Friday?? What?! Where did the week go??

Today is Friday and I have not had a chance to go running since Sunday!! My goal for this week was 28 miles. If I want to hit that goal I will need to log some serious mileage in the next three days.

Big Bear Lake

Monday I was lucky enough to go for a mini trip up to big bear.

 

I got there Monday morning at 6am and ran 8 miles of trails and then went to the Grizzly Manor Cafe to eat breakfast...

Which was this HUGE pancake! YUM

This place is very popular.. they have great food. If you are ever in Big Bear and are craving a pancake.. this is the place to go.

Later a friend, her pups, and I snowshoed another 2 miles of trails that afternoon.. which gave me a good 10 miles that day! I was super excited about that! :)

Tuesday we boarded at Snow Summit for half day.

  

Then it was back to Orange County to read. It really was a great mini vaca!! 

I ran another 6 on Saturday and 10 today. This weeks grand total was 26 miles! Yay!

Check out the mini movie of our "awesome" tricks!! I am the one on the snowboard. :) There is also a little montage of Ebby at the end.. She is getting so big - losing her first tooth!! 

Week 2 of 2011

Ran 13 miles this week.. which is a little off my mileage but I am fine with that all things considered. :)

Yesterday I ran a new trail in Riverside that was harder than I thought it was going to be. The 1st picture below was the grade for most of the course.  It wiped me out and I REALLY didn't want to run today so I didn't. I decided that I sorta like taking Sundays off - from everything. I didn't even read!!

Some good news from the week... I am getting two new grad students to help me on the study I am currently running, which is wonderful!! It will be really nice to have a grad student team for the Adapting to Aging Out study instead of just me and my assistant.. even though she ROCKS! This couldn't have come at a better time too.. since my assistant Jackie is leaving to go to grad school this summer. Me and everyone else in the lab kept trying to talk her into applying to our lab for grad school.. but she insists on clinical training.. we couldn't get her to switch teams. But hey, if I ever need a therapist down the road I will know who to ask. ;)

I am still reading about 10 hours a day trying to prep for my 19 hour test coming this March 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 17th. This is such an undertaking. I have NEVER studied or read SO much in my life. I really hope I can pass this test. If I pass I will be considered ADB (All But Dissertation). Trying to read all of these articles and books have really taken over all of my free time. Even when I am trying to do other things I am constantly thinking about all the things I still need to read and understand. 

I can't wait for March to be over and yet at the same time I want it to go slooooow. I still have SO much to read. The books are what is killing me I think I need to read 8 or 9 of them. Ugh. To keep myself motivated I have made lists that I get to cross things off of when I complete reading them.. which feels VERY satisfying. 

Someone actually asked to see what I had to read. So here it is below.. the lists of works I need to know for my test.. the ones crossed out I have finished reading and outlining. It is slow but it is getting done!! These are great reads for people interested in the development of humans btw!! You can google almost all of them if you are interested. 

READING LIST FOR

DEVELOPMENTAL GRADUATE STUDENT EXAMS

I.               THEORY AND MODELS OF DEVELOPMENT [17]

Baltes, P B., Lindenberger, U, Staudinger, UM. (2006). Life Span Theory in Developmental Psychology. In Handbook of Child Psychology Volume 1.  (pp. 569-664).Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Reivew of Psychology, 52, 1-26.

                        Bjorklund, D. F., & Pelligrini, A. D. (2000). Child development and evolutionary psychology. Child Development, 71, 1687


           Bretherton, I., & Munholland, K. A. (1999). Internal working models in attachment relationships: A construct revisited. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 89-111). New York: Guilford.

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P.A. (2006). The ecology of developmental processes. In W. Damon & R.M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, 5^th edition, Vol. 1. NY: Wiley.

Elder, G. H., Jr. (1998).  The life course as developmental theory.  Child Development, 69, 1-12.

Gauvain, M., & Perez, S. M. (2007). The socialization of cognition. In J. Grusec & P. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (pp. 586-613). NY: Guilford.

Gauvain, M. (1998). Cognitive development in social and cultural context. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 7, 188-192.

Gottleib, G. (2000). Environmental and behavioral influences on gene activity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 93-97.

Masten, A. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56(3), 227-238.

McLoyd, V. C. (1998). Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. American Psychologist, 53, 185-204.

Miller, P. H. (most recent ed). Theories of developmental psychology. New York: W. H. Freeman.

Patterson, G. R. (1993) Orderly change in a stable world: The antisocial trait as a chimera. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 911-919.

Rogoff, B., Moore, L., Najafi, B., Dexter, A., Correa-Chavez, M., & Solis, J. (2007). Children’s development of cultural repertoires through participation in everyday routines and practices. In J. Grusec & P. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (pp. 490-515). NY: Guilford.

Schaffer, H. R. (2006) Key Concepts in Developmental Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Sroufe, L. A., & Rutter, M. (1984). The domain of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 17-29.

Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The development niche: A conceptualization of the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2, 545-569.

II.             DEVELOPMENTAL METHODOLOGY [14]

Ambert, A.-M., Adler, P. A., Adler, P. & Detzner, D. F. (1995). Understanding and evaluating qualitative research. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 879-893.

Cook, T. D. & Campell, D. T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design and analysis issues of field settings. Chicago: Rand McNally, Chapters 1 and 2.

Donaldson, G. & Horn, J.L. (1992). Age, cohort, and time developmental muddles:  Easy in practice, hard in theory.  Experimental Aging Research, 18, 213-222.

           

Granic, I., & Hollenstein, T. (2003). Dynamic systems methods for models of developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 15(3), 641-669.

Horn, J. L., & McArdle, J. J. (1992). A practical and theoretical guide to measurement invariance in aging research. Experimental Aging Research, 18, 117-144.

Widaman, KF. & Reise, S.P. (1997). Exploring the measurement invariance of psychological instruments: Applications in the substance use domain (pp. 281-324). In The science of prevention: Methodological advances from alcohol and substance abuse research. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, US.

Reynolds, C. A., Gatz, M., & Pedersen, N. L. (2002). Individual variation for cognitive decline: Quantitative methods for describing patterns of change. Psychology & Aging, 17(2), 271-287.

Rogosa, D. (1995). Myths and Methods: Myths about longitudinal research plus supplemental questions. In J.M. Gottman (Ed.), The analysis of change. (pp. 3-66): Mahwah, New Jersey: Larwrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Rutter, M. (1989). Age as an ambiguous variable in developmental research: Some epidemiological considerations from developmental psychopathology. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 12, 603-626.

Rutter, M., Pickles, A., Murray, R., & Eaves, L. (2001). Testing hypotheses on specific environmental causal effects on behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 291-324.

Schaie, K. W. (2000). The impact of longitudinal studies on understanding development from young adulthood to old age. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24, 257-266.

Schaie, K. W. (1965). A general model for the study of developmental problems. Psychological Bulletin, 64, 92-107.

Siegler, R. S., & Crowley, K. (1991). The microgenetic method: A direct means for studying cognitive development. American Psychologist, 46, 606-620.

Schwarz, N. (1999). Self-reports: How the questions shape the answers. American Psychologist, 54, 93-105.

Whiting, B. (1975). Problems of cross-cultural research:  Age as a packaged variable.  In K. F. Reigel, & J. A. Meacham, (Eds.), The developing individual in a changing world. Historical and cultural issues, Vol. 1. The Hague: Mouton, 303-309.

See also:

Metropolitan Area Child Study (2002). A cognitive-ecological approach to preventing aggression in urban settings: Initial outcomes for high-risk children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 179-194.

           

III.           COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT [13]

Bjorklund, D. F. (most recent edition). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

OR

Siegler, R.S., & Alibali, M.W.  (most recent edition). Children’s thinking. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Deary, I.J. (2001). Human intelligence differences: A recent history. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 127-130

Flavell, J. H. (2004). Theory-of-mind development: Retrospect and prospect. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50, 274-290.

Flynn, J. (1999).  Searching for justice:  The discovery of IQ gains over time.  American Psychologist, 54, 5 – 20.

Gauvain, M.  (2001). The social context of cognitive development.  NY: Guilford. (Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 8).

Hyde, J.S. (2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60, 581-592.

               Piaget, J. (2006). Piaget’s theory. In K. Lee (Ed.), Childhood cognitive development: The     essential readings (pp. 33-47). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Reynolds, C.A., Finkel, D., McArdle, J.J, Gatz, M., Berg, S. & Pedersen, N.L. (2005).  Quantitative genetic analysis of latent growth curve models of cognitive abilities in adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 41, 3-16.

Richert, R. A., & Lillard, A. S. (2002). Children’s understanding of the knowledge prerequisites of drawing and pretending. Developmental Psychology, 38, 1004-1015.

Sabbagh, M. A., Xu, F., Carlson, S. M., Moses, L. J., & Lee, Kang (2006). The development of executive functioning and theory of mind: A comparison of Chinese and U.S. preschoolers. Psychological Science, 17, 74-81.

Siegler, R. S. (2007). Cognitive variability. Developmental Science, 10, 104-109.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978).  Mind in Society. [Introduction and Biographical Note, Chs. 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6.]

Wang, Q. (2008). Emotion knowledge and autobiographical memory across the preschool years: A cross-cultural longitudinal investigation. Cognition, 108, 117-135.

See also:

Baltes, P B., Lindenberger, U, Staudinger, UM. (2006). Life Span Theory in Developmental Psychology. In Handbook of Child Psychology Volume 1.  (pp. 569-664).Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

IV            EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT [6]

Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., & Dennis, T. A. (2004). Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Development, 75, 317-333.

Denham, S. A. (1998). Emotional development in young children. NY: Guilford. (Chapters 1, 2, & 5)

Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Reiser, M., et al. (2001). The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72(4), 1112-1134.

            Kochanska, G., Coy, K., & Murray, K. T. (2001). The development of self-regulation in the first 4 years of life. Child Development, 72(4), 1031-1111.

Lengua, L. J. (2002). The contribution of emotionality and self-regulation to the understanding of children's response to multiple risk. Child Development, 73(1), 144-161.

Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 3, 6^th edition. NY: Wiley.

V. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT [14]

Chao, R. (1994).  Beyond parental control & authoritarian parenting style:  Understanding Chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training.  Child Development, 65, 1111-1119.

Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., & Spinrad,T (2006). Prosocial development. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol 3, 6thedition, NY: Wiley.

Guerra, N.G., & Leidy, M. (2008). Lessons learned: Recent advances in the prevention and treatment of childhood aggression. In R. Kail (Ed.) Advances in child development and behavior, Volume 36 ( pp. 287-330). Boston, MA: Elsevier

Kim et al. (2006). Longitudinal course and family correlates of sibling relationships from childhood through adolescence. Child Development, 77, 1746-1761.

LeVine, R., Dixon, S., LeVine, S., Richman, A., Keefer, C., Liederman, P. H., & Brazelton, T. B.  (2008).  The comparative study of parenting.  In R. A. LeVine & R. S. New, Anthropology and Child Development, Blackwell Publishing.

Metropolitan Area Child Study (2002). A cognitive-ecological approach to preventing aggression in urban settings: Initial outcomes for high-risk children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 179-194.

Moffitt, T. E. (1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100(4), 674-701.

Natsuaki, M N. (2009). Aggressive behavior between siblings and the development of externalizing problems: Evidence from a genetically sensitive study. Developmental psychology, 45(4), 1009-1018.

Parke, R. D., & Buriel, R. (2006). Socialization in the family. In W. Damon &R.M. Lerner (Series Eds.), & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. Vol.3, 6^th ed. NY: Wiley.

Rodkin, P. C., Farmer, T. W, Pearl, J., & VanAcker, R. (2000). Heterogeneity of popular boys: Antisocial and prosocial configurations. Developmental Psychology, 36, 14-24.

Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., & Carlson, E. A. (1999).  One social world:  The integrated development of parent-child and peer relationships.  In W. A. Collins & B. Laursen (Eds.), Relationships as developmental contexts:  The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology, Vol. 30.  Mahwah, NJ:  Erlbaum.

Thompson, R. (2006). Early socioemotional development.  In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 3, 6^th edition. NY: Wiley.

            Vandell, D. J. (2000). Parents, peer groups, and other socializing influences. Developmental Psychology, 36, 699-710.

Weissberg, R. P., & Greenberg, M. T. (1998). School and community competence-enhancement and prevention programs. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & I. E. Sigel & K. A. Renninger (Vol. Eds). Handbook of child psychology: Vol 4. Child psychology in practice. (5^th ed., pp. 877-954). New York: Wiley.

VI. SOCIAL COGNITION (8)

Arsenio, W. F., & Lemerise, E. A. (2004). Aggression and moral development: Integrating social information processing and moral domain models. Child Development, 75, 987-1002.

Callaghan, T., Rochat, P., Lillard, A., Claux, M. L., Odden, H., Itakura, S., Tapanya, S., & Singh, S. (2005). Synchony in the onset of mental state reasoning: Evidence from five cultures. Psychological Science, 16(5), 378-384.

Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74-101.

Hermann, E., Call, J., Hernandez-Lloreda, M.V., Hare, B., Tomasello, M. (2007). Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis. Science, 317, 1360-1366.

Harter, S. (2006 ). The development of self-representations. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 3, 6th edition. New York: Wiley.

Lemerise, E. A., & Arsenio, W.F. (2000). An integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Child Development, 71, 107-118.

Olson, K. R., & Dweck, C. S. (2008). A blueprint for social cognitive development. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(3), 193-202.

Turnbull, W., Carpendale, J. I. M., & Racine, T. P. (2009). Talk and children’s understanding of mind. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 16(6-8), 140-166.

VII. BIOBEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT  [8]

Belsky, J., & Pluess, M. (2009). The nature (and nurture?) of plasticity in early human development. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(4), 345-351.

Boyce, W. T. (2007). A biology of misfortune: Stress reactivity, social context, an the ontogeny of psychopathology in early life. In A. S. Masten (Ed.), Minnesota symposia on child psychology - Multilevel dynamics in developmental psychopathology: Pathways to the future.  (pp. 45-82). New York: Taylor & Francis Group/Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Cicchetti, D., & Curtis, W. J. (2006). The developing brain and neural plasticity: Implications for normality, psychopathology, and resilience. In D. Cicchetti and D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental Psychopathology (2nd ed.): Developmental Neuroscience (Vol. 2, pp. 1-64). New York: Wiley.

Collins, W. A., Maccoby, E. E., Steinberg, L., Hetherington, E. M., & Bornstein, M. H. (2000). Contemporary research on parenting: The case for nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55(2), 218-232.

Gottlieb, G., & Halpern, C. T. (2002). A relational view of causality in normal and abnormal development. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 421-435.

Rutter, M. (2006). Genes and Behavior: Nature-Nurture Interplay Explained. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Santucci, A. K., Silk, J. S., Shaw, D. S., Gentzler, A., Fox, N. A., & Kovacs, M. (2008). Vagal tone and temperament as predictors of emotion regulation strategies in young children. Developmental Psychobiology, 50, 205-216.

Yates, T. M. (2007). The developmental consequences of child emotional abuse: A neurodevelopmental perspective. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 7(2), 9-34.

The Role of Narrative and Representation in Development

Adler, J. M., & McAdams, D. P. (2007c). Time, culture, and stories of the self. Psychological Inquiry, 18, 97􏰀99.

*[Bretherton, I., & Munholland, K. A. (1999). Internal working models in attachment relationships: A construct revisited. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 89-111). New York: Guilford.]

 [Book] Emde, R., Wolf, D., & Oppenheim, D. (2003). Revealing the Inner Worlds of Young Children The MacArthur Story Stem Battery and Parent-Child Narratives. New York: Oxford University Press.

Fiese, B., & Spagnola, M. (2005). Narratives in and about families: An examination of coding schemes and a guide for family researchers. Journal of Family Psychology, 19, 51–61.

Fivush, R. (in press). The Development of Autobiographical Memory.

Fivush, R. (2006). Scripting attachment: Generalized event representations and internal working models. Attachment and Human Development, 8, 283–289.

*[Gauvain, M. (2001). The social context of cognitive development. NY: Guilford.]

Habermas, T., & Bluck, S. (2000). Getting a life: The emergence of the life story in adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 748–769.

Main, M, Kaplan, N, & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood, and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50(1-2, Serial No. 209), 66-104.

McLean, K. C., & Breen, A. V. (2009). Processes and content of narrative identity development in adolescence: Gender and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 45, 702–710.

 [Book] McLean, K.C., & Pasupathi, M. (2009). Narrative Development in Adolescence: Creating the Storied Self (Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development). Indiana University, Bloomington, IN: Springer

Oppenheim, D., & Waters, H. (1995). Narrative processes and attachment representations: Issues of development and assessment. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 60(2-3), 197-215.

Park, C. L., Edmondson, D., Fenster, J. R., & Blank, T. O. (2008). Meaning making and psychological adjustment following cancer: The mediating roles of growth, life meaning, and restored just-world beliefs. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76, 863–875.

Bar-Haim, Y., Fox, N. A., VanMeenen, K. M., & Marshall, P. J. (2004). Children's narratives and 
patterns of cardiac reactivity. Developmental Psychobiology,  44(4), 238-249.

Thorne, A., Cutting, L., & Skaw, D. (1998). Young adults' relationship memories and the life story:
Examples of essential landmarks? Narrative Inquiry, 8(2),  237-268.

The Role of Narrative and Representation Processes in Negotiating Adversity

Bohanek, J.G., Fivush, R., & Walker, C. (2005). Memories of positive and negative emotional events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19, 51–66.

Boydell, K. M., Goering, P., & Morrell-Bellai, T. L. (2000). Narratives of identity: Re-presentation of self in people who are homeless. Qualitative Health 

Research, 10(1), 26-38.

Fivush R, Sales JM. (2006). Coping, attachment, and mother-child narratives of stressful events. Merrill-Palmer Q. 52:125–50

Fivush, R., Hazzard, A., Sales, J. M., Sarfatti, D., & Brown, T. (2003). Creating coherence out of chaos? Children’s narratives of emotion-ally positive and negative events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 1–19.

Greig, A., Minnis, H., Millward, R., Sinclair, C., Kennedy, E., Towlson, W., & Hill, J. (2008). Relationships and learning: A review and investigation of 

narrative coherence in looked-after children in primary school. Educational Psychology in Practice, 24(1), 13-27.

Hauser, S. T., & Allen, J. P. (2006). Overcoming adversity in adolescence: Narratives of resilience. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 26, 549-576.

Holmberg, J., Robinson, J. L., Corbitt-Price, J., & Wiener, P. (2007). Using narratives to assess competencies and risks in young children: Experiences with high

risk and normal populations. Infant Mental Health Journal, 28(6), 647-666.

Koren-Karie, N., Oppenheim, D., & Getzler-Yosef, R. (2008). Shaping children’s internal working models through Mother-child Dialogues: the importance of resolving past maternal trauma. Attachment & Human Development, 10(4), 465–483.

Macfie J, Toth SL, Rogosch FA, Robinson J, Emde R. N. (1999). Effect of maltreatment on preschoolers’ narrative representations of response to relieve distress and of role reversal. Dev. Psychol. 15:460–65

Miller, K. E. (1996). The effects of state terrorism and exile on indigenous Guatemalan refugee children: A mental health assessment and an analysis of children's 

narratives. Child Development, 67, 89-106.

Stover, C. S., Van Horn, P., & Lieberman, A. F. (2003, April). Parental Representations in the play of preschool aged witnesses of marital violence. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL.

Toth SL, Cicchetti D, Macfie J, Emde RN. 1997. Representations of self and other in the narratives of neglected, physically abused, and sexually abused preschoolers. Dev. Psychopathol. 9:781–96

Waldinger, R. J., Toth, S. L., & Gerber, A. (2001). Maltreatment and internal representations of relationships: Core relationship themes in the narratives of abuse

and neglected preschoolers. Social Development, 10, 41-58.

What?! All this time I thought I was fire and I am actually water?? Noooooo.

Horoscope Hang-Up: Earth Rotation Changes Zodiac Signs

By: MEGAN FRIEDMAN

Topics: ASTROLOGY, BIZARRE, HOROSCOPE, ZODIAC

Getty Images

If you're the type of person who relies on mysterious-sounding locations of stars to determine your personality and outcome in life, get ready to be shocked.

The field of astrology, which is concerned with horoscopes and the like, felt a major disruption from astronomers, who are concerned with actual stars and planets. The astronomers from the Minnesota Planetarium Society found that because of the moon's gravitational pull on Earth, the alignment of the stars was pushed by about a month.

(More on TIME.com: See the best pictures of 2010.)

"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," noted Parke Kunkle, a member of the group's board. Your astrological sign is determined by the position of the sun on the day you were born, so that means everything you thought you knew about your horoscope is wrong.

It turns out that astrology has had issues from its inception. (Aside from the fact that it tries to link personality traits with positions of the stars.) Ancient Babylonians had 13 constellations, but wanted only 12, so threw out Ophuchicus, the snake holder. Libra didn't even enter the picture until the era of Julius Caesar.

According to the Minnesota Planetarium Society, here is where the real signs of the Zodiac should fall. Get ready for your world to change forever.

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16. 
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11. 
Pisces: March 11-April 18. 
Aries: April 18-May 13. 
Taurus: May 13-June 21. 
Gemini: June 21-July 20. 
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10. 
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30. 
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.Scorpio: Nov. 23-29. 
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.  (Yep, this one is new — read all about the Ophiuchus way of life here)Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

 http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/13/horoscope-hang-up-earth-rotation-changes-zodiac-signs/#ixzz1Az9so1iL

Black Swan

Tonight I went to see Black Swan with my friends..

The movie was freaking INSANE. I could hardly watch it. It was really entertaining though. A very good psych movie for us psych people. Very thought provoking.

Getting Back on the Horse

I ran 8 miles today - all trails! I was pretty excited about it. I am not able to run trails for very long because my legs get so fatigued. I wish I could run longer. I don't know how to get myself stronger. I am a bit frustrated by it.

 

While I was running I noticed a huge group of bikers. It was a bit funny because eventually I ran past them while they were taking a break after a large hill. Then they rode by me and I was alone for a few more miles and then somehow I ended up running past them again while they were taking a break at the top of another big hill.

Then I watched them as the passed me and I was on my own for another two miles.

Then I saw them in the distance... and I passed them again..

and then again... this went on the entire 8 miles I was out there. The last time I passed them before I left the park, one of the men looked at me and said, "how is it that you are running and we are biking and you keep passing us??" I said, "I don't know but it sure is inflating my ego!" :) I am not super fast and they were taking looooong breaks but it still felt nice. :)

I really enjoyed my run today. What a great day to run. :) 

Sick

Last night I got super sick. It is such a bummer because I don't think I am going to get this weeks mileage in. I am desperate so I am trying that BRATTY diet the Banana, Rice, Applesauce, Toast, Tea, and Yogurt thing. I hope it works!!

 

2011

Keeping my goals simple this year.

1. Pass my qualification exams this March < < Yikes!
2. Publish the MacArthur Story Stem Battery paper

The rest of these goals get a little more difficult because school seems to take up all my time.

3. Run consistently every month week
4. Post on this blog at least 4 times a month
5. Hit a 1000 miles by the end of this year
6. Run 3 half marathons with no injuries
7. Lose 20 pounds

It is going to be a great year!!