Loafing USA

6/21/19: Its my birthday, and I spent time sitting by the bay, alone, watching the birds and touching the plants. I felt grounded, and like it was very easy for me to feel my feelings.

6/22/19: Took a bath, added essential oils and just loafed feeling the warmth and smelling the smells. Coudlve stayed forever if I didn't have plans...

6/23/19: Whoops, I didn't loaf today. Too busy studying...although I did read my book for a bit before bed, maybe that counts?

6/24/19: Reflecting on my year and realizing that I've definitely made some changes in my life to reflect the importance of being in the moment, doing nothing, and relaxing. I changed my relationship with social media: I only go on for 5 minutes every other day, rather than what was sometimes an hour or more of scrolling. I've also put up some barriers around my partner's social media use. They are definitely a social media/phone addict, and reach for their phone pretty much any time they arent actively using their hands for something else. While I don't feel inclined to try to change their behavior (besides shining like the sun, enjoying my freedom and lack of accountability to technological disruptions), I have started implementing "I dont want to know" rules with them after dinner - basically meaning that if they read something after dinner on social media, I don't want to know about it. It's been really helpful bc I'm pretty hopelessly sensitive and I'm learning that I need to have boundaries around my empathy/information processing if I'm going to thrive.

6/25/19: I'm really feeling the call to loaf lately...which doesn't exactly align with the fact that I'm taking 27 credits this semester. But on the other hand maybe this is exactly the right time for me to make sure that I prioritize relaxing and comfortably doing nothing. I've been really enjoying the book I'm currently reading, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell. Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:

"In a situation where every waking moment has become the time in which we make our living. and when we submit even our leisure for numerical evaluation via likes on Facebook and Instagram, constantly checking on its performance like one checks a stock, monitoring the ongoing development of our personal brand, time becomes an economic resources that we can no longer justify spending on "nothing""

"The means by which we give over our hours and days are the same with which we assault ourselves with information and misinformation, at a frankly inhuman rate"

"Direct sensuality in all its more-than-human-mystery, remains the sole solid touchstone for an experiential world now inundated with electronically generated vistas and engineered pleasures; only in regular contact with the tangible ground and sky can we learn ho to orient and navigate in multiple dimensions"

"The disturbance of the soul cannot be ended nor true joy created either by the possession of the greatest wealth or by honor and respect in the eyes of the mob or by anything else that is associated with causes of unlimited desire"

"We need distance and time to be functional enough to do or think anything meaningful at all"

"Give yourself the critical break that media cycles and narratives will not, allowing yourself to believe in another world while living in this one"

"As the attention economy works to keep us trapped in a frightful present, it only becomes more important not just to recognize past versions of our predicament but to retain the capacity for an imagination somehow untainted by disappointment"

I think these concepts really align with the loafing assignment, and I wholeheartedly agree with them!

Biology Week 4

Semenya Article:

I'm really glad that Semenya is appealing the unfair, sexist, and racist ruling by CAS. Semenya and her peers with differences in sex development are legally women, and therefore should be allowed to compete in women's sports. Differences in development affect most winning international athletes - it takes much more than hours put in/work ethic/dedication to become a winning olympic athlete. It takes genetic advantage. That's obvious in so many ways, but Semenya is being targeted because she is a Black woman who doesnt fit into the ruling body's standards of femininity. I hope that this case will resolve in a just way, though I don't expect a positive outcome.

Gaia theory:

I definitely think that the earth is a complete, living organism. It's hard for me to understand how and why anyone would think it wasn't, but I know that many people just see it as a random rock to exploit for their petty personal gain.

Chemistry Week 3

Element of the Week: Gold (Au)

Discovered: approximately 3,000 bc.

A soft metal with a characteristic yellow colour. It is chemically unreactive, although it will dissolve in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids). Most mined gold is stored as bullion. It is also, however, used extensively in jewellery, either in its pure form or as an alloy. The term ‘carat’ indicates the amount of gold present in an alloy. 24-carat is pure gold, but it is very soft. 18- and 9-carat gold alloys are commonly used because they are more durable. Dentists sometimes use gold alloys in fillings, and a gold compound is used to treat some cases of arthritis. Gold nanoparticles are increasingly being used as industrial catalysts. Vinyl acetate, which is used to make PVA (for glue, paint and resin), is made using a gold catalyst.

Group	11	Melting point	1064.18°C, 1947.52°F, 1337.33 K
Period	6	Boiling point	2836°C, 5137°F, 3109 K
Block	d	Density (g cm−3)	19.3
Atomic number	79	Relative atomic mass	196.967

Comment on "From Lipstick to Burgers"

This article was majorly depressing. The only good point was the excellent historical framing, and the fact that Monsanto actually lost a case to someone last year and has to pay up. Nearly everyone I love has some form of chronic illness, and I think the fact that we're swimming in a soup of barely-if-ever tested chemicals has a lot to do with our rising rates of chronic disease and cancer. I really can't believe that Roundup is still legal, and hope that it will become illegal in my lifetime.

Comment on "Advancing Green Chemistry" website
This was a heartening place to look after the depression of the above article :) It's good to see that a group of conscientious ppl are putting in a concerted effort to make changes that will protect our future as a planet and a species. I wish that everyone on the path to become a chemist, engineer, or other kind of scientist was required to take a course on green chemistry.