Month: September 2013

election, innovation, vote

Our Election System Needs a Reboot

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

I just love it when the New York City Board of Elections goes to the trouble of sending me a postcard in the mail with the wrong polling station address. I moved in April and ever on top of their game, they sent me this postcard to inform me I needed to go to 84th Street to vote. I arrived there dripping from the heat and humidity to find out that I actually needed to go to 97th Street. I walk a lot in NYC, I’m in shape, and I’m doggedly determined to vote in a primary that has a lot at stake. If I need to walk 13 blocks out of my way in uncomfortable conditions, I’m going to do it. Goodness knows that many other people have endured worse.

But here’s why I’m fuming: how many other people got the same run around and decided not to make the trek to the correct polling station to vote? And who do we think we are to tell other people around the world how to run elections when our own Board of Elections is so mismanaged? The technology we use to vote is far older than I am. And let’s not forget that pesky little electoral college system (which thankfully is only involved when electing the highest office in the land, and the world.)

When is the innovation that is rolling full steam ahead in countless other industries going to be applied with rigor and vigor to our election process? When are free, fair, and organized elections going to hit the U.S.?

Disorganized or not, I’m going to keep voting in every election, mostly out of guilt. But when someone else says to me they don’t vote because it’s a disorganized process and they have no idea if their vote is even counted correctly because of that disorganization, I don’t have any rock solid arguments to persuade them otherwise. The only thing I know for certain is that the process is a mess and needs to be fixed.

Do you know of organizations and efforts to modernize the US voting system? I’d love to hear about them and find a way to help. 

art, beauty

Beautiful: Listen to Yourself – A Lesson from Voice Over Land

Christa Avampato

10c78142cf300f633136afbbc404dbd0To get the sound we want, we have to be willing to listen to the sound we make. And then we need to change. To get the life we want, we have to be willing to see the life we have, plainly and clearly. And then we need to change. The game of voice overs and the game of life have much in common.

Yesterday I had my second private voice over session. It was difficult because now we’re getting into finer details. My coach and I are no longer okay with good reads. We want great reads. Out of this world reads. We want winners that are going to help me nail jobs, no matter what genre they fall into, the first time out of the gate. To quote Our Town, we want it to sound “like silk off a spool”.

The best way to get there is to listen. I give a read, I listen to it, my coach asks me how I did, and I tell him. Honestly, I hate hearing myself. I want to run out of the room, or at the very least stick my fingers in my ears while screaming “la la la la la, I can’t hear you.” But that won’t help. What will help is taking a read for what it is, and trying to make it better. Over and over and over again.

Voice over is an art where perfect is a moving target. Each piece is unique and the same. It’s difficult and easy. It’s flat and cool while also being easy and breezy. It’s a smile and a serious tone. It’s a mess – there are no iron-clad rules, except when there are. Maybe. Can you hear the tracks I’m laying down? The art of voice overs. The art of life. They are the same. And the only way we learn is to listen.

decision-making, Second Step

Beautiful: To Find Our Purpose, We Have to Live the Questions

Christa Avampato

“And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” – Rilke

Questions without clear answers can paralyze us. I’ve wrestled cloudy questions to the ground many times over in an attempt to get answers I thought I needed before I could make a move. I gave up that practice 15 months ago when I left my corporate job to carve a new path of my own design. Now, I have to live the questions, answers or not.

How I made my home in New York City
I didn’t know if I should act on my idea to leave New York behind and move to California so I tried out California for 2 months without giving up my place in New York. I couldn’t just toss the question around in my mind and wait for an answer. I had to try California, I had to live the question, to find my answer. And the answer was New York.

How I started my own company
I didn’t know if I could make a living independent of a company that someone else designed. Like the California question, I kicked the tires on entrepreneurship as long as I could. To find out if it suits me, I needed to give it a go, live it. I’m still trying it; still living it. The answer is becoming clearer, but I’ve got some room to go yet. That’s how I started Chasing Down the Muse.

How I decided to follow my dream of being a writer
I don’t know if I can make a living as a writer. I’ve made part of my living as a writer for a while, but I don’t know if I can fully support myself with my tightly honed abilities to turn a phrase and meet a tight deadline. That question isn’t going to answer itself. There’s no way to know until I try. So I’m rolling the dice, taking a seat at the table, and living that question every day. The cloud cover will eventually break and I’ll have my answer. All I can do now is play it as it lies. Read about my writing by clicking here.

What questions are you living?

education, film, teaching, television

Beautiful: Finally a Reality Show that Celebrates Real Heroes – Teachers

Christa Avampato

_MG_0785bOn Friday night, I caught the airing of Teach, the new documentary by Davis Guggenheim. It gave me chills, in a very good way. As someone who was saved, literally, by my education, I know that it is a gift that can turn a life around, that can take someone in an entirely new direction beyond their wildest dreams.

Bravo to CBS for putting such an incredible piece of filmmaking on prime time TV. Kate O’Hare of Zap2it.com did a wonderful write up of the show:

“The actions of teachers unions – whether protecting bad teachers, protesting against politicians (or marching for them), and promoting education “reforms” that often seem more about social issues than the three Rs — often capture the interest of the media, overshadowing the day-to-day work of teachers trying to do the best job they can.

In 2010, filmmaker Davis Guggenheim directed and co-wrote“Waiting for Superman,” a documentary that took a frank look at the failures of the American educational system as it showed parents trying to get their children in charter schools.

Much of the media attention for the film focused on a segment that showed how teachers unions fiercely protect political alliances and policies and teachers’ job security, often at the expense of needed financial overhauls.

In a two-hour special called “Teach,”airing Friday, Sept. 6, on CBS, Guggenheim puts the focus back on exceptional teachers, following four public-school instructors through the 2012-2013 school year.

The special also kicks off an 18-month campaign by production company Participant Media, in partnership with Teach.org, to urge students and recent graduates to go into teaching.

“I believe teachers are heroes and have the ability to make an incredible impact in the long-term future of our kids,” says Guggenheim in a statement. “The airing of ‘Teach’ on CBS is another milestone in Participant’s long-term commitment to raise the visibility of the teaching profession and support efforts to recruit the next generation of great educators.”

•The teachers profiled are: Matt Johnson, a fourth-grade teacher at McGlone Elementary School in Denver; Shelby Harris, who teaches seventh- and eighth-grade math at Kuna Middle School in Kuna, Idaho; 10th-grade AP world-history teacher Joel Laguna at Garfield High in Los Angeles; and Lindsay Chinn, a ninth-grade algebra teacher at MLK Early College, Denver.

•All the educators featured strive for excellence, using conventional and unconventional methods.
Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Zap2it on Facebook for the latest news and buzz”
creativity, friendship, technology

Beautiful: Gone Exploring…

Christa Avampato

3d98c6f1b73dc380bc780cd74bbbf7ae I’m off to DC this weekend to celebrate the upcoming wedding of one of my dearest friends with a bridal shower and bachelorette party. It will be nice to get away from my screens and spend the vast majority of my time connecting in real-time in real-life. I hope this weekend holds the same for all of you. Get out there and enjoy some fresh air. Fall is almost here.

love, music

Beautiful: Love for Everybody

Christa Avampato

My niece, Aubree, has her own jam. Every day on the way to school, she asks my sister, Weez, to turn on the song “Everybody” by Ingrid Michaelson. Aubree’s only 3 and she already knows the secret to a happy life:

“Everybody, everybody wants to love. Everybody, everybody wants to be loved…Everybody heals with love. Just let the love, love, love begin.” And she also really likes the “oh, oh, oh…oh, oh, oh” part. Happy Friday – here’s to love!

courage, experience, gratitude, story, strengths

Beautiful: I’m Glad I Lost Everything – 4 Years After My Apartment Building Fire

Christa Avampato
Use the fire of your living

“What matters most is how you walk through the fire.” – Charles Bukowski

4 years ago today, my apartment building caught fire and I lost almost everything I owned. I got out of the building just in time. A few moments later and I might not be here writing this post to you today. On that day if someone told me I’d be grateful for that fire, I probably would have punched them in the nose. Now I know better.

I’m more grateful than ever for that experience. Through that healing process, I found out what I’m made of, and I found out what so many other people are made of, too. I emerged from the other side of that grief a far better person than I was before. It was difficult, and many times it was awful and painful. A big part of me wanted to give up on remaking my life. A small part of me refused to give in. I listened to that small voice. I fed it, and eventually it grew loud enough to drown out the doubt. And if knowledge is power then I’m more powerful now than I ever dreamed I could be.

It doesn’t matter what challenges we face. What matters is how bravely we face them. It doesn’t matter how much nor how little we have, but how much we do with anything we have.

action, decision-making, friendship, time

Beautiful: Wait or Act? How to Decide.

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“I like things to happen. And if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen.” – Winston Churchill

The most striking outcome of my time in California is my decreased tolerance for waiting unnecessarily. Some times, we need patience. We need to take a beat, a breath, a moment. A gathering storm needs to pass. We need to deal with a new emergency. But patience can be used like a crutch. We wait because it seems less scary than action. 

So how can we tell if it’s time to wait or time to act? Remove ourselves from the decision. Imagine that a friend is asking for your advice on the exact situation you’re in. This friend is strong, capable, ambitious, and talented. She will succeed or learn trying. Should she act? Should she wait? That’s your answer. 

Almost always I find my answer is to act. Try this experiment. Let me know how it goes. 

adventure, animals, creativity, dogs, travel

Beautiful: Roll The Dice of Life Like a Dog

Christa Avampato

When I get out Phineas’s travel carrier, he never knows where we’re going. Sometimes, we get on a plane. Sometimes, we head for a car or the subway. We’ll go over to Brooklyn and visit two of our favorite friends, Amanda and Jordan. Sometimes, we’re going to the vet.

No matter. Without fail, Phin enthusiastically jumps around at the site of his carrier because he knows we’re going somewhere to do something out of the ordinary. He doesn’t need to know where he’s going; he’s just prepared to enjoy the ride. We, and by we I mean me, should live more like Phin.

Thanks to my friend, Alex, for this beautiful photo – and the reminder to enjoy every adventure.

holiday, vacation

Beautiful: Happy Labor Day, Sans Labor

Christa Avampato

“Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. A day in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.” ~ Maya Angelou, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

I hope today is this kind of day away for all of you. It is for me. Happy Labor Day, sans labor.

From Pinterest