Due to a new office layout, I really shouldn't indulge in much web-surfing. So, I'm not going to be around much. If you need to get in touch w/ me, use the profile addy.

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Recent estimates have placed the death toll in the thousands. More than 1 million people and over a thousand pets were displaced when Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast.

Here's how you can help.

Starting October 1, 2005 for 10 days, a 10 or 15 minute (determined by the celebrity) phone call will be auctioned off to raise money for the Red Cross & American Kennel Club Canine Support. If yours is the winning bid, at the end of the auction you will be contacted by us to schedule the phone call. The actual call will be scheduled between October 28 - November 4, 2005. We will contact you with 3 dates and times given to us by the celebrity and you can choose one of those. However, if they do not work with your schedule we will try to schedule a time within those dates that would work best for both sides. We will need the phone number where you will be able to be reached, once the date and time is set. We will forward this information to the celebrity. As an added way to donate to the families left displaced by Katrina, the celebrity will be making the call via a pre-paid phone card and after the call is complete, the remaining time on the card will be donated to the Red Cross to be given to displaced families so they can call their family and friends and keep in touch.

Some of the people donating a bit of time to call you up and tell you you're the greatest fan ever: Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, David Fury, Stephanie Romanov.

[link]

For those who haven't been paying attention to the Firefly thread and all the links...

Time: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth. >[link]

Just ask two of the ringleaders of this bloodless, prom-dateless coup: archgeek Joss Whedon, the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the science-fiction movie Serenity, which opens this Friday; and Neil Gaiman, creator of the classic comic book Sandman and author of the fantasy novel Anansi Boys, which comes out this month. Gaiman also has a movie opening this Friday, the Dark Crystal--flavored fantasy Mirrormask. "It will be national geek day!" he says.

May be spoilery. I'm not looking. But Hey, Time magazine. Geek chic.

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Hey there folks. If you are in the LA area on Oct. 15th, come on over for a big Halloween party. It's happening early so that it doesn't conflict with any other parties and since I'm working Halloween weekend. KristinT is co-hosting this thing, and it's happening at her new place.

Here's the evite [link]

My new website is edging closer and closer to being ready for public viewing! As part of it, there's now a Gothic Charm School Cafe Press store. Go and marvel at the designs Pete created for me! Maybe even buy a mousepad or a sticker! (T-shirts and mugs will be appearing in just a bit)

My MiL writes an article for my old hometown newspaper. (I'm sure many of you remember the Wedding Etiquette article debacle) However, I know there are Buffistas with high school or soon to be high school age children and I thought that it was prudent to pass this along. I thought myself to be pretty knowledgeable of the No Child Left Behind, what with being from a family of teachers and counting several teachers as friends, but I had NO IDEA about this.

“THOUGHTS AT LARGE” COLUMN – 9-29-05 – "NCLB goes too far" by Kathleen Conat

The situation is this: the Pentagon has admitted it has a database with personal information about children. Our children. It's been collecting that data for the past three years.

The No Child Left Behind Law has a little known requirement, Section 9528, that all high schools must turn over information on students or risk losing federal funding. The information includes names, addresses, e-mail addresses, cell phone numbers, ethnicity, Social Security numbers and areas of study. That information is turned over to military recruiters.

The Pentagon's database now holds information on 30 million young men and women 16 to 25 years of age. The database is updated daily and distributed monthly to all branches of the armed services.

What is the worst part of this, in my view, is that school administrators were told they could not notify the parents that this was happening. Yes, you read that right. The federal government decided to bypass parents so they could contact kids -- underage, still living at home, teenagers – and recruit them into the military.

Rep. David Vitter, (R) Louisiana, is the one responsible for the insertion of Section 9528 into the No Child Left Behind Law. Evidently, no one really questioned it at the time. Maybe legislators were as unaware of it as the parents of America?

Section 9528 is a clear violation of the Privacy Act, which requires notification and public comment whenever new data is being compiled on individuals by any branch of the government. But, in 2002, the Pentagon contracted with a private marketing firm, BeNow, Inc., to begin "consolidating the data for greater efficiency." There is now speculation that Department of Defense leaders thought this would get them around the Privacy Act.

Certainly, it is clear Section 9528 was added to NCLB in order to circumvent parental controls. As parents and citizens learn more about this, I'm not the only one who is angry. A coalition of parent-activists has been started, called Leave My Child Alone, which shows parents how to "opt out." Its Internet site can be accessed at www.leavemychildalone.org.

I spoke with Ypsilanti High School Principal Eric Graves after learning about the information being handed over. He said that recently the law has been reinterpreted so parents can now notify the school not to send the information. As long as a letter is on file, he will not send the data to the Feds.

Graves will be sending out a letter to parents from the American Civil Liberties Union, explaining what is happening and how parents can "opt out" of both the schools' requirement to send the data and get their child's information off the Pentagon's main database. Because, you see, if your child is over the age of 16, that information was already sent last year – before you knew this section of the law existed.

Graves stressed that unless a parent signs a letter stating his or her child's information is to be withheld from the government, he has to send it along. But, that simple letter will allow him to keep your child's information private. There's even a way for a student over the age of majority to "opt out" on his own.

Graves said the school is contacted by the military every year. Military recruiters sit in the school's cafeteria with the same access to junior and senior students as the college and university recruiters have.

That's fine. That's out in the open. So, why do the Pentagon and, evidently, Congress feel the need to sneak around behind our (continued...)

( continues...) backs?

If even one child has signed up to join the military because of pressure put on him or her due to this information having gone forth, and that child was killed in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere while on military duty, then Rep Vitter is a murderer. Every senator and representative who voted for NCLB and knew about Section 9528 also shares blame for that death.

We used to worry about the government trying to come into our bedrooms. Now, it's trying to wedge itself between us and our children. That is beyond what I am willing to tolerate.

"Leave my child alone" is right. If you have a problem with that, Rep. Vitter, well, bring it on.

Somervillain Alert: Lost will be delayed by the Red Sox/White Sox game tonight, and be broadcast sometime after the late evening news tonight -- which could itself be delayed, depending on how late the game runs. They will also rebroadcast the show on the weekend sometime.

Attention, New Yorkers! From my daughter, verbatim:

Any freelance creative/graphic person in NY (or metro area) please email me at j.simkin@carolsdaughter.com. Things that need to be designed include e-mail blasts, web promotions (contest banners, etc), fliers, signs, POP's, packaging... it's probably 10-20 a hours a week of work. And urgent. Our current guy is totally overloaded.

The company is here. So if this is your thing, and you need work right now, give her a ping.