A Word About Child's Play Charity And Donating This Christmas

This Christmas, there are a number of excellent charities to donate to, should you feel inclined to do so. I donate to a few assorted charities here and there throughout the year, but Child's Play is a bit different for me. In my experiences of donating, I knew that I was donating to a good cause, but never felt any personal or vested interest in the causes I was donating to. With Child's Play, for me specifically, I really feel like it's a cause I can personally get behind.

Since 2003, Child's Play has raised over $5 million dollars in donations of toys, games, books, movies and more for sick kids hospitals around the world. As a gamer, and as someone with a lot of younger family members that I've taken care of throughout the years, its a cause I can really empathize with. Hospitalized children don't spend all day being treated, and the downtime can get boring and at worst, detrimental to the recovery of a child. Providing hospitalized children with any form of entertainment can go a long way to boosting a child's spirits and ultimately, their recovery. There aren't that many charities out there like it and this one is powered by like-minded people, which makes the act of donating to the cause more powerful to me.

Last year, I bought Rock Band downloadable songs where all the proceeds raised by the songs went to Child's Play. This year, I went through their Amazon Gift List system and donated Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii to The Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto. While my contributions aren't nearly as large as the $132,000 raised by the Desert Bus For Hope marathon, I'm sure my contributions will go towards a few smiles for children that really need it. From here on out, I'll make a conscious effort to donate to the cause when I can.

With all that said, it would be awesome if you donated to the cause too. However, I'm not forcing you to do anything. I would be happy if you donated to any charity this holiday season, especially one you feel strongly about. Anything we can do to make the holidays brighter for others is a win for everyone.

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Muppets Perform Bohemian Rhapsody

I'm just as confused as you. Yesterday, the Muppets went viral and take part in at least the coolest video of the day. Click on the READ MORE link to catch the Muppets rock out in 1080p goodness.



I have no idea what the objective of this video is or why it even exists, but who cares? Watching Muppets rock out is always fun. Do you think this was a..."reaction"...to any other homemade Muppet videos out there on YouTube? If you don't know what I'm alluding to, it's probably for the best.

Anyway, this official Muppet Studios video is pretty awesome and SFW. While I'm still talking about Muppets, if you haven't already seen this one, I recommend you check out the drum battle between Animal and Buddy Rich too.

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Adweek's Best of the 2000s

Starting this week, Adweek Media is conducting a poll for the best of the 2000s. There are a number of categories to choose from, including agency of the decade, commercial of the decade, and even blog of the decade. At some point in the nomination process my blog was lost in the shuffle, but I'll let it slide this decade (yeah right).

All jokes aside, I recommend you take a few minutes to vote for who you feels deserves the distinction. As of writing, I just checked agency of the decade and to my surprise, Euro RSCG is #1. As a current employee of a Euro RSCG agency, I can't hate on that. However, don't let me me influence your voting...Euro RSCG, Euro RSCG, Euro RSCG...Euro RSCG

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How To Get To Sesame Street

Image from the National Post

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street (the greatest children's television show of all time in my humble opinion), the National Post has put together this simple and neat interactive piece chronicling 101 muppets from the show. Credit goes out to Steve Murray, who wrote and illustrated the piece, Rebecca Yanovskaya for the interactive design and the information from the muppet wikia.

The piece isn't going to win any awards, but It's going to draw a lot of traffic and engagement for being simple, cool and fun to use. It also doesn't hurt that it's subject matter covers Sesame Street. True story: when my brother was born in 1990, I insisted my parents name him Ernie, after my favourite Sesame Street character at the time.

I recommend you give the piece a look. After that, you can come back here and check out my favourite Sesame Street song. I love it so much, I even have it on my iPod.

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