Don’t you hate this new trend in spam where the word pain is in the subject line? Seems like a really cruel way to get someone to read an ad for ‘peejnis’ enhancers. If it weren’t for dreamhost’s junk mail filter I would see about fifty of those a day per account in my inbox. I only had about 100 legitimate emails to deal with which isn’t too bad at all considering I’d been gone for over a week. I’m still going through and answering stuff so please be patient while I get my bearings again.

So we’re back in New Mexico. There’s been much sleeping and going to get the hedgehog and checking the dog out of her hotel and Benny’s bean burrito eating going on. The bill for the puppy hotel wasn’t as much as we thought it would be and they did a great job with the bath, brush, and nail trimming. They were very nice and it was interesting to see that she’d been placed in the calm play group which included some tiny dogs. She’s always been gentle with the little ones. But I think I prefer her usual place. Mostly because I get a little report card from her sitter every single day that she’s in group day care. Now that’s a job I’m seriously considering applying to get. Playing with dogs who have owners that clearly care for their dogs so I won’t want to take them all home. This is why I’m not allowed to volunteer for shelters.

Speaking of doing good works. I’ve been watching and reading about the tsunami and can’t help feeling there’s not much I can do to help. But there are many many groups out there who have the ability to help and could use the funding. The numbers of lost souls are getting into a hundred thousand and that’s far beyond anything I can imagine. One comparison I read was one and a half football stadium audiences. There are a lot of other sites that are writing much more eloquent, interesting posts about this though so I thought I’d do a link roundup so you could just visit them.

The Blogger’s Tsunami Challenge has a goal of 5k in donations but only has about 900 dollars so far
The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Help Blog
The Tsunami Help Needed Blog
Global Recon
South Asian Journalists Association

Whitters has a good post about Project HOPE
Mike Vaughn has very interesting things to say about someone with the UN allegedly calling the US stingy and what the NOAA could’ve done differently to warn residents around the Indian Ocean
Benjamin Rosenbaum has a great comparison chart for the charities listed on Google’s Tsunami Relief page.
There’s also CNN’s list of charities and Charity Navigator who I got linked to by
Daisy, who is posting some really interesting stuff about this and did a mini blog marathon to raise funds and awareness
NewMexiken points out that the aid promised to the Asian relief effort by our government approximates the funding for the inaugural ceremonies next month. (And that today is Patti Smith’s 58th birthday. Rock on.)
World helps - but will it forget?
Wikipedia Entry on the Earthquake and Tsunami and a list of charities

All those places have much more helpful information and interesting things to say than I do. If you have links to good articles, posts, or help sites please post them in comments and I’ll add them.

added @ 11:34 pm:
great collection of links on boingboing
and a del.icio.us tag

added 12/31 @ 11:34
American Friends Service Committee
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