elliothaney: October 2009

10/18/2009

Farewell

It is a little bit of a sad day, but not really. I am saying farewell to blogspot.. I have loved it, but there are just some things that I am not able to do, and most importantly, the pictures look like hell on blogspot. So, the time has come to move over a bit.. I have moved to squarespace. Beautiful portfolios, slick interfaces, all that jazz, but yes.. now i have to pay for it.. you get what you pay for though, and that's why this site was free.

The new site should feel familiar, all the same, just better. Let me know what you think? oh by the way, www.elliothaney.com is still the website, so that shouldn't be any different. to go directly to the blog, it's here: http://elliothaney.squarespace.com/blog/

now remember, it's still under construction, but it's mostly there... i hope you enjoy it. thank you

10/15/2009

Boston Renaissance: Week One

So the other day at school, I took my camera with me and was really annoying to my team all day, but hopefully they're not too upset, at least I hope they'll like the pictures.

My team is honestly a well-oiled-machine of efficiency, empowerment, and beauty. Every day, I am impressed by how well we get along, and how well we work together... I really do love it.

So I am a communications coordinator for City Year and one of my roles is to document my service using pictures and by writing articles. Obviously, the picture-taking comes just a bit easier to me, so here is round #1 of the Boston Renaissance. Enjoy :)

As Always, all of these pictures can be viewed in much better quality on my flickr page

The views of elliothaney are not those of City Year Inc. or of the Boston Renaissance Charter School

10/09/2009

Pretty Cool News and Pretty Lame Pants

Quick post tonight, it's late, I'm tired, getting over some sickness of the week but it's okay. I wanted to let you know about something that I find to be fairly exciting. Christian from City Year tracked me down today and asked me for permission to use this picture on a future flyer to be sent out as a 'Welcome to Boston' type of thing to future corps members (I believe). This may be small to some people, but I am incredibly excited. If you may read this Christian, much thanks :) I love this picture so much, I also entered it into the metro photo contest which you could leave a comment for it here. (Like always, please click on the picture to view it in Flickr)

I said this would be quick, but there is one other quick sidenote. We finally got our pants for CY. Three pairs of professional dress pants and one pair of "heavy duty" service pants. Now, imagine when you finish a roll of paper towels, and you have that cardboard cylinder thing left over? now, take a bunch of those, flatten them all out, and assemble them into something that loosely resembles a pair of pants, but in no way matches the size you requested. Okay, you have that image? That is exaclty what is lying on my floor right now, immediately placed back in the bag to be (hopefully) replaced. Now, I know begger can't be choosers, and the pants are graciously given to us in goodwill but comeon... i requested a pair of 38"W x 32"L and i got roughly a 36"W x 38"L.... I can't even button the cardboard pants! that may be more my fault than anyone elses though haha...

That's it for now, I'll be sure to keep you all updated on my pants :)

10/05/2009

Service!!

City Year again, and by the way the views presented on elliothaney.com do not reflect the views of City Year as an organization, as they are the views of elliothaney himself. Phew!! okay, so... Friday, October 2nd was opening day for me, the end of 6 weeks of training and seminars and discussions, and meetings, and everything else that you might be able to think of. It was really really good though. Possibly the most I've ever learned in one short amount of time. I've met so many people, I've learned so many things, and I've become just a little bit more aware of who I am and what kind of things I want to achieve. I've also had a lot of fun along the way. I have become a communications coordinator for my team, and I think I have found an organization that at times might feel a little hippy-ish and weird, but I'm really comfortable here. I really do reccomend checking out www.cityyear.org if you're at all curious about it. I couldn't be happier here.

So Friday was the big day, it was CY Boston's coming out party at Fanueil Hall's Great Hall in downtown Boston. It was an amazinggg room. Full of history, and awesome United State's history happenings like; where the line "no taxation with representation" was spoken by Samuel Adams, and where George Washington toasted the nation on its first birthday. Big names then, kind of big names now, the mayor of Boston was there to swear us in, along with all of us, and many alumni. The picture is just a fun panorama I took from my seat to give you a vague idea of the room. (click to make bigger!)

After the ceremony, we traveled of to East Boston near the harbor to do our traditional opening day of service. You would be incredibly surprised with what 150 people all working for 5 hours (that's 900 man hours) can do. We quite literally transformed the outside (and some parts inside) of this middle school academy in East Boston. I Built and stained benches, painted a basketball and soccer court, and painted murals... and that was just me. We made it onto news, click here to watch it. See if you can spot me!! Now some pictures of the day, because that's the best way to see it! ...There may be a lot. (only one artsy one today haha)

Through the Gate
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