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!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, July 20, 2007
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!
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.
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.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
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
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.
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.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
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.
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.
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