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Simple Costumes
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Halloween is almost here! It’s time to start planning, making and gathering costumes together. While browsing through the Amazon.com Costume Shop, I started thinking about SUPER simple and minimalist costumes. What are the easiest costumes to pull together and carry … Continue reading
Magic Labyrinth and Pizza
Last night I spent the evening at a board game cafe. A 6-year-old family member and I had a wonderful time playing board games and eating pizza.
On the way home I realized we’d devoted 2+ hours to old-fashioned gaming in a place that does not have televisions or computers. We spent the entire time surrounded by people who were also talking, interacting and playing board games. No one was working on a laptop or staring at a cell phone. I didn’t even bother to check my phone the entire time.
It was a much-needed change for both of us. This may turn into a regular activity!
As for the games…
We played a handful of different family friendly games, but the clear winner was this:
Amazon.com
It’s a rather ingenious game that uses a multi-layer board and magnetic game pieces to create an ever-changing labyrinth beneath the game board. The objective is to be the first to reach a pre-designated and randomly selected spot on the board. The challenge is in getting the game piece across the board without losing the metal ball magnetically attached to the bottom (located on the underside of the board) by knocking it up against a wall of the labyrinth. Every time the ball falls off, it rolls out to a corner (like in a pool game) and the piece goes back to the beginning.
I kept thinking that it was an awful lot like late 1980s video games. For those of you who have never played: back then, ‘dying’ or losing a level meant going back to level 1. Every. Single. Time. That’s actually a big part of the reason why I never became a (video) gamer.
Yet, the board game reset was fun. In fact, it was fun and challenging for both of us (child and adult), which is difficult to do!
I strongly recommend trying this one out.
I also suspect Santa just might bring a copy to our house this year. 🙂
Distance Provides Perspective
Quote
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Out of Range
“I was locked
Into being my mother’s daughter
I was just eating bread and water
Thinking nothing ever changes
And I was shocked
To see the mistakes of each generation
Will just fade like a radio station
If you drive out of range”
–Out of Range by Ani DiFranco
Podcast: The Rights Track
The Rights Track is an impressive podcast. Interview questions are well done, conversations are professional and the topic is well worth listening to.
The Rights Track: Sound Evidence on Human Rights
The Rights Track on Twitter
The Devil’s Clean Shirt
Quote
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Seven times I went down
Six times I walked back
I don’t fear the dark anymore
‘Cause I’ve become all thatDon’t forget the time
I wooed him with red wine
The devil he wore such a fine, fine shirt
And it stayed so clean
While he dragged me through the dirt
Don’t trust anyone who looks you in the eye
Don’t take any kindness, it’s a demand in disguise
–A Bird Flies Out by Deb Talan
Of By For
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Of By For is a documentary about the American political system. I enjoyed the film and recommend watching it…..but…..Yes, there’s a but…
Frankly, the interview conducted, the things said, and the history illustrated is BOTH important and frequently covered. I found myself thinking that I’ve seen another version of this movie a dozen times  before and I can’t remember the names of any of the other films.
Then Dan Rather spoke.
Dan Rather made some very heartfelt comments about the loss of a spine within the American press. He commented on the loss of checks and balances that the press is, theoretically, supposed to provide and the fact that ‘reality television’ can be done without consequence while true hard journalism comes with the potential of facing a lot of very hard, expensive and potentially career ending consequences – even with the journalistic work is good, professional, ethical and legal.
This reminded me of Puerto Rico’s “most trusted journalist” as covered on the Daily Show: La Comay on SuperXclusivo. Perhaps we need more puppets asking questions and fewer journalists acting like puppets.
Of By For resources:
Poverty, Inc.
Amazon.com
I finally got the opportunity to watch the documentary Poverty Inc. It’s well worth watching and covers a lot of details that are extremely important to consider when providing assistance internationally.
As I was watching it, I kept thinking the same systemic concerns, complaints and problems occur here in the United States. The manifestation is different, but the way money, business, non-profit work and political/social forces operate are the same. Honestly, I think a Poverty Inc USA-version is both possible and warranted. Maybe someday that will happen.
The danger I see in this film is the assumption that no help at all is better than anything being provided for free. That is not the argument made by this film, either purposely or as a result of the evidence provided. The point made…extremely well…is that non profits make money off of catastrophes and continue making money as long as the catastrophes continue, which directly and drastically hinders the efforts of people trying to overcome terrible events.
Help is ethically, morally and politically necessary. However, turning people into your permanent fundraising poster child by hindering their ability to move into (or return to) a state of financial and political self-sufficiency is not help – it’s business.
This would make an excellent starting point of an in-depth discussion or class on poverty, economics, business and politics.
Details about the movie:
- Poverty, Inc. Official Website
- Poverty, Inc. on IMDB
- Poverty, Inc. on Official FaceBook page
- Poverty, Inc. on Wikipedia
The Reason People Do Not Trust The Police: Abduction and Human Trafficking
Amazon.com
Having lived and worked in both the Fargo/Moorehead area and Duluth, MN, this story does not surprise me. Sadly, it is far from the first time I’ve run across an article like this. Also, this is neither the first nor the last woman to experience this problem, yet police continue to refuse to take it seriously: Crimes against Native American women raise questions about police response, The Guardian, by Zoe Sullivan (01/19/2016)
North Dakota nightmare: Lake Vermilion woman abducted, taken to Bakken oil patch, The TimberJay, by Marshall Helmberger and Jodi Summit (06/03/2015)
A woman was traveling through North Dakota when she found herself stranded. While contacting family on her cell phone she was abducted:
The man had snuck up behind her while she was messaging friends and family members on her progress and was focused on her laptop computer. It was the last message her family would receive for almost a week.
Somehow she managed to escape:
The following few days, she said, are lost in a fog, as her abductor may have kept her drugged. She woke up to the dinging of an open car door, and found herself lying in the backseat of a beat-up Honda Accord with a missing back window. With her abductor apparently outside the vehicle, she stumbled out of the back seat and crawled away. “I tried to run,” she said, but her vision was blurry. Despite that, she managed to make her way down a steep ditch and her abductor apparently didn’t pursue her, but her memory of her escape is far from clear.
And survived through the help of a Good Samaritan:
While she had begun her ordeal in Casselton, in far eastern North Dakota, after escaping her abductor she found herself in a remote part of northwestern North Dakota. She said she wandered for at least two days, without food or water, before finally being rescued by a North Dakota man, who spotted her wandering across open country near the tiny town of Wildrose.
Then the police do THIS:
While Edith had hoped her experience would help law enforcement officials apprehend a kidnapper and possible human trafficker, she soon discovered that officers at the Williston Police Department had little interest in her story. She said officers refused to take a statement about her abduction. Instead, they ran her own record and found a 2011 traffic violation from Grand Forks still outstanding—and arrested her on a bench warrant for the unpaid ticket.
“I kept trying to tell them that I’d been taken, but they wouldn’t listen. One officer told me I was full of __it and was just trying to get out of the warrant,” said Edith.
According to Edith, the Williston police offered no medical assistance. Instead, they booked her into a holding facility overnight and shipped her to a jail in Minot the following day.
This is just one of the many reasons why people do not trust the police. It’s also living proof that the militarization of the police force is ineffective. When police officers are so distanced from the human beings they are tasked to serve that they can’t recognize a situation for what it is…or take the OPPORTUNITY it presents to capture a REAL bad guy…then there is something seriously wrong.