EVOKE: Agent Baird Day 4

Comment by Jake Baird on March 11, 2010 at 1:56am

Questions:
1)How did you hear about the EVOKE network, and what made you decide to join?
2)Name one person on here you got to know or would like to get to know? Make a good friend out of this, the closer we bring the network the easier and more enjoyable it is to work together. Try to make it a daily thing to check up on their profile, just like the mentors.
3)What is the worst crisis to you in the world currently that requires Evoke's attention? This one I am expecting a lot of different answers.
4)What is your background? Where were you raised, city or farm? Family members? Married, Single, Engaged? Cats or Dogs?
I am not trying to pry personal information from you. Like I said before, the more you get to know everyone, the closer you get, the more enjoyment of working with together as a team.
5)Find a quote that inspires you that might inspire others. If you are religious, put a piece of scripture. I think some of the more powerful blogs and
videos on here that I have read have been, true personal opinions "based" off research. Not just a bunch of stats. So I want to get that personal gears running in your head.

Comment by Greg Stevenson on March 11, 2010 at 2:37am

1. Think it was a linkedin group relating to social responsiblity games which directed me to @avantgame on twitter.
2. I guess like a lot of people here I'd like to bend Jane McGonigal's ear. Every Geek on the net has an idea of the next greatest game that is going to save the world. I am no exception.
3. Economic reform could solve every crisis mentioned on Urgent Evoke eventually. That is not to say that any number of crises need to be worked on from a perspective of patching the symptoms, but none of them are solved until we address Economic reform. Boring but true.
4. White, middle-class, middle-aged, married, one child, one dog, urban, close family, Live in Auckland, New Zealand. I have no worries!!!. Lucky me.You'd be amazed to find that this demographic is responsible for some of the greatest social changes in history. Go look up who stopped the slave trade. I'm not a communist, but go look up the background of Lenin.
5. I am not religious but "Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself" spans all religions, secular spiritualists and pragmatic atheists.

Comment by Jen Shaffer on March 11, 2010 at 3:11am

1. My boss/postdoc mentor sent me the link. We are working on issues of resilience and adaptive capacity building in Africa for climate change. She wanted me to check this out and see what was going on.
2. Good question. I'm not really sure. I'll need to think about this.
3. Worst crisis? Global climate change. We are all screwed if we can't find ways to adapt, build adaptive capacity, transform society, etc.
4. Mostly white with some native thrown in the mix. I'll be 38 in April. I'm divorced, no kids, no pets. Vegetarian (for a lot of reasons), although I will eat meat if nothing else is available or I will offend someone if I don't eat it. I grew up on a subsistence farm in northern New York - we raised all our own food. I'm an ecological anthropologist, but I have taught high school environmental science and biology in Houston, TX at an urban school. I also worked as a marine biologist for a while. I have had the excellent fortune to have had a year and the funds to travel around the world - it helped me find a place to do my doctoral dissertation research.
5. I love quotes. Some of my best teachers are those that went before and wrote their thoughts out in books - others have taught me best out in nature by their own words and actions. This is a quote though I find particularly inspiring:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest in the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
-Marianne Williamson, first heard in Akeelah & the Bee

Comment by Linda Holt on March 11, 2010 at 3:59am

Questions:
1. I read about and listened Jane's TED talk on CNN too. My son is a web developer and a master on WOW - I thought we could evoke together.
2. Wow - there are a dozen people I would love to have over for dinner - including you, Agent Baird! I think we are sowing the seeds of friendship and will continue to gravitate towards others based upon our deepest callings. Some days I am able to spend more time than others - and I am truly enjoying reading the blogs and encouraging others to play.
3. I think it is the human crisis - when we take ground on freeing each other to know us and to be known by us, we shift our being from a battle for bleak survival to an amazing journey of possibility, invitation, comittment and accountability.
4. I was born in northeast Pennsylvania and my father was a ship's Captian on the Great Lakes. (I get a little warm in my heat when I watch "Little Bear" with my granddaughter) I grew up in what occured to me to be paradise. We (I'm the eldest of five) lived in a small subdivision (so small that we were annexed from one town to another) and were two blocks from adventure on every side. We had a creek, a sledding hill, "Old Maids" - a deserted 2 acre property where the house and buildings had been cleared but the orchards and berry brambles were delinated by our bike paths and forts. A paved hill that we used for skate-boarding (we were pioneers! We took the Chicago wheels off of our rink skates and screwed them on to 1 inch planks - lol. I know this sounds bucolic - but we were amazingly grateful for all of it and we thrived.
I've been married to my husband (third time's a charm) for over nine years and we are true collaborators in life. I am "white" and he is "chocolate" so we have experienced the gamut of social perceptions of an inter-racial couple. There was a time, in the beginning of our marriage, when I was truly undone by the experience of how he was stereotyped and berated - most often without a word - just by a look. He has a gentle heart and spirit and loves all things "boy" ie; sports, sports and the sci-fi channel.

I've got a son who's thirty-three and my two little granddaughters. My "special needs" dog, Willie, was almost euthanized by his mother at birth (he was number 12 in the litter) but I was the midwife and rescued him and fed him by hand, That was almost twelve years ago and he is my closest, dearest companion (heavy breathing on the daybed behind me as I type).

I have a couple (well, many) unusual stories that I've lived - I was once attacked and almost beaten to death by a psychopath who resided in the Homeless Shelter I was working at and I was rescued by divine (no kidding) intervention. It changed me in many ways, some good, some a bit more trying - but I've come through it with gifts, and I told God that he/she could drop kick me into wherever I was supposed to be. I figure that's why I'm here. (how's that for personal?)

5. I love this quote by Karen Armstrong (it's in a blog post of mine):
"I say that religion isn't about believing things. It's ethical alchemy. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness."

Comment by Christine Cavalier on March 11, 2010 at 4:26am

1)How did you hear about the EVOKE network, and what made you decide to join?
I guess I saw the same cnn article? I don't watch TV news, and I only read the occasional traditional media headline on cnn.com, philly.com and nyt.com.

2)Name one person on here you got to know or would like to get to know?
This is my first day here. I am just learning how to navigate the site.

3)What is the worst crisis to you in the world currently that requires Evoke's attention?
Hrmm. I don't think I'm educated enough about the world to answer this. What brought me to Agent Baird's blog post is the obesity mention. I'm very concerned with this subject, not just for US citizens but the world's citizens.

4)What is your background? Where were you raised, city or farm? Family members? Married, Single, Engaged? Cats or Dogs?
I was raised in a mountainous area, part of the Appalachians, in Pennsylvania. I was raised mostly in an apartment complex that used to be military housing, across the street from a US Army depot. So I have experiences that are definitely country experiences and experiences that are more like a city-tenement-dweller's experiences. It's hard to explain my perspective to people sometimes. I have family but we aren't that close. Also, I usually abstain from speaking online about any identifying qualities like family, for security reasons. I can say that I am married and we have 2 small children. Never had any pets growing up but my husband and I got a cat before we were married and the cat is still here with us today. The biggest thing that defines me: my education. I'm "highly" educated (meaning, I have more degrees than most ppl). Education was the only thing that raised me out of poverty, and it is my most pride-worthy achievement.

5)Find a quote that inspires you that might inspire others: "Perseverance conquers." Sounds hardcore, but it fits my life, in many, many ways.

nice to meet you, Agent Baird. You've inspired me to maybe consider doing a video or two. If you or anyone wants to find me online, just search on my name or my username, "purplecar."

Comment by Emil Dimitrov on March 11, 2010 at 12:52pm

I answered in my blog, here: http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/background-1 , so I could add a picture of me traveling by train, the Sofia-Kyustendil train. :)

Comment by Jake Baird on March 11, 2010 at 3:17pm

Wow this is so cool! I find all of your stories very interesting!!! I hope more post on it.

☆Agent Baird☆ ツ

Comment by Edrian on March 11, 2010 at 3:25pm

I've also answered in my blog. Just click it right here:

http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/answers-to-agent-baird#lo...

Comment by Mladenka Prvulovic on March 15, 2010 at 10:22am

1)How did you hear about the EVOKE network, and what made you decide to join?

I watch TV that evening

2)Name one person on here you got to know or would like to get to know?

Michele Baron. Her comments and work motivate me.

3)What is the worst crisis to you in the world currently that requires Evoke's attention?

Wars generally, economic crisis, information manipulating, human crisis..

4)What is your background?

I was born in Serbia and has 27 years of living in Serbia. The parents were 20 when they got me, and I have a younger brother, born 7 years after me. Dad was a cop, now security guard, and Mom is now unemployed. At the time of sanctions in Serbia during the 1990s. We lived very hard, wages were in the range of today's 2-3 EUR per month and inflation was recorded in the G*****ss Book of Records. He was a total economic and every other chaos in our country. When I finished high school, we were bombed and further economic, political and human demoted. I finished the Faculty of Tourism and now I'm still the master studies of entrepreneurship in tourism. I like sports, drawing and painting, wood carving, books, and life has taught me many things, such as plastering works, carpenter jobs, home repairs, sewing and tailoring, etc..

5)Find a quote that inspires you that might inspire others. If you are religious, put a piece of scripture. I think some of the more powerful blogs and

Often say that nobody is immune to the kindness and sincerity, and believe that they are core values that will first help someone accept a later time you and your other values such as knowledge, creativity and vision, probably be able to motivate others and give a good example.
videos on here that I have read have been, true personal opinions "based" off research. Not just a bunch of stats. So I want to get that personal gears running in your head.

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