BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

30Apr/110

Off The Top Of My Head Survey

I can’t believe I’m doing this…

But here goes.  Enjoy!

Apparently this survey is called “Off The Top Of My Head”.  I found it by just googling MySpace survey.

 

Where is your Mother?

Probably at her house

 

Where is your Father?

Probably at his apartment.

 

Do you like to swim?

If I had a pool to swim in, I’d be there everyday.  I used to do swim team back in the day and I’m level 9 certified whatever swimmer from summer camp.  GO me.

 

Do you need to return anyones phone call?

Not currently.

 

Where were you born?

California.

 

Where do you keep your birth certificate?

Good question… I should find that one out.  I’m sure my mom has it somewhere in some safety deposit box or something.

 

How many days until your birthday?

A bunch.. it’s October 10th.  Soooo start calculating!

 

What is the closest orange object to you?

Nothing in this room is orange.  The closest thing to orange is the red color of the START! Bible for new believers on my desk across the room.  It’s not orange though… it’s definitely red.

 

Have you sneezed in the past hour?

Nope. But I sneeze a lot actually.

 

How many books are in your room?

Just the START! Book.  Unless you count my nook.  Then there’s tons.

 

What did you last eat?

Chipotle Mexican Grill…. It was amazing.  If they ever went out of business I’d be sad.

 

Who is your favorite teacher of all time?

Mrs. Smith… 12th grade environmental Science.  She was AWESOME.  Most passionate teacher I’ve ever had.  She cared about her job and the subject and students and everything more than any other teacher I’ve ever met.

 

Name one of your goals for this year?

Sell at least enough digital downloads of my song I just uploaded to CD Baby to be posted on iTunes so that I can cover the $15 it cost to upload the track.  If I make any money after that I’ll be flabbergasted.  Yea, I just used the word flabbergasted.  You heard me.  FLABBERGASTED!  It’s a real word trust me.

 

Did you cry because Michael Jackson died?

I think I was more in shock.  Also I was out that night and every single bar the group I was with was in was playing Michael Jackson all night… best night of all good music on a night out.  So, I didn’t cry because I know that he made such AMAZING MUSIC and I know that he probably wouldn’t want anyone to cry. He’d just want them to be happy that he got the chance to do all the things he did do in this world!

 

What does your 9th message on your phone say?

I have an iPhone… so I have a ton of different messaging things… which ONE?!?!?!

Voicemail?  Text?  Email?  Twitterfeed?  This question isn’t very specific.  Ok I’m going to go with Voicemail… my 9th voicemail doesn’t exist because I’ve deleted all but 2.  And my 9th message on my text is from my mom… and that’s personal so I’m not reading what it says!  But if you have to know… it just says “K”.  as in… “OK”.  Wow… are you happy now that you know that?!?!  Good.  I’m happy for you.

 

Look to your left. What's there?

Sound absorption material that I use for recording.  It’s like this sheet of foamy stuff.  Kinda looks like those egg carton things people put on beds… except this is a lot thicker and more dense and made from a different type of material.  If you are a musician and have egg carton bedding up for sound absorption… take it down… you are actually making things worse.  Trust me.  Go spend some money on some good material.  Like the ATS Fiberglass sheets… just Google ATS Fiberglass sheets and you’ll find it.

 

Ever pop someone else's pimple?

Gross.  No.

 

How long does it take you to fall asleep?

Sometimes hours… and hours… and hours…  usually it’s a long time.  The only time I fall asleep quickly is when I’ve had beer or wine…  then I’m out pretty quick.

 

Are you scared about the end of the world?

Nope… If it’s the end of the world then it’s the end of the world.  No use complaining about it.

 

Is there a TV in the room you are in?

Yep.. a 32 inch LED backlit flat panel HD Vizio I recently bought for my new apartment.  I intended to have peoples over to watch with me but… so far no one seems interested in hanging out… anyone?  Bueller?

 

Did you have a weird dream last night?

Last night?  Hmm… actually… yea.  I had a dream that everyone I knew was in a room having a vote and I was late to the vote… so I walked in and asked one of my friends what was going on?  He was like we’re voting… and I was like what for?  And he was about to tell me when another friend told me to shhhhh…  Then a third friend was like just put your hand up.  SO I put my hand up… then the people at the front table who were REALLY far away and I couldn’t tell who they were but they looked familiar said… “OK that settles it… looks like everyone is in favor of no longer being friends with Kenny on facebook…”  I put my hand down embarrassed and ran out of the room.  Then people opened the door and called after me telling me to come back.  I ran out of whatever building this was and checked my facebook on my iPhone and it said 0 friends… I was sad…  then it kind of morphed into some other dream… SO yea I hope that doesn’t actually happen in real life.

 

What comes to your mind when I say red?

My red guitar.  Also the red team at summer camp during color war which I was often not on… usually I was on the grey team.

 

What other language do you want to be fluent in?

Spanish.  I used to go trail running and listen to www.notesinspanish.com on my iPod while I would run.  At first none of it made sense… this was 5 years ago… now it’s at least starting to sorta make sense.  Sometimes I’ll get a whole sentence even!  Only took 5 years.

 

Do you crack your neck often?

Nope.

 

Do you usually hold your pee for a long time?

Nope.  I’m always saying… I’ll be right back, gotta use the bathroom.  Even during movies… I’m pretty sure I’m the reason why they invented the website www.runpee.com.

 

Is it possible to lick your elbow?

I guess?  I’m not gonna try.

 

Worst feeling in the world?

When you had love, and it’s gone.

 

What's your current favorite commercial?

The one with the guy and the mini giraffe on the treadmill.  He’s got the Russian accent and he’s all rich and what not.

 

Name something you think is pointless?

When a guy in a car yells out “Faggot” to someone on the side of the street as they are driving by.  I don’t see any point in doing that.  You just called him a bundle of sticks?  Makes no sense to me!

 

Favorite fast food restaurant?

Uh, Chipotle Mexican Grill… Obviously.  Although, a close second would be in and out burger… just a good old fashioned burger… California style… mmmm mmmm mmm.

 

Have you ever been in a fist fight?

Almost… when I was a kid… but it was defused.

 

Would you concider yourself as a pyro?

I only light candles now.  I used to LOVE going camping and playing with the fire by finding a long stick and calling it my fire stick and putting it in the fire and letting the end catch on fire and then waving it in the air.  Then I would get in trouble for it.

 

Do you wish at 11:11?

Umm… nope.  I didn’t know that was a thing people did.

 

What are you looking forward to?

The next time I at least make out with a girl or something... Seriously... It's been a LONG time since i've done ANYTHING with a girl... I just want to kiss a girl or something...  I can't take it any longer.

 

What is the biggest trouble you have ever been in?

Hmmm… I dunno… I was always in trouble as a kid.

 

Do surveys really cure boredom?

Nope.  They just postpone it.  But they cure blog writers block.

 

I can’t believe I just did one of those.  I’ve NEVER in my whole life filled out one of these things.  I guess there’s a first for everything right?

 

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25Apr/110

An Easter Story

So it’s Easter.  Or, ok it was Easter yesterday… since it’s after midnight now.  I dropped the ball… or egg on this one.  Hey what’s the deal with eggs and bunnies anyways?  I don’t know…  If anyone knows please let me know!

But in the meantime… here’s a little old Easter story from when I was a kid…

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

So I was maybe 5 or 6… the local park where we used to live would have an Easter egg hunt every year.  It was massive.  There were literally probably thousands of kids hunting around this park looking for eggs.

Truth be told it was just a good way for the parents to get rid of their kids for a short while so they could have a little bit of peace and time to themselves.

So we would get dropped off at this thing… my bro and sis and I and a thousand other kids.  And we would just be plopped into this big sectioned off area in the middle of this field.  Oh, yea I almost forgot, the first thing we had to do was walk around in a parade since we were all in bunny costumes and we were all so “cute”.  The parade took about a half hour.  But after that we were all put into this central fenced off area.  There was some dude with a whistle and someone else with a bullhorn… and someone else with a clipboard.  And some other dude with a walkie-talkie… and then some others with a combination of those…

AND THEN there was ONE person… some lady… who had ALL OF THOSE…

Now, this is how you KNOW you are important.  If you ever find that you have all of the following things at your job… you know you rate…

-A whistle

-A clipboard

-A walkie-talkie

AND

-A bullhorn

That’s it… you are the boss head sauce.  And don’t let anyone ever tell you any different!  If they try to just refer them to this blog post.

So this lady with all of those things would basically stand there next to a person in a Easter bunny costume and read out the rules… which of course none of us listened to anyways, because when you are 5 the only thing you hear is…

Candy candy candy… candy candy… candy candy candy…

Did you hear all that?  Does anyone have any questions??

Yes… can I collect candy in my basket yet?!?!?!

Of course there were a thousand 3-10 year olds all asking that same question… except maybe there was one kid doing the pee pee dance and asking where the bathroom was, but obviously he was over looked… but how can you answer anyone when you have a thousand 3-10 year olds dressed up in Easter costumes all holding baskets of different shapes and sizes with eyeballs the size of softballs and mouths drooling wanting to know when they can run around after the hidden eggs filled with candy.

You understand what kind of picture I’m painting here now?

So… frustrated, and defeated that her whistle-wearing/clipboard-holding/walkie-talkie-talkying/bullhorn-shouting powers have absolutely no effect on those under the age of 10 (the only exception to the “rate” rule), the lady, throws down her clipboard and gives the parents a “WHY AM I IN CHARGE OF THIS WHILE YOU ARE ALL SITTING ON THE SIDELINES IN LAWN CHAIRS SIPPING ICE COLD BEVERAGES” look… just pulls out her stop watch… Picks up the bull horn… and SHOUTS AS LOUD AS SHE CAN INTO IT…

Oh real quick… Add stopwatch to the list.  So if you have a stopwatch as well…

You rate above and beyond (again, only if your raters are above the age of 10).

Ok… sorry… where was I?

Ah, yes…

THE LADY SHOUTS INTO THE BULLHORN… 5 MINUTES!!!  GO!!!!

Ready?  This, is about to get ugly.

Now… LET ME TELL YOU.  This is probably the absolute definition of CHAOS…

Picture… the following…

Kids crashing into each other left and right, fighting over eggs, stealing from one another… Yelling, screaming, kicking, hollering, pulling hair, pulling diapers, pulling fits… Moms and Dads jumping in to defend their kids… moms and dads stealing eggs from other kids… other moms and dads stealing eggs from those moms and dads…

Easter at it’s finest.  Yes.  Ladies and Gents.  Ah, a nice and pleasant Easter egg hunt for the young-ins.

This… is… Easter in Southern California.  This is the Great Easter Egg Hunt of my childhood memories.  Fantastic.

Eventually at some point the stopwatch wearing, bullhorn welding, walk talkie holstering, whistle blowing, clipboard holding referee MISSES MCGEE I HAVE AN EASTER EGG DEGREE comes running out to the middle of the egg hunt to end it all.

“EVERYONE STOP!!!!  Whatever you are currently holding on to is yours to keep!”

Well, I HOPE SO… because while everyone is holding on to baskets full of plastic eggs filled with chocolates… I’m holding on to my ummm… well ya know… “My stuff”.

Yes… I was the one kid who had to go to the bathroom the whole darn time.  So ALL I COULD THINK WAS “I hope I get to keep this!  Because it’s out of the question for me to have to give it back.  And I will need this later on in life.”

At some point in the chaos I had actually lost my basket (another kid came up and took it… he was bigger than me, so I let him have it… also I was concentrating on more pressing matters).  So the only thing I was able to grab was some little plastic golden egg with a little piece of paper in it the size of a fortune cookie fortune.

Actually, come to think of it, I didn’t even grab the egg… I pretty much just stood in one place the whole time doing the wee wee dance and some kid I think felt sorry for me and came up to me and gave me that egg because it was light as a feather and  he knew it had no chocolate in it.

Great… no chocolate for me.  Just a fortune.  If I wanted a fortune I would have gotten Chinese food… except I’m 5 so I probably wouldn’t have.   But, you know what I’m saying…

I WANTED CHOCOLATE!  I feel cheated!

So what was on the little paper?  It just said “winner”…

Winner?  What the heck does that mean??!?!  Clipboard lady said NOTHING about this in her little speech!  Or did she?  I don’t know, I wasn’t listening.  But she probably said nothing about this.  I’m guessing she said nothing about this.

So I’m standing there.  Trying to tell everyone about how I REALLY just needed to use the bathroom.  When all of a sudden the bullhorn lady is shouting in her megaphone thing next to me and the guy in the bunny suit is shaking my hand congratulating me and handing over to me a basket that is bigger than me and the growing group of kids gathering around me combined.

I literally couldn’t carry this thing on my own and had to have people help me carry it.  It weighed more than I did.

Turns out it wasn’t a fortune cookie fortune after all… it was the one single special grandprize first place ticket winner for the whole darn egg hunt.

Yep.  I won it all.  I got my picture in the paper with the Bunny.  And I was the talk of the preschool for the next month!   But most important, I finally got to use the bathroom.  Which to me at the time was 10 times better than winning some giant basket filled with a thousand pieces of chocolate (which took me a year and a half to eat, and we had to freeze the whole thing and eat it little bits at a time).

So I think what I’ve walked away with from that experience as a young lad was…

If you stand in one place and endure the chaos around you long enough…

Eventually good things will come to you.

And you know, most of the time I believe that’s very true.  Well, at least the opportunity will be there.  You just have to reach out and grab it.

Also… focus on not peeing your pants in front of thousands of people.  Just as important.

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24Apr/110

A Place That Fits will be available for sale

OK.  I JUST finished the process of uploading "A Place That Fits" to CD Baby.  I paid the fee to have it up there and hopefully I'll be able to sell enough digital downloads of the track to cover my cost and then maybe make a little extra so I can put that money back into music.

My real goal with selling my music is only to make money to cover costs.  Any and all music I make will be put back into making more music or maintaining costs of the website/buying equipment/buying software...

Right now I pay for it all out of my own pocket.  I always have done this and I don't mind because I love it so much.  I've always been against selling my music.  For now all of my songs will also be available for free on my website in addition to uploading singles to sell.

WHY?  Well, because I only want people who want to support me to pay for my music.  If you don't care about helping me make more music and simply want the song then you can download it anyways.  If you want to support me and help me cover costs then you are more than welcome to buy the song.

Right now it's being processed but as soon as it's up (i'm guessing it will be a few weeks) I will post the link and anyone who is interested can purchase the track "A Place That Fits" for 99 cents.

This is pretty exciting!  I'm finally getting over my fear of charging money for my music.  I just always hated the idea of charging for my music because I felt as though it's always been simply a creative outlet for me.  By charging I feel like I'm giving a little of the control away to others.  But is that not what our lives are about?  Sharing control of things with others and not maintaining 100 percent of the control?  After all society is a lot of interconnected systems that all rely on each other.  So there ya go.

Initially I was going to post this on Tune Core.  But after signing up I googled away about them there seemed to be a lot of dissatisfied posts out there in the web.  As well the sign up processed almost seemed too easy and cheap and just not very professional.

I decided to go with CD Baby because I have a friend that uses their services.  Hopefully I will have a good experience.  I'll write more about it on here as things go along.

This is my first song that I'm selling.  If it goes well I will sell more singles.  Maybe if the singles sell... I'll decide to make a full CD.

We shall see!

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24Apr/110

A Place That Fits cover art

 

 

This is the cover art that I made last night for my single "A Place That Fits" I will be uploading to tunecore.  This will allow me to sell the song on iTunes and some other places as well.

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21Apr/110

Missed A Day

I missed a day!  So last night I got home and just passed out.  I woke up with all the lights on as the sun was rising.  Food ingredients that had been for dinner left out.  I was just soooooooooooooo tired.  I apologize to my reader peeps for missing a day.  You know what that means though?  It means at some point I'll have to blog TWICE in one day just to make it up!  So now I REALLY have to get my thinking cap on.  OK well today I am off from work and just plan to work on projects and hopefully get this song finished up and posted for your enjoyment.  So i'm going to get to that!  It does look super nice out so I might go outside at some point or maybe for a bike ride.  I haven't decided.

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19Apr/110

My Most Embarrassing Moment

So tonight’s blog topic came from Lil Miss Wisecracker’s blog post on Daily Deliveries:

http://lilmisswisecracker.com/?page_id=793

I have kind of run out of blog ideas at the moment so my friend at Lil Miss Wisecracker suggested that I write on one of the topics from the above post.   SO here goes!

This is a short story of one of my most embarrassing moment.

I have a lot of embarrassing moment.  If I’m really good at one thing it’s embarrassing myself.  A few years ago I was at a Barnes and Noble with a friend and I was pointing at a book on a bookshelf and as I was pointing a guy walked in front and bent over to pick up a book.  At the same time I was talking to my friend and they were pointing as well to say wait which book?  SIMULTANIOUSLY a group was sitting across the room but could see us pointing at what a few seconds before was the book but was now the guys butt… Yep… How embarrassing.  We quickly put our fingers down and sat there awkwardly.   While the group giggled away on our expense.  Awesome.

I don’t think that was my most embarrassing moment though.  I think my most embarrassing moment was probably 3rd grade.

I won’t go into much detail but here’s a quick synopsis of the event…

We were practicing for a small choir sing song thing.  This was a non-optional activity.   So, we all had to do countless hours of practicing of these songs in order to put on a show for our parents.  I think it was some sort of spring concert type of thing.  They decided that in addition to the singing we also had to have a fabulous entrance and exit.  So on this particular day we were working on walking on stage, then walking off stage.  After several failed attempts to walk in straight lines single file, or to do some sort of fancy even odd thing of which I can’t really even describe in words the teachers decided the best way to accomplish our entrance/exit thing was to have us bunch up in groups.  Group A through group whatever… Of course for some reason they did the groups by last name, because that was pretty much how everything was done in school when I was growing up.  So being that my last name started with a W I was in the last group.  We also were placed at the top of the bleacher stage thing.  Great, so we got to watch everyone else leave while we just stood there at the top.

Of course I’m a 3rd grader so got tired of standing and decided to sit.  Actually this was pretty much the consensus of our whole group.  Soooo one by one we started to sit down… after nearly all of us were sitting the teacher noticed and in a choice tone of voice expressed her disapproval.  We all immediately stood back up.  Well the next idea by one of the kids near me was to lean on the wooden backing thing behind us… Kid A leaned… it held the weight… BRILLIANT!  We can LOOK like we’re standing but really lean against this wooden thing.

This is the genius group obviously!

So Kid B leaned on another part… as soon as Kid B leaned Kid C did… of course I was day dreaming about some random thing and didn’t notice the hatched plan until everyone else was sitting back leaning on this piece of backdrop wood.  Now the piece of wood was secured…. So it did not give way under our combined weight.  I know you thought maybe I was going to be the last one to lean and the whole thing would come crashing down… true, that would be embarrassing but instead something better happened.

I looked to my side and saw all the other kids leaning.  So I said oh what a great idea!  Since everyone else had been 100 percent successful in their taking a step back and resting their tired body against the wooden wall backdrop I assumed I could do the same without any issues and be riding easy street with the rest of my group.

So… I took a step back and leaned…

Being all the way on the end where I was standing on the stage elevated bleacher thing I had the luxury of having something that no one else had…

A nice big gap between the platform and the wooden wall as the elevated platform curved around and the wall remained straight…

So I leaned back… and fell off the stage.

Of course I was only slightly hurt because it wasn’t a big fall only a foot or two… but I got the wind knocked out of me so I started screaming and crying like a big old baby.  The teachers rushed to my aid and finally I stood up mostly scared but for the most part unharmed…

And that was when all the kids started snickering.  Fingers pointed and laughed the whole deal.

I’m pretty sure the “remember when you fell off the stage in 3rd grade” nostalgia didn’t actually wear off until sometime around 9th grade.

How embarrassing.

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17Apr/110

Arthur (the original version)

 

Today I watched the movie Arthur.  I kind of love this movie.  The idea of the movie is that Arthur is forced to choose between marrying someone he doesn’t love and having tons of money or choosing to be poor and have love… ultimately he chooses love.  I would do the exact same.  I think material possessions and having tons of money is completely useless if you don’t have love.

I’d rather have a loving family that we enjoy spending time together and be dirt poor… then being alone and having all the money in the world.

In the movie he ends up getting the money anways in the end.  If I were to meet someone and they were super rich and wanted to marry me but I didn’t want to be with them I would have to turn them down.  I think actual love is rare and precious.  I think when two people REALLY do love each other and want to marry each other only because they can’t stand to be apart from each other that is the best thing in the world.

I can’t wait for the day that I am married and have someone that I constantly want to call just to tell her that I love her.  That I buy stupid little gifts for her or come home with flowers just because I felt like it for no special reason.  Or just write songs about her and for her.  Or just think of tons of different ways to make her smile… make her favorite thing for dinner…  stuff like that.  I plan to never stop showing my love to her… I just wish it would hurry up and happen already!

I have hope that one day it will happen.  Even though every day that passes is another day that I see someone else find it and not me.  Just have to have hope that one day I will fall for someone and they will love me back just as much… and it will be awesome.  Sometimes I get sad just spending all this time waiting… but I know eventually when it’s supposed to happen it will.

It’s funny that I watched this movie today and that it was sort of about giving up material goods for something immaterial.  This was pretty much what was the sermon in church today.  Finding happiness not in material goods but in something more spiritual.  I think maybe our society is too into the tangible items… That stuff is pretty cool and all… tangible things… but there is something to be said about just finding happiness no matter what kind of clothing you wear or the car you drive etc. etc.

I think maybe it’s good to find spiritual happiness first and put all your love in that and then put all your love into someone.  So I hope to find both of those.   I have hope that one day it will all work out.  For now I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.  And keep myself open to what is around me and just listen for what I’m supposed to do next in my life.

All I know is that when I do get married... I want my wife and when we eventually have kids my whole family to go to church as one single whole family all together every sunday.  I want us to also all be involved in the church one other day a week too.

When the kids are grown and 18 they can then choose what they want to do as far as religion.  But I want to find a girl to marry who also wants to raise kids in the church.  I want me and her to raise our how family in the church all together.  That's one thing I know for sure at this point.

I’ll leave everyone with one of my favorite lines in the movie…

Spoken by Hobson to Arthur:

“You spoiled little bastard! You're a man who has everything, haven't you, but that's not enough. You feel unloved, Arthur, welcome to the world. Everyone is unloved. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself. And incidentally, I love you.”

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17Apr/110

Bird surfing on a hamster

So, it's midway through April and there still isn't a new song up...

It's REALLY REALLY CLOSE to be done...  I know I said last weekend... but trust me it's close! ... i'm just still tweaking it.  I played it for someone at work on friday.  They said what's not done about it?  So, it probably at this point could be uploaded...  But to me, I still hear things that need to be fixed...  I just know it's close but I want it to be perfect!  Or as close to perfect as possible.

Soooooooo....

In the mean time... enjoy this video of a bird surfing on a hamster!

 

Where did this video come from?  Well I was fixing a PC for a friend and their kid showed me this.  They then asked that I film it so that I could send it to them to share with some people.  I figured the best way to share it was to upload it to my youtube channel.  The video didn't have any sound, so I added my own.  Then I decided to try editing some fancy titles and things to make it a cool little mini movie.

It's a pet bird, just riding (or surfing) some sort of toy hamster thing... I don't know about you, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it.

So there you go!  Enjoy.

before you say it... yes.. I know this already... I'm a very strange dude... or in this case... a strange bird.

 

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16Apr/110

Just Hanging Out

So I’m just hanging out on a Friday night in a starbucks.  Or maybe it’s a Saturday night.  Or maybe it’s any night in the summer when there’s no school.  I’m awkward  and trying to fit in.  All I really want is to have some friends to sit and talk to about life… mostly my life… and their life… and the important things in life.  Like maybe how much I love or hate my homeroom.  Or my teachers… or whatever sport I’m doing currently.

Or maybe I want to just talk about celebrities… tv shows, movies… MAYBE books… ok that’s a stretch but maybe.

The problem is no matter what we do or where we go we always get told something along the lines of “you guys can’t hang out here.  You all have to buy something or leave.”

I mean, I understand business’s have to make money to pay bills keep the lights on, keep the water running and paying the rent on time.  But we don’t have any money.  Unless maybe our parents give us some.

Why can’t KIDS Incorporated be a real place?

How am I supposed to feel secure in my awkward body with my awkward friends and my awkward place in life if I can’t find a place to just be myself with my friends on a Friday or Saturday night without expecting to be causing trouble?  Maybe I cause trouble because I am expected to cause trouble?

Oh the life of a Teenager.

So why can’t KIDS Incorporated be a real place?  Why can’t there be a place like this that had events for teen agers…. Perhaps music, or some sort of fun evening program involving dancing, games or music… etc.

Well… let’s talk about this.  There’s probably two main reasons:

1: money money money.  Running ANY physical space costs money.  Rent, electricity, water, insurance, trash, staffing…. Etc.  Some how the establishment has to make money, OR have money donated, OR be funding in some sort of civic manner (taxes).

2: Mostly related to insurance and staffing of above…I like to think all people are innately good… but sometimes teenagers are expected to do things like write obscene things on walls, litter, break things, curse, runamuck, do drugs?  So, like in school and at home they must be supervised.  Logistically speaking running some sort of DRY rock club would be rather difficult.  Not to mention getting parents to trust their kids in the hands of… well who would this be in the hands of?

So what am I talking about here…

I think I am talking about something in-between Chuck E Cheese (generally meant for ages up to 12 years old) and a Dave and Buster (Target age of 33).

“Our target age is 33 years old.  We attract an older crowd than that, and families, too.”

http://www.specialtyretail.net/issues/july99/dave_buster.htm

OK so that source is dated… but it’s probably still true.

So if CC is meant for the kiddies of 0-12 and D and B is meant for 18 plus… Or even maybe the 21 plus

Where does that leave the 13 to 17 or 13 to 20 year olds?

Good question.  So WHY is it that this age range is purposely neglected in society…. So they are forced to be bumped from café to movie theater to friends basement to park swings after dark to where?

I’ve actually seen ONE place that does a phenomenal job of creating an inviting environment for exactly this demographic…

ONE single place… And as great and awesome as this place is there are three problems with this place.  I’d like to see a place like this one I’m speaking of in the real world in every town in America…

The place I am speaking of is:

Maine Teen Camp

http://teencamp.com

SO… What is that?  It’s in the name… it’s A camp in Maine for Teens.  Basically it’s a safe secure fun and fantastically creative place for teens to express themselves and be completely at home in their own selves to form strong friendships with their peers.  Basically it’s just pure awesomeness.

So what are the three problems?  Well:

1: It only runs during the summer

2: It’s small and only in one small plot of land in Maine.

3: While there are a few scholarship spots it’s expensive… again costs need to be covered.

So the question is: how does one replicate what Maine Teen Camp has outside in the real world and make it profitable or at least sustainable and as well safe and secure and a place that parents would trust to leave their teens.

I think a place like this would just be fantastically awesome.  Unfortunately I feel like this blog is a bit of a let down because I’ve been making it sound like I have the answer.  I have figured out how to make something for teens that will put the fun in functional… but I’m sorry to say I don’t have a clue as to how to make something that would fill this need.

I think I’m more writing this because I am looking for others who might have an interest in seeing something like this happen and are willing to help me brainstorm for an idea.

So these are my thoughts for this fine Friday evening in April.

 

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15Apr/110

First Suburbs Project of South Eastern PA

Tonight I attended a meeting at Victory that talked about the housing problems with HUD.  The problem is really that we steer our poor into certain areas and thus don’t allow them to have the same opportunities as everyone else because they have a lot of factors against them by living in poor zip codes.

Some of those factors include not being able to attend good schools, or having undesirable influencing behaviors and people around them.  By pushing the poor into dense populations of more poor individuals it makes the issue worse because a lot of the municipalities rely on taxes from incomes to keep things going like schools.

Another issue is that business drops and jobs leave since there is less money to be spent in that area.  This makes the issue even worse.

The proposed solution is to disperse and spread out HUD housing in all areas of the region and not just isolated pockets.  This will allow for better opportunities for those people.  They will have better access to more jobs and as well have better access to quality education for their children.  This will allow them to climb out of the situation they are in and get back on their feet.

There were guest speakers and presentations.  The data shown was absolutely wow.  It just opened my eyes up.   There are areas right here in the Philadelphia region that are just getting more poor.  They are continuing to struggle and get further behind.  It’s a terrible cycle but hopefully changing some policies will help!

There are a lot of organizations that are members of this organization and it seems to have a lot of steam behind it.  Hopefully there will be a lot of action.  I’m a great proponent for change that makes anything better in our society.  Usually I focus my efforts on things that are green.  But I am even more interested in things that affect quality of life.

For more information you can visit their site:

http://www.sepafsp.org/

 

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