pretty excited to announce that i'll be doing a weekly piece on techcrunch called the “the weekly good.” basically, i'll be grabbing and discussing all of the the ways people are helping others using the internet.
it's the next level of social good, and i'm stoked that eric and alexia are behind me on doing it.
so that means if your company is doing something REAL and GENUINE for charities or your community, and not just to get attention (i'm good at figuring that out), then send it along to drew@techcrunch.com, you could be featured or mentioned.
every friday, the weekly good will hop at you starting NEXT WEEK. so submit, please.
You know the #BlameDrewsCancer story, so I won't bother you with that. But I had a great team behind me on it in Philly. This time, I don't have them, as I'm out in San Francisco.
I can't do this alone this time. We need to make a stand. It's not all about money, it's about waking people up. Getting them to step outside of their own skin for 5 minutes, uplifting their hearts and showing them reality for 5 seconds.
I need your help. I can't run myself into the ground, but If I have to I will.
Today, I found out the exciting news that one of the people we registered at Blame-a-thon was contacted as a potential life-saving bone marrow match.
Three years ago I held a bone marrow registry drive for DKMS Americas as part of the Blame Drew’s Cancer Blame-a-thon. I registered forty people, about half of them minorities, and raised approximately $200 for DKMS. While this was lower than my personal goal, I know that it only takes one match to make a difference. Most people who join the bone marrow registry are never contacted but new patients who need bone marrow join every day. So it’s important to keep registering new potential donors and making sure registrant contact information is up to date.
The Blame-a-thon bone marrow registry drive was also in large part about education. Many people don’t know what the registry is, how they can join, or what happens if they’re contacted in the event of a potential match. I explained the process to over 300 people during the Blame-a-thon online streak and even did a “live” registration over the web to show people the process. Drew discussed bone marrow registration on Good Morning Philadelphia on FOX29 and how important joining the registry is.
Registering the become a bone marrow donor is a three step process. You will need to confirm that you are eligible (between the ages of 18-55 and in general good health; full requirements here), fill out the registration form, and do a quick cheek swab. The whole process takes only ten minutes!
DKMS Americas does not require new donors to pay the $65 per person typing cost. They rely solely on donations, so if you cannot register as a donor, consider supporting them with a donation!
Once you are registered, you will be listed on the national Be The Match Registry until your 61st birthday, unless you ask to be removed and consider donating to any searching patient who matches your tissue type.
While ALL types of potential donors are needed, it is especially important for those with a diverse ethnic background to consider registering. Patients are more likely to match someone of a similar background and the registry is severely lacking in minorities - especially African American, American Indian, Asian and Hispanic.
A common misconception about bone marrow donation is that it’s painful and requires in-patient surgery. Not true! There are two ways to donate bone marrow: peripheral blood stem cell donation and bone marrow donation. PBSC is just like donating blood, but it’s filtered through a machine that separates out the stem cells. It takes a few hours and any lingering side effects disappear after 48 hours. Bone marrow donation is more involved, but it’s an outpatient procedure with general anesthesia that takes just a few hours. The donor’s marrow is completely replenished within a few weeks. Answers to frequently asked questions and some handy explanatory diagrams can be found here.
It’s also important to note that there is NO cost to the donor. The procedure will be covered by the patient’s insurance or the National Marrow Donor Program. It even includes costs for travel, meals, and other necessary expenses.
For more information about DKMS Americas, registration or even holding your OWN donor registration drive, please visit their website.
what's the deal with “nice” people, anyways? why are they so nice?
i don't get it. you know the types of people i'm talking about. they're just nice and easy going, and it's completely a cover up for something…right?
and helpful. they want to do things for you and they ask for nothing in return, but that has to be bullshit right? there's always a hidden agenda. nobody is just nice. nobody does something for you or offers to help you unless they want something in return. am i right?
why do they want to help anyways? do they want to make me look bad? do they want to show that they can do something better? i bet they just want to push me aside. that's it.
and when people are “too nice”, it's ridiculous. you know. too nice, they LET people walk all over them and take advantage of them. how stupid is that of them? jeeze, get a clue nice person.
oh oh oh, here's my favorite part. nice people who are overly happy. ya know, happy like they love life all of the time. they look at the bright side, want to move through difficult times quickly. what are theyyyy hiding?
ohhhhh, and how about those nice people who want to listen to you when you're upset. i bet they're just tricking you so they have dirt on you later. i mean, who takes time out of their day to help you through YOUR bullshit? that's insane!!!!
by the way, i'm a nice person. if you agreed with anything above this, you're not. you're an asshole.
so you, lance armstrong, have stepped down as chairman of LIVESTRONG. the organization that you started many years ago when you were battling cancer.
why did you step away? because people are assholes. regardless of what you went through in your cycling career, you started an organization that, as i'm told by the organization itself and people i know, has helped many battle cancer.
that's worth a lot. and it's worth more than simply stepping down from a prominent position. but hey, that's marketing and branding right? screw that, this is life. real life.
you said that you would remain involved. awesome. however, you holding that prominent position means something. a lot. nike be damned, advertisers be damned.
we, the cancer community, need you. we need you to live strong and stay.
here's my proposition. it's simple. and it's real.
put me in as interim chairman of livestrong. let me tell people how important you are to the organization in that role. then. after you give me some time, come back.
i'm not a cyclist or a runner. never will be probably. but it doesn't matter. killing cancer does.
i love movies. one of my favorite films is “zack and miri make a porno” by kevin smith.
one of my favorite lines from the movie is the concept of being “oprah rich”. i always took that to mean something other than money. it meant being happy and enabled to do the stuff you love.
you see, at the end of the day, you can't take money with you when all is said and done. all you have is what you've done, who you've met, and the people you've inspired. that's really what matters in life.
i wanna be oprah rich. i want to interview people and give presents to the audience. and be happy. you should too.
i'm three years out of hodgkins lymphoma. i'm due for my three year checkup and i'm scared shitless. not because i think i have cancer again, but because i don't want to know if i have cancer again.
people think that when i was done treatment, that was it. cancer gone, happy days. people thought they knew me and all they knew of me is what they read during my treatment. their support is something i'll cherish forever. however, the judgmental people who think that i've somehow “changed” upsets me.
they didn't know me before i had cancer. i'm the same person.
now just because i don't get chemo pumped through my veins anymore doesn't mean i haven't had to live with cancer anymore. i've watched friends and friends of friends get diagnosed and it hurts. so bad. they have to deal with things i dealt with or will never deal with and i can't do shit.
i try to be strong, i try to offer moral support. but the fact of the matter is, i'm as fucking scared as everyone is about cancer.
cancer sucks. a lot. and i want it gone. i just don't know how to do it. when i can't figure out how to do something i get frustrated.
i'm rambling. but i don't care. if you know me for real, thank you for loving me and supporting me. if you don't, i'd love to get to know you. if you judge me before getting to know me, fuck you.
i love thoughts. all thoughts for the most part. unfortunately, people are afraid to share their thoughts in social settings or online because they fear “sounding stupid.” shit, i sound stupid all of the time and i don't care.
all thoughts have a place. people who are bullies and don't let folks get their thoughts out suck. that's why i love commenting systems, twitter, facebook and the rest of the social sites that democratize thought sharing.
the worst position you can be in, in life - be it a relationship, job or whatever, is to be in a place where your thoughts aren't valued and asked for.
your thoughts shape the future, so keep them coming.
the “customer is always right” isn't necessarily something that i always subscribe to. however, the customer is the one paying the bills, so it's smart to pay attention to them, no matter what business you're in.
sure, i was mad…but what i was mad about was that at&t follows such ridiculous procedures, that it in no way makes the customer feel like a part of the “family.”
let's be serious, we spend a lot of money on cell phones. we want them to work, reception be awesome, and have no problems. those are hard problems.
what's not a hard problem is having procedures in place to make sure that a customer who wants to stick with your brand…can. that's not what happened with at&t today. i had to work hard to be proactive to “right” their “wrong”. basically, i had to do their jobs for them, and it was obnoxious.
if you say you're going to call someone back, just do it. if you can take care of something, just do it. it's not worth all of the frustration.
for those who called me an asshole today, know that i didn't mention that i'm a writer for techcrunch at all, and i handled it courteously on the phone in a difficult situation. also, i would have published this on TNW or here, if i wasn't at techcrunch.