A blog about life experience and inexperience, written by Dallea Caldwell.

Boots (left), Available kitten (right)

What is the minimum number of cats required to make one a crazy cat lady? My estimate has been a generous single digit for years. Then, three discoveries blew my mind.

Fact #1: I have one cat.

Fact #2: I am a lady.

Fact #3: I am definitely crazy.

The point is that there is no minimum number. And no gender either. In fact, based on further anecdotal evidence, diagnosing Certified Crazy Cat Person-dom in otherwise healthy adults, requires considering factors besides sheer cat quantity. Additional factors include:

1. Square footage and cleanliness of feline domestic habitat.

2. Veterinary care, nutrition, comfort and cleanliness of cat(s) in question.

3. How many cats are under temporary foster care and seeking adoption.

In other words, cat people are only crazy if they can’t keep all the kitties purring their whiskers off.

Getting the Whole Kitten and Caboodle Adopted

Anyway, I house-sat last week, in case you missed it. I couldn’t very well spring my sweet kitty Malice Aumyoho Nakadema-Caldwell on a canine lion-tiger-bear like Kuma. So, I sent Malice to summer camp with a cat-person of the sane variety; what’s one more cat in a house of 12? Well, a lot apparently because, in exchange, I had to make like TalkLocal and connect three kittens to the right local cat lovers to lessen the burden.

In order: Boots, Available Kitty, and Mr, Ray Charles a.k.a RayC

So far, so good. My parents wanted the white-pawed tabby, and my aunt was on the fence about the black and white runt. No one would want to tear those bosom bros apart so quickly, right? I brought both to my aunt to help her decide and help them adjust. We quickly discovered that the tabby was too frisky for my aging parents; but my 12-year-old cousin loved him. His name is now Boots.

Just look at him go!

Meanwhile, the snuggly runt with impaired vision needed the extra care my parents were used to providing for my four-legged brother: a black and white terrier-retriever mix named Monroe. The kitten, named Ray Charles, is as snuggly as ever and more playful everyday, much to Monroe’s chagrine.

As for kitten number three, he’s super adorable, but people have been raising concerns that he isn’t neutered yet and doesn’t have his shots. They’d rather go through the SPCA where that’s all included. So, his appointment is Thursday — which certainly sweetens the pot for a certain college student who shall remain nameless (ahem Rochelle — just needs a little convincing).

So, if you’re a big-hearted foster pet owner who went to visit the stray cats who live at the horse stables, and one of them turned out to be pregnant, you may have to visit www.talklocal.com for a veterinarian. Otherwise, people will raise a red flag when your “free” kitten has a hidden price tag.

Didn’t deter me, though! Did it, Malice (aka Malicious Mittens)?

(Courtesy of ADowner Photography) Yes, of course I have professional photos taken of my cat!

Written by Jaime Fawcett

Hello again everybody! I am back again with another installment of 8 Interns : 2 Months : 1 Office! We are here with Zaneta, aka Big-Z. She is a rising senior at Carnegie Mellon University studying a double major in Economics and Professional Writing. (Very versatile).

She enjoys the occasional song and dance.

Look at that stage presence. That confidence. That sass. Channeling her inner Sasha Fierce. Work it!

So let’s get to know, Zaneta with a few probing questions.

First one is easy, what do you do here at Seva Call?

At first I was just doing customer service. But now I’m doing sales. I will pretty much do anything. I like being kept on my toes. Sales is definitely more difficult than customer service, but it’s really rewarding when you get a sale.

You have a code name, don’t you?

Yeah, I say my name is Candace. Zaneta is a weird name and hard to understand on the phone, so I say my name is Candace. It’s my middle name, so not too much of a code name. Gotta do what you gotta do.

So, Zaneta, Zuh – Net – Uh, that’s an interesting name? What’s the origin?

Its supposed to be a Hebrew name. I’m Messianic Jewish, so my mom named me Zaneta because it means God’s precious gift. Or it might be Spanish….who knows. I’ve never met anyone with the same name, so I’m looking forward to the day when I do.

I remember from the 4th of July, your family makes some awesome Caribbean food, what are your favorite dishes?

Oh my gosh, so many. My family is from Guyana so some of the food is actually from a lot of Indian cultures. A lot of curry chicken and roti which is kind of like naan (Indian flatbread). Oxtail, which is seriously a cow’s tail. I know that sounds weird because, like, it’s a tail, but it’s really good!

Of course, you’re one of the core members of Team Chipotle. What do you get for your order?

Two soft tacos. With chicken and everything they have except for guacamole. I’m cheap, I’m not gonna pay extra for that. One time I got hard shell tacos and the shells were all soft and floppy. I was mad. But I love Chipotle. Not as much as Augie obviously.

You’re an aspiring entrepreneur, right? Any business pitches brewing?

Ummm. No. Not many ideas yet. But they’re coming soon! So watch out for me in Forbes. In reality though, I would really like to work in the music industry. I have my own org called the Independent Musicians Organization at school. We’re still pretty young, but we help musicians find events to play at and get agents. It’s really cool.

Okay, staple questions real quick, Hogwarts House?

Ravenclaaaaw. My favorite color is purple so it works.

Zombie survival team?

Jaime: Because you could chronicle all of our adventures and how we survive.

Lauren: She can cook really good food out of anything.

Michael: He’s a good problem solver. He would be the leader. People just listen to what he says…even if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Josh: He’s a beast at lazer tag. So obviously he would be good at shooting actual zombies.

Any weird…..I don’t know….food allergies? Horror stories?

Horror stories? There’s one per year. I’m allergic to all tree nuts, and I recently I found out I was allergic to buckwheat. I went to a crepe place with a friend of mine and the crepes were made with buckwheat, which I didn’t know. I ordered one and it was delicious so I kept eating it. I was fine but then a little while later I felt really sick and my throat was scratchy. My friend was freaking out and I was freaking out so we called the Emergency Medical Services at school and I ended up going to the hospital. I was okay. But it was bad. It was just bad…

Who has the biggest bromance in the office?

Matteo and Nabeel have the best bromance of all time. They’ve been here the longest and Matteo is always talking about how they’ve broken company records together. They’re basically an old married couple.

What’s your biggest fear?

Okay, this is going to sound weird, but I’m terrified of sloths. They are so creepy!! Some of my guy friends found out and now post sloth pictures to my Facebook constantly. So yeah. Sloths….and Manatees. Manatees look scary and aggressive.

You’re the Chief of Fun, in the office. Is it….fun?

As Chief of Fun, it’s my job to make sure everybody else is having fun. I don’t really fun. No, I’m kidding. It’s fun. I get to know everyone in the office really well. I like planning the events and stuff.

Well, That’s Zaneta. And she’s reigns supreme here at Seva Call. What a champion. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Seva Blog to stay up to date on the rest of the Seva Team!

 Written by Dallea Caldwell

You know Jaime, Rochelle, and Steven D as well as Aman, Gurpreet, and the big MP, but do you know the most anonymous intern of all? Dallea, the blogger intern, had a very shiny nose (before Pro-Active).  And if you ever read the blog, you would say her awkwardness shows.  All of the other interns introduced themselves by name. Then after 6 months blogging, she figured she would do the same. Way back one January day,  she responded to a Craigslist Ad. Then Manpreet said “Since you like to write, won’t you blog long into the night.” Now working with more interns, she’s loving their creativity; but feels slightly intimidated, saying, “it’s so weird to talk about me.” (more…)

Written by Jaime Fawcett

That’s Michael. He’s pretty great.

You may remember him from Rochelle’s blog on our 4th of July excursion to DC’s start up event 1776. He is also one of the star ping pong players here at Seva Call. More on that later though.

I’m excited to introduce Michael in our 8 Interns : 2 Months : 1 Office series, because he and I both go to Carnegie Mellon University! Which means I get to ask him all the deets about going to CMU.

Just look at the CMU Swag.

What exactly are you wearing in the photo above?

That’s my uniform for Kiltie Band (the CMU marching band). We are very serious about our kilts and uniforms, but not very serious about everything else. Playing tenor saxaphone in Kiltie for football games is one of my favorite things at CMU. We get to heckle and just be loud for the entire game. When we march, we all wear funny hats — wolf hats, bicycle helmets, just crazy stuff — but I have yet to find my own personal funny hat. It’s also pretty chill. They know the coursework at CMU is really strenuous, so they’re okay with us missing a couple of rehearsals, as long as it doesn’t become a habit.

What other hobbies or extracurriculars do you do? Inside or outside of school.

I went to a hackathon in April. Hackathons are these intense weekends where the hosts create an environment where you can be really productive and creative. The goal is to start from a clean slate and then create a working demo of your project in 24 hours. Sleep is optional. Myself and three other CS freshmen rented a Zipcar, drove to Princeton and brainstormed ideas on the road. We ended up making a game where you upload a song, and then the enemy ships fire at you based on the beats of the song. I learned a lot, but it was exhausting.

So you do development here at Seva Call. What are you working on specifically?

I’m part of the engineering team, so I work on the database and the website. Recently, I’ve been improving the admin panel which the Seva Call employees see, which allows everybody else to be more efficient.

If you could possess any superpower, what would it be and why?

The power to stop time. Because if you’re in a fight with a superhero or supervillain that had any other superpower, you would win. Obviously.

What do you get on your Chipotle order?

I get a bowl with steak, no beans, mild salsa, corn and sour cream. But it varies. Sometimes I get guac when I’m feeling adventurous.

Tell us about the photo down below.

That’s the fence. We painted it to promote the final Kiltie Band concert of the year. It was fun, but it was a bad night to be painting outside. Even though it was in March, it was below  freezing. Every 10 minutes or so we would have to run inside to get warm and return feeling to our toes.

So you play ping pong here at the office, and you’re pretty good. When did you start playing ping pong. Are you a ping pong pro?

I can’t remember when I first played ping pong. I never had a table, so it was always just at friends’ houses. I’ve been playing tennis since I was 6 or 7 though.

Which Intern is your most worthy opponent?

I enjoy playing with Andre the most. We’re the most evenly matched.

Tell us about this Ping Pong Ranking system you’ve created?

In the office we each have our own mental rankings of the players. Matteo wrote down his own rankings on one of the whiteboards and proclaimed it official. I thought we could do better, so I made a google form so we can all input our own rankings and get a consensus. We’ll see where it goes and how it changes for the rest of the summer

Who do you think will reign champion in the next Seva Call Ping Pong Tourney?

Augie for sure.

Any weird hobbies or talents?

I built my own computer back in June. I picked the parts that I wanted and then put it all together in my bedroom. It ended up looking pretty sweet, and it runs a whole lot faster than my old computer.

Zombie Apocalypse Survival Team: 4 People. Ready. Set. Go.

Jaime, (Huzzah again! I keep telling my interviewees they don’t have to pick me….=P) because she’s awesome in every single way.

Umm…Let’s just go with a bunch of Jaime’s. Like Jamie and 3 clones of Jaime.

Hogwarts House?

Ravenclaw. I’m actually reading this really interesting Harry Potter fan fiction called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. The twist is that Harry Potter is a rationalist, and he has adventures while trying to apply logic to the magical world. It’s really clever, and I recommend it to everybody.

I will definitely have to check it out, Michael. So, Seva Callers, now you know all about our fellow Tartan fan, Michael. Be sure to check out the rest of the Seva Team and to like us on Facebook!

Written by Steven D’Adamo

Good day, fellow survivors! I’m back with more tips to zombie-proof your home…and your life. Your home is now a castle, but can you survive in it? Probably not for long. You need food, and that means going on a raiding mission of your nearest mega-bulk-everything-warehouse. I hope there’s a CostCo near you.

But before you un-barricade your doors and windows and rush headlong into that mob of zombies that has been waiting for such a desperate, brash move for weeks, you’ll want to make sure you can actually outrun them first.

It’s time to get yourselves into zombie-fighting and running-away-from shape. Since you are now hopefully holed up in your Fortress of Solitude (from zombies), you won’t be able to do much training outside. And that means getting creative with some indoor calisthenics.

Resistance Training

In order to be able to escape in any circumstance, you’ll basically need to turn into an amateur parkour runner. Pull-ups aren’t just for the Army anymore. Find a balcony, a stack of desks, or an actual pull-up bar and start hanging from it until you can literally pull yourself up. Once you can do that, add weight using a backpack or a small child, and keep pulling. Then do it with someone on your back. You never know when you’ll need to carry dead weight (Ha! Bad pun).

Then do some push-ups. Why? Because they basically work every muscle in the body. Increase the amount of weight you actually push up until you can do at least 50 with any weight. Use the same increments you did for pull-ups: your own weight > small child > fully grown adult.

Then, you can do squats to build those legs. Squatting your own body weight can be quite the workout, but eventually, you’ll need to do some squats with extra weight on your back.

You can also do box-jumps to help your ups. Simply stand in front of a desk, a table, or some stairs, and jump up onto it. Do this in sets of 10 to 12, and increase the height of the “box.” By the end of your training, you should be able to scale a 10-foot wall by jumping, grabbing the ledge, and pulling yourself up.

Cardio

If you’re completely insane — and I’m guessing by this point about 60% of you are — you can go running outside. See how long you can make a pack of zombies trail you before they give up, or you give up and die. Then practice cutting and juking around them for some directional speed. And of course, you can take the term “suicides” literally by doing wind-sprints through a field of grabby, bitey hands and mouths.

Or you could just stay inside and jump rope for a while. It’s your call.

Don’t forget to train other muscles too, using whatever is lying around. Your overall strength will benefit greatly from strengthening secondary muscles like you triceps, hip abductors, and deltoids (shoulders).

The Fort Talk Local Team has been doing a lot of training. What do you think we’ve been doing with the twenty-something computer monitors we had laying around? They work surprisingly well as junk kettlebells and free weights.

Now get to training! And here’s the last installment in case you missed it. Steve out.

Written by Jaime Fawcett

What’s up Seva Callers?

As some of you may have heard, Seva Call just launched in Chicago!

This is pretty convenient because I just took an amazing trip to Chicago! I was there to visit a friend for the 4th of July weekend.

We went to the beaches around Loyola’s Campus. I finally got to see the famous Bean, and chilled at an outdoor concert a bit. I admired the classy Chicagoans drinking wine and eating Triscuits while listening to early 1900s electronic music

I explored Loyola’s gorgeous campus and hung out with some of the college-goers on the beach. On the 4th, we watched the fireworks launch from Navy Pier — which was just about the best fireworks show I’ve ever seen — while eating Black Diamond Watermelon that a Russian gentleman picked out for me at the local organic mart. (The trick is to hit it and get a hollow sound.) We also watched these street performers jam out on a guitar and trumpet.

Sorry for the crappy photo quality. They were really adorable though. We gave them a handful of quarters because, you know, poor college kids.

But to switch gears real quick, getting around Chicago is so easy! There are no big metro systems in Baltimore or Pittsburgh (where I live with a 25/75 percent split during the year) and I just found the metro super convenient.

If you don’t want to take the metro, you can bike almost anywhere. My butt seriously hurt after the 8 mile bike ride I took one day along the beaches and through the parks. It was wonderful.

Well, I’ve got some keepsakes for my wallet and I look forward to going back.

Chicagoans, kudos to having one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to. If you are ever in need of help finding local service professionals, hit up Seva Call and we will hook you up, I guarantee it. From Roger’s Park to Andersonville to Downtown, I loved every bit of Chicago.

Thanks for an awesome trip, Chicago.

Written by Jaime Fawcett

Welcome back to the second installment of the 8 Interns : 2 Months : 1 Office series, following 8 of Seva Call’s interns this summer. This is a Josh.

He’s a cool guy. He goes to University of Pennsylvania and is currently working on his BS in this really long and complicated field of study called Biological Bases of Behavior (BBB as he says), which is basically just neuroscience.

He also sings!

Alot.

His a capella group is called the Keynotes. And they look like a pretty swanky group of people. Just look at that pose Josh is striking. Such swagger.

So let’s get down to the hard hitting facts.

You’re a third year at UPenn, but already 21. Why are you so old?

I took a gap year after my freshman year to find myself. I’m also just an old soul. What’s that song? “I once was lost but now am found.” Kind of like that.

What did you do while discovering yourself?

I did research and wrote a paper on cancer clusters, which are regions of America that have more cancer patients than other regions. It got published in an epidemiology journal and I think two people have read it maybe. I also did landscaping, but that’s not really the same thing.

Will you sing a serenade to Seva Call? In three part harmony?

No. It’s kind of hard to do 3 part harmony without two other people.

What is your current favorite/most played song?

That is such a difficult question. We’ll say “Hey Joe” by Jimi Hendrix

Rochelle and I agree you have the silkiest sales voice in the office. Have you ever thought about dropping neurology to do sales? Or you know…anything else?

No, as much as I love working in sales, I’m gonna stick with the sciences.

So young, but so brilliant.

If the zombie apocalypse occurred and you had to bring 4 other Seva Call employees with you, who would it be and why?

Augie: For obvious reasons. He could probably kill a lot of zombies. Although, if he turned into a zombie we would probably be screwed.

Raj: Because he’s very uplifting. We would probably get depressed and he’d be there to tell us “good job”.

Jaime: (Huzzah!) We need someone to document our struggles and write the great zombie apocalypse memoir.

Zaneta: Because she’s resilient in ping pong. So, obviously she would be good at battling zombies.

You order Chipotle basically everyday. What do you get?

Burrito Bowl. Chicken. Black beans. Pinto Beans. Fajita Veggies. Lettuce. Cheese. EVERYTHING. Every kind of salsa. Corn…. Except Sour cream because that stuff is disgusting and doesn’t belong on any kind of food ever.

You’re like the Cedric Diggory of the office. Are you a Hufflepuff?

I don’t think I’m a Hufflepuff….I’m a Slytherin. I’m the Crabbe of the office.

How did we grow up 4 blocks away from each other in Catonsville and never meet?

That is an excellent question. I don’t know anyone from Catonsville. I grew up and spent all my time in Towson. And I’m a recluse.

Where is your ideal place to live?

Guatemala. Or any place with a beach. Where I can listen to the waves.

Any special talents? Can you lick your elbow?

I’ve got extreme hitchhikers thumb.

Favorite thing about Seva Call?

Freedom. We have a lot of leeway as interns. Even though we all just started this summer, we get a lot of responsibility and really help build the company and get to make and implement our own ideas.

Well, thanks Josh! Keep singing. I enjoy listening to you sing to the radio when we carpool to work. You will sing for the office one day…

Alright, Seva Callers, don’t forget to check out and learn more about the rest of the Seva Team and to check us out on Facebook. See you next time to meet Michael, who is causing a stir with a certain office sport.