i saw this on boing boing a few days ago and wanted to share! i love this musical roller coaster!
A special message from our friend, Dante Shepherd:
Bone marrow donors are always needed in response to blood diseases like leukemia. Unfortunately, it’s not a simple case of matching blood types, but needing to find a much more exact match between donor and recipient - which is an even larger problem when the number of people on donor registration lists never encompasses enough people to have matches for everyone. The other problem is that it’s not cheap to register donors, either - conducting the analysis so you can properly be added to the lists can cost as much as $100 - so there aren’t always many registration drives that you can take part in.
My Eagle project, back when I was a Boy Scout, was to organize a bone marrow donor registration drive, partly inspired by a Scout in our troop who had died unable to find a match. I’ve been trying to figure out how to use STW to organize a new drive for a while now - a little hard when you can’t all just come down to a local building we’re having it at! - a nice idea but certainly with difficulties before we even get to the costs.
BUT - and this is good news - the National Marrow Donor Program is actually having all costs covered until the end of January. Even better, you can sign up online - it takes less than ten minutes to fill out the forms, you’ll be mailed a cheek-swabbing kit which you mail back - and bam, you’re done and registered, and it was free. So please, if you can, register to be a donor before the month is over. You may never end up being a match for someone - but every person who gets registered helps cut down on the possibility that someone won’t be able to find a match.
If you’re between 18 and 60, please consider becoming registered as a potential donor. It’s a great opportunity to do something easy, and you might end up saving a life someday. Thanks.
I signed up just recently to do this and my kit should be here in a week or so. While I’m not sure if I’ll ever be a match for someone, I think the biggest thing is that I put myself out there to help someone I don’t even know. Life is so messy and full of imperfections. Sometimes, you just need that extra hand of support from someone that you’ve never even met before. I mean, we’re only human! I would hope that a stranger would do that for me too if I was in need of a donation.
i will be purchasing this for my future child.
I made a candle out of a clementine! (Taken with instagram)
GLOBAL PETROLEUM CRISIS?
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT BREAKING YOUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL BY RUNNING EVERYTHING ON THE ENERGY OUTPUT OF MY ADORABLENESS?
WE COULD EASILY POWER MOST OF NEW YORK OFF WHAT YOU’RE FEELING RIGHT NOW, AND THIS ISN’T EVEN MY PINSTRIPE BOW TIE.
(via ouiser-boudreaux)
en pointe
My beautiful friend and her love. Engaged at last. (Taken with instagram)
(via in-north-carolina)
Little girl and German shepherd waiting outside joe van gogh (Taken with instagram)
Sufjan Stevens- Come On! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance! (by seikalym)
this is such a wonderful christmas song. i remember hearing it on someone’s myspace page when i was in high school and playing it on repeat in my car with my ipod. i definitely put this song on a continuous loop. i am, again, playing it over and over as i finish up part of my dad’s gift at the moment!
my dad.
i definitely started the family trend of upgrading cell phones. i also am so blessed — even with silly text messages like this — to have such loving parents in my life. i always think of this avett brothers’ song “murder in the city” when i think of a way to describe that always-there-kinda-love from my parents:
always remember there was nothing worth sharing
like the love that let us share our name
