Awake

NEED magazine debuts

Take a few minutes out of your day to check out the premiere issue of NEED magazine. WorldChanging showcases the magazine on their site and interviews one of the creators as well (link).

NEED spotlights organizations addressing human need around the world and provides information for the reader on how to connect with the organizations' missions. Two organizations I'm familiar with are featured in this first issue: MercyShips and International Justice Mission (IJM).

Perusing the online edition of the magazine, I'm struck by two good practices. One, is the simplicity and concise nature of the stories. Photos tell most of the story and are accompanied by a paragraph or two—or sometimes just captions. The objective is not to overwhelm the reader, but to inform and encourage. Second, I'm impressed by the cognizance of the editors to ethical quandaries that naturally accompany photojournaling people in varying degrees of crisis. The photos from IJM blur distinguishing features of the girls and the IJM workers to protect their identities. A "Viewing Advisory" wisely accompanies a "before/after" photo of a man who had a large facial tumor removed by a MercyShips doctor (link). Best practices indeed.

Links:

• WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: NEED Magazine Debuts (includes interview with NEED magazine creator)


• NEED magazine [Premiere issue]

Happy reading.

There's a bear on this beach

Who can tell me what beach this is? (Excluding persons who visited my parents for the holiday.)

Update! Trisha and Stephen were correct! The bear is a shadow of a ginormous bear kite flying during a kite festival a few years back in Lincoln City. (Bonus fact! Grandpa Doug's dark gray Tahoe is in the parking lot. It's the 3rd car from the bottom in the row adjacent to the beach, next to the white tent.)

Click here to visit the Google Map/Satellite photo.

Click to enlarge:

And what is the bear?

Perhaps an update is in order?

Hello there. Thank you for visiting. Would you care for a little update?

Health update: I've been more philosophical than practical in my pursuit of health and happiness. My problem is simple: I burn the candle at both ends. Chronically. Habitually. Everlastingly. Also, I get discouraged at the price of real food. I want easy access to actual real food and I don't want to go into debt to get it. I don't want easy access to processed homogenized hydrogenated biogenetically engineered hormone injected high fructose food. But on the bright side, I did meet with a nutritionist and now have a booklet of recipes for cooking real yummy healthy food. I have the plan, I just have to execute the plan. Ok, then.

School update: Midterms are this week. I'm two-thirds done. I Aced the Massage 3 written and I'm pretty sure I did fine on the Pathology test as well. I have my Massage 3 practical tonight which consists of a 10-minute super-condensed, highly focused treatment plan, including posture and gait assessment, range of motion testing, palpation of the muscle to find trigger points, application of digital ischemic compression (you know where you press into the "knot"), and three muscle energy techniques. I'm choosing positional release, postisometric relaxation (PIR), and contract-relax-antagonist-contract (CRAC). (Yes, it's been funny to say in class, "Are you using CRAC?") So far in my practice sessions, I've released trigger points in my partners SCM (Sternocleidomastoid muscle) every time. It's all about the little victories, right? We start into Sports Massage next week, so if you're an athelete and you'd like a free homework massage, let me know. If you've got an event coming up, I'd even be willing to travel, within reason, of course.

Family update: I visited Seth and April and my nieces last weekend as a mental health break before midterms. It was, as I hoped it would be, an excellent, relaxing, and fun visit. I could have stayed home and studied for 3 solid days but too much studying makes me more wound up than I already am. Seth and I saw The Prestige. Good and/but dark and mysterious. Really wanted a remote control to rewind and slow-mo the last scene. This is why I wait for DVD releases! The credits were rolling and I was bellowing "Wait! Rewind! Rewind!" Oh well.

My nieces were so cute and fun to hang out with, as usual. Adalie and Kylia made library bags with their names and handprints and were given the opportunity to draw some additional elements on their bag as well. Adalie painted the members of her immediate family and Kylia drew just one person...ME! Auntie Amber makes the library bag! I was so thrilled. What a sweetie.

Church update: Also, I know there are usually a lot of Villagers reading this blog. I know this because you come up to me and say, "oh hi, I read your blog the other day!" Well, I'm calling you out. As you may know, I teach the 4-year-old class on Saturday night. I am currently short a every-other-week-helper (It's Saturday evening from 4:45-6:45pm). If you haven't taken the Child Safety class, TAKE IT ALREADY, because not only do I need a helper, but there are lots of teachers in early childhood who need to take a weekend off once in a while and though our substitute list is rather lengthy, the actual availability of people is really hit and miss. So I encourage you to sign up for the next child safety class and contact Donna or Cindy or myself if you are interested in being a helper. It's only every other week and the kids in my class are very sweet. We have a lot of fun. It is not a stressful environment at all (if you're picturing discipline problems and other nightmares).

Ok? Ok.

Happy Thursday. (Oh wait. It's Wednesday.)

Happy Wednesday!