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This page is a Monthly Archive of entries from October 2008 listed from newest to oldest.
Like many people who use the power of their legs to get from Point A to Point B, I'm always looking for ways to be more self-sufficient and less consumerist in non-transportation aspects of my life. One way to do that is to use human-powered appliances and machinery that would normally require electricity or gasoline. There are many places to buy ready-made products like bike blenders and some sources for making your own stuff, but not many sources that combine the two.
Fortunately, there's a new book available by Tamara Dean called The Human-Powered Home that functions as both a how-to manual and a history of human-powered machinery. Ms. Dean will be in Chicago on Thursday at an event at the Chicago Center for Green Technology, which is unfortunately the closest she's coming to Champaign-Urbana on her book tour, but after the jump she discusses many topics, from what human-powered appliances she uses to the future of human-driven electrical generation.
Just about two weeks ago, Hope Community Health Center opened its doors to residents of Champaign County. Hope is a non-religiously affiliated, non-profit corporation offering both medical and psychiatric treatments. The clinic is among only a handful of centers that offer medical services to those who have trouble obtaining medical care. Not surprisingly, these clinics struggle to serve as many people as possible. Some of Hope’s aims are to provide treatment for those without health insurance, those who cannot get treatment through Medicaid or get timely appointments at other clinics. Tomorrow evening, an art benefit will be held at 610 W. Oregon St. in Urbana and all proceeds will be going to Hope. All are welcome, especially if you enjoy painting.
You are walking up a country lane. A bonfire crackles. Kids are rolling down a hill and racing into the woods. You smell dry leaves, smoke and pecan pie. And now, just as you discern the silhouette of a barn, you hear the sound of thumping on a wooden floor and fiddles and banjos playing. This isn’t the barn dance you heard folks talking about at the Blind Pig one night, the kind where college students dressed in hillbilly attire head to a rural location on chartered buses to drink and carouse. This is an actual barn dance: the kind of event that flies under the radar of local music media and reporters.
Americans for the Arts, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the arts in America, will be in C-U next Monday and Tuesday, presenting a two-day workshop titled “Animating Democracy: The Power of Arts in Civic Engagement.” Sponsored by 40 North | 88 West, the workshop will explore the arts as a vehicle for social change.
Stretching a century into the past and 132 feet into the air, the Altgeld Bell Tower anchors the picturesque impression of campus left in the minds of alumni and visitors. Indeed, polls show that when U of I alumni reminisce about their days here, the three things they are most likely to remember are the Alma Mater statue, the quad, and the Altgeld Bell Tower chiming every hour, providing an august soundtrack to the procession of students marching between classes. Occasionally you might hear the bells playing something unexpectedly recognizable, like a Beatles song, and look up in wonder. What's up there? And who is ringing the bells?
In this week's column, I'm going to spotlight some upcoming events in the Champaign-Urbana bicycling community. From food drives to speakers, collective rides to light giveaways, there's something for everyone in the near future in C-U.
After the jump, there will be details about these happenings:
Monday nights at the Courtyard Cafe were something to look forward to freshman year. It was an opportunity to get away from my depressing dorm and overbearing roommate in exchange for the anxiety-relieving laughs of improv theatre. Working almost entirely within the traditional Krannert model of theater (full fledged productions of Shakespeare) for the past two years, I decided to reinvigorate my interest in improvisational theatre this past Monday and attend the Spicy Clamato and deBono weekly improv night.
Book lovers and prisoner rehabilitation lovers can combine their interests today through Sunday at the Books to Prisoners “Pages for Pennies” book sale at the Independent Media Center in downtown Urbana.
Books to Prisoners is an all-volunteer, local organization dedicated to getting books into the hands of people currently serving time in Illinois prisons. They’ve successfully put 28,000 books into the hands of 4000 prisoners over the years, despite having to raise money by begging people to buy used books at book sales.
Three different Qi gong workshops will be held at the U of I Activities and Recreation Center this week, and they are being facilitated by members of a delegation from China. The first workshop, "Chinese Health Qi-gong: 21st Century's Body-Mind Exercise", will be held Thursday, October 16 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. in Multipurpose Room 6 at ARC. It is free and open to the public. 
Among bike commuters, there are many levels of dedication, from the fair-weather biker to the hard-core, everyday, snow-or-no-snow, rain-or-no-rain trooper. Rick Rundus is certainly on the latter end of the spectrum, biking two miles from his home to his job at the U of I year-round, regardless of weather. Smile Politely caught up with Rundus as he was preparing for a backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail, and he shared his views on why cars act the way they do, how to make Champaign-Urbana more accessible to bicycles and what's going well in the local bike culture.
Take a peek inside the mind of an all-weather commuter, after the jump.
When I worked at FedEx, the company had a policy in place that prevented employees from transferring to another position for a period of 18 months. This might seem like a long time to be held in a position, but it makes sense. It normally takes a minimum of three to six months for a new employee to get a grasp on their job. It might take another six months for the same employee to be autonomous in their position. After another six months or so, that employee might feel confident enough to train someone to learn their job. While this is all situational and dependent on numerous factors, it is still my opinion that it takes at least one to two years for a person to learn a job.
Do you remember when the Dow Jones Industrial Average first spiked over 10,000? I do. For one reason: a feature appeared in the News-Gazette about a couple who had, years before, ordered a vanity plate for their car: DOW10K, or something similar, in anticipation of the event that eventually occurred in 1999.
This morning, after weeks of plunging, the Dow opened at 9,437. Consider that for a moment. How did you feel in 1999 when the market first soared over that 10K peak? Were you even paying attention? Did you struggle to pay for gas? For food?
How about in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004? All four of those years saw periods when the Dow dipped below 10K. What was the financial discussion around your kitchen table when the markets reopened after September 11th? After the United States invaded Iraq? What will the discussion be tonight?
Feeling uneasy of late? Like the American way of life is about to come crashing down like a house of cards because the world is running out of oil?
If you are seeking some confirmation for your anxiety, look no further than the Channing-Murray’s Social Justice Forum tomorrow night, which will be screening The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream. The documentary explores the American way of life and its prospects as we face the decline of fossil fuels.
My friend Michael Mapes will be angry that I transduced his breathtaking, jaw-dropping portrait of Heather into a web page sized JPEG. Here it is.
He gets mad when I watch episodes of Poirot on YouTube, because the aspect ratio, sound, etc. are not up to the standards conceived by the cinematographer (Michael's a cinematographer, too.) In the case of Michael's entomological pin series, the transduction to two dimensions imposes an egregiously worse deceleration of impact on the viewer.
It still looks cool, though. And because you simply can't get the same effect on the web, you might feel compelled to go see it in person, tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., during the grand opening of the Furniture Lounge Consignment Gallery, on Main Street in Urbana.
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