Blogging every thirty minutes for 24 hours straight in Blogathon 2007 equals

• $585.84 raised for Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary!!!

Yay to my 23 sponsors! And Yay to the people who supported me in the comments!

There is still a little time before the sponsorships officially close. But I was so excited about who is going to win in the sponsor drawing, that I went ahead and put everyone’s name into my big green bowl…

I tried to convince Tegan to pick the winners… but she says Everyone who donates to Peaceful Prairie is a winner!!!

laugh, I  explained to her that we can’t give all the sponsors tee shirts or tote bags (sorry!).

The winners are Alhena and Lee P. YAY!!! Also the first person to sponsor me, Laloofah, gets a teeshirt as well!

ALL sponsors who are interested in receiving a newsletter and bumper sticker from Peaceful Prairie, just let me know and we’ll get you on the mailing list!

AND, for any of my sponsors who are animal activists: you may request up to 200 FREE leaflets from Peaceful Prairie! You can mix and match from their five different pamphlets listed at The Prairie Press.

Thank you again, everyone! This has been such a great experience and I am just thrilled at the outcome!
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 Yay, Blogathon in 8.5 hours!  You know, I should now be resting and spending time Away from the computer.  heh.

My sponsors are awesome!!!  Thank you all!

My coworkers totally came through for Peaceful Prairie… I had left out the Peaceful Prairie newsletter in the lunch room all week with flyer I made that says “Cheri Needs Sponsors!!”  And all together they donated almost 100$!  Wow!

We were chatting while I was gathering donations, and one of the guys was teasing me, saying that I’d have to give double the money back to them if I only blogged for 18 hours, instead of the 24.  laughs.  So I am definitely going to have to stay awake!

And one of the older ladies was talking about how cute the animals in the newsletter were and how Peaceful Prairie sounded like such a nice place, and was wondering if they took in senior citizens as well.  I told her they were looking for volunteers.  heh: Peaceful Prairie is about 1,300 miles away and over the mountains.  :)

So, I got home from work and entered in all my new proxy sponsors.  YAY my current total is 471$!!  You see how my sponsors are awesome?!

You can be my awesome sponsor too!

You know, I was so determined to type here every day until Blogathon, touting vegan wonderfulness left and right… But, yeah, I miss a day here, and there, and out goes the left and right!

And they are keeping me so busy at work, my list of topic ideas hasn’t hit 50 yet. okay. not even 25 yet. But not to worry. Vegans are not boring people. laughs.

A snippet of list:

• Books! Yes, I did mention this before. But I’m a reader, see?
• Chocolate. Very important topic.
• Vegan pet peeves. This is along the lines of “You don’t eat meat, or cheese or eggs? What DO you eat?” I know I’m pretty skinny, but do I look like I’m starving to death? You see there are these green things… they grow in the ground…
• Arts and Crafts, vegan concerns
• “Extreme”… as in “I’m a vegetarian, but veganism is so extreme.”

Are you intrigued? You could Sponsor Me. And that would make the animals at Peaceful Prairie very happy!

I will be working overtime every day this week at the day job. So any typing I do here will probably be a little rushed and maybe crazy sounding from lack of sleep! *maniacal laugh*

And yeah, after a 50 hour work week… the Saturday Blogathon *more laughter* *giggles* Yep… you are definitely going to get your moneys worth right here. So Sponsor Me now!

And Thank You and Yay! to all the most wonderful people who have already sponsored me! The moral support is much appreciated, and Peaceful Prairie will be so happy!

Ahh, my beautiful sponsors! Aren’t they wonderful? You can be my sponsor too, if you want to.

Sponsor Me! You have to register at Blogathon to enter your pledge, but don’t worry! They are very careful with your information, and they will not ask for your credit card! They will email you a couple times after the event to remind you to send your donation in. And donations will not be going “through” any website; you will be donating _directly_ to Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary!

All sponsors will receive the latest newsletter from Peaceful Prairie, and a bumpersticker.

And all sponsors will be entered in a drawing to win a teeshirt or a tote bag from Peaceful Prairie.

Also! Any sponsors who are not already vegan, who would like to go vegan… YAY! I will match your donation and I will send you a gift certificate to Vegan Essentials, an online store that sells all kinds of vegan foods and products. If you are interested in going vegan, leave a comment here and I’ll get with you in email to iron out the details!

I might have some other random things to add to this post… so stay tuned! And of course, you want to Sponsor Me!

There is one week to go before Blogathon, and I would like to Welcome my new readers! *waves hi* And thank my sponsors *Thank You!* and type about why I’m blogging for Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary.

I have been sitting on the sidelines of Blogathon for the past two years, supporting other bloggers. The 24 hours of blogging is really fun to watch and I was giving money to good causes that I believe in but wouldn’t ordinarily support financially.

I’m doing the blogging this year! I decided I needed to stretch myself a little, step out of my comfort zone. And, I suppose, other than my vegan lifestyle that I spread just by being me, this is my first foray into animal activism.

I’m blogging for Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary, they provide a loving home for farmed animals and promote the vegan lifestyle.

I love animals. All animals.  And I am grateful that there are places like Peaceful Prairie where a precious few of the animals who have escaped the system of torture and death, are able to live out their lives in peace and love.

The first time I saw the Peaceful Prairie website, with all the wonderful photos of everyone who lives there, I remarked to myself how much those big rolling hills of dried grass looked like the Colorado Front Range. I went to school at CSU, and worked a couple summers at a horse ranch east of Denver.

And sure enough, Peaceful Prairie is about 30 miles down the road from where I used to work. I live in Oregon now, but my parents still live in Colorado, so there is a chance that I might one day get to visit the sanctuary and meet all the wonderful animals there.

In the meantime, I have to stick to cyberland… The Peaceful Prairie blog has some wonderful stories about the animals, and check out Resident Stories for more.

In addition to rescuing animals, Peaceful Prairie promotes veganism. This is important to me. Being vegan is what completes the circle that starts with “I love animals.”

Go read about the Peaceful Choices campaign. And Go Vegan!

Sponsor me!

I am still dealing with my sniffly head cold, but I have another happy work story to tell you.

My supervisor came in to discuss next week’s schedule. We have to work some extra hours. Ick. And after I said, Ick,  I said, “Okay, but I need Saturday off because I’m doing a charity event.” Probably not working on Saturday, so no big deal.

And later my supervisor asked me what was so important about Saturday. *big grins* I told her about Blogathon, and that I’d be blogging for 24 hours straight for Peaceful Prairie, a sanctuary for farmed animals.

And even before I was done with my spiel she was all, “I’ll sponsor you!”

And when I was telling her about Peaceful Prairie, she was nodding and said, “People who take care of the animals…” like it was the most natural thing in the world that this would be my charity and these were the best people ever, of course.

So yay, my first proxy sponsor. She told me to tell everyone else at work as well. I’m thinking about making a flyer to leave in the lunch room and I’ll go round on Monday and tell people! Isn’t my supervisor totally cool?!

I was “shut down” for a couple days due to a head cold. But I’m back to posting now, and I’m glad to have gotten any diseases out of the way! I can’t imagine attempting my first Blogathon under the weather.

I was at work today, doing some close-up detail work, when I noticed I had a bunch of “floaters” in my eyes… You know? those little greyish dust particles that you can see at the edge of your focused vision?

There was one floater above where I could see properly, and it wasn’t moving the correct way when I moved my eyeballs around. It caught my attention and I started trying to look at it.

Heh. “It” was actually a tiny spider, walking back and forth at the top of my glasses! :) I took him outside and dropped him off on a bush. Think he’ll be a lot happier out there; not sure how many bugs he would catch, living on my glasses!

I always try to save bugs at work… in fact my coworkers will call me over to save a bug they’ve found! At my old job, I actually got to save a lizard! That was fun.

I even try to save wasps. I’ve never been stung. You just have to give out the right vib, I guess! The “I am trying to help you” vib.

Sponsor Me for Blogathon! Just over a week to go! I’m blogging for the animals at Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary! Thanks!

I spent so much time on the computer over the weekend, I figured I’d be happy to go to work on Monday… Just to walk around and look at things other than the computer screen!

Unfortunately, I woke up with a sore throat and a headache. Ugh. And double-unfortunately I had to train a new person at work. So I have to do extra talking and my throat is sore to begin with? That’s just lovely.

Oh well, I survived the day and actually don’t feel horrible now. So maybe my vegan immune system is kicking germ butts.

laughs.

Great photo in our local newspaper today, Digital Chicken! I love chickens. They are just so beautiful.

Yeah, okay. I love cows and pigs, too. And um sheep and goats and donkeys. And dolphins and frogs and Oh! I love elephants! And spiders and naked mole rats and that funny looking ayeaye!

Yep, I love them all and that’s why I’m vegan.

Anyway, back to chickens. I got a mailer from PETA today. I was a member for probably 15 years… and I’m not seeing a lot of animals saved for my money, so I quit.

The mailer has the story of Lily “one lucky hen” who is thrown out of her factory farm because she’s dying. She’s saved and lives four years of happiness in a loving place with other rescued animals.

The thing that annoys me is at the end. “PETA needs your donation today to help reform factory farms and slaughterhouses…”

NO! That is not what I want! I do not want to “reform” factory farms and I certainly do not want to “reform” slaughterhouses! I want to ban them! And I’m pretty sure that Lily the lucky hen wants to ban them too!

So! Listen to Lily and Go Vegan!

And Sponsor Me! Because Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary saves animals and says “Go Vegan!”

And go read about some of the residents at Peaceful Prairie, at their website or at the Peaceful Prairie Blog!

Yep, wrestling with WordPress, again. My theme was lacking the time stamp on the entries, and I had half decided to manually paste a time stamp at the bottom of each post. eh, completely non-elegant, but looking up random php codes on the Internet didn’t sound very fun either!

But then I saw a few other people were having the exact same issue and had posted at the Blogathon Forum about it. And a kind soul studied my page source and told me approximately how to put a time stamp on! And you see it, right? Where it says Posted by rift at July 15th, 2007 6:06 pm? Yay!

Oh, hm. It actually says 5:06. laughs… must be in the wrong time zone! … okay, fixed it!

And now my SO is telling me that I’ve apparently forgotten to eat. I guess I have been sitting in front of the computer most the day. It’s practice! But it is dinner time, I suppose.

Vegan Goodness: Whole wheat pasta, nuked with some vege soup mix and fresh organic basil (bought yesterday from the farmers market). Broccoli and green peas… are not organic, but a yummy addition. Strawberries for desset!

I woke up at 4am this morning, thinking about what I’m going to post during Blogathon. Eventually, it occured to me that I have all these ideas now, but when I’m actually sitting here, under the clock on the 28th, my only thought will be *panic*

Laughs.

So I got out my Palm handheld and started a list of posting topics. There were just five or so, off the top of my head. (You can’t expect much at 4am, after all!) I’m sure I can come up with well over 50 in the two weeks that are left before the event.

I think I’m going to carry some index cards and a pen in my back pocket at work, as well. So I’m going to have a very wide variety of ideas!

Here’s a preview…

• Books! Yeah. I’m a reader, so I definitely have to talk about the animal rights books I’ve read.
• My personal story concerning Mad Cow Disease.
• Digital drawings? Yes, it’s possible I will be drawing during Blogathon!
• What I eat on an average day. Unfortunately, I’m not a cook, so there will be no fancy meals or photos of vegan delicious-ness.
• But there may be photos of my friend, Tegan the guinea pig. She’s vegan too, you know! And very photogenic.
• Guest post from my Significant Other? Who is not vegan, but he lives with one so he may have some interesting things to say. :)

Look forward to all this on the 28th of July. And in the meantime… Please Sponsor Me! Thanks!

So.  I’m thinking about those 49 posts I will be writing… just 15 days til Blogathon, now.  The 28th of July, Saturday morning starting at 6am, and the last post will be Sunday morning, the 49th post will be again at 6am.

49 posts.  heh.  I am not a chatty person.  In fact, if you knew me in real life, you would know me as the most quiet person, ever.   I just don’t talk.

I am a listener.  And when I’m online, I’m a lurker.

I have been sponsoring in Blogathon for two years now, and I totally enjoy that!  I get to read what people are saying every half hour, and so many different people.

I am looking forward to sponsoring some bloggers this year as well.  *grins*

But.  I’m a blogger this year.  I have to chat about something, every half hour.  It’s entirely intimidating.

It’s not that I don’t have things to say.  I am passionate about animals and journaling and reading.  It’s just not easy to get my words organized.

In other words, it’s going to be interesting. :)

So, please consider sponsoring me!

The job I set for myself today was to put some links into my sidebar. It sounds so easy! Just a few minutes of typing, and I’m done, right?

Two hours of tinkering, and then I realize there might be something fatal about my theme. I was sad, because I really like that little lady bug!

But then I discovered that my theme had an update! They were up to version 2.0, and I was using 0.98. Yay! Uploaded the update and now I’ve got some sidebar links.

I’m happy now… and, Oh, Hey, the image that I added the other day has aligned itself properly, now!  Yay, update!  That makes me even happier.

But now that I’ve discovered how easy it is to upload new themes… maybe I should go looking for something totally new and improved. And dare I wish for something veganized? :)

Laughs. Actually, Lady Bugs are carnivores, but, they are also in the animal kingdom. And, as a vegan, I respect their right to life!

Okay, slowly but surely I am getting Blogathon things done.

So, how about an introduction here!

I’m Cheri. When I’m online I’m rift.  You can learn a lot about me at my regular website Static8.com, where I’ve been blogging since 1998.

I have been vegan for almost 4 years.  A vegan is a person who does not eat or use animal products.

I am vegan for ethical reasons.  I will be typing more on this subject during the Blogathon event on the 28th, but basically I think it’s wrong to use animals.  For food or for anything.

But being vegan is more than just eating vegetables.  It is a lifestyle that colours every decision I make!

I chose to blog for Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary because they rescue farmed animals.  And they are not wishy washy about what it means to be vegan.

I’m pretty excited about Blogathon, and it’s still 2.5 weeks away!  But there’s still stuff to do between now and then.  A sidebar, for instance, would be nice!  heh.

Meantime, I hope you’ll consider sponsoring me!

Make a pledge: LeafShadows blogging for Peaceful Prairie

Thanks!!

I’ve just signed up at Blogathon with Peaceful Prairie as the charity I’ll be blogging for. yay! I don’t have a sponsor page yet, tho, which is why it’s only “semi-official.”

So, I should be attempting to figure out my blogging software!

*graphic added* Okay, we now have images! hm: I can’t seem to align it tho. how annoying.

Also can’t get the time stamp to show up on posts. Which is going to be important when I’m typing every 30 minutes.

Curse my lack of knowlege! Just give me my HTML! Please!

laughs.

Yay Blogathon! This is my first year blogging for Blogathon and I am really excited. And intimidated. And excited.

I’m blogging for Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary. They provide a forever home for farmed animals and are very vegan. I hope you’ll check out their beautiful website and consider sponsoring me!

During Blogathon, I’ll be blogging about the vegan lifestyle and animals and the environment and whatever else strikes my fancy during those 24 hours.