Why I Spend So Much Time at the Oregon Food Bank

30 11 2009

Wednesday night (yes, the night before Thanksgiving) at 6pm I presented myself at the Oregon Food Bank to pack pasta into 2lb bags. Our shift packed 9600 lbs, which translates to 7384 meals, which divided by the number of volunteers means I packed 107 meals for my neighbors in Oregon. All the while rockin’ a sexy plastic apron and hairnet.

Front page of the Sunday NYT (which my new favorite blog, Obama Foodorama pointed out) opens with the cold, hard fact that 1 in 8 adults living in the US is on food stamps, and 1 in 4 children.

Two hours out of my month, and I fed 107 people.

Oh, yes, the link to the OFB volunteer signup page is right here. If you’re not in Oregon, find your local food bank here.





Things I am Thankful For

25 11 2009

- My awesome health. Yeah, sure, I pull muscles in my butt on a regular basis, but that’s usually from dancing or, erm, walking face-first into a parked minivan.

- Living in Beervana.

- John Barrowman dancing in shiny pants.

BONUS THING I AM THANKFUL FOR: YouTube’s related video feature, because without it, I would have never found this awesome cover of “Single Ladies” by an Australian country-western group.





Critical Grammar Question

25 11 2009

INGDirect, where I do my banking, has a thing where you send checks online. The memo field of the check is like, only 50 characters wide. I’m trying to figure out if I should be saying, “Because Starbucks are tools” or “Because Starbucks is a tool”.

Hm? Why, you ask? Oh, nothing really important. Starbucks has this little ad on Facebook right now, letting me know that if I buy one of their ‘hand-crafted beverages’ on World AIDS Day, December 1st, they will donate $0.05 to the Global Fund, earmarked for HIV treatment and education in Africa.

That’s right. A whole nickel.

So I decided that instead of paying five bucks for a crappy ‘coffee’ drink on December 1st, I’d send that five bucks to a charity working to treat people with HIV and prevent transmission of the disease my own self.

Ergo, my grammatical dilemma.

OH! I know! I’ll just put “Because Starbucks sucks.”

Succinct, to the point. Also? True.

Cascade AIDS Project
Episcopal Relief and Development: Health Fund

What are those links? Oh, you know, a couple of places I know do good work and wouldn’t mind an extra $5 headed their way. Just sayin’.





Thoughts that Cross My Mind, Part the umpteenth

23 11 2009

I’d be a lot more worried about the number of random syringes I find on my desk if I didn’t work in materials management for a hospital.





12 Names

20 11 2009

Name: Roberta Gavou
Age: 35
Date of Death: November 24th 2008
Location of Death: Rome (Italy), in the street
Cause of Death: Stabbed to death
Source: www.sylviarivera.org

Name: N.N.
Age: 50
Date of Death: December 25th 2008
Location of Death: Rosate (MI), (Italy), in the street
Cause of Death: Beaten to death
Source: www.gaynews.it

Name: Aline da Silva Ribeira
Age: 24
Date of Death: January 16th 2009
Location of Death: Naples (Italy), in the street
Cause of Death: Strangled
Sources: www.sylviarivera.org & corrierealpi.gelocal.it

Name: Puttalakshmi’s (Hijra)
Age: 30
Date of Death: (shortly before) February 19th 2009
Location of Death: Bangalore (India)
Cause of Death: Thrown out of a moving vehicle
Source: Bangalore News, 19.02.2009

Name: Smail L.
Age: 36
Date of Death: March 24th 2009
Location of Death: Valencia (Spain)
Cause of Death: Beaten to death
Sources: ABC.es 25.03.2009 & Las Provincias 26.03.2009

Name: Image Devereux
Age: 34
Date of Death: April 14th 2009
Location of Death: Fayetteville (USA), in the street
Cause of Death: Not reported
Source: www.transgenderdor.org

Name: Ketlin
Age: 19
Date of Death: May 2009
Location of Death: Uruaçu (Brazil)
Cause of Death: Dismembered and beaten to death
Source: LGBTT-Blogspot, 03.07.2009

Name: Camilla
Age: 30
Date of Death: Before June 22nd 2009
Location of Death: Volgograd (Russia)
Cause of Death: Shot
Source: Spiegel Online 23.06.2009

Name: “Cesar” Torres
Age: 39
Date of Death: July 8th 2009
Location of Death: El Paso (USA), own apartment
Cause of Death: Beatings and severe injuries
Sources: El Paso Times, 11.07.2009, KDBC 4 News, Portugal.Gay 13.07.09

Name: Paulina Ibarra
Age: 24
Date of Death: August 28th 2009
Location of Death: Hollywood (USA), own apartment
Cause of Death: Stabbed to death
Source: ABC 7, 07.09.2009

Name: “Rusbel Antonio” Torres Jesús
Age: 30
Date of Death: September 21th 2009
Location of Death: Chimbote (Peru), in own liquor shop
Cause of death: Shot
Source: El Comercio 22.09.2009

Name: Monserrat (”Elder Noe”) Maradiaga
Age: Not reported
Date of Death: October 10th 2009
Location of Death: San Pedro Sula (Honduras)
Cause of Death: Run over by a car
Source: ElsentidoG.com 24.10.2009

Names taken from the international list of 169 transpersons reported as murdered in the last 12 months. The actual number is likely to be much, much higher.

November 20th is the International Transgender Day of Remembrance.

May the angels lead them into Paradise, may the holy martyrs receive them as they arrive and take them into the Holy City.





I am a genius

19 11 2009

I’m making acorn squash stuffed with a rice-almond-cheesey mixture that I just invented, and and and I saved some of the chopped almonds, and and and I’m taking spoonfuls of Cherry Garcia ice cream and rolling them in the almonds and I AM A GENIUS!

(Who has maybe had too much sugar)





Shatnerquake

17 11 2009

I didn’t like it. But Wil Wheaton did like it.

Want to be the tiebreaker? Download the book for free, November 17th only.





Dear Portland:

14 11 2009

Thank you for keeping it weird.

From the site:

Is your pet feeling left in the dirt because of his/her unsightly rear? I’ve got them covered… Rear Gear is handmade in Portland, OR and offers a cheerful solution to be-rid your favorite pet’s un-manicured back side.

Rear Gear comes in many designs including a disco ball, air freshener, heart, flower, biohazard, smiley face, number one ribbon, cupcake, sheriff’s badge, dice, and you can even make yours custom, so there’s a Rear Gear for everyone.

You want to see what it looks like? Click here.





I’m not a teacher, but I could be if I wanted to.

12 11 2009

Which is why the Marysville Elementary School burning down this week hits close to my heart. These teachers have lost all their educational supplies, many of which they bought out of pocket.

But wait! What light through yonder Internet breaks? It is the Schoolhouse Supplies web page, ready to take your monies or direct you where you can drop off items!





Oh, HELL NO.

11 11 2009

Dear RPatz–

STAY THE FUCK OUTTA MY TOWN!

No love,
Mary Sue

For those of you who are blissfully unaware, Rpatz is Robert Pattinson a.k.a. Cedric Diggory a.k.a. Passive Aggressive Stalker Abusive Partner Sparkly Vamp-Boy Edward Cullen (and if you don’t know who the latter is, please educate yourself here). According to io9 via MTV:

Robert Pattinson says he’s heard the final Twilight movie will shoot in Portland,

That is what made me flip my shit, because, dude, just go ahead and read Cleo’s Tour of Terror ‘08 recap to see how batshit Twilight fans can get.

And I’m a Trekkie and an X-Phile and a Cross and Staker, I know from fandom, and Twilight fandom? Higher concentration of batshit insane than even Harry/Hermione fans.

DO. NOT. WANT. IN. MY. TOWN.

However, and this is a big however, it could be wishful thinking on the part of the R to the Patz, as he goes on to say,

and in his wildest dreams he’d like to see Portland-based director Gus Van Sant at the helm.

Yeah. If that happens, I’m going to just go right ahead with the plans for the 1950s era bomb shelter, sans the Tiki Bar*, ’cause that means the world’s ending.


*I came across out there on the Intertubes a collection of 1950s Civil Defense Administration bomb shelter plans, and I decided when I finally get around to building my house, I’m going to build a bomb shelter in the backyard and decorate the interior as a Tiki Bar. Why? BECAUSE I CAN.