Lend a Hand and I’ll Give You Some G-Tech

Friends: It’s the weekend and I’m focused on some personal stuff that could use your help if you’re willing. I’m trying to help my favorite non-profit win a $125,000 grant to make emergency repairs to their building, and I’m willing to incent you with about $500 bucks in gear for your help in doing so. If you are interested, please read on.

[NEWEST update: in what the sponsoring group, Partners in Preservation, called “an unprecedented photo finish” I’m soooo happy and grateful and pround to announce that WE DID IT! Town Hall wins $125,000 grant. Thank you thank you thank you!]

[UPDATE: we went to 1st but are now back in 2nd, so we need your help more than ever. Don’t forget to follow the instructions below, it’s a little tricky. And more importantly, please vote everyday. Karma points. ]

Background: Town Hall Seattle is a cultural center based in Seattle that showcases diverse music, arts and humanities, civic discourse, and world culture programming. They feature the broadest range of any programming that I’ve ever known–from hosting cultural heavy hitters like David Lynch, Moby, Malcolm Gladwell, Barak Obama, Al Gore, and Arianna Huffington all the way to community activists, children’s choirs, poets, Seattle’s hip hop acts, and the local Spelling Bee. It’s simply an amazing cultural and creative hub.

Here’s the good news: the grant winner is decided purely by a popular vote online. The most votes wins. Here’s the challenge: Currently Town Hall is in 2nd place by 1% and the voting ends THIS Wednesday May 12. It would mean the world to me and the my community if you would vote. And here’s some incentive from yours truly. 100% honor system here. IF you vote, and IF leave a comment below saying that you’ve voted I will choose one person from the comment section below (bonus points for roping in your friends to vote too…) and send them a super-awesome 2 TB worth of G-Tech hard drive love (+/- $500 value) from my personal stash. We roll G-Tech drives exclusively around here, and I’m expressly grateful for their support.

Now go forth and vote. It’s easy:
1. Visit the grant award site here and select ‘New User’ in the ‘Vote Now’ box.
2. Register with a name, email and password. (Don’t be scared off by this. It’s harmless and you can check the don’t contact me box!)
3. Scroll down to Town Hall and click on it. A check will appear, but you’re not done yet.
4. IMPORTANT: now scroll to bottom of the page and click VOTE.
5. Awesome. Now that you’re registered and logged in, you can vote everyday thru Wednesday 12th. Bonus karma points if you vote today, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Yes, whoever built this voting widget wrote code like it was 1998, but don’t let that get in your way. We all …need more data storage and what better way to get some free terabytes than by helping this great cause land $125k.

If you’re itching to watch a video, here’s a little promo I made with pal Chris Ballew of the Presidents of the United States of America just for fun and to help raise awareness. Thank you thank you thank you friends.