From Becca/Abby/Abby's Dad:

Hello,

As some of you may know, I am involved with a non-profit that links schools in Africa with those in the U.S, with the goal of improving lives through improved education and increased understanding across cultures. The Mpambara-Cox Foundation (mcoxfoundation.org) has begun by linking 21 schools in rural southwestern Uganda, home of the founder and president, with primary schools in Maryland and Kentucky.

In one of the Ugandan schools, Kengoma, a building with two classrooms recently collapsed and is now unusable. The Kindergarten and Primary 1 classes met there. Fortunately, it happened on a non-school day and no one was injured. But students have been forced to meet in a church around 2 kms away, and the daily meal the Foundation provides through its "10:30 Porridge Program" (which has increased attendance dramatically) has not been available to students due to a lack of adequate kitchen facilities in the new location. Ugandan government assistance is essentially unavailable - involving difficult bureaucratic channels that take inordinate amounts of time and often end up with unfinished, low-grade buildings.

So I have taken on the challenge of spearheading an effort to rebuild the school. I'd like to invite you and others you know to be partners in the project. The cost of rebuilding the collapsed building is estimated at $5,000 US. If you are interested in helping, please donate $10 (yes, only $10!) and/or forward this request on to a few of your friends who might want to help. We hope to reach the 500 or so people needed (factoring in processing fees) through one another's network of friends. Pictures of the pre-collapsed school and its students can be seen at http://mcoxfoundation.org/index.php/photo-gallery (click the Kengoma link). And the online donation can be made at http://mcoxfoundation.org/index.php/donations. All contributions are tax-deductible. Please be sure to check the KENGOMA School box to ensure the donation goes to that school.

All contributors will receive pictures of the collapsed school building and eventually the new one, along with a simple final report. No contributors will be put on mailing lists. The MCF director will be in Uganda from mid-July to mid-August and I hope she will be able to announce in person to the Kengoma community that funds for the classrooms are available and construction can begin immediately. It will be a very big deal for them.

This is also an experiment of sorts to see if social networking can be used as effectively for humanitarian purposes as it can for spreading jokes and urban legends. So, you can further pseduo-social science research while helping meet an important community and educational need in a very poor country. What more could you want for $10? The research results will be included in the brief final report sent to contributors. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Jim Rotholz

Hooray for posting!

Happy Monday!!

Dearest Gwyneth, I’m so glad to hear that you’re happy to be finished with a fellow who seems to have a very nasty side. Can you write a soap opera about your life? I would watch it, especially if it was on before or after gossip girl.

Excellent initiative Nicky in reminding us about this fabulous forum of communication, that once inspired my co-worker to state “are you guys the babysitters club?,” when she noticed me reading it (it was when Nicky had used her rad graphic design skills to do a vignette of us). The links you post rock. I fell asleep watching Persepolis one night, but only because I’m chronically unable to finish movies due to impending slumber. I intend to finish it. I did stay awake through Bruno last night, which I had mixed feelings about. It was funny, no doubt, but of the 15 funniest parts of the movie at least 7 of them were in the trailer. I hate it when they do that! I also don’t think Bruno was crafted with the same care and meticulous attention that Borat was, and some of the scathing social commentary that I love degenerated into Jerry-Springer style scenes only included for to shock the audience. I understand that he’s doing it ironically, but still, I think there’s something to be said for subtlety, which I was often achieved effectively in Borat. Also, I feel that this film is damaging to the gay rights movement and U.S. relations with the middle east. SBC is amazingly talented, he comedic timing is brilliant, and I enjoyed it nonetheless.

In our nation’s capital, things are going well on this gloriously sunny day. So far, I found out that one of my former work friends got engaged over the weekend and another became a jew. Someone also told me I look thin (new dress!). Most importantly, we also won a HUGE case that I’ve been working on for many months and was responsible for the lion’s share of what was submitted. This sketchy Ghanian who has multiple arrests for possession (this is a big deal in immigration proceedings) was granted LPR cancellation (a challenging form of relief to obtain) after only 20 minutes of proceedings and our case was not contested by DHS. We papered the hell out of it, and I was at the office working mad over time a few weeks back compiling and preparing the 300+ pages of evidence that we submitted. My senior attorney ran into my office a few minutes ago shouting after she returned from the 8am hearing “We won! Congrats! You did this!” It was pretty awesome.

Can someone please marry an immigrant so I can do your case?

Becca: any Japanese guys look compelling? I understand that they tend to be modestly hung, but maybe you could find one who makes his own sake?

Single to UnSingle to Lovely

Well... I broke up with my boyfriend. We've been seeing each other since the end of January or so, but it was never really that special. A sampling of the text message war (Thursday "Night"/Early Friday Morning) that cemented the breakup includes:

Doug (4:12 am): "Go fucking kill you ugly fat self leave me alone and don't act like anyone wants you besides coked out fuck ups that only have grad scholl to feel like they're"

Doug (4:13 am): "Smart like you because grad schools only for people that talk to other grad students that are fuck ups like their grad student selves don't act like"

...and...

Doug (4:52 am): "Im done chasing you I thought you had one thing... Class but I guess not keep doping up and being in grad school someone will love you"

..and...

Doug (4:57 am): "I have no gruge other than you never felt big enough to act like a grown woman but like a coffee drinking cornell groupie"

In his "defense," he was drunk out of his mind, and tried to apologize over and over again the next day, but this isn't the first time he's said some rip-shit mean things to me. What's funny is (until that DAY even,) I had never cheated on him, but right before the text message war, I'd spent a few hours hanging out with the older brother of a friend of mine who is here for the summer - and who is just amazing. I'd been regretting that I couldn't see him since I was still involved with someone else - then that happened. While coincidence is definitely a force, I like the way the events dovetailed into something good.

I did talk to Doug last night for the first time since then. He was still really apologetic and wanted to hang out after he got off of work (around 2am) but it seemed like a bad idea. I am not sure I should even go over to his place today to talk, but I'm kinda worried he doesn't remember that it's over (apparently, in his drunk state, he deletes text messages, so while he knew he's been a jerk, he didn't realize how bad... Or remember that my closing lines included, "It's over, don't call me tomorrow, and go find someone else.")

Eh... We'll see. On a funnier note...

I woke up TERRIFIED this morning around 9:30am, because I just remembered that a friend of mine had asked me to sub for her at her office hours and to grade one assignment for her. I'd offered several weeks ago, because then she had the ability to go home and see her family in Oregon.

When I woke up this morning, I realized that I was probably the biggest asshole in the world, having spent all of last week wandering around, partying, enjoying good new company - and at NO point, heading anywhere near the math building to do her grading or office hours.

Gah.

So I leap out of bed, get dressed (still wearing the "outfit" I chose in less than 5 seconds, a terrifying sight to behold you can be sure,) fight the urge to call Jen and apologize for being an asshole (either she's in Oregon and wouldn't appreciate a call at then-six-thirty-am, or she's back in Ithaca and already knows,) and run downstairs to put on my shoes... When I realize I should check my phone to see when she had called me to remind me that I'd offered to do this.

It was on July 9th. Today is July 13th. Her office hours and grading were (or rather, I know now, ARE) today, tomorrow, and Wednesday.

This has been one more reminder of how I need to keep my affairs a little more organized. I can't even tell how much time has passed between one event and another. Sounds like it's time to start keeping a schedule.

The new guy I'm into works from around 8-10am until somewhere between 6-8pm almost every day. He and his brother are editing a documentary they shot across four months of traveling all over Asia, filming the reactions of both Chinese citizens and neighboring countries to the Olympics and tying them into the rebirth of China as a modern empire. (Btw, the trailer is really nifty to watch.) While that's really cool and all (A self-motivated guy that will make himself work for 8-12 hours a day, every day, on something interesting and purposeful? Impossible!), the work ethic is making me want to work more, which I like a lot.

So hopefully, over the next few weeks, you'll see posts in here about "how great my research is going" rather than my escapades evading my advisor!

Hope you ladies are doing great! Talk to you soon!

More music for your weekend...

Wisdom from the Michael Jackson media frenzy...

By Summer Pierre:

He was obviously a very troubled person, a man who was an ego maniac with devastatingly low self esteem, but he could write a song and he could perform the heck out of it.

And this is what we can only hope gets left behind when we all leave the world--the very best of us what we were and will continue to be.