Momentum of the Muse

It’s been awhile, but a worthy cause brings me back to my trusty old blog.

My man, Michael-James Pennie, is hiking up Mt Kilimanjaro in September. Now, he wouldn’t bring his Brioni clad butt into unknown and potentially treacherous territory for any old reason. He’s making the climb to raise monies ($10,000) and awareness for the Alzheimer’s Society of B.C. It’s a cause that’s close to his heart since his Dad has been living with Alzheimer’s for nearly a decade.

Over the next month I’m helping him conduct a fund raising blitz. We’re going to raise $10,000 in one month. The kicker? Michael won’t just be fighting his way up African mountains. He’s going to make his way up our own local ass-blasting trail, the Grouse Grind, carrying the $10,000 in loonies with him.

How much does 10,000 loonies weigh, anyways?

Somewhere around 150 pounds.

I wonder what gave him that crazy idea! Or, rather WHO gave him that crazy idea. It’s rather amusing so it seems to have muse written all over it. Evil, evil muse…

Anyways, we’re going to be running a myriad of events this month, both online and in Vancouver. So, head over to his site and keep up with the campaign.

Post, link, tweet, stumble, digg your support and feel the good karma rushing in, ladies and gents.

So, I did end up going to the Vancouver Twestival. Over 4, 000 CDN was raised in Vancouver, and 250, 000 USD worldwide – so far. There are still 80 cities pending out of 202 cities.

I contributed with my ticket purchase, the purchase of raffle tickets, and sipping on a few tasty cocktails, seeing as Opus was contributing 6% of liquor sales to charity:water as well. I had a great time, won twice in the raffle, and enjoyed my cocktails plenty. How cool is it to couple an awesome night on the town with helping for a great cause?

It was a terrific event – kudos to Miss 604 for running it. I was super impressed with how smoothly everything went, how well put together it was, and had lots of fun.

Can’t wait for the next one!

I just want to talk about a little thing called Twestival, which is coming up this Thursday.

Now, I’ve rambled on about twitter enough. More than enough. And then some. With a healthy dose of a bit more.

Speaking of which – here’s me, on twitter, so give me a follow with an @ if you so please.

Now, Twestival, if you haven’t yet heard, is 175+ cities around the world mobilising through Twitter and hosting events on February 12th. All money raised from these events is going to provide clean drinking water to the 1 in 6 people who do not currently have access to it. I didn’t manage to buy tickets in the first round of sales, blast my procrastinating ways. But, luckily, all my moaning and pouting and disappointment paid off. When the next round went on sale, my man was able to snipe up a pair. He’s not quite the twitter assassin I am, but he’s a badass ninja, sneaking in and snapping up tickets I didn’t even realise were on sale. I am mighty pleased, to say the least.

Aside from my bragging, I just wanted to talk a little bit about this Twestival business. I just think it’s awesome that there’s been such a tremendous amount of support – I mean, 175+ cities worldwide, is phenomenal. Instead of using twitter to bitch about motrin, or talk about what we ate for lunch, people are mobilising, and doing something valid. The site is predominantly the water cooler of the online world. You know, you can flirt with Sue from accounting, console Chris in IT over his latest botched foray in the rhealm of romance, or dish with Glenda from HR about how much sluttier Karen’s skirts have been getting since McHandsome as Hell started in marketing. Except that Sue is a children’s book writer, Chris owns a badass winery in California, and who knows what Glenda does, she’s freaking hilarious and that’s all that matters.

The point is, I love the idea that communication can lead to change. Like there are all these altruistic tentacles reaching around the world, pulling in twitter users, and helping us to make a difference. Grassroots, only wires and modems and other names for technological things because I don’t know that many. Which also proves just how easy Wordpress truly is.

I love the idea that a person, or a group of people, can look at a tool and use it for something else, evolving it into a more dynamic thing.

Where else can we band together and each do something small, to spur on change? How many existing arenas aren’t being used to their full potential?