This is the final video in our three part series. See parts one and two.

“Have you seen ‘Charlie Bit My Finger?’” Trelena Thomas asked through a tempered laugh when HealthyCal.org met up with her to film the final piece in our three-part series on the family. Since carrying her San Diego Broadband Initiative computer through the door of her Mid-City apartment a week ago, family time has come to include YouTube favorites. But what’s more, Thomas has connected to services and groups that promise to improve her family’s quality of life–her middle daughter has already climbed half a reading level thanks to an online reading program.

Equalizers like this are what inform efforts aimed at closing the digital divide. According to the Pew Research Center, 40 percent of households with an income less than $30,000 have home access to information on the Web, compared to nearly 90 percent of those making $75,000 or more. The median household income in Thomas’s neighborhood is less that $24,000, according to a San Diego planning agency.

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This is the last of this Spring Cleaning series, as my office is as good as packed up. I now wake up each morning and commute by slippers over to the next room for my latest gig, written up in the San Diego Union-Tribune here.

Sources linked if I have ‘em

This is the follow-up to the Modern Divide video I produced with Robert Knauf.

Just three weeks ago, Trelena Thomas was learning the computer basics—the difference between right and left mouse clicks and what a URL is. Now, in the second installment of our three part series, watch as Thomas and her daughters bridge the digital divide with their first home computer, a former County of San Diego desktop refurbished by the San Diego Futures Foundation. Now come the bigger questions: who gets to play games first and is Facebook allowed?

Part 3 is on its way!

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Sources linked if I’ve got ‘em

For such an emphasis on simple materials, this whole vintage industrial, machine age furniture trend is pricey. Some tin and a little wood for half a grand? I knew it was only a matter of time before the almost-box stores caught on and brought one of my favorite trends to a more manageable price. These pretties are less than $90 right now at Cost Plus. That’s more affordable than Urban Outfitters and close to Ikea pricing.

If you’re from San Diego, Rusty Gold Design is really reasonable for stools. And throw a search for Mission Valley into Craigslist. There’s seems to be a guy down there who’s been cleaning out a factory for a few months.

More tips on finding industrial furniture on the cheap here.

Photos via Commune Design, Apartment Therapy, Source Unknown, Commune Design and For Me For You 

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Via Apartment Therapy