The Rox Blog

what I'm doing now

2010-08-25T14:02:00.002Z

Looking for jobs! And by looking for jobs I mean joining Twitter.

Go check it out!

I already dislike it since it tells me repeatedly that it's over capacity.

some coffee yellin'

2009-11-19T15:01:00.005Z

Sometimes when I drink too much coffee, I just want to yell stuff at people. Here are some of the things I want to yell today.

I miss Wisconsin!
I love R Kelly why did I ever stop listening to him!
I want to ride my bike!
I should eat some breakfast!
Come to Humph night!
We need a dance party!
pterror!
Broken glass and razor wire!
There's a hole in my right sock!
21st Century Power Pop Riot!
Booooooooooooze!

moving wendy

2009-08-19T14:07:00.003Z

Wendy moved most of her stuff to her new place (in my hood) on Monday. Me, Laura, Lisa, Mahi and Tavo helped.
Wendy had borrowed her friend Chris's van, and told him that she would give him beer and gas but not together. He said, "you don't know what I'm into" and that's when the genius struck and Wendy decided that we needed to fill the van with beer farts.

After the moving, we sat down with some sharpies and posterboard to make some beer farts. Then we cut them out and taped them all over the van. We even hid some.

There was a chipotle burrito farting on the dashboard, a giant White Castle with farts bursting from the top in the front, a Hot Cheeto flamer coming from the back seat, a rocket, an onomatopoeia pfffft and many more.
Then of course we had to pose with them.

Here are some pics.

cabin weekend

2009-08-17T14:26:00.004Z

I spent this past weekend with Josh, Erin, Rachel and Kevin at Josh's family lake cabin near Detroit Lakes. It was rainy but relaxing.

Highlights:

-Food
-Country music
-Frogs
-Fleet Farm gas station candy
-Breaking Dawn- ugh. I had to finish the Twilight series but it was painfully predictable and I didn't get my wish for them to all be eaten by a kraken in the end. I made this face the whole time I read it.

-Screech owls! There were at least three, maybe four of them. I suspect they were sick of hearing about Lady Gaga's disco stick so they came and sat in the trees by the cabin, screeching.

Pics from Kevin's Flickr

bike trip to ashland!

2009-07-23T19:13:00.020Z

Stillwater MN to Ashland WI, 234 miles in 5 days

Day 1: Stillwater to St. Croix Falls, 32 miles

We hitched a car ride with Josh to Stillwater and bribed him with lunch. We saved about 30 miles, I think. I still think it’s cheating but at least we had biked to Stillwater before.

We loaded up the bikes and started up 95 on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River, which was beautiful, hilly, and had a nice wide shoulder.

We went through William O’Brien State Park, where I told Kevin a story about my family camping there in tons of rain. We had put all of our stuff in the middle of the tent to keep it dry and called it the Great Wall of O’Brien, and then we ate sausages wrapped in soggy bread. The memories! Every time I bike to somewhere that used to seem like a really long drive away I think it’s really cool that I can power myself there. I’d like to go camp there sometime, just because I can! Also it’s beautiful.

We stopped at a dinosaur because it was just the coolest sculpture.

We also stopped at a garage sale, joking with the guy selling stuff (he and his wife bike also) about what we could fit on our already loaded bikes. He said our biggest two hills were coming up and recommended backroads around one of them, which worked out well. Then we stopped at a little wayside park because we suspected they had ice cream for some reason.

We cut over to Osceola, WI on 243 and as we were coming down into the river valley, Kevin’s nice rack worked its way loose from his bike and just kind of flopped backward. We stopped, and luckily I was able to find both tiny metal pieces that had flown off onto the road and he put it back together. Whew! Crisis averted.

I hadn’t been to Osceola in ages but mom used to take us there to play in the waterfall. Kevin won’t even go in lakes, so we just cruised past the city and headed up State Highway 35, which was also pretty nice- hilly, lots of farms and traffic wasn’t terrible. The shoulder was pretty good. I was pretty excited to be able to bike to Osceola too- it’s maybe a good thing I was an impatient kid because it seemed so far away when I was little and I just rode my bike all the way there!

We arrived at the Dalles House Motel, which we chose because Wendy had told us the bar/restaurant had all-you-can-eat popovers. I was excited that they had a pool and sauna, Kevin was excited about the S&J patty melt recommended by the waitress at the bar- which, by the way, is recessed into a lower level than where people sit, so it looks like all of the bartenders are midgets. I thought it maybe used to be a swim up bar?

We didn’t see any popovers but we did go in the sauna and then I went in the pool because apparently Kevin doesn’t like pools either. We also made reservations for campsites, because I was flipping out that we were planning to camp Friday and Saturday night near big towns in Northern Wisconsin and didn’t want to get there and not have a place to stay.

Day 2: St. Croix Falls to Shell Lake, 61 miles

I got up early and had two wheat English muffins with cream cheese and coffee and talked with the guy at the front desk about how it was 54 degrees and windy. He said it wouldn’t warm up much and the sun wasn’t going to come out, hooray. I asked him about the bike trail that started right near the visitor’s center across the parking lot, and he gave me a map of the Gandy Dancer- a bike trail that is mostly crushed limestone that runs from St. Croix Falls up to Superior.

When Kevin got up, he had a sourdough English muffin and we decided to buy the bike pass and take the Gandy Dancer trail to Milltown instead of trying horrible horrible highway 8 and then 35 again. He told me I wasn’t allowed to sing “Hold me closer, Gandy Dancer” and so I said I would instead sing, “I’m your Gandy Dancer, dancer for money…” and “I want Gandy, dun-dun-dun-dundun”.

The Gandy Dancer was hilly but beautiful and full of signs for tractor crossings. At one point there was a sign for a farm crossing. How a farm could get across that road I’m not sure. The cows seemed interested in us (which turned out to be a trend), and we saw some horses and a lot of corn. It tried to rain but had warmed up to maybe 56.

When we got to Milltown, Kevin stopped at a hardware store to buy a

hat because somehow his didn’t make it into the bags. The only one they had was a Green Bay Packers hat, which the guy gave him

a discount on because it was off-season. I told him it would help him fit in. (He took this picture of himself and the picture of me at the trailhead)

From Milltown we took 46 south to catch up with County Road G towards Cumberland, recommended by Lara. That was a pretty nice ride through lots of corn fields, and there were some pretty big hills. I lied about how many miles it was to Cumberland, and Kevin’s ankles were getting sore from his bike shoes. When we finally hit 63 and rode into Cumberland, I got coffee and Kevin got a Sasquatch burger at a bar that had a sign welcoming bikers- apparently there was a big motorcycle thing going on the next day and we wanted to fit in.

Kevin's picture of his sasquatch burger

We went to a bakery to get bread to go with the broccoli cheese soup for dinner, and got directions to the park and an awesome meat store. So we napped in the park, which had a great swimming beach and a dock you could swim out to and jump off of but it was still about 56 degrees and strong (over 15mph) winds out of the northwest, and we both put on all of our layers and tried to stay in the sun for about an hour.

On our way out of Cumberland, we stopped at Louie’s meat market where they were having some kind of brat fest and the lady cooking the brats had lived in Ashland and also had done some bike adventuring. She said it was great to see young people out on bikes and not in front of the TV or text messaging. Kevin picked up hunter’s sausage and some beef jerky and we were on our way out on 63 to County Road B.

Kevin took this picture of me at Louie's

We had decided that 63 was not fun at all, so tried to stick to county roads. Well this time, we had to take some random little backroads to get between county roads and it turned out that not all of them were paved- they were horrible huge gravel that gave us little traction. The only hill I had to walk up was back on 10 ½ street and it was because I just couldn’t get anywhere with my road tires. At this point it’s still trying to rain and I am cranky- I hate these roads and think they are the worst thing ever. Eventually we get to a paved one and then have to get back on 63 to get into Shell Lake, but it’s Friday evening and everyone and their boat is headed north on 63. It’s now actually raining and we have our lights on and are both hoping that we don’t get killed. I for one was happy to be on pavement but Kevin absolutely loathes 63.

We get to the Shell Lake Municipal Campground, and check in with the lady there. At first she can’t find our info and says there might not be any spots open but it turned out that our reservations were there and that there was actually one other free site. We’re right next to the bathrooms in what I assume is only a tent site because there really isn’t a good space for a gargantuan RV, which is what the rest of the campground is. Fortunately, we were invited to attend the free Christian Rock concert being performed by a guy who used to be a meteorologist going on at the community center (which we could hear from our campsite). I asked the campground guy if the dude would sing about the weather and he said probably not, so we didn’t go.

We both borrowed tents- Kevin had Rachel’s and I had Greg’s- and we set them up strategically so people would stop walking through our campsite to get to the bathrooms. We didn’t have that problem with the people next to us because apparently they liked to pee outside. We made our broccoli cheese soup and bread and went to sleep pretty early because it had been a really long day.

Day 3: Shell Lake to Hayward, 40 miles

I woke up early and foraged for coffee and sour gummy octopus at the BP across the street. Shell Lake had a great looking beach but it was still only 54 degrees. At least it wasn’t raining. Kevin didn’t sleep well and had dreams of going up and down hills all night. Both of us had problems with numbness in arms and hands overnight, and my shoulder (the one that hurt when my arm went numb last summer) was sore so I decided to change hand positions more for day 3.

We decided to go to Spooner, because the lady at the visitor’s center in St. Croix Falls had told us that Spooner had a great information center. So after breakfast we headed out on 63 to county road B to 253 into Spooner, which was a nice, quick little ride. We stopped at the Department of Transportation to find out where the info center was, and the lady there wasn’t much help. We called their 511 helpline, and the guy told me that all the state info centers had been shut down due to lack of funding. So we rode into town and saw a local info center and stopped in there, where the lady was extremely helpful. Her husband was a biker and biked across some country in Europe and a bunch of states- Missouri was really good, apparently. She liked our plan to take 77 to GG up through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. We wanted to check because the state highways still had fast cars and pretty narrow shoulders, though they were better than 63. She said would love GG through the forest and that we wouldn’t regret it.

I had taken to hand drawing maps from the Gazetteer, customized to fit in the handlebar bag. We were taking county roads and backroads and I hate getting lost on bikes because it's a lot of work to get back if you are off track.

Kevin's picture of one of my maps

Out of Spooner, we headed east on state highway 70 which I thought was fine but wasn’t Kevin’s favorite. So we decided to head north on county road M to county road E, which was hilly but pretty. Then there was a detour that we successfully navigated and we hopped on 27 up to Hayward.

Hayward is the home of the American Birkebeiner ski race, which I want to do next year. Or at least the Kortelopet. We went to the info place there to see if there was a pizza place nearby and refill water bottles. They told us about a coffee shop with wifi and a good place to eat. We got coffee, the wifi didn’t work and then we went and bought clothes at the thrift shoppe. Then we went to the moccasin bar to see the largest muskie ever caught- this thing was like 67 pounds!! Way to go, Cal Johnson.

weight: 67.5lbs, length: 60.5'', girth: 33.5''

There were other huge muskies on the wall and then some creepy dioramas featuring dead forest critters boxing and other stuff. I found a tick on me and threw it in the toilet.

Then we went to the Angler Bar to eat and had margaritas, I had pizza and Kevin had a nasty burger (that’s what it was called). After all that, we biked down 63 for 4 miles to get to our RV campground and it was starting to get dark. We got there and the people were really nice and all about us burning this pile of sticks they were looking to get rid of. We chatted with them for about half an hour, 45 minutes about snowmobiling, the god damn government and not being able to camp anywhere for free, and I don’t even know what else, and they brought over free firewood and a fire ring to throw in the grass.

Kevin's picture of the campsite

We had a fire and a pop from the pop machine and then the fire got a little out of hand but we got it with the water bottles and we heard coyotes (that’s what they sounded like anyways). We still weren’t sure which way we were heading north the next day and I was anxious about it, so we thought we’d stop back at the info desk and ask Hayward people about 77 to get a second opinion. I wanted to leave early but Kevin hadn’t been sleeping well and didn’t know when he’d wake up. There was no gas station to get coffee while he was asleep so I hoped I wouldn’t be up for hours with nothing to do.

Day 4: Hayward to Mellen, 67 miles

I woke up at quarter to 6 and listened to music, trying to go back to sleep. My shoulder was fine and I didn’t have numbness at all, so I was excited about that. There was still no sun and I had been cold during the night but not too bad. There was a lot of dew so I opened up the tent to air it out a little.

I got up around 7 and walked around, stretched, ate, scared the geese, and by the time Kevin got up I wanted coffee and was cranky and antsy and wanted to go.

At least the sun had come out and it was starting to warm up, finally. We packed up and got to see dude buddy’s solar oven- he was cooking a roast in it. He told us not to hit any elk on 77 and we were on our way back up 63 to 77.

We stopped at the info desk and the ladies there liked our plan for 77 and GG, and we found out that the National Forest campgrounds are pay-at-the-site and they were maybe $12. So I made sure I had cash and we went to the grocery store to get easy mac and candy, and granola bars. Oh and cheese curds.

We headed out on 77 which was great- hilly but decent shoulder. Until the elk reintroduction area- about halfway through our trip on 77 the shoulder completely disappeared. We had about 14 miles of no shoulder through winding roads with no passing zones and cars who are supposed to go 45. There were lights that are set to blink when an elk with a tag gets near it, and we kept seeing them light up but no elk. Then we saw a huge buck just saunter across the road, and the light didn’t light up. We later read about the elk mating season, the rut, and how the elk bugle at each other. We wanted a picture of the thing so we thought it would be a good idea to throw bugles at it, but we didn’t know what flavor they liked.

Picture of a sign in Clam Lake, explaining the elk situation

We finally got to Clam Lake- the Heart of the Chequamegon National Forest (which Kevin kept calling Shenanigans National Forest) and hung out in a little park and went to the gas station.

I checked out the gift shop and there was a lady getting a new pair of earrings- the lady with her was really excited because apparently this lady had been wearing the same earrings for over ten years.

We lazed around a bit and Kevin decided to wear his flip flops for the rest of the ride because of his ankle, and he also still had problems with his hands being numb. I filled our water bottles and got a sprite cozy that said clam Lake and Chequamegon Junction on it, and we were on our way through the forest on GG.

GG was beautiful and had just been redone. The hills weren’t too bad, and there were lots of trees, marshes, flowers and it was sunny and not too windy.

We stopped at the campground we had looked at, and decided we could make it to Mellen- which would put us closer to Ashland and we’d have a really short last day. That last part of the ride was getting rough for me- I was getting tired, it was after 7 and this was our longest day mileage-wise. We stopped at a scenic overlook of the Penoke Range- the divide between water that flows north to the big lake and south to... well probably the gulf.

We got into Mellen, Mary gave us directions to the motel and it was halfway up a gigantic hill just south of town. Ugh. But she was really nice and told us all about her two daughters, one went to Northland and was going to be a calculus teacher but then she had three boys and Mary told her she better take care of them. We checked into our room and relaxed a little, watched “color cable television” after Kevin got the TV warmed up and then headed into town to get a ridiculous ½ pound burger. Except that town was pretty much closed- it was Sunday night and only one bar was open. So we went to the gas station and then went back to the motel. I took a shower and then passed out.

In the middle of the night I thought I heard mice, so I flipped on the light and moved the food from the floor to the desk. Kevin was not amused.

Day 5: Mellen to Ashland, 34 miles

Kevin had forgotten about the mice thing until he couldn’t find his food and I was being weird about it. We got up and going before 10 (I think that was the first day we were on the road before 10) and stopped at the gas station for coffee and gummy teeth, and to heat up our easy mac.

We couldn't not buy gummy teeth. I mean teeth? Come on!

Then we headed north on 13 to Ashland! It was a short, hilly, wide-shouldered ride. We were biking, biking, I was getting excited that we were almost there and a bug hit me in the neck. Next thing I know I feel a burning, stinging sensation and I say, I-gotta-stop-I-gotta-stop!” and so I pulled over and the stupid bug had stung me in the neck. It was stinging and burning so I took ibuprofen and poured water on it till it didn’t hurt so bad, and then we kept going. It was fine and now it kind of itches.

Kevin's picture of me navigating

Just before we got to Hegstrom, the turn for Michelle’s house, we went down a huge hill to a bridge over the White River. There were “trucks entering”, according to the sign (which incidentally took up the whole shoulder and we had to go around it) and so at the bottom of the hill, before going up the other side, we have to stop. We’re slowing down and the guy holding the stop sign is all, oh not you guys! So we bike on through, and now we have to go up this enormous hill with almost no momentum from going down the other side. Ugh. But we made it, turned on Hegstrom and got to Michelle’ where we had some drinks and watched the Tour de France for a bit and played with her dog Bailey.

Then we headed into town to go to Garret’s to do laundry and get settled at the Blue Goose. We hung out there and Kevin was allergic to the basement, we did laundry and biked to the Deepwater to meet Josh and Erin who drove up to drive us home. We biked to Lake Superior! Well technically to the Deepwater, but you can totally see the lake from there.

I have been to Ashland so many times in a car that it was cool to roll up on a bike and know that I got there by pedaling. It was sort of surreal and just like we had driven up and were biking around. On one hand it wasn’t a big deal and it was just like being in Ashland on a bike, but on the other hand it was a long exciting adventure to get there.

Me and my bike

TANKS to Josh and Erin who made the drive to pick us up!

blogs

2007-03-20T17:25:00.000Z

this where I blog at for rills

myspace

2006-10-27T02:52:00.000Z

so apparently my myspace isn't neglected like this blog...

too late

2006-09-14T05:31:00.000Z

indeed.

I'ma be out of town for a while starting tomorrow, I don't know when I'll see you again

2006-09-13T03:28:00.000Z

The other day it rained, and I took this picture of some raindrops in a dog track by the river. Right now it kind of reminds me of the bugs I ran into on the greenway today. Seriously, I had to pick over 20 of them off of my clothes when I got off my bike. I don't know where they were all going, but I bet they didn't want to end up mashed into my jeans. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if I had bugs all over my face... no one said anything but would people tell me if there were bugs all over my face?

commuting and dinosaurs

2006-09-10T04:44:00.000Z

I'm kind of sad to end my work at the CTEP office next week. One of the reasons, apart from the fact that CTEP has been my life for the past two years, is that most mornings that I am fortunate enough to ride my bike to work I go past two T-Rexs that guard the front sidewalk of a house on Pelham.

It's over! well, almost...

2006-09-08T03:20:00.000Z

I am officially done with my third year of AmeriCorps.

WOO HOO!

Only thing is, I'm helping out with the CTEP program this week and next so that the pre-service orientation goes off without a hitch. So really I don't feel done, because I'm still workin'. Hard for the money. Yes, I got to get paid!

I'm hoping that we get the member handbook all ready to go and printed tomorrow, and then it's on to cleaning out the office and sorting and organizing. Hopefully they will hire a program assistant that will start next week, so I can help train that person it. That's the closest thing they'll have to my job for next year!

While I generally don't like to think that I'm replaceable, I think they have some good applicants and I'm sure everything will be fine without me. I have to admit that one part of me (I wish it were a smaller part) hopes that things will crash and burn without me. But I'm sure it will be fine! And most of me hopes so :)

It's almost time for my nightly dose of South Park, so until next time...

It's kind of weird to be posting back in my blogger blog again... I think I need to make this blog way more bad-ass. It's been extremely neglected for the past year...

your inquiry has been redirected...

2006-02-24T04:21:00.000Z

This blog is from last year's adventures in CTEP (the AmeriCorps Community Technology Empowerment Project).

For this year's adventures, please visit my current blog.
It's much more interesting visually that this one.

Feel free to comment the hell out of it.

Have a great day!

practice!!

2005-10-17T20:12:00.000Z

this is my first e-mailed blog entry. it isn't very long, and it isn't very
good but heck, here it is.

poem

2005-08-17T17:28:00.000Z

I got this in an e-mail in high school and held onto it, knowing that the day would come when I would need it. That day is today.

A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as theproper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters <> although some readersheldout resolutely for "norkies." The text of the poem follows:
<> !*''#
^"`$$-
!*=@$_ %*<> ~#4
&[]../
{,,SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit: Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash, Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash, Bang splat equal at dollar under-score, Percent splat waka waka tilde number four, Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash, Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

National Night Out

2005-08-03T16:13:00.000Z

I have to admit that when I signed up to woman the bean bag toss at Skyline's National Night Out celebration I was... shall we say, less than excited? It was a hot day and Wendy and I spent most of it either getting ready for or facilitating photo club, so I was already tired by 4:30. But I went out there, and as we set up I got more and more excited. All the teens that I see regularly were out there, setting up tables and chairs and the booths for the games. the DJ started playing music so everyone was is a good mood, we were bouncing around getting things ready.

As soon as the bean bag toss was set up, the kids were all over it- even before we had the prizes! All the kids from the youth program that I see all the time were outside playing and there were so many people, just everywhere!

It was neat to see the parents, teens and the kids all together having a good time. And it was nice to be recognized by all the kids, made me feel special. I was cheering for all the kids at the bean bag toss and whenever any kid would get all four of the bean bags in the holes, they would make it into the special club of people who made all four tosses. One of the kids, I told him he had the arm, and that I could see it. He would smile real big and then concentrate really hard to make the next shot. A couple other kids I told them they were naturals and that they should go to the championships. Some other kids I told them they were the masters of the bean bag toss. A couple of the kids asked if they could help out, if they could "work here" so I had a couple of the younger boys that I work with (7 year olds) helping out- and soon one of them was cheering for people just like me- "awesome! good shot! nice job!" and then his older brother was up so I said "okay show us your stuff!" and when he made only one or two throws, his little brother said, "that's your stuff?" Oh was it ever funny.

Then one of the kids I see all the time came over with a lightning bolt tattoo on his forehead and told me he was Harry Potter and I made Wendy take a picture with him waving his pencil as a wand because I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I can't believe my last day of program is tomorrow!!!

photo club with the mobile lab!

2005-08-03T15:52:00.000Z

Yesterday we had our first mobile lab experience with the photo club. Linda came over to help out- which was awesome- and she, Wendy and I hung out with five of the photo club kids. I'm so glad Linda came, because I think adult's opinions really matter to the kids and as she told them that their pictures were great and showed them how to use photoshop I think they enjoyed the opportunity to hear from another adult who isn't working with them because it's their job. Paige, our volunteer, does that as well- it's very clear to the kids that these people don't have to be here and that's why it's so important that they are.

We put each kid's pictures into their own folder on Wendy's computer earlier, and so Wendy just made CDs for each kid with all of their pictures on it. The kids each had one of the ibooks (oh were they ever excited about that!) and they learned how to put the CD in and find their pictures, and take the five they want for the art show and put them in a folder they created on the desktop.

Then they opened up photoshop, and learned how to edit their pictures- we did brightness and contrast, and also color with hues and saturation. The kids are also very familai with the "undo" action now. They titled their pictures for the show and then we just goofed around in simpletext and made the computer talk.

It was so much fun, and I think the kids learned a lot- and it was very clear that they were proud of knowing how to do something after being shown only once. I showed one of the girls how to save her picture to the desktop, and she said "I'll never remember all that!" and the next thing I know she's on her fourth one, and she's saying, "Roxanne! I did it all by myself!" I stopped what I was doing and told her that was awesome, and I think she noticed that I had stopped what I was doing and took the time to look at her when I said it because she just beamed. It was so amazing.

The kids all took so many amazing pictures that it was hard to choose, and it was also hard to watch them make everyone in their picture blue or change the contrast so the picture didn't look like a picture anymore. But we had faith in the kids- at one point one of the boys said, "you know I think I like it the way it is!" and left it the way it was, and his friend nex to him said, I just changed the contrast a little so you can see detail in the flower". Maybe I shouldn't feel proud of the kids because I really didn't do much except get them the computers and lend them my camera, but I felt like I was about to burst.

I can't wait for the show!

computers and service club

2005-07-21T16:27:00.000Z

Yesterday in service club we finished up our talk on hunger, and then we started thinking of what kinds of ways we have helped people in service club. Then we talked about how we might draw our favorite way to help people, so we could make t-shirts with iron-on transfer paper!

Some of the kids just drew their pictures on paper, but most of them wanted to use pictures from the computer. What I did was scan their picture into the computer, and then set them up on Publisher. They learned how to insert clip-art and text, and to find their picture that was scanned in the computer. They saved their files in My Documents, and they worked on their typing!

One of the kids made a shirt with a picture of George Washington and a talk bubble (we learned to use auto shapes) that had a picture that the kid had drawn, showing healthy things to eat and healthy activites. Then on the side it said, "George Washington says be healthy!", because as the kid told me, "I really want a picture of George Washington". And he must have figured out how to search for the picture of George Washington, because he was already in the document when I went to see how he was doing! (then underneath George and the talk bubble there's a picture of a lion. Because lions are cool.)

Another kid had created a cool border and had a picture of a truck in the middle, with text that said "Deliver food" on the top and "All around the world" on the bottom.

Many of the kids had no-smoking messages on their shirts too.

I am SO glad that we had Aaron and Christina, our amazing service club volunteers, because I couldn't have done this without them- they were awesome! And so were the kids! I think everyone learned a lot that day. And the shirts turned out so well- the kids were so excited that something they made is on a t-shirt that they can wear!

more success with the water cycle

2005-07-18T21:08:00.000Z

Today was another great day at Cathedral! Well for me and the kids, not this shift key... Anyway. We watched a BrainPop video about the water cycle and took the quiz, concensus style. I gave all the kids business cards that said "certified water expert; hereby knows all about water and the water cycle". Very official. We also played a game (http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/datwc.html) where we were a water droplet, trying to make it... well I'm not sure where, the game is hard and we couldn't stick with it for too long. But it was fun!

I thanked the kids for trying the activity and helped them go to the (approved) games they wanted. Kyle said, "the activity was fun! I liked it." I felt good about it.

I like my new strategy of trying to find one visual site (with a movie, or some pictures) and one interactive site (like a game) and giving prizes to the kids for trying and doing a good job. Which all of them do, so they all get a prize. This is so much less stressful than trying to do some elaborate lesson plan; the kids deserve free time to play their games too! And now they all look forward to the computer lab. When Faith was reminding them that Monday is computer day with Roxanne, Kyle was all, "I love Roxanne!". Aw, yes. Kyle rules.

I've determined that I have several keys to a good activity.
-lay it out: be specific about what you are doing and let the kids know that a) it won't last too long, and b) they will get to play games
-offer prizes
-show them cool games that you know of, they are impressed.
-have the activity as interactive as you can, and ask some of the older kids to help the younger kids. they might grudgingly agree, but then have a great time helping.
-let them play, and play with them. Their games are fun, so this is not hard.

Woo!
I'm not sure how I'm going to write up my activities that i have been doing, but when that time comes... I guess I'll just do it!
ROCK!

success with worms and microbes

2005-07-12T15:50:00.000Z

Yesterday was the best day of computer program ever at Cathedral Hill! Let me just tell you...

the worm activity
The theme for the week was worms, waste and recycling. So I found a couple of websites for kid activities in the computer lab- first we followed an animated worm through a tour of the virtual worm bin. He showed us what worms like for bedding, moisture, soil (did you know that worms eat dirt to aid digestion? I didn't!), food and environment. He also told us some lame jokes, which of course are my favorite! (What did the astronaut say after eating his dinner on the moon? "the food is great, but there's no atmosphere!" hahahaha!) Since Faith had started a worm bin earlier in the year, with Kay's help, the kids could directly relate to what this worm was telling them.
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Kidstuff/Default.htm

the microbe activity
Next, we went to a page from Clean Sweep U.S.A. that had all kinds of kids activities to learn about waste, energy and recycling. I had the kids click on the compost activity- where you get a compost pile and you have to keep the microbe happy by feeding him, giving him water, and turning the pile. The kids loved it, then all worked on it until they made the microbe happy! Even though it took some of them ten minutes! I guess it helped that I told them they would get a prize... We all had fake tattoos at the end of computer time. Next time I think I want to have prizes that have something to do with the theme...
http://www.kab.org/kids/defaultx.htm

sharing
Since we were down a computer and the iMac is completely useless, we only had three computers for groups of four or five kids. In the first group, one of the kids was really young so it worked well to have him share with an older kid. In the second group, the kids didn't want to share but when two of them agreed to share I let them in first. Then the other kids wanted to share. The pair that immediately volunteered took turns- they switched chairs after every part of the worm tour so that they both got a chance. They did this completely on their own, too! I made sure to tell them how cool they were.

the lesson
Since the composting activity came with a lesson plan for educators, I looked it over and it had a little info about composting and what your compost needs to make it healthy- such as carbon and nitrogen, moisture and aeration. The activity had corresponding messages from the microbe- when the compost needed water, he would say that he's thirsty or parched. When he needed turning, he would say that it was kinda stuffy. My favorite was that when the pile needed nitrogen, he would say that he felt weak. When the kids struggled to make him happy and he would say he felt weak, I would tell them that meant he needed nitrogen- then I pointed to the things that gave the pile nitrogen: coffee grounds, egg shells and grass clippings. At one point, one of the kids (who was practicing reading the microbe's messages!) said, "oh.. he's weak again! What do I do?" A kid from another group said, over his shoulder, "you gotta add nitrogen!" The kid looked lost. He said, "where is that?" A third kid said, "the coffee or the eggs. Or the grass." It was so rad...

facilitation
As the kids started finishing the activity- at different times- I let them play games. One pair was still struggling, and one member from another pair was bored because his buddy was looking at his brother's website. So, since the one kid with her own computer had finished and had time to play a couple games, I asked her to help the group that was struggling and let the bored kid play some games. She protested initially, but when she and the two kids she was helping made the microbe happy, they were all so excited! She went back to her computer and shared with the kid that was on it! I was just amazed. When it was time to go, I gave them all verbal awards and told them how awesome they were. Because they were! Even the one kid that was bored and didn't want to do the activity was sharing and having a great time by the end. This will probably never happen to me again. Ever.

YES!!!
I'd had a lot of trouble engaging the kids and convincing them that there's more to the internet than cartoon network, so this was a refreshing change! They all worked together, shared, and helped each other!!! And they all did the activity, and enjoyed it. Except that one kid, but he eventually had a great time sharing so whatever.

rewards
I think it was good to have an incentive for the kids to do or at least try the activity- I offered the fake tattoo prizes and also I told them before I let them in that the deal was that they would try the activity, and after they finished they could play on the internet. As long as they followed the rules.

why
I think it helped me immensely to be prepared. I don't like to fly by the seat of my pants, or I'm way less confident. I had time to chat with Faith about the theme, and develop something interesting and educational. She also mentioned in the beginning of the program that they should give my activity a try, and not say that it was boring. Then she told me that I could probably come up with something that was more boring, and split the kids up into groups where the "troublemakers" were in different groups. It also was incredible help to tell the kids from the get-go that they would get to play games when they were done with the activity. And the prizes helped. And I think it was really good that I only had two websites, and we all went to them kind of together- keep it simple and more guided. Plus the fact that they were both interactive- the second one way more than the first.

Now that I've written a novel, I'm going to get back to work. Woo! Look at me, all learning and stuff...

CTCNet conference in Cleveland

2005-06-21T16:51:00.000Z

Whew!
I just came back from that CTCNet conference in Cleveland this past weekend, and wow was it something else! There were so many people there, working on so many things. There was so much cool stuff!

CTC Vista Project
I got to meet all the people in the Vista program I will be a leader in next year- including all three people who will also be leaders next year! This was especially cool because one of them (Saul) is a leader this year, so he really know his stuff and he's awesome, and one of them (Mike) was in NCCC with me in Sacramento! I really didn't know him well but he currently lives with my old teammate JJ in San Diego, so that was really weird seeing him there.
I also got to sit in on a Vista supervisor information session, where the Vistas talked about the good, the bad and the ugly (there wasn't much ugly) of their supervisors. They had a lot of the same issues that we CTEP members see:

-they felt appreciated and more comfortable when theor supervisors took care of the little things, such as desks, office space, keys, and phones
-they enjoyed when their supervisors kept in good contact with them, let them know what was going on and checked-in often, making sure that members are getting what they need
-they enjoyed when their supervisors provided helpful resources for them, making it easier (or at least not a struggle) to do their job or know who the right person to go to would be
-they enjoyed when they were treated as a professional employee
-they enjoyed when their supervisors introduced them to the staff or regular volunteers

Friday's Opening Plenary: Connections for Youth
There was a huge focus on media and technology for young people at this conference, which is perfect since that is my focus next year! There were many projects that were done by young people presented, sometimes by the young people themselves. It was neat to see what teens and kids around the country are doing for their community- there was a big emphasis on media literacy and young people becoming producers as well as consumers in our media.

P.S. I hate the word "youth". First and foremost, they are people. They happen to be young. I prefer to call them "young people". Because that's what they are.

Afterschool and Technology: Strategies to Advance Content-rich Learning
This workshop talked about online communities of young people doing technologically-based activities- such as creating games, mixing music, computer games and other skill building activites. http://www.youthspace.net

Some of the challenges mentioned for after-school programs were:

- adults and young people have different ideas of what is to be done after school. The adults want education, the young people want fun.
-time constraints
-language barriers
-educational softare is boring, or not interactive enough
-not enough staff to serve the young people- the program comes off as "school-like"
-if the program is too rule-based, it created a barrier to learning
-messy, hands-on, real-world and project based learning is what works with technology
-young people can lead and tell their community stories if you guide them

Girls Creating Games
A specific group of girls did a program where they created online chose your own adventure-style games online using Macromedia Flash. The presenter, also the program designer/facilitator, talked about what worked well: the "hook" of the program was that girls get to use animation and music, and they get to look at games and videos in Flash; the key to retention was good contact with the parents and an attendance policy.
http://webtecc.etr.org/gcgweb/protected/login/splash.cfm

Quote of the session: "You will not engage youth with technology. You will engage youth with relationships." -Bob Cabeza, Long Beach YMCA (CA)

Media Literacy for Heealthy and Just Communities
This was by far my favorite workshop! The first thing we did when the presenter, Andrea from the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, came in was we watched a commercial, for a Skippy Snack Bar. Afterwards, we had a discussion about the cartoon style, the reggae/hip-hop music, the lyrics to the jingle, the beach party setting, and talked about who the product was marketed to. This led into a discussion about the difference between reality and fantasy, and individuals and communities making informed decisions.
We watched several commercials, and her insight into them was just amazing to me- I generally try to tune commercials out unless they are really funny. We talked a lot about the "bigger picture", and watched truth campaign ads- agains the cigarette companies. http://www.protectthetruth.org
We talked about adbusters and brand loyalty, Andrea then shared some of the activities that she had done with young people- they made their own ads by cutting out ads from magazines and newspapers telling the other side of the story about the product. She also suggested that media literacy is a great way to frame any issue that you want to teach or guide a discussion about.

Quote of the session: "The Coca-Cola baby polar bear speaks wookie" -Andrea Quijada
Favorite word of the session: McDonified

Learning to Learn: Urban Youth, Technology Literacy and Youth Development
This program had a bunch of young people presenting what their program was all about. Basically, it is a technology work-skills job program. The young people develop skills, further their education opportunities and learn to act professional. And they get paid, for creating websites for businesses, developing GPS maps for the city and other organizations, and other technology-based projects.

Some notes:
-they teach why they do what they do, so that the young people understand. This often involves monetary rewards and consequences.
-working with peers builds leadership. There is a basic presentation of work that needs to be done, people work together to get it done.
-when asked what would get them to be in the program if they weren't paid, the young people said: knowing they can get into college, working with their community, the people that work there, and making it fun.

Technology Programs that Sing (and Make Movies and Web Sites Too)
This was also a pretty cool workshop- it all came from a grant that the Microsoft Corporation gave to Boys and Girls Club of America to develop educational resources.
Basically, they have created online-based tutorial style lessons for young people (or any people!)to learn how to use MS Office applications and beyond- such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Paint, Digital Image Pro, Publisher, FrontPage, MovieMaker XP, and Acid Pro Music Studio.
They also have a fairly elaborate Internet safety website, where young people can learn about what is and isn't safe on the Internet.
This stuff all opens up to the public in August, so I'll have to keep my eyes open!

The stuff that you can already use is the Internet Safety stuff http://www.netsmartz.org/, and www.coke.com has free music mixing software.

So, that's about it as far as the conference goes! Plus I got to chat with tons of people working in community technolgy all over, and it was rad.
Until next time...

summer WAHOO!

2005-06-02T17:31:00.000Z

Jeez, I went on vacation for not even a whole week to see Star Wars Episode III in Michigan with one of my bestest friends in the whole world, and now I am so overwhelmed! More than that, I have no idea what is going on!
I missed one corps day- one- and all of a sudden, AMA isn't a host site anymore, the three members that were there- two of which making up the rest of the blog/newsletter/reflection committee- have to be relocated. We lost another member, but he will be staying on with his host site but not as AmeriCorps. AHHH!!!
I am working on planning for the summer at my sites, and I am so excited! We have some really great programs planned out- Wendy and I are doing a weekly photo club with the kids. We have an awesome Islamic studies major volunteer who came in to take pictures of the kids, and now she's going to take pictures with the kids. We are even going to be in an exhibition at the end of the summer!
I also wrote a grant for organizations who did National Youth Service Day- Wendy and I planned a service club that will do weekly community service projects at Skyline. The projects include community gardens, recycling, a no-smoking campaign, and some kid literacy stuff. I am PSYCHED for SERVICE! Even if we don't get the grant, we can still do service.
But I still have a lot of work to do. We're trying to work something out for teen program in the lab, and I am putting together a binder of ideas for kid programs. I am super pumped about these too: so far I've brainstormed some activities like tessalations, learning about and making biomes, an online scavenger hunt, greeting cards... the possibilities are as edless as the Internet!!!
Okay, time to get back to it!
Until next time, I'm over and out.

Next Year Excitement!

2005-05-10T18:28:00.000Z

Ugh I haven't written in a long time! I've been super busy getting myself a new job for next year- as a VISTA leader for CTEP! Catherine announced to the corps on Friday at corps day that we had been talking about me possibly being a leader next year, and last week and this week we've all been working on getting all the paperwork in for that, and getting the neccessary preparations for the CTC conference in Cleveland. I think I'm all set to go now!

I'm really excited about the position, and how it will sort of be like a team leader (something I've wanted to do but didn't feel up to doing it in NCCC) and I get to do youth media stuff as well. I'm pumped!!! I think it will be fun to work with Jeff, Erika and Catherine again, plus returning members of CTEP and all the new members we will have!

Anyways. My new big plan/project is to create a binder full of computer activites for kids, for this summer at my sites. My hope is that other CTEP members will want to collaborate and we can all contribute to a big CTEP binder full of youth computer ideas.

And, my committe (blog/newsletter/reflection) has got to get moving on these newsletters!!!

The Corporation

2005-05-06T13:39:00.000Z

I went to see the documentary The Corporation at Macalester the other night. Man, what an amazing movie! It had tons of famous people talking about the role that corporations have played in the past and do play in our society.

SYNOPSIS (from the website www.thecorporation.com)

THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda, illuminates the corporation's grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a "person" to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?" Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation includes forty interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.

Turns out, if corporations were people, they would be psychotic. The movie really picks at your brain and you heart, it shows some really sad, scary and funny images- all in the two and a half hour span. It's a very intense experience.

There was a very interesting piece on media that I think was particularly connected to what we do in CTEP- they talked about advertising and marketing to children. Some of this stuff is just so absurd! I don't even know. Mind boggling. I think I have to see it again.

Volunteer Pizza Party

2005-04-27T19:56:00.000Z

Yesterday we had a huge pizza party for volunteers and their guests here at Skyline. James, Wendy, Mikaela, Chelsea and I spent all day getting ready- we had bulletin boards for the youth program and the computer lab with all kinds of pictures of the kids and volunteers, I made a bulletin board for our National Youth Service Day, James and I made cards for our volunteers with pictures of the kids and their quotes inside. The quotes are great:

“I like volunteers because they come from their home for no reason to help me.” -Ahmed
“Volunteers work hard without getting paid. Volunteers help me with computers and homework. That’s all.”-Mohamed
“I think volunteers are good in here because they help people with their Plato and I’m tired…”-Abdulmalik

Two of the kids, Abdul and Huy, came to the party and taught the guests how to make paper cranes. Huy said that the secret to making paper cranes is HAVE PATIENCE. I would guess that's a secret to a lot of things.

We all had pizza from Pizza Luce and made cranes and James and his dad played music... it was so much fun! But today it's back to work. At least it's nice out, rainy and cold... oh wait that's not rain. It's snow. Good thing I biked today.

The Plato Wall of Fame

2005-04-24T20:46:00.000Z

Today I made a huge poster that says "PLATO", and then in little letters on it it says, "Wall of Fame". We're going to put pictures of the kids who earn certificates for completing assignments in Plato at Skyline up on it- we have three or four now I think! It looks really good, even it it's a little crooked...

CHH Earth Day Clean-up

2005-04-23T20:39:00.000Z

Well, keeping with my new tradition of forgetting the most important papers when I go to work, I forgot the awesome stickers (okay I just printed labels... but they are cool! They say "Official Clean-up Kid" and have little pictures on them- in color!) at my house. I'll have to give them to the kids on Monday.

The clean-up project itself was AWESOME! We had a ton of kids come down (maybe... 12?) and some adult residents (5 or 6) cleaning up trash, raking leaves, and making things look nice. The best things we found: a dead squirrel, $5 monopoly money, one dollar real money, half a barbie, and tv cable. Faith's friend Danielle from WA came and taught the kids how to weed and they pulled out tons of trees from the gardens. Guess no one had weeded in a long time...

We celebrated with donuts, coffee and juice in the Advantage Center afterward, and I took cute pics of all the kids cleaning. An overwhelming success! YES, Earth Day!

Corps Day

2005-04-22T21:02:00.000Z

Today we kicked off the first blog/newsletter/reflection committee check-in for the corps. Nary posed a question to the corps: what is one change that you have made at your site, and how did it go? I think the corps really got into the question, and it sounds like there's a lot of great stuff going on.

I talked about how I had put the rules on the desktop at Skyline, and how some teens were complaining about all the stuff you couldn't do in the lab. I told them that it was against the rules to have fun, and one of the teens closed his web browser and pointed to the rules, arguing that nowhere on there did it say "no having fun". I said, "you got me- I guess you can have fun... as long as you follow all the other rules!" I feel that it was a win-win situation.

Also, after the ICC Spring Fun Day, we had a civic engagement training- because no one knew what constituted civic engagement or how many we had to do. It was very informative, even though Kim, who had a bulk of the presentation, was sick and couldn't come. Good work, Pa Chua and Kristen!!!

ICC Spring Fun Day!

2005-04-22T20:32:00.000Z

Whew! Spring Fun Day sure was fun!!!
I'm kind of glad that it's over though- because all those planning meetings, and who's bringing what... I carried like a million pounds on my bike to Powderhorn Park. I remembered everything I needed for Spring Fund Day- and left my timesheet at home, along with a bill for the online class I'm taking that needs to make it to the CTEP office. Way to go, me.

I think CTEP needed a fun day- I played Apples to Apples and then Cranium with other CTEPers- we found out that Linda is the best darn DNA sculptor probably in all of AmeriCorps, and despite my inability to guess "cocktail dress" from Pa Chua's elaborate acting, she draws a great palm tree with her eyes closed! I think my favorite part was when the gang playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire asked us (the audience!) for help. Just like on the show! It was great.

Kristen, Megan, Linda, Pa Chua and I tried to play frisbee but it was so windy and sort of raining that it was kind of hard. I had a ton of fun though, it was relaxing to get together and not have to employ our "meeting stamina". Powderhorn is super nice too, we walked around the lake and laughed at the ducks. Silly ducks, and their egg laying.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Take it Down

2005-04-18T20:48:00.000Z

So today Chad came to talk to the teens at CHH about Set it Up, the teen TV show at SPNN. Well none of the teens showed up, they haven't been showing up lately. I called them all, and some of them told me they'd be here. I put up tons of flyers and everything. I'm starting to think that they aren't interested! I mean who doesn't want to be on TV? (That's what the flyers advertised...)

Oh well. My favorite twins in the world Adriana and Briana came (unfortunately they aren't teens yet...), and we watched the movie that we checked out of the library during the last teen computer field trip- Bambi Meets Godzilla. Then they put on an amazing and hilarious show and everyone was on the floor laughing.

I guess we'll try again some other month...

Other April Stuff

2005-04-15T16:44:00.000Z

4/8 CTEP Corps Day
We had our check-in and all that, then committee time. The bog/newsletter/reflection committee got a lot accomplished: we decided on our first blog reflection activity, brainstormed about our newsletter and 'end of the year compilation" and worked out a plan of what each of us are going to do before next meeting.
I'm a little disappointed that people still haven't sent me their directory info- and it kinds stinks for the people who did it right away because we all have to wait! I'm not sure what to do- I don't want to do a written thing because then one of us will have to type it up and that's just lame. Sigh...

We also did diversity training- which, despite the name conjuring images of corporate white men talking about diversity, was a good discussion about what diversity is and what effects how we feel and act about/towards people who are different from us. We got into the DMZ for government programs- God- and it got kinda heated. For me, there's always this weird tension with the mention of religion or spirituality at work- I've been trained that work is not the time and place for those discussions. Especially when you are part of a government program. It really got me thinking about why that is, because I think that rule is in place so that people don't feel discriminated against for whatever religion/spirituality they associate with. But at the same time, our group has been encouraged to get to know each other and we've delved into the depths of who we all are every other week. For many people that's a huge part of who they are, which I think when we are talking about ourselves was fine- we included it in our personal journeys and what not. But I don't think we can have trainings on that kind of thing. I'm not really sure what happened.

ICC
4/14 I went to the ICC meeting at Powderhorn Park, and we mostly finalized the plan for Spring Fun Day. I think it will be a lot of fun! I guess it was appropriately named because it certainly is spring...
We also reviewed the mission statement of the ICC and I think it's actually the first time that I had heard it, having started late. I'm going to have to get my hands on it I think.
We figured that we have been doing a good job of following the mission, and we also started brainstorming the end of the year celebration because there is no Summit this year. Hmmm...

Sky Teen Computer
I planned all this great stuff for the teens at Skyline, but they don't seem interested. They come down for open teen lab, and come summer they won't have programs so I think we shoud do something cool in the lab. I'd like to get to know some of them so that we can maybe do a video project with the mobile lab but I don't know at this point...

National Youth Service Day!

2005-04-15T12:40:00.000Z

So today is the ACTUAL National Youth Service Day, but since the youth program and computer lab staff (i.e. Wendy and James- VISTAS- and Mikaela) don't work on Friday, we had our event yesterday.

IT WAS SO RAD

We did a kid clean-up outside of Skyline with over 20 kids! I sent away for the NYSD info from Youth Serve America, and registered our project online with them. I doctored up the posters with our own Skyline Kid Clean-Up posters, and we told all the kids about it the day before. I used the YSA service learning curriculum guide to plan the activity, and we followed the PARC model of service learning- Preparation, Action, Reflection, and Celebration. I drew a little map thing on the blackboard in the youth room. I also made stickers (okay I used Publisher's label maker) that said "Official Clean-Up Kid that the kids loved.

When we started, we talked about why cleaning up trash was important and why we should take an active role in our community. We talked about the rules and what was going to happen for the whole project.
Then, we went outside and cleaned up trash! It was so awesome, the kids were so into it and picked up tons of cigarette butts and posed for pictures discouraging smoking because it's gross. the kids are such hams for the camera so I got great results.
We ended at the playground and played with the kids for a while- I beat everyone on the swingset. Even though 'it's not a competition' I still won. Ha.

We went back to the youth room and had a discussion about where we think the trash came from and we determined that the adults and teens shouldn't smoke but if they were going to they should throw away their butts. The kids thought of some great ideas for making signs to go outside where we found the most butts, so I feel another service project coming on!

We talked about volunteering and how that day we were all volunteers in our community, and the kids really made the connection of what it means to be a volunteer. They said that it was fun and we made a difference, and they realized that that was exactly the reason that the volunteers (we had two out there with us) come to Skyline.

Then we had yogurt parfaits and everyone was happy.

It was an overwhelming success, tell you what! next, I'm going to show the kids how to put the pictures on the computer and a group of us are going to write up a page to put in the monthly newsletter that will go out in May so everyone at Skyline will know that the kids volunteered in their community (this is the computer part- I am in CTEP after all!). It's going to be great.

CTEP Poem

2005-04-14T17:04:00.000Z

oh oh
CTEP
go go
CTEP
computers rule
for more than school
I'm no tool!
I'm in CTEP

RAM RAM
CTEP
spam spam
CTEP
I'm online
it's mighty fine
I'll type 9!
I'm in CTEP

Yeah, collaboration!

2005-04-13T16:34:00.000Z

I had two- count 'em: two- collaboration meetings this week!

I went to SPNN to meet with Chad this Monday and he gave me the tour, showed me where the magic happens and I kept thinking, "I should bring my teens here!". So we set up a time where Chad is coming to Cathedral Hill to talk to the teens about Set It Up- the teen TV show at SPNN- and then we are taking a field trip to watch the taping of the show! I'm so excited. He also hooked me up with all these summer things to do for teens. I hepled him set up a blog and we enjoyed some office beer.

Then on Tuesday, Linda came over (I was at Skyline) from the Dept of Numan Rights and we talked about some Somali focus groups to assess translations to see if they make sense. Hopefully we can set it up with one of the ESL classes or something. She also has a video we might show at Skyline about human rights. Woo!

I might be all collaborated out.

Spring Break at Cathedral Hill!

2005-04-11T16:23:00.000Z

Spring Break RULES because there's no school!

On Monday of spring break, Faith and I took a couple kids down to the Capitol to meet with their state senator. She was really nice and took a lot of time to answer our questions, and then we ran into one of the studdy buddies who works at the capitol! It was neat because right after we met with the senator we saw her on the TV in the office- she was on the floor presenting a bill. We asked the kids what they thought happened before TV and they looked kind of confused. I think they also felt kinda cool having talked to someone ten minutes ago who is now on TV.

On Thursday, we had planned to take teens to the Minnesota Museum of Modern Art for an exhibit that used a lot of technology, but it was closed so we took Adriana and Briana to the library instead. A librarian was having toddler time and reading books to a toddler and her mom, and the girls (the funniest twin 11 year-olds you'll ever meet) were totally into it- when "If You're Happy and You Know it" came around the girls were singing, clapping... Then these twin toddler boys showed up- they were maybe 2- and the girls were playing with them and asking them questions. It was awesome. We checked out Bambi Meets Godzilla- a video of some old weird cartoons, and a muppet arts and crafts book. Then we went out to Cossetta's for pizza- it was the best birthday ever!
Adriana and Briana are so great. They laughed and quoted the movie Undercover Brother the whole time- at exactly the same time and with exactly the same motions and evertyhing. Faith and I now know every line without having seen it- but we heard it in stereo! At the end of the trip we walked back to Cathedral Hill and the girls said, "bless you for taking us on this field trip! We had so much fun and thank you!" and if I ever have a bad day in CTEP I will just think of those girls and how I think I should be blessing them.

Kids e-mail

2005-04-08T16:10:00.000Z

We've been having problems with kids sending nasty messages to each other, and also getting inappropriate spam in their yahoo and hotmail accounts. So I tracked down a safe kids e-mail service called gaggle- like the geese. www.gaggle.net
It's pretty cool- in addition to spam filters that don't let things like porn in, it's set up so that I (as an administrator) have a word list. If kids write words in their e-mail that are on that list (like swear words!), the e-mail gets sent to me and not to the other kids.

I created accounts for all the kids that I could think of that were regulars in the lab, with the help of their Plato accounts (first and last names!) and Wendy. I printed up little papers with everyone's username (first name and last initial) and password- I just picked random short words- and folded and taped over the password. I made it sound like James Bond about the password- I don't want them all knowing each other's (they would tell each other yahoo and hotmail for some reason or another!) so I made sure to make it a big deal. They love that too, because it's a secret!

I went over the basics for all the kids- how to get to the webpage, put in username and password, get to the inbox, compose, reply and the directory. I had sent all the kids a message asking them what their favorite thing at the science museum was or what their favorite part of spring break was so I showed them how to 'reply'. Then for some of the kids that are more familiar with e-mail, I showed them that if they wanted to write to another Sky kid, the directory had a list of everone's address. They loved it! I've gotten several e-mails from kids that I don't think use computers for anything but Plato and games before. We had several volunteers that really did the bulk of the work too because I would explain it to all the kids, then there were at least four of us to go around and show the kids and do some hands-on one-on-one learning. It went so well!

I'm very excited about it. The kids that didn't come the first time are starting to hear about it from the other kids, so they come to get their user name and password. They are also starting to ask things like how to send links! I demonstrate with www.homestarrunner.com
The kids really get into that too. Da e-mail, da e-mail, wah wah, da e-mail...

Science Museum Field Trip!

2005-04-07T15:56:00.000Z

Yesterday we took a group of Skyline kids to the Science Museum of Minnesota. Mikaela organized it, and I helped her out by making the flyers for volunteers to be chaperones, and the two of us went to the museum last week to make a guide for all the chaperones- to make sure they don't miss anything!

I had four kids in my group- Huy, Fatuma, Hassan and Aisha. My group was AWESOME. Before we left, Huy was telling me that his favorite animal is the pig because he was born in the year of the pig. I told him I was born in the year of the rooster, and he said, "Oh so you are like, 24". I was dumbfounded, and said, "tomorrow, Huy!" He said, "Oh! Congratulations!" I just couldn't believe that he figured that out so fast. Most of the time I don't even know how old I am.

We had such a great time- my kids were fascinated by the mummy, and all the dead animals. They kept asking me if each one was real. They also really got into the computer exhibits- we did an experiment and isolated DNA in the cell lab by following a procedure on a computer, there were computer activities all over the experiment gallery and monitors for various bodily functions in the human body exhibit.
Huy was looking at a machine that read electrical signals in your arm and displayed them on a monitor, and we had a good time playing with the harmonics monitors above the keyboard.
Hassan showed me that he could drive the Mars Rover and was really into this anti-smoking rap music video.
Fatuma was a master of studying motion (calculus!) with a little car that was tracked on a computer, and also was relentless in persuading me to get the computer to read my blood pressure (it's a little lower than average, which is normal for me).
Aisha was always off sitting at some computer just figuring everything out. They also thought it was neat that there was a Perigrine Falcon that lived on the smokestack near the museum- you can see the nest out the window and the birds flying over the river. Then there's a camera in the nest so we can see the eggs!

The kids were so full of questions and were so engaged that we ran out of time but we had such a blast- I wish we could go every week!

March

2005-03-22T20:42:00.000Z

Hooray for spring! Soon I'll be able to ride my bike to work! YES!

CTEP Paperwork
We CTEP CommonBonders (me, Ubah, Jessie, Jolene, and Barb) got our quarterly report, CTC Scan update and volunteer logs in. As of right now, the Skyline Computer Lab has 14 volunteers!! WOW. and we keep getting more! some of the volunteers only come in on Sundays, which means that I don't work with them. Oh, and Wendy (youth program VISTA) organized a volunteer appreciation pizza party! We both wrote personal notes on invitations for our volunteers because we really want them to come. It's Pizza Luce, I mean come on! No seriously though- the volunteers rock my world and I would like to be able to give them all something to show my appreciation. I'll have to think about it.

Skyline Projects
After searching the Internet far and wide for a safe kid's e-mail program, I've found gaggle.net. I'm working on planning computer lab activities for spring break (in early April) and I think one of the days we will have e-mail for kids. I want them to have e-mail, but the ones that have hotmail and yahoo keep swearing at each other. No good, plus all that nasty spam... The kids have all been asking about e-mail and they want to be able to keep in touch with their friends that move away, and former VISTAs too.

Also in spring break plans is a field trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota! I am helping Mikaela (youth program) plan it, so we went to scope out the exhibits early. I want the kids to have a chance to play with all the fun technology the museum has, so I put a few technology questions on the chaperone guide. Science really utilizes computers, and the kids love computers. It will be easy to get them excited about it!

I'm also excited about this Junior Achivement partnership that Skyline now has for the teens. It focuses on business and economics- something I've not really been interested in- but I think some of them could really get into it. There is also this online computer game called Titan where you have a business, and you have to make decisions about marketing, research, sales and all of that. That they could get into! Especially if they find out that the national competition is at Disneyworld in Florida! Anyway, JA has a bunch of curricula that Alicia is going to do once a week with the teens (lessons on life planning, career exploration, budgeting, resume writing...) and I thought that if there were computer components that I could have teen time in the lab so they can work on that.

Since there is no longer teen program Tues or Thurs, it's perfect! Our first teen program was Thursday, March 31. I don't think anyone came. They just want to play games and check e-mail. I told them that if teen computer goes well on Thursdays that we could have it on Tuesdays, and they seemed interested but... would rather slum around upstairs I guess! Something to strive for next month.

Cathedral
At Cathedral Hill I worked individually with one of the teens to do a resume- it was really cool because I just hopped online to find some resources for teen resumes and found loads of stuff on gotajob.com. I think the most helpful was the list of action words- orchestrated, enabled, and forecasted were my favorites.

Also, City Teen Legends (CHH teen computer club) is getting really cool- Faith and I try to plan an activity using the computers before the teens come down. We made an amazing PowerPoint trivia game for Women's History Month one week, and another week we made some Publisher posters for a bulletin board. The kids love both PowerPoint and Publisher; they like the clipart, backgrounds, and the animation features in PP.

We have plans for spring break to take the teens to the Minnesota Museum of Modern Art because they have an exhibit called interact/react that involves weird technological gizmos and computer generated images. I'm so excited!

The younger kids are keeping up with their plato, though I think they like the easy lessons much more than the ones that challenge them! And they like to work together a lot, something I haven't experienced as much at Skyline. Could it be that they are learning the benefits of collaboration?

Online Classes
I have also signed up for a couple online classes-Pa Chua, Nary and I are taking a class with the America Connects Consortium that is for learning how to search the web for educational resources and create curricula, and James and I are taking a Flash animation class. So far both of them seem really cool! More work than I thought it would be. And Flash is hard! Well, maybe it wouldn't be as difficult if I had a teacher there with me. I think learning a computer program online is not really my thing; I've found it very frustrating. It's rewarding, but since it takes me so long to figure things out the rewards seem few and far between. Oh well! I have lots more important things anyway :)

Events
3/14 Cathedral Hill had a Reading is Fundamental (RIF) event- where we give away free books to the kids. Faith and I had a couple of the teens in teen computer help us to make a trivia game with pictures and quotes of famous women for Women't History Month. The kids won prizes by answering the questions on the trivia game, and they all got their free books and ate cookies. We had 16 kids, and it went really well!

3/22 Skyline had its RIF event. Mostly I just made sure the kids went to pick up their books and that they didn't leave them in the lab.

Conferences
3/23 Jeff, Linda, new Megan and I went to the U of M lecture about the Digital Future. by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, the director of Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. The lecture was amazing- he talked about the technological obstacles to resources for developing countries, and also about "hubs" of access- like his library. He talked about the role of libraries in bridging the digital divide- it really reminded me of what a librarian at the Digital Junction Conference in December had said about the people being the key to technology literacy. It was a very inspiring lecture and it made me feel like I was connected to a whole array of people bridging the digital divide in multitudes of ways with various tools. The work that I do in low-income and new immigrant communities of a developed country is connected to the work that Dr. Serageldin is doing for his entire developing country. Cool!

InterCorps Council
3/3 ICC met at the state capitol and we had a chance to meet with State Rep. Tom Rukavina and he talked about the State House and his role in the legislative proccess. We met with Jeannie Fox, the Deputy Public Policy Director for the MN Council of non-profits and former AmeriCorps VISTA member, and she talked about the lobbying and advocating process. We met with Joanna Dornfeld, a communications/media specialist for Housing Minnesota, about the role of media in legislative change. It was a very informative and really interesting to talk to people who make change in their real jobs!

CTEP Training
3/11 We had our usual training at Mpls Urban League. We did a check-in activity, we formed committees and we created blogs.
I am the head of the Blog/Newsletter/Reflection Committee; it's me, Nary and Joe. We decided that we needed a member directory right away. We also have talked about a newsletter, reflection activities for people's blogs, and an end of the year compilation that CTEP members can take with them when their service is over. Like a yearbook.

3/25 Wow what an awesome training!!! I love how the Corps is coming together on a more personal level these days... we seem really comfortable talking about pretty much anything from work "opportunities" (Jeff's word for "challenges") to bodily functions. Our whole meeting seemed pretty up-beat and supportive, and we got things done. Because we're in AmeriCorps! I think after next time the committees will really be off the ground, we're finally starting to get our sea legs for roles that the committees play within CTEP and our greater service.
Linda and Rosalind of the Volunteer Mobilization Committee had an amazing presentation of the volunteer hub- a great resource for linking potential volunteers with CTCs or projects that need volunteers. http://www.technologypower.org/volunteers.html
So much to be done!

Personal Note
I love activities that pull me back a little and keep the big picture in perspective. Like Dr. Serageldin's lectures, and corps days. It's so easy to become captured and frustrated by your everyday work that I think I stay sane (okay, sane is relative!) by stepping outside and looking at what I'm doing and why. REFLECTION IS THE KEY TO SERVICE LEARNING!
Oh, and I'm excited because we have all these awesome new members! WOO HOO!

February

2005-02-28T23:05:00.000Z

This is the first month that my site supervisor Jolene and I sat down and made a plan for the month and then I got everything done! Felt pretty good about that.
At Skyline, James and I:

assessed the policies of the lab, re-worked them and posted them- on the wall, on the wallpaper of each computer, and at the front of the room.
took our list of "approved" (i.e. educational or at least non-violent) internet games and added them to the "favorites" on each computer.
made Plato the homepage so that when the kids open Internet Explorer, they immediately come to Plato. (Abdulmalik when he saw this exclaimed, "Wha?! It's a miracle! Plato!" and pointed wildly at the screen of the computer. Yeah I felt cool!)
created a how-to log in poster, featuring Tony Danza at Cathedral Hill and Harry Potter at Skyline, showing the kids how to log in themselves step by step.
went through all the software that was installed on the computers and removed the junk no one uses anymore, and then updated the software inventory.
installed the software for the new scanner!!!
discussed the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and talked about how to make sure kids have permission to use the Internet
installed the critical updates and latest flash plug-ins
finally, we re-saved the ghosts to include all of this wonderful progress and scanned for spyware. GO ROX AND JAMES!
Oh, and we recruited and trained two new volunteers- Lesley and Derek! They started on Feb. 24, and we had a dance party with Family Life in America.

I also spent some time in the office at Skyline, going through old files and organizing things so that I could find them. The quarterly report was due March 1, so I worked on that too. And I wrote a CTC Scan update (it includes the updated software inventory). I went to a meeting with Junior Achievement, which CommonBond is now a partner with, and I'm working with Alicia to do some teen JA stuff in the lab- there are CD ROMS with some of the JA curriculum and also a business and marketing online game called Titan (they have a national competition in Florida!).

At Cathedral, I started using the Plato program with the kids at Homework Center. They seem to like it okay, but the example assignments I gave them were way to easy and they mastered them in no time. I also began working with Faith on the City Teen Legends- the teen computer club. We brainstormed ideas that the club would want to work on, and how we can incorporate computers. I got Dave to install some music editing software so the teens could play with songs from CDs that they've brought down. I also talked with Jessie about how other programs that were developed or run at Skyline could be beneficial to Cathedral or some of the other smaller sites.

Events
Feb. 22 The Youth Program led a family event for parents to go to a workshop about St. Paul schools, and the kids all came downstairs for some fun! I collaborated with Wendy and Mikaela to have fun with kids. It was crazy excitement!

CTEP Training
Feb. 11 We had training at Skyline! The media cluster did a Dreamweaver (ooh dreamweaver, I believe you can get me through the ni-ight!) workshop and us CTC cluster-ers did more volunteer mobilization. I got to show off James and Wendy's VISTA work, and brag about how I've already recruited a volunteer. Really Catherine got her from the volunteer board-thing. I just e-mailed her.
We did some good team-building, like hot-seat (so far everyone has friends or family in the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community) and we sat down for three hours and hashed out a team charter-er I mean team expectations. I have to admit it wasn't my favorite part of CTEP thus far- brought me back to some not-so-favorite moments in NCCC... But I'm glad we did it and we came up with some really great stuff that we will be able to use all year.
It was really distracting to have the training at Skyline, because all the kids saw me and wanted to get into the lab. Still, I felt pretty cool because I got to show off my favorite kids! I love them.

Feb. 25 This training was pretty neat- we got a chance to talk about ourselves! I bet everyone's noticed that I don't mind talking about myself. My mom always says that if my head gets too big I won't fit through the door. Anyway, we drew our lives on a paper and then we presented to the group where we've come from. It was really neat to listen to everyone's, and Kim- our newest member- fit in immediately! I felt like it was really the first I got to know the rest of the members as people, well except Ubah because we hang out. Everyone's presentations were so good and interesting to listen to, everyone is so different! I was impressed with people's honesty, sincerity, and courage. Also with their lives and experiences! Yeah CTEP! I often wonder why I have the privilege of knowing the coolest people in the world...

InterCorps Council
Feb. 3 Pa Chua, Rochelle and I went to CTEP's first ICC meeting. It was held at Project for Pride in Living (PPL) over on Franklin, which was their exciting new headquarters and it's very posh. The meeting was rad- speakers came from the Coalition for the Homeless and The Bridge to talk about homelessness in Minnesota. Then we had a tour of PPL, and had our meeting. Topic we covered included beginning plans for spring fun day and preperation for the next ICC meeting. There were a good 20 people there from assorted AmeriCorps positions all through the state- I think ICC is great! I love connecting with Ameri-people... They are all so AWESOME!

Personal Notes
I think some CTEPers are starting to get a little upset that we keep losing people. In NCCC one of my teammates left. It was really hard for all of us, but I guess for me it's important to remember that AmeriCorps is hard and it isn't for everyone. Yeah it's rotten that people leave, but really we should be enjoying our service- it should be challenging! That's what makes it rewarding. That's also what makes it hard for everyone to do it. Well, that and the goverment policies around it! But I think those are pretty reasonable. Anyay, this is just me throwing in my two cents about team members leaving.

January

2005-01-30T22:10:00.000Z

Well, I was supposed to come back to work in this new year of 2005 but alas, I was stuck in WI. I had to call in cold. I spent new year's in the pleasant company of the Better Friends of Wisconsin (BFW) up in Ashland, the headquarters. But then Melissa's car broke. No matter! I made it back eventually, safe and sound.

In the beginning of January, Ubah and I put the finishing touches on the CTC Scan and turned it all in. I spent the month gaining more confidence running the programs in the lab and getting to know residents. The CTEP trainings gained momentum and are beginning to remind me more and more of NCCC (in a good way. Most of the time...). I also started learning how to "ghost" the computers- revert to a saved copy of the hard drive- to keep the computers up and running at Skyline.

CommonBond Computer Team
CommonBond started a Computer Team to focus on resources for the computer labs of family sites in CommonBond. We started by assessing technology resources and current programs offered at family sites. I helped with Skyline and Cathedral tech inventories. We also investigated the possibility of having Plato at Cathedral, so Dave (the IT guy) and I installed all the Flash plug-ins to get it going over there.

Service Events
Jan. 17 Since Martin Luther King Jr. Day is "a day on, not a day off" for national service, I set up a service project for CTEP. We volunteered to set up for and clean up after the annual MLK Day rally, march and main event in St. Paul. Unfortunately I couldn't go because I caught the flu. I was so mad... I hear it was really great though.

Events
Jan. 5 We held a Plato Open House at the Skyline Computer Lab, and invited all the parents to come and learn about what their kids spent their time doing in the lab. We had light refreshments (kids got a cookie for every adult they brought down) and lots of parents showed up to learn about Plato! It was awesome.

CommonBond Training
Jan. 14 I met with Barb Hydeen (Ubah's supervisor!) to learn more about the Career Advantage Program. They reserve the Skyline Lab every Tuesday.

Jan 26. I went to Immigration Training at Seward Towers. It was very informative- it was about the immigration process and the differences between immigrants, refugees and asylees. Since many of the residents at Skyline are Somali refugees, I feel it was really valuable to learn how they came to us.

CTEP Training
Jan. 6 We had training at Metropolitan State University Library in St. Paul- great facility! We had a snowball fight and got to know each other better (we had to write three things about ourselves on a paper, crumple it up, and throw it at someone. Then we read someone else's and had to go figure out which person had written it. I got Ubah's, Kien got mine). We watched a great video about an AmeriCorps program in the Bay Area and all their drama. That REALLY brought me back to my NCCC days. After pizza we went to see Chuck McDew talk about the civil rights movement in MN, and he was so great. He was very casual, and just told a strange combination of jokes and horrific stories about what he and his collegues went through. Some amazing people.

Jan. 28 Oh wow. We had a very intense training. A longtime friend/associate of Catherine's came in and gave a collaboration workshop. We discovered that we already knew what collaboration was and that it was hard and took time, and then she made us collaborate. For hours. Then and there. It was helpful though, as many of us hadn't had a chance to work with one another yet.
After that, we had a volunteer mobilization training with a woman from the Volunteer Resource Center (which is who I found out about the MLK Day thing from). It was so much fun- I found out that I am an "affiliator", which means that I like potlucks and teamwork. No seiously, we talked about three types of volunteers and the ways they like to be recruited, supervised and recognized. The other types are "achievers"- independent problem solvers that like a challenge and "influencers"- they like to take ownership of projects and be recognized by people with influence (you have to watch them though, they have their own agenda...)

Then they told us to have a Great Weekend. I love it!
(and, this was the first meeting that some of us CTEPers went out socially after. We ended up at the red dragon. How can we not feel like a community after that?)

December

2004-12-30T20:59:00.000Z

In December, I spent more time getting to know the services that we offer at CommonBond computer labs. I met with Dave, from the IT department in CommonBond, to talk about the corporate computer resources and information. Jessie trained me in the stats program that CB uses to keep track of residents that participate in the Advantage Services programs. I continued working on the CTC Scan to collect baseline data about my sites, so that I could document the work I do over my year of service. I also started brainstorming ideas for what I could work on this coming year.

CommonBond Trainings
Dec. 14 I went to CommonBond Training at the corporate office, it was overview of CommonBond as an organization. As Minnesota's largest provider of affordable housing, CB is a huge organization! They have over 50 communities, and are constantly working on planning, building, and running services at these sites. Their mission is "To build community by creating affordable housing as steppingstones to success." Their vision is "A community that acts on a common bond of belief in the dignity of all people." After training, we had a potluck. These are my kind of people!

Conferences
Dec. 1 The first ever Digital Junction Conference was held! Catherine Settanni, one of the masterminds behind CTEP, is also a co-chair of the MSNet Fund- the organization that put on the conference.

The conference was very inspiring! It was a coming-together of all kinds of community people bridging the digital divide, and there was a lot of networking. I really enjoyed the snapshots toward the beginning, because they were quick overviews of several really cool programs that were doing some important work.
I volunteered to keep meticulous notes during the breakout session, and I attended the Advocacy and Civic Engagement session (with something in there about land use planning and the environment...). We talked about "knitting" people and technology together- the difference between "access" and "literacy" is people. Someone raised the question of how we can form a paradigm of leading with community, not a technology comprehensive policy agenda. The four parts of the process, he said, were 1. access and training 2. quality of content 3. capacity building and 4. applications for individuals and communities.

The conference was intense and very worthwhile, though I think at the end everyone was exhausted from being fired up the whole day!

CTEP Training
Dec. 10 Our fist training at Minneapolis Urban League! Rae Montgomery came and hooked us up with AccessE.info. We also learned about more useful websites- americorps.org, nationalserviceresources.org, and ctcnet.org. We talked about timesheets and the CTEP book club, our CTEP e-mail accounts and the message board. Finally, we discussed the CTC Scan.

Service Projects
Dec. 17 A few of us CTEP members did a service project sorting clothes at one of the CTEP sites.

November

2004-11-30T20:14:00.000Z

I started my AmeriCorps service in the Community Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP) on the eighth of November. My sites are CommonBond Communities Skyline Tower (three days a week) and Cathedral Hill Homes (one day a week). I spent the first couple months getting to know more about CommonBond, and meeting people that I work with.

Jessie at Cathedral Hill gave me an orientation to CommonBond and Advantage Services, explaining that I would go through the trainings at the corporate office when they were offered. I went to Seward Tower West to observe the way that the computer lab is run and Jamal gave me an awesome tour.

James (VISTA in his second year at Skyline) and I went over all of the programs he runs and has developed. One of the biggest resources is the Plato program- online Macromedia Flash software for learning. He also does computer classes and job help.

CommonBond Trainings
Nov. 10 I went through Individual Services training, where we talked about information and referral. We went through the different people and programs in Advantage Services, and the process of getting residents to the resources they need.

Nov. 30 I went through Advantage Services training at the corporate office, where I met all the points of contact at corporate. They gave overviews of the programs that CommonBond has at the Advantage Centers across the sites including individual, special needs, family, career, youth, and volunteer services.

CTEP Trainings
My pre-service orientation with Jeff included Mai Lee Yang and Chad Hendrix, and we played two truths and a lie. Jeff lied about the name of his dog (it's Buddy, not Godzilla) and didn't fool anyone. Mai Lee lied about liking fishing and fooled us all. Chad lied about his height and no one was the wiser because his actual height was one inch away. I lied about having a tattoo and fooled them all.

We had our first training at Camp St. Croix with CTEP members, staff, and site supervisors. It was a fun way to get to know everyone, and get to know what the CTEP was all about. My favorite activity was when we chose quotes that were posted on the walls to discuss and then present to the group. The quotes were all data about the digital divide, and there were some fantastic conversations that came up. I think we have a great group with really diverse resources and attitudes to bring to the project!

I also went to training for Digital Junction Conference volunteers, so that in Dec. I would be able to help out with the conference!

(note that I back-dated this post to November '04, though I wrote it after Blog training in March '05)