I didn't miss the talent show after all

They moved it up a half hour and I have to admit, it was fun. One group did a version of 'You're the One That I Want' from Grease with a man as Sandy and a woman as Danny. One group danced to Springsteen's 'Dancing in the Dark' with UV lights in otherwise darkness and white gloves and tape that glowed bright orange in the shape of stick people. Covers of Miley Cyrus, Johnny and June Cash, and Elvis all made the cut as well. Our motion lab director did a superb job singing and playing the keyboard to 'The Flower that Shattered the Stone', and I must say it was better than the John Denver version. I must say, I wasn't familiar with this particular song prior to the show, which given my pagan-hippie leanings at times, I'm surprised. But the lyrics and music are lovely:

The Flower That Shattered the Stone (Words and Music by Joe Henry and John Jarvis)

The Earth is our mother just turning around
With her trees in the forest and roots underground
Our father above us whose sigh is the wind
Paint us a rainbow without any end

As the river runs freely the mountain does rise
Let me touch with my fingers and see with my eyes
In the hearts of the children of pure love still roams
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way home
Like the flower that shattered the stone

Sparrows find freedom beholding the sun
In the engine and beauty were all joined in one
I reach out before me and look to the sky
Then I hear someone whisper its something pass by

As the river runs freely the mountain does rise
Let me touch with my fingers and see with my eyes
In the hearts of the children of pure love still roams
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way home
Like the flower that shattered the stone
Like a bright star in heaven that lights our way home
Like the flower that shattered the stone

Here is the John Denver version, just in case you're not familiar with the tune:


It was also our day to celebrate Halloween at the hospital. I didn't dress up, of course, but I did give out candy when the kids came trick-or-treating. The best costumes as far as the staff went had to be information services, which dressed as Tetris tetrads--the coloured blocks that fit together to make a line disappear. :) And here's my favourite Halloween decoration in the recreation therapy area:

It's Mike from Monsters, Inc., of course. :)

I'm off tomorrow, and although I have a lot of errands to run and stuff to do at home, I'm sure I'll blog. But Happy Halloween anyway! Good night.

PS Happy Birthday, A! He's finally caught up with me in age. :)

PPS Speaking of Tetris, here's a short bit from the Wikipedia article on the effect of Tetris on the brain:

According to intensive research from Dr. Michael Crane and Dr. Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play.[41] When first playing Tetris, brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by glucose metabolic rate. As Tetris players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task.[42] Even moderate playing of tetris (half-an-hour a day for three months) boosts general cognitve functions such as "critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing" and increase cerebral cortex thickness.[43]

In January 2009, an Oxford University research group headed by Dr. Emily Holmes reported in PLoS ONE that for healthy volunteers, playing ‘Tetris’ soon after viewing traumatic material in the laboratory reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment. The group hope to develop this approach further as a potential intervention to reduce the flashbacks experienced in PTSD, but emphasized that these are only preliminary results.[44]

The game can also cause a repetitive stress symptom in that the brain will involuntarily picture tetris combinations even when the player is not playing the game (the Tetris effect; for citations see the references in the article Tetris Effect), although this can occur with any computer game or situation showcasing repeated images or scenarios, such as a jigsaw puzzle.

I like the idea that it could help reduce the flashbacks of PTSD. I hope they research more on that subject. As far as the Tetris Effect goes, I have that problem, usually when I'm trying to go to sleep. I also have the same effect in terms of the monitor on my cash register, going through repetitive steps mimicking what I did that day, which is a bit annoying. But I find mental Tetris rather relaxing, and it doesn't use electricity. :)

PPPS: The videos for the Grease sketch and The Flower that Shattered the Stone were up on YouTube briefly, but were removed by the user. It would have been nice to link to them here, but I suspect people didn't want to be spotlighted on a site with millions of viewers.