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LogLucian
WeekPlan Aug 24-30
Translate. Theresa convinced me to wake up at 4am for a month. I'm not sure why but I'll do it since I agreed to it. Do more with less things. |
WeekPlan August 17th-23rd
Mail people about favorite place in Berlin. What is the best way to get a map with a list on the site? bugzilla - is it interesting to us? Use the site as main way or access? Selection processes? TED party? Wikinovel? have a bit of fun with it. | Not planned: checked how to send scheduled emails - found a way (not too nice but if we must) It is a good thing that we don't need it chat room on top of google chat. it seems to work only partially. It still needs testing. |
Transition
As some of you know I do acknowledge that there is a problem with me being the only one able to change some of the things on the site. I am glad this issue surfaced and we can use this opportunity as it would give everyone in the new group the ability to have a say in everything related to this project: overall name, web platform, slogan, colours, direction, principles etc. Obviously I will help with the transition and I will follow it because I think it may be an interesting project. However, I will not associate with it in the same way I used to. As it now stands this project is a very different project than what I had in mind. It seems to me that now even some of the basic things are in contradiction with the framework I am trying to build. While this is a somewhat expected (but not hoped for) development, I cannot endorse it anymore - please take the time to build/find another platform to work on, other than ProjectVolunteering. The things that changed are of various importance for me but some of them are part of the crux of my (personal) project. Here is a short, incomplete and unordered list: -Actively friendly. It doesn't seem to me that this group makes efforts to come together in a friendly way. Obviously there are some efforts but the 'openness' is used for 'you are also allowed to be unfriendly'. 'We don't know what is good for you' does not mean that everything goes. Actively friendly is for me the basic social environment, it is the expression of trust. Active communication is a huge part of it - both in person and online. While forms and timing may vary, intentionally averting from it is outrageous. -Living basics (apart from actively friendly). Rent, cleaning, working... Both the rent 'problem' and the 'cleaning' problem are, rooted in the same place-we're not committed to making of what we have a life. I believe every minute of my life is part of my life and I try to make it. Trying to mend the situation by rules doesn't cut it for me because I think rules are counter productive to the project I started. Rules point to problems but do not substitute our lack of interest. -Action now – regardless of costs! I do see the value of spontaneity but I also see some of its weaknesses. I do believe lots of the problems around us come from being spontaneous (particularly tragic when well intentioned). Even if I do agree with 'action rather then non-action' principle I believe that thinking for a while before and after the action is by far the better way of doing it. Increment rather then having revolutions. At the moment, I don't see a learning process, moreover and I notice a conscious move away from that ideal. Action coupled with no documentation is a particularly dangerous animal regardless of intentions. Patience is critical and, especially lately I find it lacking. For me these are
things that worth drawing a line for because these are the basics of the world
I like to live in. What we do is just as important as how we do it. Having
rules for basic things and the way we turn to them transforms this project into
something else.
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WeekPlan (A bit more) June 1st-July 15th
As it looks now... One more day in Berlin, hitch to Traben Trarbach for the weekend camp in Mont Royal, walk down the Mosel to Koblenz....that is it so far. We may be back before July the 15th for visa issues...but who knows... |
Verein
WeekPlan May 18-24
Last week. No much success. I continue to underestimate time needs. This week. Keep track of the meetings. First one was ok. |
WeekPlan May 11-17
Last week Website clean-up, go around and discover the content gaps. z. B. the 'history' part, calendar, etc - partially Write down (here) the April's trip notes. done Start the topic 'How are we not just party and socializing?', How do we develop a place where people have the possibility of contributing right away. Not started New Monthy Focus - 'Mise en place' on the website Update router firmware done from vs. .67 to .70 other.. gardening at Rene's? nope painting the dorm? (White! as it still smells of smoke) got the tools and cleaned the dorm. Still to do. reorganize the dorm, the workroom and common private to make it easier to be used as intended? How? helped cleaning but this has to be a social issue also This week Try to create paths through the website. not really. it still needs to be a group thought about it. Visitor' - wants to learn more guest'- wants to get here, participate berlinerFriend' - wants to see what up thinks to move in - needs to get used to the way we started to use the site. moreorlessPermanent group - needs ways talk to each other other ? Paint the dorm? not at all - however, Clayton washed the walls so it just needs tapping and painting. It is watter paint so one warm day should be enough. - wash the walls - tape what needs taping (maybe buy plastic tarp?? - agree on the time/way what do you think? Think about labeling for electricity consumption. - What is the best way? no progress here even if it surely started some discussions. just don't let it die. Individual labels on each device + a table with all consumptions for comparison? Meetings - there are many topics and a lot to talk about each. nothing happened but I managed to prepare a series of meetings for next week. e.V. ? getting another place? share How do we accept guests? get travelers to contribute more and find ways for us to preserve and share what we get - brainstorm? what can we do to make travelers feel at 'home' faster? from the invitation, to being here, to participating from afar. organize the house? what is the right balance? How do we give time to various issues? reserve money/money in general How come we pay by donation yet we're making exactly what we have to pay? it seems that there are many interested in joining our project? how do we deal with this? what is the commitment level? how do we figure out what do do? ..other!? plenty Anybody interested? Just let me know when you have time and how long do you want to give to the topic. I'm available most of the time and I believe every attempt at these questions is useful. successfully turned 29 + get dust bags - Daan took over. phone http://www.szisch-immobilien.com/ for the 196sqm place I did and it resulted in an appointment to visit it 12.05 at 18.30. Very curious what can we do more about the Keller key? It's been 2,5 months. It turns out there is no 'official' key for our basement. We just borrowed a key from out nice neighbour and undid the bike chain that was stopping us. We just added some square meters to our space. At the same time we took the kitchen door up (we need handles for it) and finally the electricity number 941673. Do you know what was the initial? |
Docs Templates
Google updated our platform today with more templates for docs. If you go to docs.projectvolunteering.net , click New and from Template we can lots of useful pre-formated documents to be used, from gathering data (maybe useful for our guests) to setting up meetings, meeting notes suggestions, project time tracking, etc. |
April 2009 notes
Stadtschleining. First week of April I visited European University Center for Peace Studies. I learned about it from our guests Chiara, Cas and Erin. It was a fantastic week where Peace Studies was in focus. I met Johann Galtung and Gal Harmat as teachers and the amazingly diverse crowd in EPU. The way I see it the best thing about EPU is the combination of time to think about peace, meeting people from all over (really), various teaching topics through different teaching styles. It was a beautiful place for me and it got me thinking that (our kind of) traveling is inherently promoting peace. How could we integrate it more explicitly in our project? Wien - I visited Mari and had the pleasure to meet Tau and Clayton bringing a taste from home. There are many similarities between Wien and Berlin but Berlin is more 'work-class' when Wien is more 'imperial'. One of the highlights was a concert/ceremony in St Stephen's Cathedral. Also, Donau is great. Budapest - Hitched with Tau and Clayton to see Agnes and Budapest. Budapest is almost as dirty as Bucuresti but there are many places to see here so it actually worths to go there. Agnes is warm and friendly as usual. Duna is majestic. Bucuresti - visited family and met friends. Unfortunately the time was too short to meet everybody I was hoping. Met my new and tiny cousin (3month old at the time). Hitch-hike - I was incredibly careless when I left Berlin so I got stuck in Nürnberg for more then 14h (I also slept in the meantime). I decided to take the train to the closest stop in my direction and try to hitch from there. That worked however by the time I got close to Wien it was late and I was running out of time. I wanted to make it to EPU by next day early morning (classes start at 9am) so I hit the train station again. I hitched at least from Oberwart to Schleining. A week later, on the way to Wien I got a ride from the college to Oberwart and from there somebody took me right to the highway ramp. I got a ride in less then 30min from there to Wien where I easily found my friend's place. A few days later we used to instructions from hitchwiki to get to the right exit towards Budapest. I got on M0 (ring around Budapest) in one ride and got another one to Moskwa Ter from the shopping center I got dropped off first. The shopping ceter (just an collection of supermarkets like Ikea) is a good place because there is also a bus towards the city and the traffic from west and going south passes there. I left Budapest the first Monday after the Catholic Easter around 3pm targeting the Romanian border until the end of the day. I waited about 1.5h to get out of Budapest. The gas station indicated on hitchwiki was not used (almost at all) so I had to try next to the long straight road that leads to highway M5. Two cars stopped one going to the north and the other took me down 67km right before Kekskemet. It was already around 5pm and most traffic was returning from the long weekend provided by the Easter. After more then 2h though I got a young Austrian who was heading to Romania. We entered the border a place where I couldn't find on any map, near Salonta. I got there around 10pm so I was looking for a place to sleep while still putting my thumb out for a while. In less then 30min a truck stopped going down to Arad. From then on I rode the waves of channel 22 (the communication channel for truckers in Ro). I got so lucky that I got two more straight connections to Bucharest. I was there at 9am and updated with all that happens politically in the country. On the way back to Berlin I got my first 'bad' experience. The first car that stopped was a taxi on some personal business. The driver and his friend expected money and he would give up until he got my old phone. At that point it wasn't about making money for them but playing a 'joke' on me. The phone has virtually no money value and I wasn't particularly attached to it especially as I got the SIM back. It was a bit sad though even if they were 'joking'. I was thinking I should make it very clear to everybody not to expect money but the next car proved me wrong right away. I was on the highway so there was significant effort to stop. The couple acted so naturally trying to figure out how far can they take me that I was too shy to mention money. And guess what, the guy repairs laptop motherboards. There are less then 10 people in Ro doing that. From that moment on everything went more or less smooth changing about 8 cars to get to Ilia. One professional driver was called some friends trying to get me a ride to Germany with a truck. In Ilia I ate right next to the river Mures and tried to hitch further only to be stuck for more then 1h and I had little hope because the place was not so great. Finally the first car stopped and was going...to Frankfurt am Main. The very nice Bulgarian driver dropped me the morning of the next day near Nürnber on A3. Soon after somebody took me to A9 at N Feucht. NFeucht proves to be a good place to change the highway and a bit less to go further on A9. After a few hours I finally found someone going my way and I got to Berlin at 7pm at Tegel, where my last driver had to fly from. |
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