Category: Blogathon

The Blogathon starts in only eight hours. Time to go to sleep …

Thanks to some further donations, I’m now at $197. Which is just incredible, folks, and thank you very much.

By the same token, surely there’s someone out there who will sponsor me for another $3 …

Sweet dreams, and see you in 8.

Well, tomorrow morning at about this time, I’ll be getting up to kick off the Blogathon. I could have wished for a bit more sleep this week, but that’s how things go.

I rather shamelessly sent out a mass mailing last night to both family and friends, and to subscribers to my quote-a-day list, drumming up sponsorship. Asking for money is not something that I easily do, but I figured if there was an excuse to do it, this probably qualified. I also cunningly sent it out at the last moment, so that folks could say, “Oh, hey, didn’t check my e-mail until Monday, so it was too late, but I sent in a fat donation to the CBLDF anyway …”

Since I’m doing this for the CBLDF, I’ve decided my theme will be reviews of current comic books, plus some related posts. We’ll see how well that goes over the course of the 24 hours. My review posts tend to be long, which would mean that I’d be writing pretty much non-stop. Even my fingers aren’t that strong, so the number of comics reviewed per might not be that great. I have some other items in mind to leaven things out, though.

My plan is to start each half-hour with a timer going, then writing what I plan to write (probably using SharpMT so that I can save the post). Then, once the post is written, I can go off and do something else in the interim. Shower. Drink coffee. Drink Coke. Drink Jolt. Whatever.

But that’s all I’m doing — writing. One annoying bit about the Blogathon is that it brings out people with rather crazed ideas. I’m not going to have a web cam of my writing, nor am I going to be blogging from Central Park, or naked (so far as you know), or anything like that. It’s like folks who would say, “It’s not enough to run a 10K — I want to run a 10K in a clown suit,” or “I want to run a 10K while reciting the sonnets of Shakespeare.” Well, um, fine. Me — I’ll settle for running the 10K.

I’ll be prefixing all my Blogathon posts with “BT03,” and I plan on increasing the posts-per-page count beyond what it is now, so that if you tune in some time Sunday, you’ll be able to see the whole turgid mess.

If you find my own Blogathon blather boring, there’s a Blogathon webring up in the top of the side bar. Go and lend some support to some other sleep-deprived sorts.

And that’s about all that’s worth writing about that right now. To you newcomers, drawn here by idle curiosity (or spam-invoked fury), welcome, set a spell, browse if you like. Things have been a bit calm around here of late, but hopefully there’s something here you’ll enjoy reading. Or, if not … well, the folks off there in the sidebar are all good reads — check one of them out.

Still plenty of time to get in a donation to the CBLDF via Blogathon 2003, which hits in two weeks from today. I’m presently at the $75 mark, and I’d love to do more. That works out to a bit over $3/hour, which is Burger King wages, folks.

I think the theme/gimmick of my own 24-hour stint behind the keyboard will be comics reviews — certainly something I’ve done quite a bit of over my nearly two years here. (Two years!?!)

So I’m already setting comics aside for this. Plus, there may be some extra bonus bits, like some scanning, or reviews of My Ten Most Favorite Graphic Novels, or Ten Collections to Give to a Non-Comics Reader. That sort of thing. Suggestions (aside from “How about writing a comic book short story?”) are welcome.

(I don’t trust my creative skills enough to think I can do fiction writing after the 18th hour or so. Unless you want me to do some haiku. And you really don’t.)

UPDATE: And now the CBLDF button in the sidebar actually works (dagnabbit).

Woo-hoo! So far, I have $75 in sponsorship for my Blogathon efforts on behalf of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Many, many thanks to all you good people out there.

Still plenty of time for the rest of you to toss in a shekel or two …

Yes, after all the fun that Doyce had last year doing the Blogathon, I’ve decided to get in on the act.

For those unfamiliar with the concept, it’s sort of like sponsoring someone to walk ten miles or run a marathon or drive a lawn mower from LA to NYC. But instead of something that requires I get sweaty, on 26 July, starting at 7 a.m. (Denver time), I will be posting to my blog no less often than every half hour, for 24 hours. The thrill of writing! The agony of writer’s block!

And you can sponsor me, either a flat rate (for completion) or by the hour (to 24 hours). At the end of the Blogathon, you’ll get an e-mail, telling you how to get to the charity that was sponsored. It’s all on the honor system — your contribution goes right to the charity, not through Blogathon’s (or, heaven forbid, my) hands.

The charity I am blogging for is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. This 501(c)3 non-profit organization is “dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community.”

The fund raises money to support comic book creators and stores from various First Amendment related legal attacks — e.g., comic stores (and the managers on duty) that get busted on bogus local obscenity charges, artists that need to protect their satire from trademark infringement and defamation suits — and in fighting overreaching censorship legislation. It’s not just a matter of First Amendment rights, though — it’s that comics should be accorded the same constitutional rights as literature, film, or any other form of expression. Because when the state gets to decide what’s a “legitimate” or “adult” form of expression, it’s a danger to all forms of expression.

It’s not saving lives, perhaps, but it’s helping, in a small way, protect our liberties.

I’ve donated myself to the CBLDF for the past few years. Here’s a chance for me to do more, by getting you to do more. If you want to sponsor me, go to the Blogathon Participants page, find me, and click on Sponsor This Site. I’m there under “***Dave Does the Blog” (toward the top). If you want to find out more about the Blogathon, go to their main page.

At 0700 MDT, Saturday, 26 July, the fun starts …

UPDATE: Oooh, look! Cool new buttons for Blogathon and CBLDF in the sidebar, courtesy Your’s Truly.

UPDATE: You can also sponsor me by going directly here.

I didn’t do this last year, but …

Hmmmmm … gotta check out our home schedule around 26 July.

If you’ve not yet sponsored someone during the Blogathon, coming up Real Soon Now (this coming Saturday, I believe), then do consider the D-Man. It’s a good cause, and a good blog.

I won’t be doing it, but Doyce is going to be part of Blogathon 2002. It’s a good cause, he’s a good guy, so give up some donation and read along 26-27 July.