children.org

today was one of those days. i should have realized it when i was stuck in the train for an extra 45 minutes on my way to work. things didn’t really get any better when i got there. the details of what occurred are really not the point. the point is that there are any number of things in a day that can go wrong. they can make us sad or angry or vain or happy even. we complain about or parents, children, spouses, the work we don’t have and about the work when we have it…but if we just take a step back and focus on our feelings there are many observations that we can see about ourselves and our world.

the results of today’s emotional upheaval really bummed me out and i was moping around soho. i called my wife to tell her i was going to go to the apple store to buy an ipod nano to replace the one she had lost (she remarked that i shop when i’m depressed). on my way down west broadway i noticed the familiar blue vests of the volunteers of some children’s charity - i didn’t know the name then. as i approached, one of the young ladies came up to me and asked if i had a minute. “sorry, no” i said as i hurried quickly around her.

two steps past her, i thought to myself: ‘what a fucking selfish bastard’. here was a young person who was giving up precious time for a worthwhile cause: to help save children around the world. the more i walked down the commercial bordello of soho  - with $5000 dresses in boutique windows - the more i kept thinking about all the underprivileged children of the world and the chances for education, health care and even fresh food and clean water that they don’t have. some of them wait for days and weeks for help and i couldn’t give 1 minute of my time.

i kept thinking that one of those children somewhere may one day save the life of my child (six degrees of separation anyone? global village anyone?). on my way back, I SPONSORED A CHILD FOR A YEAR FOR LESS MONEY THAN I SPENT AT THE APPLE STORE IN 10 MINUTES.

Think the design of the American bills is a bit… passe? Outdated? Boring? Well so do a lot of other people, it seems, including Richard Smith, a creative strategy consultant who started the Dollar ReDe$ign Project. This website touts the need to “rebuild our country, revive our economy, redesign the Dollar bill!” and encourages users to submit their designs and win a prize if theirs is chosen as the best. While there’s not much up on the site now, there are some interesting looking alternatives that people have submitted:

Think you can do better? Be sure to submit your ideas here!

And now some great eye candy to go along with your daily stalking of Twitter: Visible Tweets.

Just check out what it did to the visualmerc tweets:

By the way, are you following us on Twitter? If not, get on it - @visualmerc