Make the Difference

St Francis Boarding House, Myanmar 

This special group of youth can attend school safely, only in an internally displaced-persons camp. The IDP camp is like a refugee camp, but it is for persons who have had to flee their homes within their own country; for several reasons they cannot cross safely into a neighboring country and become refugees. Some of these youth live in the camp; some traveled far from village or jungle to become students here. Education is the bridge to freedom and a new life. At St Francis Boarding House, not only do the students have an education, but they are growing up with the strength and dignity of disciples! They pray together in the morning and evening, learn songs of faith, and learn the Church’s prayers. Mass is rare because visits by priests are rare, but they are practicing the Catholic faith daily as much as possible, and with joy. Our local Karen community supports them and visited Fr Seraphim in 2020 just before COVID. This year the priest and other 5 people visit the camp for education purpose and for this mission they encourage the believes to come as one and unity. 

The Franciscan Brother of Peace community had been serving many people such as to feed the hungry we have a weekly food shelf that offers food, hygiene, and intercessory prayer. To shelter the homeless, they house international victims of torture and sponsor a boarding school in Myanmar. To visit the sick and care for the dying we once operated an AIDS hospice; today we visit scores of veterans at the VA (Veterans Affairs) Hospital three days a week. To clothe the naked, they operate a busy baby diaper closet and a winter clothing drive. And lastly, to instruct the unlearned they teach Religion classes at St Jerome Catholic School and Catechism Classes for the Myanmar refugee community. 

People who are interested in making donations can donate online or write a check.  

Donate Online: 

Please click here to donate easily online. You will be redirected to a secure site 

 called GiveMN / Give to the Max. 

Donate Food, Hygiene: 

Please bring small donations (2-3 bags) of food/hygiene donations to our door 

Volunteer: 

Volunteers are essential for our food shelf… 

+ Sort food as a Family 
+ Great Father/Son or Mother/Daughter project! 
+ Serve with Scouts 
+ Organize a food drive through your parish, school, or neighborhood 
 
Those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or youth minister. 9am-4pm Mon-Fri. 

Having this opportunity, as a youth, young adult, and people who want to make the differences in other lives, they can volunteer or donate because every penny makes the difference. 

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Black Horror Is A Genre That People Should Begin to Understand

Blog# 4

What Is Black Horror?

From the perspective of the viewer, Black Horror depicts the suffering of black people as a result of outside causes. These forces normally refer to featurism, texturism, colorism, assimilation or the lack thereof. In a single moment, the genre captures the psychological suspense of a horrible history. Never being able to take a breath until the movie is done. Some many encounters, some many moments gathered to make a single piece of cinema. Nonetheless, you will feel what the movie wants you to feel because it’s oh so familiar. The genre tugs and it will tug at the stitches you try to conceal. You will sit in your wake, hoping for the gratification that will never come. Each film has a connection of transactions but different affairs.

For the Genre itself, it cultivates various tales dissecting white supremacy from an almost paranormal lens. Racism at its core can feel grotesque, disfigured, distorted and misplaced. Most black horror films that follow this formula create a most successful feeling of being uncomfortable and uneasy. The delicate weaving of tale and pain, perfectly sewn together. Not only does it improve the environment, but it also produces thought-provoking material.

The Right Direction

No, I wouldn’t say I object to the black horror subgenre. It’s more of a suggestion that can be improved over time. The value of depicting black agony and pain via cinematography cannot be overstated. However, it is equally critical that we convey tales that are unrelated to black suffering. Keep the movies black but make them more than just the physical. Jordan Peele’s new film “Nope” was incredible. It had everything I wanted in a film about black people but not about black people. In other words, a black group of scientists could build a monster in a lab and it escapes, or black people could go on a camping trip while battling a huge bat. The trick is to never lose sight of what black culture is all about. It is one of the most crucial elements of Black Horror Cinema.

The film “Nope” received negative reviews for being uninteresting and having a lackluster subject matter. Though I encourage people to consider why this film was made in the first place. Here are some links to articles that condemned the film.

https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/nope-review-jordan-peele/

https://movieweb.com/nope-hype-jordan-peele/

I could sit here and explain why the film “Nope” was a welcome addition to black culture, but I’m not going to. Today, I’ll leave you with a question:

What Does Black Horror Mean To You?

How Would You Make A Black Horror Movie That’s Not About Black Trauma?

Can You Name Any?

Our best resource!

Wow! How amazing it is to indulge myself in a world filled with communication, accessible content, and more importantly connection to the world. We see in countless ads and commercials about the importance of what we call “tools” that are said to be “successful” in our lives but is that the case? As the progression of technology continues to rise and climb to the top tier in business, we find ourselves to be more productive towards receiving knowledge and the importance of how the developments would affect us. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook developed the app for easier access to open on the mobile device instead of constantly logging into the computer, but his best creation made to bring the world together and connect was his famous app called Messenger. I am forever grateful for the existence of technology and the content created inside of it.  

The times we odd when we were kids back in the 2000’s when telephone devices were just little buttons that could only call within the country, no touch 

screens, no opening up YouTube app for entertainment, or better yet, headphone jacks to listen to music, everything was just great. The first phone that was handed to me was an Obama Phone back in 2008. It was a phone that many people wanted, and when it became free to the citizen everybody was hooked onto it. This type of technology was able to keep me, and my family connected to each other wherever we were, any time of the day was one phone call away. Since then, I have never looked back at the fascinating piece of object that made us who we are today. As the creation continued to grow, the next phone that I received was the Samsung Galaxy Avant and this was the first phone that had touch screen compatibility and of course I never knew how to use it, I sort of played around with it and voila, I was an expert! Since Facebook was an app, I downloaded it and I became a Facebook addict.  

When Facebook was created back in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook solely for Harvard students to keep in touch with each other. Thousands of students registered, and Facebook blew up drastically. Now, Facebook is one of the biggest online media used for connecting world-wide. Mark Zuckerberg background history of Facebook was based on his and his roommates’ idea and continue to improve the science of Facebook. Mark decided to quit school and commit full-time to his best creation along with the investment money from Angel investor Peter Thiel of $500,000. Who would’ve known that Mr. Zuckerberg would be a top competitor of many individual companies siding with the media. An interviewer, by the name of Stephanopoulos, talked about the problems and issues of Facebook back in 2019 and he said that “It seems like social media drives you just to be reinforced on views you already have. It hardens up everybody.” and Mark replied with “It’s the opposite.” and he relates the answer by explaining that the voice of certain entertainment system are editorial points of view and with friends who you are added, will have their own opinions on certain things. You will see both sides of the debate. Stepping aside from Facebook drama, we have youtubers and “data collectors” making Instagram reels or Snap chat reels for content regarding what this person has been doing, and they use resources from what the creator has said to back up on their idealistic and content to either destroy or put negative thoughts or ideas in the viewers minds.  

Facebook has created content for many years, going from old television shows to news advertisements. While we may have seen more content on Facebook today including reels, story posts, and opinionated posts, we see that Facebook has also taken itself to a more heavily negative side towards certain topics, such as political story, economic stories, and personal stories. As a Facebook content user, I watch and analyze the difference in people’s posts and compare them to my own. We can see how the negative post gets more views than a positive post and when you see the comment section you see that there are more in the negative content than a positive content. Facebook has given us the opportunity to be entertained by implementing videos, games, and funny memes.  

My experience with Facebook has granted me the opportunity to remember all the memories I have posted in the past, all the bad ones, and good ones, but also all the pictures that weren’t able to be saved. I am happy for the creation of messenger because without messenger, I wouldn’t be able to say good-bye to my grandpa, who deceased in December while I was stationed in Japan. I am forever grateful for the experience of technology and how it made life easier for many people. Thank you for social media and technology. 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/facebook-launches-mark-zuckerberg

Interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: TRANSCRIPT – ABC News (go.com)   

The Card Called Coral Reefs

Over the summer, I took an environmental communications class for my racial issues graduation requirement. I learned a multitude of information on climate change and its effects. The first thing the professor has us do was watch a documentary that talked about climate change (CC). I watched a documentary called Chasing Coral, it was released to the public on Netflix in 2017. The premise was to find out why the coral was turning white, to which they coined this phenomenon as bleaching.

The whitening of coral in the Great Barrier Reef in the year 2016. Chasing Coral

After some research and sampling, they found that the coral was bleaching from water temperature increase. They discovered this when they increased the test water samples 2°C (3.6°F) more and thus caused the test corals to whiten. They understood that when people heard this seemingly insignificant change in temperature the majority would brush of their urgency (I am guilty as well). They told us to look at it this way:

You as a human being have a regulated body temperature of ~98.6°F (37°C). Now imagine increasing that temperature 2/3.6 degrees more, we are talking 102.2°F (39°C) temperatures. These are very sick to fatal numbers and that is exactly what is happening to the coral. That white you see, that is the corals skeleton.

The team of divers and photographers set out between the years of 2014-2017 to capture and record the worlds most severe bleaching event in recorded history. They found out that 75% of corals suffered or died from heat stress brought on by climate change in those years alone.

In the documentary, there was a Coral Reef Biologist named Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and he was talking about how everything in the world is connected. There we are pulling out this card called “coral reefs” and discarding it. He wonders how many cards will be discarded before everything collapse. How many cards will be pulled out before we notice? And how many before it’s too late?

Everything in white represents what would get effected with the extinction of coral reefs.

Near the end, they concluded that 67% of the northern region of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) was dead. This is equivalent to losing most of the trees between Washington D.C. to Maine. The GBR experienced its fourth mass bleaching this March; I will save you the heartache from those statistics.

That is when I came across this Tik Tok from an organization called Coral Gardeners. They found a breakthrough, creating “super corals” that is resilient to CC stressors. They are, quite literally, coral gardeners. This organization goes out and dives into their gardens of coral and raises them to be healthy enough to withstand CC and aid existing (or barely existing) reefs.

It made me so happy to know that there are people out there trying to help conserve these corals reefs and make them stronger. It is unfortunate that it has to come to this.

Coral Gardeners Website | Chasing Coral Website | Chasing Coral Documentary

Sallie Mae lied to us

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Thousands of student loan borrowers are about to see their debt forgiven. Navient is one of the largest servicers of student loans in the nation and has recently settled in court having to cancel 1.7 billion in debt forgiving roughly 66,000 borrowers nationwide. This is a huge settlement and much-needed relief for those affected by Navient’s predatory lending practices.  

Although Navient did not admit fault in the lawsuit stating that they did not act illegally.  They are choosing to resolve claims they felt were unfounded citing that those claims would incur additional expense, time, and distraction from the overall goals of the company. It’s worth noting that those who are being relieved of their debt don’t have to do anything and a notice will be sent to individuals that qualify.  

Despite Navient’s claims I have a suspicion that the leaders of this company saw what’s coming down the pipeline. They’ve chosen the wiser path of getting ahead of this issue and settling before further damage is done to their business or reputation. The rapacious lending practices are in full view when we consider that Navient was borrowing money at a rate of 16% when the average loan rate rarely goes above 6%.  

Furthermore, they leveraged their private loan relationships to get on preferred lender lists at universities and colleges. They did this with full knowledge that these loans would default due to rising costs. As a student myself I feel particularly appalled when I hear news like this since we likely know someone who’s been an unwitting victim of a lending scheme. It goes without saying that if we choose to borrow money, we should only take what we need. Considering how rare it is to see accountability like this we should also do a thorough look at the company servicing the loan.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/01/13/navient-settlement-student-loans/

Mental Health and being an Artist

https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/mind-games-creativity-and-mental-health

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In this blog post published by WePresent, writer Micha Frazer-Carroll discusses how creativity is linked to mental health. I am a photographer and workin the ratove industry, I also am an advocate for mental health as a person with depression and from a community where mental health issues are common yet stigmatized. Many of the stories shared by Micha are relatable and highlight things I want to bring attention to in my community. To support this story is a survey conducted by wepresent with 300 creative professionals. 

Being an artist 

There is a history of art and mental illness being interlinked. A cliche of pop culture that emotional suffering is linked to greater creativity. Famously Davinci has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, people speculate that in his most intense emotional state towards the end of his life, he created 300 of his greatest pieces. Artists are inspired by the struggles in their personal lives but after a while that can also be draining and hinder them from being able to express themselves artistically. Many artists don’t argue that they feel artistry is 2nd nature, something they can’t control or choose but instead a gift that has chosen them. I would be easy to tell artist to choose another career path but its not that easy, and nor should people have to leave their passions to have a healthy life balance. Personally, I can be inspired by all aspects of my life, positive or negative but I prefer to model the artist of the past whose mental health became too bad. Here the art was not enough to keep them alive. 

The current creative experience in the field 

The current work industry relies on free, underpaid and overworked labor from young professionals. This looks like unreliable hours due to last minute requests or cancelations, getting pushed back on wages or not being paid at all and being overworked for jobs. Many creative industries often treat creative work like its not a job and rather a lifestyle choice and industry job scarcity/competition as reasons for the lack of organization and ethical practices. This can tow on a creative energy, self worth and time. Within this industry your work and effort can be directly linked to your portfolio and personal grit, which can lead to undelthy self perception. The industry like any other requires you be an advocate for yourself and work hard but within artistry there is a foundation of benign undervalued and not taken seriously that make the easiest jobs and task even harder to do. It would be nice to feel comfortable within a working environment and be treated and paid fairly. Especially since the industry relies mostly on freelaces or contracted work, many people have to jiggle different jobs unlike your typical industry. Artist are tired. 

Things that need to improve 

To put an end to the cliche cycle of emotionally distressed artists and great work, changes need to be made. Improvements looks like permanent jobs, better hours, structure, management training, unions and better working conditions. This would greatly improve the lives of creatives and would support them to create work without being emotionally torn. 

 “There is an inherent contradiction here: that creativity can serve as a therapeutic tool, but can worsen creatives’ mental states when pursued professionally. For the sake of people in creative industries—and for all of us who enjoy the fruits of their labor—we must collectively work towards a world where this trade-off is no longer a reality.”

Finding a Work/Life Balance When You Work from Home

March 2020 Mood

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sensation/202007/making-working-home-work

In this blog post from psychologytoday.com, Dr. Thalma Lobel discusses the impact the COVID pandemic had on many workers across the US. I had never worked from home a day in my life before the pandemic (although when I used to work retail, I would joke with my coworkers about how working from home would be “the life,” wishing I could earn money from the comfort of my couch.). Many of the things mentioned in this blog post are things that I have encountered and have worked to overcome in terms of adjusting to my new work “normal.”

Milhouse learning how to become my new office support!

Staying connected with colleagues: I have been working for Hennepin County as a case manager/job counselor for about seven years and had worked in one of our satellite offices at Sabathani Community Center in South Minneapolis until the end of March 2020. I said goodbye to my coworkers that had become very near and dear to know, not fully realizing I wouldn’t see them again to this day. Skype meetings and friendly email updates serve as the social exchanges I have with them in place of the coffee or tea breaks we’d share in the office. While I did feel a great loss in my newfound work space with the absence of my coworkers, I had always felt thankful that my employer enforced safety measures for all of us considering the new threat of the COVID pandemic.

Make sure your room is well lit: While my new WFH office started out as my bedroom (not a good fit for mental or physical health) and is now my living room, the lighting everywhere in my apartment is no match for the bright lights at my now shuttered Sabathani office. The solution: keep the curtains open during the work-day and be sure to keep those lights on during those gloomy winter and thunderstorm days.

Minnehaha Falls

Establish boundaries during work and leisure time: I have often felt lucky being in Minnesota in particular during the pandemic because while we did shut down everything but “essential businesses”, we did not have lockdown like they did in New York where people could not leave their homes. The summer of 2020 here in Minneapolis was marked by the tragedy of George Floyd being killed by Minneapolis police, and if you were living close to Cup Foods at the time like I was (I lived on the block of 37th and Columbus at the time, 400 feet away), it could’ve been difficult to get out of your WFH environment and feel like you could find a place to go to unwind from your work day. These days, I am living just south of uptown and am able to bike around in the spring/summer/fall to obtain the work/life balance that works best for me.

We all have unique experiences related to what happened to us and our families in the last two years. Many people did not get the opportunity to work from home and were either laid off (and received unemployment hopefully) or continued to work in essential services positions to keep things like food, goods (remember toilet paper shortages?) and medicine available to society. Their achievement of a healthy work/life balance matters just as much, and probably even more if their positions require intensive contact with the public – I admire their resiliency and imagine their need for a structure to support a “new normal” looks relatively similar in terms of setting up the home environment to support a safe space to unwind.

Winter Rusting

After moving to Los Angeles with everything packed into my tiny Hyundai Elantra an issue started to become more apparent. After years of driving on Minnesotan roadways, my car picked up a small bug that would slowly eat its way through the underside of my car.

Why Does Rust Occur?

In the article “How to Stop Rust From Ruining Your Car” Rachel Schneider states that rust can be caused when dirt strips away the protective coating on your car’s paint which allows rust to develop and spread. Another way that is popular, especially with people living in snowy areas, is when snow and ice coat the underside of a vehicle with corrosive residue that originates from the salt and chemicals applied to the road during the winter.

What Can I Do to Prevent It?

The easiest way to prevent rust on your car is to get it washed every two weeks. You cannot stop there though as water can also cause rust if it sits in your vehicle for too long so make sure to dry the car after and make sure it sits in your garage or carport. It is important to keep tabs on the condition of your paint job as this is one of the first steps to rust development. If you notice flaking on your paint anywhere on the car you will want to get it fixed. Rust can also appear where two pieces of metal connect, this is because they are most likely rubbing together over time. Look under your hood, doors, and trunk to look for areas where the paint appears as though it is bubbling, and make sure to touch it up.

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When my mechanic in Sun Valley told me that there was rust on the underside of my car causing an oil leak I was not very surprised considering my car had spent the majority of its life in Minnesota during harsh winter seasons. It did make me think about what I would do if the car was brand new, and because of this, I will be making more changes to how I take care of my car going forward because if one thing is certain its that if you live in LA without a car, you’re not getting anywhere.

Is Social Media Healthy

Is Social Media Healthy?

This blog post contains information on the health components of the usage of social media. 

Many individuals who use social media are being reinforced into believing “likes” are a reward. When we feel as though we are liked enough by others, our brain releases dopamine, making us feel better about ourselves.

I am guilty, social media has definitely made me care more about the way I present myself. The beauty standards, especially for women are unattainable and fake. Social media has created filters, photo editing apps, beauty enhancement features. Many individuals, post in order to gain or get a response from others focusing to much of their energy on interactions. Many individuals focus on the feedback from their post and also compare their post to others.

FOMO

I was introduced to this new term called FOMO, which stands for Fear of Missing Out. Many fear not making memories and missing out on experiences. Missing experiences can often lead to anxiety and depression. Often, many individuals find out through social media that they were not invited to an event. Not being invited to an event that all your friends are at can cause overthinking, provoke thoughts and negative feelings. 

It is important to remember that this is a real thing and often can make us as humans feel bad about ourselves. I bet, we can all agree we’ve been left out of something and has affected us negatively. Social media has made it seem as though others have better lives than the ones we do and are having more fun than we are. It is important to remember that this phenomenon is becoming normalized due to the consumption of social media. There are helpful coping methods to deal with the fear of missing out. It is important that many focus on what they have rather than what they lack. Doing healthy things for example like journaling and finding   meaningful connections can help with the negative health affects of FOMO and the negative affect of social media. 

Social Media on Mental Health

Social media has many benefits if used positively. It allows many to share their ideas, connects individuals, and many get news and information from using social media.  If used negatively it can impact your health by creating depression, anxiety, and feeling lonely.

If you find yourself de-prioritizing your self over social media, noticing that relationships are being affected, noticing that you’re falling behind on priorities, and comparing yourself to others and getting jealous, social media has affect your mental health. 

When I realize that my mental health is off, I’ve find myself setting  limiting social media apps

to decrease my usage on social media. Social media has definitely affected my mental health. I have found myself worrying about things that don’t matter due to social media. I have often taken  social media breaks to focus on myself.  

“Social media has created a society that cares about “likes” rather than meaningful connections. Social media can be damaging towards our mental health. Some helpful tips include talking breaks from social media and finding meaningful connections”. 

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Why I Choose Gentle Parenting

“Too much love won’t spoil. Kindness doesn’t provoke poor behavior. Respect doesn’t invite disrespect. This backward thinking has caused us to feel trapped into being too harsh for too long. Generations of children are still searching and longing for unconditional love.”

Rebecca Eanes

What is Gentle Parenting?

Gentle Parenting is considered to be the most beneficial approach to raising children. It focuses on these aspects; gentleness, empathy, nonviolence, thoughtfulness, listening, and embracing. You can easily remember these by the acrostic nature of this approach (G.E.N.T.L.E).

This approach doesn’t throw discipline out the window completely as you may think. Instead it focuses on teaching rather than punishing. Discipline in this aspect is highly recommended as it helps a child understand how to healthily express their emotions, or how to communicate effectively in the future while in an established safe space.

I have been on the opposite side of gentle parenting. I was, and still am, scared of approaching my parents in any way. During my childhood, I have been brushed off or told I wasn’t doing good enough based on their standards. If I talked in a certain way or didn’t want to do something, instant punishment. As a result, it led to some doubts towards my abilities and overall being. This is where the issue lies. It isn’t just my experience, it’s a huge representation of our population, and we have the power to change it for our children and those to follow.

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There are many benefits to this evidence-based approach of parenting. These include…

• Focuses on cognitive state of child to help establish boundaries that are suitable for the specific age category and in the end, benefits them.
• May reduce the risk of anxiety
• Children see parents model appropriate behavior and set expectations that children can effectively acheive and easily follow.
• Children gain a better understanding of how they should act and speak

“When we show gentleness, especially during stressful times, we model frustration tolerance, and we model flexibility. Staying calm and being gentle and firm sets the tone for positive growth and development”

Allison Andrews

How to Become a Gentle Parent

It can be both simple and difficult to implement this approach of parenting for your children. To help you get started and gain insight of this technique, here are some helpful tips.

• Don’t expect perfection
• Always apologize
• Pay attention to your triggers
• Not all solutions will work

It’s important to be conscious of your mental health and well-being first to properly display behavior to your children. It’s a learning process that goes both ways. You learn from each other as you build a healthy connection. I believe that is the beauty behind this parenting approach. This is why I choose gentle parenting, and I hope to influence others to do the same.

Resources

https://sarahockwell-smith.com/2015/08/20/what-is-gentle-parenting-and-why-should-you-try-it/

Becoming a Gentle Parent

Gentle Parenting Quotes To Inspire You To Live Your Best Parenting Life