The Greatest Sci-Fi/Fantasy Feel Good Raffle Ever

Just in time for the holiday season I have come across a delightful way to possibly win some cool ass shit and help out what looks to be a pretty nifty organization. Combining my love of all things science fiction/fantasy and making the world a better place I bring you Patrick Rothfuss and his amazing charity raffle!

To be fair, I haven't actually read anything by this guy, but after tooling around the site for about 10 minutes I'm sold and will be heading to the library on my lunch to see what I can find. I came across the site, due to my love of all things social networking, when I read a tweet from Neil Gaiman about it. Really, what the hell would I do all day without twitter/facebook/blogger?

Basically he's teamed up with Heifer International and he's matching 50% of ALL donations made through January 15th. Make sure to donate through HIS PAGE for this to work. There are a couple of different ways to get in on the prize action if your interested. For me, I'm going to check out option #1, The Lottery. For every $10 I donate, I get an entry into a lottery for a chance at what looks to be a kick ass pot of possible prizes. Hardcovers, first editions, most signed by the authors. All the kinds of things I LOVE. And there are a ton of books donated for this thing. But since he's already raised over $10K in 3 days it sounds like there are a ton of people donating money as well. I'll still throw my hat in the ring though. $10 (tax-deductible!) for a chance at a random new book? I'm all in.

Check it out. Take a spin around the site. If nothing else the writing for this post (and his bio) are a good read. If it's something that makes you smile and you are part of a social networking site (really, who isn't these days?) then pass it along.

Test subject line

Testing body of email sent from phone
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Is the tenor of my voice unhearable to you?

Today's office interaction is brought to you by the folks at

Some Random Hearing Aid corporation

&

Maybe if I Use a Dog Whistle You'll Notice, Inc.

Timeline:
Month of November
Characters:
Lower Level: Frustrated lower level employee who fears her voice has been snatched away by The Gentlemen or some other lower level demon.

Upper Crust: Management level employee who has an insane ability to remember all your fuck ups but none of her own.

Totally Random: Management level employee of another department.

Just Trying To Help: Mid level employee, often caught in cross fire of Upper Crust and Lower Level.

Our story starts at the beginning of November where Lower Level, trying to juggle multiple projects, remembers with a start that another project (that they were late on last year) will be coming around the corner full speed any day now.

Lower Level: (gasps) Argh, we have to get this project review started or we will be late again! I know I'll go and check with Totally Random to find out the timeline and get this started!

Lower Level and Totally Random have a conversation and get a timeline worked out. Lower Level then takes said timeline back to Upper Crust and makes sure rest of team is aware.

A week passes.

Lower Level: Just wanted to remind you Upper Crust that the project review needs to be done by the end of this month. I know we are all super busy so let's work out a plan to make sure it gets done.

Upper Crust: I'll look at it next week when I get back.

Another week passes.

Lower Level: Umm, Upper Crust, have you had a chance to look at that project review? I just ask because with the holiday coming up we don't want to lose any time. Totally Random would like this as close to done as possible by week one of December!

Upper Crust: I'll look at it next week when I get back.

Lower Level: Well, I think I'll just get this started and send the project out to the team. Doesn't hurt to have it in everyone's hands since it's due the first week of December.

Lower Level sends project to team with instructions and explanations of time lines.

Another week passes making this the final week of November.

Lower Level sends out same email that she sent last week to team with a reminder that the project is due (gasp) the first week of December and can we please set up a plan for how we are going to accomplish this?

Holidays commence. Theoretically joy is had by all.

Lower Level returns to work and is in the middle of a meeting (that is not about previous mentioned project) with Just Trying To Help when Upper Crust walks up and interrupts.

Upper Crust: We don't need to have this project fully done this week right? (Visually scoffs) Totally Random just wants a base estimate, not a fully reviewed product correct? (Doubt of ability to get this done permeates speech patterns)

At this point Lower Level starts to wonder if maybe her voice is actually only audible to herself.

Just Trying To Help: It was my understanding that Totally Random did want this as close to done as possible by this week.

Upper Crust stutters, splutters, and stares at Lower Level in confusion. Lower Level just stares blankly back since all month she has already said This Project is Due as Close to Complete as Possible by the First Week of December for a month now so she's not quite sure repeating it now will help.

Upper Crust mutters something about not understanding Just Trying To Help's notes and wanders off. Leaving project no closer to completion. Lower Level and Just Trying To Help go back to original meeting they were having.

End Scene.

What do you wonder about?

Sometimes I sit and daydream about how much money I would be able to make if I sold off everything I own. I'm talking everything here folks - the bed, the movies, the books. Everything. All the way down to a stack of less than 10 books and a duffel bag of clothes.

Then I dream about taking my 10 books and my duffel bag of clothes and hitting the road. For where I don't know. For how long I don't know. Just going. Taking the money I've earned and living as cheaply as possible until it's gone. Seeing what I can as far as my available transportation can take me.

And I wonder in these dreams what I would do. Who I would meet. What I could become. But then my alarm rings, or a car honks, or a co-worker stops by to give me something and I'm brought back. Brought back to the white institutional inspired walls of my office. Brought back to the noise and the grit of the city around me. Brought back to my empty apartment. And the dream gets shelved. Shelved until I get another 10 minutes of silence to wonder.

Chase and Facebook Team Up!

So Chase has gotten together with Facebook and created one of those great voting campaigns where all you have to do is pick your favorite Charity and click a button. Of course I'd love if you picked mine but since I won't actually say where I work I guess I can't really ask that of you :) But really, go check it out, I know you all have Facebook pages! Pick one charity, pick twenty, just pick. This link may take you to a random charity but it will at least get you started.

A sneak peak into my eating habits

I spent all day Sunday laying on my couch watching the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now I've already seen this show a bunch of times, but the boyfriend finally returned all my seasons after admitting he will never actually have time to watch them (which is truly a shame in my mind) and I have been craving some vamp ass kicking action for awhile so I hunkered down and mindlessly wasted the day away.

I've had days like this before. With no real outside responsibilities, no pets or kids, I understand this is a luxury for most those around me and I promise I am not taking these wonderful moments for granted. I thought about going out and watching some football but the desire just wasn't great enough and I am attempting to lessen the amount of football action in my life anyway* (for reasons that are too long and boring to go into during this post).

When I get into these days I am amazed at my own ability to sustain myself. It is no wonder that I am winded when I walk up to my third floor apartment when I have a diet like this. I sometimes wish I cared more about food and my health and all that, but after nearly 30 years it just hasn't sunk in yet. I am a total grazer/scrounger when it comes to eating. I would of been screwed before microwaves and instant everything.

So for your reading enjoyment, a list of what I grazed on throughout the day yesterday...

• 2 20 oz. bottles of Vitamin Water
• 2 hot dogs
• Probably 10 oz. of an 11 oz. bag of wavy Lays potato chips
• 2 ice cream bars
• half a hard boiled egg
• a chunk of sharp cheddar cheese
• and probably half a pack of cigarettes.

Dear gods, how am I not dead yet?



* While I am doing well in my no football mission, missing the Colts game last night is a very sad thought for me right now.

One brief moment

I was standing in line in a random store, waiting probably not so patiently for the search station to become available so I could hunt for things I want and don’t need. I looked up and saw you riding the escalator to the second floor and my heart froze in mid beat. I searched your features trying to figure out if it was really you, it’s been so long, silently praying you might look my way, fervently hoping you wouldn’t. Then your eyes turned towards mine and before my brain could even register if they met mine I looked away, unable to face the fact it might be you. Unable to face you recognizing me. Unable to face you not. My mind raced as I waited, feeling the escalator move upwards with every atom of my body, wondering if I should turn and look again. Wondering if you were looking at me. Knowing that by the time I made a decision the chance would be gone. And then the search station in front of me became available, erasing all thoughts of what to do from my mind. I moved ahead, searched my item and found it was not there. I went back to wondering, wondering if I should go up and pretend to look (for the section it would have been in awaited me atop those moving stairs). Wondering if I should just move on. The heat of the store and my feet decided for me (thank god) for I found myself heading towards the exit, not looking back, not looking around.

I burst through the doors, though in reality it was probably just a normal exit, and headed out in to the now refreshing coolness of a November afternoon. Why would you be here? Do you work down here now? Are you just subjecting yourself to needless torture by shopping in the loop over the lunch hour? Do you hate yourself that much? Was it even you? Does it even matter? These thoughts tumbled one over the other as I headed to my next stop on an endless lunch trip of errands. Slowly my heart found itself beating again. Even more slowly my brain returned to more present things at hand. But for one brief set of moments I jumped back in time. For one gradual instant I found myself completely filled with you.