I've posted this in LJ, but I know that not all of B.org is on LJ and I want to reach as many people as possble.

One of my classes this term is "Cultural Diversity". My final project for this class is an autobiographical research paper on race in my community. I want to do it on my B.org/Treehouse/LJ community. My thought was that since I am attending an on-line university, doing my project about my on-line community would be a nice parallel. Plus, let's face it, I am not so much with the real life community.

These are some of the things I'll be including in my paper:

• How do I define my own community in terms of race. Who are the members, leaders, and organizations in my community?

• What race issues concern my community leaders?

• Find out which racial issues concern my community.

Would you be interested in sharing your feelings on race in our communities?

All responses would be strictly anonymous. I will post an online questionaire to this LJ or email it to you and you can email the questionnaire back to me.

None of the information I receive will be repeated to anyone at anytime, with the exception of my professor and in that instance, no real names will be used. I will not post my final project in any forum. I will send the final project out to anyone who participates at their request. I will not make reference to any answer I receive in any other forum, create any backchannel about any response I get. I might respond to your answers, but only for clarification or expansion. I will not to try to change your mind, tell you you are a wrong-headed crackpot, or in general, be an asshole. I want anyone who chooses to participate to feel safe in being totally honest.

So there is my plea. Thanks for reading this and if you choose to participate, thank you in advance for doing so.

If you have any other questions or concerns that you would like addressed before saying "Yea" or "Nay", either post them here or email me: aimeeconat at yahoo dot com. I will try to answer them as best I can.

Thanks so much.

Grist magazine has asked posters to be a bit more creative - use humor and art rather than always posting straight essays. So I've posted an a short alternate world chronology, where a change in how the U.S. civil war was fought led to a technology based on biofuels rather than oil. Not a story that will make you do the "happy happy joy joy" dance.

[link]

Does anyone want any of the following for the cost of postage?
DVDs:
The Simpsons First Season
The Office (US) first season

Video tapes:
Heart and Souls
Once Around
IQ
Men in Black
The Full Monty

If so, email me at my profile address with your address.

I cobbled together a rough *very* basic html version of the Nilly Firefly reviews site at nilly.shriftweb.org to serve as a placeholder until I can recreate the whole shebang that I helped out with back in the day.

I hope to have it restored to pre-attack status for Shrift soon.

Meanwhile, Shrift has put it on-line, and I will tweak it over the next few days to make it look even halfway presentable again.

The important thing is that all of Nilly's Firefly reviews are accessible in one place again.

So, yesterday, the following L.A. casting call went out:

Theremin Musician - White Castle - Commercial - SAG Scale - SAG - 2/1/2007
/ Male or Female / All Ethnicities / 27 - 45 /
Must be an actual Theremin player, and be able to bring your instrument with you. Anyone who knows the guy, (and how to reach him) on YouTube playing Video Killed the Radio Star, please call us!

The guy on YouTube? That would be me.

Needless to say, I\'m pretty excited (while also desperately trying to keep my expectations low). However I need someone to do a big favor for me, and I\'m hoping a Buffista can come through:

They sent me the script and they need an audition tape of me doing the 30 second ad in a few different takes (deadpan, enthused, etc.). I do not even own a camcorder. Is there a Boston-area camcorder-owning Buffista who would be willing to meet with me anytime this Sunday to shoot the tape with me? It shouldn\'t take more than an hour or two, tops. I will repay you with cookies, or something.

Please reply via my profile email addy.

t update I found someone to do the video. Thanks to all who offered!

LAistas, I'm sure you've heard, but just in case...do not, under any cicumstaces, go on the 405N near the 101 this afternoon or evening. Apparently a construction crane tipped across the freeway this morning from a nearby work site, and it's been closed since 11.

Luckily I got this news before I left work (since that is precisely my normal route home), and I was able to go around the other way...which brings me to my second announcement: the 110N and the 10E have also both had nasty accidents and are moving approximately as fast as a three-toed sloth.

Ah, LA traffic. Sometimes it manages to still make me say WTF?!? Today was one of those days.

For anyone who's interested, I've put up photos of my trip to America last year here: [link]

For those wondering why they're all of animals rather than people, I will point out that this should surprise no one. For those who note that the Lilybean is an exception to this, I will note that this too should surprise no one.

More photos, these ones of my trip to the Red Centre with Wallybee: [link]

If you happen to live in one of these states-

The Whole Foods Market stores in Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina will donate $1 for every king cake sold to the White Boot Brigade, a project of Loyola University's Market Umbrella.

The White Boot Brigade represents a small band of Louisiana shrimpers who are rescuing traditional wild shrimp harvesting with smaller, smarter, boutique production and marketing. Hurricane Katrina has left the state of commercial fishing families in perpetual crisis, with the loss of any shrimper impacting the regional economy, restaurant culture, and the state's reputation as Sportsman's Paradise. The brigade cultivates new markets that reward their triple bottom line of economic innovation, ecological sustainability, and cultural preservation.