Tag Archives: Tara

Conferences

Blogs, Brews 2 Recap

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IMG00047-20090417-2335

When IZEA approached me about putting on a charity event I was very excited to help. I was given $400 by IZEA to put together the event and blog about the event. I decided to help my friend Sue raise money for her Avon Walk for Breast Cancer team: Walking 4 2nd Base. Sue and I worked really hard to get sponsors around our town and also on the web. In addition to the money from IZEA, which I used for prizes and some advertising, I received 3 XShots from Michael at xshotpix.com. I gave one to Sue to use on her 3 day walk.

Sue & I

I also received some help from Dina Riccobono from Market Leverage. She got me a 16GB iPod Touch to use for a giveaway right here on the blog. You can enter that contest on my initial Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs II post.

Tyler & I

The night started off a little slow, but that was because I had the start time so early. However around 7:30pm we started seeing people show up. I was on the stage using my webcam and stickam to talk to the chat room. When people arrived at the playhouse I spoke with them and took photos with my XShot and then printed them off on ZINK paper using my Polaroid PoGo. I took the printed image and peeled off the backing and attached it to my business card, a very unique card to give to each person. And when people arrived in the chat room I talked with them for a bit and welcomed them.

Seamus "The Irish Kid" Corbett

Sue arrived with additional prizes like some Taste of Home items from our friend and co-worker Wendy. Sue had also gotten a $25.00 gift card from a local restaurant called Box Seats. So all together we had 2 Flip Ultra video cameras, 2 Xshots, 5 2 Person Speeding Tickets, $25 gift card to Box Seats, Taste of Home items and a painting. One of the attendees, Paulie, is a painter and he donated one of his original works right out of the blue! People really liked the prizes because they were very generous in buying raffle tickets. We raised $205.00 at the show and $245 online.

"Electric" Amy Carlson Pontes

During the show I spent time with the the online attendees, there were quite a few people in the chat room at any given time. I really appreciate that many of my blogging friends took the time to pop in and say hello. The 1st half of the show was a good time. We learned that “Electric” Amy Carlson Pontes was the defending champion of the SOTP belt. She had to run the gauntlet that tonight. That meant that she was in every single game, it is a tough job being the champ. Here is the video of the 1st half as recorded by Joe, the tech guy at Speed of Thought Playhouse.

Be advised that the Speed of Thought Players is a PG-13+ show.

We took a short intermission and I checked in with Allison and my friends who were at the show. This included Lenny and his nephew Tyler. Lenny is a blogger and part of the “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” IZEA Insider Crew that I run. He came to Blogs, Brews and Belly Laughs 1 and so did Tyler. Also in attendance was my sister Tara, she used one of her Speeding tickets that we got for her for her birthday. She loves comedy. Allison sat at a table with our friends Andy and Rondi and Neil and Andrea. Andrea took a bunch of photos during the event too so I hope to see them soon. My pictures were all tagged with BBBl2 on Flickr. You can see them there.

In BenSpark's Photo Booth

After the intermission I got back on the chatroom to find it packed with people, that was awesome! The second half of the show is here.

Be advised that the Speed of Thought Players is a PG-13+ show.

After the show it was time for the raffle. Sue and her friend Cheryl called out the numbers and gave out the prizes. My friend Neil won himself a Speeding ticket (cover charge for 2 to come back to a show) and the original painting by Paulie. People who were there at the show were really generous and the online donations were also very very generous. I was so happy to help raise over $450 for Sue and her team.

An original by Paulie

I want to thank the Speed of Thought Players for letting me come back again and set up all my geek equipment. Thanks also to Michael from Xshot for the Xshots. Thanks to Dina from Market Leverage for getting me a 16GB iPod Touch

16GB iPod Contest is over. The Winner was @anoo.

An Online Contest has been updated on this Event. 04/20/09

Dina Riccobono of Market Leverage has donated a 16GB iPod Touch to one lucky online winner. She wanted to help me out with the event after I helped her out with the Market Leverage Bowl-A-Thon. This will be a twitter contest. The intent is to drum up as much excitement as possible to get people to attend the online LIVE event via stickam. The official stickam site for the event will be www.stickam.com/sotplive.

So how can you get your hands on a 16GB iPod Touch?

Here are the updated official rules. Must do #’s 1-3 to qualify. The rest are for bonus entries.

1. Follow, @benspark, @marketleverage, and @sotp2009 on twitter.

2. Tweet “RT: Read and comment on @benspark’s #BBBL2 recap at http://urlbrief.com/a3446f. You Could win an iPod Touch from @MarketLeverage #icause“
Then Leave a comment with a link to your tweet on this post.

(To see how you link to a single tweet go to Linking to a Tweet.)

3. Leave a comment with:

  • Who is your favorite comedian?
  • What cause would you have chosen had you been given this money?
  • What can you do to help that charity without using money?

@*** New Entry Options

  • – For an additional 2 entries (per link) into the contest. Post these links https://benspark.com/being-responsible.html and https://benspark.com/blogs-brews-2-recap.html to your Facebook Page and join the BBBL2 Facebook Group.
  • Entries per comment – I’ll even give you an entry per comment on this post. Two entries if a friend comments and tells me that you asked them to come here and comment about the event on your behalf.
  • Submit this link to Social Bookmarking sites like Stumble, ETC… 1 Entry Per link, must leave comment letting me know about link.

25 BONUS Entries!
Donate at least $10.00 to my friend Sue’s team Walking 4 2nd Base for 25 extra chances to win. Just make the donation and in the “How would you like your name to appear” spot put your @twitter name or blog address so I can confirm the donation. Thank you.

What are you waiting for, spread the word. This contest is open until April 30th. Remember everything done on this post can also be done on the BBBL2 announcement post.

Big Thanks go to IZEA because they sponsored this whole endeavor and this blog post.

Photo-A-Day

Let go of my drumstick

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Let go of my drumstick
Photo-A-Day #1329

Today was Thanksgiving and we had a very nice day. Eva and Allison and I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. And we got Rick Rolled like the rest of you. That was pretty funny too.

Eva had a very pretty purple velvet dress that her Mimi got her, from Macy’s ironically enough. We listened to Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant at noon on WROR as is the Thanksgiving Day tradition. We were visited by my grandparents on my Dad’s side and shared our meal with Erik’s parents Bonnie and Howard. Bonnie and Howard brought Eva a penguin that was just about as large as she. It is a Gund too and so it is wonderfully soft and squishy. To see Eva hug the penguin is a sight to behold. She just gets enveloped into the penguin.

We had a delicious dinner courtesy of my sister Tara. She got the whole thing from Whole Foods. My father and I got the drumsticks because that is the part that we like the best. The rest of the meal included all the traditional fixings and they were also very tasty.

Eva got to spend time with Aunt Shelby as well. She has a great time with Shelby too, you should see how she lights up and laughs around her. They have so much fun. My mom is going to be in trouble when she says “Where’s Aunt Shelby?” to Eva and Aunt Shelby is nowhere around. Eventually Eva is going to understand what that means and go in search for her and when she cannot find her and has a meltdown then that will be the last time she says that.

For dessert we had apple pie, pumpkin pudding pie, ice cream, cheesecake and of course the Pumpkin Pie, Gingerbread, White Chocolate, Caramel Ice Cream. That ice cream was delicious. I still have no name for it but I would certainly get it again as it tasted very much like pumpkin pie.

Later tonight we went to my Uncle Richard’s house for more dessert and to visit with my Grandparent’s on my Mom’s side. It was a nice day and we were able to see much of our family. Tomorrow we go and visit Allison’s family too.