2004 Postscript, part 2

Posted on December 29, 2004 by Solonor

Do I get to say de rigeuer again? Of course I do. It’s my freaking blog!

April
“Big River”… musical Whiny… Daylight Savings Time… Joogling… Dylan and Victoria Secret… Easter… Average Jane?… three questions… Hugos… Ink Well?… Linspire… holey underwear!… more recording stuff… Exorcist with bunnies… BYK2W Day… Revlon Run/Walk for cancer… baseball and Afghanistan… City of Heroes… Sox-Yankees the saga begins… metaphors… Geekman meets Cableman… SWEEEEP!… Love-In… 30th anniversary of D&D… offensive reality tv… no more Bob Edwards… influences…

Most comments: Look out, kid
Coolest link: Be gone unclean devil bunny!
Favorite post: Intersections and Influences

May
An icon for Natalie… more baseball… flavored cigs… Cy Young… Cinco de Mayo… Red Sox catechsim… Spidey bases… some big fat idiot… false memories… Bitter Kat and SB… “Life of Brian”… Mother’s Day cards… EVIL… Strengthen the Good… support for PromoGuy… “Robots Never Cry”… MT3 stuff… robot protest… Andy Kaufman blog… Richard Biggs dies… common names… hair dye… comma usage fun… “Shrek 2″… Blogger Tag… “Bubba Ho-tep”… Memorial Day weekend…

Most comments: Why does anyone still listen to this asshole?
Coolest link: Fun With Baseball
Favorite post: Blessed are the cheesemakers and No, it’s not the head wound. They’re always that way.

June
Bozo lied… cicada invasion… fender no-bender… spring colds… Trio bad tv… Reagan dies… D-Day anniversary… “Van Lear Rose”… insane links… Harry Potter in 15 mins… 9:09… “The Terminal”… Ray Charles dies… Schmies words… Dirkon paper camera… Star of Ninib… warning label quiz… geniuses?… Alternate History… veggiegate… zombies!!… anniversary… “Big John, Little John”… April Winchell… SciFi Hall of Fame… finding Dana… OfficeSpaceWars… mac moves… fall down go boom… GMail… yard sale from hell… Degree Confluence Project… SpaceShipOne… Brian’s heart… Ant City… 100 movie songs… Comdex cancelled… Metroblogging… Illuminati… NOAA… “Fahrenheit 9/11″… SGCBL=MENSA… vacation plans… referrer madness…

Most comments: Mmmm… Cake…
Coolest link: All your badgers…
Favorite post: Diary of a Yard Sale

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 1 Comment

Helping in the 21st Century

Posted on December 29, 2004 by Solonor

With the tsunami death toll rising above 50,000 60,000, everyone is scrambling to find new ways to help. (Think about this for a minute. How many of you, like we used to, live in towns of less than 50,000 people? That’s your entire home town being wiped out in a day. Unbelievable.)

Amazon has set up an easy way for donating to the American Red Cross via their Amazon Honor System.

eBay Giving Works allows you to sell your stuff and donate a portion of the sale to a specific charity or relief event.

And Scott Hanselman has started a movement to urge Google to give folks a way to automatically funnel their AdSense revenue directly to the relief effort. This is a brilliant idea! In fact, I have just signed up for AdSense, though I swore I would never have ads on this site (it’s ok if you do, I’m just a damned Commie). Even if Google doesn’t find a way to do this, I will send any pennies I make to the Red Cross.

How about it? Can we get a bandwagon going here?

(Yes, I realize that Paypal and eBay and Amazon and the rest will probably take their cut of this, but at least some of the money will get through. And maybe through the weight of our cries, we can get them to act like responsible humans and not charge the Red Cross for receiving donations!)

Update 1: The Command Post is rallying bloggers to the cause.

Update 2: 100-percent of your Amazon donation goes to the Red Cross!

Update 3: PayPal has their donation site set up to go to UNICEF and is waiving their fees.

Posted in Yo! Listen Up! | 2 Comments

2004 Postscript, part 1

Posted on December 29, 2004 by Solonor

Because it seems de rigeuer to do so (and because I love saying de rigeuer), here’s an end-of-2004 review of the goings on in the Ink Well and the world at large. Because I like living in the past, I’m going through all the archives. This will take a bit, so I guess I’ll just do 3 months each night for the next 4 nights. If you disagree with my choices for “coolest link” or “favorite post,” feel free to let me know, so I can ignore you purposefully.

January
“Last Samurai”… Referrer Madness… Sunday Sermons… Digital Archive Project… Casey Kasem quits… Britney weds (sorta)… d20 guide to sex… Geekman weds… Trinity movies by mail… the last Monday Mission… Tug McGraw dies… Friend Test… Brotron Labs (death rays for sale!)… free speech zones… LOTR as a haiku and as a limerick… sold a guitar… bought a digital recorder… RIAA Team!… “Miracle”… Movable Type upgrade… big ole movie list… robot valentines for sale… “Like a Hurricane”… WWII photos… visited states… BlogMadness… candidate compatibility test… April Winchell… Disney dumps animators…

Most comments: What? No monkey question?
Coolest link: Klaatu Barada Nikto… DIE!
Favorite post: Bad Steward! No Cookie!

February
Springer for President… Columbia disaster… Janet Jackson… Red Green movie… Robyn’s miracle baby… ultimate rock CD… hockey in the tagboard… gay marriage… Hitchhiker’s movie news… college radio… Cryptographever… Grammys… fake smiles… more election crap… Flogging Molly tix… referrer spam… A-Rod to the Yanks (oh no! *snicker*)… IQ test… MJ marries… accent test… dead power supply… “The Passion”… mp3 list… Tucows buys Blogrolling… Alcohoroscopes…

Most comments: Ayuh, y’all
Coolest link: Fnord!
Favorite post: Rock and Roll, Part 2

March
Oscar night… blogiversary… Koreans misuse “Diary of Anne Frank”… commercializing “The Passion”… Shelli does “This is Your Blog”… more election crap… more puns… Tweakomatic doc… more viruses… MegaCon… Church of Solonor… TV wisdom… Calvinball… invade Canada!… Spanish attacks… Whiny goes to Canada… vacation… Teavana… GURPS news… more songs recorded… Spring Training… “The Passion”… promise of a CD… Flogging Molly concert… Geekman and Bitter Kat meetup… “The Ladykillers”… Chernobyl motorcycle pics… Opening Day in Japan… Bad Ass Coffee…

Most comments: Three Rules
Coolest link: Words of Wisdom
Favorite post: Oh, the jet-set life!

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 1 Comment

Massive Disaster in Asia

Posted on December 28, 2004 by Solonor

The enormity of the death and devastation in the countries around the Indian Ocean is almost too much to comprehend. 40,000 dead, millions homeless. It can lead to burying your head in the sand and hoping someone else will help.

As usual, The Command Post has all the information you could possibly want about the disaster, including a comprehensive list of ways to help. There is also a blog set up by local residents to help keep track of the information, called the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog.

Here is a list of agencies from one of our local TV stations.

Agencies Helping Victims
The following aid agencies are accepting contributions for assistance that they or their affiliates will provide for those affected by the earthquake and tidal waves in Asia.

Action Against Hunger
247 West 37th Street, Suite 1201
New York, NY 10018
212-967-7800
http://www.aah-usa.org

American Jewish World Service
45 West 36th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10018
800-889-7146
http://www.ajws.org

ADRA International
9-11 Fund
12501 Old Columbus Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
800-424-2372
http://www.adra.org

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC Crisis Fund)
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA
215-241-7000
http://www.afsc.org

Catholic Relief Services
PO Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-7090
800-736-3467
http://www.catholicrelief.org

Direct Relief International
27 South La Patera Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
805-964-4767
http://www.directrelief.org

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
PO Box 2247
New York, NY 10116-2247
888-392-0392
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

International Medical Corps
1919 Santa Monica Boulevard Suite 300
Santa Monica CA 90404
800-481-4462
http://www.imcworldwide.org

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
PO Box 372
CH-1211 Geneva 19
Switzerland
41-22-730-4222
http://www.ifrc.org/

International Orthodox Christian Charities
Middle East Crisis Response
PO Box 630225
Baltimore, MD 21263-0225
877-803-4622
http://www.iocc.org

Lutheran World Relief
PO Box 17061
Baltimore MD 21298-9832
800-597-5972
http://www.lwr.org

MAP International
2200 Glynco Parkway
PO Box 215000
Brunswick, GA 3121-5000
800-225-8550
http://www.map.org

Mercy Corps
PO Box 2669
Portland, OR 97208
800-852-2100
http://www.mercycorps.org

Northwest Medical Teams
PO Box 10
Portland, OR 97207-0010
503-624-1000
http://www.nwmedicalteams.org

Operation USA
8320 Melrose Avenue, Ste. 200
Los Angles, CA 90069
800-678-7255
http://www.opusa.org

Relief International
11965 Venice Blvd. #405
Los Angeles, CA 90066
800-572-3332
http://www.ri.org

Save the Children
Asia Earthquake/Tidal Wave Relief Fund
54 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
800-728-3843
www.savethechildren.org

US Fund for UNICEF
333 East 38th Street
New York, NY 10016
800-FOR-KIDS
http://www.unicefusa.org

World Concern
19303 Fremont Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98133
800-755-5022
http://www.worldconcern.org

World Relief
7 E. Baltimore St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
443-451-1900
http://www.wr.org

World Vision
PO Box 70288
Tacoma, Washington 98481-0288
888-56-CHILD
http://www.worldvision.org

Posted in Yo! Listen Up! | 4 Comments

It’s Funny 25 Time, kids!

Posted on December 27, 2004 by Solonor

The best part about the holidays is the annual Dr. Demento Funny 25!

This is my annual obsessive-compulsive update to the Top 100 (or so) Demented Hits (from Funny 25’s) using the countdown.

With its 13th place finish, “Dead Puppies” widened its lead over “Fish Heads” as the number one most requested song of all time.

Travis Meyer’s “The Devil Went To Jamaica” moved up from 14th to 12th. “Cows With Guns” moved up from 21 to 19. Weird Al’s “The Night Santa Went Crazy” went from 32 to 29. And because of all the ties at the bottom of the list, “Stealing Like A Hobbit” leapfrogged from 84 to 52 in its second year on the chart.

The new songs that were added to the 100 were this year’s number 2, “Sirius Black” by Tony Goldmark and the 2004 Number One most requested song–“Great Idea For A Song” by the Worm Quartet.

Here are the 2004 Funny 25 (with more obsessive-compulsive linky goodness added):

Continue reading →

Posted in Demento, Strangeness, Tunes | 1 Comment

Ye olde electronic quills

Posted on December 27, 2004 by Solonor

I’ve had two different conversations with friends I’ve made through blogging that involved a kind of surprise (and almost guilt) at the fact that we are friends at all. You’re not supposed to make friends with the people on the other end of the computer screen. They’re not “real.” You can’t trust them to be who they say they are. How lonely you must be to attach yourself so strongly to someone you’ve never met.

But how is it any different than years past when lifelong friendships were forged through letter writing? Are not e-mail and IM and blogging and posting pictures of your vacations just the 21st century version of the same thing?

I’m not saying you should believe everything you read, but sometimes the paranoia that pervades everything we do gets to me.*

Continue reading →

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 8 Comments

I’ll post my rates later

Posted on December 27, 2004 by Solonor

Yesssss! I am the Biggest Suckup for Cash on the Planet! I now know my true calling. I can finally quit that stupid day job.

Posted in Wouldya Lookit That! | 1 Comment

On the second day of Christmas…

Posted on December 26, 2004 by Solonor

I didn’t mean to make things sound quite so disastrous, yesterday. It was a bit depressing not to have had things go according to plan (not that we actually planned anything), but it was a relatively peaceful day. Pepperkat was comatose on the couch all day. Mrs. R hacked up her lungs in the comfort of the recliner, watching Bugs Bunny cartoons and reading Charlie Brown. Whiny and I buried ourselves into our prezzies (I love City of Heroes!).

My brother is down from Philly. He is trying to pack all of his worldly goods into a small trailer to haul it back up to the land of Mac and Buzz. He was going to take his three youngest kids back with him. I won’t go into details, but one of the saddest sights is a pile of unopened presents on the day after Christmas.

Anyway, I hope you all got what you wished for and celebrated with those you love. It’s finally stopped raining here, and I think the sun will come out soon.

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 2 Comments

Best. Christmas. Ever.

Posted on December 25, 2004 by Solonor

Ahhhhh… Maybe it’s the icey cold rain… maybe it’s the bad coffee or the cinnamon rolls that wouldn’t rise… or maybe it’s waking to the lovely sounds of my daughter’s vomiting… but there’s nothing like a perfect Christmas morning.

Sorry, I meant “it’s.”

Oh well. We are nothing if not persistent. We propped Pepperkat up on the couch and had Whiny open her presents and show them to her. She grimaced at all the appropriate places. Meanwhile, Mrs. R hacked up a lung or two while joyfully tearing into her Complete Peanuts.

It doesn’t matter, anyway. Everyone knows that Christmas is all about me! I got more prezzies than anyone. ‘Cuz I rock. I got a copy of the book I’ve been sitting in Barnes and Noble reading for free for the past month, a recap of the Red Sox championship season from the Boston Globe, a couple of nifty sweaters, a Star Wars RPG, and (finally, now that everyone else is finished with it so I won’t have anyone to play with) City of Heroes!

So, to recap: rain, vomit, no breakfast, prezzies for me.

God bless us. Every one.

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 8 Comments

Merry Christmas!!

Posted on December 25, 2004 by Solonor

Well, I wracked my brain all day for the perfect Christmas entry. I wanted to write something fresh and new, something that would blow your bloggy socks off. But everything I came up with boiled down to the same old thing: thanks for being my friends.

In a sign that I’m too wrapped up in this thing, I left for our Christmas Eve service actually fretting about a blog entry!

When I got to church, I discovered that the title of the Christmas message was “The Same Old Thing.” The pastor said that he was wrapped up in trying to make this the Best. Christmas. Ever. He wanted to come up with some whiz-bang new message that would blow our churchy socks off.

But that’s not what we come to hear on Christmas Eve. We come to sing the same old songs and tell the same old story. It is the perfect story, told for the umpteenth time. And why mess with it?

And, so, I’m not going to bother trying to blow your bloggy socks off. I’ll simply and humbly tell you that I have the bestest friends in the world. I hope that you get everything your hearts desire this year and for the rest of your lives. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I love you all. If I missed any of you in the following, feel free to kill me and take my stuff.

My family: Venita, Paul, Emily, Jeff, Debbie, Autumn, Robbie, Randy, Lisa, Scott, Miranda, Brooke, Jenna, Cullen, Colby, Janet, Ed, Kristyn, Eddie, Josh, Linda, Peter, Jenny, Mandy and all their assorted children!!!

My partners in crime: Andy, Barclay and Deb (and we miss you Annette!)

My old bandmates and their families: Bruce, Jim, Walter and Dean

My long-lost evil twin sister and her family: Bran, Satan and Roo

My bestest friend (even when she’s being a bastardo) and her family: Natalie, Andy, Sam, Zoe and Nic

My adopted bloggy daughter and her boys: Kat, Mark and Sebastian

My GURPS buddies: Arthur, Kurt and Danielle

My SGCBL buddies: Scott, Kurt, Kapstar, Kevin, Al, Jo, Xade, Jane, Brian, Peat, Jeff, Lizette, KBL and Jools

My BKO buddies: Brian, Karan, Babs, Bea, Mig, Tony, Richard, Jo, Steph, Eliz, Martie, Sue

My Metblogs buddies: Maria, FryGuy, Zee, Masked Blogger, Klutzygirl, Chari, Bitter Kat, Annmarie, David, Vanessa and Dawn

My bestest bloggy friends: Michele, Elizabeth, Bill, Geekman, Sherri, Jilly, MJ, Sibeal, Linkmester, Suzie, Statia, Mac, Gretchen, Lisa, Jenni, Geeky, Somewhat, Tracy, Les, Kim, Eric, Jason, Robyn, Jules

My favorite bloggy connections: Cheyenne, Skits, Mordant, Pippa, Sunidesus, Dana, Yvonne, PromoGuy, Susan, Melissa, Becky, JR, Mark Lane, Lesley, Cyn, Batty, Acerbia, Buzz, Empress, Jenn, Nef, Shelli, jozjozjoz, Hey Lisa!, Highly Moody Mel, Faith, Etherian, Gigglechick Erin, Miz Shoes, ***Dave, DebWire, jcwinnie, Geekgrrl Melissa, Dirty Hippie, Big Dump Truck, Big Pink Cookie (Spork!), Blurf, bmg, KB, Mad Kane, Mikerzz, Mister Blue, mtpolitics, Critter’s Mom, Natalieville, Loretta, Kathy, Northstar, Kem White, ZMama, Jewdez, Swirlspice, Technodaddy, Laurence, John, TJ, Tim, Don, Tom McMahon, Groovy Mom, Dooce, Sugarfused, the Boys, Judi, Shelley, Rockstar Mommy, Kevin Donahue, CynicalJu, Deb, Rhonda

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 22 Comments