Category: Monday’s Food for Thought

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: What If It Weren’t Called Pink Slime?

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If you read this blog, you know that MC and I are passionate about feeding our families real food, especially now that we both have children.

I saw this article in the New York Times yesterday, and given the media backlash against the ‘pink slime,’ I thought it was interesting that the author of the article referred to the whole episode as ‘unfair’.  It may be unfair that a seemingly respectable company with an exemplary safety record will have to reduce its workforce, but it is not in the least bit unfair to know what we the consumer, are purchasing.

I will stop before this post becomes a rant, but we DO need to know what’s going into our food, and what we’re feeding our families. And, it’s up to us to fight against the food industry to make sure things are labeled properly, so we can make wise choices.

-Mandy

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Parisian Night Mimes

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I came across this link posted on a friend’s facebook page a while back and had to do a double-take.

Art as a means of noise control in Parisian neighborhoods.

Absolutely fascinating to employ something as non-threatening as street performing to help combat a serious public issue.

Reminds me a lot of the whole flash mob movement…gentle but powerful and successful.

I am incredibly curious to see how these “nocturnal artistic intervention squads” are working out.

What do you think about it?

-M.C.

“To deal with a reluctant public, the initiative mixes street art and mediation. The 37 mimes work in trios (two performers and a mediator) and employ all their abilities (mime, acrobatics, dance) to encourage people to celebrate without shouting so that everyone can get along. In June — when the warm weather brings out even more revelers — their ranks will increase to 60 performers with 20 much-needed (we’re guessing) mediators.”

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Inspiring People

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The London Marathon was held last Sunday, and as both my husband and I are runners, we always take interest in what is going on in and around the marathon. A week before it took place, this article came out on the BBC.

Fauja Singh announced this would be his last marathon, after only running 8 marathons.He plans to continue running smaller races (half marathons/10Ks).

Part of me wondered, WHY is this news? Then I read further – Mr Singh is 101 years old. He started running when he was 89 years old.

I’ve thought a lot about Mr Singh over the past 2 weeks. Every time I’ve began to make an excuse or procrastinate about accomplishing something, I’ve thought about the tenacity and drive that he must possess – and honestly, I’ve found it inspiring.

I sincerely hope that as I grow older, I continue to try new things and strive for ways that will forge new growth in my own life.

Who inspires you today?

-Mandy

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Chickens on Prozac?

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So, I’ve never been a huge foodie…and I sadly never got around to reading “supersize me” and all those other fascinating documentaries on the sad, mixed up food industry that surrounds us these days.  I’ve always mainly shopped on the peripheral of the supermarket and never thought much of what I am buying.  However, I recently read this short piece from the NYT on some current testing in chickens in the US and I kinda felt sick and then got really frustrated.  Yuck! Yikes! Seriously!?

I tend to buy organic, especially since my daughter is now eating almost everything we eat, but organic isn’t always cheap…and sometimes it can be harder to come by.  After reading this, I am interested in researching more vegetarian options for dinner and when we do have meat (especially chicken) making sure it is organic if at all possible.

What do you think?  Do you know of more research/opinions out there?

Food for thought for sure…

-M.C.

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Your Children Want YOU!

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This amazing article by April Perry has been floating around the web for the past few days. If you have kids, it’s a definite must read. For me, who often battles my own inadequacies about parenting, it was a great reminder that when I am home, my son only really wants me to spend time with him, and couldn’t care less about a new recipe from Pinterest.

It also made my appreciate my own Mom, who while raising my brother and I, always went and above and beyond to make sure she spent time with us, often at great sacrifice. For that, I am grateful. Mom, I love you.

-Mandy

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: How to Help Your Spouse Finish a PhD Degree Quickly

thegraduatewife4 Comments

I laughed out loud when I saw this quirky little article a few months back, but loved the title, and found some of the tips to be helpful.

However, my experience has definitely been that a PhD can’t be rushed; the job search after can’t be rushed; and as long as you manage in some way to have decent communication with your other half, then 3-5 years (or 8 years in my case!) seems well worth the sacrifice.

What do you think about the article?

-Mandy

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Getting yourself to bed on time…

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So…to be honest this piece (from an interesting study called the happiness project) could be categorized more as a ‘weekly tip’ post than a ‘food for thought’ post, but I found these simple, yet powerful tips worth sharing today.  I think this is the case because this particular Monday morning has me feeling rather sleepy and questioning how I can get more sleep.

Tip  #3 is the most important for me to remember.  It is amazing how much ‘computer time’ wires me up and also seems to suck the life out of me at the same time.

“3. Stay away from the internet for at least an hour before your bedtime. Television, too, but I think the internet is even more apt to make me feel artificially wide awake. I used to try to go through my emails one last time before bed, to get a jump on the morning, but I realized that this stimulating activity made it much harder to go to sleep.”

What about you?  What are some good tips on getting to bed on time, especially while being a student or the spouse of one??  How do you ‘unwind’ after a day of intense research or how do you help your spouse do the same?

-M.C.

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Are Women Better Leaders Than Men?

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Do you think women are better leaders than men?

As I think back to the jobs I’ve held since college, I have to say that in every one of them (with the exception of one), there has been an outstanding female leader; someone who took the time to develop and mentor me, and those around her. In each case, they were passionate about their role in the company, the difference they were making, and to be honest, their tenacity was infectious.

The Harvard Business Review recently published this article, reviewing this very question, providing some interesting data to back it up.

What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree?

Definitely some food for thought on this Monday morning…..

-Mandy

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Can you print me a bicycle?

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This little clip from the BBC show ‘Inside Out’ is absolutley mind boggling.  If you haven’t heard of the recent technology nick-named ‘3D Printing’ then get ready for this.

It works on the very simple idea, that basically every 3D object is just a pile of 2D slices.  Large ‘printers’ lay microscopic layers of resin ‘slice by slice’ on top of each other and then slowly a tenth of a millimeter a time, a 3D object starts to take shape.  This clip slows an actual bike being created in this fashion and I read somewhere else a few months back about a violin being created this way that worked as perfectly, if not better, as a hand-crafted one.

Absolutely fascinating to ponder what this means for the future.  No need to run to the store for that piece of your cell phone that needs replacing or for the latest kid’s toy….just print it?  The possibilites are endless and means of production could look totally different. Scary?  Exciting?

Thoughts?

-M.C.

Monday's Food for Thought

Monday’s Food for Thought: Sleep, or the lack thereof

thegraduatewifeLeave a comment

I love to sleep.

In fact, it was one of the biggest worries I had before we had a child. How would I cope with the lack of sleep? I was definitely a 9-10 hour a night kind of girl. Somehow, I managed. (If you ask my husband if I were a morning or a night person, he’d tell you I am a day person – meaning the rest of time I’d rather be asleep).

This article was published last month in the BBC News Magazine, and I thought it was an interesting read on sleep patterns. Do we really need 8 hours of sleep a night? I’m thisclose to challenging myself to see if I could segment sleep, but I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to try it. Although, the task master in me likes the idea of having two extra hours to get things accomplished…..

The magazine also published a great follow-up article several days later of interesting things people do when they segment sleep.

Do any of you sleep this way? What’s your take on it?

-Mandy