You know when you see a movie and you can't stop thinking about it? Yeah. Miss Representation is completely worth seeing and somewhat depressing but will sum up probably two years of information into an hour and a half. That's probably why different parts of it keep swirling around in my head. What it comes down to is that this completely unfair and unrealistic portrayal of both women and men in the media is leading to some pretty costly consequences for all of us and ridiculous pressure to be perfect in all facets of our lives. Maybe when my thoughts are less "swirly" I'll do a more legit follow up but not today. Just didn't want to leave ya hangin'.
In other news, Jane found this awesome feature of women photojournalists. Yay for women taking up more and different space than they have in the past and breaking boundaries for the ones who are little now.
Here's to hoping there is less violence for photographing in the future.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thanksgiving Edition
Welcome back to work, friends. Cyber Monday is well underway, and I have been resisting the temptation to use all of these sales to buy things for ...myself. Le sigh. Stay tuned for my top secret "doodad" (read: useless waste of money) purchase from last week. It's a doosy.
A friend recently called Thanksgiving the "Day of Sanctioned Gluttony." I stole that term and spread it around faster than the gravy pouring down my heap of turkey and stuffing. The most staggering statistic in all of the food articles I read last week is that the average Thanksgiving Day meal includes 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat. Woah! Fun fact : for a 150-pound person, this would take 39.65 miles of running to burn off, according to G-map Pedometer. But, the good news is that our bodies take care of most of metabolizing this indulgence and as long as you're not working on a full Week of Sanctioned Gluttony, you're probably in the clear.
In other news, Miss Representation is being screened tomorrow night at BU Medical Campus. This is only the second screening in the Greater Boston area and promises to be an interesting documentary and discussion following. I'm quite excited. You should be excited too... for a blog entry about it!
Have a splendid week.
A friend recently called Thanksgiving the "Day of Sanctioned Gluttony." I stole that term and spread it around faster than the gravy pouring down my heap of turkey and stuffing. The most staggering statistic in all of the food articles I read last week is that the average Thanksgiving Day meal includes 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat. Woah! Fun fact : for a 150-pound person, this would take 39.65 miles of running to burn off, according to G-map Pedometer. But, the good news is that our bodies take care of most of metabolizing this indulgence and as long as you're not working on a full Week of Sanctioned Gluttony, you're probably in the clear.
In other news, Miss Representation is being screened tomorrow night at BU Medical Campus. This is only the second screening in the Greater Boston area and promises to be an interesting documentary and discussion following. I'm quite excited. You should be excited too... for a blog entry about it!
Have a splendid week.
Monday, November 21, 2011
School pizza
Pizza is not a vegetable. Let's just get that out of the way right off the bat. It is cheesy, delicious, topped with all kinds of things, generally declares itself thin or thick crust and did I mention delicious? I'm actually eating a slice right now for lunch, but I'm sure as heck not counting it as one of my vegetable servings for the day.
The House GOP would like me to. Their new spending plan, proposed last week, is their way of scaling back more stringent guidelines on nutritional standards for school lunches which were released earlier this year by the USDA. They describe these guidelines and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 as a "massive and costly federal intrusion."
The best line of the whole article is an expression of several in Congress who think the "government shouldn't be telling children what to eat." Whoever said that is silly. They are silly because the government has its mitts in every step of the process of what children eat, from where it's grown and in what quantities and with what chemical assistance, to how it's transported to the price it's sold for to literally in what state it can come through the door of that school. See? Wicked silly.
If all these people want to do is reinforce the current patterns of the government subsidizing growth of corn and potatoes and other crops that can be easily processed and transformed into pizza crusts, then of course we are going to continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars on obesity, in direct medical costs.
And besides that, school pizza wasn't even that good.
The House GOP would like me to. Their new spending plan, proposed last week, is their way of scaling back more stringent guidelines on nutritional standards for school lunches which were released earlier this year by the USDA. They describe these guidelines and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 as a "massive and costly federal intrusion."
The best line of the whole article is an expression of several in Congress who think the "government shouldn't be telling children what to eat." Whoever said that is silly. They are silly because the government has its mitts in every step of the process of what children eat, from where it's grown and in what quantities and with what chemical assistance, to how it's transported to the price it's sold for to literally in what state it can come through the door of that school. See? Wicked silly.
If all these people want to do is reinforce the current patterns of the government subsidizing growth of corn and potatoes and other crops that can be easily processed and transformed into pizza crusts, then of course we are going to continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars on obesity, in direct medical costs.
And besides that, school pizza wasn't even that good.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Hip Hip Hooray!
Thank goodness some people think I'm spending money wisely :) ...and thank goodness I only have one more paper and one more exam this semester!
And thank goodness for three day weekends. I feel refreshed and relaxed, just in time for some Monday Madness. I have to say, though, that the Movember 'staches in my office are getting pretty amusing. There aren't any photos there yet, but I'm told there will be soon, so stay tuned. I think we have some World Champ contenders for next year! (Who even knew such a thing existed?!)
And thank goodness for three day weekends. I feel refreshed and relaxed, just in time for some Monday Madness. I have to say, though, that the Movember 'staches in my office are getting pretty amusing. There aren't any photos there yet, but I'm told there will be soon, so stay tuned. I think we have some World Champ contenders for next year! (Who even knew such a thing existed?!)
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Produstination
Rachel gets credit for coining this term - productive procrastination = produstination. I am a world class produstinator. I don't usually procrastinate by watching TV or napping. No, that would be too easy. I like to clean which is rare, bake delicious things to get praise for produstinating, go through my clothes to decide what to keep and what I should get rid of because I don't wear anyway, get in touch with old friends and do any of the many other things on my constant to do list that almost never get done. Except when I have a paper to write.
That is where I find myself now. I should add "blogging" to the list of typical produstination activities.
However, in knowing this about myself, I have camped out in an empty office at work, not even surrounded by my own desk trinkets to distract me. I have eaten my Chobani and my Luna bar - specifically chosen for their easy to eat, lack of distracting qualities ...but which I managed to slowly consume, reading all of their nutrition facts and labels, naturally. I wonder how many of these ingredients are corn-based.
To reward myself for finishing a section of the paper, I listened to this really interesting article on NPR, which Ben gets credit for discovering. Wal-Mart wants to enter the world of healthcare, folks. So with your yellow smiley face sticker and your friendly greeter, you can also see the doc. It seems like another ploy to attract people to the glowing sign of Wally World and very unlikely to actually cut any health care costs. If they wanted to make any meaningful contribution to health care, they could start by treating their employees better, or requiring their store managers to do so. Anyway, I'm sure it'll attract people in flocks. Don't get me wrong - I am all about frugality, but I also appreciate the efficiency that comes with continuity of care by the same physician or group of medical professionals.
I guess that's all for now, but it's definitely worth a listen. Smart people saying smart things.
Now I'm off to write my paper. Right after I eat my apple, one slow bite at a time ;)
That is where I find myself now. I should add "blogging" to the list of typical produstination activities.
However, in knowing this about myself, I have camped out in an empty office at work, not even surrounded by my own desk trinkets to distract me. I have eaten my Chobani and my Luna bar - specifically chosen for their easy to eat, lack of distracting qualities ...but which I managed to slowly consume, reading all of their nutrition facts and labels, naturally. I wonder how many of these ingredients are corn-based.
To reward myself for finishing a section of the paper, I listened to this really interesting article on NPR, which Ben gets credit for discovering. Wal-Mart wants to enter the world of healthcare, folks. So with your yellow smiley face sticker and your friendly greeter, you can also see the doc. It seems like another ploy to attract people to the glowing sign of Wally World and very unlikely to actually cut any health care costs. If they wanted to make any meaningful contribution to health care, they could start by treating their employees better, or requiring their store managers to do so. Anyway, I'm sure it'll attract people in flocks. Don't get me wrong - I am all about frugality, but I also appreciate the efficiency that comes with continuity of care by the same physician or group of medical professionals.
I guess that's all for now, but it's definitely worth a listen. Smart people saying smart things.
Now I'm off to write my paper. Right after I eat my apple, one slow bite at a time ;)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Fist pump for Mississippi
Thank goodness! We don't need to kick them out - Mississippi shoots down personhood amendment.
Friday, November 4, 2011
TGIF
This weekend has a pretty serious lineup.
First, Meadhall - lots and lots of good beers to choose from and even mead, as their name would suggest. For those of you who are interested in joining, I work next door, so let me know when you're heading over and I'll probably be sitting there waiting for you.
Second, Jane, Linda and I will be reenacting this scene from Friends for Jane. Usually, Jane and Monica are the same person... but here, Linda is Monica, Jane is Rachel and I am Phoebe. For those of you who know Jane and Linda, this will be really amusing.
Then, heading to the Second Annual Wine Swap at Nick and Brittney's. On a scale of 1-10 for excitement rating, I'm definitely red lining. Couldn't resist the racing reference.
Sunday morning, likely with a bit of a headache from tasting all of that terrific wine (and belly ache from eating too much of Brittney's delicious basil cheesecake) Ben, Coltrane and I are running in the Doggy 5K in Southie. I know! Dogs running races is awesome! And the "doggy entertainment" promised at the end should be amusing.
To wrap all of this up, I get to go hang out with Doris and John for a few days. They're the most delightful and amusing (almost) nonagenarians that I know. They also happen to be my grandparents, those lucky people.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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