I was trying to think of something interesting and lighthearted to write about for a gibber. When we post articles on the main page (for those of you who can't) we have to go to www.blogger.com and log in under our own "screen name". In that main page they always have highlights of various websites under their domain (or whatever the technical term for it is). Anyway, one caught my eye, so I visited his site. I just thought it was nice to hear about good things people are doing out in the world. So kudos to the guy from Seattle!

"About a year ago, I read an article in the Seattle Times about a day in the life of a Bellevue drive-through espresso stand. (Yes, we have those.) A woman made it to the front of the line and paid for the next person's espresso: down the whole road the rest of the day, each person paid for the next person. Any one of them could have realized that he had a free espresso and left, and everybody else would have paid the same amount -- but they didn't. All day, paying for the next person. I've always remembered this story as more than just a human interest tale -- it obviously meant more, and it wasn't just the amount, or the generosity -- it was the spirit of community, being part of something neat (if trivial) -- an anonymous (of sorts) support of the people who shared something in common.
I want to see us do the same thing. So I chose a "random" blog on blogspot (looked at Blogger's 10 most recently updated blogs, picked the first one that looked like it was regularly updated and where I could find an email address -- more on that later), and 49-forever "won." So I'm paying to make her blog ad-free. Shirtsat will, for the next year, have an ad-free blog on blogspot. (This is where I set that up. If you don't have PayPal and want to send in a check, I'm sure that's fine, too -- notification wouldn't hurt.)
I'm sending a note to Shirtsat, pointing her to this entry, and really hoping she'll continue this. (The ad-free stuff on blogspot may notify him and I may not need to send him a note, but I don't know for sure, so I had to pick somebody with an email address. Looks like there is some confirmation, but more info here would help, and I don't know how the next person (and the next etc.) could find out about this. When filling out the PayPal form, you can add comments -- I don't know where they go, but probably just to Pyra.)
I can't do much else here, but if this starts a trend, I'd be pretty happy. This may not be much -- the ad isn't a big deal -- but we have a community here, and we can support each other in ways that aren't just reading and linking. If it puts more money in Pyra's hands, so much the better.
Don't know if this will go anywhere. Hope we can do something together."


  posted by Erin @ 12:47 PM