Ubiquitous

Ahh, the excitement of early Saturday morning service projects, just one of the responsibilities of being a cabinet member in Youth Parliament. Now, I have to first say that there is an intersection known for its infamy throughout North America: Main Street and East Hastings. Those few blocks contain perhaps a few hundred people who are homeless, addicted to drugs, or mentally-ill. The streets are lined with them: dressed in rags, and carrying broken shopping carts and tin foils filled with food. Even my parents are terrified to go through the area, especially at night. So a few blocks away from this intersection, we participated in a volunteer soup kitchen inside a church.

We spent a few hours preparing sandwiches, pasta, drinks and fruits and then opened the door to let the what seems to be hundreds of unfortunate men and women in. While madly dashing about offering milk and coffee, I have to admit I was sometimes a bit freaked as to the kind of people I was dealing with. There was one guy who was professing his love to all the female volunteers o_O

QOTW: When was the last time you volunteered? How was it?

Popularity: 43%

QOTW: Ever notice how difficult it is to type when you have a paper cut on your finger?

Cursing filing and these so-called time-wasting school “financial management career prep” programs that send people to a property management firm to arrange payroll papers in alphabetical order!

P.S. - A cookie if you can figure out which finger the paper cut is on lol.

P.P.S. - Theme change, FINALLY.

Popularity: 13%

I recently converted to volunteering as an office worker (for the same organization for which I did the Supreme Court job during the summer) where I answer client calls and set them up with 30 minutes appointments with lawyers. Basically people call in, I ask them a whole bunch of qualifying questions, such as their monthly net income and home equity, then get them to provide me with a brief description of their case.

At my first orientation session last week, my trainer explained to me how to deal with the idiots who most unfortunately get hold of our number and ring in. Apparently, there was one extremely odd guy who called in in the past. My trainer asked him to briefly describe his case. He said that he biked half way across British Columbia to this ridiculously faraway location, where he found a rather empty beach. Then, in his own words….

Wacko: So on this rather empty beach.
Volunteer: Mm-hmm
Wacko: I took off all my clothes…
Volunteer: …
Wacko: …and found God.
Volunteer: (who I assume was trying to stop herself from cracking up) Er… so what exactly do you want a lawyer for?
Wacko: Oh yea, these two police officers came by and arrested me!!
Volunteer: For indecent exposure?
Wacko: Yea. *giggles*
Volunteer: *thoroughly disturbed* Do you want an appointment sir?
Wacko: *more giggling*
Volunteer: Yes?
Wacko: *hangs up*

Thank God (Pun? Haha) the guy left our office alone after that. I can’t wait to see who I get to deal with. The reason I’m changing volunteer roles at this time of year is of course because school’s starting. Isn’t it horrible, how we’re getting these back-to-school reminders everywhere? So many people are posting their new schedules, and don’t get me started on all the overly-fake happy teenagers featured on back-to-school sales at large department stores. I have a bizallion things I need to get done in the next three days that my evil IB teachers handed over at the beginning of the summer. Then, it’s an entire year of International Baccalaureate (Academic program, like AP, except more complicated) hell ahead until graudation.

So while we’re counting down to hell, give the addictive game Stackopolis a try. I finished all 20 levels and painstakingly noted down the passwords and blueprints for each level. Have fun. The Links page, featuring all the special people that I link to, has been updated as well.

Popularity: 15%