Signal and Noise Podcast

Last year I completed my Masters degree in Social Work as part of my ongoing pursuit of personal and professional development. I was fortunate to be accepted to the program at the University of Michigan which, at the time, had been the #1 program in the country for 11 years. (While I was there it dropped to #2 but I steadfastly believe there was no connection between the two events.)

Going back to school was one of the best ideas and, by the time I was done, best experiences of my life. I received my bachelor’s degree quite a bit further back in my past so I came back to school as a “non-traditional” student. I cannot believe the difference the time made in both my outlook and my ability to be a student.

However this post is not really to talk about my time in school. Rather I wanted to bring up a subject that I hadn’t used words to define before I get back into school. It’s not on any class list, it’s not a requirement for graduation and it’s most definitely not just for students. The magic words are “Self Care”.

In my last post I talked about slowing down and a significant part of self care is, in essence, slowing down at least long enough to take a careful look at your life and then make sure you have some time in it for yourself. I have been a major, if quiet, advocate for self care for some time now. I very much like the premise behind the tight rope walkers’ dilemma: If you are not in balance you will find it very difficult to help someone else recover their balance.

Make time for yourself to take care of yourself. It’s so very easy to get caught up in day to day life and lose track of our personal needs. This does not mean ignoring tasks and obligations that need to get done. Those research papers did not write themselves and neither did the litter box clean itself . However there is always time in the day to tend your personal needs.

Most of the articles are directed at Psychology grad students, however the basic concepts be generalized across a wide range of people. The Wikipedia is a nice, concise discussion of the subject with links to a variety of resources.
So take a few minutes to yourself, read this post and then check out the links. You might find some new motivation to help maintain your motivation.

http://ssw.umich.edu/
http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2011/03/matters.aspx
http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2006/09/cover-strength.aspx
http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2005/03/cover-balance.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_care

Carry on.

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Over the last year or so I have become actively aware of the practice of mindful meditation. I was introduced to the concept and application in a class for social workers seeking to implement both mindfulness based tools in their work as well as establishing a meditation practice of their own.

One of the most interesting elements of self discovery I’ve been learning to appreciate is in slowing down from time to time. That could turn into a complete discussion all by itself so, except for the following comment, I’ll leave it alone for the time being.

The NPR show To The Best of Our Knowledge is one of my favorite radio programs. They touch on a variety of interesting topics every week. One episode I recently caught up with revolved around time and how we view it’s passing. At the close of the show they played a short segment Leif Inge’s “9BeetStretch”, which is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony extended out to take 24 hours to play.

In the theme of being both mindful slowing down here’s a link to the full version of the piece.

http://www.park.nl/park_cms/public/index.php?thisarticle=118

Stream the TTBOOK episode. http://www.wpr.org/book/090315a.cfm

Carry on.

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An island without oil | Need to Know | PBS.

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I like to podcast, when time permits (May is almost here!). I also like to listen to (a vast number of) podcasts. Audio fiction has been a saving grace of my time in grad school. I have not had time to do much in the way of leisure reading for the last 3 years.
I am not going to go into all the fabulous sources of “reading” material at this time. Right now I just want to call out this one particular story.

A popular topic of conversation is about the future of humanity. How will we evolve? Will we ever leave this comfortable little bubble of life we call earth? How will we get ourselves there, where ever there is.
Will we ever get there?

This is one of the more enjoyable stories on this topic. Depending on your perspective it could be hopeful, tragic, enthralling or terrifying. Maybe some of all.

I’m going with hopeful.

Wind from a Dying Star by David Lavine.

My thanks to all the great folk at Escape Pod for continuing to provide some of the best audio fiction around.

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YouTube – Festo Aqua Penguin

It wasn’t until I saw the eyes that I realized what I was looking at.

I’m still digesting this one folks, I have nothing more to say right now. Just enjoy the show.

Carry on.

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I’m speechless.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/tauntaun-sleepingbag.jpg 

ThinkGeek :: Tauntaun Sleeping Bag

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Possibly overshadowed by some other films in the headlines Taken is well worth some attention. While not well received by the critics, no surprise given that it’s an action film and thus has the deck stacked against it, many viewers have enjoyed it very much.

Me included.

The preview pretty much hooked me from the get go, which is pretty rare these days. It was short, simple, to the point and positively chilling. An awful lot of that can be attributed to Liam Neeson, one of the better actors we have in the world right now.

The premise of the film is pretty simple; Our hero, the devoted father, has retired from his “company” job to be nearer to his daughter, who’s living with with our heroes ex-wife and super rich new husband.

Daughter takes a trip to Europe where, while on the phone with daddy, she is kidnapped. Woe be to the kidnappers daddy’s former “company” job was as some sort of highly skilled covert operations style government agent.

What ensues is a fun, messy, surprisingly smart for the genre, action adventure rescue story. Liam Neeson does a great job as the ruthless, avenging father. Determined to get his daughter back no matter what the cost we are treated to a string of fights, car chases and tense stand offs.

There is certainly a lot of predictability in the show but not enough to make it waste of time. Far from it there are enough turns and surprises to keep it interesting. Probably the most redeeming aspect of the movie is how, for the genre, believable and smart it is.

I’ll leave it at that because if I start saying more I’ll start spoiling aspects of the film better left for your own viewing. Fortunately by the time you read this the film will probably be available on disk. So add it to your queue and enjoy.

Taken

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Notes from Knut: The SunCat Batteries – DIY prototypes

Excerpted from the blog post:
“At home i always have some batteries lying around, either rechargeable or normal ones. Usually they are empty, but i’d like them to be always fully charged. I could use a normal charger and there is a lot of solar devices that charge rechargeable batteries. I wanted it simpler; why hasn’t anyone made a battery with integrated solar cells? The idea of the "SunCat" batteries where born.”
     This quote, titles and associated ideas are the property of the original poster. I make no claims to ownership or involvement and wish him the best of luck in his endeavors.

     Please visit the original post to read the whole article and see some pictures of the prototype.

     It seems like such a simple idea. Has no one thought of this before? I’ve seen bags and backpacks with solar cells, I even have a small solar “pod” with interchangeable charging tips to power a variety of small electronic devices. 
     With the increasingly cheap availability of the technology why not package rechargeable batteries with their own solar panel? Some of the comments on Knut’s post are less than polite but others make the point that this is a fabulous idea. There may be some issues with the design but it’s an initial concept that the guy put together, pretty much off the top of his head. A little more development and I think he’ll be onto something very cool.

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This is just such a cool video that it must be shared.

Thanks to Overwatch from memepunks for this find.

Moving from water power to steam power, Steampunk is the next “thing” in genre related work. While it’s not a new concept the theme is starting to become much more visible in books, comics, games and music. While this band is a new find for me they have been around for a while now. Please check out Abney Park for some great visuals and some great music.

Tags: geek, music, steampunk, tech // Add Comment »

It will be no surprise I have done nothing with the podcast or blog for a very long time now.

That’s the nature of school I guess. If you don’t know me personally then you may not know I am working on my Masters in Social Work.

I am still working at my regular job, working in my internship and taking classes. The end result is not a lot of time. So the podcast had to be put down for a while. I still intend on starting it up again after I graduate but that will be a while yet.

On the other hand it takes far less time to write blog entries. So in the interest of continuing to share “stuff that’s neat” I’ll drop some posts here from time to time.

So if you are reading this welcome or welcome back.

Carry on.

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