meet our new furry little friend. he greeted me on morning one and then stopped by two more times today. at that point i knew we had to give him a name. he seemed to feel like it fit him (see video)! i wonder if we'll see him tomorrow as well!
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
poem
oh hey now, look what the mountains done done, i wrote a poem in like five minutes right after coming in from the outside. someone in the place next door was playing the blues (on a cd or ipod i believe) and it seeped in through the screen of the window and next thing i knew i was typing up words that rhyme and false rhyme and flow and such. here's the product:
i recognize on most days i am not what you would call conventional
beautiful as in what you would see on the television or the side of a bus
but instead what you would visualize perhaps behind a book in a library
or on the inside cover of one you very much enjoyed perhaps
it is in those unexpected expected places
that i can be recognized
and my beauty appreciated
(because i have it,
i know i have it,
and you can’t tell me otherwise)
i know i can run three miles up a hill and glisten sweat
and lather on lavender shower gel to smell like flowers
still i would rather roll down a hill and smell like earth
and glisten from the sun on my off-white smile
(that sounds like me)
i know i can wear florescent shorts that show my pockets under and pull my curves
and a sequined shirt with a neck lower than i can bend my back backwards
but i would rather lay on the floor in jeans with a pocket of chocolate bar wrappers
and bend back the spine of a book real low to see the small print in the margins
(that is me, always)
and basically my hair on most days is dancing
some sort of interpretive jazz based on the story
of a girl who was trapped all her life
and then finally set free.
i know these things.
and i recognize them most days
and i enjoy i am me.
i recognize on most days i am not what you would call conventional
beautiful as in what you would see on the television or the side of a bus
but instead what you would visualize perhaps behind a book in a library
or on the inside cover of one you very much enjoyed perhaps
it is in those unexpected expected places
that i can be recognized
and my beauty appreciated
(because i have it,
i know i have it,
and you can’t tell me otherwise)
i know i can run three miles up a hill and glisten sweat
and lather on lavender shower gel to smell like flowers
still i would rather roll down a hill and smell like earth
and glisten from the sun on my off-white smile
(that sounds like me)
i know i can wear florescent shorts that show my pockets under and pull my curves
and a sequined shirt with a neck lower than i can bend my back backwards
but i would rather lay on the floor in jeans with a pocket of chocolate bar wrappers
and bend back the spine of a book real low to see the small print in the margins
(that is me, always)
and basically my hair on most days is dancing
some sort of interpretive jazz based on the story
of a girl who was trapped all her life
and then finally set free.
i know these things.
and i recognize them most days
and i enjoy i am me.
word association time!
addie said "nuttin'" while we were in the kitchen today and it sent my mind on a blast to the past! so now you get this. merry christmas in july! [:
in the mountains
well ladies and gentlemen it has come to that time. interviews are over. no more phone calls. some more emails to get consent forms in but other than that nada mas! it is time to write. time to piece together all of the information we've been collecting for the past two months. to do that we decided to retreat, into the mountains! we're staying at a lovely resort, and we just got in last night. this morning the work really really begins. oh man. ohhhhh man.
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Sunday, July 29, 2012
diy chalkboard tray!
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supplies: chalkboard spray paint (about $8 at michaels) + tray
steps: (1) clean your tray off! wash it and wipe it completely dry and clean. if you spray paint over dust your surface will be spotty; less aesthetically pleasing and harder to write on.
(2) spray paint that tray! the can said to put two coats on. i suggest you do two or three.
what not to do like i did: i'm probably going to clean my tray again and add another coat of spray paint because when i was prepping my surface i used wet paper towel to wipe away my chalk-coating and there's some paper towel residue i can't seem to just sweep off. eh. you craft you learn.
total cost: about $10! (but remember you can use that paint on even more projects!! i'm doing some more... to be posted soon)
locked out
so i went out yesterday around 3 p.m. and i did not get back into the house after that. we've had some key issues, but with five people living under the same roof usually someone is home to let the locked-out person in. not yesterday. but anyway this was my day:
i got up, i got ready for the day, i watched three episodes of pretty little liars. then i left the house. i was meeting someone for an early dinner at 5:15, so my plan was: i was going to take a book and go to barnes and noble and just read and relax, after i picked up some vitamins from the vitamin shoppe, and then i was going to meet up for dinner, and then i was going to go home and just chill until going to sleep.
this is what happened: i forgot the book i was going to read at barnes and noble, and i couldn't find it in the fiction/lit section in the store so i perused, i picked up a few books and flipped through in the starbucks area where there are tables and chairs. then i began to feel bad because i'd read 15 pages of one book and i wasn't intending on buying it at that point so i bought a chocolate cupcake and ate it while i read more. then i started to enjoy the book a great deal so i decided i would buy it and i got up to put the other book i'd picked up away before i made a decision to buy that too (since really i hadn't intended on spending any money in barnes and noble that day). but then as i passed a rack of books on sale i found this book called words that work and it's a new york times best seller and it was $8.00 and it had a section specifically on advertising and words and why we remember certain phrases and not others and i thought it would be a perfect read for me considering my interest in advertising looking ahead so... i decided to buy that as well.
and that's what i came out with. there but for the by ali smith and words that work by dr. frank luntz. the first is delightfully witty and unique, about a guy who locks himself into a stranger's bedroom at a dinner party and the woman who is called in to try to get him out but only knows him vaguely from a trip they met on about twenty years prior. and it's really quite wonderful, it really is a piece of artwork, i feel. here's a very short excerpt:
Well, you can run and tell your mum or dad where you are and who you're with, Anna said, and come back either with your mum or your dad, or with a note addressed to me saying that it's okay and that you've got permission and that they know you're safe?
The child put her hands on the wall, levered herself expertly into the air, let herself expertly fall.
I can, the child said. Though they trust me. I am not stupid. And your name is the same as mine. So what I tell them is I'm going to the tunnel with Brooke and then to the Observatory to see the Shepherd Galvano-Magnetic Clock.
Maybe, but listen, my name's not Brooke, that's you, Anna said. I'm Anna. Tell them I'm a friend of, of, the man who's locked himself in the room at the Lee's house.
Yeah, but when you first came, the child said, when we were at the Lees' front door, you said you were called the same as me. No I didn't, Anna said.
I said, I'm Brooke, the child said, and then you said, what a coincidence, I'm Brooke too.
No, Anna said. The thing is, when we met on the steps, I didn't know you were saying the word Brooke, I thought you were saying the word broke. And I'm broke. So I said, me too. It's a pun.
Like, broken? the child said.
No, I meant it in the sense of having no money, Anna said.
What exactly is a pun therefore? the child said.
What exactly is a pun there for? Anna said.
No, she said when she stopped laughing. What I want to know is, what constitutes a pun.
Constitutes? Anna said. Blimey. Constitutes. Well, um, pun. Well, they're like if a word means differently from what you expect. Like, take me hearing the word broke when you said the word Brooke. That was a sort of involuntary pun.
Involuntary, the child said.
It means it happened without us meaning or choosing it, Anna said.
I know it means that, the child said. I was just saying it to see how it felt in my mouth to say it.
i got up, i got ready for the day, i watched three episodes of pretty little liars. then i left the house. i was meeting someone for an early dinner at 5:15, so my plan was: i was going to take a book and go to barnes and noble and just read and relax, after i picked up some vitamins from the vitamin shoppe, and then i was going to meet up for dinner, and then i was going to go home and just chill until going to sleep.
this is what happened: i forgot the book i was going to read at barnes and noble, and i couldn't find it in the fiction/lit section in the store so i perused, i picked up a few books and flipped through in the starbucks area where there are tables and chairs. then i began to feel bad because i'd read 15 pages of one book and i wasn't intending on buying it at that point so i bought a chocolate cupcake and ate it while i read more. then i started to enjoy the book a great deal so i decided i would buy it and i got up to put the other book i'd picked up away before i made a decision to buy that too (since really i hadn't intended on spending any money in barnes and noble that day). but then as i passed a rack of books on sale i found this book called words that work and it's a new york times best seller and it was $8.00 and it had a section specifically on advertising and words and why we remember certain phrases and not others and i thought it would be a perfect read for me considering my interest in advertising looking ahead so... i decided to buy that as well.
and that's what i came out with. there but for the by ali smith and words that work by dr. frank luntz. the first is delightfully witty and unique, about a guy who locks himself into a stranger's bedroom at a dinner party and the woman who is called in to try to get him out but only knows him vaguely from a trip they met on about twenty years prior. and it's really quite wonderful, it really is a piece of artwork, i feel. here's a very short excerpt:
Well, you can run and tell your mum or dad where you are and who you're with, Anna said, and come back either with your mum or your dad, or with a note addressed to me saying that it's okay and that you've got permission and that they know you're safe?
The child put her hands on the wall, levered herself expertly into the air, let herself expertly fall.
I can, the child said. Though they trust me. I am not stupid. And your name is the same as mine. So what I tell them is I'm going to the tunnel with Brooke and then to the Observatory to see the Shepherd Galvano-Magnetic Clock.
Maybe, but listen, my name's not Brooke, that's you, Anna said. I'm Anna. Tell them I'm a friend of, of, the man who's locked himself in the room at the Lee's house.
Yeah, but when you first came, the child said, when we were at the Lees' front door, you said you were called the same as me. No I didn't, Anna said.
I said, I'm Brooke, the child said, and then you said, what a coincidence, I'm Brooke too.
No, Anna said. The thing is, when we met on the steps, I didn't know you were saying the word Brooke, I thought you were saying the word broke. And I'm broke. So I said, me too. It's a pun.
Like, broken? the child said.
No, I meant it in the sense of having no money, Anna said.
What exactly is a pun therefore? the child said.
What exactly is a pun there for? Anna said.
No, she said when she stopped laughing. What I want to know is, what constitutes a pun.
Constitutes? Anna said. Blimey. Constitutes. Well, um, pun. Well, they're like if a word means differently from what you expect. Like, take me hearing the word broke when you said the word Brooke. That was a sort of involuntary pun.
Involuntary, the child said.
It means it happened without us meaning or choosing it, Anna said.
I know it means that, the child said. I was just saying it to see how it felt in my mouth to say it.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
thrift + craft + thistle farms
part one - so the day i got those wonderful thrift dresses i also went to goodwill and got a few other things:
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mirror window: $5.25 (but my dad bought it so: $0.00!)
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decorative tray: $2.25
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framed picture (really bought it for the frame): $3.25
total: $6.00 (donated the difference)
part two - see that frame up there. well with a little chalkboard spray paint and some tlc it got a make-over! tada! i'll post a more complete how-to for this later, but i was too excited (+ a little disgusted by the before tray) to keep it under wraps.
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part three - one of the organizations addie and i interviewed has a social enterprise as a part of its programming called thistle farms. the organization works with women who have come out of prostitution; some of the women end up working in the production and the offices of the thistle farms store. i was in some deep need of some chap stick and i knew they did all natural products like that so i looked them up online. their store is really cool (link here)! i got some lip smoothie and one of the kits they make. the package also came with a sticker and a the Love Heals Every Body card.
the notebook and the bag (made from recycled plastic) are from another organization thistle farms has partnered with, called aban. they provide jobs for young mothers in Ghana who are on the streets (link here). so double hitter here! take a look!
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total: $6.00 (donated the difference)
part two - see that frame up there. well with a little chalkboard spray paint and some tlc it got a make-over! tada! i'll post a more complete how-to for this later, but i was too excited (+ a little disgusted by the before tray) to keep it under wraps.
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part three - one of the organizations addie and i interviewed has a social enterprise as a part of its programming called thistle farms. the organization works with women who have come out of prostitution; some of the women end up working in the production and the offices of the thistle farms store. i was in some deep need of some chap stick and i knew they did all natural products like that so i looked them up online. their store is really cool (link here)! i got some lip smoothie and one of the kits they make. the package also came with a sticker and a the Love Heals Every Body card.
the notebook and the bag (made from recycled plastic) are from another organization thistle farms has partnered with, called aban. they provide jobs for young mothers in Ghana who are on the streets (link here). so double hitter here! take a look!
Friday, July 27, 2012
devo song 07/27
Started with hangin' posters on my bedroom walls.
To battle rappin' for status up in the school halls.
Just call me double sushi, thought I was too raw.
And hip-hop was my home, I had my shoes off.
6'3 in high school, well skip a hoop dream.
If I don't blow up then maybe I'll try this school thing.
I went to college to do my family a favor,
But I couldn't pick a major cuz I wanted to be MAJOR.
I tried sellin' work, but it didn't work.
So I worked, shopping center clerk, finna go berserk.
Lunch break, see me writin' 16's over Mickey D's,
Skippin' class, makin' beats, over 60 keys.
And I love that even though I'm just chasin',
Selfish ambition couldn't tell your boy nathan.
Watch out all you rappers cuz they finna let 'Crae in,
But I was sleepin' on the Son, like a Days Inn.
And you can have the money, and you can have the fame.
For me I want the glory, I'm livin' for the Name.
See life is just a picture, I see outside the frame.
I'm livin' for a Kingdom that I ain't never seen.
And imma chase that, imma imma chase that.
Found the key to life and best believe that imma play that.
(Glory) imma chase that, imma imma chase that,
(Glory) imma chase that, imma imma chase that.
I remember chasin' the green, feelin' blue.
Only check I'm countin' is the mic check, 1-2.
All I wanted was the money and the fame and the new,
Somebody on my arm when I walk inside the room.
All I wanted was doom.
The same kind Alexander the Great felt when the earth ran out of room.
He conquered all he could, but yet he's feelin' consumed.
By this neverending quest for glory he couldn't fuel.
Like a typical fool,
(I would go hard) shootin' for the moon,
But there's only one sun (Son), no co-star.
Chasin' glory I shouldn't own,
Instead of living to make His name known,
I'm runnin' after His throne.
I thought bein' on TV where everybody could see me
Was nothing short of the easiest way I could see to please me.
I'll never be who I used to desperately wanted to be,
I'm too worried 'bout the Lord gettin' credit instead of me.
And you can have the money, and you can have the fame.
For me I want the glory, I'm livin' for the Name.
See life is just a picture, I see outside the frame.
I'm livin' for a Kingdom that I ain't never seen.
And imma chase that, (Glory) imma chase that.
Found the key to life and best believe that imma play that.
(Glory) imma chase that, imma imma chase that,
(Glory) imma chase that, imma imma chase that.
I used to wanna do it big.
When you're only focused on yourself that's small.
And they, they used to tell me as a kid,
That I could do anything that I want, except fall.
And now that I recall, I was chasin' my goals.
And everytime I caught'em they multipled into mo'.
I never even thought about whether the Lord approved,
Call it selfish ambition, I call it, "I'm makin' moves."
But history repeats itself, evil's what it is.
Cuz Lucifer was cast away for doing what I did.
Created by the God who spoke the earth into existence,
Instead of chasing the Father's glory, he was chasin' his.
He lies to us all, told Adam he could ball.
"Why you followin' God when you could go get it all?"
I'll tell you what's better, or better yet worse.
Chasin' your own glory by doin' the Lord's work.
So holla if it hurts, but we were made for greater.
Our greatest satisfaction is making His name famous.
So if we're never named among the greatest,
They don't critically acclaim us,
Ain't nothin' to be ashamed of, we gave it up for the Savior.
Imma chase that, imma imma chase that.
And the Lord's goodness, you should - you should taste that.
And you ain't livin' 'til you livin' for His name, yeah.
(Glory) imma chase that, imma imma chase that.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
quotes
"unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense."
e e cummings
"the idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."
maya angelou
"let yourself become living poetry."
rumi, from soul houses
"there's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either."
robert graves
"how we need another soul to cling to."
sylvia plath
"the aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive."
carlos castaneda
"you don't have a soul. you are a soul. you have a body."
c.s. lewis
"what's the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?"
john green, an abundance of katherines
e e cummings
"the idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart."
maya angelou
"let yourself become living poetry."
rumi, from soul houses
"there's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money either."
robert graves
"how we need another soul to cling to."
sylvia plath
"the aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive."
carlos castaneda
"you don't have a soul. you are a soul. you have a body."
c.s. lewis
"what's the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?"
john green, an abundance of katherines
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
a website for when you're feeling low
so today i found out i didn't get the scholarship i applied for early this summer. boo and hoo, right? well, that's alright because i know i should be able to get through the next year without too much financial strain. my year wasn't riding on it, let's just say that.
anyway as i was crawling out of my short-term funk, i came across this website which helped me up a good deal: http://ilikeyourjacket.com/
check it out. it only gives out compliments. i was really tickled.
anyway as i was crawling out of my short-term funk, i came across this website which helped me up a good deal: http://ilikeyourjacket.com/
check it out. it only gives out compliments. i was really tickled.
projects.
i realize that i am a project person. i think it's why i am an aspiring novelist, as far as my writing goals go. i like long-term projects. or why i look forward to the development, design and marketing of my first book of poems. i love DIY and i love making blogs. i like having specific blogs. a blog for pictures, a blog for poems, a blog for one-sentence poems, a blog for sestinas. i love crocheting things. i love designing posters for events. i love doing this research. i love thrift shopping for neat finds and steals. i would love to think up and start up and advertise a thrift store next summer (one of many thoughts). i love decorating my room every year. i love packing and unpacking. if i ever get married, i will love planning my wedding (wouldn't be a huge affair, but i don't really do any huge affair-type projects anyway).
that said, i certainly don't finish every project i begin. some novels are nothing more than twelve pages and some sentimental residue. some DIYs are too expensive to carry on, or don't work out like i thought they would and i give up. some crochet patterns are frustrating or overwhelming. some blogs i just don't have enough content to keep running properly.
that said, every project i do finish isn't necessarily utilized. some events never happen and therefore do not require posters. enough poems for a couple of books are complete but i've yet to find the confidence or money to do something with them. some novels are finished but who knows if i really even want them read, and even if i do, again with the money.
everything above said, i don't really believe in "all good things come to an end." and maybe that's strange, maybe you would think a project person would feel like everything is good in its own time but nothing last forever and you move on to the next thing and the next thing is as great as the last (if they're positive), but i guess i see my life as having more fluidity than that. it's not one project to the next, everything is intertwined– purposefully.
that said, i certainly don't finish every project i begin. some novels are nothing more than twelve pages and some sentimental residue. some DIYs are too expensive to carry on, or don't work out like i thought they would and i give up. some crochet patterns are frustrating or overwhelming. some blogs i just don't have enough content to keep running properly.
that said, every project i do finish isn't necessarily utilized. some events never happen and therefore do not require posters. enough poems for a couple of books are complete but i've yet to find the confidence or money to do something with them. some novels are finished but who knows if i really even want them read, and even if i do, again with the money.
everything above said, i don't really believe in "all good things come to an end." and maybe that's strange, maybe you would think a project person would feel like everything is good in its own time but nothing last forever and you move on to the next thing and the next thing is as great as the last (if they're positive), but i guess i see my life as having more fluidity than that. it's not one project to the next, everything is intertwined– purposefully.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
prose
#1
it’s nice to know the world is a broken place. pangea. once a solid form, once a whole, an entirety. once upon a time the world was a land instead of many. people traveled across it, instead of over oceans to its other pieces. but it bust. like a glass jar dropped— no like paper ripping— no like the sidewalk after years of growth beneath its surface, cold winters and hot summers expanding and contracting the concrete until it cracked. there was too much time for the world to take. the very earth splintered under the weight of itself, existing for so long, while everything grew upon it. years split the earth into pieces large and small. now we walk over bridges, we sit in planes over valleys, we ride on boats over seas.
indiscriminate time does the same to us. once solid forms, once sure, once whole, the years fall upon us like rain like sun like winter and summer and concrete. we bust. like broken pipes, like broken windows, like the strings of guitar pulled too taut too long until it snaps to two. like the spines of books bent back so many times the sewn parts wear to nothing, and our pages fall out. there is too much time for us to take. when we are born we are given a name and when we die we find we may have many names for the pieces remaining. different locations, destinations of our selves we have given for other people to travel to across our bridges, valleys, seas. we do not ask them to remember us for what we were on day one. but for the pleasant memories they received from the parts of us they came to dwell in.
we are broken places, like the earth. i think it’s nice to know it’s not just us.
#2
sometimes you don’t even meet a person you wish you knew their name. step one step two step three on the escalator coming off the train and i really want to know how to say the word that belongs to the face of the boy-man-human-person walking around with his bike on the stone like he owns the ground he travels. hand to the side as i slide up into the night with my best friend beside me– man on the stairs close to my left shoulder asking for money or something and i don’t want to say anything because it is dark i am cold and always afraid of my womanness in places i don’t know very well. he asks my friend is she from richmond because that’s what her sweatshirt says and even though he is mistaken we will not tell him because we fear our womanness and it is dark outside.
i hear the man with his bike say behind us below us as though his voice is above us, ‘she said no’. he said that for us. i want to know his word, like now i know his sound.
the man who asked says, ‘nah, she didn’t say nothing man.’ fading away because we have already walked one step two steps off of the escalator in the night dimly lit by street lamps and a blinking walk sign, flashing red, ten, nine, eight.
crossing the street i am so close to my friend, two blocks from the hotel, two feet on the ground of an earth that does not belong to me. i turn my head, and i see the man with his bike, paused. maybe he looked at me. maybe he wondered what was my word, my sound.
i wonder would i ever recognize his face, again? i wonder if i saw enough. i heard enough.
sometimes you don’t even need to meet a person. it’s enough just to know somewhere they still exist. one beat, two beats, three beats of a heart somewhere is sound enough. the word is alive.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
thrift photoshoot
now i'm not trying to be a fashion blogger or anything, but i have to admit that sometimes it's fun to do a little dress up and smile cheesy for the camera.
i went to plato's closet with my mother today (i came home for the weekend) and i didn't have any high hopes or great expectations; the last time i visited this particular plato's i couldn't find anything i wanted to try on, as far as dress selection went. but today i had like eight pieces to take to the dressing room! seems like that'd be overwhelming and very tempting, but anyone who's familiar with trying-on clothes knows that the dressing-room selections can get very trimmed down very quickly. most were nos. but a few were absolute yeses!
i came home and i was so excited about them i staged a little photoshoot for myself. i think i got a little too into it. i blame the fact that i was surfing through a lot of fashion blogs yesterday (which i then blame on Pinterest).
dress #1, for a nice dinner with friends/ semi-formal event:
i will also note that this dress selection was inspired by my favorite artist ever in the world: Elle Varner, as pictured here:
dress #2 (actually it's a romper), for everyday summery wear
+ cardigan:
and dress #3, another every day dress:
cost: $14.00
total cost: $39.90
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Friday, July 20, 2012
seeing it come together
there was a play on campus last year and it was entitled things fall apart. it was a wonderful play, and i enjoyed it for many reasons. and the phrase "things fall apart," has this way of sounding so elegant, so poignant, beautifully sad. i guess it came to might today, because of how i am feeling, however i am feeling more like "things fall together".
last summer about this time i was working on a powerpoint presentation. why? i was out of school, an intern for an organization doing ministry with youth in the inner city. why was i sitting in a living room with my laptop in my lap deciding between bold or italics for 100 pt font on slides? struggling to use the shapes tool to create little blob-shaped people? at that time, i knew that i wanted to develop a presentation for an audience of high school students about human trafficking and modern day slavery. and what did i have to do that? power point. so inspired, right?
as time went on i completed my little computer presentation, and what did i find? i found i was overflowing with ideas and desires that i had little resources for. i didn't want the presentation to be all pictures and words on a screen. my vision was that there would be drama involved, on-stage theatre– skits– that there would be fun and popping visuals, and that there would be presenters. what did i have? me. and my laptop.
time went on. i was in school, and i let the presentation sit in its lonely folder of dreams and unlikely ideas. sometimes i brought it up and i moved slides around or i twiddled with coloring, etc. etc. i figured i would polish the presentation up my senior year and write a long paper about what i would have done with it if i could have done something and that would be pretty much that. maybe i would get to present a piece of it to a group of high school kids with some random connection.
a connection did come. through Addie i was connected with Sara Pomeroy, the woman who heads up the RJI, Richmond Justice Initiative. i heard that she was looking to do awareness in a high school in the area, and so i jumped at the chance (nervously– nervously leapt) at the opportunity to share with her what i had constructed. i had a sit down with her at one point and because of technological complications (darn PCs), the best i could do was send her a PDF version of what i had drawn up months previously without a whole lot of editing since.
time went on. RJI got a grant to do awareness in a specific high school; the ties came together and soon they had a definite group of students they would be working with. as they were working tirelessly to develop an excellent curriculum to guide their students through, i was in school, pretty sure that they had better contacts with more expertise and talent; when i was invited to some of the conference meetings about the project (titled The Prevention Project) i figured this would be great experience for me as a college student, to sit and listen to how people flesh out all the necessary elements of creating and organizing an educational awareness campaign in a school– after all this was still what i wanted to be a part of some day.
time went on. i received emails, i heard calls, etc. i thought about my powerpoint frequently, like an old friend. i wanted to do something. i have a wonderful friend named Vanessa, she's got all the talent and passion for art pretty much ever possible. i think, hey i should get her input on this. so i send her some of my slides and give her some ideas; she gets back to me with some custom-made .gifs. i'm amazed. a whole new door to a whole new world has opened, like Narnia. i feel re-invigorated about this project. do i know where it's going now? heck no.
then toward the start of this summer Addie came back from abroad and we met up with Sara again. Sara mentioned wanting to speak with me about my presentation in reference to The Prevention Project. i didn't think much of it, my mind immersed in this-summer-of-research-thoughts. then a few weeks ago came. i got the chance to skype with Sara and she told me that she had gone over my PDF presentation with some other people on the Prevention Project board and from IJM and they were all impressed. i'm sorry– wait– my presentation isn't sitting in dust somewhere?? i was really really very pleasantly surprised to hear this. it isn't that i didn't think my presentation was good– i had gotten great feedback from several people– i guess i just didn't expect that it would go somewhere without my hounding somebody about it. Sara wanted to know if i could go over it, clean it up a little, make it accessible for other people to proctor, make it work as an introduction to trafficking for one of the first weeks of the curriculum. okay, so i would want to take out animations, rethink or reframe the drama elements, eliminate my voice from the equation– my mind was going a million miles a minute. would i be okay with it becoming a part of The Prevention Project, she asked. YES.
i tear into the powerpoint again, redesigning slides almost from ground-up. no animation, but more color. clean fonts, justified lettering, no serifs. some serifs. (can you tell i just read a book about typography?) suddenly i have a clearer view of how everything has to look. i email Vanessa, so excited to tell her that YES, your hard work on this will actually go somewhere! i enlist her to create some images to replace my raggedy powerpoint-shape-tool ones. and then i pretty much text her at every opportunity (hey girl how are you, draw anything recently? hope i'm not bothering you but have you drawn anything for me, hm, hm? :D)*
then i began to ramble on about this with Addie. again, i didn't see myself as available to present this in the Fall with everything i have going on on-campus as is. well, oh look at that– Addie is going to be interning for RJI this fall so she will probably be the person or one of the people presenting this material. well hey, that makes editing with the presenter in mind a whole lot easier. i sit down with Addie and we go over slides. it's nitty gritty, things are getting reworked, reworded, colors are changing, slides are added, sliced, slivered, completely cut out. there may have been a tear in my eye at one point. but a good tear, it was a tear of progress.
so now i have a venue, an audience, a sponsor, a speaker, i have a graphic artist, and i have my revamped presentation, more coherent in content, and more sleek, simple and aesthetically pleasing in design. i mean, that'd probably be enough wouldn't it? but it's not all!
but drama. what about the drama? when this came up at first i thought it would just be completely cut. Addie encouraged me to think otherwise; we know people with talent in this area, she said according to my paraphrasing, you should reach out. so i did. i reached out and you know what happened? this awesome fellow student named Josh responded that yeah, he's become more passionate about the issue, he has the connections and resources to make this possible, the time table looks good and basically it's just what he's been looking for at the moment.
i mean, if there was ever a time to say Hallelujah!, it has to be now, right?
a year ago around this time i was by myself creating slides for a presentation that may never happen. what do i have now? let's go over that piece again: a venue, an audience, a sponsor, a speaker, a graphic artist, and a revamped presentation that is coherent and aesthetically pleasing.
i hope you all hear my heart on this. this isn't about what i did, or accomplished or anything like that. look, the thread in this post is everything that happened without me. without RJI, Sara Pomeroy, the high school that opened its doors, the students who showed interest, Addie and Vanessa and Josh, a little raggedy powerpoint presentation on modern day slavery would simply be an old idea i had once in a folder somewhere on the desktop of the computer i spend too much time on anyway.
maybe you think that's just how networking works. but on my blog i'm going to tell the truth, it's not. networking can work that way, but a lot of the time, most of the time, things fall through. i know ideas. i know a lot of people who have ideas. think of all the ideas you have had. how many have actually come to fruition? even the great ones! i thank God because i remember praying to Him, if you want this to happen, if this is from you and i think that it is, please provide these pieces that are necessary. i literally remember sitting in my room and praying that less than a year ago. now the vision i had, that He gave me, it's changed since i first had it (i thought it would be a big assembly-type event, rather than a classroom-sized portion of a curriculum), but that's because as time has gone on and He's put things together, my vision has slowly been corrected and redirected into His purpose.
as far as what my thesis is going to be now, well that presentation was the bulk of it soooo... no ideas... Jesus take the wheel, haha, please. again. [:
for more info on RJI: http://www.richmondjusticeinitiative.org/
for more info on The Prevention Project: http://prevention-project.org/home.php
also look them up on Facebook!
*not an actual text, thank the Lord.
last summer about this time i was working on a powerpoint presentation. why? i was out of school, an intern for an organization doing ministry with youth in the inner city. why was i sitting in a living room with my laptop in my lap deciding between bold or italics for 100 pt font on slides? struggling to use the shapes tool to create little blob-shaped people? at that time, i knew that i wanted to develop a presentation for an audience of high school students about human trafficking and modern day slavery. and what did i have to do that? power point. so inspired, right?
as time went on i completed my little computer presentation, and what did i find? i found i was overflowing with ideas and desires that i had little resources for. i didn't want the presentation to be all pictures and words on a screen. my vision was that there would be drama involved, on-stage theatre– skits– that there would be fun and popping visuals, and that there would be presenters. what did i have? me. and my laptop.
time went on. i was in school, and i let the presentation sit in its lonely folder of dreams and unlikely ideas. sometimes i brought it up and i moved slides around or i twiddled with coloring, etc. etc. i figured i would polish the presentation up my senior year and write a long paper about what i would have done with it if i could have done something and that would be pretty much that. maybe i would get to present a piece of it to a group of high school kids with some random connection.
a connection did come. through Addie i was connected with Sara Pomeroy, the woman who heads up the RJI, Richmond Justice Initiative. i heard that she was looking to do awareness in a high school in the area, and so i jumped at the chance (nervously– nervously leapt) at the opportunity to share with her what i had constructed. i had a sit down with her at one point and because of technological complications (darn PCs), the best i could do was send her a PDF version of what i had drawn up months previously without a whole lot of editing since.
time went on. RJI got a grant to do awareness in a specific high school; the ties came together and soon they had a definite group of students they would be working with. as they were working tirelessly to develop an excellent curriculum to guide their students through, i was in school, pretty sure that they had better contacts with more expertise and talent; when i was invited to some of the conference meetings about the project (titled The Prevention Project) i figured this would be great experience for me as a college student, to sit and listen to how people flesh out all the necessary elements of creating and organizing an educational awareness campaign in a school– after all this was still what i wanted to be a part of some day.
time went on. i received emails, i heard calls, etc. i thought about my powerpoint frequently, like an old friend. i wanted to do something. i have a wonderful friend named Vanessa, she's got all the talent and passion for art pretty much ever possible. i think, hey i should get her input on this. so i send her some of my slides and give her some ideas; she gets back to me with some custom-made .gifs. i'm amazed. a whole new door to a whole new world has opened, like Narnia. i feel re-invigorated about this project. do i know where it's going now? heck no.
then toward the start of this summer Addie came back from abroad and we met up with Sara again. Sara mentioned wanting to speak with me about my presentation in reference to The Prevention Project. i didn't think much of it, my mind immersed in this-summer-of-research-thoughts. then a few weeks ago came. i got the chance to skype with Sara and she told me that she had gone over my PDF presentation with some other people on the Prevention Project board and from IJM and they were all impressed. i'm sorry– wait– my presentation isn't sitting in dust somewhere?? i was really really very pleasantly surprised to hear this. it isn't that i didn't think my presentation was good– i had gotten great feedback from several people– i guess i just didn't expect that it would go somewhere without my hounding somebody about it. Sara wanted to know if i could go over it, clean it up a little, make it accessible for other people to proctor, make it work as an introduction to trafficking for one of the first weeks of the curriculum. okay, so i would want to take out animations, rethink or reframe the drama elements, eliminate my voice from the equation– my mind was going a million miles a minute. would i be okay with it becoming a part of The Prevention Project, she asked. YES.
i tear into the powerpoint again, redesigning slides almost from ground-up. no animation, but more color. clean fonts, justified lettering, no serifs. some serifs. (can you tell i just read a book about typography?) suddenly i have a clearer view of how everything has to look. i email Vanessa, so excited to tell her that YES, your hard work on this will actually go somewhere! i enlist her to create some images to replace my raggedy powerpoint-shape-tool ones. and then i pretty much text her at every opportunity (hey girl how are you, draw anything recently? hope i'm not bothering you but have you drawn anything for me, hm, hm? :D)*
then i began to ramble on about this with Addie. again, i didn't see myself as available to present this in the Fall with everything i have going on on-campus as is. well, oh look at that– Addie is going to be interning for RJI this fall so she will probably be the person or one of the people presenting this material. well hey, that makes editing with the presenter in mind a whole lot easier. i sit down with Addie and we go over slides. it's nitty gritty, things are getting reworked, reworded, colors are changing, slides are added, sliced, slivered, completely cut out. there may have been a tear in my eye at one point. but a good tear, it was a tear of progress.
so now i have a venue, an audience, a sponsor, a speaker, i have a graphic artist, and i have my revamped presentation, more coherent in content, and more sleek, simple and aesthetically pleasing in design. i mean, that'd probably be enough wouldn't it? but it's not all!
but drama. what about the drama? when this came up at first i thought it would just be completely cut. Addie encouraged me to think otherwise; we know people with talent in this area, she said according to my paraphrasing, you should reach out. so i did. i reached out and you know what happened? this awesome fellow student named Josh responded that yeah, he's become more passionate about the issue, he has the connections and resources to make this possible, the time table looks good and basically it's just what he's been looking for at the moment.
i mean, if there was ever a time to say Hallelujah!, it has to be now, right?
a year ago around this time i was by myself creating slides for a presentation that may never happen. what do i have now? let's go over that piece again: a venue, an audience, a sponsor, a speaker, a graphic artist, and a revamped presentation that is coherent and aesthetically pleasing.
i hope you all hear my heart on this. this isn't about what i did, or accomplished or anything like that. look, the thread in this post is everything that happened without me. without RJI, Sara Pomeroy, the high school that opened its doors, the students who showed interest, Addie and Vanessa and Josh, a little raggedy powerpoint presentation on modern day slavery would simply be an old idea i had once in a folder somewhere on the desktop of the computer i spend too much time on anyway.
maybe you think that's just how networking works. but on my blog i'm going to tell the truth, it's not. networking can work that way, but a lot of the time, most of the time, things fall through. i know ideas. i know a lot of people who have ideas. think of all the ideas you have had. how many have actually come to fruition? even the great ones! i thank God because i remember praying to Him, if you want this to happen, if this is from you and i think that it is, please provide these pieces that are necessary. i literally remember sitting in my room and praying that less than a year ago. now the vision i had, that He gave me, it's changed since i first had it (i thought it would be a big assembly-type event, rather than a classroom-sized portion of a curriculum), but that's because as time has gone on and He's put things together, my vision has slowly been corrected and redirected into His purpose.
as far as what my thesis is going to be now, well that presentation was the bulk of it soooo... no ideas... Jesus take the wheel, haha, please. again. [:
for more info on RJI: http://www.richmondjusticeinitiative.org/
for more info on The Prevention Project: http://prevention-project.org/home.php
also look them up on Facebook!
*not an actual text, thank the Lord.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
a typical day of work
well i'm about to start working for the day and i realize, other than the transcribing post, i haven't really given a very clear picture on here of what it is exactly that i do all day. so here's the rundown:
(used to be) running
hey so remember when i was running in the morning? yeah me too... good times, good times... i'm going to start again... next week... i lost my ipod armband actually, so that's... y'know... my excuse...
devo time + prayer
addie and i have been very intentional about integrating prayer into our mornings. i've been reading this book called training hearts teaching minds which is a catechism. this week is week 7; the catechism question is 'what are the decrees of God?' and without looking i am going to supply you the answer: the decrees of God are His eternal plan based on the purpose of His will, by which, for His own glory, He has foreordained everything that happens. mom, dad, elan, miles– how'd i do? [:
reading
right now we're reading Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd, a chapter a day pretty much. we've read some studies that are very similar to our own from different agencies and a lot of articles on service provision that came out through the Department of Health and Human Services. we've looked at all of these for information and also ideas of what we would like to do differently in our final documents, which i'll describe later.
contacting + scheduling
this part is pretty much over now, but this was the part where we had to make a million calls and emails and follow-ups to try to get organizations to agree to be a part of our research and to put interview dates on the calendar. this was my least favorite part. and i've become more comfortable with it over time, but it is still my least favorite part. although some of the people i've spoken to– most in fact, if not all, were really very nice. just busy. which i completely understand. this field is understaffed and under-resourced and one of the most time-intensive. anyway, that's why it's so hard to do this part! tedious, we were always updating this google doc we have with side-notes like: "07/11- emailed Jane Doe" or "07/11- Jane Doe on vacation, call back 07/16" or "07/11- Jane Doe passing on to John Doe, call if we haven't heard back by 07/18" etc. etc.
interviewing
so, i believe i've explained this before, but maybe not! so, addie and i have been interviewing staff members at different organizations that provide services to survivors of trafficking in the u.s. ("what does that even mean, cheyenne?") anyone organization involved with survivors of human trafficking from the point of identifying them and referring them to services all the way to providing long-term services qualify as relevant to our research. ("what does that even mean, cheyenne?") for example, an outreach program that goes out into the streets and speaks with women, girls or boys who are being prostituted; or an emergency shelter location that offers basic services such as food, clothing, a place to shower; or a residential facility with particular curriculum and programming designed to deal with the trauma and healing process of individuals who have been trafficked. (if you have any more questions, feel free to leave a comment [:) so addie and i have a set of general questions we designed at the start of the summer for organizations, but as you can see, everyone isn't the same– so depending on exactly the type of work an organization does we may alter that set of questions.
interview prep
because of everything i said above, we do interview prep to make sure we're ready, our questions make sense in the context, and we look up each organization's website to go over what information we may not need to ask about or to see if there are any unique features of a group we want to add a question about or point out. etc. etc.
transcribing
i picked up my transcribing speed a little bit since my last post about it. if the audio is clear and i'm not distracted i can type up 20 min. of audio in 40-50 min. instead of 60. hey, that's nothing to scoff at. however, most audio is not clear, and sometimes i am distracted. BUT the headphones i've been using (which are addie's) she just told me have a noise canceling feature! i didn't know i had to press a button, i thought it was automatic. so hey, that might help.
drafting the resource guides
so what's the point, right? we're getting all this information but what's happening with it? well, addie and i are taking on different aspects at this point. she is working on an academic report that will cover all the technical aspects of what we're researching: existing research and legal framework, needs of survivors, core characteristics of service provision (long-term nature, variety of actors, individualized continuum of care), what we should consider going forward, etc. i am working on two resource guides: (1) for service providers – this will cover innovative programs, challenges in the field, coordination between service providers and other agencies, faith-based programming, self-care, and other resources, (2) for non service providers – this will be geared toward individuals in the community who will come into contact with victims of trafficking and those at risk, and its purpose is to equip people to recognize risk factors, red flags, how to report trafficking, how culture influences trafficking, what the demand looks like, what prevention can be done/ has been done in other places.
recently i've been almost exclusively transcribing all day while addie organizes the information from interview i've already transcribed into a database. she does a lot of the organizing. it's a good system.
so usually we start around 10. we break for lunch around 12 always, for 45 min. to 1 hour. and we end at about 5. it's a good system.
(used to be) running
hey so remember when i was running in the morning? yeah me too... good times, good times... i'm going to start again... next week... i lost my ipod armband actually, so that's... y'know... my excuse...
devo time + prayer
addie and i have been very intentional about integrating prayer into our mornings. i've been reading this book called training hearts teaching minds which is a catechism. this week is week 7; the catechism question is 'what are the decrees of God?' and without looking i am going to supply you the answer: the decrees of God are His eternal plan based on the purpose of His will, by which, for His own glory, He has foreordained everything that happens. mom, dad, elan, miles– how'd i do? [:
reading
right now we're reading Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd, a chapter a day pretty much. we've read some studies that are very similar to our own from different agencies and a lot of articles on service provision that came out through the Department of Health and Human Services. we've looked at all of these for information and also ideas of what we would like to do differently in our final documents, which i'll describe later.
contacting + scheduling
this part is pretty much over now, but this was the part where we had to make a million calls and emails and follow-ups to try to get organizations to agree to be a part of our research and to put interview dates on the calendar. this was my least favorite part. and i've become more comfortable with it over time, but it is still my least favorite part. although some of the people i've spoken to– most in fact, if not all, were really very nice. just busy. which i completely understand. this field is understaffed and under-resourced and one of the most time-intensive. anyway, that's why it's so hard to do this part! tedious, we were always updating this google doc we have with side-notes like: "07/11- emailed Jane Doe" or "07/11- Jane Doe on vacation, call back 07/16" or "07/11- Jane Doe passing on to John Doe, call if we haven't heard back by 07/18" etc. etc.
interviewing
so, i believe i've explained this before, but maybe not! so, addie and i have been interviewing staff members at different organizations that provide services to survivors of trafficking in the u.s. ("what does that even mean, cheyenne?") anyone organization involved with survivors of human trafficking from the point of identifying them and referring them to services all the way to providing long-term services qualify as relevant to our research. ("what does that even mean, cheyenne?") for example, an outreach program that goes out into the streets and speaks with women, girls or boys who are being prostituted; or an emergency shelter location that offers basic services such as food, clothing, a place to shower; or a residential facility with particular curriculum and programming designed to deal with the trauma and healing process of individuals who have been trafficked. (if you have any more questions, feel free to leave a comment [:) so addie and i have a set of general questions we designed at the start of the summer for organizations, but as you can see, everyone isn't the same– so depending on exactly the type of work an organization does we may alter that set of questions.
interview prep
because of everything i said above, we do interview prep to make sure we're ready, our questions make sense in the context, and we look up each organization's website to go over what information we may not need to ask about or to see if there are any unique features of a group we want to add a question about or point out. etc. etc.
transcribing
i picked up my transcribing speed a little bit since my last post about it. if the audio is clear and i'm not distracted i can type up 20 min. of audio in 40-50 min. instead of 60. hey, that's nothing to scoff at. however, most audio is not clear, and sometimes i am distracted. BUT the headphones i've been using (which are addie's) she just told me have a noise canceling feature! i didn't know i had to press a button, i thought it was automatic. so hey, that might help.
drafting the resource guides
so what's the point, right? we're getting all this information but what's happening with it? well, addie and i are taking on different aspects at this point. she is working on an academic report that will cover all the technical aspects of what we're researching: existing research and legal framework, needs of survivors, core characteristics of service provision (long-term nature, variety of actors, individualized continuum of care), what we should consider going forward, etc. i am working on two resource guides: (1) for service providers – this will cover innovative programs, challenges in the field, coordination between service providers and other agencies, faith-based programming, self-care, and other resources, (2) for non service providers – this will be geared toward individuals in the community who will come into contact with victims of trafficking and those at risk, and its purpose is to equip people to recognize risk factors, red flags, how to report trafficking, how culture influences trafficking, what the demand looks like, what prevention can be done/ has been done in other places.
recently i've been almost exclusively transcribing all day while addie organizes the information from interview i've already transcribed into a database. she does a lot of the organizing. it's a good system.
.JPG) |
| look you can see addie in the reflection of her computer screen !! |
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
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