A friend of mine recently asked me about my decision to go to work for a private company, specifically one that is in finance and how I could possibly find anything moral in that. This topic is something I've thought about a lot, especially going to Oberlin and being involved in community service on campus. I know I don't need to defend myself, but I think my decision is interesting.

Since being at Oberlin I've struggled with the decision to major in Economics and then go into business versus something like teaching (most plausible considering my experience with teaching through America Reads). Growing up with a single mother who went to college when I was quite young to be a teacher and is now a social worker, I decided that I wanted to take a different path. I love kids and would surely enjoy teaching, but going into a professional that is so female-dominated and chronically under-valued sounded depressing to me. But I also don't think that choosing to go into business or finance is just about the money or status. I find finance and investing to be interesting and know that going that path can provide opportunities that teaching probably couldn't. Also, I can always go into to teaching later on, but might find the switch from teahing to finance more difficult.

What do you think?

funny tuesday

My line of work, surprisingly, can offer a lot of humor. As a law office that advertises itself as one serving those who generally cannot afford to hire an attorney, we get many phone calls from people seeking legal advice or representation for matters nowhere near related to predatory lending.
I think the one I answered this afternoon was by far my favorite. A youngish sounding man on the other end began the conversation with "Yea, I need to ask some questions about the laws." Knowing that I most likely could not answer his questions, I still asked him to explain the situation so that I could direct him to the appropriate organization. He went on to tell me this:
"My wife went to one of those, like, beauty colleges to get her hair cut. She wanted a Chinese Bob, but they, like, cut her hair real short, so she looks like a boy. So she went back in so they could fix it, and they, like, cut it even shorter. Just made it worse. So we called to get a refund, so we could, like, go have it fixed. So, like, what can we do?"
I was almost too shocked to laugh, although that didn't last long. I promptly told him that, while I did not know that he had a claim, if he did, the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division would be his best bet.
If I were actually allowed to give out advice over the phone, I would say this:
Um, like, hair grows back.

badass female of the week

Meet the youngest college professor in history. She's smart, ambitious, musically talented, and only 19!!!

The only thing is: who would want to go to college between the ages of 10 and 14??? Oberlin definitely wouldn't let her in to Safer Sex Night OR Drag Ball.

take a second to laugh

Remember playing Opposite Day?

yet another reason not to wear crocs

If you needed more convincing not to wear crocs, maybe this article will help you decide. I personally think they shouldn't be worn by adults for anything other than gardening, but since the weather has gotten warm, I've noticed them everywhere. Just one trend I've never understood.

Apparently Anna Wintour likes crocs though...

"the last explosive art in the art community"

I haven't come up with a lot to say on this yet, but wanted to share it. Thanks to Ari for the link and title.

Update: Apparently Yale is now disputing the true nature of this exhibit, and the artist is disputing their dispute.

Who knows what to think at this point, but what I find really interesting is that people on both sides of the choice/life debate are coming out against the project. Yet, no one is addressing what the artist's intention was: to spark an intelligent discourse on the issue of choice and body. It seems that while she wasn't doing it for the shock value, that is, of course, what happened. How could it not?

badass female of the week

Just....awesome.

sometimes the NY Times really pisses me off

Yes, I admit it, I am an avid reader and general supporter of the NY Times. It's my national news source, as well as my way to pretend I know about current arts and cultural events. Yet, progressive and compelling commentary on social [injustice] issues it has not done well lately.
This morning I woke up to a story on how, despite all the silly hubbub of an economic recession (who needs jobs anyways?!), super rich assholes, pardon me, people, are still spending tons of money!! Thank Gawd. Whoo..I was really worried there for a second that with all the job cuts, inflation, foreclosures, and ridiculous spending on war instead of social programs, the wealthiest 1% of the population wasn't going to be able to buy their $10 million + apartments in the city. I think my favorite part [please read sarcasm] of the article was when one of these random richies had this thoughtful and articulate response to the subprime (generally not the million-dollar home) market crisis:
“I don’t want to sound harsh, but the people who were buying million-dollar houses with a combined household income of $70,000 or $80,000 were the ones who were chasing easy money,” he said.

Wow. He's really been living under a rock hasn't he? First of all, this is NOT the issue with the rise in foreclosures; I don't see too many people getting booted from their million-dollar homes. Second of all, if this was the issue, at some point it is the responsibility of the bank or mortgage company to say, "Yo, hold the bus. Your income doesn't support this kind of loan!"
Lastly, as another random richie stated, recession doesn't really affect him. Could it really be that they just don't notice having to spend a little more on food, gas, and a roof over their head?? Unfortunately, for something like the other 98% of the population, we are no longer having our caviar and eating it, too.

At least the NY Times can somewhat redeem themselves with stories on Appalachia.

Let me introduce you to Spud and Dos, brother and sister.
My friend Nick and I (with some assistance from a local farmer) found them on the side of the road in Roane County. Someone had dumped them there in a bag. I couldn't resist, so now I have not one, but two [at least] half-German Shepherd pups in my apartment. Don't tell my landlord.
Initially, they were very scared, and had obvious signs of abuse and trauma. It only took one night sleeping in my bed and one day playing in the apartment to turn into very troublesome, yet cute, puppies. Dos is WAY tougher than her brother, might I add.

John's Blog

John graduated last year with B and ran on the team with us. He's currently traveling around visiting obies who are doing Shansi in various Asian countries. He too has a blog and is writing about some cool stuff or whatever. Check it out. John's vocab has really soared since graduating, way to go John!

b's book of the weekend

I just want to post about this really great book I read recently. It was given to me by my friend Alan (BIG thanks!) and I highly recommend it.
It's called Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, written by Jonathan Safran Foer. He also wrote Everything is Illuminated, which was made into a movie. I didn't read that one, but saw the movie and loved it.
Extremely Loud is written (mostly) from the perspective of a nine year old boy whose father died on 9/11; he finds a key in his Dad's suit and goes on a quest to find it's lock. That's a way simplified explanation, but I don't want to ruin anything! Anyways, I say check it out if you haven't. It's one of the most beautiful and endearing stories I've ever read.

blogging on blogs

I will probably post a lot on my favorite blogs out there, so here's my first review of a great blog written by a farmer. I can't even imagine what life on a farm is like, but this guy really gives you a good taste of it. I really liked the part about how saying Happy Easter to everyone couldn't be offensive. Subscibe to this one folks, it's a winner!

beer cheerleaders

Thanks to Sara for alerting me to the Miami Marlin Manatees.

This pretty much made my Friday.

sometimes i just don't get it

This is just bizarre to me. I'm not even sure what to think/say on the issue, not to mention the story (or should I just call it as it is, the advertisement) is lacking in details.
Why is the US Military recruiting people from a country that has been in a civil war for over 20 years? Why would Ugandans, who have been fighting rebel groups and suffering heavily from this war, want to travel to the US to get picked up by another government's military to fight more? Maybe this is the ultimate bleeding heart response, but can't we invest this amount of time, energy, and money in peace? Or is that just too much to hope for?

olympic official calls torch protests "crisis"

So, does that mean he doesn't consider the Tibetan people's situation or China's indifference to promoting human rights a crisis?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the Olympics, the love of competition, the spirit of athletic accomplishment, but the International Olympic Committee's fierce stance against protests that have been disrupting the torch relay that was made known in today's NY Times is quite ignorant.
Many people are trying to argue that the Olympics are neither the time nor place for politics and protests against human rights violations. Personally, this is a pretty overly simplified view of an event that brings together almost every nation in the world, while almost every nation in the world watches. What do we say to those who have no chance at participating in or watching said event due to atrocities going on in their country or region? That even though we are promoting unity through sport on a world level with the Olympic games, we actually don't want to hear your whining even if unity and sport are not accessible to you? Because calling protests on behalf of those suffering at the hands of China's government a "crisis", and thus an inhibitor to your so-called unity, pretty much tells these people that you only care about this unity when it doesn't interrupt your fun and games.
The Olympic games are a world forum, whether the IOC likes it or not. If we are going to promote the love of competition on a world level, we need to make sure the entire world is able to participate. Generally, this means people aren't dying, starving, or being oppressed first, because I'd imagine suffering in said situation makes it hard to train for a 10k.

Lastly, I can't help but point out the complete irony in this comment made by a Swiss IOC member. Denis Oswald is quoted as saying that those disrupting the relay “do not respect the freedom of people who want to enjoy it.”
Seriously? Seriously?? He's going to bring up respecting freedom??? First of all, where is the respect of Tibetan freedom? And last time I checked (at least in San Francisco's case), we have the freedom to protest...

life before death

There is a new exhibit at the Welcome Collection in London called Life Before Death. It is a photographer's look at hospice patients both during their care and after their passing. This is a very interesting concept, for it asks us to consider what we can learn about life by thinking about death. It is also interesting to consider the controlled environment in which the photographer made this study: a hospice environment where patients are suffering from long-term illnesses and know their death is imminent.
Take a look for yourself.

A few things I thought about were whether or not I'd feel/think differently if there was no information about the person next to their picture. Also, what if all the people weren't at least in their 40s?

At the least, the pictures are quite compelling.

good morning.

The first email I opened this morning was from this woman who is the mom of a boy I ran high school track with. At first I thought she was updating alumni about his running, something she's done in the past. Then I opened it and it was really an email from reunion.com saying that this woman searched for me on there. How weird is that? Who searches for people using their email address on reunion.com? Aren't you just supposed to use facebook?

update: I got another email like this one but the person this time was a family friend. My guess is that reunion.com got a hold on people's contact lists or something and spammed the hell out of them. I'm not as creeped out anymore by the individuals but now by companies like that.

a friendly and warm welcome

This is my inauguration to the blogging world. I decided to make it fun and let you in on a few things I love:

Inspirational Running Videos

Chaka Khan

Pop music on unexpected instruments

R. Kelly acting really, really dumb

Paris Hilton acting really, really dumb