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Annual Child's Play Charity Drive Begins
Many, many thanks to the gentlemen at Penny Arcade for the kickoff of their now annual Child's Play Charity Drive. The drive is intended to hook up willing people in our community with children's hospitals across the country, to spread some geeky christmas love to young folks that need it. This year the drive extends across the country, and you can donate toys to hospitals in Seattle, Oakland, San Diego, Houston, and D.C..
Tycho has a little startup post on Penny Arcade, as well.
Did I miss something, or does the hospital in Oakland want 20 Donkey Konga bongos, but no actual copies of the game?
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
It's important to keep kids away from pedalphiles.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Anyone else comment on the fact that one day the Penny Arcade link (along with several others) just done dissapeared off the front page of /.?
What was that, just quietly reclaiming some real estate? I actually had no idea what the URL was (I figured it out).
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
I hope these guys get lots of press this year. They are absolutely right in being indignant about the world's ills being laid at the feet of violent games, movies, etc. and a drive like this will give a good face lift to the public perception of gaming.
"You guys have proven yourselves to be a powerful force when stirred into action. Here is your opportunity to use that power to do some real good."
amen, go and dig through your pockets ppl, wait a little to buy doom3 and donate here instead.
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
In the same way I am proud of Stewart for going after the Crossfire idiots. No one has a moral responsibility to do good in the world. Life really is about survival of yourself and those you love and care for. However it is nice to see people who, when given a large mindshare of public trust, do something good with it.
I know some people in the past year have bagged on Child's Play because they didn't see it being altruistic enough or as self serving, but c'mon that they choose to do anything at all is great! By something as simple as coordinating the desires of gamers to occasionally do something nice for someone else a lot of kids are going to have much better holidays and the whole group of gamers end up looking better in the eyes of the public who are constantly flooded with negative images about gamers (OMG DOOM MADE ME KILL MY BROTHER WITH A CHAINSAW AND GRAB RANDOM GIRL TITTIES!@!!!!!!!!).
--- I do not moderate.
"Penny Arcade"? Funny name for a catholic school?
I surely hope they surpass that number this year. Its a great thing they are doing, someone is turning their large audience into a positive force for children.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
And watch them grows, right from the material they post about, and the skill to their drawing, all the way to their artical and follower. They truely did came a long way, but at no time have I been able to predict a community can grows into such respectable manner. A Video game community! And to top it off, this is only the second time they try this. Maybe it will turn into someone big.. Hell, it already is something big, in just two years. Considering how much Penny Arcade have grow in the past.. I can not imagine what Child's play can turn into. It could become something huge, something national.. We shall see.
At first, I thought maybe the new Child's Play movie already needed financial help.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
Hmm lets see. Their audience is a bunch of gamers who read their site because its game related. Sure they could hold a charity to donate food and clothes to children in Sudan (cos they sure as hell will not benifit from a game console), but they'd probably end up doing a whole lot less good since their audience would be spending a whole lot less.
Just because somewhere in the world there are people with even less, doesn't mean they shouldn't concentrate on an area where they cam do the most good.
East Coast Brewers
I knew there was going to be at least on naysayer about Child's Play. Here is a clue bat ... kids who are sick and dying is sad no matter where they live. The charity of this cause is no less because there are others out there that may be more "important". It's not like this charity takes away from other ones. It simply adds to the general prosperisty. Please remove yourself from your elevated cavalry.
"I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
Back when I was 13, I was laid up in the hospital for about a month to have a pair of surgeries involving grafting a metal rod to my spine to keep it from going crooked.
If not for the fact that Nintendo's Gameboy came out in stores a month beforehand and I had one, I would've gone completely nuts. Video games are a very good distraction for children who are suffering and need release, need a break from having little to do but twiddle thumbs, watch reruns on daytime television and hope the pain will subside soon once the meds kick in.
Support Child's Play. It's not feeding the hungry, but it's bringing solace to people in dire need of it, and that's good too.
Just a quick one, because this touches on a personal pet peeve:
Why should we, as americans(No, the parent posters may not be american, but myself and the PA guys are..) help other countries before we help ourselves?
We run around the world causing wars and causing hardship, then spend 10 years doing a half-assed job at cleaning it up.. all because we believe we are morally superior..
Yet we let many of the same 'wrongs' we say we are going to war to end persist in our own country. Fix our country first, THEN fix the rest of the world.
How about fighting for insurance for everyone
Sounds good. Let me know when you get this charity idea off the ground. Or, were you just shooting off your mouth and hoping that somebody else will bear the burden of "charity" for you? If this is the case, then go fuck yourself.
As for the guys at Penny Arcade, why flame them for choosing another charitable route? Face it, you can't help everybody with everything. But they're helping _somebody_ with _something_ which is better than most people do. Different charity organizations do different things. Some may be bigger, some may reach more people, but they all do some good (well, except the ones that are actually scams... but those are easy enough to avoid). Personally, my favorite is helping the Kiwanis International Foundation fight Iodine Deficiency Disorder. If you're looking for a way to stretch your dollar to help as many children around the world as possible, they're a good one.
http://publicvoidlife.blogspot.com
Uhh, many of the requested Spanish items are books. Living in Tucson, AZ, I know very many people who speak English and Spanish fluently, but their parents or grandparents (first generation immigrants) speak only Spanish. It's probably aimed for situations like that, Spanish speaking parents (or bilingual volunteers) reading to their children.
Believe it or not, there are 100% legal US citizens who speak Spanish and use hospitals.
Click here for a free picture of an iPod!
Who deserves a wish more, a kid in Sudan or a kid in a US hospital?
Are you implying that a sick child in the US is somehow less important than a sick child anywhere else? I didn't realize that children had a measurable value associated with them.
> Blaim the liberals for not capping the 10+ Million dollar lawsuits.
I "blaim" asshat polititrolls like you, actually. Almost every excessive award is appealed down, and real world data has shown that capping awards may bring down premiums 20%. That's a lot. It sure as hell isn't the majority.
But you're not really interested in truth, are you?
Yes, you. You sick fucker. On Wednesday morning I emerged from my girlfriend's building by U.N. Plaza to find that you had sawed the tops off both the sparkplugs on my motorcycle. At the time, I had no idea why anyone would do that. Other than the sparkplugs, the bike was untouched. Some kind of bizarre vandalism? A fraternity prank gone awry? I had no idea. All I knew is that I looked like a huge douchebag riding the Muni to work in a padded motorcycle jacket and helmet.
Because the bike was immobilized I got a $35 street sweeping ticket that night. Thursday I had it towed to the shop ($45) where they replaced the sparkplugs and the boots ($50 including labor). They explained to me that "people" - I use the term loosely here - like you break off the tops of spark plugs and use the porcelain tubes to smoke crack. As an engineer and former MacGyver fan, in a way I think this is kind of cool. But then I remember that I just paid $100 for YOUR crackpipes, and I get angry again.
Crackhead, it was really good to have my bike back though. I rode home from the shop with a couple of spare sparkplugs and a smile on my face. I figured the next time I parked at my girlfriend's place overnight I would have to buy some crackpipes and tape them to my bike as a peace offering. Overall, I wasn't that upset. Despite having to ride the bus for three days and dropping a hundred bones at the shop, I had gained some fascinating knowledge, a new set of sparkplugs, and a pretty funny anecdote about how fucked up you are, and how our paths once crossed briefly in the night.
But you couldn't just let sleeping dogs lie, could you Crackhead. You couldn't just stay in on Friday, watch Letterman through the window of a home electronics store and then call it a night. You couldn't rest on your laurels. Two porcelain sparkplug crackpipes just wasn't enough for you, was it Crackhead? You just had to come back for more.
This morning, a scant fifteen hours after I rode it out of the shop, I found my motorcycle violated once again. This time you only took the right one - maybe you were having an off night. At least this time I had a spare sparkplug and the tools to fix it - or so I thought - having ordered a 73-piece toolset from SEARS.com last week. But no, the sparkplug socket in my new toolset was for American sparkplugs. So I had to go down to the neighborhood Ace hardware. They had an 18mm socket that would fit over my sparkplug, but it was for a 1/2" drive ratchet. My toolkit only has 1/4" and 3/8" ratchets. So I had to buy a 1/2" ratchet along with the socket. Even though the clerk took pity on me and gave me the senior citizen discount (I'm 25) it still cost me $22 all told. Now, you might say that I should have just gotten a 3/8"-to-1/2" drive adaptor instead of springing for the whole ratchet. And to that I say "Shut the hell up, Crackhead, I'm not finished. And besides, I was eventually going to buy a 1/2" ratchet anyway so it's probably not worth it to take it back now."
OK, now I'm rambling. But the point is, Crackhead, that you have done me wrong. Now, I get that you love crack. That is totally understandable. I've heard it is really fun, at first, and quite addictive. What I don't understand is,
YOU ARE A CRACKHEAD. WHY DON'T YOU OWN A CRACKPIPE?
I am an engineer. Do you ever see me shaking down bums in the Loin for a calculator and sliderule? No, you don't. Because engineering is the main thing I do, I went and bought myself a calculator. The main thing you do is crack. How do you get by without a crackpipe? The other crackheads must clown on you non-stop. I mean, the fucking saw you used to saw off my sparkplugs is probably worth five or ten bucks. Why not sell or trade it for a crackpipe? You really haven't put much thought into this, have you?
Please, Crackhead, please don't tell me you sold your crackpipe to buy crack. Even a stupid crackhead such as yourself couldn't possibly be that stupid.
I've decided that taping crackpipes to my motorcycle would be tantamount
free ipod and free gmail!
Uh... why does the charity have to meet some sort of vague degree of difficulty to be worthy? Your favourite charity isn't necessarily going to be someone else's.
The point of Child's Play was to show The Media that gamers aren't psychotics-in-training, and to do something good at the same time.
They do an online gaming comic, they're not the Beastie Boys.
- chrish
from the site:
"Michael Thomas, the PA reader who helped us add up all the toys purchased as of late last night also had this very nice quote at the end of his message to us:
'Now I understand what all of the anti-videogame people ment when they said children raised on games would grow up abnormal. They were right, we'd all grow up with really big hearts.'"
c-hack.com |
Haven't you ever played The Game Of Life? The best part was selling off your kids and moving into the millionaire's estate.
Is that the perfect toy or what?
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
It's considered bad form to reply to yourself pretending to be someone agreeing with you.
Considering that Slashdot is in Freemont, California, and Penny Arcade is in Spokane, Washington, try rubbing your two brain cells together and see if you can make a spark of intelligence.
I believe that's what the grandparent tried to say - they could've tried to provide children in Sudan with food and clothes, but then they would get fewer donations meaning that they don't use their potential to the fullest. But because they ask games to spend money on games (even though they're for someone else) they generate as many donations as they can, thus using their full potential to do good.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Actually, what the parent said can be applied to just about every country in the world.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
I'm not saying I don't agree to some extent, but when you say 'fix our country first', just when would you consider this 'done'? We CAN help our country and help others at the same time. But to put on a hold on help 'til our country is juuuuust right would be a hold to eternity. Child's Play is targeted to help sick children. Unfortunately, there will Always be sick children.
It's one big world and we're all in it. A little help to a neighbor in need (and we DON'T give that much help if you look at the figures) IS the right thing to do.
Honestly, I don't know what the significance of the name is in Tycho and Gabe's heads. (Can't read the article here at work, as their site is flagged as Mature/Gaming) I would be mildly surprised if they hadn't realized the immediate association in people's heads to the horror movie, but maybe they simply wrote up the title as a literal rendition of what they planned the drive to be about, children getting joy through playing.
That said, I was a contributor last year. Twenty bucks went that some kid out there got an art kit that I would have killed to have had as a child. *wry grin* And then to balance things out, I gave $20 to a chairty providing food and shelter so I guess I was out $40, but eh...
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
I think it is one of the first times I have seen the little christmas tree logo as the story's topic. Sweet!
"I didn't realize that children had a measurable value associated with them."
Yup.
+2 points if they havnt grown pubes yet
+5 points if you make them bleed
-3 points if they consent
-10 points if you paid for it (either to them or to their parents)-- That takes the sport out of it.
+5 if you get it on camera
+5 if you post it on usenet.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
I'm curious what role Amazon plays in all this. Many of the games I looked at were priced at retail which makes me wonder how big their slice of the pie is. I'd like to know exactly how much they take off the top for their overhead and if they pass the profits along to the charity.
This should really be a question in their FAQ.
This is the perfect charity for me and I love the feeling every time that I turn on my xbox that there is some kid/family/whatever not too far from where I live who can enjoy a fun game for a while and forget about whatever pain they are in.
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/
This
Is requesting specific items so bad? They are working with the hospital, not to mention the fact that this is a somewhat specific minded charity drive. First, the hospital can't accept certain things, new or used. The example they give are stuffed animals on their site, as this type of toy is prone to gather germs in an already germ infested hospital environment. Also keep in mind that this is gamers organizing a drive that was to focus on getting things you wouldn't normally have a hospital or charity buying or donating...notably consoles and gameboys, and games to go with them. "I wonder why a toy drive is bothered with at all, why not just ask for cash?" You should note that cash donations are possible, and they have both a mail option and a paypal one. These guys have their bases covered. But the wonderful thing about this system is that you can log onto amazon, buy something specific that you might be interested in the hospitals and the children receiving, and know exactly what your donation goes to. I'd think this would make it easier for people to give, you've offered suggestions for donations, 15 pages worth in 5 different hospitals around the country, and if for some reason that isn't enough, they can donate cash too. It gets shipped straight to the hospital with no extra effort on their part. And there's no chance that their donation would be rejected for some reason of hospital regulations. All in all, I can't think of a better way to do it, especially when you consider the community that this drive is aimed toward.
They answer the question of why they need new stuff in their FAQ:
Q. Can I send you my old Super Nintendo?
A. We cannot accept used games or toys. These kids are real sick and we can't risk exposing them to germs that might be on your old toys. New stuff in the box is all we can take.
Also it just seems to make more sense to make a wish list. Why get 100 Good Night Moons when you only really need 20 to cover the demand and having 80 other books would make everyone a lot happier? Do you not let other people know what you may like for birthday and Christmas presents? I guess everyone should just give cash or gift certificates for everything. Where's the fun in that?
But you don't avoid germs in retail handling and packaging and transport and storage. Most of these toys are not made in clean rooms (as a Super Nintendo was - ironically), they are made in factories in third-world countries... probably not up to hospital standards.
But that's moot, because you know what? People aren't (always) stupid, cruel or mean. Especially when it comes to charity. A person dimwitted or callous enough to donate a moldy or organically corrupted toy probably would not be donating stuff in the first place, realistically.
I don't buy the "germs" explanation. The best way to minimize germ exposure would be for the charity to buy direct-from-warehouse, eliminating several points of exposure.
Really, if they're going to be so specific, I don't understand why they don't just petition for cash, and then buy this stuff themselves. Surely they could get bulk deals or charity interest discounts.
Perhaps this is hostage marketing, where retail interests must first be satisfied before charity ones are. I hate to engage in conspiracy theorism but it would also explain the reluctance to trade in used goods.
I have had similar experiences with major surgery at 3, 5, and 8 years of age, as well as minor surgery at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13. Thank $DEITY for Gameboy/$CONSOLE_OF_CHOICE and thank $DEITY for 24/7 cartoons on Cartoon Network (that was before Adult Swim, which was good 'cuz I was too young to appreciate it - but I wish CN had been around for my earlier surgeries).
So where's Chucky?
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
Best default +2 post ever....
But it's not an issue of metric spark plugs. It's an issue of nonstandard spark plugs. 99% of spark plugs everywhere, including those installed on just about every Japanese conveyance made since the 1960s, have had SAE wrench flats on them. For instance my 1989 Nissan 240SX has NGK plugs made in Japan (the car was made in Japan too) but the plugs have the same thread and flats that the plugs for my 1960 Dodge Dart had - in fact they've got the same size threaded area, they both use an aluminum washer to seat, and they both have the same length center electrode and ceramic insulator.
If you have nonstandard plugs you have only yourself to blame for buying a strange vehicle. Even my lawn mower and weed whacker use standard type spark plugs.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It was Cruel Site of the Day back in April.
What an insult to the tremendous intellect of a child to give them a "toy". Why not let children play with plants, animals, insects, stones, and other objects created by a designer worthy of respect?
:(
Children need a good, clean environment to grow up in, the last thing they need is another piece of plastic in their world
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!
I tried playing Life a while ago, but I just get these little dots roaming around the screen. I think they're breeding...
(don't get the joke? http://www.tech.org/~stuart/life/ )
There's nothing wrong with helping people in other countries, as long as you do it with your own money and energy. This is what seems to be happening here. Great job, guys!
I donated an xbox, a gamecube, and various books and other things last year. Not in as good a place financially this year, but I'm going to find a way to do something. My nephew died of leukemia shortly after I married, and until you've been around a child dealing with the kind of pain that comes from chemo and the other medications (not to mention the actual condition itself) you'll never understand how important this charity really is. The hospital my daughter spent time in a couple of years ago had a great selection of books and a few board games, and it made all the difference for her. I'm convinced that the types of things that Gabe and Tycho have selected for these wish lists have a tangible and measurable impact on the healing of the children in these hospitals, not just their comfort. I can only hope that the communitites here at Fark (and Slashdot, and the other sites that have posted the link) can follow through and make each year a greater success. Having seen what these kids go through and how getting their minds off the pain and treatments can make a huge difference I promise you that it's well worth it.
For all of those who have already donated, or who plan to, I thank you, my daughter thanks you, and if he was still alive I'm sure my nephew would thank you as well.
I don't blame them for not taking used stuff - if you want to donate an old atari 2600 and write off a few hundred bucks, then head over to goodwill.
If you want to make a kid happy them give them something new, not some used up old thing.
I am part of a very small local charity that gives toys to foster kids for christmas. We make sure they always get new stuff too. Used stuff is a great way to bring down a kids self esteem and that's the last thing a really sick kid needs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Even if you donate something to Childs Play, in the spirit of this effort also consider finding those "giving trees" that pop up in malls and shopping centers around christmas, and buying some fun things for the kids there.
The trees have tags on them for want the kid wants - usually a primary thing like "gameboy" and then an alternate thing they expect to get like "socks". I am proud to say that for a few years now, some kids that dared to dream of something bigger got what they really wanted, which is a great feeling. There was even this one kid who just wanted Yu-Gi-Oh cards. My girlfriend and I bought as many packs as I could find and by chance, they had a sale on a nice Yu-Gi-Oh sweatshirt that was pretty cool.
I have to say even this idea originated from Penny Arcade, it was Gabe I think that had a post a year or two before they started up Childs Play about looking for gamers on the giving tree and suggesting that everyone try to help these kids out.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
you've gotta love getting modded redundant when this was the first 'Child's Play' movie comment... *sigh*
If they don't exceed it, I hope the media report exceeds what it was last year. All the way here in Michigan, the local news covered it, touting that they'd raised, "Nearly $5000 in various donations." The same site that had the article that peeved them into starting the charity lauded their success in raising $10,000. The only article I read that actually said how much they raised called them a Catholic school.
It looks like the moderators are in a cranky mood today. Laugh it up you grim bastards.
you've gotta love getting modded redundant when this was the first 'Child's Play' movie comment... *sigh*
Agreed. When I get the chance to mod, I almost never mod redundant and when metamoderating, I'll check timestamps and I'll generally only approve redundant as fair if it's restating something posted earlier in the parent discussion or the same person posted the same thing twice in the same topic.