My holiday wish list...

STEP ONE
- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you. [Note: Your home address is not required!]

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

STEP TWO
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call. There are no guarantees with this project, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

My List
1) Jobs! My hubby Aus is just about to finish up his MCDBA certification and needs a good job in a related technical field. Those who know us know how he lost his previous job when he was unable to do the physical work he had been doing due to his back problems from a car accident. The department of vocational rehab sent him through the certification classes for database administration - he LOVES working with computers and is a good hardworking man. We live in the South Jersey area if you've got any leads or know a company that will hire him.

I also would like to pick up more work in my field - I do freelance writing (usually music related, but I can do other fields), and social networking / content writing/ web maintenance for bands ( I currently work with Interpol, Rilo Kiley, Ozma, etc....) . I'd love to pick up more related work.

2) Layout help. Someone to help me put my author website together. I have a site - lauracushing.com that is currently quite empty because I need a layout. My husband can do the programing, and I have the material to put into it... but we're kinda graphically challenged. I would worship anyone who could do a flash intro, or a nice professional CSS layout.

3) Postcards and coins for my collections. I collect postcards and coins from around the world ! My mailing address is Laura Cushing - po box 141 Newtonville NJ 08346-0141

4) Some things for the kids - Skateboarding supplies for my son. He's an avid skateboarder, and goes through bearings, decks, wheels, board tape, and so on on a regular (and expensive!) basis. Also skateboarding related videos, dvds, etc and jewelery type things for my daughters. They like bracelets with sayings on them, hemp, make-your-own kits, beaded things, so on. Anything teenage and stylish. They like things with skulls, pirate themes, charms, and so on.

5) A dvd burner, or some donations towards my dvd-burner fund (paypal: L@labarc.com ). Our computer's dvd burner just up and died, and I miss it. There's a nice external one for 70 bucks on Amazon that I'm saving up to get.

6) Accessories for our Wii. The whole family plays it together - from my elderly mom to my teenage kids. I'd love to get a couple more remotes, or games for it. Pretty much rocks.

7) Friends in my area. I'd really love to have friends in the area again, especially friends who would like to go to concerts for free in exchange for driving. I often get free tickets / guest listing to events and can't go because I have a bit of stress with driving to strange places. I also miss going to poetry events, playing board and card games, going to lunch, movies - or just hanging out.

8) More readers for my column and my husband's column on Gather. I write a weekly music column called Soundtracking ; he writes a weekly money column called Common Cents. We also have feeds on LJ for our gather articles, lauracushing and austincushing which have a sad 3 subscribers at the moment.

9) A good roleplaying game to join online , and/or some good players to join my two games ( Into the Black and SunnydaleOSI). I like playing a wide variety of things but my favorites are anything historical based (WII is my favorite time period), modern fantasy/supernatural, or anything with a decent plot.

10) Someone to teach me to crochet better. I know some basic stitches, and I've successfully made potholders, coasters, and some granny squares. But I'd like to make more complex things like a hat, or one of those cute animals. I've taught myself as much as I seem to be able to grasp on my own.

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