Bike to Work Day!

Today was the SF Bay Area Bike to Work Day. Elliot and I got up an hour early, to greet people at the CalTrain station.

Kathy Durham, Palo Alto's Safe Routes to School/Commute coordinator, gives Elliot goodie bags to hand out.

We made a giant poster and handed out flyers - along with free bagels, coffee, and goodie bags. Elliot even dressed up in his professor costume. Crowd funding has made us shameless.

Vanessa and Elliot, in between waves of cycle commuters.

Sven Thesen at 7am, waiting for commuters and chanting "Worse Than Poop!"

Towards 8am, more people started  arriving - including the Mayor and the City Manager.

Elliot & Vanessa with team Bike Palo Alto - including Kathy Durham, Mayor Nancy Shepherd, Chief Transportation Official Jaime Rodriguez, and City Manager Jim Keene.

One cyclist, when he heard about Worse Than Poop!, asked Elliot to sign his flyer.

The lucky recipient of Elliot's very first autograph.

Of Psycho Butts and Strange Coincidences...

Elliot has been reading a lot lately. This morning, he was too busy reading a very funny book called "The Day My Butt Went Psycho" to feed the cat. I decided not to get mad; I let him read, and fed the cat myself. The book is actually really funny - and I want to support Elliot's reading habit. 

Later this morning, at our local farmer's market, Elliot and I ran into Eugene Cordero: friend, science advisor to the project, and "the genius behind the Green Ninja". He was with his wife and her cousin. "Let me introduce you to Andrew," he said. "He's visiting from Australia, and he writes children's books." So we shook hands and chatted for a few minutes. Elliot ran off to get something to eat with his dad.

Eugene told me to tell Andrew about our project - so I did, and when I got to the part about pooping cars, Eugene said - "Andrew should find that familiar territory. He just wrote a book about psycho butts." 

It took me a moment to register this. "Hold on." My brain was searching through inner recordings of Elliot's non-stop monologues about his favorite authors. Who was it that wrote the psycho butts book? "Are you..." click, it came to me: "Andy Griffiths?"

"Why yes!" he said. He looked surprised.

I uttered an expletive. "Oh my god. Wait! There is someone you HAVE to meet." I ran off to find Elliot.

Elliot, Andy Griffiths, and Eugene Cordero at the California Avenue Farmers Market

Andy/Andrew turned out to be not just Eugene's wife's cousin, and house-guest, and one of the most famous children's book authors in Australia - but also an incredibly nice guy. He indulged Elliot in a long discussion of the intricacies of several of his titles. He told Elliot all about how the books get made. He even promised to sign Elliot's book copy when he comes to Elliot's school next week for an author visit. (He's currently on a book tour of the US.) 

Could the world be any smaller?

Earth Day, here we come...

It's Sunday night, and we launch our Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday. Less than 48 hours to go! I'm nervous, and exhausted. Tonight at dinner, we asked Elliot if he remembered when he first heard about the project and agreed to do it. "I remember you came to pick me up after school, at Kids Club," he said. "And I remember, you said, 'I've got an idea!...'"

The rest, as they say, is history. Or soon will be.

Yikes! We launch in less than 48 hours! (From our first "Professor Elliot" photo shoot, June, 2013) 

As we prepare for the intensity of the campaign, a few people have pointed out to me that not everyone knows what a "Kickstarter campaign" is. So, in a nutshell: it's a way of crowdfunding a project - in this case, by using the Kickstarter web platform.

Crowdfunding is a way of gathering financial support through many individual donors, most of whom donate small amounts. Running a campaign is supposed to be by turns grueling, mortifying, and exhilarating. Missy Laney, of the Sundance Institute, told me it's like having a newborn baby in the house. You spend every waking moment on it - and you don't sleep much. (You can see why I'm feeling nervous!)

In our case, we are also running an "all or nothing" campaign - meaning we won't get a penny unless we raise at least our goal: $21,000. This is the bare minimum it will take to make Worse Than Poop! the film we know it needs to be. In reality, it will take more than this - but $21k will get us far enough to make it happen. And as with all crowdfunded projects, the more people who find out about it, the more likely we are to meet our goal. 

This is why you, dear reader, are so important. You have the power to forward this post to your friends, to like us on FaceBook, to follow us on Twitter, and to tell everyone you know about Worse Than Poop!  Starting on Tuesday, for as little as $5, you can become part of the solution, part of a movement that will change our world for the better, one pooping car at a time. We'll also have many awesome and fun rewards for you - fabulous tokens of our affection that you won't find anywhere else. So stay tuned... and if you haven't already, please take the Poopie Pledge to support us on Tuesday! 

Countdown to Kick-Off

It's official: we are launching our Kickstarter campaign in 15 days. Or should I say Kickstartr? It seems they have changed their name again. (Just kidding. Note the date on that post.) At any rate, I am now madly preparing for what everyone tells me will be a very grueling (groveling) experience.

On April 22, Earth Day - one year to the date after the idea for a pooping cars movie popped into my head - we will go live, and find out how many people actually want to see a gas car take a dump.

If you're still reading this, I'd be ever so grateful if you'd head over and take the Poopie Pledge to support our campaign! Every little bit of support - moral, financial, and social - really makes a difference. 

An all-EV Weekend

Vanessa and Elliot attended a screening on Friday of Chris Paine's epic film Revenge of the Electric Car. Elliot's goal now is to become like Gadget, and help his dad rebuild our 1995 Honda Civic as an all-electric car.

Elliot and his pal David Gershon at a recent screening of Revenge of the Electric Car

Elliot (aka Robin Hood) gets a ride on an electric tricycle.

On Sunday, we participated in EV Day at our church, to celebrate a new EV charger (and Halloween - a few days early). Elliot ditched his Robin Hood bow in order to catch a ride on an electric tricycle. 

We also got to ride in a brand-new Fiat 500e (with eyelashes!)

Vanessa with Richard and his brand-new all-electric Fiat 500e (photo by Elliot)

Climate Access Featured Member: Vanessa!

We're honored that Elliot's mom, Vanessa, was chosen as the "featured member" this week by Climate Access - an awesome community of people who work on communicating about climate change.