I cannot stop watching this video, I don't know what's wrong with me. Maybe it's because, after so much concerted Brain Effort, I need something viscerally funny to shock my body back to humanness. (that's a word, I looked it up)
Speaking of looking up words, I mailed my thesis to London yesterday
YAY
then at 7am this morning, realised that I hadn't signed the 'anti-plagiarism declaration form' on page 2
WHAT!!??AREYOU*KIDDING*ME??!!
and spent a few hours scrambling to see if/how I could fix it.
Luckily, an angel named Rebecca (my research 'tutor') has agreed to print off a scanned page of my signature, sort through the thousands of theses stacked on the admin. desk to find mine, and gently sneak in the page --saving me from failing the assignment and wiping out the past 14 months of work.
The good news is that I randomly checked Rufus' website today after listening to 'Do I Disappoint you' and 'Beautiful Child' on rotating repeat for ~2 hours, and found that he'll be playing at the pretty little Milan Conservatorio on 24 November. Another few YAY+WHAT!!??AREYOU*KIDDING*ME??!! moments ensued, then I followed the helpful helpful fans' advice on the comments page and tracked down a couple of tickets: Row Z in the 'poltrona' section. Trust me: I was more than willing to shell out an extra $20 for the 'poltronissima' section, but the only seats left on offer were right up against the wall in Row M...whereas Row Z's are in the middle. I don't think it'll matter too much, because the Conservatorio's accoustics are allegedly the best in the country, and I was going to bring the binocs anyway. Aaaaaah, Rufus.
Wow, I haven't posted for months, had all this fun stuff to write about, but now my small mind is drawing a big white blank. Maybe I still haven't recovered from the multiple All Nighters that punctuated my week? Hmm, in tribute to said All Nighters (and to fill space until I can think of something more interesting, because, frankly, the little I've got here is embarrassing), will paste my summary below --email me if these 250 words leave you wanting more! ;-)
AbstractIn the past decade, economic, social and environmental reporting have coalesced into what has been named ‘sustainability reporting’. Spurred on by government legislation rewarding transparency and accountability, investment groups, the United Nations and market forces are indicating a preference for the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) most recent sustainable performance measurement instrument: the G3 Reporting Guidelines.
Mirroring this revolution in reporting practices, social entrepreneurs are leading a business paradigm shift; re-investing profits into mission-based, socially- and environmentally-oriented activities, they are winning Nobel Peace Prizes and being featured in such formerly exclusively profit-motivated corporate bastions as Fortune Magazine.
Though the pillars of sustainability reporting and social entrepreneurship appear compatible, it is estimated that only three social enterprises have used GRI Guidelines, and a significant portion have chosen to forego reporting altogether. Investigation reveals that significant knowledge gaps and contradictions in practice have alienated small and medium-sized social enterprises (SMSEs) from the sustainable development dialectic, while literature, recognition mechanisms and reporting methodologies cater unabashedly to wealthy big business.
This project outlines flaws in the G3 Guidelines and GRI as an institution, and presents select alternative sustainability reporting frameworks, but concludes with a recommendation that SMSEs look past the contradictions and make the G3 work for them. Arguably the world’s most comparable and credible sustainable reporting methodology, the GRI is working to adapt its Guidelines to the special needs and circumstances of the third sector; although those changes have yet to be implemented, SMSEs have much to gain simply from producing a sustainability report.
