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Good morning all, and happy Radio Free Monday! Without further ado...

Ways to Give:

imaginarycircus reminded me that help_nz is still taking offers until midnight tonight (Eastern US time) and bidding doesn't end until midnight (EST) tomorrow night. Check it out, there's awesome stuff available to help a good cause!

This has been linked a lot this week -- I got eight separate links to it myself -- but one more can't hurt: delight and her boyfriend are in an unsafe living situation at the moment, and coverage for her mother's cancer treatment has been denied by her insurance company, leaving her and her father and mother with an unexpected eight thousand dollar debt. You can find the full story here and an update here; she's asking for monetary help and any advice people can offer on battling the insurance company. There's also an auction going up at helpfordelight.

supercrook has a post up on behalf of her friends Megan and Teja in Wellsville, NY, who are looking for support, jobs, or job-finding advice. You can get the full story there, but essentially they're in a hard situation due both to the economy and some mental/phsycial health issues. They're currently at risk of losing internet, which is of course the primary way people find and apply for jobs these days. If you can help, I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

finch let me know about the donation page for Colm Spencer, a dog who was rescued from an abusive living situation after being hit by a car. Colm's vet bills top out at a little under a thousand dollars, and they could use some help getting this handsome lad back on his feet.

Help for Free:

Reesa and her co-author are setting up a blog to promote their books, and decided that they'd go a different route with that old standby, the Author Interview. They're crowdsourcing interview questions: "Is there a totally random question that you'd love to ask people? Something you'd like to get a writer's thoughts on? Share!" You can fill out the form here, and they assure me that information from this form will not be used for anything other than question sourcing, and anonymous questions are welcome.

Stuff To Know:

Harper-Collins has introduced a new "feature" of their e-book lending contract with libraries: after 26 uses, the e-book will self-destruct and the library will have to purchase the e-book again. Their reasoning is that after 26 checktouts, paper books are ready to be retired. You can read more about it here, including viewing a video of some library books that have been checked out 26 times, and their (lack of) damage. On the one hand, the lending of e-books is going to be a major issue, because they're easier to access and share than paper books, so they're going to get a lot more airtime. Repurchase is not a bad idea. On the other, 26 uses is RIDICULOUS, and way to try to rip off public libraries, Harper-Collins.

Anon on the Cafe linked me to a word from Wil Wheaton's mother about Celiac Disease. Raise your awareness! On a related note, it may behoove everyone to be aware that women are massively under-diagnosed for this disease and other gastrointestinal and allergic conditions because internal bleeding is often diagnosed as anemia caused by menstruation.

tesserae wanted to let the Cafe know about Call For Entry, "a website that allows arts groups and organiztions to organise and collect applications for scholarships, grants, contests, competitions, etc." This thing is legit and looks totally awesome, guys.

Stuff That's Cool:

onebrightroad linked me to the EASTURDUCKEN which I have to say I heartily approve of.

This was posted ages ago, but I found it just recently: it's an anagram map of the Chicago elevated train system.

Talking of Chicago, did you know the University of Chicago has a chalkboard tiger that has survived forty years of errant students? It's beautiful and mysterious, and as a bonus there's a contact at the bottom in case you know anything about the anonymous artist.

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). If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help. Remember, non-embedded links are love.

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I've leveled up from self-injury due to clumsiness, and have now achieved a state of medical nirvana whereby injuries simply happen to me, with no effort or consciousness on my part.

One reason I was (relatively, I realise) quiet this weekend is that I woke up Saturday morning unable to turn my head to the left or lift either arm above the shoulder. It's not like I've changed my mattress recently, or my routine. My body just decided, no more shoulders for you.

So I spent most of the weekend taking long breaks between short bursts of work, doped up on Naproxen and with a heating pad on my left arm. Today I am at work, though I have a heat wrap on my shoulder and anyone who wants anything from me had better be prepared to penetrate the anti-inflammatory haze to get it.

My epic battle with the Walgreens cashier this morning when I tried to use a one-dollar coupon to buy the heat wrap and she couldn't get it to ring up will be the basis for an epic saga sung by bards of the future, no doubt. It's not that I insisted I should have that one dollar off, it's that once it failed to ring up I said "It's a dollar, just forget it" and she refused to let it go. I kept telling her, it's a dollar, I don't want to hold up the line, and she kept punching away at the cash register, eyes inches from the buttons, hunched over it like if she couldn't see me, she wouldn't have to acknowledge she could hear me.

In the end she tossed the coupon back across to me with a masterful look of disdain, rang me up for the full price, and gave me my damn heat wrap and my stupid Almond Snickers and told me to have a "nice" day. She didn't actually use airquotes, but they were definitely there all the same.

I did have a good weekend though, pain notwithstanding. Sunday night I ordered Jean to draw me something, because she said she wasn't sure what she wanted to work on first, and she sent me perhaps the finest Public Service Announcement I have ever seen.

Everybody poops, you guys. EVEN BATMAN.

Safety Meeting

Title: Safety Meeting
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Summary: Jones and Diana talk shop, promotions, politics, and the sex lives of their colleagues during the weekly Friday Night Safety Meeting.

( Jones, Diana, Christie, and the Baby Fibbies. )

Fake cut takes you to the fic at Dreamwidth.

(no subject)

FANFIIIIIC.

Because Diana and Jones are adorable BFFs who undoubtedly pass each other notes in meetings and haze the probies.

Title: Safety Meeting
Rating: PG
Warnings: None.
Summary: Jones and Diana talk shop, promotions, politics, and the sex lives of their colleagues during the weekly Friday Night Safety Meeting.

( Jones, Diana, Christie, and the Baby Fibbies. )

Fake cut takes you to the fic at Dreamwidth.

(no subject)

I really need to start coming up with some kind of imaginative intro other than

ORIGAMI!

But that day will not be today.

I kept trying to do some of the more advanced designs, and I decided that advanced designers are great except for the part where their diagrams suck. And I stole a bunch of pages from the calendar to make the Awesome Cube, so it'll be another few days before that has anything to offer me. Thus, Origami Club! I folded a castle. Or, according to the title, a CASTAL.

I continue to like Origami Club's spelling better than the standard. Also the castal apparently has ears.

Talking of folding, I can't believe I'm linking you guys to receptiondeskworld again, but by god if it isn't an origami desk.

In other news, my Ian Bear from Shadow and Kath's fundraising bear sale arrived. His arms are permanently stuck in the \o/ configuration, which I feel is only appropriate.

His tiny cast!