Last evening at BlogHer08

Last night BlogHer08 rounded up with a huge party at Macy's, where we all had a great time. It was a great conference, and a lot of fun. There's a video interview of me at the shoe department (imagine that!) which will be up on YouTube (or maybe not). When it turns up I'll link to it.

I have to thank the fabulous Jane Goowdwin for her wonderful support and her friendship, which made the past four days a very happy experience.

Special thanks also to Morra Aarons-Mele, Lisa Stone and Elisa Camahort Page for inviting me.

Moving the blog has had a lot of bumps and now http://faustasblog.com appears to be down. For the time being, here's a photo of San Francisco at 6AM today.


The train ride home starts in California right now:




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BlogHer time!

I've been in San Francisco since Wednesday evening and the city is as beautiful and lively as I remember it.

The BlogHer Conference starts today. You can follow the blogs posting on the conference through this widget:


I had the pleasure of meeting and having lunch with the brilliant and beautiful Jane Goodwin of Weekly Scheiss who's been indulging in some on-line haiku. Jane was in Tuesday's podcast, and she's a panelist in Introversion, Blogging and BlogHer 10:30 this morning.

There are plenty of parties to attend, and so far I've managed to go to four. Here's a picture of me at the Experience Project's party, which was held at Rye, a local club. Here's their photo album.


It's 4:19AM here in San Francisco but my body still thinks it's on the East Coast. More blogging later.

crossposted


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"You are here"

The family and I are in Miami visiting with family and friends, but here I am checking out Memeorandum when I came across Karl's post at Protein Wisdom on the Map of the Political Blogosphere.

Of course I check it out, and LOOK! http://faustasblog.com is it!

Now all I have to do is figure out how to take a screen shot, and post it.

Thanks, guys!

As neighbor (Princetonian and gallactic) Tiger Hawk, said,

Our influence is indeed vast, and we pledge to use our great power wisely.

Especially once the screen shot gets sorted out, of course.

The Baron took the screen shot:

Thank you Baron!

Don't miss today's podcast at 11AM. Jazz Shaw, Shane Burgess, Siggy and I will be talking about the sexual revolution, and Media Lizzy may also join in.

Chat's open at 10:45AM, and the call-in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!




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Thank you, Larwyn!

Gerard and Ann at Just One Minute are saluting Larwyn, who does a wonderful job of keeping track of thousands of blog posts and forwarding the links to bloggers.

I have the honor and the wonderful good luck to be included in Larwyn's letter. I have even offered her to blog here if she would like to. She took up the offer once. I wish she would regularly!

Thank you, Larwyn!



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AP guidelines? We don't need no stinkin' guidelines, says Jeff.

I have been known to post in the past about Associated Press Deficit Disorder (APDD), and its corollary, Associated Press Truth Deficit Disorder, and so have many many other bloggers. We all have used direct quotes from numerous AP reports.

Well, Associated Press is not taking it well: The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs. Basically they want bloggers to summarize their words, not to quote their stories directly.

Oh boy.

Are they trying to be controlling, or are they really that clueless?

Don't they realize that you can go on the internet to the actual websites in the countries reporting the news as they take place?

Memeorandum has a long list of blog reactions, but I went straight to my guru on these matters, Jeff Jarvis, who put it this way, AP, hole, dig. Jeff has A link ethic proposal for AP:

I propose to the Associated Press that it immediately begin linking to all its sources for stories, especially to members' original journalism because:

* This will support journalism at its source. As I've written here, it is vital that we link to original journalism so it can receive traffic, audience, branding, credit, conversation, and advertising.

* This will provide a better service to readers and clients, enabling them to find, read, and link to original reporting.

* This will be an act of transparency that everyone in journalism should be practicing. As they say in the math test, we should show our work. The AP can provide an example that other news organizations should follow.

This comes out of the ethic of the link and quote that I have learned from blogs. It says to our readers: Don't take my word for it, go see for yourself. And: Here's what the source said; I won't rephrase it but I will quote it directly so you can see for yourself.

In addition to original reporting from sources in the actual countries where the news take place (such as Noticias 24), I will be relying on Bloomberg, Reuters, and, on Latin American stories, al-Jazeera (which provides surprisingly good reporting from locations in South America).

UPDATE
Brian form SnappedShot has more at Pajamas.



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Today at 11AM Eastern: Rep. Jeb Hensarling

In today's podcast at 11AM Eastern, we'll talk to Congressman Jeb Hensarling, Rep. TX, about his proposed Bloggers' Bill of Rights, the Blogger Protection Act of 2008, which would give bloggers permanent protection from FEC campaign laws when linking to campaign Web sites or editorializing about candidates. As Bill Hobbs explains,

The FEC granted bloggers protection two years ago from regulations that potentially could have defined bloggers' linking to a campaign Web site or editorializing about a candidate a campaign contribution or expenditure. Hensarling's legislation would make those regulatory protections statutory.

Here's what his office has to say on the Bill:

Two years ago, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations that protected bloggers from being hampered by certain campaign finance laws. Under these regulations, bloggers cannot be considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate simply because they link to campaign websites or write about the positions of federal candidates. Additionally, blogs are treated as any other publication under the general media exemption from most campaign finance restrictions. Without such protections, bloggers could be subject to various limitations and reporting requirements under campaign finance law.

But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute. As you may know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there’s no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Furthermore, the FEC is currently defunct because of vacancies and a lack of quorum. Therefore, we shouldn’t put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

If Congressman Hensarling has time, we'll also touch on the spending limit amendment.

Chat's open at 10:45 and the call in number is (646) 652-2639. Join us!




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How to get some traffic to your nearly-defunct newspaper website

Write an asinine article about the top "Right-Wing" bloggers rating them on a "stupid:evil" ratio, and wait for them to link to you.

Maybe I'll try that tomorrow, since I'll be away most of the day.



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Best post title of the day:

Yes, the day is young, but try to top this:
If Wishes Were Horse's Asses, Liberals Would Elect Them

And he references Boethius, too!

(h/t Larwyn)


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Tomorrow at 11AM Eastern: ACE!

Blogger extraordinaire Ace O'Spades talks about his speech at CPAC, Barack Obama, and the upcoming increase of the price of beer.

Chat opens at 10:45AM and the call in number is and 646 652-2639. Join us!

A death-defying extravaganza!

Bloggers risking their lives away from their laptops
After reading about the latest hazard, Eric Scheie calls last night's party "a death-defying extravaganza", which as you can see from the above picture clearly it was.

Taking his life in his blogging hands was the fabulous Grouchy Old Cripple who is delightful company, and drove all the way from Hotlanta in his new Beemer - plenty of reason to smile about:

Technicalities's Teresa and Erica, Mr Surly of The Idiom, KateSpot, Coalition of the Swilling, Joated of Points of Compass, Judith of Kesher Talk, Mary of Exit Zero, Suzette, the Baron of Gates of Vienna and Sad Old Goth were also among the daring.

Goth, Joated, Coalition of the Swilling

Goth, Suzette

Eric, Judith
Of course no Princeton bloggers' party would be complete without TigerHawk, who was wearing his newly-designed t-shirt:

But the whole party would not have been possible without the wonderful Jimbo of Parkway Rest Stop, whose support made it all possible.

Thank you, all of you, and send me more pictures!

UPDATE, Monday 7 April
Shamrocketship has the the adult drinks, too!



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Death by Blogging

The NYT and most journalists can't figure out what's hit them, so now they're coming up with any which way to discredit the competition.

Allison just sent me this:
In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop

Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.

Diet, smoking habits, lifestyle, genetic predisposition? Heck, no! Blogging kills, says the Times.

Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.

Where does the NYT find this people?

Robert's clamoring, BLOGGERS of the WORLD UNITE! You have nothing to lose . . . but your pajamas!

Well, indeed: Last year some idiots were asking for a bloggers' union. We had a good laugh over that during that day's podcast.

Meanwhile, last night some of the fatally opressed were eating and drinking like there is no tomorrow before going back to the blogging salt mines:


Welcome, Instapundit readers. You'll enjoy reading about how the slaves bloggers spent their furlough here in Princeton last night. Nonstop strain, Indeed!

UPDATE
Whew! What a night!


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Support the Blogger Protection Act of 2008

I just got this email from Mike Schrimpf of the Center for Competitive Politics

Friends,

Rep. Jeb Hensarling introduced the Blogger Protection Act of 2008 (pdf file) today.

Will you join the Center for Competitive Politics in supporting this important bill?

The bill protects bloggers from dangerous campaign finance regulations by guarantees blogs the same protections granted to other forms of media under federal campaign finance laws.

The legislation also protects bloggers from ever being considered to have made a contribution or expenditure on behalf of, or in opposition to, a candidate by simply linking to campaign websites or writing about the positions of federal candidates.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) issued regulations two years ago protecting bloggers from being hampered by these campaign finance laws. But these blogger protections are just regulatory—they are not in statute.

As you know, regulations can be changed without congressional action, and there's no telling what a future FEC might decide to do. Therefore, we shouldn't put the freedom of bloggers in the regulatory hands of the FEC. Congress should protect them in law.

Please let me know if you are interested in supporting the Blogger Protection Act of 2008.

If you do support the bill, we would appreciate if you are willing to sign onto this letter to Congress that the Center for Competitive Politics drafted in support of the bill.

Also, we would ask that you blog about this bill. And feel free to spread the word to fellow bloggers!

Every blogger should read the bill and take action.



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Party with a blogger on Saturday night!

Three days from today, we're partying at Triumph Brewery!

Who's coming:
Jim of Parkway Rest Stop, his bodyguard, and son-in-law
TigerHawk
Jazz Shaw
Skye
Rich Davis
Gigglechick
KateSpot
Andrew Hoffer
Classical Values
Kesher Talk
Exit Zero
Joated
Technicalities
Shamrocketship
Gates of Vienna
Grouchy Old Cripple
Mr. Bingley of Coalition of the Swilling
Erica Sherman
Cripes Suzette
Sad Old Goth

On the Facebook page,
Michael VanderGalien, Ali Eteraz, and Audrey Mullen said they're attending,
while Ron Coleman, Eneas Biglione, Dan Riehl, Dan Collins, Robert Stacy McCain, Dr Melissa Clouthier, Michel Gurfinkle, Jane Goodwin, BJ Van Look, Monday Morning Clacker and John Lindner may be attending.

Special thanks to Doug Ross for his support.

Have you made your reservations yet? YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR RESERVATION RIGHT NOW if you haven't.



SPRING BLOG FEST EAST

When: Saturday April 5, 2008
6-11PM

Where: Sky Suite, Triumph Brewing Company
138 Nassau Street
Princeton NJ 08540

Buffet Menu: Hors d'oeuvres
House salad
Organic New York Strip "Prime Rib"
Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Mango Coulis
Tortellini with Tomato Parmesan Sauce
Chocolate covered white cake with peanut butter mousse and strawberry jam

How much: $45 per person, plus CASH BAR

You can make a check payable to Fausta Wertz, PO Box 1589, Princeton NJ 08542-1589, or pay through Paypal:

For more information, click here

Shoes and matching handbags

It is one of the mysteries of blogging that one can write a well thought-out, carefully worded post on a serious subject that may have serious repercussions and get 0 - 5 comments, while sometimes one writes a post on girl stuff and get dozens, maybe even hundreds of comments.

Almost two years ago I asked Should tall women wear platform shoes?, which generated twelve comments and at least a couple of dozen emails.

(Yes, I bought those shoes and still wear them. They do make your legs look very nice.)

Now the hot topic is should women carry handbags?.

As a Coach stockholder, my answer is unabashedly, yes. Please carry a handbag.

Another cosmic question, Why don't women clothes carry pockets? Women clothes don't carry pockets because pockets are place on strategic parts of the body and if a woman carries anything in her pockets

a. it makes her chest look lumpy and asymmetrical
b. it makes her hips or derriere look big, lumpy and asymmetrical.

It's not a feminist issue, it's a wanting-to-look-shapely issue.

Moving on the other cosmic questions, this morning's podcast started as an April Fool's fun podcast but we ended up talking about parenting. You must listen to it, here, and if you enjoy it, please rate it. Siggy read from a wonderful post he wrote about his daughter's birth. I'll link to it later. You can read it here.

Siggy, Little Miss Attila and Mamacita of Scheiss Weekly were wonderful and we're going to continue the conversation on the same subject next Tuesday.

Siggy, always a deep thinker, posted today another cosmic question, Why Did The Pullet Cross The Road?. Little Miss Attila asks Is the city of L.A. suffering from ADD?, while Mamacita wonders why is it next-to-impossible to find Concord grapes in a supermarket or even a farmer's market in her area

And I thank them all for today's podcast.



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Jimbo has a word to the fence sitters: Come to the party!

Jim of Parkway Rest Stop addresses the big questions:
A Message to the Fence Sitters

Yeah, I'm talking to those of you who have given some thought to attending the upcoming Spring BlogFest a/k/a Jersey Blogmeet on April 5th in Princeton, but who haven't yet taken the plunge.

I suspect that you're thinking runs something like the following, to which I will add my commentary, as a veteran of ten blogmeets in five different states:

Jeez, I won't know anyone there.
It may take you all of three minutes to know a dozen people. Bloggers are an exceedingly friendly bunch. After ten minutes, you'll find it hard to get a word in edgewise, because bloggers are not only friendly, they are also loquacious blabbermouths.

Princeton? I've heard of the school (Yeah, it's the one that lost the first intercollegiate football game to Rutgers), but getting there is a pain in the ass.
Car – easy. Princeton sits on Route 1. Trains: They run from various places in Jersey and from Philly and New York. Teresa is making the trek from Massachusetts and the Wiseass Jooette will be schlepping in from the New York Shithole Brooklyn. The Triumph Brewery (the site of the festivities) is walking distance from the station.

A blogger from Georgia and another one from Virginia are coming. It's easy to get here even from Newark airport.

More questions,
What if it's borrrrrring? What if it's borrrrrring? What if I think all the people there are jerks? Will they think I'm a jerk? I have nothing to say to these people. My sock drawer needs arranging on April 5th. Jim has all the answers.

The food's going to be good, Jim will let you touch his great farookin' hair, I'll show off some of my newly-learned tango steps, and Jazz will improvise.

And we won't run out of beer.

What are you waiting for? Make your reservation right now! The restaurant needs to know how many people are coming ahead of time, so the time to make the reservation is right now.

How much: $45 per person, plus CASH BAR

You can make a check payable to Fausta Wertz, PO Box 1589, Princeton NJ 08542-1589, or pay through Paypal:

For more information, click here

Slow blogging, but worth it

It's a rather slow blogging day for a number of reasons: a slight head cold, housekeeping of the house and blog varieties both, and catching up with some reading I have to do related to another project.

But never fear, a fresh new post is coming your way soon!

In the meantime, did you listen to yesterday's podcast yet? Siggy and Brian are brilliant.

It's Laurie's blogbirthday!

Go wish her a happy birthday!

Siggy already did.

Words to live by

One of the great pleasures of blogging is reading other blogs, and Francis Porretto's blog, Eternity Road always inspires me:

The correct way to deal with someone who doesn't treat you with appropriate respect and dignity is to put yourself above him: that is, to be perfectly, icily correct in all things, and never to say a word about his lapses from propriety. This is called self-respect. Not many persons have it, these days, despite all the "self-esteem" emphasis touted by our government-run schools.

Thank you Francis!





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Two weeks to Spring Blog Fest East!

Two weeks away from the BlogFest, and you need to make your reservations right now since Triumph Brewery needs to know how many people are attenting.

Updated list of guests: TigerHawk, Jazz Shaw, Skye, Rich Davis, Gigglechick, KateSpot will be there!

From the Facebook page,
Martha Colmenares, EM Zanotti, Michael VanderGalien, Ali Eteraz, and Audrey Mullen said they're attending,
while Ron Coleman, Sean Hackbarth, Eneas Biglione, Dan Riehl, Dan Collins, Robert Stacy McCain, Andrew Hoffer, Dr Melissa Clouthier, Michel Gurfinkle, Judith Weiss, Mary Madigan, Jane Goodwin, BJ Van Look, Monday Morning Clacker and John Lindner may be attending.

All in addition to the bloggers whose payment already has been received,
Paul Budline
Jim of Parkway Rest Stop and his bodyguard
Joated
Technicalities
Shamrocketship
Gates of Vienna
Grouchy Old Cripple
Mr. Bingley of Coalition of the Swilling
Erica Sherman
Cripes Suzette
Sad Old Goth

Special thanks to Doug Ross for his support.

Have you made your reservations yet?



SPRING BLOG FEST EAST

When: Saturday April 5, 2008
6-11PM

Where: Sky Suite, Triumph Brewing Company
138 Nassau Street
Princeton NJ 08540

Buffet Menu: Hors d'oeuvres
House salad
Organic New York Strip "Prime Rib"
Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Mango Coulis
Tortellini with Tomato Parmesan Sauce
Chocolate covered white cake with peanut butter mousse and strawberry jam

How much: $45 per person, plus CASH BAR

You can make a check payable to Fausta Wertz, PO Box 1589, Princeton NJ 08542-1589, or pay through Paypal:

For more information, click here



Questions? Email me faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com

Spring BlogFest update

Three weeks away from the BlogFest, an updated list of guests: TigerHawk, Jazz Shaw, Skye, Rich Davis, Gigglechick, KateSpot will be there!

On the Facebook page,
Martha Colmenares, EM Zanotti, Michael VanderGalien, Ali Eteraz, and Audrey Mullen said they're attending,
while Ron Coleman, Sean Hackbarth, Eneas Biglione, Dan Riehl, Dan Collins, Robert Stacy McCain, Andrew Hoffer, Dr Melissa Clouthier, Michel Gurfinkle, Judith Weiss, Mary Madigan, Jane Goodwin, BJ Van Look, Monday Morning Clacker and John Lindner may be attending.

Will Porretto make it?

All in addition to the bloggers whose payment already has been received,
Jim of Parkway Rest Stop and his bodyguard
Joated
Technicalities
Shamrocketship
Gates of Vienna
Grouchy Old Cripple
Mr. Bingley of Coalition of the Swilling
Erica Sherman
Cripes Suzette
Sad Old Goth

Special thanks to Doug Ross for his support.

Have you made your reservations yet?



SPRING BLOG FEST EAST

When: Saturday April 5, 2008
6-11PM

Where: Sky Suite, Triumph Brewing Company
138 Nassau Street
Princeton NJ 08540

Buffet Menu: Hors d'oeuvres
House salad
Organic New York Strip "Prime Rib"
Seared Salmon with Pineapple-Mango Coulis
Tortellini with Tomato Parmesan Sauce
Chocolate covered white cake with peanut butter mousse and strawberry jam

How much: $45 per person, plus CASH BAR

You can make a check payable to Fausta Wertz, PO Box 1589, Princeton NJ 08542-1589, or pay through Paypal:

For more information, click here