January

Tonight closes the first month of my New Year's resolution and I've got to say, I had some success.  I will start with Twitter.

This month, I had 8 celebrities take notice of me.  They are, in order of importance to me, as follows:

1. Danica McKellar: Winnie Cooper actually thought about me for a little bit. I don't mean to sound creepy, but she may have been my first TV crush.  It was 25 years ago, tonight, that the Wonder Years premiered.  The context of my tweet asked her, and Fred Savage, is they still talked to Josh Saviano (Paul).  Danica wrote to me and said that they do...she even gave me Josh's twitter handle.

2. Wendell Pierce:  A somewhat notable character actor, Wendell is perhaps best known as Bunk Moreland from HBO's The Wire.  He may be my favorite character on that show, which is unequivocally my favorite TV show, ever.  I tried several times to catch his attention, but it was my mentioning one of the more dramatic scenes between Wendell and Michael K. William (Omar) that worked.  I told him they nailed the scene...and he told me it was his favorite part of the entire series.

3. Luis Guzman: Another character actor, Luis is known for his charming good looks...not.  He is high on my list because he sent me a direct message after I asked his permission to quote him to my history students.  He made some remark about the importance of history, and I told him I loved the quote.  For his direct message, he gets my third most important tweet of the month.

4. Wood Harris:  Another Wire tweet, you'll notice a trend through the year.  Wood played drug kingpin, Avon Barksdale.  I asked who he would have liked to play and he said Omar.  No surprise, but I'm glad he took the time to answer the question.  

5. Paul Provenza:  A comedian....Paul is pretty funny.  He has hosted The Green Room on Showtime for two years and I hope for a few more.  Paul was also one of the producers behind The Aristocrats.  This is a documentary about the world's dirtiest joke.  I can't begin to tell the joke here, but I did enjoy the film.  The tweet was in response to me asking him if I should lend the DVD to a female co-worker.  He said I should...but with fair warning.

6. Thomas Sadoski: This guy is relatively unknown, but I expect some recognition to come his way in 2013.  He plays an intregal role on HBO's The Newsroom as the Producer of the broadcast immediately after Will MacAvoy's Newsnight.  This was a simple tweet to him and Jeff Daniels about their thoughts on the Patriots.  Sadoski, a Raven's fan, said he had a lot of respect for the Pats...admirable.

7. Domenick Lombardozzi: Another Wire tweet.  This was actually just a retweet.  Another Wire actor, Robert Chew, who played Prop Joe had passed away.  I tweeted out an RIP message, and Domenick retweeted it...so did a few of his fans.  Dom has been in quite a few shows and it was an honor for me to receive his retweet.

8. Aristocrats: See #5.  I am not sure who is running the Twitter Account for the Aristocrats movie, but after seeing Jon Stewart make a reference to the movie during the Daily Show, I was compelled to tweet.  This simple retweet vindicated my decision to devote this year to the power of social media.


ACTS OF KINDNESS
This inaugural month should have been the easiest to plan my acts of kindness, but it proved very difficult.  One act, I am very proud of...the other, needs work.  Here goes:

1. Thank You notes for unsuspecting teachers.  After Newtown, I read many articles recognizing the hard work of teachers.  I thought it a little strange that we only see these things after tragedies.  I decided to take matters into my own hand.  This month, I have been collecting Thank You notes and memorabilia to send to a high school in California.  Living and working in Saugus, Massachusetts, it seemed only natural to send this "Thank You" package to Saugus, California.  Roughly 40 people at my school participated and I think it will go over very well.  If I receive feedback, I will be sure to mention it.

This photo is what the Principal of Saugus High School, in California, will see when he opens the package I prepared for him and his staff.


2. Shoveling out complete strangers.  This idea is solid, but it is dependent on Mother Nature.  I am forced to carry it though the winter, but to sum it up. I want to assist at least 20 homes during snow storms.  I will drive around looking for people shoveling their driveways, pull over, and help them finish their snow removal.  I just need more snow.   If I don't finish, then I will make up for it with an additional act of kindness.

Introduction

Hello.

My name is Richard Lavoie and I am a teacher in Saugus, Ma.  This year, I am trying something different for my new year's resolutions.  I have two resolutions that I will be working on...one is honorable, the other is somewhat selfish and promotes self-adulation.  You can decide which is which.

For my first resolution, I am going to try to commit 26 notable acts of kindness.  These acts are inspired by the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.  I will attempt to complete two acts a month and four in December.  Two of those acts will be on the anniversary of the Newtown tragedy.  I first heard of #26 acts on Twitter.  Anne Currey of NBC was promoting the idea.  I saw people buying coffee for strangers, dropping off bags of dog food at an animal shelter, and a wide variety of other simple acts.

The second act is trying to get more celebrities to acknowledge me.  The vehicle for this act is Twitter.  I am collecting screen shots of Retweets, Mentions, Favorites, and Direct Messages from celebrities.  I don't have a number that I am focusing on, but I would like for it to be significant.  I am posting these screen shots on my Facebook page, but will probably do a Month-in-Review at the conclusion of each calendar month.

I hope that you will find my acts of kindness to be notable and inspirational.  I also hope that you will find my Celebrity Retweets to be whimsical and light-hearted.  

Enjoy.