CISPA is bad

http://rt.com/usa/anonymous-internet-blackout-against-cispa-164/

What the World Eats

I cannot help but find this fascinating...

United States: The Revis family of North Carolina

Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Favorite foods: spaghetti, potatoes, sesame chicken

Links for more pics of world eats:

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html

 http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1645016,00.html

I wonder what the Thai one would look like?

Probably this...

Thailand
The SCA Family in Bangkok

Average weekly expenditures: ???
Favorite foods: Hot Pot, BBQ, Pad Thai

How Logic Endangers Fact a.k.a. There is No Laundry

Fact isn't real.

Say what?

It isn't real! The definition of fact is "A thing that is indisputably the case." Since nothing can meet this criteria, fact is not real. We therefore cannot use "facts" as supporting evidence to build a case, and that means science has as many holes as religion

But facts are facts, right?

No, that is like saying but "god is god"... how do you know?

Nothing can be indisputable. Things can be true to a very large extent, but if they were indisputable then all scientific theories would be infallible! If scientific theories were infallible, science would be the same as religion! Ack!


I guess there really is no table.


Luckily, this also means there is no laundry for me to do either....
 Come to think of it, this idea is really growing on me!

~~~
Related humour:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Roland Barthes: The chicken wanted to expose the myth of the road.

Albert Camus: It doesn't matter; the chicken's actions have no meaning except to him.

Richard M. Nixon: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did not cross the road.

M.C.Escher: That depends on which plane of reality the chicken was on at the time.

Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

Pyrrho the Skeptic: What road?

Rene Descartes: It had sufficient reason to believe it was dreaming anyway.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: It didn't cross the road; it transcended it.

Paul de Man: The chicken did not really cross the road because one side and the other are not really opposites in the first place.

Mark Twain: The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.

For more chicken jokes check out: http://humorarchive.efinke.com/recfeat/chicken.php   

 

Being Confident

A lot of people have trouble being confident. There are so many things that lead to this. How many times have you watched someone walk past you and felt a twinge of jealousy, "I wish I was as confident and him/her!" I think everyone does it.

I want to tell you a secret. In fact, I think a lot of successful people know this secret. You can't either pay $20.95 to read it in their book or you can trust my (free) blog even though I'm not a celebrity. You don't have to believe me of course, but I think it will benefit you if you do.

The secret is that about 95% of being confident is just seeming confident. So you are feeling unconfident, maybe even uncomfortable or a little bit scared. Do you:

A) slump around trying to avoid notice and looking around warily out of fear of the people around you or the unfamiliar location?

B) hold your head high, walk like you do this every day, and approach people with polite assertiveness?

Most people will sheepishly admit to A. That's okay. I am totally guilty of it sometimes too, but one thing I have learned this past year is that B is the better option. Seem confident. I know you are scared. Being scared is okay. Everyone gets scared, even the world's most successful people.

Just remember that people percieve you as they see you. They do judge books by their covers. This doesn't mean go get plastic surgery to get rid of that mole you've always tried to hide. No, instead you need to say to yourself "this mole is a part of me, and people can take it or leave it!"

Now, next time you feel like you want to hide behind the door or pretend you are sick to get out of something instead say to yourself, "If I were a movie star and this was a movie scene, what would that look like?" Walk into that situation just as a movie star would confidently strut into a scene. Use your best movie star voice and speak confidently. Your insides will be churning the first few times, but you will soon see how differently people treat you. Congratulations! You have achieved the 95% which is seeming confident. The other 5% of being confident is just people believing you actually are confident and then treating you like they would treat a confident person. The way they treat confident people will help to boost your self-esteem until you don't actually have to pretend to be confident anymore, you'll actually feel thay way! (At least most of the time. As I said, even the most successful people still get scared sometimes!)

Being True to You

I have spent a lot of my adulthood so far, most of it actually, running away. In running away I thought I'd find myself. I did occasionally have breakthroughs but they were far outweighed by how many times I just got farther away, from friends, family, support networks, and by extension finding myself. I am not suggesting you shouldn't travel, because it was not just a physical distancing, but also a mental one I was taking part in. Travel is a wonderful experience. It opens your eyes to new ideas and ways of life. There is no perfect way to describe it. Some of my friends inform me travel is not for everyone. This may be true. Some people live perfectly happy lives in the comfort of their hometowns, or in a generational home, or just in the seductive comforts of sleepy little towns or suburbia. I would never be happy with so much of the familiar in my life even now. I need adventure and changes of scenery. I want to truly experience so many different things. I have complete respect for people who live smaller (but not lesser) lives and can be happy in that way of living. I also have come to realize more recently that there is a group of people who want to live a lot larger lives than me. These are the ones that when faced with the same challenges as me through living far outside their comfort zones, in another country in fact, have come to the realization they would never be happy to just go home. For them, this has become home... and not just here, but anywhere that they can find startling new adventures. They might not even need a home; I'm not really sure. I have utmost respect for people who live happily this way too.

I have often thought that I found my home inside of myself and this was what allowed me to travel around, and pick a new life somewhere new every few years. I have come to realize that this is not in fact the truth. I have many homes. It is like I have unceremoniously hacked off bits of my own heart and strewn them across provinces, countries, and continents with much less knowledge and purpose than John Chapman and his famous applesseeds. Yet, I don't feel remorse over this decision. I have so many homes. What draws me to each one is the people I love, the scenery I have come to adore, and the simplicity of everyday living in the midst of much greater adventures. I love adventure and I love simple comforts. I love the middle road. My life is not too big and not too small. It's just right! I like to go to the places the wind whispers in my ear. Right now it is whispering I should go home to Canada. Within that I need to clarify I will be going home to Manitoba not going home to British Columbia, although I love my 2 homes in BC dearly! I will miss my home in Thailand, but the truth is I cannot stay anywhere forever! I need space to wander and roam and follow the switchbacks of the middle road. I love my many homes; they are a special part of who I am.

I want to warn you though, despite what people tell you, the middle road isn't for everyone. Some people belong in smaller lives and some belong in much bigger ones. Buddha said it best,

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

 

Believe and do only what agrees with your soul. Feeling at home doesn't happen when you run away from the place you call home. It happens when the time and place are right for you, in the moment of realization that you are content with what you have, and you accept yourself exactly as you are.

Things that Keep Me Awake at Night

Right now I am in this beautiful sense of calm. A lot of people lately have been complaining about political issues. Idle No More and Theresa Spence's hunger strike is just one thing people have been making ignorant comments about. It seems people are very divided about what is in the news lately. Luckily, I have also heard some really great insights. I find some comfort at least in knowing that some people just lack the life experience to make realistic judgments on these issues. Some people also just like to argue for the sake of arguing. I did read one particularly inspiring article the other day. The author was Yoni Goldstein. He says,

First thing's first: I don't think Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is going to starve to death. That will not be how this story ends -- the end will be a meeting between Stephen Harper and Spence, just as she has requested. The Prime Minister is certainly stubborn -- that can be the only reason he hasn't responded to her yet -- but he surely knows a dead First Nations chief would not make for good PR. He will accede to her demands [...] How is it possible that native leaders have managed to squander/mismanage/ in some cases maybe steal the tens of millions of dollars federal and provincial governments keep handing over, year after year? Granted, it's not as much money when you factor in the ridiculous cost of living in some of the more remote reserves, but there's no question that money should be helping those poor people much more than it evidently has.

He says a lot of other things too. I don't agree with all of them, but that's okay. At least he knows how to properly engage in rhetoric. You can read the full article here. The reason I am calm has nothing to do with the crazy problems of the Western world. How terrible our lives all must be, and all that. It is my ability to look outside of that which enables the calmness. Most people in the Western world don't understand how lucky they really are. We take so much for granted it is insane. I remember as a teenager my friend said her dad had no work one season. She was terrified she would end up living in a tent. I had to bite my tongue not to laugh at her. I knew if she just cut the cable to her house and didn't rent movies and video games every week and if her mom cut down to one cigarette a day, they'd be perfectly fine. I knew this because I had already experienced having a lot less than that. Even so, I know I have been spoiled a lot of my life. Now at this point someone is thinking, "but people in the Western world do end up on the streets all the time." It's true, but the thing you have to realize is that poverty in the Western world is created, not necessary. It is created because people and corporations are greedy. It's created because the price of living in the Western world is ridiculously high for no good reason.

Why does it cost a bare minimum of $400 to rent a small apartment in Canada?! (My brother was paying nearly $2000/month for a basement suite in Vancouver.) This is completely unnecessary. In Thailand, I pay the equivalent of $200/month Canadian for my apartment. That includes my electricity, water, cable TV, and internet! The bottom line is there is too much greed in the Western world. A large percentage of the people living in shelters or on the street actually work jobs, but can't afford to rent an apartment. We have created real problems in our own communities by expecting too high of standards of living. People fall through the cracks because we are too blind to see it. We focus too hard on our own gain whether it be monetary, social, or otherwise.

We need to take a good look at our communities. Do you even know your neighbours? I know I am guilty of not knowing mine at some of the places I have lived. We are setting ourselves up for failure by not caring for others in our communities.This includes First Nations people.

 I had tons of opportunities in college and university to apply for scholarships and bursaries for Metis and First Nations youth. My mom was always pressuring me to apply. I never could bring myself to do it. I knew I could pay off my small student loan quickly without those bursaries. I knew there were others out there with greater needs than mine. Mom didn't understand this, but it was very important to me.

 Every day in my practicum teaching, and at my weekend job working with at risk youth, I asked myself "how do I reach these First Nations youth?" I felt under-prepared, and unqualified. Despite this, I knew there were so many people less qualified than me doing the same job. It's scary. No one can break the cycle of dependency by themselves, but it only takes one dedicated teacher to change a young person's life. That's what drives me to continue in professional development. I will always be able to learn something new. I can always improve myself, and my ability to meet the needs of my students. Their are possibilities for all of us to affect this sort of change, as long as we can open ourselves to them. The first step in changing the world, is changing ourselves. It is also the hardest step of all.

When Will the Fighting End?