Life as I see it

mallrat

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:52:00 +0000

I've only been to a few museums here over the past few months, but everyone keeps asking for photos of the museums and monuments, so I've been working on them. I may not get to the rest of them until after Christmas (or at least until Adam is done with exams and I can use the laptop more frequently), but these are a few I've taken over the past couple of months while walking around the National Mall.

This is just a little thumbnail preview, so be sure to go see the photos on Flickr.

For those keeping score, the touristy places I've been so far:
Smithsonian Castle
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
National Gallery of Art - West and East (favorite!)
Museum of American History*
Museum of Natural History* (really cool!)
Museum of the American Indian
National Portrait Gallery
Museum of American Art
National Zoo*
National Cathedral*
Georgetown
Eastern Market
(*I didn't actually see the whole place - need to go back and see the rest!)
DC has approximately ONE ZILLION touristy things to see and do. I am pretty sure it will take years to get to them all.

mister grumpypants and senorita surprised

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:00:00 +0000

by popular demand

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:59:00 +0000

After repeated requests from family and friends, I finally got around to posting a few (very few) painfully uninspired photos of my apartment on flickr. We've lived here for about four months now so I guess it's about time. I do like this apartment quite a bit. There are many things I miss about our last place, but this one is great in it's own way. I love the windows, which span one entire side of the place. I love the kitchen, which lets me do all of the prep with a clear view of the tv (do not underestimate the joy of this, even for someone who doesn't watch a ton of tv). I love the proximity to the trails and parks, and the fact that I live about 2 minutes from the DC line but still see deer feeding in the woods behind our building regularly. It's nice.

I'm hoping to get a few more photos from recent months up this weekend, but that depends on some outside factors, so ... we shall see.

here we are now entertain us

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:19:00 +0000

Rob shared this little gem with me. This is a surprisingly good mashup of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". It's definitely worth geeking out over, and would make a fun backdrop for a sociological study of youth culture/counterculture cross-pollination.

I'm sure no one remembers this, but this is actually not the first cover of this song I've shared here. The first was last year, when I found a cover of the same song by the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain(!). Here, I'll refresh your memory:

And, what the hell, while I'm at it, here's one of my personal favorites: Paul Anka's lounge swing cover.

Have a good weekend.

the personal is political

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:13:00 +0000

Anyone who has ever been in my home and has seen the the framed prints on the walls knows that I have a thing for vintage advertising. The colors, the graphics, the artwork, the hand-drawn lettering - it has always appealed to me. Bourgeois, perhaps, but that's me. Though most of what is readily commercially available as prints are French and Italian product advertisements, the US has its own home-grown collection, in the WPA posters. Their subject matter is largely in the realm of public service announcements of all sorts: war-time issues, educational programs, domestic tourism and natural resources, civic concerns, and health. The health posters are some of the most interesting, in that they send the message that it was every citizen's duty to do everything possible to stay healthy for the good of their country. America needed healthy citizens in order to prosper.

Yesterday afternoon, I was browsing the shelves at the bookstore, when I found a book of WPA posters. As I thumbed through it, I saw a poster I had never seen before, and it gave me pause. It was this:

Lack of funds need not discourage from seeking competent medical care.

-----

I know a lot of people who have no health insurance - a lot of people that are very dear to me. There is a member of my family in the hospital at this very moment because he did not go to the doctor when he began to get sick, because since he has been out of work, he has had no health insurance and no financial means to pay out-of-pocket for a doctor visit. Lack of funds discouraged him from seeking competent medical care.

I have said many times that the primary reason I am working in the job I am, rather than pursuing a line of work I might prefer, is for the health insurance. I am terrified to let it lapse for so much as a second, lest we be denied coverage again. Adam had to have a couple of surgeries a few years ago, and I'm a woman, which seems to be only inches away from being its own preexisting condition (we're already charged more). I worry about what we would find in the current private insurance market. And what if I lose my job? What then? There's no way we could afford COBRA payments. And so I worry. I live in fear of financial meltdown due to medical bills.

When Adam was sick, we had wonderful insurance, but I still saw the bills. They were astronomical. And even though the medical expenses were covered, he was out of work for a couple of months, and I took several weeks off as well. We tore right through our meager savings and spent the next several years trying to catch back up. In truth, we never fully have.

And yet, for all of this, we were still so, so much better off than so many. We had good insurance. We had jobs that let us take time off and still come back at the end. We had enough credit that we were able to still buy groceries and gas and pay the electric bill, even when the bank accounts had already been depleted.

What of those that do not? If I live with this worry even while I have a job and insurance, how must those without these things feel? How would they pay for the hospital bills? How would they continue to pay the rent while they can't work? We all live on the edge of a knife, just one cough away from personal meltdown.

This is wrong.

-----

An exchange from a few years ago that has stayed with me:

Me: "I have dental insurance, but I can't really afford the co-pays for some of the services I need to have done."

Person who shall remain nameless: "Well, at least we don't have socialized medicine like in Canada or something. You'd have to wait three months just to get in the door."

Me: "I had to wait six months for my appointment."

For the record, the appointment was not for a routine cleaning, which are usually six months apart; it was to have cavities examined and possibly filled. Six months. Private insurance through my employer only covered one dental office in the entire city, which lends to the long wait time for an appointment, and would only pay for a fraction of what I needed to have done. The dentist suggested that my best option was to drive 150 miles south to the nearest dental college and have the work done by students, since that was more affordable.

-----

The poster above was created in 1936. It was created by and for the generation of Americans that suffered the hardships of the Great Depression, and then gave all of themselves during WWII. This was the Greatest Generation that we look back to today with respect for their sacrifices, their hard work, and their ideals. This is the generation that brought us many of the social programs that we benefit from today, and have become so much an integral aspect of our society that many often forget that they are social programs at all. And yet we live now with a health care system that stratifies us based on our ability to pay, while people decry the evils of social programs.

I believe that a government is made of and for its people, and it must always act to protect the rights of those people. Private insurance companies have a right to make a profit, but not when it infringes upon the right of the people - all of the people; the healthy and the sick, the rich and the poor, the employed and the unemployed - to have ready, complete, affordable, and equal access to health care. This is not conservative, liberal, moderate, socialist, or any other political category. It is about citizens understanding that we are all stronger when we are all stronger. It is human. It is American.

halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:41:00 +0000

Halloween is, by far, my favorite holiday. Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain again tomorrow, and Adam is sick. My planned excursion sold out weeks ago. I'm suffering from a bit of choice overload, along with the guilt of asking Adam to go out and do anything. I'm thinking that if it's not raining, we may settle on just a nice walk to check out the decorations in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Bright spot: one of my all-time favorite movies, The Haunting, is on TCM tomorrow morning. (The original, black-and-white from 1963. Not the 1999 remake; that was horrible.) It's not gory, there are no chainsaws or vampires, but to me, it's a great scary movie. I have a vivid memory of one scene where one of the characters is kind of entranced, and is walking up this spindly, rickety spiral staircase. To this day, I always think of that scene whenever I have to climb up a sprial staircase, and they still creep me out. I think I'll DVR it and watch it once we get home from our walk.

happy anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Today is Becky and David's first wedding anniversary. So I'm going to celebrate this is in the best way I know how: by making it all about me. One year ago today I was trying to balance the joy I was feeling at watching my sister marry the man she loves, and the butterflies in my stomach at being their photographer. Because let's face it, I had no idea what the hell I was doing. In the end, though, I think it worked out pretty well all around. So this is my anniversary gift to you both. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

I'm very happy for both of you, and I hope you have a wonderful day.

You can see a a small selection of the photos here; and while we're on the topic, the album is here, and there is a preview of the first few pages online.

a bit of housekeeping

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:57:00 +0000

I have not written in ... a while. A long, long while. There are a lot of ~~reasons~~ excuses for why I haven't, but I won't bore you with them. Let's just say that the longer you stay off the horse, the harder it seems to climb back onto it. But I have a lot of reasons to start again.

Most of the people reading this already know this, but Adam and I are now living in Washington, D.C. It is great. I'm watching leaves turn to lovely fall colors for the first time in years. We're in the middle of a huge, bustling city, but there is so much green space around it's unbelievable. I've seen deer several times - crazy! There's a bike trail that runs right behind our building. Take a left, go about a mile, and you're in downtown Bethesda. Take a right, go about a block, and there is a side-trail to a beautiful creek. Keep going for another mile or two and you're at the Potomac River. In short, I'm going to miss Florida winters, but so far, I love DC.

Adam is going to law school at American University - Washington College of Law. It's obviously a ton of work, but he seems to be enjoying it. I'm seeing him focus on this in a way I have never seen him focus on anything before. The downside (for me) is that he doesn't have time to do much on the weekends other than study, but I'm happy to see him so involved in this.
As an aside, it is really, really, really expensive. Really.

I still have my same job (hooray health insurance!), but I now work remotely from here full time. In my apartment. It's Casual Friday every day around here. Though, my job is really entirely different than it was a year ago. I was the lead on a pretty big project and had a chance to collaborate with a lot of really great people from all over the company, and got a pretty nice award for it right before we moved. So that's going okay for now, I guess. I dunno.

Also, I've been posting some old stuff to my Flickr page. Go check it out. I'm trying to add something at least once a week, but it's contingent upon me being able to pry the laptop away from Adam.
Oh, and all those photos from my sister's wedding? I still haven't added them to my Flickr, but last year I set up a secondary account to host them. You can see a handful of them here, but more on that tomorrow (hint!)

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:01:00 +0000

This blog is not dead. It was just hibernating. After a good cup of coffee, it will be awake again.

wondering where I've been?

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:41:00 +0000

Editing all of these bad boys:

That would be my dad walking my sister down the aisle at her wedding last month. And that creepy person off the to side, taking photos while trying desperately not to sink into the soft, squishy mud while wearing high heels ... that would be me.

We took over 1600 pictures ... of those probably 1000 were mine (Adam took this one). I've promised to have the final edits done by tomorrow so cds can be passed out to family and friends on Thanksgiving. Also, I've given myself a deadline of December 5 to have the album ordered. So maybe after all that I will finally post some on here. But for now, I have an all-nighter ahead of me.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

favorite things: delicious, slimy sea creatures come full circle edition

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:19:00 +0000

April 2006
I happened to catch the episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain visits Osaka. Perhaps you recall me mentioning it. I'm actually a pretty big fan of the show in general, but the Osaka episode is still one of my favorites. So, this show was my first introduction to takoyaki. Takoyaki are basically little dumplings full of octopus and green onion and other goodness, smothered in bonito flakes and a sweet brown sauce and sometimes Japanese mayonnaise (not the same thing as that jar of Hellmans in your fridge). When I saw them, I knew that I had to have them. Unfortunately for me, the takoyaki craze has apparently not yet swept this nation, as I spent the next two years fruitlessly searching for them. Even my beloved Kitcho in Tallahassee didn't make them.

September(?) 2007
Adam and I broke down one day and ordered a special takoyaki pan online. It's basically a little cast-iron griddle with round wells for batter. Adam and I did a little recipe research and created what we thought might be a passable batter. We dutifully cooked and cleaned and chopped dozens of little octopi. Rob happened to be at our house that day, and I believe the process may have scarred him for life. So we made our own little takoyaki. They were ... ok. I knew there was more to them, something we were missing.

May 2008
Adam and I are in New York City. Kuidaore is the name of the game. Enter Menchenko-Tei. It was already on our list of food stops because it was (1) cheap, (2) well reviewed on Midtown Lunch, and (3) highly recommended by Adam's coworker in their Midtown office. When we walked in, it was really late at night. Honestly, I was surprised they were even open. I was devestatingly tired, and still full from our last meal. (We may have eaten dinner four times that night. Maybe. Who can resist Grey's Papaya, a random vegan restaurant in the East Village, an awesome gyro cart, and ramen when they all happen to be presented to you within the span of a few hours? Not us, apparently. Although we split meals each time, so it was like four half meals. But still. It was all about kuidaore.) And lo and behold, but they make takoyaki. I may have squealed out loud. And they were good. Not exactly what I had expected. Much softer and lighter than the ones I had made, but good. I do regret that I was so extremely full already when they arrived, because I don't think I enjoyed them at their full potential. But I wasn't going to be deterred.

June 2008
The search continues for takoyaki in Florida with no success.

November 2008
Adam and I make our regular trip to Ha Tien, a little Vietnamese grocery store nearby. We may go there too often, because the owner recognizes us every time and seems to know our preferences, and he always has suggestions for new stuff for us to try based on what we usually buy. He's awesome. Anyway, I'm at the back of the store, looking through the door of the freezer case at gyoza and shumai, trying to remember if I have any left at home. And then, I see this:

It's freaking frozen takoyaki, just sitting there waiting for me. This is new. These weren't here before. Oh, bless you, Vietnamese store man! I grabbed two bags and practically sprinted toward the cash register. We went straight home and broke out the takoyaki pan to give them that crispy, golden-brown outside. I'd been looking for these things for two and a half years, and now I'd found them. And they were good. Now, I know they were pre-made and flown halfway across the world and pumped full of preservatives and a million other things that should have made me dislike them. But they were so good. I generally prefer to make something homemade rather then buy it ready-made, and now that I know what they're supposed to be like, I will probably make them from scratch again. But for the moment, I am fully reveling in the knowledge that in my freezer is a bag with a little antropomorphized octopus on the front, waiting just for me.

Now, watch this video. It is awesome. Seriously. Adam says this is his new favorite series. I am inclined to concur.

hell effing YES, America!

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:28:00 +0000

Today is a beautiful day.

favorite things: one of the few times I think kids are cute edition

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:50:00 +0000

ok ok ok fine

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:16:00 +0000

I've totally overextended myself. We all knew I wasn't going to post anything last weekend, right? Anyway, here is a quick wrap-up of my life as of late.

First, photos. I have many, many, MANY photos to work through. We recently got a new computer, and in the process of converting from Windows to Mac, my organization system for them has become slightly less ... well, organized. It needs work. Work which I will not get a chance to even begin until November probably. So just a heads up.

Adam finished his thesis. I'm really proud of him. The rewrite started by literally cutting the whole thing up into pieces and storyboarding it on the wall in our hallway. I have a picture of that ... somewhere. Also, he just took the LSAT and is getting ready to start applying to law schools. Did I mention I'm really proud of him? Adam is awesome.

Becky and David are getting married in two and a half weeks. I'm so happy and excited for them, but I'd forgotten how exhausting the whole wedding process is. Craziness! I threw Becky and Halloween-themed bridal shower last weekend, which was pretty fun. I tried to go for a whole glam-goth Moriticia Addams thing, but I'm most proud of the invitations I made for it. Just trust me, they were awesome. Also, I found out that the process of paper crafting silhouettes is really quite time consuming.

Work is crazy. I applied for a more interesting and higher paying position in another department (I didn't get it, for the record), and because my company requires full transparency in the application process I informed my supervisor that I had applied. She them informed me that my performance review was the next day. Great timing, that. Actually, considering the circumstance, the review went fairly well. Then, I was approached by yet a third department, who wanted to let me know that they will have an opening soon and hope I will apply. The only problem is that I'm not sure about the long-term stability of that position ... as in, I think it may no longer after a few months. I know layoffs are imminent in my department, but I actually think I just might scrape by through that. Is it worth the risk to apply for this other job? It's more money, but what if I'm out of a job in a few months? But then, I'm not entirely in the clear with that little display of loyalty I put on there ... so I'm really not sure what to do from here. Suggestions welcome.

Ok, so this post is really long already. It's only about 1% of what's been consuming my time and energy lately, but I'll have to pick this back up another time. The debate is on, and I really want to watch it.

ok, fine, I guess I can write something

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:50:00 +0000

I've had two requests in three days to revive my blog. Apparently people read it. I told my sister that I was tired of writing the same entry over and over again about how I'm really busy with work which I kind of hate and how I want to be doing things I like more and blah blah blah angst. But she said half the fun is that I manage to somehow say it differently each time. So I guess that's almost as good as saying something interesting, right? So look for something more here later this weekend.

Until then, take a peek at Art Squeeze and try to guess what I did last night. So glad we're back in season.

I haven't had enough coffee to think of a title for this post

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:09:00 +0000

I got in to work an hour and a half early today to get a jump on the mountain of work I knew I had ahead of me, only to find my inbox absolutely empty when I arrived. I really should have just stayed in bed. I'll still have a mountain of work, it will just arrive later this morning. Boo. But here I am with a few free minutes, so it's blog time. Sadly, I don't have a lot of interesting news to share. Adam has been out of town since last week, and I'm very glad he's flying back tonight, because I'm kind of tired of eating dinner alone.

Although, on Saturday, I had dinner with Becky and David, which was nice. They had stopped by in the afternoon to look at the proofs I had made for their wedding invitations, and we ended up doing a quick photo shoot around the neighborhood. It worked out really well, and they seemed to be having fun with it. I wanted to edit the photos yesterday, but didn't have a chance to devote any time to it. They should be done by next weekend, and I'll post a few. Also downloaded from the CF card were the few shots I took in New York in April, and some from dinner at Eric and Erin's house. I need to go through those, as well as everything I've shot over the past few months that I haven't looked at since I moved them off of the camera. Sigh. Can I get a few more hours added to my day, please?

As I've been typing, my new email notification has popped up a few times, so I think I have some work to do. A tout a l'heure.

ten years

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:25:00 +0000

Ten years ago, Adam and I went on our fist date.
I love you, Adam.

a brief report on an odd weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:38:00 +0000

Red Bull Flugtag downtown. Incomprehensibly crowded. Unbearably hot. 1000% (yes) humidity. Next time, view from a boat.

Dinner at Mr. Dunderbach's. Tiny, crazy, quaint, little place that I CANNOT BELIEVE my husband has waited TEN YEARS to tell me about. Ordered a dish I could not pronounce. It fed me for three meals for less than ten bucks. Intimidatingly large beer selection. Going back soon.

TAPSCON at the Biltmore. SHUT UP. Yeah, I like Ghost Hunters, so what? First time at a real, genuine geek fest. Overpriced admission. Overpriced everything. Got autographs of all the TAPS people from TV, but I don't really know why. Guess I needed an explaination for why I stood in line for 10 minutes just to say hi. Wandered the hotel. Chatted with Dustin Pari in the lobby.

Batman movie. Awesome. Go see it right now. Heath Ledger stole the show, but Maggie Gyllenhal put up a good fight for it. Kind of want to see it again.

I've been waiting for this for ages

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:06:00 +0000

See you Saturday.

ice ice baby

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:43:00 +0000

My freezer is full of fresh ice. My fridge is well stocked with beer and Dr. Pepper. I'm a lonely girl.

My refridgerator is pretty much the standard model that comes in most apartments, but lucky for me the property managers decided to splurge and throw in an icemaker. It does it's job fairly well, and every once in a while I hear the clunky sound of the little mechanical arm dumping ice cubes into the drawer below. There is normally more than enough for just me and Adam, but when we have guests over we run through it very quickly. Some drinks when everyone walks in the door, another round with dinner, a refill or two while we hang out, and before you know it we're down to warm water from the tap and the two random beers in the back of the fridge that no one really wants.

I love having people over, and for about a week my place was pretty busy with people. With Rob and Karen preparing to move 1,200 miles away, and Carl in town for Karen's graduation, and Eric, Erin, and Elizabeth all coming by to hang out while we were all together, we were all trying to cram in as much quality time as possible over the course of a week, and my place became a sort of landing zone. There were a total of eight people in my little apartment for dinner three times in four days. We went through a good bit of Dr. Pepper, ice, and beer.

Carl left on Wednesday morning, and then Rob and Karen left on Friday morning. Adam was out on Friday night with some friends, and I found myself home alone in my suddenly silent, empty house. I made dinner for one, and when I opened the freezer, I noticed that the drawer was full of ice again. I hope it will be gone soon.

just so you know

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:18:00 +0000

If you've wondered why I haven't posted in a month and a half, it's partly because I've been crazy busy, but mostly because I can't blog from work anymore. Boo to that. But I've been really missing it, so I'm going to kick myself in the butt and make some time again. See you again soon.

buzz buzz, busy bee

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Sun, 18 May 2008 13:23:00 +0000

So I've been a bit absent lately ... sorry. Life has been a bit hectic the past few weeks. There was a huge stir up at work. The company sold my entire division, effective immediately upon announcement, and then the next morning they started laying off people from all over the company. I was pretty sure the ax was headed my way. But for an assortment of boring reasons, I became rather important for a couple of weeks during the transition, and managed not to get laid off at the end of it. So I'm transferring to a different area, which is fine with me as long as I get to keep my job. I heart health insurance.

I'm keeping this short because I'm really hungry and I want to go make breakfast. Hasta luego.

argh

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:11:00 +0000

I've written and re-written a follow up to my Earth Day post three times over the past two days, and nothing is coming out right. The point was supposed to be that I'm trying to be conscious of how my actions create an environmental impact, but everything I wrote seemed to be the verbal equivalent of wearing an "I love my hybrid" t-shirt. Also, I'm kind of cranky today, so I'm just going to throw this up on the blog and go watch The Office, and provide more thoughtful commentary later.

First, recycling. I'm all about it. It's difficult, because garbage cans are everywhere, and recycling bins are practically no where. As in, my community does not have a recycling program, so I have to load my recyclables into my car and drive 30 minutes away to recycle my trash, either to my sister's house (where the county collects recyclables) or to the community drop off center. So I've allowed my dining room to be overrun with disturbingly large collections of newspapers, soda bottles (all Adam), beer and wine bottles, plastic deli tubs, and styrofoam egg cartons. I even bring my newspapers and the occasional Frappuccino bottle home from work to recycle instead of throw them out. Still, overall, I feel pretty good about the whole recycling thing. And I'm reusing as many things as possible before getting rid of them, even disposable things like ziplock bags and aluminum foil.

Second, product packaging. Seriously, America, what is with all of this plastic wrap? Name five things you can buy in an average grocery store that have no packaging. All I can come up with here is produce, and most people put that in plastic bags before it even reaches their basket. We're obsessed with wrapping everything in plastic. The worst are the boxes of single-serving to-go packs. I'm guilty of some of them (oatmeal and granola bars), but I try my best to avoid anything with gratuitous waste wrapped around it.

That's it for the moment. Not all I've done, I mean, just all I'm writing tonight. I really do have more to say on this but ... I'm very tired, and somewhat cranky, and I really want to know if Jim is going to propose to Pam, because that would be so adorable.

restoring my faith in humanity

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:40:00 +0000

When I was in high school, I worked in a local grocery store. Every morning, the bakery employees would gather up all of its unsold bread and pastries from the day before and carry them to the receiving dock at the back of the store. It wasn't loaded onto a Second Harvest truck. It wasn't taken to a homeless shelter. It wasn't picked up by a Meals On Wheels volunteer and distributed to people who would be happy to receive it. It was thrown into a dumpster and doused in bleach. Why? Because if someone were to eat the donated food and become sick from it, they could sue the pants off of the company. Fear overrides philanthropy.

I was so appalled by that, but I did nothing. Jack Davis was also appalled, and he did something. Jack Davis is eleven years old. Jack Davis is awesome.

Yesterday, the "Jack Davis Florida Restaurant Lending a Helping Hand Act" was signed into state law. It allows restaurants (not sure on grocery stores) to be free from liability if they donate their leftover food at the end of the day. I'm so pleased with this news. I hope it brings with it a new surge in donations. I think this is a winning situation pretty much all around. Restaurants get to donate their food, which allows them to have fewer (costly!) garbage pickups each week and (I assume) a nice little tax write-off for the donations at the end of the year. Shelters have a steady and reliable source of food donations. Hungry people have a better chance of getting the food assistance they need. Less food goes to waste in a time of rising costs for food and its production and transportation. And a kid gets a law named after him. There is, of course, the risk that someone may become seriously ill as a result of eating bad food that was donated, and now they would have little legal recourse. It's always a moral grey area to say that the ends justify the means, but I still believe that this is a positive step in the right direction.

So good for you, Jack Davis. You actually went out and did what I just wished would happen. Now keep going! Keep this stuff up and I'll be voting for you in a few years.

yo homes, smell ya later

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:05:00 +0000

In case you haven't been reminded six hundred times already, today is Earth Day. When I was a kid, Earth Day meant a day full of special activites at school, when every subject had a special lesson about nature or conservation. Science classes tested water samples for pollutants. Social studies classes talked about deforestation or urban sprawl or land use. Art classes made collages out of newspapers and soda bottles. Math classes even got in on the action with specially themed worksheets full of word problems about planting trees. PE classes ran relays to move trash from garbage cans to recycling bins. In the fifth grade, I remember a special Earth Day music class where we broke out into teams and made up our own song and dance about recycling. Although I no longer remember the words, I do recall that my team chose to use the tune from the theme song for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It was a huge hit, let me tell you. My middle school had volunteers standing at the garbage stations in the lunch rooms to make sure that everyone recycled their soda cans and plastic bottles (all year, not just on Earth Day, actually, and if you threw a recyclable item in the garbage they made you reach in and take it out. Ew.) And, invariably, every year I would come home from school with a tiny tree sapling wrapped in a wet paper towel, show it to my mom, and insist that we plant it in the front yard. That was a big thing, taking that sapling home. I thought it was pretty much the coolest thing in the world that they gave one out to all of the students. I mean, come on -- it's a tree. They usually died after a few weeks, but one of them took root and grew quite large over the course of a few years. I hope it's still there.

Anyway, is it just me, or did everyone seem to forget about Earth Day for about ten years, and now all of a sudden it's an actual event again? Where did everyone's Earth Day fervor come from? Well, obviously, green is the new black, right? But I suppose that it doesn't matter what makes people care, so long as they do. I'm having all kinds of cynical thoughts, and I've been considering turning this into a rant about how people don't actually care, they just want to buy organic cotton tees because they're fashionable and only recycle when someone is looking, but I'm not going to go there. Just FYI.

I want to share with you a blog that I found about a year ago, and it really inspired me to make small changes in my life. No Impact Man began as a sort of social experiement where a family attempts to live with zero ecological footprint ... or as close to zero as is possible in our modern society. Among other things, the author shut off his electricity, started making his own soap and cleansers, walked or biked everywhere, and stopped buying and throwing away things. It was an extreme experiment, not a suggested lifestyle, but it brought to life the fact that it is possible to live without being part of the cycle of consumption and waste, but it's requires genuine determination. We've built our society upon convenience for those who are ok with waste, and inconvenience for those who are not.

So in the renewed spirit of Earth Day, I thought that I would share with you some of my personal changes. Actually, let's pretend it's Earth Week, since I think I will spread this out over the next few days. Most of my changes have been tiny (recycle more) ... so tiny that they seem pathetic and insignificant, especially after talking about No Impact Man. And I still commit a few ecological atrocities from time to time (Clorox wipes). But I'd like to think that when you add everything up, the good things still count for something. Until tomorrow, I'll be trying to figure out how to make a snappy little pun to play off of the fact that dollars are green, and you can buy "green" things with them ... let me know if you have any ideas on that one.