Photos from Podcamp Philly
This weekend I was at Podcamp Philly which is the first Unconference-/BarCamp -style gathering I’ve been to. It was held at Temple University and there were maybe 250+ people there. I was really excited by all the people who are so enthusiastic about new social media and the web, really inspired me to start blogging again. Well, to try to get back on that horse.
I’m going to try to make some time to write about the actual sessions I attended and the conversations I had (we talked a lot about twitter, but for now, here’s the Flickr photo set of the weekend.
a funny email I got this weekend
Mark, the organizer of the Netzwerk Philadelphia German group (meetup) that I’ve been going to pretty regularly since I moved here sent out a hilarious email to a few people. There’s been an outflux of people in the past few months, started Martin who moved (back) to Germany, Sylvia who moved to San Francisco, Gundula who went back to Munich (she was only ever going to be here for a year), and now Marc, Stefanie, and their son Jakob are moving back to Germany too!* Besides considering them part of the “core” group, Mark’s totally in love with Jakob , who is possibly one of the cutest and most good-natured babies ever. It’s really sweet that he’s throwing a bit of a farewell party.
Liebe Genossen und Genossinnen,
Fellow workers and comrades. The Socialist movement is as wide as the world and its mission is to win the world, the whole world, from animalism, and consecrate it to humanity. To realize this great social ideal is a work of education, and organization. The working classes must be aroused. They must be made to hear the trumpet call of solidarity: economic solidarity and political solidarity.
Genosse Schmidt and Genossin Storf have carried this work forward here in the stomach of the Capitalist beast. Yet, there comes a time when those who have fought the proud fight against pre-modernist, ex-parte and post partem imperialist oppression must return to the the socialist fatherland to once more make common cause with the proletariart and to acquire adequate health care coverage.
That being the case, you are invited to celebrate the departure of our faithful comrades-in-beer, Genossin Stefanie Storf, Genosse Marc Schmidt, and Genosschen Jakob. We will be convening at the address below on Sunday, September 14 starting at 5 pm. Following Genosse Hass’ self-critical session on “Marcuse and the Dialectic of Strudel”, food and drink will be served, courtesy of the people and our global sponsor, Wachovia Bank.
Attendence is mandatory. That includes Genossen Swaboda and Gebauer. Please let us know if you can join us!
Yours in Solidarity,
The Central Committee for the Establishment of Peaceful Coexistance and Repatriation to Germany
*There have probably been others but it’s not coming to mind right now. I suppose the list looks pretty sparse to represent an exodus but since they were all pretty frequently at the Stammtische it’s like a bunch of regulars are disappearing :-(
Sorry for the lack of updates...
It’s been really difficult finding reliable internet access that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
My pictures are also all on my laptop, so until I find a wireless network or a way to get internet onto my computer, I won’t be able to upload any more pictures.
I’ve been at Schloss Sommersdorf for the past two days, and it’s been really quite pleasant. I’m in the Gothic Room, which is this enormous bedroom + sitting room on the third floor of the “new” part of the castle (new as in… 16th century, maybe? I can’t keep the dates straight in my head). It’s a little bit scary at night, sleeping in a room the size of my entire apartment in Philadelphia, but a nightlight helps a lot.
Last night was the castle tour and candlelight dinner, hosted by Baron (Dr.) Manfred von Crailsheim and his wife Baroness Lilo (apparently in German you say [i]Baronin. The castle is quite an amazing place, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun if any of you ever decide to come here… so let’s just say that you get to meet some of the Baron’s ancestors!
The dinner itself was wonderful—I ate way too much—a rather traditional fare of vension, sauerbraten, spätzle, sauerkraut, pear w/berries, and hot raspberries/red berries on ice cream. All of this was then followed by coffee and schnapps!
We also watched a short TV clip from Extreme Homes (I think it runs on the Home and Garden channel) that featured the castle in Sommersdorf. Quite entertaining if you can find it online or something—drop me a comment or an email if you do.
Zürich Airport
The ride up to JFK from Philadelphia was not too pleasant. I hardly ever get carsick, but being jolted around on the shuttle from Philly to New York, with multiple stops in New Jersey to pick up random people at hotels, made me quite queasy. I think I might explore a way to take Amtrak back, maybe even the Chinatown bus or NJ Transit. At least that way I’d have a headrest.
I did make it in plenty of time to check in for my flight to Switzerland, though I have to admit envying the people seemingly randomly picked out by the Swiss Air staff who got to move out of the economy check-in line and over to the business / first-class counter for a speedy check-in. They don’t take your luggage right away anymore at check-in, you’ve got to bring it over to this scanning area yourself. Of course, I got in the wrong line (all the other luggage was going to South Africa) and had to go back.
One of the reasons our flight was late leaving was that the previous flight (Continental) had been held up. While there may have been other reasons for their delay, the one I saw was that a woman had forgotten / lost her rosary (presumably at security). They held the entire plane and a gate agent came running up with this giant metallic necklace-thingy —well, a rosary— so they could finally leave. Somewhat mind-boggling, but I suppose you need all the good fortune and divine favor you can get when flying these days.
Our Swiss Air flight staff was charmingly discombobulated and in amusing disarray the entire flight, frantically counting passengers before take-off and making desperate announcements like “Please sit down so we can finish serving breakfast. We have to be done in fifteen minutes!”
A few pictures:
View from the airplane – my German seatmate with the window seat kindly leaned out of the way for me to take this.
Amusing signs on the smoking lounges in the airport. Just exchange Camel or another cigarette brand for Winston, but all of them have that delightful phrase below:
Schloss Sommersdorf
Dr. Manfred von Crailsheim (aka “the Baron”) just sent me a beautiful picture of the castle.
Off to Germany, Czech Republic, and Hungary
Since I’m taking off on Tuesday (Sept 19) for my first work trip, I thought I’d resurrect this site as sort of travelogue. A bit of a rundown of what I’m doing…
Basic outline:
Tuesday 19 Sept 2006
Flying out of JFK -> Zürich -> Frankfurt am Main
Wednesday 20-27 Sept, 2006
Staying in the little town of St Goar along the Rhine in the Christmas Lower apartment
Wednesday 27 Sept – Sunday 1 Oct, 2006
Taking the train to Ansbach, driving to Schloss Sommersdorf, meeting Doktor Baron Manfred von Crailsheim.
Sunday 1 Oct – Thur 4 Oct 2006
Train to Prague! Staying in an apartment near the National Theater, fumbling around linguistically since my resolution to learn at least a few sentences of Czech didn’t really ever work out. Maybe Kim will make it over from Austria…
Overnight train (must remember to try to get sleeper-car reservations) to Budapest
Friday 5 Oct – Monday 9 Oct 2006
I’ve never been to Budapest, so this last-minute add-on was just so I could do a whirlwind visit. I’m really excited to go there, though, and Giovanna promised to send me a list of things to do there, since she spent a semester in Budapest on a math program.
Flying home early on Monday morning from Budapest to JFK via Zürich
Asian Arts Initiative Journal #2
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Since Betsy was not going to be in Monday and President’s Day, we arranged that I would come in Wednesday this week and next week. When we met today, we went over my schedule, including helping out this Friday at the MANTRA open mic event. Betsy updated me on several different things going on. The save-the-date postcards for the annual fundraising banquet (of which I received some to distribute) and the search that just started for a new position, Director of Development and an internal search for a new program assistant. I also brought up the possibility of outsourcing the AAI’s email through a recent initiative through Google. I had sent an email to Betsy earlier this week and was pretty excited about the possibilities for the organization, since it would simplify the current email setup and offer more possibilities/functionality. I had hoped that we could at least apply for the (free) program, but Betsy said that she would have to discuss it at the staff meeting.
It was somewhat surprising to hear this since I thought it was a relatively straightforward matter to sign up, since it wouldn’t be a commitment. I had forgotten that even small organizations have specific channels for making decisions.
Betsy and I worked using the database software some more to estimate a better idea of how many people will need to be called during the call-a-thon on Wednesday evening. We also discussed the details of when the calling would take place and by whom. I spent much of the afternoon rewriting the script for the call-a-thon. I found it was hard to switch to the mode of writing for a telephone call, as Betsy had to point out, many of the phrases or sentences I was using would be awkward on the phone or didn’t reflect regular speech patterns.
I also had the task of investigating the possibility of setting up a mailing list for the participants in the Artists’ Exchange program, which one of the board members had suggested we set up (modeled after another organization’s mailing list). I looked around on the web-interface for the mail setup and found some mentions of mailing lists but no actual way to add them, so I called the customer service number of the company. After spending a long time on hold with someone (who seemed very confused by my request), I was told that they didn’t offer that functionality. I’ll have to look into other, outside possibilities that still allow the “asianartsinitiative.org” tag to be visible.
Asian Arts Initiative Journal #1
February 6, 2006
Today was my first day at the Asian Arts Initiative. It is located on the 2nd floor of a building sort of near Chinatown and very close to the Convention Center. Unfortunately, the planned expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center is forcing the Asian Arts Initiative and the other groups and artists in the building to move, though most likely not until next year, or December at the earliest.
It looks like my schedule will be mainly Mondays, from 10am-4pm. Occasionally there may be evening events, like MANTRA on February 17, 2006, which is the bi-monthly open mic series. Betsy Self Elijah, Operation and Grants Manager and my direct supervisor, suggested that I might want to attend a few of these events, to see some of the direct work that the AAI does.
The first project I’ll be working on is the call-a-thon. I will be arranging for volunteers to contact donors in the database who haven’t made a contribution yet this year, basically a follow-up on a mailing several weeks ago. It also involves preparing and updating materials for the volunteers and working with the donor database to make sure each person making the call has all the necessary information about the donor. This is part of the winter request cycle, another one takes place in June.
I also learned the system for being on reception-duty, which involves answering the phone and greeting the few people who come into the Asian Arts Initiative. Everything is very well written up, including some basic scripts for answering the phone in different situations. For example, there are suggestions on how to field calls from potential volunteers, potential interns, for “artist referrals” (although I’m still not quite sure what this means – given that there is a different (indifferent) response for people who are looking for “Oriental” performers), and also for space and equipment rentals.
Both of these activities have been very helpful in familiarizing me with the day-to-day and recurring activities at the Asian Arts Initiative and in giving me a better sense of the mission and purpose of the organization. In the reception folder there are posters for upcoming workshops (they could be better designed; appear to be mostly MS Word Clipart) and a general events listing with tentative dates through March. Reading through the documentation and guidelines for donor fundraising also is giving me a better idea of the working style of the organization.
Chon, one of the other interns (she has been doing work-study at the AAI since 2004, and was a participant in their youth programs before that), helped me out through the day by showing me the ropes, basically. We hand-delivered a grant application to a funder nearby. The Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative is in a large building and shares a new space with several other non-profit organizations and foundations. Full of glass, modern-looking furniture and a dedicated receptionist, it was a very different set-up than the Asian Arts Initiative. In the afternoon I had the chance to talk with Gayle Isa, the executive director about her work at the organization, since its founding. We also talked about the different types of non-profit organizations that serve the Asian American communities in the Philadelphia area.
Rodents Attack!
Terrifying experience… catching mice in my room.
I called workbox and there are now traps. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) nary a one’s been caught.
midnight snack
I bugged Sung for a persimmon tonight, since I was still starving after eating a fuji apple.
I think it may have been the first one I’ve ever eaten, other than a random bite here or there.