Maine Trip

I just got back from great short weekend trip to Maine with a few friends. It was very relaxing, since everyone was getting over sicknesses, we stuck to easy activities. I forgot my camera though, but took a few pics on Sarah's, so maybe I will get them up sometime...

We went to this beautiful lighthouse, five minutes away from Becky's house!

I'm Published: FDIC Releases First National Survey of Banks' Efforts to Serve the Unbanked and Underbanked

The report that I worked on for the past year and a half finally got published by the FDIC. You can see my name on the attached document! I am super excited about it, since it really took a long time, and I was (one of) the driving force behind it for a long time.
It probably doesn't sound that exciting from the title and press release, but we started on this before the sub-prime crisis, before the banking crisis, before the huge economic downturn, really. So it is breakthrough information, as well as timely information.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama inspires me to be a better person.

New Web Site Idea!

I've recently been looking for some entrepreneurship opportunities and came up with a great idea for a new website, which is a little like a combination of Yelp and Netflix. I don't want to reveal too much, but essentially, it will give recommendations on things to do (concerts, museums, restaurants, etc.) based on previous ratings. Brentan is helping out with the coding a lot. And if you want to help me out a little, you can go to this survey I made, and fill it out!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=B_2bU7mXFsKukqy5UCpjim5A_3d_3d

It would be fantastic if you could spend about five minutes filling this out. If you could send it out to some other friends, I would really appreciate that, too!

Also, if you have any web site hints or tips, or would like to help me out in this endeavor, please feel free to get back to me! Wish me luck!

Confessions of a Shopaholic: Really?

Really? I saw the preview for Confessions of a Shopaholic while watching TV earlier. Really? In this economic crisis? Is it really ok for the movie/fashion/entertainment industry to be pushing a movie portraying a woman going crazy trying to break her credit card out of a block of ice? To liken shopping with love? I'm sometimes a sucker for chick flicks (I liked The Devil Wears Prada), but I don't think this one is really going to be good. In fact, I think it is going to completely flop. I'm sure there is a good, wholesome, moral ending, where Isla Fisher's character finds true love and a way to pay off her debt, but I don't think that that is even appropriate when our entire economy is going under, when it makes light of people like that who are in serious financial trouble today.

Since its loosely based on a book, like so many other mediocre movies of the same genre (Nanny Diaries, He's Just Not that into You), the filmmakers may have think it will be a success in the same vein. But when the New York Times style section is shopping at WalMart, and Vogue is half as thin as its previous volumes, how is this film going to make it? Who am I kidding, they may think it will flop, too, and are out of money that they just need to try to break even...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles on Masterpiece Theater

On Sunday nights, while Brentan plays hockey, I have taken to watch Masterpiece Theater on PBS. Sometimes the shows are cliched Masterpiece Theater, like Pride and Prejudice, but the last few weeks have been Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Now, I've never read the Hardy novel, but after watching the tragedy, and hopelessness of Tess, her doomed life, has made me want to read it! (I first have to finish Middlemarch) You can watch it on the PBS website, though it won't be as nice as on HDTV!
The scenes and cinematography was breathtakingly beautiful, more so than so many older Masterpiece Theater pieces. Sweeping scenes of the English countryside, an ending at Stonehenge!
Tess was played by a Bond girl, so she was lovely, of course, but also so dramatic, and passionate. And Angel Clare, a god of this earth! And Alec, so cruel, so handsome, and so bad boy!
(I just wish I had better pictures... it was gorgeous)

New Knitting Supplies

I went to some estate sales today and bought some new knitting supplies--a few balls of yarn, and some new needles. I'm going to start some new projects, and hopefully finish my old one...

I love going to sales, mostly just to check out the old houses. One of the ones I went to had crazy wallpaper everywhere. In the kitchen it was retro 70's colors (burnt orange, mustard) salt and pepper shakers, the kids bedrooms had airplanes and Indians and tepees. What a great way to decorate!

Alliance for International Women's Rights

I was chatting with an old friend online the other day, and she recommended this AMAZING organization to me, the Alliance for International Women's Rights. The Alliance connects women (and men) across the world who want to use their professional skills to help women's rights groups in central Asia. Women can volunteer their time, from their own homes, to edit documents, provide legal advice, anything that the women's rights groups need, in their "Armchair Development" program.

It is such a simple idea, that is ingenious! The groups would love to have help from experienced individuals, and women in the US and Europe would love to help out! I've signed up to volunteer already, and hopefully they will get back to me soon.

The Alliance also has another program, the Armchair ESL program, in which women can use Skype to teach English to the leaders and members of the women's rights group.

I love it. I love the idea. I just need to find a cool idea that I can pursue, that is just as SMART as this one!

Volunteering at the ICA

Fortunately, soon after I found out about the new (non)job situation, I got an email responding to my volunteer application at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. So yesterday was my first real day of volunteering (I helped wrap presents at the gift shop a few weeks ago). It was the last day of the Tara Donovan exhibit there (which I unfortunately never got a chance to see), so it was really crowded, especially when coupled with the New Years holiday weekend.
So that's it. I like to volunteer.

Events!

Wow, so much has been going on, that I just haven't had time to write in my blog! I went to a wedding, did Christmas at my apartment and went to the frigid region of Quebec! Below are the picture highlights!

Phil and Annalise's wedding at the chapel at Rice University. Annalise looked gorgeous, and Phil looked pretty good too! It was fun, and beautiful! The reception was at the Sweetwater Country Club in Phil and Annalise's hometown of Sugarland, which again, was so beautiful!
Brentan and I with Phil and Annalise at the reception.
Here is our Christmas tree in our apartment with the table all set for Christmas dinner. It snowed lots and lots the weekend we were in Texas, right before my family came to town for the holidays, and my mom was shocked that they didn't clear away any snow from the streets or sidewalks after a blizzard. It all melted within three days.
We used our new china from our wedding! I love it.

The next few pictures are from Montreal. We were there after Christmas through New Years. This is the Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome called the Biosphere from the 1967 World's Fair. My dad remembered going to it when he was a kid. The biosphere is now a museum. We learned all about alternative energy from this French Canadian guy. They have their own natural water treatment plant at the biosphere!My whole family outside the biosphere!
My mom and dad atop Mount Royal, after which the city is named.