It’s going to be another emergency PlurkCast. We’re getting pretty good at those! Eric is very busy keeping up with his groundswell movement, and Bloggeries is still embroiled in his move. DebInDenver will join me as a co-host, and thoughtwrong has confirmed that he will do the same. Here is the information for participating in today’s show:

To get to the TalkShoe page: click here. There will be a “live” link just before show time.

To call in, dial (724) 444-7444 and input Call ID 23141.

Sorry for the short notice, but with help from all you great Plurkers, we’ll have another good show! We want to talk about at least the following:

Yesterdays Maintenance

Plurkshops

MyPleeps.com

Monetizing Plurk

Plurking Your Butts Off

You may have missed it, with all of the hubbub of Plurk, but there is a new group operating in the Plurkosphere. It is Plurking Our Butts Off, and it is the brainchild of @NotAMeanGirl, with a lot of help from her friends, especially @dotlizard. It’s a support group for weight loss, and it shows just how great and useful Plurk can be. I just love it when way cool Plurkers come up with way cool ideas and can use Plurk to implement them.

@NotAMeanGirl, noticed (as have we all) the gigantic volume of food talk on Plurk. She also noticed that there was a lot of talk about eating and weight issues. Thus was @PlurkingOurButtsOff born. On this Plurk user account, people can add responses throughout the day asking their friends to report their activity levels, what they’ve eaten, what they are struggling with or a call to just give support. Basically they are there for one another, whatever the need. Just add @PlurkingOurButtsOff as your friend. This concept should get a gold star from us all.

For further support activities, @dotlizard has put together a way cool blog at pobo.me, where people can write about the problems that they have with weight, and about issues around weight. Please note that you can register with this site. If you have any questions about pobo.me, you can contact either @NotAMeanGirl, or dotlizard. There are currently 24 contributors and they would welcome more.

I have the following quote, straight from the mouth of the @NotAMeanGirl,: “Both the support group and the community blog are for ANYONE wanting to make ANY KIND of healthy lifestyle changes. We have people involved that want to loose 250 pounds to people that want to gain weight to people that just want to be more fit to people who just plain wanna look good nekkid!” I mean, how way cool is that? They will be posting on a wide variety of subjects, from personal stories, to work-out tips, to recipes, to exercise, to reports on the progress they have made on the goals they have set for themselves.

This is a group of Plurkers that truly impresses me. They are working to solve very tough problems, and they have seen that Plurk and the blogosphere can be put to work to help them. We all need to take their example, and to do something to make positive change happen in our society. Plurk can be a part of that and we should all look at this example and see if we can’t do something this pure and selfless for our fellow Plurkers.

I’m KDFrawg on Plurk and I promise never to throw my weight around.

.

Today’s column is a guest post, by the lovely and talented Veronica Romm, who has two excellent blogs of her own: The Sports Girl and Who Knew? A Writer’s Blog.

.

.

.

Whether at home,
or whether at work,
We always manage to find time to Plurk.

We may be just saying hello
Or complaining that the boss is a jerk
We welcome it all here at Plurk

Plurk means new friends
Fans and techies galore
All of these people join Plurk to explore.

Plurker’s come from big cities
Some come from small towns.
Many of them come though
Because Twitter is down.

Many topics and issues bring Plurker’s together
Be it questions about life and love
Or simply the oft changing weather

Plurk’s timeline is filled with threads
Of laughter, thoughts and even drama
And let’s not forget that there is always the Karma

Plurker’s are faithful and full of conviction
And some of them have
What we call Plurk addiction.

Yet happy we are Plurking and responding
For Plurk is a place for learning,
Laughter and bonding.

I’m KDFrawg on Plurk. Send me a poem any time.

Once upon a time, I decided that I would like to help a person, somewhere, that liked to write and would like to start with a blog, but for some reason could not. It seemed to me that Plurkers were an excellent place to find someone like this, since everyone there is already a micro-blogger. Just about the time I decided to hold an essay contest, Eric happened along with the Plurkcast, which I eventually wound up co-hosting. Since he was offering prizes, I decided to throw my prize of a blog into the bucket.

The essence of what I wanted to do was described in several PlurkCast contest pages, but was always tucked away at the very bottom, and read sort of like this:

We would like to present a complete blogging package to someone that really wants to blog, but can’t easily afford it. We will pay for the domain name for a year and will install WordPress, customize a theme so that it is really unique to the user, and host it for free. We will give that person pretty much whatever they need to get started except the content. We are sure that someone needs this to get a start, and we would love to help out the right person. Write us a 200+ word reason why you think the winner should be you, and send it to us.

Either because of where the information was placed, or because no one wants a free blog (it’s possible, I guess) no one ever wrote and sent an essay. The idea languished, and one day on the air it was decided to make this a part of a contest to see who could come up with an object, by finding or making it, that looked the most like Plurk. That contest happened, drew five entries and voting ensued.

It quickly became clear that she with the biggest organized following was going to win. That, of course, is all right. A lot of contests become popularity contests that are won by the person with the most organized votes. It always worked for Jimmy Hoffa, if nothing else. But Wendy already has a blog (quite popular, naturally) and so do all of the other contestants. If the winner would like another blog, I would be happy, of course, to honor my commitment.

At the same time, it is clear that my initial intentions have led me to free blog hell. None of this (the word fiasco comes unbidden to mind) has gotten me any closer to my original goal of helping some person get a blog of their own. So the original offer still stands, but this time from me alone. If you want to write a blog, and can’t afford it or just don’t know how to get started, let me know. Contact me on Plurk and I’ll let you know where to send your essay. Or just write it and paste it into the big box on the contact form of this blog. I’ll get back to you. This offer is open to knitters, too.

I’m KDFrawg on Plurk, and if you’re in dire need of a blog, I’m your guy. On the other hand, if you want to have another contest like this one, not so much, unless the prize is knitting needles.

We have five entrants for the Plurlalike contest. The winner will receive a free blog for a year, plus great software. The runner-up will receive just the software. Here are the prize descriptions. Take a look at each of the entries below, and vote for your favorite by leaving a comment on this post. The votes will be counted just before tomorrow’s PlurkCast and the winner and runnerup will be announced on the show. Thanks so much for entering, and participating in, the Plurkalike contest!

Entry Number 1 (click for a larger view):

Entry Number Two (this is a video, click on the link below):

The Animated Plurkbeast

Entry Number 3 (Click on the thumbnail for a bigger picture):

Entry Number 4 (Click for a larger view)

And Entry Number 5 (Click thumbnail for a larger view)

A Plurkiverse column a month or so ago (forever in Plurk time) bemoaned a certain lack of direct support for music on Plurk, and went on to bemoan the sad state of intellectual property rights in the world today. There is a lot of music talk on Plurk, but what we mainly see and hear are music videos that may not even be within the law. That will not be a problem with today’s entertainment, the credits for which read as follows:

©2008 Michael W. Jones, Howard M. Segal (The Frawg and The Squire)
to the tune of Welcome Back Kotter, by John Sebastian

For some reason, the Squire put the Frawg first, but I will guarantee you that I have no musical talent whatsoever. I have a hard time playing the radio correctly. And this was the Squire’s idea. I just lifted the lyrics from an old song and updated them a little so that they reflect out Plurkality. The Squire did all the hard and talented stuff, which is why the following sounds so good when you click on it:

WELCOME BACK PLURKER

A million thanks to the Squire for letting me play a part in this creative process. It has been a blast. And I think that Plurkiverse.com now has an official theme song, which may well come in handy.

I’m KDFrawg on Plurk, and I’m having a blast!