I spent a day doing something I see people do every day and never give them another thought.
There is hardly a street corner or intersection in Austin Texas that does not have bedraggled soul standing there with a sign in his hand. Sometimes they have spouses, some have kids, sometimes they have dogs…but regardless of who they have with them, there is a constant.
They all hold signs.
The idea came to me while I was helping my daughter with her homework. There was no direct reason why I should have come up with the idea during that event. It was just a random thought on which I followed through. What if I were to stand on a street corner with a sign in MY hand? One in which did not ask for money, food, a job or sympathy, but offered to give people something for free? What if I offered people waiting at the stoplight of a busy intersection free Linux disks?
I spent the next two evenings burning disks, covers and putting them in cheap cases. I made 60 of them and put them in two shoe boxes. The next morning, I traveled about 3 miles to an intersection of William Cannon Blvd. and the I-35 feeder road. I parked my pickup truck in the Kmart parking lot and carried my stuff over to my corner. It was there I sat up shop at 7 AM.
After 20-plus years in the United States Army, I have an aversion to barbers and razors. With the aid of a pair of old blue jeans, run down tennis shoes and a ratty old jacket, I didn’t look much different than any other street person. My “sign” was a 3x3 cardboard boxtop with the following message.
Stop paying for the privilege of using your computer. Get your free Linux disks here.
Ask scroungy-looking guy for details.
MER: http://lobby4linux.com/WordPress/?p=63
