Model behavior

Audrey is a magazine writer and was in the modeling biz as a teen. And now her book, All Made Up: A Girl's Guide to Seeing Through Celebrity Hype and Celebrating Real Beauty, has been climbing its way up readers' to-buy list if the stocks at Amazon.com are to be the gauge.

Here's part of an interview that Respect Rx had with the young author:

Respect Rx: When you were a teen, why did you want to be a model?
Audrey: I wanted to be a model for all the obvious reasons: the fame, glamour, preferential treatment that's showered on women who have that look and label. I heard the way guys talked about models...the way everyone in a room took notice of a girl if someone said 'Oh I heard she's a model." It didn't matter if she worked for a local newspaper or was on the cover of Vogue. Labels like model, actress, celebrity, pop star etc. get noticed...and I wanted that for myself, too.

What did you learn about that world that you want every girl to know now?
That there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with wanting to be pretty or liking magazines, movies, pop music etc. BUT that we all need to ask why these things are so important in our country. Like, why are we on a first-name basis with women who entertain us or who fit a certain beauty standard. But yet we can't name women who are changing the world? THAT'S what I want to get everyone thinking about.

What are the top five myths that we learn from teen and celebrity magazines?
Myth No. 1: That we should pay attention to every little "flaw" or "imperfection" we have like the size of the pores on our face or whether or not we get a few razor bumps. Remember the Maybelline slogan from a few years ago that went along with their Great Lash Mascara? It went "Maybe She's Born With It... Maybe It's Maybelline" and all the commercials were showed a model with enviable long eye lashes. That always made me think "Oh come ON! NOW we have to worry about the fact that our EYE LASHES aren't as perfect as the next girl's?!" I mean please. Just think about how different the world would be if we all spent less time being trained to worry about scrutinizing, plucking, tanning, manicuring, waxing etc our bodies and spent more time on saving the environment or trying to solve the world's AIDS crisis.

Myth No. 2: That the women in magazines (and on reality TV shows, sitcoms, movies etc) deserve all the recognition they get. Sure, some celebs work really hard to get where they are, but where are they ultimately? They're just entertaining us. I bet if you made a list of the most important professions out there, you'd probably include things like doctor, teacher, human rights activist, etc. So then why aren't any of those women in the public eye???

Read the rest here

Check out Audrey's blog, Don't Believe the Hype. I've also included it in the list of links here.

Marvelous church scene made of Lego

As a kid, I built a park, a garage, a playground -- with my "fake" Lego set (I can't remember what it was called, but I suppose the real thing went beyond my parents' budget). But check this out: that's 75,000 Lego pieces that went into this creation in the photo. Neat huh? And it's quite a huge church, accommodating 1,372 Lego people in its pews.

Thanks to Suzanne at Big Blue Wave. Check out her blog for more photos.

What happened at that car wash with a cause?

The first Wash for Life was held last Sept. 16, and now the stories and photos are posted on the website! There are really cute pictures but they seem to be protected as I couldn't save and post them here. But first, some figures about the event:

2,892 youth involved
5,985 cars washed
$82,217.49 raised

And all that money goes to local pregnancy care centers!

A couple of stories from the activity:


Saint John Bosco’s League of Extraordinary Catholics Wash For Life had a splendid turnout. The wash was held in the K-Mart parking lot. We washed cars, and sold homemade goods and lemonade. We washed 50 cars and raised $533.62. Before we began, we went to mass and handed out flyers. The workers took turns holding signs, washing, making new signs, greeting customers, taking pictures, praying, and working at the bake sale. At the bake sale, a couple came, and bought some brownies. A little while later, they returned and bought the rest of them, saying that they were delicious. Some people who didn’t want their car washed donated money any ways. Many people told us that we were working for a good cause.

- John, Saint John Bosco’s League of Extraordinary Catholics, Joliet, IL


What an awesome day! The morning started off rainy and clouded over and as I drove from the twin cities to Rochester I prayed "Lord please give us a sunny day" and He did!!! The rain stopped by 9am and by noon the clouds had all disappeared. We had a blast washing cars and talking to people. It was overwhelming and heart warming to see people support Wash for Life and New Life Family Services. We had a man donate $20 without getting his car washed. He was driving a rental but wanted to give his support anyways!!! News 6 showed up and the kids had a great time goofing off for the camera. Plus we had a chance to share that we stand for life!!! Thank you so much for all your hard work for putting together Wash for Life and we plan to be a part of this again next year!

- Naomi/Mt. Sion/Zion Lutheran Youth, Rochester, MN



More at "Pictures and stories of WFL '06"

Hamster-hunting

Once in a while, you've got to read stories like this --

A hamster hunt for Super Mom
By Tim Lemire

Thursday, 7:03 a.m.: I left a message on my supervisor's voice mail that pretty much summed up the situation. "I'm gonna be a little late. There's a big puddle of water in the middle of the kitchen floor, and the hamster's cage is open and the hamster's gone, and there's water in the basement, and the kids are hysterical, and nobody knows what's going on."

It's morning in Parenthood.

As the first one awake, I had discovered all this, struck not only with the convergent shock of all these things gone wrong, but also - it being 6:53 a.m., seven minutes before my wife officially gets up - with the conundrum of whether to wake a sleeping she-bear or just let confusion idle until the stroke of 7.

I woke her. I used the same run-on sentence I later used with my supervisor.

Our daughters, ages 6 and 7, were frantic. The elder was the owner of the hamster, named Buddy, aka His Hamstership.

She wailed: "He's going to turn up as a brown splotch in the middle of the road!"

While I understood my daughter's concern, I didn't bother telling her that in 20 years of driving, I had never had to swerve to avoid hitting a hamster.

I also didn't tell her that I was the one, the night before, who inadvertently had left the cage open.

By 7:15, we figured out that Buddy had bitten the water line to the fridge's icemaker. Out the water had come, above and below the bite.

While my wife shut off the water, I took my daughter aside. I explained that it was my fault that Buddy was missing. I was feeding him, and I must have been distracted when the time came to secure the cage door.

I apologized.

She said nothing.

I left for work fearing the worst and feeling inept, a typical dumb dad who might appear in a second-rate sitcom.

Read the rest at The Christian Science Monitor

Walkin' on a thin line

The power's back!!!!! "Alleluia!!" never seemed so appropriate to a situation till now!!!

Since Thursday morning, Luzon (the northernmost major island of my country) has had a blackout due to heavy rains and strong winds brought by typhoon "Milenyo." Though some areas had their electric power restored on the same day, or a little over 24 hours after it went off, our part of Quezon City only saw light again tonight shortly before 9:00. That's about 84 hours with no electricity! It really is easier to appreciate something when you suddenly lose it. On the other hand, it was a refreshing change to try to make do without television, the pc, cold drinking water, electric fans -- even drive around Metro Manila sans traffic lights!

So back to blogging...




While this isn't fresh news, I still delight over the news about excessively thin models being banned from Madrid Fashion Week. I never thought I'd see the day, seeing how fashion models have acquired quasi-icon status over the decades, as if a skeletal frame is something to aspire for.

A few days after the ban on size-zero women was reported by Yahoo news, a related news article came out, this time with designer Giorgio Armani pinpointing stylists and the media as the culprit in propagating "ultra-thin chic."

Today's The New York Times editorial page contained a brief commentary on the same issue, and only here did I learn of the South American model who, after months of consuming only lettuce and diet soda, died of heart failure in August:

Yes, You Can Be Too Thin

If fashion models were purebred dogs instead of underfed women, there would be an outcry over the abusive standards for appearing in shows and photo shoots. The prize for women who aspire to the catwalk is a ridiculous size 0, though overachieving undereaters seem to be reaching for size 00, which invites further starvation, serious illness and worse.

If the industry needed a wake-up call, it got one last month, when Luisel Ramos, an Uruguayan model who had been advised to lose weight, died of heart failure after taking her turn on the catwalk. She reportedly had gone days without eating, and for months consumed only lettuce and diet soda.

Neverthless, organized of Madrid's Fashion Week caught designer and fashionista scorn for banning the unreasonably thin from their show. The Madrid standard: a minimum body mass index of at least 18 -- a measure of body fat based on weight and height. A reading of 18 is still underweight (18.5 to just under 25 is considered normal), but it is outsized among supermodels, many of whom hover between 14 and 16.

While the recently completed New York Fashion Week carried on as usual, Milan Fashion Week officials were considering applying their own healthy standard for models.

Ending the parade of starved and sickly seems like a fashion trend worth following.

I couldn't agree more, though I hope it's a trend that won't go away.