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What is the coolest service project you've ever done?

Mamarosa — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:14:53 -0700

What is the coolest service project you've ever done?

Be sure to describe the full experience (good and bad) and include pictures and links!

Service "joke"

hartsfull — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:31:19 -0800

Service

I was confused when I heard the word 'service' used with these agencies.

Internal Revenue 'Service'
U.S. Postal 'Service'
Telephone 'Service'
Cable TV 'Service'
Civil 'Service'
State, City, County & Public 'Service'
Customer 'Service'

This is not what I thought 'service' meant.

But today, I overheard two farmers talking,
and one of them said he had hired a bull to
'service' a few cows.

BAM!!! It all came into focus.
Now I understand what all those
agencies are doing to us.

Now you are as enlightened as I am.

Virginia Sweet, pilot with the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots

laura220 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:23:44 -0700

Female flyer, WASP pilot lived full life

By Paul Grondahl - (Albany, N.Y.) Times Union via AP
Posted : Sunday Jul 19, 2009 13:20:25 EDT

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - Inspired by a story she read as a young girl about Amelia Earhart’s trans-Atlantic flight, Virginia Sweet became a pioneering female aviator in her own right.

She was a pilot with the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, ferrying every type of military aircraft from factories to air bases during World War II to free male pilots for combat.

Sometimes Sweet was assigned to fly shot-up, barely functional aircraft in for repair. Thirty-eight of her fellow women fliers were killed during duty.

Sweet flew 52 different types of military aircraft, including the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress bombers, but she left her heart in the cockpit of the P-51 Mustang.

“She was a honey to fly,” she said of the long-range, single-seat fighter that helped beat Hitler’s Germany.

After the war, when these Rosie the Riveters of the skies no longer were needed, the nation essentially turned its back on Sweet and hundreds of WASP pilots like her.

The longtime Schenectady resident died July 12 at 88, less than two weeks after President Barack Obama signed a law that offered the WASP fliers recognition and Congressional Gold Medals, the highest award Congress can give to a civilian.

At the July 1 signing ceremony, Obama acknowledged that the honor was long overdue and thanked WASP members, who were granted only civilian status during wartime and not considered members of the military.

Obama was joined by three WASP pilots representing more than 1,000 women who joined the unit in 1942 and 1943. They were the first women to fly American military aircraft and logged more than 60 million miles during the war.

After World War II, the women were released from duty and returned home largely forgotten. They were even required to turn in their WASP leather bomber jackets.

Sweet had been in failing health after a stroke earlier this year and was only semiconscious in recent weeks. Her niece, Betsey McBride of Niskayuna, said her “Aunt Ginger” may not have understood what relatives told her about the honor she received July 1.

McBride will accept Sweet’s Congressional Gold Medal posthumously at a ceremony planned for Washington, D.C., later this year.

“She liked to say she would have been a general if she was a man,” said a nephew, Edward Grinter of Schenectady.

Sweet wasn’t shy about articulating the bitterness she felt for being treated as a second-class citizen during the war. She felt she could fly as well as any male, even if she was issued men’s flight jumpsuits that never fit quite right across her sinewy 5-foot-6-inch, 100-pound body.

She could curse like a guy, too.

After the war, Sweet spent five years on active duty during and after the Korean War and 30 years with the Air Force Reserve, retiring in 1979 as a lieutenant colonel. As an instructor, she taught generations of local men and women to fly.

“She was a spitfire,” said McBride, recalling how Sweet chased new adventures throughout her life, including traipsing around Egypt alone while in her 80s and driving solo across Mexico as a senior citizen.

Sweet grew up in Quaker Springs, Saratoga County, attended a one-room schoolhouse, skipped two grades, graduated early from Mechanicville High School and entered Duke University at 17. Her father died when she was 9 and her mother struggled to raise three children as a single parent. In 1940, at 19, she learned to fly.

She majored in languages at Duke, and taught high school French, Spanish and Latin. She married a Pan Am pilot when she was in her 20s, but they split up in less than a year.

“She was flamboyant and a women’s libber way ahead of her time,” Edward Grinter said. “She said she wouldn’t pick up her husband’s dirty socks.”

“She was very strong-willed and very opinionated,” as well as generous, McBride said.

Before they entered first grade, Aunt Ginger had taught her young nieces how to play chess, how to sing “Silent Night” in German and how to acquire a taste for steak tartare, guava paste, smoked octopus and other exotic meals she cooked.

Sweet liked fast cars. She drove a 1952 Chevy convertible, a ’70s-era Thunderbird and a 1960 Cadillac, but not always well, or within the speed limit.

“I always felt safer with her in an airplane than in a car,” Grinter said. She prided herself on a five-decade flying record without an accident.

In her later years, Sweet battled depression and became something of a recluse before a stroke caused her to move in January to a rehabilitation center.

She perked up when the center’s newsletter carried a front-page story on Sweet and her WASP service.

“I did have to make several landings with no power,” she told an interviewer. “But it was no big deal.”

Sweet received military honors at her funeral Saturday.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/07/ap_wasp_pilot_071909/

Private Memorial Service for Jennifer Hudson's Family Set for Monday

justingirl1989 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:15:55 -0700

private memorial service will be held early next week for the mother, brother and nephew of Jennifer Hudson, who were shot to death in Chicago.

The Hudson Funeral Home announced the service will be held at 9 a.m. Monday at the Apostolic Church of God, according to the Chicago Tribune.

On Friday, a rep from the funeral home will announce if the family will hold a public service, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

See Jennifer Hudson's family album.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for contributions to a newly created Hudson-King Domestic Violence Protection Fund, care of Seaway Bank
and Trust, P.O. Box 19522, Chicago, IL, 60619.

William Balfour, the ex-husband of Hudson's sister, Julia, is being held as a "person of interest" in the case. Chicago Police say the murders are "domestic-related."

http://www.usmagazine.com/news/jennifer-hudson-family-memorial-service-m...

Should We Have Mandatory Service (EDIT)

Myst — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:15:44 -0700

I say yes, 1000x yes. I think there could be a lot of good for this. One being that, it'll help the overcost of DOE. Our country spends more money on defense than the rest of the world combine. A large portion of the money allocated to the Defense Department goes to recruitment. Recruitment costs includes marketing advertisements (print, tv, and new media), incentives (paying for college), and other expenditure.

Some of the countries with the best defense in the world have mandatory services for it's citizens, (i.e. Israel, SKorea, China...etc).

This can include anytype of service. Military, Civilian, Volunteering....

Please discuss, why you are pro or against it.

What delivery service would you invent??

jennjennnbubba — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:07:00 -0700

My friend Holley (scottiegirl) and I were talking on the phone the other night and I was being silly (after a few ) and somehow got on the subject of delivery services.

Now I know you all have had those moments where you didn't want to go anywhere but you totally needed something like food, a specific item, medicine, etc.

Well Holley had said that she got her visit from Aunt Flo and needed tampons but didn't feel like getting dressed to run down to Target to get some. During that convo, I said we should start a Tampon and Pad Delivery Service. I mean seriously, we could bank some money in that business. We laughed so hard about and kept adding more and more to the idea.

By the end of the convo, we were going to start this business of delivering tampons, pads, Midol, toilet paper, moist wipes and douches in a pink crossover vehiclewith strings lining the roof and the name logo'ed on the car would be Plug N Go

So after that hilarious convo, I thought I would ask you crazy ladies what delivery service you would like to start. Can't wait to hear what you all come up with!!

Funeral Services Planned for Tim Russert

justingirl1989 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:11:03 -0700

Private and public services – including a televised memorial – are planned for Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert.

A public viewing will be held for Russert on Tuesday at the St. Albans School, Cafritz Refectory, in Washington, D.C., according to NBC.

After a private funeral and burial Wednesday, another memorial service will be held for Russert in the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center. That memorial will be broadcast live Wednesday on MSNBC, beginning at 4 p.m.

"He may have been the ultimate Washington insider," NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker tells PEOPLE, "but he wasn't part of the Brie and wine set. He was part of the beer and hotdog set. And that's why America loved him. They saw themselves in Tim."

Zucker continues: "This was a man who loves politics, loved his faith, loved his family, and loved his Buffalo Bills. His ability to make the most complex political issues of our day [understandable], and then in the same program tell you why he loved his father, made him a unique figure in American television history."

Tributes at Peabody Awards
Meanwhile, tributes to the TV newsman, who died Friday of a heart attack at age 58, poured from his journalism colleagues at Monday's 67th Annual Peabody Awards at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which recognizes excellence in the electronic media for last year.

"He was the smartest, kindest person I've ever known," says ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff.

Woodruff, who was critically wounded in a roadside bomb in 2006 while reporting from Iraq, cited Russert's support for the family of NBC reporter David Bloom, who died of a pulmonary embolism while covering the 2003 Iraq invasion. "[Russert] did the same thing for my wife and my children after I was injured," says Woodruff. "I've never really thought something would happen this early. He was only ten years older than me."

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, who is recovering from serious injuries she suffered while reporting in Iraq in 2006, once studied Russert's interview methods. "So natural, so at ease, and so well informed," she says. "That's what we all aspire to be. He was just a regular guy who just was smarter than everybody else."

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20207064,00.html

Solar powered grass cutting company asks How Green Are You?

Smojoe — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:29:22 -0700

For sixty days in March / April 2010, the How Green Are You? photo contest on Lenzr requires photographers to look outside the recycling box and submit snapshots of energy saving, environmentally friendly 'green ideas' for the benfit of all humanity , (and the possibility of winning a terrific prize detailed below). The contest index expects to see art pieces and eco positive pictures that might help folks make better lifestyle choices.

So please particpate and show everyone your solar powered home and rainwater buckets that reinforce your own green thumbs and everyday organic housekeeping.
Lenzr has issued the How Green Are You? photo challenge to encourage regular citizens and working class people to share tips and tactics that will enlighten us all and motivate the masses to be green in every facet of existence on Planet Earth.
Wildlife photographers, landscape photographers, gadget bloggers and core environmentalists, this is your chance to get creative and upload photos of unusual recycled material, hybrid cars, beautiful breathtaking rooftop gardens, hydroponic systems and all manenr of DIY organic gardening ideas. Please submit ideas and innovations that you personally peioneered and now think might inspire others to lead cleaner, greener lives.
The Lenzr photo contest is sponsored by a solar powered grass cutting service in Toronto Ontario. The operation uses biofueled vehicles to transport electric lawnmowers to and from each property. The battery powered mowers are recharged daily in the trailers that are themselves electrified by large solar panes (on the roofs of the vehicles). These impressive facts and other details relating to organic lawn care makes this company Toronto's most environmentally sustainable grounds keeping solution, and they're also probably the quietest crew on the block as those Neuton battery powered mowers are very quiet.
Neuton CE6 battery powered lawn mower seen here is the prize! You can read the schematics for the Neuton CE6 lawn mower prize on the Lenzr blog and get even more information about this sponsor's organic lawn care service.

Why do you do Community Service?

Mamarosa — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:12:01 -0700

So many community service projects involve early mornings or getting dirty or fund raising. On top of this, often your work on the project will not result in a direct reward for you. So the question is - why do you do community service?

P.Diddy Launching Car Service for Drunk Celebs

justingirl1989 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:15:35 -0700

Finally! Someone put their thinking cap on. P.Diddy is launching a car service to make sure drunk celebs get home safe after a night of hard partying.

A rep for Diddy says, "He wants to make sure everyone's partying responsibly."

No word yet if regular folks like us are allowed to use his services. It's probably going to be a rip off anyway, a cab will be a fraction of the price.

how smart.

source: hollyscoop.com