Some of you might not know, but Scribd (it’s like Youtube for documents) is having the Most Interesting Hard Drive contest, wherein they’re searching for some of the best as-yet-unpublished stuff submitted by their users. The prizes are fairly sweet, and I’m doing ok - #35 as of this morning. However, I’d like to win. This is where you come in.
These are my documents. Everything counts for the contest except the pictures. If you’d go and look at them - maybe several times, maybe over the course of the next few days? I’d appreciate it. But I wouldn’t expect you to do me such a big favor for free. What kind of a friend would I be? No, I have a deal to make with you.
If you leave me a comment with a topic to write about (or a writing prompt?) on any of the blogs that this ends up on, I will write a 200-to-300 word original piece for you and toss it onto Scribd, on the condition that you give it as many views as you can. (Maybe talk some friends into it too. I dunno, you decide.) I promise it will be an actual original piece; I won’t reuse anything I’ve already written (in fact, pretty much everything I’ve written that’s not a blog entry is now on Scribd, which is sadly little because I can’t find my backup of everything I did in college) and I won’t respond to your request for a review of Iron Man by writing “Awesome!” 200 to 300 times.
Alternately, if you’d like to tweet a suggestion at me, you can do so - my Twitter username is macanima.
I don’t ask for favors often, but this is one favor I really hope I can pull off. Thanks in advance!
Time to test out the OPML Editor for blogging to WordPress again. Been a while since I used this thing and it looks like it’s undergone some revisions since the last time I used it.
For example, now it has a parakeet on its main window.
Actually, I think the last time I used the OPML Editor I was setting up blogs for my roommates on it. Good times.
(Warning: this is a very angry rant. I am using a WordPress version that I do not like in order to write about how much I do not like this WordPress version, so you can imagine how thoughtful and meaningful this is. Skip if you do not like vitriol being spewed in the general direction of web software.)
So back in April, I posted a request looking for some free icons that Matt Ball had made available for application developers, but which had since disappeared off the ‘net for reasons unknown.
I did manage to contact a different blogger who had a copy of them on his hard drive still, and so now they’re kicking around on mine (or were, until recently, when my laptop’s hard drive suffered a head crash - luckily my baby’s in repair now), but last night I got a comment from the artist himself.
Turns out Matt Ball now has an online portfolio. As far as online portfolios go, it’s pretty simple (in a good way!) and snazzy, and I like his icon work. I also applaud him for not using Flash. Dear online portfolio-havers: Flash is not appropriate for anything, unless you are a Flash developer.
From PR Newswire:
The following is a statement by Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of GrassrootsFreedom.com, regarding legislation currently being considered by Congress to regulate grassroots communications:
“In what sounds like a comedy sketch from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, but isn’t, the U. S. Senate would impose criminal penalties, even jail time, on grassroots causes and citizens who criticize Congress.
“Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big K Street lobbyists. Section 220 would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. For the first time in history, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself.
“The bill would require reporting of ‘paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying,’ but defines ‘paid’ merely as communications to 500 or more members of the public, with no other qualifiers.
“On January 9, the Senate passed Amendment 7 to S. 1, to create criminal penalties, including up to one year in jail, if someone ‘knowingly and willingly fails to file or report.’
Here’s the text of the bill. To be honest, I haven’t read it thoroughly myself to see if Mr. Viguerie’s assessment is correct. Anyone?
EDIT: This may not be as catastrophic for “the little guy” as Viguerie suggests. Here’s some relevant portions of the bill (thanks to P&P for pointing these out to me):
`(19) GRASSROOTS LOBBYING FIRM- The term `grassroots lobbying firm’ means a person or entity that–
`(A) is retained by 1 or more clients to engage in paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying on behalf of such clients; and
`(B) receives income of, or spends or agrees to spend, an aggregate of $25,000 or more for such efforts in any quarterly period.’.
`(B) PAID ATTEMPT TO INFLUENCE THE GENERAL PUBLIC OR SEGMENTS THEREOF- The term `paid attempt to influence the general public or segments thereof’ does not include an attempt to influence directed at less than 500 members of the general public.
And lastly, a bit of an IM conversation.
P&P: So, what they’re saying is, if you get paid (or spend) more than $25,000 in a year on an attempt to do ‘grassroots lobbying,’ you’re going to be subject to this.
Me:: Wonder what Kos makes? Heh.
P&P: What it would do is hurt the biggest voices, but not the little guys. It’s exactly the opposite of the PR statement. (That doesn’t mean I agree with it, but that’s probably why Richard Viguerie cares.)
P&P: Oh, I’m sure Markos Moulitsas makes more than $25,000 a year. The other guys who are going to be hurting are, among others, MoveOn, TPM Media, the Huffington Post, National Review Online, and paid big-media bloggers like Andrew Sullivan and Mickey Kaus. I wonder if the Republicans (who have sponsored Section 220) think they can get away with this because there are relatively few paid right-wing bloggers?
Maybe!