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How can I top the Marcus mosaic I did last week? I should never have done that. I just spoiled all the future Mondays. I do have a nice Marcus pic though. I thought perhaps something rather formal was needed since we do have the last of our awards to hand out today. So here’s Marcus in a collar, cuffs, and a tie. Hee hee.

It’s just perfectly appropriate that the end of Blog Reader Appreciation Week should fall at the end of the Marcus Award contest. I’m just a giving fool! And for those of you who didn’t win something, there is still an open contest at this blog. No one ever won the Find the Air France Commercial guy. The commercial is called “Pool” and no one has been able to discover the name of the man in the commercial. If someone is brave enough to try, here’s the link the post about this contest. I found the name of the director, which escapes me now, but it’s buried in one of my posts. I did blog about this commercial at least 3 or 4 times.

To recap my BRAW stuff, Hilly talked to me on Woopra (and remains the only person ever to talk to me on this!) and won a pack of Dave’s playing cards when my order arrives. Marty’s name was drawn from the Dooney purse in the comment entries contest and he wins a hat from our Cafepress store. The end of the Marcus Award contest also fell on Friday. I tallied up the numbers and… MaryO from My Two Cents wins a fanged t-shirt! YAY!!!

I have no clue how she managed to outlast Fab on this one because she’s been pregnant and caring for a newborn plus 2 kids, a DH, pets, and a job through it all. I have no idea how she found the time to come by here, read, and post 115 comments! Now, that is loyalty for ya! Mary… I LOVES YA! Send me a PM at the Bar and tell me what size t-shirt you want.

Keep your eyes peeled for more tiara pics this week. Also, I’m still thinking about ideas for how I should be awarding the Marcus and the Alaric in the future, so feel free to leave your thoughts and ideas on that in comments. Believe me, I will appreciate every one! Have a yummy Monday!

I don’t like to have someone’s loss remind me how lucky I am. Yet, every day, where I work, someone is dealing with a loss. There are places in the park I don’t like to drive past, even if Motley is in the car with me. I never meant to have a career in an industry like this.

I started out my real career (if I don’t count where I was working during college or the stuff I did before that) at the Starlight Children’s Foundation. The first referral I took was for a boy of 18 who had been turned down by Make A Wish. He was too old. He didn’t fit their criteria. The boy, who lived in Oregon, was terminal. He wanted a big screen TV. He died before it arrived… and I cried myself to sleep for a week.

When you don’t really know someone, you don’t know what to say to them when they have suffered a loss. However, where I work, we’re always supposed to know what to say. We’re supposed to be compassionate, and do whatever we can to help the family through one of life’s most difficult times. But really, when it boils right down to it, what we say to them is - in the words of ShinyBitch - just putting a band-aid on a bullet wound.

Even though I don’t know Dawg like the rest of you do, my heart goes out to him today. For the Puppy Monster, whose beautiful marker is a testament to the power and the love in the Blogosphere, I will hug Motley today and be grateful that I have her.

Yes, it’s time to tell you who won the hat in the Blog Reader Appreciation Week drawing. Everyone who wrote a comment had their name written on a sticky note. The slip of paper was rolled up and dropped into a purse (a Dooney and Bourke, of course). Once all the rolled up sticky notes were in the purse, Motley (after she got home from seeing the Love Guru) drew one out.

The winner of a stunningly beautiful Socially Dead or rakishly eyecatching Sunlight Sucks hat is….

Congratulations, Marty! Please email me at winter at winterheart dot com and tell me which hat you want. Include your mailing address as well or Motley might keep the hat. Heh heh.

Look for the Spa Edition of Sunday Silence tomorrow. Well, if I get photos taken of my hair, my nails, my toes… hee hee. Have a great weekend!

Before I give you the regular dose of Humpday Hotness, I have an announcement. I have my first winner in my Blog Reader Appreciation Week giveaway. Since I posted on Sunday, I tried 18 times to chat with a reader on my blog via Woopra. Eighteen times my “Hello” was ignored. Now, just so you know, I wasn’t paying attention to IPs. I was just looking for the big yellow number to go from 0 to 1 or more, then I’d click on one and send my cheery greeting.

Today, while I was home nursing my double vision from my eyeballs swollen with allergies… I saw the yellow number go from 0 to 1 and I clicked on the person and said “Hello!” Then the number changed to 3, but I was waiting a minute or two before moving on to the second person. Then, lo and behold, the first person REPLIED TO ME! YAY!!!

So, everyone give a big CONGRATULATIONS to the one and only Snackiepoo! She was the first person to ever answer my Woopra “Hello!” When I get my order of cards from Dave2, one deck goes right into Hilly’s hands. As she said, I’ll save on shipping them since she lives nearby, but at the price of gas today I’m not sure I’ll really save much. Heh heh.

I’m really glad the Woopra thing works. I was starting to think it didn’t. I mean, c’mon, eighteen people never answered me! There are still 3 days left to get in your entries for the drawing for the hat. (The Socially Dead one looks HAWT.) All you have to do is leave comments. All the comments posted from the time I posted Mega Monday until 9 pm Pacific time on Friday the 20th are eligible. Every comment gives you an entry.

It’s Humpday so… on to the hotties!

First up is Jason Statham. I loved the Transporter, The Italian Job, and Lock Stock and Two Smokin’ Barrels. Mostly, I liked them because of the luscious eye candy that is this man. I liked him so much I chose him to represent Talon Fychan, who is the best friend and bodyguard of the black wyvern in the Bar Story. Talon’s a tough guy, who doesn’t alway say much, but always looks hot and lethal. Oh, YUM!

Next we have Kristen Bell. Lots of bloggers seem to like her. In the Bar Story, Jen used her as Isolde (Sol) Vespera, a pixie who is um… rather sexually open. When last seen, she was having a marathon sex session with Weylyn that started in the men’s room of a club called Wicked Pleasures.

Whew! Is it steamy in here or is it just me? I’m fanning myself now. Must be time to go have a cold shower. Congratulations again to Hilly for talking to me in Woopra, and everyone go out and have a humping Humpday!

Over at Shiny’s Takeout it’s Blog Reader Appreciation Week. Over here, where the sun doesn’t shine, I had an email from a well known blogger today who told me that I was appreciated. It’s also Sunday, Father’s Day, a day to show appreciation to your father or someone who has served in that capacity in your life. Since appreciation is the buzzword today, and is something near and dear to my heart, I have a word for you on this day to tell you how much I appreciate all of you: PRIZES.

I’m piss poor so lots of prizes is something out of my price range. That being said, I have two prizes to offer up this coming week. Between Monday and Friday I’ll pick some random times and check my Woopra to see if anyone is on this blog. The first person to actually talk to me in a chat window will win a pack of Dave’s playing cards when my order arrives. See, I’ve been trying out Woopra, and I’ve been trying to chat with people, but NO ONE ever answers me. So I’ll pick a few random times between Monday and Friday, and the first person to actually talk to me in the Woopra chat window wins the cards.

The other thing I’m going to do is this coming Friday night at 9 pm Pacific time I’m going to go back over all my comments. Every person who leaves a comment from the time I post my Monday Marcus post to 9 pm Pacific time Friday night, gets a ticket in a drawing. It works like this: if you leave 2 comments you get two tickets. I’ll put all the tickets in a box and Motley will draw one out. Whoever’s name is on the ticket will win a hat from either the Sunlight Sucks or Socially Dead collection of gear.

I truly appreciate my readers and by giving out two prizes, one for commenters and one that a lurker could win, I feel like I’ve covered my bases as best I can without going broke.

Have a great Sunday folks!

I think I’m out of words. I’ve been writing and talking (well typing) all weekend. I’ve been trying to help some new writers at the Bar. Also, the horse racing sim has a new message board and I had to go figure out all the moderator stuff. I watched the Belmont. Big bust there. Posted a couple of times at the Bar. Worked on some future posts for the Bar. Worked on a piece for the Z competition. Posted a riposte at JR Ward’s message board. Created a blog for the sim’s version of the Olympics. Listened to the BTR shows… Ack. I’m tired.

That being said… Here’s Marcus. I need some yummy deliciousness. After all the political stuff that went on last week on blogs and on TV, I thought I’d show all the women how great a tree hugger could be. I never thought I could ever be envious of a hunk of wood, but damn. I wish that was me he has those arms and thighs wrapped around. RAWR. I also drooled over the Polo Black commercial all of Sunday. Motley was sprawled in my bed watching Sunday Super Heroes on FX all day. They kept playing the Polo Black commercials that feature Nacho Figueras. Whew! Hotness!

The Marcus numbers for this week are weak, but I rather expected that since my posting and visiting other blogs was weak as well. It was a tough week for me at the office. Busy, busy. Anyway, it’s a recap week and as a reminder there’s only 2 weeks left in this contest. Here’s how the numbers look for the top five: Mary - 102, Fab - 82, Shinygal - 73, Matt - 70, Susan - 69. I dunno, with two weeks left I almost think this could be anyone in the top five’s game.

Before I head off, I gotta mention a couple things. One, is the poll on the vampire show. I’m leaving it up cause I just don’t know what to do. Only five votes isn’t much. If you have an opinion on this, please vote. We’re talking monthly or quarterly shows, not weekly.

The other thing is that I have to say how flattered I was that Jason X took my TT post and used it to create a post about Blair. I still say she’s a soul sucking demon not a blood sucking vampire, but I appreciated the tribute to my work here. I think that deserves my Alaric. The Alaric doesn’t have actual criteria yet. I’m gonna be figuring that out though, same as with Marcus, once I’ve handed out the prize for Marcus in two weeks. I hope to have it all nailed down by the week of July 1 and then post the criteria on a static page.

Shit. I talk a lot for someone who was all worded out. I know, I know… Charlie Brown’s teacher. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Now, here’s the most important words for you from me: Luv ya! MUAH!

It’s Monday so I bet you’re looking for Marcus, aren’t you? Either that or you’re thinking “What? More Marcus? Doesn’t this woman ever give up on the supermodel dude?” Well, I don’t give up easily. And I dislike disappointing you all, so here is today’s Marcus picture. How can you go wrong with Marcus nearly naked holding a guitar?

I’m all out of whatever it is that drives me. It’s been too hot here, and I have company. I feel a little drained and not too humorous. Whoever thought up this global warming shit deserves to live in my house while I move to some place cool. Then they will be totally sorry they made this happen.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Motley’s blog to wish her happy birthday. Her birthday plans got shattered by a one-two punch of hot weather and the death of a friend in a head on collision at 3 am Saturday morning. She awoke to a text from her bestie with the news. She’s been subdued all weekend.

The Marcus Awards for this week end up like this: Mr. Fabulous - 8, Mary - 5, Shinygal and Marty - 4, Matt - 3, Susan, Othurme, and Turnbaby - 3. I dunno. It seems to me that Fab wants a t-shirt with fangs. Of course, it’s a cool shirt so I would totally want one too. I think my next contest is gonna be about ideas for the Alaric award. I mean, Matt has the COW, which is the coolest contest ever. Somehow, I have to think up some reason to give out the Alaric.

Have a great Monday and someone please tell the sun to not shine so hotly in SoCal. I swear, I should be a vampire.

It was a wild, wild Sunday on Blog Talk Radio. In fact, it was fucking Fabulous! First, there was a 2 hour Snackie Radio live from Jester’s house in NoCal. It was a VERY wild show. You can find the podcast here. After that, it was Hilly on Fab’s show, which was really just a continuation of the zaniness from her show. Here’s the podcast for Fab’s show. Next up was Turnbaby, who is REALLY fucking Fabulous. All in all, it was a wild night of BTR shows… except that there was a finale to this night that started after hours. It was a true after hours show that started at 8 pm Pacific time. Jester had a great 2 hour show live from his house with Hilly and other guests. Here’s the podcast. It was a fantastic night of radio.

Today’s Marcus photo is a black and white. I was gonna use one of the pics of him wearing sunglasses or the headband photo that I used in my very first incarnation of the Skankenberg avatar at Zanctuary. Instead, I found my eyes drawn to this picture. It’s a very low key image. There isn’t anything about it that just jumps right out at you. However, when you do look at it, click on it to see it full size. That’s when the symmetry of his muscles and the beauty of his bone structure leap out at you. It doesn’t hurt that his eyes have that come hither expression either.

On to the Marcus Award. I’ve added last weeks points to the total because it’s a recap week. Here’s how the point recap shakes out: Mary-85, Matt-66, Shinygal-60, Fab and Susan-54. That’s the top five. With Mary spending all her time as the mobile milk bar, someone else could totally take the prize from her. This contest is on until whichever week in June is a non-rent week. Which means, June 20 I think. The next recap will be June 9. There will be a break between the 20th and July 1 when the next contest starts. I need to come up with a different idea for awarding Marcus and I still need an idea for the Alaric Award.

In other contest news, I owe Jester a shirt, but I think he wants Dave’s cards instead. So when I buy Motley her cards I’ll order an extra deck for Jester. That tagline he came up with is perfect. The Absurdist got a Bite shirt (before I changed the logo) for inspiring the domain name. Still no winner on the Air France commercial, but I found out the director’s name: Daniel Askill, who is Australian. There’s still a chance for you to win this contest by finding out the name of the man in the Air France Pool commercial. If you go here, you’ll find some info on the commercial.

Hope you all have a great Monday!