Amy Robinson's Weblog

Intricate Language

amyrobinson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:24:12 +0000

” The presence of an organism modifies the environment to which it is exposed, so that the physical stimulus received from the environment is partly determined by the physiological response to the environment.” – Principles of Environmental Physics, J.L. Monteith and M.H. Unswoth.

Intricately put. A differential equation in action. I wonder how to measure these things.

Might it apply to psychological or social scenereos, too?

North Shore Waves

amyrobinson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:21:45 +0000

G’day! Things are beautiful as always here in Hawaii. Mom, Dad, and little sis came to visit for ten days (it was great to see y’all and have such great experiences with you! ). Besides the beautiful views, phenomenal food, crazy nightlife, and relaxing drives across breathtaking shorelines, the waves in North Shore kicked up last weekend. First swell of the season = Perfect timing!

First swell of the season at Waimea Beach, North Shore. Fanstastic times!

Treacherous Trail

amyrobinson — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:15:55 +0000

Yesterday I hiked Kuli’ou’ou Trail with some friends. Here are two videos (+ two photos) of a ridgetop excursion along a skinny path flanked by 1000′ sheer drops and amplified by a strong gusty wind. So turn down your volume (the wind is loud) and try not to get vertigo as you take a few steps with me along the scariest trail I have ever set foot on.

Video #1

Video #2

Waimanalo Bay, Oahu

amyrobinson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:36:45 +0000

thank you, Apple, for the iphone, so I can capture views like this even when my camera is dead

Drove past Diamondhead today for some spectacular scenery. Here is a video I took on the phone.

Amy

Nicaragua

amyrobinson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:06:49 +0000

Dad and I went on a charity trip to Nicaragua this past May for 7 days to build two houses for impoverished families, donate scholarship money to children, and give books to the local schools. Here is an excerpt of a presentation I’ve given a couple times about the trip, how it affected me, and sharing general experiences.

The presentations used videos and photo slideshows, which I hopefully will add to this post in the future. I’m at Denver airport and the internet isn’t top notch to upload media.

Amy

_____________________

I want to convey to you my experience, what and how I felt on the trip, for the first time. Here are some experpts from my journal.

the 24th of may 2009

In a hammock in Chacraseca. Day two concludes soon. We arrived last night around 10 pm in Managua where we walked across the street to a Best Western. Very fair accommodations. Woke up this morning at 7:45 for breakfast at eight. Continental breakfast here is awesome – chef mafe omlettes, chicken in tortilla spices, fresh fruit and juices.

We went to the Managua marketplace this morning where I acquired a hammock to sleep in and a hat for the workplace.

We’re outside Leon at Casa de Paz (peace house). Christy (Kelly) and I made camp in a gazebo. It’s thundering.

25th of May . Monday

We began our mission today. Construction of a house for a very poor family in Chacraseca. Their family, a husband and wife with a few kids, lives in a shanty about 15 feet by 12 feet, made of tree shoots with walls of black trash bags and a smoothly swept dirt floor. [IMG_0525]. They cook over an open fire and eat seemingly almost exclusively rice and beans.

I’ve never until this trip – today particularly – understood what it means tho have little. These people have next to nothing. And many mouths to feed. Farming is their sustenence, and the fields are small and dry, and the animals are thin.

Such great opportunity is afforded me in America. Some things that come so easy to me are a burden of life to some of the families here in Chacraseca. Dry shelter for you and your family during the rain..-?

29th of May. Friday.

What a week. Es increible (it’s incredible). On Wednesday, Mauricio, our foreman, and Dan Cole built the roof, a task that suprisingly to me, takes a lot of work from only a few people, so the rest of our team occupied ourselves with the people here. For a whole day.

We started in the morning with football, or I should say, American football . Then Jim Teed and I took part in Pato Pato Patito, duck duck goose, with about fifteen kids in the 100 degree shade on dry dirt. They LOVED to pick “ella” and “hombre” – “her” and “man” – and laugh at our attempts to run in work boots that several times ended in hilarious wipeouts. . I was so covered in dirt by the end of our game that the girls and their mothers asked me if I wanted to come into their house and change. (!)

I did makeovers for the girls in the afternoon. Later that same day, they saddled up a horse for me to ride! Fifteen kids ran behind me the whole time laughing and yelling .

After we were finished playing, I talked with the girls for a while about the U.S., fruits, the house.. Maria, a child who lived next door, asked me if the house we were building was two homes. .. twenty two feet by twenty two feet. .. she was surpised that it was just one. And I saw in her eyes that moment that she had just realized that we were not building a home for her as well.

We can’t give everyone all the things they need; but we can help some and hope that they continue to spread the love and kindness that was was shared with them. This mission provides necessities – a home, water, means for better education – things so basic I wasn’t able to comprehend them until I witnessed this different world with my own eyes. We do a great thing, and I thank each and every one of you who has helped to make this possible from the bottom of my heart.

Pandora Radio

amyrobinson — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:04:43 +0000

My Pandora Stations

Pandora Radio Stations – from music genome project. The current rave is Poker Face Heartless (combo station – Lady Gaga & Kanye West songs).

Other stations range from Harder Better Faster Stronger to Miles Davis to Mozart to Rolling Stones. Pandora rocks because it learns from your preferences. Over time as you refine each station by labeling songs you either like or dislike, it builds a filter of your choces on over 400 different attributes of music. The result is a blend of songs with musical similarities to your preferences- songs both known and new (the best part).

Red Carpet Update

amyrobinson — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:08:06 +0000

Wow, my last post was six months ago. Oops. Holy screeching urinal ballsacks Batman! Since October I have taken another job, been to Aruba, gotten Scuba certified, moved, read many books, become a hero, et cetera. Life is good. I golfed today. My 23rd birthday is Saturday. I must write about Aruba at a later time, my wine is getting old. Take care; now that I remember this page I’ll update again more frequently.

And victory is mine! Amy

socio-political experiment

amyrobinson — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:37:02 +0000

For the past week, via the Honesty Box application, I asked people who happened upon my facebook profile the following question:

”Presidential election: who is your candidate and why?”

I received a variety of answers. Some were well written and thoughtful, others..not so much. Here are a few of the more intersting ones. copy-and-pasted verbatim.

“I like John McCain because he has balls“

“Come Nov. I will cast my vote for Obama/Biden. Why? Their consistent emphasis on improving the (currently abysmal) diplomatic relations between America and the rest of the international community.

As Occom’s razor teaches us, the simplest solution is best. In the case of foreign affairs, one should never exclude that most basic yet influential human communication: talking.”

“dumbo can go fuck himself” (reference to Obama and his ears..)

“McCain. experience“

“NOT obama“

“McCain will keep America in a perpetual state of warfare/occupation. McCain does not undstand economics/fiscal policy. I will vote for Obama.”

“McCain/Palin . when he dies and she becomes president we can finally have someone hot to put on our money” (this must be a joke…)

the vote, according to my honesty box responses, is 55% for McCain (if you include the comment “Sarah Palin is hot“ as an endorsement of McCain), 25% Obama, 13% neither/don’t care, and 6% Ron Paul (one answer for Mr Paul simply said “RON FUCKING PAUL“).

If I limit the “vote” to only Obama and McCain, the results are 30% Obama, 70% McCain.

McCain’s supporters’ comments were definitely more humorous. But Obama’s were more thoughtful. Anyway, I would still vote for Ron Paul if I could.

ten minutes

amyrobinson — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:33:38 +0000

Okay I am going with whatever comes to mind here. (Aren’t I always?)

I have been doing these structure stretches since .. before Christmas sophomore year at Auburn (latter third of 2005). I refer to them as structural because the idea is to relax all your muscles and balance on your frame (skeleton). It’s almost like meditation but in stead of being still I am constantly stretching/re-aligning my body. I study Gray’s Anatomy (it’s the source of the name of the sitcom – a book on human physiology) extensively. Also the biomechanical basis of human movement.

I feel better when my posture is improved. And on a side note, when I get stressed or emotionally sad/angry, I noticeably tense up and my posture worsens! And I am unable to physically return to a relaxed state until I am no longer emotionally agitated.

I am called in to work early today ah so that’s the end of that!

Self Improvement

amyrobinson — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:50:47 +0000

Goals:

get out of bed as soon as I wake up (skip the snooze)

run FOUR times per week (in the morning…)

eat five small meals per day – 30:30:40 Carbohydrates:Fats:Protein

_____________________

and for good measure, actively strive for Ben Franklin’s thirteen virtues:

“1. TEMPERANCE – Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. SILENCE – Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. ORDER – Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. RESOLUTION – Resolve to preform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. FRUGALITY – Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.

6. INDUSTRY – Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. SINCERITY – Use no harmful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. JUSTICE – Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. MODERATION – Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries, so much as you think they deserve.

10. CLEANLINESS – Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habituation.

11. TRANQUILITY – Be not disturbed at trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. CHASTITY. . . . . [be respectable]

13. HUMILITY – Imitate Jesus and Socrates”

_______________________________________ if at first you don’t succeed, try try again.

“Come give us a taste of your quality” – Shakespeare

My publicly stated intentions start with RESOLUTION. Active self improvement – love to live it. I’m keeping notes on this – any worth sharing will pop up here.