Save Our S00j!

Another Shiny in the Works

2015-02-03T21:56:29Z

Hi, gang! It's been six years since you helped save my booty. It's a very happy booty today, and I am shaking it for you right now. :D

Two of our beloved number are working on an anthology project together, and it falls under the pay-it-forward, make-it-better umbrella. At their request, I am boosting the signal here.

alexandraerin is accepting submissions for a chapbook! The chapbook will be available on a "pay-what-thou-wilt-shall-be-the-whole-of-the-law" scale, and it will benefit a much-needed, soon-needed shoulder surgery for popelizbet, she who oft puts her injured-but-mighty shoulder to the grindstone to help so many others.

Check out the post, send help, send love, send creativity! Thank you all so much. <3

Wanna help s00j and Heather Dale and Tricky Pixie and and and..?

2012-06-27T16:04:43Z

Originally posted by elionwyr at Wanna help s00j and Heather Dale and Tricky Pixie and and and..?

Originally posted at http://omnisti.livejournal.com/19805.html:

~~~

Hello, my friends. I got a gentle reminder to post this to LJ, since not everyone is on FB...

Our little music collective has applied for a $250,000 grant, and you can help us qualify for it.

I just need 250 votes in the system at http://missionsmallbusiness.com" to get into the running, but I think a few extra votes would show them just how much this could affect our little Touring Music Collective ( Sj Tucker, Heather Dale, Alexander James Adams, Marian Call, Wendy Rule, Tricky Pixie, GB Mojo, The Traveling Fates, and maybe a little help for Frenchy and the Punk.) Like, vote, then share this link, spread the word.

How do you vote for us? Go to http://missionsmallbusiness.com and log in with a facebook account, then search for "Touring Music" in the "Business Name" field. You shouldn't need a city or state, but I used our office address in Redmond, Washington as the base location. That might help if it doesn't come up with a basic search for some reason.

If you don't have a facebook account, you can help spread the word by asking friends and family to vote on your behalf.

All votes must be in by June 30th. That's only a few days away.

(As of this posting, they're at 233 votes! GO MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN!!)

Tzaddia Morningstar

2011-01-16T03:22:50Z

Anything you can do to help will be more appreciated than you will ever know!!!! If you can't give monetary, then please consider sending her a message through the link at the bottom. The hospital prints the messages daily and delivers them to the patient rooms. Throughout the last couple of years and the ins and outs of the hospital Tzaddia has saved every single note and it has meant so much to her. I know it still will along with her family seeing how loved and cared for she is. I know many of you may not even know her... but some of you even won auctions of her items when this community first started (the horns). Thank you for whatever you can offer.

Flame

Tzaddia and her family need our help

As I’m sure most of you have heard Tzaddia Morningstar has taken a turn for the worse and the cancer she has battled so beautifully for so many years has reached her brain. Doctors are giving her just a few more weeks. We would love to be able to raise some money for her family during this hard time. We would like to hire a nurse for her so she can be kept “comfortable” at home where she belongs instead of in the hospital. Tzaddia has given so much to this community, even when she could barely walk she still gave and gave to all of us. She is unlike anyone I’ve ever known, and I know there are a lot of people out there that would just like to give her family back just a little.

Please, if you can spare even $5 it goes a long way across the miles. Maybe we’ll be able to buy them dinner, maybe we’ll be able to get her a nurse, maybe we’ll be able to help her family pay her hospital bills … anything to help her and her family.

Tzaddia has fought so hard for so many years. I think personally I was starting to believe she was invincible. At least her spirit is…there’s no doubt about that. And I know there is a sparkle in my heart that will always belong to her.

---- Nancy McGee

Paypal donations for the family can be sent directly to breckinridgefamily@yahoo.com

Please give a little if you can. It would mean so much to this family.

Shell Flame Murphy is also managing messages and such for the family at this time. Shell writes:

“I know that many of you would want to see her and say good bye, and I understand this. But please please, get in touch with me first. With good days and bad days, she is easily overwhelmed with a lot of people around and this is very stressful for her family and Chad. The family wants nothing but peace and calm and quiet around her and to also have their private time as much as possible.

To help ease this stress I'm asking you to give me a text, PM on facebook, or email so I can find out first how Tzaddia is feeling, and second when the best time is to be there. And remember.. you can still send those amazing messages through the hospital to her... they mean so much and she reads through them often

http://www.wth.org/body.cfm?id=1761 (Tammy Breckinridge)

I know you all understand and will respect the family's wishes. I will do everything in my power to help you and if you have anything you want her to know or have any messages for her, Chad, & Garrison I will get those messages to them.”

Please help save my friends from unjustified eviction!

2010-11-01T21:35:12Z

Here is what business looks like in a recession:

Clay and Ranada rent their home. The building management says, hey, we've made life easy for you: use this banking service for automatic rent payment. They take money out of your account and send it to us. It's awesome. Clay and Ranada say that that does indeed sound awesome and they sign up.

Money leaves their account every month, as it should.

Money does not arrive at the building management.

The building management says, hey, you haven't been paying your rent, what's up with that?

Clay and Ranada and their very nice lawyer explain that this is the fault of the banking service. The banking service says it will take a while for them to go through their records and determine whether that's the case.

The building management says, hey, we feel bad for you, but we're still going to evict you by Tuesday morning if you don't pay us the $3500 we think you owe us. Regardless of whose fault it is, we still need a tenant in there who can get money to us because we ourselves are very short of money. So no grace period. Sorry.

Clay and Ranada ask their friends for help, but their friends are broke too. They look for loans--because as soon as the banking service admits that this is their fault, the building management will repay that $3500--but there are no loans to be found.

Tuesday morning is tomorrow.

Clay's been a friend of mine for going on twenty years. He's had a really hard couple of years--much as we all have. He's still managed to scrape by and support himself and pay his rent. None of this is in any way his fault, unless you want to blame him for trusting companies to do what they say they're going to do. Nonetheless, he expects to spend today putting his belongings in boxes because tomorrow they'll be out on the curb with him, unless a miracle occurs and $3500 shows up in his Paypal account tonight.

The clock is ticking. Please help that miracle happen.

Another chance to help another sweet soul

2010-10-29T05:01:19Z

With darling s00j's permission, I'd like to bring your attention to another soul in need and another auction to help (if you're on my other LJs you're seeing this for the third time, sorry!)

I have a donation in the auction and they are looking for bids and other auction items.

To sum up: a very sweet girl I know -- snowcoma -- is in the situation of needing immediate therapeutic help or facing the need to be put into a mental health facility soonest. This is beyond the resources available to her locally at no cost, which as many of us know are part of a system that is overwhelmed, and she really needs to be able to afford the professionals who are already familiar with her issues.

If you can bid, donate items, or boost the signal, please visit savesnowssanity.

Because, as vixyish always says, this is what we do.

Arpeggio #22 - The First Appearance of Our SOS Sponsors!

2010-10-07T02:25:00Z

Finally!

Remember that fund-raising drive wherein we offered appearances in a forthcoming webcomic to folks who donated to Save Our Sooj? Well, almost two years later, those appearances begin this week.

Originally called "String Theory," the webcomic was eventually retitled Arpeggio and appeared online a few months back. Why has it taken so long to get the contributors involved? Three reasons:

1. We're doing this webcomic old-school style: one full page per episode, each one scripted, sketched, penciled, inked, lettered and blogged. This takes roughly a week per installment, so we built up a backlog of almost 40 completed episodes before we went live. This way, we avoid the stall-out that often occurs when Life inevitably disrupts the comic-production schedule.

2. I had already scripted over 20 episodes when the Save Our Sooj benefit began. The real-life "characters" got added to the storyline from there on out. I'm now up to over 70 episodes written, with most of the appearances scripted and many of them drawn but not yet posted.

3. We had plenty of technical troubles getting the strip online. Arpeggio premiered months later than we had planned, and it took a few more months beyond that to become a regular feature.

And now, here it is!

Our first SOS contributor, Courtney Landes, takes on the role of a teacher at Meghan's school. Other real-life folks will appear in various characterizations - all fictional, and each a part of Meghan's world. So yeah, stick around. Arpeggio just became even more interesting than before.

Enjoy!

Claim the Future - Deliria, Silver Satyr, Quiet Thunder & You

2010-09-17T18:30:42Z

Claim the Future. We do.

Conventional wisdom says this: “Never tell people what you need. Never tell them what you have in mind. Never risk losing by showing your cards at the table.”

Damn conventional wisdom.

Here’s what’s up with the future of Deliria, Mythpunk and Spice.

Having seen the lasting legacy of a certain RPG, my former partners and I decided that Deliria should live again. Bringing that faerie back from near-death, though, would require more than a clapping of hands. It would take time, work, dedication and cash. And like Peter Pan, I need your help.

My partner Sandi/ Damiana calls magic “the art of getting off your ass and making things happen.” Last year, we made magic happen with Ravens in the Library. Funded by pre-orders and made possible by dozens of hard-working people, Ravens sold through six print runs and became a hallmark of micropublishing success. More recently, we've done the same with Arpeggio, the Little Webcomic That Could that's inspired, in part, by a certain bard we all know and love.

I’ve written elsewhere about the laborious process involved in quality media publication. Traditionally, that process demanded a large company with deep pockets, wasting phenomenal amounts of resources to score the occasional hit. It no longer has to be that way, though. With high-quality print-to-order technology, web-based distribution, social media, and crowd-funding sponsorship, a small group of people can promote creativity and share it with a world-wide audience.

This isn’t “the wave of the future” – it’s the magic of NOW.

We’ve done it before. We want to keep doing it. And we want to share that magic with you.

A few months back, we decided to create a gaming imprint – Silver Satyr Studios – to release new Deliria material. The long-limbo’d supplement Goblin Markets – The Glitter Trade will be our debut release. Other proposed projects include Powerchords, Roses & Thorns, several sets of Urban Fantasy Character Cards, Deliria: Street Theatre Faerie Tales, a new and pocket-sized Compact System rulebook, and perhaps even a new edition of Deliria itself.

Meanwhile, our fiction imprint, Quiet Thunder Productions, is producing two anthologies: Mythpunk: Rich & Strange and Spice: Tales to Make Your Toes Curl. Several other books are on the drawing board. Following the Ravens in the Library tradition, these books offer top-shelf fantasy fiction that dares to respect its audience. Cat Valente, Seanan McGuire, Storm Constantine, Angel Leigh McCoy, Amal El-Mohtar, Erzebet Yellowboy... these authors, and others, are already involved with Spice and Mythpunk.

Did I mention that every contributor is getting paid? And retains the rights to his or her work?

This isn't about individual books. It's about reinventing the ways books get made.

So yeah – that’s what we’re doing. Here’s what we need.

Sponsorship.

We need folks who can spread the word. Make connections. Toss in whatever they can afford (which we know is often very little) to help us pay our people, print our books, pay the many bills that comes with publishing, and make a little bit for ourselves in the bargain.

Here’s what we give our sponsors.

Occasional creative input. Eternal thanks. Frequent goodies. The chance to make things happen, and a hands-on role in the creative process.

Where traditional publishing relegates its supporters to perpetual consumers, and keeps most of the profits at the expense of its creative artists, we share the magic. Folks who’ve worked with us before – who’ve packed boxes, written stories, performed readings, illustrated books and so forth – know how sick we are of “conventional wisdom” and way in which it treats both artists and audience. All of us – Sandi, Sherry Baker, Bryan Syme, Sooj and myself, among others – work hard at slow yet steady paces to bring our work to life.

We can’t do it alone. But we share the glory, too.

This is the revolution. The proof that conventional wisdom is wrong. As big-box media eats itself alive, the future of creativity comes not from the Next Big Thing™-comma-dammit shoveled through some corporate titan, but from people like you and us. People committing tiny acts of daily magic.

Right now, the future of Deliria looks like two books called Powerchords and Goblin Markets. We need to see whether there’s enough audience enthusiasm to support the hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars required to craft such books.

Obviously, we believe there is.

We believe in Quiet Thunder and Silver Satyr. And we have proof that we’re correct.

Are you with us?

Thanks for whatever you can offer.

Together, let’s make things happen.

Magic's just the beginning of what we all can do.

Help an unjustly arrested woman get a lawyer and defend herself

2010-08-11T21:20:08Z

One of the nicest guys in the whole world needs cash in a hurry to help his best friend get a lawyer. She was arrested for not appearing at a court appointment that no one ever told her about, over a bill that she paid not once but twice. While in lockup she was treated abominably. Help her fight this nonsense and win.

docwebster's been a tremendous friend to me for fifteen years while going through some really hard times, and the first time he puts up a Paypal button, it's not for him but for someone he cares about; that's just the kind of guy he is. I'll match donations up to a total of $50, so please give what you can and I will make it go twice as far. I just wish I could do more.

I would really appreciate it if you would spread the word about this. Shared pain is lessened, as Doc has said many times. Let's prove it true.

[s00j or other mods, please let me know if it's not okay to post this!]

Can't Stop the Hollow

2010-06-22T19:43:49Z

Kore has an update post, and it's very encouraging. We're nudging her to put up more specific donating/share-buying instructions. This is very, very good news.

Signal Boosts, close to home

2010-06-22T03:03:20Z

Save Sariel, save the awesome. :-)

Also, just in case there are some of you left who don't know what's up with Alec, please read. Not much time left on this one, and it's dire. I have faith that the right thing will happen, whatever that may be. May it be the best thing, and a joyful thing.

Help for Alec James Adams

2010-06-21T01:45:20Z

Musician Alec James Adams and his partner need help:

We thought we could negotiate for more time. We were wrong. On July 9^th, 2010, [our home] Fae Hollow goes up for auction by the foreclosing loan agent. We need $30,000 by July 1^st to stop this from happening. This is beyond our means to borrow. What we need is not a rescue but an investment partner. We need to secure the money necessary to stop the auction and someone of good credit who can co-sign or out right buy Fae Hollow in order to put mortgage payments into an affordable perspective.

What we offer in return is part ownership of 30+ acres of magical land. Fae Hollow has an incredible power of magic and healing and we want to protect that. It has always been a wish of ours to share this power with others in the form of workshops and week-end long events but we have never even gotten the mortgage under control, let alone set up the provisions necessary for this to happen.

...We do not want to lose this place of music and magic. We are open to serious business propositions or ideas that could make this happen.

We have a potential plan that could start working as early as late July or August involving the workshops if we could just stop the foreclosure sale.

Contact information at Alec's entry.

Via his Tricky Pixie musical partner s00j. To quote her, "This is a big deal. Please read and spread the word. There isn't a lot of time."

Nashville - useful links, memorial service for Joshua Landtroop at PUF

2010-05-04T16:06:06Z

Taken from Amanda Armstrong's guest blog post at the Wild Hunt blog.

The most relevant links and info from the post, for those of you in a hurry:

The death toll is currently at 22 from this storm system. One of those lives was a member of the pagan community, Joshua Landtroop. He leaves behind two children and many friends. Joshua left work on foot Saturday to check on his two children at home when flood waters started to rise. His body was found Sunday morning. The waters rose so quickly in some areas that no one could have survived being swept away. There will be a memorial service on Saturday night for Joshua at the annual Pagan Unity Festival held May 13th the 16th in Burns, TN at Montgomery Bell State Park. Memorials are encouraged for the Joshua Landtroop Trust Fund for his two sons Heath and Tristan at Family Advantage Federal Credit Union, P. O. Box 39, Spring Hill, TN 37174. For more information on PUF, please visit http://paganunityfestival.org/ .

Hands on Nashville is our main clearinghouse for volunteer work, you can donate at hon.org/HomePage/index.php/home.html .
ETA: owl_tn says: Hands on Nashville is swamped with volunteers, which is NOT A BAD PROBLEM TO HAVE. But SIGN UP ANYWAY if you're local. They'll be needing lots of people over the coming weeks for cleanup and restoration efforts. We'll all get a chance to pitch in.

The Community Foundation of Nashville is accepting donations to support flood relief, restoration and clean up online at http://www.cfmt.org/floodrelief or by calling (615) 321-4939.

The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce has established an account to help flood victims. Donations can be sent to 177-A Belle Forest Circle, Nashville, TN 37221, payable to Bellevue Flood Aide. For further information, call (615) 662-2737.

I hadn't realized just how terrible things were until today. If I light all the candles I wish to, something's going to burn down. My heart goes out to Nashville, all of our tribe there, and everyone in and out of town who's hurting, who's lost someone, who's lost everything.

PUF folks, please let me know if I can do anything to help the memorial service go more smoothly. I'll sing, if nothing else, if you ask me.

More help for friends and fans in Tennessee

2010-05-03T19:20:08Z

air_n_darkness has made a great consolidated list of the needs of our TN folks--three families that we know of, who are recovering from the floods in Millington and Frayser. She's also made herself a contact hub for those families, which puts her at the level of Goddess all over again in my book. Her post is here.

I'm just gonna keep boosting the signal, because it's the best thing I can come up with to do for now.
Again, those of you who know of other folks in need since the flooding, please comment here and I'll repost.

Love you all.

When the Levee Breaks...

2010-05-03T05:07:08Z

We pull each other out.

moonstone_fae , one of my best and brightest Tennessee fans, lost everything in the floods this weekend.
She did not lose her life or her family--all of them are ok, thank the gods. Her house was right next to a levee that just let go. They are staying with friends for now.

When weather hits us hard down in the Bible Belt, it usually doesn't fuck around.

There's a public post of what she and her family are missing or need right now; take a look.

At the request of friends, she's posted her Paypal address and a mailing address for the time being:

blackcatarmoury @gmail.com

Physical address:
c/o KC Stokes
6930 Raleigh Millington
Millington, TN 38053

I'm devastated for her, but I'm super-relieved to hear that she's all right. I've heard several stories since coming back from the Beltane weekend (where we had to abandon ship ourselves, to an extent) of folks not getting out alive.

If any of you want to boost signal about other friends in need, please do so here in our community, either in comments here or in separate posts, with my blessing.

Signal Boost for Bravery

2010-04-13T18:39:07Z

Also nifty things, via wirewalking .

Having gotten nowhere with her long and fretful job search, starherd is doing something very brave.
In fact, she's doing something brave that's very like what I did, almost exactly seven years ago.
She's taking the leap.
For a start-up boost, she's auctioning off some seriously nifty things, of interest to genre fans.
Check out wirewalking 's post for more info.

Holding the light in San Diego, one week from now

2010-02-15T04:43:44Z

One week from tonight, since I won't be in St. Louis for the community ritual on behalf of the McCall family, I'll collect donations to send their way at my San Diego house concert. That performance will be dedicated to young Tegan, now dancing in the Summerlands.

Sunday February 21, 2010 — 6pm
House Concert
Madhouse at Camelot
San Diego, CA
RSVP to Brian for directions

Selling my writing, eventually starting group sale, to benefit homeless San Jose family

2010-02-13T10:23:06Z

Hi, I’m Cristina Deptula, editor-in-chief of Synchronized Chaos Magazine (http://www.synchchaos.com) and very glad Sooj has now recovered and is back to playing music! Honored to have taken part in this effort by auctioning off advertising space in our publication.

I’m now personally offering to send a piece of original poetry to anyone who sends a donation of any amount to the working, but homeless, mother and daughter mentioned in this blog (and all over the news last year.) http://my.lettersoflove.net/lettersforkaty/

I know the family personally and have built a relationship with them over time, as have many others - and they have been diligently job-searching and writing, and I’d like to see them get a break. They were also featured on CNN.com news and California's Channel 2 - so reporters have checked out their story.

You may check out the 17-year old daughter’s writing and graphic design here: http://destinationanywherebuthere.blogspot.com. There's a link for a PayPal donation there...alternatively, you may send cash or prepaid credit cards to the Hughes family, P.O. Box 111525, Campbell, CA 95011.

They apparently now have a mentor and a lead on housing and a job, but that’s in Pennsylvania (across the United States from where they are now, in California) and they need to come up with cash for the move.
Please let me know you donated, and I’ll send you a poem!

We're going to suggest setting up a group anthology/art sale etc event, similar to what helped Sooj out - and will keep you updated (with the moderator's permission ;)

From Lyon's blog

2010-02-12T21:46:00Z

Quoting lyon_martin , one of our Ravens contributors:

Recently the McCall family lost everything in a house fire.

Their 17 year old son woke up in the first floor living room to find a couch ablaze from a fire in the basement below. He ran upstairs, woke his parents, and attempted to gather the rest of the family; eventually with his father's help lifting them out onto the roof. The father, Bud, found a way down to a second story balcony, from there to a ground floor work shed, and then to the air conditioning unit, where he proceeded to kick in the front door and look for his missing daughter, Tegan. Although he made three attempts to get into the house to look for Tegan, he was driven out of the house by the intense heat and smoke from the fire. The rest of the family were rescued from the roof by fire fighters using a ladders, but tragically, Tegan was lost to the fire.

Bud was hospitalized with smoke inhalation and minor burns. The mother, Dawn, was briefly admitted, then released. The three surviving children were taken to the ER; two were admitted overnight for observation.

All personal effects of the McCall household were destroyed.

Complete donation information is available at the website below, which will be updated as necessary.

A Pagan community-based ritual to benefit the McCall Family will be held on Sunday, February 21st at:

Comfort Inn and Conference Center
9600 Natural Bridge Road
Saint Louis, MO 63134

The science fiction convention Conflation will be held at this site that weekend, and they have generously offered the use of the space for this purpose. We will have the space after 3pm; ritual is expected to begin around 4pm. This will be a Black Forest style healing ritual, in which individual participants bring their wishes, and the entire group puts magical energy into bringing them about. Bring your drums, rattles, sistrums and other instruments, as we will be using chant and music to raise energy. We feel this will be an excellent way to send good energy to the McCall Family in their time of overwhelming need. It is an integral part of the ritual that each person donate cash as a way of getting the energy flowing. All donations will be sent to the McCall Family fund.

It's time for us to take care of our own.

Please join us to aid the family with healing energy and monetary support.

McCall Family Donation Information

http://www.mfdonations.com

Please share with your other lists.

Thank you.

[BoostingTheSignal] Medical Scariness: Help An Artist In Need

2010-02-05T20:36:17Z

Signal boosted from matociquala's post, quoting asatomuraki's post:

hominysnark needs a hysterectomy to keep an unpleasant medical condition from becoming a life-threatening one (it's already most of the way there) and she can't, because she doesn't have health insurance.

Why doesn't she have health insurance? Because she's self-employed, and as many self-employed creative people (she's an artist and writer) know all too well, when you have to choose between eating and having a place to sleep or having health insurance, the health insurance loses. I know this, because the hubby and I have been paying for self-employment health benefits for most of this decade, watching the cost go higher and higher while the benefits get lower and lower. We pay more for health insurance than we do for shelter, but live in terror of not having it, just in case. Because not having it could mean complete financial ruin, and destroy our children's future. It's freaking scary.

So, anyway. She needs $2700.00 for the operation, or she has to wait for her condition to become life-threatening. (It will get there long before she could save up that much, especially since she has $8,000.00 in medical bills from just having it diagnosed.) See, she falls in that sweet spot between having enough income to have health insurance or pay for health care herself and being poor enough to qualify for any sort of break from providers or government program.

I know that if every one who can will give a buck or two, maybe we can get this thing done before her life is at risk.

---Donation Button Code---
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"><br /><input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"><br /><input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="7758066"><br /><input type="image" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!"><br /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"><br /></form>
---End Donation Button Code---

Please feel free to boost this signal where you think it ought to be boosted. Cross-posted.

[Edit] Other ways to help include elisem's fabulous pendants that she is auctioning off to help hominysnark. She makes some of the most lovely jewelry I've ever seen.

[Edit the second] A community, fluffybunnyfund, has been started for this cause! There are some amazing things there, included an ARC of Bone and Jewel Creatures by Elizabeth Bear (matociquala).

[Help Haiti] One of Many

2010-01-21T17:54:28Z

So many extraordinary people are creating beautiful things in an effort to do something to help Haiti recover.
omnisti and I are concocting something. Other movers and shakers (and founders) of this community are hard at work on wonderful surprises, or are already making noise and raising funds, getting funds where they need to go in order to do the most good.

Today a beautiful soul whom I have not yet been blessed to meet posted her own beautiful offering, her own brilliant fundraising idea.
There's a great story attached to it. tsubaki_ny is, like many of us here, a wonderful storyteller. Please go and experience her words, and buy a shirt or a mug if you can. Just as good: donate to one or another of the charitable organizations she mentions.

From her post:
"I’m nobody. I’m not a spokesperson. I’m not brave, I don’t have any “nobility of suffering,” and I don’t have any lessons to teach anybody -- I don’t even know that I’ve properly conveyed here what I’m trying to say. I’m just an American woman in a safe place, looking on, waiting for payday so I can give a few dollars to a few organizations and beyond that, I don’t really know what to do.

So in the interim, I, uh, made a shirt.

The text reads: "TODAY, I AM HAITIAN" in Kreyòl. (Smaller text reads "Today, we are all Haitian" in French and English.) All proceeds are going to OXFAM America (For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know me from Adam or Eve: I’ve gotten CafePress to put the organization's name, not mine, directly on the checks. So, no shenanigans here. :-D Alternatively, you can give directly: Please consider sending a donation by check to: Oxfam America, Haiti Earthquake Response Fund, P.O. Box 1211, Albert Lea, MN, 56007-1211. Other good methods for giving: go to oxfamamerica.org, doctorswithoutborders.org, or worldvision.org. There is also ADRA International (Adventist Development and Relief Agency). Be sure to select "Haiti Earthquake Relief" on these websites if that's specifically where you want your money to go. They're going to need it for a long time yet.)"

Go and read the whole story.
Thanks, everyone.

My surgery anniversary has come and gone.
So far my 2010 has been full of awesome.
May this continue to be so, and if it isn't so for you and yours right now, may that turn around quickly.
Thank you all again.

WORD.

2010-01-09T18:42:54Z

http://www.theboomeffect.org/

You all know what to do. <3 <3 <3

Backstory here: http://www.theboomeffect.org/?page_id=2

Gaffer update

2010-01-08T17:36:51Z

Just in case anyone missed it, gafferbear is stoically chipping away at his troubles, and help is arriving a little bit at a time. He's still hunting for a new apartment, but I'm hoping that the wonderfully specific nature of his CL ad will make shorter work of the search.

His Paypal button has been activated, though he does not ask for much. Further updates and info on what he needs and needs help with in order to come out the other side of this can be read here.

damiana_swan and satyrblade have been, of course, rockstar angels throughout this, helping Gaffer from afar as much as they helped K and me not so very long ago. It's nearly been a year since all my medical troubles landed on me, and I haven't forgotten how those two and all the rest of you rode to my rescue. K and I have a bit of a "thank you" that we're working on now.

Show in Denver tonight, show in Colorado Springs (with fire!) tomorrow night, both at 8pm. Full details here. Come on over.

Colorado Help for our Gaffer; time-sensitive, very important

2009-12-28T18:43:24Z

gafferbear is one of the most amazing human beings I think I've ever met. Given the (truly high) quality of people in my life (yes, I'm talking about you!) that's really saying something. He is a harpist, among many other things, and one of those people you find yourself talking with for hours upon end ... and then realizing that every single word he said was worth listening to. He normally spends his days busking, or travelling to retirement homes to share the joy and serenity he creates with his music and do what he can to make the world a better place.

Gaffer lives in Boulder CO, which is really freaking cold right about now, as it normally is at the turn of the year. Part of what this means is that busking isn't really an option right now, so his income has been cut pretty drastically. And, unfortunately, he's just had an emergency come up that requires him to find new living space and get moved into it on very very short notice. In short, he needs a miracle. Gaffer is physically pretty fragile and isn't going to be able to do all this himself. He could also use some help finding a new place that (a) fulfills his own needs and (b) he's able to afford on his fairly limited housing budget.

There may also be some other stuff people who don't live in Boulder could do to help--I'll be talking with him tonight to find out the details and will share them as they become available. Some of it will be simple financial help, other parts will be things like helping him to set up a website to sell his CD's.

For now, if you live in Boulder, or if you have friends or family or community in Boulder who might be able to help in some way, please, please ... Gaffer is one of the most wonderful human beings you will ever meet, and he can and will fill your world with heartbreakingly lovely harp music in exchange for anything you can do to help, not to mention his (and my) deep appreciation.

His post with the initial information is here.

Please feel free to repost and spread the word--the more people who hear about this, the easier it's going to be for us to create the magic to get this fixed.

(reposted from damiana_swan )

Gaffer is a damned amazing wise elf of a human being, and after only having hung out with him for a weekend in October, I know that he's my brother. He reminded me recently that we don't work for a living, we PLAY for a living, and for that reminder I'll always love him. omnisti and I won't be back in CO until Jan 7 or so, but we're going to let our Colorado allies know about this and hope that they are willing to help a brother out. You please do the same.

Signal Boost, Missing Girl in Chicago

2009-12-21T17:05:53Z

I'm confident that most of us are aware of this by now, but just in case: karnythia (author and independent publisher, writer of the well-received "Adele" story on MU, and general person of awesomeness) has kin that's gone missing. The information is here.

EDIT: according to many reliable folk, she's found, she's alive, and she's with her family. Whew!

signal boost: Helping fulfill a dying little girl's christmas wish

2009-12-16T19:35:02Z

s00j and I have the greatest friends.

Our beloved Brandie in Denver has come across a family preparing to spend one last weekend with their terminally ill 11 year old daughter whose only christmas wish is a pretty halter for her pony. Brandie has taken it upon herself to manifest that wish as best as possible before this weekend.

Via gows: http://gows.livejournal.com/252499.html