The Ol' John Hancock

I finished my letter to Six Flags.  Thanks to the careful teaching of my dad, the business owner, whenever I e-mail a college, I've learned to keep things short as possible and so my letter is only a page!  Who wants to waste time reading a 10-page proposal that can be put into one? So my one page letter has the school letterhead and is signed, but is homeless, in need of an envelope and stamp when I get home.  Who knows, I may have a response by the end of Senior Trip! (FRIDAY!!!)

In other news, the date for presentations is set: June 7th or 8th.  The flashmob is currently planned for the 19th, so right between senior trip and presentations.

Ahhh a Wild Lesson Appeared!

It used computer block!

Anyway, I couldn't do anything to the letter I saved on my H drive... at school.... since I have no access to that at home, I had no study hall seeing as it is a Tuesday, and we did a lesson on presentations in class today, nothing was done today.  Tomorrow, I will finish and print.

Envelopes? Who Uses Those?

I actually started my paper letter to the Six Flags Donation Committee, since I need to contact them instead of guest services.  I wasn't able to finish it todaay though, and I have Calculus homework.

A Glimmer of Hope

Yesterday I got a call from Six Flags, and I have to send in the flash mob request via mail, not e-mail, to Donations.  I went to the Musical last night and am going again with a friend this afternoon, so I cannot do much with the project this weekened, but I will fill out any form for donations tomorrow in class.

Brain Rut

I started the week with ideas to contact people, now I'm kinda stuck staring at Google, trying to think of places to contact.  I'm quickly running out of places... I'm starting to doubt that this thing will actually happen.

Click, Clack, Sigh.

I'm sending off e-mail after e-mail to places to try to find a place to hold the flash mob, and the sound coming from my keyboard reminds me of the book I read to kids for Read Across America Day: Click, Clack, Moo. 

Some Thoughts

I was talking to my mentor about my attempt to contact Six Flags, and he mentioned people will have to pay to get in. If they give me a group rate, I can increase that for people and then use that to make money for the charity. I also talked to a kid that worked there, and he mentioned they already have stuff happen where I would want to do the mob, so that means the area is a safe place to use, and I know the park has a sound system.

Someone was trying to sell Northern Quidditch shirts in lunch today, which gave me an awesome idea. When we're in Harry Potter World in Universal, have possibly a mini flash mob there with the shirts. Maybe a bunch of 'duels' between people all in a huge battle right in the middle of the place?

I'm Waiting, But Time is Not.

I'm running out of time! I need to wait a whole week for Six Flags to get back to me on the possiblity of holding a flash mob there. I was so lucky with the number of symbols, since the very end of my letter made exactly 500 symbols (their limit). It's mid-April... I need to get planning now.

I Really Hate This Waiting Thing

I'm still waiting for a response from the mall I needed to get back in contact with. All I can really do is send off an e-mail then stare at Yahoo for the rest of the period. I'm starting to think they're ignoring me.

I Feel Like a Spider...

... and I'm weaving this huge intricate web. I'm contacting the charity, so I can contact the mall, so I can re-contact the charty, so I can contact a large number of people to plan a flash mob, so I can present to a bunch of people on all of the connections I've made. It's a total mess right now, and I've got a little bug caught in this web... a possible loop hole that may get me a place for the flash mob.

A Response!

I got a response from Grassroot Soccer when I was travelling, do I will email the mall tomorrow and then get back to the charity.

Another Waiting Game

Still haven't heard back from the charity. Saturday I will send a second email, as I will be travelling tomorrow.

I Really Do Not Like Projects on Vacation...

However, I must continue on. I still haven't heard from the charity, and I don't think it would be smart to email another charity until I get a response from this one.

Ahhh My Memory Sucks

I completely forgot about the project yesterday. I just sent an e-mail to Grassroot Soccer, and still can't believe I totally forgot yesterday. Vacation and projects do not mix well for me.

Happy Easter!

Oh yeah... That's today... That was me this morning.

I didn't get work done today because today is family time with the grandparents, so I'll send the email tomorrow.

Travelling!

I was on an 18 hour drive down to Florida with my family Friday, and I drove for the last 6 and a half of those hours, so I was in no mood to work on my projects. I was sleeping. Today I was imagining possibilities for the flash mobs for each charities, and I liked my ideas for Grassroots Soccer the best, so I will e-mail them when I can get some time tomorrow.

An Interview I Never Imagined I'd Have

Last night was the Bill Wasik interview. When I asked him what led him to plan the first flash mob, he talked about chain e-mails--you know, those annoying ones that say if you forward it to 10 people, your crush will ask you out, or if you don't, some horror movie-esque thing will crawl out of your face and kill you? Yeah thouse things--and how he thought about bringing it out into physical space. Sounds familiar... doesn't it? I read a paper on that early on, when I first started. I also asked him about the violent ones in Philadelphia and other cities, and the answer shocked me, but also made sense. He pointed out that they are the closest ones, that are currently around, to his original concept: the physical overwhelming of an area due to the use of a network online. Even the question about his favorite flash mob brought up some information--it was the worshiping of the dinosaur in Toys R Us by the way--it was the first time he saw just how overwhelming and powerful the phenomenon could become. His experiment with networking has exploded into something so much bigger, a world-wide ripple effect, with flash mobs not just in New York, not just in the country, but across the world.

Today is a Big Big Day!

Today is the phone interview with Bill Wasik.  I almost forgot until I looked at my phone's app in lunch and saw that it was today.  I have about 25 minutes from the end of this class period to get to the classroom, sign out, get to my car, drive the 7ish minutes to my house (two songs long drive, I've tested it multiple times), and start my recording device (my computer most likely) before the phone call.  I'm nervous that I will be cutting it close.

A Homework Kind of Day

We watched The Last Lecture in class today, so I did not have a chance to get work done there, and I am trying to get significant reading done on The Count of Monte Cristo for AP English (it's really intriguing, or I would have read it over spring break) so I can't get work done tonight either.

Looking at Charities

http://www.charitynavigator.org/
A site full of different charities as well as ratings.

Possible charities:
Grassroots Soccer
Shoes That Fit
Children's Miracle Network
Community FoodBank of New Jersey

Welcome to Phase Three

As cool and spy-ish as phase three may sound, it just means it is time for me to begin planning my actual flash mob.  The big one, not the failure that was a few weeks ago.

This Week in the Mob

Today is Monday.  The day that I drag feet.  I still don't know what I'm going to do today and Tuesday.  Maybe look at charities?  Wednesday is the big interview!  Thursday is the last day before spring break, and that afternoon I'm driving down to Florida with my family, so I can only really do what I can in class.  I want to look over charities and get in contact with a few over spring break, and when I get back I want to know what I am to plan around for my flash mob, so after I can get in contact with the mall that left a little hope in the idea of working with a charity.  I also need to reach out to the musical kids before the musical so that I can see if there is a big group I can pull from for volunteers.  If I do the shirt idea, then I need to get in contact with my graphics teacher pronto, because I will need to see if I can get my hands on a screen turret for the time I'd need.

Weekend 8 (A New Perspective)

This weekend I found a new song by a band I really like, and there is one line that really stuck in my head: I wanna live a life from a new perspective. This project is definitely giving me a new perspective. The rest of the song really doesn't relate much, but that one line is something that relates to me right now. I like that in this project I am forced to reach out in ways I would otherwise not dare to do. Wednesday is the interview I never thought I would ever get, and was the first on I had scheduled.

This weekend was busy, as we had family over for a mock-Easter since we will not be home for the real one on Saturday, and on Sunday I was helping my dad with errands.