Week Two of Promises...

November 3, 2009

As of this moment there are still four of the promisers that have yet to post on the blog or even reply to the initial questions I sent out in an email. These people are: Adrienne, Sara, Lauren and Cathy. Adrienne (i.e. my mom) doesn't really do well with computers so I can see why she hasn't written back. Sara was a bit of a late joiner and I had her email address wrong in the beginning so I can also understand why she hasn't replied yet. I am curious about the other two... I am getting the feeling that these people may be better off just writing down their answers and experiences on paper and giving them to me at the end. This is fine too because I already know what they are doing and can get started on their respective plates regardless. Either way I need to send them personal emails letting them know how important it is that they record their experiences as they happen least they should forget once the promise duration is up. This type of day to day information is invaluable for the validity of this project. However, I do think I will ask everyone to write a brief reflection about the entire experience as a whole at the culmination of the five weeks. The day to day thoughts may end up being more random and best understood in context, but the end reflection will offer another level of understanding for the promisers, viewers and myself. On another note, I am pleased to see that there have been a lot more blog entries (shelley, nicole, tea, phil and anders) I hope this fire keeps up. nicole is especially engaged as she is challenging the other promisers. this can only help generate conversation as i am sure some of the folks she harps on may want to defend themselves.

November 4, 2009

I made some steps toward the production side of things today. I finally found some new plates to make molds of. These new molds need to be more efficient so the casting will go quicker. my old plate mold is too arduous to deal with. I have also gathered a preliminary list of the icons I will use for each person's plate:

Andrew: basic utensils (fork, spoon, knife)
Tea: roll of paper towels
Cathy: tv/microwave dinner tray
NIcole: copy machine
Shelley: plug
Phil: internal combustion engine
Lauren: disposable coffee cup or ziploc baggie ?
Sara: empty recycle bin with trash can full of bottles ?
Jenny: corncob
Adrienne: clock
Anders: two empty hot dog buns or a moldy piece of food ?

November 6, 2009

Ran into Cathy today. She says she has started to try and carry out her promise but hasn't written anything down. I'm glad to know she is still involved, but I am a bit worried about having enough written information from her. I ran the idea about the reflection at the end to her and she seemed to like this outlet. In any case our conversation didn't really reveal any specific actions on her part. I am wondering how serious she is taking this project and as a result how beneficial her experience will be to the final presentation (maybe it's good if I have an extra participant to make sure that the final ten which are displayed will carry the most impact. everyone wil still get a plate) Also talked to Lauren today. She is sorry not to have replied to my email and assures me she will... I let her know she can just write stuff down as she goes and share it with me at the end. She got one of those fancy dancy reusable coffee cups that looks like a disposable one. She was so excited and made it a point to come share this with me. She also talked about implementing a better recycling system at her apartment. I'm happy about her enthusiasm and glad we are in pretty regular contact with one another so I can learn about what she's doing, but I am a bit worried about written documentation for her as well and about her being able to focus on the one issue she stated from the beginning of not using disposable food containers. Not that I don't want her to be doing all of these mindful things and am not happy to have her tell me about them, I just want more pertinent information about her specific promise.

November 7, 2009

I spent the day with Adrienne (my mom). We talked about her promise of driving slower and she admits to some days of weakness. She is also baffled about any way to record her experience with me over the information super highway of the interweb. (she can play some mean freecell though) Let alone posting on the blog, she can't wrap her head around replying to an email. So, I sat down with her and we at least posted her information and answers to the prompt questions on the blog so everybody could learn about another fellow promiser. She can, however, grasp the whole pen to paper thing and assures me she will begin to write down her thoughts in this manor.