Blacktrick from Adventure Week:

So...I got a perm

this is my first time posting something from my camera phone - i think it turned out pretty well.

I think I'm actually saying the words "jheri curl" to Emmy on the phone here.

...and today.

Do people even get perms anymore? Is it still 1984? Yeah, well, it's my senior year and I'm bored. Let's go get a perm. It took 2.5 hours of sitting with rollers and dangerous chemicals in my hair to end up with a jheri curl (a la Rick James) afterwards. Now it's kind of awkward curly/flat. Oh well, they said they'd re-do it for free if it didn't take. I'm still going through the cost-benefit analysis of going back to the salon.

Cool Blog: Strange Maps

(strangemaps.wordpress.com)

While looking up info on the Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World, I came across the blog Strange Maps. For all you map-lovers, here are a couple maps that are on the blog:

1. Functional Geography, bottle-opener in the shape of Taiwan
2. Where Neil Armstrong walked on the moon
3. The geography (and naming possibility) of the lakes on Saturn's moon.
4. A Surrealist's map of the world
5. Map of temperance
6. And, my favorite map (pictured above) "Area codes in which Ludacris claims to have hoes"

I'm Glad I Found You: World Values Survey

Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World (worldvaluessurvey.org)

There's such thing as a World Values Survey?! Awesome.

"The World Values Surveys were designed to provide a comprehensive measurement of all major areas of human concern, from religion to politics to economic and social life and two dimensions dominate the picture: (1) Traditional/ Secular-rational and (2) Survival/Self-expression values."

This stuff is fascinating to me, I believe that one's values are very influenced by the culture around them. I don't believe that maps like this are exactly true, or completely representative. I do think that they can be very helpful and quite interesting. Values and culture are very related to personality and type, I think. My Dad has an idea for a book that would describe the culture of each country on the planet through the Myers-Briggs type indicator. I think France is ISTP.

this morning

I went to Jesus’ room
to wake him for church
bur he was already up.
I could hear the shower
running—steam was
pouring out from under
the bathroom door.

by Belz

(link)

Brazilian News...Raposa Serra do Sol reservation

Ok, so for my Global Perspectives and Realities class, I am trying to figure out what's going on with the rainforest in Brazil. I read in an awesome New Yorker article yesterday (Um, can't find it online, will add it later) that said something like that Indonesia and Brazil both contribute to 10% of the Carbon Dioxide added to the atmosphere because of their destruction of their rainforests.

Ok, I've known since 4th grade that destruction of rainforests is the worst thing ever (atmosphere, ecosystems, endangered species, the list goes on). But, it seems like it actually might be the worst thing ever. So, I think I'm going to slowly build my project up here (via my blog), looking at why it's happening. Maybe we'll be surprised, maybe not.

When SustainMizzou (our recycling club/organization on campus) showed An Inconvenient Truth last year, I was talking with some enviro-evangelists afterwards about what I could do and it seemed like the most proactive thing was to not eat meat from Brazil that was raised on rainforest land. Uhh...done.

So, I've been obsessed with Brazil for no clear reason for years now, and I want to figure more out about this. Come along!

The picture above is a map of where the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation is. There have been protests and bridge-burnings lately (nytimes article) because the government is removing non-Indians from the area. I don't understand this whole thing, but maybe I will soon.

links for next time:
nytimes: "Brazil, Alarmed, Reconsiders Policy on Climate Change"
nytimes: "In the Amazon: Conservation or Colonialism?"
mongabay.com: "Rainforests of Brazil: An Environmental Status Report"

Travel to St. Louis!

This is for my friends Jeff and Patrick, who (hopefully) will be returning the favor and coming to visit the Gateway to the West soon. Since St. Louis is pretty spread out and favors the over-21 set, our options are limited, yet exciting. I'm going to give as comprehensive of a list (St. Louisans please add on) as I can for them for them to choose from when they come to visit:

The Obvious:
- the Arch (w/ ride to the top)
- Cardinals game (schedule)
- Ted Drewes Frozen Custard (menu)
- The City Museum (crucial)
- Westminster Christian Academy

Neighborhoods:
- the Hill (Italian neighborhood) (restaurants)
- East St. Louis (guided tour)
- North County (guided tour)
- The Loop (shopping/bars)
- Central West End (shopping/bars)
- Laclede's Landing (mostly bars, some restaurants - kind of seedy)
- South Grand (shopping/restaurants)
- Downtown walkabout
- the Fox/Moolah theater area (SLU)?

Restaurants not by anything else:
- Carl's Drive-In (not actually a drive-in, just a tiny diner kind of like Town Topic in KC) (City of Manchester)
- Crown Candy (for the milkshakes) (Old North St. Louis)

Forest Park:
- St. Louis Art Museum (free)
- STL Zoo (free)
- general running around (map)

Places I've never been:
- St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum

Other necessities:
- riding on the Metrolink
-

(all images - STL Style)