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9月27日 The popularity of an I.T. geek . . . . .I so love Lamp Community, but of all the time I spend there, my favorite hours are spent volunteering with the members. As far as being an employee, I wonder if they would let me change job titles to something more loved or at least loathed. I am thinking, Henchman, Hangman, Dentist . . . . . .? I know why other companies pay their IT departments so nicely - it must make up for the glares I get all day when other people break their toys. I took my favorite computer, one that used to me MINE to use when I was a social worker, and I loaded it up with memory, and fouhgt with the fan to keep it form making that gawd aweful noise it made ever since a roach died half in and half out of the casing. Eww.. the joys of working ion skid row never end...... I upgraded the OS and the Office software . . .anyway, yesterday I sent it over to it's new home office and today I went to hook it up. I turned it on and it said "No boot drive detected" - uhhhh - HUH?!?!?!? I tipped it back so I could see the front of it and suddenly the screen shows words, I put it flat and nope . . they are gone again. ARRGGH. Well, as it happens this machine was going to my friend William so I did not want to lave him with a dud, so I mourned for a nanosecond and pulled out the memory and then back to my closthet to reformat one of the donated Compaq's. I added this memory to the already installed memory and he should now have the fastest little box of all time. All in all, what a pain, and no one would believe how long all of this took. hmmmmmmm. Thank you OpsanBlog.opsan.com mentioned Lamp Community in his blog today with a requst that Lamp get his birthday gifts. How cool is that?!?!?1 9月26日 peek a booWorking
here, walking around here, eating my lunch on the sidewalk with the folk there
. . . I see the good the bad and the The ideal homeless person...The ideal homeless person Would not need to pee. L.A. has catered to this mythical person by removing all the public pota-potties. (Lamp has public Toilets and showers, but on a limited scheadule) Could stay awake perpetually. L.A. redshirts, purple shirts, and the LAPD are more than willing to shout at you, kick you, shake you, and threaten you with arrest in order to help you train to meet this standard. Owns nothing. Carts with clothing, photographs and personal hygene items are regularly removed by the city to help the homeless ease their cluttered strife. even carts clearly labled "For the Homeless" are removed to reduce that pesky urge to keep a change of underwear. Can not vote. As soon as the homeless population becomes more trusting of the political system and learns to vote, much of the homless policy will change as they gain a voice. 9月25日 The first Monday of the "Skid Row Taskforce"...and not a cop in sight. Not a single one. I work 2 streets down , and 1 block over from the Central Division Police station. When I went to my car this evening, I saw more drug deals then ever. Someone stopped a newer Honda and shouted "Where's da Pipe Man?". This is what "The Pipe Man" looks like. he is seen selling his pipes made out of little glass vases like those sold at the desk of 7/11's everywhere. He pre-packed it with little bits of Wire pads like Brillo or S.O.S. pads. That is where the rock of Crack sits and gets heated when smoked.  I took this photograph from the front seat of my car. Success! Today Stessy got her first e-mail. Okay, maybe you get email every day. Possibly, like me, you are addicted to it. I know that I know more email addys than I know phone numbers! (I know, how many times can I squeeze "I KNOW" into a phrase?!?!?) But Stessy is different. She has never used a computer before this month. She prefers to sit in a quiet space and lose herself in books rather than interact with new people and ideas. She is a small and quiet lady. To her, the world is a big and scary place. I hope she finds a comfortable home in Cyber Space. 9月22日 how honest can I be?I never hate my job, I have loved it since I got the first interview about 4 years ago. Lamp has enacted a theory called "Harm Reduction" and that is what drew me to it, Lamp also practices "Housing First" which is really the best, most pragmatic way to end the cycle of homelessness in individuals. I think i have been working removed from the members for too long. I am really getting burnt out. Nick, the IT guru has been here for 2 days and all the projects that were beyond my grasp were done. Sometimes I needed him for bits, sometimes for the whole piece. What this does is expose my limitations. Now remember, I was just a social worker one year ago and i knew as little about computers as the next guy when I took this position. . . but now? I rock. Just so you know, I rock. I am funny and friendly and will fix the lamest problems with kindness and all the limited skill I have. I will return your calls and emails and see you face to face as soon as I am able to. And by the way - i have gotten alot dine - including th hiring of Nick for half what we paid the other guy and we use him half as much - so i save Lamp a giant chink of change. Now, I know this, and now I have told you, but Lamp . . . they have no idea. They have no idea what it takes to run around all the sites and still do data entry and deep clean the database entries that were accidentially processed wrong by my helpers. i need a little Harm Reduction of my own. I need Lamp to say "Hey Sonya, Nice job, we appriciate you!" ya I know, people in Hell need icewater too. 9月19日 One of th epictures in my slide show is a bald white man. this is Mikey, he needs a good home. If you know a single woman with a good heart who is not uber needy, let me know. I will set you up. some of my facorite products I like this picture.also, I opened a shop called Pearl's Peeps to raise funds in memory of my friens Pearl who passed away less than a week ago from cancer. So far, so good! Here is the link:http://www.cafepress.com/pearlspeepsCafe PressI am madly infatuated with www.cafepress.com. I am taking someof my photographs from the row and posting them on t-shirts, mugs, etc. . If you know me, you know how much I love a good attitude shirt, you also know that I kill my clothes with stains of all origions. Looking down at my current shirt I see Icecream, pastrami, dry erase marker, and car greese. So, you see how I can use more shirts, so I might as well wear my own, I am also thinking about making all the Lamp Clothing items I have always wanted, like a baseball cap... hmm, the possibilities are endless. 9月18日 the screaming in my headif it does not stop soon, I may have to request a cubicle. It actually started on Friday afternoon when I heard about Pearl passing away. that is actually a very nice way of saying she spent a year fighting cancer, Ovarian cancer that ate a hole in her hip bone and the threatment of such burned her skin right off of her. Just as she hit remission they found multiple tumors in her brain. - side note, hey Ali, how ya gonna compete with that you faker! - there is a girl I know who pretended to have cancer so she could garner sympathy at the same time Pearl was sick. actually, I can't prove that, it is just somehting I believe to be true. Back to the topic at hand... I was driving to see William on friday and I just knew Pearl was gone. I could tell she was dead and I posted a note for her and found out soon after that I was right. I had tried helping her and her family wade through the paperwork that makes getting Medi-cal impossible. She qualified as a Terry Case because her prognosis was less than 18 months. But still, it was a shock and I have not stopped crying. To make myself feel better, I did two things. 1. I started a store at Cafepress.com/pearlspeeps . It will close January 1st and all the proceeds will go to the City of Hope in Duarte. 2. I ended a romantic relationship that I had no business being in. It occured to me that if I should die tomorrow, I would die in shame. If he were to fall ill I could never visit him, if he died - I would not go to the funeral. How could I explain what he means to me? In my last set of conversations with Pearl the topic came up of how you are percieved. I want to be more and better than this. Well, number one has me feeling much much better, and I am having fun putting items in the shoppe. Number two has been slowly killing me all day. 9月5日 I have been M.I.A.Sorry for abandoning you in the blog-o-sphere, I have not much felt like blogging as of late. I have a great little life . . . very boring really, but alot has been happening in my personal life. At least half of my family is addicted to drugs and or mentally ill. These past few months have had a flare up of complications due to these illnesses. I find that I deal with this outside of work a little differently than i do on the job. On the job it is never personal. I have a circle of passion - a neat little idea borrowed from the F&AM. I don't let much into the region where I will have to FEEL the pain and frustration of the members. I listen to them and of course I care about their lives, but I can seperate their choices from what I think of them At home, this is a different matter. Drinking, Drugs, parole violations and restraining orders that result in middle of the night phone calls to me , well, it is hard not to take that personally. Man, I am tired. It takes so very much energy to love someone through and despite their challanges. |
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