Help give food and water by educating yourself!

11:37 AM, Posted by SivartM, No Comment

Like, seriously.

Most people by now have probably at least heard of Freerice, which is a vocabulary game in which each correct definition you give donates rice to people around the world. You can find it at freerice.com. There are also now different subjects, such as chemistry, foreign languages, math, and art, so it's not just vocabulary skills that are growing now.

Some similar sites I just found, which as far as I can tell are legitimate, are helpthirst.com and freeflour.com.

Helpthirst is a game where a number flashes on the screen (for example, the population of Zimbabwe) for a few seconds, and then when it is gone you must type in the number. The numbers start at a few digits and get more difficult. I managed to get to level 48 without missing one. Each correct answer, according to the website, donates 1 cup of water to World Vision (I assume this means that the ad revenue goes to well-digging and similar projects).

Freeflour is nearly identical to Freerice, but the only subject is geography, and each correct answer donates a spoonful of flour (according to the website, the money goes to "multiple charities" for various food-related projects).

Another website I just found is at Freepoverty.com. This also asks geography questions, but the object of this game is to click the appropriate place on the map. For example, the website displays "Rome, Italy" and you must click where you think Rome is on a map of the world. Each correct answer is supposed to donate up to 10 cups of water depending on how close you are to the correct answer, but I found a place on the site where they were asking for someone to donate to, so I'm not sure if the virtual water is actually going anywhere at the moment.

Freerice has definitely established its reputation, but the three websites I just found haven't, probably because they don't provide clear information about where the money is going and how it has helped already. If anyone has any information about these websites, that would be great. However, I'd definitely recommend at least playing Helpthirst.com, since it's the only one of the three more questionable websites that provides the name of the charity to which the money is donated. The other two games are still fun, though, even if you aren't really helping anything but your geography skills.

http://www.freerice.com
http://www.helpthirst.com
http://www.freeflour.com
http://www.freepoverty.com

NaNoWriMo - Day 2

8:51 PM, Posted by SivartM, No Comment

Please, don't look for the strangely absent "Day 1" post. It does not exist. :)

So, National Novel Writing month has begun, and I'm about 2,600 words into my magnum opus. And hopefully I will have a good plot idea tomorrow, because I've written myself into a mind-numbingly dull corner.

Since I'll be spending one or two hours a day this month writing, that means that hopefully after NaNoWriMo ends, I'll be in the habit of writing a lot, and with no novel writing to restrain me, I'll have plenty of time to blog! :D