Tis good to give

I recently gave some money to my high school. It’s not going to cover a teacher’s salary, and it’s not going to break the bank for me. But with company matching donations, it’s more than $100. And it’s something.

Pat Taylor, talented teacher and administrator, once told me that “gifted students can learn in a closet.” This is why it’s so hard to secure help for the best and brightest — because such kids are predisposed to doing well by their own drive and intellect, the budget bean-counters aren’t inclined to support them. That’s where graduates come in.

But I’m poor! The economy sucks! Etc etc… all true. But you can help by giving just $5. I’m serious. 5 bucks. Skip the Starbucks today.

Here’s the thing — fundraising campaigns work best on positivity. There are still folks out there with boku bucks to give, and they could be convinced to give them to GSGIS, but they need to see a commitment from stakeholders. You know who stakeholders are? Alumni. You and me.

When the school goes before the state lawmakers, or high-rollers who could donate, they’ll be asked about alumni support.

“Well, only 15% of the graduates have contributed to the campaign. Even though we’re in touch with 80% of them.”  Statements like THAT are not going to get the dollars. But just giving a few bucks adds to the percentage of alumni support. And that alone can make an impact.

So here’s what you do. You go to the Governor’s School Foundation Web site. You get out your trusty credit card and you donate a few dollars, whatever you can spare today. (If you win the lottery next week, come back and give some more!) But just contribute anything at all. It ups the percentages, and statistics like that do matter when it comes to making funding available.

If you’re like me, GSGIS made a difference in your life. Now you can make a difference in the school’s future.

It’s easy. You can do it online. You know, like the Amazon thing on teh internets.

Oh, and one more thing before you go:

Thank you.

He is, in fact, only human

The unfathomable wingspan that is Michael Phelps has returned to competition. And he lost!

I do ponder whether people of wondrous ability that gain fame like his are ever able to adjust. I feel bad for them. The man can’t order dinner without it becoming news.

But from this NYT piece, which also explains his bong-induced trip-up (I don’t think it’s a downfall) and subsequent return to swimming, Phelps has a lot of potential beyond the pool. I hope he’s able to achieve great things for the sport.

Really rockin photo project

What is devotion?

How about a half-marathon.

What is REAL devotion?

A half-marathon, carrying your camera gear and shooting the whole way, then going back to the office to compile a rockin’ video of nearly 3,000 images that lets slackers like me who slept through the race get a feel for it.

Click here to watch. (apologies for the ad that precedes it, but this video is SO worth viewing)

Bravo, Matt Kryger. Bravo.

Panic.

So as we all go crazy over pig flu, check out this cool map that tracks where it is and what countries have taken precautions.

My friend Julio was sent to Mexico City to take photos that have been used around the world. And when he risked being too serious, that’s when the El Santo mask came out.

And when you feel you’ve gotten too serious about this, check out this site: doihaveswineflu.org

Mark your calendars and prepare your tastebuds

The dates are set for Summer Restaurant Week 2009: Aug. 10-25

No menus just yet, but I’m sure the usual suspects will be participating.

Plan to be in town and hungry this August.

So you’re saying my ADD is good?

I facebook at work.

Admit it, you probably do, too.

I’ve always thought it was some level of adult ADD that caused me to click around to myriad sites in at random times in my shift. I feel that the mini-breaks help me return to concentration. Now, there’s scientific research to back me up.

Australian researchers found that people who use the Web for personal reasons while at work are about 9%  more productive than those who don’t. (Here’s the original release from the Univ. of Melbourne)

“People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Think back to when you were in class listening to a lecture – after about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored,” says Brent Coker, a professor of management and marketing, and the author of the study. “It’s the same in the work place. Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.”

Coker says much of work can be separated into “mini-tasks,” after which we like to reward ourselves. But if we’re unable to reset our thinking pattern with a guilty-pleasures Facebook reward (i.e. if your office blocks such sites) our overall concentration suffers. The theory nearly perfectly explains why my mini-task-filled job is such a good fit for me.

Pauley on Lehrer

I love the look on Jane Pauley's face here (wish I hadn't gotten the mic in the middle of the shot, though!)

Got to hear Jane Pauley speak at DePauw University for the 100th anniversary of SPJ. She was fantastic and endearing.

A favorite quote from her speech: “I depend on the NewsHour on PBS. I pray that Jim Lehrer lives forever.”

Read the Bible

I don’t come from a faith tradition that’s known for its expertise on Scripture. And I had to read a few books of the Bible for a survey of literary history once. But generally, I don’t crack open the Good Book randomly. And I definitely don’t do what David Plotz did.

The Slate.com editor blogged the book over more than a year, reading it cover to cover. He learned a few things, and came out with a book.

Most interesting to me as an editor are the many turns of phrase that jumped out at him from its pages.

“You can’t get through a chapter of the Bible, even in the most obscure book, without encountering a phrase, a name, a character, or an idea that has come down to us 3,000 years later,” he writes.

Poring over Biblical writing didn’t get Plotz any closer to God. In fact, it made faith harder for him. But he has some very interesting reflections (watch Slate’s video for more).

http://www.slate.com/id/2212616/

Like online dating, only better

OMG. WANT .

Occasionally I read news stories about the latest animal ordinance on the docket here in Indy. Which reminds me that one day, I want a dog. I mosey on over to Petfinder… and I’m a lost cause. But it’s even worse now. The Humane Society of Indianapolis has a YouTube channel.

You can find lots of animal shelters going after suckers like me with this approach. The ASPCA, the Arizona Humane Society … with digital video cameras available cheap, it’s a great resource for adoptions, and it’s a heckuva lot easier than sending a staff member and a kitten out to the local TV station for a bit on the noon newscast.

However, most of the clips seem a few months old, so it isn’t a regularly used feature. Given the high turnover of animal intake and adoption at some shelters, that’s OK. Video could be limited to pets that have been at the shelter for a long time and are most in need of a forever home.

And just to go completely overboard, here is a link to more than 5 minutes of clips of adoptable puppies that appeared on a Florida TV station in the 90s.

I can’t see

I rarely go out to movies, but that doesn’t mean I don’t consider the options. “Coraline” looked good. “Monsters vs. Aliens” got good reviews. The problem, however, is that both were offered in 3-D. And the prospect of staring through 3-D glasses for that period of time doesn’t enthrall me. The last 3-D film I saw was in November, and it was made with very new technology at the Newseum. It was cool, but I was glad it didn’t last beyond 20 minutes.

Even with technological advances, why do 3-D movies still hurt our eyes? Thankfully, the good people at Slate (specifically, Daniel Engber) have explained it.

Outside of the 3-D movie theater, our eyes move in two distinct ways when we see something move toward us: First, our eyeballs rotate inward towards the nose (the closer the target comes, the more cross-eyed we get); second, we squeeze the lenses in our eyes to change their shape and keep the target in focus (as you would with a camera). Those two eye movements—called “vergence” and “accommodation”—are automatic in everyday life, and they go hand-in-hand.

Something different happens when you’re viewing three-dimensional motion projected onto a flat surface. When a helicopter flies off the screen in Monsters vs. Aliens, our eyeballs rotate inward to follow it, as they would in the real world. Reflexively, our eyes want to make a corresponding change in shape, to shift their plane of focus. If that happened, though, we’d be focusing our eyes somewhere in front of the screen, and the movie itself (which is, after all, projected on the screen) would go a little blurry. So we end up making one eye movement but not the other; the illusion forces our eyes to converge without accommodating.