It’s that time

Halloween collage

What do you want to be this year?

Fall is here (even though it doesn’t feel like it)

Pumpkins in the sun

Taken at Country Sun Farm, near Stillwater.

Photo of the day

Some food for thought.

Taken at the Living Green Expo this year.

The times, they are a-changing

“Times they are a-changing”- Bob Dylan

I’d like to announce that there won’t be a Halloween party this year. It saddens me to say this because Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I enjoy planning parties for it.

This decision was brought on by the fact that no one came to the first events committee meeting and thinking back on how other events went. I worked my butt off on the picnic and afterwords I was left wondering if it was worth it. I had fun planning it but I’m not sure it was really enjoyed by those who attended. (Some people said they liked it but I heard a lot of complaints as well.) It was also frustrating that many people who signed up didn’t come and that a number of people who volunteered to help didn’t follow through on that.

I love planning events but I can only handle doing so much on my own. (And it often happens that I am doing most of the planning and execution on my own.)

Then there is the issue of complaints. Every time the Residents Council puts on an event we try to do things that will please everyone. It seems like that effort is wasted because nothing seems to be good enough. The food is wrong or their isn’t enough of it. There aren’t enough activities or there are activities no one participates in. Where the event is held (indoors v outdoors) isn’t to people’s liking. It’s enough to make anyone throw up their hands in frustration.

Maybe that’s what I’m doing. It’s also possible that I’m just moving with the times. In years past there were more activities here. There also was a very different resident base. People living here now are often younger and busier with work and school. They may not care about organized events or have time for them. Perhaps building activities are no longer relevant. Perhaps the Resident Council isn’t either.

If that is the case, maybe we should try not having events for a while and see what happens. There are certainly other things we could use the money for. (The relevance of the Resident Council is a stickier issue because we would lose out on a lot, including the Wi-Fi if we no longer had a board.)

I’d be interested to hear what other people think of this.

Remember When

This is from a ‘Senior’ Prom event that was held sometime in the early 90s. (I think. I’m not sure of the exact year.)
More pictures can be seen here.
This looks like it was a fun time.
It must have been nice when there were events people actually came to.

Photo of The Day

Missoni madness hits our local Target.

This was taken at the Roseville store on Saturday. They had more left than Midway did. (I couldn’t find the tights I wanted though. 😦 )

Who Cares? Part 2

“This country is being ruined by apathy.”
“What’s apathy?”
“Who cares?”- graffiti on a bathroom wall

I’ve noticed a distressing amount of apathy in this building as of late and I’m wondering what can be done about it.
It’s hard now to get even 15 people to come to Residents Council meetings. Planning meetings are scheduled and no one shows up. It seems impossible to get people interested and involved. Heck, it’s even a challenge to get people to read the bulletin boards.
I’ve had a number of people tell me they don’t look at them.
What would get people’s attention? I’ve tried using pictures, various fonts, and flyers in color. I even used a colored background, fancy paper, and ribbon on some of the picnic flyers and people still didn’t look at them.

I know there is a lot on the boards at times but there has to be something that will get attention. (I joked once about needing a neon arrow to get people to look at the bulletin boards. I have to wonder if even that would help.)
This is an issue because flyers and other postings are the main way we get information out to people. We also have the information online but I don’t think a lot of people look at the website regularly. (And not everybody uses the computer.)
Maybe we need to get posterboard and make the signs so big they can’t be missed.
The bottom line is it’s very frustrating and a little annoying to have information out there that people ignore.

Photo of the day

This gave me a laugh. It was on a bar in Stillwater.

Interesting idea.

Photo of the day

See anything odd in this picture?

Who Cares?

Who cares? That question has been coming to my mind more and more lately. It seems that casualness is king and people don’t care very much anymore.

I went to a job fair earlier this month and I was one of the few people that dressed up for it. Most of the other people I saw were wearing jeans or other very casual clothes. (I also went to an afternoon performance of “Avenue Q” and again a lot of people were wearing jeans.) People wear jeans to the theater and to museums now.

What happened to getting dressed up when you go out? Putting your best foot forward shows respect for the place and the people there like the actors on stage or your fellow museum goers.

I’m not saying we need to go back to the formality of the 50s or 60s. I just think it’s nice to see people dressed differently for the theater than they would be to go to the mall or something. (Even for matinees. I certainly don’t expect formal dress. It’s just surprising that people wouldn’t dress up a little.)

I have seen some of these same trends at events here. Come as you are seems to be the order of the day.

Not that some people don’t make an effort, because they certainly do. It just would be nice to see more people dressed up for things like the Holiday party or volunteer appreciation.

I’d like to hear your opinions on this. Am I living in the past and need to get with the times? Or do I have something here?

This makes me feel like I’m not alone in my thinking. Maybe there is hope for a little dressier world.