Orchid Mold?

Is this mold or harmless root hairs on my orchid plant?

Review: Bolthouse Farms Protein Plus, Mango Flavor

Taste: It reminds me a lot of V8. I was expecting a sweet smoothie and instead I get a slightly fruity, yet still vegetable dominated, V8-tasting drink.

Product link: http://bolthouse.com/our-products/beverages/proteins/protein-plus-mango/detail

Admit It And Change Everything

Admit It And Change Everything
by: Rumi

Define and narrow me, you starve yourself of yourself.
Nail me down in a box of cold words, that box is your coffin.
I do not know who I am.
I am in astounded lucid confusion.

I am not a Christian, I am not a Jew, I am not a Zoroastrian,
And I am not even a Muslim.
I do not belong to the land, or to any known or unknown sea.
Nature cannot own or claim me, nor can heaven,

Nor can India, China, Bulgaria,
My birthplace is placelessness,
My sign to have and give no sign.
You say you see my mouth, ears, eyes, nose - they are not mine.

I am the life of life.
I am that cat, this stone, no one.
I have thrown duality away like an old dishrag,
I see and know all times and worlds,

As one, one, always one.
So what do I have to do to get you to admit who is speaking?
Admit it and change everything!
This is your own voice echoing off the walls of God.

50/50

The right balance and timing of comedy and drama. I saw a special screening of it last night and it is a must see. The actors - Seth Rogen & Joseph Gordon-Levitt - are perfect for their roles. Bring some Kleenex. A summary in one sentence from IMDB.com:

A comedic account of a 27-year-old guy's cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

Running

In addition to being a health benefit, another motivation for running is the change of perspective. Although I have been in Raleigh for the majority of my life, driving everywhere and driving through the same roads many times over, I always see something new when I run the same path instead. The experience of "new" sights didn't really become evident until I started living downtown.

There are a few roadway characteristics native to all downtown urban areas: the roads become more narrow, the drivers seemingly become more aggressive (crazy would also apply here), a confusing-simple grid-like design, one way traffic flows, and abrupt pedestrian crossings. Oh and naturally, with increased population density comes increased "car density". So, with all these factors keeping all of your flight-or-fight senses occupied, it's no surprise that certain visual details are missed completely.

Substituting legs for wheels and eyes for rear-view mirrors, I've discovered a whole new downtown; I feel like some sort of explorer or adventurer when I go running. Apparently there is a public library downtown, which will be shut down in a few months due to lack of patronage (Hmmm, I wonder why?). I've discovered new food venues and being on-location is definitely much better than Google or Yelp. When I come across a cute puppy, I can actually pet it for a few seconds instead of stare at it from my car with my foot gently depressing on the brakes to slow the car and therefore prolonging my visual candy. Further, the landscape just changes with the simple act of standing instead of sitting driving by in the car.

So, one weekend, free yourself from the constraints of a car and use those legs.

If

If
By: Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Invictus

Invictus
by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Chemistry

Untitled

We go through life worrying, always worrying, something.

Trapped, it feels like, four walls ubiquitous, everywhere.

Where is the release? One step forward two steps back.

Dreams procrastinated and then forgotten.

The reality of a commercial life.

Escape is always in sight, available, but rarely pursued.

Fear overcomes, doubt, established responsibilities.

The wishful getaway not taken, will the chance return?

If given the chance.

Intrinsic is the feeling to do good,

Want and ability is another question.

Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations" (Excerpt)

We spent as much money as we could and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one.

Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations" (Excerpt)

That was a memorable day for me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it and think how different its course would have been. Pause, you who read this, and think for a long moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on that memorable day.

Philip Larkin, "Days"

What are days for?

Days are where we live.

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:

Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question

Brings the priest and the doctor

In their long coats

Running over the fields.

US Space Program

President Obama in today's Twitter Town Hall responded to a comment about the United States' space program. The question obviously encompasses the end of the space shuttle program. I strongly agree with President Obama's response saying that the space shuttle program has become the status quo and that we need to discover a new frontier in space. He goes on to say that he would like to see breakthrough technologies that would give us the ability to go to places faster and also to reach Mars.

I agree. It is time to discover and expand new technologies and get out of the narrow space shuttle idea box that the United States is in.

All of the Above

Vindictive, bullying or just plain annoying? Probably all of the above. Today, President Obama will be holding an unprecedented Twitter Town Hall where "tweeps" can ask questions to the President about jobs and the economy, but the Republicans are out to ambush the online event.

The purpose of political Town Halls is to hear from the constituents - the common citizen - about a certain topic affecting them and in turn the representative answers the question. These types of meetings (in this specific case an online meeting) gives the sense of a personal touch, a one-on-one, and humanizes the relationship between constituent and government official. The President cares about the common man and wants to hear from them their genuine questions about jobs and the economy. However, the purpose of Town Halls will be diminished with the Republican ambush.

Why ambush the President's Town Hall and prevent him from answering questions from everyday Americans? Maybe the Republicans want to make him look bad? Or catch him in a gaffe with their loaded questions? Or viscerally they want the event to fail. Nevertheless, the purpose of the Republican ambush is negative. Oh, and they aren't trying to hide it, all throughout the social media sphere, Republicans and Republican politicians are asking their constituents to join up in arms and giving them loaded talking points to ask the President.

The Republicans can't be stopped with their ambush. It is their right. They have the right to participate in this Twitter Town Hall - everyone is invited. However, I do have an issue with their purpose. Town Halls are meant to enlighten and educate. The Republicans mean to sabotage and hinder. It's OK though, I am content inside. All this energy put into flooding the Twitter Town Hall, I wonder if the Republicans know that the questions are being moderated.

Radiolab Presents Symmetry

It's been a while

Well, here I am sitting in my room surrounded by a pile of clothes on my right and a pile of miscellaneous desk items to my left. I am packing to move to my new apartment in downtown Raleigh, and well, the process is going slow. I have too much "stuff".

With this move, I hope to transition to a 'minimalist' lifestyle.

I packed the easiest things first: my books. And I have A LOT. It has always been a dream of mine that in the future, when I get a house, that it contain a room reserved as a library. Now, my books are mostly non-fiction, seeing that I am a History and Political Science major (nerd). To name a few, I have 90% of David McCullough's books, a thick book about the history of New York City called "Gotham," and a few books about the history of war. In the fiction section, I have some works by Bill Bryson and school classics that I fell in love with authored by Bronte and others. Now, the third category would be poetry and philosophy. I have ALL the works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Also in my collection are Robert Frost Poems and Early American works from Jefferson, Adams, and Jackson.

Oh wait, can't forget my Calvin and Hobbes collection :-).

One thing I won't be packing are my turtles. The only reason I am not taking them with me is that the tank cleaning process is so cumbersome! I wouldn't be able to do it in a 2nd floord downtown apartment setting. They will still get visits from me often. My sisters are ecstatic to take care of them, so they are in good hands.

That's it for now, maybe I'll go back to packing a little bit more then it's time to hit the sack (It's 10:30pm).

Why Facebook is Necessary (Thanks Laura)

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO MAKE IT LARGER

National Geographic Pictures

Quotations Needed

"Any given culture is a reflection of the politics and economics of a given society, and the former in turn has a tremendous influence upon the latter; politics is the concentrated expression of economics." - Mao Zedong

Evolution, Security and Progress of Civilizations

In the past, civilizations were compelled by natural disasters to advance their technology or perish. For example, the Indus River valley civilization had to create an irrigation and dam system to control the seasonal overflow of the river. This same scenario applied to the BCE civilizations in China and India. Moreover, the hybridization of plants (like rice and wheat) had to occur in colonies where the climate and soil were much different from that of the motherland.

In the present time, the country of the Philippines is not following this technological response to natural disaster pattern. Recently, in the news, we see the capital city of Manila underwater and the surrounding towns experiencing mudslides from the attack of two typhoons. Each year, the Philippines gets pummeled by typhoons - people die and the streets flood - yet there has been no infrastructure improvement to prevent the same incident from happening the next year.

First, there is government corruption. The government does not have its priorities straight. Money is being siphoned off by greedy and corrupt government officials. Just as long as the officials are doing well then they don't care about anyone else. There is such a great divide between the poor and the rich. So, there is no money for infrastructure improvement. Next, the Philippines has a tradition of exporting its college educated to developed countries to work. A good percentage of the country's financial imports come from overseas worker remittances. Hence, civil engineers are not staying in the country to address the problem. I can go on and on.

If the Philippines does not address its fundamental problems of dealing with natural disasters then it is handicapped in the world stage. Yearly typhoon attacks are hindering economic growth and the general progress of the country. The bottom line is - the country must deal with its fundamental problems or perish.