Friday, February 22, 2008

Ukuleles, Websites, and my friend Tad

You may think the three don't belong together, but in this case, they do. Yesterday, my fellow Ph.D. student-friend Tad was talking about the web design skills he's learning (all the while grumbling about Wordpress trauma under his breath). Tad had a brilliant plan: he found a somewhat random and dilapidated ukulele-maker website. He hopes to approach the owner and propose a deal: he'll design a new website in exchange for a ukulele. Now I love that--not only is the picture of dear Tad with his curly red hair and hole-y jeans sporting a ukulele simply delightful (he says it must be easier than a guitar because it has less strings and is shorter), but the concept of bartering is back!

My friend Jenn recently made a beautiful quilt for a friend in exchange for a painting. I know people with kids often switch baby-sitting for each other. I love the idea that we all have abilities--quite different from other people around us. And we all have needs, also quite different from people around us. I believe that in the perfect world, our various needs and abilities should match up--and not only can we take care of each other, but we find ourselves very well taken-care of in the process.

So you go, Tad, with your cool ukulele website. Maybe you can play your ukulele for me and I can make you some cookies or something...

4 comments:

Janell said...

Jenny Reeder: I am coming to DC for a couple of days at the end of March. Will I see you?
-jd

JJ said...

Hummm, maybe I should swap blankets for a Ukulele, I never thought of that!

Lael said...

Have you seen on Craig's list the "bartering" section. It is always amusing to see what people find of value and want to trade!

Tad Suiter said...

Speaking of Craigslist-- did you know that you can create a Craigslist search, and get an RSS feed for it, so that whenever someone posts something that fits your qualifications, it'll pop up in your feed reader? It's a really cool feature.