http://shamelessacademic.com loving learning, loving life Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:23:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Introduction: My parents are out of town, and I'm staying with my sisters. Right now, my role is mostly taxi-driver and cook. My grandmothers both live nearby, so I'm also helping them however I can. Grandmama  is my mom's mom. She's almost fiercely independent, even though she is blind and can't ... http://shamelessacademic.com/realizing-what-matters/ Simplify. Declutter. Eliminate. Streamline. These are big themes in my life right now. I'm frustrated by the amount of clutter (physical and mental) in my life right now, but my progress in simplifying has been halting, at best. Today, I was thinking about how I could simplify, and I had a ... http://shamelessacademic.com/1-way-to-simplify-right-now/ On the drive to Italy, we were supposed to spend our time practicing Italian. We had trouble concentrating, though. I heard a rumor that some people were listening to Pavarotti, too. When we arrived at our host church in Fontannafredda, we felt very welcome. Why? Well, there was a welcome sign. There was ... http://shamelessacademic.com/mmt-23-italy-part-1/ It's been a while, I know. But now, we return to our irregularly scheduled mission team reports. At the rate I'm going, I'll have to hurry to finish these before the mission team goes out again (without me this time, though). After two days in very rural Slovakia, we headed to ... http://shamelessacademic.com/mmt-22-vienna-austria/ "But you denied the Holy and Righteous one . . . and you killed the Author of life." Acts 3:14-15 Injustice bothers me. I'll see people who seem to get away with terrible things, and suffer no consequences. Sometimes, my sense of injustice makes it hard for me to function. I'll ... http://shamelessacademic.com/injustice/ Today when I was using Google Insights for Search, my Google toolbar observed that the page was in Ukranian and helpfully offered to translate it for me. Thanks, Google, but actually this page is not in Ukranian. [caption id="attachment_587" align="aligncenter" width="573" caption="Google thinks the page is in Ukranian."][/caption] http://shamelessacademic.com/google-error/ These turtles illustrate one of the very important roles that parents must play--reality coach. http://shamelessacademic.com/what-parents-are-for/ You might want to read this article on willpower. It might get you thinking in a different direction. Then, visit 6 changes to explore a different (and quite possibly more effective) approach. http://shamelessacademic.com/before-you-make-your-resolutions/ Strange title, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought when I first saw this BBC article about octopuses snatching coconut shells and running across the ocean floor. If you want to find out what they use the shells for, you'll have to read the article! Make sure you watch the video ... http://shamelessacademic.com/the-octopus-and-the-coconut-shell/ Trent at Simple Dollar writes about something that's been on my mind a lot lately--distractions. Facebook, Bejeweled, and Google Reader are all distractions for me. A few weeks ago, it got so bad that I downloaded LeechBlock. LeechBlock allows me to block things like Facebook for a set amount of time. ... http://shamelessacademic.com/distractions/