Whoops, it's been a while since I've done one of these things. So my car was unable to pass smog and I'm currently trying to get the guy who sold it to me to give me my money back and he's dodging my calls. Thankfully my boss knows someone in Marin (where I got it) who used to do lemon law stuff and now does legal aid, so hopefully she can put the fear of God in him.

Comment from John Dorman on October 27, 2009 - 10:55am

Colleen, I have a friend who is good at Ruby on Rails..she sometimes takes projects as a freelancer. email me if you want more info: essfilms@gmail.com

-John

On the first week with DANEnet, and now I'm relearning everything I once knew about HTML and then some!  I'm also going to be administrating some sites using Drupal, so if anyone here uses Drupal and would be a good resource, it would be great if I could throw questions at you if I needed it!

 And I have my meeting for food stamps on February 7th!

 Also, to clarify, is there NO CTC conference this year?  And what are the exact dates of the NTEN conference in DC?  Let me know, thanks!

Comment from cheryl jerozal on January 25, 2007 - 6:33pm

yes, no ctcnet conference this year. the nten conference is on apr 4-6. more info here: http://www.nten.org/ntc

Comment from danielle martin on January 26, 2007 - 3:05pm

Hey Catherine,

Of course, Ben Sheldon's doing the Drupal.

Also, our guest blogger this month, former VISTA Morgan Sully is also doin the Drupal.

And, Rebecca White, current CTC VISTA is doin the Drupal.

Both Aliya and Ben will know more than I...

-Danielle

Comment from Ben Sheldon on January 26, 2007 - 5:41pm

Brittney Fosbrook in San Francisco and also Jessie Rothschuh in LA. John Miller in Lowell as well might have some answers.

Basically, ask away your questions and we'll try to help.

Also, I'm trying to set up a strictly Drupal conference call, which when it happens, you should definitely join.

Wow...I'm glad everybody seems to be having a super-fun time in San Diego. I've spent the whole week updating 16 iBooks, using only a single installation disc, and a slow internet connection. fun.

Also, I finally got around to applying for food stamps. I'm not sure how much they are giving me, but it's not going to be as much as I had hoped. It turns out that if I had applied BEFORE the PSO, none of my "living stipend" would count as income, but having applied after my term of service began, it all counts as income. Making me poor, but not poor enough.

Comment from danielle martin on October 1, 2006 - 9:14am

Hey Gariet,

Where are you going to post your video? May I plug Blip.tv, then you could tag it "ctcvista" and it'll show up on our site! Check out my vlog on Blip if you'd like - http://mizzd2006.blip.tv/.

Did you hear anything yet from the MNN folks about digital distribution?

-Danielle

Comment from gariet cowin on October 2, 2006 - 2:12pm

I had a meeting with a couple other PCM folks last week, where we discussed the possibility of working with MNN (and a few other places around the country) on a digital distrubution network. I don't know a whole lot about it yet, but I think something should be happening with that fairly soon.

I guess I've been here two and a half weeks now; it feels so normal now that I'm wondering what to say about it.

I get the impression that my organization (the California Coalition for Rural Housing, CCRH) is very different from most of the others. We're a suite of offices rather than a community center, and I haven't yet had any contact with the population we serve. Scratch that; our audience is the affordable housing community, rather than individuals. We work with groups like other affordable housing nonprofits, town governments, lobbyist groups, and tenants' associations. So in terms of the people aspects of our work, sitting in on conference calls and going to meetings is where it's at (though hopefully I will be involved in some GIS trainings later in my service).

Comment from danielle martin on October 2, 2006 - 11:13am

Hey girl,

Great title! Makes my new "program coordinator" seem small and sad! ;)

-Danielle

Since living cheaply is a concern for us, I thought I would share this resource that was shared with me. Since there appear to be a few of you that, for many different reasons, don't qualify for food stamps, there is a group called Angel Food Ministries that has no income verification and anyone can purchase their boxes of food. If you read the About Us page, it tells how they got started and what the boxes of groceries typically contain.

It looks as though there are locations all over the U.S. so take a look and see if there is something in your area. The menu is posted for October and changes every month. The only catch is that you have to pay for your groceries approximately 2 weeks before you can pick them up, but for $25, who cares about the wait!! There are add on packs for $18 each month that change as well.

i really hope we all keep up with our blogs, because i want to be able to keep up with all of you! ok, now for some "vista life" type stuff i've been thinking about / looking into:

*** food stamps ***

according to stuff online, i don't think i am eligible for food stamps since i have too much savings (too much being more than the limit of $2,000). savings in an ira must be included toward this limit, even though according to wikipedia "a debtor in bankruptcy can exempt his or her IRA from the bankruptcy estate" and this seems like it should be a similar situation.

Comment from Richard T. Anderson on September 13, 2006 - 8:04am

Wow, "how much unnecessary stuff must one have/buy before it is wrong?," that's a deep philosophical question. I'm not sure how to answer that. Who decides what is unnecessary? Are things that are unnecessary for one necessary for another? Or is there a hard and fast rule?

Technically all one 'needs' is shelter, food, and water. But I believe everyone's lives should be richer than merely having those needs met. Though I don't believe anyone deserves to live in mansions, have five cars, and gold plated socks. But I have a lot of unnecessary souvenirs that I'd be quite upset if someone decided that I wasn't allowed to keep them.

It's an interesting debate.

I'd also like to say that I agree that there are a lot of strange things about our "health benefits" plan. Preventative care is so much smarter and saves much more money in the long run. Like so many businesses these days, the people that decided on this are not looking beyond the short term. Short sightedness has a strangle hold on our society just as much as material possessions do.

But I got the impression that we shouldn't complain too much. At least not til the end of our service. ;D

Peace

 

Comment from Corey Funderburk on September 16, 2006 - 7:56pm

Hey Cheryl,

I was thinking about your question about the moralism of food stamps and in case you wanted them, these are my thoughts: I think you should do it, because....

1-  you are on a budget and could be making a lot more money for the work that you are doing, so there is no reason you should feel bad about it.

2- By you receiving food stamps, others who need them are not hindered from getting them, so you are not taking anyone's means of eating away. You are merely costing the gov't a little more money which brings me to #3...

3- The gov't is taxing us on our stipend (and our education award at the end, pshaw!) so just consider it taxing them back :)

Corey