Define: Inanimate

The sequence of texts:

Me: “Hey I’m working on a class project. I need you to send me the word of a random inanimate object/thing.”

Friend 1: “I have NO idea what word that is you are looking for”

Me: “Any inanimate object!”

Friend 1: “What’s inanimate? Lol”

Eventually, he came up with LEGO. (Note: Friend 1 has job offers from top financial companies.)

Friend 2: “What? The word of what? Like…stop sign?” (Note: Friend 2 is probably going to law school.)

LEGO

LEGOLAND in California; playing in my sunroom as a child; pirates; adventure; not enough “girl” Lego sets; frustration at missing pieces; concentration; creativity; the RV I built from scratch without instructions that’s still intact at my house a decade later; Bellville; yellow people; detail; perfectionist; not being able to stop building once I started; the excitement of going to the store for a new LEGO set; my parents helping me build LEGO sets.

STOP SIGN

3-second rule for not running a stop sign; “green light go, red light stop” which is what I always told my mom when I was in the car when I little; people running stop signs in West Campus; being annoyed by people who don’t stop for stop signs, even at night; my driver’s ed teacher reminding me that the right-of-way is a privilege not a right; being confused at a 4-way stop as to who got there first; driving through hill country Texas towns to get to 1-10, where there are a lot of stop signs and the speed limit is 35 MPH; difference between a stop sign and a yield sign.

Combing LEGO + Stop Sign:

• Stop sign built out of LEGO blocks (more likely to be in LEGOLAND than on the road.)
• Road LEGO set – you build stoplights, lines in the road, cars, stop signs, etc. – designed to teach kids about road rules.
• LEGO blocks could be used in driver’s education classes as a hands-on substitute for videos/books about road rules.
• Giant, lifesize LEGO blocks that older kids/teens can use to build things for their room (perhaps someone might choose to build a stop sign?)
• Constructing real life stop signs out of a different material – maybe the hard plastic that a LEGO is made out of.
• A stop sign with the text “STOP LEGOLAND” to signal that drivers were approaching LEGOLAND in California.
• Playing with a LEGO set while you wait for eAcceleration’s StopSign Anti-Virus software to load on your computer.
• Red camera for kids that is built out of LEGO blocks in the shape of a stop sign on the outside, with camera software on the inside
• LEGO set that has different colored blocks, designed to teach kids all primary colors. Red LEGO blocks are used to build a stop sign.
• Gluing random LEGO blocks onto stop signs to make the signs more decorative and unique.

All of these ideas are a bit ridiculous. There may already be a road/street LEGO set but, if not, it seems that this would be a good idea. I never paid attention to road rules until I started driving, so I think that this would be a good lesson to teach kids. Also, I think that having to construct things such as stop lights, stop signs, etc. out of LEGO block might be an interesting lesson for teens in drivers education; or, a fun activity for adults who broke road rules and are in defensive driving. J The challenge with combining these two objects is that stop signs are city/government property, so there is not very much flexibility to change them.