There are very few websites that I have found on the web that really help you to learn and offer resources to learn for free. For those that want to learn a great trade for design it is even that much harder. Six Revisions, is a rare and powerful resource for graphic and web-designers that seek to excel in design.

Six Revisions, is a very beautiful website in itself, offering titles such as, "Six Questions: Tony Chester on Running a Design Firm", or "30 Examples of Watercolor Effects and Brush Strokes in Web Design.". With many new titles and subjects added everyday. Another thing I like about this website is that it offers great tutorials, resources, Adobe Photoshop brushes, fonts and pictures that you can download for free. They also offer helpful information that walk you through such processes as starting in a web-based business, marketing, or just playing around with Photoshop, web-design, or other programs to do with design. All for free.

If you are looking for inspiration this site also offers lots of pictures and screenshots of websites that help spawn an assortment of ideas for those that just like to browse around and get some good ideas. With few advertisements (and even the advertisements look dazzling and inspiring), this is definetly a website worth following and bookmarking.

Homeless people are everywhere at the Saturday Market in Portland, Oregon and are showing their own kind of creativity there. The Saturday Market has been going on since 1974 and is a place that is full of crafts, arts, and food. The Portland Mission, a church based organization, which is only a couple blocks from the market, gives homeless people a chance to find a living at the Saturday Market.

With over 200 booths at the Saturday Market and people galore, there is what seems to be, an air of creativity and excitement. People are dressed in a wide variety of costumes, from cows to a Jimi Hendrix lookalike. The booths are filled with such things as the Spoon-man (a gentleman that makes his living by transforming household silver), or the booth the promises to make a wallet, for a price, out of ducktape; it’s all here. Things that you would never imagine to be done, find a place in your heart to be attainable to make and to conjure up as sellable.

The homeless are no exception to the rule here. With witty sayings and outrageous signs they cause you to step back and consider that they may have a thing or two to remark on. The homeless here fit in and seem to be well accepted as a part of the attraction that draws people here in the first place.

One gentleman that I came across had a sign that said, “Need parts for spaceship, trying to get home, anything helps.” I interviewed Chuck; he didn’t give me his last name. He seemed outgoing and contagious in his conversation and was glad to be interviewed by me for a few extra dollars. He said, “I do this every weekend to get people to help me out, but for the most part I sell the Street Roots (a newspaper that is about the homeless plight) during the weekdays. This is just a weekend thing for me.”

With the hustle and bustle of people moving around from all walks of life, it is easy to get distracted from the booths and to consider the plight of such people as Chuck.

As I am walking through the Saturday Market, I am lead away with thoughts of a time before this, when in Old England, people peddled their wares to people.

Patricia, who was worried that her last name not be mentioned was also helping the homeless situation. Patricia belongs to the Hare-Krsna (also known as the Hare-Krishna) and sells stickers of the American flag and a peace sticker. She told me that she comes out here every weekend to help make sure the homeless get vegetarian food through a vegetarian program that they provide for the homeless. She said, “We mostly get donations from people as they come by, or we sell stickers for a donation price of $10 for both stickers.”

Another man that I talked to, Frank Cobb, age 27, sells a newspaper that is made by homeless people and volunteers in the community that is called Street Roots. According to the website www.streetroots.org, some of their over 50 vendors buy the newspaper for 25 cents and sell it for $1. He has been homeless for a while and now has moved up into the realm of being poor. He has been doing this for several years now. Talking to the man I realize he shouldn’t have to do this stuff, he is one of those guys that jumps out on the page at you, really intelligent, like he should be at M.I.T.

Concerning the homeless of Portland that work at the Saturday Market I am left to wonder, where could these people be if they only had a hope and if they only had help. If you are ever at the SM, you’ll have to come check out the creativity of those that some have deemed the off-scouring of society. You may be impressed, some of them are just as creative as you and I.

Photo courtesy of http://www.portlandrescuemission.org/about/

In the works right now and getting readied for the legislation are cuts of 30% of the Oregon Youth Authority budget. The Oregon Youth Authority is a part of our state government that tries to hold youth offenders accountable for their actions; it covers foster care, mental health and facilities for youth that have committed crimes.
Some of the things that have been proposed are the closure of 225 out of 925 of close custody beds; reduce community capacity by 120 community beds (50 residential and 70 foster care), reduce payments to counties by 17 percent (JCP Basic and Diversion) and a reduction of 27% for Multnomah gang funding.
What’s going to happen to these kids once these cuts take place is something that we all must ponder.

Who: The Oregon Youth Authority.
What: OYA is looking at doing budget cuts.
Where: OYA at the legislation committee
When: Soon
Why: Budget cuts are reaching far and wide and there is a need to cut spending.
How: The OYA is coming up with a plan to cut spending.

The effects that child abuse can have on kids that go into foster care are tremendous. Having been in foster care system since the age of four, and then again at the age of 15, I got to see, and experience, firsthand the hardships that kids have to face.

According to http://www.allgodschildren.org there are an estimated 10,000 kids in the foster care system in Oregon. In Linn County there are three homes, (nine foster beds) that are dedicated to the Oregon Youth Authority, and over 356 beds for the Department of Human Services. A lot of these kids have either been abused or have committed a crime.
Donna Brubaker, a foster parent for over 30 years said, “A lot of kids when they come into foster care have major trust issues, it usually takes about 5 or 6 months for the foster parent to earn the kid’s trust. A lot of kids don’t have a sense of right and wrong, because they may have been disciplined when they shouldn’t have been or not been discipline when they should have.”
Troy Hopper, a teacher in Sweet Home that works with special needs and foster children said, “a lot of these kids are loners, they don’t trust people, or they have been hurt and so either they are loners are in trouble. Foster kids have a hard time talking with others.”
The foster care system over the last 18 years has changed a great deal, with more programs and tools that weren’t available before this time. In February Linn-Benton went to the House of Representatives, to see how they can work with foster kids and help them get into college, and find the resources that they need to better their college experience. There are also moves, within the state to try and get legislation passed to help them to become aware of the resources like Oregon healthcare, once they are out of foster care. With budget cuts on their way it will be interesting to see if these resources evaporate.

Who: Foster youth.
What: Foster youth are facing numerous problems when coming from abused homes.
Why: Because of the previous abuse that they faced.
When. At the present time
Where. In Oregon, and in Linn County
Quotes: Troy Hopper, Donna Brubaker and OYA, and DHS