Games as future.

I knew all that time running through the forest in Crash and defeating enemies on pirate ships in Donkey Kong would come in handy some day! The dexterity that children learn from video games can be beneficial, but a world where brand alliances get you points and are the main cause of a dopamine release? Downright scary. This article in Fast Company poses a very interesting future full of advertising and consumer loyalty due to the whole world becoming one big augmented reality game. I guess some good will come of it…at least Quik Trip will know how frequently I really do buy those cheap summa-time fountain drinks!   :-)

Horoscope Wisdom

Daily Horoscope: Being inventive and resourceful could be your key to success today, Pisces, especially if you’re looking to make some kind of drastic or sudden change regarding your work situation. It may be all about freedom for you; you may even decide that “making do” with whatever resources you have while trying to do better, is better than continuing to go down a path that’s not working for you. At the same time, it would be easy to ruin a good thing by making too many changes too soon. Consider your moves carefully.

 

I have been teetering on the brink of ‘making due’ for a few months now, and I must admit…it gets more appealing every day. I know that I am very fortunate to be employed (in any sense) in this economy, but I don’t believe that fact should keep me in a position that is doing me more harm than good. It is nice to live on my own, to be able to afford the occasional pair of Betsey Johnson shoes (which I usually buy on eBay anyway), and to treat my boyfriend to dinner sometimes. But lately, these luxuries have come with a hefty price tag of exhaustion, random headaches, caffeine addiction and a recent trip to the emergency room. My elders of past working generations whose main focuses were wealth and job security may not understand my need for enjoyment in the workplace, but I think it is something that my generation sees as a need, not a want. I need to find a job where I can grow…a place where I don’t feel like I’m babysitting my superiors…a place where people are honest and helpful…a position that needs someone like me…a job that uses both sides of my brain…and a company that recognizes my ability to be a stellar employee because I am a woman, not in spite of the fact. I am hopeful that this place exists…somewhere…and if not, I guess I will just have to start something new!    

Even though I’m young in years…

 

…I am old & wise at heart. Please take me seriously, because every word out of my mouth has been carefully thought up, proofread, and scanned for appropriateness. Most days, being less than two years into the corporate world, I feel underappreciated. It’s like I’m shouting my ideas from the top of a mountain, but that mountain just happens to be in the middle of the desert. If you missed it…don’t worry. I will keep shouting. As long as I have something good to say, I will keep sharing my ideas with whomever will listen.

“Given a fair and open society, what and how you do far outstrips the importance of status, power, and tenure.”  <– from “Innovation Principle 20: Be remarkable”

Thoughts manifest.

 I just finished “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown, and I’m pretty sure it just blew my mind. The jury’s still out, but I’ll let you know when I pick up the pieces off the floor. I really did not want to finish this book on my lunch break…I’ve found that the end of every Dan Brown book needs to be observed in solitude and silence. But, as with the past few I’ve read, I cannot stop myself from turning the pages. These books are an amazing blend of reality, science, research, hope and bologna. Every one of them makes me want to research those slightly taboo subjects which would deem me a conspiracy theorists in seconds: the Illuminati, great scientific scholar authors of the past, and most recently the science of Noetics. This also reenforces my feelings that I need to win the lottery so I can be a ‘student-for-life’.

Most of all, his books remind me to listen to my gut. I have had the same feelings and thoughts about religion since I was a child, and it’s nice to have some written validation of them. This is not to say that my beliefs have not molded and changed over the years, because they certainly have with life experience and knowledge…but the feelings I have in my gut, my core, have remained steadfast and I can only gain solice from reading books that can read my mind and more elegantly explain my thoughts than I ever could.

Inappropriate workplace conversations:

How to slaughter a chicken…in detail. Ugh!

Prime your brain for success.

I can’t emphasize just how important it is to think positive thoughts and keep an open mind when traveling through life. Some people may think this is just hoakie, but I have seen it in practice! I have actually told myself something so long that I eventually believed it and forgot all about the conditioning I had done to get there. Scott Halford writes the following in an article about the power of thought:

“Thoughts, goals and ideas work the same way, and you can increase your brain’s considerable input on them if you learn to ask your brain nicely and deliberately to get involved. You can create your perfect world if you know what you’re looking for and–perhaps more importantly–if you pay attention to how your brain is fed.

This process works with negative thoughts, as well. As I teach in classes on emotional intelligence, crap will find you all day long, especially if you expect it. It will parachute into your office without an invitation and typically won’t leave when you want it to. You don’t have to go looking for it. It will find you. If you are dwelling on the bad stuff, it will find you more quickly and readily, and you won’t be primed for the things that will make you successful. Good things need to be noticed. We generally have to be more deliberate about the positive. Your brain will help you find innovative ways to do it. Just prime it, and it will be there for you.”

Please check out the full article, and keep those positive thoughts flowing!!

New book.

Luckily, I work across the street from a majorly overwhelming public library. This bodes well for the part of me that never finishes a book, but starts many. I picked up two books today; one, a fiction piece recommended by a co-worker because it is set in Venice. Everyone that has met me in the last few years may find Italy a hard topic for me to avoid, therefore, she paired that book with my amore for Italy, and BAM! We have a winner! The other book, which I’m going to read first, is called The Age of American Unreason. Even after only reading half of the introduction, I am excited about this book. The author has recapped the decline of common sense and moral individualism in a few pages, so I can’t wait to see what the rest of the book has in store for me! There is one paragraph from the introduction that I would like to share, merely because it scares me to death that these figures might actually be accurate.

“More than two thirds of Americans, according to surveys conducted for the National Science Foundation over the past two decades, are unable to identify DNA as the key to heredity. Nine out of ten Americans do not understand radiation and what it can do to the body. One in five adults is convinced that the sun revolves around the earth. Such responses point to a stunning failure of American public schooling at the elementary and secondary levels, and it is easy to understand why a public with such a shaky grasp of the most rudimentary scientific facts would be unable or unwilling to comprehend the theory of evolution. One should not have to be an intellectual or, for that matter, a college graduate to understand that the sun does not revolve around the earth or that DNA contains the biological instructions that make each of us a unique member of the human species. This level of scientific illiteracy provides fertile soil for political appeals based on sheer ignorance.”

Now, I’m not jumping out of my seat in blissful compliance quite yet, but I do think that the author raises a good point. How can we expect our American society to advance socially, politically, environmentally, and any other “-ally” without individuals possessing the basic knowledge of how the world works? I, however, do NOT agree that this ignorance is solely the fault of the American public school system. Although my time in k-12 was wrought with social awkwardness and worldly ignorance, I believe whole-heartedly that I grew into the person I am now particularly due to the school environment in which I spent my formative years. The public and private school sectors are (I’m sure) very different. I have limited knowledge of how private (pre-college) schools work, but I do believe there are keys to navigating the public sector. In my experience, the public schools can be a very cultivating environment as long as you stick to a few rules. Find a mentor and challenge them to help you in innovative ways, push yourself and don’t become an idle drone and most of all, pursue what interests you because you will ultimately care more about being knowledgeable in fields you truly love than any electives you and your friends take so you can have the same lunch block.

And since I’m already up on my big soapbox, I would like to supplement the author’s idea of blaming the public schools with blaming the parents. I truly believe that good parenting can lead to abolishing ideas like “the sun revolves around the earth.” It’s just scary to me that anyone thinks this, and even more terrifying that someone let their child grow up to believe it. If you have any influence on the younger generations of this world, PLEASE realize what an impact you are currently having on our future, and PLEASE do your best to diminish the level of ignorance to a tolerable state.

Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Itally

Maybe it’s the heat, or maybe it’s the fact that today is my one-year anniversary in my first ‘big girl job’, but I want so badly to go back to a place that melts my heart. The only place where I have ever felt that pure joy, the ultimate satiety, because my eyes are feasting on every little detail of the world around me. Italy is like a lost lover…when you leave, it keeps a little piece of your heart there.

The cosmos.

I feel like maybe things are aligning again that have been out of whack for a long time now…fingers crossed!

Spare change?

I can’t decide what to do with my time (and cash) this weekend…casino or garage sales…how’s a girl to choose?!?