| |
[Jul. 24th, 2008|12:53 pm] |
|
Wow, finally back in Indianapolis. On Monday, I left early in the morning for a flight from Indy out to D.C. for the regional UNITE HERE orientation. It was really great, and I wanna write more, but our flight from D.C. back to Indy was canceled last night and I've only just gotten in to Indy and have got get some sleep and take a shower. |
|
|
| |
[Jul. 21st, 2008|05:20 am] |
|
Leaving for the airport, for UNITE HERE orientation in D.C.! |
|
|
| |
[Jul. 14th, 2008|12:53 am] |
| [ | music |
| | Lo-Fi-Fnk - Boylife | ] |
So, I've been doing pretty well! Things have felt pretty stressful for the past couple weeks, but as I've been able to cross a lot of things off my "to-do" list for leaving for Indy, and even pretty much pack (like a full week before leaving, that's a first!), things have slowed down a bit and I've been able to just relax and enjoy being home. It's *beautiful* here, absolutely gorgeous, and I hope I can continue to soak in as much as possible of it before heading out.
In the meantime, I've also been stressing a bit about school... Weird, eh? *sigh* Last semester! |
|
|
| |
[Jul. 1st, 2008|11:39 pm] |
Wow, so I had a WONDERFUL time with Shel up in Chicago--it was so much fun! :) Even if for only a couple days, it was terrific being with her. She's coming down with her folks for a couple days next weekend, too, yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
So, things have slowly been moving along... I've been in touch with my co-facilitator for the class (Topics in Sexual Violence) that I'll be co-leading this upcoming semester and have been busy going over the syllabus for it. I'm getting pretty excited about the class; we're pulling a lot of the readings from the course that used to be offered (Sexual Violence in Societal Context--SVSC), which we both took a couple years ago, and reading these articles and chapters from SVSC again is making me remember how strong they were. I'm really looking forward to discussing them again!
Housing for Indy and school this fall is still up in the air, but I'm thinking that both should, hopefully, finally be nailed down by the end of this week! On other fronts, I spent a bunch of time today investigating cell phone plans... I think I'm going to get a bare-bones plan from Sprint, but we'll see... (And hopefully a cell phone with low levels of radiation, oie!)
Just recently, I've been getting a lot of interest in this local food directory I created for the Richmond, Indiana-area for an assignment for class last semester. After the semester ended, I e-mailed it to the local co-op, and one of the members is interested in keeping on working on it, and it's been hosted up on ProgressiveWyaneCounty.org, and a person who has a local food-related blog called me to interview me for a post about it! It's been really exciting to receive such interest in it, and it makes me happy to have created something that others are finding exciting and useful. :) |
|
|
| |
[Jun. 8th, 2008|07:42 pm] |
Shelly headed out -*sigh!*:(- yesterday morning for home via Van Galder and then a double-deckered Megabus. It's probably lucky she headed out when she did, though, seeing the really bad weather that we've had since then. We had some really strong thunderstorms -with gale or tornado-like winds and literal sheets of rain- last evening that took power lines down in several places and left the neighborhood in the dark for around eight hours last night. Plus, we've had thunderstorms and rain all day today, on and off, too.
Thinking of the increasing energy problems the world is facing, last night was pretty sobering; with no power for our fridge and freezer, much of our food would go bad within several days, and our water pump is electric, meaning that we had only around 30 minutes of water before we ran out. We have the garden, the car, of course, with gas, and our stove is a gas one and if the tanks aren't low, it could last a month probably, but, boy, I don't think our we or our neighborhood would last long (anything at all like "as we know it") if there was any lasting widespread power outage. |
|
|
| |
[May. 1st, 2008|01:03 am] |
Ugh ugh ugh ugh.
My sister is abroad in Spain and her host family and program is doing really abusive things and I am so so so angry and upset and I don't know what to do--there's nothing I can do. Please send her lots of love and support. |
|
|
| |
[Apr. 18th, 2008|02:28 pm] |
Another post after what has seemed like forever...!
Almost the end of the semester here (thank god), and I've finished my senior thesis(!!!), figured out (mostly) summer plans/work, and the weather is beautiful... I'm all ready to be outta here!
Lots of exciting things to write about, but for later--I'll be back soon!
P.S. There was an earthquake (a 5.4 magnitude temblor) here in Indiana last night. Shook the house for ten or twenty seconds and woke both Shel and me up. Pretty out there, Shel and I had no idea what on earth was going on. |
|
|
| |
[Feb. 15th, 2008|09:01 pm] |
Wow, I haven't posted in forever. (Or at least it feels that way.)
I'm halfway through my second to last semester of college(!!!), and I'm in the middle of the process of writing my senior thesis (for my Peace & Global Studies major). I'm writing it on (new) sexual violence prevention theories--critiquing existing theories and programs as being ineffective (and actually only "rape avoidance programs") and promoting new theories that are actually aiming at the primary prevention of sexual violence.
I'm still involved with the student groups Action Against Rape and Coalition for Racial Justice, though convening has (happily and excitingly:) passed on to others. We're (between the two groups) planning a men's speak out and forum on sexual violence, Take Back the Night, a panel on immigration, and a response to racist house parties that have been going on here.
I've also gotten involved in two new things, though, too. One is facilitating a "Solution Circle" with another Earlham student for middle-schoolers at a local middle school, on the topic of school violence/fights. The other is that I'm just (probably next week) starting as a volunteer responder on the RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) Sexual Assault Online Hotline (a chat-based version of the phone crisis line), which is pretty exciting (and a bit intimidating)!
I've applied to two summer jobs in Chicago (a union organizing internship with UNITE HERE and a summer job with a student anti-poverty non-profit, NSP), and I'm hoping to be there with Shel this summer! |
|
|
| |
[Jan. 9th, 2008|10:06 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver | ] |
My mom recently sent me an essay by Dana L. Stuchul, Gustavo Esteva, and Madhu Suri Prakash, called "From a Pedagogy for Liberation to Liberation from Pedagogy" that's been one of the most exciting things I've read lately. It critiques and I believe deeply radically pushes beyond Paulo Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
"Given the well-established image of Freire as a progressive, radical or even revolutionary educator, it may seem preposterous, outrageous or even ridiculous to present him — as we do in this essay — as a conservative thinker and practitioner. Even more, on both theoretical and political grounds, we present him as a colonizer."
The essay really, really impressed me--it's the best thing I've read in months. |
|
|
| |
[Jan. 9th, 2008|09:41 am] |
|
First day of classes again, wooo. I'm taking a language class again for the first time in a year or so--feel a bit nervous about it! That may also be because of this cup of coffee I have here, though, too... Well, I'm off to it! |
|
|
| |
[Dec. 29th, 2007|10:32 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | home! | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Boylife - Lo-Fi-Fnk | ] |
My my, winter break is whizzing by!
Shel came back home with me for the first week, which was really great--we did a bunch of snow-related activities (taking advantage of the fact that there's SO much snow here and none in Indiana) like cross-country skiing and sledding (on this crazy slope my sister found), snugged around and slept up, and did some funs things up in Madison. It was really nice. :)
Since then, I've been really busy working on a resume for some hopefully summer stints--I'm applying to two AmeriCorps-sponsored summer positions, one with an organization called called National Student Partnerships that works one-on-one with low-income individuals to fight poverty in Chicago and possibly an organization based in Appalachian Ohio called Rural Action that is involved in social, economic and environmental justice efforts. I'm also thinking about applying for a summer union organizing internship with Unite Here, a Washington D.C. service industry union.
Finally, I'm also trying to do some work on figuring out what my senior paper/thesis is going to be on... I'm pretty uncertain right now, have ideas about writing it on some of the new ideas out there about sexual violence prevention programs, but I really don't know (what it would look like).
I had a really good past semester and am excited about only having two semesters left! |
|
|
| |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|09:26 pm] |
|
National News
In N.H., Iraq war fading as key issue
Dec. 12--MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Up on Gunstock Mountain last week,
not a single voter in a packed ski lodge asked
Sen. Hillary Clinton about the Iraq war.
U.S. secret court won't release rulings
Tibetan ice fields may be melting
Youch. What a selection (from my e-mail servers' website)...
Done with finals tomorrow and then off towards home with Shel, yay! |
|
|
| |
[Nov. 24th, 2007|12:41 pm] |
|
Yayyyyyyyyyy break!! :) |
|
|
| |
[Nov. 10th, 2007|02:18 am] |
:' ...
This book really moved me... Ordinary Victories, by Manu Larcenet. |
|
|
| |
[Nov. 6th, 2007|05:38 pm] |
|
So, I went to vote today, to hopefully re-elect the fantastic mayor that Richmond has--had my card from voter registration and all, and I wasn't allowed to vote because I needed to have an Indiana or a Federal photo ID and all I had was my Wisconsin Drivers' License. This is the only place I'm registered to vote at, and I can't even here... Democracy... All terribly disappointing. |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 22nd, 2007|04:40 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | In Our Bedroom After The War - Stars | ] |
("Mid-semester hello"--from an e-mail to a friend at another school I wrote to today...)
It's about midterm time here at Earlham—I’ve have a lighter class-load this semester though, which has been really nice, and the semester is going really well for me! I’ve been busy with sexual violence prevention and education work here again, and I just finished taking a (half-semester long) student-led class called “Class Matters” (the title which refers to bell hooks’ book) on socioeconomic class, and it’s been a really valuable class for me—gender and race issues are pushed to the forefront here at Earlham (at least as theoretical/historical matters in classes) compared with class, and class often becomes invisible for a lot of us here (as almost everywhere in the U.S.). We are just finishing a publication as our final project for the class. The main body of it are transcripts of interviews we did of Earlham students, faculty, and staff of “class stories” of their experiences of and with class. A lot of them are anonymous and pretty emotionally powerful. Because of the cost of the school, people make assumptions that everyone is well-off and a lot of people don’t realize that this is not true and that some of us here struggle to pay for books and have to work multiple jobs to be able to pay room and board (it’s a lot cheaper to live off-campus, but the college makes it really hard to get an exemption).
I’m also TA-ing the Conflict Resolution class here, and I was trained (over two excruciatingly long weekends, oie) as a mediator for the local Conflict Resolution Center in Richmond—they offer conflict resolution mediations for essentially free (very cool), and I just did my first mediation last week! It was a court-ordered youth probation mediation between a teen and his parents. It went really well. :) It’s exciting practicing and improving on the skills that being a Peace & Global Studies major is supposed to provide.
Another new thing for me this semester has been living in a (college) house. Happily, it’s been really wonderful, having that little bit of extra separation and (both physical and psychological) space between school and one’s life has been great, sharing a (full-sized) room with Shel has been really nice, and our housemates are great (we have a pancake or French toast brunch together every Sunday:). |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 8th, 2007|12:36 am] |
|
A car crashed into our (college) house today. 8-\ |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 3rd, 2007|10:55 pm] |
Lot's been going on. A lot of exciting things, but the semester is definitely all "a-swirl" for me at this point.
I finished being trained as a mediator by a local Conflict Resolution Center--it was two full weekends, which completely messed up my schoolwork, but it was good and I might be doing my first mediation this Monday.
Peace With Justice Week has been (and is) this week, us Peace House residents organize it along with the Peace & Global Studies Department. It was a bit crazy coordinating all these groups and people who wanted to do things, but we succeeded in making Peace With Justice Week more of a presence on campus this year. We've had a lunch and evening event for almost every day, and other events scheduled into next week due to lack of time.
Action Against Rape, which Shel and I are co-convening this semester, had it's first event this semester, a positive sexuality dance party, which though maybe overall a success was way more intense and scary and took way more managing than I think any of us in AAR thought it would to keep in control.
I've been taking a student-led course called "Class Matters" focusing "on class as an axis of oppression that operates in conjunction with race, gender, sexuality and other systemic structures of privilege and oppression to systematically advantage an elite group above others to the detriment and dehumanization of the marginalized group." It's been really powerful, and I feel like I've been growing a lot in the past months in my understandings of systems of oppression and privilege and where and how I fit into them. |
|
|
| |
[Sep. 17th, 2007|03:05 pm] |
|
It's Shel and my two-year anni today! I woke up to a trail of chocolate kisses leading out of the bed... :) <3 We're hoping to celebrate it next weekend though, as this weekend and week has been/is going to be crazy! All this weekend, I was participating in a mediator training that the Conflict Resolution Center here in Richmond did, and I have an 8-page paper to write on Marxism and an astronomy exam at the end of this week. There are some exciting events going on this week, too, like a movie screening and discussion that Coalition for Racial Justice is doing, Manning Marable coming to speak for convocation, and intramural soccer. Plus, all of us Peace Housers are in the midst of planning Peace With Justice Week (every first week of October)! |
|
|
| |
[Sep. 9th, 2007|01:39 pm] |
From one of my readings:
"African-American writer June Jordan describes her discomfort on a Caribbean vacation with Olive, the Black woman who cleaned her room:
...even though both "Olive" and "I" live inside a conflict neither one of us created, and even though both of us therefore hurt inside that conflict, I may be one of the monsters she needs to eliminate from her universe, and in a sense, she may be one of the monsters in mine (1985 47)." - from "toward a new vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection," by Patricia Hill Collins |
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
oneofsixbillion's journal