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Hey! I actually have a tumblr already, what is that nonsense? lol. Also, I know all yall said that it's pretty idiot-proof, but I'm sure I'll find a way to confuse myself on it.

Today's entry is all about good causes!! First, one of my beloved friends is a teacher in NYC and has set up her donorschoose.org page.

My donorschoose.org project is up! I'm asking for money to buy books for my students again. (They're paperback books, so they don't last more than a year in a backpack.) Our budget was cut halfway through last year and it's going to be cut again before school starts in September, so there's no way I can ask the administration for books. But I know these books work because last year, using them, every single student passed the state history test. So if you happen to have a couple of extra dollars lying around and you'd like to donate to an excellent cause and great kids, my project is here!

Anything you can give toward this project would help.

Then, a project that's dear to my heart. (special thanks to wordsalone for looking over this for me) (also, if you wanna share this outside of LJ, I ask that you link it to my tumblr instead of LJ, or to blogspot)

"The people I've met on this journey have given me a home; not a place or shelter necessarily, but where peace dwells inside of me" ~JW

So, I've been meaning to make this post for a while. I figure it's close to overdue, especially since the Meet Me Halfway Finale was last night and the final part of the walk is taking place right now. Meet Me Halfway is a project that Jimmy Wayne began to raise awareness of the fact that too many youth — especially those that are aging out of the foster care system — are facing circumstances similar to those he faced when he was young.

Let me back up a minute and tell you a bit about Jimmy Wayne. He's a country music artist, and I've been a fan ever since I first heard his song Stay Gone in like... 2003? That's probably right, b/c that's about the time I was splitting up with the boys' daddy. I'm not going to turn this into a song related post, even though I could go on for a long while about my favorites of his songs. But I do have his music to share if anyone is interested. I saw Jimmy Wayne in concert last summer, and I knew of his history at the time, but hearing him talk about it made it that much more real. (And okay, maybe I cried a little at the concert, but really, between hearing him talk about it and the lyrics to some of his songs, it was a valid reaction.) Jimmy Wayne survived a turbulent, abusive childhood. His father abandoned the family. His mother went to prison, and Jimmy and his sister were shuttled to a series of foster homes. His stepfather tried to murder him. He was a homeless teen, living by his wits on the street, until he met the Costners, the couple that gave him a home and a family. They had first hired him to mow their lawn, and then offered him a place to stay, with the agreement that he would go back to high school. After high school, he worked in a textile mill and as a prison guard as he was working his way toward an associate degree in Criminal Justice before he ended up in Nashville. He spends a lot of time talking with and supporting foster children and homeless youth. Someday, he'd like to build an orphanage for kids who are too old to be adopted.

Earlier this year, Jimmy began a campaign called Meet Me Halfway. He would walk from Nashville, TN to Phoenix, AZ. The walk would be halfway across the country, he would find supporters who would "meet him halfway" by volunteering and helping to spread the word, and he would interview with media outlets to generate publicity and awareness of the issue. "Because I was helped when I needed it, I want to try and help now," Wayne said. "I'm not asking people to come out and walk with me, but I am asking them to meet me halfway by getting involved - donate money, adopt a kid, learn more about the foster child/foster parent program in your local community. There's so much one person can do, and so many ways they can make a difference. It just takes one person to help someone to a better life."

There are 463,000 American youth in foster care. Foster children don't have the option of staying with their families when they become adults. They don't have the emotional and financial support that most kids do. Most of them don't have the skills necessary to transition from foster care to independent living. More than 20% of young adults aging out of the system experience homelessness. As many as 3 in 10 of the nation's homeless adults have a history in foster care.

Obviously, a lot of people don't have the resources to be foster parents, but there are other ways you can help: financial donations, volunteering time or resources, getting involved in local community programs that help with foster care.

There is a list of national and state organizations that help with foster children on the Meet Me Halfway Website.

You can also Make a Financial Donation to Meet Me Halfway.

Or you can join an MMH Street Team and help spread the word about the project and the issue.

One person, one contribution, can make a difference in a child's life. If you want to find more information about the Meet Me Halfway organization, you can visit the website at http://projectmmh.org/.

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So, Robbie got promoted to supervisor. Did I tell yall this already? Either way, when I told him congratulations, he was like "Are you still gonna quit?" Robbie getting promoted is possibly the one reason I would stay, and it's up against the 2,869,342 reasons I quit. (That's his number, not mine.) So yeah, Robbie, I love you but I'm still quitting.

Although I did have one woman today who was crying and thanking me and telling me God was going to Bless me for all the help I'd given her and for being so patient. Members like that are the reason I do what I do.

Still looking for another job.

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So, apiphile said this: I need to find a comm for fannish discussion which centres on the quality, style, and execution of writing. Something which talks about how information is fed to the audience, about how things are paced, about the craftsmanship of the storytelling in the text (be it written or filmed) rather than the content of the writing/the story. I want to talk about how the author achieved X and Y effect, their choice of dialogue, their use of adverbs, their pacing and their sentence lengths, etc.

And by "not the content" I mean I don't want essays about how such and such may or may not have been racist, I am not interested in the social issues brought up by the story or the number of queer character or if women were correctly depicted. I am not interested in character detail or world-building at this point. I *am* interested in plotting processes and what evidence can be seen of particular types in a finished product.

And, after the chiming in of a few others, criticalfandom was created!

For:

Fannish discussion of media (TV, films, books, comics) which focuses on the quality, style, and execution of the writing.

Discussion of how information is fed to an audience, at what speed and through what means.

Questions about how particular effects were achieved in writing; about the craftsmanship involved.

Debate about how specific texts (TV, films, books, comics) could have been improved; whether extra scenes or fewer ones were necessary.

Discussion of dialogue, of adverb and adjective choice, of euphony, of authorial style, of pacing and of sentence lengths.

Questions about terminology are also welcomed.

Join and pimp so we can get the ball rolling and some content up in here. I'm excited for this. Talk about how your favourite stuff is written! YES.

(If you join... or hey, if you don't... pimping of the comm would be much appreciated. It's brand spanking new and needs members to make it work. PLEASE PIMP?)

(Credit goes to swear_jar for this post, b/c I am a thieving thief who thieves. And I like her words.)