How do you spell relief?
May. 26th, 2006 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rissymonsterI was in Sacramento earlier this week for the state's annual affordable housing geek conference. It was a good opportunity to see folks, reflect on issues and trends, and learn more from my peers. Some of the workshops were mainly rehashing stuff I already know, but others were full of new/differently framed stuff.
Other than catching up with my fellow geeks/colleagues/friends, the highlight was a keynote speaker who is not a houser but rather a fellow (http://www.agoodmanonline.com/red.html) who preaches good storytelling as a best practice for non-profits, wonks and other do-gooders. His basic premise is that we wonk-types get caught up in our own semantics and statistics (e.g. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz becomes, in bulleted points, "an at-risk youth displaced by a catastrophic meteorological event, finding companionship with three potentially unstable homeless individuals..."), but that telling stories is what actually resonates with others who may not share our immense passion for subject X. We are story-telling creatures. And once we get folks hooked on a good story, _then_ we can break out the charts and bullet points and diagrams. Because "Nobody ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart."
A good presentation, full of friendly-type poking and prodding, and good heart. He looks a bit like Stephen Colbert. And those of you in non-profits can sign up to get his newsletter mailed to your org for free.
I do wonder what happens when the stories we tell ourselves are unhelpful, get us stuck in the rut of the rising action/crisis without hitting resolution, etc. A woman on one of the panels described her experience with homelessness and mental illness as a spiral towards eventual doom until she was picked up for participation in an intensive housing/supportive services/employment training program. Which was a wonderful break in the narrative and redirection for her, but what about the folks we don't/can't catch, for a variety of reasons?
In other news, our state's density bonus laws are thoroughly fubared. [See http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=65001-66000&file=65915-65918 - What's an incentive, exactly (e.g. 1 parking space less than required, or 90% less)? Do I have to go through all of the possible permutations of the various incentives/boni and their potential impacts on financial feasibility? Why can I come up with about five different formulas that sort of make sense for the equity sharing under the resale formula for moderate income homeownership?]
In closing, Sac'to is apparently one of the worst areas in the nation for allergy sufferers right now, and after a relatively light allergy season (I've been incredibly lucky for me so far this spring), I've basically been miserable with allergies since Tuesday evening. I'm taking suggestions for ridding myself of the leaking nose, pounding sinus headache, and general logginess.
I have tried, in no particular order: benadryl, nasal spray, clarinex, showers, hot liquids (showers, tea, soup), nyquil, vapo-rub, and spicy foods. At this point, I'm willing to try anything short of Nickykaa's scorched earth cayenne-to-the-nostrils treatment to the ends of not feeling like I've recently been punched in the nose, and leaking my brains out of the same orifice. Suggestions?
Other than catching up with my fellow geeks/colleagues/friends, the highlight was a keynote speaker who is not a houser but rather a fellow (http://www.agoodmanonline.com/red.html) who preaches good storytelling as a best practice for non-profits, wonks and other do-gooders. His basic premise is that we wonk-types get caught up in our own semantics and statistics (e.g. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz becomes, in bulleted points, "an at-risk youth displaced by a catastrophic meteorological event, finding companionship with three potentially unstable homeless individuals..."), but that telling stories is what actually resonates with others who may not share our immense passion for subject X. We are story-telling creatures. And once we get folks hooked on a good story, _then_ we can break out the charts and bullet points and diagrams. Because "Nobody ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart."
A good presentation, full of friendly-type poking and prodding, and good heart. He looks a bit like Stephen Colbert. And those of you in non-profits can sign up to get his newsletter mailed to your org for free.
I do wonder what happens when the stories we tell ourselves are unhelpful, get us stuck in the rut of the rising action/crisis without hitting resolution, etc. A woman on one of the panels described her experience with homelessness and mental illness as a spiral towards eventual doom until she was picked up for participation in an intensive housing/supportive services/employment training program. Which was a wonderful break in the narrative and redirection for her, but what about the folks we don't/can't catch, for a variety of reasons?
In other news, our state's density bonus laws are thoroughly fubared. [See http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=65001-66000&file=65915-65918 - What's an incentive, exactly (e.g. 1 parking space less than required, or 90% less)? Do I have to go through all of the possible permutations of the various incentives/boni and their potential impacts on financial feasibility? Why can I come up with about five different formulas that sort of make sense for the equity sharing under the resale formula for moderate income homeownership?]
In closing, Sac'to is apparently one of the worst areas in the nation for allergy sufferers right now, and after a relatively light allergy season (I've been incredibly lucky for me so far this spring), I've basically been miserable with allergies since Tuesday evening. I'm taking suggestions for ridding myself of the leaking nose, pounding sinus headache, and general logginess.
I have tried, in no particular order: benadryl, nasal spray, clarinex, showers, hot liquids (showers, tea, soup), nyquil, vapo-rub, and spicy foods. At this point, I'm willing to try anything short of Nickykaa's scorched earth cayenne-to-the-nostrils treatment to the ends of not feeling like I've recently been punched in the nose, and leaking my brains out of the same orifice. Suggestions?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-27 07:36 am (UTC)2.) Nettles. Orally, that is - not sticking nettles up your nose. Nettle tea (I found some at Elephant Pharmacy) and freeze-dried nettle capsules (ditto).
no subject
Date: 2006-05-27 08:19 pm (UTC)It takes a bit of convicing to squirt water into your own nose, but I find it helps a lot.
I take Sudafed (or its equivalent) as a last resort, but it seems to help with the top-of-the-eyebrows pressure.