The More Joy challenge

Via killabees -- I love this idea. First, go here and read sdwolfpup's original post. Here's the challenge part:

In the interest of spreading more joy, I’m proposing that a week from today, Thursday, January 10th, we each engage in one act, either here on or outside of LJ, which brings joy to another person, in the hopes that that person will spread that joy further, and exponentially onward.

Some ideas I had of things we could do:

Write a fic, make an icon, make a vid, or make a fanart for someone. Buy someone paid time or userpics. Leave someone a nice comment. Say something nice about something fannish someone else loves. Say something nice about something fannish you love and encourage squee (and squee on someone else’s post if they make one!). Offer to beta for someone. Offer to donate five dollars to the charity of someone's choice. Send flowers to an online friend in a different city. Buy someone you know online a present. Or a virtual present. Plant a tree or a flower in someone's honor and take a picture of it and post it to your LJ. When somebody cuts you off at work, wish them well and hope they get where they’re going safely. Make somebody a friendship bracelet. Or a construction paper heart. Call someone you love and tell them so. Or anything else you can think of!

Then on that Thursday, make a post saying what you've done (or a note that it's More Joy day), and that will hopefully help spread things further.

I think I'll modify the challenge a bit and next Thursday also post about the fannish things people did that brought me joy -- even if they didn't do it specifically for this challenge.

Oh! And...

...sorry for the spamage, but my antivirus has expired; anyone know where I can download a decent (free) one?

Operation: Winchester Phase Two update

In November, we announced the beginning of the Operation: Winchester Phase Two project. In Phase Two, we teamed with Staten Island Project Homefront, which ships care packages to troops overseas. We had hoped to send half a dozen or so copies of Supernatural Season 1 DVD sets to Project Homefront to be included with their packages, and asked fans for donations to help make that happen. Supernatural fans then surpassed our wildest dreams by donating enough to buy twenty-four DVD sets! Many, many thanks to everyone who donated -- clearly, SPN fans rock. :)

The DVDs were bought (from no fewer than eight different places, since nearly every online store had a purchase limit of three sets, and some of those were on back-order) and sent to Project Homefront. Then, potthead and her contact at Harper-Collins arranged for a box of Supernatural books (nine each of Nevermore, Witch's Canyon and The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons and Ghouls) to be sent to Project Homefront on our behalf. Many thanks to potthead for all of her help -- I'm sure the troops will enjoy those books!

The folks at Project Homefront spent Jan. 3 packing the boxes for this month's shipment. Jack Semich, the Project Homefront Executive Director, was kind enough to take pictures of the DVD sets ready to be packed. ( Pictures behind the cut. )

The packages have been mailed and are on their way to the troops right now. Again, thank you so much to everyone who helped make this possible. :)

Now, we want to thank Project Homefront for all of their help by making a donation to help defray their postage expenses. Mr. Semich told me that this shipment alone cost $2700 -- and they ship every six weeks. All of those shipping costs have to be met by contributions. So please, consider making a donation to Operation: Winchester's Paypal account so we can help with that. Click the donate button below, or visit the Operation: Winchester website.