Hey

I kinda like this tune and really dig this animation. I need to do a little more exploring. It helps with the whole perspective thing. [buy mp3]

Assault City Roller Derby Closes Out Home Season

Assault City Roller Derby hosted its final home bout of the 2010 season on Saturday, falling 161-57 to the Tri-City Roller Girls of Waterloo, Ontario. Which is in Canada, by the way.

• What I love about roller derby »
• Roller derby in the context of a derby girl’s life »

This to love about this bout:

Canadian national spirit. I’ve often taken the “grateful, not proud” stance on being an American. We have some great freedoms here, but (and forgive the brief foray into politics) we do some pretty crappy things to our own people and to the world. And we all stand respectfully and take our hats off when our national anthem is sung before sporting events, but Canadians actually sing along. Loudly. [Maybe it's because their anthem wasn't written by a prisoner to the tune of a drinking song popular among the people imprisoning him, but still.]

Announcers. DeafGeoff (aka Funk Roll Brother) and Jason (aka Rebel Without a Pulse) called the bout. Geoff is a radio guy and Jason is an actor. They are both also part of the Quadfathers, a men’s roller derby team out of Utica. And they’re friends. So the personalities are great, the banter was hysterical, they know derby and can explain it, and just all-around they enhanced the experience.

Solidarity and Bad-Assitude. About three minutes into the bout, Assault City’s Deb Crush leveled Lippy Wrongstocking. Deb makes her living in the penalty box (though this was a clean hit) and is known for, er, not being gentle. When someone gets hurt, everybody (both teams and the refs) immediately takes a knee – it’s the best way to ensure there’s no further damage and it shows some solidarity – but any time the EMTs have to make their way out, it’s scary. After about five minutes (which is a long time to be down), Lippy managed to skate off, and Deb made a bee-line for the Tri-City bench to check in on her. And while Lippy didn’t skate again in the first half, she was right back at it in the second half, making up for lost time.

Wedding! Ref Otto A. Linement and Assault City skater Krispy Kremya renewed their vows at halftime (that’s the photo up there at the top of the post). And about time, since apparently the first time they ran off and got married, then had a lot of phone calls to make and splainin’ to do.

No more derby in B’ville this season, but Assault City skates in Utica on Sept. 19 and in a double header at Utica on Oct. 9. We’ll also have some skaters at the October meeting of the 40 Below Civic Engagement Task Force.

Just some fun for Friday

Assault City announces first-ever international bout

A press release from Crazy Diamond at Assault City Roller Derby.

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Syracuse, NY – Assault City Roller Derby is pleased to announce its first-ever international bout at the Greater Baldwinsville (Lysander) Ice Arena in Baldwinsville, NY, on Saturday, August 21st. Assault City will take on the Tri-City Roller Girls of Ontario, Canada. Doors open at 6 PM and the bout starts at 7 PM. There will be refreshments, music, halftime entertainment and loads of excitement. This is also ACRD’s last home bout of the 2010 season.

Presale general admission tickets are $10 each while a limited number of front line tickets are $20 each. Reduced price children’s tickets are also available. Tickets can be purchased online or at Black Mamba Skate Park in Shoppingtown Mall. Tickets will also be available at the door the day of the event for $12 for general admission and $22 for front line.

ACRD is an all-women’s flat track roller derby league consisting of working mothers, professionals, wives, and students, ranging in age from 21 to 45. Their goal is to help local communities and promote women’s empowerment. Since its inception in late 2007, Assault City has competed on the road in Vermont, New Jersey, and Ohio as well as throughout Upstate New York. For additional information, please visit www.AssaultCityRollerDerby.com.

Farmshed CNY

I had a chance last week to meet with Neil Brody Miller to talk about his new project, Farmshed CNY.

Farmshed is an iPhone app (I’m hoping there’s an Android app in the future) that lets you see nearby farms, farmers markets and locally-owned restaurants. The download times are getting faster (it’s a fairly large database), and Neil clued me in on a few upcoming changes, including organizing everything by distance (it’s currently alphabetical) and further organizing what farms do (meat? veggies? organic?).

Neil met me at Strong Hearts, and we chatted a bit about our backgrounds. He’s an old (70s-era) punk with an entrepreneurial mentality, great ideas, and a love for all the stuff that’s going on here. He particularly mentioned Syracuse First and the guy who introduced us, Marty Butts of Small Potatoes.

Watch for more coming on Farmshed. If you’re the iPhone sort, download the app (it’s free). Here’s a miniaturized version of the brochure:

The White Board Resignation: Would You Hire ‘Jenny’?

Update, 7 a.m.: We learned this morning that the white board resignation was, indeed, a hoax. But because the viral campaign has some actual discussion value, I’m going to leave this post as I wrote it.

You may have seen the series of photos yesterday of “Jenny” quitting her job via white board and email. If not, take some time to scroll through the whole thing.

We might find this an attempt at Internet celebrity. I’m running on the assumption it’s not (see note above: it is). I’m also running on the assumption that she’ll be out there looking for jobs, and that she’s recognizable and Google-able. So. If her resume came across your desk, would you hire her? Some things stand out to me on both sides of the argument.

Pro: Creativity. That’s the obvious one. Not only is it a creative resignation, she put some time into it, which bodes well in a project-focused environment.

Con: Self-awareness. My guess is, without knowing the office situation, anybody who’s worked with Spencer for several years and has seen his assistants come and go, probably knows there was a pattern of chauvinism, and may have warned her subtly. Either way, she made it two years before she knew where she really stood in her boss’s eyes.

Pro: Willingness to learn from the bottom up. Jenny wanted to be a broker, so she came on as a broker’s assistant to learn the business. She wasn’t so arrogant in her job search to try to start higher than her abilities, and she apparently determined the path she would need to take to get where she wanted to be.

Con: Willingness to let the behavior cycle without her. Rather than go to HR with a harassment claim, Jenny called Spencer out in such a way that she probably can’t file a claim now. Which means that anyone who hasn’t seen her resignation or who doesn’t connect it to her company, or who doesn’t necessarily believe a clearly disgruntled employee, will sign on as Spencer’s next assistant, and the cycle of chauvinism will continue. Her boss was doing something potentially illegal that will likely affect other people in the future – if she had gone through the proper reporting procedure, she would help others who might work for Spencer. There’s a selfishness there I’m not crazy about as a potential employer.

Pro: Strong use of available tools. Spencer put monitoring software on the network. Jenny used it in a way not prescribed by her boss. Two thumbs up.

Con: The wardrobe change. I get that it’s the throwing off of the business casual and the throwing on of the casual – the change from from the worker to the customer. Very artsy. But there’s something about Jenny shucking the glasses and coming out from behind the white board on the first shot that screams to me, “I’m gonna do the talk show circuit for this!” Not crazy about the move.

I’m glad Jenny got out of a bad situation. I’m also glad that she recognized there were no bridges she needed to worry about burning, so it didn’t matter how she did it. Whether or not I’d want her on my team in a work environment would strongly depend on what business I was in and what dynamics I hoped for within my team.

Should we talk about the weather?

It’s hot out. Drink some water. Cool off. Watch. Relax.

Toshiba Libretto

If this thing has a USB port, consider it sold.

The 2010 Trash Transformation Project

The following is a partial press release from Alchemical Nursery.

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It is the pleasure of The Alchemical Nursery to present the commissioned artworks of the 2010 Trash Transformer Project!

The 8 artworks on exhibit represent the talents of 7 contemporary artists form the Central NY region, and include a diversity of methods including paint and ink on wood, mini and full size sculptures, and mixed media wall hangings. All contain salvaged or reused materials that make up at least 50% of the artwork itself, representing the insane practice of over-consumption and disposal that is taken for granted in modern society.

Each of the artworks is also being presented for auction through the silent auction process throughout the length of the traveling exhibit schedule. Bids have already been received at the debut exhibition. You can view the current high bids at the TTP Silent Auction Sheet, and you can bid at any time by sending your name, telephone number, email address, and bid to info@alchemicalnursery.org.

Read The Full Release And See More Artwork »

On motivation

Take the 11 minutes to watch this video. It comes to me from Dan Lovell via Anna Tarkov.

Motivation’s a funny thing. I’ve been blogging on and off for almost 10 years now, and have seen very little money for it. You know why that’s OK with me? Because it’s fun and challenging. I can write about whatever I want, whenever I want, and on it’s helped me meet and connect with some really smart people. That video above explains it all.