I’ve been lucky to have a lot of friends in this lifetime. Some of my friendships have remained intact throughout my lifetime, some have fallen by the way-side, and some are more casual friendships where we only chat a couple of times a year. With the new year coming, it’s got me to thinking about all the friendships and relationships that I’ve had in my life. I truly do value all of the friendships and relationships that I’ve had because they’ve all taught me something new about people, life, love, etc. etc. The new year also got me thinking about those relationships that have fallen by the way-side and why that’s happened.
There’s a quote that I have posted on my computer monitor at work -
"There are two types of people--anchors and motors. You want to lose the anchors and get with the motors because the motors are going somewhere and they're having more fun. The anchors will just drag you down." ~ Wyland Quotes
and as much as I’d say I like to live by it… it truly is hard to let go of those anchors, energy vampires or toxic relationships in your life. Everyone has encountered a toxic person in their life – whether it’s a friend, co-worker, or family member that can’t ever stand to say a positive thing about life, that is always taking advantage of others, or is generally abusive to themselves or others over and over again… everyone knows that person and wonders if they will change. I’ve always been the type of person to hope for change, but the reality is…. Some people just won’t change. If they do – great for them! But how long can we all wait around for that to happen?
“Better to lose the anchor than the whole ship.” ~ Dutch Proverb
The older I get, the more I start prioritizing where to give out my energy… I think of my mental, physical, spiritual and emotional self as a ship as the quote mentions above. Many of the times that I have felt the most down in life are because of anchors in my life (whether it’s a person or a negative thought) and the older I get, the more I realize that I have no choice… I HAVE to let these things go out of my life…especially now that I am bringing a new little baby into this world.
It’s funny how the world works too, because just in time for the new year, my forecast on astro.com sent me the following message about reevaluating my relationships…
“This influence signifies a time of severe testing in your relationships with others. The demands of your life will force you to reevaluate which relationships in your life are worth keeping and which are not. If you do not face this challenge consciously, the pressure of events will force you to do so, because people who have been with you for a long time will leave against your wishes. This may represent a temporary state of affairs or a passing mood. Or it may represent a serious breakdown in your relationships because of misplaced priorities in the past or because of associating with people who were wrong for you in terms of your personal goals and needs. The problem is that in terms of your direction in life, the people you associate with are a distraction or are actually opposed to your interests. In this case, no matter how much you love them, walls will form between you and them, and you will have to begin a new life without them. With this influence several significant relationships will inevitably end. But if you have a clear idea of where you are going, this will not be a great disadvantage. Whatever remorse you feel will be quickly displaced by a new sense of freedom, because you are no longer wasting energy in trying to maintain inappropriate relationships.”
Very interesting – eh?
Whether you decide to get rid of the anchors and stick with the motors in 2012, or not, I hope you have an amazing new year and hope that I can be a positive “motor” in your life in 2012. Love to you all!
This blogpost was inspired by this great blog http://montyrainey.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/anchors-away/ – thank goodness for good bloggers!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Things I have learned while being pregnant (so far).
1) No one knows what causes autism… we can all speculate, but there's no clear answer.
2) What To Expect When Your Expecting says that if you are going to get a flu shot, you should try to get a Thiomersal-free flu shot. No one in the Utah valley even knows what that means (not even doctors), even though it's published in the top selling pregnancy book of all time. If you are looking for the Thiomersal-free vaccine, you can get it at the Nursing Station that is across the street and north of St. Marks Hospital.
3) Don't hesitate to ask your doctor a million questions. When in doubt, don't be ashamed to ask. That's what you are paying them for and wouldn't you rather get the questions off your chest so you aren't worrying about them?
4) Coconut Milk is good for pregnant women to drink. Here are all the reasons it's good for you : ) http://www.terawarner.com/blog/2008/05/pregnant-women-go-nuts%E2%80%A6%E2%80%A6for-coconuts/
5) Certain teas you drink can cause you to go into pre-term labor. Even if it's herbal, make sure to check the herbs within the tea to make sure it won't cause you to go into labor to early.
7) Ginger Chews (you can get them at Whole Foods) are the only thing that made me feel better when I was nauseous during the first three months. My dear friend Jaymee got me some and they made me feel a lot better. They didn't completely cure the nausea, but helped more than anything else (ginger tea didn't help and neither did ginger ale).
7) Massage is okay, just make sure to get a pre-natal massage so you can have a custom pillow for your belly and so they don't press any pressure points that might trigger pre-term labor.
8) Yoga and exercise is okay as long as your doctor says it's okay. I've really enjoyed going to pre-natal yoga. It's not easy, but it helps stretch out my hips, lower back, shoulders, etc. so that I am not in so much pain throughout the week. It's really nice to be able to breath and take a moment for myself in the middle of the week as well. I am sure the baby appreciates it. The yoga instructor I go to makes us do a lot of challenging poses and squats to prepare for child birth as well... she always says "I can guarantee, labor is going to be a lot harder than sitting in this pose for five minutes..." - Definitely helps me get in the right mind-set for labor.
9) Every single person's pregnancy is different. Even if you are related. My sister and I have had a lot of different side affects. For example, spotting is normal and dark spotting after about a month of trying to get pregnant means you are probably pregnant. My mom told me this and I was completely clueless... Also - mild spotting is okay throughout the whole pregnancy, but if it gets heavier you should call your doctor.
10) Build a network. Find people who are pregnant or have been pregnant and ask them questions about what they've done during pregnancy. It will bring you closer and you won't be so lost about the process.
And lastly - have a laugh and don't take life to seriously... pregnancy is definitely hard (and according to this article - so is parenting), but it never hurts to have a sense of humor about it - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/on-parenthood.html
So far pregnancy has been challenging but fun. Only three more months to go before I meet the little man. : )
2) What To Expect When Your Expecting says that if you are going to get a flu shot, you should try to get a Thiomersal-free flu shot. No one in the Utah valley even knows what that means (not even doctors), even though it's published in the top selling pregnancy book of all time. If you are looking for the Thiomersal-free vaccine, you can get it at the Nursing Station that is across the street and north of St. Marks Hospital.
3) Don't hesitate to ask your doctor a million questions. When in doubt, don't be ashamed to ask. That's what you are paying them for and wouldn't you rather get the questions off your chest so you aren't worrying about them?
4) Coconut Milk is good for pregnant women to drink. Here are all the reasons it's good for you : ) http://www.terawarner.com/blog/2008/05/pregnant-women-go-nuts%E2%80%A6%E2%80%A6for-coconuts/
5) Certain teas you drink can cause you to go into pre-term labor. Even if it's herbal, make sure to check the herbs within the tea to make sure it won't cause you to go into labor to early.
7) Ginger Chews (you can get them at Whole Foods) are the only thing that made me feel better when I was nauseous during the first three months. My dear friend Jaymee got me some and they made me feel a lot better. They didn't completely cure the nausea, but helped more than anything else (ginger tea didn't help and neither did ginger ale).
7) Massage is okay, just make sure to get a pre-natal massage so you can have a custom pillow for your belly and so they don't press any pressure points that might trigger pre-term labor.
8) Yoga and exercise is okay as long as your doctor says it's okay. I've really enjoyed going to pre-natal yoga. It's not easy, but it helps stretch out my hips, lower back, shoulders, etc. so that I am not in so much pain throughout the week. It's really nice to be able to breath and take a moment for myself in the middle of the week as well. I am sure the baby appreciates it. The yoga instructor I go to makes us do a lot of challenging poses and squats to prepare for child birth as well... she always says "I can guarantee, labor is going to be a lot harder than sitting in this pose for five minutes..." - Definitely helps me get in the right mind-set for labor.
9) Every single person's pregnancy is different. Even if you are related. My sister and I have had a lot of different side affects. For example, spotting is normal and dark spotting after about a month of trying to get pregnant means you are probably pregnant. My mom told me this and I was completely clueless... Also - mild spotting is okay throughout the whole pregnancy, but if it gets heavier you should call your doctor.
10) Build a network. Find people who are pregnant or have been pregnant and ask them questions about what they've done during pregnancy. It will bring you closer and you won't be so lost about the process.
And lastly - have a laugh and don't take life to seriously... pregnancy is definitely hard (and according to this article - so is parenting), but it never hurts to have a sense of humor about it - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/on-parenthood.html
So far pregnancy has been challenging but fun. Only three more months to go before I meet the little man. : )
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Mentoring 101
It’s funny how the universe sends you just what you need right when you ask for it – I mean, let’s be honest – the universe isn’t going to send you EVERYTHING you want, whenever you want it – but in general, I think that if you send the universe positivity and ask for what you want – it will send it right back at you in one form or another.
I’ve been feeling a lack of a challenge as of late and have needed to figure out something new that would bring some excitement to my world – Yes, I am aware that I am bringing a new life into the world in March or April of next year and that will be plenty of a challenge – but life is short – so why not find something new to experience in the mean time?
Westminster College, where I went to school, reached out to me about a month ago giving me an “alumni calling”. They asked if I would be willing to mentor an undergraduate student at Westminster for a couple of semesters. Not only was I flattered, but surprised that my qualifications made me eligible to be a mentor. I’ve always been interested in mentoring and really enjoyed mentoring the students I teached and managed at the Westminster Newspaper when I was editor-and-chief, but I haven’t had much of a chance to mentor as much as I’d like to the past couple of years.
I was nervous about our first meeting, because let’s face it – I am still young and wanted to be able to offer this person something great and memorable from this experience… so I started brainstorming what I wanted to give and get from this mentoring experience. I thought about all of the great mentors that I have had in my life – from teachers, to co-workers, to friends and family members.
One person in particular always sticks out for me when I think of a good mentor – Kevin McCallum. I worked for him when I first got into marketing at 1-800 CONTACTS. I’ve spoken a lot about Kevin in my blogs in the past, but it’s because I’ve never had a comparable mentor. I valued SO many things about him. He was unselfish – he always wanted those who worked for him to learn something new, to be pushed out of their comfort zone, to feel encouraged and supported beyond belief to do and achieve anything they dreamed about. There was never a dream that wasn’t achievable with him. He delegated challenging projects and opportunities to those who didn’t necessarily have the qualifications, but had trust that they could achieve and learn from the experience. No one wanted to disappoint him because everyone loved him and felt his positivity exude throughout our department – so everyone over-achieved and we met our goals without a problem. Also – he was extremely confident and well respected in the company and in the marketing world so he had a lot to offer and everyone learned something new every time they had a conversation with him. I think a lot of the reason he was so respected in the marketing community is that he hired people who were very qualified in various fields of marketing – and let them learn and grow through various projects and challenges and he learned from them. He didn’t assume he knew everything – he constantly felt he could learn something new from any individual he came in contact with.
I could go on and on about Kevin and how much of a positive impact he’s made on my life… but now it was my turn to be a good mentor… and what does that mean?
Looking back on what I learned from Kevin, I knew a few things right off the bat –
1) I don’t know everything about marketing, but I can help this person understand what I do know and learn from them as well. (Help the person I am mentoring learn something new – not only about work, but life.)
2) I can be a positive role model and share my passion for what I do and how I feel about life.
3) I can help with goal setting, and accountability.
4) I can motivate this individual to achieve what they’d like to achieve.
5) I can teach “the power of networking”.
6) I can work towards getting this person promoted in life and in work.
7) I can help this person focus on their accomplishments and strengths.
8) I can teach this person to behave like an owner and help them focus on mastering their projects, and delivering on what they promise.
9) I can teach this person to have an opinion and share that opinion.
10) I can teach this person the importance of accuracy and thoroughness.
How I started this process was by asking a few questions:
1) What are your goals in this mentoring process? What do you want to learn (please give me at least 10)?
2) Have you faced any problems in your work or school environments that you'd like to work through?
3) What are your strengths (please give me at least 5)?
4) What are your favorite successes in life thus far (please give me at least 5)?
I am really looking forward to learning from this experience.
"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you."
Bob Proctor
Author, Speaker and Success Coach
I’ve been feeling a lack of a challenge as of late and have needed to figure out something new that would bring some excitement to my world – Yes, I am aware that I am bringing a new life into the world in March or April of next year and that will be plenty of a challenge – but life is short – so why not find something new to experience in the mean time?
Westminster College, where I went to school, reached out to me about a month ago giving me an “alumni calling”. They asked if I would be willing to mentor an undergraduate student at Westminster for a couple of semesters. Not only was I flattered, but surprised that my qualifications made me eligible to be a mentor. I’ve always been interested in mentoring and really enjoyed mentoring the students I teached and managed at the Westminster Newspaper when I was editor-and-chief, but I haven’t had much of a chance to mentor as much as I’d like to the past couple of years.
I was nervous about our first meeting, because let’s face it – I am still young and wanted to be able to offer this person something great and memorable from this experience… so I started brainstorming what I wanted to give and get from this mentoring experience. I thought about all of the great mentors that I have had in my life – from teachers, to co-workers, to friends and family members.
One person in particular always sticks out for me when I think of a good mentor – Kevin McCallum. I worked for him when I first got into marketing at 1-800 CONTACTS. I’ve spoken a lot about Kevin in my blogs in the past, but it’s because I’ve never had a comparable mentor. I valued SO many things about him. He was unselfish – he always wanted those who worked for him to learn something new, to be pushed out of their comfort zone, to feel encouraged and supported beyond belief to do and achieve anything they dreamed about. There was never a dream that wasn’t achievable with him. He delegated challenging projects and opportunities to those who didn’t necessarily have the qualifications, but had trust that they could achieve and learn from the experience. No one wanted to disappoint him because everyone loved him and felt his positivity exude throughout our department – so everyone over-achieved and we met our goals without a problem. Also – he was extremely confident and well respected in the company and in the marketing world so he had a lot to offer and everyone learned something new every time they had a conversation with him. I think a lot of the reason he was so respected in the marketing community is that he hired people who were very qualified in various fields of marketing – and let them learn and grow through various projects and challenges and he learned from them. He didn’t assume he knew everything – he constantly felt he could learn something new from any individual he came in contact with.
I could go on and on about Kevin and how much of a positive impact he’s made on my life… but now it was my turn to be a good mentor… and what does that mean?
Looking back on what I learned from Kevin, I knew a few things right off the bat –
1) I don’t know everything about marketing, but I can help this person understand what I do know and learn from them as well. (Help the person I am mentoring learn something new – not only about work, but life.)
2) I can be a positive role model and share my passion for what I do and how I feel about life.
3) I can help with goal setting, and accountability.
4) I can motivate this individual to achieve what they’d like to achieve.
5) I can teach “the power of networking”.
6) I can work towards getting this person promoted in life and in work.
7) I can help this person focus on their accomplishments and strengths.
8) I can teach this person to behave like an owner and help them focus on mastering their projects, and delivering on what they promise.
9) I can teach this person to have an opinion and share that opinion.
10) I can teach this person the importance of accuracy and thoroughness.
How I started this process was by asking a few questions:
1) What are your goals in this mentoring process? What do you want to learn (please give me at least 10)?
2) Have you faced any problems in your work or school environments that you'd like to work through?
3) What are your strengths (please give me at least 5)?
4) What are your favorite successes in life thus far (please give me at least 5)?
I am really looking forward to learning from this experience.
"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you."
Bob Proctor
Author, Speaker and Success Coach
A story that totally made my day - great for the holiday season.
This was written by a Metro Denver Hospice Physician:
I was driving home from a meeting this evening about 5, stuck in traffic on Colorado Blvd., and the car started to choke and splutter and die - I barely managed to coast , cursing, into a gas station, glad only that I would not be blocking traffic and would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow truck. It wouldn't even turn over. Before I could make the call, I saw a woman walking out of the quickie mart building, and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a gas pump, so I got out to see if she was okay. When I got there, it looked more like she had been overcome by sobs than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a nickel.
At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban crammed full of stuff with 3 kids in the back (1 in a car seat), and the gas pump reading $4.95.
I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying 'I don't want my kids to see me crying! ,' so we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California and that things were very hard for her right now. So I asked, 'And you were praying?' That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, 'He heard you, and He sent me.'
I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely, and while it was fueling, walked to the next door McDonald's and bought 2 big bags of food, some gift certificates for more, and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car, who attacked it like wolves, and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little.
She told me her name, and that she lived in Kansas City . Her boyfriend left 2 months ago and she had not been able to make ends meet. She knew she wouldn't have money to pay rent Jan. 1, and finally, in desperation, had called her parents, with whom she had not spok en in about 5 years. They lived in California and said she could come live with them and try to get on her feet there.
So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the kids they were going to California for Christmas, but not that they were going to live there.
I gave her my gloves, a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road. As I was walking over to my car, she said, 'So, are you like an angel or something?'
This definitely made me cry. I said, 'Sweetie, at this time of year angels are really busy, so sometimes God uses regular people.'
It was so incredible to be a part of someone else's miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. I'll put it in the shop tomorrow to check, but I suspect the mechanic won't find anything wrong.
Sometimes the angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter of their wings....
Psalms 55:22 ' Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved'
'Father, I ask You to bless my children, grandchildren, friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self doubt, release a renewed confidence through Your grace, In Jesus' precious name. Amen.'
'Friends are God's way of taking care of us.' Psalm 55:22 ---
I was driving home from a meeting this evening about 5, stuck in traffic on Colorado Blvd., and the car started to choke and splutter and die - I barely managed to coast , cursing, into a gas station, glad only that I would not be blocking traffic and would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow truck. It wouldn't even turn over. Before I could make the call, I saw a woman walking out of the quickie mart building, and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a gas pump, so I got out to see if she was okay. When I got there, it looked more like she had been overcome by sobs than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a nickel.
At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban crammed full of stuff with 3 kids in the back (1 in a car seat), and the gas pump reading $4.95.
I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying 'I don't want my kids to see me crying! ,' so we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California and that things were very hard for her right now. So I asked, 'And you were praying?' That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, 'He heard you, and He sent me.'
I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely, and while it was fueling, walked to the next door McDonald's and bought 2 big bags of food, some gift certificates for more, and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car, who attacked it like wolves, and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little.
She told me her name, and that she lived in Kansas City . Her boyfriend left 2 months ago and she had not been able to make ends meet. She knew she wouldn't have money to pay rent Jan. 1, and finally, in desperation, had called her parents, with whom she had not spok en in about 5 years. They lived in California and said she could come live with them and try to get on her feet there.
So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the kids they were going to California for Christmas, but not that they were going to live there.
I gave her my gloves, a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road. As I was walking over to my car, she said, 'So, are you like an angel or something?'
This definitely made me cry. I said, 'Sweetie, at this time of year angels are really busy, so sometimes God uses regular people.'
It was so incredible to be a part of someone else's miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. I'll put it in the shop tomorrow to check, but I suspect the mechanic won't find anything wrong.
Sometimes the angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter of their wings....
Psalms 55:22 ' Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved'
'Father, I ask You to bless my children, grandchildren, friends, relatives and email buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self doubt, release a renewed confidence through Your grace, In Jesus' precious name. Amen.'
'Friends are God's way of taking care of us.' Psalm 55:22 ---
Thursday, September 08, 2011
"Drive" and "Leadership Lessons From Burning Man".
Wow – this is a great article... I bought the book "Drive" because of this article. Looks interesting.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1775687/leadership-lessons-from-burning-man
Leadership Lessons From Burning Man
BY E.B. Boyd
Thu Aug 25, 2011
Think the annual arts fest in the Nevada desert is nothing more than a week-long bacchanal? Think again. It's a a master class in how to create awesomeness.
It’s easy to dismiss Burning Man as nothing more than a bizarre hippie love-fest that takes place deep in the Nevada desert every year the week before Labor Day. But doing so misses the fact that it’s an amazingly successful enterprise--and, as such, has a thing or two to teach about how to inspire creative people and create a great product.
Since it first began 25 years ago, Burning Man has grown larger every year (if you ignore the slight dip in recession-scarred 2009). It’s grown so much that this year, for the first time ever, the organization had to cut off ticket sales early, for fear of finally hitting the 50,000-person limit authorized by its federal land-use permit. And those tickets aren’t cheap either--they now cost an average of $300 a pop.
Granted, Burning Man's overall intention is not to create a "product," per se. (Not one for trite labels, it calls itself an "experiment in community.") But its growth numbers--in terms of customers and revenue--are ones any business could envy. So how does Burning Man do it?
It starts with culture
One of the first things to understand is that Burning Man isn’t actually just a festival. In many ways--in keeping with its mission--it’s actually more of a town. In fact, it's the 11th largest in Nevada during the one week of its existence. The horseshoe that makes up "Black Rock City" (named for Black Rock Desert) gets delineated into "blocks" and "neighborhoods" where attendees (dubbed "participants") set up their camps--often elaborate compounds complete with sitting areas and play areas in addition to tents, yurts, and RVs. The "town" even has its own post office (send a letter and it will reach its destination, complete with a "Black Rock City" cancellation mark), as well as an airport.
As a result, many of the people who choose to go to Burning Man do so not just for the revelries and the festivities but simply because it’s a place they like to visit, like the Eastern seaboard, the Gulf Coast, Las Vegas, or the Poconos.
And they like to visit it because of the overall atmosphere. It’s one of the friendliest towns you will ever come across. Most camps have an open-door policy. You’re welcome to stop in at any abode. Most people are also inordinately helpful. Other Burners will happily help you set up your camp or install your art piece. And it’s amazingly safe for a town of 50,000, many of whom are partying for seven days straight. If you’re a woman, you can walk home at 3 in the morning with little fear of harassment. Brawls are basically unheard of.
So how does Burning Man produce this culture? It’s a mix of top-down instruction and horizontal transmission. The organization itself produces a Survival Guide that spells out the ethos of the place and the guidelines that make it work. And the organizers, in all their communications, consistently reinforce the event’s ethos. But truthfully, the most powerful part of the cultural transmission happens from person to person.
The group I joined when I first started going consisted of some guys who had belonged to one of the hardest-partying clubs in college. And yet these same guys were the ones who diligently instructed me on the importance of--and firmly held me accountable for--picking up and packing out every piece of trash larger than a sequin so that, after all Burners went home, the desert would be as pristine as it was before we all showed up.
How does this happen? Ultimately it comes down to the fact that Burning Man does a phenomenal job at communicating how the culture contributes to the overall experience. And since participants value the overall experience, they work hard to adhere to the cultural principles. And equally hard to pass those principles on to newcomers.
Add a dose of trust and positive reinforcement
The other key component of how culture gets transmitted is through positive reinforcement, which itself is often bathed in a dollop of humor. There are no forbidding or bureaucratic signs at Burning Man telling you what you can and cannot do. Instead, where needed, signs are erected to remind attendees of things they might not know or might forget--but those signs are generally friendly and playful, like this one (right) reminding people not to bring their bikes (the main form of transportation) into a communal tent.
Organizers also imbue a huge amount of trust in the community. Volunteer Burning Man Rangers do patrol the town, but they’re there more to be of help than to lay down the law. Mostly, the organization communicates an attitude to the Burners that it trusts them to adhere to the communal rules and help propagate them.
All of which comes down to a fundamental principle of human nature: People want to be inspired, not lectured. They tend to respond better to humor and gentle reminders than they do to dictates or presumptions of guilt before innocence.
Motivate with autonomy
Unlike many festivals, Burning Man itself provides nothing more than the overall infrastructure—the city grid, the port-a-potties, the Rangers and other volunteers who keep the town running. But everything else is provided by the participants--the massive techno dance clubs, the yoga classes, the works of art, the merry little vehicles sailing across the desert, the makeshift restaurants, the seminars on technology and sustainability, the circuses, the chill spaces. Burning Man creates none of it. It all comes from the participants.
And the things the participants provide, which vary from year to year, are endlessly delighting and mind-blowing. A party bus outfitted to look like a giant rubber ducky. A “Mant Farm,” a three-story high human version of the old ant farms. A go-kart retrofitted to look like a fighter jet. A vaudeville performance. A violin solo deep out on the Playa. A lounge-like oasis on the edge of the desert right where you'd need a break. A fire garden. A seminar on lucid dreaming. A bulletin board where people are encouraged to leave jokes (sample: “I saw a wino eating grapes. I was like, 'Dude, you have to wait a while.'"). A pirate bar where the occasional ninja shows up to wreak havoc (per the Internet meme). Even the 40-foot, eight ton rocket ship that has since taken up residence on San Francisco’s Embarcadero. You can spend seven days on the Playa and still not see all the marvels and wonders participants bring to the place.
So how does Burning Man get people to create such marvels? Not by command and control. The organization simply sets a few guidelines, mainly for safety purposes, and then gives attendees permission to let their imaginations run wild.
Not everything is a hit, of course. Every year there are any number of installations, performances, and activities that just don’t seem to hit the mark. But there are many more that overshoot it far more than if Burning Man had given specific instructions about what it wanted created.
This is a secret that organizations that successfully harness the imaginations of their creative people have long known: You can’t order creativity. You can only create the conditions for it to blossom--mainly by setting certain prescribed boundaries and then giving your creative people a great deal of autonomy to execute as they see fit.
Reward people with appreciation, rather than money
Burning Man has a "no money" policy. Everything participants bring must be shared with other participants for free. (For an explanation of why, see "Decommodification" under the organization’s Ten Principles.)
So whether you just bring a set of hula hoops for people to play with, or a massive dance club costing tens of thousands of dollars to set up and run, you have to shell out all the money (and sweat equity) yourself, with no hope of ever recouping a dime for your troubles. Why would anyone do that, you might ask. The answer lies largely in Daniel Pink’s latest book Drive, which examines the science of human motivation (and how businesses often get it wrong).
Pink explains that you can’t motivate creative people with money. Certainly, you have to pay them enough to live on, he says, and pay them comparably to their peers so they feel appropriately valued. But after that, Pink explains, tossing more money at a creative person doesn't produce more creative output.
Instead, Pink says, creative people simply want the latitude discussed in the previous section (autonomy), as well as the opportunity to do something really well (mastery) and the opportunity to be part of something greater than themselves (purpose). And that’s what Burning Man provides.
No matter how whacky the thing bouncing around in your head (a party bus shaped like a duck, whowouldathought?), it will find a home and appreciation at Burning Man. And, more importantly, you will feel like you are doing your part to contribute to the overall experience. In fact, it's not unusual for newcomers--even those who felt slightly trepidatious about the whole enterprise to begin with--to leave the event toying around with ideas of what they might create to bring back the following year.
Much of the above probably sounds like common sense: Trust people and they will usually live up to that trust. Give people creative freedom, and they will surprise you with what they deliver. And indeed, it is common sense. And yet many organizations nevertheless fall down on one or more of these principles--structuring rules and regulations around a presumption of guilt on the part of employees, rather than treating them as trusted members of a community, or by offering only money rather than latitude in the effort to drum up creativity.
Burning Man, however, is a living example of how, when an organization lives by that sometimes not-so-common common sense, great things ensue.
[Images: Courtesy of E.B. Boyd; front page image by Mike Q. Victor]
http://www.fastcompany.com/1775687/leadership-lessons-from-burning-man
Leadership Lessons From Burning Man
BY E.B. Boyd
Thu Aug 25, 2011
Think the annual arts fest in the Nevada desert is nothing more than a week-long bacchanal? Think again. It's a a master class in how to create awesomeness.
It’s easy to dismiss Burning Man as nothing more than a bizarre hippie love-fest that takes place deep in the Nevada desert every year the week before Labor Day. But doing so misses the fact that it’s an amazingly successful enterprise--and, as such, has a thing or two to teach about how to inspire creative people and create a great product.
Since it first began 25 years ago, Burning Man has grown larger every year (if you ignore the slight dip in recession-scarred 2009). It’s grown so much that this year, for the first time ever, the organization had to cut off ticket sales early, for fear of finally hitting the 50,000-person limit authorized by its federal land-use permit. And those tickets aren’t cheap either--they now cost an average of $300 a pop.
Granted, Burning Man's overall intention is not to create a "product," per se. (Not one for trite labels, it calls itself an "experiment in community.") But its growth numbers--in terms of customers and revenue--are ones any business could envy. So how does Burning Man do it?
It starts with culture
One of the first things to understand is that Burning Man isn’t actually just a festival. In many ways--in keeping with its mission--it’s actually more of a town. In fact, it's the 11th largest in Nevada during the one week of its existence. The horseshoe that makes up "Black Rock City" (named for Black Rock Desert) gets delineated into "blocks" and "neighborhoods" where attendees (dubbed "participants") set up their camps--often elaborate compounds complete with sitting areas and play areas in addition to tents, yurts, and RVs. The "town" even has its own post office (send a letter and it will reach its destination, complete with a "Black Rock City" cancellation mark), as well as an airport.
As a result, many of the people who choose to go to Burning Man do so not just for the revelries and the festivities but simply because it’s a place they like to visit, like the Eastern seaboard, the Gulf Coast, Las Vegas, or the Poconos.
And they like to visit it because of the overall atmosphere. It’s one of the friendliest towns you will ever come across. Most camps have an open-door policy. You’re welcome to stop in at any abode. Most people are also inordinately helpful. Other Burners will happily help you set up your camp or install your art piece. And it’s amazingly safe for a town of 50,000, many of whom are partying for seven days straight. If you’re a woman, you can walk home at 3 in the morning with little fear of harassment. Brawls are basically unheard of.
So how does Burning Man produce this culture? It’s a mix of top-down instruction and horizontal transmission. The organization itself produces a Survival Guide that spells out the ethos of the place and the guidelines that make it work. And the organizers, in all their communications, consistently reinforce the event’s ethos. But truthfully, the most powerful part of the cultural transmission happens from person to person.
The group I joined when I first started going consisted of some guys who had belonged to one of the hardest-partying clubs in college. And yet these same guys were the ones who diligently instructed me on the importance of--and firmly held me accountable for--picking up and packing out every piece of trash larger than a sequin so that, after all Burners went home, the desert would be as pristine as it was before we all showed up.
How does this happen? Ultimately it comes down to the fact that Burning Man does a phenomenal job at communicating how the culture contributes to the overall experience. And since participants value the overall experience, they work hard to adhere to the cultural principles. And equally hard to pass those principles on to newcomers.
Add a dose of trust and positive reinforcement
The other key component of how culture gets transmitted is through positive reinforcement, which itself is often bathed in a dollop of humor. There are no forbidding or bureaucratic signs at Burning Man telling you what you can and cannot do. Instead, where needed, signs are erected to remind attendees of things they might not know or might forget--but those signs are generally friendly and playful, like this one (right) reminding people not to bring their bikes (the main form of transportation) into a communal tent.
Organizers also imbue a huge amount of trust in the community. Volunteer Burning Man Rangers do patrol the town, but they’re there more to be of help than to lay down the law. Mostly, the organization communicates an attitude to the Burners that it trusts them to adhere to the communal rules and help propagate them.
All of which comes down to a fundamental principle of human nature: People want to be inspired, not lectured. They tend to respond better to humor and gentle reminders than they do to dictates or presumptions of guilt before innocence.
Motivate with autonomy
Unlike many festivals, Burning Man itself provides nothing more than the overall infrastructure—the city grid, the port-a-potties, the Rangers and other volunteers who keep the town running. But everything else is provided by the participants--the massive techno dance clubs, the yoga classes, the works of art, the merry little vehicles sailing across the desert, the makeshift restaurants, the seminars on technology and sustainability, the circuses, the chill spaces. Burning Man creates none of it. It all comes from the participants.
And the things the participants provide, which vary from year to year, are endlessly delighting and mind-blowing. A party bus outfitted to look like a giant rubber ducky. A “Mant Farm,” a three-story high human version of the old ant farms. A go-kart retrofitted to look like a fighter jet. A vaudeville performance. A violin solo deep out on the Playa. A lounge-like oasis on the edge of the desert right where you'd need a break. A fire garden. A seminar on lucid dreaming. A bulletin board where people are encouraged to leave jokes (sample: “I saw a wino eating grapes. I was like, 'Dude, you have to wait a while.'"). A pirate bar where the occasional ninja shows up to wreak havoc (per the Internet meme). Even the 40-foot, eight ton rocket ship that has since taken up residence on San Francisco’s Embarcadero. You can spend seven days on the Playa and still not see all the marvels and wonders participants bring to the place.
So how does Burning Man get people to create such marvels? Not by command and control. The organization simply sets a few guidelines, mainly for safety purposes, and then gives attendees permission to let their imaginations run wild.
Not everything is a hit, of course. Every year there are any number of installations, performances, and activities that just don’t seem to hit the mark. But there are many more that overshoot it far more than if Burning Man had given specific instructions about what it wanted created.
This is a secret that organizations that successfully harness the imaginations of their creative people have long known: You can’t order creativity. You can only create the conditions for it to blossom--mainly by setting certain prescribed boundaries and then giving your creative people a great deal of autonomy to execute as they see fit.
Reward people with appreciation, rather than money
Burning Man has a "no money" policy. Everything participants bring must be shared with other participants for free. (For an explanation of why, see "Decommodification" under the organization’s Ten Principles.)
So whether you just bring a set of hula hoops for people to play with, or a massive dance club costing tens of thousands of dollars to set up and run, you have to shell out all the money (and sweat equity) yourself, with no hope of ever recouping a dime for your troubles. Why would anyone do that, you might ask. The answer lies largely in Daniel Pink’s latest book Drive, which examines the science of human motivation (and how businesses often get it wrong).
Pink explains that you can’t motivate creative people with money. Certainly, you have to pay them enough to live on, he says, and pay them comparably to their peers so they feel appropriately valued. But after that, Pink explains, tossing more money at a creative person doesn't produce more creative output.
Instead, Pink says, creative people simply want the latitude discussed in the previous section (autonomy), as well as the opportunity to do something really well (mastery) and the opportunity to be part of something greater than themselves (purpose). And that’s what Burning Man provides.
No matter how whacky the thing bouncing around in your head (a party bus shaped like a duck, whowouldathought?), it will find a home and appreciation at Burning Man. And, more importantly, you will feel like you are doing your part to contribute to the overall experience. In fact, it's not unusual for newcomers--even those who felt slightly trepidatious about the whole enterprise to begin with--to leave the event toying around with ideas of what they might create to bring back the following year.
Much of the above probably sounds like common sense: Trust people and they will usually live up to that trust. Give people creative freedom, and they will surprise you with what they deliver. And indeed, it is common sense. And yet many organizations nevertheless fall down on one or more of these principles--structuring rules and regulations around a presumption of guilt on the part of employees, rather than treating them as trusted members of a community, or by offering only money rather than latitude in the effort to drum up creativity.
Burning Man, however, is a living example of how, when an organization lives by that sometimes not-so-common common sense, great things ensue.
[Images: Courtesy of E.B. Boyd; front page image by Mike Q. Victor]
Friday, September 02, 2011
Oprah
I am such a dork... I love Oprah so much.
I just heard about this awesome event: http://mashable.com/2011/09/02/oprah-on-facebook-live/?utm_source=erocketfuel+feed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable%2FSocialMedia+%28Mashable+%C2%BB+Social+Media+Feed%29
... and decided to submit my question. Hopefully she will give me the time of day, but I won't hold my breath : )
Dear Oprah - I know you've started many philanthropic organizations and companies and that's one of the things I love most about you. I would like to know how I can get a philanthropic job or maybe start a philanthropic company. I would also love to learn how you think we can encourage people to work for and create more philanthropic companies like Tom's Shoes, Whole Foods, Seventh Generation and krochetkids.org. I think it's something that's changing the world and the way consumers think about buying goods. I also love the book - "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" and think you could do a cool show about that. I would love ideas on this from you. You are my hero! Thank you! - Jessica*
Thursday, June 23, 2011
My Review of Westminster College
Originally submitted at DegreeSearch.org
Westminster offers a truly unique environment for learning. Outside magazine's rated Salt Lake City a 'near-perfect location for avid outdoor adventurers.' Deeply committed to each student's success, Westminster College is a comprehensive college that integrates a strong foundation ...
Westminster is the best!
By Jessica Chase from Salt Lake City, Utah on 6/23/2011
Pros: Great group work, Great instructors, Number of degree offerings, Provided personal attention, Convenient locations
Cons: High tuition costs
I attended Westminster for my undergraduate degree in Communication and my graduate degree in business. If they had a Ph.D. program, I would be going back to Westminster for that program. The professors are great, the class sizes are small, there is a good balance of group work/individual work to prepare you for team work in a real work environment, the international trip in the MBA program was one of my favorite experiences of all time, and overall - Westminster is just awesome! The tuition cost is worth it.
(legalese)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Florence, Italy - The Conclusion To Our Italy Trip
Day 6
So our final chapter in our Italy trip was based in Florence, Italy. We arrived in Florence and were extremely tired so we decided to take a nap. Our hotel room was gorgeous… the best one yet. After sleeping for a few hours, we woke up and got moving. It was around 5 p.m. so when we finally got outside, the city was pretty empty (most of the museums/churches close at 5 p.m. so that’s normal). We were a little disappointed that the city was so empty and didn’t think any city could compare to how much fun we had in Rome and Venice, so we decided that Florence wasn’t going to be as fun as the other cities right away… we were wrong : )
We decided to get some gelato and we found our favorite gelato flavors of the trip… Scott’s favorite was the coffee and chocolate mixed together and mine was tiramisu (the next day I got banana and that became my new favorite ) ; ) It seemed like the gelato tasted better in Florence… more authentic or something. We decided to walk around the Duomo and look at the Ghiberti doors while there weren’t very many tourists. We then decided to go to dinner near the Duomo. Right when we figured out what restaurant we wanted to go to, Scott looked over and Sammy and Dena from Jersey Shore were in the restaurant on camera filming the show. I quickly took a picture and we decided to eat at the restaurant next door so we could look at the reactions of people when they saw the Jersey Shore being filmed. Pretty random running into the Jersey Shore in the middle of Italy eh? The food was the best we had tasted in Italy yet. Not complicated - just spaghetti or pizza with a caprese salad, but maybe we just enjoyed it more because we started to finally relax and enjoy ourselves and take things slow.
Day 7
We woke up the next day to a beautiful view from our hotel room. The complementary breakfast at our hotel was amazing. It had the most beautiful view of all of Florence from the roof top. I highly recommend you stay at the Hotel Baglioni in Florence if you go. After breakfast we decided to head out to the city and walk through the main art museums and churches (lots of walking again – and it was HOT outside!).
First, we decided to climb the stairs in the Duomo to go to the top of the basilica. It was quite the workout! You have to climb a bunch of stairs that are going in a circle in a really small space… so you are exhausted, claustrophobic and dizzy the whole way up, but it’s beautiful when you get there because you can see all of Florence (which has some mountainside – Tuscany area) and you can see the painting on the basilica up close. According to Wikipedia, the basilica and church construction began in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.
Picture from the web:
We heard that we HAD to see The David statue so we walked to The Galleria de Academia and waited in line (since we didn’t have reservations). We only waited about 45 minutes, but it was worth it. The David is amazing…. You just sit there in aw of how beautiful the sculpture is, how perfect it is. I can’t help but think that Scott looks like The David… they have the same body type and the same hair!
We were tired, but decided to continue to the Uffizi museum to see more Byzantine art, Da Vinci, Caravaggio and the famous Botticelli painting - The Birth of Venus. I would highly recommend that you eat lunch and get hydrated before you go into this museum because it is huge and there is a lot to look at. The Birth of Venus painting was amazing.
Picture from the web:
When we left the Uffizi it started to rain (like it did in the afternoon at the same time everyday). We got some more Tiramisu Gelato and ran back to our hotel in the rain.
Day 8
We decided to go on a tour of the countryside near Florence (The Tuscany region) so we went to this cute little town called Shianti. I tried some blackberry gelato before we got on the bus and it wasn’t my favorite flavor… (we did eat a new flavor each day though!)…. I wish we had more gelato in the U.S.
Anyway, the tour included a tour of some small town countryside churches, a tour of a medieval castle, a tour showing how to make wine and how to make olive oil, and a wine tasting with hors d'œuvres. It was extremely relaxing and romantic which was just what the doctor ordered. We met some cute couples from Mesa, Arizona that told us they had a lot of trouble on their vacation (with taxis overcharging them, losing luggage and taxis bringing them to bad parts of town) so we felt very blessed that everything went smoothly for us. We tasted three different wines after we learned how they brewed them. One that was aged 1 – 3 years, one that was aged 5 – 10 years, and a desert wine that was aged for about five years that was a specialty wine where they had to first make the wine into raisins THEN squeeze it. Apparently they serve this wine in the churches as part of sacrament in their town.
A cool story about the medieval castle (Castello Del Trebbio) where we did the wine tasting before I conclude – The castle was built in the 1300’s and inhabited by the Pazzi family who was the second richest family in town. Obviously the richest family town was the Medici family who commissioned the artists to make Florence (and other cities) beautiful with their art. The Pazzi family was jealous of the Medici family and wanted to kill them so they could be the number one family so they conspired with the Pope at the time to kill the Medici family in this castle. The Pazzi family was successful in killing one of the Medici brothers, but not the most powerful brother – Lorenzo. Lorenzo found out about the conspiracy and killed everyone in the Pazzi family and seized their property (including the castle we were in).
For years the castle was empty, but they told us a cute story that an older man met a woman from Belgium on a train and immediately fell in love with her. She wanted to move to the castle even though it was cold ( you literally have to burn wood to get any heat in the place ), but she loved it. They had five kids in six years and raise their family in the castle. They revived the wine vineyards and olive trees and brought the place back to life. When the boys turned 20ish their father passed away and soon after their mother died in a car crash. The boys had to sell the castle because they couldn’t afford to pay for it. There is a modern day family that lives in the castle with a beautiful original Raphael painting in the living room. They cook in a wood burning stove, make wine and olive oil, and live in the most beautiful countryside of Italy. What a life!!!
Image from the web:
We came back to the city and went to dinner at the same café we dined at the first night in Florence (because the food was so good). When we were done, we saw three more Jersey Shore characters being filmed – Mike, Vinny and Pauly… MVP. It was surreal to see them in person… and in Italy no less?
The trip was absolutely fabulous and we hope to go back to Italy one day.
So our final chapter in our Italy trip was based in Florence, Italy. We arrived in Florence and were extremely tired so we decided to take a nap. Our hotel room was gorgeous… the best one yet. After sleeping for a few hours, we woke up and got moving. It was around 5 p.m. so when we finally got outside, the city was pretty empty (most of the museums/churches close at 5 p.m. so that’s normal). We were a little disappointed that the city was so empty and didn’t think any city could compare to how much fun we had in Rome and Venice, so we decided that Florence wasn’t going to be as fun as the other cities right away… we were wrong : )
We decided to get some gelato and we found our favorite gelato flavors of the trip… Scott’s favorite was the coffee and chocolate mixed together and mine was tiramisu (the next day I got banana and that became my new favorite ) ; ) It seemed like the gelato tasted better in Florence… more authentic or something. We decided to walk around the Duomo and look at the Ghiberti doors while there weren’t very many tourists. We then decided to go to dinner near the Duomo. Right when we figured out what restaurant we wanted to go to, Scott looked over and Sammy and Dena from Jersey Shore were in the restaurant on camera filming the show. I quickly took a picture and we decided to eat at the restaurant next door so we could look at the reactions of people when they saw the Jersey Shore being filmed. Pretty random running into the Jersey Shore in the middle of Italy eh? The food was the best we had tasted in Italy yet. Not complicated - just spaghetti or pizza with a caprese salad, but maybe we just enjoyed it more because we started to finally relax and enjoy ourselves and take things slow.
Day 7
We woke up the next day to a beautiful view from our hotel room. The complementary breakfast at our hotel was amazing. It had the most beautiful view of all of Florence from the roof top. I highly recommend you stay at the Hotel Baglioni in Florence if you go. After breakfast we decided to head out to the city and walk through the main art museums and churches (lots of walking again – and it was HOT outside!).
First, we decided to climb the stairs in the Duomo to go to the top of the basilica. It was quite the workout! You have to climb a bunch of stairs that are going in a circle in a really small space… so you are exhausted, claustrophobic and dizzy the whole way up, but it’s beautiful when you get there because you can see all of Florence (which has some mountainside – Tuscany area) and you can see the painting on the basilica up close. According to Wikipedia, the basilica and church construction began in 1296 in the Gothic style to the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.
Picture from the web:
We heard that we HAD to see The David statue so we walked to The Galleria de Academia and waited in line (since we didn’t have reservations). We only waited about 45 minutes, but it was worth it. The David is amazing…. You just sit there in aw of how beautiful the sculpture is, how perfect it is. I can’t help but think that Scott looks like The David… they have the same body type and the same hair!
We were tired, but decided to continue to the Uffizi museum to see more Byzantine art, Da Vinci, Caravaggio and the famous Botticelli painting - The Birth of Venus. I would highly recommend that you eat lunch and get hydrated before you go into this museum because it is huge and there is a lot to look at. The Birth of Venus painting was amazing.
Picture from the web:
When we left the Uffizi it started to rain (like it did in the afternoon at the same time everyday). We got some more Tiramisu Gelato and ran back to our hotel in the rain.
Day 8
We decided to go on a tour of the countryside near Florence (The Tuscany region) so we went to this cute little town called Shianti. I tried some blackberry gelato before we got on the bus and it wasn’t my favorite flavor… (we did eat a new flavor each day though!)…. I wish we had more gelato in the U.S.
Anyway, the tour included a tour of some small town countryside churches, a tour of a medieval castle, a tour showing how to make wine and how to make olive oil, and a wine tasting with hors d'œuvres. It was extremely relaxing and romantic which was just what the doctor ordered. We met some cute couples from Mesa, Arizona that told us they had a lot of trouble on their vacation (with taxis overcharging them, losing luggage and taxis bringing them to bad parts of town) so we felt very blessed that everything went smoothly for us. We tasted three different wines after we learned how they brewed them. One that was aged 1 – 3 years, one that was aged 5 – 10 years, and a desert wine that was aged for about five years that was a specialty wine where they had to first make the wine into raisins THEN squeeze it. Apparently they serve this wine in the churches as part of sacrament in their town.
A cool story about the medieval castle (Castello Del Trebbio) where we did the wine tasting before I conclude – The castle was built in the 1300’s and inhabited by the Pazzi family who was the second richest family in town. Obviously the richest family town was the Medici family who commissioned the artists to make Florence (and other cities) beautiful with their art. The Pazzi family was jealous of the Medici family and wanted to kill them so they could be the number one family so they conspired with the Pope at the time to kill the Medici family in this castle. The Pazzi family was successful in killing one of the Medici brothers, but not the most powerful brother – Lorenzo. Lorenzo found out about the conspiracy and killed everyone in the Pazzi family and seized their property (including the castle we were in).
For years the castle was empty, but they told us a cute story that an older man met a woman from Belgium on a train and immediately fell in love with her. She wanted to move to the castle even though it was cold ( you literally have to burn wood to get any heat in the place ), but she loved it. They had five kids in six years and raise their family in the castle. They revived the wine vineyards and olive trees and brought the place back to life. When the boys turned 20ish their father passed away and soon after their mother died in a car crash. The boys had to sell the castle because they couldn’t afford to pay for it. There is a modern day family that lives in the castle with a beautiful original Raphael painting in the living room. They cook in a wood burning stove, make wine and olive oil, and live in the most beautiful countryside of Italy. What a life!!!
Image from the web:
We came back to the city and went to dinner at the same café we dined at the first night in Florence (because the food was so good). When we were done, we saw three more Jersey Shore characters being filmed – Mike, Vinny and Pauly… MVP. It was surreal to see them in person… and in Italy no less?
The trip was absolutely fabulous and we hope to go back to Italy one day.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Venice, Italy - The Orange Full Moon
Day 4 – Venice, Italy
We woke up early and ran (literally ran) to the train station with our giant backpacks on our backs. We got a late start and didn’t realize the work it would take when we got to the train station. Luck was on our side because we had already pre-purchased our train ticket and didn’t have to wait in any lines. If we would have had to wait in lines, I fear we would have missed our train. We were cutting it THAT close. We didn’t realize how big the train station was. There were 14 trains headed to different locations in Europe within the station. I guess we know how to get around Europe from now on! : ) Our train trip to Venice was three hours and we were delighted that the seats were comfortable – much more comfortable than a plane.
We saw some beautiful countryside on our way to Venice – it made us want to come back and visit some of the small towns in Italy one day. Maybe bike through? Maybe one day… there are beautiful fields of flowers and wine vineyards everywhere.
We arrived in Venice around noon and were excited that our hotel was right across the street from the train station. We had to take a short bus ride to get into the actual city, but it was much cheaper to stay in Muestre versus staying in the actual center of Venice. Plus, our room is really nice - a lot nicer than the one in Rome (even though it doesn’t really matter because we are only in our room to sleep).
We decided that the first thing on our agenda was to “get lost in Venice” because that’s what everyone told us we should do. We thought it would be a little harder to get lost, but turns out – it’s easy to get lost in Venice… and hard to read maps! There are so many small streets that are impossible to find on the maps.
After a couple of hours, we got the hang of where we were and enjoyed walking through the narrow streets. The streets are BEAUTIFUL. Before we came, there were people who told us that they didn’t like Venice… I am baffled by this… it is amazing. We found it very romantic and picturesque. The main part of Venice is a huge shopping mall with hundreds of stores. It’s a woman’s dream and a man’s nightmare! Haha, just kidding. Scott was actually tolerating it more than I thought he would ; )
Picture from the web:
We ended up in the main square – Saint Marco Square and saw the beautiful basilica and Doge’s Palace. This is the famous square where people feed pigeons and take pictures (which we did, of course!). I LOVED it. People (including Scott) say that pigeons are trash birds, but I still had fun. There were some nice people who gave us some crackers and when we crunched them up in our hands, we immediately had a bunch of birds swarming us. Scott didn’t want the birds touching him, but he finally put a few crackers in his hands just to try it for a minute : )
We got some gelato (caramel is my favorite flavor so far… yum!!) and headed to the main bridge in the middle of the city – Ponte di Rialto. This is the oldest bridge in Venice and spans the Grand Canal. It dates back to 1172, and was in wood until 1557 when it was rebuilt in stone – according to our map. It is beautiful at sunset.
We got dinner at a beautiful, yet expensive, restaurant right on the canal. It was SO worth the money because it was surrounded by beautiful flowers and had the perfect view of the canal. People warned us that Venice was extremely expensive, and that is true. We’ve just been limiting ourselves to one sit down dinner/lunch each day. It’s hard to remember to eat anyway when there are so many beautiful things to see and fun things to do!
We saw the orange full moon on our way back to our hotel. It was HUGE! We tried to take a picture, but, as usual, the picture didn’t do it justice.
Day 5 – Venice, Italy
We went back to Saint Marco Square so that we could walk through the basilica (since it was closed when we saw it the day before) and couldn’t believe how beautiful the inside was. We couldn’t take pictures, but there were gold mosaics throughout the entire church. Apparently the basilica is the most important example of Byzantine Venetian architecture. It was built in 1076.
There is ANOTHER zodiac clock here… like the one in Prague. The clock moves based on what zodiac sign month are in. So right now it is pointing to Taurus. You know I am loving that!
Picture from the web:
We decided to try to get some culture so we went to the Doge’s Palace (No, not Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Palace - the residence of the Doge “the supreme authority” of Venice Palace) to see some paintings/architecture. According to our map - it was from the Doge’s Palace that the Venetian Republic was ruled, and it is still the highest expression of Venetian art.
We saw a lot of Venetian art by Tinteretto, Titian and Bosch. We also saw a lot of old weaponry and the prisons of the palace. This building was where all of the politicians and city officials would meet and “The Doge” would live. It’s kind of like the U.S. White House for Venice.
We then went to get lunch in a beautiful little café by the canal. We had an amazing caprese salad and decided we need to make those more back home with our fresh grown tomatoes! Yum.
After lunch/dinner we went up a bell tower to look out over the entire city of Venice. The view from the top was amazing. We were a little scared for what would happen if we were up at the top when the bells rang (because we heard the bells are REALLY loud). The bells did end up sounding at 3:30 (yes, they ring at half past the hour as well as on the hour) and although they were loud, we were excited to experience watching them ring so closely.
Now to our favorite part of the day… the gondola ride. We heard the gondola rides were extremely over-priced (which they are), but we were able to negotiate a lower rate in a canal off of the main canal. It was fully worth it… it was extremely romantic, beautiful, and peaceful. We loved every minute of it.
Lions and masks are really popular here. Apparently they have a mascaraed festival during a certain time of year. That would be fun to attend, but the masks are a bit creepy... The lions are a symbol of St. Mark.
Pictures from the web:
We woke up early and ran (literally ran) to the train station with our giant backpacks on our backs. We got a late start and didn’t realize the work it would take when we got to the train station. Luck was on our side because we had already pre-purchased our train ticket and didn’t have to wait in any lines. If we would have had to wait in lines, I fear we would have missed our train. We were cutting it THAT close. We didn’t realize how big the train station was. There were 14 trains headed to different locations in Europe within the station. I guess we know how to get around Europe from now on! : ) Our train trip to Venice was three hours and we were delighted that the seats were comfortable – much more comfortable than a plane.
We saw some beautiful countryside on our way to Venice – it made us want to come back and visit some of the small towns in Italy one day. Maybe bike through? Maybe one day… there are beautiful fields of flowers and wine vineyards everywhere.
We arrived in Venice around noon and were excited that our hotel was right across the street from the train station. We had to take a short bus ride to get into the actual city, but it was much cheaper to stay in Muestre versus staying in the actual center of Venice. Plus, our room is really nice - a lot nicer than the one in Rome (even though it doesn’t really matter because we are only in our room to sleep).
We decided that the first thing on our agenda was to “get lost in Venice” because that’s what everyone told us we should do. We thought it would be a little harder to get lost, but turns out – it’s easy to get lost in Venice… and hard to read maps! There are so many small streets that are impossible to find on the maps.
After a couple of hours, we got the hang of where we were and enjoyed walking through the narrow streets. The streets are BEAUTIFUL. Before we came, there were people who told us that they didn’t like Venice… I am baffled by this… it is amazing. We found it very romantic and picturesque. The main part of Venice is a huge shopping mall with hundreds of stores. It’s a woman’s dream and a man’s nightmare! Haha, just kidding. Scott was actually tolerating it more than I thought he would ; )
Picture from the web:
We ended up in the main square – Saint Marco Square and saw the beautiful basilica and Doge’s Palace. This is the famous square where people feed pigeons and take pictures (which we did, of course!). I LOVED it. People (including Scott) say that pigeons are trash birds, but I still had fun. There were some nice people who gave us some crackers and when we crunched them up in our hands, we immediately had a bunch of birds swarming us. Scott didn’t want the birds touching him, but he finally put a few crackers in his hands just to try it for a minute : )
We got some gelato (caramel is my favorite flavor so far… yum!!) and headed to the main bridge in the middle of the city – Ponte di Rialto. This is the oldest bridge in Venice and spans the Grand Canal. It dates back to 1172, and was in wood until 1557 when it was rebuilt in stone – according to our map. It is beautiful at sunset.
We got dinner at a beautiful, yet expensive, restaurant right on the canal. It was SO worth the money because it was surrounded by beautiful flowers and had the perfect view of the canal. People warned us that Venice was extremely expensive, and that is true. We’ve just been limiting ourselves to one sit down dinner/lunch each day. It’s hard to remember to eat anyway when there are so many beautiful things to see and fun things to do!
We saw the orange full moon on our way back to our hotel. It was HUGE! We tried to take a picture, but, as usual, the picture didn’t do it justice.
Day 5 – Venice, Italy
We went back to Saint Marco Square so that we could walk through the basilica (since it was closed when we saw it the day before) and couldn’t believe how beautiful the inside was. We couldn’t take pictures, but there were gold mosaics throughout the entire church. Apparently the basilica is the most important example of Byzantine Venetian architecture. It was built in 1076.
There is ANOTHER zodiac clock here… like the one in Prague. The clock moves based on what zodiac sign month are in. So right now it is pointing to Taurus. You know I am loving that!
Picture from the web:
We decided to try to get some culture so we went to the Doge’s Palace (No, not Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Palace - the residence of the Doge “the supreme authority” of Venice Palace) to see some paintings/architecture. According to our map - it was from the Doge’s Palace that the Venetian Republic was ruled, and it is still the highest expression of Venetian art.
We saw a lot of Venetian art by Tinteretto, Titian and Bosch. We also saw a lot of old weaponry and the prisons of the palace. This building was where all of the politicians and city officials would meet and “The Doge” would live. It’s kind of like the U.S. White House for Venice.
We then went to get lunch in a beautiful little café by the canal. We had an amazing caprese salad and decided we need to make those more back home with our fresh grown tomatoes! Yum.
After lunch/dinner we went up a bell tower to look out over the entire city of Venice. The view from the top was amazing. We were a little scared for what would happen if we were up at the top when the bells rang (because we heard the bells are REALLY loud). The bells did end up sounding at 3:30 (yes, they ring at half past the hour as well as on the hour) and although they were loud, we were excited to experience watching them ring so closely.
Now to our favorite part of the day… the gondola ride. We heard the gondola rides were extremely over-priced (which they are), but we were able to negotiate a lower rate in a canal off of the main canal. It was fully worth it… it was extremely romantic, beautiful, and peaceful. We loved every minute of it.
Lions and masks are really popular here. Apparently they have a mascaraed festival during a certain time of year. That would be fun to attend, but the masks are a bit creepy... The lions are a symbol of St. Mark.
Pictures from the web:
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
"When In Rome" - Day 2 & 3
We woke up to sunny skies and birds chirping outside of our window on Day 2. We dressed for warm weather (since Day 1 was HOT!) and headed out to the Colosseum.
About ten minutes after we left the hotel we realized we had dressed for to warm of weather and that it could rain at any moment. Luckily, right before it started raining, we took shelter in a near-by museum – the Mercati di Traiano – an ancient Roman market which also happened to be the place where Julius Caesar lived in the first century AD. There were many statues that were actually in Caesar’s Palace back on 150 AD. A lot of which were recovered from sewers within the city. The actual marble of the courtyard where Caesar is said to have said “Friends, Roman’s, Countrymen” and “Y Tu Brute” is still there. There was a piece of a statue recovered that was about six feet long that was just part of a hand of one of the statues in Caesar’s Palace so you can image how big the actual statue was.
It was a great place to go to get out of the rain, but we decided to buy some ponchos and head over to the Colusseum. Good thing we did because it started raining pretty hard for the next few hours (even though ponchos look awful…let’s be honest, they keep you dry). One thing about me and Scotty, we are troopers – rain or shine, we will stay on schedule. Plus, we are only in Rome once, and we had to see The Colusseum and Forum at least once in our lives right?
The Colusseum was huge. It was cool to see where the animals and prisoners were taken underground before they were let into the Colusseum to fight/be executed. You can see all of the passageways of the ground floor of the Colusseum because they have removed the middle layer. It’s surprising to me that so many people were so entertained by watching humans die at the hand of animals. According to Wikipedia, there was once a contest “involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days.” It reminds me of when people used to be hung or stoned to death in front of their entire towns. According to our map, “Its real name is the Flavian Amphitheater. It was begun under Emperor Vaspasian in 72 AD and finished under his son Titus in 80 AD. Back then - the amphitheater could contain more than 70,000 people. It is organized in three orders of 80 arches adorned respectively with Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns.” It had a great view of the Arch de Constantine and we ran into a random cat living on one of the sets of stairs. Truly random.
Picture from the web:
Right when we were leaving the sun started shining again and we were excited, because the light was beautiful and perfect for us to go see “The Forum” which is a term for the Roman Ruins. A lot of the ruins have had to be uncovered because of harsh whether in the sixteenth century. The Forum was extremely peaceful… beautiful gardens, birds chirping, the smell of rain and orange trees… it was very heavenly. We got to see where they use to host chariot races and where they used to meet and have famous ceremonies. It is said to be the most famous place in ancient Rome. According to our map it was "damaged by a fire in 283 AD and restored under Emperor Diocletian. From the fourth century, it began to fall into decay, echoing the fate of Rome itself.”
Our favorite part of the Forum was the end because it was sunset and we got to see the second and third of the three main arch’s in Rome – The Arch of Titus & The Arch of Septimius Severus - and a bunch of standing columns from the ancient Roman ruins in the middle of a meadow. It was beautiful.
Picture from the web:
Day 3
We decided to wake up early to head to the Vatican because we heard that if we got up early we wouldn’t have to wait in lines. We took a bus to Vatican City and decided to visit Saint Peters Basilica first. The square surrounding Saint Peter’s Basilica is beautiful…It is the biggest square in Rome and makes you feel as if you were living in Roman times yourself. There are 140 statues of Saints, works by Bernini, surrounding the square and beautiful fountains and columns surround the 340 meter area. Turns out, that lines are actually worse in the mornings and that we should have come in the afternoon for shorter lines. We are happy we got started early however, because the Vatican + The Sistine Chapel + St. Peter’s Basilica took us about eight hours to get through.
Our favorite part of the Basilica was the shear size of the basilica itself. Michelangelo wanted it to be PERFECT and didn’t listen to anyone when they told him what to do with it. Apparently he didn’t have many friends because he was a “my way or the highway” kind of person. We loved the “Pieta” with the Madonna holding Jesus – obviously… it’s only one of the most famous works of art in history. We also loved the Bernini bronze piece in the center of the basilica – it is a Baroque sculpted bronze canopy called a baldachin. There is a statue of St. Peter within the basilica where you are supposed to rub the right foot of the statue (but rub both just in case) and he will bless you personally. The renaissance art within the basilica is breathtaking and most of the art in the basilica is a mosaic… yes, little pieces of glass/marble making up the works of art. Talk about attention to detail. There are many saints that have been buried within the basilica and have been embalmed/preserved and made into wax figures so that they can be shown to the public. Scotty and I found this a bit creepy, but cool none-the-less.
Picture from the web:
We keep feeling like we are living in the movie/book The Davinci Code/Angels and Demons. Apparently they filmed part of Angels and Demons in the St. Peters Basilica square. There is a secret passage-way between the square and the castle that popes have escaped to in war times.
The Vatican is extremely hard to explain… as are most things in Rome… you kind of have to see them in person to see how amazing everything is. It has been the Pope’s residence since 1377. Since 1377, 265 Popes have lived there. Vatican City is an independent state ruled by the Pope so it is technically separate from Rome and its own country with its own citizens. The Vatican museums have so many little details sculpted into the ceiling and walls and building in general. There are halls and halls and ceilings upon ceilings of amazing, brilliant art. It’s impossible to look at it all. There were thousands of statues, thousands of paintings, thousands of PEOPLE too. It’s hard to move and breathe. 40,000 people per day visit the Vatican.
We ended in the Sistine Chapel (Scott’s favorite part of the day) with the famous ceiling frescos Michelangelo painted in 1481 and “Last Judgment” painting by Michelangelo in 1535 (he painted this when he was 60). Apparently Michelangelo painted everyone naked within “Last Judgment” and the church did not like that so they asked him to paint clothes on the figures. Michelangelo refused, so the church left the clothes off until Michelangelo died. They then had another artist paint clothes onto the figures. I am baffled by the fact that they would deface the work of art like this. Michelangelo painted them naked because he said that on judgment day, we will all be naked before God. I think is very true and the piece is not the same without what was intended by the artist. I am personally just not a fan of anyone’s artwork being changed without their consent.
Picture from the web:
We are having a blast.
More at http://jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com
About ten minutes after we left the hotel we realized we had dressed for to warm of weather and that it could rain at any moment. Luckily, right before it started raining, we took shelter in a near-by museum – the Mercati di Traiano – an ancient Roman market which also happened to be the place where Julius Caesar lived in the first century AD. There were many statues that were actually in Caesar’s Palace back on 150 AD. A lot of which were recovered from sewers within the city. The actual marble of the courtyard where Caesar is said to have said “Friends, Roman’s, Countrymen” and “Y Tu Brute” is still there. There was a piece of a statue recovered that was about six feet long that was just part of a hand of one of the statues in Caesar’s Palace so you can image how big the actual statue was.
It was a great place to go to get out of the rain, but we decided to buy some ponchos and head over to the Colusseum. Good thing we did because it started raining pretty hard for the next few hours (even though ponchos look awful…let’s be honest, they keep you dry). One thing about me and Scotty, we are troopers – rain or shine, we will stay on schedule. Plus, we are only in Rome once, and we had to see The Colusseum and Forum at least once in our lives right?
The Colusseum was huge. It was cool to see where the animals and prisoners were taken underground before they were let into the Colusseum to fight/be executed. You can see all of the passageways of the ground floor of the Colusseum because they have removed the middle layer. It’s surprising to me that so many people were so entertained by watching humans die at the hand of animals. According to Wikipedia, there was once a contest “involving 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators over the course of 123 days.” It reminds me of when people used to be hung or stoned to death in front of their entire towns. According to our map, “Its real name is the Flavian Amphitheater. It was begun under Emperor Vaspasian in 72 AD and finished under his son Titus in 80 AD. Back then - the amphitheater could contain more than 70,000 people. It is organized in three orders of 80 arches adorned respectively with Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns.” It had a great view of the Arch de Constantine and we ran into a random cat living on one of the sets of stairs. Truly random.
Picture from the web:
Right when we were leaving the sun started shining again and we were excited, because the light was beautiful and perfect for us to go see “The Forum” which is a term for the Roman Ruins. A lot of the ruins have had to be uncovered because of harsh whether in the sixteenth century. The Forum was extremely peaceful… beautiful gardens, birds chirping, the smell of rain and orange trees… it was very heavenly. We got to see where they use to host chariot races and where they used to meet and have famous ceremonies. It is said to be the most famous place in ancient Rome. According to our map it was "damaged by a fire in 283 AD and restored under Emperor Diocletian. From the fourth century, it began to fall into decay, echoing the fate of Rome itself.”
Our favorite part of the Forum was the end because it was sunset and we got to see the second and third of the three main arch’s in Rome – The Arch of Titus & The Arch of Septimius Severus - and a bunch of standing columns from the ancient Roman ruins in the middle of a meadow. It was beautiful.
Picture from the web:
Day 3
We decided to wake up early to head to the Vatican because we heard that if we got up early we wouldn’t have to wait in lines. We took a bus to Vatican City and decided to visit Saint Peters Basilica first. The square surrounding Saint Peter’s Basilica is beautiful…It is the biggest square in Rome and makes you feel as if you were living in Roman times yourself. There are 140 statues of Saints, works by Bernini, surrounding the square and beautiful fountains and columns surround the 340 meter area. Turns out, that lines are actually worse in the mornings and that we should have come in the afternoon for shorter lines. We are happy we got started early however, because the Vatican + The Sistine Chapel + St. Peter’s Basilica took us about eight hours to get through.
Our favorite part of the Basilica was the shear size of the basilica itself. Michelangelo wanted it to be PERFECT and didn’t listen to anyone when they told him what to do with it. Apparently he didn’t have many friends because he was a “my way or the highway” kind of person. We loved the “Pieta” with the Madonna holding Jesus – obviously… it’s only one of the most famous works of art in history. We also loved the Bernini bronze piece in the center of the basilica – it is a Baroque sculpted bronze canopy called a baldachin. There is a statue of St. Peter within the basilica where you are supposed to rub the right foot of the statue (but rub both just in case) and he will bless you personally. The renaissance art within the basilica is breathtaking and most of the art in the basilica is a mosaic… yes, little pieces of glass/marble making up the works of art. Talk about attention to detail. There are many saints that have been buried within the basilica and have been embalmed/preserved and made into wax figures so that they can be shown to the public. Scotty and I found this a bit creepy, but cool none-the-less.
Picture from the web:
We keep feeling like we are living in the movie/book The Davinci Code/Angels and Demons. Apparently they filmed part of Angels and Demons in the St. Peters Basilica square. There is a secret passage-way between the square and the castle that popes have escaped to in war times.
The Vatican is extremely hard to explain… as are most things in Rome… you kind of have to see them in person to see how amazing everything is. It has been the Pope’s residence since 1377. Since 1377, 265 Popes have lived there. Vatican City is an independent state ruled by the Pope so it is technically separate from Rome and its own country with its own citizens. The Vatican museums have so many little details sculpted into the ceiling and walls and building in general. There are halls and halls and ceilings upon ceilings of amazing, brilliant art. It’s impossible to look at it all. There were thousands of statues, thousands of paintings, thousands of PEOPLE too. It’s hard to move and breathe. 40,000 people per day visit the Vatican.
We ended in the Sistine Chapel (Scott’s favorite part of the day) with the famous ceiling frescos Michelangelo painted in 1481 and “Last Judgment” painting by Michelangelo in 1535 (he painted this when he was 60). Apparently Michelangelo painted everyone naked within “Last Judgment” and the church did not like that so they asked him to paint clothes on the figures. Michelangelo refused, so the church left the clothes off until Michelangelo died. They then had another artist paint clothes onto the figures. I am baffled by the fact that they would deface the work of art like this. Michelangelo painted them naked because he said that on judgment day, we will all be naked before God. I think is very true and the piece is not the same without what was intended by the artist. I am personally just not a fan of anyone’s artwork being changed without their consent.
Picture from the web:
We are having a blast.
More at http://jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Carpe Diem - Rome, Day 1
We started out the day by taking a train from the airport to the Termini Station in Rome. When we got off the train we had assumed we’d be able to use our GPS to find everything we were looking to find, but the GPS wasn’t picking up a signal so we were o our own. No electronics reliance for us! So we went “old school” and got a map. It took us a minute, but we finally figured out where our hotel was on the map and started walking. On our way to the hotel, we were stopped by a cute old woman. She welcomed us in Rome and told us her story. She said she had lived in San Francisco for 15 years with her husband, but he had passed on so she came back to her home – Rome. She reached in her purse and pulled out a bunch of pictures of her past – when she was young, her house in San Francisco, her family… then she asked if I wanted a piece of candy. I know… you shouldn’t take candy from strangers, but I did : ) I am such a rebel! Then she says… “I don’t have a second piece of candy for your husband, but wait here and I will run to the grocery store to get one.” And we politely said “that’s okay, it was nice to meet you! Thanks for telling us your story!”
What a way to welcome us in Rome eh?
So we started the journey to our hotel and got there in about 15 minutes (after learning to read a map again). I feel so dependent on Google Maps and GPS systems these days.
Our hotel room is similar to what we stayed in in Amsterdam and Prague… small, but a place to sleep : ) The view outside is amazing, though, and we hear beautiful Italian bells all day long.
We were exhausted from the long flight, but eager to get out and see the city. We figured that we should not sleep when we got to Rome because we had to adjust to the time change – even though we REALLY wanted too : ) So we looked at the map and set out on our adventures.
We started walking and soon realized we would not need a map to see all the beautiful things in Rome. There are beautiful things everywhere…. Fountains, statues, beautiful architecture. The first thing we came across was an amazing fountain with four huge beautiful statues coming out of it. We decided to get some gelato and sit next to the fountain. My sister’s fiancé Sam went on his mission in Italy and he said the No. 1 thing to do is eat A LOT of gelato. So no need to hesitate, right? I had the strawberry gelato and Scott had the chocolate and I can tell you that I have eaten gelato in a lot of places in this world, but the gelato in Italy is by far the best.
We then headed to the Fontana di Trevi (The Trevi Fountain). If you don’t know what the Trevi Fountain is, let me tell you… It is a slice of heaven placed on the earth. In fact, I would say that about Rome in general, with its Byzantine art (known for the golden halo around the head in artwork), and renaissance architecture. Scotty and I sat next to the fountain for quite a while and just inhaled the beauty. The Trevi Fountain was one of the major aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. There is legend that if you turn your back to the fountain and throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain that you will come back to Rome one day. You are also supposed to drink the water from the fountain (not from the actual fountain, but from the right side above the steps). We tried both : ) We were told that you shouldn’t have people take pictures of you because there are a lot of people that will steal your camera, but we just find people who speak English (mainly couples) and offer to take their picture first then have them take one of us. It’s working out well.
Picture from the web:
We then decided to try to find the Pantheon and in doing so ran into a bunch of other famous architecture/artwork. I wish I could have brought my 20 pound art history book with me so that I could dissect all the amazing things we are seeing.
As soon as we walked into the Pantheon we got chills. There is a hole in the top of the Pantheon because the creator was trying to make the dome perfectly spherical (and using the Pythagorean Theorem and other mathematical calculations to do so). Everything here is mathematically perfect in proportion. I think that this hole which the creator considered a “flaw” makes it SO much better because there is sunlight that comes in and hits a new piece of art in the building at different times of day. Also – it feels like the rays of God are shining in on you and on the artwork. It is simply breathtaking. It is the only pagan temple in classical style still almost intact in Rome and was commissioned to be built in 27 BC and dedicated to the guardian deities of the Emperor’s family. After the fire the temple was rebuilt between 118 and 125 A.D. Today it hosts the tombs of famous people, like the artist Raphael (who Scott mentioned is his favorite ninja turtle haha!) and the kings of Italy. Scott said this was his favorite thing we saw all day because he was in aw of the sheer size of the building and the fact that it was still standing after 2000 years. He couldn’t believe that anyone would be capable of building it.
Picture from the web:
We decided to get lunch in a cute little café by the Trevi Fountain and needed to rest our feet… us two overachievers had probably walked ten miles at that point. We enjoyed the people watching and relaxation. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
One other thing that I wanted to mention about our first day – We were looking at another gorgeous monument when we noticed a bunch of police/swat teams swarming in and not allowing people to go in to the monument. We were scared that we were in the middle of a terrorist attack of some kind because traffic was stopped and helicopters were overhead. Then, out of nowhere, we were in the middle of a “Free Palestine” political rally. There were thousands of people marching on behalf of the cause, and a leader yelling through a microphone to “Free Palestine” – we felt like we were in the middle of a 1960s political rally in the U.S.
After the long flight and long day, we both enjoyed a long 11 hours of sleep and are ready for day 2!
More at jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com
What a way to welcome us in Rome eh?
So we started the journey to our hotel and got there in about 15 minutes (after learning to read a map again). I feel so dependent on Google Maps and GPS systems these days.
Our hotel room is similar to what we stayed in in Amsterdam and Prague… small, but a place to sleep : ) The view outside is amazing, though, and we hear beautiful Italian bells all day long.
We were exhausted from the long flight, but eager to get out and see the city. We figured that we should not sleep when we got to Rome because we had to adjust to the time change – even though we REALLY wanted too : ) So we looked at the map and set out on our adventures.
We started walking and soon realized we would not need a map to see all the beautiful things in Rome. There are beautiful things everywhere…. Fountains, statues, beautiful architecture. The first thing we came across was an amazing fountain with four huge beautiful statues coming out of it. We decided to get some gelato and sit next to the fountain. My sister’s fiancé Sam went on his mission in Italy and he said the No. 1 thing to do is eat A LOT of gelato. So no need to hesitate, right? I had the strawberry gelato and Scott had the chocolate and I can tell you that I have eaten gelato in a lot of places in this world, but the gelato in Italy is by far the best.
We then headed to the Fontana di Trevi (The Trevi Fountain). If you don’t know what the Trevi Fountain is, let me tell you… It is a slice of heaven placed on the earth. In fact, I would say that about Rome in general, with its Byzantine art (known for the golden halo around the head in artwork), and renaissance architecture. Scotty and I sat next to the fountain for quite a while and just inhaled the beauty. The Trevi Fountain was one of the major aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. It is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. There is legend that if you turn your back to the fountain and throw a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain that you will come back to Rome one day. You are also supposed to drink the water from the fountain (not from the actual fountain, but from the right side above the steps). We tried both : ) We were told that you shouldn’t have people take pictures of you because there are a lot of people that will steal your camera, but we just find people who speak English (mainly couples) and offer to take their picture first then have them take one of us. It’s working out well.
Picture from the web:
We then decided to try to find the Pantheon and in doing so ran into a bunch of other famous architecture/artwork. I wish I could have brought my 20 pound art history book with me so that I could dissect all the amazing things we are seeing.
As soon as we walked into the Pantheon we got chills. There is a hole in the top of the Pantheon because the creator was trying to make the dome perfectly spherical (and using the Pythagorean Theorem and other mathematical calculations to do so). Everything here is mathematically perfect in proportion. I think that this hole which the creator considered a “flaw” makes it SO much better because there is sunlight that comes in and hits a new piece of art in the building at different times of day. Also – it feels like the rays of God are shining in on you and on the artwork. It is simply breathtaking. It is the only pagan temple in classical style still almost intact in Rome and was commissioned to be built in 27 BC and dedicated to the guardian deities of the Emperor’s family. After the fire the temple was rebuilt between 118 and 125 A.D. Today it hosts the tombs of famous people, like the artist Raphael (who Scott mentioned is his favorite ninja turtle haha!) and the kings of Italy. Scott said this was his favorite thing we saw all day because he was in aw of the sheer size of the building and the fact that it was still standing after 2000 years. He couldn’t believe that anyone would be capable of building it.
Picture from the web:
We decided to get lunch in a cute little café by the Trevi Fountain and needed to rest our feet… us two overachievers had probably walked ten miles at that point. We enjoyed the people watching and relaxation. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
One other thing that I wanted to mention about our first day – We were looking at another gorgeous monument when we noticed a bunch of police/swat teams swarming in and not allowing people to go in to the monument. We were scared that we were in the middle of a terrorist attack of some kind because traffic was stopped and helicopters were overhead. Then, out of nowhere, we were in the middle of a “Free Palestine” political rally. There were thousands of people marching on behalf of the cause, and a leader yelling through a microphone to “Free Palestine” – we felt like we were in the middle of a 1960s political rally in the U.S.
After the long flight and long day, we both enjoyed a long 11 hours of sleep and are ready for day 2!
More at jessicafaulkner.blogspot.com
Monday, May 09, 2011
Eating Animals
Do you agree with this statement? “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.”
I read a book a couple of months ago that really inspired me and made me think about something most people do every day – “Eating Animals.” Jonathan Safran Foer, the author, discusses many topics surrounding eating animals and really makes his readers think about the decision to eat meat.
I am not sure if any of you are aware, but I was a vegetarian for about six years from age 17 – 23. I decided to eat meat again after marrying Scott (who was and is a meat eater). I didn’t want to cook two meals every night and genuinely started liking the taste of meat again. Recently, after reading the above book, I became a vegetarian again for various reasons that I will describe in my summary of the book below.
Since most of us have a dog that we adore… I think Foer makes a good point in his opening chapter. Foer starts the book by talking about his relationship with his dog. He admits that he doesn’t know what goes on in his dog’s [George’s] head and that he is “surprised by her lack of intelligence as often as [he is] surprised by her intelligence. The differences between [them] are always more present than the similarities.” But he recognizes that although “the list of differences [between them] could fill a book, George fears pain, seeks pleasure and craves not just food and play, but companionship.” Based on this, he asks various ethical questions such as “should we not eat companion animals”? “should we not eat animals with significant mental capacities”? “if we should not eat animals with significant mental capacities then wouldn’t that include the pig, cow, chicken, many species of sea animals and severely impaired human beings”?
“With all the factory farmers that are profiting from meat eaters around the country – ‘is it even possible to eat meat without ‘causing pain to one of Gods living creatures.’? I seriously want to know your answer to this question and think these are all good questions that we should ask ourselves. Controversial? Yes. Questions that might alter your life and the food you eat? Yes. Questions we may not be able to ignore, but out of laziness decide to ignore anyway? Yes. But hear me out anyway…
“On average, American’s eat the equivalent of 21,000 entire animals in a lifetime – one animal for every letter on the last five pages.”
I know there are a million things to stand up for in our country so you are probably wondering why I chose to blog about animals. Well – to put it shortly – this book inspired me to be a better person and I learned something that I wanted to share with others. “If I misuse a corporation’s logo, I could potentially be put in jail; if a corporation abuses a billion birds, the law will protect no the birds, but the corporation’s right to do what it wants.” Is this right?
Do we really even know what we are eating anymore? “Not a single turkey you can buy in a supermarket could walk normally, much less jump or fly normally before they slaughtered it for you to eat? Not the antibiotic-free, or organic, or free range or anything. They all have the same foolish genetics, and their bodies won’t allow for it anymore. Every turkey sold in every store and served in every restaurant was the product of artificial insemination. If it were only for efficiency that would be one thing, but these animals literally can’t reproduce naturally. What the industry figured out – and this was the real revolution – is that you don’t need healthy animals to make a profit. Sick animals are more profitable. The animals have paid the price for our desire to have everything available at all times for very little money.”
Remember that bird flu and swine flu outbreak we had last year? “Scientists at Columbia and Princeton Universities have actually been able to trace six of the eight genetic segments of the (currently) most feared virus in the world directly to US factory farms.”
Also - “Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected. Around 8 percent of birds become infected with salmonella (down from several years ago, when at least one in four birds was infected, which still occurs on some farms). Seventy to 90 percent are infected with another potentially deadly pathogen, campylobacter. Chlorine baths are commonly used to remove slime, odor, and bacteria. Of course consumers might notice that their chickens don’t taste quite right – how good could a drug-stuffed, disease ridden, contaminated animal possibly taste?”
“Chickens are laying ‘two or even three times as many [eggs] as in nature’” because farmers are changing the food and light deprivation of animals. Is this healthy for our animals? Is this healthy for us?
Now to discuss the environment… Is being a vegetarian better for the environment? The meat industry handles “so much [waste], [that is] so poorly managed, that it seeps into rivers, lakes, and oceans – killing wildlife and polluting air, water, and land in ways devastating to human health. Today a typical pig factory farm will produce 7.2 million pounds of manure annually, a typical broiler facility will produce 6.6 million pounds, and a typical cattle feedlot 344 million pounds. The General Account Office (GAO) reports that individual farms ‘can generate more raw waste than the populations of some U.S. cities.’ All told, farmed animals in the Unites States produce 130 times as much waste as the human population – roughly 87,000 pounds of [waste] per second. The polluting strength of this [waste] is 160 times greater than a raw municipal sewage.”
“John Tietz compiled a useful list of [stuff] typically found in the [waste] of factory farmed-hogs: ‘ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, phosphorus, nitrates, and heavy metals. In addition, the waste nurses more than 100 microbial pathogens that can make humans sick, including salmonella, cryptosporidium, streptococci and giardia’ (thus children raised on the grounds of a typical hog factory farm have asthma rates exceeding 50 percent and children raised near factory farms are twice as likely to develop asthma).”
So since the meat industry is polluting the environment so much, you would think that they would be fined accordingly right? ”A few years after this deregulation in 1995, Smithfield spilled more than twenty million gallons of lagoon waste into the New River in North Carolina. The spill remains the largest environmental disaster of its kind and is twice as big as the iconic Exxon Valdez spill six years earlier. The spill released enough liquid manur to fill 250 Olympic-sized swimming pools. In 1997, as reported by the Sierra Club in their daming “RapSheet on Animal Factories,” Smithfield was penalized for a mind-blowing seven thousand violations of the Clean Water Act – that’s about twenty violations a day.”
“One violation might be an accident. Even ten violations might. Seven thousand violations is a plan. Smithfield was fined $12.6 million, which at first sounds like a victory against the factory farm. At the time, $12.6 million was the largest civil-penalty pollution fine in US history, but this is a pathetically small amount to a company that now grosses $12.6 million every ten hours. Smithfield’s former CEO Joseph Luter III received $12.6 million in stock options in 2001.”
“Conservative estimates by the EPA indicate that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement has already polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in twenty-two states (for reference the circumference of the earth is roughly 25,000 miles). In only three years, two hundred fish kills – incidents where the entire fish population in a given area is killed at once – have resulted from factory farms’ failures to keep their shit out of waterways. In these documented kills along, thirteen million fish were literally poisoned by shit – if set head to tail fin, these vitims would stretch the length of the entire Pacific coast from Seattle to the Mexican border.”
And you thought the Homer Simpson story about the pollution of the lake in “The Simpson’s Movie” was a made up story (remember when he had the pet pig and didn’t know how to dispose of the waste so he dumped it in the lake?) Hopefully the EPA won’t put a dome over the USA like they did with Springfield.
So, you all know how much I LOVE sushi… I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it… but after reading these stats… I realize how everyone in the world loves sushi and that it is taking a toll on our oceans – “One study found that roughly 4.5 million sea animals are killed as bycatch in longline fishing every year, including roughly 3.3 million sharks, 1 million marlins, 60,000 sea turtles, 75,000 albatross, and 20,000 dolphins and whales.”
Did you know that “thirty five classified species of sea horse worldwide are threatened with extinction because they are killed “unintentionally” in seafood production? (shrimp trawling devastates sea horse populations more than any other activity).”
So why do we continue to eat meat? Is it because we are scared to be an “unhealthy” vegetarian? Because it’s so much “healthier” to eat meat? Well, according to Foer, “Data suggests that excess animal protein intake is linked to osteoporosis, kidney disease, calcium stones in the urinary tract, and some cancers. Despite some persistent confusion, it is clear that vegetarians and vegans tend to have more optimal protein consumption than omnivores.”
Also, “Vegetarian diets are often associated with a number of health advantages, including lower blood cholesterol levels, lower risk of heart disease [which alone accounts for more than 25 percent of all annual deaths in the nation], lower blood pressure levels, and lower risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Vegetarians tent to have lower body mass index (BMI) [that is, they are not as fat] and lower overall cancer rates [cancers account for nearly another 25 percent of all annual deaths in the nation].”
Do you think being a vegetarian is radical? According to Foer, “Our situation is an on odd one. Virtually all of us agree that it matters how we treat animals and the environment, and yet few of us give much through to our most important relationship to animals and the environment. Odder still, those who do choose to act in accordance with these uncontroversial values by refusing to eat animals (which everyone agrees can reduce both the number of abused animals and one’s ecological footprint) are often considered marginal or even radical.”
Why are vegetarians constantly being questioned about their behaviors, but meat eaters aren’t?
“We have let the factory farm replace farming for the same reasons our cultures have relegated minorities to being second-class members of society and kept women under the power of men. We treat animals as we do because we want to and can. (Does anyone really wish to deny this anymore?) The myth of consent is perhaps the story of meat, and much comes down to whether this story, when we are realistic, is plausible. But compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us.”
“Choosing leaf or flesh, factory farm or family farm, does not in itself change the world, but teaching ourselves, our children, our local community, and our nation to choose conscience over ease can. One of the greatest opportunities to live our values – or betray them – lies in the food we put on our plates.”
“Martin Luther Ling Jr. wrote passionately about the time when ‘one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular.’ Sometimes we simply have to make a decision because ‘one’s conscience tells on that it is right.”
For all of you critics out there, and I know there are and will be critics because almost everyone I talked to about this said “this book isn’t researched and I am still going to eat meat to matter what I read or hear or learn about” – check out the 60 page works cited/sources at the end of the book. Trust me, this is a WELL researched book. But, if you want to continue to live in denial/ignorance – to each his own : ).
I read a book a couple of months ago that really inspired me and made me think about something most people do every day – “Eating Animals.” Jonathan Safran Foer, the author, discusses many topics surrounding eating animals and really makes his readers think about the decision to eat meat.
I am not sure if any of you are aware, but I was a vegetarian for about six years from age 17 – 23. I decided to eat meat again after marrying Scott (who was and is a meat eater). I didn’t want to cook two meals every night and genuinely started liking the taste of meat again. Recently, after reading the above book, I became a vegetarian again for various reasons that I will describe in my summary of the book below.
Since most of us have a dog that we adore… I think Foer makes a good point in his opening chapter. Foer starts the book by talking about his relationship with his dog. He admits that he doesn’t know what goes on in his dog’s [George’s] head and that he is “surprised by her lack of intelligence as often as [he is] surprised by her intelligence. The differences between [them] are always more present than the similarities.” But he recognizes that although “the list of differences [between them] could fill a book, George fears pain, seeks pleasure and craves not just food and play, but companionship.” Based on this, he asks various ethical questions such as “should we not eat companion animals”? “should we not eat animals with significant mental capacities”? “if we should not eat animals with significant mental capacities then wouldn’t that include the pig, cow, chicken, many species of sea animals and severely impaired human beings”?
“With all the factory farmers that are profiting from meat eaters around the country – ‘is it even possible to eat meat without ‘causing pain to one of Gods living creatures.’? I seriously want to know your answer to this question and think these are all good questions that we should ask ourselves. Controversial? Yes. Questions that might alter your life and the food you eat? Yes. Questions we may not be able to ignore, but out of laziness decide to ignore anyway? Yes. But hear me out anyway…
“On average, American’s eat the equivalent of 21,000 entire animals in a lifetime – one animal for every letter on the last five pages.”
I know there are a million things to stand up for in our country so you are probably wondering why I chose to blog about animals. Well – to put it shortly – this book inspired me to be a better person and I learned something that I wanted to share with others. “If I misuse a corporation’s logo, I could potentially be put in jail; if a corporation abuses a billion birds, the law will protect no the birds, but the corporation’s right to do what it wants.” Is this right?
Do we really even know what we are eating anymore? “Not a single turkey you can buy in a supermarket could walk normally, much less jump or fly normally before they slaughtered it for you to eat? Not the antibiotic-free, or organic, or free range or anything. They all have the same foolish genetics, and their bodies won’t allow for it anymore. Every turkey sold in every store and served in every restaurant was the product of artificial insemination. If it were only for efficiency that would be one thing, but these animals literally can’t reproduce naturally. What the industry figured out – and this was the real revolution – is that you don’t need healthy animals to make a profit. Sick animals are more profitable. The animals have paid the price for our desire to have everything available at all times for very little money.”
Remember that bird flu and swine flu outbreak we had last year? “Scientists at Columbia and Princeton Universities have actually been able to trace six of the eight genetic segments of the (currently) most feared virus in the world directly to US factory farms.”
Also - “Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected. Around 8 percent of birds become infected with salmonella (down from several years ago, when at least one in four birds was infected, which still occurs on some farms). Seventy to 90 percent are infected with another potentially deadly pathogen, campylobacter. Chlorine baths are commonly used to remove slime, odor, and bacteria. Of course consumers might notice that their chickens don’t taste quite right – how good could a drug-stuffed, disease ridden, contaminated animal possibly taste?”
“Chickens are laying ‘two or even three times as many [eggs] as in nature’” because farmers are changing the food and light deprivation of animals. Is this healthy for our animals? Is this healthy for us?
Now to discuss the environment… Is being a vegetarian better for the environment? The meat industry handles “so much [waste], [that is] so poorly managed, that it seeps into rivers, lakes, and oceans – killing wildlife and polluting air, water, and land in ways devastating to human health. Today a typical pig factory farm will produce 7.2 million pounds of manure annually, a typical broiler facility will produce 6.6 million pounds, and a typical cattle feedlot 344 million pounds. The General Account Office (GAO) reports that individual farms ‘can generate more raw waste than the populations of some U.S. cities.’ All told, farmed animals in the Unites States produce 130 times as much waste as the human population – roughly 87,000 pounds of [waste] per second. The polluting strength of this [waste] is 160 times greater than a raw municipal sewage.”
“John Tietz compiled a useful list of [stuff] typically found in the [waste] of factory farmed-hogs: ‘ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, phosphorus, nitrates, and heavy metals. In addition, the waste nurses more than 100 microbial pathogens that can make humans sick, including salmonella, cryptosporidium, streptococci and giardia’ (thus children raised on the grounds of a typical hog factory farm have asthma rates exceeding 50 percent and children raised near factory farms are twice as likely to develop asthma).”
So since the meat industry is polluting the environment so much, you would think that they would be fined accordingly right? ”A few years after this deregulation in 1995, Smithfield spilled more than twenty million gallons of lagoon waste into the New River in North Carolina. The spill remains the largest environmental disaster of its kind and is twice as big as the iconic Exxon Valdez spill six years earlier. The spill released enough liquid manur to fill 250 Olympic-sized swimming pools. In 1997, as reported by the Sierra Club in their daming “RapSheet on Animal Factories,” Smithfield was penalized for a mind-blowing seven thousand violations of the Clean Water Act – that’s about twenty violations a day.”
“One violation might be an accident. Even ten violations might. Seven thousand violations is a plan. Smithfield was fined $12.6 million, which at first sounds like a victory against the factory farm. At the time, $12.6 million was the largest civil-penalty pollution fine in US history, but this is a pathetically small amount to a company that now grosses $12.6 million every ten hours. Smithfield’s former CEO Joseph Luter III received $12.6 million in stock options in 2001.”
“Conservative estimates by the EPA indicate that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement has already polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in twenty-two states (for reference the circumference of the earth is roughly 25,000 miles). In only three years, two hundred fish kills – incidents where the entire fish population in a given area is killed at once – have resulted from factory farms’ failures to keep their shit out of waterways. In these documented kills along, thirteen million fish were literally poisoned by shit – if set head to tail fin, these vitims would stretch the length of the entire Pacific coast from Seattle to the Mexican border.”
And you thought the Homer Simpson story about the pollution of the lake in “The Simpson’s Movie” was a made up story (remember when he had the pet pig and didn’t know how to dispose of the waste so he dumped it in the lake?) Hopefully the EPA won’t put a dome over the USA like they did with Springfield.
So, you all know how much I LOVE sushi… I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it… but after reading these stats… I realize how everyone in the world loves sushi and that it is taking a toll on our oceans – “One study found that roughly 4.5 million sea animals are killed as bycatch in longline fishing every year, including roughly 3.3 million sharks, 1 million marlins, 60,000 sea turtles, 75,000 albatross, and 20,000 dolphins and whales.”
Did you know that “thirty five classified species of sea horse worldwide are threatened with extinction because they are killed “unintentionally” in seafood production? (shrimp trawling devastates sea horse populations more than any other activity).”
So why do we continue to eat meat? Is it because we are scared to be an “unhealthy” vegetarian? Because it’s so much “healthier” to eat meat? Well, according to Foer, “Data suggests that excess animal protein intake is linked to osteoporosis, kidney disease, calcium stones in the urinary tract, and some cancers. Despite some persistent confusion, it is clear that vegetarians and vegans tend to have more optimal protein consumption than omnivores.”
Also, “Vegetarian diets are often associated with a number of health advantages, including lower blood cholesterol levels, lower risk of heart disease [which alone accounts for more than 25 percent of all annual deaths in the nation], lower blood pressure levels, and lower risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Vegetarians tent to have lower body mass index (BMI) [that is, they are not as fat] and lower overall cancer rates [cancers account for nearly another 25 percent of all annual deaths in the nation].”
Do you think being a vegetarian is radical? According to Foer, “Our situation is an on odd one. Virtually all of us agree that it matters how we treat animals and the environment, and yet few of us give much through to our most important relationship to animals and the environment. Odder still, those who do choose to act in accordance with these uncontroversial values by refusing to eat animals (which everyone agrees can reduce both the number of abused animals and one’s ecological footprint) are often considered marginal or even radical.”
Why are vegetarians constantly being questioned about their behaviors, but meat eaters aren’t?
“We have let the factory farm replace farming for the same reasons our cultures have relegated minorities to being second-class members of society and kept women under the power of men. We treat animals as we do because we want to and can. (Does anyone really wish to deny this anymore?) The myth of consent is perhaps the story of meat, and much comes down to whether this story, when we are realistic, is plausible. But compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us.”
“Choosing leaf or flesh, factory farm or family farm, does not in itself change the world, but teaching ourselves, our children, our local community, and our nation to choose conscience over ease can. One of the greatest opportunities to live our values – or betray them – lies in the food we put on our plates.”
“Martin Luther Ling Jr. wrote passionately about the time when ‘one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular.’ Sometimes we simply have to make a decision because ‘one’s conscience tells on that it is right.”
For all of you critics out there, and I know there are and will be critics because almost everyone I talked to about this said “this book isn’t researched and I am still going to eat meat to matter what I read or hear or learn about” – check out the 60 page works cited/sources at the end of the book. Trust me, this is a WELL researched book. But, if you want to continue to live in denial/ignorance – to each his own : ).
Monday, April 18, 2011
Our nations debt crisis... what do YOU think? Put down the channel changer for five minutes and read this.
What do you think? Can we as every day middle class citizens affect change? I would like you to think about the answer to that question before you read this blog post –
Scott and I watched the documentary “Inside Job” last night because it won the Oscar this year in the documentary category. Although the topic of the movie looked a bit brain-numbing, I was very interested to see it because I wanted an answer of why our nation is in the debt crisis it’s in… and wanted to know the cause.
When I got my MBA at Westminster a few years ago, we read an amazing book called “Conspiracy of Fools” about the Enron scandal. You may also be familiar with the documentary “The Smartest Guys In The Room” which is based on the book. We discussed white collar crime and all agreed that it’s essential to be an ethical leader in today’s society, because – let’s be honest – integrity is a rare thing these days.
You’d have thought that our nation would have learned our lesson with Enron or WorldCom or any other company that embezzled money or hid money in securities or posted their “future income” as a way of inflating their revenue numbers to inflate stock prices… but what we have to realize, is our government (republican and democrat) is in on the scandal as well… which is why things aren’t changing and why it’s impossible for any one citizen to affect change.
After watching “Inside Job” last night… my stomach sank. And it’s truly ironic that the day after I watched that movie I hear on NPR that the “S&P threatens to cut U.S. credit ratings on our deficit”.
What you need to know about our country if you don’t want to watch “Inside Job” (But I HIGHLY recommend that you do):
1)
After “The Great Depression” and the “Wall Street Crash in 1929” the government put certain restrictions and regulations on what the Financial Institutions in our nation could do. The industry became highly regulated because if it wasn’t regulated, the government had no idea if what the financial institutions were doing was legal or ethical or in the best interest of everyone in our country. These regulations were a good thing because we didn’t have any “ponzi schemes” for a long time after that and our economy grew back to a healthy state… then President Reagan de-regulated the financial sector during his presidency … why? Well probably because someone in the financial sector said they would pay him a ton of money to support his future political campaigns or probably just pay him off outright.
2)
There are financial executives who pay off politicians and economic professors at prestigious universities (and who knows who else) so that they can strategize highly unethical ways to FAIL companies and doop others (through fake PR and the public's trust in government authorities) to believe they have a legitimate business model. These companies and schemes are the very reason we are in the economic situation we are in… they give to the rich and take from the poor and cause the stock market to fail. They make the rich richer and the poor poorer. How these people live with themselves… I don’t know.
The fact that these executives pay off government employees (mainly the president) to hide the fact that our economy is in such utter failure is beyond me. And because they do this, we everyday citizens will spend more money to contribute to their fake companies.
An example of this is the mortgage crisis… these financial executives made it SO easy for all of us to get a loan (a home loan, a boat loan, a car loan, etc.)… even if we couldn’t afford it. These loan companies sold the loans to major financial institutions that didn’t care if the loan was paid off or not… they had already made the initial investment. They didn’t care if middle class people could actually pay off their loans. They didn’t care if middle class people lost their homes because the financial industry put them in a situation they couldn’t control… they just wanted to money.
The fact that this is LEGAL is baffling to me. These people don’t go to jail either… The government can’t prosecute people they were “working with” right? A lot of the economic advisers for Obama’s presidency were on the board of or executives of companies that contributed to the financial crisis in 2008 (this type of behavior has been going on since deregulation of the financial industry in Reagan’s presidency). It’s basically like we are rewarding unethical behavior that rewards the rich and hurts the poor. It’s like we don’t worry about “conflict of interest” anymore.
Speaking of “conflict of interest” the financial institutions also pay off companies like “Standard & Poors” who give them triple A ratings (which means they are stable) even if they are not. If we can’t trust these companies to give us ACCURATE ratings, how can we make good investments as a society?? If we can’t trust our government or professors at our schools? Can we trust anyone?
3)
Economic professors of our nation’s top schools write articles for financial institutions and the government that lie about the actual state of our nation’s financials (and other nations like Iceland). They will publish articles that have literal LIES in them so that the financial services industry looks better. They publish these articles so that people keep spending money and don’t worry about how insolvent our nation’s funds are. Wouldn’t you think that economic professors that teach our students about economics and publish articles that lie after being paid off by financial institutions is a bit of a CONFLICT OF INTEREST? Not to mention, journalism is supposed to be fair and balanced (it is supposed to represent both sides of the issue)… these reports not only didn’t represent both sides of the issue – they outright lied about what was going on.
Many of the education institutions as well as the financial institutions wouldn’t even comment on this film because they knew they were doing the wrong thing.
What happened to being a nation founded by God? What happened to a nation that had values and morals? It seems as of late that we are founded on greed. Is that what America stands for? If so, that makes me sad and I know we can do better. Why do financial board members and executives (and professors and government employees) get away with this? And standard every day citizens have to obey the law and pay the consequences. It all seems backwards to me.
So – when I asked you at the beginning of this blog post if you felt that you as an every day middle class citizen could affect change… you probably had hope… How do you feel now? How can we even begin to think about affecting change on this topic when most people would rather play a video game or watch reality TV instead of watching this documentary and caring about our country?
Scott and I watched the documentary “Inside Job” last night because it won the Oscar this year in the documentary category. Although the topic of the movie looked a bit brain-numbing, I was very interested to see it because I wanted an answer of why our nation is in the debt crisis it’s in… and wanted to know the cause.
When I got my MBA at Westminster a few years ago, we read an amazing book called “Conspiracy of Fools” about the Enron scandal. You may also be familiar with the documentary “The Smartest Guys In The Room” which is based on the book. We discussed white collar crime and all agreed that it’s essential to be an ethical leader in today’s society, because – let’s be honest – integrity is a rare thing these days.
You’d have thought that our nation would have learned our lesson with Enron or WorldCom or any other company that embezzled money or hid money in securities or posted their “future income” as a way of inflating their revenue numbers to inflate stock prices… but what we have to realize, is our government (republican and democrat) is in on the scandal as well… which is why things aren’t changing and why it’s impossible for any one citizen to affect change.
After watching “Inside Job” last night… my stomach sank. And it’s truly ironic that the day after I watched that movie I hear on NPR that the “S&P threatens to cut U.S. credit ratings on our deficit”.
What you need to know about our country if you don’t want to watch “Inside Job” (But I HIGHLY recommend that you do):
1)
After “The Great Depression” and the “Wall Street Crash in 1929” the government put certain restrictions and regulations on what the Financial Institutions in our nation could do. The industry became highly regulated because if it wasn’t regulated, the government had no idea if what the financial institutions were doing was legal or ethical or in the best interest of everyone in our country. These regulations were a good thing because we didn’t have any “ponzi schemes” for a long time after that and our economy grew back to a healthy state… then President Reagan de-regulated the financial sector during his presidency … why? Well probably because someone in the financial sector said they would pay him a ton of money to support his future political campaigns or probably just pay him off outright.
2)
There are financial executives who pay off politicians and economic professors at prestigious universities (and who knows who else) so that they can strategize highly unethical ways to FAIL companies and doop others (through fake PR and the public's trust in government authorities) to believe they have a legitimate business model. These companies and schemes are the very reason we are in the economic situation we are in… they give to the rich and take from the poor and cause the stock market to fail. They make the rich richer and the poor poorer. How these people live with themselves… I don’t know.
The fact that these executives pay off government employees (mainly the president) to hide the fact that our economy is in such utter failure is beyond me. And because they do this, we everyday citizens will spend more money to contribute to their fake companies.
An example of this is the mortgage crisis… these financial executives made it SO easy for all of us to get a loan (a home loan, a boat loan, a car loan, etc.)… even if we couldn’t afford it. These loan companies sold the loans to major financial institutions that didn’t care if the loan was paid off or not… they had already made the initial investment. They didn’t care if middle class people could actually pay off their loans. They didn’t care if middle class people lost their homes because the financial industry put them in a situation they couldn’t control… they just wanted to money.
The fact that this is LEGAL is baffling to me. These people don’t go to jail either… The government can’t prosecute people they were “working with” right? A lot of the economic advisers for Obama’s presidency were on the board of or executives of companies that contributed to the financial crisis in 2008 (this type of behavior has been going on since deregulation of the financial industry in Reagan’s presidency). It’s basically like we are rewarding unethical behavior that rewards the rich and hurts the poor. It’s like we don’t worry about “conflict of interest” anymore.
Speaking of “conflict of interest” the financial institutions also pay off companies like “Standard & Poors” who give them triple A ratings (which means they are stable) even if they are not. If we can’t trust these companies to give us ACCURATE ratings, how can we make good investments as a society?? If we can’t trust our government or professors at our schools? Can we trust anyone?
3)
Economic professors of our nation’s top schools write articles for financial institutions and the government that lie about the actual state of our nation’s financials (and other nations like Iceland). They will publish articles that have literal LIES in them so that the financial services industry looks better. They publish these articles so that people keep spending money and don’t worry about how insolvent our nation’s funds are. Wouldn’t you think that economic professors that teach our students about economics and publish articles that lie after being paid off by financial institutions is a bit of a CONFLICT OF INTEREST? Not to mention, journalism is supposed to be fair and balanced (it is supposed to represent both sides of the issue)… these reports not only didn’t represent both sides of the issue – they outright lied about what was going on.
Many of the education institutions as well as the financial institutions wouldn’t even comment on this film because they knew they were doing the wrong thing.
What happened to being a nation founded by God? What happened to a nation that had values and morals? It seems as of late that we are founded on greed. Is that what America stands for? If so, that makes me sad and I know we can do better. Why do financial board members and executives (and professors and government employees) get away with this? And standard every day citizens have to obey the law and pay the consequences. It all seems backwards to me.
So – when I asked you at the beginning of this blog post if you felt that you as an every day middle class citizen could affect change… you probably had hope… How do you feel now? How can we even begin to think about affecting change on this topic when most people would rather play a video game or watch reality TV instead of watching this documentary and caring about our country?
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook): Why we have too few women leaders. Great presentation.
Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook): Why we have too few women leaders.
Background: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions -- and offers 3 powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite.
Great presentation, I highly recommend watching.
Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders | Video on TED.com
Background: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions -- and offers 3 powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite.
Great presentation, I highly recommend watching.
Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders | Video on TED.com
Thursday, February 03, 2011
I woke up in the Bahamas and had a "Happy Face"
I woke up in the Bahamas a.k.a. PARADISE! this morning and went for a run. I was listening to one of my favorite songs and truly enjoying everything there is to see and experience about life... I feel so blessed to be happy, healthy, loved... I am also reading an amazing book called "Jesus Career Counselor". It's truly inspiring me to evaluate every part of my career (and life!) and make sure I am putting my energy in the right place. What a great book - highly recommend it (even for non-religious people).
Here are the lyrics to the song I was listening too - if you haven't heard this song, I highly recommend you listen to it.
Destiny's Child - Happy Face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
Woke up and realized
This world's not
So bad after all
Looked at it through
A child's eyes, and
I saw these beautiful
Things that you
Never think about
Like the ocean, moonlight,
Stars and clouds
It's amazing how
We don't appreciate
Our blessings
There's plenty of people
Who don't like me
But there's ten times more
Who love me and
I love myself
Sometimes, it gets tough,
It gets tough
But I can't give up,
Can't give up
Just take a deep breath,
Close my eyes
Feel the love and
Give a smile
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
It's me,
I just wanna be happy
Uh, just be happy, uh,
Just be happy
Today is the day
I am willing to say
I will put all the
Past behind me,
No more enemies
Ready 'cause
(Ready 'cause)
I'm living in this world
(Lving in this world)
I wanna make a change
(Wanna make a change)
Gonna make a change
(Gonna make a change)
Put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning
With a happy face
I'm flying
Here are the lyrics to the song I was listening too - if you haven't heard this song, I highly recommend you listen to it.
Destiny's Child - Happy Face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
Woke up and realized
This world's not
So bad after all
Looked at it through
A child's eyes, and
I saw these beautiful
Things that you
Never think about
Like the ocean, moonlight,
Stars and clouds
It's amazing how
We don't appreciate
Our blessings
There's plenty of people
Who don't like me
But there's ten times more
Who love me and
I love myself
Sometimes, it gets tough,
It gets tough
But I can't give up,
Can't give up
Just take a deep breath,
Close my eyes
Feel the love and
Give a smile
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
It's me,
I just wanna be happy
Uh, just be happy, uh,
Just be happy
Today is the day
I am willing to say
I will put all the
Past behind me,
No more enemies
Ready 'cause
(Ready 'cause)
I'm living in this world
(Lving in this world)
I wanna make a change
(Wanna make a change)
Gonna make a change
(Gonna make a change)
Put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
Gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be all right
Everything's gonna be all right,
Everything's gonna be okay
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning,
The sunshine was shining
I put on my happy face
I'm living, I'm able,
I'm breathing, I'm grateful
To put on my happy face
I woke up this morning
With a happy face
I'm flying
Sunday, January 02, 2011
A great poem and a great movie - Invictus
A great poem and a great movie - Invictus...
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
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