twist of fait accomplis

All Blogathon 2002 posts have been archived to their own page. I will be adding a "best of" cam gallery early this week.

The final tally was 16 sponsors and $449, making a two-year total of $1001 raised in the Blogathon for the Sunshine Foundation!

Thanks to those of you that stuck around through so much of the Blogathon... I was surprised to see so many of you checking in so often. I really appreciated that.

Thanks to all the sponsors who gave to support a wonderful cause. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks to Chris for lending me the webcam.

Thanks to Cat for conceiving this whole idea and executing it so well.

Thanks to those of you that contributed sounds/ideas for sounds for the song. I used at least one from everybody.

Thanks to Christine and the Sunshine Foundation for supporting me in my efforts to help them.

And, lastly, thanks to the kids with Progeria that I've met over the past few years and the families that love them: you all are inspirations.

I'm going to go climb into bed for a few hours. G'night everyone, and see you soon.

Though I didn't use anywhere near the 23 samples I originally planned (it was more like 11), I still managed to put together a bizarre little 4 1/2 minute piece. It feels very rough, but I kind of like that. It manages to follow a kind of mood throughout the Blogathon, and by the end, it feels like you've been listening for 24 hours.

I'll be posting the individual sounds for anyone who's interested, but for now: the Blogathon Song (4:30, 4.12 megs).

Kind of cool: 9 Beet Stretch, taking Beethoven's 9th Symphony, which usually runs 70 minutes, and stretching it to 24 hours. You can listen to the entire symphony in 1 hour, 20 minute chunks.

I mention this because I used this exact digital stretching effect during two points of the Blogathon song I worked on for the last 24 hours.

As the hours wind down, I'm amazed at how easy this Blogathon was. Even with the occasional helping hand I gave Cat or the gimmick song I was working on or the morning baking I did, the hours seemed to go quickly. And though I'm definitely tired and ready for bed, I feel fine. Almost no caffeine (except for a couple small glasses of Coke for lunch yesterday)... I even bought an iced Assam tea at Giant last night that I didn't even open.

I didn't get some of the "extra" stuff done that I would have liked (working on other sites of mine, watching a movie, etc.), but so what. I did my thing and a good organization will benefit.

Plus I got to world premiere "Who's That Writing?" :)

I kid you not: on the news this morning, there was a political roundtable discussion. The old, white guy, who looked in really bad shape at probably around 65 years old, used the word "dissed" without pausing and with a straight face.

I turned away before he broke out "phat" and "dope."

Some really positive news out of Pennsylvania, if you haven't heard yet: at 1am this morning, all nine miners that were buried for three days 240 feet underground were brought safely to surface.

To balance out the good news, though, is a terrible crash at a Ukraine air show that killed 78 and wounded 100 when a fighter jet crashed into the crowd.

With those two stories, who can really bother paying attention to the mess that is the D.C. mayoral race?

I'm not very confident about how these biscotti I'm making are going to come out. I went ahead and used the butter and only replaced the eggs with Ener-G egg replacer, but I'm not convinced by the consistency of the pre-baked rolls that it's going to come out tasting good. We'll see, I guess.

In the meantime, I'm watching a little news and Huyen's heading out to work. Again.

The other day in my lunch I had Siamese strawberries, connected at the calyx:

It/they was/were tasty.

When I went to New York a couple years back, I went to see Maury live. As you can imagine, it was quite an experience.

Before the show started, there was a dance contest of sorts for women in the audience. A few young women came up and got their groove on. Maury went to a woman in the first row (seen in the picture below with the cornrows and the striped shirt) and urged her to come up on stage.

"Come on," Maury said. The person in the front row said something, Maury leaned over, and the person repeated it to him quietly, "I'm not a woman. I'm a man."

Maury flinched slightly, took a second, and then said, "It doesn't matter! Come on up anyway!" The man declined.

As soon as I saw Maury walk towards this guy (who, honestly, was definitely a guy through and through), I could see what was coming next. It was like trying to stop a Mack truck at 60 mph on a wet road: I just had to let it happen and hope no one got hurt.

That was the day Maury made a mistake.

Weird... after the whole Cyberwings debacle, it seems that they've come back online as promised and are setting shop back up. Sure, I could have stayed with them and parlayed my $8/year into even more space and traffic, but quite honestly: screw that. I'd rather pay $35/year for a host who has reputable business practices and whose owner doesn't remind me certain other shady characters I've dealt with in my "net history."

Note that almost all of my domains are still at Web Serve Pro, and they're going to stay there. But I've taken two other domains, ones that require more space in exchange for possibly less reliable hosting, and I'm hosting them at DixieSys.com (after I decided I was done with Cyberwings). I like the idea of having at least one of my domains with a different host just in case (God forbid) something major happens with my main domains. That way I'm not totally out of touch.

Hey... who's still out there?

It's been a long time since I've been up until 4:30am on the computer... my fondest memories come from senior year of college, when I sat in my room (I had a single) working on my perl search engine script and Brian, my suitemate (and freshman year roommate), would yell in test search terms for me to try out.

Have I told this story before?

I'd usually have music or the TV going and he'd just be on the Net (dial-up, because he couldn't get his network card working), but it wasn't unusual for us to be up until 5am and then catch a few hours rest before class. I'm a night owl at heart, but the further I get from college, the more the rest of my body fights my heart.

Owner launches search after tortoise goes on the lam

Charlie, an escaped pet turtle living in Michigan, is 61-years-old. A friend of the family brought Charlie from California a long time ago and it has lived with two generations since.

"Charlie has a wandering spirit, once leaving for three weeks. But they got him back and he hasn't escaped in the past eight years."

interviewer: Ok, so I'm new to this whole blogging business...how did you get into it?

lazeblogathon: The old story of "my friends were doing it."

lazeblogathon: Actually only one friend at the time was (Paul at phonezilla.net).

lazeblogathon: I've had a web site since 1994 and it's gone through many iterations, but around 1999 or so, I wasn't keeping it very frequently updated.

interviewer: Cool. And it was just a way of keeping up with friends who weren't around the corner?

lazeblogathon: Sorta'.

lazeblogathon: I've always been interested in the new subcultures that pop up on the Net, and this seemed like one that was worth exploring. It just gave me a new medium to communicate and be creative.

interviewer: What kind of people have been keeping up with your blog? Friends, strangers?

lazeblogathon: It started mainly with friends, but then as I started reading (and linking to) more blogs, more people that I never knew started checking in. One of the greatest thrills is seeing a comment on my blog from someone I've never heard of before in my life.

interviewer: I've been doing a little research into how people use blogs...there are a lot of people who see it as a sort of channel for "grass roots digital activism" or a way of challenging the way media tends to just hand us news and say "hey, this is important because we say it is" - but most people I've noticed take a much more personal approach to it. Any thoughts on that long winded statement I just made?

lazeblogathon: The blog format is so versatile and lends itself to so many different types of communication -- from "this is what I ate for lunch" to punditry to activism to corporate business -- that it really is one of the most important ideas to come to the web since the web's inception.

lazeblogathon: It's a great place for journalists to explore new ideas and make opinions heard that might not be as welcome in a (supposedly) no-bias newspaper.

lazeblogathon: But it's also a great place for someone with a passion to keep themselves informed while keeping others informed (that's what I do with the Veg Blog -- it keeps me on top of things while I try to keep others aware of recent news, etc.)

interviewer: what do you think of companies like apple who are consistently trying to squash out blogs that post info about their products/company that they don't want out there?

lazeblogathon: It's a waste of time. Trying to silence your user base's opinion -- especially when it's as active and obessive a user base as Apple's -- can do nothing but hurt you. It makes it look like you, as a company, don't give a flying fig about the people you're selling to.

lazeblogathon: It's an RIAA-type move: they don't seem willing to accept new ideas, and Apple (of all tech companies) should be encouraging that type of thing.

interviewer: how long have you been actively blogging?

lazeblogathon: Actively, just a few days over two years.

lazeblogathon: I had a kinda-sorta-blog on laze.pitas.com a few months before that, but I don't really count it.

interviewer: what would be your definition of a blog?

lazeblogathon: A frequently updated journal of personal thoughts, opinions, or items of interest.

lazeblogathon: Or... an impromptu personal knowledge management system.

interviewer: hey, i like that last one!

lazeblogathon: That was inspired by Blogroots (an upcoming book on blogs -- chapter 8 was just posted online for free... a great read on the potential of business blogs).

interviewer: i saw your post about that...i'll be curious to read the book when it comes out. seems like there's been a lot of press in the big papers lately about blogs, particularly within businesses...

lazeblogathon: Yeah... it seemed to come all at once...

interviewer: so even though thousands of new blogs appear daily, it still feels like there's a network of close knit communities. do you have a circle of bloggers that you keep in touch with? must be a way to really meet some random people from all over the world!

lazeblogathon: Yeah -- I have a series of maybe 20 blogs I read every day (and most read mine as well).

lazeblogathon: It's amazing how many people have such interesting things to say...

lazeblogathon: Out of those 20, less than half of them are people I knew in "real life" first.

lazeblogathon: And my mom reads my blog.

interviewer: wow. so do mostly check in to see what people have been up to or what news stories they've stumbled across that they've found interesting or...?

lazeblogathon: With my real-life friends, I like to keep up with what they're doing...

lazeblogathon: with the people I don't know otherwise, I feel like I get to know them better over time.

lazeblogathon: A lot of it's about entertainment...

lazeblogathon: I don't keep up with all that many issue-oriented blogs, really.

interviewer: what are some of the blogs that you've come across that really have stuck out in your mind as the best written/weirdest/funniest...

lazeblogathon: Best written: Dollarshort.org, especially early on. Funniest: Mecawilson.com (his early entries are some of the crudest, funniest stuff I've ever read online) and Poofle.com.

lazeblogathon: Paul's blog is also very high up on the list.

interviewer: how'd you get involved with the blogathon?

lazeblogathon: Actually, Paul mentioned it. He had a joint blog with Cat (the founder).

lazeblogathon: Last year was the first year it was a public thing. I joined up because I liked the idea of doing something for charity, especially something unique like this. Like a marathon but with no physical exertion required.

interviewer: 24 hours is a long time to be glued to the computer...how'd you get through the last few wee hours last year?

lazeblogathon: Eh, 24 hours is nothing. :)

lazeblogathon: I mainly just kept busy cleaning, chatting, baking, etc...

lazeblogathon: No major caffeiene needed or anything.

Apparently at 2:30am on NBC (or at least the DC NBC affiliate), there's a show called Hip-Hop Nation. It's a low-budget show with interviews, video clips, "urban survival" tips (like "How to be an Emcee"), and emcee battled. It's hosted by a guy named Kaze... never heard of him or that crazy rapper "Ill Rotten" that was on the mic at one point during the battle...

It reminds me of the hip-hop shows I used to watch growing up. More of that DIY-type flavor. We need more of that.

The second of two freestyles from 1995 is one of my favorites. In this one, I put on a fast beat (Art of Origin's "Un-rational") and Poetic deems it "too fast" for him. I jump right in and drop a fast freestyle that is definitely one of the best I've ever done. Mr. Midnight follows me and flows for a while with his trademark "I make up words"-type flow.

WMWC Freestyle Cipher (featuring Laze and Mista Midnight) [4/1995] (2:15, 1.55 megs)

Hey hey! It's Dr. Lunch, complete with Dancing Bottlecap(tm)!

During my first year of college, I did a radio show called "Sounds from the Attic." The final show of the year was perhaps my favorite show of my four-year tenure at MWC. During this show, a whole crew of friends came up to the station and we freestyled for hours upon hours. For those unfamiliar with the term, freestyling is the practice of taking breakbeats and rhyming 100% off the top of the head with no preplanned lyrics. We had an absolute blast, spending almost four hours in the studio. Below is the first sound clip of two that I'll feature from that night. Two things to remember: first, yes -- all the lyrics are freestyled; second, out of everyone there that night, only two of us (myself and Poetic) could be considered emcees... everyone else there was just having fun and bugging out (and doing a good job of it, I might say).

WMWC Freestyle Cipher (featuring Poetic, Laze, and Mista Midnight) [4/1995] (2:41, 1.85 megs)

Thought I'd give you all an update on the Blogathon song. It's my gimmick for this year, after all.

Going into this year's event, I really had no idea what this would end up sounding like. I figured I was going to produce it entirely on my computer (rather than using my studio stuff in the basement), and that's been the case thusfar. The result so far is... odd, to say the least. It's definitely not a song in the traditional sense, but more of a composition of weird moods, sounds, rhythms, and echo. Considering I've worked in voice mail messages, a Don and Mike sample, and portions of the Aaron Neville "Got Milk?" ad (among other things), it's a weird little piece of work thusfar. I highly doubt I'll end up using 24 different sounds (I've been swamped with various other duties, online and off), but I'm sure the only person that will bother is me.

Jess has been doing a lot of top 5 lists, I'll do one, too.

5 Ways This Year's Blogathon is Different from Last Year's

1. The starting time of 9am eastern this year was perfect. Starting at noon last year was tough by about 8am. With plenty of sleep the night before, the hours really seem to be flying by.
2. This year, I'm a member of the team.
3. Lots more participants, lots more sponsors this year.
4. No drama this year causing me to be offline for 25 minutes at a time.
5. The quality of the blogs this year seems to be much better than last year's, in general.

I'm currently being interviewed for a Harvard student's journalism class paper about blogs. It was nice to be chosen for something like this... I always like pontificating on the nature of subcultures, and here's my chance! Perhaps I'll post an edited version of our chat later, if my interviewer doesn't mind...?

A little more music for my millions of fans...

Back in the summer before my junior and senior year of college (that would be summer 1997 for those of you keeping track), I shared an apartment with Rodeo Rob. I didn't do much recording that summer, but one of the two tracks that I almost finished was "Take a Seat," a track I've redone for my new album. So, here is a nice MP3 version (2.89 megs) to check out. It's my scathing commentary on wack emcees in a wack industry, recorded in my apartment bedroom with a cassette 4-track. Dig, then report back.

(Bonus points go to the first person to name the sample on the first break.)

... read more of Bayberry Moon when you get a chance. That about me page is just heartwrenching.

Now that it's getting late, I'm starting to browse more through the other 'thon sites (I'm actually making a full rotation through the Blogathon ring to make sure everything's OK). One well worth checking out is Shaun's 24 Hours of Chocolate for Charity. You'll be a chocolate expert by tomorrow morning.

I've also e-mailed her my question about butter subtitutions in cookies... she'd know, right?!

OK, here's the deal. I've raised less money and have fewer sponsors this year versus last year. That's fine by me... I understand with the way things are, money's tight all around. But here's what I'm asking: can one person who has not yet pledged pledge $4.

Why $4? Last year I raised $552. This year I've raised $444. That equals $996 over two years. Don't leave me hangin', folks!

... this time to my regular-ol-buddies for linking me up on their blogs: Robert, Rob, Paul, and Chris (did I forget anyone?).

In aisle number 6 at Giant, about five minutes ago...

Customer: Don't forget my $1.00/off. It's just a dollar, but still...

Clerk: Sure thing. Hey, a buck's a buck.

Customer: Yup... a dollar I can spend elsewhere. A dollar doesn't get you much these days.

Clerk: A dollar will get you 50 cents worth of gas.

Whew...

Found via an ad on the Washington Post: Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. If it bothers you how much genetic modification our food already goes through, you owe yourself a visit to the site.

And I owe myself a visit to the market. Looks like I'm the one that's going to be getting the chocolate chips. :)

... to Blogathon brethren: Lycia, Friday Five Heather, and the few other folks that have linked me up in the past 11 hours that I've forgotten.

And, Stace, you'll want to show Jules this blog.

Time to make some dinner...

I've been getting Trich Zaitoons' e-mail for the last few weeks. Her e-mail address is close enough to being @laze.net, and I guess one person misheard her and the mistake propegated amongst her circle of friends. A few weeks ago, I (she) was invited to a party in Texas. I didn't bother replying back to the evite because I was getting tired of telling people that they were writing to the wrong person. A few days before the party, the couple that invited her wrote me (her):

Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 14:22:31 -0700
To: ...@laze.net
From: "christine b..."
Subject: evite

you better be coming, only one more day to rsvp!

christine & johnny

I wrote back:

Christine/Johnny --

I don't who it is that you're trying to e-mail, but I've been getting a lot of mail for ...@laze.net -- I own laze.net and get any e-mail that comes to it, so you might want to check with this person and verify what their e-mail address is. Otherwise, I'll be showing up at your party. :)

... Ryan

They wrote back:

From: "Christine B..."
To: laze @ laze.net
Subject: Re: evite
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 19:54:38 -0500

Come on over! Sorry for the interruption, I bet it's frustrating. I will let my friend know that all her greatest emails are going to you. Having fun reading them?

Christine

I should have gone to the party. That would have been cool.

Huyen's home from a hard day of framing. She left this morning as I was starting my Blogathon, got in now, and will have to go to bed early, as she's off to work at the restaurant tomorrow morning at 6. Working three part-time jobs isn't easy, I guess. :)

(She doesn't know yet that I'm going to ask her to run to the store to get some chocolate chips.)

Last year at 4am, I made Applesauce Cake. This year, I've decide to be the Mad Morning Baker once again. This time: vegan chocolate chip biscotti.

My question to you more experienced bakers: what's a good non-dairy substitute for butter (and in what ratio) in recipes? How does oil work? What kind of oil is best (I would bet Canola)?

Nine hours in and it feels like I just got started...

I have an exclusive here for you Blogathon readers (others will likely miss it, as it will scroll off the page): a track from my upcoming album Prophecy Manifested. As you may know, this album is a long time in the making and I haven't released any tracks for public consumption yet. However, "Who's That Writing?" was accepted for the upcoming alt.rap compilation (mentioned on the front page of my site and in this hot debate), so I figured I'd provide an MP3 here so you can say you heard it first on laze.net. :)

Check it out: 3:33, MP3, 3.25 megs.

The only requirement: you have to let me know what you think here.

Indeed.

One of the cool things about having a computer with a DVD player: watching movies while you're online. I figure I'll watch at least one movie tonight... not sure what I'm up for, though.

Also: I'm looking for suggestions for fancy schmancy shareware DVD players. The software that came with my computer is fine, but I'd like an "always on top" option or some sort of transparency option.

Rodeo Rob left a few hours ago and probably just took off on his flight to Portland (Blogathon founder Cat's home, coincidentally). Our team was down 10-0 when he left... oh well. We'll get 'em next time.

The Washington Post has an article in today's paper about the Northern Virginia jobless... there's no question, the pain is still being felt. It took a co-worker an extra 45 minutes to get to work on Friday because of a job fair held at the local community college. The job fair ended at 11am and at 10:15 there was still a huge line-up of people just waiting to get into the parking lot! Amazing.

Isn't "war" supposed to be good for the economy?

To keep things interesting, I'm going to post some occasional pictures and sounds... let's start with a short interview I did with Run-D.M.C. in 1997 (4:22, MP3, 3 megs).

What I wrote about this interview along with the accompanying article:

I'd listened to Run-D.M.C. since before I could remember. I have tapes of myself and friends doing "Son of Byford" on the school bus in fifth grade. These guys are right up there with L.L. Cool J as emcees I'd admired since childhood.

The night of the concert, Huyen and I went up to the Great Hall at Mary Washington College to catch a pre- show interview. I had paged their manager several times during the day to make sure everything was copasetic—I've encountered enough problems with interviews that I didn't need one here. I managed to find him in one of the side rooms, resting his head on his hand, looking absolutely jet-lagged. After performances in Los Angeles and Denver the two previous days, I could understand.

But, he explained to me that Run and DMC were just then getting picked up from the airport over an hour away. As it turns out, I didn't get to go back for my interview until just after the opening act (the wonderfully talented Dirty Dozen Brass Band) finished.

Huyen followed me in to snap the photos you see on these pages. I sat down next to Run with DMC close by and started the interview.

What struck me as odd was not DMCs unusual enthusiasm for answering the questions, but Run's total lack of interest throughout the interview. Now, yes, I do give the man some credit for even being awake after the kind of travel schedule they were on, but his lack of input bordered on rudeness. This was something I had not quite expected from what I had heard from others that had met these two.

In any event, the interview did go well, as did the show, in general. I was quite pleased to get to meet two of the three members (JMJ was elsewhere) of a crew that I had followed since I was a youngster.

It's really raining heavy here... downpouring, really... but what's so cool is that you can barely hear the rain. It just sounds like it's windy outside. They're calling for heavy thunderstorms, too. So, if I drop offline, you know why. Cross your fingers there's no power outage! If there is, rest assured, I'll be writing my entries by hand and uploading them later.

I just saw an add for Alpacas on television, a llama-like animal being marketed as the perfect pet. Something strikes me as odd about advertising livestock on television as pets for the everyday joe.

If the idea interests you, here's how to get started with Alpaca ownership.

I'm disappointed to report that the Africa Wildebeasts are having some trouble in their exhibition game against LSU...

Though I've resisted buying any of the current books on blogging (figuring I've read it all before), reading chapter eight of Blogroots online is getting me psyched for the release of that particular tome. If you haven't seen it, print it out... it's 40 pages of good bathroom blog reading. It got me exciting about the notion of business blogs and has me psyched to give it a shot at my company (especially on our intranet).

I've missed Stone Cold since... his departure... especially after watching his killer match with Bret Hart. That match was a turning point in his career and for the WWF in general, where being a bad ass is what made you a face and not being Mr. All American (remember The Patriot, anyone?).

Rob (my latest sponsor!) and I were reminiscing about when a member of the audience (a woman?) jumped the rail and tackled Paul Bearer... not as bad as the guy that ran in on RVD and Eddie Guerrero's ladder match a month ago, but still funny.

Rob also said he saw a guy in DC who could have been Undertaker's younger brother (no, not Kane).

And hey, Kristy, Rob just said that you looked "like four years old" in your yearbook picture with long hair.

Does anyone recommend any particular WAV editors for Windows? They can be shareware, as long as they're fully functional during the trial. I love Cool Edit, but its trial period just sucks.

Every one I've tried is lame for one reason or another, so any suggestions are appreciated.

On a related note: the song is underway, but it's going to be a bit slow during the first quarter of the Blogathon (where I'm away from the computer more). Right now I'm watching the Austin-Bret Hart match from Wrestlemania XIII with Rodeo Rob. Bet you wish you were here!

Just so you know, I'm also going to occasionally update my other blogs throughout the day... like Picture It...

Rob just pointed out a problem with the cam pop-up window. It works now. :)

Jess, one of the assistants for the Blogathon, is doing web site reviews on her blog today. My site was the first review and I must say: I'm flattered.

On a similar note, I realized yesterday that while The Weblog Review is still running, Blog You is not.

Ugh... my computer just shut down and reboot for no reason. Fortunately, everything was saved.

While I make it a habit to bash businesses I don't like on my site (just wait until Monday!), I also like to take the time to give recognition to the stores that do me right. One store that's continually impressed me with their service is American Digital. I buy all my audio CD-Rs/RWs there (for my consumer grade Phillips recorder) and just recently got a few accessories there as well. They carry quality, inexpensive brands (Klone), throw in something free with every order, and deliver quickly (my last order took less than three days from when I ordered it to arrive).

Last week I picked up a couple of spindles of CD-Rs from Circuit City (I got 100 for $10 after rebates) and needed some sleeves for them, so I went to American Digital and picked up 500 paper sleeves with flaps. Why don't they sell those at CC?

Anyway... check them out the next time you're in need of blank CD-Rs or audio accessories. They do business the right way.

I flipped on this TV this morning at about 8:30 and was pretty bummed by the total lack of cool cartoons. I've read plenty about how the Saturday morning cartoon programming had been cut back significantly, but I had no idea how much. The only thing that I was even partway interested in in was Tom & Jerry. I wonder if there's a list out there on the web anywhere of TV schedules from Saturday mornings in the early-mid 80s...

It looks like there are a bunch of cool gimmicks this year. Intergalactic Hussy's sounds particularly interesting: "24 people. 1 event. 24 stories. A murder has been committed at a costume party and during the blogathon I'll be writing the stories of the guests, starting with the victim and finishing with the murderer. I'll be taking related improvs from visitors."

Don't forget the cam portal where you can get an all-at-once-glance of bloggers with webcams.

Lastly, if you want to chat with me, any time I'm at the computer, I'll be on Trillian (AOL IM: lazeblogathon).

Bush Far Outspent Gore on Recount

President Bush spent four times as much money as Gore on the 2000 election recounts... meaning that together, the pair spent over $17 million, just on the recounts.

Nice to see money well spent, eh?

It's 9am, I'm well rested, and ready to go.

You'll notice the right menu bar has changed for the duration of the Blogathon. It includes a list of people who have sponsored me and who I am sponsoring. These will be updated throughout the Blogathon, as I'll be selecting a few people to sponsor myself, and if you decide to make a last-minute sponsorship, I'll add you to the list. The webcam is also over there, courtesy of Chris O'Donnell with an optional auto-refreshing pop-up window. Count how many times I scratch my nose this year! It's funky fresh!

Rodeo Rob will be making an appearance at Blogathon, VA 90210 today before he flies out to the left coast. I'll be working on my song throughout the day... I've gotten some good samples to use and have ideas for others. Thanks to all those that contributed.

If you're reading along, feel free to give a shout on any of the posts, just so I know I'm not out here alone. :)

Time for some breakfast.

The Blogathon's in two days, folks. You may remember my gimmick, where I'm taking a sound-an-hour and incorporating it into a song. Everything in the song (aside from the initial drums) will be one of these sounds, whether it's a vocal snippet, an instrument, whatever.

No one's sent me any sounds. Don't make me find my own. It's less fun that way.

So, if you'd like to participate, e-mail blogathon@laze.net with a sound clip (any standard file format is OK). What's that you say? Too much of a pain/you don't know how to do it? If you have a sound/sample in mind, e-mail me where it comes from: I may have the DVD or CD. Or, how about this? Call my toll-free voice mail (877-256-8342) and leave a message with a sound clip of some sort. Be creative.

Don't disappoint me, folks. Burp into the phone if you have to, just give me some sort of jumping off point.

Considering that the 2002 Blogathon is about 2 1/2 weeks away, I've finally decided on a gimmick. Last year I posted an entry from my dream journal once an hour. This year, I'm going to make some music...

The idea is this: every hour, I'll take a sound and incorporate into a song. The first hour of the Blogathon, I will work to lay down a basic rhythm track and framework for the piece. Every hour after that, I will take a sound, whether it be a short musical sample, a vocal snippet from a movie, or a random sound effect and work it into the song. The sound may be bent, distorted, clipped, or twisted beyond recognition, but it will become a part of the song. At the end, I will (hopefully) have a unique, bizarre melange of sounds that come together as a song representing my Blogathon 2002 experience.

This, of course, begs the question: where will the sounds come from? You, I hope. Between now and the Blogathon I would like to collect as many sound samples from my readers as possible. It'll give you a sense of participation... and stuff... only a few limitations:

• Sound clips should be in an easily editable format (WAV, etc.) and compressed (ZIP, RAR, etc.) before e-mailing, if possible.
• The clips should be relatively short. A vocal snippet can run up to 10 or 15 seconds, but any musical samples should be shorter. Sound effects should also be brief, but certain kinds might work well if they're longer. The source of the samples can be anything, including you playing an instrument or talking into a microphone.
• If I haven't received 24 clips, I will continue to accept sound clips up until near the end of the Blogathon. I reserve the right to refuse a sound clip, though I doubt I will.
• Please e-mail your submission to blogathon@laze.ne&#116.

And, of course, here's the mandatory donation link.

Cripes... people will argue about anything... even the Blogathon.

Enough about that. Now... once again, I will be participating in the Blogathon this year, and once again money will go towards the Sunshine Foundation. I haven't yet decided what my "gimmick" will be (last year I posted entries from my dream journal once an hour), but I can promise you that I'll make the 24-hour period as interesting as possible.

I'll put this out there for you now... if you'd like to sponsor me, please do. Whatever you can contribute is a help. And if you'd like to find out more about the Sunshine Foundation and why I'm blogging, I'll point to a page I wrote up last year (and touched up this year) on that very topic.