The Beginnings of College Life

Now, I’m here, in LA at USC. It’s so strange to be here. The first few days I absolutely hated it here. Even now, after spending almost two weeks here, I still haven’t fallen head over heels in love with college like some people do. For the most part, I really enjoy my classes. I’m in some really interesting ones like Intro to Cinema and Writing to Be Read. But other than that, college life is weird to me. I don’t drink, I don’t party; in fact, I’m a pretty quiet and low-key kind of person. So far, I haven’t found anyone else like that. I’ve made a few friends in my classes, but nights here can be pretty lonely. While everyone else is getting dressed up to hit the Row, I’m just slipping into my PJ’s, getting ready to pop in a movie. Don’t get me wrong, as an introvert, it’s nice to have some down time where I can just relax and not worry about being “on” all the time. But I still want some company. I want someone that I can chill with, that will watch movies with me or hang out and chat at a restaurant. I guess finding other people like that takes time. Like anything worth doing, discovering true friends is something you have to invest a lot of time and energy into. Man, I feel tired just thinking about that. Not only to I have to learn how to take care of myself as an independent human being, but I also have to put myself out there and be super social and meet people?!

It’s not that I don’t like people. I’d love to be a people person. It’s just not something that comes naturally to me. I have to work through all the shallow and bogus stuff to find the person within. I don’t like to settle for superficial relationships. I wish I could peer through the walls and see who is sitting alone in their dorms, waiting for someone just like them to come along, like I’m doing now.

I’ve always felt I was cut out for adult life. I actually enjoy spending time with people older than me, just talking or sharing ideas. It’s not that I want to go back to high school or be a little kid again. I just wish some of the people around me would mature. I mean, it’s there first time away from home, most of them are in a new city, and they want to go out and get wasted every night?! The idea alone terrifies me. I just keep praying that I find someone out there like me. I don’t want to have to become someone I’m not just to make friends. I’m not a party girl. I don’t want to feel like I have to be.

I Can't Believe It...

Wow. I visited some of my friends at UGA today...it was so strange to see them all in the dorms, adjusting to college life. I know that's gonna be me next week. Part of me dreads it and part of me is super excited. I really don't know what to expect. I'm ready to get into the routine, to figure the whole college thing out. And I'm ready to have fun and learn new things and become more independent, as cliche as that sounds. I'm sort of in limbo these last couple days...just waiting for the next big thing to happen, anticipating the unexpected.

120 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power

Here are 120 things you can do starting today to help you think faster, improve memory, comprehend information better and unleash your brain’s full potential.

1. Solve puzzles and brainteasers.
2. Cultivate ambidexterity. Use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth, comb your hair or use the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Switch hands for knife and fork.
3. Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
4. Learn mind mapping.
5. Block one or more senses. Eat blindfolded, wear earplugs, shower with your eyes closed.
6. Develop comparative tasting. Learn to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese or anything else.
7. Find intersections between seemingly unrelated topics.
8. Learn to use different keyboard layouts. Try Colemak or Dvorak for a full mind twist!
9. Find novel uses for common objects. How many different uses can you find for a nail? 10? 100?
10. Reverse your assumptions.
11. Learn creativity techniques.
12. Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
13. Transpose reality. Ask “What if?” questions.
14. SCAMPER!
15. Turn pictures or the desktop wallpaper upside down.
16. Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies.
17. Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles.
18. Get familiar with the scientific method.
19. Draw. Doodle. You don’t need to be an artist.
20. Think positive.
21. Engage in arts — sculpt, paint, play music — or any other artistic endeavor.
22. Learn to juggle.
23. Eat ‘brain foods’.
24. Be slightly hungry.
25. Exercise!
26. Sit up straight.
27. Drink lots of water.
28. Deep-breathe.
29. Laugh!
30. Vary activities. Get a hobby.
31. Sleep well.
32. Power nap.
33. Listen to music.
34. Conquer procrastination.
35. Go technology-less.
36. Look for brain resources in the web.
37. Change clothes. Go barefoot.
38. Master self-talk.
39. Simplify!
40. Play chess or other board games. Play via Internet (particularly interesting is to play an ongoing game by e-mail).
41. Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others.
42. Be childish!
43. Play video games.
44. Be humorous! Write or create a joke.
45. Create a List of 100.
46. Have an Idea Quota.
47. Capture every idea. Keep an idea bank.
48. Incubate ideas. Let ideas percolate. Return to them at regular intervals.
49. Engage in ‘theme observation’. Try to spot the color red as many times as possible in a day. Find cars of a particular make. Invent a theme and focus on it.
50. Keep a journal.
51. Learn a foreign language.
52. Eat at different restaurants – ethnic restaurants specially.
53. Learn how to program a computer.
54. Spell long words backwards. !gnignellahC
55. Change your environment. Change the placement of objects or furniture — or go somewhere else.
56. Write! Write a story, poetry, start a blog.
57. Learn sign language.
58. Learn a musical instrument.
59. Visit a museum.
60. Study how the brain works.
61. Learn to speed-read.
62. Find out your learning style.
63. Dump the calendar!
64. Try to mentally estimate the passage of time.
65. “Guesstimate”. Are there more leaves in the Amazon rainforest or neuron connections in your brain? (answer).
66. Make friends with math. Fight ‘innumeracy’.
67. Build a Memory Palace.
68. Learn a peg system for memory.
69. Have sex! (sorry, no links for this one! )
70. Memorize people’s names.
71. Meditate. Cultivate mindfulness and an empty mind.
72. Watch movies from different genres.
73. Turn off the TV.
74. Improve your concentration.
75. Get in touch with nature.
76. Do mental math.
77. Have a half-speed day.
78. Change the speed of certain activities. Go either super-slow or super-fast deliberately.
79. Do one thing at a time.
80. Be aware of cognitive biases.
81. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. How would different people think or solve your problems? How would a fool tackle it?
82. Adopt an attitude of contemplation.
83. Take time for solitude and relaxation.
84. Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
85. Travel abroad. Learn about different lifestyles.
86. Adopt a genius. (Leonardo is excellent company!)
87. Have a network of supportive friends.
88. Get competitive.
89. Don’t stick with only like-minded people. Have people around that disagree with you.
90. Brainstorm!
91. Change your perspective. Short/long-term, individual/collective.
92. Go to the root of the problems.
93. Collect quotes.
94. Change the media you’re working on. Use paper instead of the computer; voice recording instead of writing.
95. Read the classics.
96. Develop your reading skill. Reading effectively is a skill. Master it.
97. Summarize books.
98. Develop self-awareness.
99. Say your problems out loud.
100. Describe one experience in painstaking detail.
101. Learn Braille. You can start learning the floor numbers while going up or down the elevator.
102. Buy a piece of art that disturbs you. Stimulate your senses in thought-provoking ways.
103. Try different perfumes and scents.
104. Mix your senses. How much does the color pink weigh? How does lavender scent sound?
105. Debate! Defend an argument. Try taking the opposite side, too.
106. Use time boxing.
107. Allocate time for brain development.
108. Have your own mental sanctuary.
109. Be curious!
110. Challenge yourself.
111. Develop your visualization skills. Use it at least 5 minutes a day.
112. Take notes of your dreams. Keep a notebook by your bedside and record your dreams first thing in the morning or as you wake up from them.
113. Learn to lucid dream.
114. Keep a lexicon of interesting words. Invent your own words.
115. Find metaphors. Connect abstract and specific concepts.
116. Manage stress.
117. Get random input. Write about a random word in a magazine. Read random sites using StumbleUpon or Wikipedia.
118. Take different routes each day. Change the streets you follow to work, jog or go back home.
119. Install a different operating system on your computer.
120. Improve your vocabulary.
121. Deliver more than what’s expected.

http://litemind.com/wp-content/w3tc/pgcache/boost-brain-power/_default_.html

Life is weird.

Some days I feel like the only sane person in the world. Other days I feel like the only crazy person.

Ecce! Puella Romana!

I've always wanted to learn another language. I used to know a little Spanish, but those memories have long faded. In high school, I had this romantic idea that I could learn Latin and it would sound beautiful and poetic and everyone would be so impressed with my knowledge of this dead language. Much to my disappointment, I came to find out that the Latin taught nowadays is only written, not spoken. And it doesn't sound pretty when you pronounce a word out loud. And I was stuck in the extremely boring class for two years, wishing I had at least taken French or something. Since then, I've been a little hesitant to try my luck at learning another language. I had grown weary of being graded on how well I could conjugate a verb or how accurately I could translate a paragraph. I usually ended up with a couple sentences that didn't seem to go along with the picture next to it at all. I would end up with a story about a gladiator defeating the lions and the picture would be of a little Roman girl at the market. So, after a couple years, I've decided, once again, that I'm going to try to learn a new language. I went to the mall yesterday and circled the Rosetta Stone kiosk for several minutes and finally chose a language. My choice? Nope, not Spanish. Not even French or Italian. I chose Swahili. Now I know that sounds extremely obscure and, honestly, it really is kind of random, but I travel several times a year to Africa and I've always had this crazy fantasy of being able to speak with the native people there in their own language. Most tribes or different areas of Kenya and Uganda have their own language, but most people in the area can speak and understand Swahili, so that's why I chose it. Also, Swahili is the only African language Rosetta Stone produces. :)

I will continue to post my progress on mastering this foreign and exotic language! So far, I've only completed one lesson, but I actually did pretty well on it - I only missed a couple out of a long list of questions! If you ask me which one is the boy or the girl or the dog or the plane in Swahili, I could probably tell you which one is which...or point to the picture, since those words are kinda hard to pronounce :)

I'm Going to Uganda!!

So, after many years of dreaming/working, God has finally presented me with the opportunity to travel to Uganda in April to film a documentary for Bite Back. I can't believe this is happening! For as long as I can remember, I've dreamed about working with a group to make a documentary about something I'm passionate about. I can't believe I'm actually going to Uganda to film this. God loves to keep surprising me! Please keep this trip in your prayers as we're working on figuring out all the details.

Thank You Letter From My Russia Trip

Thank you so much for your prayers and support for my mission trip to Russia. I had such a wonderful time over there and was truly blessed to see God’s work through the wonderful people at St. Nicholas Orphanage and the Caritas Center. Though the travel was a little crazy (30+ hours to get there!), it was all worth it in the end when we arrived in Novosibirsk. Once we were there, we stayed at the Caritas Center, which is a battered women’s shelter, and we ran a Kid’s Club every afternoon in their facility with a group of Russian mentors. We also spent time next door at St. Nicholas Orphanage playing with the kids there. Some of the days were really cold, but we had so much fun having snowball fights with the kids. The nuns at the orphanage were wonderful cooks and they made us lunch or dinner every day. Overall, Russia was very different than I expected it to be – it felt almost like I had stepped back in time to the 1940’s. The effects of Communism felt as if they hadn’t completely faded away and some of the areas, like Moscow, seemed very sad and depressed. The cities were very gray and smoggy and the people felt very isolated from one another. However, the warmth and kindness that the nuns and the mentors displayed was such a wonderful example for the kids and for their community. The influence that Christ has on their lives was very evident in their attitudes and in their constant acts of service they displayed for us, the Americans, and for the kids at the orphanage. Seeing such devoted mentors encouraged my team and me and I know Novosibirsk is slowly becoming more encouraged and hopeful itself as a city because of people like the nuns and mentors and places like the Caritas Center and St. Nicholas. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers – I truly believed God had His hand on my group as we traveled and as we spent time with the people in Russia. Please continue to keep the people of Novosibirsk in your prayers – pray that they will continue to be encouraged by Christ and that God continues to reveal new hope in their lives.