Free Admission to Museums in Montreal

Yesterday, Montreal held an event that allowed people to go to museums free of charge. I'm not a very artsy type of person, but I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to experience something new. I decided I'd leave home around 10:30 AM and set out for some of the destinations.

The first one I wanted to go see was the Planetarium. When I got there (near Bonaventure metro), a line spilled out the front doors and around the block. Only then did I realize the amount of screaming, crying, playful young families the building attracted. I left Saint-Jacques street and walked to Saint-Paul street in Old Montreal, toward the Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum.

Now, in the pamphlet it lured us in saying, "come explore 2000 years of history," but this wasn't the case. In fact, I think there was a typo, and it may have had to be "200 years." Basically, all I learnt was that a woman named Marguerite Bourgeoys instilled an educational system in order to please God. The only thing I enjoyed about that one was the look-out facing the Old Port. It was nice, and i even saw some newlyweds posing for some pictures. After that I left and walked towards Sherbrooke.


The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was the last stop. Despite visiting only two others, the walking ended up tuckering me out, I had no energy due to my stupid cookie diet, and it was getting late. The Fine Arts Museum can't ever disappoint me. I went to see an Andy Warhol exhibit a little while ago, and despite not appreciating his art, the exhibit was quite nice.

I went to go see the Mediterranean artifacts first. There were pieces from Ancient Greece and Egypt. I'm fascinated by both cultures but I have a slight preference for the Greek stuff. Aside from being half Greek myself, I took an incredible class in Cegep on Greek mythology. The sculptures were absolutely exquisite and thoroughly detailed. The Egyptians' were less so, but hauntingly intriguing nevertheless. I was also surprised by the fact that despite both cultures' artifacts to be from around the same time, their perception of the human face differed completely. The Greeks really seemed to grasp the concept of individual "faces", while the Egyptians seemed to focus mostly on the characteristics of a "population."

I finished off my stay by going to their permanent paintings collection. Do you have any idea how many paintings there are?? Most were really lovely, some really strange. The paintings from the Victorian era were really beautiful; completely realistic, but the people painted all had the same shaped eyes and mouths. I thought it could have something to do with the fact that there were far fewer inter-racial and inter-cultural pairings than there are today. I find today I can discern people's eye shape specifically, we're all truly different.

The paintings portion was probably my favourite part of the day. The paintings went from anyone between Monet, to Renoir, to Warhol. It was great to see the progression of art, the imitations of skill, the use of colour evolve over some 200 years. Looking at another person's work who is no longer around leaves a fast ocean of mystery to navigate through.

I thought this experience as particularly important because I think it raises the concept of free education. Why do we pay to learn about another person's painting? Or why do we pay to see a sarcophagus? Why can't we just be told what everything means? In my opinion, art is an important factor of culture, and within culture is education, so it is all related. If I relate this to Orr's article, education merely "emphasizes theories instead of values... abstraction rather than consciousness." Education will teach us about the method of brush strokes, but looking at the relief of paint against a canvas, and seeing those brush strokes with your own eyes, is a completely different story.

According to Orr, one principle in rethinking education would be:"education is to master your own person." Art is a very personal thing; it allows one to express herself with no constraints, no limits, no censoring, nothing. It's completely free-will. Art tells a story, but is open to interpretation at the same time. Despite not connecting completely with art, some pieces can really evoke strong emotion in me, whether sadness or serenity, happiness or confusion.

Want to know more?
All images are from Google.
Read Orr's article, What Is Education For? to learn more.

Oh jobs, where art thou?

The school year is over and it is finally summer, which means only two things: summer classes and working. An excellent time to catch up on classes and make dollar bills. I have a problem though; I have my summer classes set, but I am still unemployed.

Now, let's be clear on one thing: I am a saver. I saved enough of money from my last job, but I really hate digging into that amount. It isn't being refreshed and the dwindling number is really starting to get to me. I would work either way, but aside from the experience, money is an excellent incentive. I like working. It makes me feel useful, I like being busy, and the reward is a lot faster than that of school, for example. I'll work for two weeks, and get paid in two weeks. I go to University for three years, and I'll reap the benefits in my 30 when I get a kick-ass job. Getting paid gives me a sense of accomplishment, and it definitely gives me something to look forward to.

And yet I am jobless. I've left my CV off at 7 places including today. And still nothing. The thing is, I'm trying to get a job in a normal, retail store. I've never worked in one, and I really think I should get the experience if I'm going into marketing. I want to learn how to work with customers, see how to look at them from a seller point of view, and observe their behaviour. I'm bracing myself for rude people though...not looking forward to that part.

I've only ever had office jobs, also, which leaves me with little sales experience and virtually no client interaction. So in a way I guess I could see why I'm not getting any bites. Still, my former jobs were good ones, why wouldn't they think I was a worthy investment?

I think part of the problem could be attributed to the fact that I might be applying too late in the season. I only finish my finals by April 30th, then started summer school straight after, so I didn't exactly have time to give my resumes out. Also, maybe the mini recession that touched Canada could have to do with it. According to International Human Resources, from May 2010, Canada's current unemployment rate is 8.1%. However, there have recently been an increase in jobs in Canada. Nevertheless, Quebec's rate remains at 7.9%.

It's too bad there is such a long wait before you here back from opportunity. The other day I got a call on my cell, and I didn't know and I got so excited! Wrong number. "That's okay. Bye," I said, but really I was hoping someone was going to offer me a job. I guess I'll be printing out a couple more and try to hit other areas besides Laval; downtown and Saint-Laurent must have some potential. How about this, if I get a job, I promise to blog about it!! Right, now my wish is out in the universe.

Want to know more?

International Human Resources site: http://www.hrmguide.net/canada/jobmarket/canadian-unemployment.htm

Image from Google.

Spring Cleaning!!

Well it isn't really spring anymore, but it's never too late to clean out a sacred place.

My room is messy approximately 10 out of the 12 months of the year. So when I actually do decide to clean up my room, it is brought on by an act of God or purely by boredom. But this time, my tidying up had nothing to do with the need for being clean: I wanted to get rid of all the stuff that I felt was tying me down.

I noticed as I was going through my stuff that I would hesitate throwing out stuff, or giving stuff away because I attached some hypothetical value to it. First of all, I'll make it clear that I'm not a bit shopping buff, so I don't have a tone of clothes (in my opinion). So when I'd come across a shirt I only wore once, or maybe never before, I'd rationalize that it would be wasting if I didn't keep it. Or maybe I can keep it for workout clothes, or what if I need this colour at some point? ...All useless limitations I've imposed on my decision-making in order to avoid throwing something out.

I threw out a lot of stuff. Clothes and various knick knacks filled about 5 full clothes store-sized bags. I replaced little porcelain decorative things with pictures of friends and family. It's a lot more personable, and it means more to me. But as I was packing up everything and carrying the bags out of my room, I felt like I could throw out more. What is with getting rid of stuff all at the same time that makes me feel so liberated? To see a little extra space on a shelf to put up more books, or a little more room in a drawer, is actually a really comforting feeling for me. I feel like all the extra materialistic things in my room were kind of suffocating, and I hadn't notice to what degree until I go rid of them. I felt like such a hoarder! But I was really pleased to see everything I could declutter from my life.

So I got kind of curious about what it is that renders getting rid of unimportant possessions that somewhat therapeutic to people. Katherine Gibson from Canadian Living Magazine says that, "If left unchecked, clutter not only poses physical constraints, but it can also pollute mental well-being. [...]Clearing clutter not only liberates your physical space but also evicts emotional clutter."

What Gibson is saying pretty much coincides with what I was talking about earlier. When I think of it, the people I talk about thorough cleaning, or big "give away" days, they feel good about getting rid of stuff because of the amount of stuff suffocates them. It's not only attributing an issue of less space or mobility, but also the mental struggle with it.

I also personally find that a simpler environment to live in reduces the amount of stress I feel. When I'm studying in my room and there are piles of clothes I need to hike over, or books collecting in piles against drawers I need to open, I get frustrated. I feel like I shouldn't put so much effort into feeling calm in my own bedroom, or moving around in it for that matter.

I also noticed I was holding on to broken or way too old things. For example, I kept an old pair of jeans with a massive hole going across the knee. But they fit right! They were comfy! And my mom would give me a disapproving look whenever I'd wear them! But I threw them out. Only after I had I told myself I should look for places around Montreal that take thoroughly damaged clothing, or a jeans-recycling plant type of place. I just looked it up and nothing seemed to come up. I kept stained or faded tshirts, again for the fit and the comfort, but those are gone now too. I feel bad about everything I threw out. I know clothing that isn't organic doesn't disappear quickly. However, I rationalize that I used them to their full use, right?

Finally, with the things I didn't want anymore, I intend on giving them to the Salvation Army. Their mission is to meet human needs and help change the community for the better. It would be a great way to recycle and reuse goods that can still be used. It would provide useful things for people in need. I'm really happy my room is cleaner, and even tried making my bed everyday. It just makes me look forward to resting, it makes me feel comfortable, and it makes me feel neater, or healthier.

Want to know more?

Canadian Living article: http://www.canadianliving.com/health/mind_and_spirit/6_ways_to_clean_up_your_home_life_4.php

Salvation Army's mission statement: http://www.salvationarmy.ca/missionandvalues/

All images are from Google.

HOME

HOME is an environmental documentary featured on YouTube that focuses on human impact on natural resources. You can watch this short movie here. It mixes concepts such as human rights, globalization, and global warming all together.

The introduction of the movie tells about how in 200,000 years out of the 4 billion since life first appeared on planet Earth, the presence of humans has unbalanced our own environment. The movie is my story, it is your story. This is what I/you have done.

The Earth is made up of intricate processes that create a balance in life. The balance itself is of these links; it allows us to live, our food to live, it provides our society with resources. The life of one being depends on that of another, and so forth. Even the death of natural elements helps to maintain the balance. For example, when a tree dies, it decomposes and goes to creating soil. Are we just a species that is going to disappear? Will we go extinct just as millions of other have over all of Earth’s history?

The documentary makes us seem like such an invasive species. The narrator makes the point that we have taken control of every habitat we could. We’ve taken control of a large portion of coastal region. However, we are the only species to be able to adapt to every environment. The first humans were very labour-oriented. Children were considered assets if they would help around the house and food was tough to find.

Then came agriculture. Humans experienced food surpluses for the first time. To this day, agriculture is still the occupation to a vast majority of the population. Most of this work is even done by hand in most cases.

We then found oil. Oil was really the changing point of humanity. We use is every day for many uses. In 50 years, the health of the environment has degraded quicker than at any other point. This change came about most particularly in the US. The country has particularly harnessed the power of fuels. Pesticides came about in order to kill parasites. Famines and bad harvests became a distant memory, the biggest problem nowadays being where to put all the surpluses. Pesticides and herbicides would be absorbed into the soil, and discharged of into our waterbeds…
Which humans drink water from. Yes, these can be harmful to our species.

Our abundant use of water has caused problems also. We have been able to transform the most arid land into vast green fields. We can raise more cattle for our increased meat production. The cattle eats grain… it takes 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of potatoes, 4,000 litres for 1 kilo of rice, and 13,000 for 1 kilo of beef. The numbers are revolting. Our agriculture is oil-dependent. Imagine the amount of it we use a day. Time is most relative now to our oil; when we run out of it, we’ll run out of time too.

We also severely stress the world’s minerals. Due to excessive mining, we will have exhausted all of the planet’s reserves. It’s a terrifying thought. A good example of a high consumer of minerals is Dubai. The country itself has few natural resources, yet has been able to achieve the impossible. It even created its own separate island by shipping desert sand into the ocean. But because of the key resource it does have – oil – they gain enough profit in order to import millions of tones of minerals.

Our society focuses strongly on consumption. In 50 years, we’ve increased our fish consumption from 18 to 100 million metric tones a year. We’ve caught so many large fish that the adults don’t have enough to reproduce, leading to an exhaustion of fish supply.

Then there are wetlands, which take up 6% of the Earth. But even their moisture is being reduced. The Amazon’s river has been depleted by 20% due to the deforestation. In Borneo, important forests were chopped down to replace it all with palm trees. Borneo happens to be the largest producer of palm oil, which is not only used in food, but in cosmetics, detergents, and even as fuel.

Humans have created huge disparities. Nigeria, for example, is the largest oil exporter in Africa.

However, though the country has wealth, 70% of the inhabitants don’t have access to it. Half of the world’s poor live in resource-rich nations. Half the world’s health is in the hands of 2% of the world’s richest.

¼ of the Earth’s species can go extinct by 2050: 1 mammal in 4, 1 bird in 8, and 1 amphibian in 3. Why do we try to save species? Is it for our own use, or for a less-selfish cause? Are we interrupting as natural rhythm through which some species disappear and new ones appear? Not necessarily.

Today, extinction rates are 1,000 times faster than the natural rate should be. Maybe humans are only still alive because we want to survive. We won’t go until we’ve tried our very hardest to stay.

Want to know more?

All pictures are from Google.

The movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

The Cookie Diet, or Why I Will Be Unhappy for a Week

Today I started myself on the cookie diet for a week. This diet suggests you eat 6 cookies a day: two at breakfast, two at lunch, and two more as snacks or to fill your hunger. For supper, you can have "people food" so long as it consists of a large portion of low-fat meat and a narrow range of vegetables.

The cookies are really expensive to buy. Also, the 6 cookies are in separate wrappers for every days, and there is a lot of waste; the plastic case is #6 so it isn't recyclable in Montreal. 7 packs of waste can add up.

So ideally, you would heat up a little cookie to really "bring out the flavours" and munch on them. Also, you're supposed to drink 8 cups of water per day. You're supposed to drink loads of water when you eat the cookies so they expand in your stomach and make you less hungry. But the idea of getting myself to drink 8 cups of water is actually a bit of a chore... It's easy to drink a lot of water when you're eating the cookies because the fiber makes you hungry, but between them it's kinda tough to remind yourself.

I begrudgingly ate 5 of the cookies up til supper. So supper I ate chicken and leaves of spinach, and had half a cup of cucumber with salt on it. I ate it so quickly and actually enjoyed eating real food. I'm already getting hungry...this no eating yummy food thing is already getting to me. I'm also a late night snacker, so I'm salvaging that last cookie like you would not believe. Yey, a cookie and a glass of water. So, so wrong!

I even keep thinking about my favourite foods, pasta and bread. These foods are in the 'marvelous' food category in the Canadian food guide. I also keep rationalizing that hey, I'm still kinda young, I can eat whatever the hell I want and feel super. But this is very very false. My eating habits are affecting me physically and mentally. I, like others, wish for better for myself. I'm not sure if I'll achieve this by eating yucky cookies, but it's worth a shot. I keep thinking that tomorrow, before my 6 o'clock class, I can go buy myself a big bag of chips and watch a movie. Or maybe a poutine, that's a food-drug right there. But alas, my packaged plastic-tasting cookies will be waiting for me patiently, and I really should not leave them hanging.

I wonder how many people have the same food rationalizations as me. There must be people who say, "I'll have this bag of chips, and walk to the bus tomorrow, so it'll cancel things out." No, no, no. I think society isn't aware of just how many calories we intake, and how many we spend out. We never compensate, we let ourselves eat too much of the wrong stuff, we stretch our stomachs, and we make ourselves unhappy. Whether it's that you don't like how your jeans fit, or that you're mad you can't go up the stairs without breaking a sweat, it still affects you.

So here's me taking the first step. It's an expensive, and a boring first step, but it still counts. I'll try to stop eating like a 400-pound man despite my complaining, and see if I see any true change this week. One thing I'm really happy about is that at least I don't have to stop drinking diet coke...No calories and no carbs!

Meet Sven

On Saturday, my mom and I went to our virtually yearly visit to the wonderful world of Ikea. Many people have gone missing in this colossal store, but despite this you can find everything you've ever dreamt of for your home there.

Even though we wanted a little bit of everything, we stumbled upon little things we found kind of cute, like strangely-shaped ice cube trays, new curtains, and other trinkets. I even found some solar-powered desk lamps: the base of the lamp consisted of a solar panel that would charge up and then the light would work. I thought this was so innovative and really forward-looking: the average customer can already begin to make better choices at an affordable price.

One of the things I wanted to do for my social context class was buy and care for a plant. I found a baby plant and a tiny pot, and the whole thing cost about $3, so really affordable for what I was hoping to get. According to the label, I bought a Tropisk. It looks like it can be a really nice-looking plant (as far as nice-looking plants go) when it gets bigger, with long stems and wide green leaves (as seen on the right). The instructions for taking care of it call for light but not to place it in direct lighting, to let it go dry, then to basically flood it, and repeat. When I showed it to my dad, he suggested I call it Sven since I got it from Ikea. I liked the idea. Sven it is.

The watering method actually reminded me of drip irrigation. This entails watering crops in a specific way. You would wait for them to get dry, then give them ONLY the water necessarily for their survival. This saves water, and seeing as how the agricultural sector uses a huge amount of water, whether from wetlands or other communal water areas.

I was wondering how much of a difference houseplants can make on an air-filtering basis compared to trees. I did a little research and if I'm understanding the information correctly, the advantage of trees lies in the fact that they have more leaves. Trees and plants filter the air by converting CO2 into O2.

Let's take a look at an example. At rest, an average person consumes 53 liters of oxygen per hour. An average houseplant, if it has about 30 leaves, produces approximately 5 mililiters of oxygen per leaf. My plant has...13 leaves :(. It only produces 65 mililitres of oxygen per hour. I would need approximately 815 house plants to produce the amount of oxygen I would need in only one hour. To put things into a different light, one single tree would produce more oxygen in only one season than 10 people would inhale during the entire year. So advantage: trees. In other words, if I planted one tree now, and waited maybe 10 years for it to grow, it would produce, seasonally, enough oxygen for the four members in my family as well as my neighbour's to consume in one year.

Want to know more?

All images were found on Google.

Plant info: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/newton/askasci/1993/biology/bio027.htm

Tree info: http://forestry.about.com/od/forestandtreeuses/ss/trees_value_3.htm

Green Marketing1 - Vitamin Water

I think there is a new, important trend that is emerging, and that is green marketing. I define green marketing as selling a product to customers, and providing them with information on how to dispose of it after they finish it, or that a product is made of 60% recyclable plastic, or even that it will biodegrade in less than 5 years after its use is complete. People are more and more environmentally conscious, and hold forward-looking companies in high esteem.

I'm majoring in marketing and minoring in environment. I think I was always interested in business because I find there is more opportunity and more chance that I would make money (this is important to me, to be honest). The environment, on the other hand, has always been important to me in a different way. My mom always made us recycle when we were young, and the habit carried on with me until now. I'm very precise in what I recycle and throw away, and in what I waste, in my opinion. Like, I literally freak out if I see someone throw a paper in the trash bin. It seems unnatural, wrong, and I actually get mad.

So I figured I would couple the two and make a difference. There has got to be a way that I can change people's habits, or make people feel better about purchasing something that won't hurt their planet. I know one of the main drivers that makes me recycle, or make better environmental choices, is that I don't want to live in a degrading environment. When I'm only 50, I don't want to be obliged to walk around with an oxygen mask, or fight others for water, or only have two meals a day because there simply isn't enough food to go around. I don't want to contract serious illnesses because of a higher population. I know these scenarios are probably over-exaggerations, but I'm afraid of these outcomes, and I want and need to change them.

The most important and pending question I can think of, as a marketer and as an environmentalist, is how can we get people to want to be environmentally conscious?



For today's blog, I will be focusing on Vitamin Water. It's a flavoured water drink that's supposed to contain vitamins people usually don't get enough of. Despite the fact that is one of the most disappointing new hyped products I have tried in a long time, they advertise the recycling symbol on the bottom of the bottle in a great way. Next to the typical recycling symbol, it reads, "30 may be the new 20, but green is definitely the new black. please recycle."

First of all, all the lettering is in lowercase. This really gives and informal appeal to the ad, like it's speaking to us in a casual conversation. Next, "green is definitely the new black" makes recycling sound like the "it" thing to do, the hottest trend for today's modern person. This little sentence relates to people on a deeper, personal level. It makes you appreciate the creativity and entices you to make an effort and recycle the bottle. I think it's a great way of giving more space to the recycling logo on the bottle and I even think it can increase the chances of it actually being recycled.

Want to know more?
The image was retrieved from Google.
See more about Vitamin Water on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/vitaminwater?v=app_352976184252#!/vitaminwater?v=wall