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https://blackgirlnerds.com/5-ways-to-travel-more-in-2024/

According to the International Air Transport Association, IATA, 4.7 billion is the number of people expected to travel in 2024. Traveling has made a comeback over the last few years and is a top priority for many. 

If you want to join the billions of people traveling this year, starting with a plan is essential. Without a clear intention, it can be easy to fall into excuses such as thinking traveling is too expensive, thinking you don’t have time to travel, or being unsure of where to go. 

However, if you’re determined to start traveling this year or want to continue your travel adventures from last year, here’s how to travel more. 

1. Create an Intention or Goal to Travel

The first step is to get out of the mindset of simply wanting to travel. In reality, we all want things, but if we don’t act toward achieving what we want, our desires are just ideas. 

Consider why you want to travel. Do you feel you’re missing out on something by not traveling? Do you need to break out of your routine? You may want to have new experiences or learn from different cultures. Whatever your reason is, be very clear on why you want to travel. 

Next, consider creating a goal or intention for your travels. A goal is something that has a specific result. For instance, some travel goals might be:

• Visiting ten new states this year.
• Going to five new museums.
• Visiting all the national parks.

Having a specific goal you want to achieve makes traveling more tangible for your brain. The more realistic your goal is, the easier it can be to take action. Likewise, an intention is more about having a specific motivation or purpose. Examples of travel intentions could be: 

• Experiencing solo travel.
• Visiting a culture that is entirely different from your own.
• Practice speaking a foreign language in a different country.
• Completely relax and disconnect from your daily responsibilities.

Once you know what you want to gain from traveling, choose a destination to help you complete your goals. When you know where you want to go, you can start preparing your finances.

2. Make a Travel Budget

There is a common misconception that traveling costs a lot of money. The truth is it can, depending on where, when, and how you travel. Affordable travel is possible, depending on your planning and preparation. 

Look for Affordable Flights or Other Means of Transportation

When looking at flights, consider using tools such as Google Flights that can tell you the different flight prices for the month. You can also set up price alerts on websites such as Kayak.com to monitor the price of your flight and to receive notifications of lower prices. 

Alternatively, if flights are out of your price range, consider going to a closer destination: one you travel to by bus, train, or car. 

Use Traditional and Non-traditional Accommodation Methods

To save money, consider your various accommodation options. Booking a hotel is an obvious choice but can be the most expensive. If you are more flexible with where you to stay, consider budget-friendly options such as Airbnb and hostels.

The hostel scene has dramatically improved over the years. Many hostels cater to solo travelers by having private rooms, bathrooms, and workspaces. They also help foster a sense of community by hosting parties, meet-ups, and other events for guests.

If you want to offset the cost of accommodations completely, try house sitting. This opportunity will require some planning and patience. Essentially, you offer to pet-sit or house-sit at someone’s home while the homeowners are on vacation. Minimal costs are involved, such as signing up for a house-sitting membership and transportation. Yet once you book a house-sit, you agree to take care of someone’s home for free. 

Ask to Stay with a Friend

Lastly, one of the most budget-friendly travel methods is visiting friends and asking to stay in their spare bedroom or couch. It’s not the most glamorous option, but this is an option if you want to travel. 

As you look at flight and accommodation costs, you’ll gain an idea of how much your trip will cost. Consider additional costs such as food, transportation, activities, currency conversions, and other things you plan on spending money on.

Once you know what you want to spend your money on, you can decide how much you want to spend in different areas. When you know how much your trip will cost, you can begin to save up. 

3. Spend Time or Talk with Other Travelers

Similar to surrounding yourself with people you want to be like, the same goes for travelers. When you talk to other people who have been where you want to go, it helps to: 

• Alleviate any fears you have.
• Answer questions.
• Help you gain a better perspective on where you are going.
• Assist you in preparing for your trip.

A simple way to get started is to set up a call with friends you know who have traveled a lot recently or will be traveling soon. You can also join Facebook groups of travelers and ask people in the group questions. Lastly, if you don’t want to reach out to anyone, you can follow YouTubers and travel influencers who share authentic experiences about their travels. 

4. Travel Locally

One of the simplest ways to travel more this year is to be a tourist in your own backyard. Some of the most beautiful places in the world may be closer to you than you think. Start by visiting your state’s museums, parks, and historic places.

Ways to travel locally include:

• Taking a train or bus to an unfamiliar city or town.
• Join a hiking club or an outdoors club.
• Sign up for volunteer work.
• Take a city tour.
• Visit a national park.
• Visit a new beach.
• Go camping.

5. Travel Off-Season

Traveling off-season or during the shoulder season will help you find some of the best travel deals and avoid large crowds.

Most people travel during what is known as the peak season, which takes place between June and August. The shoulder season, another good time to travel, is around April to mid-June. The off-season is between November and March when the least amount of people are traveling.

When traveling during off or shoulder seasons, check the weather for the destination you plan to visit. In some countries, the off-season may mean lots of rain or thunderstorms. However, many destinations have a lot to offer during these non-popular seasons. 

Traveling can impact the rest of your life. Exploring a new country and learning about a different culture makes life adventurous, fun, and worthwhile. So leave your excuses in 2023 and make 2024 your year of travel. 

https://www.thenerdelement.com/2024/01/27/union-the-sundance-documentary-about-taking-on-amazon/

We all know that Amazon is a trillion-dollar company, with the money and resources to protect its interests at all costs. So how do you portray the daunting task of trying to fight a trillion-dollar company as the little guy? You start with footage of middle class workers waiting in line for public transportation early in the morning. The workers are making the trip to Amazon Warehouse. Now compare it to footage of Jeff Bezos heading into space via a rocket. This could not highlight the difference in realities for these two any better. You now have everyone’s attention. This is exactly how the documentary Union from the Sundance film festival starts out to capture the viewer. Filmmakers Stephen Maing and Brett Story follow The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) lead by a former Amazon worker Chris Smalls as they fight an uphill battle to officially unionize.  

Union, catalogs the ups and downs of the ALU at the Amazon JFK8 Fulfillment center in Staten Island from Spring 2021 to April 1, 2022. Chris Smalls is the leader of the ALU movement. A former Amazon employee, Smalls was fired for protesting the lack of PPE available to employees during covid. They were packing PPE up and sending it all over the world in fulfillment but could not obtain it for a safe working environment. He then decided to start the ALU.

The documentary follows the efforts of Chris and several other ALU members to obtain enough signatures to meet the 30% threshold required to file and then initiate a vote. Amazon has a lot of turnover (150% stated in the documentary), so getting 30% of a current workforce was no easy task. We do hear a common employee complaints of being overworked and underpaid as a reason to push for the union. There is also mention of an algorithm that decided who was working the hardest, but we never receive specific details of instances.

Via phone camera footage inside the warehouse we do see some of Amazon’s tactics to combat ALU efforts.  HR representatives at orientations focus on the costs each individual person will pay for the union, while implying there would be little benefit. There is mention of union busters getting paid upwards of $2000 a day to persuade people from signing as well as write ups in retaliation.

Union does an excellent job showcasing the struggles endured during the fight to unionize including arrests, arguments and disciplinary action. The ALU is not made out to be the number one authority on everything union. In fact, there are times where it is obvious that they do not completely know what they are doing. Despite their struggles the ALU does not back down.  The ALU is creative in its efforts to obtain signatures. From inviting people in with free food to free weed, they use any tools at their disposal to complete their goal.

A great documentary, Union takes you through the David vs Goliath fight the ALU has against Amazon and you can’t help but cheer these workers on.

Credits

• DIRECTOR(S)STEPHEN MAINGBRETT STORY
• PRODUCERSSAMANTHA CURLEYMARS VERRONE
• EXECUTIVE PRODUCERSIMPACT PARTNERSTHE VILLA FAMILYANONYMOUS CONTENT
• CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERSBARBARA DOBKINERIC DOBKINPAULA FROEHLESTEVE COHENNATASHA DOLBYDAVID DOLBYMERYL METNIPIERRE HAUSERCHELSEA HALLIGANRYAN PARKERALEXANDER CARPENTERANDREW NEEL
• CINEMATOGRAPHERMARTIN DICICCO
• EDITORSBLAIR MCCLENDONMALIKA ZOUHALI-WORRALL
• COMPOSERROBERT AIKI AUBREY LOWE

• YEAR2023
• CATEGORYFEATURE
• COUNTRYUNITED STATES
• LANGUAGEENGLISH
• RUN TIME102 MIN
• COMPANYLEVEL GROUND PRODUCTIONS

The post Union: The Sundance Documentary About Taking on Amazon appeared first on The Nerd Element.

https://www.thenerdelement.com/2024/01/27/nfl-divisional-round-prediction-updates-and-championship-game-picks/

Good afternoon, folks! Today I want to discuss which picks I got correct and which ones I got wrong! So, let’s get started, shall we?! I predicted that the Ravens would beat the Texans 31-21, but the final score was 34-10 Ravens over the Texans in a blowout. I predicted that the 49ers would beat the Packers 34-27, but the final score was 24-21 49ers over the Packers in a close game. The Packers were really physical despite their loss. The Packers had some opportunities to win the game, but the Packers kicker missed a big field goal. The 49ers did not do that well, but they played good enough to win. I predicted that the Lions would beat the Bucs 27-19, but the final score was 31-23 Lions over the Bucs.

I predicted that the Bills would beat the Chiefs 29-26, but the final score was 27-24 Chiefs over the Bills. The Bills kicker missed a big field goal which it could have tied the game and Josh Allen missed a receiver that was wide open in the red zone.

Overall, I have gotten 3 out of 4 picks correct!!!!! Now, let’s get to the NFL Championship game picks, shall we?! The first game I will predict is the Chiefs @Ravens game. The two really good quarterbacks that are coming off with their wins last week. I think that in a really close game, the Ravens will come out on top of the Chiefs 31-29 and go to the Super Bowl. The second game I will predict is the Lions @49ers game. Both of these teams are playing really good football especially the Lions. The 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel will play tomorrow. I think this game will be very close again. I do have the 49ers come out on top, but barely beating Detroit 24-23.

So, what do you guys think about the NFL Championship game picks?! I would love to hear your thoughts and comments down below!

Stay tuned for NFL updates.

The post NFL Divisional Round Prediction Updates and Championship Game Picks! appeared first on The Nerd Element.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/5-lesser-known-facts-about-zora-neale-hurston-that-more-people-should-know/

While Zora Neale Hurston might not be the most well-known figure in the American literary canon, her life was nothing short of tumultuous and, indeed, quite brilliant. Most notable among the aspects we’ll discuss today are her love/hate relationship with Langston Hughes and her work with American novelist Fannie Hurst. However, there are other, less well-known things about this often-overlooked and passed-up American author, who even still to this day hasn’t received her proper flowers.

Hurston was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker who often documented racial struggles in the early 1900s, thus becoming a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. For those who aren’t in the know, the Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, and scholarship centered in Harlem, New York City. Dubbed the “New Negro Movement,” after The New Negro anthology edited by Alain Locke, the Harlem Renaissance spanned the 1920s and 1930s and is a notable part of the Roaring Twenties.

Hurston was born in 1891 in Notasulga, Alabama, but moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, in 1894. As an adult, she often used Eatonville — one of the first all-Black towns incorporated in the US — as a setting in her stories, as it was a place where African Americans could live independently of white society. By the mid-1930s, she had published several short stories, followed by her first three novels, including her best-known work, Their Eyes Were Watching God — which is regarded as her masterwork.

However, these are all well-known facts about Zora Neale Hurston. That’s why we’re about to dive deep into some lesser-known details.

She Was a Multidisciplinary Scholar

Aside from her literary achievements, Hurston was also an accomplished anthropologist. She traveled the American South and the Caribbean, immersing herself in the local customs and cultural practices for her anthropological research. Based on her work, Zora wrote Mules and Men. She also researched lumber camps and commented heavily on white men in positions of power taking Black women as sex partners.

She later traveled to Florida and Georgia to research African American song traditions and their association with slave and African music and later to Haiti and Jamaica, where she drew her research for Tell My Horse. Nora also collected folktales, songs, and anecdotes, particularly those associated with African American and Caribbean cultures, thus significantly contributing to preserving African American heritage.

Her Early Life and Education

Hurston’s mother died in 1904, and her father remarried in 1905, after which Hurston’s father and her stepmother sent her to a Baptist boarding school in Jacksonville, but she was subsequently dismissed after her parents stopped paying her tuition. She resumed her formal education in 1917, attending Morgan College, which was a high school division of Morgan State University. However, she claimed that her birth year was 1901 so that she could qualify for a free high school education, resulting in her graduation in 1918.

She began her studies that very same year at Howard University, a historically Black college. She left Howard in 1924 and was offered a scholarship by a Barnard trustee to Barnard College at Columbia University, where she was the sole Black student. Nonetheless, she received her BA in anthropology in 1928 at the age of 37.

Her Work with Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston became friends while Hurston lived in Harlem in the 1920s. Both of them collaborated with Charlotte Osgood Mason, a white literary patron, and they both moved to Westfield, New Jersey, in the 1930s, where they were actual neighbors. Hughes was another prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance, whom Hurston collaborated with on a play titled Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life.

The play was a comedy about African American life, and it wasn’t staged at the time, due in large part to a falling out between Hurston and Hughes. This dissolution of friendship was fueled by a copyright issue. It was subsequently staged in 1991, more than 60 years after it was written. Unfortunately, it received negative criticism, with critics saying that the play might’ve been better had Hughes and Hurston finished their collaboration.

She Preserved Folklore

We already mentioned that Hurston was very interested in the oral histories, songs, and tales of African American and Caribbean cultures, but she wasn’t just a mere observer in the field. As mentioned above, she immersed herself in all the communities she studied, often participating in the daily lives and cultural practices of these communities. This immersion granted Hurston a deeper understanding of the oral traditions and practices she was documenting.

The previously mentioned Mules and Men is, quite possibly, Hurston’s most prominent work in folklore, with most of the tales gathered during her research in Florida. The book is sectioned into two: the first section includes folk tales and stories, while the latter deals with the practice of Hoodoo, a spiritual and healing practice in the African American culture.

Posthumous Recognition

During a period of great financial difficulties and failing health, Hurston was forced to enter St. Lucie County Welfare Home, where she had a stroke. Hurston died on January 28, 1960, due to hypertensive heart disease. Following her death, a yardman who had been instructed to clean the house was burning Hurston’s personal belongings when a law officer, Patrick DuVal, stopped the fire and saved the invaluable collection of literary documents containing some of Hurston’s work. Many of these documents subsequently found their way to numerous universities and museums.

Hurston’s work gained significant recognition when the interest in African American and women’s literature was re-sparked in the 1970s. This was mostly thanks to the work of author Alice Walker, who not only sought to bring Hurston’s contributions to literature and anthropology back into public awareness but also sought to identify Hurston’s unmarked grave. Upon finding an unmarked grave, Alice decided to mark it as Hurston’s, inscribing a marker that reads “A Genius of the South.”