A friend of mine needs some help. Please take a moment to read this
story below and do what you can, if you can.

After you read, consider this: Can you donate a few dollars to make a
difference in Sara’s life? What little bit can you give that would mean
the absolute world to this friend? If everyone that reads this can give
just a few dollars, we can help Sara reconnect with the world! These
might be challenging financial times, but consider all that you have:
your freedom to move where you want, the option to eat some delicious
food, the chance to wrap your arms around someone you love. What can
you do for someone who has had those things taken from them?

Donations can be sent to PayPal - donate@sarascourage.org
Or mailed to:

Sara Baker Trust Fund
#10350222753
Exchange Bank
8220 Old Redwood Highway
Cotati, CA 94931

_________

THE STORY

One year ago, my friend Sara Baker AKA Glory was on her way her way to
school. Sara was 19-years-old at the time, a college student, happily
in love with her boyfriend of a few years, making art and having fun.

As she was merging onto a highway, a reckless driver tried to pass her
on the right and hit her. The bump sent her flying out into traffic
causing her to lose control of her car. She tried to come to a safe
stop and pull to the side of the road, but something when wrong in the
last moment and her car was sent flipping over into a ditch on the side
of the road, bursting into flames.

Passers by came to her aid, trying to break the windows to get to Sara,
throwing mud on the flaming car to try and keep the flames from her.
Miraculously, she had no injuries from the accident. She is taken to
the hospital to recover, likely to wake up with a really bad headache.

However, in the hospital, Sara was struck by another attack, silent and
devastating: she suffered a stroke.

Sara is now what’s called “locked-in,” a condition which allows her to
feel her whole body but without being able to move voluntary muscles,
with the exception of her eyes. She is a quadriplegic that can feel
everything: every itch, every fly that lands, every pain.

Sara will never draw again; not the way she used to. Every day she
lives attached to tubes that feed her and help her breath. After 11
months in the hospital she is finally home, but life will never be back
to normal for her. She requires constant care, and she is obviously
very limited in what she can do for hours and hours.

She’s a fighter though. She’s gotten back some mobility in her head and
lips. She is working on strengthening control of her vocal chords and
working on gaining more control of her tongue so she can eventually
breath through her mouth and eat again. When she coughs, her legs move
up to her chest.

Sara communicates with her mother, nurses, and her few visitors by using
a computer that types based on her eye movements. As the computer
scrolls through rows of letters, she looks up when she wants to select a
row. The inferred light on the glasses reflects off the white of her
eyes to make the selection. Then she waits for the selector to get to
the letter she wants, and then she starts over until she has spelled out
what she wants.

This video shows how it works:
http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c365/SuperSailorAstera/glory/?action=view&current=P1060755-1.flv

I went to see Sara a few weeks ago and we talked for hours. It was
strange because I was used to talking to her online, and in some ways,
talking through the computer was kind of similar (all be it slower). We
had a few laughs and it was great to see the same funny, smart kid was
still in there. But there were sad parts too, like when she told me how
much she misses making art. I asked her if it hurt and she told me,
“Always.”

Most of the time, she’s in good spirits, keeping herself busy with lots
of movies and her physical therapy, but lately things have been getting
a lot harder for her. She’s suffered some emotional set backs in the
last week, and she is starting to be more isolated. She is lonely a lot
because she is really disconnected from everyone.

The technology she has doesn’t allow her to access the web in a way that
works for someone in her condition. The technology she needs is, as you
can imagine, very expensive. Cyberlink will not only allow Sara to get
online, it also has means for her to make digital art. Sara’s mom is a
single mom and she takes the brunt of Sara’s care like a true hero. She
is just making ends meet with the money required for Sara’s care on top
of the rent and other everyday expenses. She cannot afford to get this
technology on her own.

I am determined to make a difference for this brave girl. She does not
have to be alone in herself. There IS technology out there to reconnect
her to her friends. We HAVE to do something to help.

Please, if you’ve read this far (thank you) spread the word! It only
takes a little bit by a lot of people to really make a difference.

Please let me know if you donate, I’d like to try to keep track of what
we raise. So far, her online friends at the web forum Tower of Time
have raised $1090, but so much more is needed. Please help if you can,
and if you cannot afford even just a dollar, then please pass this along
to everyone you know.

You can follow Sara’s story on the blog that her friends and family
update here: http://sarastatus.blogspot.com/

Thanks again for taking the time to read this.

Sarah Forde
Sarah@sailorastera.com

The PGSM Panel went fabulously. We had a full room and had a lot of fun. Lilly-chan has a bunch of pictures up, including the panelists, the Sailor Moon shoot;, and a shot of her with Kappei Yamaguchi. (Also, that piece of paper Sakky-Attack is holding so proudly is an Honorable Mention in the Costume Competition. Go say congrats!)

In other news, our affiliate Usagi and Mamoru’s Universe is celebrating its 7th anniversary!

Anther affiliate, Innocent-Ami has updated with a cool new layout and sent us a lovely present for our own 3rd anniversaty. Thanks Ami-chan!

During the months of August and September, the Deep Submerge Awards will be accepting nominations. Please go and nominate your favorite sites.

And as for Kirari Site updates, all four of our fanlistings: The Special Act Fanlisting, The Kirari*SailorDream Fanlisting, The C’est La Vie Fanlisting, and the The Romance Fanlisting have gotten facelifts.

Lilly-chan’s Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Fan Panel will be 2pm Friday in Panel 1.

In addition, Lilly-chan’s Naoko Takeuchi Panel will be 5pm Friday in Workshop 1.

And, the two Kappei Yamaguchi (Artemis’s voice) Q&A sessions will be 4pm Friday in Panel 4 and 2pm Saturday in Panel 4.

I hope I see you there!

Itsumo Keiko is reporting on Keiko Kitagawa’s newest movie (Handsome Suit) and her latest role in the tv drama (Homeroom on the Beachside.)

Ayaka502.net reports and Ayaka Komatsu’s last appearance in Young Sunday will be this issue, #33. They are also running a content in honor of Ayaka’s birthday.

Lilly-chan is working hard on the PGSM panel for Otakon. Tsuki Mubi’s annual AMV contest is going on, so check that out.

Chibi Land has some adorable PGSM dolls for adoption.

As for us, I’ve been doing some research on Alisa Durbrow and added a link to her blog. She looks adorable with her new haircut.

Let’s see:

I updated the galleries with new ‘official’ images. Plus uploaded some more random images and a few more Dream Note screencaps.

I uploaded 10 new Ayaka icons in the avatars section.

I did some more work in the wiki.

I fixed the fanlistings, removed old ones, applied for new ones. Then I went in and cleaned out the ‘Links Out’ section.

I gave out two Princess Awards, one to Usagi and Mamoru’s Universe and ChibiLand.

Oh and I finally finished the Acts Download page so now everything is available via MegaUpload.

Aside from a lot of Ayaka related updates, our affiliate Ayaka502.net has just opened a Rika Izumi fansite. For those of you wondering who the heck that is, Rika Izumi is Chisaki Hama’s real name. You can check out the new site here.

Another affiliate, Itsumo Keiko Kitagawa is reporting that Keiko will be starring in a new series this summer “Homeroom on the Beachside.”

Miyu Sawai released what I think is a new Idol DVD on June 20th.

Sawai Ryu

Miyu Sawai

I apologize for the lack of info but I can’t read Japanese and there isn’t much English info out.

MoonKitty.net (yet another affiliate :)) has posted a PGSM music video for this past week’s Moon Music Monday.

The BSSM:LA Fanlisting (you guessed it, another affiliate) has been updating about the upcoming Otakon panel.

Usagi and Mamoru’s Universe (yes, yes, an affiliate) has updated with some new media clips from Act Zero.

And, if you’ve managed to miss this sad news completely: Miyuki Kanbe (who played Sailor Moon in the ‘Third Stage’ Sera Myu performances) passed away on June 20th. There are many beautiful tributes being put up among the BSSM fansites.

Colorful-Summer.net has no concept of how to properly credit people for the fan graphics that they are taking and redistributing without permission.

I contacted them, then Dark_Branwen contacted them in the comments of the news post regarding the massive page of icons that were taken. Instead of e-mailing us (like we politely asked), our comments were removed and we were ignored.

We weren’t demanding anything outrageous, just for our icons to be separated by creator, credit be given by linking to the correct creator and to ASK PERMISSION if they wanted to redistribute icons in the future. Not exactly unreasonable.

So now instead of resolving this nicely, I’m forced to fire off a nasty letter to Colorful Summer’s host about this. Hopefully they get their ass in gear and sort the icon page correctly, because (contrary to popular belief) I don’t enjoy getting people’s sites taken down.

This means that 1. Public editing of the wiki is back on and 2. There’s a lot more media for available for download if you’re paying attention.

I’m also happy to announce that the PGSM Fan Panel is returning to Otakon this year. I will be helping on the panel with Lilly-Chan, Sakura and Yosenex among others. (I’m also hosting my own panel on Parents and Anime, but more on that some other time.)

Usagi also donated two great linking buttons which I’ve added to the Link Us page.

First off, layout tweaks. Nothing major, but I’ve extended the width of the layout so you no longer have to deal with the annoying ads at the top. I fixed up my affiliates which are now displayed on the right bar.

I also removed some crappy pages and uploaded some pages that for some reason fell off the menu.

The cast and music pages have been made all pretty with better graphical interfaces. The credits have been updated as well.

I reorganized the icons and uploaded a bunch of new ones. In addition, I added five new wallpapers which were chillin’ on my computer.

And finally, I added 400+ screencaptures from Ayaka’s newest DVDs (Dream Note, Dream Note II) Thanks to our affiliate Ayaka502.net for providing the video.