Yet Another Reason to Love Twitter

Did you hear that you can have a secret santa through Twitter?


Mashable.com reported the story of signing up through your account to do a secret santa with either your followers or people you follow! You just sign up, fill out a survey of questions like your favorite color, and you find your match on Dec 13th! (Deadline to sign up is tomorrow)

...Kind of nervous to see if this leads to any sketchy, dangerous online meet ups that everyone is supposed to be avoiding.

Crossing my fingers that it doesn't.













Now ya heard, spread the word.

World AIDS Day: KIM KARDASHIAN IS DEAD

Did you hear about World AIDS Day and celebrities' efforts for it?

Kim Kardashian is dead. Digitally dead, that is.

Buylife.org is a website dedicated to raising money to save a child with AIDS by having celebrities "die" and encouraging fans to donate a minimum of $10 to bring them back to life.

Celebrities on Twitter who have proclaimed themselves dead include Lady GaGa, Alicia Keys, Khloe Kardashian, Usher, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Hudson and many more.

Buylife's goal is to raise $1,000,000.

As of right now, fans have donated $60,988.

Once you go to the website you can find the celebrity you would like to "save", or donate for, and you can watch their last Tweets and testament.

There are 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, with 1.1 million of those being American. An estimated 20% of Americans who are infected with the disease are unaware they have it. (HINT: GET TESTED TODAY)

Governments, NGOs and Bono's RED campaign kicked off World AIDS Day campaigns a day early: RED started in Sydney by making all of the lights in the harbor red. Across 13 countries, the group of will be dressing more than 80 iconic landmarks in red.




Other efforts around the world:

•  People dressed up as condoms in Lima yesterday holding signs that read "Responsible love = condom"
• Starbucks workers (in our very own Carrier Library!) wearing red, ( Starbucks ) aprons

Visit World AIDS Day's official website for more information, including real stories, merchandise, latest news, twitter updates and ways to donate or "do something."

Now ya heard, spread the word.

TWITCHANGE HELPING HAITI

Did you hear about the celebrity auction called Twitchange?

Yes, all you with BieberFever, it's official. You can get him to notice you! ...If you win him through bidding. Eva Longoria is running the first ever Twitter celebrity charity auction to raise money for an orphanage in Haiti.

Shaun King, an Atlanta minister and activist, has a charity called A Home in Haiti, and his current project is to rebuild The Miriam Center using the money raised by Twitchange. The Miriam Center houses and educates Haitian children with cerebral palsy, severe autism, and other major life challenges. It's the only facility of its kind in Haiti. Since the earthquake, the Miriam Center is extremely overcrowded, but A Home In Haiti has provided over $1.5 million in tents to homeless Haitians. Twitchange is phase 2 of the project, aiming to rebuild The Miriam Center. If you go to their website, you can look at picture galleries of the construction in action, the tents that have been sent so far, some of the children that live in the Miriam center and follow the journey of a purchased tent.

...And I thought it was cool that Chegg.com tells you where you planted a tree.

So, what are you bidding for? A DATE with Justin? Not exactly. Since this is an auction based on Twitter, you are bidding to win a celebrity to follow you or mention you. You can bid on either a mention, a follow a retweet, or the package, which includes all three.

Celebs are also throwing in their own prize packages to motivate auctioneers. For example, Shaquille O'Neal (@the_real_shaq) is throwing in Celtics home opener tickets and 4 jerseys for his winner. The woman of the hour (@EvaLongoria), WILL CALL YOU, and is throwing in a signed Desperate Housewives totebag, a signed script from all the ladies of Desperate Housewives, a personalized signed picture, a Desperate Housewives canteen, an extra tweet AND will personally match the winner of her auction. Star Trek's @LevarBurton will come to your house if you win his mega auction.

For all of you up with Twitter lingo, Twitchange was no longer allowed to be on the trending topic list because it would have been a trending topic for TWO WEEKS. Eva Longoria has been marketing this like crazy and basically every celebrity that I follow on twitter has been updating about this nonstop. It's a great cause, and an awesome (& more realistic than dreaming) chance to meet your celeb hero!!

Bidding began on September 15, 2010 (this past Wednesday) and ends on September 25, 2010 (one week from today!)

So far, 735 people have donated $85,020 directly to A Home in Haiti...ontop of the auction. Within the first two days of bidding, Twichange raised over $139,145. A few of what the celebs are going for as of right now (only 4 days in):

• Demi Lovato (Mega package) 114 bids, $1,725.00
• Ryan Seacrest (Mega package) 23 bids, $1,525.00
• Kim Kardashian (FOLLOW) 32 bids, $1,525.00
• Dana White (Mega package) 83 bids, $15,000.000 <--?!?!?!?!
• Jessica Alba (mega package) 53 bids, $3,075.00

There are also way cheaper ones, ie: Austin Nichols (Julian, One Tree Hill) can ReTweet you for only $4.25. But the mega packages and follow options are literally where the money is at. That's where the celebs are throwing in their extra deals.

Feel free to go to the official Twitchange website and check out other bids for yourself. The website also has a list of all the celebrities you can bid on. Right now, there are 337 different people/levels of prizes you can bid on.

Happy bidding!

Now ya heard, spread the word.