Balloons, Tortoises, and Finger Puppets [21, 22, 23)

This is Chris. Not actually a desert tortoise, but my absolute 

favorite tortoise xx

Today it wasn't even lunchtime yet and I had already been presented with two chances to change the world (mind you I didn't even get up until 9:30). First, my roommate (not the blood-donating one, the other one) and I went grocery shopping at Kroger and at the checkout the cashier asked me if I would like to donate a balloon to a local children's hospital. Yes, yes, I would indeed. For $2.99 I have now given a child something to smile about. Not long after stowing all my groceries in their designated corners of my apartment I checked my email and there was an email from Defenders of Wildlife calling on me to contact the Bureau of Land Management. "Why?" you may ask. Well, because it turns out our well-meaning efforts to expand our solar panel energy use in the US is endangering the habitat of already endangered desert tortoises. Less than 10 minutes after receiving the email from Defenders of Wildlife, I had submitted an email to the Bureau asking them to keep expanding solar energy efforts but also to be careful not to make such expansions into tortoise habitats. →Here← are some tortoise facts for some light reading, and →here← you can get your world-changing groove on with fellow Defenders of Wildlife.

finger puppet hands!

I ended my world-changing acts of the day quite similarly to how I started them, this time donating my time (and questionable artistic skills) rather than money to bring a smile to a child's face. As part of a club meeting (so yet again, I cannot take credit for the idea), we made finger puppets for children at the Akron Children's Hospital. I had fun with it and hopefully my ridiculous-looking finger puppet will make some child smile.