i don't have time to be writing right now, but i really want to share these videos that i found by youtube user byronfgarcia the other day.   basically, he's a prison administrator in the phillipines, and this is part of his approach to rehabilitating the prisoners there.    i googled him and he had some articles where he said that he feels music is the language of the soul and therefore SHOULD be included in a prisoner's life and return to productive society.

it was such a STARK STARK contrast to how we treat prisoners in the united states.   here, if you go to jail, we pretty much write you off as lost.   there is very little rehabilitation going on, in my opinion.  i think most people just waste away in there and never learn again how to be part of something bigger than themselves.   a contributing part, i mean.

but these videos...   what a great way to show people that a little work really can pay off, and that being a working part of a whole really can bring about something positive.   i really, really admire what this guy is doing.    Javi questioned this, saying that it seemed to him that these guys were treated like toys, and that it's disrespectful to do this.   I asked a filipino friend of mine about it, and when he opened the video he just LAUGHED AND LAUGHED and said, "yeah.. that's just how we roll.   we like music."

ahahaha....   amen.  :)

"Thriller"

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i am so sick of beta testing
i am so sick of beta testing
i am so sick of beta testing
i am so sick of beta testing

four more weeks..... oi

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so many chats and conference calls and coworkers and so few of me.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

that is all.

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man.. my mac hates vox.  I remember now why I stopped writing in here so much, haha.

I'm at such a strange point in my life.  My family is getting to be a bit stable again and once we have mom moved into gram's old house, I really think I will be comfortable moving about.  I'm itchy to get out of here.   I've been saving and saving my money... I have very few things I spend cash on these days.  I give mom rent money and help with the bills (after all, that's why I moved in.. to help her) and I am known to spend a bit on Second Life.   I can justify that one though - I don't have a space of my own in reality right now.  I am living in a little room in someone else's house and I travel so much that I won't have a space that is truly MINE for a long time.  I don't care about things... they are just things.  But having a little area that gives me mental clarity is important.. a place that I'm in control of and feels like ME...  that's what SL is for me.   I love having a little space there that is the same no matter where I am in the world.  It's my little digital home, and it's good enough for me.

My family is performing the most amazing chinese fire drill of homes soon.  Try to follow along:

- Mom is buying out her sister and she and I are moving into gramma's house, one block away.

- My big sister and husband and six kids are moving into THIS house, where we grew up.

- My little sister and HER husband, who live with us now, are moving into my old apartment.

- My little sister's mother in law is moving into my little sister's old house in Michican.

It's crazy.  We should just start a compound.  I seriously cannot wait until I can own an acre or two and cover it with tumbleweed houses so that all my crazy hippy artist friends can come sponge off me and live in the commmune.  It's not a cult, but it's close! ha

Anyway... I derailed somewhere.   I've been saving.   I don't have bills besides rent and some utilities... no car payment, no credit cards.. I'm saving like a crazy lady.  Work hasn't paid me in just over two months, so when we get some funding and the backpay comes in (like it always does) I should be good to go for a while.  I can work from anywhere on earth with an internet connection, so I am going to travel.

My girlfriend in south africa has invited me to come stay, and I really want to.  I have some friends in australia that I want to see.  I just met this guy online that does charity work in south america, and I'm planning to pester him about it a LOT.  I feel very much like I'm being lazy and underutilized in the fight for good or for awesome and if something doesn't find me soon, I will just go to it.   First the move, then the walk.   My spanish friend Javi is coming here for the month of August, and I am thrilled about that.    I won't get into the details but let's just say this:    I believe that my life is going to be a whirlwind adventure soon, and I will often have to sacrifice things in my personal life in order to accomplish things that are good for everyone as a whole.  I am happy to do this but can't feel right asking someone else to do this, also.  They have to want it for themselves and make that choice on their own.    Were it not for these things, I probably would have gone to spain and eloped by now.  I just can't see Javi working in a south american orphanage.  I know he'd go if I asked him to, but it's not right to stifle someone else's OWN path just to have company.

I will be content with a month here and there.  After all, what an honor to even have him here for a few weeks.  He's never seen a firefly - can you imagine?  I get to help him catch his first one.

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Upon logging back into Vox for the first time in um...  well, months,  I realized my last post was about crazy hair and just started laughing.  We cannot possibly write one more thing until we've included a photo of today's hair:

Oh god, the narcissism.

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What's the most drastic change you've ever made to your appearance?
Submitted by Laurie.

In college, before I learned about hair dye.

2001? I chopped it off.

Then we went brown.

And back to blonde

OMG the braids

This woman said to me, "You know, those look REAL nice on a white girl."

And when I took them out, I looked like scary Spice.

So we tried red

And REALLY red. My boyfriend goes, "That's a nice color, FOR A BARN."

So we went for chocolate covered cherry...

And eventually went back to blonde because it was less work.

And then cut if all off again.

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My mom has been trying to learn to internet for a while now.  She is improving...  she can load her own ipod now and use google, sure.  She figured out Skype while I was in Spain last time and called me rather regularly with it. 

Anyway, I am glad she is improving but she still makes me crazy.  Today, we were talking about browsers and she kept saying Godzilla instead of Firefox, which was hilarious.  She also finally called to cancel the dial-up (FINALLY because I installed DSL at her house months ago) and they managed to convince her to pay $20 a year to keep her MSN email address.  I pointed out that most sites have free email and she goes, "but theirs has spam-blocker stuff."

This was followed by her showing me some website that is basically a pyramind scheme to get your friends to sign up for accounts, for which you receive a micropayment for referring them.  I again pointed out that this does NOT qualify as 'working online' as they claim and steered her towards zooomr or flickr instead.  "But these guys say they have backups stored in granite vaults in the rocky mountains and also they have a digital developer that you can get if you work hard enough."  Digital developer, for the record, is a $20 card reader from best buy.

Oi.  It's no WONDER our parents can't trust the internet.  Everyone out there sees them as a target.  It will be like our grandmothers with telephone solicitation scams.

Bitches.

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What's your favorite radio station, past or present?

Oh man.  This is an easy one for me.  My favorite station, hands down, is WBEZ Chicago.  It's the NPR station here and has all my favorite radio crushes, including Ira Glass.  Also, if you can catch them on Friday nights, you can hear Niles Frantz playing all the blues you could ever handle.  Niles is awesome.  I would die without NPR.

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What would the title of your autobiography be?
Submitted by princesskasren.

"She drank good ale, punch and wine, and lived to the age of 99."

I think that should about sum it up.

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In case you haven't been following it, Splicemusic.com has been running a contest in which you remix politicians into songs in honor of election day.  So far, this is my favorite entry:

Partyboy by groovebox @ splicemusic.com

groovebox at splicemusic.com

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