Showing posts with label Geeky Goodness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geeky Goodness. Show all posts

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Pssst! Spread the Word!!

. . . . . .


I have three great causes I'd like to do my small part in spreading the word about. Please read on!!

First: Help a PhD student!
    Who: Adam at ah ok lah and Adam Ok Dot Net
    What: needs A LOT of respondents to answer his survey thus providing vital and valuable information for his PhD research looking at consumers' perception of blogs.
    Where: click on the link at the top of his My Research Methodology post
    What's in it for you: for every survey completed, Adam donates 50p to Cancer Research UK. He also has a £100 cash prize and some amazon.com certificates to give away to lucky respondents.

    Adam is one of my early blog buddies, and I really like that he's pursuing an advanced degree studying the blogosphere and its perceptions. You don't have to be a blogger to help -- you just need to have been reading blogs for more than a year. So please swing by and answer his questionnaire, k?


Next: Help purse-less students in Springfield!
    Who: MochaMomma
    What: Calling for your unused / no longer used small (8.5" x 11" max) purses (a.k.a. handbags), which will be sold cheap to female students who can't afford / find purses of a size that's allowed in her school.
    Where: Read more about it at One Small Thing. One Small Purse (its GENIUS tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/tinypurse)
    What's in it for you: you get to reduce the clutter of unused purses/bags in your closet ~and~ do good at the same time!

    If you've only read just a post or two of MochaMomma's blog, you will already know that she writes beautifully, and that she CARES. Her heart is THIS BIG! So while the plight of purse-less high school girls is not one I have experienced personally (the difference between Malaysian and US schools is really huge!), MochaMomma does a great job explaining why this is something that would make a difference to her female students.

    ... of course, if you know ~me~ you'll also know that I don't do purses/handbags, that I am the epitome of fashion and purses – NOT! The only semi-fashionable/decent one I ever had was a leather backpack styled thing which broke, is now fixed but waiting for me in Switzerland... so in the meantime, I’ve been making do with a 13-year old fanny pack... yes you read that right. Fanny pack. 13 years old. Oh yeah. That’s me!

    So I'll be just donating some cash instead. Some are volunteering to make purses to be given/sold. Others want to just go out and buy some for this effort. There are plenty of ways to participate. I hope you do. :)



Finally: Help Heifer International!
    Who: Fantastic fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss
    What: Pat is giving people a chance to get their names into his second book The Wise Man's Fear while raising funds for his fave charity Heifer International.
    Where: See his So You Want to Be a Hero? post for ALL the details
    What's in it for you: Your name (or a name created by you) might appear in Pat's next book! And you do good by helping needy families worldwide obtain a goat, cow or other livestock.

    Patrick Rothfuss is one of the newer generation of authors who not only has a blog, but interacts a lot with his readers and fans there, and on facebook. He even visited one of my pottery albums and left a message! He's also not shy about being silly (who else would have the cojones to wear such an item, let alone endorse a caption contest for this image??!). And I do like the principle of Heifer International, which I had never heard of until he ran his first fundraising effort for it last year -- I admit, I entered/donated just for the change to get at some of the swag offered, but don't mind not having won anything, the $$ went to a good cause.

    And in case you're not keen on parting with your dough, but want a chance at getting your name in the book, there's also a "no purchase necessary" method of joining this raffle - read the post with all the details, k?


I thank you for your time, and hope you will at least consider following-up with one, two or all three featured bloggers and their causes. And no, I'm getting no kickbacks from this, I just want to do my part to spread the word... it is Blog Action Day after all, even if this doesn't talk about climate change.


Image Credits:

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Emmys Schemmys!

Back when I was a teenager, I did watch the Grammys for a year or three... but in general I really couldn't be bothered with all those award shows, acceptance speeches, etc etc. This year is no different: even knowing that Dr Horrible was being honored even if it's not technically a tv show (it was, after all, a 3-part web series) didn't move me to watch the Emmys tonight. I knew Neil Patrick Harris was hosting, but I've not gone out of my way to be a fan, tho I did enjoy his horribility in said web series.

... and I'm glad that when NPH's evil alter ego hijacked the Emmys live feed, folks were smart enough to make it available online so that people like me could enjoy it without having had to sit through all those acceptance speeches, etc.

So in case you missed it, here's Dr Horrible's hijacking of this year's Emmys:



And in case you have been residing under a really large and heavy rock, here's where you can get acquaint yourself with the horrible goodness that is Dr Horrible.

Have a great start to the week, y'all!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Guild: better late than never!

Patrick Rothfuss made reference to The Guild a few times on this blog. The Guild is what helped inspire Joss Whedon to create Dr Horrible during that writers' strike. And recently both Pat and Wil Wheaton were gaga over a music video released to publicise Season 3 of this web-series.

Curiosity finally got the better of me, once Kapgar also posted the video.

I hit play. And I was hooked. Why don't you try?



My fave line is: "You’ll touch my “+5 to dexterity” vest."
And yes, I'm geeky enough to appreciate this, even if I've never been sucked into the MMO world.

If Felicia Day looks familiar to you, you might recognise her from Buffy Season 7 (she was one of the many Slayerettes), or from Dr Horrible (his love interest). I've not seen the "missing" Dollhouse episode (Epitaph One), but she's in that too. Yes, she has done non-Whedon projects, I just haven't seen 'em. You can read more about Felicia and The Guild here (a Wall St Journal article!).

Anyways... so this The Guild thing... a series of webisodes about a local group guild of gamers who end up interacting in real life... to rather disastrous results. I've watched Season One, and will be move on to Season Two soon. Season Three just came out today.

Try it out!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

of focal and spasmodic dystonia

I knew that Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, had suffered from focal dystonia where his pinky finger would spasm uncontrollably when he tried to draw his cartoon - certainly NOT something a cartoonist would want! I also knew that more recently he was suffering from something similar relating to his voice.

Knowing is one thing.
Reading about these afflictions in a fascinating albeit a touch long article by Wired is another thing entirely.

If you're interested, do click on through to the article: it's 3 pages long, but I found it an excellent read.

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Friday, May 08, 2009

#996: A wink at Firefly :)

For your weekend enjoyment:

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:


Part Five:


Source: xkcd - A Webcomic (Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five)



If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Monday, May 04, 2009

#995: May the Fourth be with You!

... today is

STAR WARS DAY!


Get it? Get it??

:D

May the fourth be with ...

.. oh never mind.

I like the pun.


:p

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed
or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

about two months later...

 ... hi again. This return to blogging is really not working out, is it? Actually, I am writing, three pages of mind vomit and affirmations ...