When I started this series three weeks ago, it was with the very conscious notion that it’d be winding up on one of the most ridiculous holidays in the world to be coopted by modern consumers, Valentine’s Day.

Let us make no bones about it: Valentine’s Day sucks. Having any designated day to buy things for other people sucks. Not that buying things for other people is bad; it can be excellent, when offered up in the right spirit of freedom, love and joy, just as most things are. But to know which holiday is on the rise two (or three months) out by the color of the merch poking out of the pallets in the CVS aisles as last holiday’s tatty crap is offloaded from the “seasonal savings” ghetto to the final dumping grounds of off-price land—well, call me a cynic (as if you haven’t already), but that, my friends, is one step away from hailing Big Brother in the streets.

So fuck that flowers and candy shit. Seriously. Fuck it fuck it fuck it. I have a far better way to honor the true spirit of the day—a festival! of love!—and save yourself money and help some people in need at the same time.

My friend, Uma, is in a hospital in New York City, fighting for her life, following a brain aneurysm two weeks ago. She’s got people all over the world rooting for her recovery because yes, of course, she’s one of those Fantastic People we really, really need more of on this planet. (And for you hopeless romantics who need your gooey icing on the cake, she’s 27 and just got engaged.)

Her fiancé and her best friend have been sending out updates daily with news of her health or lack thereof, so we have a way to focus our thoughts. (You can read much of them online starting here.) It’s a scary mix of not-good and good right now, with the not-good being about massive stroke and swelling of the brain and the good (the excellent) being about rapid neurological recovery that no one can explain.

This morning’s request was a simple one: wear green. Draw a green heart on your hand, if you have no green. Send waves of good, positive thought out there towards Uma.

Uma was no more a fan of the crappy Valentine’s Day that’s turned us all into February scrooges than you or I. But as her best friend, Erik, points out, Uma is pro-love, and in a big way. And, in her more active times before this fall, was a hell-raisin’, law-unabidin’ rebel who viewed acts of rebellion small and large with glee.

So I cannot think of a better way to end this series than with an ode to Uma, and a plea for you to perhaps take a moment of your Wednesday to send a healing thought, or a minute to draw a green heart on your hand.

Except, perhaps, to end-end it with this:

Uma, wherever your thoughts are at right now, I know they approve…

xxx
c

TOPICS: 21 day salutes, Nerd Love™, Shameless plugs.

Every nerd has her weakness, and I have finally acknowledged mine: I am no longer providing adequate value for my beloved blogging.la. So rather than fuck it up, I’m bowing out to let some young (or old) and vigorous type step in.

It was a damned fine couple of years, and I’ll be sad to let it go.

On the other hand, now I can go nuts in the comment section like all the rest of the old cranks.

Maybe that’s what happens to old nerds: they don’t actually die, or even fade away; they just become full-on, yarnspinnin’, pants-to-the-nipples-hitchin’ geezers…

xxx
c

UPDATE: Just so we’re clear (because certain comments lead me to believe we might not be), I’m not quitting this here blog: I’m leaving blogging.la, the L.A. flagship of the metroblogging empire. They don’t need me; you cats just might…

Image by Todd Ehlers via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

TOPICS: 21 day salutes, Nerd Love™.

I can’t wait to see who finds me via Google search with this one…

xxx
c

Image by lantzilla via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license

TOPICS: 21 day salutes, Nerd Love™.

Quick—

What’s nerdier than an olive-green hard shell pencil case from 1973 with…

• a granny decal
• two day-glo yellow stickers with your name in “mod” type
• an “Easy Rider”-esque knockoff sticker in the center

…surrounded by:

• fake pearls from Forever 21
• a coaster that actually says “Love Like You’ll Never Get Hurt”
• an Entertainment 07 coupon book you bought from a fellow nerdmaster
• a picture of you and The BF at an elective Nerdmasters function in which you were inducted as VP of Membership
• one of no less than 15 affinity program cards
• which is made out under your company’s name
• which you decided, in your infinite nerdy wisdom, should be “BeanEyes Communications”

?????????

Answer:

An olive-green hard shell pencil case from 1973 that is still operational.

xxx
c

TOPICS: 21 day salutes, List-o-rama!, Nerd Love™.

Step One: Make desk out of file cabinets and door.

Step Two: Apply magnets to back of everything.

Step Three: Party on, nerd!

xxx
c

TOPICS: 21 day salutes, hacks, lifehacks, Nerd Love™, organization, productivity, Tools of Goodness.