If you are on Facebook, support gay rights, and would like to contribute (in a very easy, non-financial way) to an incredible family’s quest to raise awareness, check out this page: [link] and “like” it. I know this family personally very well--Chelsea was my student and advisee, and she and her dads are one of the kindest, most loving families I have ever had the privilege to know. If you follow the link, you can read Chelsea’s own words and watch her speech from her dads’ wedding (the viral response to this video is what started her advocacy three years ago) as well her speech at a national convention last fall. I promise you will be moved by her passion and impressed by her wisdom and grace. Her family is pledging to donate $10,000 to the No H8 Campaign if they get 100,000 Likes by September 1st, so I’m trying to do my tiny part by spreading the word. If you feel the same, it would mean a lot if you would post a link on your own Facebook page to help them reach their goal. Thanks, everyone.

Hey - Kiva has this free trial thing going on, where they will finance a limited number of $25 loans free for people invited by existing members (Kiva gets the loan repayment, of course). I've been meaning to try Kiva and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. If you'd like to give it a try, here's a link - [link] (Full disclosure - if enough people join, I get a t-shirt. I don't give a crap about a t-shirt, really.)

So for my 55th (!!!WTF!!!!1!) birthday present to myself, I am starting a blog. Would anyone who wants to, please take a look at the layout and leave any advice for this total newbie in the comments? [link] I will take the advice and delete the post before I actually go live, so feel free to be as straightforward/detailed/snarky as you want. Thanks, mighty hivemind!

Before I found y'all, I found Bitch magazine. After years of buying it at the newsstand, I ponied up and became a sustainer. For $5 month, I get my mag and my name is even in it! I find my name every month.

Anyway! "Feminist response to pop culture" strikes me as relevent to Buffista interests. They're doing a sustainer/subscriber drive right now to keep the magazine in print. Here's a sample post on their website on liking problematic media. [link]

Just putting it out there in case anyone wants to support what they do.

As a birthday gift to myself, I have started a skating blog. here's the link: [link] Hope all y'all Buffistas like it!

This is a really sweet story in the LA Times about the Peace March Reunion. I was glad to only attend virtually, but I do love these people. There are some nice pics too. Did I mention that I love these people?

I used to work for Synergy, and I used the rattletrap donated old van to pick up kids in a 100 miles radius, drive 'em to docs, legal, library -- all kinds of things. And we only had two vans to share between the Street Outreach team and sometimes a kid would call in and have to wait to get picked up from a dangerous sitch because we were using the van for the kids from the shelter.

Please vote for Syngery to win a vehicle from Toyota's 100 Cars for Good today -- today is the deadline. [link]

Thanks!

Best Buy is having quite the DVD sale through the 20th. All 5 seasons of Friday Night Lights are $14.99, as well as seasons 1-4 of Criminal Minds. S5 of CM is $19.99. Supernatural and Fringe are $18.99 for all seasons currently on DVD.

If you buy $50 of TV on DVD, you get a $10 gift card. With a $100 purchase, the gift card is $25.

FYI FNL (not sure if it is all seasons) is on Netflix on Demand currently.

Mathy types need to look at Google's doodle for today.