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is interfering with my snow play. A trip to Tahoe revealed brown mountain tops and people skiing in tank tops. In the book of Lunamania, skiing in a tanktop is akin to surfing in a wool sweater. Wrong.
I'll share more about the trip later--hot pot adventures, scabble high score, ghosts, fraudulent real estate agents, and picnics in Auburn. But till then click on image above for photo fun.
Here's an article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy that I find quite amusing:
Long Hours, Low Pay Turn Off Young Nonprofit Workers, Study Finds…
A friend who advocates on behalf of low-wage immigrant workers noted, "hey, Long Hours, Low Pay, that sounds like a panel at a sweatshop conference." I recall I once worked on a publication that sounded eerily similar too. Hey, but who's complaining...no doubt that I'll grovel for a grant and assign myself to hours of program reports before risking my life and limb as a garment worker, day laborer, or domestic worker.
The article is a bit of a no-brainer. The funders behind this "study" should have just corralled (in foundation-speak the word would be "convened") 10 non-profit managers and you'd have gotten to the same findings.
While noting the consequences of a non-profit grind that offers little in terms of a "career ladder," the article fails to address bigger structural and "movement building" (love that funder-talk) implications. As social justice movements have become more institutionalized, organizations supposedly committed to "rapid response" and "innovative strategies" to address "emerging needs", find themselves dedicating nearly all their time to meeting proposed "deliverables", scouring about for small grants that don't quite hire a full-time person at a living wage, reporting on "organizational developments" such as staff turnover due to aforementioned not quite full-time person leaving to seek an actual living wage which in turn thwarted "meeting proposed objectives."
I could go on and on, but rather than write about it for free, maybe I'll see if I can find a funder to pay me. I'll "cultivate" the funder--first, plant the seed establishing a need for this kind of analysis, spend 2 years alluding to this "need" as recurring issue tangentially related to the funder's core issues, conduct a peer needs assessment survey, front a thousand dollars in publication costs to make the survey findings glossy, do a couple of unfunded workshops at random conferences and cite to my own survey to establish myself as the recognized "expert" in this field---all so I can not blog for free.
It's been a minute and I'm happy to report that there will soon be big changes to report. I promise they won't be hidden blog tweaks or about my cat. On a feline note though, Tamu is on yet another yo-yo diet. This time he's trying Wallabee's wet food plan. Will report results in a few weeks.
Anyway, in honor of St.Patrick's Day, I waxed my legs. That makes no sense. Nobuko and Mijoung somehow convinced me that waxing was infinitely better than shaving. I could never get down with the feminist leg fur. I know, it's so un-PC of me. So with the Naturally Hair Free Monkey cheering, da Lipat looking on curiously, and everyone happily full of Nobuko's corned beef, the resident demographer gleefully tore away. I could be gross and post pictures, but that would be well...gross. This blog has some standards to maintain. Similar to the Tamu's weight loss progress, I'll report back in a few weeks.
The downer news of this weekend is that damn snow storm in New York. It's grounded all flights out of JFK. This means Janagino cannot come and enjoy the wine, sun, birthday celebrations and tasties in the Bay Area. A major bummer, but perhaps this means a longer visit later in the spring? I hope so!
Unless you are looking to make new friends via online tech support forums, I would not recommend Movable Type to house your blog.
Although it is probably the most versatile and powerful blogging tool, making elegant and efficient use of the varied functions is not a simple task. No one warned me that knowledge of basic html and css, facility with uploading and installing program via ftp and a desire to fret over deleting years of those Pulitzer caliber entries, are all necessary attributes to thoroughly enjoy MT.
Of course, I did not take my own advice and years ago...yes, it's been years since the founding of this sad blog, I chose MT. To be fair to myself, back then Wordpress was nowhere as advanced, TypePad was not really an option, Blogger hadn't yet been gobbled by Google and it lacked flexibility, believe it or not, photoblogs were nearly non-existent, Britney had hair, and Michael Jackson was still black--ok, it wasn't that long ago. Anyway, how far we've come in a mere four years...
All that waxing tech nostalgic, I can hardly remember my point. Oh right, so after all this time, Lunamania has been over due for some basic housekeeping. Unless you're a spambot digging through the archives or someone dying to know what I was doing back in December of 2003, you won't know the difference. However, I try to give tech props where they are due so a thank you to the handy Sidebar Manager plug-in. Since it's widget directory is so limited, I can't say it rocks, but at least it's one advantage of the MT upgrade.
Now for those of you who read that incredibly boring entry, here's a treat. I'll be spinning at Lucky Lounge in Oakland this Wednesday. Come hang out and join me as I fret over Greenland's melting ice caps, or just come enjoy the music and ignore my frets.
Oh gentle reader, this must be your lucky week! It's not even Wednesday and here is a tune to enjoy. I'm fortifying for what I already know will be a long week. So I'm visualizing a who knows when it will ever happen vacation and soundtrack.
Cheers to a balmy breeze, the sound of waves, a sun kissed dusk accompanied by a fruity friends and equally fruity cocktails.
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.