November 2006 Archives

I've been asked to be on a panel at SXSW and I really want to say yes. I've never been able to afford going before but being on a panel makes registration much more affordable (um it's free). I have 3 main concerns.

1) I don't have a hotel room and the rumor is that decent hotels are already long gone. Decent meaning close enough to the festivities to not have to get a rental car.

2. Hotel rooms in Austin for SXSW seem very pricey. Add rental car to that plus air fare and you've got a pretty big amount for a trip. We can afford it, I just want to make sure that the experience is going to be worth it. Attending the conference by itself may not be worth it (I'm not sure) but participating on a panel would be a very good, very big deal for me.

3. Don't tell anyone but I'm really afraid of flying. I'm already working on mentally gearing myself up for the flight to Seattle in May. Can I be mentally prepared by March to fly to Austin? The Magic Eight Ball is uncertain.

So help me deal with these issues so I can say yes and we can all have a very good time together in Austin in the spring.

It's become a holiday season tradition for B and I to choose one charity to be mini-fundraisers for each year. Last year we chose the local branch of the excellent School on Wheels. By asking all the guests to our holiday party to consider donating cash or school supplies we were able to give a small cash donation and a pretty impressive collection of school supplies.

This year the charity we've chosen isn't local but it's very near and dear to my heart. The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, is the nation's largest natural-habitat refuge developed specifically to meet the needs of endangered elephants. It is designed specifically for old, sick or needy elephants who have been retired from zoos and circuses. The sanctuary has 2700 acres of land. It's this large size that actually allows the elephants to live like elephants. They don't perform, they aren't forced into small, uncomfortable pens or displays. They don't have to do much of anything besides things they would normally be doing in a natural elephant habitat (eating, lots and lots of walking, playing, socializing with other elephants, etc).

So I encourage you to spend a little of your holiday dollars on The Elephant Sanctuary. You can send a direct contribution or you can choose an elephant to feed for a day or you can buy much needed supplies off their wishlist.

From the sanctuary's website

The Elephant Sanctuary exists for two reasons:

To provide a haven for old, sick or needy elephants in a setting of green pastures, old-growth forests, spring-fed ponds and a heated barn for cold winter nights.

To provide education about the crisis facing these social, sensitive, passionately intense, playful, complex, exceedingly intelligent and endangered creatures.

Elephants have been my favorite animals for as long as I can remember. They are magical to me. It broke my heart to read this very long NY Times article called An Elephant Crackup? It details the remarkably human characteristics elephants have (or perhaps more accurately the elephant characteristics that humans have), and talks about the horrible things humans are doing to elephants and what the elephants are trying to do to survive. It's from that article that I first learned about The Elephant Sanctuary. I did a good amount of research on The Elephant Sanctuary and on the plight of elephants in zoos. I know that I'm sounding like a touchy-feeling, namby pansy but I can't help it, I can no longer visit or support zoos that provide absolutely unacceptable habitats for elephants and other large animals. Keeping an animal that roams 30km a day in the wild in a 100x100 feet pen is animal cruelty that I don't want to be a part of. I've long been opposed to circuses for similar reasons but now zoos are on my radar as well.

A few links of interest

Are Zoos Killing Elephants?
Save Elephants in Zoos
The Elephant Protection Project

Via Jason & J. Brotherlove, a useful Google Bomb.

Martin Luther King
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Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

In February my sister will turn 17. I'm 30. There are years and miles between us and we've spent most of her life not being terribly close. We're just incredibly different people and the age difference is quite large. However we're trying to be closer and we're enjoying spending time together whenever we get the chance.

Several weeks ago I had an epiphany about my relationship with money. It made me wish I'd learned much more about money, credit, fico scores, interest rates, and other financial topics from my parents and educators before I got out into the real world. I didn't know anything about money and it put me in some financial holes that I'm still digging my way out of. My parents haven't really changed much since I left home so I'm not real confident that they're teaching my sister any more about money than they taught me so it occurred to me that I should try to teach her some basics about money and finance.

I thought that was a really great idea except I couldn't figure out how to actually do it. Should I call her on the phone? Take her out to dinner? Write a dissertation? Eventually it came to me. It's great to want to teach her about money but there are several more areas where I have recent or intimate knowledge that could maybe help her as she becomes an adult, heads toward college, etc. So instead of just giving her some notes on money management I decided I should write some lessons for My Sister As She Turns 17. I'll write the lessons, make then into a book and give them as a gift on her 17th birthday.

Ideally I'd come up with 17 lessons but I don't know if I have that many in me, maybe 10 is more realistic. Ones that I'm definitely writing though include:

1. Credit Cards aren't free money
2. The secret to good buttercream icing (my sister loves to bake as do I)
3. Never buy generic Q-tips
4. The one class a semester rule
5. Why it's good to have your heart broken once

A couple months ago I shamelessly posted about my submission to JPG magazine issue 7. I'm pleased to say that my Hometown photo was chosen for publication. Needless to say this is very exciting for me. Thanks very much for your support.

I don't watch much reality television and I've never paid any attention at all to The Amazing Race. But a few weeks ago, between the late afternoon football game and the night game I watched 60 Minutes and didn't turn the channel when The Amazing Race came on. I was pleased as punch to see that one of the couples competing on the show were a coal miner and his wife from rural Kentucky. They were amazing contestants. They played kindly and fairly and approached all the new experiences with eyes and hearts and arms wide open. They were one of the four final couples but they lost this past Sunday. I was sad for them but their parting words were so moving that I'm glad I got to hear them. David spoke about how proud he was of his wife for going on this adventure with him and Mary talked about how the trip made her realize even more that Kentucky was where they belonged, it was their home. But she also said that she was so glad to see other parts of the world and that it made her realize how much she wanted her children to see and experience the world and life as well. It was really beautiful.

Cut to today. It's a very overcast rainy day and I got a late start. So I make it to the gym and back just in time to see the beginning of The View. Rosie's talking about how much she loved Mary & David, how great they were on the show and how excited she was that they were going to be on The View. When the couple came out Rosie talked about how kind and generous they were with the other contestants and the people they met along the way. She also showed a clip of Mary talking about how she'd never known any Asian people before and that she was so happy that she got to know the Cho Brothers (a pair of Asian contestants, actual brothers I think but I'm not sure). Then another clip talking about how she'd never spent any time around gay people but she like them (one pair of contestants was two gay models). Rosie went on and on about how great they were. She then proceeded to give them a ton of gifts including a car, a house, a cruise, and family vacations every year for 3 years. I confess, I got a little weepy. These are the kind of people that a show like The Amazing Race is custom built for. People who never would travel the world any other way. People who don't have the time and resources to just take off and experience things like that. It was so happy-making to see them be such great representatives of Kentucky and to see them so handsomely rewarded even though they didn't win the show. Can we have more stories like this on tv please?*