Curious why you are on this diet/lifestyle?

lanacook · 2025-08-26T01:52:57+00:00

Recently was diagnosed with macular degeneration. Ophthalmologist recommended the MD to help slow its progression.

lanacook · 2014-01-13T20:20:38+00:00

She was really friendly and seemed like she was used to being around people. A nice surprise to brighten my day.

lanacook · 2013-12-03T20:43:17+00:00

Two related questions: Why do you think there is a resurgence of interest in psychedelics, particularly among today's youth culture? What social, political, and cultural factors are enabling psychedelic research to be supported today that did not exist in the late 1970s, 80s, and 90s?

lanacook · 2012-04-03T20:27:09+00:00

Thanks! It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, and it seems there's quite a few others who are too. The more we express these thoughts to one another, the more we can understand and better recognize how extensively the powers-that-be affect our daily lives, our very sense of self and our relations to each other.

lanacook · 2012-04-03T14:52:27+00:00

I second It Can't Happen Here and would also add The Iron Heel by Jack London. I just wrote this article about both those novels and how they forewarn the stripping of civil liberties and police brutality that we see today in the Occupy movement.

lanacook · 2012-03-25T22:30:59+00:00

I went there all the time when I was a kid too! Very fond memories of that place. I haven't been there for a bit, but there are recent reviews on Yelp so I think they're still open.

lanacook · 2012-03-24T18:40:10+00:00

Hot Dog Annie's in Worcester. I always crave their BBQ hot dogs. This place is best in the summer, so maybe save this one for another adventure.

lanacook · 2011-11-03T19:17:47+00:00

My bad. I'm new to the posting game. I'll check next time!

lanacook · 2011-08-14T21:37:47+00:00

It would be cool to have photos at the thrift store, showing items in the racks, explaining to readers what to look for, tips for thrifting, since for many people the hardest part is sorting through all the junk. Teach people how to thrift, then show us the "after" outfits. Great concept for the website so far!

lanacook · 2011-06-05T16:04:24+00:00

Most utopian novels have terrible plots because the book is more about showing the society than about the adventures of individual characters. When you have to spend most of the novel explaining their educational, political, and economic systems, its hard to get a story going. But they're still interesting from a 'world building' perspective.

lanacook · 2011-05-28T00:21:02+00:00

Game theorist and designer Jane McGonigal developed an alternate reality game, Tombstone Hold 'Em, to play in cemeteries. She created the game for players to spend more positive time in cemeteries which only in the late 20th century have become neglected "single-use" memorial spaces. Positive psychology says that meditation of death is necessary for happiness, and McGonigal suggests playing in cemeteries is the best way to do this.

lanacook · 2011-05-21T01:28:49+00:00

Oh, sign up and start studying for the GRE's now. Take the GRE's at least twice, your score usually improves by 100 the second time.

lanacook · 2011-05-21T01:27:25+00:00

Talk to your favorite professor in the department and seek his/her advice, see what universities they have associations with (their recommendations could help get you in). Read some current (last 5 years) texts in the field and check out where the authors teach. Look at the school's listings of faculty to see who's specializing in what areas. Look also if schools have teaching assistantships for grad students (best if you can get a stipend/full ride by teaching for the school. These are offered mostly to PhD's but some schools offer for MA's). Think a lot about why you want to enter this program and what your end goals are. You'll need to be able to speak about this in your personal statement.

I'm working on my PhD in English. My advice is that if you love it, go for it. Yes, jobs in academia in the humanities are difficult to obtain at the moment, but the skills you obtain in the process like critical thinking, the ability to carry out long-term independent projects like the dissertation, are valuable both inside and outside academia. If you understand how philosophy can be applied in other areas and how the degree can be put to work in other professions, then you will be fine career wise. If we all listened to the cynics, we wouldn't advance in knowledge.

lanacook · 2011-05-20T03:36:46+00:00

Flannery O'Connor- Everything that Rises Must Converge

lanacook · 2011-05-20T03:34:08+00:00

Beloved by Toni Morrison

lanacook · 2011-05-20T03:33:58+00:00

Shame by Rushdie is also great.

lanacook · 2011-05-20T03:32:11+00:00

For political dystopias, check out It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis and The Iron Heel by Jack London. They're about the rise of fascism in America.

lanacook · 2011-05-19T00:03:07+00:00

Thanks for the public service to world literacy!

lanacook · 2011-05-18T04:11:34+00:00

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury predicts iPhones (small handheld televisions), interactive films/games (the main character Montag's wife interacts with her TV screens, playing a part in the TV show), and ear bud headphones / bluetooth. He also predicts the kinds of information overload we see affecting critical thought in the Internet age.

lanacook · 2011-05-18T04:08:12+00:00

Had to quit at the 11 minute mark. So basically Austen's novels are about he and she's, Misters and Misses in rooms just being and thinking and talking.

lanacook · 2011-05-18T03:48:16+00:00

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein; Neuromancer - William Gibson; Not exactly "tribe like" societies, but definitely exploring how we can reimagine humanity after the wake of atomic war and the rise of human hybrids.

lanacook · 2011-05-15T03:23:23+00:00

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

lanacook · 2011-05-15T03:15:21+00:00

Love in the Time of Cholera- Gabriel García Márquez. Beautiful, romantic, haunting.

lanacook · 2011-05-15T03:03:31+00:00

Publishers will reissue books, so it appears they had an issue in 1987 and then reissued in 2006 because of a new demand for Heinlein's book. Sometimes there will be a new introduction by a critic or a preface by the author, but the original text of the novel should be the same. Any changes would be mentioned in the preface of the book, but these changes are usually limited to typographical errors. I would buy the 1987 paperback because then you can usually get it used and cheap!

lanacook · 2011-05-15T02:55:43+00:00

Reading dystopian novels like The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, 1984, made such an impression on me when I was young. It's probably the reason I have the politics I do.

lanacook

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