We’re in the final days until Blogathon 2009, starting this Saturday at 7 a.m. MDT. I currently have 9 pledges for the Denver Dumb Friends League, totaling $416.57 (odd number due to some Canadian dollar conversions). That’s very cool — but about $100 less than when I did this in 2007 (on behalf of Episcopal Relief & Development), and about $50 less than the year before that.
Anyone else out there want to support my 24 hours of pretty-non-stop comic book blogging and help save/rescue/place some animals that need our help?
At that, I’m doing relatively better than the Blogathon itself. We’re currently at 170 blogs with nearly $12,000 pledged — pretty spiffy, until you realize that in 2007 the ‘Thon ended up with 361 blogs and a total of over $117,000. Part of that is the economy, I’m sure, and part is that the current ‘Thon organizers have not managed to generate the publicity/excitement of previous years.
On the other hand, that’s $12K for some very worthy causes, and every little bit helps. See any group there you want to sponsor?
Meanwhile, it’s not too late to sign up to blog for the Blogathon. You know you should. As an encouragement, I’ll do what I did last time: If you are on my blogroll (in the sidebar — and, yeah, it needs updating), or if I have left a comment on your blog in the last 90 days, and you have not already signed up, but sign up because of this post — let me know, and I will pledge a minimum of $25 to your cause. Right then and there. Unless, you know, it’s a morally reprehensible group, in which case I’ll figure something out with you.
Do I need prizes? Steve’s doing prizes on his site. Would you pledge to my Blogathon cause if I offered some sort of prize for the top giver(s)?
We made our Blogathon snack run at Whole Paycheck on Saturday. Far more than I anticipate nibbling on, but it’s a nice way for Margie to dote on me during this. As she puts it, “This is the one time I can spoil
Margie was considering blogging this year as well — but given the impact of both parents being at the keyboard all day and night Saturday, then napping until late afternoon Sunday, we decided to leave it up to Kitten. She opined she’d rather have Mommy that day. That’s cool. Sooner or later it will happen.
Given that, I’ll be setting up in the office, rather than down in the breakfast room. That’s more convenient (since all my graphic novels are up there), as well as offering me more privacy and quiet (and thus avoiding grumpy requests for same).
I’m beginning to map out posts I want to be sure and do. Most of the time will be graphic novel reviews (for example), since I have a couple years’ worth on the shelves. I’ll also be doing some reviews of the weekly comics I’m following, talking about how the comics habit is doing for me, and probably a few other related items. (If there’s something in particular you’re interested in hearing me wax lyrical about, do let me know).
(If you want to read Blogathons past here, you can either choose the “Blogathon” category, or do a search on BT07, BT06, BT05 or BT03.)
I’ll also probably natter on (with increasing incoherence) about other bloggers who are Blogathonning, what I’m eating, how sleepy I am, etc.
It looks like I’ll be able to do all of this on my shiny new computer. One thing I need to do (if I’m going to include stamps at the bottom of posts of the music I’m listening to) is get iTunes shifted over to the new machine. That may or may not happen.
As in the past, I’ll be including links to Amazon.com for everything I review (everything that’s carried there, which usually comes up to ). I do get a fractional commission if you buy from there, which I will donate to the DFL myself.
Following previous precedent, I’ll be preceding all my posts with BT09 (for future searches). I’ll also be including a rather ugly #blogathon hashtag, since my post titles get echoed to Twitter.
Twitter is going to be an interesting new twist to the Blogathon this year. I’ll be curious to see what impact it has. Will it just be for nattering back and forth for company, or will it potentially drive some traffic (and sponsorships)?
(There’s also a #bthon hashtag, but I can only put one in, so I’m going with the slightly longer form. That tag also seems to have been used by a highly commercialized ‘Thon over in Singapore this past weekend.)
And … that’s about all I have to dump about Blogathon at the moment. More, I’m sure, over the course of the week.