Bitchslapped by the Global Market

Work for social justice in your power as a consumer. All other things being equal, give your money to someone from the third world and, more specifically, to someone whom you think would most benefit from the help.

All things being equal I have a terrible cold, my thesis is due in one month, my hair looks likes a greasy rope, and I am eating a tin of what was labeled chickpea soup but actually seems to be just plain chickpeas.

I begin to believe there is no justice, social or otherwise.

But yes, half the transcripts are going to a nice man named Prakash who I assume runs an extremely profitable outsourcing business either from India or from the States using Indian connections.

The other half are going to a lady freelancer from the UK they both responded the fastest to my request for a sample, that was the final measure.

I saw this and thought of you. The guy giving the talk is Mike Rowe, who hosts a show here called Dirty Jobs. The conceit of Dirty Jobs is simple: Rowe finds people who do essential but messy or dangerous work and shadows them. It's not a show based on extreme and unusual jobs but on the extreme nature of the work that makes our daily lives possible. He gave this talk at last year's Entertainment Gathering and I found it particularly resonant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-udsIV4Hmc

i know you are probably referring to my transcription angels, but I think it would be hilarious if Mike Rowe fallowed a graduate student around for a day.

"So what are you doing now?"

"I'm doing a Lexus Nexus Search for my literature review."

"Now, explain for our tv audience what a literature review is."

"Well I try to gather many of the articles, books and chapters written about my thesis topic, and discuss them comparatively in several pages."

"Do you have to read all of them?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked that Mike, because sometimes, if I find a summary of one of the articles that deals with my topic, in someone else's paper, and I decide it is not as relevant to my thesis as it might be, I do not actually read the paper. I still mention it though."

"That's totally dirty."

"I know, I always shower after lit reviews not before."

I actually watched part of dirty jobs in the laundramat mike Rowe was interiewing a man standing in a hole full of oil/dirty water. I think he was a well driller or something?

I love how when starting grad school, we all say things like "I've got these really great ideas, and I know they can really make a difference"

And then at the end, when taking a shower seems like too much time away from the project, the ideas seem somehow to take a backseat to getting the thing handed in, and subsequently being able to 1. cook real dinners 2. see friends 3. have really great ideas that we know can make a difference.

If Mike Rowe followed around a graduate student, it would be hilariously incongruous with every other episode of Dirty Jobs right up until he visited the kitchen or bathroom of the graduate student.

"Okay, Mike, here's where we get ready for the day. I have a discussion section in a half hour, and all I have to wear are t-shirts with profanity printed conspicuously across their fronts."

"Oookay. Let me, uh, get these gloves on."

"I wish I could say that this was a rare situation, but this happens about once every two weeks. So I have a choice. Here are my options: I can wear the profane shirts and, if anyone complains, turn their complaint into a political conflict based on supposed semiotic content of -"

"- of the shirt that says ONE TEQUILA TWO TEQUILA THREE TEQUILA FLOOR SENOR FUCKING FROG?"

"You joke, but I can write a pretty decent paper explaining how that shirt is a condemnation of white middle class culture in reference to immigration issues. Alternatively something about liquor. Wait, isn't there some news about the frog population disappearing?"

"I...I don't know. What's your other option?"

"What I think I'm going to do is - take this."

"Oh, God, this is disgusting. This isn't even mold - what is this, some kind of moss? Lichen? Wort?"

"Yeah, I think so. Anyway, I should get rid of it, so I'm going to cut holes in it and, if you pass me that stapler, I have a pretty good poncho."

"You're wearing your shower curtain as a poncho."

"I am. And give me that bowl. I'm having salad for lunch."

-

Saw this, thought of you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiARsQSlzDc

YES! Exactly. Where are the great ideas, they are gone. All that is left is a headache and a giant vicious-looking stopwatch (true it's only in my head, that doesn't make it any less real).

It's 10:00pm I just got home from the gym (I caved, I had to, I was beginning to feel like a swiss roll in pants) but guess what I am going to do now??? That's right finish dumping the third to last interview so I can send it to Kimberley.

Also (and not to Alison) YOU RICK-BEAR ROLLED ME? THAT'S SUCH HORSESHIT.

I didn't know that rick-bear rolling is even a thing! I just found the clip for the first time and cannot stop watching it. It's hilarious.

OH also: http://www.nfb.ca/

The NFB has their entire library online now. :)