Things that need to go

It was really hard to think of 5 things to get rid of in my life but here they are.

1. Procrastination. I'm really bad for procrastinating. If I could get paid for it I'd be a millionaire. It's really stops me from doing the things I want to and the the things I need to do. I need to get rid of this bad habit if ever really want to do something my life.

2. unemployment. I job would be really great right now. My bursary for college can only cover so much and that little extra from a job would be so good. Despite how easy it seems to get rid of unemployment, it has proven to be far more difficult than expected.

3. No creativity. I've had a real art block recently where I've like nothing I've done. Part of my lack of creativity is down to number one on this list, where I've been spending far too much time on the internet and not much time outside, watching movies or looking at art or getting any form of creative inspiration. I've started working on some really interesting stuff so hopefully that shall help get me more creative angin

4. Blackberry. I really hate mine. It's a lousy smart phone doesn't do anything smart. at the most it functions well for texting and phoning, twitter at a stretch. I know to this problem I should just get a new phone but I got mine on a two year contract, so I'm stuck with it.

5. Brad Pitt. Now I know this seems like I am about to bash him but I'm not. So if you didn't know Brad Pitt is going to be in the film adaptation of World War Z. (I've hear it nothing like book) And some of it being filmed in Glasgow as a cheap alternative to actually filming in Philadelphia. And I've seen the set and it's all really cool seeing all the cars and fire trucks and American traffic lights and street signs. But the set is George Square, which is right next to my college and that I'm back the set is a huge annoyance to get past becasue it's closed the whole square off and there are tons of people gathered round all hoping to catch a glimpse of Brad. Thankfully the filming is only going to last another week or so and then Brad Pitt will be out of my life.

Elimination

Five things I would like to eliminate from my life, and how I would get rid of them:

1.  Fear.  I'm not scared of things like spiders or heights or anything, but I'm terrified of major life changes and meeting new people and being wrong and lots of those sorts of things.  I know I can't really get rid of these fears completely, but I can make it more manageable.  I need to learn to figure out when my fear is rational an when it's not, and if I'm afraid of something that I can't control, or that isn't really a big deal and I shouldn't be afraid of in the first place, I need to learn to let it go.  If I'm afraid of something I can control, I need to do what I have to do to make the situation work out in a way that I don't need to be afraid of it.

2.  Indecision.  I have a hard time with making choices.  I especially tend to have problems with the small choices that I don't really care which option I go with, so I just don't decide and end up being paralysed by the indecision.  I can eliminate this by recognizing when the decision is insignificant and just going with my gut response rather than over-analysing it to try to find the best option when there really isn't a best option.

3.  Procrastination.  I've gotten quite bad about this one over the past few years and it really does affect my life.  Wasting time on pointless things not only hurts my academic life, it also cuts down on the amount of time I have to do social or creative things.  I have some methods of cutting down on procrastination, like the StayFocusd extension for Google Chrome, and using a timer to make sure my breaks are reasonable.  These are usually effective for awhile, but I can only go so long before I give in and go back to my old habits.  So, to help get rid of procrastination, I'm going to try to make myself busy enough that I literally don't have any time to waste.

4.  Self-doubt.  This one is a lot harder to get rid of.  I need to change that little voice in the back of my head to be a little bit nicer.  I may not be perfect, but I am capable; I just need to be convinced of that all the time instead of just some of the time.

5.  Not asking for help.  I have a hard time asking for help even when I need it; I always feel like I'm imposing too much on people, even though I don't mind if someone asks me for help and I know that other people won't mind either as long as it's something reasonable.  Something about asking for help just makes me feel incompetent, I guess.  There's really no way to get rid of this problem except for just doing it, so that's kind of hard.  I don't really have a plan for dealing with this one.

The Forgetful Five

In the world there are probably many things I would get rid of. So here are the top five I would want to get rid of or at least forget the existence of.

1.) Homework. I've heard a lot about studies that say around 90% of homework given that doesn't not directly relate to the student's individual needs is ineffective in their learning. I agree. Never have I received an assignment that was useful to my learning. In fact, three years ago I took a Latin class and I remember every single declension, noun, verb, form of conjugation along with all the grammar. But the teacher never once gave out a homework assignment. My plan to get rid of homework is to graduate.

2.) 1337. There is no way in the world that sort of typing is okay. WHY and HOW is that any way an acceptable form of writing? How on earth can anyone understand that?

3.) Extended Essays. International Baccalaureate requires one for the IB diploma. I made the horrible mistake of wanting to write my 4000 word essay in biology. I have not done a single thing to work on it. The Cambrian era's evolution is not as good a topic as I thought it'd be.

4.) Remakes. Honestly, I'm getting sick of all the movie remakes going on. It's like no movie for the past five years I've been paying attention has been an original one. And the ones that are original are so full of cliches and bad puns I can't always tell where the plot went, because all the effort went into another remake.

5.) Spring mattresses. I hate them. my bed has a really bad spring mattress and I can't get a new one. It pokes me every time I try to sleep. it is the most uncomfortable thing in the world and I want it gone. I would sleep on the floor if it weren't for the fact I'm too lazy to clean it.


So those are the five things I would immediately get rid of. Just small things that I have to face frequently.

Emma/Eliza

As with the rest of you, my name is fairly common, and I've always had the urge to change my name to be a little more set apart - particularly in junior high when I was super quiet and several popular girls were named Rachel, so often times when I'd hear my name and look over it would be followed by "oh, sorry, I meant the other Rachel" which stung a lot. As an adult, when I worked in an unfortunately over-dramatic job environment, hearing my name said in a mean or condescending tone over and over made me hate it (I swear it was actually spoken differently, with the "Ra" part being over emphasized and blunt, the "chel" becoming slurred like "chullll", to create a rather unfortunate sound. Who wants that for their name? Ick)

I mention this because I think it's funny, but when I was about 7 or 8, I used to think a lot in pictures; all the days of the week had their own pictures (Thursday was the logo of Star Trek, since we watched it on those nights), and for some reason I got it into my head that the name Nicole was associated with a popsicle. Don't ask me how that happened, I have no idea, but it made me want to change my name to that (hey, I was like 7!). But then I ended up getting bullied by a girl with that name later, which ended that.

And really, that's the problem with a lot of names. Particularly since I've worked in a lot of classrooms, I have a lot of name associations, so it's hard to find one that isn't either too uncommon or has an association with someone else. I have two names I'd have a hard time choosing between; the first is Emma. It's easy to say, (I have one kid who still calls me "Range-ul" because she can't pronounce the "ch"), has a simple nickname of Em, but still sounds nice in its full form. The other is Elizabeth, since I love the name Eliza (and, if I decide I don't like it, I have all sorts of names I could revert to: Beth, Liz, Liza, Ellie).

Yes Sarah, I kinda stole yours. Hey, great minds think alike!

So what are we thinking for next week's theme? I really like what are 5 things you could live without and how do you go about getting rid of them/5 things you do want in your life and how do you get them, as well as something you'd like to try.

What do you guys think?

Luisa

Unlike Sarah and Kaite, my name is very common where I am but I still dislike Sophie. To me it's a baby name, a name for a little a girl so I feel that I have out grown my name a bit. Technically, my name is Sophia but again I dislike this name .

I guess if I had to chose my own name I'd chose something more Italian because I'm very proud of my heritage and I don't think my name really shows that off well. Maybe a name like Luisa. It's a name that I have very recently liked, it was meant to be the middle name of one of my aunts but my papa got it wrong on the birth certificate and spelt it Louisa, and I think that's a funny story and that's part of the reason I'd like it.

I also know that a name my mum was think of calling me was Victoria and I've always kinda loved that name. I think it' a big, grand name. I wouldn't say I'm either of those things but I'd like a name that had some sort of importance to it. Also I think Vicky would be a really nice nickname.

PS. sorry this is late, I did start on Wednesday I just forgot to finish it.

Keladry

My feelings about my name are actually pretty similar to what Sarah said about hers yesterday.  My name is so darn common.  I know so many Katies it's just ridiculous.  I can remember wanting to change my name as far back as grade 6.  Oddly, though, most of the names I've wanted to change to over the years have been derivatives of my full name, Kathleen.

In grade 6 I secretly wished my name was Kitty, and at some point during junior high I remember thinking the name Leeny would be cool... in retrospect, that would have been a bad plan.  That's not even a name.  I guess that's probably why it appealed to me at the time, because I knew no one else would have the same name.

Once I reached high school the number of Katies got diluted a bit, so I lost interest in changing my name, but at some point one of my friends decided to start an initiative to get everyone to call me Kathy.  He actually managed to keep it up for about a week, but it didn't catch on with anyone else, so he gave it up.

I guess so far this has mostly been "Things I used to want to change my name to" rather than "what I would change my name to if I had to," but oh well.  There are lots of names that I like, but most of them are things that I've thought about in the mindset of potential future baby names, so it would seem weird to pick on of those, even though I think Ayla and Kaya are some of the prettiest names ever.

I think if I had to change my name I'd want to choose something symbolically important to me; a name that I associate with something that I want to be.  I think I would choose Keladry, after the protagonist of  Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series, because Kel is so strong and brave and everything I've always wished I was but have never been.

Smith

So I was thinking about the name theme and I realized just how hard it actually was even though I think about different names everyday.

I think about what I would want to change my name to a lot actually, I was never fond of the name Sarah. I think it has a little to do with how common the name is and there being four in my class alone. I've also heard people say that names can define where you end up in life (not that I believe this) and with Sarah being so common, it makes me want to have been named something else.

I'd change my name to something uncommon but not so uncommon that it's ridiculous, I'd also want to avoid something that would make me sound vain. For a while I thought about Eliza, when I realized I'd just be using the first half of my mother's name, Elizabeth, and since she goes by Beth I thought choosing Eliza would lead to bad jokes.

I think I'd change my name to Avera Smith. I like the name Avera, it sounds nice to me. And because I don't believe names can define who you are I'll ignore it means 'transgressor'. Actually, I think this one might be "so uncommon that it's ridiculous". And the last name Smith because I'm too lazy to think of a real one, but also because Smith is a common name I can deal with.

In conclusion, that's the name I'd choose if I ever had to change my name.

Some R & R

What I do to recover after something stressful or tiring depends on the duration of it. If it's just been a long day, I'll spend some extra time looking at funny things on the internet, and/or let myself have a free day off from going to the gym. Both of those are enough of a treat to get me to cheer up usually.

If it's been more than just a day or two, I start progressing down my "spectrum of stress", beginning to eat worse and worse food, sleep more, and spend more time alone. If I've just had a long week or so, that might look like baking more than usual, spending more time with just one or two people, and taking some naps, but if it extends too long I end up sleeping a ton, becoming kind of a loner, and eating far too much junk food.

Hey, I didn't say these were all healthy habits :P

They make sense though, since when I'm stressed out sleep helps me take my mind off whatever the stressor is, comfort food is, well, comforting, and I recharge best when I'm alone or only around a couple people.

While I'm not particularly socially awkward, social interactions take effort for me, and when I'm already tired I just don't feel up for having to keep up chit chat, crack jokes, and make sure I don't say anything too blunt or awkward. (though it should be noted that I have a close circle of people where social interactions almost never feel like work, so if I need to relax I gravitate toward these people).

Time to relax

There are a few things a like to do to relax and recharge after a hard or stressful day but my favourite is nap. I like to come home and get my ipod, pick my favourite album and just curl up in bed. It's great way to relax and just block out the world. It's also even better if it's winter and it's really cold outside, it makes everything so much better. That's pretty much my go to way to relax.

Another way I like to relax is just to watch DVDs or TV. The best kind of movies to watch are ones which are so bad they're funny or just funny ones. It's also great to watch these with friends, particularly the ones that don't care if you haven't made an effort to look good. The really bad movies are the best to watch with friends because they give you something you can all laugh and make fun of.

Also, a combination of both these is a particularly great way to recharge, watch a movie in bed and then sleep.

Going on walks, I find is also pretty relaxing. I had a stressful time recently, so I took my aunt's dog (Because I don't have dog of my own) and I went on a walk around the farm type part round the back of my house. It was good. Partly because dogs will always love you and partly because even though I don't really go out much, I like being outside. Fresh air is good.

Recharging

My method of recharging depends on how much I need to recharge.

If it's just been a long day of class or work or whatever, and I'm feeling generally tired and stressed out, I curl up with a book or an episode of TV so I can let my brain shut down a bit and take a break for a while.  Plus it usually means sitting or laying down, but being comfortable and relaxed and is refreshing physically as well as mentally.

If I'm feeling emotionally drained, then usually a square or two of dark chocolate will work wonders.  If that doesn't do the trick then usually I listen to sad music and look at funny things on the internet (sad music and funny things, they don't really go together, but they work!)

If I'm really especially exhausted or stressed, I have a hot shower until I regain enough function to be able to decide what to wear when I get out and I feel like I could probably carry on a civil conversation with someone for at least a few minutes.

I also nap when I'm especially tired, but usually that's not a planned method of relaxing, I'll just fall asleep in the middle of doing homework or something.

Tea and hot chocolate are also sometimes included as supplement to one of these methods.  Warm drinks are always relaxing!

Rest and Relaxation

I think the best part about any tough activity, trip or situation is after it all ends and you get to finally relax.

I don't do a lot to recharge myself, really just two things, shower and nap. Except my shower is the most expensive one of the month and my nap is more like a bear's winter hibernation.

I particularly remember coming back home after a week long surf trip tired, dirty and covered in bruises from the board and I don't think I came out of the shower for a good four hours. It just feels so good to wash everything out in the hot water and relax. We were covered in salt, sand and sunscreen most of the time anyways during our trip, so I was happy to have a shower in my own home again.

I ended up falling asleep right after and did not get out of bed until late the next day and then dosed for most of what remained. I love my sleep, especially after traveling anywhere since trips tire me out so much. After I wake up from long naps like that I end up back to my normal self feeling clean and recharged.

I use the long shower and nap for almost everything, trips, bad days at school, tough skating lessons, anxiety, anything that leaves me exhausted after wards.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

This is an interesting post for me because I use nerd and geek almost interchangeably. Usually the word I use varies by context - if I'm around a Nerdfighter, I tend to use nerd more frequently, and if I'm around someone who aggressively dislikes one of the words, I'll use the word they prefer (i.e. I have a friend who actively rallies against the label of geek, so I use nerd around him).

I agree with the definition of nerd as someone with varied interests and geek as someone with a passion for one subject, with it being possible to be both; under this definition I'd be a nerd, but also a Doctor Who geek.

The funny thing is, that definition is not how I actually use the words. In everyday usage, I completely swap the nerd definition for the geek one, with it being common for nerd to be used in more language focused or mainstream/more accepted areas (i.e. book nerd, Firefly nerd, politics nerd). I tend to use geek in the situations that, even if accepted now, used to be the hallmark of a social outcast or were deemed weird - for instance a Dungeons and Dragons geek, a model painting geek, or a video game geek.

Did any of that make sense? So I say that a nerd is someone with varied interests who probably is more well-read and pursues intelligence, and a geek is someone with a passion. But what I usually end up meaning is that a nerd has a couple of passions but is more accepted for them, while a geek can have one or many hobbies but they're a little more off-the-wall and might get some weird looks for them.

Geeks and nerds

I think for me my view on the difference between geeks and nerds has changed over the years.

Whilst I was in high school I always found the word geek to be a derogatory term, where as nerd wasn't. I always preferred to be called a nerd rather geek. I don't know why this was but my friends agreed.

Over last year my opinion on this has changed. Now I would say that there isn't really that big a difference between nerds and geeks, I would actually say that most of the time they are interchangeable. Although I would say I agree with nerd being someone who has a general interest in being intelligent and liking stuff far more than your average person and geek being someone with an obsession with one thing.

Kind of hoped I'd have more to say on this but I think we've all kind of agree on the definition of geek and nerd.

Nerdspotting

My method of differentiating between geeks and nerds is actually very similar to what Sarah wrote yesterday.

Nerds, in my definition, have a wide range of interests.  Nerds are nerds about everything (or a lot of things, at any rate).

Geeks, on the other hand, tend to be more narrowly focused on a certain subject.  Geeks are geeks about specific things.

There is one other criterion that I would like to add.  I associate both nerds and geeks as being, in general, on average, not in every case but fairly often, more introverted as well as more intelligent than non-nerd/geeks.  I would say the introversion applies slightly more to geeks and the intelligence slightly more to nerds.  So, both nerds and geeks have above-average levels of introversion and intelligence, but I think it would be more likely to find an extroverted nerd than an extroverted geek, and more likely to find an average-intelligence geek than an average-intelligence nerd.  Of course, these are clearly blanket statements and not hard and fast rules, but I feel like that is the way it is, in general.

It is possible to be both a nerd and a geek.  You can be a nerd in general, but have specific things that you geek about.

Personally, I am a nerd, but I don't think I'm geek about anything any more (I used to be a geek about both Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, and a really long time ago, about Pokémon, but I've lost my geek-level of interest in any of those things).

Nerds vs. Geeks

So this week we're discussing the differences between nerds and geeks. Personally, I think they're similar but not the same. You can be one, the other or both, it's pretty flexible.

Nerds

To me a nerd has always just been a person who likes to like things. A nerd has a wide variety of interests and isn't bothered to admit it or increase their knowledge, they also wouldn't mind being introduced to anything new.

Geeks

Geeks in my definition are similar to nerds but without the wide variety of interest. When someone is classified as a geek, to me it's that they have a specialized interest. A geek has a subject that they excel in, something they favor more with their enthusiasm.

While I'm a nerd for all sorts of things, especially books (book geeks are also possible), I consider myself a Harry Potter geek because those are honestly my favorite books and I have a habit of trying to see how many small details about the wizarding world I can memorize. I figure geeks also can just go to a certain genre, you can be a sci-fi geek, a mystery geek.

Summary
In summary, nerds are people who like a lot of stuff, like to learn about stuff and are not ashamed of it. Geeks are nerds with specialized interests.

This was short, I'm bothered by how short my nerd paragraph is to my geek paragraph.

Wrapping up theme week and thoughts about the blog

It seems like we're starting to get somewhere with finding some purpose and inspiration here. Yay!

I made a page with all of our theme suggestions, as well as the theme for next week at the very top.* I also updated the sidebar because, seriously, I think we should call each other by our actual names at this point, it has been almost half a year :P** If you guys don't like anything about either of those, feel free to change them (directions are under the asterisks in case you have any trouble finding it).

At this point I'm pretty excited to get on with our "real" posts. The only other suggestion I really have to offer is that we make sure we pick our topics early every week, either in posts/comments here, or on Facebook. And now we have a great big list of ideas to choose from if none of us are struck with any particular inspiration.

That's about it from me. See you guys next week to talk about how we define nerds and geeks!

*If you want to change anything about it, under the posting tab, click "edit pages" and you'll find it there.

**This can be changed under the design tab, if you click on "edit" by the box that says text.

Yet more about the blog

Ok first off, Totally didn't realise that yesterday was Wednesday until I was walking to my friends house to spend the night watching DVDs. So I thought I'd use today since no one else is posting so I wouldn't have to go a week without writing anything.

I think I may have mentioned this before but I really like all the themes have been suggested, I think we should just work through them. One theme I could think of is what we think about the differences in legal drinking ages around the world, it's something I'm interested in and thought about it since Rachel mentioned she was turning 21 soon and with me being 19 and already legally been able to drink for a year. I think differences in things like that are interesting and it would be good to get other opinions on that. I think it's a topic that would create a good conversation between us.

Anyway, I'm not the best at thinking up questions or themes and I've left this pretty late again so this going to be a short blog.

Potential Themes

Okay, so I guess for this week we're doing theme suggestions?  That's my understanding, anyway, so that's what I'm going to do.  I've done some brainstorming on my own, modified a few from these prompts, and perused a few of the other group blogs to see what they've been writing about, and these are the suggestions I've come up with:


Pick a moment during which you felt most alive.  Describe it in vivid detail.

Tell us about someone or something that you've had to let go of.

What are 5 things you don't need in your life?  How could you go about eliminating them?

What are 5 things you would like to have in your life?  How could you make them a  part of it?

What is something that you appreciate?  How do you express your gratitude for it?

Imagine you will completely lose your memory of the past year in five minutes.  Set an alarm for five minutes and write down all of the things you want to remember the most.

Tell us how someone you know has changed your life.

What is something that you would like to try?

What is something that you know you should do, but don't because you're too busy, scared, or otherwise deterred from doing it?

If you had to change your name to something different, what name would you choose and why?

What are some ordinary, day-to-day things that bring you joy?

What is the most memorable gift you've ever received?

If you only had one month to live, how would you live it?

What is something/what are some things that remind(s) you of your childhood (music, food, smell, place, person, etc.)

How do you define home?  Where do you consider your home to be?

What is a cause that you really believe in, and how do you support it?

Share something you've created that you're proud of (visual art, writing, photography, musical composition, fancy spreadsheet, etc.)

What's your experience with bullying?  Have you ever been bullied, been the bullier, witnessed bullying?  What did you do about it?

What would your perfect day be like?

What are some things you would like to learn (knowledge or skills)?

If you were going to make a time capsule for yourself, to be opened in 10 years, what would you put in it?

Late thoughts on the blog

It would be just like me to forget to post when the subject is the lack of posting and prevalence of issues. So I'm going to try and make up for last week now. You've all really hit the nail on the head here and included a good list of possible topics/themes to write on even.

I've been highly guilty of forgetting to post as well. I honestly think it's due to the season. It's summer and we all have so much on our minds, jobs, travels, weather, etc.. We forget to post theme ideas in the facebook page and I feel awkward Monday morning realizing I have to post without anything to go on or prepare for, we're all at fault for not interacting enough in that area. And like it has been stated before, we need to interact more with each other and get to know one another on the blog more. If we've already gone five months without hating each other or giving up yet we can get the blog back on its feet. I've tried to do a lot of collaborative projects and activities before and this is the longest running and most successful one I've been involved in and it's made me really happy.

I think we definitely need to think about our schedule. Maybe we should switch it up? Or reorganize how to do it. We could do the one person per week, or maybe even a rotating schedule of two people per week, with an odd number of people (because it does look like replacing Kaity might have to happen) there could be a little variation each week without it being confusing. Example, in a group of five people (a, b, c, d, e) and two people posting per week.
Week 1: ab
Week 2: cd
Week 3: ea
Week 4: bc
Week 5: de
It's just something I thought about.

We also definitely need to consider themes more frequently. I like the idea of a week of brainstorming ideas. I also like the idea free weeks to talk about what we've been doing recently. So finding a way to include both themed and free weeks well ahead of time should be a major goal.

I know I'm going to try and make more of an effort to comment on posts and interact with the rest of you.