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		<title><![CDATA[jtolds.com - Humor]]></title>
		<link><![CDATA[http://www.jtolds.com/newsletter/category/humor]]></link>
		<description><![CDATA[JT Olds' RSS Feed for Humor]]></description>

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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Another crazy dream]]></title>
	<author>JT Olds</author>

	<link><![CDATA[http://www.jtolds.com/newsletter/2010/1/10/another-crazy-dream]]></link>

	<guid>1263088452</guid>
	<pubDate>Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:54:12 +0000</pubDate>
	<description><![CDATA[<p><i>I found the following story on my phone this morning. Thank heavens I have a full keyboard on my phone I guess. I've slightly edited it for clarity.</i></p>

<p>I have to write this down before I forget more of it.</p>

<p>I just woke up from watching this amazing Michael Bay/Christopher Guest collaborative summer blockbuster. The only bit of background I remember is that there are these aliens living among us disguised as humans. The main character of the show was this one who looked like one of my professors from the University of Minnesota named Jeremy Rose. Most of the dream has completely faded by now, but I remember some of the final scene. </p>

<p>The Jeremy Rose alien, who I guess was named George Lazlo, just narrowly avoided being destroyed by the evil alien who was hunting him. He did this by turning his 1960s car into a large robot suit and throwing the evil alien somewhere. I don't really remember what happened to the evil alien. Anyway, the Jeremy Rose looking alien is standing there and is negotiating a peace treaty with the local authorities and decides to turn himself in because he has just discovered he is both the last of his kind and the last of the Methodists. So he says, "I, George Lazlo, as the last [some crazy alien race name] and the last Methodist, resolve to live peacefully hence forward," and then he works out details for returning the scrappy band of college friends he made to their familes.</p>

<p>The movie closed with him living in a field with his dog looking at the sky.</p>

<p>I woke up thinking, "this is a fantastic movie! I love how he was so dedicated to being a Methodist," and then it all started to fade and I realized in horror that it wasn't a real movie.</p>

<p>Dear Christopher Guest and Michael Bay, please figure out the rest of the movie as I dreamed it and make it. Please. <i>The Last Methodist</i>. Instant summer blockbuster.</p>]]></description>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Cognitive Dissonance]]></title>
	<author>JT Olds</author>

	<link><![CDATA[http://www.jtolds.com/newsletter/2009/4/19/cognitive-dissonance]]></link>

	<guid>1240182618</guid>
	<pubDate>Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
	<description><![CDATA[<p>I just got an email from a friend with the following quote. I'm going to leave the things she bolded as-is.</p>

<p>"Let us consider persons at one extreme end of the range of tolerance for dissonance, that is, persons for whom dissonance is especially painful. One might expect that in such extreme instances a person would act so as to avoid the occurrence of dissonance. Thus, for example, he would undoubtedly have experienced the unpleasantness that exists following a decision since there is almost always dissonance. If such a person, for whom dissonance is extremely painful, attempts to avoid the occurrence of dissonance, <b>one would expect to observe that he tried to avoid making decisions or even becomes incapable of making decisions.</b> At this extreme, of course, it becomes a pathological affair...One would also expect that such a person would react very vigorously to the introduction of dissonance into his cognition. This must follow if, indeed, the inability to make decisions is a reaction to fear of dissonance. There is at least one kind of situation where a person cannot avoid dissonance unless he <b>makes an absolute recluse out of himself</b>. That is, occasionally people discuss things, have disagreements, and voice their disagreements. Since the knowledge that someone like oneself holds one opinion is dissonant with holding a contrary opinion, a person for whom dissonance is extremely unpleasant would be expected to react very vigorously to the expression of disagreement from others. <b>He might argue vigorously, be dogmatic, be stubborn, and the like.</b> This syndrome of inability to make decisions, of being very 'decided' and 'one-sided' about issues, and of reacting vigorously in the face of disagreement from others, is one which would be consistent with an interpretation that the person has such low tolerance for dissonance that he has learned to react in anticipation of it...There are other, milder ways of reacting in anticipation of dissonance in order to avoid it. There are persons who, <b>in avoiding post-decision dissonance, make decisions without making them.</b> This can be done sometimes by <b>assuming a passive role</b> with respect to the environment so that, at least in some instances, <b>decisions get made because the ground, so to speak, has moved under one's feet. Thus the decision is made but the person is not responsible for it</b>...such avoidance of dissonance should exist only for persons who have very low tolerance for dissonance coupled with relatively inefficient mechanisms for reducing dissonance once it occurs."</p>

<p>From <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=voeQ-8CASacC"><i>A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance</i></a> by Leon Festinger.</p>

<p>I don't know <i>anyone</i> like that. That sounds completely unusual.</p>]]></description>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Crazy Dream]]></title>
	<author>JT Olds</author>

	<link><![CDATA[http://www.jtolds.com/newsletter/2008/11/21/crazy-dream]]></link>

	<guid>1227250421</guid>
	<pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:53:41 +0000</pubDate>
	<description><![CDATA[<p>I just wanted to quickly share a book cover from a dream I had a few nights ago that I attempted to reconstruct as best I could. All I can say is that, evidently, the war in Iraq had a pretty seriously good reason: dinosaurs aren't extinct and it's been a massive government cover-up. Or so I tell myself while sleeping.</p>

<p><img src="/newsletter/images/spontaneous_raptors.jpg" alt="Dr. Andrew Weil's Spontaneous Raptor Attacks"/><br/>Yes, I seriously dreamed this.</p>

<p>Dr. Weil's advice was to wear white, not to avoid the raptors, but to assist doctors in quickly locating the inevitable flesh wounds.</p>]]></description>
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<item>
	<title><![CDATA[Retrospect]]></title>
	<author>JT Olds</author>

	<link><![CDATA[http://www.jtolds.com/newsletter/2008/8/24/retrospect]]></link>

	<guid>1219549590</guid>
	<pubDate>Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:46:30 +0000</pubDate>
	<description><![CDATA[In retrospect, I think <a href="http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=221768&cid=17970082">this</a> joke is even more funny.<br/>
<br/>
I wish Slashdot allowed replies to old comments.]]></description>
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