I like to think of myself as a realist, a person who tends to view or represent things as they really are. In actuality, I spend most of my time trying to be an optimist. Day in and day out, I try to convince myself and others that the proverbial glass is half full. So often, I place a positive spin on crappy news I receive, and I spend time editing verbal communication so that what I am saying is more cheerful than what I might be thinking. As a self-proclaimed realist, I believe that I am doing myself no favors when I constantly act as an optimist. So, why do I do it? Unfortunately, society views anything other than optimism as pessimism, and no one wants be perceived as a "Debbie Downer." In addition, a good mood certainly is more enjoyable than a bad mood, and thinking optimistically often helps improve my mood.
The problem is that thinking optimistically cannot change situations that are beyond our control. When we are dealt a bad hand in poker, it behooves us to recognize that we have a bad hand and that there is nothing we can do about it. After all, we can't expect all hands to be winning hands. Such thinking would be foolish. Isn't life the same way? Some situations are not what we want them to be. Wouldn't we be better off to recognize less than ideal situations for what they really are? If we continually try to place a positive spin on circumstances beyond our control, I believe that we end up like the poker player who continues to play regardless of the hand dealt. We lose big time!
One of my favorite shows from childhood is The Facts of Life. I love the theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_GxXRbSFDg. It is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. It is realistic.
Note: As I was writing this blog, I came across an SNL “Debbie Downer” skit that I had not seen. This particular one is quite funny. In fact, I laughed quietly several times while viewing it. Here's a link to the skit: http://www.hulu.com/watch/68225/saturday-night-live-debbie-downer.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
New Favorites
Although I still enjoy watching shows like House Hunters and The Big Bang Theory, my new favorites are: (1) Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, (2) The Best Thing I Ever Ate, (3) Modern Family, and (4) The Middle.
Like House Hunters, I can watch episodes of Triple D over and over again. The food always looks so tasty! I hope The Best Thing I Ever Ate makes it as a permanent show on The Food Network. It's interesting to see the food items that chefs and TV personalities identify as the best they've ever eaten.
For a few years, it seemed like the half-hour comedy was becoming a thing of the past. This year, there are good comedies on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. In my opinion, Wednesday night is the strongest with decent comedies on CBS and outstanding comedies on ABC. The actors on Modern Family and The Middle are perfectly cast, and the writers are great! Modern Family keeps me laughing the entire episode, and there's something nice about The Middle. The family just seems real. Also, Patricia Heaton is excellent as Frankie Heck.
Like House Hunters, I can watch episodes of Triple D over and over again. The food always looks so tasty! I hope The Best Thing I Ever Ate makes it as a permanent show on The Food Network. It's interesting to see the food items that chefs and TV personalities identify as the best they've ever eaten.
For a few years, it seemed like the half-hour comedy was becoming a thing of the past. This year, there are good comedies on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. In my opinion, Wednesday night is the strongest with decent comedies on CBS and outstanding comedies on ABC. The actors on Modern Family and The Middle are perfectly cast, and the writers are great! Modern Family keeps me laughing the entire episode, and there's something nice about The Middle. The family just seems real. Also, Patricia Heaton is excellent as Frankie Heck.
Friday, February 12, 2010
One Month Later
One month has passed... what has that month been like for Haitians? I can't imagine. According to CNN, the earthquake is responsible for more than 212,000 deaths, 300,000 people injured, and 1 million people left homeless (which, combined, is more than half of the population in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas). One month later, I still wonder what I wondered on January 12th... how will Haiti ever recover from such devastation?
As I ponder the situation in Haiti, I realize that I should be much more thankful for my circumstances.
As I ponder the situation in Haiti, I realize that I should be much more thankful for my circumstances.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Lots of Topics
Since several days have elapsed since my last post, I include four topics below.
Topic 1: Steven Strogatz, professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University, is writing several opinion pieces on mathematics for The New York Times. Why is Dr. Strogatz doing this? In his first opinion piece "From Fish to Infinity", Dr. Strogatz states, "The goal is to give you a better feeling for what math is all about and why it’s so enthralling to those who get it." Because I think mathematicians need to do more of this sort of thing, I'm very excited to see this blog appearing in the "Opinionator" section of The New York Times. In case you'd like to follow along, here's a link: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/steven-strogatz/. (Since I do not often read The New York Times, I must thank Jay for letting me know about the opinion pieces.)
Topic 2: While traveling to Winston-Salem on Sunday, Jay and I were listening to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, NPR's hour-long quiz program. During the "Lightning Fill in the Blank" segment, a bit of news about a principal in Arizona caught my attention. Principal Ron Sterr was suspended after a letter he claims to have written as a joke was accidentally sent home to parents of second graders. According to The Washington Post, the letter stated, "The math we do is really easy." It goes on to say, "If your child is either too lazy or too stupid to finish it in class, I'm sending it home so that you can work with them and judge for yourself whether it is laziness or idiocy that inhibits your child's progress." Wow! Can you imagine getting this letter from a principal about your child? Although Sterr claims that the letter was written to actually show how idiotic such comments are, parents, of course, had no way of knowing this when they read their letters. These are the types of comments that lead students to believe that they just can't do math because they aren't smart enough, which is very unfortunate. Here's a link to the coverage of this story by The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020202620.html.
Topic 3: After watching Ina Garten roast vegetables several months ago during an episode of Barefoot Contessa, I began roasting carrots. Soon after that, I started roasting potatoes, and I now roast asparagus, too. I have found that these vegetables are so tasty when prepared this way, and the roasting is no more difficult than any other cooking method.
Topic 4: Although I did not watch the Super Bowl, one of my friends mentioned that the Google ad Parisian Love was one of the commercials. Here's a link to the ad: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories. Although the story definitely is sweet, I really like the video because it accurately shows just how useful Google is. When I want to answer just about any question, what do I do? I Google it! Nearly every time, I find my answer by following a link on the first page of search results. No matter how much I learn about Google, I remain amazed!
That's all for today!
Topic 1: Steven Strogatz, professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University, is writing several opinion pieces on mathematics for The New York Times. Why is Dr. Strogatz doing this? In his first opinion piece "From Fish to Infinity", Dr. Strogatz states, "The goal is to give you a better feeling for what math is all about and why it’s so enthralling to those who get it." Because I think mathematicians need to do more of this sort of thing, I'm very excited to see this blog appearing in the "Opinionator" section of The New York Times. In case you'd like to follow along, here's a link: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/steven-strogatz/. (Since I do not often read The New York Times, I must thank Jay for letting me know about the opinion pieces.)
Topic 2: While traveling to Winston-Salem on Sunday, Jay and I were listening to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, NPR's hour-long quiz program. During the "Lightning Fill in the Blank" segment, a bit of news about a principal in Arizona caught my attention. Principal Ron Sterr was suspended after a letter he claims to have written as a joke was accidentally sent home to parents of second graders. According to The Washington Post, the letter stated, "The math we do is really easy." It goes on to say, "If your child is either too lazy or too stupid to finish it in class, I'm sending it home so that you can work with them and judge for yourself whether it is laziness or idiocy that inhibits your child's progress." Wow! Can you imagine getting this letter from a principal about your child? Although Sterr claims that the letter was written to actually show how idiotic such comments are, parents, of course, had no way of knowing this when they read their letters. These are the types of comments that lead students to believe that they just can't do math because they aren't smart enough, which is very unfortunate. Here's a link to the coverage of this story by The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020202620.html.
Topic 3: After watching Ina Garten roast vegetables several months ago during an episode of Barefoot Contessa, I began roasting carrots. Soon after that, I started roasting potatoes, and I now roast asparagus, too. I have found that these vegetables are so tasty when prepared this way, and the roasting is no more difficult than any other cooking method.
Topic 4: Although I did not watch the Super Bowl, one of my friends mentioned that the Google ad Parisian Love was one of the commercials. Here's a link to the ad: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories. Although the story definitely is sweet, I really like the video because it accurately shows just how useful Google is. When I want to answer just about any question, what do I do? I Google it! Nearly every time, I find my answer by following a link on the first page of search results. No matter how much I learn about Google, I remain amazed!
That's all for today!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Quantity vs. Quality
Since I am a woman in my thirties who does not yet have children, any news about fertility seems to capture my attention lately. A few days ago, a new study on female egg reserves received lots of media coverage. In case you missed it, here's a link to a GMA interview on this topic:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/women-fertility-falls-lose-90-percent-eggs-30/story?id=9693015
Note the title: For Women Who Want Kids, 'the Sooner the Better': 90 Percent of Eggs Gone By Age 30. While it is interesting that a female begins life with all the eggs she will ever have (on average 300,000 potential egg cells) and the number remaining each month seems to decrease exponentially, the rapid decline in and of itself is not worrisome to me. After all, women only produce one (possibly two) mature eggs per month anyway (meaning only 400 or so eggs ever reach maturity). Thus, in my opinion, the bigger issue seems to be the quality of eggs available each month not the quantity. The following article supports my opinion:
http://www.advancedfertility.com/eggquantityquality.htm
Of course, as indicated in the article, quantity certainly is a factor when doctors perform ovarian stimulation; however, assuming that eggs reaching maturity have been randomly selected, the percentage of high-quality eggs available matters much more than the number of eggs available. If a female begins with a high percentage of high-quality eggs and is able to prevent external factors from decreasing their quality as she ages (http://www.womens-health.co.uk/egg_age.html), then it follows that she likely will become pregnant at an older age even though she has a much smaller supply of eggs from which to randomly choose.
Now, wasn't that a fun post!?!
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/women-fertility-falls-lose-90-percent-eggs-30/story?id=9693015
Note the title: For Women Who Want Kids, 'the Sooner the Better': 90 Percent of Eggs Gone By Age 30. While it is interesting that a female begins life with all the eggs she will ever have (on average 300,000 potential egg cells) and the number remaining each month seems to decrease exponentially, the rapid decline in and of itself is not worrisome to me. After all, women only produce one (possibly two) mature eggs per month anyway (meaning only 400 or so eggs ever reach maturity). Thus, in my opinion, the bigger issue seems to be the quality of eggs available each month not the quantity. The following article supports my opinion:
http://www.advancedfertility.com/eggquantityquality.htm
Of course, as indicated in the article, quantity certainly is a factor when doctors perform ovarian stimulation; however, assuming that eggs reaching maturity have been randomly selected, the percentage of high-quality eggs available matters much more than the number of eggs available. If a female begins with a high percentage of high-quality eggs and is able to prevent external factors from decreasing their quality as she ages (http://www.womens-health.co.uk/egg_age.html), then it follows that she likely will become pregnant at an older age even though she has a much smaller supply of eggs from which to randomly choose.
Now, wasn't that a fun post!?!
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