I met a guy last week that really impressed me. He organized lots of details and kept a cheerful and positive attitude at all times. Somehow his notebook computer got damaged. His screen/monitor looked like it had one of those giant ink splots on it, kinda like the kind I like to use in weird, "dirty" layouts in HM magazine. He explained how he was moving windows around the splotches to read what he had to, but it was a giant mess. A couple of us thought, 'Man, we should take up a collection or a few of us hand him some dough to get that thing fixed. We spread the word and collected about $600 between the 16 of us in about an hour. I was chosen to hand it to him, so I approached him with humor.
"Remember when you looked me up and down and said, 'I bet you're (insert derrogatory label here)?' And I protested, saying, 'No, not me!'
"Well, I'm an honest gambler. What you said was true. Here's your money from the bet." What followed was part disbelief and the kind of surprise you feel when someone surprises you with a gift like that. Then he told me he couldn't take the money. He cited a policy that stated they could not receive gifts, because of ethical and accountability reasons. So, here was a guy that was putting the organization that helps others above his own needs.
We had more discussions with him and we decided that we'll contact his superiors and let them know that this was a spontaneous thing that we decided to do on our own to help one of our own -- just friends helping friends. He in no way had asked us to do this. He had no idea that we wanted to help out. We are hopeful that he'll be able to use the funds to fix his notebook. We believe in him and we believe in the power of computers, so we hope to get it fixed promptly.
Mad respect for this guy.
PS The world's eyes and ears will be on Austin, Texas tonight, as Hillary and Obama face off in a debate. I wonder if I showed up and ran naked through the auditorium carrying a giant HM Magazine banner if that would help our circulation grow...
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at February 21, 2008 09:10 AMUnfortunately nudity helps things grow.
Posted by: Jason_73 at February 21, 2008 11:32 AMHey For a whole year I lived with a laptop that shut off and had only about 2" x 4" viewable screen on it. My wife dropped it when I was sleeping one night, on the screen. I just bought a new laptop to try to move forward....haha...where were the people like you?
Peace man
Posted by: Jeff McLain at February 21, 2008 12:04 PMmy best friend found a laptop at a yard sale for $40. it was not the newest but still a great deal. then her preschool age daughter STOOD on it and damaged the screen so she had to hook it up to a regular monitor.
as for streaking naked, I'd vote for a gorilla suit instead. how about TWO people in gorilla suits...with cowboy hats?
Posted by: metallikitty at February 21, 2008 05:13 PMI'm not thinking that the whole streaking idea is a good one. Maybe get you and the male interns to go to a maverick game that is nationally televised and paint HMMAG.COM ROCKS you may see a spike in hits and circulation. Stay Safe.
Posted by: Clint at February 21, 2008 10:46 PM