to sticker or not to sticker?
that is often the question...

when purchasing a new car or even a car that is used (but new to you) there is often the question of the Bumper Sticker...

whether or not you are adorn your car with certain stickers to spell out a certain message
perhaps an effort to personalized the identity or your car.... a car which after all is a bit of an extension of "you"
or
to make such that you can identify your less than unique car when roaming the crowded parking lot at Ikea
or
so that you can recognize your car from others as it is being stolen from in front of your house

last fall I sold off my old Toyota Landcruiser; round headlights not square
forfieting personality and style for a car that started, stopped, had a radio that played louder than the hum of the engine, had lights that illuminated the road in front of me, cools the car in the summer, warms the car in the winter, etc..... did I mention that this new Honda Element starts? No need for popping the hood and tweeking the engine or more likely spraying STARTER FLUID into the carb
ah.... I do not miss a car with character at all!

what I lost in character I gained ten fold in safety and reliability
I thank my two children for taking me to this level

when I purchased this shinny new scratchless Honda I rolled off the lot with pride of my new purchase
all Hondas were my brother
all previous Honda achievements made me proud
as I rolled down various roads and streets I debated that question.... "to sticker or not to sticker the exterior of my shiney new car?"
before getting home it was decided... I would in fact apply certain stickers to my recently purchased new car... the first and only new car that I have ever owned!

these are just stickers..... not a vanity plate..... just stickers
after all it is my car...
we are not thinking about resale
we are thinking of using it and having fun with it

let the fun begin!

the first sticker to adorn the back end of my Honda Element is my MtP Euro Oval sticker...
some years ago I contacted a sticker company and had some stickers made for my neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, hence MtP
this idea was not entirely original.... OBX has been pasted on every SUV bumper on the east coast
but at this time when I had these stickers made.... there OVAL STICKER explosion had not occured....
in some ways it was early in the neighbohood identity/neighborhood pride as stated through the moderately corny Euro Oval sticker
it seemed like a good idea...
there were some notions of using it as a networking tool for my now defuct graphic design business
in the end it was fun to make the stickers, break even, and be the father of a creation that can involve opinion and even controversy
(gwadzilla likes opinion and even controversy)

so this is where is starts.....
but
where does it end?

in a recent Honda Element commercial there are two young me traveling the world from "extreme" sport hot spot to "extreme*" sport hot spot. Acquiring a new sticker at each local... then adorning the back end of the car with that sticker as some sort of memento of their adventure

today I did the urban dad version of that Honda Element ad.....
I decorated the back side window of my Honda Element with my Baltimore Aquarium Member sticker and my FONZ sticker as well. (FONZ: Friend Of the National Zoo)
is this the beginning of something I can not control?

*I hate the word "extreme" as much as I hated the term "generation X"
I hate the word's over use
I hate the word's attempt to over simplify
I just hate it
normally I would not use it
but
I was explaning a commercial
and well, that is what the commerical was trying to say... so I said it.