Hey everyone,
We've been doing a lot of writing on personal stuff lately and issues that are close to home for Raven and I. Today I need to switch gears to talk about some issues that are a bit further away. Before I do, let me say I am not a scientist or expert. I am new the subject I am discussing and I encourage people to do their own research and digging - and of course, form their own conclusions.
But anyway, here goes... By now I think everyone knows that Nepal, India, and China were hit by a massive earthquake (actually a couple of earthquakes) on Saturday April 25th around noon, local time. The epicenter was about 80km northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital city. It was a fairly shallow earthquake, meaning the activity was close to the earth's surface, rather than being deeper underground. Shallow earthquakes make for devastating above-ground consequences. The earthquake was also very powerful. It is being categorized as a 7.8 magnitude quake. That magnitude is the same as the famous San Francisco earthquake of 1906, which destroyed about 80 percent of the city. There was also a second, smaller earthquake in the same area and a large number of aftershocks than ranged in magnitude and duration.
But the actual human consequences are better quantified by the Mercalli intensity scale, which measures an earthquake's effect on people rather than the amount of energy it releases. The Mercalli scale is a roman numeral scale I through X. I, being an earthquake that is not felt at all and X, being total damage with visible waves on the earth's surface during the actual event and objects so displaced they are thrown into the air. Nepal's quake was rated an IX on Mercalli scale at its hardest hit areas*. What that means is that the worst affected areas of Nepal have been completely leveled, with not even the best built structures surviving the shock. Many small towns, like Barkobot (about an hour and a half drive from the capital under normal circumstances), have been almost completely destroyed. Overall 39 of Nepal's 75 districts have been impacted, with 8 million people living in those areas. That means more than a quarter of Nepal's population (including the entirety of the capital) has been affected. The death toll is still being determined as search and rescue continues, but the exact number may rise as high as 100,000.
So the scope of this disaster is huge and far reaching. This would be a difficult situation for any country to handle under the best of circumstances. But Nepal is not a wealthy country. It is actually one of the poorest in the world - ranking at 197th worldwide for GDP. Many of its citizens are unemployed and more than a quarter live below the poverty line. All before the earthquake hit. Even people living above the poverty line will be struggling in the aftermath to rebuild and go back to work.
In the meantime Nepal's government has to coordinate relief efforts while supplies trickle in from all over the world. With blocked streets making remote regions even more so and relief efforts in the capital and other big cities pulling much of the manpower and many resources, the smaller towns and villages are left to fend for themselves in everything from food and shelter to search and rescue efforts. There have even been reports of thieves sneaking into badly hit areas at night and stealing what few possessions people have left since everything is out in the open now. The same town I mentioned earlier, Barkobot, has seen no relief workers or supplies from the central government and the situation is much the same in other small towns in the area.
The UN and Nepalese government are working together to get the supplies that are needed as quickly as possible, but without sacrificing quality. The monsoon season is coming soon and it is doubtful that everyone will be returned home by then. High quality tents that can withstand monsoon rains are hard to come by. Once the supplies are gathered, foreign aid will face another roadblock on its way to the people that desperately need those supplies - the Kathmandu airport. It is small. It is has only one runway and a limited amount of space past that for unloading of supplies. With so many planes headed to Nepal with supplies, many are finding there is no place to land for several hours. Some are turning back, supplies undelivered.
The worst of the disaster is gone, but the relief effort is just beginning. If you can donate anything, think about doing so. Even a few dollars can help, especially if everyone is doing it. It is times like these that should remind us what a global community is capable of doing when bent on one purpose. I hope to see news soon about Nepal's recovery.
*Because the Mercalli scale measures property damage and observed consequences the rating will be different in different areas based on distance from the event's epicenter.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Can Your Smartphone Make You Smarter? Click this link to find out how!
Hi Owl,
Yeah, okay, I forgot another day. This every-day-posting thing is harder than I remembered!
On Wednesday, Owl talked about our mutual love of languages and how we have started to use the technology freely available to us to learn them. Free educational technology is something that amazes and delights me. Mobile and web apps, Wikipedia, eBooks, software, and online classes have become normal, integrated components of our daily lives. I once heard it observed that many of us carry devices that store the entirety of human knowledge in our pockets and we mostly use them to look at cat videos and settle bets with friends. The Internet is an astonishing treasure trove, a digital archive of nearly everything we have ever known, wondered, or created. And the astonishing thing is that so much of it is free. Anybody with access to a computer that has Internet has, at their fingertips, immediate access to enough information to put the Library of Alexandria to shame. (That the predominant uses of the Internet seem to be mostly arguing over Youtube videos, posting pictures of food and cats, and finding ways to avoid doing whatever work you should probably be doing right now is a whole different discussion entirely.) Broadly speaking, if you want to learn something, the Internet can teach you. Take Youtube for example. If you've ever wanted to learn how to play guitar, brush up on your Spanish, weave a basket, create your own projectile point*, or even make an instructional video, Youtube has your back.
With so much information and so many useful tools for obtaining it, it's hard to know where to start. The first step is generally to figure out what interests you, but if you are anything like me this can be quite a challenge, as the answer to that, broadly speaking, is everything. Seriously, I just heard an NPR interview about a guy who wrote a book on office supplies and it sounds genuinely fascinating. So, narrowing down fields of interest can be tricky. Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to narrow down that much. One of the great things about the Internet is that it has made large expanses of information easily available in small, digestible portions, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Take, again, Youtube. CGP Grey specializes in short, explanatory videos, but his topics vary in range from politics to geography to economics to the upcoming robot revolution. Grey's videos are relatively short and he does not have time for in-depth analyses, but he gives phenomenal summary explanations, and when a viewer catches a topic of particular interest to them, they have the entirety of the aforementioned digital treasure trove at their disposal to find out more.
Today I'd like to provide you all with some of what I think are the most useful educational resources that the Internet has made possible. And best of all, they are all free. (Provided that you have access to the Internet, and in some cases a smartphone or a tablet. Some in-app purchases are available but not required. Batteries sold separately. Some exclusions may apply.)
So without further ado, MORE LISTS! This time, in threes! I'm leaving a lot of great stuff out, I realize. I'll try to do a more extensive list later, so if you have suggestions, leave them in the comments!
Apps
Duolingo: Great for learning languages, though options are limited. Read: No Chinese :(You can "enroll" in as many language courses as you want, and the app treats it like a game. You start each lesson with three hearts, and for every question you get wrong you lose a life. Complete lessons to earn experience and level up. The game even allows you to track your progress against friends, and Owl is currently kicking my butt since she tested out of the majority of the Spanish course. The app incorporates reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and one of the best language-learning aids I've seen yet.
Memrise: Utilizes image association to help recall terminology. User-submitted courses means that the variety is endless, though quality is variable. Currently Memrise is helping me brush up on archaeological terms, testing my knowledge of geography, helping me memorize herbs and spices used in cooking, and teaching me basic Russian, among a number of other things. It's not enough to help me master any of these subjects, but a few minutes every day makes a big difference in terms of rote memorization, and I don't need an in-depth explanation of oregano, I just need enough of a reminder so that I can pick out a fresh batch at the Farmer's Market without getting it confused with sage. Memrise sends you reminders to practice daily, lets you set daily goals of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20 minutes of study each day, and treats lessons like seedlings that you have to water so that they can grow and blossom. It's a cute design, and a great way to keep up with skills you don't need a full class on, but want to maintain a working knowledge of.
Elevate: Elevate is a bit of a cheat, since it isn't really an "educational" app in the strictest sense of the word. It's a brain trainer---for the unpaid version, it gives you three daily games, rotating between 29 games total (most, though not all, of which are available in the free version). These games are target such things as estimation skills, brevity in writing, name recall, and reading connotation, focusing on five main areas: math, reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While the verdict is still out on whether or not "brain training" apps actually improve intelligence, they definitely help keep mental muscles well-honed. Elevate was selected by Apple as the 2014 App of the Year (don't worry, if you're an Android user like I am it's still available for you!) and with a sleek and clean design and fun, often surprisingly challenging games, it's easy to see why. This one is definitely a deviation from the rest of the list, but it's part of my daily mental exercise routine, and Owl and I both get a lot of use out of it, so I'm putting it on anyway! My blog, my rules :D
Video Channels
CGP Grey Mentioned above, these videos are simply wonderful. Beautifully designed, humorous and witty, they are absolutely worth checking out. He covers a broad range of topics, but his videos on geography and how it is occasionally exceedingly silly are some of my favorites. It's also a favorite topic of his, so there are tons. Thanks to Rook for reminding me that he exists and getting me hooked on his videos again.
Crash Course Brothers John and Hank Greek of vlogbrothers Internet fame (and The Fault in Our Stars real-life fame, in John's case) made a channel of truly well-done explanatory videos. Hank talks science, John, history and economics, with a bit of politics thrown in. Usually funny, always informative, and tons of fun.
Mental Floss The Green brothers have some influence here, too. John is just one of many recurring hosts, and the crew at Mental Floss talk about a stunningly wide range of topics. These videos are about as bite-sized as they come, so don't expect any sort of analysis or examination. This is primarily a list show, and is full of trivia, but not necessarily trivial in and of itself. Like Elevate, this is cheating a bit, since I wouldn't recommend Mental Floss in any sort of academic context, but it absolutely has its place in an educational, if not academic, setting. I primarily listen to Mental Floss when I'm at the gym (guys we have elliptical with TVs in them now. Guys, the future is here! And it's the reason I spend so much time doing cardio over weights...Call me when they put TVs on weight machines, please) because the videos are short, easily digestible, and don't require a lot of thought, but still teach me enough to pique my interest in an array of subjects.
Online Classrooms
Coursera The King of the MOOCs, Coursera takes lectures from real, often highly prestigious, universities and makes them available for free, online. Some courses even allow certification. Professors give lectures, students turn in homework and engage in class discussions, and everything is done online, with no set schedule. Students can listen to lectures whenever fits their schedule, and can turn in homework anytime before its deadline. Since all non-certification courses aren't graded, there is less pressure to perform, and more freedom to learn. I've taken courses on the art and archaeology of Ancient Nubia, Python programming, the impact of science fiction and fantasy on modern living, game design, and the intentionality of philosophy and science, to name a few. While the lecture-heavy course structure provided a stark contrast to the discussion-based courses of my alma mater, I nevertheless found all the courses I've taken so far to be both interesting and enjoyable. I don't think I will ever prefer online courses to the "real" deal, but you sure as hell can't beat the price.
Khan Academy Khan offers even more flexibility than Coursera, since most of its courses are archived, which means that they can be accessed literally anytime, not confined within the time period that the course is being offered. It focuses on math and science, but also offers a broad range of courses in the humanities, and is another good resource for language learning. Khan favors interactive exercises over homework to be handed in, and is less of a classroom structure like Coursera and more a self-guided learning tool like the apps mentioned above.
edX Created by Harvard and MIT as a digital platform for their lectures, edX is very similar to Coursera, though because it features almost exclusively highly prestigious universities like the founding universities mentioned above, the selections are somewhat more limited. Like Coursera, edX works on the honor code system: because all non-certified courses are free and ungraded, the philosophy is that if you cheat, you're the only one who loses out. The ideal edX user is self-motivated and has a drive and a desire to learn, and all edX courses and materials are presented with this ideal user in mind. The lectures are all of a high caliber, and the course selection, while not quite as impressive as Coursera's, is still remarkable.
That's all for now. Questions? Comments? Additions to these lists? Complaints? Leave them below!
*A more academic demonstration can be found in this video featuring Dr. Benjamin Bradley
Yeah, okay, I forgot another day. This every-day-posting thing is harder than I remembered!
On Wednesday, Owl talked about our mutual love of languages and how we have started to use the technology freely available to us to learn them. Free educational technology is something that amazes and delights me. Mobile and web apps, Wikipedia, eBooks, software, and online classes have become normal, integrated components of our daily lives. I once heard it observed that many of us carry devices that store the entirety of human knowledge in our pockets and we mostly use them to look at cat videos and settle bets with friends. The Internet is an astonishing treasure trove, a digital archive of nearly everything we have ever known, wondered, or created. And the astonishing thing is that so much of it is free. Anybody with access to a computer that has Internet has, at their fingertips, immediate access to enough information to put the Library of Alexandria to shame. (That the predominant uses of the Internet seem to be mostly arguing over Youtube videos, posting pictures of food and cats, and finding ways to avoid doing whatever work you should probably be doing right now is a whole different discussion entirely.) Broadly speaking, if you want to learn something, the Internet can teach you. Take Youtube for example. If you've ever wanted to learn how to play guitar, brush up on your Spanish, weave a basket, create your own projectile point*, or even make an instructional video, Youtube has your back.
With so much information and so many useful tools for obtaining it, it's hard to know where to start. The first step is generally to figure out what interests you, but if you are anything like me this can be quite a challenge, as the answer to that, broadly speaking, is everything. Seriously, I just heard an NPR interview about a guy who wrote a book on office supplies and it sounds genuinely fascinating. So, narrowing down fields of interest can be tricky. Fortunately, you don't necessarily have to narrow down that much. One of the great things about the Internet is that it has made large expanses of information easily available in small, digestible portions, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Take, again, Youtube. CGP Grey specializes in short, explanatory videos, but his topics vary in range from politics to geography to economics to the upcoming robot revolution. Grey's videos are relatively short and he does not have time for in-depth analyses, but he gives phenomenal summary explanations, and when a viewer catches a topic of particular interest to them, they have the entirety of the aforementioned digital treasure trove at their disposal to find out more.
Today I'd like to provide you all with some of what I think are the most useful educational resources that the Internet has made possible. And best of all, they are all free. (Provided that you have access to the Internet, and in some cases a smartphone or a tablet. Some in-app purchases are available but not required. Batteries sold separately. Some exclusions may apply.)
So without further ado, MORE LISTS! This time, in threes! I'm leaving a lot of great stuff out, I realize. I'll try to do a more extensive list later, so if you have suggestions, leave them in the comments!
Apps
Duolingo: Great for learning languages, though options are limited. Read: No Chinese :(You can "enroll" in as many language courses as you want, and the app treats it like a game. You start each lesson with three hearts, and for every question you get wrong you lose a life. Complete lessons to earn experience and level up. The game even allows you to track your progress against friends, and Owl is currently kicking my butt since she tested out of the majority of the Spanish course. The app incorporates reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and one of the best language-learning aids I've seen yet.
Memrise: Utilizes image association to help recall terminology. User-submitted courses means that the variety is endless, though quality is variable. Currently Memrise is helping me brush up on archaeological terms, testing my knowledge of geography, helping me memorize herbs and spices used in cooking, and teaching me basic Russian, among a number of other things. It's not enough to help me master any of these subjects, but a few minutes every day makes a big difference in terms of rote memorization, and I don't need an in-depth explanation of oregano, I just need enough of a reminder so that I can pick out a fresh batch at the Farmer's Market without getting it confused with sage. Memrise sends you reminders to practice daily, lets you set daily goals of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20 minutes of study each day, and treats lessons like seedlings that you have to water so that they can grow and blossom. It's a cute design, and a great way to keep up with skills you don't need a full class on, but want to maintain a working knowledge of.
Elevate: Elevate is a bit of a cheat, since it isn't really an "educational" app in the strictest sense of the word. It's a brain trainer---for the unpaid version, it gives you three daily games, rotating between 29 games total (most, though not all, of which are available in the free version). These games are target such things as estimation skills, brevity in writing, name recall, and reading connotation, focusing on five main areas: math, reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While the verdict is still out on whether or not "brain training" apps actually improve intelligence, they definitely help keep mental muscles well-honed. Elevate was selected by Apple as the 2014 App of the Year (don't worry, if you're an Android user like I am it's still available for you!) and with a sleek and clean design and fun, often surprisingly challenging games, it's easy to see why. This one is definitely a deviation from the rest of the list, but it's part of my daily mental exercise routine, and Owl and I both get a lot of use out of it, so I'm putting it on anyway! My blog, my rules :D
Video Channels
CGP Grey Mentioned above, these videos are simply wonderful. Beautifully designed, humorous and witty, they are absolutely worth checking out. He covers a broad range of topics, but his videos on geography and how it is occasionally exceedingly silly are some of my favorites. It's also a favorite topic of his, so there are tons. Thanks to Rook for reminding me that he exists and getting me hooked on his videos again.
Crash Course Brothers John and Hank Greek of vlogbrothers Internet fame (and The Fault in Our Stars real-life fame, in John's case) made a channel of truly well-done explanatory videos. Hank talks science, John, history and economics, with a bit of politics thrown in. Usually funny, always informative, and tons of fun.
Mental Floss The Green brothers have some influence here, too. John is just one of many recurring hosts, and the crew at Mental Floss talk about a stunningly wide range of topics. These videos are about as bite-sized as they come, so don't expect any sort of analysis or examination. This is primarily a list show, and is full of trivia, but not necessarily trivial in and of itself. Like Elevate, this is cheating a bit, since I wouldn't recommend Mental Floss in any sort of academic context, but it absolutely has its place in an educational, if not academic, setting. I primarily listen to Mental Floss when I'm at the gym (guys we have elliptical with TVs in them now. Guys, the future is here! And it's the reason I spend so much time doing cardio over weights...Call me when they put TVs on weight machines, please) because the videos are short, easily digestible, and don't require a lot of thought, but still teach me enough to pique my interest in an array of subjects.
Online Classrooms
Coursera The King of the MOOCs, Coursera takes lectures from real, often highly prestigious, universities and makes them available for free, online. Some courses even allow certification. Professors give lectures, students turn in homework and engage in class discussions, and everything is done online, with no set schedule. Students can listen to lectures whenever fits their schedule, and can turn in homework anytime before its deadline. Since all non-certification courses aren't graded, there is less pressure to perform, and more freedom to learn. I've taken courses on the art and archaeology of Ancient Nubia, Python programming, the impact of science fiction and fantasy on modern living, game design, and the intentionality of philosophy and science, to name a few. While the lecture-heavy course structure provided a stark contrast to the discussion-based courses of my alma mater, I nevertheless found all the courses I've taken so far to be both interesting and enjoyable. I don't think I will ever prefer online courses to the "real" deal, but you sure as hell can't beat the price.
Khan Academy Khan offers even more flexibility than Coursera, since most of its courses are archived, which means that they can be accessed literally anytime, not confined within the time period that the course is being offered. It focuses on math and science, but also offers a broad range of courses in the humanities, and is another good resource for language learning. Khan favors interactive exercises over homework to be handed in, and is less of a classroom structure like Coursera and more a self-guided learning tool like the apps mentioned above.
edX Created by Harvard and MIT as a digital platform for their lectures, edX is very similar to Coursera, though because it features almost exclusively highly prestigious universities like the founding universities mentioned above, the selections are somewhat more limited. Like Coursera, edX works on the honor code system: because all non-certified courses are free and ungraded, the philosophy is that if you cheat, you're the only one who loses out. The ideal edX user is self-motivated and has a drive and a desire to learn, and all edX courses and materials are presented with this ideal user in mind. The lectures are all of a high caliber, and the course selection, while not quite as impressive as Coursera's, is still remarkable.
That's all for now. Questions? Comments? Additions to these lists? Complaints? Leave them below!
*A more academic demonstration can be found in this video featuring Dr. Benjamin Bradley
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Hola, ola, 你好, здравствуйте, hallo, hallå, and dia duit!
Welcome to the language jungle, friends. Raven and I, as some of you may already know are foreign language junkies. Between the two of us we are dabbling in all the languages I greeted you in above. See if you can guess them all before you get to the bottom of this post where I'll list the answers.
During college I majored in languages and learned to near fluency both Russian and Spanish. I have been out of college for more time than I care to admit now and most of my Russian is gone. Thankfully a 6 month immersion in a Spanish speaking country has paid off for me and my Spanish is still near fluency. But it can be hard to maintain vocabulary and comfort in a language when you don't speak it much. The practice I get these days is minimal so I was looking for a way to keep in practice and maintain my vocabulary.
Turns out there are a million apps for that and thanks to Crow I have access to a tablet so I can download all the apps. I get to spend a few minutes every day going through a lesson and reviewing vocabulary for Spanish. I also, of course, found a whole bunch of new languages to experiment with. Though I know studying multiple languages at once isn't the way to get fluent in any of them I am hopeful that I can at least get to a conversational point in a few of them (especially the ones that are closely linked with Spanish).
Even if all I do is learn a few new words and get to see the way other languages are constructed that will be enough for me. It is enough to stay engaged with learning for the moment. If any of you know any good apps for language learning please share them with me! I would love to have more ways to learn.
Raven and I have also been brushing up on our geography skills through apps. Turns out we're both pretty okay at world geography, but we have some definite problem areas... like most of Africa. And a good chunk of central Asia. It's pretty sad how little I know about both areas, but I have to start somewhere and knowing where I need work is the first step.
What are some areas of world history or geography that are a blank for you all? How many countries do you think you could fill in on the map? Half? Two thirds?
Here's that list: Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, German, Swedish, and Irish.
During college I majored in languages and learned to near fluency both Russian and Spanish. I have been out of college for more time than I care to admit now and most of my Russian is gone. Thankfully a 6 month immersion in a Spanish speaking country has paid off for me and my Spanish is still near fluency. But it can be hard to maintain vocabulary and comfort in a language when you don't speak it much. The practice I get these days is minimal so I was looking for a way to keep in practice and maintain my vocabulary.
Turns out there are a million apps for that and thanks to Crow I have access to a tablet so I can download all the apps. I get to spend a few minutes every day going through a lesson and reviewing vocabulary for Spanish. I also, of course, found a whole bunch of new languages to experiment with. Though I know studying multiple languages at once isn't the way to get fluent in any of them I am hopeful that I can at least get to a conversational point in a few of them (especially the ones that are closely linked with Spanish).
Even if all I do is learn a few new words and get to see the way other languages are constructed that will be enough for me. It is enough to stay engaged with learning for the moment. If any of you know any good apps for language learning please share them with me! I would love to have more ways to learn.
Raven and I have also been brushing up on our geography skills through apps. Turns out we're both pretty okay at world geography, but we have some definite problem areas... like most of Africa. And a good chunk of central Asia. It's pretty sad how little I know about both areas, but I have to start somewhere and knowing where I need work is the first step.
What are some areas of world history or geography that are a blank for you all? How many countries do you think you could fill in on the map? Half? Two thirds?
Here's that list: Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, German, Swedish, and Irish.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Monkey Kingdom
Hi Owl,
Now that we've started taking weekends off, I get forgetful. It's hard to get back into the swing of posting on Mondays! So, since we've fallen a bit behind, we're both posting tonight.
Owl and I have a tradition of going to the movies on Tuesdays when we both have time. Some of the local theaters have $5 movies every Tuesday, and we can generally find something interesting. This week we talked about seeing The Woman in Gold, but changed our plans at the last minute.
Instead, we went to see Monkey Kingdom. While this is a far cry from The Woman in Gold, it had its advantages as a favorite front-runner for tonight's viewing: it's short (82 minutes) and we were both exhausted, it's educational, though albeit targeted to a younger audience, and most importantly, proceeds from ticket sales this week were donated to Conservation International, to help protect forests in India, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka.
In 2008, Walt Disney Studios founded an independent film label, Disneynature. Specializing in nature documentaries, Disneynature has, as of this week, released eight feature films, with another one in the works for 2016. Generally released to coincide with Earth Day, these films are released not only to show off masterful cinematography and cute animal stories, but also to raise awareness for conservation efforts world-wide. Proceeds from tickets sold in the first week of each of the eight film releases have gone to support various conservation efforts. For instance, last year's release, Bears, followed a family of grizzly bears in Alaska, and proceeds went to support the National Park Foundation. Bears was our first introduction to Disneynature, and part of what made us so eager to see Monkey Kingdom. The 2010 movie Oceans donated first-week ticket sale proceeds to The Nature Conservancy, in an effort to save coral reefs and establish new protected marine areas in the Bahamas. And anybody who goes to see Monkey Kingdom this week will help to support Conservation International. Tina Fey, the narrator of Monkey Kingdom, is just the latest in a line of big-ticket actors that have lent their talent to Disneynature, including James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson.
These documentaries are clearly aimed at younger children. They are tied together with strong, if exaggerated, narratives, and the anthropomorphic characterizations of the animals does call to mind the typical Disney "cutification" of often grim subjects. After all, if Disney can turn Grimm's fairy tales into whimsical romps through wonderland, turning the harsh realities of life in the (non-human) animal kingdom should be a natural step for them. From a scientific standpoint I object on principle to personifying bears and sharks and even our relatively close monkey cousins in overly-anthropomorphic ways, but from a story-telling standpoint, I applaud Disneynature on their ability to spin a concrete, compelling story out of the vast tangle of footage.
And speaking of footage, the real highlight of these documentaries, for me, is the cinematography. The intense dedication and inspired eye these cinematographers have shows clearly in the breathtaking array of visually scintillating compositions. My mom and I have long shared grand daydreams of photographic nature and wildlife for National Geographic, and seeing the incredible opportunities these photographers and cinematographers have as they film makes me want to pack my bags right now and join them. From close-up shots of intimate moments in the complex hierarchy of the macaque monkeys to aerial shots of sprawling forests and towering ruins, to action shots of the urban jungles of Polonnaruwa, the cinematography is astonishingly varied and consistently delightful.
Monkey Kingdom isn't going to win any awards for best script. But it was beautiful, fun, educational, and it made me think. About the earth, about humanity's place in a vast and ineffable world, about the secrets of this world we have yet to uncover. And best of all, Disneynature did something that I strongly believe more film studios should do: put its money where its mouth is. For as huge as studio as Disney is, the contributions this movie raised were just a drop in the bucket, but it made a difference for the conservationists who work tirelessly to preserve some portion of the earth that we are, undeniably, altering.
Also, this movie featured a monkey riding a dog, so I don't really know what else you could ask for.
Happy Earth Day. Go hug a tree, and turn off the lights when you leave the room tonight. The monkeys thank you.
The Challenges of Childhood
Sorry for the break in posts! Monday was a very long day for me at work (12+ hours) and was a difficult day on top of that. Those of you who saw me this weekend can attest to the issues I was looking forward to. Fortunately, the day went much better than predicted.
I am a nanny. Not a babysitter. The two are very similar, but I draw a pretty big distinction between them. A babysitter, to me, is not someone who is heavily invested in their charges day to day life. They don't have a lot of input in house rules and they don't spend regular, long chunks of time with the kids. Babysitters come for a night. Nannies are regular household fixtures. They get recognized by classroom teachers, playdates and playdate parents, even the mailman. And that is me.
I usually spend between 15 and 30 hours every week with the kids (I watch 2). I feel invested in both of them as individuals and I feel like a part of their family. It's a unique and sometimes slightly uncomfortable place to be, but I love it. And I love the kids I spend my days with. But they are kids and it's not an easy job by any stretch. The younger of my two charges is a particular challenge. She is in 1st grade and is already very willful, very clever, and very independent. It's an extremely formidable combination and it is going to take her places in life, but it is more often than not, the cause of huge headaches for both me and her parents.
Friday night I found myself at the house late, after the kids had both gone to bed (the parents have unpredictable work schedules - hence the need for me). When their dad got home from work we had a talk about how his youngest had been acted out (picking on her older sibling, categorically refusing to do as she was asked, pulling attention by being mean or a bully) and how both parents were at their wits end. I understand now (though I never would have before seeing children raised up close and personal) that most parents feel this way a lot of the time. I will always believe kids are a huge blessing to us, but that doesn't mean raising them is always fun or even enjoyable. And this week had been one of those utter unenjoyable weeks for my nanny family. By the end of it the mild mannered dad was pulling his hair out and their slightly more human mother was barely speaking to her youngest child. Having been with the family for close to 2 years now, I can understand how the situation came about. Their youngest is a force to be reckoned with but this was different and worse than usual. Neither parent could account for the change and their daughter was not forthcoming with information on what had put her in such a delightful mood.
I came to work Monday ready for battle. Or at least confrontation (something I am not good at). But there was surprisingly little to be had. I found her somewhat subdued after her weekend (turns out she'd been pretty sick on Sunday and that can mellow anyone out in a hurry). The morning was peaceful (or as peaceful as any morning with two young kids can be) and chores were done with a minimum of fuss. The fighting, such as it was, came after school. I had to review some basics - like why we don't pick gum up off the ground and put it back in our mouths. There was some rules review - unless you are actively sick school days are not movie days. And a bit more rules review - when you make a commitment to an activity you have to see it through, even when it's hard to tear yourself away from something fun to do it. But after all that (and I will mention that all that took the better part of 2 hours to sort out) we managed to have a good afternoon with no nasty words, temper tantrums, or sibling squabbles. Mission accomplished.
Days like that get me to thinking about being a kid again and the things that made it so hard. As a nanny I am finally seeing childhood from the other side and realizing all the things kids will do to get their way. As an adult I see these things are underhanded, mean-spirited, or sometimes just plain cruel, but I'm sure I did them when I was young. And I'm equally sure I felt justified in those actions. When you're a child you see the world in a different way, and perhaps just as importantly, the world sees you in a different way. You aren't able to set your own rules, because no matter how grown up you feel you still don't always know all the far off consequences of your actions (or inactions). You don't really get a lot of say in what activities you do or when you do them. Parents get a lot of input there in how much you commit to and when those commitments will be. Something I often forget is that kids just haven't learned a lot about the world yet and even if they have it can be hard to contextualize. Your brain just isn't developed enough at 7 years old to realize that doing something you don't want to do isn't the end of the world. It can't understand that grown ups have struggles too and often do things they don't want to. From the outside adulthood looks pretty awesome. And so does childhood.
Both children and adults are equally guilty of idealizing the other's lives. Children don't have things easy. They are doing their best to make sense of the world around them and find their place in it. We, as adults, may still be doing that ourselves (while putting up with taxes, jobs, and other pesky adult responsibilities) but we have the power to determine it for ourselves, in our time, and in our own way. More often than not, kids are not afforded that luxury. They have to go to school, do what their parents and other adults tell them to, and follow rules they may not completely understand or agree with (and there's very little recourse if you don't want to do or want to fight any of these childhood responsibilities).
As my mother often tells me when I regale her with the newest story of my difficulties at work, "It's hard work being 7 (or any other young age)." And I think she's right. I always try to remember that on days like Monday when it feels so hard to be an adult. Sometimes it even helps.
I am a nanny. Not a babysitter. The two are very similar, but I draw a pretty big distinction between them. A babysitter, to me, is not someone who is heavily invested in their charges day to day life. They don't have a lot of input in house rules and they don't spend regular, long chunks of time with the kids. Babysitters come for a night. Nannies are regular household fixtures. They get recognized by classroom teachers, playdates and playdate parents, even the mailman. And that is me.
I usually spend between 15 and 30 hours every week with the kids (I watch 2). I feel invested in both of them as individuals and I feel like a part of their family. It's a unique and sometimes slightly uncomfortable place to be, but I love it. And I love the kids I spend my days with. But they are kids and it's not an easy job by any stretch. The younger of my two charges is a particular challenge. She is in 1st grade and is already very willful, very clever, and very independent. It's an extremely formidable combination and it is going to take her places in life, but it is more often than not, the cause of huge headaches for both me and her parents.
Friday night I found myself at the house late, after the kids had both gone to bed (the parents have unpredictable work schedules - hence the need for me). When their dad got home from work we had a talk about how his youngest had been acted out (picking on her older sibling, categorically refusing to do as she was asked, pulling attention by being mean or a bully) and how both parents were at their wits end. I understand now (though I never would have before seeing children raised up close and personal) that most parents feel this way a lot of the time. I will always believe kids are a huge blessing to us, but that doesn't mean raising them is always fun or even enjoyable. And this week had been one of those utter unenjoyable weeks for my nanny family. By the end of it the mild mannered dad was pulling his hair out and their slightly more human mother was barely speaking to her youngest child. Having been with the family for close to 2 years now, I can understand how the situation came about. Their youngest is a force to be reckoned with but this was different and worse than usual. Neither parent could account for the change and their daughter was not forthcoming with information on what had put her in such a delightful mood.
I came to work Monday ready for battle. Or at least confrontation (something I am not good at). But there was surprisingly little to be had. I found her somewhat subdued after her weekend (turns out she'd been pretty sick on Sunday and that can mellow anyone out in a hurry). The morning was peaceful (or as peaceful as any morning with two young kids can be) and chores were done with a minimum of fuss. The fighting, such as it was, came after school. I had to review some basics - like why we don't pick gum up off the ground and put it back in our mouths. There was some rules review - unless you are actively sick school days are not movie days. And a bit more rules review - when you make a commitment to an activity you have to see it through, even when it's hard to tear yourself away from something fun to do it. But after all that (and I will mention that all that took the better part of 2 hours to sort out) we managed to have a good afternoon with no nasty words, temper tantrums, or sibling squabbles. Mission accomplished.
Days like that get me to thinking about being a kid again and the things that made it so hard. As a nanny I am finally seeing childhood from the other side and realizing all the things kids will do to get their way. As an adult I see these things are underhanded, mean-spirited, or sometimes just plain cruel, but I'm sure I did them when I was young. And I'm equally sure I felt justified in those actions. When you're a child you see the world in a different way, and perhaps just as importantly, the world sees you in a different way. You aren't able to set your own rules, because no matter how grown up you feel you still don't always know all the far off consequences of your actions (or inactions). You don't really get a lot of say in what activities you do or when you do them. Parents get a lot of input there in how much you commit to and when those commitments will be. Something I often forget is that kids just haven't learned a lot about the world yet and even if they have it can be hard to contextualize. Your brain just isn't developed enough at 7 years old to realize that doing something you don't want to do isn't the end of the world. It can't understand that grown ups have struggles too and often do things they don't want to. From the outside adulthood looks pretty awesome. And so does childhood.
Both children and adults are equally guilty of idealizing the other's lives. Children don't have things easy. They are doing their best to make sense of the world around them and find their place in it. We, as adults, may still be doing that ourselves (while putting up with taxes, jobs, and other pesky adult responsibilities) but we have the power to determine it for ourselves, in our time, and in our own way. More often than not, kids are not afforded that luxury. They have to go to school, do what their parents and other adults tell them to, and follow rules they may not completely understand or agree with (and there's very little recourse if you don't want to do or want to fight any of these childhood responsibilities).
As my mother often tells me when I regale her with the newest story of my difficulties at work, "It's hard work being 7 (or any other young age)." And I think she's right. I always try to remember that on days like Monday when it feels so hard to be an adult. Sometimes it even helps.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Fake it Till You Make It
Hey all,
Tonight I wanted to write about being An Adult because it's something I'm grappling with a lot these days. What does it mean to be an adult? How do I feel more grown-up? Will I ever really feel grown-up? How do I become a mature, responsible, and employed adult while not losing the things I value from my childhood and adolescence? I don't have the answer to any of these questions and I'm pretty sure it will be a long time before I formulate answers, but I can tell you what I've been thinking.
This list basically boils down to exactly what Raven said when I asked her what being an adult meant. She said (and I'm paraphrasing) that being an adult meant having the ability to eat cake for dinner and the knowledge to realize you shouldn't eat cake for dinner. At least not every night (my addition). As a kid we all think being a grown-up will mean freedom. From rules, from homework, from our parents. But when we get there we realize that there are a whole a bunch of rules that were there for a reason, not to mention new rules like rent, debt, job performance, the list goes on. And now that we are grown and dependent primarily on ourselves the rules have become a lot more important. When you broke a rule as a kid you got sent to your room, maybe yelled at a little, perhaps even grounded. As an adult if you break a rule the consequences can be longer lasting. Don't go to work? Get fired. Don't pay rent? Lose your house. Don't pay your student loans promptly? You will never buy anything on credit ever. Seriously, it will be a struggle to get a credit card.
Now those might be exaggerated consequences of each event, but you get the idea. Consequences as big and very real in your adult years. So how do you manage all the rules and expectations of you while avoiding the very big and very real consequences and trying to have some fun while you hold on to parts of your childhood on the way?
That's not rhetorical, by the way. I don't have an answer. If anyone out there does I would love to hear it.
Every time I contemplate adulthood I can't help but picture my ideal of an Adult: my mother. I always thought as a child that someday (when I was 20 I think was the random age I picked) I would wake up and it would click, I would have superpowers just like her. I would be able to cook meals that rivaled a master chef, keep an apartment clean with basically no effort, wrangle difficult children (read my sister and I) with ease, run errands in a flash, and pop out of bed early every morning wide awake and happy to be that way.
Needless to say that did not happen on the morning of my 20th birthday. And I'm sure that wasn't what my mother's life was really like, but let me tell you - she made the toughest job in the world look so easy. Everyone's heard the saying that daughters eventually turn into their mothers, right? It's a pretty common trope on sitcoms and romcoms. It's supposed to be a bad thing, but that what I wanted more than anything else in the world.
But now that I am a grown-up I have to face the hard truth - I am so far away from being my mother. I'm sure my mother would tell me that that's okay. That I am just different and have my own strengths. Strengths she doesn't have, just as I don't have hers. But still, when I close my eyes and picture an adult, it isn't my face I see. It's hers.
And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's a goal I would like to work towards - becoming my mother. Maybe not in all ways. We are, after all, very different people and I know we both appreciate the differences. But I want to get better at the things I most admire her for. So I'm going to end this post the way I started it: with a list.
Time for bed like a responsible adult. Work in the morning, then I have a fun surprise planned for Raven. I wonder if she'll read the blog before we go to bed tonight...
Best wishes!
Owl
*If you're curious... I've got numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 down most days, but the others are a constant struggle.
**Some people say if they could look like their mother when they get to her age they'd be happy. I would be happy to look like my mother right now.
Tonight I wanted to write about being An Adult because it's something I'm grappling with a lot these days. What does it mean to be an adult? How do I feel more grown-up? Will I ever really feel grown-up? How do I become a mature, responsible, and employed adult while not losing the things I value from my childhood and adolescence? I don't have the answer to any of these questions and I'm pretty sure it will be a long time before I formulate answers, but I can tell you what I've been thinking.
Let's start with my list of qualifications for adulthood in no particular order... (This is all what I think being an adult means)
1. Living away from your parents (this one is super culturally bound, but for me it would not be possible to be an adult in the way I want if I still lived with parents)
2. Working towards or furthering a career - not a job
3. Being (somewhat) financially secure (I don't mean you own a home and have a 401K - though kudos if you do - I mean not worrying about missing rent at the end of the month)
4. Having an active and healthy social life/dating life (dating life only if desired)
5. Developing a strong sense of self (we are constantly developing ourselves so we should never be completely settled in who we are, but as an adult we should have some idea and be working on it actively)
6. Eating and living in a healthy manner (diet and exercise, y'all)
7. Decorating your living space (it's not college anymore, a home is somewhat more permanent and should reflect that)
8. Not moving every single year
9. Cleaning (this goes along with #7 and your house not looking like a dorm room)
*
This list basically boils down to exactly what Raven said when I asked her what being an adult meant. She said (and I'm paraphrasing) that being an adult meant having the ability to eat cake for dinner and the knowledge to realize you shouldn't eat cake for dinner. At least not every night (my addition). As a kid we all think being a grown-up will mean freedom. From rules, from homework, from our parents. But when we get there we realize that there are a whole a bunch of rules that were there for a reason, not to mention new rules like rent, debt, job performance, the list goes on. And now that we are grown and dependent primarily on ourselves the rules have become a lot more important. When you broke a rule as a kid you got sent to your room, maybe yelled at a little, perhaps even grounded. As an adult if you break a rule the consequences can be longer lasting. Don't go to work? Get fired. Don't pay rent? Lose your house. Don't pay your student loans promptly? You will never buy anything on credit ever. Seriously, it will be a struggle to get a credit card.
Now those might be exaggerated consequences of each event, but you get the idea. Consequences as big and very real in your adult years. So how do you manage all the rules and expectations of you while avoiding the very big and very real consequences and trying to have some fun while you hold on to parts of your childhood on the way?
That's not rhetorical, by the way. I don't have an answer. If anyone out there does I would love to hear it.
Every time I contemplate adulthood I can't help but picture my ideal of an Adult: my mother. I always thought as a child that someday (when I was 20 I think was the random age I picked) I would wake up and it would click, I would have superpowers just like her. I would be able to cook meals that rivaled a master chef, keep an apartment clean with basically no effort, wrangle difficult children (read my sister and I) with ease, run errands in a flash, and pop out of bed early every morning wide awake and happy to be that way.
Needless to say that did not happen on the morning of my 20th birthday. And I'm sure that wasn't what my mother's life was really like, but let me tell you - she made the toughest job in the world look so easy. Everyone's heard the saying that daughters eventually turn into their mothers, right? It's a pretty common trope on sitcoms and romcoms. It's supposed to be a bad thing, but that what I wanted more than anything else in the world.
But now that I am a grown-up I have to face the hard truth - I am so far away from being my mother. I'm sure my mother would tell me that that's okay. That I am just different and have my own strengths. Strengths she doesn't have, just as I don't have hers. But still, when I close my eyes and picture an adult, it isn't my face I see. It's hers.
And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's a goal I would like to work towards - becoming my mother. Maybe not in all ways. We are, after all, very different people and I know we both appreciate the differences. But I want to get better at the things I most admire her for. So I'm going to end this post the way I started it: with a list.
10 Ways To Be More Like My Mother
1. Be more organized in my routines and my home
2. Keep calm and carry on (my mother was and is a master of this one)
3. Live intentionally and with a purpose
4. Take more walks in nature - be more a part of nature
5. Be kind and loving in every interaction
6. Patience. Patience. Patience.
7. Listen more
8. Do what I love and find a way to do it for a living
9. Exercise more**
10. Pursue lifelong learning and enrichment
Maybe we all just fake it until we become it. We find an adult we respect, imitate them, and after a while it isn't imitation anymore. It's how most animals learn how to survive and thrive, after all. To all of you who aren't Owl Mom: Thanks for reading my ramblings about my mother. I can never find too many good things to say about her. I don't know if Owl Mom reads this blog, but if she does: Thank you to you, too Mom Owl. I learned it all from the best. Someday I want to be a grown-up like you - just like I wanted when I was a kid.
Time for bed like a responsible adult. Work in the morning, then I have a fun surprise planned for Raven. I wonder if she'll read the blog before we go to bed tonight...
Best wishes!
Owl
*If you're curious... I've got numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 down most days, but the others are a constant struggle.
**Some people say if they could look like their mother when they get to her age they'd be happy. I would be happy to look like my mother right now.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Pandemonium and Parade
In her last post, Owl talked about reading more literture of substance. This was brought on in part by a conversation we had late one night about reading as a form of self-enrichment, and how reading mindfully and deliberately was a skill we had both once actively cultivated, but have let rust out a bit more recently. Owl made a resolution fo rherself which she talked about in her previous post, and I wanted to do something similar, though not idential, for myself.
The first step in my plan is virtually idential to Owl's. After we had our discussion, we (too eager to wait until morning, and too fearful that we would lose momentum befoure our projects even began were we to postpone) made our way out into the main room. This was tricky, because as of the time of this conversation, less than a week ago, our living room floor was...less floor, and more book. It was carpeted with hundreds of novels, anthologies, textbooks, almanacs, and more dictionaries than anybody really needs to own. Hundreds of books, sorted into a dozen categories, waiting to be subdivided further into a score of subcategories*. Books, as you may be able to tell, are not something we take lightly here. We collapsed beside a listing tower of non-fiction, which, spwaling out around the legs of our dining table, threatened to spill over into reference on one side and realistic fiction on the other. (You will be pleased to note, incidentally, that this madness is now all happilly contained to our seven bookshelves. And it only took a week) Sorting through the stacks, we together selected just over a dozen books. They currently live by Owl's nightstand, and the idea is that we will each pick one from the stack every month and read it. Eventually we will both have read all the books in the stack, so that when we throw parties we can delight all of our guests by our eerily-uniform knowledge of archaic Chinese burial customs.
...wait, what do you mean thats not what people talk about at parties? A-are you sure?
Anyhow, though it might not be quite the party trick I was hoping it would be, we have a pretty exciting selection of books. I admit to having read some of them before. I've kept most of the books I used in college, either as assigned textbooks or as research material, and they are among the most prized installations in my library. Owl very patiently let me pile on a fair few books on my two major collegiate interests: Chinese history and culture, and archaeology. There is a big difference between reading a book for class and reading it for pleasure, however, and I look forward to approaching these books from a new perspective, nd at my own pace. The rest of the books were either picked out by Owl as pertaining to one of her particular areas of study, as is the case with Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit, her current read, or were chosen since their subject was of interest to us both, or sufficienly unfamiliar to us that we felt we had much to learn from it.
Currently, I am (re)reading a book I read for the special first-year seminar all freshman at my alma mater were required to take. My particular course was Supernatural Japan, and we studied Japanese ghosts and monsters as they pertained to Japanese media and culture. This was a topic that stayed with me all throughout college---in a wonderfully cyclic coincidence, I ended up writing a paper on the pervasiveness of yōkai (妖怪) , Japanese monsters, in popular culture for my Asian Studies seminar my final semester. The book is entitled Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai by Michael Dylan Foster, and it was one of the first (if not the first) book I ever read at the collegiate level. It was formative in shping my mindset as a scholar, or at least as a reader of scholarly works, but save for the few chapters I consulted for the aforementioned capstone paper, I have not had the opportunity to revisit this work since I was a freshman. I am only a few chapters in but I am enjoying the experience immensely, and it is good to be reading metacognitively again.
The second step in my plan is to write more about what I read. This will force me to read carefully and analytically, will help me cogitate on what I have read, and will ensure that I understand it well enough to speak (or type) coherently about it. You can expect to see some, if not all, of that writing here in the coming months. If hearing me talk about archaeology bored you before, just wait until I start talking about some of my favorite archaeology textbooks! No but seriously, they're superb.
Stay tuned for more talking about reading, and possibly pictures of our sea of books! Maybe even pictures of our pretty, organized bookshelves, if you're lucky.
*And if you're really interested, we can provide you with that breakdown. We have lists. And labels! And pictures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)