Time management

Hi nerdy bunch! I'm loving this general blogging week.

The last few weeks before mid-semester break are usually really stressful for me. It's usually the time where I have four major essays / assignments, usually around 2,000 words each. This semester, I've got a Criminal Law assignment due on the 11th of April, and two assignments due on the 21st for Contract Law and TV&Pop Culture. The Contract Law assignment topic isn't released until the 14th of April, so that gives me a good three weeks to:

a) Finish Criminal Law assignment before 11 April;
b) Start and finish TV&Pop Culture before the 14th of April;
c) Start and finish Contract Law before the 21st of April.

The problem with a) is that there is NO WORD LIMIT for the assignment. Seriously. We're presented with a scenario and we have to explore their criminal liability, and if we miss an offence we can't get more than 75% for the assignment, but if we have TOO MANY offences it looks like we're just clutching at straws. Our tutor told us to not go above 2500 words if possible, and I'm nearly at 3,000 words and still haven't finished my first draft. This is making me worry that I've got too many offences and then I want to cut one out, but I'm afraid of doing so because it might mean that my marks are significantly reduced.

RAWR.

So, now I'm off to attempt to finish this bloody assignment. Wish me luck!

-missp.

Busy Bee

I am opening a commissary in exactly 9 days and all I've been doing  is pushing papers for the past 2 months just to get all the proper registrations and permits for me to operate. I can't wait for everything to finish so that I can start working in the kitchen again.

This is almost a promotion to what I've been already doing for the past 2 years, which is working from my kitchen at home. This time I'll be able to make bigger orders and supply larger companies.

So far the most enjoyable part is the canvasing of equipments and the least is signing those checks to pay for them. I wish I had unlimited resources because every time I go in a show room there's always something that I really want to buy but I don't really need. I actually convince myself that I needed those chocolate molds I just bought earlier. Not that they're very expensive, in fact I got them really cheap, but I have another stainless table I need to buy which should be the priority. Note to self: No more impulse buying!!

I really should get started with sorting out these piles of recipes and start costing them.

Tuesday's Question: What are your shopping habits?

Hear from you guys soon,

RUBEN IV

Countdown

Hello Nerdy Bunch,

It's monday!

Today I empathize with Garfield, Monday's can really suck. I had an idea for a post where I would shared some insightful thoughts about why making fun of Rebecca Black, Twilight, Justin Bieber is actually pretty problematic, but . . . I'm not going too. Because I'm tired I have a massive project due Thursday, I spent four hours sitting in a library reading about why people do evil things. I have a headache and I'm tired. So today I'm just going to give you a little life update and you will have to wait with bated breath for my insight to return.

Ok question time; can I swear on this blog? right now I'd probably describe my behaviour (the internet wants me to correct this to behavior -I will continue to ignore it because I AM CANADIAN) as being bitchy and then apologize for it. I know that people often have different tolerances for swearing I went to high-school with several people who didn't curse at all. Personally I don't swear often so it's not a big deal, I just like to know where the line is. (so I can nuzzle up against it.)

Right, now that we have that little diversion out of the way it is time for a life update! I am 20 days away from conditional graduation (I only have a practicum left)! Pretty awesome and terrifying. So I have one major assignment left an annotated Bibliography on Evil for a class on traumatic conflict. I have one reflection for that class left, one test three exams and then I'm done. Right now I just feel stressed and tired although I'm doing better than I was in December seeing as how I'm mostly managing to eat three meals a day and sleep more that six hours a night. But I do have a twitchy eyelid. In essence my life is boring and stressful, lucky you all get to hear about it. Also because I graduating I should probably find a dress to where what with being respectable and presentable and all of that hogwash. ( I do not love formal clothes)

I know I say this every week but I loved all of your posts again, very thoughtful.

I also feel like the punctuation in this post is pretty shaky so apologies for that.

Best Wishes,

Allysa

When you just get too tired...

Being green, it’s a rather empty topic for me. I haven’t been passionate about being green in a long while. I’m not quite sure what happened. I remember when the climate change was really thrown onto the table - I think it was right before Inconvenient Truth was out, though my memory might serve me wrong on this one. I was in upper secondary at the time. In school a lot of the classes discussed climate change and how to treat the environment, how to conserve energy, which was nothing new really, but they still brought it up a lot, and I do mean a lot.

Online I ran into a lot of people who were loudly proclaiming how climate change (or, global warming, as it was referred to back then) was bull crap and some conspiracy to essentially make people miserable. Of course this was lunacy. It really got my blood boiling. I have a low stamina when it comes to certain types of idiocy. Anyways, this idiocy actually got me pumped about the topic, it got me to care more. During a Finnish course that was focused on speeches, debates and manipulation with words, we had to make a speech about something that we cared about. I ended up talking about the climate change and how it’s ridiculous to pretend it’s not happening. I researched the topic, methods of saving energy, and being more eco-friendly. I made a passionate speech. Now I just don’t have the energy. Now, the most I do is snort disapprovingly with mom when we notice that the street lamps at our apartment building’s yard are on even during the day. I do recycle, and I might pick up an occasional trash, but it’s automatic behavior by now. I don’t feel any passion towards the subject matter anymore and I avoid confrontations, I avoid debates related to it. I barely even find it interesting as it’s been mulled over so much. By now it feels like flogging a dead horse, even though the horse is still alive since idiots are keeping it plugged in, despite the fact that it’s a vegetable.

My uncle has fairly recently gotten into the loony band wagon of believing everything that is not main stream, just because it’s different. This includes stating that climate change is nothing but a way to cash in and take money away from the little people. Sure, climate change and humans have been demonized, considering the Earth goes through warner and colder periods naturally, but we’ve still made a big impact on the climate, there is simply no denying that. My uncle knows that, I suspect. He’s just going through some weird phase - he might even be trolling me, that bugger. Before stuff like this would have seriously annoyed me, I would have passionately gotten into research and then debate. But now, now I just felt a nasty sting in my chest and then detached myself from the situation; I locked up and kept the discussion short. Funny how things change. This is not to say that I don’t give a damn about the environment anymore. I do care, despite losing passion in discussing it. People who actually do not care are missing a lot about the world.

Well, this was a pointless messy ramble. I’m sorry, here’s a random picture I took few years back to make it all better. It has green and everything! :D

No, it's definitely not easy.

Like most Nerdfighters, I am deeply concerned with the future of our planet. In fact, I'd wager that the majority of people in general are worried about the impact that our lifestyle as a whole has on the planet's health and ecosystems; unfortunately, sometimes it is not as simple as turning off your lights for an hour.

As an Aussie, I'm quite happy that Earth Hour originated here. Last year I participated and I fully plan to do the same next year, since at this stage I'm not in a financial position to be able to do much else. Some cynics say that it's nothing more than an empty gesture--this couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, sure, it's only an hour, but turning off your lights for however long--a minute, an hour, a day-- can make a difference, however small.

All this comes at a time when there's heavy debate over our government's 'controversial' carbon emissions tax. In order to explain this I'll need to give you a brief overview of the political situation here at the moment: Firstly, there are two major parties in Australian Federal politics (we also have state governments and local councils, but we'll get into that at some stage). On the left side of things, there is the Labor party. On the right, there is the rather deceptively-named Liberal party (who are the conservatives. Confusing). Then there are some smaller parties. The Greens are a little further left than the Labor party, and they are very focused on environmental issues. The Labor and Green party are in a coalition and have formed a minority government.

Generally the Liberal party appear to be against any sort of environmental policy because it might (gasp) cost some money in the short term. The Green party, without whom Labor could not govern, are on the other end of the spectrum. They do not believe that our current target of a 5% reduction in emissions by 2020 goes far enough, and wants 20%. This makes it very difficult for the Labor party to legislate anything environmental, because they need the Green party to pass the legislation, and will meet opposition from the Liberal party no matter what they do.

In order to attempt to do something, and to appease the very free-market-put-a-price-on-everything Liberal party, there was a recent attempt to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme, which would basically put a price on carbon emissions and fiscally punish large polluters, but enabling them to basically 'trade' their emissions and creating a weird little market about it.

Unfortunately, the largest polluters are also the richest companies, and a well-funded Liberal party managed to vote the legislation down. Now, there's a proposed tax--which would work in much the same way, but it would directly TAX large polluters. The policy's main opposition comes from climate change deniers. There was an anti Carbon Tax rally a few days ago, and rather tellingly, it was attended by such parties as One Nation and the Shooting party. Yeah, Australia has as many stupid people as any other country.

The unfortunate and ugly truth is that the main opposition of 'going green' are those companies which stand to lose big time from sustainable energy, who also happen to be the richest companies--Oil and Mining companies, to be specific. It's an uphill battle, and one that really must be fought individually in countries like Australia and America. THIS is why Earth Hour is so important. We can raise individual awareness of these issues, and the more individuals who are trying to make a difference, the more difference we will make as a whole. Let the world know that you care, and it's okay for them to care too.

Green by default (by law?)

Frankly I don't quite know what to write about greenness. Somehow the people I usually talk to about being green are American, and the situation over there is quite different than it is here. Want a plastic bag to carry home your groceries? Be prepared to pay for it (in some cases: be prepared to buy paper or jute). Too lazy to recycle? Be prepared to pay ridiculous amounts of money to be allowed a bigger non-recycle bin. Want a car? Have fun driving around town for an hour to find a parking spot (and then pay for it). About a year ago we decided to finally get renewable energy, only to discover that our default supplier of electricity had actually switched over entirely some months before.

You see, even if I tried not to be green, I'd have a pretty hard time. So of course I carry a tote bag around all the time. Of course we recycle. Of course I walk or take the bus. But really, so do most other people. There are probably people who use less electricity, or heat less, but then again I mostly work on my computer, and live in a dark and badly isolated apartment. I could buy more organic & local food; I would, but right now I simply don't have enough money. Really, unfortunately, that's what it comes down to quite often: not having the resources to be green(er). There seems to be a standard of some greenness for the middle class (organic food is quite normal, for example), while poorer folks can't afford it (except for the stuff that's law, of course), and richer folks can afford not to give a damn.

win. (also: pretty as hell)

My town is ridiculously, notoriously, green. For the last two years our town has been trying to make it mandatory for home owners to install solar panels under certain circumstances (new houses & roof and heating system renovations), but sadly the nuclear-loving regional government did all it could to stop it, and finally won a few months ago. Now we're trying to build windmills in a place where they won't bother anyone, but oh, they'll destroy the landscape in the place no-one ever goes *eyeroll*. We can have lovely ancient nuclear reactors instead! Weeee! (well, right now they're shut down... for safety checks, I mean, until the elections are over and/or people have forgotten about Fukushima).

Turn Down The Lights

Last year I participated in an awareness program for kids during earth hour. We did an hour long shadow presentation that teaches kids how to conserve electricity. The advocacies earth hour stands for has been exceptionally effective here and has made us one of the biggest participating country in the world.

This year we are trying to up ourselves by becoming even more green.

“Though it would be wonderful to again be number one in terms of participation, we must emphasize that Earth Hour is but 60 minutes long. If we want lasting and effective results, then we must inculcate the true spirit of the event into our lives – which is to reduce our consumption of power, water and other critical resources. We want Filipinos to pledge to a year-long commitment to reduce their energy usage,” notes Ibay. “Pledges can take the form of biking to work, choosing to fly less, planting native trees, going on a no-meat diet and so on. It all depends on what the individual is willing to do. In the same fashion, corporations and communities can make commitments to be more resource efficient and environmentally responsive. Remember, it starts with nothing more than a conscious decision.”

http://www.wwf.org.ph/earthhour/

It helps that it is the season of lent and meat sales go down during these times. Maybe because of this people can get use to it and make it a lifetime.

This is all I have time for because I am of to vacation. I'll take about it next week ^_^

Hear from you guys soon,

RUBEN IV

It's not easy being green!

Good Morning Nerdy Bunch, It's still Monday for a few minutes!

I leave the lights on, often. It's a bad habit. Like most people I do things that are environmentally friendly and environmentally unfriendly, although I try to do more of the former. There are to things that I get really psyched about when it comes to the environment. First sustainable, ethical and responsible use of natural resources. Canada is a country with a lot of natural resources; fish, lumber, oil, and minerals are some of them. Each of these resources comes with there own particular issues, they each implact the enviroment in a multitude of ways some of which may not necessarily be obvious. It's our job as citizens to hold our governments responsible. We need to insist that they regulate the corporations that do the logging and mining so that we don't poison the land and so that there are resources left for future generations.

The second thing that I'm really passionate about is green technology. I have Hank Green to thank in part for that. I think one of the most important parts of looking after the enviroment comes from using our ginourmous brains to think of new ways of being. In particular I find alternative energy sources fascinating. The province where I live is well set up for this. we already use a lot of hydro power. Of course hydro power isn't perfect it does create disruption of certain habitats, but it is an alternative to fossil fuels. We also have a lot of moderately hilly land and high winds areas that are optimal for wind farms. There is an area near where I live that has a lot of wind turbines and I personally think they're beautiful. Unfortunately there are some people who really don't like them. They can also be harmful to birds and are particularily bad for bats. They are not a perfect alternative. That's why we need to keep imagining and dreaming up new ways of creating power. Personally I don't stand with the doom-sayers when it comes to the planet, I believe that we have the capacity to change the world!

Thanks for the posts last weeks they were all excellent, I'm sorry if I wasn't up to par with my commenting I entering the most stressful part of term when I have major essays due, I'm also working on my plans for after graduation so I'm a little stressed out right now and might not be totally on top of things.

Best Wishes,

Allysa

Japan And Karma From Dummies

This week’s theme, as you’ve noticed from my fellow nerds’ entries, is natural disasters. Considering how topical the disaster in Japan currently is, I’m going to focus on that in my entry.

We all know how horrible natural disasters are. Even though we hadn’t lived through one, we have witnessed one via media and I dare say almost all of us have felt for the people in trouble one way or another. It’s often hard to relate to people you don’t even know, in a situation you’ve not been in yourself, but usually we are still able to spare some empathy, enough not to poke fun at the tragic event. But, then again, some people are just jackasses. And I’m going to talk about them.

Alec Sulkin, a writer for the show Family Guy, posted a comment on twitter on the earth quake in Japan:

"If you wanna feel better about this earthquake in Japan, google 'Pearl Harbor (sic) death toll'."

(source: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/family-guy-writer-alec-sulkin-apologises-for-tweeting-sick-quake-joke/story-e6frfku0-1226021489109#ixzz1Gxx04qCm)

He did later apologize (as you can see from the article I linked) for it as he had meant it as a joke, but it’s pretty much too little too late.

By now I've seen several places where Americans have loudly proclaimed how the earth quake in Japan is a payback for Pearl Harbor, or God's way of punishing Japanese people for Pearl Harbor (I’m trying not to sound like I’m harping on Americans, but the sad truth seems to be that all the people I’ve seen throwing this comment are Americans). Unlike Sulkin, these people are actually serious.

(Image from a Finnish site where it was appropriately titled "Sorry About Those Nuclear Bombs")

The face I made (and am still making as I think about it):

(yes, that is ze frank)

I have to say I am thoroughly disgusted by these people, disgusted enough to even make an unappealing expression while thinking about it. I'm sure there are trolls throwing these words around in the mix, but I am not the least bit amused. I actually ran into a thread on facebook, about the earth quake, with comments similar to the ones in the image above, comparing the Pearl Harbor bombing of WWII to today’s natural disaster in Japan. I got so angry I just had to throw in a snide comment:

" I find it rather charming how people seriously referring to this being a payback for Pearl Harbor seem to have conveniently forgotten how the US dropped two nuclear bombs in two big cities. Pearl Harbor was a military base. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were cities with a lot of civilians. 90,000–166,000 people were killed in Hiroshima, 60,000–80,000 were killed in Nagasaki. Far greater numbers than in Pearl Harbor (not to say that the attack on PH wasn't horrible - just saying, you'd think that was enough of a "payback"). Then there are the long term effects of the radiation from those bombs.

Honestly, I find it disgusting how some people seriously raise Pearl Harbor in the context of this event. It has nothing to do with this. What, you'd be happy to see modern day Germans get killed because of what Nazis did, too? "

With this comment I am playing with the thought lines and rhetorics of these jackasses - not encouraging or approving the thought pattern they are using. I essentially ask why is it that these people did not consider dropping two nuclear bombs on hundreds of thousands of people enough of a payback if they so wish to find one? Why is it that they feel it to be necessary to drag Pearl Harbor into a completely irrelevant occurrence? Why is it that they picked this particular earth quake instead of all those past events, events that were actually connected to what took place in Pearl Harbor? Did they suddenly forget what ended the WWII? With their unfortunate education system, I wouldn’t really be shocked, but it’s still rather baffling people are seriously making these comments.

Here, I’d like to quote a blog post of sort on Alec Sulkin's little comment, which says it rather well:

"This world view, that the citizens of a nation are somehow statistics to be tallied in a historical spreadsheet of deaths, and that there’s somehow a desirable, karmic distribution to be had is absolutely disgusting."

(source: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/12/family-guy-writer-tweets-pearl-harbor-joke-in-response-to-japanese-earthquake/)

I agree with this whole heartedly. This faulty Karmic retribution thought they harbor suggests that people who have nothing to do with the past events are somehow responsible for the horrors committed in the past, before they were even born, and thus deserve to be punished. Your grandfather committed a murder and now you are going to jail for it simply because you are related, or better yet, you lived next to an old man you don't know, he committed a murder, you will go to jail for it because you lived next door – doesn’t feel like justice now does it?

People of today are not responsible for what happened in Pearl Harbor, not in the slightest. People of today did not drop bombs to Pearl Harbor, Nagasaki or Hiroshima for that matter – and even if there was someone alive who was responsible, should the whole country suffer for what one or few people did?

To put things short: Pearl Harbor, Nagasaki and Hiroshima or any of the events of past wars and what-nots have nothing to do with the disaster going on in Japan. We shouldn’t gloat when a whole nation suffers. It’s a natural disaster, not something that occurred to make you feel better about a historical event. It did not happen to make anyone feel less butt-hurt. It happened because of natural reactions going on within our planet.

Then there are people like the UCLA girl (Alexandra Wallace) who decided to rant about Asian people on youtube (see video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg3tIERI-D4 ). I do not consider this to be nearly as bad as the Pearl Harbor comments people have made, but it’s still enough for me to mention her. She is essentially loudly proclaiming that all Asians are annoying. She is annoyed because UCLA has admitted so many people of Asian origin. Then she said this:

[imagine a rather annoying “like ttly whatevurrr”-voice here] “I swear they are going through their whole address book checking on everyone from the....tsunami thing. I mean I know ok that sounds horrible like, I feel bad for all people affected by the tsunami but if you're gonna call your address book you might as well go outside ‘cos if something is wrong you might really freak out if you're in a library and everyone's quiet like seriously you should go outside if you're gonna do that."

I could sum up the video with “wah wah wah Asians are annoying, why are they in my school? Wah wah wah me me me, not you or anyone else, but me me me, wah wah wah!”

This video of hers created enough commotion to force her to release a statement of apology, as quoted on the video annotation: “Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate. I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I’d like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand.” – Wallace on Daily Bruin. I’m one of those people who wouldn’t be likely to just up and forgive her after this apology. I feel like she feels sorrier about the fact that her babbling had consequences, about the commotion it caused, rather than she is over what she actually said. I doubt her way of thinking has changed much, but I can’t really tell; I don’t know her. If it has indeed changed, I am truly glad. The UCLA girl is not alone in creating unfortunate Youtube videos that are incredibly insensitive, as an example I will mention TamTamPamela / Sister Pamela (luckily it turns out she was trolling and not serious - though I would still call it being an idiot, unfortunately the comments section was not without people who fully agreed with the horrendous things she said, and not all of them were trolling).

The disaster in Japan is not the only one that has gotten some douchey comments like this, not at all. During Hurricane Katrina and the recent disaster in Haiti many religious fanatics were celebrating it as an act of God, a punishment for being an atheist or not living exactly like the Bible says. I’m pretty sure there were few people saying that stuff even during the tsunami in Thailand few years back. But I don’t remember those events being as prominent with the insensitive and foolish comments as this one, this one certainly broke the camel’s back with me. I’ve been angry enough to rant about this over and over again. I’ve discussed it face to face with people and I’ve commented on it on forums. I still had the energy to squeeze out this blog entry about it too. I’m thinking this will be the last one I will need to write on this. Enough ranting for one subject.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

P.S.: Despite all the things going on in Japan, don't forget Haiti etc. They still need help!

It's still Thursday somewhere, right?

...right?

These days, it seems that any disaster-type thing that happens is almost immediately eclipsed by yet another disaster-type thing. So far this year it's been the floods in Queensland in January, Earthquakes in New Zealand and Chile in February, and now this terrible situation in Japan. What it really brings to mind for me is just how unpredictable and harsh our planet can be.

Still, I know it's difficult to see sometimes, but really, it could be worse. I mean, I live close to the Brisbane river, which was flooding hardcore--we didn't get any water in our house, and the worst thing that happened to us was that we lost power for three days and had to throw out all our food. But it obviously could have been much worse. Less than a hundred metres from our house, several houses were inundated, and in other suburbs, houses were under water up to their roofs. None of us died or was injured, and we didn't lose what basically constitutes our entire lives.

At the moment, it's difficult to see how the situation in Japan could be worse; there's over 10,000 people missing or feared dead, and the toll is predicted to rise exponentially as the fallout continues. The nuclear situation is incredibly concerning and I can't imagine just how terrifying the situation is for thousands of displaced people, who may have lost their families and loved ones.

What we must remember is that humans, as a whole, are incredibly resilient and adaptable. It may not seem like it now, but life does go on. We have the ability to learn from these things and prepare for similar situations in the future and that is key. We can't predict a lot of these things, but we can sure as heck ensure that we are prepared when they do happen.

Wednesday is late...

I've luckily led a pretty natural disaster free life so far. However, the region I grew up in still bears century old marks of dealing with natural disasters. We have a particularly strong tide in the first place, so when a storm comes along and pushes the water inland, things can get nasty. The last two big storm surges were in the 50s and 60s, with over 2000 and 300 deaths despite fairly elaborate safety measures being already in place. By now the entire region is lined with bloody huge dikes, floodgates and the like, so it's hopefully pretty safe. But back in the days storm surges used to wipe out entire areas and changed the landscape of the area quite a bit. In one of the worst as many as 100.000 people (and 50.000 livestock) are said to have been killed.


Nowadays driving along the coast is the least scenic road possible. You'll have a green wall (with the occasional sheep) to one side of you the entire time, and flat green fields on the other side, since people used to avoid building too close to the sea.

Part of the trouble is that it's incredibly flat and low-lying. Around here anything above three meters is a hill, and anything approaching 25 is a mountain (not that we have “mountains”... or hills, for that matter). Many towns are located barely above sea level, so even relatively shallow surges could push quite far inland. Despite growing up 20 kilometres from a natural body of water connected to the sea (and 40 from the actual coast), my village's 14th century church was – like many other churches in the region– build on a huge artificial hill. In some areas closer to the coast you'll actually find entire small villages build on these. Even though there weren't any serious surges while I lived there, walking past that church on the way to school was always an oddly eerie experience.

(not the church in my village, but the same system)

The place I live in now deals with the yearly bout of floods, but since it's such a regular occurrence (2-3 floods thanks to rain and/or meltwater a year) the town is build to deal with it. Living in a valley (or rather, the hills lining a valley) does make it easier. A few years ago we supposedly had the worst flood in half a century, and the huge sports ground I was living next to temporarily transformed into a giant lake, but aside from a few destroyed gardens and quite a few cellars-turned-pools not much actually happened.

One of the more severe meltwater floods (the river usually runs between the lines of trees only... and several meters lower)... at least the ducks found a dry & comfy place to stay.

(sorry this was late, my internet pooped out on me last night)

Peace in the Midst of Tragedy

Natural disaster is not an easy topic to talk about. I know this because I have experienced 1 or 2 really bad ones in my life time. 

Last 2009 we had one of the worse tropical depression in the world, Typhoon Ondoy. Although typhoons are a way of life here, it was obvious that we were under prepared for a calamity that extreme. Houses were submerged, cars were pulled by the current from the floods, and many people was left with nothing but clothes on their backs.

But on the other side of things positive outcomes unexpectedly arose. Since the tragedy chooses no one, it has strengthened the unity of our country.  Political agendas were set aside, considering that the elections were coming the year after; social barriers were broken, rich helped the poor and the poor helped the rich; and it evoked awareness on living a greener life.

It is easier to focus on the bad and be sorry for ourselves or others. So I challenge you,  Japan just experienced the worse natural disaster of our generation and this is an opportunity for us, take the initiative to look on what we can do to help. Some things are unavoidable, so let us concentrate on things we have control over.

If you want to help you can check out the Japanese red cross for more information.

http://www.jrc.or.jp/english/index.html

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG...

Hear from you guys soon,

RUBEN IV

All human life is lived in close proximity to tragedy

Oh John Green you say perfectly what I never could.

Hello Nerdy bunch it's Monday.

This week we are talking about natural disasters. I don't like talking about natural disasters, I'm in a class this semester about trauma and most of the time I just want out. I react the way I think a lot of people react, I don't want to think about it because if I do I have to admit that it happens, and it could happen to me or to someone I love. There are actually very good psychological explanations for the way we react to tragedies. Why we might help or not help. Why we might feel guilt or anger in the face of tragedy and even why helping someone today might make us less likely to help tomorrow. Knowing all of these things doesn't really help me know how to react though.

Short post today, we just went through a time change for daylight saving and I'm feeling pretty wiped. I really enjoyed all your posts last week its cool to hear about all the different travel experiences we've had. Can't wait to hear what you have to say this week.

Best Wishes

Allysa

no parlo italiano

I was pondering on what to write here and then I remembered that I had posted quite an accurate depiction of my experiences on my blog after I had returned from the trip. So I figured I'd quote a bit from there. First a little background: This was a trip from Northern Finland to Italy, on a bus. The route was as follows: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Milan, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Rome (+ Vatican), Venice, Austria, Germany, Finland.

So now we are in Genoa, Italy. It took us quite a while to get there but I loved the landscapes on the way. The landscapes on these trips are just so beautiful. I honestly dunno where to even look at when everything looks so nice. I couldn't even sleep because there was so much to see, and I was very tired mind you. On the trip we always went to bed pretty late and had to get up ridiculously early, and then walk around a lot. Then there were the long bus rides, but now that we'd gotten to Italy they'd get shorter. Honestly though, that bus had started to feel more like a home than anything else.

So, anyways, it was dark when we finally were in downtown Genoa. I think we possibly got lost or something, because the other bus took a turn and headed somewhere else, and we stayed put, waiting. I think our bus broke. We were there for couple of hours and we were all getting rather anxious. The other bus was gone and our drivers were doing something outside. Suddenly at this point one of my pals goes: "They have gone to a brothel!" Referring to our drivers, jokingly of course.

So we wait some more and finally the other bus returns... oddly enough, soon after, there's a cop car pulling over next to us all. Another cop car arrived few minutes later. Turns out the roads are very narrow and the other bus had gotten stuck. It's doesn't help that people always park on the sides of the roads in Italy. Bloody idiotic if you ask me, but I didn't really spot any parking lots either so I guess I should direct my anger better. Anyways, the cops had helped them out by managing the traffic. And now they would accompany us the rest of the way. It was amusing to have a cop car make the way in front of us and behind us. They even had their siren lights flashing and all. We just laughed about getting a friggin police escort the first night in Italy. Then we hoped we wouldn't end up in local news because we sure held up some traffic - earned a few annoyed glares. The small road was climbing up a steep hill, a mountainside really - the hostel was at the side of the Apennine mountains, I assume. But eventually we made it...it took hours, but we finally were at the hostel. We were simply exhausted at that point. Straight to bed, not much fuzzing.

Not until the next morning did I realize what a beautiful location for a hostel it was. It had been so dark during the night that I had seen nothing. But now I realized how gorgeous the view was. The front yard of the hostel was like a huge patio of cement. We were on very high ground and the view over the city to the ocean was amazing. The view made me forget how crappy breakfast we had (a piece of white bread and one cup od either coffee, tea or hot chocolate, water you could drink how much ever you wanted - this does not constitute as breakfast for anyone who doesn't want to eat again five minutes later, but it seems to be a custom in Italy to have a breakfast like this...)

view from the hostel patio

Beautiful, isn't it (though much more breath taking in person...when no zoom screws up proportions etc)? Gotta say that hostel had the best view so far. Anyways, at 10AM we were ready to go and drive down. The cops were at the hostel waiting for us wanting to know what time 'we were active', as they put it. They would escort us back down again. The road down went alright...better than it had gone during the night.

This trip was a long one. The first proper one I had been on, ever (can't afford traveling). I can't believe how much I saw during those two weeks. Enough to talk about for half a life time, I'm sure. I wish I will be able to visit Firenze and Venice again some day. I loved those places. Hopefully I'm not piss poor some day and can spare some for travel.

Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni (apparently)

I am one of those lucky people who seems to have done a lot of travel. I've traveled and even lived overseas for a few years, and done quite a lot of interstate travel in my lifetime.

But I'm not going to talk about most of those trips. Today, I'm going to talk about my trip to China.

As you will recall, Beijing was the host of the 2008 Olympic Games. You may not know that they formed a marching band consisting of students from China, America, Japan, Australia, and Guam. We weren't going to perform at the opening ceremonies but were rather an auxiliary band--we'd be part of other official events but not the main event.

As I play the clarinet, was a senior in high school at the time, and my parents could (just) afford it, I was able to go as part of the delegation. Months and months of preparation (including the memorising of 30 minutes of music) led up to our departure from Australia in August of 2008. We met and practiced with the other students for a couple of days, and then we went to Tian Anmen Square to perform--slightly exciting as we were the first foreign performers to ever perform there.

 

Hallo, Mr. Mao!

It was a rare sunny day in Beijing, and the heat was like... 40Celsius and so steamy, which is terrifying when you're supposed to be looking after a bunch of younger students. Anyway, our uniform did not help things:

Complete with high pants, cape and beret

Still, it was awesome. Over the next few days, we did a few more performances, but the real highlight of the trip was our performance at the Great Wall. Seriously one of the best experiences of my life. It was a rather steep walk with heavy instruments, and it was challenging, but I don't regret it, because the view (and the sound) was spectacular.

 

The Green Hub (Australia/Japan/Guam) performing part of our repertoire. Great Wall has Great acoustics.

 Fluorescent green isn't my colour; Great Wall is great

The Great Wall was our final performance in China, and we spent the remaining week in Shanghai basically shopping and hanging out. It was pretty awesome! I think I preferred Shanghai over Beijing--it was a lot more open and friendly; perhaps that was because of the high security in Beijing for the games, but Shanghai was much more vibrant. And, like all tourists, I did a lot of shoppping there:

Several fitted caps that I bought for my brothers and sister

Finally, something which I think you will enjoy. At our hotel in Beijing (which was seriously HUGE) there was a massage shop. Here is the sign outside said shop:

Ovary Maintenance? I...think...not.

In general, I think that meeting and mixing with people from all cultures was an amazing experience. Even if I never get to go back to China, I've always got that experience. It was truly awesome. I hope my life brings me many more stories like this.

Wee Enika goes to Paris

Travel can be dangerous. One might, for example, purchase a small soft-case trolley for the purpose, which one then might store under one's bed, when it isn't required. One could then, potentially, if one was uncommonly clumsy, slam one's foot into it and fracture one's toe.

Not that that happened to me. Ever (not even last weekend).

Ouch.

I've been trying to figure out what to write about today, thinking about travel in terms of vacations, exploring new places etc. The problem is that, since I graduated from high school, I've mostly traveled between homes. On a few occasions it was a new home I didn't know yet, but more usual my trips went to places I'd spend a considerable part of my life in. (I do love going places I haven't been before, but when I look at the measly amount in my bank account, and realize I only have money for one very short trip (if at all), I always end up going home.)

Travel has always been normal for me. Ever since I was wee we spent a few weeks every spring, summer, and fall camping in France or the Netherlands. At some point we moved from borrowed tents into our own camper, and then when the kids started to fight too much annoyed their parents got a bit older, the two of us moved back out into a (small) tent. Once we were older there were a few bigger trips (involving airplanes, islands and hotels – oh what a luxury), but low-budget still feels the most normal way of travel for me. Anyways...

One early trip I distinctly remember is my first trip to Paris. Our cinema had some Jungle Book related drawing competition, and my sister had walked away with the big prize – a weekend at EuroDisney in Paris for two people, hotel and all. They “kindly” allowed us to exchange it for one-day admission for all four of us - if we paid for the campground ourselves. At first I was rather crushed that my stupid older sister-who-was-always-better-at-everything won something so awesome, while I only got stupid movie tickets. (My parents actually talked me into taking my sister. As far as I remember we saw Bambi. Alone. Which doesn't really make sense, cause a) I was wee, and my sister not much older, and b) BAMBI?). But then, you know, I got to go to EuroDisney.

I actually remember it as a rather awesome day, despite the fact that I was terrified by the folks in costumes, and some of the rides (puppets and such *gulp*. Haunted house *gulpgulp*), and extremely confused by all the stuff I didn't know at all, like, uhm, Alice in Wonderland (Iknowright?). I was definitely not in favor of not-knowing-things, especially things-my-big-sister-knew. And of course there was occasional ride that looked really awesome to me, but was ridiculed by my family to a point where I didn't dare to say “But I wanna go!” (that car thing? I so wanted to check that out). On the other hand there was too much sugar (bought a giant lollipop that tasted like shit and lasted for days), and rides that weren't awful, and such. And I think the park where I actually had a nervous breakdown because of the very scary marionettes was a different park (I'm fairly certain it wasn't Small World. But I would've reacted to Small World in the exact same way (= with lots of terrified tears)). And I bought an awesome plush Thumper (again. Bambi. Wtf?). It was Disney; I was supposed to love it, so I did. (My parents, I'm sure, weren't all that excited. But Minnie Mouse had a little too much fun flirting with my rather embarrassed father).

The next day we actually went to Paris for the first time... and lost my Mom. Oops. This being in the days before everyone had a mobile, we'd agreed to split up, with us heading up on the Eiffel tower and her checking out some museum or other, and meet back at the base two hours later. TWO HOURS. In mid-summer. Of course it didn't work. Which meant that a) the only person in our family who spoke French at the time (my Dad is omnilingual in food, but not much else) tried to get back to the campground without us, after having waited for over an hour, and b) the only person who was actually sure how to get back to the campground now had to manoeuvre two little kids back home, without being able to communicate properly. Funtimes! We all did make it back, but the day definitely ended on a down note.

So basically an awesome trip for us, and a total nightmare for my parents xD (They survived. But she still occasionally guilts my Dad with The Day You Abandoned Me In Paris)

Almost Kidnapped

My first ever recollection of traveling is when I was three years old. The highlight of the whole trip was the plane ride to and from the destination. I hardly remember anything else but the take off and the landing of the plane. Almost every summer vacation since then, we would go to the State to visit relatives and tour around different states.

I was seven when I first visited NYC. I kind of have a personal connection with that city, which is why it is one of my favorite places to go. One afternoon after playing all day in FAO schwarz my parents thought we should pass by St. Patrick's Cathedral, because churches seems to always make kids sit still. I, being such a curios kid, decided to walk around the church. While I was counting the benches from the altar and back to where my family was, I got called by this lady. I had no idea what she wanted from me but went where she was anyway. She was three benches behind where my parents was, I know this because I had restarted my counting when I reached the bench where mom was. When I got to her she grabbed me and before she could even cover my mouth and run away with me I shouted out "MAMA!!!" then she dropped me and walked away. My mom got furious and wanted to report the lady, but she was long gone before we can even call her out. After a few minutes later she unexpectedly returned with a gift, it was a cross pendant, and told my mom that she had such nice kids. Stunned from what happened, my mom couldn't say a word. I still have that pendant. I've never worn them but it is a constant reminder of how important my parents are to me.

Traveling is such a big part of who I am now. Each time I ride a plane, may it be for work, school, or vacation, I come back a different person. A better version of who I was before that, at least I like to think that I am. At the same time it always reminds me of how my country will always be my home. Which is why I placed it upon myself to get to know my home land more. I am ashamed to say that I have been to more cities in other countries than islands here in the Philippines, and we have 7107 islands. I have 7093 islands to still discover.

Hear from you guys soon,

RUBEN IV

Too Boldly Go

Good morning Nerdy Bunch it's Monday!

So this week's theme is travel. I started to think of all the different travel experiences I've had. I've done a lot of camping, most of my travelling fits into that category. I have been to the Rocky Mountains a couple of times (in a trailer with my family). I've only been on an airplane once on a school trip to Montreal, it was amazing. I've also only been out of the country once that I can remember, a spring break trip to the U.S. to go skiing (downhill and cross-country). Mostly these were good experiences I have lot's of fun and exciting memories, but they aren't what I want to talk about.

When I was 16 I when on a thirteen day leadership training canoe trip. that is what I want to tell you about. First some context I started going to sumer camp when I was eleven. The camp I went to in in Northwestern Ontario. It's a place of remote wilderness there are forests, lakes, and rivers. The whole thing is in the Canadian shield. The Canadian shield is the bones of ancient mountains, which have been ground down by time and glaciers until what is left is rocks, huge rocks which are the foundations for the forest and the lake bed. It's the kind of place where you can go and get a sense of what the world might have been like before we were here. So when I was sixteen after being a camper for four years I decided that I wanted to do the leadership training program. This meant two week on the river, a week at our camps smaller and less 'civilized' island and two weeks on the main island learning and helping with girls camp. so at the beginning of the summer I got into a fifteen passenger van with eleven other girls and two of our leaders to go to camp. We spent a day or two on the main island preparing, packing, practicing ourportaging and paddling and learning about whitewater canoeing. then it was back into the van for our drive to our put in spot on the English river.

I can't keep going without talking about the girls who I went onto the river with. there were six of us (myself included) and two leaders. We were a pretty diverse group and we didn't know each other at all when we first met. By the end of the trip we were extremely close, which isn't to say that we always got a long, no we fought after all we were sixteen and living together with very little in the way of privacy for a month. There are some of them that I'm not really in contact with anymore and others who have become super important to me.

Any way back to the river. The first day was insane we had a kilometer long portage (if your not sure what this is it is when you have to carry all of your stuff overland it's French for carry) about half an hour after getting on the river with fallen trees and swampy bits. At this point none of us was in the kind of shape you need to be for this and all of our food barrels were at their heaviest. after that the first few days sort of blend together we had to bushwhack a site more than once and it was really cold then around day five the weather got much warmer and on day six we had our first rest day where we ate pancakes and napped and swam. After that once again things get a little foggy until day eight we only ran a couple of rapids which was a little disappointing, and we did a lot of portaging our whole trip. Day eight was the day we had been kind of dreading our whole trip a three kilometer portage. Basically it took us the entire day we wrote hardcore on our knuckles and chanted beforehand to get pumped up. Afterwards we were all super cranky. The rest of the trip seemed to fly past, there were more portages and waterfalls. there was lots and lots more paddling and sunburn and black flies of course there was also laughter and silliness and friends. At the end of it all I was so glad I did it, it was simultaneously one of the hardest and one of the best things I've ever done. When I was done I had amazing friends and when kids made fun of me in high school I could smile to myself because while they had been at home working during the summer I had been portaging and paddling through the wilderness growing stronger in every way.

Here are a couple of picture of my adventure:

This is us at he beginning of the river I'm in the back on the left.

This is me again sitting on a rock before a portage. So that is probably my most interesting travel experience although its probably not travel in the sense that most people use the word.

Now Nerdy Bunch I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed reading all of your posts last week. They were all really interesting for the slightly creepy psychologist in me. I can't wait to hear about your travel experiences this week. I wanted to leave you with a little question? I want to know what your listening to? (if your not listening to any thing feel free to make something up!) I'm currently listening to 'I Can't Decide' by the Scissors Sisters which I heard first on Doctor who which makes me extremely happy. That's all for now.

Best Wishes!

Allysa