Manicure Maven - a shameless plug

Just as a little PS to everyone, if you're interested in nail polish I'd recommend you check out my new blog, Manicure Maven.

It's just beginning to get off the ground, but I'm really excited to work on it! I'll still be posting my NOTDs here every once in a while, but the majority of nail posts will now be made over there.

Feel free to stop by! The first post of a series called Shinedown will be up tonight! If you like glittery, sparkly things you'll definitely want to check this out.

Made in China

What are you wearing right now?

No really, what are you wearing? If you're anything like me (and you're out of your pjs) you're probably in a pair of jeans.

Where did those jeans come from? Your dresser, maybe. The floor, possibly. A store of some kind, most likely. And before that?

Most likely your favorite pair of jeans have been shipped here from China, where they were made by a young woman working for about 6 cents an hour. Isn't that an amazing, and terrifying thought?

We watched a documentary in class today called China Blue. It was seriously amazing, and incredibly thought provoking. We've been discussing globalization this week, and this movie really showed the reality of what that brings to people.

I guess all this time I've been assuming that my jeans were assembled by a machine. That's true, but there's also a person sitting at a table guiding the fabric through that machine. And another person, most likely a young woman, cutting the threads and de-linting the pockets. They work lots of overtime, sometimes until 3 in the morning, without recieving any extra pay.

The movie was shocking for sure, and it left us all questioning what can we do to fix this? Boycotting Levis or True Religion wouldn't do much, because if everyone stopped buying the jeans then orders would stop coming to the factories and the workers wouldn't make any money at all. And if a factory did provide breaks and adequate pay to its workers they'd never be able to compete and stay open.

Today was very eye-opening for me. I actually came back after class, took a pair of jeans out of my dresser (I wore a dress today!), and examined them for at least 15 minutes. I thought about the work that went into creating them, and I wondered what those people were like. In the film Jasmine, a young girl who works for the factory, wonders who the "big and tall" people are that wear the jeans they make. Looking at the stitching I could see where it wasn't in a perfectly straight line, or where there was an extra fabric thread sticking out. I had never noticed these things before, and they don't bother me in the slightest now.

Right inside is a tag that says, "Made in China".

The Ex-Chronicles

Photo by PrincessRica

These are the stories of the boys of my life. Not all of the boys, just the ones I've dated. Not all of the stories either, mostly the basics. It was interesting to think back to these relationships, and in my reflection I learned a lot. My mind is still racing and I keep remembering things and people I've left out. I want to keep this relatively short though, so those will have to wait. I can already think of two I've left out, and I can't believe I forgot them. We never dated though, so they fall under a different category. That said, they're no less important than these four.

I'm wondering if I'm a serial monogamist? I have gone from one relationship to the next. I've never been able to go out to a party and make out with a boy and then forget about it the next day. At the same time, I'm not one to have long ongoing crushes that I know will never turn into anything else.

From seventeen to nineteen, four short chapters, four boys.

Celia, you're breaking my heart.

The world lost two iPhones today. Celia, my brand new black 3GS had some problems this morning, and even though a team of Geniuses worked hard to save her, nothing could be done. She was replaced by a white 3GS that lasted a whole half hour before she came down with the same ailment as my dear Celia. There wasn't even time for a name! Symptoms included continuous rebooting, vibrating, and loss of charge even when plugged in. It was messy, and things got very heated (literally!).

Luckily, the third time's the charm! Lily Mae, a white 16gb, is home and in sync with my iTunes. No more freaking out and exploding. This is very good news! And I managed to get everything worked out without having to wait until NEXT Saturday for an appointment, like I was originally told.

A quickie.

Okay, this will have to be short because I'm about to run out the door (need to get seasons 2 & 3 of Entourage ASAP!), but I wanted to show you that I DID IT!

I went from this....

Long, reddish brown, kinda boring. (That's my old roommate Jayme)

To this...

Short! Red! Woah! It's 'officially' an A-Line inverted bob, but whatever. I think it's cute.

Okay, must run! Movie store now, and then I'm getting my eyebrows waxed. Ouch! Never had that done before, so I'll have to let you know how that goes. And I'll have a better hair picture soon. :)