Adopting Mozilla — A Three-Month Project in 16 Easy Steps

This blog entry was co-authored by my inner child.


December 2010

Step 1: Go to the website of the Mozilla Foundation (a non-profit organization that plays the leading role in supporting and organizing open-source software projects such as the web browser Firefox and the mail client Thunderbird), find their donation page for the Drumbeat projects:

https://donate.mozilla.org/page/contribute/openwebfund?WT.ac=adopt_h

Step 2: Select the donation option $25.00 - Dino plush toy please!, enter your credit card and address data, and press the submit button — as it is certainly a good idea to donate something right before Christmas.

Step 3: Wait for your present (presumably a dino plush toy, cf. step 2).


January 2011

Step 4: Wait.

Step 5: Exactly one month after your donation, receive an e-mail telling you that the production of your present is being postponed and that shipping will start later that month.

Step 6: Wait patiently.


February 2011

Step 7: As it is already the middle of the next month now, stop waiting patiently and write an e-mail in reply to the above-mentioned e-mail (see step 5) asking very politely what the f*** is going on with the presents.

Step 8: Receive an auto-responder reply telling you that the responsible person is on vacation.

Step 9: Receive an actual reply by said person who apologizes and tells you that the shipping will begin the same week.

Step 10: Wait.

Step 11: Get delivered a parcel which is shipped from the UK by Einschreiben (a concept similar to certified mail or registered mail, according to Wikipedia). Of course, you are not at home then.

Step 12: Finally receive the package.

Step 13: Unwrap it.

Step 14: Be happy.

Step 15: Start wondering what the h*** you wanted with a plush dinosaur puppy in the first place — to be more precise: a cute, red, but about 30cm-tall plush dinosaur puppy that you expected about half the size.

Step 16: Write a blog entry about it.