Five Years

As I ponder where I see the internet heading in five years, I find myself caught between being excited and terrified at the possibilities.

I think most of society is pretty ignorant to where all this technology is taking us. On the one hand, it’s amazing how we can do so many things online now. Banking, shopping, socializing, marketing, and so much more can be done without taking one step out of our home or office. With so many users on networks like Facebook connect and Twitter, it’s obvious that people like to expose themselves to the virtual world and share quite a bit of personal information. But what is really happening when we update our status, post a tweet, or even plug in an address on our Garmin? Where does our information go? Who is keeping track of it? Are we really that naïve to think it’s only going to our “friends”, or that our connections are truly “secure”?

People jokingly say “Big Brother” is watching, or comment on how the government is keeping track of us. But apparently that is closer to the truth than most people realize. It’s not just some farfetched paranoid delusion, and as we progress with technological advancements it appears our lives become less and less private.

In five years a lot can happen, and probably will in relation to the Internet. But maybe not quite as much as I fear. It’s hard for me to grasp how the virtual world works sometimes, especially with the concept of “cloud computing” or “reality mining”. So I question what it really all means. How close are we to that happening I have to wonder. With my greenness in knowledge about computer technology, I’m not sure how concerned I should really be. With my initial readings about those concepts, I automatically had a minor freak out of paranoia. But then I remind myself that articles sometimes inflate and make urgent the topic of discussion.

I think too, how there is still a chunk of people who resist the Internet, and that there will probably always be a part of society that doesn’t follow the flow of what everyone else seems to be doing. This makes me wonder how that will affect what the Internet is capable of in terms of society. For instance, I still know people who refuse to do their banking online, would never make a purchase on amazon.com, and who insist on paying cash at the gas station. You would think that people like that cannot be tracked or included into the Internet’s “cloud” of information that is available to the public. However, I’m sure one way or another it’s possible. Especially if they have a cell phone or drive in a new car with Onstar, or even have DirecTV.

With all of this up and coming Internet technology, I see one thing for sure. Privacy issues. With the virtual world becoming so huge, and the fact that our personal information is out there in so many forms, it’s inevitable there will be problems with keeping it all even remotely safe. And with every security feature created, there will likely be twice as many hackers to break it.

When I’m not worried or paranoid of being tracked, I do enjoy the perks of the Internet. Social networking isn’t limited to Facebook or MySpace. Recently I was invited into a social site created by my personal trainer, http://figurecompetitor.ning.com/. It’s designed for people interested in fitness and training for physique competitions. It’s like a mini-Facebook, with a focus. I thought it was so neat that anyone can just start a social network so easily. I can see how that would be helpful in businesses among employees and whatnot. I see applications like that replacing corporate email accounts eventually. It would be easier to communicate in a group, create virtual discussions where everyone can see posts by everyone else. It could also be used for family communication. The possibilities are quite endless, and social networking is just one aspect.

So, what will the Internet be like in five years? Probably more of what we’re starting to see now, like more social networking sites, more virtual storage sites like MobileMe, and more opportunity to connect with like-minded people across the globe. Businesses will probably have more options with IT, having a bigger variety of servers catering to their specific business need. I don’t think we’ll see a majority of what “cloud computing” can offer until closer to 10 years. While the concepts of it are interesting and alluring, I think it will take a while for the masses to trust it and embrace it. What we won’t actually see happening is probably more tracking and research being done with reality mining. THAT, I think, is a rather scary concept.

http://figurecompetitor.ning.com/

The Blessingway

Baby showers seem to have their place. New parents or parents with long lapses between children need certain items to better care for their baby. Friends and family usually appreciate the opportunity to purchase and give gifts for the baby in effort to help out. However, in the midst of the shower planning and gift purchasing, are we missing something?

There are obviously much deeper things happening during this time that many people seem to overlook. The baby shower tends to take a turn towards superficial materialism and away from the spiritual reality of what’s truly going on. A baby is about to enter our physical realm, via the vessel of a woman who is about to transform into a mother—a role that requires more dedication, patience, and self-reflection than anyone can imagine.

The baby shower focuses on cute clothes, toys, car seats, and basic necessities like diapers, washcloths and baby lotion. It’s about stuff. The mother, usually at the end of her pregnancy, uncomfortably sits and opens loads of gifts after a filling meal that probably gave her heartburn, and then gets cramps in her face cheeks from smiling and saying thank you.

What if there was something different? Something that focuses on the mother, on the journey that she is about to embark on. The lifelong commitment of becoming a mother to a precious soul that mysteriously chose her deserves a more meaningful ritual.

How about a mother Blessingway? I first heard about these when pregnant with my daughter. I was lucky to have my mom host one for each of my children. They were both special nights I will never forget.

Although there are many ways you may choose to conduct the ceremony, here are examples of some common ones.

Keeping the guest list small helps with having the night be more intimate. It gives the guests a chance to spend quality time with the mother to be. Creating an atmosphere of calm and tranquility with candlelight, soft music and maybe some herbal tea helps the mom relax. Instead of bringing gifts from a registry, guests may bring gifts that are more thoughtful and symbolic. Some gifts given to me included a journal, a beautiful plant to look at during labor, a card with words of strength from a friend, and a poem written just for me.

Activities at the Blessingway are focused on nurturing the mother and filling her with strength, courage and positive energy for the laborious task that lies ahead-giving birth. Some ideas include soaking her feet in herbal water before massaging them, creating a floral headband, creating a labor necklace out of beads brought by each guest (to be worn when labor begins as a symbol of the strength and love that was shared with her), and sharing stories or memories of the mother that will remind her how special she is to the attending family and friends.

The Blessingway is about honoring the mother and the beautiful yet difficult transformation she is about to make into motherhood. Whether it’s a woman’s first pregnancy or her fifth, each birth is a transformation.

Choice in Childbirth=Empowerment

Unfortunately, the topic of giving birth seems to be a very sensitive one. Often times I feel as though I’m walking on eggshells when discussing issues of labor and birth with women. A great divide exists in regards to philosophy of birth among caregivers, like obstetricians and midwives. In general, there is the medical model of birth and the midwifery model. How nice it would be if each “side” could always meet halfway and explore the others view with an open mind.

This splitting of views among caregivers in turn affects the women they care for. The “other” view (whatever that may be) is often portrayed as the “wrong” view, so birthing women, whether they agree with their caregiver or not, are often made to feel they have to defend the way they gave birth to avoid feeling out of control. Match a woman in that position with a woman who feels like she had total control of her birth experience, and what may be subtly perceived as a catfight may ensue. Worse, a woman may end up feeling hurt, confused, and regretful of certain aspects of her birth experience. This may lead to negative views towards labor and birth, in turn passing those views on to other women anticipating birth and to future generations of childbearing women.

Even if we each feel strongly in our beliefs of a certain birth philosophy, such as natural birth vs. medicated birth, or homebirth vs. hospital birth, it would be beneficial for us all to consider the possible benefits to each choice. What is good for one woman may be not be good for another. It is important to have choices in childbirth, and even more important to allow women to choose for themselves. “If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any,” is a quote I’m fond of. Of course, being educated in the risks and benefits of those choices is imperative. It would be ideal if the chosen caregiver honestly gave facts from all angles and from a variety of research to their patients.

Birthing women have power. They are consumers shopping for good prenatal care, for good labor support, and for good postpartum care. It’s time for more birthing women to embrace that power and demand more, demand better. Better in the sense of respect for their bodies, respect for their instincts, respect for the natural process of birth. Unless they expect better, these women will only receive what was given before.

Ask questions. Read a lot of books, a variety of books. Watch birth videos of both natural birth and medicated hospital birth. Interview caregivers. See who fits your needs best. Research everything. Question everything. It is okay to be strong. Pregnancy is not the time to sit back and allow others to make choices for you. If there is a time in life when you need to step up to the plate, this is it. Be brave, be bold, and be dedicated. Dedicate your passion to creating the best possible environment for your labor and birth. This is where motherhood begins.

Preparation for a Figure Competition

Training for a figure competition is a lot harder than it may seem. It is a very intense experience that really pushes you to your physical limits and tests your character.

Some people may watch a figure show and think of it simply as a bikini contest. It is far from that. While there is a trend recently to include some type of bikini/swimsuit category to a bodybuilding and figure competition, the training involved is much different.

As many of us know, it is very difficult for women to lose body fat. For these competitions, women need to get below 12%. It is necessary to be lean so the judges are able to assess muscle definition, which also means these women need to build muscle, another challenging task.

In order to achieve these results, competitors commit to a rigorous workout schedule and strict diet. Training usually starts about three months prior to the competition (I’m referring here to competition training. Many women have exercised for years before attempting to compete). This may start sooner if the individual needs to lose a higher amount of body fat.

As stated in the video, combining weights with cardio is most effective in burning fat. The workouts (at least twice a day) are very difficult, especially when your caloric intake is limited. At the beginning of the diet there are more calories in each meal, slowly tapering each week until show time.

Despite being tired, hungry, sore, stressed, and angry, these women press on to achieve a goal they’ve set for themselves.

Some say you have to be crazy to do this sport. From my own experience, that may be true!

Crazy in a good way, I say.

If you'd like to learn more about this, check out the following link:

http://www.hardbodyfigure.com

Figure Competition Prep from Shrell Krawczyk on Vimeo.

Be Bold

Learning about wiki’s was interesting, and creating one was kind of fun. I had used Wikipedia before, but I had never really thought about how it came to be. What was most interesting to me is how dynamic a wiki is. I find it a bit fascinating that anyone can edit the pages of a wiki, that in fact it’s the point of such a site to get the community active with participating in its creation. Prasarnphanich and Wagner described this concept as “collective authorship” in the article, “The Role of Wiki Technology and Altruism in Collaborative Knowledge Creation”.

While it was relatively simple to create a wiki page, the process leading up to its completion was not so smooth. My partner, Laura, was great and had an open mind to my suggestions. However, we both had such busy schedules it was difficult to connect on a regular basis. We communicated through email, and instead of “phone tag”, we played “email tag” a lot. While the point of a wiki website is to work together in sharing knowledge for others to see, unless you have an interest in the specific topic of the page I can see where you could lose your enthusiasm. It was strange trying to find a topic that we both liked when we did not even know each other.

Laura and I changed our topic from the one stated in the last assignment (placenta art). I didn’t have any images for it and we had thought of doing a wiki how about it. I think that topic is one where images are needed to be effective. After browsing BufWiki!, I noticed there were not a lot of pages on there, so I thought of what we could add. We ended up creating a page on Bufwiki! about a specialty gym I go to which is located in North Buffalo.

As I write this, I am a little frustrated because the assignment was to create a wiki article of at least 1,000 words. Laura and I did that. However, when I just checked the site I noticed that our page is totally edited already! It is completely condensed from what we created. There was so much more on our page last night.

This seems to be the opposite of what Prasarnphanich and Wagner, in their article, “The Role of Wiki Technology and Altruism in Collaborative Knowledge Creation”, explain as wiki magic. Wiki magic, according to Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia co-founder, is a cumulative effect of incremental knowledge contributions. The article explains how someone may start a wiki article with just a few sentences in the evening, then by morning there may be several additional paragraphs created by others. In our case, we had created several paragraphs in the evening, and by the next evening they were practically gone!

I guess I am not yet accustomed to the “wiki way”, explained by Prasarnphanich and Wagner as a shared code of conduct within the community when collaborating for wiki content. I am only just beginning to get my writing and ideas out on paper through the journalism program at Buffalo State College, and the concept of having to let go of the control or ownership of what I create doesn’t come easy yet. Particularly when I am surrendering to a bunch of “editors” unknown to me.

As with all things, over time I am sure I will get used to this new concept of “cooperating” and “collaborating” with virtually everyone. I hope that however, the changes made will not affect our grade too much.

Below is a link to our BufWiki! page
http://buffalo.wikispot.org/Stokes_Fitness

Below is a link to a site about how to use a wiki for group planning. Includes a video.
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english

Sometimes Dreams Come True

Last spring I fulfilled a nearly 20-year-old dream.

I competed in three figure and bodybuilding shows, placing well in all of them.

As a young adult, I became fascinated with muscles. I bought my first gym membership when I turned 17 (with mom’s signed permission) and at that moment, I was hooked. Exercise became a daily priority, with weight training being my favorite activity. I loved how it gave me strength, confidence, and the ability to change the shape of my body. Muscle & Fitness Magazine became one of my staples, which exposed me to the elite female bodybuilders and fitness pros. I could never believe the amount of muscle these women had, and I thought it was beautiful. My dream of competing was born out of reading that magazine and surrounding myself with hardworking folks at the gym.

A dream it was. I didn’t know how to go about getting ready for a competition. Being so young, I did not have the resources to pay a trainer for advice. I thought there was some special way of training, or a wacky diet to follow (turns out this is true). So instead, I continued to train with weights as hard as I could, learned about “clean eating” (unprocessed foods, lean protein, low fat, low sugar, whole grains, veggies), and strived to attain a certain physique on my own. While I never stopped working out, the dream of competing faded. Starting a career, getting married, and having children became my reality (a wonderful reality to me, I must clarify), and thoughts of competing became “what could have been”.

Years later (at which point I was 36), a friend suggested I talk with her trainer, Terry Stokes. He specializes in training women for fat loss and in preparing them for figure competitions. She thought I could do well in such an endeavor. At first I laughed at her, but her incessant pressure found me walking into her gym to talk with Terry. The rest, you could say, is history.

Training for competition is hard. Dieting for competition is hard. For 12 weeks, you work out at a high intensity for at least two to three hours a day. For 12 weeks, you eat five times a day, weighing every bite. Your social life is non-existent, and family life is strained. Your bank account dwindles from the cost of training, food, show suits, show entry fees, spray tans, and drug tests (mandatory in the natural shows). For figure competition, you’re required to wear five-inch heels, so you must practice walking and posing every day. In cases like mine, you also juggle work, kids, domestic chores, and schoolwork. You become obsessed, exhausted, and very hungry.

You also become strong, lean, and amazed when you look in the mirror. My body transformed completely. I stare at pictures of myself in the competitions with awe. It is just so hard to believe that my body looked like that.

Of course, that physique does not last long! The diet tapers drastically to get you lean for show day, so once you start to eat normal you bloat up quickly. It has taken months for my metabolism to adjust, and psychologically it’s still hard. You never feel lean enough after peaking for a show.

Clearly, bodybuilding for competition is not healthy. I suppose most sports at that level aren’t. Nevertheless, it is rewarding. For me, it was a dream come true.

Web 2.0; Perspective of a Mom

I’m one of those people who isn’t too computer savvy, understanding little about “JavaScript” or “hypertext” or any of these technological terms regarding the internet. So I was a little surprised that I’ve actually been active in utilizing applications of “Web 2.0”. Call me ignorant, but I truly just try to stay afloat when it comes to technology.

Thanks to my Blackberry, which I finally started using this year for purposes of scheduling clients for work (I was addicted to a paper planner; still miss it), I’ve become very attached to Facebook, which is one of my closest experiences with Web 2.0 applications. Perhaps I’m even more out of the loop with the virtual world because my time has been hijacked by my two children, now seven and five.

Because of my children, however, I am forced to consider how Web 2.0 is going to affect my family and our community. As they age and move through the school system, I am seeing more computer usage than I ever would’ve imagined when I was a kid. Even for myself as an adult returning to college, I’m more exposed to social networking and multimedia avenues on the web than I would be otherwise.

After reading about the benefits and criticisms of Web 2.0, I can certainly see where both sides are coming from. Criticisms such as the lack of safety from potential hackers and viruses, the dangers of allowing too much personal information out there and attracting stalkers or identity thieves, the risks to individual or business reputations as a result from an unfair assessment or complaint, the risks of internet addiction and isolation, and the potential for violation of copyrights. These are all valid concerns, and we as a community need to be aware of these risks and utilize applications on the web with caution.

I have particular concerns for my children, when they’re old enough to use such applications on their own. What parent wouldn’t fear a stalker coming after their kids, or worry of their exposure to garbage and the ranting of lunatics in the virtual world? I know plenty of people who believe that something is true simply because it’s on the internet. There needs to be a level of maturity to understand the varied intentions of the masses on the web. This poses an added level of responsibility for me as a parent to make sure my children are educated on the dangers of virtual communication and web surfing.

On the other hand, the benefits are numerous. The possibilities Web 2.0 allow are staggering. I personally love the instant communication I receive through Facebook. Although virtual communication will never replace the warmth of actually hearing the voice of a friend on the telephone, or the bonding you create during a physical visit, it sure is better than nothing when you’re in the middle of a busy day and just want to chitchat for a second. Doing a Google search for directions is so helpful, along with sharing photos on flickr and Facebook, and who doesn’t love YouTube? Having the ability to interact with people around the globe in an instant and to share ideas simply cannot be beat. Thanks to some recent reading that was required by a certain instructor of mine, I discovered yet another Web 2.0 application that blows my mind; Second Life. It’s just amazing to me all one can do with technology these days.

I can’t help but think about what Web 2.0 will bring us several years from now. What will my children be exposed to? It’s both exciting and scary for me as a parent. From a positive perspective, I hope Web 2.0 will offer my kids resources and opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive with unlimited access to information and connections to friends and family. I don’t see a way to stop the progress of this technology, so as a family we just need to make a strong effort to educate ourselves on the potential dangers and use it with caution.