The E Book serves as a guide (covenant) and sets the standard of what is expected of you as an Exonian (abuse of the words sketchy and esoteric), with information (propaganda) you will need about Academy rules and policies (commandments). Please take the time to read this carefully (on penalty of stoning). You will find yourself referring to it frequently (when grinding up pharmaceuticals)  when you have questions ranging from the out-of-town (liquor outsourcing) procedure and the discipline system (Latin Study inquisition) to the Grill hours (munchies with Nantucket Nectars chasing) and the best (stolen) bike route to the ocean (ball shrinkage).

The E-Book describes a wide variety of student clubs and organizations (Harkness Society), teams (up to bat), restaurants (that deliver during the afternoon), and things to do at Exeter and in the surrounding community (behind warehouses, across train tracks, and generally woody). We urge you to become invloved in those that interest you.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Your dorm proctors (narcs), Student Listeners (college suck), faculty (wife swappers) and the Dean’s Office (grand inquisitors) are all here to help you.

The rules and policies of Phillips Exeter Academy are set by the trustees, faculty, and administration, and may be revised without notice (or consent) during the school year.

The first speaker concluded and a comment sheet was passed around. I gave him a 4 out of 5 average. There aren’t many things that I very strongly agree with.

We took a short break at this point and I wandered around the main floor leaving pictures in my wake.

When I returned this break was further extended because the second speaker was late.

So I left and wandered around again. And I had to keep moving because it was cold in there. It was cold everywhere in that building. They teach 90% of their classes in this building and I wouldn’t be surprised if they maintain a temperature low enough to keep people’s eyes open.

When I returned the second speaker (or who I assumed was the second speaker) was starting the presentation. This is where the troubles began.

Comparison is a funny thing. It’s based upon context. It’s not until you put something undesirable next to something desirable that you realize the degree to which you desire the one and reject the other. Such as a pretty girl who surrounds herself with ugly friends or leaving a building and walking into a torrential downpour.

I walked into that room and started getting soaked.

The second speaker was Hispanic hombre with a bit of an accent. This made would have made his pitch disagreeable enough if he had been talking loudly, which he wasn’t. Initially there were a number of cries for the crowd for him to speak up but eventually the folks just gave up. He was also basically reading the slides verbatim and this only helped turn the room against him.

But this wasn’t the Apollo. No one was going to boo him off the stage. These were potential volunteers

for disaster relief. They showed their displeasure with sighs and shifting around in their seats.

The second problem was that the second speaker was having technical issues with the slideshow. There were about 8 movie clips embedded in the slideshow. The only way he could get them to play was to exit the slideshow and play the source files directly with Windows Media Player. This opening and closing of windows only magnified the wetness.

Finally with a third of the presentation left the real second speaker arrived. His words were loud and clear. Magically the movies in the slideshow began working again. A bundle of stapled papers made its way to everyone and we were broken up into small groups to discuss a few different scenarios. After around 8 minutes we came together again and had a discussion.

With the discussion concluded the speaker resumed his presentation. He even had the grace to let us out five minutes early. And so I left with hardly any noticeable squish in the shoes of my stride.

Break Time

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Help yourself to refreshments

The American Red Cross is the major leagues of voluntary service. Never before have I seen the organizational capacity or had to overcome as many hurdles. If you are interested in voluntary service and do not where to start, I recommend the Red Cross. But be advised; there are interviews, background checks, and four-hour orientations for you to contend with.

This is the story of my orientation.

I arrived a bit late. The conductor said that due to an earlier incident the trains were running slower. I didn’t realize when I left the train how far west the building was. It’s practically a median in the West Side Highway. I had to check in with the security desk first. I was directed to a presentation room B that was directly behind the security desk. Once I arrived there I had to check in and schedule a time for my interview.

I entered an auditorium that had eight 25 to 30 foot long gray tables. Behind these tables sat about 8 prospective volunteers per table. In front of them were two large projection screens with a speaker wedged into the middle. The speaker used a remote to go through the slides of a Powerpoint presentation that was spliced with a few videos. When he was finished he handed the remote baton to the second speaker.

Here are a few notes I scrawled:

Shelters-

Not luxury accommodations

3 hots and a cot

Service animals are allowed

Pets are not allowed (safety and sanitation reasons)

NYC

One of 6 catastrophic risk zones

Everyday the Greater NYC chapter responds to 8-10 emergencies mostly fires

NYC is in danger of every natural disaster except volcanoes

In the event of a major catastrophic disaster (such as another Hurricane Katrina) The chapter anticipates that it would need 10,000 volunteers. It currently has around 7400

The chapter has only 143 employees

History

Mission Statement-Relieve human suffering on a global scale

Clara Barton started the American Red Cross after returning from overseas. She made a name for herself as a nurse during the Civil War

Right after its inception the ARC had to deal with a forest fire in Michigan, the Johnstown Flood

The first international relief by the ARC was the Russian Famine

Man in the Subway

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I know that floor isn't comfortable. This was around 50th St and 7th Ave

]]> http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/16/entering-the-red-cross-pt-i/feed/ 0 http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/13/the-real-heroes-of-911/ http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/13/the-real-heroes-of-911/#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:39:14 +0000 Daimyo http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/?p=1763

[View with PicLens]

On my way to the Riverside Library I passed this fire house honoring its illustrious dead. Unworthy of lingering I took a few shots and passed on.

Oh victorious dead may our enemies fear where our bootstraps tread!

Records 1-11 of 87 in Pottsroadtrip Library

Search was: 911 Day of Service

F 1077.152- Ambient Noise to the Left Ambient Noise to the Right

Abstact.

After taking a chair from a corner of the room and dragging it to where the benches and other sitting areas had been apportioned I couldn’t help but notice all the conversations leapfrogging each other around me. I tried to get some reading done but it was nearly impossible

F 1078.9- Impromptu Microphone Updates

Abstract.

There was art all around the room. This main area was also being used as an exhibition space. There were a number of colorful interestingly shaped benches that people were sitting on. Behind the last of these benches was a velvet rope. Directly in front of the first of these benches was another rope behind which a speaker would emerge with a microphone saying such things as, “Is there anyone from the bloodmobile inside the room.”

F 1079.2 – John Hancock and the JCC

Abstract.

During one of the microphone updates one of the ladies said that there were a number of volunteer initiatives that they were working on at the JCC. The JCC or Jewish Community Center is located on 364 Amsterdam near 75^th St. As I was leaving the JCC on my way to the Riverside Library I put my name on the volunteer sign up sheet. I also left the book I was reading on this table. This meant that after I managed to get a few blocks away I had to walk back in the rain to collect it.

F 1080.9 Name Tags and Signal Fires

Abstract.

Arriving at the Riverside branch of the New York Public Library I asked the lady at the front desk where the volunteers were supposed to go. She had no idea that there were volunteers even coming in. I spotted three women with name tags roaming around and that moved towards them.

F 1081.21 The Riverside Tour

Abstract.

The instruction sheet I was given at the JCC told me to ask for Jessica or Mariah. Jessica was in the middle of a tour of the premises. She showed us the computer stations, the locations of the bathrooms and water fountain, the stacks, and finally the back room where we could put our coats and umbrellas. After I set my coat down we pulled out three chairs and a cart for the books

F1082.928 The Demonstration

Abstract.

The most important thing she showed us was how the books loop around the facility. We were instructed on what defects in the books were sufficient to pull them from the shelves.

1. Torn plastic covers

2. If there was a little bump near the binding adjacent to the spine of the book

3. If the paperback covers had been torn or in her words ‘nibbled off by a newt’

4. Coffee stains in her words ‘the scow-urge of books’ (I know its scourge but that was a deliberate misspelling for phonetic sake)

F 1083.178 Battle Stations

Abstract.

There were three of us. I was stationed at the beginning of Fiction. Another girl went to the end of Fiction and worked backwards. We were supposed to meet in the middle. That didn’t happen I made it from A to G. The last girl went to biographies. We were sorting books by Author’s last name and title. We were also told to make the books generally look neat and presentable. This basically meant keeping them at a consistent depth behind the edge of the row.

F 1084.14 Sleep Nazis

Abstract.

A real thick, but not in a good way, sister was working security or raising her voice at people who nod off while reading books. That was her circuit. This was crosscut by gossiping with the ladies at the front desk.

F 1085.6 Abbot, Lee K. All Things at Once

The first book I pulled. I don’t know why I only made it from A-G in four hours. I assumed with my Housing Works background this would practically be a gimme. I spent most of the time daydreaming. Occasionally you’d find some little knickknack behind the rows on the shelves. Mostly it was candy wrappers. But I let my imagination implore the gods that it would be something interesting.

F 1085.44 Strolling

Abstract.

The Riverside library is full of strollers. Detectives are on the case for that elusive volume. Pre-teens who are looking for the latest Death Note Manga. Older sisters, whose feet hurt, search for a seat to do their word processing. There are also a number of babes in strollers. There are some Moms with these kids, but its mostly white babies and nannies from non Caucasian ethnicities. One of these even asked me if the library was hiring because her son needed a job.

F 1086.3 Homeward Bound

Abstract.

After gathering my effects I made my way home on the subway. There was a leak on the seat in front of me that everyone avoided. One lady from the first stop was brave (insert tired) enough to sit there. But the droplets from the emergency exit door on the roof spurred her mobility to the seat behind me. My seat on the q4 was especially cold or was the ass heat of my seat on the train especially warm?

]]> http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/12/dewey-decimal-points/feed/ 0 http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/10/familiar-faces/ http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/10/familiar-faces/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:24:06 +0000 Daimyo http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/?p=1717

Familiar faces

These old men were on the front lines. There are no surer signs of the health and well being of a people than the hunger on their faces.

In the world of today we worry so much about state.

Rogue nation states that want to proliferate nuclear weapons with a certain verve in their step that declaims that they won’t play nice with them.

A Crayola box of ominous colors intent on making sure that the state of emergency stays in between the lines

State of the Unions which are more a statement of ovation than a declaration of our movement toward progress.

But what we can’t forget is the state of their stomachs.

Standing there, in the foyer of the Rectory, watching Lincoln tie the door open I saw

familiar faces.

And they were still hungry.

The previous joy I felt to be serving on the lines again was washed away by the immediacy of the situation.

There were some distressing signs.

Francesco told me, after we had finished up, with his list 58 strong, that they had to close the pantry down for the entire month of July.

There wasn’t any food.

City Harvest didn’t deliver for two weeks. They had to depend solely on their parishioners for substance.

Now they were also working with the United Way to help pick up the slack.

But more distressing than this was where was Tony? And the only information that I received was from second hand conversations.

He didn’t pick up.

Maybe he’s at the hospital?

Time

11:45 – 11:50 AM

Synopsis:

Daimyo finishes making his pile. He does completely unaware of how much time is spent each week on this task. But now, in hindsight of his last period, seriously considers trying to beat his best time. An extra set of hands makes for easier lifting.

PS

There is a direct relationship between how many bins have to get taken to the basement and the amount of force the bins will have when they come in contact with the basement floor. 3 is the magic number.

Here’s a formula

# of bins > 3 = carried

# of bins < 3 = thrown

]]> http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/09/episode-4/feed/ 0 http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/08/episode-3/ http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/2009/09/08/episode-3/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:14:00 +0000 Daimyo http://www.pottsroadtrip.com/?p=1708 Time

11:40 – 11:45 AM

Synopsis

Daimyo Continues transporting bins from the basement to the Rectory entrance. He places the bags in a little pile at first. After a short while the little pile becomes a stack. Not too long afterwards the stack becomes a mound. He does this until at last the mound becomes a little hill. Ripping good show.

PS

The whole Pottsroadtrip clan would like to thank everybody who made this episode possible. Thanks to Io and Phaedra. Antigone, I love you boo!

Time

11:35 – 11:40 AM

Synopsis:

After receiving the warmest of greetings from John, Daimyo begins transporting bins from the basement to the entrance of the Rectory. Lincoln arrives while Luke and John go over the inventory.

PS

Daimyo carried most of the bins to the front mumbling something about trying to make up for lost time. Lincoln told him not to kill himself. John said something about how the young man always has a lot of energy

11:30 AM – 11:35 AM

Synopsis:

Daimyo returns to the Rectory and inquires about the old men. Apparently he has arrived before them. Just as he begins bringing bins upstairs from the basement he runs into John. This footage was taken Wednesday September second

PS

Daimyo is the only volunteer that enters from the same door as the people who come for the bags of food. The rest of the men park their cars in the rear of the building and enter from the back door.