Erin Hughes.com

I was having a beer or 3 when I saw a post from someone I went to HS with who was not going to be able to make it to our high school reunion. I wanted to go too, but babies and other responsibilities will keep me away this time.

In about 20 minutes I put together some text, grabbed a picture from Facebook, and added a pay pal button for people to donate cash to the cause. That was Thursday night my time. 
I mailed a few of the popular people in my class and then waited. The next day I posted it to my profile, soon a few class mates with a little prodding were doing the same. That was Friday morning my time. 

By Saturday morning we were up too 340 dollars and not long after that a couple of big donations, you know who you are, came in and we were over the 400 dollar mark. 

I do not like asking people for money personally, but feel this was a great way to show off the school spirit that made my time at Lake Shore　High School the reason I would move back there if I could. 
NOTES: Things you might want to be aware of if you try this. 

Pay Pal;

1. They take a % of your donations as their handling fee. If you need to raise X amount of dollars, shoot for X + 7% to cover that. I did not know this so.  
2. If you do not have a Pay Pal Account in the USA you can not set up a straight forward donate button that allows people to make what ever donation the feel they want to. Instead I set up 4 different payment sizes ranging from 2 to 50 dollars. ($2.00, $10.00, $20.00, $50.00). 
3. The easiest way to get the cash to the person you want is through Pay Pal. Have them set up a account and simply choose Send money and enter their e-mail address. 

Facebook and other social media; I like Facebook and twitter they are good ways of staying connected but do not count on it to do all the work for you. You will still need to make people aware of what your doing and post constant updates on progress to keep people interested in the idea. 

Finally, Kim I hope you have a good time. I put up a page and kept people interested (most of them were pretty excited from the start), but the people who donated, really did all the work. 

E./

Corrosion of Conformity Take What You Want

Just as long as we are here, standing tall for one more year
Sing out loud and keep away the cold

When you're blind and you can't see
Realize it's them, not me
I might be hard to find, you know it happens everytime

When I'm tired I crawl, I can't stand to see you fall
And the years they don't treat you like they used to

When you're wide and I'm awake
I got time enough for days Take a-want you want
It just might set you free, not me ...

Oh no way, I've been up for a thousand days 
But you can cut me down when I'm old and gray 
And if you catch me on the move, you can come along
Or you can disapprove

I might be hard to find, you know it happens every time

When I'm tired, I crawl, I can't stand to see you fall
And the years they don't treat you like they used to

When you're wide and I'm awake
I got time enough for days take a-want you want 
It just might set you free and not me...

Does it feel the same

When I'm tired I crawl like the savior in us all
But I don't mind it's somethin' that I'm used to

And when it's time to go, I just thought I'd let you know
Farewell this time, you're always on my mind

When I'm tired I crawl, it's a shame to see you fall
And the years they don't treat you like they used to

But when you're wide and I'm awake
Baby, I got enough damn time for a million days
Take a-want you want and it just might set you free....

When you're up you roam, it's a shame to see you go
And the years they don't treat you like they used to

Just as every light you see might be the one that sets you free
Keep on rising like the ones you used to know, let's go.......

Day 3 part 3 "The good life" 

I decided to the last part of the experiment would be taking the Shinkansen to work. I had to wake up around the same time as the bus and be on the train at 0648. It was kind of a pain to get to Mishima you need to take Gotemba line to Numazu the from Numazu it is one stop to Mishima on the Tokiado Line. It was easy going due to the fact that it was the last day of golden week. I can easily imagine that this would be a crowded pain in the getting to Mishima, fortunately I think this would be one of the times that I would need to drive to the train station either on a motorcycle or a car. 

assume there would be some hassles getting a seat now and again but really I think the amount of time you actually spend traveling being almost 1/2ed would make it worth while. The problem is the cost, 3900 yen to Shibuya. That is more than 2x of what every other mode of transport was, and even with a discount for buying a 6 month ticket I think it will still be out of my price range. That also does not include gas and parking. 

Fortunately that day Satomi and the kids drove back from Gotemba to Tokyo so I did not have to go back to Gotemba. Instead my plain old 20 minute commute home on Inokashira line. 

0610 Woke up 

0630 Went to Iwanami Station 

0635 Arrived at Iwanami Station 

0648 Got on Gotemba Line for Numazu 400 yen 

0705 Arrived in Mishima 

0710 Purchased Ticket for Shinkansen to Shibuya 3850 yen

0722 Got on Kodama Shinkansen for Shinagawa 

0805 Arrived in Shinagawa 
0823 Got on Yamanote Line for Shibuya 

0835 Arrived in Shibuya 

0840 Got to work

Worked 

Eric went to a Bay Blade Tournement, and pitted his spinning metal top against other kids. He was pretty excited and so was Anna. I missed most of the "event" because Anna was screaming so much. She really wanted to get out of the stroller and walk around. I did not allow that because it would have meant baby godzilla would have been loose to smash and disrupt small metal top compititions. 
Eric had his chance and the competition is structured like this;