The Numbers

Okay, so according to Andy Khouri and Pat Loika, the WBCers DIDN’T STAY THE FULL TIME FOR WHICH THEY WERE SCHEDULED.  Consensus seems to be that they were there doing their thing for roughly 40 minutes and there were “3 or 4″ of them.

So.

Now it’s time to make good on our pledges.  Write the check or hit the big donation button and we can retire the hashtag.  (I’d encourage you to do it now if you can, so that you don’t forget, but if you’re actually at SDCC, I can see waiting until you get home.)  Don’t forget to put “Fred Phelps” on the memo line.

How much?

Whatever you can afford/think is appropriate.

We said we’d do $50 if they showed, plus $10/hr for however long they stayed.  (Clearly, I was expecting a little more enthusiasm from them for their cause.)  That’s what?  Roughly $57.50?  Fraction and I are gonna round up on principle and send $100 each to amfAR and maybe one other foundation.  But seriously, if you said you’d do $10/hr–there is no shame in a $7.50 donation if that’s what you’ve got to spare right now.  A gift is a gift.  The important part is following through on your word.

If you pledged $10 per person, it looks like you’re out forty bucks.  If you pledged time?  Put 40 minutes of volunteer work on your to do list.

I want to leave you with something I read about #godlovesbatman on Tom Spurgeon’s excellent Comics Reporter site:

…The thought is that you make their [the WBC's] appearance and all time spent during their appearance drive money going to a charity that they would likely not approve of. I’m going to make such a donation, and I’ll post the time here so you can maybe do so. I’ll also hope to find time and inspiration to pray for those people, because they seem very lost, and maybe you will, too. [Emphasis mine.]

I…I think I might have something in my eye, ya’ll.

Heh. I stand by my assertion that it’s really best to ignore the WBC, but… I couldn’t help but LOL at some of the counter-protesters. Good God, I love you people. (Heeeey. See what I did there??)

Alright, as soon as I have confirmation that they’re gone, we’ll go ahead and make our donation.

(My understanding is that there were 3 WBC-ers and they got there about five minutes before their 1:15 pm scheduled start.)

Oh–another charity I’ve heard mentioned as an appropriate beneficiary is the Matthew Shepard Foundation. I couldn’t find them on Charity Navigator, but I’ve heard Shepard’s mother speak and have been profoundly moved by her message.

Okay, so, Fred Phelps and his family of hateful bigots are getting a lot of press for their planned appearance at (or near?) the San Diego Comic Con.  The man lives for attention and confrontation.  If you see him there, don’t sneer, don’t scream, don’t confront, don’t point and laugh–DON’T ACKNOWLEDGE.   Ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore, ignore…

EXCEPT!  We need some help in the form of a time-keeper or two, letting us know exactly how long the patron saint of backwards thinking and his family manage to stand and scream in the California sun.  Then, by all means, do stare–at your watch!  Make a note of what time it is and alert the internet that they’re there/still there.  (But do it quietly and from a polite distance, will you?)  Go get yourself a cold drink and check back every now and then until we have an approximate time count.  Like… here would be good.  Or on Twitter, with the hashtag #godlovesbatman

Why?  Because in the spirit of love, we are pledging to donate $50 to amfAR if Phelps and his crew actually show up (often they don’t) and $10 an hour additional to amfAR for every hour they stay.  And we’ll make our donation in Fred’s name.

We’d love you to join us.

(And we’d really love to be able to post a tally of how much we’ve raised.)

Repost far and wide, my pretties.

EDITED TO ADD:

1. We’ll be donating to amfAR, but Sam and Ginny have both suggested the Human Rights Campaign.  Either seems appropriate.
2. Looks like the WBC is only scheduled for 45 minutes.  (Lightweights!)  If that’s the case, we’ll round up to $100–but times are tough and you shouldn’t feel like you have to do the same or not participate.  $7.50 is better than nothing.  $57.50 is peachy and cute.
3. There seems to be some confusion–you don’t need to be at SDCC to pledge.  We’re doing an online donation via this link.

EDITED ONCE AGAIN:

1. I’m told the HRC is quite controversial within the LGBT community for their treatment of the “T” part of the LGBT. Dirk Deppey suggests the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force instead (Click the big pink DONATE button on the upper right).  We have chosen amfAR, but honestly, folks, there are a ton of appropriate charities from the CBLDF (the WBC folks are fond of litigation, as it happens, and they are accusing us of idol worship) to smaller local groups like UCan in Chicago.  (With any charitable organization, do your research.)  What matters is that you take a message of hate and you turn it into a LOVING ACTION.  Get it?  Some assholes go and scream about God’s wrath and BAM! somewhere on the other side of the world, somebody gets a pill they need that they might not have gotten otherwise.
2. Another suggestion I loved was to match the WBC’s time with your time.  So if they spend 45 minutes screaming and yelling, maybe you spend 45 minutes making phone calls to your elected officials making clear your position of support for LGBT civil rights initiatives.  Or you volunteer for an hour at a food bank.  Or whatever.  Get creative; you people are amazing.

Because, really, can you ever have too much?

From: “Jason Huff”
Date: November 20, 2008 4:15:10 PM CST
To: “Jason Huff”
Subject: The homeless pets have been robbed

To those that care about the homeless pets in Kansas City:

We have had a small tragedy at The Pet Connection. Yesterday, we were the victim of a crime that will have grave costs to our pets or for those that we are not able to rescue. Our trailer and all the supplies for building 8 new dog and cat rooms was stolen. I am so sad, disappointed, and everyone at our facility is feeling a little defeated. Jason Huff and myself got most of the supplies donated and spent 2 days loading it all for TPC so that the cost would be minimal. Replacement value of our loss: $4000. We were going to start construction over Thanksgiving. Jason and I cancelled holiday plans with our families so that we could build these much needed life savers. Our Christmas gift to the homeless pets was an important one. We estimate that these rooms will help us successfully house and rescue 15-40 additional pets each month. Almost 70 percent of the rescued dogs at our facility were scheduled to be euthanized in area shelters simply because of space constraints.

If anyone can send additional funding for this project, we would really appreciate. If everyone we have helped this month, would send $5……that would be about $3000. If everyone on this list sent $5, that would be $35,000. We need help. Please send your pledge today. I know that together, we can make this horrible turn of events seem small.

If we do not receive a rally from our friends, we will not be able to complete the project until much later. I’m turning away about a hundred animals a month, please help me. We need these resources to be available as soon as possible. We needed them yesterday.

Please cross post to anyone that may be able to assist.

Jason Huff
Director of Operations
The Pet Connection
jason@thepetconnection.net
www.thepetconnection.net
913-671-PETS
5918 Broadmoor
Mission KS 66202
OPEN HRS: Tues – Sunday 9am-8pm Monday by appt only
Low cost obedience instruction, low cost microchipping
Low cost spay/neuter
Adoption

Where is your mobile phone? Purse.
Where is your significant other? Upstairs.
Your hair colour? Brown.
Your mother? Uneasy.
Your father? Measured.
Your favourite thing? Sleep.
Your dream last night? Stalker.
Your dream goal? Novel.
The room you’re in? Pink.
Your hobby? Knitting.
Your fear? Crazy.
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Organized.
Where were you last night? Here.
What you’re not? Tall.
One of your wish-list items? Clothes.
Where you grew up? Military.
The last thing you did? Taught.
What are you wearing? BCBG.
Your TV? MSNBC.
Your pets? Loud.
Your computer? Demanding.
Your mood? Nervous.
Missing someone? Nana.
Your car? Dirty.
Something you’re not wearing? Pajamas.
Favourite shop? Anthropologie.
Your summer? Hot.
Love someone? Fraction.
Your favourite colour? Tiffany.
When is the last time you laughed? Henry.
When is the last time you cried? Obama.

Your turn.

Meme

Originally uploaded by Kelly Sue

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

This is a game by cast on cast off, here by way of yarnmonster.

The rules:

Using fd’s Flickr Toys,

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Tag yourself if you want to play!

Henry, NO! Originally uploaded by Kelly Sue

First, let me thank Dennis Culver again for the amazing Henry, NO! sketch you see pictured above. So. Awesome. (Dennis is one of those guys who has really upped his game over the last few years. I admire his work ethic tremendously. It’s obviously paying off — check out that THING!)Next, a big thank you to the N3rds for having me on their show and being so kind in light of my caffeine-fueled chattering. I screwed up my courage this morning and listened to the whole thing and — surprise, surprise — it wasn’t as bad as I feared. I do hate my voice, particularly at first, but as I start to relax it’s not as bad. Anyway, I figure my horror is just a symptom of my rampant self-obsession and no one else is going to notice.

Kwip has a lovely voice, doesn’t he? Something about him reminds me of my friend Ryan Olson, who is similarly melodious. (Speaking of voices, do you watch The Wire? I want Slim Charles and Norman to have their own radio show.)

I was bummed to hear in their review of THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #12, they referred to Misty Knight and Colleen Wing as “peripheral bitches.” Setting aside the general ugliness of using “bitches” as a sort of plural pronoun for “women” (which is an uphill battle I’m not going to win, so I’ll just register my dissent politely and move on), I felt as though Misty and Colleen as Heroes for Hire (and with Misty being Danny’s ex, to boot) had earned a distinction beyond arm candy. I think this feeds into a larger discussion we could have on the problem with CONTINUITY and the big two in general, but that’s a can of worms I don’t have time to open today. More when Fraction’s not waiting for me to take the baby, you know? (So… when HL’s 25, we’ll get back to this.)

Speaking of HL, Kara is busily trying to buy a house (YAY!! Go, Kara!) so, alas, she won’t be coming back to look after the boy. That means I’m back to not really being able to work during the day, and any progress I made before the holidays is rapidly coming to naught. SO: Fraction and I are going to go check out some Montessori schools with day care this week. Wish us luck. If we’re not in love with any of these, I guess we’ll start looking for another nanny who can do 2-3 x a week, but I’m hoping for the schools as I’m having to cut down on my work schedule anyway and we can only afford so much. Anyway, cross your fingers for us.

I’m such a dork: I got a little thrill this morning receiving an anonymous shout out from the Babies and Moms Radio Moms in show #42. (I’m the mom who sent Nancy the picture of me reading her book to my son.) I get so much out of their podcast, I really do. Go, BABIES AND MOMS! Love them.

Tonight’s Studio 360 sounds really good:

• “It’s not a computer game. Second Life is an online virtual world designed and controlled by its inhabitants. In some ways it’s just like “real” life: full of buying, selling, entertainment and sex. But the high-power graphic tools that make Second Life possible also make it a great place to design visual art and sculpture. Second Life resident Richard Minsky takes Kurt on a tour of the new virtual masterpieces.”
• “Four years after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended, creator Joss Whedon has resurrected his cult hit TV series in a very surprising fashion: as a comic book. Produced by Eric Molinsky.”
• “Meet Hasan Elahi. He’s an American artist with a focus on new media. After someone reported him as a terrorist, he began using the power of the internet to clear his name: he posts every last detail of his private life, from cell phone records to lunches to urinals. He told Brooke Darrah Shuman how he’s made his website an art project called Tracking Transience.”