Live SDA Charity event at MAGFest

2010-07-07 04:58:13 pm

contraddicted

Quote from mikwuyma:

If it's a smaller charity, then it will be much easier to get a proof letter than it was from CARE. I'm honestly liking Kareshi's idea of helping a smaller charity that needs our money more.[/b]

I don't remember exactly what I wrote back at that discussion, but if I'm not off, something along interaction being easier with small charities and stuff being less complicated was among it Wink

I also congratulate you to standing through all that stuff. My respect for you to not just yell "FUCK YOU, IMMA GO FUCKING BURN THAT MONEY RATHER THAN SENDING IT TO YOU!" into the phone half a dozen times.

Axel Ryman

2010-07-07 06:50:31 pm

We all scream for Eyes Cream

Quote from Kharay1977:

Quote from Essentia:

Hmm, no more drama...but I would be so lonely! Sad

Mike and Essentia sitting in a tree...

do I really need to finish the rhyme?... Wink

S-P-E-E-D Running? Wink

mikwuyma

Edit history:

mikwuyma: 2010-07-08 04:02:08 pm

2010-07-08 11:35:24 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

So I asked Phil whether he's ever had trouble with Paypal and/or charities, and whether he could do off-site audio commentary since he can't come to the marathon.

Quote:

Oh my god dude. We have been contacted by Paypal, once, because yeah they noticed Britt was making/spending thousands of dollars at a time, but fortunately it was on one of our repeat marathons so we'd already gotten the go-ahead from the charity at the time. Although we have striven to only choose charities that have their own paypal accounts, because it's a lot easier on us if some douchebag comes along and says "my card was stolen so all those donations I made that I didn't win any prizes on were fake" three marathons in a row to just cheerfully point them to St. Jude or ACT Today and say TAKE IT UP WITH THEM.

...looks like we'll steer clear of CARE for awhile though!

I will definitely keep in touch with you guys about CGDQ2, if you'd like a co-commentator at some point I'd be happy to but I can't promise anything until the time gets closer because that might be a hectic period. Or it might not be, I'm not too sure-- it should be the start of my last semester of grad school so it's either going to be super busy or super laid back.

Oh and Brian Brinegar of the Mario Marathon got in touch with us and was a supreme dick about charity selection, making a bunch of claims about Child's Play being the be-all end-all charity and pointing out some numbers, then he directed me to something called GuideStar where you can look at the tax forms of pretty much every nonprofit in the country, and I found out not only were his figures outrageously wrong, but Child's Play might just be the biggest money sink of a charity I've ever seen. (He did not take this criticism well/at all.) Just a bit of schadenfreude there to let you know that while CARE might be a pain in the ass, at least you know it's going to something helpful!

Phil

If you want to check out tax forms at Guidestar, you'll need an account, but it's free. No, I can't post them here because goes against Guidestar's terms, and as much as I don't think they'll catch me here, I don't want to risk doing anything stupid.

So I asked Phil whether he's ever had trouble with Paypal and/or charities, and whether he could do off-site audio commentary since he can't come to the marathon.

[quote]Oh my god dude. We have been contacted by Paypal, once, because yeah they noticed Britt was making/spending thousands of dollars at a time, but fortunately it was on one of our repeat marathons so we'd already gotten the go-ahead from the charity at the time. Although we have striven to only choose charities that have their own paypal accounts, because it's a lot easier on us if some douchebag comes along and says "my card was stolen so all those donations I made that I didn't win any prizes on were fake" three marathons in a row to just cheerfully point them to St. Jude or ACT Today and say TAKE IT UP WITH THEM.
 
...looks like we'll steer clear of CARE for awhile though!
 
I will definitely keep in touch with you guys about CGDQ2, if you'd like a co-commentator at some point I'd be happy to but I can't promise anything until the time gets closer because that might be a hectic period. Or it might not be, I'm not too sure-- it should be the start of my last semester of grad school so it's either going to be super busy or super laid back.
 
Oh and Brian Brinegar of the Mario Marathon got in touch with us and was a supreme dick about charity selection, making a bunch of claims about Child's Play being the be-all end-all charity and pointing out some numbers, then he directed me to something called GuideStar where you can look at the tax forms of pretty much every nonprofit in the country, and I found out not only were his figures outrageously wrong, but Child's Play might just be the biggest money sink of a charity I've ever seen. (He did not take this criticism well/at all.) Just a bit of schadenfreude there to let you know that while CARE might be a pain in the ass, at least you know it's going to something helpful!
 
Phil[/quote]

If you want to check out tax forms at Guidestar, you'll need an account, but it's free. No, I can't post them here because goes against Guidestar's terms, and as much as I don't think they'll catch me here, I don't want to risk doing anything stupid.

Poxnor

2010-07-08 02:45:02 pm

Moo! Flap! Hug!

Quote from mikwuyma:

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. I bumped the classic first marathon topic.
(snip: pages of righteous vitriol)

Wow. Just wow. "Hi. I have that $10,000 that I promised you. Would you still like it?"

As if we needed another reason to start a "Buy Mike a Beer" fund.

Kharay1977

2010-07-08 04:48:41 pm

Quote from Poxnor:

As if we needed another reason to start a "Buy Mike a Beer" fund.

You mean to say one hasn't been started yet? Slackers!

dballin

2010-07-08 09:26:20 pm

Balls jerky

yeah sometimes charities are kind of annoying. friend of mine used to work at subway and near thanksgiving they had a TON of leftover bread they were just going to throw out so they contacted a local shelter and asked if they wanted it. Apparently just bread is not good enough. the response they got was along the lines of 'if you're gonna give us anything make sure its a whole sandwich.' So they threw all the bread out and people didn't eat. Oops...

props for persevering. That story is ridiculous.

Manocheese

2010-07-08 11:54:18 pm

Yes, a cucco riding the ground.

Wow. Like you said, who knew it was so hard to give away $10000?

mike89

2010-07-21 11:44:09 pm

SEGA Junkie

While this is neither as big a bump nor as epic a story as Mike's travails with CARE, I feel obliged to share my memories of the marathon in picture form.

Taking a leaf from Mike, Infrequently Asked Questions:

Q: Why did it take so long?
A: I thought you'd never ask! Basically I lost my camera cable when I was in England afterwards, and it took me about this long to realise that "hey I could just ebay a new one of those". Cost me all of $6.

Q: What were you doing taking pictures when you could have been practicing your runs?
A: I subscribed to the Emptyeye school of thought about preparation for the event, which was basically that if I needed practice when I got there, I had failed in my duty to be ready beforehand. Like him, I was intrigued at how other people approached the problem, though (especially those with more runs than me).

Q: How can you have taken six months and still posted your pictures faster than tri-hex?
A: Well, there's only one person who knows the answer to that.

While this is neither as big a bump nor as epic a story as Mike's travails with CARE, I feel obliged to share my memories of the marathon [url=http://s918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/mike89sda/SDA%20Marathon/]in picture form[/url].

Taking a leaf from Mike, Infrequently Asked Questions:

[b]Q: Why did it take so long?[/b]
A: I thought you'd never ask! Basically I lost my camera cable when I was in England afterwards, and it took me about this long to realise that "hey I could just ebay a new one of those". Cost me all of $6.

[b]Q: What were you doing taking pictures when you could have been practicing your runs?[/b]
A: I subscribed to the Emptyeye school of thought about preparation for the event, which was basically that if I needed practice when I got there, I had failed in my duty to be ready beforehand. Like him, I was intrigued at how other people approached the problem, though (especially those with more runs than me).

[b]Q: How can you have taken six months and still posted your pictures faster than tri-hex?[/b]
A: Well, there's only one person who knows the answer to that.

tjp7154

2010-07-22 02:07:22 pm

#Casual

Awesome to finally see some more pictures. Come to think of it -- did I upload mine????

Lol, COME ON, TRI-HEX!!!!!!

Also .... red-eye removal lately?

tjp7154

2010-07-23 07:28:50 pm

#Casual

...turns out I haven't upload my pictures either....

Here you go:

http://s1030.photobucket.com/home/tjp7154_SDA

Not very good camera, but maybe Tri-Hex will take notice Wink

puwexil

2010-08-01 09:14:25 pm

Professional Second Banana

Wow Mike, just wow.

I hope if something like this happens again (perish the thought), other trusted SDA staff members like Breakdown can lend a hand with the cleanup. I can definitely understand keeping financial matters private from the general SDA community before they're settled; but you shouldn't have to bear the whole burden yourself!

facetouch

2010-08-30 03:02:29 pm

Looks like Mike has a Mac. Also that story sounded very brutal