metrokitty

Monday, April 21, 2008

So long to the Long Box

Sad clouds overhead today for the closing-up-shop of Dave's Long Box, one of the funniest comics blogs out there. The guy is one of the greats, and though I'm happy that he's still writing elsewhere and has more up his sleeve to come, it's still a bummer to see the end of the blog that brought us Airwolf: the Adjective, Boob War, Dude Looks Like a Lady Week, and The S.H.I.E.L.D. Powerpoint presentation.

Oh hey Dave? If you're looking for something else to do, you could always go back to writing The Velvet Marauder. Just puttin' that out there. 'Cause it's made of awesome.

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Discardia: Celebrating the season of ditching your stuff

We are in the middle of one of the Discardia holiday seasons, a time celebrated by cleaning out stuff you don't need: unused goods, ideas, habits, and more. It's been long enough after the Winter holidays to finally ditch unwanted gifts discreetly, so let the purging begin.

But if you're going to jettison still-useful junk, you might as well put it to good use. Check out these resources for donating material goods. Many of them are specific to the Boston area, but they may also have pointers to their national offices.

Clothing

Women's professional clothing - interview suits and workplace-appropriate outfits - are the staples of Dress for Success, who use them to help provide opportunity to disadvantaged women. Massachusetts has several drop-off affiliates in Boston, Worcester, and Western Mass.

Formal dresses are reused by Belle of the Ball, a program offering prom dresses to high school girls in need. All you former bridesmaids out there, this could be your chance to graciously pass along that gorgeous-but-so-not-my-color wedding party dress.

Assorted other clothing, grooming tools, and toiletries are accepted by a number of shelters in this area, including Rosie's Place and the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans.

Backpacks

The Cambridge drop-in center Youth on Fire welcomes your backpack donations. Check out their wishlist for other needed items (including recreational gear for the center, like board games and art supplies).

Bicycles

Boston-based Bikes Not Bombs are some crazyproductive activists, empowering people all over the world, and they can put your donated bike to very good use.

Books

There are so many potential good homes for your discarded books, it's ridiculous. A few excellent options include hospital bookcarts (try Mass General's volunteer department or check your local hospital's donation options), Books for Soldiers, and Prison Book Program.

Food

Nonperishable and even perishable food can find a place with Boston Rescue Mission. Other organizations that accept food include Greater Boston Food Bank and Boston Red Cross, though it sounds like their food donation programs operate on a larger scale (i.e. unused donations from restaurants and markets), so contact them first to find out if your donation is appropriate.

Electronics

If you're looking to get rid of whatever technotoy you just upgraded beyond, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has a list of several organizations that accept donated computer equipment. You might also find an interested party at the periodic MIT Swap Fests.

Cell phones

Like books, working cell phones will always find a welcoming home. Try the donation program run by MassRecycle, where your phone could go to any number of people in need.

Shoes

This is a sweet idea - avoid chucking your shoes into landfills and send them to Nike for reuse in athletic playing surfaces instead.

Everything else

The resources above don't fit the junk you want to ditch? See if you can pass it along to Boomerangs (of Jamaica Plain), whose proceeds go towards the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

If that's not working, there are always the perennial fallbacks of Goodwill and the Salvation Army, whose websites you can use to find locations near you.

And if that's still not jetting your stuff, you can always put it up on Craigslist or even Freecycle. Don't underestimate the power of Freecycle - people out there will find uses for the most absurd hodgepodge.

Resources for discarding, uncluttering, and organizing

Once you've pitched the piles (or even if you're just thinking about it), it feels great to maintain that tidied state. My favorite book on this topic is Organizing Plain and Simple, which has a nicely chunked wide range of information.

Online resources include Flylady, with a great rah-rah encouraging approach (if you can get past the kinda scattered design of the site) and organizational blogs like Unclutterer, which I discovered through the rock solid awesome aggregator blog LifeRemix.

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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Carnival of Poo

Good news on the self-promo front: I have a one-page comic that will be included in Julia Wertz's upcoming anthology of comics based on Craigslist "Missed Connection" posts, I Saw You ...! The book has a tentative release date of early 2009. My comic will be chock full of joy because it deals with colonoscopies, which are endlessly entertaining. So to celebrate, here's a roundup of links and pointers along that train of thought: a Carnival of Poo!

Medical facts

This Ask Metafilter question clued me into the existence of a bodily feature-not-bug that I wasn't aware had been summed up in a neat little term: the gastrocolic reflex, the body response that can cause your colon to empty when food enters the stomach or small intestine.
Wikipedia's stub on gastrocolic reflex
iVillage on "dumping syndrome"

On the more unpleasant side of colon action, Tokyo Mango points to a news report that the former Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, resigned from his position due to ulcerative colitis. You can read more about ulcerative colitis at the Mayo Clinic website. I also learned a potential complication of inflammatory bowel diseases: "toxic megacolon", which would make a hells awesome DJ name.

I can't believe this exists

Are you kidding me? RateMyPoo.com is still around and still active? Jesus God! This is one of the nastiest sites I've ever encountered. Be forewarned that it's exactly what it says in the name: photos of poop that you can rate numerically. Absolutely disgusting.

More fun in concept but also fairly nasty viewed up close, the Colossal Colon is still going strong almost six years after its first unveiling. "Coco" is a 40-foot-long, 4-foot-high model of the human colon, including examples of healthy, diseased, and cancerous tissue. Apart from the great educational benefits, dude! It's a giant colon you can crawl through! That is worth hours of laughter right there.

Comics

For a bit of insight into life with an inflammatory bowel disease, check out VentedSpleen (a.k.a. Tom Humberstone)'s 24 Hour Comic from 2007, Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Crohns Disease). It's hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time, and the art is fantastic.

A comic that's a little less serious is a crazy little mini I picked up at MoCCA Art Fest 2007, The Diarrhea Diaries. Writer Phil teamed up with artist pals to tell autobio stories about - not joking - various times that he's soiled himself. I think I embarrassed myself laughing so loudly at my little table. You can read the comic online over at Webcomics Nation.

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Sunday, December 16, 2007

Things of beauty

The art in the latest Perfect Stars is exquisite.

Bruno 9Li creates astounding ink drawings.

Dishfuls of Doodles' wares are delightful.

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Friday, December 7, 2007

nooo they be takin my cherry pie

Metafilter brought me a creeptastic early holiday gift: a photo gallery of black and white shots from the set of Twin Peaks, taken by Richard "Ben Horne" Beymer.

I love you, Santa Metafilter.

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