- sudo-discuss - sudoroom.org

Wednesday "Immersive Afternoon: Organising without Bosses"

by Pete Forsyth

Hi all, I just learned of this workshop, run by people from Enspiral: Enspiral <http://www.enspiral.com/> is a collaborative network of over 260 professionals and 18 social enterprises headquartered in Wellington (New Zealand), with nodes in other locations around the country and internationally. It exists to create a system of work where people can focus their energies on what is most meaningful to them – solving the biggest problems of our time. I thought this might be an excellent opportunity to somebody from Omni. I have the sense that Enspiral has accomplished much of what Omni aspires to, and may have valuable lessons. The workshop costs $40. There's also one on Monday (tomorrow) in SF. If you want to attend, you should RSVP ASAP -- last I heard it's possible they will cancel one or both due to low sign-up. And if the cost is prohibitive to somebody who really sees value in Omni to attending, let me know -- I could pitch in. Since I'm not on the Omni list, I hope somebody will forward this! -Pete [[User:Peteforsyth]]

10 years, 7 months

1
2
0 0

Re: [sudo-discuss] [omni-discuss] missing mac charger

by Laura Turiano

I found a Mac charger on the main table in Sudo. Does this belong to anyone? On 10/6/15 3:43 PM, Chloe Minervini wrote: > I'll keep an eye out! I also misplaced a small real tree jacket then. > If anyone sees it let me know please! > > Best, > Chloe > > On Tuesday, October 6, 2015, Laura Turiano <scylla(a)riseup.net > <mailto:scylla@riseup.net>> wrote: > > I couldn't find my macbook charger after Becoming Omni on Sunday. > I'm wondering if anyone has come across it since then? > > <3 Laura > _______________________________________________ > discuss mailing list > discuss(a)lists.omnicommons.org > https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/discuss >

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

trying to fix the door card reader....

by Morgan Allen

can anyone suggest how the electric strike is wired? Robb and I are trying to get it to open with little success. -- http://ithoughtyouweretherobot.com Metal and Wire http://nolonelyguineapigs.com/ Wandering and Rambling http://morglog.org Old and Neglected. -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: OpenPGP.js v.1.20121007 Comment: http://openpgpjs.org xsBNBFG3btUBB/9+/WJNOSIuc/praKPaPOweqXV5s7PGRD+HAnNWF/19YAY3 AFtfeoelhhY4sMJoobTaJzcZojznZ1kl/7UuuYCnbJO3Z9kaSMVrVxEZMSLe YmW8Hc4ZsTnl9f05DQFy8ABpAvMLmXJQXh63BbfzjFqNbSWQfLhrubSM2Elq xmN6EsmRyAuEeYlSnal+Di2MlViohpCbbagE2D6AZTUECIamTib6+DuLG4XO b4GGKHR9TXu2qS1VH6hqcvdEz2MDE5OqZzAnBgcF2dvcOdTk9gAOoR1T+qKj IJtg2X0ETbxcPqEXQoXE8VrxN0MLT5JQKTg26+csU4P2w0rEWsUsJombABEB AAHNJU1vcmdhbiBBbGxlbiA8bW9yZ2FucmFsbGVuQGdtYWlsLmNvbT7CwFwE EAECABAFAlG3btwJEG9pFLKaVEfeAAD7hwf+K8LN/kfgi8GTRLiTcuM+hSbm uAeiBY+VaJIQFLzoFlt8A0hBlLNPFNNmUDxdPrMErdHgZ7HtJW/6RANuBTti 5hr3EBguH1GQyK7BbUqJGvaEX4UNRej3uyX3ufXDsIB/3NsKaTyyu+SO0+Hv Cn2DwmlfSXcPhoarx6Turizn/WwgtTN3tqrMWxxiCKWydLH5xYuz+23BLMdc oF/zkbF+7ddFhmyfiFh4Ej9//tsfwPj2cACU3uLTrcwCo7IxUtkrqMF/fhlm LEqjhzDDjq9v7GNWb/5xB2xgTaucJ7/ljuS8nPlZqwCI8NlTgSqC8nyVLyjS yVtOzkItcS0UqyW1Mg== =V/Ia -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

stuff!

by Jake

https://mobile.twitter.com/ChrisStumph/status/651467135537975296 @sudoroom Any interest in a garage full of old radio gear? Been informed it’s going to the dump otherwise: https://cloudup.com/cIxs99zBOqz 11:40am - 6 Oct 15

10 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Re: [sudo-discuss] Freesorces - free resources listing for SF

by Vicky Knox

This is awesome! I just created a San Francisco LocalWiki article <https://localwiki.org/sf/Free_resources> linking to the PDF. On a similar vein, the Oakland Wiki has an article on all things free <https://oaklandwiki.org/Free> (free eats, dental care, festivals, etc.).

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

pork rinds

by Candace Lazarou

If I take a bucket of pork rinds bigger than your head to sudo, will somebody eat it or will everyone be grossed out?

10 years, 7 months

4
4
0 0

towing dolly

by johanna faust

does anyone have a towing dolly to lend ? time sensitive. -- *Be seeing you.*

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Key policy

by yar

Omni has a new front door, the locks have been changed, and our new key policy is in effect: https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2015/05/07_Weekly_Delegates_Meeting#Prop… Any member will be allowed to have a key card, but Sudoroom still has to decide who gets a hard key. Should we give one to every member who wants one? Should members have to specifically ask at a meeting? For the record, I want one.

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps | The Homeless Adjunct

by Romy Ilano

Ouch! Interesting read https://junctrebellion.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/how-the-american-university… How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps A few years back, Paul E. Lingenfelter began his report on the defunding of public education by saying, “In 1920 H.G. Wells wrote, ‘History is becoming more and more a race between education and catastrophe.’ I think he got it right. Nothing is more important to the future of the United States and the world than the breadth and effectiveness of education, especially of higher education. I say especially higher education, but not because pre- school, elementary, and secondary education are less important. Success at every level of education obviously depends on what has gone before. But for better or worse, the quality of postsecondary education and research affects the quality and effectiveness of education at every level.” In the last few years, conversations have been growing like gathering storm clouds about the ways in which our universities are failing. There is talk about the poor educational outcomes apparent in our graduates, the out-of-control tuitions and crippling student loan debt. Attention is finally being paid to the enormous salaries for presidents and sports coaches, and the migrant worker status of the low-wage majority faculty. There are now movements to control tuition, to forgive student debt, to create more powerful “assessment” tools, to offer “free” university materials online, to combat adjunct faculty exploitation. But each of these movements focuses on a narrow aspect of a much wider problem, and no amount of “fix” for these aspects individually will address the real reason that universities in America are dying. To explain my perspective here, I need to go back in time. Let’s go back to post World War II, 1950s when the GI bill, and the affordability – and sometimes free access – to universities created an upsurge of college students across the country. This surge continued through the ’60s, when universities were the very heart of intense public discourse, passionate learning, and vocal citizen involvement in the issues of the times. It was during this time, too, when colleges had a thriving professoriate, and when students were given access to a variety of subject areas, and the possibility of broad learning. The Liberal Arts stood at the center of a college education, and students were exposed to philosophy, anthropology, literature, history, sociology, world religions, foreign languages and cultures. Of course, something else happened, beginning in the late fifties into the sixties — the uprisings and growing numbers of citizens taking part in popular dissent — against the Vietnam War, against racism, against destruction of the environment in a growing corporatized culture, against misogyny, against homophobia. Where did much of that revolt incubate? Where did large numbers of well-educated, intellectual, and vocal people congregate? On college campuses. Who didn’t like the outcome of the 60s? The corporations, the war-mongers, those in our society who would keep us divided based on our race, our gender, our sexual orientation. I suspect that, given the opportunity, those groups would have liked nothing more than to shut down the universities. Destroy them outright. But a country claiming to have democratic values can’t just shut down its universities. That would reveal something about that country which would not support the image they are determined to portray – that of a country of freedom, justice, opportunity for all. So, how do you kill the universities of the country without showing your hand? As a child growing up during the Cold War, I was taught that the communist countries in the first half of the 20th Century put their scholars, intellectuals and artists into prison camps, called “re-education camps”. What I’ve come to realize as an adult is that American corporatism despises those same individuals as much as we were told communism did. But instead of doing anything so obvious as throwing them into prison, here those same people are thrown into dire poverty. The outcome is the same. Desperate poverty controls and ultimately breaks people as effectively as prison…..and some research says that it works even MORE powerfully. So: here is the recipe for killing universities, and you tell ME if what I’m describing isn’t exactly what is at the root of all the problems of our country’s system of higher education. (Because what I’m saying has more recently been applied to K-12 public education as well.) First, you defund public higher education. Anna Victoria, writing in Pluck Magazine, discusses this issue in a review of Christopher Newfield’s book, Unmaking the Public University: “In 1971, Lewis Powell (before assuming his post as a Supreme Court Justice) authored a memo, now known as the Powell Memorandum, and sent it to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The title of the memo was “Attack on the American Free Enterprise System,” and in it he called on corporate America to take an increased role in shaping politics, law, and education in the United States.” How would they do that? One, by increased lobbying and pressure on legislators to change their priorities. “Funding for public universities comes from, as the term suggests, the state and federal government. Yet starting in the early 1980s, shifting state priorities forced public universities to increasingly rely on other sources of revenue. For example, in the University of Washington school system, state funding for schools decreased as a percentage of total public education budgets from 82% in 1989 to 51% in 2011.” That’s a loss of more than 1/3 of its public funding. But why this shift in priorities? U.C. Berkeley English professor, Christopher Newfield, in his new book Unmaking the Public University posits that conservative elites have worked to de-fund higher education explicitly because of its function in creating a more empowered, democratic, and multiracial middle class. His theory is one that blames explicit cultural concern, not financial woes, for the current decreases in funding. He cites the fact that California public universities were forced to reject 300,000 applicants because of lack of funding. Newfield explains that much of the motive behind conservative advocacy for de-funding of public education is racial, pro-corporate, and anti-protest in nature. Again, from Victoria: “(The) ultimate objective, as outlined in the (Lewis Powell) memo, was to purge respectable institutions such as the media, arts, sciences, as well as college campus themselves of left-wing thoughts. At the time, college campuses were seen as “springboards for dissent,” as Newfield terms it, and were therefore viewed as publicly funded sources of opposition to the interests of the establishment. While it is impossible to know the extent to which this memo influenced the conservative political strategy over the coming decades, it is extraordinary to see how far the principles outlined in his memo have been adopted.” Under the guise of many “conflicts”, such as budget struggles, or quotas, de-funding was consistently the result. This funding argument also was used to re-shape the kind of course offerings and curriculum focus found on campuses. Victoria writes, “Attacks on humanities curriculums, political correctness, and affirmative action shifted the conversation on public universities to the right, creating a climate of skepticism around state funded schools. State budget debates became platforms for conservatives to argue why certain disciplines such as sociology, history, anthropology, minority studies, language, and gender studies should be de-funded…” on one hand, through the argument that they were not offering students the “practical” skills needed for the job market — which was a powerful way to increase emphasis on what now is seen as vocational focus rather than actual higher education, and to de-value those very courses that trained and expanded the mind, developed a more complete human being, a more actively intelligent person and involved citizen. Another argument used to attack the humanities was “…their so-called promotion of anti-establishment sentiment. Gradually, these arguments translated into real- and often deep- cuts into the budgets of state university systems,” especially in those most undesirable areas that the establishment found to run counter to their ability to control the population’s thoughts and behavior. The idea of “manufactured consent” should be talked about here – because if you remove the classes and the disciplines that are the strongest in their ability to develop higher level intellectual rigor, the result is a more easily manipulated citizenry, less capable of deep interrogation and investigation of the establishment “message”. Second, you deprofessionalize and impoverish the professors (and continue to create a surplus of underemployed and unemployed Ph.D.s) V.P. Joe Biden, a few months back, said that the reason tuitions are out of control is because of the high price of college faculty. He has NO IDEA what he is talking about. At latest count, we have 1.5 million university professors in this country, 1 million of whom are adjuncts. One million professors in America are hired on short-term contracts, most often for one semester at a time, with no job security whatsoever – which means that they have no idea how much work they will have in any given semester, and that they are often completely unemployed over summer months when work is nearly impossible to find (and many of the unemployed adjuncts do not qualify for unemployment payments). So, one million American university professors are earning, on average, $20K a year gross, with no benefits or healthcare, no unemployment insurance when they are out of work. Keep in mind, too, that many of the more recent Ph.Ds have entered this field often with the burden of six figure student loan debt on their backs. There was recently an article talking about the long-term mental and physical destruction caused when people are faced with poverty and “job insecurity” — precarious employment, or “under-employment”. The article says that, in just the few short years since our 2008 economic collapse, the medical problems of this group have increased exponentially. This has been the horrible state of insecurity that America’s college professors have experienced now for thirty years. It can destroy you — breaking down your physical and emotional health. As an example: the average yearly starting salary of a university professor at Temple University in 1975 was just under $10,000 a year, with full benefits – health, retirement, and educational benefits (their family’s could attend college for free.) And guess what? Average pay for Temple’s faculty is STILL about the same — because adjuncts now make up the majority of faculty, and earn between $8,000 to $14,000 a year (depending on how many courses they are assigned each semester – there is NO guarantee of continued employment) — but unlike the full-time professors of 1975, these adjunct jobs come with NO benefits, no health care, no retirement, no educational benefits, no offices. How many other professions report salaries that have remained at 1975 levels? This is how you break the evil, wicked, leftist academic class in America — you turn them into low-wage members of the precariat – that growing number of American workers whose employment is consistently precarious. All around the country, our undergraduates are being taught by faculty living at or near the poverty line, who have little to no say in the way classes are being taught, the number of students in a class, or how curriculum is being designed. They often have no offices in which to meet their students, no professional staff support, no professional development support. One million of our college professors are struggling to continue offering the best they can in the face of this wasteland of deteriorated professional support, while living the very worst kind of economic insecurity. Unlike those communist countries, which sometimes executed their intellectuals, here we are being killed off by lack of healthcare, by stress-related illness like heart-attacks or strokes. While we’re at it, let’s add suicide to that list of killers — and readers of this blog will remember that I have written at length about adjunct faculty suicide in the past. Step #3: You move in a managerial/administrative class who take over governance of the university. This new class takes control of much of the university’s functioning, including funding allocation, curriculum design, course offerings. If you are old enough to remember when medicine was forever changed by the appearance of the ‘HMO’ model of managed medicine, you will have an idea of what has happened to academia. If you are not old enough – let me tell you that Once Upon a Time, doctors ran hospitals, doctors made decisions on what treatment their patients needed. In the 1970s, during the infamous Nixon Administration, HMOs were an idea sold to the American public, said to help reign in medical costs. But once Nixon secured passage of the HMO Act in 1973, the organizations went quickly from operating on a non-profit organization model, focused on high quality health care for controlled costs, to being for-profit organizations, with lots of corporate money funding them – and suddenly the idea of high-quality health care was sacrificed in favor of profits – which meant taking in higher and higher premiums and offering less and less service, more denied claims, more limitations placed on doctors, who became a “managed profession”. You see the state of healthcare in this country, and how disastrous it is. Well, during this same time, there was a similar kind of development — something akin to the HMO — let’s call it an “EMO”, Educational Management Organization, began to take hold in American academia. From the 1970s until today, as the number of full-time faculty jobs continued to shrink, the number of full-time administrative jobs began to explode. As faculty was deprofessionalized and casualized, reduced to teaching as migrant contract workers, administrative jobs now offered good, solid salaries, benefits, offices, prestige and power. In 2012, administrators now outnumber faculty on every campus across the country. And just as disastrous as the HMO was to the practice of medicine in America, so is the EMO model disastrous to the practice of academia in America, and to the quality of our students’ education. Benjamin Ginsburg writes about this in great detail in his book The Fall of the Faculty. I’d like to mention here, too, that universities often defend their use of adjuncts – which are now 75% of all professors in the country — claiming that they have no choice but to hire adjuncts, as a “cost saving measure” in an increasingly defunded university. What they don’t say, and without demand of transparency will NEVER say, is that they have not saved money by hiring adjuncts — they have reduced faculty salaries, security and power. The money wasn’t saved, because it was simply re-allocated to administrative salaries, coach salaries and outrageous university president salaries. There has been a redistribution of funds away from those who actually teach, the scholars – and therefore away from the students’ education itself — and into these administrative and executive salaries, sports costs — and the expanded use of “consultants”, PR and marketing firms, law firms. We have to add here, too, that president salaries went from being, in the 1970s, around $25K to 30K, to being in the hundreds of thousands to MILLIONS of dollars – salary, delayed compensation, discretionary funds, free homes, or generous housing allowances, cars and drivers, memberships to expensive country clubs. Step Four: You move in corporate culture and corporate money To further control and dominate how the university is ‘used” -a flood of corporate money results in changing the value and mission of the university from a place where an educated citizenry is seen as a social good, where intellect and reasoning is developed and heightened for the value of the individual and for society, to a place of vocational training, focused on profit. Corporate culture hijacked the narrative – university was no longer attended for the development of your mind. It was where you went so you could get a “good job”. Anything not immediately and directly related to job preparation or hiring was denigrated and seen as worthless — philosophy, literature, art, history. Anna Victoria writes, on Corporate Culture: “Many universities have relied on private sector methods of revenue generation such as the formation of private corporations, patents, increased marketing strategies, corporate partnerships, campus rentals, and for-profit e-learning enterprises. To cut costs, public universities have employed non-state employee service contractors and have streamlined their financial operations.” So what is the problem with corporate money, you might ask? A lot. When corporate money floods the universities, corporate values replace academic values. As we said before, humanities get defunded and the business school gets tons of money. Serious issues of ethics begin to develop when corporate money begins to make donations and form partnerships with science departments – where that money buys influence regarding not only the kinds of research being done but the outcomes of that research. Corporations donate to departments, and get the use of university researchers in the bargain — AND the ability to deduct the money as donation while using the labor, controlling and owning the research. Suddenly, the university laboratory is not a place of objective research anymore. As one example, corporations who don’t like “climate change” warnings will donate money and control research at universities, which then publish refutations of global warning proofs. OR, universities labs will be corporate-controlled in cases of FDA-approval research. This is especially dangerous when pharmaceutical companies take control of university labs to test efficacy or safety and then push approval through the governmental agencies. Another example is in economics departments — and movies like “The Inside Job” have done a great job of showing how Wall Street has bought off high-profile economists from Harvard, or Yale, or Stanford, or MIT, to talk about the state of the stock market and the country’s financial stability. Papers were being presented and published that were blatantly false, by well-respected economists who were on the payroll of Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynch. Academia should not be the whore of corporatism, but that’s what it has become. Academia once celebrated itself as an independent institution. Academia is a culture, one that offers a long-standing worldview which values on-going, rigorous intellectual, emotional, psychological, creative development of the individual citizen. It respects and values the contributions of the scholar, the intellectual, to society. It treasures the promise of each student, and strives to offer the fullest possible support to the development of that promise. It does this not only for the good of the scholar and the student, but for the social good. Like medicine, academia existed for the social good. Neither should be a purely for-profit endeavor. And yet, in both the case of the HMO and the EMO, we have been taken over by an alien for-profit culture, our sovereignty over our own profession, our own institutions, stripped from us. A corporate model, where profit depends on 1) maintaining a low-wage work force and 2) charging continually higher pricers for their “services” is what now controls our colleges . Faculty is being squeezed from one end and our students are being squeezed from the other. Step Five – Destroy the Students While claiming to offer them hope of a better life, our corporatized universities are ruining the lives of our students. This is accomplished through a two-prong tactic: you dumb down and destroy the quality of the education so that no one on campus is really learning to think, to question, to reason. Instead, they are learning to obey, to withstand “tests” and “exams”, to follow rules, to endure absurdity and abuse. Our students have been denied full-time available faculty, the ability to develop mentors and advisors, faculty-designed syllabi which changes each semester, a wide variety of courses and options. Instead, more and more universities have core curriculum which dictates a large portion of the course of study, in which the majority of classes are administrative-designed “common syllabi” courses, taught by an army of underpaid, part-time faculty in a model that more closely resembles a factory or the industrial kitchen of a fast food restaurant than an institution of higher learning. The Second Prong: You make college so insanely unaffordable that only the wealthiest students from the wealthiest of families can afford to go to the school debt free. Younger people may not know that for much of the 20th Century many universities in the U.S. were free – including the CA state system – you could establish residency in six months and go to Berkeley for free, or at very low cost. When I was an undergraduate student in the mid to late 1970s, tuition at Temple University was around $700 a year. Today, tuition is nearly $15,000 a year. Tuitions have increased, using CA as an example again, over 2000% since the 1970s. 2000%! This is the most directly dangerous situation for our students: pulling them into crippling debt that will follow them to the grave. Another dangerous aspect of what is happening can be found in the shady partnership that has formed between the lending institutions and the Financial Aid Departments of universities. This is an unholy alliance. I have had students in my classes who work for Financial Aid. They tell me that they are trained to say NOT “This is what you need to borrow,” but to say “This is what you can get,” and to always entice the student with the highest possible number. There have been plenty of kick-back scandals between colleges and lenders — and I’m sure there is plenty undiscovered shady business going on. So, tuition costs are out of control because of administrative, executive and coach salaries, and the loan numbers keep growing, risking a life of indebtedness for most of our students. Further, there is absolutely no incentive on the part of this corporatized university to care. The propaganda machine here has been powerful. Students, through the belief of their parents, their K-12 teachers, their high school counselors, are convinced by constant repetition that they HAVE to go to college to have a promising, middle class life, they are convinced that this tuition debt is “worth it” — and learn too late that it will indenture them. Let’s be clear: this is not the fault of the parents, or K-12 teachers or counselors. This is an intentional message that has been repeated year in and year out that aims to convince us all about the essential quality of a college education. So, there you have it. Within one generation, in five easy steps, not only have the scholars and intellectuals of the country been silenced and nearly wiped out, but the entire institution has been hijacked, and recreated as a machine through which future generations will ALL be impoverished, indebted and silenced. Now, low wage migrant professors teach repetitive courses they did not design to students who travel through on a kind of conveyor belt, only to be spit out, indebted and desperate into a jobless economy. The only people immediately benefitting inside this system are the administrative class – whores to the corporatized colonizers, earning money in this system in order to oversee this travesty. But the most important thing to keep in mind is this: The real winners, the only people truly benefitting from the big-picture meltdown of the American university are those people who, in the 1960s, saw those vibrant college campuses as a threat to their established power. They are the same people now working feverishly to dismantle other social structures, everything from Medicare and Social Security to the Post Office. Looking at this wreckage of American academia, we have to acknowledge: They have won. BUT these are victors who will never declare victory — because the carefully-maintained capitalist illusion of the “university education” still benefits them. Never, ever, admit that the university is dead. No, no. Quite the opposite. Instead, continue to insist that the university is the ONLY way to gain a successful, middle class life. Say that the university is mandatory for happiness in adulthood. All the while, maintain this low-wage precariate class of edu-migrants, continually mis-educate and indebt in the students to ensure their docility, pimp the institution out to corporate interests. It’s a win-win for those right wingers – they’ve crippled those in the country who would push back against them, and have so carefully and cleverly hijacked the educational institutions that they can now be turned into part of the neoliberal/neocon machinery, further benefitting the right-wing agenda. So now what? This ruination has taken about a generation. Will we be able to undo this damage? Can we force refunding of our public educational system? Can we professionalize faculty, drive out the administrative glut and corporate hijackers? Can we provide free or low-cost tuition and high-quality education to our students in a way that does NOT focus only on job training, but on high-level personal and intellectual development? I believe we can. But only if we understand this as a big picture issue, and refuse to allow those in government, or those corporate-owned media mouthpieces to divide and conquer us further. This ruinous rampage is part of the much larger attack on progressive values, on the institutions of social good. The battle isn’t only to reclaim the professoriate, to wipe out student debt, to raise educational outcomes — although each of those goals deserve to be fought for. But we will win a Pyrrhic victory at best unless we understand the nature of the larger war, and fight back in a much, much bigger way to reclaim the country’s values for the betterment of our citizens. I am eager to hear from those of you who have been involved in this battle, or are about to enter it. We have a big job ahead of us, and are facing a very powerful foe in a kind of David and Goliath battle. I’m open to hearing ideas about how to build a much, much better slingshot. Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Freesorces - free resources listing for SF

by Tony Longshanks LeTigre

Though I no longer live there myself, I have put together a flier to aid anyone unfortunate enough to be poor & living in San Francisco at present. It's the kind of thing I wish I'd had when I became homeless in SF in 2011. The PDF print file is available here <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxrezUVtm9mQTDlOY1lJaV9pZGc/view?usp=shari…> . All you have to do is print one double-sided, letter-sized (8.5 x 11"), fold it two times along the black lines, & you have a three-part leaflet! And here <https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxrezUVtm9mQaE45YnVDZGlLczA/view?usp=shari…> is a plain text version of all the resources that appear on the flier. It does not cover the east bay, although a version that does would be lovely. The info is permanently available at fr33kland.tumblr.com/freesorces I spent some time checking all the info on her to make it current, but if any is still out of date, or needs updating in the future, let us know please. You can reply to this address or the one given on the flier, c3p0 at riseup dot net. -- *+11+*

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Fwd: donate couch to CC Labs / Omni Commons?

by Patrik D'haeseleer

Friend of mine has a like-new leather couch she'd like to donate. Do we want it? I suspect that the answer is no, but I guess we could at least try to upgrade some of the existing crappy couches throughout the building... Patrik ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Melanie Swan <m(a)melanieswan.com> Date: Sat, Oct 3, 2015 at 4:44 PM Subject: donate couch to CC Labs / Omni Commons? To: patrikd(a)gmail.com Hi Patrik, I was wondering your thoughts on if I could donate a like-new sofa to the Omni Commons? There isn't really space in the CC Labs area, so maybe the front hall area with the book store or downstairs? One potential concern for this community is that it is leather.

10 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

Right now live streaming "Becoming Omni": https://hangouts.google.com/call/ge2wsl2eru5t5otyxnhrwlsxgea

by danarauz＠gmail.com

"Becoming Omni" Please joing the google hangout here - https://hangouts.google.com/call/ge2wsl2eru5t5otyxnhrwlsxgea -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Help open a people-powered common space in Oakland, California! https://omnicommons.org/donate - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Fwd: Hackaday SuperConference: Call for Proposals!

by Cere Misc

Possibly of interest to creators like ourselves… ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Amber <hello(a)tindie.com> Date: Sun, Oct 4, 2015 at 12:14 PM Subject: Hackaday SuperConference: Call for Proposals! To: *|FNAME|* <cere.yahoo(a)gmail.com> It was a record breaker! View this email in your browser <http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=7aa035bfbcb82bedd3f3c334b&id=c847ae0edb…> Hi Tindarians! Hackaday <http://tindie.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7aa035bfbcb82bedd3f3c334b&i…> is having a hardware conference <http://tindie.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7aa035bfbcb82bedd3f3c334b&i…> on November 14-15 in San Francisco and the call for proposals <http://tindie.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=7aa035bfbcb82bedd3f3c334b&…> is out! We are looking for technical and creative talks and workshops. The overarching theme is Hardware Creation, which is something that Tindie sellers know all about! I've already seen some sellers have gotten their propsals in and wanted to encourage you, if you haven't decided yet, to go ahead and get that proposal in! ------------------------------ The Details *What: *The most awesome hardware conference ever *When:* November 14-15, 2015 *Where:* DogPatch Studios 991 Tennessee St, San Francisco, CA 94107 *Deadline:* Oct. 10th Travel stipends are available for accepted proposals. ------------------------------ So excited to see what you have for us! -Tindie *Copyright © 2015 Tindie, All rights reserved.* Perhaps you bought a product from a seller on Tindie? Or you might have just signed up on our webpage! unsubscribe from this list <http://tindie.us5.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=7aa035bfbcb82bedd3f3c334b&i…> update subscription preferences <http://tindie.us5.list-manage.com/profile?u=7aa035bfbcb82bedd3f3c334b&id=bb…>

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

ballroom's 14ft projection screen needs pulleys and rope

by robb

hey all, i'm working on hanging a 150lbs 14ft motorized/tensioned projection screen over the ballroom stage we want to be able to raise and lower the screen into position with jake's wheelchair motor (mc kawking) which is now mounted in the rafters above the crow's nest. all i need is +100ft of black paracord rope 3/8" or more in diameter to finish if anyone has any surplus black paracord rope, liberated lens & i would be very grateful if we could use it tomorrow evening. l liberated lens is screening *black is...black ain't* at 6:00pm and i am hoping to get it working by then. cheers ~r

10 years, 7 months

3
4
0 0

optics art show today/tonight

by Jake

Hey hey, wanted to make sure you all knew about awesome optics wizard shit art show experience today at babelab on 10th and jackson. Colin Wizard doing a huge interactive spectrum light show thingy. Mirrors lasers prisms fog machine oscillations mechanism etc etc 3pm til 6 and then 8 til 10

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Fwd: Re: [sudo-info] Sudo Room - Node.js resource

by hol＠gaskill.com

node folks, this came into sudo-info FYI -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [sudo-info] Sudo Room - Node.js resource Date: 2015-10-02 05:12 From: "Samantha R." <samantha(a)udemy.com> To: Sudo Room <info(a)sudoroom.org> Sudo Room, Since I haven't heard from you, I can only imagine it's one of three things: 1. You're super busy and _really want _to get back to me, but haven't had the time. That's totally fine: I get that! Just let me know and I can ping you again in a few weeks. 2. You hate the tutorial and you don't want to use it. That's fine too! That feedback (and any other constructive feedback) would be awesome. 3. You've won the lottery, and have used your winnings to get yourself to a private island where no one can bother you with technology. If that's the case, I'm extraordinarily jealous (but very happy for you.) ;) In any case, let me know which one it is so I can act appropriately :) Thanks so much! Samantha _Samantha - Udemy - Helping Anyone Learn Anything!_ _Udemy, as featured in:_ Fortune [1]: "Online education marketplace Udemy raises $65 million for international expansion..." Forbes [2]: "Closing The Skills Gap: How Udemy Is Helping Anyone Learn Anything" TIME Money [3]: "How I Made $100,000 Teaching Online" I know not everyone likes getting emails like this, so if you don’t want to to receive emails like this anymore, simply reply and (politely, please!) let me know. On Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 5:12 am, Samantha R. wrote: Hey Sudo Room, Just checking in to see if you got my email about the Node.js tutorial. I'd really love to know what you think! It's been a great hit with our students and hopefully it can help anyone who comes to your page as well. Thanks again, Samantha _Samantha - Udemy - Helping Anyone Learn Anything!_ _Udemy, as featured in:_ Fortune [1]: "Online education marketplace Udemy raises $65 million for international expansion..." Forbes [2]: "Closing The Skills Gap: How Udemy Is Helping Anyone Learn Anything" TIME Money [3]: "How I Made $100,000 Teaching Online" I know not everyone likes getting emails like this, so if you don’t want to to receive emails like this anymore, simply replay and (politely, please!) let me know. On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 5:11 am, Samantha R. wrote: Hi Sudo Room, I was doing some research for our students here at Udemy on people using Node.js resources and when I came across your site [4], saw you were using the tutorial from Node School [5]. We really like that resource, and actually created our own that we think is a perfect supplement! This Node.js tutorial [6] is text-and image based, easy to search for quick answers, and super helpful for anyone: as a base for learning or as a reference guide. Do you think this would be a helpful resource? If so, please use it on your site. I'd love to see more people learning Node.js! Thanks so much, Samantha _Samantha - Udemy - Helping Anyone Learn Anything!_ _Udemy, as featured in:_ Fortune [1]: "Online education marketplace Udemy raises $65 million for international expansion..." Forbes [2]: "Closing The Skills Gap: How Udemy Is Helping Anyone Learn Anything" TIME Money [3]: "How I Made $100,000 Teaching Online" I know not everyone likes getting emails like this, so if you don’t want to to receive emails like this anymore, simply replay and (politely, please!) let me know. Links: ------ [1] https://fortune.com/2015/06/02/udemy-65-million-expansion/ [2] https://press.udemy.com/forbes-closing-the-skills-gap-how-udemy-is-helping-… [3] https://press.udemy.com/time-money-how-i-made-100000-teaching-online/ [4] https://sudoroom.org/git-version-control-cyberwizard-institute/ [5] http://nodeschool.io/ [6] https://blog.udemy.com/node-js-tutorial/ _______________________________________________ Info mailing list Info(a)lists.sudoroom.org https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/info

10 years, 7 months

3
3
0 0

Fwd: [Noisebridge-discuss] $5 Yubikeys for GitHub users today

by Patrick O'Doherty

-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [Noisebridge-discuss] $5 Yubikeys for GitHub users today Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2015 18:36:29 +0000 From: Alex Merlin Glowaski <alex.glowaski(a)gmail.com> To: Noisebridge <noisebridge-discuss(a)lists.noisebridge.net> Hey folks, My friend Thom shared this: âFor those of you who donât have a U2F 2FA token Yubikey have a $5 promotion later today for everyone with a github account. Watch this link; https://www.yubico.com/github-special-offer/ â Possibly relevant to your interests. :3 merlin Make your world! â¢ http://alexglow.com Anonymous feedback â¢ http://sayat.me/alexglow

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Fwd: [Becoming Omni Commons] RSVP for Becoming Omni

by Julio Rios

FYI. For those of us that want to help shape the future of the Omni. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Laura Turiano <scylla(a)riseup.net> Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 5:02 PM Subject: Re: [Becoming Omni Commons] RSVP for Becoming Omni To: "discuss(a)lists.omnicommons.org" <discuss(a)lists.omnicommons.org>, " becoming(a)lists.omnicommons.org" <becoming(a)lists.omnicommons.org> A reminder to please fill out the survey to let us know when you can attend Becoming Omni. So far no one has indicated they will take advantage of remote participation and we are missing people from a number of collectives. On 9/29/15 3:23 PM, Laura Turiano wrote: Friends, I'm sorry I didn't send this out sooner. The planners of Becoming Omni would like to get an idea of how many people will be attending each workshop either in person or remotely. It will also help us to know what collectives and working groups the participants are a part of. *Please complete this survey to let us know when you will be participating over the first 3 Sundays in October. * *https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6N9J2BJ <https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6N9J2BJ>* * Please share this email with your collective. *Laura More information below: The days will begin with breakfast at 9am. The workshop will start at 10 and end around 6pm. We would like as many people as possible to attend the entire process. That said, if you can't, and you have a choice of which Sunday you can come, it is better to come to the first day because it is the foundation for the rest of the work. Also, if you can't come for a whole day it is better to come to the beginning and leave early than come late. If you come late you will probably be confused and we will not have much time to individually orient you to what is going on. _______________________________________________ becoming mailing list becoming(a)lists.omnicommons.org https://omnicommons.org/lists/listinfo/becoming

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Berkeley Copwatch Needs your Help!!

by max b

Are you a graphic designer with way too much time and money and not enough to do? Do you want to produce an iconoclastic image that will represent bad-ass community sovereignty and police accountability for all time? Shepard Fairey will be a historical footnote compared to the impact you'll make! We have some designs that are ok: https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10300288_50992718577481… https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/10351374_50992718244148… (don't worry - facebook is radical these days. all the cool anarchists are on it) But we're just missing that je ne sais quoi (that's a phrase right?) which captures the essence and can communicate what exactly it is that Copwatch does and what it is that Copwatch wants. Help us! You know you need the karma points! Oh and if you just happen to also be a web designer, let's be best friends forever?

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

GPS Antenna?

by Morgan Allen

Anyone have one I could buy/borrow/have? Forgot to order one, wouldn't mind getting one locally if available before making another shipment. -- http://ithoughtyouweretherobot.com Metal and Wire http://nolonelyguineapigs.com/ Wandering and Rambling http://morglog.org Old and Neglected. -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: OpenPGP.js v.1.20121007 Comment: http://openpgpjs.org xsBNBFG3btUBB/9+/WJNOSIuc/praKPaPOweqXV5s7PGRD+HAnNWF/19YAY3 AFtfeoelhhY4sMJoobTaJzcZojznZ1kl/7UuuYCnbJO3Z9kaSMVrVxEZMSLe YmW8Hc4ZsTnl9f05DQFy8ABpAvMLmXJQXh63BbfzjFqNbSWQfLhrubSM2Elq xmN6EsmRyAuEeYlSnal+Di2MlViohpCbbagE2D6AZTUECIamTib6+DuLG4XO b4GGKHR9TXu2qS1VH6hqcvdEz2MDE5OqZzAnBgcF2dvcOdTk9gAOoR1T+qKj IJtg2X0ETbxcPqEXQoXE8VrxN0MLT5JQKTg26+csU4P2w0rEWsUsJombABEB AAHNJU1vcmdhbiBBbGxlbiA8bW9yZ2FucmFsbGVuQGdtYWlsLmNvbT7CwFwE EAECABAFAlG3btwJEG9pFLKaVEfeAAD7hwf+K8LN/kfgi8GTRLiTcuM+hSbm uAeiBY+VaJIQFLzoFlt8A0hBlLNPFNNmUDxdPrMErdHgZ7HtJW/6RANuBTti 5hr3EBguH1GQyK7BbUqJGvaEX4UNRej3uyX3ufXDsIB/3NsKaTyyu+SO0+Hv Cn2DwmlfSXcPhoarx6Turizn/WwgtTN3tqrMWxxiCKWydLH5xYuz+23BLMdc oF/zkbF+7ddFhmyfiFh4Ej9//tsfwPj2cACU3uLTrcwCo7IxUtkrqMF/fhlm LEqjhzDDjq9v7GNWb/5xB2xgTaucJ7/ljuS8nPlZqwCI8NlTgSqC8nyVLyjS yVtOzkItcS0UqyW1Mg== =V/Ia -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Pedal-Powered Omni at this First Friday!

by lewis_black

ATTENTION ALL SUDOERS, We have been approved to run a pedal-powered sound system at this month's First Friday! We will also have a projector to run cool visuals to go along with the music. ^_^ We'd like to use this as an opportunity to tell people about the Omni and to speak with the public about the importance of free and open community spaces. THINGS WE NEED A car battery for the generator! Flyers and other info from the Omni and its member collectives. THINGS WE NEED FROM PEOPLE help1 (transporting equipment from the Omni at 4:30pm), help2 (setting up at 5:15pm), and help3 (taking down at 9:30pm). If you'd like to join in help1, help2 and/or help3, please contact: Luis <lewis_black[at]protonmail.ch> or Jeremy <jeremy.w.entwistle[at]gmail.com> or Rachel <rachelyra[at]gmail.com>. People to be present to speak with the public about the importance of free and open community spaces in this gentrifying climate. Your cool visualizations you'd like to project! PEDAL TO THE MUSIC! Luis (in partnership with Vicky Knox, writing consultant deluxXe) "Help open a people-powered common space in Oakland, California omnicommons.org/donate?v=es"

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Astra Taylor Talk on Taking Back power in the Age of Networks - (video)

by Romy Ilano

I thought you would all enjoy this talk from Astra Taylor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdImE0iC2IQ Listened to this on my way to work. - I think it'd be fun to play one of these videos on our SudoRoom television Thursday or Friday evening during one of the Linux installfests. - We have a lot of really smart people here, it'd be cool if they gave a five minute or ten minute talk on something like this - especially if it was around stuff going on in the SudoRoom and collectives in Oakland. I'd certainly forward this and tell people on the way to work to listen =D Astra Taylor was also part of the group that collectively bought private debt and forgave a lot of college loans. *The Internet is said to be a space of democratic expression and transformation, both culturally and politically. But how true is that claim? What are some of the economic, technical, and legal obstacles in place? Drawing from her recent book, "The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age," and her experience as an artist and an activist, Astra Taylor -- filmmaker, writer, and political organizer -- addresses campaigns by musicians against streaming services and debtors against creditors to reflect on the larger question of how to organize and leverage change in an age of virtual networks -- be they networks of cultural distribution or financial ones.* ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

10 years, 7 months

2
2
0 0

[Noisebridge-announce] Cyberspectrum: Software Defined Radio Meetup (Wed 30th Sept) 6:30pm (fwd)

by Jake

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 16:56:42 -0700 From: Balint Seeber <balint256(a)gmail.com> To: noisebridge-announce(a)lists.noisebridge.net Subject: [Noisebridge-announce] Cyberspectrum: Software Defined Radio Meetup (Wed 30th Sept) 6:30pm Dear all, Announcing the eleventh Cyberspectrum meetup in San Francisco! Come along at 6:30pm for a 7pm sharp kickoff in the Hackatorium, and for those unable to attend we'll set up a live stream like last time (stay tuned to the event's page/Twitter for more info closer to the time). There's also IRC: #cyberspectrum on Freenode. Full details, including the speaker lineup/topics, are here: http://www.meetup.com/Cyberspectrum/events/224928223/ And the Noisebridge event page is here: https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Cyberspectrum We'll be hearing about: * Etch-A-SDR by Nate @devnulling * Spread Spectrum SATCOM Hacking by Colby Moore If you're not familiar with Cyberspectrum: "The Bay Area SDR Meetup will serve as a forum to exchange knowledge and ideas related to Software Defined Radio (the software and hardware), and generally aim to get people excited about all the applications that can be realised with the technology. At each meetup, attendees will have the opportunity to present their work/ideas to the group. Engineers, enthusiasts, hobbyists and people of all experience levels are welcome, no matter what your software/hardware background." As always, if you would like to present at a future event about a project you're working on, or something interesting you've discovered, please get in touch! Hope to see you there, Balint @spenchdotnet

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Rent Party Total: $1139

by mattsenate＠gmail.com

Wow, everyone! Congratulations! Thanks to all for their hard work in throwing a couple of excellent rent parties. // Matt

10 years, 7 months

4
3
0 0

Re: [sudo-discuss] Rent Party Total: $1139

by mattsenate＠gmail.com

Oops, I forgot the extra $115 through credit / debit cards -- bringing a the total to $1254! // Matt ----- Reply message ----- From: "mattsenate(a)gmail.com" <mattsenate(a)gmail.com> To: "discuss(a)lists.omnicommons.org" <discuss(a)lists.omnicommons.org> Cc: "commons" <commons(a)lists.omnicommons.org>, "finance(a)lists.omnicommons.org" <finance(a)lists.omnicommons.org>, "sudo-discuss" <sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org> Subject: Rent Party Total: $1139 Date: Mon, Sep 28, 2015 1:00 PM Wow, everyone! Congratulations! Thanks to all for their hard work in throwing a couple of excellent rent parties. // Matt

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Re: [sudo-discuss] [sudo-info] Sudo Room - Node.js resource

by danarauz＠gmail.com

Hello All, Just forwarding this email that arrived to info@., in case someone would like to reply to Samantha. Thanks, Daniel On Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 5:12 AM, Samantha R. <samantha(a)udemy.com> wrote: > Hey Sudo Room, > > Just checking in to see if you got my email about the Node.js tutorial. > I'd really love to know what you think! It's been a great hit with our > students and hopefully it can help anyone who comes to your page as well. > > Thanks again, > Samantha > > *Samantha - Udemy - Helping Anyone Learn Anything!* > *Udemy, as featured in:* > Fortune <https://fortune.com/2015/06/02/udemy-65-million-expansion/>: > "Online education marketplace Udemy raises $65 million for international > expansion..." > Forbes > <https://press.udemy.com/forbes-closing-the-skills-gap-how-udemy-is-helping-…>: > "Closing The Skills Gap: How Udemy Is Helping Anyone Learn Anything" > TIME Money > <https://press.udemy.com/time-money-how-i-made-100000-teaching-online/>: > "How I Made $100,000 Teaching Online" > I know not everyone likes getting emails like this, so if you don’t want > to to receive emails like this anymore, simply replay and (politely, > please!) let me know. > > > On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 5:11 am, Samantha R. wrote: > > Hi Sudo Room, > > I was doing some research for our students here at Udemy on people using > Node.js resources and when I came across your site > <https://sudoroom.org/git-version-control-cyberwizard-institute/>, saw > you were using the tutorial from Node School <http://nodeschool.io/>. > > We really like that resource, and actually created our own that we think > is a perfect supplement! This Node.js tutorial > <https://blog.udemy.com/node-js-tutorial/> is text-and image based, easy > to search for quick answers, and super helpful for anyone: as a base for > learning or as a reference guide. > > Do you think this would be a helpful resource? If so, please use it on > your site. I'd love to see more people learning Node.js! > > Thanks so much, > Samantha > > *Samantha - Udemy - Helping Anyone Learn Anything!* > *Udemy, as featured in:* > Fortune <https://fortune.com/2015/06/02/udemy-65-million-expansion/>: > "Online education marketplace Udemy raises $65 million for international > expansion..." > Forbes > <https://press.udemy.com/forbes-closing-the-skills-gap-how-udemy-is-helping-…>: > "Closing The Skills Gap: How Udemy Is Helping Anyone Learn Anything" > TIME Money > <https://press.udemy.com/time-money-how-i-made-100000-teaching-online/>: > "How I Made $100,000 Teaching Online" > I know not everyone likes getting emails like this, so if you don’t want > to to receive emails like this anymore, simply replay and (politely, > please!) let me know. > > _______________________________________________ > Info mailing list > Info(a)lists.sudoroom.org > https://sudoroom.org/lists/listinfo/info > > -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Help open a people-powered common space in Oakland, California! https://omnicommons.org/donate - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Box of PoE adapters missing

by Marc Juul

sudo mesh is missing two boxes: * One box of PoE (Power over Ethernet) adapters * One box of ethernet cables If anyone has any idea where these may be please let us know. -- marc/juul

10 years, 7 months

8
15
0 0

what is our vision of SudoRoom & oakland: 1 year, 2 years, 5 years from now?

by Romy Ilano

what is our vision of SudoRoom & oakland: 1 year, 2 years, 5 years from now? I'm working on a graphic, I thought it'd be great to hear your input. It's very fortunate that we moved out from Broadway when we did -- after hearing about the real estate speculation, and the tech companies moving into downtown Oakland, we would have been kicked out by now. We are very fortunate to be at the Omni right now. What is your vision of SudoRoom in 1 year, 2 years and five years from now? How are we shaping Oakland? ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | TED Talk | TED.com

by Romy Ilano

http://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles?language=… Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Tomatoes!

by Morgan Allen

Wasting away... Maybe FnB would be interested? 3rd and Franklin

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

winter snowboarding / ski?

by Romy Ilano

I was talking to S. about snowboarding. I will probably have ski passes to the Vail resorts this year -* I won't be able to go as heavily as I did last year but I thought it'd be fun to go with Noisebridge and SudoRoom folks. * *Why Snowboarding is not Bourgeois in Tahoe* - It costs about $35-40 roundtrip gas in my car and I can fit more than one person in my hatchback - It doesn't have to be expensive. I often stayed at motel rooms that were $35-40 a night especially around the Reno area. they were fine. plus we're hackers. look at how filthy our spaces are. we'll do fine - food doesn't have to be expensive either - Reno is a pretty bombed out area financially and there are many cheap grocery stores and diners. - the casinos in Reno are kind of fun, post apocalyptic, they remind me of Mad Max beyond the thunder dome Anyone interested? we can do snowboarding not for rich people! <3 Best, Romy ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

PC Workstation!

by mattsenate＠gmail.com

// Matt

10 years, 7 months

3
2
0 0

It's time for a SudoRoom PDF Zine

by Romy Ilano

OK folks, it's time for a SudoRoom PDF zine. I will throw in some math and education. anyone else interested? Let's bang something out this weekend. I'm thinking of making something that's a foldout... not more than one or two pages. ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

wanted: off-site storage (5 by 5)

by johanna faust

i thought i would put this out there, since i will be renting a storage space this morning. besides a little sticker shock at how much prices have grown in the ten years since i was last in the market, i thought it sure would be nicer to be drawing up a contract with someone i didn't wish i wasn't giving my money to. if'n you know what i mean. so if you have a basement 5' by 5' to spare in a corner that can be secured, and you want a little extra money perm month, we should talk. we are very conscientious and respectful storage renting individuals. thanks...... -- *Be seeing you.*

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

call-out for telephones!

by Jake

sudoroom and The Omni need telephones.. the old kind that plug into the wall! we are making an omni-sized telephone system! no cordless phones please! old rotary phones and antiques are OK! we can even use a couple of payphones for the doors outside (instead of doorbells) these phones will not connect to the "normal" telephone system at all, just from one place to another in the Omni (and maybe a few other special places around the world :) ring ring! note: don't bring any phones you would be sad to lose. they will not be kept "safe" and phones that dont work well will be recycled. also, bring us your VOIP boxes. -jake

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Angela Whitiker's Climb - The New York Times

by Romy Ilano

We were having a long discussion about us, race, class and education last night at Sudoroom. I referred to this article which is a nice read... Here it is! We can chat about it more later ❤️ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/us/class/angela-whitikers-climb.html?_r=0 Angela Whitiker's Climb CHICAGO, June 10 - Angela Whitiker arrived early and rain-soaked at a suburban school building with a carton of sugar water in her purse and a squall in her stomach. It was the small hours of the morning, when the parking lot was empty and the street lights were still on. There she was alone in the darkness for the biggest test of her life. If she passed, she could shed the last layer of her former self -- the teenage girl who grew up too fast, dropped out in the 10th grade, and landed aimless and on public assistance with five children by nearly as many men. She would finally be the registered nurse she had been striving toward for years. She could get a car that wouldn't break down in the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway. She could get an A.T.M. card and balance her checkbook and start paying down her bills and save up for that two-story colonial on Greenwood that was already hers in her dreams. She would never again have to live in that gang-run nightmare of a place, the Robert Taylor housing projects -- where she packed a .38 for protection -- or in Section 8 housing or in any government-subsidized anything. Her children could be proud of her and go on to make something of themselves too, once she proved it could be done. But if she didn't pass. She couldn't think about that. And so, as she would often tell the story later, she got up before dawn and made herself some oatmeal and a hard-boiled egg and toast and got to the testing site for the state licensing boards for registered nurses two hours before the test began. She had never been good at tests. All through nursing school, she agonized the night before an exam, overstudying the charts and graphs, termites dropping from the ceiling onto her physiology books, mice crawling at her feet, and her children tugging her leg to find out what was for dinner. She had only recently become the first woman in her family with a college degree and, if everything went well this day, would be the first nurse anybody in her family knew personally. So, she left long before she needed to that morning to avoid traffic, a missed turn, not enough gas. Once there, she sat parked in the rain trying to compose herself. She pulled out her Bible to read the 91st Psalm, the one about the Lord being her refuge. She broke out the sugar water to get glucose to the brain. In the hallway, she avoided looking anyone in the eye. She spoke to no one. She didn't want to pick up on anyone's anxiety. She had enough of her own. She took a last drag on a Newport. The testing room began to fill. The examiner checked her identification and assigned her computer No. 12. She drew in another deep breath as she walked to her place. She was about to sit down to take a $256 pass-or-fail entrance exam into the American middle class. For most of her 38 years, Angela Whitiker has been on the outside looking in at the seeming perfection of the professional classes, the people who did the college-career-wedding-house-in-the-suburbs-2.5-kids routine. Her life has been so very different from that. She was a child of the working class who, through ill-considered choices and circumstance, slipped into the welfare class and had to fight her way out. While the rest of the country has fitfully cut back welfare and continues to debate class disparities and the barriers to mobility, Ms. Whitiker has quietly traversed several classes in a single lifetime. She has gone from welfare statistic in the early 1990's to credit-card carrying member of the middle class, a woman for whom there are now few statistics, so rare has her experience been. This is the story of her 12-year slog to the middle class and of how hard it is to stay there. The third of five children, she was born to a mother who was a cook and to a laborer father whom, though the parents had married, she didn't meet until she was 10. She said it was a heartbreaking visit in which, smelling of whiskey, he promised to buy her a bicycle and didn't. She hasn't seen him since. Within a few years, she was using men as a substitute for her father and her adolescent longing for him. By 15, she was pregnant with her first child. By 23, she was the mother of five children, had been married and separated, and been a casualty of the crack epidemic of the 1980's. She had lost and would later win back custody of her children, and had worked a variety of odd jobs, from sausage vendor to picking butterbeans. At 26, she gained short-lived celebrity when she and her oldest son, Nicholas, then a 10-year-old fourth grader with a man's obligations, were the subjects of a profile by this reporter in The New York Times, part of a 1993 series on at-risk urban young people called Children of the Shadows. She, Nicholas and her four other children were living in a second-floor walk-up in Englewood, a crime-burdened neighborhood abandoned first by the white middle class and then by the black middle class that succeeded it. For her, each day meant trying to piece together enough to take care of herself and her kids -- one day petitioning the fathers for child support, the next counting what was left of her food stamps; one minute rushing to an administrator's office to get bus vouchers for school, the next bargaining with the electric company to get her lights turned back on. To keep her family out of the projects and on what might be described as the upper rung of poverty, she had taken up with a man who worked handling baggage at O'Hare International Airport. He paid the rent and was the father of her fifth child, Johnathan. His paycheck gave her breathing room to get into a pre-nursing program at Kennedy-King Community College on the South Side. But men never seemed to hang around that long, and it fell to Nicholas to be father to the younger children that the men in their lives seemed unwilling to be. He was the one who washed his and his siblings' school uniforms in the bathtub at night because they each had only one set. He was the one who pulled his brother Willie out of the line of fire by the hood of his jacket when gunshots rang out in the schoolyard. And he was the one who took the blame and the beatings if something wasn't done to his mother's boyfriend's liking. Readers responded with great outpourings of generosity after the article was published, but it was clear from the reporter's continuing contacts with the family over the years that it was not enough to materially change the basic facts of their lives. It was still a household run by a single mother with only a high school equivalency degree, no career skills, no assets and no immediate prospects for independence. In addition, the fraying relationship between Ms. Whitiker and her boyfriend fell apart after publication of the article, and, without him to pay the rent, she fell further behind. She wound up in the only place that a woman with five children, no job and no money could get in Chicago in 1994, a cellblock of an apartment in the Robert Taylor Homes, an urban no-man's land where you could move about only when the gangs that ran the place let you. The elevators, sticky with urine, didn't work, and gunshots were background music. From the start, Ms. Whitiker felt that it was beneath her. She looked down on the women who had grown accustomed to bullet holes over their dinette tables, who watched "All My Children" and ate Doritos all day and didn't seem to want anything better. She carried the gun to protect herself and had to use it once when, having climbed nine flights of stairs, she found some strangers playing cards at her kitchen table. She fired shots into the ceiling to get them out. It was the lowest rung of the poverty class in America, lower in a way than the worst nights in a crack house in her early 20's, because now she was fully conscious of exactly where she was. She vowed from the very first night to get out. But she knew she couldn't make it out on public assistance. So she figured she'd get whatever job she could. She would have to put off her nursing studies. She worked at a fast food restaurant, rising to assistant manager but never making much more than minimum wage. She worked nights as a security guard in the projects, a job that was dangerous and equally dead-end but paid a bit more. Every day held its own kind of peril or indignity, much of it coming from her 1976 Chevrolet, which she relied on to get to and from work but was well past its natural lifespan. It had a cracked windshield and a hole rusted through the floor. It wasn't big enough for all of her children, but they piled in just the same with no thought of seatbelts, because there weren't enough anyway. When she was coming home in the rain on the expressway one night, the defroster conked out and the windshield fogged up. "I had to stick my head out the window to drive," she said. "God drove that car that night." One time the car caught fire because of a hole in the gasoline line. Flames shot out of the hood and into the air. Ms. Whitiker jumped out and told her sister, Michelle, riding in the passenger seat, to do the same. "Get out of the car!" she screamed. "It's gonna blow!" A fire truck came to put out the fire. The firefighters argued over which one should try to start the engine. None of them wanted to. So she had to try herself. Somehow, it started and got her home, just another day on her long climb out of the hole. The drug economy played out every day on the cracked concrete lawns of Robert Taylor, and her preteen older sons, Nicholas and Willie, could not help breathing it in. The only working men they saw were the drug dealers who were up early to meet their sales quotas, wore the latest gym shoes and got the girls. Their cars were new and didn't catch fire. The family lived at Robert Taylor for nine months. "It was hell," she would say later. "I wouldn't want a dog to stay up in there." She left there a new woman. She knew she had to get back into nursing school if she was ever going to get anywhere. Learning a New Way Then she met a man by the name of Vincent Allen. He wasn't like the other men she had known. He had a college degree. His father had been a military man, his mother a homemaker, solidly middle class. He had a nice apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Michigan. Ms. Whitiker was struck by his manners and how he spoke like the teachers and social workers she had known growing up -- enunciating his words, slipping in a few she didn't know. He was a police detective. They met on the job when they were working as private security guards. He took an immediate liking to her, saw that they both wanted the same thing -- in his words, a "picket fence kind of a life." He encouraged her to follow her dreams. Soon she and the kids were moving in with him. He took his job as the man of the house seriously and actually liked the father role. Suddenly, there was a man asking about homework and where Nicholas and Willie had been. He noticed if they had slipped on some gang colors or had their caps pushed to the left or the right as gang members did. He took it upon himself to correct the behavior of the younger children and pick them up from school. That had been Nicholas's job for all of his short life, and, as his mother recalled, he did not take displacement well. First, she said, he figured he would scare his rival away. He stole his clothes, talked back, came in late. It would only be a matter of time before this man would go the way of all the other men, Nicholas thought. But Mr. Allen did not leave. And the sweet little boy who had been the father of his family went out and found a new family in the streets. The drug dealers were more than willing to take him and put him to work. Before long, Ms. Whitiker discovered that her 12-year-old Nicholas was a lookout for the dealers. She and Mr. Allen could see the road Nicholas was on, but, streetwise though they were, could do little to stop it. The more vigilant Mr. Allen was, the more resentful and alienated Nicholas became and the worse things got. It was as if he had grown so accustomed to the chaos of his mother's previous lives that he did not know how to function when a family worked as it should. He had made himself into a wind gauge and had no purpose when the air was still. Ms. Whitiker sent Nicholas to live with his father, a laborer who had married, had other children and lived on the other side of town. She hoped that being far from his homies would put Nicholas on a straighter course. Mr. Allen started encouraging her to go back to nursing school. They figured that, with him providing a place for her to live, and with Pell grants and the other financial aid for low-income students, she could make a go of it. She enrolled at Kennedy-King College again, but it was different this time; or, rather, she was different. She was no longer the fun-loving girl looking for something to do. She had seen the bottom of the well and never wanted to go back there again. She had also seen a new way of managing one's life. The professional people she met in college and now Mr. Allen had different ways of thinking about spending and saving money and carrying oneself. They tended to plan and save for things. She had never had enough money or reason to save. They paid attention to things like late fees and interest rates; she mostly ignored them because she couldn't pay the bills anyway. They set long-term goals for themselves; she just tried to get through the day. It all rubbed off on her, and it changed her. On top of that, she had a renewed sense of time pressing against her. How long would Mr. Allen put up with her and the kids while she went to school? What if he got tired of it and left? What if he insisted she quit school and get a job to pay her share of the expenses? She didn't like the idea of owing him and couldn't bear the thought of slipping backward again. So, when it came to her studies, she would have to be more focused and efficient than she had been about anything in her life. 'I Had to Make It' There were certain points in certain years -- say from 1996 to 2002 -- when Angela Whitiker didn't yet know that Tupac Shakur had been killed or that President Bill Clinton had been impeached. "If it wasn't about nursing or biology or what was on my test Friday, I wasn't interested," she said. "I blocked everything and everybody out. I used to be so particular about cleaning the house. I got to the point where I'd see a shoe, and I'd just kick it over." She felt she had to work extra hard because she felt so outranked in the classroom. She endured the stares of the middle-class teacher's pets who looked down on her for the circuitous route that got her there. "They were snobs whose moms were nurses, and they knew everything," she said. "I had to show them that I was somebody, that because I had five kids, that I made bad decisions, that I didn't have a father -- and so what? -- I was determined to show them I can do this. I had to make it. I couldn't fail." Whenever test day came, she recalled, she would work herself into such a state of anxiety that sometimes she had to excuse herself to throw up. The professor had to go get her out of the bathroom. "Are you O.K.?" the professor would ask. "You're going to kill yourself." Everybody knew when a test didn't go well. They could see it in her face, the simultaneous pouting and rolling of the eyes, and hear it in her voice, the way she snapped at the lowest registers over the littlest thing. "Mama didn't pass her test today," the first child to notice would say to the others. "Don't say nothing." Because she wasn't from a professional family, she brought a kind of naïveté to school with her. One day in a clinical class, she recalled, the teacher went around the room asking students how their patients were doing. When the teacher got to her, Ms. Whitiker thought about the colostomy bag attached to her patient and started crying. "Oh my God," the teacher said. "Did your patient die?" "No," she said, still sobbing. "But she had this hole in her stomach." "Well, go on in there and wash your face," the teacher told her. Soon she was working with cadavers as if they were just another piece of office equipment, but she didn't know anyone who could give her the ins and outs of the field or tell her what to expect. "I didn't have anybody I could go to who had a degree other than Vince," she said. He went over her papers and marked them up -- too much for her liking, sometimes -- and read her papers aloud so she could hear what was wrong with them. When she made the dean's list, he celebrated. When she failed a test, he consoled her as best he could. "Oh baby, you're going to make it," he'd say. "Oh shut up, you don't understand," she'd shoot back. In May 2001, she finally finished nursing school at Kennedy-King, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. For her class picture, she wore her hair in a flip like Gidget and a nurse's cap that looked like white dove wings. It was a long way from the teenager in a jheri curl and too-tight jeans. Soon she would be driving in the rain to take the nursing boards on computer No. 12. "It was a step to another life," she would say years later. "It was a do-or-die type of thing. I thought I was going to kill myself waiting for the results." The Test Results One morning in late 2001, when Ms. Whitiker was alone and the apartment was uncharacteristically quiet, the mail arrived and, in it, an envelope from the state boards. In that moment, she came closer than at any other time of her life to upper-middle-class young people awaiting word from the Ivy League school of their dreams. The chatter among her fellow nursing students was that a thin envelope meant you passed; a thick one, presumably filled with the things you got wrong, meant you failed. She got a thin envelope. "My heart just dropped to the floor," she said. She took the envelope into the apartment and threw it on the bed, afraid to open it, afraid that, given the disappointments of her life, somehow the grapevine had been wrong and the thin one meant failure. She called her mother to get the courage to open it. Soon she was out in the middle of the hallway. "I passed my boards!" she screamed to neighbors fumbling for their house keys. The family took her out to celebrate. They had dinner at Hooters and bought her a cake. Soon after, she and Mr. Allen agreed it was time they married. "My daughter was getting to an age where I was trying to tell her to do right," Ms. Whitiker said of Ishtar, now 17. "I can't tell her to do right if I'm doing wrong." They married at Faith Temple Coptic Church on June 7, 2003. She wore an ivory shift and a long white veil and carried a bouquet of white carnations. He wore a black tux. It was the groom's first marriage, the bride's second. All the kids were there except Willie, who, still on the path he learned at Robert Taylor, was in jail. The remaining kids were dressed to their mother's specifications, except Nicholas, who, having by now declared that he wanted to be a rapper, showed up in pants hanging off his body and a baseball cap turned backward. For the family wedding picture, Ms. Whitiker told him to stand in the back so nobody could see what he had on. She was already becoming class conscious, aware of appearances and decorum. And so, on this triumphant day in the family's history, all that is visible of Nicholas is his head. High-Stress Work Ms. Whitiker finished nursing school as vice president of her class and with academic awards in biology and pharmacology, but despite her hard work and potential, the reality of her life was that she could not afford to go any further than a two-year associate's degree. That limits her job prospects even in a high-demand field like nursing. She doesn't have the contacts to get a job at the teaching hospitals in Chicago where she would get better training and higher pay. She landed a job at a small inner city hospital on the South Side, known not for its groundbreaking procedures or training opportunities but as the hospital where the eight student nurses killed by Richard Speck in 1966 had worked. It's an unnerving history that is always in the back of her mind, but she needs the job and the pay is more than she could ever have imagined back when she was on food stamps. She has worked high-stress assignments in telemetry -- monitoring cardiac patients -- and in the intensive care unit. With all the night hours she puts in, she made $83,000 last year, more than 90 percent of all American workers. It is hard work, messy, often thankless. She has found herself in a pecking order that surprises and frustrates her. The doctors seem to expect her to work magic on their orders, she said, and the certified nursing assistants resent her place of privilege. A few years back she might have sympathized with the nursing assistants. They do what no one else wants to do, attending to the unpleasant bodily needs of the very ill. There was a time when that would have been a move up for her. But their envy and resentment only made her feel more distant. And now, she was showing the same disdain for them that the middle class might have felt for her in her other life. "I'm like, don't be mad at me because I'm a nurse," she said. "If you want my job, you need to suffer and cry like I did." She tried to find her bearings in this new class she was in. She resented the old friends who drank muscatel at the taverns late into the night and hit her up for money. And yet her past had a way of catching up with her in unexpected ways. She was out running errands once when a man recognized her from her days on the street. "I know you," he said. "You're the one who stole money from me." She feigned ignorance and walked away, even though, she would later say, she remembered taking his money and his television set, too, back when she was on drugs. She tried hanging out with the nurses from work. But some were bourgeois and uppity, had a sense of comfort and confidence she did not possess. At one party she went to, some of them started smoking marijuana. It was a fun little escape for them, but it took her back to a place she could not afford to revisit. "I reached for my purse," she said. "When I got my first paycheck, that was high enough for me." Her life was complicated as it was. For one thing she was now the mother of six (seven, if you counted Zach, her husband's 13-year-old son, who recently moved in with them). Her youngest, Christopher, had been born shortly after the uncertain time at Robert Taylor and had been with her only off and on because of a custody fight between her and Christopher's father. Both the fight over Christopher and the fact that he came after a lull in childbearing when she was a more mature 28 help explain why she is investing in him in ways she had not had the luxury of doing with her older kids. She now knows how to discipline without using a belt, and the value of grounding and timeouts. She spends her off time shuttling Christopher to and from school or to little league practice in her new Chevrolet sport utility vehicle, an early benefit of her higher paychecks. When he has a science project, she's on the floor helping sculpt the volcano with him. She's quick to hug him and expects a kiss when she drops him off. She says he has become the very embodiment of the fresh start she was seeking for herself, and onto him she has grafted all her middle-class hopes. He reminds her so much of Nicholas -- the same round face and velvet skin, the same precociousness that she saw as impudence in young Nicholas when she was barely out of her teens, but now sees as reflecting her youngest's unlimited potential. While Nicholas went to a strapped public grade school in a perilous neighborhood, Christopher is in the gifted program of a school she handpicked on the middle-class side of town. While Nicholas played a hand-me-down Nintendo on a television with a busted tube, Christopher plays 3-D chess on the family's Dell computer. Christopher is now 10, the same age as Nicholas when he appeared in The Times, but he talks like one of the sweet, smart-alecky kids on a network sitcom rather than a streetwise man-child who's seen too much too soon. Asked what it means to be in the gifted program, he had a ready answer. "It means I'm smarter than the other kids," he said without flinching. At that age, Nicholas's conversations were about running from bullets. Demands and Responsibilities At first, nursing was like hitting the lottery. She was making enough for the family to move into a four-bedroom apartment in a prewar building overlooking Lake Michigan. It has crown molding, a marble fireplace and grander rooms than they have furniture for. She had a contractor paint the rooms the colors of sweet peas and corn on the cob. She bought a mahogany king-size bed, propping it high with pillows for herself and her husband, and bunk beds for the kids. But she has found herself alone. She is making more money than anybody she knows. And come payday, everybody needs something, and not just the kids. Relatives need gas money, friends could use help with the rent. Even her patients, on hard times themselves, have their hands out. "You got some money to lend me?" one of them, an older woman whose telephone had just been cut off, asked her. "You get your check yet?" Suddenly, she is the successful star in her universe who is supposed to cover the cost of the family reunion, give career advice to the nieces and nephews, show up for their basketball games, float a loan to whoever needs it. After all, she's making $83,000 a year. She is making more than her police detective husband and has found herself tiptoeing around his ego and expectations. They have tried different ways of dividing the bills, at one point splitting the $1,475 rent and sharing the utilities, at another point, one paying the rent and the other the utilities. But after Medicare and Social Security deductions and her share of the household obligations, groceries for a family of seven, her $500 monthly car payment, the assorted expenses that come with three teenagers, loans to relatives who think she makes a fortune and the debt left over from her previous life, she finds that there is often little left over at month's end, and most months she's still in the hole. She exists in an in-between place, middle class on paper but squeezed in reality. Take her car, for instance. It's a 2002 two-door Blazer that cost $29,000. She really needed the bigger four-door, just so everybody could easily get in. But that would have cost an extra $5,000, so everybody crams into the two-door. Insufficient though it is, it still comes at a high price. She pays 17 percent interest on the car loan -- with $13,000 remaining -- because of bad credit from her previous life, when sometimes the choice was whether to eat or pay the light bill. The kids asked her the other day if she was getting a new car. "No," she said, "you can pop the seat and duck your head and get in like everybody else." But she winces every time Christopher and Zach have to fold themselves into the size of a bag of groceries to fit into the rear storage compartment. She says she wants a bigger car like a Lincoln Navigator, but with gas so high she shudders at what it would cost to fill the tank, and she knows she can't afford a new car anyway. So despite her income, Saks and Macy's are somebody else's world. Instead, she frequents the places she did in her previous life. She still shops at the dollar stores in Englewood, her old down-and-out neighborhood. On a recent trip to Louisiana for her family reunion she watched every nickel and checked her balance at the automated teller machine several times a day. She has become keenly aware that what middle-class comforts she does enjoy are built on uncertain scaffolding. First, her status requires two paychecks and the stability and backup she gets from being married. It requires that she work the higher-paying 12-hour night shifts that keep her away from her family for long stretches and leave her tired and irritable when she's with them. It requires that Mr. Allen work extra hours as security at an elementary school, which leaves the two of them with little overlapping time to reinforce the strong marriage they need to stay where they are. Stretching Every Dollar Her job and paycheck say she's middle class, but what does that mean? She said that when she was on the outside looking in, she never imagined it would mean working three and a half years without a vacation or having an empty dining room waiting for a table and chairs. It never would have occurred to her that she would be working this hard and still have to choose between paying the phone bill and paying for her daughter Ishtar's prom. She exhibits a mounting awareness of just how far her money will and will not go, and of how much hard work each dollar represents and how carefully she must protect it because any loss means she has to work that much harder. So she drops what she's doing when she sees a spot on the sofa because it cost four figures and it's not paid for yet. She buys in bulk and has to watch out for relatives wanting to shop in her kitchen. "I caught my aunt going into my pantry getting her some soap," she said. "I told her, 'That's Dove!"' For Ms. Whitiker, being middle class has meant working upside-down hours for so long that she's started to greet people on the street with "Have a good evening!" It means taking on family members as unofficial patients with their edema and diabetes. "When you're the only nurse in the family they think you're a doctor," she says. "Mama calls me. Mama has her friends calling me." She has no choice but to keep up the pace because she wants to get vested in the retirement plan at the hospital. She has 18 months to go. She wants to open up a Roth retirement account, but can't seem to save enough. She wants to go back to school to get a bachelor's degree, but has neither the time nor the money. "I feel like every corner of my body is being stretched," she said the other day. More than anything, Ms. Whitiker wants to buy a house. Sometimes she drives by her dream house on Greenwood in the comfortably middle-class neighborhood of Chatham. It's yellow brick with a spiral staircase and a two-story foyer and vertical blinds. But she's having trouble saving anything toward that house or any other. The bad credit from her previous life still haunts her. Where she wants to live, they can't afford. And where they could afford, she doesn't dare live. "I have to live in a decent neighborhood," she said. "I can't walk around the projects in my nursing uniform. They would try to take everything I got. And my husband -- he's arrested half the people in Englewood. We're in danger." Missing Pieces Ms. Whitiker's ideal of middle-class perfection, with well-educated, smartly groomed kids gathered around a big middle-class dining room table, has two missing pieces: Nicholas and Willie. Her success came too late to benefit them. They were already on a road she was unable to steer them from. Nicholas dropped out of school in the 11th grade and has been on and off the streets ever since. Willie, ever the follower looking up to Nicholas, was right behind. At 22, Nicholas is a burdened soul who saw too much too soon. His front tooth is broken from a fight he got into trying to protect Willie on the streets. His car has bullet holes from a drive-by shooting. He knows what it's like to have a pistol jammed into your chin, or to be a 12-year-old making $50 from neighborhood drug dealers for sitting on a hydrant and calling out "Five-O!" -- street slang for the police. And worse. "I could be dead right now," said Nicholas, his chiseled features weary, water welling in his eyes. "I should be dead. I hurt so many people. I hurt myself." There were times when Mr. Allen, on patrol and by then Nicholas's putative stepfather, would catch him on the street and write up a summons but then let him go. But Nicholas finally got caught and spent about six weeks in jail in 2002 for stealing two coats from a Marshall's store in the suburbs and for fighting the police when they tried to arrest him, a consequence, his mother believes, of unresolved "anger issues" from the chaos of his childhood. She wishes she could go back and do some things differently. She thinks he needs to get into anger management and get into school to put his quick mind to good use. For now, he lives in a walk-up apartment in the suburbs with the mother of the second of his three children; she's a housekeeper at the local Y.M.C.A. He has worked part-time as a stock clerk, but he is pinning his hopes on his rap music, which his exasperated mother admits is pretty good. He closes his eyes with hands quivering and begins one of his songs: "Going to change my ways," he sings in a near whisper. "Lord have mercy on me." Willie has become a sturdily built young man with a movie star smile and a precisely trimmed goatee. Like Nicholas, he has worked low-paying service jobs when he has worked. He has two children, and a more serious criminal record that includes a felony drug conviction for selling near a schoolyard. "I was doing some things I shouldn't have been doing," Willie said, still sweet-faced at 21. Ms. Whitiker's two older sons are living reminders of the world she wants to put behind her. She lives in constant fear of what may happen to them. "I go to work," she said wearily, "and I don't know when I'm going to get that call, that your son is dead or in jail again." It was soon after she began working as a nurse that she got the call she had been dreading. She was in the intensive care unit bandaging a patient when she was called to the phone. Willie had been shot. It was not clear where he had been shot or how seriously hurt he was, or if he was conscious or would live. She dropped everything. It turned out he had been shot twice in the leg. She found it suspicious that he was shot on a well-known South Side drug corner that had been contested by rival dealers. But she rushed in to save her son. "It almost killed me," she said. "I almost had a nervous breakdown. I'm at work bandaging up patients, and I get the call that he's been shot. He said he was robbed. So I took him in and took care of his wounds." Last summer, she got another call. She was at home in bed this time. "Your son Willie's been shot," said the slurred, panicked voice on the phone. It was a call from one of Willie's acquaintances from the very corner where Willie had been shot the first time. "They were so ghetto," Ms. Whitiker recalled with exasperation. "They were arguing over the phone about what they should do." She thought quickly. The nurse in her kicked into gear. "Where was he shot?" she asked. "In the leg," came the answer. "Is he breathing?" "Yeah." She knew then that he would live. "So I hung up and turned over and went to sleep," she recalled later. "I didn't even tell my family." In the days and weeks that followed Willie's shooting, Ms. Whitiker made perhaps the most painful decision a mother could make in order to keep her family on the straight and narrow. She has performed a kind of emergency triage, banishing the infected to save the well. She didn't visit Willie in the hospital, didn't take him home to tend him as she had the first time. She made it clear that neither he nor Nicholas was welcome until they got themselves together, got their high school equivalency diplomas and started taking care of their kids. She has big plans for the younger ones: graduations, proms, college, professions. She doesn't want them getting shot like Willie. "I told him you can't bring that here," she said. "How are his brothers supposed to feel? They're trying to do right and their brother is in the other room with a gunshot wound. I don't want him bringing that to the house and spreading it to the others. The other boys are on the right path, and I want it to stay that way." Her plan appears to be working. The younger children rarely speak of Nicholas and Willie. When Willie showed up at the apartment one afternoon, Ishtar knew to alert her mother on her cellphone. "Willie's here," Ishtar said. "What you want me to do?" Everyone knows about the quarantine, even if it's breached. When Nicholas's name comes up, there's an awkward silence and a looking away. Pushing Higher Goals Thursday was a big day for the family. It was the day Ishtar walked across the stage and became the first of Ms. Whitiker's children to get a high school diploma. It caused quite a flurry in a family with a history of more births than graduations. After the ceremony, Ms. Whitiker's sister, Michelle, took Ishtar's yellow mortarboard and said, good-naturedly: "Let me try this on. Which way does it go? They don't give you these when you get your G.E.D." Everyone was there, except Willie, who was looking for work in Milwaukee, and Nicholas, who was in the public library reading up on contracts and music royalties to get a record deal. The day put Ms. Whitiker in a class quandary even as she went without a telephone to pay for the commencement and the prom. While proud of Ishtar, who made it to the prom after all, Ms. Whitiker is torn between making a big deal of graduation and keeping it in perspective. "I'm not going to do like these other mothers and brag about, 'My baby graduated from high school!"' she said the other day. "I'm not going to say that's good. No, that's just the beginning. I want her to go to college and have a profession. She asked me, 'What age do you think I should have sex?' I said, 'I think about 30."' Ms. Whitiker has made no attempt to hide her displeasure over Ishtar's wanting to join the Navy -- not only because her daughter could be deployed to the Middle East but also because it does not fit the middle-class ideal Ms. Whitiker now has for her children. She sees Ishtar going into law. She is nudging 14-year-old John, who brings home A's, is a linebacker on the football squad and a squad leader in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, to consider becoming a doctor. John listens and applies himself but says he wants to go into the Army first. Before she became a nurse, the military might have been seen as a step up for her kids. Now she sees it as a detour from what they really should be doing. "I try to talk to my kids to go into a profession," she said. "If you're certified and licensed, nobody can take that away from you." To Nicholas and Willie, her advice is very different. "Can't you see your life is going down the drain, and you're the only one who can save it?" she asks to shrugging shoulders. "You want a quick way out. There is no quick way out. I tried that. It doesn't work." But she still has hope. "I'm a late bloomer," she says, "and I know it's not too late for them." Real Riches What has kept Ms. Whitiker going is the knowledge that there are certain things no one can ever take away, that certain pieces of paper really do matter. That is why the letter she was afraid to open, the one announcing she had passed her nursing boards -- it's folded up, crinkled in her wallet beneath a picture of her husband and her A.T.M. card. The college diploma that it took her eight years to earn -- her husband keeps that in his bedroom drawer, as if it is as much his as hers. But as their second anniversary approached, the balancing act that plays out every day of their lives came down to the more immediate questions of getting by. Will they have a telephone this week or will Ishtar go to the prom? Will Ms. Whitiker be able to cut back her hours at the hospital and spend more time with her family? Can she work days instead of nights? Will she be able to find a home she can afford instead of spending five figures in rent each year? Recently, she took a second job as a visiting nurse, checking in on elderly patients on the South Side during the day. It allows her to have more control over her schedule and work fewer nights at the hospital. The earnings potential is uncertain, and she has no health benefits under this new part-time arrangement, relying instead on her husband's. But a burden has been lifted for now. So here she is on a late spring afternoon in her S.U.V. running errands in the old neighborhood. She has always felt safest with the familiar. She drops off some clothes at the dry cleaners where her sister's former husband's sister works. She buys a duffle bag at a dollar store that hired her aunt to fill in. She checks in on the niece who just had the Caesarean. "How's the baby?" she asks. "You know I want to come up and give her some sugar." Her cellphone rings. "That's the kids," she said. She answers immediately, confident that, whatever bills are waiting in the mailbox, she's rich in the one thing that matters. "Family is like the most important thing in life," Ms. Whitiker said. "Without family, I don't even see a purpose." ABOUT THE SERIES This article is the 11th and final part of a series examining the role of social class in America today. A team of reporters spent more than a year exploring ways that class -- defined as a combination of income, education, wealth and occupation -- influences destiny in a society that likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity. ON THE WEB: nytimes.com/class Ozier Muhammad, who photographed Angela Whitiker and her family for the 1993 Children of the Shadows series in The Times, returned to the story this year. He narrates a photographer's journal. Also, encounters with class from Richard Price, Christopher Buckley, Linda Chavez, David Levering Lewis and Diane McWhorter, and a forum for readers to share their experiences. The complete series, including audio, photos and interactive graphics, will remain available at nytimes.com/class. TIMES BOOKS will publish the Class Matters series as a paperback in September. A limited number of newspaper reprints will also be available in three to four weeks for $2.50 per copy. To order the reprint, call 1-800-671-4332. Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Robot musicians

by Vicky Knox

I thought I would share my fun Wikipedia wanderings with you. I'm really into Category pages. In a wormhole that led me from Survival Research Laboratories <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_Research_Laboratories> to Category:Robot_musicians < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Robot_musicians>, I found Don Cuco el Guapo, a robot pianist from Mexico. His website is pretty epic: www.doncuco.buap.mx <3 v

10 years, 7 months

2
2
0 0

Fwd: forgot to mention

by Cere Mona Davis

Free chemicals! …some of them quite useful. Some of them are unknown. A friend of mine grabbed them from some freebie buy and now wants to get rid of them. See list below.

10 years, 7 months

9
19
0 0

Financial Records

by Matt Griffin

Hi Sudo Room, The finance working group has some awesome new people helping out with the bookkeeping and we were wondering if you've been keeping track of your finances internally. If you have any historical record on how much you payed for rent, utilities/shared expenses, etc, it'd be super helpful. If you could email it to finance and Loren and Kelly (cc'd to this email) we'd appreciate it! Thanks so much, Matt and FWG

10 years, 7 months

2
2
0 0

Friend looking for microscope.

by Noemie Serfaty

Hey, I just met Miko here in the Mission. Miko is 23 and looking for a microscope so he can look at things really closely. Like things from the ocean for instance, or butterfly leaves - I quote. Does any of you have an idea how he could get a cheap one? Love

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Lend a hand (and/or truck) to get lockers for CCL and Omni, 1:30 today

by Patrik D'haeseleer

We have a chance of picking up some dirt cheap lockers that would make for great personal storage for members. I'm planning to rent a UHaul to pick them up in Richmond, leaving from Omni 1:30 at the latest. Is anyone available to lend a hand moving them? These things can get heavy. Anyone have a truck available? There are 8 sets of lockers available (3x6 lockers in each set). Unless I hear more interest I am planning to pick up only 4 - one or two of which will go into CCL, the rest into the basement for general use by Omni members. Thanks! Patrik

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

Great deal on small storage lockers!

by Patrik D'haeseleer

Just saw the posting below on Craigs List. 8 sets of 3 x 6 lockers, for $200 total! CCL definitely doesn't need all 8 sets, but we could probably use 2 at least (that'd be 36 compartments). Rest could go to Sudo or in the Omni basement for general use. Anyone have a good system for renting out storage lockers? How does Sudo currently do it? Is there some easy way to collect a monthly $5-10 locker fee? If we want these and they're still available, I should have a few hours tomorrow to help pick them up. I will likely need at least one other person to lift them though. .. Patrik ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "IFTTT Action" <action(a)ifttt.com> Date: Sep 18, 2015 10:25 PM Subject: New on Craigslist: storage lockers (richmond / point / annex) $200 To: <patrikd(a)gmail.com> Cc: I have 8 of these lockers for sale. all of them for $200 or obo >From search: craigslist SF bay area | for sale search "lockers" via Craigslist http://ift.tt/1NBWm8s <http://email.ifttt.com/wf/click?upn=jGHDfwvrKDxaofcg5GVultQPOkP4qEzZIK-2Fhq…> [image: IFTTT] <http://email.ifttt.com/wf/click?upn=jGHDfwvrKDxaofcg5GVuluKbPpI-2FS0lavZIKU…> Put the internet to work for you. Turn off or edit this Recipe <http://email.ifttt.com/wf/click?upn=jGHDfwvrKDxaofcg5GVulqZbq5Ob51WMw-2B5VP…>

10 years, 7 months

1
1
0 0

Language/Art/Tech Person, new to Area, seeking Rooms and Community

by Ariel Kalinowski

Hey List, Just moved here from NYC. Doing a fellowship on language, art, technology. Work is here: saitogroup.info Looking for a room in Oakland close to the Bart. 750-1250, shooting for a K. Anybody have any leads on how to hook this up? Maybe with Sudo or Omni people? Also, curious about the space. Very interested in getting involved. Be curious to shoot some emails back and forth with whoever would be willing to discuss this with me. Best, AK/S

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

plasma globe

by Cere Mona Davis

Hey does anyone have a plasma globe toy or any other kind of portable plasma form factor thingy I could borrow? -- Best Regards, Cere Davis ceremona(a)gmail.com http://AcoustoCurio.us ------------------- GPG Key: http://taffy.findpage.com/~cere/pubkey.asc GPG fingerprint (ID# 73FCA9E6) : F5C7 627B ECBE C735 117B 2278 9A95 4C88 73FC A9E6

10 years, 7 months

2
2
0 0

new blog post: Math invades our SudoRoom late night Algorithms Session

by Romy Ilano

https://sudoroom.org/math-invades-our-algorithms-late-night-thursday-sessio… ============================= Romy Ilano romy(a)snowyla.com

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

batteries needed, car, laptop, &c

by johanna faust

thought i would ask here first need a starter battery for a car that has not been moved for years; a battery for one of the first, silver macbookpros (the kind with the silver keys and the square battery), and if anyone has a spare regular ol' battery charger for regular ol' rechargeable batteries, that would rock, as mine appears to have paid the ultimate price. -- *Be seeing you.*

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Re: [sudo-discuss] SEM

by Adam

The last sem I took a part was mostly solid brass, granted it's not large but it's extraordinarily heavy.

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

Have any artists here open sourced their art ?? The Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study: Ramsey Arnaoot

by Romy Ilano

Have any artists here officially open sourced their art ? Here Ramsey Arnaoot did:: I know we have open sourced art on our Sudoroom Github .. http://www.pifas.net/main/alumnus/5 Sent from my iPhone

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

All watched over by machines of loving grace

by Karissa McKelvey

https://vimeo.com/groups/96331/videos/80799353 Have you seen this? This is part 1 of 3 parts. Watch it. -- Karissa McKelvey http://karissa.github.io/

10 years, 7 months

1
0
0 0

9/16 Meeting Minutes

by Jenny Ryan

Recorded for posterity at: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-09-16 *Sudo Room Meeting 16 Sep 2015* =Intros= * Icebreaker: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? * Patrick Xu: 2 * Robb: As much as he had time to chuck * David Estrada: It's bodyweight, conservative estimate * Sigma: Depends on how much meth they've had * Romy: Why are woodchucks chucking wood to begin with, and why do they necessarily have to chuck wood at all? Is this an intelligence test? Am I part of an invisible algorithm, where my answers are being evaluated to avoid being thrown to the bottom of the pile? * rmt_daniel: Chuck is the diminutive of Charles. Save the trees. :) * Matt: One food not bombs truck-full and three space pods full, as that's how much wood this chuck and his chuck-friends have chucked today. * yar: the only way to find out is through a massive controlled study of woodchuck wood chucking * jenny: doesn't matter to me as long as the damn woodchuck is happy * juul: Even if a woodchuck could chuck wood and even if a woodchuck would chuck wood, should a woodchuck chuck wood? =Announcements= * sudo-humans is borked, specifically that important part where you sign up to pay dues ** What is the exact issue? Can you describe it, provide a screenshot, or a url? For how long now has this issue occurred? Any other information? ** Waiting for information *** jenny: don't know where the logs are. log in, go to your profile, then click edit -> edit recurring payment. blank page. mewp. juul & cap'n morgan are looking into it * Rent party on Saturday ** You should come, you should help - Sat 9/19 @ 10am - 8pm https://omnicommons.org/rentparty ** Matt will sell his heart out over anything you identify (and remove from sudo room!) as "rummage"!!!!!!111 ** Need to raise $5000 before the end of the month =Finances= * Paid October rent early to help buffer Omni's waning bank account. * Will need to pay imminently: $400 501c3 application filing fee, roughly $350 in shared utilities for September * After October rent, we currently have $976.49 in our account + $211.54 in Paypal/Gratipayments that's currently in transit to our account = $1,188.03 * Mid-August to Mid-September income: ** $1,064 in PayPal donations, weekly Gratipay payouts dwindling from $412 (Aug 20) to $130 (Sep 10). Some members also pay their dues through PayPal. ** Is due to not a full 30 days? ** $2,215 in Stripe donations, with a $1K abberant one-time donation = ~$1,215 coming in monthly from Stripe. Let's try to get more people using sudo-humans and aim for $2K as the next milestone! *** Currently 29 members are signed up for recurring donations via sudo-humans, though there are 51 members in the system. ** Total income during this period (15 Aug - 16 Sep) - $3,279 but $2,279 in regular donations so not quite breaking even atm =New Members= * New Member Script: https://sudoroom.org/wiki/New_Member_Script === david === * David would like to become a new member: ** Been here a few days, working on javascript ** Like it here ** How did you find: Heard from a friend. Noisebridge also came up. ** Why: Excited about javascript community, and the makerspace community. Hardware ** Learn: More javascript ** Teach: More javascript ** Plan to abolish (10w): Abolish the world, nuke the world. ** End planet troubles (10w): See previous answer ** Plan to ensure freedom(10w): Open source annihilation, everything is open source. ** Know about sudo?: Subscribe to hacker ethics, all that jazz, everything open, open firewalls. Likes #6 alot. ** Know about history?: Heard only been around for about a year. *** correct answer is 4 :) maybe should write a history page.. ** Know about SOS?: Reading ** Know about Safe space?: Also reading ** Been banned?: No ** Cop/etc/cat: No, no, no, not decided on status of cat. ** Happy: Getting in the zone, flow states, whatever gets me in the moment. ** 20+3: 23 ** Captcha?: I have no idea * Robb: I like NB encourages bribes.i was joking, * Matt: Know a place where you have to farm for hours before becoming possible member. (serfdom?) * rmt_daniel: sefdom, new word for me (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom ). * jenny: erm, 'nuke the world'? ** yar: at least it's slightly better than the 'nuke the middle east' people. but still. 'throw up your hands' at best, 'white supremacy is human nature' at worst. ==Pondering== * 9/2 - 9/30: Benji * 8/25 - 9/23: Brendan - pondering ends next week = Proposals = * Quorum is unlocked/supercharged ==Liberation Ministries revised proposal for 'active non-member participation'== * Full proposal: https://omnicommons.org/pipermail/consensus/2015-September/000638.html ** https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCTmZqcEV2F8mRiIO1eLbzQ * what is the longest trial period Sudoroom can consense on? 1 month? 3 months? ** yar: 2-3 months kind of sucks because it puts them in limbo right around christmas and new years which is a season they are probably doing more work than usual. Oct 1 - Feb 1 might make more sense. +1 good point ** Patrick: Would give them a powerful opportunity to shine going through the Christmas season. ** Matt: Everyone of the folks who shared a contention isn't here, except Robb. *** Sigma: Your point is factually false, lists names of some people here *** Matt: I concede the point, there are people here who have shared concerns, forgot about a few, sorry ** Robb: Most of my concerns were just clarifying statements on how different than the others of the collective (sorry missed most of this Robb) ** Patrick: Want to speak to the kinds of objections: Going through notes about objections to spirituality, religion, especially Christianity. Objections are to brainwashy/pyramid-scheme style religions like mormonism, jehovahs witnesses, which I agree with, manipulative patriarchal bullshit is bad. But recognize spirtuality is very diverse, and has been a principle component of social justice movements. Examples: Gandhi, MLK, Malcolm X are old school examples. Zapatistas are a contemporary example of a movement toward autonomy based on traditional mayan culture and religion, a case in point where anarchism and spirituality dovetail together. Objections are straw-man objections, so we should do trial period. There are valid objections, but there are big reasons to build these kinds of bridges. ** yar: if these people were anything like mormons, they'd already have a place. a big fancy modern place. also gandhi & mlk weren't anarchists... but anyway ** matt: Patrick is contending that many of the arguments by sudoers (on email and meeting notes) against working with Liberation Ministries are (at least in part) drawing that comparison, which ultimately seems misguided. ** Matt: Agree with Patrick, unfortunate that people on each side (supporting, or questioning) are seeing only distorted images of this eachother instead of the actual depth/complexity at hand here. This is why I am in pain, and why I have recused myself. *** yar will not be able to go to the delegates meeting tomorrow. matt, if sudoroom can consent to a trial period or abstain, are you willing to be a delegate then? ** yar: this is why a trial period is so important IMO. february will be here before we even know it. +1+1 Trial period! Woot woot! ** Romy: Uncomfortable going from 0 to 1 year. Trial period might be fine, we do that with our members. ** Matt: It seems like there might be a a dynamic between Cheryl and her ministry, where something they do in an event is perhaps a gesture of where their congregation is going to put their major energy. There hasn't been any effort so far in this space, and can't wrap my head around why that is. Maybe someone an omni person is advising that, maybe Cheryl's board, but unclear. *** Patrick: Inside their current proposal directly says they plan to be part of the Omni no matter what, even if there is no agreement. *** Sigma: Why haven't they done this already, in the current month since this got proposed? Seems like a red flag. *** Pat: direct response, peoples lives are crazy complicated, surviving in capitalism is hard. There may be good reason they haven't been able to devote time to hanging out in Omni without some formal commitment (long or short) *** Matt: Maybe a reason maybe not, maybe due to miscommunication that Cheryl believed she had to be a member in order to do stuff. Was clarified directly about a month ago. **** https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Event:2015/08/27_Delegates_Meeting#Liberation_… **** yar: they asked permission first because that's what our website told them to do. and the reaction after this made them very skeptical about investing more time, energy & money if the omni community is going to reject them in the end. *** Sigma: listened to one of Cheryl's sermons and has an explicit objection to bringing in a christian organization that uses the bible and substantially supports things in the bible, unless things in there are specifically denied and crossed out, there are a plethora of bigoted, hateful, mysogynistic statements in the bible, an organization that uses this text and promotes it unquestioningly is a system of oppression. THey need to go the extra mile to show that they do not subscribe to the hateful parts of the bible. **** yar: they said they're aligned with everything in Omni's statement of solidarity!!! that is a thousand extra miles. *** Pat: So maybe we could formulate that question, "What is LM's relationship with the text of the bible, in detail?" And can we ask that question and explore it through a ~4 month trial period? **** yar: that is why we have a trial period. the answer is nuanced and we can learn this over time. *** yar: their practice is dependent on what people in their community need, it's not predetermined at all. these are not dogmatists, it's people who want to build community, infrastructure for mutual aid, and singing and dancing while doing it. feels like i'm talking to brick walls here. *** Sigma: Not at a point where I would block now, as the combination of support of a trial period and the non-member status makes LM's explicit bible support less tied to the values of the Omni. ** Matt: Thing in America where precident's matter, so it doesn't matter that law is established by judges, etc, but we shouldn't get trapped in the mindset where because we did it previously we should we do it this way. For ex, wasn't GWS founders who showed up, it was a chapter. We did explicitly scrutinized what they do, what they needed. They were excited to be working with other collectives. Several other collectives engaged in a trial period instead of forming a long-term committment at first. ** Sigma: Seems different as a christian church comes from a history of exploitation and oppression, so the default position is rejection and needs work to establish that it doesn't embody those patterns of history *** yar: they do. have you read the notes? these are our people. they are on our side. *** Matt: Agree with that, have talked about trauma as a default reaction. ** Max: There are many people here whose default reaction is "organized religion: no" and subsequently maybe this isn't the best place for LM *** yar: I am not ceding Omni to anti-religious bigots. I am simply not. I do not accept this argument. +1 ** Max: Maybe this isn't the space for LM, maybe they should just have a landlord. [who is saying this?] (his name is max) *** maybe this isn't the space for you ** Mary ward (walks in, stage right!): They are soliciting us for space, they explicitly want to be here. ** Robb: They want year lease, do other collectives do a year lease? *** Matt: No, it's different because the collectives can decide their own fate (didn't understand this exactly, feel free to fill in with more details) *** yar: we are hoping to offer them a trial period. that is what's up for consensus right now. ** Romy: Is the logic of a lease they are just forming their ministry? *** Matt: Yeah *** Robb: She's indicated once the ball is rolling she wants to keep it rolling in the same space ** Romy: 300 seems like such a low number for this space *** yar: this is not what's up for consensus right now. it's derailing the conversation. we are talking about a trial period. we can figure out the rest later. *** Patrick: Optik Illusions (sp?) is at 100 *** yar: we are an anti-capitalist space which charges based on need and ability, not market value ** Matt: It's complex because it's common space, like we have a computer there that they shouldn't move, in terms of Opti Allusions ** Matt: It also blocks off Sunday mornings so no other activities are possible *** yar: in the past year, only a handful of things happened on Sunday mornings. this may change eventually but probalby not much before February 1, which is the only period under consideration right now ** Robb: True for OI on friday ** Matt: Complex topic, many objections, many emotional responses. ** Patrick: Do we have consensus on trial period? ** Mary: It's really about the space, not used on Sunday ** Matt: Not true, data on the used space was incorrect, frustrated. Each side is not trying to understand all the issues, just pushing their perspective. *** yar: Ben's report from Commons WG was incorrect? Please can you back this up? Ben was a neutral third party in this, and this is new information for me, so it's not fair to use this as an example of me "not trying to understand" **** jenny: somewhat incorrect. as someone who stewarded a lot of events, many weekend events had early setup times or would come back the next day to finish cleaning. didn't account for the BACH unconference or the Free Marissa Caravan report-back, which maybe weren't listed properly on the calendar, just two events off the top of my head that I recall using the ballroom Sunday am. Also, our event requests are only increasing and we're likely to book more weekend-long events once we have our permits sorted. Just some points of info, I thought his report was otherwise fairly accurate. ***** +1, on top of that it's an infinite cycle ** Romy: Don't have bad feelings on this, necessarily complex topic. ** Sigma: Open question, given Omni slowness on making decisions, and given previous issues with La Commune lease termination, how would this trial period end? What happens if there are problems but not consensus on further inclusion? How would a problematic assocation be terminated? ** Romy: I don't understand why they didn't take the time to come here and get to know us? *** yar: see above. they followed the instructions on our website. **** Sigma: These were clarified about a month ago, nothing has happened since? **** yar: at that point they had heard so much deep anti-religious sentiment that they are clearly reluctant to invest much time without first getting a commitment from us that we can get past the religion thing **** Sigma: That interpretation contradicts explicit language in their proposal which says they will participate even if they aren't given a lease. **** yar: oh, i see what you're saying. yes it would be nice if people from LM could participate on a daily basis regardless. but i find myself having trouble with that lately, even. *** Mary: maybe miscommunication *** Matt: Totally agree, don't get it. "Not having services now" seems like cop-out. ** Sigma: Looks like Patrick is drafting a proposal, requesting explicit language that without an explicit Omni consensus to extend the trial period, if the trail period has elapse, their lease is terminated. Essentially want to avoid ambiguity, like as with happened with La Commune, and want to make a problematic sitation resolvable. *** yar: the issue with La Commune was leaving unexpectedly early and having a dysfunctional internal decisionmaking process due to everybody leaving, it's so not really comparable *** Sigma: Wasn't solely based on the La Commune situation, did want to provide an explicit outcome if their presence is problematic and there isn't a consensus that they should stay. ** Brendan: If this wasn't a church, would we be doing a trial period? *** Matt: Yes, this has happened before. *** Robb: In trial period now. *** Mary: Yeah and there is substantial scrutiny for each new collective. *** Pat suggests an Amendment to the LM proposal: Quoting from the new LM proposal, in the section "Summary": "[LM is] confident that their ability to collaborate and contribute to the space will manifest, whether they become a collective member now, later or never." As someone who is passionate about Inter-faith organizing and building broad based solidarity around radical values, I echo LM’s confidence that given a trial period, LM would be able to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are NOT trying to brainwash/mind-control/emotionally-manipulate anyone. I am also confident that if other cultural mismatches were to arise, we would be able to resolve them. I am also confident that the connection to the warmth of an intergenerational, interracial, family-oriented membership that LM would catalyze would convince the skeptical that the benefits of LM's presence far outweigh the costs. I am overflowingly confident that, as suggested by Yar at the 8/26 delegates meeting, a trial period of 3 to 6 months would be more than enough time to build trust between LM and the Omni community, after which LM could be confirmed as a long term tenant and/or member-collective. Most of my friends in the activist community would agree that organizers should build affinity/trust first before jumping into a long-term partnership together, it is totally unreasonable and naive to expect otherwise. As Yar said at the 8/26 sudo meeting, "applying to be a member collective is like proposing marriage. so take us on a few dates first." text of amendment: LM will be a tenant for a trial period of (4 months? Yar proposed Oct 1st to Feb 1st) in which LM and the wider Omni community can build trust and affinity with each other. If the Omni community does not reach consensus to extend the trial period or enter into an official long-term arrangement with LM, then the trial period will terminate. ** Sigma: For new people arriving, if you are missing context, please read the notes, because the notes are great, because I'm taking them. *** Marc: Thanks for taking notes :) *** rmt_daniel: thx Sigma. I am reading them. Not saying much, but reading. Thx! :) ** Romy: Feel like everything would be awesome if she came and talked to us *** Brendan: Maybe she feels anxious because we are like "omg you are an evil church ruler lady" and if we were actively open about talking to her then it would go better * Lesley (remote): I also support 4-6 month trial.+1 ** Patrick: Maybe we should have an envoy of people who are not allergic to religion and want to meet her and talk to her *** Mary: I am in *** Brendan: I am in to envoy *** Pat: Can we get quorum to consense on Sudo requesting an amendment to the proposal that includes a trial period of 4 months? ===Vote=== Proposal: Liberation Ministries (LM) will be a tenant for a trial period of 4 months, in which LM and the wider Omni community can build trust and affinity with each other. If the Omni community does not reach consensus to extend the trial period or enter into an official long-term arrangement with LM, then the trial period will terminate. * Aye: Lesley, Yar, Pat, Francisco, Troy, Liz, Max, Mary, Anthony, Robb * Not Blocking: Sigma, Juul (but not feeling very happy about it), Matthew Stewart (Think this is a really bad idea), Jenny, rmt_daniel (I agree w M.Stewart). * Blocking: The proposal passes. ==New Omni Delegates== ===PatXu=== * Proposal: Add Patrick to be on delegates list. ** Aye: Jenny, Sigma, Jake, Mary, Lesley, Matt, Romy, Robb, Karissa ** Abstaining: Francisco ** Blocking: The proposal passes. ===Sigma=== * Proposal: Add Sigma to be on delegates list. ** Aye: Jenny, Jake, Mary, Patrick, Matt, Romy, Robb, Karissa, juul ** Abstaining: Francisco ** Blocking: The proposal passes. =Conflicts/Bans= * Dante C who reportedly spit at Niki was reminded again and issued interest in attempting to engage in conflict resolution. Has returned to Omni Commons since then many times, and has been asked to leave on several occaisions, and needs to engage in conflict resolution, but until then is not welcome in the space. =Previously= * https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-09-09 * https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-09-02 * https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Meeting_Notes_2015-08-26 -- Jenny Help open a people-powered common space in Oakland, California! https://omnicommons.org/donate `~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` "Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories." -Laurie Anderson "Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it." -Hannah Arendt "To define is to kill. To suggest is to create." -Stéphane Mallarmé ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

10 years, 7 months

2
1
0 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

sudo-discuss