Project Empathy: A Mile in their Shoes

My name is James Richardson and I am currently putting together a video series detailing the lived experiences of African-Americans and other marginalized groups at this point in American history. The larger context of the project will be to directly address the racial empathy gap that helps support structures of institutional discrimination and that overwhelming impacts African-Americans and other marginalized groups in harmful and devastating ways. It is this racial empathy gap that helps to explain inequalities in everything from healthcare outcomes to disparate sentencing in the criminal justice system.

The video interviews will be conducted over Zoom or Skype and will be recorded for release over YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. If you are interested in being interviewed for the Project Empathy video series, please fill out and submit the following contact form.

https://forms.gle/cBLkLVerE9zyFos16

I don’t understand all the Zoom hate.

During this Corona inspired lockdown Saturday is turning into my dedicated Zoom day. In the afternoon I virtually connect with some of my Krav Maga friends for a weekly brunch get together. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now. However today my cousins decided to do something similar for the family. We had a virtual Birthday party for our Cousin Brooke!

Since we are spread out all across different states it was fantastic to connect up even if it is only through Zoom. And while it is not the same as physically meeting up, the technology is truly the next best thing to being there. However next time we will make sure that we connect with the Zoom premium version so that we can talk longer than 40 minutes. And yeah, we can be a little cheap.

Saturday Zoom Brunch

Even people who know me would be surprised to find out that I have a serious love hate relationship with technology. The constant need to stay up to date created by new equipment apps and languages can be overwhelming and tiring. How it is the same constant process of development, and the ways in which these new tools impact our lives, that I also love.

It blows my mind how easy it is for 10 friends in different parts of the city, country, and globe to get together on a Saturday afternoon.

Podcast Studio Setup

A little bit of lighting makes all the difference.

You can get decent picture and video quality from a standard webcam. You just have to spend some time lighting it correctly and playing with the settings. Here I am using the Logitech C930e and running it through OBS. At 1080p it is comparable to my DSLR in my small space. If it wasn’t so difficult right now to find decent webcams, I would pick up one or two more for a multi-camera setup. However because of the Corona infused lockdown webcams are almost as valuable as toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Cameras that cost 50 bucks a few months back can now running as high as 300 dollars.

Continue reading “Podcast Studio Setup”

Corona has me more Bane than Batman!

Oh, so you think darkness is your ally? But you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it.

It is amazing what you find when you start cleaning out your closets. This is a high altitude training mask I bought a few years back. I used it a number of times when training overseas. I changed the filters out so that it no longer simulates breathing at Colorado type altitudes. Now it works great as a general protection unit.

Salmon on the Barbie!

I felt a bit lazy today so I didn’t make food from scratch. I threw a couple frozen Salmon Burgers on the barbie. Added whole wheat toasted thin buns, spinach, and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. And yes, the mustard was Grey Poupon! I am not an animal!

Salmon burgers

To Infinity and Beyond!

I don’t always eat healthy, so I have been slowly working on transitioning away from animal products. I still eat chicken and fish, but now even far less than in the past. However I still get carnivorous cravings from time to time. Luckily on my last Costco run I picked up a bunch of Beyond Burgers for my once a week carnivore “indulgence”. In fact this was my lunch from today. And yeah, I know that these aren’t much healthier. But today I really wanted a burger.

Edamame Delight

This was dinner tonight. It took less than 10 minutes to make, and that includes boiling the water. It is Edamame spaghetti, spinach, and tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil, Rao’s marinara sauce and parmesan cheese. I also added pepper and a bit of garlic powder to the mix. It was delicious and filling but yet low in calories, low in carbs, low in sugar, low in sodium, and high in protein.