Thursday, November 15, 2012

Building Worlds and Changing Lives

I am participating in Worldbuilders again this year.  I bought a sheep.

I love Heifer International as a charity, because their work has a real impact on the real lives of real people. They let you choose exactly what you are donating and you know that your money will change someone's life with that goat or rabbits or seedlings or whatever you choose.  There is a limited selection of specific items on the Worldbuilders donation page, but if you check out the Heifer International Gift Catalog, you can see the kinds of things they do. They have some pretty cool and clever packages.  (The knitter's basket is not what you would expect).

I mean, medical research is nice and all, but who ever gets to say that their life was changed because one person donated 100$ to cure their cancer. 100$ doesn't go very far in a practical sense in the medical world, especially after the admin costs and fundraising costs that those big charities spend most of it on.  Besides,  everyone wants to get rid of cancer and lung disease, so they aren't hurting for donations.  But not everyone cares about that one family in a poor country whose lives would be better if they just had a reliable source of food.  I want to help them.

Oh yeah, and the cool thing about donating through Worldbuilders?  The lottery.  You get entered to win some awesome donated books and things.  So you just might get a good read along with your warm fuzzies!

Friday, November 09, 2012

There is no Title

Despite my best efforts, there is too much pink in this house!

It is a perfectly nice color as far as colors go, but why is it impossible to find clothes for little girls in any other color?  It's like trying to find a dress with any kind of sleeve in the summer.  Next time we need to buy her something, I am going to the boys section.  Of course we actually have a fairly good set of clothes bought by other people, so I don't really have an excuse yet.  So for now I will just be wandering around the world with a little pink bundle.  As long as we don't limit her to pink toys, we should be okay. She can have real lego bricks like a regular kid. Also, other toys with moving parts that involve thinking.  Because:


(Thank you smbc-comics.com)

Not that I want her to be an engineer, necessarily,  but smart and capable of critical and creative thinking would be nice.


In other, more exciting (to me) news, my husband is putting together another D&D campaign!  It has been over a year since we gave up on the last one, and I do miss playing.  He is a great story teller, and we have a good bunch of people we are looking forward to playing with.  Also, I get to play a Pixie Witch.  I am teeny, and I fly and shoot lightning bolts and fireballs at things. It's going to be awesome!  Little bug can be my Moon Wisp familiar and coo at things for me.  Yeah, we will geek together. Cuz she seems to be good with that so far....


Oh yeah, and there was a big  election.   May I say, Whew.  I know I am not American, but that country impacts ours so much that we do have some stake in the outcome, even if we have no say in it.  I was seriously terrified for a bit there that hate and bigotry and general jackassedness would take over.  But I am okay now.

Although I am still slightly embarrassed that those people and I both consider ourselves Christian.  Embarrassed for them, not me.  I have never seen a group of people so completely missing the point of a very simple concept.  I mean, Christ healed people. For free and everything. And not just any old rich people, the poor and the sinners even!  What part of "Love thy neighbour as thyself"  is hard to understand, especially given his example?  I mean, really.  You hear the disgust in my voice?  oops.

Here is hoping that the old rich white guys party can stop making up "moral" issues they should already be over and spend the next few years working on an actual social and economic policy that might actually help people. Your religious beliefs are your own and the world wants to know if you can lead, not if you are righteous (which by the way, you are doing wrong.  There is no "self" in front of that)

Moving on.

Yay D&D!
And now lunch.