preoccupied with yesterdays

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When all you've got is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

I screwed that phrase up last time I blogged it out (which was more than 2 years ago) so I decided to restate it after today's experience.

Portland Indymedia's webradio has been in a state of transition for the past year and a half. Because of that, new content hasn't been generated and I'm sure that any listeners we did have have moved on to new sources and grown with the new technologies. In today's world of technological advances, a year and a half is a pretty significant period of time. Factor into that the fact that we weren't really up-to-date before we stopped broadcasting and we have almost become obsolete.

Today, the occupation of Portland continued and we had radio coverage of the event in a different space for the first time. We are using twitter and AIM so I guess we are evolving but Atomic and I had a discussion about whether or not we're just looking for nails in a world that has moved onto screws. As I have demonstrated, it's easy to get your voice out there. Indymedia was developed at a time when blogs and social networking sites weren't common and information didn't spread like wildfire. Still, I think that Indymedia, specifically Portland Indymedia is somewhat relevant right now because it is a central source for information that people can turn to. I'm not Facebook friends with more than 120 ppl and a lot of those people don't regularly update their status and, when they do, it's usually just how they are feeling, not breaking news information. If I really wanted to know what was going on right now, I would follow PortlandIMC through twitter or I would log onto the website.

I just think that we need to reexamine what we are doing, why we are doing it and if it is effective. I think that about the occupation though too. I biked by there today and was thrilled to see that they still had the street between Chapman Park and the other block occupied. Barricades are up and it looks very well put together. I found out later that the barricades are actually for the Portland Marathon which happens on Sunday but it still looks cool. However, all I know is that it's a bunch of people down there who want an end to debt and the 1% to stop lording over the rest of us. Um...how? I want world peace or at least an end to animal/environmental suffering but, again, how? How is camping in a park going to bring that about?

I don't know. Maybe I'm just frustrated with my inability to do anything. Shit, I couldn't even get out of my job today to come down and join but really I don't even know what I would have done down there if I was able to come down.

What else?

Although I am frustrated with a lot of things right now, I don't want anyone to think that I didn't enjoy today because I did. Capping it all off was an awesome conversation that I had with our friend Kim. She's a great source of comfort and a great listener. If nothing else, talking with her made my whole night worthwhile.