So today was a day full of randomness. Although, who am I fooling, most of my days are full of randomness, but today just stuck out as especially random for some reason.
First, there are 21 days until election day. Thank. Cheesus. Don’t get me wrong – I do like campaigns, and the candidates I am helping this time around, but I AM OFFICIALLY OVER THIS ELECTION CYCLE. The constant barrage of ads on TV (I can’t event escape them by watching stuff on Hulu!), debates, polls, money raised, blah blah blah has just gotten to me. I blame the fact that we pretty much are in a constant state of campaigns and elections here in the US.
Guys, suggestion – how ’bout we agree to give ourselves a 3 month black out before starting any new campaigns. Seriously – no emails the day after saying “The Race for 2014 STARTS TODAY!”. Send a thank you to your volunteers and supporters and then RELAX. Read a book. Watch some movies. Eat some fresh and/or homemade food. Don’t play the could’ve, should’ve, would’ve game. You can’t go back in time, so recharge yourself, take a break and come back a few months down the road ready to do work.
Second – new MIKA album today!!! 🙂 This made me super happy and it’s been the soundtrack to my day.
Finally, my favorite TV show from the UK, Skins, released information about it’s 7th series today. *cue much rejoicing and flailing from the fandom* Happy to hear some of my favorite characters will be making appearances during the 3 “movies” that will make up the 7th and final series of the show. Here’s hoping we get some resolutions to some of the cliffhangers from the previous series and casts too.
Must return to my previously scheduled work for this evening. 21 days – let’s goooooooooooooooo!
Author’s Note: This is another re-post from a site that no longer is live, but I wanted to share it here as well. Enjoy.
Not many people know that I was a Girl Scout for 15 years (as both a girl and an adult member) and received my Gold Award, which is the Girl Scout version of the Eagle Award. I worked for two summers as a counselor at a day camp run by my local council. I was the keynote speaker at a Gold Award dinner while I was in grad school. While I’m currently not an “active” member – which is something I really need to remedy – I still consider myself a Girl Scout since I am a reflection of the organization and the skills it taught me throughout my many years of involvement.
Over the past few months, Girl Scouts have been in the news. While, many of the stories highlight the 100 years of successful programming for girls currently being celebrated, there have also been a number of attacks made on this organization that are quite simply distractions from the actual mission of Girl Scouts of USA. This is, in my opinion, taking away from what should be a positive year of celebration by causing the organization to play defense.
The past few days have been absolutely lovely – weatherwise – here in Minnesota. Granted, it’s likely a titch warmer than it is supposed to be at this time of year, but who am I to complain. The sky has been stunning – bright blues, fairly cloud free, and just picture perfect and smile inducing.
It is quite the contrast to what has been going on generally in the world. It seems as if over the last few weeks (and months and years really) there has been a lot more negativity especially in the ways that people are talking to each other and about each other. Granted, we’re in an election year (with two especially divisive constitutional amendments on the ballot here in MN), and this has become expected, but it doesn’t mean it’s right. I have a hard time, at times, reading the news or going on twitter because of the hate being shared and spread just makes me feel . . . .sad.
All four KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in Nepal shut down on Tuesday saying that staff had attacked and threatened to kill branch managers. Devyani International, which operates outlets of KFC and Pizza Hut in Nepal and neighbouring India, wrote a letter to authorities announcing the immediate closure of its eateries in the capital Kathmandu.
“In order to disrupt our operations, some staff have physically attacked and threatened to kill the senior managers,” the company said in a letter leaked to local media and seen by AFP.
“These acts have put the life of senior managers at risk. To maintain the safety of our restaurants and the staff, we have shut down our services for an indefinite period,” it said.
The shutters were down at the four restaurants on Tuesday, and Devyani International and the police were unavailable for comment.
Now, this warrants being posted for two reasons:
What could possibly drive these people to threaten their managers? The secret herbs and spices? The cheesy garlic bread?
I ate at this KFC my last day in Kathmandu prior to starting the more than 24 hour trek back to the States. In my defense, there weren’t a lot of options in the part of Kathmandu the KFC is in, and there were fewer options at the airport in Kathmandu prior to the 5 hour flight to Doha. My mom ate at the Pizza Hut too.
2. Excited Seal is excited!
I have no real reason for posting this other than it’s a photo that never ceases to amuse me.
Granted, the circumstances that led to this photo being possible were scary and tragic, and I know the folks impacted by the flooding are still recovering. Help if you can, cool?
If you’re in Minnesota or Wisconsin, vote today. If you’re not in either of those states (and even if you are!), do something nice for someone today. Share some kindness.
Last night I was sad to hear about the passing of Whitney Houston. She had a true gift which will live on through her music.
Addiction is a real, and often fatal, struggle for many people. Too often people do not know how or where to get help – in some cases due to barriers to access or the stigma related to such problems. The same is true for other mental illnesses as well.
This leads me to pose the question: When can there be a real discussion about how mental health is as important as physical heath?
On the surface, this question makes little sense – one movie is about the first openly gay man to be elected to major public office in he US and the other is about the horrors of WWII – but to me they both speak to some core aspects of humanity that seem to persevere regardless of era.
