one of the things I love best about the place I volunteer* is the odd requests that come through. Today an unbelievably cheerful woman with a thick Australian accent called from a TV show that takes urban myths and debunks them, and told me they were making a tree cannon, and could I find someone to help them with the logistics.

A what? That's right, a tree cannon. She wanted to know if we knew someone who could put steel bands around the trunk to reinforce it. Um, hmm. We probably do, let me transfer you to the director who will know more about how we could help you.

I love the fact that I have aided in the existence of a possibly functional tree cannon.

*The Crucible. It's a non-profit arts org in the SF Bay Area that offers classes in the fire arts, like blacksmithing, welding, ceramics, glass, neon, jewelry, and well, if it uses fire and sounds fun, we're probably interested in teaching it.

So what do I do there? Mostly clerical stuff. If you sign up for the mailing list, I'm the one who'll enter it into the database. I make a lot of the signs you see around the studio, I register people for classes. In exchange, I get to take free classes and just be part of the whole thing, which I find to be valuable beyond measure.

8:13 p.m. 2003-07-17�