Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I am not cool enough

Can someone please go to this website (MADATOMS) and tell me  what exactly it is. I know that it must be cool. It has to be... it looks like hipsters like it. I am just not cool enough to understand

Oh wait... no... I figured it out. It actually is an ok site. Once you ge passed all the hipster glam. 

Monday, April 27, 2009

Volunteering

I believe that this passed week was National Volunteer Week. So I thought that I would help out and do a little community work. This Saturday I volunteered with a group called One Brick. One Brick is an "a volunteer organization that brings people together to help non-profits and community organizations staff their events or work on projects." That comes straight from the FAQ page of their site. I worked at Park Presidio cleaning up the park. Most people who have driven to the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco know the park as that really long divider that that has all those trees. Well I was surprised to learn that it is actually a park that has a path. Yes you can run right down the middle of most of it.

Unfortunately there are large parts of the park that are used by the local homelss for shelter. It was clear that there were people who lived in some parts of the park. There was even a tinny person sized shed (about 2 feet high and 6 feet long) in one area. I hate to be cheesey, but while we tried to take care of the park by cutting down dead leaves and striping ivy to give light to all of the plants it also exposed a serious neighborhood issue. I don't want to use the word "problem" because that just sounds too negative. One of the park managers said that he wouldn't mind the homeless if they could just keep things clean. Some of the local neighbors said that the exposure should move the homeless community out into the open and drive them away. My question is where do they go? I am not advocating that we set up a shanty town right there between 14th and Funston. But it is an real straight up honest question.

I think that this one day of volunteering really makes me want to do it more often. I want to feel like I am actually helping out. One Brick is a non-commital organization, so I can volunteer and often as my schedule allows. My goal is to start off once a month and then work my way up.

On a completely different note. My sweater is solwly comming along. Unlike some people I know, I am not a crazy fast knitter. But then again, I give myself a whole summer to finish a big project and we're still in spring so I am way ahead.

Friday, April 10, 2009

SFPL Main library hates me

So here I am at the Main Library in San Francisco. For some reason I thought that it would be pretty empty. Seeing as how its the middle of a weekday and all. But I forgot to take into account that there are kids on spring break and that there are many people who need to use the public resources that the library offers. I was surprised by the large number of people here. It's basically busteling with activity. So I tried to find the most quiet spot in the library. That meant that I had to go nearly to the top of the building. The only problem is that you can't get a clear WiFi signal up there. Arrrrg. I tried for a good half an hour (yea, I know. I wasted way too much time) trying to get online.

Finally I just decieded to go down one flight to a more noisy and crowded floor. Turned on my computer and huzzah! There it is. I have strong enough connection to watch The Office and upload pictures onto my blog. Unfortunatly I cannot do either. I have to leave soon to go to an appointment. OH! and my outlet doesn't work. The best part about this discovery was that there's a guy sitting next to me who decieded to tell me (as I am discovering that it is a difunked outlet) that he thinks it doesn't work. No sh-- .

Anyhoo. I am off. My next post will be much less on the grumpy side.