It sounds like Joel Johnson's Funde Razor last week was a tremendous success. On Monday JJ will be writing a check to Child's Play for a whopping $1,656. The Child's Play folk have agreed to make sure all of those funds go towards the kids at Montefiore in the Bronx.

I donated about 42 pounds (I shit you not) of game schwag, and my wife is much happier for it. One part of me was a little sad to see someone other than me flexing his non-muscled arms under the City of Heroes cape that has adorned my office chair for about a year, but it's for a good cause so what the heck. That and I have a super sweet City of Villains cape to replace it.

Check out Joel's Flickr for Funde Razor to see what you missed and then go and ease your guilt by donating to Child's Play.

Funde Razor Pics [Flickr]

Congratulations to Azrael25 who won the charity GameSwag auction I set up over on eBay. The lot of nearly 20 unique gamer books, stickers, shirts and one very cool Xbox 360 faceplate sold for $500. Awesome!

Thanks to everyone for spreading the word and bidding on the items.

Swag List [Kotaku]

Who's the muscle man
That's an action star with all the kills?

Who is the man that would outlaw games
For his brother man?

Who's the Gov that's a hypocrite
When the political chips fall?

They say that cat is a woman molester
SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
But I'm talking about . Who?

She's still at her half-submerged house with a roommate, water, tinned food and a gun for company.

This certainly isn't the saddest of the stories emerging from the chaos caused by Katrina, but it helps to put a very real human face on the problems facing that part of the country.

Just because you didn't die in Katrina doesn't mean you will survive its aftermath. Sure, maybe you won't die. But what about your job, your house, everything you owned? What will those people, and there are hundreds of thousands of them, do?

Here's some choice excerpts from her story, which she calls Ghosts in the Shadows of New Orleans:

I'm running out of fuel, I'm locked away from support, and there are no more supplies in the city. I have enough to stay in this room for a month, which should be more than enough. I've been shot twice in my life, and stabbed as well. I'm what I would consider a very grizzled person, I've lived through monsoons, long winters, and food shortages. This has taken my breath away, this destruction, this mindless hate and anger the people here have adopted to survive. Like I said before, it's like a video game.

I don't know what it was, the flood, the hurricane, or the death that has husked these people of their minds, but the people here have died, it's just that they still walk like humans. There's no place for us here, and they just walk, looking for something. Home, family, pets, someplace cool.. You bump into them, and they say one thing to you, maybe two. But that's it, that's all they can muster. If you say hello, it's like being in an RPG.

'Hello, how're you today? I've got some guns you can look at, open my shop.'
'You again? Well, that's great. I hope you'll buy something this time around.'
'Hello, how're you today? I've got some guns you can look at, open my shop.'
'You again? Well, that's great. I hope you'll buy something this time around.'

They walk around until something prompts them, they react, and continue. No different than in an NPC. They say so little, and everything they do is exactly the same. One of my neighbors down the street sits in his front yard all day. I think he's done the same crossword puzzle six or seven times by now. Sometimes I feel like I should go invite him here, this little oasis in a ruined city. You see, in a city with no power, flood water, and death; my small room, this tiny air conditioned room with a computer and a few days of water and food, I am truly a queen, surrounded by the damned.

This country has been dealt a gut-punch, go read the rest of the article and then volunteer or donate. Everyone needs to do something.

A Gamer's Take on Katrina: Ghosts in the Shadows of New Orleans [RAB]

Being a little slow on the uptake, it didn't dawn on me until Friday night that I could actually do something to help raise funds for Katrina.

Thankfully, I quickly came to the conclusion that writing up a generic paragraph of snarky (misspelled) crap and selling it on eBay probably wouldn't raise much money. Instead, I've decided to assemble a modest pile of game swag and auction it off on eBay with 100 percent of the proceeds going to support American Red Cross's Alabama Gulf Cost Chapter in Mobile, Alabama.

While there are some real gems in the stuff I'm giving away, the most prized item is likely my E305 Xbox 360 faceplate. And unlike some people, I actually only got one of these bad boys at the Microsoft press conference. (I'd offer to sign it, but that would just lower its value.)

Check out the full list of items after the jump and then hop on over to eBay and bid something. Remember this all goes to the Red Cross and its efforts helping out the victims of Katrina.

Gold City of Heroes Boxing Gloves: Voted most non-sensical swag item of 2005.

Devil May Cry 3, 25 to Life and Metal Gear Acid T-Shirts: Because you can never have too many game T-shirts.

Resident Evil Outbreak T-Shirt: A RE Outbreak T-shirt compressed into the shape of a gun, perfect for breaking out of prison.

The Maximo Vs. Army of Zin Limited Edition Laser Cel: One of only 9,250 prints. Sweet.

Resident Evil 4 Laser Cel: Print number 15,168 of 18,850. Not nearly exclusive as that extra swank Zin print.

Xbox 360 Faceplate: Straight from E3 never even removed from it's packaging.

Auto Assault Business Card Holder: Shiny card holder filled with Auto Assault game cards.

Metal Gear Acid and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Stickers: Perfect for that car you don't own.

Fable Metal Die: A big square metal die with different Fable-esque phrases on it, like Choose Evil.

Arc the Lad Paperweight: I got nothing on this one, sorry.

Top Gear Rally Sculpture: This tiny metal sculpture shows a severed foot on a gas pedal or maybe it's a brake. I'm not really sure.

Nintendo Ice Cube: It's clear, plastic and blinks. It wasn't so much swag as something I swiped from the bar where Nintendo held their E3 party. Shhhhh.

The Art of Guild Wars: Fantastic book featuring the art of the massively multiplayer game Guild Wars.

Darkwatch Innocence Comic Book: This is really more graphic novel than comic book, kind of cool to read the back-story for the game.

The Making of Doom 3 book: This is a pretty interesting coffee table book on the making of the creepy first-person shooter.

OK now, get to that crazy fund-raiser bidding. The auction ends Tuesday morning.

A quick addition, here's a chilling account of Katrina's aftermath from a gamer who lives in Alabama.