two other people who could use your help

So, the Internet stepped up fabulously to help out britgeekgrrl. It's been a remarkable bright spot in a really sad situation.

Of course, sadly, the world and other people's sorrows stop for nothing, and there's two other people on my friendslist who could really use your help.

The first is dr_is_in. I've not met her in person, but people I know have, and she's who she says she is and what's going on with her husband, who's seriously ill is really happening (she's been very forthcoming about procedures, facilities, etc., and I put all these details in so you can make informed decisions and because there are people online who do lie about tragedy. I've bumped into a few on LJ over the years, and it's NOT COOL).

So here's the deal. dr_is_in's husband has been ill for a long time, and she's always been aware that his life expectancy might not be as long as either of them would like. But this year, he got really sick much sooner than expected. He got so sick, in fact, the doctors told her repeatedly that he had just days to live.

Miraculously, he's fighting back (seriously, this guy is so tough it's freaky), but the road is going to be long and hard. He's got weeks left in the hospital and will probably need home care for a long, long time. In the meantime, dr_is_in hasn't been able to work in weeks in order to stay by his bedside, both because there were concerns he might pass at any minute (there was the initial downward slide, then he coded as he was climbing back up, etc etc) and because she's been dealing with that usual thing where if someone isn't advocating for a patient in the hospital things can go very, very wrong.

Odds are, she won't be able to go back to work for a few weeks at least, and when her husband comes home, the expenses are going to be huge. Even with insurance and help from family, this is all creating a big financial problem.

At the request of some of her LJ friends, she itemized her expenses for December and January, and basically, she needs about $2000 to keep the rent paid and the lights turned on, and gas in the car to get to and from the hospital (where she sleeps some nights) and food, and all that really basic stuff, that I think when we're middle class we don't think people like us could wind up struggling for.

Well, she's struggling. Most of the posts about her husbands health are unlocked, so you can read up on the whole thing at her journal. She's also a member of Torchwood fandom (which is how I know her), and if you have some funds to spare this season (I know it's hard for us all, and I know the hat's just been passed), PayPaling her some help at ( click for email )

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The other person on my friendslist who could use your help right now is alumiere whois unemployed and has several chronic illnesses. She is also a real person I've never met, but folks I know face-to-face have. Right now, she's not only looking for a job (maybe you can help?) she's also trying to afford medication and testing to get a better sense of what's going on with her and to treat it. She is asking for donations. Please check out her journal and see if you can help her with work, funds or maybe even a lead on free mammograms in her area (that's one of the things she needs to get done).

Thanks!

sundries

Okay, I've have GOT to make our holiday cards this weekend. And I shall!

OM NOM NOM. Indian food awaits us tonight.

Cruise planning! Last night we narrowed down a lot of the short excursions and even made some final decisions, so I think Patty is booking those today. We still have other stuff to sort out, some of which we can just do on the damn boat. She's amazing at this stuff, I just get overwhelmed and confused. Things we're doing include a national park, seeing stingrays and boating to various secluded places. I think we're also going to see some big rocks and weird lizards, sail on a Siamese junk, and I'm crazy excited about just walking around Willemstad, which seems like a fascinating town and has the old synagogue in the Americas.

OMG, cruise clothing. I'm good with all the dressy stuff (white evening gown, black evening gown, red cocktail dress, tux, two suits & three dress shirts). And the semi dressy stuff (three Trashy Diva dresses and various slacks & dress shirts). And the bathing suits (two!). But you know what I fucking fail at? Casual clothes. Um.... like shorts. And a cover-up for the bathing suits. And sneakers. And I need to get on that. I feel really weird in shorts and I don't even know why. Patty's going to help, because mostly I'm like "I don't know how to do this!" I should also probably actually get an actual pair of jeans. And I really need to book the waxing appointment. I can't be bothered with hair removal most times these days, but if I'm going to wandering around in a bathing suit and heels on and off for ten days, I can damn well wax (not because it's my civic duty (because it's not), but because, hey, it really does make your legs look longer and more toned, who doesn't want that?)

Oh yeah, we have appropriately running water again in our place.

A tiny, tiny black kitty has joined the ranks of the garden kitties. He was being shown the food people leave for them by the grey garden kitty this morning. Really frigging cute.

These DARPA weather balloons could win you 40K USD.

Coming out in Hollywood. These articles appear every so often, and it's interesting to watch their evolution as they focus on just how disastrous it is or isn't for a given career. Contains the usual bullshit of "if everyone knows I"m gay, how will they believe me as straight" yadda yadda. But it's interesting, because the converse -- straight people playing gay characters, no one ever questions the believability of that. We just hear that it's all brave or heroic or whatever. And I think other than the obvious homophobia in that statement, there's a more interesting thing going on that points to the very nature of homophobia: as a culture we believe anyone could be gay! we are suspicious! and everyone is suspect! Interesting when we notice where the fear comes from.

Fun with Google Adsense: if you use the word "struggling" a lot in a post, you get ads for rehab centers. If you post porny fanfiction, you may get an ad for "EZLube" car maintenance chain. That's beautiful, is what that is.

Bristol said we would hopefully know "within the week" to folks who sent in abstracts on Monday. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh. I'm now guessing Sunday morning, since that's when I found out about something else academic in Britain that I submitted to once upon a time.

Speaking of Bristol, but unrelated to that issue or possible trip -- when Patty and I go to London in April, we're thinking of popping up to Ireland (probably Dublin, but not necessarily, but we have friends there and I've not been since 1995) for a few days. Anyone have any thoughts on the best/cheaptest/fastest way to do that as I know there are a number of options, none of which I know much about?

Remember that thing I posted the other day about Chase and NOM. Well keori remains on it, and Chase has already declared that NOM is inelligible for funds in their charity thing. The article also mentions the third party vendor that supplied the list. They may just be determining what's a charity based on 501(c)(3) designation, but if so, their system sort of blows. So the third party provider may be worth contacting. We really don't want NOM lurking on a widely distributed charity list.

Have we heard of the Bo-Tax? The idea is to help pay for healthcare reform through a 5% tax on cosmetic procedures. A lot of people think this sounds good. But some people think it penalizes women who are devalued by society if they look older than 30 (actually follow the link and discover that if you are over 25 and female, the fact that you want to fuck is yucky and weird in the heterosexual pop-culture landscape). Scarily, this may be one of those things where everyone's sort of right (except the people promulgating the puma, cheetah and cougar asshattery), even if we still can't get the difference between "need" and "want" through our heads as a nation.

Today I gave an old friends useful advice in email. Less useful advice was administered on LJ and contained the phrase "as long as we're avoiding marriages on the astral plane, we're probably good."

shadowravyn points us to Gives Me Hope which is random anonymous stories of people not sucking. Except: since anyone can post anything, it can have moments of being condescending/rage-inducing and as selasphorous points out in comments, can be particularly rife with ableism.

fabricdragon is keeping a list of Lj'ers who could use help from other LJ'ers. If you've got funds or resources to spare, please check there or the post I made earlier today.

from the department of The Internet Is Often Inexplicable

Motherfucking Pterodactyl.

And you ask why I'm on Twitter. I'm on Twitter because people Twitter stuff like that.