I ran into this site today, Donors Choose, a site that connects teachers who need funding with donors.
Teachers can post project proposal and indicate the funding level they need in order to successfully implement it. Donors can choose from the various projects and opt to fund a project, either in part or in full.
So far, $5.1 million dollars have gone to serve student needs.
One random project that I found is for “Exciting Desktop Publishing”. A low-income school’s business technology class is now lacking a printer and funds to purchase a new one after their old one when to computer heaven.
The teacher would like to raise $1400 to purchase a color laser printer to help these low-income students earn skills they could use to help raise them into the next income bracket.
I like this program for a couple of reasons. First, it helps education. As many of you know, I believe that true education is the silver bullet that can help many of the social ills that exist. Second, it allows benefactors to connect in some way with the teachers and students they support. The more I learn about and reflect upon development as a ministry, the more I realize that building those connections is very important.
I would The Brandon Kraft Foundation to grow into something like that- a clearinghouse of people with ideas and benefactors that can help those ideas happen.
let the donors choose
this is war: a cingular story
Alright. So I thought the problem I was having with my phone was fixed. This weekend, I find out that Vanessa and Stephanie both had this happen to them while attempting to call my phone.
I call Customer Care tonight, after leaving a voicemail with the engineer who called me after the December 11 phone call. The customer care said that my trouble ticket was still pending with tech and that, after consulting to tech, my problem could be fixed by transferring from the old AT&T network to the Cingular Orange network. She highlights what all that would entail: a slightly changed rate plan and new phones. The new rate plan is more or less what I have now. Currently, I have 400 anytime minutes plus 300 promotional minutes, plus unlimited night and weekends and unlimited mobile-to-moblie calling. The new plan would have only 450 anytime minutes, 5000 night and weekend minutes with unlimited mobile-to-mobile. While it is a great reduction in minutes, since having free mobile-to-mobile, I haven’t needed all 700 anytime minutes, or anything close to it. In short, I was willing to forget about those minutes since they aren’t that vital to me.
I wasn’t ready to make the switch as I wanted to do a little more research on my options. My thought is if I can get roughtly what I have now for the same price, I’ll undergo switching phones and whatnot to get myself in a working situation.
I call them back after deciding that I would go with it. I do have one question though: on the old AT&T network, it cost me $0.10 to SEND each text message and there is no charge to receive them. Is that the same on “Cingular Orange”?
No. It cost $0.10/event to send OR RECEIVE a text message.
But, as the Customer Care rep said in her very broken English, “you currently have a $4.99 text messaging plan that allows you to send 100 messages. With Cingular, for the same price, it will be 200 so it offsets.”
As I pointed out to her, it doesn’t offset. I limit myself to 100 sent messages but I am sent many many more messages than I send.
I don’t have a problem jumping through hoops to make my service better (or in other words, save their engineers the work of fixing my problem) as long as that is all it is. I don’t want to be charged for something that I get free now.
All of this while thinking that text messages are cheaper to send/receive for Cingular than one minute of voice traffic. Remember Hurricane Rita and how no one in Houston could actually talk on the phone but had no problem sending SMS messages? That is because a voice call has to create a dedicated digital channel for the call while a text message uses only one packet of the data stream. (I don’t really know the details so I might be using the wrong words, but more or less, that is the case).
I’ll be paying a visit to the Cingular store to speak with someone who hopefully can speak English and see what can happen.
proclamation of the date of easter
As found in the Sacramentary Supplement, this is the tradtional announcement of the date of Easter to be announced on Epiphany. It comes from a time before calendars but is still important now as a reminder of how central the Easter celebration is in the life of the faithful.
Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return.
Through the rhythms of time and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
Let us recall the year’s culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising celebrated between the evening of the 13th of April and the evening of the 16th of April.
Each Easter- as on each Sunday- the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.
From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the 1st of March.
The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the 28th of May.
Pentecost, the joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the 4th of June.
And this year, the First Sunday of Advent will be the 3rd of December.
Likewise, the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feassts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.
To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.
please stop for a hotdog
I was in Kansas this week for the Veritas Conference- a conference of the Big 12 Conference’s Catholic Campus Centers.
While I was in the great and glorious state of Kansas, a “grey” state on my hot dog map, I had to find out more about Kansas hotdogs. Also, after the last day of the conference, we took Fr. Ed from the UCC to KCI Airport, just inside of Missouri.
We drop off Fr. Ed at KCI and head down I-29 toward Kansas City. We take the I-635 exit as a cut-off to I-35. We take the final exit before the state line in hope of finding a hot dog vendor.
After driving a few miles, we found it. A “PLEASE STOP!” gas station which proudly proclaimed “HOT DOGS!” on its windows. As it is with many of these hot dogs, it seems to work out just too well. I go inside and fix myself one of their jumbo dogs. Missouri is one of the states where gas stations can sell hard liquour- something I hadn’t noticed anywhere else before.
I make the purchase and enjoy it in the car just before hitting the road. One more state out of the way.
We hit I-35 and head towards Texas. We see a sign for Dairy Queen around noon and we thought the should work out for us as well. We stop in the town of Ottawa, KS at the Dairy Queen on Main Street.
I’m used to Texas where smoking in food establishments just doesn’t happen anymore; if it does, it is a section of the store. Apparently, this isn’t the case in Ottawa, KS. There are people smoking everywhere.
Amelia, Maria and myself all order a foot-long chili and cheese hot dog and enjoyed them with various “cool treats”.
With that, I am 15% along the way toward the goal of a hot dog in every state. Eight down, forty-two to go.
pledge for peace
Since today is the World Day of Peace, below is reprinted the Assisi Pledge for Peace sent by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
- We commit ourselves to proclaiming our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religion, and, as we condemn every recourse to violence and war in the name of God or of religion, we commit ourselves to doing everything possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism.
- We commit ourselves to educating people to mutual respect and esteem, in order to help bring about a peaceful and fraternal coexistence between people of different ethnic groups, cultures, and religions.
- We commit ourselves to fostering the culture of dialogue, so that there will be an increase of understanding and mutual trust between individuals and among peoples, for these are the premise of authentic peace.
- We commit ourselves to defending the right of everyone to live a decent life in accordance with their own cultural identity, and to form freely a family of their own.
- We commit ourselves to frank and patient dialogue, refusing to consider our differences as an insurmountable barrier, but recognizing instead that to encounter the diversity of others can become an opportunity for greater reciprocal understanding.
- We commit ourselves to forgiving one another for past and present errors and prejudices, and to supporting one another in a common effort both to overcome selfishness and arrogance, hatred and violence, and to learn from the past that peace without justice is no true peace.
- We commit ourselves to taking the side of the poor and the helpless, to speaking out for those who have no voice, and to working effectively to change these situations, out of the conviction that no one can be happy alone.
- We commit ourselves to taking up the cry of those who refuse to be resigned to violence and evil, and we desire to make every effort possible to offer the men and women of our time real hope for justice and peace.
- We commit ourselves to encouraging all efforts to promote friendship between peoples, for we are convinced that, in the absence of solidarity and understanding between peoples, technological progress exposes the world to a growing risk of destruction and death.
- We commit ourselves to urging leaders of nations to make every effort to create and consolidate, on the national and international levels, a world of solidarity and peace based on justice.
