Humanize the Earth!

important stuff is hidden

This weekend I took a hammer and punched some holes in my bathroom walls. Then I punched some more and made them big enough to see where the plumbing and electrical was behind those walls. We’re renovating so will be removing some of these walls anyway and wanted to see what was in there to assess our possibilities. I don’t understand much about plumbing. After seeing in there, I still don’t understand much. And now I know how little I know. There are 1/2 inch copper pipes feeding the sink, for example. One of them runs both up and down from the point where it goes into the sink. The down branch runs close to the floor and then seemingly around the tub, maybe to hook up with the hot water supply over there? The cold one going down is capped. Going up, it seems to go into the ceiling.

So anyway, it got me to thinking about how much of the time in life we live with just what we see on the surface, never really understanding what’s going on behind the drywall, so to speak. Profound, huh? :-)

theme update

I mentioned earlier that was checking out themes. I’ve changed again. This time to Minima Plus by Theron Parlin. This gives me the dropdowns in the sidebar that I wanted. I’m going to start learning how to customize it now. You might not even recognize it by the time you read this.

import success

Thanks to Michael, Andy and Catsutorials, I managed to get all my old posts imported. Makes for some strange posts because I was winding down at the old place at the same time as gearing up over here. From here on out, however, it should smooth itself out. Woo hoo! Time for bed!

playing with themes

“Themes” is the name wordpress gives to the look of a site. Notice that all of my data is the same as it was before I switched themes, but everything is formatted differently. I like this one better in some ways. I lost some of my sidebar information. Maybe I’ll need to learn how to customize these things. I’d also prefer to have a dropdown box for my sidebar stuff. I’d like categories to be that way (once I have categories, which I don’t yet). Anyway, learning, learning. :-) This them is called Shaded Grey by Sadish Balasubramanian

the Commons

For the last year I’ve been workin with Julie on her idea of the Commons. Sometimes we call it a Giving Commons, other times a Networking Commons. Part of me feels that it’s all just too complicated to ever work. I try not to tell Julie that, however. She’s following her heart and her energy is infectious.

And then I get to thinking about the Commons that’s so familiar to my way of thinking. From OnTheCommons.org | Build It and They Will Sit:

There’s a vacant lot on Main Street, right next to a gift shop and a bakery. The bakery has a couple of benches outside, and a small ledge created by a quirky two-tiered sidewalk. In the mornings the place is buzzing. It’s our central meeting place and hangout; and more than one person has noted that the vacant lot would make a natural extension of it. There could be benches, some tables for eating or for chess, maybe a play area for little kids. It could be the heart of town.

A few folks are looking into raising money to buy the lot. Meanwhile, a friend and I decided to see if we could make a commons happen, just by seeding it a bit.

The whole article is worth reading. Public space is something really important to me. It’s a different concept, of course. I’ll work on both.

The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions

I just finished reading Sister Helen Prejean’s 2005 book The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions and on the same day, this post from last December came up in my rss reader (didn’t seem changed either - weird): Sister Helen Prejean’s Blog: I’m Inviting You to Help …. Great follow-up book to Dead Man Walking.

food & co-ops meet open source in portland, or

From Portland Indymedia: Co-ops making history! World’s first open-source POS system at People’s Food Co-op:

This past weekend People’s Food Co-op in SE Portland made history. During a conference with tech and IT folk from co-ops around the country these über-geeks assembled and successfully rang out items on the world’s first entirely free, open-source point-of-sale system. A point-of-sale system (or POS) is the software needed to run a cash register and manage the pricing of all the items in a store.

Let’s face it, I like food. And I live in a housing co-op. And I’m a new convert to the church of open source. This article is way cool and signals the slightested tightening in corporate control. Woo hoo!

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Adrienne Arsenault abandoned in the Gaza Strip by CBC

My friend Sue wrote about being locked out by CBC (Candian public broadcasting) and about Adrienne Arsenault

Adrienne Arsenault was sent by CBC management to the Gaza Strip to cover the withdrawl. Yesterday the employer who sent her there cut off her cell phone access and cancelled her American Express credit card. They abandoned her in the Gaza Strip. They did this because of the lockout, and because Adrienne Arsenault, like so many of us, is a contract union employee. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation abandoned a woman in a war zone, a woman they sent there to do their business.

Please follow the link and read about this situation, especially if you’re Canadian. If you know Canadians, please let them know.

Call for Geeks!

Mickki posted a Call for Geeks!

I need geeks for the opendistro project. If you are a geek who’s somewhat reliable and interested in doing a quick project (that seems easy)…please email me! You can also just reply here and I’ll give more details to anyone who’s interested. Basic gist of the project - build install scripts for open source / freeware software packages along with update/patches subscription service. See opendistro.com for more info (although, the site isn’t complete, so look mostly at the Productivity Toolkit for an idea of what we’re planning)

Mickki and Arthur have quite a few cool things going on, not just open distro. They’re a big part of the reason I’m learning Ruby so perhaps one day I’ll have some way to be compensated for using those geeky skills. It’s really hard to part-time as a bureaucrat, or work at night or odd hours, or just when I choose to.