Month: June 2012

6 O’Clock BS – Cuddly Creatures Giveaway Winners!

Brianne Bilyeu, , 546 Comments

The internet can be a complex and infuriating place. Let’s all take a moment for simple, sweet cuddly knit creatures. You can read about why I’m giving away simple, sweet, cuddly knit creatures here.

I entered the nine names into a random name selector, and the first three names generated were (in order):

  1. Ophelia Benson wins the Trilobite
  2. Casper wins the Microbe
  3. Brian Gregory wins the Neuron

There was no rhyme or reason to matching the winners to the creatures – I lined them up and said whoever gets selected gets [creature].

I’m notifying the winners tonight by email. Congrats and thanks for entering the giveaway!

6 O’Clock BS – Cuddly Creatures Giveaway Winners!
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Cross-Country Connections (Plus): Vegas, Baby!

Brianne Bilyeu, 168 Comments

Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in very different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. 

Normally I would now display the three photos that we had each contributed down below. However this weekend we were able to bridge the divide and meet together in Las Vegas. So this past weekend there was a physical cross-country connection:

Erin, me and Mom in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 20 minutes west of Las Vegas. I believe the rock behind us is Aztec Sandstone. Somebody go get Dana Hunter; she’d know.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying myself since last Thursday, but now I’ve got a lot of housekeeping to do around here. I’m playing Google Reader catch-up – it sounds like there were a LOT of things broken on the internet this weekend. I’m catching up on all of the blogathoning that went on around this place for SSA Week (which looks like it was wildly successful). I have to announce the winners of the cute cuddlies giveaway – I’ll do that tonight at the 6 O’Clock BS. And of course I have to show you the awesome that was Vegas. And then this weekend is Twin Cities Pride, and the weekend after is CONvergence and SkepchickCON!

Imaginary hellfire! When am I supposed to find a moment to breath and play Mario Kart? Nah, just kidding – I love it. And there is always time to play Mario Kart.

Cross-Country Connections (Plus): Vegas, Baby!

Moar Blogathoning – Jeremy, Daniel, Rachel!

Brianne Bilyeu242 Comments

The blogathon-ing continues full speed ahead!

Today is a special day for me because about one week ago I conned asked my buddy Jeremy Witteveen if he’d be interested in participating in a blogathon fundraiser for SSA, and he said yes, probably because he was drunk or hadn’t had coffee yet or something. Today is his day. He’s blogging every 30 minutes between 7 o’clock this morning to midnight tonight.

I’ve been reading Le Cafe Witteveen for a couple of years now, and some of the things that keep me coming back are the way Jeremy bares his atheist soul and tells stories of his conservative evangelical Christian upbringing, his takes on current events, his oddball, irreverent, sometimes gross sense of humor, and his gorgeous photography. Jeremy and his wife, Tina, are professional photographers and videographers and run their own business – how sweet is that? That’s probably why he can be a total slacker and blog for 17 hours on a school day.

Here’s an excerpt from one of his posts. He’s talking about being a young kid and starting a new Sunday School with a new teacher:

At some point, they broke the kids into smaller groups. My group went with a teacher named Mrs. Vorhees (unsure of spelling). She was an older woman, but I had an almost instant crush on her. She had amazing enthusiasm. She made learning about biblical genocide and slamming babies against rocks fun!

See, funny! Because it’s about baby-killing! Please go see him, give him some verbal support in the comments, and maybe drop a few bucks in his SSA collection can if you’re so inclined. His first post is here.

To quote the late Billy Mays,

AND THAT’S NOT ALL!

We also have the incredibly talented Daniel Fincke over at Camels With Hammers blogathoning every hour for 24 hours today. I read Daniel’s posts and think about what a pleasure and honor it is to be on Freethought Blogs with all of these crazy-smart, incredible authors. Today Dan is sharing stories, interviews, debates and conversations with:

…Ophelia Benson, Richard Carrier, Zinnia Jones, Vyckie Garrison, Shelley Segal, George Waye, Ian Cromwell, Greg Laden, James Gray, Marta Layton, Dave Smith, JT Eberhard, James Croft, Fedwa From Morocco, Mary the Catholic Graduate Student, and a few guests who will interview pseudonymously.

His first post is here. Dan – you’re a rock star!

And our final blogathoner is Rachel Pridgen over at The Reluctant Skeptic. Rachel was awesome during my blogathon – she left comments, tweets and encouraging words for me, and it was so appreciated. I love the tag line of Rachel’s blog: “Embracing Reason With the Occasional Tantrum”. I hear that. And her About section starts out with “Dedicated to not dying bewildered, bamboozled, or baffled.” Good goal.

The SSA Blogathon schedule says that Rachel will be blogging every hour between 12pm-12am CST today, which means her first post is up….NOW!

As I’ve mentioned before – this blogathoning thing is hard. We’re bloggers – we thrive on your feedback. A few comments, a retweet now and then…these things mean so much, especially when we’re doing a special event like this. If you’re game, consider stopping by Jeremy, Daniel and Rachel’s blog to say hi and give ’em a virtual high five.

And…you know…maybe donate to the SSA. 😀

 

Moar Blogathoning – Jeremy, Daniel, Rachel!

No Islamic Center For St. Anthony For Now

Brianne Bilyeu, , 206 Comments

This article in the Star Tribune caught my eye today.

To sum it up, a proposed center for Islamic worship and assembly that would hold 200 members would be located in an already existing building in St. Anthony, which is located just northeast of Minneapolis. The council meeting at which the proposal was voted on was attended by approximately 150 people. People who objected to the use of the building by the Muslim proponents cited concerns over reduced tax revenues (which the St. Anthony mayor denied would be true), and increased traffic in the neighborhood, and at least one guy was recorded saying this:

“Islam is evil. There’s no other religion in the world that endorses violence,” said John Murlowski, before Faust [the mayor of St. Anthony] cut him off.

The council, which rejected the proposal 4-1 cited land-use and zoning conflicts.

First, nearly every religion has an extremist wing that feels use of violence is justified in the defense or practice of their religion. Islam is not the only religion in the world that endorses violence. The “reduced tax revenue” claim sounds like it was debunked and the “increased traffic” sounds a lot like “we don’t want those brown, Twin Towers-bombin’ people in our neighborhood”. It sounds like the Good People of St. Anthony are grasping for reasons to reject the mosque.

Second, I’m guessing St. Anthony taxpayers are going to be paying out the nose for this. If the Muslim proponents don’t sue, I’ll be shocked.

Any of you locals following this story? Is the zoning law claim going to hold water?

No Islamic Center For St. Anthony For Now

6 O'Clock BS: SSA Week Progress

Brianne Bilyeu, 505 Comments

Guess what happened today?

See that blue widget thing in the right sidebar? The one that tells us how much moolah the Secular Student Alliance has raised since it started back on June 6th? Today it crossed the $60,000 mark.

Woo-hoo!

I believe I am all recovered from my blogathon on Saturday and Sunday. That was a wild ride. It was stressful, but always in a fun, how am I going to stratergize this next part? kind of way. Okay, it sucked between 3am and 5am. It really did. I was very tired, and I’m amazed that I managed to turn out more than kittehs in that two hour stretch (you’ll notice I said “more than” – there was one kitteh). I slept from 7am to 11am and then went out and picnicked with my fellow freethinkers, and throughout the day peeked in on Ophelia, Ian and Dale as they picked up the blogathon batons. Yesterday was JT and Michaelyn and Leah.

Who’s blogathoning today? Right this moment we have Chana Messinger over at The Merely Real, Andrew Tripp at Considered Exclamations, and FtB’s Greta Christina at Greta Christina’s Blog busting booty to raise money for the SSA. And there are incredible bloggers lined up every day through this Sunday! – each blogger toiling over keyboards to entertain and cajole you out a a few bucks to help support the Secular Student Alliance.

Even if you’ve already donated or you’re not planning to donate, I ask you really nicely to consider stopping by to say hi, to lend a little visible support in the comments. This blogathoning business is hard! It’s emotionally and physically draining and I found that at times it only took one little comment (especially at 4:30 in the morning) to keep the motivation and creativity flowing.

6 O'Clock BS: SSA Week Progress

6 O’Clock BS: SSA Week Progress

Brianne Bilyeu, 321 Comments

Guess what happened today?

See that blue widget thing in the right sidebar? The one that tells us how much moolah the Secular Student Alliance has raised since it started back on June 6th? Today it crossed the $60,000 mark.

Woo-hoo!

I believe I am all recovered from my blogathon on Saturday and Sunday. That was a wild ride. It was stressful, but always in a fun, how am I going to stratergize this next part? kind of way. Okay, it sucked between 3am and 5am. It really did. I was very tired, and I’m amazed that I managed to turn out more than kittehs in that two hour stretch (you’ll notice I said “more than” – there was one kitteh). I slept from 7am to 11am and then went out and picnicked with my fellow freethinkers, and throughout the day peeked in on Ophelia, Ian and Dale as they picked up the blogathon batons. Yesterday was JT and Michaelyn and Leah.

Who’s blogathoning today? Right this moment we have Chana Messinger over at The Merely Real, Andrew Tripp at Considered Exclamations, and FtB’s Greta Christina at Greta Christina’s Blog busting booty to raise money for the SSA. And there are incredible bloggers lined up every day through this Sunday! – each blogger toiling over keyboards to entertain and cajole you out a a few bucks to help support the Secular Student Alliance.

Even if you’ve already donated or you’re not planning to donate, I ask you really nicely to consider stopping by to say hi, to lend a little visible support in the comments. This blogathoning business is hard! It’s emotionally and physically draining and I found that at times it only took one little comment (especially at 4:30 in the morning) to keep the motivation and creativity flowing.

6 O’Clock BS: SSA Week Progress

Apologies…

Brianne Bilyeu, 1,020 Comments

Apparently I committed a No-No this past weekend. When I offered to give away cuddly knit creature to anyone who donated to the SSA, I was running what could be construed as a raffle, and raffles are subject to a crazy number of rules, regulations and even taxes that no one wants to get into. So sadly, I cannot draw names from you wonderful, generous people who donated during my blogathon. I offer my sincere apologies to anyone who donated to the SSA in hopes of getting one of these little guys, and if you have questions, concerns, suggestions or want to shoot me a nastygram or Howler I can be reached at [email protected].

So what to do with the cuddlies? I could put them on ebay and sell them there as a fundraiser for SSA, but that feels a little like potentially making double money on them. Erin has already knit them and I feel like they belong to the Biodork readers, so I’m going to give them away to you guys completely independent of the blogathon that took place this weekend. Just post a comment in the section below and I will throw your name in a hat. On Thursday morning I will draw three names and each of those people will get one of the following creatures:

One of the microbes pictured above.

One trilobite

Neuron

Thank you for your understanding!

Apologies…

6 O'Clock BS: Putting New Names on the Big Stage

Brianne Bilyeu127 Comments

I was in a discussion the other day with someone who is considering speakers for a convention. He has secured a number of big names – really big names for the subject matter that will be highlighted. Now he’s looking to fill a few last spots. I threw out a couple of names and the response was along the lines of, “They would be really good, but I need to draw a big crowd for this event. I’m worried that not enough people have heard of them.”

I’ve been mulling that over, and here’s my response that I’m sending back to him.

PUT. THEM. ON. THE. STAGE.

Big conferences are a great place to show off new voices for any movement, specialty or issue. You’ve already drawn the crowd with the big names that you’ve secured. Those last three spots are perfect for showing off new voices. With the type of exposure your conference or event is going to lend, these new faces can become the next generation of big names.

Don’t worry that no one has heard of them, because after your convention, they will have.

6 O'Clock BS: Putting New Names on the Big Stage

6 O’Clock BS: Putting New Names on the Big Stage

Brianne Bilyeu1,201 Comments

I was in a discussion the other day with someone who is considering speakers for a convention. He has secured a number of big names – really big names for the subject matter that will be highlighted. Now he’s looking to fill a few last spots. I threw out a couple of names and the response was along the lines of, “They would be really good, but I need to draw a big crowd for this event. I’m worried that not enough people have heard of them.”

I’ve been mulling that over, and here’s my response that I’m sending back to him.

PUT. THEM. ON. THE. STAGE.

Big conferences are a great place to show off new voices for any movement, specialty or issue. You’ve already drawn the crowd with the big names that you’ve secured. Those last three spots are perfect for showing off new voices. With the type of exposure your conference or event is going to lend, these new faces can become the next generation of big names.

Don’t worry that no one has heard of them, because after your convention, they will have.

6 O’Clock BS: Putting New Names on the Big Stage