The Countdown is Getting Shorter!

Wow - a mere 6 weeks from today is my last day in the Hong Kong office. How did it get so close? We have a lot to take care of in the next few weeks, but the biggest is planning our vacation. We will leave ourselves a week to settle into Houston a bit before starting work, so we have 7 official weeks of time off to plan.

Keep checking on wesandannette.com to see what we are planning (if you are interested). For now, the only set thing is that we will be joining a Habitat for Humanity Global Village trip to Malaysia (see here for all the cool details). We are very excited!!

Torture Update

I do not understand why there is not more of an outcry from the American citizens when our government is authorizing torture. I don't get it. I realize that the headlines indicated that the new order ended the torture regime. But doesn't anyone bother to read more about it? Have the historical activities not taught us that our current regime seems to be heavily in favor of torture? We have abandoned the moral high ground to search for legal loopholes and gray areas. As a whole, we do not seem to care as much as we should.

See here for an article that looks into the new order in more detail and, unsurprisingly, finds that it does not, in fact, ban torture.

I just wish there were some way to talk sense into them!

My Harry Potter Review

Unlike many of the reviews that you will read in the media, I will keep this one short and completely spoiler-free.

I finished the final Harry Potter book this weekend. The book was very good, although I did not find the story quite as compelling as some of the earlier ones. In that past, I have had a hard time putting it down and stayed up until the wee hours reading. On Saturday, I was asleep by 11 and finished the book on Sunday. Overall, it was a good way to finish the story. The books just could not go on as they had before so everything needed to be wrapped up. Because it is wrapping things up, the book spends a lot of time explaining things so that there are no loose ends left. The explanations are mixed among a lot of action/fight scenes. As Harry decided at the end of the last book that he would not be returning for his last year at school, the overall vibe of the book is completely different because you do not have the normal activities of daily Hogwart's life as a backdrop.

So...I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 4.5 out of 5.

Happy reading if you haven't finished it yet!

I have Harry Potter!

That's right, folks. At 7:01am on a Saturday morning, Wes and I walked over to Dymock's (bookstore) and picked up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...a full 5 hours before it is even available in the US. Hong Kong released the book at the same time as the UK. Woohoo!! We are heading to the beach with Sarah today (she already has her copy too) so we will be relaxing and reading hundreds of Harry Potter pages all day long.

I just thought you all might like to know. Don't worry - I won't tell you how it ends. [Wes might - he has already read the last page.]

Mindful Charitable Giving

I was not feeling particularly inspired to write about the news of the day today, so I started thinking of what might make an interesting topic as my dear sister has been urging me to write more. After a little websurfing to do some research on charities I have come across lately, I for some sad top ten lists that remind us all that we should be careful in how we donate our charity dollars. These lists are from CharityNavigator.org.

Remember to check out any group on Charity Navigator or Give.org before giving their money to make sure that you are comfortable with what they are doing with it. Unfortunately, many smaller charities are not listed so you will have to do your own research to make your decision.

10 Charities Overpaying their For-Profit Fundraisers

These 10 charities are not living up to their missions. Each spends more than 50% of its budget paying for-profit fundraising professionals to solicit your hard-earned money. They are ranked by the percentage of their total functional expenses spent on professional fundraising fees. As a result, very little of the charity's spending is directed towards its programs and services.

Rank Charity Program Expenses Professional Fundraising Fees
1 The Committee for Missing Children 11.2% 86.1%
2 American Foundation for Disabled Children 10.5% 84.2%
3 Wishing Well Foundation USA 9.3% 81.0%
4 Disabled Police Officers of America 13.6% 78.9%
5 National Children's Leukemia Foundation 10.2% 73.8%
6 Foundation for Children with Cancer 24.5% 70.6%
7 National Police Defense Foundation 27.4% 67.8%
8 Police Athletic League of New Jersey 22.6% 67.1%
9 American Association of the Deaf-Blind 23.8% 65.4%
10 Wisconsin Paralyzed Veterans of America 28.1% 61.7%


10 Highly Paid CEO's at Low-Rated Charities

For charities to be successful, they need talented, experienced leaders. Those leaders command significant salaries. But CEO's who command high salaries should also get the most out of the organizations they lead. The leaders of these 10 organizations are taking high salaries at the expense of spending dollars on the charity's programs. Despite receiving more than $250,000 in annual pay, these CEO's run organizations that devote less than 60% of their budgets to their programs and services. That means that at least 40% of your dollars are going to such costs as fundraising and administration, including the salary of the CEO.

Rank Charity Salary
1 Center for Living and Learning $430,092
2 Baylor School $400,135
3 Youth Development Fund $363,100
4 Hoag Hospital Foundation $325,710
5 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People $320,975
6 WTVS Detroit Public Television $310,631
7 Council of Independent Colleges $310,000
8 St. Bernard's School $307,500
9 The Phillips Collection $301,118
10 The Lovett School $279,200

Why I'm Such a Bad Blogger

1. Because in June, I was in Perth for 5 days, then Shanghai for two days, and then on a 10 day vacation to Scotland and Germany.
2. Because my computer got upgraded and I no logger have the Google toolbar so no "Blog This" feature. And I cannot install it without administrator privileges.
3. Because we are moving countries again in 7.5 weeks so there are things to plan and organize.
4. Because I am genetically predisposed to being a slacker/procrastinator...must have been both parents as carriers of a recessive gene that somehow hit all 3 children*. What are the odds?

I will try to get back on track this week!

* No offense intended to my siblings or the wonderful parents who raised us. We can get going like gangbusters once we get going, which is often "tomorrow". It must be that we have just so much going on in our brains that we have trouble focusing on one thing. :)