BagOfNothing.com

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is going “greener” — with energy-saving lights replacing old-fashioned bulbs on the towering evergreen this year.

The 84-foot-tall Norway spruce will be covered with 30,000 multicolored light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, strung on five miles of wire.

Using the energy-efficient LEDs to replace incandescent bulbs will reduce the display’s electricity consumption from 3,510 to 1,297 kilowatt hours per day. The daily savings is equal to the amount of electricity consumed by a typical 2,000-square-foot house in a month.

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Wow . . . my readers amaze me.

Last year I created the Christmas card experiment just to see how many readers would actually send me a Christmas card.  This year I was trying to create a gimmick to liven things up a little – and then several of you contacted me and expressed interest in raising funds for a charity in honor of my mother.  One of you even came up with the idea of starting a scholarship for my mother.  I think the scholarship idea is fantastic, but just a little unrealistic.  So I thought the next best thing would be to help raise funds for the disease that plagued her.

Mom suffered from lupus, and for those of you that don’t know what exactly lupus is, here is the U.S. government’s definition:

Lupus is a disease that affects your immune system. Normally, your immune system fights infections caused by germs. Instead of protecting your body, your immune system makes the mistake of attacking your body’s healthy cells. Lupus can affect almost any part of your body, including your joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and brain.

In Mom’s case lupus destroyed her kidneys, which caused her to be on dialysis, and later caused her to become severely weak.

So how can I combine my Christmas card experiment with raising funds for lupus?  By giving my readers two options.

Option 1:  You can make a direct donation to the Lupus Research Institute in memory of Kim Geeding.  Have the acknowledgement sent to my address, and I’ll consider that my Christmas card.  I’ve done some research, and out of all the lupus organizations I feel most comfortable with the Lupus Research Institute came out on top.

Option 2:  If you just want to send a card and no money, then I will total up all the cards received before Dec 25, and for each card donate a dollar (up to $50) to the Lupus Research Institute.  If you include any money, I’ll make sure to donate the funds directly to the Lupus Research Institute. 

So far I think this is a win-win.  I get to see how many people are willing to send me a card and get to help to raise funds to help fight lupus.

Send all cards to

Keith “BagOfNothing” Geeding
421 Vista Noche Dr
Lewisville, TX 75067-8345

Please be sure to include the “BagOfNothing” in the name so I know the card comes from a reader and not the dentist or plumber.

Also, did you know you can shop online and help fight lupus at the same time?  Shop at your favorite retailer such as Apple iTunes, Barnes and Noble, The Home Depot, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Nike, Target and many more and a percentage of your purchase will go to the Lupus Research Institute to help fight lupus.  Link

Last year I posted my mailing address to see if anyone would send me a Christmas card.  The result was about 25 responses (one in which arrived in July) and one awesome Dallas Cowboys floormat from my biggest fan in Louisiana.  Ten cards came from my native Texas, 10 came from out of state, and four cards were from outside of the U.S.

This year I thought I would post my address again but change things up a little.  For each card sent to Geeding Manor, a dollar (up to $50) is put in a pot.  Sometime during the week after Christmas I will put all the cards in a barrel and choose one randomly – the person that sent that card will have $50 sent to him or her.

So if you would like to send me a Christmas card you can do so at this address.  Just be sure to address it to Keith “BagOfNothing” Geeding so I know it comes from a reader and not the dentist or plumber.

EDIT:  Some of my readers were nice enough to email me and state that this contest might be illegal and maybe the proceeds should go to charity.  I’m not one to want to break any laws and that charity thing sounds like a good idea.  So right now I’m going to do some research before I come to a conclusion, and if anyone out there has any knowledge about this sort of stuff, please contact me.

FRANKLIN, N.H. – School principals like to leave a lasting impression on students, and Franklin Middle School’s Jim Friel is going the extra mile. Friel is donating a kidney to a 13-year-old eighth-grader.

“I’ve spent 24 years in education trying to make a difference,” said Friel, the father of two adult boys. “This is the best opportunity I’ve had so far.”

When Friel heard that Morgan Corliss needed a kidney and that his blood type was a match, he joined others who went to Boston Children’s Hospital to see if his kidney would be a match.

He said he was notified last week by Morgan’s mother that he was one of two possible matches and that the family had chosen him.

Friel said he had a heart-to-heart conversation with his wife, Cathy, and their two sons, who, though concerned for his health, support his decision.

“My youngest son is a teacher’s aide here at school and he looked at me and said ‘You’re a good man, Charlie Brown,'” said Friel.

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