Archive for the ‘consumerism’ Category

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Susan G. Komen for Women’s Health?

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

I am really saddened by Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision to stop funding breast screenings to Planned Parenthood. I would like to hear more from Komen on this issue. But it appears that politics played a role in a group (albeit, a private one) that is supposed to promote women’s health cutting off funding to cancer screenings. I am not donating to Susan G. Komen until further notice. They are a private organization and I am a private citizen that can also choose where to put my hard-earned dollars.

I posted this on Facebook last night with a fairly simple statement, I am not donating until I hear more – the screenings they are going to be denying women could help save women’s lives against breast cancer. And what I got from friends was pure politics due to PP being an abortion provider.

I am looking at this as the father of a daughter, the son of an amazing mother, a future husband, and an ex-husband. And all of those women in the roles I just mentioned – all have incidents of cancer in their families. I ran 40 miles about a month ago to fight cancer with Team in Training. And I have no time or money for anyone or group that stands in my way to fight that disease.

To me, this is about fighting cancer, not congressional investigations (which seriously, there is zero legal requirement for an investigation to be started by Congress, so skip that – that IS purely political). And OK, if SGK’s motives were political, why not find a right wing cancer screening group of hospitals that you could donate those funds ear-marked for PP to provide those screenings for women in need?

SGK has made waves previously for their lawsuits against other cancer fighting non-profits for using the “for the cure” slogan. While legally they were fully acting within their rights, I have to ask, are you really fighting cancer or just spending the money you are raising to pay attorneys and talk to right wing lobbyists?

One last time, I get that SGK is a private organization and they can make their own choices. Just like I and millions of others can as we make our donations this year and in the future.

UPDATE: A petition has started, sign and share please if you care to do so.

Movie Reviews…

Cave of Forgotten Dreams – this was a pretty impressive documentary. Cave art that goes back 32,000 years filmed by Werner Herzog in 3D, awesome.

Small Business/Tech Links…

Funny/Interesting Links…

Posted in consumerism, faith, family, Firefox, graphic design, health, HTML5, money, movies, politics, SEO, Small Business, Social Media, thoughts, web design | No Comments »

the original social medium… that talking thing

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Last night, Abbe and Bubs were in Pa, Viv was with her Mom, and I went over for some leftovers with my mother. That was the best leftover Chinese food (for whatever reason, we adopted the tradition of Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner every year) I’ve had in a long time. Mom and I got to talk and it was good for both of us. Nothing was wrong or anything, just a Mom and son getting a chance to just be. I highly recommend it.

Small Business/Tech Links…

Funny/Interesting Links…

Posted in Abbe-ness, consumerism, family, food, Social Media, thoughts, web design | 2 Comments »

just a click

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Short Run Video – Our team has now raised over 50% of our goal of $11,000!!! Long way to go, but we’re on our way. If you can donate, please consider even a small donation ($5 or $10) – if you can not afford a donation, how about clicking one of the Share, +1, or Tweet links at the bottom of this post to help us raise money to fight blood cancers? Just a click!

Our team page for donations - http://pages.teamintraining.org/nj/wdw12/AllForLayna

Movie Review…

Atlas Shrugged Part 1 – with all of the occupy movements and the economic crisis, you would think that this movie would have received more fan fare. Ayn Rand‘s tale of the good of capitalism and bad of Marxism should be a very close parallel to the demonstrations and hullabaloo we all see in the media. But the problem is, this movie is pretty terrible. Such a shame, Ayn Rand was one of my favorite authors in college.

Small Business/Tech Links…

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Posted in books, consumerism, family, friends, mac, money, movies, Phils, running, SEO, Social Media, thoughts | No Comments »

a big run, good meeting, and soccer

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Abbe and I got a big run in yesterday at Cooper River Park, 16 miles and finished in great shape. We treated ourselves to some coffee afterwards and then a modest celebratory dinner with some pizza from Riv.

BLP came over for a late afternoon meeting and we covered a lot of stuff for one of our best clients and even chatted about some potentially really cool ideas involving the future of both of our companies.

Today, I’ll be rooting for Bubs during the Pinelands League soccer tourney. The Lakers have real shot as the number one seed for a championship today. Go get ‘em boys!!!

Movie Reviews…

Life in a Day – loved this documentary, this was the culmination of Youtube submissions of a day in the life of people all around the world edited together into a snapshot of life literally, in a day. People brushing their teeth, people eating, sleeping, dying, coming out to their grandmas… everything. Only complaint was the final clip – it felt kind of self-involved and contradictory to the realism of the previous portions of the film. Great concept, and fantastic execution. Highly recommended.

Prefontaine – I ordered this movie from my library as a surprise for Abbe and I to watch. We are runners and Steve Prefontaine is one of the icons in the running world. A man that died too young and changed the world of running in his few years on this earth. But holy shit, if I were a member of the Prefontaine family, I would have sued Jared Leto, the producer, directory and anyone that had anything to do with this piece of awful filmmaking. There is not one redeeming portion. Like at all. This could very well challenge Mannequin 2 for worst movie ever made.

Small Business/Tech Links…

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Posted in Abbe-ness, consumerism, facebook, family, food, friends, money, movies, running, SEO, Small Business, soccer, Social Media, the j-o-b, thoughts | 1 Comment »

karmaic smiles

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

So, if a Dad gushing over how proud he is of his son bugs you – you should probably find another blog post to read today…

See this? This is a kid enjoying the products of his hard work…

That is Bubs in his report card prize, some new Bauer Vapors – which are decent, but not lavish skates by any stretch. But to a kid that was wearing skates two sizes too small, they are the best thing ever.

His grades will be finalized next Wednesday and he has straight A’s except one class, Social Studies – which he is one point away from an A. He has a chance to get that A with a homework assignment or a quiz. Even if he doesn’t hit the perfect report card – his work has been extraordinary this marking period. Not only has his grades been awesome, but he is also playing soccer and ice hockey. He is learning how to organize himself and doing it without much complaining.

On top of that, I also received a letter from the BOE yesterday informing us that Bubs is going to get an award for his perfect score in Science on the NJASK last year (a test given to all NJ students in 4th and 8th grade). And I’m not done yet…

Last night at practice, one of the parents of his teammates came out of the boys’ locker room asking the parent next to me, “Do you know who number 7 is?”
“Yeah, that’s Van.”
And before I could claim #7 as my little dude…
“What a sweet kid, he came into the locker room and gave the coach the nicest apology for getting upset at the last game.”

I was beaming with pride. I was upset with Bubs for his complaining from the last game. Some familiar words came to mind… life grades on a curve. But hey, this is all part of why sports are so great for kids – those mistakes and improvements make these young men better hockey players and human beings.

Oh and on top of all of that greatness, karma smiled on me that day – while Abbe was cleaning our bookshelves, a $100 bill was found stashed in an old Christmas present from my parents… oddly enough almost the exact price for those skates.

Continuing on the good stuff motif… Team All for Layna received our largest ever donation and now, the team is at nearly 40% (up from 24% last week) and I am now at 50%! I can not wait to go out in this cold, rainy weather and run today. And with Black Friday approaching, I want you to consider skipping your coffee at Starbucks that morning and having a cup at home instead. Why $5? What good would that do for a cancer patient?

$5 can get you a latte at Starbucks or a beer at the local bar, but to see how $5 makes an impact for cancer patients, check out how every dollar really does count:

  • If 2 people gimme 5…$10 provides two hours of microscope use to determine if a new medicine will stop a life-threatening lung infection in a bone marrow transplant patient.
  • 4 people…$20 pays for a bottle of nutrients that will nourish 10 million leukemia cells grown in the laboratory for a week, enabling scientists to test whether a new anti-cancer drug halts their growth.
  • 8 people…$40 purchases enough razor-sharp blades to prepare bone-marrow biopsy samples from 200 patients, enabling doctors to make accurate cancer diagnoses.
  • 20 people….$100 pays for the cost of an antibody used to determine the precise characteristics of lymphoma cells, allowing doctors to determine the best treatment for a patient.
  • 50 people…$250 buys an instrument to measure tiny volumes of liquid, which allows scientists to accurately measure the solutions needed to prepare a patient sample for a diagnostic test.
  • 100 people…$500 purchases 10 hours of time on a flow cytometer, a machine that reveals a multitude of characteristics of blood cancer cells that could be developed into effective diagnostic tests.

To dontate: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nj/wdw12/AllForLayna

Movie Review…

X-Men: First Class – this was probably the best super hero film I’ve seen. That’s not high praise by any stretch, but this film was decent.

Small Business/Tech Links…

Funny/Interesting Links…

Posted in Abbe-ness, consumerism, facebook, faith, family, flash, friends, HTML5, ice hockey, movies, running, SEO, Social Media, thoughts, web design | 1 Comment »

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