Tanning Beds: Making You Broke and Never Bronze

UV rays are bad for your skin because it speeds up signs of aging. (So does time.)
Tanning beds can heighten your chances of getting skin cancer. (So can standing in the sun.)

The risks related to indoor tanning are numbing to the ear.  People do what they want and in the USA they want to be the color of a graham cracker. Interesting goal when history shows us that being bronze usually meant you were a poor peasant that worked in a field. Most of us are broke so that might have some merit.
Defense of indoor tanning says that tanning beds are good for vitamin D deficiency (you know this person has not been tested). A lot of people say they would rather work their way up to a tan then burn immediately when they get to their holiday location. They want to show they are indeed considering their skin by preparing for what will come.  (There is no proof that says indoor tanning ahead of time prevents burn from full sun exposure around the pool. Skin cancer results from the combination of ALL exposure not one or the other.) My favorite line in the defense of indoor tanning: I don't do drugs, smoke, and rarely drink. Pick your poison, this is mine.

Let's address the real motivation to get in an indoor tanning bed: vanity
Vanity will always win in this case, especially for young teen girls who are most at risk. Because this is true I am going to present the reasons pertaining to becoming beach sexy that indoor tanning as a business fails to provide.

1. It's expensive. Teen girls have to beg parents to attain the funds (and a signature) for a package that would be needed to show any type of change or results in color. (BTW having to sign a liability form before getting in a tanning bed should also be a RED FLAG). This would explain why so many teens/and my 30 year old friend, are under the impression that 'burning first and having it fade to tan' is the best way to go. They go in for the affordable single session (8 buck burn) and get out because results to them is any color (red, bronze, orange).  If the target audience is teen girls it seems that both the business (not making money on burn bucks) and the girls (too expensive for them to afford) are getting ripped off.

2.  You invest in a tanning package for unlimited monthly sessions. Looking pretty good when you get on that plane. Yet - when you enter the pool or beach at said vacation destination you STILL feel embarrassed realizing how pale you are compared to everyone else. No problem because you will get all the color you need after one day at the pool (because you are pushing yourself to overdo it now).
So...why exactly did you buy that package if you were going to be pale and overdoing exposure to 'prevent burn' ...color that you could obtain your first day on holiday?

I bought a package this year not because I wasn't educated that it was terrible for me, but because I saw my boyfriend ignoring my warnings and going forward with the purchase. I decided I couldn't have him one-up me. Yikes, competition and  peer pressure probably has a lot to do with getting in a bed.
*Note* After 12 sessions his parents randomly asked him around the dinner table if he was going to 'tan' before the trip. HAHA - he didn't have the guts to tell or the eyes to see that the monthly package was a rip off.

For my 30th birthday I am giving myself the gift of never getting in a indoor tanning bed again. Not because I've been convinced that skin cancer can get me,but because these skeeze beds are making us pay big bucks, with no results, for something we can get for free in the matter of a day. That means less exposure for my skin by choosing ONE. Boyfriend who has always been an advocate that defends tanning was extremely bummed out in relation to his vanity. He said that he was done with money vampire. Also. Sunscreen is good. Not only because it helps prevent skin cancer, but it helps prevent your skin from peeling off like a flakey reptile.


Overall!

Because people like:
getting a deal
services that are free
looking good

and

Because people don't like:
feeling embarrassed and having to start over
getting ripped off
looking like a shedding snake


You shouldn't get in an indoor tanning bed.

Destination: Fiji

BULA! (boo-lah)

This destination blog will be about information I acquired while visiting Fiji.
Fiji: located next to Australia and above New Zealand


1. Fiji has a hungry past. It is an island once feared by sailors who would rather drown than risk being gobbled up by the warriors on land. As a warrior, consuming another man means you obtain the qualities of what two men accomplish (qualities like strength & wisdom)....or eight, depending on how hungry you are. It was common to dry the human poultry so that it could be jerky. Priests would also have live men thrown in the holes that would hold the beams for their house. The impression is that it would make the foundation stronger. There are many tools for eating people and priests had the special privilage to consume human brain. The tool pictured is specifically for that - and for priests only.

(Yes it is hanging in my kitchen, no it has never been used. The top of the tool is for bashing the brain softer and the prong end is for forking.)

An elderly man who was still eating people 20 years ago - "back when we were sinners" - insists that people taste similar to pig.  My love of bacon feels strange now. Keep in mind you never eat someone from your own village. If someone in your village is bad (stole, slept with another's wife) they meet death by tree hanging. Other villages are welcome to take the body and feast.



2. Fiji has missionary influence. They are so friendly in current day that they put 'Minnesota Nice' to shame.



3. Natural spas (like a mud spring) are much cheaper than an indoor salon in the states.

However, low profit can reduce funding for marketing.

4. United States citizens are a rare find in Fiji. Visitors mainly consist of Australians, Indians, and New Zealanders. Their holiday view on Fiji is our version of Hawaii or Mexico. That means accomodations are suited for the other side of the world, including confusing restroom symbols.

To a US citizen these restrooms might BOTH be for men, and perhaps for detectives only?

5. Goodwill donates a lot of clothing from the states to Fijian citizens. I saw a Minnesota Vikings t-shirt walk by. They don't consider what their shirts may represent or care to know. The best sighting was a guy wearing a shirt that said "Free Snooki"

*I was in Fiji because my marine biologist friend (from George Tech) is conducting research on the coral coast and invited me over to volunteer. She lives in a local village far from the resorts. This gave me a unique lens as to what real cultural and environmental threats face this island. (The Coca-Cola Company, China's fishing industry, and continuing to harvest invasive mahagany trees to name a few).

I decided not to write about them here. A lot of serious material is posted in our blog forum (and in class discussion) and I wanted to inject another light entry into the mix now that they are starting to pop up. Yes. I consider the consumption of people a 'light' topic. (hahaha)

Happy Easter - a boring holiday with ham.

WAIT. 

Ham = Pig

Pig taste like PEOPLE?

ENJOY >:D

What kind of watch is that?

I'm a odd mix of tech and art and I'm immersed in both worlds, well as much as one can be. I'm a big fan of open source projects and when I read about open source in our textbook I figured I'd chime in.

I scan a lot of websites and I come across things from both the tech and art worlds. So when I saw Maureen with a smart watch I had to ask her about it. I saw a Tedtalk last year about Arduino's open source computer chip project that I was very taken with. And here was Maureen walking into class wearing a product from that video, almost. Turns out she has a competitor of the watch I had seen featured.

Makers Movement

Making robots is spendy, and from this frustration Arduino was born. Arduino is a small cheap programmable micro controller that anyone with a hundred bucks can acquire from their neighborhood Radioshack. It is all open source, even the chips construction, so if you're really good at soldering you don't even have to buy one, you can make one yourself. All of the software is also open source and anyone can write code for it. Making robots just got real cheap.

So, some dudes thought the world needed a smart watch. They launched a Kickstarter fund asking for $100K. They didn't get it. They got over $10 million, making it the biggest funded ‪Kickstarter‬ project ever. I guess everyone thought they needed a smart watch. Cash in hand they used the Aduino platform combined with the open source operating system Linux and created their smart watch which they named Pebble.

Pebble

Of the various smart watches out there, open source watches will rein supreme. When a project is open source that means that anyone can develop software for it. Proprietary products have a hard time going head to head with products that are open source.

Doubt it? Android is open source and their phones had 70% of the market share as of the last quarter of 2012. And the projections have it going even higher next year. Android dominates because anyone, even a company can use it to make devices.

Arduino combining open source hardware and software is a big shift in how micro controllers can be used in the future. More and more people that think the world needs "X" will have many barriers removed for them with the likes of Arduino being put out there for anyone to use for their project.I believe that this is the beginning of a new industrial revolution and I'm excited to see what comes of it.

Crazy face-painter fan

My ma is one. Yup, she loves college hockey, probably more than she loves my brother and I. Years ago she declared that we would no longer be getting together for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Our family holiday vacation was to be the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, WCHA, Final Five hockey tourney.

So, we all go and watch the games, if our team is there or not. Of course being North Dakota fans means our team is always there. But no more, the WCHA is changing and for the worse. This was the last year of the best hockey conference since the WCHA came to be in 1951. So, best ever.

This demise is the result of the U of M and Wisconsin joining four other teams to create a Big Ten hockey conference, that makes it the Big Six I guess. The other four teams of the Big Six will be made up of Michigan State, U of Michigan, Ohio St, Penn St. Of these Big Ten teams only one is ranked in the top ten. (as of my writing this, tourney time changes rankings pretty quickly).

In the new conference, Penn State doesn't even have a real team, they have a club team. Club teams are ranked below Division 3, that's three levels below the Division 1 teams. This will make for some pretty bad hockey next year. The move to form a Big Ten conference was based on money, not for the love of the game. I feel for the frenemies that I have come to know over the years at the Final Five tourney; when the Gophers play Penn St it is gonna be a joke of a game.

I will miss the Final Five, I guess from now on it'll be the Final Six or All Six. Kinda like the kids programs where everyone gets a trophy. It's gonna be a long time before the Big Ten will be very interesting to watch.

As a North Dakota fan, well, our team is joining what many are calling the Super Conference, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, NCHC. This conference is going to be made up of some of the best teams in the country: Colorado College, U of Denver, Miami University, U of M Duluth, Nebraska Omaha and UND. All but one of these teams have been ranked in the top ten of all college hockey this year. This level of skill is a huge difference compared to the Big Ten and will make for some awesome games in the years to come. I have a bitter sweet excitement for this new conference and the it's new tourney next year.

This last weekend of the Final Five is a sad end to a conference that has produced some of the best players in all of hockey. Even though the WCHA will continue the conference will be made up of the leftovers. I'll miss the WCHA, kinda like a lost love. But I'm sure with the NCHC starting next year, I will come to love this new conference and the amazing level of talent in the NCHC even more. Go Penn State!

State of Hockey

Minnesota-the state of hockey;held the WCHA final five Red Baron men's hockey tournament on March 21st-23rd at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. To start off the tournament this year is UW-Madison vs Mankato State University.  Wisconsin was able to pull out a huge 7-2 win to advance to the next game to be played Friday afternoon. The North Dakota fighting Sioux would face off against the Colorado Tigers in the evening game but would come up short 3-4  in a dramatic overtime ending. 

The second day of the tournament welcomes back Wisconsin for another afternoon game only this time it's against top ranked St. Cloud. The Huskies weren't able to pull out a win and go home in a 4-1 lost. The big game every Minnesota Gopher fan is waiting for quickly approaches Friday night against the Colorado Tigers. In a battle throughout the entire game, the Gophers come up short in a devastating lost, 2-0.  

The final game of the Frozen Five finally arrives on Saturday night and welcomes big winners, the Wisconsin Badgers and the Colorado Tigers. A very good match up between the two teams with a loud and college friendly  atmosphere. With goals going both ways, the Badgers are the team to pull out the final win in a 3-2 victory.  A celebration between Wisconsin players and coaches in sues  on the ice before trophies are awarded. 

Following a full weekend of hockey, it only continues with the kick off of the NCAA tournament. The first round of games begin Friday and goes until Saturday the 30th of March. Although not gaining any wins in the Red Baron frozen five, St.Cloud will start by playing number four ranked Notre Dame. North Dakota playing Niagara and number two ranked Minnesota Gophers take on the Yale Bulldogs. Unranked Wisconsin will take on number three ranked Mass-Lowellon Friday as well. It should be another fabulous next few weekends of hockey! With the NCAA ending April 13th this year. 

Counter-protesting

With people having various opposing viewpoints in morality, protesting has become more and more common. Yelling out and holding signs containing words to inform others of these views may not give immediate results, but throughout history it has made long-term impacts. Sometimes, though, the opposition to the protesting is so strong that counter-protesting deems necessary.

Those 100% against abortions are still often regularly protesting at Planned Parenthoods - a pregnancy center that provides them as one of their services - but as an annual tradition on the religious holiday "Good Friday" including the one this week many more, including hundreds more for a single location, are planning on doing so. To not let those protestors "win," this organization is asking those who can to counter-protest there. In addition, there will be a financial counter-protesting by having people pledge money for every protestor against this organization because of its abortion services. This is not just any ordinary competition but rather one that is strictly because of one's values.

MDST 485 Podcasts

These are the MDST 485 Podcasts as of March 23, 2013.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Audrey Hepburn was an elegant, beautiful, innocent actress of her time.  She won hearts of many for her work in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Roman Holiday, and My Fair Lady.  She is a woman who has played a very inspirational role in my life has I find my way on this journey.  In the book Audrey: The Real Story written by Alexander Walker; he dives into her life in ways the public hadn’t known Ms. Hepburn.  Although few know her hardships growing up and lack of fatherly care and experiences during the war, she was able to carry over into her acting. 

Originally, Audrey wanted to become a dancer and her mother did whatever she could to make sure she received the best education and training to succeed.  At the end of the way, Audrey got very sick and has a result been unable to perform at the level of expertise in the ballet.  She was able to take the talent she had with dance in various roles throughout her career, everything from the plays to the movies.  The wide range of talents Audrey acquired throughout her childhood became a huge part of her future success.  Speaking various languages came in handy when Audrey was traveling for her career. 

Primarily her single mother raised Audrey.  Her father left when she was only four years old and became involved in support with the Nazi’s.  He was a man of many trades but was also deceitful and spontaneous.  His involvement in her life was almost as if he didn’t exist.  He was present in ways that Audrey reprioritized marriage and having children.  The lack of a father role in her upbringing and the constant travel with her mother (so she could work odd and end jobs to support the two of them) provided Audrey with a certain clarity to build a career for herself before creating a family life. 

Although Audrey always wanted a marriage of prosperity with a family, it was something she was willing to put on hold.  She was involved with a several men before marrying her first husband Mel Ferrer who she also had a son named Sean.  Later in her life she became involved with UNICEF where she fought the battle against hunger.  Through her devotion to UNICEF she received many awards and acknowledgments for her efforts and involvement.  At the age of 63, Audrey Hepburn died of cancer. Her contributions to the world of acting and UNICEF still live on.  In tribute to the great Audrey Hepburn, the theme song in Breakfast at Tiffany's plays periodically at Tiffany locations.

Hello Spring Goodbye Winter

Hello Spring Goodbye Winter

Most Minnesotans are hoping that the spring weather is right around the corner.  The long winter months involving shoveling snow and poor traffic are starting to lose the interest of the people.  Winter outdoor activities such as hockey, sledding, building a snowman, and skiing are beginning to be too repetitive.  The cold weather and massive amounts of layers are also something the majority of people are looking forward to transitioning out of. 

Spring marks the beginning of shorts and outdoor activities that are much easier to do on the fly.  Not to mention the amount of time needed to get from point A to point B is a little shorter because you don’t need to factor in poor driving conditions into your day.  Winter was always one of my favorite seasons because I’m one of the few oddballs who enjoy all that comes with winter in Minnesota.  This past semester however I took a volleyball course that encouraged students to find ways to continue playing the sport once the class was completed.  This assignment got me incredibly excited for the outdoor activities one can do during the spring and summer seasons. 

I began looking into different volleyball leagues, as well as co-ed softball teams.  Growing up I’ve always been a very active person and was very involved in sports.  This course has shown me the importance to incorporate that into my life now even if it’s not to the same competitive level I once played. I have gotten groups of friends to partake on these teams as well as find running buddies to compete in 5Ks or maybe even a 10K.  This May, a few friends and myself will be running in the Run or Dye 5K.

Staying active and finding outdoor activities that motivate you are incredible important.  It’s essential to find at least one hobby you can devote time to because everyone needs to escape his or her daily routines and life every now and then.  Over the last few months I’ve been going through a transitional period just like the seasons will hopefully be doing soon.  I’ve learned a lot about myself and the things I need to make me happy and productive person.  It’s important to share this in hopes it can motivate others to try new things and get up and be active.

Security Theater on the Wells Fargo Website

Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and author of "Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs to Survive."

Bruce Schneier knows internet security.  I know he does, because I do and pretty much everything he writes or blogs about is informative and truthful.  Maybe its purpose is to get us thinking and not just believing.  His blog written on March 13 tells his readers that Wells Fargo internet customers are hoodwinked into thinking they are connecting to a secure environment when they click on a specific link. 

"Click on the "Establishing secure connection" link at the top of this page. It's a Wells Fargo page that displays a progress bar with a bunch of security phrases -- "Establishing Secure Connection," "Sending credentials," "Building Secure Environment," and so on -- and closes after a few seconds. It's complete security theater; it doesn't actually do anything but make account holders feel better."

Wells Fargo is probably a customer of the security software company Symantec where I have worked since 2000.  Symantec is the 4th largest software company and the largest security software company in the world .  They are trusted by hundreds of thousands of people to keep them safe and secure from the bad guys out to steal their identity, their resources, and their money. 

Financial organizations are one of the most targeted industries for hackers.  This is serious business.  Take a look at this short video from Symantec TV called, "Do You Know?"  It calls out the specific number of attacks, who is being attacked, and how - as reported in their widely trusted Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 17. 

NBC News and Wire Services reported recently that "U.S. Bank and PNC reported problems with their customer websites...after a financial services security group warned about possible cyberattacks. Meanwhile, SecurityNewsDaily reported that on Tuesday, Wells Fargo may have also been the victim of a sophisticated campaign of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

These reports follow last week's attacks, which affected JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.U.S. Bank spokesman Tom Joyce told the Associated Press that some customers experienced intermittent delays. He said the bank was working to fix the problem and was working with law enforcement.

In all three cases, each bank received hundreds of complaints from users who could not access their sites. Although Chase and Bank of America stopped short of declaring that they'd been victims of an attack, security experts and at least one politician made the assertion for them."

 

Financial institutions invest heavily in many kinds of physical security (alarm systems, cameras, guards) and they also invest significantly in software security.  It is well known that "defense in depth" or layered security is the most effective methodology and that trusting your security to one vendor is not wise.  If Wells Fargo fits the model of other banks, you can bet they have Endpoint and Server Protection, Data Loss Prevention which fingerprints documents and does not allow for copying, pasting, or emailing of sensitive information. They no doubt encrypt everything, have complex systems that have safety checks in place. 

 

Certainly banks have financial assets, but the real value of a bank is in its information.  Customers trust banks to protect their personal information as well as their money and believe that when a bank web site tells them they are on a secure site, that they are on a secure site.  Banks must not only give their customers confidence that their assets are safe, their business depends on it.

 

So if Wells Fargo uses a little theater to have their customer believe they are connecting to a secure site - so be it.  You can bet your bank account that the CEO of Wells Fargo and the entire security staff has taken every precaution to be sure you will not be compromised when making financial transactions online.

Enjoying a movie when you know too much about movie-making

Gone are the days where I will be simply entertained while eating popcorn and watching a movie.  I just know too much now. 

With all of the hullaballoo around the movie “Argo,” and the fact that it was available on Netflix I decided to see what the excitement was all about.  When I watched the movie, I wasn’t thinking about writing this blog so I really wasn't thinking about how the movie was actually crafted.   In retrospect, I believe the same holds true for “Argo” as it does “Skyfall” and probably most movies.  The opening segments typically are of scenery or the actors sliding across the screen, text overlaid with the names of the contributors of film-making.  There is music.  There are different camera angles.  There are changes in the lighting.  Once the opening credits are past and we get to settle into the good part of the movie – the story, it’s easy to forget all that went on behind the scenes to make the film. 

Someone had to write the script and keep in mind, the script isn’t just dialogue; it is for example, description (what is the actors are wearing, what is the background), timing (how long a pause before the next actor speaks), emotion (adverbs/adjectives to describe how the words should be spoken).  Ok, now you’ve got this killer story written and you want to make a movie out of it.  Everyone is going to want to make your movie – you’re going to be rich!

Whoa, it’s not quite that easy.  According to Owen Palmquist and Ted Serbinski the chances of your story being produced are about 1 : 140,000.  So why even go there?   You go there because you are passionate and why wouldn’t you be the “1”?  Here are a few tips to make your odds go up a bit. 

First, make sure you know what you want - what does success look like?  Did you write a low-budget ($1-5 million) or high-budget (exotic locations, special effects) kind of film?  Know your audience.  Market your script to the right guys.  Make sure you know who the individual is at the studio – maybe it is a story editor or creative director.  Never send it “to whom it may concern” because nobody’s going to be concerned about someone who didn’t do their homework.  Your query letter, letting Ms. Editor know that you believe you have a compelling story and profitable, too – will help wedge your foot in the door.  Movie studios like the word “profit.”   Oh, and don’t forget to register your script just in case someone with sticky fingers decides the get there first.  The Writer’s Guild suggests your take as $36,000 (the minimum for a low budget film) and $69,000 (for a more exotic one) – but that was in 1998, so imagine the values have climbed a bit.

As in making a big studio movie, our process is similar, without the financial stipend.  But the key to a successful film is planning.  Write and edit, rinse and repeat.  Create a shooting script next – something with lots of detail (who, what, when, where, and why?) and then finally your story board.  A storyboard is kind of like a comic book where each shot is depicted in a visual story listing movie notes, dialogue, sound – the descriptive information.  This process will save a lot of production costs because comic book characters are usually less expensive than actors.

The next step in the six steps in movie creation is Production.  Ever wonder why a movie that takes 2 hours to watch takes months to film?  Crews spent up to 12 hours a day, every day, filming in what can be uncomfortable situations.

Lighting comes next. Bright light?  Darker light?  Shadows? It all depends on the feel of the film.  What do you want viewers to experience?  Happiness or fright?

So now we’re got good light and it’s in focus, what next? Composition of course! Even as video technology advances to point where it sometimes becomes difficult to distinguish between an image shot on film and an image shot by a camera there will always be ways to tell home movies from feature films, composition. This is where those “how to” film books get really worthless. Composition is how the image looks on your camera. Composition takes years to master, but this is a just a basic guide to filming, so here’s a few pointers.

There are five basic shots. Extreme long shot (ELS), Long Shot (LS), Medium Shot or Bust Shot (MS), Close-up (CU), and Wayne and Garth’s favorite, the Extreme Close-Up (ECU).

Extreme Long/Establishing Shot

The extreme long shot and long shot are often used as establishing shots.

An establishing shot is the shot that gives the audience its sense of orientation in a scene. This is especially crucial when you have dialogue, so that when a character talks to another character off-screen, it doesn’t look he or she is talking to empty air.



Long Shot



The long shot will show all of most of an object and have a sufficient amount of the background on either side of the person.  This shot focuses on the subject.

The medium shot is one of the most common shots, as it allows a great deal of flexibility while eliminating much of the useless parts of image, such as a characters lower half, which typically has little to do with the scene.

Close up

 The close-up is used to create a sense of intimacy between the character and the audience and to highlight important thoughts or emotions in a character. This is even more so with the extreme close-up.

Camera angles are also extremely important. The two main angles are high angle and low angle. A high angle shot means that the camera looks up at the subject, often endowing the subject with a sense of power.



High Angle

Low Angle

A low angle looks down on the subject reversing the effect of the high angle and making it look small or weak.

For excellent illustrations of the effects of camera angles study High Noon directed by Fred Zinnemann.   I studied this movie in 7th grade and can still feel its impact.   You can watch the trailer here or below.
  

A third specialty angle it the Dutch angle. This is achieved by tilting the camera slightly, which conveys a sense of urgency or fear to a scene especially when it illustrates a characters reaction.

There is much more to movie making and I want to leave you hungering for more.  So tune in to my next post when I share the exciting Rule of Thirds,  and explain what happens in Post-Production.  That's where the fun really begins.

Until next time remember to quiet your cell phones and refrain from talking.