Seeking joy in the everyday.
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Post-workout recovery (bliss!)
I know it's been a while... so peek at this post-workout recovery (bliss!) post I wrote for HonestlyJamie.com
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Happy weekend
Here's some interesting reads I found this week:
Yoga
Everyone's going on and on in the internet yoga community about this article. The assigning editor wrote her response. Another writer from the same site gave her opinion. Personally, I liked this smart response. And now I'm officially over it, which brings me to...
Feminism
...this interesting piece on feminism's toxic Twitter wars. Luckily I mostly read, and not post on twitter about my opinion, but I could see how difficult it could be if you are heavily invested in the medium and receive a lot of backlash.
Food
Are you a property owner in the LA area with fruit trees overburdened with their production? Sign up here to donate your excess to a good cause. If you don't have that particular blessing of too much fruit, but are still looking to give in another way, you can register here for various events to help collect and harvest fresh food. Food Forward is an amazing organization that rescues fresh, local produce that would otherwise go to waste, connecting this abundance with people in need. I plan on joining in myself.
The benefits of Food Stamps (definitely worth the click through)...
Which will be cut by $8 billion over 10 years by the recently passed farm bill.
Random
The Napoleon complex, explained. As a short person, this might explain a lot.
This physical art is so beautiful.
Yoga
Everyone's going on and on in the internet yoga community about this article. The assigning editor wrote her response. Another writer from the same site gave her opinion. Personally, I liked this smart response. And now I'm officially over it, which brings me to...
Feminism
...this interesting piece on feminism's toxic Twitter wars. Luckily I mostly read, and not post on twitter about my opinion, but I could see how difficult it could be if you are heavily invested in the medium and receive a lot of backlash.
Food
Are you a property owner in the LA area with fruit trees overburdened with their production? Sign up here to donate your excess to a good cause. If you don't have that particular blessing of too much fruit, but are still looking to give in another way, you can register here for various events to help collect and harvest fresh food. Food Forward is an amazing organization that rescues fresh, local produce that would otherwise go to waste, connecting this abundance with people in need. I plan on joining in myself.
The benefits of Food Stamps (definitely worth the click through)...
Which will be cut by $8 billion over 10 years by the recently passed farm bill.
Random
The Napoleon complex, explained. As a short person, this might explain a lot.
This physical art is so beautiful.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Happy Weekend
What are your plans this weekend? I'm wrapping up a bunch of work, cooking and prepping for the upcoming week, and apartment hunting. Here's some interesting reads I found for your weekend:
Environment
This collection of photos is worth seeing - photographers traversed the Marcellus Shale formation documenting what they could of the effects of fracking. My father previously owned a house with a beautiful waterfall and river on the propery in Pennsylvania, and sold it right before the fracking boom there. It's too bad the photographers weren't able to get any shots of the workers, more of the industry and all the promise it does provide, in order to provide more of a counter to the arguments against the environmental devastation and health risks.
Yoga
After the NYTimes has reported so. many. times. on the perils of yoga, it seems other news agencies are trying to get in on the scare tactics. My advice: Listen to your own body, honor your limitations, and be patient with your practice. You can transcend boundaries as long as you're careful.
Feminism
This collection of covers comparing the Hillary Cover to images for other (mostly male) politicians basically speaks for itself. What were they thinking? Not that I'm a huge Hillary fan, but that's no justification for that type of absurdity.
Mike Huckabee (former Republican Arkansas governor) said the government shouldn't provide co-pay free birth control to women who "cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government." He says this to argue that Democrats feel that women are "helpless and hopeless creatures" who just want government-provided birth control, and that women should be empowered to be "something other than victims of their gender." This isn't surprising considering he supported Akin's "legitimate rape" comments.
Food
This is an interesting article on intermittent fasting, a form of dieting which is touted as a healthy choice for dieting, the best lifestyle to stay healthy over time, but also a worrisome choice to those with possible histories of disordered eating. A scientist is currently doing an NIH-funded study comparing people doing six months of every-other-day dieting, as compared to six months of every-day calorie restriction. I'm curious to see the outcome.
Environment
This collection of photos is worth seeing - photographers traversed the Marcellus Shale formation documenting what they could of the effects of fracking. My father previously owned a house with a beautiful waterfall and river on the propery in Pennsylvania, and sold it right before the fracking boom there. It's too bad the photographers weren't able to get any shots of the workers, more of the industry and all the promise it does provide, in order to provide more of a counter to the arguments against the environmental devastation and health risks.
Yoga
After the NYTimes has reported so. many. times. on the perils of yoga, it seems other news agencies are trying to get in on the scare tactics. My advice: Listen to your own body, honor your limitations, and be patient with your practice. You can transcend boundaries as long as you're careful.
Feminism
This collection of covers comparing the Hillary Cover to images for other (mostly male) politicians basically speaks for itself. What were they thinking? Not that I'm a huge Hillary fan, but that's no justification for that type of absurdity.
Mike Huckabee (former Republican Arkansas governor) said the government shouldn't provide co-pay free birth control to women who "cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government." He says this to argue that Democrats feel that women are "helpless and hopeless creatures" who just want government-provided birth control, and that women should be empowered to be "something other than victims of their gender." This isn't surprising considering he supported Akin's "legitimate rape" comments.
Food
This is an interesting article on intermittent fasting, a form of dieting which is touted as a healthy choice for dieting, the best lifestyle to stay healthy over time, but also a worrisome choice to those with possible histories of disordered eating. A scientist is currently doing an NIH-funded study comparing people doing six months of every-other-day dieting, as compared to six months of every-day calorie restriction. I'm curious to see the outcome.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Happy weekend
Ayutthaya, Thailand, from my trip in 2008.
A reminder of the impermanence of all things
I hope you have some time to set aside for yourself this weekend. I'm trying to get outside to relax and enjoy the sun for at least an hour every.single.day. no matter how busy I might be, and it's been nice to indulge myself in the sunshine. Here's some interesting reads I found for your weekend:
Fashion
Cheap-clothing giant H&M warned they might raise prices to pay higher wages to its factory workers. "Might" being the operative word. I don't shop much at H&M but I might consider it; I'll gladly pay a little more if I know it means a worker is no longer living below the poverty line.
Feminism
A Virginia Republican Congressman suggested that access to abortion should be restricted because more children = more jobs. People actually think like this! I'm frightened by people in power who seem to have the mentality that women's value lies solely in their ability to create babies.
Some good news: Out of all that abortion legislation I talked about last week, a North Carolina law that required doctors to display and explain ultrasounds images to women seeking abortions was struck down yesterday.
A Rothstein Kass study showed that women-owned and managed hedge funds outperform the market. A few pension funds and institutional investors have even created mandates to invest into these women-run funds, but those mandates are not the norm. Overall, the it seems that most investors don't expect to allocate more to women-owned or managed funds, but it's comforting to know that this guy was wrong.
Food
Wal-Mart joined the CIW's the Fair Food program. This is a BIG DEAL for organized labor. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida's tomato fields have been dealing with food industry giants for an extra penny per pound to go directly, which goes directly to workers. Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, Chipotle, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's have all signed on, but this is certainly the largest private food buyer in the US. This is a great take on this historic moment.
Did you know the cashew shell is toxic? And cashews are never sold raw, since they contain an resin that can cause rashes and be toxic as well.
Random
An interesting article that questions the mantra "do what you love." I never really gave this idea a second thought - and in fact, felt encouraged my entire life to find something I'm passionate about to be the seeds of a career. I definitely look up to and envy those who have found their livelihood in a profession that they love. This article calls "Do What You Love" the ultimate anti-worker ideology - because maybe work should feel like work, so workers demand and receive fair compensation and benefits in exchange for what they do. So that work is not divided into that which is lovable (creative, intellectual, socially prestigious) and that which is not (the cubicle drones, manual laborers). I have been encouraged to stop focusing on finding love for a career - and start finding love for life, for the pursuit of knowledge, for the happiness I can find outside of work - and I find it interesting how fully this idea of "do what you love" has penetrated my philosophies and my life. So this is something I have never before considered, that I need to think deeply about.
Random
An interesting article that questions the mantra "do what you love." I never really gave this idea a second thought - and in fact, felt encouraged my entire life to find something I'm passionate about to be the seeds of a career. I definitely look up to and envy those who have found their livelihood in a profession that they love. This article calls "Do What You Love" the ultimate anti-worker ideology - because maybe work should feel like work, so workers demand and receive fair compensation and benefits in exchange for what they do. So that work is not divided into that which is lovable (creative, intellectual, socially prestigious) and that which is not (the cubicle drones, manual laborers). I have been encouraged to stop focusing on finding love for a career - and start finding love for life, for the pursuit of knowledge, for the happiness I can find outside of work - and I find it interesting how fully this idea of "do what you love" has penetrated my philosophies and my life. So this is something I have never before considered, that I need to think deeply about.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Have a happy weekend.
Here's some interesting reads for your weekend!
In yoga:
Yogadork.com shares how John Friend (formerly of Anusara, Inc.) is staging his comeback. I truly loved the practice of Anusara, and was disheartened to hear about JF's behavior (sleeping with married students, hiding questionable financial practices, sending goafers for his pot and abusing his power to intimidate anyone who tried to step outside the circle). I was lucky enough to enjoy the benefits of the practice while I was stationed far, far outside of the JF circle - much like my relationship to Bikram.
NPR.org points us to Nathanael Johnson's summary of his question-everything series on GMOs, compiled over 6 months in 2013. Disclosure: I read the NPR article, but haven't been through Johnson's series yet. It's clear that the studies are conflicting about whether GMOs are harmful as food - but it is hard to ignore the other elements that are important in decision making about GMOs beyond food safety. Whether they actually make any difference in feeding the hungry. The problem of patents and big-ag corporations and the affects on farmers. Although the safety issues are where the priority may lie in studies, it's important for us to remember that the issue of GMOs goes well beyond our bodies - it goes into our soil quality, our world, and the sustainability of the farming methods that they require. Can you even grow GMOs organically? I'm not too sure about that and I'll probably be spending some time this weekend reading through this entire series to learn more.
Here's a fascinating article from Salon.com about when farming meets big data. The article targets Monsanto specifically, probably for name recognition of big-ag alone, but discusses an interesting trend where companies are developing and banking on analysis and data-driven mechanization of farming. The manipulation of farmers is no new news, and this article paints yet another frightening picture of the possibilities for large-scale control of the food industry.
In yoga:
Yogadork.com shares how John Friend (formerly of Anusara, Inc.) is staging his comeback. I truly loved the practice of Anusara, and was disheartened to hear about JF's behavior (sleeping with married students, hiding questionable financial practices, sending goafers for his pot and abusing his power to intimidate anyone who tried to step outside the circle). I was lucky enough to enjoy the benefits of the practice while I was stationed far, far outside of the JF circle - much like my relationship to Bikram.
I laughed out loud at this slideshow from mindbodygreen.com but then couldn't figure out if it is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or if it's serious!! Um, yes, I will always warm up before attempting to take pictures of myself in forearm-stand-scorpion. Thanks.
In feminism:
The Guttmacher Institute put out this summary of their review of laws affecting reproductive health and rights. More state abortion restrictions were enacted in 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade. Worth the read and very frightening to think how few people notice and care about these shifts - how quietly a lot of this legislation was passed. This reminds me of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian future where women's bodies are controlled by the state - except this is really happening. Shudder.
I definitely agree with this Flavorwire article from Michelle Dean about Lena Dunham's nudity in the HBO show Girls. Despite all my own reservations about the show, it is nice to have an in-your-face reminder of the beauty standards that we hold so near and dear, no matter how advanced our understanding of those standards may be.
In food:
Found this great site this week, where you can track what farm your food comes from in real time in your area. Not really a read, but a great tool.
In feminism:
The Guttmacher Institute put out this summary of their review of laws affecting reproductive health and rights. More state abortion restrictions were enacted in 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade. Worth the read and very frightening to think how few people notice and care about these shifts - how quietly a lot of this legislation was passed. This reminds me of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, a dystopian future where women's bodies are controlled by the state - except this is really happening. Shudder.
I definitely agree with this Flavorwire article from Michelle Dean about Lena Dunham's nudity in the HBO show Girls. Despite all my own reservations about the show, it is nice to have an in-your-face reminder of the beauty standards that we hold so near and dear, no matter how advanced our understanding of those standards may be.
In food:
Found this great site this week, where you can track what farm your food comes from in real time in your area. Not really a read, but a great tool.
NPR.org points us to Nathanael Johnson's summary of his question-everything series on GMOs, compiled over 6 months in 2013. Disclosure: I read the NPR article, but haven't been through Johnson's series yet. It's clear that the studies are conflicting about whether GMOs are harmful as food - but it is hard to ignore the other elements that are important in decision making about GMOs beyond food safety. Whether they actually make any difference in feeding the hungry. The problem of patents and big-ag corporations and the affects on farmers. Although the safety issues are where the priority may lie in studies, it's important for us to remember that the issue of GMOs goes well beyond our bodies - it goes into our soil quality, our world, and the sustainability of the farming methods that they require. Can you even grow GMOs organically? I'm not too sure about that and I'll probably be spending some time this weekend reading through this entire series to learn more.
Here's a fascinating article from Salon.com about when farming meets big data. The article targets Monsanto specifically, probably for name recognition of big-ag alone, but discusses an interesting trend where companies are developing and banking on analysis and data-driven mechanization of farming. The manipulation of farmers is no new news, and this article paints yet another frightening picture of the possibilities for large-scale control of the food industry.
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