Blue Ridge blog

A Tea Party in Boone, NC

I rushed home after work this evening only to be caught up in the rush hour traffic jam caused by the closing of King St. As I inched passed the Hardee's on Blowing Rock Rd., I  ran into Boone's own Tax Day Tea Party.
If you know me at all, you know I can't resist a protest. I grabbed my camera and ran into the crowd. I saw plenty of familiar and friendly faces.
This is a small town, after all.
An 8 foot trailer was the speaking platform and I estimate there was anywhere from 200-250, maybe more...folks gathered around. There were plenty of children present and the crowd was engaged, yet calm. If observers from some other opposition camp were there, they were not apparent and were respectful of the group's freedom of speech.
As we were all reminded by 8 years of the anti-Bush administration bumper stickers: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" and "If you aren't outraged, then you aren't paying attention."
So it is now time for the other side to biatch. And they did.
But not with drums and patchoulli. ( y'all know I am allergic to patchoulli, right?)
Instead they spoke via placards with quotes from Jefferson and other constitutional designers.
I did not witness extreme Right Wing extremists/terrorists in the crowd nor did I see any ACORN representatives taking names to hand over to Obama.
What I saw was everyday Wataugans pretty darn irritated with what they consider irresponsible government spending from not only the current administration and congress, but from those that preceded it...

P.S. I have a small photo album on my sidebar.

Freak Show Friday!

 

I am a freak and I work with a bunch of 'em as well. I took my new MacBook Pro to work today and wasted many minutes of possible productive time making my co-workers pose in Photobooth . We were silly. We had fun. If you don't get it, well, I reckon you just had to be there and watch the tears of laughter stream down our cheeks as we discovered the different sides of ourselves. We had a hoot and we didn't get caught by the boss. I say, "Heh" to The Man.

Every office needs a five minute Friday Photobooth break... just to kill the monotony.

And, I'm in 4 of the photos....rare.

De-lurk for Education. Please?

I received this email from a long time friend who teaches a communications class at the local high school:

Hi Marie,
I'd like to add your blog site to my teaching webpage in anticipation of covering that topic.  How would you like to come in and talk about blogs and photography at the same time?  I know that you have lots to share and the kids would enjoy and benefit a great deal.
R.

A while back I had shared my blog URL with R. and told him about how my daughters often utilized group blogs to exchange classroom homework, project ideas, etc...  I only shared with him the positives of blogging because personally, I had never encountered any negative experiences with maintaining a blog. But, I am an adult with (hopefully) the ability to understand the cause and effects of my online activities. Not everyone understands the implications of their online actions. This was brought to light by my blog buddy/journalist Amy in New Hampshire who posted several eyebrow raising links about teenagers using online journals (ie-MySpace , Xanga , Facebook , hi5, Tagged and espinthebottle ) . More here and here .
I will, of course, gladly speak to my friend's class about blogs, but not without insisting that we go over internet blogging safety with his students. The internet has opened the world to this hillbilly, but not all of what the internet/world offers is good.

Now, to show these students the interactivity of the internet on a world-wide level, I'm asking all that care, to please de-lurk and show these unsuspecting childen just how many people read this blog. You don't need to say anything but 'Hi' and leave your U.S. state or country from which you are visiting. If you don't de-lurk, that's ok, but I'm begging you, for the sake of education, please?

Also, if you have any blogging terms, tips, ideas to share. This would be a great time to do so. Thank you so much.

P.S.-Do you have a blog that I haven't linked to that you want added to my blogroll? Leave me a comment and link and I'll add you immediately. P.S.S.-If you are an internet predator, please leave your name, phone number and address, along with next of kin and I'll be happy to not only link your information, but forward a special thank you letter to our local sheriff. Have a nice day.