A Little Less Than a Flock of Chicks

Just a warning, this will be a tad be wordier than any following blogs regarding my monthly charity resolution.

More than anything, I'm blaming this endeavor on The Bloggess. My first encounter with her was linked to charities. It was this entry that I first read, accompanied by Amanda Palmer & Tristen Allen's four-handed piano composition "János vs. Wonderland" in my headphones. I subsequently laughed and bawled and fell in love with the world all over again.

It's taken a few years to get my self back on my own two feet. Well, maybe one and a half feet. I think my left foot still has a wobbly ankle. Nonetheless, that's better than before. I am no longer living with my parents, I have a steady albeit far from glorious job, that pays better than any previous job I've had, and I've already managed to build a desktop computer for myself while also officially paying the last chunk of a student loan in one lump sum. Granted, I still have two student loans to go, but a success is a success.

But I digress.
The Bloggess is constantly doing things to help better the world. Be it thru her humour and snark, or immense compassion. I don't have near the impact she does with others, but I can impact myself.
And while I can't force others to donate or even be aware of charities and causes, I can keep on posting, and I can jump that chasm on my own, from the side of "I'll do this when I have more money" to the side of "This video game can wait, I'm gonna donate almost a flock of chicks."

Which brings me to the donation I made for the month of January.
There were a few charities that I debated over, but I ultimately chose the Worldbuilders 2012 team from the charity thru Heifer International. I chose the Worldbuilders team because they are the ones that brought Team Heifer to my attenion, one, possibly two, years ago. It was thru my internet stalking twitter observations of Patrick Rothfuss and Neil Gaiman where I encountered the charity. As for choosing Heifer for this month's donation, the fundraiser actually ends on the 21st. Others that I considered are ongoing.
Now, Mister Rothfuss (and other contributing authors, etc) gives a little incentive for helping the fundraiser. And while I won't deny that there are a LOT of things there that I'd appreciate owning, what captivated me the most was this. Full Circle. I doubt that it'd come to me, but if it did I know I'd have to keep it going, as my donation certainly isn't worthy of that.
I didn't even donate a flock of chicks. Almost, though. Just a few dollars short. However, I have a thing with numbers. I greatly dislike multiples of five. I do not flee the scene when they appear. But if I can control the situation, then I do, and they go away.

Anyways, I highly recommend you check out Heifer and Worldbuilders (while the fundraiser is going.) And it's just the Worldbuilders fundraiser that ends on the 21st (but will also be back next year, and the next year, and so on and so forth.) You can investigate Heifer any time of the year. Give 'em a thought, a donation, a share - they're worth it.

Alright folks, actually not quite as wordy as I thought I'd be (yikes!), but enough, I'm sure.
I'm always accepting recommendations for charities to look into! Local, or global!
And by no means am I limiting myself to only one charity a month, if dollars allow it, I'll try and do more, or larger amounts. Or both?




Also, I wish technology was advanced enough that the blog could automatically link to the things I'm thinking about on the words I wanted without my having to google, copy, click, and paste. I think that took about as much time as the actually writing did. But I will have my links, gosh darnit!

Ready for Adventure

Just a quick short post, as this is not just musings, but music.

This was my last monthly mix from 2012, finally rounded up.

Ready for Adventure from meganagitor on 8tracks Radio.

For those of you unfamiliar, the past two years I have been making monthly mixes thru 8tracks.

This is the last one from 2012

Starting with this month's mix, for January, I'll be posting them here from now on.

I plan to go into some detail as to why I chose the songs that I did. I'm not promising great insight, as sometimes it's just a song that gets repeated multiple times despite shuffle, and then sticks in my head.

But nonetheless, I'd like to add a little more participation with my music choices and perhaps get some in return.

Enjoy.

Life, greater than Resolutions

I don't even know where to begin. The title alone took me, oh, say, about eight minutes?

Let's state the obvious: This is another attempt at blogging.

No, this is not a resolution. The last few months made me realize that I need a place to speak my mind, and that place isn't Facebook. However, life got in the way. And it took me into the first week of January before I could spend some time getting this set up and gathering my thoughts.

Granted, I will still speak my mind and offend on Facebook. But it's not the place for more than a few sentences. And it's not a place meant for people to actually care. I'm not sure moving my words to a different location will make more people care. But I feel like I'll be able to at least single out the folks that do care, and have meaningful exchanges because of it. (Fingers cross'd.)

The biggest catalyst for this blog? Let me explain to you in picture form:

That's 12 likes.

That's 33 likes.

This? 5 likes.

Cat pictures, a joke my dad made. I'm glad it amuses other people. And it IS Facebook, so maybe I shouldn't expect much.

But it basically broke my heart to see how little acknowledgement the charity got. I know that majority of my Facebook "friends" don't have the budget to help out charities. I have plenty of things I am saving my money for, including  2 student loans, the inevitable replacing of my current vehicle, and my moving out of this midwestern hell hole. But if I can buy myself a video game while also taking care of these goals, then why the hell couldn't I donate a package for a homeless child? So I did.

And again, I understand everyone's priorities are different.

BUT no one even acknowledged that link.

Oh, but there was 5, you say. 

Yes. But 3 were family. And what is 5 compared to 12? To 33?

Meh.

So here's a resolution. Instead of complaining about how no one cares that I gave to charity, I am going to just give to more charities. Try not caring about THAT, douchecanoes.

No but really. Instead of focusing on how this entire world could be better, I'm just going to do what little I can to try and help on my own.

I still need to watch my spending, and make sure I'm saving for both planned and unplanned things in the future.

But I resolve to donate a minimum of $5 to a different charity every month.

Happy January kiddos!