Images

by philippelazaro

Bean Snap

“I’ve noticed something about people who make a difference in the world: they hold the unshakable conviction that individuals are extremely important, that every life matters. They get excited over one smile. They are willing to feed one stomach, educate one mind, and treat one wound. They aren’t determined to revolutionize the world all at once; they’re satisfied with small changes. Over time, though, the small changes add up. Sometimes they even transform cities and nations, and yes, the world.”

–Beth Clark

There is a lot to be upset about for sure, but it’s also so refreshing and reenergizing to see so many people willing to go above and beyond just so that one more family stays together, so one more kid is away from danger, so one more person has a better shot at life. I’m proud to see so many of my friends being exactly this type of person.
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Nothing more to say except keep it up. Help individual people as if whatever you did to them would be done to thousands. You might never find out how far a little compassion goes, but if you do, you’d probably surprise yourself.

by philippelazaro

Portillo’s Stop

Every week I make sure that one of my posts is a curation of “good things” that are making me happy this week. The wild week that it was reminds me why it’s important to keep looking for these things, and I’ve decided to restructure a little bit. I’ll be posting one good thing that’s happening in the world, one good thing happening in my own life, and one thing making me happy from the world of art and pop culture.
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In the world, I absolutely loved being a part of the Women’s March, and knowing that it was the largest gathering of its sort ever was reassuring. It’ll take a little while for that reassurance to turn into real change, but changes that last are always those that are driven by large swaths of people who embrace better ideas. These shape and outlive top-level changes, even if they take longer to create an impact.
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I’ve also started hearing back from a few places I sent resumes too– a lot of “we’ve already filled the positions,” but if you’ve ever been on a mass job hunt, you’ll know sometimes hearing back at all is a kind of a miracle. And guess what? They weren’t all rejections. Some were a little more interested in getting to know me.
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And lately I’ve been watching my way through The Man in The High Castle. The show moves really slowly, so this is my third attempt to get through it. Last week I was sick for a day and saw enough to get hooked to the story. And in terms of visuals, this show has crafted something fascinating. The aesthetics are probably half the reason I keep watching.

by philippelazaro

The Kitchen Wall

I don’t know when it’ll happen exactly, or where it’ll be, but I’m really looking forward to knowing where we’ll be living next. It’s been a really long time since I’ve been able to live somewhere without seeing an end to it not so far off and there have been quite a few things that I’d love to finally be able to do with a more permanent home base.
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1) Being able to start building up a community around a regular ritual is something I’ve been hoping to do for a while. A dinner party, game night, movie night, anything like that. I’d love to be able to gather people together.
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2) I’d also like to start mentoring somebody- and to be mentored. It’s hard to get that going when you might just leave soon enough. To get the most out of these ties, it takes a long-term investment of time. Soon enough!
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3) I have two ideas for side projects I’d love to have- one nonprofit and one business service. Again, it’s tough to start these things in a place if you’re planning to uproot. I’ve been working on these ideas as much as possible and I feel like I’ve gotten as far as I can so far without a permanent base.

by philippelazaro

The Job Hunt Grind

The people who say looking for a job can be a full time job in and of itself are right. I’ve been at it pretty diligently this month and I feel good going into February.
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The biggest challenge of looking for a job, in my opinion, is that suddenly life becomes all about what you don’t have. You know, the lack of job. And that’s especially true in my scenario where I’m probably gonna relocate. Cause then it gets harder to find non-work things to get involved with since you can’t make a long commitment.
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But I totally dislike the idea of defining life by what you don’t have. I have a lot of great people in my life, an adventurous spirit, and a few secret projects up my sleeve I haven’t announced yet. I decided earlier this week that I would try to be the ‘Best Unemployed Person’ out there. How you even define that, I’m not sure, and the competition’s steep with Barack Obama and Chase Utley also on the job market.
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I figured one way to start would be to not use up all my time tweaking my resume, but to also use portions of the day to do things I don’t get to really do when working. I gave the house a good cleaning to make Deanna happy. I sent a letter getting in touch with South Africa. I’ve also made it my most well read year so far- January and I’ve read five and a half books. If these are the cards I’m dealt, I’ll wanna be sure to play all of them.