Got five minutes? Take some time out of your busy day and check out several actions you can do to help the homeless:

1. Add your name to a petition to Congress for homeless youth support efforts, including making November a National Homeless Youth Awareness again in 2008. Add your name at HomelessYouthAmongUs.org.

2. Virgin Mobile subscribers can text KARMA to 68405 and a piece of clothing will be donated to a young person in need, courtesy of American Eagle Outfitters and Levi Strauss.

3. Donate some money to a homeless charity. Go to NetworkForGood.org and enter "homeless" in the Keywords field to fine a homeless charity.

Everyone wants to have a spookily spectacular time on Halloween -- but safety must come first. No need to take the fun out of your little ghouls' and goblins' Halloween night. By following these quick tips, you're sure to have the best Halloween night yet.

1) Map out the route that you plan to roam, so adults are assured you will find your way home!

2) From the bravest of superheroes to the noblest of knights, please remember to bring your flashlights!

3) If you visit a house where a stranger resides, accept treats at the door and, please, don't go inside.

Read more tips from the American Red Cross Ghoulish Safety Guide.

Don't forget about your pets! Get Halloween safety tips for your pets, too!

It's a lovely thing when you come across people really impassioned to help those in need. And that sort of emotion is what overtook me when I began to read about the non-profit organization, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). The folks at the OLPC organization are on a mission to provide the poorest children in the world with a potent learning tool -- the XO, a laptop created especially for them.

The XO, about the size of textbook, but lighter than a lunchbox, is designed to run on minimal battery power, has no hard drive, as well as free, open-source software that the OLPC hopes will engage children and teachers to learn in a new way. With the ability to reinvent and program their software, the goal is that children will be empowered to learn in new ways. And to make the XO even sweeter, it is it's own wireless router -- connecting children to those around them as well as to the Internet.

In the August issue of the Washingtonian, the cover story highlighted the "Secret Life of Teens" -- providing quotes from several local high school students about the youth culture they live in. Dishing on Facebook, money, relationships, partying and other issues, they provide a glimpse into how things are for many teenagers today.

Or do they? As I read this article, I reflected on the teens I know, and how they might answer the questions posed. Maybe their answers would have the same flavor, maybe not. Here's a peek at what some of the local DC teens were saying:

"'Private schools have more drugs. They have so much money, and they're like, 'Yay, coke!'"