Room to Think

For those of you who are following, I got caught up watching talk after talk tonight and never got around to writing anything. Now it's after midnight, I'm at risk of being sick for the third time in a month and a half, and I'm exhausted. So, I leave you with these fine gems until I can get back to them. Their lessons? Listen to beautiful music, allow yourself to be awe-inspired, and don't be afraid to let your mind wander. You'll be happier** for it.  Enjoy.  =) **update below. 10pm UPDATE: Okay, I really hope you enjoyed the music by the Earth Harp lady (it's so soulful and wonderful, how could you not enjoy it?), because clearly I didn't watch that mind wandering TEDtalk before I posted it. In it, the guy pretty much suggests that letting your mind wander may, in fact, actually be responsible for your unhappiness...and therefore probably does not make you happier. You caught me. I am a slacker. But I will remedy that now. "That guy...

First off, if you're reading this and you haven't voted yet: CLOSE THE INTERNET AND GO VOTE.  (actually, the internet was a fairly useful tool to me for my voting research this year. I learned what I couldn't learn from the widely distributed voter's pamphlets.) But I don't know how many people you need to tell you to go vote. They're important choices, and we  all  help make them. You can see the rest of the post by clicking the "Read more" below, AFTER you've turned in your ballot. >.>

Today's Florence Friday   is a simple video I came across in my "research".  That's right people, I'm posting on time this time. That's not to say that I'm not WAY behind in my homework, or my job search, or episodes of my TV shows, or hanging out with all my friends, or redoing my resume for the 71st time.  I just can't seem to focus on anything right now.  I researched Search Engine Optimization last night for a workshop I'm teaching this morning, but I'm using the data this blog has generated so it's only fair that I give you all a post.  =) The video?  It's called "Venice in a Day",  Venizia en un giorno . (I wonder how capitalization is in Italy...do they capitalize all the words in a title?) And it's beautiful. Hope all your Fridays are sunny like today!

exactly.   It's 1am, and I ought to be sleeping, but for some odd reason my brain is going a million miles an hour.  Maybe that's the remnants of my coffee this morning, and my chai tea in the afternoon.  I bet it's the chai. It doesn't keep much caffeine to keep me going.  Since I typically only drink water--very rarely will I drink juice, even...the once-a-month chai concoction is enough to keep me WIDE awake at night. Anyhoooo.  Hoo!  >.<   or rather: O_O Let me stress that it is late.  But I wanted to show you all how Easter went! I had a whirlwind weekend that started off with me dropping off my boss in Lynwood on Saturday(egad, 1.5 hrs in a car with my boss!) and then, based on a text from my mom en route, continued my southern migration from there for an Easter weekend at home. Here are the results! Easter Chick, Ninja Turtle 'stache, Hipster egg, Panicked egg, Dead egg, Volleyball, Blue eyes, Bunny, Naruto nin...

This week's TEDtalk is short, and it's about sleep. For now, I'll just post the video and hope you watch it because it's short, and it's also given by Arianna Huffington at a TEDwomen event. I'm a fan of this video because we're getting to that point in the quarter where sleep becomes less important than better grades. Where we've lost control of our new year's resolutions to do yoga every night before bed, or are stumbling around the internet until the wee hours of the morning as our dogs call to us from our beds. This video is about the value of sleep.  The idea is a simple one.

You know, I really seem to be on a happiness binge with these TEDtalks--or maybe that's just TED. Either way, here is your TEDtalk for today (I started this at 11pm on Tuesday, it still counts!) This guy's name is Shawn Achor, and he "accidentally" broke his sister's arm when she was five in order to save her from being in the path of an imaginary sniper bullet. He still has yet to be thanked.  =) He also applied to Harvard on a dare...and he got in.  O_O In all seriousness though (kinda?), he has some hugely important messages to share with all of us: "...if we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average."--on research it's possible to be a male medical student at Yale named Bobo who has leprosy AND menopause.  (5:54) and most importantly: The formula for success is wrong. (9:11) "If I work harder, I'll be more successful. And if I'm more successful, then I'll be happier....

This post was supposed to be finished shortly after I posted Part 1...but obviously that didn't happen, and I apologize for making you all check back repeatedly to see if I had written more. (don't try to hide it, my page views have been going up! I see you lurking.) So without further ado, I give you, Part 2: ******************** In Part 1 , I *strongly* suggested that you all watch Diana Nyad talk about her world-record-breaking swim that she attempted (and failed) last summer at age 60. I envy that woman's motivation.  I doubt I'd even consider a swim like that plausible for myself at that age. If I were her, I'd be thinking, "Oh, that's too bad, I failed my "life's dream", but that's that.  I'm 60 years old, and I gave it my best. The sea gods just hate me is all.  Perhaps I'll try skydiving.  It seems less intimidating..." But because I envy her motivation, I want to uncover what it is about her mindset t...

A glass of fruit and gelato I was having trouble finding a theme to blog about today, ironically, because I didn't want to post about food.  In my apartment, I'm the picky eater (but my roommate eats damn near everything, so I don't really think that's a fair judgement).  I also have a reputation for not getting hungry.  My stomach can rumble loud enough to wake a hibernating bear, but I will not  be hungry. (trust me on this one) Despite the unfairness above, I am a picky eater---yes, mom, I will acknowledge that--but I've been getting much better at being open to try new things. San Marzanos--Italian tomatoes As a result, one of my *fears* of going to Italy was that damn near every meal would include some version of one of my least  favorite foods:  tomatoes. Currently, my biggest intake of lycopenes comes from ketchup.  I can stomach them if they're in burgers, and I do eat tomato sauce in small amounts, like on pizza...

I'll just leave this here. Yep.  Right in the middle of the Red Square fountain.  Honestly, do snowmen have NO decency? I had planned a longer post for today, but I'm too excited from the snow I can see falling beneath the streetlights outside my window to write much (and much too far behind in homework). So...just know that my weekend ROCKED (despite having my pants freeze to my legs), and the snow just topped things off. I'll leave you with this tidbit of trippyness my friend Cirque mentioned to me: Go outside when it's dark and snowing, and try to focus on one or two snowflakes at a time. It's trippy, and you're likely to end up on your butt in the snow if you do it while you're walking. Enjoy the view. Happy snow day!  =)

So, obviously I'm a little late on the "Tuesday" part of TEDtalk Tuesday, but I don't have followers yet, so I suppose it's not going to matter in the end.  Besides, I haven't gone to bed yet.  In my mind, that means it's still Tuesday. Regardless, I intended to post this while I was in the Atrium today, but I ended up forking up $120 to the rec center all in one go because I decided to be on two intramural teams this quarter, and the line had me occupied for a good portion of my 2 hour break.  By the end, I didn't feel like blogging at all. BUT here is the reflection on my post I put up earlier today.  If you actually watched the nice embedded video I put up in the last blog, congratulations.  I'm happy that 20min video didn't make you feel like you were wasting time.  TED does have much more engaging presentations, I promise!  It also means you can skip most of this blog, down to the only graphic in this mass of words.  If you...