Call + Response Update

Check out a recent article on Call and Response. It's breaking rules of Hollywood and in some cases beating out major releases with no promotion at all. Either today or next weekend it will be opening in Cincinnati and Columbus so go check it out. Every dollar of your ticket goes to projects sponsored by partner organizations that help victims of slavery! I'm just hoping it makes it to London.

Jazz

I like jazz.

If you're in London and you like jazz, you should go to Ronnie Scott's. If you've already been you probably want want to go again. I do. It had a really cool vibe and the music was awesome. Nothing beats live jazz.

Short on words

I haven't had much interesting to comment on lately so I've been quiet. I'm just thankful I'm not in Ohio at the moment to deal with the onslaught of campaigning. I've voted. That's done.

Now I can concern myself with more interesting things like new music. I've recently purchased the new Snow Patrol and Ray LaMontagne albums and I highly recommend both. I can't stop listening. I just bought tickets to see Ray LaMontagne in Brighton and hope to buy tickets to see Snow Patrol again in London. Speaking of seeing bands for a second time, I'm going to see The Swell Season at the end of November at the Royal Albert Hall. They were so good the first time I couldn't resist!

Also, last Sunday I went to the NFL game at Wembley. It was a great game to watch and interesting to see all the fans in their jerseys. I was actually surprised by how many Bengals fans I saw. I was rooting for the Saints since they were technically the home team and I have to admit, it was nice to root for the team that won!

Sound familiar?

Bengals fans - does this sound familiar? Seriously.

I'm going to the NFL game at Wembley on Sunday. I was planning to wear by Chad Johnson jersey but I'm afraid I'll get laughed out of the stadium! (Even here NFL fans know them as the "bungles"...awesome.) Oh well, I'll wear it anyway. Maybe it will be a good conversation starter.

my civic duty

I sent in my absentee ballot today. I even took photos for the NYTimes Polling Place Photo Project. (Thanks to Melissa for posting the idea) I know every vote counts (or is supposed to), but when the packet tells you the vote must be received within 10 days of election day it makes you wonder. So I wanted to send mine in so it got there for election day. Otherwise it only goes towards part of the "official" count. At least if it gets there on election day I feel like I had a chance at making a difference. Absentees count!

Uploaded

For those of you who haven't yet seen my Grand Canyon pictures I have now updated my website. Fortunately for you there is a limit of 99 photos per page so you are spared...for now.

Chocolate week?

My sister informed me that this is chocolate week in the UK. Honestly, I'm not sure how she discovered this but I don't think it should go un-celebrated! Why not make it a world-wide festival? And while you're at it, enjoy fair trade chocolate to be sure it's slave-free.

more human trafficking news

Police raid a "baby farm" in Nigeria.

Watch for this movie

It's not coming out in Cincinnati or London at the moment, but watch for the movie Call and Response. It's a "Rockumentary" on the issue of human trafficking. On the website you can find out different ways to be involved. You can also read an interview with the creator, Justin Dillon, here. It will be more worth your time and money than Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist which I watched last night.

We made it out alive

Despite all the warning signs, Melissa and I made it out of the Grand Canyon alive. It was amazing! I'm not sure how else to describe it. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever done and I might even consider doing it again. The first day downhill was harder than I expected and the hike out was slightly easier than expected, although full of never-ending switchbacks.
I have a new appreciation for how incredible the earth is. From the top of the canyon you can't even see the bottom so it was cool to be down there. It's very lush in places considering that it's the desert. We started in a forest on the North Rim, descended into a desert, walked along a lush creek and ascended back into the desert on the South Rim. We had lots of great adventures and it was nice to get away from the real world.

I'll be posting pictures on my website when I get back to my Mac in London. For now, I'll post a select few of my favorites here. You can also see them on Facebook.Contemplating life from the North RimRibbon FallsAlong the ColoradoAscending towards the South RimAt the TOP!!!!!!!!

Here we go

The Just Roughin It homepage says, "Take a walk on the wild side," across a picture of a rattlesnake. Personally, I am really hoping we don't come across one of those! I'm concentrating on the quote that says, "This is a classic trip that should be on your 'list of things to do in your lifetime.'" Yeah. Here goes nothin'.

Isn't it ironic?

Yesterday revealed why I generally argue against government regulation in our economy. They screw everything up and vote based on what will get them re-elected rather than what is right for the economy. It's ironic that the one time I argued for government intervention ends up illustrating why they shouldn't be involved normally.

The latest viewing and media trends

Interested in the latest viewing and media trends? You can check some out here.

They are from US data...which explains why I don't recognize half of the movies. It's also great to see that Barbie and the Diamond Castle is the third most popular DVD and that The Office Season 4 came in seventh. Something is wrong with that. I'm sure that The Office will pick up in the viewing trends now that it's back on air.

on a lighter note

I'm coming home in 2 days! I'm looking forward to using my parents DVR to watch the new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and The Office....Oh, and I'm also looking forward to seeing my family and friends ;-)

The bailout

Okay, now that I've started commenting on economics I can't stop. The news yesterday was that the bailout is turning out to be a hard sell in Congress. Again today, Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Fed) is testifying that action needs to be taken quickly.

I understand it is important to do the due diligence when passing a plan which involves $700 billion of tax payers money. It seems the hold up is that representatives think the plan is too sweeping and needs more safeguards. Their constituents don't want their tax money going to rescue the Wall Street high rollers. [As I mentioned previously, that's not what this plan will do.] They want to tack on additional regulations such as a salary cap for executives. Last time I checked the salary of executives is not what caused the problem. If they start passing regulations like that they will be taking away the incentives which make our free market work.

Who do I want setting economic policy? Representatives in Congress who, based on their comments in the press, don't appear to not have vast economic understanding. Or Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board who has no special interests in Wall street and who is an expert in macroeconomic policy. No one is perfect and probably no policy is perfect but my vote is with Bernanke.

My book wish list

My recent reading and research has produced quite a list of additional books I'd like to read. The list keeps growing and I can't seem to make enough time to read the books I already have. I thought I'd blog about them for interest's sake. Plus, maybe it can be the start of my Christmas list! [Attention: MOM]

From my research into human trafficking:

"Just Courage" - Gary Haugen. IJM President Gary Haugen describes a journey to freedom from the triviality and fear that can stifle our lives.

"Good News about Injustice" - Gary Haugen. Interspersed with individual stories of specific abuse, this book chronicles the vision behind IJM's work and seeks to tackle tragic injustices with practical insight, answering tough questions regarding the nature of injustice and the Biblical mandate for Christians to confront it.

From my reading of "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller (but also tied to interest in human trafficking):

"The Nature of True Virtue" - Jonathan Edwards. [Printed in Paul Ramsay, "The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Ethical Writings."] Edwards concludes that only if God is our ultimate good and life center, will we find our heart drawn out not only to people of all families, races, and classes, but to the whole world in general. (From "The Reason for God.")

"For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the end of Slavery." - Rodney Stark.

"A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow" - David L. Chappell

From reading, "The Roots of Endurance" by John Piper:

"A Practical View of Christianity" - William Wilberforce. The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from Christian doctrines insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also began to whither and decay, being robbed of that which should have supplied it with life and nutriment.

*Forgive me if I don't get all the quotes, italics and underlining correct. I can't figure out how to underline on the blogger formatting...I'm sure you get the idea.

Economics lesson

To say something drastic is going on in the economy is an understatement. I don't have much time to follow the news on this as closely as I'd like and my lack of educated posts here probably makes that obvious. I've had a few people ask me for my explanation of what's going on and my opinion as an "economist." (I put that in quotes because my current job has taken me away from pure economics- another reason it is harder for me to follow what is going on).

Thanks to a blog post by SWIND, I don't have to take the time to create my own analysis! I will re-iterate a few of his points here:

- The President does not have as much control over the economy as they claim to, or as people believe they do. Their policies do matter but they can't control the inevitable swings in the economy.

- Tax cuts and the bailouts will not just help the "fat cats" - the bailout is critical to keep the economy going regularly. The companies aren't being saved to go on as usual. If the the bailouts don't happen everyone will be worse off.

- Regulation is probably needed but it depends what the regulation is. Usually in times of financial crisis, ie. The Great Depression, the government responds hastily with regulation and programs to solve that particular problem, ie. The New Deal, but that ends up creating problems in the future that could have been avoided. They need to take a more holistic approach. From a pure economic theory basis, I am opposed to regulation since free markets should regulate themselves. However, that is in the case of assumed"perfect markets" which is only a theoretical idea. (Our catch phrase in grad school was "Just assume it!") The global economy is not perfect so the theoretical idea that markets can regulate themselves perfectly won't hold up either. So, some government regulation is inevitable but needs to be as minimal as possible, very well thought out and analyzed.

There. Now I can go back to commenting about more trivial matters like music, movies, football, and my trip to the Grand Canyon.

A sunny day in London (?)

You just can't predict the weather in London. It's why people are always talking about it.

We've had sunny blue skies for the last 3 days and it's been great! Today I went for a walk with my friend Ruth in Hampstead Heath. One of the best things about London is all the parks. It was a lovely day for my last real training before the Grand Canyon. Plus, now I've been to most of the locations in the film Notting Hill.Rice...it's heavier than it looks!

ps.

I'm wondering why I signed up to go on a trip with a company called "Just Roughin' It." I'm not much of a "roughin' it" kind of girl but I think I'm up for it. Carpe Diem.

That's a lot of rice...

My training is almost over. In 15 days I'll be on my hike in the Grand Canyon. I'm not too worried about the distance given that it's 24 miles in 4 days and I've already hiked 60 miles in less than 24 hours. But, I am worried about having to carry a heavy backpack. One of the ways they suggested to train was to fill a backpack with rice and practice carrying it.

So, I have 8 kilograms of rice in a backpack. That's a lot of rice. When I first put it on I thought to myself, "This is a piece of cake...it doesn't even feel that heavy." About 10 minutes in I began to think, "Ohhh, this is heavy." I probably should have started earlier with the backpack but, oh well.

I was checking out the website for the tour company (Just Roughin' It) again the other day and looked particularly at the difficulty ranking of our trip. It's ranked "moderate" which seems okay until it says "For experienced hikers in excellent physical condition." Hmmm. What exactly is the definition of "excellent physical condition?" How much more in shape can I be in 15 days? I am about to find out.