(no subject)
A Christian goes to Chicago Pride and blogs about the experience. Moving and worth a read. Hat tip to 
moominmolly for the link.
moominmolly for the link.Tags: social responsibility
stories of civic involvement
1. while coming home today, i ran down to the Ruggles Orange Line platform to try to catch a train. i skipped all the way down to the last car (my preferred because of where it drops me at Downtown Crossing) to try to board there, passing up at least one or two open doors on the way. the doorway i was trying to use was half-broken, meaning that (in that way that happens on T trains) one of the two doors had failed to open and so it was slow going for the dozen or so teenagers on the platform who were trying to get into the car. for some reason that i can't fathom, the conductor actually closed the doors in the face of the last teen, who was trying to get on the same car as her friends. (coincidentally he also closed the same door on me who was running for the train, but she had been standing on the platform when the train pulled in.) it pissed me off enough that i called in a complaint to the MBTA.
2. as i was walking from the Davis T stop to the polling station, i was passed by the Somerville DPW tree-wrangling truck, towing a wood chipper. does it strike anyone else as ironic that the side of the truck reads "Somerville, MA / Department of Public Works / Tree City, USA" ?
3. i voted.
4. once i got home i discovered that the drains on my street were clogged. this happens every time it storms because the plows make their gigantic snow banks DIRECTLY on top of the two most essential drains in the neighborhood. however, by the time i got back out to the street to do anything about it, a neighbor from up the street had come down with his spade and cleared a path all the way down the block and into one of the drains. greeting him warmly, i dug out the other one and we went our separate ways.
2. as i was walking from the Davis T stop to the polling station, i was passed by the Somerville DPW tree-wrangling truck, towing a wood chipper. does it strike anyone else as ironic that the side of the truck reads "Somerville, MA / Department of Public Works / Tree City, USA" ?
3. i voted.
4. once i got home i discovered that the drains on my street were clogged. this happens every time it storms because the plows make their gigantic snow banks DIRECTLY on top of the two most essential drains in the neighborhood. however, by the time i got back out to the street to do anything about it, a neighbor from up the street had come down with his spade and cleared a path all the way down the block and into one of the drains. greeting him warmly, i dug out the other one and we went our separate ways.
volunteering, jobs, and stuff
so, one of the things i've been thinking about doing, now that i have lots of free time, is to try to find some more, shall we say, socially concious ways to occupy my time. pancua's got me started on this, as it looks like i might be able to pull down a job at the Y teaching kids to play hockey and/or ultimate. tonight, i caught a storytelling show at Club Passim, which is just a kick-ass venue that i've been to a couple of times now. the manager mentioned that they're always looking for volunteers to help out working the venue and stuff, which seems like it'd be good (a) to help out Passim, and (b) to expose me to more live music. the 'pay' is basically a couple of discount coupons to shows, and after a while they give you a volunteer membership, which means discounts to every show.
so i'm looking around to see if there's anything else i could do that piques my interest. bonus points if it draws a salary, even if it's peanuts. feel free to forward ideas or opportunities, either here or to my email. if i could pull down a couple of PT jobs doing stuff like this, and have it add up to enough to pay bills... that would really, really rule.
pancua's got me started on this, as it looks like i might be able to pull down a job at the Y teaching kids to play hockey and/or ultimate. tonight, i caught a storytelling show at Club Passim, which is just a kick-ass venue that i've been to a couple of times now. the manager mentioned that they're always looking for volunteers to help out working the venue and stuff, which seems like it'd be good (a) to help out Passim, and (b) to expose me to more live music. the 'pay' is basically a couple of discount coupons to shows, and after a while they give you a volunteer membership, which means discounts to every show.so i'm looking around to see if there's anything else i could do that piques my interest. bonus points if it draws a salary, even if it's peanuts. feel free to forward ideas or opportunities, either here or to my email. if i could pull down a couple of PT jobs doing stuff like this, and have it add up to enough to pay bills... that would really, really rule.