Clooney for the cause

Turns out after all his time, money and effort have been invested, George Clooney is not sure he is helping, or changing anything for Darfur. I love to see celebrities fighting for a cause; when you can do good things with your fame, I believe in it. Otherwise, I think the way American culture idolizes these people is absurd. They are just people, doing something they are good at (sometimes they're not even good at it, they just enjoy it)- just like you. According to the Time Magazine article, Clooney became interested in Darfur in 2005. His dad and him had been reading about the lack of attention being given to Darfur, so the two went on a trip to Africa to shoot footage. Turns out Clooney wasn't able to get into Darfur until late January, when the U.N. said it would give him an official title. "I have a U.N. passport. It says 'Messenger of Peace' on it. It's very cool," he says.

Later he helped found, Not on Our Watch, which has given away more than $9 million. But now he is wondering if his critics are right, if his scheme to use celebrity to bring attention to the world's plights isn't, if not vanity, at least striving after wind. "I've been very depressed since I got back. I'm terrified that it isn't in any way helping. That bringing attention can cause more damage. You dig a well or build a health-care facility and they're a target for somebody," he says. "A lot more people know about Darfur, but absolutely nothing is different. Absolutely nothing."

Freecycle

Get your give on. If you have extra boxes, unused plastic bags, tons of bubble wrap, old shoes etc think about donating them on Freecycle. Turns out someone's trash really is another's treasure!

So what is freecycle? "The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,260 groups with 4,565,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills." Just go to their site, type in your location, and they'll hook you up with a bunch of local people interested in getting or giving.

It works- I listed some boxes and someone came to pick them up! That helped de-clutter my closet, and it was easy and fast.

Travels

As for me, this week my work has taken me to Budapest, Hungary. I got in early yesterday morning, after an all night flight, during which I unfortunately was unable to sleep even a wink. RDU to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Paris, then Paris to Hungary. The Paris airport was cRaZZZy! Built in the 60s, the colors and layout scream that it has not been updated at all since then. I was bused 3 different times, to 3 totally opposite locations, and once you are in the waiting room to board the plane there is no way to get to a bathroom. You go through a one way security tunnel to get in!

Now that I'm in Budapest I'm having a great time. There is so much fancy architecture to observe; I am enjoying walking everywhere. Here is a picture of a chain bridge at night. And another of vorosmarthy ter, which I walk through to get to the apartment I am staying in. The apartment has a high vaulted ceiling, and is right in the center of the city- above some of the coolest shops. Yesterday I tried out the famed cottage cheese stick (image to the right) it's covered with chocolate. Not bad, actually pretty good. For dinner I scrambled around to find anything, as all I really wanted to do was crash into bed. I ended up with what was described to me by a co-worker as "chicken in pancakes"- I was skeptical to say the least. Turns out it was some sort of ground meat with cheese in a sort of fried shell. I also added some orange and chocolate covered cookies, peach juice and sour cream and onion chips to top the meal off. Today I got some local currency and am off to work.

Update from Cali

This morning, walking around the lake, my mom saw an iguana about 4 ft long. It was green with a green and black striped tail. Funny that with the choice of the lake or the vegitation with bamboo, it choose the lake! Tonight, she is leaving the hospital, where they are doing the medical mission trip, by 6pm and go to a Columbian restaurant with the mayor. She is planning on trying the lula juice- composed of a green fruit that is supposed to be so good.

Love Mom

Note via Cali, Columbia,

On the flight to Cali, I sat next to a man from Cali. We talked the whole time and I saw his computer work pictures. Upon arrival, I walked around the lake I remembered from my last trip, and the ducks and water birds are in the same places! I have not seen the shy white one yet. I have seen little red ones, blue, little yellow, green and heard lots of different bird sounds. One tree smells like jasmine, and I can not tell which one. Cali is full of lush growth with palm leaves and flowers of orange, yellow and magenta, bugs everywhere. The bugs don't bother some but they are in the room all around if you look closely...I am going to try not to look! I've had fresh fruit- pineapple, watermelon, star fruit, kiwi, avocado etc...and corn kernels everywhere- like in salad and eggs. I had empanado, ground meat in a fried dough pocket, last night for dinner. I swam in the long pool later that night. It's cool because I can do back stroke at night and seeing palm trees when looking up. This morning I went up on the mountain edge which is in the resort; it is a new bird trail. I heard so many different bird sounds. Suddenly I heard huge loud ugly sounds from what? big black birds!!! Even thin green "moss" on the paths in the mountain, such a moist climate. (Photo courtesy of Dan Brooke)

Deliciously snacky

I recently stumbled across a new find in my local grocery store- edaname. Edamame, or vegetable soybeans, are fresh soybeans that have been lightly cooked within their pods. For those who choose to lead healthy lifestyles here's a fun fact about this wonderful food: soybeans are the highest in protein (35 percent) of any plant, and contain the most complete complement of amino acids. Anyhow, basically it takes no effort to make these suckers (I buy them from the frozen foods aisle at Target, or the veggies/sushi section of my local mart): Bring a pan of water to boil. Add the edamame and return the water to the boil. Remove from the heat, drain and rinse with cold water. The bag itself says to add salt or soy sauce- but I don't do anything to them and they still taste wonderful. I found this recipe, if you prefer to be fancy. Not only do they taste great, and are healthy for you, but they are so fun to eat. Seriously. I could spend hours popping the little beans out of the pods. Try them, in place of chips, or any sort of snack. I usually don't like veggies, but they have won my heart over.

To the finish

With all the hub-bub about NASCAR in the south, every once in a while I do take note of a few things happening in the car racing world. Rather recently, the world’s leading seller of hybrid cars, Toyota, has announced they will be racing to win the world’s most challenging car race- Le Mans 24-hour race in 2010. The catch is, this time they are aiming to do this using a hybrid car. The car will be fitted with special capacitors and batteries to facilitate an extremely fast power supply and charging function. But this isn't really something new for Toyota; they have had success in the past. Toyota entered hybrids in the last two Tokachi 24-hour enduros in Japan- with a win last year. Toyota is hoping to promote its hybrid technology in Europe since its market presence is currently usurped there by diesel. Here's hoping this hybrid car can change the world of car racing. The last sport that I thought would "go green" is a sport entailing burning fuel for hours chasing others around in circles. I will be the first fan drive out to Charlotte for an all day event, to view a NASCAR event when all the entrants are hybrids. Did I ever mention one of my favorite movies is Talledega Nights? "Greatest Generation my ass. Tom Brokaw's a punk! Chip, I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew!"