Intro of the new travel blog!

Hi,
Well its been nearly a year since my last post which I think is a sign that perhaps, I should give my blog a bit more sense of purpose. In keeping with said resolution, the blog will now be more of a food/entertainment/travel review sight from my personal experiences (though I can't promise a bit of knitting won't make its way into the mix). I hope you enjoy.

<3 Katie

Cut and Run

At what point should someone give up on a person? Is there a magic number of "strikes" which are impossible to complete unless there will never be improvement? For me, the magic point is when I can no longer give someone the benefit of the doubt. In essence, after being disappointed so many times, I just can't have the faith in them that I wish I could. That, for me, is the breaking point.
But to give up, to truly surrender is more than loosing faith in one person. In a way, to give up on someone is to loose faith in your ability to fix it. Whatever was going on, giving up is acknowledgement that you did not have the power to solve the problem. It is a personal defeat. That hurts and it hurts in a very intimate way.
It is for this reason, I believe people are inclined to give 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 29th chances. Benevolence, Forgiveness and Charity are real and legitimate virtues but tonight I can't help but wonder if they all might be tied to our own personal battle against feeling helpless. The fight to ignore that despite our best efforts, some people simply will not or can not change.

Happy Easter!

this pattern courtesy of Kat Knits :o)

Is Love A Verb or a Noun?

While walking with an old friend this evening, he said something quite striking: "I have always thought that love was more of a verb than a noun". That got me thinking about my own (admittedly cynical) view of love. Could this "love" be the most misunderstood verb in the English language? Is the majority of Hollywood causing irreparable damage to the psyche of the masses by trying to pound this heart shaped little peg into the little square hole that is a noun?
Let us begin our inquiry with the treatment of "love" in the English language. (If I were proficient in any other language I would certainly include it in this discussion but alas, monolingual it must be).
I believe the most common usage of this particular word is as part of the prepositional phrase "in love". Typically, a prepositional phrase describes a place or direction. (i.e. under the couch, in the dining room, etc) Feelings are not usually used as destination or location but as always there are exceptions such as "in a depression" or in "a funk". In both of these usages of feelings in a prepositional phrase however, the 'a' before the final word grammatically indicates it as a noun. (for those of you who don't remember, a noun is defined as a person place or thing) Whether or not depression or funk count as nouns or not is a matter for a different discussion. The fact remains that grammatically, they are indicated as nouns. Thereby, I believe it is reasonable to conclude that the word "love" in this instance is the noun of the sentence (aka there is not implied noun such as in "go run" where the implied noun is "you") So, the English language identifies "love" as either a person, place, or thing.
The second (or arguably equally popular) usage of the word "love" is in the verb form. "I love you" or "he loves blank" are common examples. It would appear that the English language also identifies "love" as an action.
For many, these grammatical inquiries may not be exactly earth-shattering. "of course," one might say "love is a thing....that you do. Its both" To those with that response, I would ask, "how many things do you do that aren't verbs?" I am by no means a grammatical wizard (as I'm sure you can tell by this post) but I have racked my brain and the answer I have arrived at is zero. This is not to commit a logical fallacy by saying that this argument proves that love is a verb or that it can't be both a noun and a verb but I would say that it could give one a reason to re-evaluate how one feels about "love".

To be continued.....

I typed in "measure my procrastination" in google

What I did instead of writing my paper

Your score is 72 out of a possible 100

Above Average Procrastinator



You rank between the top 25% and 10% in terms of procrastination. That is, when it comes to putting things off, you often do so even though you know you shouldn’t. Likely, you are more free-spirited and spontaneous than most. Probably, your work doesn’t engage you as much as you would like or perhaps you are surrounded by easily available and more pleasant temptations. These temptations may initially seem rewarding, but in the longer-term, you see many of them as time-wasters. Though you likely often still get your work done, there is probably a lot of last minute panicking and unwanted stress. You may want to reduce what procrastination you do commit. If so, here are three tips that have been shown to work:


Goal Setting

This is one of the most established ways of moving forward on your plans. Take any project you are presently procrastinating and break it down into individual steps. Each of these steps should have the following three aspects. First, they should be somewhat challenging though achievable for you. It is more satisfying to accomplish a challenge. Second, they should be proximal, that is you can achieve them fairly soon, preferable today or over the next few days. Third, they should be specific, that is you know exactly when you have accomplished them. If you can visualize in your mind what you should do, even better.


Stimulus Control

This method has also been well tested and is very successful. What you need is a single place that you do your work and nothing else. Essentially, you need an office, though many students have a favorite desk at a library. For stimulus control to work best, the office or desk should be free of any signs of temptation or easily available distractions that might pull you away (e.g., no games, no chit-chat, no web-surfing). If you need a break, that is fine, but make sure you have it someplace at least a few minutes distant, preferably outside of the building itself. If you are unwilling to take the time to get there, acknowledge that you likely don’t need the break.


Routines

Routines are difficult to get into but in the end, this is often our aim. Things are much easier to do when we get into a habit of them, whether it is work, exercise, or errands. If you schedule some of those tasks you are presently procrastinating upon so that they occur on a regular schedule, they become easier. Start your routine slowly, something to which you can easily commit. Eventually, like brushing your teeth, it will likely become something you just do, not taking much effort at all. At this point, you might add to your routine, again always keeping your overall level of effort at a moderate to low level. Importantly, when you fall off your routine, inevitable with sickness or the unexpected, get back on it as soon as possible. Your routine gets stronger every time your follow it. It also gets weaker every time you don’t.

E-life

I have been wrestling with the concept of moral judgements and the Internet for a few weeks and have decided that since I haven't blogged in a few months that it might make adequate fodder for a post.

When the Internet and e-mail first became popular, critics were saying that it was the beginning of the end of interpersonal communication. E-mails were so convenient that no one would call or maintain close personal relationships. I however, believe that the opposite has happened.

The evolution of the Internet has allowed us to stay in a much closer degree of contact with many more people than we otherwise would have time for and perhaps should. The ease of communication grants us a venue in which a conversation can last all day or weeks on end. Instead of calling your friend after work, you can chat with them all day while you're at your computer or, if they're not available, leave them a message on their virtual wall to read later.
This all is a great advancement for the realm of communication. My fear is that the convenience may blind us to the judgement call inherent in these communications.

It used to be, that every means of communication required your full attention at the time and therefore robbed you of your free time that you were able to socialize with others. Face time, telephone and writing letters all require a certain amount of continued focus that the Internet does not. Continued friendship and the degree of that friendship were subject to the amount of "real time" you and the other person were willing to "spend" out of your limited supply. Naturally, people were a little more picky on who they decided were worth the effort.

I fully appreciate the value of the millions of "reconnects" that the Internet has facilitated. I do not think that is a bad thing. What worries me, is that many people seem susceptible to the sort of false intimacy that the Internet can provide. It is very easy for anyone to keep posting flirty banter for months on facebook or myspace or chat everyday on instant messenger. There is no harm done, its just an innocent little note or a chat to help the day go by a little bit faster.

The trouble comes when all of those messages accumulate. What happens when you actually see the people you've been cultivating relationships with? Do you realize why you don't bother to see this person in real life?

Worse , it could be the other side of the coin. People often seem a little colder and more distant in person when compared to their online messages. They say hi but don't have enough time to spend much actual face time with you. I think this is because when people meet in person, the prioritizing of one's time for the people that matter most is again an issue. Further proof that relationships (romantic or not) where the majority of conversation takes place online, don't fit into "real time".

My advice to those who try to cultivate new relationships online is to pay attention to who pays attention to you when you come face to face. If someone doesn't have time for you in real life should you have time for them online?

Happy Valentine's Day

So tomarrow/today I meet with someone to talk about my chances of graduate school. Its strange that so much can ride on a casual meeting. This isn't part of the interview phase or anything like that; just a meeting to see what my chances are and what I can do to increase them. It would be far too easy for me, a B average student to bitch about the exclusivist nature of higher education. All of my stresses and troubles concerning its availability are of my own making. I am perfectly reconciled to this. What scares me is that tomarrow I am going to be judged with nothing but a paper grade and a short introduction to represent me, my future and my options. This scares me because I do not look exceptionally good on paper (and in person I'm not sure exceptional is the word... not 'wolf ugly' or anything but not EXCEPTIONAL) That got me to thinking about how I will be remembered. In the end, once everyone you knew has passed away, all that is going to be left is essentially 'paper' (electronic counts too). What can you leave that is meaningful on paper? (There is no guarantee of decendants at this point and besides that's really very little of your own doing so we're going to call that a mute point) Granted, a GPA and decent credit score will bode well for you but what meaningful papers are there? Does one have to be privy to a constitution or a founding of some sort to make a mark?
Today, we are supposed to remember Saint Valentine but how many people know what he did? (If you're interested, he tried to convert the emporor Claudius to christianity, fell in love with the jailor's daughter and through his faith and love cured her of blindness. Before his execution he wrote her a letter signed 'your Valentine') This man is a saint. Even if one doesn't believe in these things, it is arguably a difficult status to achieve. Even if we are not remembered personally, is any part of our daily life going to be meaningful to future generations? Just as I don't like to think of my GPA as indicitive of my potential, are our daily activities going to reflect our capability? I keep telling myself that on the whole, whether or not I earn my doctorate will have very little effect on the future of mankind so it is really not that big of a deal, I don't want to generalize this to all of our existence. So at what point do things begin to matter? If it is now, then I am nervous. Happy Valentine's Day <3 Katie