Good Stuff Coming: Teen Underground

Big, BIG news! Our local Z.J. Loussac Library, with the help of the Anchorage Rotary Club (Downtown), is creating a special area at the library just for teens and they held a contest this past month to create a logo for the newly christened Teen Underground project. Spencer, with his new little Mac Mini and his crazy Illustrator skills decided to throw his hat into the ring . . . and he won!

The prize is an iPad but I think the thrill of winning is nearly as mind blowing as the electronics.  He was thrilled not only that he won but that the judges were so complimentary and kind in their praise, one of them even offering to mentor him (which I think is probably the biggest prize of all).

Anyway, it was all a terribly potent and explosive secret to try and keep but today at the club luncheon they unveiled it all and I can officially let that cat out of the bag.  And actually, that experience was wonderful in itself.  I'd never been to a Rotary meeting before and it was impressive to see so many people in the community coming together to take a project like this to fruition so that their city and the up-and-coming generation benefits.

Afterward we told Spencer that he'd probably never be in another place with 250 more powerful people (unless he happens to get an invite to a presidential inauguration or something). In the crowd was our lieutenant governor, our past mayor, current legislators and business owners of some of the most influential businesses in town. It was fun to see Spencer get a round of applause from such a distinguished crowd (and he loved the prime rib). They'll be doing a big spread in the newspaper about it so there will even be more fame coming. Hope it doesn't go to his head.

It all got me rather jazzed about the project--I mean, we are at the library at least once a week as it is but after seeing the floor plan for the new area and all the teen-centered amenities it offers I can't help but get excited and think about how it's going to be a great thing for Anchorage. Already the donations have been generous. Gosh, I live in a great place.

It also was gratifying to feel that our decision to let Spencer buy a computer wasn't insane after all.  He still doesn't really have internet access except to about four or five websites and doesn't play games but once Andrew installed some extra copies of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop Spencer's been busy doing online tutorials to learn the software. If you don't know already, Lynda.com is a wonderful site for online tutorials on all sorts of subjects and well worth the small subscription fee.

It seems that with all the current time-wasting associated with computers that to have our son learning a valuable skill at minimal cost thrills me to the core.  Isn't this is the essence of what technology is supposed to offer? Isn't this kind of thing that the computer was invented to provide? Education without restrictions of location, age, experience or economics? I suppose that's what the Teen Underground project is ultimately trying to do for other kids out there and it's exciting.

Can you imagine such a thing 50 years ago?  Crazy. We live in an amazing time.