23.11.04

School's going pretty well this semester. In my Intro to Human Geography class, we've been covering a lot of what seems like common sense stuff. It hasn't been very exciting, but I've learned a fair amount and it helps that I have a friend in the class.

In my Spanish American Civilization class, we've been covering specific countries in Central and South America. I'm going to be writing a paper on El Salvador's civil war and foreign influences on it, which looks like it will be very informative. I'm heading back there again this winter, January 4 - 14, so it will give me a better background on the country and what we (as the US) did during the civil war. I'll probably share my paper with the group from Wesley that's going -- we have four students this year (Jenny, Jessica, Kristen, and me), Marsha, and a clowder of social work students. (Please note: clowder is a real word.) Back to classes...Spanish is good. I think it's probably the best Spanish class I've taken at UI because it's been more fun and I've learned more than it seems like I have in other classes. I like my teacher's teaching style a lot because it involves students more than in most of my other classes.

In Constitutional Law, I turned in a paper last Thursday covering the arguments in fictitious cases. We were given a two-page summary of facts and possible lawsuits, then asked to write a legal memo (not in legal memo format) about the possible arguments with a recommendation for judgment at the end.

I think I'm basically done with the UICG website, at least for now. I have a few links to add to it, but that's a five-minute thing. The letter that's posted was the hard and laborious part of it. The UI has a script that lets you send emails from the website, so the Greens wanted to use that in order to spread our Divestment campaign. Since it doesn't seem like something that people (who could do things to me academically) would especially like, I wanted to make it difficult to send spam. Without messing with the formmail program that they have going on, the only way to do that is checking the information people put in the form before it's sent. It turns out the UI form has an easy way to do that, but I didn't learn of it until after I'd spent several hours on it (and, thanks to MJ, gotten it to work). Now that that's over with, I can move on to other things...like the 10K site.

The website for 10K got a major update recently. We announced that we're going state-wide with the project, so anyone from Iowa can volunteer (at least) 10 hours to go to the show in Iowa City. Of course, a volunteer will have to get their organization signed up with us first, which isn't hard because we have the form online and ready to go. We're hoping that by expanding it statewide we can get a broader database of organizations, more volunteers at the show, and a broader community outreach effort. It also means that we'll have lots more people to track/take care of. Due to a change from last year, I need to write a ticketing process for exactly how we're going to do tickets this year.

04.11.04

I don't feel like writing much, so I'm going to go the modern-day blogging way and just put a lot of links ot other stuff.

Here's what I've been up to lately:

• Wesley stuff, which includes free lunchin', some good homelessness stuff, Emmaus, The Federation, and other such events. (On a side note, Paul or I should update the Wesley site so that the links all work and all the content is available -- there are pages like this -- that got hits last month even though there aren't links to them.)
• 10K, especially the website. On a side note, I learned that "website" is technically incorrect, even though I have no plans to change my use of the word on this site.
• The very weak, simple, and presently useless site for UICG, currently stored on my geocities web space until the university approves it.
• Classes, from Constitutional Law (not fun, but I suppose worthwhile) to Spanish (kinda fun, useful come January). I don't really want to write about them at the moment.
• The election: I had a get together for the election on Tuesday night. Mikey, Katie, Ian, Jessica, Beth, and Chris joined Andy, Joe, and me to watch the returns. It was a long and disappointing night, but it proved that our new living room is unequivocally superior to the original setup. Maybe it's just that we have a couch, but I really found it suitable for entertaining guests.

On a side note, I found out that you can learn about the use for the public UI websites on this page -- quite a find! Who'd have thought that nearly two hundred people tried to go to the UIEC website last month? Or that Wesley got 270 hits? And had 158mb in downloads from the awesome newsletter? Interesting stuff, I must say.

Hopefully I can make a new 10K graphic (the one at left doesn't have the "The" of the name), a buddy icon that doesn't include Ben, and do some other really simple stuff. I should also get some new pictures soon, though they won't be from my own camera. Apparently some of the Emmaus pics turned out really well!

19.06.04

Right after school got out, I went back to Iowa City for the peer ministry retreat. It was good; I had fun. This year is going to be great. I think I need to do more peer ministry stuff, though -- my weekly calendar wasn't as full as I remembered it being. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something to fill that, though.

Shortly after the peer retreat, my dad got married. The ceremony was in a Lutheran church downtown and I got to see much of the extended family. I also met much of Deb's family, all of whom were very nice (Deb fits right in). After the ceremony, they had a reception at Hoyt Sherman and we ate dinner, some of us got prizes, talked with everyone else, and had an excellent time. The next morning, they hosted a brunch and opened gifts. I enjoyed seeing everybody and getting to know everybody and reading (oh yeah, I was in the wedding) the stuff for the ceremony. Not many people my age were there, so I mostly hung out with adults. I thought that went pretty well for knowing little of Deb's family and friends. After all that, they went on the honeymoon and I house-sat for Deb. It was interesting getting to know Buster and Buck, her cats, and taking care of the house. I never realized how much time it can take to just...do things. Getting the newspaper and the mail and feeding the cats and petting/brushing/playing with/cleaning up after them and making sure everything's all locked or closed or opened...and not having much stuff there...it was interesting. I did like having the DSL connection though, because I've been very spoiled at school with an always-on connection. The house-sitting forced me to be a little more independent and self-reliant, but I still went back home for dinner most nights.

Earlier this month, I went to my first full Iowa Annual Conference. I participated in a workshop with some other Wesley Center folks the day before the conference actually started, discussing the empowerment of youth in the church and how to get young people more involved in the church. Not all of it was about how my generation is a bunch of slackers/losers, and I thought it was educational. Thursday, the 10th, we had legislative sessions for a little while and discussed the importance of campus ministry. Much of the remainder of the week was plenary (the large group stuff) in which we voted on proposed changes to the legislation already on the books for the annual conference. We also had worship services, went out to eat a lot, and went to an excellent dinner hosted by the Iowa Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. It was an educational experience to attend, even if some of the large-group stuff seemed to go a bit slow.

Between the workshop and the official opening of annual conference, Loafs's dad had a heart attack. He passed away on the 9th, visitation was the 13th, and the funeral was the 14th. It came as a complete shock to me and I have tried to be supportive for James. I went to his 21st birthday party last weekend -- now there's a reason to skip annual conference -- and we also went golfing. We haven't hung out as much in the last year as we used to, and I kinda miss spending saturday afternoons and evenings going to get tro sno, disc golfing during all good weather, and playing video games with him. I can't imagine what losing his dad would be like for him. I feel pretty bad for him, because it has to be really tough. He seems to be doing well, though.

My job has been even more educational than annual conference was. I'm working at the State Court Administrator's office for the summer, creating an online training course for juvenile court judges about domestic violence. The online course is based on quizzes, with supporting documents to give the judges the feel of a real case. I spent most of the first week reading books, law, academic studies, and other materials to get a background on the subject; since then, I've been working on creating questions, supporting documents, and explanations for three scenarios. Juvenile court is much different than I'd expect -- there are many, many acronyms and other terms that I had never heard, along with a chronology of hearings which dictates how a case proceeds. I think there are about six stages in the process of CINA proceedings which can lead to TPR or FINA. The process begins when the DHS investigates a report and then a JCO brings it to the juvenile court ex parte or for a preliminary hearing so the judge can take action before the CINA petition is filed (I was very confused the first day). I'm working independently, for the most part, with oversight by a domestic violence expert in the court administrator's office and by my mom (a domestic violence expert in the attorney general's office). There's another guy doing the same thing that I am but for civil court, so we've done a little talking about domestic violence stuff but haven't worked together very much. I'm working in my dad's cousin's husband's old office, which has a nice desk and a window to the light court (like a glass-covered atrium) in the new Judicial Building.

I think my quarter-life crisis has almost ended.

07.05.04

I went running today. The last time I ran for the purpose of running was probably 9th grade, the last time we had to run the mile in PE. Since then, all my exercise more strenuous than walking has been in the form of a game.

06.05.04

Ian gave me an early birthday present -- a glow in the dark diary queen frisbee. Mikey, Ian, and I just finished playing catch, and it was excellent. If it weren't 1:30 in the morning I'd call people up to play because it's so much fun. I'll have to be sure to get batteries tomorrow to replace the ones in Ian's flashlight (I'm sure those will be expended soon). Anybody up for some catch after hours?

My finals next week will be Monday (Intro to Int'l Relations), Tuesday (Spanish Civ), and Friday (Principles of Logic). I haven't studied for them yet, but I have no class today and my spanish homework for friday involves reviewing. If I can force myself to study throughout the weekend, then I shouldn't have any trouble.

05.05.04

The 10,000 Hours Show was excellent. We had hundreds of people come, we had 13,572 hours of volunteering, and we had Ben Folds playing for an audience who volunteered their way through the doors. I loved it. Thinking that our group had put it together and pulled it off, having hundreds of people buy into the idea...it was incredibly gratifying. I can't wait for next year. I applied to be the Volunteer Process Manager, and even if I don't get the position I'm hoping to be at least as involved as I was this year.

Classes have been going better than I'd expect. I put much less time into them than I'd like and than I should, but hopefully for finals I can get my studious self to prepare as much as possible. I only have three classes left this semester; none are tomorrow. Mason and I plan to do some joint studying for International Relations and Principles of Reasoning. My only other final will be Spanish, which is only over three chapters. I'm sure it will still take a lot of study time, because the exam will emphasize short answer/essay questions.

25.04.04

The Salvadoran meal went well on Friday night. We had about 70 people come, which (assuming they donated the suggested amount) is more than double our goal. I think that we could pretty easily support the students for their full high school career if we decide to extend our commitment to four years. Gloria, Luis, Marsha, Jessica, and perhaps others began preparing food at 9 AM and continued to prepare all day. I started frying pasteles from 3:30 to 5:30, then went upstairs to eat, talk, and clean up. There was a good sized crowd for the whole time that I was upstairs, though I'm not sure how many people watched the picture slideshow or bought items from 10,000 Villages. Still, the money raised will be plenty for the tuition, room, and uniforms that the students need.

17.03.04

There is a Humongous among us.

Apparently some people (meaning Mikey, Ian, and Christine) decided to revisit the Humongous's gravesite by digging up the casket with soup cans. When they reached the Zest soap box, the Humongous was gone and there were some markings/scratches on the box. I've concluded that either the Humongous was buried alive or he came back to life and is now swimming among us as a zombie-Betta with the power to dig, swim, and volunteer to see Ben Folds for free.

Speaking of going to see Ben Folds for free, The 10,000 Hours Show announced that Ben Folds will be the artist for the concert on May 2. We have a few hundred people signed up so far, including sixty whose agreements are sitting on my desk waiting to be entered into the database. The latest volunteer fair, on March 9, netted another 74 volunteer agreements. We're still far short of our goal for 1,000 people to sign up, but we still have many existing volunteers to target and over a month to convince them that they should get a free concert ticket. If you want to personally encourage people to get involved with it, I made a couple animated buddy icons, one with the 10K Logo I made and one with Ben Folds using the gif file on the 10K website.

One of the newest additions to the 10K Service Source is the Wesley Center, which has a few volunteering events coming up. The Wesley Spring Cleaning will be March 28, when we'll try to improve the quality of the Free Lunch entrance (to make it more welcoming), clean up the grounds, and so on. Another event will be April 23, when Wesley hosts a fundraiser-dinner to support the two Salvadoran students we agreed to sponsor with educational scholarships. If you want to see what the flyer looks like, I posted it here. I have a spanish version too, but I don't really want to make it a gif and upload it since...well...all of y'all read english just fine. I think we'll get the posters put up at local churches, maybe on campus and in dorms, and particularly at the International Center. Apparently they're very sure they can sell at least 40 tickets. With their support I'm confident that the dinner will be a success.

I think that the Emmaus retreat was another minor success. A week and a half ago, I led the Emmaus Leadership Team which led the Emmaus Spiritual Retreat, a staple in the Wesley community. We had a few alumni come back, palancas from others ("palanca" is Spanish for "lever"; we call them that because we use them to lift up the group), and we had some really excellent food. Mike Morris, the cook, is truly amazing. The rest of the E-Team was also amazing, from their talks to their company to their consistent effort to make the weekend meaningful for everyone involved. Personally, I enjoyed the weekend because I got to make a train and a head (with a brain) using only paper, a cereal-box-prize car, cotton balls, tape, and markers. I also got some cool stuff from my Whobuddy, like some little cotton-ball-based guys that remind me of the things I used to get from the dentist's office back when I still had all my baby teeth (like the pre-weeples, for indian hills-ers). I also got some cool abstract-type art stuff, which serves as a nice background for the other things I got...Rob's got some artistic talent even though he denies it. There was more free time at this Emmaus because we only had five people on the team, so there was some whobuddyage Saturday afternoon when we had a break from lunch until dinner. I'm really not sure whether I prefer five or six leaders; either way people can enjoy themselves and deepen their faith....that means Leslie is in charge of deciding, and I'm sure she'll make the right decision whichever way she goes.

You know, I haven't had hiccups in a long time. I don't even remember the last time I got them. Ian, however, has been suffering from them for over twenty minutes. Our laughing at him probably didn't help him recover, but still -- twenty minutes seems like a long time to be hiccuping. I know it's far short of the world record, but in the world where no one in our apartment has gotten hiccups this year, that's an awful lot.

It's starting to get late, so I think I'm going to just give some very brief updates on what's going on in my life in the form of a list:

• I'm probably working in Des Moines this summer
• We got a new fish (#3) tonight; the name may be Mamlock (referring to the Shambling Mamlocks of Aladdin -- the TV series -- non-fame)
• Ian is responsible for the obscure knowledge of Aladdin
• Mikey is responsible for the acquisition of the fish...and a lot of junk food
• Puppy Kindergarten is incredibly fun
• I've been minimally involved in UDems, Greens, NVP, IVHFH, UIEC, and CCC
• I'm heading back to Des Moines tomorrow, then to Iowa City on Sunday for more super-fun class time
• Spring break is more than half over but I'm convinced it just started yesterday
• Mikey is Zimbabwe.
• The blokes have too many dance parties (!!!).

So much for my plan to make February the month where I start updating regularly. It's a bit late for March to fit that billing. Maybe April? Maybe not...but keep checking back just in case.

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