Zach: Hi Al. First, to start off, what made you want to start this Tweet-A-Thon?

Al: Hello Zach, very happy to be able to talk with you this evening. The idea of the Tweet-A-Thon came to me one night a few weeks ago. I’m naturally a Twitter addict and have thought of the idea of tweeting almost non-stop but came up with the idea to try to raise money for a great charity in there too.

Zach: Have you been involved in raising funds for charities before, like during school fundraisers, online charities, etc.?

Al: Actually I have Zach, I have always worked hard during school fundraisers, and have recently began making micro-loans on the website www.Kiva.org, as well as participating in the local Alzheimers Walk for the last 4 years.

Zach: Very impressive. And I’m going to assume that you do these events simply to help those out in need?

Al: Yes, definitely. The Alzheimers Foundation is particularly close to my heart because my mother has worked for Sunrise Senior Living for 12 years since the local one opened, moving up from Concierge to now Buisness Office Coordinator. I have now volunteered there 20 hours a week for 2 years.

Zach: So how exactly will the tweet-a-thon work?

Al: Yes, this is the question EVERYONE is asking me. The tweet-A-Thon will take place for 19 hours from New Years Eve at 8 AM PST until New Years day at 3 AM PST. During these hours I will be making atleast one tweet about anything and everything every 10 minutes. And will also put out tweets asking for donations for our wonderful charity every 30 minutes or so besides the regular tweets.

Zach: And what charity have you chosen to support?

Al: I am proud to announce that the tweet-a-thon will support and raise funds for St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. The great thing about St. Jude is that St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric treatment and research facility. Discoveries made here have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. With research and patient care under one roof, St. Jude is where some of today’s most gifted researchers are able to do science more quickly.

St. Jude researchers are published and cited more often in high impact publications than any other private pediatric oncology research institution in America. St. Jude is a place where many doctors send some of their sickest patients and toughest cases. A place where cutting-edge research and revolutionary discoveries happen every day. We’ve built America’s second-largest health-care charity so the science never stops.

It truly is a great cause, Zach.

Zach: So how can we donate?

Al: Either [Monday] or Tuesday I will be posting a link on my Twitter account that everyone can use to donate. That will give you a chance to donate before the Tweet-A-Thon and during.

Zach: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Al: Just remind everyone that it will be on New Years eve starting at 8 AM PST 11 AM EST until 3 AM PST on January 1st. You can expect tweets every 10 minutes. The link to my page and the Tweet-A-Thon page is www.Twitter.com/Alboebno.

Zach: Alright, Al, I thank you for your time and wish you the best of luck on raising money for a great foundation.

Al: Thank you very much Zach.

All patients accepted for treatment at St. Jude are treated without regard to the family’s ability to pay. As mentioned earlier, I will update the post once I have a link to provide to you to donate to St. Jude’s.

*Note: Some of the chat may have been edited for grammar and length.

Bitching is fun. It lets us release stress on others (which is always good) and also lets us make a point. Usually my bitching is a combination of both, but others bitch about one topic or the other. It’s usually at this stage where we call it “ranting” and indicate it by using HTML tags. Because we are that cool.

I’ve noticed that I’ve bitched a lot more… Ok, we’re switching over for now to “complaining.” Anyways, I’ve complained a lot more since winter has arrived. Perhaps it’s because the cold weather, the amount of school work that comes this time of year, or perhaps just the simple fact that I’m always bitchy (oh, there it is again!) minus Christmas and New Years (usually). And I’ll bitch about anything and everything. It’s like something is programmed into my head to find a venting place to get out my stress which is good, right? I mean, bottled up feelings and you’ll turn into the next serial killer or worse… Lindsay Lohan shooting up cocaine. (You should appreciate that, Brandon)

My stress is usually vented into the webisphere through Twitter or (on rare occasions) a blog post where I can just explode all my thoughts into it. I should probably start doing videos because that would be cool. Well, sort of. Because then I would have to clean up, comb my hair, move all the soda out of the way, clean my room, and a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff that text can totally do without.

Anyways: My bitching = healthy. Others, not so much. They usually go something like “He’s such an asshole” or “I miss him… But he’s a prick that should die in the eternal depths of Hell” or “OMG!!!11!1! HE DUMPED ME!?!?!?! NOOOOO!!!!” (Not trying to stereotype the female bitching, guys do a lot of a bitching too [obviously]). I know when to stop. Others, once again, not so much. They’ll gone on and on for hours or days (seriously). And I’m not talking just on Twitter or blog posts, some I know will talk to me either on IM, email, DM, or some other form of -M’ing.

So what am I saying? DROP IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Nobody wants to hear you constantly complain about things for the rest of their life. “Unsubscribe,” you say. “Ignore it,” you say. “Shut the hell up,” you say. You know what I say? Shut up and listen. Drop it, make amends, and move onto your life. If you must bitch about life or other personal problems, do it in moderation. If you’re bitching about Verizon, AT&T, Microsoft, or any mega company (including government sometimes), be my guest. Just keep it down some days. Please.

Now then, for more bitching, follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/zachflauaus

So, I’m feeling a bit generous this season and… Well, SPORE is boring now. I have it sitting on my hard drive and it hasn’t been touched in months. I also have the original disc sitting on my shelf gathering dust. I purchased it on September 12th and haven’t used the disc since.

Look ma! No scratches!

Because it’s not being used, I’m giving it away. Here’s the rules:

1) You MUST be following me on Twitter. No other way around it.
2) You MUST be in the United States or Canada. I love my Australia and England followers, but I could just send you the amount of money for a new copy of SPORE for what it would cost for me to ship it.
3) You MUST tweet, “@zachflauaus I want SPORE plz!” If you would like to add additional text, that would be fine.

I will choose the winner at random (random number generator) and they will be notified by DM. Contest ends Sunday, December 21, 2008 at 11:59PM CST.

Good luck, and follow me if you aren’t already!

I don’t get into politics that often, but this isn’t necessarily so much of politics as it is questioning our own rights in the United States. Because Congress hasn’t been stupid enough lately, they’re wanting to continue to basically censor what they don’t like and what Congressional Members should and shouldn’t do. The latest shining example? Congress is trying to stop two Congressmen from actually talking to the people via Twitter and Qik.

Congressman John Culberson (R) of Texas and Tim Ryan (D) of Ohio have been using Twitter and Qik to their benefit of actually getting their word out onto the internet and talking to people in addition to listening to them. This is an absolutely astounding turn of events from the usual Congressional Members as they don’t really engage with the public on the internet (or most places, for that matter) unless they have a public statement prepared. On Twitter, it’s all about psuedo real-time discussions. On Qik, it’s speak now or forever hold your peace.

Well, the Democrats have a different position on their usage (ironic since Tim Ryan is a Democrat?). They want to ban Congressional Members from uploading content outside of the house.gov domain, essentially keeping all information inside until they can all release details on their own schedule. If they get their way, websites will have to go by government regulations before Members could post. What they don’t realize is that this infringes on one key factor: the First Amendment.

So, you’re saying that freedom of speech (and press in this case) extends to everyone (yeah…) except if you are a Congressional Member? You mean Members aren’t normal U.S. Citizens like you and me?

I believe it says somewhere in that piece of paper that you have destroyed called the United States Constitution it states that all citizens of the United States of America are entitled to their Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech. A requirement to be a Congressional Member is that you have to be a Citizen of the United States of America. See where I’m going? Complete the circle… I’ll give you time.

Bingo! They are entitled to the same rights that we are all entitled to. In fact, I think all members should have a Twitter or Qik account just so they start interacting with citizens more and actually get back to what this country is all about: By the people, for the people.

Let’s make this an outcry. Make the media see it. If our own Congress won’t see the problem with this, We the People need to make this problem bigger and more apparent because without us, this is one more step in the wrong direction.

Source Reads:
Technosailor
Mashable
U.S. Congressman John Culberson

As you may have noticed, I’m a big Twitter user myself. I wouldn’t be doing a lot of the things I’m doing now if it wasn’t for Twitter. I love Twitter. I really do. It’s just so simple to jump on there for a few minutes, see what’s going on, do a few replies, and then BOOM!, you’ve wasted your day on it. Not to say it’s a bad thing. You can get some really great ideas from the Twittersphere, but it can be a huge time waster.

Now, people either support it or hate the idea with a passion and decide to send hate to those that support it. I support it, but mainly because I want to take a day away from Twitter and see how things change in my daily routine. Think of it as a science project. I’ve had people say “I’ll do it, but I’m not sure I’ll like it” to “I’m still undecided” to the plain ol’ “That’s just dumb.” Now then, I’d like to point a couple things out.

1) You don’t have to join us. It’s called freedom of choice and that’s what the internet (should) be about. If you don’t think it’s right, that’s fine. Go ahead and say it. I won’t argue for you to join us. But don’t go around saying “OMGZ!!! THAT’S THE WORST IDEA EVER, YOU’RE STUPID!!!11!” because that won’t score you any points with me. Just say why and I’ll take it.

2) Will this get anything done? Probably not. Does it make a point? Yes. As my friend Andrew Dobrow (@anjrued), Twitter is about community, and if you make that community mad enough, they’ll leave.

Am I placing the blame solely on Twitter? Not exactly. Twitter has been growing at a rapid rate, one which not many people could have predicted, so scalability has brought up a problem. But with the rumored funding that they have received ($15 million+), there’s not a huge reason why they can’t keep up.

So are you Twitting-Out or Twitting-In? Let me know in the comments.