A staff writer's tips to finding peace in your life

“You get peace of mind not by thinking about it or imagining it, but by quieting and relaxing the restless mind.” - Remez Sasson

These days life has become so busy that we hardly get to spend some time with ourselves, which I think is very important. No one knows you better than yourself so it’s good to spend some time with yourself so you can evaluate yourself and have some peace of mind.

So today I would like to share my own few favorite tips that I do when I am looking for more peace and calmness in everyday life than I have used on a daily basis.

• The very first thing that you need to do is set certain limits in your life. You may need to stop doing some of the least important things that you think are important (Facebook for sure). Don’t hold yourself to “perfect” standards.
• Now find a relaxation technique that works best for you. I like to go on a walk with slow music on and think about all the good that I had in my life.  Long walks, music, yoga, meditation or going for a swim? Find out what works for you.
• Don’t make mountains out of molehills. This can create a lot of unnecessary stress. When you feel that something is bothering you a lot ask yourself a few questions: Does someone on the planet have it worse than me? Will this matter in five years? These questions help you realize that such things are worthless.
• When we think too much about the past it can ruin our present and future. So remember yesterday, dream for tomorrow but don’t forget to live for today. If something happened in the past and it’s still bothering you, then accept that feeling and let it go. If the lesson is learnt it should not bother you anymore.
• The last thing is another quote from Remez Sasson: “Your nature is absolute peace. You are not the mind. Silence your mind through concentration and meditation, and you will discover the peace of the Spirit that you are, and have always been.”  
  
  Story by Shireen Gul

Ciscoe Morris kicks off EvCC's Earth Week events

Ciscoe Morris speaks in front of Gray Wolf Hall.

King Five’s Gardening with Ciscoe host, Ciscoe Morris, shared his secret to growing the fastest and ripest tomatoes on campus today outside of Gray Wolf Hall as part of Everett Community College’s Earth Week.

About 60 people, from students to faculty and staff, gathered around under the sunshine to get the latest insight from Washington’s favorite gardener.

“Ohh-la-la!” Ciscoe exclaimed his favorite phrase as a crowd formed around him, and fans rushed to take a photo with the guest speaker.

He started off with a personal story of how he picked up his “Ohh-la-la” catch phrase.

Years ago he was traveling around France on bike with his wife. At one point they stopped at an outdoor bathroom, which he described as a “plastic igloo.” He explained that it cost two franks to use the restroom.

His wife first paid the two franks. When she came out she exclaimed how clean the restrooms were. Instead of closing the door and paying two extra franks Ciscoe simply went in. Apparently the bathroom was self-cleaning, so when the door shut water began spouting from all directions.

When he managed to escape he was completely drenched. A French man wearing a beret gave him a queer look only saying, “Ohh-la-la!”

The crowd had difficulty suppressing their smiles, while Ciscoe told his stories and shared how he learned to plant that perfect tomato.

According to several taste tests that Ciscoe conducted, he concluded that Sun Gold brand was the number one tasting tomato.

His talk covered all aspects of a tomato’s life from seed to stem, and was as detailed as what temperature they should grow in and tactics to protecting it from Washington’s winter weather.

He offered tips on other gardening questions as well, and two lucky people walked away with mementos. One with Ciscoe’s book Ask Ciscoe, and the other with a T-shirt designed by his wife that said, “Eat your brussel sprouts!”

Events promoting a greener planet will be occurring all week and can be found on calendar events at EvCC’s website.

Story and photo by Claudia Furmanczyk

Walk held at UW to raise suicide awareness

The Out of the Darkness walk began at University of Washington's Denny Field.

A moment of silence passed among the nearly 200 people that gathered on Denny Field at the University of Washington last Saturday for the campus’s first suicide prevention walk, called Out of the Darkness.

Beth Adolphsen, an Everett Community College health science instructor, asked those attending to raise their beaded necklaces, which were different colors. Slowly hands began to rise. Each represented a loss to suicide and recognition of mental illness.

Red stood for the loss of a spouse or partner, gold for the loss of a parent, white for the loss of a child, orange for the loss of a sibling, purple for the loss of a loved one or friend or relative, green for those currently struggling with mental illness and blue for those supporting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

In addition, silver beads were held up in honor of the military and first responders that lost their lives in duty and red, white and blue beaded necklaces were raised to show support for our troops.

Adolphsen raised her white beads. She both spoke and walked at the event.

Since Adolphsen lost her son a year ago to suicide she has done three walks, including this one, as a way to cope and bring awareness to the issue.

According to the AFSP, suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students.

As of Saturday the event raised $10,591, surpassing their goal of $5,000. This came purely from donations, as the walk was a free event.

Since the event donations have continued. As of Monday, the cause has raised $11,791.

Donations will continue to be collected until June 30, and can be made by visiting www.campuswalk.org and finding the University of Washington campus walk.

Julia Borges, a UW student and co-director of the event, explained that the online total does not match their actual total because the site shows online donations exclusively.

Story and photo by Claudia Furmanczyk

A memorial for Morgan Livingston

The memorial bench near Gray Wolf Hall.

You walk out from Gray Wolf towards Parks after a busy day. On your left before the University Center office you see a bench with a pot of flowers next to it. It is black and brown in color, with a carving of flowers on the side. There is a plate saying “In Loving Memory of Morgan Livingston.”

Morgan Livingston was a professor for Human Services Professionals and community services at Western Washington University and Human Services 101 at Everett Community College.

A memorial bench for Livingston was installed April 9.

Jennifer Rhodes, director of Student Activities, and her friend Babette Babich coordinated the gathering of funds not long after Livingston passed away.

“The two of us coordinated the actual gathering of the fund. We were the places where they dropped the money off to and there was a group of alumni and current students that were the one that selected the bench and actually did the ordering,” said Rhodes.

By mid-February, around $700 was gathered from approximately 40 people. A group of alumni and current students selected and ordered the bench online.

“We decided to do a bench because Morgan was just a type of person that would do something that is relaxing. She would like to do something that allows people to have a conversation. So, we decided on a bench to honor her and to honor her long-standing effect that she hand on the lives of so many of us here in the campus,” added Rhodes. “We also picked something that was unique in design because she was a very unique person.”

The bench is made of recycled material and is supposed to last for quite a long time.

“Morgan was a very environmentally conscious person. That was the other reason we chose the bench that would be environmentally conscious, just like her,” explained Rhodes.

For Rhodes, the whole action to honor and respect Livingston had a sentimental reason.

“She was my professor, my father’s professor and my husband’s professor. The three of us are graduates of the program,” said Rhodes. “She was a very special person.”

Story and photo by Johan Chandra

Mysterious shape appears outside Whitehorse Hall

Photo by Ian Buck

A group of engineering students on campus have been working on this as part of their electrathon race car project.
Stay tuned for more info on our main site at www.clipperonline.info

A day in the life of EvCC's library

National Library Week is being celebrated by hundreds of libraries throughout the country by taking part in Library Snapshot Day: A Day in the Life of Your Library.

This program originated in New Jersey and in 2010 at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, the ALA Advocacy Coordinating Group along with the Chapter Relations Committee and Chief Officers of State Library Agency decided to make it a national event.

Right now 38 of the 50 United States take part in this event and last year in Washington State alone there were over 200 libraries that participated with just under 150,000 patrons visiting these locations during the weeklong event.

Each library chooses one day during the National Library Week to participate.  Throughout this one-day they keep track of how many people visit their location.  This is then broken down into how many children, adults and students participating in various events and services offered one that day.  They also tally total circulation for the day (how many books, etc, are checked out and returned).

If you went down to the library in Parks on Wednesday, April 11 you may have noticed the table in front of the circulation desk with red balloons and survey sheets to fill out.  There was also a drawing that you could enter to win bookstore gift cards.

This is EvCC’s first year participating in the event and they are hoping to make next year’s Snapshot day more eventful, according to Mary Ann Lee who works the Reference Desk in the library.

The numbers should be tallied up later this week and there will be an update on these statistics as soon as that information is fully gathered and evaluated.

Story by Merritt Wgeishofski

Google introduces Project Glass

Google's official site for Project Glass.

 It's apparent that we live in the era of technology.

While we're still a little ways off from living like the Jetsons, we're still looking through the lens of the future...

Literally.

Google introduced "Project Glass" via a blog post and a short video on Wednesday.

What is Project Glass?

Imagine the love child of a smart phone and some glasses: this is Project Glass. Though the project has been in the works for a few years, Google decided to reach out to the public through Google + to see what thoughts and concerns there were.

In the video released by Google, a man finds subway schedule information, arranges a meeting with a friend and video chats - all with the help of the glasses.

When would these be available? There's no set release date, but there's speculation that they wouldn't be made available for another year.

People are constantly tuned in, wehther it's by phone, computer or another device. Can you imagine being tuned in to the web by way of glasses?

The idea raises obvious concerns: how would this contribute to distracted driving accidents? How would this affect one's eye health? Don't we have enough people walking into things already?

In the school setting, instructors have enough trouble keeping students off of their current devices in the classroom. Can you imagine regulating someone's eyewear?

For more information, go to the official link: http://g.co/projectglass

Story by Olivia Houseman