Thoughts on Death and Camp

As I noted earlier, one of my friends from the camp I worked at for four summers passed away last Friday.  Mason and I went to his calling hours on Tuesday.  It was hard.  It was in the same funeral home with the same family lined-up that his father had…

cyzygy 2005 - Day One

A week ago, our bus returned to Columbus after spending a week with our 48 Corps Members in Little Rock, Arkansas.  It was an inspiring, challenging, and bitter week.  It allowed me to be enlightened by interacting with other sites around the network while becoming severely discouraged by the realization…

Why I'm Up Late

I found out this weekend that one of the friends from the camp I worked at passed away.  His calling hours are tomorrow.  Mason and I are driving 6 total hours to attend the event and support his brother and family.  From what I've heard, he wasn'…

School Funding in Ohio

Wednesday evening, I spent two hours watching and discussing a film about the school funding problem in Ohio. It was the last of our "3D After Dark" sessions that City Year holds monthly to offer a chance at further leadership and civic development beyond what the City Year…

Prejudice, Death, and Gardens

I spent today in the courtyard of a local suburban elementary school. We worked tirelessly to reclaim the space for the school from creeping vines and dense soil. When all was said and done, our six Corps Members and 120 elementary students made a visible and lasting impact on the…

City Year Speech

I've been absent from here for a while, but there are a few good posts in the work, so stay tuned. First is a piece of wisdom from City Year.  It is from City Year's book of idealism, Putting Idealism to Work, by one of our…

R.I.V.E.R. v0.1.2

R.I.V.E.R. v0.1.2 is now available.  It is the first public version available on Sourceforge.  Head on over there and download it.  It marks a major change in the development structure of the project.  We now have a live and developer version running at all…

The American Age by Walter LaFeber

In preparation for the Foreign Service Written Examination a couple of weeks ago, I reread one of my textbooks that covered American Foreign Policy since 1896.  While it did not cover much of what was on the exam, I did jot down some thoughts as I went.  I decided to…