. The problem is this; different states usually require one of two tests: the National Counselor Examination for Licensure and Certification (NCE) or the National Certified Mental Health Counselor Examination (NCMHCE).

So how do you find out which state requires which? You go to their website! Then you spend ten minutes trying to find the right page, application form, pdf, or link to actually find out what test they take. I refuse to believe that after years, no one has made a word document to just list the states in order and say what test they take?

The closest I found to a reliable source is this: http://nbcc.org/directory/. It’s an infographic, which is O.K. but I want to be able to see at a glance which states need which test. If one test is used in a majority of the country I don’t want to waste my time with the other. And so, in my efforts to improve the internet, here’s that simple list of all 50 states (and Puerto Rico and Guam) and what exam they need.

Alabama: NCE

Alaska: NCE

Arizona: NCE

Arkansas: NCE for the Licensed Associate Counselor, NCMECE for the Licensed Professional Counselor

California: NCMHCE

Colorado: NCE

Connecticut: Either the NCE or the NCMHCE

D.C.: NCE

Delaware: NCE

Florida: NCMHCE

Georgia: Either the NCE or the NCMHCE

Hawaii: NCE

Idaho: NCE to become a Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

Illinois: NCE for the Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

Indiana: NCE for the Licensed Mental Health Counselor – Associate, NCMHCE for the Licensed Mental Health Counselor

Iowa: I believe either NCE or NCMHCE?

Kansas: NCE for Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for the Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

Kentucky: NCE

Louisiana: Both NCE and NCMHCE

Maine: NCE for the Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for the Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

Maryland: NCE for Licensed Clinical professional councilor, EMAC for Certified Professional Counselor

Massachusetts: NCMHCE

Michigan: NCE

Minnesota: Both NCE and NCMHCE for Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor

Mississippi: NCE

Missouri: NCE

Montana: I believe both NCE or NCMHCE?

Nebraska: NCE for the Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, NCMHCE for the Certified Professional Counselor

Nevada: NCMHCE

New Hampshire: NCMHCE

New Jersey: NCE

New Mexico: NCE for the Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, NCMHCE for the Licensed Professional Clinical Mental Health Counselor

New York: NCMHCE

North Carolina: Either NCE or NCMHCE

North Dakota: NCE for Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor

Ohio: NCE for the Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for the Professional Clinical Counselor

Oklahoma: NCE

Oregon: NCE

Pennsylvania: Either the NCE or the EMAC

Rhode Island: NCMHCE

South Carolina: Either the NCE or the NCMHCE

South Dakota: NCE for Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for Licensed Professional Counselor-Mental Health

Tennessee: NCE for the Licensed Professional Counselor, NCMHCE for the Licensed Professional Counselor-Mental Health Service Provider

Texas: NCE

Utah: NCE for Clinical Mental Health Counselor and NCMHCE for the Associate Clinical Mental Health Counselor

Vermont: NCE for Licensed Mental Health Counselor, NCMHCE for Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor

Virginia: NCMHCE

Washington: NCE or NCMHCE

West Virginia: NCE

Wisconsin: I believe both NCE or NCMHCE

Wyoming: NCE (and for Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor, the EMAC)

Puerto rico/Guam: no credentials listed

16 states exclusively use the NCE, with 9 using only the NCMHCE. 15 states use different tests for mental health counselors and clinical mental health counselors. And 9 can use either test for the same license. 2 states allowed the NCE along with the EMAC, a test I hadn’t heard of before. It’s The Examination for Master Addictions Counselors, which is obviously a very important subfield of counseling psych.

 
Overall just seeing the lay of the land, which areas accept which tests, have been very useful to me. I wouldn’t take this list as a final word- I couldn’t actually find all of the information I was looking for just on this one website. But this is a pretty good starting point for someone looking to take one of these tests. I think if I don’t come to any solid decision to live in Nevada or Florida, I’ll just take the NCE.

26. Car mechanics

I think that as a nerd, particularly a woman nerd, I miss out on some things that are perceived as stereotypically masculine. In short, I don’t do guy things. I don’t know how football works, what kind of beer is good, or how to control my diaphragm for a nice extended burp. I am actually a bit jealous about the last one on the list. My brother always beat me at burping contests when we were younger… and last month.

But what I became painfully aware of today was that I don’t understand cars. When I took mine in for an inspection today, the mechanic told me that I had $1000 worth of repairs needed under my hood before I could pass. It was pretty stressful to hear, but what could I do? I told them to fix it and held back my plans for a season pass to Kennywood, saving up for a 3DS, and eating out. 

But it made me wonder if I should start learning more about cars and how to fix them. My first knee jerk reaction is to say “no way.” there’s a difference between dabbling in writing or music and mechanics. One means I have embarrassing first drafts of stupid cross overs in my hard drive. The latter means that my super expensive Ford 500, which I need for work and my internship, becomes an exploding deathtrap. I would be furious with myself if I tried to do something and wound up having to get it towed because I screwed it up.

While I can’t fix engine mounts or tighten fan belts (or whatever you’re supposed to do under there) I suppose there are a few things I can do. I can check and fill my tires, can replace windshield washer fluid, and even give a car battery a jump. But maybe I should take it to the next level. I want to be at least a little knowledgeable about one of the biggest investments of my adult life.

There seems to be a lot of useful articles online for how to check something over, but not necessarily how to fix them. For example, there’s the guide on the accessory belt, which drive a lot of the car’s mechanics. It powers the alternator, the cooling system, power steering, and water pump. Usually when it’s bad it makes a squeaking noise when accelerating. If I’m lucky, the belt is visible when my hood is up, and I can do a visual check on it. If the belt seems oily or cracked, it might need to be replaced. If it gives more than a half inch when pressing on it, it might need to be adjusted. But while I’m now armed with this knowledge, that doesn’t necessarily mean I can fix it. It just means I save the mechanic a half hour when I take my squeaky car into the dealership. I suppose it’s something, but not as hands on as I was hoping for.

Perhaps this means I should start slow. I know there’s one thing I can always try to do myself: changing the oil in my car. But when I found a guide to it on Wikihow, I was actually surprised how complicated it seemed. I thought it was as simple as just taking out the old oil (without making a holy mess all over the driveway) and putting new stuff in. But there’s a filter I never knew about. From a quick google, many people say that every time you change your oil, you need to change the filter too. I suppose just carefully unscrewing an old filter and putting in a new one isn’t too bad though. However, one thing that doesn’t help is that the driveway and parking lot in my apartment complex is on a pretty steep slope. Unless I can park at a friend’s place, I might just have to pony up the money to get my change at the dealership.

But overall, I think learning more about my car is a good investment. I’ll just take it slow and browse through the wikihow pages when I have free time… wait, free time? What’s that? I haven’t seen that in the past two months…