My greatest muses being my own two feet, I set out from home this evening to find a story. Ostensibly, my quest was to attend a meeting of the ' East Bay Green Drinks ' group to discuss emerging green technologies. My simpler objective was just to meet people. I arrived at Luka's Taproom and...

With the rush on "volunteer vacations" -- Celine's Vagablogging article on spring break students comes to mind -- there are numerous websites and agencies that, for a fee, will set up your volunteer experience for you. You pay them (usually between $1000 and the entire costs of everything) and they will find you a spot...