Things apparently got complicated

It turns out that being forced to switch treks was more significant than just a change of dates and people I'm climbing with. The financial structure appears to have changed as well, and I finally had a conversation with the folks in the UK to confirm how this works.

Before I had a goal of 2500 GBP, but if I raised 4000 GBP I would pay no actual trip costs except plane ticket myself, and the amount I payed was on a sliding scale based on how much between 2500 and 4000 I raised. Thus, there was incentive for every dollar raised up to 4000 GBP

Apparently the sliding scale no longer applies. This is kind of a big deal, because the new structure is raise 2420 minimum and pay an additional 695 trek costs, or raise 3975 and pay no trek costs. No sliding scale. As you may have noticed, 3975 - 2420 is a lot more than 695 so this is actually a pretty expensive switch. I've already made my 2420 goal. I can close out my fundraisers, accept the fact that I'm paying an additional 695, and all the excess just is extra cash for VSO (which is of course not a bad thing) or I can try to push hard to get from the roughly 2600 I have now to 3975 in order to not pay any trek costs. But until I hit 3975 - 695 = 3280 that's the much more expensive option. In other words, if I fail to meet that goal I'd actually costing myself money to take that option. In theory I'm not actually supposed to be able to switch from one to the other but they'll let it slide since my circumstances are a bit odd. Now I just have to figure out how I feel about the rest of my fundraising efforts.... It's all going to a good cause but it's a bit hard to want to take on the sheer effort involved when it might mean that most of what is happening is that it, if I'm lucky, I'll have spent a lot of time fundraising in order to spend about the same amount of money out of pocket.

The money is still going to VSO and being used for good work, make no mistake. This is just a calculation of whether it really makes sense for me, under the new structure, to continue putting a lot of time I could otherwise use hiking and getting ready for Kili in setting up new fundraising events now that I have met my minimum mark and raised thousands of dollars for charity.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

It's no monster truck rally, it's the Princess Bride! On the Big Screen! With Rodents of Amazingly Unusual Size! All this can be yours at the Grand Illusion (1403 Northeast 50th Street) on Sunday May 23rd from 1-3:30m for the cheap, cheap price of $7, or the even cheaper price of $5 if you're in Prince Bride related costume. That even comes with popcorn, so how good a deal is that?!

Yard Sale Success

Today was the Wallingford Yard Sale (a route of houses, heavily advertised, with yard sales raising money for John Stanford School) so naturally I took advantage of the day when everyone would be yard saling to have my own. I've been steadily trying to sell all your generous donations via used goods stores, craigslist, etc, but today was all about the standard yard sale. And what a beautiful day to sit around drinking tea, reading a book, and selling stuff to passers by.

It went great! One early buyer got my hopes up with lots of purchases, making me quite apprehensive when things slowed down heavily until lunch time, but around lunch we made most of our sales in a couple hours. That included one woman from Argentina who basically bought me out of all the donated tiny sizes of women's clothing from my mom and Noha.

All told just today I raised over $187 by reselling stuff that other people were trying to get rid of anyway! I also still have a bunch of stuff left, and plan to get more donations from people as they're moving/cleaning out their spaces so I hope to do at least one more. In other words, it is not too late donate to the garage sale efforts. I've raised over $380 from reselling donated items. Continued huge thanks to everyone who has been funneling things to me, and please keep them coming!

As you wish!

Change in plan! The people have spoken and, as you wish, it will be the Princess Bride at the Grand Illusion (1403 Northeast 50th Street) on Sunday May 23rd from 1-3:30m

Yes, it's this classic as you've never seen it (well, at least as I've never seen it) - on a big screen surrounded by dozens of other fans. This movie has it all! Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...

This is a fundraiser! Tickets are $5 if you come as someone from the movie, or $7 if you don't. That being said I'd encourage that not everyone come as the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Why? As many of you may know by now, I've signed up for the crazy challenge of climbing up Mount Kilimanjaro in September and raising money for a British charity called Volunteer Services Overseas (http://www.vso.org.uk) on the way. The money I'm raising is going to fund projects such as HIV education efforts and giving people the knowledge and tools to build secure livelihoods.


Free popcorn comes with your ticket! You're welcome to bring any other snacks you want.

You're also welcome to bring drinks. There will be some wine and possibly other beverages on hand that may or may not contain iocane powder. Beverage donations are happily accepted, the better to allow people to build up their tolerance.

As this is a fundraiser I'm trying to fill every seat, because every ticket sold means more money going to the charity. So PLEASE RSVP. Tell your friends! Tell their friends! Just let me know how many people are coming. I'd love to fill all 70 seats in the theater.

TL;DR? The Princess Bride at the Grand Illusion, in support of a great cause. Tickets are $5 or $7 depending on your attire and come with popcorn. If you can donate beverages, let me know. RSVP and tell your friends!


If you can't attend but are interested in donating, you can do so online at http://original.justgiving.com/jessicablat

Finally hit 3/week

Tuesday, Friday, Sunday. Finally I went to the gym 3 times in one week. Since that's my general goal that shouldn't be remarkable - it's remarkable I hadn't hit it yet. Ah well. With everyone moving (my mother, girlfriend, and good friend) at once, things have been busy. Still now that I've finally hit my 3/week and seen it can be done, I hope to continue the trend.
I screwed up my foot mildly - it's already getting better but because of it I decided to use my running time this week doing ellipticals instead due to the reduced impact. While I found the exercise to be as good or better a workout as running, I also found it much easier to maintain the effort for longer. I may start doing this more often with running being a more occasional part of my routine.

April gym visits: 5
Long walks: 2

Some gym stats:
Visit 1: ran some, didn't note the distance
30x45 lbs chest press
15x75 lbs and 15x90 lb leg extension
30x90 kb leg extension
70 crunches

Visit 2:
1.35 miles on elliptical (26 minutes)
30x45lb chest press
30x90lb leg extension
60 crunches

Visit 3:
1.35 miles on elliptical (26 minutes)
30x30lb shoulder press
30x90lb leg extension
75 crunches

Also! Donations have continued to pour in for the Summer of Garage Sales. I have a ton of stuff to try to sell, but can and will always take more. Today was a milestone as today proceeds from sale of donated items passed $150!
And in more fundraising news the May Movie will be Army of Darkness at the Grand Illusion. Exact date is still TBD for now.

Quiz for a Cause

Had a fun night at the Blarney Stone courtesy of Jon and Geeks Who Drink. Not the biggest fundraiser ever but a relatively low-effort one at which people had fun. Raised $174 for VSO.


April Stats:
Gym visits: 2
Long walks: 2
Miles Run: .83 (was running on a tight schedule)
...some machines

Pub Quiz! For a Cause!

Pub Quiz for a Cause (proceeds supporting Voluntary Services Overseas) is less than a week away!

That's right, it's on Monday, April 12th at 8pm at the Blarney Stone at 1909 3rd Ave. Entry is $5 per person - part of that will go toward a cash purse for the winning team and the rest of will go to charity.

That means now is a great time to figure out who you know that could best fill out your pub quiz team due to their deep knowledge in the domains of trivia you yourself lack, and recruit them. If you've never done a pub quiz before, read here to learn more about what to expect: http://www.geekswhodrink.com/blog/index.php?p=26&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Teams are normally three or four people. Up to six is ok and less than three is also perfectly fine. If you don't have a pal or two who are interested in coming, let me know and I'll help lone trivia-goers team up.

In addition to offering a cash purse, we have some great prizes available for the top teams and the second-to-last team all on the theme of eating, drinking, and being merry with extra cash in your pocket. And of course, we'll be simultaneously raising money to support a great charity that does important work in some of the world's poorest nations.

Hope to see you Monday! Let me know if you have any questions at all. Bring your friends to share the fun! Bring your enemies so you can taunt them about your superior skills! Bring your coworkers as a way to blow off steam after a long day in the office! Bring someone you'd like to know better! Basically, invite anyone you've ever met!

The Grand Lebowski was this afternoon. By my reckoning we had 39 people, mostly in bathrobes and raised $499.22 (don't ask me how we got 22 cents). So I made 8% of my target just over the course of this afternoon. Plus the reactions I heard from people were generally positive, so unless people were just being polite I hope that means everyone had a good time. The lesson here is that alcohol tie ins are key.
I was very unsure going in how many people would show up. The end result was that almost everyone who promised to show up did and everyone who said they might show up didn't. This is a valuable lesson for planning for next time.

Speaking of next time, based on the success of today I would indeed like to do a next time. I had a quick poll before the movie started and these seem to be the most popular movies:

-Army of Darkness
-Hedwig and the Angry Inch (singalong)
-Star Wars

Anyone care to sway the vote one way or the other?

As the exchange rate keeps fluctuating I will hold all my offline proceeds in dollars until it's actually time to send it out to VSO so I have a better idea of what the actual relevant exchange rate is. The "Offline Fundraising" on my VSO page is thus just an estimate:
Current total funds raised offline in USD is
499.22: big lebowski
100: u2 tickets
174: pub quiz

30%

Just wanted to note that I've been fundraising for almost exactly 1 month (and February, the short one at that!) and I'm already 30% of the way to my goal! Thanks so much to all of you!

Marching on

Forgive the lame pun.

Already gotten the first round of donations for my Biggest Garage Sale Ever, and already made my first circuit of the used clothing stores on the Ave with my first bag of clothes. Total funds raised: $5.25. It's a start, and it's $5.25 more than I would have had otherwise so while my wildest hopes have certainly not been surpassed, I'm pretty ok with this drop in the bucket. I also now have a better idea of who is buying what, and how to sequence things, so it was a good learning experience.

Lest I forget, gym metrics:

March gym visits: 2
Miles run: .75/1 continuously and 1.2/1.25 total

Both were a bit rushed, but the first was more along the lines of higher intensity but shorter duration activities.

Have plans with William for my first hike of the season! To ease into things we're hitting Rattlesnake Ridge next saturday, and I am looking foward to it.

Spring Cleaning for charity

Get rid of your unwanted stuff and help me raise money for charity! Here's the idea - spring is coming, or, if the cherry blossoms are to be believed, already here. It's time to clean out the house and, for a surprising number of you, a time to move.

What does that mean? That means you've got a ton of stuff that you want to get rid of. Some of that stuff is probably even worth money to someone else, but it might not be worth your time to find that person.

Hence my Biggest Garage Sale Ever fundraiser!

Namely, I'm accepting donations of used items in resellable condition (and conceivably resellable merit), and I'll do the legwork to try to find a buyer. With the power of the internet, used book stores, used clothing stores, and the good old garage sale, I'll try to turn all the stuff you're desperate to get rid of into charity money for VSO. And if I can't find anyone to buy it, I'll just turn around and donate it to charity.

You get an emptier closet. I raise funds for charity. Someone else gets the item they've always been looking for at probably a good deal. Charity organizations still get reasonable donations.
Everyone's a winner!

I'm accepting donations now and will continue to do so for the next several months so if you think you'd be interested in donating stuff let me know. Bear in mind though that I have to weigh transit costs versus the value of the item - if I have a chance of getting $5 for your desk and I definitely have to spend $30 on a UHAUL to get it, then while I really appreciate your generosity I will probably have to decline.

The Grand Lebowski Invite

What? The Big Lebowski at the Grand Illusion Cinema. The places is ours for the afternoon to enjoy this old favorite on the big screen. Also! Special bonus! We'll be screening "Third Days Child" - the popular short from the Scifi shorts film festival by local filmmaker SJ Chiro. If you missed out then, this is your chance to see it!

When? Sunday, March 21st. 1-4pm.

Where? The Grand Illusion Cinema is in the U District at 1403 Northeast 50th Street

Why? As you know if you've been reading this blog, I've signed up for the crazy challenge of climbing up Mount Kilimanjaro in September and raising money for a British charity called Volunteer Services Overseas (http://www.vso.org.uk/) on the way. The money I'm raising is going to fund projects such as HIV education efforts and giving people the knowledge and tools to build secure livelihoods.


Cost? Well, like I just said this is a fundraiser! Tickets are just $5 if you come wearing a bathrobe, or $7 if you don't. Donations beyond that are very welcome and very appreciated as the proceeds are going to charity.

Snacks? Free popcorn comes with your ticket! You're welcome to bring any other snacks you want.

Drink? You're also welcome to bring drinks. I would love to find a few people willing to donate vodka and/or coffee liqueur to the cause of having white russians on hand for the event. Please let me know - if we can procure the ingredients without eating into the proceeds, I'll make sure there are white russians there.

Anything else? As this is a fundraiser I'm trying to fill every seat, because every ticket sold means more money going to the charity. So PLEASE RSVP. Tell your friends! Tell their friends! Just let me know how many people are coming since their are only 70 seats in the cinema. If you learn you can't make it, please let me know so I can try to get someone else into your seat.

TL;DR? Big Lebowski at the Grand Illusion, in support of a great cause. Tickets are $5 or $7 depending on your attire and come with popcorn. If you can donate booze, let me know. RSVP and tell your friends!

Triumph of the will. More or less. Kind of. Ish.

While I've had my scheduling issues, today was the first day where I planned to go to the gym and when the time came I just sat there saying "I don't feel like it." That continued for quite some time but I did eventually find the gumption, made easier by knowing I'm only hurting myself and would only be more upset with myself if I bailed. So I went. And while I didn't have the time or energy for a full workout, at least I did something and didn't let myself down. Especially important now that I have my first donor signed on to the "Sponsor my gym visits!" donation system of $1 per gym visit to help keep me motivated to push myself as much as possible.

Metrics:
Miles biked: 1.2 uphill
Miles jogged: .8 continuously, 1.55 total
Feb gym visits: 4

Also I got the ok from the director to show one of the better-received shorts from the Scifi shorts film festival at my Grand Illusion fundraiser. Just need to work out the logistics. Exciting! For that I'm currently leaning toward the Big Lebowski purely because the Egyptian is doing it as their midnight movie on the 26th, so if I do it on the 21st I can still snag people but if I wait until the month after interest will surely be more limited. Now if only I could figure out how to serve white russians for extra fundraising without breaking state liquor laws.

Some things come first

Ok, so one drawback of signing up for a non-24 hour gym: they close at 7pm on weekends, which I decided was ok because I would make it enough of a priority to plan my day around.

But today filial piety took precedence, and what I thought was going to be a quick lunch with my mom turned into an epic condo-viewing day that lasted just long enough to stop me from heading to the gym. Ah well. Just need to try to make sure that's the exception rather than the rule I guess.

On the plus side I walked about 6.5 miles yesterday, so it hasn't been an entirely slothful weekend.


Also! I've got vague plans of throwing a garage sale when the weather gets nicer, and am accepting donations now of things to sell. If you find yourself facing a closet of stuff to donate, consider donating it to me first, and I'll make sure anything that doesn't get sold still gets donated to charity.

Conspicuous lack of gym post here

I started this week thinking the working out was going great but very apprehensive about the fundraising. However, as the week has progressed, people have repeatedly proven their generosity, and I'm farther along on that front than I ever hoped to be by now. I'm also finalizing details for an upcoming Pub Quiz and an upcoming movie night (Big Lebowski, in a theater, white russians and bathrobes welcome, anyone?). So that front is going swimmingly!

But it's already Wednesday evening and I haven't had a single workout this week- I wanted to establish Tuesday and Thursday + 1 weekend day as my default workout days, knowing the importance of routine in making things happen. Those are also the days that Judy is in class until late. But Tuesday had too many things going on so I told myself Wednesday would do. Now it's Wednesday evening and once more I'm telling myself "tomorrow." I know that things will come up, but I need to find a way of not letting that totally derail my workout routine or this will simply not work. It is both good and bad that time is on my side, in this sense.

I found out an old coworker has trekked up Kilimanjaro. I look forward to talking to him on Friday for a more personal account of how to prepare and what to expect.

Kicking off the fundraising with a night at the symphony!

I cannot raise $6500 without your generous support. I know that this is a hard economy to be asking for money in, and I also know that non-profits are some of the first to feel the strain of that, so it is times like this when donations are more important than ever. If you think you could even begin to consider any size of donation, please read this post for some background on who I'm raising money for and why.

As an extra incentive and an extra thank you as I kick off my fundraising in earnest, I have two tickets to the Friday, February 19th 8pm Seattle Symphony concert (Seattle Pops: A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim) for the top donor in the next week, if they want them, if I can raise at least $100 by EOD Thursday the 18th.

You can donate and see the status of my fundraising at my justgiving page: http://original.justgiving.com/jessicablat
Donations of any size are very welcome and very appreciated. Thank you.