July 8th, 2010

An amazing end to the work week! We started and finished a work project. It was not painting. We put a windshield to guard a front door from the high winds that often roll through and can easily rip a storm door right off its hinges.

There has not been a single project that went straight forward. The painting project on day 1 ran into mold. The skirting project on day 2 had no electricity on the site. The painting project on day 3 ran into a paint shortage (and some administrative difficulties I’m told). And, the windshield project for day 4 did not have enough posts that were long enough to anchor it to the ground. We started with 3 4”x4”x12’ posts that we cut to 10 feet. Only problem, we needed a 4th and the longest they had was 8 feet. This is what the Re-Member people mean when they say something is Rez-ified. It’s not about planning, it’s about working with what you’ve got, which is never sufficient.

The difference? This time we made it work! We reconfigured the design on the fly to work with a shorter pole we were able to anchor directly to the house. No more giving up and leaving it to be finished by another team. April and Nicole learned to drive screws into the wood as well as use a circular saw. By the time we were done they were making better cuts than me.

Theo got to play with an impact wrench as well. He mastered the lag bolt insertion. It’s always exciting when they argue over who gets to lean the new tool.

Anyhow, the redesign worked, we had time to paint it, and left them with a fully functional windshield.

Clean up upon return. We were charged with gathering the recycling and tying up cardboard which took no time at all. Used the extra time to untangle and rewind an otherwise useless mass of twine.

This is where I’m going to end the journal transcription. There’s not a lot to say about the return trip. Everyone made it back, safe and sound.  A full blown presentation of the trip is in the works and tentatively scheduled for October 3rd, 2010. You can check the church’s calendar at www.uccburlington.org for the time and address of that. Pictures are still being gathered and added, but I plan to send a link to those out once they’re all posted after the presentation. Thanks to those who had read this.

July 7th, 2010

Our group has been split to do different things today. Group one, which consists of myself, Kate, Nicole, April and Theo are on tour today. Group two with is Sara, Brian, Samantha, Jaime and Geoffrey have a work today. Tomorrow they’ll tour while we work.

I would’ve preferred the groups stay together. Tried to get it reworked, but it was not an option.

Summary of the tour day:

All in all, I wish we could have worked. The tour was nice, but I think we could’ve been more effective building or painting. But there were highlights:

• Visited Red Cloud school (as well as Red Cloud’s grave). Saw his gun in the museum. Red Cloud, for those that don’t know, was really the Lakota Chief who realized that they would have to give up their way of life if they wanted to live at all, and negotiated a lot of the original treaties between the tribes and the US government.
• Saw a very cool dreamcatcher. Very Escher-like:
• Learned about the transit system. They’ve only recently gotten it working, and are very proud of it.
• Had Lunch at Bettie’s kitchen. The buffalo burger was fine, the chocolate cake was great!
• Hiked up past the kitchen for a great view, though I spent a lot of time keeping kids from trespassing onto the neighbors property through a break in the fence.
• A Lakota college I found something for Alex (at last!)
• Saw a picture of the Buffalo Sherman slaughtered to reduce the Native American population. Each of those white dots is a head of a buffalo that was killed, and it’s meat left to rot. Average buffalo yields 350 lbs of meat.

• Visited the Singing Horse trading post, where they had puppies!
• Craft fair tonight. Bought a necklace and earrings for  Julie, was definitely worth the wait.
• Kids got to practice beating a traditional drum, and we danced.
• Tomorrow we paint. From the descriptions of team 2, it will not be a lot of fun, but I remain optimistic.

Last work day. Barely feels like we’ve done anything.

Advertising for kids

I girl got my attention as I walked to the train the other day. She asked me what I thought about McDonald’s advertising to kids. I didn’t have time to take her up on the subject, as I needed to catch my train. Plus, I’d never really thought about it.

I’ve thought about it now.

We do not see much TV, so I don’t know if McDonald’s advertising has recently ramped up to warrant this street campaign, but otherwise they’ve been advertising to kids for years. One of the original Ronald McDonald was in a homemade costume by Willard Scott, who later went on to found The Today Show. That was a pretty creepy costume made out of popcorn bags and soda cups. I’d say that the advertising I saw from McDonald's as a kid gave me fewer nightmares that that costume did when I saw it as an adult.

I would also prefer that advertising to the stuff put out by cereal and cookie companies that are aimed at kids. That stuff is what I imagine when I picture an acid trip. Cookies melting to form chocolate rivers as cereal erupts from fissures in the ground. It’s either a tasty treat or the end of the world. Those commercials would do Salvidor Dali proud.

Now, let’s say that we all say enough is enough. These commercials encourage far too much of a consumer mentality in little kids, who lack the income to sustain such appetites, and it strains parent child relationships because the kids develop needs for things they don’t. We ban advertising geared toward children. This leaves a lot of open advertising space that needs to be filled. And it gets filled with adult advertising.

One thing I will say about advertising to kids, it is largely void of excessive sexuality. The same cannot be said of adult advertising. A lot of such commercials seem to try to make up for the lack of it in kids advertising. If I had to choose between my son watching a commercial with a clown dancing with a cookie, and people enjoying the way viagra makes themselves feel, I’ll opt for the former. Especially once he gets old enough to ask me to explain what the commercials mean.

So, I guess I don’t have a problem with McDonald’s advertising to kids.