Sleep

Recently I have felt like my life is spiraling out of control, as much as it ever is at the end of a school semester, but almost more because this is my last semester in school. Every time my life begins to careen into crazy, I grasp for a schedule, and force myself to stay up late enough to sleep at my normal time as I fight exhaustion from waking up earlier. However, this sleep schedule and stress makes my actual work time so much more unfocused than I am used to. Typically I am a very productive person, I amaze people with how much time I can spend volunteering, or talking and yet still get my work done. But with a crazy schedule I start to realize where their amazement comes from.
As much as I cling to a schedule that I have artificially assigned to myself (usually I aim to be in bed by 11 PM and wake up at 730 AM) I wonder if perhaps my most productive time is not a typical 9-5, or perhaps that I am not allowing myself the right amount of sleep. After reading this article about how making sleep a priority made the author's life so much more enjoyable, even if more time was spent sleeping I began to wonder what would happen if I started a similar schedule. I have found, at different times of my life, that either early morning or late night seem to be my most productive. I'm not sure if I attribute that to the fact that no people are in the office at this time, or that I feel the pressure of a deadline, but either way, those times are my most productive.
I began to think about how to determine my most productive period, and how to take advantage of it. But also, I need to allow myself to sleep and awake without an alarm clock. Luckily, school is almost over so I will soon be allowed the freedom of allowing my sleep schedule to adjust itself. Most of my jobs in the past have allowed me to work a fairly flexible schedule, and I hope to be able to grasp that at a new workplace as well. My current boss insists that we are in the office for most of our hours between 9 AM and 5 PM, which is normal, but as this article states, not everyone's productive period is between 9 and 5.
Different people have written about finding and correctly utilizing the most productive hours of your own day. This post I find to be interesting, because this blogger does not discuss the productivity so much as job productivity, being unemployed, but as life productivity. I find that with a schedule I can function well and be productive, as long as I get enough sleep and run it can almost be any schedule, but maybe I will one day find my balance and become my productive self.

Of course.. I write this as I am supposed to be working on a homework assignment... therefore, tonight I will probably not get enough sleep, or the right hours of sleep, but I will make due and soon I will be able to allow my body to regulate itself!

R

Family planning, population control, and birth control access

I've always been appalled by doctors sterilizing women without their permission.  Uzbekistan is doing it today and many other countries have forced sterilization for specific regions and races within their country.  One of my friends recently switched birth control and we were looking up different types of birth control.  I read about the progesterone shot that said doctors used to give the shots as a way to prevent African Americans from having children without them knowing.  Melinda Gates gave a TEDX talk where she discussed the desire of people to have smaller families as a way to have an increased standard of living.  If you have fewer children, you can afford to pay for all of their educations, you can afford to feed all of them, and you can continue to work because you don't have to stay home to take care of so many children.  She urges increased access to birth control for all women so they can decide to have smaller families.  People do not want to be sterilized, nor do they want to have children who they cannot support. 

Mechai Viravaidya  discusses birth control in Thailand with a more humorous twist.  He discusses Thailand's campaign to decrease population growth by providing easier access to condoms.  There is a super hero named Captain Condom who visit universities, the police hand out free condoms on the streets and they use witty advertising to encourage people to use condoms as a way to control population naturally.  He also says he will be handing out condoms after his talk but warns "these are Thai sized, so be very careful".

So, use birth control, unless you want a baby now.

S

Pink ribbons aren't the whole story

One of the pictures from the Scar Project's website.  They have a book with
autobiographical stories to go with each picture.

The Scar Project is a project with a series of images of young breast cancer survivors shot by a fashion photographer. 

In 3rd grade on of our closest friend's mom lost the battle with breast cancer.  I remember hearing about how she had to have one breast removed, and then the other, and at the time it didn't seem like such a big deal, but I didn't realize it could be so painful, or so personally degrading. I thought of it only as boobs being removed.  But it wasn't just that. Women have a sexual identity that includes their breasts; women have a personal identity that includes their ability to be seen as regular women and mothers.  Without the breasts they used to have, these women have to learn to be themselves again, and learn to be confident in their bodies again, aesthetically and physically.

The Scar Project is an awareness-raising project with the slogan "Breast Cancer is Not a Pink Ribbon"  and I don't think they are trying to say don't donate to the pink ribbon campaign.  According to their website, their goal is to "raise public consciousness of early-onset breast cancer, raise funds for breast cancer research/outreach programs and help young survivors see their scars, faces, figures and experiences through a new, honest and ultimately empowering lens."

Anyway, I don't have much more to say about it, but go check it out, they say it better than I could anyway.

Ss

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.


I know I'm posting twice in one day, but this one I will only say one thing; I want to go back, soon.

S

Could you live in an 8'X18' home?

Shelves in the Weebee cabin

Tim Guiles was inspired by Tumbleweed, a tiny house company (as they call themselves).  They make a 102 square foot cabin for people to live in called the Weebee.  Guiles founded Yes Wee Cabins in 2009 to continue to educate people about living in small spaces and to present that as a possibility to people.  His house looks like a lot of fun, and both his little and the Tumbleweed cabins look beautiful on the inside, all wood and spacious ceiling with craftily designed shelves to use all the space not needed for walking around.  

Loft in the Weebee cabin

Tumbleweed sells their plans, the disassembled houses, or assembled houses on their website (the plans are in the $800 range) so Guiles followed that same model, selling a shell, an assembled cabin, or the plans (his plans are only $100 though).  

Guiles also paints his cabin pink, making it uniquely his, and adding to the cabin's charm.  He did an interview to discuss small home living (see video) where you can see how tall the cabin is and how easy it is to move around and live in suc a small space...remember they also had to fit all of the cameras in there to film the interview.

  

Guiles has property in Vermont where he has his little house, so I'm sure he spends most of his time outdoors, but even if you had to spend more time inside (for some reason) you could see that it would be just as good as where you live now, maybe even prettier.  Maybe one day I'll try living in a tiny space, probably right after college would be a good time, after moving so much I have been able to keep my possessions to a minimum.  Just don't tell my mom that I should bring any of the stuff that I left at her house (we'll figure that out later).

S

Parking, is it good?

To be blunt... no, parking is terrible. It's terrible for the city, it's terrible for drivers health, it's terrible for accident rates, it's just overall terrible. But it's also amazingly sweet to get that last free spot on the block. However, this article is literally the BEST article I have EVER READ about parking! It discusses "lot men" in LA back at the beginning and how parking has shaped the city, and made traffic congestion and life there that much worse. Comparing city requirements for parking in LA and New York is shocking, it amazes me that LA supports that much parking in the city, more than supports it, *requires* it!

The amount of open space used for parking in LA is outrageous, and the number of cars increases congestion way too much. If we could find a better/cleaner/safer way to use that space, we could maybe make the city more efficient. But parking is a very touchy subject, the article points out that parking enforcement people have been spit on, attacked, and even shot for issuing tickets (and they only make $35,000 to $45,000 a year). The idea of parking causing so much anger makes me wonder if we shouldn't allow parking at all. Not only that, only about 10% of the time people get a ticket for illegal parking, so we should accept our losses, as one of the few times when we are parked illegally, and maybe they should issue tickets more like 90% of the time to actually enforce the laws and make sure people know the true cost of parking (But we should also start paying meter maids way more money).

Anyway, Dave Gardetta does a much better job explaining this than I do, so please, read this article, and then stop driving!!

R

Solar Light - the cheap way

In 2002 there was a power outage and Mr Alfredo needed light in his workshop.  He "noticed" (the video says) that the water in the bottles refracted the light enough to make a 2-liter bottle act like a light bulb.  An electrical engineer even measured and the bottle creates as much light as a 50 watt bulb...during the day.  It's an automatic lighting system!

Now this invention is being used to light people's homes in the Philippines.  Their houses are really dark during the day (they don't have windows due to cost and privacy).  They do have electric lights, but they cost a lot of money and to have to have a light bulb on all day and night (except when they are sleeping) is too expensive for a poor family. With a lower electric bill they can spend the money differently, on more luxurious essentials, like education, and better nutrition as suggested in the video. They are installing the bottle lights in many houses to decrease electricity cost. Now there is an organization (Liter of Light) that is trying to bring light to a million homes in the Philippines, there are many more videos and links on their website with more information. 

I love the innovative use of the water bottle, and they answered all of my questions as to why they did certain things and how they prevented others.  When I first heard about this, I wondered why they would put chlorine in the water if it was sealed, and the video answered that, I also wondered how well they sealed them and if they were going to leak, and the video showed their sealing techniques (the Brazilian one is a little different than the one from the Philippines, but both seem like they would work). This is a really cool invention and a great solution to the problems they are facing.

S