There's a widely accepted theory of learning (which I've usually heard in reference to training animals for various things), which speaks to the relationship between the time it takes to learn something, how long that learned behavior persists, and the nature and frequency of feedback during the learning process. It's related to operant learning, and Skinner, and a bunch of things that I never studied in school but everyone who ever took a Psych class was just oh, so fucking knowledgeable about. In the context of the ferret I used to own:

I had a harmonica that I would play when I gave it a treat. This created a connection between the sound of the harmonica and the treat. The reason I did this is so that the ferret would come to me whenever I played the harmonica, since that sound meant treat. Now, the first time I was training him, I played the harmonica every time he got a treat. He learned the relationship very quickly, and would always come when I played the harmonica (which makes me think that I'm the only kid in the who grew up pretending that he was the Pied Piper of Hamlin). However, when I ended the training period, and stopped giving him treats when the harmonica was played, he lost the training very quickly. In the second round of training, I coupled the stimuli of the harmonica with the positive reinforcement of the treat intermittently. This causes a longer training period, but the learned behavior of coming when the harmonica played stayed with him longer (possibly interesting aside - no amount or type of training I went through with the ferret was able to condition the thing to not crap in the corner of whatever room it was in when the mood struck him).

I mention it because I realize that I'm going through something that is part of a similar process. I go out drinking every once in a while, which results in different types of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement includes feelings of euphoria, temporary periods of unjustified self-confidence, and on rare occasions the physical act of love (coitus). Negative reinforcement includes a sour belly, feelings of nausea, and headaches ranging from irritating to blinding (this morning we'll be discussing negative reinforcement, since I didn't get lucky last night and I do have a headache). My problem is that I don't ALWAYS get a really bad headache the next day, and sometimes I don't feel ill at all. This is causing the training period which is supposed to teach me what happens when I go out and get drunk to go on for an interminably long time. In fact, looking out over a lifetime of intermittent debauch, I can firmly say I've learned nothing. Not sure how I feel about that.

Yesterday was a seriously weird day. It started with a trip to the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. I was familiar with the artist only because he has done artwork for the band Tool (most notably on their album Lateralus). Figured I'd go take a look. Well, it was a serious trip, and I'm not really sure how to describe it. If you're interested, there's a flash presentation on that web page somewhere that shows you the sacred mirrors. Two things that are really worth mentioning - the huge mirror which has, right where a viewers head would go were he (Kennyb) to look straight on, an image of the sun with the word GOD printed inside (that one took a lot of my time, to be honest), and the fact that the room which held the paintings that weren't in the COSM series had a number of cushions and chairs set around. This appeared to me to be there solely for the use of kids getting high and sitting to stare at incredibly trippy art (there were a number of these types at the gallery, all of whom were looking as if they had found nirvana. And possibly listening to Nirvana). It was a good time, but seriously weird.

Then I went with a new friend of mine to go see What the #$*! Do We Know which was a fairly interesting movie about the relationship between religion, quantum physics, and meditation. A lot of interesting bits, which were somewhat damaged by the narrative that they felt needed thread through the entire movie. Worth seeing, but wait for it on video. The strange part is that I really didn't mean to have an entire day of media input that had a theme of the confluence of spirituality and mans quest for knowledge. But there you go.

Also, it's winter, and that totally sucks. Today I'm going to try very hard to not leave the house. Don't know how well that's going to go, but by God I'm going to try. Luckily, I live in a city that totally caters to shut-ins, what with the fact that I can get toilet paper delivered in under an hour. Hell, I live near a place that delivers grilled cheese sandwiches. That's it. Just grilled cheese sandwiches (made with one of 12 different cheeses). I don't know if this is a reason that I love this city, or one that suggests to me that we are nearing the end times.