Harmonica Man
This week I arrived at the Opp Center and immediately got the news from George that Jesse will no longer be working in the kitchen. Unlike the last time where I heard a staff member had gone to jail, this time it was good news... Jesse had gotten a permanent job with the Church as a painter ("buildings, not pictures" was Gina's comment). I felt happy for the guy but was a little sad that he wouldn't be around anymore. It also meant more work for me during my shift, which I hoped I could step into.
George and I did a full cleaning job of the kitchen. We closed the doors after kicking everyone out (which was hard to do since people cling to the place and often spend the whole day there, like a cafe). Once they were out George mopped while I cleaned all the counter and table tops. It was pretty hard work, and by the end of it I was tired.
After that I just hung around the kitchen serving black rice/spanish rice/pasta plates and also chatting with people in the courtyard. I ran into one guy named Bob. I'd never met him before, but he seemed like a very nice guy, one of those mannered and together people who you wonder how in the world they were homeless. As I was serving Bob a plate, he mentioned that he wanted help looking up a video on youtube, which I told him I'd do. We went into the computer lab and he handed me a card with a youtube video URL. I typed it up but unfortunately the flash plugin wasn't installed on the lab machine, and since you can't download anything on these machines, we were out of luck. This was my first encounter with the restrictiveness of the lab machines. A lot of the clients have been complaining about being blocked from a lot of content. I understand why they do this, but youtube? These people aren't reading slashdot, they just want to check email and be entertained. It brings to mind a message on the bulletin board I had seen some previous time I was in the lab, which said something like "Are you upset/frustrated with the restrictions on these computers? Then call this number to join a petition to allow for your rights to all parts of the web". Doesn't seem so bad of an idea anymore.
So unfortunately Bob couldn't watch the video. It turned out that it was a video someone had taken of Bob, who was a blues musician. Bob plays harmonica outside some restaurants in the area as a regular gig, and he wanted to check out a performance someone had recorded of him. I wanted him to see it as well... you could tell it was a source of pride for him. And the caption for the video said "...Just close your eyes, turn up the volume, and listen to some of the best New Orleans blues harmonica alive". I was very impressed and told Bob I was going to watch it as soon as I got home. I also told him I'd print out some copies of the URL which he could hand out on strips of paper to promote himself, which I'll bring to him next week. He smiled and thanked me 5 times.
George and I did a full cleaning job of the kitchen. We closed the doors after kicking everyone out (which was hard to do since people cling to the place and often spend the whole day there, like a cafe). Once they were out George mopped while I cleaned all the counter and table tops. It was pretty hard work, and by the end of it I was tired.
After that I just hung around the kitchen serving black rice/spanish rice/pasta plates and also chatting with people in the courtyard. I ran into one guy named Bob. I'd never met him before, but he seemed like a very nice guy, one of those mannered and together people who you wonder how in the world they were homeless. As I was serving Bob a plate, he mentioned that he wanted help looking up a video on youtube, which I told him I'd do. We went into the computer lab and he handed me a card with a youtube video URL. I typed it up but unfortunately the flash plugin wasn't installed on the lab machine, and since you can't download anything on these machines, we were out of luck. This was my first encounter with the restrictiveness of the lab machines. A lot of the clients have been complaining about being blocked from a lot of content. I understand why they do this, but youtube? These people aren't reading slashdot, they just want to check email and be entertained. It brings to mind a message on the bulletin board I had seen some previous time I was in the lab, which said something like "Are you upset/frustrated with the restrictions on these computers? Then call this number to join a petition to allow for your rights to all parts of the web". Doesn't seem so bad of an idea anymore.
So unfortunately Bob couldn't watch the video. It turned out that it was a video someone had taken of Bob, who was a blues musician. Bob plays harmonica outside some restaurants in the area as a regular gig, and he wanted to check out a performance someone had recorded of him. I wanted him to see it as well... you could tell it was a source of pride for him. And the caption for the video said "...Just close your eyes, turn up the volume, and listen to some of the best New Orleans blues harmonica alive". I was very impressed and told Bob I was going to watch it as soon as I got home. I also told him I'd print out some copies of the URL which he could hand out on strips of paper to promote himself, which I'll bring to him next week. He smiled and thanked me 5 times.
posted by Neil Patel at 8:15 AM
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