Six for Saturday

1) I don't remember where I heard this, but there is an awesome strategy for getting people to say yes to things. If you say "Do you want to/will you/could you please do X?", then whoever you're asking sees their possible options as "Yes, I'll do X" or "No, I won't do X". Since "No" is an explicit option, they're more likely to choose it. However, if you say "Would you like to do X or Y?", then they see their possible options as "(Yes) I'll do X" or "(Yes) I'll do Y". Since "No" isn't an explicit option, they are much less likely to say "No" automatically or because they kind of don't want to do it. They will only say "No" if they really don't want to do it.

I thought of this today because I was in charge of making assignments for FHE. I knocked on the door of one of the apartments in our group, and I asked the girl if her apartment could do treats. I could tell she felt bad saying "no", but she was kind of like, "well, my roommates aren't home and I don't know how they'd feel about it...we might not have stuff to make treats...I don't know if they're planning on coming..." So I said, well, if you like, our apartment can trade you and you can do the lesson instead? In one fell swoop, I changed the question from a yes/no to an X/Y, and it was amazing to see how fast her reaction changed. "Well, actually, my roommate's at the grocery store, I'll just call her and get her to pick something up." Psychology ftw.

2) Tomorrow, I'm playing the organ, so I went across the street to practice at the chapel. I very quickly realized that I've only ever played ONE organ in my ENTIRE life. It was bizarre how much of a difference it made. I don't find it awkward to play on new pianos, because I've played on so many, but my habits are so entrenched on the organ at home that it felt really weird. The foot pedals are way narrower, with more space in between them. So, that was an interesting experience.

3) I'm trying to watch the BYU/Ole Miss game on my laptop, because it seems like the kind of thing I should do. But I just don't get it. So I'm blogging with the game in the background.

4) Yesterday, Alex's parents had us all over for dinner. Christa and I played badminton with her little sisters in the backyard while Alex and her dad made some adjustments to her bike. One of Alex's sisters is on the tennis team at the high school, so she's pretty good at badminton, and the younger sister is also pretty good from playing with Alex and the other sister. But, I won. I mean, we won, Christa and I, but really I won.

5) You know those gummy watermelon candies, the ones that are a bit like fuzzy peaches but watermelon flavoured? Well, today at the Creamery I bought a grapefruit version of those, and they are THE BEST candy EVER. And, not only do they taste good, but they are so tart and grapefruity that it's impossible to cram them in your mouth and go on a candy binge, which is really useful.

6) The BYU Creamery has a cereal aisle, a white food aisle, a Mexican food aisle, a frozen pre-made dinner aisle, and a big candy counter. It's pretty funny to go grocery shopping there, actually. But I shall have to make a WalMart excursion with Christa at some point - she has a car.