Aside from all the random nothingness we've endured together this speedy summer session, I learned at least a thing or two:

• I learned that no matter how dull my work may be at times, it's good to know that most designers feel the same way about their work.
• I learned that Andy probably should have been kicked off the HS Bake Team.
• I learned that it's nice to talk with like-minded people sometimes. No matter how weird those like-minds might be.
• This class re-started my engines, so to speak, to do great things on my own time sometimes. I plan to do some major work on my website over coming weeks as a result.

All things considered financially, phyiscally and mentally, here's the five things I could do to not only help the world, but save it, too:

1. Ride my bike to work.
2. Bake cookies. Everyone likes cookies!
3. Teach people how to really reduce, reuse and recycle. E.g., green power, recycling centers, what to recycle, etc.
4. Invent the next Facebook on justinharter.com. Let's face it, this website really isn't do anyone any good, is it?
5. Innovate new ways to tell people what they need to know. Some people really need a good pick-me-up. What sort of communication medium do we have in place today for all the people that don't have anyone to tell them they're loved?

The Salem Leader
Educationally Speaking
Justin Harter
06/09/08

Manly Mower Moments Part II

Avid readers will remember my column from late last summer when I discussed my vain attempts at mowing my lawn. It started when I brought home an old push-mower my Dad kindly gave me. The unfortunate thing was that this lawnmower was literally two years older than me. Needless to say, when I pulled it out of the trunk of my car and tried to start it, it puttered enough to cut six blades of grass before winding down to a smoky end.

Shortly that same day as my failed attempts at getting the old gas-powered push mower to move and several kicks and choice words later, I ventured to Lowe’s for an emergency mower. Times were desperate and the grass was literally getting thicker the longer I sat around not mowing it. Being a newly minted homeowner, I was being purposefully frugal with my money and refusing to let anything take the best of my wallet. In doing so, I walked out of Lowe’s with an old fashioned (almost Flintstone-esque) roller-clipper style mower that required no gas, no electricity, no charging, no maintenance. I literally opened the box, assembled the handle and started cutting.
For the remainder of the summer and fall, the grass bowed to my every rolling cut. I defeated it at every corner of my lawn. Then, springtime rolled around. And, anticipating my neighbors’ desire for pristine lawns, I got an early start on spreading weed killer, seed and fertilizer. So much so it looked like a brand new lawn! A really, really, thick lawn. Yep. Really thick.

I was high-on-the-land. Up until the grass became so enraged with me cutting it that it grew in so lush and thick that I could no longer push my ancient clippers through the grass. My attempt at pushing the blades through the grass was like pushing a cinder block on a straight path through mud. Week by week, my mower left more and more grass un-cut and I was forced to continually raise the cutting blades to a point I wasn’t really cutting the grass anymore – I was just combing it.

Short of taking a machete to it, I once again was in an urgent mad-dash to Lowe’s. I opined to myself, loathing the fact that I would be forced to buy a polluting, gas-guzzling gas-powered mower that would get increasingly more expensive to use. Something about paying roughly $20 a month to mow my lawn didn’t sit well with me.

While perusing the mowers at Lowe’s and walking to the very end of the store where the cheap ones were on display, I noticed an electric mower sitting on the very end that was about $40 more expensive than the cheapest gas-powered mower. I immediately picked it up and sat it back down. Then I came back with a cart and picked it up again. Then, I rolled my new mower over to the extension cords and bought another 75-footer to add to my existing 50-foot cord. I paid for my new lawn-mowing accessories and headed home with my new lawnmower in tow.

After getting home, assembly was even easier than my old clipper-style mower. I just snapped the handle in place, removed the packaging and plugged it in. This mower literally has nothing to it. It’s just a shell with a blade and a mulching/bagging attachment. Cutting the grass with my new electric mower renewed my manliness. Assuming, of course, you ignore the fact that a giant blue and yellow cord trails me wherever I go and that occasionally I have to stop mowing long enough to go move the cord so I don’t run it over. Oh, and sometimes I turn too quickly and the corn comes unplugged producing embarrassing results. But other than that, dang, it’s a sweet mower. And since I power my home using 100% green energy by purchasing my electricity from new wind farms built in northern Indiana, my mowing is still eco-friendly and carbon-neutral.

I now mulch the grass while simultaneously cutting it and it’s producing such fantastic results that my neighbor across the street (with the sod lawn) should be jealous. I could even start mowing other people’s lawns for money. Assuming, of course, they’re willing to pay for the electricity, have numerous outdoor electrical outlets and the furthest point of their lawn is 125 feet or less from the outlet.

Last Friday evening was a reall whopper of a storm here on the east side of Indy. I snapped some really cool photos of the sunset, like this one:

It looks like a photo you might see on the discovery channel. Thank goodness we have enough pollution in this city to produce such exciting sunsets.

After the sun finally fell asleep for the night, the real action started to roll in. I was sitting on my sofa watching recordings of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report when I noticed really bright flashes of light coming from outside. I stepped out and noticed the lightning far off in the distance. The bolts were perfectly pronounced and clearly visible from many miles away. I tried to snap a photo of it:

This was a shot looking over my neighbor's house. Funny thing about lightning: it doesn't stand still like you want it to. Or like you tell it to. I asked myself, "What if I use the video camera?" The lightning was too unpredictable even for it and I was limited to only looking in one direction. So many times I was left standing facing the wrong direction. The poor lighting conditions made it difficult for my camera to focus, too. Here's what the response was from my camcorder:

This is rather self-explanatory, but, I decided to use my piece of paper to write down some of the most ridiculous things I hear during the week.

I simply kept the paper folded up and tucked in my back pocket. Upon hearing something ridiculous, I'd scrounge for a pen or pencil and write it down.

Normally on Wednesdays this summer I spend my time at work from 7-3, then I mosey on over to the parking garage and slink away to my home to read the mail, watch a little TV, eat dinner and overall just catch up with myself.

However, yesterday was like no other Wednesday I've ever had before! I went to work from 7-3 and then I went to Cancun Mexican Restaurant in Castleton with my boyfriend, Brandon, for dinner. Then I paid for it because it was part of his birthday dinner.

Only then did I slink away to my home where Brandon and I enjoyed a bottle of wine and an overall quiet evening. The whine later made me sleepy and I fell asleep only to wake up at 5:30 the next morning groggy, with a headache and forcing myself to go to work.

Speaking of work, it was either the wine or the work that's caused me to have a headache all day. Maybe both.

So, long story short, whatever it was that was supposed to be "blissful" reminded me that I'm not supposed to have bliss on weeknights because I have a mortgage, have to go to work to pay the mortgage and I'm otherwise miserable the next day anyway. So long as I have my bliss between the hours of 4 PM and 9 PM on Fridays or 6 PM and 10 PM on Saturdays, I'm okay.

Thanks, Beth, for letting me experience the hard way what I already knew: fun is limited to four or five hour slabs of time at the end of the week.

We were talking in class Monday about Andy's success at writing such excellent prose. I felt it time to toot my own horn and say that I'm not bad myself. I'm at least good enough for a small, conservative newspaper in my hometown, anyway. Below is the column that will print on May 26, 2008. In addition, I have an archive available, too.

The Salem Leader
Educationally Speaking
Justin Harter
05/26/08

Generation Y to Generation X: “Get a Clue”

I was sifting through some news articles the other day and came across an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Can U Read Kant – The Dumbest Generation”. Author Mark Bauerlein cites a handful of reasons why he thinks Generation Y is “empty-headed” and argues, “cultural and technological forces…have conspired to create a level of public ignorance so high as to threaten our democracy.” Well, I happen to be part of Generation Y and I’m not real sure I agree with Mr. Bauerlein’s points. Mostly because he’s wrong on most of them.

In a nutshell, he goes on to say that “kids are using their technological advantage to immerse themselves in a trivial, solipsistic, distracting online world and the expense of more enriching activities – like opening a book or writing complete sentences.” I’ve heard this argument before – that my generation is filled to the brims with illiterate and lazy bums that do nothing but chat online and tinker around on Facebook (a popular social networking website) all day. Well, he might be right about Facebook, but I’ve never met an illiterate 20-something.

Stories about the ineptitudes of my generation keep cropping up in newspapers and newscasts at an increasing rate as Generation Y enters the workforce, complete with flip flops, mobile phones and a desire to think everything is about them. I can’t help but think that the guy that complains about his new 20 year old co-worker’s desire to send a text message rather than dial a phone number is just making himself look silly.

If anything, Gen Y is more geared for multi-tasking, effective verbal communication and financial planning than any other generation before us. Think of someone you know that can watch TV, listen to an iPod, type a paper, chat with friends online and browse five different websites at one time. Now, ask yourself: how old is that person? Your answer is likely less than 25.

I’ve heard adults groan at the thought of a generation of students seemingly incapable of communicating effectively. I’ll be honest in saying that I hate hearing people use the phrase “Like…” and “Like, you know…” before every sentence. But, if a group of people can plan an entire evening in just a few short words on a screen just an inch wide, why do they need to call, talk or write a letter? If anything, Gen Y is efficient at getting what needs to be done over with.

And, after witnessing the financial insecurity that toppled earlier generations such as watching our parents get stung by layoffs, the dot-com bust, Enron and Arthur Andersen, Gen Y doesn’t really trust anyone. I get the impression that most people in my generation understand the importance of a retirement fund, know that they should be saving money even if they really can’t afford to and don’t feel like their careers should shape their lives. According to an article in the November 2005 issue of USA today, “Generation Yers don’t expect to stay in a job, or even a career, for too long.” Probably because we’re scared to death someone from Generation X is going to screw it all up. It seems safer to me to keep jumping ship every few years to keep things fresh and always have a sense that there’s something more I can do rather than putting all my trust into one organization.

And, if you haven’t discovered why Gen Y overwhelmingly supports Barack Obama, it’s because we don’t like to see things go stale. We believe in our own self-worth and value ourselves enough to know that a company, government or institution isn’t more important than me. We have high expectations for ourselves and for everyone else. Gen Y doesn’t seem to have much room for anyone that can’t keep up. Change is a buzzword Obama has ridden to success and it’s working.

Older folks that fight tooth and nail to grind younger adults into doing things their way is the name of the game – and it always has been. Fifty years from now some new generation is going to come along and make me feel worthless. However, I think a disproportioned gap has developed this time around because older adults don’t always know what to do with the technology available to Gen Y. This tech-gap has left Gen X without a clue on how to teach or reach a generation surrounded by constant stimulation. In short, the generation following us will reap bigger rewards as Gen Y works to incorporate more technology in ways that are more meaningful for later generations.

In response to the short PBS video we watched in class today, I was driving home afterwards and thinking about the clip of a sunset with a lone person watching patiently as the sun dipped below the horizon, seemingly taking forever.

As I was driving it made me realize how much time lapse clips can make something lengthy seem almost worthless. By some rationale, we almost have to endure some things, like a sunset, in it's entirety to get the meaning behind such an event.

Moreover, I thought of my recent filming of boiling eggs (below) and my film clip from last year driving home during rush hour to the busy northeast side of town. It makes me appreciate time-lapse and such that I want to develop some sort of short film that showcases a day's given news cycle from around the world and that same time span in my given day.