One challenge to getting folks to give to charity is that it takes effort. Another, especially in lean times, is that folks need to take care of themselves as well.

So, I'm still between jobs. And, I'm dealing with my mother's situation and my father's estate, and I really do not need extra work.

Enter DriveThru RPG. For a $20 donation to Doctors Without Borders Haiti Earthquake Response, I can a) donate $20, b) gget a huge bundle of pdfs, and c) get matching funds for that $20.

Hm. Worthy cause? Check. Organization I trust enough? Doctors Without Borders? Check.

Can I afford it? Well, one of the games I had planned to buy is in that bundle of pdfs. The pdf for that game alone is $20. I'd planned to buy it, so obviously I can afford it. I can now buy it, and, at no extra cost, donate. Check.

Effort required? Log in, click, enter payment method. No letter to write. No trying to figure out a complicated website. Check.

This is brilliant. All it takes for the numbers to work is one single item that a gamer would pay $20 for. And, in a package that large, the odds are really good that a gamer will find at least one such item.

As of yesterday, the website said that about $33,000 had been donated. Today, the figure is $61,215.00.

Mind, the actual download will be delayed a couple of days due to the huge response. But, hey, I can wait. And I don't need to find shelf space for pdfs.

It feels odd to be thanked for generosity when this is all so easy. But, that's part of the point. Make it this easy, and folks will donate.

In case anyone is curious, the item that alone made it worth my while is The Kerberos Club.

Josh is physically at work, rather than telecommuting. His throat is still hurting.
I'm either over or mostly over it, and should go back on allergy meds soon. (First sign I have of respiratory illness: My allergy meds stop working.)

My eye's a bit irritated, but my eye doctor took me as a walk in yesterday, told me to add a new set of drops to the eye care regimen for a few days, and see him on Monday, and no, my cornea does not need to be scraped again.

That last is the second best piece of news. The first is summed up as follows: Yes, come into the office as early as you can. He'll see you. Yes, see me Monday afternoon -- just walk in. And call Friday if you want to see me then.

One of the things I learned from D&D is that there's a type of vampire known as a Pengallen. This vampire feeds by detaching its head and internal organs from the body and sending them off -- the head with the organs dangling from it -- to feed.

So, I'm trying to find a source that isn't a roleplaying game for this, some indication of what the folklore is, whether there are male, as well as female, Pengallen, or whether D&D made it up out of whole cloth. I don't think it did, but I could be wrong.

womzilla asked for me to transcribe my notes for a presentation he did at the 2007 Lunacon.

So, I went back to my various notebooks. But, the one that starts around August 2006 has a gap from the end of LAConIV through Arisia 2008.

I finally found a notebook that picked up in Dreamation 2007, which was January. But, from there, it jumped to Origins 2007, skipping over March 2007, when Lunacon was held.

Possibly, I didn't take notes for that Lunacon. But, I did a con report for Boskone 2007, and it looks detailed enough that I probably took at least some notes for that. Boskone was February 2007, and not in the notebook.

I don't usually jump notebooks, and I'm not sure what was going on here.

This is reminding me of a justified critique of a Call of Cthulhu scenario where, even though the PCs found the victim's diary, other diary, and secret hidden diary, they hit a dead end because they neglected to look for his dream journal! Now, I can attest that this is not actually unrealistic, but the realism is misapplied. PCs should find the blasted clues unless there's a Danged Good Reason beyond "They blew the Spot Hidden roll that would keep the session from crashing to a halt."

And my notes are laughing at me.

Okay, we've got a doctor's appointment for 11:15 am tomorrow. Today was booked. Apparently, "fever" is more of a magical word than "flu", although an appointment can be made either way.

Josh and I have been fighting off sickness all weekend. I'm well enough to go out and do stuff. Josh was coughing to the point of vomiting -- not stomach vomiting, y'understand, losing very little in the way of nutrients -- and his fever returned.

"You will go to the doctor tomorrow," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"Even if you feel better," I said.

"Yes," he said.

He took an aspirin, which helped the fever. He took cough drops, which helped the cough, and we ordered in egg drop wonton soup, which was also helpful.

But, now, Josh has decided that he will call the doctor, regardless of how he feels, only coming in if he is told to.

1. This is not what I told him. He always does this. He scares me when he is sick, promises yes, he will go to the doctor, then decides he is feeling better and doesn't. I am really sick of being told to take care of myself by the man I love when he will not reciprocate. I am sick at being given the message "I don't need to do what I say", particularly when it is a health matter.

2. Josh has shown a really bad habit in the past to leave details out. Details like vomiting.

3. The doctor and his gatekeeper apparatus are highly aggressive about the gate keeping. There is no way to reach the doctor after hours to leave a voice message except to call the emergency number which connects one to a live person who will take one -- and only one -- message. That message is: It is an emergency. Folks reading my f-locked posts have gotten an earful of my opinions on all of this based on past history.

Will he be all right? Very likely. But, I am not happy about this, and will be most unhappy if he does not get well quickly.

Mind, we could call our 24 hour nurseline. Josh does not want to do this.

Some years ago, pocketnaomi got me a knitted rainbow hat for winter weather. I lost it a couple of years later, but bought one like it on St. Marks.

Repeat two or three times. Heck, this last time, I don't even know how I lost it.

"Time to iterate the hat," said mnemex.

And I did this on Sunday.

It's somewhat ridiculous, all these lost hats. But, pocketnaomi notes that the original hat was also somewhat ridiculous.

At about 3 am today (Saturday), my original contacts came back (so I now have 2 entries for almost everything), although my bookmarks have not.

I do not know whether the manager who is due to call me back tomorrow will say, "Yes, as I promised, you will get the $100 debit card" or "No, you have your contacts back, so we do not owe you anything, never mind that you were told twice that you'd get this, never mind that it took a month from when you should have been able to download it, never mind that you've been dealing with phone issues for nearly two months."

If I do get the $100 debit card, I will actually consider having my next phone be a T-Mobile phone.

If I do not get it, my next phone will emphatically not be a T-Mobile phone.

It really is that simple.

Yesterday, I heard, as one often does, the conductor asking for everyone to either move into the train, or, if they couldn't fit, out, and, in any case, folks should please clear the door so that the train could leave the station.

And, as generally happens, this was eventually accomplished, and the train pulled out.

Then, the conductor came on the loudspeaker again, thanking the passengers for clearing the doors. That was unexpected and rather nice.