Gone

Last night I found out that a good friend and an employee has committed suicide.  He was well liked by everyone who worked with him and had several friends at the Centre so it has been really, really hard on all of us today.  I found out last night and was the one to break the news to most of the staff and management today which has made this into one long emotional day.

Feed Me

I just got yelled at by one of the cooks at the Centre. She saw my McDonald's breakfast and yelled at me for eating so poorly. Usually I yell back and then run for my life but today I said, "I'm sorry" and agreed to allow them to approve everything I am eating at work from now on which since all of the food I enjoy is horrible for me, this could get bad.

The good news is that I was given permission by the kitchen staff to have some coffee.

Update: For lunch I was given a plate of peas with a tiny piece of meat on it. Then the kitchen manager took my roast beef away. After laughing themselves silly, they let me have a little bit more for lunch.

Their point did get through to me and I appreciate being yelled at by them. I give them a hard time (I still hold veggie hot dog day over their heads) as well.

Mobilize 2008

I am in Calgary until Wednesday to attend Mobilize 2008.   It seems a little outside my normal interests but when there is an emergency in Saskatoon, I am one of the guys that is called to respond.  The ones we have been a part of in the past have been good learning experiences and if I can learn some more on how to make them better for the victims, it is worth my time.  Of course this is a big paradigm  shift as usually I am the one causing the disasters, not helping with them...

Outside the hotel is a big display of emergency response vehicles from all over western Canada which means that if there is an emergency anywhere except for Calgary, there is no one around to respond.

Technorati Tags: Mobilize 2008

Mobilize 2008

Am off to Calgary tomorrow to attend Mobilize 2008.  The original plan was for another manager from the Centre and I to be gone until Friday but we are coming back Wednesday night.  We have a couple of projects that we need to take care of in addition to all of the other work we have to do.  It's nice to get away but eventually you have to come back to all that paper collecting on your desk.

The conference is about emergency disaster relief.  While we aren't exactly in a earthquake or hurricane zone, we have been a part of evacuations of northern communities in the past and I imagine we will be doing it again.  Also the fire department requests our assistance from time to time when they are putting out larger fires. 

Wendy seems utterly devastated that I am leaving home for a couple of days.  Tonight she was out getting some movies to watch, making plans with friends, and making a list of fun things to do while I am gone.  Apparently I can be replaced by a bunch of Meg Ryan movies, chocolate, and the dog sleeping in my spot on the bed.

Technorati Tags: Salvation Army Community Centre,Calgary,Mobilize 2008

Our Wishlist

I am always being asked what kind of things the guys can use at the Community Centre.  Instead of posting the information here, there is now a wishlist of items online.  You can drop by these items any time of day or night and we appreciate them all.  Thanks!

Technorati Tags: Salvation Army Community Centre

The Saskatoon Salvation Army Community Centre 2.0

We have a new website at work, with a new Flickr account, a weblog (and RSS feed) a profile over at Upcoming, YouTube, and a brand new e-mail newsletter.  The domain name is so new, it has that new website smell to it (and Google hasn't crawled it yet).

When I am not working on the website, my main job is coordinating the  Residential Services department and you can find some more information about it there.  Oh yeah, before I forget, we are hiring.

Technorati Tags: Salvation Army Community Centre

Night at the Movies

We are showing some movies at the shelter on Saturday nights for the guys who call this place home. 

We are starting out with the Star Wars series and then hitting Star Trek (Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!) pretty hard.  After that I have some ideas on what films I want to show (The Mission, Batman Begins) but I was wondering if you had any suggestions.  I am actually thinking of doing some documentaries like Ken Burn's The War this summer and maybe even Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel to change the pace a bit. (documentaries are quite popular in our television lounge).  I think there is some sort of law that a couple of John Wayne movies need to be shown as well.

If you have any suggestions on some movies that would be appropriate for guys in the shelter, let me know in the comments.  My only caveat is no nudity or gratuitous violence.

In today's Star Phoenix....

A couple of news stories in the Star Phoenix where I was quoted.  One is in regards to the Barry Hotel closure and what happened to the people that called it home (the good news is that all of them as far as I know have found new places) and the other one is in regards to a tragic apartment fire in which the Salvation Army was on the scene supporting fire crews and victims.  Sadly a women died due to smoke inhalation and five were hospitalized. 

Technorati Tags: Barry Hotel

Urban Rest Stop

I would love to add one of these to the shelter as it is service in big demand around here.  We can help men out with this but there isn't anything like it for women in the city.

The Urban Rest Stop provides a clean, safe and welcoming facility where individuals and families can come and use the restrooms, shower and laundry facilities. All services are provided at no cost to patrons.

By providing access to essential hygiene services, the URS improves the self-sufficiency of homeless individuals and families. The Rest Stop is the only hygiene facility with extended service hours. It is open weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and weekends from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. These extended hours are specifically designed to assist homeless persons who are working or need to get to a job interview. A homeless job applicant cannot be successful during a job interview without the self-confidence that a shower and clean clothes can provide. A homeless individual cannot maintain steady employment or hope for advancement without access to showers and laundry facilities.

Listen to their stats...

As of January 2007, the Rest Stop has provided a total of 366,036 showers, 142,365 laundry loads, and 558,806 restroom uses to 21,540 unduplicated individual patrons. Since the February 2001 earthquake, which resulted in the closure of another Seattle hygiene service facility, the Urban Rest Stop has provided services at its maximum daily capacity of 100 to 125 laundry loads, 175 to 225 showers and 400 to 600 restroom uses each day.

Technorati Tags: Urban Rest Stop

My Sunday

Instead of church today, my Sunday is being spent as the After Hours Emergency worker from 10:00 a.m. to midnight. Yeah, that is 14 straight hours which I haven't done in a while. When Social Services is closed, all emergency calls come to me where I am in a tiny windowless office that seems warmer than the surface of the sun right now.

While the office lacks atmosphere, it does give you a nice feeling to know that you made a bit of a difference at the end of the shift and Wendy was nice enough to drop off some Tim Horton's coffee.

Kindersley

Yesterday I took a road trip with my boss to the town of Kindersley, 2 hours out of Saskatoon for some meetings with a variety of social aid agencies serving the area. We had three spread out meetings which meant that with travel, it was a 14 hour day but the meetings were good and I learned some stuff and met some great people.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Kindersley. I am not a big fan of thrift stores in general although Wendy buys a lot of clothes at Value Village for Mark but this one was different. While many are over glorified junk yards, this one was actually a place that one would want to shop at and had a small army of volunteers making sure appliances, televisions, electronics, and other things were good quality, getting tested or fixed, and clean before it was sold. If there was the perfect business model for running something like that, I think I saw it yesterday.

It was a long day but I was encouraged to see people coming together in a community to make sure that people are taken care of.

I need a lawyer

Not for myself but I need someone that five or six times a year I could e-mail or talk over a scenario and either be given a quick opinion or send me to the relevant section of Saskatchewan law for the correct information I would really appreciate it. I have access to counsel or really serious stuff but occasionally I would like to quickly be explained how a Saskatchewan law works (criminal and family law in particular) for work. I don't even really need an official opinion but just an explanation of how certain laws work in certain situations. If you know of anyone who would be interested, e-mail me at jordoncooper AT gmail.com. Thanks.

Best Death Threat Ever

Today at work I got the best death threat ever. I get the occasional death threat but most of them are pretty standard intoxicated, "I'm going to kill you" and that's it. Most times the next day they can't remember what they had said or who they said it to which is fine with me.

Today's was a little different. It started out in a phone call with a stranger inquiring why there was a housing crisis in Saskatoon which I thought was odd because vacancy rates are about 0.6%. It ended up with her claiming that all female lawyers need to divorce their husbands, stay at home and marry and take care of homeless men and I have committed a crime because I haven't lobbied Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison over this issue. Some how the police were involved in a conspiracy as well. Also all women who were worked were sluts and if I had a wife that worked, it mean I was a pimp for whoring her out. Somewhere in their was a promise to have me convicted of a crime against humanity and she was going to give me the lethal injection herself. Then the conversation was suddenly over and for a moment I felt like I was a character in a Douglas Coupland novel where there was just a bit too much randomness to process.

At the same time I do feel sorry for someone that has that much anger at everyone. Even if she is planning to have me trialed and executed.

Technorati tags: death threats

The War Room by Warren Kinsella

Well I finally found the time to sit down and read Warren Kinsella's latest book The War Room: Political Strategies for Business, NGOs, and Anyone Who Wants to Win. The plan was to purchase the book when it came out but Wendy encouraged me to wait until after Christmas if I knew what was good for me and our marriage. Sure enough the book was waiting for me under the Christmas tree. After I read The Blind Side, I cracked this book open and started to read.

I had planned to review the book in one post but as I got more and more into it, I realized it was going to be too long to post here all at once. The plan is to review each of the ten lessons from The War Room here each evening over the next two weeks.

I read the book from the point of view of a political junkie (who somehow also holds a Hauerwasian view of politics) as well as from a perspective of someone who works at a NGO. My review will be more from the NGO point of view but I imagine some politics will work its way into the book as well.

More thoughts to come later tonight.

There is nothing to fear but fear itself (and the crazy guy over there with a gun)

I appreciate your comments on my deleted post about my latest death threat (a quick count has it over 20 now - or about one a month).  All of them up to now have been just kind of laughed off, not that I don't think they want to kill me, it is just that they aren't a real threat.  Most are high when they make them and only one has ever been aware they have done it and apologized (which I accepted). 

The latest one included being high but had a certain pathological element that has persisted for a couple of days.  I didn't fear the threat but was aware this week that it was made at a different level than the others.  Without going into details, the situation had some other police and prison officials contacting me over it and they gave me some unsolicited advice on taking some precautions as well.

That is what I wrestle with.  Part of what makes anyone effective in working in a social agency is being accessible and open while at the same time it is what puts us at risk so today I took some advice, ignored some others, and took a couple of recommended steps to make sure that the risk was minimized a bit.

I know some of you think I am crazy to put myself at risk at all but I feel pretty strongly about serving in the inner city and I think I do some good things there that make a difference.  That and after 18 months of being there, 1 stolen bike, and 20 or so death threats later, I still look forward to going into work every day.  I'll post some more on the steps we took later and there are some changes coming to the sites to mention as well.

Happy Holidays

Well as I post this I am ready for Christmas.  Every fall I start a spreadsheet and over the following months it gets refined and items picked up.  We were done the bulk of the shopping well before the craziness of Christmas shopping hits and I actually made two trips to the 24 hour Wal-Mart to do some shopping.  Last night Wendy and I set our alarm for 3:00 a.m. and went to the Stonegate Wal-Mart and wandered around a bit.  It is amazing how the shopping experience gets better when there are only 20 other shoppers in the largest Wal-Mart in western Canada.  The really odd thing is that on both trips to Wal-Mart I saw someone shopping in what was clearly pajamas.  If I could be dressed to shop, surely they could be as well.   Wendy and I only had a couple of things to look at but the problem with shopping at 3:00 a.m. is that you can't really call anyone up and casually ask, "So do you have a deep fryer?".  I guess you could but Wendy wouldn't let me.

Wendy struggled a bit with her shopping for me and blogged a bit about it.  Her depression, self-imposed pressure, and firm deadlines don't always go together.  After reminding her that the perfect Christmas generally isn't purchased, a lot of stress went away and the four of us are relaxing while listening to some Christmas tunes.  Well actually Lee and Mark are having a Karate duel right now, Maggi is barking, and Wendy is officiating.  It isn't looking good for Mark or Lee while Maggi is holding her own.

Lee is off work as Case New Holland shuts down for a week over the holidays.  While I am sure he has some skills working on the paint line, he just brought up some presents that look like they were wrapped by a man.  Wendy is working at Safeway on Christmas Eve but for only the second time since we have been married gets Boxing Day off of work.  The big question on Christmas Eve is how many married men will come in at 4:00 p.m. or later and ask Wendy where Safeway keeps the jewelry.  They look so worried when she says they don't sell it.  I am putting in a half day at the Centre tomorrow and then am out of there at noon.  I am spending the morning sorting out the stuff that we are giving to the guys on Christmas morning.  Some churches have made gift bags for the guys as well as a lot of individual donations to be sorted.  The photo to the right is just some of the stuff taking up every single square inch in my office.  On top of that I have stuff stored all over the Centre.  Last week I actually created a spreadsheet to keep track of it all.  We are renting some DVDs and offering up a lot of food as well, it should be a pretty nice day.  If the weather improves Mark and I will take his GT Sno Racer out for a run.  I had one as a kid and some of the most painful things I have ever endured came as a result of that thing so it should be fun.  I just hope his injuries don't affect his Christmas.

On Christmas morning, I am getting up early and helping set up things down at the shelter.  Once shift change happens, I am heading back home to open gifts with the family.  Sometime tomorrow we are heading to the Reimer's to eat and argue.  Today Gloria and I had a conversation where we both decided that we would rather just talk about the faith rather than live it out so all we have to do is argue :-)

I have a growing photo set on Flickr of Christmas 2007 photographs.  I am sure more will be uploaded over the next couple of days but don't expect anything here until I head back to work on the 27th. 

Enjoy Christmas!

Technorati tags: Christmas, Wal-Mart, GT Sno Racer

The Transporter

On Friday, just as the kitchen brought some snacks down the hallway to munch on, I was dispatched by my boss to drive for the Salvation Army Christmas hamper distribution day.  It was cold out and not everyone has a car so I spent the afternoon driving people home after they got their food hampers from the Salvation Army and Rock 102.   I like to think I am as cool as The Transporter or the guy in the BMW Films although Friday I was driving a Chevrolet mini van so I kept the shooting and jumping to a minimum.

I had my camera on me and took a couple of photos of the warehouse.

I got there in the mid afternoon and a bunch of the hampers were already gone.

 

These are some of the 15,000 toys that were collected as part of the Rock 102 Toy Soldier campaign.  The blue bags are full of wrapped toys that have been chosen for each family according to age.  The unwrapped toys are ones that are given out for people who signed up late.  This way their kids still get some cool gifts. They aren't wrapped so people can figure out which gift to give away.

 

On top of the boxes of food, each family got potatoes, carrots, and Mandarin oranges.  They also got to chose from a ham or turkey.  Despite my preference for ham at Christmas, most people preferred the turkeys so what do I know?

When all was said and done, the hampers weighed about 100 pounds.  It was freezing cold out Friday and it would have been horrible to have to take that big of hamper home on the bus so we drove anyone who didn't have a car home.  Many of the people I drove home could not carry the hampers so I made a lot of trips up apartment stairs and almost always to the top floor.  While I didn't mind doing it, my body was hurting by the last trip of the day.  What made it worth it was a) the people I talked with really appreciated it and b) I realized I was being paid to get a pretty good workout.

It was my first visit to the warehouse and it was cool to see the scale of everything.  A lot of time and hours go into making it all happen and it is kind of mind boggling to think about 1 of 15 people in Saskatoon donated a toy to the Toy Soldiers campaign. 

I am working on a photo set of Christmas down at the Centre.  You can find it here.

Technorati tags: Salvation Army Community Centre, Saskatoon, Christmas hampers, Christmas, toys, food, Rock 102, Toy Soldier

Staff Christmas Party

Wendy and I went to the staff Christmas party the other night at The Barn Playhouse and she has a rather nice blog post about it.

Technorati tags: The Barn Playhouse

Job Openings

For those of you who are looking for a new job and or know of someone who is... The Salvation Army Community Centre in Saskatoon is looking for a couple of people. The first position is Night Janitor/Security Relief which is a pretty laid back job if you enjoy working nights. I have done this job and enjoyed it a fair bit. The other position is a full time position during December but goes to half time in January and it is a day janitor position. Both are permanent.

Wages are competitive and while I am biased because I enjoy working here, it is a good place to work and you will enjoy your co-workers.

E-mail me at jordon.cooper AT salvationarmyscc.com if you would like a full job description or if you would like to chat, call me at 244.6280. Both jobs are going in the paper and online tomorrow so this is your sneak peak (and the reason I am not linking to them yet).

It's Cold

Which means that the local paper has been running some articles on homelessness and the shelters. The article features a couple of quotes from your's truly and for the first time ever, the paper spelled my name correctly.

Getting Things Done with Palm Desktop

My Palm Desktop experiment in office organization has lasted a couple of weeks and I have to admit, it working quite well for me which is weird because it generally has failed in the past.  A couple of things are different now.

I have to track far more information then I ever had to do at Lakeland or Lakeview Church.  There are social workers, government agencies, NGOs, politicians, other agencies, and co-workers who need to be kept track of.  Each of them has an e-mail address, fax number, address, cell phone, home and work numbers that may need to be called.  While e-mail address books do a great job of tracking e-mail addresses, I find with many agencies, the fax still rules and I joke that there is still carrier pigeons in use.  At work I have high speed Internet and a quick Windows XP based computer on a well built network.

I need to access the information from more places.  Of course my office is used quite often but also while I am in other areas of the building (which is a lot) and I am on call 24 hours a day.  While there is not a lot of calls at home, there are several calls a week and some of them require information.

The information is in two places.  The Palm Desktop keeps my calendar, contacts, to-do list, and notes all in one place and generates alarms for things that are urgent.  Most of that information is entered while in my office.  As I get my voice mail off my phone, it is easy to enter much of the information needed into the Palm Desktop for future use.

Whenever I feel like it but always once a day, I sync my data with my ancient Sony Clie PEG-SL10 (which is a new case on a Palm III)  This works well because part of every day I am working in the front desk area or am taking calls in other areas of the building.  Also it travels home with me where I enjoy having it to add things once in a while to my to-do list.

I know a lot of people see a Moleskine and a PDA in the context of either/or but I tend to use them in conjunction.  Using a PDA to keep notes in during a meeting is a pain and a notebook and pen still work pretty well.  At the same time I enjoy having access to the information that my PDA gives me, especially the calendar and contacts.  After any meetings, my notebook makes it way back to the desk and the relevant data is transferred back to the Palm Desktop or added to another program.

I know people have told me that an iPod Touch would do all of it but as a friend has proven to me, you can't always get a wifi connection and the iPod Touch is not a great note taking machine, especially when compared to a pen and notebook.

All of this helps create a system where I can move tasks out of the mind by recording them somewhere.  According to David Allen and the GTD theory, my limited is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.  The Palm Desktop (and a massive filing cabinet) is my way of dealing with the information.

Related Links

• Palm Desktop download page (the software is free to download and you don't have to own a Palm device either)
• Zire 22: Palm's latest and cheapest handheld
• What is GTD?
• Blueline hardcover notebook (wonderful and cheap Moleskine imitation)
• David Allen admitting he uses a Palm and Palm Desktop to GTD

Technorati tags: Palm Desktop, GTD, Sony Clie, PDA, Moleskine, iPod Touch

Getting Things Done

I am into the second week as being the Residential Coordinator at work. Today is a quiet day which is letting me get some much needed tasks done.

I am struggling with a couple of things that can be shared on this blog that have to do with more technology than anything.

I spend a lot of time out of my office in meetings and away from a web connection. At work I have a nice fast desktop computer but it is a desktop computer and not a subnotebook and that poses some challenges since I am spending a lot of time running around in a lot of meetings. I do carry a Moleskine notebook for those meetings but I need some advice on how to store my notes and to do lists.

Here are my requirements.

• Outlook is not an option. I hate Outlook.
• It can't be a web based solution. I need to store the data locally.
• Back in my Windows 3.x days, there were some great freeware/shareware free form databases. Anyone use them anymore?
• Anyone know a freeware/cheap contact manager that is good. My address book is Outlook Express right now and that just feels wrong. That and many of the organizations that I connect with are telephone and fax based.
• Using my old Palm might be an option. Anyone use them anymore? Is Palm Desktop decent?
• Data has to be easy to move from computer to computer or storable on the network (preferably both).

Suggestions? (Update: I am giving the Palm Desktop a try which is a really, really nice freeware Personal Information Manager even if you don't have a Palm)

Technorati tags: Getting Things Done, GTD, Lifehacks, Palm Desktop

New beds

The Star Phoenix has a short story on the new dorm that was just opened at work. Ribbon cutting was yesterday. They didn't post any photos but I managed to take some and will try to post them to Flickr this weekend.

Home

I got home to Saskatoon on Tuesday morning after spending Monday night at the Dash family compound in Toronto. While in T.O. I finally met Brian Mullins and Bill Kinnon over supper at Montana's (that's right, I got home to Canada and promptly went out to an American restaurant). After some mechanical problems in Toronto, I was happy to touch down in Saskatoon and see Mark, Wendy and the dog. Wendy took Mark out of school Tuesday morning so Mark could meet me at the airport and we went back home so I could give out some gifts (I went out on a limb and bought Wendy a dress and to my surprise, it fit -- Of course I also bought a backup gift for her as well because like most men, buying a dress for our wives is a little out of the comfort zone.)

We had some bad news while I was gone but I didn't blog about the good news and that was that I have a new job at the Centre which is will be a big challenge but I am looking forward to it.

I have some rough notes from Soularize and some more photos to upload but that will come in time.

Graveyard

With us being short staffed at work, I have been working graveyards on the weekends. I don't mind them but I often get off work at Thursday at midnight and then start work Saturday at midnight which means my "day off" is only 24 hours long but I get that back during the week with some extra long breaks between shifts which are not considered days off. This weekend will be a fun one as I am going into work at midnight, working until 8:00 a.m., coming home and sleeping until 3:00 p.m. and then back at work at 4:00 p.m. I will then work for 16 straight hours and then come home at 8:00 a.m., sleep until 3:00 p.m. and head back to work at 4:00 p.m. where I will work another 16 hours until 8:00 a.m. Monday morning. Five shifts in two and a half days. If I am able to speak English on Monday morning, I will consider it a moral victory.

The lowest 3% of our society

Scott has a great post on working in a rehab centre.

i had coffee with a kid today. she was a hurting, homeless, and desperately desperate beautiful young woman. and as i looked across the table, knowing how little i could truly offer, it occurred to me that, just for this one hour, i could choose to make a difference in one life, as pathetic as that might be.

i am reminded of campolo's story that, had he been a pastor of a church, would have earned him a pink slip and a soiled reputation. he speaks of how, on one occasion, he picked up three child prostitutes and took them to a hotel room. he saw the broken childhoods, the ruined hopes, the tainted humanity. He took the young ladies of the night and bought them an evening of innocence, renting cartoons and ordering chocolate sundaes. They slept in a nice room, unmolested and unafraid. it may not have made a difference in their life but it clearly made a difference for that night.

when i hear that story it usually strikes me that what he did would be highly frowned upon by the religious right. it was too dangerous, too close to the edge, and too open to innuendo and gossip. but tonight i am encouraged. encouraged that though we cannot make a huge difference in the lives of the huddled masses, we can buy moments of peace and hope for people who wonder if anyone cares.

Crime and No Punishment.

Last night I decided to ride my bike to work. The highlight of that trip was being hit by a car which I managed to avoid the worst of on Avenue C North. I was sent for a spin but my knee took the worst of it but I was okay.

I got to work, locked up my bike and a couple of hours later was in our back compound where we have some of the Centre vehicles and my bike wasn't there. It was stolen at 6:18 p.m. according to our security tape and was most likely sold within minutes for $10-15 dollars or for some drugs. I had a good lock on it but it looks like it was smashed apart.

The weirdest thing is that we are pretty sure from the camera who stole the bike. Sadly it wasn't the first bike in the last couple days stolen around here. A coworker was attacked and they stole his bike in the middle of the day.

I guess it comes with the neighborhood where anything seems to be fair game. Policing can only go so far and after a while a neighborhood itself has to want to change the culture of where it is at. We try to do that here but it is an upward climb.

Last night I was kind of down about it. Not so much the bike but I have witnessed a lot of evil lately both at work and even near home. Wendy and I witnessed one of the worst domestic beatings I have seen the other night (the cops were on their way by the time we heard the violence and others were there as well) and I have seen some at work that really gets to me. A while ago I was asked to write up something about where I find my time to listen for Listening Point and I think I am going to write about my desk. I have a prayer rope, a Bible, and the Divine Hours in my backpack and over my shift in the middle of craziness I find the time to listen and reflect on the here and now and remind myself that we are all sinners and we all need some grace and many nights, I am that agent of grace for people (so in other words suck it up and model some of that grace).

Speaking of work. I was here a year this week. I have some holidays coming in a couple of weeks and it consists of doing nothing other than doing some mountain biking. Oh wait, I guess I won't be doing any other that either :-)

A year

It was a year ago today that I started working down at the Salvation Army Community Centre. The Star Phoenix is running running a story on some of the social agencies that serve the poor as well as some of the stories of some of the guys who live in the shelter. (cool coincidence) Like most media pieces, it is a real over simplification of the problem but it is accurate in saying that all of us are very, very busy.

It was been an interesting year that has changed how I understand communities, the complexity of poverty, bureaucracy, addictions, and even portions of the Gospel. It was also a humbling year for me which is also good. Of course the nice thing about being there for a year is that I get vacation days (being used in August) and my yearly pay raise. Wahoo!

Violence

I was reading in today's paper that Saskatoon had 6 stabbings over the weekend.

Billett said police received a total of 283 calls between 6 p.m. Friday evening and 6 a.m. Saturday morning, "which is a heavy call load," he said. "Staffing levels were quite good, but that number of calls with that number of stabbings was stretching things to the limit."

While I don't know any of them (of the names that were released), I have been stunned by some of the violence that I have seen lately. One of the guys was beaten because he has Huntington's disease and was an easy target. The other guy was beaten because he had no money to steal. Both of them in their 60s and harmless.

At the same time many people I know have felt the increase in police presence in the city which is good but there is only so much police can do and how do you police against a mentality that says that violence against seniors or the sick is fun?

Talking about living life

Over the last 10 months people have commented over the decreasing amount of fresh content on the site and the reliance on links around here. Someone one criticised me as being a link blogger like kottke.org which I took as quite a compliment as I am a big fan of his blog but they are right in that the amount of original content around here is becoming as rare as a fair and balanced news report on Fox News.

So where did all the content go? Looking back 10 months or so, we started the process of planting Church of the Exiles and I started working full time at the Salvation Army. While I do have internet access at work, I don't have a lot of time to surf the web although if our office. My bookmarks are Flickr (for wallpapers), Saskatoon weather (helps me make decisions on housing for people), Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! and Google News (self explanatory), and some links to frequently asked questions (what time buses run, library hours, job search stuff), that sort of thing. The reason I don't surf that much is that for most of my shifts, there is a steady stream of people that need something or the other and that is what I am paid to take care of. Like most jobs, there is also some paperwork to be done, databases to input stuff into, and some chatting with co-workers. That is 40 hours of my week spent at work.

Other than that, the Church of the Exiles is a labour of love and there is stuff that needs to be done by myself and as a group. That takes up time. Many of the things that I have blogged and written about will hopefully come to life in Exiles but it takes time and a lot of small steps. A friend of mine keeps saying, "I always overestimate how much stuff I can accomplish in the short run but am amazed by how much stuff I get done over the longhaul." Despite that, a lot of steps need to be taken in the short run for Exiles and more hours taken up.

As I write this post, I am reminded of the underground seminary some of us are trying to start and the work that it needs to keep it moving.

When I have time at home, there are the joys of home maintenance on a 80 year old home, a dog with a compulsive fetching disorder and slobbery tennis balls, frisbees, and sticks to toss.

A couple of weeks ago when I started shopping for Mark's birthday presents, I felt sick to my stomach. When I turned seven my relationship with my father got a lot worse and he was gone by the time I was eight. By Christmas his last year around, I remember thinking he hated me and when he left, I blamed myself. While those feelings are from the past, I want Mark's next trip around the earth to be better than mine was so I find myself spending more time with him. By the time he is eight, he will probably be sick and tired of having me around but for now I am reminded of my past and the desire to make sure his future is different. Plus, we have a slingshot to master and some knives to carve things with.

So what does that mean for the blog? It means that I am spending a lot more time living life then doing it. I enjoy being a pundit but I much rather enjoy starting things and living life.

My Soothing Day Off

I have been looking forward to my day off this week for a long time. A whole day of nothing was planned other than some painting of one of Lee's adirondack chairs and I had offered to take Mark to the arcade.

Last night I was in charge of both the residential side of the building but also I was the after hours emergency worker for four hours while my co-worker was in a team leadership training seminar (umm, "real team leaders don't leave me alone for four hours" was my comment). I was run off my feet by crisis after crisis last night and a lot of time was spent with addicts last night. I was looking forward to a day to recharge.

First I had to run into work for 10 minutes this morning and get some staff set up on our new internal weblog system, after that I was heading home for a coffee on the deck. That was at 7:45 a.m. I am still at work.

My co-worker was sick but I didn't really want the overtime and another co-worker does so I said I would hang out and run my desk until he got in on the condition I didn't have to do anything or help anyone ;-) So I drank some coffee and commented on how over inflated the prices seemed for housing in today's real estate insert while avoiding work. I tried to convince myself that instead of working, I was relaxing in an easy chair and reading the paper and enjoying the scenery of people walking by drinking their booze out of a paper bag (who knew people actually do that?)

It is now 1:40 p.m. and I am still here. The paper is read. I have actually helped a couple of people (apparently I do have a tender heart) and it looks like I am here all day. Most of the senior management is at a funeral for someone who used to work here so it all is quiet on the "boss" front. The only bad thing is that I doubt I can convince my co-workers still here to bring me drinks with little umbrellas in them.

Wendy is going to bring Mark by when I am done work and him and I will hit the arcade as promised. Oddly enough while I would much rather be at home, being here doesn't seem like the worst place to be today.