Film and fair trade

Wednesday was Clint's last class at SCAD. He has completed his master's degree in film! I'm so proud of him - he has worked like a dog for the past year and a half in SCAD's brutal film department, but the perseverance has finally paid off. His final film is well on its way to being film festival and tv ready. Also, here is a short and simple clip he put together from our trip to Cambodia. It's really powerful, and it gives me goosebumps.



On a similar note, the 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame has just been released by the International Labor Rights Forum. Abercrombie and Fitch, Gymboree, Hanes, Ikea, Kohl’s, LL Bean, Pier 1 Imports, Propper International, and Walmart top the list. I was thinking about applying to Pier 1 for a part time job, but I absolutely will not support their business practices. We as consumers have the ability to put pressure on these companies (and the many others founded on exploitation) by spending our money elsewhere. And seriously, does your Mars or Hershey chocolate taste as sweet once you know that forced or highly exploitative child labor was behind it? Do your cotton shirts feel as soft when you know that the cotton has been sourced from Uzbekistan, where the government has actually enforced forced child labor? During the Christmas season, we have the opportunity to buy fair trade and ethically-made gifts for our families, supporting companies founded on fair business practices and educating the receivers of our gifts about labor practices around the world and where they can best spend their money.

Side note: Week 3 of marathon training ends tomorrow with a 9 mile easy run. Only 13 weeks till the big race. I'm still loving yoga, and would like to purchase a fair trade yoga mat in the near future.

Yoga

My friend Michelle turned me on to yoga last week when I complained of some pain in my diaphragm region. She taught me the yoga vignette Sunrise Salutation, and I'm not even kidding you, it changed my life. I know that sounds extreme, but my body feels completely different! That diaphragm pain had been bothering me for months, but since I learned Sunrise Salutation, it has only bothered me once, when I hadn't stretched in a while.

Soooooooo, today I went to my first yoga class! I found some at Armstrong (for free since I'm a student!) and was finally able to make one today. It was awesome. My entire body feels light and healthy, and I'm energized and focused. I can't wait to go again on Thursday.

Another bonus: Jennifer, my marathon buddy, said that yoga is the perfect compliment to marathon training, and I can see why! She told me that after a session of yoga, you can be up to a full inch taller from stretching your spine. I'll do yoga sessions on my days off running . . .

The course

Ok, I'm going to try not to be obsessed with this race on my blog, but I'm nervous excited! 2 1/2 miles of it will be on hard-packed beach, and the rest of it goes through neighborhoods (I believe). Here is the course:

An Eventful Weekend

My parents are well on their way home by now, after a short but great weekend here in Savannah. On Friday, Clint took us on the set of The Conspirator, and my parents got the chance to see a major movie in production. Clint is working in the props department for the film, so we got to go in the props truck. You can see that my dad was like a kid in a candy store with all of those Civil War weapons! Saturday, we spent the morning at the beach in Hilton Head (yes, the beach in October) and finished off their visit with dinner at my favorite restaurant in town - Toucan Cafe. It was so good to see them, and I wish they could have stayed longer!

The other major happening this weekend, was that I signed up for a marathon! I'll be running the 26.2-mile race with my friend Jennifer on February 21 in Jacksonville. I was so excited to sign up - now I'm just scared! Still excited though too. I've never raced before in my life, so I thought I'd just jump right in with a marathon. I've been training for about a week and a half, and I ran for 82 minutes today (not sure how many miles it was) in preparation. It's going to be exciting!

Mmmmm Coffee

Clint got me this espresso machine for our anniversary! We've really been enjoying it, and after about 10 phone calls to Maggy and a little practice, I made a caramel macchiato today that rivals any I've ever had at Starbucks. Caramel macchiatos have been my gateway coffee, so I'm excited to start experimenting and trying new types of coffee.

On the subject of coffee: So much of it is produced by either slave labor or by people in other exploitative situations. That's why I love drinking and using Starbucks coffee. In 2008, 75% of their coffee was responsibly grown and ethically traded. Their goal is to buy 100% of their coffee this way by 2015. Another great company is Storyville Coffee Company. In May, they donated 100% of their revenue, up to $1 million, to IJM (International Justice Mission). We can help abolish slavery by the things we purchase. Check out Free2Work to learn about other companies who are doing business ethically and are dedicated to eradicating slavery from their product lines.

Some Photos

My owl painting in progress. (I'm going to change some of the colors.)

Norah after our run this morning.

The rainbow we saw from our front porch the other night.

Exuberance

Oh dear. I am filled with that crazy, manic energy right now that causes me to begin ambitious projects that I have no hope of completing without losing some of my sanity along the way. I just can't help it right now though - a lot of exciting things seem to be culminating . . .

I just started my last semester of my undergraduate degree! I'm trying to maintain good grades, do one or two original research projects, and make sure everything in my applications is top notch.

SWAHT is currently voting on a logo out of 4 finalists, our membership is growing, and we almost have our non-profit designation. I'm hoping to be ready to go completely public by the end of September with materials, a website, and the whole nine yards. We attended a fantastic training about a month ago, and we're working on getting all of the training officers in this area trained about human trafficking. If we get just one case, this issue will explode here.

Things with the Not For Sale Campaign are heating up too! I'm working with a student at Valdosta to bring the Backyard Abolitionist Tour (BYAT) to the campus, and I'm working with a professor at Armstrong to use the book, Not For Sale, as next year's First-Year common read. Another professor at Armstrong requires his students to engage in at least 15 hours of community service or volunteer work, and I was invited to tell his classes about opportunities at NFSC to get involved. At least 24 students were interested!

I just contacted another SWAHT member, who also happens to be a professor at Armstrong, about doing some human trafficking research together. She was all for it, and we're going to begin kicking around some ideas! The ultimate goal will be to contribute useful and accurate information to the body of existing literature and then publish and present that information at conferences. That was the final blow that catapulted me into this intensely energetic state of being.

It's so exciting to finally see some of what I've been involved in over the past 2 years begin to come to fruition. Starting SWAHT seemed so slow and discouraging at times, but now we're gaining momentum and moving forward. I've felt so ineffective in what I've been doing for NFSC, but some of that is beginning to pay off as well. I can't imagine what it will feel like when we help our first victim to freedom. The thought of that moment fuels my drive to stay at it.

Disposable People

I'm reading Kevin Bales' Disposable People right now (which I most highly recommend). Here's a good excerpt from it:

Slavery is not a horror safely consigned to the past; it continues to exist throughout the world, even in developed countries like France and the United States. Across the world slaves work and sweat and build and suffer. Slaves in Pakistan may have made the shoes you are wearing and the carpet you stand on. Slaves in the Caribbean may have put sugar in your kitchen and toys in the hands of your children. In India they may have sewn the shirt on your back and polished the ring on your finger. They are paid nothing.
Slaves touch your life indirectly as well. They made the bricks for the factory that made the TV you watch. In Brazil slaves made the charcoal the tempered the steel that made the springs in your car and the blade on your lawnmower. Slaves grew the rice that fed the woman that wove the lovely cloth you've put up as curtains. Your investment portfolio and your mutual fund pension own stock in companies using slave labor in the developing world. Slaves keep your costs low and returns on your investments high.
Slavery is a booming business and the number of slaves is increasing. People get rich by using slaves. And when they've finished with their slaves, they just throw these people away. This is the new slavery, which focuses on big profits and cheap lives. It is not about owning people in the traditional sense of the old slavery, but about controlling them completely. People become completely disposable tools for making money.

Everyone can do something in the fight against slavery. The first step is to educate yourself. Read any book by Kevin Bales and check out www.notforsalecampaign.org to get started. Then, tell your friends and family about it. If you ever suspect that someone is being held in slavery, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-3737-888 to report the problem.

Getting Warmer . . .

Well, I am satisfied enough with my GRE score that I'm NOT going to take it again. What a relief. I think I could do better if I did take it again, but I think it's competitive enough as is, so I'm going to leave it be. Now the last major thing I have to tackle to be attractive to grad schools is research. I have contacted one of the best professors at Armstrong, and I will be doing some research with her fall semester that is funded by the National Science Foundation. (If you click on the link, scroll down to "Psychology" and read the description beside Dr. Elcoro's name.) We'll be studying the effects of caffeine on temporal control in rats. The most exciting thing about this opportunity is the possibility of preparing a manuscript submission for publication . . . getting published! The Fall semester will likely be my busiest semester ever, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm ready push through. I am so motivated by the possibility of moving to California and attending Fuller! (I'm going to be really disappointed if I don't get in.)

Clint is nearing the end too. He'll begin shooting his final film in less than a month! The only way to do a final is to go all out on it, so we are really trying to find some more "resources" to put into it. There just aren't enough hours in the day for us to be bringing in any substantial earnings though. I found a part time package handler job with UPS today. They offer lots of full-time benefits to part-time employees too, and I could work the sunrise shift, before I would ever have anything else on my schedule. I would still love to work at Starbucks, but it's so tough to get a job there! We'll see how it all plays out.

It would also be nice to save up a lump of money to use as a down payment on a foreclosed house in CA. Hey, if the degree I want is going to take about 6 years and we could pay close to the same amount monthly that we're paying now in rent, it would be a great deal! Then, we'll either decide to stay in CA and we'll already have a house, or we'll be ready to sell when the housing industry has hopefully recovered, and we could make a nice little profit.

Nerves

I take the GRE today. I'm extremely nervous.

I'm nervous because it's critical that I do well on the test because I really want to go to Fuller (my top choice) or Rosemead (second pick), and admission is extremely competitive. I think Fuller only accepts about 10% of applicants into their PhD program.

It's also imperative that I do well on this test because it costs $150, so it would be very expensive to take it again.

Clint and I are at a huge transition time in our lives right now. He graduates in November; I graduate in December, and after that it's a big question mark. Will I be accepted to a graduate program? Will Clint find a good job in California if I am? Can we afford to live in California while paying back student loans? Every day we have to keep trusting in God: He has a plan, and he will see it through. It's not about us. One thing for sure: six months from now our lives are going to look a lot different. That's exciting!