Michele has organized a drive to bring school supplies to Houston to help with the displaced kids that will either be absorbed into the local schools or taught in makeshift classrooms in and around their Astrodome home (which now has its own zip code).
If you want to know what’s really happening in New Orleans from the perspective of folks on the ground (or 27 stories up, as it were), Wired had a story yesterday about a group of employees of Zipa who are holed up in their data center. They have been blogging the tragedy as it has unfurled since right after Katrina hit. It’s unbelievable stuff.
The blog world is mobilizing to help New Orleans. skippy the bush kangaroo is challenging folks to give $100.01 to the Red Cross and to start a sort of charitable pyramid scheme by sending the challenge to everyone on their blogrolls. Instapundit has a list of places to help and a blog roundup. And NZ Bear has organized a Blog for Relief Day, where hundreds of bloggers are banded together to promote various charities. When you donate, you can jump over to NZ’s page to log your contribution, if you so desire.
I urge you to donate to the American Red Cross by calling their 1-800-HELP NOW (1-800-435-7669) or clicking on the link I have pasted all over this blog.
I know people want to do more than type a few numbers from their credit card onto a computer screen, but there is seriously nothing better you can do. Charities like the Red Cross can purchase more with your $1 than you can, and they have the advantage of knowing exactly what’s needed and where. And it’s much easier to ship electronic funds than a bunch of “stuff”, too.
See other posts at Technorati:
flood aid
hurricane katrina
I’m sitting here in the Pittsburgh airport getting ready to head back to Orlando after a quick bidness trip to the land of the yinzers. I met up with Tim, Suzie and Josie last night for some local fare and lots of laughs. Somehow Tim escaped without either of his girls puking on him (though it was touch-and-go with the taller one). In fact, getting out of the house for the first time in weeks must have made her giddy, because I have enough blackmail material on Suzie now to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams! It was great meeting them, and I hope to come back again for a longer visit.
Meanwhile, I think we got more rain here from Katrina as it passed northward than I saw in Florida. Still, it was just a heavy overnight rainstorm. Nothing like the horrible devastation down south. If you haven’t already hit the Red Cross button, I urge you to do so soon.
See you back in the F-L-A.
This is the best news I’ve heard all month. It’s the kind of news that makes other news sit up and take notice, makes them question their existence and start vicious rumors about this news in order to feel better about themselves.
Kevin Kline is starring as Guy Noir in a ‘Prairie Home’ movie!
A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets. But on the 12th floor of the Acme building, one man is still trying to find the answers to life’s persistent questions . Guy Noir, Private Eye.
click on image to help
Dear Katrina,
When I go to N’awlins in October, I expect to find a city there.
So, back off, beyotch!
Hugs and kisses,
Solonor
So, Google Talk is all the buzz. Already, the geeky amongst us are scratching their heads and going, “So what?”
It’s a chat client. Big whoop. It doesn’t do anything any other chat client doesn’t already do. In fact, the only three things it does are IM, voice chat and hook into e-mail. And it’s so Google-y plain looking!
The only people you can talk to are other Google Talkers. Any geek knows that if you have more than one set of chatty friends on the internets, half are going to be on AIM, half are going to be on Yahoo, and half are going to be on MSN. You need something like Trillian to tie them all together.
However, I think you have to remember the target audience. It’s not the geeks. It’s the masses. Google is out to kill AIM, MSN and Yahoo. Does Google Talk do more than Trillian? No. Can you already IM, voice chat, and e-mail with all the others? Yes. But this thing is waaaaay easier to install, setup and use than any of them, and it’s a damn sight nicer to your PC than the clients from the big boys. All I had to do to start talking with Brian last night was click a button. No complicated mic setup. No IP addresses to configure. Just instant talk.
If I had to recommend a chat client for grandma*, this would be it.
Note: The “grandma” line has nothing to do with the fact that I also chatted with Michele, who’s turning 43 today. Really. *snicker*
Gosh, I love McSweeney! And now, via ***Dave, comes Klingon Fairy Tales. You know, like:
“Goldilocks Dies With Honor at the Hands of the Three Bears”
“Snow White and the Six Dwarves She Killed With Her Bare Hands and the Seventh Dwarf She Let Get Away as a Warning to Others”
“Old Mother Hubbard, Lacking the Means to Support Herself With Honor, Sets Her Disruptor on Self-Destruct and Waits for the Inevitable”
Brilliant.
But we can do better, can’t we?
Here are some to get you started…
“Cinderella impresses the Prince by defeating her wicked stepsisters in personal combat with the bat’leth and enslaving her stepmother.”
“Pinocchio the Android becomes a real boy after the implantation of his emotion chip.”
“The Little Mermaid leads her people into glorious battle against the land-dwellers.”
Must I do everything Michele tells me? Yeah, ‘fraid so. It’s a weird habit.
The latest meme thang going around is to list off five of your quirks, idiosyncrasies and weird habits. I really had to dig deep for this, because I am so damned normal, but here goes.
Why having a blanket around your neck (especially since it’s not laced with garlic) would give a vampire pause, I’m not sure. It’s probably the snoring that keeps them away, after all.
I can watch gorey movies with exploding body parts, heads getting chopped off, bullets tearing holes in people, limbs being severed (“Look, you stupid bastard, you’ve got no arms left!”), but even the thought of slicing gives me the creeps.
I have to leave the room during doctor shows whenever there’s an injection being administered, as well.
Unless it’s a great album that you can’t break up (like Dark Side of the Moon or Days of Future Passed), I must have either a various artists CD or at least have it randomized. If there’s a CD changer, it must be fully loaded and on random.
You don’t want to ride in the car with me if you want to listen to the same radio station for the whole trip, either. It ain’t gonna happen. It changes after every song. Always.
If you read this blog for any length of time (seek help!), then you may have noticed that one. But it’s not just when I write. I talk like that, too! I can’t just tell someone a fact. I have to twist and turn through the whole backstory (sometimes taking diversions that have a tenuous connection to the tale I’m spinning) and make it a punch line. (My voice changes tone when I go into parenthesis mode, too.) It takes me five times longer to tell people things than it should.
I pity anyone stuck in a burning building if I am the one that has to run around and tell them to get out.
If you get on IM with me, I will eventually try to have a backwards conversation with you to see what you’re made of. My brain is wired such that I have no problem typing backwards in live chat. I don’t know why. I can do it word-by-word or with whole sentences.
So far, I’ve only found three people who have a clue what I’m doing and can do it themselves: Sgt. Grump, Bran and Natalie (though she’s not very good at it).
.em naht deriw yldriew erom s’eh esuaceb, ti ta ssa ym skcik pmurG
Well, there’s my freaky list. Where’s yours, ya nutjob?
UPDATE: Apparently, I also play with my hair and cannot sneeze without making a noise that sounds like oriental jibberish at the end. And thanks to this post (and my big-mouthed “I can’t think of any quirks” statement), every habit I have is now being pointed out by my loving spouse…
