Dash

Big change with the Mad Housers

2010-01-04T04:21:40Z

(also posted to the Mad Housers blog - Nick)
Another email recently sent out on the list:

We have a problem. For the past several years, our organization has
built around 18 shelters a year - and that's where we've topped out.
Basically, we have too few volunteers doing too much work. In
response, we've decided to try something new.
What separates the Mad Housers from traditional sheltering
organizations isn't the construction, but the outreach - we find our
clients and help them where they are, as they are. This outreach is
critical to our mission, and the most difficult part of what we do.
However, we don't spend the bulk of our efforts on outreach, but
instead on construction. True, the construction takes time and effort,
but it's a well-known process that's been refined, tested, and
documented extensively. It's the easy part.

So, starting in 2010, we're going to focus on the hard part and work
with others to provide the easy part. For years, we've had outside
groups - Scout troops, churches, service organizations, grade school
and college classrooms, and the like - offer to build structures.
Generally, we've fit them in when we could as a sideline to our main
operations. Now we hope to make working with these groups a central
part of our operations.

Hopefully, this will have several positive effects. First, it gives us
more time to work on the outreach side of the equation - finding new
clients, supporting existing clients, and getting services to our
clients to help them leave the huts. Second, this also expands the
educational and advocacy aspects of our mission, as groups of new
people are exposed to our ideas and methods. Third, these outside
groups can themselves be a source of referrals for clients,
volunteers, and donors.

What's the downside? Well, if you're a casual Mad Houser volunteer,
there will be fewer volunteer-only builds to attend. Don't worry -
there will never be a time where we don't build! But from the Mad
Housers point of view, building by itself is not enough. Our job is
not to build, it's to help. A building without people is just a shell.

This is not a decision made casually, and it will not be implemented
abruptly. Over the next few years, we plan to gradually expand the
total number of shelters built, and increase the percentage of those
shelters built by outside groups. Our first few joint efforts are
bound to be a little chaotic. But there's a time to stop planning and
simply go forwards and learn along the way - and as anyone who's
attend a build knows, we're not afraid of making mistakes! We'll
learn, and improve, and in a few years we'll be helping more people in
a better fashion.

The Board started discussing this idea back in May, went over it - along with several other notions - over the course of several meetings spanning several months. We voted it in right before Thanksgiving. It's a pretty radical change for us, since we've always have been focused on making the huts, but we realized that it's more important that huts are made than we make the huts. If this works the way we hope it does, it'll be well worth the change.

I take offense

2009-12-16T04:37:07Z

"Good" magazine reminds me a bit the old "In Context" magazine, sort of a liberal happy-talk rag - interesting, but ultimately not too meaty. OK, whatever. However, they have a section called "Transparency" a regular infographic 'column'. Infographics are supposed to make data more immediately appreciable; Good's infographics are steaming piles of informational FAIL. They're basically very large, very twee versions of USA Today's 'Snapshots' - huge swathes of graphical chintz tarting up thin amounts of data. Here's a hint, guys: I shouldn't scratch my head while trying to figure out the damn legend. Get over yourselves; take the crayons away from your art department; and may Tufte have mercy on your souls.

sysd @ 2009-09-23T13:24:00

2009-09-23T17:35:40Z

So, how was your morning?

Monday, when it was raining, the Mad Housers picked up a donation of used 55 gallon drums from a local bakery. When I dropped by on sunny Tuesday, I discovered that some of the drums, which had contained honey and sweeteners, were open. And upside, and dripping onto the pavement. Which attracted thousands of bees, wasps, bumblebees, yellowjackets etc.

So this morning I got over there early with some of my beekeeping equipment, a hose, a sprayer, and some soap. A sweaty hour later, the barrels were plugged and away from where people congregate and the pavement washed down.

The best part of this is, it's not even the weirdest thing that's happened to me in the past week.

For those who don't go

2009-09-23T16:26:59Z

What's Burning Man like?

A small video

</lj-embed>

Evolution (Burning Man time lapses) from Delrious on Vimeo.

Kinda like that. For a week.

Pre-playa pickles

2009-08-26T18:06:01Z

I'm in Berkeley, makin' pickles for the desert:

These'll be decanted somewhere around Tuesday. Now I'm boiling some eggs to make pickled eggs, and I've got the chicken liver pate and vegan white bean pate to make.

We eat well at our camp.

Just the facts

2009-08-26T17:57:17Z

I call rosindust from the airport to let her know that we's landed safely when she says, "You need to check LJ. Some of the MUDders have been goofing on you."

Without further ado, I submit:
http://rfrancis.livejournal.com/616163.html
http://colubra.livejournal.com/562863.html
http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1364354.html
http://rosindust.livejournal.com/143475.html
http://tenzil.livejournal.com/266449.html
http://st-rev.livejournal.com/271419.html
http://rfrancis.livejournal.com/615808.html
http://tenzil.livejournal.com/266180.html
http://st-rev.livejournal.com/271351.html

This was a wonderful surprise after a difficult past few days. Thanks, guys!

Read this

2009-08-24T14:59:53Z

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/08/the_stress_spiral.php

This jibes with a lot of what I've seen and my own personal reactions to stress: you don't want to work on new ways of getting yourself out of a bad rut, you just want to shut down and not think at all - a kind of waking sleep.

My odd life

2009-08-20T14:07:31Z

The Mad Housers has been offered a free session of guided meditation by, uh, a Sahaja Yoga group in Atlanta. Sure, OK, weirder things have happened, but I don't normally associate the Housers with yoga. These guys - very nice guys, came to our general meeting - are donating the sessions to nonprofits. We'll be having the session at our warehouse on September 16 if anyone wants to show. In the meantime, think mellow thoughts.

nice job feedback

2009-08-20T13:10:56Z

From a user:

Hello, My name is [redacted]. I live in northwest Indiana, and yesterday we were hit by a tornado. I actually witnessed the formation of the funnel right across the street. The reason I am writing is because I just wanted to extend my deepest thanks to you guys for coming up with the [SMS] texts for severe weather alerts. At the time of the tornado I was in a location where there was not a television or radio to inform me of the coming chaos. The town's siren didn't even go off. But I had received the warning text four minutes prior to the projected arrival time. Which gave my father and me ample time to shelter ourselves. Again, thank you very much. I appreciate everyone's hard work at TWC. I always have. I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Stuff like this makes me glad to work at weather.com. We do actually help folks. The product she's talking about (which I worked on) is a free alert service that'll send text messages and/or emails about weather events to you.

arglebargle update

2009-07-29T13:00:06Z

Phone's back, no drama.

arglebargle

2009-07-27T17:30:41Z

So I lost my cellphone on Thursday and by Friday afternoon it became apparent that someone else had it. I sent my usual text-message "Return for reward, no questions asked" message to the phone, but this time no results.

I checked its useage again today and whoever it is racked up over three hours and scores of text messages on it over the weekend. Grrrr! Fortunately, only the messages cost, but the phone is now suspended. I haven't had any success calling the numbers contacted by the phone - yet - but I'll try again tonight and see if I can't get it back. Having to buy a phone again is just an expensive hassle.

sysd @ 2009-07-21T09:53:00

2009-07-21T13:54:33Z

Today, I am 39. Take it away, Jarvis!

Quick announcement

2009-06-29T03:19:51Z

I often blog here about the Mad Housers. Well, a couple of weeks ago I strapped Blogger to the Mad Housers website to make a MH-centered blog sitting on the front page; check it out. I may or may not link interesting stuff there to here - but for now, expect to see less about the Housers.

The air crib

2009-06-15T01:20:39Z

Some folks know about our air crib, others don't. I thought I'd talk about it a bit here, get the word out.

The Air Crib was a device invented by B.F. Skinner, of operant conditioning fame. It was the right idea, but the wrong person to have it - "It was one of his more controversial inventions, and was popularly mischaracterized as cruel and experimental." says Wikipedia. I built mine with the help of a friend, Peter Richards, whose own wife was raised in an air crib and who raised two of his own children in air cribs. It took a couple of weekends and about $300 worth of materials, most of which is the large plexiglass windows in the crib.

The basic idea is that the air crib is a baby-sized room, temperature and humidity controlled, to keep the baby comfortable and safe. Our crib is 6 feet high by 4 feet wide by 2 feet deep. Karl sleeps without blankets or bars, in an 80 degree room, the soft whir of the ventilator fan muffling outside noise. If he's curious about what's going on, he simply raises his head to the window. He sleeps about three feet off the ground - no bending over to put him in or out of the crib, no craning his neck to make eye contact when we come into the room.

Here's how it works: a muffin fan at the top of the crib draws air upwards from the open bottom of the crib. The air first passes through some AC filters to trap dust; it's then heated and sterilized by a pair of light bulbs - one UV bulb to sterilize, and a ceramic heat emitter (made for terrariums) for heat. Above the bulbs is a large metal pan, which can be filled with water to provide humidity if necessary. The clean, warm, moist air is finally drawn past the cot where Karl sleeps and out through the top. A thermostat keeps the system from overheating.

Karl's 'cot' is simply heavy canvas stretched over a wooden frame, which slides into the crib like an oven tray (hm, perhaps a bad analogy there). We have two, so that there's always a clean one available if the one he's sleeping on gets dirty. A dirty crib is cleaned in the shower, and dries in a matter of minutes.

Karl's been sleeping in the air crib since he came home from the hospital with us. For the first four months, the aircrib was in our bedroom, but we moved him into the nursery afterwards and listen in through the baby monitor. He's a happy, healthy, mellow baby.

RHUBARB PIE

2009-04-08T04:18:25Z

OMG, RHUBARB PIE!
NOM NOM NOM
RHUBARB
PIE

Alone

2009-04-05T18:02:55Z

rosindust and Karl-el have just headed down to Orlando to visit the grandfolks for a few days. I get to stay home and bach it.

Woo?

Incidentally, Karl-el's lipbump is perhaps a little smaller, but we'll see how well it responded to the treatment over the next couple of weeks.

Karl-El

2009-03-31T12:18:49Z

To test his emerging superpowers, tomorrow doctors will expose my son to knockout gas, and then shoot him in the face with lasers.

We await the results to the experiment with great anticipation.

USA! USA! USA!

2009-01-27T17:51:18Z

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Guantanamo Baywatch - The Final Season

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

sysd @ 2009-01-20T12:28:00

2009-01-20T17:28:25Z

It's been a long time coming.

Fire

2008-12-08T16:12:26Z

I just sent this email out to the Mad Housers listserv:

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/18225670/detail.html#-

> A homeless man trying to keep warm in a back yard shed was killed in a fire Sunday night.

This shed was not one of ours. One of the interesting points in the story, however, is this nuggest:

> Investigators are trying to determine if the shed was up to code to allow someone to sleep there.
> "It was 90 percent involved when we got there," said Jackson. "So we needed to get the flames out,
> left the smoke dissipate so we could see if there was plumbing back there, power going back there."

We're asked sometimes if our huts are up to code. In a nutshell: no. We maintain that since the huts are movable temporary structures, without a foundation, code does not really apply, just as code would not apply to a tent. Our huts don't have power, they don't have plumbing. They do have heat, however, in the form of the wood-burning stoves that we also provide.

Mad Houser huts are not fireproof; they're made of wood, and have caught on fire on occasion. Huts have caught fire from arson; they've caught fire from improperly fueled kerosene stoves; one caught fire, memorably, from a lightning strike. But they have never caught fire because of a Mad Houser stove, and nobody has been hurt or killed in a hut fire.

The Mad Housers provide safety equipment for the huts with shielding for the stoves and fire extinguishers for our clients, but of course there's always the chance that something may go wrong. We're not about to eliminate heat from the huts just on the off chance that one would catch fire; if we were to do so, more huts would catch fire as the clients attempt to improvise stoves.

I would like to open a conversation about heat. Let's brainstorm:

* Is there a way to make the stoves safer, or to find another way to heat the huts?
* Is there a way to safely heat the low riders?

Keep in mind that the real issue with the huts most of the time is too much heat during the wam months, not too little in the winter. We could clad the huts in two inches of insulation, but they would swelter 90% of the time.

-Nick

Thoughts?

Top Ten: Ways Having a Newborn is Like Going to Burning Man

2008-10-29T02:48:56Z

10: Lots of folks who can't even imagine even wanting to do it.
9: Frantic preparation, followed by frantic improvisation
8: You quickly get used to levels of filth you wouldn't have thought possible
7: Great for night owls!
6: Helps you appreciate the true wonder that is the flush toilet.
5: Those darn kids sure love their pacifiers, don't they?
4: Even the most trivial excursion from home base requires Donner party levels of equipment
3: It seems like the only thing you ever talk about
2: You start sorting people into 'been there' and "haven't been there"
1: Expensive, impractical, time consuming, frustrating, completely ridiculous - and totally wonderful.

Behold!

2008-10-19T18:51:20Z

Presenting:

Karl Arlen Hess

Born 9:32 am, Oct 19, 2008
7lbs 15 oz
Mother, son and father are doing fine!

Wow

2008-10-08T19:02:32Z

http://jezebel.com/5059945/donna-brazile-is-not-going-to-the-back-of-the-bus?cpage=2&sort=asc

Watch!

The burned man

2008-08-21T08:07:41Z

So, one of my big three anouncements for this year was that I was NOT going to Burning Man. Nope, going to St. Petersburg, Russia, with rosindust and her dad instead - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I could go to Burning Man next year.

Of course, this means that I'm currently on my way to Burning Man. I couldn't get enthused about tagging along to St. Petes, and I felt more and more bummed about missing the Burn, where I play a more active role. Eventually, I realized that rosindust - that remarkable woman I married - would be just fine hanging in Russia with her dad, with whom she gets along famously. So she's off in Russia, I'm in San Antonio, and we'll see each other in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, BURN ON! You can find me, as always, with Bioluminati, home of Pimp My Bike. This year we're at 6:30 and A, on the wheel. Stop by!

EPIC MILAN WIN

2008-07-01T13:28:56Z

The hut we built in the Urban Center in Milan was moved out into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II: