an open space

Arcade Fire "In the Backseat"

november 16

Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, And I Shake the Dirt From My Sandals as I Run

This morning I participated in the Asian/P.I. club Cambodian Boat Races. Fun stuff! My team got second place. Ruwan took a bunch of photos, that I hope to get later, and maybe put up if I have enough time. Phil says I don't write news in my blogs, so I'm going to try and make it more informative and less ambiguous and full of jargon.

Things are busy. I just clocked into work again, and realized I am authorized to work in 4 departments. Brian says I am going to burn myself out, and end up like his older brother Nick, in the hospital with an ulcer, failing all his classes. Yikes. Kendra Coffeen, editor of the Gadfly, called the other day, and asked me to design for the humanities department. I need to learn to say "no". In truth, I feel stressed, but more than that, excited. I have a hard time saying 'no' in general, and the Gadfly is so quality. For me to say 'no' to projects that I am truly interested in doing, is almost impossible. I do really need to learn to set boundaries. And finish all of my food. And not mooch off of others. Among many other things that could use improvement in my character.

What I'm really excited about most, though, is the fact that Christine told me that Ben and Cory and her were working on a project, designing shirts to raise money to buy cows for Rwanda, asking me to join. Also, saying that they need videos made promoting the cause, that I'm going to work on for my final project for Intro to Video class. I want to shoot them combing the style of the One Campaign and the Girl Effect. We're going to sell the shirts on campus and online, setting it up so students can give us their ID number and charge the shirts to their school accounts, to make payment as easy as possible. Here are a couple of samples that I threw together:





I'm excited, at last, to be working on projects that I'm passionate about doing. When I was in Cambodia, I saw the work that could be done within the areas I was interested in studying/learning. When I lived at ADRA, we'd talk over dinner about Anti-Smoking Campaigns they did on television, that big clothing brands, such as Gap wanted to work with them to improve sweatshop conditions. Brands and the media influence so much of culture. It controls our lives. And somehow being involved in this makes me feel as if the power could somewhat be more in our hands. We have ideas. We have voices. We have opportunities to make things happen. And if we can, I think we should. Always.

Give peace a chance.