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This will be my only post on the subject.
I have donated to the Red Cross. (I will not disclose how much, only that it was as much as I felt I could afford to donate at the moment.) I applaud those who are offering various creative services in exchange for donations, but even if I were of the sort to accept that sort of exchange - I feel weird enough when people offer creative services as gifts - I would feel awkward taking anyone up on those offers. I don't know why - part of it is that I just don't understand asking for a reward for independently doing good works, I know that much - it just feels... weird.
(Aside: I think I've figured out part of why I get such a sense of hostility in my classes - I do nice things for people. This includes the professors (the doing nice things, not the hostility). I get to class early and arrange chairs. I send e-mails to the class with the password to the class website (which the professor was going to give out, but I figured my sending an e-mail to everybody was easier than making everybody write it down). And I think a lot of people view that as "sucking up". I'm honestly not. When I get to class insanely early - this particularly happens in Intro to American History and Words & Works, which both happen after lunch, when I don't have any especial reason to linger over my plate - and see that the chairs need to be put into a circle (or in ItAH's case, a double horseshoe), I do it. Why not? It's barely an effort on my part, I enjoy figuring out the logistics of fitting a given number of chairs into a limited space, and it saves everybody else time and effort at the beginning of class. And instead of being thanked for it, because the students don't have to listen to the teacher complain about how the class needs to be in a circle, and spend time and effort shuffling themselves around - instead of anyone saying "thanks for taking care of this", I get glared at and snubbed, because they assume I must be trying to curry favor. It hurts almost to the point where I want to stop doing it.
Almost.)
Anyway. Aside over.
That said, I am seriously considering just not visiting LiveJournal at all for the next week or two. I'm really kind of tired of hearing about Katrina and its aftermath. I'm tired of the outrage. I'm tired of the exhortations to donate - honestly, if someone on LJ doesn't know where to donate at this point, they don't want to. I'm tired of the conspiracy theories. I am as sympathetic as anyone else to the plight of the people of New Orleans and Biloxi, along with everyone else who's been affected by the hurricane, but I have donated as much as I can afford to, and I can't volunteer - the organizations already there are turning away anyone who doesn't have previous flood-rescue volunteer experience at this point, according to all the reports I can find and one phone call to the Red Cross. [venting snipped]
So. That's where I stand. Please forgive me if I disappear for a while.
I have donated to the Red Cross. (I will not disclose how much, only that it was as much as I felt I could afford to donate at the moment.) I applaud those who are offering various creative services in exchange for donations, but even if I were of the sort to accept that sort of exchange - I feel weird enough when people offer creative services as gifts - I would feel awkward taking anyone up on those offers. I don't know why - part of it is that I just don't understand asking for a reward for independently doing good works, I know that much - it just feels... weird.
(Aside: I think I've figured out part of why I get such a sense of hostility in my classes - I do nice things for people. This includes the professors (the doing nice things, not the hostility). I get to class early and arrange chairs. I send e-mails to the class with the password to the class website (which the professor was going to give out, but I figured my sending an e-mail to everybody was easier than making everybody write it down). And I think a lot of people view that as "sucking up". I'm honestly not. When I get to class insanely early - this particularly happens in Intro to American History and Words & Works, which both happen after lunch, when I don't have any especial reason to linger over my plate - and see that the chairs need to be put into a circle (or in ItAH's case, a double horseshoe), I do it. Why not? It's barely an effort on my part, I enjoy figuring out the logistics of fitting a given number of chairs into a limited space, and it saves everybody else time and effort at the beginning of class. And instead of being thanked for it, because the students don't have to listen to the teacher complain about how the class needs to be in a circle, and spend time and effort shuffling themselves around - instead of anyone saying "thanks for taking care of this", I get glared at and snubbed, because they assume I must be trying to curry favor. It hurts almost to the point where I want to stop doing it.
Almost.)
Anyway. Aside over.
That said, I am seriously considering just not visiting LiveJournal at all for the next week or two. I'm really kind of tired of hearing about Katrina and its aftermath. I'm tired of the outrage. I'm tired of the exhortations to donate - honestly, if someone on LJ doesn't know where to donate at this point, they don't want to. I'm tired of the conspiracy theories. I am as sympathetic as anyone else to the plight of the people of New Orleans and Biloxi, along with everyone else who's been affected by the hurricane, but I have donated as much as I can afford to, and I can't volunteer - the organizations already there are turning away anyone who doesn't have previous flood-rescue volunteer experience at this point, according to all the reports I can find and one phone call to the Red Cross. [venting snipped]
So. That's where I stand. Please forgive me if I disappear for a while.
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