Heating Pads and Mr. Potter

I'm going to keep today's short because, quite frankly, I feel like crap. :) Boys, cover your eyes. Women, yep, it's that time! Ugh. I have no shame in exposing my woman-hood and what comes with it. Anyway, here we go.

Heating Pads...

Again, this will be short, and somewhat pointless. Oh well. I learned a long time ago that heating pads are one of the best inventions known to women. If you're like me, your cramps make you sick, doubled-over, and in pain. Mine weren't always this bad; they began to get worse in the last two years. I've tried pills of every kind and none have really helped. What helps, you ask? Heating pads. They're wonderful. They're full of warmth and joy and they make my life brighter just by having them on my stomach. Plus, they make me sleepy, which I thoroughly enjoy because I love sleeping. It's one of my favorite past-times. For you ladies out there who have it as bad as I do, go get one. You won't regret it. I'd take a lovely picture of myself with baggy pajamas, nappy hair, no make-up, and a heating pad on my stomach if I had a working camera. Alas, I don't and I can't afford a new one. So... no picture for this one. :( 

Mr. Potter

Man, I didn't realize this post was going to be so... girly? I feel like a 13-year-old pubescent female on the verge of squealing at the mention of Harry Potter. Okay, I'm not that bad, but I do love me some Harry Potter when I need to veg and enjoy a good movie. I'm currently watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as I happened to stumble upon it whilst lying on my beloved heating pad. I do love magic! What can I say? I'm a huge nerd. I truly am. I mean, just look at these posts. They're all about education and what not. However, what can I say that I've learned from Harry Potter? Oh, I know! Did you know Nicholas Flamel actually existed? Flamel was a well-known French alchemist from 1330 to 1418, although the year of his death is debatable. It is said that he did create a philosopher's stone, otherwise known as the sorcerer's stone in Harry Potter, which enabled him to turn lead into gold. In Harry Potter, the stone provides immortality. It's also been said that he created the "Elixir of Life" to give that same immortality to him and his wife Perenelle. Though historians believe he died in 1418, some believe he's been around much longer, even as recent as 1992. I once found a lot more information about him, but I can't find the source any more. He's pretty cool though, so you might want to look him up. There's also a series of books that feature Flamel called  The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. They actually sound pretty good and I may just get them myself one day. I pasted a picture of him below. I love his face; it looks squished together. 

Quote of the Day:

"Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but I had a good life all the way." - Jimmy Buffet

Random Fact of the Day: 

When you combine a question mark (?) with an exclamation point (!), it's called an "interrobang".

Love, Peace, and Happiness, 

Laura P.

Old Friends and Ancient Scripts

Hello friends!

(Trying to make this a daily ritual... Maybe it'll give me some structure in life!)

Well, it's day two of this hopefully up-and-coming blog. Pretty exciting, right? :) I learned several things today, as usual!

Old Friends

First and foremost, I learned a lot about the concept of old friends. No, I'm not talking about a 20-year-old having an elderly person as their friend; that's just awkward, but if you're into it, by all means I'm happy for you. I'm speaking of those friends that you simply can't shake off no matter how many fights and arguments you have, no matter how many differences you have, no matter how much you've gone through. You just can't lose 'em, and it's a good a thing. I have three best friends, each very different from the next. They're my friends, though, because they teach me lessons, give me new perspectives, and have been there through thick and thin. I won't name their names nor will I fully explain what recently happened between myself and one of them. We had a fight, and it was pretty hurtful, more-so on my part I think. I tend to lose control when I get angry, something I wish to learn not to do - I'll get there eventually. I say hurtful things to my loved ones even though I really don't mean to. I suppose that makes me human, though. We all say mean things. The reason for our fight derives from my worry for her, really. It doesn't have to do with petty things like selfishness, jealousy, rivalry, or differences. It may seem like that on the surface, but really my worry for her overrides all else. I love this girl. She is like family to me and, of course, I never mean to hurt her. As I think about it now, I feel pretty horrible about some of the things I said. She at first reacted just as harsh, but in the end she was really understanding of why I was upset. This surprised me. I was proud of her for showing understanding. It dawned on me, too, that even though I said terrible things, she listened because we're old friends. Maybe I need to take a page from her book and try to do the same? Probably so. Lesson is, we may not always agree, we may fight, argue, worry, lose control, hurt one another, and neglect one another from time-to-time, but we're old friends - and old friends stick together. 

Ancient Scripts

Now to the really interesting stuff! I know you guys don't want to hear about my personal life. Sheesh, who would?! It's pretty dull most days. Anywho, I'm taking a class on Linguistics right now. It's a little boring sometimes, but today was pretty interesting. Our current lesson is on ancient scripts and languages. Some of you may not find them fascinating, but some of you might! Hell, it's another thing to learn, right? I may just pique your interest. Here are some facts:

Cuneiform, one of my favorites, originally started as clay tokens around 8000 BCE in Mesopotamia. They were all shapes, had different meanings, and used for record-keeping. They were even wrapped in little clay envelopes! 

The Gothic language (no joke, it's a language) was used by Gothic tribes that were responsible for Rome's downfall. They had their own alphabet before converting to Christianity and taking on the Greek alphabet, but their language is the earliest Germanic language in history. When I first read about them, I thought of the scene in Gladiator when the Romans fight Germanic tribes in the beginning of the movie... I'm pretty sure those were probably the Goths. Cool, yeah? I think so. The picture next to this is one of them. He's a real looker. 

Last is the Brahmi script. I've always been fascinated by Indian culture, so this one really stuck out to me. Brahmi is one of the most important scripts because it is the ancestor to hundreds of scripts found in South, Southeast, and East Asia. It is also from the 5th century BCE. That's so old! Burmese, Tagalog, Japanese, Thai, Tibetan, and many others all derive from Brahmi!  

I got all of my information from www.ancientscripts.com. Go there if you found this interesting! 

Quote of the Day: 

"Forsake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him. A new friend is a new wine; when if is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure." - The Bible

Random Fact of the Day: 

The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly.

Love, Peace, and Happiness, 

Laura P. 

Welcome to Loving, Learning, Laughing!

Hi there!

So, this is now my fifth attempt at sticking with a blog. I know; I'm horrible. My mind goes aflutter quite often so I get distracted by other life tasks and lose focus on my blog. However, I feel really passionate about this one, which is something I've learned is very important when creating a blog. ;) I want to cordially welcome you to it!

I chose to write about learning and teaching because both are very important to me. I am a student in all aspects of life. I've realized that I am constantly learning and I'm beginning to see everything as a lesson. What I watch on TV, see on the Internet, read in a book, experience in my daily life, feel from my emotions, notice from my behavior, and everything else that I may be missing is a lesson. We take it for granted. Many people go about their lives not noticing that they're growing and learning as an individual. I believe this hinders their ability to really make a difference in their lives because they're oblivious to the lessons. They almost ignore them. My goal with this is to open at least one person's eyes to the power of learning.

That brings me to my next point. As we go about our lives, constantly soaking lessons in, it's important that we teach those lessons to others. We are all students and teachers. Some learn more than others. Some teach more than others. Regardless of the amount, I believe the power of both is perhaps the secret to life. To grow, we must learn. To change the world, we must teach. Of course, not everyone wants to learn and teach. That's okay, though! Each person is able to live their life how they want to! For me, I want to learn and teach. I want to learn as much as I can and continue growing. I want to teach what I know, no matter if the information is important or not. I make it a goal of mine every day to learn something new, even if it's very small, like the value of a coin from "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel. With that information, I may just relay it to a friend or family member. It does not matter! Just teach!

Check out the show here!

You might be wondering how I got here. I'm sure most children don't enjoy learning when they go to school or they're at home doing schoolwork. I didn't either. In fact, I barely graduated high school. I made up for it by writing 20 movie reviews for a film class I was failing. I also went to a secondary school just to finish up credits I had failed earlier. College, at first, was a major struggle too. I would ditch class often, hang out with friends instead of do schoolwork, never read my books, etc. I then went on to University of Phoenix because I wanted more out of life than a mediocre job, and I knew that I had the intelligence to actually do something with my life. I had slacked off for so long until I got fed up with crappy jobs and not applying myself. Since enrolling, I've done pretty good with a 3.5 GPA, and I'm about to get my Bachelor's of Science in Business Communications in January. It's been a very long road, but I never gave up! Never giving up is what brought me here. Sure, I struggled a lot, but I pushed through because I wanted a better life. Now, I want to keep learning and eventually become a professor in English at a college or university.

So, I'm here and I'm happy to be. I hope you enjoy the blog as I write about what I learn in my every day life, with, perhaps, a bit of humor here and there. May you feel inspired to continue learning, too!

Quote of the Day: 

"I must learn to love the fool in me the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries” -Theodore Isaac Rubin

Random Fact of the Day:

In France, it is illegal to name your pig Napoleon.

Love, Peace, and Happiness, 

Laura P.