Talking Soup

So two things just happened to me that have never happened to me before.

I saw a fist fight and I called the cops.

And if you've never seen an actual fight, Jesus, it's a lot freakier than you'd think.

Anyway. I was just heading back from the Commons after going to Brotchen for a coffee and I just happen to look across the street just as one of those in-window ACs falls out of a window and almost hits a little girl and her dad on the sidewalk below. Naturally, the father was pissed as hell and was yelling up at the younger guy in the apartment. The father was yelling to everyone nearby asking whether they'd seen it--I guess he was looking for witnesses?--because I mean, the AC had just missed the kid who had to be like seven or something.

Well, the younger guy came down, and I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other but then suddenly they were fighting and the dad went down and the guy was punching him in the head. And the poor girl was screaming. So I just pulled out my phone and called the cops without even really thinking. I was freaked the whole time, because about the time the dispatch person answered they'd stopped fighting, but the younger guy was yelling at basically everyone nearby and I was right across the street with my phone out and I had no idea if he was going to see me and come after me or something. Anyway, I told the cops what I saw and by then the younger guy had gone back inside and another woman was calling the cops. I was pretty impressed, actually--the cops were there within about thirty seconds. The station is basically the next street over, so. After that I just walked away because I was kinda freaked.

But yeah. Never seen a real fist fight before. Never had to call the cops before, either. I was shaking by the time I walked away. I mean, the guy was punching the dad in the head while he was on the ground and the poor girl is just screaming. And like I said, she was like seven or something. How traumatizing must that be?

I could understand it if the dad had been alone or something, but the AC almost hit the poor kid. The dad had every right to be pissed off. Not to mention that you just don't start beating up a dad when his daughter is right there. That's just fucked up.

Have to admit, though; this is one of the few times in my life I've been impressed with the police. I didn't stick around, but let's just hope that they handled the situation well.

Watch that. It has all the info about it spelled out in much better terms than I could put it.

And about Twitter. Apparently all of this information has been coming in from Iran via young Iranians with Twitters, and they've been tweeting almost nonstop in an effort to spread the information to the rest of the world. Since, as everyone knows, you can't really rely on the "legit" media, especially not in a country so known for its censorship (oh but am I referring to Iran or America there? Zing!).

Anyway, apparently Twitter was supposed to have some downtime the other day, but so much information was coming in that the United States State Department intervened and forced Twitter to reschedule the downtime so that information could continue to move freely.

Man. And they say the Information Age is making us lose connections with people.

Go young people of Iran. I'm rooting for you guys.

Somebody somewhere is playing Pandemic II :|

Swine Flu has a really terrible ring to it. "Pig flu" would almost be better; the word swine just has so many negative connotations. Which, I guess, makes it a little appropriate, but still. Swine. Swine. I dunno.

So I heard about this on Thursday or Friday, I think, back when it was like "oh dear, a handful of people have died of this super-crazy ninja virus", back when it was still in Mexico, but now I guess it's in America (NYC, specifically) and New Zealand.

Clearly we didn't close our ports in time.

And of course, at this point the question on everyone's mind is--how bad is it gonna be? Mine and the recent generations have had a lot of scares. So is this gonna be SARS bad, with the CDC preaching fire and brimstone (they already are, in this case) but with the death toll actually very low? West Nile Virus bad, where it's everywhere and anyone can get it, but good luck actually dying? Anthrax-in-the-mail bad? Or is it gonna be AIDS/tuberculosis/Black Death bad?

Only one thing is certain in these uncertain times--that we can rest assured that, no matter how bad it gets, Madagascar at least will be just fine. Paranoid fuckers.

Watchmen.

Holy shit, guys.

I finally read it, yeah, yeah, in anticipation of the movie, I know. Bandwagoner here. In any case, regardless of the movie, I'm glad I read it because it is a damn fine example of a comic book, and at the same time is a damn fine piece of literature. And I mean that quite literally. The amount of thought and detail that went into it, the content, the characters, it deserves the title of "literature."

I'm still not sure what I think about the ending, but...well, I won't go into that.

Apparently the movie makes a few changes, probably the most notable of which is that there are no squid bombs. Which makes sense, honestly. UNEXPECTED CTHULHU BOMB WAS UNEXPECTED. Seriously, where the hell did that come from? Still, doesn't get much more awesome than squid bombs. Except maybe dinosaur bombs :Oa (Highlight for spoilers, hooray, I figured out the html!)

Everyone's going nuts over this movie, and yeah, I'm excited for it. Glad I read the book, certainly. In any case, it'll be a good way to kick off Spring break :)

Warning, TMI incoming.

AKA Kate Syndrome. Kate who has been known to break her tailbone and then get pneumonia and then a kidney infection. Everything EVER will go wrong, medically.

So about two weeks ago I broke out in hives. Epically. Sounds gross, right? That's because it is gross. Sounds funny, right? No. Not funny. Was late to classes due to the not funny of oh-my-god-the-itching-kill-me-now-pleeeease.

Went to Health Center. Gave me prednisone and claritin and hooray, I was feeling better by the first day. Think it might be soy milk. No more soy milk.

Then, a few days ago, sore throat. I can track this by now. Sore throat, gross nose, coughing, it's how all my colds progress.

Two days ago. Random extreme dizzy spell that happens to me very rarely--vision and hearing go skewy, dizzy, almost fainting. Even threw up this time. What the fuck. Went to Health Center again, but apparently it's nothing to be too worried about, something brought on by a combination of things.

Yesterday, the hearing goes in my left ear. I figure it's just my ears refusing to clear cause it's a cold and that happens. But it was achy and not going away today. So went to Health Center again. Turns out it's an ear infection. A bad one. Like, really bad. Pus bad. Implication is that there's a chance I might not get full hearing in that ear back. And now it hurts like a bitch. Am on amoxicillin for it.

Slept all day, skipped classes and work. Will have to call in to work for the whole weekend. Hope they don't fire me.

Just got a call from Julie saying she totaled her car on the way to Syracuse. She's completely fine, but the car is dead.

This is on top of my brother dropping out of college, Elwood getting sick and needing pills forced down his throat, everyone in the house having a cold, and Kate having another kidney infection.

You'd think this stuff would have all happened on Friday the 13th. Go figure.

Lol yeah haven't had an update in awhile. Not much has been going on, aside from me going absolutely insane over homework and such. Last week was a nightmare. Actually the week before that was too.

Also, I have acquired a real-life stalker! Well, stalker is too strong a word. This guy commented on my glasses on the Commons and then followed me into one of the stores. He helped me out while I looked for some stuff and actually bought me two bracelets. And then he walked me to work an hour before my shift started, since I didn't want to lead him straight to the house. Saw him again the next day coming out of Autumn Leaves, though he didn't follow me that time. He seems like a nice enough guy, but I'm not one to really interact with strangers all that much. I figure I gotta buy him a coffee, at least, for the bracelets. *shrug*

ALSO, this is a call to everyone on my Flist. I need your help, for srs. I've got this survey for my Research Methods class and I need everyone who's willing to fill it out. You don't have to if you don't want to! It's about anonymity online and how it affects people's behavior.

Click Here to take survey

Thanks in advance!

We have been "about to be audited" since I started working at Micheal's.

An audit is exactly what it sounds like. Some person comes in to the store and decides what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong. Then they give you a score and tell you what you need to improve on. The reason this was happening was because we essentially failed our last audit.

So when I first started working, the managers pressed for thoroughness and efficiency, because the auditor was supposed to arrive in the next week or so.

He never came.

Weeks went by. Every once in awhile we would somehow receive word that "The Auditor" was in the area, or would be heading down over the weekend, or would probably be in on Monday. Lots and lots of false alarms, but of course we never got any explanation about why The Auditor hadn't come yet. It became this sort of joke and this sort of mystery.

Three weeks ago we finally got word that the reason The Auditor had never come was because he had been on sick leave. For the past several months. No one bothered to tell us. So they told us they were sending someone different, and that she would be down around the weekend. The managers were certain that we would be audited that Friday or Monday.

She never came.

Again, no word as to what was going on. She was "in the area", but there was no sign of her. We knew she was around, though, so the idea was that she could basically drop in at any time.

A week went by.

And then another.

Today, apparently this morning, we were audited.

We passed.

Well, it's that time of year again.

It's the time for my annual sinus infection. Which means pure, unadulterated misery and knocking back tea like it's candy.

Much as I hate the Health Center, I'll probably have to visit them tomorrow to get my hands on some amoxicillin. And maybe some klonapin if I can manage it.

Meanwhile, on my way home today something very odd occurred to me. And maybe I'm stupid for not noticing this before, but oh well.

So, the Constitution gives us the freedom of assembly, right? It's right there in the first amendment.

But we need written permission in order to demonstrate, protest or gather for a political cause.

So we're allowed freedom of assembly, but only so long as the government says we can?

Woah thar. Something's not quite right here...


ETA: An unusual thing I've noticed about myself--when I get sick, I act a bit like I do when I get drunk.

That is, I start singing a lot and talking to myself.

Who knew?

So.

Everyone who knows me well knows I'm a chocoholic. I love the stuff. Me and about 75% of the population of women in this country, really. I've been hearing over the years of some of the issues with chocolate--mostly that the plants are running out and the genetic strain for natural chocolate is fading because they so rarely replant the beans.

This is one I hadn't heard, though.

The majority of chocolate (I don't know the exact percentage) consumed in the First World is produced in West Africa, specifically Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire. Which is odd enough when you consider that cacao is originally from South America. The rest of the chocolate does indeed come from South America and Indonesia. But the West African chocolate is the focus here.

Why?

Because the cacao plantations in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire utilize child slaves to harvest and refine the chocolate.

I won't go into the details of what exactly happens to these kids. You've all hopefully paid attention in your American history classes and know what slavery was like in North America in the 17-1800's. So you have an idea.

Now. I didn't know this until my professor brought it up today in class (we're on Marxism). It bothered me so much that I decided to go home and research it. And yes, the child slavery is a true fact. There have even been lists generated of which companies actually utilize slave-grown chocolate and which don't.

The following are the companies that use slave-labor, know they're doing it, and don't care:

Hershey's--no surprise here. They even have a non-disclosure policy that says they can't reveal where their chocolate comes from.
Mars
Cadbury
Nestle
Lindt--this includes Ghirardelli.
Godiva
See's
Kraft--includes Toblerone.

A couple of these companies, particularly Ghirardelli and Lindt, also utilize cacao from South America. You can usually tell because it will say so on the bar--from Ecuador, usually. This chocolate has a much lower likelihood of slavery, but of course that doesn't rule out exploitation.

The following companies are known to not use slavery, though for a few the issue of fair trade still looms:

Green and Black's--owned by Cadbury, but the company itself is both fair trade and doesn't use slavery.
Ithaca Art Bars--for you folks in the area.
Rapunzel--a brand I've never heard of.
Newman's Own--they've always been good about organic and such, and the chocolate is slave-free, but it's technically not fair trade.
Endangered Species--also in a good cause. Completely fair trade and slave-free
Cloud Nine--another company I've never heard of.
Dagoba Organic--fulfills all three.
Equal Exchange--does what it says on the tin.

There are a couple of companies where there's not enough information to tell what they're doing. Vosges is one of these companies (they're the producers of things like the Red Fire Bar and stuff). They have a page on their website about fair trade and child labor, but the thing is wishy-washy. They do seem committed to other things, particularly women's issues, so there's a good chance that they're doing alright, but they even state on their website that there's no way for them to confirm that their cacao is fair trade and slave-free--or rather, they just don't go to the lengths needed to confirm it.

So, what does this mean exactly? Well, if you're eating a Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's cup, M&Ms, or Lindor truffle right now, it's pretty damn likely that the cacao used to make the chocolate was picked, processed and refined by an eight-year-old slave in Cote d'Ivoire.

Well, I can tell you right now, this is a blow to me. Not only because it means the majority of the chocolate I eat is produced by slaves, but also because the companies have been doing this for years and have made no effort to stop.

So.

As of today, I'm adding Hershey's, Mars, Cadbury, Nestle, Lindt, Godiva, See's and Kraft to my list of companies to boycott. There's only one exception--where Lindt and Ghirardelli are concerned, I'll still be willing to buy their chocolate if I see on the label that it's from South America.

Other than that, this is a complete boycott, not just of their chocolate bars but of their other chocolate products as well. Brownies, cake mixes and so on.

Which means Green and Black's, Newman's Own and Vosges for me from now on.

The only other companies on my boycott list are Coca-Cola and sub-companies (including Vitamin Water) and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is obvious, but Coca-Cola has a rather lengthy explanation for it that I won't go into now.

I'm also going to make more of an effort in general to buy things that are fair trade because it's just a good idea.

And as a last note, this isn't meant to pressure anyone. It's just something to think about. Also, if anyone wants links to my sources, leave a comment and I'll link you.