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Good morning all! I hope you had a pleasant weekend, and now it's time for Radio Free Monday!

flamingsword let me know about how a Toys For Tots warehouse in Killeen was burgled three days before Christmas. You all know I'm not a fan of the Salvation Army, but I wish the thieves all misfortune possible. The good news is that the Killeen community stepped up to replace the gifts. I hesitate to recommend donating to the Salvation Army, even to the local branch that's running the program, but you might keep Killeen in your thoughts.

ruisseau reminded me of a charity I used to support a lot, Modest Needs. Modest Needs is about making small donations that can be used to help in ways that seem small to us but are huge to the person receiving help. At the moment all donations are being matched to a maximum of $500,000, so now's a great time to give to a great charity.

Speaking of modest needs, minkrose linked me to The Blogess, who offered $30 gift cards to the first twenty people who commented to say they couldn't afford gifts for their kids this year. Then a few comments in one person said “I’ll take care of the 21st person”. Then another person offered a card for the 22nd. Then another. Then it avalanched. At this point I think donations are closed, but she seems like an awesome blogger and I encourage you to check out her site. It's an amazing story, anyway.

On the other hand, rednwhiterose linked me to some holiday bah humbug: a California mall had to be evacuated because apparently a flash mob threatened the building infrastructure. I'm loling just a little.

FictionAlley is still accepting donations to cover their site hosting fees for 2010/2011, with fundraising site Razoo matching up to $1000. I don't know if they have any wristbands left, but if you want to find out check out their explanation here or donate via the links here.

Things to be aware of: A while back Target came under fire for campaign donations to antigay politicians. Target's CEO sent an apology to Target employees, but didn't exactly apologise to, you know, actual gay people, and made no move to put it right financially. And Target is still quietly donating to antigay politicians.

Finally, on a cheerier note, Ryan has been working for quite a while now on a musical setting for a poem entitled "Eulogy for the Walking Dead". I introduce it that way because while I technically wrote it, it's credited to my alter ego, Ellis Graveworthy. :D She has graciously said I can link you all to a very rough cut of the arrangement, so here you go: Eulogy for the Walking Dead.

Apparently the poem was one of the things lost in the hack a few years ago, so I thought I'd repost it here as well: ( Eulogy for the Walking Dead, by Ellis Graveworthy )

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. :) You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com (PMs are kind of a bad way to reach me; email or comments are much preferable). If you're not sure how best to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help.

A reminder: there will be NO RADIO FREE MONDAY NEXT WEEK. Regular transmission will resume on January 10th. :)

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I have lost the ability to watch television. I'm not proud of this; in fact it's fairly worrying.

Mum had to work today and Lucky took Emmy to get haircuts, so it was just me and the dog home alone this morning. I had to make Lucky explain our television to me before he left, because the remote is deceptively complex. But I can't really...be bothered to concentrate. It just seems so inefficient to watch TV this way.

So I end up sitting on the couch with the TV on mute in the background, working instead. It's not that I don't watch TV; I do. I've just forgotten how to interact functionally with live cable television.

Also, commercials are astounding, aren't they? Most of them seem designed for people who move at two thirds of realtime speed, and the rest are mildly incomprehensible.

Perhaps television will make more sense after lunch. :D

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So, the whole family settled in to watch TRON this evening, in anticipation of seeing TRON Legacy tomorrow. Our copy of TRON comes from a VHS taping of an old network broadcast, dubbed to DVD a few years ago by yours truly. It's not the most elegant version ever but I'm a little afraid to see the remastered original TRON, because I love the weird noirish look that the terrible film quality adds to it.

( I love TRON and I'm not ironic about it. )

I love TRON. Tomorrow I'm gonna go see TRON Legacy and even if it is dreadful, there is no possibility that Legacy will kill my love of TRON. It was a defining myth of my childhood, and I have loved it for twenty years.

YEAH TRON.