Pinwiz IS The Jury, Harry, and Dancing Boy #829 IN Chicago!

March 28-April 13. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Sundays at 2 pm.

3000 Glenview Rd, Wilmette, IL

I-94 to Exit 35 (Old Orchard Rd), East until Skokie Blvd, North until Glenview Rd.

Or exit 35 on I-94, Right for three lights, Left for two lights.

Call 847-256-9787 for tickets.

[link]

(Let me know if and when you are seeing the show. I'd love to say "Hi!")

Attention Buffistas!

As many of you know, Charisma Carpenter is pregnant with her first child, due any day now. In honor of the new mother and baby, we would like to make a gift to Heifer International, an organization that "combats hunger, alleviates poverty, and restores the environment by providing appropriate livestock, training, and related services to small-scale farmers worldwide."

Heifer allows donors to select from a gift catalog of various types of farm animal. I thought it would be nice if we get one or more of the milk animals:

A goat, for $120
A water buffalo, for $250
A heifer, for $500, or
A milk menagerie (two goats, a buffalo, and a heifer), for $1000

If you would like to contribute, please send your donation to me, stonewilbanks@attbi.com, via PayPal no later than midnight board time on Saturday, April 5. (Please also email me directly and let me know you've given--I'm paranoid and want to have a way to cross-check.) If you prefer not to use PayPal, email me and I will give you my address for snail-mailing a check. I will then make the donation and make sure CC gets an honor card with the love and best wishes of the Buffistas.

(Since I've never tried to contact a celebrity type before, could someone who knows how to get a card to CC email me and let me know? I'm assuming the protocol would be to send it care of her agent or the studio, but I don't have that info.)

x-posted to the Angel thread

Attention Buffistas!

To commemorate the series finale of BtVS, and to thank Joss and everyone else associated with the show for seven years of often-brilliant storytelling, we want to "pass on the story" by giving the gift of books and/or literacy. Instead of giving to a single organization or project, the idea is to pick something local and/or that resonates with you and give them a donation of money, time, or books. Email me by Saturday, April 19, at stonewilbanks@attbi.com and tell me what you've given and to whom. I will keep a running tally and send a card to Joss thanking him and telling him that the Buffistas have donated or pledged X amount of dollars, Y amount of books, and Z amount of volunteer time toward giving people more access to the wonder of a good story.

Some suggestions for where you can give:

• Your local public library. Many libraries have been hit hard by the economic downturn and need more help than ever from their local communities to maintain their collections and services. In most cases, you can donate money, time, or books (which may be added to their collection or sold to raise money for the library). Talk to your local librarian or check your library website.

• If you're planning to donate books, call a local hospital, nursing home, homeless shelter, etc. and see if they keep a library for the people they serve.

• Volunteer tutoring time with a school, nonprofit, or religious organization near you.

And, a few national/international organizations. With the exception of Operation Paperback, all of these allow you to donate online:

First Book gives children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first books.

Libraries for the Future "mobilizes private and public support for libraries, schools, and community partners to achieve equal access to the information and knowledge essential for a democratic society."

Literacy Volunteers of America" promotes adult literacy. It looks like they offer plenty of volunteer opportunities, too.

Operation Paperback is a grassroots organization sending paperbacks to American troops deployed overseas. I give to them because I feel like I'm putting my money where my mouth is on my anti-Bush foreign policy but supportive of troops stance. Warning--the website triggers a flock of pop-up ads.

Reading is Fundamental provides books and literacy resources to children and families.

(As with the CC thing, if anyone has a good address for sending the card to Joss, please email me.)

For anyone in the Chicago area, my next show (I'm the lighting designer) is opening soon. Here's the info.

The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
Apple Tree Theatre
595 Elm Place
Highland Park, IL
www.appletreetheatre.com (for ticket info, times and show description)
Box Office: (847) 432-4335
Dates: April 7 - May 4, with previews starting April 2

Contact me at my profile addy if you think you might come to a preview or opening. Chances are, I won't be at the other performances.

Hey all. My newest book, The Best Lack All Conviction: the "Infante's Inferno" columns and other writings, is up in e-book form, available for only $5.

Not sure how long it'll stay up, but hey, for the moment it's up there.

Those who use Znet as a source of information may have noticed that it is down (as of around 1:12 P.M., Monday March 24, board time (EST)). They announced a few days ago that they were under cyber-attack and if they were down any time in the near future that was the cause. I'm going to post a related question in technical support - in hopes of some geek help on this. Oh, and it is not a conspiracy.. Right wing nuts, not official government action of any type; one particular set of right wing nuts who do this a lot are some Israeli settlers in the occupied territories and are tolerated by government of Israel, due as much to legal loopholes as deliberate policy.

I just wanted to let people know that although a vote was supposed to start at midnight tonight it is being postponed. We have not been able to iron out a ballot to everyone's liking. Hopefully this can be ironed out tomorrow, but I just feel wrong in posting the link for the vote now.

Visit the Voting discussion thread on your sidebar for details.

As Sophia noted, we were unable to iron out the ballot, yesterday.

The proposed ballot is here: [link]

The problem seems to be that since we can't nail down only two options for the moratorium length, we need to nail down a method for arriving at a true majority among three choices. We have been unable to decide between either having a run-off, or trying preferential voting, if there isn't a true majority for one of the three options. A number of people (but not a majority) are strongly opposed to trying the preferential method.

In hopes of moving things along, I have made two alternate proposals. They are at:

Cindy "Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!" Mar 25, 2003 6:47:02 am EST

and

Cindy "Voting Discussion: We're Screwing In Light Bulbs AIFG!" Mar 25, 2003 8:33:37 am EST

I'm don't give a sweet Viggo Mortensen's arse what we do. I think among the people who do care what we do, we've hit gridlock. Need fresh blood or voice of reason, please.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

It is time for one of the last procedural votes.

When we first started this discussion, we really wanted to be able to have a way to not talk about the same issue over and over and over... Here we have one.

*** Please note that this ballot consists of one VOTE and one question which is intended to act as a SURVEY to help craft a ballot with a different number if the vote does not pass.***

MORATORIUM ON REOPENING DISCUSSIONS

VOTE

After a proposal, discussion and vote, further discussion on a given matter should be closed for 6 months. If this initiative passes, we agree at 3 months from the day (date) the poll closes, to take a vote of confidence on this decision (only), to see if we think 6 months is too long, too short, or just right.

Yes

No

No Preference

Note that the result of this vote will apply to ALL decisions, affirmative and negative.

SURVEY

If, and only if, you voted "no" on question one , please choose a number between 1 month and twelve months to define what you think is the appropriate length of time to close discussions.

This results of Question Two will be moot if Question One receives 50%+1 "yes" votes. The results of Question Two will only be used for informational purposes, if Question One fails to get 50%+1 "yes" votes. It is not binding. It is just a survey to get a gut check on what people want.

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

Ballot Here

Voting starts Tuesday night (March 25, 2003) at 9 pm Board Time (EST) and closes Friday night (Mar. 28, 2003) at 9 pm Board Time (EST)

Due to Basketball, Minneapolis area broadcast of Buffy will be at 11 pm CST tonight.