(no subject)

Good morning all, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways To Give:

iamshadow linked me to a Drive For Life transport earlier this week and I missed the deadline, which I feel bad about, so I wanted to remind everyone of the work they're doing for abused and neglected animals in need at driveforlife. You can follow the blog for updates on local drives as well as calls for donations!

aynatonal's husband is running a Kickstarter to publish his first sketchbook, A Book of Dwarves, in time for the summer conventions. He's reached his goal but is still accepting donations which will go toward an increased page count and higher quality printing processes. Donating gets you a copy of the sketchbook, bookmarks, original drawings, and other fun swag.

iesika linked me to Hannah's House, which is not a specific call for donation but I checked out the site and they look pretty awesome -- a place in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that offers a neutral place for parents to drop off their kids for visitation, which also provides supervised visitation for specific situations.

queencallipygos let me know that tamnonlinear is trying to find a home in the Germantown, MD area for two cats. Tons of photos of two cute kitties!

swordage has a friend who is moving to escape an abusive situation, and needs help transporting her pet reptile (airlines won't carry them as pets, and the alternative is the post office, which I wouldn't trust a gecko with either). They're looking for someone who is doing a drive from Florida to either New Hampshire (where Swordage is) or Washington state (where the friend is moving) any time between now and late May and would be willing to take a gecko along. They're willing to provide some gas money in return for the help. If you're interested, you can contact swordage at gmail.com for more info!

idancewithlife let me know about Aldo Jackson, who runs Games Count and volunteers in libraries and after school programs teaching board-type games to students. He's asking for donations of old Magic: The Gathering decks that he can lend out to kids. It's not up on the website but if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can contact him through the site and he may be able to arrange a way to pick them up; if you are not and are willing to pay postage to help him out they can be mailed to Aldo Jackson, 1540 Walnut St., Berkeley, CA 94709. (PS from me personally, I'm pretty sure you can send them by "media mail" postage if you're in the US, and media mail is super-cheap.)

Help For Free:

Tons of people linked me this week to the UK Goverment's survey on its proposals to legalise same-sex civil marriage in England and Wales. The consultation closes on 14th June 2012, but there are a couple of documents that are downloadable and a link to an online comments form.

anon_librarian let me know that the EU is running a survey as well for all European Union countries.

amand_r let me know that Angry Black Lady is forming a Team Uterati wiki, which aims at keeping track of all the anti-female legislation going on in the US. They're looking for people to help out, especially in coding. I think this is a great thing to be aware of (it'll certainly help me out) even if you don't have the time/energy to volunteer. In vaguely related "sexism is evil" news, denise has a post up with links to sponsors who pulled their support when Squoot posted an ad that essentially declared that women at hackathons were mostly good for fetching beer.

For Chicagowans, reebchan let me know about an Illinois art museum survey that awards $3 to the Illinois museum of your choice when you fill it out.

Fans Helping Fans:

Anon posted a job opening at least week's RFM looking for writers for their corporate blog: "someone who is outgoing and funny, runs a successful blog (a few) that includes hits and understands the importance of linking and networking with other bloggers to increase traffic to our website. We're a real estate company, so much of your blogging will include research but no prior real estate experience is necessary." This was posted anonymously but the poster contacted me privately and they're a regular member of the cafe, so this is a pretty trustworthy posting.

ungulata wants everyone to know that broniesaremagic is having a Ponies Around the World event and contest. They want photos from landmarks or public scenery from your part of the world, decorated with your My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ponies and artwork.

Just For Fun:

cowboyguy linked to an article about micro-libraries with pictures of various tiny, free libraries in various countries.

hazelnut_cafe linked to an article about a gorgeous illuminated manuscript that went missing from the Peabody Library in the sixties and just turned up a few years ago. It's a really interesting read.

Dude. Dude.

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 (or ask for help!). Remember, brevity is the soul of RFM.

(no subject)

So, Mum calls me yesterday.

Mum: I'm making a trifle and it calls for lemon curd. You make lemon curd, don't you?
Me: Yeah, I can send you my recipe, it's good.

And then I email her:

Me: *emails* Here is the recipe!
Mum: *reply emails* Thanks, sweetie! If this trifle comes out good we can serve it at the rehearsal dinner at your wedding! When you get married some day.
Me: ...

I was very confused, because she and I have done the "I'm okay that you're not married and don't have kids" conversation, and she seemed to genuinely mean it. Fortunately there was an easy if somewhat delayed explanation: she neglected to mention it was a traditional wedding trifle.

Phew. Dodged that bullet.

Then today, she sent me an easter package. I adore her packages. This one contained:

-- 1 chocolate bunny
-- 4 tupperware containers (of various sizes) one of which had a chocolate-covered Peep in it
-- 1 bag of Hershey kisses
-- 2 boxes of regular Peeps
-- A CATAPULT KIT

The bag of Hershey kisses was helpfully labeled "NOT FOR YOU" and only on the reverse of the note taped to it did it explain "THIS IS FOR THE CANDY DISH AT WORK".

I'm going to use them as ammunition for the catapult.

(no subject)

Okay:

Thank you for registering for the Administrative Professionals’ Day Program. As the invitation indicated, this event will be centered around StrengthsQuest, a web-based assessment tool from the perspective of Positive Psychology. The assessment must be done by next Wednesday. The Clifton StrengthsFinder is a 45 minute, web-based assessment that measures the presence of talent in 34 areas called “themes”. You have 20 seconds to respond to each item.

a) The invitation I got to Administrative Professional's Day made it sound like there would be a nice breakfast buffet and possibly a raffle. Nowhere, anywhere, were personality tests mentioned.

b) Jesus Christ, if I don't respond within 20 seconds is my laptop going to give me an electric shock?

c) Wait, isn't the point of Administrative Professionals' Day to appreciate one's office admin, and not give them more work to do?

( I'm not a sociopath, but I'm pretty sure if one of the 'themes' was 'Sociopath' I'd have pinged it. )

At any rate, on Administrative Professionals' Day I think I will go to the breakfast buffet and then quietly slip out before the Strength Finding begins.