Summer Goals

[caption id="attachment_762" align="alignnone" width="352"] Look at my happy summer time face with Prilla![/caption]

I can't believe that summer is actually here. Finally, the snow is gone and the sun is coming back up! I finished packing up all of my winter clothes. Very late in the year for the temperature shift, but here we are at last. My plants are growing faster, full leaves and thirsty roots.

With summer and good weather brightening my day, I feel refreshed and rejuvenated to do more. There's something about things growing for the first time in months that makes me want to grow as a person too. Not to mention that I have far more free time without semester work taking up my time. Homework somehow manages to take up an infinite number of hours - just expands to take as much time as you'll give it or spend procrastinating. Without the extreme stress and yo-yo of responsibility, I want to lay out a few goals for the next couple of sunny months. 





I want to work on some of my side projects. Throughout the semester I've been thinking and turning over ideas, ruminating really on what I want to do as creative outlets. Now is the time to take action on those goals! Planning means nothing if you don't put the ideas into action.

1. Improve blogging


2. Promote blogging


3. Begin Youtube (again)


4. Paint more

I don't want to put too much pressure on myself as far as creative projects. Often that ends up stymying me and putting me at a complete stand still. But also, I need to force myself to continue working on these aspects of my skills. Without external pressure or motivation, I struggle to complete projects. Learning to apply myself for my own sake is a really important skill.

As far as my summer work, I'm continuing the project from last summer on Japanese prints.

1. Data Analysis


2. Edit previous writing


3. Complete thesis work


4. Cultural Anthropology component

I hope that you too can have a lovely and productive summer! Especially in working on yourself and your creative impulses and projects! We can share our progress as the months go on.

Disease in Dorms: How to stay healthy

Dorms tend to be vectors of disease. MIT dorm Next house recently had to email out about several cases of food poisoning/stomach bugs. Mono is a common disease in colleges, not just because of kissing but also due to the sharing of unwashed (or insufficiently washed) eating utensils. Colds, flus, stomach bugs: these sorts of viruses love the life of a barely washed underfed overstressed college student. Most dorms will have mice. Many of the MIT frats have issues with bed bugs. I hope that you're beginning to get the idea:

• It's easy to get sick in a dorm because things are dirty and gross

I've also written about dorm pests in the kitchen and how to store your food safely in a dorm.

Not only that but people don't take care of themselves:

• stressed


• under fed


• few fruits and veggies


• lots of junk food/ take out


• sleep deprived


• lots of travel


• exposure to lots of people

i think we all know the trope of the student during finals week who hasn't showered and barely subsists on redbull and ramen.



But!

I'm really going to encourage you to eat well and rest well while at college. All of those items in the list are risk factors for getting seriously sick. 

Trust me when I say that taking care of yourself will provide exponential returns.

Homework: Border Patrol Piece

So this is basically documentation on a homework assignment I had for an MIT class. I figure that some people are probably curious about what classes at MIT are like, espcially non-engineering classes since people don't talk about them as much.

21A.445/WGS.272  Slavery and Human Trafficking is a Women and Genders Studies class as well as an Anthropology class, making it a social sciences class.

[caption id="attachment_731" align="alignnone" width="365"] 21A.445/WGS.272 Slavery and Human Trafficking[/caption]

The assignment description was as follows:

Weekly Memo Topic: What is border policing? In addition to your written response, produce a creative response: drawing, poem, music, Vine, Storify, photos, etc. The creative response should be something you can produce in under 15 minutes.

Basically I wanted to make our teacher have to 'enforce' a border. I really don't know what the experience of patrolling or enforcing a border would be like. So I wanted to make someone else have that experience, maybe the discomfort of it or even being desensitized from the violence inherent.

[caption id="attachment_726" align="alignnone" width="225"] Making of[/caption]

So I took a piece of water color paper and made a kind of earth painting with water colors. I tried to use a little salt but I don't think it went very well. Then I cut the paper along a diagonal and sewed the piece back together with a green embroidery thread. This probably took 5 minutes.

I turned the piece it self into my teacher along with brining a pair of scissors. She had said that an image of the piece would've been sufficient which no.

the image of the object is not the object

[caption id="attachment_727" align="alignnone" width="225"] What I turned in: Piece + Scissors. Instructions: "Cut the string."[/caption]

I gave this to her - piece and scissors - and told her to cut the string. The instructions were also on the back of the piece. She asked me a couple of questions and I kept repeating the instruction. I didn't want to give her any extra information or reassurance about enforcing the border.



Once she started cutting the string, she asked me fewer questions. She hesitated a couple times when she first started cutting the string, but she ended up cutting all of the string. At the end, there were the two pieces of paper separated with the cut string bits still in each piece.



And that's what I turned in! While she completed the piece I took photos of the process.

We met in small groups and discussed our creative pieces.

Disucssion

I feel pretty satisfied with what I made. I think that I gave her an experience. I also had the experience of sewing the piece together which made watching her cut the piece a little saddening.

[caption id="attachment_732" align="alignnone" width="273"] Interviews with Border Patrol Agents - Chet Wilson and Jim Runyan[/caption]

I think that it would've been more helpful if I'd framed the piece, took the framing apart in front of her, and then asked her to cut the string. The finished piece would be to turn in the whole de-assembled piece in her care.

Alternatively, including her comments about participating would've added something to the piece. This was while we were reading interviews with border patrol agents. Including an interview with her in a similar formatting seemed a bit excessive at the time, but I think that it would've been an illustrative capture of the moment to include with the piece.

As a performance piece, I don't think you could really replicate the piece. I do think that you could replicate the experience and the learning involved in being asked to enforce a border. More participants would've complicated the piece and opened more possibilities.



I'm including this as the class is ending since I didn't want to "spoil" anyone for it who might be in the class. Do people enjoy hearing about MIT classes or the work I do for them?

Spring has Sprung

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[caption id="attachment_722" align="alignnone" width="225"] Spring has sprung![/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_723" align="alignnone" width="225"] Here is a spring goose, part of a gander[/caption]

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Hummingbirds: But they're so tiny?!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyqY64ovjfY

Today: Get Started

In one of my anthropology classes, a girl made a great comment about the rescue-savior complex and trafficking of children.

"I just really respect the people who try to do something even if it's not perfect if it helps someone.

And there's something so great about what she said. Because I think that the way we achieve perfection is by trying something imperfect.

Our imperfect attempts are learning experiences. Certainly we have a responsibility to think long and hard about the actions we take to make them as safe and helpful as possible at our first attempt. Never the less we never know how to do something perfectly on our first attempt.

No one can predict the sudden changes of a moment nor the ripples that come out of our small stones.

Similarly, we receive criticism and feedback after we do something.

[caption id="attachment_717" align="alignright" width="225"] What can you do Today?[/caption]

We can only see the effects of the ripples after the stone has dropped. Listening to the complaints of the whole river can allow us to engineer responsive designs that better meet the needs of the people we're trying to help.

Really what I'm getting at is this:

You have to do something. Today.

So that you can improve something. Tomorrow.

Most people think that political and social change needs to come slow and steady, so it makes sense that starting a ball rolling would allow that slow steady progress to end up at it's destination sooner. I tend to think that social change movements need to be radical in order to move us in the correct direction.

No matter what, people have do something - something powerful and courageous - in order for lasting change to occur. I think one of the unique things about the internet is that we never know what small action will be amplified by social media. GoFundMe and other fundraising sites have allowed us to find completely new sources of funding, beyond grants or large donors. 

And part of the lasting change bit is that people have to really feel something in order for the change to remain. Feeling invested and helped by a change is what gets people, new people, engaged. Change and improvement in turn keeps them engaged and working on helping others (or even themselves)! Think of the difference between Stop Kony and Nerdfighter's ongoing work with KIva. 

So get started on changing something you've always thought was wrong.

Because who knows how far that change may eventually go once you get it rolling.

[caption id="attachment_719" align="alignnone" width="224"] Here is Prilla STOPPING a ball from rolling.
SHE IS A CHANGE STOPPER.[/caption]

Planning

 I really love writing little lists.

There's something so fulfilling about the ability to cross out things as I achieve them.

I've also started to do decorative monthly planning. I basically made my own planner from free printables and my own edited pages. Taking the time at the start of the week grounds me.

I always try to sort my priorities based on the realm of my life that they fall into.

• Social


• School


• Home


• Chores

And there are so many lovely notebooks and inserts to ogle over. Certainly, I find it inspiring to source from all these different beautiful images and to dream of owning particular ones.



(Mochi Things Kitty Art theme notebook)

I've really been enjoying watching Youtube videos of planners. I don't know what's so wonderfully calming about them, but it simply is. Also there's this sort of visual feast going on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0s5SYtVa6g