After some consideration I decided I'll give cartooning a shot.

It all began when I was a child making cartoons, mostly ones based off the "Captain Underpants" books I used to read. My mother loved it when I made cartoons. However, I realized that I was an awful artist so I gave up cartooning.

Now as I see it, even art as crappy as mine can have people liking it mostly for the message or comedy instead of the art value. I'm not expecting any success or much of a warm welcome for my comics.

I admit, I'm not a good artist but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Updated: 12/06/09 10:38 PM 0 comments | Comments disabled | Share this!

It's been fun but I think it's time I move on and start going outside more. I'm still going to be a member on Newgrounds but I won't be on as much anymore but there still might be a point in the future we're I'll come back and be fully active again. Just a slight possibility.

I'm still depositing experience and coming back to watch flash but not so much for the forums anymore as the Photoshop topics aren't as great anymore and the people on the BBS are pessimistic and hostile as all Hell about every little detail. Really, just look at the bright side for a change and just enjoy life for what it is.

I would also like to thank Newgrounds for entertaining me since 2005 and for making me into a person who can work Photoshop and thus gave me a possible future in graphic design.

Most of you guys of been great to me but I think I just need a long break off of Newgrounds and start doing other things for a change.

UPDATE: Since my Photoshop Program is collecting dust, I'd figure I would start Photoshopping my dreams again. I could use some practice.

Updated: 11/04/09 7:23 PM 0 comments | Comments disabled | Share this!

Table of Contents:
-Introduction
-Benefits of Recycling
-Stats
-Summer Shift Schedule
-News and Updates

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Introduction:

Now that it is finally warm out here in my town, I have started to collect recyclables to raise money for a child I'm sponsoring and for others. There are many cans and bottles lying around and refund money has doubled for ordinary pop cans.

While I was in Mexico, I talked with a Mexican family about the $500.00 I have donated and made from recycling. Apparently it paid for two house upgrades and a chance to go to school for a child. The houses were upgraded from metal slates to concrete walls and roofs. This was all from recycling and saving money while I was working on my last charity project.

If I could upgrade houses and give children education from collecting trash from around my town, then I have to do more to help my town, people and the environment. This is a project where everybody wins. My main concentration is aluminum, plastic and glass that range from $0.10 to $0.20 per can/bottle. I will also do newspaper when I find them. Doesn't hurt to save a tree or two.

I will collect bottles and cans from gas stations, schools, church grotto, and downtown when it hits 4:00PM-6:00 PM. I am using this post as for awareness and use as a public record of my findings.

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Benefits of Recycling:

Aluminum:
-Recycling aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy it takes to make a new one.
-Recycling one can will save enough energy to power a television for three hours.
-Recycling 40 cans can save one gallon of gasoline.
-Can be recycled infinitely.
-It takes as fast as 60 days for it to be recycled and sent to the store shelf.

Plastic:
-If we recycled every plastic bottle we used, we would keep 2 billion tons of plastic out of landfills.
-Recycling one ton of plastic bottles can save 3.8 barrels of oil.
-Recycling one ton of plastic saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
-Recycling plastic bottles take 2/3 of energy it takes to make new ones.
-Plastic recycling business creates over 200,000 jobs in the United States

Glass:
-Recycled glass generates 20% less air pollution.
-Every ton of glass recycled saves 315 kg of carbon dioxide.
-Recycled glass generates 50% less water pollution.

Newspaper:
-Recycling newspaper makes 55% less air and water pollution than it is when brand new.
-Recycling your daily newspaper for a year will save enough pulp for 2/3 a commercial forest.
-Recycling 1 ton of newspaper saves 17 pine trees.
-Recycled paper uses 40% less energy.
-Most paper can be recycled up to 8 times.
-Recycling 1 ton of newspaper will save enough energy to power a television for 31 hours.

Sources:
http://www.quinterecycling.org/Recycli ngFacts.htm
http://www.novelis.com/Recycle/EN/Educ ators/Educational+Materials/Recycling+
Facts+and+Figures/
http://earth911.com/plastic/plastic-bo ttles/benefits-of-recycling-plastic-bo ttles/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Plastic-Bott les---Advantages-of-Recycling&id=17414 15
http://www.greenstudentu.com/encyclope dia/recycling/plastic
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resource s/InformationSheets/Glass.htm
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/benefit s.htm
http://www.hcdoes.org/swmd/Residents/R ecycling/recybenefits.html
http://www.greenstudentu.com/encyclope dia/recycling/paper

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Stats:
This section is dedicated to those who've I've donated during the course of the summer and to record the prices of recycling refunds.

Now that I have paid off a child I'm sponsoring, I will collect to raise money for children to go to school. Think of these more as scholarships rather than charity. $400.00 will put a child into school for an entire year. I will raise for as much children as I can.

Prices:
Juice Box: -------------------------------$0.10
Pop/Beer Can: --------------------------$0.10
Plastic/Glass Bottle under 1L: -----$0.10
Plastic/Glass Bottle over 1L: -------$0.25

Total Money Raised: $539.05

Money for Carlos: $230 / $230 -=(DONE)=-

Child Scholarship #1: $309.05/ $400.00

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Summer Shift Schedule:

12:00 AM: 7/11 and Esso Gas Stations.
5:00 PM: 7/11 and Esso Gas Stations.
6:00 PM: Church Grotto, Wal-Mart, Red Rooster, Theatre and Downtown Streets

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News and Updates:

June 28, 2009: Added in more information with schedules and recycling prices.

June 23, 2009: I have finished Carlos and will collect for children to go to school. I am also done exams and will have all the time in the world to collect almost daily. I have also added in some extra information.

June 7, 2009: I finally have a bicycle and can travel to hot spots faster and I am now collecting newspaper as well.

June 4, 2009: I have made some minor updates and added a picture of my workshop.

May 25, 2009: Blog set up and awaits comments, questions, suggestions and whatnot.

Updated: 08/12/09 4:37 PM 9 comments | Log in to comment! | Share this!

I am finally back here in Canada and on Newgrounds after a week and a half of Mexico mission trip. I have seen quite a bit of the lower class of Mexico and I have a tale to tell.

For starters, my mission trip was a disappointment because instead of helping people like I signed up for, we just travelled around the city of Cuernavaca and had endless meetings about what we saw, what we did or didn't do and other things. There were only two days where we built a house for a person in the slums.

Another, I was unable to make the documentary due to technical problems.

All ranting aside, I'll tell you my experience there.

SLUMS
The slums were an eye opener for those who had a hard time understanding that Canada and the United States are the beginning and end of the world. The houses were made of metal slates for rooms and walls and all the houses were packed with buildings.

I went into one of them where a mother of seven children welcomed us and told us her life in the slums. Two of her children, two young girls, both hugged the female missionary students and one gave me a handshake and the children seemed very happy despite their poor living conditions. One of the children had a heart of gold as she tried to take care of everybody despite her young age.

Inside their home were chickens running around, three beds, a dirt floor, a shrine to Jesus and Mary, a stove, and a bathroom all in a one-room house. My mother was shocked to find out that these living conditions still existed in today's world.

MARKETS
My group spent a lot of time at the markets. I felt more of a tourist than a missionary. There were two kinds of markets: A people's market and a market. The People's market is a market made for lower income families while the market is for the middle and upper class. It was like Mexico had two separate economies.

I bought a lot of items for friends and families. I made no attempt to barter because the items were cheap enough as they are. I bought two obsidian knives, one Aztec flask, a leather purse for my step-sister, a doll for my teacher's daughter, one blank book for my sister, a Coca-Cola bottle for my coke-loving friend, an angel keychain made of beads for a religious friend of mine, a turquoise pin for my grandmother and a large woven basket for a hamper.

I mostly bought from the People's market so the money went towards their families so they can buy food for another day.

Some of the merchants were reasonable while some were preachy as hell with their merchandise thinking I'm a rich American.

CHURCHES AND CATHEDRALS
On the religious days, we went to a section of the city to attend religious buildings. I must say, the Mexicans are religious beyond belief. They dedicate their time towards Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Some crawled on their knees to church, many crowded the many churches and 99% of the merchandise was religious trinkets.

This makes me think of this one Bible verse, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into Heaven." I interpret this as the lower class are more religious as studies shows that rich nations like Canada, United States and European Union are declining in Christianity while lower income nations like Latin America and southern Africa are increasing in Christianity.

AZTEC TEMPLE
This one was disappointing. I was told that there was an Aztec city on top of a steep mountain. It was about two kilometres to the top. I climbed up so much that I took breaks every ten minutes and almost gave up a few times. I managed to get to the top but it turned out there was only one Aztec building.

Thank God that the Chichen Itza isn't on top of a mountain.

MEXICAN SOCIETY
This was a nice visit to Mexican culture. It was funny that the girls had constant cat calls from male Mexicans. Many were kind and honest while others not so much. Some raised their prices to my crew hoping to get more out of us while we were at markets.

I met this one Mexican whom I told I could not speak Spanish. He asked me if I was English or American. I told him I was Canadian and he told me that he's been to Canada and he loves Canada but not so much for the United States.

The people were very religious, there were merchants all over the place, there was a lot of graffiti on the buildings, and the people drank A LOT of Coca-Cola.

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It is only three weeks until the class mission trip to Mexico and I am preparing, starting with collecting spending cash. I have collected American money for years now and I have rolled up US$30.75 worth of American coins plus US$16.00 from a trash can at school making US$46.75 for spending money. That will be plenty for Mexico. I have the Canadian $500.00 ready to go to an orphanage.

I am also making a documentary as part of the Mission Trip experience. I talked to my principal about it and I can receive up to three credits that can look good on my portfolio as well as a presentation to the school to show what one side of Mexico really is. The mission trip will happen during the Easter Holidays so I have plenty of time to get a decent digital video camera.

Stay tuned for when I have my documentary ready after the Easter Holidays. I'm going to put as much effort into it as possible.

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It has been almost two years since I started my charity project back in Summer 2007 and I finally completed collecting $100 worth of each type of coins adding up to $600 in total for Guatemalan children plus $500 worth of money gained from recycling going towards Mexican children during the school Mission Trip I will partake in April 2009!

Now that spring is almost near, I'm going to revive a small volunteer business of mine to collect recyclables and promote recycling once I'm set up. The blog for this will be made once the weather is good enough to go scavenging.

Here's a mini-documentary to prove that I collected the money:
: I apologize for the lighting and quality. Not the best camera I own.

I will later cash it all into the bank in exchange for paper money when the time is right and the right people are around to take the $600 down to Central America.

Thank you, Newgrounds, for the support you have given me and thank you if you tried to do any charity work. Newgrounds has and will always remain my favourite website.

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Table of Contents:
FAQ
Money Found at School
Money Raised for Mission Trip
Money Count Progress
Carlos Blog
News and Updates
-----
FAQ

What is this charity project about?

It is called the Loose Change Project and the premise is simple: collect $100 worth of each type of Canadian coin for charity. It will add up to $600 Canadian upon completion along with other projects.

Months after this blog was made, I got into two other charity projects being a mission trip to Mexico and my family is sponsoring a child in Peru with a dollar a day.

The Mission Trip to Mexico will take place in April during Spring break where I among other schoolmates will go towards a place in Mexico to help them with various tasks and learn about their culture. I am collecting some spending money and charity money to be sent down to the Mexican children just like I am doing for Guatemala. A portion of any money made from recycling or donations from my school will go towards this. I hope to make a amatuer documentary for this.

A man came into my house and my mother and I decided to sponsor a child in Peru named Carlos who has suffered from malnutrition once and live in poor conditions but at least has some fresh water in his back yard. I'm going to learn from this experience while he gets aid from my family. I'm going to keep a section dedicated to him and will be updated to see how he's doing.

Where will the money go once collected?

I have talked to a teacher at my school who is also the president/volunteer dentist for Kindness in Action which is a volunteer organization dedicated to oral hygiene for people in developing countries and it is decided that I am sending the $600 to students in the country of Guatemala that is located in Central America just East of Southern Mexico.

The $500 I am collecting from mainly recyclable material is coming with me to Mexico to be distributed to an orphanage during the mission trip.

After the previous two are done, any money I get from finding, recycling or donations go towards Carlos for the dollar a day policy.

Why is the project money going towards Guatemala, Mexico and to Carlos?

Despite the economic growth for Guatemala that started in 1996, the year after the end of the Guatemalan civil war, Guatemala remains a developing country struck with rural poverty where 60% of Guatemalan households are below the poverty line with high rates of illiteracy, infant mortality rate and malnutrition.

Mexico suffers the same thing as Guatemala. I am heading to an orphanage where I'm guessing is underfunded and could use some extra cash to go towards education or upgrades/repairs.

As for Carlos, he lives in a house made from adobe with a slate/tile roof. He attends primary school. His school and nearest health facility is 45 minutes away from his house and his family of four uses an open field for a latrine. We are going to pay a dollar a day and this should not be a problem because my two previous projects are near completion.

Where will you get the money?

I will collect the money from whatever sources except the bank because using the bank would be cheating. I will primarily collect the coins by finding whatever money I find in town (I find tons at school) with some help from my friends. I will also add on any loose change I have left from purchasing items and will even trade coins for other coins once I'm done collecting those types of coins. I designed this to be a fun project for myself when it comes to collecting.

As for the mission trip, I'm making my cost to a whole lot lower by participating in various fundraisers.

What can I do to help?

There are a number of sites that you have to click a simple button and it will redirect you to a page full of advertisements that will generate money to pay for things that will help not only Guatemala, but will help other developing nations in need. You can help feed them, you can help them gain literacy, you can help give them child health care and you can help save their rainforests all by a click of a button on each of the sites in the previous links I have given you in this part of the FAQ. Try to click each button once per day and it will make a difference not only for Guatemala, but for other developing nations God wants us to help.

Buying Guatemalan Artisan Crafts will also help the Guatemalan kids and their families. The items were made by Guatemalan children and possibly adults as part of their education that can be purchased by you in order to help them out.

Another way is to join into the charity. Try raising fundraisers that will collect money that will go to schools in Guatemala. You can collect recyclable soft drink containers, you could also collect money from the floors at your school or whatever you want. Try to make the fundraiser fun for you.
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Money Found at School
This section is the amount of money I find at school each month. I have been collecting money since 2004.

2007-2008

September: $3.61
October: $7.98
November: $7.65
December: $8.35
January: $6.98
February: $8.86
March: $4.17
April: $10.05
May: $5.36
June: $7.11

Total: $71.12

2008-2009

September: $45.53
October: $6.03
November: $9.26
December: $6.05
January: $3.56

Total: $70.43

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Money Raised for Mission Trip
For the mission trip to Mexico, I am raising at least $500 to take down to the orphanages down there to spend it on supplies that will benefit. I'm hoping it can be converted to Pesos so it can be spent to buy more school supplies down in Mexico and the money for the supplies will go towards Mexican merchants.

Bonus Money Raised: $500.00

---(COMPLETED)---
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Money Count Progress

This section of the blog post is for a public record of the collection of the coins. It will be updated every time I collect enough loose change to roll them up into coin rolls. These percentages do not include coins that have yet to be rolled up into a coin roll.

Toonies ($2): 100%
Loonies ($1): 100%
Quarters ($0.25): 100%
Dimes ($0.10): 100%
Nickels ($0.05): 100%
Pennies ($0.01): 100%
Overall: 100%

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Carlos Blog
This part of the blog is dedicated to Carlos to show any progress he is making through this sponsorship program my family has entered.

Currently waiting to hear from him.

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News and Updates

February 10, 2009: I have finally completed the money for Mexico. All I need are many nickles and I'm done completely.

February 6, 2009: After a long hiatus, made a major update regarding information, a new section and extra projects near completion.

October 17, 2008: I have finally completed the pennies and now have only the nickels to deal with. From the looks of it, it's far from over.

September 30, 2008: I have made a personal record of finding the most money at school in a month. I have found money from three different countries this month.

July 26, 2008: I just received a phone call last night from a woman who is in charge of the Rodeo fundraising. Apparently I got three people who want to donate their bottles to my cause. One even has a garage full of bottles that sounds like it could be worth quite a bit. I even changed some more plans but am still collecting the $600 for the Guatemalans.

July 20, 2008: YEEHAW! I just struck Gold! I'm volunteering at a rodeo to help relieve pressure for my mission trip funding and getting bottles for a bonus when I donate. Today I just collected six bags worth of recyclable material. Major profit will come of this!

July 7, 2008: Added additional information about my second fundraising for my mission trip.

June 29, 2008: I have made some major changes and updates in the information and organizing. It's almost done and I hope to complete it by the end of the summer.

June 18, 2008: I have completed my school year with a grand total of $70.99 found in my school for the entire year. Stay tuned for next years because I got a feeling that it will drag on to next school year when I'm in Grade 11.

June 7, 2008: The dimes are complete and now I only have to worry about the Pennies and the Nickels. Hopefully I should get them done over the summer but it will most likely carry on to the next school year.

April 30, 2008: I hit the mother load this month! I found $10.05 at my school, started to bring in money made from recycling by collecting recyclables around my town and I am putting up some more progress charts for these collectings.

January 25, 2008: I have finally finished up the quarters and now I only have three coin types left to do.

December 1, 2007: Ah great, it has been proposed to stop the production of pennies due to production costs. This may make my project harder to do. On the other note, I have added an overall percentage in the money progress section.

October 28, 2007: New minor information concerning currency exchange has been added to the FAQ.

October 20, 2007: Blog has been set up and is awaiting suggestions and comments.

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Below is a picture of the coin rolls. It will be updated every once and a while.

Updated: 02/17/09 6:36 PM 34 comments | Log in to comment! | Share this!