Artemis

I vowed to not talk about the family I work for very much on my blog. I know I can't be linked to it in anyway, yet I am still nervous. But tonight with my cell phone service being nil, I need to let go of some steam. It is no secret that 5 year old S and I don't get along all that well. Except for the past week and a half. We have gotten along famously. It had coincided with a week of no television (due to some unfortunate wetting of the pants incidents while watching and then sitting in her wet pants), coincidence? She has gone out of her way to be good, asking several times a day, "Am I being good today?" "Has this been a good day?" and rushing to put stars on her behavoir chart and show her mother the second she walks in the door. We have cuddled on the couch reading, baked cookies and giggled a lot. This spurt of goodness may also have something to do with the fact that I have been letting 7 month-old S2 cry more (she is always frustrated because she wa...

"I would like to believe that objective-minded readers... can make a wise choice on oil versus wilderness. We cannont have both." - Jonathan Waterman, author of Where Mountains Are Nameless: Passion and Politics in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Happy Earth Day everyone! I hope you all find some way to celebrate the day. I, unfortunately, won't be doing too much celebrating. Every event I found to partake in will most likely not happen. Why? Because its raining. The Weather Channel predicts 100% chance of rain all day today, 100% chance tomorrow, 60% on Monday, 30% on Tuesday. We even have flood warnings in some areas due to all the rain expected. If I wasn't going to attend an event, I was at least going to pick up trash somewhere and photograph the process, but I won't be doing that now. I mean, I could do it in my raincoat with my umbrella, but the idea of picking up soggy trash doesn't sound too appealing, plus, it is quite cold out. But don't worry, I will find a way to celebrate, maybe just a little late. In Connecticut, they call April Earth Month (smart people), so there are still events for me to attend next weekend. And I can pick up trash then. And S was disappointed to hear that she wouldn't...

For more information on the film "An Inconvient Truth", check out their website http://www.climatecrisis.net/ . It will also give you other viewing options for the trailer if you weren't able to see it with the link on my previous entry. Also, you can pledge to see the film opening weekend (May 24th), if it will be at a select theater near you. The website also gave a lot of other useful information, check it out.

I just watched something that terrified me. I still have tears in my eyes and I can't seem to stop shaking. After watching it, I walked past my cd player and it was still on. I haven't listened to it in days. I then went to unplug every single thing in my room, yanking the plugs out of the wall while filled with anger (items plugged in, even if not on, are sucking up energy, raising your energy bills and contributing to the destruction of our planet). Sure, it will be an inconvience tonight to have to plug in the tv, lamp and cell phone charger when I go to use them, but not as inconvient as a destroyed home. Watch this trailer for a film coming out this summer called " An Inconvient Truth ." No explanation needed, but be prepared to be terrified, sad, hopeless and empowered all at the same time, that is how I feel. Thanks bdoc for the link.

With Earth week here, I am sure it will come as no surprise that I am going to talk about global warming. It is no longer a matter of when the negative effects will appear, they are here now. For those of you that doubt it, get out from under your rocks. If it is proof that you need, look at the news story about the poor baby walruses that are being abandoned by their mothers due to melting ice and warming waters. The babies were crying out to boats, sure to die because they are still too young to fend for themselves. Just looking at the picture will break your heart. If it is pictures you need, look at the photographic evidence of the crazy rate that the glaciers in our beloved, beautiful Glacier National Park are melting. It is here, the proof is all around us and we can only try and hope that we can somehow reverse the effects. This is why it is so important to do something for the environment, not only on Earth Day, but everyday. We are killing off our home. On a good note, magaz...

"Our species survival depends on how fast we embrace the moral shift from 'patriot' to 'global citizen'". - Chris Anderson -- curator of TED, a conference of leading thinkers in technology, entertainment and design (I think that this quote can pertain to the environment; if we all thought as "global citizens", I think we would be doing more for the environment and our fellow citizens.)

Saturday, April 22nd is Earth Day. In my opinion, this is the most important day of the year. However, I feel that we need to make every day Earth Day. We take our home for granted. People worry about a lot of different issues, but we seem to forget that if we don't start taking better care of our Earth, other issues won't matter because we will no longer have food to eat, water to drink, air to breathe or a place to call home. Every entry this week will have something to do with the environment and/or Earth Day. Today, I want to encourage you all to do something for our Earth. Recycle, walk or bike, pick up some litter, etc. Or take part in an Earth Day or environmental event. If you don't know where to find an event, look at the Earth Day Network to help you find something. Nothing matters more than our Earth.

I have been going to the gym, on a good week, 3-4 times, on a bad week, 1-2 times. I started this February 1st. And all I have lost is 2 pounds. I was brainstorming as to what I could be doing wrong. I am eating healthier than ever, limiting my calories, choosing only whole grains, eating a lot of yogurt, fruit and rice cakes as snacks, eating a little something every few hours to keep my metabolism up, cutting out sweets. Yesterday I realized that part of the problem was that I traded one addiction for another. I am addicted to sweets, no doubt. But when I started to eat better and exercising, I started to crave them less. I even have candy in my room and I can limit myself to 1 small treat a day, or even 1 a week. My new addiction is cheese. This won't come as a shock to my parents, I used to eat it non-stop as a kid. And I have continued to love it my whole life. But now, with sweets mostly out of my diet, I can't help but eat cheese. And lots of it. I eat it in my sandwiche...

I spent the weekend in New Jersey with my good friend from photography school. It was a nice and relaxing weekend. We, of course, stayed up too late talking (she is a night owl), but that was okay because we slept in the next morning. It was nice to be with someone that is easy to be with and someone that understands just how much I miss photography school. We reminisced about the summer, about our friends and classes. It was nice to talk about one of the best time of our lives, but it only made me miss it more. Like she said, "I feel like we are on summer break from college and we are going to go back to RMSP soon, but we're not". We talked about how nobody else can really understand what it was like unless they were there. It was the time of our lives, when we were most confident with our photography, when we thought we really were good, when we were with people just like us. Now we look at our photos and think we suck, saying how we used to be good, we used to know wh...

There was a special episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on tonight called "After the Storm: New Orleans". I was flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch. I came upon the show just as it was going to commerial. They were doing the clip to make you stay around through the commercial, the "coming up after the break" moment. To set the scene, they weren't rebuilding homes on this episode, they were helping with the little things that mattered. In this scene, they were helping families to restore photos that had been damaged in Hurricane Katrina. The clip before commercial showed Paige from the "Design Team" talking to a man holding a framed picture that was damaged. She asked him what the picture was and he said "it is my son". She asked how old he was in the photo, the man said 4 months. She then asked, how old is he now and the man's chin started to quiver and he choked out "35". That was all it took....

Yesterday was a great day. I decided to go on one of the walks suggested in a book I bought about nature walks in Connecticut. I went to Sherwood Island State Park . My employers told me before hand that it wasn't that nice of a park, but I have found that most things they don't enjoy, I love. So instead of their opinion deterring me, it made me want to go more. And I loved it. It was a beautiful day, sunny, breezy and in the 60's. Not warm enough for summer clothes, but perfect weather to walk and explore. There were so many people there enjoying the weather, walking, biking, picnicking (yes, that is the way you spell it), flying kites, playing with their dogs and kids. I talked to my parents on the phone when I arrived to the park and told them I was looking out at the ocean at a beautiful park and I would take them there when they came to visit. My Mom asked me if I was going to take pictures (of course I brought my photography equipment), I told her that there wasn...

The time change is not on my side. I already have sleeping problems and now I am supposed to go to bed when last night at this time it was 9:45. I usually don't go to sleep until 11:30 or 12 (if at all), which means tonight I probably won't fall asleep until 12:30 or 1. The doctor gave me some samples of Ambien to try, but I am not so sure I want to use medication. And tonight I couldn't even if I wanted to because you have to give yourself 7 to 8 hours of sleeping time, but I have to watch Grey's Anatomy, which does not leave me that amount time. Priorities people, priorities. On the nights I exercise or leave the house to do something, I can sleep. And on the weekends, I sleep like a baby. Which is why I am unsure about medication. I will decide if I need it one night this week when it has been a long, stressful day and I don't have time to go work out. Which is most days, so chances are I will use it.

Whenever I have time to write an entry, I don't feel like it. When I finally do write, I spend an hour writing and putting pictures on, then something went wrong and I lost it all. So I may try again later, but I am hungry and sick of being on the computer, so you are left with nothing good for now. Sorry.