Summer recap

I left work on Friday, my last day, and went directly to Charlotte. When I returned yesterday, summer was over. Today was the first school-related meeting, and now it's time to get cracking. So before I dive in, a summer recap.

Work: Turned out to be a satisfying summer overall. Being respected as a member of the academic community is a nice, if strange, feeling. I met with environmental professionals, city planners and commissioners, and state agency employees. I attended city and state commission meetings, committee meetings, and legislative hearings. I did lots of research about topics I thought I knew a thing or two about. Professionally, it may or may not take me where I want to be, but I made a lot of connections and learned a lot about the functionality (and dysfunctionality) of state and local political processes, environmental and development policies, and how advocacy can be more than petitions and postcards. I also worked with a great bunch of people who work hard and play hard. One thing is for sure: I would not have known how to do my job without the past year of classes and work, and it reaffirmed the value of this whole experience.

School: Took a couple classes with professionals, which helped put my coursework into perspective and taught me some essential new things I sadly would not have learned in my required coursework--another valuable aspect of local internships.

Play: Hiked, biked, kayaked, shopped locally, visited the mountains, traveled. Made new friends, listened to live music, cooked new food, splurged on camping gear. Does it get any better?

And so, a few take-away lessons about North Carolina:
1. Locals will fully accept you as a Midwesterner (meaning Outsider), but they will be overjoyed and relieved to learn that you want to stay and help make things better here.
2. In many arenas, things are still very much a Good-old Boy white male's game - women in politics must be strong enough to be taken seriously but must still seem deferential to men. And, the state government is just now passing legislation acknowledging the Wilmington race riots in 1898
3. It's nice living closer to the production of the food I eat. No more Styrofoam tomatoes or mushy cukes.
4. Summer is hot. Unlike other parts of the country, there are no 70-degree days here. During the day, it's 80 or 90 or 100, and at night it rarely goes below 65 degrees. And I'm sorry, but that's how it should be. Cool summers in Chicago never felt right to me. Then again, ask me how I feel when I'm walking around campus in 92-degree heat.
5. I'll never get over the Southern accent. It's music to my ears.

Paddling

Today I went kayaking on the Eno River, in an area of calm waters where the Eno, Little, and Flat rivers become the Neuse River, which flows southeast to the ocean near Beaufort, NC. Somewhere along these rivers, there really are rapids, but our trip was calm and easy. The biggest excitement was a fan boat that came through the opposite direction. It has been so dry this year that the river was pretty low and slow, but the scenery was beautiful. Coming back upstream, where the Eno and one of the rivers merge, the sun was setting over the trees through the haze and contrasted the glowing green of the grass and algae. A white bird (heron? egret?) stood still and graceful in the distance.

I think it was last year that I paddled up the Chicago River, during which we were told to try not to fall in because the water was less than fresh. One whiff of the river upstream was all the convincing I needed to stay in my boat. It may soon get grosser, now that BP has obtained a permit to dump more pollution into Lake Michigan from its plant in Indiana.

Coincidentally, I've been reading River Horse by William Least Heat-Moon, and tonight is the premiere of Feasting on Asphalt 2, in which Alton Brown samples the world of food from along the Mississippi River. These guys have it right - traveling by river certainly gives you a much different view of the world than you get by road or train. Yet another reason to save our great bodies of water.

Growing pains

The bf and I were talking the other day about the challenges this country faces under our watch. Our grandparents lived through the Depression, some of the worst times in our country's history. Then, things got better. Our parents were born in the most populous generation yet, and with them came a huge cultural revolution. Their work during the Civil Rights movement, the Women's Rights movement, the Gay Rights movement, and an overall acceptance of all kinds of ideas and lifestyles has allowed the country to really grow and prosper. It has been a good thing, for sure, but now we're getting to big for our britches.

Many cities grew so much, so quickly, that they didn't stop to think about the impact that has on our aging infrastructure, as evidenced by recent dam failures, bursting steam pipes, and collapsing bridges. The threat of terrorism may scare us, but our own structural weaknesses may be the actual cause of our eventual demise. That, or our failing food production system. Factory farms produce mass quantities of tasteless junk, eroding and depleting the soils and polluting our water, air, and digestive systems. Obesity was once a "luxury" of the rich; now, it's cheaper to eat foods that make us fat, in large part because our crop subsidies reward soy and corn, the key ingredients in most of the unhealthiest (and cheapest) food out there.

Surely, we haven't seen the end of all this political and structural turmoil. Culturally, some things are better, but it seems we're more willing to accept wrongdoings, even though they make us queasy. Since Watergate, the political process has really been led astray and people have lost faith in their elected leaders. After all, look how screwed up our government is now, and every new scandal elicits little more emotion than "meh, what else is new?" Look at what the sports world has become: doping in baseball and cycling, dogfighting in football, gambling and cheating in football - things that we all know are wrong but have come to accept as par for the course. An interviewee on NPR mused that this is a generational thing, at least in cycling, and that we can only hope to stop future generations from such behavior because there's no hope for this one. The author of a new book about selling out to corporate America (read the interview on alternet.org) rings true for many of us idealistic twenty- and thirty-somethings who want to change the world but can't afford to support ourselves on the salaries of such jobs. Instead, we take the corporate job, promising ourselves that we'll only do it until we've made a good living and saved some money, and then we'll give back to the world. But by then, it might be too late. We'll have aging parents to support, without a Medicare or social security system to help out. And if we have kids, we'll have to support their increasingly expensive needs for schooling, food, health care, and whatever hot trends they just have to follow.

None of this is news to anyone at this point. Yes, I'm whining, because right now, I don't have it so bad. But I'm one of those idealistic twenty-somethings with an expensive education that I'll be paying for many years down the road. Here in North Carolina, a huge opportunity exists to make some real changes in the way agriculture, development, and conservation happen. All those people who no longer have open space in the Northeast are moving down here, grabbing up open space without any plan in sight. I could start a 1,000 Friends of North Carolina. I could lead a strong progressive campaign against the very vocal naysayers, working for smarter development planning, boosting political and economic support for sustainable agriculture, creating stronger environmental policies in the state. But I have student loans. I have hand-me-downs and oldies-but-goodies that will need replacing in a few years. I want to get married (green wedding!) and own a home (solar panels or sustainable building materials!). Maybe I want to have kids someday (although who wants to bring a child into this world as it is now?).

Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

Bragging rights

My little brother, who's not so little anymore, is now a pastry chef with a rave restaurant review in a big-city newspaper. In my eyes, he may as well be the Next Food Network Star. The review came out on my mom's birthday, which most certainly made her day more special.

We ate at his restaurant on opening weekend--okay, the server didn't know where the fish came from (except that it was from the market down the street), but the food was fantastic. Who knew that cheesecake with crumbled Cap'n Crunch Crunchberries could be so good? He has only been in culinary school since last September, but he's a favorite among his professors and an indispensable asset to the restaurant. Now he has a clip to show potential employers, and someday, he'll be pastry chef to the stars. So yeah, I'm just a little proud of him.

Dodging horse poop on the ol' trail

Today I went bike riding on a portion of the American Tobacco Trail in Wake County. It's part of the Rails-to-Trails program, and someday more than 22 miles of railway-turned-recreation path will wind through the Triangle area. The portion I rode on is about 6.5 miles long and wind through forested areas in mostly undeveloped (not for long) Cary and Apex. The three trail heads include gravel parking lots with new waterless restroom facilities. They call them "sweet-smelling" toilets, which are little more than outhouses with better air circulation, but I applaud the effort anyway. I'm not picky about toilets, but these were pretty decent.

Anyway, riding on the trail brought back old memories of riding on the Katy Trail in central Missouri--the crunch of the clay and gravel path, the rustling of the trees and buzzing of the insects, the faint flowery smell of nature, and the friendly like-minded people enjoying some outdoor physical activity. Being on the trail here felt like being back in Missouri. There were maybe more pine needles on the trail here, and less wildlife, but plenty of fresh air and sunshine abound. On this trail, they allow horses, of which I saw five, and as they passed I caught a whiff of barn dust, horse sweat, and worn leather. For a moment, I missed the days of riding lessons and summer camp. Bike riding in Missouri was one of my favorite activities, something that brought me such joy, and today I remembered how much I love it. Many times, I have said to myself, "this, this is my religion." Nature and movement and music. Perhaps someday soon they'll finish the trail--the section just north of this one is still rough-going. But as I rode home, listening to the Splendid Table on NPR, I got a renewed craving for the little things in life, be they outdoor adventure or the tastiest lunch ever. Today I had both.

The Angler: Dick Cheney as you only guessed

The Washington Post has a four-day series about Dick Cheney and the powers he wields. The article includes testimony never printed before from sources in-the-know. It's fascinating and scary at the same time. Check it out here.

Getting used to the humidity

Today I went to a rally outside the legislative office building about hog farm waste. It was an interesting mix of seasoned grassroots organizers and over-the-top cheerleading. At the end, they said a prayer. Cause that's how they roll in rural North Carolina. Gotta give them credit, they were certainly creative and fairly effective. No matter their rallying technique, the fact is that hog farms produce a ridiculous amount of waste that pollutes the lakes and streams, as well as the air that farm neighbors breathe, and thus far the politician have been mostly willing to let the huge factory farms do as they please. There's a bill up for discussion that would change that, so perhaps the state will see some change soon.

Other summer activities have included the farmers market, where I bought blackberries so delicious, it's hard to believe they're the same fruit you can buy at the store for twice the price and half the flavor. Real blackberries have almost a hint of spearmint to them, and they don't just taste like dark raspberries. I've also been hiking in the Umstead state park and Eno River state park. I had forgotten how much I missed real hiking. As my friend put it, that is my religion. Who needs a stuffy synagogue and boring rabbi when the sights, sounds, and smells of the outdoors are so much more moving. My new bedroom window faces a little wooded area between the building and the fence that separates the apartment complex from the road. Each morning, I awaken to a bird symphony, complete with a bird call that sounds kind of like a duck but surely isn't. My kitchen window also overlooks the area, so I can gaze at the trees while I do dishes.

I have also been taking advantage of the free or cheap learning experiences my school offers. I'm learning how to use the Geographic Information Systems program to create maps, and I took a class about environmental sustainability and Capitol Hill. That class was most inspiring because after marveling at how little must actually get done in government, I heard from some people who actually got stuff done. It gave me a ray of hope through the cloud mass that is the 2008 presidential candidate roster.

Speaking of politics, I've heard some interesting discussion happening here and there about where our country is and how it got to this point. After many years of Iraq, of corporate ownership of our government, of food unsafety and health problems caused by pollution, we're still looking to others to place the blame. How could Bush lie to us? How could the pharmaceutical companies deceive us? How could bacteria-ridden spinach sneak onto our grocery shelves? By now, we need to stop asking how others could do this to us, and start asking how we could let them get away with it for so long. We voted for these politicians, and we didn't protest hard enough against their policies we don't agree with. We rely on giant corporations to give us the food, clothing, medicine, and a surprising array of other things at cheap prices, without asking how they're doing it or what the environmental and social prices are. We don't hold others accountable for their actions. So now here we are; some people are starting to ask the right questions, and some things are starting to change. I believe I criticized John Ashcroft at some point years ago (if not here, then certainly in conversation) for being an overall scary conservative who lost to a dead guy in the 2000 US senate race in Missouri. The big joke now is that he's starting to look like one of the good guys in this administration.

Historic farming

Yesterday we did some farm work yet again, this time on a mostly meat farm where the emphasis is mostly on education. The farm has some Dexter cows, sheep, goats, chickens, pigs, catfish, ducks, and a small garden, as well as two Haflinger horses and a mule to do some of the heavy pulling and two livestock guard dogs and four border collies for herd management and companionship. So yeah, a lively bunch. At one point, one of the horses was put into a different area for demonstration with a bunch of students visiting the farm, which freaked out the other horses, riled up the goats, and excited the dogs. There was lots of running, barking, bleating, and such, and we couldn't help but stand by and laugh. The goats also tried to hijack the John Deere equipment and had to be shooed away every few minutes.

Aside from the comical nature of the farm, the owners want to practice and teach others about historic farming, which includes using animals bred for hardiness and practicality that require little use of antibiotics, hormones, or artificial diet supplements. The cows, goats, and sheep mostly graze and eat some grain; the chickens and ducks eat the bugs roaming around and spread the manure; the pigs eat mostly stale bread donated to the farm and leftover veggies from the garden. In the barn, the family also has some old farm implements, as well as old kitchen that they now use for canning and cooking. The owners also want to teach crafts like weaving, stitching, canning, quilt making, candle making, etc. The idea, which they're currently working toward, is to keep the functioning farm and bring in school groups and individuals to learn about life on the farm before modern farm practices, but still with the feeling of modern life. All of this historic farming is important as sustainable (or balanced) agriculture and it fosters a real sense of appreciation for how difficult it is to live completely off your own land.

My farm experiences thus far and reading Barbara Kingsolver's book prove why factory farms and large-scale production has become so common: it's HARD WORK to sustain a small farm on limited financial resources and no use of the current practices that encourage quick growth and survivability during transit. To support a family of four on only what you can produce or buy locally is really a full-time job that requires almost constant vigilance and work to plant (or raise), weed, breed, harvest, prepare, and store the fruits of your labor. The owner of the farm we worked at yesterday described the tendency of third- and fourth-generation farmers who happily adapt to modern farming conveniences or sell the land outright for large sums of money, because sustainable agriculture is hard work, and it's hard to make a living because the products come in smaller quantities. When you grow your own food, your life revolves around food. I'm exhausted thinking about it.

I find myself feeling guilty for not growing more in window boxes or shopping at the farmer's market more often or eating some things that would never grow around here out-of-season, if at all. But I guess doing some things are better than doing nothing. Supporting local farmers is important, and I couldn't now imagine living somewhere without access to a farmer's market.

Summer pleasures, Southern style

My dear Texan friend welcomed me to the South recently, after commending me on my happiness here. I mentioned that it was easy to become a Southern girl, because here in NC everyone is so friendly and living here is so pleasant. Unlike in Texas apparently, as my friend put it: "Welcome to frickin' Texas. Get used to it." One reason this area is so lovely is the local concert series sponsored by the local NPR station every other Friday night from May to October at the American Tobacco Historic District. Once the heart of tobacco production in this country, it's now modernized offices and restaurants in the shell of the old warehouse and factory buildings. In the middle, a gorgeous pavillion, surrounded by a shallow moat, is the venue for local bluegrass, blues, community band, and other music performances. The bluegrass is part of the Back Porch Music series on WUNC, and it does feel like we're hanging out in someone's backyard. Concertgoers sit on the soft grass, kids and dogs run free, and everyone dances a jig. Don't get me wrong, Chicago's summer music can't be beat, with the fireworks exploding beside the Milennium Park bandshell. But here in Durham, it feels both modern and down-home.

Another summer pleasure: today I went to the local farmers market and bought a sweet and pungent Vidalia onion, a cucumber, sugar snap peas, a basil plant, and strawberries so sweet, you'd think they were candy. I ate the strawberries with some ricotta cheese and a light drizzle of honey. Maybe it doesn't get better than that.

North Carolina legislative process and Another Farm

Now I know why people have little faith in their government representatives. It's amazing anything ever gets done. Yesterday I got a quick civics lesson in the North Carolina legislative process. Here are just a few things I learned:

1. State legislators are part-time--they only get paid $17,000 a year, so they have other jobs as well.
   
2. Long and short sessions: The state legislative calendar goes in two-year cycles, starting with odd-numbered years. Hence, the new calendar started this past January with a long session that goes until August-ish. During this time, bills are proposed. Bills requiring funding can be proposed at anytime; bills not requiring funding must pass out of either the House or Senate by "crossover deadline," which happened to be yesterday. If they don't pass crossover, they're put on hold until the next long session in 2009 (which essentially means they're dead, unless the bill sponsors are hardcore about getting it passed.) After crossover, all bills requiring funding and others that passed the crossover deadline are debated in committee until August, when the legislature recesses. In Spring 2008, they reconvene in a short session until July to continue discussing (and trying to pass) the bills leftover from the previous year. If the bill doesn't pass by July, it's dead and the sponsors have to start all over again in January 2009.
   
3. Local legislation: North Carolina has this archaic policy that all local legislation must get passed in the state legislature. This is an attempt by the state to control and oversee all state and regional legislative affairs, and it takes up a ridiculous amount of time in the General Assembly.
4. Even though NC is a red state, both the House and Senate are controlled by Democrats. Representative Joe Hackney, Speaker of the House, is a lawyer and farmer. This week, he slyly prevented a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage from passing the crossover deadline, rendering it dead until 2009.
   
5. Go to www.ncleg.net to learn more. I'm sure I'll post more this summer--the whole thing fascinates me.

In other news, we're working on another farm next week. These farmers are historic, or "heirloom" farmers, meaning they continue using historic practices with historically preserved breeds of animals and crops. They do use modern farm equipment and just collect the antiques. Heirloom breeds are those not cross-bred or genetically engineered--they evolve with changing conditions through good old survival-of-the-fittest. Farmers breed historically pure animals that exhibit the best traits, and they save seeds from plants that grow well and taste best. And they procreate the traditional way--pollination or...you know. This is the complete opposite of the way most food is produced in the world. Most crop seeds are sold by giant companies like Monsanto and are genetically modified to contain a "termination" gene. This means that seeds saved from the year's crop will not grow. Farmers using these seeds must purchase new stocks every year from these huge companies. This leaves crops vulerable to changing conditions that scientists can't predict, it costs much more money for the farmers, and the crops aren't even nutritionally sound or flavorful. And it certainly omits the element of history and culture.

I could go on and on, but I won't. Instead, I'll recommend reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," by Barbara Kingsolver. She and her family ate only locally produced food in the mountains of Virginia for a year, and her book is about both their experience and the disaster that food production has become.

Pimp My Career

The school year ended on a satisfactory note and I'm now almost at the end of my first week of my internship. I suspected it might be a good summer--my supervisor has said many times that he's been looking forward to working together this summer. Right back atcha, guy. My first day on the job, I attended a joint committee meeting at the state legislative building on emergency preparedness and disaster recovery. I must be a nerd, 'cause I was psyched. What can I say, I have become a political junkie. Probably by the end of the summer, I'll have attended enough meetings to be sufficiently bored at them, but right now it's cool. There's definitely a feeling of Southern politics floating throughout the capital. Yesterday I delivered invitations for an oyster roast to the state senators and representatives, and many legislative aides were wearing bow ties and hats with ribbons. Many of them said, "Thank you" in that charming Southern accent that I just adore. Four days into my job and I have already learned so much about the political history and the modus operandi of the state. It's fascinating. A lot of things are changing in North Carolina, mostly for the better; the influx of conservative Northerners and the exit of many conservative Southern Democrat politicians will make for an interesting new mix of agendas.
So my job is fulfilling and interesting, and the work I have done so far has been up to par, thanks to my year of schooling. The watershed class I trudged through last semester is already coming in handy, my adeptness in writing policy memos has served me well, and my instincts are kicking in nicely. I'm meeting with my master's project advisor tomorrow to see how I can turn all this research about sustainable disaster recovery and comprehensive plan development into a project that will torture me for the next year.
Oh yeah, the best part about my job? I can work from home.

Politics Friday

Last night the bf and I sat around being the political junkies that we are. First we watched reruns of The Daily Show, further analyzing John McCain's appearance on Tuesday night and the election in France. Then we flipped through and caught most of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS. I have never seen this show before, but so many people talk about it that I felt like I had been missing out. Moyers had an interview with Jon Stewart, which was funny, thoughtful, and touching. Then he had a story about a group of independent journalists who are covering the attorney general firings. These journalists have really exposed the plans behind the scenes to put more politically supportive attorneys in place of those who have either refused to take politically motivated action against Democrats or who have been pursuing cases of wrongdoing by loyal Republicans. And I gotta say, it makes me a little sick. The facts that have been uncovered and presented so far comprise a story that sounds like a conspiratorial novel, but is, in fact, reality. This is not just the Democrats hating on the Republicans. This is an unbelievably scary reality of the inner workings of the American government. To read more about the journalists' work, you can either click through the link above or go here.

Needless to say, Bill Moyers Journal has been added to the DVR recording list. We joked that recording this show automatically registers me on the Patriot Act watchlist for un-American activities. These days, I wouldn't be surprised. In any case, it's not the scandal story that attracted me to the show, it's the fact that Bill Moyers asks poignant questions and presents stories that the traditional news programs don't cover. As a current events and politics junkie, that appeals to me more than outright Bush-bashing, which as Jon Stewart complained, has gotten really old and too easy.

Driving in cars with radios

Now I remember why I love driving so much. Listening to the radio can be a fun experience or a frustrating time, especially when you're a captive audience. Until now, I was under the impression that Triangle-area radio sucked. When they say they play everything, they mean
everything random that no one really wants to listen to. Ugh. I thought I was going to have to rely on trusty old NPR (91.5 WUNC) while on the road. But I have recently discovered some great independent radio stations based out of University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (89.3 WXYC) and North Carolina State University in Raleigh (88.1 WKNC). I guess Duke has a radio station too (88.7 WXDU), but I haven't listened to it yet. The playlists look good, but I tend not to trust any station whose mission is:

"WXDU, as a member of the Duke University Union, exists to inform, educate, and entertain both the students of Duke University and the surrounding community of Durham through quality progressive alternative radio programming. WXDU seeks to give its staff te freedom to pursue their personal aesthetic within the framework of a cohesive format. WXDU aims to provide the listener with an alternative viewpoint untainted by commercial interests. WXDU should maintain good relations with the music industry without compromising its integrity and nationally recognized commitment to quality programming. WXDU must remain a laboratory where all members are free to make and learn from their mistakes."

(Wonky! This, by the way, is a perfect example of what the Duke experience is. Even music is an academic endeavour and must always keep up proper and impeccable appearances. My program is not like this, however. We like music for music's sake. We're the hippies.)

In any case, ah, college radio. Where everything indie came from before anyone had ever heard of it. The stations play great music all the time, and you can listen to all of them online. Please check them out and spread the word. And support your own local/college radio stations.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

And so, dear friends, the two-year anniversary of this blog has arrived (first post: April 19, 2005). When I first started blogging, I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, since my job was less than satisfying and I craved intellectual stimulation in my life. My posts were clever (or at least, I thought so) because I had no creative outlet and no opportunities for expositional or persuasive writing. I wanted to tell people about all the things I thought they might be missing, or at least not already discussing.

Now, two years later, my blog has become slightly neglected. I don't have time to read print newspapers and the online ones get skimmed. In fact, I don't have time to read or write much that isn't for school. But it's okay, because now my life is full of all the things I used to crave. My friends are all smart and intellectually stimulating. My boyfriend emails articles to me almost weekly, about things I probably wouldn't pick up on, because he spends more time reading the online newspapers than I do. My classes give me new and interesting things to think and write about, and I have once again learned to enjoy writing. My work on the environmental law and policy journal gives me a chance to impose rules and order on the writings of the smart and accomplished. And I feel a little less afraid now, after the turn of Congress and the growing greenness in this country. There's still plenty to worry about in this world, but these days, I'm more hopeful.

So in this, the third year of the blog, I'll be taking a different direction. I'll still try to point out the important things that I think people might be missing. I'll still recommend great books or music or websites. I'll still praise Salt Lake City and other places for their continued, if unexpected, commitment to the environment. And there will be more of my life in here as well, more thoughts, concerns, experiences, and such. I'll still try to keep it smart, not trite. But if you don't find it intellectually stimulating enough, start your own blog.

Oh yeah, and Happy Earth Day, y'all!

A good soaking

Over the course of Saturday night to Monday morning, we received a ton of rain, which left the ground soggy and soft. We hadn't had a lot of rain over the past month, so it was well needed. It also washed a lot of the pollen away, for which my allergies are thankful. However, in the sandy soils of North Carolina, wet conditions plus high winds lead to a high probability of falling trees. Which they did. Apparently many trees fell over the beautiful Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, so our campus bus took a different route. The tree-lined quiet streets and the exposed red red soil along the road warmed my heart. Somehow, this place with its Southern accents, pine mulch, coastal sensibilities, and sprawl, feels like home. I'm realizing more and more that the same cool things you get in other cities are here too, you just have to look a little harder for them. Things move more slowly in the South, it's true, but why is that a bad thing?

This summer, I'll be working at preventing sprawl and encouraging smart transportation options down here. I'll be doing research from the library or at home, meeting with legislators, talking to reporters, and in general, getting my feet wet. I'm sure I'll have a lot to report. I'll also be learning to play the banjo, trudging through calculus (still), and perhaps training in Geographic Information Systems so I can make pretty maps on the computer. Of course, I'll be spending time with friends during my last truly free summer.

So what do I like best about North Carolina? There's always something new to learn.

Catch-up

I've been remiss in posting, except to brag about my awesome spring break (which was the first real spring break since high school's class trip to Hawaii. This break was just a wee different...)

So here are some other things I have experienced in this great state of North Carolina:
1. I worked on another sustainable farm that makes cheese. The cows are pastured all the time (with rotation) and fed small supplements of corn and soy. There are pigs that eat the whey, a byproduct of cheesemaking that would otherwise be treated as waste because of naturally occurring nitrogen levels. There are chickens that lay eggs and eat the flies and fly larvae that would otherwise spread diseases among the cows. The cheese is made on the premises and sold at farmer's markets and Whole Foods. Yeah, most of the cheeses are made with animal rennet, so they're not perfect, but otherwise they do good things.

I will continue to volunteer on the farms this summer, hopefully twice a month. In the fall, I'm going to work with the fellow student who got this whole thing started to create an official student group, and maybe look into getting some sustainable agriculture research opportunities in our program.

By the way, both farms we have worked on are owned and run by lesbian couples. Hey, it's just great to see women running farms and doing good things.

2. Yeah, all those lovely pine trees that smell so great all year? They're the source of all the dusty yellow pollen that covers everything in sight, like someone's chalk drawing gone awry. All the tree pollen, which is emerging earlier than usual due to warmer temps and dry conditions, is wreaking havoc on my eyes and sinuses. April is usually rough for allergies, but this is ridiculous. I really hope it clears out soon, or it's going to be a miserable summer.

3. Even still, spring is in such full force that I almost forgot there was a winter at all. So the South has its good and its bad.

Breaking in Spring

Three really memorable spring break moments, in the category of:
1. A life completely unlike my own
Not gawking at the celebrity-laden Pasadena lawn party

2. Hippie Madness
Bonding with my Cali uncle over beer and Wahoo's

3. NY Redux
Trudging through the wintery mix to a city museum about a city plan

Or more generally, being in paradise, even in the snow.

Sustainable agriculture Part 1

The beauty of living in North Carolina is that eventually you'll meet someone who has a farm. A woman who works in my department has a small chicken farm, which she runs with sustainable agriculture practices, and she knows other people in the sustainable agriculture community. The thing about a farm is that there is ALWAYS work to be done. So a bunch of us students have started volunteering on Saturdays so that we could learn more, help out, and of course, procrastinate on our school work. Yesterday was the first farmhand day, and we went to help out our chicken farming friend.

Some more details about the farm: they have about 100 chickens who lay eggs year-round and three roosters, and in the spring and summer, they have more chickens which they sell for meat. They take the meat birds to a small processing plant nearby--none of the slaughtering is done on-site. They also have a pony and a horse that they rescued, and they donate a parcel of their land to a pot-bellied pig rescue. All of the animals are completely free-range. The chickens eat natural grains fed to them, plus they wander around all day eating bugs, worms, and other seeds. At night, they naturally come home to roost, which means they wander into the big caged area and sit down and hang out for the night. The cages are there only to protect them from raccoons and oppossums, which get in anyway. This year, they're getting a guard dog to protect the roost at night.

If you think chicken farming is easy, think again. The owners are up early in the morning to feed and let out the chickens, collect eggs to sell, and feed and take care of the horse and pony. They then take their kids to school and go to work. At night, they have to feed and secure the roosts, take care of the horse and pony, make dinner, help kids with homework, and get ready to repeat again the next day. Any chickens that are injured by predators need to be cared for, and when they have chicks, they have to make sure the heat lamp is on and that they're safe. They also have to move the meat bird roosts each day on top of fresh grass, fix anything that has broken, and attend to regular life. If there's bad weather, something will surely be flooded or frozen or broken. If predators attack, the battlefield must be cleaned up. And those things don't stop or go away just because work is stressful or there's a death in the family or it's a holiday. Farming is a life that goes on every single day, no matter what.

Chickens are funny animals, with the energy of dogs and the curiosity of cats. One chicken even jumped up into the car to get a better look. At the end of the day, we all sat around on the porch, drinking beer and watching the chicken-and-children antics unfold. Then we drove to a local dairy farm and had fresh ice cream. Then we went home and the reality of our schoolwork, so insignificant compared to the real world of farming and family, hit like a brick.

In two weeks, we plan to visit another sustainable farm, something different, where the tasks will be all new. But at the end of the day, we'll know we contributed to something important. It's an experience everyone should have.

*By the way, yes, I am still, and will continue to be, vegetarian. My biggest issue with meat is the giant factory farms that have atrocious animal treatment practices. It's important to me to support sustainable agriculture, plus I enjoy helping people out with this kind of work, and I learned a whole lot. *

Adieu Molly

Molly Ivins passed away today. She was a strong lady, but unfortunately cancer was stronger. Adieu, dear Molly. Here's to hoping someone else with the cajones to continually call out the Bush administration and other ridiculous human tricks will emerge and pick up where you left off.
(click on the post title to read about Molly in the Texas Observer)

Snow in the South

It snowed in Durham on Thursday. This is a photo of the trees across the street. We got about an inch total between 5 am and 9 am. An inch. In Chicago, an inch is barely noticeable. Here, it means the world is ending. The morning shows were preempted by the local news on every station, in order to report the chaos. Schools were closed. Businesses were closed. The news reported more than 100 car accidents before 8 am. All that everyone talked about was the snow.

By noon, the snow was gone. It melted into puddles, and the snow turned to misty rain. Friday was warmer and sunny, and no one would ever know that there had been snow just two days ago.

Do your research, folks

Dark Cloud Over Good Works of Gates Foundation
I knew it was too good to be true--Bill Gates leaving Microsoft to devote his time to the foundation that raises and donates more money than exists in some small countries? Stephen Colbert often refers to the foundation as the 'Stephen and Melinda Gates Foundation'. Wonder if he'll still want to be a part of it? Maybe more so, since his tongue-in-cheek character on his show would love such investments in things like large oil companies.

This is proof that you should always look into the organizations to which you donate money, because they're not always forthcoming about what happens behind the scenes.

Headline from the future: "Whirrled peas not just for babies and hippies anymore"

Here are the first and last paragraphs from the account of what one Alternet.com writer imagines what life could be like between now and 2026:

"The other day, I borrowed some kids to go gawk with me at the one thing that we can always count on in an ever-more unstable world: age-of-dinosaur dioramas in science museums. This one had the usual dramatic clash between a tyrannosaurus and a triceratops; pterodactyls soaring through the air, one with a small reptile in its toothy maw; and some oblivious grazing by what, when I was young in another millennium, we would have called a brontosaurus. Easy to overlook in all that drama was the shrew-like mammal perched on a reed or thick blade of grass, too small to serve even as an enticing pterodactyl snack. The next thing coming down the line always looks like that mammal at the beginning -- that's what I told the kids -- inconsequential, beside the point; the official point usually being the clash of the titans."

"The future, of course, is not something you predict and wait for. It is something you invent daily through your actions. As Mas Kodani, a Buddhist in Los Angeles, said in the early twenty-first century: "One does not stand still looking for a path. One walks; and as one walks, a path comes into being." We make it up as we go, and we make it up by going, or as the Zapatistas more elegantly put it, "Walking we ask questions." What else can you do?

Perhaps respect the power of the small and the mystery of the future to which we all belong."

It's rather true, and rather encouraging. More and more people are getting fed up with the incompetency of those we rely on to do our bidding, so we're starting to take action on our own to affect change. (Perhaps it also signals an end to our general laziness that has created the obesity and ADD epidemics of late). Read the whole article here: Looking back at history from 2026

Amusing? Idealistic? Naive? Maybe, but ultimately it's one version of what needs to happen if there's any hope for a positive future. There's still time to ask Santa for world peace (or whirrled peas, if you prefer).

El Capitol

Raleigh is a real town. Kind of. The downtown is bigger than Durham and has a fair amount going on, considering it's a state capital. There are tall office buildings (both existing and being constructed) and government office buildings and local restaurants and stores, and a surprisingly large number of architecture firms. It's a growing Southern city, and it's pretty exciting to see this region expand. Chicago is cool, but there are few new challenges there. Population density is still low here, and there's lots of open space awaiting construction. And that construction is often green--I have seen lots of ads in the independent paper about green homes and apartments. The campus buses run on biodiesel. The energy companies are very visible, and people are working had to preserve the open spaces in the region. The city planning department holds charrettes to give residents a chance to participate in neighborhood development.

Maybe these things happen in other places too, they're just more visible here because there's less of everything. The history museum in Raleigh was closed, so there is probably a lot of interesting here. But for a region that once thrived on the tobacco industry, then crashed when smoking became a bad word, there's a lot of potential yet.

The things you learn on a play day

Today I rented a car and ran some errands, mostly as a celebration for finishing my first semester of grad school. First, I found out from the Enterprise guy that they used to get hybrid cars to rent out (and sell--Enterprise sells their cars too) but since the hybrids have been such a hot commodity, the car companies took away the hybrids to put directly on the market. Then, I was listening to talk radio (not the wacky conservative kind, just some guys talking on the radio) and they did a story about a lawmaker in Texas who is trying to bring equality to the sport (?!) of hunting. Apparently, in Texas (and probably other places too--I've heard this before) it is illegal to use laser spotters while hunting. But this lawmaker is trying to pass a law allowing legally blind people to use spotters, as long as a fully sighted person is supervising. As the talk show guy pointed out, why don't they go all the way and allow legally blind people to drive cars too, as long as a fully sighted person is supervising.

Huh.

Humorous interlude that's somewhat relevant

Pastafarianism and a correlation between pirates and global warming

The Electric (car) Slide

Maybe the backlash following the death of the electric car has had a bigger impact than previously thought. GM has announced that they are beginning redevelopment of a new electric version of the Saturn Vue, though they can't say right now when it will be ready. Check out this article for more info, and note that includes a mention that all Hummers will soon be converted to run on E85 fuel (which is only kind of better than gasoline) Perhaps we should all write a thank-you letter to GM for their renewed commitment to fuel efficiency and environmental responsibility .

"When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, 'Let's debate the science'?"

That quote is from John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co. He agrees that we need to do something to deal with increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and in this article it looks like that will soon be happening. It's amazing how much has changed in only the few weeks since the Democrats gained control of the House and Senate. Maybe things will actually get done now.

Travelling green (or not)

To be...
Expedia.com now offers the option of purchasing TerraPass for all flights booked through the site, ranging from $5.99 each for a short flight to $29.99 for international flights. This is the cost Expedia pays, so all of the money goes directly to TerraPass to offset the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere during the flight. Check out the TerraPass option on Expedia here or learn more about TerraPass here.

Or not to be...
Just saw "Who Killed the Electric Car?" It made me want to never own a car again, because the car companies are all the same. Maybe Toyota and some of the others have gotten better, but GM is still evil. There are two interesting parts in the movie that have nothing to do with the topic: first of all, Mel Gibson is one of the featured celebrities, and really, the guy gets more nuts by the day; second, two women protesting the transfer of a number of electric cars to the demolition site park their car peacefully in front of the truck. When the cops pull them out of the car and arrest them (the women are peaceful the whole time and don't resist arrest), the cops put the plastic handcuffs (plastic baggie ties, really) on the white woman and real handcuffs on the African-American woman. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I just thought that was interesting.

Weather or not...

I have lived in North Carolina for three months now, and I have two questions:

1. Why would anyone want to live in North Carolina during the summer, when it is completely hot and humid and there is no major body of water in sight? Chicago in the summer is just perfect, and I've had the most fun ever during the two summers I lived in the city of Chicago.

2. Why would anyone want to live in Chicago during the winter, when the cold wind takes your breath away and the sun doesn't come out for weeks? The past month in Durham has felt more like September in Chicago, and locals aren't terribly surprised that it's going to be 78 degrees and sunny tomorrow. It's kind of weird to not feel cold and depressed in November, because that's about all I've ever known. Not that I miss it.

On a completely baffling side note, I just learned today that Time Warner Cable has a monopoly down here (not the baffling part), and that they have decided not to carry the Bravo and LOGO (a network with gay- and lesbian-themed programming) channels because "Time Warner carries only family-friendly programming" and apparently Bravo and LOGO aren't "family-friendly." Also, North Carolina's policy for teaching health in school includes abstinence-only sex education, and rape prevention education in schools suffers because it means people would have to admit that kids actually have sex. So I guess it's too much to ask to have good weather *and* open-minded community members. Not that I'm surprised.

C'mon, ride the train

This weekend, I rode the Amtrak to Charlotte. Loved it! Why don't people take the train more often? Okay, it does take longer than flying if you're travelling long distances, but here's why the train rocks if you have the time to take it:
1. WAY cheaper than flying or renting a car. I paid $60 for a round-trip ticket, and it would have cost more than that just to rent a car, plus gas is expensive.
2. You get to see the scenery as a passive observer. North Carolina is gorgeous, and the trees are just starting to change. Today I saw a goat hanging out on someone's lawn (it was a farm, to be fair). Until now, I don't think I've ever seen a goat anywhere besides the zoo. I also saw cotton growing in a field. That was a first, as well.
3. Train seats are much more comfortable than plane seats, the gentle rumble and rock of the train is soothing, and you don't get that weird "I'm suspended in an air-tight vehicle coasting 30,000 feet in the air and defying the laws of gravity, and yet I can't tell I'm moving" feeling. It also feels much safer when there's no laminated card in the seat pocket telling you how to use your seat bottom as a floatation device.
4. Trains are just cool. They remind you of how quickly (and how slowly) the world is moving around you. Taking the El in Chicago always makes me tingle. The excitement of people coming and going, the rumble of the clacking trains on the tracks, the whoosh of the train passing you by. It's like the videos of city life happening in double-time.
5. Trains are more environmentally conscious than driving or flying. Yes, there is still the issue of the impact the train has on the surrounding rail corridor, not to mention that they use a huge amount of electricity (hmmm...masters project topic floating in my head...) Actually, I'm going to do some research on this, and I'll get back to you...

My SLC friend doesn't know it yet, but I'm now contemplating a cross-country train ride to visit him over spring break. The American West by train. Awesome. In the meantime, I'm going to continue advocating rail travel. Maybe it'll make a comeback.

Girl Power!

Yet another reason I love Joel Achenbach: his latest Washington Post blog post is about Arianna Huffington's latest book, On Becoming Fearless.

I read this post after reading a friend's blog post about his latest ego stroke from a new female friend. And now, all I can think about is the song Female of the Species by Space. But really, I think the key to being a truly powerful woman is to know how to get what you want without being intimidating or sickeningly sweet. Guys don't want to date a bitch, and they don't respect a sap. And it's no fun sitting at the top of the heap, looking at what you stepped on to get there. Even powerful women want to have friends.

Community-owned sports

Maybe I'm the last to know this, but hey, I don't keep up with sports that much. Anyway, I just learned last week that the Green Bay Packers are the only team in the NFL that is owned not by some guy with a big bank account but by community stockholders. The team was incorporated in 1923 as a private, non-profit, tax-exempt organization. According to the New Rules Project, "Article I of their bylaws states, "this association shall be a community project, intended to promote community welfare...its purposes shall be exclusively charitable." The team can move only through dissolution, in which case the shareholders get only the $25 a share they put in. A board of directors, elected by the stockholders, manages the team." No wonder cheeseheads are such crazy fans. What a cool idea. That's the way sports should be, really.

The Bears will still kick some Packer tail. I'm just sayin'...

By the way, I just came across the New Rules Project ("Designing rules as if community mattered") when I googled for information about the Packers. Encouraging community support is kind of a resurging movement, as outlined in a presentation by Michael Shuman at the Nasher Museum here in Durham last week. His latest book is The Small-Mart Revolution. (I know, the link is to Amazon.com, but only because they have the best synopsis, reader reviews, and links to other similar books. Please buy the book from your local bookstore). He mentioned the tidbit about the Packers, as well as a ton of other reasons why we should support our locally owned businesses and community groups when possible. Shopping at locally owned businesses saves money and energy on transportation and manufacturing costs, puts a higher percentage of money spent back into the local economy, and prevents big companies from pulling out and cutting jobs. There are myriad other reasons. Just read Shuman's book or check out more information online. People complain about rising energy costs, but it means that we'll all start to do more of our business closer to home, and that translates into a healthier and happier community.

Fashion forward (and socially conscious, too!)

I love tee shirts. I've decided that if I'm going to wear tee shirts on a regular basis (and I can, because I'm in grad school), I may as well be original, fashionable, and socially conscious. So I just bought two new tee shirts from Threadless.

Here's the deal: Joe Schmo creates an original tee shirt design and submits it to Threadless (based in Chicago--they have a van that is completely covered in Threadless stickers). If Joe Schmo's original design gets chosen, he gets paid by Threadless with $1,500, a membership to the 12-month club, and a $300 Threadless gift certificate, and Threadless will add tee shirts with Joe Schmo's design to their stock for the public to buy. The designs are printed on tee shirts from American Apparel, which is American-made and sweatshop-free. And the shirts are cheap: $15-25 each.

So yeah, buy Threadless. Support a local Chicago business, independent artists, and socially conscious apparel.

An environmentally responsible alternative to AAA

The cuz posted this information on her blog, and even though there's a link to her blog on this blog, I thought I would mention it because everyone should know about it: the Better World Club. It's a roadside assistance, travel, and insurance club, just like AAA, but it's environmentally conscious. I could list all the benefits, but to quote Levar Burton (remember Reading Rainbow?), don't take my word for it. Go to the Better World Club website and check it out for yourself.
Thanks, K-Dawg, for helping others be better world citizens. I'm still loving my Co-op America membership and I recommend it to people all the time!

And the Big Box debate rages on

Mayor Daley vetoed the Big Box ordinance passed in Chicago that would require stores like Target and Walmart to pay workers a living wage, and today City Council members failed to garner enough votes to override the veto. Alderman Joe Moore (49th) assured the City Council that the issue would not go away and promised to produce a broader ordinance that would apply to workers of companies with at least 1,000 employees. Not sure what this means, but if it leads to fairer wages for all Chicago employees, then let's hope for the best. Stay tuned.

Homecoming

Paul Salopek will be freed on Saturday from Sudan, where he was being held on charges of espionage. Salopek acknowledges that he entered the country without a visa, which is a civil offense in Sudan. Bill Richards, Governor of New Mexico, helped secure his release in a meeting with Sudan's president Al-Bashir. Richardson had worked with al-Bashir in 1996 on the release of three Red Cross workers detained by Marxist rebels in Sudan, and Salopek is a resident of New Mexico. But there's another element to this story:
From the Chicago Tribune: During the meeting, according to Humphrey, al-Bashir said, "When I announce this, the Sudanese people will say, 'What about our people in Guantanamo Bay?'"

Ah yes, what about the people in Guantanamo Bay? Perhaps we should ship them to one of the secret prisons that Bush recently admitted that the U.S. runs after all? Pres. Bush said he would send the message immediately to release the detainees, so we'll see what happens. Isn't this, in effect, similar to negotiating with terrorists? The Sudanese government isn't terrorist per se, but it looks like they agreed to let people go in exchange for the U.S. release of some Sudanese prisoners. Hmmm...

Journalism versus Activism

In high school, I was trying to decide between conservation biology and journalism as a future college major. I chose journalism, with the hopes that I could write about conservation. Then my frustration with my journalistic skills and my burgeoning passion for environmental advocacy collided, and I decided this journalism thing was just a phase. Obviously I have moved on. These journalists have found a way to do what I couldn't figure out: how to balance environmentalism and journalism. Props to them. Keep on fighting the good fight.

What price, conservation?

In a tragic and ironic turn of events, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, died today. He was filming a documentary segment called "Ocean's Deadliest" when he was stabbed in the heart by the deadly barb of a stingray. It's almost poetic. Saving the world is an expensive proposition, and Steve Irwin paid for it with his life, leaving behind a wife and two young children. (Is his dog Suey still around?)

And a jab at the national media: when the anchor on Good Morning America previewed the story about Steve Irwin (which I missed, but I read that another great, Jack Hanna, came on the program to talk about it), she announced the tragedy and paired it with a story about whether stingrays are a threat to everyone else. Steve must be rolling in his not-yet-dug grave. Fear is not the answer. Let's not start a crusade to rid our oceans of stingrays, let's educate the public about stingray behavior and about why we should be working to preserve the natural habitats of these animals. Steve was trying to do just that.

Rest In Peace, Steve Irwin. Thank you for being crazy enough to show us just how wonderful, important, and dangerous the animal kingdom is.

Anticlimactic rainstorm, anyone?

Last night's tropical storm here in Durham was the same as any old rainstorm in Chicago: Steady (and heavy at times) rain, with lots of wind. No local flooding, and it was 65 degrees and windy and drizzly today. Ho hum. It was worse south and east of here, but mostly just some power outages and high wind, with some local flooding. If they hadn't hyped it up as a tropical storm, I would have thought it was just a front moving through.

That's the problem with the media (I wrote a J200 paper on this my sophomore year of college). Weather is weather. It's great to be prepared for HUGE weather events, but it need not be the entire day's news. This morning we had all local news instead of Good Morning America/Today Show. And all they talked about was that it rained. They do the same thing everywhere--any sort of bigger weather event warrants over-coverage, which ends up either freaking people out over nothing or repeating the same news instead of giving people useful information. Whatever happened to the days when a little box would sit in the corner of the screen with color codings for watches and warnings, and if specific areas were in immediate danger, a warning would come over the air telling people to seek shelter immediately. When the storm blew through, the warnings and boxes would go away and we would go about our lives, usually none the worse for wear.

Batten down the hatches

Tropical Storm Ernesto is heading this way, and I mean RIGHT this way. We're supposed to get eight to 12 inches of rain tonight. My first tropical storm. Hells yeah. The only thing that worries me is that I live at the bottom of a hill. There's some land that's lower, but it looks like the water could back up a bit. There are also storm drains nearby, and if they back up, we'll be a-swimmin'. So no toilet flushing allowed.

Last night a different storm came through the area, and the rumbling thunder was so long and loud it sounded like a tank coming down the street. The lightning was silent but bright, like someone flipping on and off a light right outside the window. I love thunderstorms, and it's interesting that thunderstorms in less congested cities with higher humidity are much different than the thunderstorms that blow through the tall buildings of Chicago. Here, and in Missouri, the storms are long and low, with flashes of lightning and thunder that sounds like it's quietly complaining about something. In Chicago, the claps of thunder will jar you wide awake in the middle of the night, and even if you've never been afraid of storms before, you'll begin to fear that the sky will soon fall through the roof.

Speaking of storms, yesterday after a downpour, a woman walked into the building and apologized for being late because she had gotten stuck in a gulley-washer. I love the South.

Paul Salopek is not a spy.

Chicago Tribune correspondent and National Geographic freelance writer Paul Salopek was detained in Sudan, charged with espionage and two other criminal counts on Saturday. He was on assignment in sub-Saharan Africa, and as people sometimes do, he entered the country without a journalist visa. National Geographic's editor in chief, Chris Johns, stated, "He had no agenda other than to fairly and accurately report on the region," Johns said. "He is a world-recognized journalist of the highest standing, with a deep knowledge and respect for the continent of Africa and its people."

Read the Chicago Tribune's statement here and National Geographic's statement here.And hope for a speedy resolution of this problem so that Paul can be released soon and get back to (legally, according to Sudan laws) doing what he does best: reporting about the problems plaguing the peoples in Africa, with the hope of affecting positive change in the region.

I don't care what those astronomers say...

Pluto IS a planet. Just take it from 2 Skinnee J's, whose song "Pluto" has been flying through my head lately because of astronomers' recent decision to downgrade Pluto. Don't worry, littlest planet, we still love you!

"Pluto" by 2 Skinnee J's, off the Supermercado album
With depravity,
I break lots of gravity
Blast past the atmosphere
to the last frontier
I go boldly through space and time
The sky's the limit,
but they're limiting the sky
I break orbit by habit,
I ignite satellites and leave rings round the planets
A flying ace like that beagle,
nevertheless this alien remains illegal
Cause their discovery dont cover me
the immigrants been left in the cold
to grow old
and disintegrate
Discriminate
against the distant and disclaimers,
Cause small minds can't see past Uranus
When I shun their race
cause that's just a phase
and my odyssey runs in 2001 ways
And I can see clearly now like Hubbell
shoved off the shuttle,
here's my rebuttal
It's a planet.

Who do you represent?
I represent the smallest planet
A tourney in this journey
versus those who tried to ban it.
If you don't agree
go see interplanet Janet Cause
the sun is star like
Pluto
is planet.
So lend me all ears
and let me state my case,
about all the types of satellites we must embrace
Cause like parents'
great-grandparents,
this planet was an immigrant,
to deport its an offense.
It's an upstanding member of the solar system
Abide the laws of Earth and make it a victim.
Of Proposition
107,
When Pluto spawns a moon it will apply to the heavens.
A dandy like Judas of a chariot
If you demote this boat
remote to a goat
It's like taking ETs custody from Elliot,
support yours
clearly put cause,
simply put

Pluto is a planet. Pluto!
Pluto is a planet. Pluto!
Pluto is a planet. Pluto!
Pluto is a plane

Organic?

Shame on Horizon Organics, which has lately been pushing the limits of what can be considered organic. They're owned by mega-farm Dean Foods, and the new management has trouble keeping the cows out in the pasture, which is the key element of organic dairy. The cows often remain in the barns, and they're fed food that, while healthy, is meant to increase milk production. It's not like Horizon is some small farm struggling to survive, so the company's behavior is puzzling.

Check out the article here, which does include explanations from Horizon.

Hhhhhuuuuuuuummmmer

McDonald's is pairing up with Hummer to offer kids a special toy rootin'-tootin'pollutin' machine with their Happy Meals. Well, only if they're boys--girls get Polly Pocket fashion dolls instead. Let's count how many things are wrong with this:
1. Feeding McDonalds to kids. Keep doing that, and someday the only cars big enough to fit their fat behinds will be Hummers.
2. Advertising products to children that they won't even be able to use for a good 10 years. That's like Joe Camel advertising to kids. I guess at least a Hummer won't outright kill them, just slowly pollute their world and drain their wallets. Oh, Hummers really are like cigarettes.
3. Reinforcing gender roles by giving cars only to the boys. Picture a little girl accidentally getting a happy meal made for a boy. "Do you want a Hummer?" she asks a boy in her class, offering him the toy from her meal. And we thought that stuff only happened in the White House.
4. Hummers and fast food are the kinds of things that are essentially totally wrong with this world in general. Nuff said.

Speaking of Hummer, those tv commercials are really lame. One appeals to the soccer mom in all of us when someone else's kid cuts in front of ours in line at the playground, so we must buy a Hummer to feel superior. Yes! Get our girl on! the ad states. Another ad appeals to the neanderthal in all of us when some guy with meat and beer gets in the checkout line behind a guy with vegetables and tofu, so we must buy a Hummer to even the score or something. For the record, I would guess that any guy who eats tofu and vegetables (which does NOT make him less of a man, by the way) certainly would not stoop to buying a Hummer to boost his ego. Maybe Hummer has issues because real men don't need a big gas guzzler to feel better about themselves. That's what trophy wives and fancy technology are for.

Dust in the wind

Not to be morbid, but I thought I'd put this out in cyberspace, in case I meet an untimely demise. Let it be noted, I am not the least bit afraid of death, as long as it comes when I'm at least 100 years old and asleep in bed. I think I have too much to accomplish before then. In any case, eco-burials are becoming a trend. Hmmm.

Some Durham discoveries

After riding the bus a few more times, I've decided it's not so bad after all. I think the bus drivers are starting to recognize me. Anyway, riding the bus has given me the chance to see parts of the city I wouldn't normally ever see. And the rumors are true: the rest of Durham is VERY separate and different from the university. It's almost a little saddening because many of the areas seem kind of run-down, and they are definitely segregated (by situation, not by law). Maybe things just look different in the South. There's very little snow or cold weather, so houses don't need to be built to withstand the weight of packed snow or 40 mph icy winds. A lot of them are wood, so I guess that means they need more maintenance. They'd be charming with a fresh coat of paint and some landscaping. All those movies set in the South seemed like just that--sets. But that's really how it looks down here, and it's quite charming. There's a part of me that really feels at home here. If only there were a city that combined Southern charm with the awesomeness of Chicago. Maybe Atlanta? Austin, Tx?

Today I also went to the farmers market. Now THAT is home. It's a quick hop on the #6 bus and I'm there. Today, Bull City The Band played under a little white tent. Just some local guys adding some musical accompaniment to the shoppers sorting through purple peppers, fresh flowers, and baked goods. Every week at 9 am they have free yoga (although today it rained so they canceled it) and a downtown tour at 10 am. Today's tour featured the tobacco district, which I would have liked to see if I hadn't been meeting up with someone at 11 am (the tour lasted til 11:30). Each week is something different, new music and a different tour. And the kids and dogs and friends all meeting up makes it such a fun place to hang out on a Saturday morning.

One more thing about Durham: clotheslines are a big thing here. In Chicago, people steal anything not locked down with chains. People probably steal here too, but they probably don't waste their time on bedsheets and children's toys and things that are at least kind of locked up. I hope.

The girls aren't the wild ones

Not that I'm surprised by any of this, but it looks like Joe Francis, the man behind the Girls Gone Wild empire, is not the charming, innocent, just-for-fun kind of guy the media portray him as. Read this article from the L.A. Times about him. Read toward the end of the story and you'll realize that this guy is really rather nutso, and definitely has some demons he's trying to deal with by exploiting hot women who maybe wouldn't have anything to do with him if he weren't standing behind a camera. I think this is my favorite line from the article: "I won't sit back and be called a rapist. Rape is a very serious crime that I personally find disgusting. As a son, and as the brother to three sisters I love very much, I would NEVER have sex with a woman without her consent." But he would film her doing naughty things (sometimes coerced) while under the influence. Would he approve of one of his three sisters doing such things?

Public transportation, an official review

Perhaps you may be wondering how I could possibly give a thorough review of the Durham area public transit system after riding it for only one day. Well, one day was enough, trust me. First of all, the bus riding experience was just fine. The bus doesn't announce every stop, so if you don't know the area at all, you have to pay attention. Otherwise, it's just like riding the bus in Chicago. Sometimes the AC doesn't work, and sometimes the windows are a little gross, but it's still just a bus. They don't come very often, so you really can't be in a hurry (or you have to plan your trip in advance so you know when to get to the stop). The biggest difference between public transit in a big city and public transit here is that in Durham, pretty much anyone who can afford to own a car drives everwhere. So the people who take the bus are working class (or are a little off, if you catch my drift), and unfortunately segregation is a problem here, so 95 percent of the people on the buses yesterday were black or hispanic. That doesn't matter to me at all--I took the bus and the train on the South Side of Chicago, and anyway, we're all just people trying to get somewhere. I felt a little out of place, but otherwise it was fine. And after all, I can't afford to own a car right now, so just like everyone else on the bus, I gotta take it to get anywhere I can't walk to.

Yes, the bus riding experience is fine. It's the bus waiting-for experience (as well as the walking-down-the-street experience) that requires some strength. Maybe once students get here, it'll be different, but right now, I get really funny looks for walking a mile and a half to the CVS or standing on the sidewalk waiting for the bus. Apparently people aren't used to seeing a white girl who doesn't have a car. Funny looks I can handle; my good friend reminded me that I just have to be my own person. It's the creepy guys who drive past me slowly, honk at me, call out to me, openly gawk at me, as if I were a prostitute. Hardly. Yesterday I was sweating my balls off in a plain t-shirt from Old Navy and denim capris from the Gap and Teva flip flops. Sexy, I was definitely not. I don't know what makes these guys think they can act so disrespectfully to me--they didn't do it to any of the other women standing at the bus stop, and a couple of those women definitely looked more put-together than I did. I feel like it has something to do with me being one of the few white people among the other racial minorities, so I stand out, but how does that warrant such behavior? The other day I was riding my bike down the sidewalk, wearing a white t-shirt, soccer shorts, and my bike helmet, and I got honked at then too, although I think that was some dumbass macho white guy. Why?

Maybe that's what they call Southern hospitality. That, or there really is such a split between whites and racial minorities that a middle-class white girl from Chicago can't blend in at all.

I love beer

Not in a drunkard, keg-stand, frat party kind of way, but just in the way some people really appreciate a fine wine. I enjoy wine but it makes me sleepy, and I'm not the biggest fan of hard liquor. But give me a tall glass of a fine craft beer or local brew and I'm a happy girl. I became a big fan of Goose Island's 312 (which I realized is named after the Chicago area code, not the number three-hundred-twelve). It's good to support local breweries, just like it's good to support local growers by shopping at farmers' markets. Which is why I'm saddened to learn that Goose Island beer, a Chicago institution, will soon be distributed by Anheuser Busch. I read this in business section of the News & Observer yesterday (Aug 4) but can't find it online, but here's a link to another site regarding this story. Actually, this is the same story, it was just released over the wires July 24th and printed in yesterday's paper. Way to sell out, Goose Island. It's okay, I still love New Belguim Brewing Company best. The ironic thing is that since New Belgium doesn't use huge distributors, I can't find it anywhere west of the Mississippi, save for a 20 oz Fat Tire. Huh. Go figure.

This just feels wrong

Something I've heard a little bit about here and there, but since someone from the career center emailed this out to us, it feels real now. Basically, it's an article about how potential employers check out online social networking profiles and Google results to learn more about candidates for positions at their companies/organizations. I agree that it's foolish to post photos of yourself doing something sketchy or illegal on a public profile, but the fact of the matter is that people use these profiles as creative outlets and connections with friends, and how does anything on a profile relate to a person's professional capabilities? This is a little too much invasion of privacy, if you ask me. What if I were to post a musing or a link to my blog on my MySpace or Facebook or Friendster profile, and a potential employer read something that they personally disagree with but has nothing at all to do with the job I applied for? Can they not hire me because they don't like my poetic turn of phrase or because I'm holding a cup of beer in a posed and perfectly proper photo of me and a friend from a street fair? What if they read this posting and decide that because I feel this sort of thing is invasion of privacy, they don't want to hire me? That's the kind of discrimination that's the hardest to prove and it's so unfair. Thoughts?

I've been tagged

My dear friend tagged me on her blog , and since I've been in the midst of a move, I haven't had a chance to play. Until now.

Five items in my freezer
1. frozen fish
2. peas
3. green beans
4. edamame
5. veggie burgers

Five items in the closet
1. shoes
2. sheets
3. purple trunk filled with the fall/winter attire that I will probably get little use of in the NC
4. Book shelf that will probably get replaced since it has finally bitten the dust
5. plastic bin equivalent of a real tool box (just in case I ever think I need to fix something)

Five items in the car (I don't have a car, but when I did, here's what was in it)
1. face tissues
2. car rack for bike
3. old firewood I never got rid of
4. towel, jacket, old running shoes
5. sand and dog hair

Five items in my backpack (well, not using the backpack yet, so I'll look in my traveling bag)
1. face tissue
2. National Geographic magazine
3. little bag that holds pens, female stuff, padlock, chapstick, mints, and lip gloss
4. hand lotion
5. Palm PDA

Five people I tag
1. Sarah
2. Vince
3. Kaara
4. Alison
5. Jose

Peace

Adieu, Chicago

In a few days, I will be embarking on my trek to a new land, where tobacco grows heartily (which means that sadly, the Triangle area will never go smoke-free) and you get a funny look for requesting unsweetened tea. So, I would like to take a few moments to reflect on what is so great about Chicago, the New York of the Midwest.

1. Among the many things I have done during the summer include: some random side show circus/burlesque show; a student dance show and an open-to-all dance show; Bike the Drive; the L.A.T.E (Long After Twilight Ends, a 25-mile bike ride through the streets of Chicago at 1:30 am); Critical Mass (a worldwide movement to promote the use of bicycles as a viable means of transportation); gone to the regular and doggie beaches, went to various street festivals and concerts, including one great evening at Ravinia; ran in a road race; daytripped to a state park and hiked through some canyons; played in the fountains at Milennium Park; shopped at a few different farmers markets; went for walks and runs and bike rides through hidden parks, the zoo, the lakefront; dined al fresco beneath the el tracks; watched a gay pride parade and rode in a St. Patrick's Day parade...the list goes on. It's hard to believe that all these things happen in just a few short months of nice weather in Chicago. But when you experience them, you forget all about the 20 mph winds that whip through your bones when it's 25 degrees outside.

2. Chicago is a city of communities. At one time, you can live in one neighborhood, work in another, and interact with people in myriad different communities. I lived in Lakeview, Boystown specifically, and worked at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. I was part of: the 20-something community (those of us who graduated from college 1 to 9 years ago and were trying to figure out what to do with our lives), the Jewish community (both in Lakeview and Hyde Park, and they often overlap), the gay community (by proxy), the environmental community, the University of Chicago community, the athletic community, the bicycling community, the music-lovers community (and within that, fans of specific bands--I saw a lot of the same people at various Poi Dog Pondering and Michael McDermott shows), the native South Suburban community (meaning I have run into various people I went to high school with who now live in the area), the Red Line/Brown Line/Purple Line/various bus route communities of people who take the same mode of public transportation every day to and from work. There are probably more too. And although I didn't go to Michigan for college and I didn't grow up in Cleveland, there seem to be communities of those people here in Chicago as well. It's always a little trippy and a lot of fun that the communities overlap, so that you always feel like you'll belong somewhere and you'll always see a friendly face.

3. Speaking of friendly, most people in Chicago have that kind Midwestern disposition, so they're usually happy to help out and they're very friendly.

4. You want culture, you got it. Chicago has a little bit of just about anything you could ever want here, including food, art, dance, music, language, social groups, and more for just about every ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, race, tradition, etc, and everything is open to everyone. And yet, prejudice still abounds, which is tragic.

5. Nature--you gotta look a little harder for it sometimes, but it's there. Personally, it's not enough for my liking, but still...

6. Institutions of learning--Take a college course, get a new degree, learn how to belly dance, brew coffee, parachute out of a plane, speak Armenian, whatever your heart desires. Whether it's a community college, private or public university, community center, place of worship, library, there's education to be had.

I think there's probably more that I love about Chicago, which makes it very hard to leave. Maybe I'll be back someday, but in the meantime, I'll continue to post about all the new things I'll love about the Triangle area, as well as some of the things I'll want to change. Adieu, Chicago. It's been a blast!

A mini-trip to Mexico

Today I went to the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in the Pilsen neighborhood. Mexican culture is so rich and layered and complex, and this particular exhibit featured the African presence in Mexico. Really, most modern Mexicans are a genetic mix of Spanish, American Indian, and African genes, but because there used to be such a stigma associated with interracial relationships, many people don't consider or acknowledge the possibility that they have a mixed heritage. Africans were brought to Mexico as slaves when the Spanish came to conquer the native Indian groups, and just like in the States, they played an integral role in the development of Mexico's modern society. It's a fascinating exhibit, and it makes me really bored of my own heritage. It does highlight, however, the fact that some things about the human experience are the same across cultures, and that we should be working together to bring fairness and equality for everyone, an idea especially relevant right now with all the discussion in this country about immigration rights.

I regret that in the almost 3 years I've lived in the city, I couldn't get my act together to go to the Dios de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) exhibit, which runs every year in September and October. Perhaps I'll have to make a special trip back to see it.

Bestill my heart

A little birdie told me that Trader Joe's would soon be making its way to Durham, NC. And I know homey wouldn't mess with a girl's emotions like that.

Whole Foods, hang on to your knickers. Although truth be told, when the average high in winter is 40ish degrees, the farmers' markets probably operate nine or 10 months a year, and that's much preferrable to any grocery store anyway.

The Age of Misinformation

A minority congressional report has charged that 20 out of 23 federally funded pregnancy resource centers are telling women that abortion results in an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility and deep psychological trauma. Click on the post title to read the article.

Hopping off the coat tails

Bradd Pitt is drawing attention to something good for the world besides his good looks, and he's doing it without Angie's help. Brad Piit has apparently always been interested in architecture, and now he's working with Global Green to sponsor a contest to design environmentally friendly housing in New Orleans for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Read more about it at MSNBC's special.

Green building is becoming really big. The new mega tower that serves as Hearst media headquarters was build with green elements. See, there's hope...

Women as sex objects

This topic has been way overdone, and I'm often the first to roll my eyes when people start talking about the objectification of women. However, we wouldn't be talking about it if it weren't still a huge problem, as evidenced by this Tribune article and this show on Oprah (I almost never watch Oprah, but it was on and I was distracted).

1. For Women, it's too close for comfort. This article is about the New York subway (although it could easily be about the CTA as well) and problems women face of being groped, poked, mishandled, and exposed to flashers. Why do people think that just because it's crowded, it's okay to cop a feel? Yes, sometimes it is too crowded to tell whether it really was an accident, but people definitely use that to their advantage. It's creepy. Putting your hands on someone you don't know is just wrong, no matter how they're dressed.

2. Fallen Star and Birthday Bust. Oprah's guests on today's show included an all-growed-up Jaimee Foxworth, who played the youngest sister on "Family Matters". After she got older and the tv money dried up and the acting gigs were hard to come by, she ended up doing pornography to make money. She had been led to believe that she would just be doing modeling, but went with the flow when she found out she'd be doing porn. She figured that was just a next step and that the tabloids wouldn't find out. Riiiight...the tabloids find out stuff that isn't even true, so of course they learned of her new gig.

The other guests were the mother and father who were arrested for hiring a stripper for their underage son's birthday party. They were exposed when the store that developed the photos from that party found shots of the completely nude stripper in compromising positions and turned them in. Here's the thing: as soon as the stripper started getting really naked, the mother left the room, and the father admitted that he felt really uncomfortable about the whole thing but did nothing to stop it. Oh, it gets better. The father was talking about taking care of the kids on his own when the mother felt too depressed to get out of bed, and he said he had to make sure he was home often because "you can't leave teenagers home alone for too long." What was this guy trying to protect them from that he thought would be worse than a stripper?

I pass no judgment on anyone who strips or acts in porn, or who watches strippers or pornography. It's none of my business what consenting adults do. But there are people out there who are less able to separate what they see in a strip club or adult video from what people do on a day-to-day basis, and so they think that just because a woman in a video gets all hot and bothered with a stranger, that a woman minding her business on the subway during rush hour would appreciate a pat or a grab from someone she doesn't know. If we're going to continue to advocate the freedom of expression that allows pornography, we should advocate even more strongly about safe sex and respect for our fellow humans.

If the richest men in the world can do it...

Perhaps it is old news by now that Bill Gates is relinquishing his duties at Microsoft to focus on his work with his foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Now, following in his footsteps is the second-richest man in the world, Warren Buffett. He's giving most of his money to the Gates' foundation as well, and other fractions will go to other Buffett family foundations that support education, the environment, child protection, and the arts. Read more here

I hope our local and national politicians are taking note. It's time for the top 1% of this country to do some good for the people who need the money most.

Death of a Terrorist

Last week, I tried to post my thoughts about the big celebration that was the Death of al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda, but alas blogger was down and I have since forgotten all that I was going to say. So I'll just say that for some reason this huge celebration of someone's death seems just so creepy and morbid, and all it does is bring us down to the level of all those people who were dancing in the streets in the Middle East after the fall of the World Trade Center in 2001. Yes, I understand that al-Zarqawi was a horrible terrorist and allowed horrible things to happen. But he's still a human. In a recent video, he could barely figure out how to shoot a gun (which somehow reminds me of the Dick Cheney hunting incident a while ago). Al-Zarqawi is dead now, and perhaps the battle in life with his own demons is over, and perhaps he's fighting a different battle now in death. How does his murder validate all the wrongdoings this presidential administration has committed leading up to this point? What will they think of next?

Another Conservative who gets mad props for being Green

President Bush's pick for Treasury Secretary, Henry (Hank) Paulson, is an unabashed environmentalist and may actually bring some insight to this administration about how to support the economy and boost green initiatives throughout this country. The fact that he's a Republican proves that the environment isn't a liberal cause, it affects everyone all over the world, regardless of political leaning. I hope that he can make a difference and start revolutionizing the way people think about the economy and good business practices. Someday soon, people will realize that many green business practices aren't actually more expensive than their conventional counterparts, and shortly after that, the cost of being green will be the same or less all the way across the board.
In the meantime, read Grist Magazine's profile of Paulson.

Face to face with a real live journalist

Joel Achenbach, a journalist at the Washington Post, columnist for National Geographic magazine, and published author, is definitely one of my favorite journalists. His blog through Washington Post online has a regular following of people who chat through his comments section instead of doing work all day (no I'm not one of them). In any case, now you can watch him talk online at bloggingheads.tv. He's not a regular guest, he just agreed to appear and talk about his WP article about global warming skeptics. Achenbach regularly talks about environmental issues, and he does it in such a way that it's not preachy or intimidating and he encourages discussion from all viewpoints. He also teaches a journalism class at a university in the DC area (I don't remember which one--maybe GW?). What a cool class that would be. I'd much prefer him to the jerky guy I had for feature writing, who stole the best question I ever asked a magazine editor.

Cruellas DeVille

Maybe if someone fixed Social Security in this country, these women wouldn't be bilking the insurance companies out of thousands of dollars. Or maybe they just really hate homeless people. Either way, it's a sad story and a lesson about trusting people.

Two Elderly Women Jailed in Deadly Insurance Scam

The Greener Side of Prince Charles

I'll admit that I know very little about England. I know they have accents (which sometimes I mix up with Australian accents) and that they're generally more socially aware than Americans. I also know that their Parliament sessions are more like verbal rugby. One of the many things I didn't know is that Prince Charles is quite a progressive thinker when it comes to urban planning. Well, countryside-urban, anyway. Read this National Geographic magazine excerpt about his management of his hundreds-of-years-old estate, the Dutchy of Cornwall, that he hopes his sons will take on when he becomes king.

On a totally random side note, is that what "pass the dutchy" means? I didn't think so...