Collection of web interest volume xrj30:

I found out that one of my favorite comic characters still has a web presence out there. Scud: The Disposable Assassin has quite possibly the greatest story set-up in weirdo comic history, which is even more impressive given that it can be contained on one page. I present that glorious page to you here. Or, rather, they do, so go buy a trade paperback or something to defray their bandwidth cost. And then, if you don't want it, give it to me. Ahh, the perfect crime.

In other news, Strong Bad gets a Laptop. Aside from the unveiling of the new computer to replace the poor shotgunned Compy, this is in every way inferior to the previous email, "Virus," which is my favorite one since like "The Process." Your super box needs words. My mouth was a broken JPEG. Claaaassic.

Thanks to the guys at Red Vs Blue, I may end up tasting Turducken by the end of the year. All I can say is, what in the blue hell.

And now, a word about charity. It may surprise some of you to know I very much wish to be a more charitable person than I am. I have it pretty sweet, and try to share the things I have with those around me, knowing that they can't be bothered to download a shitload of TV episodes, or don't even have net access, or whatever it may be. But that's still just sharing the wealth from my own selfish nature. I would therefore like to be more involved in real charity stuff, but I also have a very deep-seated dislike of a lot of charities. It takes quite a bit to convince me that a charity isn't one of those that withholds the food your money bought until the starving kid swears allegiance to Jesus, or doesn't take 3 lobster dinner meetings for the board of directors to decide how best to distribute the funds to the hungry. This is also true of what I'd consider my number one cause, Literacy. If anyone knows a really great literacy charity that isn't bogged down in horrific administrative boondoggling, drop me a line.

Anyway, the point of all this was that as the holiday season comes around, and I end up giving away pocket change to everyone but the Salvation Army, I often wish I could rally behind a cause or two that I trust.

Oh yeah, and while I'm going off on change, yeah, I give change to bums on the street if I have some. Yes, I'm aware they are in all likelihood going to buy booze. I'm probably going to spend it on Pepsi and Cheezits, and I'm not freezing my ass off and degrading myself to get it, so what the hell. Let 'em buy some booze. I don't have such a huge moral high road there. I don't give it to liars, the guys that give you one story as you go by the first time and another when you come back. If you've got a beef with panhandlers, don't give them money. For those of you who feel the need to scream "GET A JOB" or discourage others from forking over the king's ransom of odd nickels in their pocket, you seriously do not understand the psychology of those people. And I don't much care if you think I'm enabling their lifestyle. Chances are, I'm enabling their life for a brief additional period. And I'm not all that optimistic that a lot of them have many of those periods left.

Anyway, back to the upbeat part, it just so happens I've found two so far this year that I think are winners in the no-bullshit maximum-fund-transparency lotto.

First is Child's Play. I had mixed feelings on this initially, because obviously there are more crucial causes out there than making kids happy with toys and so on, and I can hardly argue that giving one kid a video game is more virtuous than keeping another one fed. However, I think such debates hurt all causes, as prioritization in such things inevitably leads to malaise, at least in my experience. Additionally, as a fan of these guys personally and professionally, I'm absolutely convinced that they are in this for the maximum transparency. This isn't a scam, or even a nice skim for them - I would wager they sink a ton of money and effort on this thing. They're in it to push as much actual proceeds on as humanly possible - or, as Jerry said, bury those hospitals in toys.

Second is The Christmas Bed Project, which is a simple cause, but one I'm also quite convinced is not out to hoodwink natives into becoming Methodists or give the board of directors something to do between cotillons. Read the story, if you think it's as genuinely symbolic a cause as I do, toss em a couple bucks.

I'll be updating on this more, as I try to exorcise some leftover Catholic guilt by actually finding charities that don't suck ass instead of bitching about the ones that do and funding the boozehounds I encounter.

[it's cold out here]