blog

online ways to donate to haiti

2010-01-15T22:58:23Z

EDIT***

So, there have been quite a few links sent to me regarding Wyclef's Yele. While I am sure he has the best of intentions, it sounds like that this might not be the best charity to give your money to. I am curious what will happen with the live telethon that Wyclef and George Clooney are planning on doing in light of this news. In the meantime, I have removed the Yele links.

I was fairly alarmed this morning to find out a co-worker had NOT heard about Haiti (what the what?)! I know a lot of websites have compiled lists, but I don't mind being a broken record on this.

YOU should also go learn more about Haiti and understand why these people have nothing to begin with. I hope no one minces my words here, but I think this might have been the best thing for Haiti.

Fast and easy ways to help:
Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts. Find out more at http://www.redcross.org/
or
Text "GIVE10" to 20222 to donate $10 to Direct Relief. Find out more at https://secure2.convio.net/dri/site/Donation2?idb=137039094&1170.donation=form1&df_id=1170

iTunes has also setup donations through the store:
https://buy.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/buyCharityGiftWizard

Google has setup some fairly easy portals on their website here to donate to UNICEF or CARE.
http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/

TED.com has put together a list of actual items you could send in to donate if you want to send more than money, things like helicopters, satellite phones, blankets, etc. They are working with Partners in Health http://blog.ted.com/2010/01/the_haiti_trage.php

And for the general follow the link sort of donations:

The reddit community has been doing geek themed donation amounts (and working also with Direct Relief)
http://blog.reddit.com/2010/01/helping-haiti-because-we-ought-to-do.html

Nothing better than going straight to the Doctors Without Borders or United Nations Foundation: Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF)

AND, Ben Stiller has a site to donate money to schools in Haiti that is also helping out with the effort.
http://www.stillerstrong.org/

I applaud you Google.cn / Google.com

2010-01-13T07:30:17Z

I'm happy to see that Google is sticking by their words from 2006.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

Discount codes for Chic Meets Geek!

2010-01-12T06:29:48Z

Hey all -

I am helping out the lovely @CarolTran a bit with the next Chic Meets Geek event in San Francisco on Feb 4th! She has given me a few discount codes (GirlHackFriend762) for the event! AWESOME! Register here.

I hope to see everyone there!!

Happy hooker? Yeah - no.

2010-01-05T04:17:56Z

Slavery is over, yay!!! Minus, you know... human trafficking and sex slaves. No one likes to talk about it, but it exists and is increasing.

I just read this article, "Opinion: Behind the myth of the "happy hooker"

I found this bit interesting and distressing: "The same study revealed that johns subscribe to a tremendous amount of denial — 87 percent thought women choose prostitution, “just like any job,” and 64 percent believed that the women they bought were sexually satisfied by the encounter."

Just thought I would share to help keep people aware.

How I finally used Google Wave - aka the online holiday shopping party

2009-12-26T07:31:40Z

I got my invite to Google Wave by an awesome #girlhack (Angie Chang - Web 2.0 lady extraordinaire) back in October. However, I logged in that day and saw that about two of my other friends were "wavers" and promptly closed it and forgot. (Note to Google - could you send my gmail a notice I have a wave??) Time did it's thing and by early December I found I had more "wavers" to reach out to. My roommate's "wave" between him, myself, and a good friend pulled me back into trying to think of good way(v)es (HA - I'm hilarious) to use it. (This wave pictured over there and there).

As this was early December, I knew myself and a couple of my friends had some online shopping to do. Why not pool together to help figure out what all of our "mothers, brothers, sisters, and your friends" really wanted this holiday season. Why not have everyone over to watch a Christmas movie and wave together while we shopped? Surely with four of us in the same room and our internet search powers funneled by the "wave" (+funny for me again) of the future, we would net the cheapest and best presents ever. Right?

It turned mostly into interactive commentary to backup the chit chat in the room.

Chit chat in the room about such things as the state of the once rising star of Home Alone.

A random divergion to rediculously expensive mascot costumes online, but reigning it back in to dicuss pitcher options for a friend's mom.

Plus, testing the limits and fuctions of Google Wave by poinint out its weird faults and having a vote about nothing.

Overall, I thought Google Wave was fun to add into the mix of online shopping together while munching on gingerbread cookies and watching Home Alone. All I can see is that it's a glorified chat room that allows for easier media links and a more interesting way to archive the entire chat. I could see using it to work on projects together if both parties were remote as well. Until that happens, I guess I'll wait until next December for an online holiday shopping Google Wave party.

Some of the holiday spirit online.

2009-12-22T17:18:11Z

It may be our yearly mini-economic boost (more and more mini) - but under it all there are still people participating in the gift giving spirit. Here are few examples from the web community at large:

1) Childs Play Charity from Penny Arcade

In case you've never heard of Penny Arcade (a daily comic and commentary of the video game lifestyle), the founders Tycho and Gabe, who were already awesome to begin with, topped it off by starting the Child's Play Charity. aka "The Gamer's Charity"

From their own website, "Since 2003, over 100,000 gamers worldwide have banded together through Child’s Play, a community based charity grown and nurtured from the game culture and industry. Over 5 million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception."

Gamers have helped raise over a MILLION dollars this year. Non-gamers get a lot of cheap shots at the gaming community, but there is nothing anyone can say that is bad about this community effort.

2) Google's gift to us for the holidays. - and thanks to Sicari for the link.

Google, you've become slightly less evil for the holidays. Between this and the free wi-fi at airports.

3) Reddit's Secret Santa

I'm very bummed I was drowning in work and didn't check this out, but the community over at Reddit organized a GLOBAL secret santa. UM, HELLO AWESOME. One of the reasons why the internet cannot be all that bad. People are posting what they got from their secret santas right now. My favorie post is from a guy who claimed his was from a Nigerian Secret Santa. :)

girlhack logo a-hoy!

2009-12-21T04:45:54Z

My handwriting with some good ole 8 bit style action. I even put those squares together!

Chic Meets Geek event review!

2009-12-08T06:08:02Z

Every so often, I get the chance to come out of my work shell and attend one of the rare (but growing) "girlhack" type events. A few weeks ago I was able to go to the "Chic Meets Geek" event held in the old Word Press offices downtown San Francisco. My friend and PR manager (or so I could only hope!) alerted me to the event via twitter (geek +1).

The events I've gone to on a whole tend to swing one way or the other towards geek or chic. ChicMeetsGeek definitely tipped more on the chic side. I was a little sad that I was one of the only visible people in a geek shirt! Alas, this wasn't really anybody's fault except those who attended. According to the event's founder Carol Tran, she was really hoping for an, "oil meets water" event. While I think this event was a good step in the right direction, let's look at the breakdown of points for Chic vs Geek:

Chic
SF Opera Members Invited - whom seemed to be the large majority+
Live Jazz Music +
Majority of people in cocktail wear+
Overall lounge atmosphere+
Wine vendor+

Gourmet snacks+

Excellent chic prizes+

Geek
Demo area+
Eventbrite invites+
Twitter for event+
Excellent geek prizes+

I think to draw more geeks next time I would put a little more emphasis on some of the geek features at the event! But it's baby steps for the community as a whole. Can't wait for the next event!

Check out more on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ChicMeetsGeek or follow Carol and her endeavors on twitter @chicmeetsgeek

The cheatcode for sharing holiday cookies!

2009-12-04T17:06:36Z

As a true Minnesotan, when I'm trying to give you something, I won't take no for an answer - especially for holiday cookies! Many people protest with visions of sugar(plum) fairies adding to their waist when they see that big cookie. I have learned the cheatcode!!

Take the time for the extra TLC and make mini cookies! A few years ago I was able to find a bag of mini cookie cutters for $3. I never thought they would be as popular as the big cookies, but much to my surprise, *everyone* can always make room for one little cookie. That's when somehow, they usually have room for another one. :)

The pictures I have posted are of how I dress up the lil guys to give them away. I have a $2.99 tin from Target (which includes some of the big daddy cookies). I also have some clear plastic bags that look good with or without tissue paper.

the rules of iTunes (for your family)

2009-11-29T21:19:47Z

I wrote this out for my 68 year old father who just got an iPhone and wanted to transfer his iPod contents from the iPod to a computer it had not been synced with before. We used xport to help the process.