Mystery Solved, aka An Ode to Tanner Welsh

I have been honestly putting off this email because I don't even know where to begin with you, Tanner.  But too often I have fallen silent about the people I care about for the pure fact that I care SO MUCH that I don't even have the words to express it.  This will obviously be sent as an email to RG, too, but I thought it was only right that I should update my blog, too.

For those of you who don't know, I got this book in the mail a while back, and I had no idea where it came from or why.  It was called "We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion."  Without looking over the book, I was obviously taken aback, and slightly...confused.  What is someone trying to tell me by sending an almanac of human emotion?  "Here, robot, learn some!"  I wrote a blog about it, but no one came forward...

I emailed the company from whence the book came and got this email in return: "I have reviewed your order and it appears to have been sent to you and paid by Tanner Welsh."  Imagine my surprise!  As it turns out, the book is quite amazing.  It's based on the idea that journals have slowly become replaced by blogs as social networking became mainstream.  The authors created an algorithm to constantly filter through blogs for the phrase "I feel" or "I am feeling," and they started keeping track of self-reported emotions.  The book is this projected amalgamated by location, age, important dates, etc. since 2005.

How amazing.  Not only is this book really interesting for a blogger like me, but also for someone who is working in a project which aims to quantify emotions like engagement, motivation, empathy and confidence to understand social actions across location, project, and movement. 

Tanner, I don't know how you know me so well.  And I'm not really sure why you choose to continue knowing me, and continue to make some of my days the brightest I've had, just for pure fact that you're a part of them.  But you do.  I'm so grateful to have you in my life.  I really hope that I can do the same for you at some point.  And in case my words or actions don't come at the right time that you need them, just ask me when you do.  Because I love you so much, Tanner Welsh.  You spend so much of your time being a rock for other people, I really hope that you know that-- while I may not be well qualified or well-equipped-- I will be your pebble nonetheless.  And I think I speak for everyone in our group when I say that.  Us pebbles make a huge wall, so lean away. 

Thank you, Tanner.  You are such a bright, deep light.  I'm just lucky that I get some of those rays :) 

Related articles to check out:

• WeFeelFine.org - How Are People Feeling? (killerstartups.com)
• Study: Bloggers Are Happy (geeksaresexy.net)

Johanna Rae and the Mystery of the Amazon Book

A couple of days ago, a bubble-wrapped package showed up at my door.  Let me tell you, I love getting mail.  There's something so much more personal about a handwritten letter than an email, and I need not remind you of my stationary obsession.  So a personal package? YES.

I tore into it-- okay, I used scissors-- to find that I am the customer and the recipient.  Yet it was ordered on the day I was driving back from New York, and has not appeared on my credit cards.

I don't quite understand.  It's called, "We Feel Fine."  Intrigued?  So was I!  I haven't really looked in it, in case I should be sending it back, but it's called "an almanac of human emotion."  Even more intrigued?  Me too!  But, I'm also a little disturbed.

Is this supposed to be some sort of message?  Like, "Hey, Robot, here's a book of human emotions, LEARN SOME."  Or,  "Here's something to store in that icebox (where your heart used to be)."

Come on, people.  Gift message that shite! 

I wrote the company to make sure that no one has stolen my identity and opened up a credit card in my name and is going on crazy shopping sprees and ruining my credit.  And, ya know, sent me this book as a thank you.  And as a jumping point for when I'm speechless after finding out that I'm somehow $15,000 in credit card debt, and yet still miniature pig- and e-reader-less.  (Yes, that's right, if I was that far into debt, I would totally have my teacup pig and my B&N nook right now.  My needs are simple.)

Does anyone have any information about this mystery book?  Please let me know.  Though I do enjoy playing Nancy Drew (still missing 26 books of that 1940s collection, if my next mystery sender needs ideas).  I will pull out my titian-haired wig and pull on my green cotton, knee-length, wide-shoulder, empire-waist dress.  With nothing but my flashlight and my wits to protect me, I will solve the Mystery of the Amazon Book!

Look out, mystery sender, Johanna Rae is on your trail!

I had to clean my room

I had to clean my room today.  It looked like a mix between a frat house and the movie Signs. 

Let me explain.  I hate doing laundry.  I really like folding laundry.  But everything else-- separating clothes, putting them away-- kill me now.  So, to avoid this menial task, I tend to put off doing laundry for as long as possible.  I will buy more underwear and have stocked extra bedsheets for this very reason. 

In fact, just last week I thought I had beaten the system after not having done laundry in... well, I shouldn't tell you.  But I walked into Wild Wing and told Tonya smugly that I hadn't done laundry because I'd figured a way out.  She (slightly disgusted, I'm sure) asked, "how?"

"I unpacked my winter clothes."  Oh yes, I'm brilliant.

And even though, every time I do laundry, I end up donating two bags of clothes to GW or NKF, it doesn't matter.  It still piles up.  So after piling up clothes in my closet, I had to start piling it up on the side of my bed, and in trash bags, and... well, you get the idea.  Hence the frat house look.  The smell is debatable.  (Are you completely not wanting to be my friend anymore?  I don't blame you, I am a slob 33% of the time. Luckily for house/roommates, I keep it confined to my personal space.)

The reference to Signs is much simpler, and while you may think it's because the smell might attract aliens and the mess would give them good hiding places, it's really just because I'm obsessed with drinking water.  So there are half empty glasses, bottles, mason jars, etc. of water on every flat surface.  At least it's not beer bottles.   Then it really would be a frat house and would definitely smell like one.

So I'm cleaning.  The End.  You may throw up now.

A letter for you senator

Go to your senator's homepage. Hit "Contact us" or whatever, and type something akin to thi, please:

I am writing to push for you to support the health care reform bill, and to push other Senators in Congress to support the bill as well. I hope that you can utilize this letter as one example of many our your constituents who elected you to the Senate. We believed in your ability to support our causes, but also because we believed that you would stand up for these causes firmly, vocally, and without reprieve.

There are several reasons that I find this bill to be important. First, there needs to be reform for pre-existing conditions. I think we can agree there. But if insurance companies must cover individuals, individuals MUST have health insurance. If your religion (e.g. Christian Science) or your culture (e.g. Amish) prevent you from seeking medical care, fine-- that is a case in which the government has no right to interfere.

But, in cases like mine, a personal mandate is necessary. I'm 22 years old, I just graduated college, I'm working two part-time jobs, and I'm in good health. Without a personal mandate, and knowing that I cannot be denied for a pre-existing condition, I can wait to get health care. Until I am sick, until I am pregnant, etc. Until then, I will go about my life not worrying, because, should there be an emergency of some sort, I must be cared for, even if I don't have health insurance. And the insured will pay for me, a cost reflected in their premiums.

Lastly, I do not think that a public option would kill the private sector. I went to Wellesley College, a private college in Massachusetts, which "competes" with public universities-- the difference between the two is that they offer different things. I wanted smaller classes, high interactions with professors, and a reserved campus. I was also willing to pay for for these private college amenities. These I would not have found had I gone to Boston University, though I have many friends who did attend BU and loved it. The same can be said for school/town sports, the post office/ UPS, and others. The same it will be for the public vs. the private option in health care. What's the phrase? "Different strokes for different folks." The same can and should be offered in health insurance.

Thank you so much for reading this letter. I hope that you will understand my deepest concern for the future of health care, since I will be under its hand for a long time to come. I hope that you will become an advocate for the health care reform bill (I know the ins and outs, and what passing it would mean-- I'm okay with most of the extras tagged on, too, if it means passing the reform).

Sincerely,

Your name here

This is something I did really quickly, but you get the idea. We NEED to pass health care reform. So PLEASE do this. Don't make me email each of you personally. I'll do it. Stupid Lieberman is going to switch to the Republicans side for this? Making the debate filibuster-proof? NOT OKAY.

The No Bell Pizza Prize

Maybe I'm having a "don't you talk about my momma/Obama!" moment, but now I'm just getting angry.  Because while I'm upset over the lack of "change" going on right now, I can't take it anymore.  And since I just wrote about this particular subject to friends, I thought I would share it here.

Okay, I'm doing it: 

First of all--in response to criticisms that he received the prize just because he's "not George Bush"-- that's stupid.  No one on the list of peace prize laureates is like George Bush.

Moving on.  Why the uproar?  Has everyone who has received the prize in the past achieved great things by the time they were nominated, even by the time they received the prize?  More recently, Al Gore received the peace prize in 2007 (w/ the UN panel) for his work on climate change awareness.  Yet two years later, we have yet to see any comprehensive energy reform in the US, much less in the entire world.  Hell, we haven't even convinced everyone climate change exists.  I don't remember an uproar there-- "But, why Gore? He doesn't deserve it! It's all talk!  He hasn't done anything yet!" 

How about in 1964, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the peace prize.  By the time of his nomination, the civil rights movement had not yet won the Civil Rights Act, or the Voting Rights Act.  Furthermore, did he deserve the prize over the people in Alabama or Mississippi or North Carolina who spearheaded the movement rather than figureheaded it?  Let's not forget the efforts of Abernathy, or Robinson (to name a couple).  --"But, Dr. King? He just gave a nice speech in Washington.  He hasn't really done anything yet!  In fact, it's been years and no laws have been passed!"

I don't mean to downplay the achievements of these men or anyone else who has received the prize in the past.  But to pretend that this is the first time the award has been given to someone who has not yet achieved the successes for which they aim would be an ill-informed criticism.  And it's not like he nominated or chose himself-- he was just as shocked as anyone else, and said himself that he didn't deserve to be among the other winners. 
(What he said: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7bHkH779qg)

I am just as impatient as everyone else.  But when Obama says that this prize is a "call to action," I get happy.  Period.  Because, I'm sorry, he got elected.  No, no--rather, we elected him.  Let's not forget that, it's not a passive sentence, we performed the action.  And now what?  We are just sitting here, waiting to be transformed as a nation.  He told us to hold him accountable.  How many of us, how many of the people who elected him, are doing that?  Are we putting pressure on him to pass health care reform?  To pass immigration reform?  To pass energy reform?  No, but the minority of the nation is pressuring Congress not to, or at least not to pass it in the ways Obama said we'd see it. 

On that note-- have we forgotten that Obama doesn't make the laws? He doesn't write them.  He doesn't pass them.  If we want to see these things happen, and are angry that they haven't happened as quickly as we see fit, we are placing blame in the wrong place.  Maybe we should look at our Congressmen and Congress women.  Or, to get to the root of the problem, maybe we should look at ourselves.  Whose country is this, anyway?

But whatever.  It's easier to email/gchat/tweet/facebook message our friends about how he hasn't done anything yet. 

There.  There's some perspective for ya.

/rant. 

Someone's in the kitchen...

If you don't cook, you should.  If you do, go vegan.  It's a fun challenge.  One at which I've utterly failed as of late (Damn you, cheese and yogurt!  Damn you, lack of Whole Foods in the south!). 

Regardless, I've been enjoying my favorite snack-- sweetriot chocolate bars. Yep, they're expensive.  But they're also vegan, and dark chocolate.  Oh, and they're pretty friendly to humans and the earth in the process.

On that note, I've realllyyy been wanting to try this recipe.  If you can find the ingredients (yeah, south Charlotte sucks) you need to try this out, it's really quick and probably tastes like heaven: vegan chocolate mix.

Lastly, homemade focaccia.  If you are one of those freaks who considers yeast and honey and all that stuff non-vegan, then skip over it. 

That's all.  Oh, and Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize?  Let's not talk about it.  Why? Because there's nothing to talk about.  He hasn't actually DONE anything yet, that's true.  I agree with progressive.org on this one.   Or SNL, incidentally:

I think that it will give him momentum, and he has inspired people around the world.  So I'll give him that.  And I'd rather him get it now when he is trying to pass these laws and move towards peace, rather than after he got out of office.  Hopefully it will only help the causes over which I'm so unnerved (due to inaction).  I'll try to be a bit more optimistic.  But my cynical side sometimes takes over my pragmatic side when it comes to politics.  So if Obama truly takes this as a "call to action," as an expectation rather than an affirmation, I'm happy about it.

I'll be lightning

Alright, so now that I've been embarrassed by Peyton who, though inspired by me (among others) to create a blog, now updates about 20x as often as I do.

I don't even remember what my last post was about. So let me do a quick update about the things I have going on/am currently interested in:

I'm a research assistant working on analyzing immigrant youth trainings in FL and CO.  I'm also going to Boston soon to do some other RA work for my old Wellesley prof.  Dreamactivist.org = awesome.

I bought her book (now available in paperback, unfortunately not at B&N) which is about the process by which people become motivated and involved in the politics.  I may even be a super dork and ask her to sign it.

Supreme Court ruled that apparently selling videos of dog fights and animal brutality and such is completely protected under the freedom of speech (US v. Stevens, look it up).  Scalia says, what about the people who like dogfighting? A NYTimes op-ed says, it's true, we may hate racists but we can't stop Nazis from marching or the KKK from spewing racist remarks.  I say, true, but we don't allow them to sell video tapes of the Holocaust or lynching.  Because that means they committed a crime in order to make the video, am I right? Mkay.  And for money? Ugh.  Sick.

Apple, Inc. cancelled membership in the US Chamber of Commerce over their position in environmental policy.  Whether you love them or hate them, Apple took a positive stand for the environment, and that makes me happy.  Even if they do plan obsolescence.  Which is bad for the environment.  Their Forbes number was pretty low, too, on the list of "green" businesses.  Donahue says the US Chamber supports climate action, but not the Markey-Waxman version.  Which is really stupid, because cap-and-trade favors large, multinational businesses who can afford to buy more permits.  Duh, did they even read the bill?

In other news, I hate words like "green" and "organic" and "sustainable."  So dumb, and no one even really knows what they mean, anyway. 

Sen. Boxer (man, I wish I lived in a cool state where my senators DID something) is telling the EPA to do something about the water issue in public schools.  Good for her.

This health care stuff has got to go.  Two-thirds of Americans support a public option and yet it's been voted down every time in committee.  Who do these people in Congress think they work for?  Tough call, since we voted them in but the pharmaceuticals pay for it.

Also, what exactly is the problem with an individual mandate?? We tell insurance companies they have to cover us, but then don't mandate that people buy it?  What then, would stop me, a healthy 22-year old, from going about my life without health insurance-- using the emergency room if I need to-- and waiting until I get cancer to buy insurance?  That would make everyone's premiums go up.  How do people not get that?  Sometimes I think this country is doomed to fail because of bad logic.

Alright, that's all for now.  Yeah, I know, boring.  But hey, maybe you learned something.  And if you read the comments on other blog posts you can learn something about me.  Other than that I'm a political junkie.

Oh, and Amazon dropped the price of their Kindle.  Which makes me more financially able to swing such a purchase, and yet I still have mixed feelings about my role in the death of the printed word.  Hmm.

OH!  I saw Whip It and now I'm obsessed with being a roller derby girl (even though I'm missing it in the QC on Oct. 21st!).  What should my name be?  Help a girl out!!! (I used three exclamation points, so you know I'm serious.)

Related articles:

• Supreme Court To Hear Animal Sex Fetish Case; "Crush Videos," Dogfighting Footage May Be Treated Like Child Porn (huffingtonpost.com)
• Green Inc.: Chamber of Commerce Chief Is Defiant (greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com)