Taxes, Trash and more Youtube videos

Well it has been awhile since I posted. I've been working on new videos. These videos cross a range of topics and courses. Some videos are podcasts I shot with my friend's help. While others are edited pieces from interviews I conducted with local mass communication specialists. The first person I interviewed was Pam Colby, the Executive Director of Minneapolis Television Network, a community access medium. The other person I interviewed was Heidi Holtan, who works with KAXE, a community radio organization out of Grand Rapids that also has a Brainerd broadcasting channel. I will post these videos in separate blog entries but worth noting is the fact that as of tonight, I have created and uploaded to youtube 264 videos--all since I've been on sabbatical.

As some of the videos were uploading, I ventured out for a walk in this beautiful weather we had today. Although I had completed my taxes a whole week early, I was still very aware of it being the tax deadline day. I apparently have been pretty oblivious to certain news as of late and only recently came to hear about all the "tea bag parties" that were scheduled for today. Although I believe in the first rights guaranteed by the first amendment, I still took issue with these types of protest parties. I'm not going to go on a rampage of my own--I didn't think that would be productive or particularly advantageous to anyone. So instead, I decided that I would do something that was productive and that did have some type of concrete benefit to my community.

First I walked to the local grocery store and purchased food for the local food shelf which I carried in my reusable grocery bag. I walked my non-perishables over to the donation site. After that I walked over to the nearby river walk and local park where I spent an hour collecting garbage from the grounds, the shrubs, and along the banks of the Red River. There are tall grasses that grow along the side of the river and trap quite a bit of garbage.

I am glad I took the opportunity to do this today. I am thankful for many things and today was a day to remember a few of those reasons why I am thankful. And that I felt was worth noting.