This chart from The Morning News is absolutely hilarious! After a long day of dissertation writing and editing, this definitely helped put a smile on my face. Click on the image to enlarge. Enjoy!

xoxo,

I remember my grandpa singing this song when I was younger. I didn’t really understand the song as a little girl, but now it makes much more sense. There are more modern versions of it, but the Doris Day version is the one that reminds me most of him. I had completely forgotten about it until a few days ago whilst watching a particularly relevant episode of Ally McBeal. I realize that Ally McBeal is a show from the 90s but I just started watching it a few months back. It’s probably much better that way seeing as how a lot of the plot lines would have escaped me at 10 years old. At 24 they’re much more relevant. In any case, I found this song particularly fitting. Plus it reminds me of my grandpa — double-score.

Fast Tube by Casper

xoxo from my shoebox,

This is absolutely hilarious! At least I think so.
‘If Historical Events had Facebook Statuses’

For fear that I’m going get slapped with some lawsuit over ’stealing’ this, you can find the original version of this on CoolMaterial.com.

Thank you to Wylo!

My grandma has been hanging out in San Diego this month and, being the loving granddaughter that I am, I’ve been making a concerted effort to call her daily to keep her in the loop about life and hear about her adventures. I was telling her today about my deepest fear: the fear of failure. To me, not getting a job here and having to move back to Northern California would be the epitome of failure. I have been so 100% set on finding a job in London that I had put other options out of my mind entirely.

Yesterday, though, I applied for a job in DC. It’s the first non-London-based job that I’ve actually been quite thrilled about. I was trying to explain to my grandma that this job-hunting business has caused me quite a bit of confusion. I want to stay in London. I love it here. Aside from the weather, there’s really nothing I don’t love. The job in DC got me thinking though. This particular job I applied for was completely 100% up my alley; I couldn’t have written a better ‘Perfect Job’ description. Not that I would get this job, necessarily, but the prospect of wanting a particular job in the US more than any specific job in London made me wonder about what’s actually important. Is it the location or is it the job? As much as I want to stay here, it would be wrong of me to pass on a better job opportunity. If the job is going to challenge me and grant me an entry-point for a potentially amazing career, picking location over job would be a very poor decision. (I can only hope/wish/dream/pray that a good job happens to be had in London!)

At this point in our conversation, my uber religious grandma told me that she was going to pray for me (and subsequently asked that I find the nearest Catholic church so I could pray for myself as well). I told her that I would pray; that I would pray to find a good job in London. She paused for a minute and then followed up my comment. “I’m going to pray that God will guide you in the path that’s best for you.”

Interesting thought. I don’t consider myself a religious person by any means, but the thought was a good one. I had been thinking about everything in a mindset that was far too narrow. I assume, rather ignorantly, that I always know what’s best for my life and how the future will play out. Surely there are points in life where you have to go where the world takes you. Perhaps getting a job here isn’t what’s best for me. Maybe there’s a job in DC or New York that’s more up my alley that would provide me with better opportunities in the future. Ultimately, I suppose it comes down to one reality: I have no idea what the future holds. I don’t how staying in London or going to DC, NY or somewhere else entirely will change my life. The places we choose to go are going to shape our careers, our friendships and may even dictate where we’ll spend a good portion of our lives. It’s scary, but in the end you have to make a choice, right? You can’t look at the other road; your alternative life. It’s about growing up, taking responsibility for your decisions, making a choice and sticking with it. There’s no point in looking back — there’s a lot of future to still look forward to. So, in honor of my grandma, before I go to sleep tonight I think I might actually pray (or whatever… think out loud in the direction of the ceiling). Instead of praying for a job in London though, I’m going to pray for the right job…. wherever that may be.

Love from London,

PS. Want to read a great article about ‘emerging adulthood’ (i.e. twentysomethings as late bloomers)? Check out this amazing NY Times article by Robin Henig!

Talk about milestones! She’s finishing up her dissertation and turning 25 all in the same month!

A big birthday shout out to my BFF:

Happy 25th Birthday, Linds!

I can honestly say, without a doubt, my year wouldn’t have been half the adventure it was without you! Aside from learning to handle aggressive Italianos in Rome and enjoy beach time in Marbella, my time in London would have not been the same without you as my flatmate. I already miss our midnight chats in my palace, heart-to-hearts over PB&J in the kitchen and Midnite Cookie orders at ungodly hours! Our veggie-laden trips to Mildred’s and male-centered hoopla will forever be burned into my memory (sweet potato fries with sour cream and chives, anyone?!) and I will always (forever ever) consider you one of my BFFs.

Love you to the moon! You’re officially a big girl now!

xoxo,

I really can’t imagine what it would be like to live in a world where you couldn’t find the information that you need. I feel like information overload is our biggest problem now. If you know how to search for information on Google, within 0.06 seconds you’ll have 1932348792 possible websites directing you to what you’re looking for. It’s amazing for researching; it has made my finding articles for my dissertation infinitely simpler. The downside though? There is so much conflicting information out there … overload!

After years of being a vegetarian, I always go back and forth on whether or not I want to try veganism. I really don’t see it being that much different for me since I don’t really eat eggs or cheese and I opt for soy milk over regular. Recently though, I read an article on how too much soy is bad for you. It leads to cancer, weight gain, etc. It’s bad for me?! I thought I was always told how good it was for me?! WTF? Since I don’t do dairy or meat, I usually get my protein from soy-based products: soy milk, soy yogurt, soy beans, soy/veggie ‘meat’… I consume a lot of soy. Also, though I don’t have kiddos yet (and no plans for them anytime soon), I have given thought to raising my kids as vegetarians. An article I recently read stated that it’s not necessarily the healthiest option for little ones, though. Apparently giving a child a unit of soy is like consuming 4 – 5 birth control pills because of a natural chemical in soy that mimics estrogen (?!!!). Someone who knows — is there any validity to this madness?

So, big question for other vegetarians/vegans out there: is soy good or bad for your health?

For anyone interested in reading about the debates, check out these articles… like I said, information overload!

“Is Soy Healthy?” – Healing Daily

“The Truth About Soy – Is It Good or Bad For You?” – Associated Content

“The Raw Truth: All About Soy” – Choosing Raw

“What About Soy?” – Veg Family

“Could Eating Too Much Soy Be Bad for You?” – Scientific American

“Soya: good or bad for you?” – The Independent

—-

Any thoughts?

This is amazing. It’s absolutely hilarious and I know that other Masters kids can relate… at least to an extent! I think we’ve all had issues focusing and have found the most bizarre ways of procrastinating (catching up on facebook, watching re-runs of 1990s sitcoms, playing Mahjong, etc.) I don’t know who this kid is (apparently he goes to school in Coventry?), but I definitely appreciate the fact that he procrastinated by making a video! Stellar.

Fast Tube by Casper

xoxo from dissertation jail,

It’ll all work out.

I’m having a quarter-life crisis. To the nth degree.

I can’t even fathom what a mid-life crisis like, if a quarter-life crisis makes me want to crawl into a hole a die. That’s extreme. I don’t really want to die. What I really want is to find a job in London in the field I’m interested in, get a cute little flat somewhere central and make enough money to pay my bills and pay back my student loans. That, to me, would be happily ever after.

Right now, I’m writing my dissertation, having a bit of a panic attack on the job front, trying to organize my life, and dealing with the fact that as of September 10th I may or may not be homeless. Oh, God. I know everyone goes through this at some point (or so my friends have reassured me), but it’s really, really awful when you’re experiencing it personally.

I have never (ever!) been jobless. I’ve consistently been employed since the age of 15 and have never had to worry about a place to live, paying for food, etc. Now, though, I’m 24 years old, more educated and motivated than ever but jobless! Such an awful feeling. If the job could come together then, theoretically, everything else would fall into place. When I called Mac in freakout/girl mode, he reassured me that if money was my only problem, I was in a good position. While I agree with that statement, I must admit that I agreed with it much more when I was employed! It’s easy to say that money’s ‘easy’ when you have it. When you don’t? Well, then life gets tricky. While money doesn’t buy happiness, it sure does pay for housing, food, transport, etc., which are pretty necessary for existence.

That being said, I’m going to try to refrain from psyching myself up. Instead, I’ve been applying for jobs left and right and have been looking for ways to get my stuff together within the next month. If anyone knows of any research positions or vacancies in an academic-type setting, I would be thrilled! Crossing my fingers that life really does work out in the way that people promise.

Love (and freakouts) from London,

As I sit here writing my dissertation, I find that business (undergraduate) Shannon is fighting with social policy (postgraduate) Shannon. Take that in a non-schizophrenic way. I don’t want to go into my dissertation topic in depth for fear that I’ll bore you or lose readers, but suffice it to say that it revolves around the potential of the private sector to fill HIV/AIDS governance gaps in South Africa. A substantial proportion of my literature investigates the power (and limitations) of corporate social responsibility and its potential to actually fill the gaps left by the state.

Corporate Social Responsibility.

I should preface this by saying that I chose this research question because it provided a nexus of sorts; a place where business meets social policy and where my interest in HIV/AIDS finds a comfortable nest. Now, I have studied CSR for years, but this year has presented it in a different capacity. I have been reading now about putting mandates on CSR premised on the idea that voluntary initiatives aren’t enough. The idea is that big TNCs don’t want to really help people (there’s no incentive), so to ensure that rhetoric becomes reality, some legally binding instruments should find their way into the business world and mandate CSR.

Now, Social Policy Shannon understands those lines of thinking — big business has quite an impact on the environments in which they work and often times the impact isn’t entirely (or even slightly) positive. In South Africa, for example, big business has been implicated in furthering the apartheid system. With that in mind, perhaps it is good to make businesses help out; to push them past philanthropy to encourage real social change. As much as I like to think that, Business Shannon keeps coming through; perhaps so many years of discussing the bottom line has dirtied my virgin soul.

How can you mandate CSR?! Not to completely echo Milton Friedman here, but why is it business’ responsibility to help with social change? Sure, I think it sounds like a nice idea, but isn’t it the responsibility of the state to provide social services? Why should a tech organization be mandated to work on social issues? That’s not their job! It’s not as if they’re an NGO that’s intentioned on helping out with these kinds of issues. It seems that civil society pressure has moved off of the state and onto corporations — why is that fair? How is it their responsibility? Sure, I firmly believe that organizations should do no harm and that, where possible, they should provide employees with a wonderful, safe working environment, health benefits, etc.  Awesome, awesome, awesome. Again, not to sound too Friedman-esque but doesn’t the idea of mandated CSR run counter to a capitalist society?

Don’t get me wrong — I think CSR has wonderful potential and I do think that it’s important for organizations to get involved. With the impact and power that they have, certainly they should be giving back. To mandate these things, however? I think that’s extreme and unfair.

I’ll have to get back to you on that, though… after finishing my dissertation I might have different thoughts on the issue!

Love from London,