Books to Prisoners

It's been awhile since I've posted, and I don't usually use this space in a bloggy way, but this topic seemed worthy of sharing. I volunteered last night with Books to Prisoners, and it was a great experience. The group meets several times a week in a garage whose walls are lined with shelves full of donated books. About 8 of us spent a couple hours reading letters from prisoners and putting together packages of books to send them. In some of the letters, the inmates' desire for books was leaping off the page. One man in a Florida jail asked for HVAC manuals and Shakespeare. Another inmate with immaculate handwriting and grammar greeted me as comrade. He was trying to stay strong with 22 months to go, and wanted books on history, the civil rights movement, and black liberation. Searching through the shelves to find books that will be perfect for the person at the other end of the letter was an amazingly humanizing experience.

The organization is short handed, under-funded, and low on many kinds of books. If you want to help with any of those things, check out the above link, or you can sign up on Hands On Portland. If you don't live in PDX, you can check this map for a program near you.

A couple misc pics

A cherry tomato plant that's bigger every time you look at it

Prayer of the Irish semi-agnostic computer programmers
(I wrote the regex, the rest is traditional)

Team Seattle Pub n Pedal in Portland for Filmed by Bike

Bikers flocked to Portland this weekend for Filmed by Bike. Here's a bit of the fun that was had

The crew around the fire near the eastbank esplanade. The Willamette river is in the background

Bike parking at B's

At Hoyt Arboretum

Some siblings stopped doing this around the age of 10... Steph and Liz are keeping the good things alive. You can see Mt Adams between their heads if you look closely.

Starting now, you can enter a contest for the best caption for this picture. Post your entry as a comment to this posting.

With Gizmo the dog

NYC and Boston in March

The Tavern on the Green in Central Park

Near Tompkins Square Park in NYC

Jason, Tansal, and Erika in Boston

Red Panda Girl, Ravi and Storey's cat

Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento

The Mediterranean Sea (and an orange)

Climbing to the highest point in Naples

A lemon orchard in Sorrento

Some of the ruins of Pompeii, with Mt. Vesivius in the background

This is the ruins of a fast food restaurant pre-79 AD, with Chow doing a historic re-enactment of serving ancient gelato

ghost town

Neopolitan pizza in Naples (with funghi)

Rome in March 08 in a Small Numer of Pics

Trevi fountain at night

The Colleseum (it's famous because Russell Crowe fought there)

The ruins of the Forum

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne (professional photo, since we couldn't take pics in the Villa Borghese)

Post-marathon (or half marathon, in my case) vegan gelato

The Pantheon

A few misc pics from Jan + Feb

A parking sign in the Marina district of SF. Overnight parking: $39.00, hybrids: free. I didn't ask about bike parking, maybe they pay you to park your bike there.

Sunset from the Marina district, that's the Golden Gate bridge in the background past the boats

My roommate Alicia's cat Ellie's paw. Pink + black, just like the Sprokettes and Show Me the Pink.

The Purple Folding Steer Horn Bike

I ordered some horns from EBay and affixed them to Greg's folding bike... here's what it looks like with those, plus bowling pin valve caps, a red bell pepper bell, and streamers:

Pics from Pennsylvania in Feb

Misty morning at the cabin

The Tanner's Falls bridge

Turkey tracks on a walk near Alder Marsh Pond

Some Pictures from Portland Jan + Feb

From Pacific NW College of the Arts (PNCA)

Also at PNCA

My friend Genevieve and I on the Worst Day of the Year Bike Ride (turned out to be pretty nice weather that day, actually)

Some sweet potato and beet soup a friend and I made