Since expanding its service to Lewis County, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Thurston County has been seeking a legal name change that describes our service area.  Since we are chartered to serve Thurston, Lewis, Grays Harbor, Mason and Pacific Counties, we will now be known as Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Washington.

Additionally, having outgrown our Martin Way offices, we will be moving the agency headquarters to the first floor of the Nicholson Insurance Building at 1802 Black Lake Blvd SW, Suite 102, Olympia  98512.  The move will take place in December.  Our Centralia office is still located on Gold Street in Centralia.

I need to move into the 21st century on presentations and am wondering if anyone can give me hints on acquiring such hardware.

Thanks

AL

The River is risin......but under control in St. Louis.  Unfortunately, other parts of Missouri are not doing so well.

I've been in conference all day and just flew in last night, so I haven't seen much, but will report anything I can.

Meanwhile......

http://chronline.com/storylife.php?subaction=showfull&id=1214030372&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&

I was humbled by a nice review in The Chronicle, this past weekend.

Talk to everyone later

Oh....I almost forgot the real humbling....I met Earl Gibson of the Ink Spots last night in a little club in St. Louis.  Still singin' at age 87.

I think I know what I want to be when I grow up.

I'm not sure how to make a hyperlocal link to this blog, so I'll just post and let the community decide how to handle it.

I was watching an entertainment program this morning featuring Meat Loaf (Adair) of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" fame.  He spoke of the transition of the music industry from the 70s-80s when you sold 30 million records to the 90s when you sold 20 million if you were really hot to today where the quantites are much less.

Obviously the Day of the Download is here to stay.

It made me think about those days when you called a friend and said, "Hey, I've got the new Tower of Power and new Stevie Wonder albums.  Grab a bottle of wine, come on over and let's listen to them."

When was the last time you truly shared music with friends in a social situation?  Not a house party, but an intimate gathering of just a few to listen to the newest, latest, greatest, or maybe something old and fine that hasn't been played in a long time. (I remember my friend Gary and I reviving "Woodstock" every now and then to try to figure out what Alvin Lee was really saying when he ran out of words.

Share a great music adventure on this post.  Bring up an old memory or a new experience.

Put down that damned mp3 player and take off those earbuds, man!

I thought I'd repeat this blog from last year.  I'm not sure of the connection, but "coffee" and "street" reminded me:

Submitted by Anonymously Larry on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 8:40am.

I offered a new Olyblogger a cup of coffee.  It was really a whimsical gesture for her efforts and yet it brought back a great memory I'd like to share.

I was in Portland for business and had a hour or so to blow before a networking meeting, so I decided to hit one of the downtown coffee spots for an injection.

It was a beautiful day and decided to take the coffee out to the street tables, where I came upon a man enjoying his coffee and a fine cigar.  Since I don't really smoke them anylonger (since my heart attack) I asked if I could sit by him and enjoy his enjoyment.  He invited me to sit and we began to talk.

It turned out that he had lost his wife in the past few years, thus was on his own, as his daughter was an attorney in another city.  He had made his money with 11 McDonald's franchises and sold them back to corporate.  He was now enjoying the sunset of his life with a female companion that called during our conversation (he put her off in lieu of talking to me).  We sat there in the sun and talked for about an hour.  I asked where the Elephant Deli was, told him why I was going there, he gave me great directions and said to say hi to several people (I was going to an event planners meeting).

Law enforcement employees and firefighters raised over $10,000 yesterday at Big Brothers Big Sisters "Bowl For Kids Sake" at Westside Lanes.

Thanks to all for your efforts

Today, Saturday, April 26, 2008, Employees from DSHS (HRSA) and from local financial institutions (banks and credit unions) raised over $22,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters during Bowl for Kids Sake events.

DSHS employees raised $13,425 and the Financial employees raised $8,600.

When available, I'll post the exact totals and award winners, but I just wanted to pass along an immediate thanks for this great effort on the part of people in our community.

Big Brothers Big Sisters provides mentoring services to children in Thurston and Lewis Counties.

A great segment of Bill Mahr last night.

People have accused him of being prejudiced in reference to his comments about the Catholic Church and the issues of sexual indiscetions.

Mahr:  "I didn't PRE-JUDGE, I JUDGED.

We often forget the root of words.  There is a difference between judgement and prejudice.  We'd all be for the better if we learn and practice the difference.

As LOCAL discussion blog was closed before I got a chance to respond to something.

 "there is no comparison, the Quran is way worse. But don't take anybody's word for it, read the damn thing. Make your own direct comparison. The only way you will know what the Quran is about is by reading it. Eveybody that writes a book about Islam and the Quran has their own biases and puts their spin on it."

JT - first, you admitted in another post that you had not read the Quran, therefore challenging me to read it is strawman at best.  My comparison of what I have read is that almost all religious material is the same - other than the names were changed to protect the dogma. 

For instance, are you aware that there are several "virgin births' in religious history? This is but one example of the point.  Everyone has complete knowledge of God's will for those that don't follow the laws they way their god says so.

This type of conversation take place in churches all over Olympia every Sunday and many Wednesdays.  It divides our community.

This getting up early has some benefits.

I woke, this morning, to a report on KING 5 TV about the cost of asphalt paving. As you probably know, this is the preferred method of paving and repair for roads in our communities.

The former rule of thumb for the cost of paving one mile of roadway was $41,000. That has now risen to $88,000 due to the cost of you know what.

Meanwhile, candidate for Governor Dino Rossi is unveiling his plan to cut transportation budget recenue "needs" by re-routing sales tax from vehicle sales. Of course whenever you take money from one part of the budget to move to another, something gets cut - say social and health services.

We are ready facing a dilemma in our communities to keep roadways safe and in manageable conditions. Can we afford to have someone try to garner favor on the "less transportation taxes" platform, when the cost of doing business has more than doubled?

Our communities can ill afford less funding for social and health needs and our roads must be maintained to handle the ever-increasing traffic as people move to available and affordable housing in rural areas

This is not the time for knee-jerk political moves as an emotional ploy for votes Monday morning quarterbacking of the budget is not sound governing.