Resolutions for a New Term

• Stop being so judgmental


• Really listen


• Make time to appreciate great literature


• Type properly

And you know, get good grades, actually do the pre-reading, etc.

"how are you?"

One of the best things about being back home is the change in the value people place on their relationships. People shamelessly want to spend time with each other. Nobody here chooses "maybe attending" (fuck you facebook). Everyone is in everyone else's space all the time. Yes, it's somewhat invasive. Yes, it's dramatic, but in my community, we genuinely care about each other and get to know our neighbors.

No one rushes in Masset. A quick trip to the store for milk can easily turn in to an hour-long chat. People choose to spend time together on a whim. Dropping by unannounced produces no discomfort for anyone involved. I feel like when someone stops me in the street and asks me how I'm doing, whatever I answer actually matters.

At work, however, things are entirely different. I'm still not sure what I want to be when I grow up but I do know that whatever I end up doing, I won't do it wearing a name tag. I work a relatively menial job that requires a lot of interaction with the general public. Consequently, this means that I get asked "How are you?" about once every 3 minutes, but this time no one cares about the answers. Every time I respond, "I'm fine thank-you, how are you doing?" but feel silly doing so because I don't really care what they answer either. It's a waste of time and energy. I wondered recently what would happen if I started questions I actually wanted to hear answers to.

Do you feel like you're part of a community?
Can you tell my why you're monogamous?
Do you like your siblings?
Are your parents still alive?
What has made you happy today?
What can you be passionate about, more than anything in the world?

I doubt I'd get any responses and the credit union isn't the best place for a nice chat so instead, can I please ask one thing of you? Please only ask "how are you?" or "how's it going" if you care what the answers are. I'll try my best to do the same. Deal?

and breakfast

I'm sure you've all heard me gush about Celine's Have Cake, Will Travel. Celine's started a new blog, and breakfast, "a mish-mash of all things that make life a treat" that you should check out; it's lovely! I nabbed the image below from and breakfast to give you a taste of the pleasures that await you when you check out the site [here].

Screw you, ScienceDirect

On a ridiculously belated note, I've started reading about the Step Studies. My fascination with this study reminded me that I've been meaning to make a briefing on recent HIV/AIDS research developments to send to the AIC listserv. Doing this sort of thing helps to ensure that I don't read about things like Step months after they happen. So I connected to the VPN, pulled up a search and everything I wanted to read was on ScienceDirect, which is down (hence the title of this post).

This post is really quite useless. I should be posting something of substance soon.

The Truth Experiment

I read the Science Creative Quarterly on a regular basis. Well, I've just started recently but I intend to continue. I came across SCQ's truth experiment which I think is worth a click. Aside from the fact that I do agree with many of the points presented, mostly it's the idea of playing with Google's results that is interesting (obvs). Check it.