Crazy Unproductive.

I had planned on being super productive today. I was going to write two papers that I have that are due tomorrow. Well I wrote one. I do however have plenty of time tomorrow to write the other one (which is only a first draft anyway so it doesn't need to be perfect). So how did I end up being so unproductive today? Well my day started off pretty early. I was awake around 6 (might have something to do with me being in bed at 9pm). I went to Church for the 8:30 mass. After that I ran a couple of errands. Then I met some friends for brunch at The Fish House. I had a delicious vegetable frittata (I love that word) and a bottomless mimosa (which at some point I had to let it reach the bottom). After that I ran back to my apartment to change into my Batman costume. Yes, my Batman costume. Then I went and met some friends at the Gulf Breeze Zoo for a fun day of "Boo at the Zoo". Had a great time there. People loved my Batman costume. One kid asked his mom if I was the real Batman (success!!). There was a little girl dressed as Batgirl who asked me if I was Batgirl. I told her I was Batman and she said I couldn't be Batman because I'm a girl. Well I'm wearing the Batman costume so deal with it! I did not say that, I just laughed and said 'Okay, I'm Batgirl.'

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 16

So that was the majority of my day. I came home and wrote my one paper in just a couple of hours. Made myself a quick dinner. And then made this delicious chocolate chip cheesecake dip for our Halloween party in class tomorrow. It's delish. I must resist eating it all before the party. So as my day was not nearly as productive as I intended it to be (which I'm fine with because I had a GREAT day) I decided to find a TED talk that was totally irrelevant to my life and maybe just a little crazy. I think it turned out to be a whole lot crazy and I really can't even begin to discuss it in depth. It's a talk by Joshua Walters on being crazy. It's crazy, it's funny, and you can definitely get something out of it, but I'll just let you do that on your own. So enjoy. (It's another short one too.)



Oh and as for Snowtober back home, it's not going so well. Connecticut is now faced with it's worst power outage in history (beating out the record set by Hurricane Irene not so long ago). I know that 99% of my town was without power, and it's now down to 97%. The power companies have said that it will be up to a week before full power is restored. My parents have borrowed a generator from my brother so they can at least have the necessities. It's pretty rough up there though. So for any of you up in the Northeast, I hope things get better for you soon. Stay safe.

Halloween, Snow, & the World Series.

With Halloween less than a couple days away it is looking like it's going to be a White Halloween back home. That's right. It's been a snowy day back in CT. Now, I'm enjoying the weather here in Pensacola (the high today was 69 degrees F). It's not all the crazy for there to be snow in CT in October. When I was a kid we had to buy or make my costume so that it could fit over the layers of clothes you had to wear to keep warm. So snow in October in CT is not crazy, but it doesn't happen every year, and it's usually not as big of a storm as this was. Apparently a good portion of the state is out of power (including my parent's house and most of our hometown). So as much as I am loving the gorgeous weather down here, it would be nice to be home for some snow.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 15 (Halfway there!)

So in honor of the snow back home, I tried to find a TED talk about snow. I found very few options. So what I did find was this talk by Ray Zahab about his journey to the South Pole, on foot. It was a record breaking trek that took 33 days. He's very enthusiastic to share his story and it's very amazing that he and a few others did that journey together. I don't think I could ever do it.



So that's the snowy tale of the day. Who watched Game 7 of the World Series last night? I sure did. I headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings, and grabbed a seat at the bar to enjoy the game. It was a pretty good game, although not as good as Game 6 was. I was super excited that the Cardinals won. I was disappointed in the way baseball is not a big deal down here in the south. The place wasn't even packed and most of the people there weren't even watching the game. I know football is the big thing down here (don't get me wrong, I love football too) but there could be a little more love for football. While I was there I noticed there were 3 guys wearing Texas Rangers shirts, 2 with Cardinals shirts, 1 with a Nationals shirt, 1 with a Braves shirt, and 1 with an Orioles shirt. Even if you're going to watch the game, why bother wearing a shirt of a team who's not playing? Only in the south. It just would've been a better energy if there had been more people there to watch the game. Oh well, I still had a great time.

So in honor of the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series, their 11th WS win (#11 in '11) here's a picture of Busch Stadium from my most recent trip to St. Louis (and by most recent that means February).

Sleep, statistics, and baseball.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 14

So yet another day of tired me. I wanted to go to sleep earlier last night, but the World Series game kept me up. I'm of course rooting for the Cardinals (although I'm not sure why that was an 'of course' statement but I'll go with it) so I was very nervous towards the end. I continued to believe in the Cards and they made me super happy with their comebacks. They were completely determined to push the series to Game 7, and they certainly did that. It was some stressful, but incredible extra innings and I'm really excited to watch the game tonight. I'm hoping for a St. Louis win, but whoever wins it will certainly be a well-deserved title.

Anyway. On to today's TED talk, which is ironically about TED talks. Sebastian Wernicke talks about the statistics of TED talks and what constitutes the ultimate best and worst TED talks. It's interesting to see the things that people like (and don't like) to hear about in talks. It's also quite funny as well. I rather enjoyed it.Hope you do as well.




You liked it, right? Okay good. I may need a quick nap before Game 7, so I'm going to go do that. Happy Friday! Happy Halloweekend! Let's go Cards!!

Sleepless nights, unsuccessful days

30 Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 13

So I'm quite exhausted today. I didn't get much sleep last night, and when I actually was asleep it wasn't a very good sleep. So needless to say I'm a bit tired today. Which from my experiences from the last 4 years as an undergrad is something I should be used to. As an undergrad sleep was a luxury I came across every few days. I was well known for my lack of sleep. At times it worked for me, and other times not so much. Ironically, now that I'm in grad school I actually get much more sleep so I've kind of gotten accustomed to it. So nights of little sleep kind of throw me off a bit. Now that I get more sleep most of the time these days I find that I feel more motivated, and obviously more energetic (although I'm usually not lacking energy no matter how much sleep I get). It's that motivation that's important. I get more done, and I usually get better work done.

So in honor of how exhausted (and not motivated) I am today, here's a talk about sleep. Arianna Huffington talks about how sleep makes us succeed. Seemed fitting for the day. So watch and enjoy while I go fuel up on caffeine before my 4pm meeting.



Now go enjoy the rest of your day, and get plenty of sleep tonight!!

Unwanted gifts.

Okay so before I get into today's TED talk... between yesterday and today I watched the TV series Harper's Island. Have you seen it? It aired on CBS in 2009. It's only 13 episodes long, only one season. Don't go thinking that it wasn't good because it only lasted one season; it was meant to only last one season. It was actually really good. I couldn't stop watching (and thus, I basically didn't). It's about a group of friends who go back to the island they grew up on, where a murderous rampage took place 7 years prior. Only problem, people are dying once again. It was super suspenseful and at times shocking. It was good, and seemed fitting since Halloween is approaching. So watch it if you haven't.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 12

Today's talk is rather short, but it's meaning is huge. It's a talk by Stacey Kramer about the best gift she ever survived. She talks about all the wonderful things this gift brought to her life. Only problem, it's not exactly a gift you'd ever want. It's very humbling, very moving. It's made me think about the wonderful things I have in my life, and how lucky I am to have them. I hope you feel the same after watching.




So that seems to be a random combination of topics today. I just couldn't not mention Harper's Island. It was that good. Anyway, Happy Hump Day!! Have a fantastic rest of the week. Okay bye.

Effects of Sound

30-Day Challenge #1
Day 11

Keeping with the theme of music I came across this talk by Julian Treasure about the way that sounds affect us. They affect us physiologically, psychologically, cognitively, and behaviorally. Now he's of course talking about any sounds, and not just music but I thought it was very interesting to think about the ways sound affects us. I've certainly demonstrated the psychological side with my many playlists for my different moods. He talks about the way it affects our productivity though and it's amazing at how sound can highly affect it. I'm not surprised though because as I thought about it I thought about the fact that when I'm working on an assignment or a paper I go to Pandora and put on my Hans Zimmer based station. Listening to that music, which I deem my 'thinking music', makes me more focused on my work. I get done faster, and I feel that my work is of better quality.




I hope you found that as fascinating as I did. I love music, and I love the way it interacts with our lives. As I mentioned yesterday I have been listening to a lot of Hot Chelle Rae recently. I totally love their music. I also love their video for their song 'I Like It Like That' which is free on iTunes for a limited time (about a week) so if you're interested I recommend you go grab that. I can't even explain why I love the video so much. It just really makes me smile. I guess it's because it's a pretty upbeat song, and they just look like they're having fun. Here's what I mean:




See what I mean? Or maybe it's just me. Anyway. Okay bye.

Expression through Music.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 10

A third of the way through the challenge!! Luckily there are plenty of TED talks to choose from so that hasn't been too hard, but it is difficult to try to find ones that are relevant to what I'm feeling. Today, I set out to find a talk about music. I knew there had to be some. There certainly were. The reason why I was looking for one about music is because music is an important part of my life. I love listening to music. I express my emotions through the music I listen to. I have all different playlists for my different moods... the emo mix for those days when I'm feeling down, the feel good mix for those days when I'm in a really good mood, the anger mix for when I'm, well, angry, etc. Sometimes I feel like expressing my emotions through a certain band. I have a wide range of music interests so on any given day it could really be anything. Currently it's Hot Chelle Rae. Their song 'I Like It Like That' is really upbeat and always makes me smile. So it's definitely a song for the feel good mix. The video for it makes me smile a little extra too. Their song 'Bleed' definitely finds a spot on my emo mix. It's just so full of emotion. Seriously, go listen to these songs.

So anyway back to the TED Talk. I also love the band OK Go. I love their music and I love when they have some very kickass music videos. Have you seen the one where they dance on treadmills? (Here It Goes Again) Or the one with the crazy Rube Goldberg machine? Speaking of that one (This Too Shall Pass), that is what this TED talk is about. Adam Sadowsky is one of the people who worked on designing and building the machine in that video. It's really neat to listen to him talk about what went into having to build that machine, and then at the end he shows the music video. It's pretty awesome.





Hope you enjoyed that. Music is a good thing in our lives. Whether you listen to it, play it (I play a tiny bit of guitar), sing it, produce it, or whatever, it brings a lot to our lives. So keep on listening, playing, and whatever else and share your love of music with those around you.

Here's a little bit more about the importance of music in my life. Feel free to not read on if you don't want to. Music has definitely been a huge part of my life. I was definitely one of those kids in high school who was at a different local show every weekend night. I went broke going to shows. I lived in CT then so the venues I frequented were The Space, Empress Ballroom, Toad's Place, Wesbter Theater, Webster Underground, and some random local places that occasionally had bands (i.e. The Maxx, that coffee shop in Greenwich, and whatever that place in downtown Westport was called...). I saw a lot of awesome bands. Some of them aren't bands anymore (well, a lot of them aren't bands anymore). Some of them are still going strong. Some of them have actually made it big (All Time Low, Akon, The Audition, and a few others). I lived through music. It's always been how I express myself. It's how I continue to express myself.

I miss those days of going to shows every week. Once I'm in a financially stable position I hope to be able to do that again. I did make it to a few concerts this summer and I really loved it. Maybe whenever I am able to fully immerse myself back into the music scene, I'll blog about it. haha this is turning into the ever changing blog. Oh well. Stagnation is bad.

Thanks for reading. Okay bye.

Nature is sacred.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 9

On a daily basis we recognize the fact that we need food to live, that we need water to live. We know that we need to breathe to live, but do we ever really think much about the air we breathe. Pollination is essential to our lives because without it our air does not have its oxygen replenished. We don't ever walk around and think 'I'm glad the pollinators are working hard so I can breathe.' It's something that we just take for granted. So in this TED talk that I'm sharing today we can take a few moments to stop taking pollination for granted. Louie Schwartzberg talks briefly about the importance of pollination, but more importantly he shows us the beauty of it with images from his film "Wings of Life". These clips allow us to see pollination in a way we can't see it everyday. Pollinators are vanishing from our planet because they're threatened by mankind, and yet we need them so that we can live. We should take a little more time to appreciate what they do for us.

Enjoy, and remember to acknowledge the beauty in the life around us.




"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." -Aristotle

Modernist Cuisine

Alrighty. It's yet another day of my 30-day challenge. Day 8 as a matter of fact.This is going to be a little bit of a short post. I'm not feeling so well today and don't feel up to writing a whole lot. And it's also gorgeous outside so I'm hoping that if I get outside for a while this afternoon I might feel better.

Today's talk is by Nathan Myrhvold who is a chef and cookbook author. He's also a nerd. In this talk he discusses the various parts of his cookbook 'Modernist Cuisine', which looks at the science behind cooking. I'm very intrigued by this because I love to cook and I am a science nerd. He shows some fascinating pictures and high speed videos of some of the science behind cooking. I'd be interested in seeing the 'cookbook'. Be warned that when I say cookbook, it's really quite a bit more than that. Over 2,000 pages long, it's broken up into 6 volumes. To buy the whole set it's somewhere around $500. So it's more of a series of textbooks rather than a cookbook. Volume 6 is the kitchen manual and is really the cookbook part of it (and has waterproof pages apparently). So I won't be buying it anytime soon.

I hope you enjoy. I find it fascinating to look at the science behind cooking.

The High Line

30-Day Challenge #1
Day 7
Ever heard of the High Line? Or of High Line Park? The High Line was a railroad freight line in New York City that was built high off the ground to make it safer. Freight trains were no longer used in NYC after the 80s, so in more recent years the city was gearing up to tear it down. This talk given by Robert Hammond is about how he wanted to preserve the High Line, and came up with the idea of making it into a park. So the High Line Park is born. It's located in Manhattan on the West Side, and is partially completed. It's pretty awesome from the video and what I've seen online. It looks like it adds a lot of beauty to the city, and it will be really spectacular when all the sections are completed. I haven't been to the High Line Park yet, but hopefully the next time I am back home I'll get a chance to check it out.




I think that turning it into a park was a really unique idea. It adds beauty. It attracts tourists who boost the economy. It's green. It's sustainable. It's innovative. I like that they held a design competition to find the right design for it. That gives architects and landscape architects and urban designers a chance to have their work seen and for them to work on such a great project.

Sometimes we take for granted the world around us. We don't always enjoy nature as much as we should or would like to. So take some time and go for a stroll in a park. You'll get some exercise and I'm sure it will make you feel refreshed and less stressed.

I hope you enjoyed the talk. If you're in NYC sometime you should consider taking a stroll through High Line Park.

Secrets of Success

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 6

Alrighty. So yesterday I said I'd look for something a bit more serious than tying your shoes correctly, and maybe a little funny. At least I think I said that, and I'm just running with it anyway... So I did just that. Today's talk by Richard St. John is about the secrets to success. It's another short one, but he very quickly lays out the 8 secrets to success. I think he points out very good characteristics that people often forget about. We all want to be successful in life so this is relevant to us all. It related to my day a bit too, but I'll bore you with that after you watch the video.



Okay. So I hope you liked that. It was short, but informative. I personally found this one fitting for me, especially today. I am in grad school and in less than two years will be entering the professional world so I hope to be successful. I hope to be successful in school and in my career. This is really relevant to me today specifically because i just got back from a meeting where I got to talk with people in various areas and stages of student affairs. It gave me an idea on what they've done to be successful and they were able to give me advice on how to be successful. A lot of what they told me are things that are mentioned in this talk.

One thing with these TED talks that I want to mention is that it's important to reflect on the knowledge we take in. We learn a lot through reflection; reflection on our lives, our mistakes, our achievements, our work, etc. So it's important to take in what the speaker tells us, but to also relate it to our lives. Take these 8 secrets to success and reflect on whether or not you're using those secrets. I know that I have passion, I work hard, I certainly persist, I have ideas. I do serve and do some good, but I could probably serve more and do some more good. I could definitely push myself a bit more and focus a little harder. I could brainstorm for ideas a whole lot more than I do. I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses and I try to work on making my weaknesses not so weak. People sometimes focus only on what they're good at, but it will make you far more successful if you maintain your strengths while improving your weaknesses.

So that's my bit of knowledge for today. Also, I learned today that October is apparently National Careers in Student Affairs Month (CSAM). So if you're interested in Student Affairs as a career, or have no idea what it is then you can check out the website about CSAM which will tell you all about Student Affairs and how to become a part of it. Or ask me some questions and I'll answer what I can. :)

You're doing it wrong.

30-Day challenge # 1: TED Talks
Day 5

Well hello there. I bet you were worried I forgot to post today and had already failed my 30-day challenge without even reaching day 5. (Was anyone even invested in this enough to be worried? I mean really...) Have no fear, I did not forget. I was merely writing a paper all day (on good practices in higher education) so that I could get it out of the way. Then I had class for three hours, and kind of wanted to eat dinner after that.

Anyway. Since yesterday was a really long talk that I shared, and today has been a busy day for me and probably for you (Happy Hump Day) I went for a talk that was shorter. This one is less than 3 minutes long (only by a second, but still...) It's a talk by Terry Moore about how to tie your shoes (riveting, I know but just watch it because it's a tad bit interesting.




Never knew that. It reminds me of this time back in health class in my freshman year of high school. My friend Justine sat next to me and in the middle of class she noticed her shoe had come untied, but she didn't want to bend down to tie it. So she put her foot on my knee and made me tie it. Which of course I did. She told me that I tied shoes wrong. I had always tied my shoes by making two "bunny ears" and and tying them together that way. So she then took it upon herself to teach me to correctly tie shoes the way everyone else apparently ties them. All while Mr. Pagel was in the middle of teaching. At one point he asked us what we were doing and when we replied with teaching me how to tie shoes correctly he just shook his head. He proceeded on with teaching, knowing that it wasn't worth the effort to stop us. We still managed to learn everything he was teaching anyway. Anyway, she taught me how to tie my shoes the way everyone else does which is what I now do, although apparently that's wrong too.

I find it interesting that something as simple as which way you tie your shoes can actually make all the difference. Simple stuff today, but hope you enjoyed. I'll find something a bit more interesting tomorrow, and maybe something funny. I'll see what I can find. Good night (or day I suppose depending on when/where you're reading this).

It's mutual.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 4

So here's the talk for today. Let me warn you first: it's a long one. It's about 20 minutes long, but believe me it's worth it. Mark Bittman (a food writer for the New York Times) talks about what's wrong with our diet. He touches on a lot of good points, reasons why I'm a vegetarian. What I like about it, though, is not that he's saying be a vegetarian (because he's not saying that), but that he's just talking about what is wrong with what we eat and how and why we should change it. Our country's agricultural system has gone to shit, which I mean figuratively of course (although quite literally when you think about livestock being raised while standing in their own feces). As an alumna of the National FFA (Future Farmers of America) Organization, I hope to see our agricultural system improve.

So I hope you watch this video in its entirety. I hope you'll eat organic, eat local, eat sustainable, but most importantly just eat healthy. If you're interested in this topic, I highly recommend the movie Food, Inc. It's a great documentary about the food we eat and the agricultural system.




Now onto the word of the day. An important word it is today...
--
Agreement. Decision. I think it's time to come to a mutual agreement. I'm not so into this dual blogging thing I've got going on. My blog has agreed it is going in a better direction (clearly I made up a mind for my blog) and I've agreed that I hate building off of this one word thing. Agreed. Decided.
--
Well, there you have it. I have decided (and apparently mutually agreed with the mind of my blog) that it's time to remove the one word aspect to the blog. I think that my blog is far better with these 30-day challenges now. So mutual is the last word I'll be using for my blog inspiration. It doesn't mean I'm leaving oneword.com behind. Seriously, give it a try. It really helps your thoughts to just flow. Which ironically, using it for my blog makes my posts not flow... If you're terribly upset by this mutual decision between me and my blog (again I apparently gave it a mind of its own...) feel free to let me know and I may consider giving it another go. Although, who actually reads this anyway? Especially after I just asked you to watch a guy talk for 20 minutes. So I applaud you if you not only read my blog, but made it this far.


On another quick note that goes back to the food thing, if you are a vegan or vegetarian, or just looking to eat healthy there's a few blogs that I think you'd be interested in. I think some of them are on the list of links on the right of my blog, but here they are anyway:
Love and Zest (this one's by a registered dietician so there's some great healthy recipes and isn't specifically vegetarian but does have some v-friendly recipes)
Green Gourmet Giraffe (all vegetarian, some are vegan and some gluten free)
Simply Sugar and Gluten Free (recipes free of refined sugar and gluten, not specifically vegetarian, but some recipes are v-friendly)
Vegan Dad (all vegan, but delicious)

The dull and not so dull.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 3

As I've mentioned I'm kind of a science nerd. I especially love the oceans and the creatures that inhabit them. So today I came across this TED talk by David Gallo about some of the amazing things those creatures can do. I learned about a lot of this in college and have seen some videos, but it never gets boring. It's always incredible. I hope you find it as amazing as I do.




--
Some days my life seems pretty dull lately. I really only go to class and do school work. I mean, obviously I do more than just that. I don't go out much though. I watch a lot of stuff on hulu. I go for walks every day. I read a lot. But it still seems pretty dull. Maybe it's the lack of social interaction outside of class.
--
Quite the opposite of the TED talk I've shared today. That talk is anything but dull. As for my life it does seem rather dull at times. I'm seriously looking forward to starting work (Oct 26) so that I have something to do. And I'll get to meet some more people.

While we're on the topic of dull, I'm thinking this whole word a day thing is rather dull. It's hard to connect it to my daily challenge, as well as to my life sometimes. That's why I've moved it to the bottom of my post. It's just making my posts seem very disconnected. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should phase it out. (Once again my blog is evolving...) We'll see. I'm going to keep it for now, probably at the bottom of the post like today. If you noticed (not sure who 'you' is because I don't think anyone reads this...) I also changed the title of the post to not be just the word of the day, but incorporates the word of the day. Seemed to be more fitting.

Warfare

Warfare... warfare. Chemical warfare? Makes me think of chemistry then. I love and hate chemistry. It makes me happy that I'm not in science any more, but there's also parts that I miss. I love learning some awesome chemistry things, but overall I don't think I miss it.

--

Honestly when I saw the word warfare I really didn't know where to go with it. I could talk a lot about our country's current state of economic warfare, or the wars we fight overseas, but as I tried to think about what to write, my mind kept landing on chemical warfare. That, in turn, only made me think of chemistry. As I said, I love and hate chemistry. I've learned so much chemistry over the years, and while it was rather difficult at times I enjoyed it overall. I don't necessarily miss it though. I don't miss science all that much either. I mean, I'm a science nerd so just because I gave it up as a profession, doesn't mean it's gone from my life. I love learning science and reading about science every day. I have some of my biology books from undergrad, and I do occasionally open them to just read for fun.

Like I said, science nerd. Take a look to the right where I have a list of some of the blogs I like to read. Some of them are very science-y. Just because I'm not going to have a career in science doesn't mean it's out of my life. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I wondered if I made the right choice in moving away from science. I haven't moved away from science though. In the sense of my career path, yes I left science behind. But there's science all around us; we are science. So I didn't move on from science, and I don't need to move on from science.

30-day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 2

Here's an interesting TED talk for today. It's a bit different. Mostly it's just pictures of icebergs. It doesn't really instill an knowledge in you, but it has significance. Looking at the pictures of icebergs presented in this talk by Camille Seaman makes you realize a few things about life and nature. It makes you realize how magnificent these icebergs are. They're just frozen water, but they're beautiful. It also makes you realize how small we are on this earth, and yet we make such a large impact on the world. I really like this one, even though it's quite simple. I especially love the video at the end, it's pretty amazing. Enjoy.

Advice

We always look to other people for advice. Never to ourselves. We give advice to others. Never to ourselves. I think there are times when we don't trust ourselves to make the right decisions. We need others to justify our decisions for us. I think it's time to start trusting ourselves.


--


It's true. I give advice, and I ask for advice. Sometimes I just need to take my own advice. But it's not always that easy is it? For me, it's easier to trust in other people than it is to trust in myself. I often doubt myself, second guess my actions and decisions. Coming to UWF for example. I'm constantly questioning whether I should have done this or not. I need to stop doubting myself though because I'm here and that's not changing anytime soon. So I'm going to start taking my own advice of living in the now and enjoying life as it comes along. Part of that life will be challenging myself... so here's the start of my 30-day challenges.

30-Day Challenge #1: TED Talks
Day 1.

I've decided that my first 30-day challenge is to watch and share one TED talk each day. For those of you unfamiliar with TED talks, I encourage you to become familiar with them. TED is a non-profit organization with the tagline of "Ideas Worth Spreading". It started out with a conference to bring people together about Technology, Education, and Design. TED talks are videos of ideas presented at TED conferences, all of which are ideas worth spreading. The talks are entertaining, educational, empowering, inspirational, and a lot of other wonderful adjectives.

My idea for doing 30-day challenges came from a TED talk I watched by Matt Cutts. I thought of using it as my Day 1 TED talk for this challenge, but that seemed too easy. I've already watched it anyway, so why not start with a different one. However, if you're interested in watching the talk by Matt Cutts you can do so here. This idea for my 30-day challenge was also a result of me coming across the TED iPhone app. I don't think this will be a very difficult challenge. They shouldn't be huge, difficult challenges. I hope to learn a lot from these TED talks so I think this will be a very good challenge.

So for Day 1 I've decided to go with a TED talk I came across today called "We can recycle plastic" by Mike Biddle. If you know me, then you know I love the environment. I truly believe it is a privilege to live on this earth, and therefore we must do our part to protect the environment. Recycling is one way that we can protect the planet. Too much waste goes into dumps, into the ocean, and just gets scattered across the ground. I recycle. It's not a difficult thing to do, especially if you have curbside recycling pickup. I live in an apartment complex, and don't have curbside pickup. So there's a pile of broken down cardboard boxes in my living room and a box of plastics and metals in my kitchen. A few times a month I gather up these recyclables and drive down the road to the fire station and toss these things into the proper recycling dumpsters. It's a little more effort than curbside pickup, but to me it's worth it. This talk shows us that plastics can be recycled, and it can have positive economic and environmental effects.

Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic.



Plastics are a big problem on our planet. I could get up on a soapbox and tell you many reasons why. I'll spare you of that though. If you are interested in it though, I recommend watching the documentary Tapped, which is all about the bottled water industry.

Scout.

Scout makes me think of boy scouts and girl scouts. Brings me back to childhood. I did Girl Scouts starting from Brownies in Kindergarten and kept going through fourth grade. Then we had no one to be a troop mom so we all had no option but to quit. I wish I had the chance to make it all the way through, but oh well. Sadly, I think I spent more time in Boy Scout events than GS ones. My brothers and my dad were (and my dad still is) involved with Boy Scouts so I attended plenty of pancake breakfasts, Blue and Gold Dinners, Eagle Scout Court of Honors, picnics, and whatever else. Perhaps that's why I always socialized better with guys...

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Not sure how I can go off of that into anything relevant to my life right now. So I think I'll just change course a little bit. I haven't been keeping up with this lately and I'm not going to say that I'm starting now (because anytime I say that it never happens.) I often get ideas that make me very ambitious but then I never have the time to carry them out. Now that I have more free time in my life maybe I'll turn that around.

Life in Pensacola is going well so far. This semester is flying by and I have a feeling that grad school in general will be like that. I'm extra broke, but starting work at the end of this month at Panera Bread. I'm pretty excited about it actually. As far as all else goes, life is fairly boring. There was a bit of excitement the last two weekends which I spent in Melbourne, first for Red Dress Gala, and second for Brice and Emily's wedding. Both great weekends.