Blue Dragon Children's Foundation

Nothing I’m directly connected with, at least as far as being actively involved, but here are two good ways to waste your cash instead of… I dunno… paying tax or something.

First up, the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation are now selling Christmas cards. Yes, it’s only November but remember they’ll have to be shipped from Vietnam! Each card is hand-crafted by one of the teenagers who benefit from the money raised in their sale. They seem pricey, but note the title of each one – what you pay is what it goes towards – a desk and lamp, school books for a child, a winter coat and so on.

The full catalogue can be viewed here.

Next up is a chap who’s planning on doing something mental in 2011. Back in 2007 at the exact same time as I was walking across Europe for the aforementioned BDCF, Mark Allison was running from John O’ Groats to Land’s End in aid of a local hospice. A marathon a day, basically. In essence, he was running the same distance I was walking each day.

Run Geordie Run

Well, he’s gearing up to beat that and plans to walk coast to coast across the US. That’s 3000 miles, trebling the distance I stumbled across.

All the costs of this jaunt will come out of his own pocket and every penny raised will go to St.Benedicts Hospice and The Childrens Foundation. In addition, for every pound raised before the end of 2009, Peter’s Pies will donate 50p. That’s incredibly generous.

For full details, please see Mark’s “Run Geordie Run” website. Oh, yeah – he’s a staunch Newcastle fan!

As ever, folks, every penny counts!

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Two charity updates

                          

We all know how tasty and satisfying a good sniff is. Or a lovely delve into the nostrils to howk out a sizeable bogey to chow down on as an aperitif. So it really annoys me that with all the starving in the world, the likes of Ronaldo (both of them), Rooney, Beckham – hell, even our own dear Shearer – can be guilty of a horrendous waste of snot.

Many is the time I’ve seen a professional football player snorting a nostril or two full of sticky nose-juice onto the ground during a game. I know they’re rich and I know they drive stupid cars and wear suits that cost more than I earned in a year. I know they can wipe their arses with gold credit cards and use a fresh condom every time they have sex. But to be seen on TV throwing good food on the ground when there are millions starving in the Third World is nothing short of a disgrace.

A campaign should be started to force them to blow it out into a bag. After the game, it could be shipped to a needy child in Ethiopia or the Sudan who can’t generate enough bogies of their own for a good snort. Think of the children! Please, will someone think of the children? And the bogies.

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Selfish footballers

                          

GGGGGAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Thank you. Apologies to anyone who couldn’t post comments earlier. I’d put the wrong API into my upgraded reCAPTCHA so it didn’t work. That’ll teach me not to check these things when I’ve tinkered with them.

I’ve just tonight noticed that using the drop-down archive box to the side there, that you can’t go back further than February 2007. No idea why not. If you go to Feb and step back through the individual posts, or go to the archive on a single day anytime before then it works just fine. It’s simply month-long archive pages pre-Feb’07 that struggle.

[UPDATE: Fixed. Turns out I had some "real" folders with the same name in my directory tree. That seems to confuse WordPress's "pretty permalinks". Deleted the old folders, all works now. Phew.]

I’m looking into it, but it’s driving me nuts. The WordPress support forum’s gone crazy as well. First of all not letting me log in (cleared cookies, not it’s fine), then letting me in, letting me post… but not allowing me to edit the posts. And then not letting me reply to my own posts, telling me that the topic has been closed – when it hasn’t been.

*locates nearest brick wall, loves it in the way only Glaswegians really know how*

BUT.

Better stuff. Here’s a way you can help a charity and take money out of Microsoft’s pocket. No, it’s not that stupid email forwarding thing. It’s a scheme they’ve started on MSN. Put a little code next to your login name and MS will donate a sum to the charity of your choice (from a short, US-biased list) each time you start a conversation.

It’s called I’M Making a Difference – I’M… Instant Messenger. Clever.

Sounds like a wind-up, but I promise it’s true. Details are on CybernetNews, and also at Microsoft’s own I’M page to save me keying in all the “how to”‘s.

As I’ve commented on there, it’s a shame all the charities are US ones given the international usage of IM. However, better one good cause than none wherever it may be. I can’t believe this has been going on since March last year! They’ve raised almost $1.5million so far. Each charity is guaranteed a minimum $100,000 with no upper limit.

I’m not 100% sure if non-US residents logging in makes a difference, but let your Yank friends know about it all the same. And there’s no harm in putting the icon on your own name – just in case it does work!

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Gah! Computers! But sometimes they help out…