I Invested!

We've also gotten some great press coverage of today's launch:

New York Times: Mutual Funds for Political Giving
SF Chronicle: Mutual Funds Tailored to Political Philosophies
Daily Kos: Invest in Progressive Future...

We Launched!

My company's new website launched today.

We figured out a way to help organizations articulate the value of their work.

Then we package the organizations into NPC's "Political Mutual Funds."

So if you're interested in Health Care for example, you can donate to our Health Care "Political Mutual Fund," and know you are contributing to a portfolio of researched and evaluated organizations that will create the political change you want.

It's very exciting. We've already been picked up by the AP and the SF Chronicle.

I hope you'll check them out and tell me what you think!

Cool Schiavoni Files Stats

If you do a google search for "hardcore wedding," a schiavoni files post is #7.

If you do a google search for "hipster wedding," a schiavoni files post is #15 but more impressively (or sadly), it counts for 10% of my referred traffic.

I guess I have been to some interesting weddings this year. My friend Lauren is getting married next August and she has a couple tough acts to follow!

Steven's Shoes

I still run into my friend Steven Lurie at a ton of events.

Every once in awhile I blog about a different outlandish piece of clothing he's wearing. Today, I want to point out these white shoes he wore to the Gen Art Fresh Faces fashion show a couple weeks ago (Sep's line Distilled was one of the fashions featured).

Ouch, they are loud.

Now everyone knows I'm no fashionista (you should have heard what I said to some reporter who asked me what I thought about the lines in this year's show), but I sure appreciate Lurie's love for the outrageous.

Why I never blog anymore

I know, I'm lame. But things have been insane at work. We just hired a full-out engineering team to build our products and are in the midst of our selection process for our flagship product: Political "Mutual Funds."

What are those you ask? Well, they are baskets of vetted progressive organizations that donors can contribute to and track their "political impact" over time. So if you're interested in healthcare for example, you have an easy place to contribute $100 to healthcare organizations that have been analyzed and independently verified to make sure they are doing the work they say they do. And eventually you get a nifty report explaining to you the performance of your "holdings" in terms of political impact.

Anyhow, it's so fun working with the organizations going through the application process and the engineers building the platform for the funds. We had 125 great organization apply for the first 3 funds.

We also launched an NPC blog. Which even though it's not my deal to write posts for it (go Alison!), I feel like I'm constantly thinking about and editing blog posts. I attribute this as a major cause of my neglect of the Schiavoni files.

Come to think of it, a couple days ago I had to write a post for the blog about "Why I do what I do."

It ended up kind of long and cheesy (I got all sentimental writing it), but it was a good exercise. It's great to stop and reflect on how lucky I am sometimes. I get to love what I do now! Yay!

Emily's Hardcore Wedding

I went to wisconsin a couple weekends back for one of my best friend's weddings. I've known Emily since I was 3, and we remained close through college. She lives in Oakland with her husband Marc who plays in this hardcore band Arnocore that I've talked about on occasion.














Her wedding was awesome. The highlight (sorry Emily) was when Arnocore took the stage and played some songs. I can't imagine what Emily's grandma must have thought. Marc's entire wedding party (besides his cousin Ethan) plays in the band. I got to walk down the isle with the 6'5" lead singer.

Emily's Bachelorette

Emily is getting married next weekend so last weekend we had a bachelorette party for her. For some reason because her wedding is Mexican themed we decided also to make her bachelorette Mexican themed. Sep lent us his fat pad for the beginning of the party so we began the night by drinking margaritas in the hottub. Then we "ate" at Nick's tacos.
Then we boarded the Mexican Bus because Emily likes salsa dancing. What we didn't realize is that the Mexican Bus is for serious salsa dancers and not a bunch of chicks without partners most of whom have never salsa danced before.
We went to the first club and the bus driver tried to give us a lesson and all these sketchy dudes kept asking us to dance (which makes sense because they thought we were there to salsa dance and clearly didn't have partners).
So then we decided to bail on the next salsa dance club and go to a regular club because we could dance and figured we wouldn't have sketchy guys hitting on us. Of course we were wrong and we had a ton of sketchy 21 year olds all over the place (it must be something about a bachelorette group that draws guys like flies on....). Then we called it a night and went home. It was a good time though. We destroyed emily she sure was hurting the next morning!

Most Annoying Liberal Arts Schools

Wesleyan is a contender for the "Most Annoying Liberal Arts School" I applied and got accepted to 3 of the 10 schools on the list. Hmm....

I do feel like I went through a radical transformation at Wesleyan based on the fact that I got so annoyed with the fake counter-culture there (i.e. trust fund babies wearing ratty jeans that costs more than all my pants combined and driving their $40k jeeps while complaining we don't have enough recycling bins on campus).

When I entered as a Freshman I made my own clothes and had boy short hair. By the time I left I had no problem shopping at the GAP (even for clothes that weren't on sale...gasp), wore make-up and ate a whole lot of beef!

I've heard since I've graduated the "hipsters" have replaced the "hippies," but I haven't decided if that would be more or less annoying.

Chi-Town

Cool pictures from my day as a Chicago tourist. This is this Jelly Bean like sculpture at Millennium Park. It's pretty bad ass and interactive.
Standing in the middle looking up:
This was also cool. It's the crown fountain:
Looks like a normal fountain. But it blinks and spits.
Then we went to the top of the John Hancock building. If you go, head right up to the bar lounge which has "free access" to the look out deck. The drinks are ridiculously expensive but if you go to regular section you have to pay $10 to go up, if you go to the bar, you have to pay $10 but you get a drink. It was cool

Zamelia Wedding

I went to my cousin Zaid's hipster wedding in Chicago last week. There were lots of mustaches present as there should be at any hipster wedding (including my cousin Zaid who is pictured here with his hot wife Amelia).
Newly ordained by the Church of New Life, my mom was the reverend for the wedding. It was very cute.

There were also wigs present for those of us with short attention spans. Yea family photo!

My brother looked especially creepy in those braids. I'm betting this ends up as our 2007 family christmas card.

Elephant Seals

We took Sep's friends Sammy and Laura to see the Elephant Seals at Ano Nuevo State Park last weekend. There were also sand dunes there. Who knew there were sand dunes in northern California? Here Sep impersonates an elephant seal or someone dying from dehydration:

I learned from the docent that there used to be Grizzly bears in the area. The Native Americans would control burn the whole area in order to make it easier to see them. Then supposedly the British came over and tried to colonize the area, and made the Native Americans stop burning the area. But then the grizzlies started eating all the British children, so the British left. I don't know if this is true but it was a good story.

I think it would be cool to see a grizzly and an elephant seal together, two giants of of the natural world. Elephant seals are huge and nasty looking. And they stink. But it is fun to watch them fight and bellow. Sammy said they sounded like a garbage disposal. Sep got mad when I tried to rub some fur that had molted off of one of the seals all over his face. No, I didn't do that, but I suggested that Sammy should. Then Sep got mad about that.

cows and technology

Sep's friend and former college roommate Sammy came to town this weekend. Sammy is from Green Bay and though he lives in St. Louis right now he is a die hard sconnie boy. He was constantly checking Brewers' scores on his phone, pounding beer like I'm used to, and even gave me a hat with an old school brewers logo on it.

Then Sammy and I discussed my diatribe on the happy cows come from california commercials (although he sacreligiously admitted his favorite cheese brand is from Vermont). We then posed for a picture representing happy cows from Wisconsin:

Then we started talking about technology (techmology as Brett calls it although I still haven't figured out why). Sep's sister Maryam and Brett then did their artistic representation of techmology. After the picture, we had more of the never ending discussion about whether technology has done more harm than good to society. I think Brett scored some serious points this time when he brought up the ease of mass atrocity in wars for which technology can be held responsible.


Where was Sep during all this photography fun? He was coding in the living room. When he posed for a picture it was simply him coding in the living room. And that would have been a boring picture to post.

Working Out While Intoxicated (WOWI)

I laughed so hard when I read this chick's blog post. It's totally something I would do. Well, actually, I've definitely been on the elipticycle after a couple drinks, but even I know to stay away from the treadmill! I am barely coordinated enough to get on it sober!

Free to Be You and Me

I had the song "When We Grow Up" from the Free to Be You and Me album stuck in my head all last week for some random reason. I haven't heard that song in like 15 years. I bet I just made some of you have major flashback. I hadn't thought about that album in so long, but I must have listened to it 1000 times as a kid. And all the songs were so positive and had such good messages. Sometimes I'm so glad I had hippie parents. Just take these lyrics from the song "When We Grow Up" sung by a young Michael Jackson and Diana Ross:

Diana: And I don't care if I'm pretty at all
Michael: And I don't care if I ever get tall
Diana: I like what I look like and you're nice small
Michael & Diana: And we don't have to change at all

Or who could forget the famous "William Wants a Doll" (which I guarantee if it had been released today would have bore the brunt of endless parodies):

I downloaded the album off of iTunes today and my two co-workers had never heard it but then my other co-worker Alison started freaking out because apparently it also played an integral part in her childhood. Those were the days... ;o)

Spinal Tap

Okay, so it may seem like I got really boring again. But I promise I was less boring only in the sense that I was sick. Maybe I shouldn't blog about it because it's kind of personal and weird to talk about health problems, but I figure it may give me some "less boring" creds. You can't be considered boring if you blog about how you have been leaking spinal fluid for the last week.

So I got a spinal tap about two weeks ago because I was having some weird numbness in the left side of my face and they wanted to rule out any bad auto-immune diseases, etc. (which they did, so I am fine in that regard). Everyone warned me that the spinal tap would hurt a lot, but really it didn't hurt at all, and the doctors said everything went super smoothly.

Then like two days later I got this pounding headache. I never get headaches but this was really debilitating. I had to stay supine even to function. I kept calling my doctor and he wasn't calling me back, so a neurologist resident friend told me to go to the ER and get this thing called a blood patch. Apparently, the hole in my spine didn't close so I was leaking spinal fluid, and they would put a bunch of my blood into my back to close up the hole.

I went to the ER and waited for like 4 hours and they never triaged me so I went home since I figured my doctor would call me back and I could schedule the procedure. He finally called me back a day later (he didn't get my messages) and told me I had to go back to the ER because only anesthesiologists could do the procedure.

I went back to the ER and waited again, and then finally they did the blood patch which is actually not a pleasant experience at all and includes two needles--a huge one in your back and one taking this big vial of blood from a vein in your hand. Plus, I was so weak and messed up from the headaches that I passed out during the procedure right at the point they put the needle in my back. Apparently my blood pressure dropped to like 83 too. I woke up not knowing where I was and have to admit it was kind of scary. But eventually they finished the procedure and my headaches disappeared almost immediately. It's been four days since this happened and I'm just now starting to feel normal again. I'd say I'm about 80% but my back is still sore and I feel kind of weak still.

I've come to 2 conclusions through this ordeal:
1) Doctors are often wrong about what is going to hurt and what the after affects may be. They told me all the needles would hurt and they didn't. Then they told me after both procedures that I would feel fine afterwards, but I didn't. My back still doesn't feel right and it's been four days since the blood patch.

2) The health care system is very broken and I feel bad for all the doctors who have to exist within it with no power to change it. When I was sitting in that ER for hours and hours I got to see so many elderly people and people I presumed to be immigrants who seemed to have nothing wrong at all but who probably had no other option other than to come to the emergency room to get routine health care. Meanwhile, my neurologist has still not called to check on me. In fact, I don't think he even knows I had to have a blood patch. He didn't get my first messages for 3 days, and then had to send me to the ER instead of being able to schedule me as an in-patient. So I had to clog up the ER too even though my condition was not life threatening (although I definitely seemed to be in the worst shape of all the other people in the waiting room). It has all been so bizarre and kind of lonely.

Anyhow, in a sense, the last two weeks have been really boring. I have been in bed and extremely bored. In another sense, they have not been boring at all, as I have been worried about what was going to happen next and wondering why I couldn't get any good information from the doctors. I have also had vicodin to make things a little more lively.

I'm closing with special thank you my friends that have been checking up on me and especially Kirstin who spent a ton of time in the depressing ER with me last week in those uncomfortable wooden chairs.

I have become boring

I received an email from my friend Scott today. It read:

Congrats on the new blog. Your site has never looked better and your blogs have never been more boring. You are the anti-boring person Schiavoni so you can understand my disappointment. I am supposing that your lack of posts might indicate that you're out and about even more now — a further suggestion of your fun and exciting lifestyle — but the Schiavoni Files might prove otherwise.

That's the worthless two cents from your editor friend in D.C. Hope all's well!

I appreciated this email so much. I can always count on Scott to speak the truth.

And the funny thing is, that anyone who has talked to me recently knows that my life is pretty crazy right now. The problem is (and you will appreciate this Brett who was recently called a creationist without his consent) that although I want to share the interesting and controversial moments of my life, I don't want those elements to come up in a google search of my name for the next 10 years. Damn double edge sword that is the internet!

However, inspired by Scott, my new goal is to communicate the essence of my chaotic and exciting life without actually saying anything. This should be easy for me given my many years working in politics.

Sturvoni Files

I can't believe I forgot to mention that my dad, who recently retired, has followed in the footsteps of of his daughter and son and gone and started a blog.

It is called "Sturvoni - Busy being Born" (a reference to one of my father's favorite quotes).

In fact, now that brother Tony is going to med school and will finally not have so much time on his hands, my dad may just move in as resident male blogger of the family. It's exciting. I may not go through as much male familial blog posting withdrawal or something.

Oh and in case there is anyone who reads this thing that doesn't get the frequent Sturvoni references, my parents have different last names, dad is Sturm, mom is Schiavoni, brother is sturm, I am, of course, schiavoni, so together i guess we are "sturvoni." Not too elegant, but it works.

Bright Eyes

My brother yelled at me for starting a new blog URL and then not posting. So I'm posting tonight even though I'm not very inspired.

I guess I can write about how Tony, Sep, Brett, Maryam and I saw the Bright Eyes show last night. They were good but it was cold at the Greek in Berkeley and I didn't realize it was an outdoor venue so all I was wearing was a T-shirt and windbreaker. The opening acts played too long which Tony said is commonly the case at the Greek so Bright Eyes didn't get play their full set. But it was still a great show. I'm nominating their song First Day of My Life as one of the best new love songs of the last few years.

Other highlights from the night: Reminiscing about Soy Bomb and Impossible is Nothing video clips. Brett getting accused of hating the internet. Maryam and Brett trying to figure out the deal with Tony's side job as Leina's blogographer. Tony and Sep realizing they are both wannabe meteorologists even though neither knew what barometric pressure was.

Okay, that's all I got. It's been an exhausting few weeks. I'll try to write more frequently and not, as Tony criticized, cop out by posting videos of Chris Rock (although that was funny).

Chris Rock on SNL

Too funny not to post.

I do both

NPC in BusinessWeek

My company is profiled in BusinessWeek this week: Venture Philanthropy Goes Into Politics.

NEW HOME

Here we are at the new Schiavoni files. No, this doesn't mean I'm going to write more frequently or anything, I just wanted an upgrade. Actually more of a face lift really with better comments and analytics. When I first started using blogger they didn't even have a comments module. How times have changed. You can still find my previous posts at: schiavoni.blogspot.com

Now for #2 and #3 that I promised in my last post:

2) See the little icons next to all the live links? It's this cool new search feature that allows you to try before you click: http://www.snap.com

3) And the moment you've all been waiting for, a slideshow from last weekend's 2nd annual sausage party. Thanks to bung stuffing partner Bonnie for the photos.