Be Kind, a message from Sophia

USA.gov, Gov't Made Easy

This year, if you are somehow short on New Year's Resolution, not to fret, the government has your back. That is right, they even came up with a short list for NY resolution..damns got to love 'em ;) But seriously, this is hilariously wonderful, "find resources to help you achieve your goals".

• Drink Less Alcohol
• Eat Healthy Food
• Get a Better Education
• Get a Better Job
• Get Fit
• Lose Weight
• Manage Debt
• Manage Stress
• Quit Smoking
• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
• Save Money
• Take a Trip
• Volunteer to Help Others

New Year's Resolutions?

Smoke more cigars.

7 Foods Experts Won't Eat

Simply put: avoid these. 

• All GMO foods.
• Canned tomatoes.

The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food. Studies show that the BPA in most people’s body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. “You can get 50 mcg of BPA per liter out of a tomato can, and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young,” says vom Saal. “I won’t go near canned tomatoes.”

• Corn-fed beef.
• Micro-wave popcorn

Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize—and migrate into your popcorn. “They stay in your body for years and accumulate there,” says Naidenko, which is why researchers worry that levels in humans could approach the amounts causing cancers in laboratory animals. DuPont and other manufacturers have promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then.

• Farmed salmon
• Milk produced with artificial hormones
• Conventional Apples

If fall fruits held a “most doused in pesticides contest,” apples would win. Why? They are individually grafted (descended from a single tree) so that each variety maintains its distinctive flavor. As such, apples don’t develop resistance to pests and are sprayed frequently. The industry maintains that these residues are not harmful. But Kastel counters that it’s just common sense to minimize exposure by avoiding the most doused produce, like apples. “Farm workers have higher rates of many cancers,” he says. And increasing numbers of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides (from all sources) with Parkinson’s disease.

How-To: Remove a Tick

Next to poison oak (which I also have on the SAME leg, and it sucks), tick bites are the worst. My leg has been swollen for some days now, it is painful to even walk and now the itching won't stop. To top the pain, ticks also carry a rather long list of diseases, how exciting. FYI, I have an appointment set for some blood work, since I having a plethora of symptoms - exciting! Slash ticks are nast-aaaay!

Some mistakes I made in the removal of the tick:

1. Remove the tick ASAP, diseases are transferred after 24 hours after the bite. *I waited until my mom got off of work because I was afraid and couldn't get a good angle since it bit me on the back of my leg.
2. When removing, use tweezers and pull straight out. *Do not twist clockwise/counterclockwise, it actually increases the chances of detaching the body from the head. 
3. When removing, get as close to the skin as possible. *Grabbing the body causes the tick to infuse its disease.
4. Remove immediately! *My mom told me to put on a glob of vaseline and put a band-aide over it...to suffocate the lil' fucker, when in reality that just causes the tick to release its poison. Don't burn either...YEAH!

Tick-borne diseases + symptoms:

Cheater's Guide to Chanukah

AshTang.

AshTang, the hottest search engine in my whole life! Fuck Google.

A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stomp on it and really mess it up, but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty it was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said............


They were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bully's another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home.

Invasive Species Control: A How-To

Twas the night before a big test, the lil' ones had all gone asleep 

And alas she sat. 

The work was not finished, as it never quite was-

Her heart was beating, the real question on her mind was nothing of Nitrogen sequestration and its affects on Serpentine soils, 

Nothing of la emergencia de la ‘juventud indígena’ but of instead:

Saltiness.

The affects unto individuals that find themselves in a vulnerable state due to a lack of invasive species control and/or management. The strategy of attack:

1. Enemy release (most acute).
2. Novel weapons (release of chemicals that can act allelopathically unto other organisms [natives species] in niche that are/were present prior).
3. New adaptations (similar to #1, but is acquired with more time).

In the shift of puntos de vista, an invasive species can easily be classified as an exotic one. 

Can't they?

I drank a cup of coffee this morning, approximately 2 hours ago, it has kicked in. 

 At Sci Li now; my hands are shaking some, my head hurts and I have nausea. 

I don't know what I was thinking. Never again.

Amigos?

Amigos or enemigos..
At this point - Unknown.

Changing someone's flight is not kind.
Changing someone's flight for pretend is even worse.

Message to the Not So Wise

This is advice from the lovely Zora.
So simple, so wise:

Don't give your heart without telling them..or they'll just sit on it.

Suck Ass.

A common trend that I have noticed about myself:

When the end of anything is coming, instead of dealing with an issue-
Instead of talking about your emotions-
Rather than communicating directly?
Skipping the saying good-bye...

My answer?
Walk-away.

So my advice, as walking-away is not an option any more...
Suck ass.

This is my new solution to life and all your fucking curve-balls.

I don't know what it is about people..but they think that I can just take anything that they throw at me. I am human too, I might put up a wall to protect myself, act really tough and not give anyone the time of day..but guess what?

I might be the most sensitive person ever. I cry when you are not looking and sometimes when you comment on the things that I say, how I speak, or how I look and body language, I want to hide under my covers. But being me, I try and take it. Sometimes sucking ass isn't enough. 

Emotions, you overwhelm me. 

The end of the year is coming, and I am heading off-Leaving. The end.

To be honest a lot of this is making me want to leave for forever.

It's simply more simple.

Junior!

    
    Oh me of my, Netflix-you're the apple of my eye..

    Please say that you've seen this film too, and if not please do!




    Really though, I don't know what could be better: the pregnant Govenator, and Danny DeVito...YES PLEASE! PG-13, I'm all over that..'romantic and goofy'-straight up me.  Thanks Drea for sharing your account!

Junior

1994 PG-13 110 minutes

Their research threatened when they fail to nab a grant, two fertility doctors, Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito), test their theory and implant Hesse with an embryo. They'd initially planned to terminate the pregnancy after the first three months, but Mr. Mom-to-be soon decides to go the whole nine months ... morning sickness, stretch marks and all. Plus, Hesse is smitten with a fellow scientist (Emma Thompson).

Cast:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson,Frank Langella, Pamela Reed, Aida Turturro, James Eckhouse, Megan Cavanagh, Welker White, Kathleen Chalfant, Merle Kennedy, Judy Collins, Mindy Seeger,Christopher Meloni, Antoinette Peragine

Paying for School

First off, it sucks!
Second off, don't or try to sneak your way by..a big smile helps!

Today has been absolutely fantastic! Wow, what a day! (So many exclamations, goodness..)

To begin:

  - Snuggle Fest 2011-
  - Yummy toast with honey-butter (oh the memories from Kindergarten. . .)
  - So much Kombucha!
  - A hop, skip and jump to the bike van, with spots awaiting my beautiful bike.
  - Class registration at 11AM and bam! I got the classes that I needed:
          ENVS 100/100L and LALS 120 with a guest Professor Cruz!
  - More yoga, and I even had my students in inversions today! So proud.
  - A nice bike ride across campus from Oakes to Merrill.
  - Woot woot, the sun is finally out!
  - SER- Senior Exist Requirement mandatory meeting for LALS, sucess!
  - Then Office Hours: Flora, then Courtney, then Flora's, then Alessandra's, then back to Flora, then   Alessandra, followed by a congratulations and big smile form Flora : )

But what happened that made today so fricken fantastic?????

I just saved $1,235 - $3,705  on summer registration!

How?

With my big smile!

The Dangers of Being a Bicyclist

    Today, I felt very self righteous! You know, in the biking sense-those annoying people that yell at cars to 'share the road'. Well, it may have to do with the fact that I almost got run twice by the same truck! Mr. Truck-driver was swerving all over the place and taking over my lane with the bat of a lash.

    Finally, with about five more major swerves we both get to the red light at Bay and King. I get off my bike, and yes- this is where I get all self-righteous, one of those bicyclists, and I hit the truck as hard as I can.

    The man inside looks down at me from his seat, some four feet in the truck to my five foot three stance. Such disdain of his facial muscles, maybe they were cramped, or maybe thats just his face. He rolls down the window and I teach him a lesson about staying in your appropriate lane, plus I scolded him just a lil' about not running bicyclists over.

    Same day, I get a text from Juliana (one of my housemates.)  Apparently, her bike neighbor at Safeway decided to not only lock his bike, but hers too. Her thoughts to dealing with the problem-'slash the tires!'

Outdated Terminology-

Language might be the most interesting thing, in my mind. Used to communicate, it is the absence of language that disables interaction, conversation, understanding, and potentially common ground.

It seems that we can no longer use the same words that our parents did, because everything becomes outdated! Slang, idioms, love 'em all. 'Gosh' something that I say A LOT, yet others consider it old-fashioned and 'square'.  'Anywho' (a word that doesn't actually exist,) the point of this post is to: share a new term.  Since we do already have a common ground; English, this all becomes much easier.*

This post is to Kevin Danaher, creator of the Green Festival. In his guest lecture last week at ESLP, he said a few things and had some ideas that I really 'jived' with.

Let's be 'solutionaries'! (As 'revolutionaries' is now outdated...)

*English, yikes-the problems within this hegemonic language, yay!

Advice for the day:

Bike-ride up a twisted/swirly highway overpass.
It is soooooo much fun!