Photos from Death Valley

Got a few photos from Death Valley posted on Flickr, including this montage: 

Been super busy lately, and haven't really had a chance/had anything important to write about.

Haiti Destruction Mapping

If you're like me and like maps then you might find this one interesting. Its a destruction map of Port-Au-Prince.

Do yourself a favor and check out The Guardian's post for an interactive experience with the map.

Art Takes

My friend E has started this fantastic  collaborative art blog called Art Takes. Each week she gives her readers a theme and at the end of the week she posts all of the submissions. As an artist you interpret the theme and choose your own medium - its really fun, and this week I submitted my second piece for the theme Portrait of the Artist. I've been using it to get myself out and take goal oriented photographs, which I've never actually done before (I'm more of a documenter than an artist when it comes to photography). My previous post was for Night. I do want to branch out and use different types of media, and I think that this week's theme of Maps will help me to do so.

Check it out!

Haiti, Haiti, Haiti

While on the way to Death Valley on Tuesday night I checked my e-mail right before going out of cell range and was stunned by the e-mail alerts piling up in my inbox from GDACS. Right underneath the small island nation of Haiti the Earth apparently felt it needed a good rumble. And then another. And then another.

I read the geo/seismic data (that's all there was at that point) out loud to the car and discussions started. Haiti has been in the news for one reason or another off and on for years - political instability, poverty, food shortages, the effects of labor strikes in neighboring D.R., and of course lovely tropical storms (I used to avidly keep track of Haiti and the Dominican Republic while I was working because of a design project we were involved with in the D.R. and then again recently while applying for a job with one of the many NGOs that have taken up residence in Haiti). We came to two conclusions on Tuesday night: 1) my life would be very "interesting" if I had gotten that job in November (my sister's words) and 2) Haiti is basically screwed.

On Wednesday we stopped in a bar in Furnace Ranch and got a beer and watched the coverage of the quake on CNN - and I was reminded why I hate watching news coverage of humanitarian crises. These reporters have ZERO information, and won't be there informing the public of rebuilding and recovery for the next month or the next five years. While the news needs to be reported and people should know what is going on in the world, why can't these anchors bring on experts from aid organizations explaining to the American public the process that is about to be undertaken over the next several years? I realize that the shock value is so important, it gets your average 24 hour network news viewer/armchair do gooder to contribute much needed money to the Red Cross. I also realize that having someone get up on prime time and spell out what seems a hopelessly long time frame for rebuilding a country can be very overwhelming to viewers, but knowing how big the bucket is to fill, maybe that will help more people get involved either with donations or with time. I'm sure as time goes on the focus of the coverage will shift to be more inclusive of process, timeline, and the overall situation, and that a year from now every major news show will do a look back and show what progress has been made, but I can't help it if I want more educated news.

For those of you interested in more detailed news on Haiti, or humanitarian crisis emergencies here are some incredibly helpful links:

GDACS.org is one of my favorite web sites. Its the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System and is run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They collect maps, reports, and situation reports from the field for workers in all of the major aid groups both government and private and post them all on this site.

Cameron Sinclair (CEO of Architecture for Humanity) wrote a great piece about Arch for Humanity's proposed timeline and goals in Haiti for HuffPo today. You can also follow him on twitter @casinclair

I also found this blog posting from an aid worker, detailing the constraints in Haiti that will be making life difficult for workers and survivors.

Focus!!!

I feel like the last couple of days loads has been going on (at least in my head) and I'm having trouble focussing this morning. Mostly my energy for the last few days has been spent on my Etsy shop (www.etsy.com/shop/rabbitwerks) - making some new pieces, photographing said pieces, creating a lightbox, getting involved on forums, etc.
I'm also in the process of setting up a supply shop for my sister and I to get rid of our old beading supplies, which means there is a lot of counting to 50 and sorting beads - not the greatest thing for someone with De Quervain's, but at least doing menial things like counting gives me some sort of structure for a couple of hours here and there.

The two biggest things this weekend:

1. Friday the roommates and I went to see Where's the Band? at House of Blues. Basically its the lead singers from Bayside, the Get Up Kids, Saves the Day, and Thrice all singing solo stuff, group stuff, or covers armed each with only an acoustic guitar. Basically, its awesome!!! I wound up spending most of Saturday listening to a Matt Pryor (TGUK) Pandora station because I am seriously lacking in music from all of those bands.

2. D-O-M-I-N-I-O-N. This is as close to typing it as how my roommate Je says it. My roommates and I are now hooked on this deck building game called Dominion. Its kind of ridiculous, because they are those kind of nerds, but its super addicting, and like all deck building games, each game you play is totally different and requires different strategies, so its really fun because the three of us play differently each time, so its sort of fair game for who will win each round.

The rest of the week I'll be in Death Valley with my sister and my friend/practically brother L. STOKED!!!

Get Happy, week 2!

This is week 2 of A & M & my Happiness Project. You may remember from a previous post, this month's theme is "energy" and last week's goal was "get more sleep". Considering that the week started out with New Year's and then my birthday party and then my actual birthday all day and night at Disneyland, the "get more sleep" directive was actually hard to do during the first half of the week.

I've augmented mine to "get better sleep" which will hopefully help me go to bed at a more reasonable time. Also, even though I don't necessarily have to get up at any particular time each morning (the joys of not having a job), I've started setting my alarm for a certain time each morning, and I'm hoping that throughout this month I can train myself to actually start my day when my alarm goes off and then by proxy go to bed at a more reasonable hour, instead of my normal 2 or 3 a.m.

This week's goal toward January's "energy" theme is "get more exercise". Particularly poignant for me considering I tried to go hiking on Friday and couldn't make it up the backside of Cowles Mountain. I'm blaming it on my 5 weeks and counting bout of bronchitis, and even though I knew when we started out that I wouldn't be able to make it all the way up I'm really frustrated with this whole lack of breathing thing my body is doing. My goal this week is to start getting back into a place where my lungs will work again without pushing myself to relapse. I am also frustrated because bronchitis has put me a few weeks (and at this rate even more than that, maybe) behind on training for our next Grand Canyon trip in June.

So, hopefully I'll be able to kick this bronchitis thing soon-ish and in the mean time, baby steps with exercising.

It's Complicated

Three of us went to see It's Complicated last night - and I am going to have to add it to my list of movies that made me laugh *a little* too loud in the theater.

It was chalk full of humor, well delivered lines, and fantastic characters. Meryl Streep is, as always, amazing! She plays against both Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in such a natural, non manipulative way that I feel like any woman can relate to her character Jane and the situation she is in. Also, I love Alec Baldwin's character, Jake, its almost like Baldwin's Jack Donaghy character on 30 Rock but with a lot more depth. My absolute favorite character is Harley, played be John Krasinski - he definitely held his own against 3 acting giants and had some hilarious scenes. We're pretty sure the role was written for him, and he nailed it.

The movie is set in Santa Barbara, and I'm totally jealous of Jane's house and garden. Watching the movie made me a tiny bit homesick for the central coast.

It was refreshing to see a "complicated" set of relationships that are not malicious. I feel like the majority of real "exes with benefits" relationships are the way they are portrayed in this movie, and that this is rare in tv/movie relationships.

If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

Eat local!

This chart is the product of collaboration between www.Good.is, Whole Foods and Always With Honor, two pretty spif sites and one pretty spif store.

Anyway, its from the article "What to Eat" on Good.is and highlights fruits and veg that are in season in a few select states in the USofA during each season. This should help you if you live in one of these states and aren't sure which fruits and veggies you can get locally - and after all, one of the best things to do eco friendly shopping is to shop locally. Enjoy!

The 3/50 Project

 Want to get a start on doing good this year? Help local businesses stay afloat! Check out The 3/50 Project and see how easy it is to support people in your community. Many people are starting their own businesses now or trying to keep the ones they have open, and obviously, every purchase counts.

Happy 2010!

Welcome to 2010. May it kick some serious booty.

While we weren't able to ring in the new year at the Buddhist bell as planned, and no bay fireworks (because the city of SD is lame) our evening was still nice and relaxing last night. I did get to send 2009 off with very yummy tequila shots with my parents, sister, and best friend A - so all in all a successful night.

Many of you know that I am not into new year's resolutions, thinking them silly and not effective. In fact, some studies are starting to come out showing that making new year's resolutions actually negatively affects people's disposition through out the year.

However, this year A and M and I are doing something new - its called "The Happiness Project" and we're really excited about it. Essentially, its a (free) guided approach to managing small and helpful goals to get more out of your every day life. Normally I don't go for this kind of stuff because I think its pretty much all hocus pocus, but this seems pretty realistic and actually helpful. Also, the three of us are doing it together to hold ourselves accountable, and I'll be posting things on here to that end.

How it works: Each month there is a focus, for example January is "energy", and each week there is a tip/ goal / idea to help you with the focus (for example, week 1 is "get more sleep"). See - pretty simple stuff.

So here is to a year where we start taking better care of ourselves!