826 Nerds

As anyone who reads this regularly knows, I'm kind of in love with McSweeny's, David Eggers and Sarah Vowell. All three are closely connected, and then branch into other loves like The Daily Show (where I first found out about Vowell), Dave Sedaris, Janeane Garafalo, This American Life, Salon.com, The Decemberists, etc.
It's like all my favorite nerds are friends.
This brings joy on multiple levels.
One of the great things to come out of this quorum of nerdom is the non-profit group 826 National, a collection of tutoring and writing centers in major cities across the US for kids from 8 to 18. The first, 826 Valencia in San Francisco, is fronted as a Pirate Supply Store; the 826 in NYC is a Super Hero Supply Company; Seattle's is the world's first Space Travel Agency.
I love the passion and creativity these places require and encourage. I love the idea of making writing fun again; letting kids see themselves published, letting them see their words come alive, or see people react to their words. I don't think we ever teach kids how powerful the written word can be.
There are 10,000 things I'd like to do with my life; all of them are fuzzy and opaque. Working with something like 826 is one of them, and not just so I can meet all my favorite geeks. That would be a perk, but not the main reason.