The Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen

I read this book in 2007 when I traveled to Venezuela. It was a good companion to have on the airplane ride. The book is about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

I never realized how much the fair changed things. Some products were introduced at the fair such as Cracker Jacks, Juicy Fruit Gum, Aunt Jemima's Pancake mix, and the hamburger was introduced to the USA. I found it to be very interesting that a few of the buildings from the fair that stand today are part of the Museum of Science and Industry. I went there in 2000. I didn't know about the history of those buildings until I read the book.

The book is about the World's Fair and also about a series of murders that were committed by a serial killer during the time of the event. He went by many pseudonyms. H.H. Holmes was his most popular one. He came from the East and moved into Chicago where he wasn't known. He was a good con-artist, making business deals with people and later refusing to pay his loans. He had a winning personality and smile that made people do what he wanted them to do. He was a true psycopath because he was so well-liked and friendly, yet also swindling people and killing people mercilessly. He had a hotel built with rooms that were gas chambers. There was a crematorium built in the basement. There may have been 200 victims of his killing spree, yet the real number has been lost to history.

One very interesting thing about the fair is that those who constructed the buildings and gardens for the fair were popular landscapers and architects of the day. The landscaper was Olmstead, who had set the plans for Central Park in New York City.

This book gave me an idea of life in the 1890s, that were known as "The Gay Nineties". I never knew how much this World's Fair changed things forever. I also was interested in the landscaping of Olmstead. It made me appreciate Central Park more. He had an eye for untamed nature, and the park is an area of some wild beauty in the middle of the city.

Andrew Wakefield is a Fraud

The anti-vaccine debate is something that has been raging for over a decade.  The debate started in 1998 when British doctor Andrew Wakefield published a study that said vaccines may cause autism in toddlers.  The result was that millions of parents refused to vaccinate their children, decided to space vaccines out, or also selectively vaccinate their children.  The result was that many children were sickened by vaccine-preventable diseases and some died.  There were people who were vaccinated and came down with the illnesses because their vaccines weren't enough to give them full immunity.  Some diseases that were almost non-existant in some areas made comebacks among those unvaccinated populations.
This anti-vaccine debate boils my blood.  First, the risks of vaccinating are low.  They are so low that in fact, when someone does have a reaction to a vaccine, doctors are not sure if the vaccine caused the distress or something else.  Even then, the risk of getting the infectious disease is far worse with not vaccinating than to worry about a reaction to the shot.  Not vaccinating is a deadly choice because vaccinations have saved billions of lives.
One reason why there is the vaccine debate is because the current generation of parents has forgotten the history of vaccinating.  Up to the turn of the 20th century, many children died before the age of five years due to childhood diseases.  Measles, Mumps, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Scarlet Fever, and others were things that nearly every family dealt with.  The Polio outbreak of the 1950s sent thousands of children into iron lungs, sometimes for life.  Jonas Salk was hailed as a hero when he made the Polio vaccine.
Do we really want to go back to having those childhood diseases?  Some parents these days have gone as far as to purposely expose their children to diseases.  Grassroots efforts have started "Measles Parties" and even "Flu Parties" where people will bring their healthy children into contact with sick children because they think getting the disease will benefit their kids somehow.  They think getting a disease will help their children's immune systems to get a "workout".
Now, there is no proof at all that vaccines cause autism.  Andrew Wakefield worked with a dozen cases and it has been proven that he has tweaked the results in order for it to look like autism was caused by vaccines.  It is a coincidence that autism symptoms show up when a child has their vaccines because both happen in toddlerhood.
Unfortunately, it will still take years for this debate to be cleaned up, because there are still some people who think that vaccinations are unhealthy.  Those people have been hindering the eradication of many diseases from the public sphere. I do hope that the unmasking of this fraud will make those parents wake up to the reality that vaccines need to be given to children.
This isn't the only time a fraud has caused such a stir.  Piltdown Man ruined many careers in paleontology.  There are still people who are blaming vaccines for Rheumatoid Arthritis, Diabetes, Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), and Fibromyalgia.  It will take much more research to convince some people that they should vaccinate.  At least there has been more research directed at autism, that is one good thing about this.

The Gifted Adult by Mary-Elaine Jacobsen

The issues of adults with intellectual giftedness are something that isn't brought up often among psychological circles. Giftedness in child development is something that is talked about, yet still isn't addressed enough. After all, only a small part of the population is gifted. It is an important topic because people with giftedness have unique needs. They are often misunderstood. Many gifted people have heightened sensitivities, emotions, drive, imagination, and creativity. Having relationships with other gifted individuals is essential so they can have people with whome to relate.



I decided to read this book so I can understand myself better. I know I was an outsider in school. I was one of the students with good grades and never joined any groups. I was a non-conformist and I never felt that I was like the other students. I often didn't know what to talk about when they talked about things. I just didn't find their topics to be interesting. Of course I got picked on for being different.



When I was seven years old a box of World Book encyclopedias arrived in my classroom. During that schoolyear I often look up random things in them. I liked reading about different countries, people, diseases, etc. I read books on plants, geography, the human body, and outer space. My mother was studying to be a nurse and I skimmed her nursing texbooks. I could name many bones and organs in the body. The following year I learned how to play piano and I played it very well. I didn't feel limited in anything except maths. In high school I was a member of the National Honor Society and I was in the Honors Core when at Andrews University.



Jacobsen's book said that giftedness is more than just an I.Q. score. Having done some research on I.Q., giftedness is generally defined by someone having an I.Q. of 130 or higher. Gifted programmes in schools often require that minimum score of 130. Mensa, the high I.Q. society, requires a Stanford-Binet score of 132 or higher and 148 on the Cattell. The problem with I.Q. testing, is that intelligence can't always be measured by a test alone. It makes a good guess of someone's intelligence, but each test has a margin of error. I.Q. testing can have 15 points in deviation. Jacobsen says that giftedness is about creativity and asking questions instead of just answering them.



There were a few chapters dedicated to common criticisms of gited individuals. Some of those are: "Can't You Just Stick With One Thing?" and "Where Do You Get Those Wild Ideas?". Having many interests and having trouble focusing on just one interest is a problem I have had. I am often very restless and move from task to task easily. Being very curious is something I haven't grown out of. It's normal behaviour for us gifted people. The best answer is "yes, I have many interests and I like to explore new ideas". Thinking outside the box is also a gifted trait. Nonconformity is something that gifted people exhibit because they prefer to be independent thinkers. That sets them apart. History has many very intelligent people who were criticised for their ideas, only to have those ideas change the world for the better. Copernicus, Galileo, Edison, and many more were considered to be crazy by the general population.



The need for intellectual stimulation is important. I want to read books and watch movies that are worth my time and not just entertaining. There are some exceptions, yet I prefer watching documentaries, independent films, and historical dramas. I have been reading about neuroscience, botany, physics, and biographies of famous intellectuals.

The theory of multiple intelligences is important. Each person has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. The book had a test on multiple intelligences and I scored highest in naturalistic and linguistic intelligence. That didn't surprise me. I like books and I love nature.



Unfortunately, I have often felt that there is something wrong because of being different. When on a bus in Korea in 2006, my friend Victor said that there was nothing wrong with me at all, and that I was probably more blessed than anyone on the bus. I didn't forget that. He added that I need to remember that to whom much is given, much is required.

I have had a problem with not staying focused enough. I am used to things coming easily to me, and I haven't always done well because I didn't work hard enough. I do want to change that. I want to learn taekwondo at a Korean dojang within a few weeks. I also want to start graduate school soon. I do want to live up to my potential and work hard for what I want to accomplish.

Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children and Adults

By James T. Webb, Edward R. Amend, Nadia E. Webb, Jean Goerss, Paul Belian, Richard Olenchak

This book is a very interesting book about the subject of intellectual giftedness. It is about how gifted people often get misdiagnosed with disorders such as Bipolar, AD/HD, Asperger's, and Obsessive Compulsive. It also mentions how gifted people can have these disorders along with their giftedness. Psychologists are realizing now that gifted traits can mimic certain disorders because of the overexcitabilities and drive of people of high intelligence. Gifted individuals with learning disabilities and other psychiatric disorders are known as "twice exceptional" and they are a challenging group of people to understand.

I have noticed that many children are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and and many other disorders. They are being put on drugs like Ritalin at a high rate. Many of these children are very bright kids. I wonder how many of them really neeed that medication. History has many geniuses who were terrible students. Benajamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein and others like them did poorly in grade school because they resisted authority and daydreamed a lot. Yet they were geniuses.

It is interesting that many characteristics of giftedness mimic AD/HD.



Some characteristics of AD/HD:

Poor attention span

Restlessness, changes activities often, hyperactivity

Dislikes mundane activities

Impulsive

May appear inattentive to details



Some characteristics of gifted students who are bored:

Daydreaming when bored

Bored when tasks are considered mundane or irrelevant

Begin many projects and then don't complete them

High activity level, may need less sleep

Resist authority



I found it interesting that those characteristics overlap so much. It must be true that many people with the AD/HD are actually gifted students that are bored with school because they are not being challenged enough.



Intellectual giftedness creates a drive within people to persue things they find interesting. There are also overexcitabilities such as heightened emotions, more sensitivity to light and touch, and sensitivity to criticism. Those issues have caused some to be misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Asperger's Syndrome.



When people are thought to have certain disorders, they need a full assessment to make sure that they actually have the disorder. They also need to have an evaluation on how they perform in various settings. If the person does need special treatment for a disorder, it shouldn't be overlooked. We can't say giftedness is a reason for things either, unless we are sure that it's there.

Names for Plants

Some  names I thought would be great for hybrid plants if I were a botanist:

Ice Princess, Snow Queen, Emerald City, Kaitlin, Gracie, Zephyr, Shianna, Shayla, Desert Queen, Taehan, Jinju, Paek-Jangmi, Cham Sarang, Cloud's Silver Lining, Pink Frosting, Villanelle, Moonbow, Po Eun, Cheyenna, Georgia O'Keefe, Angeline Grace, Sugarplum Fairy, Boston, Geumgansan,  Baekdusan, Jet Black, Tharaya, Dali, Picasso, Sheena, Silver/Gold Jubilee, Mulled Cider, Pot of Gold, Ariel, Silver Bells, April Showers, Double Rainbow, Philos, Aristotle, Lauralee, Christmas Candy, Clear Joy, Confetti, Sepia, Peaceful Breeze, Zephyra, Zephaniah, Crystalline...

Why I Want to Be a Drifter

I have had old friends and family members in the United States asking me when I'm going to stay in the country and settle.  They see my wanting to live in other countries to work and explore as "immature" and think I need to get a "real" job and be "stable".  I know what they think would be best for me: a great job where I can make lots of money and have prestige, a house with a big yard, a few children with names like Mackenzie and Aidan, and a golden retriever.  A bonus would be a white picket fence and a SUV.  It is considered "success" to fit into the typical suburban lifestyle and have lots of things people will envy.
I have decided to opt out of the "American Dream".  I have realized it's not worth it to chase after it.  Having a home would be nice, but that would also mean having to pay a mortgage and keeping the home up.  I would like to own a home, yet it's not something necessary.  I also don't want to have a job that's boring just so I can make a lot of money.  If I really need the job, then of course I will keep it until I can find something better.  Yet I am not going to be a drone so that I can really live after I retire.
I had always dreamed of traveling.  When I was a child I had a book called Children Around the World that featured different countries of the world and had pictures of children or dolls in their native costumes.  There were essays on each country and some songs, recipes, and words from various languages. I spent hours pouring over that small book.  For my seventh birthday I received a globe with bumps for the mountain ranges of the world.  I loved looking at it and imagining myself in each country.  I knew that one day I would live in another country.
I have always enjoyed travel literature. I have been a fan of National Geographic since I could read.  Other children in my classroom were learning to read their primers and I was collecting National Geographics.  I remember one article I read on Pompeii, and the cover had a skeleton wearing bracelets.  I remember reading about the finding of the Titanic and peering at the rusted windows of the vacant vessel.  When I was seven, my classroom received a set of World Book encyclopedias and I spent hours of my free time pouring over the volumes to learn about other places and times.
I finally made my dream come true when I went to teach English in Korea in 2005.  I could have left a few years earlier, yet I listened to my family and took more college classes. My mother thought I would be a great dental hygienist because it is a "good job" and "in demand" and I would make "good money".  I am glad I left.
Even though the job wasn't always easy, I am glad I traveled. 
I know that as long as I am working to make money or studying, living abroad doesn't have to be a dead end. I can opt for the road less traveled, even though it may be rough and I may have criticism, I can do it. I have thought of living in Thailand, South Africa, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, etc.  I am leaving my options open. I may not know where I will be in five years, but I want to be where I am happy and being independent.