So, we just passed a big milestone! On November 30th, while my parents were visiting me here in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, this little guy celebrated his fifth adoptiversary! (You can read about how his adoption came to be here.) He was utterly spoiled by his grandparents with yummy food and treats as you can see.
It's so hard to believe we've had him so long. That would put him around 15 years old as best we can tell.
So as I've been in deep with finishing up the final deliverable for the fall quarter at school whilst shoveling snow... I thought I would take a moment. In honor of the Christmas season, because I love them and because I miss the Sing-Off show where they debuted, I'm sharing a video of Pentatonix singing Little Drummer Boy... enjoy!
Once again I am moved to tears about the power of many at the climate march that happened just over a month ago. You can read all about my experience here. This video is so awesome. To see everyone coming together with one goal in mind, coming together to say what is going on is not okay and we need to make a change. Everyone taking a stand for our earth. It was and is amazing. Just as we paused for a moment, all 400,000 of us, we took a moment to recognize the fight, the loss and the magnitude of what is happening. And then to hear a collective sound that was almost deafening... amazing. Just think of what we can do if we all come together. My hope is this inspires all of us to do at least one thing in support of our climate.
As school has started, I am a little behind in all the things I wanted to blog about. So, I thought I'd take a moment to look back and cover some cool things that have happened. The first week of school we went on an orientation trip all over Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. We saw so many cool things and continue to learn a bunch every day. As my year progresses, I am committing to sharing all the amazing things I'm learning so we can all join in the process of being more earth-friendly. On our last day of the orientation trip, we went to see a living machine in Grafton, Massachusetts called the Living Systems Laboratory. A living machine is defined as a form of ecological wastewater treatment designed to mimic the cleansing functions of wetlands. You can read all about this specific one here and here. The story of this site is based on the industrial history of the river. There was a mill located upstream that produced various types of things over the 150+ years it was in operation on the Blackstone River. It was closed in 1986 and the structure subsequently burned down in 1999 leaving a toxic rubble. Since then the mill site has leeched oils and contaminants into the ground, heavily polluting the river. In response to this issue, John Todd Ecological Design built a living machine to help with the cleansing of the river. Here's how it works: First, the water is skimmed and cleansed by passing through these floating islands of vegetation. At this part of the river, the water is murky and when the temperature outside increases, you can see the oils in the river bed rise to the surface creating a nasty film.
They are made to float on the buoyant material below and planted with water-loving plants and fungi that help take up the harmful toxins in the water through their roots, thereby starting the cleansing process.
The water then moves through piping at the bottom of the river and is pumped into the main core of the living machine in this greenhouse.
When it's pumped in, the first station is the fungi station. Water is pumped successively through these fungi-inoculated trays.
Here's a close-up of the fungi in action!
The water then moves to a series of large planted vats resembling ponds. They too are planted with various water-loving plants and fungi. Most of the greenhouse is filled with these large vats containing water and filtering plants/fungi.
Here's a close-up of the plant life in the containers.
Just like the fungi trays, the water is successively pumped from vat to vat where it is moved further along the cleansing spectrum.
After the water moves through all these stages, it is pumped back into the river, better than when it came in. This living machine is constantly in motion which is very cool. The plants and fungi that were originally placed in every stage of the machine have changed and other plants have taken over. That is the beauty of nature - it changes and adapts to best work with the situation. The best thing about this project is that they have measured a considerable reduction in toxins downstream from the living machine. How amazing plants and fungi are. Just think how our world could be improved if we incorporated more of this technology into our everyday lives. It's out there. People have systems even in their own homes where all their grey water is filtered and cleansed so that it can be re-used. Water is a limited resource, something that is hard for especially those of us in the Northwest to comprehend. It should be treated as the precious commodity that it is. I'm so glad places like this living machine are out there doing the hard work to repair what damage humans have done every day.
Since moving to the countryside in Massachusetts, I have seen this as an opportunity to take a break from hip-hop-ish music to delve into country again and I love it. I love country because the songs always tell a story and often make me tear up. I have found a couple songs recently that make me very happy when I hear them so I thought I would share.
Dirt - Florida Georgia Line
Video's a little cheesy but what a great song!
Perfect Storm - Brad Paisley
Today I marched in the Peoples Climate March in New York City. This march, along with other sister marches done in solidarity around the world, was done to bring change and communicate the urgency just days before a UN climate summit. In New York alone, it was estimated the march brought around 400,000 people. If you want to read more about it and see lots of photos, click here.
As I sit here, very tired, head and whole body hurting from a long day, I am overwhelmed with emotion in realization of the magnitude of what was done today. I was a part of a movement making a statement that we are willing to fight for our world. We're not willing to accept that our children may have a future earth akin to the likes of Mars. We're not willing to accept plants/species dying, sea levels rising, contaminated water/air and continuous addiction to fossil fuels. The time for drastic change has come.
I remember this last spring in my low-impact design class my teacher mentioning this march. I thought to myself... well I will be over there... Today it became a reality and I marched for a better planet. And even though I'm just one person, each of us together today created a movement, a march. Just like it's been said before, a rainstorm starts with just one drop. What are you doing for the earth today?
Changes will come from the power of many; but only when the many come together to form that which is invincible, the power of one.
I am pretty blessed. The matron of the yard is the biggest sugar maple I have ever seen. I have chosen to call her Bea. (This of course would be in honor of Bea Arthur of the Golden Girls, a lady and show I hold dear.) Bea has pins holding her multiple trunks together so the limbs don't fail and I believe she has a hose that may have once been used to tap sugar. Her canopy stretches across half of the back yard. She's quite impressive.
I am now a resident of Ashfield, Massachusetts. I have a downstairs apartment which is just the basement of a home referred to as a "cape" style. The back yard feels like my own private oasis when the owner's family isn't here. It's peaceful. Ashfield is a rural community that is mostly farms. Most of western Massachusetts consists of long winding roads dotted with farms, small towns and homes with stands on the front lawn selling harvested vegetables. It's lovely. It's a bit humid but completely tolerable which makes for a nice comfortable feeling to lounge in. At the moment, it's great to be able to take advantage of all the local produce at the mini stands or at farmers' markets as they are just lovely.
I am here to go to the Conway School of Landscape Design which is 20 minutes away. School starts tomorrow so I thought I would take stock and prepare for what is ahead. Today my girlfriend of 7 years returned back to Seattle after moving me over and helping me get settled. This is devastating. At the moment, it's hard as I think of being alone this year and not having my girl Fynn as well. The amount of changes that have occurred within the past couple of months, the amount of trials has just been unbelievable but I have come out on the other side. And at the moment, I have the rare luxury of enjoying the summer warmth while not having anything to do besides put bug spray on and read an assigned book that should be done by now (oops). It's beautiful, peaceful, and difficult all at the same time. But how could we not appreciate that beauty if we didn't have the struggle? So tomorrow starts a new chapter officially, as I move forward in achieving my dreams. Scary, depressing and exciting all at the same time.
Yesterday was National Dog Day so in honor of that, I would like to call out the two important kids in my life, my dogs.
Milo
This brave little guy just accompanied us on our trip across the United States as I just moved to western Massachusetts for a year of graduate school. On a side note, to describe the last couple of months, it has been very stressful emotionally in our home as we were dealing with moving and dog issues. So to add the change in home dynamic to driving for 6 days straight and staying somewhere new each night, it definitely was difficult for him. But he managed it with a bit of ease and is now an east coast dog. He's settling in, misses me during the day but is maintaining his good guard dog status as he warns us of any potential intruders. What a trooper, Milo!
Fynn
The other dog in my life is Fynn. She's my baby, if you haven't noticed, but this past month and a half has proven to be a difficult journey. For a long time now, Fynn has been having a lot of mobility issues. Her back legs were giving out and making it harder for her to walk, especially up the few stairs we have to get into the yard. Her quality of life was suffering incredibly, so on August 8th we put Fynn down. It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life. In the end, she knew what was happening and showed us that she had been fighting to move and work through the pain more than we knew. There are so many things that would not have been possible like moving across the country with a dog that could no longer get into the car on her own. The important thing is that now she is no longer in pain and is able to be with her mom and pops, running on the beaches of heaven.
I miss her every day. Every day things get easier but there is still a large hole in my heart. She was such a big part of my life, my baby girl. She always knew when I was sad and would get up and come and check in with me. She was a comfort, a friend, and the best dog a girl could ever ask for.
As my time winds down at my current position before heading to grad school, I posted my job last Friday to Craigslist. I am an office manager at a law firm and as such, I wear many many hats, including the head of HR! So, I am now going through resumes and cover letters of all the applicants. The moment they started to trickle in, I noticed an issue immediately - people not reading/following directions. But first, let me take a moment to discuss something.
In working out the job description for my position with my boss, I championed a few things. I feel strongly that for administrative positions, a bachelors degree is not necessary (like other postings require) and that experience is far more important. I can tell you that my education in college didn't prepare me for work in the administrative realm. I personally believe administration is a quality you are born with and it's not easily trained. Because of this, I wanted to break down the potential barrier to good applicants who wouldn't meet the education requirement.
Is this inability to follow directions an indicator of lack of education or possibly a symptom of the generation that is applying? Regardless of the answer, I feel it necessary to list the four top things to consider when applying for a new job.
TOP 4 THINGS WHEN APPLYING FOR A JOB
1. Read the job description.
Read through it in its entirety, including all the way to the bottom. Does this job fit you? Do you meet the requirements? If you don't have the minimum experience required, does your work experience or do your references speak to your ability to tackle this new challenge? If not, then this is not the job for you so please don't apply.
2. Follow directions.
When the job posting states at the end of the post to please submit a cover letter and resume, that is exactly what is required. What does that look like? Preferably, this is short email introduction describing your attachments and expressing interest in the position. And you have two attachments, one being the cover letter, the other being your resume. You can put this all inline in your email or use your email as the cover letter but it is better to do as instructed.
3.Be enthusiastic and polite.
Simply put, sell yourself but in a nice manner. Don't just respond with an attachment and no text in your email. This is your chance to show who you are and the niceties of that first email mean a lot.
4. Have your cover letter reviewed prior to sending.
Most jobs require writing skills and the cover letter is your chance to show your grasp on the English language. Huge red flags pop up when I see sentences that don't work. There are places out there that can help with this so take advantage of that if you plan to apply to a job that requires writing.
Case in point: My position listing stated a required skill is "attention to detail" and yet I have about a third of the applicants with no cover letter submitted. This just isn't going to fly folks. It's so simple but so easily done wrong. God bless all those folks who are applying and whatever their situations are. I'll be joining you soon in the ranks of those looking for employment. Just know that it takes more than just replying to a post to land a good job!
So... heard this on the radio this morning and it had a pretty good beat. Well, to be honest, anything after "Wasted" by Tiesto sounded like a good thing. I'm driving around taking care of some errands on a nice Seattle morning and I hear this song come on. The main lyric of the chorus is "I like us better when we're wasted". So of course, I automatically get defensive and pissed because although it has a good tune, I'm rather frustrated with the message. To its defense, I looked up the lyrics when I got to work and the song has more to it than just that small part. It's a tiny bit deeper but I have a problem with the fact that it will likely become an anthem for summer graduation keggers all over the country, helping all the youngins feel justified in their inebriated chaos. Lovely.
Anyway, back to this other song. Good beat... I was hooked. So I came to work and looked the video up and found this lovely bit. Please take note of the innocent cheetah cub poster in the first sequence and of course, let's all applaud the granny who is absolutely brilliant. So, for all of you who have had a crazy week (mine has been crazy busy with stress of work and school, then finding out I got into grad school yay!), here's your entertaining and amusing video of the week accompanied by a song with a fantastic beat.
So, to not only lighten the mood from my last post but to also recognize, I am wishing a belated Administrative Professional's Day to all those hard working folks out there! In the ode to my fellow grunts last year, I shared a snapshot of my life in the administrative sector. Let's face it, we keep the world turning. And as I sit here at 9:20 PM, working until 11 or so, it's clear what we do. Yes, my boss is a far cry from the one from hell (cheese-picker-offer) and is currently supporting my school career by letting me have flexible hours. And yes, he does get me flowers every year for my birthday which always seems to happen right around this fabulous day (this year, same day). But every year, I tell myself the flowers are in appreciation for being the Office Manager Extraordinaire, a title I've seriously considered signing off with in all correspondence. We all need some appreciation.
So this one goes out to all the folks who wear so many hats. For me, it's receptionist, accountant, paralegal, executive assistant and business development/marketing manager. And props to all of us who realize how important we are to the life-blood of the business and choose to work through the pain of migraines, sleepiness and sickness. My favorite is when I have a cold, answer the phone, and then get asked if I have a cold. When I respond yes, they immediately feel sorry and express their condolences. Let's all ignore the white elephant in the room, please? Oh I could go on but bottom line...
We, administrators of the world deserve appreciation. So hats off to you!
I'd like to say happy Earth Day but am unfortunately in a more somber mood. For the few, the proud loyal followers of this blog (aka my mother, shout out to mom!) this isn't a happy post and of course will not gain more readers with it's serious nature but I feel it's necessary to be said.
I would like to talk about what we as humans have done in regards to nuclear fission and fusion.
This past weekend I checked out a fictional book from my library that follows a young lady who was born on the day of the Chernobyl disaster in Pripyat, the town closest to the Chernobyl reactor, and her journey to gain revenge for all the negative effects of the nuclear movement. The things she speaks of I was not familiar with so I decided to start learning a bit more about the world's nuclear journey. What I found has brought up a lot of emotions including shock, disgust, horror, and remorse. Spending my formative years in Richland, Washington, closest town to the Hanford Site that was a key player in the nuclear movement in the 40s and 50s, you would think we were taught about our nuclear history as a country and world. In fact, one of the high schools in Richland has a "bomber" as their mascot. Here's what their logo looks like:
Every once in a while you would hear of conterversy regarding this logo and having learned about our nuclear history, I would agree that it's horrific to be used as a high school's mascot. As you can see, my education seriously lacked information about the realities of nuclear testing.
Whenever I find something that I don't know much about, I like to read up on things to educate myself. I believe that with knowledge, we as humans can be enlightened, explore new horizons and most importantly learn from mistakes that have been made. Without this knowledge, how can future generations make good choices? It is in this vein that I would like to share what I've learned about atomic bomb testing as well as the most recent disaster of Chernobyl.
"Fat Man", Nagasaki
Atomic Bomb Testing
The first atomic bomb detonated on Earth was named Trinity and it was set off on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. It's shocking to see video and pictures of these bombs going off. Here's Trinity at 16 milliseconds:
At this stage, it looks like an amazingly terrifying ball of molten explosiveness. It then balloons up to the mushroom cloud seen above. Here's a video of that explosion:
Between 1945 and 1962, the United States held 331 nuclear testings. They were conducted mainly in Nevada, New Mexico, and parts of the Pacific Ocean as well as the Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific. The tests were done to research the affects of atomic bombs on various things like structures, animals, water, water-going vessels and the atmosphere. Here are some shocking things I found out and witnessed:
A fleet of vessels was placed in the Pacific ocean in one of the many bomb tests done on a myriad of atolls to measure the affects of blasts done below and above the surface of the water. Animals such as goats were placed on some of these boats, confined, to test their reaction. As the wave of the blast enveloped the boats, these poor animals had no chance of survival.
Many of these tests done in the Pacific Ocean have left massive craters in the ocean floor miles wide and have devastated all life on and around these precious atolls.
In countless tests done in the deserts of New Mexico and Nevada, structures were set up to test their durability in a nuclear blast. In addition to inanimate things, animals were also placed in pens or cages in the blast range. In videos, you can see what appears to be gerbils first cooking in their cages and then what appears to be their skin being ripped off as subsequent waves rip through the area.
In a test known as "Teak" in 1958, a bomb was detonated nearly 50 miles above the Earth's surface and it created an EMP that silenced radio transmissions for nearly 8 hours.
In the Trinity test, the ground of the 1/2 mile crater created by the bomb was turned into a green glass that 50 years later was still radioactive.
A month after the first nuclear bomb was detonated and tested, we used two bombs to help bring an end to WWII at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Hiroshima, it is estimated that over 70,000 people were killed instantly and in Nagasaki, the estimate is over 42,000 people died. Pictures taken after the bombs show mostly skeletons. There was no flesh even left on the bodies.
The questions I have are simple. Why did we see fit to continue testing after seeing the horrific affects of just a few bombs? Why did we choose to use these bombs as an act of war? I understand that fighting the war would have produced many casualties on both sides and the bombs were used as a way to bring a swift end to the war. Was the immediate and eventual loss of so many Japanese lives worth it? What are the environmental effects of all the bomb tests and how have they affected our world?
Chernobyl
On April 26, 1986, a perfect chain of events occurred to produce what is known as the Chernobyl Disaster. One of the reactors exploded sending a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere.
The accident was so slow to be confirmed that it took one to two days for the nearby town of Pripyat to be evacuated. By that time, the town's inhabitants had already been exposed to lethal amounts of radioactivity. The plume of radioactivity was carried by the wind as far as France. In order to stop the plume, they had to dump countless amounts of sand and boric acid to seal the burning material. Then, to start the cleanup, they had to collect all the highly radioactive debris around the site in order to bury it. They started out by using machinery as they knew the area was highly radioactive. However, due to the high levels, the machinery stopped working and they had to use people dubbed "liquidators" and "bio-robots" to manually remove the debris from the top of the facility. These men, clothed in lead suits, were only able to be in that site for a maximum of 40 second intervals before being drastically affected and unable to work due to the radioactivity.
You can see in this picture that the high levels of radioactivity were even affecting the film in the camera of this photographer as the radioactivity came up from under the camera producing white marks.
They ended up enclosing the structure in a sarcophagus that is today in the process of being enclosed again as it is showing signs of wear and tear. This process will more than likely need to be repeated as the half-life of plutonium is over 200,000 years. This means that site will be highly radioactive far past our lifetime. Today, the town of Pripyat is still vacant as well as most of the surrounding area. They tried to wash off the toxic dust that had landed on the surrounding landscape to minimize the radioactivity but it is still there.
I'm sure that at least the reaction to Chernobyl could have been better had we known how best to deal with a catastrophe of this proportion. Unfortunately, not much experience existed at the time. To this day, the former Soviet Union has changed acceptable radiation levels to skew statistics of people who have been negatively affected by this disaster. I'm sure we will never know the full toll that was taken by not only the people in the blast and plume areas but the men who came in and risked their lives to contain the disaster.
I must be crazy. To me it seems like we can find so many better ways that are not harmful to the environment or humans to produce energy. And if we can all agree to be peaceful, there should be no need to ramp up production of weapons of mass destruction. Of course, this is a highly idealistic view I'm sure is not shared by many. It just scares me to think of what undocumented effects all this nuclear activity has produced on our planet. At what point do we stop and say this isn't worth it? I mean sure, it is now providing a lot of jobs at places like the Hanford Site to manage the clean-up of all the waste produced from this nuclear era. But is it worth it? I don't think so.
My hope is that you take this Earth Day and ponder what affect you have on the planet. What are you doing to make the world you live in a better place? It can start with recycling that plastic frozen food tray or using a water bottle instead of buying disposable ones. How can you help in your region? Are you aware of the environmental issues plaguing your area and what are you doing to help? If we can just start to take steps towards action, what kind of positive effects can we bring about?
Our dear foster Princess Ella has been blogged about! Recently, she was interviewed by People United for pets and had lots to say! So proud of our girl ;)
In honor of my Irish clan, I say Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!
I'm not sure why I'm so excited to celebrate the Irish High Holiday this year... maybe it's an avoidance tactic as it is finals week and I have little sanity left. Regardless, I'm feeling the luck-o-the-Irish this year and happy to think of something else besides all the work I still have to do to prepare for finals.
My grandma came from two Irish families, the Murphys (on her mother's side) and the O'Shaughnessys (on her father's side). While the family, like so many immigrants, was forced to change their name (to Shaugnessy to be less confusing) and to abandon a lot of their customs, we still found a lot of pride in all things Irish and would always have corned beef for St. Patrick's Day growing up. My grandmother also gave me the wonderful gift of awesome music. We would go and spend long periods of time with her, driving around her home in the desert of California, doing fun things and listening to random but very cool music like the Mamas and the Papas and Paul Simon. One of the greatest gifts was an introduction to the Irish Rovers. God Bless her, we had so much fun with them. Here's a taste of their awesomeness...
And my fav... Lilly the Pink!
Awesome.
Now that you have had a little toe-tapping fun (I know that I have), I leave you with an amusing poem one of the Irish Rovers said in one of their concerts...
My darling girl turned 9 on Monday the 27th. I'm so happy to have her in my life. As we've already taken a trip down memory lane about Fynn's life, I'll focus on this past year. First off, to celebrate her birthday, Fynn got a HUGE bone...
Here she is waiting ever so patiently for her birthday bone.
And it wouldn't be a picture without a photo-bomb from Ella the foster cat.
Finally!
As of right now, we still haven't quite conquered the massive gift but it's ours and we're very happy to protect it!
As fun as it is to celebrate her birthday, it's important to take a moment and remember that we almost didn't have this time with her. Six months ago today, Fynn was rushed to the vet with a deadly case of bloat.
Fynn post-bloat surgery
I cherish every day with her, not only because she's getting old and we're not sure how much longer she'll be with us but because this reality almost didn't happen. So thankful.
So, in honor of the past six months that I consider a bonus, here's the past year in review.
Aside from the obvious, we had a pretty good year.
This summer when the weather was good we took lots of leisurely strolls through the nearby cemetary with our brotha-from-anotha-mutha Milo.
We also went camping where we had the pleasure of sleeping right next to mom, what a treasure!
Fynn saying goodnight laying her head on my sleeping bag.
And we took lots of cruises with mom - one of our favorite things to do!
For Christmas, we got to go to lovely Lake Tahoe...
Fynn enjoying our stop at Lake Shasta.
And on Christmas day, we not only got to partake of lovely bows (our tradition)...
but also the love of our favorite Auntie Jennie.
This past weekend for her birthday we went to Neah Bay... one of Fynn's favorite places... where we got to go to the beach. Like her parents, she's such a beach girl.
As we all know, music plays a big part in my life. While other people are keen to understand everything going on in a football game, I'm the one listening to the musical interludes. I'm the girl in the restaurant who hears a good tune playing softly in the background and starts to dance... much to the embarrassment of my girlfriend:) This all became even more clear last night as I heard a song on the radio and was like, "this song just makes me think of the Seahawks" and she was like, "what?" I guess while I'm trying to pay attention to the plays at games, my head is automatically groovin when a song comes on... or alternately wincing in agonizing pain when the Sea Gals (Seahawks cheerleaders) dance to yet another awful white-rock song.
And now let's take a moment to address this issue...
Dear Sea Gals, As much as I appreciate you trying to cater to those people in the audience who don't appreciate the various hip-hop tunes played during the game, dancing to awful white rock is not the solution. In the future, PLEASE select rock classics from the likes of Led Zeppelin or go for any 80's rock classics from the likes of Def Leppard. (I think we would all love to see you dance to "Pour Some Sugar On Me") Then at least we can actually enjoy your performance without plugging our ears. Thanks.
So December ushered in the return of my favorite singing competition... the Sing-Off. Now people may love American Idol or the Voice or all the other shows out there looking for singing talent but this show is the one with the musical chops. As anyone who's ever sung with other people knows, it's hard to not only match pitch and tone but to also sing in harmony. In a capella groups, that is all you do and since there are no instruments to keep you in tune, it is even more difficult as every flaw stands out. After NBC cancelled the show after 2011, they decided to bring it back this past December. While the harmonies and competition weren't as good as the third season (in my opinion) there were still amazing moments. Here's my favorite song of the season (Colder Weather by the Zac Brown Band) being sung by the winner Home Free...
Awesome.
Season three had an amazing group called Afro-Blue from Howard University that had UH-MAZING jazzy tunes. This was my favorite song of theirs from the season. (Hint: if you want to skip over the intro discussing the group's journey to that week's tune, the song starts at 1:45)
Impeccable... they were my second choice...
Season three's winner was Pentatonix. (You can check out their YouTube channel here.) After three seasons, they were the first to have such a complete sound, to do amazing pop effects, and they did it all with just five people! Here is just one of my favs...
And here is another one I love...
And last but not least, this rendition that I find super sweet...
So... glad I had this opportunity to geek out... Thanks to NBC for bringing back a show with true musical grit ;)
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