Category Archives: Blog

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Task: Convey Our Values about Stuff and Kids

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Task: Convey Our Values about Stuff and Kids

Details: Construct a five line paragraph that politely and succinctly conveys Our values as it relates to “things” in an appropriate format to accompany baby shower invites, birth announcements, etc.

Deadline: Februaryish

Necessary Resources: Readers, particularly the motherly kind or folks who attend lot’s of baby showers, basically people with some experience to tell me if what I write will fly or not.

Reference Material: You might recall my first attempt at explaining my values. It’s obviously a little to long, and maybe to in your face.

Rough Draft #1:
Ariah and Mindy have made it a goal in their lives to “live simply.” One way they have carried this out in their lives has been to only take what they can fit in their car each time they’ve moved (3+ times and counting!). Please respect Ariah and Mindy and the values they hold when considering a gift. They are open to suggestions, but please don’t purchase anything for them outside of what they have registered for (they have already received a number of items). Thanks for showing love to the quirky Fine’s we’ve all grown to love for just those reasons!

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Brilliant Guerrilla Marketing: Want to Join?

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One of the fun sites I’m subscribed to is Houtlust, a blog about nonprofit advertising and social campaigns. This was one of the very neat guerrilla marketing (the low cost unconventional kind) tactics I’ve seen listed. I thought it was so cool I figured we should repeat it. Basically they are little image inserts to put inside table tents you see in lot’s of restaurants and coffee shops. I put together the images below.

I figured the best way to sort of track our impact is to put a website at the bottom that I can use as a launching point to organizations we think people should check out. So, we’ll use eikonproject.org, which is actually the name of a group, but the front page will have links to other organizations to give to. What do you think?

If your ready to do a little guerrilla marketing, culture jamming, adventurous fun, then click on the link below and download the pdf. Print off on some card stock preferably with a colored printer and cut those babies out and put them in your nearest coffee shop or restaurant with table tents.
I’ll keep you all updated on how many people check out the site.

Alright Folks, I really need some help here. Post in the Comments if your willing to join me in this endeavor. I want to know how many we put out there and then see how many hits we get on the website (proof that it’s working).

Looking forward to seeing our stuff in action.

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Chocolatey Goodness and Why I’m Avoiding It.

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About three weeks ago I realize that I had been avoiding awareness on a topic that I know I had seen before: chocolate. Anyone who browses articles and info on fair trade has probably seen both tea and chocolate mentioned along side coffee as it relates to discussion on fair trade.
It’s been easy for me to boycott drinking non-fair trade coffee and tea, because I don’t drink tea and coffee anyways. What I had been avoiding is looking into the chocolate industry. Why? Because I like chocolate. But a brief inquiry, proved that if I was going to live my life in a way that keeps me from being involved directly in the injustice machine of consumerism, then I was going to have to stop eating chocolate.

It’s been harder then I thought. I don’t think about it very much, and in the first week I had mint chocolate chip ice cream, hot chocolate, and a chocolate donut without thinking twice, only to realize later that day. I’m getting better though. I also have a box of fair trade chocolate bars to help me slowly wean myself off and avoid major withdrawal symptoms.


I know Valentine’s day is coming soon, and that’s why I wanted to throw this topic out there before people do any major shopping over the weekend. If your thinking about Valentine’s gifts I would encourage you to think about fair trade as it relates to coffee, and conflict free as it relates to diamonds (that’s a whole different ball game).

If your looking for some more info on the Chocolate issue, I enjoyed this creative kid friendly book called:
Chaga and the Chocolate Factory (PDF)

Here are two other links:
Stop The Traffik

Global Exchange, Valentines Day Action

Blog

Free The Slaves: Today, Not History

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Slavery is not legal anywhere but happens Everywhere. Today, there are nearly 27 million slaves in the world, more then at any other time in history.

Months ago I read a National Geographic magazine that had a large article, complete with photographs, about modern day slavery that exist in our world. 27 million people in slavery and this article wasn’t even the cover feature, that was reserved for the Zebras.
Mindy had the foresight to cut the pictures out of the magazine and post them on the walls of our bathroom where we would see them often and not be able to put out of our mind the reality of injustice our neighbors face.

Even in the United States, there are an estimated 10,000 enslaved workers here. If you have five minutes, watch this short video from Dr. Kevin Bales about Slavery in the United States

The ending as you can see has an important lesson on the role of each of us in knowing and loving our neighbors. Responding to the injustices that we see right around us, and intentionally placing ourselves in a way that we will know and be aware of those injustices when they occur.

Check out Free The Slaves and Get Involved.

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Zero Waste: Even Wal-Mart is Doing It

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Even Walmart is considering Zero Waste. What the heck is that you ask? I’ll show some borrowed graphics to illustrate the explanation:


Above is the way that we currently do business. The $ stamp is there to remind you that we are definitly paying for every step of the consumer process. From the cost of extracting resources, to the cost of pollution, to the cost of landfills and trash, we are paying both physically in our tax dollars and externally through our air, land and water.

Zero Waste is changing our process to consider waste, not as a necessary evil, but as an avoidable danger we can eliminate through creative and innovative production:

What’s so amazing about the concept of Zero Waste is that it’s not a very difficult idea to understand, and it seems like it could be well within our reach. We’ve lived our lives assuming massive waste is a necessary part of progress, and we haven’t really considered the impact of it to any degree. It’s wild to even begin to brainstorm what a Zero Waste society might look like.

If your still interested and I haven’t lost you yet, then I’d recommend checking out this short video

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New License Plate Proposed for TN

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Choose Life
In keeping with the Pro-Life theme of “Choose Life” personalized license plates that came out in the last few years in the state of Tennessee, a few additional Plates have been proposed.

The first, as seen above, displays a beautifully laid out lethal injection bed with the Slogan “Choose Life” prominently displayed below. Discussion of a electric chair for a more historical plate was considered.
Following the latest proposal there is talk that a “Choose Life” plate featuring Iraqi children could possibly be in the works. Other scenes up for review are starving children, domestic abuse victims and AIDS victims.

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How is my site?

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Please Excuse the Dust

Just testing out a poll feature I added. Hanging out on a snowy day has encouraged me to add some neat features to the site. I hope you enjoy them, and for now, excuse the dust.

I add ratings to every post. Right now it only shows up when you click on individual posts, but I might put it all on the front page. I’m hoping for more feedback this way, even if it’s not extensive commenting.

I also added a print and email button on each post. Hopefully this will allow folks to spread the good news about posts both online and offline.

I’m considering putting only excerpts of posts on the front page, which would mean more clicking for folks, but faster loading. Don’t know if that’s a good idea or not.

[poll=1]

Blog

Black Coaches Make History

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Update: Congrats to Tony Dungy. Considering you spent the last four hours being entertained by his team, you should consider giving five minutes to hear his story. Specifically the video at Beyond the Ultimate.

I’m not a huge football fan anymore, but considering it’s Super Bowl Sunday I figure this is at least worth taking a moment to mention.


From the NFL Website:

It wasn’t all that long ago that the NFL’s best jobs were off-limits to blacks. Never mind that three-quarters of the league’s rosters were filled with black players. Or that there were qualified black assistants. When the time came to hire a new coach, they were passed over, time and again.


Meanwhile, white coaches who had done little to distinguish themselves in their previous jobs got additional chances. It was the old boys’ network at its worst.

It’s a moment to celebrate, and as any of these firsts, that come so much later then they should, it’s a moment to grieve. It’s acknowledgment again that for years we’ve kept potential unreached do to oppressive prejudice and discrimination. From Nancy Pelosi to Keith Ellison, and Smith and Dungy we apologize for forcing you to wait so long.

Have a Great game.

Blog, considering church

Jesus Loves Osama Bin Laden

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A News article tells of the story behind this sign in front of a Sydney baptist church and the criticism from The Australian prime minister.

I’m happy to hear of kindred spirits in the world. After 9/11 I posted a sign on my door that read:

GOD BLESS AFGHANISTAN
PRAY FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN

It was torn down multiple times in the first few days I had it up. Then I made a t-shirt, and it got comments from people left and right. I made a new shirt when we went to war with Iraq and it met similar resistance.

So, it amazes me that there are whole churches out there that are clear on the radical love Christ calls us to, and it doesn’t surprise me that there are plenty that are opposed to it.

Anyone else ready to erect a Jesus Loves Osama sign at their church?