“Do you ever get to that point where you feel down, like there’s no point in what you’re doing, like you just want to sleep the day away and not face the world? How do you overcome it?” – Claire

Yesterday, I truly had a Carpe Diem day. I helped out a friend of mine who is starting sell clothes that she’s designed. It’s not “fashion” but it’s nice and comfy to wear. What she needed help on was modeling the clothes she was planning to sell. So we went out to the Botanical Gardens to take pictures of her different blouses and a skirt near nature. I haven’t seen the pictures yet but I’m sure they turned out great. Do you know why I know that? It’s because I enjoyed the several hours of changing into different clothes and going out into nature and taking pictures. It was fun to feel special for a little while. I also brought my Nook with me so I could look like I was reading in some pictures. In other pictures I was listening to my ipod. That’s when I really let loose. I started to listen to the songs and sing along while she was taking pictures. It really made my friend, Bella, laugh while she was taking pictures of me and it was making me even more happy to have fun with the music while taking pictures. Plus I was making Bella enjoy the day more than just taking pictures of me with the clothes she created.

It was nice to let loose. It almost made me feel childlike. You know when you do something that brings so much happiness it makes you feel like you did when you were younger. It truly made me feel care-free. [By the way, the pictures soon will be posted on her page here.]

What does this have to do with the question that Claire mentioned in her last post? It’s these kind of moments that I think of when I feel really down. Another moment I think of is: Florida. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to Orlando, Florida and see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park but when I think of it, there’s something it brings to me. It’s like a patronus. You know when when Dementors are breeding, you want to find a happy memory to think about when you want to create a patronus to fight them. Though Dementors, the creatures are only in the books of Harry Potter, but their spirit lives through out our world.

Though in December, The Harry Potter Alliance is doing a Dementor Horcrux. Where they fight the Dementors by getting fans to find animals, memories, or things that they create or write that will become their patronus. So they share something that makes them happy and others will too so they are able to not only cheer themselves up but others as well knowing that there’s others that have similar situations as them or just feel better. December should be a good time of year and many people get stress and brought down because of the holidays. I’ve done a few patronuses for them and it’s a nice release to think about happy memories and not sad ones.

Though to truly answer Claire’s question. Yes, I’ve had moments in my life that I felt terrible. All I wanted to do was sit at home and never leave or I would have the urge to cry so much. I’ve always felt that my emotions seemed to control me. This year I’ve realized that I have a control of my emotions. My own positive thoughts and happy memories can actually make me change how I feel. I know it’s hard. I’ve had times where I can’t stop the negative thoughts. They were just running tapes in my head keeping me down. But now when I do feel that way, I think of something different. Or I turn on some music and dance in my room. Dancing helps me just to get loose and distract myself from my previous thoughts. If you find songs that you really enjoy and cheer you up place them into a list that you can reach quickly. That way when you feel sad, that’s what you’ll reach for. You can even do things that you enjoy either taking pictures, drawing/painting (even if you don’t feel that you’re not talented, it’s just for you and no one else), reading or just go out on your own for a day. Driving seems to make me feel better too (though that might cost a bit).

There are somethings you feel like you can’t get over, that you never will. Even with time, things change and those feelings seem to be not as strong anymore. I’m not saying they will go away with time but they aren’t as intense. So it makes going though life a bit better. It also helps when you have things to do, friends to be around, and that way you can distract yourself from it too but you don’t want to forget the feelings. They make you who you are, just don’t let them overwhelm you. Easier said than done. But it’s a process. Life is that way. You have changes and you get through them. You’ve gotten though this far, you personally know what makes you happy, what keeps you going each day that will help you keep going.

I got a helpful magazine this month from my dad during finals. I was really sick and stressed out then. So when I got it, it was a relief to see things written down of things I could to that would make me feel better. The magazine is called “Natural Health” and the issue is Dec/Jan 2011 “Instant Calm.” They also have a website which you can see here though it doesn’t include the articles in this magazine issue. The issue talks about how stress isn’t always bad, and what you can do to deal with it. Also the issue talks about things you eat might factor, how much sleep, thinking positively, how to relax with yoga (not the gym yoga that is fast pace), how stress effects, and a few other interesting articles.

I decided to end this post with a smaller version of something I found in the magazine. It’s not mine but I think it’s nice to use.

“15 ways to get moving this winter” (In 30 minutes)
1. Hula Hoop (Calories burned 200): Something fun to do and it keeps you moving
2. Dog-sit (Calories burned 318): walking, playing with the dog and taking care of the dog
3. Take a (snowshoe) hike (Calories burned 254): it doesn’t have to be in the snow though, just hiking through nature can just be as good
4. Jump around (Calories burned 381): “Find a trampoline and channel your inner child” It requires 30 percent more energy than hard surfaces. [Tyler enjoys this activity! So I'm sure he'll approve of number 4.]
5. Get Back to Basics (Calories burned 254): “Do 20 push-ups, 50 crunches, 20 dips from a chair.”
6. Pick up your pace (Calories burned 264): Change your pace when you’re walking, running than staying the same each day or every other day
7. Baby-sit (Calories burned 222): Playing active games like tag, sock football, jump rope, or other games. Determines what kind of kids you’re baby siting though if they are smaller there are other kinds of activities they can do to keep active and that you can help them.
8. Spring clean (Calories burned 175): Cleaning or organizing can also help your health and brain as well.
9. Do a good deed (Calories burned 175): Like volunteering.
10. Make it a work (out)ing lunch (Calories burned 159 in 30 minutes): When you don’t have time for work outs, do a small work out during lunch with friends.
11. Bust a move (Calories burned 206): Close the door and dance in your room. “Need Inspiration? Facebook your friends asking them for one song that makes them hit the dance floor, and make a playlist with their suggestions.” [My favorite activity!]
12. Play Games (Calories burned 254): Similar to kids games, tag, sock football, soccer, hockey.
13. Carry On (Calories burned 95): Rethink the way you shop instead of pushing a cart, holding baskets.
14. Om at home (Calories burned 159 in one hour): Doing Yoga at home and on your own or with a friend.
15. Gear up (Calories burned 381 in one hour): Exercise in cold weather, you burn more calories in the cold than the warm because it gives you energy to exercise since keeps your body in warm temperature.

One more list for stress (Not my list but I’ve narrow it down to a smaller size):
-Run a priority scan (what’s more important for your health and personally)
-Listen to your gut (face what your stressing about)
-Calm your system down (breathing and thinking of calm things)
-Drop stressful “de-stressors” (find the best things that work for you to de-stress)
-De-stress your diet (Like reduce caffeine which effects your nervous system, makes stress worse, and after the energy it gives it’s followed by fatigue as your blood sugar drops, and interrupts sleep & makes you wake up tired)
-Supplement your stress (take a good multi-vitamin or foods that include vitamins & minerals)
- Let the sunshine in (sunshine creates vitamin D, all is needed is 20 minutes a day in the sun without sunscreen or sunglasses then you can place sunscreen and sunglasses the rest of the day)
-Exercise
-Active rest (meditation and deep breathing)
-Use stress for your advantage (help you focus on yourself for a bit then you can get things done)

I hope this helps Claire and anyone else that reads it.

Thanks, it was even good to write all of this out.

I wish you a wonderful Christmas, happy holidays, and a great new year!

Christina

P.S. Wondering what gifts to give? Create a memory that they will enjoy later, create something that will help them remember you, and you can help support a cause by buying gifts of annual passes to national parks, local museum, nature conservatory, Astronomy observatory for family, friends and co-workers. It helps organizations and inspires adventures with friends and family. You can even help out HPA, and get people involved and they also have Harry Potter/HPA gifts you can buy that helps the organization do more in this world.
P.P.S. By the way, I’ve also created a chapter for the HPA here in South Texas but I still need help to make it work. I’m worried about it but I’m very hopeful that I’ll be able to meet up with everyone in the new year and make the group involved into HPA and the community.

I’m ready to seize the day.

I think someday I’m going to talk a little about relationships. I’ve only had a few but I think I’ve learned a quite a bit from them and I figure Holly might someday appreciate this advice. (Holly- boys still have cooties, don’t like them yet!) But right now I’m not ready to talk about it.

Lately I feel like I haven’t been putting myself out there as much. I keep saying I need to meet new people, but then I do and I shut it out because its not my little group of friends. I feel like I did in high school. Reluctant to change. But college is all about change and you have to embrace it to get anywhere. I’ll get back into it, I’m sure… for now maybe I just need some me time. Sit and watch movies with my roommate, hang out with just those few close friends. Get myself back to square one, where I was when orientation happened… then I’ll be open for something new.

I want to pose a question that I hope everyone will take the time to answer either in their own post or in a comment:

Do you ever get to that point where you feel down, like there’s no point in what you’re doing, like you just want to sleep the day away and not face the world? How do you overcome it?

As most of you likely know, a person of my age who attempts to conduct themselves professionally in the political field will often face challenges. As such, I’ve had to deal with ludicrous amounts of ageism, discrimination solely on the basis of age, in nearly all of my politically-related dealings. Although I have largely overcome all of the obstacles that I have faced, there are many people in the United States of America that are facing more serious problems in this area, problems that affect their livelihoods, their finances, and their daily pursuit of happiness. These people are the subject of my seizing the day today.

We’ve all seen this problem lightly touched upon or even joked about in workplace comedies on television throughout the years: the old, wise, experienced man or woman is not considered to be as capable of adapting to new technologies and developing ideas as younger, fresh-out-of-college kids are. What happens at this point? The most likely, and generally common, scenario is a mandatory retirement age (most often 65) is instituted and the oldsters filter out when the youngsters filter in.

Why is this such a problem now, Tyler? I thought programs like Social Security, Medicare, etc. were supposed to prevent old people from having to work past age 65 anyway. The problem is this: inflation, inflation, inflation. The next time you’re having a conversation, or perhaps more fruitfully, when you go out with one of your grandparents, take careful note of the comments they make. Do they often note how high the cost of everything is compared to when they were growing up? While you may have just considered this the whiny complaints typical of old people when you were growing up, it may be much more than that; the costs may just be too high for the person to afford if they’re living solely or nearly solely on Social Security benefits.

So that’s the situation we’re currently in. Social Security benefits are simply not meeting the near-exponential rates of inflation which is causing old people to have to work for a longer period of time and postpone their retirement.

But wait? Why is Grandpa/Grandma having to work a few extra years causing such controversy? As was touched upon above, the rate of older people being forced out of their jobs to accommodate younger people is growing so much that it is forcing many 65+ Americans to live their “golden years” in constant fear and with an ever-present sense of instability.

It is my wish that the vast majority of people would realize not only the devastating impact that these current trends will be having on the elderly in this nation, but also the civil rights implications that this has. In an era where accusations of racism, sexism, and homophobia are running rampant, it is absolutely stunning to me that the American people would allow a person to be dismissed from their work, not because their work is sub-par, but because they have a surplus of experience. From my observations, I sincerely hope that this problem is simply one of ignorance rather than one of apathy.

Okay, so this is a serious problem. What can we do about it? To build upon something that was already mentioned, we as American citizens can urge our local, state, and federal representatives to fight for the rights of the elderly by making such business practices such as the mandatory retirement age against the law so as to ensure that no person is cast out of financial security because of their age. Also, we can continue to get out the message of anti-ageism by spreading stories of people who have been affected by the travesty, talking to the elderly to show them that their plight is recognized by those who will inherit the nation, and demanding that businesses who continue the practice of forced retirement be condemned by the community. In the long run though, these are just a few small ideas proposed by one person that won’t be enough to finally end this problem; we need contributions and ideas from other people as well. What do you propose be done about the ageism problem in America? Do you know anybody that has been affected, and what do they think can be done? Feel free to comment on this post or email me at bnntyler@gmail.com if you want to contribute or share your story.

It will be a long and tireless battle if we want to end this travesty. In the end, it will be worth it.

For now though, good night and good luck!

-Tyler

So how do you survive this week? I’m just learning now.

1. Don’t procrastinate. Essays to do at home? Get them done as soon as possible, last thing you want to do is be up at 2 am the night before your Discrete Math final trying to finish a history essay on the woman’s suffrage movement.
2. Remember to eat! Being hungry doesn’t help you focus! The awesome thing about college is food is never very far away no matter what time it is. If nothing else, when those 3 am cravings hit, I know I can call up Zonies for a nice calzone delivered free to campus!
3. Sleep. Just like being hungry, being exhausted is no help. Get some sleep when you can.
4. Have fun! Spend time with friends and look forward to going home in a few days.

<3

Bowfry (aka Tyler for those who don’t keep up with my nicknames), I agree with all of your proposals, ESPECIALLY the no multimedia bit. I hate multimedia. Note the present tense there.
Claire, please come kidnap me with Jonathan over spring break or summer break or something…. Also, congratulations on the College Puzzles thing!
Christina, I love art shows. Just in general. I went to one the other day wearing sparkly tights and a miniskirt because I was too lazy to locate pants. You should definitely try to go!

Now, onto the things that I actually WANT to discuss.

I got a 100 on a short story I wrote for my Honors English class (story can be read at http://www.booksie.com/thrillers/short_story/hellohorcrux/jimmy/chapter/1 if you’re interested), which is AWESOME because I worked really hard on it. We played two truths and a lie one day in class and our prompt was to include our lie in our story. Turn the false into the truthful, per say. My lie was that I wanted to be a performer my entire life, hence the random crap I threw in there about auditions.

You see, either I write like THAT or a third grader with an abnormally large vocabulary.

NaNoWriMo is further proof of this, seeing as I really DON’T CARE about the quality of my novel, like, at all. Remember my first few posts? Think back to that, but worse in quality and awesome-r in content. For instance, a two-page long Pokemon battle has so far been included in my novel and, um, admittedly several arguments pertaining to Harry Potter and other nerdy things, like Doctor Who and tiny chicken disease.

Also, I do not currently have an antagonist, unless a mental disease that two important people in her life have counts. Whoops. I’ll get on that.

In related news, I am also far, far behind. I am perpetually about 5,000 words behind, in fact, which, as it turns out, is not a fantastic place to be.

Until we meet again,
Peyton

Tyler: I approve of your changes and am willing to implement them if the others are cool with it. I think I’ve been kinda following that style as it is. Multimedia is a painnnn!

Holly: You didn’t have to check your phone in school, stop blaming me

Christina: I wish you had gone on the trip to Austin, I’m sure you would have loved it so much. The pictures you took were amazing, I’m surprised they came from your phone.

Now to my stuff.

NaNoWriMo is going alright. I was caught up as of thursday and then my progress took a nosedive. Friday night we (my roommate Rachel, boyfriend Jonathan, and I) watched the Sci-Fi series Alice because it finally came from netflix. Saturday was the College puzzle challenge! We placed 6th at our school in points, and were somewhere around 220 in the nation (out of about 450 or so) which we think is awesome considering the nature of the puzzles and that we were first years. Next year our plan is to place first in the nation. Babysteps… you know how it goes. So NaNo took a backseat to that. I plan to work on catching up today, in between bits of homework and stuff.

Some really exciting news? I’m going home in less than 2 weeks! I have to work out how I’ll get to the train station at 4:30, 5 in the morning a week from friday, but I catch an almost 6am train and poof! I’ll be in Albany before I know it.

I love college, I have no problems being here on my own. Its fantastic. However I do look forward to going home, having the ability to curl up on my couch and watch TV, eat home cooked food, have my normal staple meals again (burritos as a staple just isn’t cutting it…). It wont be a long break and before I know it I’ll be back at my second home with my friends starting my awesome winter quarter schedule.

Until next time

As I hinted at above, what has largely prevented my posting on the blog is excessive time constraints. Personally, I see the guidelines that were set at the beginning of the project to be my primary obstacle with posting. Therefore, my first proposal for revitalization would be a, possibly temporarily, suspension of nearly all rules that have been set into place. By this, I mean that multimedia will no longer be required, we will not be on as strict of a posting schedule (this will be further explained in a moment) and we can continue seizing the day in our own respective styles.

Now, you may be asking yourself, as I did while considering my options, how/if this will be harmful to the project’s integrity. Largely, I think not. In my view, anything that is preventing the progress of the project should be eliminated, even if it is the foundation that the original idea was based upon. Building upon the schedule idea, I would suggest that it is more in the nature of the project for posts to be somewhat-spontaneous, in that they are not Tyler, Hizzle, Claire, Christina, and so on and so forth. I would then like to take this opportunity to stress that this WILL NOT mean that posts will be spaced weeks or even months apart. When I suggest an elimination of the posting schedule, I mean it to be implied that there will be some restrictions on posts which will be decided as time and events progress.

So, what do you think? Do you think my ideas are reasonable and that they will lead to increased activity? Feel free to let me know in a comment or use any of the means that are on our contact page. Trust me when I say that I have some great ideas for future Carpe Diem tasks (some of which you already know if you follow me on Twitter) and I sincerely hope that I get to implement them, of course and as always, with your permission.

For now though,

Good night and good luck!

-Tyler

Like Claire, I am participating in NaNoWriMo this year and, admittedly, I’m already 1. creeping on the word count of this BLOG POST and 2. 2,000 words+ behind. The good news in that, however, is that I got a ton of homework done AND I passed my exams because I studied. Kind of.
Speaking of, I HAVE MY WORLD HISTORY EXAM TOMORROW AND I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT. I’ve been up all night doing a French project that’s due tomorrow. I guess that means no shower in the morning. AOIFBIAEYFGVA. RAGE. Except I’m too lazy to rage right now. UNCOORDINATED APPENDAGE FLAIL.

Musical theatre’s good, other than my miraculous selection as a first soprano.

Meh. I want to sleep.

Giving up on writing for the week,
Peyton Holly

Today I would have written this post in Austin, Texas. When I found out in my photography class, that we had a chance to go to Austin for a field trip, and when I heard about it I thought about this project. I had gone to Austin when I was little but didn’t get a chance to really experience it. So I really felt like I would be doing something new by going. I was able to ask one of my professors but I was able to ask all my professors. It really doesn’t matter because I knew that I had two important assignments due, one on Monday and another on Tuesday. So I made the decision to not go because I felt I needed to stay here. It really made me sad because I really wanted to go and it sounded like a great opportunity. The different things I would have seen there, some of them I likely would be able to see again and others not as much. One of the things was a art show that will be going on till the end of December. So I figured out that when I finish the semester, in the beginning of December, I would go to Austin with a few friends of mine, see the show and enjoy the city. That would be an amazing trip. Now it can be something to look forward to. I hope everyone in my class that is able to, is having a good time and I’m sure to hear all about it on Tuesday.

Since I wasn’t able to go to Austin, I was able to finish my classes early. I have two classes before my photography class on thursday. I did end up going to my photography class to help out my friend & classmate Sara prepare more paper for our process we are working on in class. Then when we finished, she began to work on some other things that she needed to get done for the class and I went home because there wasn’t much I needed to do.

Even though I had planned to go home, while I was walking towards the car, I started to think about this post and wonder what I would write. I felt like I hadn’t done anything Carpe Diem today. Even though I did write a Harry Potter poem recently for my creative writing workshop class and I got responses today about it from everyone in the class. They were good responses and now I know what to do to make the poem even better. Anyways (apparently, I say this word a lot), I started to drive out of the university and decided to go the direction of downtown to find a park that I could see the Bay from. It was really windy outside (though that’s kind of normal here) and the waves and the wind made the day nice to be outdoors. I parked my car and started to walk around. Enjoying breathing the air, and seeing the water, sand, and the grass all green. I wanted to take pictures but I had forgotten my camera. Luckily my phone had a camera so I started to take pictures with it. So now I’ve uploaded the pictures from my phone to Facebook so that way I can post two on here.

After that experience, I just went home. After dinner and watching the new episode of Bones (on Fox), I got online to check my messages and talk on skype to Tyler and a few of my other friends. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to see more of my friends. I got a chance to see a few of them during Halloween and last friday. Check my recent vlog about that. I’m going to go to the Greek Festival with my family and hopefully I’ll see a few of my friends there. It’s always great to go because we get amazing food, wonderful music, and really enjoy where part of my family comes from. I’ll post some pictures of that soon too. For now you can see a picture that I found of my favorite Greek desert. Can anyone guess what it is?

Take care,

Christina

P.S. Don’t be afraid to write a poem, you never know, it might actually turn out great. Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow, Tyler.
P.P.S. How many days are left till Deathly Hallows? I’m sure it’s less than a “fortnight” now.

I saw my first showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Let me give you a taste of my night-

I was labeled a virgin, got FAIL written on my hand cause I told them I was allergic to certain things and got rashes on my face (I dont want people writing words on me), forced up on stage by  Sassy Gay Friend (who I hear is actually straight…), and told in order to get off stage I’d have to strip down to my underwear in front of the cheering crowd. Naturally I said no way and watched several people do it. Then they had groups of us left do all manner of fairly inappropriate things with the aim of humiliating us and making sure we were not going to be uncomfortable with anything else that happened. I do not care to go into details.

With that out of the way and safely back in my seat, the movie began, and it was quite an experience. If/when you’re over 18 I recommend going at least once. Just if anyone asks if you’re a virgin, say no and dont hide in the corner, they target people like you!

By the way it was nothing like Glee.

I’d write more but I’m working on my NaNoWriMo novel before I have to go to class. Gotta get ahead of the word count if I’m going to make it to 50k!