Job Description

WANTED

People to work long hours with frequent mandatory overtime. Few holidays and weekends off. Must be able to keep massive amounts of paperwork up to date while making split-second, life or death decisions.

Must be immune to verbal abuse and able to neutralize occasional physical assaults. Must display patience, kindness, understanding, and caring even when your personal life is coming apart at the seams.

Must show no aversion to blood, vomit, oozing infections, or human body wastes. Salary in no way commensurates with knowledge and ability. Only those interested in dealing with depressing situations on a daily basis need apply.

The El 6/24/09

Girl in excessively short plaid skirt with cat ear head band. Guy in pimped out pin striped suit with fedora carrying the metal leash attached to the girl and a black leather flogger. On a Wednesday people!

Healthcare Basics

There's so much I could say about the current discussion on healthcare in our country. I'm just so glad we're finally having it. The system is broken. That much is clear. I was too young in '94 to know or care about what the Clinton's were trying to accomplish, but I'm glad that the door is open wide to healthcare reform once again. For a basic overview of why we so desperately need reform, check out blurb's great post on some of the most important healthcare talking points. You might know him better as dooce's husband. It looks like he's planning on doing a couple updates on this very current issue, and I for one plan on reading them.

Twitter

I decided to finally try Twitter. I have no idea if I will actually do it. But so many times I have a thought that I would love to blog about, but by the time I get home to do so, I've forgotten it. So I will attempt to share them with you via Twitter. We'll see how this goes. Look to the left for my last 5 updates. At least it's something to do at 4am at work.

Shoes That Make You Smile

Because of my various recent illnesses, I've been watching a lot of TV. Probably more then is healthy. A lot of TV means a lot of commercials, and one I've been seeing got my attention. It's an AT&T commercial that features a company called TOMS shoes. The commercial points out that for every pair of shoes you buy from TOMS, they give a pair to a child in need. This is SO ME! Of course, I had to check it out. I easily found their website and decided to buy myself (and a kid in need!) a pair.



The first thing that struck me was how colorful and fun the fabrics of the shoes are. I decided on the pink big dots for myself. So cute!

TOMS shoes are based on a traditional Argentinian design. They have a relaxed, comfy fit. They're very light. I would compare them with flip-flops in terms of comfort and support. There is some very slight arch support built in, but not nearly enough for me to wear all day. Most of the styles have a leather inner sole which helps make them a little more durable. The outer sole is made of rubber. These are the perfect shoes for summer when you get tired of your flip-flops! They're also great to throw on to run errands, or just do a little running around. Just DON'T wear them in the rain. Your feet will be soaked. The major downside I've found so far is that these get dirty! The fabric extends over the entire toe box and almost down to the ground so it's nearly impossible to keep them clean. I haven't tried to get the dirt out, but because of the leather, you can't really put them in the wash. I'll let you know how it goes! Also, because they're canvas, expect some stretching with wear. But I have to say I've gotten tons of compliments on them. And there's something to be said for shoes you can feel good about wearing. They come in mens, womens, and babies sizes with youth sizes in the works. And they come in vegan styles too!

Why can you feel good about giving shoes to a kid in need? Children in developing countries often go barefoot. Because they don't have access to other forms of transportation, these kids can walk miles a day. Having shoes offers protection, and the ability to walk distances that couldn't be covered barefoot. It also protects them from all sorts of preventable diseases. One of the most common ways for many diseases in developing countries to be spread is through the soil and into cuts and sores on bare feet. The simple prevention? Shoes! So get yourself a pair, and make a difference to one child today.

The El 2/3/09

Twenty-something black male (clearly not homeless as he was dressed pretty nicely) with a small vacuum cleaner and a Pokemon lunch box worn messenger bag style around his body.

Cat Tree: A Product Review

In order to improve my rambunctious cat's behavior, I decided to buy him his very own piece of furniture, a cat tree. I hoped that the tree would encourage him to climb, scratch, and sleep there instead of on my furniture, as well as give him a comfortable view out the window. For the most part, this plan has worked perfectly. He's constantly in his tree. So in this sense, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I am a little disappointed, however, with the product I chose.

After a long online search, I chose the Amusement Park from Drs. Foster and Smith. I chose this particular one for various reasons. Among them, the company's long list of reasons why their product is superior to all the others. Others included the color choices, the mix of sisal and carpeted poles, and the general design and layout of the piece. It was just the size I was looking for. Not too big and bulky for my apartment, but still enough levels and features to provide some interest.

For the price, and how big a deal Drs. Foster and Smith make about their superiority, I found this product a little disappointing. The seams in the carpet are extremely obvious and thin. Plasticy carpet strings were hanging everywhere after assembly and took a good 5 minutes of trimming to get it looking presentable. And as the cat scratches certain places more strings appear. Also, with the scratching, there are small pieces of carpet everywhere. The included breakaway toy is nice and the breakaway definitely is safer for kitty, but at 5 lbs, it's not very fun for larger kitties. Mine takes about 45 seconds before it is on the floor and another minute before it is under the couch. And you have to attach the toy to the breakaway snap with a string you tie yourself and I'm a bit skeptical about my knotting abilities.

All of these things were only minorly annoying. I did get the tree on sale ($150 I think) so I was willing to deal with a few minor annoyances. Over the last week though, I have been noticing that the whole tree is crooked and wobbling terribly. So tonight, I spent ten minutes tightening all the legs and the bolts on the bottom. It is self assembly, but I was still shocked at the amount it loosened up in just six weeks. Two of the bolts were so loose I could actually turn them by hand. If I have to do this every 6 weeks, it's going to get mega annoying.

In contrast, my parents bought a smaller $75 cat tree from Petsmart (I couldn't find it on their website, but I know they have it in the store). They've had it for three years with absolutely none of the problems mentioned and, in fact, bought a second one which they've had for two years. Both still look as good as the day they were purchased and have never been tightened.

Overall, the Amusement Park is ok. But I wish I had saved the $75 and bought the more generic, but better quality Petsmart model.

Redeeming Diamonds

Hope is restored. Just when I had written diamonds off as something I could ever own, Facebook shows me the light. A few days ago in my Ad bar, I was an ad for a jewelry company called Brillant Earth. Their motto? Luxury with a conscience. Now this is something I could be for. Brillant Earth is a company run by a husband and wife duo committed to providing an alternative to the current diamond industry practices. "Brillant Earth believes that high quality, fine jewelry need not come at a great human or environmental cost."

Basically, all their jewelry is made with certified conflict-free Canadian diamonds, ethical origin sapphires, and renewed metals. This means that humanitarian and environmental issues of mining are largely removed. By supporting this company, you're demanding an ethical alternative to the current jewlery practices. And their stuff is really great looking too. Check out their website to see the selection and take your own stand. It's also a great place to start for information on dirty mining and conflict diamonds. If anyone is considering a gift to thank me for all my insightful blogging, I would mind receiving this!

Flow

I recently finally got Netflix and have really been enjoying it. Recently, it recommended a documentary to me called Flow. Flow is, in short, about water. As we know from previous posts (here and here) and my attendance at World Water Day a few years back, this is kind of an important issue to me. So I immediately added Flow to my queue. I just finished it this morning and whoa do I have a lot to say.

In short, the movie is about the world water perspective. It's a documentary made up of 16 or so different issues and perspectives from around the world. There's no central narrator. Each segment is made up of interviews. The segments take place in four main countries: South Africa, Bolivia, the US, and India. The segments first cover many different water related topics including contaminated water (like the 20 million people in 25 states in the US who drink water contaminated with rocket fuel), the bottled water industry, the privatization of water, and the effect of damns. It of course gets political and talks about companies involved and the World Bank's influence on the issue. The documentary also shows various grassroots efforts around the world where people have taken on these issues and the adversity they have faced in doing so.

One of the central themes of the documentary is can anyone ever really own water? Historically, water as a transient resource has been the property of no one and everyone at the same time. No one has any more right to streams, rivers, and lakes then anyone else. One particular segment about the bottled water industry in Michigan horrified me. Basically, Nestle came in, set up a bottled water factory and started pumping millions of gallons of water a day out of the local aquifers. At absolutely no cost to them, with a ten year tax abatement, and a 99 year land lease for something like $160,000. They continued to pump at this rate despite a draught and effectively dried up local streams and wells. And they sold the product in the very community they were pumping in. The community saw no benefit from Nestle being there with the exception, I suppose, of the jobs created. Even worse perhaps is a story from India where contracts were signed to privatize stipulating that existing wells and water pumps built by the community had to either privatize (so they could charge people to use them) or be shut down. We're talking about common pumps that provide water to whole villages of the poorest of the poor. Does anyone else feel a little outraged by this?

Perhaps the most shocking news to me is that water is the world's third largest industry. Behind only electricity and oil. If you think water is unimportant, think again. In a way, water is the great equalizer. Every single one of us needs it. In the US, scarcity may not be our largest issue, but there are plenty of other big scary ones out there (like herbicides that cause male frogs to grow ovaries and are banned in Europe, including the country they're manufactured in). If you want more info, check out the Flow website. And please go watch this documentary!

A Deadly Duo

Today, as I was enjoying my cheeseburger and fries at McDonald's (it's a once in awhile treat, don't judge) I realized something that has actually been bothering me for a few months now. It was actual spurred by a conversation I overheard from another table. I give credit where credit is due. Has anyone else noticed that McDonald's is blatantly targeting African-Americans in their ads? I think that every new ad I have seen for good ole Mickey D's in the last six months has featured African-American actors and some version of hip-hop/glam rap. I decided to check this out further and this is what I found.

McDonald's was the second highest spender in targeted African-American advertising from Oct 2006 to Nov 2007, beat out only by Procter & Gamble who sell um...everything. They spent $37.7 million in targeted advertising alone. I also stumbled across some targeted advertising I wasn't even aware of. Since I am not, in fact, African-American this is not surprising. Apparently, McDonald's is specifically targeting African-American women with a branded browser takeover and game on BET.com. Similarly targeted flash ads were also featured on BlackPlanet.com and AOL BlackVoices. As an occasional AOL user and music browser, I can say I saw no similar advertising campaign targeted at Caucasian women. 

Need more evidence? In an article published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health, researchers found that advertisers specifically target African Americans with unhealthy food messages. In TV and print, high-fat, high-calorie foods are more heavily promoted to African Americans. Television shows popular among black audiences run a greater number of food commercials than do general-audience shows. And the commercials themselves are more likely to pitch foods higher in calories and lower in nutritional value to black viewing audiences.

And why should we care? As we all well know, McDonald's food is high in sodium, cholesterol, saturated fats, and the especially evil transfat (which the promised to take out of their food in 2002 I might add). Not to mention they fact that their food is low in nutritional value. Even an innocuous seeming salad can have as many as 20 grams of fat BEFORE dressing. Exactly the kind of food that causes heart disease. Some stats about African Americans and heart disease. Blacks are less likely to be diagnosed with heart disease and more likely to die from it.  They are 40% more likely to have high blood pressure and 10% less likely to have it under control. And those African American women we mentioned? They're 1.7 times more likely to be obsese. More likely then who? Non-hispanic whites. Exactly the people McDonald's isn't advertising to.