...to wish everybody happy holidays! It's dumping snow by the foot right now and finally feels like winter to me. I hope everybody is safe and warm and happy!

If anybody is looking for gift ideas or feeling generous over the holidays, please think about donating to FINCA, International at [link] No, I'm not cool enough to figure out how to make it a nice shiny link.

Anyway, it's a really good organization that works with communities in third-world areas to set up locally-run banks that do small, short-term loans. It usually goes into places that commercial banks won't touch because the people there have very little collateral and are mainly just at a subsistence level, and provides small loans of $50-$150 for them to get set up with what they need for a marketable trade, like livestock for farmers, a sewing machine for somebody who hand-sews clothes, or a refrigerator for somebody who sells fresh produce.

Historically, microlending works better than almost any other kind of charity because it creates income potential for the future. The community banks are run by members of the community, who start with a certain amount to lend, and actually set up institutions with interest-bearing accounts for people in their communities and can continue to make loans on their own as others are repaid. The repayment rate is as good or better than commercial banks, about 97%, even in war-torn areas like Haiti and Afghanistan.

If you know anybody socially-conscious who would appreciate a gift like this, I hope you'll look into it. Happy holidays!

If you have not tried Panera's pink ribbon bagel thing, it is sooooooo good. Incredibly, amazingly good. Cherry and cranberry and vanilla and all kinds of yummy things. And it (theoretically) raises money for breast cancer research. Yay!

(I know, the first post I make in like two weeks and it's about a bagel. Deal )

Now that I've been reminded that dA exists.... let's just go with a nice, harmless survey while I test the waters again .


1. Do you like animals?
I love them all, fluffy or scaly or slimy or anything else.

2. Have you ever met an online friend in person?
You know, I actually don't think I have. There are some people I've sort of tangentially talked to online before we met in person, but it was always that we were talking online -because- we were going to be part of some sort of class or group or something together.

3. Are you athletic?
Er, no. I am somewhat in shape from walking and such, but I really hate exercising unless it's something fun like dancing.

4. Are you: thin, fat, athleticlly built etc:
About medium, I'd say.

5. How much do you weigh?
135 or so.

6. What's your height?
5'4"

7. Shoe size?
8

8. Girls- are you tomboyish, girly, normal, etc?
Depends on the day and my mood and the phase of the moon.

9. Guys- Are you girly, or guyish?

10. How old are you?
23

11. When's your birthday?
May 7th

12. Do you like to receive giftart?
What's giftart? Like, art people have created for me? I would love that, if that's what it is, but I've never gotten such a thing. Maybe I'm missing something though.

13. Are you sociable?
Among people I'm very close to, yes. Among big groups of people, not really.

14. Do you have many friends?
Average, I suppose. I have a hard time getting close to people at first.

15. What's your race?
Polish Jew, yo. (I recently found this out -- I'm adopted so I didn't know for the longest time. I suppose 'European mutt' would probably be more correct, but it amuses me and my Jewish friends more the other way)

16. Do you like to talk on the phone?
Sometimes.

17. Are you single or taken?
Taken.

18. Do you eat meat?
I do, but not that often.

19. Are you paranoid?
Nope. Should I be?

20. Do you read a lot?
I used to read an obsessive, ridiculous amount. Now I still read some, but not as much as I'd like.

21. Do you listen to music, what kind?
Lately I've been on a blues/crooners kick (mmm Ella) but I like everything from chamber music to rap. I don't know that much about music though.

22. Do you play any instruments?
I played the flute for many years, and I used to be passable on the piano. I'd love to learn the guitar, though.

23. How long have you been drawing?
Yikes, no. My creativity comes entirely through words, and is pretty limited at that.

24.Whats the meaning of life?
Finding the meaning of life.

Embarrassing story of the week....

There's some construction going on at work on my floor, and they laid out this plastic wrap stuff that sticks to the carpet in the halls, so theoretically they can roll equipment in and out without messing up the carpet.

So, I walk up there today, coffee in one hand and a bowl of cereal in the other, hit the plastic stuff, and after a couple of steps my heel (which granted is pretty thin and spiky today) gets caught in the plastic and I go down in a heap with coffee and milk and cheerios -everywhere-. So embarrassing :-/.

On the bright side, I fell forward and all the food and shit spilled outward, so my clothes are (shockingly) ok. I suppose it could be worse.... I'm going straight to a wedding reception, and going with enormous coffee stains all over is not my idea of a good time. Especially considering it's a mormon wedding and they all think drinking coffee is a sin . But wow, I've only been out of training and upstairs for a week and I had to go and be a klutz in front of like 20 people.... sigh.

I have been taking a break from dA lately..... not really sure why, just didn't really feel like being textually sociable. Sorry to everybody who wrote lovely and comment-worthy journals .

Now I log on after being away for like three days, and dA looks all funny!! Appearance changes like that annoy me to a ridiculous degree, I have no idea why. Usually I'm pretty laid back and change doesn't bother me out too much, but for some reason I -hate- when things change the way they look. When I got my new computer, the first thing I did wasn't to play around with all the new fun things, it was to go through and make sure my background and skins and desktop looked just right and everything was in the right spot before I even touched anything else. Same thing when I switched to zmud for achaea.... I -hated- it until I made the colors and font the same as Nexus . Silly me. But I really don't like this new dA look!! It's all.... big and bulgy and you can't see everything at once. Sniffle.

But anyway, no more whining. Hope you are all having a good day!