Leap Year Fun!

I have quite a fascination for being born on February 29 (apparently so does 30 Rock). It is my go to “birthday” whenever I’m setting up fake Internet accounts. I love how most of the human race uses a calendar to represent the solar year, even though a solar year is apparently less than 365.25 days. And I just learned yesterday that years that are divisible by 100 (evenly) and by 400 (evenly) are leap years, but others divisible by 100 are not!

And how did February get stuck with 28 days? Isn’t that going to hurt February’s feelings? It’s not like giving it an extra day every four years is going to make it feel better about itself, though, right?

But seriously, wouldn’t it be extra fun to celebrate your 6^th birthday today? Wouldn’t you want to go celebrate in a way that would make up for the past four years (also, see Parks and Rec, too)?

Which is your favorite quadrennial event (of the ones I could think of)?:

-The Summer Olympics

-The Presidential Election

-The UEFA Championships

-Latvia’s International Sculpture Quadrennial Event (link: http://www.latvia.travel/en/international-sculpture-quadrennial-event)

Also, Maryland geocache loves leap years, apparently:

http://www.mdgps.org/2012/02/leap-year-events/

This, too, is quite important:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040229&slug=leapside29

But this takes the cake. I want to be here today:

http://www.leapyearcapital.com/

Happy Leap Year day!!! I hope it is even better than the one before!

 Did not even know this was a movie. So tempted to go see it. 

The Artist's Way

Sorry I've been gone-- lots of soul searching, transitions, and critical thinking have left me with little time to read the wonderful excerpts of life you all have wrote, and the time to write about what's going on in the little southern hole I'm digging here. I could go into those transitions a bit, though I think, for brevity's sake, it's a better topic for one on one talks. A quick gloss over's probably best on eye-stamina: alternative anti-depressants, lost love, anger at being a cashier with a Bachelor's degree, co-counseling, failed attempts at being creative, future questions, love for Israel vs. justice, physical rehab, and Chobani. Lots and lots of Chobani (and granola-- don't need to be Berkeley, Michael, I live next to Carrboro, the intentional/hyper-PC/hyper-envirocentric/hyper-human rights communalist capital of North Carolina). If it wasn't so dairy-loaded, I would eat one every single meal, plus snacks (wow, that was such a Whole Foods employee statement).

What I will tell you, though, is that I've been finding some very interesting voices come through my head lately, and don't worry, these are good voices (scratches neck rabidly). I recently started a self-guided course called "The Artist's Way" that is meant to unblock your inner artist/creative guru (dare I say soul?) and make it an integral and sustained part of your life (which I HIGHLY recommend to each and every one of you. Don't matter if you are gonna walk the tightrope between educational progress and support, or if you're gonna go live in a tree; everyone has creativity in them, and a spiritual connection to that side of you will enable such amazing results in your daily work/personal/internal life). Ever since I've started (about two weeks ago), I've begun to see clouds turn into a melody in my head. I've begun to sing and dance with my co-workers. I've begun to find words that I had forgotten on my 11th grade English desk pop up to form a poetic phrase when I see something common. My tone of conversation has swapped heads from a gloomy cynic to a critical eye with a smile. It's been absolutely amazing to see what kind of self-transformation is possible for me when I just picked up a book that speaks to my inner humanity. As I see it, all beings are created creative, smart, and beautiful, so why not unblock the fluff to tap into it?

Here's the website if you're at all into doing this with me, and the author's one that includes videos of how to go about unleashing your inner creativity. The time commitment? 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing (aka, you go to a page and write whatever's on your mind, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful) a day, and 2 hours of self-prescribed time with your inner artist (literally a date with yourself only) a week. From there, it is said people think clearer (which I do) and think outside the box as well. The feeling reminds me of being at Colby, when 1-3 hour classes would just captivate my attention, and I would leave the class still feeling amped from all the awesomeness I had just witnessed. Sure, you still have work, but this book has put back how Colby taught me how to work: playfully.

Lemme know if you'd be down to join. I'd love some people to play with in this surreal universe I've stumbled in on.

Has

Uh-oh, My Bias Is Showing…

It’s been officially two years and one day since I came out to Oregon for an interview for the School Psychology program; two years since I told Allie and Elise that Oregon was the place that I would likely go to if I got an invite to go there; and it’s been about one year and 363 days since Ken gave me a call to extend an invitation to come work for him and study here.

It’s been such a long amount of time since those days, but I can still remember the interview process quite well. I was ridiculously nervous—as I was at all of my interviews—but perhaps a little bit more confident in my answers and opinions after going through a series of previous interviews. But the strong desire to be in Oregon, to study some cool things, and do some research to would lead to better outcomes for children regardless of their background or social situation.

Looking back on myself from two years ago, I am still surprised that I got into the program. (I am only semi-joking when I say that I got into the program because I enjoyed Settlers of Catan.) I was very impressed with the quality of the candidates that came in to interview yesterday, many of them much more qualified than I was at the point in time, with more related research experience, more defined (and compatible) research interests, and a seemingly better fit with our program as it currently stands that I do.

A difficult part of this year has been reconciling the super-behaviorally-oriented psychology that some of our professors use as the lenses through which they conduct research. I find behavioral psychology to be a useful tool to address some of the issues that students face within schools, a great way to define problems, to monitor progress, and to use data to make decisions. However, I have had a harder time seeing how my interests will fit into the general research program, mainly because I am also interested in seeing how cognition and emotions can influence behavior (some of my professors may argue that since we can’t measure these concepts, then why bother?). This, coupled with the condescending attitude that (some of) my professors have towards those that don’t have a behavioral orientation, has been very frustrating to wrap my head around. Cognitive dissonance, like whoa.

So I guess it was refreshing to see individuals that were “ready to go” (italicized, with Kevin Baier’s emphases) with our program. But, I was honest with my own appraisals as well when conversing with some of these students. Since losing Ken, I could see a large gap in our program go unaddressed when dealing with students’ social and emotional learning-related needs. I think that our research has been skewed towards working only with individuals with developmental disabilities (which is great work, yes, but we need to be broader when working with all individuals at a school population level, in my opinion).

But the most interesting development was that the students that were in my group interview wanted to be researchers first and foremost. This wasn’t the case on my interview day, nor last year’s, when I sat on the interviewer side of the table for the first time.

This is interesting because our program has been going under a large identity crisis. We are seeking to expand to a 6 year program for those that want to have an APA accredited internship experience. The first two years the only practical experience that newcomers have will either be through research or through a field study experience. This is contrasted to last year, when we brought in a majority of Masters students for the first time in a while, where it is evident/critical that you need practical experiences to perform your job well. We thought the program was going to be more focused on Masters students, and this year it veered back in the other direction towards becoming scientists.

This is such a weird change for me because a) I don’t think I would have gotten into the program two years ago and b) I’m not sure UO would have been my first choice as it was just two years ago. At this point, I don’t know if I should draw any conclusions from that statement, but I think it demonstrates that I still feel a bit out of my element (even a year and a half into the program) and that I don’t necessarily agree with the changes that are being made to the program.

Do I stick it out? Do I look elsewhere? Do I make the best of a situation that is no longer quite as ideal as I thought it was going to be? Or do I recognize that it is the middle of winter quarter and that I am halfway done and I need more Vitamin D? 

An interesting survey...

For all the liberals out there, who think the stimulus (aka the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) passed by the Democrats and Obama was sound policy, here's some ammunition for your next argument with a Tea Party member.

In short, there's a group (IGM Forum) that polls "distinguished experts with a keen interest in public policy from the major areas of economics," chosen to be "geographically diverse, and to include Democrats, Republicans and Independents as well as older and younger scholars....who are all senior faculty at the most elite research universities in the United States." The goal is to "explore the extent to which economists agree or disagree on major public policy issues."

This time, they asked whether unemployment is lower because of the bill and whether the cost of the bill was worth it. Here's link with the results, but the bottom line is that over 90% think unemployment is down because of ARRA, and only ~15% think that it was not worth the long term cost (~30% are unsure.)

To be honest, I'm a little surprised there was much support for it among the economists polled. I kind of agree with the person who responded "how can anyone imagine that this question is answerable?" But it seems the top economists in the world think it was/is good policy. Here's the link for anyone who is interested to the poll, which has all of the numbers as well as some very brief comments by some of the professors.

http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_cw5O9LNJL1oz4Xi

Happy V-Day

Hey guys,

I just wanted to send all of you a very public Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm at a point in my life where I'm unsure of a lot of things, but I did want to express how much I love all of you and how I hope to have all of you in my life for the rest of my life. I say that pretty damn confidently, since it is over a year and a half since graduation and I miss you just as much as I did leaving Colby.

Have love, be merry, enjoy life.

Love,
Me

P.S. My song for all of you: "This Modern Love" by Bloc Party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oRlpGyI1rg

JanPlan at Colby Memes

Hey guys,

So Kate (she is trying to go by that now, for professionalism) Unsworth sent this site to me and its ridiculously navel-gazing, but look at this: http://inthecac.com/2012/01/10/know-your-meme-janplan-at-colby/

God? (Sorry Gwen that Dickinson is left out :( )

-Elise (as posted between meetings at the Connecticut Legislative Office Building...oh the life of pretending-to-work-really-hard-for-progressive-change.....but-actually-getting-something-done-sometimes)

Link Dump

Hey friends,

It’s halfway through my term. And just like some Black Eyed Peas member sang in “Boom Boom Pow:” “I be droppin’ those links…”

It’s halftime in America, and everything gets politicized.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/02/clint_eastwood_s_halftime_in_america_chrysler_ad_was_it_good_for_obama_.html

I liked the commercial, and I can see how it might get Karl Rove’s panties in a twist (any sort of objectivity I had with this blog, politically, has probably been shot). I agree that Obama needs to capture the “we just endured some crazy ass shit now let’s give it a second go” theme. But can’t we also just appreciate how brilliant Detroit’s advertising has been recently? Like, in a non-political manner?

Veering back to politics, a good decision was made today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/07/BA1H1N3T1H.DTL&tsp=1

I will always remember being in the Foss 6-man, when California’s electoral votes clinched the 2008 election. The subsequent revelry and end of Bush and celebration was quickly muted when the next images were reporting on the result of Proposition 8. While others were celebrating Obama (streaking to the flag pole, anyone?), I was bitter and pissed at some Californians (more on this story at another time). Bittersweet, yes.

Anybody ready for some hot PAC on PAC action this Fall?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/07/obama-super-pac-reversal_n_1261263.html

I can see the merit of forming a super PAC, even if Obama has been against them in the past. However, I would have loved seeing if the campaign contributions for Obama (which has been touted as being a lot of small donations) could have matched up against the large donations of a fewer individuals.

I am not looking forward to all of the negative campaigns that the candidates won’t have to be accountable for, though.

Unless, of course, it comes from Stephen Colbert:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/405930/january-15-2012/colbert-super-pac-ad---attack-in-b-minor-for-strings

Always the breath of fresh air. Love him.

Veg Chili for your Superbowl

I know that technically many people say that if there are beans in it, it's not a chili. BUT for us vegetarians, that means that we'd basically have seasoned tomato sauce. This is a really good recipe, and I'm sure if you were dying for some meat you could throw some bacon/pork/beef/sausage in it and it would be grand. But it's pretty grand how it is in my opinion. Thanks, Whole Foods!

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive or canola oil 
1 medium yellow onion, chopped 
1 large carrot, chopped 
1 stalk celery, chopped 
1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped 
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped 
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 
1 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped chipotles in adobo 

1 tablespoon dried oregano 
2 teaspoons ground cumin 
1 tablespoon chili powder 
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (if you use kosher salt, consult here)
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid 
3 cups cooked red kidney beans, drained (2 15 oz cans)
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans, drained (1 15 oz can)

Method

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, peppers and garlic and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until vegetables are softened but not browned. Add chipotles, oregano, cumin, chili powder and salt. Stir to blend. Add tomatoes and 4 cups water. Gently simmer over low heat, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Add beans and simmer an additional 30 minutes. Garnish individual bowls with green onions or sour cream, if desired.

**Putting just some cut up avocados instead of green onions/sour cream on top of this is SO good. 

**Eat it with tortilla chips (scoops)!

**Also, when you buy chipotles in adobos, they come in a can and even the smallest can comes with a lot of chipotles. You can put the leftovers in the fridge OR you can put all of them in a food processor/blender (or just cut them all up really small) and then measure out tablespoon or teaspoon sizes and wrap each of the teaspoons/tablespoons in a bit of saran wrap and put them in the freezer. Then, you can add them to whatever meal you're making whenever you want them! They'll probably stay for at least 3 months months in the freezer.