I don't want to toot my own horn here about how involved I am in helping others because that's an uncomfortable level of self-congratulations even for an American* and a blogger who talks about his own life a lot. Besides, there are other bloggers who are far more deserving of praise for their charitable behavior.
That disclaimer in mind, I've been realizing lately that all the workworkwork I've been doing for others' various projects has spurred a train of thought that I did not expect:
All of the projects I've been working on are not my own. When I have my own personal projects open on my computer, I am finding that they are open in the background and I am really working on the obligations to which I've already agreed. I forget that saying, "I can do that," turns very quickly into, "I'm working on it," the second I utter it.
To be clear, I'm not complaining about this. I don't complain about working on others' projects because robots don't complain -- and robots don't complain because... well, there really isn't anything to complain about.
Any project I join, I truly believe in it from the core of my being. The problem is that I now have a lot of cores to consider.
So I was wondering: If my default settings are to assist people whenever I can, what are the respective priorities?
I had to take a step back and take a breather. Like Thom Yorke once crooned: "For a minute there, I lost myself."
Here comes the tangent: It occurs to me that I'm blood type O-. That's the rarest blood type, and it's the universal donor blood type.
Like how everyone seems to be able to use me for pet projects, anyone can also use my blood.
I have talked with friends before about donating blood, and I think now that I've given funding to Haiti relief orgs, that blood might be a good idea, too. It is, after all, a medical supply. Note that I'm not going to link to a charity here because it's important that you should be doing your own research before choosing a Haiti relief organization.
If my blood does not get to Haiti, then I can still definitely donate for someone, because the need for blood never really goes away.
As this is the case, I'm planning on scheduling an appointment to give blood during what happens to be National Blood Donor month (January) in the US. If anyone in the LA area would like to come along for a feelgood field trip, let me know.
Blood donation. For the time being, this is my project.
*that self-denigrating jab at Americans was for Sebastian mostly, but Canadians are also fully invited to jab at American stereotypes.
I am so glad you will be donating blood. I even have a link to the Red Cross on my Blogroll because that’s how important it is to me. Donating blood is one of the most amazing things we can all do… just a few minutes of our time can save two lives!
My grandmother had almost a dozen blood transfusions and routine plasmaphoresis when she had Multiple Myeloma. If it hadn’t been for blood donations, she would have died within a few days of the cancer spreading to her intestines.
If I lived in LA, I would totally go with you. :) But I already donated blood this month. I plan to donate as often as I can until I die or until I cannot donate for whatever reason.
Hugs to you!
I totally appreciated the first paragraph, Nico! As I read it, I thought ‘shit, that’s like something I would say!’ and then I got to the footnote and… hey, what’cha know!
Noble cause, dude, blood. As you say, it’s… giving THE gift! Of life! It doesn’t get much better.
I don’t even know what blood type I am… :) Maybe I should find out…
O+ here. I tried to donate blood over five times when I first became old enough to donate, but my iron levels were always just a shy too low. I should see if I can give now.
I was going to make a snide remark about your blood going to vampires but this post was far too nice for that.
Also? I think its pretty fair for canadians to make fun of us seeing how we make fun of them so often. Fair is fair, you know.
You’re eleventy shades of awesome. For one, because your heart is just so damn big. For another, you can make me believe that robots can donate blood.
Very inspiring sir.
Echoing Doni’s comment here. You rock.
i’m excited, because in six months, i will be eligible to donate blood for the first time in my life. they wouldn’t accept me as a donor before, because my wasband had a heroin habit before we ever met. so even though we’ve both tested negative several times over for HIV, if you’ve slept with someone in the past 12 months that has EVER shot up, you’re out.
you must be a very special kind of robot. :)
Well, since my status as a Canadian expires (!), I’ll refrain from taking a bite out of your tantalizing invitation ;)
Instead I say, as a fellow O- (we rock, ano?) and blood donor – HELLZ YEAH! :) Go for it, it’s always needed.
Allez!
Um, expires TOMORROW, it should have said. Eeep!
Does O- run in our family? Signs point to ‘yes’ I’m thinking.
I know this post isn’t about congratulating you, but you should be celebrated anyway.
And I think my favorite part was telling us that we should be doing our own research before choosing a Haiti relief organization. Because you didn’t just say, “Here’s what I’m doing.” You left us with a charge. Solid work, dude.
Good for you on the blood donation! I work for a hospital with a very busy trauma center and I can’t tell you how hard it is to get Type O blood sometimes. Did you know that it takes over an hour to run a full blood type and antibody screen off a blood sample? And in the meantime, if we don’t have Type O blood to give, we either take a shot at them not having antibodies to react with un-typed blood, or we let them bleed.
Type O donors are so necessary. Thank you for helping.
i’m waiting for the piercing time line to expire so i can donate again. though, it’s entirely possible that it HAS expired and i’m waiting on a no longer timeline timeline. hmmm… way to inspire, nico. really.