A Second Birth

On Saturday my husband and I went to see a play called A Second Birth. I actually had no idea what it was about until I stared watching it, but it was actually really good! It was in a small theater downstairs in the HFAC. There were chairs all around the room facing the middle where there was a small circular stage. Only a handful of people were composed of the cast, and when they were no actively performing on the stage, they would sit on the ground and turn the stage so that it would circle around. I just loved how close and intimate the environment was for the play.

The play took place in Afghanistan and was about a girl who was a bacha posh. Bacha posh is girl who's parents dress up as a boy so that they can attend school, work, etc. and bring honor to the family. These girls who are dressed like boys learn how to fight, play soccer, and do things that boys do. The Bacha posh in the play reaches the age where she is starting to develop, and he parents are worried that she will be discovered (which could mean death), so her parents decide to arrange a marriage for her. She quickly has to learn how to cook, sew, and various other skills that a woman is expected to do. She certainly fights against this and feels that her freedoms are being taken away and that her life will confined where she will feel like a slave. There is however a fun twist to the play and how it ends.

I liked the play because it really makes you think about men's roles and women's roles and what really makes us different...or the same. I believe men and women are more the same than they are different, but that by having different roles can bring the potential to accomplishing great things as a couple, if used properly and with wisdom. 

Toilet Phone

So...this is kind of embarrassing. I was walking into the bathroom and the cell phone that was in my back pocket fell out...into the toilet! Yes, it got wet, but in the most awkward way. So naturally I reached my hand into the bowl to get it out. Gross!!! The saddest part of this whole thing is I did the exact same thing almost a year ago where I dropped the exact same phone in a toilet. As of now, my poor little phone is sitting in a bag of rice, in hopes that it will work again. It worked for a whole year after the last toilet plunge, so if it's fine again I will be very impressed (especially seeing how I have one of the cheapest phone you can possibly get).

It's times like this where I get a little reality check on how dependent I am on my cell phone. Without it this evening I couldn't call my husband to tell him the "bad new". Tomorrow, no one will be able to get a hold of me. I think it's the curiosity that kills me, wondering who might be trying to text or call for whatever reason. I think I've decided to just try and enjoy tomorrow as a cell phone free day.

Foldit: video gamers helping scientists

We talked about video games in my Media, Family, and Human Development class yesterday. For a very long time I've been pretty against video games, especially the violent ones. I've seen how they can be addicting and lead to outcomes that I wouldn't consider the most desirable. Also, when it comes to violence, the scriptures talk pretty strongly against murder as a very serious sin, so I personally don't see how pretending to commit that "sin" by shooting and killing on video games is good for our soul. 

But, none-the-less, it was interesting for me to learn in class that those who play video games and become pretty good at 3D navigation, which has shown to be helpful in things such as laposcopic surgeries. Who knew that laposcopic surgeons who previously previously played video games had an advantage.

Well oddly enough, this morning my husband was watching a video about video-gamers helping scientists figure out protein folding. The scientist turned it into a game called foldit, and low and behold, the gamers were better than the scientists at it in figuring out how to do the protein folding. Anyways, it's pretty interesting and not very long, so you should take a look at it! So it appears to not all gaming is bad, but the skills you learn can actually be helpful.

Here's the link: http://youtu.be/axN0xdhznhY

Stress

So, we got a promotion in the mail for a free month of netflix. I'm not a huge media consumer and rarely watch movies. But my husband and I are giving it a try, and we'll cancel after the free month is over (for time and money reasons).

We watched a documentary by national geographic called Stress. I liked the documentary a lot because it talked about real research that has been done on stress and the neuroscience behind the effects of stress. I knew that chronic stress wasn't good for your health and can lead to brain cell death, but that was about all I knew. Chronic stress actually has a lot of impacts. For instance, when we undergo stress, the bodies resources of prioritized and goes to heart, lungs muscles and brain (such as when an animal is running for it's life) and then other body systems shut down. This is ok for short "fight or fight" responses, but long term stress lowers the immune system and health problems can arise (because resources are not being distributed evenly).
I learned that stress is linked to accelerating the rate of shortening the telomeres on the ends of chromosomes. But acts of compassion and helping others increases the levels of telomerase which helps rebuild telomeres. One way I thought of this was that the saying of helping others in need makes us feel better, is actually true at a biological level.

Ok, I am not a science person and I might not have understood all the science behind everything, but that is the basic gist of what I got out of the documentary.

For the Strength of Youth

I recently was looking at the LDS Church’s website for the youth. If you haven’t seen it, check it out at www.youth.lds.org .  It’s been about 8 years since I was in that program, so it was interesting for me to see what has changed in the youth program since I left. It looks like they have a new For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, and obviously now they have this great website for the youth! The youth sure do love technology and media, and I think this website is a great resource for them to use.

Laptops

I did an internship this past summer and one of the responsibilities I had was to take detailed minutes at various meetings. On occasion, I couldn’t find a laptop to use and therefore took the notes by hand (no big deal, that’s how I take notes in school). Yet, it was sure nice and convenient to take the minutes when I had access to a laptop!

If I owned a nice portable laptop, I would probably take it to school for taking notes. I’ve noticed many of my peers doing this, yet I also notice the use of facebook, pinterest, etc. during lecture.  How one decides to take advantage of their education (which we pay good money for) is up to each individual. The only problem I have with people doing other things on their laptops during class is that it can be distracting for others.

For example, the other day my husband came home from school and said, “In one of my classes a girl in front of me was pinning clothing items on pinterest. I’ve never been interested in fashion but for some reason I couldn’t stop staring at her laptop and seeing everything she was pinning!”   I had a good laugh because my husband really doesn’t care about fashion, let alone pinterest, yet in class it was still a distraction for him.

Life is Precious

I’m currently taking a university course called Adult Development and Aging. For the class I just read a book called “Life with Big Al (Early Alzheimer’s)”. The book is real journal entries from a woman who took care of her husband who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 52. This book had way more of an influence on me than I had anticipated! Through this woman’s diary, you could really see what she was experiencing as she saw and dealt with the decay of her dear husband, as well as feel what she was experiencing as if you were experiencing it too. My grandmother died from this disease as well so this is a topic that is close to my heart, but it was much different to see if from the perspective of the spouse. The book made me ponder upon how precious life is and how we really need to treasure every moment with our loved ones. Mostly, this book helped me be grateful for my own husband and made me want to appreciate every moment we have together in this life, because our time together is a gift.

Good, Better, Best

Media…there’s no doubt that is plays a large role in our current society. Is the current media good or bad, or somewhere in the middle? Based on content I’m sure we can all come up with an opinion, based on our criteria. Besides classifying content into categories of bad or good, I think there are other aspects of media to look at.

When placed with a number of options, my husband likes to ask the question of what is “good, better, and best”, and then try to choose the best option. I think time is a precious resource we have and there are certainly “good, better, and best” ways to use our time. Now back to media. As for myself, I’ll call/text a good friend, watch an occasional movie, use my email for communication, and stay connected with friends on facebook. These can all be good uses of our time but I’m sure there are times when perhaps it would be better to do our homework instead of watching TV. Yet, what is the best thing we can do with our time? Now this is simply my opinion (from a religious standpoint) that the best things we should do in this life is to love God and love our fellow man (Matt 2:37-39). How we do this comes in many forms, and I believe one way we can manifest this by serving others (Mosiah 2:17). With this in mind, we can see another dimension in how to judge media. Questions we can ask are: Regardless of content, is this media a good, better, or best use of time? Overall, is the majority of my media usage devoted to the best use of my time? Perhaps watching TV shows or pinteresting (with content that is certainly not “bad”) if we devote too much time to it (and you be the judge), could leave us losing out on wonderful experiences to fill our time with the “best” or most important things in life.

 I believe media has given us an opportunity to expand our abilities to serve God, help others, and expand our knowledge.  I feel it is also important to pay attention to how we’re using the media that perhaps (with the use of media or not) we can find the “best” uses of time.