While my goal of giving up facebook and twitter redirected my attention to a more healthy use of my computer, my objective was to spend less time behind the screen.
Ever since she began as a freshman at Radford University my sister would say, "I just want to go to school for the rest of my life." Let me tell you, she is one smart cookie these days. She just got her PhD and she still enjoys learning.
My good friend Jodie spent a year teaching students in Thailand. She told me not long ago that it was time for her students testing days. Apparently these are not your standard test, they can take hours and hours. My reaction was along the lines of "no thanks." She surprised me when she told me that THEY LOVED IT.
I picked this goal in hopes to gain new knowledge and expand my imagination and creativity. I believe it is equally important as my sister does to continue learning and I want to be excited as the kids from Thailand about it. Perhaps we aren't always learning about things that interest us and that is why the view of learning as a "task" or something "you have to do do" is how it is often perceived. Learning should be something we want to do and we should be learning about the things that interest us for the rest of our lives. Whether it be a hobby or a job, a healthy brain is an active one. The happiest of people seem to find a way to intertwine the two. The most inspiring video I've seen on education in a while comes from a TED Talks done by 13 year old Logan LaPlante. Here is to closing the screen and picking up a book more often for the rest of 2014.
Ever since she began as a freshman at Radford University my sister would say, "I just want to go to school for the rest of my life." Let me tell you, she is one smart cookie these days. She just got her PhD and she still enjoys learning.
My good friend Jodie spent a year teaching students in Thailand. She told me not long ago that it was time for her students testing days. Apparently these are not your standard test, they can take hours and hours. My reaction was along the lines of "no thanks." She surprised me when she told me that THEY LOVED IT.
I picked this goal in hopes to gain new knowledge and expand my imagination and creativity. I believe it is equally important as my sister does to continue learning and I want to be excited as the kids from Thailand about it. Perhaps we aren't always learning about things that interest us and that is why the view of learning as a "task" or something "you have to do do" is how it is often perceived. Learning should be something we want to do and we should be learning about the things that interest us for the rest of our lives. Whether it be a hobby or a job, a healthy brain is an active one. The happiest of people seem to find a way to intertwine the two. The most inspiring video I've seen on education in a while comes from a TED Talks done by 13 year old Logan LaPlante. Here is to closing the screen and picking up a book more often for the rest of 2014.
End of Week 24 Update
Week 24 threw some challenges my way while at the same time opening my eyes to what the rest of the year has to bring. My car broke down and my cell phone battery holds a charge for a maximum of two and half minutes of talk time before shutting off. It has been a good test. After having to do trash pickup on my motorcycle I realized that later in the year I will need something in the form a cargo cart to pull behind my bicycle to do trash pickup and to get groceries. I also realized that once my car is out of the picture that planning out my week is going to become much more important or I will be getting an excessive amount of leg work out from riding all over town every day.
My new reading goal brought back many memories from high school. I'm not a very fast reader. It can take me 2 hours to do ten pages sometimes because 50% of the time I sit down to read I fall asleep. In boarding school I would always have to stand on my desk chair during the 2 hour study hall to stay awake. Perhaps I will have to make use of this method once again.
For my first book I picked The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, passed down from my Mom. I cannot count the amount of times I have connected with some of Little Tree's adventures and felt as if they related directly to some of the changes I have been making throughout the year. The book is about a boy who grows up with his Cherokee grandparents. His stories about his relationship with nature reminded me of one of my favorite discussions from college where we discussed the importance of living life "being a part of nature and the world" rather than living life with the understanding that "nature and the world are here for us."
During trash pickup this week as cars zoomed by at 65 miles per hour I stayed well to the side of the road after I noticed too many people watching their phones and not the road. I'll tell you what they missed out on though. I found a southern ring neck snake eating ants under a rock and six big patches of red raspberries. You can ask, but I ain't telling a soul as to there whereabouts.
End of Week 24 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 85.96 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 294 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $435.39
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 119
Pushups - 1160 Crunches - 1040
Days Flossed - 103 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 13
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 240
Items planted - 12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a
bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers,
Letters written - 9
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation,
Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water,
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil
and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing,
Miles ran - 136.2
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - Currently reading The Education of Little Tree,
Week 24 threw some challenges my way while at the same time opening my eyes to what the rest of the year has to bring. My car broke down and my cell phone battery holds a charge for a maximum of two and half minutes of talk time before shutting off. It has been a good test. After having to do trash pickup on my motorcycle I realized that later in the year I will need something in the form a cargo cart to pull behind my bicycle to do trash pickup and to get groceries. I also realized that once my car is out of the picture that planning out my week is going to become much more important or I will be getting an excessive amount of leg work out from riding all over town every day.
My new reading goal brought back many memories from high school. I'm not a very fast reader. It can take me 2 hours to do ten pages sometimes because 50% of the time I sit down to read I fall asleep. In boarding school I would always have to stand on my desk chair during the 2 hour study hall to stay awake. Perhaps I will have to make use of this method once again.
For my first book I picked The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, passed down from my Mom. I cannot count the amount of times I have connected with some of Little Tree's adventures and felt as if they related directly to some of the changes I have been making throughout the year. The book is about a boy who grows up with his Cherokee grandparents. His stories about his relationship with nature reminded me of one of my favorite discussions from college where we discussed the importance of living life "being a part of nature and the world" rather than living life with the understanding that "nature and the world are here for us."
During trash pickup this week as cars zoomed by at 65 miles per hour I stayed well to the side of the road after I noticed too many people watching their phones and not the road. I'll tell you what they missed out on though. I found a southern ring neck snake eating ants under a rock and six big patches of red raspberries. You can ask, but I ain't telling a soul as to there whereabouts.
End of Week 24 Totals
Soda - 0 ounces
Water - 85.96 Gallons
Liquor - 0 shots
Tea - 294 cups
Trips to unhappy places - Jimmy Johns (1)
$ to support neighbors = $435.39
Fried food consumption - 2 dorito chips
Breakfasts eaten - 119
Pushups - 1160 Crunches - 1040
Days Flossed - 103 (missed two days)
Coffee - 0 cups
Sunrises attended - 13
Beers drunk - 0
Gallons of Trash Collected - 240
Items planted - 12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 8 yellow pear tomatoes, 30 canna bulbs, 1 chinese pistache, 30 sensitive plants, 24 carolina reaper peppers, 12 ghost peppers, 31 scorpion peppers, 5 brussel sprouts, 12 tyria hybrid cucumbers, 14 congo watermelons, 6 hybrid prizewinner pumpkins, 45 devils tongue peppers, 14 black sea man tomatoes, 33 peruvian white lightning habaneros, 16 mammoth russian sunflowers, 30 big smile sunflowers, 100 zinnia's, 100 basil plants, 100 green onion plants, 12 chinese lanterns, 30 garden beans, a
bed of mint, 50 Celosia flowers,
Letters written - 9
Meat eaten - none
Donations made - Bike the US for MS, Personal Mission Trip, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, Against Malaria Foundation,
Deworm the World Initiative, Project Healthy Children, charity: water,
Movies watched - 0
Glasses of wine - 0
New dishes cooked - Vegetable Korma, Ukranian Vinaigrette, Lamb's Quarters Quiche, Thai Spicy Eggplant with Sweet Basil
and a side of Bean Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing,
Miles ran - 136.2
Facebook and Twitter time = 0 minutes
Books Read - Currently reading The Education of Little Tree,