Post it Note Tuesday

Just a few thoughts about my day.

Criminal Minds

I am so HAPPY you have no idea!!!! I am super happy the Criminal Minds directors/writers decided to put the original cast back together.  They are all awesome as a unit, as well as wonderful on their own.  Anyways, this season finale was soooooooo good.  I had just begun to miss criminal minds after not watching the last season (because they replaced people), and this exceeded all my expectations! It was lovely.  All the characters were reintroduced, they all kind of made amends about whatever happened last season, and the story ended happily.  Of course next week we will be back to catching crazy killers, but this week's episode kind of started the season right.  It closed a part of the previous story lines, but also kept possibilities open for the changes that will happen this season. 

I loved this season premiere.  And usually premieres are mediocre, but this one was awesome! so I wanted to voice my opinion. 

If this entices you to want to watch the full episode the first part can be found HERE.

Unconventional Halloween Idea

I stumbled upon a great craft idea for Halloween.  Its something I am very excited about because its unconventional and I dont have to get a pumpkin. 

Its a aluminum jack-o-lantern!

The how to is pretty simple.  If you want to see the original click here, otherwise keep reading. 

With an empty and clean can, peel off the wrapping. 
With the can upside down (the open end down) draw on your face.
Use a box cutter to cut away the face.
To put a light through mark and X at the top.  With the box cutter cut the X and fold corners down inside the can (be careful!).
Then put the lamp cord through the can and close the X up.
Place the wrapper back around the can and your done.

I strayed with creating my pumpkin can.  I made my pumpkin  upside down, but then I used one of the little tea lights that are battery powered to light mine.  I was not going to play around with electrical stuff.  I am also thinking of putting a candle in one.  And if I do I think I will have to put some kind of whole in the top to keep the flame going.

Obviously this person was joe cool and used a pumpkin pie can.  I used an ordinary piece of paper for mine because we dont have any pumpkin pie cans lying around yet.  I am also thinking about trying another one with tissue paper do the light gets through easier.

Documentary Days

Absolutely Safe:  This movie is for anyone thinking about having breast implants.  This movie shows negative effects of  silicon implants specifically.  It doesn't do it use scare tactics to try to get you to not have surgery, it's more informative and lays out what has happened to regular people in an up front way.  There are a few parts with graphic images, but this is used sparingly, and does not have a negative effect on the movie's message.  





Ingredients:
This documentary takes you through the process of how food is  grown.  Many of the ideas are the same as other documentaries like food,inc. and food matters.  It discusses how factory farming is harmful to the environment and to our nutrition. This documentary also shows that local farmers are the better bet, but that they are still struggling.  It is hard for farmers to sustain their business.  Big farms are able to produce more and get more money from the government to run their operations.  While small local farmers may be the answer there are too few of them, and it is hard for them to make a good enough living for it to be worthwhile for more people to join into the farming business.  This movie shows that there is hope and that things are changing.  Small incremental changes, wherever they happen are better that no progress at all.

Vanishing Bees:  You have all heard that the bees are dying right?  Its a big issue.  Mostly because bees are essential to plant pollination and are needed to pollinate most of our foods.  This documentary takes you through what has become known as colony collapse, where bees simply abandon their hives.  No one knows why, but they just stop coming back to the hive.  This has economic repercussions because if we cannot grow our own food we are in deep deep trouble.  One part I thought was very interesting is that some people are suggesting that the pesticides  being used to treat our plants are having negative effects on the bees.  I believe this argument,  but and not sure why it would cause them to abandon their hive.  Pesticides have hazardous chemicals, and if a tiny bee were the inject those chemical they would have a much larger effect than say if a human ingested the same amount.  Bees are smaller and therefore are more dramatically effected by changes in the environment.  Its scary to think about, and I know that I would have no interest in the topic had it not been for this documentary.  One thing I suggest and encourage people to do is to buy honey that comes from the United States, it keeps the bee farmers in the US in business, and is the real deal.  Did you know that many bee keepers are going out of business because their bees are abandoning their hives?  And that we are even importing bees from other countries to pollinate our crops?  its becoming a major crisis for the US.  But at a time where food can be shipped all over the world in a matter of days it have not yet become a big problem that our food doesn't get pollinated.  One day though I am sure that there will be a major crisis where we will be able to see the impact of having no bees around.

My passion

The other day I went out to lunch with my grandma.  While we were sitting there her friends (a husband and wife) came up to us to say 'hi'.  It was the usual 'wow you have grown, I remember when you were this big...' Well then the husband asked what I was going to school for and I told him my master's degree.  He was curious and asked 'in what?' This question is usually a conversation ender bcause no one knows what you will do with a Master's in Public Administration.  So I say 'My Masters in Public Administration' and he looks at me and says 'Thank you.'

And so I'm like what, you actually know what that means and know what I want to be a part of...  It was a different experience having someone say thank you for me just going to school for something.  I didn't know what to say and just shook my head.    We said goodbye and then had our lunch.

I am still trying to process the 'thank you.'  I mean all I am doing is studying how government works to manage people and programs for citizens.  I will try to get work in government or a non profit, but I am years away from that.  But I do think the thank you might have been about putting new people in government.  The perception of those who work in government is awful.  There are a few bad seeds, like in any job, but the people who work are there because they believe in helping citizens, and they all do what they can to ensure it happens.

I'm glad someone thinks I will have a positive impact on the job I am seeking.  In my life no one understands why I am going into the public sector, or what exactly I will be doing when I get there.  Well I don't know exactly what I will be doing when I get there, but there are endless possibilities of what I could do, and many different ways that I could help people.

More Turtles

I really love turtles.

Last week I had to take my Sulcata Mogli to the vet.  She was having problems with her eyelids.  They have a third eyelid that was puffy and red, and took a long time to uncover the eye.  It made me worry.  And then she started breathing really hard.  So I got more worried.  On monday I was in a craze and had to get into the vet. (But this happened two weeks ago) 

The vet was very nice.  He's about the best.  His name is Michael Keidrowshi, you can see his profile HERE.  He said that tortoises like this will breath harder as they get older.  The bigger they are the more noise they will make when they breath.  So some noises are normal.  And mogli's eye had subsided, the doc said that bugs or grass may get in there and irritate it.    And the doc said that mogli is definitely a girl.  Good to know.  And he also said that she had tripled in size since the year before! She is nine pounds now.  There is absolutely no way to pick her up with one hand, its crazy.

So since we are back home and when I give all the tortoises a bath mogli still has problems with her eye some times.  So I pick her up, and wipe her eye trying to get the dirt or grass out of it.  She lets me wipe her eye and I can get whatever it is out in two or three wipes.  I am still really worried when her eye gets all red, but the doctor said it will happen a lot throughout a tortoises life, and that goes for all of them.

We have taken some more great pictures too.

Square got tired while eating, so decided to take a nap right there

"I'm trapped" - water baby

Cuddling Turtles

Tortoise Pyramid

"What? This is comfortable for me." - no name

Mogli is trying to get onto the bottom.  We have a stair in the backyard, and the ramp to get up and down was not up, so she was finding a different way down.  The potted plant is on the divide between the top and bottom.  She was stuck there, so I had to pick her up and move her down.

It was very hot outside so the turtles roamed the tiled kitchen.

They are hiding under the compost can.

This is the pool I give them a bath in.  It was flipped this way to dry, that is freckles sitting inside it.  She tried to move in there and it ended up falling off the step so she was stuck underneath for a little while.

This woman must love turtles as much as I do. 

Hamburger Turtle

Crazy Times

The excitement of beginning school has passed.  I am starting to feel overwhelmed.  I started the semester with 4 classes.  And that means hours and hours of homework everyday to keep up with the class lectures.  And it leaves no time to start on the major papers for each class, or any of the two papers due in any given class.

So yesterday I can home, and I was not very excited because I realized that one 20 page paper is due in a month, and I feel like I am already behind.  I told my mom I was exhausted already.  And she told me, you are taking 4 classes which is a lot for graduate school.  You don't have to take all those classes.  And it was like an "aha" moment.  I thought your right.  I had not considered this before because I thought I could do it, and I knew it would probably be stressful, but I believe I could get through it.  But I think my mom telling me that, was like her saying I will still be proud of you even if you only take three classes.  I didn't realize that I felt that way until my mom told me I don't have to take all those classes. In the very back of my mind I am also wanting to do my best and be the best to make her proud of me.

So the past few days I have been uninspired to do homework, and I was getting all worked up, but now that I don't have so many classes I don't have to get worked up.  I can just know and be ok with it, because I know I will be able to complete everything to the best of my abilities.

Something I worked on:
(you know there is never enough time when school starts.  I even quit my less than part time job, but I still feel I can and should be doing homework all the time)

 I found this block letter at Michael's for 2.50$ and was happy to buy the initial for my name and display it in my room.  Of course when I bought it it was a lonely sad white A.  I decided to decorate and have it match my colorful room.  I love it! And i had a lot of fun creatively.