About a month ago I decided to try to work my way into becoming a vegan for a short period of a month (the month of November to be exact). I haven't quite taken all meats out of my diet yet. Pork and beef have been eliminated, but I still am eating chicken and fish. I truly hope I will have the strength to ween off these within the next week. I am rather proud that now I have not had the desire for red meat and frankly chicken is becoming tiring. The only thing I think I will have trouble with taking out of my diet is crab and shrimp.
Eating meat, I know is a natural part of the food chain, but after watching videos and seeing pictures of the way animals are treated and killed, I feel like I don't deserve to eat something I am unable to hunt on my own and that is not entirely necessary for survival when there is so much else out there to eat. Just today I was traumatized by a PETA video while looking for a vegetarian recipe. Horrified by the way animals were slaughtered for food I felt guilty for all my years living. I was justifying to myself earlier, however, that crab was still okay to eat. It is the one meat I love above all. I lick my lips when I see them alive as well. I can just see myself out with my own fishing net ready to catch them. I remember as a child seeing crabs in my home being boiled alive and me being excited to eat them. Okay, I know this sounds like I am deranged.
Whatever I decide after my month of no meat (if I can even make a month) I know that I will work to eat less of it. This experiment of mine was another way of examining my life and the things that I effect with my being here.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Justification for My Daydreaming Addiction
ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A Short Love Story in Stop Motion
A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.
Here is another video I found on vimeo. The way the artist created this video is truly imaginative an inspiring. Of course this happens to be another type of project that I would like to try out for myself among the thousands of other things I want to experience. The artist for this little short is named Carlos Lascano. Check out his page for the creation of this video here.
How Flash Cards Can Save Your Academic Life
I was never big on flashcards when I was an undergrad. For one thing, it always took too much time to make them before any examine. However, as most people already know, it does happen to be one of the best tools for getting information to stick in your head. Today I just aced a 70 question exam on the rules of cataloging in a library science course. Cataloging is one of the more dreaded courses for library science students because the work is very detailed and you must be precise in how you record information. If it wasn't for studying with flashcards, I never would have made it through this test.
Because time is never on my side I learned that it is best to start early in the creation of your learning tool. Generally, even if it is just the week before the exam it is too late. You must leave ample time to study your flashcards rather than just to make them. This was the mistake I encountered as an undergrad. I could never even finish creating my cards. I used the flip through the book method of studying which is always more stressful to do. If you can, while in your lectures add information directly onto a card. That way you save time having to make them later. Than when you are done with your lecture you can begin studying immediately. Sometimes a study guide is given to you. This is great because you basically know what is going to be on the test. Well if you started making cards in the beginning you can modify what you already have and add what is needed.
Another great advantage to flashcards are that they are so portable. I was able to carry my cards everywhere and when I had a free minute I was able to study them. It's great if you are on a train, waiting in line, etc.
Sometimes you end up with too many flashcards. In this case it is best to study your cards in small groups. People learn best by repetition and it is difficult if there are 200 cards in your hand. Difficult questions need to pop up frequently in order for you to learn the answer. I also suggest to pull cards that you frequently error on aside. You will then have a pile of your most difficult questions. Study these questions on their own more than the ones you get right.
There are so many other ways you can use flashcards as well. I have considered creating flashcards for situations that I encounter at work. On one side would be a scenario and on the other I would have a list of suggested scripts. Another great way to use flashcards are for interview questions. This way you are more relaxed when it comes time for that stressful day because you already know what to say.
Because time is never on my side I learned that it is best to start early in the creation of your learning tool. Generally, even if it is just the week before the exam it is too late. You must leave ample time to study your flashcards rather than just to make them. This was the mistake I encountered as an undergrad. I could never even finish creating my cards. I used the flip through the book method of studying which is always more stressful to do. If you can, while in your lectures add information directly onto a card. That way you save time having to make them later. Than when you are done with your lecture you can begin studying immediately. Sometimes a study guide is given to you. This is great because you basically know what is going to be on the test. Well if you started making cards in the beginning you can modify what you already have and add what is needed.
Another great advantage to flashcards are that they are so portable. I was able to carry my cards everywhere and when I had a free minute I was able to study them. It's great if you are on a train, waiting in line, etc.
Sometimes you end up with too many flashcards. In this case it is best to study your cards in small groups. People learn best by repetition and it is difficult if there are 200 cards in your hand. Difficult questions need to pop up frequently in order for you to learn the answer. I also suggest to pull cards that you frequently error on aside. You will then have a pile of your most difficult questions. Study these questions on their own more than the ones you get right.
There are so many other ways you can use flashcards as well. I have considered creating flashcards for situations that I encounter at work. On one side would be a scenario and on the other I would have a list of suggested scripts. Another great way to use flashcards are for interview questions. This way you are more relaxed when it comes time for that stressful day because you already know what to say.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A Humanist Code of Ethics
Do no harm to the earth, she is your mother.
Being is more important than having.
Never promote yourself at another's expense.
Hold life sacred; treat it with reverence.
Allow each person the digity of his or her labor.
Open your home to the wayfarer.
Be ready to receive your deepest dreams;
sometimes they are the speech of unblighted conscience.
Always make restitutions to the ones you have harmed.
Never think less of yourself than you are.
Never think that you are more than another.
--Author Dobrin
Being is more important than having.
Never promote yourself at another's expense.
Hold life sacred; treat it with reverence.
Allow each person the digity of his or her labor.
Open your home to the wayfarer.
Be ready to receive your deepest dreams;
sometimes they are the speech of unblighted conscience.
Always make restitutions to the ones you have harmed.
Never think less of yourself than you are.
Never think that you are more than another.
--Author Dobrin
Three Passions Have Governed My Life
Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.
adapted
--Bertrand Russell
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].
Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.
Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.
adapted
--Bertrand Russell
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Long Winding Road Ahead and the Stand Still
It's taking great pains to actually get into a rhythm where I can continuously work through my intellectual goals. The idea was to do tiny steps day by day, but I find that I don't even make the effort to do even the little steps. There are quite a few obstacles that are holding me back. From now on I shall call them my demons. These are: 1. Daydreams 2. Television 3. Procrastination 4. Laziness 5. Tiredness. How many of us can really fight our demons? While being a part of 43 things, a social networking site where you create and share a list of goals you are trying to accomplish, I found only one person on that site who kept making it through consistent goals. I found that all my lists are burdens. I guess because a goal like learn to sew is way more demanding than learn to turn on the sewing machine. When I put it that way it's a little more achievable. Yes I can see it now. Dear Blog, I learned to turn on the sewing machine. Tomorrow I will actually get the thread through all the little thingamabobs. Well at least I did more than what I did yesterday.
School is always a big challenge to work around, however it always seems like I have just enough time for TV. If I have an hour to spend on television than I certainly have a enough time to write a blog everyday. Yes this is something I still wish to accomplish. Only, if there is nothing you can say that you did that was an accomplishment, it is kind of hard to write an entry and a little embarrassing. Dear Blog, Today I accomplished watching another repeated episode of True Blood on HBO. I have become obsessed with vampires and also falling behind on my homework as well. The End.
School is always a big challenge to work around, however it always seems like I have just enough time for TV. If I have an hour to spend on television than I certainly have a enough time to write a blog everyday. Yes this is something I still wish to accomplish. Only, if there is nothing you can say that you did that was an accomplishment, it is kind of hard to write an entry and a little embarrassing. Dear Blog, Today I accomplished watching another repeated episode of True Blood on HBO. I have become obsessed with vampires and also falling behind on my homework as well. The End.
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