Ad Nauseum

Sometimes I am hesitant to write or talk about matters close to my heart.

This hesitation stems from a fear that my writing, my thoughts, my life is all one big plagiarization. It's true: subjects and issues close to my heart are very often close to the hearts of many others as well ... close to the hearts of people who started their blog a long time ago, or wrote a book, or went on TV ... or talked your freakin' ear off at last week's playgroup.

In other words, I fear I can't bring anything new or original to the table. I never took Latin but ad nauseum and nausea seem too close to be purely coincidental.
 

 Shut Your Mouth', Eda Akaltun, 2008

But lately some events have blown the lid clean off of my writer's block and rendered this fear obsolete. By drawing information and inspiration from many sources, I now see how this connects us. It allows us to share, to make the whole greater than the sum of our parts. I'm finding the highest level of learning occurs during synthesis after all. Here's what has led to this personal enlightenment:

Rock Out with your Cacophony Out

Listening to the radio while driving recently, I caught a snippet about how marketers determine a demographic's musical preference. They take their target group's age and then subtract back to the time that demographic was in the 18-22 range. So, if the radio station was wooing 50 year-olds, they just would conjure up the Billboard Top 100 list from 1978-1982-ish.

This just incensed me -- the nerve of these marketing types. Wouldn't they just love it if we were all so easy to figure out. Just put us in one of a few preset boxes, simply plug in the variables and cha-ching: it' a sale.

Well, people are just a bit more fluid and dynamic than that, I thought. DAMN THE MAN! I switched off the report, cranked up "Guns-N-Roses" and gunned my bitchin Camaro down the street (you can totally listen at that link, you're welcome).



  <<< This was my car in high school. Now imagine it loaded with four or five white, western Kansas girls singing "Nuthin' but a G Thang".

streetwalkers update 2

There are some really exciting things to put on your calendars. Okay, really exciting if the thought of walking around safely makes you as giddy as it does me. (see inception of pedestrian/Linda Hamilton mania here)

-A volunteer opportunity! Be involved in taking a count of cyclists and pedestrians. These numbers are going to be used for exciting and official  things! Here are the details: