Pauline Gevaña, 10 years old, has to undergo chemotherapy this June and would appreciate any help, financial or otherwise. This is her story, taken from my sister’s blog.

Back in August 1999 when she was 3, Pauline was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. Her mother, Yolly, had to give up her job to be able to give her the full attention she needed. At the height of the medical crisis, her father left and ran to the arms of another woman. For the past 7 years, Pauline’s life has been a series of trips to and from their home in Sta. Rosa and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) in Quezon City for testing, medication, therapy, and sometimes hospital confinement. Her hair had fallen off and grown back many times; strangers would stare or say insensitive comments. Her treatments sometimes made her weak, disabling her from playing with her friends from the neighborhood. Her frequent absences have forced her to miss school, and even drop out many times.

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I’ve got a new album up: little ones. This is just the first of a series of albums - I’m trying to sort my favorite shots into different albums, and this was the first one that called out to me. There are only five shots now, but I’ll upload more soon. I promise.

Tags: infants, toddlers, babies, children, cute

I heard several days ago that Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster is cutting back on cookies. My first thought was that it was stupid.

Sure, I see the reasoning behind the move. Obesity is on the rise, especially among kids. Still, I hold firm. Yes, there are more fat kids today than ever, but that’s not Cookie Monster’s fault. The “new” Cookie Monster may be promoting temperance, but that’s not supposed to be his job anyway - that responsibility lies on parents. Cookie Monster is a caricature that, through his love for cookies, teaches us that “C is for cookie,” and if today’s kids can’t see past his voracious appetite, it’s the fault of parents who can’t or won’t teach them any better.

Watch… before you know it, they’ll be writing Snuffleupagus, Count von Count, and Oscar the Grouch out. Snuffy will go because his being an imaginary character could lead to children being unable to distinguish make-believe from reality. Similarly, The Count will be gagged because, by counting everything he has, he promotes materialism. Oscar will likewise be trashed in favor of characters promoting good hygiene and better manners. Aren’t you excited about these changes?

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can help to heal me.

Anders Jacobsen has promised to aid victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami through the British Red Cross, through his blog, and through our words. According to him on this post:

Whether you give money, time or whether you decide to share your link-power; if you create a post on your weblog front page or create permanent links in your blogroll and link to the below organizations, then link to my blog and this posting, I will pay US$ 1 to the British Red Cross. I will visit/verify any blog trackbacking this post or showing up Technorati the next two weeks and donate accordingly.

The said links are listed below:

International aid organizations:
UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund)
United Nations’ World Food Programme
Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors without Borders (donate!)
CARE International
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

UK/Europe:
Disasters Emergency Comittee (DEC) - comprises a raft of aid agencies, including the below and others
British Red Cross
Oxfam
Save the Children UK

North America:
American Red Cross
Canadian Red Cross
Save The Children
Oxfam America

Anders Jacobsen: Webloggers: Give to tsunami victims and I’ll give too!