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Today has been a comedy of damn errors, let me tell you, starting with my attempt to access the train turnstiles with my work ID instead of my El farecard.

BUT I AM UNBOWED. Bring it, Monday! And in the meantime, I have Radio Free Monday as my shield.

Ways to Give:

Junie linked me to two posts by eliade, who has recently lost her home and is living in a shelter. Eliade is a fan, a writer, and a person with depression -- so there but for the grace of whatnot is plenty of us. If you want to send financial support, her paypal info is here, but I imagine even supportive comments would be welcomed right now. (Be aware if you go to Eliade's main journal where there are more recent updates, there may be triggers for self-harm.)

james is doing a charity walk on May 29th to help raise funds for a new science museum in Sacramento, CA. Support science, sponsor a pal, and maybe get some sweet gloves!

knitchick1979's Relay For Life team has created a Traveling Duckie that looks like the Brigadier, in honour of Nicholas Courtney. The duck alone is fantastic (and you can sign up to shelter and send him on!), but you can support its creators raising funds to fight cancer here.

I've linked before to enkiduts, who is selling some fannish merch to raise money for an unexpected tax bill, and one of her friends let me know that there's now a comm where people are selling things and offering auctioned services and such. Check it out, lend a fan a hand!

myalexandria is a PhD student offering what I think is quite reasonably priced tutoring and paper-assistance services to raise money to cover moving expenses. You can find out more info here.

Help for Free:

sporky_rat's friend had her wallet stolen recently and with it her 2010 Airman's Coin. Anyone know where Sporky can get a replacement coin for her?

caffeine_pills is working on a project for her Anthropology class, collecting folklore for the USC Digital Folklore archive. She needs forty pieces and would love to have the cafe contribute submissions. You can learn more here. This looks like a super-awesome project (and is worth a fair amount of her grade).

Lorena linked me to OshKosh's "Cranes For Kids" program. For every crane you bring to an OshKosh store, upload to their facebook, or mail to their Cranes For Kids office, OshKosh will donate an item of clothing to children put in need by the recent natural disasters in Japan.

whitescarab linked me to Skepchick's campaign to stop anti-vaccine ads. Whether or not you choose to get involved, the danger posed by refusing vaccines, especially if one does so because of a hoax study, is something you should be aware of. (Also the God Hates Buttons button cracks me up.)

Stuff to Know:

Genderqueer Chicago has a bathroom initiative aimed at convincing local businesses to hang signs in their windows declaring their bathrooms safe to gender-variant people. The link has information about what you can do to support this initiative! (As far as I can tell they have no donation page, but if you find one please let me know.)

The DDOS attacks on LJ this week and last are confusing and scary for many. Find out more about them at caras_galadhon's informative post.

sharksdontsleep commented last week to provide an opposing view of KIPP schools, which were linked in the Geek Hooligan portion of the post. Yet one more reminder it is always our responsibility to be informed, do research, and make our own judgments.

frith linked me to a recc by John Scalzi, the "DMCA Generator" for authors. DMCAs, in a very brief and possibly not entirely accurate nutshell, allow artists to request the removal of unauthorized copies of their work online.

cassildra has some advice on how to keep your temps happy...

Late Addition: Geek Hooligans

cerulean_sky linked to Alpha, A Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Workshop for Young Writers that ends with a fancon. It looks like a great resource!

Fun and Interesting:

I had a lot of these this week!

I've been aware, for a while, of my Sister Sam across the pond: there is a Sam Starbuck who works as a producer for the Beeb and by all accounts she does awesome stuff. At the moment she's getting our name out on a new series called Filthy Cities, which aunty_marion linked the description of. LOL, yes?

A couple of people linked me to the recent art attack on a Gauguin on display at the National Gallery in DC. These don't happen very often but I find them morbidly fascinating when they do.

resonant and I sort of wrote a sexy Sherlock fanfic by accident, which if you want some lulz you can read here.

I swear the "Sam in Chicago" in this story about Borders telling people where to pee is not me.

Classic mythology and lit geeks will deeply appreciate Myths Retold. My personal favourite is Beowulf, which contains the immortal lines:

because actually what everyone is doing
is riding around on horses and yelling a lot
this is what you do when you are excited in ancient Denmark
we have not come very far since ancient times

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. 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 haven't done any origami in like a week, being a combination of tired and cranky. So today I did five days' worth in a single go!

My origami calendar calls this piece an Executive Toy, and really I'm not supposed to be done with it until Friday, but I kind of love geometric origami so I did the whole thing this afternoon. It's pretty funny -- I really like interlocking repeating pieces and they look super-sexy when you build them, but the math theory behind them is a) 100% beyond my grasp and b) not that interesting to me. I just like them. I don't think I want to understand them.

All that consists of is six water-bomb bases interlocked, but how cool does it look when it's finished? And if you hold two opposing points gently between your hands and blow, it spins. Which, man, I could do that all day (or until I hyperventilate and pass out).

It's the simple things that amuse.