Working hard

I caved - I totally bought a Power Plant which I blogged about here. I don’t have any seeds and I’m still trying to decide what to grow, but the side of the box claims I can grow things like peppers and soybeans. My original plan was something safe, like basil, but now I’m overwhelmed with possibilities!

This weekend was altogether amazingly good in general. I stayed away from the Internet, I actually had taken Friday off from work. My weekend consisted of pretty much a lot of writing, drawing, playing Okami, tons of reading, and staring off into space, which was NICE. I really needed it, trust me. I also went for cold, late-night walks with J, drank tons of tea and coffee, and spent lots of nice quality time with my parents. It was so relaxing, let me tell you, and now I feel completely and totally prepared for this coming week.

You know, I think sometimes that people really underestimate how hard it is to be a university student. I think a lot of people look at all the partying and stuff that goes on and thinks that we just goof off, but that can’t be farther than the truth for a lot of people. Of course, it all really depends on your major, and I KNOW computer science at my school is worse than almost every other major, but still - colleges and universities are tough. If you don’t work while going to school, relish it - you don’t know what it’s like to have to work and go to school at the same time.

So it’s the little things - you take what you can get, right? You have to take a little bit of time for yourself every once in awhile or you’ll go insane.

Also, as a note, Nanowrimo is coming up in a few days. Any fellow Nano’ers?

October 29, 2008 @ 9:01 am . Comments (6)

General — Tags: computer science, nanowrimo, relaxing, school, writing

Relaxing Friday

It’s been a really long semester so far, and I’ve been starting to get really drained because I don’t have time for warmth, relaxation, and happiness. It took yesterday, getting to the point where I just broke down, for me to finally force myself to take it easy for awhile.

So I’m going to spend this weekend resting, drinking tea, and relaxing my mind. I’ll also be getting my creativity back, taking my time on projects and assignments, and taking lots of breaks for coffee and sweets. I’m also staying away from my phone, and also my computer - maybe possibly I’ll check my email but mostly I’m going to be gone.

Have a great weekend everyone!

October 24, 2008 @ 6:25 pm . Comments (4)

General — Tags: living, real life, relaxing, well-being

Obsession with sports

As many of you are aware, my bike is pretty old. I bought it for $40 at a garage sale down the street. It’s an old women’s one-speed Huffy with a chain guard and basket on the front (which my mum gave me). It squeaks when I ride and doesn’t go up hills. The tires go flat quickly. Sometimes it makes weird metal clanking noises.

It’s not a perfect bike but it does the job and I use it to ride to school almost every morning. I used to take a shuttle to school but they’re not just crowded, they’re usually full. I’m getting to the point where I can’t wait to get out of school, and so I’m rather jaded to being cram packed into a bus with a million other university students, most of which are on their cell phones and none of which will give up their seat for someone who needs it more, like a person juggling five bags and a musical instrument.

But that’s a different complaint. So, my bike is great and I ride it everywhere. Did I mention it’s slow? My bike is so heavy I can’t lift it more than a couple inches off the ground, and I’m not exactly petite. So it’s really slow, because it’s so heavy. If I get a good speed going and then stop pedalling, it’ll roll to a stop really quickly. It’s ridiculous.

Anyway, so, I’m not the sort of person who rushes around anyway so it suits me fine. I tend to be late to class and late to dates and appointments, so a slow bike is perfect. I’ll be riding along, keeping up a decent pace, and all of the sudden, some douche on a mountain bike or racer bike, wearing a helmet and shorts, will go whizzing by me, his backpack tight against his back and no trace of a bag or basket.

Which is fine. You know, if he wants to get out of breath, that’s his business. But he’s GOING TO SCHOOL. Not biking in a marathon. Where’s the fire?

I’ve been reading Copenhagen Cycle Chic and it exactly talks about how I feel. Americans have turned cycling into a sport, just as they’ve turned running into a sport, walking into a sport, and every other thing they can possibly turn into a sport… into a sport.

Now people feel like you can’t just bike to work or school without having the Right Gear or the Right Bike. I see clones… ahem, sorry, I mean girls at my university wearing running shorts all day. Running shorts? What, do they expect they’re going to suddenly have to race each other? Or do they think by wearing athletic clothes to history class they’re going to look skinnier and more toned?

My point is exercising is such a big deal here! Everyone goes to the gym, buys fancy clothes and equipment, and then wears their running shorts to go grocery shopping. People give me weird looks because I bike in a skirt. To school. Without a helmet. Without any “bike equipment.” Wearing gold flats or Converse with no arch support. Oh no!

Like, I said, I’m always late. Sometimes it’s a big deal. So I run. Seems like a good idea to me, but I get stares because I am the one of the few people I have ever seen running on campus. Everyone else walks briskly. Wearing running shorts.

You don’t need fancy equipment to ride your bike to school or work and you definitely don’t need to dress funny. You just need to do it. Or, just go for a walk in whatever you’ve got on. I see these ladies walking in gym bras, shorts, and caps, and it just looks funny to me. I think if you’re spending that much time looking athletic you’re missing the point of just going for a walk. Or riding your bike. Or even swimming or hiking or camping or whatever.

Trust me on this - if you go in what you’ve got on, you’ll be fine. Unless you’re seriously jogging for sport or running a marathon or whatever. I’m just saying that if you want to walk you don’t need to wear something special. If you want to bike to work just enjoy the ride and don’t worry about the difference between spandex and nylon and chamois or whatever the heck. Unless you are planning on participating in a marathon or you take it VERY seriously, if you don’t have the gear, don’t WORRY about it. Just get out there and do it anyway.

Too long didn’t read:

Dear America,
Stop turning every single way I get from one place to another into a sport. I can’t afford spandex.
Thank you.

October 19, 2008 @ 9:55 am . Comments (6)

Culture — Tags: annoyance, fashion, trends

A serious problem

I recently did a project for geology where we were given the biocapacity of the Earth, the population of the Earth, and a few estimated average yearly footprint (resources we as an individual consume). In the United States, the footprint is about 7-10 hectares. In other countries, the footprint is more like 0.5 or 0.6 hectares. If that doesn’t make you stop and think, maybe this will.

Based on my calculations of REAL, ACTUAL data, there is a good chance we’ve already reached our carrying capacity. Global warming may hit us within 1000-2000 years. Carrying capacity is happening today or it will happen within our lifetimes.

What does this mean? There was a famous experiment where around 30 reindeer were dropped off on an island up north. The reindeer began to breed and populate the island. The biocapacity for the island was around 1,500 reindeer. Within a short period of time, there were 6,000 reindeer on the island. They peaked at this point, and then began to starve to death. There weren’t enough resources to exist at the numbers that they were at. Resources replenish themselves but the grass and berries and stuff couldn’t grow back fast enough. When the researchers returned, there were 21 reindeer left - 20 females and 1 sickly male.

The reindeer went extinct on the island because there were simply too many of them at that point. The two reasons a species can go extinct are: 1) the more common reason, which is environmental destruction (meteor strikes, ice ages, bulldozing the rainforest) and 2) the reason people don’t talk about - when there are too many creatures in an area (or on the entire planet) - there aren’t enough resources to maintain those levels. When the number gets way too high above the carrying capacity, resources can’t replenish themselves fast enough and nature takes over. Sometimes enough creatures will die out that the species can maintain an equilibrium. Sometimes most of the creatures are killed, but enough survive so that they can still exist. And sometimes they go extinct.

Something has to give when an organism goes above their carrying capacity. Nature FORCES this to happen. What’s most likely to happen is that we go above the carrying capacity (population is an n^3 equation, which grows very rapidly), people began starving in record numbers, and they die until we get back down to 6 billion people (which is about what the population needs to be).

People are going to die.

We need to stop consuming so much. We need to reduce our yearly consumption. And then we need to desperately reduce the world’s population. I hear people all the time talking about how other people need to do it, as if we in the United States are always exempt from everything because we have money. Guess what? The human race could go extinct if we keep ignoring the problem and letting population get too high.

Nobody talks about this because population control is such a sensitive subject. Everyone loves to imagine their genes being passed on, little tiny them and their husbands or wives. Nobody is willing to make the sacrifice to adopt instead of having children or simply opting to not have kids at all because they feel like other people should do it. They feel like they deserve to have children. Other people can take care of reducing the population.

I know some of you will think I’m beastly for encouraging you to make the choice to not have natural children of your own, but I hope maybe we can fix what’s going wrong. This is bigger than global warming. I did the number crunching - I worked those numbers and I found out what’s really happening through my own research.

I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t be pressured in to having kids if you don’t feel like you 100% want to. Try to adopt a child who needs you - that child will be YOURS in every sense of the word. There is no need to doom our future when we can stop this now.

I’m off my soapbox now.

ps: if you want the numbers I used, feel free to ask and I can provide you with the data so you can work through this yourself.

October 14, 2008 @ 1:27 pm . Comments (5)

Culture —

Too tired

I’m not dead. I’ve spent the past several days wanting to write a post so bad but physically haven’t had the time. Like, I haven’t even had time to make dinner. Or eat. I know everyone says that, but literally, my week is waking up at 6:30 to get to class or work by 8, and staying there until 5, getting home at 5:30-6, and then working on projects at my group member’s house until 10, when I have to get to sleep so I can be up by 6:30 the next day to do it all again.

And now that I have time, I don’t have the ENERGY to write the post I’ve been dying to write.

The world hates me.

I’m going to bed at 9:03, which is early, even for me. I’m a morning person in every sense of the word (goes to bed early, wakes up early - even on weekends). But it’s a rare day that I’m going to bed at 9. I am really, REALLY tired (and I still have a lot to do this week!).

In other news, it’s supposed to rain and cool off. Guess what the temperatures are going to be? Mid 80s. Texas fails at autumn.

October 13, 2008 @ 8:05 pm . Comments (2)

General — Tags: annoyance, school

Who you are

I have a lot of books. Above is the second bookcase I own - notice how the rows of books are nice and neat? Notice how there’s room for my roommate’s DVDs and even some boxes at the top that has my art supplies in them? Yeah, the only reason for that is because I haven’t moved most of the books from my other bookcase to this one. My other bookcase has books horizontally on the shelves so I can stack them up. Then there are stacks of books in FRONT of each stack of books. So, essentially, they’re double stacked and stacked horizontally instead of nice and vertical.

Then I have two boxes of books in my closet.

I have a LOT of books. But I don’t have a LOT of stuff. I find what’s important to me and I keep them because I USE them. But just because I have a lot of books doesn’t mean I have a lot of things I don’t need. I don’t have a fancy TV, I don’t have tons of clothes and makeup, I don’t hoard things from my childhood. Every year I go through my stuff and give a fair amount of it to Goodwill.

So apparently we’re going through some economic/financial crisis right now. Apparently people are freaking out because they think there’s going to be another great depression and so they’re hoarding stuff. To me, this doesn’t sound any different from what people normally do. You DON’T need all that stuff. You can live without your junk, even through a financial crisis.

I know people who keep everything - I know people whose cars look like a trashcan and you can only fit in the front seat because the back seat is completely covered in stuff. People get unreasonably defensive about it, too. They talk about how they NEED that chipped vase because it was their great-grandparents’ and how if they get rid of the ten thousand hangers they have in their closet, half of which aren’t even being used, they might need them later and won’t have them and will panic.

What is up with this fear? You have to choose what’s important to you, and even then you can’t be unreasonable about it. I love books but even I give away books every once in awhile because I will never read them again. And if I do decide to read it later on down the line, well, that’s why libraries exist.

And that’s the whole thing - people are so terrified of not having exactly what they need when they need it, and I ask you, why? Why are you afraid? Also, why do you NEED this stuff? Does it make you feel better as a person to have it? Do you keep it because some day you might look at it again and relive those memories? Take a picture of it and throw it out.

Unclutterer often talks about these ideas but I’ve noticed it often pushes this to an extreme. What I’m saying is you don’t need to get rid of everything - I have two bookcases, for goodness’ sake. But that’s because books are important to me and I read a lot. I have a lot of art supplies as well - they fit nicely in four boxes and I have a fold-up easel too. But I don’t have a lot of junk that I keep around just for memories. I don’t have a lot of furniture, I don’t have a big bed, and I don’t have electronic junk. I don’t have an iPod, I don’t have a stereo, I don’t have ten million DVDs that need their own separate container to store them all. I don’t have a file cabinet - just a magazine holder that holds recent files. Everything older than six months to a year is shredded and thrown out (sometimes scanned first).

The point is I don’t spend the money on this stuff and I don’t fill up my cozy apartment with it either. The first thing most people say when they walk into my apartment is, “Wow, it looks really nice in here! But it’s so small!”

I think Americans in general are used to humongous living spaces. It’s this vicious circle - we buy too much stuff and then we buy a bigger place to fit all our stuff and then we realize we have more space for more stuff so we buy more stuff, and then we think we need a bigger place, and so on. I read somewhere (can’t find the original source) that Americans have much more space than Europeans, and they feel uncomfortable living in small spaces. I don’t think my place is small because I don’t have so much stuff that it feels cramped. There isn’t a lot of square footage but I don’t need a lot of square footage. When did we start valuing more space than we need? When did we start feeling more secure financially when we have a lot of things?

Which brings me back to my original point. You will be able to better survive a financial crisis if you learn to stop relying on material goods, sell the things you don’t need, get out of debt, and stop buying things you can’t afford. Wealth does NOT equal How Much Stuff You Have. Start with one thing at a time - throw something out and don’t look back.

You don’t have to live in a house with nothing. You’re allowed to have hobbies! You’re allowed to keep things you use. But sever that attachment with your material goods. These things do not make you who you are.

October 8, 2008 @ 11:39 am . Comments (5)

Culture — Tags: lessons, living, trends

Too much to do

It’s been very busy the past few days. I’ve had projects, two tests this week, one test next week, and some difficult homework due. But it hasn’t been all work - we’ve made sure to relax a lot, mostly by going downtown three times in three days, twice to Whole Foods for lunch (which I am currently addicted to).

It’s also been annoyingly hot. The picture looks muggy and it is. I know it’s boring to talk about the weather, but this is so ridiculous - it starts off at 60F in the mornings, just chilly enough that I grab a sweater and feel fine. By two o’clock in the afternoon, it’s 90F. How the HECK does it go up 30F in just a few hours? It’s really getting on my nerves because I’m sick of my summer wardrobe and I’m sick of the drastic temperature change. I’m also sick of being sweaty and hot and I’m sick of air conditioning.

So, as you can see, it’s just been a typical past few days except slightly busier. I’m tired - I really need to get a good night’s sleep but I can’t, for some reason or another. One night it’s this, the next night it’s that. I’m really looking forward to Wednesday because that’s the first day I get to actually sleep in til eight.

And it’s a little unnerving knowing that it’s only going to get busier from here. I don’t like to whine about this, but I take 17 hours of classes a week and I work 18 hours. It gets to be too much at times, especially with projects and midterms. I might have to end up taking a day off this week just to catch up, and that makes me feel miserable.

But still, at least the sun is shining and in a few months I’ll be completely done with all this. I just need to find some time to relax and I’ll be okay.

What do you do when you’re stressed out and busy?

October 6, 2008 @ 9:09 pm . Comments (2)

General — Tags: Health, relaxing

Today’s resolution

Today I am taking my camera. And I am ACTUALLY GOING TO TAKE PICTURES.

I am also taking my sketchbook.

That is all.

Pictures tonight, I promise.

October 1, 2008 @ 8:29 am . Comments (4)

Art — Tags: creativity, design