West Wing meets the Current Election
Be still my heart. Jed Bartlett’s back, even if momentarily and in print. And he’s talking to presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Very funny.
Archive for Uncategorized
A Story About Real World Cooperation
Cross-posted from my Great Solutions blog:
Today, I’m sharing a story about how people - relative strangers - can work together across miles, belief systems, and yes, even politics to make a difference.
My fellow freelancer Lori Hall Steele has been diagnosed with Lyme’s disease and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Lori is a single mother of a 7 year old son. Due to insurance costs, the bank has threatened foreclosure on her home while she is bedridden and unable to work.
Enter cooperation. Participants of two writing organizations to which Lori belongs - Freelance Success and the American Society of Journalists and Authors - put out a challenge to their members: Send $25 to help Lori. But that was too easy. Members of these organizations started twittering and adding How to Help Lori updates to their Facebook pages. Interest grew, and the checks started pouring in. Musician Ben Lee added his voice to the cause, silent auctions and raffles were organized, and Lori is now able to focus on her health, rather than the impending doom of losing her home. This, in less than two weeks!
On Wednesday, there will be a combined effort to change Facebook and LinkedIn pages to reflect the Save Lori’s House effort. I invite you to join us. If you use Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, chat it up. If you blog, feel free to share this post. And, if your bank account can handle it, I encourage you to donate $25 to help Lori today.
Together, we CAN make a difference.
More St Lucia Sights
Prices in US dollars and Eastern Caribbean
Like a child, I couldn’t resist setting this one up!
Have a great weekend, all!
Zip Line Success
What. A. Blast. Yes, I said that! I also screamed. So loud in fact, that another one of the journalists on the trip joked that he thought I’d fallen off. But man, what a rush. Before our first run, we got a long list of instructions that started to run together and make me worry that I’d forget to do something. I was nervous. The first person in our group asked to go first in order to take photos as we all came in. And then my SON jumped up and went second, getting over his nerves very quickly. What’s a mom to do but follow suit?
The zip line tour took us across seven different lines, the grandest being 200′ high and 800′ long. It was gorgeous, though I must admit that I didn’t do much sightseeing as I was focusing on what I was supposed to be doing. I don’t yet have photos of myself on that line - and I declined to record myself screaming, as my husband requested - but here we are harnessed up:
Lovely, eh?
Here’s Evan getting ready to take off:
And going:
Going:
Gone:
And here’s a net bridge that we had to cross to get to one of the lines. Frankly, this was scarier for me than the zip lines!
Fun, yes?
For What it’s Worth
I’m quite confident that my superpowers inlcude the ability to keep the plane I’m flying on aloft.
Off to St. Lucia. Plenty of photos to come!
N64?
Some of you will find it comical that I’m posting this, since it’s common knowledge that I have exactly zero interest in video games. Others will understand.
Evan has been working to save money to buy a wii because his mean old rational mom won’t buy one for him. Once he had earned enough, he came face to face with consumerism: the wii is hard to come by. He spent weeks calling around, trying to find one in a slightly panicked state. While he was hard to live with during this time, the weeks gave his brother - Mr. Anti Consumerism - a chance to reason with him: Why not SAVE a bunch of your money and get a used N64? Why pay big bucks for a wii when you can play it at your friends’ house? And on.
Big brother’s reasoning won. We now have an N64, but we’re back into that panic mode as Evan searches for used games. Which leads to my post here. If you’ve upgraded and are sitting on some old N64 games, I have a kid who would love to take them off your hands for a reasonable price plus shipping. He’s specifically looking for Smash Bros, Mario Cart, Mario 64, and Donkey Kong 64.
Superdelegates - again
From MoveOn.org:
This is pretty outrageous: a group of Clinton-supporting big Democratic donors are threatening to stop supporting Democrats in Congress because Nancy Pelosi said that the people, not the superdelegates, should decide the Presidential nomination.1
It’s the worst kind of insider politics—billionaires bullying our elected leaders into ignoring the will of the voters.
But when we all pool our resources, together we’re stronger than the fat cats. So let’s tell Nancy Pelosi that if she keeps standing up for regular Americans, thousands of us will have her back. And we can more than match whatever the CEOs and billionaires refuse to contribute. Click here to add your name to our statement.
The statement reads: “The Democratic nomination should be decided by the voters—not by superdelegates or party high-rollers. We’ve given money—and time—to progressive candidates and causes, and we’ll support Speaker Pelosi and others who stand up for Democracy in the Democratic Party.”
Last Minute Gift Idea
I’m a fan of music for kids. Not Hannah Montana or Brittni Spears, but good music that introduces kids to different tunes than the radio might. This round up of the Essential Dozen: Great Music for Kids over at pixie stix kids pix is excellent. Not sure where to find these at such a late date? Try your local health food store for some of the Putamayo music.
