I suck at blogging, but...

... I have been linked, so I have to blog now. Let the real blogging begin!!!!

Ok, stream of consciousness wikification:

Today is April 23, which is, let's see... the third day of Taurus... that number 23 is coming up like in that movie.

I paid off my car today... I talked to my sister in Kita, Mali on a three way call for the first time since Christmas.

I am turning 30 in May, which means you should take the pledge. ... Richmond1977.com, aw yeah

All I need to be a great blogger is... practice! I think my slant for this blog will be that I go out in the world and assimilate random information and post it here so that other people can read it and assimilate it some more and then ... hopefully someday... it will be useful to someone.

...so you should expect lots of random but interesting links and facts!!!!!!!!!!

We are the Web

Yeah, so I have been telling everyone about "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. We are all interconnected more than ever before.. in all of history.

Tonight, I found a cool link on YouTube that conveys this pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

The phrase to remember is "We are the Web" The internet/blogs/Web2.0 is produced by people like you and me. If you don't like what you see on the internet, ask yourself what you have done to contribute. Nothing? Think about that.

Top 50 from United Way

1	American Red Cross Greater Richmond Chapter	754,928	http://www.yourunitedway.org/NR/rdonlyres/D79F3739-8EBF-4ACF-9BDC-254FB6E4E11B/0/FundingbyAgencyFinal.pdf
2	Family Lifeline	742,268	http://www.family-lifeline.org/
3	Friends Association for Children	569,001	http://www.friendsassn.org/default.asp
4	YWCA of Richmond, VA	398,537	http://www.ywcarichmond.org/
5	Memorial Child Guidance Clinic / ChildSavers of Richmond	361,000	http://www.mcgcva.com/
6	YMCA of Greater Richmond	358,807	http://www.ymcarichmond.org/
7	Salvation Army - Richmond	353,678	http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/richmond
8	Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond	315,311	http://www.bgcmr.org/
9	IVNA Health Care	277,000	http://www.ivna.org/index.html
10	William Byrd Community House	267,587	http://www.wbch.org/
11	Commonwealth Catholic Charities	164,304	http://www.cccofva.org/defaultHome.aspx
12	The Greater Richmond ARC	152,279	http://www.richmondarc.org/
13	HomeAgain (formerly ESI Connections)	148,000	http://homeagainrichmond.org/
14	Goodwill of Central VA	147,880	http://www.goodwillrichmond.org/index.asp
15	Offender Aid and Restoration of Richmond	135,000	http://www.oarric.org/
16	Jewish Family Services	129,612	http://www.jfsrichmond.org/
17	Children’s Home Society of Virginia	124,443	http://www.chsva.org/
18	Refugee and Immigration Services	123,469	http://www.richmonddiocese.org/ris/
19	CHIP of Greater Richmond	123,413	http://www.chipofrichmond.org/
20	Big Brothers Big Sisters Services	122,187	http://www.bigbrobigsis.com/
21	Daily Planet	120,000	http://www.dailyplanetva.org/
22	A Grace Place Adult Care Center	118,500	http://www.agraceplaceacc.org/index.php
23	Southside Child Development Center	115,160	http://www.mcgcva.com/about.htm ???
24	Boy Scouts - Heart of Virginia Council	95,220	http://www.scoutingvirginia.org/
25	Circle Center Adult Day Services	84,000	http://www.circlecenteradultday.org/index.php
26	Meals on Wheels Serving Central VA 40th anniversary!!!!!!!!!!	84,000	http://www.mowdelivers.com
27	Freedom House	83,000	http://www.freedomhouserichmond.org/
28	Fan Free Clinic	77,559	http://www.fanfreeclinic.org/
29	Central Virginia Legal Aid Society	76,231	http://www.cvlas.org/
30	CARITAS	75,000	http://www.caritasshelter.org/
31	Carol & Marcus Weinstein Jewish Community Center	70,246	http://www.weinsteinjcc.org/
32	Salvation Army - Southside	66,579	http://www.salvationarmysatx.org/
33	Girl Scouts: Commonwealth Council of VA	65,828	http://www.comgirlscouts.org/
34	Quin Rivers Agency for Community Action	54,108	??? http://www.vadv.org/???
35	Senior Center of Richmond	48,000	http://www.benevolink.com/main.aspx?page=ConsumerCharityProfile&id=564578
36	Association for Retarded Citizens Petersburg Area	45,363	??? http://www.unitedwayofhopewell.org/profiles.html
37	Hanover Adult Center	30,872	http://hanoveradultcenter.com/
38	Foster Grandparents Program-Petersburg	27,068	??? http://www.yourunitedway.org/NR/rdonlyres/FBA6009C-60FC-4B28-A4F7-568F83CAC286/0/PARTNERCODES.pdf
39	American Red Cross Southside Area Chapter	27,000	???
40	Hanover Arc	26,600	http://www.hanoverarc.com/
41	CARES	24,998	CARES, Inc. (Crisis Assistance Response Emergency Shelter, Inc.) P.O. Box 1142 Petersburg, Virginia 23804 (804)861-0849/(804)861-0865 Regional shelter serving persons in the cities of Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell, as well as the counties of Prince George, Dinwiddie, and Chesterfield who are homeless as a result of a housing crisis, transportation crisis or are victims of domestic violence. Provides service referrals, travel assistance, child care as well as a mailing address.
42	Lead Safe Petersburg (Petersburg Health Department)	24,000	http://www.upal.org/safehousing_petersburg.htm
43	READ Center	22,587	http://www.readcenter.org/

44	Goochland Fellowship and Family Services -- 45th anniversary!!! 18,000	http://www.goochlandfellowship.org/
45	South Richmond Adult Day Care Center	long link
46	CHIP of Petersburg (Petersburg Health Department)	CHIP of Petersburg Petersburg Health Department 301 Halifax Street Petersburg, Virginia 23803 (804) 863-1652 15,000
47	Tri-City Literacy Council	http://www.tricityliteracy.org/14,000
48	In Home Care Fund for the Elderly--Petersburg Department of Social Services	???11,421
49	Virginia Voice for the Print Handicapped	benevolink link 11,000
50	Crater District Agency on Aging	http://www.cdaaa.org/pages/1/index.htm10,000
51	Emergency Medication Fund Dinwiddie Department of Social Services	??? 8,000
52	Al-A-Mo Recovery Center	??? link?>?? 6,817

Other Good Causes

Still deciding whether to elevate these to "top 30"...

http://www.projectrescue.com/ -- Money donated saves the kids from brothels and helps to get women out of trafficking slavery. Pretty intense.

http://www.richmondhabitat.org/page3.html

http://www.forkeepsvirginia.org/ -- a project for the first lady about finding permanent placement for Va. teens in foster care

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/ -- it's a movie... not a charity.. but a good cause, of course.

http://www.virginiasupportivehousing.org/icf.htm -- Virginia Supportive Housing works with other community development corporations in the Richmond area to revitalize abandoned and substandard housing to provide safe affordable housing. Virginia Supportive Housing also works closely with Richmond area homeless shelters and transitional programs.

http://www.bgcmr.org/ Richmond Boys and Girls Club ... for the kids... (Donate here!)


Crisis Pregnancy Center -- The Center is dedicated to providing compassionate care and practical assistance to women who are unprepared for pregnancy. Since 1983, the Center has helped more than 20,000 women meet the challenges of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. All services are provided free of charge. 24-Hr Helpline: (804) 673-2020 or Email us at CPCRichmond2@aol.com

Central Virginia Food Bank -- " The Central Virginia Foodbank (CVFB) was founded in 1980 to procure and distribute food efficiently and effectively to feeding programs throughout the area. Since then, the Central Virginia Foodbank service area has grown to include 31 counties and five cities in the Central Virginia region. Presently, we distribute food through a network of more than 500 network partner agencies, which includes more than 130 child care providers serving needy children. In addition, we serve as many as 4,000 daily meals in the summer and 2,000 daily meals during the school year to needy children through our 54 Kids Café programs."

Bells and Whistles

Ok, so here are some elements to work on....

==Definite==
blog ... content to be developed ... sceneonerichmond.blogspot.com

Tee shirt
-- Logo... working
-- Schedule of May events to wear your tee shirt to(Cinco De Mayo, Friday Cheers, )
-- official purchase location for tee shirts
-- should I charge for tee shirts?


Website ... still need to decide on a URL... stick with sceneonerichmond.blogspot.com?


==Possible==
myspace account?
Theme song?
______ contest?

Take the pledge! Draft list of charities

The challenge: Take the pledge! Under the consultation of friends, I have chosen a list of 30 charities that I would feel comfortable giving money to and that I feel do a great deal of good for the Richmond community. I am challenging everyone I know to give$30 to one of these charities... or $1 to all 30.... however you want to do it. Consider it a b-day gift. To take the pledge, simply let me know when you have sent your gift the charity(-ies?) of your choice. Obviously, I can't tally how much money you gave because I can't prove it.. but I am going by the NPR honor system... I only tally the amounts that people have pledged!!!

This is a start. (in no particular order)

Send suggestions to sceneonerichmond@ g ma il. com. At some point, I'll put together a tee shirt design.... still need to figure that out.

1 William Byrd Community House Help out the kids.

2 CARITAS Richmond End Homelessness in Richmond Check out their "donate" tab... pay online

3 Homeward End homelessness in Richmond heck out their "donate" tab... pay online

4 ART 180 - "ART 180 creates and provides art-related programs to young people living in challenging circumstances, encouraging personal and community change through self-expression. Our group is based in Richmond, Virginia."

5 United Methodist Family Services "By making a gift to UMFS you can touch the life of a child or family in deeply significant ways. Your financial support enables UMFS to be a world-class leader providing human services that enable children and families to realize their hopes for the future." (Adoption, Treatment Foster Care, Residential Treatment, Support Services, and Affiliate Services.)

6 The Giving Heart (Community Thanksgiving Feast) - Providing basic needs, assistance, acceptance and opportunities to the underprivileged, elderly and those who otherwise are hindered in their desire to move forward 7

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30

Arbitrary 2007 anniversaries

It seems like 2007 is the year for arbitrary celebrations of increments of time ending in 0 or 5.

For example:

* 400th anniversary of Jamestown
* 385th anniversary of the Indian Massacre of 1622
* 265th anniversary of the founding of Richmond (1742)
* 200th anniversary of Robert E. Lee's Birthday
* 175th (ish) anniversary of the Virginia Historical Society
* 10th anniversary of Bandito's Burrito Lounge

And, obviously, the 30th anniversary of me.

30 days Of 30 years: The concept...

It all starts with concept...

Premise 1: I am turning 30 in May... people who turn 30 often do something drastic on their 30th birthday...

Premise 2: doing drastic things doesn't need to be negative... I can do something drastically positive on my 30th birthday... like get people to donate to charity. It is right to help out the little guy.

Premise 3: tee shirts are awesome. Richmond is awesome. Raising awareness of Richmond charities by putting them on tee shirts is awesome...

Premise 4: Viral Marketing sucks but it works... and advertising for a good cause doesn't suck .

I think the conclusion follows... A 30-day Richmond Charity Pledge Birthday Festival Website Tee Shirt


Coming to a capital city near you in May of 2007.

I will keep you posted via this blog.

Walking into 2007...

I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle....

ok, so apparently I didn't make ANY blog posts in 2006. That tells you what sort of blogger I am. I am a very bad blogger.

So what did I do in 2006? I did exactly what I said I would ... I walked the Fan, and I promoted walking the Fan. For my birthday in May, I took the GRTC and walked to Brown's Island and joined 3500 of my closest friends for a Friday Cheers concert by Fighting Gravity. The highlight of that evening was when the lead singer (Shiavone McGee), shouted happy birthday.. to himself... but little did he know that he was playing my party... the biggest birthday party that Richmond had ever seen.. up to that time.

The best part of the whole year was December 31, when over 6000 people joined me in Carytown and that dude from RVAmag yelled something passionate about community and we all waited for the New York Deli ball to drop... err rise... and then we all went Fan walking into late into the night.

So what's next for 2007? Obviously, I have to throw a bigger birthday party than last year.

... and that's a pledge...

FanSpace

http://groups.myspace.com/RVAFanClub



Everyone else likes this one
http://groups.myspace.com/rva

Reading is the new trend, hepcats!

Romans 12:2:Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,



but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

A Movement is Afoot

Kings Fest

Kings Fest is being held Thursday, July 7 through Saturday, July 9 at Paramount's Kings Dominion this year--

Three days of Christian music, speaking and teaching. Many performances are scheduled for this three day event.

Thursday: Third Day, Pillar, Hyper Static Union

Friday: Audio Adrenaline, Cameron Mills, Rebecca St James, Kutless, Building 429, Hawk Nelson, Stellar Kart

Saturday: Newsboys, Wes Hamilton, Tobymac, FFH, Jeremy Camp, Thousand Foot Krutch, Dizmas

Click here for the Upcoming.org event listing. It would be cool if you registered with Upcoming and dropped yourself in the Richmond metro group, and listed yourself as attending if you are...

Finding the Scene Part 1

I had a thought today. What if I subscribed to all the church newsletters in the Fan? I could compile a a list of the most interesting Young Adult activities and send it out to everoune through my account at sceneonerichmond@gmail.com.

Nah... too much work.

There must be an easier way to collect this information.

PS when I say Young Adult, I mean ages 20-30. We need a new word.

The Madness of Crowds

Crowds are trendy nowadays.
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/

I am skeptical. As I sit at World Cup Cafe on Morris Street, I observe to my left a rowdy group of 12 Christian young adults from a vibrant Fan-area church. They have colonized the entire East side of the cafe to the point that the Men's bathroom is blocked off. Their presence distracts the VCU kids trying to study, and their mass arrival and demand for every sort of fancy beverage and dessert creates a tremendous workload for the barista, which makes her grumpy. Is this a loving witness? It appears that this excursion into public space is also an intrusion, an invasion.

They are sincere in their relationships with each other, and I love them and respect them for it, but they represent a tremendous annoyance to everyone else in the cafe. Sometimes, the only contact some people have with Christians is through being lectured and talked-down-to, and through rude but oblivious groups such as this one. Where is the model of Christian fellowship in the world that gives people exposure to loving Christians without having us be the bull in a china shop?
http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm

Scene Insider #1

This guy is basically WeeklyRant.com. While his position gives him the
scoop on RVA events, there may also be a bias to plug his sponsors.
That said, http://weeklyrant.com and its companion blog
http://riverrapids.blogspot.com/
are pretty good views to the RVA Scene.

On Band Names #1

I find myself making up band names and song names all the time. For a while, I started coming up with potential band names for religious rock bands, especially those containing lame puns. My favorite is Jonah and the Whalers, but I also like Noah Way and Allah Y'all. In the spirit of lame puns (that might actually be good bands), I present the following:

Pheer Knot plays Heavenly Grounds Cafe Friday, March 4, 2005. Oxbridge Square 9957 Hull Street. Call 647-9273 for more info.

Jah rules

Hasidic Reggae anyone? I heard Matisyahu on WRIR. It reminded me of the Matrix 3 where the people of Zion (the underground city) had their cathartic rave.
==================

Matisyahu comes to Alley Katz Wed., March 2nd from 8pm-midnight. $8 advance; $10 door. 18+. 10 Walnut Alley in Shockoe Bottom. 804-643-2816. http://www.hasidicreggae.com/

Matisyahu, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, was raised on a steady diet of Bob Marley and early hip-hop. After several years of soul searching, Matisyahu began to explore his Jewish roots. More than realizing the depth and beauty inherent in his own religion that had remained distant to him until then, Matisyahu noticed the striking similarities Judaism shared with Rasta culture. The result of this is a Reggae sound unmatched in today's pop culture. Matisyahu draws heavily on the spirit of traditional Judaism, and juxtaposes it with the dub-wise sounds of Jamaican Reggae.

Craigslist

This is awesome.

http://richmond.craigslist.org/

Lenten Lunch at St Paul's

Saint Paul's Episcopal is one of Richmond's "historical" churches. Itis near the Capitol grounds (at 9th and Grace), and has been thechurch of hoity toity Richmonders ever since Jefferson Davis. Theyalso have a well respected community Lenten lunch series. Thedistinguished speakers give a sermon weekdays 12:30-1:00, and lunch isserved the 45 min before and the 30 min after the sermon. (If you arein a hurry, they operate a takeout counter from 11:45 to 1:30)Speakers include the pastoral director of Richmond Hill, the pastor ofFirst Baptist Church, the Dean of VUU school of theology, pastor ofSt. Paul's Baptist Church, the "bishop suffragan" of the EpiscopalDiocese of Southern Virginia, "rector emeritus" of Trinity church onWall Street (NYC), and the "consulting theologian" of Fifth AvenuePrez in NYC.http://www.stpauls-episcopal.org/2005Brochure_2004Brochure_1.pdf