Tuesday, October 25, 2011
City Spirituality
Monday, October 17, 2011
Nostalgia
(Listen Here) or, if you're up for a laugh, here's The Wiggles version hahaa
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
A(completely fictitious) Report on Ergophobia.
- Learned Helplessness – As displayed with animals who stop attempting
to resist electrocution once they believe it inevitable, it is possible that young
adults who are repeatedly faced with rejection from job applications develop a
case of Learned Helplessness where they assume that all of their attempts at employment
will be similarly unsuccessful.
- Negative Associations – After the individual and his/her peers have developed
unrealistically heightened expectations through reinforcement by teachers and
parents it is only inevitable that upon observing the failures of peers the
individual attributes similar expectations to his/herself.
- Social Conditioning
– With the increasing awareness of parental techniques and the importance of
spending time with children young adults are finding increasing comfort in
their home environment. This sense of security and happiness could lead to an
individual’s reluctance to change his/her environment by leaving the family
home and finding independence.
- Evolutionary - Evolutionary psychologists would undoubtedly argue that the increase in ergophobia is related to the close links between finding work and having to live independently of the family. From an evolutionary standpoint, this independence is seen as negative because group living ensures the highest level of security for the individual.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
This is London! How d'ye like it?
Why waste your words when someone else has already summed up all you wish to say?
Here’s something for you to chew on – John Bancks’ “A Description of London” written in 1738. Funny how hundreds of years later his verses still capture the atmosphere of the true London.
A Description of London by John Bancks
Houses, churches, mixed together,
Streets unpleasant in all weather;
Prisons, palaces contiguous,
Gates, a bridge, the Thames irriguous.
Gaudy things enough to tempt ye,
Showy outsides, insides empty;
Bubbles, trades, mechanic arts,
Coaches, wheelbarrows and carts.
Warrants, bailiffs, bills unpaid,
Lords of laundresses afraid;
Rogues that nightly rob and shoot men,
Hangmen, aldermen and footmen.
Lawyers, poets, priests, physicians,
Noble, simple, all conditions:
Worth beneath a threadbare cover,
Villainy bedaubed all over.
Women black, red, fair and grey,
Prudes and such as never pray,
Handsome, ugly, noisy, still,
Some that will not, some that will.
Many a beau without a shilling,
Many a widow not unwilling;
Many a bargain, if you strike it:
This is London! How d'ye like it?
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Birthdays and Babysitting
I don’t have time (or you folks don’t have the attention span) for me to go on and on about everything I’ve done over the past week.
I had a wonderful birthday thanks to Toni-Marie who spent the weekend at my apartment and made me breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. Over the course of the weekend she took me rowing on the lake in Regent's Park, walking up Primrose hill and wandering through markets in Camden, Petticoat Lane, Brick Lane and the flower market on Columbia Road. Talk about eventful!
And as an added birthday present – I got a part-time job babysitting. It’s only once in a while but I don’t mind. I’m babysitting a teenage girl and she’s actually pretty awesome. Though, admittedly, I feel like it would be easier to babysit a toddler than a teen. At least with toddlers you can come up with games to amuse them etc. with teens it’s just like…okay what do we talk about next?
In other news - I spent Thursday registering at the British Library and the Senate House Library. It was hot and the tube was even hotter and I made the poor decision of a grocery run but, by Thursday night what I had to show for it was a full fridge, two membership cards and a massive dehydration induced headache.
Finally, I come to this weekend. The hottest it has been at this time of year in London in 100 years….PICNIC! Tonz and I spent the day in Hyde Park lounging and munching on baguettes. Tomorrow we’ll probably head to a different park to continue filling our solar powered cells before the onslaught of winter.