Fundraiser for Taiwan Typhoon victims: www.chunkytees.com

Please spread the word if you can.

Last year about this time of the year, I went to a conference put on by the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, held at Applied Materials and it really opened my eyes to poverty in the sense of food deprivation --also known as hunger. Before the conference started, they showed a video while everyone was filing in which interviewed many individuals who deal with hunger on a regular basis and the main message that they sent out was that "Hunger is pain that can't be seen". While working at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health in Palo Alto, I came across and article that talked about dental hygiene in children. You might be wondering what dental hygiene has to do with hunger. They are both pains that can't be seen. More often than not, you can't tell when a child has a toothache just like you can't tell that they are hungry unless they communicate it. While a child may seem on the outside to be simply unfocused in the classroom, they might be acting out or unwilling to focus because they are in pain, which could be the result of toothache or hunger. I know that I cannot be 100% into something when my stomach is growling, imagine if you were a small child who doesn't have the means to go out and buy food, needing to wait for food to be given to you.

So, as summer rolls around, there is a problem when it comes to food. For all of the children who benefit from subsidized lunches at school, they are put in a precarious position because as we all know, school is out for the summer months.There are 115,965 children in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties who are at risk for experiencing hunger during the summer months. Second Harvest Food Banks of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties has a program called Share Your Lunch which has two objectives:

Feed children during the summer months when they do not receive free or reduced-price meals.
Raise awareness of the pervasiveness of local childhood hunger.
Their goal is to raise $1 million and 15,000 pounds of food to feed 66,000 children a month throughout the summer.

I donate to this program every year because just by walking around Santa Clara County, as wealthy as some parts may be, there are also neighborhoods and communities that are struggling to get by--and have been struggling well before the economic downturn.



Like the young woman says in the video, "It's about helping people get through the day without having to stress, and even making their day better". Sometimes unexpected circumstances happen to us, and you can't fault anyone for that because we've all been there at some point where something happens that you could never have foreseen.

SO! I'm going to print some shirts and probably put some other shirts from Chunkytees.com on sale for this cause. I have an idea of what I want to put on the shirt, but haven't actually created the design.

All the proceeds from the shirts will be going to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank's Share Your Lunch Program. While the shirts will benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, for those of you not in the area, I urge you to take a look into what Food Banks in your area are doing to help relieve hunger in your communities, and perhaps make a donation or two. According to Second Harvest, a $10 donation allows you to share your lunch with 20 children...now that's a lot.

Check back soon for an update on t-shirts, or better yet, RSS the blog and get it in your feed reader.

Yea, I always have a lot to say when I'm not on the computer, then when I get to this blank white box, I never know what I really want to write. Then there are other times when I have wayyy too much to write, and get overwhelmed--which results in no entry.

To sum up the last few weeks...

1) Spent a week in Vegas for work. Don't think it was glamorous because after coming off a full week of work, working 6 more days (including Sat and Sun) 12+ hours a day, it's not really that fun. You also end up smelling like cigarette smoke. To top it off, we were only supposed to stay until Wednesday, but were asked to stay until Friday which = re-wearing clothing that smells like smoke. Joyous.

2) Figured out how to play the penny slots.
3) Loved watching ESPN in the morning and late at night...especially because we dont have a TV in our apt in Oakland
4) Frozen margaritas and mystery drinks made by the bartender are perfect after-work stress relievers.

I got back from Vegas at midnight on Friday.
Saturday was quite the whirlwind of events to say the least. It consisted of hanging out with Tiffany and Stephanie at Ikea in Emeryville all the while a police chase happened down the street where I live. 4 men in a cadillac were suspects in a murder of a young man in West Berkeley and were being chased by policecars....they didnt stop at a stop sign and ended up hitting two cars and one pedestrian. A motorist and the pedestrian were killed. The driver and passenger of the cadillac were caught while the other two men fled the scene.

I got home from Ikea to find the whole 5 blocks around my house blocked off by police and yellow Police-line-do-not-cross tape. We were headed into the city to see the Avett Brothers who are Stephanie's cousins from North Carolina who just got signed by Columbia Records and were playing at the Fillmore. The concert was fantastic, the energy and crowd were amazing, plus we got to sit back stage in the balcony and mingle/meet the band and see them after the concert in their dressing room. There were people down on the floor who definitely were smoking weed the WHOLE CONCERT from start to finish. I don't think they knew that smoke wafts upwards...man, secondhand smoked a lotta weed not by will.



After coming back from the show, the area around my house was still taped off and guarded by cops. I had to park my car a block away and convince the cop that I lived on the block that was taped off. He told me that if I went into the house, I couldn't come out. At this time, my roommates weren't home yet, as they were in the city as well with some friends. A helicopter was circling above our house and 2 suspects were on the loose. For someone who hasn't really seen a lot of this type of stuff, it was a little scary. Here is the news coverage .

I'm thinking of switching to wordpress since I've had an account/blog on there for a little while now, but always came back to xanga. With RSS being used so much, I'm contemplating the move to wordpress because it wouldnt be that much trouble for people to still read my entries, is that a correct assumption?

Happy graduation to those at Pomona! So proud!

I am so uncreative these days, I think i need to start exercising again.

Oh! Learning Spanish through some workbooks! Back to square one feels pretty good..for now.