This is not a timed writing just a long post. And what better place to put that long post than in my timed writing section which....I still use just not till the new year...yeah that was the plan all along.... Anyway I have like an idea/project that I have had floating around my head for some time. Or at least various pieces and it sort of congealed today walking in. Maybe becuse its Christmas and its the most giving day of the year.
The idea is kind of big and far reaching...eventually. All things start small. I like cooking, I like cooking good cheap and healthy. I like helping people. I like music. I like documentaries. I like parks. I also like improving ones self and helping others to do the same. Here is my vision.
I will start off by merely feeding the homeless some of my cheap concoctions. Make a big batch once a month and go around handing them out with fliers maybe. And eventually like setup a once a month cook out for them in like a park. They sleep there anyway so its close to home. At the cook out I'll ask them for suggested songs for me to learn that they can sing along with. And while they eat I'll play guitar for them, some classics that remind them of better times. To sort of improve moral.
Phase two was inspired by some guy I read about on the internet that was homeless who went around picking up trash and had a sign explaining what he was doing to get some donations. Well what if we tried to go bigger on this. Instead of just one man relying on the kindness of random strangers. What if we used a similar idea to try and reassimilate these broken people back into society.
The first hurdle would be to get the city to set aside some funds to pay the homeless on some form of commission basis; per bag or per lbs of garbage collected. This would give them not only a source of income other than panhandling but also clean up the city and give these guys a little dignity back because they are doing some honest work. Alot of homeless people can't get work because they lack things like, a phone, new clothes or good hygiene. This is their stepping stone to a better life.
Their is a secondary reason for using a commision system instead of an hourly type pay. The commision system will quickly identify who has the most drive to improve thier situation. This will enable those running the organization to move forward with some of the other branches of the plan.
What I would like to see happen is a place the homeless that qualify, through the above mentioned systems. To move into a sort of halfway house. The house would be like a cheap warehouse space that is rented and converted to fit a decent number of people. It would have a place for them to sleep and keep some belongings such as clothes. It would have a community washer and dryer, kitchen telephone and internet access.
I would also like to bring in some various professionals to help them in the area of mental and physical health, cooking, nutrition, planning, finances. Things like that. The idea of this house setting is also to give them a social circle and help them slowly meld back into society. They could use it as a home base to acchieve certain milestones. I imagine them getting a job and a car and saving up $1000 dollars then finding a place of thier own. I can already imagine the tears streaming down thier faces. Faces that are no longer dirty and smelly because they can take regular showers.
Ultimately I think it would be really cool to take this house Idea and limit the number of open slots to say 12. And make it an internet reality show. All of the money made through advertising and donations would go back into the non profit organization. And perhaps could be used to help pay for things like the professionals providing the aid to these people.
I would actually refrain from monetary compensation to the house people because we want them to develop a work ethic and they are getting a lot out of the situation as far as education and other aid.
The TV show wouldn't be an exploitative type thing at all. I think it would be inspiring and motivating to the watchers as see all of these rags to riches stories being told. And those experiences are chock full of emotion which is key to a good show.
I'll have to come up with paramaters but I think the members of the house should have certain goals and expectations they ahve to meet to continue their stay. So instead of a voting out like alot of reality tv shows. This show will be more a documentary. It won't have a beginning or an end. It will just be a glimpse into the lives of these people. Who are people. They will get to tell thier stories. They get to succeed and feel pride. Some will probably fail and have to move out.
Also limiting the number of slots on the show will give the people working at street level picking up trash, sorting it or involved in the other projects like cleaning and what not, an incentive or goal to strive towards. Which is getting to the house where you get the most help.
This is just a rough document to trap these ideas somewhere. Maybe I'll move forward on this one day. I really hope I do because the more I wrote about it the more it makes me happy. I love helping people and to be able to help on a large scale like this would be so cool. Start with one city and go around the country to big cities setting up similar programs.
Cheers,
Tyler
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Daily Timed Writing - Nov 13th 2007 1:00-1:30pm
Ok this is my first random timed writing thingie. I'll do this in blog form so I have some form of accountability.
My first timed writing will be about analog vs digital writing. They are completely different,its odd to me. Two things identical yet tangibly identical. I employ both methods and will talk about both.
Let me begin by saying I cannot choose a preference they both have ad infinitum uses and various pros/cons. Typically I enjoy writing more when done witih a pen in hand. The inconsistancy of my form generates a sort of personal font. A font not changed with a click of a mouse. This inconsistancy leads to a certan inlegibility of the text, a bad thing. Chicken scratch is the name bestowed it by my abdominable fifth grade teacher Mrs. Coates. The lack of uniformity also lends to the writing a certain character and personality that instills a feeling of creativity. The way I form the letter a for example. I remember disliking the plain shape it took when I wrote it and set about changing it to great effect. Now it resembles the a of this font and has found its way into my heart, my favorite letter to write. Or how I randomly capitolize words not because they are important but beccause I felt like it and thought its lower case bretheren not up to the task. This quirk finds its way into my typing sometimes but is often corrected by the spell checker.
This leads naturally into the discussion of revision and editing. This area my heart heatedly defends both sides of the debate. Technology makes revision a snap. In line auto text and grammar correction. I love this at times and hate it others. My dyslexic friend cannot function in the world without this advent. However as nice as the simplistic revisioning processes is I do enjoy a couple aspects of old school revising. Its unusual to need to rewrite an entire page when editing on a pc. With paper documents you must mark up your first draft with changes to be made then rewrite the whole paper. I like this. Its to easy to make sweeping changes sometimes and lose the flow of your writing. When you rewrite the whole thing its more ingrained in you. You are closer to your work. It is also interesting to look at a draft and see words scribbled out or sentences at the last minute into the margins. This inisght to the creative process is lost the second you use the delete or backspace keys. However speaking on convienence it is annoying to have a final draft marred by some blemish just because your hand had a momentary lapse of focus or you are plain bad at making the humps on your lower case Ms evenly. This category is a tie.
Speed adn efficiency are won hands down by the computer. For htis reason it is my prefered method when volume is my goal not creativity. The slower speed of a hand penned document leaves more time to form thoughts and moments of down time aren't filled with your one hundred and fifteenth email checkings. Instead you spend the time reflecting on the document or ideas contained therein. Organization and searching through records of old writings can be done with a filing system and a good brain but if you have alot of manuscripts you are in need of the robustness of a computer file system.
Sharing a document is far easier with the use of the internet. This lightning speed correspondance tool is a huge part of how the owrld operates today. A hand written paper is difficult to distribute and more often than not will end up digitized. Why hand write if you are going to type it anyway? Portability. While laptops are cheaper, lighter and have much longer battery lives nothings is more portable than pen and pad of paper. You can write on the beach without fear of sand or on a long trip without worry of where you can find an outlet. Coffee spilt merely means your page will look aged not an expensive repair bill.
Being a bit of a technology fetishist myself I really enjoy digitized documentation. But I also have a penchant for parchment and am firm in my belief that the days of hand writing aren't going out of style anytime soon.
Time spent: 30 min
Tyler
My first timed writing will be about analog vs digital writing. They are completely different,its odd to me. Two things identical yet tangibly identical. I employ both methods and will talk about both.
Let me begin by saying I cannot choose a preference they both have ad infinitum uses and various pros/cons. Typically I enjoy writing more when done witih a pen in hand. The inconsistancy of my form generates a sort of personal font. A font not changed with a click of a mouse. This inconsistancy leads to a certan inlegibility of the text, a bad thing. Chicken scratch is the name bestowed it by my abdominable fifth grade teacher Mrs. Coates. The lack of uniformity also lends to the writing a certain character and personality that instills a feeling of creativity. The way I form the letter a for example. I remember disliking the plain shape it took when I wrote it and set about changing it to great effect. Now it resembles the a of this font and has found its way into my heart, my favorite letter to write. Or how I randomly capitolize words not because they are important but beccause I felt like it and thought its lower case bretheren not up to the task. This quirk finds its way into my typing sometimes but is often corrected by the spell checker.
This leads naturally into the discussion of revision and editing. This area my heart heatedly defends both sides of the debate. Technology makes revision a snap. In line auto text and grammar correction. I love this at times and hate it others. My dyslexic friend cannot function in the world without this advent. However as nice as the simplistic revisioning processes is I do enjoy a couple aspects of old school revising. Its unusual to need to rewrite an entire page when editing on a pc. With paper documents you must mark up your first draft with changes to be made then rewrite the whole paper. I like this. Its to easy to make sweeping changes sometimes and lose the flow of your writing. When you rewrite the whole thing its more ingrained in you. You are closer to your work. It is also interesting to look at a draft and see words scribbled out or sentences at the last minute into the margins. This inisght to the creative process is lost the second you use the delete or backspace keys. However speaking on convienence it is annoying to have a final draft marred by some blemish just because your hand had a momentary lapse of focus or you are plain bad at making the humps on your lower case Ms evenly. This category is a tie.
Speed adn efficiency are won hands down by the computer. For htis reason it is my prefered method when volume is my goal not creativity. The slower speed of a hand penned document leaves more time to form thoughts and moments of down time aren't filled with your one hundred and fifteenth email checkings. Instead you spend the time reflecting on the document or ideas contained therein. Organization and searching through records of old writings can be done with a filing system and a good brain but if you have alot of manuscripts you are in need of the robustness of a computer file system.
Sharing a document is far easier with the use of the internet. This lightning speed correspondance tool is a huge part of how the owrld operates today. A hand written paper is difficult to distribute and more often than not will end up digitized. Why hand write if you are going to type it anyway? Portability. While laptops are cheaper, lighter and have much longer battery lives nothings is more portable than pen and pad of paper. You can write on the beach without fear of sand or on a long trip without worry of where you can find an outlet. Coffee spilt merely means your page will look aged not an expensive repair bill.
Being a bit of a technology fetishist myself I really enjoy digitized documentation. But I also have a penchant for parchment and am firm in my belief that the days of hand writing aren't going out of style anytime soon.
Time spent: 30 min
Tyler
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)