Category: Blogathon

You have a 60% chance of surviving the Blogathon!

Will you survive the Blogathon?

Oh, a challenge, eh?  Hmmmmm …

Well, I have to survive!  After all, I’ve pulled back ahead of Les in pledges, bwah-ha-ha!  (And many thanks, folks.) (And, in case it’s unclear, Les is a great guy, and his cause is a good one, and I have no problem with you pledging to his Blogathon effort.) (As long as you pledge more to me.)

Horrors!  I’ve picked up an added Blogathon sponsor, bringing me to six pledges for $180 for the 29 July event.  But … Les, the Stupid Evil Bastard, is up to ten pledges for $299!  And he’s, well, stupid!  And evil!  And — and at least I only put little pictures of myself on my blog!

There’s still time to pledge, people!  Support the EFF!  Support me!  And let’s show Les that the “wholesome” goodness of DDtB is far more attractive to the blogosphere’s financial movers and shakers than the dark-backgrounded horrors of SEB! 

So two weeks and a day from now, Saturday at 7 a.m. (MDT), I’ll be kicking off my Blogathon effort.  I’ve spent a little time reviewing what I did last time out, and have come up with plenty to natter about (I actually had topics left over last time).  Getting templates set up, etc. and so on.  Should be fun, and I look forward to seeing you all there.

Hee-hee — if you go to the Blogathon blogger list and sort alphabetically, guess who shows up on top.  Nice.

Meanwhile, I have five donors for $170 … which works out to about $7 or so an hour.  Surely the protection of our digital rights and privacy is worth more than that to my studio audience …

As we hurtle toward 29 July, here’s an update.  I’ve received $145 in pledges to date in support of the here (thanks to Gloria and to Stephen, plus two other anonymous donors).  Keep those cards, letters, and pledges coming!

For some of the major court cases the EFF has fought, see here.

And not to be competitive about the whole thing, but, well … Les already has $167 in pledges.  And he’s, like … evil!  Are you guys going to let him get away with that?

UPDATE: An AP story on the EFF, including some criticisms directed at it (oh, no! idealists!), on the the occasion of the organization’s 16th birthday.

I’ve bitten the bullet and signed up for Blogathon 2006. Which means from 6 a.m. MDT Saturday, 29 July, to 6 a.m. 30 July, I’ll be posting something every half-hour, on the half-hour (or so) for 24 hours.

As in past years, I’ll be blogging about comic books — reviews, reminiscences, top lists, suggestions, etc. Feel free to forward ideas for things you’d like to read about.

Unlike past years, I won’t be blogging for the CBLDF (which remains a worthy cause, and which should be supported by lovers of comics and of the First Amendment), but for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). You can read more about the EFF here, but basically they are a non-profit set up to “confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the
beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.”

And you can support me in this endeavor by clicking here.

Essentially, you’ll be pledging to make a donation to the organization I’m blogging for (which might be embarrassing if you think they’re a bunch of goof-balls). I never actually see or handle any of the money (just as well). You’ll simply get a reminder, after the blogathon, to make the donation you pledged to; no credit card numbers are taken or anything like that. Donations can be made with varying degrees of anonymity, to me and/or to the world.

I think this is a worthy cause, and, if like other years, you agree, I hope you’ll sponsor me.

(In addition, let me plug Les, who’s blogging for American United for the Separation of Church and State, another very worthy cause.) 

This should be a lot of fun.

Blogathon 2006 is scheduled for 29 July.

Need to check my calendar, as well as catch up on information at the site.  I’ve enjoyed doing this in the past, and am inclined to have another go at it this year.

All my pledgers from the Blogathon should have long since received a note urging you to sign in and make good that pledge. If you’ve not paid your pledged amount to the CBLDF, please remember to do so soon. It’s all tax-deductible, etc., etc. Contact/web/snail-mail info is here.

(Note that the CBLDF’s payment page doesn’t seem to work terribly well with Firefox; you might consider using IE for it, instead.)

Wrapped up the Blogathon at 7 a.m. Kitten had come downstairs about fifteen minutes earlier. I got her set up with a 90 minute video, and headed up.

Marge let me sleep to 8:20, which actually helped take the edge off. Went to church, did the churchy stuff, came home, crashed.

Slept until about 4. Came downstairs, helped Mal ding to 50 in CoH, and ate dinner.

Life is pretty good.

Aaaand … that’s a wrap.

So the Blogathon had (as of this writing) 219 participants, with 1,777 sponsor pledging over $55,000. Wow. My own share of that is seven fine sponsors pledging $241. And that’s pretty keen, too.

My deepest thanks, as sponsors, to …

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Amanda, Mary, my folks, Stephen, Margie, and De.

You guys made it worth doing.

Many thanks as well to …

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Dave N., Rey, Mary, BD, Avocet, the MIL, and, of course, Mouthy Mom

… for doing the comment thang. I may want to be left alone while I’m writing, but I’m always looking for responses afterward.

Thanks, of course, to the folks who did the Blogathon organization. Anyone can criticize, but it takes a special person to step up and get it done. Good work, folks.

Biggest thanks of all to …

&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Margie

… of course, for just being swell and supportive about this, and offering me all sorts of help, active and passive, to let me do it. A finer person I cannot imagine.

Other things I considered talking about …

1. More about the CBLDF. Well, you can read about ’em.
2. More about SharpMT, the blogging client I use.
3. Reliable creators (writers, artists) to watch for. Well, just check the list of folks in the Top 25 ….
4. More about Mile High Comics, and Moulton’s Comics in particular, where I do all my shopping.
5. The social stigma of comics.
6. Webcomics.
7. Manga.
8. The comic books that Katherine reads.
9. Comic book-based cartoons.
10. Comic book-based movies, especially recent ones.

Oh, well.

There’s always next year. 🙂

Thanks, and good night, everybody.

“This Man, This Very Tired Monster” brought to you by … Blogathon 2005!

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