Scheherazade in Blue Jeans

Administration
Happy birthday to darlin' dindin! (I like alliteration.)

Hello to new reader wendy_mason!

Medical
Exhaustion + nausea. Less chest pain today, possibly to make up for the mondo chest pain yesterday.

Work
Aaagh! First day of classes. I have my titanium battle spork, and I'm not afraid to use it.

My *real* work
I have my Walking on Water binder in the car, just in case I feel well enough after work to go to JavaMonkey and get some writing done.

I need a laptop.

Guess the character!
New morning game Adam and I have been playing. :) Guess the Shayara character by their iTunes playlist. Want to play? I can't remember what songs yesterday's played; I'll spin it random and post some later. But this morning, thus far:

"The Boxer", Carbon Leaf
"Sleepy Maggie", Ashley MacIsaac
"Whiskey in the Jar", Metallica

This character does have other musical interests, I promise! It's just that that's what came up on random between Elayna's school and work. I'll add to the list when I get home, with what came up between work and home. But you're welcome to venture a guess.

EDIT: Work to home:

"I'm Your Man", Leonard Cohen
"Holding Out For A Hero", Jennifer Saunders (from Shrek 2)
"Neverending Story", as covered by A New Found Glory

Gas
The gas station by Elayna's school is closed. No gas.

And there's a report that someone pulled a gun at a gas station... guy cut in front of a motorcyclist who'd been waiting in line for half an hour. Motorcyclist protested. Guy pulled a shotgun.

Owner of gas station refused to sell gas to the guy. Good for him.

Bloody hell, y'all. It's just gas. Just don't road-trip for Labor Day. It's not worth a fistfight or a felony.

The Red Cross
Important: If you give to the Red Cross, make sure you earmark your donation for Hurricane Katrina relief! If you don't, it goes into their central fund and can be used to buy things like photocopiers. Seriously.

To make sure your money goes where you want it to, specifically earmark it for Hurricane Katrina Relief.

One way to do this is to donate through Amazon.com; they'll stick it in the right place, looks like.

Click here to donate.

The Humane Society
Humans aren't the only evacuees; many pets have been rescued. The Humane Society of Southern Louisiana will be needing some help, and jinzi has organized a blogging drive to get them that help; see details on her LJ and here!

America's Second Harvest
See here for details!

Toy Drive
See creentmerveille's LJ for details!

Give Blood
Not all of us can. If you can, please do.



If anyone has any other suggestions, any other organizations I should be spreading the word about, please let me know!

EDIT: Oh yeah! If you do donate, send me your receipt (shadesong AT gmail.com), and I'll send you the Blogathon story and creator-commentary stuff. It's a different charity, but it's still charity. *nod*

I've noticed, and had brought to my attention, a few trends among my Shayara characters over the years.

* The men tend to have long hair. I've been asked if this is a societal thing. It's not - or if it is, an explanation hasn't surfaced. I just find long hair attractive. :) (Yes, both of my partners have short hair. And lo, I pout. *pout*)

* Dasaroi don't generally smoke. Again, this is probably a me thing. I don't smoke. Most of my friends don't smoke. One of the very few exceptions to this is Lily... and she's a rebellious teenager who's trying very hard to be tough and cool. (example.)

Here are two that I really just thought of last night...

* My characters tend to be only children (Kieran, Kristian, Capri...) or one of two (Halloran, Donna...). This one, I can see a societal reason for. Shayara is a walled city. A smallish walled city. The Dasaroi who live there must be very aware of the looming possibility of overpopulation. So I can see there being a mild taboo against having lots of kids. (Note: the two characters who come from large families - Napalm and Julia - both come from outside Shayara.)

* They don't have pets. And this one perplexes me. I know it isn't a me thing, because I can't live without pets! And Capri, for instance, is the type of person who'd love a kitten. But not a single one of 'em has so much as a goldfish. Why? I don't know. It's got to be something societal. I need to ask myself that. It just hadn't occurred to me before.

From kyburg:

Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, needs your help.

"His mother, Rebecca Beagle (known to her friends as "Rebbie"), is over 100 years old and her medical bills are climbing steadily. Meanwhile the multi-billion dollar English company that controls the rights to the animated version of THE LAST UNICORN has sold more than five hundred thousand videotapes and DVDs of the film during the last year alone, without paying Peter a penny of what they owe him for his rights. If they had paid him even 10 cents per copy, it would have made a huge difference in his life. But they won’t even admit they owe the money — because they don’t think that poor struggling Peter will ever be able to put together the funds to sue them and prove otherwise.

You can change that."

Click here for details!

(Edited link at 6 PM - they changed the page.)

A lovely tale by scouseboy. Recommended for mightywombat, mr_wombat, and anyone who happens to be fond of wombats. Or fun posts. It helps if you like both. I like both.

Steve.

The wombat.

I just got a call from the aunt who, when my birthmom found me in 1998, was horrendously upset. She thought that my birthmom had no right to be any part of my life, that she was horning in on my parents. This was... a big problem for this aunt. Big enough that I ended up not inviting my birthmom to my wedding (to ex-husband - she found me just a few months before), because my aunt was so insistent that it would be a terrible thing to do to my parents. (I had my birthmom at my recent wedding to Adam. Went just fine. Then again, we all had several years to get used to each other.)

My aunt called me because she remembered that my birthmom lived in New Orleans, and wanted to make sure she was okay. She'd called my parents, who weren't home - and rather than leave a message and wait for them to call back, she called me. This is the first time this aunt has ever called me, IIRC.

And it's because she's worried about my birthmom, too worried to wait an hour for a callback.

Well. I'm in mild shock.

*hug*

People reach out.

People love.