70 hours completed...finally
To be continued....
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Post # 11
April 22, 2009
62 hours complete
An average days work for an average days pay. We went through the good old gestures of 826 with precision and accuracy. We had become pros, it was our duty to know the ropes in and out in addition to adding that small little thing that made things go from good to great. Things like keeping things organized as our co-workers, making copies of the text as the other two guys simultaneously resize two artworks with precision cuts and clean lain tape. At a few points during that day we had to get creative and do some manual editing. What I mean by that is that some pages with border lines were printed on three hole paper and we had to remake those missing lines. Sounds easy but it was a lot more challenging than we had previously expected. At first we tried putting a blank piece of paper underneath it and drawing the lines in by hand but our marker was a little too fat. Then we tried putting a paper with lines already on it underneath and taping them together, but the problem was that the lined papers contents were visible through the holed paper. Finally we managed to find a blank slate paper with lines and managed to get them pretty much lined up. After that fiasco the rest ticked by like clock work. I got paired with some fiesty kids during the afternoon who proceeded to insult me as I tried to help them with their homework. All in a days work I said to myself and continued on with my work. Unfortunatly I finished off the day with a crying child getting her way despite my good intentions. Eduardo and I were working with a girl who was in first grade and she did not want to do her homework. Because of the recent mini heat wave 826 was bringing kids to the park in small groups. There were two groups and the girl wanted to go very badly. She wanted even less to do her homework and the antics pursued. We wanted her to do three pages of the six that were do Friday and she only wanted to do one. We bargained to two but she refused and we went on like this for what may have been half an hour. Jory, our mentor, proceeded to come over when the second group was about to leave for the park and grant our little pumpkin's wish! He whisked her away to the park without her having done a single drop of homework after she turned on the water works. I left that afternoon with a bad taste in my mouth and a vow to never compromise, not even in the face of armageddon.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Post #10
April 15th 2009
54 hours completed
The smell I forgot to mention last time has since disapated. I think it was the smell of a death, the calling card of a rat past its prime. I had smelled a similar scent in my own basement and had been relieved to be rid of it as I entered 826. We had a field trip today but this time there was a new leader. Instead of Walter, who was playing Mr. Blue today, a role I'm finding more and more intreaging, there was this other dude. I'll attempt to find his name out. Anyways, he was pretty good at being a leader, in fact, he was one of the best I'd ever heard perform. He was lively, energetic, and seemed to know the ropes pretty well. A good start to a great day.
The day was hectic. The book making process took a lot longer than was expected. The artwork was the main culprit. There were apparently a lot off errors and almost as many people back there trying to rectify the situation. Hmm...I wonder if anybody is reading this...if so offer me a double high five the next time you see me, and thanks for reading! Back to the main story line-The kids left and we were still working overdrive in the back. Apparently the kids were in the park next door and we had to put the cover on the books and then bind them in addition to printing out their pictures and putting the back covers on. We had some help from a longtime intern I just meet today and she really helped us out. She did the majority of the work, we were more like helper bees.
But during this entire time the rest of the crew was preparing a surprise lunch because one of the veteran drawers was celebrating his 100th field trip; I thought they were kidding when they said it was his 100th but boy was I wrong! We had a celebritory lunch at 826 after which we had our regular tutoring sessions which went pretty well. Once again I was told I was a bad tutor, this time by a student. But I think I've gotten better, two more days, rock.
Post #9
April 9th 2009
46 hours completed
We came in not knowing what to expect and what we got shocked and surprised us. What we found was chairs! Actually the chairs werent fully assembled, they were in pieces in boxes, and we were expected to build them. "Sweetness, something to do" I thought to myself in blissful ignorance...boy was I wrong! It started out simple enough, follow the instructions, it was pretty self explanitory and I started out strong. None of it needed any tools outside of what came in the box, not until the end that is. In the end the chairs needed four screws in the bottom to complete it and we only had one screw driver. We had a power drill, but that wasnt of much us to us. So we spent most of the day doing that, it wasnt actually that bad except for the bit of skin I lost on my thumb but it was for the good of the team. I'm just being dramatic. So what we did for the rest of the day was work on our project. We brain stormed for a bit and decided to create three seperate projects and present them simultaniously. We worked on that for the rest of the day, then clocked out a bit early; all in all it was a good day.
Post #8
April 8th 2009
39 hours completed
This was a day out of our spring break, and one well spent. It was a dull day. There were no field trips because most of the kids were on spring break as well. We spent most of the day taking stalk for the shop; specifically counting magazines. There were boxes upon boxes of magazines and we were to count most if not all of them and then reorganize them. This wasn’t as easy as it would seem. The boxes were dusty and often had numbers that were misleading on the top. Everything from wrong amounts the wrong edition of the magazine, there were 16 in total. We didn’t take stalk at 826, instead we went over to a building across the street to a publishing place that was once housed in the same space as 826. The guy who had founded 826 had also founded the publishing place and 826 used there underground space to store some of their stuffs. After some brakes, a lunch one included, and long hours of counting, we finally finished counting all 8,900 issues. I feel like we acomplished something.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Post # 7
October 12th 1985 March 23
2009 32hours completed
I arrived at work later than expected to. A late bus and unexpected detour were the main contributors to this. I turned the corner and walk toward 826 and saw a group of adults. My heart began to beat faster as I realized that the elders were mearly heralds. Emissaries of the storm to come. Behind them trailed a miniature stampeed of fiesty 3rd graders. I coughed and picked up the speed of my walk to that of a light trot. As I aproached the door I steeled myself for the oncoming hurricane. Stepping through the old black gates I tore off my head phones and tugged on the glass wood door. It opened with a clank of the wooden sign that read nope on one side and yup on the other assumly synonymous with open and closed. The morning went pretty smoothly. After making name tags I assumed the role of The Hand of Doom collected the artwork and resized it. Eduardo arrived and it all went downhill. Dont get me wrong it wasnt his fault. It was the art's fault. The artisit apparently thought that it was a good idea to use the entire piece of paper to draw his fox and monkey respectadley. Now normally this wouldnt be of concern but this wasnt any ordinary piece of parchment this one a huge Scott huge. After a good half an hour of working it got missprinted a couple of times and we had to fix the problem creativly which took a good chunk of time. After that it all fell into place and things went smoothly.
2009 32hours completed
I arrived at work later than expected to. A late bus and unexpected detour were the main contributors to this. I turned the corner and walk toward 826 and saw a group of adults. My heart began to beat faster as I realized that the elders were mearly heralds. Emissaries of the storm to come. Behind them trailed a miniature stampeed of fiesty 3rd graders. I coughed and picked up the speed of my walk to that of a light trot. As I aproached the door I steeled myself for the oncoming hurricane. Stepping through the old black gates I tore off my head phones and tugged on the glass wood door. It opened with a clank of the wooden sign that read nope on one side and yup on the other assumly synonymous with open and closed. The morning went pretty smoothly. After making name tags I assumed the role of The Hand of Doom collected the artwork and resized it. Eduardo arrived and it all went downhill. Dont get me wrong it wasnt his fault. It was the art's fault. The artisit apparently thought that it was a good idea to use the entire piece of paper to draw his fox and monkey respectadley. Now normally this wouldnt be of concern but this wasnt any ordinary piece of parchment this one a huge Scott huge. After a good half an hour of working it got missprinted a couple of times and we had to fix the problem creativly which took a good chunk of time. After that it all fell into place and things went smoothly.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Post #6 - Hero Time
March 16th, 2009. 9:40-5:40. 24 hours of work completed.
Today I worked on a Monday as opposed to my usuall Wednesday shift. Jory wasnt there, and instead my (what I equate to second mentor) Sherelle was my go to person. After some initial debating about who would be Mr. Blue, the fictional producer who herasses the children during their book making session, Sherelle chose Alex over me. Fortunatly for us both, one of the interns volunteered at the last moment and we were both saved from having to be an angry energetic man who apparently has read and seen all works of fiction. Anyways, I was in charge of the resizing and cutting/pasting of the art work that the children had produced. I think I did a pretty good job despite it being my first time working on that part alone. My third day was off to a bit of a bumpy start but I perservered.
As far as tutoring (the usual afternoon shift) is concerned I say I had a productive is somewhat bumpy time. Two of the workshop's students decided to bring in their little pet dwarf hampsters, for whatever reasons, and I took it upon myself to watch over them and while simultaneously helping them and another student on their homework. Apparently I wasn't doing a good job and Sherelle decided to reprimand me and Alex for doing what she states as ' a lot of standing around'. While I made sure that the hampsters werent let loose onto the floor Sherelle stood around, cringed at the sight of the creatures from time to time, and comforted some old lady for what reason I still do not know. I, being a profesional unlike my temp. mentor, did not react to an even that displeased me in a passive agressive and immature/uncalled for manner; rather, I held my tounge and reminded myself of why I was there - for the kids! I came to help these kids make books and do their homework, and by god! thats just what I'm going to do. And in hopes of inspiring you readers I leave you with this quote "Being a hero is its own reward".
Today I worked on a Monday as opposed to my usuall Wednesday shift. Jory wasnt there, and instead my (what I equate to second mentor) Sherelle was my go to person. After some initial debating about who would be Mr. Blue, the fictional producer who herasses the children during their book making session, Sherelle chose Alex over me. Fortunatly for us both, one of the interns volunteered at the last moment and we were both saved from having to be an angry energetic man who apparently has read and seen all works of fiction. Anyways, I was in charge of the resizing and cutting/pasting of the art work that the children had produced. I think I did a pretty good job despite it being my first time working on that part alone. My third day was off to a bit of a bumpy start but I perservered.
As far as tutoring (the usual afternoon shift) is concerned I say I had a productive is somewhat bumpy time. Two of the workshop's students decided to bring in their little pet dwarf hampsters, for whatever reasons, and I took it upon myself to watch over them and while simultaneously helping them and another student on their homework. Apparently I wasn't doing a good job and Sherelle decided to reprimand me and Alex for doing what she states as ' a lot of standing around'. While I made sure that the hampsters werent let loose onto the floor Sherelle stood around, cringed at the sight of the creatures from time to time, and comforted some old lady for what reason I still do not know. I, being a profesional unlike my temp. mentor, did not react to an even that displeased me in a passive agressive and immature/uncalled for manner; rather, I held my tounge and reminded myself of why I was there - for the kids! I came to help these kids make books and do their homework, and by god! thats just what I'm going to do. And in hopes of inspiring you readers I leave you with this quote "Being a hero is its own reward".
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Post #5
March 11th, 2009. 9:40-5:40. 16 hours of work completed.
I got the store punctually at 9:00 to find that the store hadnt opened. The gates were closed, the lights were off, and the sign in the window read only nope. I had figured that I had arrived early so I proceeded to wonder around the area and return to the store sporatically to see if it had opened. I did so for 40 minutes and then got in touch with Alex to see if I had the date right. I wandered to Dolores park with my head in a fog and sat and enjoyed the morning scenery. After calling Alex back I met up with him in front of the store and the gate happened to be open. It was 9:40 then and I had first arrived at 9:00. Note to self, get earmuffs, or learn leason about store hours....noted.
Now, lets delve shall we. I experienced my first field trip today. It was as everbit as energetic as I was expecting it to be. Second graders are lively. The kids basicly come in to make a book collectivly and write their own ending. Wow. I wrapped what it takes them to do in two hours in one sentence. Then again, my sentence wasnt very creative and didnt contain a little man named David who has one hundred feet and one eye. Anyways, the stories can get pretty colorful and it takes a team of people to get the kids through the day. Theres Mr. Blue the angry producer, the typist who types the story, the drawer who draws, the leader who conducts the orcestra, and the hand of doom. Then there are the bag stage guys who resize images, cut and paste, copy and compile. After we gather all the papers together we bind the books, take pictures of the kids, and send them on their marry little ways. All in all, not a bad experience (I was backstage with the copiers).
In stark contrast my first mentoring experience I had a great time today. My first kid was a little boy of about 6 who sounded like he was 3. It was hard getting him to focus and complete his work at first, but his older sister helped get him back on track with a quick call to their mom. After we got going Sanchen and I did some reading about clocks and then began drawing. Together we made a total of three animals. A panda, a camel, and leopard; the last of which we named Sanchen (still not using real names just in case). A bit of an ordeal was had when Sanchen couldnt draw what he felt was a perfect leg for the leopard from which he gets his nickname.
After Sanchen left I began work with Mirry. She was a calm girl of about 9 years. She had a few fraction problems and two writing assignments. The math went by quickly and she began writing a chapter of a book her class was going to start reading. They had to make up there own chapter. Although hers was a bit risque, what with her main character Sara jumping out of a thirty floor foot window and landing not in the safety net of the fire men but in a trash dumpster of dead rats and smelly sneakers, I feel that it came out pretty nice. We subsequently took a break in the Pirate store and returned to finish her work. We read a Magic School Bus book about the human body together and Mirry then wrote about what she liked and didnt like about the book as was dictated by her assignment. We took some extended breaks before finishing her homework but we had a good time and all of her work got done. I really had a great time working with Mirry and hope that I get to interact with more kids of her caliber. One thing that struck me was the slow often uninterupted pace at which she read. I began reading quickly and kept making mistakes as I rushed through the text. Mirry taught me something today, slow and steady really does win the race. I think I'll try and incorperate this into other parts of my life. Like with typing and reading lines. Thanks Mirry, see you in a week or two!
I got the store punctually at 9:00 to find that the store hadnt opened. The gates were closed, the lights were off, and the sign in the window read only nope. I had figured that I had arrived early so I proceeded to wonder around the area and return to the store sporatically to see if it had opened. I did so for 40 minutes and then got in touch with Alex to see if I had the date right. I wandered to Dolores park with my head in a fog and sat and enjoyed the morning scenery. After calling Alex back I met up with him in front of the store and the gate happened to be open. It was 9:40 then and I had first arrived at 9:00. Note to self, get earmuffs, or learn leason about store hours....noted.
Now, lets delve shall we. I experienced my first field trip today. It was as everbit as energetic as I was expecting it to be. Second graders are lively. The kids basicly come in to make a book collectivly and write their own ending. Wow. I wrapped what it takes them to do in two hours in one sentence. Then again, my sentence wasnt very creative and didnt contain a little man named David who has one hundred feet and one eye. Anyways, the stories can get pretty colorful and it takes a team of people to get the kids through the day. Theres Mr. Blue the angry producer, the typist who types the story, the drawer who draws, the leader who conducts the orcestra, and the hand of doom. Then there are the bag stage guys who resize images, cut and paste, copy and compile. After we gather all the papers together we bind the books, take pictures of the kids, and send them on their marry little ways. All in all, not a bad experience (I was backstage with the copiers).
In stark contrast my first mentoring experience I had a great time today. My first kid was a little boy of about 6 who sounded like he was 3. It was hard getting him to focus and complete his work at first, but his older sister helped get him back on track with a quick call to their mom. After we got going Sanchen and I did some reading about clocks and then began drawing. Together we made a total of three animals. A panda, a camel, and leopard; the last of which we named Sanchen (still not using real names just in case). A bit of an ordeal was had when Sanchen couldnt draw what he felt was a perfect leg for the leopard from which he gets his nickname.
After Sanchen left I began work with Mirry. She was a calm girl of about 9 years. She had a few fraction problems and two writing assignments. The math went by quickly and she began writing a chapter of a book her class was going to start reading. They had to make up there own chapter. Although hers was a bit risque, what with her main character Sara jumping out of a thirty floor foot window and landing not in the safety net of the fire men but in a trash dumpster of dead rats and smelly sneakers, I feel that it came out pretty nice. We subsequently took a break in the Pirate store and returned to finish her work. We read a Magic School Bus book about the human body together and Mirry then wrote about what she liked and didnt like about the book as was dictated by her assignment. We took some extended breaks before finishing her homework but we had a good time and all of her work got done. I really had a great time working with Mirry and hope that I get to interact with more kids of her caliber. One thing that struck me was the slow often uninterupted pace at which she read. I began reading quickly and kept making mistakes as I rushed through the text. Mirry taught me something today, slow and steady really does win the race. I think I'll try and incorperate this into other parts of my life. Like with typing and reading lines. Thanks Mirry, see you in a week or two!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Post #4
So, I'm skipping post # 3 because I didnt do any hours for that week and I'm going straight into post # 4. Anyways, the day was March 4th and I was feelin good. I arrived at around 9:00 and Jory was suprised to see me (Jory is my mentor). He said that it must have slipped his mind that it was my first day that day. In actuality we hadnt really established March 4th as my first day, but since he hadnt been replying to my emails or phone calls, I decided to show up in person to see if I could get some things sorted out. The day was pretty low energy and cold in the begining. There are usually a bunch of kids running around on a field trip as a class to 826. They make a book and after the second half of the day consists of mentor/tutelage of the kids who come in after school.
I worked for a total of about 8 hours from 9:00-5:00. As I said before, the morning was pretty lax, but the afternoon is where I really got my first glimpse of what 826 is all about. Sherelle, who is basicly my second mentor, told me all about tutoring in the morning and in the afternoon she supplied me with a child...or rather two rambunctious unfocused boys. I probable shouldnt mention there names in the blog for liability reasons so I'll refer to theme as Polo and Divel. Sherelle, probable spelling that wrong, asked my to help out Divel with his homework. I agreed to do so and Polo promptly came over to help his friend derail our Homework session. I decided to help out bout Polo and Divel with their assignments which was a lot more than I could handle. Both children had dwindling attention spans and we would often spend minutes before answering one question or sitting them down from standing on the couch to steal something from a drawer or talking with another child. Once Polo left, it was a bit easier to work with Divel, but it was still somewhat unpleasant. I left at around 5 in hopes that next week would be better. Also Alex came and joined the family along with me at 826.
I worked for a total of about 8 hours from 9:00-5:00. As I said before, the morning was pretty lax, but the afternoon is where I really got my first glimpse of what 826 is all about. Sherelle, who is basicly my second mentor, told me all about tutoring in the morning and in the afternoon she supplied me with a child...or rather two rambunctious unfocused boys. I probable shouldnt mention there names in the blog for liability reasons so I'll refer to theme as Polo and Divel. Sherelle, probable spelling that wrong, asked my to help out Divel with his homework. I agreed to do so and Polo promptly came over to help his friend derail our Homework session. I decided to help out bout Polo and Divel with their assignments which was a lot more than I could handle. Both children had dwindling attention spans and we would often spend minutes before answering one question or sitting them down from standing on the couch to steal something from a drawer or talking with another child. Once Polo left, it was a bit easier to work with Divel, but it was still somewhat unpleasant. I left at around 5 in hopes that next week would be better. Also Alex came and joined the family along with me at 826.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Post #2
What is my ideal project? I'd say some sort of writing game or activity that is really fun or engaging while still being productive. I wasn't able to go in last Wednesday because of some communication issues but I look forward to this Wednesday. I don't have much to go on as far as possible projects are concerned except for my imagination. I don't recall ever playing a writing game but I'm sure I could come up with something after I had experienced a full work day. I As mentioned before there were communication errors but I do have a spot at 826 Valencia, I just need to solidify it with the signitures and papers. I will come back and update this page once I've done my first day.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
First Post - Feb 5 2009
I am regretful to inform you that I have been unable to acquire a WLE. I'll speak of the failed attempt a bit later, but for now I shall focus on my early brainstorming. Even in the beginning I was unable to come up with good ideas; even now, in my broken state, I am drawing nothing but blanks. In addition to that I have no idea what kind of project i want to do. Maybe something along the lines of prose. I do enjoy writing, but where could I go? A newspaper, maybe a internet news website or something along the lines? Either way I'd probable need to do field work/research which I have no idea how to do and am probably not qualified to do. Well, enough with the whining, lets get down to business, shall we?
Yesterday I went to the library, with friends, dressed in full "professional" garb. I had my button down shirt tucked into my blue khaki pants followed by my shined black shoes. I whore a belt of course, although I did not have a tie, bothersome things. Anyways, I went down the to public library, main branch, after much debating over whether or not to call them. In the end my advisor, Sujata, helped my decide that I should go in person instead of talking on the phone. So I went to the library after school, with a few friends for support, and did my shpeel. "I'm a student from Metro Arts & Tech High and our school is basically having us do volunteer hours, as part of a school project, at an organization or business of our choice. Is there any one I can talk to about possible doing it here?" was the song I sang at the front counter. They directed me to the info counter that was manned by a few librarians, so I made a stop over there and got a similar response. They said to either go online and look at the volunteer section or go to the humanities section on the second floor. So I opted for the later. I went to humanities and they said that they probable weren't excepting any volunteer of any sort at the moment, but said I could go to the top floor and look up the public affairs office. So I gather my remaining courage and mounted the elevator in pursuit of a fitting WLE. After some initial exploration and hesitation I finally made my way to the public affairs. I got to their desk and told my stuff after which they regretfully informed me that the person who oversaw interns and volunteers had quite recently and they didn't really have any open spots available. After a bit of a heart to heart about the school project I left in a somber mood, but still kept in my heart the flames of determination.
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