Spinning Uncensored

Thanks Russ for providing me with an excellent topic for research–Guerrilla Gardening. This helped make a mind-numbing project relatively interesting. Here are some organizations and projects that I came across in my searches:

Guerrilla Gardening Organizations and Projects:

Trowels on the Prowl
Guerilla Gardeners
New Kensington Group
Liz Christy Bowery-Houston Garden (pioneer project)
Urban Tree Connection
Vacant Lot Cultivation societies

Other Urban Gardening Groups Not Necessarily Guerrilla:

Operation GreenThumb
Neighborhood Open Space Coalition
Magnolia Tree Earth Center
Council on the Environment
San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG)

Geographic Roots in the US for Guerrilla Gardening:

New York
Philadelphia
Chicago
San Francisco
Los Angeles

And I refuse to name the London guy because he gets too much press as it is.

No articles from Portland, OR. You guys better get busy up there!

P.S. I’m not linking them all because I’m too tired. You’ll just have to Google them.

I’ve been raging about the state of college education, particularly in light of our bad economy. The NY Times today had a piece on the rapidly rising cost of tuition and fees and how this is putting higher education out of reach for many Americans. This is a subject that irks me given the exorbitant student loans I still carry from my undergraduate education and the necessity for me to work full time while working on my Master’s degree. The following quote echoes my sentiments exactly:

“Mr. Callan, for his part, urged a reversal in states’ approach to higher-education financing.

“When the economy is good, and state universities are somewhat better funded, we raise tuition as little as possible,” he said. “When the economy is bad, we raise tuition and sock it to families, when people can least afford it. That’s exactly the opposite of what we need.”"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/education/03college.html

On another note, Joe-the-infamous-plumber makes far more than my husband and I together. I believe we may have far more education that Joe. Sometimes I wonder, is it for naught? What’s the point of education when the sacrifice is greater than the reward? So when Joe started bitching about how hard things are, I started hating.

Our president-elect keeps bringing up “incomes under $250,000 per year” and it’s important that these people do not see their taxes raised. To me $250,000 is pie in the sky. If we see $100,000 I will be grateful. But I don’t see it. So it’s ridiculous to me to hear the complaints of those who net an income of near and over $250,000. Oh, and bitch about the cost of education, but then go buy a new SUV or big screen tv and full cable. These are unnecessary luxury items. Which only tells me that as a country, we have our priorities backwards.

On a final note, I don’t think the auto industry deserves a bailout.

Anyway, apologies for the rant, but it had to be done. On a more positive note, here’s a shoe study:

Bad quality because I took it with my iphone.