The Glass is 100% Full

Don’t look now, but it’s August!  I know, I know.  Summer is almost over.  But before we begin to get ourselves down, thinking about late nights in libraries, depressing football losses, freezing cold weather, and depressing football losses in freezing cold weather, remember this:  the glass is 100% full.

Suppose we are walking, and we forget what we’re doing and make a wrong turn.  What do we do?    Many people may keep heading in that same wrong direction.  What’s better, though, is to adjust our route for what is fastest (or most scenic, easiest on the joints—whatever we value most) at that moment.  If that requires pulling a one-eighty, we do it.  To avoid looking weird, we might cross the street beforehand, but still, we do it.

It’s like exponential decay.  Carbon 14 doesn’t know that 10,000 years ago it had a lot more of itself.  It’s just happy that it has so much of itself now.  From its point of view, carbon 14 is always normalized to 1, the present!  And by doing so, carbon 14’s attitude always remains aligned.

Er, excuse me for that nerdiness.

Anyway, it’s thinking about situations as if they are brand new to us.  If summer were only one month to begin with, we would all be quite happy that there’s one month of summer left.  It’s like we’re drinking our glasses, and they become half empty, but instead of wishing that emptiness were filled, we just get smaller glasses.

And there you have it, a full glass.  And as mother always said, let's be sure to finish our glass before we drink another.  I’m feeling a little thirsty for some smoothie about now, so feel free to stop by if you want some.  Cheers to August as the best month ever!

Spoon Theory

PREFACE
Tonight we discussed some pressing issues which concern many people in Ann Arbor and across the USA. It all started when Tyler drafted a letter to the president (not a waste of time, as this girl proved) and inquired us as to what he should include. I drew the short straw and was denoted "evening scribe".

FOCUS/THESIS
1. Thinking about where our country was headed made us focus on three main areas: The economy, sustainability, and happiness.
2. These items can be summarized into a single, unifying idea. I call it Spoon Theory.

PROBLEM
The economy's current objective is to provide every American with plenty of goods and a house to store them in. But these days, work is scarce and many people can't afford the stuff that's become so vital to our lives. Raising taxes would cripple us further, and spending our way out without any cash on hand is what got us into this mess in the first place (source).

Happiness has become synonymous with material possessions. For decades, our society has been consumer driven, which lets us buy new toys as cheap as possible at the expense of our health and environment. It's no surprise, considering advertisements can make us want anything!

Hence, the Spoon Theory: We need no more than 7 billion spoons on this planet. Yet we keep making them! How many spoons exist in your house per capita? It's a waste! Everything is a spoon, from cars to gadgets. Why are we always spooning away, making more things we don't need? How can we reject this mindset, get off this never-ending treadmill of want?

RESOLUTION
We made our own granola. It's easy!

But it's not just the honey-sweet crunch that's brightened our spirits; it's the enjoyment of making something, the fulfillment of being sustainable, and the endless possibilities of what to do with that $3.49 we didn't spend at the store!

Healthy, home-made granola relegated to background by factory-farm fish sandwich.

CONCLUSION

We think that by getting back to the basics and limiting our impact, we can help out Barack with each of each of the three big issues we identified for him. Sure it's starting small, but dang, it tastes good on ice cream.

Summeresolutions

Roughly six months ago, when the world semi-simultaneously flipped a decade, billions of people did two incredible things. Firstly, they counted backwards from ten while being moderately to severely buzzed. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they set their sights on the new year, the clean slate of a fresh era, and collectively pledged to make themselves better. How inspiring it was to shake ourselves free from memories fond and forgettable, to focus on the dropped crystal ball and the optimistic future within.

Whether we've followed through with those resolutions uttered ages ago or not, a half-year lays ahead, leaving time aplenty to make a change, live a dream, and embark on our declared adventures. It is time to renew and realign our promises to ourselves - Summeresolutions!

Here in the apartment, Ian and I made a resolution to run a 10-mile route around Ann Arbor. Last week, I felt physically unprepared and mentally freaked-out, since Ian told me how marathon runners finish races shorter in stature than when they begin. I'm 5' 7" tall, and really can't afford to lose precious centimeters. Despite the serious risks the run could potentially impose on my game, we went for it. We marked our heights on sticky notes on the front door and began playing mythbusters.

I received my first cramp at mile marker 0.5, experienced bouts of sobbing hysteria a half-mile later, and we got lost three miles in. Aside from a possible big foot sighting, the rest of the run was smooth, and even scenic at times. And by smooth, I mean that I could feel my vertebrae compressing with each impact and that the emotional distress I was in overshadowed any actual pain.

Finally, having conquered the adversity of ten pounding miles, we returned to our apartment. Before celebrating our triumph, I kicked off my shoes and slammed by back to the front door. Ian's grim look told me I didn't even need to gaze at the mark. I was a full centimeter shorter than 1.5 hours prior. Ian also posted a statistically less-significant loss in height.

Myth Confirmed: The run was free, but it cost Mark a dime.

Was I scared? Yes. But after a good night's sleep, I came to a few realizations. Running 10 miles is sort of like living a decade. Even though you face setbacks 1/20th into it, get lost along the way, or run into dangerous mythical beasts, you must press on and push through. When I woke up, I returned to the post-it note and noticed that I recovered my lost dime and then some - I was at the top of the note!

Aim high and keep it up - you'll come out a bigger man.