From just outside the peanut gallery

This is a little awkward, blogger...

2010-01-31T23:05:00.004-05:00

Because I may have moved on from you.
Don't hate me..?
We can still be friends, right?
I still need my entries saved somewhere?
Well, not most of them, which I backdated on Wordpress.

Come on, we both knew this wouldn't be forever, Blogger, can't you just--OK, just kidding..
here's my new Web site for the independent study I am doing. slash my life because basically this topic is my life as it is part of my internship/job/2 classes/general interest etc.

TA DA! http://localfoodiefight.wordpress.com

Get it? Like, I'm a foodie, and I like local food, and food fight, and there's a constant food fight going on in the world of big ag vs. local ag..........yeah whatever, it's not easy coming up with a blog name ok!?

Big changes...

2010-01-29T13:51:00.007-05:00

Well. Not exactly big changes yet, but soon there will be, hopefully. I am negotiating with Mother Earth to see if she will switch to a longer rotational pattern around her axis, because it turns out I need more than 24 hours in each day in order to get done everything I need to get done. Not sure how she will respond to my request, but I will let you know.

In the meantime, I may just link from here to some other blogs I write, because I've got a couple others going on what with the classes I am taking and the internship I am doing. Eventually, I may phase out this blogspot and move myself over to Wordpress with a bigger focus on local food specifically. OK, this isn't really a "may" so much as I'm not sure when I will be done getting the site ready. But when I do, you betcha I'll direct you there.

ANYWAY. Go check out this ridiculous video from Nat Geo on what it takes to make plastic bottles that get "recycled" into polyester clothing over in China Food & Water Watch's's blog response to it.

Shorter, sweeter, less ranty: I have a lot of debt

2010-01-26T08:42:00.009-05:00

Upon waking up this morning, I decided I need to keep up with this blog better, which will entail shorter entries, entries that don't delve into the most inner innards of my inner-self and take me 3 hours to write and leave even me scratching my head wondering what I am getting at.

Therefore, here is something positive from Obama's Middle Class Task Force remarks yesterday:

Biden: The fourth thing is we're going to be strengthening the income-based repayment program for student loans -- fancy way of saying a lot of kids and families graduate with significant loan responsibility and literally -- literally are left with very few options. They've got to go out and get the highest-paying job they can, maybe in an area they had no intention of working in, just to pay back the loan.

Today the average debt of a graduating senior from college -- now, listen -- the average debt -- people of my generation -- the average debt is $23,000. That is literally $2,000 more than my first house cost. But in any standard, it's a lot of money -- average debt. Some are graduating with a great deal more debt than that.

So our proposal ensures that Federal Student Loan payments for overburdened borrowers are never more than 10 percent of their income -- a change like that makes a real difference for a kid just out of school. For someone who earns 30,000 bucks and owes $20,000 in loans, this would lower his or her monthly payment from $228 a month under the standard repayment plan to $115 a month. People who have to budget every day just to get by, they understand that's a big difference. That's a big difference.

This is great news, or a great, "remark." I just checked on my student loan just now to see if I perhaps came in under this national average of $23,000, and I found out that I do!-- by about $263 (including interest that's already accumulated). They say student loan debt isn't really bad, but it's hard to feel good about it, for sure. I can't imagine where I would be without the $18,000/yr scholarship I have. Definitely not at AU, that's for certain.

Can we just talk about this for a second: Where do I have to move in this world if I want to buy a house for $21,000? I will seriously consider this.

Maybe I could live the simple life in Costa Rica...anyone want to move to Costa Rica with me?

How far in student loan debt are you? More than the national average or less?

I should rename this blog to, "From Just Outside the Peanut Gallery: here are my rants"

2010-01-26T02:17:00.009-05:00

I was kind of hesitant to bring up this topic in this blog, mostly because I still haven’t decided where I am going with this blog. I don’t know who reads it or if they care about my personal life tid bits, but I kind of thought that was what blogs are all about. In fact, I love reading blogs about personal life tid bits. I mean, they should incorporate real world stuff, or helpful things that readers will be able to use, but they should also have a personal edge.

Anyway, what I am getting at is I feel like I might be embarking on my quarter life crisis. Which is disheartening, because I aspire to live until I am at least 200 years old, (but I am going to make 200 years look good. Seriously.) So, if I am already hitting my quarter life crisis, that means I am only going to live until the age of 88. That is not long enough.

Ahem, correction: I feel like I might be embarking on my one-eighth life crisis. (Ahh. Much better.) What I mean by this is I am starting to doubt and wonder about everything I have done thus far in life. Am I on the right track? What is the right track? I mean, we are all sort of born into a life track, and then we hit college, and then we begin doubting everything we ever were taught or brought up to believe in, everything we always thought we were so god damn sure about. Which is really just scary, because it's like, well, if I feel this different now than I did when I was 15, what is stopping me from feeling completely different when I am 27 compared to now? Can we ever really believe in what we believe in? (Note to self: strike two with the woe-is-me existentialism.)

For example, I was raised in a conservative family. My parents were always and still are Republicans. So when I went to register to vote down in Florida when I was 18, I registered as a Republican (you can’t register Independent, or else I would have done so.) It just seemed…correct? Politically correct?

Now, every day it seems my political views begin to lean more and more left. I am fiscally conservative (but not exceptionally) and socially liberal (on most issues). But really, when it comes down to it, I don’t want to be either. I think partisan politics is a bunch of bullshit and I hate that we have to put ourselves in a box that isn’t even properly made. I think (some) politicians are corrupt. I want to live on Pandora and be a Navii.

I also have begun to question my religious beliefs as of late. I was raised Catholic, but stopped attending church with my parents in high school around the time when that Catholic Church sex abuse scandal blew up in the media. Now, my parents are still both quite religious, however they still don’t attend church regularly. The last time I attended church was in Brisbane. I will say that it was an eye-opening experience at the time, perhaps even life-changing in ways I can’t really articulate currently. And yet, I still play with the idea that I might actually be an atheist. I might actually believe that when you die, you just die—the world goes on without you in it just like when you weren’t born yet.

This leads to my most salient inner debate: Why should I bother caring about the world so much? Is there a purpose behind my attempts to understand the global food crisis and how we can make our food production more sustainable? Is the world really going to come to an end in my lifetime? Wouldn’t it be more enjoyable to live in ignorance? And especially if I didn’t believe in God or an after-life, why should I care about the planet that will remain after I am gone?

Yeah, these are some real questions. They dig pretty deep or whatever. But the more I learn and the more people I talk to and the more I live, the more the answers to the questions begin not to necessarily matter.

I’m definitely “in flux,” as a friend recently told me. But maybe we’re always in flux. Maybe that’s kind of the point.

Like, OK, here is one last example. I grew up HATING cats. HATING. Once, a cat attacked me and it traumatized me for the rest of my life (so I thought), and on top of this, I'm also pretty darn allergic to them.

Then a couple months ago, my friend/apartment building-mate Charlie decided to get a cat, so I put on a sour face for a few days. Then the little guy, named Tito, started trying to be all cute and cuddly and handsome and then next thing you know he became the first cat I ever loved. Just look at that face:

Once again, this blog post has somehow turned into a non-conclusive rant that ends with a heart-warming picture (yes, I just suggested that Dunkin Donuts cups are heartwarming).

Help me out here. Is it normal to be in this state of flux when you are a 20-something-year-old, getting ready to join society IRL? Or are we supposed to feel all conflicted like this forever--and should we want to?

Twenty-four hours.

2010-01-18T10:44:00.010-05:00

It's probably ironic and ill-timed that I am choosing to write about this topic now, at this moment which is the Monday morning after a completely non-productive weekend spent socializing with friends and avoiding schoolwork or any serious thought whatsoever like the plague. However, it was a wonderful weekend, and I can honestly say I feel refreshed and invigorated. Weekends like that remind me why life is so good. I've also got a photo album full of me and my friends dressed up as members of the Jersey Shore cast, so the weekend was far from a total loss.

Ethan Klapper: "Why do you guys keep talking about Paula Dean?" ... "PAULY D!" On the 1's and 2's.

Yeah. Anyway.

I met with my independent study advisor, Terry Sankar, who is my life-coach/green-guru/inspirational-professor. Previously my Practical Environmentalism professor, Dr. S has agreed to take me on in my journey to learn as much as I can about sustainable food production and draft some sort of paper that will detail how we can make it a reality. A practical reality. Like, one that will make everyone happy (except corporations like Monsanto but I'm actually quite positive they aren't real people. Or at least, they lack souls.) Dr. S actually thinks I will be able to get this paper I write published. I laughed when he said this and he looked me dead on and told me he was being serious.

Then he reminded me of this one class last semester where we had gotten off on a tangent (typical but always enlightening) and he said to us all, "Everyday, you wake up and you've got 24 hours of your own time to spend here on Earth. It's entirely up to you how you are going to spend it." One girl in the class put her face in her hands and then burst out, "That's so depressing!!" (I believe she felt this way, because we have only so many hours on this Earth, and the thought that we end up "wasting" so many of those precious hours is sort of frightening.) "But why?!" he replied. "I find it so liberating!" He told us how the thought that he is in complete control of his life, what he does, how he spends his 24 hours, one day after the next, makes him feel so powerful and free.

So he reminded me of that moment and told me to go into this independent study, to sit down to read and write, knowing that this is something I can eventually contribute to the world. To sit down and write with the intention of having my words read by others. With the intention of enlightening others, and making a difference in some small way. While the idea of this happening makes me feel so giddy and lit up inside, I'm not confident enough to think this is possible. But if Dr. S, (who designed this wind turbine, by the way) thinks that I can, I might just have to as well.

So you've got 24 hours, how are you going to spend it?

This post dedicated to Mr. Martin Luther King Jr., who sure as hell spent his time here on Earth making a difference.

My Yuppie Rant: Am I a yuppie-in-training?

2010-01-11T14:13:00.005-05:00

I had a minor case of personality identity/stereotype crisis this morning. My roomie/bestie, Jen, told me I will one day make the great yuppie. This made me laugh, mostly because she said it in her typical “salty old man” voice. But then I got to thinking (not too hard, it’s still the first week of classes, mind you) and I thought, am I an aspiring yuppie? I mean, yeah, young, urban, professional—I qualify as two out of those three things. I shopped at Banana Republic the other day so maybe two and a half out of three on a good day. But otherwise, do I really fall into the soon-to-be-yuppie category?

Here’s me in a nutshell right now:
- I’m interning at Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group that helps to ensure clean water and safe food.
- I do yoga and shop at farmers markets.
- I am taking the following classes: Environment & Development, PR Portfolio (we are working with the Arlington Academy of Hope this semester), Theories & Methods of Nonviolence, and an independent study focusing on sustainable agriculture.

There is a definition that maybe comes sort of close to me, but is it yuppie?

Now, let’s take a look at my favorite Urban Dictionary definition of “yuppie”…

Acronym for Young Urban Professional. Group whose culture blends the hippie/counterculture values of the 60s and the materialistic monetary-based values of the 80s. Usually congregate in Starbuck's, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and a wide variety of vintage clothing boutiques. Includes both moderate Liberals (Majority of yuppies), and moderate Conservatives (smaller group of yuppies), although both the far left and the far right enjoy dissing them.

Far left dude: I hate these damn yuppies! They claim to be "artists" and "bohemians", yet their materialistic pursuits embody the very antithesis of the counterculture, and price real "artists" like me out of the neighborhoods they move to!

Far right dude: I hate these damn yuppies. I can't stand they flaunt their metrosexuality with their designer labels, lattes, luxury cars, and globally conscious health food stores. It's european-wannabe wimps like them that corrupt America!

In my marketing classes at AU, we learned heaps about how to how to define your audience. I once had an assignment where I had to “brand” myself. We learned how marketers segment their audience with Web sites like this, with 67 different ‘types’ of people. But even now, as I go through these market segments, I still can’t find quite the “yuppie” definition that I strive to find.

But bear with my existentialism for a moment, when I ask, can you ever really “define” a person? I mean, no, clearly, is the answer to that. Which is good. I mean, there are definitely people out there that fit the mold of a yuppie as defined above, but then you have to consider that not everyone agrees to this definition of a yuppie, or any other stereotype on Urban Dictionary for that matter. This one word alone has 45 definitions.

Jen asserted that perhaps what we have here is a case of regional yuppiedom. So, for example maybe a yuppie in Orange County is a 30-something, fashion-conscious, Whole Foods-shopping, Starbucks-addict. He “cares about the environment” (duh—he only buys organic!) and drives a Lexus HS250h, because he can afford it and wants to have a hybrid so he remains cutting-edge.

Or, maybe in D.C., the yuppie is a 30-something-year-old woman who shops at Whole Foods because she likes their selection of organic, healthy food, she still enjoys her Starbucks and her shopping, though she tries to not go overboard, because she’s sort of anti-capitolism. She drives a Prius, because it isn’t too flashy and is environmentally friendly.

I think you see what I am getting at here. I mean, in the grand scheme of the universe, these people are the same.

However, in conclusion, and because this yuppie rant has gone on far too long, I can happily say, I am not a yuppie, and do not aspire to be one, and in fact could never be one if I wanted to (despite the fact that I plan to eventually own a hybrid and yes I wear a Northface jacket and yes I do yoga and yes I own an Apple computer and yes I shop at Whole Foods.)

Despite all of this, my one saving grace is that I do not like Starbucks. At all. I was born and raised on Cape Cod, and I am a Dunkin' Donuts girl for life.

So there you have it, folks.

Lock the knee. Lock your eyes.

2010-01-10T10:10:00.005-05:00

This week, I picked up my Bikram yoga practice again. I practiced Friday night, did Saturday afternoon, and am leaving for the Sunday morning class in about an hour. I practiced Bikram last fall/winter for about six months, but then stopped when I went abroad to Australia. There was actually a Bikram studio a few miles from my apartment down there, but I didn't really see having that much extra time or money to keep going, so I never kept it up. Then, last semester, my life was crazy and my class schedule, the Eagle, and babysitting just didn't allow for me to squeeze in yoga. It is a little bit frustrating to go back to Bikram after such a long break. I remember everything my body used to be able to do that it can't do anymore, and I am sort of mad at myself I let that happen. But, I don’t want to say I regret not going, because you can’t really regret something you had basically no control over. I missed it a lot.

This semester I have made room for it in my schedule to go three to four times per week, because with Bikram, (and most yoga), it is really important to go at least that many times, ideally five days. The more you regularly your practice, the more you get out of it.

Bikram yoga, also known as hot yoga by some, is basically a 26-posture, 90-minute routine developed by Bikram Choudhury. It is always performed in a room with a temperature of about 105 degrees and 40% humidity with the lights on bright. This allows your body to sweat out toxins but more importantly limbers up your muscles so you don't strain something while you are working on the pretty demanding poses. It is amazing how much more flexible you become after spending a little time in the heat.

I remember on my couple days of yoga back in August 2008, I looked around the room at all the ripped bodies, some curvy, some with not a drop of fat on them, but mostly all in great shape. Let’s just say you could tell who had been coming for a while and who, like me, were just starting out. I started to compare myself to everyone around me. Then the class began and I started to compare myself to how well my body was working compared to other people in the room. Then I remember during Ardha Chandrasana with Pada-Hastasana, which is a pose where you extend your arms with your biceps at your ears and push your body as straight as can be to each side, holding for a minute, then repeat again. It’s the first real pose aside from the all-important breathing exercise, but it’s intense. This excruciating cramp hit my right bicep (which isn’t used to doing any work) and then all I can remember thinking was, “Ohh, this isn’t gonna be easy, is it?” From then on I sort of knew I had to forget everyone else in there and focus on me. I perform my best postures when I completely free my mind of distraction and focus on my own eyes in the mirror. Which is sort of why I titled this entry that. There are a lot of phrases the instructors tend to use a lot, specifically, “Lock the knee!” “Push more! Fall more! Back back back!” etc. But I really like repeating, “Lock your eyes” to myself because it actually does help. I usually stand in the front, because if I can’t see my eyes in the mirror, I often can’t focus. If I concentrate on my own gaze, I'm not thinking about anyone or anything else, and I can work through some of the balancing poses a lot easier. The balancing poses are my hardest. I'm fairly flexible all around, but I can't balance for the life of me.

I think that is the beauty of most lasting exercise routines, specifically yoga, which is so individual. You do it for you, no one else. No one in there is going to pat you on the back and say, “You know, you had a really excellent triangle pose today, much better than last week!” because no one knows your practice except you. Sometimes instructors will encourage beginners with comments on how well they did, but generally it’s more of a comment to their stamina and staying in the room than specifics about their postures. Instructors are always there to motivate, but they are not what keeps you going. This is going to sound really cheesy, but it’s your internal dialogue and patting yourself on the metaphorical back that keeps you going. Sometimes it’s congratulating yourself for touching your head to the floor in standing separate leg stretching pose, sometimes it’s just for getting your butt to class. Or to play on what Emerson once said, “Finish each pose and be done with it. You have done what you could.”

I'm off to see what I can do today. Namaste, everyone.

(not Bikram, but me doing yoga in Brisbane, one of the only photos I have of me in any yoga pose.)

Happy Twenty-Ten. Here's the obligatory New Year list.

2010-01-03T10:32:00.011-05:00

Well, actually two lists. They sort of address a smattering of my interests, categorizing them into things I hope go away and things I hope come about. Some is serious, some is not so much.

These are things I hope go away in the next decade:

Tiger Woods. Please go away. And while we’re at it, let’s also do away with all the celebrity gossip about famous men cheating on their wives. Not that I don’t think they all deserve to be ridiculed and publicly humiliated, but I frankly just don’t care. Actually, just all celebrity gossip and news should go away. I don’t know what we are going to talk about on Friday nights at the bar, but we will figure something out.

Twilight. And vampire stuff in general. I mean, I sort of got into True Blood, but I hated myself for it a little.

All the H_N1 hype. And yes, I am making the assumption that there will be another flu next year. (Hmm…Feline flu?) Next year there will be some other strain, I just hope the hysteria dies down a bit as time goes on.

Ugg boots. UGH boots. I can’t even believe how long these have stayed popular.

College binge drinking. We all love a cocktail/cold beer/glass of wine. Or two, or three. But, at the risk of sounding like my mother, the binge-drinking problem in America has become absolutely insane over the past 10 years. The CDC estimates that 75% of the alcohol consumed by adults in the United States is consumed in the form of binge drinking. Vehicular homicide, unsafe sex, date rape situations, yuck. I don’t expect binge drinking to disappear entirely, but it would be great if it did, and wasn’t replaced instead by an alternative drug. Happy, social drinking is in. Puking and waking up next to strangers, not so much.

Excessive spending. People need to save more and spend less. Banks need to stop lending money out to people with bad credit. This irresponsibility put us in a recession. Everyone needs to grow up.

Facebook. Bane of my Internet existence. Takes up way too much of my time and ultimately serves no purpose that other more legitimate social networking Web sites don't already have to offer. That being said, unless everyone else stops using it, I probably won’t either. Therein lies the rub. I mean, going into the PR field, I should embrace Facebook, but I just can’t help but have a love-hate relationship.

---

These are things I think and hope we’ll see over the next decade:

Better interactivity and involvement with personal health. Let me explain what I mean by this. So you go to the doctor, you get weighed and poked and prodded and then you are sent on your merry way, with nothing really tangible in hand, no record of your own so you can monitor your health. People need to have a better way of keeping tabs on things like their blood pressure and cholesterol levels, even things like birth marks on their body to make sure they don’t change too much over time. Doctors can easily miss things. Most of them are super busy, forgetful, or incompetent, and especially if you are going to multiple doctors, it would be fantastic if there was a more convenient way to just pop in all the information on your health into a central location online. Google is working on something like this, but it’s very difficult to work with and needs a lot more development. I would imagine that people would be nervous about this sort of transition, because you might think if all that information is out floating around in the interwebs, anyone will be able to get their filthy little hands on it. There would of course need to be proper security in place, this information would need to be protected just like our credit card information is all protected online. [Update: Yeah, this guy knows what I'm talkin' about.]

More widespread access to and knowledge of CSA’s and farmers’ markets. I actually dream about this kind of stuff.

Better pay for interns. Read: any pay for interns. And along with this, just more jobs in general. I’m a big believer in the economy turning around in the next few years. It’ll bounce back. I am fine with unpaid internships for college students just getting their feet wet in something, but it’s becoming a bit exploitative how much interns are being expected to do with no pay at many places.

Environmentally-friendly technology and products will become more affordable, available and mainstream. Hybrid cars will becomes the norm. Energy-efficient appliances will be the only kind you can get. Plastic forks will be replaced by bio-degradable forks made of corn—you get the idea.

Faster Internet connectivity, better battery power capacity (in all kinds of technologies), and advancements in data storage. Like, who would have thought five years ago that we would have a terabyte hard drive available for home use? Craziness I tell you. Maybe one day my Internet download speed at my apartment will surpass 3.32 Mbps. Sweet, can’t wait.

A renewed respect for journalism. Journalism has been going through a difficult transition as citizen journalism on the Internet has grown and newspapers have lost money and their workforce. But I see a transformation happening soon, where objective journalism will find a better place in society and people will realize its importance much more. Um, this is really vague. I'll blog about it later in more detail.

HDR high-dynamic range imaging photography will begin replacing traditional photography. I don’t even know how they would do this, but what if they made a camera that could? Oh boy. Can you imagine a world where HDR photos were everywhere? My head can’t even wrap around this concept. What a beautiful thing it would be.

Anyway, who wants to join me in this new decade? We can sit around sober, talk about our health and personal savings plans, and eat locally grown food with forks made of corn. No, but seriously.

Happy New Year, everyone.

What are you even going to DO with all those gifts?!

2009-12-25T08:17:00.014-05:00

This morning, I woke up at 6 am like a 4-year-old. I think Christmas is the one day a year you are allowed to act like a 4-year-old. I went outside on the lanai (my parents live in Florida, so I get to enjoy a warm holiday season free of snow-shoveling) and chatted with my mom for about an hour. We talked about how everyone working at stores and what not this year is saying "Merry Christmas" instead of the usual "Happy Holidays." My thought is that the companies must have done some sort of market research that showed most people would rather be wished a "Merry Christmas." Even those who don't celebrate Christmas must not mind when it is said. Maybe not all, but I would say most. I know plenty of non-Christians that celebrate Christmas. Christmas has become on a non-religious holiday over the years. I won't make any calls as to whether that is right or wrong. It is less about just Jesus' birthday in a religious sense, and is about more getting together as a family. Sadly, it has also become more about gift-giving and commercialization.

Christmas started taking on a new meaning for me when I was 13 years old. My grandma passed away five days before Christmas and my family spent the holiday season driving out to Michigan and going to her funeral. We tried to make the best of it, but Christmas was never the same after that. No one cared about their presents that year. And every year following, presents began to matter less and less. Christmas was about getting together as a family, eating food and making memories. It sounds cliche, but it's true. In fact, while that Christmas was a low point, it has gotten easier every year. The holiday has been cheerier, my sister and I have grown up more, and less presents have popped up under the tree, which I have enjoyed personally. Less presents means less stress each year.

This year I bought my parents one of these Soda Stream machines, so my mom doesn't have to run out and buy my dad Coke Zero all the time, and my dad will never run out, AND it's good for the environment ;) I got a couple other little things, like some LUSH products for my mom and sister, but that is about it.

[To be perfectly honest, I hadn't bought any presents until about a week ago, when my sister was talking about things she had bought my mom and dad. I told her I thought we weren't exchanging gifts--then I guess I felt a little guilty I hadn't gotten anything to give my parents. Furthermore, already she has found there were a couple things she got for them that they already have and she will have to return. See? Gift-giving and receiving is stressful.]

Anyway, this morning I came across a picture someone had posted online of their Christmas tree, surrounded by about 300 presents. Pretty much their entire living room floor was stacked with presents. The caption of the photo said this person’s parents “used to get just one or two presents on Christmas and they didn’t want the next generation to ever feel the same heartbreak on Christmas day.”

I just find it ironic when people “Thank God” for being so “blessed” with things. Being blessed isn’t about things. It’s about people. Remember The Gift of the Magi? In the end, both of the gifts that the man and woman get for each other are useless and serve no tangible material value, but they represent how much they love each other, and that is all that matters.

Giving a few gifts that you know will bring happiness to another person is one thing, filling a room with an excessive amount of material objects is unnecessary and in my opinion, really sad. To expect or even appreciate this kind of superficiality is sort of childish. Christmas should be about spending time with the people you love, not spending money on people you love to show them you love them. I feel grateful I have a family that realizes this.

Best wishes to you and yours this holiday season, including all the people who woke up to a boatload of gifts. I hope you’re all spending the day with good food, good fun, and most importantly, your family.

I’m off to watch A Christmas Story with mine. =)

Taxing tanning, just another example of how treatment is replacing prevention

2009-12-24T08:33:00.006-05:00

Last week, I was bombarded by emails with special holiday discounts and offers from different tanning salons I have frequented over the past four years that somehow slip through the spam filter. Yesterday, I received an email from one of those places with the subject line. "Help Stop the Federal Tanning Tax BEFORE 12/24/09." REALLY? Oh, dear.

Now, I hadn't really heard too much about this tanning tax. But the long and short of it is that the new health care bill the Senate is futzing around with now includes a 5 percent tax on "indoor tanning services," instead of the previous tax on elective cosmetic procedures. (Still unclear to me is if "indoor tanning services" includes spray tans--or tanning/bronzing creams for that matter--as these are also methods of getting a tan indoors, however they are not skin cancer-causing.)

Now, in my opinion this tanning tax is a great idea. If we can't outlaw something that is clearly harmful, the next logical step is to tax it, to hopefully dissuade people from doing it. As an aside, if I had my way, there would be an even higher tax on cigarettes, I hate the stupid things. Frankly, I think it would be fantastic if cigarettes were outlawed, but I know this won't be happening anytime in my life. Also “personal freedoms, and blah blah blah,” etc. Whatever. It doesn't even bother me so much that people smoke—except my family and friends because they are important to me and I don't want them to die. What bothers me is that there's some corporate fat cat getting rich off of people’s addiction. And basically, that’s what tanning boils down to. It’s a business where people (like me) get addicted.

I agree with this doctor though, that a tax will do little to prevent people who are already regular tanners from keeping on tanning. If they have to spend 5 percent more, they will:

Dr. Robinson foresees the indoor-tanning tax dissuading first-time users and people considering “event tanning” before a prom or wedding. But she isn’t hopeful that the “twice-a-week tanner” will stop. “They are truly addicted to the feel-good tendencies from having a tan,” she said. “They will spend money on that, and not spend it on other things.”

Now, the whole tanning thing is a rough topic for me. I touched on this in a column I wrote a couple months back. It's rough, because probably six months ago, I was a self-proclaimed sun worshipper. Tanning itself made me feel good and being tan made me feel good. I hate being that flip-floppy person who thinks this way one day and that way the next (Example: the butter versus margarine debate.) But recently, I did a little cost-benefit analysis, and came to the conclusion that it's just a dumb move. My health won out. I haven’t been tanning since last February. But, I can without a doubt say that if this tax had come about 2 years ago, it wouldn’t have kept me from going to the tanning salon.

I guess what my opinion boils down to is this: The tanning tax won’t prevent most people from tanning, but really that’s not the government's intention anyway. The point is to increase federal revenue to support the proposed government-run health care system. A health care system that is currently crippled because people aren’t making the proper health decisions they should be making based on proven scientific knowledge that we have (case in point, tanning is cancer-causing) and people are requiring more health care (melanoma removal).

And around and around we go, I guess, with treatment trumping prevention. It's sad.

When parents try to be career advisors

2009-12-18T23:18:00.011-05:00

This is my friend Mike's graduation invite. He's off into the real world now.

For the average freshman, sophomore, even junior in college, going home for Christmas break is relaxing. A full month off to mess around and do whatever (sleep, eat, sleep, repeat, etc.)

Everything changes senior year and in the 5-10 years after (or until you have children of your own and parents find a new place to focus their "advice-giving"). The average college student at this time returns home only to be bombarded by the inevitable question, which takes many different shapes and forms, but in my house it typically goes: "What the hell are you going to do with the rest of your life and why aren't you doing that RIGHT NOW?" This will without a doubt serve as the segue into what they truly intended to tell you, which is: "Well, this is what I think about the matter..."

I see this question/follow-up "advice" already causing some of my closest friends to tear out their hair. And I am going to surmise, based on the singular fact that I don't have ALL that many friends, that this is a conversation had, in whatever shape or form, by every parent with their early-20-something son or daughter. Right at Christmas time, right when all we want to do is eat snickerdoodles and watch Home Alone on the sofa with the dog (or cat).

Now, I don't really have any advice. Screw my advice, even if I did claim to have some. But, I can offer some words of comfort:

1. You're not alone.
For example, here's how a conversation might go down between my mother and I when it comes to my future. Note: this isn’t verbatim, but actually a conglomeration of separate nearly verbatim conversations she and I have had over the past couple months:

Me: I'm excited about my internship in January--it sounds like I will be doing a lot of hands-on work.
Mom: I still say you should have studied journalism, you were always such a good writer.
Me: Yeah. Wait, huh? Also, I mean, in PR all you do is write. Press releases, letters to editors, blogging...
Mom: OK, but when you start looking for a real job, you should really apply to federal jobs. usajobs.org! -- I'm telling you that's where the money AND the benefits are.
Me: OK so what happened to me being a journalist?
Mom: Well, I mean you should have studied journalism because you were just always a good writer, but if you want a job with great benefits you really should get a federal job.
Me: You aren’t making sense, mom.
Mom: Oh! What you should do is marry a man who works for the government.

I guess what I want you to get from this, other than my mom is a complete psycho (jokes, she’s actually a lovely, although illogical woman), is that you are not the only one frustrated and confused by all the “advice” from your family members. Just remember they truly do love you, and as much as they aren’t helping, they truly think that they are.

2. What "your future" comes down to is what you want to do and what you are capable of doing given you’re a) education/upbringing b) personal drive and passion and c) a little teensy bit of the freakin' economy. Which brings me to…

3. Don’t let the economy bring you down. Instead, let it bring you around. So maybe you can’t find a job or the college thing just ain’t working out and/or you can’t afford tuition payments, like this kid. Instead of trying to do things the old-fashioned way, step out of the box and just do something you’ve always wanted to do. A best friend of mine left for New Zealand a few weeks ago. He saved up money for a one-way plane ticket and is off living in Mount Maunganui. He’s already landed a job as a prep cook at a Mediterranean restaurant there and in his free time he’s taking a couple online classes toward his degree and then y’know…living life. Check out that link for some explanation—let’s just say he’s not worrying about having to shovel snow from his driveway.

All I’m sayin’ is if things aren’t going peachy and job prospects are few by the time graduation rolls around, I’m not going to get stressed out. I’m going to get excited. It means I’ll have to get innovative. It means I might have to soul search a bit and take my own advice for a change instead of everyone else's. It means I might have found my use for all the graduation cash: a plane ticket out of this country for a little while.

Just don’t tell my mom.

The end of an era, sort of

2009-12-13T13:03:00.021-05:00

I might venture to say the past week and a half, and by extension this entire semester, has been full of some of the "bests" I have ever had in college. Now, this is saying a lot, considering the end of the semester is always really stressful. But, I must say, I think mine went quite smoothly. It was jam-packed with final projects and exams and papers and little sleep, but I made it through. We always make it through. I took some awesome classes and learned a ton and was inspired by one in particular enough to pursue the area further in an independent study. The "best" part comes in with the quality time I spent with my friends. Let's face it, I burnt myself taking cinnamon buns out of the oven during a family breakfast we were making, and I am now sad because the 'scar' I thought I would have forever to remember the day is actually almost completely healed and gone--that's true friendship.

The saddest part about the end of this semester was making the decision not to return as an editor to The Eagle in the spring. It was a really hard decision. I know many others on staff share this same sentiment (especially our editor-in-chief aka my bestie/roomie, Jen Calantone): The Eagle is our baby. It's been the lifeblood of my college experience. It will continue to be even next semester, as I plan to still write the health column, which I am pumped about, as well as take photos as often as I possibly can. I learned so much working for a college newspaper. It hasn't made me necessarily want to go into journalism, however it has improved my writing and photography skills and taught me a lot about how journalists think and what they want to report on, which will prove incredibly important in the PR field. It has also showed me so much about teamwork. Every Sunday and Wednesday we all get together (play music and make loud, sometimes inappropriate comments)--and we collectively make a newspaper. There's been the wonderful days when I got to take pictures of presidential candidate Barack Obama at his Jan. 28 rally at AU when Senator Kennedy endorsed him...and there's the equally wonderful days when that man becomes President Obama. Then, there's the tragic days, like when we had to report on Senator Kennedy passing away on Aug. 26 of this year.

But despite having worked at a newspaper on arguably the most politically active campus in the country during one of the most politically exciting times in the history of this country, not every day was so thrilling. Some days, we'd realize the first sex column of the semester sparked the most popular debate and follow-up editorials and letters to the editor we saw all semester--and I personally would almost lose hope (although not really in the legitimacy of the publication, but more so in the future of this generation.) There's still the negative comments on stories about how writers are bad or stories are boring, or just the lack of comments on stories that are important. There's still the days you look around and think, does all this effort really mean anything to anyone?

By contrast, there are the days we have said, "If a news story happens on campus and The Eagle doesn't cover it, does it really happen?"

Well, it was interesting, because last Thursday when my class was presenting our research to AU's Music Program following a semester-long project, we starting talking about how to increase the awareness of musical performances on campus. A few people suggested they advertise more in The Eagle and maybe pitch ideas to The Scene section about feature stories, say if there was something special a particular musician had done or something. Our client looked dubious. "Does anyone really read The Eagle though? Who here reads The Eagle?" Nearly every person in the class raised their hand. Granted, we're all communication students, but still. It's the campus newspaper, it reports on issues relevant to the students on campus--of course students should want to read it. My point here is, what we do does matter. We create a dialogue. We report on what is important for a very specific, niche population at a university. We take improving our reporting very seriously. We on the photo team take improving our photos very seriously. The design team takes designing creative pages seriously. It's our job. And I loved every second of it and will miss it terribly.

But I think what I will miss most is the people, the co-workers who became my best friends. (I don't know if any of you will read this. I will probably find a way to bring it to your attention though, so you better read it!) I learned so much from all of you--technically speaking and in deeper, more intangible ways. Thank you.

Anyhow, before I go too overboard on the mushiness...this entry goes out to all my Eagle staffer friends, past and present, who hold a special place in my heart. I have one final message for all of you to keep in mind, whether it's a good day or a bad day or an in-between day:

When it's time to party, we will always party hard. Party hard.

More green gestures than green pastures in America

2009-12-08T09:00:00.006-05:00

Not sure if an editor at The Washington Post screwed this up, or if it was the web team--I'm thinking web, because I just checked and there's no mistake in the print version--anyhow, this guy from Lancaster saw the pull quote and spoke up:

Lancaster Co., Pa.: I object to the statement, 'Green pastures we have in abundance in America.' I write for a farm newspaper. We don't have green pastures in abundance. That's nuts. We lose 2 acres of farm land EVERY MINUTE in the U.S. according to the American Farmland Trust. In six years, we lost an amount of farm land the size of Maryland. If that doesn't freak you out, consider that only 12 percent of the world's surface is farmable. We need all the farm land we can get.

So yes, environmental activism, of course. But I would not frame the debate that you should call your Congress person instead of buying "green" because every thing is fine with our land and pastures.

Mike Tidwell: Sorry. Did I write "pastures"? I meant green "gestures" are what we have in abundance in America. Instead we need green "statutes."

Anyway, I agree. There are very few green pastures left in America, unfortunately.

The day after this Outlook column came out, I had to write a letter to my senators and congressman urging them to take action with regards to Copenhagen. I am registered to vote in Florida, so I wrote to Rep. Vern Buchanan, and Senators Bill Nelson and George Lemieux. As you may have heard, Florida is in the greatest danger with regards to rising sea levels, probably more than any other state. I had never written a letter to Congress or a senator, so at first I was like, "Huh? I don't know how to do that." So, I lucked out when I stumbled on Mike Tidwell's column in the Sunday Post.

I came up with this letter, I'd encourage you to steal it in full (if you are from Florida) or in parts, and replace the names with your senator or representative. Send it in, give them a call, have a voice.

Dear _____,

Tomorrow, President Obama will take a trip to Copenhagen for what will hopefully prove to be a monumental summit on climate change. It is my hope that he will take a strong stance on the issue. But, Americans and citizens of the world need our Senate and Congress to step forward and back up his promises to enact policies that will cut our greenhouse gas emissions.

Here is my question, _____: what are you doing to support changes that will prevent Florida from being engulfed by the ocean?

If sea levels rise just one meter, the entire coast of Florida, from Jacksonville to Horseshoe Beach, will be covered in water. This includes nearly every major city in Florida from Tampa to Miami. Millions of people will be displaced from their homes. Once great cities will literally become cities for the ocean’s creatures. And of course, this effect would not be limited to Florida. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would engulf Boston, San Francisco, New York, and hundreds of other cities. And that is just here in the United States.

The good news is of course that we can stop this from happening. If we can stabilize the atmosphere at 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide, we can prevent the glacial melting that would inevitably bring about the end of life as we know it. How do we do this? We use the power of the government, which must take a strong, unwavering, and permanent stance on ending the burning of fossil fuels. Whatever it is that President Obama does or says at Copenhagen, none of it will matter if the Senate/House does not support a carbon-cap bill that mandates a limit of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

Pockets of individuals scattered across the country can do their part to use energy-saving light bulbs or put solar panels on their roof—but no significant change is going to come out of this green movement unless the government is supporting the changes: offering rebates to those that use energy-efficient products like hybrid vehicles, enacting more strict carbon-cap legislation, mandating more energy-efficient measures be taken in buildings and homes, and funding renewable energy research and development.

_____, I am still young, but one day I hope to have a family of my own. Yet the thought of bringing more people into a world that is literally falling apart and into a society that is bringing about its own demise, is terrifying. We know what is happening, we can see the erratic weather patterns, intensifying hurricanes and flooding, and rising sea levels, and we know what needs to be done to prevent further damage.

I urge you, _____, to do your part in ensuring future generations have a stable planet to live in.

Strengthening the Farmer-Consumer Relationship

2009-12-03T14:54:00.005-05:00

For my Visual Strategies in PR class, we were asked to choose a nonprofit organization that was holding an event in the future and design a Save-the-date card, a poster, and a brochure to promote it. I decided to tweak the assignment a bit, and my professor gave me the OK.

I had this idea in my mind of a large-scale farmer's market where sustainable agriculture was promoted and farmers were able to essentially "sell themselves" and the idea of local farming to their potential customers. The Green Festival was similar to this, only that was much broader, had more speakers and seemed almost more exclusive in my mind—like a place where only those who were really into ecofriendly products and ideas would go. I wanted something that people just walking along the National Mall in D.C. could see, walk through, and then get information. I wanted average people that shop at grocery stores to get engaged in a conversation with a farmer or a rancher. The thing was, nothing like this really has ever existed, at least not to my knowledge. So I just made it up. I decided I would have the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition be the sponsor of the event. I designed the save-the-date and the poster, and around when I was finishing up the poster, the real essence of the event blossomed in my mind, which was great because I needed that blossom to happen in order to make the brochure work.

Anyhow, here is the brochure that came out of my inspiration. Even though it's not for a real event, that sort of doesn't matter, because this brochure is more concept-focused than event-focused. I hope it informs or inspires you or makes you think, or even changes your actions.

On a somewhat related note, the exhaustion I was feeling while finishing up this semester is being completely overshadowed this week after being asked to join the communications team at Food and Water Watch next month. Their mission is 100% in line with everything I care about, including the aforementioned local agriculture stuff. So I will definitely keep this blog updated on the things I get to do at that internship. In the meantime, if I hooked you at all with my brochure, check out their site and find out more about how local food from small farms is the healthier, safer, and more ecofriendly food to eat.

S.O.S.: This is a global call.

2009-11-30T06:18:00.012-05:00

You better make a stand
You better make it now
Take back your rights from the IMF, World Bank and Monsanto

When they wage war on you, you lay asleep
When they poison your food, you choose to drink
There's poison in the well!
- Anti-flag

While I was down in Florida last week, for the first time I started to notice advertisements for the genetic engineering company Monsanto, who "pledges to be part of the solution." Perhaps, if you define "the solution" as pumping bodies full of genetically engineered foods while the profits of food items (which are steadily increasing due to the price gouging of seeds sold by said company to farmers) are pumped into the hands of one corporation, and our already dwindling farmland is wiped out even more. We shop at grocery stores because it is a) convenient and b) cheap. I am terrified to see how "cheap" food will be in ten years, even 5 years, as farmland disappears more and more. We all know the basic principle of supply and demand. Monsanto won't care, they will have what they need--control of the seeds (our food), control of the government which essentially taxes and regulates agriculture (our food) and control of the people who do the farming, because they can no longer afford to farm any other way.

When a friend of mine and I went to the Green Festival about a month ago, we met Joel Salatin, the author of Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, here. He wrote about his hardships being a small farmer, trying to deal with the restrictions and fees and taxes that the government places upon them. We told him about our Practical Environmentalism class and he was really excited that we were learning about these issues. He signed copies of his book for us and wrote, "Thank you for being part of the solution."

Monsanto is not part of any solution worth being a part of.

Our farmers, and more generally, our global food system, is in crisis. There are videos about this topic all over the Internet and books everywhere. I suggest beginning with this one, or this one if you are in the mood for something "lighter".

I mean, our government can be very corrupt, both sides of the aisle and in between. Government is corrupt all over the planet. This shouldn't be condoned, ever, but when the corruption really strikes a nerve with me is when it comes to issues of our planet, and specifically, our food. Food shouldn't be treated as a special interest. It's a requirement for life. If our food system falls apart, which it inevitably could if these genetically engineered seeds replace biodiversity and natural growth, the human species would cease to exist.

That isn't alarmism, it's just fact.

Happy Green Bean Casserole Day

2009-11-27T09:46:00.008-05:00

Did you eat mindfully?
I tried and think I did well.

After writing my column about mindful eating on Monday, I really did try to eat slowly and carefully and with at least a speck of grace yesterday on Thanksgiving. Particularly during dessert. It is really almost inhumane how much we stuff ourselves on this day. We eat mashed potatoes and squash and green beans and stuffing and yams and corn and cranberry sauce and rolls and gravy and wine (and turkey, if you do) and then we sometimes have seconds--and then we clean up and then we eat MORE. It's gluttonous!

So this year, in light of my column and just generally what I always try to do but often fail at, I took about three or four bites worth of only what I really like. Except the green bean casserole, which is my favorite. Haha. I was still very full at the end--certainly not ready to go for a run around the block--but I wasn't ready to roll over and pass out either. And I tried some of this pumpkin cake thing my mom made for dessert. She got the recipe from Paula Dean, so needless to say it was the richest dessert I have ever tasted. I don't usually like pumpkin things (hate pumpkin pie--blech) but that dessert was darn good. Way too rich to eat more than a couple bites.

Then, I loaded up the dishwasher, mopped the floor, went back home with my parents, walked a couple miles around the neighborhood with them, then fell asleep on the couch watching Home Alone. Thankful.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoys their break (if they are on one!).

What 7-year-olds can teach us about living slowly

2009-11-20T22:06:00.013-05:00

If you are a young person--still in college, just out of college, fresh into the workplace, on the job hunt, or whatever--you should read this feature story from the Post. To me, this story is about re-evaluating what is really important in your life, and mostly, it is about slowing down in your life and accepting that what makes you happiest may not be what other people are telling you should make you happy.

Today, in my Practical Environmentalism class, my professor asked us, "What does it mean to you to live your life slowly?"

Hands shot up, as they always do in that class, because it is the best class I have ever taken and everyone that takes it is in love with it, because it always just makes you think so much and learn so much.

For me, living slowly means living in the moment. Not driving myself crazy thinking about what I should have done in the past or what I am going to do in the future. Just being here, now.

Consequently, living slowly is better for your mental stability and your health, and the environment. I could write volumes on this, but I won't. I may later. Not now.

That being said, I don't live slowly enough. I don't really live all that slowly at all. In fact, I feel I have become accustomed to a fast-paced life full of stress and lack of real intimacy, to the point where it is almost the only place I feel comfortable at.

Last night, I was spontaneous and went out for drinks on a Thursday with some girlfriends, something I never do on a Thursday night, or any night lately. It was fun, we played shuffleboard at Atomic and I am awful at shuffleboard so that was funny. Then, it started torrentially downpouring and thundering as we were leaving, and we saw someone's hubcap scrape off on the sidewalk and another woman bump into two cars while trying to parallel park. It was like a movie, there was lots of laughter.

Then, I got home and found myself in the worst possible mood. I thought of all the work I wasn't doing while I was out spending time with my friends for once, and I got mad at myself. I got mad at myself for trying to slow down and enjoy my life a little.

Tonight, I spent my Friday eating sushi from Mei Wah then watching Horton Hears a Who with the 7-year-old boy I babysit, Danny. I thought about working on one of the several papers that are due next week while he watched, but instead I shut my laptop and stuck it in my bag. I am really happy I made that decision.

I loved the movie. Steve Carell and Jim Carrey made it even more hilarious, obviously, but everything was just really well done and it was a feel-good movie that also gave you a lot to think about. It made me think about the state of our world right now. The Mayor of Who-ville is the metaphorical Al Gore, or, in reality, he is the entire collective of rational people in the world that can take the fact that it should not be thunder-storming in the middle of November in Washington, DC and come to the conclusion that something bad is going on and we must do something about it. There is more about kind of what I am talking about here.

My favorite part of the night was when I sort of accidentally said out loud, "This movie, it's like a metaphor for our world today." Danny just looked over, nodded, and replied, "I know."

Get back to sharpening your oyster knife!

2009-11-18T08:46:00.011-05:00

I have to blog about this oh-so-philosophical moment.

So this morning, I woke up and thought, "I should blog...although I don't really have time...but I should...oh what the heck...wait, do I have time? Grr, why am I too busy to blog??" (Yes, these are the types of daily conundrums and internal dialogues that plague me, apparently.)

Remember last week when Slate came out with that hilarious little piece that provided probably too much insight into the minds and lives of the googlers who are doing the googling in the world?

So I decided to turn to the All-Knowing Google bar, hoping like heck it'd give me all the answers I needed in life.

I typed, "I am too busy" and was totally surprised and confused at what popped up:

Weird, I thought. So I visited the Google suggested links.

Turns out this line is from a quote by Zora Neale Hurston in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”, in The World Tomorrow (May 1928). The full quote reads:

I do not weep at the world -- I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

Hm. I think I might like that. And so it basically means, in that context, she still sees that the world is her oyster, the world is full of opportunity and is totally at her disposal, regardless of her skin color and how it has the potential of keeping her from accomplishing things, from getting to that precious pearl, that fortune and success that awaits her.

But I think what Google is trying to suggest to me is that the world is my oyster, so I better get back to sharpening my knife. (aka I better get back to work, stop complaining about how busy I am--everyone is busy--and stop asking the Google for help, because the Google is busy sharpening his oyster knife too, you know, and he can't be bothered much longer with my Google-Suggest games.)

The Fourth Kind: entertaining if you can suspend disbelief

2009-11-15T08:09:00.003-05:00

Against my initial best judgment, a friend of mine convinced me to go see The Fourth Kind. I had very low expectations, and although I wasn't blown away by the movie, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Basically, the movie is about a female therapist in Nome, Alaska named Abigail Tyler, whose husband is killed right in front of her but she can't explain how. The movie uses some case study recordings and video, some with patients, some police footage, and then it has the dramatized version sometimes alongside it, sometimes just in place of scenes where they don't have footage. Abigail starts hypnotizing her patients and releasing their subconscious memories of encounters with aliens. This basically causes people to kill their families and themselves, presumably to escape the torture that awaits them if/when they are abducted.

There is just so much room for these people to either a) actually be mentally deranged--and they have these visions of being abducted by aliens as a coping mechanism for their unfathomable feelings of depression--all while underneath that layer of consciousness that the hypnosis is able to trigger, there is a whole new layer that is just too painful for them to access ....or b) coordinate with each other to make all these therapy sessions up, etc.

If all these separate cases of alien contact were happening all over the place, why don't we hear about it from other countries? And how could the government cover it all up so well?

I think someone should make a movie about a conspiracy theory related to this whole aliens idea. But one where this whole alien sighting underground ring of people are exposed as being con artists. Maybe it's already been done. Has it? I'm sure it has.

The problem with dining out

2009-11-13T09:20:00.011-05:00

[Sidenote--anyone know who makes these videos with the graphics and that music and the flowiness and text? just wondering, I have seen them everywhere lately and know they must be done by the same place.]

According to this video, 66 percent of people are eating out less. To this, I say, "Excellent news!" Because more likely than not, these are people who can't afford to be eating out as much as they used to (and in fact, they probably couldn't afford to be eating out so much when they were eating out, they just are coming to realize now how they must change their habits.)

The problem with this video is it makes the viewer feel like he or she is doing the economy a disservice by not going out to a restaurant at least once a week. In fact, if they are cutting back in order to live within their means and not rack up credit card debt each month, they are helping themselves and our economy in the long run.

I would like to add, I enjoy dining out just as much as the next girl. There is something really wonderful about sitting at a table with your family, friends, spouse or dating partner while drinking wine and talking and laughing and trying new foods and enjoying the ambiance and watching other people do the same all around you. It's a treat. It's fun to try new places with different types of food you've never had, and it's fun to go to your old, favorite places where you know you'll love the food. Dining out is an experience I enjoy, and I know I am not alone in that.

But, along with the 66 percent this video mentions, I have a budget I need to stay within and frankly, dining out just doesn't fit into it every week. Furthermore, the less I eat out, the more special it becomes. I think the last time I ate at a restaurant was about a month ago with a friend, at a place called Founding Farmers (no, actually, I didn't intend to plug them, but their food is delicious, prices are fair, the building is LEED-certified, and the food comes from local farms--umm, restaurant dream come true much!?)

Why do we care about beefing up the restaurant industry anyhow? More and more people with college educations are losing their high-paying, stable jobs and turning to food service jobs just to stay afloat. More young graduates are sleeping on the floor while working for minimum wage at these restaurants, when if the economy was actually where it should be--if we hadn't ended up in this financial mess due to improper spending, they could be getting paid internships and not having to work these part-time waiting jobs.

If you want to beef up an industry that's REALLY struggling, buy a subscription to the print version of a newspaper you read! (Make sure you recycle the newspaper. heh.)

We can't keep putting band-aid's over the problem. We can't keep frivolously pumping our money into things that bring us no added value. I say, if you can afford nice meals out once and a while, go for it. If you can't, stay home and whip up something in your own kitchen.

Thriving Off Two Hours of Sleep Per Day--For Life?

2009-11-12T14:58:00.006-05:00

This guy makes some interesting points about sleep.

He says that we waste a whole lot of time with our traditional sleep method of 8 hours at night (or 4 or 5 for most of us...), because the most important part, in fact the only important part, of our sleep cycle is the REM cycle, which is when we have dreams. This is when our brain actually is rejuvenated.

He suggests breaking up our sleep, or "hacking into our brain" so that each time we fall asleep, our brain is expecting us to only get a 20-minute sleep session, so it sends us straight to REM, straight to rejuvenation. Do that enough throughout the day and you can trim out all the unneeded hours of unconsciousness.

It is true that my best, most vivid dreams always come from those little cat naps I take in between this or that activity, and I always wake up feeling refreshed from them.

Maybe I will experiment with this over Thanksgiving Break or something. That way if I screw up and don't "fit in all my naps", I won't end up crashing and sleeping through an exam. Or falling asleep on the metro and waking up in Silver Spring at midnight on a Tuesday night.

The Fructose King of Condiments

2009-11-11T11:49:00.009-05:00

What coal is to our atmosphere, sugar is to our bodies. The silent killer, in a sense.
I think that is basically what this man is saying...

Granted, this is nothing new. People have been talking about high fructose corn syrup for the last couple years, actually, long enough for the high fructose corn syrup industry to rally up its own troops in response. (Gotta love America.)

It is hard to deny, though: sugar is what is making America (and Americanizing nations) fat. And hypertensive. And tired. And depressed. And most of all, STILL hungry.

It's almost all because of sugar. And not even just the sugar we put in that occasional batch of cookies. Even the healthiest of us ingest fructose every day without realizing it.

I did a quick inventory of my roommate's and my kitchen, which has been deemed "empty" by our friends. The Kraft Light Sicilian Garlic Dressing (35 calories in 2 T, practically nothing) has sugar in it. My Nature's Own light wheat bread has sugar in it (albeit very little). The FIRST ingredient listed (therefore making it the most highly used in the item) on the box of Nutrigrain Bars is high fructose corn syrup.

And, alas. My beloved ketchup. Since I have been old enough to eat solid food, my mom has been telling me that ketchup is awful for me. She avoids the condiment like the plague. I have to hide how much I use it, like some junkie, whenever I am around her. She looks at me with this look that says, "I can't believe I raised a daughter who eats ketchup."

I inspect the bottle. She's right. Ketchup is 15 calories per tablespoon (ask me if I ever just have one tablespoon--the answer is no.) Ketchup is 100% carbohydrates, 4 grams of it, all of which come from sugar. I am looking at approximately 16 grams of sugar per day in my diet, just from ketchup (don't judge me).

I don't know, guys. I can deal with being pale, but now no ketchup either?

Fine. Ketchup, you and I are going to have to take a break apart from each other. Maybe forever, we'll see.

Practicing What I Preach

2009-11-10T07:57:00.001-05:00

So I started writing a column for The Scene section at The Eagle this semester. So far I have written five. I have gotten a few compliments on them from people other than my mom, so that is encouraging. I even got a few emails in the first couple weeks.

I like writing columns, because it basically allows me to talk about whatever I want to talk about, kind of like a blog, but do so in a more 'legitimate' way, in printed form, in a newspaper. Also, I always bring in real research, whether it be from an interview or from the Google machine, and I always bring in my own personal connection to whatever topic is at hand. This is easy for me to do with health topics because frankly, I have done and tried it all. Good and bad, healthy and unhealthy.

It's the unhealthy things I have done that I like talking about most, which is what I did this week. When I write about my mistakes, I think it shows I'm not perfect, just like my readers, just like everyone. None of us are perfect.

[That's another thing I like about blogs, you can get off on mini-tangents and it's OK because there's no word limit.]

Anyway, I am particularly nervous, but excited for my most recent column about the dangers of tanning, because as a person who has gone tanning since the age of 15, I always knew it was bad for me, I just chose to ignore that fact. Now, it's kind of like, grow up and get over yourself. I'm not invincible and on top of that, I don't ever want to have my skin look like my mom's friends' down in Florida. Yuck.

So, in a sense, my column has been about being the change I want to see in other people. Sort of like Gandhi said. If I want my readers to change, I have to change myself. Clips aside, experience aside -- I think that is where the real benefit of writing this column will lie.

Not enough photos.

2009-11-09T21:04:00.001-05:00

I admit defeat. As much as I love photography, I simply do not love it enough. I have not been taking enough pictures lately and I can't keep updating this blog with photos from long ago. Or even just ago. If I want to try to keep a daily blog, or even one I can update once or twice weekly, I will have t0 write about more things.

From here on out, this blog will be more like a traditional blog. I will live my life. Things, events and people will come into it. I will report back on what I think about things I enjoy thinking and talking about, which include but are not limited to: health, the environment, sustainability, financial responsibility (see this letter to the Post for a bit of my take on this topic), journalism, new media, relationships, love, personality, and food. And any and every place those things may intersect.

I am excited. Motivated. (Not busy.)

By the way, I re-titled this blog. Here is the backstory: When I was a little girl, whenever my parents would be talking about something, I would pipe in with questions or my own commentary. I was precocious. (Or annoying? I was notoriously known as Kell from Hell. On bad days.) Anyhow, whenever I tried to butt my way into grown up conversations, my dad would look down and say, "No comments from the peanut gallery." I never knew what this meant. Until recently when I researched the meaning of the phrase. Now, I am older, I have learned a thing or two. I feel I have made my way out of the peanut gallery. And I've got a couple cents I'd like to throw into this tangled web of the Internet.

Green Festival

2009-10-29T12:30:00.000-04:00

I took this at the Green Festival, which was held in the Washington Convention Center a couple weeks ago. It was a really interesting weekend-long event. I really learned a lot. And had some delicious samples of food, too! We also went to the Solar Decathlon. It was a very sustainable weekend! Shot in Washington, D.C. on October 11, 2009.

2009-09-25T10:26:00.000-04:00

I took this photo as we were hiking Fox Glacier in New Zealand. They showed us this map of the glacier, how much it has receded since the mid-1800s and still is. It was a really scary but beautiful moment, just because you think of all of the daily activities we go about doing at home with little to no thought, while all the while in corners of the world the blatant evidence of the effects are being seen. We drive our cars and live in our energy burning palatial homes and this glacier slowly melts away. Shot in June 2009.

The Fish of Atlantis

2009-09-04T00:03:00.001-04:00

This is my favorite from this trip, in which I had way too much fun on. This was shot with my Canon Elph back before I had a dSLR, in the days when I really had no clue what I was doing. It was shot through foot-thick glass in an underground aquatic cave place. I love the vivid colors though. Shot in July of 2005 at Atlantis in the Bahamas.

Toledo

2009-08-26T01:17:00.000-04:00

I took this when I was 15, traveling in Spain for a couple weeks on a short exchange trip. It was very cold while we were there, and I remember it being particularly so this day. And I remember wanting to take more pictures, but my hands were so cold I didn't want to take them out of my mittens. This view was one exception I had to make, just face the cold for a moment to point and shoot. It was worth it I think. Shot in February 2004.

Kitten

2009-08-21T08:42:00.000-04:00

I took this photo while nannying on the Cape last summer. To be quite honest, I hate cats. In particular these cats were young and annoying and scratchy. However, sometimes you can find beauty in even the young, annoying, and scratchy things in life. I even like the overblown edges. Makes him actually look sweet, innocent, angelic. That's what creating a memory through photography is about I suppose. Shot on Nantucket in August 2008.

At Dusk

2009-07-27T23:26:00.000-04:00

I just loved New Zealand. I took this at dusk the first night a couple friends and I drove from Christchurch headed west. We pulled over at least every 15 minutes to take pictures. The sky was remarkably beautiful. I remember thinking, "Damn, this is beautiful." But, seriously. I just wasn't expecting the sights to be so breath-taking. Shot June 7th, 2009.

"Nemo" Fish

2009-07-21T09:12:00.000-04:00

This was shot with I believe a Nikon--it was a point-and-shoot whatever it was, an underwater camera that they had on board the boat we were on the first time I went SCUBA diving. The first time I remember being really excited about it, then really scared once I had to breathe underwater, and then really excited, and then completely freaked out. So my first dive was just bad, and I made up my mind I wasn't going to try the dive in the arvo. But then, one of the other instructors, Simon, told me I definitely had to do the second dive. And I'm not typically one to let men convince me to hold their hand in order to feel safe, but I was that day apparently. And I did the dive, and it was amazing, and eventually I let go. And then, 5 months later, after having earlier plans interrupted due to a car accident, I did four more dives in Fiji, and got my PADI open water license. Shot on the outer Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, Australia in February, 2009.

The Carnival

2009-07-17T17:19:00.000-04:00

This was shot at the Barnstable County Fair, the annual fair that is so popular when you are a kid, and then when you are a teenager, on Cape Cod. The ferris wheel was something I never rode on, because it was a rip off, like basically all the other rides were. We just went to goof off anyway. Oh, to be young again... Shot in July of 2005.

Footy at Night

2009-07-15T11:53:00.001-04:00

I took this while my friend Bradly and I were walking from Bondi to Coogee Beach in Sydney, Australia. It was about 6:30pm and these boys were playing footy. The two sitting at the left had just gotten a penalty, and were sitting out of the game. We thought that was a bit harsh. Shot May 4, 2009.

Boy From Waya Lai Lai

2009-07-14T01:32:00.001-04:00

I don't know the young boy's name, but the man's name is Soro. That isn't his son, but they both live in the village of Waya Lai Lai, an island in the Yasawas of Fiji. I like this photo, because it reminds me of that day. I walked into the village by myself, and instantly these boys came running up, "BULA! Bula!!," they yelled, all smiles. I don't think they understood enough English to understand me, but one of the boys started reaching at my wrist, which had this sparkly headband wrapped around it. I took it off and told him to take it, and they both seemed so excited. I like to imagine they ran off to find some way to entertain themselves with some object so simple and meaningless to me, like children often do. Maybe sling-shotting each other with it or something. Soro took me inside a woman's home and she made me a wonderful bracelet and he sliced up sweet papaya and we all sat and talked for a while. Despite the poor conditions they all lived in compared to my standards, they were so happy. They were so proud of their homes and their village and so happy to have me there. Shot July 1, 2009.