By |

I watched “Milk” last night and it was a tear-jerker.  What a beautiful movie, what an amazing person.  Harvey Milk.  Wow.  Read his hope speech.  It’s absolutely pertinent just as much now as it was then, http://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/milk-youve-got-to-have-hope-speech-text/

The sun came up again today and it poured in through the windows as the sun rose above trees from across the street.  I live in a rural area in North Carolina.  In the morning, the sweetest peacefulness of frost on the ground and the chilly, brisk air is enough to make me smile.  I had to wake up early to go babysit my two nephews.  We’ve been having a blast all morning.  Check out our awesome skills.

Desktop1

Kevi is the oldest, he’s 8.  Joey is going to turn 2 in June.  Kevi started reading Moby Dick this morning (the kids’ illustrated version) and Joey drooled on his new book, “What Penguins Do”.  I love to give them books and see just how long their attention spans last.  Kevi got through one paragraph and Joey ran after a moose after 5 minutes.  Cute.

I’ll do a historical reflection in a blog later today.  Right now I have boys to look after.

By |

Victory and success for the local T-Birds was had last night during trivia @ The Eddy in Saxapahaw.  Our team won and it was a really good time.  I made Valentines for my new good neighbor friends.  Modgepodge and magazine cutouts, crafts zone at my house was inspired by riding by The Sparrow House (a house down the road that should be named the Peacock House) and seeing hearts and lights everywhere.

Traditionally, I’m not a fan of Valentines day, so I go into work and use the Hallmark occasion to make a few extra bucks.  I’ve been a waitress, bartender, dishwasher, or cook since I was 14.  Valentines day is so ridiculous because we should be giving love in such an obscene way EVERY DAY!!

In other news, in 1920 on this day The League of Women Voters was established in Chicago.  Also, Feb. 14, 1847, Anna Howard Shaw, one of the most influential leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, was born.  The coalition for Fair (publicly funded) Elections is made up of many organizations, mine being one of them (Democracy Matters) and the League of Women Voters is another.  I am very happy to be able to say that I a m a part of such an amazing coalition, working for change in this country.  Getting private and corporate wealth out of the election system is our goal – as it stands right now, all politicians (no matter how wonderful or terrible they may be) are indebted to the people who pay for their elections and the SUPERPACs that support them.  On Valentines today in New York, Valentines are being distributed to elected officials for their support of Fair Elections and we will hopefully see some substantial changes, and soon.

Craving, if you were wondering is the name of today’s post for two reasons: 1. I’m hungry, this is to be mediated shortly. and 2. I was missing the voice of my dear friend who just moved to Thailand.  I spoke to her this morning and it was a delight.

H.Bear

Sending Valentines love from across the world is a lovely way to start your day.  I also received a very special e-mail from my sweetheart telling me how sweet I am and how much he loves me, he doesn’t just do this on Valentines day. So I’m pretty lucky. 🙂  I made him a card last night too, a hilarious one that is not only a hand-made card, but it’s an awesome, hand-made pop-out card.

So happy V-Day everyone, from your local, typical and loving,

Scrooge

By |

Online classes you can take for free from really amazing universities…

This is the one that piqued my interest the most: The Challenges of Global Poverty https://www.edx.org/courses/MITx/14.73x/2013_Spring/about

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This is a course for those who are interested in the challenge posed by massive and persistent world poverty, and are hopeful that economists might have something useful to say about this challenge. The questions we will take up include: Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Are the poor always hungry? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is microfinance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be “nasty, brutish and short”? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene? And many others. At the end of this course, you should have a good sense of the key questions asked by scholars interested in poverty today, and hopefully a few answers as well.

PREREQUISITES

This course is intended to be an introduction to the issues of global poverty, as conceptualized by leading economists and political scientists. Previous exposure to economics would be beneficial, then, as concepts such as income vs. substitution effects, Engel curves, and utility functions will be discussed. Similarly, some experience with statistics will also be helpful: we will be examining, for example, empirical evidence in the form of regression results.

That said, these prerequisites are not critical to understanding and learning from the course. Links will be provided, as much as possible, on background issues and further reading to allow all participants to gain from the course.

COURSE STAFF

Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee

Abhijit Banerjee was educated at the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Harvard University. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. Banerjee is a past president of the Bureau for Research in the Economic Analysis of Development, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, and has been a Guggenheim Fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. He is the recipient of many awards, including the inaugural Infosys Prize in 2009, and has been an honorary advisor to many organizations including the World Bank and the government of India.

Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. She was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, in Paris, and at MIT. She has received numerous honors and prizes including a John Bates Clark Medal for the best American economist under 40 in 2010, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2009. She was recognized as one of the best eight young economists by The Economist magazine, one of the 100 most influential thinkers by Foreign Policy since the list exists, and one of the “Forty under 40” most influential business leaders under forty by Fortune magazine in 2010.

Collaboration

Professors Banerjee and Duflo, together with Prof. Sendhil Mullainathan of Harvard University, founded theAbdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab in 2003. In 2011, their book, Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, won the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

FOR MORE CLASSES GO TO:

https://www.edx.org/?utm_source=Rubicon&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=Dec12_home_300x250

This is my I’m badass and learning shit face.IMG_1832

By |

…was beautiful.302742_10100492777791448_1237711657_n

I played at Flat Street in Brattleboro last night.  Tom Woodbury hooked it up with the sound, even sang a few songs with me in the end which was really fun.  I wish we could play songs together all the time.  That would be super groovy.

I’ve been going over and over again why I get so nervous and what I can do about it.  My songs are good and my guitar/uke playing isn’t that bad, I just get a giant self-critic that’s larger than me saying all kinds of things in my ear… “you don’t practice enough, you don’t deserve to be up here, you’re not good enough to play that song, no one’s really listening, why are you doing this?” Oh how I do hate that not-so-little voice.

However, when I have nights like last night, where there’s a group of people who love me like I deserved to be loved, it changes that voice and quietens her down a little.  I had a corner of strength and smiles (and wine and gingerale and a full moon to help).  This is the kind of group that you want to carry in your pocket all the time, just to remind you that you are loved.  Who cares if I screw up a song? They laugh, I laugh, we move on.  That’s they way it should be.

I”m not only saying thank you via this journal.  I’ve told them each how awesome they are and how thankful I am to have them in my life.  (Even if it does happen to be a dreadful 13 hours away…)

So I’m learning to critique, not be a critic.  I’m hard on myself for everything already.  I’ve got to get real.  I LOVE to sing and play.  I LOVE little things like meandering streams and peas in my soup.  I LOVE the way I feel when I see a couple in love.  I LOVE listening to thunder.  I LOVE inspiring my students.  I LOVE passion to the point of explosion.  I LOVE sleeping and then waking up again.  I also love that there are only a certain number of hours in the day, gives me another day to be grateful and remind myself of it, so that I can appreciate my art and work, versus kicking myself for not being good enough (capitalism: false, imposed sense of hurriedness and productivity for profit by exploitation of human beings and the planet

… dangit).  So thanks you guys, thanks Family, thanks Earth, thanks Universe.  Remind me not to be afraid to be awesome more often.

By |

I have been waiting for this moment, to suddenly feel like it’s turning again into Autumn.

The Equinox has come and gone and I have some new songs stirring.  The Harvest Moon is shining brightly tonight and I have been reminded once again that it is a joy to simply see it, feel it, and put on a sweater over my shirt.

Giving some thanks to the breeze and the still-open windows, for this is the beginning of the dying part of the year.  When we see the spirits coming into full view.  Give me your ears and I will fill your cup, soon to be drowning in minor chords and songs of crackling leaves.

By |

“And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that the throne erected within you is destroyed.” -Kahlil Gibran

A WONDERFUL Social Justice PAGE: http://www.rlmarts.com/