9th blog posting

I am still reading Confessions of a Shopaholic and it just keeps getting better. Becky makes a final attempt at saving money by trying to cook up her own Indian cuisine. She buys all the ingredients and supplies necessary to make a delicious curry and she gets cooking. It takes her quite a while to complete the recipe but she finally finishes and she sits down to enjoy a good meal with her roommate. Her roommate is very appreciative, but when Becky tastes the over spiced curry for herself, she realizes that her friend is just trying to be nice. Becky becomes very frustrated with this cheap lifestyle that she is trying to live and she realizes that it is just not for her. With the help of her friend she decides that rather than trying to save money, she must simply make more money. She attempts to do this by networking with people at a business meeting but she is then pulled away by a friend who wants to discuss her new career over lunch. While sitting in the café Becky notices a hiring sign in a shop window. She realizes that working Saturdays at a retail store is her key to success. She will have extra money AND get discounts on all the fabulous clothing! She quickly applies and is offered the job. What more could she ask for!
Becky is really desperate for money and nothing seems to be going her way…but finally things have! She continues to get calls from the bank and she spits out an excuse for why she hasn’t paid, every time they call. Things are getting desperate so hopefully this Saturday job will help her out. There are still quite a few pages left in the book though, so I highly doubt that this will be the answer to all her prayers. Will Becky ever pay off her debt?

To Save or Not To Save...

I am continuing to read Confessions of a Shopaholic and I thoroughly love it! In this week’s reading, Becky experiences a lot. She is so concerned by all her bills that she decides to take a stab at winning the lottery in order to pay off what she owes. She gets very wrapped up in thinking that she will win the lottery and she plots out in her head how she plans to spend the 10 million dollars that she is suspecting to win that afternoon. She visits her parents that evening and they enjoy a casual dinner. After dinner they watch the lottery on TV and much to Becky’s dismay, she does not win. After this downfall, she decides that she must do something about her money problems, so she goes to the local bookstore and buys a book on how to be frugal. The book instructs that on the first day of their new savings regimen the person should spend money just as if it was a normal day and keep track of all purchases in a notebook. Becky completes this task and discovers that she spent 177.96 pounds in one day! She is taken aback by this number and she decides to really crunch down on her new way of living so for the next few days she brings her own lunches to work and she refrains from shopping much. That weekend she goes out to dinner with friends, but she justifies this spending because it is for the good cause of “breaking bread with friends”. The next day she goes to a museum suspecting it will be free but she quickly discovers that there is a 5 pound entrance fee. There is also a 15 pound season pass so she buys this, planning to come weekly and save lots of money. She also discovers a museum gift shop and buys a large assortment of items, claiming that she is simply doing early Christmas shopping, even though it is March. Becky is struggling to stick to her regimen and she is finding many excuses to purchase things. I wonder if she will ever start saving?

new outside reading book!

The outside reading book that I picked for quarter 2 is called Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. I have read three of her other books and I really enjoyed them so I decided to choose another one of her books. This book is the first book of a series about a woman named Becky Bloomwood and her experiences in life. She is a trendy, young woman who lives in London and she has a passion for shopping. This book is about her troubles with her shopping addiction because she can’t afford everything she buys. The book starts out with letters addressed to Ms. Rebecca Bloomwood, which are mailed from her bank. They are stating her need to pay a bill that she has been putting off for awhile. Becky works at a boring job for a financial magazine. She finds her job as a financial journalist very uninteresting but she needs to pay off her Prada shoes somehow so she has learned to deal with it. In the first chapter, Becky receives her credit card bill and is ghastly astonished to see that she has spent a lot more money than expected. Even though her money is tight, she just can’t resist the sale sign that she sees in a shop window on her way to a business meeting, so she picks up an expensive scarf that she simply must have. She has a few awkward encounters at her business meeting and then goes home to her flat where she is gladly greeted by her roommate. They share a moment of excitement when she shows off her fabulous, new scarf. This is where I stopped reading, and I can’t wait to continue!

Crazy With Love-7th blog posting

One of the things I read this week was an article called “I Love You! I Hate You! Study Finds Brain Draws Thin Line Between Love and Hate”, which I found on FOXNews.com. It discussed the way our brain is structured to respond to love and hate. The study showed that both the love and hate circuits in our brains have identical structures. Professor Semir Zeki, from the University College London, carried out the brain scan study that helped the researchers come to many conclusions about love and hate. Zeki’s team scanned 17 males and females brains as they looked at pictures of people they hated and people that they liked. In both situations, researchers found that zones within the cerebral cortex were deactivated. The cerebral cortex affects our memory, consciousness, attention, and thought, so this helps to explain why we sometimes act so weird during times of anger and love. The only difference in the results was that with love, a large portion of the cerebral cortex was deactivated, and with hate, only a small portion, located in the frontal cortex, became deactivated. I found this really interesting because I have always wondered why people sometimes don’t act like themselves when they are around a person they like or when they are in a frustrating situation. This may not be the answer to everyone’s weird ways, but it at least numbs the pain to know that the last time you said something really dumb to your crush, it may have been out of your control.

Get Your Vitamin D Kids! (6th posting)

I recently read a health related newspaper article in the Star Tribune. It was titled Vitamin D: Sun can’t give enough and it discussed the recent findings that children need more vitamin D in order to prevent serious diseases. Pediatricians now advice that kids need twice as much vitamin D as before; they now suggest 400 IUs (international units) every day. Dr. Theresa Kovarik, a pediatrician at Health Partners, commented on these new discoveries and added that many women are vitamin D deficient and a woman’s child is born with only 70 percent of their mother’s level, so many babies are being born extremely deficient in vitamin D. The article also discussed ways to get vitamin D, such as drinking milk, eating a nutritious breakfast, taking supplements, and spending time outside. It can be tough to get outside during the frosty days of winter in Minnesota, but just to give perspective, only four glasses of milk gives you 400 IUs and on a sunny, summer day you can easily convert 10,000 to 20,000 units into your skin. Also, eating a nutritious breakfast, such as fortified cereal with milk and fruit, or two eggs, two slices of whole-grain toast, and 8 ounces of orange juice can give you 140 IU of vitamin D. These suggestions help the goal of 400 IUs to seem much more achievable.
I really enjoyed reading this article and learning about a new health discovery. I had recently heard something about this topic so it was nice to read about it and receive more clarification of the issue. Also, my childhood pediatrician was Dr. Theresa Kovarik so it was cool to see her name in the paper and read her wise words about this topic. I learned a lot and enjoyed reading this article.

Fifth Posting

This week I decided to blog about an article that I recently read on sciencenewsforkids.com. It was called Homework Blues, and it discussed the affect of a person’s mood on their ability to solve problems. The researchers performed two experiments to collect data. In the first experiment they took 30 kids, ages 10 and 11, and they gave them 20 problems. For one round of experimentation, they were put in a room with upbeat music playing, affecting their mood in a positive way, and for the second round, they were put in a room with gloomy music playing, making their mood more sad. The data showed that when the kids were in the room with sad music they were able to solve the problems at least a second quicker and they were able to get more of their answers correct. In the second experiment, 61 kids, ages 6 and 7, were faced with the same scenario. Once again, the kids who felt sad or neutral performed better and more quickly on the problems. I found this article really interesting, because I didn’t realize that mood could affect your performance in school and at home. I found this concept a bit puzzling at first, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that when I am happy I feel more easily distracted and I have more trouble focusing on my homework, so it really does make sense. This was a very interesting and thought-provoking article that I really enjoyed reading.

Fourth Posting

In my reading this week, a big event occurred. Jason’s mother finally broke down from all the pressure and she moved into an apartment. It all started out one day when she decided to check on her garden, which she had neglected for many months due to all the confusion in her life. She found all her flowers and vegetables shriveled up and she had a flashback to a time when she was young and her neighbor died, leaving her garden to wilt. After seeing her garden, Jason’s mother collapsed in the dirt and cried. She then went in the house, packed up a couple suitcases and drove to a nearby apartment complex and proceeded to sign a six-month lease. After getting into the apartment, she realized that she didn’t have anything to sleep on or eat, so she drove over to Wal-Mart and the local low-end grocery store to fill up a few shopping carts. After filling up her Range Rover with brown paper bags and plastic Wal-Mart bags, filled with stuff, she drove back to her apartment. The next morning, she went back to her old house, but no one was there. She listened to the phone messages and grabbed a few things for her new living space. This is as far as I got in the story.
I found this passage of reading really interesting, because I can’t imagine the idea of just picking up and leaving a place that you have lived for so long. No matter how sad or mad I was, I don’t think I would be able to do this, because I think it would make me even more emotional. My home is the place where I feel safest and when I am emotional, that is where I want to be. I am interested to find out what how Jason will respond to his mother’s move and how her husband will react.