Mix It Up!

Reference Suggestion: Urban Dictionary

 

Want to know what "book google" or "cubicle coma" means?  Not sure about a particular piece of slang you heard on TV?  Urban Dictionary is your source for weird, occasionally obscene, and completely hilarious definitions of up-to-the-minute phrases and words.  Like Wikipedia it is written by the community; however, anyone can submit a definition for an entry, and then viewers vote it up or down depending on their opinion of its correctness.

I've lost hours on Urban Dictionary following weird slang chains and horrifying definitions, so user beware.  If you don't mind being amused and insulted by turns, though, I can definitely recommend it as a valuable pop-culture reference and resource!

(As always, I'm unaffiliated with anything I recommend!)

Mix It Up: Take Circus Classes

 

When you were a kid, did you ever threaten to run away and join the circus?  It's a staple of childhood threats and wishes -- the dream of freedom that comes with dressing up in a fantastic costume and performing amazing feats.

Now that you're an adult it may seem a little less feasible to run off with the big top.  But there's no reason to give up on that dream!  There are many troupes around the world who offer classes in everything from trick horseback riding to trapezery.  (I'm not sure that's a word, but whatever…)

In Seattle there are several such as the Anunnaki Project which teaches dance trapeze, fabric, aerial sling, and hoop.  It's as easy as figuring out what you want to do -- become a clown, perhaps? -- and googling [Your City] Clown Classes.  Not only can you have a lot of fun, but you can get a great workout, meet some fantastic new people, and maybe even pick up a side job doing parties or performing with your teachers!  Give yourself the gift of realizing a bit of that childhood dream -- mix it up and take circus classes today!

(Photo taken at the Brazilian Academy of Circus in Sao Paulo by jacsonquerubin from flickr.com's Creative Commons photostream.)

Mix It Up Musing: Having a Learning Mind

What if we gave up needing to be the experts, and embraced being novices?

What if we loved knowledge for its own sake, and shared it freely with everyone?

What if we saw ourselves as both teachers and students?

Cultivating what my dad calls "a learning mind" seems to me to be one of the finest ways to promote peaceful interaction between people.  So many individuals cling to the need to be the acknowledged expert in their niche; even falsifying data or results to get the accolades they crave.  (Internet forums are unfortunately full of this behavior…)  I love the idea of giving that up, and instead embracing the paradigm of "there's always more to learn."  Instead of "I'm always right" we would get to say "Well I don't know, maybe there's more than one way to go about this."

I think we would learn more because we wouldn't be closing ourselves off to new sources of information.  I think we would have more peace because we wouldn't feel threatened when someone had more information than we did.  I think we would become more flexible, more open to positive change, and more international.

What do you think? 

Nature Watch: Whale Shark

Yesterday's post on news feeds ended up sending me on a long trawl through the internet, and I spent an inordinate amount of time as always reading about the natural world.  I feel that learning about the animals and plants we share our world with is always a worthwhile endeavor.  This planet we're on is the only one we've got, after all!  (Although perhaps not for long; President Obama is calling for a manned mission to Mars in the next 20 years.)  Whether you wish to learn how you can help conserve our natural resources, or seek a spiritual connection with the creatures and ecosystems of Earth; learning more about them is an excellent place to start.

I have a particular fondness for what I call "specialty creatures."  Whenever I see a picture of "the smallest X" or the "only X that can live in Y place" I am immediately captivated.  What appeals to me is that animals that have adapted to fill such specialty niches are a combination of ferocious success and terrifying fragility.  

Whale Sharks are the largest living fish species, and are so called because they are filter feeders like mammal whales.  Having no baleen, they instead filter water out through their gills, trapping their food sieves that line their gill plates.  Whale sharks live in warm water climates, although they do migrate.  They are gentle giants who can grow over 40 feet long and give birth to live young.

Besides their beauty and mysterious habits (not much is known about their life cycle), whale sharks are also excellent subjects for shark education programs; proving that not all sharks are man-eating fiends.  Only a few are kept in captivity -- the only ones in the United States are in the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta where you can even swim with them!

Whale sharks are listed as a vulnerable species, meaning they could easily become endangered if current circumstances persist.  If you would like to mix it up and learn more these amazing fish, you can check out Wikipedia, National Geographic, and the ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library!

(Photo of a whale shark at the Georgia Aquarium by Zac Wolf, from the Wikimedia Commons.)

Mix It Up: News Feeds

One of the things that surprised me most when I started writing Mix It Up was just how much information is out there.  I have always thought of myself as a fairly well-read individual, but I have on occasion lost hours to fascinating new information while researching for blog articles.  Learning something new every day is one of the easiest ways to mix it up and to fight off the effects of aging on our brains, but there are two major problems many people face when seeking something new to learn:

1. Sheer volume of information.  The Seattle Public Library system has a collection of around 2 million items, including books, audio books, CDs, magazines, and more.  The internet has…lots more.  How do you know where to start?

2. Filtering for relevance.  Even when you know where you want to start, where do you find the sources of information relevant to the subject you have interest in?  Even going to the proper section of the library or effectively utilizing a search engine can still turn up some very out of context sources.

A fun and unusual way to reduce the volume of information and have someone else filter for you is to subscribe to a news feed online.  Essentially, it's like reading a newspaper filled only with subjects of interest to you -- or better yet, subjects you don't know much about, and hope will be of interest!  You get to pick the keywords that the news feed will filter for, and then only articles containing those keywords will be pulled.  Very specific keywords ("Chicago art museums," "Ricky Martin") will return fewer articles with higher relevancy; whereas less specific keywords ("art," "musicians") will return many more articles with a lower likelihood of relevancy (which can often be fun too).

There are many news feeds available, but I'll use Google News as an example of how to set one up.  Head to Google and click on News in the top left.  Click on the search box at the top of the page and enter your keyword(s), then click "Search News."  If you like the type of articles your search returned, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Create an email alert for [keyword]."  Then set your preferences in the box to the right, and click "Create Alert."  This will send alerts to your email every time there is an article published containing your keywords.  Now you can mix it up and learn something new every day!

Mix It Up: Learn the Language of Flowers

Like many people, I highly value good communication with those around me.  Honesty and openness in conversation -- about feelings, intentions, needs, etc -- is a huge asset to a mature and fulfilling relationship with anyone; be they family, friend, or lover.  Almost every time I have had an argument with someone, it has been due to one or the other of us not being clear about our wants or our emotions.

However, communication is not just serious adult conversations about life, the universe, and everything.  In the Victorian era, young men and women used flowers to communicate, picking white clover and red roses to suggest a promise of true love, or buttercup and yellow poppy to infer a wealthy suitor.  The Japanese used a similar flower language called hanakotoba, although theirs also included herbs, trees, and even printed paper to deliver subtle messages along with their letters and poems.  Both the Victorian and Japanese flower languages were ways of communicating not just intent and interest, but also an appreciation for natural beauty.

Communication, therefore, can also (and should!) be fun.  Expressing love or telling a story through flowers is an entertaining and picturesque way to communicate with your friends and loved ones.  Flowers can also serve as a reminder to yourself to be more compassionate (elderflower), have hope (snowdrop), or to work toward your goals (hollyhock).  Mix it up, and fill your home this week with gorgeous communication! 

Word of the Day: Weltanschauung

 

weltanschauung PRONUNCIATION: (VELT-ahn-shou-oong) MEANING: noun: World view; philosophy of life; a framework through which to interpret the world.  ETYMOLOGY: From German Weltanschauung (world view), from Welt (world) + Anschauung (perception).  NOTES: When we bring in a word from another language, sometimes we borrow it and at other times make a loan translation. The word weltanschauung appears so useful that English has borrowed the original form and also made a loan translation: world view.  USAGE: "Gwyneth Paltrow summed up her weltanschauung thus: 'My life is good because I am not passive about it.'" Richard Dorment; Gwyneth Paltrow Feels Good -- And So Can You; Esquire (New York); Sep 16, 2009.  (From Wordsmith.org)

Mix It Up: Go to the Zoo!

 

If you have young children, chances are you're a regular at your local zoo.  However, when I proposed a zoo outing to a group of friends last month many of them hadn't been for years!  Most cities have a zoo within an hour's drive, so on your next free day, why not visit it?  There are a ton of benefits to a zoo visit:

★Exercise -- walking is one of the best forms of exercise for you.

★Seeing new animals and learning about their habitats -- learning keeps the brain sharp and focused, and you might learn something fun to share with friends and family.

★Getting surprised by new experiences -- I've been to the Woodland Park Zoo many times, but I'd never been to the Willawong Station exhibit until I visited in February.  You can buy millet on a stick for a dollar and get swarmed by parakeets, cockatiels, and parrots!

★Supporting habitat protection and species conservation with your entrance fee -- zoos not only use your money for animal upkeep, but also to help educate people locally and internationally about the need to protect endangered species and environments.

★If you go with friends or family; a great opportunity for social bonding.  If you go by yourself; time to wander exactly at your own pace and maybe sharpen your photography skills.

★Baby animals!!!  Need I say more??

Connect with a piece of nature you may not normally get to experience.  Mix it up and head to your local zoo today!

Word of the Day: Petrichor

 

Petrichor (PET-ri-kuhr) noun:

The pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell. [From petro- (rock), from Greek petros (stone) + ichor (the fluid that is supposed to flow in the veins of the gods in Greek mythology).  Coined by researchers I.J. Bear and R.G. Thomas.] "Petrichor, the name for the smell of rain on dry ground, is from oils given off by vegetation, absorbed onto neighboring surfaces, and released into the air after a first rain."  (Matthew Bettelheim; Nature's Laboratory; Shasta Parent [Mt Shasta, California]; Jan 2002.) "But, even in the other pieces, her prose breaks into passages of lyrical beauty that come as a sorely needed revivifying petrichor amid the pitiless glare of callousness and cruelty."  (Pradip Bhattacharya; Forest Interludes; Indianest.com; Jul 29, 2001.) (From wordsmith.org)