20 Things You Need to Let Go

Elite Daily recently published an article titled, "The 20 Things You Need to Let Go to Be Happy."  Reading this list, I reflected deeply on myself and how ridiculously I am shorting myself. The biggest thing robbing me of happiness is on the other side of the mirror.

Starting tomorrow morning, I am writing a single item from this list on a post-it and sticking it to my phone, where I will see it all day long. If you know me, you understand that this post-it will overlay the other four post-its stuck to my phone every day. (Post-its are my harmatia.)

Everyday I will do this same thing for 20 days. Try it with me! Tomorrow is June 10, so lets spend the month of June bettering ourselves and arrive in July completely renewed and reminded how worth we are of happiness.

I am looking forward to letting go of my negativity, insecurity and unrealistic expectations. Come July 1, I will be a whole new woman!

The Zoo that Started it All: 40 Years of N.C. Zoo

by Taylor Higgins

Nkosi "Nik", the male silver-back gorilla,
died just monthsafter the birth of
his two sons, Apolla and Bomassa.
Photo credit: N.C. Zoo

Birth, death and the circle of life.

The 40th year of the North Carolina Zoo can be summed up with those seven words.

The third largest tourist attraction in North Carolina, the Zoo has seen an anniversary year marked by the tragic passing of visitor favorites and by the joyous arrival of new lives.  The year has also been commemorated with the opening of new exhibits, attractions and special events in celebration of 40 years.

Richard Cooper, the first zoo employee, pets the zoo's
first animal, a Galapagos Tortoise.
Photo credit: N.C. Zoo

The N.C. Zoo, which is now home to 1,600 animals and 320 full-time employees, began humbly with an “interim zoo” and the donation of 1,371 acres in 1974. According to zoo public relations manager Rod Hackney, this significant donation played a pivotal role in the zoo’s future as one of the best in the world.

“We had the zoo authority tell us that the North Carolina Zoo would become the leader in natural habitat concept,” Hackney said. “It was just an idea starting to catch on in other zoos, but nobody had the land we had at this zoo site. It was the guiding force, and I think helped make the North Carolina Zoo important in those early days.”

The natural habitat concept, presenting animals and plants in exhibits that closely resemble the habitats in which they would be found in the wild, was pioneered by the NC Zoo, and became a gold standard for wildlife captivity and conservation around the world. In 1983, the zoo became the first total natural habitat park in the United States with the closing of the Interim Zoo.

Three orphaned cougar cubs arrived at the Zoo in
March from Oregon.
Photo credit: Shervin Hess, Oregon Zoo

Dr. Richard Bergl, curator of conservation and research, says that the zoo strives daily to recreate the actual living habitats of its animals as closely as possible. For example, each morning zookeepers hide the food of the lowland gorillas in challenging places throughout the exhibit in enrichment devices to simulate the natural foraging or gorillas in the wild.

It is in these habitats the zoo prides itself on successful breeding of endangered species. In the past year, the zoo has welcomed two baby lowland gorillas, three orphaned cougar cubs, an otter cub and a baby baboon born just this week.

But the zoo is no stranger to loss. In the same period of time, the zoo tragically said goodbye to Wilhelm “Willie,” a 28-year-old polar bear and zoo favorite, and  Nkosi “Nik," a 22-year-old silver-back gorilla and leader of the troupe. The gorillas also suffered a devastating loss when a baby gorilla died overnight last summer, just days after birth.

The Zoo's most popular animal, Willie, died in
December at the Milwaukee Zoo while awaiting
habitat renovations at N.C. Zoo
Photo credit: N.C. Zoo

In the wake of the recent CNN documentary “Blackfish,” which placed SeaWorld under the international spotlight for its treatment of captive orca wales, zoos and aquariums around the world have come under widespread scrutiny for raising wild animals in captivity and the death of so many animals could threaten to draw the public’s eye to the practices of zoology.

But zookeeper Aaron Jesue assures visitors that the zoo’s mission is conservation and education.

 “You go to a zoo and in every single exhibit there’s so much more of a story than what you see behind the glass.” Jesue said in a recent interview with Our State.  “The way animals interact with each other and with the keepers, the way the keepers have to work and do all these things you’ll never hear about—there’s so much more going on. You might only be taking those few seconds to see the animal and keep going, but if you focus, you’ll see so much more.”

Jane Goodall holds a baby chimp
with zoo keeper John Everhart.
Photo credit: N.C. Zoo

The NC zoo works in partnership with the wildlife conservation society in Nigeria, Cameroon, and West Africa to help to conserve the most endangered of all the gorilla subspecies. The zoo spearheads a program called UNITE, which is co-sponsored by the Jane Goodall Foundation, that is dedicated to the research and conservation of chimpanzees. The N.C. zoo has one of the largest troupes of chimps in the world, and Dr. Goodall attended the opening of the exhibit in the late 1980s.

As the N.C. Zoo looks forward to 40 more years of success, their mission of education and conservation through natural habitat recreation can be seen in all renovation, construction and expansion.

Later this year, the zoo will complete a polar bear exhibit expansion project which cost around $8.5 million. The project will provide additional viewing opportunities for visitors. A new exhibit area that simulates an alpine meadow will be added to the existing 10-foot-deep pool and rocky landscape. A maternity den is also included in the renovations, which may enable the zoo to create a breeding group of polar bears.

'Dallas Buyers Club' Review

by Taylor Higgins

 

Alright, alright, alright.

All manner of cinematic sins and transgression in Matthew McConaughey’s past have been washed away with the win of his first Oscar for the film “Dallas Buyers Club.”

Matthew McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof in
the biographical film.
Photo credit: Anne Marie Fox / Focus Features

In a recent career shift, McConaughey has aggressively attempted to take on more dynamic, timeless roles, all culminating in his “Best Actor”win at the 2014 Academy Awards. (Clink link to hear his memorable acceptance speech)

McConaughey portrays the late Ron Woodroof, a rodeo-going, homophobic “Marlboro man” living in Dallas in the height of the Aids epidemic (1985), an era many of McConaughey’s fans are unfamiliar with, when AIDS was commonly associated only with homosexual activity.

When viewers meet McConaughey, he is already unknowingly sick. A drinking, smoking, cussing, gambling “good ol’ boy” from Texas, Woodroof likes snorting cocaine and having sex with groupies in the bull pen before rodeos. An accident at work as an electrician leads Woodroof to the emergency room, where he is informed he only has 30 days to live.

After a term of denial fueled by homophobia, Ron discovers that the drug doctors at Dallas Mercy Hospital are administering is causing toxic harm, and he grabs the bull by the horns to find a treatment that the lazy FDA refuses to look into.

The lack of initiative and slow drug testing of medical providers incite in Ron a “stick it to the man” attitude. Ron gives the finger to complacent doctors, money grubbing big pharmaceuticals, and the pocket-lining FDA by traveling the globe to obtain foreign drug treatments on the black market.

McConaughey and Leto both won Oscars for their
performances in Dallas Buyer's CLub.
Photo credit: thestranger.com

Wihle in the hospital, Ron meets a transgender woman Rayon (Jared Leto), who serves as a connection to potential club members. With his drugs and his research, Ron starts a “buyers club” out of Rayon’s apartment, where infected people pay a membership fee and receive the treatment drugs for free.

Not the typical character of inspiration, Ron is never presented as a “good guy.” After all, it’s not the Dallas Givers Club. There is no self-pity to be seen, and Ron is not a straight homophobe who valiantly rides to rescue of the gays for the sake of goodwill alone.

“What I enjoy about an anti-hero is you don't have to abide by society's laws”, McConaughey said in an interview with Contact Music. “Actually, they're outside the law. He's a guy who I think shook the tree enough to where it's possible that the FDA approves certain drugs that have worked for HIV sooner than maybe they would've.”

Director Jean-Marc Vallee delivers inspiration in the most unconventional ways – by being unwilling to overplay sentimentality with inspirational music, monologues, or drawn-out stares between characters.

Instead, he lets the raw emotional moments of young people dying with a horrific disease speak for themselves. In this, viewers find a reflection of reality, where heartbreaking moments are rarely followed by an orchestral piece or still frame – most of the time, people just die, and things are left unsaid.

Jared Leto, who plays a transgender HIV patient,
lost 40 pounds for the film.
Photo Credit: CNN

To me, it’s the life lesson behind it.  I mean, when you’re told you’ve got 30 days to live, what do you do with them?  “Oh yeah?  There’s nothing out there that can kill me in 30 days.  You watch me.”  The guy has no education.  He becomes his own teacher, expert and lab rat.  He had some balls.  He was a crazy cowboy who wanted to live.
Read more at http://collider.com/jean-marc-vallee-dallas-buyers-club-interview/#DC0ZxSuyW6EH8U4c.99

"To me, it's the life lesson behind it," Vallee said in an interview with the Collider. "When you're told you've got 30 days to live, what do you do with them? 'You're not gonna tell me how I'm gonna die... I'm gonna live.' He was a crazy cowboy who wanted to live."

To me, it’s the life lesson behind it.  I mean, when you’re told you’ve got 30 days to live, what do you do with them?  “Oh yeah?  There’s nothing out there that can kill me in 30 days.  You watch me.”  The guy has no education.  He becomes his own teacher, expert and lab rat.  He had some balls.  He was a crazy cowboy who wanted to live.
Read more at http://collider.com/jean-marc-vallee-dallas-buyers-club-interview/#DC0ZxSuyW6EH8U4c.99

To me, it’s the life lesson behind it.  I mean, when you’re told you’ve got 30 days to live, what do you do with them?  “Oh yeah?  There’s nothing out there that can kill me in 30 days.  You watch me.”  The guy has no education.  He becomes his own teacher, expert and lab rat.  He had some balls.  He was a crazy cowboy who wanted to live.
Read more at http://collider.com/jean-marc-vallee-dallas-buyers-club-interview/#DC0ZxSuyW6EH8U4c.99

To me, it’s the life lesson behind it.  I mean, when you’re told you’ve got 30 days to live, what do you do with them?  “Oh yeah?  There’s nothing out there that can kill me in 30 days.  You watch me.”  The guy has no education.  He becomes his own teacher, expert and lab rat.  He had some balls.  He was a crazy cowboy who wanted to live.
Read more at http://collider.com/jean-marc-vallee-dallas-buyers-club-interview/#DC0ZxSuyW6EH8U4c.99

To me, it’s the life lesson behind it.  I mean, when you’re told you’ve got 30 days to live, what do you do with them?  “Oh yeah?  There’s nothing out there that can kill me in 30 days.  You watch me.”  The guy has no education.  He becomes his own teacher, expert and lab rat.  He had some balls.  He was a crazy cowboy who wanted to live.
Read more at http://collider.com/jean-marc-vallee-dallas-buyers-club-interview/#DC0ZxSuyW6EH8U4c.99

Ron never delivers a monologue to say why he has embarked on a journey to help thousands of terminally ill homosexuals. He never addresses why he doesn’t just use the life-saving drugs he obtains for himself, even when he faces shortages. Never do we get an explanation for why he devotes his limited existence to medical research.

Even in the face of an IRS audit, and FDA raid and a death sentence, never does Ron let his exterior crack or lie down and die gracefully.

“I prefer to die with my boots on,” Woodroof exclaims as he marches out of the hospital with nothing on but a gown and his cowboy hat.

But there is an unbelievable beauty in that tenacity. Come hell or high water, Ron Woodroof is Ron Woodroof -- sometimes guns-a-blazing, sometimes wordless character transformation.

Although not outright addressed in the film, "Dallas Buyer's Club" also touches on the topic of abstinence. After receiving his diagnosis, Woodroof, a sex addict, does not have sex again except once, with a woman who already has "full-blown AIDS." His relationship with Dr. Eve Saks, Jennifer Garner, is portrayed as completely platonic.

By the end of the film. Woodroof is a homophobe turned activist. Ron’s reaction to the death of Rayon, his friend and business partner, is an unbelievable representation of the love, tolerance and compassion that is at the heart of humanity.

“I read the script and immediately I was just blown away,” Jared Leto said in the same interview with Contact Music. “I fell in love with the character and I felt that this was a real opportunity here to portray a real person, not a cliché or a stereotype. It’s Texas, it's 1985, you've got this cowboy and this young man who's chosen to live as a woman. A really brave choice; I couldn't imagine how terrifying it must've been to walk through a grocery store at that time,”  

The biographical drama has received much praise since its November 2013 release, including the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. Jared Leto also received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

McConaughey also suffered dramatic weight
loss for the film.
Photo Credit: Gossip on This

WHAT: Dallas Buyers Club

RELEASE: Out on DVD and Blu-Ray

WHERE: Available for rent at RedBox for $1.20 (DVD) and $1.80 (BluRay)

Available for purchase at Wal-Mart $22.93

Famous Failures

 

Video credit: BluefishTV

I feel comfortable sharing this with you guys -- I have been on two job interviews now, and have yet to hear any word back from either.

As a college student, it is easy for me to equate my worth to my collegiate accolades. Four years of rigorous work and commitment are now all reduced to one piece of paper, and I find it challenging to separate myself from my resume. Rejection if a tough pill to swallow, especially when so much of your self-worth is tied up in your achievements.

But I am not my GPA.

There are so many brilliant pieces of me that cannot be confined on a piece of paper. A resume can never reflect my sensitivity to all living creatures, or my deep empathy to the people around me. A resume will never show the tenacity of my spirit, or my determination for perfection.

My story could never be condensed to a piece of paper. When I am rejected for a position, it does not make me a failure. The only person with the ability to make me a failure is the person in the mirror, and the only person I can compare myself to is the person I was yesterday.

It's okay to break down and to be disappointed. I am human, and part of being human is opening myself up to heartbreak. But I cannot unpack and live there. If Britney can get through 2007, I can get through this job search.

I love this video from BluefishTV because it reminds me that failures are not fatal!

One of the most important lessons I have learned is that everything is an opportunity to grow. When we succeed, we should say thank you and celebrate. And when we fail, we should say thank you and grow.

And if you learn from it, it's not a failure at all. 

This is Water.

It has been estimated that the average American is exposed to 5,000 advertisements a day.

With this endless stream of information constantly flooding our consciousness, it's rare to see something that stops your life and causes you to evaluate your purpose.

This video is one of those.

Originally presented by David Foster Wallace as a graduation speech at Kenyon College, "This is Water" takes the road less traveled with respect to post grad-advice by focusing on the less-glamorous aspects of real life, day-in and day-out, that no one ever shares with a soon-to-be grad.

Whether you are on the standing on the cusp of your future or all too familiar with the monotony of "nine-to-five,"  Wallace's speech calls for self-evaluation.

"This is Water" left me with the message that happiness comes not in getting what you want when you want in, but rather in the ability, or willingness, to see beauty and understanding in the things around you.

When we as humans learn to be tolerant and understanding of people other than ourselves, we can then find gratitude, which turns whatever we have into enough.

Let this speech inspire you to reflect on the person you are and the person you want to be.

News Ideas are Cooking

If you have ever been to my house, viewed my Instagram, or even met me, you know I love to cook.

Some of my most prized possessions are my recipes; some of my deceased grandmother's, some of my living grandmother's, some from teachers and professors, and some from the ever-coveted Paul Deen Cooking Bible.

Of all my passions, cooking is truly the one activity that offers me clarity, peace and serenity (and no, I did not steal that from Fergie. Or did I?)

Orange dreamsicle cake is a family favorite at
cook-outs and fish fries.

This summer, I will begin a new cooking series right here on News Kid on the Blog. I look forward to sharing some of my old favorites and new discoveries with all of you, directly from my kitchen.

Why summer, you might ask? Let me share a little with you about my personal life -- I will be graduating from college with a double degree in exactly one month and one week. As you might fondly remember, this last month is jammed full of graduation events, photos, luncheons and meetings, on top of classes, projects and final exams. If you're a spiritual person,  a word of encouragement whispered my way would be much appreciated.
 
Another reason for the teaser: I'm giving you all some advance notice to prepare your kitchens and cupboards for the coming events. Any good cook knows that the devil is in the details, and by details, I mean tools. Before we begin, you will need a few essentials:

1. A garlic crusher. And not the $2 cheap-o from Wal-mart! You may hate garlic and believe you will never use this tool. Trust me, sister girl, you will. Just get it. I recommend  Pampered Chef's garlic press.

My cajun garlic red potatoes are the crown jewel
of my cooking secrets.

2. Paula Deen's Porcelain non-stick skillet. I have three in robin's egg blue. They are virtually indestructible. This collection features a deeper skillet that allows for more cooking space and less mess (they also have lids.) I refuse to cook without them. You can find these individually at Walmart, Sears or Peebles. The whole set is also available on Overstock.com for a killer price.

3. Deep Dish Covered Baker from Pampered Chef, or as I affectionately call it, the Magic Pot. A headliner of Pampered Chef's stonewear collection, this cranberry-colored cooking essential is straight from the Heaven tree, and it hit ever blessed branch on the way down. Similar to the dutch oven, this soap-stone dish can hold more than a gallon of food. But hold on -- there's more! It is engineered specially to fit and cook food perfectly -- in the microwave! Equipped with it's own cookbook, the magic pot can cook a 5-pound whole chicken or a dreamy chocolate lava cake in the the microwave in about a third of the time it takes in a conventional oven. If you take nothing else I ever say away from this blog, hear this: YOU NEED THE DEEP DISH COVERED BAKER. You will thank me.

My Aunt Bec Bec's recipe for apple dumplings, cooked
in the Deep Dish Baker (in the microwave!)

For the record, I do not work for Pampered Chef, I am just a strong believer in their products. Everything comes with warranties. Buying cook wear is like buying shoes -- You are going to be using this stuff every day. If you cheap out and buy them at Wal-Mart, they're going to fall apart in six months and you'll be buying them again. Save yourself the headache and INVEST in a quality product that is backed by warranty. Those people at Pampered Chef are geniuses. The products will pay for themselves, I promise you.

Polka dot cookies are a weeknight favorite of my family.

If you are interested in ordering from Pampered Chef, you can purchase online, but you must go through a consultant. Ninety percent of the time, Pampered Chef is offering season specials, monthly steals and crazy discounts and free gifts for those willing to host a party (which can now be hosted completely online and through your Facebook!) If you are serious about purchasing, search the Pampered Chef website for a consultant in your area, or let me know and I can put you in contact with my consultant.

Remember -- Investment! Just like that pair of Uggs in the closet.

 Y'all. I am so excited to start sharing my secrets with you. This is going to be fun! Keep an eye out for a an update on the coming cooking series. Get your supplies ready. Then we'll be cooking with peanut oil!

This whole roaster chicken was prepared in the deep dish baker (in the microwave.)

A summer garden helps add fresh and unique ingredients to your cooking.
These are cherry tomatoes, "Tommy toes" and muscadines out of my garden.

My family has come to expect "Sassy strawberries" at all events.

Mawmaw's banana pudding is a family favorite all year round.

In the summer, I enjoy creating new ice cream flavors with "YoNanas"

My fried shrimp tacos are unbeatable with top secret "boom boom" sauce.

I frequently cook blueberry and peanut butter waffles at home.

My "Mama LeAnn" shared her cheesey chicken enchilada recipe with me.

Rasberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow at home.

Review Writer

Ramsey Qubein is a travel journalist who writes regularly for Travel Leisure Magazine and BBC Worldwide. Qubein flies nearly 350,000 miles per year and estimates he has circumnavigated the globe more than 100 times. His articles review airline services, area hotels, travel expenses, leisurely activities, local secrets and taboos of international traveling.

Qubein's BBC articles can be found on the Travel: Business page. Check out his most recent BBC artcile "Big game: Kenya's capital draws global business."