Month: February 2017

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Monday Action Post – Feb 27th

Look, the world seems messed up and scary right now, it’s crazy and I totally hear you. I also know that it can seem so overwhelming to reach out and do something without any guidance on how best to spend your time, efforts, and energy. Again, I totally get it. But let’s make a collective move from Freakout-Ville and take the productivity train to Change-Town! It will be fun, I promise.

Each Monday I’ll be doing a quick post that helps you get involved, and better yet, gives you an asset or information for something you can do right now.

This week I wanted to give you an interesting resource when it comes to keeping up with the day’s news. Enter: What The Fuck Just Happened. A handy site for keeping apprised of the daily news coming out of the Trump administration. I know that it can feel like there are a million things rolling into your news feed every flippin’ day and it feels nearly impossible to keep up. My best suggestion: pick a news source you feel you can trust, check in for 15 minutes a day and educate yourself. Another personal favorite is Democracy Now.

 

Bonus Reading: Republican lawmakers are attempting to crack down on protesting through a bill they introduced this week.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/24/republican-lawmakers-introduce-bills-to-curb-protesting-in-at-least-17-states/?utm_term=.c735cbdc3dfc

 

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Monday Action Post – Feb 13th

Look, the world seems messed up and scary right now, it’s crazy and I totally hear you. I also know that it can seem so overwhelming to reach out and do something without any guidance on how best to spend your time, efforts, and energy. Again, I totally get it. But let’s make a collective move from Freakout-Ville and take the productivity train to Change-Town! It will be fun, I promise.

Each Monday I’ll be doing a quick post that helps you get involved, and better yet, gives you an asset or information for something you can do right now.

To kick things off I’m going to highlight an awesome site called 5 Calls. 5 Calls allows you type in your location, and select an issue that is important to you, and then will give you the name, the title, and the phone number of one of your representatives to call! It’s so easy. And if you’re afraid of talking on the phone (but seriously, no judgement here, it’s the worst), then you can just recite the sample script they provide on their site.

So pick up your damn phone for something other than looking at cat videos and make a difference in the world. Retweeting Obama memes doesn’t really accomplish anything (although it does feel damn good), but calling your state representatives is the fastest and one of the easiest ways to make your voice heard.

 

Bonus Reading: Massive attendance and protest at a Utah town hall lead to Rep. Jason Chaffetz bailing on the session an hour early after the crowd became agitated with his answers and began chanting “Do your job.”

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/9/1632123/-Utah-congressman-bolts-an-hour-early-from-constituent-town-hall-amid-Your-last-term-chants?detail=facebook

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Dirty Fucking Hippies, and the Art of Conversation

The first sunrise of 2017. She is pretty, no?

If you’re sitting around butt naked in a hot-tub full of strangers, I think it’s fair to say that you’ve passed the politeness benchmark that dictates you ask your fellow soakers what they do professionally. Or, so I thought, until somebody turned to my boyfriend and I and asked what we did for work. I smiled at this bland woman and told her: Advertising, grateful once again to have a job that people almost universally recognize, and yet few truly understand. This limits the number of follow-up questions, usually to zero.

Living in LA can give you the impression that your work is who you are. Certainly this is a city where people come to “make it.” The cliches exist for a reason. And if you live here too long the little worm that tells you your value comes from your job title and pay grade will slowly creep into your ear, and make it’s home in your brain. Then one day you’ll be sitting around naked as the day you were born, on your second breakfast beer of the day, on the first day of the new year and the only thing you can think to ask this pool full of strangers is what is says on their W2. Jesus tap-dancing Christ, the creativity is staggering!

So here is a fun little challenge to try. Or don’t. I don’t know you. Let’s try asking people something of interest. I think it’s fair to say that the world is pretty messed up and scary right now, and walking around in a constant state of hostility or apathy towards your fellow man isn’t really helping the situation. Ask somebody what they’re reading right now, ask them what their current obsession is, ask them what was the best thing they ate this week, or heck, ask them what their latest dream was and if they maybe want to reenact it with you through interpretive dance. And if you ask them about their jobs at least have the common decency to ask them why they do what they do. You might get an interesting answer, for once.