Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Observation Deck

This week, Chucked Wood is launching a Kickstarter.com Project; the Observation Deck. It is an installation project that will reside at General Greene Elementary and afford the students an outdoor classroom as well as several "observation & refection" areas. The bench is the same style as the "Press-on Bench" but with the addition of a weather-proof box (aka: mailbox) mounted on the side. This is where the project gets special to me...

I love the stories that people have to share. We all have them, they make us, "us". My favorite part about Thanksgiving is the telling (and often, retelling) of the stories. I enjoy stand-up & improv comedy so much because I can relate to those stories of the dentist, airports, being married, having kids, etc. What keeps me coming back are the different takes each of us has on these subjects; how we view our lives.

So, when the opportunity arose to work with Mr. Howard, a student teacher at Gen Greene, I didn't wait long to say, "yes". He was working on an Environmental Education project and envisioned an outdoor classroom at the school made up of Press-on Benches. We decided to take it one step further and and a journaling, recording, reflection element to the bench that could be stored there as well. We came up with this:

And lastly, built a prototype to showcase on Kickstarter:
So now, we launch a $1000 fund raising effort to make this all a reality. This is all very new and very exciting... wish us luck! The next step is the potential for these to appear in parks & neighborhoods. A place where someone can simply sit, write, reflect, and leave a story behind.

Cheers!

Friday, April 13, 2012

No reason to be thankful (I just am)

After three years of being underemployed, my wife (the chef, seamstress, writer, cater, mother) has landed a full time gig as the Home Cooking Specialist for Whole Foods. That's right, beginning this weekend she'll be slingin' patchouli and pasta inside the beautiful (and super-cool) new addition to Greensboro.
This leads me to my rambling thoughts... I'm really happy today. My kids are healthy (although sick in the head, like Daddy), I have a job (whether I find it fulfilling shall not be discussed) and as I type, I sit in a beautiful spring afternoon. I'm totally gay for this weather... It's FABULOUS!

That's all I really want to say at the moment. Oh, and I still want an answer to my question from earlier in the week; if a group of necrophiliacs ran into a band of zombies, who would chase who?