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  1. Keith :: 2294
  2. 'mouse :: 1685
  3. boot :: 1226
  4. Jo :: 955
  5. Br. Ezra :: 887
  6. pam :: 635
  7. bakerina :: 453
  8. e :: 418
  9. littledevilworks :: 327
  10. steve :: 259
  11. grudknows :: 213
  12. You can call me, 'Sir' :: 203
  13. goliard :: 178
  14. hysterium :: 174
  15. carrot :: 139
  16. darksteve :: 114
  17. Bunni :: 103
  18. Centerfold :: 93
  19. JadedBeauty :: 65
  20. Snow :: 63
  21. heather :: 60
  22. other keith :: 59
  23. Skyte :: 51
  24. mercuryfern :: 37
  25. hameno :: 37
  26. Elisson :: 37
  27. cetacean :: 35
  28. Coyote :: 28
  29. Mr. Fitz :: 26
  30. VanEck :: 25
  31. skif :: 24
  32. The Girl :: 22
  33. microkat :: 21
  34. viki :: 19
  35. admiral dewy wilkins :: 18
  36. Imaginary Keith :: 17
  37. tajtonic :: 16
  38. Nyuu nyuu :: 16
  39. Joan of Argghh! :: 15
  40. Ontario Emperor :: 13
  41. limine :: 11
  42. aerosolspray :: 11
  43. toaster :: 9
  44. Randy :: 9
  45. Tiff :: 8
  46. Mike Schwartz :: 8
  47. SarahsGreenEyes :: 6
  48. pat :: 6
  49. kimberly :: 6
  50. johnsheirer :: 6
  51. Dr. Stevenson :: 6
  52. Chug :: 6
  53. Chade :: 5
  54. halfadeckshort :: 4
  55. Christopher Cocca :: 4
  56. the boy :: 3
  57. Scrine :: 3
  58. kel :: 3
  59. Henry :: 3
  60. emsie :: 2
  61. Spilane :: 1
  62. princesstoughguy :: 1
  63. pickles :: 1
  64. Coryashire :: 1
  65. *cough* :: 1

Archives

Sunday, July 30, 2006
A Scrineathon 2006 Update :: Keith :: 0

Like most tasks, this one proved harder to accomplish than think about.  48 chapters in 24 hours.  No pre-conceived ideas, the entire story thought up as I went along.  In hindsight, and I suppose even in foresight, the idea is a bit of a nutty one, considering that my desire was to not only post every thirty minutes, but to have an engaging and well-written story when I was finished.

Another drawback was the fact that I just haven’t been writing that much lately.  The well is temporarily dry, so to speak, so drawing out those few hundred words for each short little chapter proved itself to be more work than I’d hoped.  I begin the day with the idea of writing 48 chapters, but by the midway point, had adjusted my sights, with a new goal of at least reaching the halfway point.  This new goal, however, was not to be reached.  Somewhere around 1:30-2:00 in the morning, after being awake for roughly 22 hours and attempting to write for 20 of those, my ability to think began to peter.  I was running out of steam, and although I’m sure I could have stayed awake the remaining few hours, knew that I wouldn’t get anything written.  What little energy and concentration I had left was all being used to select what song to play next on Scrinecast.  So sometime just before 3 a.m., I called it quits, said goodnight to Bakerina who was bravely but tiredly pushing on, and crawled into bed.  My story could wait.

It was a good experience, overall.  It raised some money for Freedom From Hunger as well as Scrine itself.  I think I learned a little something about myself and my writing habits - good things that I hope to put to use in the future.  I don’t believe I’ve ever pushed myself quite so hard to create something out of nothing, and in spite of the fact that I know I could have produced more under better mental conditions, was generally pleased with the day’s results.  I’m looking forward to getting back to the story and finishing it, and am just as excited as everyone, if not more so, to find out where this tale is going.  Are there loose ends?  Of course.  Will they all be tied up before we’re through?  Well, we’ll have to wait and see on that one.


Saturday, July 29, 2006
This Is Harder Than I Thought It’d Be :: Keith :: 0

Scrineblog ImageI’ve had some fool notions in my time, there’s no doubt about it, and thinking I could push out 48 coherent chapters in just 24 hours is now one of them.

Fourteen hours into the Blogathon / Scrineathon and I’m only at the 1/3 point.  Not even halfway!  And I can’t imagine the night treating me any better as the tiredness begins to set in.  I hardly slept at all last night, waking up every hour or so, partly because of this morning’s early Blogathon start, which I had not prepared myself for at all, and part because the thieves have struck again in the neighborhood, but luckily this time, not at my house.  But the seriousness of the break-ins seems to be escalating, as the thieves completely cleaned out a neighbor’s garage, which unfortunately had most of their furniture in it as they are doing some remodeling.  Even made off with a riding lawn mower, so they’re not just walking away with things now.  Trucks and trailers and the whole business.

Maybe staying up all night tonight, I’ll hear them sneaking around outside somehow and be able to step up to the plate, take my shot, so to speak.

Back to part three of the story, yet unnamed.


A Slow Start :: Keith :: 0

Well, the Blogathon / Scrineathon is off to a slow start after my Internet connection became sporadic this morning and I wasted an hour trying to figure out what was wrong.  Turns out, Internet is faltering all over the country due to recent heat waves that have knocked out certain servers, causing connections to be rerouted, and not always successfully.

Of course, I’m also behind because I’m just having trouble with the pace.  I’m not so sure this 24 hour thing was a good idea.


Saturday, July 15, 2006
No Birds Allowed :: Keith :: 14

You might say that I was in no mood for petty quarreling.  You might say that I was probably a bit testy and tired, as I’d just spent the last six hours emptying the contents out of two separate apartments so that a friend of mine and his girlfriend could move to Colorado.  As a matter of fact, you might say that you’re not in the mood for much of anything after sweating away ten pounds and stiffening up nearly every muscle in your body by carrying boxes up and down a couple flights of stairs in the heat.  No, after that, you just want to be able to sit down in your favorite chair and be left alone for awhile.  You want to relax, have something cool to drink, maybe fantasize about killing whoever it was that invented the hide-a-bed couch.  Let me tell you, hide-a-bed couches are more scattered throughout this country than hidden missile silos, and to top it off, just as deadly.  If carrying one of them doesn’t kill you, well then sleeping on it will.

So what you might say is that my guard was down as I got home, sat down, and checked my email.  When you’re tired enough, you sort of forget that the rest of the world is still out there, scheming.  Oh look, I thought to myself as I scanned through the list, something about the Blogathon.  Good!  I’m finally getting some action!  Maybe it’s a pledge.  I opened the email.

On Jul 14, 2006, at 7:16 AM, frykitty wrote:

Hi Keith--

It’s been brought to my attention that you have a “donate to Scrine” button right next to your Blogathon sponsor button.  It’s confusing, and makes it look like you’re trying to profit from the Blogathon.  I realize your heart is in the right place, but could you move the Scrine button to another part of the page, to separate the two completely?  We have to be extremely careful about the appearance of propriety with Blogathon, because it’s trust-based.

Thanks,
 
Cat
http://blogathon.org

Hmmm.  I guess I could see Cat’s point, although I did think that the paragraph I’d written and placed next to the buttons did make that issue perfectly clear, but why argue about a simple thing.  Sure I’d move the button.  I’d even take it a step further and write a little something to let people know that my own Scrineathon was in no way connected to Blogathon.  I’d do what I could to help protect this “appearance of propriety”.

From: Keith
To: Cat
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 2:55:48 PM
Subject: Re: Blogathon and Scrine

Cat,

Sorry about the confusion.  While I am using this same time to conduct my own fundraiser, I do want my site’s members and viewers to actively participate in Blogathon.  I have scooted the page around, separating the two completely, and even made a brief statement that my own “Scrineathon” is in no way connected with Blogathon, and that donating to a charity should be made by clicking the links located below.

I hope this meets with your approval.  This is my first Blogathon, and I am very much looking forward to the event!

Sincerely,

Keith Ecklund

By this time I’d gotten these site changes done, a couple of hours had passed since wrestling with the hide-a-bed (which I’m convinced was probably the idea of some clever, Cold War Russian scientist whose good intentions were stolen by the military so they could unleash this beast into American culture), and my senses were slowly beginning to return.  Would this be enough to please the folks at Blogathon?  Had I done enough?  All I could do was wait and see, which it turns out, didn’t take long at all.  Ten minutes later, Cat wrote back.

On Jul 14, 2006, at 3:05 PM, frykitty wrote:

I’m sorry, it looks like you’re more interested in raising funds for yourself than for Blogathon.  That makes me really very uncomfortable.  Using the Blogathon to raise funds for yourself is strictly forbidden.  I realize it may be coincidence that you are doing these fundraisers at the same time, but it doesn’t look like it.   Perhaps you could do your “scrineathon” at a later date, after the Blogathon is long over?

Also confusing is having three different charities listed on your blog.  I realize you’re listing different blogs, it’s going to be very confusing to potential sponsors.
 
Cat
http://blogathon.org

If I was a smarter man I would have taken this time to do what all smart men do in situations like this, which is of course, lie.  That may seem like a harsh statement to you, but I’ve always believed that most people simply want to hear what they’re expecting to hear and nothing more, regardless of whether or not it is the truth.  Most people don’t even care if they know what you’re telling them is a lie, as long as what you say fits in with the preconceived idea they have inside their own head.  The conversation becomes all about maintaining their own comfort zone, and they will do anything they can to remain in that zone, that box, and this includes the readiness to lie to themselves in order to believe your lie.  I sometimes think of this particular human trait as one of our basic survival skills, allowing the vast majority of us to survive without actually having to use our brain, which as we all know, can be a very confusing and frightful thing.

I wrote back.

From: Keith
To: Cat
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 3:21:35 PM
Subject: Re: Blogathon and Scrine

This blog is a group blog, and the people you see listed are members of this site.  The readership is actually very small, so on our end, there is actually no confusion whatsoever.  Everyone knows who is who and which charity they are writing for.  It was my opinion, and the opinion, I think, of the other members, that more exposure was better than less.

Am I interested in raising funds to help support a group site?  Yes, of course.  I see no problem with running the two at the same time, and will publicly encourage people to donate to my charity if they do not start soon.  I am uncomfortable with the idea of raising more money for my site than for the charity itself.  This was not my idea whatsoever.

Personally, I can honestly tell you that it is a lot easier to get people excited about something they care about than a charity they know very little about.  By raising excitement for an event that they will want to follow along with, I hope to also raise money for a charity that my readers would, in most likelihood, not give a second thought.

And as far as confusion about who or what they are donating to, it seems to me that the short paragraph located near the link image itself explains that quite clearly.  Perhaps I am mistaken.

~ Keith

Call me crazy, but I sort of live by this wild notion that people should be able to engage themselves in an exchange of ideas and opinions, and that it is through this conversation, whether it be face to face or through letters, books, or emails, that understanding and clarity might be achieved.

How would Cat respond at this point?  Defend their position?  Demand me to change?  I was curious.  One thing that was hard for me to understand was why Cat would have a problem with me listing Bunni and Bakerina’s Blogathon charity links on Scrine’s page.  Isn’t Blogathon about raising money?  When it comes to fundraising, isn’t more exposure better exposure?

Cat’s response came soon enough.

On Jul 14, 2006, at 3:33 PM, frykitty wrote:

“Am I interested in raising funds to help support a group site?  Yes, of course.  I see no problem with running the two at the same time”

I do, I’m afraid.  I’ll have to suspend your site. 
 
Cat
http://blogathon.org

And there you have it.  I was out of the club, just like that.  My conversation with Cat had apparently come to an end, although I did find, at least for me, that quite a few questions now seemed unanswered.

If I’d originally placed my Scrineathon link away from my Blogathon link, would none of this have happened?  When dealing with Cat, was my only option right from the start one of appeasement?  Was there ever any middle ground?

What if people had already pledged money to my chosen charity, Freedom From Hunger?  Would Cat have suspended Scrine if we’d raised ten dollars?  What about a thousand?  Had she considered that our suspension from participating would almost certainly keep money out of the hands of Freedom From Hunger, which of course means keeping food out of the mouths of hungry people?

Is it not possible to do more than one good thing at a time? 

The Blogathon, portrayed as an international event, has at the time of this writing 288 participants, which means that until the time I was suspended, Scrine members comprised a full one percent of all participants.  Not a bad presence for an international event, I tend to think.

In time, even more questions would raise themselves, questions that maybe I’d wished I’d asked Cat when I replied, but at the time it didn’t seem important to say much of anything.  I wrote back.

That, I’m afraid, is unfortunate.

~ Keith

My plan is to proceed as planned, without the support of Blogathon.  The Scrineathon will begin at 6 a.m. on July 29th and I will follow the Blogathon rules of posting every 30 minutes.  I will still be blogging for 24 straight hours to support both Scrine and Freedom From Hunger, but will be changing the Freedom From Hunger link so that it points you directly to their secure, online donation page, rather than going through Blogathon.  Unfortunately, I will not be able to track donations made by Scriners and others this way, although you might be able to fill in the “In Honor Of” line on the donation form with Scrine information.  It’s up to you.

I still think that the idea behind Blogathon is a good and noble one, and encourage you to support those that are participating.  It’s simply unfortunate that Scrine, due to what I believe to be a poor management choice, cannot offically take part.

But since when has Scrine given a hoot about being official?  Other than about the overuse of periods, that is.  Everyone, I guess, has their breaking point.


Wednesday, July 12, 2006
I’ll Throw In A Hat :: Keith :: 6

I’m in.

With all the rattling that goes on in my head, I think I could keep a whole truckload of babies smiling and happy if they could only get their fat little hands around my neck and give my balding head a big group shake.

Balding, I said, not bald.  There’s a difference.  A big difference.  Ask any man, or any old balding lady --no, I take that back, don’t ask her-- and he’ll tell you the difference.  Balding, if you don’t already know, is a slow ride down a long and scenic country road, filled with hope and fond memory, whereas bald is nothing more than the destination.  And as we all know, it’s the journey that counts, not the destination.  Same with balding.

But I digress, which is good, you see, because what I’m about to tell you is all about digression, because I, my invisible Internet friends, am about to climb aboard the big rumbling money making machine.  No, not the Republican party.  I said rumbling, not fumbling.  No, what I’m talking about is Blogathon 2006!

That’s right.  Come this July 29th, starting at 6:00 sharp, Pacific Time (and that’s morning, people!) I will reunite with a host of old friends to create what will no doubt become the most poorly written long story in the history of mankind.  Join me, Imaginary Keith, the ghost in the pickle jar, a handful of Mr. Cooper’s bones, the village constable, a host of giants, a couple of drunks, and, I’m happy to say (just confirmed it on the phone), God himself, as the lot of us settle into a 24 hour tale of nonsense that Ralph Nader has already claimed to be, “fraught with more peril than a horny teenage boy behind the wheel of a ‘61 Corvair.”

All of us participating in the story are not quite sure we agree with Nader, but then, it’s always been hard to get behind the man.  So serious.

Anyway, in case you didn’t know, the Blogathon 2006 is all about writing and raising money for charity.  Well, I’m all for that, but since I always like to push things just a bit past their predefined borders, what I’m proposing is the following:

1.  I register with Blogathon 2006, promising to write and post every 30 minutes for 24 straight hours, all to support a charity that I have not yet picked.  I am open to suggestions.

2.  A button on Scrine allows you to pledge to my selected charity.

Now the push....

3.  A second button allows you to pledge to Scrine itself.  Money sent here will help defer the hosting and domain costs of Scrine, as well as pay for the time I spend in intense labor dispute arguments with the ugly, rusty metal bird.  So you know, it has always been my goal to earn a even $1.00 per hour for my time.  I’m worth more, sure, but I like the idea of a buck an hour.  To me it sounds so romantic.

“How much do you make?”

“A buck an hour.”

“Oh, you poor man!  Kiss me, you fool!”

See what I mean?

Anyway, what does everyone think?  I have some tiring fun, while at the same time money is raised for some unknown worthy cause, as well as a known worthy cause - Scrine.  Sounds like a win-win situation to me.  And to top it all off, I open up the Scrinecast software for the duration of the show, allowing me to report to you LIVE, direct from the floor of the Scrine Command Center.

The floor is now open for comment, and I believe there’s someone there with something to say.  Yes, you there, near the back.  No, no, the one in the sensible shoes.  Yes, go ahead.


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