The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.
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We are encouraging bloggers everyone to support One Laptop Per Child’s Give One Get One program. One Laptop Per Child’s mission is to help the world’s poorest kids to know, learn, and understand. OLPC provides a green, low-cost laptop that’s tough enough to withstand a child’s curiosity, and is full of educational content and software to help them connect to the world around them. Being connected to the web is something we feel passionate about at Six Apart, and being connected can fuel young imaginations for a bigger tomorrow.
Join us and thousands of others and get involved today:
* Give One, Get One. You can buy a laptop for a child around the world and for a child near you with the Give One, Get One program. Purchase online at amazon.com/xo.
* Spread the word. Learn more about OLPC and Give One, Get One and write about it. Your voice will help encourage others. Here are some great videos to share with your audience.
Thanks, in advance, for all of your support. Six Apart is proud to help bloggers continue to change the world.
Months have gone buy since I have written to the blog in a real way. I've used it to post pieces or videos on the election. I see I took pictures of my garden as proof that I can keep plants alive. Keeping plants alive in my garden during the summer required wasted too much water that seeps through the bottom of the pots. When the rain came I turned my back on the plants which now languish out on the balcony in wilted or dried or whithered. Next year I think I will plant zen rocks and patio furniture.
I have had a few big stories to tell that now are footnotes.
In August. Michael came back to Amsterdam on a one-way ticket. We bought him a proper Dutch bike the day he got here and within 48 hours he crashed it on the way to dinner, requring us to divert our path away from the Greek restaurant that serves the most delicious lamb chops in town toward the closest emergency room. The ER doc on hand asked Michael if he wanted an anesthetic or if he wanted the seven stiches he received under his chin "Rambo style." Michael contemplated going Rambo but I insisted on the contrary. His uninsured emergency room visit was completed in two hours including wait time and cost us 266 euros, by the way.
Michael and I have been living in separate residences for three years. When he left for Portland to start school, it was horrible. I asked him through many many tears, how are we going to do this? I didn't see him for two weeks. When I was still in Seattle we would see each other every other weekend. Then when I moved to Amsterdam we saw each other every 3-5 months. The goodbyes never got easier. A quiet joy has entered my life knowing that he is not leaving this time. Life has softly and smoothly just gotten better .Michael brings laughter to my life and cups of coffee in the morning and extra hugs before having to get out of bed to start the day. He brings repaired lamps and a knowledge of how to work the TV. He set up the fancy computer within hours of his arrival. He's sitting on a chair right now noodling around on his guitar. I realized last september when my things (my 43 boxes) finally were delivered to this house in Amsterdam, that it isn't the house that makes your home, it is the stuff in it. Michael is the stuff in it and all the stuff that comes with Michael is home too. Those of you who know me best know what I am talking about.
__________________________
I needed a vacation. We decided on Italy. We spent a wonderful day in the Vondelpark on a blanket going over guide books planning our itinierary while drinking wine. We spent two weeks going throiugh the middle: Rome and then Lucca, Pisa, Massa, Viareggio, Florence, and Siena. I had lots to write about but the moment is gone. I didn't enjoy myself. I'm the first person ever to have gone to Tuscany and not really enjoyed herself. I'm not fond of Catholicism, darkened streets, noise pollution, or duomos clogged with tourists .I'm not fond of trains that don't run on time or biting flies or mosquitos. Gelato is not better than ice cream, I know I'm not the only one who thinks this. And the best Italian food you ever had in Chicago or New York is just as wonderful as the best Italian food you could have in Italy. These are the things Lonely Planet and Fodors don't talk about.
In central Tuscany, the men share facial characteristics: Prominent and handsome noses. A thin, broad attractive mouth. In Massa, the men there have more delicate noses with a straight bridge, softer, squarer jaw lines and fuller mouths. They all look like Michael. He noticed it too. Powerful DNA. I also saw quite a few men in Massa that look like Michael's younger brother.
Now we are back and headed into winter. Life has settled into a routine.
______________________________________
Lots of high school classmates have been bubbling up on Facebook over the last few months. Must be a residual effect of everyone coming off their 20th class reunions (which I didn't attend). Cynics might say that social networking sites are just another way to chip away at time you should be using doing something meaningful. But through the site, I have been connected with some really special people from my past that I lost touch with 20 years ago.
A few friends of mine, former Amazon coworkers, started working at Facebook before anyone really knew about it save for the early adopter 18-25 year-old-set. One of them suggested I sign up. I signed up just to see what it was he was working on. I didn't see at first why it was much different than MySpace. Now the difference is obvious of course. I'm really into this site. At first the only people in my "friends" list were former cowokers. But now, almost all my genuine friends, from today and from my childhood, are coming on in droves. It's fascinating to watch this happen as it seems to come through in waves . And I really like observing people expressing their collective experiences....all friends in Seattle complaining en masse about the weather. Everyone showing their support for Obama. I'm a big fan of facebook.
I prefer my life in Europe over my life in America. Tonight, which I guess is now well into this morning, I watched, hoped for, and celebrated the victory of Barack Obama in a nightclub packed with members of Democrats Abroad from the Netherlands chapter. The room was mostly Americans, but there was also a healthy contingent of Dutch people there too. This morning (in Amsterdam) we watched Obama give his speech in Grant Park, a park I have spent a lot of time in during my many visits to Chicago, my city of reference growing up in southwest Michigan. I cried and cheered on the people who were there and who were so moved and ecstatic, yet also compelled into captivated silence by the somberness of Obama's speech. I found myself, as always, wishing I could join the party at ground zero, but still having no doubt in my mind that where I am supposed to be right now is the Netherlands.
Over the last several hours I have received and exchanged about a dozen text messages, emails, and facebook notes from friends, both American and European, all expressing their excitement, relief, and joy. I continue to be amazed at how technology has given us the opportunity to connect with each other all over the world, and it became clear to me that the world shares in this victory in real time through a virtual, digital universe that has no borders.
There is a well known ham-fisted expression regarding American patriotism: "Love it or Leave it." It is mostly republicans who like to say that. It's not so easy to leave the United States and go somewhere else without a hell of a lot of hassle. I didn't love living in the US and it took me two years to leave it, but that was a personal choice. My decision did come with a large degree of disenfranchisement and at times even disgust with the American Way of Life and the direction the country had taken. A large part of it had to do with how I just couldn't understand how Americans could have voted Dubja into office twice. Over the last couple of months I had to remind myself that he barely won. But mostly it had to do with the fact that life in Europe suits me better than any life I could live in the US. That may change but it hasn't yet.
At times I wondered if I abandoned a situation that I should have fought to improve. But as it turns out, you can work to improve it from anywhere in the world. I felt, witnessed, and participated in that tonight in this room full of Americans who are at home living in another country.
The United States as we know it today was populated by people who came from somewhere else. And People Who Come From Somewhere Else support Obama over McCain almost without exception. We all celebrate in this victory in electing a brilliant man who is a racial minority and someone who will truly approach his new job from an open perspective that only a person from his background could have. (It is another grand achievement of the American People from an historical perspective, but really, what is so exceptional about collectively wanting someone to run the US who has unbridled intelligence, character, passion, and charisma? Shouldn't that be a given?) American people also still very much celebrate and preserve their heritage and customs from their ancestors who Came From Somewhere Else. People's surnames index the power of diversity. Obama is different from his presidential predecessors in that he is the only candidate who reflects the best of what America is today, and not the worst and not the middle. His victory is also the climax, or as the NY Times calls it, a catharsis, to a desperate desire for relief.
When Bush was voted into office in his first term, I would look at him standing behind the podium and think "I just can't believe this man is the president of the United States of America." Tonight, when I saw Obama standing behind the podium I thought, "I just can't believe this man is the president of the United States of America." This is the first of better days ahead. I am so happy.
As we mentioned in early October, hundreds of bloggers engaged in the 2nd annual DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge, a friendly competition during the month of October to see who could raise the most money for or reach the most kids in low-income public schools.
The results of the competition are in! Once again, Sarah Bunting of Tomato Nation blew every other blogger out of the classroom by raising $111,352, and helping over 19,577 students. Sarah demonstrated the power of blogging by producing a campaign ad that asked her readers to vote with their wallets and it worked. Over the course of October, 1,162 donors "voted" and donated.
As the sponsor of the prize for the bloggers who reach the most kids, Six Apart would like to give a shout out to Sarah and the bloggers in each category who reached the most students.
(This is our San Francisco team. Our New York, Paris and Japan team send their thanks also!)
Nearly twice as many bloggers attracted 50% more donors than last year, making the competition fiercer than ever. But leaders emerged in each category, and we'd like to acknowledge their fine efforts.
In the Tech Blog category, Fred Wilson's AVC Blog reached 4,454 students.
In the Science Blog category, David Ng and Benjamin Cohen's The World's Fair blog reached 1,780 students.
In the Topical/Local Blog category, Ralph Alswang Photography reached 522 students.
In the Mommy Blog and BlogHer category, Alice of Finslippy reached 1,676 students.
In the Knitting Blog category, Rose-Kim Knits reached 597 students.
In the Music Blog category, music teacher Walt Ribeiro reached 910 kids.
In the Sports Blog category, Sports Crackle Pop reached 465 kids.
Along with our thanks and congratulations, each winner will receive some choice schwag from our team at Six Apart.
As the creator of three leading blog platforms - Vox, TypePad and Movable Type - and the provider of social media services and advertising solutions, we are thrilled to participate in an event that raises awareness about the power and influence blogging can have, while also raising money for a very worthwhile cause: The future bloggers of America!
Thanks again to everyone who participated.
Just a reminder that Vox's 2nd birthday party is tonight at the Six Apart Headquarters. Please join us for drinks, snacks, music, and good times. It's also Movable Type's 7th Birthday and TypePad's 5th, so it's sure to be a fun group of staff, bloggers, and friends.
The party starts tonight, Thursday, October 30th, at 6 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m. Six Apart is located at 548 4th Street (between Bryant and Brannan) in San Francisco.
If you can't make it (boo!), be sure to visit our Anniversary Page and share your favorite Vox stories with us there.
Hope to see you in a few hours. Cheers!
Whether you're searching for a new job, or looking for someone to hire, it's quite likely you're gathering information from LinkedIn profiles, as well as personal and professional blogs. Since you spend so much time and energy on your own blog, why not put it right on your profile?
The team that brought you Blog It created an application to bring your blog and your LinkedIn profile together: Blog Link powered by TypePad.
Blog Link is a free, easy-to-use application that allows you to connect your blog to your LinkedIn profile. The application displays a feed of your latest blog posts right into your profile, so you can share your thoughts and insights with your professional network on LinkedIn.
One of the best aspects of LinkedIn is the network you can build, and Blog Link has you covered there as well. The "Your Network" tab in the application shows the most recent posts of people in your network, automatically finding their blogs as listed in their "Websites" list on their profile. And as more of your contacts at the BlogLink application, your own latest posts show up in more places. It's another great way to broaden and enhance your network on LinkedIn.
Blog Link is powered by TypePad, and it supports all blog platforms, including TypePad, MovableType, Vox, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, Blogger, LiveJournal, and many more. To learn more, visit typepad.com/features/bloglink and add the application to your LinkedIn account today.
As we mentioned last week, October is Vox's birthday month and we want you to help us celebrate. And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with a party?!
Please join us next Thursday, October 30th for a casual get together at Vox's headquarters. We're also celebrating 5 years of TypePad and 7 years of Movable Type, so there's certain to be a great group of Six Apart staff and bloggers in attendance.
Where: Six Apart HQ - 548 4th Street, San Francisco, CA
When: Thursday, October 30th - 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Why: Vox is turning 2!
What: Casual gathering with drinks, snacks, music, live blogging and more...
If you'd like to be put on the list for the party, please R.S.V.P. to AnniversaryRSVP@sixapart.com by Friday, October 24th.
In the meantime, visit our Vox Anniversary Page and share your favorite Vox stories and memories.
Hope to see you at the party.
Happy Birthday Vox!
October is a big month of birthdays here at Six Apart: Vox is celebrating its second birthday, while TypePad turns five and MovableType turns 7. Even future blogger-extraordinaire, Penelope Trott, daughter of founders Ben and Mena Trott, turned one year old this month!
Because Vox would be nothing without you, we hope you'll take a moment to share your favorite Vox stories with us. Visit our anniversary page: Celebrating 2 Years of Vox and check out some stories and photos from last year's anniversary. While you're there, submit your favorite Vox memory or meaningful experience. We'll be updating the page all month, so keep checking back to see your story and photos.
You can also share your favorite Vox memories by answering today's Question of the Day.
Vox was created for the people who told us they wanted to connect with family and friends on their own terms. Today, Vox is an amazing community full of passionate people willing to share their stories, photos, and lives. To those of you who have made Vox your home: Thank You.
How would you like to make a difference in the life of a public school students?
For the second year in a row, Six Apart is participating in the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge. The challenge runs all throughout the month of October, and we'd love for you to participate along with us. Just as we did last year, Six Apart is sponsoring the award for the bloggers who reach the most kids.
The Blogger Challenge is a friendly contest amongst bloggers to raise money for low-income public schools. Here's how it works: teachers from all over the country post items for which they would like funding, such as writing supplies for a journalism class, equipment for a science lab, or music instruments for a band class. Bloggers choose their favorite projects and link to their challenge page in a post or via a giving widget on their blog. The bloggers who raise the most money or reach the most kids will win an award.
Here's how you can participate:
- Go to the Donors Choose Blogger Challenge page and find a blogger's giving list you'd like to support.
or
- Set up your own challenge and let your readers know in a blog post or by installing the widget (it just takes a few clicks).
No matter which way you choose to participate, you should feel incredibly proud of yourself for helping to bring resources to students in struggling classrooms.
Donors Choose will announce the results in early November, and we'll reveal the winners of the Six Apart award for bloggers who reached the most students shortly thereafter.
Are you going to accept the Blogger Challenge? Tell us about it (and link to it) in the comments!
Love this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html?em
Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet
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By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 20, 2008
Now that he’s finally fired up on the soup-line economy, Barack Obama knows he can’t fade out again. He was eager to talk privately to a Democratic ex-president who could offer more fatherly wisdom — not to mention a surreptitious smoke — and less fraternal rivalry. I called the “West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin (yes, truly) to get a read-out of the meeting. This is what he wrote:
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Maureen Dowd
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Jason Polan
BARACK OBAMA knocks on the front door of a 300-year-old New Hampshire farmhouse while his Secret Service detail waits in the driveway. The door opens and OBAMA is standing face to face with former President JED BARTLET.
BARTLET Senator.
OBAMA Mr. President.
BARTLET You seem startled.
OBAMA I didn’t expect you to answer the door yourself.
BARTLET I didn’t expect you to be getting beat by John McCain and a Lancôme rep who thinks “The Flintstones” was based on a true story, so let’s call it even.
OBAMA Yes, sir.
BARTLET Come on in.
BARTLET leads OBAMA into his study.
BARTLET That was a hell of a convention.
OBAMA Thank you, I was proud of it.
BARTLET I meant the Republicans. The Us versus Them-a-thon. As a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America. I’ve been a little out of touch but is there a mandate that the vice president be skilled at field dressing a moose —
OBAMA Look —
BARTLET — and selling Air Force Two on eBay?
OBAMA Joke all you want, Mr. President, but it worked.
BARTLET Imagine my surprise. What can I do for you, kid?
OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.
BARTLET I can’t give it to you.
OBAMA Why not?
BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.
OBAMA Why?
BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.
OBAMA O.K. —
BARTLET And he’s surrounded himself, I think, with the best possible team to get us out of an economic crisis. Why, Sarah Palin just said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had “gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers.” Can you spot the error in that statement?
OBAMA Yes, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aren’t funded by taxpayers.
BARTLET Well, at least they are now. Kind of reminds you of the time Bush said that Social Security wasn’t a government program. He was only off by a little — Social Security is the largest government program.
OBAMA I appreciate your sense of humor, sir, but I really could use your advice.
BARTLET Well, it seems to me your problem is a lot like the problem I had twice.
OBAMA Which was?
BARTLET A huge number of Americans thought I thought I was superior to them.
OBAMA And?
BARTLET I was.
OBAMA I mean, how did you overcome that?
BARTLET I won’t lie to you, being fictional was a big advantage.
OBAMA What do you mean?
BARTLET I’m a fictional president. You’re dreaming right now, Senator.
OBAMA I’m asleep?
BARTLET Yes, and you’re losing a ton of white women.
OBAMA Yes, sir.
BARTLET I mean tons.
OBAMA I understand.
BARTLET I didn’t even think there were that many white women.
OBAMA I see the numbers, sir. What do they want from me?
BARTLET I’ve been married to a white woman for 40 years and I still don’t know what she wants from me.
OBAMA How did you do it?
BARTLET Well, I say I’m sorry a lot.
OBAMA I don’t mean your marriage, sir. I mean how did you get America on your side?
BARTLET There again, I didn’t have to be president of America, I just had to be president of the people who watched “The West Wing.”
OBAMA That would make it easier.
BARTLET You’d do very well on NBC. Thursday nights in the old “ER” time slot with “30 Rock” as your lead-in, you’d get seven, seven-five in the demo with a 20, 22 share — you’d be selling $450,000 minutes.
OBAMA What the hell does that mean?
BARTLET TV talk. I thought you’d be interested.
OBAMA I’m not. They pivoted off the argument that I was inexperienced to the criticism that I’m — wait for it — the Messiah, who, by the way, was a community organizer. When I speak I try to lead with inspiration and aptitude. How is that a liability?
BARTLET Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.
OBAMA You’re saying race doesn’t have anything to do with it?
BARTLET I wouldn’t go that far. Brains made me look arrogant but they make you look uppity. Plus, if you had a black daughter —
OBAMA I have two.
BARTLET — who was 17 and pregnant and unmarried and the father was a teenager hoping to launch a rap career with “Thug Life” inked across his chest, you’d come in fifth behind Bob Barr, Ralph Nader and a ficus.
OBAMA You’re not cheering me up.
BARTLET Is that what you came here for?
OBAMA No, but it wouldn’t kill you.
BARTLET Have you tried doing a two-hour special or a really good Christmas show?
OBAMA Sir —
BARTLET Hang on. Home run. Right here. Is there any chance you could get Michelle pregnant before the fall sweeps?
OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry?
BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong country, Osama bin Laden just celebrated his seventh anniversary of not being caught either dead or alive, my family’s less safe than it was eight years ago, we’ve lost trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, thousands of lives and we lost an entire city due to bad weather. So, you know ... I’m a little angry.
OBAMA What would you do?
BARTLET GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!
OBAMA Good to get that off your chest?
BARTLET Am I keeping you from something?
OBAMA Well, it’s not as if I didn’t know all of that and it took you like 20 minutes to say.
BARTLET I know, I have a problem, but admitting it is the first step.
OBAMA What’s the second step?
BARTLET I don’t care.
OBAMA So what about hope? Chuck it for outrage and put-downs?
BARTLET No. You’re elite, you can do both. Four weeks ago you had the best week of your campaign, followed — granted, inexplicably — by the worst week of your campaign. And you’re still in a statistical dead heat. You’re a 47-year-old black man with a foreign-sounding name who went to Harvard and thinks devotion to your country and lapel pins aren’t the same thing and you’re in a statistical tie with a war hero and a Cinemax heroine. To these aged eyes, Senator, that’s what progress looks like. You guys got four debates. Get out of my house and go back to work.
OBAMA Wait, what is it you always used to say? When you hit a bump on the show and your people were down and frustrated? You’d give them a pep talk and then you’d always end it with something. What was it ...?
BARTLET “Break’s over.”
