September 26, 2007
Freeway Blogging
If you're trying to think of a creative way to get your point across, perhaps consider this: Freeway Blogging.
I learned of freeway blogging quite awhile back. You've all seen it. It's those signs people post on overpasses, fences, bridges, trees along the interstate, walls, you name it. Those signs are called 'freeway blogs.'
It's an utterly fascinating approach to expressing freedom of speech. In fact, my buddy (and revolutionaire partner), Apryl, and I are considering utilizing this creative tool to express our opinions.
If you're more interested in expressing your opinions, which I hope you are being that the point of this blog is to evoke emotion and hopefully the urge to express emotion from you, I urge you to read a little bit of the Freeway Blogger's page, here. This is a guy on a specific mission to end the war, but freeway blogging doesn't have to be about war -- it can be about anything you feel passionately about.
The trick is finding the cardboard to accomplish the task. The best thing would be to hob-knob with some grocery store manager or something -- or someone who works with large appliances would be even better. I've read in several places that bedsheet signs are frowned upon anymore because they can be dangerous and also look kind of shoddy compared to cardboard signs.
Believe it or not, the execution of the sign aids greatly in the delivery of the message. Think about how you want to represent something you feel passionately for -- not in a shoddy way, I almost guarantee it.
If you actually think about how many cars drive under any given overpass, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a better, quicker way to reach that many people.
And as a standard disclaimer, if you're going to be walking out onto a freeway overpass to hang a sign, see if you could get your hands on an orange vest or something for your safety.
Oh and also, before you go hanging signs any ol' place you please, make sure you understand the laws and limits pertaining to your area.
If you're looking to read more, you can easily google 'freeway blogging' and find plenty of material.
March 7, 2008
Destination Home: Things of Note in the World Today.
-- renegades, yanks, and hippies or perhaps, sheer geniuses --
Voters in two Vermont towns (i bet you already know where this is going...) have agreed to have police arrest and extradite both President Bush and Dick Cheney for crimes against the Constitution.
What's more, State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney. Several towns have also passed impeachment resolutions.
You think they're onto something?
-- BOEING --
One thing my dad and I are, without doubt, is Union people. And what's the first bit of news on CNN when we click over -- Boeing outsourcing all their work. Yippee-ky-eh! So we're giving away more American jobs. Right bunch of geniuses we are.
Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are already underpaid, in debt, out of work, and desperate. (If you're not one or more of those things, pay it forward.) We have millions of skilled and educated people already looking for work, desperate to make an amount of money that could help them feed their families. And Boeing, our Air Forces largest provider, is giving it's work to a foreign country.
How freaking bogus. The AMERICAN aerospace king is turning to Russian aircraft engineers and Indian software geeks (no offense, pals) because of their immense technical skill and their impossibly cheap wages. All the while, the Americans are growing poorer and poorer, less and less educated, and inching closer to poverty with every word spoken about Boeing's outsourcing.
The work gets outsourced because we have higher wages here. We have higher wages here because the cost of living is higher. And we have a higher cost of living because EVERYTHING is outsourced (and thus must be imported).
-- The Mexican Wall --
Precursor: I seem to remember learning about another wall built to keep people out in my history class in middle school. If my memory serves me, I believe it was the Berlin Wall that was knocked down to unify land and symbolize the end to the Nazi regime and stop the killing of those who were attempting to better their lives by fleeing Communist Germany.
So ... here we are, almost 20 years after the dismantling of the Nazis' wall, and our government is pushing to build a wall along our own border to keep unwanted people out. I am baffled.
Let's pretend it's guaranteed that this wall our government wants to build will be nothing more than a wall and that people attempting to scale it will not be shot dead like the Germans were. I guess I won't venture there too much, but we all know things escalate.
My issue: building a wall to keep people out is sooo 1961. I like to think we've grown since then -- mentally, compassionately, technologically, we're better than the Nazis were in 1961. Why do we need to build a wall?
My solution: raise money, see: Ron Paul for fund-raiser tips *. Use money for a new program to protect our border. This program, with the money raised, would create jobs for many of the currently unemployed, yet educated Americans. Simply design watch towers at mile markers along the border, with a patrol station (with transportation) every three or so miles. Put each watchman/woman through a thorough training course and educational program and send them to work each day to protect our borders. In a blurb, it sounds faulty, but I assure you, something like this could work.
My opinion: it won't ever happen because the minds who run this country refuse to seek alternative means to an end.
Freeway Blogging
If you're trying to think of a creative way to get your point across, perhaps consider this: Freeway Blogging.
I learned of freeway blogging quite awhile back. You've all seen it. It's those signs people post on overpasses, fences, bridges, trees along the interstate, walls, you name it. Those signs are called 'freeway blogs.'
It's an utterly fascinating approach to expressing freedom of speech. In fact, my buddy (and revolutionaire partner), Apryl, and I are considering utilizing this creative tool to express our opinions.
If you're more interested in expressing your opinions, which I hope you are being that the point of this blog is to evoke emotion and hopefully the urge to express emotion from you, I urge you to read a little bit of the Freeway Blogger's page, here. This is a guy on a specific mission to end the war, but freeway blogging doesn't have to be about war -- it can be about anything you feel passionately about.
The trick is finding the cardboard to accomplish the task. The best thing would be to hob-knob with some grocery store manager or something -- or someone who works with large appliances would be even better. I've read in several places that bedsheet signs are frowned upon anymore because they can be dangerous and also look kind of shoddy compared to cardboard signs.
Believe it or not, the execution of the sign aids greatly in the delivery of the message. Think about how you want to represent something you feel passionately for -- not in a shoddy way, I almost guarantee it.
If you actually think about how many cars drive under any given overpass, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a better, quicker way to reach that many people.
And as a standard disclaimer, if you're going to be walking out onto a freeway overpass to hang a sign, see if you could get your hands on an orange vest or something for your safety.
Oh and also, before you go hanging signs any ol' place you please, make sure you understand the laws and limits pertaining to your area.
If you're looking to read more, you can easily google 'freeway blogging' and find plenty of material.
March 7, 2008
Destination Home: Things of Note in the World Today.
-- renegades, yanks, and hippies or perhaps, sheer geniuses --
Voters in two Vermont towns (i bet you already know where this is going...) have agreed to have police arrest and extradite both President Bush and Dick Cheney for crimes against the Constitution.
What's more, State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney. Several towns have also passed impeachment resolutions.
You think they're onto something?
-- BOEING --
One thing my dad and I are, without doubt, is Union people. And what's the first bit of news on CNN when we click over -- Boeing outsourcing all their work. Yippee-ky-eh! So we're giving away more American jobs. Right bunch of geniuses we are.
Meanwhile, the majority of Americans are already underpaid, in debt, out of work, and desperate. (If you're not one or more of those things, pay it forward.) We have millions of skilled and educated people already looking for work, desperate to make an amount of money that could help them feed their families. And Boeing, our Air Forces largest provider, is giving it's work to a foreign country.
How freaking bogus. The AMERICAN aerospace king is turning to Russian aircraft engineers and Indian software geeks (no offense, pals) because of their immense technical skill and their impossibly cheap wages. All the while, the Americans are growing poorer and poorer, less and less educated, and inching closer to poverty with every word spoken about Boeing's outsourcing.
The work gets outsourced because we have higher wages here. We have higher wages here because the cost of living is higher. And we have a higher cost of living because EVERYTHING is outsourced (and thus must be imported).
-- The Mexican Wall --
Precursor: I seem to remember learning about another wall built to keep people out in my history class in middle school. If my memory serves me, I believe it was the Berlin Wall that was knocked down to unify land and symbolize the end to the Nazi regime and stop the killing of those who were attempting to better their lives by fleeing Communist Germany.
So ... here we are, almost 20 years after the dismantling of the Nazis' wall, and our government is pushing to build a wall along our own border to keep unwanted people out. I am baffled.
Let's pretend it's guaranteed that this wall our government wants to build will be nothing more than a wall and that people attempting to scale it will not be shot dead like the Germans were. I guess I won't venture there too much, but we all know things escalate.
My issue: building a wall to keep people out is sooo 1961. I like to think we've grown since then -- mentally, compassionately, technologically, we're better than the Nazis were in 1961. Why do we need to build a wall?
My solution: raise money, see: Ron Paul for fund-raiser tips *. Use money for a new program to protect our border. This program, with the money raised, would create jobs for many of the currently unemployed, yet educated Americans. Simply design watch towers at mile markers along the border, with a patrol station (with transportation) every three or so miles. Put each watchman/woman through a thorough training course and educational program and send them to work each day to protect our borders. In a blurb, it sounds faulty, but I assure you, something like this could work.
My opinion: it won't ever happen because the minds who run this country refuse to seek alternative means to an end.
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