A friend suggested this last night:

Donate what you would have paid for April to a disaster relief fund. The Red Cross has been very prevalent, but there are quite a few places that are also offering relief. Or, you can wait until April 1 and do it then - they will need relief for more than just the immediate future.

~

I was a sackholder in a Japanese HNM on Alexander. I know that quite a few of my friends are still safe. I don't know about some of them. Most of them have quit, but stay in touch. I haven't heard from a few since the earthquake happened. My friends that live in Japan that can contact people outside Japan (cell phone networks are wrecked, the internet is spotty at best, rolling blackouts make things hard, etc) are doing so and relaying information as they can.

Anyone - and I mean ANYONE - who complains about not being able to play the game should be immediately shipped to a disaster-stricken area and forced to help with the cleanup. I cannot BELIEVE - well, wait, I can, unfortunately, having played this game for years - that there are some people that are so narrow-minded as to think this will impact their lives on a bad way.

Go outside. Go to a library. Volunteer somewhere. Clean your room like you've been saying you'll do for a while. Go to class instead of skipping it for HNM camps. Call your loved ones. Be very, very, very happy that this did not happen where you live, and thank your lucky stars.

This is a REAL tragedy, one that will have ramifications for YEARS to come - not just in Japan but all over the globe.

Again - this is a natural disaster. "Disaster: a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction; broadly : a sudden or great misfortune or failure"

~
Again:

Please consider donating even $10 via text message to the RC or a similar place. You already budgeted the money anyway - if every single person that played FFXI that wasn't Japanese donated, we could make a LOT of a difference - just think, your money could help some of those people that you've played alongside for years. (Many people seem to forget they are human beings as well, but not everyone, thank the gods.)

Sorry for the soapbox, and if you are the praying kind, or the kind of person to send good thoughts - please send them overseas for my friends - and everyone - that are missing. Thank you.