MindComet

Music, How You Soothe Me

Lately, I’ve been feeling all off kilter…. catawampus if you will.  So I decided I would put my iTunes library to use and created a “Jenny Gets Her Bearings“ playlist.  The criteria for this list was simple… All songs had to “speak” to me.  I know that sounds silly but that was how I decided on which of my 1347 songs made it to my new playlist.  Ordinarily, I would say that having 1347 songs was a little gratuitous, but many of them were songs in albums that I bought because I liked one or two songs on said album.  I’ve now since changed my strategy, much to the chagrin of the record industry, and only buy individual songs.  But enough about my shopping habits…

The songs in my new playlist are there specifically because they make me happy in some way.  Some are peppy, like Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and The White Stripes “My Doorbell”.  Some are angry and aggressive like Green Day’s “American Idiot” or Rage Against the Machine’s “Freedom”.  Others are mellow, like Corey Crowder’s “Learning to Let Go” and Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah”.  Some just are songs that I love and can’t really explain why like Jack Johnson’s “With My Own Two Hands”, Linda Ronstadt’s “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” - yeah it’s a Christmas song and not the only one on the list - and Johnny Cash’s cover of “In My Life”.

All in all, there are 152 songs in my new playlist and I’m currently playing then in Artist alphabetical order.  Right at this moment (July 28, 2009 at 10:00am) I am on the G’s and listening to Green Day’s “Before the Lobotomy”.  For all of you who may be curious, the last song in the alpha list is 311’s cover of “Summertime”.  As this playlist is the musical equivalent of my spiritual DNA (yeah, upon second read that is a very confusing statement, but one that I stand by and won’t change) it is helping me regain my balance.  I would recommend you create your own spiritual DNA salve-like playlist.  Let me know how it makes you feel.

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Jul. 28, 2009

Does Your Dog Have A “Guilty Look”?

According to a mid-June article in ScienceDaily, whether a dog looks “guilty” or not has more to do with owner/human attribution than whether the dog was actually guilty of the “crime”.  In the study, the pet owners gave their canines instructions to “not eat a treat” and were then asked to leave the room.  Upon being asked back into the room, researchers gave the owners updates that may not have reflected reality (your dog behaved and didn’t eat the treat or your dog misbehaved and ate the treat).  The dogs who looked most “guilty” were in fact the dogs who had been admonished by their owners, regardless of their actual guilt.  The dogs guilty look was in direct response to the owner’s behavior.

I have a Boston Terrier.  With her large, sad expression she constantly looks guilty.  I have however, witnessed her completing flagrant acts of disobedience with little or no “guilt”.  She acts exactly the same way, like she has every right to chew shoes, pee in the kitchen, throw parties….  Anthropomorphism is a tricky thing.  If we’re not careful, next we’ll have to watch where we walk because we’ll believe the grass has feelings.

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Jul. 20, 2009

A “Twilight” Cruise To Die For…

There is a Holland America cruise aimed at Twilight fans.  A seven day excursion from Seattle to Alaska, with an optional tour of Forks, WA.  The prices range from $1049 - $3299 for a chance to mingle with actors from the movie, dress up as a character, and revel in the romantic tradition of Vampires/Mortals.  If you’re a fan of the books or movies this may actually be the vacation for you. 

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Jul. 13, 2009

World Wheat At DEFCON 5

While most of my posts are fun and generally fluffy little pieces, I ran across this article and it scared the beejezus out of me.  Wheat around the world has an old enemy, stem rust.  We’ve been able to develop variations on wheat that have, up till this point, been effective in resisting the fungus.  It’s the fungus’ turn to have an advancement and it’s a doozie, it’s able to attack the current wheat variety.  To quote The Incredibles “It’s penetrating our defenses, avoiding all the obstacles!“

To put this in perspective, a similar fungus, yellow rust, emerged in Eastern Africa in the late 1980’s.  In four years, it was able to spread to wheat fields in Southeast Asia, causing catastrophic losses in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.  The losses totaled over $1 Billion USD.  As these spores travel by wind, it is probable that the outbreak currently in Yemen will spread to the vast wheat growing areas of North Africa, the Middle East, and India (representing roughly 25% of the total global wheat harvest) in the next few years.  The loss of wheat production in those areas would devastate not only the ability of the people to feed themselves, but also the national economies of those countries.  As always, I put my faith in science and my hope in the communal activity of farmers and politicians.

May wheat be with us.

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Jul. 09, 2009

Nurture v Nurture

There is a theory by researchers at the University of Arizona that says smoking while pregnant “biologically primes” the unborn child to become a regular smoker as a teen and young adult.  For the study, the team used data from the Tucson Children’s Respiratory Study to see whether a mother’s smoking during pregnancy and during her child’s early years affected whether the child smoked later on.  What they found was this; women who smoked during pregnancy and during their child’s early years were more likely to have kids who smoked at age 22. This proved true whether the mother smoked or did not smoke during the child’s school years.

Now this is all very interesting, but does not reflect my experience.  My sister and I were born a year apart from each other in 1969/1970.  Our mother was a smoker before, during, and after the births of both my sister and I.  We do not and have never been smokers.  My theory is that the Univ of Arizona theory is applicable to Millennials only and no other generational cohort.  One of the core philosophies of GenXers (which is what my sister and I are) is to be the opposite of what our parents were… If they were smokers, we weren’t.  If they were over-achieving Gordon Gekkos, we were “slackers”.  This is more of an argument of Nurture vs Nurture.  The socio-economic setting in which Gen Xers grew-up formed their worldviews and sense of distrust.  While being exposed to a smoking mother would also fall into the Nurture category, I’ve got to say my experience is that generation pressures define whether I was a smoker or not.  So, University of Arizona theory, I disagree with you.  Take that!

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Jul. 06, 2009