Posts filed under 'Schtuff'
We get lots of mail from charities. We have a select few we donate to regularly, which we’ve chosen on the basis of their mission, their effectiveness, and frankly, where we feel specifically called to contribute. I’ve always assumed folks do something similar, based on their own conscience or conviction, and thus have never felt an interest in fundraising for a charity. I’d even put it more strongly that I was averse to fundraising for a charity. Who am I to tell you that you should send your money somewhere?
I’m looking at that a little differently tonight, and figured I’d get this out there before I retreat into my self-righteous conviction (or fear of being thought overbearing/silly/ineffective/yada yada yada…). On June 7, Bello Machre is holding their Every Step Counts walk. Its purpose is to raise money for and awareness of the relatively overlooked community of developmentally disabled individuals. This organization seeks to let these individuals participate as fully in the community as they are able or willing, including such items as providing group homes to let adults live semi-independently, or extra hands to help families dealing with the challenges of day-to-day living. The need for these programs is great, and the waiting lists are long: see the article ‘Judge a Society By How it Treats its Weakest?‘ from the Capital Gazette for a great writeup of what the program does, and what its needs are.
As a parent, I pray for the health of my kids, and celebrate their growth and accomplishments. I also look forward to the day when I can celebrate their accomplishments as adults in our society. The developmentally disabled, and their families, deserve those same opportunities and need a bit of assistance to make those opportunities happen. My faith tells me that each of us is created for a purpose for the days we spend here on earth. On June 7, I’ll be walking in celebration of the purpose and opportunities God has given these people who we tend to overlook, and raising funds to help Bello Machre help those opportunities happen. If you’re interested in sponsoring me, please contact me either in person or via email at coleman—-serious…gmail/com. (Remove the dashes, and punctuate appropriately to make a reasonable email address.)
May 12th, 2008
I’m refreshing the Washington Post front page every few minutes, looking for the latest score in the Caps versus Flyers, and Hillary vs. Obama. I’m rooting for the Caps and Hillary, for the record, but am really enjoying the stick it out battle both sets are having. The Caps have had to fight through to get to a game 7, and Hillary is fighting to remain in the race. Contests that are real contests, that challenge both parties to give it their all and prove why they deserve the win, are worth watching and rooting for. Whoever wins I’ll respect, because the contest was well-fought. The Orioles game hasn’t yet started their game against the Mariners (they’re out on the West Coast tonight), but I’m enjoying rooting for the underdog doing good, the team proving that you shouldn’t count them out yet, that they’re here to play ball. May I always be here to play ball.
April 22nd, 2008
I just saw the final score of the Super Bowl on a news site. I had been watching the game, but the parental thing kicked in, and bedtime for my kids called. After that, the urge to watch the rest just wasn’t there, not when I could get near real-time score updates through the local paper.
I had been rooting for the Patriots. Hey, the idea of completing a perfect season has a real ring to it. And this wasn’t just some cocky team from New York. Not that the Giants were cocky, but being from Baltimore, I have a problem rooting for somebody from New York.
I have to give New York their due, though. The parts of the game I did see were impressive. I was still rooting for Brady to come through, but it was to come through after the beating that the Giants were giving him. Nearly every play it looked like he was getting dinged by somebody.
My husband was talking with his mother this evening, who was watching the game live. I had the game on Tivo-pause, on the theory that I’d go back down and continue (this was early in the whole kid-to-bed process). She said that the Giants had just scored a touchdown, but that the game wasn’t over. From watching the scores on the news site, looks like it was a good head-to-head.
There are doubtless sports writers now scrambling to throw away paragraphs of preconceived outcomes of the game. More power to the Giants for coming through, for showing that they weren’t just showing up. I still would’ve liked to see the Patriots get the perfect topping for the season, but I guess they’ll just have to take the records they did win, and use the loss as fuel for next year’s run.
February 3rd, 2008
Today’s top MP3 artist on Amazon.com is Alvin and the Chipmunks. They have #13 and #22 on the day’s top MP3s: ‘FunkyTown‘ and ‘Witch Doctor‘, respectively. Uh, and I wanna buy ‘Witch Doctor‘. I’ve been kind enough to link to the pages so that you can yourself preview these tracks and live in shame, like me.
December 28th, 2007
I love it! I’ve got various comment spam measures turned on to try to reduce the amount of just plain gick that folks try to attach to my website. One of those measures requires you to give me an email address. Now, I hate spreading my info across the web, so I usually make something up. But the one this guy attached is just great: jeff@notgonnagiveyoumyrealaddresssorry.com. Whoever you are, Jeff, made me laugh. Thanks. (And, by the way, he had interesting feedback, too: check it out at http://www.nerderypublic.com/archives/289.)
October 25th, 2007
On Sunday, I had an amazing day. (Monday wasn’t nearly so amazing, but I’ll save that rant for a separate post.) On Sunday, my daughter scored an amazing number of goals in our soccer game AND I got to ride a motorcycle. At one point she turned to me and said ‘that’s goal number five, Mommy!’. The mommy side of me cheered. The coach side of me figured I’d better get her off the field fairly quickly to try to keep things even across both our team and the other team. It’s under-six soccer, no goalie, no keeping score, everybody gets equal playing time. But when one kid keeps scoring, folks tend to notice and grumble a bit. Hey, can I help it if she’s got legs like a gazelle?
Anyway, back to the motorcycle thing. It’s been a long-time dream of mine to drive and own a motorcycle. This Sunday was just a taste, riding on the back of a friend’s bike. But now I’ve got the fever bad. I keep looking in the want ads at used bikes, and then going to look up what features the various bikes have. I’m no motorcycle expert. One of the guys at work tells me I should look for a bike with ABS. (Hey, I’d like abs, too, though I was thinking more of the six-pack variety.) Others suggest getting a new bike. Others suggest getting a Rebel. (Did I mention that I get to whet my appetite based on two of the guys in my office pulling up on motorcycles occasionally?)
So now I’m dreaming of ways to finance my toy without impacting our budget or feeling like I’m depriving my kids’ college educations. If you know any great software developers with security clearances, I’m accepting resumes. One or two referral bonuses would do quite nicely to finance the dream.
September 28th, 2007
Hitting the iTunes store with a gift card I bought from Best Buy. Downloaded a few songs, mostly of the ‘keep me running’ variety for the long marathon training sessions. (Hey, Saturday’s run is 20 miles: expecting to go through a few songs there.) In the ‘Just for You’ section, iTunes now recommends ‘Greatest Hits’, by Pat Benatar. Ouch.
September 20th, 2007
My finance professor at Loyola offered us extra credit in our summer class if we’d submit a list of 100 goals to him. Having a goal of earning an ‘A’ in the class (goal #58 on the list), I decided that if he was willing to take non-finance work as credit for finance, that I would take him up on the deal. I’ve always been goal-driven, and in fact had written a list of goals of things I wanted to accomplish before I got married (goal list unfortunately long mislaid). Since then, though, I’d focused on only 1 or 2 goals at a time, and hadn’t again jotted down a list of things to do. What I discovered in performing the exercise that the act of generating 100 goals was insightful as to what kinds of things I’d like to do. To get to 100, I had to brainstorm in all sorts of directions. Goal #1: Read the Bible completely. Other goals included things like run a marathon (scheduled for Oct 28), run a marathon in less than 4:15 (requiring a 9:43 per mile pace, not yet accomplishable by me for more than 1 mile at a time: hey, I’m slow, but I’ll finish), train a puppy as a seeing eye or other guide dog, help build a house for Habitat for Humanity, read ‘Moby Dick’ (read a few chapters while eating my sushi the other night), receive a patent, …. [and the list goes on]. Nothing too controversial, though I did vow to get another tattoo. (I thought about checking that one off while my family was out of town this weekend, but I opted to do more boring things like mow the lawn.)
Note that I did achieve goal #58 (get an ‘A’). Goal #76 (get another tattoo) is as yet still pending.
August 27th, 2007
Did you know that:
- poison ivy rashes last 14-21 days? (they’ll be coming to take me away, ha ha, long before that if this estimate is correct)
- the delay between contact with the ivy and onset of rash can be several days? (Um, I now know that it can be at least 3)
- you can’t spread it on yourself by scratching? (hallelujah!)
I can now rest easy that the misery I’ve been experiencing more than a week now I can’t pass onto my children if they bump my leg. That’s good. And I can scratch with abandon… ever seen a video of a bear rubbing up against a tree? I may have to go mano-a-mano against the bear to get a good tree.
July 12th, 2007
Work’s sicc’ed an investigator on me. A guy in a 3-piece suit whose work consists of asking people from my past whether I’m a good guy or a bad guy. Who apparently racks up a lot of miles on his car: hope he’s honest in his mileage estimates for his taxes. But while he’s judging me by the company I keep, here’re a few job titles seen lately via connections on LinkedIn. Note: these are actual job titles seen as my current connections add new people to their list of links:
* the CEO of a past company is now connected to an individual who bills themselves as ‘Sr VP- Wealth Management at [major financial company name]’: guess he’s doing well!
* a past boss is now connected to an individual who lists part of their title as ‘Web Designer at Playboy Enterprises Inc.’. Perhaps he’s not doing as well as the CEO, but he may have some interesting stories to tell at parties.
Now, it turns out that the Playboy designer likely knew my ex-boss from a shared previous company. But you have to dig to get that info. LinkedIn just tells me, without digging, that this person has a new connection, and this is what they do. Nice eyebrow-raiser for the morning.
July 3rd, 2007
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