Category: Blogathon

I don’t have to do a “top of the hour” post, but here I am, freshly showered, well-rested …

… well, moderately rested. Managed to squeeze in seven hours last night, which is keen, but after a week of running serious deficits, I’m not headed into this in Lance Armstrong fighting trim. Ah, well.

Dressed in shorts and my Barry Ween t-shirt. Ah, Barry … I wish you were on the review list this year …

I have my posts for this liittle soiree laid out. Not pre-written, mind you (bad dog!) but I have the explicit topics of ten of the posts figured out. The rest should be straight-up reviews.

For those wondering what I’m blathering on about, today — and for the next 24 hours, starting at 7 a.m. MDT — I will be participating in the Blogathon, posting at least once every half-hour. I’m doing this to raise money on behalf of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), an organization that supports and protects the First Amendment rights of folks in the comics industry.

So far, seven very nice, intelligent, witty, and patriotic people have pledged $241 to the cause, a scosh over $10/hr. Yay! It’s not too file a pledge, though. It won’t be too late for the next 24 hours …

The basic format will be blathering about what’s going on at the top of the post, then, “below the fold” (“But wait, there’s more!”) will be the actual reviews. That way, those of you who don’t want to actually read about comics, but just poke fun at my fatigue, can do so.

These posts will all be visible on this front page. They’ll also be visible in my Blogathon archive, which includes posts from the last time I did this. Other Comics-related stuff I’ve written will be in the Comics archive.

Time to get the coffee perking … er, dripping … and to start ‘Thonning. Blogathonners Assemble!

Remember, the fun starts at 7 a.m. bright and oily tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

While it’s not permitted to write posts ahead of time, I’ve started collecting the review materials, I’ve started outlining what the posts are going to be about, and I plan on shopping for caffeinated goodies and the like this afternoon.

Tune in any time tomorrow and all through the night until Sunday morning. Or, heck, just check back in here when you get back to work on Monday. 🙂

And, of course, it’s not too late to make a pledge to my charity — or to other fine ones out there of all shapes, sizes, and ideologies. Heck, if you plan on making a contribution to a charity this year, why not leverage that to support someone’s attempts at sleep deprivation!

If I don’t see you before then, I’ll see you tomorrow … any time …

W007! Beat the $240 mark! I’ll be blogging like a crazy man (or a crazy-with-fatigue man) for $10 an hour. Woo-hoo!

Not that you should stop now! Keep donating! You know you want to! Or you know I want you to! Something like that!

(The Blogathon as a whole has received over $30,000 in pledges, for a variety of causes. And that’s pretty damn keen, if you ask me.)

First off, thanks much to the four sponsors I have so far. $143 isn’t a bad gig.

However …

We can do better. Or, at least, we did in 2003.

Granted, the CBLDF isn’t about fighting world hunger, clearing land mines, or saving the whales. But it is about freedom and liberty — the idea that First Amendment rights to free expression apply to comic books and graphic novels as much as they do to any other artistic creation.

Both freedom and comic books are near and dear to my heart.

For information on some recent cases the CBLDF is helping pay for see here (update here), here, here, and here. Activities last year are summarized here.

So … if you’re thinking of pledging, the Event is this coming Saturday. Let’s see if we can get that number up to a nice round $10 an hour …

Okay, so the interface Blogathon.org is … well, it works, but it’s not terribly user-friendly. Or, rather, it’s friendly enough, just not very informative as to what to do.

My apologies.

Here’s the process to sponsor me (or, if you are so inclined, anyone else):

1. Go to the Blogathon Home Page. Or just skip to the next step.
2. Go to the Blogathon Registration page, either with that link or by clicking on Register/Log In.

3. Fill out the long form at the bottom: a user name of your choice, your e-mail address, your “real” name, and a password. You have to create an account so that your e-mail is protected (and they need the e-mail so that they can send you a note after the Blogathon). Click [Submit] when done.

   You should get a “Thank you” message. Great, eh?

4. Here’s the trick. You are not yet logged in. If you do anything else logical (like go to view the campaigns, find my campaign, try to pledge money) it will politely refuse to let you donate.

   Log in, then, by typing your user name and password in the little pair of fields at the top of the page and click [Submit].

5. Aha! Now you are logged in! You can pledge! Woo-hoo!

   Go to the View Campaigns page and find my Campaign and click on it. It’s easy to find because “***Dave” sorts to nearly the top of the list (sneaky, eh?). Or, just click here.

6. You should see a place to enter in a pledge amount, as well as whether you want to stay hidden to the normal viewer of this campaign (I get to see you name regardless, neener-neener). Click [Pledge].

7. Congratulations! You just encouraged me in my sleep deprivation, as well as promised to do your part to protect First Amendment rights.

The trick really is that after you register you then have to log in. That’s not a good interface, IMO, and it’s worse because it’s not explained (either after the registration — “You must login now” — or on the campaign page — “To contribute, you must login first”).

Anyway, hope that clears things up, for all you folks who have been clamoring to know how to make a pledge (hi, Mom!).

Whew. Better late than never … I hope.

I am, as has been previously hinted, joining in on this year’s Blogathon. Woo-hoo!

I’d meant to get this formal notice up earlier, but two things happened. (1) The ‘thon sponsors were a bit late in getting all the registration up, and (2) I went off to the UK and just plain ol’ forgot about it.

Hrm.

What is the Blogathon? For 24 hours on August 6 (extending into the 7th), every thirty minutes I’ll post something here, trying to live up to your extravagent pledges to the cause of my choice. That cause, as it was in 2003 (the last time I did this) is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The CBLDF defends creators and retailers of comics from inappropriate legal harrassment — usually from legal action based on local obscenity laws coupled with the idea that “comic books are fer kids, so if they got anything not kid friendly — even if they’re up on a shelf behind the cash register and labelled mature audience only — why those folks is peddling smut to our young’uns.” I talked a bit about this last time around. It basically boils down to “fight censorship and defend the first amendment rights of comic book professionals throughout the United States,” with the idea that comics should be accorded the same constitutional rights as literature, film, or any other form of expression.

I think that’s a pretty worthy cause.

And if you do, too — or if you just want the fun of watching me natter for 24 hours (the topic again, this year, is, appropriately, comic books — mostly reviews of Trade Paperbacks and Graphic Novels from over the last year), then please sign up to sponsor me.

There are instructions on how to sponsor here. Basically, what you’re doing is saying, “Yes, I’ll give $X to the CBLDF if Dave Does the Blog for 24 hours straight.” When it’s all over, you’ll get a nice e-mail confirming I did that thang, with a link to the CBLDF’s donation page (as well as they’re address, if you’re more of a snail-mail sort of person). The Blogathon folks never touch the money, and nobody will ask you for your credit card before you actually do it. Spiffy, no?

So far, over $19k has been pledged by people to various bloggers and their charities. Last time I raised $225 — want to see if we can make it an even $10/hr?

Anyway, give if you want. I’ll be here. Thanks.

Looks like Blogathon 2005 is a go: starting at 9 a.m. EDT (that’d be 7 a.m. here in Denver) on Saturday, 6 August, concluding 24 hours later.

Requirements:

1. A worthy cause to raise money for.
2. Getting pledges for same (via spiffy online form at the Blogathon site).
3. Posting something new every 30 minutes during that 24 hours.

They still need to get the donation backend stuff done at the site, but it looks like it’s going to happen. And since (so far) that weekend is not occupied, it looks like I’ll be able to do it.

I suspect (though have not completely decided) that I’ll once again blog for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which protects comics creators and retailers from attempts at state censorship (usually, though not always, through obscenity prosecution based on “comics is just kids stuff” claims). I raised $225 for them last time; let’s see if I can top that this time.

More info as it comes available …

It’s baaaaack …

Or so the note through the mailing list promises:

Attention prospective ‘thon participants, donors, volunteers and otherwise wanting-to-know-ers! Tell your friends, your enemies and your pets that Blogathon 2005 will happen **August 6th** this year. Volunteers are being recruited NOW for team leaders and moderators – if you’re interested, please send an email to sheana@gmail.com and let me know.

A very basic form of the site should be up at http://www.blogathon.org sometime in the next few days, and from then on official news will be released there, as well as here on the lovely discussion board.

Marking my calendar …

Looks like we’ll get an official Blogathon this year. That’s good, since it gives me a rationale for being so godawfully behind on comic book reviews …

Now here’s hoping it’s not until July …

Blogathon is taking 2004 off, due to — well …

First, over the past three years, the Blogathon has grown tremendously. This growth requires a robust combination of software and humans to make it work. It has to be a well-oiled machine. We’re working on that, but we need a little more time.
That’s why the Blogathon will be taking 2004 off. Mind you, the folks behind the scenes will not be taking a year off–we’ll be building, testing, perfecting. And we’ll be back, better than ever, in 2005.

On the other hand, some folks seem to be getting into the spirit in an unofficial way, so maybe I’ll still do it.

Actually, the post-blogathon time went just fine. Crashed into bed around 7:15a, was awoken by Margie at 3p to let me know that folks were over for Oriental Adventures, so I showered, went downstairs, and managed not to slump over in my chair too much. Decent bed time, and got up at 5 this morning with little problem.

Again, thanks to the folks who visited, who read, and who commented — and, particularly, who sponsored. I don’t know if I’ll repeat next year, but it was fun this year.