Thank you someecards.com, for this instant classic:

And thank you HappyPlace.com for this awkward roommate-to-roomate note:

.

. . . and for these awkward coworker notes:

We had the distinct pleasure of having coffee with Oregon ON’s former Executive Director Cathey Briggs this week, and got caught up on her gallivanting around. As is characteristic, Cathey just can’t help helping people, and is doing some work with Catholic Charities/Caritas Housing, CAPO, and volunteering with Community Warehouse.

She also helped one son get married, later this year will see another son get married, and she and her husband traveled to France and Italy.

But the really important news is, she learned to make goat cheese! Here is a picture of her and one of the adorable pigmy goats.

Doesn’t she look relaxed and happy? I’m not sure; the next picture we get from her may be of her new herd of pigmy yard goats!

< This architect’s rendering shows what recycled shipping containers will look like on a Vancouver street once they have been refurbished. The goal is to provide affordable housing.

COURTESY ATIRA WOMEN’S RESOURCE SOCIETY

Vancouver is set to be the first city in Canada to use stacked refurbished shipping containers for affordable housing.

While the idea has been met with mixed reaction, city council has agreed after a lengthy study that it makes sense. The 12-unit project to be located in the city’s eastside was to be approved Tuesday.

“It’s the first of its kind in Canada but definitely not the first in the world,” Janice Abbott, executive director of the Atira Women’s Resource Society, told the Star. “We work with a lot of women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.”

Click here to read more.

by Matt Hickman, MotherNatureNetwork Bloggers, Mon, Apr 16 2012

Not content just sleeping on an IKEA mattress and preparing your meals with IKEA cookware? At Strand East, a mixed-use redevelopment project in London, the Swedish mega-retailer could also be your landlord.

Click here to read more.

The news finally got out last month about Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services‘ mastodon bones.

Yes, you read that right: mastodon bones – in Corvallis!  . . In the Pleistocene Era, in a muddy field destined to be affordable apartments, and now some of them in a box in WNHS Executive Director Jim Moorefield ‘s office.

> Photo Amanda Cowan, Corvallis Gazette-Times

Jim was interviewed by the Corvallis Gazette Times about the mastodon bones found at their Seavey Meadows construction site. Below is a link to the article as well as a link to a YouTube video the Gazette Times recorded and posted.

As mentioned in the article, WNHS doesn’t yet have an agreement with Oregon State University for a dig. The hope was that they would do an organized dig in May, which might still happen if a number of challenges are first addressed. [picture above from Trip Advisor . . er . . except the mastodon].

We will let you know more about the status of a dig as soon as we hear!

http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/mastodon-bones-found-at-construction-site/article_9c11239a-5e85-11e1-a204-001871e3ce6c.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIvitz_TfZ0&feature=youtu.be

[By the way, as Jim points out, an internet search for “mastodon” is helpful, but don’t get thrown off track by the fact that the first result to pop up is a heavy metal band from Atlanta.]

“KIDDO KUDOS” from Northwest HUD Lines – March 2012

Many a kid has gotten many a bad rap often just for being a kid.  But if you’ve ever stayed up late night worrying about what will become of the world once they take charge, consider the 2012 winners of the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, given annually to middle and high school students for their service in the community.  Another impressive list of winners has been announced.

Like 17-year-old Jesse Sheldon of Spokane Valley who started a “diaper bank” that’s provided more than 35,000 diapers to “struggling” families. Or,12-year-old Skyler Lee of Longview who’s collected and donated 1,500 coats to the local Salvation Army. Or 7^th grader Keefer Brown of Wasilla who raised $2,50 to care for injured seals at the Alaska Sea Life Center. Or 18-year-old Teresa Baldwin of Sitka who founded an organization to promote development of suicide prevention programs across Alaska. Or Ariana Drake, 18, of Pocatello who founded Hands4Uganda which has raised more than $30,000 to build a new school there.  Or Hayden Lake 6^th grader Emily Kladar who, with her sister, has raised some $60,000 to help children who need heart surgery. Or Medford 8^th grader Chloe Staten who has raised money and recruited volunteers to help families with children who have cancer.  Or, last but not least, and Alexander Stork, 18, of Klamath Falls who has recruited 44 other young people to read one-on-one to children who’ve fallen behind.

Not to worry, in other words.  Looks like the future, is in very good hands.

PAYNEVILLE, KY—Habitrail For Humanity, the faith-based, non-profit group that builds networks of affordable, transparent-tube housing for needy families, has come under intense criticism for its recent projects in the Payneville area.

A new Habitrail For Humanity structure nears completion in Payneville.>

“This is no way for people to live,” said Kentucky Family Outreach coordinator Martin Weiss, speaking Monday in front of a half-constructed, five-story Habitrail outside Payneville. “While it’s true that poor Americans need a viable alternative to housing projects, placing them in large, confusing warrens of see-through cylinders is not the solution.”

Habitrail For Humanity spokesman Nick Bulwer, whose organization has snapped together more than half a million linear feet of low-cost housing since its inception in 1976, said he was “baffled” by the criticism.

Click here to read more.

[Ed: I dedicate this with love to all the beleaguered project managers, architects, designers, and bureaucrats out there.]

By mimi smartypants, blog, “Seriously, though: what’s with the penguins?” January 5, 2012

TIME TO FAKE A NOSEBLEED AND LEAVE

I had the most classically Dilbertian meeting yesterday. It really should have been videotaped and put into some archive of Corporate Ridiculousness.

Different Team: OMG the people want a thing! We must implement this thing! Quick, modify the stuff!

My Team: What does the thing look like? Who creates it? Where does it go? Are we sure the stuff and the thing will play nicely together? [insert about a dozen other questions here]

DT: We don’t know!

MT: Did you ask the people? I mean, if they want a thing, they should have an idea about how they want the thing delivered.

DT: We asked, but they haven’t replied yet! Okay! Now who is going to start to work on the thing?

Sure, I will! I assume that with no instructions I can just do what I want, so please deliver a box of pasta and a ball of yarn to my office so I can start on everyone’s macaroni necklaces. Thanks.