'Cause if you're not trying to make something better/then as far as I can tell you are just in the way

Hey, kids, how goes it? I'm still around, just trying to find things to do with myself besides chase the sunshine around the house. Somedays, it's just so much easier to uploads photos to Flickr and deal with brusque titles/captions (or none at all) than it is to compose coherent pieces of writing for this joint. But I'm getting to it, don't worry.

Meanwhile, for your personal amusement, I've found an index of mp3s of old TV theme songs [via Kottke]. I haven't listened to them yet - I've just been scrolling through and giggling at the list - but Knight Rider and He-Man are on there, so what more can I say? Let me know how it goes.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I've got two important things I need you to pay attention to (and I know you will, because you are rockstars):

ONE.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 is Blog Quake Day [via Baraka at Truth & Beauty]. DesiPundit explains:

We request each of you to make a small post about the earthquake, and direct your readers to a suitable avenue for donating to the relief efforts.

Every single dollar contributed, multiplied by the vast numbers of bloggers, will go a long way in helping these people rebuild their lives. Our experience of the last few weeks showed us that, no matter how small our blogs, and no matter how few our readers, the words we write and the way we use our blogs can have far-reaching consequences. We learnt not to underestimate our powers. Let’s now use our powers for good.

A small list of relief organizations is available in DesiPundit's post. You can also directly help relief efforts by buying hella slick tshirts through Chapati Mystery.

Please, please contribute, whether through weblog posts or direct donations or whatever you can do. It would be gorgeously rockstarish of you.

TWO.
A business associate of my father's sent me the following email a couple days ago:

Your father gave me your email address. I spoke with him earlier today about an idea that my women friends & I have been kicking around. We’ve been noticing and discussing how pervasive fear and hatred (especially of other ethnic groups) have become in our society again in the last few years, and how many of the politicians have fed this fear to promote their own agendas. We’d like to do something at least on a local level in our community to stem this tide & help people of all ethnicities to relate to each other as people. Our thought is to start with a group of women in Sacramento. We’d like to invite women from most of the major ethnic groups represented in this area to start a multi-ethnic women’s group. Would you be interested in helping us form such a group?

I know you graduated recently (congratulations, by the way!) and are not up here on a regular basis, but if you’re in the area for other things we can arrange a time to get together that fits your schedule.

I am humbled by the ladies' compassion and decision to engage in some form of active change, and am honored to have been asked to help in any way I can. I replied back with some thoughts, but I'm feeling a distinctive lack of ideas at the moment, mainly because I haven't really sat down and brainstormed yet. I've had plenty of experience with women of color discussion circles and intercultural dialogue and alliance in college, but it's been a few months and I'm worried I may have lost so much of what I learned through such experiences over the past few years.

So I need your help in brainstorming concrete thoughts and ideas regarding mission statement/goals/problem areas or issues that you feel a group such as this must focus on addressing. Anything and everything regarding intercommunity/intercultural relations and dialogue and safe spaces and women and diversity and all that fun stuff. I'm looking at all of you: Guys and girls, Muslims and non-Muslims, and whether or not you identify as "ethnic." Apparently my comment box is seriously on crack, so drop me an email whenever you have any ideas. Help a kid out. I promise I'll write back.

p.s. Once more, don't forget: Blog Quake Day! on the 26th!

EDIT: Looks like my comments work again. I think. Otherwise, try the email. Thanks much.